“Exhibit Number two,” our friend went on, bringing to my astonished
gaze a file of my own paper, whereupon my own stories showed their
large familiar headlines at the top.
“That’s what it is to be famous,” said a laughing voice over my
shoulder. “Now, I could travel the world over and never find anybody to
recognize me.”
“Then it’s up to me to bring you into the limelight,” I said,
recovering. “This is Prof. Haldane, Mr.--?”
“Thompson, at your service,” supplied the manager. “From New York,
sent over here to take charge of this end two years ago, likewise a
sincere admirer of your work. Now, what can I do for you?”
I glanced at the stenographer meaningly.
“Say anything you please; it will go no farther, gentlemen. Let me
introduce Mrs. Thompson.”
We rose and bowed.
“We were both in the same office there,” explained the manager, “and
when they gave me this berth we decided to come together.”
“I am over here on business,” I began.
“Still after the man who is trying to stop all war?” interrupted
Thompson.
“Yes,” I answered. “What we want now is to find out just where the
Kaiser Charlemagne or the Kaiserin Luisa went down. If we can find
that, we shall get divers and go down to the bottom. As we could get no
news at any of the government offices, we thought we would try to find
some dealer here who might have supplied either of the boats with coal.”
“Hit it first time trying,” said Thompson, with a smile. “The Kaiser
Charlemagne took on no liquid here, but the Kaiserin Luisa took a
thousand barrels the day before she sunk.” Tom let out a long whistle.
“That’s one reason why the Kaiserin Luisa, the Alaska, and the rest
went down without a sound. Extraordinary that I never thought of
that before. They all burn hydrocarbons instead of coal, and the new
hydrocarbon fuels would disappear in the water.
“Not a modern warship left to-day which doesn’t burn liquid fuel, and
most of it’s ours,” said Thompson enthusiastically. “They had to come
to it, especially when we put out our new boiler attachment by which
they could change their furnaces over to use liquids without changing
any other part of the machinery.”
Tom nodded appreciatively. “I see,” he said. “Now as to the main
question. How can we find out just where the Kaiserin Luisa went down?”
Thompson turned to his wife. “Lulu, will you telephone down and see if
Cap’n McPherson is at the wharf. If he is, have them send him here at
once.”
A moment’s low conversation in the telephone booth, and Mrs. Thompson
returned. “He’ll come right up,” she said, and, turning to her machine,
was soon pounding away at the keys with a practised hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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