CHECKMATE
THE "Nordby" was an hour after her scheduled time in casting off from
the quay. Slowly she threaded the tortuous channel until clear of the
dangerous sandbanks off the Danish coast. Here the pilot, with
ill-concealed relief, handed over the wheel, bade the skipper
farewell, and took to the boat that was being towed alongside.
Thanking his lucky stars that his duty did not require him to
navigate the vessel through the mine-strewn, submarine-infested North
Sea, he rowed back to Esbjerg, while the "Nordby," increasing speed,
shaped a south-westerly course.
Keeping Otto Oberfurst well under observation, although they took
care to render themselves as inconspicuous as possible, Tressidar and
Fuller remained on the qui vive.
Their compatriot, meanwhile, paced the deck betwixt the mainmast and
the taffrail, maintaining a well-assumed indifference to his
surroundings. He was aware that the spy had already made himself
acquainted with the fact that an interned British officer on parole
was amongst the passengers, and Oberfurst was likely to be keeping a
stealthy watch on him. So from the moment he had seen the spy board
the ship Holloway had kept aloof from Tressidar and his chum.
The "Nordby" was well beyond the three-mile limit when the look-out
reported a submarine on the starboard bow. Instantly there was a rush
on the part of the passengers and crew to see the strange under-water
craft. Speculation ran high as to her nationality and whether she
would attempt to destroy the neutral vessel with the ruthlessness
peculiar to the Huns.
"She's one of our 'S' class," declared Tressidar to his chum. "That's
all right. Now for friend Oberfurst."
The spy was no longer on deck. Down the companion ladder the two
British officers hastened and cautiously took up a position just
outside the German's cabin. They could hear him fumbling with the
locks of his portmanteau.
Then the door was opened, and Oberfurst appeared, with a small
leather wallet resembling a camera case slung from his shoulder with
a strap.
"Hands up!" ordered Tressidar sternly, the muzzle of his revolver,
held by a steady hand, within a foot of the spy's head.
"What for?" demanded the spy in English. "You're talking in your hat,
old sport. This is a neutral ship." Then, recognising his former
officer he asked, "So you think you've got me, eh? Guess desertion is
not an extradictable offence, so you're kippered, Mr. Tressidar."
"We'll see about that, Jorkler," rejoined the sub. "Collar him, old
man. We'll see what's in this case."
The spy, still grinning insolently, offered no resistance. Deftly
Fuller unbuckled the strap and opened the wallet. Within was a
folding camera--nothing more.
While Tressidar still kept his prisoner covered with the revolver,
Fuller quickly overhauled the contents of his cabin effects. The
search, as far as incriminating objects were concerned, was
fruitless. Oberfurst, although he had not previously recognised
Tressidar, had seen the two supposed Danish artisans in conversation
with Holloway when he had boarded the "Nordby." Quick to act upon the
faintest warning, he had thrown overboard the infernal machine,
relying upon his forged passports to clear himself from suspicion
when the "Nordby" arrived in a British port.
Tressidar and his companion exchanged glances. Both realised that
there had been an awkward hitch. Having gone thus far it was
impossible to cry halt; while, owing to the lack of direct evidence,
there was hardly likely to be sufficient reason for convincing the
"Nordby's" skipper of the spy's sinister intentions. Nor could the
sub. signal to the British submarine and get her commander forcibly
to remove the spy. That in itself would be a gross breach of
international neutrality, and as long as Oberfurst remained on board,
under the protection of the Danish flag, he was immune from arrest.
To do otherwise the British Government would be transgressing its own
principles which were stoutly maintained: the historic "Trent" case
during the American Civil War. Unless it could be proved up to the
hilt that Oberfurst had intended to place a charge of explosive in
the hold of the "Nordby," the chances were that the Danish skipper
would decline to place the passenger under arrest.
Suddenly a tremendous crash shook the ship from stem to stern. Almost
immediately she took a pronounced list to starboard. Tressidar,
losing his balance, brushed against his prisoner. Fortunately for the
latter, the sub.'s finger was not resting on the trigger of the
revolver, otherwise the British Government might have been saved a
mountain of trouble.
Taking advantage of the temporary confusion, Otto Oberfurst made a
rush for the companion and gained the deck.
Tressidar made no effort to detain him.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed; "that must be a strafed Hun submarine after
all. Here's a pretty kettle of fish. If they've had the tip that
we're on board it's a moral cert. that they are keen on recapturing
us."
"And if we stick here we'll be booked for Davy Jones' locker,"
declared Fuller. "Let's get on deck."
On gaining the poop they found that the "Nordby" was rapidly settling
by the head. She had recovered somewhat from her list to starboard,
and as the explosion had occurred for'ard, the boats were intact.
These were being lowered without undue haste or confusion. There was
no sign of the spy. Lieutenant Holloway, imperturbably smoking a
cigar, was standing under the bridge.
"Deuced rum business!" he remarked as Tressidar and Fuller rejoined
him. "Thought at first that the spy had succeeded in his attempt,
until I saw that the explosion was an external one and right
for'ard."
"But the submarine?" asked Fuller.
"Had nothing to do with it," declared Holloway with conviction.
"She's a British one. I was watching her up to the moment of the
explosion. There was no track of a torpedo."
The submarine, with her conning-tower just awash, was lying hove-to
at a couple of cable's length on the starboard quarter of the
foundering vessel. Two officers and three seamen were visible, the
former keeping the "Nordby" under observation with their binoculars.
"She'll give the boats a pluck to the lightship," declared Fuller.
