“Say anything you please; it will go no farther, gentlemen. Let me introduce Mrs. Thompson.”
We rose and bowed.
“We were both in the same office there,” explained the manager, “and when they gave me this berth we decided to come together.”
“I am over here on business,” I began.
“Still after the man who is trying to stop all war?” interrupted Thompson.
“Yes,” I answered. “What we want now is to find out just where the Kaiser Charlemagne or the Kaiserin Luisa went down. If we can find that, we shall get divers and go down to the bottom. As we could get no news at any of the government offices, we thought we would try to find some dealer here who might have supplied either of the boats with coal.”
“Hit it first time trying,” said Thompson, with a smile. “The Kaiser Charlemagne took on no liquid here, but the Kaiserin Luisa took a thousand barrels the day before she sunk.” Tom let out a long whistle. “That’s one reason why the Kaiserin Luisa, the Alaska, and the rest went down without a sound. Extraordinary that I never thought of that before. They all burn hydrocarbons instead of coal, and the new hydrocarbon fuels would disappear in the water.
“Not a modern warship left to-day which doesn’t burn liquid fuel, and most of it’s ours,” said Thompson enthusiastically. “They had to come to it, especially when we put out our new boiler attachment by which they could change their furnaces over to use liquids without changing any other part of the machinery.”
Tom nodded appreciatively. “I see,” he said. “Now as to the main question. How can we find out just where the Kaiserin Luisa went down?”
Thompson turned to his wife. “Lulu, will you telephone down and see if Cap’n McPherson is at the wharf. If he is, have them send him here at once.”