The Stolen Submarine

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue VI, 6 August 1904, Page 6

The Stolen Submarine

By

GEORGE GRIFFITH.

Author of “ The Angel of the Revolution," " Brothers of the Chain," " The White Witch of Mayfair," “ The World Masters," &c.

BOOK 11-—A QUEEN OE THE UNDERSEAS.

CHAPTER XXIIA SEA DUEL. Within two hours Captain Merkett had got his instructions to patrol the mouth of the harbour of Nagasaki, and the Zanita had started for Shanghai. The Naval Council had believed that the great southern port would be the first objective of the Russian submarine, and therefore the admiral in command retained the Mermaid, since she was the only organism, with the possible exception of L’Anonyme, which could see under water. The conversation between Hillyer and the admiral had taken place at eleven o’clock on the night of March 12. At daybreak the next morning the Zanita was a hundred miles outside Nagasaki, spinning through the cold, calm waters of the Yellow Sea towards Shanghai. As the dim, grey light began to come out from eastward Hillyer came on deck in rubber boots and oilskins, and went on to the bridge. “Good morning, Captain Norman; this weather is about as bad as an English spring. What’s the speed?” “We are still doing thirty, sir, and I suppose you don’t want to meet anything on the way if we can help it.” “No, but we must keep our course. I’ve got to get to Shanghai as quickly as I can, and—well, I suppose if we do meet anything that wants to stop us we shall have to fight. Guns loaded, of course ?” "Oh, yes, 1 think we are ready for anything from battleship to destroyer that wants to stop us,” replied Captain Norman, taking a look round his floating domain, “and I should really like to see what the effect of those shells will be if we do hit anything with them.” “There’s no mistake about the hitting,” said Hillyer. “If the gun is laid right and fired at the proper time the shell must hit. That’s only mathematics. I haven’t left anything to chance. What’s that?” The Zanita was tearing through the water at 30 knots or nearly 35 statute miles an hour while this brief conversation was proceeding, and it so happened that the Russian cruiser Donovoi was crossing her track at 18 knots. When vessels are approaching each other at these speeds it does not take very many minutes for them to get within shooting distance. “That’s a Russian.” cried Captain Norman, as he took the glasses from his eye, “most likely the Donovoi. She’s been about here for three weeks or so now. What shall I do, sir?” “Keep ahead. All the speed you’ve got. Just now I’d rather run away than fight; but if it’s fight, it will have to be so. Get a bit more to the south’ard.”

The captain of the Donovoi happened to be taking his morning look round on the navigating bridge, when the Zanita hove in sight. From the rapidity with which the two vessels were approaching each other it was quite evident that she was no ordinary craft, and within a few minutes his glasses showed him that she was armed. She was not flying any flag, and she was evidently in a tremendous hurry. “1 don’t like the look of that fellow,” he said to his first lieutenant. “A yacht has no business to be travelling at that speed or to have guns; and she’s certainly coming from Nagasaki. We will have full speed and you can give him a three-inch shell across his bows. He’s probably carrying dispatches which may be worth looking at. Ah, he’s heading oil to the southward. Follow him at once and fire.” “Confound the fellow!” said Hillyer, as the Donovoi swung round a couple of point and a three-inch gun barked from the forecastle, “that means heave to or fight, I’m afraid, and we certainly can’t heave to or his six-inch guns would make precious short work of us. Keep her stern on, captain, and tell Mr. Macgregor to give her all he’s got. I’ll go and see to the working of the after guns.” By this time the shell had come screaming through the air purposely end-wide about a couple of hundred yards to starboard, where it splashed into the water, bounded up again, and went skimming away along the surface ahead. The Japanese naval commander came on deck at this moment, and after exchanging salutes witn Hillyer and Captain Norman, who was now practically acting as sailing master, said with a jerk of his thumb towards the Russian: “Ah, that’s the Donovoi, I suppose. She has been hanging about the neighbourhood of Shanghai for some time now, looking for our mailboats and merchant ships, I suppose. Are you going to fight him with these wonderful guns of yours?” “That is for you to decide, sir,” replied Hillyer. “I was just sending for you to ask if we should put the flag up and fight, or run. We shall be out of range of the three-inch guns in a minute, but the next will probably be a six-incher. Ah, I thought so.” At that moment a flash of light and a thin puff of smoke appeared on the Donovoi’s forecastle. The air overhead seemed to be rent with a shrill, shrieking noise. A hundred-pound shell thumped with a mighty splash into the water, some 50yds to starboard, pitching up a cascade of foam, then, rising into the air again, as the other one had done, and disappearing in a succession

