H. M. S. WYVERN
"Well," said Guild coolly, "have you any idea what a casual British
cruiser might want of _me_?"
"I have not," said the officer, "so perhaps you had better tell _me_
what is wanted of yourself and your wife by the captain of that warship.
It might save some argument between him and our own captain. We are due
in Amsterdam at noon tomorrow," he added meaningly.
"Do you mean to say that the officer in command of this British ship
desires to speak to my wife?"
"His signals stopped us and his wireless told us to detain you and your
wife."
"What ship is it?" demanded the young man, so nervous now that he
scarcely knew what he was saying.
The Dutch officer remained icy and precise: "The ship is the light
cruiser _Wyvern_, of the 'Monster' class. Her consorts yonder are the
_Hippogriff_ and _Basalisk_--if this information enlightens you, Mr.
Guild."
"It does not. But I know this much: You can't detain an American!
Neither can that British captain take a neutral from a neutral ship! And
that settles the matter."
"Be good enough to come on deck," said the Hollander in his correct and
fluent English. "The captain desires to speak with you."
"Very well. I'll follow you in a moment"--and turning to Karen:
"Dearest, are you awake?"
"Yes, dear."
"The captain wishes to see me. I'll be back directly." He stepped out
into the corridor, hesitated, excused himself to the officer, and
returned to Karen, closing the door and locking it.
She was sitting up on the bed, very still and white, and when he came
over to her she instinctively laid both chilled hands in his. He held
them in a firm and reassuring clasp; but he was terribly disconcerted.
"Listen, dear. I think a British officer is coming aboard for us. I
don't know whether he has any right to take us off this ship, but I'm
afraid that the law in the matter won't worry him.
"Now listen to me, dear. If I come back and knock and call to you by
name, open. If somebody knocks, and there is no voice--or if it is not
my voice, go to that port, open it, untie your satchel, which is hanging
outside at a rope's end, take out the papers, and drop them into the
sea. And not until you have done this shall you open the door to
anybody."
"Yes, Kervyn."
"Then," he said, "if we've got to go back to England on a warship, we'll
go clean-handed."
"Yes."
"And you had better take these passports, too." He drew them from his
breast pocket. "They're forged. Throw them out with the other papers."
"Yes, I will."
"Then--I'm going.... Don't worry--dear. Don't tremble so, Karen--dear
Karen----"
"I'll try not to. I'll not be cowardly. It--it has been a long--day....
I'm thinking of Anna, too. You know, if she had any papers, she was
bringing them to me. That will be against me."
"I forgot that," he said, appalled. Then he squared his shoulders and
forced a smile: "Anyway, whatever faces you faces us _both_!...
Dear--keep every atom of courage you have. I shall stand by you, always.
But I must go now. Do you promise me to keep up courage?"
"Yes--dear----"
They were excited, their every nerve now stretched to the breaking, yet
both were striving for self-control in the instant menace of this new
peril confronting them. Neither knew just what they said or did; he bent
over her; she lifted her face to his, closing her eyes as his lips
touched her forehead. Then he went away swiftly, and she sprang to the
floor and locked the stateroom door. The next moment the awful flare of
a searchlight turned the room to a pit of silvery fire, and she cringed
against the bed under the fierce white glory, covering her bloodless
face with both hands.
On deck, the Dutch captain, who was awaiting Guild at the companionway,
came forward hastily and drew him aside.
"They've boarded us already," he said; "there comes their lieutenant
over the side. Tell me, Mr. Guild, are your papers in order and your
conscience clear? Can I make a fight over this affair?"
"I have no papers, but my conscience is in order. Don't let them take us
if you can help it."
"You have no papers?"
"None that can help me or my wife."
"Then it's no use fighting."
"Fight all the same!" whispered Guild, as they both turned to meet the
young naval officer who had just stepped aboard. He and the Dutch
captain exchanged civilities stiffly, then Guild stepped forward into
the lantern light.
"Kervyn Guild!" exclaimed the slim young officer in surprise. "Is it
_you_!"
"Jamison!" ejaculated Guild, astonished. "Well this is lucky! I'm
tremendously glad! I am indeed!"
They exchanged a warm impulsive hand-clasp, smiled at each other--then
the quick smile on the youthful lieutenant's features altered, and his
face fell.
"Guild," he said soberly, "I am afraid I shall have to inconvenience you
and--your wife. I'm afraid I shall have to ask you to come aboard the
_Wyvern_ with me. I'm sorry; I know it must inconvenience you
fearfully----"
"Jamison! We _can't_ go aboard your ship! What on earth are you thinking
of?"
"Orders," returned the young fellow gravely. "I've no discretion, you
see."
As by common consent they had stepped aside from the group of ships'
officers and, standing in the shadow of a lifeboat, they now gazed at
each other very seriously.
Guild said: "There must be some mistake about this. I have no wife on
board this boat."
"Did you not board this boat in company with your wife?" asked Jamison
in a low voice.
