The Air Pirate Read online

  CHAPTER II

  FATE OF THE TRANS-ATLANTIC AIR-LINER "ALBATROS"

  There were a good many people in both the ante-room and the secretaries'room as I was led to Sir Joshua. I was immediately aware of an unusualstir and excitement, and people nodded and whispered as Ipassed--"That's Sir John Custance, the Police Commissioner." "I expectthere's some news," were two of the _sotto voce_ remarks I heard.

  Sir Joshua sat in his own magnificent apartment, with the great windowlooking out over Drake's Island and Mount Edgcombe to the horizon. Atray and a decanter showed that he had lunched there, and there was agood deal of cigar smoke in the air.

  Sir Joshua was a tall and corpulent man of nearly seventy, with a redface with little purple veins in the cheeks, a thatch of snow-white hairand close whiskers. He had been an early pioneer of commercial flying,and had reaped his reward in the control of the finest air fleet in theworld and the Lord knows how many millions of money. He was distinctlyan able and upright man, and his only faults were a slight pomposity anda mistaken idea that the Commissioner of A.P. for Great Britain was asort of unpaid official of The White Star Line! A good many of the greatair-shipping magnates had tried to take that line in the past--and beensnubbed for their pains!

  Sir Joshua was not pompous this afternoon, and his face was twitching ashe shook hands.

  "Thank God you're come, Sir John," he said, "I am almost out of my mindwith worry and anxiety. You will agree with me that this affair is asgrave as it well can be?"

  To that I was diplomatically silent. What I said was: "I have seenSuperintendent Pilot Lashmar. What I want now, Sir Joshua, as apreliminary, is a brief and exact account from your own lips."

  "Sit down," he said, pushing a padded chair towards me and handing a boxof cigars. "You shall have it in a nutshell." He sat down opposite tome, pulled some papers towards him with a hand that shook a little, andbegan to read.

  ... "Our liner _Albatros_, carrying the mails, left New York yesterdaymorning about seven a.m., American time. She was consequently due hereat Plymouth about six-thirty this afternoon--Greenwich. The weatherconditions at the ten thousand feet mail-ship level were perfect. Inaddition to the mails there were about two hundred passengers, and shecarried, though this was known only to a few officials, a parcel ofparticularly fine Brazilian diamonds, consigned from Tiffany's of NewYork to Aaron and Harris, the dealers in precious stones, of HattonGarden. The jewels were in the ship's safe, in charge of the purser.Various ships--I have the full list--sighted the _Albatros_ during theday and exchanged signals, while she duly reported herself by wirelessas she passed each lightship, as soon as dusk fell. The lightships, asyou know, are a hundred miles apart from the Fastnet to Long Island, andare connected by cable with our telegraph room here. The indicatingdials register, degree by geographical degree, the exact position of anyof our ships when in the air. This record is printed on a tape beneatheach dial, and each record is examined every hour or two by a clerk."

  Of course, I knew all this. The minutest detail of the system wasfamiliar. I wished that Sir Joshua would "cut the cackle and come to the'osses." No doubt my face showed something of what I felt, for SirJoshua half apologized.

  "You see, Sir John," he said, "I thought it best to prepare some sort ofshort and coherent statement for the Press. As yet they have got holdof nothing, but we can't possibly keep it much longer. Even youcouldn't, with all your powers. And what I am reading is this statement.I particularly want you to hear it, as, of course, it rests with you ifit shall be published in this form or not."

  I bowed, and Sir Joshua continued:

  "At ten o'clock last night the clerk on duty examined the tapes. When hecame to the one recording the progress of the _Albatros_, he found thatfor two hours there was no record of her at all. The last record wasthat she had passed and signalled to Lightship A. 70 that all was well.A two hours' gap is so unusual, owing to the--er--perfection of ourorganization, that the clerk was alarmed, and reported the matter to asuperior upstairs.

