plenty of sea room. Now, if we were anywhere in the neighbourhood of the sandbanks at the mouth of the Elbe, I might feel jumpy. Take the helm, old man; north, eighty east, is the course. I'll get breakfast."  

Jack Hamerton was a tall, broad-shouldered fellow of twenty years of age. He might well be described as thick-set, for his head was set upon his square shoulders by a short, thick neck, his arms were brawny, while his legs would have caused many a professional footballer to turn green with envy. His features were inclined towards heaviness, the bushy eyebrows and square jaw denoting force of character amounting to stubbornness.  

He was a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and had lately been "paid off" from H.M.S. Blazer after an arduous commission in the Persian Gulf. Owing to the particular circumstances My Lords had granted Hamerton three months' leave, and the Sub, with an innate love for the salt seas, had chartered an eight-ton yacht, and with Detroit for company had started on a cruise to Kiel.  

Oswald Detroit was physically different from Hamerton. He was tall, but slenderly built, yet there was a suppleness in his muscular limbs that had stood him in good stead in the athletic world. His features were clean-cut and regular, his hair of a light-brown hue and inclined to curliness, while his fair skin, in spite of exposure to the wind and sun, contrasted forcibly with Hamerton's almost swarthy complexion.  

Detroit was an American by birth—a native of Richmond, Va.—and American in character to his finger tips. He had great faith in his country, and a heap of self-reliance that had carried him through many difficult places. His powers of argument were marvellous, although he invariably hid his most telling points in debate under a thin covering of dry humour.  

It was at Lowestoft that the Sub met his future sailing mate for the first time, only a few days before the momentous voyage commenced. Oswald's sister had married a naval lieutenant, a distant cousin of Hamerton's, and thus the two men came in contact with each other.  

In a very few hours a bond of friendship was found, for despite their physical difference Hamerton and Detroit had a lot in common. Both were keen sportsmen, and each took a deep interest in yachting, the American being an active member of the exclusive Marblehead Yacht Club. When Hamerton spoke of a cruise to the Baltic, with the crowning attraction of participating in the international racing at Kiel, Detroit's interest was so marked that it wanted little persuasion 

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