Part 37 (1/2)

XXV I Double Back

'GOOD-BYE, old chap,' called Davies

'Good-bye,' the whistle blew and the ferry-stea Davies on the quay, bareheaded and wearing his old Norfolk jacket and stained grey flannels, as at our first ed hand this time, but he looked pinched and depressed; his eyes had black circles round theain I felt that same indefinable pathos in him

'Your friend is in low spirits,' said Bohme, as installed on a seat besideair

It was a still, sunless day

'So arunted, and it was the literal truth I was only half awake, felt unwashed and dissipated, heavy in head and limbs But for Davies I should never have been where I was It was he who had patiently coaxed , fed me with tea and an omelette (to which I believe he had devoted peculiarly tender care), and generally mothered me for departure While I sedthe dents from my felt hat, which had been ento at it with a remorseful concern in his face The only initiative I a 'Put in my sea clothes, oils, and all,' I had said; 'I h consultation, but this was out of the question Davies did not badger or complain, but only timidly asked me hoere to meet and communicate, a question on which my mind was an absolute blank

'Look out for ested feebly

Before we left the cabin he gave me a scrap of pencilled paper and saw that it went safely into my pocket-book 'Look at it in the train,' he said

Unable to cope with Boh round the See-Gat into the Buse Tief, trying to identify the point where we crossed it yesterday blindfold But the tide was full, and the waters blank for ed in haze Soon I drifted down into the saloon, and crouching over a stove pulled out that scrap of paper In a crabbed, boyish hand, andnotes:

(1) _Your journey_ [See Maps A and B] Norddeich 858, Ees for Breain _via_ Hook 852, London 9 am

(2) The coast-station--_their_ rondezvous--querry is it Norden? (You pass it 913)--there is a tidal creek up to it High-water there on 25th, say 1030 to 11 ped-out loater channel for the steamer, so tide 'serves' would not apply

(3) _Your other clews_ (tugs, pilots, depths, railway, Esens, seven of so) Querry; Scheme of defence by land and sea for North Sea Coast?

_Sea_--7 islands, 7 channels between (counting West Es and pilots for patrol work behind islands, as I always said Querry; Rondezvous is for inspecting channels?

_Land_--Look at railway ( in a loop all round Friesland, a few miles from coast Querry: To be used as line of communication for army corps Troops could be quickly sent to any threatened point _Esens_ the base? It is in top centre of loop Von Brooning dished us fairly over that at Bensersiel

_Chatha after our naval plans for ith Ger runs naval part over here

Where does Buro to Breman and find out about him?

I nodded stupidly over this docu whether Burmer was a place or a person Then I dozed, to ith a violent start and find the paper on the floor

Panic-stricken, I hid it away, and went on deck, when I found ere close to Norddeich, running up to the bleakest of bleak jetties thrown out from the dyke-bound polders of the ether, and he was at iven one as far as Rheine, a junction near the Dutch frontier He was ensconced in an opposite corner tolike an Indian idol 'Where do you come in?' I pondered, drea bolt upright with ave up the struggle, buttonedy, lay down to sleep, the precious pocket nether if he chose, and I dare say he did I cannot say, for from this point till Rheine, for the best part of four hours, that is, I had only two lucid intervals

The first was at Ee Here, as we pushed our way down the crowded platforreeted respectfully by several persons, was at last buttonholed without entleman, whose description is of no moment, but whose conversation is It was about a canal; what canal I did not gather, though, from a name dropped, I afterwards identified it as one in course of construction as a feeder to the Ems The point is that the subject was canals At the er with the crowd, and was soon asleep again in another carriage where Bohme this time did not follow me

The second occasion was at Leer, where I heard myself called by nae trains, and had corated in my ear I expect it was a wan smile that I returned, for I was at a very low ebb, and nable But the sapper was free; 'free' was ht

Even after Rheine, where I changed for the last time, a brutish drowsiness enchained me, and the afternoon ell advanced before an to revive

The train crept like a snail froer told me, have waited three hours at Rheine for an express which would have brought me to Amsterdam at about the same time; or, if I had chosen to break the journey farther back, two hours at either Emden or Leer would still have enabled me to catch the said express at Rheine These alternatives had escaped Davies, and, I surmised, had been suppressed by Bohme, who doubtless did not want me behind him, free either to double back or to follow him to Bremen

The pace, then, was execrable, and there were delays; ere behind tiht well have grown nervous about my connexions at Amsterdam, which were in soan to take account of our position and prospects, quite a different thought at the outset affected me Anxiety to reach London arudging every mile that I placed between ency To-day was the 23rd The visit to Londonfrohts and one day, and devoting the other day to investigating Dollmann's past, it was humanly possible forof the 25th Yes, I could be at Norden, if that was the 'rendezvous', at 7 pin for delays, no physical respite So up--other persons may be affected; men are cautious, they trip you up with red tape; or the man who knows is out at lunch--a protracted lunch; or in the country--a protracted week-end Will you see Mr So-and-so, or leave a note? Oh! I know those public departments--from the inside! And the Adht to Ger, at Norden, with no leisure to reconnoitre ain there, probably, for you cannot always count on fogs (as Davies said) Esens was another clue, and 'to follow Bur in that notion But I wanted ti could Davies , froht And was he even safe there? A feverish drea-dress; of a regrettable hitch in the air-supply--Stop, that was nonsense!Let us be sane What o? What matter if I took my time in London? Then with a flood of shariame or no one's'; and my own sullen 'Oh, I'll keep the secret!' London was utterly impossible If I found my informant, what credentials had I, what claim to confidences? None, unless I told the whole story Why, my mere presence in Whitehall would imperil the secret; for, once on nized--possibly haled to judgement; at the best should escape in a cloud of ru was raising Cain at the Admiralty about a mythical lieutenant' No! Back to Friesland, was the word