THE SECRET OF THE SILENT SUBMARINE
"It's a most mysterious affair, no doubt," I remarked. "Has anything
further been discovered?"
"Yes, Jack," replied my friend Ray Raymond, rolling a fresh cigarette
between his fingers. "On investigation, the mystery grows more
complicated, more remarkable, and--for us--much more interesting."
We were seated together in our dismal chambers in New Stone Buildings,
Lincoln's Inn, one wet afternoon about six weeks after the Forth Bridge
affair. With us, lolling in the shabby old easy chair beside the fire,
sat Vera Vallance, in a big black hat, with her muff and coat thrown
aside. Her disappearance at North Queensferry had been of only brief
duration, for we had discovered her hiding at the bottom of the long
garden, close to the water's edge, watching the landing of two small
boxes from a boat. It appeared that the two men, Scholtz and Klauber, on
receipt of the note purporting to come from their director, Hermann
Hartmann, in London, had asked her to wait in an adjoining room while
they wrote a reply. But from there she had slipped out, and concealed
herself in the garden to wait and watch.
Half an hour ago she had come to my gloomy chambers with her fiance, in
order, as he explained, to consult with us. She was at present on a
visit to her married sister who lived in Argyll Road, near Kensington
High Street, hence they were daily in each other's company.
"You see, Jack, very little has been allowed to leak out to the papers,"
Ray exclaimed as he lit his cigarette and took up a position with his
back to the fire. "As soon as I read of the discovery I ran down to
Scotland Yard, saw Evans, and explained my theory. He was inclined to
agree with me, and at once gave orders that no facts were to be given to
the Press. Upon complete secrecy, our success now depends."
"I only know what I've read in the papers," I remarked.
"Tell us the whole facts, Ray," urged the pretty fair-haired girl, who
sat with her veil raised and her long white gloves laid across her
knees.
"Well, dear, they are briefly as follows," he replied, with an
affectionate glance at her. "Last Thursday afternoon, on the arrival at
4.51 of a train from Guildford at Vauxhall, the ticket-collector
discovered lying on the floor of a third-class compartment a
middle-aged, respectably dressed man in an apparently dying condition.
The police were called, and he was conveyed to St. Thomas's Hospital,
where it was found that he was suffering from a severe fracture of the
skull, the wound having been inflicted probably with a loaded stick or a
life-preserver. There was a severe cut over the right eye and a great
gash down the left cheek. The man was unconscious, and still remains so.
The doctors have grave doubts whether, even if he recovers, his mind
will not be permanently affected. In all probability he will never
regain his right mind."
"Terrible!" ejaculated Vera.
"Yes. A case of attempted murder, no doubt," he said. "But what first
attracted my notice was the statement that the man had been identified
as Max Steinheim, a German hairdresser employed in a shop in New Bond
Street, who had been missing for nearly two months. He resided in
Hargwynne Street, Stockwell, and as he owed a considerable sum to his
landlady, she had given notice to the police of his disappearance. It
was she who had identified him in the hospital."
"That's as far as the information conveyed by the newspapers carries the
affair," I remarked.
"Exactly. But we are able to proceed a little farther, to a matter which
must be closely investigated," continued Raymond. "On the arrival of the
train at Waterloo the compartment, which showed signs of a desperate
struggle, was searched, and under the seat was discovered a small piece
of paper tightly screwed up into a small ball as though somebody wished
to get rid of it unobserved. Upon it, in a distinctly foreign hand, and
in violet ink--which, by the way, is seldom used by Englishmen--were
traced some cryptic memoranda, a copy of which I have here," and he
handed for our inspection a piece of paper which presented this
appearance:
J 11864! 19505
Kingscliffe
12.15 train St. Pancras
M.R. Weldon and Corby 1 mile
Royal Pier 18
6.11
248 and 392
Harpur Street 2.30
? 8.88 M. 88
Elmar 39 X clock.
"You've endeavoured to decipher it, of course," I remarked, as both Vera
and I gazed at the puzzling array of numerals and words.
"I have. For the past three days I've indeed done nothing else.
