Who Goes There!

Will call at American Consulate. Many thanks.

    Churchill, Consul.

He sat thinking for a few minutes. Then remembering that he did not know where the American Consul was to be found, he went again to the wireless office and procured the address.

Turning, as he was leaving, to thank the boyish operator, he found that youth's shrewd eyes fixed on him intently.

"Look out, sir," said the operator, in perfectly good English. "There's a lot o' talk about you on board."

"What do you mean?"

"Wasn't it you the Wyvern was wanting?"

"Yes."

"You're friendly to us, I take it?"

"Do you mean to England?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, I am."

"I fancied so. Be very careful aboard this boat, sir. Half the crew and most of the stewards are German."

"Thanks," said Guild smilingly.

But as he walked slowly away he realized rather uneasily what an object of interest he had become to the personnel of the ship since the Wyvern had honoured him by her wireless inquiries concerning him.

CHAPTER XII

IN THE RAIN

He went straight to the writing-room. Only one or two of his fellow-passengers were up, and he had the place to himself.

He wrote first:

W. A. Churchill, Esquire,

British Consulate,

Plantage Middenlaan 20,

Amsterdam,

Holland

Sir:

The following items of information should be immediately transmitted to your home Government. The importance of the matters in question admit of no delay.

1st. It has come to my knowledge that German spies in England have discovered the whereabouts of a British fleet – presumably the first line battle fleet – and have attempted to communicate the intelligence to Berlin. One document in cipher embodying this intelligence has been intercepted and translated. But other communications in cipher may get through.

2d. Another document of the same sort advises the Berlin Government to send from Cuxhaven a cruiser (parent ship) as convoy to three submarines for the purpose of attacking the British armoured ships.

The rendezvous of the British ships, as given in the cipher message, is Lough Swilly, North Irish coast.

The route suggested for the German cruiser and submarines is around the north coast of Scotland.

3d. Still a third document in cipher informs the German Government that the light cruiser, Schmetterling, at or off Valparaiso, is being pursued by the Japanese ship Geisha and the French gunboat Eventail.

4th. The fourth and last item of information to be transmitted to your Government concerns an actuality witnessed by myself and by the majority of the passengers of this steamer, now docking at Rotterdam.

Last night, somewhere between eleven o'clock and midnight, and somewhere off the Belgian coast, H. M. S. Wyvern was blown up, whether by mine or torpedo or by a bomb from some unseen air-craft I do not know. She was using her searchlight on the clouds at the time.

The ship was tilted out of the water at an odd angle when the red glare that suddenly enveloped her made her visible. It appears to me as though some submarine convulsion had heaved her up out of the sea.

There was one of her officers aboard our liner when the catastrophe occurred – Lieutenant Jamison. A boat's crew lay alongside of us. With these exceptions it does not seem probable that anybody aboard the Wyvern could have escaped death, although other ships were in the vicinity and their searchlights played upon her, and I saw small boats on the way to her before she finally blew to pieces.

This is the information which both duty and inclination impel me to place at the disposal of the British Government.

Permit me to add that I am leaving in the hands of the United States consul, Henry H. Morgan, Esquire, a separate packet of papers containing full corroboration of the foregoing details.

The packet is addressed to you in his care, but he will be instructed to give you this letter, only, and not to deliver the packet to you until a week from today for reasons which I cannot explain.

The packet contains —

1st. Three pages of cipher and pictographs employed by the German spy system in London.

2d. A key to the cipher.

3d. A key to the pictographs.

4th. A full translation of the cipher.

5th. A translation of the pictographs.

6th. A map.

The German personage to whom the packet was originally addressed, the names and addresses of those who sent it from London, the circumstances under which it was intercepted, will be written out with what detail is necessary, and will be contained in the packet with the original cipher.

In one week from today the American Consul, Mr. Morgan, will deliver to you this packet, but under no circumstances is it to be delivered before a week from today.

I have the honour to be, sir, with great respect,

    Your obt. serv't,
    Kervyn Guild

Union square, New York.