CHAPTER X
IN THE HANDS OF THE POLICE
I had been afraid to shift my position lest the change should rouse anysuspicions on the part of the "doctor," and his first attempt was todrag me out while he remained outside.
He seized my left arm and tried to pull me forward, but I had hitched myfeet under a board of the flooring, and the attempt failed.
"Come here, Marlen. I'll hand him out to you," he said, turning hishead for a moment. "He's got caught up in something or other."
"I can't leave the wheel."
"Stop the launch a minute then."
"It's your own job; do it yourself," was the surly reply.
Muttering an oath at his companion's cowardice, the "doctor" stoopeddown and, first pushing me roughly to one side out of his way, began tocrawl head first into the forecastle.
"Curse the darkness," he murmured.
But my eyes had grown accustomed to it; and it helped me although ithindered him. I could watch him easily. The litter in the placehampered him also, and he stumbled and fell on his knees, and sworeagain volubly.
Taking advantage of the noise he made, I slipped back a yard or two andgripped my weapon in readiness.
"Where the devil is he?" he muttered, and began to feel about for me.
I was crouching in a corner waiting for a favourable chance to strike,and he could not see me.
The chance came an instant later, as he was stooping down in his huntfor me. Raising my hand I struck him two blows on the head with all mystrength and at the same instant slammed the hatch to.
"What's the matter?" shouted Marlen, hearing the noise of the blows andcoming forward quickly.
The "doctor" lay as still as a log. I had stunned him or killed him,and at the moment I did not much care which. I kept my hands on him,and if there had been the slightest movement I should have struck himagain. I was fighting for my life.
When I was satisfied that he would give me no more trouble, I ran myhands quickly over him in the hope that he would have a revolver; but Icould feel nothing of the sort; and as Marlen was fingering the hatch toget it open, I drew back into my corner again.
If he came in to see what had happened, I would serve him as I hadserved the "doctor." I hoped he would with all my heart.
He got the hatch open after some fumbling and peered in.
"Doctor!" he called, and paused. "Doctor!" A little louder this time."What have you done? You haven't killed him, have you? Doctor!"
He put his head in a little way, but not far enough for me to make sureof disabling him, and then withdrew it again.
"What the devil does it mean?" He was evidently very frightened.
After a few seconds' pause he ran to the after-part of the launch andstopped her. He waited until the way was off her, and then came forwardonce more and called to his companion.
"The place is as dark as hell," he muttered and went off, as I guessedto get a light.
I used the time to make another search for a revolver in the stunnedman's pockets, and failing to find one, I threw some of the litter overthe head and shoulders, and went back to my corner and lay down as ifstill unconscious, but in such a position that I could spring on Marlenthe instant he entered.
This time he brought not only a lantern but a revolver. He had littleof the courage of the other fellow I soon saw, and he brought the weaponmore because he feared the "doctor" than from any suspicion that I wasthe cause of the mysterious trouble.
"What fool's game are you playing, doc?" he said. "Don't try any prankswith me. What have you done to the man?"
He thrust in the lantern and peered all about him. I saw him take a longlook at me, and the scrutiny apparently satisfied him that I was stillof no account; and then he turned from me to the prostrate form of hiscompanion.
He looked long and anxiously at him, and shook his head. "He must havehad some sort of fit, if he hasn't got some devil's game on. Doctor!"
He appeared to be afraid to trust himself inside the place, and for someminutes remained in stolid thought.
Next he levelled the revolver at the other. "I'm covering you, doc.Get up or I shall fire." He shook his head again in dire perplexitywhen he received no reply, and at length made up his mind to riskentering.
He set the lantern down, fortunately on the side farther from me, andstooped to enter, holding the weapon all the time in readiness, andglueing his eyes on the still form of the unconscious man.
At that moment I changed my plan. I would have that revolver if it werein any way possible.
I let him enter, therefore, and crawl to the side of the "doctor." Hemoved very slowly and with intense caution, feeling the body as heapproached the head. Then he pulled off the covering of the face andstarted violently.
For the instant he was entirely off his guard in his consternation, andI took advantage of that moment. I sprang forward, wrested the revolverfrom his grasp, thrust him violently down, seized the lantern andstarted out on to the deck, sliding to the hatch and shooting home thebolt.
I was now master of the situation, and with a profound sigh of reliefand thankfulness I sank down on the deck.
I was still very shaky, and the reaction from the strain and suspense ofmy time in the forecastle tried me severely. My nerves were all topieces, and when Marlen began hammering with his fists at the hatch, Istarted as if it were some fresh peril to be faced.
