I locked my door, slipped back again, and prepared to burn my papers; but though I stood over the fire for minute after minute, there was no sound of approaching steps. Very quietly I opened the door and listened once more, and still I heard voices. And thus I lingered and hesitated for more than an hour. By this time the attack had probably been made, and I could stand the suspense no longer, so I went recklessly downstairs, strode along the passage, and opened the parlour door. Nothing will ever efface the memory of the scene that met my eyes. Tiel, Eileen, and Ashington sat there, the two men each with a whisky-and-soda, and all three seemingly in the most extraordinarily high spirits. It was Ashington's face and voice that suddenly rent the veil from before my eyes. Instead of the morose and surly individual I had met before, he sat there the incarnation of the jovial sailor. He was raising his glass to his lips, and as I entered I heard the words-- "Here's to you again, Robin!" What had happened I did not clearly grasp in that first instant, but I _felt_ I was betrayed. My hand went straight to my revolver pocket, but before I could seize it, Tiel, who sat nearest, leapt up, grasped my wrist, and with the shock of his charge drove me down into a chair. It was done so suddenly that I could not possibly have resisted. Then with a movement like a conjurer he picked the revolver out of my pocket, and said in his infernally cool calm way-- "Please consider yourself a prisoner of war, Mr Belke." Even then I had not grasped the whole truth. "A prisoner of war!" I exclaimed. "And what the devil are you, Herr Tiel? A traitor?" "You have got my name a little wrong," said he, with that icy smile of his. "I am Commander Blacklock of the British Navy, so you can surrender either to me or to Captain Phipps, whichever you choose." "Phipps!" I gasped, for I remembered that as the name of a member of Jellicoe's staff. "That's me, old man," said the gross person with insufferable familiarity. "The Honourable Thomas Bainbridge Ashington would have a fit if he looked in the glass and saw this mug!" "Then I understand I am betrayed?" I asked as calmly as I could. "You're nabbed," said Captain Phipps, with brutal British slang, "and let me tell you that's better than being dead, which you would have been if you'd rejoined your boat." I could not quite control my feelings. "What has happened?" I cried. "We've bagged the whole four--just at the very spot on the chart which you and I arranged!" chuckled the great brute. (At this point Lieutenant von Belke's comments become a little too acid for publication, and it has been considered advisable that the narrative should be finished by the Editor.) PART V. A FEW CONCLUDING CHAPTERS BY THE EDITOR I. TIEL'S JOURNEY.