CHAPTER VI.FLIGHT.
Frank made a move to rise. Lord Hastings stayed him.
“Wait!” was all he said.
Immediately following Lieutenant Holzen’s words, there was a terrible commotion in the café. Officers jumped quickly to their feet. Several rushed to Lieutenant Holzen, who still stood there gesticulating wildly.
“Traitors! Spies!” he cried.
“Be calm,” said one of the officers. “Tell me what is the matter?”
“My papers!” shouted the young German. “My papers! The charts of the fortress! They are gone.”
“Impossible!” cried one of the others. “You must be mistaken. Look through your pockets again.”
“I looked through them!” was the shouted response. “See here! and here!” and he turned them all wrong side out.
“Perhaps you left them in your rooms,” said another officer.
“No. I brought them with me. I had them when I sat down.”
“But no one has come near you,” said one of his companions. “But wait a moment. You danced with Mlle. Dulcé. Could she have taken them? You danced with her several times; yet, on previous nights, I have noticed that she avoided you. It must be she.”
“Yes! It must be she!” cried Lieutenant Holzen. “Arrest her!”
Half-a-dozen men moved down the room toward where Marie Dulcé stood smiling. It was at that moment that Lord Hastings gave the signal to rise.
“Up and run for the door!” he cried. “Shoot the first man who draws a gun!”
He suited the action to the word, and the two lads were right behind him.
Before Lord Hastings loomed up the figure of a German colonel. The commander of the D-17 fired point-blank and the man fell to the floor. Lord Hastings dashed on.
Now Marie took a hand in things herself. As one of the Germans would have seized her, she stepped quickly backward and reached upward on the wall. There her hand found what she knew it would find—an electric switch. Quickly she threw it and the room was plunged into utter darkness.
Eluding the grasp of the man who reached for her in the darkness, Marie stepped quickly forward. Keeping close to the wall, she made her way toward the front door. On all sides men shouted and women screamed, but the girl went on calmly.
Occasional revolver flashes lighted up the darkness, but only momentarily.
Lord Hastings, reaching the door, found it barred by two men. Before he could bring his revolver to bear, an outstretched arm sent it spinning from his hand. Lord Hastings growled and struck out with his fist. An arm encircled his neck and held him powerless. At the same time a voice called out:
“I’ve got one of them!”
Jack, who was immediately behind his commander, although he could not see what was going on, realized from the German’s words what was up, and called out:
“Where are you, sir?”
“Here,” came the reply. “A man has me around the neck.”
Jack’s lips shut grimly, and, leaving Frank to guard their rear, he stepped quickly forward and laid his hand on a man’s arm.
“Have I hold of you, or the enemy, sir?” he asked quietly.
“Must be the German,” was the reply.
Jack ran his hand up the arm until he felt a face. Then he drew back his left arm and his fist crashed forward.
“All right,” said Lord Hastings. “You’ve dropped him.”
The second man who had blocked the doorway now closed in, but Jack disposed of him quickly. Shots came from behind, and Frank’s voice cried:
“Getting too warm, sir. Let’s move.”
“Come on, then,” said Jack.
He threw his weight against the door, and it crashed open. A moment later all three were in the street and running in the direction of the water.
A crowd of Germans poured from the café after them, and the crack of revolvers sounded like a rapid-fire gun in action.
“We’ll have to hurry!” cried Lord Hastings. “They’ll have the whole fortress on our heels in a moment.”
Directly the water front came into view.
“Here we are!” cried Lord Hastings. “Quick, now!”
He made directly toward the D-17’s motorboat, which he could see was where he had left it, but at that moment a figure blocked the way. It was a German sentinel, and his rifle was pointed squarely at Lord Hastings.
“Halt!” he said sternly.
Lord Hastings stopped in his tracks.
“What’s all the row back there?” demanded the sentry.
Lord Hastings would have replied, but Jack did not give him time.
Stepping suddenly from behind Lord Hastings, he dived at the German’s legs. He had gauged the distance accurately, and the two went to the ground violently. The sentry’s gun was discharged, but the bullet whistled harmlessly over Lord Hastings’s head.
“No time to fool with him, Jack!” cried Lord Hastings. “Here come the others. Hurry!”
