And Captain Crouch held out a hand which Jimmy took, to find himself held fast as in a grip of iron.
"I ask your pardon, lad," said Captain Crouch. "I did you a monstrous wrong. The evidence was against you, that"s true enough. None the less, I might have found out the truth before now. But I didn"t. So it"s up to you to forgive."
Jimmy Burke knew not what to say. Indeed, he felt a little awkward. He was undemonstrative by nature, and Crouch still held his hand.
"I ask your pardon, lad," said the captain again. "I shan"t feel happy till you"ve told me I"m forgiven."
"Of course, sir," said Jimmy, "I forgive. And after all, it was only natural you should think as you did; the evidence was very black against me."
Crouch let go the boy"s hand, and walked quickly to the head of the gangway. There he told the men in the boat below that the ship had been saved, and ordered them to ascend at once to the main-deck. After which, the captain himself hastened to the bridge, and there let loose the siren.
The loud shriek of the ship"s hooter broke upon the silence of the night, to be echoed back from the Cornish hills, and to die away in the distance upon the moonlit sea. It was the signal for the other boats to return.
Time and again, Crouch sent out his message; and in between the hootings of the siren, the little, wizened sea-captain paced to and fro upon the bridge of the "Harlech" with quick and eager steps, his hands folded behind his back and his head enveloped in the cloud of smoke that issued from the bowl of his pipe. And in the meantime, His Majesty"s ship "c.o.c.kroach"--a destroyer with a displacement of over nine hundred tons and a designed speed of thirty knots an hour, burning oil fuel only and armed with three four-inch guns and four torpedo-tubes--was flying hither and thither in the darkness like a mad dog in a storm.
CHAPTER XVI--At the "Goat and Compa.s.ses"
Presently, the regular plashing sound of oars, accompanied by human voices, rapidly becoming louder and more distinct, warned Crouch that the other boats were returning to the ship.
One after the other, they showed up in the darkness like white hovering ghosts, keeping at a safe distance from the "Harlech" until a.s.sured that all danger was past.
A few minutes later, Crouch himself mustered all hands upon the main-deck, when it was discovered that the dinghy had not returned, and that the sole absentees were Stork, the ship"s cook and his mate.
There was nothing to be gained by further delay. Stork, who had by now probably gained the sh.o.r.e at some desolate spot on the wild Cornish coast, was not likely to pay much attention to the repeated hootings of the siren. He knew well enough that his secret was out; that for some reason or other the plot to destroy the ship had misfired, and that he was likely to receive scant mercy at the hands of Captain Crouch, who, for once in his life, had been fooled to the top of his bent. The so-called ship"s carpenter knew when he was safe.
As was afterwards discovered, he experienced no difficulty in playing upon the simple mind of the cook, a chicken-hearted fellow at the best, who had already had more than enough of the merchant service in time of war. As chance had it, both this man and his mate lived at Truro, and ten minutes after the dinghy had been beached, Rudolf Stork was left to his own resources, with a free hand to go whithersoever he wished.
It is as well therefore that Crouch ordered the engine-room watch below, and got the ship under way on a straight course for the Needles, before the steel-blue streak of morning was far spread upon the eastern sky-line.
The U93 was nowhere to be seen. She may have descended to the sea-bed, to lie in hiding like a dog-fox in deep earth, or else made off straight for Wilhelmshaven at her top speed under water--probably the best part of ten knots, in all seas and weathers. As for the "c.o.c.kroach," she was more mad than ever, flying here and there with all the superfluous energy of her powerful turbine engines, looking for her stealthy and elusive quarry like a terrier hot on the scent of a rabbit. As the daylight grew, and a blood-red sun arose upon a calm, grey winter"s sea, the Lizard light went out; and the coastguards at the trim white-washed signal station (which is what may be called the "booking-office" of the English Channel) watched through their telescopes a large trans-atlantic tramp, steaming eastward--spoken as the "Harlech," bound for Portsmouth--and little dreamed of the tragedy that had been so narrowly averted.
