A Rock in the Baltic

“Then what’s the harm of going in search of it?” demanded his daughter. “Besides that, Johnson knows exactly where it is.”

“Johnson, Johnson! You’re surely not silly enough to believe Johnson’s cock-and-bull story?”

“I believe every syllable he uttered. The man’s face showed that he was speaking the truth.”

“But, my dear Kate, you didn’t see him at all, as I understand the yarn. He was here alone with you, was he not, Dorothy?”

Dorothy smiled sadly.

“I told Kate all about it, and gave my own impression of the man’s appearance.”

“You are too sensible a girl to place any credit in what he said, surely?”

“I did believe him, nevertheless,” replied Dorothy.

“Why, look you here. False in one thing, false in all. I’ll just take a single point. He speaks of a spring sending water through the cells up there in the rock. Now, that is an impossibility. Wherever a spring exists, it comes from a source higher than itself.”

“There are lots of springs up in the mountains,” interrupted Katherine. “I know one on Mount Washington that is ten times as high as the rock in the Baltic.”

“Quite so, Katherine, quite so, but nevertheless there is a lake, subterraneous or above ground, which feeds your White Mountain spring, and such a lake must be situated higher than the spring is. Why, girl, you ought to study hydrometeorology as well as chemistry. Here is a rock jutting up in midocean—”

“It’s in the Baltic, near the Russian coast,” snapped Kate, “and I’ve no doubt there are mountains in Finland that contain the lake which feeds the spring.”

“How far is that rock from the Finnish coast, then?”

“Two miles and a half,” said Kate, quick as an arrow speeding from a bow.

“Captain, we don’t know how far it is from the coast,” amended Dorothy.

“I’ll never believe the thing exists at all.”

“Why, yes it does, father. How can you speak like that? Don’t you know Lieutenant Drummond fired at it?”

“How do you know it was the same rock?”

“Because the rock fired back at him. There can’t be two like that in the Baltic.”

“No, nor one either,” said the Captain, nearing the end of his patience.

“Captain Kempt,” said Dorothy very soothingly, as if she desired to quell the rising storm, “you take the allegation about the spring of water to prove that Johnson was telling untruths. I expect him here within an hour, and I will arrange that you have an opportunity, privately, of cross-examining him. I think when you see the man, and listen to him, you will believe. What makes me so sure that he is telling the truth is the fact that he mentioned the foreign vessel firing at this rock, which I knew to be true, and which he could not possibly have learned anything about.”

“He might very well have learned all particulars from the papers, Dorothy. They were full enough of the subject at the time, and, remembering this, he thought to strengthen his story by—”

Katherine interrupted with great scorn.

“By adding verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.”

“Quite so, Kate; exactly what I was going to say myself. But to come back to the project itself. Granting the existence of the rock, granting the truth of Johnson’s story, granting everything, granting even that the young men are imprisoned there, of which we have not the slightest proof, we could no more succeed in capturing that place from a frail pleasure yacht—”

“It’s built like a cruiser,” said Katherine.

“Even if it were built like a battleship we would have no chance whatever. Why, that rock might defy a regular fleet. Our venture would simply be a marine Jameson Raid which would set the whole world laughing when people came to hear of it.”

“Johnson said he could take it with half a dozen men.”

“No, Kate,” corrected Dorothy, “he said the very reverse; that two or three determined men on the rock with repeating rifles could defeat a host. It was I who suggested that we should throw a shell, and then rush the entrance in the confusion.”

Captain Kempt threw up his hands in a gesture of despair.

“Great heavens, Dorothy Amhurst, whom I have always regarded as the mildest, sweetest and most charming of girls; to hear you calmly propose to throw a shell among a lot of innocent men defending their own territory against a perfectly unauthorized invasion! Throw a shell, say you, as if you were talking of tossing a copper to a beggar! Oh, Lord, I’m growing old. What will become of this younger generation? Well, I give it up. Dorothy, my dear, whatever will happen to those unfortunate Russians, I shall never recover from the shock of your shell. The thing is absolutely impossible. Can’t you see that the moment you get down to details? How are you going to procure your shells, or your shell-firing gun? They are not to be bought at the first hardware store you come to on Sixth Avenue.”

“Johnson says he can get them,” proclaimed Kate with finality.

“Oh, damn Johnson! Dorothy, I beg your pardon, but really, this daughter of mine, combined with that Johnson of yours, is just a little more than I can bear.”

“Then what are we to do?” demanded his daughter. “Sit here with folded hands?”

“That would be a great deal better than what you propose. You should do something sane. You mustn’t involve a pair of friendly countries in war. Of course the United States would utterly disclaim your act, and discredit me if I were lunatic enough to undertake such a wild goose chase, which I’m not; but, on the other hand, if two of our girls undertook such an expedition, no man can predict the public clamor that might arise. Why, when the newspapers get hold of a question, you never know where they will end it. Undoubtedly you two girls should be sent to prison, and, with equal undoubtedness, the American people wouldn’t permit it.”

“You bet they wouldn’t,” said Katherine, dropping into slang.

“Well, then, if they wouldn’t, there’s war.”

“One moment, Captain Kempt,” said Dorothy, again in her mildest tones, for voices had again begun to run high, “you spoke of doing something sane. You understand the situation. What should you counsel us to do?”

The Captain drew a long breath, and leaned back in his chair.

“There, Dad, it’s up to you,” said Katherine. “Let us hear your proposal, and then you’ll learn how easy it is to criticise.”

“Well,” said the Captain hesitatingly, “there’s our diplomatic service—”

“Utterly useless: one man is a Russian, and the other an Englishman. Diplomacy not only can do nothing, but won’t even try,” cried Kate triumphantly.

“Yet,” said the Captain, with little confidence, “although the two men are foreigners, the two girls are Americans.”

“We don’t count: we’ve no votes,” said Kate. “Besides, Dorothy tried the diplomatic service, and could not even get accurate information from it. Now, father, third time and out.”

“Four balls are out, Kate, and I’ve only fanned the air twice. Now, girls, I’ll tell you what I’d do. You two come with me to Washington. We will seek a private interview with the President. He will get into communication with the Czar, also privately, and outside of all regular channels. The Czar will put machinery in motion that is sure to produce those two young men much more effectually and speedily than any cutthroat expedition on a yacht.”

“I think,” said Dorothy, “that is an excellent plan.”

“Of course it is,” cried the Captain enthusiastically. “Don’t you see the pull the President will have? Why, they’ve put an Englishman into ‘the jug,’ and when the President communicates this fact to the Czar he will be afraid to refuse, knowing that the next appeal may be from America to England, and when you add a couple of American girls to that political mix-up, why, what chance has the Czar?”

“The point you raise, Captain,” said Dorothy, “is one I wish to say a few words about. The President cannot get Mr. Drummond released, because the Czar and all his government will be compelled to deny that they know anything of him. Even the President couldn’t guarantee that the Englishman would keep silence if he were set at liberty. The Czar would know that, but your plan would undoubtedly produce Prince Ivan Lermontoff. All the president has to do is to tell the Czar that the Prince is engaged to an American girl, and Lermontoff will be allowed to go.”

“But,” objected the Captain, “as the Prince knows the Englishman is in prison, how could they be sure of John keeping quiet when Drummond is his best friend?”

“He cannot know that, because the Prince was arrested several days before Drummond was.