"No."
"Our information is otherwise."
"Jamison, you know whether I am likely to lie to you. And I say to you
on my word of honour that I did not come aboard this boat with my wife."
"Is she not on board?"
"She is not."
Jamison said regretfully: "No good, old fellow. We know she is not your
wife. But we want her. I think you had better prepare her to come with
us."
"Jamison, will you listen to me and believe me?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then, on my word of honour, the woman you have come to take from this
ship is absolutely innocent of any--intentional--crime."
"I take your word for it, Guild."
"You can guess _my_ sentiments in regard to this war, can't you?"
insisted Guild.
"I think I can."
"Then listen, Jamison. I pledge you my word that through this young
girl, and through me, nothing shall ever happen that could in any manner
be detrimental to your country or its allies. Don't press this matter,
for God's sake!"
"Guild," he said quietly, "I believe you absolutely. But--both you and
this young lady must come aboard the _Wyvern_ with me. Those are my
orders, old fellow. I can't go back on them; I have no discretion in
this matter. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes."
After a silence, Guild linked his arm in the gold-laced arm of his
old-time friend and walked back to where the captain stood fidgeting.
"I won't go, Jamison," he said, loudly but pleasantly. "I am not obliged
to go aboard your ship. Captain Vandervelde, I claim the protection of
your flag for myself and for my wife."
"Captain Vandervelde knows that it means only trouble for him," said
Jamison, forcing a smile. "He is not likely to defy the _Wyvern_, I
think."
They all turned in the sudden glitter of the _Wyvern's_ searchlight and
gazed across the darkness where the unseen cruiser was playing on them
from stem to stern.
"Will you come with me, Guild?" asked Jamison quietly.
"No, Jamison, I'm hanged if I do.... And that's too close to the truth
to be very funny," he added, laughingly.
"The _Wyvern_ will merely send a guard for you. It's no good bluffing,
Guild. You know it yourself."
"International law is no bluff!"
"International law is merely in process of evolution just now. It's in
the making. And we are making it."
"That remark is very British."
"Yes, I'm afraid it is. I'm sorry."
"Well, I won't go aboard the _Wyvern_, I tell you. I've _got_ to stay on
this ship! I--" he leaned over and said under his breath--"it may mean
death to me, Jamison, to go aboard your ship. Not because of anything I
have to fear from _your_ people. On the contrary. But they'll shoot me
in Germany. Can't you tell your captain I'm trustworthy?"
"What is the use, Guild?" said the young man gently. "I have my orders."
Guild looked at him, looked about him at the grave faces of the captain
and the second officer, looked out across the black void of water where
the long beam of the searchlight had shifted skyward, as though
supplicating Heaven once more.
Only a miracle could save Karen. He knew that as he stood there, silent,
with death in his heart.
And the miracle happened. For, as he stood staring at the heavenward
beam of the unseen cruiser's searchlight, all at once the ship herself
became grotesquely visible, tilted up oddly out of the sea in the centre
of a dull reddish glow. The next instant a deadened boom sounded across
the night as though from infinite depths; a shaft of fire two hundred
feet high streamed skyward.
"That ship has been torpedoed! Oh, my God!" said a voice.
"The _Wyvern_ has hit a mine!" roared the Dutch captain. "I'm going to
get out of this _now_!"
Jamison's youthful face was marble; he swayed slightly where he stood.
The next instant he was over the side like a cat, and Guild heard him
hailing his boat in an agonized voice which broke with a dry, boyish
sob.
From everywhere out of the blackness searchlights stretched out
tremulous phantom arms toward the _Wyvern_, and their slender white
beams crossed and recrossed each other, focussing on the stricken
warship, which was already down by the stern, her after deck awash, and
that infernal red glow surrounding her like the glow of hell around a
soul in torment.
Passengers, seamen, stewards crowded and crushed him to the rail,
shouting, struggling, crying out in terror or in pity.
Guild caught an officer by his gold sleeve. "We ought to stand by her,"
he said mechanically. "Her magazine is afire!"
"There are boats a-plenty to look after her," returned the officer; "the
British destroyers are all around her like chicks about a dying hen.
She's their parent ship; and there go their boats, pulling hell for
sweeps! God! If it was a mine, I wish we were at Amsterdam, I do!"
The steamer was already under way; electric signals sparkled from her;
signals were sparkling everywhere in the darkness around them. And all
the while the cruiser with her mortal wound, enveloped in her red aura,
agonized there in the horrible sombre radiance of her own burning
vitals.
Far away in the black void a ship began to fire star-shells.
As the awed throng on the moving liner's decks gazed out across the
night, the doomed cruiser split slowly amidships, visibly, showing the
vivid crack of her scarlet, jagged wound. For a second or two she fairly
vomited hell-fire; lay there spouting it out in great crimson gouts;
then she crashed skyward into incandescent fragments like a single
gigantic bomb, and thunderous blackness blotted out sea and sky once
more.