ving thirty-nine
steps.

Then I had a sudden thought, and hunted up all the steamer sailings.
There was no boat which left for the Continent at 10.17 p.m.

Why was high tide so important? If it was a harbour it must be some
little place where the tide mattered, or else it was a heavy-draught
boat. But there was no regular steamer sailing at that hour, and
somehow I didn't think they would travel by a big boat from a regular
harbour. So it must be some little harbour where the tide was
important, or perhaps no harbour at all.

But if it was a little port I couldn't see what the steps signified.
There were no sets of staircases on any harbour that I had ever seen.
It must be some place which a particular staircase identified, and
where the tide was full at 10.17. On the whole it seemed to me that
the place must be a bit of open coast. But the staircases kept
puzzling me.

Then I went back to wider considerations. Whereabouts would a man be
likely to leave for Germany, a man in a hurry, who wanted a speedy and
a secret passage? Not from any of the big harbours. And not from the
Channel or the West Coast or Scotland, for, remember, he was starting
from London. I measured the distance on the map, and tried to put
myself in the enemy's shoes. I should try for Ostend or Antwerp or
Rotterdam, and I should sail from somewhere on the East Coast between
Cromer and Dover.

All this was very loose guessing, and I don't pretend it was ingenious
or scientific. I wasn't any kind of Sherlock Holmes. But I have
always fancied I had a kind of instinct about questions like this. I
don't know if I can explain myself, but I used to use my brains as far
as they went, and after they came to a blank wall I guessed, and I
usually found my guesses pretty right.

So I set out all my conclusions on a bit of Admiralty paper. They ran
like this:

FAIRLY CERTAIN

(1) Place where there are several sets of stairs; one that
matters distinguished by having thirty-nine steps.

(2) Full tide at 10.17 p.m. Leaving shore only possible at full
tide.

(3) Steps not dock steps, and so place probably not harbour.

(4) No regular night steamer at 10.17. Means of transport must
be tramp (unlikely), yacht, or fishing-boat.

There my reasoning stopped. I made another list, which I headed
'Guessed', but I was just as sure of the one as the other.

GUE