"THE ACCURSED POWER OF GOLD!"
DAVE made no struggle.
"You're a pair of fools!" he declared, somewhat hoarsely, for the effects
of the severe choking were still present.
"Fools, maybe," assented the skipper of the "Olga." "But if ve must
trouble have den you die shall."
"What do you want me to do?" Darrin demanded.
"You send your men to your ship back," declared the big fellow. "Den your
ship it must out of sight go yet. Ve shall sail back vonce. If your ship,
or any udder ship to stop us try, den you die shall already--on deck, in
sight your friends of."
"You big chump!" uttered Darrin.
"Vy you call me dot?"
"Because, no matter what you do or don't do to me, you are going to be
taken and punished. Do you think my ship would sail without me?"
"Maybe, sooner dan see you killed vonce," glowered the skipper of the
"Olga."
"You idiot, my subordinates, their suspicions aroused, are bound to take
this craft, no matter what happens to me. They must do their duty without
consideration for my safety."
"So?" uttered the skipper, looking at Dave dully.
"So!" Darrin assured him.
"But den you die must vonce."
"Go ahead and kill me," Darrin dared him.
"But if you vill to reason yet listen--"
"You're wasting time and breath," Darrin assured him, coolly.
Just then something happened. Darrin, using a trick that he had learned
on the wrestling mat and had since perfected, threw both his arms around
the left arm of the "Olga's" skipper. Clasping his hands and pressing his
arms against the skipper's left arm, Dave gave a great heave and rolled
to his own left. The trick depended upon speed.
The skipper crashed over on his head. The revolver was discharged in the
overturn, but the bullet went wild.
In the twinkling of an eye Dave had grabbed the weapon, and leaped to his
feet just in time to dodge the hatch bar that the mate tried to smash
down on his head.
"Back, unless you want yours right now!" Darrin challenged. Swiftly he
changed the revolver into his left hand as he still covered the pair.
Then he reached for his own automatic, throwing off the safety device.
"Now, you, Mr. Mate, slip around and unbolt the door, throwing it open,"
Dave ordered. "Any sign of a trick will end your life on the spot!"
Seemingly cowed, the mate obeyed.
"Open the door--throw it wide open," Dave commanded.
The door was thrust ajar just as the two seamen with the tape reached the
bottom of the ladder coming from the deck. These two seamen stared in
astonishment at the stuffy apartment off the after hold.
"Men, take charge of these two rascals!" Darrin commanded, briskly. "Step
lively, both of you!"--this last to skipper and mate, who obeyed as
though dazed.
"Pass them up on deck as prisoners," ordered Darrin, and this was done,
the two seamen drawing their revolvers and standing by the "Olga's"
discomfited officers.
"Now, for your report," Darrin went on. One of the sailors reported the
deck-length from hatchway to stern-post.
"A difference of twenty-one feet," smiled Dave, darkly, pointing aft in
the hold. "You see, men, there are a good many feet of length to be
accounted for, which means that there is another compartment aft of this
hold. You," turning to one of the sailors, "go forward and request Ensign
Burton, with my compliments, to take charge of this steamer. He will
round up the crew and place them under guard. Then the ensign will leave
a petty officer in charge of deck and prisoners and report to me here."
Within a very short time Mr. Burton had so reported. Dave, in the
meantime, having worked his way over the cargo, had found a cleverly
concealed door at the after end of the hold.
"There should be a key to this door, sir," said Ensign Burton, "but if
there is a key-hole we are unable to find it. If this really be a door it
must be operated by a hidden spring."
"Perhaps an axe will work as well as either key or spring," Darrin
suggested. "Pass the word for one."
The axe was brought by a heavily built seaman, who prepared to swing it
against the door panelling.
"Break away the boards as gently as possible," continued Dave. "There may
be an explosive device on the other side of the panelling. For that
reason I'll stand by you, to take equal risk."
"If there is any risk, I'd rather you wouldn't take it, sir," urged the
sailor.
