time to time, but no movement could be made.  Darkness fell, and found us still stuck fast.  Our spirits had begun to rise, the prospect was distinctly brighter, and soon after six o’clock the Assistant Lieutenant went ashore in mufti to telephone to the nearest port, Frederikshavn, for help.  What reply he received we never heard, but we did hear that he reported he was on a German ship from Bergen to Kiel and wanted help.  Lourenco Marques to Kiel, via Iceland, would have been nearer the truth!

About eight o’clock we heard from one of the neutrals among the crew that the Captain of a salvage tug was shortly coming aboard to inquire into matters.  The ladies among us decided to stay in the saloon while the Captain of the tug interviewed the German Captain in the chartroom above it.  On the arrival of the tug Captain on the bridge, the ladies in the saloon created a veritable pandemonium, singing, shrieking, and laughing at the top of their voices.  It sounded more like a Christmas party than one of desperate prisoners in distress.  The Danish Captain departed; what had been the result of his visit we did not know, but at any rate he knew there were women on board.  The German Captain came down into the saloon, asked pleasantly enough what all the noise was about, and said, “I have offered the salvage people L5,000 to tow the ship off; money is nothing to us Germans.  This will be done at four to-morrow morning, and we shall then proceed on our way to Kiel.”

Some of us had talked over a plan suggested by the second mate of a captured ship, by which one of the neutrals among the crew should contrive to go ashore in one of the tug’s boats in the darkness, communicate with the nearest British Consul, and inform him of the situation and the desperate case we were in.  We promised him L500, to be raised among the “saloon passengers,” if by so doing our rescue should be accomplished.

We remained in the saloon talking over developments when we heard that a Danish gunboat had come nearly alongside, and that her Commander was coming on board.  He had presumably received a report from the Captain of the tug.  We heard afterwards that he had his suspicions about the ship, and had brought with him on board one of his own men to make inquiries of the crew, among whom were Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes, while he kept the German Commander busy in the saloon.  The previous mistake of taking the Danish Captain on to the bridge was not to be repeated.  The Commander of the gunboat was to come into the saloon.  So the ladies could not remain there and make their presence known.  But some of them contrived to leave some of their garments on the table and settee in the saloon—­a muff, hats, gloves, etc.  These the Danish Commander must have seen; and not only that, for he saw some ladies who had stood in one door of the saloon before they were sent to their cabins, when he entered at the other one.  He also saw the Australian Major of the A.M.C., in khaki, and other passengers standing with the ladies in the alley-way.  If he had entertained any suspicions as to the correct character of the ship, which the Germans were of course trying to conceal, they must have been strongly confirmed by now.  It was now too late for us to be sent to our cabins, as a German sailor came and ordered.  We had achieved our object.