The Russian gave an order down the bridge telephone. Slinger felt just a shade easier in his mind. The implication was that Kate had not flown two thousand miles specially to berate him for his carelessness but had a more important reason for his return. After a moment he ventured:
'Did the New York papers play up on the radios we sent?'
'Oh the Press haven't had such a break in a generation,' the big square faced man in the grey suit stared moodily out of the chart-room window. He seemed to have forgotten Slinger's criminal negligence. 'The papers last night had headlines inches deep about the Duchess's death. It's a great human interest story of course—this poor little rich girl and her bunch of lovers. The Atlantis story alone would have made the editors' hearts rejoice when this crank of a Doctor started discovering mermaids, but with the Duchess in it as well even the marriage of King Karloff has been crowded out. But the innocent looking little devil tricked me and by God she's going to sweat for it. You just watch her eyes start out of her head when I tell her how.'
'Tricked,' exclaimed Slinger. He almost added, 'You,' but caught himself in time. 'Why are they contesting that will then—seriously?'
'Yes—it's my fault—mine entirely. The only slip I've ever made I think and it's hard that it should occur in my biggest coup. It never occurred to me to get a specimen of her signature so that I could verify it when she signed the will. She had the wit to alter it apparently and only half an hour before I got your radio I learned from our pigeon in the lawyer's office that they had suspected the genuineness of the document the moment they received it. Immediately her death was reported of course the rat began to stink a mile away. That's how he got on to what she had done.'
'What—what do you intend to do, Chief?' Slinger hazarded.
Kate was still staring out of the window, his thoughts apparently far away. He fingered his 'old school tie' meditatively and replied in a voice lacking all emotion:
'Teach her just what it costs to try and be too clever, as I will teach you not to be quite so careless—later on.'
There was a horrid silence which continued for several moments, neither Slinger nor Ardow cared to break it. Then a red-faced sailor flung open the chart-room door and thrust his head inside.
'Warship coming up on our port quarter, Captain,' he reported, and slammed the door again.
Instantly the three men in the chart-room were startled into activity. Captain Ardow grabbed his glasses, but Kate was the first to tumble outside. They stared in the direction where the smudge of smoke had first appeared on the horizon half an hour before. It was not the tender that they had expected but a long trim destroyer cleaving the water dead towards them at thirty knots.
Even without glasses they could see that she flew the White Ensign and she was approaching at such speed that in another moment they could see the faces of the men on her decks.
'Hell!' muttered Kate, 'I thought the U.S.N, might send a ship out to investigate, what with your radio for a tender and the lawyer's questioning the will all within a few hours of the Duchess's death being reported—but they couldn't have got here under three days and even if they'd sent a plane it wouldn't have started till this morning. But how have the British rumbled us? This can't be coincidence.'
'We can neither fight nor run,' said Ardow, 'and if we were under steam that thing could catch us in ten minutes. Look there's another smoke stack about three degrees to the left. That's the tender I expect.'
'Never mind the tender,' Kate snapped. 'Stop that bathysphere coming up. I don't want the party here if we've got to face an inquiry.'
'They'll not be anywhere near the surface yet,' demurred Slinger.
'You heard me. Do as I tell you. Then get the men together. Ardow have a boat got out on the starboard side.
The destroyer can't have been near enough to have seen my plane when it came down and its concealed now by the bulk of the ship. Then gun squad are to be sent off to her without a second's delay. We'll remain for the moment and attempt to bluff things out. Say the sphere caught in the rocks on the bottom when it burst and that's why we can't get it up. With the passengers and guards clear of the ship there'll be nothing suspicious to give us away even if they search it from stem to stern. Sally Hart will have to have been in the bathysphere too, when it burst, after all, so she'll lose her hundred thousand if we do succeed in forcing our version of the will through the courts. Her heirs will get it instead but I can't help that. It's her unlucky day. Immediately the two of you have got the men away you'll receive the visitors. I'm only a curious idler who was staying in the Azores and flew out this morning to see the scene of the tragedy.'
