Over There with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge

All things considered, Irving was well pleased with the course of events during his sojourn in the German capital. Although a number of situations had developed with rather dangerous aspect, he had pulled through all of them with apparent success. While he was still reporting daily at the hospital for the dressing of his arm his lieutenancy commission was acted upon in the war office and was delivered to him through Mr. Herrmann.

At last the day arrived for a windup of the young spy's affairs in the intelligence offices, and he was summoned into the presence of "the baron" and Superintendent Herrmann. A third man also was present to receive the young espionage student. He wore a navy uniform and was introduced as Capt. Bartholf of the submarine service.

"You will go with Capt. Bartholf on board his boat," "the baron" announced, addressing "Lieut. Hessenburg." "He will land you on the coast of Spain and from there you will go to a German consul and devise a method for getting you to Mexico and from there into the United States.

"By the way," the high intelligence official remarked, suddenly interrupting himself and addressing Superintendent Herrmann; "how about that letter that was being prepared for Lieut. Hessenburg to take along?"

"I'll see," replied Herrmann, as he started for the door.

"Bring Strauss in with you," "the baron" called after him. "I may want to ask him some questions."

"Strauss!"

The name echoed in Irving's brain with a succession of significant thrills. What did Strauss have to do with the preparation of the letter he was to take with him? Was it possible-?

He did not finish the sentence in words, but the idea was there and remained uppermost in his mind during the remainder of the session in "the baron's" office. Presently Herrmann returned, accompanied by the card-catalog expert, who carried an envelope of ordinary business-correspondence size in one hand. This envelope he laid on the desk in front of the intelligence chief.

The latter picked it up, looked keenly at Strauss and asked with like sharpness of voice:

"This paper was prepared entirely by you, was it?"

"Yes," the cataloger answered.

"And it has been in no other person's hands at any time since you began work on it?"

"No."

"And you vouch for the accuracy and thoroughness of its preparation?"

"Yes."

"That's all. You may retire."

Strauss left the room. "The baron" turned to Irving, handed him the letter, and said:

"This innocent looking missive is of vast importance. It is addressed in cipher to a very important person in America who is high in the confidence of the United States government. You have learned how to read this cipher and will work it out for yourself. That is all. Good-by. I wish you a continuation of the success that has been yours in a remarkable degree heretofore."

Irving took "the baron's" offered hand and then left the office accompanied by Capt. Bartholf. As he went the name of Strauss continued to ring in his head, together with this startling conviction:

The catalog expert was the French spy who had tapped the "telegraph message" on his window at the rooming house!

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE SUBMARINES

Lieut. Ellis of the Canadian army, alias Lieut. Hessenburg of the German army, had quite enough to think about as he left the office of "the baron" in company with the submarine commander. Out in the reception room the latter took leave of him, saying, "Meet me at the Kaiserhof at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning"; then the youthful spy, with a counter-spying commission from the enemy, went to his desk and began to make arrangements for his departure.

Mr. Herrmann selected from the office force a former soldier who had lost one arm, and to him Irving made a brief statement of the work he had been doing so that his successor might continue where he had left off. For a short time he debated in his mind whether to go to those of his fellow workmen with whom he had been more intimately associated and bid them farewell, but he decided that this would not be in harmony with the "community conduct" of the officials and employes of the bureau. In fact, he had observed little in the association of the office that had suggested real community life. Everybody connected with the intelligence bureau seemed either to have been born with a cold furtiveness of manner or to have developed an espionage attitude of this sort in the atmosphere of the greatest spy system the world had ever known.

However, he disliked very much to leave the place for the last time without passing at least an "aufwiedersehen" to the one person there who he felt certain was a friend of the great cause of human liberty for which the allied nations were fighting. But Strauss seemed disposed to ignore him if possible. He passed several times near the expert's desk, but the latter pored more diligently than ever over his work. Once Irving caught his eye and attempted to pass him a look of intelligent meaning, but Strauss turned away quickly, and Irving left the building without saying good-by to one of the occupants.

"A very cold-blooded business," he told himself. "My! I'm glad to be out of there. I'm afraid I'm not built along cold enough lines for a spy even in behalf of a great and meritorious cause. That fellow Strauss is an ideal spy. He must be the best any nation ever produced. He certainly has worked himself into a powerful position of confidence with the enemy. But that was some chance he took when he tapped that message on my window. I wonder if he expected me to discover who he was after he told me he was the fellow that prepared the letter that was to be given to me. And when he assured the baron that nobody else had had the letter in his possession, nobody else remained for me to suspect. Well, he must know now that I spotted him; but he surely exhibited extremely wise caution when he refused to recognize even a significant look from me. Good-by, Mr. Strauss, or whatever your name is. You were too shrewd to let me shake your hand, and cold judgment tells me you were right. I hope after the war is over I may take a trip to Europe and look you up. But, judging from the way you looked at me, or avoided looking at me, I'm afraid you'd take advantage of the opportunity to give me a calling down such as few people have ever received. I'd probably feel the knives of your sarcasm making ridiculous mince meat out of me."

