The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 05

by Anthology

  "Oh, I'm agreeable, of course," said Wyndham. "What do you say, gentlemen?" he continued, turning to Adams and Mr. Austen.

  They glanced at each other and nodded.

  "Yes," said Adams; "I don't see why you shouldn't, as long as there isn't any unprovoked bloodshed."

  "Oh, of course not," said Wyndham. "I don't suppose you want me to sink them, do you, Captain Andrews?"

  "Well, no, not unless they absolutely refuse to give an account of themselves, and in that case, of course - well, you can just use your own discretion."

  "I see," said Wyndham in reply. "We won't hurt them unless we are obliged to. What course shall we steer?"

  "You can make it nor'-west by north from where you lie till you make the French land. By that time you'll see the flames from their funnels, I expect, and then, of course, it will only be a question of heels."

  "All right. Good-bye. Keep those torpedo-boats of yours out of the way," said Wyndham, "because if we hit anything it'll get hurt. Good-bye, I'll bring you news back in an hour or so, or else you'll hear something startling in the morning."

  The captain waved good-bye from the deck as Wyndham went forward into the conning-tower, accompanied by Adams, who was going to take the wheel for him, while Mr. Austen and Sir Harry disappeared down the after companion-way. Those on board the cruiser heard the companion-slide and the door of the conning-tower shut with a smart snap. Then they heard the muffled tinkling of an electric bell, and the Nautilus moved slowly away from the cruiser's side. As soon as she was clear of her and her consorts, there was a sound as of rapidly churned-up water, a mass of boiling foam rose astern of the Nautilus, two clouds of spray leapt up ahead of her, and the next moment she had vanished into the darkness on her errand of investigation.

  CHAPTER XVI.

  THE "NAUTILUS" GOES INTO ACTION.

  AS the Nautilus gathered way, the lieutenant had the pumps set to work and filled her water compartments until the hull was entirely submerged, and nothing but the platform and about half of its supporting structure remained above the surface. The two wings of spray which she had thrown up when she started now subsided. The night was calm, though cold, and the water rushed away on either side of the swiftly-moving platform in long, dark, smooth swirls, without a trace of foam either fore or aft.

  This was accomplished by means of a device which, in designing the Nautilus, Mr. Austen had made use of for the first time in naval architecture. Far forward in the hull, just behind the ram, the plates were pierced with scores of tiny holes arranged along the top and sides of a cylinder, and through these, fine jets of oil were forced, and these, rising to the surface or spreading themselves along the upper sides of the hull, both diminished the skin-friction and prevented the water breaking into foam forward of the platform.

  A double advantage was derived from this arrangement. The reduction of skin-friction meant a considerable increase in speed, and the absence of any "bone in her teeth," to use a nautical term, enabled her, as the present expedition clearly proved, to approach close to another craft at night without giving any warning of her presence. Had she been running thus submerged when coming through the Straits, the probability is that she would have got through without anyone being a whit the wiser; but this manoeuvre was only intended to be resorted to when in action.

  The apparatus for supplying pure oxygen and keeping the air in her interior perfectly fresh was capable of performing its work continuously for twenty-four hours. There were no furnaces or boilers to heat the air or vitiate it with smoke and noxious fumes, and not even Violet, lying on the couch in her cabin fifteen feet below the surface of the water, suffered the slightest inconvenience as the wonderful vessel bore her at a speed of nearly forty-five knots an hour through the depths. In fact, so absolute was the confidence in the strength and capabilities of the Nautilus with which her voyage had inspired those on board her, that Violet had point-blank refused to be put on shore at Dover, for fear her brother should have felt bound to accompany her, and so would have missed the excitement of the chase. As for any harm coming to them, the idea never even suggested itself.

  Within half an hour from the start, the plumes of flame from the triple funnels of the two strange craft were distinctly seen from the conning-tower to the north-west under the looming shadow of the French land. Slightly altering the course of the Nautilus to the northward, Wyndham now steered direct for the points of light. The hostile torpedo-boats, if such they were, were evidently bound on some important mission, for it was obvious that they were steaming for all they were worth.

  Another half-hour brought the Nautilus close enough to them for Wyndham to see that they were two large torpedo-boats of the class known in the French navy as torpilleurs de haute mere, and that they were travelling at a speed of over thirty knots an hour. This gave him an advantage of from twelve to fourteen knots, and so the distance between them rapidly decreased. When the chase had lasted for a little over an hour and a half, he was within five or six hundred yards of them and dead astern. They still kept on under the land and within the three-mile limit of the French shore which no British vessel could pass for any hostile purpose without a breach of neutrality.

  "I'll be hanged if I can make out what those fellows are up to," said Wyndham to Adams when he had reduced speed so as to keep his distance from the torpedo-boats. "They're evidently on some special errand or other, or else they wouldn't be going at such a speed. British they are not, or they wouldn't be over here. If they were French, and merely running from one port to another in the ordinary way, there would be no reason for all this hurry, because we are not at war with France, and they have just as much right to steam through the Straits as our ships have.

