means.”
“And there does not seem to be a means of communication,” the count put in. “The controls are here, but they do not respond. Surely they did not send messengers astern every time they needed more steam or a change of course?”
Of course they did not.
“What is that?” She pointed above their heads, at what appeared to be tubing wrapped in copper wire. The two ends of it hung down, shredded as if they had been cut with a sharp knife or a pair of pliers.
“Um. Lady?”
She turned. “Lizzie, if you must find the powder room, it will be in the crew’s quarters. I do not have time to take you.”
“It ent that, Lady. It’s about that ’ose there.”
“And that one.” Maggie pointed to a similar hose that snaked along the ceiling, heading in the direction of the stern. “And that one across there, too.”
All of them had been cut.
“Girls, what is it?” Had Alan and his friends sabotaged their own ship?
“I’m—I’m afraid we done it.” Lizzie took Maggie’s hand and they huddled close, as if they expected someone to toss them down the gangway and they were determined to go together.
“You did—what?” Andrew said, so shocked his voice had hardly any sound. “You cut the lines that carry the signals from this gondola to that of the engine?”
“We thought we was ’elpin’,” Lizzie wailed, on the point of tears.
“We didn’t know the Lady were planning to nick this ship,” Maggie said, her voice thick with horror. “After we stashed them blokes, we came back ’ere and did a nip and tuck before we went and found Tigg.”
“Didn’t know what them cables were, only that it might slow ’em down should they try to chase us.”
The count let out a cry of frustration and even Andrew clutched his head as if it were about to explode. The tears overflowed Lizzie’s eyes and streaked her dirty face.
“We’re awful sorry, Lady. We thought we was doin’ right.”
The count turned away with a string of Prussian epithets that had no business in the hearing of young ladies. “I shall have to return to my ship,” he got out at last, in English. “Perhaps there is room for negotiation.”
“Certainly—negotiations will net you the choice of a pistol, or a long fall from an airship in flight,” Claire snapped. She pulled the twins into her arms, and Lizzie sobbed against her heart. “It is all right, darlings. So we cannot communicate from one end of the ship to the other. We shall simply have to come up with an alternative, even if it means using you two as messengers, as the count suggested.”
“Impossible,” Andrew said.
What business did he have making the girls feel worse than they already did? Claire lost her temper.
“I am aboard a disabled ship in the company of two of the finest engineers the world has ever seen,” she said with barely concealed impatience. “Do not stand there telling me it is impossible. Do something!”
Chapter 26
The men wasted a good two minutes running through alternative plans, one of which included smuggling members of the Margrethe’s crew out of that vessel to take over crewing the cargo ship. Another involved flying blind and hoping for the best—a plan that was shot down as quickly as they would have been had they tried it. el to ta/span>
Finally they addressed themselves to the problem of recreating the mechanical system that transmitted orders from the bow to the stern. They found an extensive officers’ toolbox where logic dictated it should be, and while they put their heads together to find a solution, Claire and the Mopsies stood at the window, anxiously keeping an eye on the progress of the search.
“Wot’ll we do when they get to us, Lady?” Maggie asked, gripping the brass trim of the viewing glass with fingers whose knuckles had whitened.
“We must be gone by then. Look, two of the groups are returning to Lady Lucy, I suspect to receive new orders.”
“They think that Astor cove’s ship is safe?”
“They think both are under guard, and the darkness is concealing us,” she replied. Half of her brain watched the search. The other half worried at the problem of the communication system. It was a simple one—various levers were employed to convey commands such as full steam and reverse, and direction: port, starboard, and all points of the compass in between. Wires conveyed pressure and produced a corresponding command in the engine gondola and in the tiny room on the uppermost deck where a crewman