"He ticked the mealy-mouthed blighter off when he suggested helping himself to whatever he could find in the boat," replied Allerton. "Cain jumped on him properly, and gave me a German ten-mark gold-piece as a sort of backsheesh. He'd probably pinched it. I didn't ask questions. I'll have the thing made into a brooch when we get home."
Lieutenant-Commander Raxworthy did not receive the information of the pirate submarine's base with any degree of enthusiasm. In fact, he was rather down in the mouth about it. He had hoped that the Alerte would seek shelter in an obscure port in Morocco. Then the Canvey could go in and settle with her. The fact that the Wad-el-Abuam was in Spanish territory, however loosely held, complicated matters considerably. Without violating international law he could do nothing unless the Spanish Government agreed to allow the British warship a free hand.
Accordingly, the Canvey put into Teneriffe and reported to the Admiralty by cable lest a lengthy dispatch by wireless, even though it were in code, should alarm the pirates and prompt them to change their base.
For the next few days the decoy ship steamed to and fro between the Canaries and St. Vincent sending out fictitious messages en clair in the hope that the Alerte would emerge from her retreat and come outside the three-mile limit in order to seize a likely prey. But no Alerte put in an appearance.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Government had refused to accede to the British Admiralty's request. Since the pirate vessel had made use of a harbour in a Spanish colony, it was "up" to Spain to avenge the insult to her national dignity. Accordingly the destroyer Villamil was ordered to leave Cartagena and proceed to Wad-el-Abuam to destroy the Alerte.
The Villamil was an old vessel of three hundred and sixty tons, with a speed of twenty-eight knots. Her armament consisted of five six-pounders, of which three could fire ahead and three on the beam. In addition, she carried two torpedo tubes.
While the Spanish destroyer was speeding south, the Alerte remained riding to her anchors in Wad-el-Abuam. It was not owing to inclination on the part of Captain Cain that she did not put to sea. Wireless messages were frequently being intercepted from vessels bound to and from the French and Belgian colonies on the west coast of Africa. Tempting prizes they appeared to be. But the Alerte had developed a leak where the post of the vertical rudder passes through the trunk. A gland had given out. It would have been a fairly simple business to effect repairs could the submarine be dry-docked. In present circumstances it was a tedious and difficult process, and until it were completed the Alerte would be unable to submerge without the almost certain result of being flooded. While on the surface the leak could be kept under control; but at any great depth the hydrostatic pressure would be irresistible.
While this work was in progress, Captain Cain had not allowed other matters to slide. One of his first steps was to establish a signal station on the rocky island guarding and screening the Alerte's anchorage. Day and night armed men were on watch at the station, ready to signal to the pirate vessel the moment any sail appeared over the horizon.
Just before noon one morning, Captain Cain was informed that a craft looking like a destroyer was approaching from the nor'ard and steaming a course parallel to the coast.
Although fully conscious of the danger the Alerte was incurring by being caught in a disabled state, Captain Cain showed no sign of panic. He was trapped. He knew it. Unable to submerge, unable to ascend the river more than a few miles with a draught that considerably exceeded that of a destroyer, he realised that the only thing to be done short of scuttling the Alerte and chancing a doubtful refuge ashore in a barren country inhabited by fierce natives, was to fight it out.