The following day, on January 28th, precisely at the appointed time, the _Corbridge_ loomed in sight and joined us where we were lying at anchor. The transfer of the coal took fully three days. Heat, noise and coal-dust were everywhere; there was no getting away from it. But it was glorious to watch the zeal with which the crew toiled away. The unloading of a cargo of coal is never a small affair, and the _Corbridge_ lacked everything that might have made the task easier. Every moment we were confronted with new difficulties, but they were always solved by some obscure inventive genius from among the crew. Ingenuity coupled with good will can achieve much. Night and day the men labored unremittingly, until the precious black stuff was stored carefully in every available corner on our boat. As a last souvenir of the _Corbridge_ we appropriated the pigeons and the pigeon-house erected on the bridge. Subsequently, these delightful birds helped us to while away many a pleasant hour, when, on perfectly calm days, they fluttered about the ship. As for the _Corbridge_, we had got out of her all we wanted, and she was presently sunk in the usual way. Now that the _Moewe_ had once more a supply of coal we felt like different beings, and pined for fresh deeds. Yet we had to be more cautious than ever, for, surely, the disappearance of so many vessels within a few weeks would serve as a hint to our enemies that all was not as it should be in the Atlantic. That this was so was proved to us, if only by the fact that the game we were hunting was now conspicuously rare. In vain did we search the zone usually overrun by ships. Not a single cloud of smoke came in sight! At last we decided to leave the beaten track and seek for our quarry elsewhere. After much patience, and a certain amount of good luck, we finally succeeded in making fresh victims. As ships were evidently taking every precaution against us, and were attempting by all possible means to evade us, we retaliated by resorting to new stratagems--the continual repainting of the Moewe, in order to vary her aspect as much as possible, being the most frequent one we adopted. X--STORIES OF SHIPS ON BOTTOM OF THE SEAS Our first capture on this occasion occurred on February 4th--a Belgian boat, the _Luxembourg_, four thousand three hundred and twenty-two tons register, with a cargo of five thousand nine hundred tons of coal, the property of a railway company in Buenos Ayres. Considering the high price of coal and freight, this cargo alone was worth about a million marks. Yet cargo and ship promptly disappeared into the depths. The crew of the Belgian ship consisted of the most varied types of humanity. The majority were neutrals, chiefly Greeks and Spaniards, and their transfer to the _Moewe_ was rather a comical affair. They were hampered by the most unnecessary paraphernalia--mandolins, parrots, zithers, monkeys, dogs, and so on.