The Sea-girt Fortress: A Story of Heligoland

ON the following night, as soon as the bugles sounded "Lights out", Hamerton returned to his labours. Barricading the door and wrenching up the loosened slabs of stone, he desce...

IT would ill describe the state of mind of the deputy commandant of the fortress of Heligoland to say that he was thunderstruck at the latest disaster that had overtaken one of...

AT a modest seven knots the battered _Royal Sovereign_ wallowed in tow in the wake of the _Barham_. It seemed wonderful that she should have survived the ordeal, for in places t...

AT 9 a.m. on the same morning as the surprise attack by the German "mosquito craft", two squadrons of the First Home Fleet left the Nore. The flag of the Commander-in-chief, Adm...

THE next day was warm and sunny, with hardly any wind. It would have been an ideal day for cricket, thought Hamerton, as he gazed through the window upon the deserted courtyard....

"HERE'S a letter from Kiel for you," announced Octavius Smith as he entered the cabin of the _Diomeda_. "You're a rum card, Stirling; you generally manage to get hold of everyth...

AFTER their recapture Hamerton and Detroit were shut up in separate cells, the former in the same place as before, while the American was lodged in a disused casemate of the Buc...

FULLY expecting to be challenged and seized by an unseen foe, Hamerton grasped the metal slide with the intention of making a dash for liberty. As he did so the cover slipped on...

"Hamburg, Tuesday, 5 p.m. Telegraphic advice from Heligoland reports that two Englishmen, giving the names of John and William Smith, and aged about forty, were arrested on a ch...

IMMEDIATELY after the ending of the trial the two prisoners were separated. Hamerton was escorted through the streets of the Oberland, past the old Frisian church, and lodged in...

"Hardly," he replied. "I don't believe in kicking up a fuss when we're cornered with no chance of escape. Mind you, if there were any possibility I'd fight tooth and nail. But t...

LATE in the afternoon, the wind falling light, Norderney lightship was passed. Curiously enough, with the breeze dropping the fog dispersed, and Hamerton was able to set a cours...

AT a quarter to five in the afternoon of the same day as the salvage of the derelict Zeppelin was effected, Rex Thompson, the energetic editor of _The Westminster Daily Record_,...

"THANK goodness we are on board at last!" exclaimed Octavius Smith, as the two chums entered the companion-way of the _Diomeda_. "Those Dutchmen seem the essence of honesty. As...

The American's words roused Hamerton to action. Quickly he descended below the level of the floor of the turntable, the flap fell with a dull thud, and the two fugitives found t...

"IT's a pure piece of bluff--that's my opinion," declared Thompson. "The most remarkable thing about the whole business is the quiet way in which the British and United States G...

"Yes, one of the 'Deutschland' class," added Hamerton, who at the first report had followed his companion on deck. He recognized the battleship by her three telescopic funnels a...

"Ask me another," replied his chum, Jack Hamerton, with a merry laugh. "We may be here, we may be there, for all I know. One thing I am certain of: I have just hove the lead, an...

THE bump of some heavy object against the yacht's side caused both sleepers to wake simultaneously. It was day; a dull light filtered through the skylight, though not strong eno...

SUB-LIEUTENANT Jack Hamerton was fairly well-informed as far as British naval officers go, and his information regarding the island fortress of Heligoland was fairly extensive,...

GENERAL HEINRICH VON WITTELSBACH, the commandant of the garrison of Heligoland, was a man of fifty-five years of age, of medium height, corpulent and choleric. His iron-grey hai...

FOUR days passed. Hamerton's jailers, in spite of the monotonous "Ja's", had neither brought the promised writing materials nor taken any steps to help the prisoner to recover h...

WITHOUT the formality of a declaration of war hostilities were begun. Taking the precedent of the Russo-Japanese war, when the Japs delivered what might be termed a treacherous...

SMITH'S first act was to put the helm hard down, but so fierce was the wind and so stunning the blows of the steep, crested waves that the yacht soon lost way. She wallowed slug...

THE eventful day fixed for the trial of the two alleged spies came at last. Hamerton and Detroit found themselves, not, as they expected, in a crowded court, bristling with lawy...