Evening star., 1925-01-02
The Ark of the Covenant
A Story of Mystery and Adventure
BY VICTOR MCCLURE
by Harper q Brothers
Copyright. lse4. by Harper & Brothers

The Merlin was ready for action
by the middle of the week following
our commission. The fighting top
was fixed, and we had shipped all
stores and ammunition. She carried
four guns. We had dispensed with
two of the smaller, SO that we now
mounted the fore and aft guns firing
halfkilo shells. and a machine gun
on either quarter. The arrangement
was that Milliken or myself, which
ever of us happened to be plotting,
should handle the bow gun, while the
other should work that at the stern.
Dan Lamont, II not occupied In scien-
tifc observation, was supposed to
turn his attention to the quarter
guns, firing on the side handiest in
any encounter. incidentally, he
proved an apt pupil under the in
struction of Milliken and myself.
We arranged the ammunition bands
for each of the guns with great care,
SO that there would be no hitch in
crisis, and we put the spares where
they would be handy for fitting at
once.
Dan make it his job to render US as
immune from the raiders gas as he
knew how. On his advice we laid in
a cylinder of oxygen and fitted air
tight covers on all openings. The gun
embrasures we filled with fabric, dou-
BILE pleated like camera bellows, and
pierced to take the barrels and tele-
scopic sights and fitting tightly to
them, but flexible enough TO permit
a good arc of fire. The material was
some close-woven asbestos stun OF
Dams own choosing, and he said IL
would not only keep out the gas, but
would resist the heat of the gun
barrels after heavy firing. Our gen
eral idea was that should we get into
action with the raiders we should i'm
m ediately close all apertures, turn on
a thin stream Of oxygen and do our
fighting from a Theoretically sealed
cabin, quicklime apparatus absorb
ing the carbon dioxide.
Dan also had caused to be fitted un-
der the hatch a bottle arrangement
for automatically taking a sample Of
the gas, should we get into it,
During the fortnight in Washingto
we frequently met Kirsteen Torrance
and her uncle, the President, less
often. She was inclined at first to
think US triie slack about getting
| down to business, but the President
persuaded her that we were doing
! the right-and harder-thing in
waiting. Kirsteen took a deep in
terest in our preparations, and was
often in the Merlin's shed. She re-
neWed her acquaintance with Milli-
| ken, who greeted her every appear
ance with his widest grin and de-
| lighted to explain TO her the smallest
| detail of our outfit. We thought of
| her as our mascot.
We had an idea that the next of the
raids would most likely come on the
| Great Lakes, and we decided that II
we got no news by the evening of the
| first Sunday in May, we should make
a hit-or-miss start for the Buffalo
| end of Erie on the Monday morning
| L
however, that sCrapped our plans at
once Dan and / were having tea with
Miss Torrance at the White House,
when the President came into the
room with fiimsy in his hands.
| Flying orders, boys" he said
Ships have been stopped today on the
| cape route from England"
"At what point?" I asked, and got
| TO my feet in hurry
| Northwest coast of Africa-be-
tween Madeira and the Canaries By
daylight, too"
Come on, Danny" I said. Wen
get off right away. You'll be break
fasting at Funchal by 5 o'clock to
| morrow"
Quick work. said the President
approvingly.
Goodbye, Miss Torrance. Good-bye
| sir
| Nay. nay" said Mr. whitcomb "Kir-
! steen and will see you off. I'll ring for
an automobile. Well go togther."
1t was close on o'clock when we
| took off from the basin by the Potomac
and clear "Godspeed - from a bright
| eyed Kristen. a hearty Good luck
boys" from the President. were the last
words We heard as we set out on our
venture
Night came on us very quickly. for
We We're flying toward IT, but while the
| light lasted Dan took a final lesson on
the machine gun from Milliken. With
the dark we hit into a severe storm
which tested the Merlin very thorough
ly. We had to climb high before we got
out of heavy driving rain, and when
| we had avoided that we came into cleo
trical disturbances that played the very
devil with our compass. 1t was tricky
and difficult flying, for the lightning
flashed above and below us, dazzlingly
brilliant, and the atmosphere was ter
ribly pocketed, SO that we pancaked in
a most sickening fashion The smash
OF the thunderclouds was deafening
There were times when only the fact
that Milliken was standing on his feet
persuaded me that we were not flying
upside down. The disturbed area must
have covered 10 degrees of longitude,
for we were in it close on two hours
At last, however, we passed out OF the
storm belt and could see the stars, and
we were more sure of our course as a
consequence.
Milliken and I spelled each other
every two hours while Dan, once the
interest Of the storm was over, slept
peacefully. 1t was bright day when We
sighted the Azores, though our clock
showed only half-past g Three hours
later we were swaying gently on the
swell in the very exposed Bay OF Fun
chal.
Milliken cooked breakfast on the gaso-
line stove, then after a visit from the
port authorities Dan and I went ashore.
We could get no official information
about the raids that was worth con-
sidering. The Portuguese did not seem
to care red cent about the stopped
liners. We had better luck at Blandy's,
where Englishmen were in charge
There were three acts of piracy on the
Sunday, two Union Castle liners and one
belonging to the r. NJ s. P Co being
the victims In each case the strong
rooms had been the objective, specie
being taken from all three ships, and
from a Union Castle liner, which was
homeward bound, the raiders had made
considerable haul in diamonds. The
method of attack was similar on each
ship; a sudden descent from the sky
by the airship, swift and unexpected,
and almost Immediately the anesthetiz-
ing of every soul aboard, close on a
brief period of terrific panic among the
passengers and crew. This last was a
ghastly feature which had been missing
from the night raids.
For a week, the weather being fine
enough to permit a stay in the exposed
harbor, we made Funchal our base. and
we haunted the shipping routes from the
coast of Spain to the Cape Verde Is
lands. But we had not the luck to sight
our quarry. The following Sunday. while
we were making toward the Azores. we
intercepted a radio which told of raids