he way I went. We started unprepared, and we're jolly
well out of it.'

Davies drove on blindly. 'It was bad enough telling all about the
channels and exploring--'

'Why, you agreed to that yourself!'

'I gave in to you. We can't explore any more now.

'There's the wreck, though.'

'Oh, hang the wreck! It's all a blind, or he wouldn't have made so
much of it. There are all these channels to be--'

'Oh, hang the channels! I know we wanted a free hand, but we've got
to go to Norderney some time, and if Dollmann's away--'

'Why did you harp on Miss Dollmann?' said Davies.

We had worked round, through idle recrimination, to the real point of
departure. I knew Davies was not himself, and would not return to
himself till the heart of the matter was reached.

'Look here,' I said, 'you brought me out here to help you, because,
as you say, I was clever, talked German, and--liked yachting (I
couldn't resist adding this). But directly you really _want_ me you
turn round and go for me.'

'Oh, I didn't mean all that, really,' said Davies; 'I'm sorry--I was
worried.'

'I know; but it's your own fault. You haven't been fair with me.
There's a complication in this business that you've never talked
about. I've never pressed you because I thought you would confide in
me. You--'

'I know I haven't,' said Davies.

'Well, you see the result. Our hand was forced. To have said nothing
about Dollmann was folly--to have said he tried to wreck you was
equal folly. The story we agreed on was the best and safest, and you
told it splendidly. But for two reasons I had to harp on the
daughter--one because your manner when they were mentioned was so
confused as to imperil our whole position. Two, because your story,
though the safest, was, at the best, suspicious. Even on your own
showing Dollmann treated you badly--discourteously, say: though you
pretended not to have seen it. You want a motive to neutralize that,
and induce you to revisit him in a friendly way. I supplied it, or
rather I only encouraged von Bruening to supply it.'

'Why revisit him, after all?' said Davies.

'Oh, come--'

'But don't you see what a hideous fix you've put me in? How caddish I
feel about it?'

I did see, and I felt a cad myself, as his full distress came home to
me. But I felt, too, that, whosesoever the fault, we had drifted into
a ridiculous situation, and were like characters in one of those
tiresome plays where misunderstandings are manufac