Directly the intervening island hid the anchorage, the hitherto grave features of the pilot were suffused with a broad grin.
"Start up the motor, Tom!" he exclaimed in English. "George, send the aerial aloft. By Jove! I had the wind up when that pirate bloke suggested overhauling the boat!"
In quick time the aerial was spread between the two masts and the "lead-in" connected to a powerful wireless set concealed between double bulkheads at the after end of the little fo'c'sle. A message was then dispatched in code to the Officer Commanding H.M.S. Canvey, giving the position of the pirate submarine's new base.
It was a smart bit of work. The Canvey, formerly a tramp steamer, had been fitted out by the Admiralty as a decoy-ship, disguised as the Belgian passenger and cargo boat Candide and supposed to be running between Borna, in Belgian Congo and Antwerp. Commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Ralph Raxworthy, D.S.O., she was armed with six six-inch guns and two submerged torpedo tubes, while for scouting purposes she carried in her hold two of the latest type of small flying boats fitted with folding wings. These aircraft could be hoisted out and ready to ascend within the space of twelve minutes.
But in order to locate the Alerte's base without exciting suspicion or giving any indication of her presence in the offing, Raxworthy had applied for seven boats of a type in use on this part of the coast. Each of these was fitted with a paraffin motor and a wireless installation, and was placed in charge of either a junior commissioned officer or else a warrant officer. For crew, West Indian negroes with a good knowledge of being able to manage a boat under sail, were enlisted for temporary service, two or three being told off to each boat.
It was a job that Sub-Lieutenant Gerald Broadmayne would have given much to have undertaken; but in his case the risk was too great. Not on account of possible personal danger was he turned down. In spite of a skilful disguise he might be recognised by Captain Cain, should the two meet. In that case the pirate would realise that a British warship was hard on his heels and would take precautions accordingly.
Well before sunset the seven tenders, recalled by wireless, returned to their parent ship. Almost the first to arrive was the boat commanded by Sub-Lieutenant Allerton, who had served under Raxworthy in the Windrush when she claimed to have sunk the Alerte in St. Ives' Bay.
Allerton was in high feather. It was he who had "trailed the tail of his coat" across the path of the pirate submarine and had piloted her into the estuary of the Wad-el-Abuam.
"Cain, as he calls himself, is rather a sport," he declared to his rather envious brother-officers. "But that fellow Pengelly is an out-and-out rotter—a cross between a broken-down mummer and pickpocket. You know the type I mean."
"How is Cain a sport?" inquired the torpedo lieutenant.