london has been treated to so many surprises in united states finance, that the events of the first six months of 1895 were at first received as merely fresh proof of the rule that it is the unexpected which always happens in american monetary affairs. the new york stock market is placed by most londoners in the “city” in the same category with french politics. the safest prophecy in either field can be made by studying the situation with the greatest care, and then by forecasting in exactly the opposite direction to the dictates of one’s judgment. a booming stock market and cheap money in the face of industrial depression and commercial disaster were regarded with wonder and amazement by the solons of capel court and throgmorton street. they could not account for the paradox, and they finally gave up trying.
london had been among the first to unload its american stocks during what was believed to be a temporary rise in the early winter. now in midsummer following she was disgusted and even indignant when{203} she read quotations many points higher than the low prices at which she had closed her losing speculations. none of the rules of finance would fit the situation. all the laws of trade seemed defied. but london now was merely a spectator. she possessed none of the abnormally high-priced securities. she was quite sincere in saying she didn’t want any at prevailing quotations. she was more inclined to be tempted by new enterprises, industrials, railroads, and the like, which looked cheap. but all “americans” were still under the ban. london had suffered too much in the past five years to forget, and london memories are longer than those of her transatlantic cousins.
gold had been flowing eastward in a steady stream for six months, and europe could not understand how america could endure the drain. nearly $50,000,000 in bullion, it was calculated, had been received by the bank of england and the bank of france from new york, and practically none had gone in the opposite direction. two years before, when the same thing happened on a somewhat smaller scale, america had suffered a veritable panic. silver and its advocates had been held solely responsible for this panic, but it had not alone been america’s attempt to resist the world’s decree of monetary dethronement against the white metal which had driven away gold and brought domestic disaster.{204} but the usual penalties of national loss of gold were entirely absent now, and european financiers were more than puzzled by it.
the hoarding of gold in european war-chests was still going on. the old lady of threadneedle street found herself unable to retain in her coffers any large proportion of the extraordinary european supply. paris and berlin and st. petersburg added to their enormous stores at every opportunity. the sinews of war were being accumulated with the utmost greediness, for everybody felt that the day was not far distant when a mighty tragedy of nations was again to darken the pages of history. so keenly did all the governments of europe watch every feature of the situation, that it was not surprising that russia should be credited with the intention to take advantage of the plethora of money in america by attempting to float a loan in that country. nor was russia the only government that was considering schemes for tempting away yankee gold. even bankrupt italy hoped to offer inducements which might yield her the use of some portion of this new world wealth.
in august, 1895, therefore, the financial war which often precedes the drawing of the sword had reached an advanced and acute stage. the situation was peculiarly menacing to great britain. lord beacons{205}field once said to a friend who asked him, during a serious foreign crisis, what were england’s chances of success in the event of war:
“the key to that situation is in threadneedle street.”
the wisdom of the saying was never more appreciated than now. disaster had followed disaster in financial, in commercial, and in industrial circles for five years. losses which would have brought any but the richest nation in the world to the verge of ruin had been sustained one after another, until it seemed that not even english pluck could stand up against more such blows. not only had foreign and colonial ventures swallowed up millions, but home institutions, paying the penalty of recklessness or dishonesty, had fallen and involved many thousand private fortunes in the wreck. american tariffs and foreign competition had seriously cut down british trade. labor wars, the most disastrous in history, had impoverished the working classes. and still great britain was solvent, undiscouraged, proudly maintaining her position in the van of the nations of the earth.
england’s only danger lay in too great self-confidence. she did not deceive herself as to the nature of the peril which menaced her. for nearly two years it had been plainly apparent. ever since the{206} dual alliance between france and russia had been ratified, it had been clear to close observers that great britain had as much if not more to fear from this new league than had the central continental powers. french hatred of her insular neighbors had been fanned from the first by an anglophobe press. diplomatic maneuvers and the movements of franco-russian fleets had been almost openly hostile to english interests. the wonder was that real hostilities had been so long delayed.
