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diff --git a/38028-h/38028-h.htm b/38028-h/38028-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2223e30 --- /dev/null +++ b/38028-h/38028-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15520 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The World Masters, by George Griffith—A Project Gutenberg +eBook</title> +<style type="text/css"> + + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Masters, by George Griffith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The World Masters + +Author: George Griffith + +Release Date: November 16, 2011 [EBook #38028] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD MASTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h3> +THE WORLD MASTERS +</h3> + +<div class="box"> +<p class="ctr"> +<i>Ready shortly</i> +</p> +<hr class="tiny"> +<p class="ctr"> +<i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +SIDELIGHTS ON CONVICT LIFE +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>With numerous Illustrations<br>taken from Life</i> +</p> +<hr class="tiny"> +<p class="ctr"> +Crown 8vo, Cloth Gilt, 6s. +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, <span class="sc">Publisher</span><br> +LONDON +</p> +</div> + + +<br> +<h1> +THE WORLD MASTERS +</h1> + +<br> +<h3> +BY +</h3> + +<h2> +GEORGE GRIFFITH +</h2> + +<h4> +AUTHOR OF<br> +"<i>The Angel of the Revolution</i>," "<i>Brothers of the Chain</i>,"<br> +"<i>The Justice of Revenge</i>," "<i>A Honeymoon in Space</i>,"<br> +"<i>Captain Johnnie</i>," <i>etc. etc.</i> +</h4> + +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Publisher's logo" width="109" height="160"></p> + + +<h4> +London<br> +John Long<br> +13 and 14 Norris Street, Haymarket<br> +1903<br> +[<i>All Rights Reserved</i>] +</h4> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="section"> +<big>THE WORLD MASTERS</big> +</p> + + + + +<p class="firstchapter"> +PROLOGUE +</p> + +<p class="head"> +THE MOMENT OF TRIUMPH +</p> + + +<p> +High above the night-shrouded street, whose silence was only broken by +the occasional tramp of the military patrol or the gruff challenges of +the sentries on the fortifications, a man was walking, with jerky, +uneven strides, up and down a vast attic in an ancient house +overlooking the old Fisher's Gate, close by where the River Ill leaves +the famous city of Strassburg. +</p> + +<p> +The room, practically destitute of ordinary furniture, was fitted up +as a chemical and physical laboratory, and the man was Doctor Emil +Fargeau, the most distinguished scientific investigator that the lost +province of Alsace had produced—a tall, spare man of about sixty, +with sloping, stooping shoulders and forward-thrown head, thinly +covered with straggling iron-grey hair. It was plain that he was in +the habit of shaving clean, but just now there was a short white +stubble both on his upper lip and on the lean wrinkled cheeks which +showed the nervous workings of the muscles so plainly. In fact, his +whole appearance was that of a man too completely absorbed by an +over-mastering idea to pay any attention to the small details of life. +</p> + +<p> +And such was the exact truth—for these few mid-night minutes which +were being ticked off by an ancient wooden clock in the corner were +the most anxious of his life. In fact, a few more of them would decide +whether the Great Experiment, for which he had sacrificed everything, +even to his home and his great professional position, was to be a +success or a failure. +</p> + +<p> +On the long, bare, pine table, beside which he was pacing up and down, +stood a strange fabric about three feet high. It was round, and about +the size of a four-gallon ale jar. It was covered completely by a +closed glass cylinder, and rested on four strong glass supports. +From the floor on either side of the table a number of twisted, +silk-covered wires rose from two sets of storage batteries. Within the +four supports was a wooden dish, and on this lay a piece of bright +steel some four inches square and about an inch thick, just under a +circle of needles which hung down in a circle from the bottom of the +machine. +</p> + +<p> +A very faint humming sound filled the room, and made a somewhat +uncanny accompaniment to the leisurely tick of the clock and the +irregular shuffling of the doctor's slippered feet. +</p> + +<p> +Every now and then he stopped, and put his ear near to the machine, +and then looked at the piece of steel with a gleam of longing +anticipation in his keen, deep-set, grey eyes. Then he began his walk +again, and his lips went on working, as though he were holding an +inaudible conversation with himself. At last there came a faint whirr +from the clock, a little window opened, and a wooden bird bobbed out +and said "Cuckoo" once. The doctor stopped instantly, took out his +watch and compared it with the clock. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, let us see!" he said, quietly, in his somewhat guttural Alsatian +French, for in this supreme moment of his life he had gone back to the +patois of his boyhood, which he had spoken in the days before the +Teuton's iron hand had snatched his well-loved native land from France +and begun to rule it according to the pitiless doctrine of Blood and +Iron. +</p> + +<p> +He pulled the platter out from under the machine, picked up a little +wooden mallet from the table, and, with a trembling hand, struck the +steel plate in the centre. It splintered instantly to fragments, as +though it had only been a thin sheet of glass. The doctor dropped the +mallet, lifted his hand to the window that looked out over the river +towards the citadel, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"It is done! And so, Germany, stealer of our land and oppressor of my +people, will I break the great fabric of your power with one touch of +this weak old hand of mine!" +</p> + +<p> +Then he threw open one of the old-fashioned dormer windows that looked +out over the northern part of the city towards France, and began to +speak again in a low, intense tone which rose and fell slightly as his +deep breaths came and went. +</p> + +<p> +"But France, my beautiful mother France, thou shalt know soon that I +have done more than given thee the power to turn on thy conqueror and +crush him. I can make thee queen and mistress of the world, and I will +do it. The other nations shall live and prosper only at thy bidding, +and they shall pay thee tribute for the privilege of being something +more than the savages from which they came. +</p> + +<p> +"Those who will not pay thee tribute shall go back to the Stone Age, +for I will show thee how to make their metals useless. Only with thy +permission shall their steam-engines work for them, or their +telegraphs record their words; for I have found the Soul of the World, +the Living Principle of Material Things, and I will draw it out of the +fabric of Nature as I have done out of that block of steel. And I will +give it into thy hands, and the nations shall live or die according to +thy pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +"And you, Adelaide, daughter of our ancient line of kings, descendant +of the Grand Monarch, you shall join hands with my Victor after he has +flung off the livery of his servitude, and together you shall raise up +the throne of Saint Louis in the place where these usurpers and +Republican canaille have reigned over ruined France. The Prince of +Condé shall sit in the seat of his ancestors, and after him Adelaide +de Montpensier—and Victor, my son, shall stand beside her, ruler of +the world! +</p> + +<p> +"A miracle, and yet 'tis true! Possible, for I have made it possible. +It is only for France to believe me and spend her millions—millions +that will buy her the Empire of the Earth, and it is done—done as +easily as I worked that seeming miracle just now. I have risked +much—all—for I have hazarded even honour itself; but my faith is +justified, and I have won—and now, let me see how I stand before the +world for the present." +</p> + +<p> +He went and sat down before the only piece of ordinary furniture that +the laboratory contained, an old oak bureau, on which stood a little +shaded reading-lamp. He unlocked a drawer, and took out a little +wash-leather bag. He undid it and emptied it into his hand. There were +ten twenty-mark pieces—just ten pounds and a few pence in English +money. In his pocket he had perhaps twenty-five marks more. +</p> + +<p> +"It is not much," he whispered, as he looked at the gold in his hand; +"not much at the end of a life's work, as the world would call it. But +the world knows nothing of that!" he went on, half-turning his head +towards the machine on the table. "As the world takes wealth, this is +all that is left of fortune, lands, and savings. Everything is gone +but this, and that—ay, and more also. Yes, it was a hard fate that +forced me to do that. Still, science showed me how to alter the +figures so that not even the filthy Jew Weinthal himself could tell if +he had the draft in his hand. That he will never have; for it has a +month to run, and before that France will have made me rich. It was +not right, but the scoundrel only gave me half what the last farm was +worth, and I had to have more to finish my work. Yet, is it not +honourable even to sin in such a cause! Well, well, it is over now. I +have triumphed, and that atones for all; and so to bed and good +dreams, and to-morrow to Paris!" +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER I +</p> + + +<p> +It was the 27th of January, the Kaiser's birthday, and the +reception-rooms of the German Embassy, on the Nevski Prospekt, +overlooking the snow-covered quays and ice-bound waters of the Neva, +were filled with as brilliant a throng as could have been found +between the Ourals and the English Channel. +</p> + +<p> +It has been said that Petersburg in the winter season contains more +beautiful women than any other capital in Europe; and certainly the +fair guests of His Excellency the German Ambassador to the Court of +the White Czar went far towards proving the truth of the saying. The +dresses were as ideal as they were indescribable, and the jewels which +blazed round the softly moulded throats and on the fair white breasts, +and gleamed on dainty coiffures of every hue, from ebony black to the +purest flaxen, would have been bad to match even among the treasures +of Oriental princes. +</p> + +<p> +The men, too, were splendid in every variety of uniform, from the +gold-laced broadcloth of Diplomacy to the white and gold of the +Imperial Guard. Not a man was present whose left breast was not +glittering with stars and medals, and, in most cases, crossed with the +ribbon of some distinguished Order. +</p> + +<p> +The windless, frosty air outside was still vocal with the jingling of +the sleigh-bells as the vehicles sped swiftly and noiselessly up to +the open doors, for it was only a little after ten, and all the guests +had not yet arrived. Precisely at half-past a sleigh drawn by three +perfectly black Orloff horses swept into the courtyard, and a few +minutes later the major-domo passed through the open folding-doors and +said, in loud but well-trained tones: +</p> + +<p> +"His Highness the Prince de Condé, Duc de Montpensier! Mademoiselle la +Marquise de Montpensier!" +</p> + +<p> +At the same moment two lacqueys held aside the heavy curtains which +hung on the inside of the doorway, and the latest arrivals entered. +</p> + +<p> +The announcement of the once most noble names in Europe instantly +hushed the hum of conversation, and all eyes were turned towards the +doorway. +</p> + +<p> +They saw a tall, straight, well-set-up man of about fifty, with dark +moustache and imperial, and iron-grey hair still thick and strong. A +single glance at his features showed that they bore the indelible +stamp of the old Bourbon race. The