Whereas any sane man could see that their fight with Edestone was hopeless, they with their absolute confidence and conceit were preparing to pit themselves against him and some unknown secret of nature. While he, with his discovery, was apparently in a position to let loose upon their defenceless city an engine of destruction too terrible to think of. Edestone, like the pilot who has come aboard the ocean liner, had now taken entire charge.

The first thing was to get off this message, so he sat down to work out the cipher known only to himself and "Specs." He said to Lawrence:

"My initials J. F. E. are the call which must be repeated three times, then twice, and then finally once. This must all be repeated with one minute intervals until answered by the single letter 'E,' which will be repeated eight times, once for every letter in my name, and after an interval of five minutes, once again only.

"After you have satisfied yourself that you are in touch with Mr. Page, my head man, 'Specs,' I call him, send him this." He handed Lawrence one word of twenty-two letters, or rather twenty-two letters which he had apparently taken indiscriminately from a small pocket dictionary.

"Have him repeat, and see that there is no mistake," and continuing, he said: "We are certainly being watched by the German servants; the condition of my trunks shows that, so the first thing to do is to get them out of the way. Call them all down into the ballroom, and say that I wish to speak to them. See that everyone is there, and if there is a single one missing, search the house from garret to cellar until you find them all. I will give them a little talk which will give you and Black time to get off this message. I will, incidentally, show them that I propose to put up with no nonsense whatever."

As Lawrence was leaving the room he said to him with a jolly laugh: "Oh, by the way, how does it feel to be rich again? I have been so occupied with other things that I have not had time to thank and congratulate you on your splendid work. What a fine story it will make when we get back to New York, which will be very soon, I hope."

When the servants came in he first gave them a little insight into the real state of affairs from a standpoint that they had never known. He then explained to them that the Emba.s.sy was practically in a state of siege, and that he was in command, and that if he heard of any one of them having any communication whatever with anyone on the outside, he would treat them in the way that he had treated the people in the pictures which he had shown them, only he would put them out of the window and they would keep going up and up and never come down again.

So when Lawrence returned and signalled that he might let them go, a more thoroughly scared set of domestics never waited on the word of "Ivan the Terrible."

"Well, Bo," said Lawrence as he threw himself into a comfortable chair, after slopping whisky and water all over the tablecloth and dropping a large piece of ice on the floor which he kicked violently at the retreating servant at whom he had bellowed, giving a perfect imitation of a Prussian officer in a public restaurant when American ladies are present, "this has certainly been 'some day.' Will you please be so kind as to put me wise on a few of your dates?

"In the first place, who was the 'wise guy' who rushed out from nowhere and swallowed up my J. F. E. like an old trout from under a bank who had never seen a Silver Doctor before? Where is he? How is he to get here, and what is he going to do when he does?"

Edestone quietly finished the lighting of his cigar, and after he was thoroughly satisfied that this was perfectly done and it was going to draw to his entire satisfaction, he said:

"Well, now that you are to be my fellow-partner in crime, and Jones is our a.s.sociate, I will tell you. Do you remember the summer way back in the 90's that you and I spent in Switzerland mountain climbing?"

"Yes, perfectly," said Lawrence, "but that was a long time ago. We were nothing but kids then."

"Do you remember that you, kid-like, insisted upon going over a very flimsy-looking snow bridge, simply because the old guide told us that he had never seen that creva.s.se bridged before, and that the tradition down in Chamonix was that it had only been bridged once or twice in the memory of man?

"And do you remember," went on Edestone, "that at first he refused to go, saying that if it broke after we got over, there was no possible way of our getting back?"

"Yes," acknowledged Lawrence, "the old 'chump,' and I remember that we went over and got back all right, and those guides are talking about it yet."

"Well, do you remember," continued Edestone, "that when we scrambled up over the next rock ridge we looked into a regular bowl-shaped valley that had the appearance of a crater of an extinct volcano?"

"Yes," said Lawrence.

"Well, 'Specs' is there in that valley, where perhaps no human being has ever been before. I sent him there for that reason. He has been there for the last two months and a half, unknown to anyone on the face of the earth and thoroughly protected from the storms that sweep over that portion of the French Alps."

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned," said Lawrence. "Is 'Specs' the skipper of that pretty little toy you were showing on the screen?"

"No, Captain Lee is the skipper," laughed Edestone. "Dear old 'Specs'

is my boss. He is the Admiral."

