CHAPTER XXVIII
The Explosion
The instinct of self-preservation, coupled with the fact that he yethad a faint chance of escape, rallied the semi-torpid Swainesufficiently to enable him to take action.
He dropped the knife and groped for the release-valve of thecompressed-air reservoir. Half a turn, and he felt the buoyant airrushing into the double folds of his diving-suit. Even as he realizedthat he was parting company with the bottom of the lagoon he foundhimself looking at his late antagonist, who was writhing in agony,with a ruddy stream mixed with air-bubbles rising from the clean-cutstump of his severed arm.
Not knowing why he did so, whether it was the irresponsible act of alight-headed man, the sudden impulse of an overstrung brain, orgenerous pity for a beaten foe, Swaine gripped the fellow by the arm,at the same time turning the release-valve of his buoyancy-flask fullon.
Up he shot to the full extent of arm's length and no farther. Thelifting powers of the inflated diving-dress were sufficient only forone. Weighed down by his former antagonist, Swaine saw no chance ofbringing the latter to the surface, until an inspiration seized him.Having once set his hand to the plough, he was loth to turn backuntil his task was completed.
The unknown's knife was at that moment seriously incommoding a shark;his own had dropped, but he remembered it was attached by a lanyardto his belt. He recovered it; then, still retaining his hold of theother diver, he pulled himself down until he was able to slash thelashings that secured the leaden weights to the fellow's chest andshoulders.
Then, and then only, did both men rise to the surface, Swainehorizontally, the other vertically owing to the fact that his feetwere still weighted with lumps of lead.
For the next hour, as far as Swaine was concerned, everything was ablank.
He recovered consciousness to find himself lying on a mattress on thedeck of the _Titania_.
"How's the other bloke?" were his first words.
"The other bloke," replied Villiers, "is progressing favourably inthe circumstances."
As a matter of fact, although the fellow's identity was revealeddirectly his helmet was removed, none of the others knew that alife-and-death duel was in progress when the shark butted in soopportunely. They were greatly surprised to find Swaine bob upunconscious from the bottom, still grasping the apparently lifelessform of his late antagonist--Siegfried Strauss.
While Villiers and Beverley set to work to restore their comrade toconsciousness, Harborough, O'Loghlin, and Trevear did a like officefor the German. They were puzzled as to the cause of the loss of theman's hand, for the amputation had been performed as cleanly as if bya knife, while the pressure of his rubber wrist-band had checked whatwould have been a dangerous haemorrhage. Applying a tourniquet beforecutting away the diving-dress, the three amateur surgeons felt thatthey had succeeded in saving the German's life unless he sank underthe effect of shock to the system.
Although curious to hear Swaine's version of the business, hiscomrades wisely forbore to question him until he had completelyrecovered from his narrow escape. Meanwhile they were putting forwardnumerous conjectures as to the reason for Strauss' submarine jaunt.
"Where could he have come from?" asked Beverley. "The _Zug_ isn'tanywhere in sight."
"Unless she's off the other side of the island," added Villiers."Even then he must have started from a much nearer base. We'll haveto investigate."
"Why did he?" persisted Beverley. "That's what I want to know."
He received his answer in no uncertain way.
A tremendous roar rent the sky, followed by a rush of air and thenoise of cascades of water falling into the sea. Over the spot wherelay the wreck of the _Fusi Yama_ the usually placid surface of thelagoon was lashed into a wide cauldron of leaping, hissing foam.
"Fritz again--the dirty dog!" exclaimed Harborough, when thereverberations of the detonation had subsided. "It might have beenworse if we had been working on the boat."
Where the two boats, joined by a platform, had been, was a patch ofdiscoloured water, on which shattered fragments of timber werebobbing in the strong sunlight. Had the working-party not ceased workto convey the rival divers to the yacht, no one would have escapedthe force of the explosion.
"This is not the work of one man," declared Villiers. "Let's getashore."
The suggestion was promptly acted upon, and on gaining the beachHarborough and his companions were greeted by the spectacle of DickBeverley and Pete, armed with rifles, driving before them a couple ofthe _Zug's_ crew, who marched with arms upheld in the goodold-fashioned way they were taught in the Great War.
