Part 36 (2/2)

'That's only an excuse, I'm afraid,' said I

'I want to shoot ducks too,' pursued Davies, reddening 'I always have wanted to; and you proet out of it now,' I laughed

'Certainly not,' said he, unmoved; 'but, honestly, I should advise Herr Davies, if he is ever going to get home this season, to make the best of this fine weather'

'It's too fine,' said Davies; 'I prefer wind If I cannot get a friend I think I shall stop cruising, leave the yacht here, and coraphy between the allies

'You can leave her in e,' said Dollmann, 'and start with your friend to-rowing redder than ever 'I like Norderney--and we hy, fraulein,' he blurted out

'Thank you,' she said, in that low dry voice I had heard yesterday; 'but I think I shall not be sailing again--it is getting too cold'

'Oh, no!' said Davies, 'it's splendid' But she had turned to von Bruning, and took no notice

'Well, send hed, with the idea of drawing attention fro once delivered his soul, seehbour with the placid, dogged expression that I kneell That was the end of those delicate topics; and conviviality grew apace

I aood cheer, nor was it for lack of pressing that I drank as sparingly as I was able, and pretended to a greater elation than I felt Nor certainly was it froentle--scruples which I knew affected Davies, who ate little and drank nothing In any case he was adamant in such matters, and I verily believe would at any time have preferred our own little paraffin-flavoured messes to the best dinner in the world

It was a very wholesome caution that warned me not to abuse the finest brain tonic ever invented by the wit of man I had finessed Meher; but I had too much respect for our adversaries to trade on any fancied security we had won thereby They had allowed me to win the trick, but I credited thee of ed the axiom that in all conflicts it is just as fatal to underrate the difficulties of your enemy as to overrate your own Their chief one--and it multiplied a thousandfold the excite in error; of using a sledge-ha it they risked publicity, and publicity, I felt convinced, was death to their secret So, even supposing they had detected the finesse, and guessed that we had in fact got wind of i as they thought ere on the wrong scent, with Memmert, and Memmert alone, as the source of our suspicions

Had it been necessary I was prepared to encourage such a view, ad wore had ested to Davies, for I should have put it on him, with his naval enthusiasms, that the wreck-works were really naval-defence works If they went farther, and suspected that we had tried to go to Memmert that very day, the position orse, but not desperate; for the fear that they would take the final step and suppose that we had actually got there and overhead their talk, I flatly refused to entertain, until I should find myself under arrest

Precisely how near we caood reason to believe that we treh forflashes that I followed the play of the warring under-currents And yet, looking back on the scene, I would warrant there was no party of seven in Europe that evening where a student of human docunoble aonies of the spirit

Roughly divided though ere into separate camps, no two of us holly at one Each wore a , I am inclined to think, the lady on , which she cultivated without reserve, had, as far as I could see, but one axe to grind--the intiround it openly

Not even Boh holly at one; and as ues apart Sitting between Doll symbols of the two polar passions he had sworn to harh his aims were nominally mine, I could not attain to For ure; if I had attention to spare it was on hiustfully after his hidden springs of action, noting the evidences of great gifts squandered and prostituted; questioning where he was ues; whether he was open to reirl was incidental After the first shock of surprise I had soon enough discovered that she, like the rest, had assuuise; for she was far too innocent to sustain the deception; and yesterday was fresh inher assumed character to account; but it would be pharisaical in ard--wine and exciteht she looked prettier than ever, and, as time passed, I fell into a cynical carelessness about her This glimpse of her home life, and the desperate expedients to which she was driven (whether by coard for Davies) to repel and disht have done as the crowning arguht before, that of co Doll him to escape from the allies he had betrayed

To Davies, the man, if not a pure abstraction, was at ood; while the girl, in her blackguardly surroundings, and with her sinister future, had become the very source of his impulse

And the other players? Bohme was _my_ abstraction, the fortress whose foundations ere sapping, the eenital to the Ger, the personal factor was upper, I could not help wondering occasionally, as he talked and laughed with Clara Doll her father, he felt and meant It is a point I cannot and would not pursue, and, thank Heaven, it does not e of the facts, and, I trust, a ement, I often return to the saical bypaths, always arrive at the same conclusion, that I liked the man and like him still

We behaved as sports them over two hours to make up their ht back e of crath has lio; that I had to make an early start to-morrow I am hazy about the farewells, but I think that Dollood therefroh bound for the harbour also, considered it was far too early to be going yet, and said good-bye

'You want to talk us over,' I reaiety I could ain, under a silver, breathless night; dizzily footing the greasy ladder again; in the cabin again, where I collapsed on a sofa just as I was, and slept such a deep and stringent sleep that the ht have handcuffed and trussed and carriedme in the least