“Stop a moment,” I said; “what was he like?”
“Oh, a tall, thin chap, in evening dress; about fifty I suppose, with greyish hair and a short beard. I’m not good at describing people. He had a high, bulging forehead, and there was something about him—but I think I’d better tell you the bare facts first. I can’t say he seemed pleased to see me, and he couldn’t speak English, and, in fact, I felt infernally awkward. Still, I had an object in coming, and as I was there I thought I might as well gain it.”
The notion of Davies in his Norfolk jacket and rusty flannels haranguing a frigid German in evening dress in a “gorgeous” saloon tickled my fancy greatly.
“He seemed very much astonished to see me; had evidently seen the Dulcibella arrive, and had wondered what she was. I began as soon as I could about the ducks, but he shut me up at once, said I could do nothing hereabouts. I put it down to sportsman’s jealousy—you know what that is. But I saw I had come to the wrong shop, and was just going to back out and end this unpleasant interview, when he thawed a bit, offered me some wine, and began talking in quite a friendly way, taking a great interest in my cruise and my plans for the future. In the end we sat up quite late, though I never felt really at my ease. He seemed to be taking stock of me all the time, as though I were some new animal.” (How I sympathised with that German!) “We parted civilly enough, and I rowed back and turned in, meaning to potter on eastwards early next day.
“But I was knocked up at dawn by a sailor with a message from Dollmann asking if he could come to breakfast with me. I was rather flabbergasted, but didn’t like to be rude, so I said, ‘Yes.’ Well, he came, and I returned the call—and—well, the end of it was that I stayed at anchor there for three days.” This was rather abrupt.
“How did you spend the time?” I asked. Stopping three days anywhere was an unusual event for him, as I knew from his log.
“Oh, I lunched or dined with him once or twice—with them, I ought to say,” he added, hurriedly. “His daughter was with him. She didn’t appear the evening I first called.”
“And what was she like?” I asked, promptly, before he could hurry on.
“Oh, she seemed a very nice girl,” was the guarded reply, delivered with particular unconcern, “and—the end of it was that I and the Medusa sailed away in company. I must tell you how it came about, just in a few words for the present.
“It was his suggestion. He said he had to sail to Hamburg, and proposed that I should go with him in the Dulcibella as far as the Elbe, and then, if I liked, I could take the ship canal at Brunsbüttel through to Kiel and the Baltic. I had no very fixed plans of my own, though I had meant to go on exploring eastwards between the islands and the coast, and so reach the Elbe in a much slower way. He dissuaded me from this, sticking to it that I should have no chance of ducks, and urging other reasons. Anyway, we settled to sail in company direct to Cuxhaven, in the Elbe. With a fair wind and an early start it should be only one day’s sail of about sixty miles.