CHAPTER XXI
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.