Wreckers Must Breathe (14 page)

I picked up a magazine and began to read a story. But I could not concentrate. I kept on catching sight of Logan listening at the wall. At length I put the magazine down. ‘Can you hear anything?' I asked.

‘No, can you?'

As a conversation piece it was not brilliant. I gave it up and for the next five minutes my mind chased the story about the man who asked a lunatic who had his ear to the ground that same question. Someone knocked on the door. I looked up. Logan was standing there, beating a tattoo with his fist on it. Footsteps sounded in the gallery outside. He ceased. But as soon as the guard-room door had shut again, he resumed his knocking.

‘Look, suppose I read you a story?' I suggested. I picked up the magazine again.

He did not reply, but stretched out his hand and picked up the spoon from his plate which was still lying on the bed. With this he began to strike the iron bars of the grille. It was getting on my nerves. ‘Come and sit down,' I said.

He turned and looked at me, and he was grinning broadly. ‘What is the name of your paper?' he asked.

‘The
Daily Recorder,
' I said. ‘Why?'

But he had begun tapping again, this time much slower. Then he stopped and listened with his head tilted slightly on one side like a dog's. I was getting a little nervous. It would be more than two hours before our evening meal was brought to us and that would probably be my first chance of getting hold of the doctor.

Then suddenly Logan turned to me. ‘Here's a pencil,' he said. He drew the half-chewed stub of one out of the pocket of his dungarees and tossed it over to me. ‘Put this down on something.' He began tapping again with his spoon. Then he stopped and listened. ‘I,' he said, ‘-c-a-m-e break h-e-r-e break——' He was spelling the words out letter by letter very slowly, sometimes with quite long intervals between each letter. ‘W-i-t-h break t-p-l-e-e break.' He tapped with his spoon on the iron grille again. And then went on, ‘C-a-n-c-e-l break t-h-r-e-e break m-i-n-e-r-s.'

At this stage it is necessary to digress in order to recount the experiences of Maureen Weston, the novelist, which had such an important bearing on later events. She very kindly offered to allow me to lift
en bloc
the story as she told it in her book
Groundbait for Death
. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking her for her kindness. I have, however, refrained from taking advantage of her offer because I feel that the bare facts as she gives them in her communications to Charles Patterson, news editor of the
Daily Recorder
, together with various other communications which complete the picture, are more suitable to a straightforward narrative of this type. I should state that I am also indebted to the authorities at Scotland Yard for their kind assistance in supplying me with copies of a number of official communications.

Wire from the news editor of the Daily Recorder to Maureen Weston, Sea Breezes, St Mawes, dispatched from Fleet Street at 12.15 p.m. on September 4
:

Note story in
Telegraph
seven two stop Can you cover disappearance Walter Craig query Still a member Recorder staff stop Full details obtainable Cadgwith—Patterson.

The following story appeared under a D head in the Telegraph of September 4
,
page seven, column two
:

U-BOAT ATTEMPTS LANDING

BELIEVED SUNK BY TORPEDO BOAT

From Our Own Correspondent

Somewhere on the Coast of England—Sept. 3: A daring attempt was made this evening to effect a landing from a German U-boat. It is believed that the intention was to land a spy in this country. Thanks to the British Secret Service, however, the U-boat's intention was known before hand and the naval authorities at Falmouth notified.

As a result, a British torpedo boat was waiting for the U-boat. As soon as the U-boat surfaced it put off a boat. The torpedo boat attempted to ram this and at the same time opened fire on the U-boat.

The submarine replied and a smart engagement followed. The boat was not rammed and its crew escaped on to the submarine again. The torpedo boat then fired a torpedo at the U-boat, but failed to register a hit. The U-boat then submerged. The torpedo boat immediately dashed to the spot and dropped depth charges. The first of these brought a quantity of oil to the surface and this encourages the belief that the U-boat was destroyed.

Two men, who were watching for the U-boat from the shore are reported to be missing. One was a local fisherman named Logan and the other, Walter Craig, the well-known dramatic critic.

