by Anthology
To attempt to describe his raptures when Max, on their trip to the inlet, took him for his first flight above the clouds in the Vengeur, would be to attempt the impossible. He himself totally failed to give it utterance. The new sensation of skimming hither and thither at will through the yielding air, of soaring or sinking as the fancy took them, and of travelling at a speed that reduced even the forty knots of the Destroyer to the merest crawl, filled him with emotion, which for the time being struck him dumb with sheer rapture.
He went from end to end of the craft, examining everything, stroking and caressing the framework of the vessel and the metal of her engines as though they had been the sentient frame of some adored human mystery, muttering incoherently to himself, and every now and then breaking out into exclamations of irrepressible delight.
He was all eagerness to get the Vengeur into commission, as he put it; and before even the brief voyage was ended, he had designed an armament for her which, if it did anything like what he promised for it, would render her terrible to her enemies beyond Renault's wildest dreams of destruction.
"I tell you, friendt Max," he said, as they were sitting together in the air-ship's saloon, a thousand feet above the inlet, on the evening of their arrival, "dat ven I haf done mit dis craft she vill be a holy terror to all der vorld, both on land and sea, and ven ve haf built a score or so like her, as ve vill do pretty soon, you shall do vat you like mit der earth and der fulness thereof.
"And now, I suppose, you vant to hear vat ve and der comrades haf been doing all dese times you haf been avay. Ve vill haf some more drinks and smokes, and den I vill tell you about it."
CHAPTER XII.
ANARCHY UP TO DATE.
IN de first place," said Franz, settling himself to his narrative after he had lit a long black cigar, through the smoke of which his little eyes twinkled almost merrily at Max, "you must understand dat after dat unpleasant affair vich dat scoundrel Berthauld must haf brought on us before you found him out and stopped his tongue, de Group broke up for de time being.
"Ve thought it vas safer to do dat and go back to de old plan of individual action until it vas time to do someting big, as ve haf done. Lea Cassilis settled down quietly to her artistic dressmaking business in London, till she got a chance to go to New York, and vent, partly for de dollars, and partly to begin a little scheme dat I vill tell you more about afterwards. Sophie Vronsky and Marie Rolland stopped in London mit Marie's husband, and I vent back to Elbing to make out my engagement mit Schichau.
"Dere were several delays before ve could get properly to work on de Tsar's boat, and de consequence vas dat she vas not launched until nearly two years later. Improvements in engines and guns kept cropping up, de English kept on building faster and faster boats, and as de strict contract vas dat she should beat everyding dat floated, ve had to keep on doing thugs over again, even after ve had got dem finished.
"Dis vas goot for me, because it gave me more time to get fellows into de works dat I could depend on, and ven she at last vent on her trial trip, I had dirty of dem on board her, stokers, firemen, engineers, and sailors. As dere vas only forty on board altogether, and as ve had took care to get de cook who prepared de luncheon dat de svells had on board between de runs on our side, dere vas not very much difficulty in settling mit dose who tought dat de boat should go back to Elbing ven ve vanted to take her someveres else.
"As goot luck vould haf it, one of de Baltic fogs came down like vet blankets, so dat you could not see from de nose of de boat to de stern. Dot vas our opportunity, so ve took it; and some of de highest officials of Schichau's yard and de two Russian officers vat had come to watch the trial met mit some serious accidents with completely prevented dem from swimming home."
"Ah," said Max quietly, "I was afraid you would have to do something of that sort. Had you much of a row?"
"No," replied Hartog, with an expressive gesture. "Dere vas no row at all. Ve got dem all into de yard-room, shut dem up dere, put a strong guard ofer dem, and wen ve had run far enough out to sea drough de fog, ve vent in and fetched zem out won by won, tied deir hands behind deir backs, fixed a pig of iron ballast to deir feet, and dropped dem oferboard.