Slinger shouted hoarsely down the bridge telephone for the bathysphere to be halted on its upward journey, then shot down the inside ladder to get the men, while Ardow dashed aft to order out a boat.
With what seemed incredible swiftness now the destroyer leapt towards them. It made a graceful curve and came to rest about two hundred yards to port. The shrill pipe of a whistle sounded and, by the time Slinger came panting up the ladder again to report that the gunmen were safely in the boat, the blue jackets had begun to lower a whaler with swift efficiency from the destroyer's side.
'By Jove, they're smart, aren't they—and just to think that I might be commanding that if I'd gone to Dartmouth as the Governor wanted.' Kate spoke with a whole-hearted admiration which left Slinger in open-mouth amazement then, as Ardow appeared, he snapped, 'Down you go—both of you. There's nothing to be scared of. You've got a watertight story and it should be easy to pull the wool over the officer's eyes.'
He stepped out on to the port side of the low bridge where he would be able both to see and hear what passed at the interview, while Slinger and Ardow hurried down to the deck. A ladder was lowered and then they stood waiting with nervous impatience to learn the meaning of this visitation.
The destroyer's boat was gently fended off and a Naval Officer came up the ladder followed by a dozen men all armed with short rifles. He carefully dusted his coat, saluted the quarter deck, and took in Captain Ardow with a glance that was almost as steely as Kate.'
'You are the Captain of this ship?' he asked.
'Yes, Captain Ardow at your service,' the Russian replied.
'You have a Captain McKay sailing as one of your passengers?'
'We had until this terrible tragedy. You will have heard
I-—'
'You have I said,' the Naval Officer repeated icily, 'and you will send this message to him. "Lieutenant Commander Landon Macy presents his compliments to Captain McKay and would be grateful for a word with him at once." '
'But that is impossible,' Ardow protested. 'Did you not hear over the wireless last night-'
'Yes, I heard,' Landon Macy interrupted grimly, 'but the game's up my man. Captain McKay was too smart for you. He's been morsing with his cabin light each night in the hope that some ship would pick up his signals. Last night he was successful although he got no reply because he kept on sending out a warning that his signals should not be acknowledged in case you tumbled to what was happening. The whole story was relayed to Gib and we were wirelessed to pick you up, so you'll send my message at once.'
Slinger had gone deadly white. 'We—we can't,' he stammered. 'The accident did happen and the bathysphere's stuck on the bottom with them dead in it.'
The Naval Officer swung round on him. 'They're no more dead than I am, but I suppose you sent them down in it to get them out of the way. You'll get that bathysphere up, blast you, and be quick about it or I'll know the reason why.'
Kate had been listening on the low bridge above. His hands began to tremble with fury when he realised that the McKay had outwitted him and that his entire scheme had been blown to smithereens. Now he slipped down a ladder and ran swiftly aft.
Landon Macy caught sight of him out of the tail of his eye.
'Who's that?' he snapped.
'A—a visitor,' Slinger stuttered uncertainly.
'Visitor be
damned!' exclaimed Landon Macy swinging round to a Petty Officer. 'Stevens keep a couple of men and arrest these two. The rest of you follow me.' Then drawing his revolver, he dashed after Kate.
Kate reached the open sided crane house thirty seconds in advance. White hot with rage he had determined that the skilful manoeuvres of Camilla and the McKay to outwit him should cost the whole party their lives.
The machinery was silent. The bathysphere dangling, halted on its upward journey in accordance with his last instructions. A group of seamen lounged idly by, waiting for fresh orders. Kate pushed his way past them and leapt into the crane house, thrusting the engineer aside.
For a second he stared at the machinery then he seized the big lever and pulled it right over. The cable began to run out at lightning speed. 'That's done it,' he thought. 'When the cable comes to an end it will snap off the drum or if they reach bottom first the damn thing will be smashed upon the rocks.'
'Shove up your hands!' yelled Landon Macey, bursting in through the port door.
Kate threw him one swift contemptuous glance, then in a flash he had bounded out of the starboard entrance on to the deck.