Next morning, promptly at the appointed hour, Irving was at the information desk of the Kaiserhof, asking for Capt. Bartholf. The latter was in his room waiting for the young intelligence officer. Two hours later, arrangements having been made for the transfer of baggage, the captain and the lieutenant were on board a train and headed for one of the principal submarine ports of the German coast.

The trip was uneventful, except that it afforded Irving an opportunity to make a study of the character of an official representative of the policy of ruthlessness of the military government of Germany. Capt. Bartholf was a fit exponent of this policy and exceedingly efficient because of the intelligence with which he could disguise the barbarous nature of his ideas. Hours before they reached the port of their destination, the spy was convinced that an enemy who fell into the clutches of this sub-sea commander might as well toss hope to the fishes.

"I don't believe he'd take a prisoner if he could help it," Irving mused as a climax to his conclusions. "I'd never surrender to a man like him if I knew in advance what kind of fellow he was. It'd be a finish fight even though there were no hope in it for me."

They arrived at the seaport in the evening and took rooms at a hotel. Two days they remained in this city. The captain explained the delay by saying that he was awaiting orders to start on a raiding cruise. Finally the orders arrived, and he announced that they would go on board at once.

Half an hour later they were at the docks, where a dozen U-boats were lined up, some of them taking in provisions and oil, or undergoing inspection and minor repairs. Irving's eyes were busy with new objects of interest at this submarine harbor, for he had never before seen an undersea craft. Eagerly he took in the scene, regarding the various objects with more than the calculating interest of an international spy; and while in the act of boarding the vessel in which he was about to take his first submarine trip, he almost forgot, as the romantic thrill of the experience went through him, that he was surrounded by enemies in whose hands his life would be worth only a volley of rifle balls if his real identity were revealed to them.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

"KAMERAD!" AGAIN

"Shut off the power."

Irving was in the conning tower with Capt. Bartholf and Lieut. Voltz of U-31 when the latter, who was at the periscope, gave the foregoing order through the speaking tube.

They had been out all night and half the preceding day, running much of the time on the surface of the ocean in order to make the best possible speed. Irving had not a clear idea where they were, but presumed that they must have passed a considerable distance beyond the western end of the English channel.

Lieut. Voltz gazed again into the glass of the periscope after giving his order to the engineer. He had had his hand on the lever at his right and with this had turned the periscope tube so that his eye could sweep the horizon. Now, however, he had discovered something, and he no longer moved the lever except occasionally little more than a hair's breadth in order to keep the object of interest in view. After a few moments of further careful examination and reference to the telemeter attachment to determine the distance away of the discovered object, he called again into the speaking tube.

"Go down four fathoms."

Then turning to Capt. Bartholf, he said:

"There are two vessels about five knots a little south of west from here. One is probably a convoy."

"Run about three knots closer and take another peep," the captain ordered. "Did 17 and the 23 sight them also?"

"I think so. Seventeen just went under."

Irving understood this question and answer to refer to two other U-boats that accompanied No. 31 on this trip. Meanwhile the latter submerged to the depth ordered by Lieut. Voltz.

Twenty minutes later the periscope was again a few feet out of the water with the lieutenant's eye glued to the glass and his right hand working the lever.

"Let me have a look," said the commander.

He gazed a minute into the glass and then said:

"I'm going to try to get that convoy first and then the other, which appears to be a hospital ship."

Irving shuddered.

The order was again given to submerge. The lieutenant seemed to be doing all the work of lookout, pilot and operating master, for he was busy at the steering wheel, periscope, and speaking tube almost simultaneously much of the time. All these were within easy reach from one position. The "sub" arose several times near enough to the surface to enable the lieutenant or the captain to take a peep at the prospective prey, and then down again it would go. At last, under direction from the captain, the lieutenant gave this order through the speaking tube:

"Have the men slide a torpedo into one of the forward tubes."

Eager to witness this operation, Irving sprang to the stairway and was soon down on the lower deck. There he saw several members of the crew remove the safety attachment from the nose of a sixteen-foot phosphor-bronze torpedo, which was seventeen or eighteen inches in diameter, and slide it into a tunnel-like hole in the midst of a maze of operating machinery. A minute or two later the order was given to "shoot," and out it went, under initial propulsion from a compressed air engine.

