Part 20 (1/2)
”I suppose you had no opportunity of finding out how many men garrison the rock?”
”No, Madam. I don't think the garrison is large. The place is so secure that it doesn't need many men to guard it. Prisoners are never taken out for exercise, and, as I told you, they are fed but once in four days.”
”How large a crew can 'The Walrus' carry?”
”Oh, as many as you like, Madam. The yacht is practically an ocean liner.”
”Is there any landing stage on the eastern side of the rock?”
”Practically none, Madam. The steamer stood out, and I was landed in the cove I spoke of at the foot of the stairway.”
”It wouldn't be possible to bring a steamer like 'The Walrus' alongside the rock, then?”
”It would be possible in calm weather, but very dangerous even then.”
”Could you find that rock if you were in command of a s.h.i.+p sailing the Baltic?”
”Oh, yes, Madam.”
”If twenty or thirty determined men were landed on the stairway, do you think they could capture the garrison?”
”Yes, if they were landed secretly, but one or two soldiers at the top with repeating rifles might hold the stairway against an army, while their ammunition lasted.”
”But if a sh.e.l.l were fired from the steamer, might not the attacking company get inside during the confusion among the defenders?”
”That is possible, Madam, but a private steamer firing sh.e.l.ls, or, indeed, landing a hostile company, runs danger of meeting the fate of a pirate.”
”You would not care to try it, then?”
”I? Oh, I should be delighted to try it, if you allow me to select the crew. I can easily get aboard the small arms and ammunition necessary, but I am not so sure about the cannon.”
”Very good. I need not warn you to be extremely cautious regarding those you take into your confidence. Meanwhile, I wish you to communicate with the official who is authorized to sell the yacht. I am expecting a gentleman to-morrow in whose name the vessel will probably be bought, and I am hoping he will accept the captaincy of it.”
”Is he capable of filling that position, Madam? Is he a sailor?”
”He was for many years captain in the United States Navy. I offer you the position of mate, but I will give you captain's pay, and a large bonus in addition if you faithfully carry out my plans, whether they prove successful or not. I wish you to come here at this hour to-morrow, with whoever is authorized to sell or charter the steamer. You may say I am undecided whether to buy or charter. I must consult Captain Kempt on that point.”
”Thank you, Madam, I shall be here this time to-morrow.”
CHAPTER XIII --ENTRAPPED
PRINCE IVAN LERMONTOFF came to consider the explosion one of the luckiest things that had ever occurred in his workshop. Its happening so soon after he reached St. Petersburg he looked upon as particularly fortunate, because this gave him time to follow the new trend of thought along which his mind had been deflected by such knowledge as the unexpected outcome of his experiment had disclosed to him. The material he had used as a catalytic agent was a new substance which he had read of in a scientific review, and he had purchased a small quant.i.ty of it in London. If such a minute portion produced results so tremendous, he began to see that a man with an apparently innocent material in his waistcoat pocket might probably be able to destroy a naval harbor, so long as water and stone were in conjunction. There was also a possibility that a small quant.i.ty of ozak, as the stuff was called, mixed with pure water, would form a reducing agent for limestone, and perhaps for other minerals, which would work much quicker than if the liquid was merely impregnated with carbonic acid gas. He endeavored to purchase some ozak from Mr. Kruger, the chemist on the English quay, but that good man had never heard of it, and a day's search persuaded him that it could not be got in St. Petersburg, so the Prince induced Kruger to order half a pound of it from London or Paris, in which latter city it had been discovered. For the arrival of this order the Prince waited with such patience as he could call to his command, and visited poor Mr.
Kruger every day in the hope of receiving it.
One afternoon he was delighted to hear that the box had come, although it had not yet been unpacked.
”I will send it to your house this evening,” said the chemist. ”There are a number of drugs in the box for your old friend Professor Potkin of the University, and he is even more impatient for his consignment than you are for yours. Ah, here he is,” and as he spoke the venerable Potkin himself entered the shop.