Slinger was still brooding, an hour later, when Captain Ardow sent to tell him that a message had been received. They decoded it together in the chart room and it ran:
“Allow no one from tender on board. Keep passengers below. Order tender to tow you to safe anchorage south of Pico and leave you there. Slinger to remain on board. Leaving midnight by amphibian to join you.
Slinger’s hand trembled slightly. “So he’s coming to take charge himself, eh? Well, I wish to God I was safely through to-morrow. He’ll create merry hell for all of us the moment he sets foot on board the ship.”
“He has pluck,” said Captain Ardow. “To fly two thousand miles of water from New York to the Azores is a thing for which I would not care.”
“Oh, he’s got pluck enough for ten,” Slinger replied abruptly. “But he retains a first class pilot and that amphibian of his is specially built to cover long distances. Good-night, I’m off to bed.”
He was awake and about again early next morning. At seven o’clock he invaded Captain Ardow’s cabin and asked anxiously, “Look here what are we going to do with the passengers all day. It’s vital that they shouldn’t get any message to the people on the tender when she turns up.”
The Russian yawned sleepily. “Kate has said keep them below. Do so then. Let them remain locked in their cabins.”
“That’s all right maybe but the trick they played us yesterday has made me nervy. The tender will have to come pretty close alongside, won’t it?”
“Yes.”
“How close?”
“So near that they can throw a line by which we shall pull up their hawser.”
“Exactly,” Slinger nodded. “Then what’s to prevent Count Axel or one of the others throwing something out to them from a cabin porthole. A promise of a big reward for help or a message to the Punta Delgarda police. They could weight it with coins or any old thing so that it doesn’t flutter down to the water.”
“You must prevent them then.”
“But how? We can keep them all together under Bozo’s eye in the dining saloon while the tender is alongside, but one of the men might chance a bullet and chuck something out of the port before the guards could stop him. The tender’s deck should be just about that level so there will be plenty of temptation if they do think of trying something of that sort.”
Captain Ardow scratched the bristly stubble on his unshaven chin while the two men regarded each other thoughtfully for a moment, then he said slowly. “Why not send them all down in the bathysphere.”
“Damn it! You took that straight oft my tongue,” Slinger exclaimed, “and it’s a great idea. I’ll go and have them knocked up now so that they’re safe under water before there’s any likelihood of the tender putting in an appearance.”
Orders were issued through the stewards and by 8.15 Camilla’s party were assembled in a sullen group to learn Slinger’s latest decision.
“You don’t get me going down in that infernal thing,” the McKay growled angrily. “I’ve never been yet and I’m not going now.”
“You are,” said Slinger firmly. “And if you won’t go quietly my men will tie you up and push you inside it head first—so you can take your choice.”
The McKay’s weather beaten reddish face went a good three shades deeper in colour and his eyes began to pop below the beetling brows. Sally thought he almost looked as if he was about to burst and quickly placed a restraining hand on his arm.
“Please,” she whispered, her grey eyes frightened and pleading, “please don’t make a scene—I implore you not to.”
“All right, m’dear,” he grumbled touched by her concern. “But I’d love to have a cut at ’em.”
“Perhaps, but you’d only get shot if you did,” Slinger said evenly, “so you’ll be wiser to keep your temper and do as you’re told.”
“I—I don’t want to go,” Camilla stammered. “It may turn rough again.”
“The weather is all set fair. It is unlikely that we shall be caught in so, twice,” Vladimir sought to comfort her.
“And Atlantis is to be seen beneath us,” chipped in the Doctor cheerfully. “For the ship can have drifted little in this glassy sea.”
That certainly was a thought of sufficient interest to intrigue most members of the party in spite of their first reluctance to go on this enforced descent, so without further protest they followed Slinger aft.
The McKay guessed the reason for Slinger’s decision to order them all into the sphere and he was furious at it; for he knew that with the ship in its crippled condition Captain Ardow would have been compelled to wireless for assistance and had counted on being able to get his letter to the tender even if he had to go overboard and swim with it. However, he endeavoured to console himself with the thought that there were many fresh possibilities to talk over since the explosion; in the bathysphere they would at least be clear of their guards and so able to do so freely.
The same thought had occurred to Count Axel, but both were disappointed. Slinger announced that he had no intention of giving them the whole day to plot fresh trouble for him and in consequence Bozo had agreed to go down as a check on any scheming.
One by one they climbed into the sphere. The McKay was last and before he entered it he gave a long look at the sky. It was serene and cloudless but there was no unnatural stillness and as far as he could judge they had no need whatever to fear an unexpected return of bad weather. Actually he was not really afraid. He had often made trips in submarines without the least anxiety and the bathysphere had now been proved capable of withstanding pressure equally well even at the great depths to which it descended. He had only refused before from a natural caution and the feeling that some time or other the sphere would meet with a totally unexpected accident. However, it might well go down a hundred times before that happened and therefore the probabilities were all against this proving its unlucky day.
“Nelson Andy McKay, where are you,” called Sally from inside the big ball in sudden fear that he had remained outside with the intention of endeavouring to smash up Slinger after all.
