DAVE'S GUESS AT THE BIG PLOT
"Friends tell me that in being in the Navy I have such a grand chance
to see the world," grumbled Dan Dalzell, as the launch headed for the
anchorage of the American warships. "I went to Paris and had two short
taxicab rides through the city. That was all I saw of Paris. Then a
long railway journey, and I reached Genoa. I spent twenty-eight
minutes in Genoa, and boarded this launch. Oh, I'm seeing the world at
a great rate! By the time I'm an admiral I shall know nearly as much
of the world as I did when I studied geography in the Central Grammar
School of Gridley."
"Don't be a kicker, Danny boy," smiled Dave. "And just think! When you
get home, if any one asks you if you've been in Paris, you can say
'Yes.' Should any one ask you if you've seen Genoa, you can hold up
your head and declare that you have."
"But my friends will ask me to tell them about those towns,"
complained Dalzell.
"Read them up in the guide books," advised Jetson, who was of the
party. "I've known a lot of Navy officers who got their knowledge of
foreign places in that way."
Dave and Dan had had but a fleeting glimpse of the fine city that now
lay astern of them. Hundreds of sailormen and scores of officers, on
sight-seeing bent, had been ashore for two days.
But now the recall to the fleet had come. All save Darrin, Dalzell and
Jetson, with Seaman Runkle, who was now up forward on the launch, were
already aboard their respective ships. The Admiral waited only for the
coming of this launch before he gave the sailing order.
Jetson was assigned to the battleship "Allegheny," a craft only a
trifle smaller than the massive "Hudson."
The three brother officers and Runkle had traveled by express from
Paris to Genoa, and had come through without incident. At last even
the watchful Runkle was convinced that they had eluded all spies.
"Boatswain's Mate," said Dave, "as this launch belongs to the
flagship, it will be better to take Mr. Jetson, first, over to his
ship."
"Aye, aye, sir," responded the man in charge of the launch.
Twenty minutes later Dave Darrin found himself leading his own party
up over the side of the "Hudson."
"Captain Allen wishes to see Ensigns Darrin and Dalzell at once,"
announced Lieutenant Cranston, the officer of the deck. "You will
report to the Captain without further instructions."
"Very good, sir," Dave answered, saluting.
Exactly ten minutes later the two young ensigns were ushered into the
presence of their commanding officer.
"Admiral Timworth has been notified by wireless from Paris that you
have important communications to make to him," began the Captain. "I
will not waste your time or the Admiral's in questioning you here. You
will come with me to the fleet commander's quarters. The Admiral is
awaiting you."
Admiral Thomas Timworth, seated at his desk, and with his flag
lieutenant standing by, greeted his callers with exceeding briskness.
"Gentlemen," he said, "time presses, and we must dispense with
formalities. Ensign Darrin, I am advised by the Ambassador at Paris of
the importance of your news, but he does not tell me what the news
is."
"Its importance, sir, depends on whether the evidence I have to
present supports the guess I have made as to the nature of the plot
that has been planned against the peace and safety of Great Britain
and our own country."
As Dave spoke he produced from an inner pocket the sheet of paper
dropped by Gortchky, that he had picked up in the Rue d'Ansin.
"This piece of paper, sir," Darrin continued, passing it to the fleet
commander, "is one that I _saw_ Emil Gortchky drop from a packet of
several papers that he took from his pocket at night on one of the
worst streets in the slums of Paris."
Admiral Timworth scanned the paper, then read it aloud. It was a
receipted bill, made out in the name of one unknown to those present,
though perhaps an alias for Gortchky himself. The bill was for a
shipment of storage batteries. At the bottom of the sheet was a
filled-in certificate signed by a French government official, to the
effect that the batteries had been shipped into Italy "for laboratory
purposes of scientific research." Just below this statement was an
official Italian certificate of approval, showing that the batteries
had been admitted into Italy. In time of war, with the frontier
guarded tenfold more vigilantly than in ordinary times, such
certificates are vitally necessary to make shipments from France into
Italy possible.
"In other words, sir," Dave went on eagerly, when the fleet commander
scanned his face closely, "it needed some very clever underhand work,
very plausibly managed, to make it possible to buy those batteries in
France and to secure their admittance into Italy."
"Why?" quizzed Admiral Timworth, as though he did not know the answer
himself.
"Because, sir," Dave went on keenly, full of professional knowledge of
the subject, "these batteries are the best that the French make for
use aboard submarines."
"True," nodded the fleet commander. "What then?"
