The Rival Submarines Part 24

"So are we," rejoined Captain Restronguet. "We have just picked up a man and a boy from an Italian fishing-boat. Where are you bound?"

"Messina, Napoli an' Civita Vecchia, sar."

"Will you take these two men as far as Messina?"

The Greek hesitated. His natural cupidity, now that the submarine had shown no hostile intentions, returned.

"Can dey pay pa.s.sage-monnaire?"

"Pa.s.sage-money, you white-livered swab!" roared Captain Restronguet.

"Is that the way you would treat poor shipwrecked mariners? Send a boat instantly, and take these people to Messina. If I fail to hear of their safe arrival from the Consul of that port I will take good care to obtain satisfaction from you on your homeward voyage. Do you understand?"

"Yas, captain," replied the fellow, thoroughly cowed. "Me send boat."

"If that Greek scoundrel had not been so jolly mean I would have paid him well for his a.s.sistance," remarked Captain Restronguet to the sub.

"As it is, not a penny will he get from me. Excuse me a few minutes, Mr.

Hythe?"

So saying the captain went below; but hardly had his head and shoulders disappeared down the hatchway when he reappeared.

"Would you mind coming with me, Mr. Hythe?" he asked. "I am about to give that poor fisherman a small present to set him up after his severe loss. I prefer to perform little acts of this nature in private, but since I am unable to speak a word of their lingo I realize I must enlist your services. But, please, no mention of this to anyone on board."

Upon entering the cabin in which old Beppo and his grandson were, Captain Restronguet produced a leather pouch and took from it thirty English sovereigns. These he gave to the _padrone_ and bestowed another gold coin upon the lad, whereupon the rescued Italians' thanks were so profuse and pantomimic that their benefactor asked the sub to tell them peremptorily to "shut up."

"And let them know that the British Consul at Messina will arrange for them to have the gold changed into the national currency," he added.

"Here is a note explaining that this man came by the money honestly. I think His Britannic Majesty's Consul will recognize that the signature is genuine. Also tell Beppo that he is on no account to pay the Greek skipper anything for his pa.s.sage beyond a fair price for all meals supplied."

So saying Captain Restronguet strode out of the cabin leaving the sub to explain matters to the bewildered _padrone_, to whom the gold was a sum greater than he could hope to ama.s.s in ten years' hard toil.

"Boat alongside, sir," announced Polglaze.

Followed by Beppo and his grandson, who, radiant with pleasure, had now almost forgotten the perils they had undergone, Hythe went on deck.

Here were gathered almost every one of the officers and crew of the submarine, while in a gig made fast on the "Aphrodite's" starboard quarter were four disreputable-looking Greek seamen.

The "Aphrodite's" men gave the departing Italians a rousing cheer, then as soon as the boat returned to the "Eleusis," Captain Restronguet gave orders for general quarters.

Ere the Greek vessel's propeller began to revolve the submarine disappeared beneath the surface, only to reappear on the port side of the tramp. Then, hoisting and dipping Captain Restronguet's green and white ensign, a compliment that the skipper of the "Eleusis" grudgingly returned, the "Aphrodite" resumed her voyage on her quest of the desperado, Karl von Harburg.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE RIVALS Pa.s.s THROUGH THE SUEZ Ca.n.a.l.

Four days later, with her acc.u.mulators charged to their fullest capacity, the "Aphrodite" arose from her anchorage in the Dardanelles.

During that period, although wireless messages were being received with almost monotonous regularity, no definite news had come to hand with reference to the movements of the "Vorwartz."

True, the captain of the Russian battleship, "Imperator Pavel," sent a wireless message to Sevastopol, which was in turn transmitted to St.

Petersburg and thence to the world in general, to the effect that at eight a.m. on the morning of the 6th he had sighted a submarine eighty miles S.S.W. of that Crimean port. Having orders to sink the "Vorwartz"

without warning, the Russian officer caused a heavy fire to be opened upon the submarine with the "Imperator Pavel's" twelve and three-pounder quick-firers. Every one of these guns that could be brought to bear--eighteen out of forty--joined in the racket, and confident of having destroyed the modern buccaneer, the Russian battleship returned to Sevastopol.

Captain Restronguet received this intelligence with mixed feelings. He had his doubts. He knew that the rapid firing of the Russian fleet was notoriously ill-aimed and inaccurate; he knew also that with a battleship in the vicinity Karl von Harburg would hesitate to bring his craft to the surface. If, however, the news was correct he was saved a lot of trouble, and was now at liberty to return to his base in the Dutch East Indies. Nevertheless he regretted, in no small measure, the fact that he had not been able to achieve the distinction of sinking the "Vorwartz" under conditions favourable to the lives of her crew.