"Ve tought dat vas de most convenient way of disposing of dem. If ve had shot dem, somevon might haf heard de shots, and if ve had cut deir throats, it would haf made an unpleasant mess dat ve did not want in our nice new ship.
"Ven ve had sent dem to de fishes, ve ran quietly along to de westward until nightfall, and den ve cracked on all speed and made a rush for de Sound. Ve had won or two narrow shaves of being found out, but ve got drough all right, and den ve ran up de Nord Sea and round Scotland. Den, wen ve were well out of de way, ve drilled ourselves and practised mit de guns and torpedoes, and made our plans and vent on de varpath.
"De Alberta, about vich de lieutenant told you, vas our first prize. Ve got more dan von hundred and fifty tousand pound in cash from her, and mit dat ve set up in business. Ve found dis nice little hiding-place, vere ve planted fifty tousand of de money as a sort of reserve fund. Den ve ran across de Atlantic, and I landed Leo Marcel, my first officer, who is a very smart young fellow and quite a gentleman to look at ven he is properly dressed. In fact, I suppose he vould be a gentleman now if he had not quarrelled mit his rich uncle in Lyons in such a vay dat de old man never recovered, and Leo had to leave France suddenly for de goot of his health.
"Vell, I land Leo mit plenty of money, and he goes to New York, meets Lea, and gives her ten tousand pounds. Mit dat she goes first to London to make arrangements mit Rolland and some oders dat you know, and den she takes Sophie Vronsky mit her as lady companion and goes and cuts de teufel's own dash in Paris as de youthful vidow of a deceased Yankee vat made large piles in pork.
"Meanvile, Leo, who speaks Spanish so perfect as I speak English, gifs himself out as de agent of de Paraguayan Government, and buys a smart steam yacht as a despatch-boat; loads her up mit de best sort of ammunition he can buy, torpedoes and different sorts of stores and explosives vich I have told him about, and puts to sea in her, so dat ve can meet by arrangement vere nobody vill see us, and dere I captures his ship, and ve drop his crew overboard and bring de stores and dings over here.
"On de vay ve catches de Norham Castle, von of de Cape boats, and clean her out. She vas coming home mit gold and diamonds, and dot catch vas vort more as two hundred tousand pound to us. Den off goes Leo again in his yacht, dis time to Europe, and after he has given de diamonds to Lea and Rolland to put into circulation, he organises agencies of comrades in London, Paris, and Brussels, Liverpool, Southampton, and Newcastle - all as most respectable people in de shipping business and export trade.
"Of course dese gentlemen are alvays ready to supply us mit anyting ve vant in de vay of stores or fighting material, and tell no tales about it. Dey find dat much better dan de old style of anarchy. Dey haf plenty of money, and are quite respectable, and know dat dey are doing efer so much more harm to our enemies dan dey could do in de old-fashioned style."
"But if you've got that yacht, what did you want to take possession of the Bremenfor? I should have thought a great big lump of a ship like that would be more in the way than anything else."
"Don't you see dat dis is a business in vich ve can have no accidents. If ve build dose ships anyvere on shore, it is just possible dat de place may be found by some of de good people dat are looking for us so carefully, and if dat vas so, ve should not be able to take our vorks avay mit us, to say noding of perhaps letting some air-ship, almost finished, fall into de hands of de enemy. Do you see dat?"
"See it?" cried Max, rubbing his hands together with delight. "I should think I do! That's another stroke of genius to your credit, Franz. You are going to make the Bremena floating workshop, and put the air-ships together aboard of her. Bravo, that's a capital idea!"
"Ja, de idea is goot," replied the engineer complacently, "and I have tought him out very carefully. You see de Bremen is ofer five hundred feet long, and dat
is plenty big enough to build air-ships, two hundred feet long, on. Ve can take her down south and keep her alvays in fine veather, so dat de vork can be done on deck.
