Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: DENBIGH AND HIS COMPANIONS ARE RESCUED BY A MONITOR
_Page_ 207. _Frontispiece_]
ROUNDING UP
THE RAIDER
A Naval Story of the Great War
BY
PERCY F. WESTERMAN
Author of "The Fight for Constantinople"
"Sea Scouts All"
&c. &c.
_Illustrated by E. S. Hodgson_
BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
LONDON AND GLASGOW
1916
By Percy F. Westerman
Haunted Harbour.
His Unfinished Voyage.
Midshipman Webb's Treasure
Winged Might.
Captain Flick.
Tireless Wings.
His First Ship.
The Red Pirate.
The Call of the Sea.
Standish of the Air Police.
Sleuths of the Air.
Andy-All-Alone.
The Westow Talisman.
The White Arab.
The Buccaneers of Boya.
Rounding up the Raider.
Captain Fosdyke's Gold.
In Defiance of the Ban.
The Senior Cadet.
The Amir's Ruby.
The Secret of the Plateau.
Leslie Dexter, Cadet.
All Hands to the Boats.
A Mystery of the Broads.
Rivals of the Reef.
Captain Starlight.
On the Wings of the Wind.
Captain Blundell's Treasure.
The Third Officer.
Unconquered Wings.
Pat Stobart in the "Golden Dawn".
Ringed by Fire.
Midshipman Raxworthy.
Chums of the "Golden Vanity".
Clipped Wings.
Rocks Ahead.
King for a Month.
The Disappearing Dhow.
The Luck of the "Golden Dawn".
The Salving of the "Fusi Yama".
Winning his Wings.
The Good Ship "Golden Effort".
East in the "Golden Gain".
The Quest of the "Golden Hope".
The Wireless Officer.
The Submarine Hunters.
The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge.
With Beatty off Jutland.
The Dispatch Riders.
A Cadet of the Mercantile Marine.
With the Last of the Buccaneers.
A Lively Bit of the Front.
The Westerman Omnibus Book
_Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow_
Contents
CHAP.
I. THE CAPTURED LINER
II. THE LAST OF THE _NICHI MARU_
III. ON BOARD THE RAIDER
IV. THREATENED
V. THE PURSUIT OF THE _PELIKAN_
VI. THE DECOY
VII. FOILED BY A COLLIER
VIII. REINFORCEMENTS
IX. THE MIDNIGHT LANDING
X. THE LAGOON
XI. DENBIGH'S PLAN
XII. A PERILOUS JOURNEY
XIII. NOCTURNAL INVESTIGATIONS
XIV. A NEGLECTED WARNING
XV. ARMSTRONG'S PART
XVI. THE DISASTER TO THE _MYRA_
XVII. A BID FOR FREEDOM
XVIII. DISAPPOINTMENT
XIX. "OUR LUCK'S OUT"
XX. ADRIFT IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
XXI. VON ECKENSTEIN'S SURPRISE
XXII. THE MONITORS IN ACTION
XXIII. HOW THE _PELIKAN_ SURRENDERED
XXIV. THE LANDING PARTY
XXV. ACCOUNTED FOR
Illustrations
DENBIGH AND HIS COMPANIONS ARE PICKED UP BY A
MONITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
"BY JOVE!" EJACULATED O'HARA. "SHE MUST BE ONE OF OUR MONITORS"
THE 'LOG' WAS A HEALTHY SPECIMEN OF A CROCODILE
"UNLESS THE GERMAN ENSIGN is HAULED DOWN ON BOARD THE _PELIKAN_ WITHIN
AN HOUR, I OPEN FIRE"
ROUNDING UP THE RAIDER
CHAPTER I
The Captured Liner
"Fifteen days more and then Old England once again!" exclaimed Frank
Denbigh.
"And bonnie Scotland for me!" added Charlie Stirling.
"You'll not be forgettin' 'tis Ould Oireland I'm bound for,"
remonstrated Pat O'Hara, purposely dropping into the brogue.
