a blaze of light.
Giant beams from the Isle of Wight shore joined with those of Hurst
Castle to sweep slowly across the waves, supplementing the twin rays
projected from the two search-lights on the _Capella's_ bridge.

It was indeed a brilliant spectacle. The _Capella_ and the
torpedo-boats seemed outlined in silver. Along the shore as far as
Hengistbury Head, the low line of cliffs was thrown into strong relief
against the dark background of sky. The crest of every wave seemed as
if made of delicate filigree work. Nothing afloat could hope to escape
detection within the radius of action of the concentrated millions of
candle-power search-lights.

Less than a mile away, and about the same distance from shore, a small
black object bobbed buoyantly upon the waves. It was the ill-fated
U-boat's canvas dinghy, apparently empty.

Down bore the _Capella_, her search-lights fixed upon the object of her
search. The boat was not deserted. Lying at full length on the bottom
boards were two men, who had adopted that position, in the vain hope of
escaping detection.

As the patrol vessel approached, they sat up and raised dolorous cries
of "Mercy, Englishmen!"

"Chuck it, Fritz!" shouted one of the British seamen. "You won't get
hurt. You ain't in a strafed submarine now, you know."

"Silence!" ordered the skipper. "Stand by there. Get that boat
aboard. See they don't sling anything overboard."

There was precious little that the German seamen could throw overboard,
for when the canvas boat was placed on the Capellus deck it was found
to contain only a pair of oars and two crutches. What the German
sailors hoped to do had they escaped detection was a matter for
conjecture, for without a compass, food, and water, and in a frail
cockle-shell with every indication of bad weather approaching, certain
death stared them in the face.

Finding themselves well treated, the Germans grew quite communicative.
They freely admitted that they expected to obtain a considerable
quantity of petrol from their agents ashore. They did not know their
names, or if they did they professed complete ignorance on the point.
Their craft, numbered for some vague reason U7, was built at Altona,
and completed only a fortnight previously. In addition to her normal
crew of twenty-eight officers and men, she carried five officers and
ten men for instructional purposes. She was one of four that had come
round Cape Wrath and the West and So