The World Peril of 1910
Page 2
CHAPTER I
A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT
On the first day of July, 1908, a scene which was destined to becomehistoric took place in the great Lecture Theatre in the Imperial Collegeat Potsdam. It was just a year and a few days after the swimming racebetween John Castellan and the Englishman in Clifden Bay.
There were four people present. The doors were locked and guarded by twosentries outside. The German Emperor, Count Herold von Steinitz,Chancellor of the Empire, Field-Marshal Count Friedrich von Moltke,grandson of the great Organiser of Victory, and John Castellan, werestanding round a great glass tank, twenty-five feet long, and fifteenbroad, supported on a series of trestles. The tank was filled with waterup to within about six inches of the upper edge. The depth was ten feet.A dozen models of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft were floatingon the surface of the water. Five feet under the surface, a grey,fish-shaped craft with tail and fins, almost exactly resembling those ofa flying fish, was darting about, now jumping forward like a catpouncing on a bird, now drawing back, and then suddenly coming to astandstill. Another moment, it sank to the bottom, and lay there as ifit had been a wreck. The next it darted up to the surface, cruised aboutin swift curves, turning in and out about the models, but touching none.
Every now and then John Castellan went to a little table in the cornerof the room, on which there was a machine something like a typewriter,and touched two or three of the keys. There was no visible connectionbetween them--the machine and the tank--but the little grey shape inthe water responded instantly to the touch of every key.
"That, I hope, will be enough to prove to your Majesty that as submarinethe _Flying Fish_ is quite under control. Of course the real _FlyingFish_ will be controlled inside, not from outside."
"There is no doubt about the control," said the Kaiser. "It ismarvellous, and I think the Chancellor and the Field Marshal will agreewith me in that."
"Wonderful," said the Chancellor.
"A miracle," said the Field Marshal, "if it can only be realised."
"There is no doubt about that, gentlemen," said Castellan, going back tothe machine. "Which of the models would your Majesty like to seedestroyed first?"
The Kaiser pointed to the model of a battleship which was a very goodimitation of one of the most up-to-date British battleships.
"We will take that one first," he said.
Castellan smiled, and began to play the keys. The grey shape of the_Flying Fish_ dropped to the bottom of the tank, rose, and seemed all atonce to become endowed with human reason, or a likeness of it, which wasso horrible that even the Kaiser and his two chiefs could hardly repressa shudder. It rose very slowly, circled among the floating models abouttwo feet under the surface and then, like an animal smelling out itsprey, it made a dart at the ship which the Kaiser had indicated, andstruck it from underneath. They saw a green flash stream through thewater, and the next moment the model had crumbled to pieces and sank.
"Donner-Wetter!" exclaimed the Chancellor, forgetting in his wonder thathe was in the presence of His Majesty, "that is wonderful, horrible!"
"Can there be anything too horrible for the enemies of the Fatherland,Herr Kanztler," said the Kaiser, looking across the tank at him, with aglint in his eyes, which no man in Germany cares to see.
"I must ask pardon, your Majesty," replied the Chancellor. "I wasastonished, indeed, almost frightened--frightened, if your Majesty willallow me to say so, for the sake of Humanity, if such an awful inventionas that becomes realised."
"And what is your opinion, Field Marshal?" asked the Kaiser with alaugh.
"A most excellent invention, your Majesty, provided always that itbelongs to the Fatherland."
"Exactly," said the Kaiser. "As that very intelligent American officer,Admiral Mahan, has told us, the sea-power is world-power, and there youhave sea-power; but that is not the limit of the capabilities of MrCastellan's invention, according to the specifications which I haveread, and on the strength of which I have asked him to give us thisdemonstration of its powers. He calls it, as you know, the _FlyingFish_. So far you have seen it as a fish. Now, Mr Castellan, perhaps youwill be kind enough to let us see it fly."
"With pleasure, your Majesty," replied the Irishman, "but, in case ofaccident, I must ask you and the Chancellor and the Field Marshal tostand against the wall by the door there. With your Majesty'spermission, I am now going to destroy the rest of the fleet."
