“Am I at last to discover the facts about your mysterious mission?”
“You are,” Sherman said. “It was dangerous, perhaps foolhardy, but since it was very successful, I imagine that the risks were justified. I suggest that you tell the President about our Russian friend, Gus.”
“I will do just that. It all began while we were all still in Brussels; that was when we met a Count Korzhenevski, someone very high up their navy — and in their military intelligence as well. I can vouch for his authenticity because I have had contacts with his organization in the past. He speaks perfect English and was educated in England, and actually attended Greenwich Naval College. However, since the Crimean War, he has grown to detest the British who invaded his country. Knowing about our difficulties with Britain, he saw our two countries as natural allies. That was when he made a very generous offer, when he told us that he would like to put his yacht at our disposal. To take us wherever we wished to go.”
“Very nice of the Count.” Lincoln smiled. “You should have asked him to take you to England.”
“That is just where we went.”
The President was rarely caught out — but he was this time. He looked from one to the other of them with bewilderment.
“Do you mean that? You — went there?”
“Indeed we did,” Fox said. “In the guise of Russian officers.”
“I’ve heard some tall stories in my time, but this beats the pants off any of them. Pray tell me, in greatest detail, about where you went and just what you did.”
Sherman sat back and listened in silence while Gus outlined the various aspects of their precarious journey. For the moment the President did not appear to be interested in what they had discovered, but rather in all the surprises and close escapes in their exploration of the English mainland.
Gus finished, “…we sailed all that night and reached Dublin in the morning. That is when we heard about the naval engagement between the two ironclads. Of course we had to return here, so that was the end of our little voyage of exploration.”
Lincoln leaned back with a heavy sigh — then slapped his knee with enthusiasm. “If I had heard this story from anyone else, Gus, anyone other than you, why, I would say he got the liar of the year — no, of the century! — award. You were right not to have informed me of your plans before you left. I would have vetoed them instantly. But now that you have returned, about all I can say is — well done!”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Sherman said. “In hindsight our little voyage of exploration does appear a mite foolhardy. But we got away with it. We have studied the English ports, cities, and countryside. And we have taken the measure of their defensive ability. It was intelligence hard gained — unhappily at the price of a man’s life. One of the Russian sailors was killed when the ironclad fired on us. But the trip was well worth doing, I assure you.”
“And your conclusions?”
“Militarily we know a great deal more about the British defenses than ever we did before. What is to be done with that knowledge of course depends upon the state of international affairs. The newspapers are all in a frazzle and contain more rumor than news. Before I go on, I would like to hear about the official reactions of the British to the loss of their ship.”
The lines of worry were deep cut between Lincoln’s eyes again. He had forgotten his troubles while listening to the tale of their daring adventures. Now memory flooded back.
“They are livid, intransigent, calling their men to arms, preparing their country for war. They demand immediate payment of ten million pounds’ compensation for the loss of their ironclad.”
“Can war be avoided?” Sherman asked.
“If we pay them the millions that they ask for, and stop shipping our cotton to world markets, also permit their men-of-war to arrest and search all of our ships at sea, and more. They have endless demands and bristle with threats. The situation is very tense.”
“How did the naval engagement come about?”
“I doubt if we will ever know. Captain Semmes says that his ship was fired upon. His officers and men all agree with him. That is what they say, and I sincerely doubt that they are lying to us. It still remains a mystery why the British vessel opened fire. The two English survivors knew nothing, other than the fact that there was gunfire and explosions and they were blown into the water. Neither of them appeared to be too bright, according to their interrogators. Apparently they worked in the ship’s galley and were on deck dumping rubbish — which is what saved them. Of course, after they were sent back home, they changed their stories — or they were changed for them — and Virginia is now supposed to have fired in an unprovoked attack. But this matters little. The original cause has been forgotten in the cloud of political invective.”
“Will it be war?” Gus asked, almost in a whisper.
Lincoln sagged back deep into the chair and shook his head with a most woeful expression upon his face.
“I do not know, I cannot tell you… I just have no idea where all this will end.”
“If war comes,” Sherman said with icy resolution, “we will be prepared for it. And I also know now how it can be won.”
They both looked at him, waiting for him to continue. His face was set and he was looking out of the window, not seeing the hot and brassy sky — rather, another land far across the ocean.
“There are many ways to attack a country like that and I am completely sure that I know how it can be successfully done. But first, what we must do is far more important than how we do it. To begin with, unless we want to be immersed in a long, protracted, and murderous war, we must be prepared to fight the new kind of lightning warfare, just as we did in the battle for Ireland. In order to succeed we must first assess the enemy’s strengths — and weaknesses — in every detail. This, along with war preparations, will take some months at least. So I would say that we will be prepared for any venture by spring at the earliest. Can we buy that time?”
Lincoln nodded slowly. “A politician can always buy time; that is the one thing we are good at — that, and wasting time. The negotiations will plow ahead. We will make some concessions, then let them think that there are more are on the way. King Leopold of Belgium has offered us neutral ground on which to discus our differences. We shall avail ourselves of his offer and set in motion the ponderous machinery of international negotiations yet another time.”
“Is there any possibility that they may strike before we are prepared?” Gus said worriedly. Sherman considered the question.
“It is not that easy to launch an attack across an ocean. Surely your intelligence sources will keep you informed of all preparations?”
Gus shook his head. “Our informants in Great Britain were all Irish — and are all now seized or in hiding. But I had many discussions with Count Korzhenevski, and he will be happy to supply us with intelligence from his network there. We are now in the process of arranging a working relationship.”
“I must be informed of all developments,” Sherman said.
“You will be. You as well, Mr. President.”
Sherman returned to the War Department and wrote a number of telegraph orders. It took only a day to make the necessary arrangements. When they were done he sent for Ulysses S. Grant.
“General Grant, sir,” the captain said, opening the door and standing aside.
“Why, you are sure a sight for sore eyes,” General Sherman said, standing and coming around his desk, smiling with obvious pleasure. He started to raise his hand — then dropped it. “How is the arm?”
“Well healed, thank you, Cumph.” Grant proved this by seizing Sherman’s hand and shaking it strongly. Then he looked down at the drawings spread over the desktop and nodded. “I sent these over because I was sure that they would interest you as much as they did me.”