CHAPTER VI
AN EXCELLENT NIGHT'S WORK
"THERE'S the cottage, sir," whispered one of the guides, pointing toa dark object silhouetted against the starlit sky.
The sub. halted his party and called them to attention. Six of themwith the A.P., were to accompany him to the house; the others, underthe command of the midshipman, were to form a cordon round thebuilding and also to establish communication with the boats when thecrucial time arrived.
Stealthily Tressidar approached the window through which Mr.Greenwood had effected his escape. The casement was ajar. He openedit and drew the curtain aside the fraction of an inch. The room,still lighted, was deserted. Signing to his men to remain, he stolequietly through the window and approached the trap-door leading tothe tunnel. He could detect the fumes of petrol. With the burninglamp the cottage was in momentary peril of being blown up by theignition of the air and volatile spirit with which it was so highlycharged. Either the occupier was a madman or a fool, he argued.
Unbarring and unlocking the door, Tressidar brought his men into theroom. Extinguishing the lamp, he switched on his electric torch andled the way down the ladder to the tunnel.
Contrary to his expectations, the descent was effected without any ofthe seamen stumbling, dropping their rifles, or making a noise thatwould betray their presence. In silence the men awaited theirofficer's next order, which was given by signs.
Tressidar weighed the matter over in his mind. To act quickly it wasnecessary to have light, since the darkness gave the miscreants anundoubted advantage. To attempt to stalk them in the pitch-blackdarkness would be running a risk of premature discovery. As far as heknew, there was about eighty yards of tunnel, including a fairlysharp bend between him and the seaward end of the cave.
Still keeping the torch switched on, Tressidar advanced swiftly andsilently down the tunnel. He found not one but two turns in thepassage. Upon rounding the second, the rays of his torch fell uponthe two men of whom he was in search.
They were both lying across the sill of the natural openingcommunicating with the outside ledge. Both had night-glasses glued totheir eyes, and so intent were they in keeping the expanse of darkwater under observation that they failed to notice the illuminationthat flooded the cave.
There was no peremptory order of "Hands up!" No dramatic covering withrevolvers. The British seamen simply grasped the recumbent men anddragged them back to the floor of the cave almost before they hadtime to utter a sound.
"Take that fellow back to the cottage," ordered the sub., indicatingthe man who had been addressed as Max. "Search him, question him,then report to me."
The German was hurried off. He offered no resistance.
Tressidar waited until unmistakable sounds told him that Max and hiscaptors were ascending the ladder, then he turned to the secondprisoner.
"You are expecting to communicate with a German submarine?" he began.
"No, sir, no," expostulated the man, his face contorted with fear."I'll explain everything. I'll make a clean breast of it. Thatman"--and he pointed with his thumb along the tunnel--"is an escapedprisoner. He is a German officer. Some of my pals put him on to me,and, like a fool, I said I would hide him until a fishing-boat couldtake him across to Holland."
"You're a British subject," declared the sub. contemptuously.
"I am, sir. Never got into trouble before this. I've been led intoit, sir, honest, I have."
"Honest you haven't," corrected Tressidar sternly. "Now, listen, youknow the penalty--death.
"What, for harbouring a German prisoner, sir?" asked the man.
"No--for supplying hostile vessels with petrol. You have hundreds ofgallons stored here, and I'll swear you cannot satisfactorily accountfor that quantity. Moreover, you were heard to say that a submarinewas expected about three or four in the morning. Now, look here, whatare the prearranged signals?"
"Curse you!--find out," muttered the man surlily.
"I mean to," rejoined the sub. suavely. "Let me put the facts beforeyou. You're caught red-handed. There are no extenuatingcircumstances. You are deliberately betraying your country for thesake of a few hundred pounds, I suppose. If you give us all theassistance that lies in your power, that fact will be taken intoconsideration at your trial. I'll vouch for that. Now, I'll give youfive minutes to think things over."
Leaving the prisoner in charge of a couple of seamen, the sub.approached the seaward entrance. Drawing his binoculars from theircase, he focussed them on the water of the bay. The tide was now onthe first of the ebb, with perhaps six feet of water close to thebase of the cliffs.
By the aid of the powerful night-glasses he could just discern thegrey forms of the "Pompey's" two boats. The first lieutenant had lostno time in proceeding to the spot, for his preparations were alreadycomplete, and the boats were even now withdrawing to a discreetdistance to await developments.
With a grunt of satisfaction Tressidar replaced his binoculars andagain confronted his prisoner.
"Time's up!" he exclaimed laconically.
"I'll tell you everything----" began the man.
"And mind you speak the truth," warned the sub. "Now, fire away."