"Thank you, but I'll stand by. Swing the axe," ordered Dave.
A few blows knocked in the panelling, revealing, beyond, a room of
considerable size. Into this stepped the two officers, followed by the
seamen with them. Unlike any part of the ship they had previously seen,
this place was lighted by electricity. Burton found the switch, and
turning it on, let in a flood of light.
"Sir, did you ever!" gasped the ensign.
The purpose of this room was all too plain. It was fitted with
compressors, leading to a tube that left the ship under water. A small
but powerful crane was in place over a closed hatchway. The latter, when
opened, was found to lead down into a second hold, also electrically
lighted. The two officers explored this second hold.
"Mines were kept here," Dave nodded, "and were hoisted above as needed.
They were dropped astern by means of a compressed air apparatus which,
when the mine tube was open, kept the sea from entering. This ugly
looking little steamer, outwardly a wood pulp carrier, is really a very
capable mine-layer. She has been busy, too, on this cruise to England,
but had sown all her mines before we overhauled her."
"It's plain enough, sir," agreed Ensign Burton.
"Confound this rascally skipper!" blazed Darrin, wrathfully. "While naval
craft have been searching everywhere for submarine mine-layers, this
skipper has been sailing openly on the seas and sowing mines right under
the eyes of our allies! The accursed power of gold! This skipper, his
mate and crew have been selling their very souls to the Hun for a bit of
his miserable money!"
"They won't do it again, sir!" uttered Burton, grimly.
"Mr. Burton, you will remain aboard as prize officer, and take the 'Olga'
into the nearest British port and turn her over to the British Admiralty
authorities. On receiving competent orders you will rejoin."
"Very good, sir."
"And now we'll hurry above and try to get hold of this ship's papers
before any rascal has a chance to destroy them."
Boatswain's Mate Runkle had kept the officers and crew of the "Olga"
under such close guard that they were unable to get at their papers,
which were quickly found by Darrin in the cabin to which he had first
been invited on boarding the "Olga."
Out on deck, herded forward, were master and mate, seamen, engineers and
stokers, a motley-looking outfit of twenty-one men all told.
"Bring that fellow here," Dave directed, coming on deck after having
examined the ship's papers and then turning them over to Ensign Burton.
The master, purple-faced and ugly-looking, his eyes cast down, was
brought before Darrin.
"Well, sir," announced Dave Darrin, eyeing the man grimly, "we have seen
the cargo you have on board, and we have been able to judge the character
of the cargo that you have dropped overboard."
The skipper started, but did not make any reply in words.
"How could you ever bring yourself to commit such villainy?" Darrin
demanded, sternly. "You are not a German?"
"No," assented the other, shifting his weight from his right foot to his
left.
"You are a subject of a neutral country."
"Dot is true," admitted the skipper.
"And yet, for hire, you and your men have been engaged in sowing mines,
and have taken pay from Germany for your crimes."
"Mines? No! Ve do it not any. Ve never any had," declared the skipper.
"Tell that to an Admiralty court-martial," Darrin retorted. "You will
have difficulty in clearing yourself. Fellow, you will find that you and
your men will be charged with piracy, for you have been sowing death and
destruction in the seas. Indeed, there can be no estimating how many
ships you have already helped send to the bottom, no guessing how many
lives your infamous work has cost. And you a neutral! Piracy!"
Skipper, mate and chief engineer turned pale at this significant speech.
The rest of the crew looked on in stolid wonder, for they understood no
word of English.
"Vat? You proof it can't!" quivered the skipper.
"Wait!"
Dave gave Ensign Burton an order in an undertone. The ensign hurried to
the bridge and almost immediately from the "Olga's" whistle a series of
sharp blasts struck out on the air.
From the distance came an answering whistle. The "Olga's" whistle sounded
again, and continued at minute intervals, until the outlines of another
craft came up out of the mist and proved to be one of the mine-sweepers.
