This 'conjurer's box' was to be very useful to us later. The whole of the German equipment, which we had to have with us but were obliged during the voyage to keep hidden from prying eyes--uniforms, arms, explosive and incendiary bombs, all German nautical instruments, books, charts, flags (including the numerous flags of foreign nations which we might have to use)--all found their way into this compartment. We had supplies enough, all told, to keep us easily for six months--with the exception of coal, of course, which was calculated to last forty-five days. The lavishness of our equipment was in part due to the fact that we had to have two or three sets of almost all articles of everyday use--German, English, and, above all, Norwegian--from the compass down to the smallest sardine-tin. In case the ship should be searched, any small object of German origin, even a trouser-button with the name of a German firm stamped on it, might serve to betray us. Nothing was lacking. We even carried one of the curiously shaped Norwegian whalers on deck. Arms, tools of every kind, electric pocket-lamps, surgical dressings, a plentiful supply of bunting, colours, brushes, and sail cloth, with which the appearance of the ship could be altered as required, wood and cement for various purposes, bed-linen, curtains, and crockery, in short, everything, just of the kind used on Norwegian ships, was provided. It need hardly be mentioned that we also possessed one or two German naval ensigns and pendants. All tubs, chests, and tins of preserved meat that bore Norwegian inscriptions, were assigned places in particularly conspicuous positions. We were especially well-found in the matter of ship's papers. Besides German papers for our own consulates in neutral countries, which might eventually come in useful, we had an excellently assorted stock of Norwegian Ship's logs and Engine-room logs, Articles, Certificates, Manifests, Bills of Lading, etc., on board, which served to authenticate the ship, crew, and cargo, and whose genuineness was beyond suspicion. In addition, there were a number of letters, including one of particular interest from my hypothetical owners in Bergen. In this I was requested, before leaving Christiania, to take on board with all speed a consignment of pit-props for Cardiff, which had arrived at the last moment, and on which my owners, in view of the keen demand in England, expected to make a handsome profit. My owners also urged me strongly, in contravention of the English regulations, not to follow the usual steamer track, but to make a point of keeping clear of it, since it was precisely on this track that the German submarines had lately been making such terrible havoc. This letter might serve--provided I found the right kind of idiot to work it off on--or at least might help, to explain the unusual route which I was to follow.