The ring was repeated. Some one was at the front door. She tried to master her fears. Rising unsteadily from her chair, she crept silently out into the unlighted hall and stood listening.
Again came a ring. She strode across to the hall table, opened its drawer and took out the loaded revolver which she had kept there since the beginning of the war in case of emergency. Gripping the weapon tightly, she approached the door and drew the bolt.
"Who's there?" she demanded. "What do you want at this time of night?"
"It's Seth Newruck," came the answer. "I want to know if you will allow me to use your telephone, ma'am, to speak to the naval base?"
With all her courage coming back to her, Mrs. Daplin-Gennery flung open the door.
"Goodness gracious, boy!" she cried, hardly able to see him in the pitch darkness. "Whatever are you doing out alone at such an hour? Come inside, quick! Yes, of course you can use the telephone."
She led him into the morning-room, where she lighted a candle, bright lights being prohibited. There she left him with the telephone receiver at his ear.
He was not long in getting into communication with Mr. Bilverstone.
"I've been watching Sunnydene since dusk, sir," he reported. "One of the window blinds had been moved. I knew there was some one in the house. But nothing happened for hours, until, at last, just as I was thinking of going home to bed, I saw a man come out of the grounds by the side gate with a spade over his shoulder. He went down the cliff to the denes. I took cover and followed him. He was making straight for the place where we discovered the petrol, but stopped half way. There was a patrol of Territorials on the beach. He'd seen or heard them, and he had to turn back. As he passed the bush where I was hiding, I saw him more distinctly; but it's fearfully dark, and I could only judge by his figure and walk that he was Fritz Seligmann."
"That's all right, so far," Mr. Bilverstone interposed across the telephone. "Did he go back to the house?"