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Dollmann introduced us, calling him Commander von Brüning, in command of the torpedo gunboat Blitz. He pointed towards Norderney, and I saw her a low, grey rat of a vessel anchored in the Roads about two miles away. It turned out that she was doing the work of fishery guardship on that part of the coast. 'I must say I took to him at once.
There was something of a scuffle down below, which the commander nearly succeeded in drowning by the breeziness of his greeting. Meanwhile, the ladder creaked under fresh weight, and Dollmann appeared. 'Is that you, Herr Davies? he said. 'Hullo! Herr Dollmann, said Davies; 'how are you?
One of his friends I happened to meet; what do you think he was? A naval officer. It was on the afternoon of the third day, and we were having coffee on the deck of the Medusa, and talking about next day's trip, when a little launch came buzzing up from seaward, drew alongside, and this chap I'm speaking of came on board, shook hands with Dollmann, and stared hard at me.
Not even Böhme and von Brüning were wholly at one; and as moral distances are reckoned, Davies and I were leagues apart. Sitting between Dollmann and Dollmann's daughter, the living and breathing symbols of the two polar passions he had sworn to harmonize, he kept an equilibrium which, though his aims were nominally mine, I could not attain to.
All you've got to do is to be yourself and tell one lie, if need be, about the trick Dollmann played you. The next scene: von Brüning, Davies, and I, sitting over coffee and Kümmel at a table in a dingy inn-parlour overlooking the harbour and the sea, Davies with a full box of matches on the table before him.
Davies did his duty with precipitation, and blushed when he put his question, in a way that horrified me, till I remembered that his embarrassment was due, and would be ascribed, to another cause. 'Herr Dollmann is away still, I think, said von Brüning. 'Yes, said Davies, shortly. 'Well, I'm sure he's away. But his yacht is back, I believe and Fräulein Dollmann, I suppose.
'Quite the contrary; but I was, I answered coldly; 'you see, we knew Herr Dollmann was away, and we really only called here to get my letters; besides, we did not know your address. I looked at Clara and found her talking gaily to von Brüning, deaf seemingly to our little dialogue. 'Anyone would have told you it, said madame, raising her eyebrows.
A window aloft opened, and 'A message from Commander von Brüning urgent, I called up. The window shut, and soon after the hall was lighted and the door opened by Dollmann in a dressing-gown. 'Good morning, Lieutenant X , I said, in English. 'Stop, we're friends, you fool! as the door was flung nearly to. It opened very slowly again, and we walked in. 'Silence! he hissed.
I now found it behind them, in a wrenched attitude, which showed that someone who had no time to spare had pushed it roughly inwards. 'What do you make of that? said Davies. He produced long drinks, and we allowed ourselves ten minutes of absolute rest, stretched at full length on the sofas. 'They don't trust Dollmann, I said. 'I spotted that at Memmert even. 'How?
The mere fact of their inviting us shows that we stand badly; for it runs in the teeth of Brüning's warning at Bensersiel, and smells uncommonly like arrest. There's a rift between Dollmann and the others, but it's a ticklish matter to drive our wedge in; as to to-night, hopeless; they're on the watch, and won't give us a chance. And after all, do we know enough?
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