At the head of the great basin I found a lock giving access to a small inner dock, in which a number of vessels were moored.
I made my way around, searching everywhere for the vessels I had been told I should find.
At last, in the farthest and most secluded corner, I perceived a row of small craft, shaped much like a shark, with a long narrow tube or funnel rising up from the center of each.
They lay low in the water, without being submerged. Alone among the shipping they carried no riding-lights. They appeared dark, silent, and deserted.
Almost unconsciously I ran my eye along them, counting them as they lay. Suddenly I was aroused to keen attention.
One--two--three--four--five. The Kaiser had a.s.sured me that I should find six submarines to choose from!
I counted once more with straining eyes.
_One_--_two_--_three_--_four_--_five_.
One of the mysterious craft had been taken away!
CHAPTER x.x.xI
THE KIEL Ca.n.a.l
It was impossible to resist the conclusion suggested by the absence of the sixth submarine.
I was not the only person who had been authorized, or rather instructed, to carry out the design against the Baltic Fleet. My august employer had thought it better to have two strings to his bow.
Who, then, was the person by whom I had been antic.i.p.ated?
To this question an answer suggested itself which I was tempted to reject, but which haunted me, and would not be dismissed.
The Princess Y---- had arrived in Berlin twelve hours before me. She had come, fully believing that Petrovitch was dead, and prepared to take his place.
She had interviewed Finkelstein, as I knew. Was it not possible that she, also, had been received in the crypt at Potsdam, had been shown the chart of the North Sea, with its ominous red lines, and had accepted the task of launching one of the submarines on its fatal errand?
In spite of all the stories which had been told me of Sophia"s daring and resource, in spite of my own experiences of her adventures and reckless proceedings, I did not go so far as to credit her with having proceeded to sea in the missing craft.
But it struck me as altogether in keeping with her character that she should have arranged for the withdrawal of the boat, provided it with a crew, and despatched it fully instructed as to the work to be done.
But whether these suspicions were well founded or otherwise, of one thing there could be no doubt. A submarine had been taken by some one, and was now on its way to the North Sea, to lie in wait for the ships of Admiral Rojestvensky.
This discovery entirely changed the position for me.
I had come down to Kiel intending to take a submarine out to sea, to watch for the approach of the Russian fleet, and to take whatever steps proved practicable to avert any collision between it and the fishing-boats on the Dogger Bank.
I now saw that the chance of my preventing a catastrophe depended entirely on the movements of the boat which had left already. This boat had become my objective, to use a strategical phrase.
Somewhere in the North Sea was a submarine boat, charged with the mission of provoking a world-wide war. And that boat I had to find.
There was no time to be lost. I hastened back by the most direct way I could find, to the dockyard gates. The little postern was still unlocked, and I pa.s.sed out, the sentry again taking no notice of my pa.s.sage.
But at the first street corner I saw a man in seafaring dress who fixed a very keen gaze on me as I came up, and saluted me by touching his cap.
"Good-night," I said in a friendly voice, slowing down in my walk.
"Good-night, sir. Beg pardon, Captain,"--he came and moved along beside me--"but you don"t happen to know of a job for a seafaring man, I suppose?"
I stopped dead, and looked him straight in the eyes.
"How many men do you estimate are required to navigate a submarine?"
I asked.
"Fifteen," was the prompt answer.
"How soon can you have them here?" was my next question.
The fellow glanced at his watch.
"It"s half-past eleven now, Captain. I could collect them and bring them here by half-past one."
"Do it, then," I returned and walked swiftly away.
The whole thing, it was evident, had been prearranged, and I did not choose to waste time in mock negotiations.
I went back to my inn to wait, but there was nothing for me to do, except examine the cartridges in my revolver. I was not quite sure how much my crew had been told, and I thought it just possible that I might have some trouble with them when they found out the nature of my proceedings.
Punctually at the hour fixed I returned to the street outside the dockyard, where I found fifteen men a.s.sembled.
Glancing over them, I formed the opinion that they were picked men, on whom I could have relied thoroughly for the work I had been ordered to do, but who might be all the more likely to mutiny if they suspected that I was playing false.
I stood in front of them in the silence of the street.
"Now, my men, if there is any one of you who is not prepared to obey me, even if I order him to scuttle the ship, let him fall out before we start."
Not a man stirred. Not an eyelash quivered. The German discipline had done its work.
"I give you notice that the first man who hesitates to carry out my orders will be shot."
The threat was received with perfect resignation.
"Follow me."
I turned on my heel, and led the way to the dockyard gates, the men marching after me with a regular tramp which could only have been acquired on the deck of a man-of-war.
The sentry was, if possible, more indifferent to our approach than he had been when I had been alone. I threw open the wicket, and bade the last man close it.