Danger! and Other Stories | Page 4

torpedoes as explained and five hundred rounds for the collapsible
quick-firing twelve- pounder which we carried on deck, and which, of
course, disappeared into a water-tight tank when we were submerged.
We carried spare periscopes and a wireless mast, which could be
elevated above the conning-tower when necessary. There were
provisions for sixteen days for the ten men who manned each craft.

Such was the equipment of the four boats which were destined to bring
to naught all the navies and armies of Britain. At sundown that day--it
was April 10th--we set forth upon our historic voyage.
Miriam had got away in the afternoon, since he had so much farther to
go to reach his station. Stephan, of the Kappa, started with me; but, of
course, we realized that we must work independently, and that from
that moment when we shut the sliding hatches of our conning-towers
on the still waters of Blankenberg Harbour it was unlikely that we
should ever see each other again, though consorts in the same waters. I
waved to Stephan from the side of my conning-tower, and he to me.
Then I called through the tube to my engineer (our water-tanks were
already filled and all kingstons and vents closed) to put her full speed
ahead.
Just as we came abreast of the end of the pier and saw the white-capped
waves rolling in upon us, I put the horizontal rudder hard down and she
slid under water. Through my glass portholes I saw its light green
change to a dark blue, while the manometer in front of me indicated
twenty feet. I let her go to forty, because I should then be under the
warships of the English, though I took the chance of fouling the
moorings of our own floating contact mines. Then I brought her on an
even keel, and it was music to my ear to hear the gentle, even ticking of
my electric engines and to know that I was speeding at twelve miles an
hour on my great task.
At that moment, as I stood controlling my levers in my tower, I could
have seen, had my cupola been of glass, the vast shadows of the British
blockaders hovering above me. I held my course due westward for
ninety minutes, and then, by shutting off the electric engine without
blowing out the water-tanks, I brought her to the surface. There was a
rolling sea and the wind was freshening, so I did not think it safe to
keep my hatch open long, for so small is the margin of buoyancy that
one must run no risks. But from the crests of the rollers I had a look
backwards at Blankenberg, and saw the black funnels and upper works
of the enemy's fleet with the lighthouse and the castle behind them, all
flushed with the pink glow of the setting sun. Even as I looked there

was the boom of a great gun, and then another. I glanced at my watch.
It was six o'clock. The time of the ultimatum had expired. We were at
war.
There was no craft near us, and our surface speed is nearly twice that of
our submerged, so I blew out the tanks and our whale-back came over
the surface. All night we were steering south-west, making an average
of eighteen knots. At about five in the morning, as I stood alone upon
my tiny bridge, I saw, low down in the west, the scattered lights of the
Norfolk coast. "Ah, Johnny, Johnny Bull," I said, as I looked at them,
"you are going to have your lesson, and I am to be your master. It is I
who have been chosen to teach you that one cannot live under artificial
conditions and yet act as if they were natural ones. More foresight,
Johnny, and less party politics--that is my lesson to you." And then I
had a wave of pity, too, when I thought of those vast droves of helpless
people, Yorkshire miners, Lancashire spinners, Birmingham
metal-workers, the dockers and workers of London, over whose little
homes I would bring the shadow of starvation. I seemed to see all those
wasted eager hands held out for food, and I, John Sirius, dashing it
aside. Ah, well! war is war, and if one is foolish one must pay the price.
Just before daybreak I saw the lights of a considerable town, which
must have been Yarmouth, bearing about ten miles west-south-west on
our starboard bow. I took her farther out, for it is a sandy, dangerous
coast, with many shoals. At five-thirty we were abreast of the
Lowestoft lightship. A coastguard was sending up flash signals which
faded into a pale twinkle as the white dawn crept over the water. There
was a good deal of