CHAPTER III
SEEN UNDER THE MOON
It was a few minutes after four bells on a grey morning in November 1909that Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, in command of his Majesty'sFishery Cruiser, the _Cormorant_, got up on to the navigating bridge,and, as usual, took a general squint about him, and buttoned the topbutton of his oil-skin coat.
The _Cormorant_ was just a few yards inside the three-mile limit onFlamborough Head, and, officially, she was looking for trespassers, whoeither did not fly the British flag, or flew it fraudulently. There wereplenty of foreign poachers on the rich fishing grounds to the north andeast away to the Dogger, and there were also plenty of floating grogshops from Bremen and Hamburg, and Rotterdam and Flushing, and a goodmany other places, loaded up to their decks with liquor, whose missionwas not only to sell their poison at about four hundred per cent. profitto the British fishers on the Dogger, but also to persuade them, at aprice, to smuggle more of the said poison into the British Islands to bemade into Scotch and Irish whisky, brandy, Hollands, gin, rum, and evengreen and yellow Chartreuse, or any other alcoholic potion which simplywanted the help of the chemist to transform potato and beet spirit intoanything that would taste like what it was called.
"Beast of a morning, Castellan," he said to his first officer, whom hewas relieving, "dirty sea, dirty sky, and not a thing to be seen. Youdon't have worse weather than this even off Connemara, do you?"
"No," said Castellan, "and I've seen better; but look you, there's thesky clearing to the east; yes, and there's Venus, herald of the sun:and faith, she's bright, too, like a little moon, now isn't she? Isuppose it'll be a bit too early for Norah to be looking at her, won'tit?"
"Don't talk rot, man," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. "I hope yoursister hasn't finished her beauty sleep by this time."
The clouds parted still wider, making a great gap of blue-grey sky tothe eastward, as the westward bank drifted downward. The moon sent asudden flood of white light over their heads, which silvered the edgesof the clouds, and then turned the leaden waters into silver as it haddone to the grey of the cloud.
"She'd wake fast enough if she had a nightmare or a morning mare, orsomething of that sort, and could see a thing like that," exclaimedCastellan, gripping the Lieutenant-Commander by the shoulder with hisright hand, and pointing to the east with his left. "Look, man, look! Byall the Holy Powers, what is it? See there! Thanks for the blessedmoonlight that has shown it to us, for I'm thinking it doesn't mean anygood to old England or Ireland."
Erskine was an Englishman, and a naval officer at that, and thereforehis reply consisted of only a few words hardly fitted for publication.The last words were, "What is it?"
"What is it?" said Castellan with a stamp of his feet on the bridge,"what is it? Now wouldn't I like to know just as well as you would, anddon't you think the Lords of the British Admiralty would like to know alot better? But there's one thing I think I can tell you, it's one ofthose new inventions that the British Admiralty never buy, and let go toother countries, and what's more, as you've seen with your eyes, as Ihave with mine, it came out of the water on the edge of that moon-litpiece, it flew across it, it sighted us, I suppose, it found it had madea mistake, and it went down again. Now what do you make of that?"
"Combination of submarine and airship it looks like," said Erskine,seriously, "and if that doesn't belong to us, it's going to be fairlydangerous. Good Lord! a thing like that might do anything with a fleet,and whatever Power owns it may just as well have a hundred as one. Lookhere, Castellan, I'm going straight into Scarborough. This is a lot moreimportant than the Dogger Fleet. There's the _Seagull_ at Hull. She canrelieve us, and Franklin can take this old coffee-grinder round. You andI are going to London as soon as we can get there. Take the latitude,longitude, and exact time, and also the evidence of the watch if any oneof them saw it."
"You think it's as serious as that?"
"Certainly. It's one of two things. Either that thing belongs to us orit belongs to a possible enemy. The Fleet, even to a humble fisherycruiser, means the eyes and ears of the British Empire. If that belongsto the Admiralty, well and good; we shall get censured for leaving theship; that's the risk we take. If it doesn't, the Naval Board maypossibly have the civility to thank us for telling them about it; but ineither case we are going to do our duty. Send Franklin up to the bridge,make the course for Scarborough, get the evidence of any of the watchwho saw what we have seen, and I'll go and make the report. Then you cancountersign it, and the men can make theirs. I think that's the best wecan do."
"I think so, sir," said the Lieutenant, saluting.
The Lieutenant-Commander walked from port to starboard and starboard toport thinking pretty hard until the navigating lieutenant came to takecharge of the bridge. Of submarines he knew a good deal. He knew thatthe British navy possessed the very best type of this craft whichnavigated the under-waters. He had also, of course, read the aerialexperiments which had been made by inventors of what the newspaperscalled airships, and which he, with his hard naval common-sense, calledgas-bags with motor engines slung under them. He knew the deadlypossibilities of the submarine; the flying gas-bag he looked upon as gasand not much more. The real flying machine he had considered up till afew moments ago as a dream of the future; but a combination of submarineand flying ship such as he and Castellan, if they had not both beendrunk or dreaming, had seen a few moments ago, was quite another matter.The possibilities of a thing like that were absolutely limitless,limitless for good or evil, and if it did belong to a possible enemy ofBritain, there was only one conclusion to be arrived at--The IsleInviolate would be inviolate no more.
