_U-boats instructed sink Argentine ships. Destruction Hispaniola essential. Cancel passage immediately._ It seemed to have exactly the same meaning. It was ghastly. He knew exactly what that word "destruction" meant as applied to the _Hispaniola_. He had been present at a secret meeting only a month ago, at which it was definitely decided that it would be inadvisable to carry out a certain amiable plan of sinking the Argentine ships without leaving any traces, while an appearance of friendship was maintained with the Argentine Government. Evidently this policy had suddenly been reversed. There would be a concentration of half a dozen U-boats, a swarm of them probably, for the express purpose of sinking the _Hispaniola_, just as they had concentrated on the _Lusitania_; but in this case there would be no survivors at all. The ship's boats would be destroyed by gunfire, with all their occupants, because it was necessary that there should be no evidence of what had happened; and necessity knows no law. There was no chance of their failing. They would not dare to fail; and he himself had organized the system by which the most precise information with regard to sailings was conveyed to the German Admiralty. He crushed all the papers into his breast pocket and hurried up on deck. It was horribly dark. At the smoking-room door he met one of the ship's officers. "Tell me," said Mr. Neilsen, "is there any possibility of our--of our meeting a ship--er--bound the other way?" The officer stared at him, wondering whether Mr. Neilsen was drunk or seasick. "Certainly," he said; "but it's not likely for some days on this course." "Will it be possible for me to be taken off and return? I have found among my mail an important letter. A friend is very ill." "I'm afraid it's quite impossible. In the first place we are not likely to meet anything but cattle ships till we are in European waters." "Oh, but in this case, even a cattle ship--" said Mr. Neilsen with great feeling. "It is impossible, I am afraid, in any case. It is absolutely against the rules; and in war-time, of course, they are more strict than ever." "Even if I were to pay?" "Time is not for sale in this war, unfortunately. It's _verboten_," said the officer with a smile; and that of course Mr. Neilsen understood at once. He was naturally an excitable man, and his inability to obtain his wish made him feel that he would give all his worldly possessions at this moment for a berth in the dirtiest cattle boat that ever tramped the seas, if only it were going in the opposite direction.