maladministered Navy, the
invasion of England is impossible. Invasion is not a "scare." It is a
hard fact which must be faced, if we are not to fall beneath the "mailed
fist."

The peril is great, and it is increasing daily. The Germans are
strenuous in their endeavours to make every preparation for the
successful raid upon our shores.

As an instance, in February, 1909, what may well be described as a
careful, complete, and systematic photographic survey of the coast
between the Tyne and the Tees was conducted, it is stated, by a party of
foreigners, three of whom were Germans.

Every indentation of the coast, and especially those in the
neighbourhood of the dunes about Heselden and Castle Eden, was
faithfully recorded by means of the camera, photographs being taken both
at low tide and at high tide at various points.

Considerable attention was given to the entrances to the Tyne, Tees and
Wear, and also to the Harbour entrances at Seaham Harbour and
Hartlepool; whilst the positions of the various coast batteries and
coast-guard stations were also photographed.

Nor did the party, whose operations extended over a period of several
weeks, confine their attention solely to the coast line. Railway
junctions and bridges near the coast, collieries, and even farm-houses
were photographed; in fact, the salient features of the countryside
bordering the sea were all included in what was altogether a most
exhaustive series of pictures.

A certain number of films were developed from day to day at West
Hartlepool, something like two hundred pictures in all being dealt with,
but these formed only a tithe of the photographs taken, and the
undeveloped films, together with the prints from those that had been
developed, were despatched direct to Hamburg and Berlin, while some were
sent to the head-quarters of the German espionage in Pont Street,
London.

CHAPTER XII

HOW GERMANY FOMENTS STRIFE

Ray Raymond had been engaged watching the house of Hermann Hartmann in
Pont Street ever since our discovery of the secret store of arms and
ammunition down at Chiswick.

I had been absent at Devonport, keeping observation upon the movements
of two Germans who had once or twice paid visits to Hartmann, and who
had evidently received his instructions personally. The two men in
question were known to us as spies, for with two other compatriots we
had found them, only three months before, busily engaged in preparing a
plan of