Part 34 (1/2)

Yonder, to the north-west, appeared a ghost, a thing, a derelict brig, driving downhill on the billows, like a blind man gadding aimless with a crazy down-look, the rags of her one sail drumming on the gusts; and near, nearer, within a stone's-throw of the _Boodah_, she swaggered wearily, drab Arab, doomed despondent Ahasuerus of the deep, nomad on the nomad sea; and on into the gloom of the south-west she roamed, to be again and again re-created by the rolling light-drum, while Hogarth with a groan said: ”If I were only dead! I feel to-night like a man abandoned by the Almighty”.

Loveday muttered those words so loved by Hogarth:

”....this is my favoured lot, My exaltation to afflictions high”....

And Hogarth: ”Do you know what is burdening me tonight? It is the curses which the world is at this moment hurling upon me: as when one man, thinking evilly of another, sticks needles into wax, and needles of pain pierce the other...” a sense of evil which was deepened the next day by an ominous little accident, when one of his old gunpractice hulks arrived from Bombay, bearing the throne: for as this was being conveyed into the _Boodah_ a front leg was broken.

Meantime, the world's trade went on as before: only, night and day, its s.h.i.+ps lay-to, to pay rent with threat and curse: in all only thirteen s.h.i.+ps being sunk ere sea and earth had learned the new conditions.

And from the very first day of this taxing a deeper sense of pain and hards.h.i.+p pervaded the world, the Lord of the Sea now taxing at 4s. per ton a world's tonnage of 29 millions, 7 1/2 millions in sailing-s.h.i.+ps, 21 1/2 millions in steams.h.i.+ps, once in a voyage--a little less than the revenue of Britain.

So one night he received message from O'Hara that ”British Mediterranean fleet has pa.s.sed through the Straits, homeward”.

It was not for nothing that the nations had allowed three weeks to pa.s.s before avenging the Kaiser: soon enough the Cabinets had been in intercommunication; but in the ”Concert” had occurred--a hitch.

Britain had proposed the destruction of the islands in detail, the Powers to contribute weights of metal proportionate to their mercantile marines: as a basis for calculation she had offered her force in Home and Mediterranean waters; and, this having been accepted, by the 5th s.h.i.+ps were under the pennant, and outfitting.

Now, all this time, things had been in a pretty whirl: oratory from pulpit, platform, stump, eyes on fire, mobs that went in haste, shrieks of newspaper pa.s.sion, organized burglary, and a strange epidemic of fires: for the modern nations lived by the sea, and it was seized.

Moreover, on the 6th, after a meeting at the Albert Hall, organized by the a.s.sociated Chambers of Commerce, our Government--”Liberal”, under Sir Moses Cohen--suffered a defeat of thirty-four votes on a division.

And it was during the turmoil that ensued upon this that the German Foreign Office (on the 9th) sent to the new Russian the wireless ”_Bion_”-meaning--”Let us meet to discuss the subject of-England”.

That meeting took place at Konigsberg.

It was now that a fort-man--formerly a Nottingham shoemaker--landed from the Truth's yacht at Frederikshavn, and thence wrote to the Daily Chronicle, to say, briefly, this: That, supposing the European navies joined to batter away with l5-inch guns and torpedoes at five feet of steel, they might finally succeed in mining a hole in it; but if the thick steel happened to have still bigger guns, ”_and other things_”, with which, meantime, to batter back at the thin s.h.i.+ps, then it would be the s.h.i.+ps, probably, which would get holes in them: it was a question of Time. Also he said that the islands were defended by devoted men, every one of intelligence and high principle, who knew what they wanted, and meant to have it--their shooting average being 97 per 100. He advised his country not to try it, especially in view of certain political rumours which he had picked up in the Cattegat.

This letter, although badly spelled, aroused a sensation The ”high principle” of the fort-men, indeed, met with bitter laughter; but its hearty patriotism, simplicity, technical knowledge, were so remarkable, that now a doubt as to the battles.h.i.+p arose--and with it a gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth. The service-clubs, the ”experts”, wrote this and that; the publics poured forth letters, schemes, plots, inventions--like the brain of the world _versus_ the brain of Hogarth. ”_Starve Him Out_”, was a t.i.tle in the _Contemporary:_ but the reply was bitterly obvious. And into the midst of this racket burst the news that the negotiations with Germany, Russia and France were at a deadlock.

These Powers had raised this question: ”In case of the capture of the islands--what shall be done with those most powerful engines?”

Here was a riddle. For whichever nation took even one would score a vast advantage.

If, now, Britain had had the greatness of mind to declare for the sinking, in any case, of all the islands, the difficulty was solved, but the new-Government brooms would score a point and gain a trick, and they proposed the division of surviving forts in the proportion of fighting-power contributed.

The Continent objected: Britain was ”_firm_”; whereupon the French Amba.s.sador sent to Downing Street his withdrawal from the crusade.

And so when--on the 22nd--the fleets a.s.sembled at Portland and Milford Haven before _rendezvous_ at the Lizard, the whole original proposal had fallen through: for here was neither tricolour nor saltire, only three German s.h.i.+ps, only five Italian; the ”probability”, moreover, of the capture of a sea-fort by England was imminent: and on the evening of the mobilisation of the squadrons feverish activity was reported from Toulon; a British Legation _attache,_, seeing fit to stroll round the Caserne Pepiniere, beheld in the yard an extraordinary crowd of limbers: and, pitching into a cab, from the nearest _postes et telegraphes_ wired to London the word: ”Angleterre”.

Too late: the British fleets were gone, leaving the Channel and Western Mediterranean desert.

Now the nation awoke to a consciousness of dark skies: cloud of the west rus.h.i.+ng to meet a yet lurider eastern--with probability of lightning.

The fleet could hardly return in less than five days--if it returned!

Would the hostile nations be good enough to await its return? The lightning would be ”near”.

A day of fear, in which flash tracked flash: till at 11.30 P.M. the rumour pervaded the crowd round St. Stephen's that the new Ministry had suffered defeat: and the drifting s.h.i.+p was captainless.