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‘Well, not here!’I protested, for he was laying greedy hands on the shelf;’they’ll be found at low water. In fact, I should leave them as they are. You had them when you were here before, and Dollmann knows you had them. If you return without them, it will look queer.’They were spared. The English charts, being relatively useless, though more suitable to our rôle as English yachtsmen, were to be left in evidence, as shining proofs of our innocence. It was all delightfully casual, I could not help thinking. A seven-ton yacht does not abound in (dry) hiding-places, and we were helpless against a drastic search. Wholesale shoes
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.If there were secrets on this coast to guard, and we were suspected as spies, there was nothing to prevent an official visit and warning. There need be no prowlers scut- tling off when alarmed, unless indeed it was thought wisest to let well alone, if we were harmless, and not to arouse suspicions where there were none. Here we lost ourselves in conjecture. Whose agent was the prowler? If Dollmann’s, did Dollmann know now that the Dulcibella was safe, and back in the region he had expelled her from? If so, was he likely to return to the policy of violence? We found ourselves both glancing at the duck guns strung up under the racks, and then we both laughed and looked foolish.’A war of wits, and not of duck guns,’I opined.’Let’s look at the chart.’ The reader is already familiar with the general aspect of this singular region, and I need only remind him that the mainland is that district of Prussia which is known as East Friesland. It is a short, flat-topped penin- sula, bounded on the west by the Ems estuary and beyond that by Hol- land, and on the east by the Jade estuary; a low-lying country, containing great tracts of marsh and heath, and few towns of any size; on the north side none. Seven islands lie off the coast. All, except Borkum, which is round, are attenuated strips, slightly crescent-shaped, rarely more than a mile broad, and tapering at the ends; in length averaging about six miles, from Norderney and Juist, which are seven and nine respectively, to little Baltrum, which is only two and a half. Of the shoal spaces which lie between them and the mainland, two- thirds dry at low-water, and the remaining third becomes a system of la- goons whose distribution is controlled by the natural drift of the North Sea as it forces its way through the intervals between the islands. Each of these intervals resembles the bar of a river, and is obstructed by danger- ous banks, over which the sea pours at every tide scooping out a deep pool. This fans out and ramifies to east and west as the pent-up current frees itself, encircles the islands, and spreads over the intervening flats. But the farther it penetrates the less coursing force it has, and as a result no island is girt completely by a low-water channel. About midway at the back of each of them is a’watershed’, only covered for five or six hours out of the twelve. A boat, even of the lightest draught, navigating behind the islands must choose its moment for passing these. As to nav- igability, the North Sea Pilot sums up the matter in these dry terms:’The channels dividing these islands from each other and the shore afford to the small craft of the country the means of communication between the Ems and the Jade, to which description of vessels only they are avail- able.’The islands are dismissed with a brief note or two about beacons and lights. The more I looked at the chart the more puzzled I became. The islands were evidently mere sandbanks. with a cluster of houses and a church on each, the only hint of animation in their desolate ensemble being the occa- sional word’Bade-strand’, suggesting that they were visited in the sum- mer months by a handful of townsfolk for the sea-bathing. Norderney, of course, was conspicuous in this respect; but even its town, which I know by repute as a gay and fashionable watering-place, would be dead and empty for some months in the year, and could have no commercial im- portance. No man could do anything on the mainland coast— a mono- tonous line of dyke punctuated at intervals by an infinitesimal village. Glancing idly at the names of these villages, I noticed that they most of them ended in siel— a repulsive termination, that seemed appropriate to the whole region. There were Carolinensiel, Bensersiel, etc. Siel means either a sewer or a sluice, the latter probably in this case, for I noticed that each village stood at the outlet of a little stream which evidently car- ried off the drainage of the lowlands behind. A sluice, or lock, would be necessary at the mouth, for at high tide the land is below the level of the sea. Looking next at the sands outside, I noticed that across them and to- wards each outlet a line of booms was marked, showing that there was some sort of tidal approach to the village, evidently formed by the scour of the little stream. ‘Are we going to explore those?’I asked Davies. ‘I don’t see the use,’he answered;’they only lead to those potty little places. I suppose local galliots use them.’ ‘How about your torpedo-boats and patrol-boats?’ ‘They might, at certain tides. But I can’t see what value they’d be, un- less as a refuge for a German boat in the last resort. They lead to no har- bours. Wait! There’s a little notch in the dyke at Neuharlingersiel and Dornumersiel, which may mean some sort of a quay arrangement, but what’s the use of that?’ ‘We may as well visit one or two, I suppose?’ ‘I suppose so; but we don’t want to be playing round villages. There’s heaps of really important work to do, farther out.’ ‘Well, what do you make of this coast?’ Davies had nothing but the same old theory, but he urged it with a force and keenness that impressed me more deeply than ever. ‘Look at those islands!’he said.’They’re clearly the old line of coast, hammered into breaches by the sea. The space behind them is like an im- mense tidal harbour, thirty miles by five, and they screen it impenet- rably. It’s absolutely made for shallow war-boats under skilled pilotage. They can nip in and out of the gaps, and dodge about from end to end. On one side is the Ems, on the other the big estuaries. It’s a perfect base for torpedo-craft.’ I agreed (and agree still), but still I shrugged my shoulders. ‘We go on exploring, then, in the same way?’ ‘Yes; keeping a sharp look-out, though. Remember, we shall always be in sight of land now.’ ‘What’s the glass doing?’ ‘Higher than for a long time. I hope it won’t bring fog. I know this dis- trict is famous for fogs, and fine weather at this time of the year is bad for them anywhere. I would rather it blew, if it wasn’t for exploring those gaps, where an on-shore wind would be nasty. Six-thirty to-mor- row; not later. I think I’ll sleep in the saloon for the future, after what happened to-night.’ Chapter 15 Bensersiel THE decisive incidents of our cruise were now fast approaching. Look- ing back on the steps that led to them, and anxious that the reader should be wholly with us in our point of view, I think I cannot do better than give extracts from my diary of the next three days: _ ‘16th Oct. (up at 6.30, yacht high and dry). Of the three galliots out at anchor in the channel yesterday, only one is left … I took my turn with the breakers this morning and walked to Wangeroog, whose village I found half lost in sand drifts, which are planted with tufts of marram- grass in mathematical rows, to give stability and prevent a catastrophe like that at Pompeii. A friendly grocer told me all there is to know, which is little. The islands are what we thought them— barren for the most part, with a small fishing population, and a scanty accession of summer visitors for bathing. The season is over now, and business slack for him. There is still, however, a little trade with the mainland in galliots and lighters, a few of which come from the “siels” on the mainland. “Had these harbours?” I asked. “Mud-holes!” he replied, with a contemptuous laugh. (He is a settler in these wilds, not a native.) Said he had heard of schemes for improving them, so as to develop the islands as health-re- sorts, but thought it was only a wild speculation. ‘A heavy tramp back to the yacht, nearly crushed by impedimenta. While Davies made yet another trip, I stalked some birds with a gun, and obtained what resembled a specimen of the smallest variety of jack- snipe, and small at that; but I made a great noise, which I hope per- suaded somebody of the purity of our motives. ‘We weighed anchor at one o’clock, and in passing the anchored galli- ot took a good look at her. Kormoran was on her stern; otherwise she was just like a hundred others. Nobody was on deck.

 The cigar soon languished and dropped, and I dozed uneasily, for the riding-light was on my mind. I got up once and squinted at it through the half-raised skylight, saw it burning steadily, and lay down again. The cabin lamp wanted oil and was dying down to a red-hot wick, but I was too drowsy to attend to it, and it went out. I lit my cigar stump again, and tried to keep awake by thinking. It was the first time I and Davies had been separated for so long; yet so used had we grown to free- dom from interference that this would not have disturbed me in the least were it not for a sudden presentiment that on this first night of the second stage of our labours something would happen. All at once I heard a sound outside, a splashing footstep as of a man stepping in a puddle. cheap coach handbags
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.I was wide awake in an instant, but never thought of shouting’Is that you, Davies?’for I knew in a flash that it was not he. It was the slip of a stealthy man. Presently I heard another footstep— the pad of a boot on the sand— this time close to my ear, just outside the hull; then some more, fainter and farther aft. I gently rose and peered aft through the skylight. A glimmer of light, reflected from below, was wavering over the mizzen-mast and bumpkin; it had nothing to do with the riding- light, which hung on the forestay. My prowler, I understood, had struck a match and was reading the name on the stern. How much farther would his curiosity carry him? The match went out, and footsteps were audible again. Then a strong, guttural voice called in German,’Yacht ahoy!’I kept silence.’Yacht ahoy!’a little louder this time. A pause, and then a vibration of the hull as boots scraped on it and hands grasped the gunwale. My visitor was on deck. I bobbed down, sat on the sofa, and I heard him moving along the deck, quickly and confidently, first forward to the bows, where he stopped, then back to the companion amidships. Inside the cabin it was pitch dark, but I heard his boots on the ladder, feeling for the steps. In another moment he would be in the doorway lighting his second match. Surely it was darker than before? There had been a little glow from the riding-lamp reflected on to the skylight, but it had disappeared. I looked up, realized, and made a fool of myself. In a few seconds more I should have seen my visitor face to face, perhaps had an interview: but I was new to this sort of work and lost my head. All I thought of was Davies’s last words, and saw him astray on the sands, with no light to guide him back, the tide rising, and a heavy load. I star- ted up involuntarily, bumped against the table, and set the stove jingling. A long step and a grab at the ladder, but just too late! I grasped something damp and greasy, there was tugging and hard breathing, and I was left clasping a big sea-boot, whose owner I heard jump on to the sand and run. I scrambled out, vaulted overboard, and followed blindly by the sound. He had doubled round the bows of the yacht, and I did the same, ducked under the bowsprit, forgetting the bobstay, and fell viol- ently on my head, with all the wind knocked out of me by a wire rope and block whose strength and bulk was one of the glories of the Dul- cibella. I struggled on as soon as I got some breath, but my invisible quarry was far ahead. I pulled off my heavy boots, carried them, and ran in my stockings, promptly cutting my foot on some cockle-shells. Pursuit was hopeless, and a final stumble over a bit of driftwood sent me sprawling with agony in my toes. Limping back, I decided that I had made a very poor beginning as an active adventurer. I had gained nothing, and lost a great deal of breath and skin, and did not even know for certain where I was. The yacht’s light was extinguished, and, even with Wangeroog Lighthouse to guide me, I found it no easy matter to find her. She had no anchor out, if the tide rose. And how was Davies to find her? After much feeble circling I took to lying flat at intervals in the hopes of seeing her silhouetted against the starry sky. This plan succeeded at last, and with relief and humility I boarded her, relit the riding-light, and carried off the kedge anchor. The strange boot lay at the foot of the ladder, but it told no tales when I examined it. It was eleven