"Dose in charge of her can alvays be on de look-out for ships, and move her off venever anyting heaves in sight. In dis vay, you see, ve shall be able to dodge all de ships of all de navies for ever, and no von vill ever be able to guess how de teufel ve get our air-ships built. I tink dat vill be a much better plan dan having dese hiding-places on shore."
"Yes, much better," said Max; "but, all the same, I think it would be wise, as soon as we have got the Vengeur armed, to go to Utopia and make a clean sweep of the colony. We shan't be safe if any of them get away, because, you know, it is quite certain that Austen and Adams will take Milton into their confidence now about the air-ship, and as Milton has any amount of money, it will be just as easy for them to build another Vengeur as for us; in fact, it will be easier, because they'll simply have to give their orders and pay the money.
"There's no telling how soon Milton may get away in his yacht or the other steamer, and be off to England, most likely with Austen on board; and once let them do that, and the next thing we shall see will be an aerial privateer out on the Atlantic, looking for the Destroyer - and precious warm she'd make it for you, too, I can tell you. Now, how long will it take, do you think, to get the guns made and the Vengeur properly supplied with ammunition?"
Hartog was silent for a few moments, as if he were making a calculation, then he looked up and said-
"You can haf shells and gun-cotton, and melinite, and blasting gelatine, and a nice business-like explosive of my own, vich I have tought of christening anarchite, by vay of a little choke, as soon as ever you like; but de guns cannot possibly be made and brought out to be fitted in less dan tree monts."
"H'm!" said Max, after a pause. "That would be a lot too late. The secret would be out long before then. Look here!" he went on, jumping suddenly out of his chair and beginning to walk up and down the saloon; "how long would it take you to get the Destroyer from here to Utopia?"
"Ah!" said Hartog slowly. "Dat is rader a large order, as de Yankees say. From vat you haf told me, Utopia cannot be very much less as ten tousand miles from here by sea, veder ve go round de Horn or round de Cape and by Australia. Ve cannot steam at full speed, because ve cannot carry fuel enough. Ve could not make more dan tventy or tventy-five knots, say six hundred miles a day mit fine veather, and it vould take us quite sixteen or eightteen days to get dere. Dat vould burn up nearly all our fuel, and den how should ve get back? It vould be a nice ting to be chased by a cruiser just ven our fuel vas giving out, vouldn't it?"
"Then why not take the Bremenwith you with a reserve supply of fuel? You could steam her down as far as the Horn, load up from her again, and go ahead to Utopia, leaving her to follow on, couldn't you?"
"Ja, dat might be done if ve had men enough to vork her, vich ve haven't," replied Franz, with a shake of his head. "Ve should vant at least fifty more, and I can tell you goot loyal anarchists who are able to vork a steamboat are not very easy to find. It is de teufel's own pity dat dis island is so far away."
"Yes, confound it!" said Max, looking rather blank at this unexpected difficulty. "What the deuce are we to do? Of course, it will never do to run the Destroyer short of fuel, and you can't take the Bremen round the Horn without a lot of men, I can quite see that, and getting men only means more delay -delay which might ruin the whole thing."
"Dere is only von ting to do," said Hartog, leaning back in his chair and crossing his stumpy little legs. "And dat is vot ve must do."
"Well, what is that?" asked Max impatiently.
"It is dis," said Hartog deliberately. "I expect Leo back from Europe in de Pilgrim -a nice innocent name dot for an Anarchist gentleman's yacht, isn't it? - to-morrow, mit odds and ends and some chemicals dat I vant to prepare my fuel. Now, de Pilgrim should haf mit her four nice little Maxim guns dat vill do dere eight hundred shots a minute, and give people fits at tree tousand yards.
"Dey only veigh two or tree hundredveight each, so you can carry dem easy. Ve vill fit dem on board de Vengeur, den ve vill get plenty of empty bottles from de Bremento make into hand-bombs for melinite and anarchite, and a new patent fire-mixture dat I have invented, and den ve can put half a dozen of our best men from de Destroyer on board here mit us and take a little trip right avay to Utopia and clear de place out. Ve can be ready to start in tree days, and ve can get dere in five days, and as you have been five or six days avay now, you vill be back again inside de fortnight. And dot vill be quick enough, for you told me dat dey could not get de yacht ready in less dan tree weeks. Now, I think ve had better go down and have a look trough de Destroyer and de Bremen, and see if ve can find anyting useful for de Vengeur."
