"I wish I could have him hanged-the murderer!" cried the woman, pa.s.sionately.
"I am more cruel than you, then, madam," Dave continued, as he led her away step by step, "for I would have the wretch live a long life. No matter how long he lives his ears must be filled with the shrieks of dying women and children. He must hear the cries of the drowning and the moans of the wounded. He must start in terror from his sleep at night, for he has done foul deeds that will haunt him as long as memory lasts. He has lived the sneaking, cowardly life of a pirate, and is steeped in all the foulness of piracy. His has not been the life of the brave fighting man, who willingly grants the foe an equal chance. He has murdered and pillaged. This fellow can never, as long as he lives, escape the accusations of his own lost soul."
"It is a lie!" foamed Sparnheim. "A lie, a lie, a lie, I tell you! What I have done, I have done as a loyal and patriotic German. What I have done was for my country and my sovereign!"
"To be sure," Dave agreed, "but you can never shift your part of the burden from yourself. Your life will be one of misery."
Others of the pa.s.sengers had crowded forward to share with the frenzied woman the storm of reproaches that she visited upon these Germans, but Dan felt that matters had gone far enough.
"All rescued survivors will please step inside," he called out. "We will register your names and make the best possible provision for you."
Having gotten the rescued ones well aft, Dan turned to the petty officer in charge of the prisoners.
"March them down to the brig," he ordered.
Sparnheim drew himself up, then indicated a younger man at his side.
"Me? You know who I am. And this is Lieutenant Witz. When you send my men to your brig, what do you do with us?"
"We won"t separate you," Dan a.s.sured him, with a smile.
"I demand to know where you will send us. That is, if we are not to have the freedom of the deck?"
"You will both go to the brig with your men," Dalzell answered.
"But we are officers and gentlemen!" cried Sparnheim, indignantly.
"Gentlemen!" repeated Dan Dalzell, a world of irony in his tone.
Then to the petty officer:
"To the brig, with the whole lot of them!"
Sparnheim struck at a sailor who took hold of his arm and the sailor promptly felled him to the deck.
"I am insulted and treated outrageously because I am helpless," yelled the German, sitting on the deck.
"I am sorry that violence was necessary," Dan replied, raising him to his feet. "You have only to obey, and you will not be handled roughly."
"I will not go to the brig with common sailors!" roared Sparnheim.
"It is rough on the sailors," Dan agreed, "so I shall have to apologize to your "common sailors" and ask them to endure your company. If they maltreat you, you can make complaint, you know."
It required two husky sailors to drag Sparnheim below. Witz, who was more tractable, went as ordered, head down, and eyes lowered.
"The air is sweeter now that they"re gone," Dan confided to his chum.
"Much!" Dave agreed, dryly.
Soon after that the last of the survivors from the sunken steamship were picked up and made as comfortable as possible.
It was not until the following morning that these survivors, and the German prisoners as well, were transferred to an in-bound destroyer.
Then the "Prince," with a farewell toot of her whistle to the destroyer, turned her nose about and steamed off in search of such further enterprise as the broad sea might hold in store for her.
CHAPTER XX
DAN STALKS A CAUTIOUS ENEMY
"Shall we escort you in?"
It was the following morning, and the "Prince" was proceeding eastward.
An American destroyer, roaring along on her way, funnels belching clouds of black smoke, her engines at full speed, her whole frame quivering, sent this signal to the "Prince":
"Do you wish convoy?"
"No, thank you," Dan signalled back, as the destroyer slowed down for an answer. "We can look out for ourselves."
"You don"t look it," came back the response.
"We"ll get in, all right," Dan replied by signal.
"Sorry for you," came the reply. "Think we"d better stick by."
"Confound him," muttered Dalzell. "He means well, but if he stands by us he"ll spoil our good chance of trapping some more of these submarines."
"Ask him who commands," Darrin suggested.
Dan ordered the question signalled.
"Preston," came the reply.
"We know him well enough," laughed Dave. "He was at Annapolis with us."
Dan was now quick to see the point of Dave"s original suggestion, for he signalled:
"Do you remember Dalzell?"
"Danny Grin!" came the prompt response from the destroyer.
"Yes; he commands this tub," Dan signalled back.
"Oh!" came the comprehending signal from the destroyer.
Then, after a brief interval: