The Air Pirate
plying between them and the landing-stages.
Right in the centre was the splendid _Atlantis_, graceful as a swan, by
which Connie was to leave for the States in a few hours. She was
surrounded by a swarm of boats no bigger than water-beetles from where I
stood.
A bell rang, there was a rumbling sound, and from a tunnel just beneath
me the car, with Lashmar in it, shot down to the water like a stone
running down a house roof. As the car dwindled to a punt, a match-box,
and finally a postage stamp, I heard the creak and swish of the
semaphore behind me on the roof of the station. On the far side of the
sea-drome was our Patrol Ship No. 1, stream-line fusilage, with the
familiar red, white and blue line, snow-white planes, guns fore and
aft, and twin propellers of phosphor bronze winking white-hot in the
afternoon sun.
The semaphore was sighted in five seconds. I got a pair of glasses, and
saw that the engines were already "ticking over" as Lashmar jumped into
a launch and went over the pool, with a cream-white wake behind him and
two ostrich plumes of spray six feet high at the bows. He was on board
in less time than it takes to write it. I heard the faint throbbing of
the four high-compression engines change to the drone of a hornet. No. 1
Patrol slid over the water until her floats lifted--lifted until they
barely touched the surface, and she was clear. One clean spiral over
Pinklecombe way, and then, as she mounted, she turned and was off over
Rams Head like an arrow from a bow. Though I say it that shouldn't, my
officers and men of the A.P. were just about as good as they're made!
There was a good three-quarters of an hour to spare, and the Royal Hotel
was not four minutes away. After the recent excitements a cup of tea
with Connie seemed just the thing. As I legged it over the Hoe, I
realized that I might be very busy for some time, and, in consequence,
late for dinner. I must tell my girl that something of great importance
had happened, though, in any case, I was determined to see her off, come
what might.
Then I remembered something. As Chief Commissioner I had absolute
control over the airports of England in a time of crisis. In any case,
it would be as well to, close the sea-drome in preparation for the _May
Flower's_ arrival. I should then be certain that no one could possibly
get at Captain Pring before I could. And if I chose to detain even the
Royal Mail for half an hour later on in the evening--under the
circumstances!--no one would say me nay.
There is a telephone box in the hall of the Royal Hotel. In thirty
seconds my orders were given, and not a living soul would enter or leave
Plymouth sea-drome without my permission. Then I strolled into the
winter gardens, where I found Connie sitting at a little table among
tubs of azaleas and listening to the strains of a ladies' orchestra.
"I've half an hour and ten minutes exactly, darling," I said, putting my
watch on the table and helping her to early strawberries. "Tell me when
the time's up, and then I must rush away for an hour before we dine."
Straightway I forgot all about the _Albatros_, Captain Pring, and the
mysterious armed ship in mid-Atlantic.
Knowing what I know now, I wonder how I could have taken it so lightly,
even then. But grave and serious as the affair was, amazing, too, in
its boldness, an elaborate and unexpected masterpiece of crime, it
seemed remote and very far away, like something one reads of in a
foreign newspaper, never conceiving that it can have anything to do with
one's own _personal_ life.
If only I could have peeped but a little way into the future!
CHAPTER III
"COLD-BLOODED PIRACY IN THE HIGH AIR"
Pilot-commander Pring was a tall, lean, lantern-jawed officer, who,
though of English nationality, had spent most of his life in America.
His face was still pale and grim with passion and mortification as I
closed the door of my private room at the A.P. Station on him, Mr. Van
Adams, the multi-millionaire, and Mr. Rickaby, second officer of the
_Albatros_.
"Now, gentlemen, sit down, please," I said. "And I will ask Captain
Pring a few questions. Sir Joshua Johnson has given me the main facts,
but I want details. I won't detain you long, but I felt I ought to see
you before anyone else."
"Oh, quite!" said Mr. Van Adams, a fleshy man, with a watchful eye and a
jaw like a pike.
"This is an extraordinary affair, Captain Pring," I went on. "But, thank
goodness, you haven't lost your ship, or any lives. I know what you feel
about the _Albatros_."
"She is father, mother, brother, sister, hired girl and dog under the
waggon to me!" said Pring, and then he blazed up into fury. I
disentangle the few words I can. The majority were too overdressed for
respectable society.
"... His Majesty's Mails! First time in history of flying, and it's
happened to ME! Cold-blooded piracy in the High Air! They'd have blown
us to pieces as soon as look at us! When I get hold of that
slime-lapping leper, the pirate skipper, I won't leave him hide or hair
to cover the wart he calls his heart! ..." and so on, for a good two
minutes by the office chronometer.
I let him rip. It was the quickest way. It's dangerous to throttle down
a man like Pring.
"The Captain is, naturally, furious," I said.
"Oh, quite!" answered Mr. Van Adams.
Then we got to business. "The strange airship, Captain Pring. Let's
begin with that. She approached you flying _West_, I understand?"
"She did, Sir John. Does that put you wise to anything?"
"It would appear that she was coming from Europe. But that was probably
a trick. She might have been waiting about for hours."