“Coming m’dear,” he sang out with reassuring cheerfulness and began to wriggle through the small circular opening. The door was clamped on and at 8.45 the bathysphere went under water.
Slinger joined Captain Ardow on the bridge to wait for the tender to turn up and, at the same time, he began to keep a nervous eye on the sky towards the west to sight the approach of Oxford Kate’s big plane.
They had their breakfast sent up to the chart room and discussed Kate’s possible reactions on his arrival, in a desultory, gloomy sort of way. Both knew that Mr Kate was capable of being not only extremely unpleasant but definitely dangerous when his plans had gone awry. The Russian spoke little except to impress upon Slinger that the prisoners had not been committed to his care so that the lawyer was alone responsible and should be prepared for all the blame—which he would undoubtedly receive.
Ten o’clock came—eleven, and eleven-thirty. The bathysphere party had reached bottom and although they could not be towed in any direction, owing to the disablement of the ship, they had already asked once to be pulled up 300 feet, and then let down again, so obviously they had struck some portion of the sunken city and begun blasting operations without delay. At eleven-forty a wisp of smoke was reported by the look out on the eastward horizon then, two minutes later Captain Ardow himself drew Slinger’s attention to a speck in the sky to the west north westward; there could be little doubt that it was Kate’s plane and, after circling overhead the big amphibian swooped down, cut the calm surface of the water, churning it into creamy foam, and came to rest fifty yards from the ship.
Ardow had already given orders for a boat to be lowered and stood by the rail ready to receive his Chief. Slinger hovered near him, nervous and unhappy. He knew that his fears had not been without reason the moment Kate’s head appeared over the side.
The plane being enclosed, the broad shouldered elegant Mr Kate had no need of airmen�
��s helmets or leather jackets. He was wearing a light grey lounge suit to-day and an experiment in violet shirting with socks to match. The old school tie still adorned his neck but the face above it was as smooth and hard as the prow of a battleship.
Captain Ardow instinctively touched the peak of his uniform cap and Slinger, forcing a pale smile to his lips, murmured, “Well Chief—how’s everything?”
Kate’s cold eyes held him for a second. It was not his way to discuss business before the crew and he only asked quietly, “Where are the passengers?”
“On the sea floor in the bathysphere. I thought it best to get them out of the way as we’re expecting the tender from Punta Delgarda any moment. That’s her you can see coming up in the distance. Slinger pointed to the smoke stack, now grown larger, on the horizon.
“Right, we’ll go up to the chart-room then.” Without another glance Kate led the way and the others followed.
As Slinger shut the door behind them his Chief swung round upon him. “Now! What have you two been up to?”
“No responsibility for this rests on me,” declared Ardow boldly. “For me the crew to discipline. For Slinger the passengers to guard. That was the arrangement.”
“Well, Slinger?” Kate’s voice was quietly menacing.
“Damn it all I couldn’t help it,” Slinger began to bluster. “Count Axel—the Swede—you know, swung the lead yesterday. Pretended he was ill, pinched some dynamite from the Doctor’s store, sneaked down into the hold while we thought he was in his cabin and blew the propeller shaft to blazes.”
“You think it a sound thing to leave dangerous explosives in the hands of your prisoners eh?”
“Oh have a heart Chief, this stuff was intended for blasting operations under water.”
“Under water!” sneered Kate with icy contempt. “Is that any reason to suppose that it would fail to explode in the air. The Count must be soft witted I think not to have blown the bridge up while he was at it and sent the two of you with half my men to Hell!”
“We didn’t lose a man,” pleaded Slinger. “Not even one of the engine room hands received a scratch, and we had the whole party cold within thirty seconds of the explosion.”
“Why should you take credit for that. It was merely their own incompetence.”
“But Chief there’s never been any question of their escaping or securing help. The whole bunch are every bit as much under your thumb as they were this time last week.”
“It’s lucky for you they are, since I made this trip to see them. Ardow! Get them pulled up at once.”
The Russian gave an order down the bridge telephone. Slinger felt just a shade easier in his mind. The implication was that Kate had not flown two thousand miles specially to berate him for his carelessness but had a more important reason for his return. After a moment he ventured:
“Did the New York papers play up on the radios we sent?”
“Oh the Press haven’t had such a break in a generation,” the big square faced man in the grey suit stared moodily out of the chart-room window. He seemed to have forgotten Slinger’s criminal negligence. “The papers last night had headlines inches deep about the Duchess’s death. It’s a great human interest story of course—this poor little rich girl and her bunch of lovers. The Atlantis story alone would have made the editors’ hearts rejoice when this crank of a Doctor started discovering mermaids, but with the Duchess in it as well even the marriage of King Karloff has been crowded out. But the innocent looking little devil tricked me and by God she’s going to sweat for it. You just watch her eyes start out of her head when I tell her how.”
“Tricked,” exclaimed Slinger. He almost added, “You,” but caught himself in time. “Why, are they contesting that will then—seriously?”
“Yes—it’s my fault—mine entirely. The only slip I’ve ever made I think and it’s hard that it should occur in my biggest coup. It never occurred to me to get a specimen of her signature so that I could verify it when she signed the will. She had the wit to alter it apparently and only half an hour before I got your radio I learned from our pigeon in the lawyer’s office that they had suspected the genuineness of the document the moment they received it. Immediately her death was reported of course the rat began to stink a mile away. That’s how he got on to what she had done.”
