made of bottom boards and boathooks, at last discovered the wounded party, which had not left the narrow neck of land opposite the stranded _Emden_. Lieutenant Schal of the _Emden_, who was with them, eagerly seized upon the cocoanuts and cut them open for the wounded, who had been crying for water all night and for whom he had not been able to find more than one nut. The wounded German doctor had gone mad the previous afternoon, insisted upon drinking deeply of salt water, and so died. The four wounded men who remained alive were laboriously transferred to the _Sydney_ and the dead were covered up with sand and boulders. “A species of red land-crab with which the ground is infested made this the least one could do.” The reports of Navy men may seem to lack grace, but they have the supreme merit of vivid simplicity. That short sentence, which I have quoted, makes us realise that waterless crab-haunted night of German suffering more vividly than a column of fine writing. [Illustration: THE “SYDNEY-EMDEN” ACTION.] All was over, and the packed _Sydney_ headed away for her 1,600-mile voyage to Colombo. To her company of about 400 she had added 11 German officers and 200 men, of whom 3 officers and 53 men were wounded. The worst cases were laid upon her fo’c’sle and quarter-deck, the rest huddled in where they could. It was a trying voyage, but happily the weather was fine and windless, the ship as steady as is possible in the Indian Ocean, and the Germans well behaved; von Müller and Glossop, the conquered and conqueror, the guest and the host, became friendly and mutually respecting during those days in the _Sydney_. I like to think of those two, in the captain’s cabin, putting their heads together over sheets of paper and at last evolving the plan of the _Sydney-Emden_ action which is printed here. Von Müller did the greater part of it, for, as Glossop remarked, “he had the most leisure.” A cruiser skipper with 400 of his own men on board and 200 prisoners, is not likely to lack for jobs. To the von Müller-Glossop plan I have added a few explanatory words, but otherwise it is as finally approved by those who knew most about it.