"The rest of the fleet!" exclaimed the Field Marshal. "It isimpossible."
"We shall see, Feldherr!" laughed the Kaiser. "Meanwhile, suppose wecome out of the danger zone."
The three greatest men in Germany, and perhaps on the Continent ofEurope, lined up with their backs to the wall at the farther end of theroom from the tank, and the Irishman sat down to his machine. The keysbegan to click rapidly, and they began to feel a tenseness in the air ofthe room. After a few seconds they would not have been surprised if theyhad seen a flash of lightning pass over their heads. The _Flying Fish_had sunk to the bottom of the tank, and backed into one of the corners.The keys of the machine clicked louder and faster. Her nose tiltedupwards to an angle of about sixty degrees. The six-bladed propeller ather stem whirled round in the water like the flurry of a whale's flukein its death agony. Her side-fins inclined upwards, and, like a flash,she leapt from the water, and began to circle round the room.
The Kaiser shut his teeth hard and watched. The Chancellor opened hismouth as if he was going to say something, and shut it again. The FieldMarshal stroked his moustache slowly, and followed the strange shapefluttering about the room. It circled twice round the tank, and thencrossed it. A sharp click came from the machine, something fell from thebody of the _Flying Fish_ into the tank. There was a dull sound of asmothered explosion. For a moment the very water itself seemed aflame,then it boiled up into a mass of seething foam. Every one of the modelswas overwhelmed and engulfed at the same moment. Castellan got up fromthe machine, caught the _Flying Fish_ in his hand, as it dropped towardsthe water, took it to the Kaiser, and said:
"Is your Majesty convinced? It is quite harmless now."
"God's thunder, yes!" said the War Lord of Germany, taking hold of themodel. "It is almost superhuman."
"Yes," said the Chancellor, "it is damnable!"
"I," said the Field Marshal, drily, "think it's admirable, alwayssupposing that Mr Castellan is prepared to place this mysteriousinvention at the disposal of his Majesty."
"Yes," said the Kaiser, leaning with his back against the door, "thatis, of course, the first proposition to be considered. What are yourterms, Mr Castellan?"
Castellan looked at the three men all armed. The Chancellor and theField Marshal wore their swords, and the Kaiser had a revolver in hiship pocket. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal straightened up as theKaiser spoke, and their hands moved instinctively towards their swordhilts. The Kaiser looked at the model of the _Flying Fish_ in his hand.His face was, as usual, like a mask. He saw nothing, thought of nothing.For the moment he was not a man: he was just the incarnation of anidea.
"Field Marshal, you are a soldier," said Castellan, "and I see that yourhand has gone to your sword-hilt. Swords, of course, are the emblems ofmilitary rank, but there is no use for them now."
"What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed the Count, clapping his right hand onthe hilt. After what he had seen he honestly believed that this Irishmanwas a wizard of science who ought not to be trusted in the same roomwith the Kaiser. Castellan went back to his machine and said:
"Draw your sword, sir, and see."
And then the keys began to click.
The Field Marshal's sword flashed out of the sheath. A second later theChancellor's did the same, and the Kaiser's right hand went back towardshis hip pocket.
Castellan got up and said:
"Your Majesty has a revolver. Be good enough, as you value your ownsafety, to unload it, and throw the cartridges out of the window."
"But why?" exclaimed the Kaiser, pulling a Mauser repeati
ng pistol outof his hip-pocket. "Who are you, that you should give orders to me?"
"Only a man, your Majesty," replied Castellan, with a bow and a smile;"a man who could explode every cartridge in that pistol of yours at oncebefore you had time to fire a shot. You have seen what has happenedalready."
William the Second had seen enough. He walked to one of the windowsopening on the enclosed gardens, threw it open, dropped the pistol out,and said:
"Now, let us have the proof of what you say."
"In a moment, your Majesty," replied Castellan, going back to hismachine, and beginning to work the keys rapidly. "I am here, an unarmedman; let their Excellencies, the Chancellor and the Field Marshal,attack me with their swords if they can. I am not joking. I am stakingmy life on the success or failure of this experiment."
