Von Giespert often wondered what the "schweinhund Englander" was doing. Self-complacently he pictured his rival going south and putting into Brisbane or some other Australian port to kill time until, according to the mutual agreement, Harborough would return and claim the right to search the lagoon of Ni Telang. It was only in the earlier stages of the operations that the German was self-satisfied. He firmly believed that by the time the _Titania_ put in an appearance the gold would be safe in the strong-room of the _Zug_. Now he was not feeling so optimistic about it. On the contrary, he was the victim of jumpiness, which did not improve his temper. The men, too, were showing signs of unrest. Strauss was a hard taskmaster. He drove but he could not lead; his education as a ruler of men missed one important fact: to get men to work properly it is essential that they should be well fed. On board the _Zug_ the provisioning arrangements were far from good. Had von Giespert given one tenth of the time he had lavished upon the mechanical and scientific appliances on board the _Zug_ to the personal comfort of the crew, much of the trouble that subsequently occurred might have been avoided. "What report have you to make?" asked von Giespert, in continuance of his previous question. "We worked northward of a line east of point G for a distance of seven hundred metres," replied Strauss. "That practically covers the whole of the lagoon where there is a depth of five metres or more." "Then the lagoon has been twice examined?" "Twice--carefully," said Strauss with conviction. "Schrang made three descents; Woeber, two. In every case it was rock." "But the wreck must be somewhere here," exclaimed von Giespert petulantly, embracing the greater part of the lagoon with a swirl of his jewelled fingers. "The men must have been careless. To-morrow let them start it again." It was an easy thing to say, but even Strauss foresaw difficulties in carrying out the order. "There is another matter, Herr Kapitan," he said. "We are getting short of water. The only spring we have found on the island has failed. It was but a small one. I put two hands on the task of sinking a well, but they found no water at four metres. The conden----" "Yes, I know all about the condensers," interrupted von Giespert irritably, and since it was his fault that the work of repairing them had not been undertaken at Batavia--the last port they touched where work of that kind could be performed--his subordinate's reference to the faulty apparatus was unwelcome. "I would suggest," continued Strauss, finding boldness in the fact that he, too, was experiencing inconvenience from the shortage of drinking-water, "that four of the hands take the whaler and run across to the island where we lay when the English vessel discovered us. There is water in abundance. We could get three small tanks into the boat, and the men could fill them by means of barricoes."