about his ancestry, but so far have not met with any success. I have
told our men in the Pacific to continue their investigation into the
movements of the schooner Hilo, in the hope that we might get some
trace of her. Meanwhile the men in this country are following up their
investigation by making inquiries at the place from which Devant sent
his orders to the aircraft manufacturers. In this way we hope to get a
line on his antecedents. I have issued explicit instructions to my men
not to pass up a single chance, no matter how unimportant it may seem
to them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
In Honolulu the greatest consternation prevailed. The return of the
pirate over the airways had completely disrupted the service of its
airport, which was the most important in the whole Pacific Ocean,
because of its central location. The destruction of the airship
Montgolfier came at the moment when the confidence of the commercial
aerial transport companies had just been completely restored through
the report issued by the government to the effect that the pirate had
been killed.
Now chaos again ruled the air. Every company had cancelled its
schedules, and the only transportation to and from the islands was
by means of the slower mode of travel afforded by steamships. The
government officials were somewhat at a loss how to deal with the
unprecedented situation. Their chances of bringing the pirate to
justice were apparently very meagre, particularly as there were now
fewer government aircraft units in and about the islands than ever
before.
It began to look as though the only way to deal with the marauder lay
in the destruction of his base. Without a base to operate from the
advantage he enjoyed in the air over all other types of aircraft would
be destroyed. This view had rapidly gained the uppermost support of
the government authorities and it formed the subject of an exchange
of ideas, by cable, between the officials in Washington and Honolulu.
After considerable discussion it was finally decided to commission
every available naval craft in Pacific waters to a detailed search of
the lesser known islands in an effort to discover the point from which
the pirate operated.
Commander Fitzgerald was now rapidly convalescing in the post hospital.
His illness had been chiefly due to mental causes developed by exposure
and worry. The news that Miss Ingleton was alive and well had been
just the tonic necessary to set him on the road to recovery. But as he
was not expected to be in a condition to resume his command for a long
time to come yet the aerial forces of the government assigned to the
duty of attacking the pirate and policing the airways, had been placed
in charge of Wing Commander Emerson, who had been Fitzgerald’s chief
lieutenant.
A new plan of attack was adopted and put into operation. It involved
using the two squadrons of battleplanes at Honolulu solely for police
duty. These squadrons were instructed to keep the airways open as far
as possible. It was decided that other squadrons would be dispatched
to the Pacific to aid in this purpose. They were only to give battle
to the pirate in case he was sighted, but were not to go outside their
prearranged zone of patrol. The carefully detailed plan for searching
the pirate out and attacking him had been abandoned because it was
conceded that his superior speed and maneuvrability made aggressive
tactics impossible.
In other words the offensive had passed from the air to the sea for the
time being, so far as the government forces were concerned. The naval
craft under orders of Captain Smith, the commandant of the Hawaiian
naval district, were assigned to the duty of locating the base from
which the pirate operated. As soon as any of the vessels had found this
base, their instructions were to attack it, destroy everything within
it connected with the pirates’ enterprise and take prisoner any one
found upon the island.
Practically every vessel in the Pacific fleet was secretly detailed
to this duty--battleships, cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers,
torpedoboats and auxiliary craft. Even submarines were put to work.
Each division was given a certain section of territory to cover and was
told to land upon and search every unimportant island within it. In
addition to this the commanding officer of each vessel was instructed
to make a detailed survey of each island visited and gather whatever
information of a scientific character was obtainable. The latter
instructions were, of course, apart from the main object of the plan,
and were issued with the view of obtaining as much as possible out of
the expedition.
In such manner was the new machinery for hunting down the aerial
buccaneer set in motion. The experts in the Navy Department, after
carefully examining the reports of the pirate’s previous activities,
had calculated that the radius of his operations was limited to
approximately two thousand miles. Taking the general location of his
attacks upon the airships as a center, they had divided the circle
within the 2,000 mile radius into six different zones. These zones by
a strange coincidence naturally included six groups of mid-pacific
islands. The naval patrol vessels were therefore divided into six
divisions, each division assigned to a specific group of islands as
follows:
Division No. 1.--America Islands.
