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Von Brüning called 'Grimm! and that, and the open window, decided me that my line of advance was now too dangerous to retreat by. The only alternative was to make a circuit round the bigger of the two buildings and an interminable circuit it seemed and all the while I knew my compass-course 'south-east' was growing nugatory. I passed a padlocked door, two corners, and faced the void of fog.
He admitted, however, that it was under a cloud at present, for if knowledge of the coastwise navigation were a crime in itself we should scarcely be sitting here now. 'It's something to do with it, anyhow! he persisted. 18 Imperial Escort MEMMERT gripped me, then, to the exclusion of a rival notion which had given me no little perplexity during the conversation with von Brüning.
The commander gave us a hearty welcome, and I am bound to say I liked him at once, as Davies had done; but I feared him, too, for he had honest eyes, but abominably clever ones. I had impressed on Davies to talk and question as freely and naturally as though nothing uncommon had happened since he last saw von Brüning on the deck of the Medusa.
'A thousand pardons! said von Brüning, laughing. 'Don't shake my faith in her, I put in. 'I've got to get to England in her. 'Heaven forbid; I was only thinking that there must have been some sea round the Scharhorn that day; a tame affair, no doubt, Herr Davies? 'Scharhorn? said Davies, who did not catch the idiom in the latter sentence. 'Oh, we didn't go that way.
'Somebody insists on coming by the night train to somewhere, on the 25th, I reminded him. 'Böhme, von Brüning, and Grimm are to meet the Somebody. 'Where? 'At a railway station! I don't know where. They seemed to take it for granted. But it must be somewhere on the sea, because Böhme said, "the tide serves." 'Ho, there's a limit; it's probably somewhere near.
'Is that where the Medusa gave you the slip? asked von Brüning, still studying Davies with a strange look, which I strove anxiously to analyze. 'She wouldn't have noticed, said Davies. 'It was very thick and squally and she had got some way ahead. There was no need for her to stop, anyway. I got off all right; the tide was rising still. But, of course, I anchored there for the night. 'Where?
But more than ever mysterious now, for in the evening, not only you and Herr Böhme 'What penetration! laughed von Brüning. 'But also Commander von Brüning, pay us a visit in his launch, all coming from Memmert! 'And you infer? said von Brüning.
Would they drive, as von Brüning had done a week ago? I tightened my belt, stamped my mud-burdened boots, and thanked God for the Munich beer. Whither were they going from Bensersiel, and in what; and how was I to follow them? These were nebulous questions, but I was in fettle for anything; boat-stealing was a bagatelle. Fortune, I thought, smiled; Romance beckoned; even the sea looked kind.
Each wore a mask in the grand imposture; excepting, I am inclined to think, the lady on my left, who, outside her own well-being, which she cultivated without reserve, had, as far as I could see, but one axe to grind the intimacy of von Brüning and her stepdaughter and ground it openly.
It returned again when von Brüning offered to tow us out in the evening. It was in my mind when I questioned him as to his business ashore, for it occurred to me that perhaps his landing here was not solely due to a wish to inspect the crew of the Dulcibella.
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