sness, a shine of excitement, in his eyes. Even
his voice had a new tone of unfamiliar urgency. He glanced to and fro
from Herr Wetten to Herr Haase as though seeking someone to share his
emotion.

Bettermann's thin voice broke in curtly. "It isn't over," he said.
"There's the stuff he" with a glance like a stab at Von Wetten "threw
into the lake. Ready?"

"Ach!" The Baron stepped hastily aside. "Yes; I had forgotten that.
Quite ready, my dear sir quite ready. Haase, my good friend, I think
I'll stand behind you this time."

"Zu Befehl, Excellenz," acquiesced Herr Haase, and made of his
solidity and stolidity a screen and a shield for the master-mind in
its master-body. Herr Bettermann, bending behind his machine, took in
the grouping with an eye that sneered and exulted, jerked his angular
blue-clad shoulders contemptuously, and turned again to his business.

The eye of the machine roamed over the face of the water, seeming to
peer searchingly into the depths of shining blue; the small interior
whir started again upon the click of the switch, and forthwith three
explosions, following upon each other rapidly, tore that tranquil
water-mirror, spouting three geyser-jets into the sun-soaked evening
air. The waves they raised slapped loudly at the wall below the
parapet, and there were suddenly dead fish floating pale-bellied on
the surface.

"Mines!" It was a whisper behind Herr Haase's large shoulder.
"English mines!"

Herr Bettermann straightened himself upright behind the tripod.
"There's a fine for killing fish like that," he remarked bitterly.
"And the window besides, curse it!"

The Baron looked round at him absently. "Too bad!" he agreed. "Too
bad!" He moved Herr Haase out of his way with a touch of his hand and
walked to the parapet. He stood there, seeming for some moments to be
absorbed in watching the dead fish as they rocked in the diminishing
eddies. Herr Bettermann picked up the black cloth and draped it again
over his apparatus. There was a space of silence.

Presently, with a shrug as though he withdrew himself unwillingly
from some train of thought, the Baron turned. "Yes," he said, slowly,
half to himself. "Y-es!" He lifted his eyes to the inventor.

"Well, we have only three things to do," he said. "They should not
take us long. But it is pleasant here in your garden, Herr
Bettermann, and we might sit down while we do them."

He sat as he spoke, letting himself down upon the low parapet with