to stay!"

"And Commander Wiedermann?"

"I shall simply tell him I am under higher orders, given me by Herr
Tiel."

"If you added that there is a second plan directed against the British
navy, and that you are needed to advise on the details, it might help
to convince Commander Wiedermann how essential your presence here is,"
she suggested.

"Yes," I agreed, "it would be well to mention that."

"Also," she said, "you would require to have all the details of this
first plan so fully written out that he would not need to keep you to
explain anything."

"You think of everything!" I cried with an admiration I made no
pretence of concealing. "I shall go now and set to work."

"Do!" she cried, "and when Tiel comes in I shall tell him you are going
to stay. I wonder what he will say!"

"I wonder too," said I. "But do you care what he says?"

"No," she replied, "because of course he won't say it. He will only
think."

"Let him think!" I laughed.

I went back to my room in a strange state of exhilaration for a man who
had just decided to forgo the thing he had most looked forward to, and
run a horrible risk instead. For I felt in my bones that uniform or no
uniform I should be shot if I were caught. I put little trust in
English justice or clemency. But, as I said before, when I am
obstinate, I am very obstinate; and I was firmly resolved that if
Wiedermann wanted me back on board to-night, he would have to call a
guard and carry me! However, acting on Eileen's suggestions, I had
little doubt I should convince him. And thereupon I set to work on my
notes. By evening I had everything so fully written out and so clearly
explained that I felt I could say with a clear conscience that even my
own presence at a council of war could add no further information.

In the course of the day I had a talk with Tiel, and, just as Eileen
had anticipated, he left one to guess at what was in his mind. He
certainly professed to be glad I had changed my mind, and he thanked me
with every appearance of cordiality.

"Your are doing the right thing, Belke," he said. "And, let me tell
you, I appreciate your courage."

There was a ring of evident sincerity in his voice as he said this, and
whatever I might think of the man's moral character, a compliment from
Tiel on one's courage was not a thing to despise.

In the late afternoon he set out to obtain a motor-car for the
evening's expedition, but through what ingenious m