high, somewhat narrow, forehead was +continued in a straight line to the end of the long thin nose. The +somewhat high cheek-bones, the delicate ears, the thin, sensitive +nostrils, and the strong, slightly protruding chin, might have +belonged to the Grande Monarque himself. +</p> + +<p> +He was in ordinary court dress, the broad red ribbon of the Order of +St Vladimir crossed his breast, the collar and jewel of the Golden +Fleece hung from his neck, and the stars of half-a-dozen other Orders +glittered on the left breast of his coat; but, though he bore the +greatest name in France, there was not a French order among them, for +Louis Xavier de Condé was a voluntary exile from the land over which +his ancestors had once ruled so splendidly and so ruinously. +</p> + +<p> +For three generations his branch of the great family had refused to +recognise any ruler in France, from the First Consul to the President +of the Third Republic. In his eyes they were one and all usurpers and +plebeian upstarts, who ruled only by the suffrages of an ignorant and +deluded mob. In short, his creed and the rule of his daily life were +hatred and contempt of the French democracy. On this subject he was +almost a fanatic, and in days soon to come this fanaticism of his was +destined to influence events, of which only three people in all that +crowded assembly were even dreaming. +</p> + +<p> +The girl at his side—for she was not yet twenty-one—might well have +been taken for a twentieth-century replica of Marie Antoinette, and to +say that, is to say that among all the beautiful and stately women in +that brilliant concourse, none were quite so beautiful and stately as +Adelaide de Condé, Marquise de Montpensier. +</p> + +<p> +Of all the hundred eyes which were turned upon this peerless daughter +of the line of St Louis, the most eager were those of a +splendidly-built young fellow of about twenty-eight, dressed in the +blue and white uniform of the Uhlan regiment of the German army. +Captain Victor Fargeau, military attaché to the German Embassy in +Petersburg, was perhaps the handsomest, and, at the same time, +manliest-looking man in all that company of soldiers and diplomats. At +least, so certainly thought Adelaide de Condé, as she saw his dark +blue eyes light up with a swift gleam of admiration, and the bronze on +his cheeks grow deeper as the quick blood flushed beneath it. +</p> + +<p> +It was a strange bond that united the daughter of the Bourbons with +the soldier and subject of the German Kaiser, and yet it must have +been a close one. For, after the first formal presentations were over, +her eyes sent a quick signal to his, which brought him instantly to +her side, and when their hands met the clasp was closer, and lasted +just a moment longer than mere acquaintance or even friendship would +have warranted. +</p> + +<p> +"Can you tell me, Captain, whether the gentleman who calls himself the +French Ambassador has honoured us with his presence to-night?" said +the Prince, as he shook hands with the young soldier. +</p> + +<p> +"No, Prince, he has not," he replied. "I hear that, almost at the last +moment, he sent an attaché with his regrets and excuses. Of course, as +you know, there is a little friction between the Governments just now, +and naturally, too, he would know that Your Highness and Mam'selle la +Marquise would honour us with your presence—so, on the whole, I +suppose he thought it more convenient to discover some important +diplomatic matter which would deprive him of the pleasure of joining +us." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," said the Marquise, looking up at him with a glance and a smile +that set his pulses jumping, "then perhaps Sophie Valdemar was right +when she told me this afternoon that His Excellency had really a good +excuse for not coming—an interview with Count Lansdorf, and +afterwards with no less a personage than the Little Father himself! +And, you know, Sophie knows everything." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah yes," said the Prince; "I had forgotten that. You told me of it. I +should not wonder if the subject of their conversation were not +unconnected with an increase of the French fleet in Chinese waters. +And then Morocco is——" +</p> + +<p> +"Chut, papa!" said the Marquise, in a low tone, "we must not talk +politics here. In Petersburg ceilings have eyes and walls have ears." +</p> + +<p> +"That is true," laughed Victor; "not even Embassies here are neutral +ground." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment a lacquey approached and bowed to Captain Fargeau. +</p> + +<p> +"Pardon me a moment," he said to his companions; "I am wanted for +something, and I can see a good many envious eyes looking this way. +Ah, there goes the music! They will be dancing presently, and there +will be many candidates for Mam'selle's hand. But you will keep me a +waltz or two, won't you? and may I hope also for supper?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Victor," she replied, with a bewildering smile, "have I not +already told you that you may hope for everything? Meanwhile, <i>au +revoir</i>! When you have done your business you will find us in the +salon." +</p> + +<p> +As he moved away, the curtains were again drawn aside, and the +major-domo announced: +</p> + +<p> +"His Excellency Count Valdemar! The Countess Sophie Valdemar!" +</p> + +<p> +The Count was a big, strongly-built man in diplomatic uniform. His +face was of the higher Russian type, and heavily bearded. His +daughter, the Countess Sophie, was a strange contrast to him, slight +and fair, with perfectly cut features, almost Grecian in their +regularity, golden-bronze hair, dark, straight eyebrows, and big, +wide-set, pansy-blue eyes. The only Russian trait that she possessed +was her mouth—full-lipped and sensuous, almost sensular, in fact; and +yet it was small enough, and the lips were so daintily shaped that it +added to, rather than detracted from her beauty. +</p> + +<p> +They were lips whose kisses had lured more than one bearer of a +well-known name to destruction. Some they had sent to the scaffold, +and others were still dreaming of their fatal sweetness in prison or +in hopeless exile; for Sophie Valdemar, daughter of Count Leo +Valdemar, Chief of the Third Section of the Ministry of the Interior, +had been trained up from girlhood by her father in every art of +intrigue, until even he was fully justified in calling her the most +skilful diplomatic detective in Europe. +</p> + +<p> +To her friends and acquaintances she was just a charming and +brilliantly-accomplished girl of nineteen, who had reigned as +undisputed Queen of Beauty in Moscow and Petersburg until Adelaide de +Condé had come from Vienna with her father, and, by some mysterious +means, unknown even to her, had been received into instant favour at +Court, and in the most exclusive circles in the most exclusive city in +the world. In fact, the enigma which it was the present object of her +life to solve was how this could be possible—granted the tacit +alliance between the Russian Empire and the French Republic, and the +Prince's openly expressed contempt for all modern things French and +Republican. There were, indeed, only three people in Europe who could +have solved that riddle, and she was not one of them. +</p> + +<p> +As she entered she saw Victor coming towards her. Instantly her eyes +brightened, and the faintest of flushes showed through the pallor of +her silken skin. He stopped for a moment to greet them, but his clasp +on her hand was nothing more than the formal pressure which friendship +expects, and she looked in vain for any gleam in his eyes answering +that in her own. +</p> + +<p> +When he had passed in towards the door she flung a swift glance round +the room, and as the soft pansy eyes rested on the exquisite shape and +lovely face of Adelaide de Condé they seemed to harden and blacken for +just the fraction of a second. The next moment she and her father were +greeting the Prince and the Marquise with a cordiality that was only +tempered by the almost indefinable reserve which the place and the +situation made indispensable. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Marquise," she said, in that soft, pure French which, outside +France, is only heard in Russia, "if possible, you have excelled +yourself to-night; you are a perfect vision——" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Sophie," laughed the Marquise, "what is the matter? You seem +as formal as you wish to be flattering; but really, if it is a matter +of compliments, it is not you, but I who should be paying them." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite a waste of time, my dear children," laughed the Count, gruffly. +"Imagine you two paying each other compliments when there are a couple +of hundred men here with thousands of them crowding up to their lips. +Still, Prince," he went on, "it is better so than rivalry, for rival +beauty has always worked more harm in the world than rival ambitions." +</p> + +<p> +"There can be no question of rivalry, my dear Count," replied the +Prince. "Why should the Evening envy the Morning, or the Lily be +jealous of the Rose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Put like a Frenchman and a statesman, Prince: that was said as only +one of the old regime could say it," said Sophie, with a little +backward movement of her head. "How is it that the men of this +generation never say things like that—or, if they try to, bungle over +it." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps they are too busy to revive the lost art of politeness," +laughed Adelaide. "But come, papa; they are playing a lovely waltz, +and I am dying for a dance, and so is Sophie, I daresay." +</p> + +<p> +"And, by their looks, many of these young men are dying of the same +complaint; so suppose we go into the salon," said the Prince, offering +his arm to Sophie. +</p> + +<p> +It was nearly half-an-hour before Victor found Adelaide disengaged in +the ball-room. The first waltz that she had saved for him was just +beginning, and, as he slipped his arm round her waist, he whispered +under cover of the music: +</p> + +<p> +"If you please, we will just take a couple of turns, and then you will +give me a few precious minutes of your company in the winter garden." +</p> + +<p> +She glanced up swiftly at him with a look of keen inquiry, and +whispered in reply: +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, my Victor, if you wish it; especially as it is getting a +little warm here—and no doubt you have something more interesting for +me than dancing." +</p> + +<p> +"I think you will find it so," he said, as they glided away into the +shining, smoothly-swirling throng which filled the great salon. +</p> + +<p> +After two or three turns they stopped at the curtained entrance of the +vast conservatory, whose tropical trees and flowers and warm scented +air formed a delicious contrast to the cold, black, Russian winter's +night. Almost at the same moment Sophie Valdemar said to her partner, +a smart young officer of the Imperial Guard: +</p> + +<p> +"I think that will do for the present, if you don't mind; I don't feel +very vigorous to-night, somehow: suppose you find me a seat in the +garden, and then go and tell one of the men to bring me an ice." +</p> + +<p> +They stopped just as Victor and Adelaide passed through the curtains. +They followed a couple of yards behind them, and Sophie quickened her +step a little, her teeth came together with a little snap, and her +eyes darkened again as she saw Adelaide look up at her companion and +heard her say softly: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, what is your news—for I am sure you have some?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I have," he replied; "and the greatest of good news; you know +from whom?