the secret of the delay was in the financial condition of the nations. both france and russia had for years been acting strictly upon the line of policy suggested in lord beaconsfield’s remark. to put it in more direct language, gold is the arbiter of war. it was belief in this principle which had impelled france to wage a relentless tariff and trade war against italy for five years. it was this which had led russia to cram her treasuries with gold far above her peaceful needs. for the last two years both nations, the one by a customs campaign and the other by financial operations, had been striving to weaken the monetary resources of germany and austria. opinion was divided as to the immediate object of this policy. if england was to be the first victim of the dual hatred of the allies, then if possible the triple alliance must be so weakened that it would not voluntarily in{207}terfere in the quarrel with great britain. at all events, italy had been impoverished and germany and austria had suffered considerably from the hostile policy of their opposite neighbors.
in attacking the financial position of england, the french and russian bankers had not accomplished much. financial england is never at the mercy of foreign bankers. bad management, colonial losses, south american ventures, great domestic frauds, may spread distress throughout the country, but great britain never had cause to fear the plots of the political financiers of paris, berlin, vienna, and st. petersburg. the manipulations and scheming of the past few months had had no other effect in london than to accentuate somewhat the uneasiness over the prevailing hard times. the bank of england had been reorganized in respect to some of its methods, by reason of public criticisms a few months before, and it was now stronger than ever. there was reason for believing that it had not been idle in the great scramble for gold in which all europe was engaged. its resources were, of course, unknown, for such information was guarded as a deep financial and state secret.
the government was co?perating energetically in the efforts to strengthen still more the monetary position of the country. at the same time naval con{208}struction was being pushed forward on a scale that betokened the very presence of war. and yet in the midst of the oppressive conviction of impending conflict, there was no word in the courts and parliaments of europe save of peace. guns were bought, ships were built, armies were equipped, practice maneuvers were executed, nations were impoverished, all for the preservation of peace. but the limit had been passed at last. war was cheaper than peace. so war it was to be, in everybody’s opinion. the absence of specific cause made no difference. it could be developed in a hundred ways at a few hours’ notice. there was at least the hope of a general disarmament and the real peace of recuperation after the cataclysm was over. many people who believed in the inevitability of the long-threatened struggle were inclined to look upon the situation in the cold light of this philosophy.
about the middle of august, france began an energetic series of diplomatic protests against the continued occupation of egypt by great britain. it was instantly surmised that this was the signal of the approaching crisis. russia joined in the dissent, and the tone of the objections sent to the court of st. james was distinctly aggressive. europe made up its mind that there was to be an autumn campaign. it was the design of the aggressors apparently to make{209} the contest short and sharp. the approach of winter, which would greatly interfere with military operations on the continent, might be an added influence to induce germany and austria to keep hands off until france and russia had an opportunity to overthrow the naval supremacy of great britain. the issue of a conflict between england on the one hand and france and russia on the other, would, of course, be decided principally upon the sea. the situation became extremely critical. great britain, avoiding the responsibility for provoking hostilities, took advantage at first of diplomatic red tape. delay was sought, and the diplomatic agents of the protesting governments developed impatience. they showed signs of becoming peremptory in their demands, and there was vague talk of an ultimatum from france to england.
war was in the very air when an event happened. it was a very ordinary event, and apparently as far removed as possible from any influence upon the question of peace or war in europe. it was merely the arrival late in the afternoon of monday, the 2d of september, of a fine ship flying the american flag in the harbor of southampton. she was apparently a steamship of about 3,000 tons. she was of yacht design, and her beautiful lines were the admiration at once of all nautical eyes. the only peculiarities{210} about her at first glance were that her single smoke-stack, rising slender and tall amidships, was quite out of proportion to the size of the ship, and that the vessel floated so high out of the water that her ballast must have been of the lightest. only half a dozen persons besides her crew were visible when the ship came to anchor just below the new american line dock. two or three small boats, attracted by curiosity, put off to view the newcomer as soon as she stopped. mystery was the name they read upon her stern.