"A submarine is expected," declared the prisoner. "At what hour Icannot say--it might be any hour between now and daybreak. She won'tshow any lights. She'll anchor in Half Way Deep and send a boatashore. The men will imitate the curlew call three times, and I wasto reply with a cry like the hoot of an owl. Then I had to lowerpetrol-cans as fast as I could."
"And your companion?" inquired Tressidar. "Who is he?"
"As I said before, sir, a German officer who broke out of one of theprison camps."
"His name?"
"I don't know, sir, except that it's Max."
The prisoner, who gave his name as Thomas Telder and was a gamekeeperin the employ of a large landowner in the vicinity, was removed underescort to the cottage, while the midshipman, having questioned theGerman, appeared to report to his superior officer.
"The fellow's a pretty cool customer," declared the midshipman. "Nowthat the game's up he doesn't appear to mind in the least. He sayshis name's Max Falkenheim, and that he's an unter-leutnant of thecruiser 'Mainz.' He was one of those fellows who were reported tohave escaped from Donington Hall by digging a tunnel."
"Jolly rummy that he should fetch up here," commented the sub. "He'sa long way out of his reckoning."
"Unless the east coast of England is too closely guarded," added themidshipman. "However, the fact remains that he was within an ace ofgetting clear. He swears he knows nothing about the unterseeboot, butthat he had agreed with that skunk to put him on board a lugger."
"H'm; well, that's good enough for us. See anything, Parsons?" addedTressidar, addressing one of the seamen who had been told to keep asharp look-out.
"No, sir; fancied I did, but it was a wash-out."
"Any of you men know how to hoot like an owl?" asked the sub.
"Yes, sir; I do," replied a tall able seaman, who in his youth hadbeen a farm hand in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
"Very good; stand by, and when Parsons reports the submarine'ssignal--three cries of the curlew--do you hoot: once only, remember.The rest of you stand easy. I say, Greenwood, you might rummage upaloft and see if there's anything of an incriminating nature in thecottage. Make sure that all the blinds are drawn. I'll give you theword as soon as the strafed U-boat is sighted, if you don't finishbefore."
As a matter of fact the A.P. carried out his orders long before thesubmarine revealed her presence. It was within an hour and twentyminutes of sunrise--the tide being well on the flood--that thelong-expected cry was faintly borne to the alert ears of thewatchers.
Promptly the able seaman replied, and barely had the weird echoesdied away when the sub. heard the muffled sound of oars being boatedand the crunch of heavy boots on the dry kelp.
"Right you vos," exclaimed a guttural voice. "Lower der cans as fastas you vos like."
In reply Sub-lieutenant Tre
ssidar whipped out his revolver and firedthree shots in quick succession into the darkness. Then, with nervesa-tingle, he waited.
It will now be necessary to follow the movements of the twopulling-boats under the orders of the first lieutenant. On puttingoff from the cruiser, the boats made for the harbour's mouth. Outsidethe sea was fairly smooth, with a long, oily swell, for during thenight the wind had backed to north-west and blew diagonally offshore.
Owing to the proximity of several dangerous ledges that extendedseven or eight cables' length seaward the boats had to make a longdetour before they arrived at Sallach Dhu Bay.
"We can't be so very far off now," remarked the first lieutenant tothe midshipman in his boat. "It's that confoundedly black thatgoodness only knows where we are."
"Allowing for the tide, sir, I should think we're almost over HalfWay Deep. Shall I have the lead heaved, sir?"
A cast gave the depth at two fathoms--certainly not enough to float asubmarine, still less to enable her to submerge. The leadsman couldfeel the sinker trailing over the rocky bottom, as the boat driftedwith the tidal current.
Again and again the lead-line gave approximately the same soundings.The first lieutenant began to have doubts as to whether he hadalready overshot the looked-for spot.
Suddenly the water increased in depth to fourteen and a half fathoms.That, allowing for the state of the tide, was the depth shown in thechart for Half Way Deep--a bottle-shaped depression extending wellinto the otherwise shallow waters of Sallach Dhu Bay.
The kedge was let go and, riding head to tide, the boat brought up,to enable the first lieutenant to confer with the officer in thesecond boat.
Carefully screening the light with a piece of painted canvas, the"No. 1" consulted the boat-compass.
"North one hundred and ten east, is your course," he announced to theofficer in charge of his consort. "That'll be taking intoconsideration the cross set of the tide. I'll pay you out a hundredand twenty fathoms of grass warp, then you'll steer due north. Whenyou've let go all the charge, make for the shore. We'll be on thelook-out for you. Suppose you've tested circuits?"
"You bet," replied the other with a grin. "Between us there won't bea fish left alive in Half Way Deep, or a strafed U-boat either, Ihope."