Division No. 2. Hawaiian group.
Division No. 3. Phoenix Islands.
Division No. 4. Gilbert Islands.
Division No. 5. Marshall group.
Division No. 6. The Carolines.
The task of searching these zones thoroughly was commenced immediately
with every available naval vessel. The forces employed were augmented
as rapidly as other war-vessels could be rushed to the scene. Then
for two weeks the six divisions of the naval patrol went about their
task of searching the innumerable smaller islands without any concrete
result. Suddenly one morning the light cruiser Farragut of the second
division, which was steaming in Latitude 28 and the 180th meridian
of longitude, sighted an open boat with what appeared to be a shirt
hoisted upon an oar. Captain John B. Moore, commander of the Farragut
altered his course in order to pick up the boat. As the cruiser drew
closer to it he made out the name painted on the stern of the small
boat, through his glasses. It read: “Hilo Honolulu.”
“Hilo,” he mused. “Let’s see, that was the name of the schooner that
was used by the man Devant who was supposed to be the pirate. This may
be the boat from that missing schooner, and if it is, we have made a
real find.”
Ten minutes later the cruiser drew up alongside the small boat. Inside
it was the figure of a man laying prone along the keel beneath the
seats. An oar had been fastened to the center seat and a shirt was
attached to it, evidently to act as a sail. A boat was lowered from
the cruiser. It’s crew rowed over to the drifting boat and quickly
lifted the man out of it and then rowed him back to the cruiser. He was
still alive but exhausted. After a few hours of medical attention on
the cruiser, the man began to show signs of returning consciousness.
Presently he had recovered sufficiently to take an interest in his
surroundings.
“Where am I,” he inquired feebly. “What ship is this?”
He was told, and then asked who he was and where he came from.
“Take me to Honolulu as quickly as you can, it is very important,” he
replied.
“Are you a survivor of the schooner Hilo that sailed from Honolulu with
Mr. Devant’s expedition?” asked the captain.
“No,” replied the man.
“Why do you want to go to Honolulu then?”
“I am very tired. Please don’t ask me any more questions just now.”
“But why do you want to go to Honolulu? Are you in any way connected
with the aerial pirate who has been attacking airplanes?”
“No! but I’ve just come from his base,” replied the stranger weakly.
A moment later, overcome by the strain, he again lapsed into
unconsciousness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
For three days the cruiser Farragut steamed steadily forward until the
island of Oahu hove in sight. During those three days the constant
care, coupled with the restful influence of the voyage, had proved most
beneficial to the stranger who had by now practically recovered from
the effects of his exposure. The captain of the cruiser had refrained
from any attempt to question the man until he was convinced there was
no further chance of a relapse. The circumstances surrounding the man’s
rescue, together with his statement that he had just come from the
pirate’s base, were sufficiently important, the captain thought, to
warrant him in taking the man to Honolulu.
On the morning that the Hawaiian capital was practically in sight, the
captain decided it was time to ascertain the identity of the stranger.
With this purpose in view he had him brought to his cabin, and then
asked him who he was.
“Where are you bound?” parried the man, somewhat suspiciously.
“We are going to the Pearl Harbor naval station,” replied the captain,
“in fact we’ll be there in a few hours from now.”
“That’s fine,” said the stranger, his face brightening visibly, “I want
to thank you very much, captain for your kindness I’ll tell my story
to the authorities ashore as soon as we arrive there. Have you been
looking for the pirate?”
“I don’t want you to tell me anything you don’t wish to,” resumed the
captain, “but don’t you think you ought to tell me who you are so that
I can get you to the proper authorities without delay as soon as we
arrive?”
“Why yes, Captain, I’ll tell you,” he replied. “My name is Howard
Redmond. I was the second officer of the airship Wilbur Wright that was
destroyed by the pirate.”
The effect produced by Redmond’s simple statement could not have been
more pronounced under any circumstances. It took the captain and the
officers who were present in his cabin completely by surprise.
“Good Heavens, man,” exclaimed Captain Moore, “you were reported
drowned. How on earth did you get to the pirate’s base?”
“Well, it’s a long story, captain,” replied Redmond, “but it’s a good
thing that I did get there, because I’ve got information that we
possibly could not have gotten in any other way. How much time have you
got before you reach your anchorage?”
“I expect to be there in three hours,” said the captain.
“That will give me time to tell you before you go to the bridge,” began
Redmond. “I will tell you how I got to the pirate’s base, captain, but
you must excuse me if I keep part of the story for the authorities
ashore.”
“Oh, that’s perfectly alright,” said Captain Moore, “but quite
naturally we are very much interested in anything that you feel you can
tell us. By the way, where is the pirate’s base?”
“You were not very far from it when you picked me up, captain,” replied
Redmond. “It’s on a little island known as Patrocinio which is located
about 170 East and 28 North. It’s right on the end of the Hawaiian
archipelago. You couldn’t have been more than two hundred miles away
from it at the time you found me.”
“Good God! why didn’t you tell me that before? I could have gone right
there and finished that bird for good,” exclaimed the captain. He was
plainly angry at learning how close he had been to the object of his
quest without knowing it. His anger grew as he rapidly realized the
wonderful chance he had missed to fulfill his mission.
“Wait a minute, captain,” cautioned Redmond quietly, “it’s a good thing
I didn’t tell you, otherwise nobody would have known where the base was
located.”
“What do you mean?” queried the captain sharply.
“Well, sir, you don’t suppose the pirate, knowing what the result of
his capture meant, would pass up any chance to protect himself, do
you?” asked Redmond in reply. And without waiting for an answer to
his question, continued. “No! Well he hasn’t. He is engaged in a very
risky business and he knows it, and he knows the consequences of his
capture. He hasn’t passed a single chance up that I know of. That
island is completely surrounded by a wide field of submerged mines. If
you had gone there, captain, your ship would have been blown sky high
before you knew it, and then of what good would that have been?”
The latter question was too much for the captain who simply gasped in
his astonishment. The explanation, however, had completely mollified
him.
“I would never have thought of that,” he said simply.
“No,” continued Redmond, “I knew you wouldn’t, that’s one of the
reasons I didn’t tell you. There’s a lot of other reasons that I can’t
tell you about just now. Well, to get on with my story. I’ll tell
you how I happened to get to his base. When the pirate attacked the
Wilbur Wright I was on the observation platform on top of the envelope.
I stayed there watching him while our people were transferring the
passengers. I was very much interested in the unusual appearance of his
machine and was looking at it through my glasses.
“I stayed there too long.
“When he first came up to us he opened fire with his forward gun,
and two of his shots went right through our envelope. One of them
penetrated number four ballonet, releasing the helium gas, and the
other struck the stairway running between the navigating room and
the observation post, carrying part of the stairway away. When I
started to go down I discovered this. Without trying to climb down the
wreckage, I went back to the observation post and walked along the
promenade deck on top of the balloon to the passenger elevator shaft. I
thought it would be easier to walk down the stairs around the shaft. I
was doomed to disappointment again, because I soon found that the shaft
had been injured by the second shot.
“It looked as thought I would have a tough time getting down. I went
back to the observation post and started down the accommodation
stairway there. After considerable difficulty I managed to get down
over the wreckage. Of course this took considerable time because I
had to go down practically hand over hand. I had to do it slowly
and carefully, by sense of touch, as all the lights inside the ship
had gone out. A slip would have meant a ninety foot drop inside the
envelope.
“By the time I reached the navigating cabin all our passengers and
crew had left and were in the lifeboats. They had pulled away from the
airship some considerable distance. I saw the pirate’s airplane on
the surface near one of the boats, and presently I saw someone step
over from the boat to the airplane. I found out later that it was Miss
Ingleton.
“In the meantime I was in a pretty bad predicament. There was not a
boat left on the airship, and our lifeboats were too far off for me
to swim over to them. I didn’t know what to do. I was not certain
how long the buoyancy of the remaining helium gas would keep the
airship afloat, and then I remembered that the report we had received
by wireless had stated the pirate sank the airship Langley after the
passengers had left that ship. I was afraid he might do the same thing
with the Wilbur Wright before I could find some means of getting off.
“While I was still undecided what to do the pirate’s airplane began to
move away from the lifeboats. I watched it a few moments, and then saw
that it was coming toward the airship. I went aft to the baggage room
and watched through one of the small portholes there. The airplane came
right up alongside the Wilbur Wright with its wings folded up. Three
men got off and came aboard the airship.
“After a little while I saw two of them return to the place where the
airplane was holding on and pass some packages out. I immediately
jumped to the conclusion that they were picking out the valuable parts
of our cargo and putting them aboard the airplane.
“While I was watching this I suddenly heard a noise in the baggage
room. I was standing behind some large trunks and couldn’t be seen from
the doorway. I looked around the edge of one of the trunks and saw one
of the men from the airplane moving about inside the room. He was still
attired in his heavy flying suit and wore a helmet, with a chamois face
mask. His goggles were pushed back on his forehead. He walked slowly
over to where I was standing, looking the baggage over carefully as he
came.
“I did not dare to move. Looking down I saw a piece of metal pipe at my
feet. I stooped down carefully and picked it up for use in case I was
attacked. Then suddenly an idea occurred to me which I thought might
give me a chance to get off the ship. I figured out quickly that I was
doomed to die like a rat in a trap if the pirate opened fire and sank
the airship after he had finished rifling the cargo. I decided that if
anyone was to be lost it should be one of his crew instead of me.
“I waited as patiently as I could, watching for my opportunity. The
man in the flying suit came gradually over to the place where I was
standing. Soon he was passing in front of the trunks behind which I was
hiding. As he passed on the other side I sprang forward and struck him
on the head with the pipe I held.
“He went down like a log, without making a sound.
“I didn’t like the job at all, but I eased my conscience by arguing
with myself that it was a case of his life or mine, and that he was
a dangerous criminal who had taken part in jeopardizing the lives of
women and children. The deed was done now, and it was no time for idle
regrets. I set to work and stripped the flying suit, helmet and face
mask off him. Fortunately for me he was about the same size and build
as myself. As soon as I had got the clothes off him, I put them on
myself. I picked up a piece of baggage that I thought contained some
valuables, and walked along to the place where the airplane was moored.
“It was now that my supreme test came, because I knew the slightest
false move would betray me. I didn’t know a thing about the pirate’s
airplane, and it would be an easy thing for them to detect me.
Fortunately, however, another man from the airplane crew was still on
board, and I found him making his way to the airplane just as I came
along. I fell in behind him and decided to do just what he did.
“At the door of the cabin of the airplane a man was standing.
Afterwards I found out that he was the actual pirate. He was very
impatient, and as we came along he said:
“‘What the devil’s the matter with you, fellows. Do you think I want
to stay here all day, till the government ships come along? Get inside
quick.’
“The fellow in front of me muttered some sour remark, and I did the
same in a low tone. I really believe the pirate’s impatience saved me.
He was so anxious to get away that he didn’t pay any attention to us.
I followed the other fellow into the cabin. He went into the rear of
it and stowed away a piece of cargo that he was carrying, and I did
the same with my piece. Then he sat down on a seat that ran lengthwise
along the side of the cabin.
“There was another man sitting on the opposite seat, and alongside him
was a woman. I looked at her in astonishment, and then it suddenly
dawned upon me that it was Miss Ingleton from our ship. She was
looking very pale and somewhat frightened. I didn’t dare move or say
anything, I just waited and watched. They had given her a leather coat
to put on, and she held a flying helmet in her hands.
“The pirate had now sat down at the controls, and the fourth man was
tinkering about with some apparatus that proved to be the power plant.
Before I could take in my surroundings more completely, the propellers
began to revolve and in an incredibly short time we were in the air. I
looked at the air speed indicator and saw that it was registering 250
miles an hour, despite the fact that we were climbing. There wasn’t
a sound from the engine, in fact the only noise I could hear was the
whirr of the propellers. The man next to Miss Ingleton leaned over and
said something to her. She then put on the helmet and mask.
“I had been wondering why the pirate and his crew wore such heavy
flying clothes and face masks, especially as they were in a cabin
plane. I soon found out. We were climbing very rapidly. I watched the
altimeter, and to my astonishment found that forty minutes after we had
left the surface of the ocean we were at an altitude of thirty-five
thousand feet. It was bitterly cold. I could feel it even through the
flying clothes which were fur lined. The funniest thing to me, though,
was the fact that we experienced no difficulty in breathing. We had
no oxygen apparatus, and yet we were breathing as easily as though we
were at sea level, despite the rarified air in which we were flying.
I couldn’t understand it at all. Neither could I understand his reason
for flying at such high altitudes, unless it was that he had discovered
a trade wind that aided him in his speed, or that he wished to avoid
meeting government aircraft.
“After we had been going for a couple of hours, the two men in the
cabin in which we were sitting got up and walked over to the forward
part of the machine. I saw them take up some flasks that looked like
vacuum bottles. And then they began working near the power plant.
“I seized this opportunity and moved toward Miss Ingleton. I put my
finger to my mouth to caution her not to move or say anything. Then
leaning close to her I said:
“‘I’m Redmond, the second officer of the Wilbur Wright. Don’t give me
away. I’ll try to take care of you.’
“Before she could say anything, I went back to my place on the other
side and stretched myself along the seat, feigning sleep. I thought
this would be the best thing to do because I might be expected to
perform some routine duty about the ship that I didn’t know anything
about. I figured that if there was something that I should be doing,
they would try to wake me up and tell me to do it, and that would give
me an idea what it was that I was expected to do.
“Although I was pretending to be asleep, I kept the corners of my eyes
open. After a little while the two men came back to their seats. As
they passed me they both looked at me. One of them said.
“‘There’s that lazy devil Harrison asleep again.’
“That was a fine cue for me. I now knew what my name was supposed to
be, and fortunately I was keeping up the reputation of the man I had
killed.
“After two more hours of flying I experienced the slight sensation that
told me we were descending and I figured that we must be coming to the
pirate’s base. The other two fellows had gone to the forward part of
the cabin again, and the pirate was very busy at his controls. All of
the other three were looking out of the windows at the ground below.
“Very cautiously I edged over a little toward Miss Ingleton. As soon as
I was near her I whispered loud enough for her to hear:
“‘As soon as we land, I’m going to try and hide myself somewhere. I
want you to keep me informed of what is happening and to keep some food
for me if possible. I’ll come and see you whenever I get a chance, if
I’m successful in getting away.’
“She nodded that she had heard me, and I moved back to my original
position, still pretending to be asleep. It was not many minutes before
we landed on the water, inside a small coral reef that made a natural
harbor on the eastern side of the island. It could not have been better
designed for the purpose of the pirate.
“As the airplane came to a stop near a ledge of rock one of the men
came over and gave me a light poke in the ribs with his elbows and
yelled: ‘Get up you, lazy devil, we’re home. Take some of this stuff
ashore.’
“I was all keyed up for the test that now confronted me. I went over to
where the packages were stowed, picked up as many as I could carry and
leisurely walked ashore with them. One of the other men was in front
of me with some of the packages. I followed him into a crude hut that
had been erected about a hundred yards inshore and there deposited the
packages.
“The other fellow began to pull off his heavy flying clothes and
helmet, as they were terribly hot in that climate. I was almost
fainting with the heat myself, but I did not dare take mine off. I
muttered some excuse about what I wanted to do and went out. As soon as
I got outside, I took a quick glance at my surroundings. The island was
apparently of volcanic origin and was very rocky. I began to walk over
as slowly as I could in my excited state to a rock that was not more
than fifty yards away. There was a level patch of gravel beach facing
the little bay, and on this were two buildings, in addition to the hut,
that had been erected by the pirate and his crew.
“As soon as I got behind the shelter of the rock I paused again to
take in my surroundings. Some distance to the westward there was rough
hilly country rising to about five hundred feet. I peered around the
rock toward the beach and saw the pirate assisting Miss Ingleton
ashore. Two of the crew were making the airplane fast to a ringbolt in
the rock. The third man I had followed ashore was now returning to the
airplane in his ordinary clothes.