Unfortunately the result is not very reassuring," he answered.
"Deciphered by one of the little-known codes, the figures 19505 stand
for 'January 24th,' which is four days before the murderous assault.
Kingscliffe is the name of a village in Northamptonshire, on the North
Western line between Peterborough and Rugby. The 12.15 from St. Pancras
is a restaurant train for Derby, and takes passengers to Weldon and
Corby station, by changing at Kettering, and the distance '1 mile' would
bring the traveller to the village of Great Weldon."
"Royal Pier sounds like the name of a hotel," I remarked.
"No doubt. But there are a good many Royal Pier hotels in England, so
there we are confronted with a difficulty. To what 6.11 refers I cannot
conceive, while Harpur Street, which is off Theobalds Road, I visited
yesterday, but I find there are no such numbers as 248 or 392. The next
line is unintelligible, but if I read the last line aright it is an
appointment made beneath the clock at Charing Cross Station at six."
I drew hard at my pipe. That strange document presented to me a very
complicated puzzle.
"It seems to refer to some district in Northamptonshire, yet he was
attacked coming up from Guildford, on the South Western line!" Vera
remarked. "Is your only suspicion based upon the fact of the injured
man's nationality, Ray?"
"That, combined with other circumstances," he replied. "As soon as I
read the first announcement in the papers, I went down to Guildford and
there ascertained that the injured man arrived at the Angel Hotel in a
motor-car about one o'clock. The chauffeur remarked to the ostler that
he had come up from the south coast, and after having a drink he started
off on the return journey. Steinheim had luncheon upstairs, took his
coffee and cigarette in the little room below, and idled about, telling
the lady bookkeeper of the hotel that he was expecting a friend. The
friend in question did not, however, arrive, therefore he walked down to
the station, and left at 4.13 for London. A porter remembers seeing him
alone in the compartment, and it seems quite certain that, on starting
from Guildford, he was still alone. The train was an express, and timed
not to stop anywhere from Guildford to Vauxhall, but, from the railway
officials, I find that it was pulled up by signal about a mile from
Esher, in which time he may have been joined by some one from the
adjoining compartment."
"Then your theory is that the man who attacked this mysterious German
got back again to his carriage, and alighted at Vauxhall," I said.
"I certainly think so, for the driver says that outside Clapham Junction
the signals were against him, and he pulled up."
"It's a pity he has not sufficiently recovered to make any statement."
Ray smiled grimly.
"He would never do that, I think," he said. "It is to his advantage to
conceal the facts, if my deductions prove correct."
"Are those all the known circumstances?" I inquired, much interested.
"There is one other. A week after the man's disappearance from
Stockwell, his landlady received a letter bearing the postmark of
Crawley in Sussex, telling her not to trouble on his account. He wrote:
'I am engaged upon an important mission, but shall return home within
ten days, when I will pay all I owe you. Do not trouble after me. Burn
this letter as soon as you have read it.--MAX STEINHEIM.' The other fact
I learned from the man's employer, an Englishman in New Bond Street. It
appears that to the establishment there often came a stout,
well-dressed, prosperous-looking German gentleman who waited for
Steinheim to shave him, or cut his hair, and on such occasions it was
noticed that they exchanged whispered words in their own tongue."
"Well?" asked Vera, looking up at her lover.
"The stout German's description tallies exactly with that of Hermann
Hartmann."
"Ah! I see," I remarked. "You've certainly not been idle, Ray." And with
my eyes fixed upon that puzzling array of figures and words, I added,
"If we could only decipher the whole of these we might elucidate the
truth."
"The injured man's knowledge of Hartmann, the crafty chief of the German
Secret Service in London, is certainly suspicious," Vera remarked. "But
cannot some information be gathered from the landlady at Hargwynne
Street? He may have had visitors there."
"And if he did, they would speak in German, which the good lady could
not understand," her lover replied thoughtfully, contemplating the end
of his cigarette.
"There could be no harm in seeing the good lady," the girl remarked.
"I'll go over to-morrow and have a chat with her."
