We knew that the most dangerous moment of our whole voyage was near at hand. We took a careful view of the situation once more, and made all the necessary preparations for our "Deutschland." Then we submerged again and went on, all our faculties strained to the uttermost, our nerves filled to overflowing with that cold excitement which inwardly, so to speak, causes one's hair to stand on end, while outwardly one is quite calm, gripped in that icily clear deliberation which only comes to those who are fully conscious that they are face to face with an unknown danger.... We knew our way. It had been already brought to our knowledge that fishermen had been bribed to lay nets in stated positions outside the three-mile boundary line--nets in which we were to be caught fast, in which, moreover, devilish mines had been interwoven.... Or perhaps the nets might be merely attached to buoys, which we should drag along behind us, and thus betray our position.... We were prepared for all contingencies, and had made everything ready to free ourselves from the nets if the worst should happen. But the worst did not happen. It was a dark night. The lights from the two capes shone calmly, with friendly eyes on land, while a few miles farther out death lurked in every conceivable form. But while the English ships travelled backwards and forwards, lighting up the waters with their searchlights and seeking us in every conceivable spot, they little knew that at times, close on their heels, a periscope proceeded on its leisurely way, and underneath this periscope--the "U Deutschland." At 12 p.m. that night, after hours of indescribable tension, the command rang out: "Rise to the surface!" We were through. Slowly the "Deutschland" rose through the water, the tanks were blown out and the oil engines started. At full speed we rushed on out into the open freedom of the Atlantic, while behind us in the north-west, the English, with whole bundles of searchlights, sought the waters in vain. They must have grown somewhat irritable towards the end! CHAPTER XIII THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY Never had the "Deutschland" travelled so swiftly as in those early morning hours of the 3rd August. With marvellous speed she raced on, leaving two broad streaks of foam on either side. The engines rumbled in perfect rhythm, the combustion was working without a flaw, and the exhaust showed not the slightest cloud, so that even Herr Kiszling was thoroughly contented, and in a moment of unconscious tenderness nearly stroked the shaft of his beloved engines.... When the sun rose the coast had long disappeared from sight in the distance in a grey mist, and there was no vessel of any kind to be seen.