It was terribly bad luck to happen just at that particular time, because I had wanted so much to remain at least a week or ten days in that particular locality; now I had to debate with myself whether I dare risk a stay over, and what it might lead to if I so decided and acted on that decision. Then I remembered my hands. Good heavens! If she had not got so angry, if she had only kept cool, and had challenged me to remove my gloves. What a give-away it would have been! Whew! I was finding the atmosphere much too warm for my liking. I began to imagine that bright-eyed, vivacious, sweet-faced lady sitting in her boudoir at home in a dainty kimono, with a winsome hand-maiden brushing the silken tresses of her crowning glory; whilst she surveyed her captivating features in the mirror and contracted her pretty forehead into ugly wrinkles as she mentally reviewed the day's proceedings. * * * * * That night at an hotel in the town not so many kilomètres away from my lady's chamber a very wide-awake Englishman lay stretched at full length upon a very short bed. His legs protruded some two feet over the backboard. He was partly undressed, and he sucked vigorously at a strong black cigar. He also frowned in serious disapproval at the mental review of the day's proceedings, at an irrepressible, annoying thought which would repeat itself again and again, a conviction that if he did not clear out of that immediate neighbourhood at once that "confounded demnition woman" was certain to make trouble somewhere. Quit he must and quit he would. That man was myself. CHAPTER IX WILD-FOWLING EXTRAORDINARY AND TRAWLING FOR SUBMARINES IN NEUTRAL WATERS GERMANY'S WESTERN COAST--SHOOTING WILD-FOWL AND BEING SHOT AT--AN INTREPID SPORTSMAN--COLLAPSED ZEPPELIN--ESCAPING WAR PRISONERS--CARELESS LANDSTURMERS--A SUPPOSED-TO-BE NORWEGIAN SKIPPER--NATIVE CURIOSITY--DARE-DEVIL CHRISTIAN--A MYSTERIOUS SHIP--GOOSE-STALKING OVER A LAND MINE--TOO NEAR DEATH TO BE PLEASANT--THE NOCTURNAL SUBMARINE RAIDER--NIGHT TRAWLING FOR STRANGE FISH--ENEMY'S SECRET RECONNOITRING EXPOSED AND THWARTED. A few years previous to the declaration of war several Englishmen took rather an unusual interest in the western coast of Germany, particularly in the islands lying near to Heligoland. Some of these Englishmen were watched and arrested on the grounds of espionage. Some were tried and imprisoned for varying terms of years in German fortresses. Some were never caught, although they were closely chased, and were very much wanted indeed. Maybe I was one of them. Maybe the Germans took little, if any, interest whatever in so insignificant a mortal. But the fact remains that for many years prior to 1914 I had annually visited the Danish and Schleswig-Holstein coasts on wild-fowling expeditions and for wild-goose shooting.