of leaps, marked by a train of splashes to the southward, and meanwhile the dull, hoarse bang of the big gun smote their ears with an unmistakable note of warning. “That means business,” said Hillyer. “Now I suppose we’ve got to fight.” I will take one of the after guns and try a sighting shot.” “And I will try one with the other,” said the commander, as they went aft. By this time the banner of the Rising Sun had run up to the top of the flagstaff, and was standing out as flat as a board, for the Zanita was now travelling about 32 knots, and half a gale of wind was tearing along her decks. Another six-inch shell came howling through the air, and pitched about 20 yards wide to port as the commander released his projectile. There was no smoke or report, for the Zanita’s guns were fired, if the term may be used, by a charge of liquid air, which was capable of driving the 201 b projectile a distance of five miles. What happened on board the Donovoi no one who was left alive on the foredeck had any clear recollection of. Two somethings came from somewhere and landed among the guns. The captain and the lieutenant saw two blinding flashes of light, and felt the bridge jump under their feet. Then they became insensible. The big 0000-ton warship shook through the whole of her fabric, and even the great engines down below the water-line seemed to stop for a moment and shudder.

On the fore-deck itself not a man was left alive, and yet when the bodies came to be examined they were not torn or mutilated in any way. The men had simply fallen down where they stood, as if struck by lightning; but it was found afterwards that over a score had totally disappeared. These had, of course, been standing in the focus of the explosion, and had been practically annihilated. As soon as the effect of the two shells had been seen from the Zanita the commander said to Hillyer: “That is excellent. These are marvellous guns! Both shots struck, 1 thinks” “You couldn’t miss a big thing like the Donovoi at this range,” he replied. “If you have the telescopic sights in line and let go when the rangefinder tells you the shell has simplygot to get there. Now, we’ve evidentlysilenced his forward guns; what do you propose to do?” “Well,” replied the commander, “he carries five of those six-inch guns forward, three aft, and eleven threepounders on the broadside. I think we had better run round him and give him a few more. The moral effect of these shells of yours must be very great. I should think two or three more ought to be enough to keep the men away from the guns.” “If we drop another half-dozen on her deck there won’t be any men left to go to the guns. Nothing can live within a radius of twenty yards of the focus of

explosion,” said Hillyer, “so if you wish io capture tne cruiser ” "l iii afraid we can hardly do that, because that would mean a prize crew, you see, and we haven’t the men. At the same time, it is my duty to my Government to disable her if 1 can. Ah, that was too near to be pleasant.” as he spoke another six-inch shell struck the water oniy 20tt. from the Zamta’s stern and sent clouds of spray Hying over her. If it had hit her it would have blown her after parts to fragments and sunk her to a certainty, tn lact, if she had not already swung round in a pretty sharp curve the probability is that her voyage would have ended there and then. Within a few minutes sl'-e v. as broadside on to the Donovoi, which by tins time had burst into thunder and flame from stem to stern and was sending a storm of shell across the water. Then the Zanita’s four broadside guns got to work, and shell after shell dropped round the top works of the Russian cruiser, the lire died down, and the smoke drifted away Horn tne silenced guns. u bi The yacht, moving at full speed, was not hit once. In fact, she was almost invisible at the distance, and the Russian gunners, appalled by the fearful effects of this silent, smokeless, and flameless bombardment, not only fired wildly as long as the officers could keep them at the guns, but within a few minutes of the bursting of the first shells most of them were seized with uncontrollable panic, and ran below, shouting and screaming that they could not light magic guns which struck men dead as the lightning of heaven did. ~ The Zanita ran round the Donovoi s stern and did the same with her port broadside as she had done with her starboard. Shell after shell dropped with relentless precision on the cruiser’s decks, tearing great gashes in them, dismounting guns, and killing every man within the radius of explosion. The top works were almost reduced to ruins, two of the three funnels had been reduced to masses of crumpled iron, and by the time her terrible assailant had made one circuit of her the big Russian cruiser was reduced to silence and impotence. CHAPTER XXIII. SURRENDER. The theory upon which Mark Hillyer had designed his guns and shells was a very simple one. The effect of the higher explosives is to produce within a given limited area such a terrific concussion of the atmosphere that all animal life is destroyed within that area, while for a short range outside it fainting is the result. This is due to direct action on the heart. It is not generally known when fish are killed by dynamite their hearts are found to be divided as cleanly as though it had been done with a razor. This was the effect of the explosive which he had managed for the first time in the history of chemistry to bring under control. Frightful as its effects appeared to be, it was yet far more merciful than any other explosive in use, for it either killed instantaneously and painlessly, or, beyond a certain distance, produced instant insensibility which might or might not be fatal according to the severity of the shock. Its effects on metal and stonework were twofold. Within a few feet of the explosion metals cracked like glass, and stone was reduced to powder; but a shell bursting in a confined space, such, for instance, as a barbette or turret, or a casemate, would instantly reduce it to fragments, besides straining the fabric of the ship so severely that her engines would probably be no longer workable. This was practically what had happened on board the Donovoi. By the time the bombardment had ceased both the port and starboard engines had been so badly shaken by the furious concussions that it was no longer safe to work them at full speed. It was, of course, the duty of the chief engineer to report this to the captain. He tried the telephones ami speaking tubes, but none of them would work; in fact, all the elec-

