As I approached Grauble he spoke without lifting his eyes from his
instruments. "Go bring the Princess out of her hiding; I want my men to
see her now. It will help to give them faith."
Marguerite came with me and stood trembling at my side as we watched
Grauble, whose eyes still riveted upon the many dials and indicators
before him.
"Watch the chart," said Grauble. "The red hand shows our position."
The chart before him was slowly passing over rolls. For a time we could
only see a straight line thereon bordered by many signs and figures.
Then slowly over the topmost roll came the wavy outlines of a shore, and
the parallel lines marking the depths of the bordering sea. Tensely we
watched the chart roll slowly down till the end of the channel passed
the indicator.
Grauble breathed a great sigh of relief and for the first time turned
his face towards us. "We are in the open sea," he said, "at a depth of
160 metres. I shall turn north at once and parallel the coast. You had
better get some rest; for the present nothing can happen. It is night
above now but in six more hours will be the dawn, then we shall rise and
take our bearings through the periscope."
I led Marguerite into the Captain's cabin and insisted that she lie down
on the narrow berth. Seated in the only chair, I related what I knew of
the affair at the locks. "It must have been," I concluded, after much
speculation, "that Holknecht finally got the attention of the Chemical
Staff and related what he knew of the incident of the potash mines. They
had enough data about me to have arrived at the correct conclusion long
ago. It was a question of getting the facts together."
"It was that," said Marguerite, "or else I am to blame."
"And what do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean," she said, "that I took a great risk about which I must tell
you, for it troubles my conscience. After I had sent for the Admiral and
he had promised to come, I telephoned to Dr. Zimmern of my intention to
get von Kufner to take me to the docks and my hope that I could come
with you. And it may be that some one listened in on our conversation."
"I do not see," I said, "how such a conversation should lead to the
discovery of my identity--the Holknecht theory is more reasonable--but
you did take a risk. Why did you do it?"
"I wanted to tell him good-bye," said Marguerite. "It was hard enough
that I could not see him." And she turned her face to the pillow and
began to weep.
"What is it, my dear?" I pleaded, as I knelt beside her. "It was all
right, of course. Why are you crying--you do not think, do you, that Dr.
Zimmern betrayed us?"
Marguerite raised herself upon her elbow and looked at me with hurt
surprise. "Do you think that?" she demanded, almost fiercely.
"By no means," I hastened to assure her, "but I do not understand your
grief and I only thought that perhaps when you told him he was
angered--I never understood why he seemed so anxious not to have you
go with me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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