risoner, if his
sentence were a long one, served it in instalments of a few days at a
time.

We were allowed to go down to the well deck to see our friends and sit
on the hatch with them during the daytime. They had their meals in the
'tween decks at different times from us, but the food provided was
usually just the same. The evenings were the deadliest times of all on
the _Wolf_. At dusk the order "Schiff Abblenden" resounded all through
the ship, sailors came round to put tin plates over all the portholes,
and from thence onward throughout the night complete darkness prevailed
on deck, not a glint of light showing anywhere on the ship. It was very
nasty and uncanny.

When the _Wolf_ considered herself in dangerous waters, and when laying
mines, even smoking was forbidden on deck. All the cabins had a device
by which directly the door was open the light went out, only to be relit
directly the door closed. So it was impossible for any one to leave his
cabin with the door open and the light on. There was nothing to do in
the evenings after the last meal, which was over before eight o'clock.
We groped our way in darkness along the deck when we left the little
wardroom, and there was then nowhere to sit except on the dark deck or
in the dark cabins; it was so hot that the cabin doors had to be kept
open, and the evenings spent on the _Wolf_ were certainly very dreary.
Most of us agreed with Dr. Johnson that "the man in gaol has more room,
better food, and commonly better company than the man in the ship, and
is in safety," and felt we would rather be in gaol on shore, for then we
should be in no risk of being killed at any moment by our own people,
our cells would have been larger than our cabins, and our food possibly
not much worse, and our gaol would at least have been stationary and not
rolling about, though it must be confessed the _Wolf_ was a good sea
boat.

She had been one of the Hansa line before the war, called the
_Wachfels_, was about 6,000 tons, single screw, with a speed of about
ten knots at the outside. She had been thoroughly adapted for her work
as a raider, had four torpedo tubes and six guns (said to be 4.7), with
concrete emplacements, not to mention machine and smaller guns--to be
used against the prisoners if they should attempt escape, etc.--none of
which could be seen by a passing ship, to which the _Wolf_ looked, as
she was intended to look, exactly like an innocent neutral tramp painted
bla