"Pete and I had been after pigs," explained Dick. "We were on our wayback when we saw two strange men lying face downwards on the cliff,apparently watching the _Titania_. Of course, we couldn't do anythingthen, except watch them, because the land isn't our private property,but when that explosion went off and they began laughing and shakinghands we thought it time to have a say in the matter. We did," headded grimly, "and they came quietly."
The prisoners, finding that they were not beaten, kicked, orotherwise misused by their captors after the custom of certain Germanofficers in charge of prison-camps during the war, became fairlycommunicative.
Four men, under the command of Siegfried Strauss, had left Ni Telangin one of the _Zug's_ boats, and landed on Nua Leha close to the spotwhere Dick had met with a mishap during his first pig-huntingexpedition.
Leaving one man in charge of the boat, Strauss and the other three,carrying explosives, an electric automatic time-fuse, and two divers'suits, crossed the island, keeping under the shelter of the palmgroves until they reached the cove where the two sea-planes had beenberthed.
While two of the men kept watch, Siegfried and a companion donnedtheir diving-dresses and walked into the sea.
What happened could only be left to conjecture, unless Strauss at alater date thought fit to explain his movements. Apparently theyfound the wreck and placed their explosive charges in position. Uponthe return journey they became separated. His course deflected by thecurrent, Strauss found himself confronted by Swaine, the former'sastonishment being almost as great as the latter's. Of the fate ofthe other Hun diver nothing was ever known. He might have been eatenby a shark, or he might have lost direction and been killed by theshock of the explosion, or else, which was more likely, he wasasphyxiated owing to the failure of his air-supply.
That afternoon Merridew, O'Loghlin, Griffiths, and Bell, all armed,proceeded to the place where the _Zug's_ boat lay. They made an easycapture of the last member of the submarine raiding-party, and, whatwas a welcome prize, the boat as well--a stoutly-built 25-feetcutter.
They returned to the camp in the boat, following the shore inside thereef, and the three prisoners were placed under lock and key in oneof the _Titania's_ cabins, the crew taking turns to keep watchoutside the door to prevent any attempt to escape.
Next morning Villiers volunteered to descend to the wreck andascertain the state of the hull after the explosion. Since theguide-rope had been severed, the captured boat was pressed intoservice and moored as close as possible, going by cross-bearings, tothe spot where the lighting-plant had been stationed. Since thelatter had been destroyed, Villiers had to rely upon his portableelectric lamp.
The depth to which he descended before his feet touched the bottomsurprised him. It was greater than he had previously worked in, andno natural light penetrated the dark waters. At first he fancied hewas in a submarine forest. Gaunt ribs, distorted in the rays of thelamp, reared themselves on either hand. Closer examination showedthat they were not metal but timber, badly eaten by worms, andthickly encrusted with barnacles.
His foot catching in some obstacle caused him to throw the light ofthe lamp upon the ground.
He was standing on a bed of coral on which lay dark shapes inhundreds, like a cart load of bricks dumped on the ground.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed to himself. "I've come to the wrong shop.This must be the wooden hulk Swaine spoke about
. She must have hadlead pigs for ballast. Even that lot's worth a fortune at thepresent-day price for lead."
Hardly knowing why he did so, Villiers lashed one of the pigs ofballast to his shot-rope, then, paying out his distance-line as hewent, he made for his real objective--the wreck of the _Fusi Yama_.
When that vessel's bilge loomed through the water, Villiers foundthat he was close to the starboard bow. Much of the steelwork hadbeen stripped of its thick covering of weed and barnacles by theforce of the explosion, but of actual damage done to the hull therewas none.
By a rare slice of good luck, as far as Harborough and his companionswere concerned, Strauss had miscalculated the distance and directionof the wreck of the _Fusi Yama_ from shore, and had deposited theexplosive charges against the side of the old wooden wreck in thebelief that it was the other. The remainder of the gold was stillintact. Von Giespert had shot his last bolt, and the missile had gonewide of the mark.