Page:Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps (Grosset Dunlap, 1915).djvu/198

 Then suddenly I had an inspiration.

"Where is Scudder's book?" I asked Sir Walter. "Quick, man, I remember something in it."

He unlocked the drawer of a bureau and gave it to me.

I found the place. "Thirty-nine steps" I read, and again "Thirty-nine steps—counted  them—High tide 10.17 p.m."

The Admiralty man was looking at me as if he thought I had gone mad.

"Don't you see it's a clue," I cried. "Scudder knew where these fellows laired—he knew where they were going to leave the country; though he kept the name to himself. To-morrow was the day, and it was some place where high tide was at 10.17."

"They may have gone to-night," some one said.

"Not them. They have their own snug secret way, and they won't be hurried. I know Germans, and they are mad about working to a plan. Where the devil can I get a book of Tide Tables?"