the boats made a slow circuit of the beautiful ship, and the boatmen were exchanging comments upon her graceful lines when an unusual sound of rushing water came from on board. the noise came from forward, aft, and amidships all at once. the sound was a strange one, but the men in the boats paid little attention to it at first. they were admiring the nautical beauty of the big ship’s overhanging stern, and expressing surprise at the size of her twin propellers just below the surface. one of the self-appointed critics had observed that she must have an extraordinary draught when loaded, for the gauge showed more than twenty feet with apparently only light ballast on board. suddenly the man started up in great excitement, stared at the rudder post, rubbed his eyes and looked again.{211}
“i say, boys, she’s sinking!” he exclaimed. “it was twenty feet a minute ago and now it’s twenty-one, and going deeper.”
the men in the other boat looked, too. yes, the smooth water in which the ship lay was certainly climbing quite rapidly inch by inch up her steel sides. the men in both boats seized their oars and pulled rapidly alongside the vessel. no one was visible at the rail above. there was no commotion on board, but the men in the boats now recognized the strange sounds within the ship as the noise of water rushing into the hold. they rowed up opposite the bridge and shouted lustily. their hail was not answered at first, but presently a naval cap, heavy with gold lace, appeared over the canvas shield at the end of the bridge, and the wearer inquired lazily:
“well, what’s the matter below there?”
“your ship is foundering; you’ll sink in a few minutes if you don’t stop the leak,” was the reply, shouted back with great excitement.
“oh, i guess not,” was the still indifferent response.
“i tell you it’s so. you’ve settled two feet in five minutes. you can’t save her now. you’d better get your boats out or you’ll get wet. there’s no time to lose,” and the boatmen began to push off apprehensively.{212}
“how much water is there here?” asked the officer on the bridge, in the same tone he would have inquired what was the population of southampton.
“about six and a half fathoms.”
“oh, well, that will keep my feet dry. guess we’ll let her sink,” and the gold lace cap disappeared.
the men in the boats were dumfounded. they pushed off at a safe distance, and then sat at their oars waiting for the catastrophe. the noise of in-rushing water continued, though not so distinctly, for some minutes longer, and the steamship settled steadily to a lower level. she was fully four feet deeper in the water than when the boatmen rowed out to her. they were now able to look over her low rail, and they saw half a dozen of the crew putting things to rights about the decks as unconcernedly as though the ship was safely at her dock. the rush of water was no longer heard. one of the boatmen hailed a friend in the other dory:
“i say, ben, i believe she’s stopped filling. what kind of a craft is she? some of her compartments must be full, and the others are keeping her afloat.”
“she beats me. mind her smoke-stack, jim. it’s no bigger nor a ferryboat’s, and not a whiff of smoke or steam has she shown since she came in.{213}”
just then the ship lowered one of her small boats, and a couple of sailors rowed ashore a man in citizen’s clothes, who carried a package of papers. he was captain penniman of the private yacht mystery, on a roving commission from new york, he told the official on duty at the custom-house as he handed in the ship’s papers.
“but there is something wrong with your papers, captain,” remarked the collector a moment later. “they have cleared you in new york last thursday, only four days ago. didn’t you notice the mistake?”
“oh, it is quite right. we left new york at nine o’clock thursday morning. won’t you have a new york herald of that day?” and the captain nonchalantly offered a newspaper to the customs officer.
“crossed from new york to southampton in four days? impossible! it’s more than steam can do,” and her majesty’s customs representative looked at the captain in incredulous and rather resentful amazement.
“just what we have done, nevertheless. but you are right about steam. the mystery is not a steamship. we passed sandy hook lightship at 10:31 last thursday morning, and we reached the needles at 4:38 this afternoon. allowing for the difference in time, that makes our running time just four days, one hour, and seven minutes. the course we took{214} was three thousand one hundred and ten miles, so our speed averaged about twenty-nine knots, or thirty-two miles an hour. we ran as high as thirty-five miles an hour for several hours in succession. if you doubt my statement and the evidence of the papers, i’ll be pleased to furnish you with additional proof if you will come on board with me,” and captain penniman watched the growing astonishment on the englishman’s face with some amusement.
“i cannot doubt your word, captain, but what you tell me is almost incredible,” spoke the collector after a long pause. he picked up the new york newspaper and examined the date-lines and dates of various news dispatches, as though still incredulous. “you know, captain, the speed record between the two ports is now six days, four hours, and some minutes. it was considered a great exploit when the new boats of the american line cut the record down about seven hours recently. when you tell me you have reduced it by more than two days, you won’t blame me for being incredulous. you say the mystery is not a steamship. what in the name of modern wonders is she, then?”
