"W'ot--didn't they ketch you? You don't mean to say you--you jest
straggled aboard?"
"Sure we did. Catch us? Who is there to catch us?"
Malone stared as if at two ghosts. "Say! Say!" he said hoarsely. "You
don't mean to say you ain't caught? You don't mean you run th' tug up
'ere an' boarded us! You don't mean----" He turned and whispered
hoarsely inside: "It's th' lads off th' dock, though 'ow they got 'ere,
an' w'ot they're--douse th' light, some o' you fellows."
A stifled consternation seized the card players, who crowded up to the
port. A moment later all the lights were snapped out one after another.
"Tell us who there was to catch us," begged Leonard in a whisper.
"Who? W'y a German warship, that's who! One caught us--an' Cap
Cleghorne. Caught th' Cap away hup on th' Newfoundland Banks. Caught us
first day----"
"Why should a German warship capture _us_!" demanded Leonard in a
voice that threatened to rise in excitement.
"Quiet! Quiet! 'Eavens, lad! Don't you know? Ain't you 'eard? W'y it's
war! War! War's broke out all over th' world! Everyw'ere! Ever'body!"
"War!" gasped Madden.
"War! What countries?" demanded Smith in an excited whisper.
"Hall countries! Hingland, France, Rooshia, Japan, that's one side, an'
Germany and Austria on th' other.
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