The Air Pirate Part 15

"I told you that Mr. Helzephron"--apparently the hawk-faced man had dropped his military t.i.tle in Cornwall--"do make a mystery of his peddling mine. He goes further than that. The mine buildings and the house are surrounded by two fences of barbed-wire and the Manor by a high wall. 'Trespa.s.sers,' notice boards belong to say, 'will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law'!"

"Well, I shan't attempt to trespa.s.s, Mr. Trewh.e.l.la!"

The landlord laughed. "Mine prospectin's not in the way of a larned gentleman like yourself. Maybe it's as well. Mr. Helzephron has got two dogs he turns out at night, and terrible ugly customers they be. Mr.

Vargus do tell me that they be Tibetan mastiffs, which am the largest dogs in the world. They look like a sour-faced Newfoundland with heavy ears, only bigger."

I tramped away from "The Miners' Arms." Although I recognized the fact that we were only at the fringe of discovery, my mind was made up. Thick darkness surrounded me, but I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Major Helzephron, and no other, was the man for whom the whole world was hunting.

And as I thought of him and the crew of lost and reckless men who did his will, the fair landscape seemed to darken, the sweet airs to be tainted....

The path I traversed was the coastguard's path, as I could see by the white-washed boulders to serve as a guide by night. It was never more than two or three yards away from the brink of the savage precipices that fell for two hundred and fifty feet sheer to the water. The ocean was on my left; on the right the great hill, known as Carne Zerran, towered up, and the edge of the high moors cut the sky. On that side it was as though one were walking at the bottom of a cup.

After about half a mile of the path, it suddenly left the cliff edge, and turned inland. For several hundred yards the brink was guarded by a semicircle of barbed-wire fence, which made it impossible to approach. A notice board informed the wayfarer that here, owing to old mining operations, the cliff was extremely dangerous.

It looked so, indeed. The edge was broken and irregular. I saw that it ran out in a curious headland for a considerable way, a mere wall of rock with a razor-back path on the top, which curved round again and ran parallel to the cliff on which I was, making a mighty chasm from which rose the cries of innumerable sea-birds. There was a narrow mouth seawards, and another headland jutted out to make a cove like the one at the inn, though that, of course, had no winding canon at the end.

I crept up to the brink, where the wire fence began, and, lying down, with one arm round the first post, peered over.

It was a terrible place. The rock overhung so for hundreds of yards that I could not see the bottom. But the other side of the canon was clear to view, a great wall of black rock, where sea-hawks nested, and inaccessible to the boldest climber. To the right the cove seemed to be of fair size from horn to horn, but it was no tranquil spot like the one at the back of the inn. Even on a calm day like the present, the Atlantic ground swell poured in with tremendous force, and was broken with ferocious whirlpools and spray-fountains by toothed rock-ledges a foot or two below the surface. The smallest boat could not have entered Tregeraint Cove and lived there for a moment.

For some reason or other the place affected me most unpleasantly, and it was with a little shudder that I retreated and skirted the fence which guarded the dangerous part of the cliff. When I had pa.s.sed by this, the path turned at right angles and went inland.

As I turned I saw, perhaps a furlong away, the house of Helzephron.

It lay upon the eastern slope of Carne Zerran, an ancient, grim-looking house of granite, long, low, and of considerable size. A few stunted trees grew round about, and a fairly extensive domain of gardens, as I supposed, surrounded by a high wall. Using my prism gla.s.ses, I could see that this wall was topped by iron spikes. Of course, I was considerably below Tregeraint as on the sloping hill-side, and it lay quite open to view. Higher up, and beyond the house, was the derrick, engine-house and sheds of the mine, with here and there dumps of debris and various sheds.

Although the wire fences, which I soon made out, went round the whole property, it lay quite open to the view. And when I had pa.s.sed it, and climbed to the table-land of the moor beyond, I saw that it would be even more open to the eyes--spread out like a map, in short.

One thing was already certain. There was nothing whatever in the nature of a hangar, no building that could possibly shelter even an ordinary four or five seater biplane, to say nothing of an air cruiser.

I was not disappointed, because I had hardly expected to meet with anything of the kind. The pirate s.h.i.+p, you will remember, was--like all the big long-distance airs.h.i.+ps--a cross between what used to be known in the old days as the "seaplane" and the "flying-boat." True, some of our war aeroplanes of quite large size were fitted with floats that could be raised, and wheels for land work in addition.

This might be the case with the pirate. But it was not to be thought of for a moment that a man of Helzephron's intelligence would dare to house his extraordinary s.h.i.+p where any one of my police could have investigated simply by showing his badge of office. The land policeman and the coastguards of the whole English coastline had already reported on every hangar and aerodrome in the kingdom. If Helzephron was the man I believed him, I was well aware that we were only at the beginning of the duel.

I mounted up past the wire fences and the mine. I did not dare to use my gla.s.ses in pa.s.sing, for I saw in the distance one or two figures of men strolling about by the engine-house and derrick. But when I was at last among the heather at the top, I lay down, and took a long survey of the buildings, drawing a careful map in my pocket-book, which might prove of great use later on.

I waited half an hour at the little station of St. Erth, and then caught a train to Penzance, arriving at the hotel about tea-time. As I came into the lounge, after a wash and brush up, I saw Danjuro sitting in one corner. He had a pile of newspapers round him, and I saw that the London journals had arrived.

He handed me one of them as I sat down. A paragraph among the police news was marked in pencil.

