Fine weather Kaifuku Box 244 five days.
S. Hotel Donnelly.
This message was, of course, from Smith and was in the crude code that had been agreed upon. “Fine weather” meant that everything was O. K. “Kaifuku” gave the name of the ship on which the powder would probably be carried. “Box 244” was the post-office address through which Smith could be reached, and “five days” was the probable sailing date of the Kifuku.
It so happened, however, that a few hours after Smith had sent this telegram Crowley arrived in Tacoma. Crowley was always full of fear that he would be detected, and he was afraid of the message that Smith had sent. He, therefore, immediately telegraphed to Mrs. Cornell to go to the Gartland Hotel in San Francisco and get this telegram, and telegraphed also to the hotel to give it to her when she called.
Between one and two o’clock in the morning of Sunday, May 30th (Decoration Day), everybody in Tacoma and Seattle was jarred from his slumbers by a terrific explosion in the harbour. The scow load of powder had disappeared in one grand flash, crash, and cloud of smoke, carrying with it the night watchman who had been living on it. One hundred thousand dollars’ worth of plate glass in Tacoma and Seattle was destroyed and news of the explosion was telegraphed to the papers all over the country. Crowley had got the main part of his job done in one quick stroke.
Here was good news for the Germans. Crowley could not wait for the mails to carry it, so the next day he sent the following telegram to Mrs. Cornell:
Work has been good. And all fixed. No connection with the big Circus it was an accident to the Elephant.
C.
This cryptic message meant:
“Work has been good and all fixed,” that he and Smith had had good luck in their plots against the ships and that bombs had been placed on all of them. “No connection with the big Circus it was an accident to the Elephant,” the “big Circus” was the four ships for Vladivostok and the “Elephant” was the scow—in other words, the explosion had not interfered with their work against the ships.