I let him hammer. So far as I was concerned he might have hammered allthe skin off his knuckles before I would take any notice; and after myfirst start of alarmed surprise, I just lay still and rested until I hadrecovered strength and composure.
He grew tired of knocking presently, and began to whine to me to let himout. But I made no response. He was in a very ugly mess indeed, and ataste of the suspense I had had to undergo would do him good. He couldspend the interval in thinking out some plausible explanation of hisexceedingly compromising situation.
Meanwhile I had to think what I was to do. I did not understand theworking of the launch, which was drifting at the will of the stream; andthere appeared to be nothing for it but to let her drift until we met aboat, and I could get assistance.
But it then occurred to me that I myself might be hard put to it to givean account of myself. My clothes were in a filthy state as the resultof my crawling hunt in the dirty forecastle, and when I examined them bythe light of the lantern I found some ugly blood-stains on my sleeves.
These would go far to set up the presumption that I was responsible forthe wound to the "doctor"; and as I was now outside and armed with arevolver and the two men were my prisoners, the German police wouldrequire a lot of persuasion that I was the innocent and they the guiltyparties.
Any investigation would most certainly occupy a long time, moreover; andas my chief desire was to get back to Berlin with the least possibledelay, I resolved not to run the risk of waiting for the police or anyone else to come to my assistance.
There was only one way to accomplish this: I must swim ashore. I foundmuch to my relief that my pockets had not been rifled, and that I hadsufficient money for a ticket to Berlin. But I could not travel in ablood-stained coat; so I hunted through the boat and came across a roughreefer's jacket in the after-cabin, which I annexed. I then undressed,tore out the blood-stained portions of my own coat, made a bundle of myclothes, and managed to fasten it on my head.
Then I waited until the launch had drifted pretty close to the bank onthe side where the railway ran, when I let myself carefully over theside and struck out.
Just as I was pushing off I heard Marlen start shouting and hammeringagain at the hatch, and the muffled sounds reached me across the wateruntil I reached the shore.
They ceased as I finished dressing myself and started out to ascertainwhere I was and which was the nearest station to make for.
The swim in the cold water chilled me; but I set off at a brisk pace andsoon had my blood circulating a
gain.
I had not an idea where I was, except that I knew my way lay up stream;so I struck across country until I came to a road leading in thedirection I had to go, and I set off to walk until I could ascertainwhere to find a station.
I knew I should have to be very cautious about asking any questions.German police methods were very different from English, and a man garbedas I was, without any papers of identification and carrying a loadedrevolver, was pretty sure to be an object of suspicion. It would beexceedingly difficult for me to give any acceptable account of myselfwithout telling all that had occurred; and that would certainly meanthat I should be detained, and probably left to cool my heels in apolice-cell while the cumbersome wheels of the law were put in motion toinvestigate my story.
I plodded along for an hour or two, keeping my ears at full strain forany footsteps ahead of me, and taking the greatest care to make aslittle noise in walking as possible.
In my weakened state, I found this extremely fatiguing, and more thanonce I had to sit down and rest. Eager as I was to reach the capital, Igrudged every second of these intervals of inaction.
I was on fire with impatience to ascertain what had happened to Altheain my absence. How long I had been away from home I could not tell; andI tortured myself with a hundred fears on her account.
Von Felsen was not the man to lose a minute in getting to work, as soonas he knew I was out of his way; and of course his creature, Dragen,would have told him at once of the success of the attempt to kidnap me.
Until I had left the launch, the consideration for my own safety and theweighing of the chances of escape had kept me from fretting aboutmatters in Berlin; but now that I was free and on the way back, everyminute seemed to be of vital consequence, and the thought that I mightbe stopped by the police harassed and worried me into a positive feverof dread.
Fortune did me a good turn, however. I heard the rumble of a train as Iwas sitting by the roadside, and presently I saw it rush rapidly past afew hundred yards above the road where I was.
This did more to revive my strength than anything else could have done,and a moment later I was striding across the intervening fields to reachthe line. I knew I should not meet any one there, and I pushed aheadwith more confidence than I had yet felt.
Soon afterwards the gloom began to lift, and the sky grew grey in theeast. Dawn was near; and as the light grew stronger, I saw a stationnot far ahead.
If all went well, an hour or two would see me out of my fix and speedingtoward Berlin. But everything depended upon the "if." I was alreadycommitting an offence in walking on the line; and I knew that mygreatest difficulties might easily come at the station itself.
I left the line, therefore, while still at a considerable distance fromthe station, and made my way back to the road again. In doing this Istumbled into a rather broad ditch and made myself in a pretty mess.
