Part 17 (1/2)
”Yonder is the old castle of Lochindorb, Jack. Behind those walls is the shed which shelters the Kershaw aeroplane. Look!”
And gazing in the direction he indicated, I saw a skiff with three occupants coming across from the shadows on the left towards the island.
The man steering was a corporal of engineers in khaki.
”It appears,” Ray went on, ”that the machine takes her flight from the open surface of the loch, which, as you see, is about two miles long.
She enters and leaves the shed by water.”
As we were speaking, a bearded gillie of gigantic stature came up from nowhere and promptly ordered us away, an order which we were very reluctantly compelled to obey.
At last, however, we had discovered the obscure spot where the secret trials were in progress.
”I knew from the first that the tests must be in progress in this district,” Ray said, ”for a month ago that motor engineer in Grantown of whom you hired your cycle made a small part of a new motor for a man who was a stranger. The part was broken, and the stranger ordered another to be made. I learnt that the first night we were in Grantown.”
He resolved to spend that night at Grantown, therefore we dined together, and when we rose from table he went to his room in order to obtain his pipe.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW BRITISH ARMY AEROPLANE: ROUGH SKETCH DRAWN BY LIEUT. KARL STRAUS, OF THE GERMAN SECRET SERVICE.]
Ten minutes later he returned, saying:
”Just come with me for a moment, Jack.”
I rose and followed.
We ascended the stairs, and pa.s.sing along the corridor he halted before the door of No. 11 and tapped at it quietly.
It opened, and Smith stood upon the threshold.
”I wish to speak with you a moment,” Ray said, facing him determinedly.
The man's face fell. We both entered, but so surprised was he that he could utter no protest.
We saw that on the table beneath the lamp was spread a number of photographs and papers.
He had been writing upon a sheet of foolscap and the writing was in German.
”Yes,” exclaimed Ray in a tone of satisfaction as he bent over to glance at the first few lines. ”I see. You report: 'The upper plane is somewhat curved, with an----'”
”What's my business to do with you, pray?” the man asked defiantly in excellent English.
”Well, your business has interested me greatly, Herr Straus,” calmly replied my companion, ”and I congratulate you upon the ingenious method by which you got a sight of the Kershaw aeroplane at an early hour this morning. I was at Lochindorb with you--and rather cold waiting, wasn't it?”
The man now recognised gave vent to a quick imprecation.
”I see you've just developed that photograph you took in secret as she sailed within twenty yards of you! But I shall trouble you to give it over to me, together with the rough sketch I see, and your written description of our new military invention,” he said, with mock politeness.
”I don't know you--and I shall do nothing of the sort.”
”I know you, Karl Straus, as a spy of Germany,” exclaimed my friend, with a grin. ”Your reputation for ingenuity and cunning reached us from France”; and s.n.a.t.c.hing up the sheet of foolscap he turned to me, saying, ”Listen to this, Jack,” and while the German agent stood biting his lips in chagrin at being discovered at the eleventh hour, my friend read aloud the spy's report, as follows: