Good Heavens, Carruthers, what the blazes have you done to
yourself?' (I suspect I cut a pretty figure after my two days'
outing.)

'Ten past three. It's the invasion of England! Is Dollmann at the
villa?'

'Invasion?'

'Is Dollmann at the villa?'

'Yes.'

'Is the 'Medusa' afloat?'

'No, on the mud.'

'The devil! Are we afloat?'

'I think so still, but they made me shift.'

'Think! Track her out! Pole her out! Cut those warps!'

For a few strenuous minutes we toiled at the sweeps till the
'Dulcibella' was berthed ahead of the steamer, in deeper water.
Meanwhile I had whispered a few facts.

'How soon can you get under way?' I asked.

'Ten minutes.'

'When's daylight?'

'Sunrise about seven, first dawn about five. Where are we bound?'

'Holland, or England.'

'Are they invading it now?' said Davies, calmly.

'No, only rehearsing!' I laughed, wildly.

'Then we can wait.'

'We can wait exactly an hour and a half. Come ashore and knock up
Dollmann; we must denounce him, and get them both aboard; it's now or
never. Holy Saints! man, not as you are!' (He was in pyjamas.) 'Sea
clothes!'

While he put on Christian attire, I resumed my facts and sketched a
plan. 'Are you watched?' I asked.

'I think so; by the 'Kormoran's' men.'

'Is the 'Kormoran' here?'

'Yes.'

'The men?'

'Not to-night. Grimm called for them in that tug. I was watching.
And, Carruthers, the Blitz is here.'

'Where?'

'In the roads outside--didn't you see her?'

'Wasn't looking. Her skipper's safe anyway; so's Boehme, so's the
Tertium Quid, and so are the 'Kormoran''s men. The coast's clear--it's
now or never.'

Once more we were traversing the long jetty and the silent streets,
rain driving at our backs. We trod on air, I think; I remember no
fatigue. Davies sometimes broke into a little run, muttering
'scoundrel' to himself.

'I was right--only upside down,' he murmured more than once. 'Always
really right--those channels are the key to the whole concern.
Chatham, our only eastern base--no North Sea base or squadron--they'd
land at one of those God-forsaken flats off the Crouch and
Blackwater.'

'It seems a wild scheme,' I observed.

'Wild? In a way. So is _any_ invasion. But it's thorough; it's
German. No other country could do it. It's all dawning on me--by
Jove! It will be at the _Wash_--much the nearest, and as sandy as
this side.'

'How's Dollmann been?' I asked.

'Polite, but queer and jumpy. It's t