METHOD AND FORESIGHT
Without a word--with merely a careless glance at Neeland, who remained
seated under the level threat of Ali Baba's pistol, the big, handsome
German removed his overcoat. Under it was another coat. He threw this
off in a brisk, businesslike manner, unbuckled a brace of pistols,
laid them aside, unwound from his body a long silk rope ladder which
dropped to the floor at Ilse Dumont's feet.
The girl had turned very pale. She stooped, picked up the silk ladder,
and, holding it in both hands, looked hard at Golden Beard.
"Johann," she said, "I gave my word of honour to this young man that
if he came here no harm would happen to him."
"I read the note you have shoved under his door," said Golden Beard.
"That iss why we are here, Karl and I."
Neeland remembered the wax in the keyhole then. He turned his eyes on
Ilse Dumont, curiously, less certain of her treachery now.
Meanwhile, Golden Beard continued busily unwinding things from his
apparently too stout person, and presently disengaged three
life-belts.
One of these he adjusted to his own person, then, putting on his
voluminous overcoat, took the pistol from Ali Baba, who, in turn,
adjusted one of the remaining life-belts to his body.
Neeland, deeply perplexed and uncomfortable, watched these operations
in silence, trying to divine some reason for them.
"Now, then!" said Golden Beard to the girl; and his voice sounded cold
and incisive in the silence.
"This is not the way to do it," she said in a low tone. "I gave him my
word of honour."
"You will be good enough to buckle on that belt," returned Golden
Beard, staring at her.
Slowly she bent over, picked up the life-belt, and, looping the silk
rope over her arm, began to put on the belt. Golden Beard, impatient,
presently came to her assistance; then he unhooked from the wall a
cloak and threw it over her shoulders.
"Now, Karl!" he said. "Shoot him dead if he stirs!" And he snatched a
sheet from the bed, tore it into strips, walked over to Neeland, and
deftly tied him hand and foot and gagged him.
Then Golden Beard and Ali Baba, between them, lifted the young man and
seated him on the iron bed and tied him fast to it.
"Go out on deck!" said Golden Beard to Ilse Dumont.
"Let me stay----"
"No! You have acted like a fool. Go to the lower deck where is our
accustomed rendezvous."
"I wish to remain, Johann. I shall not interfere----"
"Go to the lower deck, I tell you, and be ready to tie that rope
ladder!"
Ali Baba, down on his knees, had pulled out a steamer trunk from under
the bed, opened it, and was lifting out three big steel cylinders.
These he laid on the bed in a row beside the tied man; and Golden
Beard, still facing Ilse Dumont, turned his head to look.
The instant his head was turned the girl snatched a pistol from the
brace of weapons on the washstand and thrust it under her cloak.
Neither Golden Beard nor Ali Baba noticed the incident; the latter was
busy connecting the three cylinders with coils of wire; the former,
deeply interested, followed the operation for a moment or two, then
walking over to the trunk, he lifted from it a curious little clock
with two dials and set it on the railed shelf of glass above the
washstand.
"Karl, haf you ship's time?"
Ali Baba paused to fish out his watch, and the two compared
timepieces. Then Golden Beard wound the clock, set the hands of one
dial at the time indicated by their watches; set the hands of the
other dial at 2:13; and Ali Baba, carrying a reel of copper wire from
the bed to the washstand, fastened one end of it to the mechanism of
the clock.
Golden Beard turned sharply on Ilse Dumont:
"I said go on deck! Did you not understand?"
The girl replied steadily:
"I understood that we had abandoned this idea for a better one."
"There iss no better one!"
"There _is_! Of what advantage would it be to blow up the captain's
cabin and the bridge when it is not certain that the papers will be
destroyed?"
"Listen once!" returned Golden Beard, wagging his finger in her face:
"Cabin and bridge are directly above us and there remains not a
splinter large like a pin! I know. I know my bombs! I know----"
The soft voice of Ali Baba interrupted, and his shallow, lightish eyes
peered around at them:
"Eet ees veree excellent plan, Johann. We do not require these papers;
eet ees to destroy them we are mooch anxious"--he bent a deathly stare
on Neeland--"and this yoong gentleman who may again annoy us." He
nodded confidently to himself and continued to connect the wires.
"Yes, yes," he murmured absently, "eet ees veree good plan--veree good
plan to blow him into leetle pieces so beeg as a pin."