Jack raised his opponent’s head in his two hands, then bumped it against the ground.
“There,” he said, rising, “that’ll keep him for a while.”
He hurried after the others, who had jumped into the boat.
“Cut the line there—quick!” commanded Lord Hastings.
Frank obeyed just as Jack tumbled aboard.
“All right, sir. All here,” said the latter.
“Good,” said Lord Hastings.
The boat moved off, slowly at first, then faster and faster.
By the time the German pursuers had reached the water’s edge, the boat was beyond revolver shot, though still within range of rifles.
“Down!” cried Lord Hastings, as a bullet whistled overhead.
The others obeyed.
“They’ll be after us, sir!” shouted Frank.
“They’ll have to hurry if they want to catch us,” declared Lord Hastings.
“Say! What time is it?” asked Frank suddenly.
“Why?” demanded his chum.
“Why,” repeated Frank, “because if we get out here before nine o’clock we might just as well stay ashore. Price will not come to the surface until nine sharp.”
By the flare of a match he struck, Jack gazed at his watch.
“No need to worry there, then,” he said. “It’s three minutes to nine right now.”
“Pretty lucky,” said Frank.
“Rather,” commented Lord Hastings dryly. “Look back and see if they are following us.”
“Yes, sir, twenty of them,” replied Frank, after a glance over his shoulder.
“Well, we’ll have time, unless they are armed with cannon,” said Lord Hastings. “All we need is to get aboard the D-17. Rifle shots won’t hurt us then.”
Rifle bullets continued to fly over and about the motorboat, one occasionally striking home. But none of the occupants was touched.
“We must be about the place,” said Frank suddenly.
“About a minute more,” responded Lord Hastings.
The minute up, Lord Hastings shut off the engine. They gazed about.
“If Price doesn’t come up pretty quick, we’ll have to run for it,” said the commander quietly. “It’s time now.”
“He’ll be up unless something has gone wrong,” said Jack positively.
“Unless he’s gone to sleep,” declared Frank.
“Well, I wish he’d hurry,” said Jack. “We can’t remain here many minutes longer. They are getting too close.”
“So they are,” agreed Lord Hastings. “We’ll wait thirty seconds, then, if there is not some sign of the D-17, we’ll move. We’ll make a fight for it, at any rate.”
The seconds ticked off slowly; and then, just as Lord Hastings was ready to open the engine, the waters of the sea parted and the neat outline of the D-17 appeared upon the surface.
A moment later the conning tower opened and Price stepped on deck. The submarine was perhaps fifty yards away, and Lord Hastings ran the motorboat toward it at full speed.
“Here we are, Price!” he called.
“All right, sir?”
“All right, but pursued. Below with you, and be ready to submerge the minute we are below.”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
Price disappeared.
A moment later the motorboat scraped alongside the submarine, and the three clambered over the side as fast as they could amid a veritable rain of bullets, none of which, however, found its mark.
“Down with you, quick!” shouted Lord Hastings.
Frank and Jack dashed for the companionway at top speed, Lord Hastings right behind them. Down the ladder they went with a rush, and the conning tower was hermetically closed behind them.
“Submerge to ten fathoms, and quickly, Mr. Templeton!” said Lord Hastings quietly.
Jack repeated the command, slowly the tanks began to fill, and the D-17 to submerge, the while the occupants of the motorboats without peppered the side of the vessel with rifle and revolver bullets.
“Shall I launch a torpedo at them, sir?” asked Frank.
Lord Hastings shook his head.
“Not much use,” he said. “You might hit one, and you might not. It’s not worth a chance. But we haven’t any time to lose now. They know we’re here, and the quicker we get out the better. They’ll have every German submarine in these waters on the hunt for us. Fortunately, we have the heels of any of them, and we can still see while submerged. They don’t know that; so, for the moment, the advantage is on our side.”
“But, sir,” protested Jack, “how about the other part of our plans here?”
“What?” demanded Lord Hastings.
“Warship, or two, sir,” said Jack.
“True,” said Lord Hastings. “I had forgotten. Shape your course due north for two miles, Mr. Templeton; then come to the surface.”
He turned to Frank and spoke again:
“We’ll leave our card, at any rate,” he said quietly. “You may prepare for action, Mr. Chadwick!”