“we shall have to invent a new name for her, i reckon,” was the captain’s reply. “we use no steam, and carry no coal for her engines. she has no boilers in fact. her motive power is liquified car{215}bonic acid gas. we carry it in steel cylinders, and its expansive power, which is equivalent to a pressure of about two thousand pounds to the inch, drives our engines. yes, she’s the wonder of the world to-day,” concluded the captain, proudly.
“i never heard of such a thing. i thought you were going to say electricity. you americans are doing everything by electricity now-a-days.”
“no, electricity may come to it some day, but it costs too much, and it cannot be stored as this can. you will never get much higher speed with steam, because of the enormous consumption of coal required. we can carry enough liquified carbonic acid to drive the mystery three times around the world, and the cost is about twenty per cent that of coal. come on board and look her over. we have kept her a profound secret on the other side, but now that we know what she can do, we are quite willing she shall have the fame she deserves. i guess the news of this trip will make a sensation in london, eh?” and the captain rubbed his hands softly and chuckled.
“it won’t be believed,” replied the collector sententiously. “i will go aboard with you at once with the greatest pleasure. let me finish entering you first. you have no cargo, i suppose?”
“yes, we have a small cargo.”
“what is it?” picking up a pen.{216}
“about two hundred tons of gold bullion or native gold, consigned to the bank of england to the order of munster & thorp.”
the collector dropped his pen, stared speechlessly for a moment, and then flushed angrily.
“i’d have you know, sir,” he exclaimed in savage tones, “that i am not here to be made game of. what do you mean by coming here with such yarns? give me your proper ship’s papers, enter your vessel in the regular way, and get you gone,” and outraged official dignity glared at the captain of the mystery in righteous anger.
captain penniman did not seem offended, nor was he repentant. he rather sympathized with the other’s wrath, and yet was amused by it. he judged it would be hardly prudent to allow his amusement to become visible; so he preserved a serious countenance.
“i beg you to observe,” he replied conciliatingly, “that my papers are perfectly regular and complete. you can hardly doubt the corroborative evidence of new york newspapers on the point of the time of my departure from new york. as for my cargo, i admit it is an unusual one, but i have brought none of it ashore with me. if you will come on board i will show you that it is just what i have declared it to be. besides, there is no duty on gold, is there?{217}”
the revenue officer now sat in helpless bewilderment. he looked again at the newspaper and at the ship’s papers. her cargo was not specified in the latter, but the date of leaving new york seemed to be clearly established. his credulity was able to digest that fact, marvelous though it was, in the face of such evidence. but two hundred tons of gold! why should not a wonderful ship have a wonderful cargo? it was a tremendous strain to put upon the mental apparatus of even so important a functionary as her majesty’s collector of customs at southampton. but he struggled hard to meet the emergency. his face was still flushed, and he breathed heavily for a few moments, apparently in fear of an apoplectic stroke. it was a noble effort to keep reason still seated on her throne, and it succeeded.
“how much money do two hundred tons of gold represent?” he asked faintly, after a long silence.
“oh, a matter of ￡25,000,000 or thereabouts,” was the reply.
“enormous, but i thought it was more,” was the comment of the man, still dazed, but trying to recover his mental equilibrium.
“well, as i said before, i shall be glad to show you the ship if you care to go aboard of her with me,” said captain penniman, rising. “i’ll be thankful, though, if you will kindly refrain from mentioning{218} the nature of our cargo until to-morrow. the crew know nothing about it, and i want to get it up to london without attracting attention. i must arrange for docking and engage a special train to take the bullion to the city early to-morrow morning. i’ll attend to that now, and call for you in half an hour or so, if you wish.”
“i shall thank you for the privilege of inspecting the mystery,” said the customs officer, whose manner now indicated respect bordering upon awe.
when the two men were rowed out to the vessel a little later, there was quite a fleet of small boats hovering about her, their occupants all manifesting the greatest curiosity. captain penniman took his guest aboard, and they plunged at once into the mysteries below. above decks, she was simply one of the best type of great private steam yachts. when the engine-room was reached it was not apparent to a landsman’s eye that the machinery of the mystery differed much from that of an ordinary modern steamship of her size and general type. captain penniman merely remarked that he did not understand himself the technic of that department.