"And in the meantime Jack and I will pursue another line of inquiry,"
remarked my friend.
Vera rose, a tall, fair-haired, and sweet-faced figure in black, and
seating herself at the table, served us our tea. She was no stranger at
our chambers, and as an Admiral's daughter, the question of German spies
in England, which her lover had taken up so strongly, interested her
most keenly. The Forth Bridge peril had already impressed a great and
serious truth upon the Government, but Ray Raymond's success had only
whetted his appetite for further exploration and discovery.
Therefore on the following morning I called at his chambers in Bruton
Street--a tastefully furnished bachelor suite, the art green and blues
of which were scarcely in keeping with his serious, earnest
character--and together we drove in a taxi-cab to St. Thomas's Hospital,
where, in the accident ward, we stood at the bedside of the mysterious
Steinheim. His head was enveloped in surgical bandages, but during the
night he had regained consciousness. To the questions we put to him,
however, we obtained no satisfactory replies. His mind seemed to be a
perfect blank as to what had occurred.
Ray read the copy of those cryptic figures upon the scrap of paper found
in the railway carriage. When my friend pronounced the name of the
station "Weldon and Corby," the invalid's big grey eyes started from his
head as he exclaimed in German:
"Ah! Yes--yes. At Weldon. She was at Weldon!"
Who was "she"? In vain we tried to wring from him some reply to this
question, but, alas! in vain.
Mention of Hermann Hartmann, the ingenious and fearless secret agent who
controlled so cleverly the vast army of German spies spread over our
smiling land of England, brought no responsive expression to the man's
white, drawn face. It was indeed apparent that his intention was to hold
back at all hazards the truth regarding the murderous attack upon him.
Perhaps he himself was guilty of some offence, or perhaps he intended to
hold his peace then and to retaliate at a moment when his assailant
thought himself most secure.
He was a big, burly, strong-featured man, just the type of heavy-limbed
German who might be expected to bear a murderous malice against any who
did him injury.
"I feel more than ever convinced that Hartmann is at the bottom of the
curious affair," Ray declared, as we walked together across Westminster
Bridge and I crossed with him to the St. Stephen's Club, at the corner
of the Embankment. "As far as I can discover, the man was always in
possession of ample funds. Yet to his landlady he was careful never to
reveal that he had money. There was, no doubt, some hidden reason for
this, as well as for the letter he wrote to the woman after his
departure."
"The mystery surrounding the affair grows more fascinating as we
proceed," I declared.
"And if the deduction I have made this morning proves to be the correct
one, Jack, the mystery will still increase. There's some very crooked
business in progress, depend upon it."
That afternoon I had to make an application in the Chancery Court,
therefore it was not until after dinner that I again sat in one of the
green velvet chairs in his art-green sitting-room.
Contrary to his usual habit, he had not dressed, but still wore the
brown tweed suit which he had had on in the morning.
"You've brought what I asked you over the 'phone?" he inquired, as soon
as I entered.
"Yes," I replied, opening the well-worn leather brief bag which I
carried, and displaying a dark lantern, a coil of strong silk rope, and
a small but serviceable jemmy. All that burglarious outfit belonged to
my friend.
"Right," he exclaimed, stroking his smooth-shaven chin. "Have a pipe.
We'll leave here about ten. We are going to spend the night in Pont
Street." And he pointed to a silver flask and a paper of sandwiches upon
the sideboard. "Vera has seen the landlady in Stockwell, but can make
nothing of her. She's as deaf as a post. She returned home to Portsmouth
to-night."
We smoked together until ten, he consuming cigarette after cigarette in
that quick, nervous manner which showed the volcano of excitement raging
within him.
"I can't think why the mention of Weldon and Corby should have so
excited our friend this morning. To me it seemed as though he retained
rather bitter memories of the place."
"And there was a woman in the case, without a doubt."
"I think, Jack, I shall go down there and have a look round as soon as I
have a chance. From the ordnance map this place seems quite a small one.
The station is at Corby, while Little Weldon and Great Weldon are about
a mile distant."
