"Cannot say I've met you before, Major," replied Hamerton carelessly. "Perhaps my memory is slightly at fault?"
It was on the tip of the Sub's tongue to express his ignorance of the major's identity, but reflecting that perhaps, after all, it would be well to exercise discretion, he replied:
"I think I can remember that name, Herr Major."
"You will have good cause to do so," retorted the German grimly. "Now, your name?"
"And yours?" demanded the Major, addressing the American.
"Guess that can be held up a bit," replied Detroit.
"I'll explain to the commandant," said Detroit resolutely.
"Very good, if you can," remarked the Major, as he prepared to take his departure. "I will, nevertheless, tell you. You will be charged with espionage. You will be lucky if you get less than three years in a fortress, for we Germans have been plagued enough with foreign spies--especially English."
SUB-LIEUTENANT Jack Hamerton was fairly well-informed as far as British naval officers go, and his information regarding the island fortress of Heligoland was fairly extensive, but he still had a lot to learn.
He knew the history of the island from its capture by the British from the Danes in the first decade of the nineteenth century. For nearly ninety years Heligoland existed as a British possession, its safety entrusted to a handful of coastguards, its ordering to a British governor, and its spiritual welfare to a Lutheran pastor. Up till 1850 the then pastor used regularly to offer up a prayer in the presence of his flock that a storm might arise to cast a valuable wreck upon the cliff-bound coast, for the Frisian inhabitants of Heligoland were to a great extent dependent upon the unlawful harvest of the sea.
As for the governor, his office was little more than a sinecure, once the regulations forbidding gaming were enforced. It was said that one of these officials was responsible for the introduction of rabbits upon Sandy Island, in order that his guests might while away the otherwise tedious hours by indulging in a little shooting. To-day, where the twelve-bores of the sportsmen used to bowl over harmless rabbits, enormous Krupp guns, on disappearing mountings, are cunningly concealed in strongly protected pits, for Sandy Island--now known as Sandinsel--has been artificially increased until it is nearly twice as large in extent as Heligoland itself.