The World Peril of 1910
Page 36
CHAPTER XXXV
THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN
Rather to Mr Parmenter's surprise his first interview "with a real king"was rather like other business interviews that he had had; in fact, ashe said afterwards, of all the business men he had ever met in hissomewhat varied career, this quiet-spoken, grey-haired English gentlemanwas about the best and 'cutest that it had ever been his good fortune tostrike.
The negotiations in hand were, of course, the hiring of the Syndicate'sfleet of airships to the British Empire during the course of the war.His Majesty had summoned a Privy Council at the Palace, and again MrParmenter was somewhat surprised at the cold grip and clear sight whichthese British aristocrats had in dealing with matters which he thoughtought to have been quite outside their experience. Like many Americans,he had expected to meet a sort of glorified country squire, fox-hunter,grouse-killer, trout and salmon-catcher, and so on; but, as he admittedto Lennard later on, from His Majesty downwards they were about thehardest crowd to do business with that he had ever struck.
The terms he offered were half a million a week for the services oftwenty-five airships till the war was ended. Two were retained asguardians for Whernside House and the observatory, and three for theGreat Lever colliery, and this left twenty, not counting the original_Columbia_, which Mr Parmenter had bought as his aerial yacht, availablefor warlike purposes.
The figure was high, as the owners of the aerial battle-fleet admitted,but war was a great deal dearer. They guaranteed to bring the war to astop within fourteen days, by which time Britain would have a new fleetin being which would be practically the only fleet capable of action inwestern waters with the exception of the Italian and the American. Giventhat the Syndicate's airships, acting in conjunction with the _Ithuriel_and the twelve of her sisters which were now almost ready for launching,could catch and wipe out the _Flying Fishes_, either above the waters orunder them, the result would be that the Allies, cut off from their baseof supplies, and with no retreat open to them, would be compelled tosurrender; and Mr Parmenter did not consider that five hundred thousandpounds a week was too much to pay for this.
At the conclusion of his speech, setting forth the position of theSyndicate, he said, with a curious dignity which somehow always comesfrom a sense of power:
"Your Majesty, my Lords and gentlemen, I am just a plain Americanbusiness man, and so is my friend, the inventor of these ships. We havetold you what we believe they can do and we are prepared to show youthat we have not exaggerated their powers. There is our ship outside inthe gardens. If your Majesty would like to take a little trip throughthe air and see battle, murder and sudden death--"
"That's very kind of you, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "but, muchas I personally should like to come with you, I'm afraid I should play acertain amount of havoc with the British Constitution if I did. Kings ofEngland are not permitted to go to war now, but if you would oblige meby taking a note to the Duke of Connaught, who has his headquarters atReading, and then, if you could manage it under a flag of truce, takinganother note to the German Emperor, who, I believe, has pitched his campat Aldershot, I should be very much obliged."
"Anything your Majesty wishes," replied Mr Parmenter. "Now we've fixedup the deal the fleet is at your disposal and we sail under the Britishflag; though, to be quite honest, sir, I don't care about flying thewhite flag first. We could put up as pretty a fight for you along thefront of the Allies as any man could wish to see."
"I am sorry, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "that the BritishConstitution compels me to disappoint you, but, as some sort ofrecompense, I am sure that my Lords in Council will grant you permissionto fly the White Ensign on all your ships and the Admiral's flag on yourflagship, which, I presume, is the one in which you have come thismorning. It is unfortunate that I can only confer the honorary rank ofadmiral upon Mr Hingeston, as you are not British subjects."
"Then, your Majesty," replied Mr Parmenter, "if it pleases you, I hopeyou will give that rank to my friend Newson Hingeston, who, as I havetold you, has been more than twenty years making these ships perfect. Hehas created this navy, so I reckon he has got the best claim to becalled admiral."
"Does that meet with your approval, my lords?" said the King.
And the heads of the Privy Council bowed as one in approval.
"I thank your Majesty most sincerely," said Hingeston, rising. "I am anAmerican citizen, but I have nothing but British blood in my veins, andtherefore I am all the more glad that I am able to bring help to theMotherland when she wants it."
"And I'm afraid we do want it, Mr Hingeston," said His Majesty. "Makethe conditions of warfare equal in the air, and I think we shall be ableto hold our own on land and sea. Your patent of appointment shall bemade out at once, and I will have the letters ready for you in half anhour. And now, gentlemen, I think a glass of wine and a biscuit will notdo any of us much harm."
The invitation was, of course, in a certain sense, a command, and whenthe King rose everyone did the same. While they were taking their wineand biscuits in the blue drawing-room overlooking St James's Park, HisMajesty, who never lost his grip of business for a moment, took Lennardaside and had a brief but pregnant conversation with him on the subjectof the comet, and as a result of this all the Government manufactoriesof explosives were placed at his disposal, and with his own hand theKing wrote a permit entitling him to take such amount of explosives toBolton as he thought fit. Then there came the letters to the Duke ofConnaught and the German Emperor, and one to the Astronomer Royal atGreenwich.
Then His Majesty and the members of the Council inspected the aerialwarship lying on the great lawn in the gardens, and with his own handsKing Edward ran the White Ensign to the top of the flagstaff aft; at thesame moment the Prince of Wales ran the Admiral's pennant up to themasthead. Everyone saluted the flag, and the King said:
"There, gentlemen, the _Auriole_ is a duly commissioned warship of theBritish Navy, and you have our authority to do all lawful acts of waragainst our enemies. Good-morning! I shall hope to hear from you soon."
