"The material which I used through her entire length of 907 feet, both top and bottom, is Harveyized steel, six feet thick; and the largest gun is sixteen inches," replied Edestone slowly, enjoying the look of blank amazement which spread over the Admiral's face as he dropped back into his chair gasping and mopping his brow.

"This is the end of everything. I wish I had never lived to see the day!" The old sailor sat like a man who had seen a vision so appalling that it robbed him of his reason.

CHAPTER XIII

"THE KING IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE KING!"

The King, of all the company, seemed to be the only one who had remained perfectly cool. He was like a man who realizing the gravity of the situation yet had nerved himself to meet it.

"Mr. Edestone," he said, as if speaking to one of his own naval officers, "you will please show the last two pictures again, and for the benefit of Admiral Brown you might give us some further details in regard to the ship's equipment and armament. May I also ask you where these pictures were taken?"

"On the flat plains in the centre of the island of Newfoundland,"

Edestone informed him, "between the White Bear River and the east branch of the Salmon, and from fifty to seventy-five miles from the seacoast on the south. If Your Majesty will look into the middle distance when the second picture is again thrown on the screen you will see some small, dark objects; these are one of those immense herds of caribou, which happen to be moving south over this vast barren at the time of year that these pictures were taken--that is, in October."

He observed that the face of the King took on an expression blended partly of astonishment and partly of resentment when he mentioned the name of one of the Colonial possessions of the Empire, and hastened to add:

"You will find, Sire, if you inquire of the Governor of that Province that I was there with the full knowledge and consent of Your Majesty's Government to carry on certain scientific experiments. I selected this deserted spot, so far removed from all human habitation, because there I should not be disturbed. Until I showed these pictures here today no one outside of my own men knew the nature of these experiments. The guns were loaded with nothing more harmful than several hundred pounds of black powder to produce the display of force which you have just seen. I will admit," he granted with a smile, "that if the newspapers had got word of what was going on there they might have made some excitement; I can a.s.sure you, however, that no act of mine could be construed even by our most susceptible and timid State Department as a violation of neutrality."

"But where is your ship now?" asked the King, while the rest of the company held their breath, awaiting the answer.

"That, Your Majesty, for reasons of state, I regret I cannot at this time tell you, but you have my word and that of our Secretary that wherever she may be, her mission is one of peace."

"Peace!" snorted Admiral Brown. "With a six-foot armour-belt and sixteen-inch guns! It is a ship of war, Your Majesty. We have the right to demand whether or not it is now on or over British soil, and if it is, to make such representations to the United States Government as will cause her to withdraw it at once and apologize for having violated the dignity of Great Britain."

"And if they should refuse, Sir William," asked the King, with a weary smile, "would you undertake to drive it off?

"No, Admiral," he continued, "up to this time we have no official knowledge of this airship's existence. Until we have, we will take Mr.

Edestone's a.s.surance that his own and his country's intentions to us are friendly."

A wave of hot indignation had swept over the entire a.s.sembly, and it was with some difficulty that the King was able to restore order.

"Please continue with your pictures, Mr. Edestone," he said in a tone of authority.

The lights again went out, the machine in the cabinet began to turn, and as the dramatic scene was re-enacted before them his audience sat in perfect silence while Edestone, as though he were recounting the simplest and most ordinary facts, gave out the following information:

"This ship has a length over all of 907 feet. Its beam is 90 feet. Its greatest circular dimension is described with a radius of 48 feet. She would weigh, loaded with ammunition, fuel, provisions, and crew, if brought in contact with the earth, 40,000 tons. Her weight as she travels, after making allowance for the air displacement is generally kept at about 3000 tons, which automatically adjusts itself to the density of the surrounding atmosphere, but can be reduced to nothing at pleasure. Its full speed has never been reached. This is simply a matter of oil consumption; I have had her up to 180 miles. Her steaming radius is about 50,000 miles, depending upon the speed. She carries twelve 16-inch guns, twenty-two 6-inch guns, sixteen 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, eight 3-pounders, four rapid-fire guns, six aerial torpedo tubes, and six bomb droppers, which can simultaneously discharge tons of explosives. She has a complement of 1400 officers and men. She required three years and eight months to build at a cost of $10,000,000. In action her entire ship's company is protected by at least six feet of steel, and there is no gun known that can pierce her protection around the vital parts. As you have seen, she can approach to within a few feet of the surface and remain perfectly stationary in that position as long as she is not brought in electrical contact with the earth."

