Part 24 (2/2)

'Yes,' she said, 'I aaveit, 'nothing had better be said about thisIt unwale and watched her tighten her sheet and make a tack or two to ard Then I rowed back to the 'Dulcibella' as hard as I could

XX The Little Drab Book

I FOUND Davies at the cabin table, surrounded with a litter of books

The shelf was e the cups and on the floor We both spoke together

'Well, as it?'

'Well, what did she say?'

I gave way, and toldon the table with a book which he held

'It's not good-bye,' he said 'But I don't wonder; look here!' and he held out to me a small volume, whose appearance was quite familiar to me, if its contents were less so As I noted in an early chapter, Davies's library, excluding tide-tables, 'pilots', etc, was limited to two classes of books, those on naval warfare, and those on his own hobby, cruising in sht's Falcon in the Baltic, Cowper's Sailing Tours, Macmullen's Down Channel, and other less-known stories of adventurous travel I had scarcely done more than look into some of the This particular volume was--no, I had better not describe it too fully; but I will say that it was old and unpretentious, bound in cheap cloth of a rather antiquated style, with a title which showed it to be a guide for yachtsmen to a certain British estuary A white label partly scratched away bore the legend '3d' I had glanced at it once or tith no special interest

'Well?' I said, turning over soes

'Dollmann!' cried Davies 'Dolle, and read: 'By Lieut X--, RN' The naan to understand Davies went on: The name's on the back, too--and I'm certain it's the last she looked at'

'But how do you know?'

'And there's the man himself ass that I am not to have seen it before! Look at the frontispiece'

It was a sorry piece of illustration of the old-fashi+oned sort, lacking definition and finish, but effective notwithstanding; for it was evidently the reproduction, though a cheap and iraph It represented a s on deck in his shi+rt sleeves: a well-knit, powerful ht, clean shaved There appeared to be nothing re on too s of the fixed 'photographic' character

'How do you know hireyish beard'

'By the shape of his head; that hasn't changed Look hoidens at the top, and then flattens--sort of wedge shaped--with a high, steep forehead; you'd hardly notice it in that' (the points were not very noticeable, but I sahat Davies ht, too; and the dates are about right Look at the bottom'

Underneath the picture was the name of a yacht and a date The publisher's date on the title-page was the sao,' said Davies 'He looks thirty odd in that, doesn't he? And fifty now'

'Let's work the thing out Sixteen years ago he was still an Englishman, an officer in Her Majesty's Navy Now he's a German At sorief--disgrace, flight, exile When did it happen?'

'They've been here three years; von Bruning said so'

'It was long before that She has talked Gere, do you think--nineteen or twenty?'

'About that'

'Say she was four when this book was published The crashin Germany since