"I'm sorry, your Majesty," said Mr Parmenter, "that we can't fire theusual salute. These guns of ours are made for business, and we don'thave any blank charges."
"I perfectly understand you, Mr Parmenter," replied His Majesty with alaugh. "We shall have to dispense with the ceremony. Still, those arejust the sort of guns we want at present. Good-morning, again."
His Majesty went down the gangway and Admiral Hingeston, with MrParmenter and Lennard, entered the conning-tower. The lifting-fans beganto whirr, and as the _Auriole_ rose from the grass the White Ensigndipped three times in salute to the Royal Standard floating from theflagstaff on the palace roof. Then, as the driving propellers whirledround till they became two intersecting circles of light, the _Auriole_swept up over the tree-tops and vanished through the clouds. And sobegan the first voyage of the first British aerial battleship.
The Duke of Connaught had his headquarters at Amersham Hall School onthe Caversham side of the Thames, which was, of course, closed inconsequence of the war, and half an hour after the _Auriole_ had leftthe grounds of Buckingham Palace she was settling to the ground in thegreat quadrangle of the school. The Duke, with Lord Kitchener and two orthree other officers of the Staff, were waiting at the upper end wherethe headmaster's quarters were. As the ship grounded, the gangway ladderdropped and Mr Parmenter said to Lennard:
"That's Lord Kitchener, I see. Now, you know him and I don't, so you'dbetter go and do the talking. We'll come after and get introduced."
"Ah, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, holding out his hand. "You'requite a man of surprises. The last time I went with you to see theKaiser in a motor-car, and now you come to visit His Royal Highness inan airship. Your Royal Highness," he continued, turning to the Duke,"this is Mr Lennard, the finder of this comet which is going to wipe usall out unless he wipes it out with his big gun, and these will be theother gentlemen, I presume, whom His Majesty has wired about."
"Yes," replied Lennard, after he had shaken hands. "This is Mr Parmenterwhose telescope enabled me to find the comet, and this is Mr--or I oughtnow to say Admiral--Hingeston, who had the honour of receiving that rankfrom His Majesty half an hour ago."
"What!" exclaimed the Duke. "Half an hour! Are you quite serious,gentlemen? The telegram's only just got here."
"Well, your Royal Highness," said Mr Parmenter, "that may be because wedidn't come full speed, but if you would get on board that flagship,sir, we'd take you to Buckingham Palace and back in half an hour, or, ifyou would like a trip to Aldershot to interview the German Emperor, andthen one to Greenwich, we'll engage to have you back here safe by dinnertime."
"Nothing would delight me more," replied the Duke, smiling, "but atpresent my work is here and I cannot leave it. Lord Kitchener, how wouldyou like that sort of trip?"
"If you will give me leave till dinner-time, sir," laughed K. of K.,"there's nothing I should like better."
"Oh, that goes without saying, of course," replied the Duke, "and now,gentlemen, I understand from the King's telegram that there are one ortwo matters you want to talk over with us. Will you come inside?"
"If your Royal Highness will excuse me," said Admiral Hingeston, "Ithink I'd better remain on board. You see, we may have been sighted, andif there are any of those _Flying Fishes_ about you naturally wouldn'twant this place blown to ruins; so, while you are having your talk, Ireckon I'll get up a few hundred feet, and be back, say, in half anhour."
"Very well," said the Duke. "That's very kind of you. Your shipcertainly looks a fairly capable protector. By the way, what is therange of those guns of yours? I must say they have a very business-likelook about them."
"Six thousand yards point blank, your Royal Highness," replied theAdmiral, "and, according to elevation, anything up to fifteen miles;suppose, for instance, that we were shooting at a town. In fact, if wewere not under orders from His Majesty to fly the flag of truce I wouldguarantee to have all the Allied positions wrecked by to-morrow morningwith this one ship. As you will see from the papers which Mr Parmenterand Mr Lennard have brought, nineteen other airships are coming southto-night and, unless the German Emperor and his Allies give in, the warwill be over in about six days."
"And when you come back to dinner to-night, Admiral Hingeston, you willhave my orders to bring it to an end within that time."
"I sincerely hope so, sir," replied Admiral Hingeston, as he raised hisright hand to the peak of his cap. "I can assure you, that nothing wouldplease me better."
As the lifting-fans began to spin round and the _Auriole_ rose from thegravelled courtyard, Lord Kitchener looked up with a twinkle in hisbrilliant blue eyes and said:
"I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will think of that thing when hesees it. I suppose that means the end of fighting on land and sea--atleast, it looks like it."
"I hope to be able to convince your lordship that it does beforeto-morrow morning," said Lennard, as they went towards the dining-room.
Then came half an hour's hard work, which resulted in the allotment ofthe aerial fleet to positions from which the vessels could co-operatewith the constantly increasing army of British citizen-soldiers who werenow passing southward, eastward and westward, as fast as the crowdedtrains could carry them. Every position was worked out to half a mile.The details of the newly-created fleet in British waters and of thoseships which were arriving from the West Indies and the Mediterraneanwere all settled, and, as the clock in the drawing-room chimed half-pasteleven, the _Auriole_ swung down in a spiral curve round thechimney-pots and came to rest on the gravel.
"There she is; time's up!" said Lord Kitchener, rising from his seat. "Isuppose it will only take us half an hour or so to run down toAldershot. I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will say to us thistime. I suppose if he kicks seriously we have your Royal Highness'spermission to haul down the flag of truce?"
"Certainly," replied the Duke. "If he does that, of course, you willjust use your own discretion."