“To prevent them seeing it. There’s no earthly reason why _they_ should have hidden it.”
“Then we’re getting on,” said Davies. “That shows they know his real name, or why should he shove the book in? But they don’t know he wrote a book, and that I have a copy.”
“At any rate he _thinks_ they don’t; we can’t say more than that.”
“And what does he think about me—and you?”
“That’s the point. Ten to one he’s in tortures of doubt, and would give a fortune to have five minutes’ talk alone with you to see how the land lies and get your version of the short cut incident. But they won’t let him. They want to watch him in our company and us in his; you see it’s an interesting reunion for you and him.”
“Well, let’s get into these beastly clothes for it,” groaned Davis. “I shall have a plunge overboard.”
Something drastic was required, and I followed his example, curious as the hour was for bathing.
“I believe I know what happened just now,” said I, as we plied rough towels in the warmth below. “They steamed up and found nobody on board. ‘I’ll leave a note,’ says Dollmann. ‘No independent communications,’ say they (or think they), ‘we’ll come too, and take the chance of inspecting this hornets’ nest.’ Down they go, and Dollmann, who knows what to look for first, sees that damning bit of evidence staring him in the face. They look casually at the shelf among other things—examine the logbook, say—and he manages to push his own book out of sight. But he couldn’t replace it when the interruption came. The action would have attracted attention _then,_ and Böhme made him leave the cabin in advance, you know.”
“This is all very well,” said Davies, pausing in his toilet, “but do they guess how we’ve spent the day? By Jove, Carruthers, that chart with the square cut out; there it is on the rack!”
“We must chance it, and bluff for all we’re worth,” I said. The fact was that Davies could not be brought to realise that he had done anything very remarkable that day; yet those fourteen sinuous miles traversed blindfold, to say nothing of the return journey and my own exploits, made up an achievement audacious and improbable enough to out-distance suspicion. Nevertheless, von Brüning’s banter had been disquieting, and if an inkling of our expedition had crossed his mind or theirs, there were ways of testing us which it would require all our effrontery to defeat.