Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-09-12

from below to report that all was well
there, another had led a party forward,
and a third, another party aft, so that
the whole ship was in German power
it was intelligent organization and
good discipline. At word from the
officer, a German sailor sought among
the signal flags in the pigeonholes Of
the chart room locker and sent a
signal up the tanker's stumpy mast.
The raider replied, and question and
answer passed back and forth. Then
the officer turned to the captain.
You have 10 minutes" he said, ito
get clear Of this ship. I take it you
would prefer that to remaining as
prisoners?"
"Blimey!" said the cockney captain
What do you Think"
They were now 300 miles from
the nearest land and any English crew
would rather risk 300 miles in open
boats with the Pacific at its calmest
than remain locked up as prisoners
in the Sitting depths of a German
warship liable to instant destruction
any minute. The two boats were hoist
ed out and the British sailors slid
down into them, numbered with their
baggage. They were a clumsy, panicky
lot, thought the German officer as he
watched them through narrowed eyes.
Already the strain of sea warfare was
compelling England to man her mer-
chant ships with the sweepings OF the
London cutters. But in the 10 min
uteS which the officer allowed, they
at least had got themselves afloat,
and sail hoisted, and were beginning
their long voyage to land. The gentle
breeze waited them away while the
raider closed upon the tanker.
The German crew was rousting
out the tanker's hoses as the raider
came alongside. There was no time
to waste in a raiders life. There was
always the thought that the tanker
might have got off a wireless message,
and that some British battle cruiser
might even now be fastening towards
the spot.
The hoses were drawn up into the
raider, and she began thirstily to fill
those empty bunkers. The boats of
the tanker with her cast-away crew
were still close enough for the cap
tain, standing in the stern-sheets with
his binoculars to see the red paint
revealed as the tanker rose higher out
OF the water with the emptying of
her tanks.
They've swallowed it," he said with
little sigh of relief, hook, line and
snker. That oil is all going straight
into her bunkers. You dealt with the
sugar all right, Mr.. Clarke, SUPPOSED"
Yes, sir"
1t was running 1t a bit fine to leave
1t to the last minute like that, but,
II they hadn't caught us, it would have
been a pity to have wasted all that
ALL said the captain.
He looked back at the raider once
again alongside the tanker. There was
sugar in that oil, 20 tons of it. When
the raider came to use it she would
find those sensitive Diesels of hers
cumming up remorselessly. She would
be hopelessly crippled, and, with any
luck, every bunker would be contami-
mated with the stuff, leaving her with
no disable fuel. A 1O,OOO-ton ship,
which had cost 100000 sterling, had
been disabled. Not by very glorious
method perhaps-the captain thought
with twinge OF regret OF the single
dead man whose life it had cost-but
by one far less expensive of oil and
material than by scattering battle
cruisers over 5000 miles Of the Pa
cific. But he, himself, was one who
was content to dispense with glory
CTHE ENID