Wire from Maureen Weston to Charles Patterson of the Daily Recorder dispatched from St Mawes at 2.55 p.m. on September 4
:

Busy on new book stop Walter untype involved scrape—Maureen.

Wire from Charles Patterson of the Daily Recorder to Maureen Weston dispatched from Fleet Street at 4.50 p.m. on September
4:

Damn book stop Yard asking questions stop Convinced story stop Cannot spare any one investigate from this end stop Relying on you stop Writing hotel Cadgwith stop Suggest five pound daily retainer expenses plus space—Patterson.

Wire from Maureen Weston to Charles Patterson of the Daily Recorder dispatched from St Mawes at 6.20 p.m. on September 4
:

Okay stop God help if wild-goose chase—Maureen.

Letter from Charles Patterson of the Daily Recorder to Maureen Weston at the hotel Cadgwith, dated September 4
:

D
EAR
M
AUREEN
,

Officers from Scotland Yard questioned me about Walter Craig yesterday morning. There is apparently not the slightest doubt that he and this man Logan have disappeared.

In some respects the story in the
Telegraph
is not quite accurate. For one thing the U-boat was not landing any one, but taking off a man who had been landed the previous night. I gathered from the detectives that Craig met this man shortly after he had been landed and that later he became suspicious. The coastguard is mixed up in it somewhere. It was he who warned the naval authorities at Falmouth. I believe Craig and this fellow Logan lay in wait for the German above the cliffs. The police seem to think that both were captured and taken on board the submarine. There is some doubt as to whether it was destroyed.

The question is—why did the submarine land this German? Who did he contact on shore, and why? It must have been something urgent for them to have taken that risk.

I am sorry to have dragged you out of your book. I tried to get you on the phone in order to explain the situation, but every business in London has moved out to the West Country and it is quite impossible to get a call through. At the moment I dare not spare any one from this end, for though we are running a smaller paper and half the staff is hanging about doing nothing, at any moment a rush of war news may come through. At the same time local men are no good for a job of this sort.

What I am hoping for is a first-class spy story. Good hunting, and very many thanks for helping me out.

Yours sincerely,

C
HARLES
P
ATTERSON
.

 

Transcript of a code wire from Detective-inspector Fuller to Superintendent McGlade at Scotland Yard and dispatched from Cadgwith at 4.15
p.m. on September 5.
The wire was decoded and sent by special messenger to M.I.5
:

Enquiries about disappearances being made by Maureen Weston stop Description height about five-two black hair parted left waved brown eyes slim nails painted young attractive stop Arrived hotel about seven last night in green Hillman ten number FGY 537 stop Has contacted Morgan and now walking over cliffs inspect Carillon stop Keeping contact pending instructions—Fuller.

Transcript of a code wire from Superintendent McGlade to Detective-inspector Fuller at the police station at Lizard Town and sent on by hand to Mr Fuller's lodgings at Mrs Forster Williams', arriving shortly after 7 p.m. on September 5
:

Maureen Weston was a reporter on
Daily Recorder
until year ago when retired to St Mawes to write stop Now acting for
Recorder
again stop Editor concerned as to whereabouts of Walter Craig stop Have no power to prevent her conducting own enquiries stop Suggest you help and facilitate disinterest—McGlade.

Typescript of a phone call received by Charles Patterson of the Daily Recorder from Maureen Weston just before 5 p.m. on September 6
and taken down in shorthand by his secretary
:

I have been shown the spot where the submarine's boat landed, I have talked to the coastguard and have walked over to Carillon, the cottage inquired for by the man landed from the submarine. But I am no further forward.

