That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the DayDehan, Richard
General
That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day
Dehan, Richard
World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
"There is, most undoubtedly. And the address is that of the London
Headquarters of our Organisation, No. 1000, Victoria Street."
"Dear me—dear me! Most remarkable! Now here," said the Right Hon.
gentleman, breathing asthmatically and twinkling through the gold-framed
pebbles, "is something not so easily deciphered. A rude symbol,
something like a _fleur-de-lis_ with letters at either side, and a few
other meaningless scrawls!"
"It is not a _fleur-de-lis_," Sir Roland answered, "but a fox-mask, with
the number and signature of my Scout. He belonged to the Fox Patrol,
331st London. Here is his troop-number, 22, and here are his initials,
B.M.S.—Bawne Mildare Saxham. It is perfectly in order! In this way he
would be expected to sign a communication to his fellow-Scout. And the
marks below, I can assure you, are not meaningless. They convey that
there is trouble of a very definite kind. In addition the arrow, here,
taking the top of the satchel for the North as in a map—signifies, ’Road
to be followed East.’" He added with a stiffening of the facial muscles
that made the keen face as hard as a mask carved in boxwood:
"And followed it shall be!"
It had been decided amongst those who controlled such matters that the
British Public were to be fed with the tale. The tapes began to run out
at the newspaper-offices as the General took leave of the First Lord and
the War Minister and got into his waiting car, and sped away to Harley
Street to tell the Dop Doctor how the Saxham pup had proved worthy of
his breed.
The evening papers made great marvel out of the story, and at all the
street corners of London and the suburbs broadsheets lined the gutters,
proclaiming in huge inky capitals:
"MYSTERIES OF THE SEA. EXTRAORDINARY ATTEMPTED CAPTURE OF BRITISH
YACHTSMAN BY PIRATES IN DANISH WATERS! MIRACULOUS RECOVERY OF
CLANRONALD WAR-PLAN! SUBMARINE IN NORTH SEA FOULS BAG CONTAINING
PRICELESS HEIRLOOM STOLEN FROM GWYLL CASTLE! LAST MESSAGE OF HERO BOY
SCOUT!"
*CHAPTER XLVI*
*AT NORDEICH WIRELESS*
In the face of the outrunning tide, Undersea Boat No. 18 had nosed her
way from Norderney Gat to Nordeich, by the deep-dredged low-water
channel of which Luttha had told. The boy had been roused by the kick of
a foot shod with a heelless rubber boot, out of a dog-sleep on the
vibrating deckplates of the men’s cabin, under the white glare of the
electric globes. The man who kicked him hauled away the blue blanket,
and pitched him his clothes, yet moist and heavy with sea-water,
ordering him in broken English to get into them quickly to go ashore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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