By this time a strong breeze had sprung up, blowing athwart the channel. The absence of trees close to the bank increased the difficulty, for there was no protection from the wind as it swept against the lofty side of the slowly-moving _Pelikan_. Already the raider's semaphore was signalling to the _Myra_ to cast off and anchor until the tide slackened. With a grim smile on his face Armstrong winked solemnly at the subs. He said not a word, for several of the German seamen were standing by. "Let go!" ordered Unter-leutnant Klick, directly he saw that the _Pelikan_ had dropped her anchor. Promptly the British seaman stationed at the compressor obeyed. The bower anchor fell with a sullen splash. Fathom after fathom of chain roared through the hawse-pipe. Klick raised his hand as a signal for the cable to be checked. The _Myra_ was still making sternway and showed no decided tendency to bring up. Another fifty fathoms of chain were paid out. Still the tramp dropped astern. She was now within half a cable's length of the _Pelikan_, which to prevent herself being in collision was obliged to veer out her cable. "The anchor's not holding, sir!" shouted the German petty officer in charge of the fo'c'sle party. "Then let go a second anchor," yelled Klick excitedly. "Make them look sharp, or we'll be foul of the _Pelikan_." The unter-leutnant had no cause to complain of the lack of energy on the part of the prisoners. With the utmost dispatch the second anchor was let go. Before twenty fathoms, which alone ought to be sufficient to bring the _Myra_ to a standstill, were paid out the whole of the cable of the first anchor had been made use of. Suddenly a sullen roar was heard coming from down-stream. The Mohoro River at certain intervals, especially at extraordinary spring-tides, is subject to a bore. The bore is very erratic. Sometimes it is very much in evidence, at other times it is hardly perceptible; but there was no doubt that now it was of unusual magnitude. Nearer and nearer came the wall of solid water, maintaining an unbroken wave towards the centre of the river. Close to the banks it broke heavily. "Go full speed ahead or we'll be into you!" shouted Kapitan von Riesser frantically. The _Myra's_ engine-room telegraph clanged. Either by accident or design the British engineers were slow in replying. The tramp was only just forging ahead when the bore swept under the _Pelikan's_ counter. Round swept the raider, her stern just missing the _Myra's_ taffrail. Fortunately her cables held, but not so the tramp. With her engines going ahead and held tightly by the scope of her anchor-chain--for the anchors themselves, thanks to their dummy forelocks, were useless--the tramp headed uncontrollably towards the port-hand bank. In the midst of the tumult of water as the bore broke over her she struck and struck heavily.