If we had only known what a mysterious ship we were supposed to be, the armament and U-boat escort that we were credited with, many things would have been more intelligible to us. As I read to-day the English papers of those days, I come upon the most incredible reports in regard to our little _Aud_. 'The Mystery Ship,' 'The Flying Dutchman,' and other scare headlines followed by the most fantastic accounts prove what excitement the _Aud_ caused in England, and, above all, among the vessels of the coast-patrol. The other cruisers had meanwhile formed a ring round us. On some the guns were manned and ready to fire at us. At the slightest hostile move on our part we should have been riddled like a sieve. Aboard the _Bluebell_ a diminutive lieutenant was now enthroned on the signalling bridge, armed with a gigantic megaphone through which he continued to shout, 'Fol-low-me-to-Quee-ee-eenstown.--South--sixty-three--east!' This was repeated time after time, but always with the same negative result. This farce might have gone on all night, and I was beginning to get tired of it. And the English captain also appeared to be losing patience, for I saw him sign to the speaker to come down. Then we heard a few curt orders. The cruiser passed us on the port side. The next moment there was a flash, and a shell from the _Bluebell_'s forward gun burst in front of our bows. As we were directly in his line of fire we were all stupefied for a moment by the violence of the concussion. In plain English this meant, 'The farce is finished. Curtain!' As we were not very anxious for any more shells (the next would most certainly go, not across our bow, but into it), I shouted loud enough for the English to hear, 'Full speed ahead, south, 63 east.' At the same time I sent a message to the chief-engineer that I would hang him from the yardarm if this 'full speed' rose above five knots. We reckoned it out that at this speed we should reach Queenstown at ten o'clock next morning. There was nothing left for us but to follow the cruiser. Further resistance would have been useless. We therefore wallowed along at a 'speed' of five knots behind the _Bluebell_, which now took the lead, while the other ships spread out all round us. A magnificent escort for us twenty-two men! The wind shifted to NNW. and then died down, while the few clouds which were still in the sky disappeared. With them disappeared our last hope of escape. The _Bluebell_, as was to be expected, was not very pleased with our speed. But all her protests (made by means of a signalling-lamp) did not help a bit. The more his signals flashed the slower we became. The conversation was very funny. For instead of using the electric Morse-lamp we used a small paraffin lamp, making the dots and dashes by holding a hand in front. This was, of course, an extremely cumbersome method, and the ever-increasing rage of the English amused us immensely.