“i believe,” he said, “that much of her machinery remains just as it was originally constructed for steam. carbonic acid gas is introduced into strong cylinders just as steam would be. it comes through an auto{219}matic valve which regulates the pressure, and puts the power of this new agent under the same control that steam was held in. they tell me that this valve which delivers just the requisite quantity of carbonic acid gas for each stroke of the piston is the invention which furnishes the key to the whole discovery. attempts have been made for several years to utilize the tremendous expansive power of this liquified gas, but none of them succeeded until this valve was devised. i tell you, my friend, steamships will become more out of date than sailing vessels as soon as the success of this experiment is known.”
“but how do you get such terrific speed?”
“by using larger propellers and turning them faster. our screws revolve at about one hundred and ten revolutions a minute, while those of the so-called crack liners make only eighty-five to ninety. we have shafts as large as those of a 12,000 ton boat, and they have stood the strain coming over without a sign of weakness. but come into the boiler-room.”
instead of the great hot fire-hole with dozens of blazing furnaces and coal heaped about, there was a small apartment, or rather two, one each side of the engine-room. the still bewildered collector saw only three long rows one above another of what were apparently copper cylinders such as are supplied to the soda-water fountains in america. he noticed, how{220}ever, that each cylinder was nearly ten feet long, and from the end of each a pipe led toward the engine-room.
“each of those cylinders,” explained the captain, “contains liquid carbonic acid under high pressure. they are tapped one after another, and the escaping gas in the engine cylinders furnishes the motive power that drives the screws. i’ve been rather anxious all the way over lest one of them should explode, but they tell me the danger is much less than of an ordinary boiler explosion. the men in the engineers’ department were some of them afraid at first of being poisoned by escape of the gas. you will notice that the air down here is as fresh and pure as it is out of doors. we have the finest ventilating system i ever saw on any ship. a forced draught, supplied by fans driven by a small carbonic acid engine, changes the air in every part of the ship every three minutes. as a matter of fact, the chief engineer tells me there has been no leakage of gas for a moment during the voyage. the carbonic acid, just before it does its work of driving the pistons, is heated by an oil flame on the outside of the pipes through which it passes. this accomplishes two purposes. it increases the expansive power of the gas, and it makes it light enough to rise readily and escape through the smoke-stack. but we have other{221} wonders. come up on deck,” and the two men ascended to the main deck and walked to the rail.
“will you lighten ship, mr. walters?” said the captain to an officer who was passing.
“aye, sir,” replied the man as he disappeared.
“just notice carefully the distance between us and the water—about five feet i should say,” remarked the captain to his still silent companion.
a moment later there was a queer humming noise somewhere below, and the ship’s frame seemed to tremble slightly. nothing was said for a few minutes. then the englishman exclaimed:
“what does it mean, captain? we are rising, or the water is falling.”
“just so. we are using the pressure of the carbonic acid to drive the water from our ballast compartments and lightening the ship. we have a double hull, and the space between the two skins is divided into sections. these sections are air or gas-tight. when they are filled with water, and we wish to empty them, we have only to open the plugs at the bottom by turning a rod running up to the deck, admit compressed gas above, and the water is quickly forced out. then we close the plugs, shut off the gas, and the ship stands four or five feet higher out of the water than she did before. so you see we are able to regulate our draught, and we gain other ad{222}vantages also. the two hulls are so constructed that they take up and dissipate the vibration which our high speed would otherwise render dangerous. we can make her light forward and heavy aft, or vice versa; in fact, we can adjust the ship to exactly the best conditions for the weather she happens to be in, and for the speed we wish to employ.”
“marvelous, captain! wonderful beyond anything i ever expected to see is the mystery. she is well named. we are certainly eight or nine feet above the water now. look at those fellows,” and the collector pointed suddenly to a dozen boats floating idly a cable’s length away.
their occupants were staring blankly at the ship before them, their faces expressing so many phases of speechless amazement that captain penniman and his companion broke into a roar of laughter.