  "A general call to all our ships in the air at that moment was at oncesent out, and in a few minutes responses were received from several ofthem to the effect that the _Albatros_ had not been sighted. Nor wasthere any answer from the ship herself. A signal to Lightship A. 71, thenext guide-boat the _Albatros_ should have passed, elicited theinformation that she had never done so. By eleven o'clock all thesefacts were known in this office. The night staff here became seriouslyalarmed. By a fortunate coincidence I was attending a performance at theTheatre Royal close by, with Lady Johnson and my daughters. This wasknown, and a messenger caught me at the close of the play, and I cameround at once. I had not been in the offices for five minutes, when newsof the most extraordinary and sensational character began to come infrom our receiving station by the Citadel.

  "Captain Pring, one of our most reliable pilot commanders, was in chargeof the _Albatros_. The message was from him, and this is the gist of it.At sundown the _Albatros_ was flying on the ten-thousand-foot level. TheLightship A. 70 was some twenty miles astern. No other airships were insight, when the look-out man reported a boat coming up at great speedfrom the east. The _Albatros_ was doing her steady ninety knots, but asthe two ships approached, it was seen that the stranger, a much smallerboat, was flying at an almost incredible rate. Pring reports that shewas doing a sixteen to eighteen second mile, but there is doubtless amistake in the message.

  "The boat showed no distinguishing lights, and failed to signal, as sheflashed past the liner at the distance of half a mile. There wereseveral curious features about her which attracted attention, thoughwhat these were we do not yet know. This strange ship turned and came upwith the _Albatros_, actually flying round her in spirals with thegreatest ease. Then, without the slightest warning, she opened fire onour vessel, and the first shell, obviously by design, blew away ourwireless."

  My heart simply bounded within me. This was news with a vengeance! I hadto exercise all my self-control not to pour out a stream of franticquestions. It was beyond thinking! Such a thing had not happened sincethe League of Nations came into being. It might mean hideous war oncemore--anything!

  Sir Joshua had paused to drink a glass of water. He understood theimmense gravity of this news as well as I did, and his voice wasunsteady as he went on in answer to my nod!

  "The _Albatros_ was helpless. Since the international agreement thatonly naval, military and police ships may fly armed, she had no possiblemeans of defence. Flight, even, was impossible, and the loss of herwireless forbade her to summon help. Then the anonymous ship turned amachine gun on her rudder and shot it out of gear. There was nothing forit but to descend to the water and rest on her floats. Pring was forcedto give the order, and she planed down. The other ship followed and tookthe water not two hundred yards away.

  "She then signalled in Morse code, with a Klaxon horn, that she wassending men aboard the _Albatros_, and that if the captain or crewoffered the slightest resistance she'd blow her to pieces. They launcheda Berthon collapsible boat from a door in the stern fusilage. There werefour men in her, all armed with large-calibre automatic pistols, andwearing pilot's hoods and masks with talc eye-pieces, so that it wasimpossible to identify them. Pring could do nothing at all. He had thepassengers to consider. These ruffians cleared out the safe and thewomen's jewel-cases--they left the mails alone--and in ten minutes theywere back again with the loot. The ship lifted and went off in the darkat two hundred miles an hour, leaving the _Albatros_, helpless upon thewater.

  "It was a business of several hours to rig up a makeshift rudder, but,fortunately, her searchlights were all right, and she kept on signallingwith these until she was sighted by a big cargo steamer, a Baltimore toCadiz boat, coming up from the south, the _Sant Iago_. She took off thepassengers and is bringing them home; she's only a fifteen-knot boat,but I have already dispatched one of our smaller liners to pick her upand take the passengers aboard. They ought to be here some timeto-morrow.

  "The _Sant Iago_ has wireless, and w
as able to communicate, not onlywith us, but also with the air-yacht _May Flower_, which she sighted onthe four-thousand-foot level at dawn. The _May Flower_ belongs to Mr.Van Adams, the Philadelphia millionaire, who is crossing to England witha party of friends. She came down to the water and took up CommanderPring and the second officer, and should be here by tea-time thisafternoon. Then we shall know more of this unprecedented, thisdeplorable business."

