Page 122 - the-thirty-nine-steps

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 shouted. ‘Scudder knew where
these fellows laired he knew where they were going to leave
the country, though he kept the name to himself. Tomor-
row was the day, and it was some place where high tide was
at 10.17.’
‘They may have gone tonight,’ someone said.
‘Not they. 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?’
Whittaker brightened up. ‘It’s a chance,’ he said. ‘Let’s go
over to the Admiralty.’
We got into two of the waiting motor-cars all but Sir
Walter, who went off to Scotland Yard to ‘mobilize MacGil-
livray’, so he said. We marched through empty corridors
and big bare chambers where the charwomen were busy, till
we reached a little room lined with books and maps. A resi-
dent clerk was unearthed, who presently fetched from the
library the Admiralty Tide Tables. I sat at the desk and the
others stood round, for somehow or other I had got charge
of this expedition.
It was no good. There were hundreds of entries, and so
far as I could see 10.17 might cover fifty places. We had to
find some way of narrowing the possibilities.
I took my head in my hands and thought. There must be
some way of reading this riddle. What did Scudder mean

122 The Thirty-Nine Steps