There was a window about a foot square high up in the roof of the hut, and when the spy shut the door and locked us in, everything became dark excepting for the light from this narrow window. Therefore, when we were sure our enemy had gone, and there was not a sound outside, I got on to a table, and Cornwallis climbed on my back, from which he was able to look out through the window. Luckily it faced the sea, and Cornwallis reported that the sea had come a great deal nearer, and that the spy was only about fifty yards off. He stood on a sort of pier of rocks, and was pulling in a rope to which was attached a small motor-boat.
Then naturally I wanted to get on Cornwallis’s shoulders, but he told me not to move for a moment. Then he said that the spy had got into the boat and was evidently going to sea. And then he said he had gone.
I next climbed on to Cornwallis, and so proved the truth of his words, for I distinctly saw the motor-boat speed off with the spy in it. I also saw that the tide had come in, and soon it was actually beating against the rocks twenty-five feet or so below us.
When the motor-boat had disappeared in a westerly direction, Cornwallis and me got down off the table and considered what we ought to do.
"The first thing is to make every possible effort to escape at any cost," I said. But he said that he had already thought of that, and felt pretty certain it was beyond our power. The window seemed the only hopeful place; but it was made not to open, and the glass was thick, and Cornwallis said we couldn’t have got through the hole, even if there had been no glass. But I said:
"It is well known, Cornwallis, that if a man can get his head through a hole, he can get his body through."
"It isn’t well known at all. You might because you have got a head like a tadpole, but I couldn’t."
I said I was sure I had read it somewhere, but, anyway, it didn’t matter. We examined the hut thoroughly, and found it was only too well and solidly made. We were utter prisoners, in fact, and, owing to the spy not knowing it, might very likely be left to die of starvation. He might even have gone to join a submarine, and never come back.
"Perhaps he does know we are here all the time," said Cornwallis. "Perhaps he spotted us, and pretended he didn’t. In that case he may have locked us in deliberately to starve us, not caring to waste a shot on us."