trical appliances on board had ceased to operate, and so he was obliged to go on deck.

The scene which he beheld appalled him. From end to end of the decks there was neither sound nor movement. The

dead lay about in all attitudes just as they had fallen, apparently asleep. Here or there an arm, or a leg, or a head, had disappeared, reduced to its original elements or scattered far and wide in tiny fragments. The great cruiser, in fact, looked as though within the last few minutes she had passed through a tempest of death and destruction which had left nothing alive on board her. He made his way amidst sights of indescribable horror, a horror made infinitely worse by the ghastly silence, up to the navigating bridge above the conningtower, and as he gained this he saw for the first time the grey-blue shape of the Zanita just visible as she lay on the water about lour miles to the south-westward oil tne starboard bow. On the bridge he found the insensible, if not lifeless, bodies of the captain and the first lieutenant, and inside the armoured wheel-house the quartermaster was lying on the floor, his hands still grasping the spokes of the wheel. He oegan to understand now the nature of those frightful shocks which had penetrated even to the engine-room and shaken two of his engines out of true. He raised the captain and the first lieutenant to a sitting position after he had tound that they were still breathing faintly, and tried to rouse the quartermaster. But it was no use, and so he laid them out full length, and ran below to the captains room to look for some brandy. On deck he found tile doctor and three of his assistants examining the dead.

"What has happened?” said the doctor, looking about the corpse-strewn necks with the eyes of a man who has just awakened from a nightmare, ihey’re all dead! There is not a living, wounded man among them. What horrible tiling is this?” "I know no more than you do, doctor,” replied the engineer. “All 1 do know is that the concussion of these shells, whatever they are, has shaken the Donovoi so badly that I can only work my centre engine. As for these poor fellows, they might have been struck by thunderbolts. But come on to the bridge, please, the captain and first lieutenant are still alive, but insensible. You can still do something for them.”

They went together on to the bridge, followed by the assistant surgeons, and the two officers and quartermaster were carried below. By this time others of the ship’s company had come up on deck, and were looking with wondering eyes at the strangely terrible scene which the cruiser s decks presented, and asking one another what kind of an enemy it could be that was able to work such havoc as this. Meanwhile the Zanita had been running up at easy speed with her men at quarters, and reany to begin the terrible bombardment again if a shot was fired. But there was no more fight left in the Donovoi. Even if she possessed a gun fit to use she Had not a man with the heart to fire it. Two more men had been sent to tile wheei, and sue was crawling along at about live Knots, practically crippled, but the ensign witn the blue St. Andrew s Cioss was still Hying from the flagstaff.. As the Zanita came up the signal "Do you surrender?” flew out from her foretruck.

