VON PREUGFELD'S RESOLVE
"DONNERWETTER! I am utterly sick of this business, Kaspar," whispered
Seaman Furst. "It is the life of a dog, or worse. If this war is not
over by the beginning of the winter there will be trouble amongst the
_unterseebooten_ crews."
"S'sh, not so loud," cautioned his companion, as the grumbler raised
his voice towards the end of his tirade. "I agree with you, Hans.
This game does not pay. We were told that we should save the
Fatherland and bring England to her knees by our submarines. But have
we? Just look! Here we are hungry, wet and unhappy, yet in England
there is, they say, plenty. Just before we left Cuxhaven my wife had
a letter from her brother who is a prisoner in England. He wrote and
said that even our men who are held in captivity receive three good
meals a day."
"That is what I do not understand," remarked Hans Furst. "If we are
winning, as our officers tell us we are, how comes it that we cannot
get eatable food? Of course, at the beginning of the war we were
lucky. All we had to do was to run alongside an English merchantman,
take what we wanted in the way of food and tobacco, and then sink
her; but now----"
"But now," continued Kaspar Krauss, taking up the parable, "every
strafed English ship has a gun, and one never knows but that a
coasting vessel is not a death-trap for us. You remember that
fishing-smack off Flamborough?"
Furst shuddered.
"Will I ever forget it?" he answered. "'Tis marvellous that we live
to tell the tale. What would I not give for a life ashore with a
tankard of Munich beer, a loaf of good bread and cheese? And
tobacco--what is tobacco? I have almost forgotten."
"There was some in that Dutch vessel we burnt a week ago," said
Krauss.
Furst clenched his fists.
"And where did it go?" he demanded. "That _schweinhund_ our kapitan
put it under lock and key. He and the pig-faced von Loringhoven smoke
every night when we rise to recharge batteries, but never a cigar or
a pipeful comes our way."
"We'll be back again on Friday if all goes well," said the other.
"Then we can enjoy ourselves."
"Enjoy ourselves!" echoed Furst contemptuously. "How? I've got a
bundle of notes in my belt, but precious little use are they. In the
good old days a mark was a mark, but now----"
"Yes, I know," snarled Krauss. "Just before the war I came back from
America on the _George Washington_ with eight hundred and fifty marks
to my name. I was going to buy a small business in Bremen and settle
down to a life ashore. I should have done well. Then came the war.
The rascally swindlers told us that if we lent our money to the State
it would be repaid with twenty-five per cent. when peace was
proclaimed. Just imagine! I handed over my eight hundred marks in
silver, fool that I was! Even supposing the government does pay me
back a thousand marks, it will be in rotten paper money, and I know
that five thousand now will not buy the place I had offered to me for
eight hundred and fifty four years ago."
"There will be trouble," agreed Furst. "Do you know that there is a
movement amongst the men of the U-boats' crews to hoist the Red
Flag?"
"Have I not heard of it!" exclaimed Kaspar grimly. "And when the
time comes here is one who will jump at the opportunity. Now, at----"
The clang of a gong interrupted the discourse. The men jumped up
smartly. The cast-iron discipline of the German Navy was as yet too
powerful a force to be flouted by embryo revolutionists.
"Empty two and four tanks," came a guttural order through a voice
tube. "And be quick about it, you numskulls!"
U 247 was preparing to rise to the surface in order to verify her
position. For several hours she had rested on the bottom, scared by
the presence of a swarm of destroyers and M.L.'s which had hurried to
avenge the bombardment of Aberspey.
The material damage to the little town had been slight--almost
negligible--for the majority of the shells had fallen in open spaces.
Two people had been slightly injured by flying fragments. Actual
destruction of military property was nil. Financially the bombardment
was a failure. The cost of the ammunition far exceeded that of the
damage; but morally an insult had been offered to the island shores
of Britain, and the destroyer flotillas were quick to avenge the
affront.
Ober-leutnant Hans von Preugfeld, kapitan of U 247, had acted with
great discretion after his brave bombardment of Aberspey. "Legging
it," submerged for several miles, he allowed the submarine to lie on
the bottom for a considerable period. Then, hearing no suspicious
sounds, he had the motors restarted and, the while submerged, shifted
his position a good five miles. At length, assuming that it was safe
to blow ballast-tanks and come to the surface, he gave the necessary
orders.
Directly a patch of white light showed upon the object-bowl of the
periscope, signifying that the tip of the latter had "broken
surface," von Preugfeld made a cautious survey. Through nearly three
hundred degrees the periscope revolved. Then, abruptly, the kapitan
checked the rotary movement of the training-wheel.
"Come here, Eitel!" he exclaimed peremptorily.
Von Preugfeld stood aside to allow the unter-leutnant to view the
object that had attracted his superior's attention.