"Curious thing, then, that all the ships in the air during the last
thirty hours that were within fifteen hundred miles of the American and
Canadian coast never saw anything of her. The Air Police of the U.S.A.
have questioned every registered boat, Transatlantic and coastal trade,
and not one of them sighted her. And, as you know, Sir John, from Cape
Race to Charleston in summer weather the air's as thick with craft as
gnats over a pond. Ain't that so, Mr. Van Adams, sir?"
"Quite, Captain Pring."
"I see your inference. Well, we'll leave that for a moment. I understand
that there were some peculiar features about this ship. What were they?"
"She's the fastest thing in the air, bar none. That I can swear to. A
pilot of my experience can't well be deceived, and if that ship--she's
one of the very few I've seen with four propellers--can't do two hundred
and forty miles an hour, _without a following wind, mind_, then I'm a
paretic!"
I whistled. Such speeds had been dreamed of but never known. "Nearly
three times hurricane velocity!" I said.
"She'd race the dawn, Sir John! and that's my honest belief. There's
never been such a flying boat before. And she don't carry a crew of more
than twelve or fifteen men, in my opinion. The rest's all engines and
petrol. She ain't more than twice the size of one of your patrol ships,
all over."
This was talking! Each moment the affair grew more tense and
interesting.
"That narrows our field of search no end," I remarked. "A boat like that
can't be built anywhere in the world without leaving traces."
"It colours the cat different, sure," said Captain Pring. "Now, here's
another point. Gum! I'm going to startle you some more, Sir John, but,
as God sees me, I'm speaking truth. Here's Mr. Rickaby here as'll swear
to all I say...."
He looked at the second officer, a good-looking, brown-faced lad. "It's
all gospel, Sir John," he broke in.
"Of course," I said impatiently, "I know you couldn't be mistaken,
Pring, and I won't insult you by thinking you'd pull a Chief
Commissioner's leg over an affair of this importance. What's number two?
Let's have it!"
"The man who runs her, or the man who built her, has solved another
problem. He's produced silent engines at last! That ship's motors don't
make more noise than a June bug! On a dark night she could pass within
two hundred yards of you, and you'd never guess that she was near."
From that moment I saw the thing in its true proportions. From that
moment the air became unsafe. A man-eating tiger let loose upon a quiet
country-side was not a tithe as dangerous.
The three other men saw that I understood.
"The scoundrels who came aboard the _Albatros_ and looted the ship.
What of them?"
"They were masked so's their mothers wouldn't, have known 'em. Armed to
the teeth, too. We'd have downed them quick enough, even at the cost of
a life or two, but there was the pirate with a four-inch gun trained on
us. And she meant business. I did right, Sir John?"
The poor fellow's voice shook, and his face was corrugated with anxiety.
"I should have done exactly the same myself under the circumstances,
Pring. Your first duty was to the women and children under your care.
That view, I am certain, will be accepted by the company and the
Government, to say nothing of the public, when it gets out. About these
men, again, did you judge them to be American or foreigners?"
"They didn't speak much, except, to give a few orders. But what they
_did_ say I heard, every word. I was with them all the time, and so was
Mr. Rickaby here. I'll spring another surprise on you, Sir John, and
then I've done. _Those chaps were English, every one of them._ And,
what's more, they weren't any plug-ugly crowd neither! They were
educated men of some social position, club men at some time or other, or
I'm a short sport!"
The second officer spoke. "Captain Pring is perfectly right, sir," he
said modestly. "I'll swear that they had been public school or 'Varsity
men at some time or other."
"Where were you?" I asked quickly.
"Harrow, sir."
I nodded. Here was another astounding fact for consideration when I was
alone.
"And then, after a time," Pring continued, "the _Sant Iago_ tramp
steamer freighter came up from way down South and rescued us. After that
we sighted the lights of Mr. Van Adams' air yacht, the _May Flower_, and
in answer to our signal he came down and took me and Rickaby aboard."
"Quite," said the laconic millionaire.
"To-night, Captain Pring, I shall want a long talk with you. Now I must
surrender you to Sir Joshua. For the present, I want you all three to
give me your words of honour that you will tell no one at all anything
about the appearance or speed of the ship, that her engines were silent,
or you suspect the ruffians on her to be English. That is most
important. In fact, I must make it an order, under the powers with which
I am invested by the Secretary of State. As an order, it cannot apply,
to you, Mr. Van Adams, but you have been so kind and helpful hitherto
that I feel sure you'll give me your promise? You must see how necessary
it is."
Mr. Van Adams was going to use his word-of-all-work, I saw it coming,
when he changed his mind.
"I'm on," he said instead.
The two pilots gave me their assurances, and we walked out of the office
together. As we went along the terrace Pring pointed down to the
sea-drome, where the millionaire's air yacht, a beautiful boat, painted
cream colour and black, was now resting at her moorings.
"The _Atlantis_ starts to-night," he said significantly.
"She will be escorted by an armed patrol," I said, "until she meets one
of the American A.P. ships in mid-ocean. Surely, you don't think there's
any danger?"
To tell the truth, I had been so concentrated upon the matter in hand
that I had hardly given a thought to the outgoing liner. Can you blame
me? Anyway, duty came before any private considerations. Now, Pring's
remark started a new set of thoughts. I looked at him with great
anxiety. He did not know the whole of my reason, but he saw that I was
disturbed.