“where do you carry the gold, captain?” asked the englishman presently, the chief marvel of all in his estimation rising up to dwarf the others.
“i will show you,” and the captain led the way to the lower deck and to an iron door in the center of the ship a little aft of mid-ships. he took from his pocket a flat yale key and inserted it in the small keyhole. the door opened into a dark, iron-bound chamber, which the two men entered. not until he had closed the door behind them did the captain{223} touch a button and light a single electric lamp in the center of the ceiling. nothing was to be seen except a large number of carefully-packed wooden boxes. they were arranged so that they occupied the greater portion of the floor of the chamber, but they did not rise above about four feet in height.
“the gold is in these boxes,” exclaimed the captain. “there are eight hundred of them. they are not large, and you would think they might be easily handled; but if you care to walk off with one i’ll make you a present of it.”
“but there cannot be two hundred tons of gold in those small boxes,” said the collector, laying his hand on one at the end of the top tier, and trying to pull it toward him. the box didn’t move, and he pulled harder. “they are nailed down, are they not?” he asked.
“oh, no,” replied the captain, smiling; “but each of those boxes contains five hundred pounds of native gold. now that you are here, you may as well make your visit an official one and inspect the consignment. i presume if i open for you any box you may designate it will suffice for the lot, will it not?”
“certainly,” still struggling vainly to stir one of the topmost boxes, and giving it up rather breathlessly. “suppose you open this one,” indicating a box in the middle of the front row.{224}
the captain produced a large screw-driver and began to loosen the screws in the cover of the box selected. the fastenings did not yield easily, but after a few moments the long screws had been removed and the thick cover came off. there was revealed an iron-lined receptacle heaped full of nuggets and dust, which gleamed a pale yellow in the light of the electric lamp. the customs officer drew a long breath, and then leaned closely over the naked treasure.
“may i touch it?” he asked in a kind of awe.
“certainly; examine it as closely as you like.”
the officer plunged both hands suddenly into the golden mass and tried to lift up heaping handfuls as though it had been pebbles and sand. the extraordinary weight prevented him, and he allowed the yellow dust to sift back between his fingers.
“how heavy it is!” was his only comment. “i have seen enough,” he added presently, as he smoothed down the surface of the gold, so that the captain could replace the cover. when the screws had been tightened again in their places, the two men left the treasure-room and went on deck. the collector had nothing to say until he prepared to go ashore. he was sober and rather distrait as he bade the captain good-day.
“i must beg your pardon, sir,” he said, “for my{225} bit of temper at the office. you must admit that what you told me was calculated to make a man incredulous. you have the most wonderful ship and the most wonderful cargo that ever came to southampton or any other british port. this is a memorable day for me and for all england, too, i make no doubt.”
the london papers printed with reservations the next morning a long central news telegram from southampton describing the new marvel of the seas. such a feat as that of the unknown american ship mystery was incredible, declared the sage london editors. nevertheless they dispatched their naval experts to southampton by the earliest trains to expose the hoax. before they arrived, the precious cargo of the mystery had been safely landed, sent to london by special train, and was duly lodged in the vaults of the bank of england before any rumor of its existence had reached the city. the eminent gentlemen who expose so relentlessly in the columns of london’s great dailies the shortcomings of the british admiralty did not seek out at once the ship they had come to investigate, when they reached southampton. they sought instead the collector of customs who had been quoted as authority for the tall story which had been sent to the papers the night before. when they found him they began asking insinuating questions{226} which speedily caused that functionary, still rather nervous after the shocks to his system the day before, to fly into a violent temper.
“don’t you think we had better send for his physician at once? the man is mad,” sarcastically observed a correspondent to one of his fellows.
one or two reflections upon his sanity finally led the angry officer to take from his desk the new york paper which captain penniman had given him. he spread it out before the eyes of the now amazed newspaper men. then he gave them a plump invitation to leave the office. not another word would he say to them. the delegation lost no time now in going to the dock where the mystery lay. they were still incredulous, but bewildered. they had a good deal of difficulty in getting aboard; but captain penniman had been more than half expecting them, and when word was passed to him he invited them to inspect the ship. they were even more interested than the collector had been by what they saw. they were still skeptical, however, about the speed of the vessel.
