A Slippery Customer

That evening, after dinner, the party were sitting in the drawing room while the Colonel savoured the last of his whisky before retiring, when the doorbell pealed.

Wondering who on earth could be visiting at that late hour, they listened to the sound of the housekeeper's shoes on the tiles of the hall as she went to see who it was, followed by the distant murmur of voices as she greeted the visitor. In a matter of moments, she announced the arrival of Colonel Havers.

Cub's father invited him in and offered him a drink. When the formalities had been observed, Colonel Havers got straight to the point.

"I thought you might like to know," he said, "we sent a contingent to arrest this chap posing as van der Schans at the George."

As one they all leaned forward, eager to hear what had happened.

"Unfortunately," continued the Colonel, "the man had gone when they got there."

The disappointment that greeted these words was almost tangible in the air as he explained, " we only missed him by a matter of minutes. The receptionist said he had checked out only moments before. She said he asked for his bill immediately after she asked him if the person who had found the item belonging to him had given it back. Apparently, he was spooked when he found out someone had been enquiring for him. The man clearly doesn't take any chances," he observed. "It's almost as though he has a sixth sense."

Cub blushed and admitted that it must have been his fault. The woman at reception had obviously mentioned his visit to von Stalhein and, since no-one had come to his room, he must have put two and two together and seen through the ruse.

Ginger concurred. "He is a really tricky customer," he averred. "We've had a lot of trouble with him in the past."

"Still, all is not lost," said Colonel Havers. "The woman in reception did give us some leads on the people who had been to see him. We're following those up now. As you've had some funny goings on here recently, I thought I'd just drop by and tell you what had happened and warn you to keep an eye open."

Colonel Peters thanked him and the soldier left them to their discussion. Cub and Ginger were all for keeping a watch on the marshes.

"After all," Cub pointed out, "they don't necessarily know the dinghy is out of use, and they'll want to get the code book back to Germany as soon as possible."

"And von Stalhein won't want to waste any time getting back, either, if he thinks he's been spotted," added Ginger, eagerly.

Colonel Peters hesitated. "I've still got my patrol there," he said in their defence. "I wouldn't want them to get the impression that we don't think they're capable."

"Colonel Havers said he was going to send some men to reinforce them," Cub reminded his father. "Why can't we help as well?"

Eventually, the Colonel agreed that Cub and Ginger could take part. "But mind you don't get in the way," he admonished them as they went off to prepare. "And keep your heads down if any bullets start flying," he murmured under his breath after they had left the room.