Looming out of the mist, they tore onward through the nets, regardless of the damage they caused. They showed no lights, even from their cabin portholes; they flew no flags.
One of the skippers, watching them, was so sure that they were British battleships that he waved his morning teapot at them in greeting; but some of the Englishmen shook their heads in doubt. There were peculiarities in the structure of the ships which were not familiar.
They passed so close to the Mignonette that Sam Quester, perched on the roof of the cuddy scuttle, saw the faces of the officers on bridge and quarterdeck, and was able afterwards to assert that he was almost sure one of the officers on the leading Dreadnought was Max Hilliger's father.
By the time they had passed out of sight into the mist the fishermen had come to the correct conclusion that the squadron was a part of the German High Sea Fleet. But what was their purpose? Where were they going at such a headlong rate? And where in the meantime was the British Fleet?
Twenty miles farther to the westward the Germans were again seen, flying the White Ensign, this time by a patrol of English mine-sweepers, which immediately sent out a wireless message of warning. The enemy flagship tried to jam the message. Nevertheless it was picked up by His Majesty's torpedo gunboat Kingfisher, lying at anchor in Buremouth Roads. The Kingfisher sent the warning onward, to be repeated and repeated north and south about the sea.
How did it happen that the Germans knew so well that on this particular morning they were in no danger of being intercepted by British cruisers? Had this been the secret of Fritz Seligmann's activity that night?
The wireless message from the Kingfisher reached the naval bases of Buremouth and Haddisport. Off Buremouth two destroyers were at anchor. They at once got up steam and pushed out in the wake of the gunboat. At Haddisport there was a submarine—the H29. She was ordered to follow. But where was her commander, Lieutenant Ingoldsby?
By the merest chance, Mark Redisham heard the question asked. He had come to the naval base to report the arrest of Fritz Seligmann, using Seligmann's car, which he had left at the pier-head. Constable Challis had told him that Lieutenant Ingoldsby had gone with Mrs. Daplin-Gennery to Floxley Hall, outside Buremouth.
Mark gave the information to Mr. Bilverstone, who telephoned to Green Croft and got a prompt answer. Mrs. Daplin-Gennery had just returned; but had left her nephew at the bedside of his wounded friend.
"All right, sir," said Mark, "I'll go and fetch him."