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L.P.M. : The End of the Great War, a novel by J. Stewart Barney |
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Chapter 34. The Ultimatum |
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_ CHAPTER XXXIV. THE ULTIMATUM The sun was streaming through the windows when Lawrence awoke the next morning. The valet had come in shortly before to throw back the curtains with a slam, and by moving about the room, slapping up shades and dropping boots, make the usual noises of a well-trained valet at that time of the morning. "Mr. Edestone is already up, sir," he said when he saw that he had succeeded in waking Lawrence, "and is having his breakfast in his own apartments. Will you have yours here or will you go to the breakfast room?" "Breakfast room," elected Lawrence sleepily. "What time is it?" "Eight o'clock, sir. What will you have for breakfast, sir?" "Anything and eggs," said Lawrence, and was about to turn over and go to sleep again when he realized where he was, and leaping out of bed to the window in one bound stepped out into the loggia. The Little Peace Maker had dropped down and was now only about a thousand feet up; and when he looked down from his balcony, he could see that she had changed her position so as to float exactly over the Palace. It almost seemed to him as if he could step off and onto the roof of this great pile of masonry. The airship, too, must have just moved into this position, as was shown by the excited way in which the little people below him were running away in every direction. He had his bath, and hurriedly dressing went into the breakfast room, where he found Edestone, who had finished his breakfast and was waiting for him, while reading from a lot of slips of paper which he was turning over in his hand. The master of the ship was dressed all in white and looked refreshed after a good night's rest. "Good-morning, Lawrence," he greeted him. "Did you sleep well?" "Like a top." "And how is your hand?" "I had almost forgotten it, only I did get the dressings wet while taking my bath, but that will give me an excuse for passing the time of day with the doctors. How is your head?" "Oh, that does not amount to anything," said Edestone. "It will be well in a week. Have you seen the morning papers?" With a smile he handed him a sheet on which was printed all the news of the day which the wireless man had picked up during the night. "The United States has not been heard from," he commented as he glanced it over. "I wonder what the Southern Baptist Union School Children will think of me now? You know the Secretary of State thought I was a Baptist. And as for him, why he will leave the State Department and stay away until it gets too hot in Florida, or the lecturing season is all over, while the President will write a most scholarly note to all of the Powers telling them how much he loves them, and what a glorious thing it is to be an American. He will then give an unqualified invitation to all of the dark-skinned downtrodden criminals of Europe to come over and be sprinkled with the holy water of citizenship, after they have made their mark to their naturalization papers which have been read to them by their interpreter. "London reports that the news from Germany has filled the entire country with new confidence," he went on, "and that the Londoners have given themselves over to the most un-English and thoroughly Latin demonstrations by parading the streets and singing songs and indulging in another Mafeking. I see, too, that Lord Rockstone is reported to have said that he thought now the war would not last as long as he had expected. The King has called a special meeting of the Cabinet for today at 4 o'clock. "Reports come from Rome that Italy will enter the war immediately, and the papers point out the fact that now since her friend America has joined the Allies it is high time that Italy should take her position. "Petrograd reports that they have lost 100,000 men but have captured 250,000 Austrians. "Constantinople," he went on reading, "declares that the Dardanelles are impregnable and that the city is perfectly quiet, but the Sultan and half of his harem have moved to his summer residence." He laid down the printed sheet. "I have had no communication yet from down there," he said as he pointed down in the direction of the Palace. "My international law department is drawing up a proclamation which I will send as soon as it is finished. It will be along the lines that I spoke of to you last night, but framed in more diplomatic language. These are the latest bulletins I was just reading over when you came in." Then while Lawrence sat eating his breakfast, Edestone continued to read now and then bits of the different press notices. "Listen to this," he said with a laugh. "'The twenty Taubes sent up to make a night attack on the American airship inflicted great injury. After using up all their ammunition and bombs they were forced to retire before the large guns of the enemy. They all reached the ground in safety. The tremendous explosion that was heard in the city is thought to have been caused by the exploding of one of the large magazines.'" "What's that from?" Lawrence glanced up from his "anything and eggs." "Die Fliegende Blatter? " But Edestone did not smile, he was glancing at another of the slips. "Ah," he said in a sad voice, "I seem to have killed about one thousand people last night." "Still," argued Lawrence, "that was not as large a percentage of the German Empire as they killed of your little kingdom." "No," granted Edestone; "and as long as they insist upon treating me as an outlaw I will be one so far as they are concerned. I will now go and see if my ultimatum is prepared. I am undecided as to whether I will send it by wireless or by a messenger." Lawrence finished his breakfast and while he sat in the loggia smoking his cigar and looking down over the city, he decided to ask permission to carry the message to the Emperor himself. The idea delighted