The Ozark spectator., 1916-09-09


 of to Scotland Yard-to mobilize Mac Gillivray." so he said.
 We marched through empty corridors and big. bare chambers where the charwomen were busy till we reached little room lined with books and maps. A resident clerk was unearthed. who presently fetched from the library the admiralty tide tables'
 sat at the desk and the others stood round. for somehow or other had got charge of this expedition.
 It was no good. There were hun dreds of entries, and as far as l could see 10:17 might cover fifty places We had to find some way of narrowing the possibilities.
 l took my head in my hands and thought There must be some way of reading this riddle What did Scudder mean by steps? I thought of dock steps. but if he had meant that I did not think he would have mentioned the number.
 It must be some place where there were several stAircases and Gne mark cd out from the others by having thirty niRe steps.
 Then l had sudden thought and hunted up all the steamer saflfngs. There was no boat which left for the osotinent at 1O:17 p. m.
 Why was high tide important? If 1t vas a harbor 1t must be some little place where the tide mattered. or else 1t was heavy draft boat. But there was no regular steamer sailing at that hour, and somehow didn't think they would travel by a big boat from a reg ular harbor.
 So 1t must be some little harbOr where the tide was important or per haps no harbor at all.
 But if 1t was little port couldnv see what the steps signiAed. There were no sets of staircases on any har- Dor that I had ever seen. It must bs some place which a pasAcular stai1- case identified and whers <he tide wa full at 1O:N. On the whole, 1t seemed to me that the place must be bit of open coast. But the staircases kept puzziing me.
 Then I wont back to wider consid- erations. Whereabouts would a man be likely to leave for Germany. a man in hurry who wanted a speedy and a secret passage? Not from any of the big harbors, and not from the channel or the west coast CT the north of Scot land, for. remember, he was starting from London. measured the distance on the map and 14ed to pat myself i'll the enemy's shoes I should try for OstenA or Antwerp CT Rotterdam. and l should sail from somewhere on the east coast between Csomsr and Dover. All this was very lOsse 0neasing. and I don't pretend 1t v~ hssaaoss CT sc3entinc
 wasn't any kHd of Sherlock Holmes. But l have always Mncied had . Eind of instinct sbout questions hke tlr1s. don't know if 1 can ex- plain myself, but I used to use my brains as far as they went, and after they came to blank wal guessed, and l usaally found that my guesses came pretty nearly being light.
 So I set out all my conclusions on bit of admiralty paper. They ran like this
 FAIRLY CERTAIN.
 First.-Place whsss thAss are several ss1s of statrs-one that matters diStfn gWished by having thiIty-nAns stsps
 Sscond.-Fur tide at 1o.E p. m. from place. Leaving shore only possible at full tide
 Third.-Steps not dock sesps and % place probably not harbor.
 Fourth.-No regular night stsanlsr at l017. Means of txansport must bs tramp (unlikely) yacht or fishing boat.
 There my reasoning stopped I made another list, which l headed Guess ed," but l was just as sure of the one as the other:
 GUESSED.
 FIrst-Piace not harbor. but open coast Second.-Boat small-traw1er. yacht or launch
 Thtrd-Place somewhere on east coast between Cromer and Dover.
 It struck me as odd that should b. sitting at that desk with a cabinet min ister. a field marshall two high govern ment officials and French general watching me, while from the scfibble Of a dead man was trying to drag a secret which meant life or death for -. Sir Walter had j0thed us and pnss- ently NacGtlhvray srrtxed He had sent out instructions b vsteh the forts and railway stations for the thres gap-