Nearly all the fighting officers of the Donovoi had died at their posts, and, as the captain and first lieutenant had not yet been restored to consciousness, the chief engineer was the highest responsible officer on duty. He saw the men on the Zanita standing by the long, slender, strange-looking guns, and he knew what a couple of the shells which had already produced such devastation would do if they struck the cruiser below the water-line, and so he gave an order, and the flag fluttered down. Even the Japanese commander was horrified at the frightful appearance of the decks when he came on board. The chief engineer offered him his sword and explained the situation as far as he could. The commander touched the hilt of the sword with his hand and asked him to keep it. Then he hoisted the Japanese flag and ordered the cruiser' to shape her course to Nagasaki.

Presently one of the assistant-surgeons came on deck to say that the captain and first-lieutenant had recovered consciousness, and that the former desired to know at once what had happened.

“Perhaps you will come with me, sir. to the captain’s room,” said the chief engineer. “I was, of course, below when all this happened, and as those horrible shells of yours have not left a man alive

ou deck, you will be able to explain matters better than 1 can.” •■Certainly, replied the eommander, *1 am entirely ai your service.” And so euued Lite Zanita s iirst s>eaduel. nut tne capture of the Donovoi was one thing; to get her into IsagasaKi was quite another, btill it would not do to leave her Uniting with naii-crippleu engines auout the leiiow bea, and so it was decided that she should go under her own steam, while the zanita, having lett a crew 01 zO men on bouru her, snouid run ahead at iud speed, using her Aiaicom apparatus in the hope oi picK nig up a Japanese battleship or cruiser, which would be able to taKe charge oi tne pr.ze. lhe captain and the iirst lieutenant were too ill for some hours alter they nad been brought back to consciousness even to comprehend the extent oi uie destruction which had belalien tneir vessel, ine captain gathered that he had been deieated ana lost Ins ship in some mysterious way, but the shock oi tne two shells had come so near to Killing mm that there was notliuig lor it but to put him and tne iieuLcHoiu vo bed ana wait 101 time to restore the balance oi their minds. But the Japanese commander had not been in charge very long beiore uie great importance ol the capture became apparent, lie, oi course, confiscated the snip s log and all papers not oi a pureiy private nature, ana among these was lound a complete record oi the arrival of the Sea-bnake and of her journey to i'oil Arthur, together with details of an elaborate sea campaign, which was lo be begun, and, indeed had begun, with her assistance. inis practically priceless information rendered the journey to {Shanghai easy of postponement for the present, and so the log and plans were given into llihyer’s charge, to be carried post haste to so that the authorities might nave as much time as possible to form their counter plan of campaign. It was arranged that as soon as he had delivered these he should, with the admiral's consent, run over to Shanghai and carry out his original mission. He had, however, no sooner landed and reported himself to the admiral than a cablegram from Shanghai was put into his hands. He opened it and read as follows: “I have very serious news from London, so if you are still at Nagasaki I should like to communicate with you. This is not only privately but publicly urgent.—Leone Erskine.” BOOK 111. THE FINAL FIGHT. CHAPTER I. AT SHANuuAI. Hillyer at once showed the cable to the admiral, and the latter at once decided that, in view of possible international complications, a visit to Shanghai, which was only 500 miles away, or about three days’ running there and