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," said Adelaide, with a little catch in her voice, "from him; and +has he——" +</p> + +<p> +"Succeeded? Yes; and to the fullest of his expectations. He goes to +Paris to-morrow, and then——" +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the sentence was lost to Sophie as they turned away into +the garden. +</p> + +<p> +Her companion found her a seat under a tree-fern, and left her leaning +back in her long-cushioned chair of Russian wicker, looking across the +winter garden, through the palms and ferns, at Victor and Adelaide, as +they moved along, obviously looking for a secluded corner. During +those few moments her whole nature had, for the time being, completely +changed. The jealous, passionate woman had vanished, and in her place +remained the cold, clear-headed, highly-trained intriguer, with +incarnate and unemotional intellect, thinking swiftly and logically, +trying to find some meaning in the words that she had just heard, +words which, if she had only known their import, she would have found +pregnant with the fate of Europe. +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder who has succeeded beyond his best expectations? Someone +closely connected with both of them, of course! And Paris—why should +his success take him to Paris? Victor Fargeau, Alsatian though he is, +is one of the most brilliant of the younger generation of German +officers, a favourite of the Emperor, a member of the Staff, and +attaché here in Petersburg. And she, my dear friend and enemy, is a +Bourbon, an aristocrat of the first water, the daughter of an open +enemy of our very good and convenient ally the French Republic. +Paris—he who has succeeded is going to Paris. Well, I would give a +good deal to know who he is and why he is going to Paris." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER II +</p> + + +<p> +"And so, Monsieur le Ministre, I am to take that as your final word? I +have given you every proof that I can—saving the impossible—the +bringing of my apparatus from Strassburg to Paris, which, of course, +you know is an impossibility, since it would have to cross the +frontier, which was once a French high road. I have shown you the +facts, the figures, the drawings—everything. Can you not see that I +am honest, that I love my country, from which I have been torn away—I +who come from a family that has lived in Alsace since it was first +French territory—I who am a Frenchman through five generations—I who +have sold my son to the Prussians—I who have masqueraded for years in +the Prussian University of Strassburg, once the Queen of the Rhine +Province—I who have discovered a secret which has lain buried since +the days of the great Faraday—I who have discovered, or I should say +re-discovered, after him the true theory, and, what is more, the +actual working of the magnetic tides which flow north and south +through the two hemispheres to the pole—I who can give you, Monsieur +le Ministre, and through you France, the control of those tides, so +that you may make them ebb and flow as the tides of the sea +do—prosperity with the flow, adversity with the ebb, that is what it +comes to—ah, it is incredible! +</p> + +<p> +"Once more, not as a scientist, not as an inventor, but only as a +loyal son of France, let me implore you, Monsieur le Ministre, not to +regard what I have told you as the dream of an enthusiast who has only +dreamt and not done." +</p> + +<p> +"If you have done as much as you say, Monsieur," replied the French +Minister of War, leaning back in his chair and twisting up the left +point of his moustache as he looked coldly and incredulously across +his desk at Doctor Emil Fargeau, late Professor of Physical Science at +the University of Strassburg, "how comes it that you have not been +able to bring actual, tangible proofs to me here in Paris? Why, for +instance, could you not have performed the miracle that you have just +been telling me about in one of our laboratories in Paris? If you had +done that—well, we might have investigated the miracle, and, after +investigation, might have some conviction—a conviction, if you will +pardon me saying so, which might have enabled us to overcome the very +natural prejudice that the Government of the Republic may be expected +to have against a man of ancient family, whose ancestors had been +French subjects for, as you say, five generations, but who has become +himself a German subject, and has permitted his son, his only son, to +enter the Prussian service, and has endured the shame of seeing him +rise year after year, rank upon rank, in the favour of the man who is +destined to be to Germany what the Great Napoleon was to France. +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, I cannot believe you; I can understand what you have told me +about what you call your invention, but understanding without +conviction is like hunger without a good dinner. I am not satisfied. +Bring your apparatus here; let me see it work. Convince me that you +can do what you say, and all that you ask for is yours; but without +conviction I can guarantee you nothing. +</p> + +<p> +"With every consideration that is due to the position that you have +occupied in what may be called the enemy's country, the stolen +provinces, I must take leave to say that very few days pass without an +interview of this kind. I assure you, my dear sir, that saviours of +our country and regainers of the Lost Provinces are to be counted by +hundreds, but we have not yet found one whose scheme is capable of +sustaining a practical test." +</p> + +<p> +"But, Monsieur le Ministre, I can assure you with equal faith that +this is not a scheme, a theory, a something in the air. On the +contrary, it is a theory reduced to fact—solid fact; what I have said +to you I can do before you. I can convince you——" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly, my dear sir, exactly," said the Minister; "you will not +think me discourteous if I say that within the last six months I have +had visits from inventors of air-ships who could create aerial navies +which would assume the dominion of the air, annihilate armies and +fleets, and make fortifications useless because impotent. Others have +come to me with plans which, if the theory could only have been +translated into practice, would have given us a submarine navy which +in six months would have sunk every cruiser and battleship on the +ocean. In fact, in one of the drawers of this very bureau I have a +most exactly detailed scheme for diverting the Gulf Stream through the +much-lamented Panama Canal into the Pacific, and so reducing the +British Islands, the home of our ancient enemies, to the conditions—I +mean, of course, the climatic conditions, of Labrador. That is to say, +that nine months in the year London, Southampton, Plymouth, Liverpool, +Glasgow, to say nothing of the ports on the east and the south, would +be frozen up. The British Navy—that curse of the world—could not +operate; Britain's shipping trade would be paralysed, and after that +her industries. They are free-traders, and so they don't believe it; +but it would be if it could be done. But it could not be done, +Monsieur; and that is the objection which I have to this most +splendidly promising scheme of yours." +</p> + +<p> +"But, Monsieur le Ministre, I assure that it is only a question +of—well, I will say a few thousand francs to convince you that I am +not one of those scientific adventurers who have perhaps imposed on +the credulity of the Government before. What I have described to you +is the truth—the truth as I have wrought it by my own labour, as I +have seen it with my own eyes, as I have finished it with my own +hand." +</p> + +<p> +"Tres bien, Monsieur! Then all you have to do is, as I said before, to +bring your apparatus here, perform the same experiment before a +committee of experts, and if you break the piece of steel as you would +a piece of glass—voila, c'est fini! We are convinced, and what you +ask for will be granted." +</p> + +<p> +"But, Monsieur le Ministre, nothing could be fairer than that; only +you have not remembered what I told you during our last interview. I +have spent hundreds of thousands of francs to bring this idea of mine +to perfection. I have spent every centime——" +</p> + +<p> +"Pfennige I think you should call them, Professor," interrupted the +Minister, with a perceptible sneer. "I am afraid you are forgetting +your new nationality; and, since you are a German subject, living in +German territory, as it now is, it is permissible for me to ask why +this wonderful invention of yours was not offered first to +Germany—that is to say, if it has not already been offered and +refused." +</p> + +<p> +As the Minister of War spoke these few momentous words, accentuating +them with his pen on the blotting-pad in front of him, Doctor Fargeau +arose from his seat on the other side of the desk, and said, in a +voice which would have been stronger had it not been broken by an +uncontrollable emotion: +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur le Ministre, you have spoken, and, officially, the matter is +finished. Through you I have offered France the Empire of the World. +Through you France has refused it. You ask me to bring my apparatus +here to Paris, to prove that it is a question of practice, not of +theory. I cannot do it, and why?—because, as I told you, I have spent +every centime, or pfennige, if you like, in making this thing +possible. +</p> + +<p> +"Everything is gone: the farms and vineyards that have been ours since +the days of St Louis are mortgaged. We are homeless. I have no home to +go back to. I have borrowed more than I can pay; I trusted everything +to you, to the intelligence and patriotism of France. I have not even +enough money to take me back to the home that I have ruined for the +sake of France and her lost provinces. It was impossible to think that +you would disbelieve me. A thousand francs, Monsieur le Ministre, +would be enough—enough to save me from ruin, and to make France the +mistress of the world. Even out of your own pocket, it would not be +very much. Think, I implore you, of all that I have suffered and +sacrificed; of all the hours that I have spent in making this great +ideal a reality——" +</p> + +<p> +"And which, if you will excuse me saying so, monsieur," replied the +Minister, rising rather sharply from his seat, "has yet to be proved +to our satisfaction, to be a concrete reality instead of a dream—the +dream of an enthusiast who does not even possess the credit of having +remained a Frenchman. If, indeed, your personal necessities are so +pressing, and a fifty-franc note would be of any use to you—well, +seeing that you were once a Frenchman——" +</p> + +<p> +As he said this the Minister took his pocket-book out, and, as he did +so, Doctor Fargeau sprang from his seat, and said, in quick, husky +tones: +</p> + +<p> +"Mais, non, Monsieur le Ministre! I came here not to ask for charity, +but to give France the dominion of the world. Those whom she has +chosen as her advisers have treated me either as a lunatic or a quack. +Very well, let it be so. Through you I have offered to France a +priceless gift; you have refused it for the sake of a paltry thousand +francs or so. Very well, you will see the end of this, though I shall +not. I have devoted my life to this ideal. I have dreamt the dream of +France the Mistress of the World, as she was in the days of la Grande +Monarque. I have found the means of realising the ideal. You and those +who with you rule the destinies of France have refused to accept my +statements as true. On your heads be it, as the Moslems say. I have +done. If this dream of mine should ever be heard of again, if it +should ever be realised, France may some day learn how much she has +lost through her official incredulity." +</p> + +<p> +Emil Fargeau left the