him, and he pictured exactly how he would walk and speak his lines like the prince in the story book. He only regretted that he was not to be dressed up in spangles, like the heralds of old, and have the triumphal march from Aida played by trumpeters from the Metropolitan Opera House who would precede him in their brand-new Cammeyer sandals and badly fitting tights but he decided that if said trumpeters were obliged to read sheet music he would not allow them to wear glasses. He was just making up his mind what he would say to the Emperor when Wilhelm fell on his knees and begged him to intercede for him, as Edestone came in, and blasted all these glowing dreams with a word. "Well, it is done," he said, "and I have given them until one o'clock to answer." Lawrence was then formally introduced to "Specs" under his title of Admiral Page, to Captain Lee, and the officers, and he spent one of the most delightful days of his life, so much interested in what he saw that he entirely forgot that he was a pirate, waiting to destroy a peaceable city if it did not do his bidding. Edestone had settled himself down for a quiet day of waiting, and Lawrence amused himself by inspecting every part of the ship and talking with all on board from the oil men to the Admiral. "Admiral Page," he inquired, "where do you keep the Deionizer?" At which "Specs" peeped at him with a suspicious glance through his thick glasses. "Has Mr. Edestone spoken to you of that?" he asked. "Yes," replied Lawrence, "but he did not explain to me its working." "Specs" hesitated to take even Lawrence into the holy of holies until he had obtained permission from Edestone to do so. Having by telephone communicated with him, and receiving his permission, he conducted Lawrence up into the bow of the ship. After passing through several heavy doors, which "Specs" unlocked, saluting the sentries at each, they came to a great iron grille and he motioned to Lawrence to look through, saying, "This is as far as I can take you." Lawrence looked through, and he saw what appeared to be the door of an enormous safe-deposit k vault. "That," nodded "Specs," "is the door to the safe in which the Deionizer is kept. No one on earth excepting Mr. Edestone knows the combination that will open those doors. That is run by a one hundred H. P. motor in the engine room, and from it run the deionizing cables which run down the port and starboard sides of the vessel." "Do you mean to say," said Lawrence, "that I have no weight?" as he felt his large biceps with an expression of pride. This caused "Specs" to laugh, and in response to the numberless questions put to him by the young man, he explained the different mechanisms by which the weight of the ship and its contents was kept at the weight of the amount of air displaced by it. "So," said Lawrence, "we are floating not by virtue of gas bags filled with gas lighter than air, but by the amount of air displaced by all metallic substances on this vessel, which for all practical purposes are rendered lighter than air?" "Yes," replied "Specs," with a look of pity for the other man's ignorance, "I suppose that is the way you would express it. If you really want to understand, and are willing to give the time to it, come to my quarters, and I will give you the scientific explanation." "No, thank you," said Lawrence; "I'll take your word for it, but I am glad to know that when I get back to earth I'm not liable at any time to be blown away like a thistledown." At lunch Edestone appeared very thoughtful and seemed to feel great anxiety about the outcome of his note. They had observed that soon after the message had been sent automobiles were coming and going from the Palace in great numbers, and gathered that the Emperor apparently was holding a council of war. They had also seen with powerful glasses that, in certain parts of the city there was great activity of some kind, but they were unable to ascertain exactly what it was. "I cannot understand," frowned Edestone, "how they can possibly decline a proposition pour parler. I asked them to agree to nothing. I assured them that I would use my influence in favour of a just settlement of all the claims arising out of the war and of the incidents leading up to it. I appealed to their humanity, and guaranteed as far as lay within my power to protect the lives and property of Germans all over the world if they would only stop all actual fighting until I could make an exactly similar appeal to the other Governments that are involved." Just then an officer came in and handed Edestone a wireless message which had just been received. Edestone read it hurriedly, but as he glanced up it was easy to see from the expression on his face that he was pleased. "Well," he exclaimed elatedly, "these Germans are not so bad after all, and if they will only give up the idea that they are the only people on the face of the earth, the sooner will they get what they want. That is, if they are telling the truth when they state they are fighting only to bring religion, science, and culture to the entire world. They do sincerely and honestly believe, I think, that this can be obtained only under the German form of government, and many of the other nations would be willing to admit this in part were they absolutely convinced of their sincerity and did not suspect them of greed on the part of the merchant class and ambition on the part of the war party. "They have apparently received my note in the spirit in which it was sent," he explained, "and have agreed to consider carefully the proposition which I have made. They only ask to be given until five o'clock this afternoon to draw up in proper form their reply to me and their message to the other countries. I am expecting every minute now to see a white flag displayed somewhere on or around the Palace, which was the signal agreed upon and is to be acknowledged by a similar flag displayed by me. This is not to be considered as an indication of any weakness on their part, or any surrendering of their