Part 19 (1/2)
I never attempted a landing on the immediate east side, but I did go round on the west, and the trip was not worth the risk or the trouble.
There was nothing to learn that one did not already know from scores of others who had been permitted to pa.s.s the lines on business or otherwise. There was nothing to gain by going again, and I had no desire to attempt to repeat the experience.
Living on an island which is unnamed except upon the best maps of the southern Baltic I had a friend--a Danish sailorman who was rarely at home, but when he did take a holiday from his sea-going wanderings it was invariably marked for its riotousness on sh.o.r.e or for its devilment afloat.
Dare-Devil Christian was one of the best men I ever met except for his one great weakness. Provided that was guarded against, he was fine company and a great sportsman. Any cla.s.s of sport satisfied him, from rat-hunting upwards, and if a spice of danger could be added it gave him a greater zest proportionately.
I had the great luck to b.u.mp into him twice during one winter season, and for some time we thoroughly enjoyed life together. Just before the New Year of 1915 I had been advised of a possible and probable naval engagement somewhere near the North Sea entrance to the Kiel Ca.n.a.l. It had been hinted to me it would be interesting to know what German war-vessels there might be cruising in the Baltic that would or might be recalled if such an event took place. It was also hinted that the water defences to Kiel harbour, and the Ca.n.a.l entrance on the east, might be ascertained for certain with some advantage to England's Naval Intelligence Department.
I was accordingly on my way down towards the island of Aero when, by great good fortune, I met my friend Christian on the second occasion above referred to. Needless to add, we at once joined company.
In order to occupy our time in a manner congenial to both, and as ice bound the streams inland and made work at sea far from pleasant, I suggested to Christian an expedition having for its object a direct attack upon the short-winged fowl which thronged the outer coastline.
These birds are not generally considered good eating, and in England n.o.body will buy them for such purpose. But in Scandinavia the natives soak them for twelve to twenty-four hours in vinegar and water, and by these and other preparations eventually bring them to table as a most appetising dish.
The waters all around Kiel fjord are reputed as good hunting-ground for flounders and for diving ducks. The fjord, however, is situate twenty miles away from Danish territory, and to reach it in those times one would have to rim the gauntlet of numerous patrol craft of various designs and size. Yet a small fis.h.i.+ng-boat, resembling in all outward appearance other small boats which are used for coast-fis.h.i.+ng along the east of Schleswig Holstein as well as along the Danish coasts, was not so likely to draw particular attention.
When my scheme, embracing an expedition to these waters, was casually brought up with Christian, as though it was a mere matter of utter indifference whether the boat drifted there or anywhere else in Europe, he looked at me with an incredulous expression of pained surprise upon his genial countenance, which seemed to convey the unspoken sentiment:
”Have you forgotten that the Germans are at war? That to go and fish or shoot ducks anywhere near their precious, guarded harbour--about the most sacred spot in their whole empire--could only be equalled in sacrilege to spitting the eternal holy fire out before the Priests in the Temple on Mount Ephesus?”
So I hastened to attempt to a.s.sure him by saying: ”Well, we need _not shoot_ when we get in; nor, for that matter, if and when we see any s.h.i.+ps or people about whom we might disturb. Also, my dear friend Christian, don't you appreciate the fact that it would indeed be interesting really to know the truth just at the present time concerning the much-discussed outer Kiel defences?”
”That's all very well, but--”
He stopped short at the ”but,” whilst he became more serious than I had ever known him to be before. For a long spell he smoked in silence, then looking up with a half-smile, exclaimed: ”I don't want to know what I ought not to know, and I don't want you to tell me what I don't suppose you ought to tell me, but I reckon I know what you want to go to Kiel for; _it is not flatfish and it is not ducks_.”
”My dear friend, you are totally wrong. I a.s.sure you it was merely idle curiosity coupled with a love of the venturesome which prompted the suggestion. But if you funk it, or do not care about the risk, then we had better steer east.”
Christian looked up sharply at the conclusion of this sentence. He did not reply, nor was the subject again referred to for several days.
One eventful morning, however, we found ourselves silently inspecting a small, well-built and compact fis.h.i.+ng craft, just such a boat as we would have selected had we determined upon the trip before referred to.
The boat was good and so was her gear. Christian, without a word regarding future movements, engaged her, and she was promptly victualled with several days' supplies.
It was announced to the local natives that Christian had determined a cruise around Stryno and the sh.o.r.es of Laaland where ducks and geese were known to abound. In due course a start was made and the boat was headed in that direction. But as soon as darkness set in she was veered completely round by tacit mutual consent, and steered south, then south-south-east.
By daylight next morning we were fis.h.i.+ng merrily and apparently quite unconcerned off the land of the Hun, abreast of that particular wealthy tract of rich soil and pasture which the Germans had robbed from Denmark in the 'sixties. As the day wore on the little boat drew nearer in sh.o.r.e and towards the afternoon she sailed boldly up the Kiel fjord. It was much safer doing so in broad daylight than at any other time; whilst it is true beyond all shadow of doubt that an impudence which is impudently bold enough generally succeeds where a hesitating cautious policy would be sure to fail.
Christian said little, but he evidently knew the ropes. With the aid of his timely a.s.sistance and cool a.s.surance several dangers were pa.s.sed over, any one of which might have terminated the cruise in disaster. He also appeared to know exactly how to disguise and mark the boat so that she would be, and was, mistaken for a longsh.o.r.e boat in home waters.
There was, however, much to try the nerves, not the least strain of all being the overshadowing knowledge that at any moment the boat and her contents might be blown to a thousand fragments by a floating or anch.o.r.ed mine; although by hugging the sh.o.r.e as much as possible this danger was greatly minimised. When a wars.h.i.+p seemed to take more than ordinary interest in that frail craft of peace and industry Christian's discretion rather than his valour caused him to steer direct for the nearest hamlet on the sh.o.r.e as though he belonged there. He would often anchor and down sails, but he wisely refrained from landing, apparently because he had much too much to attend to in connection with his gear.
By creeping insh.o.r.e when other craft were too near, and keeping well away from it at other times, the boat drifted nearer and nearer to the localities desired to be reached and seen. Observations were taken by stealth and with the a.s.sistance of good field-gla.s.ses, their user first invariably concealing himself under a ma.s.s of fis.h.i.+ng net, which amused Christian, although he refrained from making any comment upon the peculiar eccentricity or caution of the observer.
At night searchlights played over parts of the water and advantage was taken of any intervening promontory, rock, or anch.o.r.ed craft that could in the smallest degree hide the boat from the searching beams. Having nosed around and observed all that one could have expected to be able to locate in such a venture, advantage was taken of favourable breezes and the return journey accomplished with due care and caution. Fortunately snow-squalls were frequent. Probably the flakes acted as a mighty host of guardian angels to the little amateur privateer; for although she was pushed into the security of shallow waters again and again during the exciting if somewhat risky voyage, she evaded capture, even overhauling; and eventually returned like a migratory bird at the end of a season, to her natal resting-place.
Fortunately a fair supply of birds had been gathered in, both on the outward and homeward journey, whilst the fis.h.i.+ng had not been in vain.
Thus there was plenty to show to account for our industry. Little did the natives reck the importance of the data and information thus collected, under their very noses, so to speak; or that anything out of the ordinary had taken place; or that risk of instant death had been laughed at and ignored by the two happy-go-lucky sportsmen, who appeared to them as mere overgrown schoolboys taking life as but a ray of suns.h.i.+ne and never seeming to regard it seriously.