Then the order to submerge was given again, and away they went southward at full speed under three fathoms of water. Ten minutes afterward the periscope peeped up over the surface of the sea once more, and Capt. Bartholf had his eye glued eagerly to the glass.

A moment later he gave a yelp of delight, and Irving knew that a hit had been scored.

"We've hit 'em both fine!" the commanding officer exclaimed. "One of the other boats must have fired a torpedo about the same time we did. Both of those ships are going down."

It was not regarded safe to show the hulks of the submarines above the water yet, however, for fear lest the convoy hit one or more of them with a shell as a last living act of revenge. But they did not have to wait long, however, for the doomed vessels sank rapidly.

Then all three submarines showed themselves on the surface and Irving was delighted to observe that apparently all of the sailors, soldiers and nurses that had been on the hospital ship and the convoy were now in lifeboats, which were being rowed with frantic desperation away from the U-boat-infested spot.

"Follow them up and let's see what they look like," Capt. Bartholf ordered, with a kind of gloating glee.

All three captains seemed to be of like mind, for all three U-boats took the same course and ran up close to the crowded lifeboats. Several officers and members of the crew of each of the submarines appeared on the outer deck to view the results of their uncontested victory.

Suddenly there came from one of the boats a call that thrilled and chilled Irving with a sense of awed familiarity.

"Kamerad!"

Where had he heard that cry in that tone of voice before? He could not decide on the moment, and yet he was apprehensive of an unpleasant discovery.

The captain of U-31 determined to investigate and ordered the lifeboat from which the hail proceeded to come alongside. The occupants could do nothing more sensible than obey. As it approached a young man with an empty left sleeve arose and repeated his appealing cry, and Irving almost dropped in his tracks.

The one-armed fellow was Adolph Hessenburg, alias Tourtelle, the former Canadian lieutenant of the tattooed cubist art cryptogram. Undoubtedly he was being sent to England to be held there for a determination of his fate after information had been received regarding the success or failure of his substitute spy's mission within the German lines.

CHAPTER XXXIX

"ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN"

If anybody had observed the precipitation with which Irving dived down the hatchway of U-31 a moment or two after he recognized the "cubist art spy," there is no doubt that the observer would have been impressed with the mystery of the proceeding. As it was, all of his boche companions on the outer deck were too much interested in seeking an explanation of the "kamerad" cry from the midst of a boatload of enemy soldiers and sailors to give attention to anything less than the explosion of a bomb on their own vessel.

Irving meanwhile picked up a sou'wester that he found on the lower deck, put it over his head so that it partly covered, shaded, and hence considerably disguised his face, and then returned to the outer deck. True, the weather was not stormy, but the air was chilly and the "cloudburst hood" added considerably to his comfort.

The real Hessenburg had been assisted on board and was being questioned by Captain Bartholf. Irving heard the latter ask him his name, and then suddenly something happened which the trembling spy has ever since declared undoubtedly saved his life and some very important information for the Allies.

What caused the sudden lurch of the submarine was not subsequently disclosed. Possibly one of the men below, accidentally or thoughtlessly moved a lever or wheel that resulted in a momentary spasm of mechanical action. At any rate, all on the outer deck were dancing around for several seconds to preserve their balance, and one of them was not as successful as the others. That was Hessenburg, who was thrown violently against the low railing so that he struck his head on one of the iron standards or posts.

Evidently he was seriously injured, for he did not attempt to rise. The pallor of his face and the glassy look in his eyes indicated that he had fainted. He was carried below and restoratives were administered to him, but these did not bring back more than barely enough life to reassure his caretakers that the concussion on his head was probably not fatal.

* * * * *

The run from the scene of the sinking of the British hospital ship and convoy to the Spanish coast was made in about eighteen hours, and before noon of the day following, Irving was landed on a bleak and desolate spot on the Bay of Biscay. Meanwhile, he had thankfully observed the slowness with which the former "cubist art spy" recovered. Although he found it necessary several times to be at the bedside of the patient, the latter showed no signs of recognition; indeed, he at no time before Irving was put ashore indicated that he had fully recovered from the stupor which followed the shock of his fall.

The story of how Irving found his way to a Spanish settlement and subsequently got in touch with a British consulate and thence again with the Canadian army is of little interest compared with the thrilling events heretofore narrated. Suffice it to say that in due time success met his efforts to get back with the Canadians, who retained unshakable possession of Vimy Ridge, and that the information he was able to turn over to his superior officers brought him recognition and honors from very high sources.