About four o'clock, when we had
fished enough, I made the boatman row us round the yacht, which
lay like a delicate white bird, ready at a moment to flee. Scaife said
she must be a fast boat for her build, and that she was pretty
heavily engined.
Her name was the ARIADNE, as I discovered from the cap of one of
the men who was polishing brasswork. I spoke to him, and got an
answer in the soft dialect of Essex. Another hand that came along
passed me the time of day in an unmistakable English tongue. Our
boatman had an argument with one of them about the weather, and
for a few minutes we lay on our oars close to the starboard bow.
Then the men suddenly disregarded us and bent their heads to
their work as an officer came along the deck. He was a pleasant,
clean-looking young fellow, and he put a question to us about our
fishing in very good English. But there could be no doubt about
him. His close-cropped head and the cut of his collar and tie never
came out of England.
That did something to reassure me, but as we rowed back to
Bradgate my obstinate doubts would not be dismissed. The thing that
worried me was the reflection that my enemies knew that I had got my
knowledge from Scudder, and it was Scudder who had given me the
clue to this place. If they knew that Scudder had this clue, would they
not be certain to change their plans? Too much depended on their
success for them to take any risks.
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