"It is a clumsy plan!" said the girl, desperately. "There is no need
for wanton killing like this, when we can----"
"Killing?" repeated Golden Beard. "That makes nothing. This English
captain he iss of the naval reserve. _Und_ this young man"--nodding
coolly toward Neeland--"knows too much already. That iss not wanton
killing. _Also!_ You talk too much. Do you hear? We are due to drop
anchor about 2:30. God knows there will be enough rushing to and fro
at 2:13.
"Go on deck, I say, and fasten that rope ladder! Weishelm's fishing
smack will be watching; _und_ if we do not swim for it we are caught
on board! _Und_ that iss the end of it all for us!"
"Johann," she began tremulously, "listen to me----"
"_Nein! Nein!_ What for a _Frauenzimmer_ haff we here!" retorted
Golden Beard, losing his patience and catching her by the arm. "Go out
und fix for us our ladder und keep it coiled on the rail und lean ofer
it like you was looking at those stars once!"
He forced her toward the door; she turned, struggling, to confront
him:
"Then for God's sake, give this man a chance! Don't leave him tied
here to be blown to atoms! Give him a chance--anything except this!
Throw him out of the port, there!" She pointed at the closed port,
evaded Golden Beard, sprang upon the sofa, unscrewed the glass cover,
and swung it open.
The port was too small even to admit the passage of her own body; she
realised it; Golden Beard laughed and turned to examine the result of
Ali Baba's wiring.
For a second the girl gazed wildly around her, as though seeking some
help in her terrible dilemma, then she snatched up a bit of the torn
sheeting, tied it to the screw of the porthole cover, and flung the
end out where it fluttered in the darkness.
As she sprang to the floor Golden Beard swung round in renewed anger
at her for still loitering.
"Sacreminton!" he exclaimed. "It is time you do your part! Go to your
post then! We remain here until five minutes is left us. Then we join
you."
The girl nodded, turned to the door.
"Wait! You understand the plan?"
"Yes."
"You understand that you do not go overboard until we arrive, no
matter what happens?"
"Yes."
He stood looking at her for a moment, then with a shrug he went over
and patted her shoulder.
"That's my brave girl! I also do not desire to kill anybody. But when
the Fatherland is in danger, then killing signifies nothing--is of no
consequence--pouf!--no lives are of importance then--not even our
own!" He laughed in a fashion almost kindly and clapped her lightly
once more on her shoulder: "Go, my child. The Fatherland is in
danger!"
She went, not looking back. He closed and locked the door behind her
and calmly turned to aid Ali Baba who was still fussing with the
wires. Presently, however, he mounted the bed where Neeland sat tied
and gagged; pulled from his pockets an auger with its bit, a
screw-eye, and block and tackle; and, standing on the bed, began to
bore a hole in the ceiling.
In a few moments he had fastened the screw-eye, rigged his block, made
a sling for his bombs out of a blanket, and had hoisted the three
cylinders up flat against the ceiling from whence the connecting wires
sagged over the foot of the bedstead to the alarm clock on the
washstand.
To give the clock more room on the glass shelf, Ali Baba removed the
toilet accessories and set them on the washstand; but he had no room
for a large jug of water, and, casting about for a place to set it,
noticed a railed bracket over the head of the bed, and placed it
there.
Then, apparently satisfied with his labours, he sat down Turk fashion
on the sofa, lighted a cigarette, selected a bonbon from the box
beside him, and calmly regaled himself.
Presently Golden Beard tied the cord which held up the sling in which
the bombs were slung against the ceiling. He fastened it tightly to
the iron frame of the bed, stepped back to view the effect, then
leisurely pulled out and filled his porcelain pipe, and seated himself
on the sofa beside Ali Baba.
Neither spoke; twice Golden Beard drew his watch from his waistcoat
pocket and compared it carefully with the dial of the alarm clock on
the washstand shelf. The third time he did this he tapped Ali Baba on
the shoulder, rose, knocked out his pipe and flung it out of the open
port.
Together they walked over to Neeland, examined the gag and ligatures
as impersonally as though the prisoner were not there, nodded their
satisfaction, turned off the electric light, and, letting themselves
out, locked the door on the outside.
It lacked five minutes of the time indicated on the alarm dial.