She carries no lights, and the ghostly outline of her bellying canvas is dimly silhouetted against the moonless sky. In a few seconds she has disappeared in the deep darkness. But what is that? The lines of a torpedo-boat show up to port; the rays of a pair of searchlights dart through the air and disappear again. Then another flash sweeps upward, the cone growing larger and larger. Now he has us; on the decks of the Aud it is light as day, our eyes are blinded for the moment. A few seconds of this and the cone disappears again as quickly as it came. The Danish torpedo-boat that guards the entrance of the sound, to protect Danish neutrality, has held us for a moment under the magnifying glass, so to speak, to examine our distinctive markings--and has passed us as a harmless neutral. FOOTNOTE: [3] English being much more often understood by Norwegian captains than German. When the author quotes English, it is given exactly as he writes it. CHAPTER VIII IN ENEMY WATERS A quarter of an hour after passing the torpedo-boat we had crossed the three-mile limit, and were in enemy territory.[4] We kept a sharp look-out, for at any moment now we might run across an English cruiser, destroyer, or submarine. English submarines had, in fact, been sighted a few days before, in company with outpost-boats, between Lasö and the Sound, while between Skagen and Göteborg, in the Skager-Rack, and on the Norwegian coast, especially off Lindesnaes and Jäderen, numerous English war-vessels, including both cruisers and destroyers, had been reported. About two o'clock we were some five miles east of the island of Anholt, and at this point we had to make a critical decision. Shortly before, the English had issued a notice which _ordered_ all _neutral_ steamers to follow a course within ten miles distance of the Scandinavian coast, the object being to facilitate the examination of shipping by the English warships. The small neutral nations were powerless to resist. The only 'neutral' which at that time dared to defy the English order was the Norwegian steamer _Aud_. I had two good reasons for my decision: first, that to follow the Swedish coast meant a great waste of time, second, that the English would never, I felt sure, imagine that any neutral would have the hardihood to ignore their order. It was therefore natural to suppose that the principal part of their patrol forces would be concentrated in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast. By taking a course through the middle of the Kattegat and Skager-Rack, we should gain twenty-four hours, and probably escape a strict examination, which would also take up a good deal of time.