In the excitement of the moment I suddenly swallowed my chew of tobacco. I was afraid this might give our whole sham away. So I coughed and coughed as though with a bad cold, trying to cover up what had happened. What would a British search officer think if a Norwegian skipper got seasick? My mate Leudemann was standing next to me holding the log book. I had told him to have it ready in case the Britisher should want to examine it. Leudemann saw there was something wrong with me, and was quick-witted enough to divert the search officer's attention, by handing him the book. "Oh, yes, the log," exclaimed the officer, and opened the wet pages. The quid of tobacco seemed to be moving up and down my gullet. I struggled with myself, and to show an outward calm I said to Leudemann in Norwegian: "I wish I'd had that officer's camel's hair cape and hood. It would have been fine to keep a fellow warm while up there north of the Circle." "For rain and spray, too." The Englishman spoke up in Norwegian to show that he knew the language. You must admire how careful those English are. The officer examined every page of the log. "How is this, Captain?" he exclaimed. "You were laid up three weeks and a half?" There was a discrepancy in dates which represented our wait after the Admiralty had ordered us not to sail because of the return of the submarine, _Deutschland_, and the consequent increased vigilance of the blockade. I had not thought of it. Here was the one detail that we had neglected to provide for in our elaborately detailed preparations. Even if I had been in the best of health, I should not have known what to reply. With that tobacco quid running around inside of my body I could only pray to God for help. Again Leudemann saved the situation. He was a little fellow and simple-hearted, but a great character. When bad times came, Leudemann was at his best. "We didn't lie there for pleasure," he said in his dry way as he looked up at the big Englishman. "We had orders from our owner not to sail until we got word." "How so?" "Haven't you been warned then about German cruisers?" "What's that?" "Haven't you heard about the _Moewe_ and the auxiliary cruiser, _Seeadler_?" The search officer turned to me. "What about this that your mate is saying, Captain?" My stomach felt much better, now that Leudemann had spoken. So I thought I might as well give the Englishman a good dose. "There were rumours at home in Norway that two cruisers and sixteen German submarines had put out of port." The search officer's comrade, who had been looking around the cabin, came over to us when he heard all this. "I think we had better be going," he spoke up suddenly. "Yes," replied the other, and they went on deck. They made no attempt at questioning the sailors or investigating the sailors' belongings.