CHAPTER IV
THE LENA KNOBLOCH
"What did I tell you?" inquired Jimmie, as the boys passed the man."There he stands with his arms folded and grins like a cream stealingcat! I wish I had a half a brick! We'll have to watch out for him!"
"It surely looks as if you were right, Jimmie!" assented Ned.
"But what gets me," put in Harry, "is why he should be after us! Whathave we done? He seems to have information that we're criminals!"
"It looks mighty strange that he should have stolen the package out ofthat hut and then continue to insist that we have it," remarked Ned. "Areyou sure he's the same fellow, Jimmie?"
"It's the very same hand," declared the lad, "and that hand is a deadgive away! I wonder he didn't wear a glove or bandage!"
"Maybe he didn't have time when he got the package," explained Jack. "Cananyone tell me how the thing got into our kits?"
This question was unanswerable by any of the lads. Puzzling over thestrange adventures they had recently encountered the lads proceeded totheir hotel, where they spent some time in freshening both themselves andtheir uniforms and in rearranging their baggage.
At supper time they were tired and very hungry. At the first opportunitythey proceeded to the restaurant where they had formerly eaten.
Jimmie's spirits revived as food was set before them. In a moment he waslaughing and chatting away without a care in the world. His good humorwas infectious. Soon all four boys were in a merry mood.
"I wish we could get a civilized paper," declared Jack at length. "I'dreally like to see what's going on in the world."
"Maybe we can get one at the desk. Or possibly the cashier can tell uswhere they will have English papers for sale," suggested Harry.
"Here comes a man who looks as if he were a native," spoke up Jimmie."I'll bet he can tell us a whole lot of things we want to know!"
The boys glanced up to observe a man approaching their table. He wasevidently a seafaring man. His dress and manner betokened the deep seamariner. A decided air of the ocean marked him to the boys' eyes.
"Goot efening, Chentlemen!" the stranger said as he approached.
"Howdy!" replied Jimmie, with a wave of his hand. "What'll you have?"
"Vell," replied the visitor, "schnapps vas goot, but you couldn't get 'emhere. Dis isn't no blace for dot! No, sir!"
"I wasn't inviting you to have a drink," snapped Jimmie somewhatconfusedly, "I meant to ask you what's on your mind."
"So-o-o-o!" exclaimed the newcomer with a long drawn expression ofsurprise. His shaggy eyebrows raised as he extended his chin and shruggedhis shoulders, pantomiming an apology. "So, dot's it, eh?"
"Sure thing!" answered Jimmie, regaining his composure in a measure butwith his face still flushed. "We want to know what you're after."
"Vell," went on the visitor, "my name's Captain Johannes von Kluck. Don'dforgot dot 'Captain' part, eider. Und I haf learned dot you chentlemansvas lookin' for a fine, fast ship. Und I have chust dot!"
As he made this announcement Captain von Kluck smiled a wide look offriendship at the entire party. It was a wonderful smile, beginning atthe tiny wrinkles surrounding the corners of his eyes. From there itspread all over his face, gradually distorting the features until, asJimmie afterward declared, the boys were forced to smile in spite ofthemselves.
"And where does your fine ship go, Captain von Kluck?" asked Ned.
"Chust vherefer you vant to go!" declared the captain solemnly. "Me, I ama goot navigator, und mine mate he is, too, a goot von!"
"We want to go to New York," continued Ned. "If you can arrange tofurnish us passage to that port, we'll pay you well."
To this the captain answered by spreading his hands and shrugging hisshoulders until they nearly reached his ears. Over his beaming facespread a look of despair. He slowly shook his head.
"To New York I cannot go!" he answered dolefully. "Bud I vill put youashore in England, und from dere you can easy get a ship!"
"Well, that's better than nothing at all!" admitted Ned.
"Sure!" declared Jimmie. "Anything to get out of this place!"
"When can you be ready to sail, Captain?" inquired Ned.
"Who, me?" questioned the captain in a tone of surprise.
"Nobody else but you, your crew and we boys!" laughed Ned.
"Sure! Dot's all ridt!" nodded von Kluck. "Vhell, I'm ready now. Yet Ihaf some cheeses on board to put, und some odder tings!"
"Can you accommodate the boxes containing our airship?" asked Jimmie. "Wehave the Grey Eagle over here at the railroad station and don't want toleave it behind us when we leave the country."
"Maybe it vould on de schip go!" consented von Kluck.
"Hurrah!" exultantly cried the lads. "That's fine!"
"How big is your ship, Captain?" asked Ned, "and what's her name?"
"Mine schip is der Lena Knobloch!" smiled the captain. "Dot's vot youEnglish beoples call garlic. Und id vas a goot schip alreaty!"
"Well, then," suggested Ned, "suppose the captain takes supper here asour guest. Two of us will remain with him to arrange details while theother two hasten away and get a truck to take the boxes to the dock. Canyou give us directions for reaching the vessel, Captain?"
"Sure," assented the captain, seating himself. "Und I know a man votvould haul your goots, too. I get him," he added.
"In that case, we'll all go over together," proposed Jack. "I don't likethe idea of separating while we're in a strange town."
"Perhaps the captain can tell us where we can get some English papers,"ventured Jimmie. "We'd like to get the latest news."
Wheeling in his chair the captain bawled out an order in Dutch. A waitercame bustling up with an air of deference. Evidently he knew the captainand understood that no delay would be tolerated.
A few words were rapidly spoken, whereupon the waiter hastened away toreturn presently with several newspapers. These were spread upon thetable before the boys, who began a perusal of their contents.
