CHAPTER XXII

The Monitors in Action

All that night the monitors lay, with lights out, off the outer bar of the Mohoro Lagoon. A council of war had been held on board the _Paradox_, when a fresh plan of action was drawn up. This was in consequence of the information Denbigh, O'Hara, and Armstrong had brought concerning the enemy's defences.

"This chart is radically wrong," declared Denbigh, when a chart of that part of the coast was shown to him. "The bend in which the _Pelikan_ is lying is not shown. Apparently the topography is from an old survey."

"It is from the latest available information," remarked Captain Holloway, loath to deprecate the work of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.

"Available as far as the Germans would permit," corrected the sub deferentially. "They've had full control here for years. I'm not referring to the lagoon, but to the river. The depths, too, are inaccurate."

"I suppose you wouldn't object to a job to-morrow?" asked the senior officer, after he had listened intently to Denbigh's explanations and descriptions of the details of the Mohoro River.

"Not in the least, sir," replied the sub promptly.

"In a sea-plane?"

"Just my mark, sir; but I've had no flying experience."

"We would want you for registering duties," continued Captain Holloway. "You will have a flight sub-lieutenant as pilot. With your knowledge of the shore batteries and torpedo stations you will be able to render further important service. Very good; I'll arrange for the sea-plane to pick you up at dawn; that is, if it is not too misty. These tropical mists play the deuce with aerial observations."

It was arranged that the attack should open at seven on the following morning. The _Crustacean_ was to lead the way over the inner bar, and devote her attention to the torpedo station. The _Paradox_ was to shell the batteries concealed in the mangrove forest, while the _Eureka_ was to patrol the lagoon and to cut off any attempt at flight on the part of the German troops, whose line of retreat would be pretty certain to be along the coast, since the thick forests and marshes to the westward made retirement to the hinterland almost a matter of impossibility.

Two hours before sunrise the crews of the monitors were called to "action" stations. They had previously bathed and changed into clean clothes, and had been given ample time to enjoy their breakfast. Clearing ship for action took but little preparation, since the monitors carried only what was necessary as floating batteries.

At the hour specified a sea-plane taxied gracefully to within fifty feet of the _Crustacean_. A boat was lowered from the monitor, and into this Denbigh stepped, to the accompaniment of the somewhat irrelevant remarks of his brother officers.

"Fine mornin'," was the flight-sub's greeting, as nonchalantly as if he were passing the time of day with a casual acquaintance. "Hop in. You'll find a belt fixed to the back of your seat. There's the wireless gear. See that lever on your left? That releases the paying-out gear of the aerial. Don't pay out too smartly. Ready?"

The blades glittered in the morning light as the propeller revolved and rapidly increased the number of revolutions. Slowly at first, then with accelerated movement, the sea-plane skimmed the placid surface of the lagoon. Then, almost before Denbigh was aware of it, the machine leaped upwards. The slight tilt of the seat was the only intimation that the sea-plane had parted company with the water, until the sub noticed the surface of the lagoon apparently receding with great rapidity.

Round and round spiralled the frail contrivance, tilting with an easy swinging movement as it climbed. Already the monitors looked no larger than toy boats upon an ornamental pond. The irregular ground on either side of the river was merged into an expanse that betrayed no indication of height. Far beneath him Denbigh could discern a ribbon-like strip of silvery-grey. It was the Mohoro River.

"Distance lends enchantment to the eye," thought the sub. "And it is such a dirty river."

He mused feelingly. In his imagination he sniffed the foetid odours from the torrential yellow stream. He had a mental vision of a swim in the dark, with hippos and crocodiles for company. The reeking mud-flats, too, lay beneath him, their dismal and monotonous aspect obliterated by the charm of altitude.

Above the land the rapidly increasing strength of the morning sun was causing great irregularities in the density of the air. The sea-plane rolled violently. Twice she dropped through a sheer distance of a couple of hundred feet, owing to "air pockets", but the pilot, with the utmost unconcern, held her on her course.

Presently he turned and bawled something. The rush of the wind made his words unintelligible, but he pointed to the aerial release. Denbigh understood, and depressing the lever allowed a hundred and fifty feet of wire to be run off the reel.

Leaning over the side of the fuselage the sub brought his glasses to bear upon the waterway almost beneath him. He could distinguish the fatal bend in the Mohoro River where the _Myra_ had turned turtle and had been swallowed up in the shifting sand. He could even discern her outlines as she lay on her side with ten feet of water swirling overhead.