Dave had already reasoned out the probable course of the neutral
country's freighter in the last hour before he had overhauled it. As the
mine-sweeper slowly came abreast, Darrin, a megaphone at his lips,
shouted an order for the course to be taken by his small helper, and
added:
"Sweep thoroughly, and try to find some mines near by."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Within fifteen minutes a distant whistle came up from the fog.
"They've picked up one mine," Darrin announced.
Ten minutes later the sweeper's signal whistle was repeated.
"Two mines," he added, and the "Olga's" skipper shivered slightly.
Twenty minutes later came a whistle that was barely heard.
"Three mines," clicked Dave, and ordered the recall sounded, to be by
direction signals at minute intervals.
"You make dot noise too much den have us all torpedoed yet," protested
the "Olga's" skipper.
"If that happens, we have a rescue craft near at hand," retorted Darrin,
meaning the "Grigsby," though the destroyer was now hidden by the fog.
"That was more than you knew when you planted mines to destroy vessels on
the high seas."
"I did noddings do," growled the skipper.
In time the mine-sweeper came up into view, again reporting that she had
picked up three mines by sweeping broadly over the course that the "Olga"
was believed to have taken. Then a junior officer from the sweeper came
aboard with the measurements of the captured mines. These dimensions were
quickly found to correspond with those of the planting device installed
in the secret compartment of the "Olga."
"Which proves, or doesn't prove, that the 'Olga' sowed the mines," Dave
declared. "That remains for the court-martial to decide. But the three
mines just swept up will be interesting evidence for the court to
consider."
Learning that the commander of the mine-sweeper would be glad to furnish
some members for a prize crew, and to convoy the prize into port, Dave
decided to leave Ensign Burton aboard with only three men from the
"Grigsby," filling out the prize crew with English sailors. This was
accordingly done. Dave's own ship was then signalled and located by
whistle, and the launch started on its return.
"Keep that captured crew under strict guard. Don't give them any chance
to recapture their vessel!" was Dave's last warning to Ensign Burton.
The "Olga" quickly faded away in the fog and then the "Grigsby" was
picked up and boarded.
"Great work, sir, I'd call it!" declared Lieutenant Fernald, when he
heard the details of what had taken place.
"The scoundrel, to sail as a neutral, and do such dirty work for the Huns
for mere pay!" uttered Dave, indignantly. "Fernald, do you know that
there were moments when I had to restrain myself to keep from kicking
that scoundrel about his own deck?"
"I can understand the temptation," nodded the executive officer.
"On second thought, though," Darrin continued, "the skipper is certainly
being much worse punished by the suspense of mind in which his present
plight places him. He knows that, if convicted, the finding of the court
will be 'piracy,' and he knows the punishment for that crime."
"It used to be hanging," nodded Fernald. "It seems almost a pity that
this war has introduced the swifter and more merciful punishment of death
by shooting."
"And as he looks around at his crew he knows that they must face the same
fate with him, and he knows, too, that they know that he has brought the
penalty upon them."
"But is it possible that the crew were ignorant, or most of them
ignorant, of what he was doing in addition to really carrying wood pulp
cargoes?" asked Fernald.
"That will be another question for the court-martial to decide," Darrin
answered. "It doesn't seem possible that any member of the crew could
really be in ignorance of the mine-laying work."
A long blast from either the invisible "Olga" or the equally invisible
mine-sweeper now announced that the prize was proceeding on her way. The
"Grigsby" did not answer, for on a sea infested by hidden enemies it was
not wise to use too many whistle signals.
The "Grigsby" now returned to her course and former speed, and again
started on her way. Barely ten minutes had passed when from a bow lookout
came the sharp hail:
"'Ware submarine, dead ahead, sir!"
Sharp eyes, indeed, that had made out the presence of the enemy craft by
sighting the slender, almost pencil-like periscope that projected some
few feet above the water.
At the instant it was discovered the periscope sank down below the
surface.