rights or the acknowledgment of my power, but as a truce which will last only until five o'clock, or until such earlier time as I shall answer them. They stipulate that I, as an indication of good faith, withdraw to some point outside of the city, where it will be well out of range of my largest guns, and in order to fix some location which will be perfectly satisfactory they have suggested that I lie over the Gotzen See and have established my exact position by the ruins of an old castle on its north-eastern bank. There I am to remain until I receive their answer, which if not satisfactory terminates the truce. They have indicated very justly that they do not think they should be called upon to open negotiations for an amicable settlement with me while the Little Peace Maker is lying so close to the Emperor's Palace and threatening it with instant destruction." As it was impossible for them from where they were to see the Palace, Edestone suggested that they go up on the upper deck. "I hope that by the time we arrive on deck," Edestone said as they hurried along, "the white flag will be flying, and I sincerely hope that this will mark the beginning of the end of this cruel war and the realization of my hopes, the accomplishment of my life's work. "Ah," he exclaimed as they arrived and looked down, "there she is! You can see it on the large flagpole out in front of the Palace, while the Imperial standard is still floating over His Majesty's residence." He called an officer to him and gave him his orders: "Dip my colours and then run them up to the peak again. Display a white flag. Tell Captain Lee to call all hands, and get under way at once. Drop to within four hundred feet, man the rail, and circle the Palace. Haul down my colours and run up the German Imperial Ensign and fire a national salute of twenty-one guns, and then run at top speed and take a position over the Gotzen See at a point which I shall indicate." The ceremony was executed faultlessly, as he directed, and when the Little Peace Maker, just skirting the tops of the buildings, cast the shadow of its nine hundred feet of steel as it came between the sun and the Imperial city, its big guns booming the national salute, the people of Berlin must have been impressed, for when she circled at about four knots they cheered. But when she changed her speed, and at one hundred and eighty knots disappeared from sight, they must have been relieved. At such speed it was only a few minutes before they were hovering quietly over the old ruin on the banks of the lake, and they settled down to spend the afternoon as they would have, had they been anchored in Frenchman's Bay off of Bar Harbour in the month of August on board the Storm Queen. It was a beautiful and quiet summer scene, and like a big trout in a limpid pool the Little Peace Maker lay perfectly still basking in the warm sunshine. Most of the ports were open and the men were lying around enjoying the relaxation of the first dog-watch. Although it was with difficulty that Edestone could keep Lawrence still long enough, he forced him to join in a game of chess, which was Edestone's favourite form of relaxation. Lawrence, however, kept continually breaking in with the suggestion that they go below and take a walk among the ruins of the home of one of the ancient Barons of Prussia. From time to time, while waiting for Lawrence to move, Edestone would consult his watch, and as the fatal hour of five approached, although perfectly calm he was anxious. With the finish of the game, Lawrence, who had chafed under the confinement, insisted upon going on deck and talking with the officers and men. When next he saw his friend, Edestone was walking up and down the general living-room with an expression of great anxiety on his face. It was half-past five o'clock, and although Lawrence had entirely forgotten it, he suddenly thought of the ultimatum. "Well what did they answer?" he asked. "Nothing," said Edestone. "And what are you going to do?" "I am going to Kiel to sink one of their largest battleships, and see if that will wake them up. We shall be under way in ten minutes and should be there by eight-thirty o'clock. I have ordered 'Specs' to get under way as soon as possible." Lawrence was delighted; this was the best yachting that he had ever had, and he wanted to be in so many places at the same time that he ran about like a boy on his first ocean trip. He was just going up the companionway to the pilot house, where he knew he would find Edestone, when he was almost knocked off his feet by the impact of something against the side of the ship which felt as if it would tear out every rivet and buckle every beam. At the same instant there was an explosion which was worse than the black-powder explosion of the night before, and he was just thinking how unkind it was of Edestone not to have warned him before indulging in another one of his pyrotechnical demonstrations, when it was followed by another and another. He had managed by this time to get into the pilot house, where he saw Edestone with an expression of rage on his face giving sharp peremptory orders while the life was being pounded out of the Little Peace Maker. In response to these orders, the ship suddenly shot up with such rapidity that it seemed to Lawrence as if his legs would be driven through the floor. He was suffering great pain in his head and his nose was bleeding. He could scarcely hear what Edestone was saying to him, but finally he caught these words: "So that is their answer, the liars! They have taken advantage of my willingness to remain here quietly, and with their thoroughness in all matters and their usual method of working in the dark, they have placed me where they have carefully worked out the range of their forty-two-centimetre guns. They hoped to be able to capture us, but seeing our smoke, and realizing that I was going to move, they took this unspeakable method of putting an end to the Little Peace Maker." _ |
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