The three chums had just been reading the "miles made good"
announcement that, printed in English and Japanese, was daily exhibited
in various parts of S.S. _Nichi Maru_.
"Hostile submarines permitting," remarked Denbigh with a laugh, after
he had taken good care that no lady passengers were within earshot.
"Rot!" ejaculated Stirling. "We've cleared them out of the Channel
pretty well. It's part of the work of the British Navy under----"
"Stop it!" interrupted O'Hara good-humouredly. "I know what you were
going to say: that old tag from the Articles of War. I propose that
every time the word submarine is mentioned by anyone of us while on
board this vessel the delinquent shall be suitably punished as soon as
the sun's over the fore-yard."
"Hear, hear! I second that," agreed Stirling. "No more 'shop'. We'll
get plenty of that in a few weeks' time. I fancy My Lords won't let us
kick our heels in idleness for long, and honestly, the sooner we settle
down to business the better."
The three chums were Sub-lieutenants, homeward bound from a portion of
a certain group of islands off the coast of New Guinea, having till
recently the high-sounding title of the Bismarck Archipelago. The
youthful but none the less glorious Australian Navy had quickly changed
the colour of that portion of the map, but the climate was a more
formidable foe than the former German garrison. Thus the three young
officers, who had been "lent" to the recently-formed navy, had the
misfortune to be stricken with fever.
After a long convalescence, which by a pure coincidence lasted almost
exactly the same time in each of the three cases, Denbigh, Stirling,
and O'Hara were ordered to return to England and to resume their duties
with the navy of the Motherland.
They had travelled by an intermediate boat to Singapore, whence, in
order to save delay, they had proceeded by a Japanese liner, the _Nichi
Maru_, bound from Nagasaki to London. It was a case of misdirected
zeal, for, owing to the torpedoing of a large Japanese liner in the
Mediterranean, the _Nichi Maru_ had been ordered to take the longer
passage round the Cape instead of the usual route via the Suez Canal.
"Hulloa! What's the excitement?" enquired Denbigh, pointing in the
direction of the bridge. The chums had gained the promenade deck,
whence most of the navigating bridge of the liner could be seen. There
was evidently something to warrant his exclamation, for the dapper
little Japanese officer of the watch was steadily keeping his
binoculars upon some distant object.
"There's a smudge of smoke away to the nor'east'ard," announced
Stirling. "The mild excitement of sighting a vessel will help to push
the hands of the clock. Now if someone will kindly suggest a
sweepstake on the nationality of yonder craft----"
The door of the wireless room opened. The sharp peculiar cackle of the
instruments announced that an exchange of messages was in progress. A
messenger made his way to the bridge. Almost immediately after, the
captain hurried from his cabin. Evidently "something was in the wind",
for the appearance of the imperturbable commander of the _Nichi Maru_
at this time of day was rather unusual.
"We're altering helm," declared O'Hara after a brief interval. "Since
we can speak with that vessel without the necessity of having to close,
it points to something of the nature of a serious mishap."
The rest of the passengers were now making their way on deck. By an
inexplicable intuition the presence of the still invisible vessel had
made itself felt. None of the officers had communicated the news that
the _Nichi Maru_ was in touch with another craft, yet in five minutes
the decks were crowded with a medley of Europeans and Asiatics.
"Do you know what is wrong, sir?" asked Denbigh, addressing one of the
Japanese officers who happened to be making his way aft.
The Jap shook his head. Like most of the _Nichi Maru's_ officers he
spoke English. The question was plain to him, but with Oriental
reticence he politely evaded it.
"I'll get my glasses," announced O'Hara.
"And mine, while you are about it," said Denbigh.
"And mine, too," added the Scot.
O'Hara quickly returned with the desired articles. Bringing their
binoculars to bear upon the smudge on the horizon the three Subs made
the discovery that there was a two-masted, three-funnelled vessel lying
apparently hove-to. Smoke was issuing from her after-funnel in dense
clouds, that rose slowly in the still sultry air.