“What—what do you intend to do, Chief?” Slinger hazarded.
Kate was still staring out of the window, his thoughts apparently far away. He fingered his ‘old school tie’ meditatively and replied in a voice lacking all emotion:
“Teach her just what it costs to try and be too clever, as I will teach you not to be quite so careless—later on.”
There was a horrid silence which continued for several moments, neither Slinger nor Ardow cared to break it. Then a red-faced sailor flung open the chart-room door and thrust his head inside.
“Warship coming up on our port quarter, Captain,” he reported, and slammed the door again.
Instantly the three men in the chart-room were startled into activity. Captain Ardow grabbed his glasses, but Kate was the first to tumble outside. They stared in the direction where the smudge of smoke had first appeared on the horizon half an hour before. It was not the tender that they had expected but a long low trim destroyer cleaving the water dead towards them at thirty knots.
Even without glasses they could see that she flew the White Ensign and she was approaching at such speed that in another moment they could see the faces of the men on her decks.
“Hell!” muttered Kate, “I thought the U.S.N. might send a ship out to investigate, what with your radio for a tender and the lawyer’s questioning the will all within a few hours of the Duchess’s death being reported—but they couldn’t have got here under three days and even if they’d sent a plane it wouldn’t have started till this morning. But how have the British rumbled us? This can’t be coincidence.”
“We can neither fight nor run,” said Ardow, “and if we were under steam that thing could catch us in ten minutes. Look there’s another smoke stack about three degrees to the left. That’s the tender I expect.”
“Never mind the tender,” Kate snapped. “Stop that bathysphere coming up. I don’t want the party here if we’ve got to face an enquiry.”
“They’ll not be anywhere near the surface yet,” demurred Slinger.
“You heard me. Do as I tell you. Then get the men together. Ardow have a boat got out on the starboard side. The destroyer can’t have been near enough to have seen my plane when it came down and it’s concealed now by the bulk of the ship. The gun squad are to be sent off to her without a second’s delay. We’ll remain for the moment and attempt to bluff things out. Say the sphere caught in the rocks on the bottom when it burst and that’s why we can’t get it up. With the passengers and guards clear of the ship there’ll be nothing suspicious to give us away even if they search it from stem to stern. Sally Hart will have to have been in the bathysphere too, when it burst, after all, so she’ll lose her hundred thousand if we do succeed in forcing our version of the will through the courts. Her heirs will get it instead but I can’t help that. It’s her unlucky day. Immediately the two of you have got the men away you’ll receive the visitors. I’m only a curious idler who was staying in the Azores and flew out this morning to see the scene of the tragedy.”
Slinger shouted hoarsely down the bridge telephone for the bathysphere to be halted on its upward journey, then shot down the inside ladder to get the men, while Ardow dashed aft to order out a boat.
With what seemed incredible swiftness now the destroyer leapt towards them. It made a graceful curve and came to rest about two hundred yards to port. The shrill pipe of a whistle sounded and, by the time Slinger came panting up the ladder again to report that the gunmen were safely in the boat, the blue jackets had begun to lower a whaler with swift efficiency from the destroyer’s side.
“By Jove, they’re smart, aren’t they—and just to think that I might be commanding that if I’d gone
to Dartmouth as the Governor wanted.” Kate spoke with a whole-hearted admiration which left Slinger in open-mouthed amazement then, as Ardow appeared, he snapped. “Down you go—both of you. There’s nothing to be scared of. You’ve got a watertight story and it should be easy to pull the wool over the officers’ eyes.”
He stepped out on to the port side of the low bridge where he would be able both to see and hear what passed at the interview, while Slinger and Ardow hurried down to the deck. A ladder was lowered and then they stood waiting with nervous impatience to learn the meaning of this visitation.
The destroyer’s boat was gently fended off and a Naval Officer came up the ladder followed by a dozen men all armed with short rifles. He carefully dusted his coat, saluted the quarter deck, and took in Captain Ardow with a glance that was almost as steely as Kate’s.
“You are the Captain of this ship,” he asked.
“Yes, Captain Ardow at your service,” the Russian replied.
“You have a Captain McKay sailing as one of your passengers?”
“We had until this terrible tragedy. You will have heard I—”
“You have I said,” the Naval Officer repeated icily, “and you will send this message to him. ‘Lieutenant Commander Landon Macy presents his compliments to Captain McKay and would be grateful for a word with him at once.’”
“But that is impossible,” Ardow protested. “Did you not hear over the wireless last night—”
“Yes, I heard,” Landon Macy interrupted grimly, “but the game’s up my man. Captain McKay was too smart for you. He’s been morsing with his cabin light each night in the hope that some ship would pick up his signals. Last night he was successful although he got no reply because he kept on sending out a warning that his signals should not be acknowledged in case you tumbled to what was happening. The whole story was relayed to Gib and we were wirelessed to pick you up, so you’ll send my message at once.”
They Found Atlantis Page 20