The Man from the Clouds | Page 7

other hand, these houses fitted excellently into the theory that he
wanted me to take shelter there simply because they were well removed
from his own lair.
"And then what's the fellow doing himself all this time?" I thought.
"Evidently scuttling back in the opposite direction!"
So back I turned and set out on a very cheerless and solitary walk.
There was no sense of immediate action ahead now, no anticipation of
any further excitement this night, and, the more I came to think of it,
not one chance in a thousand of stumbling upon the man again even
though I were really heading towards him.
As I walked along that dark shore, I tried to think out all the
possibilities of the situation.
"Is the man living on this island?" (assuming it is an island, and as the
sheep weren't real sheep it may not be a real island) I asked myself. "Or
has he simply landed from a submarine or some other enemy craft, and
by this time is hurrying off again?"
I recalled our conversation, especially his words when I said I had
arrived in "the usual way." "Impossible! There was no signal. I have
been looking out all the time," he had answered. Surely that implied he
was living here on shore, and indeed his very presence alone by himself
and his whole attitude and behaviour were consistent only with that
theory.
"What conclusions has he come to about me?" was my next question,
and as I debated this problem my spirits began to rise a little.
"Hang it, he must be puzzled!" I said to myself confidently, and I do
think justly. "For supposing I were on his job in Germany and an entire
stranger suddenly sprang up out of nowhere, hailed me in excellent
English, and then (even if he didn't know the particular riddle I used as
pass-word) conducted himself like a confederate, made no attempt to

arrest me or interfere with me, and spoke German with a distinct
English accent, what would I think?"
I debated the answer for some minutes and then it came to me
involuntarily and inevitably.
"I'd be dashed if I'd know what to think! And that's just exactly the hole
this fellow must be in. I may be a fellow Hun and I may be an enemy,
and he has got to make up his mind which. So far I'm quite certain he
hasn't enough evidence either way."
The obvious corollary to this was that he must be presented with
evidence which would make him think me a fellow Hun. Of course this
assumed that he would have some means of getting news of my doings
and my movements and forming conclusions from what he heard. But I
thought it a pretty safe assumption to make. Confederates the man must
have, and he would certainly tell them of the mysterious stranger, and
the whole gang as certainly would make it their business to learn
everything about me.
"What would a fellow Hun do in my place?" I said to myself.
"Knowing the breed as I do, he would certainly overdo the patriotic
John Bull business, he would be a little too polite to everybody, and he
would eat like a hog."
This then should be my role, and I may as well confess honestly that
the last item appealed to me particularly. I kept on smoking till my
head reeled in the hope of forgetting my hunger, but between pipes I
felt ready to chew my oilskin. Of course I should also keep up a touch
of the German waiter accent, and if this programme failed to lead either
to my arrest or to my friend coming to my rescue, I felt that my
reputation both as an ex-diplomatist and a rising young actor would be
seriously tarnished.
And then all at once a light seemed to be extinguished in my brain. I
ceased to be able to think any longer and my knees felt shaky as I
walked. It was the reaction after what had really been a pretty long
strain of one kind and another. Looking back, it seems now inevitable

enough, but at the time I felt desperately ashamed of myself. Perhaps I
might have been able to pull myself together had I chanced to fall in
with that oilskinned figure again, but I thought at the moment I had
become utterly useless and I felt inclined to throw myself down on the
grass and go to sleep and forget everything. In fact I very soon should
have, when I saw at last some farm buildings close ahead. They stood
on the edge of a small cove and the ground dipped down to them so
that they were not against the sky line, and I had