"She's flying an ensign," remarked the Irishman.
"Yes, straight up and down like a wet dishclout," added Stirling. "For
all the good it's doing it needn't be there."
"Perhaps her propeller shaft is broken," suggested one of the
passengers, an English merchant who had given up a good position in
Tokio to return home in order to "do his bit".
"Hardly," replied Denbigh. "She's bound to be a twin screw, and it
isn't likely that both engines would break down."
"I don't know so much about that," said O'Hara, pointing aft, where a
crowd of Japanese seamen were engaged in preparing a large flexible
steel hawser. "It looks as if we were going to take her in tow. And
it's a long, long way to Las Palmas, worse luck."
"She's a Dutchman," declared Stirling. "I can make out the red, white,
and blue ensign. I wouldn't mind betting she's one of the Rotterdam
and Batavia liners."
The three British officers relapsed into silence, devoting their whole
attention upon the disabled liner which was now momentarily looming
larger and larger as the _Nichi Maru_ hastened to her aid.
Presently the engine-room telegraph bell clanged and the Japanese
vessel's engines began to slow down. Two of the boats were swung out
ready to be lowered, while the four ship's surgeons stood by, ready to
be taken to the helpless Dutchman.
"Bad boiler-room accident," exclaimed one of the European passengers,
who had learnt the news from a Japanese petty-officer.
"Boiler accident be hanged!" ejaculated Denbigh, excitedly. "We're
done in, you fellows. That vessel's no Dutchman."
As if in confirmation of the Sub's announcement the tricolour of
Holland was smartly lowered, its place being taken by that shame-faced
and palpable imitation of the good old British White Ensign--the Black
Cross of Germany. Simultaneously portions of the vessel's plating
swung outboard, revealing a battery of six fifteen-centimetre Krupp
guns.
"_Nichi Maru_, ahoy!" shouted a guttural voice in English, for the two
vessels were now within megaphone-hailing distance. "Surrender
instantly, or we send you to the bottom."
There was a pause, while the officer who had shouted the message was
being prompted.
"Make no attempt to use your wireless," he continued. "That will not
save you. It will make things very bad for you. Stand by to receive a
prize crew."
Although completely surprised by the dramatic turn of events, both the
crew and passengers of the _Nichi Maru_ remained perfectly calm. The
captain, a descendant of the knightly Samurai of Old Japan, was on the
point of ordering full speed ahead, with the object of ramming the
perfidious vessel and sending both ships to a common destruction; but
the knowledge that the safety of nearly a thousand non-combatants, many
of them women and children, would be in dire peril through such an act
compelled him to submit to the inevitable.
Humanity, not fear, had conquered the courteous and lion-hearted yellow
skipper.
Boats were lowered from the German auxiliary cruiser--for such she
undoubtedly was. Into them clambered a number of motley-garbed men
armed with rifles and automatic pistols. But for their modern weapons
the boat's crew might have come from the deck of an Eighteenth-Century
buccaneering craft.
"I say, you fellows," said O'Hara, "I'm off below."
"What for?" asked his companions in surprise. Not for one moment did
they imagine that the Irishman was showing the white feather, but at
the same time they were mystified by his announcement.
"To get into uniform," he replied. "Those skunks won't find me in
mufti."
"Right oh!" declared Denbigh. "We'll slip into ours, too."
In a few minutes the chums had changed into their naval uniforms. By
the time they regained the promenade deck the Germans were in
possession of the ship.
A fat ober-leutnant, backed up by half a dozen armed seamen, held the
bridge, the Japanese captain and deck officers being compelled to
retire to the chart-room. A couple of arrogant unter-leutnants with
much sabre-rattling, were herding the European male passengers on the
port side of the promenade deck. The Japanese passengers they drove
forward with every insulting expression they could make use of. It was
the German officers' idea of revenge, for the fall of Kiau Chau, where
the boasted Teutonic fortress had succumbed to Oriental valour, rankled
in the breasts of the subjects of the All-Highest War Lord.
