Olson was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight Germans, for
the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck. Only two of us were armed;
but the heart seemed to have gone out of the boches, and they put up but
half-hearted resistance. Von Schoenvorts was the worst—he was fairly frenzied
with rage and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as he
came he discharged his pistol. If he’d stopped long enough to take aim, he
might have gotten me; but his pace made him wild, so that not a shot touched
me, and then we clinched and went to the deck. This left two pistols, which two
of my own men were quick to appropriate. The Baron was no match for me in a
hand-to-hand encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck and the life
almost choked out of him.
A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the same as before
the prisoners had revolted—only we kept a much closer watch on von Schoenvorts.
The _Geier_ had sunk while we were still battling upon our deck, and
afterward we had drawn away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the
attention of the single boat which had been making its way toward us when Olson
launched the torpedo. I suppose the poor devils never reached land, and if they
did, they most probably perished on that cold and unhospitable shore; but I
couldn’t permit them aboard the _U_-33. We had all the Germans we could
take care of.
That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck. She said that she felt
the effects of long confinement below, and I readily granted her request. I
could not understand her, and I craved an opportunity to talk with her again in
an effort to fathom her and her intentions, and so I made it a point to follow
her up the ladder. It was a clear, cold, beautiful night. The sea was calm
except for the white water at our bows and the two long radiating swells
running far off into the distance upon either hand astern, forming a great V
which our propellers filled with choppy waves. Benson was in the tower, we were
bound for San Diego and all looked well.
Lys stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure, and as I
approached her, she half turned toward me to see who it was. When she
recognized me, she immediately turned away.
“I want to thank you,” I said, “for your bravery and loyalty—you were
magnificent. I am sorry that you had reason before to think that I doubted
you.”
“You did doubt me,” she replied in a level voice. “You practically accused me
of aiding Baron von Schoenvorts. I can never forgive you.”
There was a great deal of finality in both her words and tone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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