However, this much I have got. It gives the background. Walter Craig went out after mackered with a man known locally as Big Logan and came back soaking wet. Big Logan, by the way, is a bit of a character—apparently he is very large and bearded, about forty, tough and fond of the girls. Well, apparently Walter had got pulled into the sea by what he thought was a shark which went for a mackerel he had just hooked. Logan thinks this over and decides it isn't a shark but a submarine. Then, when Walter comes down on the Sunday and begins talking of a fellow he met on the cliffs going home the previous night who had just come in by boat, Logan gets properly suspicious, for his boat was apparently the last one in at Cadgwith. The man Walter met asked the way to a cottage called Carillon on the cliffs above Church Cove.

Logan asks the landlord at the local who the owner of Carillon is. That is as far as they go with the landlord. After that they trot off to the coastguard. I could not get much out of Morgan even though he is Welsh. He is in bed suffering from shock and feeling rather sorry for himself. Apparently the U-boat came very near to sinking the torpedo boat. He says that he is not allowed to say anything about it—not even to get his picture in the papers.

A Mr Fuller introduced himself to me this morning. He seemed to know all about me and why I was in Cadgwith. I began to get suspicious. And when he told me he was from Scotland Yard I was quite certain I had found the master spy. However, it turns out that he is from the Yard and he helps quite a bit. Here's the low down.

It was arranged that Walter and Logan should wait on the cliffs whilst the coastguard and two other fishermen lay in wait just around the headland in Logan's boat. It appears, however, that the coastguard, on thinking the matter over, decided to notify Falmouth, and the naval authorities dispatched a torpedo boat to intercept the submarine. The action was much as the
Telegraph
account describes it. The U-boat is believed damaged, but it is by no means certain that it was destroyed. Fuller told me that the police had found marks on the slopes above the place where the landing was made which indicate a struggle. Their theory is that both Walter and Logan were taken prisoner. Incidentally, the boat made the submarine. It was a collapsible rubber boat and was picked up farther down the coast the next day. On it was painted the letters U 34.

The owner of Carillon was arrested that night. His name is George Cutner. He had been at Carillon just over two years. I gather that he paid frequent visits to London and other places. Nobody down here seems to know much about him. To them he was a foreigner and regarded much as the summer visitors. Any one is a foreigner down here who was not born in the district. He was very fond of fishing, though he seldom went out in a boat. He was often with a rod at a picked spot called the Bass Rock at the extremity of one of the headlands. There was nothing in the least unusual about his appearance. He was about fifty-five, short and rather bald—in fact, much like the retired bank manager he was meant to be. There is a police guard on the cottage and I cannot find out where the man has been removed to. Moreover, friend Fuller seemed to expect me to be satisfied with what he had told me and clear out, so perhaps I had better. I shall take up the search with the agents from whom Cutner purchased Carillon.

I don't know whether you will be able to get a story out of this. However, I will hope to get something really hot in due course. Incidentally, this is the last time I try and get you on the phone. I waited two and a half hours for this call. I'll wire in future.

Cutting from the front page of the September 7 issue of the Daily Recorder
:

RECORDER MAN EXPOSES

GERMAN SPY

AND BECOMES FIRST BRITISH

WAR CAPTIVE

NOW PRISONER ON BOARD DAMAGED U-BOAT

Walter Craig, the
Recorder's
theatre critic, is the man responsible for the exposure of the first German spy to be captured since the outbreak of war. His action has cost him his freedom and possibly his life. He is now a captive on board a German U-boat, which is known to have been damaged and may well have been destroyed.

The spy was posing as a retired bank manager at a little coastal village. For reasons of national importance names and localities cannot be given. His capture was the result of a remarkable piece of deductive work on the part of Walter Craig.

Here is the story as told by one of his colleagues who went down to the place where he had disappeared in an endeavour to discover whether he was alive or dead.

Every detail of Maureen Weston's story that could be got past the Censor was included in this splash. The story was taken up by the evening papers and caused something of a sensation in the Street.

A cutting from the Daily Recorder of Friday, September 8.
It appeared in the form of a box on the front page and was based on nothing more hopeful than a wire dispatched from Penzance at 4.45
p.m. the previous day and reading
:

Agents not very helpful but looking around— Maureen.

The box read as follows:

RECORDER SPY HUNT