Heligoland. We'll get that back by daylight. And on land
every one of the three services is under arms. On this coast
alone before sunrise we'll have one hundred thousand men, and
from Colchester the brigade division of artillery, from
Ipswich the R. H. A.'s with siege-guns, field-guns, quick-
firing-guns, all kinds of guns spread out over every foot of
ground from here to Hunstanton. They thought they'd give us a
surprise party. They will never give us another surprise
party!"

On the top of the hill at Overstrand, the headwaiter of the
East Cliff Hotel and the bearded German stood in the garden
back of the house with the forbidding walls. From the road in
front came unceasingly the tramp and shuffle of thousands of
marching feet, the rumble of heavy cannon, the clanking of
their chains, the voices of men trained to command raised in
sharp, confident orders. The sky was illuminated by countless
fires. Every window of every cottage and hotel blazed with
lights. The night had been turned into day. The eyes of the
two Germans were like the eyes of those who had passed
through an earthquake, of those who looked upon the burning
of San Francisco, upon the destruction of Messina.

"We were betrayed, general," whispered the head-waiter.

"We were betrayed, baron," replied the bearded one.

"But you were in time to warn the flotilla."

With a sigh, the older man nodded.