IX
The Imperial German Commissioner for War, General Hans von Helmuth, wasa man of extraordinary decision and farsightedness. Sixty years of age,he had been a member of the general staff since he was forty. He had satat the feet of Bismarck and Von Moltke, and during his activeparticipation in the management of German military affairs he had seenbut slight changes in their policy: Mass--overwhelming mass; suddenmomentous onslaught, and, above all, an attack so quick that youradversary could not regain his feet. It worked nine times out of ten,and when it didn't it was usually better than taking the defensive.General von Helmuth having an approved system was to that extentrelieved of anxiety, for all he had to do was to work out details. Inthis his highly efficient organization was almost automatic. He himselfwas a human compendium of knowledge, and he had but to press a buttonand emit a few gutturals and any information that he wanted laytypewritten before him. Now he sat in his office smoking a Bremen cigarand studying a huge Mercatorial projection of the Atlantic and adjacentcountries, while with the fingers of his left hand he combed his heavybeard.
From the window he looked down upon the inner fortifications ofMainz--to which city the capital had been removed three monthsbefore--and upon the landing stage for the scouting planes which wereconstantly arriving or whirring off toward Holland or Strassburg. Acrossthe river, under the concealed guns of a sunken battery, stood the hugehangars of the now useless dirigibles Z^{51~57}. The landing stagecommunicated directly by telephone with the adjutant's office, anenormous hall filled with maps, with which Von Helmuth's private roomwas connected. The adjutant himself, a worried-looking man with a bullethead and an iron-gray moustache, stood at a table in the centre of thehall addressing rapid-fire sentences to various persons who appeared inthe doorway, saluted, and hurried off again. Several groups weregathered about the table and the adjutant carried on an interruptedconversation with all of them, pausing to read the telegrams andmessages that shot out of the pneumatic tubes upon the table from thetelegraph and telephone office on the floor below.
An elderly man in rather shabby clothes entered, looking abouthelplessly through the thick lenses of his double spectacles, and theadjutant turned at once from the officers about him with an "Excuse me,gentlemen."
"Good afternoon, Professor von Schwenitz; the general is waiting foryou," said he. "This way, please."
He stalked across to the door of the inner office.
"Professor von Schwenitz is here," he announced, and immediatelyreturned to take up the thread of his conversation in the centre of thehall.
The general turned gruffly to greet his visitor. "I have sent for you,Professor," said he, without removing his cigar, "in order that I mayfully understand the method by which you say you have ascertained theplace of origin of the wireless messages and electrical disturbancesreferred to in our communications of last week. This may be a seriousmatter. The accuracy of your information is of vital importance."
The professor hesitated in embarrassment, and the general scowled.
"Well?" he demanded, biting off the chewed end of his cigar. "Well? Thisis not a lecture room. Time is short. Out with it."
"Your Excellency!" stammered the poor professor, "I--I----Theobservations are so--inadequate--one cannot determine----"
"What?" roared Von Helmuth. "But you said you _had_!"
"Only approximately, your Excellency. One cannot be positive, but withina reasonable distance----" He paused.
"What do you call a reasonable distance? I supposed your physics was anexact science!" retorted the general.
"But the data----"
"What do you call a reasonable distance?" bellowed the ImperialCommissioner.
"A hundred kilometres!" suddenly shouted the overwrought professor,losing control of himself. "I won't be talked to this way, do you hear?I won't! How can a man think? I'm a member of the faculty of theImperial University. I've been decorated twice--twice!"
"Fiddlesticks!" returned the general, amused in spite of himself. "Don'tbe absurd. I merely wish you to hurry. Have a cigar?"
"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, now both ashamed andfrightened. "You must excuse me. The war has shattered my nerves. May Ismoke? Thank you."
"Sit down. Take your time," said Von Helmuth, looking out and up at amonoplane descending toward the landing in slowly lessening spirals.
"You see, your Excellency," explained Von Schwenitz, "the data arefragmentary, but I used three methods, each checking the others."
"The first?" shot back the general. The monoplane had landed safely.
"I compared the records of all the seismographs that had registered theearthquake wave attendant on the electrical discharges accompanying thegreat yellow auroras of July. These shocks had been felt all over theglobe, and I secured reports from Java, New Guinea, Lima, Tucson,Greenwich, Algeria, and Moscow. These showed the wave had originatedsomewhere in Eastern Labrador."
