Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT 29 manded. “How do you get aboard my ship? You're not passengers,” “You're Commodore Sir Peter Weatherly, aren't you, sir?” I asked. “That’s me,” he snapped. “T’m James Boon, Sir Peter,” I explained. “I’ve come out on my seaplane, the Merlin, to take Lord Almeric Pluscarden on shore. We found your ship adrift, and I managed to land my machine on your awning aft there. The whole ship has been doped, Sit. “Ring down to the engine-room, can’t you, Bos- cence?” the commodore said to his second in com- mand, ignoring me. ‘'We must have some way on her.” “TI have done so, sit,” the bewildered chief officer replied. “I get no bell back from them.” “Tf I might suggest something, Sir Peter,” I ventured, “Let my mechanic, Milliken, go round with your officer here,” indicating the younger man, “and waken up the crew.” For a moment he stared at me as though trying to collect his thoughts, then he nodded briskly. “Do that, Barr,’ he ordered. “Wake the crew— though what on earth they should be asleep for beats me. And you, young man—Mr, Boon, you say you are—perhaps you'll explain as much as you can of this business.” “This is my friend, Mr. Dan Lamont,” I said. “He will bear out what I tell you, sir. But first, let me ask you to walk to where you can look into the after well ? “Come along, then—this way!” He led the way down to the boat deck, and made » for the rail over the well. “God in Heaven!” he exclaimed. “My men! Are they dead?” “No, sir,” said Dan. “I imagine they’re asleep as you have been. They'll waken easily.” “Come to my cabin, gentlemen,” said the sailor. “I’m all adrift. I simply can’t understand this thing at all.” I must say that I admired the grip he had of him- self, and his acceptance of what must have been a bewildering situation. He was alert and business- like as he led the way back to the lower bridge. “Mr. Boscence,” he called up to the chief officer. “The first thing to do is to get some way on the ship. Give Mr. Barr a hail, and tell him to turn out all the engine-room staff not on duty, and to send them down to—to wake their fellows. Tell them not to interfere with any of the passengers who may be on deck or in the saloons. Pass the word to stich of the crew as may be stirring. Do you understand?” “Aye, sir!” He turned to Dan and myself. “You'll forgive any lack of courtesy in your wel- come, I am sure. You were not expected to appear in circumstances such as these. please, We won’t go to my cabin. I must look after the ship. You can tell me what you know as we go along.” We followed him below, but when we came to the smoking-saloon, and found there a number of passengers huddled like dead men round the card tables, or sprawled out on the floor, it was too much for the captain. “It is no use. I must get the hang of the thing Come with me, first of all,” he said. “You'll have to tell me what it means. This morning at three o’clock I was called out of my bunk by word that a red riding- light was floating on the sea ahead. I turned out, and was immediately met by a message that had come over the wireless phone. It came from the U.S. battleship Argonne—or was supposed to come from her; “Heave to immediately. Danger.’ I passed the word to the bridge to obey the order, and made to follow. I had no sooner reached the chart-room— I wanted my, binoculars—when—wellthe next thing I remember is being spoken to by this young man—Lamont, did you say? That’s my side of it. Now, as clearly and as quickly as you can—what do you know?” With as few words as I could, I told him about Wall Street, of the mysterious sleep, and how the thieves had got away with two and a half millions in gold. “There was something about that came over the wireless yesterday,” said the captain. “It’s a very mysterious thing. You say that the folk round Wail Street were chloroformed—or whatever it is—just as we've been?” “Exactly, sir.” “Then—by thunder—they’ve been after the specie I'm carrying—a half a million sterling in gold!” Piracy HE darted off through the saloon doorway, and down an alleyway, Dan and I close to his heels. He stopped at a cabin labelled, “Purser,” and banged on it, trying the handle at the same time, A fat little man opened the door, and blinked sleepi- ly at us. “Quick, Strachan!” yelled the captain. “The * second key of the strong-room! Hurry, man!” “What's the matter, sir?” “Damn it, man! Don’t argue! Put on some clothes and bring the key of the strong-room as fast as you can. Hurry!” He turned and banged past us back the way he had come, and up a companionway, Dan and I tagging after him. We followed him into his suite, beyond which was the strong-room. He needn't have worried about the key, Right in the middle of the steel door was a yawning hole, through which we saw, in a brilliant blaze of electric light, the disorder of smashed wooden cases. “Piracy, by God!” gasped Sir Peter, “Piracy on the high seas—and on my ship! It-can’t have been done from aboard the ship—they’d never get away with that weight of gold—half a million!” “florins?” asked Dan. “Florins be damned!” said the captain. florin pieces. Sovereigns!” * “Phew! Nearly two and a half million in Ameri- can dollars,” I said—the British florin standing at that time at 2.42—‘just about as much as they got out of Wall Street!” “Tell me, Mr. Boon,” said the captain. “When you sighted us, was there any craft near us?” “Nothing within forty kilometres of you, Sir Peter—and certainly nothing up to doing that dis- tance in the hour.” “That cuts out an hour, leaving one for some “Ten- *In 1932, when Britain and the U. 8. A. adopted the metric sys- tem for welghts and Measures, the florin of 100 fatthings became the British unit of money in a new decimal coinage, comnlicloooks.com