"However, the Fusi Yama and her cargo were fully insured, she was classed A1 at Lloyd's, had an experienced and capable skipper, so the underwriters thought they'd struck oil, so to speak.
"On the 2nd August, 1914, the Fusi Yama left Chi-fu; on the 9th she was captured by the German cruiser Nürnburg, but not before her masts were knocked away by shell-fire. You fellows know perfectly well how frequently the Hun got to know of our movements, so, looking back, it was not surprising to learn that the Fusi Yama had been shadowed from the moment she left port. Nor is it when I tell you that I have good reason to believe that the Huns are after that gold too."
A murmur of suppressed excitement ran round the room. Interest in the scheme, already keen, rose to fever-heat. There was a chance, then, of "coming up against Fritz" again, not with steel or bullet but in a contest of wits and skill, and with the almost certainty of a lavish display of low-down trickery on the side of their opponents.
"Then," continued Harborough, "the officers and crew of the captured vessel were transferred to the Nürnburg, a prize-crew was placed on board the Fusi Yama, and the two vessels steamed eastwards. Three days afterwards they fell in with a three-masted Yankee schooner bound from Singapore to 'Frisco. Arrangements were made with the skipper to take off the Fusi Yama's crew. In those days the Huns in the Pacific treated their prisoners well. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt to say that they were fairly straight as Huns go, but it may have been that they knew they were in a tight corner, and until they were out of it they had to behave decently.
"Shortly after that the Nürnburg joined the rest of von Spee's squadron, but without the Fusi Yama. It was naturally concluded that the Huns had removed her valuable cargo and, finding her slow speed a hindrance, had scuttled her.
"At any rate the million and a half had vanished. The under-writers paid up as cheerfully as they could, and wrote off the Fusi Yama as a total constructive loss.
"Now this is where the affair has a personal note. Here let me remark that I bind no one to secrecy over the matter, nor do I make any attempt to do so; but I would like to point out that not only your own but your comrades' interests will be at stake if, even incautiously, you discuss the matter with outside friends or strangers.
"There was on board the Fusi Yama a man named Williams, whom I knew when I was down on my luck in Manitoba. There was a bit of a scrap in camp, and he said I'd done him a good turn. Incidentally, his home in England—or birthplace rather—was close to mine.
"Williams was a dare-devil sort of fellow, and when the crew of the Fusi Yama were placed on board the Nürnburg he had the audacity to disguise himself as a Chinaman, with the result that he was retained by the Huns as a servant. I expect he played up to that, but it was a risky thing to do, although he certainly had features of a Mongolian type. He wore a false pigtail, which might have been fatal to him had Fritz taken it into his head to pull that. They did the next best thing; they cut it off, which saved Williams from further anxiety on that score.
"All the time he was keeping his eye on the bullion, so to speak.