At Argostoli there were three other merchant-ships which were clearing at the same time as the _Pamir_, or very nearly, and we were told to travel together to join a big cruiser west of Cerigo in order to make up a convoy with other boats which the cruiser had collected at Salonica, Salamis, and elsewhere. There was one destroyer, the _Revolver_, to escort the lot of us. As you might guess, the convoy was composed of hookers, of which some made eight knots and others fourteen, and as we all met towards night, the next morning some were lost over the horizon ahead and others behind. We managed as best we could and followed the secret route. Near morning of the second day, the cruiser hoisted a lot of signals to tell us to head south because a submarine had been at work on the secret route during the night. So we all stampeded for the south, the fastest ahead, the lumberers behind, and the _Pamir_ well in the middle. It was worth paying for to see that obstacle race! The cruiser had orders to call at Messina or somewhere along that coast, but neglected to tell us, so she collected us somehow or other and conducted us into the Straits of Messina where we found ourselves all in a bunch about noon. And if there had been a submarine looking on, she couldn’t have missed us any more than she could have missed an elephant in a window. There the cruiser and the destroyer signalled good-bye and ordered us to follow the secret route as far as Marseilles from where each should proceed to his destination along the secret routes. But as there was no police, the fast boats put on speed, the others dragged, and on arriving before Bonifacio, the _Pamir_ had no one in sight but a big steamer which disappeared off the horizon ahead that night. We kept on all night and the next morning what did Fourgues see? The same big steamer disabled, having received a torpedo in the rudder and screw, and asking to be towed. As she had a gun, Fourgues thought she must have peppered the submarine, which had probably hooked it to wait for the others who were coming along the same course. The submarine had perhaps missed us by an hour or an hour and a half at most, but we saw nothing of her while we were over-hauling the steamer _Sainte Eulalie_, nor while we were towing her into Ajaccio. It wasn’t easy to pass the tow-rope, for there was still a touch of mistral about and the _Sainte Eulalie_ had broached to. One of our men had his hand smashed by the first hawser, which broke. The second held, and the _Pamir_ towed the cripple to Ajaccio at five knots speed. There we unloaded our wounded man. The convoy being dispersed, there was no need to go to Marseilles, so Fourgues lit out straight for Lisbon, where he had been told to call at Argostoli, but he permitted himself the luxury of sailing outside the secret route. When I say outside, I mean about fifty miles off, except at Gibraltar, where, of course, everybody has to pass. But if the Navy can’t guard Gibraltar,