The cruiser was no doubt one of those which had been warned some hours previously by the wireless-ship. What we had to expect this time was, at the very least, a thorough examination of the vessel. And even if we came successfully through this we should probably be escorted to the nearest port, where the suspicious _Aud_ would be unloaded and her cargo of munitions revealed. Now followed some minutes of tense expectation. Only half a mile separated us from the cruiser. Her armament, consisting of several 4.5 guns and a number of machine-guns, was clearly visible. We expected she would come within hailing distance. But she did not. Instead of that she steamed alongside us in a zigzag course for about ten minutes. The signal we were expecting never came. Nearly her whole crew stood on deck, gazing at us with curiosity. We went ahead as if it were no concern of ours. But who can describe our astonishment when the English ship, as if she had seen all she wanted to see, turned sharply east and steamed off as she had come, at top speed! Now, what did this mean? We had no idea at that time that it was the fear of our imaginary 'heavy guns,' our 'torpedoes,' and the 'submarines that were escorting us,' that had kept the cruiser at a distance and had sent her off post-haste for reinforcements! Unfortunately, these were not long in coming up. The sun was now low down in the west and threw such a dazzling glare on the water that it was actually painful to scan the horizon. In doing so we soon made the unpleasant discovery that our cruiser was not the only ship in view. Almost ahead, a little on the starboard bow, another English ship was coming up, and to starboard--yes, what the devil was that? Ahead, astern, in fact all round us, we could see smoke clouds, which, as was soon evident, came from other monsters similar to the first. All auxiliary cruisers, and all of the same type. All the steamers of the channel service seemed to have been concentrated against us.[15] There was no necessity for deliberation. We were hemmed in all round, and there was no way out. All these ships, armed with guns and machine-guns, against our little _Aud_, whose sole armament consisted of a couple of wooden cannon. And still these fellows appeared to be horribly afraid of us, for they still kept their distance, zigzagging round us. It showed that they expected at any moment a shell or a torpedo. I really had to laugh at these heroes of the sea.