  "And the _Albatros_, Sir Joshua?"

  "A small crew was left on her, and an emergency tender and workmenstarted at dawn. She ought to be flying again to-night."

  I had all the available facts at last, and long before Sir Joshua hadfinished my mind was busy as a mill. There was going to be the verybiggest sort of commotion over this. England and America would be in ablaze of fury within twenty-four hours, and every flying man, from theskippers of the lordly London-Brindisi-Bombay boats, or theTransatlantic Line, to the sporting commercial traveller in a secondhand50 h.p. trussed-girder blow-fly, would be wagging the admonishing fingerat ME.

  "Thank you, Sir Joshua. Most lucid, if I may say so. As a clearstatement of fact, combined with a sense of vivid narrative, youraccount could hardly be improved on."

  "You think, Sir John ..."

  "When the time comes to make a statement for the newspapers I would notalter a word."

  Thus did the tongue of the flatterer evade a situation that might havebeen a trifle awkward for me. I rose at that. "I must leave you now, SirJoshua," I said, "as I have a great deal to see to and must rejoin Mr.Lashmar. Steps have already been taken, and later on in the day I shallbe able to tell you more. Meanwhile I shall see Captain Pring directlythe _May Flower_ arrives, and before anyone else. Our future action mustdepend a great deal on his statement."

  This was said in my curtest official manner, and then I got out of theroom as quickly as I possibly could. Lashmar was waiting, and I took himby the arm and hurried him out of the office.

  "I've only just heard full details, Lashmar, and pretty bad they are.Now has anything been done--by us, I mean?"

  "I had two of our patrol ships out at two-thirty this morning cruisingover a wide area, sir. They are out still, and reporting every hour. Noresults, no strange airship seen anywhere. I've been out myself up anddown the Irish coast and round the Scillies this morning, more forform's sake than anything else. And I've cabled the whole story, as faras we know it, to the States."

  "Good! Any reply from them?"

  "Their police ships are out from Cape Breton to the Bermudas, but theydon't seem to have sighted anything out of the ordinary as yet."

  "Of course, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack alongthat huge stretch, eight hundred miles if it's an inch. But, as far as Ican see, it's up to them; not us."

  "You think so, sir?"

  "Why, yes. It's a case of sheer rank and daring piracy. It's beenorganized with great skill, and the pirates, whoever they are, havecommand of something quite out-size in the way of a ship. There isn't aworks in England where such a boat could be built without our knowingabout it before it was launched. And it's dead certain that there'snowhere in these little islands to hide her. Every single bit of spruceand piano wire with a motor-bicycle engine that can fly ten yards has tobe registered and licensed by me. No, this is an American stunt."

  We had been crossing the Hoe as we talked, in the direction of theCitadel, and we now came to the long, low building of Dartmoor stone,which is the Plymouth Headquarters of the A.P. It is perched on the edgeof the cliff, and within five yards of the spot where Sir Francis Drakeis said to have finished his game of bowls when the Armada was coming upChannel.

  We passed through the gates, where the police sentry presented arms, andbegan to walk up and down the terrace.

  "Signal to Southampton," I ordered, "and get a couple of their fastestboats here at once. They may be useful in an emergency, and it will lookas if we are doing something. Ready for action, of course, and with fullservice ammunition and bombs. Sir Joshua may have a fit if he likes, butthere is nothing to be done until we know more--unless you can suggestanything?"

  The little man shook his head. He was keen as a terrier, of course, andhe had already acted with great promptitude and wisdom.

  Just then an orderly came out on to the terrace and handed me a signal.

  I read it out to Lashmar: "Air-yacht _May Flower_ just passed St. Mary'sdoing ninety knots." It was from our most westerly A.P. station onTresco in the Scillies. Lashmar made a rough calculation: "Twenty-fivemiles west-sou'-west of Land's End, add another seventy--she'll be herejust under the hour, sir."