The machine in the cabinet had stopped. As the lights were again turned on, Edestone, glancing in the direction of the gallery and seeing that there was no one there, bowed merely to the company before him. "I thank Your Majesty, Lords, and Gentlemen for your very kind attention," he said. He then stood quietly, waiting respectfully for the King to speak.

"Mr. Edestone," said the King as he rose, "you have certainly given us a most instructive afternoon, and you must be exhausted after your efforts." He turned to Colonel Stewart, "Please insist upon Mr.

Edestone taking some refreshments before he leaves Buckingham Palace."

He grasped the inventor firmly by the hand. "Good-bye, Mr. Edestone. I shall probably not see you again," and bowing to the rest of the company he left the room deep in conversation with Sir Egbert Graves.

Edestone immediately became the centre of attraction.

"The King is dead; long live the King!" expresses the eagerness with which man adapts himself to a new order of things. The older men were stunned and seemed unable to throw off the gloom that had settled upon them. They bowed to the inevitable fall of the old and its replacement by the new. They were not buoyed up by the elasticity and confidence of youth; they seemed to realize that their race was run and that it were better that they step aside and give to younger men the task of solving a new problem in a new way. They sat perfectly still with dejected faces that seemed to see only dissolution.

The younger men were quicker to recover, and as they felt the old foundations crumbling under their feet, saw visions of a new and greater edifice. They gloried in the development of the age as they did in their own strength to keep abreast of it, and rushed to meet progress, to join it, and to become one with it. They did not stop to think what the future might have in store for them, but seemed to be intoxicated by its possibilities.

Crowding around Edestone they probed him with questions which he answered with the greatest patience and in the most modest, quiet, and dignified manner. When asked a question almost childish in its simplicity, he appeared to acknowledge the compliment in the a.s.sumption that he knew the answer, and gave it with the same precision as one which called for the most complicated mathematical calculation and reference to the most intricate formulae of the laws of mechanics and physics. He was rescued and borne away by Colonel Stewart who announced that, acting under His Majesty's order, he was obliged to give him some refreshments, whether he wanted them or not, and if he did not come at once to his quarters and have a drink he would be forced to order out the Guards. Drawing him aside the Colonel whispered, "I must see you alone before you leave the Palace."

Edestone turned and slowly left the room, bowing to each of the separate groups.

"Now," said Colonel Stewart, "come to my quarters first, as I have something rather confidential to tell you. You can come back and join the others afterward, if you care to."

When they were comfortably seated in the Colonel's private apartments, and had provided themselves with drinks and cigars, the equerry leaned toward his charge a trifle impressively.

"Mr. Edestone," he said, "you do not look like a chap who would lose his nerve if he suddenly found himself in a position that was more or less dangerous. Indeed I rather gather that you are like one of your distinguished Admirals--ready at all times for a fight or a frolic."

Edestone smiled.

"The facts are, Mr. Edestone, that you are in a pretty ticklish position, and had not Mr. Underhill notified Scotland Yard when he did, I do not know what might have happened. These German spies who have been following you all day are well known to them, and when our men picked you up, which was when you left the Admiralty and were talking to the taxi-chauffeur, they were convinced that you were in real danger. Then when you were directed to the German restaurant and afterward left it in the taxicab with this man Smith they had your cab followed, at the same time notifying Mr. Underhill, and covering your hotel."

"This is most interesting," said Edestone; "but if the business of these men is known why are they not arrested?"

