Part 20 (1/2)

'I wish to Heaven we had never co _ever_' (I couldn't help siven away, ed for like Cook's tourists I couldn't follow your ga me

'Look here,' I said, 'I did my best It was you that ot out of that Why did you harp on everything idiotic--your letter, the Foreign office, the 'Kormoran', the wreck, the--?'

'You're utterly unreasonable Didn't you see what traps there were? I was driven the way I went We started unprepared, and we're jolly well out of it'

Davies drove on blindly 'It was bad enough telling all about the channels and exploring--'

'Why, you agreed to that yourself!'

'I gave in to you We can't explore anythe wreck! It's all a blind, or he wouldn't have made so much of it There are all these channels to be--'

'Oh, hang the channels! I knoanted a free hand, but we've got to go to Norderney some time, and if Dollmann's away--'

'Why did you harp on Miss Dollh idle recrimination, to the real point of departure I knew Davies was not himself, and would not return to himself till the heart of the ht me out here to help you, because, as you say, I was clever, talked Ger this) But directly you really _want_ o for me'

'Oh, I didn't mean all that, really,' said Davies; 'I'm sorry--I orried'

'I know; but it's your own fault You haven't been fair with me

There's a complication in this business that you've never talked about I've never pressed you because I thought you would confide in me You--'

'I know I haven't,' said Davies

'Well, you see the result Our hand was forced To have said nothing about Dollmann was folly--to have said he tried to wreck you was equal folly The story we agreed on was the best and safest, and you told it splendidly But for two reasons I had to harp on the daughter--one because your manner when they were mentioned was so confused as to ih the safest, was, at the best, suspicious Even on your own showing Dollh you pretended not to have seen it You want a motive to neutralize that, and induce you to revisit hied von Bruning to supply it'

'Why revisit him, after all?' said Davies

'Oh, come--'

'But don't you see what a hideous fix you've put me in? How caddish I feel about it?'

I did see, and I felt a cad myself, as his full distress came home to me But I felt, too, that, whosesoever the fault, we had drifted into a ridiculous situation, and were like characters in one of those tiresos are manufactured and so carefully sustained that the audience are too bored to wait for the _denouee; but anted our _denouement_

'I'm very sorry,' I said, 'but I wish you had told me all about it

Won't you now? Just the bare, matter-of-fact truth I hate sentiment, and so do you'