"Do you appreciate how extraordinarily fortunate we are to have this ruined jetty to moor to?" he whispered excitedly. "No galleys in the old days were ever able to assail these seaward walls because of the currents. Without protection, we, too, should be smashed to pieces if we tried to lie under them. But this place evidently was one of the walls of a harbor for the Imperial galleys. It was, of course, fortified. This hook terminated in a strong tower. A second hook—"
"Daddy, Daddy," remonstrated Betty, "you aren't lecturing to-night. We—we're reconnoitering the enemy's position."
Hugh had been studying the shore again through the night-glasses.
"Not a sign of life," he murmured. "Now, you chaps, show us the lay of the land."
Nikka and I, with the help of the glasses, plotted for the others the arrangement of Tokalji's establishment. There was the brick extension of the bachelors' quarters, crowning a part of the sea-wall. There was the gap between this structure and the House of the Married, which was shut in only by the crenellated height of the wall. And finally, there was the House of the Married, with the Garden of the Cedars concealed within its heart, lifting its solid bulk above all adjoining buildings. There were no windows on the seaward face of Tokalji's house.
"The old wall between the two wings—between the bachelors' quarters and warehouse and the House of the Married—ought to be easy to climb," I concluded.
"The wall of the House of the Married is very irregular, too," added Betty. "We have passed it close in a number of times by daylight, and we all agreed an active man could climb it."
"That's a good idea," approved Nikka. "If you could enter by the House of the Married you could seize the valuable part of the position first. Sound military strategy."
"Yes," assented Hugh, "you could consolidate your position—how the old lingo comes back, though!—and then occupy the rest of the place as convenient. By Jove, if you didn't want to occupy it, you could—"
"Oh, you'd have to occupy it," I interrupted. "I say, do you know that place looks deserted?"