When the same ship reached the Solent, and the chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight stood out like a bank of cloud, those on board had pa.s.sed unscathed through a terrible ordeal, they had run the gauntlet of the seas in time of war, and played their several parts like men. And there was not one among them who did not realize that he had but Divine Providence to thank that he was still alive.
It so happened that it was Sunday; and with all hands a.s.sembled on the forward well-deck, Crouch read the service, and there was a meaning in the words of the psalm that went deep into the hearts of those rough, sea-faring men: "_If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there also shall thy hand lead me._"
War brings men back to fundamental truths that were known of old in a warlike age when the majestic poetry of the psalms was first conceived: that the heart of man is a heart of sin and savagery, but over all is a G.o.d, just, yet full of mercy.
There is in Gosport--as, indeed, in every other port that lies between San Francisco and Yokohama by way of the Manchester Ship Ca.n.a.l--a branch office of the firm of Jason, Stileman and May; and here, to no less a person than the senior partner of the firm (Mr. Jason, Senior, the uncle of the New York agent), Captain Crouch told his story from start to end, and did not hesitate to blame himself. He explained in full how he had been deceived by Rudolf Stork, who had escaped from the ship off the coast of Cornwall. He dwelt at length upon the part that had been played throughout by Jimmy Burke, who--on Crouch"s showing--had saved the "Harlech" from complete and inevitable destruction.
Mr. Jason replied that the firm was not likely to forget the valuable services the boy had rendered. Crouch had had a long talk with Jimmy, and knew a certain amount of the boy"s past history. Mr. Jason was personally willing to guarantee the boy"s future; but, on hearing that Jimmy had no other ambition than to serve his country in her hour of need, he said that he would do what he could to a.s.sist the lad to enter the Army or Navy.
In the meantime, Jimmy was handed over to the care of Captain Crouch, who was instructed to look after him as if he were his own son. Crouch, who never had a son of his own, had rather vague ideas on the subject of paternal duties. He betook himself, together with his charge, to a certain small, old-fashioned hotel in a by-street, where he was in the habit of staying whenever his ship was lying in Portsmouth Harbour.
The name of this establishment was the "Goat and Compa.s.ses." In former times, under the sign of "G.o.d Encompa.s.s Thee"--a gentle salutation to the traveller--the place had been a well-known coaching inn, at the extremity of the famous Portsmouth road. In later times, as the English mercantile fleet swelled to the present proportions, it became a famous resort for ships" officers and master-mariners, such as Captain Crouch himself; and in the smoking-room of a winter"s evening, when a wood fire of the pine logs of Hampshire blazed and sizzled in the grate, more tales were told of the five continents, the seven seas, and the islands of the South, than could very well be contained in a whole library of books of travel.
To the "Goat and Compa.s.ses," therefore, Crouch and Jimmy Burke departed, arm in arm. And the captain ash.o.r.e--as we have said already--was a very different man from the captain afloat, on the quarter-deck or bridge.
He was hail-fellow-well-met with almost every other person he encountered in the street. He informed an old lady, who sat knitting at an open window, that she was the possessor of an extraordinary fine canary. He gave a crossing-sweeper fourpence, and a tobacconist--from whom he purchased two pounds of his celebrated Bull"s Eye s.h.a.g--the benefit of his views on German methods of warfare. At last, at the "Goat and Compa.s.ses," he ordered a meal that would have overtaxed the digestive powers of a hyaena, emphasizing the fact that what he called a healthy appet.i.te was the one and only outward (or inward) token of a Britisher.
It was during supper that something happened in the nature of a coincidence. It will be remembered that Jimmy Burke had taken nothing on board the "Harlech" except a few personal belongings, done up in a handkerchief, and a dry loaf of bread. He wore, however, a watch-chain which had once belonged to his father, and from this was suspended his half of the Admiral"s lucky sixpence. On a sudden, Crouch"s eyes became glued to this small shining souvenir.
