“Well, it’s a difficult thing to say, and it’s all conjecture. But I have a feeling that Hilderman is not what he says he is. He has a knack of doing things, a way of going about here, that gives me the impression he is employing his intelligence, and a very fine intelligence it probably is, all the time. I don’t think he is retired at all. There’s a restless energy about the fellow that would turn into a sour discontent if his mind were not fully occupied with work which it is accustomed to, and probably enjoys doing.”
“Have you anything to suggest?” I asked.
“I have an idea,” he replied; “but I haven’t mentioned it because it doesn’t satisfy me at all. I have an idea that the man is some sort of detective hard at work all the time. But I can’t imagine what sort of detective would take a house up here and keep himself as busy as Hilderman appears to be over some case in the neighbourhood. I can’t imagine what sort of case it can be.”
“What about a secret German naval base in the Hebrides?” I suggested. “It’s not by any means impossible or even unlikely that the Germans have utilised the lonely lochs and creeks to some sinister purpose. Many of the lochs are entirely hidden by surrounding mountains, which come right down to the edge of a narrow opening, and make the place almost unnoticeable unless you happen to be looking for it.”
“There’s something in that, certainly,” Garnesk agreed; “but we must remember he’s been here since May. Surely our precious Government would have managed to find what they wanted, and clear it out by this time. Then again, did they suspect the base, or did they have a general idea that war was coming so far back as May?”
“As to the war,” Dennis put in, “we don’t really know when the authorities had their first suspicions.”
“No,” said I; “but I fancy it was not a very definite suspicion until after the Archduke was assassinated. But look here, Garnesk, just let us suppose Hilderman really is a Government detective in the guise of an American visitor. Wouldn’t he be just about the man we want, or do you think it would make too much stir to take him into our confidence?”
“Far too much,” Garnesk replied emphatically. “It’s not that he would talk; but if he has been here all this time his opponents have got wind of him long before this, and his arrival on the scene in connection with our case would give any suspicious character the tip to bolt. I should advise keeping in touch with Hilderman, learn as much as you can about him, and be ready to run to him for help if you come to the conclusion that he is the man to give it.”
We sat down among the heather at the foot of the Mallaig Vec road, and looked out over the harbour.