Harborough's brows contracted.
"I have the right to search the island," he declared bluntly. "Are you prepared to give me permission to search your ship?"
Von Giespert assumed an air of injured dignity. Up to the present he had played his part well, for, the moment the approaching Titania had been sighted, he had sent a boat ashore and had quickly scuttled the Cormorant by the simple expedient of smashing the floats.
"Your request is an insult, sir," he replied. "As such I can only refuse it. To accede would be throwing away my dignity. Remember, that ship flies the German flag, and England is now at peace with Germany. Virtually, the Zug is German territory, and should you persist——"
"You would resist by force of arms, eh?" added Harborough.
Von Giespert hesitated. To admit that would also be acknowledging that he feared the result of the search.
"No, no," he replied; "but I would at once make for the nearest port where there is a German Consular Agent and enter a complaint of the outrage to the German flag."
"Then there is no more to be said," rejoined Harborough, and, ignoring the Hun, he turned and went below.
"We are certainly in a bit of a fix," he admitted, conferring with Villiers and Beverley. "There's something fishy about this business. I'm rather inclined to arm a boat and board the Zug, but if Claverhouse isn't on board then we'll let ourselves in for damages. I couldn't swear positively that I saw the sea-plane, neither could you. We saw something which we took to be the Cormorant, and, taking it for granted, we allowed an illusion to get the better of us."
Both Villiers and Beverley admitted that they might have been mistaken. The powers of suggestion which had, as they now thought, conjured up the sea-plane, had now destroyed the belief.