"Yes, sir," Challis nodded. "They are all handy in the grounds of Sunnydene. Tons of 'em."
"Dear me, dear me!" said Mr. Croucher in consternation.
Seth Newruck had turned the bath-chair so that its occupant could have a fuller view of the embrasures and their connecting palisades of corrugated iron. "It isn't so very long ago, sir," Seth reminded him mischievously, "since you argued that there ought to be heavy guns stationed all along the East Coast. And now that they are putting up a few fortifications, you take alarm."
"Alarm?" repeated Mr. Croucher. "But isn't it enough to cause alarm? Why, it's just as good as an advertisement of the fact that the enemy's transports and cruisers may be expected any day, any hour!"
"What amuses me," added Constable Challis, "is that all those packin' cases which they have filled with sea sand, makin' them like blocks of granite, are really fish boxes belongin' to the Germans themselves. Before the war they were the property of a firm of German fish curers. You can read the name of 'Hilliger and Co.' on every one of 'em!"
"Hilliger? Ah!" cried Mr. Croucher, "That man Hilliger, I am convinced, has been working towards this war for years past. He ought never to have been allowed to carry on his business in Haddisport. It was only a blind—a blind to cover his underhand work of spying and intrigue. Where is he now, Challis—do you know?"
"Over in his own country, I suppose," answered the constable. "But here's young Mark Redisham comin' along. He knows a lot more about these things than I do."
Mark Redisham had paused to look out upon the sea at a patrol trawler in which he appeared to be greatly interested. When he came nearer and saw Seth Newruck and the two men he saluted and again paused.
"The enemy seem to have been pretty close," he observed, speaking especially to his fellow scout.
"Yes," returned Seth. "It looks as if there were a submarine somewhere near."