True, the captain of the Russian battleship, "Imperator Pavel," sent a wireless message to Sevastopol, which was in turn transmitted to St. Petersburg and thence to the world in general, to the effect that at eight a.m. on the morning of the 6th he had sighted a submarine eighty miles S.S.W. of that Crimean port. Having orders to sink the "Vorwartz" without warning, the Russian officer caused a heavy fire to be opened upon the submarine with the "Imperator Pavel’s" twelve and three-pounder quick-firers. Every one of these guns that could be brought to bear--eighteen out of forty--joined in the racket, and confident of having destroyed the modern buccaneer, the Russian battleship returned to Sevastopol. Captain Restronguet received this intelligence with mixed feelings. He had his doubts. He knew that the rapid firing of the Russian fleet was notoriously ill-aimed and inaccurate; he knew also that with a battleship in the vicinity Karl von Harburg would hesitate to bring his craft to the surface. If, however, the news was correct he was saved a lot of trouble, and was now at liberty to return to his base in the Dutch East Indies. Nevertheless he regretted, in no small measure, the fact that he had not been able to achieve the distinction of sinking the "Vorwartz" under conditions favourable to the lives of her crew. An hour or so later the stalwart Cornishman executed a dance in his cabin, much to the astonishment of Hythe and Kenwyn who happened to be present. The report of the captain of the "Imperator Pavel" was replied to by a demand from the Bulgarian Government to know why the Russians had fired upon one of their vessels. It appeared that a submarine had been ordered and built at Ansaldo’s Works at Sestri, Italy, for the new Bulgarian Navy, and having finished her acceptance trials was returning to Varna. She was running on the surface and made no attempt to alter her course, or to act in any way that might be regarded as suspicious; but when passing the "Imperator Pavel" at a distance of two miles, the Russians greeted her with a sudden and totally unexpected volley of quick-firing shells. The Bulgarian submarine quickly dived. According to the estimate of the Italian contractors’ representative who was on board, not less than one hundred and twenty shells were fired, of which not one did the slightest damage beyond cutting away the ensign-staff. "Those Bulgarians will make a fine business of this, Hythe!" exclaimed Captain Restronguet. "With Russia on bad terms with Austria and Germany the Balkan States can pull the Bear’s tail as much as they like. And trust any of the Balkan States for that; they would draw blood out of a stone if they could. But some day the Powers will settle down harmoniously, and the successors to the Turkish Empire in Europe will have to knuckle under somewhat." "You don’t seem very partial to the Balkan States, sir," remarked the sub.