  "Then I tell you what, Mr. Lashmar, go and meet her and escort her home.Not a living soul must speak to Captain Pring before I do--not even SirJoshua or any of the White Star people. Give that as my orders when youmeet the yacht. But put it very politely to Mr. Van Adams--mycompliments and that sort of thing. He's the sort of person who couldbuy the goodwill of the universe for ready money. Make your escortappear a compliment from the Government!"

  Lashmar never wasted words. He understood exactly, saluted, and hurriedto the electric railway, which ran down like a chute into the sea-dromefar below. I lit a cigarette and watched, and it was a sight worthwatching.

  Beyond, stretched the largest sea-drome in Great Britain, a harbourwithin a harbour, surrounded by massive concrete walls. In the roughestweather, when even within the distant breakwater the Sound is turbulent,the sea-drome is calm as a duck-pond. Now it was like a sheet ofpolished silver, and resting on their great floats at their mooringswere three gigantic air-liners, with electric launches and motor-boatsplying between them and the landing-stages.

  Right in the centre was the splendid _Atlantis_, graceful as a swan, bywhich Connie was to leave for the States in a few hours. She wassurrounded by a swarm of boats no bigger than water-beetles from where Istood.

  A bell rang, there was a rumbling sound, and from a tunnel just beneathme the car, with Lashmar in it, shot down to the water like a stonerunning down a house roof. As the car dwindled to a punt, a match-box,and finally a postage stamp, I heard the creak and swish of thesemaphore behind me on the roof of the station. On the far side of thesea-drome was our Patrol Ship No. 1, stream-line fusilage, with thefamiliar red, white and blue line, snow-white planes, guns fore andaft, and twin propellers of phosphor bronze winking white-hot in theafternoon sun.

  The semaphore was sighted in five seconds. I got a pair of glasses, andsaw that the engines were already "ticking over" as Lashmar jumped intoa launch and went over the pool, with a cream-white wake behind him andtwo ostrich plumes of spray six feet high at the bows. He was on boardin less time than it takes to write it. I heard the faint throbbing ofthe four high-compression engines change to the drone of a hornet. No. 1Patrol slid over the water until her floats lifted--lifted until theybarely touched the surface, and she was clear. One clean spiral overPinklecombe way, and then, as she mounted, she turned and was off overRams Head like an arrow from a bow. Though I say it that shouldn't, myofficers and men of the A.P. were just about as good as they're made!

  There was a good three-quarters of an hour to spare, and the Royal Hotelwas not four minutes away. After the recent excitements a cup of teawith Connie seemed just the thing. As I legged it over the Hoe, Irealized that I might be very busy for some time, and, in consequence,late for dinner. I must tell my girl that something of great importancehad happened, though, in any case, I was determined to see her off, comewhat might.

  Then I remembered something. As Chief Commissioner I had absolutecontrol over the airports of England in a time of crisis. In any case,it would be as well to, close the sea-drome in preparation for the _MayFlower's_ arrival. I should then be certain that no one could possiblyget at Captain Pring before I could. And if I chose to detain even theRoyal Mail for half an hour later on in the evening--under thecircumstances!--no one would say me nay.

  There is a telephone box in the hall of the Royal Hotel. In thirtyseconds my orders were given, and not
a living soul would enter or leavePlymouth sea-drome without my permission. Then I strolled into thewinter gardens, where I found Connie sitting at a little table amongtubs of azaleas and listening to the strains of a ladies' orchestra.

  "I've half an hour and ten minutes exactly, darling," I said, putting mywatch on the table and helping her to early strawberries. "Tell me whenthe time's up, and then I must rush away for an hour before we dine."

  Straightway I forgot all about the _Albatros_, Captain Pring, and themysterious armed ship in mid-Atlantic.

  Knowing what I know now, I wonder how I could have taken it so lightly,even then. But grave and serious as the affair was, amazing, too, inits boldness, an elaborate and unexpected masterpiece of crime, itseemed remote and very far away, like something one reads of in aforeign newspaper, never conceiving that it can have anything to do withone's own _personal_ life.

  If only I could have peeped but a little way into the future!