L.P.M. : The End of The Great War Part 33

He was in a room, he found, a parlour or sitting-room, about fifteen by twenty, neatly but handsomely furnished, and suggesting to him in its general appearance the owner's apartments on the largest and most perfectly equipped yachts. There was this difference, however, that nothing about it indicated that it was ever off an even keel. There were no racks or other contrivances to suggest that it was prepared to turn in any direction at an angle of forty-five degrees, and which to the land-lubber causes qualms even while the ship is still tied to the dock.

It might indeed have been a handsome living-room in a bachelor's apartment, but for the windows, which at the first glance seemed to be of the ordinary French cas.e.m.e.nt form, running down to the floor, and looking as if they might open out onto a balcony; but to his surprise, he found, when he pulled aside the heavy curtains, that they looked into a perfectly blank white wall about two inches from the gla.s.s.

Adjoining the living-room was a bedroom furnished in similar style with the same sort of windows, and beyond, Lawrence found as attractive a bath-room as ever welcomed an American millionaire after a hot day in his office, or a game of polo.

After a boiling tub and a freezing shower, in the pink of condition--and nothing else--he went back into the bedroom.

"Now what," he had wondered, "will the Fairy G.o.dmother have for me in the way of a union suit, and a pair of jumpers?"

But he had not wondered very hard. He found, as he knew he would, for he had yachted with Edestone before, a complete outfit, not forgetting the c.o.c.ktail, which was standing on the table as quietly and innocently as if it had always been there, although in reality it had just been placed there by a man who, with years of experience in listening to the sounds that come from a gentleman's bathroom, had timed its arrival to the second.

Nor was it one of those c.o.c.ktails that are poured from a bottle, and served hot out of a silver-snouted shaker on a sloppy waiter, but a masterpiece from the hands of an artist, who took pride in his handiwork.

With the modesty of a chorus girl with a good figure on a "first night,"

he toasted the valet with much ceremony.

Soon he was dressed in the mess jacket of a petty officer, and putting a yachting cap jauntily on his head, he went out to seek his friend. The valet told him he would find Mr. Edestone in the breakfast room, and he was shown thither by an officer who was waiting for him.

As he pa.s.sed along, he could not divest himself of the idea that he was on board Edestone's yacht, the _Storm Queen_ again, only that everything here was on a larger scale. The breakfast room, he discovered, was on the same deck but farther forward, and was reached by pa.s.sing through a large room furnished as a general living-room.

Edestone came forward to greet him with a rather melancholy expression on his face. He was dressed in a yachtsman's dinner jacket which fitted him perfectly, and with his bandaged head, he looked more than ever the sea lord. His rank of Captain was shown by the stripes on his arm.

The room was, as one would expect Edestone to have in his New York or country house, simple but handsome.

He had just been giving some orders about the windows which were of the same form and size as those Lawrence had remarked in his own room, and like them opened against a wall; but at Lawrence's appearance, he interrupted these instructions.

"I am glad to see you aboard." He presented his hand, which Lawrence took with his left. "I had looked forward to your first trip with me with so much pleasure. But how different it is from the way I had pictured it. I cannot get Fred, Stanton, or my two sailors out of my mind."

Lawrence's own face saddened, but for Edestone's sake he endeavoured to speak philosophically.

"The fortunes of war, old man. Why grieve? You certainly were not to blame."

For a moment there was silence between them; then Edestone, as if attempting to shake off his gloomy reflections, struck a lighter note.

"How do you like being a pirate, Lawrence?" he smiled.

"Great! The dream of my life, with you for a captain!"

So they sat down to dinner. The men attending to their wants moved about unheard and almost unseen in the shadow outside the circle of soft light which fell only on the table. The room was filled with an indescribable aroma of comfort and good cheer. A newly-lighted fire crackled on the hearth, for it had suddenly become quite cold. Indeed, it was with difficulty Lawrence could realize that but a few hours before they had been in the midst of battle and sudden death, and that, as they sat, down there five times the height of the Eiffel Tower below them was the Emba.s.sy from which they were still removing the dead, or aiding the dying.

As he looked at Edestone with his sad, brooding eyes, he felt all at once as if his friend had been taken away from him, and had been lifted to a place so exalted, that for the life of him, he could not have taken the liberty of speaking until he was first addressed.

The dinner went on, and though the food was delightful and the wines perfect, both men merely toyed with what was on their plates, while Lawrence gulped his champagne as if he were trying to get its effect quickly in order to throw off this strange new diffidence and restraint which he now felt in the presence of his oldest and dearest friend.

He tried to imagine that they two were cruising alone on the _Storm Queen_, as they had so often done, and that this was just one of many evenings that they had spent in this way together; but

Where was the lap of the water at her side, Or the pounding of the launch as she rode at her boom?

The groan of the anchor as she swung with the tide, Or the blowing off steam, which demanded more room?

All was perfectly quiet. If there were storage batteries on board, they had been charged. There was no shovelling of coal; no shrieking and banging of doors in the boiler room, nor banking of fires. The only thing that remained true to tradition was the ship's bell. It had just sounded out five bells.

