IV.
WHAT HAPPENED ON SUNDAY.
That evening when we had the house to ourselves, I joined Tiel in the parlour, and we had a long talk on naval matters, British and German. He knew less of British naval affairs than I did, but quite enough about German to make him a keen listener and a very suggestive talker. In fact I found him excellent company. I even suspected him at last of being a man of good birth, and quite fitting company for a German officer. But of course he may have acquired his air of breeding from mixing with men like myself. As for his name, that of course gave no guide, for I scarcely supposed that he had been Tiel throughout his adventurous career. I threw out one or two "feelers" on the subject, but no oyster could be more secretive than Adolph Tiel when he chose.
That night I heard the wind wandering noisily round the old house, and I wakened in the morning to find the rain beating on the window. Tiel came in rather late with my breakfast, and I said to him at once—
"I have just remembered that this is Sunday. I wish I could come and hear your sermon, Tiel!"
"I wish you could, too," said he. "It will be a memorable event in the parish."
"But are you actually going to do it?"
"How can I avoid it?"
"You are so ingenious I should have thought you would have hit upon a plan."
He looked at me in his curious way.
"Why should I have tried to get out of it?"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Personally, I shouldn't feel anxious to make a mock of religion if I could avoid it."
"We are such a religious people," said he, "that surely we can count on God forgiving us more readily than other nations."
He spoke in his driest voice, and for a moment I looked at him suspiciously. But he was perfectly grave.
"Still," I replied, "I am glad the Navy doesn't have to preach bogus sermons!"
"Ah," said he, "the German navy has to keep on its pedestal. But the secret service must sometimes creep about in the dust."
His eyes suddenly twinkled as he added—
"But never fear, I shall give them a beautiful sermon! The text will be the passage about Joshua and the spies, and the first hymn will be, 'Onward, Christian Sailors.'"
He threw me a humorous glance and went out. I smiled back, but I confess I was not very much amused. Neither the irreverence nor the jest about the sailors (since it referred apparently to me) struck me as in the best of taste.
That morning was one of the dreariest I ever spent. The wind rose to half a gale, and the fine rain beat in torrents on the panes. I wrote diligently for some time, but after a while I grew tired of that and paced the floor in my stockinged feet (for the sake of quietness) like a caged animal. My one consolation was that to-morrow would see the end of my visit. Already I longed for the cramped quarters and perpetual risks of the submarine, and detested these islands even more bitterly than I hated any other part of Britain.
In the early afternoon I had a pleasant surprise. Tiel came in and told me that his servant had gone out for the rest of the day, and that I could safely come down to the parlour. There I had a late luncheon in comparative comfort, and moreover I could look out of the windows on to the sea. And what a dreary prospect I saw! Under a heavy sky and with grey showers rolling over it, that open treeless country looked desolation itself. As for the waters, whitecaps chased each other over the wind-whipped expanse of grey, fading into a wet blur of moving rain a few miles out. Through this loomed the nearer lines of giant ships, while the farther were blotted clean out. I thought of the long winters when one day of this weather followed another for week after week, month after month; when the northern days were brief and the nights interminable, and this armada lay in these remote isles enduring and waiting. The German navy has had its gloomy and impatient seasons, but not such a prolonged purgatory as that. We have a different arrangement. Probably everybody knows what it is—still, one must not say.
After lunch, when we had lit our cigars, Tiel said—
"By the way, you will be pleased to hear that my efforts this morning were so successful that the people want me to give them another dose next Sunday."
I stared at him.
"Really?" I exclaimed.
He nodded.
"But I thought there would be another preacher next Sunday."
"Oh, by no means. There was no one for next Sunday, and they were only too glad to have the pulpit filled."
"But will you risk it?"
He smiled confidently.
"If there is any danger, I shall get warning in plenty of time."
"To ensure your escape?"
"To vanish somehow."
"But why should you wait?"
He looked at me seriously and said deliberately—
"I have other schemes in my head—something even bigger. It is too early to talk yet, but it is worth running a little risk for."
I looked at this astonishing man with unconcealed admiration. Regulations, authorities, precautions, dangers, he seemed to treat as almost negligible. And I had seen how he could contrive and what he could effect.
"I am afraid I shall have to ask you to stay with me for a few days longer," he added.
I don't think I ever got a more unpleasant shock.
"You mean you wish me not to rejoin my ship to-morrow night?"
"I know it is asking a great deal of you; but, my dear Belke, duty is duty."
"My duty is with my ship," I said quickly. "Besides, it is the post of danger—and of honour. Think of Thursday night!"
"Do you honestly think you are essential to the success of a torpedo attack?"
"Every officer will be required."
"My dear Belke, you didn't answer my question. Are you essential?"'
"My dear Tiel," I replied firmly, for I was quite resolved I should not remain cooped up in this infernal house, exposed to hourly risk of being shot as a spy, while my ship was going into action, "I am sorry to seem disobliging; but I am a naval officer, and my first duty is quite clear to me."
"Pardon me for reminding you that you are at present under my orders," said he.
"While this affair is being arranged only."
"But I say that I have not yet finished my arrangements."
I saw that I was in something of a dilemma, for indeed it was difficult to say exactly how my injunctions met the case.
"Well," I said, "I shall tell you what I shall do. I shall put it to my superior officer, Commander Wiedermann, and ask him whether he desires me to absent myself any longer."
This was a happy inspiration, for I felt certain what Wiedermann would say.
"Then I shall not know till to-morrow night whether to count on you—and then I shall very probably lose you?"
I shrugged my shoulders, but said nothing. Suddenly his face cleared.
"My dear fellow," he said, "I won't press you. Rejoin your ship if you think it your duty."
By mutual consent we changed the subject, and discussed the question of submarines versus surface ships, a subject in which Tiel showed both interest and acumen, though I had naturally more knowledge, and could contribute much from my own personal experience. I must add that it is a pleasure to discuss such matters with him, for he has a frank and genuine respect for those who really understand what they are talking about.
Towards evening I went back to my room, and fell to writing this narrative again, but about ten o'clock I had another visit from Tiel; and again he disconcerted me, though not so seriously this time.
"I had a message from Ashington, asking to see me," he explained, "and I have just returned from a meeting with him. He tells me that the date of the fleet's sailing will probably be altered to Friday, but he will let me know definitely to-morrow or Tuesday."
"Or Tuesday!" I exclaimed. "Then I may have to stay here for another night!"
"I'm sorry," said he, "but I'm afraid it can't be helped."
"But can we ever be sure that the fleet will keep to a programme? I have just been thinking it over, and the question struck me—why are they making this arrangement so far ahead?"
"That struck me too," said Tiel, "and also Ashington. But he has found out now. There is some big scheme on. Some think it is Heligoland, and some think the Baltic. Anyhow, there is a definite programme, and they will certainly keep to it. The only uncertain thing is the actual day of sailing."
"It is a plan which will be nicely upset if we get our torpedoes into three or four of their super-dreadnoughts!" I exclaimed.
He nodded grimly.
"And for that, we want to have the timing exact" he said. "Be patient, my friend; we shall know by Tuesday morning at the latest."
I tried to be as philosophical as I could, but it was a dreary evening, with the rain still beating on my window and another day's confinement to look forward to.