Von Eckenstein shrugged his shoulders. If black looks could kill, Stirling was as good as booked to Davy Jones. "This is a needless indignity," almost howled the Hun. "On the contrary, a necessary precaution on our part," corrected the skipper of the _Crustacean_. Sullenly von Eckenstein removed his waistcoat and threw it on the deck. Deliberately opening a penknife Stirling ripped open the back and removed an envelope of oiled silk. "Thank you," he said gravely. "That is all we require for the present, Herr Major." Gathering up the rest of his possessions, the major followed his companions in misfortune and disappeared below. "Confidential orders from Potsdam to the German Governor of the East African Colony," announced Stirling. "Here, Denbigh, have a squint at it and see if I'm not right." "How ever did you discover this?" asked O'Hara. "Intuition, my dear old sport," replied Stirling with a laugh. "You told me about the cache on Latham Island. Also, you may remember relating a conversation between this von Eckenstein and Kapitan von Riesser, just before the stores were landed. Von Eckenstein objected--why? Because he thought the hiding-place ought to be on the mainland. He had a rooted objection to making a voyage in a smallboat. Hence it was reasonable to suppose that the Latham Island depot was for the major's particular benefit. The fact that he was forestalled has nothing to do with the main case. The _Pelikan_ is in difficulties. Direct communication with the rest of the German land forces is out of the question. So the major is sent off to Latham Island with the Imperial dispatches in his possession. Then the unter-leutnant's instructions are to revictual and replenish stores, and take the major to the mainland, most likely to the Rufigi River. There there is, I believe, fairly easy communication with Tabora, the head-quarters of the German Colonial forces. Seeing us approach, von Eckenstein ought to have destroyed his paper, but he didn't--he trusted to his belief in our natural stupidity. I wouldn't mind betting that now he's bemoaning his fate and admitting that Englishmen are not the fools he supposed them to be." Which was exactly what the battered and dejected von Eckenstein _was_ doing. CHAPTER XXII The Monitors in Action All that night the monitors lay, with lights out, off the outer bar of the Mohoro Lagoon. A council of war had been held on board the _Paradox_, when a fresh plan of action was drawn up. This was in consequence of the information Denbigh, O'Hara, and Armstrong had brought concerning the enemy's defences. "This chart is radically wrong," declared Denbigh, when a chart of that part of the coast was shown to him. "The bend in which the _Pelikan_ is lying is not shown. Apparently the topography is from an old survey." "It is from the latest available information," remarked Captain Holloway, loath to deprecate the work of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.