We had now, with frequent alterations of course, made our way along the Danish coast as far as Falsterbö, where there was an extensive mine and ship barrier. The place was swarming with war vessels of every kind. An outpost-boat gave us our course through the barrier. CHAPTER VII A DRESS REHEARSAL 'Destroyer coming up astern,' some one on the boat-deck shouted up to the bridge. A moment later we heard the familiar rush of a destroyer's bow-wave, and the ringing of her telegraph as she checked. What the devil do they want?' 'Where are you from, captain,' comes a voice from below us. A sub-lieutenant is standing, megaphone in hand, on the bridge of the pitching craft, whose funnels are only just on a level with our upper deck. Close as she is to us, all the officers of the watch are scanning us curiously through their glasses, while the men standing about the deck stare at us open-eyed. As it is just as well that we should not be recognised, I give my men a sign to go below, and myself, take my stand at the rail, shaking my head, to convey to the sub-lieutenant that the German language is not one of my accomplishments. 'Of course,' I can hear the little man below grumbling to himself, 'another of these idiots of captains who can speak no civilised language!' Nevertheless, he had another try, shouting at me through the megaphone in a rasping tone, 'Where are you from? Can't you answer?' Again I relentlessly shook my head, though it was all I could do not to laugh outright when I recognised the speaker's voice. I had talked to him in the streets of Kiel a couple of days before. 'Nothing doing! 'he growled angrily to himself, and said something to a signalman, who thereupon ran aft, and returned accompanied by a lieutenant, who had obviously been awakened from his siesta. 'Hallo, capt'n,' he shouted to me in fluent English,[3] 'where are you coming from?' 'Danzig,' I answered shortly. 'Where are you bound for?' 'Christiania.' In the ensuing pause I turned round and pretended to play with the dog, by way of showing that I had no use for any further conversation with the destroyer. Meanwhile, I could hear the little sub saying crossly, 'I'll be hanged if the fellow's on the square. I'll swear there's something fishy about the business.' I gave an impatient pull to my gay-coloured scarf, and nonchalantly knocked out my foul little pipe on the rail, so that the ash flew right into the eyes of the two speakers. 'Boor!' was the only further word that I heard, for a second afterwards the destroyer backed astern, came up again on our port side, and steamed along abreast of us for a while, all eyes on our deck, and on the shining paint of the flags and names on our side. Mathiesen, who now shoved his Norwegian-looking visage into the foreground, must have allayed the suspicions of the wary pair, for a sudden shout of 'All right, captain,' accompanied by a wave of the hand, gave me to understand that I might proceed.