back for a craft like the Zanita, was of the first importance. A couple of fast scouts were at once sent out to pick up the Donovoi anti bring her in. anil so Hillyer. unless unexpectedly detained, would be baek in ample time to take part in the proposed expedition. Just before starting he had the satisfaction of receiving a long letter from Marian, quite of the sort that his soul most desired, but also of a nature quite too confidential for stranger-eyes to read. Wherefore, he went on his way rejoicing, and more eager than ever for that final fight in which he hoped, for reasons yet to be made plain, to prove, not only to the combatants in the Far East, but also to the world at large, that he had succeeded in making warfare so hopelessly terrible that any nations which attempted to wage a war of aggression would have to choose between arbitration and destruction. Like all men who really are men. he was prepared to tight when just occasion arose, and not even the hope of winning Marian for his own would have tempted him to take the side of Japan if lie had not honestly believed that the island kingdom was fighting in the only rightful cause in which war can be waged—for independence and liberty, and the defence of hearth and home. But, on the other hand, like all soundhearted men, he loathed war as such from the depths of his soul. He believed it to be a crime against humanity, and he was determined, at whatever cost, to put an end to it if he could. He recognised, of course, that the presence of the stolen submarine on the Russian side at Port Arthur very considerably increased the difficulties of his task. In fact, until L’Anonyme was either captured or destroyed it would be sheer folly for the Japanese fleet to approach within at least 15 miles of Port Arthur; wherefore, his counsel had been that all the fleets of the Mikado should be withdrawn into the dockyards and arsenals to undergo a thorough eleaning, and refit, while the Zanita and the .Mermaid, of whose existence the Russians were totally unaware, should go and seek out L’Ano nyme and tight her for the supremacy of the underseas. It was true that this would give the Russians time to repair something of the tremendous damage that had been done by the fleet bombard’” 1 also to proceed with the concentration of their troops, but on the other hand the last action had proved conclusively tiiai the finest battleship would be just as helpless before the attacks of this invisible enemy as the Ching-Yan herself had been, and so, sweeping as the proposition was, it had been taken into careful consideration. This fact was in itself a proof that the Japanese authorities were even now beginning to learn the lessons of the new warfare. As there might be some difficulty, if not danger, in taking an armed vessel into Shanghai, which is not only a neutral, but also a treaty, port, Hillyer decided to leave the Zanita off TsungMing Island, outside the three-mile limit, and run up to the city in his launch. There was, of course, no fear of capture now that the Donovoi had dis-

appeared from the acene, but he knew there were three or four British war ships in and about Shanghai, and he didn’t want to have any awkward questions to answer. When he reached the English settlement he went first to the club, of which he had been made a visiting member on his trip out, to have a wash and get tiffin. He also hoped for the chance of meeting Arthur Erskine here before he went up to his house. The fact was that he had not yet been able to find a reason why the cable had come from Leone and not from her husband. Did Arthur know anything about it, and, if not, what was the matter. How, too, should Leone have got involved in international questions, and Arthur not-—or, for the matter of that, what could either of them have to do

with such matters? To his mind there was only one possible explanation. He knew now of some at least of Sir Victor’s dealings in connection with L’Anonyme. Did Arthur’s sudden departure for Shanghai mean that he was really out here as his brother’s agent, in other words, as a sort of spy? The reflection was not a pleasant one, especially if Marian’s sister, as seemed quite likely, was personally mixed up in Sir Victor’s dubious schemes. The matter, however, was settled for him by the steward of the club, who, in answer to his inquiry, told him that a couple of days before Erskine had started on a business expedition up the Yang-Tse towards Nankin, and would probably not be back for a week. Mrs Erskine had not gone with him. This information decided Hillyer in

the opinion that Erskine did not know of the cable, and that Leone had cabled to him instead of writing, so that she could get whatever she wanted to do with him over before her husband returned. The prospect was not by any means a welcome one to him, for he was one of those men who have a constitutional objection to confidences of any sort with other men’s wives, or, for the matter of that, any women to whom they are not related, engaged, or married. Still, he had come to learn what she had to say, and it was both his business and his duty to learn it, and so when he had finished lunch and smoked a meditative cigar he took a riekshaw and went to the address which the steward had given him. When the boy ushered him into the drawing-room Leone got up from a

wicker chair half-filled with furs and cushions and came towards him, saying in a voice which sounded somewhat strange to him: ‘•Ah, and so you have come. How good of you to come so soon! I hardly thought it possible, even with that wonderful yaeht of yours.” He looked at her in the half light, for the afternoon sun was shining on the windows and the shades were down, and as he took her hand in his he both felt and saw that a great and serious change had eome over her. She was no longer the beautiful and brilliant girl whom he had known as Marian’s sister in London only three short months before. She looked five years older, and his first impression was that she was just recovering from a bad attack of river fever. Her hand, too,

had lost all its spring and grip The eyes .which he, like others, had admired so inuch were dull and heavy and ringed with blue-grey shadows, and h«r voice seemed to have the ech. of a great sorrow in it In faet, he was so astonished at the sudden change that he could not help seeing: “My dear Mrs. Erskine, before we go any farther, for goodness sake tell me .what has been the matter with you! Either you have been very ill or the East has begun to disagree with you very quickly. What is it, fever?” “No, Mr. Hillyer,” she replied, in a slow, weary voice. “It is nothing physical, I’m sorry to say. It is just sheer misery, and I may as well tell you that at once and save time.”

