concerning our destination, we always felt he was acting in accordance
with instructions from his senior officer in so doing. We all recognized
that we were lucky in that he, and not the Commander of the _Wolf_ or
any other officer of the Imperial Navy, was in charge of us. He
admitted, however, that it was particularly hard luck on my wife and
myself being captured like this, just as we had retired from a long
period of work and residence in the Far East. This news of the _Wolf's_
intentions angered us all, and we all felt that there was very little
chance of ever seeing land again, unless an Allied cruiser came to our
aid. We regarded this plan of the Germans as a deliberate one to sink us
and the ship when they had got all they wanted out of her, and I told
the Captain that my wife and I would prefer to be shot that day rather
than face such a prospect of absolute misery, with every chance of death
alone putting an end to it.

New Year's Day! With the dawn of 1918 we looked back on the last few
months of its predecessor and what they had meant and brought to us all.
What would the New Year bring forth? Liberty, or continued captivity;
life, or death at sea? On New Year's morning we wished each other good
luck and a Happy New Year, but with the news of our captors' intentions
given us on the preceding day our prospects were the reverse of rosy.

The two ships had parted on the evening of the 30th, both going north,
and we did not see the _Wolf_ again till the morning of January 4th. She
was then seen to be overhauling a ship on the horizon. We followed at a
short distance, and before long saw a ship in full sail. The _Wolf_
approached her, spoke to[3] her, and, to our intense astonishment,
released her. It seemed too good to be true that the _Wolf_ would leave
any ship she met quite unmolested, but so it was--for a short time. It
was between ten and eleven when the _Wolf_ and her prize proceeded on