Under ordinary circumstances I should have laughed at this; but as somuch might turn on my appearance, already dishevelled enough, itirritated me and promised to prove an additional handicap, when the timecame for questions to be asked.
I looked very much like a tramp, and the German law is not kindlydisposed toward tramps at any time, and certainly not when they arefound wandering about armed in the early dawn. Still, I had to make thebest of things, so I plodded along until I reached the station.
But the door was locked and, although some one must have been attendingto the signals, I could not see any one. The name on the end of thebuilding was Wilden; but that did not help me much, as I had never heardof the place.
I was debating what to do when a very sleepy-looking official camelounging up to the door, unlocked it and entered, eyeing me with glancesfull of suspicion the while.
"When is the next train to Berlin?" I asked him.
He looked me up and down carefully and then grinned. "Do you want afirst-class ticket?"
I took his impertinence lightly. "You needn't judge by my appearance,"I said with a laugh. "I have money to pay for any ticket I want," and Irepeated the question.
"Where did you get it from? And what are you doing hanging about hereat this time in the morning?"
"I'm going to wait for the next train to Berlin."
"Well, you won't wait in here;" and with that he slammed the door in myface.
It is very little use to argue with a man who is on the right side of alocked door, so I turned away and walked a little distance along theroad by which I had come, and sat down under a tree to wait.
I was cold, intensely weary, and famished with hunger; and although Ifought against sleep, nature would not be denied, and I was soon off.The thunder of a train woke me, and jumping up I saw a train runninginto the station.
I hurried back to the station and the man I had seen before met me atthe entrance. "Hullo, you again, is it?" he cried.
"I want a ticket for Berlin."
"That train doesn't go to Berlin. You'll have time to go and washyourself first"; and he deliberately blocked my way.
As all railway officials were Government servants, I had to be cautiousin dealing with him. "Where does that train go, then?" I asked verycivilly.
He sneered. "Ah, I thought as much. Anywhere, eh, to get away fromthis place? But you're not going by it, my friend."
It was getting difficult to keep my temper, but I replied quietly:
"You are evidently making a great mistake about me."
"Oh no, I'm not," he laughed, with a knowing shake of the head. "Wheredid you sleep last night? And who are you?"
"I am going to Berlin," I said. But as the train started at that momentthere was nothing to be gained by continuing to wrangle with the man, soI turned away.
Then he said in a less surly tone: "There's no train for two hours. Youcan wait in the station."
I was glad enough to have the chance, and sitting down on one of thebenches in the waiting-room, was soon fast asleep again.
When I woke I saw the reason for his apparent concession. A policeofficer was with him and had roused me. I blinked at him confusedly.
"Come along with me," he ordered curtly.
"I want to go to Berlin. I must get there without delay."
"Come with me, I tell you," he repeated very sharply. "We must knowsomething about you first."
With a shrug I rose, and he walked me off to the police station, therailway official accompanying us. I concealed my bitter irritation asbest I could, and tried to think of the best story to tell. Therailwayman said what he knew, and the officer in charge of the stationquestioned me. "Who are you?"
"There has been a great mistake made by this gentleman. I am anEnglishman, Paul Bastable, 78, Miedenstrasse, Berlin, a newspapercorrespondent. I have been away in search of information about someevents I cannot tell you, and must return to Berlin at once."
"Where have you come from?"
"I am not at liberty to tell you; but you can send some one with me toBerlin if you wish, and I can satisfy him of the truth about me."
"Have you searched him?" he asked the man who had taken me there.
He did it at once without any ceremony, and together they examined thecontents of my pockets. When they looked next at me, it was withobvious suspicion, and the constable turned back the collar of thereefer jacket at the back and then nodded to his superior.
"Paul Bastable, English, are you? Then how come you to have the papersof Johann Spackmann, engineer, with you, and to be wearing his coat?"
What a stroke of ill luck! I had seen the man take a paper from theinside pocket of the jacket I had annexed from the launch. I hesitatedand then forced a laugh. "I suppose you know that newspaper men have tobe somebody else at times. I have told you the truth. Send some onewith me to Berlin."
"I knew there was something wrong about him," put in the railwayman."But I must be off, the Berlin train is due."
"For Heaven's sake don't let me miss that train," I cried earnestly.
A stolid stare and a shak
e of the head was the only reply.
"But I tell you I must get on at once."
"You will remain here while we make inquiries about you."
My heart sank. "Well, let me telegraph to my people and they will sendsome one out to identify me. Or wire the message yourself"; and I gaveBassett's name and the address of my former office.
"Well, good-morning," said the railwayman; and as he left the station Iwas led away and placed in a cell.