Lieutenant Franklin came on to the bridge and saluted; he returned thesalute, gave the orders for changing the course, and went down to hiscabin, muttering:
"Good Lord, if that's only so. Why, half a dozen things like that couldfight a fleet, then go on gaily to tackle the forts. I wonder whether myLords of the Naval Council will see me to-morrow, and believe me if theydo see me."
By great good luck it happened that the Commander of the North-easternDistrict had come up from Hull to Scarborough for a few days' holiday.When he saw the _Cormorant_ steam into the bay, he very naturally wantedto know what was the matter, and so he went down to the pier-head, andmet the _Cormorant's_ cutter. As Erskine came up the steps he recognisedhim and saluted.
"Good-morning, sir."
"Good-morning, Erskine. What's the matter? You're a little off yourground, aren't you? Of course, there must be a reason for it. Anythingserious?" replied the District Commander, as he held out his hand. "Ah,good morning, Castellan. So you've both come ashore. Well, now, what isit?"
Erskine took a rapid glance round at the promenaders who were comingdown to have a look at the cruiser, and said in a low tone:
"Yes, sir. I am afraid it is rather serious; but it is hardly the sortof thing one could discuss here. In fact, I was taking theresponsibility of going straight to London with Castellan, to present areport which we have drawn up to the Board of Admiralty."
The District Commander's iron-grey eyebrows lifted for the fraction of aminute, and he said:
"H'm. Well, Erskine, I know you're not the sort of man to do that sortof thing without pretty good reason. Come up to the hotel, both of you,and let us go into it."
"Thank you, sir," replied Erskine. "It is really quite fortunate that wemet you here, because I think when you've seen the report you will feeljustified in giving us formal leave instead of French leave."
"I hope so," he replied, somewhat grimly, for a rule of the Service hadbeen broken all to pieces, and his own sense of discipline was sorelyoutraged by the knowledge that two responsible officers had left theirship with the intention of going to London without leave.
But when he had locked the door of his sitting-room at the hotel, andheard the amazing story which Erskine and Castellan had to tell, and hadread their report, and the evidence of the men who had also seen thestrange apparition which had leapt
from the sea into the air, and thenreturned to the waters, he put in a few moments of silent thinking, andthen he looked up, and said gravely:
"Well, gentlemen, I know that British naval officers and British seamendon't see things that are not there, as the Russians did a few years agoon the Dogger Bank. I am of course bound to believe you, and I thinkthey will do the same in London. You have taken a very irregular course;but a man who is not prepared to do that at a pinch seldom does anythingelse. I have seen and heard enough to convince me for the present; andso I shall have great pleasure, in fact I shall only be doing my duty,in giving you both leave for a week.
"I will order the _Seagull_ up from Hull, she's about ready, and I thinkI can put an Acting-Commander on board the _Cormorant_ for the present.Now, you will just have time for an early lunch with me, and catch the1.17, which will get you to town at 5.15, and you will probably findsomebody at the Admiralty then, because I know they're working overtime.Anyhow, if you don't find Sir John Fisher there, I should go straight tohis house, if I were you; and even if you don't see him, you'll be ableto get an early appointment for to-morrow."
"That was a pretty good slice of luck meeting the noble Crocker, wasn'tit?" said Castellan, as the train began to move out of the station,about three hours later. They had reserved a compartment in the corridorexpress, and were able to talk State secrets at their ease.
"We're inside the law now, at any rate."
"Law or no law, it was good enough to risk a court-martial for," saidErskine, biting off the end of a cigar. "There's no doubt about theexistence of the thing, and if it doesn't belong to us, which is a factthat only my Lords of the Naval Council can know, it simply means, asyou must see for yourself, that the invasion of England, which has beena naval and military impossibility for the last seven hundred years orso, will not only become possible but comparatively easy. There'snothing upon the waters or under them that could stand against a thinglike that."
"Oh, you're right enough there," said Castellan, speaking with his softWest of Ireland brogue. "There's no doubt of that, and it's the verydevil. A dozen of those things would play havoc with a whole fleet, andwhen the fleet's gone, or even badly hurt, what's to stop our goodfriends over yonder landing two or three million men just anywhere theychoose, and doing pretty well what they like afterwards? By the Saints,that would be a horrible thing. We've nothing on land that could standagainst them, though, of course, the boys would stand till they felldown; but fall they would."
"Yes," said Erskine, seriously. "It wouldn't exactly be a walk over forthem, but I'm afraid there couldn't be very much doubt at the end, ifthe fleet once went."
"I'm afraid not," replied Castellan, "and we can only hope that ourLords of the Council will be of the same opinion, or, better still,that the infernal thing we saw belongs to us."
"I hope so," said Erskine, gravely. "If it doesn't--well, I wouldn'tgive half-a-crown for the biggest battleship in the British Navy."