"Come now," said the ober-leutnant irritably. "What do you make of
it?"
"It is a vessel of some kind, Herr Kapitan," replied Eitel von
Loringhoven.
"Of course it is," snapped von Preugfeld. "Any fool could see that.
What I want to know is: what sort of craft is it? Stand aside if you
cannot do better than that."
"It is a long, low-lying craft painted black," resumed Loringhoven,
retaining his place at the periscope in order to ingratiate himself
in the eyes of his commanding officer. "There are men standing aft.
Amidships I can see a small sail--it may be that there is a sailing
boat alongside."
"That's better," remarked von Preugfeld, literally pushing the
unter-leutnant aside. "Port helm fifteen degrees," he ordered. "A
touch ahead with both motors."
The U-boat shuddered under the beats of the twin screws, then forging
slowly ahead approached the puzzling object.
"Stop!"
A bell clanged somewhere in the confined recesses of the modern
pirate craft. At a curt nod from the kapitan the quartermaster pulled
over a lever which had the effect of actuating the twin horizontal
rudders. Once more the periscope reared its sinister head above the
waves.
"Ach! I see men in uniform," exclaimed von Preugfeld. "We must be
cautious. Men in khaki," he continued, scratching his closely cropped
head in perplexity. "I cannot understand it. Look again, Eitel: can
you see if she carries any guns or torpedo-tubes?"
"None, as far as I can see, Herr Kapitan," replied von Loringhoven
after a careful scrutiny. "To me it looks as if she is sinking. Her
stern is well down. Yes, there is a sailing-boat alongside or close
to her. The boat is moving ahead."
"We will submerge and come up again on the other side," declared von
Preugfeld. "We may then solve the mystery. Down to ten metres," he
ordered.
Bubbling with latent insubordination, Furst and Krauss at their posts
at the auxiliary ballast-tank valves obeyed promptly. In spite of all
their revolutionary tendencies and expressions of general
"fed-uppedness," they realised that their lives depended upon the
prompt execution of their hated superior's orders. Knowing nothing of
what was going on without, they submitted to discipline as the only
remedy for their present predicament. After a period of ten minutes'
total submergence the periscope shoved its squat snout above the
surface--like a reluctant puppy about to receive a hiding. When a
periscope is in danger of getting a blinding blow in the shape of a
six-pounder shell, or the hull to which it belongs is liable to be
pulverised by a trio of torpedoes, the need for extreme caution
becomes apparent.
"They have not observed us," muttered von Preugfeld with fervent
gratitude to the providence that looks after Hun submarines. "There's
'X 5' painted on her bows. Know what that means, Eitel?"
Von Loringhoven confessed that he did not. In spite of a careful
perusal of all works dealing with numbers and nomenclature of British
shipping--and Berlin was kept fairly up-to-date in such matters--the
mystic symbol "X 5" was to him an unknown quantity. Incidentally it
recalled days when he was studying mathematics at the Kiel Naval
College.
The ober-leutnant steadied the periscope and touched a switch.
Immediately, by the introduction of a special lens, the "field"
covered by the eye-piece of the periscope was reduced, but the object
actually seen was considerably magnified. It was like looking through
a telescope.
"They are men of the English Air Force," he observed. "I
believe--here, Eitel, look--the man walking for'ard. What do you
make of him?"
"_Donnerwetter!_" ejaculated von Loringhoven. "Surely it is our
friend von Preussen?"
"Yes," replied the ober-leutnant. "Von Preussen playing the part of a
Jonah to an English whale. I wonder what he does there?"
"It would be well to clear out and leave him alone, Herr Kapitan,"
suggested von Loringhoven. "It could only be that von Preussen is
engaged in highly important confidential work that brings him afloat
again. _Himmel!_ He is a clever fellow."
The ober-leutnant tugged at his moustache thoughtfully. Eager to have
a finger in any pie without the risk of burning himself, he was loth
to take his subordinate's advice. Here, apparently, was an unarmed
craft, crewless, with the exception of a few officers. To him it
suggested that highly confidential experiments were being carried
on--so important that no one beneath the rank of officer was
permitted to be present. Perhaps they were staff officers of high
rank?
Eagerly von Preugfeld kept each man under observation. The
trench-coats gave no indication of their wearers' rank, but
--disappointing fact--none of the officers wore gilt leaves round the
peaks of their caps. The sailing-boat alongside was also a puzzle.
Why should the experimenters make use of an insignificant
sailing-boat when there were steam pinnaces and motor launches
available?
"Stand by!" he ordered. "Guns' crews prepare to take your stations.
Blow main and auxiliary tanks."
Bells clanged, valves hissed and pumps grated, men hurried to and fro
in execution of loud-voiced orders.
Von Preugfeld turned to his unter-leutnant.
"Bring her up," he ordered. "I am going to take those fellows
prisoners."