Two German officers, apparently of the Accountant branch, had possessed
themselves of the passenger list of the captured vessel, and were
proceeding to call the names it contained. Each person on hearing his
name had to step forward. "Denbigh, Frank," exclaimed one of the
officers. Denbigh, standing erect, faced his captors. "Ah! Englander
officer, hein?" queried the Teuton insolently. "Goot! More to say
soon. Step there over, quick."
The Sub obeyed. He realized that at times even passive resistance was
indiscreet.
"Stirling, Charles," continued the German. "Ach, yet anoder Englander.
Unter-leutnant? Goot, a goot capture of Englanders we haf."
"I'm a Scot--not an Englishman," protested Stirling.
"No matter. The one is as bad as odder, if nod worse. Over dere," and
he pointed to the place where Denbigh was standing.
"We're marked down for something, old man," whispered Denbigh.
"Yes, but listen. They're tackling O'Hara now."
Sub-lieutenant O'Hara faced his inquisitor with a broad smile on his
face. The Germans could not understand why a man should look pleasant
in time of adversity.
"Irish? Ach, goot!" declared the Teuton. "Der Irish not like
Englischmans. When we Germans take London, Ireland free country will
be."
"You haven't got to London yet," remarked O'Hara with the perplexing
smile still on his lips.
"Already our Zeppelins hab there been. It is matter of time. Ach?
Brussels, Warsaw, Bukharest, Cettigne--five capitals--all conquered."
"How about Paris?" enquired O'Hara. "To say nothing of Calais. And
who commands the sea? You Germans haven't a vessel afloat outside your
own territorial waters."
"Vot is dis?" asked the Teuton, pointing to the armed liner. His voice
rose to a crescendo of triumph.
O'Hara was temporarily non-plussed. Evidently something was at fault
somewhere. How could a large vessel like that evade the strong cordon
of British warships?
"You're at the end of your tether, old sport," he said after a brief
hesitation. "That ship will be at the bottom before another
twenty-four hours."
"You tink so?" almost howled the exasperated German. "You vill see.
If she sink, den you sink mit her. Over dere."
O'Hara rejoined his chums. A couple of armed seamen mounted guard over
them while the work of investigation and pillage continued.
"We're marked down as hostages," began the Irishman; but one of the
seamen, bringing the butt end of his rifle down on the deck within a
couple of inches of O'Hara's toes, rendered unnecessary the guttural
"Verboten" that accompanied the action.
In silence the three Subs watched the proceedings. Under the orders of
their captors the Japanese seamen were compelled to transfer bullion
stores from the _Nichi Maru_ into the boats. German seamen brought
charges of explosives and placed them below. It was apparent that the
destruction of the captured vessel was already decided.
At length all preparations were completed. One of the _Nichi Maru's_
officers, acting under the authority of the ober-leutnant gave the
order--first in Japanese and then in English--to abandon the ship.
"Fifteen minutes only are allowed. Boats to be provisioned and manned.
No personal property is to be taken. Women and children first."
The Japanese captain was expostulating, firmly and in a dignified
manner. He pointed out the inhumanity of sending women and children
adrift in mid-Atlantic and under a tropical sun. His protests were in
vain.
"We will send a small vessel to pick up the boats," retorted the German
lieutenant. "We will not sink a small one purposely. A little
discomfort will do these English good. You yellow apes are used to it."
The Japanese accepted the direct insult without signs of emotion. The
disguise of his feelings was a national trait, but it would have gone
hard with the arrogant Prussian had the captain of the _Nichi Maru_ not
been hampered with a crowd of non-combatants.
"Now, Englishmen," exclaimed the German. "Into that boat. Any trouble
make and you dead men. Ach! You smile now: your trouble it only has
just commenced."