The Sandinsel Tunnel
AFTER their recapture Hamerton and Detroit were shut up in separate
cells, the former in the same place as before, while the American was
lodged in a disused casemate of the Bucket Horn Battery.
Their captors left nothing undone to guarantee the safety of the
prisoners. Hamerton's cell had been recemented over the original
floor to a depth of four inches of solid concrete. The bars of his
window had been removed and others of considerably greater thickness
securely let into the stonework. An observation hole had been cut in
the doorway, and the jailers were given instructions to visit the
prisoners' cells every two hours, day and night.
Every few hours wireless messages came from Torpedo-boat-destroyer
S174. They brought slight consolation to Von Wittelsbach's peace of
mind. The long-sought-for yacht still remained alongside the quay at
Delfzyl.
Then came the news that an English newspaper had published the
information that the spies were Sub-Lieutenant John Hamerton and
Oswald Detroit, an American subject.
Von Wittelsbach was for the time being speechless with rage and
mortification. He anticipated the order to proceed to Berlin to give
an explanation, and ere he set out he gave instructions that the
prisoners should be removed to Sandinsel.
It was late at night when a file of marines entered Hamerton's cell.
The sergeant in charge roughly ordered him to get up and dress.
Although still weak with the effects of his brief spell of liberty,
the Sub was rapidly recovering. Two days' rest was sufficient to
banish the pain in his neck caused by his involuntary dive into the
secret gunpit of the Breit Horn battery. His bruised fingers gave him
considerable inconvenience, so that he took a long time over his
dressing operations.
"Hasten," ordered the sergeant more than once, but Hamerton paid
scant heed. He was resolved not to retard the healing of his hand by
unnecessary haste, since he might even yet have an opportunity of
eluding his captors.
The fragments of the prepared cotton from the fireproof Zeppelin he
still retained in his shoes, but the steel spike which had served him
so well had been discovered and taken away by his jailers soon after
his recapture.
"Roll your blankets," ordered the non-commissioned officer gruffly.
You are to take them with you."
"Evidently I am off on a long journey," thought the Sub at this stage
of the proceedings. "What's up now, I wonder? Judging by the
elaborate alterations they have made to my quarters I thought they
meant to keep me here for a very long time."
"March!" ordered the sergeant, pointing to the door. "No tricks,
mind. Our rifles are loaded."
Along the corridor, down the steps, and out into the open the file of
marines conducted their prisoner. Then the gates in the outer wall
were thrown open, and the Sub found himself in the street.
Turning sharp to the left the party marched along the broad, even
road leading towards the Zeppelin station. It did not take them long
to arrive at the barbed-wire fence. Hamerton could not help
contrasting the time it took with the tedious, cautious crawl over
that very ground only a few nights before.
Here the marines were challenged by a sentry. The sergeant advanced,
whispered the password, and received permission to proceed.
A large extent of the fence had been levelled, and over the barbed
wire were placed the metal coverings Hamerton had noticed during his
tour of investigation.
Down the familiar incline the Sub was hurried, till the marines
halted within twenty yards of the circular expanse out of which
opened the caves for the giant aircraft.
Everything was now in darkness, but by the presence of numbers of
soldiers and seamen Hamerton concluded that one of the Zeppelins was
about to be hauled out for a nocturnal flight. He wondered vaguely if
he were to be an involuntary passenger.
A sliding door opened in the cliff, revealing a long passage lit at
regular intervals with electric incandescent lights. A waft of hot,
moist air greeted the Sub as he entered.
"By the right--march!" ordered the sergeant.
The tunnel was only wide enough to admit of two men walking abreast.
Along the ground ran a narrow-gauge tram line. At every twenty-five
yards or thereabouts was a niche, intended as a refuge for foot
passengers upon the approach of any rolling stock. For the first
hundred yards the tunnel was on the downgrade, then it was horizontal
in direction. Overhead, and above the hollow tramp of his escort, the
Sub could hear a dull, muffled roar: it was the sea. The tunnel,
then, was passing under a portion of North Haven.
