a couple of electric torches, and a yard of
black cloth. Then, shortly before dusk began to fall, they took their
places and pulled out on the great stream.

It was a pleasant evening, a fitting close to a glorious day. The air
was soft and balmy, and a faint haze hung over the water, smoothing and
blurring the sharp outlines of the buildings of the town and turning
the opposite bank into a gray smudge. Not a breath was stirring, and the
water lay like plate glass, unbroken by the faintest ripple. The spirit
of adventure was high in the two men as they pulled down the great
avenue of burnished gold stretching westwards towards the sinking sun.

The tide was flowing, and but slight effort was needed to keep them
moving up-stream. As darkness grew they came nearer inshore, until in
the fading light they recognized the railway station at Hassle. There
they ceased rowing, drifting slowly onwards until the last faint haze of
light had disappeared from the sky.

They had carefully muffled their oars, and now they turned north
and began sculling gently inshore. Several lights had come out,
and presently they recognized the railway signals and cabin at the
distillery sidings.

"Two or three hundred yards more," said Hilliard in low tones.

They were now close to the beach, and they allowed themselves to drift
on until the dark mass of the wharf loomed up ahead. Then Hilliard
dipped his oars and brought the boat silently alongside.

As they had imagined from their distant view of it, the wharf was
identically similar in construction to that on the River Lesque. Here
also were the two lines of piles like the letter V, one, in front
vertical, the other raking to support the earthwork behind. Here in the
same relative position were the steps, and to these Hilliard made fast
the painter with a slip hitch that could be quickly released. Then with
the utmost caution both men stepped ashore, and slowly mounting the
steps, peeped out over the deck of the wharf.

As far as they could make out in the gloom, the arrangement here also
was similar to that in France. Lines of narrow gauge tramway, running
parallel from the hut towards the water, were connected along the front
of the wharf by a cross road and turn-tables. Between the lines were
stacks of pit-props, and Decauville trucks stood here and there. But
these details they saw afterwards. What first attracted their attention
was that lights shone in the third and fourth windows