"There's just a chance, of course, that you might pick up something
there," I remarked.
"And yet what I surmise leads me in entirely an opposite direction.
There are no defences or secrets in Northamptonshire, remember."
Once more he took from his writing-table the piece of paper whereon was
a copy of the strange array of figures found in the railway carriage at
Waterloo. But at last he shook his head and laid it aside with a sigh.
The mystery remained as complete as ever.
"There's a good deal that's suspicious about Hartmann. I suppose that's
why we are going to Pont Street?" I remarked.
"Yes. As I've explained, he's believed to be a money-lender with an
office in Cork Street, and is registered as such, in order that no one
should be surprised at the constant callers at his house. He receives
visits from all sorts and conditions of men--and women, but observation
which I have placed upon the house has convinced me that the majority of
these people are German agents of whom he is the guiding spirit and
paymaster, and among whom he is all-powerful. Payment is made through
him for all confidential services rendered to the Fatherland."
"And the police do not suspect it?"
"My dear fellow, have not the police received orders from our Government
to close their eyes to the doings of these gentry? England is the
paradise of the spy, and will remain so until we can bring pressure to
bear to compel the introduction of fresh legislation against them."
Soon after half-past ten a taxi-cab deposited us in Sloane Street, and
together we turned into Pont Street, walking leisurely past a
medium-sized red-fronted house approached by a flight of steps leading
to a deep portico. There was a light in the first-floor window of what
was evidently the drawing-room but the rest of the house of the arch-spy
of Germany was in darkness.
As we passed the house, my friend examined its highly respectable
exterior. Then we passed on to the end of the thoroughfare, in order to
attract no attention. A constable passed us, and in order to avoid being
noticed we walked together for some distance. Presently, however, Ray
turned back, and gaining the house adjoining Hartmann's, ran swiftly up
the steps into the shadow of the portico, I following at his heels.
In a few seconds he had opened the door with a latch-key he carried in
his hand, and next moment we were within the wide, echoing hall, for the
house was empty, and to let.
"I called upon the agent, and had a look over this place a few days
ago," he explained. "On that occasion, I had the key in my hand for a
moment, and obtained an impression of it," and switching on his electric
torch he showed the square hall with the flight of stairs ascending from
it.
Gaining the big drawing-room, Ray crossed to the long French window on
the left and gazed cautiously out upon the street below.
As he did so I noticed the figure of a man in a dark overcoat and felt
hat cross from the opposite pavement and ascend the stairs of the house
next door. Ray glanced at his watch, which he could see by the light of
the street lamp outside. Noticing the time, he became reassured.
"You see, Jack, that from here runs a balcony leading to that of
Hartmann's house. We must creep along it and try and get a peep of our
friend at home. I've watched that drawing-room window for a long time,
and I believe that he makes it his business room."
Carefully he unfastened the French window, and bending low so as to
escape the observation of any person passing by, we both crept along
the narrow balcony until, by swinging from one balustrade to the other,
we found ourselves standing over Hartmann's portico.
Even from where we stood we could hear voices. Forward we crept again
until we were outside the windows of the drawing-room, crouching so that
no inquisitive policeman could detect us.
The blind of the window at which I listened did not fit well, therefore,
through the small crack, I was enabled to peer within. The room was a
large, well-furnished one with a fire burning brightly; near it stood a
large roll-top writing-table at which sat a fat, flabby, sardonic-faced
man of about fifty-five. He had grey eyes full of craft and cunning, a
prominent nose, and a short-cropped grey beard. Ray whispered that it
was the great Hartmann.
Near the fire, seated nervously on the extreme edge of a chair, was a
respectably dressed man, a German evidently, with his hat in his hand.
The man presented the appearance of a hard-working mechanic, and was
obviously ill at ease.
We watched them in conversation, but could not distinguish one single
word of what was said. All we could gather was that the fat man was
overbearing in his manner, and that the visitor was most humble and
subservient against his will.