Minister of War a broken man—broken in mind and +heart as well as in means. In youth it is easy, in early manhood it is +possible, to survive the sudden destruction of a life's ideal; but +when the threescore years have been counted, and the dream and the +labours of half a lifetime are suddenly brought to nought, it is +another matter. It is ruin—utter and hopeless; and so it was with +Emil Fargeau. +</p> + +<p> +He had risked everything on what he had honestly believed to be the +certainty of his marvellous discovery being taken up and developed by +the French Government. In fact, he was so certain of it, that, before +leaving his laboratory at Strassburg, he had taken the precaution to +destroy the essential parts of his accumulator, lest, during his +absence, his sanctum might be invaded and some one stumble by accident +on his discovery. In a word, he had staked everything and lost +everything. To go back was impossible. Everything he had was sold or +mortgaged. He had been kept by official delays more than a fortnight +in Paris, and he had barely a hundred francs left, and even of this +more than half would be necessary to pay his modest hotel bill for the +week. +</p> + +<p> +And then, worse than all, there was that fatal indiscretion into which +he had permitted his enthusiasm to betray him—an indiscretion which +placed him absolutely at the mercy of a German Jew money-lender, who, +under the rigid laws of Germany, could send him to penal servitude for +the rest of his life. +</p> + +<p> +No, there was no help for it; there was only one way out of the +terrible impasse into which his enthusiasm, and that moral weakness +which is so often associated with great intellectual power, had led +him, and that way he took. +</p> + +<p> +He went back to his hotel, and spent about an hour in writing letters. +One of these was directed to Captain Victor Fargeau, German Embassy, +Petersburg. Another was directed to Reuss Weinthal, Judenstrasse, +Strassburg. The third, without date or signature, he placed in a +little air-tight tin case, with the complete specifications of his +discovery. +</p> + +<p> +He took off his coat and waistcoat, and fastened this to his body so +that it just came in the small of his back. Then, when he had dressed +himself and put on a light overcoat, he took a small handbag, for +appearance's sake, walked to the Nord Station, and took a second-class +ticket to Southampton, <i>via</i> le Havre. +</p> + +<p> +At midnight the steamer was in mid-channel, and Emil Fargeau was +taking his last look on sea and sky from the fore-deck. For a moment +he looked back eastward over the dark waters towards the land of his +ruined hopes, and murmured brokenly: +</p> + +<p> +"My beautiful France, I have offered you the Empire of the World, but +the dolts and idiots you have chosen to govern you have refused it. +'Tant pis pour toi'! Now I will give the secret to the Fates—to +reveal it or to keep it hidden for ever, as they please. For me it is +the end!" +</p> + +<p> +As the last words left his lips he took a rapid glance round the +deserted deck, and slipped over the rail into the creaming water that +was swirling past the vessel's side. In another moment one of the +whirling screws had caught him and smashed him out of human shape, and +what was left of him, with the little tin box containing the secrets +of a world-empire lashed to it, went floating away in the broad wake +that the steamer left behind it. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER III +</p> + + +<p> +It was a lovely May morning on the English Channel, and the steam +yacht <i>Nadine</i> was travelling under easy steam at about eight +knots an hour midway between Guernsey and Southampton. Her owner, +Ernest Shafto Hardress, Viscount Branston, eldest son of the Earl of +Orrel, was taking his early coffee on the bridge with his college chum +and guest, Frank Lamson, M.A. of Cambridge, and Doctor of Science of +London, the youngest man save one who had won the gold medal in the +examination for that distinguished degree. In fact, he was only +thirty-two, and the medal had already been in his possession nearly a +year. +</p> + +<p> +The morning was so exquisitely mild, that sea and sky looked rather as +though they were in the Mediterranean instead of the Channel. They +were sitting in their pyjamas, with their bare feet in grass slippers. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I suppose it's time to go below and shave and dress; Miss +Chrysie and Lady Olive will be up soon, and we'll have to make +ourselves presentable," said Lamson, getting out of his deck-chair and +throwing the end of his cigarette overboard. "Hello, what's that? +Here, Hardress, get up! There's a body there in the water, horribly +mangled." +</p> + +<p> +"What!" exclaimed Hardress, springing from his seat and going to the +end of the bridge where Lamson was standing. "So it is! Poor chap, +what can have made such a mess of him as that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fallen overboard from a steamer, I should say, and got mopped by the +screw," said Lamson, in his cold, bloodless voice. "It's a way screws +have, you know, especially twin screws." +</p> + +<p> +"That's just like you, Lamson," said Hardress; "you talk about the +poor chap just as if he was an empty barrel. Still, he's been a man +once, and it's only fair that he should have Christian burial, +anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +As he said this he caught the handle of the engine telegraph and +pulled it over. "Stop." The yacht slowed down immediately, and he went +on: +</p> + +<p> +"Lamson, you might go and send the stewardess to tell the ladies not +to get up for half-an-hour or so. This isn't exactly the sort of job a +woman wants to see. Mr Jackson, will you kindly lower away the +quarter-boat?" +</p> + +<p> +The young Viscount was right—for the object that was hauled in from +the sea could hardly even be called a human corpse, so frightfully was +it mangled out of all mortal shape. When it was brought on board, a +careful search was made through the tattered remnants of clothing that +were still attached to it for some marks of identification; but +nothing was found. A couple of pockets, one in the waistcoat and one +in the trousers which were left intact, contained nothing. There was +no mark on what was left of the linen. The upper half of the head was +gone, and so there was no use in photographing the remains. In short, +the ghastly spectacle was the only revelation of a secret of the sea +which might never be further revealed. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid it's no good," said Lamson; "there's nothing that anybody +could recognise the poor chap by. In fact, it looks to me like a case +of deliberate suicide by someone who didn't want to be identified. +He's evidently fallen overboard from a steamer, and people don't do +that by accident with empty pockets. For instance, that inside coat +pocket was made to button, and would probably have had a pocket-book +and tickets in it. From what's left of them I should say the clothes +were French, and, judging by the locality, I should say he might have +been a French passenger from le Havre—perhaps to Southampton on one +of the South-Western boats. Hello, what's this? Perhaps this is a clue +to the mystery." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke he put his hand on the back of the body, where the sodden +clothes outlined an oblong shape, a few moments after it had been +turned over. +</p> + +<p> +"It feels like a box, or something of that sort. At any rate, we'd +better see what it is," he went on, taking a sheath-knife from one of +the sailors and ripping the cloth open. "Tied to the body. By Jove! +Why, this is mystery on mystery! Nothing in his pockets, no mark on +his linen or clothes, and this thing tied to his body! Well, I suppose +we may as well see what there is in it; and as you're the owner of the +yacht and Deputy-Lieutenant of your county, I suppose I'd better hand +it over to you." +</p> + +<p> +As he said this he cut the cords and handed the tin box to Viscount +Branston, who said as he took it: +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, we shall have to open it, and we'll do it together after +breakfast. Now, Mr Jackson, oblige me by having the body sewn up in a +bit of canvas. I don't want the ladies to see it in that horrible +state. And you may as well put on full speed; we don't want it on +board any longer than we can help. Now, Lamson, come along and dress." +</p> + +<p> +When they came out of their state-rooms they found the ladies already +on deck, taking an ante-prandial stroll arm-in-arm. Lady Olive was a +tall, perfectly-proportioned young woman of about twenty-five, not +exactly pretty, but with a dark, strong, aristocratic face, which +showed breeding in every line, and which was lighted up and relieved +most pleasantly by a pair of soft, and yet brilliant, Irish eyes. When +her features were in repose, some people would have called her +handsome; when she smiled, others would have called her, not pretty, +but charming—and they would have been about right. +</p> + +<p> +Her companion, Miss Chrysie Vandel, daughter of Clifford K. Vandel, +President of the American Electrical Storage Trust of Buffalo, N.Y., +was an absolute contrast to her. She was about an inch shorter, +exquisitely fair, and yet possessed of a pair of deep blue eyes, which +in some lights looked almost black. Her brows were several shades +darker than her hair, which was golden in the sun and brown in the +shade. She was not what a connoisseur would call beautiful, for her +features were just a trifle irregular, and her mouth was just ever so +little too large. Still, taken as a whole, her face had that +distracting and indescribable piquancy which seems to be the peculiar +property of the well-bred American girl at her best. +</p> + +<p> +Both were dressed in grey serge, short-skirted yachting suits, and +each had a white duck yachting cap pinned to her hair. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Shafto," said Lady Olive, as the two men took their caps off, +"and what is all this mystery about? Chrysie and I have been +speculating all sorts of things." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, yes, Lord Branston," chimed in Miss Chrysie. "I got out of my +bath and fixed myself double quick, half expecting to come on deck and +find ourselves held up by a French torpedo-boat, after all that talk +we heard in Jersey about the trouble between you and France and Russia +over China." +</p> + +<p> +"I am happy to say it is not quite so serious as that, Miss Vandel," +said Hardress, "and I hope we shall be able to get you safe to +Southampton before the war starts. The fact is, about an hour ago, +while Lamson and I were having our coffee on the bridge, he saw—well, +the body of a man, terribly mangled, floating in the water. So we +stopped to pick it up. It was frightfully mutilated, and, of course, +it was nothing for eyes like yours to look upon, so we've had it sewn +up in canvas, and we're taking it to Southampton to give it a decent +burial." +</p> + +<p> +"Now, I call that real good of you, Viscount. I guess you British have +finer feelings in that way than we have. I don't believe Poppa would +have stopped his yacht if he'd struck a whole burying lot afloat." +</p> + +<p> +"Well," laughed Hardress; "that is what a busy man like your father +might be expected to do. In fact, I suppose most Englishmen would have +done so; but, as it happens, in this case virtue was rewarded—for we +have discovered what may be a mystery." +</p> + +<p> +"A mystery! Oh, do say, Viscount. That's just too lovely for words—a +yacht, dead body at sea, and a mystery——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Lamson; "and in a tin box, attached firmly by cords to +corpse aforesaid." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't, Mr Lamson; please don't," interrupted Lady Olive, somewhat +severely. Then she went on, with a little shiver, "I hope, Shafto, you +will get us to Southampton as quickly as you can. I don't want to be +shipmates any longer than I can help with—with—ah—remains. It isn't +lucky at sea, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Olive," replied her brother, "about the first thing I thought +of was that very idea; that is why we are now steaming full +speed—twenty knots instead of eight—so that you and Miss Vandel may +be relieved of this disquieting presence on board as soon as possible. +And now, by way of passing the inconvenient hours that our new +passenger will be with us, suppose we go to breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +"A nice appetising sort of remark that, I must say, Viscount," said +Miss Chrysie; "still I suppose we may as well go. This morning air at +sea does make living people feel alive; I guess that's why I'm so +hungry." +</p> + +<p> +"And after breakfast, Shafto," said Lady Olive, "I presume that you +will tell us all about the mystery of the tin box." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Olive," replied her brother, "it may be anything or nothing; +and, as Lamson found it and gave it to me, instead of having it buried +with the unknown deceased, I've agreed with him that we shall go +through the contents, whatever they are, together; and, of course, if +there's anything really interesting in them, then we shall tell you +all about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Now, that's real kind," said Miss Chrysie. "I guess if we don't have +quite an interesting conversation over lunch it'll be the fault of our +new passenger." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Chrysie," said Lady Olive, frigidly, "how can you! Really, +you remind me rather strongly of what Kipling says about the +Americans." +</p> + +<p> +"And what might that be, Lady Olive?" she replied, looking up, with +the flicker of a smile round her lips, and the twinkle of a challenge +in her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think I remember the exact words just now, but I've got the +'Seven Seas' downstairs," replied Lady Olive; "but I think it's +something about the cynic devil in his blood that bids him mock his +hurrying soul." +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks!" replied Miss Chrysie, with a toss of her shapely head, and +an unmistakable sniff; "I think I've read that poem, too. Isn't there +a verse in it that runs something this way?— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"'Inopportune, shrill-accented,</p> +<p class="i2">The acrid Asiatic mirth</p> +<p>That leaves him careless 'mid his dead,</p> +<p class="i2">The scandal of the elder earth.'"</p></div></div> + +<p> +She repeated the lines with such an exquisite exaggeration of the +"shrill accent" that the two men burst out laughing, and Lady Olive +first flushed up to her brows, and then also broke into a saving fit +of laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a distinct score for Miss Vandel, Olive," said Hardress. "If +you knew the whole poem a bit better, I don't think you'd have made +that last remark of yours. But, of course, Miss Vandel will be +generous and allow you to take the only way there is out of the +difficulty—the way to breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, certainly," said Miss Chrysie, who was trying hard not to laugh +at her little triumph. "Kipling's good, but breakfast's better, in an +air like this." +</p> + +<p> +And so, as she would have put it, they "let it go at that," and went +down into the saloon to breakfast. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER IV +</p> + + +<p> +During breakfast it had been agreed that Lamson, as the discoverer of +the mysterious tin box, should open it by himself, and, after +examining its contents, report on them to Hardress. +</p> + +<p> +This was a speculative suggestion, made by Lady Olive, seconded by +Miss Chrysie, and so, perforce, agreed to. And thus it came about that +all the essentials of Doctor Emil Fargeau's great discovery fell into +the hands of a man who, by virtue of imagination, intellect, and +scientific training, was the one man in Europe, perhaps in the world, +who could either use it or abuse it to the best or worst advantage. +</p> + +<p> +He took the box into his cabin, and opened it as carelessly as though +it might have contained a few old love letters, or the story of some +obsolete Anarchist conspiracy. But as soon as he had read the first +page of the closely-written manuscript, he got up from his chair and +locked the cabin door. As he went back to his seat, he caught a +glimpse of his face in the mirror. It looked almost strange to him; so +he stopped and looked at it again. +</p> + +<p> +"Good Lord!" he muttered, "is that me?" And then he said aloud: "You +infernal scoundrel!" +</p> + +<p> +He didn't go back to the little table on which the manuscript was +lying. He looked at the pages as a man might look at a cheque that he +has just forged. His hand, which had never trembled before, trembled +as he took his cigar-case out of his pocket; and as he lit the cigar +he could hardly hold the match steadily. He dropped full length on the +sofa, looked sideways at the fatal sheets of paper on the table, blew +a long stream of smoke up towards the port-hole, and began to talk +with his own soul. +</p> + +<p> +"The Empire of the World. I've read enough to see that it comes to +that. Yes, Faraday was right; and so was this poor wretch that we +fished out of the water this morning. A Frenchman, an Alsatian, who +has made the biggest discovery that ever was made, who has practically +achieved a miracle, offers the result to his country and gets refused, +and then, for some reason or other, commits it and his body to the +deep! +</p> + +<p> +"Curious, very curious, from anything like a scientific point of view. +What an infinite mercy it is for us, who have reason to believe that +we possess a little brains, that the majority of men are fools, and +that the official person is usually a bigger fool than the man in the +street. Now, suppose our unknown and deceased genius had put even that +first page that I have read before our good friend Clifford K. Vandel +instead of, I suppose, the French Minister of War. Jump—why, he'd +have got into it with both feet, as they say in the States. A man +worth millions. Oh, millions be hanged! How many millions could buy +that? Of course, that's one way of looking at it—but Frank Lamson, as +I said before, you're in the way of becoming an infernal scoundrel. +Perhaps I'd better interrupt this little monologue, and read the rest +of what our deceased genius has to say." +</p> + +<p> +He reached out and took the papers off the table, and for an hour +there was silence in the cabin. He read the sheets over and over +again, making rapid mental calculations all the time. Then, after a +long look at the open port-hole over the sofa, he folded the sheets +up, and stuffed them into the hip-pocket of his trousers. Then he got +up, and looked at himself in the glass again. +</p> + +<p> +"You scoundrel!" he whispered at the ghastly image of himself. "You +thief—you utter sweep—who would accept the hospitality of an old +college chum, and then, when the possibility of illimitable millions, +when the empire of the earth, the means of enslaving the whole human +race, the absolute control of every civilised Power on earth, gets +fished up by accident out of the waters of the English Channel, you +think about robbing him of it. You are not fit to live, much less +to——" +</p> + +<p> +He flung himself down on the sofa again, with his hands clasped hard +over his brow, and there he remained, without moving a limb, until he +was called out of his waking dream by a rap on the cabin door and the +sound of Hardress's voice saying: +</p> + +<p> +"Come now, Lamson, buck up! Are you going to be all the morning +getting through that tin box? The women folk are on the point of +mutiny with curiosity to know what there is in it. Hurry up!" And +then, with a sudden drop in the tone, "You're not ill, old man, are +you?" +</p> + +<p> +"All right, Hardress," he replied, in a voice which, by a supreme +effort of will, he managed to keep steady. "I have had a bit of a +shock—heart, I think. I wish you'd tell Evans to bring me a +brandy-and-soda, will you?" +</p> + +<p> +As he said this, he unlocked the cabin door, and as his host saw him +he exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear fellow, you do look bad; sit down, and I'll get you the +B.-and-S. myself in a moment." +</p> + +<p> +He disappeared, and Lamson sat down again on the sofa. Again he looked +up at the open port-hole. There were only a few moments left him now +to decide what might really be the fate of the human race. No man had +ever been face to face with such a tremendous responsibility before. +No mortal had ever passed through such a terrible temptation as he had +done during the last hour. Should he fling the priceless papers, the +warrant for the mastery of the world, into the sea and be done with +it? Should he keep them in his pocket and make untold millions out of +the power that they placed in his hands? After all, he had discovered +this priceless treasure-trove. But for him it would have been buried +with the hideous relics of humanity lying in the forward hold sewn up +in a canvas sack. Was it not his by right? Did any human law compel +him to share it with anyone? +</p> + +<p> +But, again, ought he or anyone else to be entrusted with such a +tremendous power for good or evil as this?—the power, literally, to +reduce mankind to slavery. He was a man of average morals himself; he +had lived a clean, hard, studious life, and no man could say that he +had done him a mean action. Hardress, too, was well up to the high +standard of the British aristocracy—but his partner had married an +American girl—the daughter of a man who had made millions out of +railway developments after the Civil War. He was either in love or +falling in love with the daughter of another American millionaire who +had made his millions out of electrical storage. The first thing +Hardress would do would be to take the papers over to America and put +them before him. Clifford Vandel would grasp their gigantic +possibilities instantly, a trust, commanding millions of capital, +would be formed, and the world would become an American dependency. +</p> + +<p> +"Here you are, old man," said Hardress, coming into the cabin with a +long glass in his hand, "I've made it pretty stiff, because you look +as if you wanted it. Why, what's the matter?" +</p> + +<p> +Lamson took the glass, and as he put it to his lips Hardress saw his +hand tremble and heard the glass rattle against his teeth. He drained +it in two gulps, put it down on the table beside the sofa, threw +himself back on the cushions at the end, looked once more at the open +port-hole with the fate of a world on his soul, and said in a shaking +voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Lock the door, Hardress, and sit down. I've something to say to you." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, my dear chap, what's up? You look positively ghastly," said the +Viscount, as he closed the door and locked it. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't suppose you'd look much better if you'd spent an hour in +hell, as I have." +</p> + +<p> +"An hour in—Oh, come now, old fellow," Hardress interrupted, with a +look which Lamson instantly interpreted as a query as to his sanity. +"Don't you think you'd better turn in for a bit? You really do look +ill; just as if something had shaken you up very badly. Is it anything +to do with that infernal tin box?" he went on, pointing to it on the +table. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Lamson, pulling himself together with a struggle, and +sitting up on the sofa. "I wish to heaven I hadn't got up just at that +moment on the bridge and we'd left our unknown deceased to the mercy +of the waves. But, even then, somebody else might have discovered it." +</p> + +<p> +"Discovered what? The corpse?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; and——Look here, Hardress, I've been horribly tempted—tempted, +perhaps, as no other man ever was; but my father was a gentleman, and +I'll do the straight thing. How would you like to be master of the +world?" +</p> + +<p> +"Master of the—Oh, look here, Lamson, this won't do at all, you know. +You're as pale as a ghost; your eyes are burning, and your hands are +shaking. You must have got a touch of fever, or something of that +sort. Take a dose of quinine and turn in. We'll be at Southampton in +two or three hours, and then you can see a doctor." +</p> + +<p> +Lamson laughed. It was a laugh that wouldn't have done anybody much +good to hear, and Hardress shivered a little as he heard it. +</p> + +<p> +"I see what you mean. You think I'm a bit off my head. To tell you the +truth, I almost wish I were, or that this infernal thing were only a +dream—nightmare, I should say." +</p> + +<p> +"What thing?" +</p> + +<p> +"This," replied Lamson, putting his hand into his hip-pocket and +pulling out some crumpled sheets of paper. "You thought I was mad when +I asked you if you'd like to be master of the world. When you've read +that you'll see that you can be. They're what I found in that tin box. +There's no name or address or any mark of identification on them, but +they were written by a man, a Frenchman, who has discovered a means, +as one might say, of soaking up all the electricity of the earth in +one huge storage system, and then doling it out to the peoples of the +earth like gas or water or electric light." +</p> + +<p> +"Great Scott, what a gorgeous idea!" exclaimed Hardress, jumping from +his seat and holding out his hand for the papers. "Why do you want to +get ill over a thing like that, man? Don't you see there are millions +in it if it's true, and of course you'll come in on the ground-floor? +Great Caesar's ghost! It'll be the very thing for old Vandel. The +Morgan Steel Trust won't be in it with this." +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you'd say that," said Lamson. "That's the American blood +talking in you. Now, I'll tell you candidly that I've only given you +those papers from a sense of honour and friendship. I admit that my +first impulse was to throw them out of the port-hole; and my second," +he went on, after a little pause, "was to keep them to myself, and +tell you some lie about the box being empty." +</p> + +<p> +"You might have done the first, old man, but you couldn't have done +the second," replied Hardress, putting the papers into his hand. +"There, take them back; I don't suppose I should understand them. +Anyhow, you can make a better use of them than I can; and if there's +anything in it we'll share alike. In fact, after all, the whole thing +really belongs to you, for if you hadn't discovered the body, it might +have drifted around till it went down to feed the fishes. Really, I +don't see what there is to be so upset about in it." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear fellow, hasn't it struck you yet," said Lamson, "that if this +discovery works out all right, as I'm certain it will, it will really +mean, as I said just now, the mastery of the world? For instance, to +put the thing into a nut-shell: Here we are, on this seven-hundred-ton +yacht of yours, steaming at a speed of eighteen or twenty knots, +engines working smoothly, and so on. Now, if this man's scheme were +put into practice, the <i>Nadine</i> would be, as I might say, for +want of a better word, electrolised. That is to say, every atom of +metal in her would lose its tone; the boilers would burst, the engines +fly to pieces, and even the hull would splinter up into a thousand +fragments, just as though she were made of glass, and she got hit with +a hundred sledge-hammers at the same minute." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that really so, Lamson? Are you quite serious?" said Hardress, +gravely, for he was just beginning to grasp the enormous possibilities +of the discovery. "Do you really mean to say that that is actually +feasible? Of course, I know what a swell you are at these subjects, +and I don't suppose for a moment that you would say it if you didn't +believe it; but are you quite sure that your—well, that this +scientific imagination that I've heard you talk about hasn't run away +with you?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Hardress," replied Lamson, getting up from the couch, "there +is no imagination whatever about this. I can assure you it is just a +matter of hard facts and figures. Whoever that poor fellow was that +we're going to bury at Southampton, it's quite certain that the world +has lost one of its most brilliant physical scholars. The man who +discovered this scheme and worked it out in these papers was a second +Newton or Faraday. In short, I can tell you in all seriousness—I will +pledge my reputation, such as it is—that, granted the necessary +capital, which would certainly run to a million or two, I could work +this scheme out myself. I could construct works that would mop up the +electricity out of the earth as a sponge takes water. I could change +climates as I pleased. I could hurl my thunders where I chose like a +very Jove. I could make myself arbiter of life and death on earth. In +fact, I could be everything that a mortal ought not to be." +</p> + +<p> +"There; I can't say that I quite agree with you," said Hardress. +"Personally, I can't see why a man shouldn't be all that he can be, +and there's no reason why you and I and the governor and Chrysie's dad +shouldn't syndicate this business and run the earth. You say it's +possible. That's good enough for me. We'll find the millions and +you'll find the brains, so we'll consider that settled. Fancy picking +a thing like that up out of the sea on a pleasure cruise! Talk about +luck! Well, come along; let's go and break it as gently as we can to +the girls." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER V +</p> + + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i> had been lying for a fortnight in Southampton Water, +and all that was mortal of the man who might have been master of the +world was resting in a nameless grave in the cemetery. +</p> + +<p> +In the oak-panelled dining-room of Orrel Court, an old rambling +mansion, dating partly from Reformation times, and standing on the +lower slopes of the South Downs overlooking the distant Solent, there +was a little dinner-party in the process of eating, drinking, and +chatting, which was a good deal more pregnant with the fate of nations +than many a Cabinet meeting. +</p> + +<p> +At the head of the long, massive table sat a man of a little over +fifty, tall and rather squarely built, and still erect. A man, still +handsome and capable of attracting the attention and even the +admiration of many fair ladies, who would have been only too glad to +occupy the place at the other end of the table which was now occupied +by the owner of the <i>Nadine</i>, for Harry Shafto Hardress, eighth +Earl of Orrel, came of one of the oldest and proudest stocks in the +country, and, thanks to the millions which his dead American wife had +brought him, the broad, fat acres that he owned in half-a-dozen +counties were absolutely unencumbered, and he possessed a personal +fortune that yielded more than twice his goodly rent-roll. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie Vandel sat at his right hand, and, next to her, Doctor +Lamson, faced by Lady Olive and a tall, angular, square-headed, +keen-featured man of about the Earl's own age, with a heavy, +well-trained, iron-grey, moustache, and an equally well-ordered, +little tuft of hair on the square chin. This was Clifford K. Vandel, +President of the Empire State Electric Storage and Transmission Trust +of New York and Buffalo. He was commonly known throughout the States +and Europe as the Lightning King; and he controlled not only the power +distribution, but also the whole system of Etherography or wireless +telegraphy throughout the Continent of North America. +</p> + +<p> +He had come over post-haste from New York in response to an urgent +cable from Lord Orrel. He was an uncle of the late Lady Orrel, and he +and the Earl had already done a good deal of business together on both +sides of the Atlantic. The cablegram had contained the words "urgent +business," so he had taken the first available steamer and arrived in +Southampton that afternoon. +</p> + +<p> +During dinner only ordinary topics had been touched upon, but when the +cloth was removed and the butler, with a ceremonious care that was +almost reverential, had placed the ancient decanters and jugs +containing the port and claret and Madeira, for which the cellars of +Orrel Court had long been famous, his lordship told him that they were +not to be disturbed until he rang; and, when the door had closed +behind him, he said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, now, Vandel, we can talk. Miss Chrysie, a glass of port—allow +me—and, if you will, pass the decanter. Mr Lamson, this is the same +seal as before. Olive, you will make the coffee later on, won't you, +in that patent concern of yours? You certainly do it much better than +they do downstairs; and I don't see why for once we shouldn't have our +smoke here, since our—what is it they say?—revolting daughters both +indulge." +</p> + +<p> +"Revolted, if you don't mind, my lord," remarked Miss Chrysie across +her wine-glass. "Though I don't see much what Olive and I want to +revolt for; and I guess if two girls ever had more easily managed +poppas they'd be curiosities. What do you say poppa? You haven't tried +to run me much, have you?" +</p> + +<p> +The iron-faced man of millions, the commander-in-chief of armies of +hand and brain workers, the ruthless wrecker of industries which stood +in the way of the realisation of his gigantic schemes, looked +smilingly at the living likeness of his dead wife, and said, with that +soft intonation and hardly perceptible accent which evidenced his old +Southern descent: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Chrysie, I don't know that either of you ever wanted very much +running; and as for smoking, well, your mothers and grandmothers did +it down South two generations ago, and I guess what was good enough +for the South in those days is good enough for anywhere else." +</p> + +<p> +From which speech it may be gathered that Clifford Kingsley Vandel was +one of those Americans who, although he had come in with the Union, +and made many millions out of it, still cherished the traditions of +the old Southern aristocracy. In fact, in his heart of hearts, no man, +saving only perhaps Louis Xavier de Condé and his present host, had a +greater contempt for all democratic institutions than he had; a +contempt which is amply shared by nine out of ten of the dollar +despots of the great Republic. +</p> + +<p> +He helped himself to a glass of the pale ruby-coloured port, and +passed the decanter to Hardress. Lady Olive was taking claret. +</p> + +<p> +"And now," said Lord Orrel, raising his glass, "suppose we begin in +the good old-fashioned way. Here's success to the Storage Trust and +all its future developments." +</p> + +<p> +"Which, from what I've heard of them, will be big and go far," said +the Lightning King. +</p> + +<p> +"Even unto the running of the earth, and all that therein is. Is that +good American, Chrysie?