“Misery! You miserable!” he said, in a low tone. “But how on earth ean that be? You—only three months married, with one of the best of fellows for a husband, and everything else, except, perhaps. Park Lane and Peter Robinson! Honestly, you've completely astounded me, and I don’t quite know how to put it. Still, you have asked me to come here, I presume, to see if I can help you, and that explains something—but there, it’s no use going on guessing. You art Marian’s sister, and if you’re in trouble I’m going to get you out if I can. I suppose that’s what yon asked me to come over for- JkVell, now, here I am. Suppose we sit down and you tell me all about it?”

His voice had grown much softer as he went on. He could see that she was ternffering, and of all things he hated most it was to see a woman suffer. She sank baek with a slow, weary motion into her chair again, and he took another opposite to her. “Don’t sit there, please,” she said with a quick little wave of her hand, “sit more round this way. I don’t want you to look at me. If you do I can’t tell you what I have got to.” “Surely, it isn’t as serious as all that! ” he asked, moving his chair, and wondering what on earth was coming. “It is quite as serious as it very well can be,” she replied, putting her elbow on the arm of her chair, and leaning her chin on her hand, so that her face was turned away from him. “So serious and so—so horrible—that ever since I sent you the cable I have been torturing myself with the thought of this talk with you.”

“But is it absolutely necessary?” he hsked “I mean to tell me? I suppose Erskine knows. Why didn’t you leave it to him?”

“My husband does not know.” she said with a note of hardness in her voice, “at least, he knows part of the horrible story, as you will hear, and there’s no other man or woman that I could or would tell it to but yourself. Besides, my husband could do nothing. He would be totally helpless. You, perhaps, can and’will help us, and, if you are going to marry Marian, it is only right that you should know ”

•T certainly am going to marry her, whatever it may be that you have to tell me, Mrs. Erskine,” he replied quietly, “and, furthermore, of course, if it is anything that concerns her perhaps I’d better hear it as soon as possible.” She noted the change in his tone and turned her face halfway towards him as she replied:

“Of course. But I had better begin by explaining that Marian, happily, so far has not the smallest notion of anything that I’m going to tell you about.” “I can hardly help saying that I’iu glad of that,” he said, “and I hope 1 need, not say that if it’s a matter of protecting them from any trouble or sorrow, you may consider any help I can give as already promised.”

A possible sigh escaped Leone’s lips. If it had only been her happiness to have Won su<* love and trust as this from such a man! If only she had learnt to love as Marian had done, instead of falling a victim to the blind mania for exeitement ami extravagance which is the most grievous curst) of the modern girl in society; if she had not entered upon the fatal course which sooner or later infallibly leads into the clutches of the harpies who prey upon sueh folly as hers—in a word, if she had not begun by .worshipping money ami the trinkets which it can buy, and had waited contentedly for that which no money tian l»uj^—how different everything would have been.

But it was too late to Ihiajc about that now. She had sinned, and now the time had come, to pay more of the penalty. Some of it she had paid already in the •niaery of a marriage in which there wire

now no love on either side —only fear and aversion. “Yes, I thought—l knew—that you would say that; but you must not say any more until I .have told yon everything. Now, listen, and for pity’s sake don’t interrupt me until I’ve done.” ’’That also I ean promise you,” he said, with a note of sympathy in his voice which helped her a little. And their she began and told him in a hard, strained, unnatural tone, which nevertheless shook every now and then with a quiver of shame, the story of the forged cheque and the use that Sir Victor had made of it. He listened in silence, and with an amazement which was not altogether unmingled with anger and disgust. When she had finished she got up and faced him, and with a half-fearful, half-ques-tioning look at him said: “There, that is the first part of the story, and so much, of course, my husband knows. Now, I will tell you the part that he does not know.” And so saying, she went to a little writing table, unlocked a drawer, and took out several sheets of notepaper covered with hex own handwriting. CHAPTER 11. SIU VICTORS CABLE. “I don’t know what you must think of me by this time,” she said, turning towards him again, “but whatever you do it cannot be worse than what I think of myself. It would have been bad enough even if I had loved Arthur Erskine when I tempted him to commit crime; but I didn’t. I only knew that he loved me, and I used that knowledge, as I thought, to save myself from the results of my miserable extravagance—and when you have read this you will see what a fate I have brought upon myself, and what ruin my action may perhaps bring upon the world.” She gave the sheets of paper to Hillyer, who took them in silence, and went back to her chair. Then she went on:

“Sir Victor sent me two long cables. The longest one was the message, and the .other was the key to the words. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t know which, they came just after my husband had gone. When you have read the message you will be able to imagine what might have happened; indeed, what may still happen, were he to read it.”