For a full half-hour we watched, but unable to gather anything further,
we were compelled to return to the house next door and regain the
street, where for still twenty minutes longer we waited for the
visitor's exit. When at last he came forth we followed him to the corner
of Knightsbridge, opposite the Hyde Park Hotel, where he boarded a
motor-bus, from which he eventually descended at the corner of Gray's
Inn Road walking thence to a house in Harpur Street, Bloomsbury, where
we later on discovered he lodged, under the name of Leon Karff.
The nature of the mission entrusted to this man, if one had actually
been entrusted to him, was a mystery, yet it was a curious fact that
"Harpur Street" appeared upon that scrap of paper which to us was such
an enigma.
Next morning at six o'clock, I was already idling, at the corner of
Harpur Street and Theobalds Road, but not until three hours later did
the foreigner emerge and walk toward Holborn. Thence he took a motor-bus
back to Sloane Street, and calling upon Hartmann, spent another half an
hour with him.
And afterwards he went straight home. It was then about noon, and having
an engagement in Court, I was compelled to relinquish my vigil. But at a
little after five Ray entered our chambers, exclaiming:
"As I expected! That man Karff has been to see Steinheim in the
hospital. I was there awaiting him, believing that he might visit him.
Apparently the injured man has given him certain instructions."
"About what?"
Ray shrugged his shoulders in blank ignorance. Then he said, "We have
advanced one step toward the solution of the problem, my dear Jack. But
we have not gone very far."
He took the copy of the cryptogram from my writing-table and again
examined it. The figures "6.11" puzzled him. Many times he referred to
them.
Four days passed, during which we kept strict observation upon Karff and
followed him wherever he went. On the fifth day, Ray having spent all
the morning watching him, to relieve him I walked along the Theobalds
Road a few minutes before one and paused, as usual, before the oil shop
at the corner. There was no sign of my friend, and though I waited
through the whole of that cold afternoon and evening, continuing my
wearisome vigil till midnight, yet he did not come.
Much surprised, I returned to New Stone Buildings, where I found a
telegram from Ray, sent from Waterloo Station at three o'clock, telling
me that all was right, and urging me to await further information.
This I did. For a whole week I possessed myself in patience, not knowing
where Ray was or what had befallen him. That he was on the trail of a
solution of the mystery was evident, but he sent me no word of his
whereabouts.
It was apparent, however, that he was no longer in London.
Eleven days after his disappearance I one afternoon received another
telegram, which had been handed in at Chichester, asking me to go at
once to the Queen's Hotel at Southsea, where he would meet me at ten
o'clock that night.
At the hour appointed I awaited him in my bedroom overlooking Southsea
Common and the harbour, and at last he joined me. I saw by the serious
expression upon his face that something unusual had happened.
"The fellow Karff has realised that I'm following him, Jack. Therefore
you must take the matter up. He's in the service of a greengrocer in
Queen Street, close to the Hard. I haven't yet discovered his game."
Thus there was left to me a very difficult matter, a mystery which I
exerted every effort to unravel. For the next fortnight I watched the
fellow incessantly, being relieved sometimes by the pretty daughter of
the Admiral Superintendent, whose home was fortunately in the Dockyard.
In all weathers and at all times we watched, but we failed to discover
anything. Ray remained at the hotel impatient and inactive, and I must
admit that more than once I was inclined to believe that he had been
mistaken in his surmises. Leon Karff was, as far as we could discover, a
hard-working foreigner, driven by force of circumstances into adopting
the lowly calling of a greengrocer's assistant. His employer supplied
with fruit and vegetables the officers' messes of several of the ships
in the Dockyard, and on infrequent occasions he drove in the light cart
with his master when on his rounds taking orders.
This round at last he was in the habit of making three times a week.
One Saturday morning, as I was idling along the Hard, I saw Karff and
his master, a man named Mitchell, drive in past the policeman at the
main gate. But though I waited for over three hours to watch their exit,
they did not reappear.
Much surprised at this, I walked round to the Unicorn Gate, at Landport,
where, on making judicious inquiries of the policeman on duty, I learnt
that Mitchell had driven out--but alone! His assistant, he said, had
been sent back on foot with a message through the main gate just when
the dockyard men or "maties," as they are called, were leaving work at
midday.
