d out
what von Moll was doing there yesterday."

The Queen and Phillips looked at each other. They had done little less
except look at each other since they came in to luncheon. But this
time they looked with a new expression. Instead of fatuous felicity,
their faces suggested disappointment.

"I think we ought to do it," Gorman went on. "That fellow may have
been up to any kind of mischief. By the way, is his cave the one the
cisterns are in?"

"Yes," said the Queen.

"That seems to me to settle it," said Gorman. "We certainly ought to
take the matter up vigorously and at once."

"I suppose so," said Phillips.

Gorman was really anxious to find out what had been going on in the
cave. The fact that von Moll had been acting under the Emperor's
orders stimulated curiosity. It had been puzzling enough to discover,
in England, that the Emperor was very anxious to remove the Donovans
from the island, and was prepared to adopt all sorts of tortuous ways
to get rid of them. It was much more puzzling to find a German naval
officer engaged in storing large quantities of rubber tubing in a
cave. Gorman confesses that he was utterly unable to make any sort of
guess at the meaning of the affair. He was all the more anxious to
begin his investigation.

The Queen and Phillips cheered up a little when the party started for
the cave. Kalliope rowed, as usual. Gorman--all successful politicians
are men of tact--settled himself in the bow of the boat. The Queen and
Phillips were together in the stern and held each other's hands.
Gorman pretended to look at the scenery. Kalliope made no pretence at
all. She watched the lovers with a sympathetic smile. She was in no
way embarrassed by them.

No one--I judge by Gorman's description--was ever more helplessly in
love than Phillips. But even he was roused to other feelings when the
boat grounded on the stony beach in the cave. He slipped his hand from
the Queen's and sprang ashore. Even from the boat, before crossing the
steep stretch of stones, there were some interesting things to be
seen. Von Moll had left his rubber tubing in three great coils in
front of the cisterns. Gorman and the Queen followed Phillips. The
three stood together and stared at the hose. Phillips estimated that
there must have been three or four hundred yards of it. The ends of
each coil were fitted with brass caps intended to screw together. Any
one of them might have been screwed to the cocks of the cisterns