Upon the 22nd a steamer had come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring German despatches to Apia.

The rumour came along with her from New Zealand that in these despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, and Fletcher was accused of having "interested himself in the spreading of this rumour." His arrest was actually ordered, when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender.
At the German court, the case was dismissed "_wegen Nichtigkeit_"; and the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Hand had perhaps averted a collision.

What is more certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original reading of the part of British seaman.
Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe otherwise.