"My dear Max," he said, "since when did you learn that to be a true patriot it is necessary to consider the advantages of your country's enemies? It is nonsense. Your highest duty, as my son and as a German, is to do all you can against the arrogant English. You shall obey me. Do you understand? Tell me, once: how many people know that you are here in Haddisport? How many know that your life was saved when the British cruiser was blown to pieces by our faithful explosive mine?"
"Nobody knows," Max answered sullenly. "Nobody on board the destroyer which picked me up knew me, even by sight. I did not intend that any one should guess I was a German. Nobody who was on board the Atreus knows that I was not blown to bits—except—yes, except Mark Redisham. He saw me swimming. But he doesn't know that I was saved."
"Ah!" nodded Herr Hilliger. "And he need never know. He must never know—never. It is better that he should believe that you were drowned."
Max clutched at his father's arm, pressing him back upon the grass behind the tree.
"Some one comes!" he whispered agitatedly.
They both saw the lithe figure of a youth approaching silently up the drive. He paused for a moment, looking at the front door of the dark, deserted house, strode to the porchway, and quickly ran up the steps. In the silence the two watchers heard the tinkling of an electric bell; but neither moved. Strange that they should thus hide themselves in their own garden!
They waited, knowing that the door would not be opened. Herr Hilliger ventured to lean out and look towards the porch. As he did so, the revolving beam of light from the lighthouse, half a mile away, illumined the trees, travelled slowly over the towers and gables of the dwelling, glinted for an instant on the upper windows, then spread its glow across the sea. Against this glow he saw the figure on the doorstep, clearly defined.
"It is one of your Sea Scouts," he whispered.
The Sea Scout ran lightly down the steps, turned, and came quickly nearer, walking so quietly on the gravel that Max could only believe that he wore tennis shoes. Then, as he came yet closer, to within a couple of yards of the two Germans, again the beam from the lighthouse swung round and shone in his face.
It was the face of Mark Redisham.