After a while there was a lull. Seth went on, beyond the ravine, beyond Sunnydene. When he got close to the front gate of Green Croft, and again looked searchingly outward, he distinguished the shadowy forms of three great battleships, led by two light cruisers. They were steaming southward, with their broadsides towards the land.
Suddenly, from the foremost battleship, there came a flash. She was hidden in a cloud of smoke. He heard a shrill shriek, and saw a high fountain of spray rise from the deep water inside Alderwick Shoal, where a shot had fallen. At the same moment there was a terrible, ear-splitting, earth-shaking boom.
Seth trembled from head to foot; less with fear than with boyish excitement. Was it possible that he was, after all, going to witness at first hand some actual incident of the great war? His heart was beating furiously against his ribs; he went hot and cold by turns. He knew that he stood in danger. The next shot might come farther than the sea!
"I wonder if I'm afraid?" he asked himself.
Then he thought of the people in the houses near him, and of his duty as a Scout. If the danger should come nearer, how could he give help? He remembered the refuge trench which he had helped to dig in Mrs. Daplin-Gennery's garden. Now most surely was a time for it to be used!
He ran in at the gateway and up the gravelled drive. The window blinds were down, the front door was shut. He went round to the back entrance and was about to hammer at the kitchen door when it was flung open.
Mrs. Daplin-Gennery stood in the passage, wearing a blue dressing-gown. Her long, black hair hung loose over her shoulders, making her face look very white. Her arms were bare, and he saw that she held a revolver in her right hand. Behind her were other women—her lady's maid, the Irish cook, the parlourmaid, and two others.
Seth Newruck raised his hand in the Scouts' salute.
"You'd better all get into the trench, ma'am," he advised. "There's a lot of German warships out there beyond the sandbank."
Even as he spoke there came the loud, whistling rush of a shell overhead and a terrific explosion rent the air as the thing fell somewhere in the fields beyond. The servants screamed. Mrs. Daplin-Gennery alone was calm.