"Does your Majesty consent?" said the Field Marshal, raising his sword.
"There could be no better test," replied the Kaiser. "Mr Castellan makesan experiment on which he stakes his life; we are making an experimenton which we stake the welfare of the German Empire, and, perhaps, thefate of the world. If he is willing, I am."
"And I am ready," replied Castellan, working the keys faster and fasteras he spoke, and looking at the two swords as carelessly as if they hadbeen a couple of walking sticks.
The sword points advanced towards him; the keys of the machine clickedfaster and faster. The atmosphere of the room became tenser and tenser;the Kaiser leaned back against the door with his arms folded. When thepoints were within three feet of Castellan's head, the steel began togleam with a bluish green light. The Chancellor and the Field Marshalstopped; they saw sparkles of blue flame running along the sword blades.Then came paralysis! the swords dropped from their hands, and theystaggered back.
"Great God, this is too much," gasped the Chancellor. "The man isimpregnable. It is too much, your Majesty. I fought through the war of'70 and '71, but I surrender to this; this is not human."
"I beg your pardon, Excellency," said Castellan, getting up from themachine, and picking the two swords from the floor, "it is quite human,only a little science that the majority of humanity does not happen toknow. Your swords, gentlemen," and he presented the hilts to them.
"Bravo!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "well done! You have beaten the two bestsoldiers in the German Empire, and you have done it like a gentleman.But you are not altogether an Irishman, are you, Mr Castellan?"
"No, sir, I am a Spaniard as well. The earliest ancestor that I knowcommanded the _Santiago_, wrecked on Achill Island, when the Armada camesouth from the Pentland Firth. The rest of me is Irish. I need hardlysay more. That is why I am here now."
The Kaiser looked at the Chancellor and the Field Marshal, and theylooked back at him, and in a moment the situation--the crisis upon whichthe fate of the world might depend--was decided. It was not a time whenmen who are men talk. A few moments of silence passed; the four menlooking at each other with eyes that had the destinies of nations in thebrains behind them. Then the Kaiser took three swift strides towardsCastellan, held out his hand, and said in a voice which had an unwontednote of respect in it:
"Sir, you have convinced me. Henceforth you are Director of the Navaland Military operations of the German Empire, subject, of course, to theconditions which will be arranged by myself and those who are entrustedwith the tactical and strategical developments of such plan of campaignas I may decide to carry out on sea and land. And now, to put itrudely--brutally, if you like, your price?"
Castellan took the Kaiser's hand in a strong, nervous grip, and said:
"I shall not state my price in money, your Majesty. I am not working formoney, but you will understand that I cannot convert what I have shownyou to-day into the fighting reality. Only a nation can do that. It willcost ten millions of marks, at least, to--well, to so far develop thisexperiment that no fleet save your Majesty's shall sail the seas, andthat no armies save yours shall without your consent march over thebattlefields of the world's Armageddon."
"Make it twenty millions, fifty millions," laughed the Kaiser, "and itwill be cheap at the price. What do you think, Herr Kantzler andFeldherr?"
"Under the present circumstances of the other monarchies of Europe, yourMajesty," replied the Chancellor, "it would be cheap at a hundredmillions, especially with reference to a certain fleet, which appears tobe making the ocean its own country."
"Quite so," said the Field Marshal. "If what we have seen to-day can berealised it would not be necessary to pump out the North Sea in order toinvade England."
"Or to get back again," laughed the Kaiser. "I think that is what yourgrandfather said, didn't he?"
"Yes, your Majesty. He found eight ways of getting into England, but hehadn't thought of one of getting out again."
Since the days of the Prophets no man had ever uttered more propheticwords than Friedrich Helmuth von Moltke spoke then, all unconsciously.But in the days to come they were fulfilled in such fashion that onlyone man in all the world had ever dreamed of, and that was the man whohad beaten John Castellan by a yard in the swimming race for the rescueof that American girl from drowning.