Hamerton calculated that he had gone quite a mile through the tunnel
ere the upward gradient commenced. One hundred and twenty paces more
and the prisoner and his escort were confronted by a steel door. On
either side was a deep recess. In one of them stood a portly soldier
in the uniform of the fortress artillery. Apparently he had already
received his instructions, for, with a familiar nod to the
non-commissioned officer in charge of the party, he unlocked and
rolled back the sliding door.
For half a minute or so Hamerton could see nothing. The sudden
transition from the well-lighted submarine tunnel to the blackness of
the night temporarily deprived him of his sense of sight.
He gradually became aware that he was in a stone gallery open to the
heavens, but additionally protected by mounds of earth and sand piled
well above the level of the enclosing walls. To bind the soil, thorn
bushes had been planted. These also served to screen the gallery from
observation, while as a protection from shell-fire traverses had been
provided.
Just above the summit of one part of the mound Hamerton could see a
quaintly-shaped iron tower, the light from which was occulted every
three seconds.
Now he knew exactly where he was. The opening of the tunnel was about
a hundred yards north-west of the North Beacon of Sandinsel. Where
the latest British Admiralty chart showed an expanse of sand covered
at high water, his sense of vision told him that a vast extent of
artificial ground had risen from the sea.
Another thing struck him in a very forcible manner: on either side of
the gallery were hung rectangular steel plates, measuring roughly ten
feet by six, and painted in a medley of colours. It was like the
so-called "invisible" colouring on the guns and gun-shields of
British fortifications, the idea being that at a distance the various
hues would blend and form a neutral tint. But in this instance the
metal plates were hinged at the top edge. They could be raised by
means of levers, and thus form a V-shaped covering to the gallery,
presumably as a protection from high-angle fire or from explosives
dropped from a hostile airship.
But Hamerton had little leisure to observe these things. The sergeant
waited until he had received the password for the Sandinsel portion
of the fortress, and then gave the order to march.
The enclosed way seemed interminable. For one thing, it never ran in
a straight line for more than twenty yards at one time. Here and
there other galleries branched both to left and right--the majority
to the right. In places huge armoured bridges crossed the concealed
way. On one a travelling crane, electrically propelled, was in the
act of crossing.
The whole place seemed alive, judging by the sounds. The Sub could
hear the sharp rattle of pneumatic riveters, the peculiar scroop of
electric drills, and the thud of ponderous hammers, punctuated by the
deafening hiss of compressed air. From a greater distance came the
monotonous grinding sounds of a fleet of dredgers at work. There was
no mistaking that: Hamerton had seen and heard dredgers at work in
the principal naval ports at home. The groaning, rasping noise as the
heavily-laden buckets come jerkily up the "ladder", the succession of
dull thuds as bucket after bucket throws its contents of mud, sand,
and larger stones down the shoot into the hopper, could not be
mistaken for anything else.
Hamerton was puzzled. A fleet of dredgers--or even a solitary
one--could be heard miles off. Yet during his enforced detention at
Heligoland he had never heard the faintest sound that suggested
operations of that nature.
"Well, it's either one of two things," he thought. "Either the cliffs
of Heligoland possess strange acoustic properties, and deflect the
sound entirely, or else these vessels have started work to-night for
the first time--at least, since I set foot upon the island."
His musings were cut short by his escort coming to an abrupt halt
outside a postern. Here, in front of the neutral-grey-coloured
sentry-box--which had recently superseded the parti-coloured diagonal
lines for which the German military authorities had a
predilection--stood a sentinel with his bayonet at the "ready".
Even when the sergeant of the escort gave the password he was not
permitted to pass the gateway until the rest of the corporal's guard
had been turned out. Those responsible for the safety of the West
Kalbertan Battery had evidently made up their minds to take no
chances.
Hamerton saw very little of the interior of the fort that had only
recently been constructed on foundations formed of ferro-concrete
piles sunk twenty feet through the sand and another thirty feet in
the stiff clay that composed the subsoil.
