He resigned the tiller to me, and pulling out his watch, held it up to the binnacle lamp.

“Close on a quarter to nine,” he said.  “We shall just do it nicely if the engine doesn’t stop.”

“I hope so,” I said.  “I should hate to keep a Government official waiting.”

We crossed the broad entrance into Queenborough Harbour, where the dim bulk of a couple of battleships loomed up vaguely through the haze.  It was a strange, exhilarating sensation, throbbing along in the semi-darkness, with all sorts of unknown possibilities waiting for us ahead.  More than ever I felt what Joyce had described in the morning—­a sort of curious inward conviction that we were at last on the point of finding out the truth.

“We’d better slacken down a bit when we get near,” said Tommy.  “Latimer specially told me to bring her in as quietly as I could.”

I nodded.  “Right you are,” I said.  “I wasn’t going to hurry, anyhow.  It’s a tricky place, and I don’t want to smash up any more islands.  One a day is quite enough.”

I slowed down the engine to about four knots an hour, and at this dignified pace we proceeded along the coast, keeping a watchful eye for the entrance to the creek.  At last a vague outline of rising ground showed us that we were in the right neighbourhood, and bringing the Betty round, I headed her in very delicately towards the shore.  It was distressingly dark, from a helmsman’s point of view, but Tommy, who had gone up into the bows, handed me back instructions, and by dint of infinite care we succeeded in making the opening with surprising accuracy.

The creek was quite small, with a steep bank one side perhaps fifteen feet high, and what looked like a stretch of mud or saltings on the other.  Its natural beauties, however, if it had any, were rather obscured by the darkness.

“What shall we do now, Tommy?” I asked in a subdued voice.  “Turn her round?”

He came back to the well.  “Yes,” he said, “turn her round, and then I’ll cut out the engine and throttle her down.  She’ll make a certain amount of row, but we can’t help that.  I daren’t stop her; or she might never start again.”

We carried out our manoeuvre successfully, and then dropped over the anchor to keep us in position.  I seated myself on the roof of the cabin, and pulling out a pipe, commenced to fill it.

“I wonder how long the interval is,” I said.  “I suppose spying is a sort of job you can’t fix an exact time-limit to.”

Tommy looked at his watch again.  “It’s just on a quarter to ten now.  He told me not to wait after half-past.”

I stuffed down the baccy with my thumb, and felt in my pocket for a match.

“It seems to me—­” I began.

The interesting remark I was about to make was never uttered.  From the high ground away to the left came the sudden crack of a revolver shot that rang out with startling viciousness on the night air.  It was followed almost instantly by a second.