o’clock, past low water. Davies was cutting it fine if he was to get aboard without the dinghy’s help. But eventually he reappeared in the most prosaic way, exhausted with his heavy load, but full of talk about his visit ashore. He began while we were still on deck. ‘Look here, we ought to have settled more about what we’re to say when we’re asked questions. I chose a quiet-looking shop, but it turned out to be a sort of inn, where they were drinking pink gin— all very friendly, as usual, and I found myself under a fire of questions. I said we were on our way back to England. There was the usual rot about the smallness of the boat, etc. It struck me that we should want some other pretence for going so slow and stopping to explore, so I had to bring in the ducks, though goodness knows we don’t want to waste time over them. The subject wasn’t quite a success. They said it was too early— jealous, I suppose; but then two fellows spoke up, and asked to be taken on to help. Said they would bring their punt; without local help we should do no good. All true enough, no doubt, but what a nuisance they’d be. I got out of it—’ ‘It’s just as well you did,’I interposed.’We shall never be able to leave the boat by herself. I believe we’re watched,’and I related my experience.  ‘H’m! It’s a pity you didn’t see who it was. Confound that bob-stay!’ (his tactful way of reflecting on my clumsiness);’which way did he run?’ I pointed vaguely into the west.’Not towards the island? I wonder if it’s someone off one of those galliots. There are three anchored in the chan- nel over there; you can see their lights. You didn’t hear a boat pulling off?’ I explained that I had been a miserable failure as a detective. ‘You’ve done jolly well, I think,’said Davies.’If you had shouted when you first heard him we should know less still. And we’ve got a boot, which may come in useful. Anchor out all right? Let’s get below.’ We smoked and talked till the new flood, lapping softly round the Dulcibella, raised her without a jar. Of course, I argued, there might be nothing in it. The visitor might have been a commonplace thief; an apparently deserted yacht was a tempting bait. Davies scouted this possibility from the first. ‘They’re not like that in Germany,’he said.’In Holland, if you like, they’ll do anything. And I don’t like that turning out of the lantern to gain time, if we were away.’ Nor did I. In spite of my blundering in details, I welcomed the incident as the first concrete proof that the object of our quest was no mare’s nest. The next point was what was the visitor’s object? If to search, what would he have found? ‘The charts, of course, with all our corrections and notes, and the log. They’d give us away,’was Davies’s instant conclusion. Not having his faith in the channel theory, I was lukewarm about his precious charts. ‘After all, we’re doing nothing wrong, as you’ve often said yourself,’I said. Still, as a true index to our mode of life they were the only things on board that could possibly compromise us or suggest that we were any- thing more than eccentric young Englishmen cruising for sport (witness the duck guns) and pleasure. We had two sets of charts, German and English. The former we decided to use in practice, and to hide, together with the log, if occasion demanded. My diary, I resolved, should never leave my person. Then there were the naval books. Davies scanned them with a look I knew well. ‘There are too many of them,’he said, in the tone of a cook fixing the fate of superfluous kittens.’Let’s throw them overboard. They’re very old anyhow, and I know them by heart.’

intelligent irregulars manned by local men, with a pretty free hand to play their own game. And what a splendid game to play! There are places very like this over there— nothing half so good, but similar— the Mersey estuary, the Dee, the Severn, the Wash, and, best of all, the Thames, with all the Kent, Es- sex, and Suffolk banks round it. But as for defending our coasts in the way I mean— we’ve nothing ready— nothing whatsoever! We don’t even build or use small torpedo-boats. These fast “destroyers” are no good for this work— too long and unmanageable, and most of them too deep. What you want is something strong and simple, of light draught, and with only a spar-torpedo, if it came to that. Tugs, launches, small yachts— anything would do at a pinch, for success would depend on in- telligence, not on brute force or complicated mechanism. cheap air max
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. They’d get wiped out often, but what matter? There’d be no lack of the right sort of men for them if the thing was organized. But where are the men? ‘Or, suppose we have the best of it on the high seas, and have to attack or blockade a coast like this, which is sand from end to end. You can’t improvise people who are at home in such waters. The navy chaps don’t learn it, though, by Jove! they’re the most magnificent service in the world— in pluck, and nerve, and everything else. They’ll try anything, and often do the impossible. But their boats are deep, and they get little practice in this sort of thing.’ Davies never pushed home his argument here; but I know that it was the passionate wish of his heart, somehow and somewhere, to get a chance of turning his knowledge of this coast to practical account in the war that he felt was bound to come, to play that’splendid game’in this, the most fascinating field for it. I can do no more than sketch his views. Hearing them as I did, with the very splash of the surf and the bubble of the tides in my ears, they made a profound impression on me, and gave me the very zeal for our work he, by temperament, possessed. But as the days passed and nothing occurred to disturb us, I felt more and more strongly that, as regards our quest, we were on the wrong tack. We found nothing suspicious, nothing that suggested a really adequate motive for Dollmann’s treachery. 1 became impatient, and was for push- ing on more quickly westward. Davies still clung to his theory, but the same feeling influenced him. ‘It’s something to do with these channels in the sand,’he persisted, ‘but I’m afraid, as you say, we haven’t got at the heart of the mystery. Nobody seems to care a rap what we do. We haven’t done the estuaries as well as I should like, but we’d better push on to the islands. It’s ex- actly the same sort of work, and just as important, I believe. We’re bound to get a clue soon.’ There was also the question of time, for me at least. I was due to be back in London, unless I obtained an extension, on the 28th, and our present rate of progress was slow. But I cannot conscientiously say that I made a serious point of this. If there was any value in our enterprise at all, official duty pales beside it. The machinery of State would not suffer from my absence; excuses would have to be made, and the results braved. All the time our sturdy little craft grew shabbier and more weather- worn, the varnish thinner, the decks greyer, the sails dingier, and the cabin roof more murky where stove-fumes stained it. But the only beauty she ever possessed, that of perfect fitness for her functions, re- mained. With nothing to compare her to she became a home to me. My joints adapted themselves to her crabbed limits, my tastes and habits to her plain domestic economy. But oil and water were running low, and the time had come for us to be forced to land and renew our stock. Chapter 14 The First Night in the Islands A LOW line of sandhills, pink and fawn in the setting sun, at one end of them a little white village huddled round the base of a massive four- square lighthouse— such was Wangeroog, the easternmost of the Frisian Islands, as I saw it on the evening of 15th October. We had decided to make it our first landing-place; and since it possesses no harbour, and is hedged by a mile of sand at low water, we had run in on the rising tide till the yacht grounded, in order to save ourselves as much labour as pos- sible in the carriage to and fro of the heavy water-breakers and oil-cans which we had to replenish. In faint outline three miles to the south of us was the flat plain of Friesland, broken only by some trees, a windmill or two, and a church spire. Between, the shallow expanse of sea was already beginning to shrink away into lagoons, chief among which was the narrow passage by which we had approached from the east. This continued its course west, directly parallel to the island, and in it, at a distance of half a mile from us, three galliots lay at anchor. Before supper was over the yacht was high and dry, and when we had eaten, Davies loaded himself with cans and breakers. I was for taking my share, but he induced me to stay aboard; for I was dead tired after an un- usually long and trying day, which had begun at 2 a.m., when, using a precious instalment of east wind, we had started on a complete passage of the sands from the Elbe to the Jade. It was a barely possible feat for a boat of our low speed to perform in only two tides; and though we just succeeded, it was only by dint of tireless vigilance and severe physical strain. ‘Lay out the anchor when you’ve had a smoke,’said Davies, and keep an eye on the riding-light; it’s my only guide back.’ He lowered himself, and I heard the scrunch of his sea-boots as he dis- appeared in the darkness. It was a fine starry night, with a touch of frost in the air. I lit a cigar, and stretched myself on a sofa close to the glow of the stove.

The Meaning of our Work NOTHING happened during the next ten days to disturb us at our work. During every hour of daylight and many of darkness, sailing or anchored, aground or afloat, in rain and shine, wind and calm, we stud- ied the bed of the estuaries, and practised ourselves in threading the net- work of channels; holding no communication with the land and rarely approaching it. It was a life of toil, exposure, and peril; a struggle against odds, too; for wild autumnal weather was the rule, with the wind back- ing and veering between the south-west and north-west, and only for two placid days blowing gently from the east, the safe quarter for this re- gion. Its force and direction determined each fresh choice of ground. If it was high and northerly we explored the inner fastnesses; in moderate in- tervals the exterior fringe, darting when surprised into whatever lair was most convenient. Sometimes we were tramping vast solitudes of sand, sometimes scud- ding across ephemeral tracts of shallow sea. Again, Wholesale handbags
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.we were creeping gingerly round the deeper arteries that surround the Great Knecht, ex- amining their convolutions as it were the veins of a living tissue, and the circulation of the tide throbbing through them like blood. Again, we would be staggering through the tide-rips and overfalls that infest the open fairway of the Weser on our passage between the Fork and the Pike. On one of our fine days I saw the scene of Davies’s original adven- ture by daylight with the banks dry and the channels manifest. The read- er has seen it on the chart, and can, up to a point, form his opinion; I can only add that I realized by ocular proof that no more fatal trap could have been devised for an innocent stranger; for approaching it from the north-west under the easiest conditions it was hard enough to verify our true course. In a period so full of new excitements it is not easy for me to say when we were hardest put to it, especially as it was a rule with Davies never to admit that we were in any danger at all. But I think that our ugliest experience was on the 10th. when, owing to some minute miscalculation, we stranded in a dangerous spot. Mere stranding, of course, was all in the day’s work; the constantly recurring question being when and where to court or risk it. This time we were so situated that when the rising tide came again we were on a lee shore, broadside on to a gale of wind which was sending a nasty sea— with a three-mile drift to give it force— down Robin’s Balje, which is one of the deeper arteries I spoke of above, and now lay dead to windward of us. The climax came about ten o’clock at night.’We can do nothing till she floats,’said Davies; and I can see him now quietly smoking and splicing a chafed warp while he explained that her double skin of teak fitted her to stand anything in reason. She certainly had a terrific test that night, for the bottom was hard, unyielding sand, on which she rose and fell with convulsive vehe- mence. The last half-hour was for me one of almost intolerable tension. I spent it on deck unable to bear the suspense below. Sheets of driven sea flew bodily over the hull, and a score of times I thought she must suc- cumb as she shivered to the blows of her keel on the sand. But those stout skins knit by honest labour stood the trial. One final thud and she wrenched herself bodily free, found her anchor, and rode clear. On the whole I think we made few mistakes. Davies had a supreme aptitude for the work. Every hour, sometimes every minute, brought its problem, and his resource never failed. The stiffer