  "On the other hand, if they are Russians, how did they get here? They can only have come from a French port or from the Mediterranean; and yet, if they have come from the Mediterranean, they must have coaled either at sea or at a French port, or they wouldn't have enough coal on board at this time to be steaming at that speed. We can't ram them on mere suspicion of being Russians, so I suppose there is nothing for it but just to follow them up for the present.

  "There are the lights of Dunkirk on the quarter, so in half an hour we shall be outside French waters, then perhaps we shall see what their game really is. Fortunately, it is all on our way to the Tyne."

  "It looks to me," said Adams, "as though they were either carrying some secret despatches to a fleet in the North Sea, or else they're on a raiding expedition somewhere. I don't really see that we can do anything else but watch them."

  "No," replied the lieutenant, "I don't see that we can; but still, I am satisfied that there is some pretty dark game afoot or afloat. They don't seem to turn to the north, either. If they mean a rush across to the English coast after sneaking through the Straits in neutral waters, they'll make it pretty soon. I'd give something to know what they really are up to."

  For two hours more they ran along in the rear of the two boats, without seeing anything that gave them any clue to their character or the object of their cruise. This brought them, as nearly as the lieutenant could calculate, off the mouth of the Scheldt.

  A few minutes later, they sighted the lightship marking the entrance to the river, and almost at the same instant, the two torpedo-boats made a rapid turn and ran out to the eastward in slightly diverging directions. Then the sparks and flames that had been shooting from their funnels disappeared, their speed decreased, and the lieutenant had to turn the Nautilus inland to keep out of sight as he slowed her down.

  "Oh, that's it, is it?" he said, as he saw the manoeuvre of the two boats. "Whatever they are, they have come to watch the entrance to the Scheldt. Now the question is, what are they watching for? Either for something coming in or something going out. It can't very well be anything coming out, unless it's a passenger steamer, and they wouldn't take all this trouble for that."

  "Do you think it likely," said Adams, haphazarding a guess, "that Britain has made any secret arrange
ment with Belgium to garrison Antwerp, as I have often heard she would try to do in case of a war, and-"

  "By Jove, I believe you've hit it!" exclaimed Wyndham. "The trouble with France may really be much nearer breaking out than Captain Andrews knew, and it's just possible that such an arrangement has been made, and that our people might be running two or three transports across by night, so as to steal a march on the Frenchmen.

  "It would be rather a risky move; but, anyhow, we shall soon see if it is so, for these fellows certainly look as though they had got wind of something of the sort, and mean to patrol the outside of the river mouth to waylay a troopship and shove a torpedo into her, and then get back again into French waters as if they'd never done anything. If that's so, it's a very good job that we followed them, and I think we shall be able to spoil their little game very effectually.

  "We'll just run round behind them and get out to sea in front of them. Yes; they're evidently looking for something coming in, or they wouldn't be running out at quarter speed like that."

  The Nautilus now made a wide curve round the landward side of the boats, and then, keeping well out of sight, put on speed and ran away to sea. When she got out ahead of the boats, Wyndham noticed that they showed no lights visible from a vessel bow on to them, and from this he rightly concluded that his surmise was correct, and that they were lying in wait for something coming from seaward. Nor was it very long before he and Adams made out a huge black mass looming dimly against the dark background of sea and sky to eastward. It was showing neither masthead nor side-lights, so evidently its mission was also a secret.

  "That's the craft they're looking for," said Wyndham, after a long stare through his night-glasses. "I shouldn't be surprised if that's one of the big P.&0. boats being used as a trooper. Those fellows haven't sighted her yet, I think, for they're a good dozen miles behind us. We'll run along and tell that chap what there is ahead of him. Hullo, there's another behind him," he continued, as a second black mass loomed up astern of the first one.

  In a quarter of an hour, the Nautilus was alongside of the leading steamer, and Wyndham, throwing open the door of the conning-tower, hailed the deck and rapidly explained the situation to the officer who answered his hail. Adams's conjecture proved perfectly correct. War with France was considered to be imminent and liable to break out at any moment. A secret engagement which had long been in force between the Belgian and British Governments was being taken advantage of to put ten thousand British troops into Antwerp, and three big steamers were making a rush for the Scheldt that night.

  Secret intelligence of this must have been conveyed by spies to France, and the two torpedo-boats had been sent out to intercept and sink the troopers, if possible, without any one being aware of their fate. It was a desperate move, and in flat defiance of the law of nations; but in practice there could be no doubt that the troops were being conveyed to a neutral country for hostile purposes, and this would go far towards justifying the action of France, provided always that it was successful.

  If unsuccessful, the moral effect would be so bad that the Government would probably repudiate all responsibility for the action of the two boats. Wyndham's trained mind saw all this at a glance, and his course of action was immediately taken. He warned the second and the third troopships of their danger, and as the three slowed down and went at quarter speed to the northward, he headed the Nautilus in for the land again, saying to Adams as he did so-

  "There's nothing else for it. We must send those two fellows to the bottom without mercy. They are there to commit a breach of the law of nations and to sacrifice thousands of lives without even the sanction of regular warfare. The Destroyer herself has really done nothing worse than that. What do you think?"

