I therefore held a course for the present midway between the island of Lasö and Göteborg, intending to strike into the Skager-Rack higher up, northward of Paternoster. This course had, however, one great disadvantage. Supposing we were caught while on it, no amount of ingenious lying would help us, for all our papers were valid only from Christiania outwards, since that was our ostensible port of sailing. Once more we had to trust our luck. The risk was, after all, not greater than in following the other course, with the chance of being vetted, by 'mark of the mouth,' by an English-Norwegian interpreter. As soon as we were out of sight of land and of other ships, I rang down the order for 'Full speed ahead.' The main thing now was to get as quickly as possible upon a course which would make it credible that we had sailed from Christiania. If we were caught in the meantime, the game was up; if not, we had won the first trick. So--drive ahead! Towards morning the wind dropped and became very uncertain, while the sky was almost completely overcast. To the west and north-west there was already a slight haze upon the water: the forerunner of a coming fog. If there was any one in the wide world who had reason to hope for a fog at that moment it was myself. We all stood on deck watching anxiously every slightest alteration in the weather. The watch below found they had no need for sleep that day. From minute to minute it grew thicker. Contrary to my previous intention, therefore, I stood in nearer the Swedish coast in order to get our exact 'position' by shore-bearings. It was quite possible that I might have no further chance of doing so for several days, for I had decided, when we reached the North Sea, to continue steaming out of sight of land, since, on the whole of the Norwegian coast up to a point northward of Bergen, numerous English patrolling vessels had been reported. It must have been about 8 a.m. when the look-out aloft reported a ship ahead. A few minutes later we made her out to be a small cruiser of one of the older types. I gave the order for emergency stations, and in a moment every man was at his allotted post. It was impossible, at the distance, to read the cruiser's small and rather weather-beaten flag, and we were bound to assume that she was English.