“I know. Those are the folks who have all they want; there’s nothing to fear from _them_. With my help they have got their own houses and are free of debt. But sometimes I have been obliged to take any workers I could get, and those who don’t own their houses should be carefully watched. The powder magazine is at Constance, for the young fellows live there, and if we suddenly withdraw these high wages from them, there is nothing for them to do but steal, and in a week’s time they’ll find themselves in prison and will be blabbing everything in their rage. Talk to George about this, and see what is to be done. He’s going there to-morrow. The safest thing would be to pack them off into the Foreign Legion. Go and see Magnard as soon as you have finished up in Zürich and Meran. Don’t forget to claim the commission for them. Give it to George, who can divide it among those concerned.... Authorize Böhm to sell the three motor-boats that we have on the lake besides the _Rhine_. _That_ always bears the ensign of the Royal Würtemberg Yacht Club and therefore is unnoticed. Keep the _Rhine_ in this neighbourhood for any emergency. The boat can do sixty kilometres if it is well handled. Let us go.” George was waiting outside. The three men felt their way through the darkness to the landing-stage, where they could hear the boat’s engines throbbing. “You have followed out my orders and there’s nothing on board?” said Mabuse. “Nothing but the cerium.” “Take it out then. I am not a dealer in scrap-iron!” George hastened forward. Three men were busy in the gloom. Then Mabuse and Spoerri went on board and the boat started, going cautiously through the night. The engine scarcely throbbed. There was a slight vibration in the cabin where Mabuse sat, wrapped in his fur coat; then he went to the deck aft, and impatiently forward to the engine. After they had travelled for a while, he listened intently. It seemed to him as if through the sounds made by his own boat a noise reached his ears. “Stop!” he cried suddenly. George stopped the engine, and the sounds outside ceased. They started again, and immediately the sounds on the water, now on the right and again on the left, were heard once more. Mabuse went on the fore-deck, where the noise of the engine was not so distinct. From there he could hear them quite distinctly. “We are pursued, or at any rate under surveillance,” he thought. “Can it be that lawyer-detective Wenk?” Calmly, yet defiantly, he got his pistols ready. In the darkness he tried to discern what flag the _Rhine_ was carrying, but it was impossible to find out. “Spoerri,” he called out softly, and Spoerri came out of the cabin. “What are we travelling as? Don’t you hear that we are being followed?”