"Why, sir, by the use of the cleverest kind of lying that spies can
do, Gortchky and his associates have hoodwinked the French and Italian
governments into believing that the batteries are to be lawfully used
for research purposes, when, as a matter of fact, they are to be used
aboard a submarine which the plotters intend to use for destroying a
British battleship."
"We will admit, then," said Admiral Timworth, as a poser, "that the
plotters have probably gotten into Italy storage batteries that can be
used serviceably on a submarine. But where and how can the plotters
have obtained the submarine craft itself? Or, if they haven't got it
yet, how are they to obtain one? For submarines are not sold in open
market, and it would be difficult to steal one."
"I cannot answer that, as yet, sir," Dave admitted gravely.
"And such storage batteries might be used for purposes of scientific
research," continued the fleet commander.
"Yes, sir; but the habits of the buyers should be considered, should
they not? Gortchky and his associates can be hardly believed to be
interested in science. On the other hand, they are arch plotters,
which would lead us to suppose that they have bought these batteries
to further a plot. Outside of scientific work the batteries would not
be likely to be used anywhere except on board a submarine. Storage
batteries of different size and pattern are used for industrial
purposes, but those described in this bill are used on board
submarines."
"Your reasoning is plausible, Darrin, and probably correct, too,"
nodded Admiral Timworth.
"Besides which, sir," Dave pressed home, "if we admit that the
plotters have conspired to sink a British battleship at Malta, the
easiest way in war-time, when unidentified strangers cannot get aboard
a warship, would be to effect the sinking by means of a submarine's
torpedo. And, if this be the plan of the plotters, then the crime is
likely to be attempted only when there are British and American war
craft, and none others, in the Grand Harbor of Malta."
"Yet surely the plotters must know that, between good friends like
Britain and America, it would take more than the mere sinking of a
British ship to make the English suspect us, as a nation, of being
involved in such a dastardly plot."
"Our country couldn't be suspected, as a government or a nation, of
being guilty of such a wicked deed," Dave answered. "But Englishman
and Frenchmen might very easily believe that the torpedoing was the
work of a group of officers and men in our Navy who hated England
enough to strike her below the belt. With the British ship sunk, sir,
and with none to suspect but the Americans, there is no telling to
what heights British passion might rise. The British are feeling the
tension of the great war severely, sir."
"There is one flaw in your reasoning, Mr. Darrin," Admiral Timworth
replied. "We will admit that the torpedoing happens at a time when
only American and British war craft are visible in Grand Harbor. Why
would it not be wholly reasonable for the British to suppose that the
torpedoing was the work of a German submarine that had sneaked into
the harbor of Malta under the surface of the water?"
"That occurred to me, sir," Dave admitted, "and at first I couldn't
find the answer, but at last I did."
"I shall be glad to hear that answer."
"The submarine, let us suppose, sir, discharges one torpedo with such
accuracy as to sink the British battleship. Why could not another
torpedo be fired immediately, which would not strike, but would rise
to the surface and be afterwards identified when found as an American
torpedo? For a torpedo that does not strike and explode can be so
adjusted that it will afterwards sink or rise and float. And this
torpedo that rises can be of American pattern."
"But where would the plotters secure an American torpedo?" demanded
Admiral Timworth.
"The plotters, if they had a secret factory, could make some torpedoes
of the American type, provided they had obtained the services of a
draftsman and workmen familiar with the American torpedo."
"That could be accomplished, in this wicked old world of ours," nodded
Admiral Timworth, after an interval of deep thought. "I won't declare
that I think it really has been done. Yet your various reports to me,
Mr. Darrin, convince me that plotters really intend to sink a British
battleship and lay the blame at our country's door. And such a deed
might really provoke English clamor for war with our country."
In the Admiral's quarters a long silence followed.
At length the fleet commander looked up.
"Captain Allen," he asked, "what do you think of Mr. Darrin's
surmise?"
"It looks probable to me," said the "Hudson's" commanding officer
promptly.
"It looks likely to me, also," sighed Admiral Timworth.
Then the famous old sea-dog brought his clenched fist down on his desk
with a bang.
"Malta shall be our next stop," he declared. "We shall see whether any
band of plotters can put such a plot through while we are watching!
All mankind would shudder at such a tragedy. All the world would side
with England and condemn the United States and her Navy! Gentlemen, I
now believe that Mr. Darrin has revealed the details of a plan that
will be tried. We must prevent it, gentlemen! We shall prevent it--or
some of us will lose our lives in the effort to stop it! Darrin, you
shall have your chance in helping us to stop it. Mr. Dalzell, you,
too, shall have your chance! And now--Malta."