CHAPTER XIII.
TO UTOPIA.
THE examination resulted in the selection of two light Maxim guns from the armament of the Destroyer, and a three-barrelled Nordenfeldt, carrying twelve-ounce shells, from the Bremen, and these were fitted on board the Vengeur provisionally and in case any accident should happen.
The shells of the Nordenfeldt had been charged with Hartog's secret explosive, to which, in his grimly jesting way, he had given the suggestive name of anarchite.
He reckoned that, given an elevation of two thousand feet, the Nordenfeldt, which was mounted aft, while the Maxims were pointed downwards through the foremost ports in the hull of the air-ship, would have an effective range of quite two miles, while at this distance and elevation the Vengeur would be almost invisible, and absolutely beyond the effective range of any gun mounted on land or sea.
Aerial artillery, in spite of its being necessarily very much lighter than that employed either on land or sea, possessed two enormous advantages. The first was in facility of aim and relative steadiness of the object fired at; the second lay in the fact that the aerial gunner had the attraction of gravitation in his favour, while his opponents had it against them.
The projectile of a gun fired at a great angle from land or sea is subject to a downward pull which constantly diminishes its velocity, and at last converts its path into a downward curve. On the other hand, a projectile fired, say, from a height of two thousand feet, with a muzzle-velocity of fifteen hundred feet a second, is accelerated every foot it travels, and strikes its mark with a velocity which is increased in proportion to the acuteness of the angle at which it is fired. At two miles range and two thousand feet elevation the Vengeur's projectiles would strike with the enormous velocity of some five thousand feet per second.
So, too, with the heavier shells that would be dropped vertically. In accordance with the well-known law of moving bodies, they would travel sixteen feet in the first second of their fall, forty-eight in the next, eighty in the next, and so on, increasing in velocity every second they were in the air, less, of course, the retardation produced by the resistance of the atmosphere.
In addition to the guns and their ammunition, the airship was also furnished with fifty ten-inch conical shells, half of which were charged with melinite and the other half with blasting gelatine and compressed oxygen in separate compartments, and two hundred quart champagne bottles charged with anarchite and Hartog's fire-mixture, a horrible compound which, in addition to burning with unquenchable energy on the bursting of the shell, spread dense suffocating and poisonous fumes over a radius of several yards from the focus of the explosion.
As might be expected, there was the keenest competition among the Destroyer's men for berths aboard the airship, and so Max, to whom the engineer had naturally taken his old subordinate position, save where the tactics of the Destroyer were concerned, had them put through a stiff competition in gun drill under his own eye, and chose those who acquitted themselves with the greatest smartness. One of them, a young fellow of three-and-twenty, named Raoul Taxil, who had been second engineer of the Destroyer, he made engineer and chief officer of the Vengeur, and, after he had fully explained the working of the air-s
hip's machinery to him, he took his new crew for a cruise into the air over the desert, to work them into their places.
All this occupied the rest of the day and well into the night, and just before sunrise the next day Hartog suggested that they should take a flight to the northward, to see if there were any signs of the Pilgrim. The desert was just changing from brown to grey under the growing light, when the Vengeur soared vertically upwards to a height of five hundred feet, and then, with one engined driving the helices, and the other two the propellers, she shot away upwards and northwards at sixty miles an hour.
When a height of three thousand feet had been reached, Max told Taxil to switch the two side engines on to the helices and run the midship screw at thirty miles an hour. From their present elevation they commanded an enormous range of vision, which was still further increased as a light haze, which was lying over the coast to the north, lifted and dispersed under the increasing heat of the sun.