Major Helzephron had been taken to Vine Street Police Station, and locked up for the night, charged with an aggravated a.s.sault on Mr. Wag Ashton at the Mille Colonnes Restaurant, on the evidence of M. Nicholas and the head-waiter.

A medical man had attended the Court on behalf of the prosecutor, to say that Mr. Ashton was too unwell to appear until the morrow. Upon his promising to attend the Court the next day, Major Helzephron was admitted to bail.

"That gives us nearly two clear days," said Danjuro. "When Ashton does appear, he will not press the case, and will own that he gave provocation; Helzephron will be fined, perhaps let off. I see that Honourable Ashton battered him a good deal! And now, your news, Sir John, if you please."

CHAPTER XI

"THE AIR WOLVES ARE HUNTING TO-NIGHT!"

He made no comment, and did not interrupt me until I had completely finished, nor did his inscrutable face give any indication of what he thought.

"My own investigations," he said, "can be told in a few words. The small steams.h.i.+p which brings supplies to the cove behind the inn is the private property of Helzephron, and she is a great deal faster and much better engined than most people are aware. She lies at the little port of Hayle, which is on the main line from Plymouth to Penzance, in St.

Ives Bay. At certain times _large quant.i.ties of petrol arrive in separate consignments from different parts of the country_. The _Sea Gull_ is loaded to her capacity, and then makes the short voyage to Zerran Cove."

"That's the last link!" I said. "No one could doubt now!"

"There is another, still more interesting fact. Hayle was once a place of much greater importance than it is at present. There were large foundries and engineering works there in the past. These have been abandoned, owing to the silting up of the harbour, for many years, as only vessels of small draught can enter easily to-day. But the foundry buildings remain. From time to time a portion of them has been let for this or that small enterprise. Three years ago Helzephron rented a part of the works and installed machinery. He had about twenty labourers, but the real work, whatever it was, took place in a large experimental shed, to which no one was admitted but he and his friends. They were already at Zerran, and used to drive over in motors every day. It was locally known that some new machinery for Wheal Tregeraint was being made. Many s.h.i.+ppings took place from Hayle to Zerran Cove."

"But the s.h.i.+p, the Pirate s.h.i.+p itself?"

"Who can tell? We go step by step in the dark. Many theories have crossed my mind. I have dismissed them all. I want to approach this, the most sinister problem of all, with a blank mind. We can do nothing till we are on the spot. Our preliminary work is over, but the real labour begins."

"A sinister problem enough," I answered bitterly. "But not the most trouble to me. I tell you, Danjuro, that as I lay among the heather and looked down upon that lonely house, as I thought of the devilish crew that live there, for a moment my heart turned to water, and the agony was more than I could endure. _She_ may be there, at this moment, defenceless and in the power ..."

I could not go on. I covered my face with my hands, and was nearer breaking down than ever before. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "It has never left my mind, either. Do not give way, for the moment of action has come. We go to the inn at Zerran to-night--within the hour."

"To-night!"

"Yes. We cannot afford to waste a moment. Helzephron is kept in London.

One great danger is removed from our path. We shall never have a better opportunity than now. In dealing with enemies such as ours, we must strike quickly and strongly when they think themselves most secure.

Before dawn we must have penetrated the inmost secrets of Tregeraint."

I had by now grown accustomed to regard Danjuro as the leader of our enterprise. His decision was like cool water to a man dying of thirst in a desert. I stood up, absolutely myself. "There is, of course, no reason why we should not install ourselves at Zerran to-night instead of to-morrow morning. Trewh.e.l.la won't mind," I said.

"I will order the car in an hour. Meanwhile, I have one or two things to do. Perhaps you will settle the hotel bill, Sir John, and tell the people that we are leaving?..."

It was a stiflingly hot night as the car climbed up to the moors, and in the glare of our headlights the gorse and heather by the roadside streamed swiftly like some golden cinema, leaving a more sable dark before and behind them. Danjuro, by my side, was lost in thought. The ma.s.sive head hung upon his chest. About half-way on our journey he said a curious thing. "This would be an ideal night for another raid in the air-lanes of the Atlantic."

I did not answer, for I, also, was thinking deeply. So it was for to-night! We crossed swords, fired the first shot, what you will, with our cunning enemy in a few hours. What would they bring forth?

I felt no fear, only a deep resolution not to fail in rescue and the execution of Justice. I was happier than I had been for days, for it is thought that turns the bones to pith and thins the blood, not action.

And, as we flashed down the dark moor road to where the lights of the solitary inn showed yellow, I sent a wordless prayer to the Throne of Justice and Mercy. And, as if an answer was truly and instantly vouchsafed, there came into my mind these words from the ninety-first Psalm: "I will deliver thee from the snare of the hunter."

And after that I put mere abstract thought away from me.

As we rolled up silently to the inn, we heard a great noise of singing from the long room. A tall woman came out of a side door, and I explained that we had decided to come earlier than we had planned. She was a comely, good-humoured dame, who made no trouble about our arrival.

Both bedrooms and sitting-rooms were prepared, and when Thumbwood had taken the car round to the barn, he went upstairs to unpack the baggage.

Mr. Trewh.e.l.la appeared from the bar. I introduced Danjuro, and we arranged to have some supper at half-past ten.

Meanwhile the singing continued in great volume, mingled with the tw.a.n.ging chords of a banjo.

"Your guests are merry to-night," said Danjuro.

"It's the gentlemen from the mine, sir," said the landlord. "It's one of their nights off, so to speak. Would you like to join 'em for half an hour?"