The Air Pirate
"Not that you'll see much or get close," said Mr. Trewhella.
"How is that?" I asked.
"I told you that Mr. Helzephron"--apparently the hawk-faced man had
dropped his military title in Cornwall--"do make a mystery of his
peddling mine. He goes further than that. The mine buildings and the
house are surrounded by two fences of barbed-wire and the Manor by a
high wall. 'Trespassers,' notice boards belong to say, 'will be
prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law'!"
"Well, I shan't attempt to trespass, Mr. Trewhella!"
The landlord laughed. "Mine prospectin's not in the way of a larned
gentleman like yourself. Maybe it's as well. Mr. Helzephron has got two
dogs he turns out at night, and terrible ugly customers they be. Mr.
Vargus do tell me that they be Tibetan mastiffs, which am the largest
dogs in the world. They look like a sour-faced Newfoundland with heavy
ears, only bigger."
I tramped away from "The Miners' Arms." Although I recognized the fact
that we were only at the fringe of discovery, my mind was made up. Thick
darkness surrounded me, but I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt
that Major Helzephron, and no other, was the man for whom the whole
world was hunting.
And as I thought of him and the crew of lost and reckless men who did
his will, the fair landscape seemed to darken, the sweet airs to be
tainted....
The path I traversed was the coastguard's path, as I could see by the
white-washed boulders to serve as a guide by night. It was never more
than two or three yards away from the brink of the savage precipices
that fell for two hundred and fifty feet sheer to the water. The ocean
was on my left; on the right the great hill, known as Carne Zerran,
towered up, and the edge of the high moors cut the sky. On that side it
was as though one were walking at the bottom of a cup.
After about half a mile of the path, it suddenly left the cliff edge,
and turned inland. For several hundred yards the brink was guarded by a
semicircle of barbed-wire fence, which made it impossible to approach. A
notice board informed the wayfarer that here, owing to old mining
operations, the cliff was extremely dangerous.
It looked so, indeed. The edge was broken and irregular. I saw that it
ran out in a curious headland for a considerable way, a mere wall of
rock with a razor-back path on the top, which curved round again and ran
parallel to the cliff on which I was, making a mighty chasm from which
rose the cries of innumerable sea-birds. There was a narrow mouth
seawards, and another headland jutted out to make a cove like the one at
the inn, though that, of course, had no winding cañon at the end.
I crept up to the brink, where the wire fence began, and, lying down,
with one arm round the first post, peered over.
It was a terrible place. The rock overhung so for hundreds of yards that
I could not see the bottom. But the other side of the cañon was clear to
view, a great wall of black rock, where sea-hawks nested, and
inaccessible to the boldest climber. To the right the cove seemed to be
of fair size from horn to horn, but it was no tranquil spot like the one
at the back of the inn. Even on a calm day like the present, the
Atlantic ground swell poured in with tremendous force, and was broken
with ferocious whirlpools and spray-fountains by toothed rock-ledges a
foot or two below the surface. The smallest boat could not have entered
Tregeraint Cove and lived there for a moment.
For some reason or other the place affected me most unpleasantly, and
it was with a little shudder that I retreated and skirted the fence
which guarded the dangerous part of the cliff. When I had passed by
this, the path turned at right angles and went inland.
As I turned I saw, perhaps a furlong away, the house of Helzephron.
It lay upon the eastern slope of Carne Zerran, an ancient, grim-looking
house of granite, long, low, and of considerable size. A few stunted
trees grew round about, and a fairly extensive domain of gardens, as I
supposed, surrounded by a high wall. Using my prism glasses, I could see
that this wall was topped by iron spikes. Of course, I was considerably
below Tregeraint as on the sloping hill-side, and it lay quite open to
view. Higher up, and beyond the house, was the derrick, engine-house and
sheds of the mine, with here and there dumps of débris and various
sheds.
Although the wire fences, which I soon made out, went round the whole
property, it lay quite open to the view. And when I had passed it, and
climbed to the table-land of the moor beyond, I saw that it would be
even more open to the eyes--spread out like a map, in short.
One thing was already certain. There was nothing whatever in the nature
of a hangar, no building that could possibly shelter even an ordinary
four or five seater biplane, to say nothing of an air cruiser.
I was not disappointed, because I had hardly expected to meet with
anything of the kind. The pirate ship, you will remember, was--like all
the big long-distance airships--a cross between what used to be known in
the old days as the "seaplane" and the "flying-boat." True, some of our
war aeroplanes of quite large size were fitted with floats that could be
raised, and wheels for land work in addition.
This might be the case with the pirate. But it was not to be thought of
for a moment that a man of Helzephron's intelligence would dare to house
his extraordinary ship where any one of my police could have
investigated simply by showing his badge of office. The land policeman
and the coastguards of the whole English coastline had already reported
on every hangar and aerodrome in the kingdom. If Helzephron was the man
I believed him, I was well aware that we were only at the beginning of
the duel.
