CHAPTER XXX
The End of the "Malfilio"
Burgoyne and Mostyn were radiant when they left the Admiral'spresence. By contrast the faces of Messrs. Swayne, Fontayne, andO'Loghlin were glum. The promptness with which the Senior NavalOfficer acted had taken the wind out of their sails. They hadreckoned upon the preparations taking from five to seven days, duringwhich time the _Titania_ was to be unloaded of her valuable cargo.
"We can't all three go," declared Swayne. "One must stop behind tosuperintend the unshipping of the stuff and to pay off the Kanakas.Candidly, now the excitement of salving the silver is over, I'drather go to sea with the squadron any old time. But duty's duty allthe world over."
Neither Fontayne nor Paddy O'Loghlin showed any willingness to forgotheir share in the marine picnic to the secret base. The old chumslooked very much like "parting brass rags" until Peter Mostyn chippedin with a suggestion.
"Why not toss for it?" he asked. "Sudden death. Odd man staysbehind."
Three coins spun in the air and were deftly caught by theirrespective owners.
"Heads!" announced Swayne.
"Same here!" shouted Fontayne. "We're all right, Swayne. We're in thesame galley. Now then Paddy."
Lugubriously O'Loghlin began to uncover his coin. Then his featuresexpanded into a broad grin as he, too, disclosed the King's effigy.
The next trial resulted in Swayne having a head and Fontayne a tail.That meant that one of the two was bound to be out.
"Get a move on, O'Loghlin," yelled Fontayne.
Paddy was in no hurry. He rather enjoyed prolonging the agony in viewof his chum's cheerful announcement in the first round. It was ahead.
"You're ship-keeper, old son," remarked Swayne to the now downcastFontayne.
"I say, let's go back and interview the secretary-bird," suggestedBurgoyne.
"What for?" asked Swayne.
"To tell him that Fontayne's not going," replied Alwyn. "I'll get himto ask the Admiral to let Jasper Minalto go instead. He jolly welldeserves to go, and I've been kicking myself for not askingpermission for him before."
This suggestion was acted upon, with the result that the Admiral'ssecretary promised to put the matter before the Admiral after dinner.He also added that perhaps it would be as well if he provided anadditional letter of introduction to the Commodore of the squadrondetailed for the operations.
Punctually at noon the enumerated vessels left Port Jackson, thedestroyers leading, the seaplane carrier coming next, and the lightcruisers _Armadale_ and _Rockhampton_ bringing up the rear.
On the fore-bridge of the _Armadale_, the light cruiser flying theBroad Pennant of the Commodore of the squadron, were Burgoyne,Mostyn, Swayne, and O'Loghlin, whose presence gave rise to wildsurmises on the part of the ship's officers and crew.
Jasper Minalto, as lively as a sand-boy, was in one of the pettyofficers' messes of the same ship, and although his tongue "wentnineteen to the dozen" not as much as a hint did he let fall of thereason for the presence of the visitors on the fore-bridge.
At two bells in the afternoon watch the squadron was well clear ofThe Heads, and was plunging into the steep head seas, for the galestill held. At that hour the skipper of each ship opened his sealedorders and communicated their contents to the officers under hiscommand. Within five minutes every man of the squadron knew that theobjective of the operations was the destruction of a pirate vessel.Authentic details would reach them later, but until then the wildestreports pervaded the lower deck.
The Commodore of the Australian flotilla was not taking undue risks.His orders were to capture or destroy, and he meant to carry out hisinstructions with all the means at his disposal.
Having asked Burgoyne a number of questions he decided upon his planof action. The ships were to approach to within ten miles of thesecret base, the _Armadale_ and two destroyers on the eastern, andthe _Rockhampton_ and one destroyer on the western side. By means ofaerial reconnaissance he would ascertain whether the pirate cruiserhad returned to the anchorage. If she had, then a long-rangebombardment of the harbour would either sink her or else compel herto come out. The batteries would be attacked by bombing machines,assisted by the guns of the cruisers.
"There are no anti-aircraft guns on the island, I presume?" asked theCommodore.
"No, sir," replied Burgoyne. "At least, not to my knowledge. I'veseen almost every battery, and they are armed with 6-inch and4.7-inch naval guns."
"The _Malfilio_ when under the Russian flag had four submergedtorpedo tubes," continued the Commodore. "Do you happen to know ifshe has any torpedoes on board?"
"I cannot say, sir," replied Alwyn. "I was never on board; but, asthe result of conversation with survivors from the _Alvarado_ and_Kittiwake_, I know that she never employed these against any of thethree vessels captured by her up to the time I left the island. Shecarries a small seaplane for scouting purposes."
On the evening of the eighth day after leaving Sydney the squadron,maintaining a speed of eighteen knots, arrived at the rendezvousfifteen miles due south of the secret base.
