Reinforcements
Under reduced speed, in order to economize her coal, the _Pelikan_ held
on her southerly course. By dint of careful stoking, her funnels
emitted little or no smoke that might betray her position. At night
every light was screened.
Fortune seemed to be favouring her, for without sighting a single
vessel she reached the fortieth parallel, or considerably farther to
the south'ard than she need do in ordinary circumstances in order to
round the Cape of Good Hope.
The air was rapidly becoming colder, and her crew, being unprovided
with warm garments, suffered acutely after coming straight from the
Tropics.
While the work of repairing the damage done by the British cruiser's
shells was progressing as well as the limited means at the disposal of
the ship would permit, one of the crew slipped, and striking his head
against the edge of an iron plate, was so severely injured that he died
within two hours of the accident.
It was then that Denbigh and O'Hara had yet another example of the
thoroughness of the German system. The usual practice would have been
to sew the body up in a shotted hammock and throw it overboard, but
Kapitan von Riesser had another plan.
One of the boats, with the name "_Zwaan_--Rotterdam" painted on the
stern, was lowered. In it the corpse was placed and the boat turned
adrift.
In due course, the kapitan hoped--and the crew, realizing that
necessity knows no law, agreed with him--that the boat would be sighted
by one of the British cruisers, and thus give the impression that the
raider had sunk.
About four on the following morning the two subs were roused by the
sudden increase of the revolutions of the propellers, and the frantic
tramp of feet on deck.
"Hulloa, what's wrong now?" asked O'Hara. "They've got a move on for
something."
"One of our ships in chase, I think," replied Denbigh. "As we are
locked in we may just as well go to sleep again. I'd like to wake up
and find the hooker hove-to and a prize."
"Not bad advice," rejoined the Irishman, turning over and rolling
himself in his blankets. "Thank goodness it's not our watch. If these
fellows carry on much farther we'll find ourselves on the way to the
South Pole."
Sleep, however, was out of the question. The two chums talked at
intervals until the appearance of Fritz warned them that it was time to
dress for breakfast.
After the meal the subs found, somewhat to their surprise, that they
were not prohibited from going on deck, as was generally the case when
another vessel was sighted.
It was piercingly cold. A heavy dew had frozen as it fell, rendering
the decks very slippery. Several of the crew were at work with hoses,
washing down the planks with salt water in order to clear away the thin
coating of ice. So keen was the wind that Denbigh and his companion
were glad to take shelter under the lee of the deck-houses.
Astern, at a distance of about two miles, was a long, rakish-looking
craft, with two short masts and two funnels. She was painted a dark
grey, almost appearing black. She flew no flag, but a signal fluttered
from the foremast. Owing to the direction of the wind it was
impossible, even with the aid of powerful glasses, to distinguish the
flags, since the vessel was steaming directly in the wake of the
runaway _Pelikan_.
Several of the latter's officers were aft keeping the mysterious craft
under observation, while on the after-bridge Kapitan von Riesser and
the officers of the watch were engaged upon a similar task.
Seeing the British officers appear the kapitan descended the bridge and
strolled aft. Affecting surprise at finding Denbigh and the Irishman
on deck he asked:
"What do you make of that vessel, Herr Denbigh? Is she one of yours?"
The sub shook his head.
"I really cannot say," he replied. "You see we've added considerably
to our fleet since the outbreak of war, and I haven't been in Home
Waters since October, 1913. She's coming up pretty fast, I should
imagine."
"She is," agreed Kapitan von Riesser dryly. "But not so fast as you
would like, perhaps. It is somewhat strange that she hasn't opened
fire before now. Perhaps it is because your compatriots are afraid of
hitting you," he added with a slight sneer.
"And for similar humanitarian reasons you have refrained from using
your quick-firers, I presume?" retorted O'Hara.
"She's hoisting Argentine colours, sir," reported one of the
_Pelikan's_ officers.
He was right, for altering helm slightly the pursuing vessel enabled
the flag to blow athwartships. At the same moment the signal that had
been kept flying at the masthead could be distinguished. It read:
"What ship is that?"
"Those colours may be an English trick," said the kapitan. "I'll carry
on."
"By Jove, old man!" he whispered to his chum. "It looks as if we are
dished this time. We were a little too premature in chipping the Old
Man."
In an hour the pursuing craft had closed to slightly less than a mile.
Still she made no attempt to open fire. There were, in fact, no guns
visible.
"Hoist our proper colours," ordered Kapitan von Riesser at length. "It
will be all the same in another twenty minutes' time whether we use our
own ensign or any other."
The Black Cross ensign was run up. Its appearance was greeted by a
prolonged blast on the stranger's siren, then from the extremity of the
pursuing craft's bridge a man began semaphoring.
