For the moment I only half believed her. Such an amateur way of keeping watch and ward in such a vital area seemed hardly credible, but I learned afterwards that in those early days of the war that was one of the things which actually happened. Another fact also made me doubtful. On the night I landed I had met no watchers. "Who watches the shore up at the north end--near the Scollays' farm?" I asked. "Oh, Dr. Rendall and Mr. O'Brien look after that beat," said she. In a flash my belief in my own adventure had begun to return. Either that couple neglected their duty--or I had met one of the watchers! "Do the doctor and Mr. O'Brien ever go out themselves--like your father to-night?" I asked. "Mr. O'Brien goes out pretty often, I believe." I thought for a moment longer and then I jumped up. "This seems the very job for an able-bodied young man," I said with a laugh. "I'm going out to join the watchers!" "You!" she exclaimed, springing up too. I looked her straight in the eye. "Why not me?" I enquired. She said nothing for an instant, and then she remarked in quite a matter of fact voice, "Very well; if you are going, I'll come with you." I could not resist parodying her. "You!" I exclaimed. But I got no smile in response. "I'll be ready in five minutes," she said as she left the room. "Now what the devil does this mean?" I said to myself. Five minutes of course meant quarter of an hour, and then we sallied forth into the night, she in a long tweed coat and I in my inevitable oilskin. "Which way do you want to go?" she asked. "Suppose we work our way towards the north end," I suggested. She said nothing more and we made our way by a track to the shore and then turned toward the left. I had been filling my pipe and when we got to the last stone wall, I stopped, bent under its shelter and struck a match. My face was towards her and in the fraction of a second before the first match blew out I caught a glimpse of something just visible in the mouth of one of the big pockets of her tweed coat. It was the butt end of a pistol. I struck three more matches before I got my pipe alight and I contrived to face her each time, but she had turned and kept her other side towards me. When we resumed our walk I noticed that she consistently kept two or three yards away from me. "Just shooting distance!" I said to myself. "By the way, what are we supposed to be looking for?" I enquired presently. "Chiefly periscopes, I think," said she. I stopped short and gazed over the inky sea. "Do they light them up for us?" I asked. She laughed despite herself. "That is what I've been wondering myself," said she. This was her only sympathetic relapse, and to tell the truth I made no further remarks worthy of being smiled at. That pistol kept me thinking. That she had come out to watch me, and if necessary shoot me, seemed a pretty obvious deduction, and much as I admired her nerve, it made humorous conversation a trifle difficult.