"Mr. Edestone," said Colonel Stewart, "we Englishmen are not credited with any sense by our friends the enemy, and relying upon our supposed stupidity their work, which they take so much pride in, is by no means as secret as they suppose it to be. There have been in London thousands of what the Germans term 'fixed posts.' These are men who have established places of business and have lived in the community from ten to fifteen years. They receive a salary from the German Government running from two pounds to four pounds a month and all incurred expenses. The 'fixed post' men report to men higher up, who, in turn, report to the Diplomatic Service. Under them, too, are all of the patriotic emigrants from Germany, who act as spies without being conscious of the fact that they are doing so. These receive no pay for bringing in the bits of scandal or other information which is all carefully noted and kept on file in Berlin under a system of card indexes.

"That man Munchinger who keeps the restaurant where you lunched, and the barber Hottenroth at your hotel, are both of them 'fixed post'

men. This American architect was new and had not been quite placed as yet. The chauffeur also seems to be one of them, although he is entirely unknown to Scotland Yard.

"When you discharged your first taxi and took another, Smith and the chauffeur spy followed you until they were frightened off by seeing my carriage with the royal livery in front of your hotel. They drove off then with such a rush that the chauffeur must have lost control of his car, for it plunged into the Thames with Smith inside it, and before he could be reached and rescued he was drowned. The chauffeur was either drowned or ran away, as nothing has been seen of him since."

Edestone rose, his face stern as he learned the news of Smith's fate.

"Colonel Stewart," he declared sharply, "that poor devil was murdered." And to support his accusation he told briefly of Smith's confession and behaviour in the cab.

The Colonel bowed. "I shall see that these facts are turned over to the authorities," he said, "but at present I am more concerned in regard to you. These men are fanatics, you must understand, whose faith teaches them to do anything that is for the benefit of the Fatherland. We know most of them. We do not arrest them because they are more useful to us as they are. As soon as one is arrested he is immediately replaced by another, and it takes some little time before we can pick up the new one. We have received reports to the effect that a small army of them have been around Buckingham Palace all afternoon, as well as at your hotel; so it is evident that Smith's story was no fancy and that these men are after you in desperate earnest. Would you mind telling me, Mr. Edestone, what are your plans for the future?"

"Not at all. My movements are extremely simple. I shall return to my hotel, where I expect to remain until I retire. A friend of mine, an American, Mr. Rebener, whom I have known for a great many years, will dine with me there this evening."

"An old friend of yours you say?" The Colonel's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yes," replied Edestone. "I have known him for fifteen years." For reasons of his own he had made it a point not to include Rebener's name among those mentioned by Smith in his confession, nor did he refer to it now.

Colonel Stewart hesitated a moment. "Of course, Mr. Edestone," he said finally, "you Americans are neutrals and are at liberty to select your friends where you please, but my advice to you would be not to take London as the place to entertain people with German names. You will probably understand that we cannot take any chances."

"I have known Mr. Rebener," repeated Edestone, "for years. He is one of our most prominent men, and I am confident that he would not lend himself to any of these Middle-Age methods."

"You can never tell," said Colonel Stewart darkly. "Germany holds out to the faithful the promise of great rewards at the end of this war, which she has convinced them cannot fail to end successfully for her."

"No," the American insisted stubbornly. "Mr. Rebener might readily sell to Germany a few million dollars' worth of munitions of war, and likewise tell his friend, Count Bernstoff, anything that he might hear. I will even go so far as to say that he might make an especial effort to pick up bits of gossip here in London; and he will almost certainly endeavour to use his influence with me in favour of Germany.

But that he would take part in a plot to kill, kidnap, or rob me is incredible."

"I see you are determined to have your own way, Mr. Edestone," the Colonel smiled, "so I come now to the most difficult part of my mission. What do you propose to do with that instrument which you now carry so carelessly in your coat pocket? You can readily understand that it is not safe in your hotel, or, in fact, at hardly any other place in London outside of the vaults of the Bank of England. We are put in the delicate position of having to protect it without having the privilege of asking that it be put in our charge."