For the whole of the night vessels cruised east and west, turningsixteen points at the expiration of each hour. No steaming lightswere shown; the ships were cleared for action and the guns' crewsslept by their guns. No wireless was permitted. The destroyers wereordered to stand in pursuit of any vessel that might be sighted,acting upon the supposition that the pirate island was well out ofthe regular steamer tracks, and signal to her to stop instantly anddisclose her identity. If the command were disobeyed the delinquentwas to be torpedoed.
But nothing occurred to necessitate this drastic step. The night woreon without anything of a suspicious nature being reported.
At the first streak of dawn two scouting aircraft rose from the deckof the seaplane carrier, and disappeared in the direction of RamonPorfirio's stronghold. In two hours they were back again, having madean exhaustive survey of the island, without, apparently, beingspotted by any of the garrison.
They reported that there were two merchantmen and four schoonerslying in the harbour, but the _Malfilio_ was not visible.
A council of war was held to decide upon the course to be pursued.Some of the officers were in favour of attacking the island at once;others advocated the finding and destruction of the pirate cruiser asthe first phase of the operations, backing up their arguments withthe theory that if Porfirio discovered that his base were captured hewould steam away at once to an unfrequented part of the Siberiancoast. He might, then, have to run the _Malfilio_ ashore, but therewould remain the discouraging knowledge that the arch-pirate wasstill at large.
The Commodore fell in with the second suggestion, and decided to keephis flotilla out of sight of the secret base, and to keep a sharplook-out for the pirate cruiser by means of destroyers and aircraft,the light cruisers being stationed as previously arranged, one to theeast and one to the west of the island.
At one bell in the first Dog Watch (4.30 p.m.) the look-out in thefore-top of the _Armadale_ reported a seaplane approaching from thenor'east. At first the seaplane, which was flying at 5000 feet, wastaken to be one of the naval scouts returning; but, when she made noattempt to descend and circled high above the cruisers, suspicionswere aroused as to her ownership.
Presently the _Armadale_ picked up wireless messages in code, andsince none of the squadron was permitted to use her radio instrumentsfor transmitting the inference was positive.
"She's warning the _Malfilio_," declared the Commodore. "We'll tryher with the antis."
The cruiser's anti-aircraft guns opened fire simultaneously. Judgingby the mushroom-shaped clouds of white smoke that marked the burstingof the shrapnel shells, it seemed as if the seaplane could not escapebeing hit. But to the disappointment of all on board the _Armadale_the seaplane turned and flew away apparently unharmed.
All necessity for secrecy being now at an end the Commodorewirelessed the seaplane carrier, ordering two fast battleplanes tostand in pursuit, and giving instructions to
the destroyer Dawson tosupport the aircraft.
The battleplanes ascended promptly, but an hour later they returnedwithout having sighted the pirate seaplane. The pilot of the latterwas a bit of a strategist, for instead of flying back to the_Malfilio_ he had made a wide circle with the intention of returningto the secret base, having already warned Porfirio of his greatdanger.
But the pirate scout's luck was out. When still a good twelve milesfrom the island he was sighted by one of the seaplanes engaged insearching for the _Malfilio_. The two Australian airmen did theirwork neatly and effectively. Standing in pursuit they sat on the tailof the pirate seaplane, and with one burst from a Lewis gun sent thelatter down in a spinning nose-dive, with the machine a mass offlames.
Ramon Porfirio knew now that the game was up. One chance remained--toseek safety in flight. He had provided for the contingency, forpractically the whole of the specie and bullion found on his prizeshad been transferred to the _Malfilio's_ strong room. Could he butget away with the treasure without having to share it amongst hiscrew he would be a rich man. He decided to take a northerly course,lie low amongst the desolate Aleutian Islands until the coast wasclear, and then double back to a South American port.
Unfortunately for him he had underrated the capabilities anduniversal use of wireless. Within an hour and a half from the timethe _Malfilio_ received the warning from her seaplane, the piratecruiser sighted a small American tramp steaming east. The Yankee alsosighted the _Malfilio_, and when the former picked up a non-codegeneral call from the _Armadale_ asking all vessels in that part ofthe North Pacific to report if they sighted a warship answering tothe _Malfilio's_ description, Captain Hiram Stott pulled his goateebeard and looked wise.
With a keen commercial instinct he inquired by wireless whether therewere any pecuniary reward for the desired information, and a replybeing received in the affirmative he then promptly gave the latitudeand longitude of the position where he had sighted the pirate, andalso the approximate course that the _Malfilio_ was taking.
Ramon Porfirio intercepted the message. Had time permitted he wouldhave turned in pursuit of the tramp and sent her to the bottom; buturgent affairs compelled him to carry on under every ounce of forceddraught.
