To return to the information we have gathered here, it seems that things are boiling in Russia. A lot of people think that at Petrograd and other places up there they’re about fed up with Hun influence. The Germans are putting spokes in their wheels even at Court and in the Imperial family itself. Some say that it can end only by a separate peace or a Revolution. In fact, matters look pretty dark in the opinion of those who have been there. In Germany they talk of nothing but the submarines, and the public expect wonders. The Norwegians say that the Germans have been turning out several submarines a week for the last few months and that there are many mine-sowers among them. So, as you can believe the Boches will keep their word, navigation is going to be the devil and we shall be blown up without knowing why or how. The _Pamir_ is nicely fixed for the first voyage after the blockade. She has to sail the entire length of the forbidden zone and our sort of patrol will be little protection. That has not changed at all in thirty months of war! But Fourgues says the Allies are rich enough to pretend that they can stand for it. Let a thousand or five thousand tons a month be sunk and still they will state in the papers that it’s all humbug, he says. But in the end the public will pay. Whether we get copped or not is of no importance at all. All that we shall have for our funeral oration will be silence everywhere. But this is nonsense. I am going to the movies to-night with Villiers, who is standing me a treat in honour of my paternity. We shall dine ashore. In three days we shall get under way for an Atlantic port which is not yet fixed. What luck if it were La Rochelle or Saint-Nazaire! I could go and embrace the little mother. Well, who lives, learns! Sailors were not meant to be with their families, and as the proverb says, “Sailor’s bride, sorrow’s bride!” I am sending you my photograph which I had taken at Bergen and which I am also sending to my wife so that she can look at me while she is waiting for the baby. You will see that I am well and that the war agrees with me. You know that I mean what I have written on the photo. Good luck, old friend, and here’s till we meet again. * * * * * OFFICIAL STATEMENT (end of February, 1917) _The German wireless reports the sinking of the_ Pamir, _which is overdue._ BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND Transcriber’s notes. Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently. Ambiguous hyphenation has been removed or retained according to the prevailing style for the period. Inconsistent hyphenation has been normalised. A half-title page (blank except for the book title) and a title reiteration have been omitted from the front matter.