ed us that he never saw our
signals. Indeed, he went so far as to say he had not even observed our
U-boat until we fired our gun. When I pointed out to him that he had
hoisted the signal of distress long before that and that this made his
story hardly believable, he dropped the subject with great skill and
gave the conversation a new turn. It was impossible to catch this smooth
Frenchman, and when I had him cornered so that another man would not
have known what to say, he slipped through the conversation like an eel
with his great politeness.

I was struck with surprise to see his men so well dressed, washed, and
shaved. I, a "barbarian," did not want to be behind the Frenchman in
point of manners, so I complimented him on his crew's splendid
appearance. Then he began to lament.

"Oh, my poor boys," he complained. "They have not looked so well
throughout our voyage, but only to-day they have been scrubbing
themselves, because they hoped to be able to get ashore to-night. See
this, mon capitaine," he continued and opened his log--"on January 23rd
we cleared from Saigon and have sailed nearly around the world, and now,
only a few hours before reaching our port, we are met with such a
disaster. What a tragedy! What a tragedy!"

I consoled him the best I could and promised to assist them so that
they could land at the same time they had hoped. Then I, as he was
about to leave the U-boat, offered him another cigarette, shook his hand
amicably, and sent him off the ship.

We had agreed that I would tow his boats toward the coast until some new
spoils hove into sight. Then they would have to do the best they could
for themselves.

Soon after two o'clock, this occurred when the mastheads with the tips
of white sails arose over the horizon.

We cast off from the boats, wished the Frenchman a safe journey, and
turned toward our new prey, while Schweckerle made "Flink" ready.

As we came nearer, we discovered something that made us jump. We had
been certain that the ship which was approaching was a large
three-master, rigged somewhat like the one that we had just sunk, but
what now astonished us and aroused our suspicion was that we distinctly
saw, at times, dark clouds of smoke that seemed to be closely associated
with the sailing ship which floated between and behind her sails.

"Anything that you cannot explain is always suspicious."

In accordance with this well tested rule for U-boats, we cautiously kept
off a litt