"I saw von Spee's squadron," remarked Merridew. "I was only seventeen then, and our home was at Port Stanley. A fellow couldn't help feeling sorry for von Spee, even though he was a Hun. His ships came up quite unsuspectingly to find the old battle-ship _Canopus_ lobbing 12-inch shells at them over the arm of the harbour. Von Spee knew his guns could outrange hers, so he held on. Then he had the shock of his life when he saw tripod masts coming round the corner. He legged it, but it was like a rat trying to get away from a terrier. There were survivors from the _Nürnburg_." "Yes," agreed the baronet, "there were. We'll hear about some of them, I fancy. But to get back to friend Williams. Apparently he had a sticky time in Chile, for he was eleven months in hospital at Valparaiso. Then he worked his passage in a Yankee barque to 'Frisco, made his way across the States, and arrived in New York just about the time when the Huns started their unrestricted U-boat campaign. Signing on on board a British tramp, Williams found that once more his luck was out, for three hundred and fifty miles west of the Irish coast the tramp was torpedoed, and the survivors spent sixty hours in an open boat in heavy seas before being rescued. "By a curious coincidence I was patrolling-officer at Falmouth when Williams was brought ashore from a 'P-boat'. I didn't recognize him at first, and no wonder; but he spotted me all right. That was soon after my brother's death, so when Williams was able to be moved I sent him here, but I knew he was done for. "I saw him again when I was on leave, and it was then that he told me the story of the _Fusi Yama's_ gold, and a week later he died. He left me certain papers and a rough chart showing the lagoon and the approaches. These I kept in the attaché-case which was stolen three days ago." "Will that affect the expedition?" asked Beverley. "Only to this extent, I believe," replied Sir Hugh. "We'll have to hurry up and get a move on. This brings me to speak of the opposition show. At present I'm rather hazy concerning the head of the rival party, but I have no hesitation in saying that we are up against a tough proposition. To the best of my belief the directing spirit is a fellow called Kristian Borgen." "A Hun?" asked Claverhouse eagerly. "Probably," replied Harborough. "Although just now he pretends he's a Swede. From guarded inquiries that I made at the Foreign Office I find that his papers are in order and that he's a native of Stockholm. If he isn't a Hun, he's probably a pro-German. Most Swedes are or were, because their country is practically contiguous to Germany and also because of the Huns' propaganda in Sweden during the war. Fear of her old enemy, Russia, also made her inclined towards Germany. But if Kristian Borgen is a Swede, he's plenty of Hun pals, amongst them some of the survivors of the _Nürnburg_." "Where is the man?" asked Villiers.