“So far as I could tell. I poked with a stick from one side, and waded in from the other. The tins are stacked in it; I don’t think they can have taken any out.”
“All the more likely that they will soon be in,” O’Neill said. “I knew they had been in the north lately; the brutes nearly got one of our transports. But if Aylwin shows up off the mouth of the inlet he may scare them away altogether. If one knew what was best to do! We’ve got to bag them!” His eyes were dancing. “Great Scott! what a chance it is!”
There came a knock at the door, and Norah’s voice.
The conspirators looked at each other guiltily.
“Norah must be told,” Jim said. “She’s perfectly safe; and we can’t carry on this without explaining to her, poor kid. May she come in, O’Neill?”
Sir John was already at the door. Norah, her face troubled, spoke hurriedly.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for dad or the boys. Are they here, Sir John?”
“Come in, if you don’t mind,” O’Neill said, holding the door open. He closed it carefully behind her. “We’re having a council of war, Norah, and——”
Jim interrupted him, watching his sister’s face.
“There’s something I thought I’d better tell you,” Norah said. “I went along the road just now with some sweets for those babies in the end cottage, beyond the village; and coming back I got over the bank into the field to get some wild flowers. Just as I was going to climb back I heard voices, and I peeped through the hedge and saw two men—men in rough clothes. They had been buying things in the village, for they had parcels, and some bread that wasn’t wrapped up. So I bobbed down behind the hedge until they had gone past—they didn’t look nice, somehow.”
“No, it’s a lonely bit of the road, and there are no houses. I don’t suppose they even thought of any one being there. And, Jim, they were talking in German!”
“Perfectly. I couldn’t make out what they said, for their voices were very low—and anyhow I never learned enough German at school to understand it when spoken. But I do know the sound of it, and I caught one or two words.”
“If that U-boat isn’t lying on the bottom of the inlet I’ll eat my hat!” he said. “Probably they put up a collapsible boat last night and sent her round to some other beach—they’ll take risks to get fresh food. And to-night she’ll paddle back and get her cargo of petrol, and the submarine will take her on board and slide out to do a little more pirate-work. But we may have a few remarks to make first. If I only knew what Aylwin would want to do!”