  "I am afraid I must agree with you," replied Adams gravely. "It seems a terrible thing to do, certainly, but it would be infinitely more dreadful to see them sink those steamers with all the thousands on board them."

  "Yes," said Wyndham. " And if the Frenchmen once catch sight of them, they'll send one, at any rate, of them to the bottom, for we can only attend to one torpedo-boat at a time; so we'd better get the business over as soon as possible."

  The low platform of the Nautilus now began to glide faster and faster over the water, and Wyndham kept her on a curving course towards the land, until the two French boats- for such they really were, and bent on the very errand that Adams had guessed- were in line broadside on, and the nearer one was about a mile away. Wyndham signalled for full speed to the engine-room, and the Nautilus rushed forward towards the unsuspecting enemy.

  Not until she was close upon her was she detected by those on board the first torpedo-boat, and then it was too late. The submerged ram went at her with a speed of an express train. The steel spur pierced her thin plates like tissue paper, and then the bulk of the Nautilus, hurled with frightful impetus upon her, crushed the flimsily-built hull like an eggshell, and the platform passed over the wreck.

  For a moment they saw forms of men with agonised faces crawling about it, and then the Nautilus swept on, leaving the fragments to sink in the sea. Four minutes later the ram struck the second one square amidships, cut her in two as cleanly as a gigantic chisel might have done, and as the two halves dropped away on either side, Wyndham swung his terrible craft round, signalled for quarter speed, and ran back to pick up those of the crews who were still struggling and swimming for their lives.

  Out of eighty men they only succeeded in saving twenty-four, and these they took back to the leading troopship as prisoners of war. They confessed that they had heard of the movements of the troopships from spies in England, and had come out to sink them. But whether they had done this by the order, or even with the sanction, of the French Government, they flatly refused to tell.

  The result of this, the first warlike action of the Nautilus, proved to be of immense importance. When France woke up the next morning, there were ten thousand British troops in Antwerp. The French press stormed in its usual hysterical fashion, but war was not declared. For the time being, at any rate, the rapid and well-planned move was checkmate in the game that the two Governments were playing.

  Of course, all sorts of rumours were soon flying about concerning the exploit of the Nautilus, but officially nothing was said on either side. The ram went on her way to Elswick and shipped her guns, torpedo armament, and ammunition, and underwent a thorough overhauling at the hands of Armstrong's most experienced engineers.

  Sir Harry, Adams, and Mr. Austen at once applied themselves to the task of getting the various parts of the twenty air-ships into the hands of the different firms who were to construct them, and orders were given at Elswick for the building of another ram on the lines of the Nautilus, while that redoubtable craft was taken round to Southampton, in readiness to sally forth into the Atlantic on receipt of the first news by ship or cable of the appearance of the Destroyer on the high seas, or to act as torpedo-boat destroyer and scout in case of an outbreak of hostilities with France, and any attempt on the southern coast.

  In this way a month and then two months passed, and still they waited in vain for any sign of the pirate who a few weeks before had been the terror of the Atlantic. She had disappeared as utterly as though a shot from one of the big guns of a battle-ship had blown her out of the water. Liners went to and fro unmolested, and even the air-ship that had given such terrible evidence of its powers had evinced no further sign of its existence.

  A series of crushing naval defeats in Eastern waters had shown Russia the folly of measuring her strength afloat with the Power that was still the mistress of the seas. France, isolated by the alliance of Britain, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Italy, still withheld her hand, chiefly in consequence of the wisdom and strength of the President of the Republic, who had set his face like flint against war save in defence of territory; and so the combatants waited until the breaking up of the ice in the Baltic or the forcing of the Dardanelles should enable Russia to make an effort to retrieve in the West the
disasters she had sustained in the East.

  CHAPTER XVII.

  A VISIT TO PARIS.

  WHILE these events were taking place in England, the crews of the Destroyer and the Bremen were enjoying what they no doubt considered a well-earned holiday amidst the tropical beauties of Utopia. Renault and Hartog had decided, for the present at any rate, to take possession of the island and the dock yard, keeping a sharp look out for unwelcome visitors, and to take advantage of their leisure to fit out the Bremen as a floating workshop for the construction of the air-ships, as soon as the necessary materials could be obtained from their agents in America, England, and Europe.

  They knew that they would be free from interruption, at any rate for a period of some weeks, it might even be months, since it would be absurd for an expedition to be sent out to attack them in the island, unless it could be supported by at least two or three air-ships, and these Max knew from experience could not possibly be built and made ready for flight in less than four months from the time that work was commenced on them. He knew that Sir Harry and his friends would push on the construction of their vessels with the utmost possible speed; and he also saw clearly that, if there was going to be a fight for the empire of the air, the side that got its fleet on the wing first would have an immense advantage over the other.