"Do you know how many mine-layers wait over here on the English side to have mines delivered to them?" "No, but they are not so many." "A few, supplied four times a week, can plant a lot of mines," quizzed Darrin. "Oh, yes." "And the craft you were aboard was one of the smaller ones that brought cargoes of mines. Your people have some that carry much larger numbers of mines?" "Yes, and the larger boats that bring mines over to the real mine-layers travel faster under water than our boat did." "So that these larger boats can make at least five round trips a week?" Dave asked. "Oh, yes." "You have not told me the name of your base port," Darrin went on. "And I don't intend to," retorted the seaman. "You are asking me too many questions. I should not have said as much as I did, and I shall not answer any more questions." "You do not need to," Dave assured him. "I already know the answers to a lot of questions that I might have asked you. But you look like a reasonable fellow, and also like a fellow fond of some of the good things of life. Had I found you more ready to talk I might have arranged for you to have a pleasanter time in the English prison than your mates will have." "A pleasanter time until the hangman called for us?" demanded the German, a cunning look coming into his eyes. "The hangman?" Darrin repeated. "Oh, yes! I know! We all know. The English hang the crews of German submarines. Our officers have told us all about it. You are wrong, too, to hang us, for it is the knowledge that the English will hang us that makes us fight more desperately when we are attacked." "But the English will not hang you. You and your mates will be treated as prisoners of war," Darrin assured him. "You will be well fed. You will have some amusements. When spring comes you will have gardens to work in and the flowers or vegetables that you raise will belong to you. It is a stupid lie to tell you that the English hang you all. You will soon be on shore, and in an English prison camp, and then you will know that you have been lied to. You will enjoy finding yourself on shore, for you were not often allowed to go ashore when you got back from these trips to take on your next mine cargo at--" It was a simple trap, but as Darrin paused, the seaman replied: "No, we were not often allowed ashore in ----," naming the port. The port that the seaman mentioned was the one Darrin had been trying to get him to name. The German had unwittingly allowed himself to name the base port from which the mines were shipped. As soon as the German realized his blunder he used some bad language. "That is all," said Dave Darrin. "You may go back to your mates, and by daylight you will know that an English military prison is not at all a bad place." CHAPTER XVII TRYING OUT THE BIG, NEW PLAN