began to be
anxious. At last the bell rang out four, and scarcely had the last sound
died away when we were startled by a splash near us, and next moment
discerned a man in white shirtsleeves swimming away.

"Why! That's him!" I gasped. "He's cut a way out of the side of the
shed!"

But next moment a boat shot forth from the darkness pulled by a woman
who had apparently been waiting close by. The woman was Vera!

In a moment we were both down the steps and pulling in the boat towards
the swimming man, who, we saw, was being rapidly approached by a second
boat which had also been in waiting until the chiming of the clock.

The spy was exerting every muscle to reach the boat, but we soon
overtook him.

Ray called upon him in German to surrender, but he refused, and kept on.
Quickly, however, we cut him off from the boat which he was trying to
reach, while the rower, seeing the discovery of his friend, pulled away
into the darkness.

For some time the spy struggled on, but at last, abandoned and
exhausted, he was compelled to obey us and come aboard in order to save
his life.

Half dead and helpless he submitted to our search, when in his belt,
preserved in an oilskin pocket, we discovered the memoranda and the
drawing which I had seen him prepare.

The man, sullen and half drowned, refused to make any statement, though
he could speak English well and write it perfectly, as shown by the note
on his plan of the new boat; therefore we landed him at the Stony Steps
across at Gosport. Before we left him we gave him to understand that if
he did not at once leave the country he would be arrested. Yet so absurd
is our law that I doubt whether we could have given him in charge even
though we had wished!

[Illustration: LEON KARFF'S ROUGH DRAWING OF THE NEW BRITISH SUBMARINE.

The letters refer to the notes which were also found, and which ran as
follows: AA, Conning Tower; BB, Telephone Buoys; CC, Hatchways; D,
Lifeboat (detachable); E, Rudder; FF, Wells with Horizontal Propellers;
GG, Planes; H, Hatch from Diving Chamber; II, Wheels in Recesses; K,
Detachable Safety Weight in Recess; L, Tiller; T T T T, Torpedo Tubes; P
P P P, Propellers.

I. Side View (in awash position). II. Horizontal position (from above).
Scale, 1/2 inch to 12 feet.]

We rowed back across to the landing-stage at Portsmouth Harbour Station,
and after we had seen Vera safely home we returned together to the
"Queen's" at Southsea, where, in the