“i’ll tell you what i’ll do, gentlemen,” said the captain suddenly. “the distance from here to the lizard is 110 miles. it is now 11:30. we’ve nothing special to do this afternoon. we can cast off in five minutes, run to within sight of lizard light, and{227} be back here in time for you to take an early evening train to the city. then you can see for yourselves what the mystery can do.”
there was a chorus of approval, and ten minutes later the ship was under way. she ran down the solent at a speed that amazed not only the visitors on board, but all on shore or afloat who watched the strange ship.
not until the needles had been passed and the open sea was before her did the beautiful vessel fully rouse herself. by this time her draught and weight had been perfectly adjusted for the best work. journalistic cynicism and blasé indifference were not proof against what followed. the excitement of an international yacht race was tame in comparison with the exhilaration of the mystery’s marvelous speed. the group of correspondents gathered upon the bridge, and sheltered themselves behind the breast-high canvas against the gale which the motion of the ship seemed to create. they were almost silent for some time after the captain had turned the indicator to “full speed.” the swift panorama of the shore, the flashing past in dizzy succession of the nearer waves, the lashing of the strange hurricane in the midst of a sea almost smooth, the throbbing, pulsing tremors of the living ship beneath them, created new emotions which silenced comment.{228}
the ship’s prow was pointed to the west, and she leaped forward as if some strange magnetism was drawing her back to the land which had given her birth. the sea welcomed her, embraced her for a moment, and sped her on. the waves opened a path for her without violence, and marked it in silvery white like the tail of a comet, as far back as the eye could reach. neptune bowed his trident before her and became a willing vassal. the winds alone rebelled and strove to hold her back.
even captain penniman’s eyes kindled with enthusiasm as he walked up to his guests and asked their opinion of the mystery’s qualities. it was not until they had sought shelter from the wind a little later in the saloon that they gave expression to their feelings.
“you have introduced a new epoch in navigation, captain,” said the naval expert of the times expressively. “the days of steam are gone by. america has once more revolutionized the naval construction of the world. the mystery will be more important in history than the monitor. a new race for naval supremacy must begin to-morrow. in a word, gentlemen,” he concluded, as the vast significance of the subject grew upon him, “the building of this ship is the most important event of this half century.”
“yes, we’ve got the biggest story to tell to-morrow{229} morning that any newspaper has told in our day,” added another in whom the journalist instinct was uppermost.
they inspected the splendid ship throughout, and before they had finished word was passed to the captain that the lizard was in sight about six miles off.
“let us see,” said the captain, glancing at his watch and figuring on a bit of paper. “call it one hundred and four miles, and the time is two hours fifty-four minutes—that is nearly thirty-six miles an hour. i think that will do. ask mr. walters to shape her course for southampton.”
before half the distance to southampton had passed, each of the half-dozen correspondents had ensconced himself before a pile of white paper at a table in the saloon, and was grinding away for dear life upon the narrative which was to astonish the world on the morrow. and the world was astonished, doubly so, for just before parting with his guests captain penniman quietly informed them of the nature of the cargo which the mystery had carried on her maiden voyage. they received the announcement with amazement, and as soon as they set foot ashore hastened to the telegraph office to advise their respective editors to seek corroboration of the extraordinary news from the bank officers.
the world’s surprise over the strange tale was extensively mixed with incredulity in many quarters. but three days later this latter emotion was changed to consternation in the cabinet councils of france and russia, when it was announced that the british admiralty had purchased the wonderful american ship mystery, had engaged her staff of engineers, and would speedily equip her for special naval service. the next day came the news that a special government loan of ￡20,000,000 for naval construction purposes had been taken en bloc by the house of munster & thorp for an american client. the papers further announced that the government would as speedily as possible equip certain existing warships with the new motive power employed on the mystery, and would build new ones similar in general design to the american ship, but heavily armored and on a larger scale.
the difficulties which seemed to make a peaceful settlement of the egyptian question impossible began to disappear. the representations of france and russia became more conciliatory. the darkest of recent war-clouds vanished before the month had passed.