Although skilled in semaphore, neither Denbigh nor O'Hara could
understand the message. The British system differs from the German,
which again varies with the French and Spanish. Yet, peculiarly, the
officers and men of the _Pelikan_ could read the signal with ease.
Grave, anxious looks gave place to smiles, while one of the crew began
to cheer--a demonstration that the kapitan quickly suppressed.
Von Riesser had now ascended the bridge. Still suspicious he ordered
the torpedo tubes to be charged and the engines to be reversed.
Directly the overtaking craft noticed the falling off of the liner's
speed her decks were black with humanity, and the air was rent with
cries of "Hoch!" Then came the strains of "Deutschland uber alles", in
which the _Pelikan's_ crew joined lustily.
"Good heavens!" ejaculated Denbigh. "What does it all mean? There's a
small German colony afloat."
"'Fraid so," agreed O'Hara.
As there was hardly any sea running the two vessels ran alongside each
other. The new-comer had the name _San Matias_ painted on her stern
and on her boats and life-buoys. She carried no guns except a couple
of small brass signalling pieces. Her officers and a few of her crew
were South Americans, beyond doubt, but the rest of the crowded
complement were of marked Teutonic origin.
The British subs stood at the rail watching the unwonted sight. No one
offered to order them below. It was part of the business to let them
see what was going on.
No time was lost. While a party of officers from the _San Matias_ were
being entertained by von Riesser in his cabin the Germans from her
transferred themselves and their belongings to the _Pelikan_--nearly
three hundred men of military age and bearing. Then came the work of
transhipping stores from the capacious holds of the South American
vessel. Carcass after carcass of oxen and sheep were brought on deck.
From the oxen were produced long bundles wrapped in cloth. Every
bundle contained four modern magazine rifles. Enclosed with the frozen
mutton were small shells and rifle ammunition. As fast as the
munitions were taken from their strange places of concealment most of
the carcasses were dumped overboard, a few hundred being retained for
food and stored in the _Pelikan's_ refrigerators. Then came bundles of
hides, each containing parts of machine-guns, until it looked as if the
ship had enough material to equip an army corps.
Long before the _San Matias_ had disgorged her warlike stores Denbigh
had overheard enough conversation to enable him to solve the mystery.
The _San Matias_ had been chartered by a number of wealthy German
merchants in Buenos Ayres for the purpose of sending some hundreds of
reservists to German East Africa. The presence of the _Pelikan_ in the
South Atlantic had been expected, and her progress, based upon reports
from British cruisers and duly transmitted by spies to Buenos Ayres,
reached the projectors of the scheme with remarkable promptitude. The
arms and ammunition had been purchased sometime previously from a
pro-German firm in New York, and sent to the Argentine to fulfil a
fictitious contract for the Government of that republic.
The _San Matias_ was then chartered, her owner, captain, and crew being
heavily bribed to undertake the risk, comparative immunity being
afforded by means of forged ship's papers and certificates of
nationality of the "passengers". At the same time the report was
spread in Buenos Ayres and Monte Video that the _Pelikan_ had been
sighted making for Bahia--a matter of two thousand miles N.N.E. of the
estuary of the La Plata. British agents swallowed the bait and
telegraphed the news to London, whence, in turn, the false information
was transmitted to the patrol vessels specially detailed to search for
the daring raider.
This report had literally done the trick. The northernmost group of
British cruisers instantly converged upon the Brazilian coast in the
neighbourhood of Bahia. The southern patrol remained in the vicinity
of the Falklands. Thus the _Pelikan_ had the chance of a free and
uninterrupted run eastwards until she approached the vicinity of the
Cape of Good Hope. Although her adventures were by no means over, one
source of danger had been removed.
The German reservists were certainly optimists. They firmly believed
that Egypt had been wrested from the British, and that their role was
to join the large army concentrating in German East Africa and march
victoriously down the valley of the Nile and crush the remnant of the
English in the vicinity of Khartoum. According to their idea and
belief South Africa was in rebellion, and that German South-West Africa
was once more a Teutonic colony. India, too, had revolted and joined
the Turks, who had occupied Persia and Beluchistan. Mention was also
made of the impending advance of the Turco-Germanic armies through
Tibet and China to establish a vast empire from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and to avenge upon Japan the loss of Kiau-Chau. In short, the
German armies were everywhere triumphant, although they could hardly
understand why they should have to be smuggled out to sea when the
German High Seas Fleet roamed unchallenged and the British navy skulked
in harbours.
At length the last of the _San Mathias's_ cargo was transhipped. The
two vessels parted company, the Argentine returning to Buenos Ayres
while the _Pelikan_ headed eastward on her perilous passage round the
Cape of Good Hope.