Holmes and Watson removed two oil lamps from the gimbals that tied them to the cabin walls, lighted them, and clambered down the ladder to join Moriarty. The whole interior of the barge proved to be a vast, empty chamber. A board and beam load-bearing ceiling roofed it over, and provided support for the one or two feet of coal above, which disguised and concealed the chamber. Along the two sides and the aft section where they stood ran a wooden platform. Water came up to about three feet below the platform, filling the whole center of the chamber.
"Here," Moriarty said, "is where the Garrett-Harris was moored."
"There must be a hole in the bottom of the barge," Holmes said, "just large enough for the submersible to come in and out."
"At the moment," Moriarty added, "it is out. We can investigate this later, but right now we'd best get back to the Water Witch and see if we can determine where that blasted steel cigar is lying in wait."
-
They had no sooner reached the upper cabin than they heard Captain Coster hallooing for them. Moriarty raced out on deck and over to the side. "What?" he yelled.
Captain Coster pointed up. Moriarty turned. There, in the air above them, was the fading light of a blue signal flare. Suddenly a second flare arced up to join the first. This new one burst forth with a brilliant white ball of light.
"Blue, then white," Moriarty said. "Southeast. Very clever of Barnett." He scrambled over the side of the barge and onto the steam-launch, with Holmes and Watson only a few steps behind. "Southeast," he told Captain Coster. "Head southeast. Holmes, get forward and see if you can spot the thing."
"What can we do if we find it, now it's submerged?" Watson asked.
"Ram it!" Moriarty snapped. "It won't be more than four or five feet down. We should be able to split it open like an eggshell."
"Here, now!" Captain Coster said. "What is it you're talking about ramming with the Water Witch? Her hull is none too strong, you know. Besides, I can get into an awful mess of trouble if I go about ramming other boats."
"Don't worry about that, Captain," Moriarty said with firm authority. "Just make your course, and quickly! We're on the Queen's business. If any harm comes to your boat, you shall be completely reimbursed for damages."
"The Queen's—"
"Get a move on, Captain," Moriarty said. "There's a submersible out there somewhere stalking the Victoria and Albert, and we have to stop it!"
"Yes, sir," Captain Coster said, snapping him a firm salute. "Aye, aye, sir." He grabbed the wheel and headed the Water Witch around.
The sea was cluttered with small pleasure-boats — a thousand Sunday skippers all out to cheer their favorites as the great race drew to a close. The first of the big yachts were now coming into sight in the distance, tacking into the bay and lining up on the Victoria and Albert and the finish line.
The Water Witch cut a line due southeast, passing to the left of the Royal Yacht and heading into the Solent. "We'll pass well to the lee of the yachts," Captain Coster said, "so that's all right. But where is this submersible?"
"Perhaps your associate saw a partly submerged tree trunk," Holmes suggested.
"I say!" Watson called from the bow. "Look!" he pointed to a rocket trail streaking into the sky about them. As they watched, it burst into a shower of green sparks cascading over their heads.
"Green," Moriarty said. "West."
"Perhaps it merely signifies the start of the evening display," Holmes suggested sourly.
"No," Moriarty said. "Barnett is sending the best information he can with but four colors as a language. Captain, turn this craft due west."
"As you say," Captain Coster said, swinging the ship around.
Moriarty climbed up to the top of the cabin and stared about him, examining the positions of the ships in the bay. Then he jumped down. "Of course!" he said, snapping his fingers.
"What?" Holmes demanded.
"The submersible is circling the Victoria and Albert from the west," Moriarty said. "Trepoff wants to have nothing between himself and the Solent channel after he makes his shot. Barnett must have estimated that we couldn't catch up with him in direct pursuit, so he sent us around this way." He turned to the captain. "Cut in closer to the Victoria and Albert," he directed.
"Those Navy steam cutters surrounding her will stop us," Coster said.
"We'll take that chance."
"We'll be cutting across the finish line in front of the yachts. The commodore won't like it."
"We'll live with that too," Moriarty said. "Cut it close, there. And open up that engine!"
Captain Coster yelled instructions to his one-man crew, who was down below stoking the boiler, and the Water Witch, engine racing, moving in to cut across the side of the Victoria and Albert. Two Navy cutters came to life and sprung out to intercept her. The nearer one was alongside in a minute, just as the Water Witch came parallel to the side of the Royal Yacht. A skinny young man in a full-dress uniform with the thin, curled stripe of a sub-lieutenant on his sleeve was leaning out from the prow of the cutter, his gold sword flapping against his leg. "Ahoy there!" he yelled, cupping his hands against the wind, "Heave to, you men!" Captain Coster shrugged and started to comply.
"There!" Watson suddenly yelled. "There it is! I can see it. Off to the left there!"
Moriarty peered out and saw the barely visible submersible, a menacing cigar-shaped shadow beneath the waters. Suddenly, a streak of white foam detached from the bow in an upward arc and sped toward the Victoria and Albert; a Whitehead torpedo with a two-hundred-pound nitrocellulose warhead creating its destiny, racing to meet the monarch of one-third of the world's people.
"It's now running on the surface!" Moriarty yelled. "Quick, kick that engine in and get off this boat!" He grabbed the wheel and spun it around, as Coster, who had shut down the throttle, slapped it full open again.
"Here, you!" the sub-lieutenant yelled, "where the deuce do you think you're going? Stop or we'll fire!"
"Holmes, Watson, get off this boat!" Moriarty yelled, swinging the Water Witch onto a path that would intercept the Whitehead torpedo. "Captain Coster, jump!"
Holmes swung himself over the aft rail. "Leap for it, Watson," he yelled, before cutting the water with a clean dive toward the Navy cutter. Watson spun his bowler toward the horizon and joined Holmes in the water. The ship's one crewman appeared from somewhere below and leaped overboard.
"My boat man!" Captain Coster screamed, trying to grab the wheel from Moriarty. The professor picked him up by the front of his pea jacket. "Victoria will buy you a new one," he said savagely, and with seemingly superhuman strength he lifted Coster high and threw him over the stern rail.
Moriarty made a final adjustment in the course of the boat, lashed the wheel in position, and then raced back to the stern rail. Making one last check on the closing trajectories of the boat and the torpedo, he decided that the Water Witch would intersect a full ten yards before the torpedo reached the Victoria and Albert. Then he stripped off his jacket and dove, a long, flat dive, into the bay.
He was in the water no more than a few seconds when the Whitehead torpedo punched into the Water Witch. It drove through the scantling on the port side, all the way through the boat, and out the starboard side before it exploded. A great geyser shot up, cresting a hundred feet in the air, and fell back across the bow of the Victoria and Albert, causing the big yacht to rock ponderously in place. A moment later the concussion wave reached Moriarty, throwing him out of the water and putting a deep trough under him when he fell back down. Then the water closed over him and he had to struggle hard to reach the surface before his lungs gave out.