However, I am not vindictive, and
as far as I am concerned the incident is ended.
One thing I find trying in this small boat, and that is that I can
find no space in which to do half my Mueller exercises, the leg-
and-arm-swinging ones. I must see whether I can't invent a set of
U-boat exercises!
Good! in two hours we reach the Mole-end light buoy.
* * * * *
_Submarine Mess, Bruges._
It is midnight, and as I write in my room at the top of the house the
low rumble of the guns from the south-west vibrates faintly through the
open window, for it is extraordinarily warm for the time of year, and I
have flung back the curtains and risked the light shining.
We spent the night at Zeebrugge and came up to the docks here next day.
We shall probably be in for a week, and I am on four days' "extended
absence from the boat," which practically means that I can go where I
like in the neighbourhood provided I am handy to a telephone.
After a short inward struggle I rang Zoe up on the telephone;
fortunately I did not call first.
A man's voice answered, and for a moment I was dumbfounded. I guessed
at once it was the Colonel, and I had counted so confidently on his
being still away at the front.
For an instant I felt speechless, an impulse came to me to ring off
without further ado, but I restrained myself, and then a fine idea came
into my head.
"Who is that?" I said.
"Colonel Stein!" replied the voice, and my fears were confirmed, but my
plan of campaign held good.
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