The West Kalbertan Battery had been well placed. Its armament,
consisting of six fifteen-inch guns and a number of light
quick-firers, commanded the only approach to North Haven from the
north. It was one of a chain of six batteries--the others being the
East Kalbertan, the Krid Brunnen, the Düne, the Aar de Brunnen, and
the Sud Sandinsel--that were supposed to render Sandinsel
impregnable. It was this heavy fortifying of the former sandbank that
caused the German engineers to mount nearly all their heavy guns on
Heligoland on the south-west side.
Then, although the guns of Heligoland commanded the approaches to the
Elbe and the Weser, the batteries of Sandinsel were actually the key
of the position. Whoever was master of Sandinsel was master of
Heligoland.
Hamerton was lodged in the upper story of a building within the fort
which was mainly devoted to non-combustible stores. The walls were
not so thick as those of his former prison, the floors were planked,
while the ceiling was of ordinary plaster. The solitary window was
fairly large, glazed, and protected by iron bars that had apparently
only been placed in position a few hours before, for the cement was
barely dry.
Almost immediately on the departure of the escort a lieutenant,
accompanied by two non-commissioned officers, entered the room. The
officer was a fair-haired youth of about twenty. His rounded features
and blue eyes gave him almost a girlish appearance, which his
incipient moustache failed to destroy.
"Ach! Herr Smidt," he began in tolerable English, "I hope you give no
trouble. You cannot escape you out of here--you take my word. If no
trouble, then perhaps we allow you insignificant privileges. So."
The Sub looked at the speaker. The German officer seemed a decent
little chap, he decided.
"I had a rough time of it when I broke out of prison before," he
replied. "Perhaps I may not have the opportunity or the inclination
to do so, especially as I am promised certain privileges if I behave.
But, Herr Lieutenant, let me inform you that I do not answer to the
name of Smith."
The lieutenant smiled and tapped his forehead in a significant
manner. The act irritated Hamerton almost beyond endurance, but the
thought suddenly struck him that perhaps after all the German really
thought he had to deal with a prisoner whose brain had become
affected.
"No; my name is not Smith," continued the Sub earnestly. "I'm
Hamerton, an officer of the British Navy. Don't you believe me?"
The German shook his head.
"I tell you this," he said. "Herr Hamerton sailed from here in his
yacht. He was lost at sea; his comrade also. You will do yourself no
good if you acclaim yourself as Herr Hamerton. Smidt you are, and I
believe you know it. Now be good, and no trouble give."
With that the lieutenant took his departure, and Hamerton was left in
the dark and to his own resources. There was nothing further for him
to do at present, he reflected; so, unstrapping his blankets, he
turned in and was soon fast asleep.
When he awoke the sun was shining brightly, and by its position he
knew that his window faced north-east. He had barely completed his
toilet when his breakfast was brought in.
"Evidently they mean to treat me better than they did at Heligoland,"
he reflected, as he looked at the larger cup of coffee, the long
roll, a pat of butter, and a couple of fried mackerel. "This seems
too good to last."
He set to with a will, for he had a healthy appetite. As he ate he
could not help thinking of his conversation with the German
lieutenant. The man seemed perfectly open about the matter, as if he
really believed the prisoner was under a hallucination.
Then his thoughts turned to Detroit. What had they done with him? Had
he been brought to Sandinsel, or was he still in solitary confinement
in Heligoland?
His meal ended, Hamerton crossed over to the window. The outlook was
not particularly extensive. Immediately below was a kind of
courtyard, with triple lines crossing it in several directions. This
system enabled heavy wagons to be run over the broad gauge, and
lighter trucks to use one of the outer rails and the intermediate
one.
The outer space was bounded by the inner part of the
fortifications--an almost blank wall pierced by a few doorways and
apertures for ventilation.
Hamerton could not see over the wall, but he knew by the presence of
a screen of furze and gorse that the face of the fortifications was
composed of earth and sand, the best material for minimizing the
effects of heavy projectiles.