"Well, for the love of Mike," exploded Lawrence. "What a swell chance those mortars out there with their long distance telephone attachments will have with that Queen of the Milky Way. You don't mean to say that he is coming over here with his forty thousand tons and float around up there five thousand feet above the Emba.s.sy?" he exclaimed as he looked up at the ceiling with a look of alarm, as if he expected to see it come crushing down on him at any moment. And jumping out of his chair he ran about the room, making the most ridiculous gestures, crying: "Air, I want air!" while Edestone laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"But say, Bo," said Lawrence, "there is nothing to it. What do you suppose those crazy Dutchmen are thinking about? Why I thought that sky pirate belonged to the United States, and was now probably tied to a dock in some mud flat, with a crew of two bra.s.s polishers and a Sunday School teacher, while the Virginia creeper and the North Carolina milkweed twined about it to make nests for the Dove of Peace."

"No," said Edestone, "it is what you have just called it, a Sky Pirate, and I am the buccaneer."

"Did the Emperor know that when he got so gay with you tonight?" asked Lawrence.

"No, he does not know that, but he knows everything else."

"Well, what is his game?"

"Well," said Edestone, after thinking for a while, "as far as I can make it out it is this: They do not want to kill me; they are using me to bait the trap with which they hope to catch the 'Queen of the Milky Way,' as you call her. They will take her dead, now that they cannot get her alive, and they hope to be able to put new life into her after they have taken all life out with the 'long distance telephone attachments,' as you call them."

"Why is he so certain that you will not drop bombs on his city?" asked Lawrence.

"I do not know," replied Edestone, "unless he knows that I am more of a gentleman than he is. Or perhaps he thinks that I will not allow any damage to be done until I am safely on board, which may or may not be perfectly true."

"_Tu as raison, mon vieux_," shrugged Lawrence.

"They will do nothing to me until they are certain that they are going to lose me. They want me alive, but would rather have me dead than in the hands of the other fellow. Now do you understand?"

"Not exactly," replied Lawrence, pretending to look very wise. "What do you mean about taking her dead if they can't get her alive, and what have those wires got to do with it?"

"I mean by taking her alive," said Edestone, "buying her from whoever she belongs to, and keeping me here to show them how to run her. And when I spoke of taking her dead, I had forgotten that you had not heard what I said tonight while showing the pictures. I will explain this to you sometime when we get on board and we have more time, but you will understand enough when I tell you this."

Lawrence listened attentively as Edestone continued.

"They know that she floats by virtue of an instrument that I have; they know that she will not float if brought in contact with the earth or if connected with it by means of some electrical conductor. They propose to establish an electrical connexion between her and the ground by throwing those wires over her with mortars, just as the life-saving men throw a life-line to a ship in distress."

"Oh, that was why they were so carefully connected with the water main," interrupted Lawrence.

"Yes," replied Edestone, "and when they get her down they will expect me with my instrument to float her off again."

"Well, what do you think of their chances of pulling this off?" asked Lawrence.

"I think," said Edestone thoughtfully, "their chances are small, but you can never tell what these very resourceful people may do. They are buoyed up by a hopefulness that is almost uncanny and they can't all be crazy!"

CHAPTER XXIX

THE DIFFERENCE OF THEIR STATIONS

Edestone and Lawrence sat quietly for a few minutes, Lawrence watching him with a merry twinkle in his eye while Edestone was unconsciously fingering the note that General von Lichtenstein had given him. Finally he said:

"Well, I'm off for bed. I have a hard day before me tomorrow."

"Yes, you are, you old fox!" said his companion. "I'm on to you. There is something up, and you can't hide it from me. You have been sitting there fingering that note from--well, I guess I can pretty well call you, because your lady friends in Berlin are limited--with the silliest expression I have ever seen on your face. Now, out with it! You had better get it off your chest by telling your troubles to papa."

Edestone put the note quickly into his pocket, and was about to force through his bluff when Lawrence stopped him by saying:

"You can trust me, old man; now out with it."

"Well," said Edestone in an embarra.s.sed tone, "General von Lichtenstein did give me a note from Princess Wilhelmina," showing it to Lawrence.

"My dear fellow," Lawrence said, "what do you propose to do? If you are going to take a chance for the pleasure of seeing a beautiful woman, I am with you heart and soul; but if you are taking a chance because you believe she is sincerely in distress and calling on you, an American here in Berlin, when she's got all of those becorseted Johnnies around her, you had better allow me to advise you."