Seth jumped up beside him. They drove past the lighthouse, where a shell had struck and exploded, doing considerable damage, then turned aside to ascertain that Seth's mother and sisters were safe.
Some dwelling-houses near the Town Hall had been wrecked. Windows were smashed everywhere; an hotel in the market-place was in ruins.
Mark made room for two women and three children who were seriously injured, and conveyed them to the hospital; then he went about the town, using the car for ambulance work and giving first-aid where he could.
The hospital staff, the doctors, with the police, the local Scouts, and many other willing helpers were kept busy. Over thirty persons had been killed, more than a hundred were severely injured. The damage to property could not easily be measured, but the most serious destruction was in the crowded quarters of the old town where the fishermen lived. In the course of his work of taking the injured to the hospital, Mark Redisham called at the police-station. A side of the building had been shattered by one of the German shells. The wall and a part of the roof had fallen in, burying a warder and two prisoners in the ruins. Men were engaged in clearing away the debris of bricks and tiles and heavy wooden joists. They had rescued the warder and one of the prisoners, only slightly hurt.
Mark waited until the third victim should be found. A heavy beam of timber had to be lifted. It was moved at last, and Mark saw what was beneath it.
"It's the German spy!" he cried. "It's Fritz Seligmann. He's dead—quite dead!—killed by his own friends!"
CHAPTER XXIII.
STRIKING THE BALANCE.
In their hurried flight from Haddisport and Buremouth, the raiding Germans had made a novel and unexpected departure from the recognised methods of warfare. By dropping floating mines in their wake, they showed that their battleships may be more dangerous in retreat than when advancing.
Retreat is not an inspiring proceeding; it depresses the spirits of officers and men, and this would be very evident in the case of the German seamen who had so long boasted of the great things they would accomplish when a naval war came. But if when their ships were in flight the crews knew that they were laying snares to trip up their pursuers their retreat would be robbed of its depressing effects. Any British vessels of war venturing to follow on their heels would inevitably be destroyed.