"It's only me, sir," sounded in my ear with a triumphant chuckle; "I stalked you pretty well, didn't I, sir?"
"You young devil!" I replied, "you nearly frightened me out of my life!"
"I thought I would try and see what I could do, sir," said Dickson max.
He was in a black suit. I fear it was his Sunday-best. He wore no collar and his face and hands were covered with burnt cork--a grimy, sooty apparition the young imp looked, but, nevertheless, one couldn't have seen him a yard away.
"You've done very well," I said. "Stick to it. The Doctor isn't such a marshman as I am, and if you come up to him like that--well, you won't have a difficult task. You know where I and my brother will be?"
"Yes, sir," he whispered--"in the gun-pit at the head of Garstrike."
"Right you are. Now out along as quickly as possible and bring us news by midnight if you can."
"I am going to lie in the rhododendrons in the Doctor's garden," he said. "He's sure to come out by his private door, and I'll follow him to Heligoland if necessary."
I gave him a pat on the back, and as I looked round he had already melted noiselessly into the dark and I was alone.
In the inn I found my brother. The kitchen was full of labourers drinking their last pint before closing hour at ten. In the private bar old Pugmire was babbling over his gin, but in the sitting-room beyond, with curtains drawn, Bernard was all ready for the enterprise, dressed just as I was.
"It's all serene. I've met Dickson and he is watching the Doctor now. In about three-quarters of an hour the inn will be closed and all the men gone home. Then we can set out."
Mrs. Wordingham came in with two bottles of that famous strong ale which is kept for twenty years and which is the best antidote against the cold of the marshes known to the wild-fowler--only an amateur takes spirits upon the saltings.
"I don't know what is going to turn up to-night," said Bernard. "I trust to your knowledge of the marshes implicitly. But remember this, old soul, it is not a lark of any sort. We shall be in the gravest danger. I cannot exaggerate the importance of what we are doing. The Admiralty itself is waiting for news. I am not dramatic in any way, Heaven knows! but I'll let myself go for a minute. I believe, John, that it may well be that we two, and the others who are helping us, hold the destinies of England in our hands. God grant that we shall be successful!"