The second boat pushed off, her coxswain steering by means of aluminous compass. As soon as the strain of the connecting line grewtaut, her kedge was dropped. Then both boats, approximately twohundred yards apart, allowing for the sag of the grass-rope under theinfluence of the tide, rowed on parallel courses, paying out lengthsof sinister-looking objects that resembled strings of exaggeratedsausages. This they continued to do until Half Way Deep was mined bya double chain of explosives.
The first lieutenant's boat was the first to reach the shore.Cautiously the crew scrambled out and drew her clear of the water, apetty officer handing the battery and firing-key ashore as carefullyas if it were made of priceless metal.
Five minutes later the second boat loomed through the darkness.
"All correct, sir," reported her officer. "Suppose this is the bay?Wish to goodness I could smoke."
"And so do all of us, old boy," replied No. 1. "But curb yourdesires: you'll see plenty of smoke presently."
Huddled together under the lee side of the boats the two crews spenta tedious time, while their officers, treading softly, walked up anddown the sands.
At intervals they exchanged curt sentences in whispers; otherwise thestrictest silence was maintained. As the night wore on, the firstlieutenant consulted the luminous dial of his watch with increasingfrequency, until he began to wonder if the A.P.'s parent had beendreaming or was the victim of hallucinations. But throughout hismonotonous patrol No. 1 took good care to keep within twenty yards ofthe firing-battery.
Presently he stopped dead and listened intently. Yes, he could justdetect the faint sounds of muffled oars. The noise came from a spotconsiderably nearer than he anticipated: much too close to thedrawn-up boats. What if the new-comers spotted the grey shapes asthey lay on the sand?
The seamen heard the sounds, too, for several of them knelt up andpeered over the gunwales. There was a concerted movement of the nowalert men. The tedious vigil in the bitterly cold night wasforgotten.
Then through the darkness came the curlew cry of the submarine's men,followed by the distant hoot of the British seaman who had beendeputed to assume the r?le of an owl. What these meant the firstlieutenant knew not. His pre-arranged signal had not yet beenreceived. Bang! bang!! bang!!!
Fifty feet in the air the blackness was pierced by three vividflashes, to the accompaniment of the sharp cracks of cordite-chargedcartridges.
"Now!" shouted the first lieutenant.
The men in charge of the firing-batteries depressed the keys thatcompleted the circuit.
Instantly the waters of Half Way Deep were lashed into two parallelcolumns of foam as a double chain of cascades leapt a hundred feet orso in the air. Then a terrific crash, mingled with the roar of thefalling water and the thud of fragments of flying metal coming incontact with the granite cliff.
In the village of Auldhaig the concussion was severely felt.Window-panes were shivered; solidly built houses literally rocked.People, aroused from sleep, dashed blindly for the streets or totheir cellars, fully convinced that the Zeppelins had arrived. Onlyone individual slept through it all; Mr. Greenwood, dreaming ofpetrol-cans, floating mines, and his lost umbrella, and buried underthe bed-clothes, knew nothing of the concussion until next morning,Barely had the echoes died away ere the first lieutenant and hisparty were doubling along the beach towards the place where theunterseeboot's dinghy had landed.
The canvas boat, with a long rent in her bilge, had been carried farup the shore by the rush of water following the tremendous upheaval.Her crew, consisting of a petty officer and two men, were too dazedto offer resistance, for upon the approach of the bluejackets theythrew up their arms and yelled dismally for quarter. Almost at theirfeet was a large fragment of metal--one of the propeller blades ofthe shattered submarine.
"Are you all O.K., Mr. Tressidar?" sang out the first lieutenant.
"All correct, sir," replied Ronald. "We've nabbed the pair of them."
"Very good," rejoined No. 1. "Leave four men to guard the cottage andreturn to the ship. By the bye, have you a cigarette to spare? I leftmy case on board."
It did not occur to the speaker how he was to receive a cigarettefrom the sub., who was fifty feet above him, until he became aware ofa dark object descending the cliffs by means of a rope.
Eric Greenwood, with a double purpose, had ordered two of the men tolower him to the beach.
"Here's my case, No. 1," he announced, as he fumbled under his pileof clothing. "Matches? You have? Would you mind giving me a passageback in the boat? I have a little commission to undertake."
"THEY THREW UP THEIR ARMS AND YELLED FOR QUARTER"]
Receiving permission, the A.P. made his way along the beach, thefirst lieutenant watching him curiously, for dawn was now breaking.Presently Eric returned with his parent's umbrella.
An hour later both boats ran alongside the "Pompey." Tressidar hadalready returned and had lost no time in making his report andretiring to his cabin to make up for arrears of sleep.
In spite of the early hour Captain Raxworthy was on desk, and as thefirst lieutenant came over the side he was waiting to congratulatehim.
"An excellent night's work, Mr. Garboard!" he exclaimeddelightedly--"a most excellent night's work!"