Farther down-stream was something that looked exactly like an island covered with luxurious vegetation. It was the _Pelikan_. The disguise was really admirable. Had Denbigh not known of the means her crew had taken to hide her he would never have detected her presence.

But the _Pelikan's_ hour had not yet come. Until the shore batteries and fortifications had been shelled out of existence she was to be left severely alone. With the _Myra's_ crew confined on board the raider, the British monitors dare not open fire upon her.

Round circled the sea-plane, gliding down to within five hundred feet of the summit of the mangroves. Everything seemed quiet beneath. The whir of the propeller and the rush of air deadened all other sounds. Here and there were clearings, like to one another as peas in a pod. For the first time in his life Denbigh felt uncertain.

Again he swept the river with his binoculars. Across the mud-flats, for the tide was now almost on the last of the ebb, he spotted two slender dark lines stretching towards the navigable channel. A little way down was a series of small dark objects thrown athwart the stream. They were the torpedo-piers and the barrels supporting the chain boom. Almost abreast of them was the screened battery.

At a sign from Denbigh the flight-sub trimmed the elevating planes. Up climbed the machine till at an altitude of six thousand feet she was visible from the distant monitors. Then she commenced to cut figures of eight, while Denbigh began to call up the _Paradox_ by wireless.

Having made certain that the monitor had gauged the required distance the sea-plane volplaned to within a thousand feet of the ground.

The receiving telephones fixed to Denbigh's ears began to emit faint sounds that in Morse spelt out the words, "Stand by to register".

Twenty seconds later a lurid flash, followed by a terrific cloud of yellow and black smoke, leapt skywards from a spot in the mangroves. In spite of her altitude the sea-plane rocked violently in the torn air. For a moment Denbigh thought that the machine was plunging helplessly to earth.

The gentle tapping of the wireless receiver recalled him to a sense of duty.

"How's that?" spelt the dot-and-dash message.

Where the shell had burst a dozen or more trees had been literally pulverized. Others, their trunks lacerated by the explosion, had toppled at various angles against those that had withstood the shock. The "hit" was roughly two hundred yards beyond the screened battery.

From beneath the foliage covering the emplacements men peeped timorously. A dull-grey figure, bent almost double, was running for shelter. It was one of the German sentries.

"Right direction; two hundred yards over," wirelessed Denbigh.

Another heavy projectile screamed on its way, passing some hundreds of feet beneath the seaplane. It burst; but the sound like that of its predecessor was inaudible to the pilot and observer. The action of the detonating shells reminded Denbigh of an animated photograph, so effectually and silently did the work of destruction appear.

"A hundred yards short," registered the sub.

"Then how's this?" was the rejoinder.

Fairly in the centre of an emplacement fell the twelve-hundred-pound shell. High above the mushroom cloud of smoke flew fragments of wood and metal. When the dense vapour had drifted away in the sultry air it was seen that the work of that gigantic missile was accomplished.

A gaping hole fifty feet in diameter marked the place where the carefully-screened quick-firers had been.

Round the edge of the crater were smouldering sand-bags hurled in all directions like small pebbles. The two guns, dismounted, were sticking up at acute angles in the debris, their mountings shattered into fragments of scrap-iron metal.

There was no sign of life in the crater, nor in the partly uncovered dug-outs in its vicinity, but from a neighbouring position poured swarms of Germans, half-dazed and terrified by the explosion that had shaken their subterranean retreat like a severe earthquake shock.

The _Paradox_ had completed her particular job.

Meanwhile a second sea-plane was registering for the _Crustacean_, her guns being directed upon the piers on which the _Pelikan's_ torpedo-tubes had been placed.

Without once coming within sight of her objective the little monitor effected her mission with two shots, blowing both torpedo-stations to smithereens.

Nor was the _Eureka_ less successful. A shell fired in front of the crowd of demoralized Germans as they fled through the mangroves literally roped them in. Panic-stricken they doubled back and disappeared in the dug-outs close to the wrecked emplacements, and the _Eureka_, having been accordingly informed, ceased firing.

"Now for the _Pelikan_!" exclaimed Stirling, as the sea-plane, having returned, put Denbigh on board the _Crustacean_.

"It will be an affair of boats, I suppose," suggested O'Hara. "With the flood-tide and on a dark night she ought to be captured with little loss to the boarding-party."

