ight. Look at the bottom.'

Underneath the picture was the name of a yacht and a date. The
publisher's date on the title-page was the same.

'Sixteen years ago,' said Davies. 'He looks thirty odd in that,
doesn't he? And fifty now.'

'Let's work the thing out. Sixteen years ago he was still an Englishman,
an officer in Her Majesty's Navy. Now he's a German. At some time
between this and then, I suppose, he came to grief--disgrace, flight,
exile. When did it happen?'

'They've been here three years; von Bruening said so.'

'It was long before that. She has talked German from a child. What's
her age, do you think--nineteen or twenty?'

'About that.'

'Say she was four when this book was published. The crash must have
come not long after.'

'And they've been hiding in Germany since.

'Is this a well-known book?'

'I never saw another copy; picked this up on a second-hand bookstall
for threepence.'

'She looked at it, you say?'

'Yes, I'm certain of it.'

'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?

'It explains a good deal.'

'It explains everything.'

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 Bruening 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