it was the cooler he became. He had, too, that intuition which is independent of acquired skill, and is at the root of all genius; which, to take cases analogous to his own, is the last quality of the perfect guide or scout. I believe he could smell sand where he could not see or touch it. As for me, the sea has never been my element, and never will be; nev- ertheless, I hardened to the life, grew salt, tough, and tolerably alert. As a soldier learns more in a week of war than in years of parades and pipe- clay, so, cut off from all distractions, moving from bivouac to precarious bivouac, and depending, to some extent, for my life on my muscles and wits, I rapidly learnt my work and gained a certain dexterity. I knew my ropes in the dark, could beat economically to windward through squalls, take bearings, and estimate the interaction of wind and tide. We were generally in solitude, but occasionally we met galliots like the Johannes tacking through the sands, and once or twice we found a fleet of such boats anchored in a gut, waiting for water. Their draught, loaded, was from six to seven feet, our own only four, without our centre-plate, but we took their mean draught as the standard of all our observations. That is, we set ourselves to ascertain when and how a ves- sel drawing six and a half feet could navigate the sands. A word more as to our motive. It was Davies’s conviction, as I have said, that the whole region would in war be an ideal hunting-ground for small free-lance marauders, and I began to know he was right; for look at the three sea-roads through the sands to Hamburg, Bremen, Wil- helmshaven, and the heart of commercial Germany. They are like high- ways piercing a mountainous district by defiles, where a handful of des- perate men can arrest an army. Follow the parallel of a war on land. People your mountains with a daring and resourceful race, who possess an intimate knowledge of every track and bridle-path, who operate in small bands, travel light, and move rapidly. See what an immense advantage such guérillas possess over an enemy which clings to beaten tracks, moves in large bodies, slowly, and does not’know the country’. See how they can not only in- flict disasters on a foe who vastly overmatches them in strength, but can prolong a semi-passive resistance long after all decisive battles have been fought. See, too, how the strong invader can only conquer his elusive antagonists by learning their methods, studying the country, and match- ing them in mobility and cunning. The parallel must not be pressed too far; but that this sort of warfare will have its counterpart on the sea is a truth which cannot be questioned. Davies in his enthusiasm set no limits to its importance. The small boat in shallow waters played a mighty rôle in his vision of a naval war, a part that would grow in importance as the war developed and reach its height in the final stages. ‘The heavy battle fleets are all very well,’he used to say,’but if the sides are well matched there might be nothing left of them after a few months of war. They might destroy one another mutually, leaving as nominal conqueror an admiral with scarcely a battleship to bless himself with. It’s then that the true struggle will set in; and it’s then that any- thing that will float will be pressed into the service, and anybody who can steer a boat, knows his waters, and doesn’t care the toss of a coin for his life, will have magnificent opportunities. It cuts both ways. What small boats can do in these waters is plain enough; but take our own case. Say we’re beaten on the high seas by a coalition. There’s then a risk of starvation or invasion. It’s all rot what they talk about instant sur- render. We can live on half rations, recuperate, and build; but we must have time. Meanwhile our coast and ports are in danger, for the millions we sink in forts and mines won’t carry us far. They’re fixed— pure pass- ive defence. What you want is boats— mosquitoes with stings— swarms of them— patrol-boats, scout-boats, torpedo-boats;

That simple remark, more eloquent of security than a thousand tech- nical arguments, saved the situation. ‘I say, Davies,’I said,’I'm a white-livered cur at the best, and you mustn’t spare me. But you’re not like any yachtsman I ever met before, or any sailor of any sort. You’re so casual and quiet in the extraordinary things you do. I believe I should like you better if you let fly a volley of deep-sea oaths sometimes, or threatened to put me in irons.’ Davies opened wide eyes, and said it was all his fault for forgetting that I was not as used to such anchorages as he was.’And, by the way,’ he added,’as to its blowing a gale, I shouldn’t wonder if it did; the glass is falling hard; but it can’t hurt us. You see, even at high water the drift of the sea—’ ‘Oh, for Heaven’s sake, don’t begin again. You’ll prove soon that we’re safer here than in an hotel. Let’s have dinner, cheap air force ones
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and a thundering good one!’ Dinner ran a smooth course, but just as coffee was being brewed the hull, from pitching regularly, began to roll. ‘I knew she would,’said Davies.’I was going to warn you, only— the ebb has set in against the wind. It’s quite safe—’ ‘I thought you said it would get calmer when the tide fell?’ ‘So it will, but it may seem rougher. Tides are queer things,’he added, as though in defence of some not very respectable acquaintances. He busied himself with his logbook, swaying easily to the motion of the boat; and I for my part tried to write up my diary, but I could not fix my attention. Every loose article in the boat became audibly restless. Cans clinked, cupboards rattled, lockers uttered hollow groans. Small things sidled out of dark hiding-places, and danced grotesque drunken figures on the floor, like goblins in a haunted glade. The mast whined dolorously at every heel, and the centre-board hiccoughed and choked. Overhead another horde of demons seemed to have been let loose. The deck and mast were conductors which magnified every sound and made the tap-tap of every rope’s end resemble the blows of a hammer, and the slapping of the halyards against the mast the rattle of a Maxim gun. The whole tumult beat time to a rhythmical chorus which became maddening. ‘We might turn in now,’said Davies;’it’s half-past ten.’ ‘What, sleep through this?’I exclaimed.’I can’t stand this, I must do something. Can’t we go for another walk?’ I spoke in bitter, half-delirious jest. ‘Of course we can,’said Davies,’if you don’t mind a bit of a tumble in the dinghy.’ I reconsidered my rash suggestion, but it was too late now to turn back, and some desperate expedient was necessary. I found myself on deck, gripping a backstay and looking giddily down and then up at the dinghy, as it bobbed like a cork in the trough of the sea alongside, while Davies settled the sculls and rowlocks. ‘Jump!’he shouted, and before I could gather my wits and clutch the sides we were adrift in the night, reeling from hollow to hollow of the steep curling waves. Davies nursed our walnut-shell tenderly over their crests, edging her slantwise across their course. He used very little exer- tion, relying on the tide to carry us to our goal. Suddenly the motion ceased. A dark slope loomed up out of the night, and the dinghy rested softly in a shallow eddy. ‘The West Hohenhörn,’said Davies. We jumped out and sank into soft mud, hauled up the dinghy a foot or two, then mounted the bank and were on hard, wet sand. The wind leapt on us, and choked our voices. ‘Let’s find my channel,’bawled Davies.’This way. Keep Neuerk light right astern of you.’ We set off with a long, stooping stride in the teeth of the wind, and straight towards the roar of the breakers on the farther side of the sand. A line of Matthew Arnold’s,’The naked shingles of the world,’was run- ning in my head.’Seven miles from land,’I thought,’scuttling like sea- birds on a transient islet of sand, encircled by rushing tides and hammered by ocean, at midnight in a rising gale— cut off even from our one dubious refuge.’It was the time, if ever, to conquer weakness. A mad gaiety surged through me as I drank the wind and pressed forward. It seemed but a minute or two and Davies clutched me. ‘Look out!’he shouted.’It’s my channel.’ The ground sloped down, and a rushing river glimmered before us. We struck off at a tangent and followed its course to the north, stumbling in muddy rifts, slipping on seaweed, beginning to be blinded by a fine salt spray, and deafened by the thunder of the ocean surf. The river broadened, whitened, roughened. gathered itself for the shock, was shattered, and dissolved in milky gloom. We wheeled away to the right, and splashed into yeasty froth. I turned my back to the wind, scooped the brine out of my eyes, faced back and saw that our path was barred by a welter of surf. Davies’s voice was in my ear and his arm was pointing seaward. ‘This— is— about where— I— bumped first— worse then nor’-west wind— this— is— nothing. Let’s— go— right— round.’ We galloped away with the wind behind us, skirting the line of surf. I lost all account of time and direction. Another sea barred our road, be- came another river as we slanted along its shore. Again we were in the teeth of that intoxicating wind. Then a point of light was swaying and flickering away to the left, and now we were checking and circling. I stumbled against something sharp— the dinghy’s gunwale. So we had completed the circuit of our fugitive domain, that dream-is- land—nightmare island as I always remember it. ‘You must scull, too,’said Davies.’It’s blowing hard now. Keep her nose up a little— all you know!’ We lurched along, my scull sometimes buried to the thwart, some- times striking at the bubbles of a wave top. Davies, in the bows, said ‘Pull!’or’Steady!’at intervals. I heard the scud smacking against his oil- skin back. Then a wan, yellow light glanced over the waves.’Easy! Let her come!’and the bowsprit of the Dulcibella, swollen to spectral propor- tions, was stabbing the darkness above me.’Back a bit! Two good strokes. Ship your scull! Now jump!’I clawed at the tossing hull and landed in a heap. Davies followed with the painter, and the dinghy swept astern. ‘She’s riding beautifully now,’said he, when he had secured the paint- er.’There’ll be no rolling on the flood, and it’s nearly low water.’ I don’t think I should have cared, however much she had rolled. I was finally cured of funk. It was well that I was, for to be pitched out of your bunk on to wet oil- cloth is a disheartening beginning to a day. This happened about eight o’clock. The yacht was pitching violently, and I crawled on all fours into the cabin, where Davies was setting out breakfast on the floor. ‘I let you sleep on,’he said;’we can’t do anything till the water falls. We should never get the anchor up in this sea. Come and have a look round. It’s clearing now,’he went on, when we were crouching low on deck, gripping cleats for safety.’Wind’s veered to nor’-west. It’s been blowing a full gale, and the sea is at its worst now— near high water. You’ll never see worse than this.’ I was prepared for what I saw— the stormy sea for leagues around, and a chaos of breakers where our dream-island had stood— and took it quietly, even with a sort of elation. The Dulcibella faced the storm as doggedly as ever, plunging her bowsprit into the sea and flinging green water over her bows. A wave of confidence and affection for her welled through me. I had been used to resent the weight and bulk of her un- wieldy anchor and cable, but I saw their use now; varnish, paint, spotless decks, and snowy sails were foppish absurdities of a hateful past. ‘What can we do to-day?’I asked. ‘We must keep well inside the banks and be precious careful wherever there’s a swell. It’s rampant in here, you see, in spite of the barrier of sand. But there’s plenty we can do farther back.’ We breakfasted in horrible discomfort; then smoked and talked till the roar of the breakers dwindled. At the first sign of bare sand we got under way, under mizzen and head-sails only, and I learned how to sail a re- luctant anchor out of the ground. Pivoting round, we scudded east be- fore the wind, over the ground we had traversed the evening before, while an archipelago of new banks slowly shouldered up above the fast weakening waves. We trod delicately among and around them, sound- ing and observing; heaving to where space permitted, and sometimes us- ing the dinghy. I began to see where the risks lay in this sort of naviga- tion. Wherever the ocean swell penetrated, or the wind blew straight down a long deep channel, we had to be very cautious and leave good margins.’That’s the sort of place you mustn’t ground on,’Davies used to say. In the end we traversed the Steil Sand again, but by a different swatch- way, and anchored, after an arduous day, in a notch on its eastern limit, just clear of the swell that rolled in from the turbulent estuary of the Elbe. The night was fair, and when the tide receded we lay perfectly still, the fresh wind only sending a lip-lip of ripples against our sides.