Now having stood at that gate when the throngs had poured forth, I was
quite certain he had not emerged. But I kept my own counsel, and
returned to Southsea, deep in my own reflections.
On taking counsel with Ray, he at once telephoned to Vera at Admiralty
House, and an hour later we all three discussed the situation, it being
arranged that the Admiral's daughter should contrive to admit us to the
Dockyard that night, when all was quiet, in order that we might
institute a search for the missing German.
Therefore, just before half-past eleven, we halted before the small
private door in the Dockyard wall, used by the Admiral-Superintendent
and his household, and as the clock struck the door opened, revealing
Vera. Next instant we were within the forbidden zone.
The night was frosty and a good deal too bright to suit our purpose.
Vera gave some instructions to her lover, pointing to a row of long,
dark sheds with sloping roofs on the opposite side of the Dockyard,
saying:
"If he's inside, he's almost certain to be hidden somewhere near No. 4
shed. But be careful of the police; they are very watchful over yonder."
And after refastening the gate she disappeared into the darkness.
In the deep shadows we both crept noiselessly forward, negotiating in
safety a pair of lock-gates in the open, and pursuing our way until in
the vicinity of the shed which the Admiral's daughter had pointed out we
discovered an old boiler, in which we both secreted ourselves.
Hardly had we crept inside when we heard the measured tramp of a
policeman, who passed actually within a few feet of us. From the round
hole in which we lay we could see Gosport--a pale row of lamps across
the harbour.
We waited there, scarcely daring to whisper, until at last the clock
struck one. If Karff was in the vicinity of that shed beside which we
were secreted, he made no sign. All was silent. Once the shrill siren of
a ship out at Spithead broke the quiet. Then its echoes died away.
"I really think we might have a careful look round," Ray suggested after
a long silence.
With great care, therefore, we both emerged from our hiding-place, and
keeping well within the shadows, passed round shed No. 4, which we found
was completely closed in from view, its door being strongly barred and
padlocked.
Unable to see anything, we decided to halt in the darkness behind a heap
of scrap-iron and to listen for any sound of movement.
The cutting wind chilled us both to the marrow, for a white rime had
gathered on the ground. The only sound we heard was that of the measured
footsteps of another constable, which advanced and then died away again.
There was, however, no sign of the German spy.
"To get in by the door yonder would be impossible. Therefore, he would
try the roof," my companion remarked.
"You're right," I said. "You remain down here and watch while I try and
get up above."
So I left him, and after considerable difficulty succeeded in gaining
the roof of the shed adjoining, crouching in the gutter between the
sloping roofs of the two sheds.
On each side of me sloped upwards skylights which lighted the interiors
of the building-sheds, but all were thickly coated with a composition of
dockyard dust and soot, which had been poured forth from many a
warship's funnel as well as from the dozens of furnaces around. All was
dark below; therefore I could see nothing.
I had been in my elevated position for fully twenty minutes before I was
prompted to creep along to the further end of the gulley, where, to my
surprise, I saw that close to where I stood two panes of glass had been
neatly removed and laid aside.
Through the hole I gazed down into the interior of the shed, when I was
startled to see the small glow of an electric lamp in the hand of the
man of whom we were in search.
He was standing beside the long, spindle-shaped hull of a new submarine
boat which lay on a very elevated set of stocks on the far side of the
shed. Another boat similar, but not so nearly complete, lay at the
bottom of the dock alongside her.
As Karff with his electric lamp moved slowly and noiselessly along,
carefully examining England's newest submarine, which rumour had said
was the most silent and perfect craft of its kind, I was able to make
out vaguely that, differing considerably from photographs of other
submarines I had seen, the boat on the elevated stocks had a bow which
ran out into a kind of snout, while instead of the usual small circular
or oval conning-tower she had what looked like a long, narrow
superstructure running along the greater part of her length. This,
however, was much higher forward than aft. She seemed, too, to have a
great number of propellers.