The silence was at last broken by Edestone; but, although he spoke, it was more as if he were merely letting his pensive thoughts run on.

"How different this has been from the way I had planned it. How different, too, has been your home-coming, old man--for the _Storm Queen_ was like home to you in the old days."

But Lawrence by this time was beginning to feel the effects of champagne, and was certain that unless he very soon did something to lift the pall that had fallen on them, he himself would be dissolved in tears.

"I don't know what your plan was," he said; "but don't you worry about my home-coming. The thing that ought to worry you is my leave-taking.

The L. P. M. has got the _Storm Queen_ beat a mile, and I am booked for life. And, by the way, what is my rank on this ship? My old position of room clerk on the _Storm Queen_ won't go here, as I don't suppose you intend to have any 'cuties' on board, not even for the New London week."

"No." Edestone consented at last to smile. "I am afraid, Lawrence, those days are all over for me. My little house of cards has fallen about me, and I have serious work before me, if I wish to build it up again. I have been thinking, and thinking very hard. From the moment that I saw poor Fred roll down the stairs of the Emba.s.sy, I knew that my first plan had failed. When Germany discovers that the United States is not back of me, she will apologize, and you know how quickly our present Administration will accept the apology, and how quickly they will disclaim any responsibility for my acts, if it means a fight?"

Lawrence nodded.

"Germany," went on Edestone, "will then call on all the neutral nations to join her in bringing me, an outlaw, to earth. This will give her a common cause with them, and she will hope in that way to strengthen her position relative to the Allies. She does not know my relationship with England, but she will undoubtedly declare that I am one of the means England is using to subjugate the world."

"And is there nothing you can do?" asked Lawrence.

"My last and only hope is that tomorrow, after they have realized the uselessness of opposing me, they will listen to a proposition of peace--without honour, from their old standard; but with great honour, from the standard that I intend to establish. I propose to send what is practically an ultimatum; and that is, that if they do not immediately open negotiations looking toward peace, I will sink every German battleship that floats, and destroy every factory in which guns, explosives, or any of the munitions of war are manufactured."

"Me for the junk business," exclaimed Lawrence with an inspiration. "Oh, you Krupps!"

But Edestone paid no heed to the frivolous interruption. "It is my intention," he continued, "to give sufficient notice, so that if they are willing to admit my supremacy, there need be no loss of life."

He halted, as an officer had just come in, and was standing after saluting, waiting for Edestone to stop speaking.

"The look-outs report, sir, that there are several Taubes climbing up toward us. What are your orders, sir?"

"Close everything down, except one of these." Edestone pointed to a window. "Expose no lights."

After the man had retired, he said to one of the servants in the room: "Put out the lights, and bring us two cloaks."

When the lights had been put out, Lawrence saw for the first time that during dinner the solid cubes of steel, the size of the windows, had noiselessly rolled back, leaving a square aperture or pa.s.sage-way through the six-foot thickness of the armour-plate, and forming a sort of _loggia_ into which they stepped. It was a beautiful night, and through the clear, rarefied atmosphere the stars seemed to Lawrence brighter than he had ever seen them before, while down below them he could just see the lights of Berlin.

The explosions of the motors of the Taubes could be plainly heard, but as yet nothing could be seen of them.

"What do you suppose those mosquitoes expect to do against us with their pop-guns and tomato cans?" asked Lawrence.

"I do not know." Edestone shook his head. "Perhaps they are just coming up to look us over. They will keep out of sight, and as they may not know that we are protected on top, will perhaps try to drop one of their tomato cans on us. That is, if they can get close enough. I hardly think that they will risk a miss, and drop bombs on their own capital, so long as the Only One Who Seems To Count In Germany is in the midst of his beloved people."

The Taubes could be heard on all sides, as if they were climbing in great circles around the Little Peace Maker. There seemed to be at least a dozen of them, although owing to the confusion of sounds as they crossed and re-crossed, it was impossible to count them.

At last, though, when judging by the noise they were about on the same level as the ship, Edestone turned to an officer who was standing by him.

"Tell Commander Anderson to load all of the big guns with a full charge of black powder only, and fire them all off at the same time.

"And, Lawrence," he advised his friend, "when you hear a bell ringing, stand on your toes, open your mouth, stick your fingers in your ears, and if you've never been in h.e.l.l before, prepare yourself for a shock."

Hardly had he gotten the words out of his mouth, when bells began ringing all over the ship. In just exactly one minute, Lawrence thought he had been blown into bits, as he was lifted and thrown from side to side against the steel walls of the pa.s.sage. The noise was so great that his ears seemed unable to record it, and it was made known to him by the air pressure which seemed to be crushing him to death. The rush of air down his throat was choking him, while his very insides seemed to be turning over and over in their effort to escape. A dizziness and nausea followed, and he had to lean against his friend, trying to catch his breath in the thick, black smoke with which they were enveloped.