Putting down the cup of hot drink, the man who had done the talking dismissed the three others, seated himself on the edge of the berth and placed a finger on one of Dave's unresisting wrists. The same man was there, seated on a locker and smoking a pipe, when Dave Darrin again opened his eyes. This time Dave sat up rather nimbly, then turned, supporting his head on one hand. "Hullo, there!" Dave hailed, cheerily. "Getting your strength back, aren't you?" queried the stranger. "Yes, sir! But tell me. Is this the same night I was picked up and introduced on board, so to speak?" "The same night." "About how many hours ago?" "Five, I guess." "Then it must be near daylight." "Yes." "Any American destroyers sighted hereabouts, do you know?" "Not at last accounts. We have been keeping a lookout, too, for your uniform proclaimed you to be a Yankee naval officer." "What ship is this?" "The 'Rigsdak.'" "Norwegian?" Dave inquired. "Danish freighter, homebound from Hartlepool." "And you're the ship's doctor?" "Yes. Unless we meet one of your own country's ships you'll be ashore in Denmark before noon today. But the sea is so rough that I do not believe we could transfer you, even if we met one of your own craft." "Denmark isn't such a bad country," Dave laughed, pleasantly. "I've been there. And you're mighty quick people. It didn't take you long to rope and haul me on board." "Because our second officer had a man in his watch who used to be a cowboy in your country, and he can handle a lariat well. Travelling through these dangerous waters we always carry a line forward with a noose at one end. You're the third man we've roped out of the water in six months." "But what was that first line that was thrown overboard--I mean the one I grabbed and held on to?" "There was a bucket at the end of that rope," the ship's surgeon informed Dave. "The deck-hose is out of order, and a sailor threw the bucket over to haul up water with which to wash down the passageway." "I'm thankful he made the cast just at that instant," Dave murmured. "Providence must have directed the cast," replied the doctor. "And it wasn't your time to die." "I've no right to die, if I can possibly prevent it!" Dave rejoined warmly. "I'm only a small-fry officer, to be sure, but even at that I'm needed, like every other trained American officer, until Germany has been taught the great lesson of law and morality." "Amen to that!" agreed the doctor, fervently. "You're not pro-German, then, like so many of your countrymen?" Dave asked, with a smile. "There are few of us who are pro-German in Denmark," replied the ship's surgeon. "Though, until your Entente allies can protect us against powerful Germany's wrath it is not prudent for us to be too outspoken in favor of England, France and America." "From your accent you've been in our country?" Dave hinted. "I took my degree in an American medical school, but I am a Dane. And now, sir, your name?"