I watched the man Karff making some rapid memoranda, and so occupied was
he with his work that he never looked upward. Had he done so, he would
certainly have detected my head against the sky.
In a manner which showed him to be fully acquainted with the
construction of submarine vessels, he moved to and fro, examining both
boats. Then, after about half an hour's minute investigation, he seated
himself upon a bench and with his little lamp shaded to throw no
reflection he took out a piece of paper and leisurely made a rough
sketch of England's newest war-craft, both side and horizontal views.
Leaving him thus occupied, I descended to Ray, and finding him secreted
near the water's edge, described what I had discovered.
"Good!" he exclaimed. "So I was not mistaken in that cryptogram after
all! We will allow the fellow to complete his work and then compel him
to disgorge his notes. They will furnish us with very excellent
evidence."
So we waited, keeping our eyes fixed upon the spot where he must
descend, and hardly daring to breathe lest we should prematurely alarm
him.
The Dockyard clock chimed three, but the spy had not emerged. After
another half-hour of watchful silence I saw that Ray began to be
anxious. At last the bell rang out four, and scarcely had the last sound
died away when we were startled by a splash near us, and next moment
discerned a man in white shirtsleeves swimming away.
"Why! That's him!" I gasped. "He's cut a way out of the side of the
shed!"
But next moment a boat shot forth from the darkness pulled by a woman
who had apparently been waiting close by. The woman was Vera!
In a moment we were both down the steps and pulling in the boat towards
the swimming man, who, we saw, was being rapidly approached by a second
boat which had also been in waiting until the chiming of the clock.
The spy was exerting every muscle to reach the boat, but we soon
overtook him.
Ray called upon him in German to surrender, but he refused, and kept on.
Quickly, however, we cut him off from the boat which he was trying to
reach, while the rower, seeing the discovery of his friend, pulled away
into the darkness.
For some time the spy struggled on, but at last, abandoned and
exhausted, he was compelled to obey us and come aboard in order to save
his life.
Half dead and helpless he submitted to our search, when in his belt,
preserved in an oilskin pocket, we discovered the memoranda and the
drawing which I had seen him prepare.
The man, sullen and half drowned, refused to make any statement, though
he could speak English well and write it perfectly, as shown by the note
on his plan of the new boat; therefore we landed him at the Stony Steps
across at Gosport. Before we left him we gave him to understand that if
he did not at once leave the country he would be arrested. Yet so absurd
is our law that I doubt whether we could have given him in charge even
though we had wished!
[Illustration: LEON KARFF'S ROUGH DRAWING OF THE NEW BRITISH SUBMARINE.
The letters refer to the notes which were also found, and which ran as
follows: AA, Conning Tower; BB, Telephone Buoys; CC, Hatchways; D,
Lifeboat (detachable); E, Rudder; FF, Wells with Horizontal Propellers;
GG, Planes; H, Hatch from Diving Chamber; II, Wheels in Recesses; K,
Detachable Safety Weight in Recess; L, Tiller; T T T T, Torpedo Tubes; P
P P P, Propellers.
I. Side View (in awash position). II. Horizontal position (from above).
Scale, 1/2 inch to 12 feet.]
We rowed back across to the landing-stage at Portsmouth Harbour Station,
and after we had seen Vera safely home we returned together to the
"Queen's" at Southsea, where, in the secrecy of Ray's bedroom, we
examined the spy's plan of the new submarine, and read his memoranda,
which were in German, but which translated were as follows:
"REPORT BY LEON KARFF, LATE FOREMAN-FITTER AT KIEL DOCKYARD, ON
SUBMARINE 'F 2,' NOW BUILDING IN SHED NO. 4, PORTSMOUTH
DOCKYARD.
