Suddenly there was a jerk on the wire rope. The petty officer operating the hand-brake of the winding-drum allowed another hundred metres to reel off before checking the revolving cylinder. Not until the third hundred metres was on the point of being reached did he jam the brake hard on. "Now!" he exclaimed tersely. At the word a seaman pressed the key of the firing-battery. With a deafening roar a column of water leapt high in the air, accompanied by a dense cloud of smoke. Then came the hiss of falling foam and the heavy plash of solid objects striking the surface as they dropped from great and varying heights. Then all was silent. "Farewell, Englander!" exclaimed von Hoppner gleefully. "Not much doubt about that, Herr Kapitan-Leutnant," added Schwam obsequiously. "Let us hope we did the trick properly," rejoined von Hoppner; then, leaning over the guard-rail, he gave orders for the search-light to be unscreened. Although the calcium light had vanished in the terrific upheaval, there was no mistaking the locality of the explosion. Already within a radius of a hundred yards the surface of the water was covered with oil that gave a weird kaleidoscopic effect under the slanting beams of the search-lights. "Himmel, she carried an enormous quantity of oil!" remarked Unter-Leutnant Schwam, as V201 steamed slowly round the steadily-increasing circle of iridescent liquid. "It will be interesting, when we send down the divers, to find out what type of craft she was." Satisfied with the result of the preliminary investigations, V201 switched off her search-lights. Before returning to his cabin von Hoppner drafted a dispatch for transmission by wireless to the officer commanding the patrol flotilla. Then, his mind occupied with contented visions of honours that were to be bestowed upon him for his signal services, the Kapitan-Leutnant went below. Soon after daybreak, lighters with diving-parties and spare nets proceeded to the spot. The divers reported the wreckage of a large vessel, evidently one of a new class of submersible cruisers of at least 4000 tons displacement. Had the Hun authorities employed experts for the examination, instead of taking the word of a seaman-diver, they would have modified their extravagant claim. As it was, Berlin claimed the destruction of an enormous British submarine-cruiser, while von Hoppner had the Ordre pour le Mérite bestowed upon him by his wildly delighted Emperor, who also liberally showered Iron Crosses upon the torpedo-boat's crew. CHAPTER XIV The Way Out Sub-Lieutenant Fordyce and his two companions clung desperately to the motionless blades of the crippled propeller as they awaited what they were firmly convinced was the end. Although it seemed an interminable period before the expected explosion took place, only a few seconds actually elapsed before the detonation occurred.