Part 48 (2/2)

He retired, and in half an hour returned with two clerks who bore books, himself a carpet-bag containing in cash-boxes 850,000, paper and gold, which he deposited on the Admiral's _bureau_, and, after again protesting before the clerks, went away.

Not far off by now were some of the other six fort-yachts, converging with their 200 upon the _Mahomet_, and as the Admiral had no intention of being put into irons as a lunatic in his own fort, at eight o'clock he stole from his apartments, dressed now, not in uniform, but in priest's robes and a voluminous cloak, bearing in one hand the bag, in the other a key.

Those lower depths of the _Mahomet_ were an utter solitude, lit with rare rays; yet the Admiral journeyed through and up peering, skulking, pausing, hurrying, and, if by chance a light caught his face, it showed a horror of convulsive flesh, his body a ma.s.s of trembling, like jelly.

Now, the forts had been built to fight; and (since nothing is impossible), if they fought, they might fall into an enemy's hand: to obviate which, there was in a little room on the third floor a handle which opened by hydraulics a door in the fort's side on the fifth floor below, the existence of this room being unknown save to each Admiral and to four of his lieutenants, and its key kept in a spot known to these.

This key O'Hara now had in hand; and as he pushed it into the lock, his jaw jabbered like a baboon's.

Night was now come; the sea rough; Spain lost to sight; the two emptied yachts on the way back to their forts; yonder the lights of the _Mahomet II_. lying-to; two officers in oilskins walking arm in arm, to and fro, on the roof; and said one: ”Look at those waves there all of a sudden: they rather seem to be breaking on the wrong side of us”.

Then they resumed their talk; and to and fro they walked, arm in arm.

Till now one with sudden hiss: ”But-good Christ-just look-why, the roof's _leaning_--!”

At that moment an outcry and runners from below, shouts, a trumpet-call, were borne on the winds to them: for the Admiral had rushed up to the manned parts of the fort, all h.e.l.l alight in his eyeb.a.l.l.s, bawling out, ”The boats! The _Mahomet_ is sinking!”

In spite of which many perished, the survivors afterwards declaring that the tragedy mesmerized their nerves with a certain awe not to be compared with the terrors felt on sinking s.h.i.+ps, the _Mahomet_ affecting them like a being of life, like behemoth slowly dying, or some doomed moon. She gave them, indeed, plenty of time, though when the steel portals on two of her sides were opened, the sea washed up the steps, making the launching very delicate feats, and near the last the leaning was so marked, that there was difficulty in standing; and still in patient distress she waited while the waves like mult.i.tudinous wolves, trooped to prey upon her.

As the Admiral ran to the outer Collector's Office to embark, he was faced by the Treasurer, revolver in hand, and ”Hand me over that bag, Admiral”, he said pretty coolly, ”or I blow out your brains”.

O'Hara's mouth worked: he could not speak.

”Will you?” said the Treasurer: ”no doubt you mean to hand it over to the proper authorities, but I prefer to do that myself. Be quick, you old dog!”

Whereat O'Hara, having no weapon, dropped the bag, and trotted wide-eyed forward to the thronged scene of the launchings.

There were more than enough boats, and though on the lowest side of the fort nothing could long be done, all had gone off, when the fort, having settled very low, looking for some time like a brawling cauldron and area of breaking waves coloured by her hundred lights, went down, and was not.

Whereupon the yacht, over a hundred yards away, was caught in the traction of her strong enthralment, and, like a planet, started into running round a region of sea which wheeled; while seven of the boats, rowing for life, were grasped, and dragged back, with a hundred and nine, into the deep.

”Toll for the brave....”

As to the other boats, they arrived at Tarifa the following evening, with 583; but the Admiral ordered the _Mahomet II_. to Cadiz, where soon after midnight he landed, and, by negotiation with a ”_Jefe_”, in an hour had a train for Madrid. As he was about to step in, the Treasurer touched his shoulder.

”What, Admiral, off by land?”

”Yes, sir, as you know”, said O'Hara, ”for you have been spying my movements for the last hour. How childish to imagine that I have anything to fear, or want to escape! Why, I am bound for England--my only object in the land journey being quickness. I even invite you to come with me.”

”All right, Admiral, I will....If you be tempted to murder me _en route_, remember these”--a pair of pistols; and they set out at about the hour when the whole crescent of tragedies was over.

At six that evening a yacht, a copy of the _Mahomet II_., had come to the Cattegat sea-fort to land 200 men who wore the Empire's blue-jacket, the name ”Mahomet” on their caps--nothing to show that they were not genuine Mahomet men, though some looked rather sea-sick; but in reality they were young lords, stock-brokers, Territorial Officers, men-about-town, park-keepers, undergraduates, secretly armed with knife and revolver, and knowing, too, where the armoury of the sea-fort lay.

Meantime, three other yachts, all named _Mahomet II_., were a-ply in the Atlantic, two containing 400 men each, one 600, each of the first two to land 200 at a fort at six, and her remaining 200 at the next fort by eight-thirty, serving four forts, the last to land 200 at each of three forts: so that by 10.30 P.M. each of eight forts, including the Cattegat, contained 200 enemies disguised as fort-men.

And punctually at eleven, in each, began perhaps the darkest ma.s.sacre of history--no quarter given--and when the alarm went forth, whichever of the unarmed fort-men rushed to the dark armoury found the door fastened against him. Of two men in bed, talking together through an open door, one arose at the stroke of a clock and killed the other; some perished in sleep--all very quietly accomplished: a few shots, a few lost echoes in the vast castles, a few daubs of blood. And in no case did a single one, either ma.s.sacred or a.s.sa.s.sin, escape alive: for, in every case, some one or other of the fort-officers--Admiral, Lieutenant, Commander--to prevent capture, opened the inlet to the flood in the very thick of the doom, went down with his muteness and his bubbling, and the sea, a secret in its bosom, rolled over the Sea.

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