Something drastic was required, and I followed his example, curious as the hour was for bathing.
“I believe I know what happened just now,” said I, as we plied rough towels in the warmth below. “They steamed up and found nobody on board. ‘I’ll leave a note,’ says Dollmann. ‘No independent communications,’ say they (or think they), ‘we’ll come too, and take the chance of inspecting this hornets’ nest.’ Down they go, and Dollmann, who knows what to look for first, sees that damning bit of evidence staring him in the face. They look casually at the shelf among other things—examine the logbook, say—and he manages to push his own book out of sight. But he couldn’t replace it when the interruption came. The action would have attracted attention then, and Böhme made him leave the cabin in advance, you know.”
“This is all very well,” said Davies, pausing in his toilet, “but do they guess how we’ve spent the day? By Jove, Carruthers, that chart with the square cut out; there it is on the rack!”
“We must chance it, and bluff for all we’re worth,” I said. The fact was that Davies could not be brought to realise that he had done anything very remarkable that day; yet those fourteen sinuous miles traversed blindfold, to say nothing of the return journey and my own exploits, made up an achievement audacious and improbable enough to out-distance suspicion. Nevertheless, von Brüning’s banter had been disquieting, and if an inkling of our expedition had crossed his mind or theirs, there were ways of testing us which it would require all our effrontery to defeat.
“What are you looking for?” said Davies. I was at the collar and stud stage, but had broken off to study the time-table which we had bought that morning.
“Somebody insists on coming by the night train to somewhere, on the 25th,” I reminded him. “Böhme, von Brüning, and Grimm are to meet the Somebody.”
“Where?”
“At a railway station! I don’t know where. They seemed to take it for granted. But it must be somewhere on the sea, because Böhme said, ‘the tide serves.’”
“It may be anywhere from Emden to Hamburg.” [[See Map B]]
“No, there’s a limit; it’s probably somewhere near. Grimm was to come, and he’s at Memmert.”