Landon Macy followed. His pistol cracked. Kate lurched wildly just as he reached the ship's rail then recovered and leapt over into the sea.
The bluejackets, their rifles at the ready, dived through the maze of winches, hose coils, and cable drums which crowded the stern of the vessel, following their officer as he ran towards the ship's side.
Kate's head had already appeared above water and he was swimming strongly towards his amphibian. They raised their rifles to take aim.
Suddenly a machine gun began to stutter from the plane. A hail of bullets spattered the machinery and the deck. One sailor fell, hit in the stomach—another in the legs. The rest dashed for cover.
Crouching behind the winches two of them took pot shots at Kate but he dived again and the bullets missed him. Two more machine guns were brought into play by his men.
Three streams of bullets now thudded zipped, whined as they sprayed the deck and ricochetted from the machinery. The sailors were compelled to keep behind their cover and under such terrific fire dared not peer out to risk another shot.
Landon Macy, back behind the crane house was rapidly semaphoring his ship, to tell them of the hidden plane.
His Commander had heard the shooting and ordered out another boat with reinforcements. Now, he stood gripping the bridge rail with a little group of officers and men behind him all taking in Landon Macy's signals. None of them had yet seen the plane which lay concealed behind Doctor Tisch's ship but immediately they realised what was happening orders were given for an anti-aircraft gun to be prepared for action immediately the plane left the water.
Kate was being hauled aboard at the very moment the order was given. Then engines of the plane burst into a roar. With hardly a seconds delay it began to move swiftly over the smooth water while its machine guns still kept up a heavy fusillade to cover its retreat.
By the time the canvas gun-covers had been removed the amphibian had already circled into the wind and risen in the air.
With frantic haste the gun's crew loaded up and sighted their weapon. The plane had climbed five hundred feet.
Suddenly it swerved, losing height a little. Then shot up at so sharp an angle that it seemed certain it must stall and come crashing down tail first into the water; but Kate's pilot was an ace and knew his business. The pompom gave a series of staccato cracks, but the livid flame of the shell bursts surrounded by their fleecy clouds of grey smoke were three hundred feet beneath him.
The attempts to bring down the plane continued. The Commander of the destroyer, a little man, not unlike the McKay in his general appearance, got redder and redder in the face as Kate's amphibian rose higher in the air, successfully avoiding the successive bursts of shell fire from the anti-aircraft gun by constant dives, twists, and changes of direction.
Landon Macy and his men stood gaping skywards on the scarred after deck among Doctor Tisch's machinery, praying for a hit which would bring down the plane, but after a few moments the gun on the destroyer ceased fire. The amphibian was now only a black spot in the bright blue sky disappearing swiftly to the westward.
As the men moved to pick up the wounded, Landon Macy suddenly thought of the bathysphere again. He ran to the crane house. The engineer was lying hunched at the foot of the starboard ladder, blood dripped slowly from hi:, shattered head into a great pool on the deck. He had been caught in the first burst of machine gun fire and was quite dead. The other members of the crew had dived below to safety.
The Lieutenant Commander sprang up the ladder. The big lever was still turned right over to 'full out' where Kate had jammed it. The cable was sizzling through the steel blocks above it at a terrific speed. They would have been on fire with the heat caused by the friction if they had been wood. The great drums were whirling round like the wheels of a locomotive as the cable left them, the whole machinery hummed and vibrated like a powerful dynamo at full beat. Landon Macy gave the roaring machinery one anxious glance then grabbed the lever. As he jerked it back to stop the bathysphere crashing on the bottom its gears grated harshly—then it slid into reverse.
14
The Last Dive
On the day after Kate's seizure of the ship the McKay, almost as a matter of routine, had played with his gold pencil and a piece of paper for half an hour until he had drafted a brief message stating the situation without one unnecessary word. It began: 'S O S. Do not acknowledge. Relay to Admiralty.' Then followed a concise account of Kate's conspiracy.