Two of the monitors were lying at anchor in the river. The _Eureka_, having to watch the coast, steamed slowly up and down the lagoon, her progress watched by hundreds of awe-stricken natives.

The question of how to deal with the _Pelikan_ was under discussion, for Captain Holloway had convened another council of war at eight bells in the afternoon.

The boats carried by the monitors were not fit for cutting-out work, and although a certain means of destruction was at the command of the senior officer, he was reluctant to put his terrible resources into force on account of the presence of the _Myra's_ crew on board the raider.

While the discussion was in progress, the majority of officers favouring a suggestion that the light cruisers should be brought up by wireless, a steam launch was reported to be coming down the river.

The launch bore a large white flag flying from a staff in the bows. In her stern-sheets was Ober-leutnant von Langer.

Received with naval honours, a guard being mounted on the quarter-deck of the senior monitor, von Langer came over the side, and announced himself as the representative of Kapitan von Riesser, of H.I.M. ship _Pelikan_.

"Well, sir?" asked Captain Holloway briefly.

"I am here to discuss terms," said the ober-leutnant.

"Which must be unconditional surrender of men and material," added the skipper of the _Paradox_.

"Excuse me," said von Langer. "But we are not yet beaten."

"You are precious near it," said Captain Holloway. "Unless the German Ensign is hauled down on board the _Pelikan_ within an hour I will open fire."

"If you do you must remember that there are many English prisoners on board," declared the ober-leutnant with the air of a man who has thrown down his trump card.

"Within one hour, unless the _Pelikan_ is surrendered in her present state, without further damage to her stores, equipment, and hull, we open fire," was the British officer's mandate. "Return to your ship at once, Herr Leutnant, and inform Kapitan von Riesser that he must take immediate steps to safeguard his British prisoners, either by sending them down the river or else by placing them in a secure shelter on shore. I shall hold your kapitan and officers morally responsible for any of the _Myra's_ crew who may be killed or injured in the forthcoming operations."

"You have yet to find the _Pelikan_," spluttered the German officer.

"Excuse me, sir, she is found," said Captain Holloway. "To show that I am not in the habit of speaking at random I will produce proofs."

He gave an order to a seaman, who doubled off to the quarter-deck companion-ladder. Presently Denbigh, O'Hara, and Armstrong, who during the interview had discreetly gone below, appeared on deck.

The ober-leutnant's jaw dropped. His podgy cheeks quivered with intense surprise.

"Donnerwetter!" he exclaimed. "This is a colossal shock."

With an effort he pulled himself together, clicked his heels and saluted the British senior officer. Then fumbling in his breast pocket he produced a document and handed it to the captain.

It was a formal surrender.

In it Kapitan von Riesser agreed to hand over the _Pelikan_ at the hour of nine on the following morning.

"Very good," said Captain Holloway. "We are willing to give you a few hours' respite, but you are to clearly understand that nothing must be done in that interval that will affect the _Pelikan_ from a military point of view. You must also send the _Myra's_ men down by boat before sunset."

"To that I agree," replied von Langer, and stiffly refusing the invitation to have a glass of wine the German officer went over the side.

Von Langer's steam cutter was barely out of sight when a couple of German officers belonging to the land forces appeared on the bank, bearing a white flag.

Their business was quickly transacted. They desired to surrender forthwith and unconditionally the remaining troops under their command. Within an hour eighty-five men, many of them badly wounded, were shipped on board the sea-plane parent ship _Simplicita_. Out of the three hundred reservists who had transhipped from the _San Matias_ to the _Pelikan_ but thirty-three were untouched by the British fire.

Well before sunset the first of the conditions of the _Pelikan's_ surrender was carried out. The steam cutter returned towing a whaler in which were the crew of the _Myra_. British reticence went by the board when they hove in sight. They cheered frantically like delighted children. Having been under the talons of the German Eagle, they realized more than ever before the world-wide power of Britain's sea-power.

Amongst them was Captain Pennington, who was warmly greeted by the officers of the _Crustacean_.

He reported that the _Pelikan_ was being prepared for surrender; that her garb of palms was being removed, but as far as he knew no attempt had been made to throw overboard the remaining guns, or to destroy the stores and munitions.

"And to-morrow," remarked Stirling to his chum--"to-morrow we will redeem these."

And he held out Kapitan von Riesser's receipt for the gold that he had taken from the three subs when they were captured on the _Nichi Maru_.