Then she turned her head away from him, half buried it in the cushions, and covered her eyes with her hand. This is what Hillyer read:

“Circumstances have lately arisen which make it evident that I gave you to the wrong man. If I had known how high a price. Sir Julius was prepared to pay I should have acted differently. For the treachery of which you were guilty with regard to myself and my brother no punishment could have been too great, and I am sure that Sir Julius would have treated von very handsomely.

“Certainly whatever treatment you had received from him would have been quite good enough for a woman who tempted an innocent man into crime by sueh means as you used, when all the while you wanted to marry his brother simply because you thought that he could give you an unlimited supply of that which you were plainly prepared to sell yourself for.

“It now appears that Sir Julius was really in earnest in his admiration and affection for you, and circumstances have arisen which make it absolutely essential that you shall return at once and accept, not the offer he made to you before, but a far more splendid one which he has put before me, and which ought certainly to commend itself to the consideration of one who has such exalted ideas as to the value of what money can buy ns you undoubtedly have. “You will explain this matter to Arthur or - not, as you please. That will not affect the issue in the slightest. Personally, I am a little sorry for him; but, still, a man must pay the penalty of his fault, and, after all, he knew the sort of bargain he was making. On the whole, perhaps, it might save trouble jf you said nothing to him about it, and just placed yourself in the hands of Dr. Chen-yu, who is a great friend of Sir Julius and myself, and who will provide you with the proper escort and make every provision for your passage home. Dr. Chpn-yu Will call upon you, soon after you receive this. His introduction will be a short cable signed by rnysflf in this cipher. “I do not anticipate that you will be foolish enough to innke any objections to this course of action; but, in case Buch au idea should suggest itself to

you, it would be well for you to understand the very serious consequences whieh might result from your asfasal. In the flr=t place, I still retain tho •cheque which you persuaded the man '"ho is now your husband to forge.- What I gave him on his wedding day was a good imitation, but perfectly genuine. It is therefore still in my power to prosecute him for forgery. Your share in the transaction would, of course, come out iu the trial, and I need not remind you what very unpleasant family consequences this conviction would have. “Another reason for your compliance is that, to put matters quite plainly, differences have arisen between Sir Julius and myself on the question of war or peace, which only your agreement to his terms can settle. Were they not settled the results would be disastrous to myself, and you may be quite sure that I should not be over tender as regards the means I used to enforce your compliance in case of necessity. “Sir Julius Ackerman’s interests are at present on the side of intervention, and, therefore, general war. Mine are on the side of peace. If you accept the conditions and return to Europe at once there will be no European intervention, and my position "-ill be saved. If not I shall be crushed by the weight of his heavier metal, there will be almost universal war, and he will probably find means to make you come to terms, after all. “I am quite sure that when you have carefully considered the matter you will find the best of reasons for doing as 1 suggest and desire.—Victor Erskine.” Hillyer read this interesting document very carefully the first time, and then he looked through it slowly again. Under ordinary circumstances it would have infuriated him beyond control, but what he read between the lines had a strong sobering effect on him. For the time being personal considera-

tions receded into the background, for here was direct evidence of a financial plot t« U ing about . world-war—that very war which he wt. determined to prevent—for the most sordid and despicable of human ntasqßs. Somewhat to his own surprise he had. for -the time being, ceased to regard Leone Esckine as Marian's sister, or ns a woman who might possibly bring disgrace upon the name of the girl to whom he meant to give his own name. These, after .all, were personal considerations which could be dealt with afterwards. Leone remained silent until he spoke, and when he bid speak his voice and manner were so completely changed that she sat upright in her chair with a start and looked at him. (To be Continued.)