"This boat would appear to me to be of about 700 tons
displacement when complete, possibly rather over. She is, as
far as I am able to measure, about 180 feet long with an
extreme beam a little forward of amidships of 20 feet. She is
fitted with three propeller shafts with three small four-bladed
propellers on each. As she is provided with what appear to me
to be some kind of turbine engines, I imagine that the centre
shaft is for going astern only. The propellers on this shaft
seem to be attached in such a way that they could be
'feathered' by suitable gearing on board so as not to retard
the vessel's way when going ahead. The engines of this boat are
of a type which I have never before seen. I imagine that they
are a combination of the new 'gas-producer' engine and the
turbine system, the explosion of the combined gas and air
being split up and passing into the turbine through a number
of different channels simultaneously. This would be a very
economical system if the necessary power can be obtained,
and would be much safer for use below than petrol engines.
"The boat is evidently intended to operate a good deal in an
'awash' position, for there is fairly thick armour-plating over
the greater part of the upper side of the bow, while the fore
end of the superstructure is made of two 6-inch Krupp steel
plates meeting at an acute angle, and so forming a kind of stem
when the boat is moving in this way. The space enclosed between
these two plates is evidently intended to be used as the
conning-tower. Here there are a periscope, steering-wheel,
voice-tubes, and everything necessary for the control of the
vessel. There are two horizontal propellers or fans, which seem
to be driven by electricity derived from an installation of
accumulators, and which are certainly intended to secure
horizontal immersion, so the vessel will not plunge or dive,
but immerse herself horizontally by means of these propellers,
which, by the way, work in vertical shafts running completely
through the boat, one forward and the other aft, as was the
case in the _Nordenfeldt_, _Waddington_, and other early
submarines.
"Forward there is an air-lock and diving-chamber, as in the
'Lake' boats, so that divers can get in and out of the vessel
whilst under water. It would also afford a means of escape for
the crew in the case of accident. This is further provided for
by a detachable boat or caisson at the after end of the
superstructure capable of holding ten men, I should say, or
possibly a dozen. There are also appliances which I suppose are
telephone buoys for communicating with the surface. There are
six torpedo tubes fitted, one forward, one aft, and the others
two on either broadside. And there seems to be provision for
six other torpedoes of the 18-inch type.
"There is a long rudder for ordinary steering, and four
horizontal ones or planes which are placed abreast the
horizontal screws and which, I imagine, act automatically in
conjunction with them, as they seem to gear up with the shafts
for these propellers. There is a big safety detachable weight
which fits loosely into a recess amidships, and four broad
wheels with ball bearings which do not fold up as in the 'Lake'
boats, but always protrude nearly half their diameter. After
all they would not obstruct her way when water-borne more than
a keel--or very little more. They are quite independent and
unconnected with the interior of the vessel, which while
resting on them would receive forward impetus from her
propellers. In the 'awash' position she would offer a very
small and almost invulnerable target."
"Well," I said, marvelling at what we had translated. "What induced you
to believe that the cryptogram had any reference to the new submarine."
"Those figures '6.11' puzzled me greatly," he replied; "but at last I
deciphered them as 'F. 2'--F being the sixth letter of the alphabet--the
number of our newest and most formidable submarine, which was being kept
such a strict secret by the Admiralty. 'Royal Pier' is the name of the
hotel in which Steinheim stayed at Southsea, and 18 the number of his
room. From facts I elucidated, it was made plain that Max Steinheim was
about to embark upon the investigation, being in secret communication
with Hartmann, and was to meet Karff at Charing Cross Station. This
Steinheim had already, by an ingenious device, secured from a private of
engineers named James Ward--whom I have seen--certain information
regarding the new boom defences of Portsmouth Harbour. Ward, whose home
is at Great Weldon, suddenly discovered to his horror that the man was a
German spy, followed him to Guildford, attacked him in the train, and
left him for dead. For that reason Steinheim has refused to make any
statement to the police. When I saw Ward a week ago, he explained how
innocently he had fallen into the trap which the cunning Steinheim had
laid for him."
"The evidence you have here in black and white will surely prove
convincing," I remarked. "You will go and see Steinheim again, I
suppose? He is still in the hospital."
"No. We shall remain silent. To show our hand will only place Hartmann
on the alert. To do that is needless. We have prevented the plan of our
new submarine going to Germany, and for the present that is sufficient."
And my friend drew up the blind and gazed out upon the rosy dawn across
the water.