"Our opportunity for action is improved, Sir John. In the first place, you must take steps to concentrate a fleet of patrol ships in this neighbourhood." "The car is here. I can write official telegrams in code to Plymouth and London. Within an hour the hinterland and the sea from here to Scilly can be covered with a swarm of ships. St. Ives is only six miles away." "Write the dispatches at once. I will call Thumbwood, who must take them in, together with an official note from you to the postmaster." I unlocked my portfolio and wrote the wires. There should be such an invasion of the air to-night as Far West Cornwall had never known! Thumbwood appeared, I gave him full instructions, and heard the Rolls-Royce start below. "And now, our part!" I said to Danjuro. "If we are right in our conjecture, the pirates will shortly leave Tregeraint on their expedition. How they will join the airship or where we don't know. But we may safely assume that the house will be left in charge of one or at most two men. The others will all be wanted to man the ship; it is a simple calculation. Here is your chance. You must get inside Tregeraint, obtain conclusive evidence, and if the poor lady is there alive, bring her away in safety. Perhaps to-night the Pirate Ship will make its last cruise! Our presence here, our identity, is quite unsuspected. A concentration of hostile airships in this neighbourhood is the last thing Helzephron will expect to-night." "And you, my friend?" "I would that I could come with you, for you go in danger of your life, but, as I see it, my work should be different. Someone, in view of its escape, _must_ solve the mystery of the Pirate Ship itself. I have a theory already; I must put it to proof. There are boats in the cove below--I see that the moon is rising, I know what I must do. But, even so, I will come with you, Sir John, if you say so." I shook my head. "No, I will go alone. It is my job." Then Danjuro did a strange thing. He took my hand, bowed over it and kissed it! "You also are of the Samurai!" he said. In a minute more he carried in a heavy bag from his own bedroom, and produced from it a miscellany of objects. "Here is a twelve-shot automatic, with a dozen cartridge clips," he said. "You know all about the working of it? I thought so. This pair of wire-cutters you will need for the barbed fence. These two keys with adjustable wards--you turn the milled screw at the end to adjust them--will open any ordinary lock. Here also is an extremely powerful steel lever, with a wedge end. In the hands of a strong man like yourself it will wrench open most windows or doors." God knows there was no lightness in my heart, but in the usual English way at serious moments, I laughed. "The Complete Burglar!" I said. Danjuro looked at me with a glance as cold as ice.