d ruefully. "I think the best
thing I could do really would be to drop overboard. The Lord knows
what trouble I shall land you in before I've finished."

"You'll land me into the trouble of telling you not to talk rot in a
minute," he returned. Then, standing up and peering out ahead over
the long dim expanse of water, dotted here and there with patches of
blurred light, he added cheerfully: "You take her over now, Neil,
We're right at the end of the Yantlet, and after this morning you
ought to know the rest of the way better than I do."

He resigned the tiller to me, and pulling out his watch, held it up to
the binnacle lamp.

"Close on a quarter to nine," he said. "We shall just do it nicely if
the engine doesn't stop."

"I hope so," I said. "I should hate to keep a Government official
waiting."

We crossed the broad entrance into Queenborough Harbour, where the dim
bulk of a couple of battleships loomed up vaguely through the haze.
It was a strange, exhilarating sensation, throbbing along in the
semi-darkness, with all sorts of unknown possibilities waiting for
us ahead. More than ever I felt what Joyce had described in the
morning--a sort of curious inward conviction that we were at last on
the point of finding out the truth.

"We'd better slacken down a bit when we get near," said Tommy.
"Latimer specially told me to bring her in as quietly as I could."

I nodded. "Right you are," I said. "I wasn't going to hurry, anyhow.
It's a tricky place, and I don't want to smash up any more islands.
One a day is quite enough."

I slowed down the engine to about four knots an hour, and at this
dignified pace we proceeded along the coast, keeping a watchful eye
for the entrance to the creek. At last a vague outline of rising
ground showed us that we were in the right neighbourhood, and bringing
the _Betty_ round, I headed her in very delicately towards the shore.
It was distressingly dark, from a helmsman's point of view, but Tommy,
who had gone up into the bows, handed me back instructions, and
by dint of infinite care we succeeded in making the opening with
surprising accuracy.

The creek was quite small, with a steep bank one side perhaps fifteen
feet high, and what looked like a stretch of mud or saltings on the
other. Its natural beauties, however, if it had any, were rather
obscured by the darkness.

"What shall we do now, Tommy?" I asked in a subdued voice. "Turn her
round?"

He came back to the well. "Ye