An hour or so later the stalwart Cornishman executed a dance in his cabin, much to the astonishment of Hythe and Kenwyn who happened to be present.

The report of the captain of the "Imperator Pavel" was replied to by a demand from the Bulgarian Government to know why the Russians had fired upon one of their vessels. It appeared that a submarine had been ordered and built at Ansaldo's Works at Sestri, Italy, for the new Bulgarian Navy, and having finished her acceptance trials was returning to Varna. She was running on the surface and made no attempt to alter her course, or to act in any way that might be regarded as suspicious; but when pa.s.sing the "Imperator Pavel" at a distance of two miles, the Russians greeted her with a sudden and totally unexpected volley of quick-firing sh.e.l.ls.

The Bulgarian submarine quickly dived. According to the estimate of the Italian contractors' representative who was on board, not less than one hundred and twenty sh.e.l.ls were fired, of which not one did the slightest damage beyond cutting away the ensign-staff.

"Those Bulgarians will make a fine business of this, Hythe!" exclaimed Captain Restronguet. "With Russia on bad terms with Austria and Germany the Balkan States can pull the Bear's tail as much as they like. And trust any of the Balkan States for that; they would draw blood out of a stone if they could. But some day the Powers will settle down harmoniously, and the successors to the Turkish Empire in Europe will have to knuckle under somewhat."

"You don't seem very partial to the Balkan States, sir," remarked the sub.

"Partial? By Jove, I wish I could be! We had a very good specimen the other day in the person of that rascally skipper of the Greek tramp.

The stalwarts of ancient Greece would turn in their graves could they but realize to what depths their so-called descendants have fallen.

Well, Kenwyn, what is it now? Another purposeless message?"

"I think not, sir," replied the second officer, handing his chief the latest "wireless" received on board.

This time, instead of executing a dance, Captain Restronguet very nearly lost his temper.

"That rogue von Harburg has done me very neatly this time, Hythe!" he exclaimed. "He never was in the Black Sea, that's my belief. Here's a message announcing that the 'Vorwartz' has pa.s.sed through the Suez Ca.n.a.l."

"Surely that's impossible!"

"Well, then, there's the message. It is from an exceptionally trustworthy agent. I say, Mr. Kenwyn, just reply, will you? And ask to be kept in touch with events."

"Very good, sir," replied the second officer, withdrawing.

"I am anxious to know how a submarine could pa.s.s through the Ca.n.a.l without being detected and stopped," remarked the sub, who entertained grave doubts as to the authenticity of the wireless message, especially after the "Imperator Pavel" affair.

"So am I, Mr. Hythe," rejoined Captain Restronguet, who had now recovered his customary coolness of mind. "So am I, since where the 'Vorwartz' can go the 'Aphrodite can go also."

"You mean to traverse the Suez Ca.n.a.l?"

"By fair means, or failing that by foul. Otherwise it would mean that we have to circ.u.mnavigate the African Continent, and in the time we were so occupied what would Karl von Harburg be doing?"

Within twenty minutes of the receipt of the momentous news the "Aphrodite" was abreast of the cla.s.sic Isle of Tenedos, bound for Port Said. All the while she had remained in the Dardanelles, although within a few miles of the seaport of Gallipoli, she had refrained from giving any signs of her presence. But at the moment of departure Captain Restronguet could not resist leaving his card in the shape of one of his green and white buoys on which were painted his customary compliments.

During the run across from Gallipoli to Port Said a complete text of Karl von Harburg's feat, as reported in the _Egyptian Monitor_, was transmitted by Captain Restronguet's agent for the information of his employer.

It was indeed a daring coup on the part of the German renegade.

Early one morning the "Vorwartz," running light, brought up between the breakwaters that, extending nearly two miles from sh.o.r.e, mark the Mediterranean entrance to the Ca.n.a.l. Here, landing a party of armed men, he took possession of the two lighthouses, and terrified the lightkeepers into submission. He compelled them to ascertain by telegraph what vessels had entered the ca.n.a.l during the previous twenty-four hours and what were expected. Finding that there were no armed ships between Port Said and Suez, and none within easy steaming distance of the latter port, he resolved upon the desperate enterprise of pa.s.sing through at full speed. To keep submerged would mean loss of time and possibilities of running aground in the Bitter Lakes.

Thus, almost before the Ca.n.a.l authorities at Port Said recovered from their astonishment that a strangely-constructed vessel should have pa.s.sed into the Ca.n.a.l at several knots above the regulation speed and without paying the customary dues, the "Vorwartz" was well on her way to Ismalia.