There his range of vision ended, save for the expanse of blue sky
overhead. He might sit at the window for days at a stretch and still
see nothing of a confidential nature. Save for an occasional
fatigue-party and the passing of a carefully-covered-in train of
trucks drawn by electric tractors, the courtyard was deserted.
Everything in connection with the actual working of the guns was
concealed under the wide mound of earth and sand on the other side of
that stone wall.
"A truly cheerful prospect," thought the Sub. "To gaze upon this
outlook is a rare intellectual treat. I must make the best of it, I
suppose. It is only in old romances that the governor's daughter, or
at least the jailer's daughter, takes compassion upon the hapless
captive, provides him with a safe disguise, collars the keys from her
parent, and releases the object of her affections. This fortress is
controlled by men of blood and iron. Sentiment and romance find no
place in this modern German Gibraltar. Well, it's no use moping I'll
have a look round the room."
It did not take Hamerton long to make a careful examination of the
interior of his prison. With a steel tool in his possession he would
be able to cut his way out with far less exertion than he had to
spend on his previous attempt. The window was but fifteen feet from
the ground; with his strength he felt confident that he could bend
the long iron bars sufficiently to allow him to squeeze through.
Failing that, five minutes of uninterrupted work would be enough for
him to knock a hole in the plastered ceiling and make his escape on
to the roof. But to what purpose?
He was surrounded by the formidable walls of the West Kalbertan
Battery, and, even should he be able to scale the ramparts and evade
the sentries, there was not a place of shelter in the whole of
Sandinsel where he could hope to remain hidden for even an hour.
"The Monte Cristo wheeze is played out," he mused. "It might be
possible to knock down the jailer and put on his clothes, if it were
not for the fact that there are always two men waiting outside.
Besides, there is the password, which I haven't got. That suggestion
is no good. I remember reading of an authentic case of a man in a
debtor's jail getting hold of a strip of raw liver and laying it
across his throat. The jailer, thinking his prisoner had put an end
to himself, ran out of the cell, and in his fright forgot to close
and lock the door. The prisoner made good his escape. That was a neat
trick; but then that was not within the walls of a modern fortress.
It's a case of wait and see, only with more of the waiting and
considerably less of the seeing, I fancy."
Yet he did not fall a victim to black despair. He was eminently of a
very sanguine disposition, and, recognizing the truth of the saying
that "while there's life there's hope", he made up his mind to keep
bodily fit, so as to be able to take full advantage of any chance
that fortune might throw in his way.
The Sub looked about him for some object to practise with. The chair
caught his attention. It was a solid oak one with a rush bottom, just
the thing to use as a bar bell and keep his muscles pliant.
His still tender fingers caused him some misgiving, but with very
little effort he raised the chair above his head. To his great
delight he found that the stiffness of his neck and shoulders was
hardly noticeable.
Up and down he swung the chair. For one thing, it killed time; it
also kept him in training. He revelled in the exertion.
Suddenly the door opened, and the soldier detailed to act as his
jailer entered. Hamerton faced round, his improvised gymnastic
apparatus still poised above his head.
With a yell the fellow dropped the earthenware basin on the floor and
backed hurriedly out of the door, shouting at the top of his voice
that the Englishman had gone mad.
A picket was hastily told off, and, accompanied by the fair-haired
lieutenant and a surgeon, the soldiers entered the Sub's room, to
find Hamerton calmly sitting on the chair.
"Is this the way you promise to behave?" questioned the lieutenant.
"What have you done?"
"I was taking exercise," replied Hamerton.
"Exercise? Mein Gott, your form of exercise very remarkable is, Herr
Smidt. Now you be sensible. I give you one more chance. If you behave
not, then I report to Herr Major Kohn, and you will be put in far
worse place."
The lieutenant and the surgeon walked out of the room, followed by
the men; but half an hour later another jailer appeared with a pile
of books, "for the use of Herr Smidt, with the compliments of
Lieutenant Schaffer."