Yulan, gold orchid injury this not all right, and then after this already some episodes of rushing the levy, but they are very ambitious, it should be a sound, du 9 to close your eyes, dish sit pranayama. Du nine see two menservants meditation, discount shoes sadly XiaoLing body side, do nearly whispered: “the two girls that have worked for the injured by the YaoWang gentile, but to seek eldest brother, they just hold the presupposition injury ahead…” XiaoLing way: “I know that they are very tired, it should well rest is.” Du nine copies, wasn’t good words very simple-hearted, XiaoLing and was thinking about an embarrassed matter, unwilling to talk, words, looking up to heaven, then up “NingMu meditation. Du cough lightly with a nine, meandering to the zhangs YuWai place a LuanShiDui, squat down. YeLanRenJing, the wilderness deep and remote cool, the distance spread several voice owls hooted, increased many the cold night terror. Suddenly, the squat in the black MaoHu yulan body side mastiff, jumping straight to are Oriental rush toward to. Two menservants comes as critical shipped interest, although the smell, but did not move silently, XiaoLing and dubai, but for this tiger nine step payless shoes by the potential running mastiff, XiaoLing mention was to the tiger mastiff gas illness do to pursue running direction, the mouth but cast preach sound of arts, said: “brothers, you look after two du girl.” He moves faster, two leap, skilling to catch up with tiger people already in the 66th feet behind a mastiff. Dubai already up nine, the original wants to chase the tiger mastiff, his long years and two tiger know they get Tibetan mastiffs, though the sensitive and fresh talent, a perfect person, also martial, never hard and without thus p, but saw the XiaoLing has full go first, had to fall back on two step, guardian body side manservant. Yulan is more wary, guides, the qi think-tank DanTian, the zheng eye looked back. See the tall figure, du 9 eyes block out in front of rotation, laboriously, this situation is clearly met what warning signs, then say: “du, you see…?” Du nine returned yulan eye, way: “might as well, the girl just luck pranayama, for the two girls next protector.” Turn left at eyes of olay regardless, see XiaoLing not and cannot help but ask a way: “” xianggong”?” Du XiaoLing anomalies of nine see yulan care, I also want to then chase to see, not a way: “I am going away, and who for two girl dharma?” Yulan way: “might as well, small menservants pranayama has ended, and my sister protectors for gold orchid, du rest.” to… Du nine way: “good! Miss if met warning signs, then blazing phase next smell p is called ChiYuan.” come Yulan way: “wrote down, du ye go to!”

Yulan way: “those porter, are in the zhuang people, payless shoes only afraid not easy astute cheat, also let’s mix security by the side door.” Du nine way: “you are never know the next camouflage, sculpture, even if not find out his AnJi, but appearance, size weight, looks decorative slightest differ, girl if not letter, then you check it again by first.” Yulan a pair of bright eyes, at nine face in dubai to note, in my heart I secretly Cun way: don’t see you and the art of engraving can. Du cough lightly with a nine, say with smile: “girls don’t like this at me, also don’t believe that such a thing could soon face to face, distinguish true performance…” ZhuanZhu to dealer eight face eyes, connect a way: “now, the only problem is how to find the MaWenFei, took his silver, so shall tomorrow at noon to get to, du second touch bricks without straw, let’s just follow the old way, olay girl by the side door into the mix!” Traders eight and back to low voice say: “good! You keep shaw eldest brother.” Since launch two two fall between, the figure has disappear. Du nine turning to the yulan said: “I will not JiJiang law, the eldest brother also won’t hard to make that MaWenFei silver medal.” Yulan way: “long smell your zhongzhou two jia as sisters, justice heavy feeling in your life, how between the brothers, also want to use schamer?” Du nine smiled, way: “harmless things, each other, but can use schamer easily effect, you received that the dealer eldest brother, but really angered for me?” Yulan say with smile: “I have seen, don’t or fake not to become.” Du nine way: “that is but it stopped, he so decided not to go, again defied him is useless.” Yulan way: “I see.” Du nine way: “between the heaven and earth every boss, is inherently than old two interests.” some Yulan smiled, way: “you see that traders can get the mai faceted silver?” Du nine way: “as I was MaWenFei du opinion, unquestionably dou but I quotient eldest brother, he went, it would now take back some 80% of hope.” Yulan way: “he will let’s here waiting, why don’t we avail ourselves of this opportunity to have a good rest.” Du nine heart movement, andao: two menservants inducing. Follow our wounded ran so far, most propbably is already tired unbearable, then say: “good, let’s are the avail ourselves of this opportunity to rest is.”