I mounted up past the wire fences and the mine. I did not dare to use my
glasses in passing, for I saw in the distance one or two figures of men
strolling about by the engine-house and derrick. But when I was at last
among the heather at the top, I lay down, and took a long survey of the
buildings, drawing a careful map in my pocket-book, which might prove
of great use later on.
I waited half an hour at the little station of St. Erth, and then caught
a train to Penzance, arriving at the hotel about tea-time. As I came
into the lounge, after a wash and brush up, I saw Danjuro sitting in one
corner. He had a pile of newspapers round him, and I saw that the London
journals had arrived.
He handed me one of them as I sat down. A paragraph among the police
news was marked in pencil.
Major Helzephron had been taken to Vine Street Police Station, and
locked up for the night, charged with an aggravated assault on Mr. Wag
Ashton at the Mille Colonnes Restaurant, on the evidence of M. Nicholas
and the head-waiter.
A medical man had attended the Court on behalf of the prosecutor, to say
that Mr. Ashton was too unwell to appear until the morrow. Upon his
promising to attend the Court the next day, Major Helzephron was
admitted to bail.
"That gives us nearly two clear days," said Danjuro. "When Ashton does
appear, he will not press the case, and will own that he gave
provocation; Helzephron will be fined, perhaps let off. I see that
Honourable Ashton battered him a good deal! And now, your news, Sir
John, if you please."
CHAPTER XI
"THE AIR WOLVES ARE HUNTING TO-NIGHT!"
He made no comment, and did not interrupt me until I had completely
finished, nor did his inscrutable face give any indication of what he
thought.
"My own investigations," he said, "can be told in a few words. The small
steamship which brings supplies to the cove behind the inn is the
private property of Helzephron, and she is a great deal faster and much
better engined than most people are aware. She lies at the little port
of Hayle, which is on the main line from Plymouth to Penzance, in St.
Ives Bay. At certain times _large quantities of petrol arrive in
separate consignments from different parts of the country_. The _Sea
Gull_ is loaded to her capacity, and then makes the short voyage to
Zerran Cove."
"That's the last link!" I said. "No one could doubt now!"
"There is another, still more interesting fact. Hayle was once a place
of much greater importance than it is at present. There were large
foundries and engineering works there in the past. These have been
abandoned, owing to the silting up of the harbour, for many years, as
only vessels of small draught can enter easily to-day. But the foundry
buildings remain. From time to time a portion of them has been let for
this or that small enterprise. Three years ago Helzephron rented a part
of the works and installed machinery. He had about twenty labourers, but
the real work, whatever it was, took place in a large experimental shed,
to which no one was admitted but he and his friends. They were already
at Zerran, and used to drive over in motors every day. It was locally
known that some new machinery for Wheal Tregeraint was being made. Many
shippings took place from Hayle to Zerran Cove."
"But the ship, the Pirate Ship itself?"
"Who can tell? We go step by step in the dark. Many theories have
crossed my mind. I have dismissed them all. I want to approach this, the
most sinister problem of all, with a blank mind. We can do nothing till
we are on the spot. Our preliminary work is over, but the real labour
begins."
"A sinister problem enough," I answered bitterly. "But not the most
trouble to me. I tell you, Danjuro, that as I lay among the heather and
looked down upon that lonely house, as I thought of the devilish crew
that live there, for a moment my heart turned to water, and the agony
was more than I could endure. _She_ may be there, at this moment,
defenceless and in the power ..."
I could not go on. I covered my face with my hands, and was nearer
breaking down than ever before. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "It
has never left my mind, either. Do not give way, for the moment of
action has come. We go to the inn at Zerran to-night--within the hour."
"To-night!"
"Yes. We cannot afford to waste a moment. Helzephron is kept in London.
One great danger is removed from our path. We shall never have a better
opportunity than now. In dealing with enemies such as ours, we must
strike quickly and strongly when they think themselves most secure.
Before dawn we must have penetrated the inmost secrets of Tregeraint."
I had by now grown accustomed to regard Danjuro as the leader of our
enterprise. His decision was like cool water to a man dying of thirst in
a desert. I stood up, absolutely myself. "There is, of course, no reason
why we should not install ourselves at Zerran to-night instead of
to-morrow morning. Trewhella won't mind," I said.
"I will order the car in an hour. Meanwhile, I have one or two things to
do. Perhaps you will settle the hotel bill, Sir John, and tell the
people that we are leaving?..."
It was a stiflingly hot night as the car climbed up to the moors, and in
the glare of our headlights the gorse and heather by the roadside
streamed swiftly like some golden cinema, leaving a more sable dark
before and behind them. Danjuro, by my side, was lost in thought. The
massive head hung upon his chest. About half-way on our journey he said
a curious thing. "This would be an ideal night for another raid in the
air-lanes of the Atlantic."
I did not answer, for I, also, was thinking deeply. So it was for
to-night! We crossed swords, fired the first shot, what you will, with
our cunning enemy in a few hours. What would they bring forth?
I felt no fear, only a deep resolution not to fail in rescue and the
execution of Justice. I was happier than I had been for days, for it is
thought that turns the bones to pith and thins the blood, not action.