"I am anxious to know how a submarine could pass through the Canal without being detected and stopped," remarked the sub, who entertained grave doubts as to the authenticity of the wireless message, especially after the "Imperator Pavel" affair.
"So am I, Mr. Hythe," rejoined Captain Restronguet, who had now recovered his customary coolness of mind. "So am I, since where the 'Vorwartz' can go the 'Aphrodite can go also."
"You mean to traverse the Suez Canal?"
"By fair means, or failing that by foul. Otherwise it would mean that we have to circumnavigate the African Continent, and in the time we were so occupied what would Karl von Harburg be doing?"
Within twenty minutes of the receipt of the momentous news the "Aphrodite" was abreast of the classic Isle of Tenedos, bound for Port Said. All the while she had remained in the Dardanelles, although within a few miles of the seaport of Gallipoli, she had refrained from giving any signs of her presence. But at the moment of departure Captain Restronguet could not resist leaving his card in the shape of one of his green and white buoys on which were painted his customary compliments.
During the run across from Gallipoli to Port Said a complete text of Karl von Harburg's feat, as reported in the Egyptian Monitor, was transmitted by Captain Restronguet's agent for the information of his employer.
It was indeed a daring coup on the part of the German renegade.
Early one morning the "Vorwartz," running light, brought up between the breakwaters that, extending nearly two miles from shore, mark the Mediterranean entrance to the Canal. Here, landing a party of armed men, he took possession of the two lighthouses, and terrified the lightkeepers into submission. He compelled them to ascertain by telegraph what vessels had entered the canal during the previous twenty-four hours and what were expected. Finding that there were no armed ships between Port Said and Suez, and none within easy steaming distance of the latter port, he resolved upon the desperate enterprise of passing through at full speed. To keep submerged would mean loss of time and possibilities of running aground in the Bitter Lakes.
Thus, almost before the Canal authorities at Port Said recovered from their astonishment that a strangely-constructed vessel should have passed into the Canal at several knots above the regulation speed and without paying the customary dues, the "Vorwartz" was well on her way to Ismalia.
In the Little Bitter Lake her luck deserted her, for in attempting to pass a lumbering Dutch tramp steamer, the "Vorwartz" struck upon the sand on the west side of the Canal.