Meanwhile the _Armadale_, doing thirty-three knots to the_Malfilio's_ twenty-two, was rapidly standing in pursuit of thepirate cruiser. Night fell, without the sighting of the latter. TheCommodore, inwardly perturbed, showed no trace on his bronzedfeatures of the doubts that assailed his mind. It was quite easy, inspite of the numerical superiority of the squadron, for the piratecruiser to be lost in the vast expanse of the moonless ocean.
About one bell of the Middle Watch the masthead light of a steamerwas reported, bearing 105°. A little later on her red light and thenthe green were visible.
Thinking it advisable to dispense with wireless during the rest ofthe night, the Commodore gave orders for the on-coming vessel to becommunicated with by means of a masthead flashing lamp.
In reply to the request for her name the stranger Morsed:"KJVT--AUBX--APVE", which, by reference to the Mercantile ShippingRegister and the International Code, revealed her to be the S.S._Lanzorate_ of San Francisco, bound from Olympia, U.S.A., forBatavia.
The _Armadale_ then repeated her general wireless message, and askedif the _Lanzorate_ had seen anything of the pirate ship _Malfilio_,to which the vessel replied that she had seen a two-funnelled craftanswering the description proceeding south by east just beforesunset. A hasty reference to the chart proved conclusively thateither Captain Stott or the skipper of the _Lanzorate_ had engaged inthe pleasurable pastime of talking through his hat. By no possibilitycould the pirate cruiser travel from one position to the other ineven twice the time stated.
Meanwhile the _Lanzorate_ was passing about two miles astern of the_Armadale_. The former was brilliantly illuminated. Every scuttle andevery window of her deck-houses was lit up; while the _Armadale_ wasnow in total darkness.
"We'll have a look at that hooker," said the Commodore to theNavigating Lieutenant. "Take us to within a couple of cables ofher--broad on her port beam."
A warning to the searchlight men to stand by was followed byinstructions to the 9.2-guns' crews to load with armour-piercingshells with delayed action fuses. The quick-firers and machine-gunswere to be trained on the stranger's bridge.
Describing a wide turning circle the _Armadale_ closed on thestranger's port beam, which was the last thing her skipper would haveexpected. When the _Armadale's_ masthead signal lamp flashed, thecruiser bore one point on to the former's starboard bow, so thesudden apparition of a huge warship on her port beam was to say theleast most disconcerting.
Simultaneously four searchlights were unscreened from the _Armadale_,and four powerful beams were focused upon the stranger. Instead ofshowing up a small "intermediate" liner the rays revealed the piratecruiser _Malfilio_.
Ramon Porfirio, although unprepared for such a manoeuvre, had alreadycleared for action. The moment he saw the game was up he gave theorder to open fire.
The _Malfilio's_ six-inchers crashed. Blinded by the glare of thesearchlights, the gun-layers, smart enough at their work whenshelling an unarmed merchantman, were frantic with the knowledge thatthey were up against a heavily-armed vessel. Most of the shells flewhigh, but one, exploding outside the shield of the _Armadale's_for'ard 9.2, played havoc with the fore-bridge, wounding two officersand a signalman, and carrying away part of the chart-room.
The _Armadale's_ reply was prompt and terrible. Every gun that couldbe brought to bear upon the pirate cruiser opened fire almost beforethe last echoes of the _Malfilio's_ salvo had died away.
With a blinding flash that outshone the glare of the searchlights themain magazine of the _Malfilio_ exploded. A dense cloud of smoke,like a silvery mist, hid the pirate cruiser from view; and when thelast of the far-flung fragments had fallen either into the sea orupon the _Armadale's_ deck, the shattered hull of the _Malfilio_ hadvanished, and with her went Ramon Porfirio and four hundred of thevilest sweepings of the South American and Eastern Asiatic ports.
The whole business was over almost before Burgoyne and his companionsrealized that an action was in progress. Within a few minutes fromthe time when the _Malfilio_ opened fire her disintegrated remainswere foundering to the bed of the Pacific.
For fifteen minutes the searchlights were kept playing upon the spotwhere the pirate cruiser had disappeared on the faint chance thatthere might be survivors. Civilization decrees that a pirate can behanged or shot, but he must not be allowed to die a lingering deathby drowning. But the search revealed no trace of any of the crew ofthe _Malfilio_.
"On bow and steaming lights! Wireless the rest of the squadron totake up pre-arranged positions off the secret base!"
Then at a modest fifteen knots, the _Armadale_, bearing evidences ofthe scratches she had received, steamed westward. One part of hermission was accomplished: the destruction of the hornet. Thereremained more work for her to do: to assist in the wiping out of thehornet's nest.