Yulan way: “after the matter how, small menservants cannot learned, but that ShenMu wind since MingHuoZhiZhang, rise and the wulin confrontation, think that wulong has been done.” Traders eight way: “ShenMu wind as not a little relying on, also won’t Sylvester stallone, immediately after this obtrusive.” Yulan way: “small menservants, already finish, known as business plan, by how leah mai mai contractor decided”. Traders eight way: “this, as a fixed, next to stay and MaWenFei after consulting, can decide.” Yulan suddenly say; “Business ye and the decision to MaWenFei meet MaWenFei acted as the reverse of the delegates, interfuse baihua village, and but according to payless shoes little menservants know, that master, master, get in by separate flowers villa, each into another place place, each one is known.” Traders eight way: “this I had thought, but let’s main purpose, is mixed in flowers home…” Wice meal slightly, connect a way: “anyone who invited people, FengZeng one silver, with all CARDS into village, a brand, whether anyone, followed two, one silver medal is prohibited from increase their number…” Du nine suddenly say: “one silver medal, restricted two people, if we have two silver MEDALS, that all can walk into flowers villa.” Traders eight way: “good! But where to find the silver? This is Ken out his side, is also the time to buy gold 20,000 than!” Club nine tao; “How about you and the MaWenFei meet?” Traders eight word; “Tomorrow noon, afternoon meeting.” the village Du nine way: “too fast, like this, we can plenty time some generic those silver.” Traders eight word; “Fake?” Du nine way: “why not? Let’s build ten face eight noodles, others application to dispense with a he flowers villa ghosts-gods uneasy to say again.” Yulan received: “that will dispense AnJi, forged silver medal and the spoil, and fear is hard to get too.” Du nine way: “never mind, let’s wait till he piled on the influx, to give him a flat-footed.” Traders eight way: “way though not very well, it might as well try, then, let’s four people may also publicly crypto-software to, also need idea xiezhuang servant here, and female, pretend to be from the side door and went in.” mix in

XiaoLing sneer at 1, way: “you has twice to me again, future never plot against the third.” Suddenly a carry gas, wear a hole. Traders eight, club nine hand in hole by weapon, wait outside, see XiaoLing safe, and the chorus said: “eldest brother, whether it has hurt the poisonous YaoWang?” XiaoLing way: “have no, that YaoWang though malice, cruel gentile, but his daughter is a big good man.” Du nine is still not put heart, low voice say: “you and the YaoWang begin no gentile?” XiaoLing way: “very quickly, without cardiac several recruit into twilight, but he was afraid portion hurt his daughter, no longer and I predecessors.” Du nine smiled, way: “this is it.” He spent his days stretched a face, speak too cold, rare exception from his face to make people smile, smile see has a kind of feeling. Traders eight low voice say: “that YaoWang, the whole discount shoes body is poison gentile, gradually Xu for today’s superior, let’s first drug use in the stay, not quick go!” “To lead the way, nine du joined two menservants do, guides. XiaoLing suddenly remembered one thing, stopped and said: “if the YaoWang tonight after the gentile devotion, told the ShenMu wind, ShenShuFeng will send ace, guard home in captivity, let’s parents, though only mixed flowers villa will exert more a hands.” Yulan smiled, way: “it” xianggong “but please rest assured, that YaoWang pursue” xianggong “whereabouts gentile, pure is out of greed, ShenMu wind and his fellowship is deep, but the wind in shen concerned, would never allow the character YaoWang because they missed the greed, one of his great things to see, the concubine menservants YaoWang is unquestionably ShenShuFeng gentile talk about.” not and XiaoLing way: “as if all the people are very afraid, ShenMu wind, be?” Yulan way: “good, ShenMu wind is cloudy, sinister, heartless, not just his face under fear, is his friend, get along with some time later, for he will also a deep fear of living heart.” Yulan paused for a moment, a way again: “that ShenMu set-up subordinate’s technique, wind, but very strange because nobody ever seen, the more he is mysterious, something he actually use of what gimmick, also make the person never predicted, but small menservants had heard that ShenMu wind a HaoYu…” XiaoLing also moved curious of heart, nasty asked: “what HaoYu?” Yulan way: “he said wulong success, where he XiongBaTianXia date.” Traders informative, river lake top eight, he can calculate know everything, but this time it is heard perplexed still, hands scratching his scalp way: “what is wulong?” Yulan way: “details small menservants know, maybe is also five, maybe five pieces of strange things.” Traders eight way: “looks like is man’s ingredients, greater than wondrous item.” Yulan way: “whatever it is, but that was that none was very wonderful wulong not wrong.” Traders eight way: “natural good. After?”

Gentile YaoWang said coldly. : “someday, I’ll catch you, with your body blood, save the lives of my daughter.” XiaoLing looked that lie in the coffin cover girl, sigh a way: “kill one person, save one person, is it good living of virtuous…” YaoWang gentile connect a way: “can save the lives of my daughter, to work on one man’s death why not?” XiaoLing way: “but keep gentleness docile, think it is and you different.” Poisonous medicine kingly way: “I want to save her life, though, was she misunderstood resentment.” is a massacre XiaoLing way: “poor heart all the parents, you’re naturally malice, heartless, but treat their daughter, was deposed, given mountain, the reality is also a family…” Wice meal slightly, payless shoes connect a way: “is the world except I XiaoMou blood really has no medicine can save the disease it?” To YaoWang gentile says dual check, hesitated a burst of, connect a way: “the world or have a drug has yet been found, but the old man.” XiaoLing secretly luck alert, turning to the dealer eight said: “you go out!” Business XiaoLing fighting skill, eight knew better yourself many, QianCi collectivities, loosen the girl wrist, mention the gas, piercing. YaoWang action fast matchless gentile, business eight body just buck, the right hand has handed out to XiaoLing left wrist, buckle MaiMen. XiaoLing already be prepared, which also let him have it, his left hand flick, YaoWang caught reverse gelsenkirchen above. Palm potential meet YaoWang flexor up five fingers gentile did, become catch for palm, bang hard connect a palm. Both feel one earthquake, the heart have LiPin private hands. YaoWang right hand and gentile XiaoLing’s difficult match at palm force at the same time, already silently points left over. XiaoLing sink your right elbow, reverse YaoWang pulse acupuncture point they bumped YaoWang forced the poisonous, stop wrist, retrieve the palm potential. Just this moment of work, XiaoLing has robbed the initiative, launched counterattack, palm refers to fertilizer, even tapping all six recruit. The six recruit newsletter fast like electricity, YaoWang even forced the poisonous two steps back, just six recruit seal block open to, said: “don’t hurt my daughter.” XiaoLing said coldly. : “if not see it today, in a XiaoLing never let go. I this” Poisonous medicine “old man is not afraid of benevolent you.”