It is as well to remember that Captain Crouch had an excellent memory.
He was an extremely observant man, who took careful stock of everything that came his way.
"Pardon me," said he, "do you mind if I have a look at that broken sixpence?"
Jimmy handed the sixpence across the table. Crouch examined it for some time without saying a word. Then, he gave it back to its owner, and lying back in his chair, thrust both hands deep into his trousers pockets.
"How did you come by that?" he asked.
Forthwith Jimmy told the whole story of "Swiftsure Burke," who was his grandfather, and how the Admiral"s lucky sixpence had been the saving of his life.
"And so," said Crouch, slowly nodding his head in approval, "and so you, who came on board my ship as a stowaway in New York, are a grandson of Admiral Burke! That"s strange enough, but there"s more still to marvel at. Where"s the other half of the Admiral"s lucky sixpence?"
Jimmy experienced some difficulty in explaining that his best friend on the other side of the Atlantic was a girl who had once worked in the same office as himself. He even went so far as to say that her name was Peggy Wade, and that it was for her that he had filed in half the little silver coin.
"That"s what I mean," said Captain Crouch. "It"s what you might call a kind of a concurrence. I met that girl in New York. She"s in Mr.
Jason"s office; and we talked things over, she and I. I might even say, in a manner of speaking, that I took an uncommon fancy to the young lady; and, mind you, I"ve not been brought much in the way of womenfolk.
I don"t like "em as a rule."
At that, Captain Crouch produced his pipe, and thumbed his black tobacco into the bowl.
"Swiftsure Burke," said he, as if to himself, "Swiftsure Burke was a man of whom the British Navy has every right to be proud. I"m more ashamed than I can say, when I think that I treated a grandson of his in the way I treated you. But, that"s all past and done with. You must forget it, lad; for, though I was a blind fool, my heart was in the right place, and I meant it all for the best."
At that, Crouch rose suddenly from his chair, and stumped out of the room. With his cork foot he walked with a p.r.o.nounced limp, though he was sufficiently active to go upstairs two steps at a time. He led the way to a small sitting-room on the first floor; and there he and the boy remained, poring over the mysterious message that had been rescued from the sea-chest of Rudolf Stork, until the small hour of the morning.
Crouch, now that he knew for a fact that Rudolf Stork was a spy, was willing enough to spend hours endeavouring to decipher the message.
Holding the paper first in one hand and then in the other, he read it over and over again.
_Steamboat entrance verified. Evening navigate. Follow idea.
Vernacular enc.u.mbrance. Enter into Guinea half-speed._
At last, he laid down his pipe upon the table, and clapping his hands together, cried out, "I"ve got it!"
"Do you mean," said Jimmy, "that you can explain it?"
"Seems fair," said Crouch--a favourite expression of his, used as a rule to express an affirmative. "Seems fair. I was a bit puzzled at first, but it"s plain sailing all right, once you"ve got the thread of it."
And thereupon the little captain went on to explain what he took to be the meaning of the message which, according to him, referred to a chart of some little-known and lonely island, probably in the Western Pacific.
He said that he thought that "Guinea" must refer to New Guinea, which is a German colony, and not to the Guinea that lies on the West Coast of Africa. The island alluded to was probably one of the smaller atolls lying to the south-east of the Indies. In this island, it appeared, there was a harbour, the entrance to which would admit sea-going steamers. Such a harbour, Crouch explained, would be invaluable to the German commerce-raiders operating in those waters.
The beginning of the message was therefore quite easy to understand.
Soundings had evidently been taken, and the entrance found navigable. It was necessary, however, to negotiate the harbour in the evening, because there would then be less chance of being discovered.
The meaning of the next words, "Follow idea," Crouch was not wholly able to explain. He said it was possible that they referred to some suggestion made by the writer or, perhaps, by Rudolf Stork himself.