“Was she never on board you in September?”
“No; I asked them both, but Dollmann made excuses.”
“But _he—he_ came on board? You told me so.”
“Once; he asked himself to breakfast on the first day. By Jove! yes; you mean he saw the book?
We fell into deep reflexion for a minute or two.
“Do you really mean _everything_?” I said. “In that case let’s sail straight away and forget the whole affair. He’s only some poor devil with a past, whose secret you stumbled on, and, half mad with fear, he tried to silence you. But you don’t want revenge, so it’s no business of ours. We can ruin him if we like; but is it worth it?”
“You don’t mean a word you’re saying,” said Davies, “though I know why you say it; and many thanks, old chap. I didn’t mean ‘everything’. He’s plotting with Germans, or why did Grimm spy on us, and von Brüning cross-examine us? We’ve got to find out what he’s at, as well as who he is. And as to her—what do you think of her now?”
I made my _amende_ heartily. “Innocent and ignorant,” was my verdict. “Ignorant, that is, of her father’s treasonable machinations; but aware, clearly, that they were English refugees with a past to hide.” I said other things, but they do not matter. “Only,” I concluded, “it makes the dilemma infinitely worse.”
“There’s no dilemma at all,” said Davies. “You said at Bensersiel that we couldn’t hurt him without hurting her. Well, all I can say is, we’ve _got_ to. The time to cut and run, if ever, was when we sighted her dinghy. I had a baddish minute then.”
“She’s given us a clue or two after all.”
“It wasn’t our fault. To refuse to have her on board would have been to give our show away; and the very fact that she’s given us clues decides the matter. She mustn’t suffer for it.”
“I don’t know yet; how can I know? It depends,” said Davies, slowly. “But the point is, that we have two objects, equally important—yes, equally, by Jove!—to scotch him, and save her.”
“That’s rather a large order,” I observed. “Do you realise that at this very moment we have probably gained the first object? If we went home now, walked into the Admiralty and laid our facts before them, what would be the result?”
“The Admiralty!” said Davies, with ineffable scorn.
“Well, Scotland Yard, too, then. Both of them want our man, I dare say. It would be strange if between them they couldn’t dislodge him, and, incidentally, either discover what’s going on here or draw such attention to this bit of coast as to make further secrecy impossible.”