A quick whispered report caused double guards to be mounted, men to be sent to cover possible lines of retreat, and a messenger to be despatched for assistance on the water. These precautions were efficient and effective. The mysterious boatman was captured.
It was not known whether he was too frightened, or too unintelligent, or too intoxicated to give a satisfactory account of his movements, but in a parcel concealed under odd bits of rope and sailcloth was a dead codfish addressed to Herr K. V. S.
Whilst the captured one was meditating under lock and key, the boat and its contents were minutely examined. Nothing unusual had been found on the prisoner, nothing else had been found in the boat. The cod-fish was ordered to be dissected, when, lo and behold! a small metal tube was extracted from the gullet. Inside this, tightly rolled and wrapped in oil-silk, was a small piece of thin foreign correspondence paper, which, on being held up to the light, revealed hieroglyphics in the smallest of German characters imaginable.
Subsequent investigation and examination elicited that the boatman had agreed to deliver the parcel personally to Herr K. von S—— at a certain place, and at a certain hour in the evening, for which he had received a generous sum of money. The advisability of remaining in the alcove until dark to prevent the military from holding him up, or prying into his parcel, had been suggested to him by his employer, who was quite a stranger to him. He had never seen him until two hours before he had arranged to bring the parcel along; he had assured him it was all right. It was only an act of kindness to a sick man. There could be no harm done by it.
A thin story indeed, but the fishermen of northern seas are a confiding, unsuspecting, innocent race.
The letter proved to be written in Prussian or High German. It required a good magnifying glass to decipher it. It was highly technical in its terms, and was evidently composed by a thoroughly expert garrison artillery officer. It ran somewhat as follows:
1. You say we can now communicate with you through more open channels but we doubt this and fear taking any avoidable risk.
2. On the plans you sent us you omitted to mark the ranges of the guns numbered 1, 5, and 7.
3. The exact location of the magazine was not clearly defined.
4. What are the reliefs? Give exact detail.
5. Ascertain exact amounts of ammunition at present stored, with full capacity for added reserves.
6. Advise estimated sum to cover wireless operators' requirements for a year.
7........................................
8........................................
9........................................
10. Next time cut a larger portion off the dorsal fin, as your last message was nearly missed through difficulty in identification.
The boatman, who was a local man and innocent enough, was lectured and frightened half out of his wits, and finally permitted to go.
Captain Karl von S—— with his wife and family were given twelve short hours to clear the country, once and for all, with peremptory orders never to set foot in it again. Probably he is wondering to this day what earthly reason could have instigated such a decisive and unmistakably severe command.