'Sir Edward, that is all I want. I leave to-night; good-bye.'"

Next day Crawford was in Hamburg. He immediately concluded his
agreement with B.S., and began making arrangements for carrying out the
plan he had outlined to the Committee in Belfast. As will be seen in the
next chapter, he was actually in the middle of this adventure at the
very time when Seely and Churchill were worrying lest "evil-disposed
persons" should raid and rob the scantily stocked Government Stores at
Omagh and Enniskillen.

FOOTNOTES:

[84] _Ante_, p. 123.

[85] _Ante_, p. 161.

[86] From a manuscript narrative by Colonel F.H. Crawford.

CHAPTER XVIII

A VOYAGE OF ADVENTURE

Although Mr. Lloyd George's message to mankind on New Year's Day, 1914,
was that "Anglo-German relations were far more friendly than for years
past,"[87] and that there was therefore no need to strengthen the
British Navy, it may be doubted, with the knowledge we now possess,
whether the German Government would have been greatly incensed at the
idea of a cargo of firearms finding its way from Hamburg to Ireland in
the spring of that year without the knowledge of the British Government.
But if that were the case Fred Crawford had no reason to suspect it.
German surveillance was always both efficient and obtrusive, and he had
to make his preparations under a vigilance by the authorities which
showed no signs of laxity. Those preparations involved the assembling
and the packing of 20,000 modern rifles, 15,000 of which had to be
brought from a factory in Austria; 10,000 Italian rifles previously
purchased, which B.S. had in store; bayonets for all the firearms; and
upwards of 3,000,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition. The packing of the
arms was a matter to which Crawford gave particular attention. He kept
in mind the circumstances under which he expected them to be landed in
Ulster. Avoidance of confusion and rapidity of handling were of the
first importance. Rifles, bayonets, and ammunition must be not separated
in bulk, requiring to be laboriously reassembled at their destination.
He therefore insisted that parcels should be made up containing five
rifles in each, with bayonets to match, and 100 rounds of ammunition per
rifle, each parcel weighing about 75 lbs. He attached so much importance
to this system of packing that he adhered to it even after discovering
that it would cost about L2,000, and would take more than a month to
complete.

While the wor