The Complete Detective Sgt. Elk Series (6 Novels in One Edition). Edgar Wallace

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ for action. In this time the Castilia had put three shells into the Inveterate. The first killed an able seaman and seriously wounded the gunnery-lieutenant, the second did little or no damage, but the third destroyed No. 3 9.6 gun and killed four of its crew.

      “I at once opened fire on the Castilia with two six-inch guns. Both shots took effect, one, as I have since ascertained, below her water line, and she immediately heeled over to port.

      “Seeing she was helpless, and sinking rapidly, I ordered away my lifeboats, at the same time signalling ‘I am coining to your assistance.’ No further shots were fired, and the officers and crew of the Castilia, together with nineteen wounded men, were taken off.

      “The Castilia sank at 8.19, the action having lasted, from the time of firing the first shot to the moment of crippling, 5 minutes, 48 seconds.

      “I made no immediate attempt to ascertain the cause of the extraordinary conduct of the Castilia, because Captain Tirez, when I received him on board, was in a dying condition. He had been struck by a fragment of shell and never regained consciousness, expiring that afternoon, but before my arrival at Gibraltar I interviewed the Spanish officer who was acting as navigating lieutenant. From him I learned the incident was inexplicable to him, as to the rest of the crew. The captain had received a wireless telegram, coded in the secret cypher of the Admiralty. This telegram had perplexed and distressed him, but the only remark he had made to his officers had been —

      “‘The Government is sending us to our deaths — but I can do nothing else than obey.’

      “From this it would seem that Captain Tirez — whom I know personally to have been a very able and gallant gentleman — was acting on orders which were open to no other interpretation than as direct instructions to shell the Inveterate.”

      So much for the laconic report of the officer.

      He compressed within the limits of a sheet of notepaper a tragedy, the news of which appalled the civilized world.

      The battle occurred at between seven and eight in the morning. The news was in London by ten that the Inveterate had been snnk by a Spanish cruiser and that a fierce and sanguinary battle had preceded its sinking.

      Who sent the descriptive telegram from Gibraltar will never be known, though its source was obvious.

      It bore the name of a world-famous news agency, and was issued to the Press from the London office of the Agency, but the Gibraltar correspondent had no knowledge of its sending. All England was in an uproar when the official version of the incident came to hand.

      Spain! Why Spain! What was the cause? What had we done, what insult had we offered? There were writers in plenty to rush into print to prove that whatever had happened it was England’s fault, but even these gentlemen could offer no elucidation.

      Captain Somburn’s report was telegraphed to the Admiralty immediately on his arrival at Gibraltar, and issued to the Press. Side by side in the morning newspapers appeared the official disclaimer of the Spanish Government.

      “His Majesty’s Government has no knowledge of any circumstance leading up to or responsible for the recent lamentable disaster off the coast of Morocco. It has issued directly or indirectly no instructions, orders, or suggestions to Captain Tirez, and has had no communication with him other than the conventional exchange of documents, peculiar to routine.”

XIX. The Book

       Table of Contents

      T.B. Smith was one of many millions, who read this statement. He was one of many thousands who believed it implicitly. He was one of twelve who understood the madness of the dead Spanish Captain.

      He saw, too, villainy behind it all; the greed of gold that had sent a gallant ship to the bottom, that had brought death and mutilation in most horrible form to brave men.

      Silinski had slipped through his fingers — Silinski, arch-agent of the Nine.

      The house in St. John Street had been raided. In a little room on the top floor there was evidence that an instrument of some considerable size had been hastily dismantled. Broken ends of wire were hanging from the wall, and one other room on the same floor was packed with storage batteries. Pursuing their investigations, the detectives ascended to the roof through a trap door. Here was the flagstaff and the arrangement for hoisting the wires. Apparently, night was usually chosen for the reception and dispatch of messages. By night, the taut strands of wire would not attract attention. Only in cases of extremest urgency were they employed in daylight.

      Such an occasion had been that when T.B. had interviewed Silinski. He understood now why the Pole had talked so loudly. It was to drown the peculiar sound of a wireless instrument at work.

      Silinski was gone — vanished, in spite of the fact that every railway terminus in London had been watched, every ocean-going passenger scrutinized.

      Now, on top of his disappearance came the Castilia disaster with the irresponsible public of two nations howling for a scapegoat. T.B. Smith attended a specially convened meeting of Ministers in Downing Street and related all that he knew.

      “Give me two days,” he said, “and you may publish the whole of the facts. But to show our hand now would be disastrous. The police of every city are engaged in tracking down the wireless stations. There is one in every capital, of that much we are sure. To get the whole gang, however, I must find out where they are operating from.”

      “Is that possible?” asked the grave Prime Minister.

      “Absolutely, sir,” said T.B.

      In the end they agreed.

      A more difficult man to persuade was the editor of the London Morning Journal.

      “I have got the story, why not let me publish?” was a not unnatural request.

      “In two days you shall have the complete story; what I am anxious to avoid is anything in the nature of to-be-continued-in-our-next! I want the whole thing rounded off and finished for good.”

      Reluctantly, the editor agreed.

      He had two days to get the “book”; this code which the unfortunate Hyatt had deciphered to his undoing. Moss had said Hyatt’s sister had it, but the country had been searched from end to end for Hyatt’s sister. It had not been difficult to trace her. Elk, after half an hour’s search in Falmouth had discovered her abode, but the girl was not there.

      “She left for London yesterday,” he was informed.

      From that moment Miss Hyatt had disappeared.

      A telegram had reached her on the very day of Hyatt’s death. It said “Come.”

      There was no name, no address. The telegram had been handed in at St. Martin’s-le-Grand; unearthed, it was found to be in typewritten characters, and the address at its back a fictitious one.

      One other item of news Elk secured; there had been a lady on the same errand as himself. “A foreign lady,” said the good folks of Falmouth. When T.B. played the spy to the banker and the Spanish dancer, he had heard her speak of a visit to Cornwall; this, then, was the visit.

      He СКАЧАТЬ