Part 36 (1/2)
”But we officers are gentlemen!” retorted the ober-lieutenant, drawing himself up stiffly.
”It's a point that might be argued,” returned Darrin, lightly. ”Yet there is no other course, for we have no detention s.p.a.ce apart from the main one on board, so it is the only place that we can use for confining German officers--and gentlemen.”
”May I request the privilege of a few words with you before you send me below?” requested the ober-lieutenant, unbending a trifle.
”Certainly,” Dave a.s.sured him, and the guard that was marshaling the prisoners below permitted the recent German commander to step out of the line.
”I will see you in my chart-room,” said Dave. Lieutenant Fernald, who had been standing by, caught Dave's signal and entered with his chief.
Once inside Ober-Lieutenant Dreiner turned and gazed at Fernald.
”I had expected a private interview, Herr Darrin,” he said, rather stiffly.
”Lieutenant Fernald is my executive officer, and nothing goes on board with which he is not familiar,” Darrin replied. ”Have a seat, Herr Ober-Lieutenant.”
”And must I speak before--before your subordinate?” asked the German, as he dropped into the chair that had been indicated.
”If you speak at all,” Darrin answered.
”But will Herr Fernald keep inviolate what I have to say?”
”In that,” Darrin promised, ”he will be governed by circ.u.mstances.”
Dreiner hesitated for a few seconds before he began:
”I--I--er--I have to refer to an incident that followed our last words together on a former occasion.”
”You mean, of course, the time, when you a.s.sembled on the deck of your craft four prisoners, of whom I was one, then closed your manhole and submerged, leaving us floundering in the water, and, as you expected, to die by drowning?”
”I have not admitted that any such thing took place,” Herr Dreiner cried, hastily, with a side glance at Lieutenant Fernald.
”It will make no difference, Herr Dreiner, whether you admit or deny that inhuman attempt to murder four helpless prisoners,” Dave rejoined. ”It so happened that all four of us kept alive until rescued, and we are all four ready, at any time, to appear against you. So there is no use in evasion.”
”Then you intend to bring the charge against me?” asked Dreiner, in a voice husky with either emotion or dread.
”I can make neither promises nor threats as to that,” Darrin countered.
”The stern British military courts would sentence me to death on that charge.”
”Probably,” Dave agreed.
”And I have a very particular reason for wanting to live,” Dreiner went on.
”Yes?”
”I have eight young children at home, and their sole dependence is on what I earn,” the German continued. ”I do not mind dying, for myself, but in that event what will become of my poor little children?”
”You Germans fill me with disgust!” Dave Darrin exclaimed, rising, as though to terminate the interview. ”It seems to be a rule with you fellows, when you find yourselves facing death, to whine about the children you must leave behind to starve. Before you set out to murder me in an especially brutal manner, did you take the trouble to ask me whether _I_ had any children who would starve? Did you ask Mr. and Mrs.