"And we can get them to take us on board before we get there. How
about you, sir? You'll be rescued by a British craft and consequently
your internment----"
Lieutenant Holloway shook his head.
"I'll play the game," he declared. "Any hitch and the Danes won't be
so keen on letting our compatriots off for short periods on leave on
parole. Hulloa! What's the game now?"
As he spoke the officers and men on the superstructure of the
submarine disappeared below, the watertight hatches were closed and
secured, and the vessel slid with hardly a ripple beneath the
surface.
Shouts of execration arose from some of the passengers and crew of
the "Nordby" as they saw what they took to be the cause of the
disaster steal away, until the Danish skipper emphatically assured
them that the explosion had occurred by the ship coming in contact
with a derelict mine, which, in fact, was the case.
By this time only five or six persons remained on board, the skipper
being still on the bridge. Two boats had already pushed off. It was
merely a question of minutes before the "Nordby" made her final
plunge.
"What's that fellow up to, by Jove!" suddenly exclaimed Lieutenant
Holloway.
Otto Oberfurst had mounted the main-mast shrouds and was
gesticulating violently in the direction of an object broad on the
port-beam. The object was a German submarine of the most modern type,
running on the surface at a good eighteen or twenty knots.
The Danish skipper saw her too. Whatever his feelings were towards
submarines in general, his action showed that he had no love for
those sailing under the Black Cross Ensign--the modern counterpart of
the "Jolly Roger."
He shouted an order. Three seamen sprang into the rigging and with no
little force compelled the spy to descend. Not content with that,
they bundled him unceremoniously into the last boat that was rubbing
her gunwale against the "Nordby's" starboard side.
They were not feelings of humanity that prompted the German submarine
to speed to the vicinity of the sinking ship. Slowing down within
hailing distance, her officers and crew came on deck to gloat over
the sinking of a helpless neutral merchantman. More than likely they
were anxious to ascertain her name so that they could strengthen the
claim for the award of Iron Crosses--the highly prized reward for
"frightfulness" as practised by the degenerate descendants of Attila.
The Danish skipper enjoined strict silence. He had now jumped into
the boat--the last to leave the stricken ship. Otto Oberfurst, lying
at full length on the gratings, with two brawny seamen holding him
down, was helpless to give another warning. In breathless silence
they waited.
"Good!" ejaculated Tressidar as an ever-diverging feather of ripples
marked the track of a 24-in. torpedo. Passing within fifty yards of
the boat in which he sat, the deadly weapon sped unerringly towards
its quarry.
Amidst a tremendous upheaval of water, mingled with smoke and
fragments of metal, the unterseeboot vanished for ever; while like a
huge whale the British submarine that had dealt the fatal blow shook
herself clear of the water.
The appearance was little more than momentary, for without checking
her way the vessel dived again and was lost to sight.
"Wonder why?" remarked Fuller.
"I suppose she knows that the lightship isn't so very far off,"
replied Tressidar, concealing his disappointment at not being picked
up by a British craft. "The sea's calm, the boats are by no means
overcrowded, and----"
A warning shout from one of the Danes interrupted the sub.'s words.
Looking in the direction indicated by the man's outstretched fingers,
the British officers made out the form of a huge Zeppelin. Although
five miles away when first sighted by the "Nordby's" crew, it was
rapidly approaching. With the wind and driven by five propellers, it
was travelling at considerably more than a mile a minute.
Nevertheless the alert lieutenant-commander of the British submarine
had spotted the airship and had promptly dived.
Attention on the part of the passengers and crew of the "Nordby" was
divided between the ship, now on the point of foundering, and the
Zeppelin.
The former was now so deep down by the head that the hawse-pipes were
submerged, while correspondingly her twin propellers were clear of
the water. For a few moments she hung thus; irresolutely, as if loth
to make her final plunge. Then, amidst a smother of foam and the
gurgling sound of inrushing water, she slid completely from sight,
leaving a pall of steam and smoke to mark her ocean grave.
The Zeppelin, finding that the destroyer of the "U" boat had
submerged, descended with considerable rapidity until she was within
five hundred feet of the level of the sea. Thrice she circled over
the spot where the "Nordby" had disappeared, and then, having
apparently discovered some signs of the British submarine, she tore
away to the north-westward. For nearly an hour she remained in sight,
but since she dropped no bombs Tressidar came to the conclusion that
her quarry had eluded pursuit.
A little later the "Nordby's" boats parted company. Acting under
semaphored instructions from the skipper, two of them made for the
lightship, while the third, containing the Danish captain and the
German spy, rowed with long, steady strokes towards the Jutland
shore.
"The fellow's given us the slip," declared Fuller. "I wonder whether
the skipper of the 'Nordby' smells a rat and means to hand him over
to the authorities. Pity we didn't make a charge against him."
"What are you fellows going to do?" inquired Lieutenant Holloway. "If
I were you I'd lie low and say nothing while you are on Danish soil.
If you don't they'll want you to give evidence at a court of inquiry
and all that sort of fuss. That can keep till you arrive in England.
The sooner the better, as I'll warrant the Huns will make a fine song
out of the sinking of the 'Nordby.' That rogue Oberfurst will pitch
it in for all he's worth. Yes, I agree with Fuller, in fact, I go
farther: it's a pity you didn't settle his hash once and for all."
"Well, there's one thing," rejoined Tressidar. "He won't dare to set
foot in Great Britain again."
Wherein the sub. was grievously mistaken, for Otto Oberfurst's
activities as a spy within Britannia's gates were by no means at an
end.