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Still suspicious? Don't drive me to extremities. 'What extremities? 'When I get back to London I shall go to Lloyd's! I haven't forgotten that flaw in the title. There was an impressive silence. 'Gentlemen, said Dollmann, with exaggerated solemnity, 'we must come to terms with this formidable young man. What do you say? 'Take me to Memmert, I exclaimed. 'Those are my terms!
As it worked out, Dollmann was at one end of the small table, with Davies on his right and Böhme on his left; Frau Dollmann at the other, with me on her right and von Brüning on her left. The seventh personage, Fräulein Dollmann, was between the commander and Davies on the side opposite to me. No servants appeared, and we waited on ourselves.
It threw into relief two methods of action which hitherto we had been hazily seeking to combine, seesawing between one and the other, each of us influenced at different times by different motives. One was to rely on independent research; the other to extort the secret from Dollmann direct, by craft or threats. The moral of to-day was to abandon the first and embrace the second.
I was rather stumped there at first, I grant, because, though there are lashings of sand behind them, and the same sort of intersecting channels, yet there seems nothing important to guard or attack. 'Why shouldn't a stranger ramble as he pleases through them? Still Dollmann had his headquarters there, and I was sure that had some meaning.
There was a burst of pent-up merriment. in which Dollmann took the loudest share. 'I warned you, Böhme, he said. The engineer took the joke in the best possible part. 'We owe you apologies, he conceded. 'Don't mention it, said Davies. 'He doesn't mind, I said; 'I'm the injured one. 'The point is, what did you take me for? 'Perhaps we take you for it still, said von Brüning. 'Oho!
Ducking promptly I heard the curtain-rings jar, and: 'Thick as ever. 'Your report, Herr Dollmann, said Böhme, curtly. Dollmann left the window and moved his chair up to the table; the other two drew in theirs and settled themselves. 'Chatham, said Dollmann, as if announcing a heading. It was an easy word to catch, rapped out sharp, and you can imagine how it startled me.
'But I was knocked up at dawn by a sailor with a message from Dollmann asking if he could come to breakfast with me. I was rather flabbergasted, but didn't like to be rude, so I said, "Yes." Well, he came, and I returned the call and well, the end of it was that I stayed at anchor there for three days. This was rather abrupt. 'How did you spend the time? I asked.
Impromptu parties are always the pleasantest, and this one was delightfully impromptu. Now I bet you I know its origin! Didn't you discuss us at Memmert? And didn't one of you suggest 'One would almost think you had been there, said Dollmann. 'You may thank your vile climate that we weren't, I retorted, laughing. 'But, as I was saying, didn't one of you suggest which of you?
'That's where you've been for the last month! I said to myself. A map crackled and I knew they were bending over it, while Dollmann explained something. But now my exasperation became acute, for not a syllable more reached me. Squatting back on my heels, I cast about for expedients. Should I steal round and try the door? Too dangerous. Climb to the roof and listen down the stove-pipe?
This straight word, clear and direct, beyond anything I had hoped for, brought me to my senses and showed me that his mind had been working far in advance of mine; and more, shaping a double purpose that I had never dreamt of. 'My father? said Fräulein Dollmann; 'yes, I am sure he will be very glad to see you. There was no conviction in her tone, and her eyes were distant and troubled.
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