That night, and each night since he had morsed the report by means of the light switch in his cabin at least a dozen times between ten o'clock and dawn, taking his sleep in three hour stretches. He had felt convinced that providing his little game was not stopped through one of the people on the bridge spotting the reflection of his flashes in the water, the message would certainly be picked up sooner or later, and help arrive; although he had no great hopes of getting it through until they crossed the great shipping belts on the way south to the Falklands.
When he scrambled into the bathysphere at 8.45 on the morning after the explosion therefore, he had not the least idea that his signals had been picked up the night before and that the Admiralty had ordered a destroyer to be detached from a flotilla which was proceeding to the Bermudas, for their rescue.
Sally insisted that since this was his first dive he should be given one of the canvas chairs nearest the portholes and, to get him settled in it, needed considerable manipulation owing to his having been last through the door. The bathysphere had been designed to hold eight persons and it was now full to capacity Camilla, Sally, Axel, Vladimir, Nicky,
Dr. Tisch, the McKay and the gunman Bozo made up the party. Sally, the McKay and the Doctor, who controlled the searchlight, had the better seats, Camilla, between two of her lovers, Axel and Vladimir, sat behind them, while Nicky as volunteer telephonist, with Bozo, who made a point of having his back against a wall, occupied places by the door.
As the sphere went under the McKay was not particularly intrigued. Three aurelia jellies drifted by and a big shoal of arrow worms then, at their first halt they saw a Puppy Shark about two feet in length with a Pilot fish beneath it. A hundred feet lower the strange exhilaration of that unearthly blue light had begun to get hold of him a little and he leaned forward to peer at a big Snapper which goggled in at him, pressing its face close to the window. A moment later a whole battalion, several hundreds strong, of great blue Parrot fishes came into view swimming almost vertically downwards and through them, in a horizontal direction passed a division comprising thousands of smooth silvery Sardines. The effect of this warp and woof as the two different coloured schools passed through each other was indescribably lovely. Similar sights had often been seen by the others since they occurred several times on every dive, but it was new to the McKay and he admitted to himself that the small element of risk involved i
n a single trip, now that the bathysphere's resistance had been proved, was worth it.
He was peering out of the porthole with his face so close to the fused quartz at 500 feet that his breath condensed upon it and he pulled out his handkerchief to wipe away the moisture.
'Good God!' he exclaimed, 'what's happened?' He knew quite well that the handkerchief was a bright scarlet silk bandana patterned in green. Now it appeared dead black and the design had vanished.
The Doctor gave his throaty chuckle. 'The red rays of the sun no longer penetrate to here Herr Kapitan. I was surprised myself when I first beheld this strange phenomenon, although I knew it to be so from accounts of deep sea diving.'
At 800 feet the deep blue light remained but everything had taken on a ghostly form. Strange shadowy shapes flickered past and as the sphere descended further many of them began to show luminosity. When they came to rest at 1,600, five fishes swam past with blotches on them which glistened like tinfoil in the grey blue darkness then some unseen organism spat out a rocket-like burst of luminous fluid.
At 2,000 feet the Doctor put on the light for a few moments and a shoal of brilliant silver fish were caught in it turning like a flight of birds. Later they saw a creature with two large reddish lights in front and a constellation of smaller ones, all pale blue, then a great Squid with light organs encircling its eye, but the teeming life changed so constantly as the sphere was lowered that they caught little more than a glimpse of individual specimens and had no time to examine one tenth of all the marvels that passed the windows.
The Doctor judged that the day before they had been on the western fringe of the Atlantean city and he feared now that the drift of the ship might have carried them away from the area of its remains, but when they reached bottom at 10.40 he found to his joy that they were apparently well inside its limits. A line of tall rounded stones equal in circumference but uneven in height, rising quite near them from the ocean bed, definitely suggested a row of truncated columns.
By means of operating the claws in its undercarriage the Doctor turned the sphere gently and a solid surface, reaching up into the darkness like a great blank wall, came into view. For a moment he swivelled the light up and down but the beam could not reach its top and any ornamentations which it might once have had the waters had long since erased into a uniform smoothness.
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