"Yes, yes. Go on!" ordered the general.
"In the second place, the violent magnetic storms produced by the heliumaurora appear to have left their mark each time upon the earth in apermanent, if slight, deflection of the compass needle. The earth'snormal magnetic field seems to have had superimposed upon it a new fieldcomprised of lines of force nearly parallel to the equator. Mycomputations show that these great circles of magnetism centre atapproximately the same point in Labrador as that indicated by theseismographs--about fifty-five degrees north and seventy-five degreeswest."
The general seemed struck with this.
"Permanent deflection, you say!" he ejaculated.
"Yes, apparently permanent. Finally the barometer records told the samestory, although in less precise form. A compressional wave of air hadbeen started in the far north and had spread out over the earth with thevelocity of sound. Though the barographs themselves gave no indicationwhence this wave had come, the variation in its intensity at differentmeteorological observatories could be accounted for by the law ofinverse squares on the supposition that the explosion which started thewave had occurred at fifty-five degrees north, seventy-five degreeswest."
The professor paused and wiped his glasses. With a roar a Taube slid offthe landing stage, shot over toward the hangars, and soared upward.
"Is that all?" inquired the general, turning again to the chart.
"That is all, your Excellency," answered Von Schwenitz.
"Then you may go!" muttered the Imperial Commissioner. "If we find thesource of these disturbances where you predict you will receive theBlack Eagle."
"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, his face shining withsatisfaction.
"And if we do _not_ find it--there will be a vacancy on the faculty ofthe Imperial University!" he added grimly. "Good afternoon."
He pressed a button and the departing scholar was met by an orderly andescorted from the War Bureau, while the adjutant joined Von Helmuth.
"He's got him! I'm satisfied!" remarked the Commissioner. "Now outlineyour plan."
The bullet-headed man took up the calipers and indicated a spot on thecoast of Labrador:
"Our expedition will land, subject to your approval, at Hamilton Inlet,using the town of Rigolet as a base. By availing ourselves of theNascopee River and the lakes through which it flows, we can easilypenetrate to the highland where the inventor of the Ring machine haslocated himself. The auxiliary brigantine _Sea Fox_ is lying now underAmerican colours at Amsterdam, and as she can steam fifteen knots anhour she should reach the Inlet in about ten days, passing to the northof the Orkneys."
"What force have you in mind?" inquired Von Helmuth, his cold gray eyesnarrowing.
"Three full companies of sappers and miners, ten mountain howitzers, afield battery, fifty rapid-fire standing rifles, and a complete outfitfor throwing lyddite. Of course we shall rely principally on highexplosives if it becomes necessary to use force, but what we want is ahostage who may later become an ally."
"Yes, of course," said the general with a laugh. "This is a scien
tific,not a military, expedition."
"I have asked Lieutenant Muenster to report upon the necessaryequipment."
Von Helmuth nodded, and the adjutant stepped to the door and called out:"Lieutenant Muenster!"
A trim young man in naval uniform appeared upon the threshold andsaluted.
"State what you regard as necessary as equipment for the proposedexpedition," said the general.
"Twenty motor boats, each capable of towing several flat-bottomed bargesor native canoes, forty mules, a field telegraph, and also ahigh-powered wireless apparatus, axes, spades, wire cables and drums,windlasses, dynamite for blasting, and provisions for sixty days. Weshall live off the country and secure artisans and bearers from amongthe natives."
"When will it be possible to start?" inquired the general.
"In twelve days if you give the order now," answered the young man.
"Very well, you may go. And good luck to you!" he added.
The young lieutenant saluted and turned abruptly on his heel.
Over the parade ground a biplane was hovering, darting this way andthat, rising and falling with startling velocity.
"Who's that?" inquired the general approvingly.
"Schoeningen," answered the adjutant.
The Imperial Commissioner felt in his breast-pocket for another cigar.
"Do you know, Ludwig," he remarked amiably as he struck a meditativematch, "sometimes I more than half believe this 'Flying Ring' businessis all rot!"
The adjutant looked pained.
"And yet," continued Von Helmuth, "if Bismarck could see one of thosethings," he waved his cigar toward the gyrating aeroplane, "he wouldn'tbelieve it."