"Gee whiz!" exclaimed Jimmie, glancing at the headlines of the paperwhich had fallen to his lot. "Listen to this--three vessels sunk in themouth of the Mersey river by a German submarine identified as the 'U-13.'Then there's been two vessels sunk at the mouth of the Thames!"
"What sunk them?" inquired Harry.
"It says here that they were sunk by a German submarine. In each case thediver has been identified as the 'U-13' by the crews of the ill-fatedvessels. Now, that's going some!"
"Let's see," pondered Harry, "the Thames is the river leading to London,while the Mersey is the river leading to Liverpool."
"Right you are, Old Scout, go to the head of the class!"
"Hush, Jimmie, no nonsense!" cautioned Ned.
"What I was thinking about," continued Harry, "is the distance a boatwould have to travel to get from one place to the other. It must be allof seven hundred miles around Land's End. A boat would have to be speedyto cover that distance so quickly!"
"How quickly?" demanded Jimmie. "The paper says the three ships were sunkat the Mersey on Wednesday morning. Those at the Thames, or rather 'offMargate,' as the article states, were sunk Thursday afternoon. Thatwouldn't be such an impossible feat after all!"
"Twenty miles an hour sustained speed for about twenty-eight hours isrunning along at a pretty good clip, just the same!"
"Well, the vessel did it!" declared Jimmie. "The paper says that aboutsix o'clock Wednesday morning the Wanderer, a vessel laden withfoodstuffs from Australia, was hailed by the crew of a submarine. Theywere permitted to take to the small boats and then the Wanderer wastorpedoed, going down at once. The submarine was positively identified asthe 'U-13.' Then the other paragraph says that at about eight o'clock onThursday evening the steamer Adventure from Buenos Ayres with a cargo offlour for London was treated in the same manner off Margate by the'U-13'!"
"Isn't it a little strange that the submarine should have attacked apeaceful merchant vessel?" inquired Jack. "That isn't war!"
"Evidently it is the intention to blockade all English ports and shut offthe food supply of the nation," ventured Ned. "You see the articlerelates that all the ships were loaded with food and destined to Englishports. It must be a blockade movement!"
"Here's an account," announced Harry, "that says a steamer was hailed bya submarine a few miles off the Lizard Head. It escaped by its superiorspeed, but only by a narrow margin, for the submarine launched a torpedothat barely missed striking the after portion of the ship!"
"Maybe it was the same little old 'U-13,'" suggested Jimmie.
"Oh, you 'U-13'!" laughed Jack. "You're some boat, all right!"
"Say!" shouted Jimmie, jumping quickly to his feet. The boy glanced aboutthe group with startled looks. "What about that 'U-13' package? Do yousuppose it was intended for the submarine?"
The boys exchanged puzzled looks. Perplexity was expressed in every face.A look of worry began to appear on Ned's countenance.
"I wonder who Mackinder is and what he has to do with that package," thelad said presently. "Boys, we're surely stumbling into a mess ofsomething. We'll have to be careful!"
"Captain," demanded Jimmie, turning to von Kluck, "what do you know aboutthis 'U-13' business? What is the 'U-13'?"
Leaning back in his chair the captain drew a long breath. He filled agreat pipe from a capacious pouch. Gravely he packed the tobacco into theimmense bowl, accompanying the procedure with sundry shakes of his head.Not until the pipe was drawing freely did he reply.
"Ach, id vas vot der Deutsch say it 'Unterseeboot'! You English say itsubmarine! Und dot liddle schip goes 'Boom'! und down goes der big schipsunder der vasser! Und dey stay, too!" he concluded.
"Yes, we know that," assented Jimmie, punctuating his statement with apoke at the paragraph he had just read, "but who owns it?"
"Vhell, der Chermans dey claim to haf a big share in id!"
"Then if we start out for England in this Lena Knobloch of yours how dowe know that the 'U-13' won't come along and take a poke at us just outof pure spite?" questioned the lad.
"Vhell, maybe she vill," agreed von Kluck, between puffs. "Bud if youvhas like me, you iss willing to took a chance. I go, und das Lena goes,und by und by maybe we make blenty money und go ashore to shtay."
"You take it easy, I must say!" returned Jimmie, somewhat amused.
"Are you going out just the same, Captain?" inquired Jack.
"Sure!" proclaimed the captain, in no uncertain tones.
"Then let's be getting that truck and take the Grey Eagle boxes aboardthe Lena Knobloch!" cried Jack. "The sooner it's over the easier I'llfeel. I'm beginning to get nervous about all this 'U-13' business!"
After paying their bill the boys set out in company with the captain tofind the trucker. That individual put up a strong protest at taking outhis horses at the unseemly hour, but a piece of coin slipped into hishand at the opportune moment by Ned soon changed his mind.
Another piece of money changing hands at the proper moment secured theconsent of the official in charge of the freight sheds to the delivery ofthe boxes containing the precious Grey Eagle.
Making the affair a pleasure jaunt the lads lost no time in loading thecases aboard the truck. Merrily they set off for the dock.
Upon arriving in the vicinity of his vessel the captain shed his jovialair like an overcoat. He bawled out orders to his crew, emphasizing hiscommands with sundry fistic punctuations. The men evidently knew withwhom they had to deal, for they fell to the work with a will.
The boys turned back to the hotel to secure their hand baggage.
A small cart drawn by two huge dogs was approaching. In the vehicle weresome milk cans. The figure of a woman guided the strange team.
"This is rather early for the milklady!" laughed Jimmie.
"That's no woman!" declared Jack. "Look at that walk!"
"That's Mackinder!" Jimmie cried. "See the scar on his hand!"
Boy Scouts in the North Sea; Or, The Mystery of a Sub Page 4