The Spy in Black quotes

In a semicircle the shore rose black, towering at either horn (and especially on the south) into high dark cliffs.

I suppose a bird or two may have been crying then as they were a little later, but there was not a light nor a sign of anything human being within a hundred miles.

If one of the Vikings who used to live in those islands had revisited that particular glimpse of the moon, he could never have guessed that his old haunts had altered a tittle.

Then at last she spoke, and I thought I had never heard a more sinister remark.

“Maybe it will be a fine day for some,” she replied.

“I hope I may be one of them!” I said as cheerfully as possible.

She stared at me again for a few moments.

“You’re saying first one thing and then the other,” she pronounced.

I felt inclined to tell her that she had missed her vocation. What a terrible specimen of the browbeating, cross-examining lawyer she would have made! However, I decided that my safest line was cheerful politeness.

“You’re using queer words,” she replied.

“Dame is the German for an old woman,” said she.

This astonishing philological discovery might have amused me at another time, but at this moment it only showed me too clearly how her thoughts were running.

I was taking the best precautions I could think of, and the cooler I kept and better spirits I was in, the more likely would luck be to follow me.

For luck is a discerning lady and likes those who trust her.

Accordingly, the sun being now out and the morning beautifully fine, I decided to enjoy the scenery and make the most of a day ashore.

“He had no clothes when we found him.”

“No clothes on! Then do you mean⁠—”

“We took him straight back to the base,” continued the lieutenant quickly, “and finally he came round and was able to talk a little.

Armitage admitted she had only met twice), simply to give a change of air to a healthy-looking girl? There was something behind that. Besides, Miss Holland was just a trifle too good-looking. That type always had a history.

“My wife was plain Mrs. Craigie before the thing happened,” observed her husband with a twinkle, “but, dash it, she’s been Mrs. Solomon ever since!”

It was on the fourth morning of Miss Holland’s visit that the telegram came for her. Mr. Craigie himself brought it into the schoolroom and delivered it with much facetious mystery.

“It’s your duty to inform the authorities, Richard!”

“Duty?” repeated the laird, still more surprised. “Fancy me starting to do my duty at my time of life!”

“Anyhow,” cried Mrs. Craigie, “we’ve still got her trunk!”

“That is very different!” I replied hotly.

“It is certainly more wholesale,” said he.

“Mr. Tiel,” I said, “kindly understand that a German naval officer is not in the habit of enduring affronts to his service!”

The truth was, I had conceived the idea of writing some account of my adventure, and in fact I am writing these lines now in that very bedroom I have described.

I am telling a story of which I don’t know the last chapter myself.

A curious position for an author! If I am caught—well, it will make no difference. I have given nothing away that won’t inevitably be discovered if I am arrested. And, mein Gott, what a relief it has been! I should have died of boredom otherwise.

“Personally, I shouldn’t feel anxious to make a mock of religion if I could avoid it.”

“We are such a religious people,” said he, “that surely we can count on God forgiving us more readily than other nations.”

He spoke in his driest voice, and for a moment I looked at him suspiciously. But he was perfectly grave.

I asked presently if she had travelled far. She shrugged her shoulders, gave a delightful little laugh, and said—

“We get so used to travelling that I have forgotten what ‘far’ is!”

Meanwhile tea was brought in, and Miss Burnett sat down and poured it out with the graceful nonchalant air of a charming hostess in her own drawing-room, while Tiel talked of the weather and referred carelessly to the lastest news just like any gentleman who …

“Then if it is not, why are we pretending so religiously that we have no business here but to drink tea, Miss Burnett?”

“I am not pretending; I am drinking it,” she smiled.

“Yes, yes,” I said, “but you know what I mean. It seems to me so un-German!”

“You think a great deal of risks,” I observed.

“Yes,” said he. “I am a nervous man.”

Eileen laughed merrily, and I could not but confess that for once he had scored. I resolved not to give him the chance again.

I looked as interested as possible, and begged for information.

“I’d give him my wife and my income, and see how he liked the mess he’s landed me in!”

Though Mr. Craigie had spoken with considerable vehemence, he had not looked at all fierce, and now his not usually very intellectual face began to assume a thoughtful expression.

When I reached my room I realised what had caused the droning. The wind had changed to a new quarter, and as another consequence my chimney was smoking badly and the room was filled with a pungent blue cloud.

It is curious how events arise as consequences of trifling and utterly different circumstances.

I tried opening my door and then my window, but still the fire smoked and the cloud refused to disperse. Then I had an inspiration. I have mentioned a large cupboard.

“What have I not told you!” he cried hoarsely. “Mein Gott, I had forgotten that! Give me that pistol! Come, give it to me! Why keep me alive?”

“I suppose because it is an English custom,” replied Commander Blacklock quietly.

“Also, you will be exceedingly glad some day to find yourself still alive. Please sit down and listen. I am anxious to explain this point fully, for a very good reason.”