CHAPTER II

An Ultimatum

Confronted with the mysterious problem Sub-Lieutenant Fordyce made his
way to a secluded part of the sea-front. With a true sailor’s instinct
he paced up and down, debating with himself as to the course of action
he should pursue.

If only he had a witness to the conversation. He racked his brains to
formulate a scheme whereby he could discuss the matter again with
Councillor Mindiggle, this time with a third person unseen but within
earshot. Failing that there was little use in reporting the matter.
As the fellow said, it was one man’s word against another’s, and the
charge would appear so preposterous that it would stand no possible
chance of being substantiated.

For similar reasons he dismissed the idea that he should report the
case to his skipper, the Hon. Derek Stockdale, Lieutenant-Commander of
R19. Mindiggle’s statement that the Sub had informed him of the
vessel’s date of departure and destination would be an awkward factor
in the matter.

So, rightly or wrongly, Noel Fordyce resolved to keep secret the
interview with Councillor Mindiggle, at least for a time. Meanwhile he
would fight to the bitter end to save Flirt from the lethal chamber.

Having shut the front door on his caller, Councillor Mindiggle returned
to his study. As far as the rest of his household was concerned he was
free from interruption. He had no wife; his housekeeper was stone
deaf; the servant who had shown Fordyce into the room was going out for
the evening.

It would have been a great surprise to Fordyce if he had known that
there had been a third person within earshot, but such was a fact.
Unlocking a door leading into an inner room Mindiggle released a man
who, although he looked an Englishman, spoke in Russian.

“Don’t you think, comrade, that you were much too rash?” he asked
anxiously.

“Not at all, Boris Platoff,” replied Mindiggle coolly. “On the
contrary, I have hopes that we shall be relieved of a considerable
amount of bother and danger. The diamonds will be in Petrograd before
the great day. That young man will consent to my terms. It’s
wonderful what a hold one has over an Englishman who owns a favourite
dog. Inform the police–bah! He would not dare risk the ridicule his
action would bring upon him. Those diamonds will go in the submarine,
you mark my words.”

“Let us hope so,” rejoined Platoff. “Then, either they will reach
Comrade Klostivitch or else it will be an end to R19. It depends
largely on the temperature in the Baltic, eh?”

Both men laughed softly.

“Supposing,” continued the Russian–“Supposing–and we must consider
possibilities–this English officer takes the diamonds and then hands
them over to the authorities?”

“I’ll have to take the risk of being convicted as a smuggler, comrade,”
replied Mindiggle.

“But if they are subjected to a test?”

“They will discover nothing. I defy the efforts of the world’s
laboratories to analyse the stuff,” declared Mindiggle. “Acid,
heat–nothing will avail.”

“Except cold,” added Boris Platoff. “Then it will be what the ancient
Egyptians call Nirvana,” said the other grimly.

Boris Platoff was a Leninist, a member of the ultra-extremist party in
Russia. Having, under German influence, taken a prominent part in
wrecking the Russian Empire as a fighting-machine, he was doing his
best to supplant the Kerensky regime by one of red-hot anarchy. While
on a mission to the Russian Anarchist colony in London he had been
given an introduction to a member of the World’s Workers–a
revolutionary society the object of which was the social democracy of
every nation under the sun. This member’s name was simply given as
Comrade Ivan, known outside the brotherhood as Mr. John Mindiggle.

While posing both as an Englishman and a Russian, John Mindiggle was
neither. He was a German–a Secret Service agent–whose work was
entirely for the furtherance of Kaiserism. During twenty years of
practically continuous residence in Great Britain Ernst von
Verbrennungsraum had been working unostentatiously, yet deliberately,
for the Fatherland, for the day when Germany would become the mistress
of the World and when freedom would be denied to all other nations
large or small.

Von Verbrennungsraum’s chance came when Russia took the suicidal step
of exchanging the yoke of Czardom for that of unbridled “liberty”. The
first revolution that resulted in the abdication of the Czar Nicholas
was a step in the right direction so far as Germany was concerned, but
it was not far enough. The new republic still maintained an army on
its Austro-German frontier–an army in which bravery and cowardice
existed cheek by jowl. Utter internal chaos was what was desired in
order to remove a menace to Germany’s eastern frontier and thus enable
her to throw thousands of troops into other sectors of battle.

To compass the downfall of the Kerensky regime the anarchists were to
resort to a favourite device–explosives. In a secret laboratory was
manipulated a new and extremely powerful chemical, which, in its final
state, resembled, and could hardly be distinguished from, cut diamonds.
It was a sample of this diabolical stuff that Mindiggle was in hopes of
sending to Petrograd through the agency of Noel Fordyce.

Impossible to detonate by combustion, friction, or the application of
heat, the explosive was perfectly safe to handle until the temperature
fell below -5° C. The moment the mercury dropped to that point the
explosive would simultaneously and spontaneously act.

In his attempt to induce Fordyce to convey the “diamonds” to Russia the
German agent was employing a double-barrelled weapon. If the stuff did
get to Petrograd well and good. If, on the other hand, the temperature
on board the submarine should fall below -5° C. while running awash
towards the port of Cronstadt, it meant utter annihilation to R19 and
terrific damage to everything within a mile of the source of the
explosion.

And, confident in his ability to make use of Flirt as the deciding
factor, von Verbrennungsraum duly applied for and obtained a summons
against Noel Fordyce.