"Perhaps if the two or three shots which followed had been hits, that is what he would have done. It was probably his disgust at the fact that they were all 'overs' that determined him to close in and finish the job with bombs. Possibly, also, the fact that I appeared to be starting to abandon ship at this juncture convinced him finally that the yacht had no fight in her, and it may well be that the temptation to loot had something to do with his decision. I could never make quite sure on those points, for Herr Skipper never confided what was in his mind to the one officer who survived him. At any rate, he came nosing nonchalantly in and did just what I had been praying for the last month he would do--poked right up alongside. The heavy sea that had been running for the last two or three days had gone down during the night, so that he was able to stand in pretty close without running much danger of bumping. "The extent of my abandoning ship had been to follow the old sea rule of saving the women and children first. Or rather, we put the women off in our only boat; the baby, I won't need to tell you, was somehow 'overlooked.' The boat was lowered in full view of the Hun, who was about fifteen hundred yards distant at the moment, and there was a little unrehearsed incident in connection with it that must have done its part in convincing him that what he was witnessing was a genuine piece of 'abandon.' One of the girls--it was the blonde 'Brunnhilde,' I believe--not wanting to miss any of the fun, started to hang back and tried to bluff them into letting her stay by swearing that she'd rather face the Hun than desert her child. As a matter of fact, the 'Gainsborough' had more claim on the kid than 'Brunnhilde,' for she--I mean he--had cadged its clothes from a sweetheart who worked in a draper's shop. If I had been there personally, I'm afraid 'Brunnhilde's' little bluff would have won through, for a man whose wits are keen enough to spring a joke at a crisis has always made an especial appeal to me. To the bo'sun, however, orders were orders, and his answer to the recalcitrant blonde's insubordination was to rush her to the rail by the slack of her middy jacket, and to help her over it with the toe of his boot.