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not quite," she laughed, in reply. "I must say that your ladyship +seems to have considerable difficulty in picking up the American +language. However, the sentiment's all right, so we'll let it go at +that. What do you say, Doctor? Somehow you don't seem quite as +enthusiastic about this as a man who knows everything might be." +</p> + +<p> +"If a man knew everything, Miss Vandel," replied Lamson, rather +gravely, "he would probably be enthusiastic about nothing. Still, I +confess that, as I said at first on board the yacht, I do look upon +this scheme, splendid and all as it is, and perfectly feasible from +the scientific point of view, as something just a little too splendid +for human responsibility. After all, you know, to make oneself the +arbiter of human destiny, supreme lord of earth and air, dispenser of +life and death, health and sickness, is what is popularly described as +a somewhat large order." +</p> + +<p> +"Well," chimed in Miss Chrysie, "I guess if it enables you to reform +the British climate, by way of a start, and give this unhappy country +some weather instead of just a lot of ragged-edged samples, you'll not +begin badly." +</p> + +<p> +"And if we can also do something with the furious, untamed, American +blizzard," laughed Hardress, nodding at her over his glass, "we shall +also confer a certain amount of blessing upon a not inconsiderable +proportion of the Anglo-Saxon race. What's your idea, Mr Vandel?" +</p> + +<p> +"We could do about as well without them as London could do without +fog, or the British farmer do without a week of January shifted on +into May," replied the Lightning King. "I've often thought that a +syndicate which could control the British climate, and educate your +farmers and railroads into something like commonsense, would make +quite big money. Maybe that's what we'll do later on." +</p> + +<p> +"An excellent idea," laughed Lord Orrel. "I have suffered from both of +them—as well as from our free-trading amateur politicians who make it +as expensive for me to bring a ton of my own wheat from Yorkshire to +London as to import a ton of yours from Chicago. However, we shall be +able to alter that later on. And now, suppose Olive brews the coffee, +and we have a cigar, and then, perhaps, Mr Lamson will oblige us by +shedding the light of his knowledge on the subject before the meeting. +I suppose, Mr Lamson, you have not found, on more mature study of the +question, that there are any serious objections to the scheme, saving, +of course, the one which your modesty has created?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, Lord Orrel," he replied, with one of his grave smiles. "During +the last week or so I have worked out, I think, every possible +development of the scheme, and I am bound to say that the unknown +genius whom we buried the other day has left nothing to chance. There +is not even a speculation. Everything is fact, figure, and +demonstration. Given the capital, and the concessions from the +Canadian Government, there does not appear to me the remotest chance +of failure. The ultimate consequences of putting the scheme into +practice are, of course, quite another affair—but on that subject you +already have my opinion." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Lamson," said Hardress, "that, if you will pardon me saying +so, is merely one of the characteristic failings of the scientific +intellect. It has too much imagination, and therefore looks too far +ahead." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm with you there, Viscount," said the Lightning King. "This is just +a question of dollars first, last, and all the time. Of course, we've +got to see the other side of it; but we're not concerned much with +what there is beyond—or back of beyond, for that matter. So, as +practical men, we'll just respect the doctor's scruples all they +deserve, and take all the help he can give us." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly," said Lord Orrel; "you put the case with your usual +terseness, Vandel. And now, if you won't have any more wine, Olive +will give us some coffee, and we may light up and get to business." +</p> + +<p> +"And, Lamson, you will consider yourself on deck for the present," +added Hardress. "I can see that Mr Vandel is just dying to know the +details, in spite of that cast-iron self-control of his." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Viscount," laughed the multi-millionaire, "I'm among friends, +and I'm not controlling any just now. Still, I'll admit that I'm just +about as anxious to know the details of this scheme as Chrysie was to +try on her first ball-dress, and that was no small circumstance, I +tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"I should think not," laughed Lady Olive. "There's only one thing more +important in life than that, and that's a wedding-dress. But if these +people are going to immerse themselves in facts and figures, Chrysie, +suppose we have our coffee up in my room. I want to have a good talk +with you about the presentation dresses." +</p> + +<p> +"An even more weighty subject," laughed Hardress, "than the +wedding-dress—which may never be worn. I mean, of course——" +</p> + +<p> +"I guess I wouldn't try and explain, Viscount," said Miss Chrysie, as +she got up and went towards the door. "Wasn't it your Lord +Beaconsfield who said that the most dreary duty of humanity was +explanation? Reckon you'll find it pretty dreary work explaining that +remark away." +</p> + +<p> +Hardress looked distinctly uncomfortable, for there was a flush on +Miss Chrysie's cheeks, and a glint in her eyes which, although they +made her look distractingly pretty, were not of great promise to him. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm awfully sorry——" he began. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Shafto," laughed Lady Olive, as Lamson opened the door for +them, "don't attempt it. A man who could make a remark like that could +not possibly improve the situation by an apology." +</p> + +<p> +With that they disappeared, and Lamson shut the door. When he got back +to his seat he took a lot of papers out of the breast-pocket of his +coat, put his plate aside, laid them on the table, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, since I am in the chair, I may as well get to business. +As Mr Vandel has not yet been made fully acquainted with the details +of the scheme, perhaps it will be as well if I begin at the +beginning." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so," said Lord Orrel, with a nod; "and your kindness will have +the additional effect of refreshing my own memory, which, I must +admit, is not a particularly good one for technicalities." +</p> + +<p> +Then Doctor Lamson began, and for a couple of hours or so expounded +with every possible exactness of detail the discovery made by the man +whose mangled remains had been picked up by the <i>Nadine</i> in +mid-Channel, and which might have made France mistress of the world. +</p> + +<p> +When he had finished, they went into the library, where they were +joined by Lady Olive and Miss Chrysie, and the conversation gradually +drifted away into topics more socially interesting, but of less +imperial importance. But when Clifford Kingsley Vandel went to bed +that night he spent half-an-hour or more walking up and down his big, +thickly-carpeted bedroom, with his hands clasped behind his back, his +eyes fixed on the floor, and his lips shaping inarticulate words which +would have been worth millions to anyone who could have heard them. +Then he stopped his promenade, undressed, and got into bed, and just +before he dismissed the whole subject from his perfectly-trained +intellect and addressed himself to the necessary business of sleep, he +said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that's just about the biggest scheme that mortal man ever had a +chance of bringing to a head; and I guess we'll do it. Masters of the +world, givers of life or death, lords of the nations, makers of peace +or war as we please! That's so, and now, Clifford Vandel, I have the +honour to wish you a very good night—a very good night indeed—about +the best night you've ever had." +</p> + +<p> +And then the masterful brain ceased working, like an engine from which +the steam had been shut off, and he fell asleep as quickly and as +peacefully as a little child. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VI +</p> + + +<p> +Miss Chrysie's European visit had come to an end, and she and her +father had accepted Hardress's invitation to take a trip home in the +<i>Nadine</i>. Doctor Lamson was also a guest on board, and during the +trip many of the details of the great scheme were exhaustively +discussed. Each of the three men was going on a special mission. +Clifford Vandel had definitely accepted the position of president and +general financial and business manager of the International Magnetic +Control Syndicate, as the newly-formed company had been provisionally +named. He was going to the States to do the necessary financial part +of the work, buy up rights and patents which might be necessary to the +furtherance of the scheme, and to perfect the organisation of the +great combine of which he was president—a combine whose influence was +now to extend not only over the United States, but over the whole +world. +</p> + +<p> +Doctor Lamson was going to make a personal study of the electrical +machinery to be found in the States, so that he might be in a position +to design the great storage works to the best advantage and with the +greatest possible economy of time and money. +</p> + +<p> +Hardress, armed with introductions from the highest official sources +in England, was going northward, after leaving his guests at New York, +to Montreal, to obtain a lease of a few square miles of the desolate, +ice-covered wilderness of Boothia Felix, which, as a glance at the map +will show you, is the most northerly portion of the mainland of the +American continent. Further, in its scanty history, you may read that +there Sir John Ross discovered the magnetic pole of the earth, and +named the wilderness after his friend Sir Felix Booth, who had +furnished most of the funds for his expedition. +</p> + +<p> +His ostensible object in obtaining the lease was the foundation of an +observatory for the examination of magnetic and electrical phenomena; +one of which was the possible solution of the so far unsolved riddle +of the Northern Lights. He also stated to the Dominion authorities, by +way of giving something like a practical air to his mission, that a +remoter possibility of the scheme was the establishment of a magnetic +centre for a world-wide system of wireless telegraphy. +</p> + +<p> +The few square miles of ice and snow and rock were absolutely +worthless, and so the Dominion Government had not the slightest +hesitation in accepting his offer of a thousand a year for ten years +for the exclusive use and possession of the peninsula, with right to +import materials, construct works, and do whatever might be necessary +for the development of the scheme. +</p> + +<p> +If he had not been the heir to an ancient peerage and the son of one +of the wealthiest men in England, he would probably have been looked +upon as a harmless crank who was wanting to lose his money in a vain +attempt to harness the electrical energy displayed in the <i>Aurora +borealis</i> and make thunderstorms to order out of it. As it was, he +was treated indulgently as a man who had big ideas, and who was +conducting at his own expense a great scientific experiment which he +could very well afford to pay for. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, after very brief negotiations, consisting of one or two +interviews, two or three dinners, and the handing over of a cheque, +the Canadian Government in all innocence parted with what was soon to +prove the most precious piece of land, not only on the American +Continent, but in the whole world. +</p> + +<p> +But this was not the only concession that Shafto Hardress took back to +England with him. For when he returned to New York and took a run up +to Buffalo on the Empire State Express, with the lease of Boothia Land +in his pocket, to talk matters over with President Vandel, he had a +brief but momentously interesting interview with Miss Chrysie, at the +close of which she said, as her hand rested in his: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Viscount, I'm not going to say 'Yes' right away. You're a +gentleman, and I like you. You're going to be a peer of England some +day, and, if this scheme of yours works out all right, one of the +masters of the world. As my father's daughter I have no natural +objection to being a peeress of England and mistress of the world, but +I am also a natural-born woman, and I want a little more than that—I +mean something that a man could not give me if he owned the Solar +System. I want to know for certain that you love me as a man should +love a woman, and that I can love you as a woman should love a man if +she is going to marry him. I like you; yes, I like you better than any +other man I've ever seen. I tell you quite honestly it hasn't been a +case of love at first sight with me, and I guess I haven't known you +quite long enough to give you something that I can never take back. Go +to your work and do it, and while you're doing it we shall get to know +each other better, and meanwhile you may consider that you have the +option of another piece of half-discovered territory." +</p> + +<p> +Before releasing her hand he stooped and kissed it, saying, with a +laugh that bespoke a certain amount of satisfaction: +</p> + +<p> +"That, you know, is—well, we will call it the seal on the contract. +This is my act and deed, you understand—as people say when they +conclude a contract with an option. A definition of kissing which I +once read describes it as equivalent to syllabus." +</p> + +<p> +"Syllabus!" she said, releasing her hand and raising it to her brow, +pushing a fold of hair back by the motion and smiling up at him in a +somewhat disconcerted fashion. "And what might that mean in your +dictionary of kisses?" +</p> + +<p> +"It was defined as kissing the hand of the girl you want very badly +instead of——" +</p> + +<p> +Her red lips smiled an irresistible challenge at him, and the next +instant his arm was round her waist, and he said: +</p> + +<p> +"After all, I don't think that contract was properly signed, sealed, +and delivered; at least, the seal was in the wrong place, and the +delivery was not quite complete." +</p> + +<p> +"Now I call that real mean, Viscount," she said, a moment afterwards. +"I only gave you an option on the territory, and you're starting to +occupy it right away." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then," he said, taking her hand again, "suppose, instead of the +territory, we call it a reserve. How will that do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not quite," she said, drawing back a bit. "To some extent I've been +taken by assault, but I've not surrendered at discretion yet. That +sounds a bit mixed, I know—but it's pretty near the truth." +</p> + +<p> +"And at that," he said, gravely smiling, "I am quite content to leave +it." And so, with the magical touch of her lips still thrilling +through his blood, he left her, more than ever determined to fulfil to +the utmost the tremendous destiny which chance had cast in his way. +</p> + +<p> +To him there could have been no more delightfully satisfactory ending +to his mission. In blood he was himself half-American, and in him the +old-world aristocrat was strangely blended with the keen, far-seeing, +quick-witted, hard-headed, and perhaps, in one sense, hard-hearted man +of business. It was to this side of his nature that the physical +charms, the keen wit, and sprightly spirit of Miss Chrysie had first +appealed; but later on the aristocrat in him had recognised that she +too was a patrician of the New World, whose ancestry stretched back +into the history of the old, and so gradually interest and admiration +had grown into a love which completely satisfied all his instincts. +</p> + +<p> +The very way in which she had received his proposal had increased both +his love and his respect. If she had surrendered at discretion there +might have remained the possibility of a suspicion that, after all, +she had been tempted to take hold of a magnificent opportunity, not +only for placing herself in the front rank of European society, but +also of wielding through her husband a power such as no woman had ever +exercised before. But she had given him frankly to understand that +these things were as nothing in her eyes, great and splendid as they +were, without that certainty of mutual love which could alone induce +her to give herself, body and soul, into the hands of any man, however +powerful or nobly born; for Chrysie Vandel was a woman in the best +sense of that much-meaning word, and she knew that for her there was +no choice, save between the complete independence of thought and +action which she had so far enjoyed, and an equally complete surrender +to the man to whom she could render, whole-hearted and unreserved, the +sweet service of love. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner that night he had an equally satisfactory interview with +the president, who, when he had heard his story, just got up from his +chair and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Viscount, we'll shake on that. My girl's free to choose where she +likes, or not to choose at all, and you are not going to have any help +from me in the way of persuasion; but if she does choose, why, I'd +sooner she chose you than any other man I know." +</p> + +<p> +"I ask for nothing better, I can assure you," said Hardress. "Thank +you a thousand times." +</p> + +<p> +And so they shook. +</p> + +<p> +The next day by noon the <i>Nadine</i> was steaming out past Sandy +Hook. Allowing for difference in longitude, it was almost at the same +moment that the night mail pulled out of the Petersburg station. Two +of the sleeping-compartments were occupied by Prince Xavier de Condé +and his daughter; and so, from the ends of the earth, both travelling +towards an obscure little watering-place hidden away in the depths of +the German forest land, were approaching each other the man and the +woman whose destinies had been, all unknown to themselves, so +strangely linked together by the last despairing act of the man whose +country had refused to permit him to make her the mistress of the +world. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VII +</p> + + +<p> +The village of Elsenau, which has hardly yet risen to the dignity of a +town, lies somewhere midway between the Hartz Mountains and the +Thuringia Wald, which, as everyone knows, stretches away in +undulations of wooded uplands and valleys southward to the Black +Forest. Its most recent possession is the fine Hôtel Wilhelmshof—an +entirely admirable creation of the German instinct for catering, +facing south-west, and sheltered north and east by uplands crowned +with stately pines. Southward it has smooth, new-made lawns, dotted +with clumps of firs and parterres of flowers, shielded by curves of +flowering bushes. The lawns slope down to the edge of a long narrow +lake, which, on the evening of the day after the prince and the +marquise left Petersburg, lay smooth and blue-black beneath the +cloudless azure of the summer heaven. +</p> + +<p> +But the principal attraction of Elsenau, which, indeed, had given the +luxurious hotel its reason for existence, and which had raised the +little village of charcoal-burners and woodcutters to the dignity of a +Kur-anstalt, was a spring, accidentally discovered by an enterprising +engineer who was looking among the mountains for a water-supply for +the city of Ilmosheim, some three miles away to the south. The waters +had a curious taste and a most unpleasant smell. Learned chemists and +doctors analysed them, and reported that they contained ingredients +which formed a sovereign remedy for gout and rheumatism—especially +the hereditary form of the first. They were bottled and sent far and +wide, and soon after their qualities had been duly appreciated and +commented on by the medical press of Europe and America, the Hôtel +Wilhelmshof rose, as it were, with the wave of the contractor's magic +wand, hard by the little limestone grotto in which the spring had been +discovered. +</p> + +<p> +About eight o'clock on a lovely evening in July, Lord Orrel and Lady +Olive, under the broad verandah of the Wilhelmshof, sat drinking their +after-dinner coffee and watching the full moon sailing slowly up over +the black ridges of the pine-crowned hills which stretched away to the +southward. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose the prince must have missed his train, or else the train +was behind time and missed the coach," said Lord Orrel, taking out his +watch. "It is rather curious that I should have met him regularly +every year at Homburg or Spa or Aix, and that somehow you have never +met him; and now it seems from his letter that we have both discovered +this new little place of evil-smelling waters together. I am glad that +he is bringing his daughter with him." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, yes; his daughter—she is the second Marie Antoinette, isn't +she?" said Lady Olive, putting her cup down and taking up her +cigarette. "The most beautiful woman in Europe, the last daughter of +the old House of Bourbon—I mean the elder branch, of course. And the +prince?" +</p> + +<p> +"The first gentleman in Europe, in my opinion," replied the earl, +flicking the ash off his cigar. "A man who, granted the possibility of +circumstances which, of course, are not now possible, might mount the +throne of Louis XIV., and receive the homage of all his courtiers +without their knowing the difference. A great man, my dear Olive, born +four generations out of his time. If he had succeeded the Grand +Monarque—there would have been no French Revolution, no Napoleon——" +</p> + +<p> +"And therefore, my dear papa," laughed Lady Olive, "no Peninsular War, +no Wellington, no Waterloo, no Nelson, no Nile and Trafalgar, and so +none of that expiring British supremacy which you were arguing about +so eloquently the other day in the House of Lords." +</p> + +<p> +While she was speaking, the double doors giving on to the verandah +were thrown open, a lacquey, gorgeously uniformed in blue and silver, +came out, with his body inclined at an angle of thirty degrees, and +his arms hanging straight down, and said, in thick Swiss French: +</p> + +<p> +"Your Excellency and Madame la Marquise will find Milord and Miladi on +the verandah here." +</p> + +<p> +As Lady Olive looked round she heard a rustle of frilled skirts on the +planks of the verandah, and saw a tall, stately gentleman and the most +beautiful woman she had ever seen coming towards her. +</p> + +<p> +The gentleman's eyes brightened and his brows lifted as he raised his +hat. The woman's face might have been a mask, and her eyes looked out +upon nothingness. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, my dear prince," said the earl, rising and going towards him with +outstretched hands. "Delighted to renew our acquaintance in a new and +yet a very charming place. I was hoping that you would get here for +dinner; but, of course, once off the main line, you can never trust a +German train to get anywhere in time. And this is Mam'selle la +Marquise, I presume. This is fortunate. You see I have my daughter +Olive taking care of me, so perhaps they may help to entertain each +other in this out-of-the-way place." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied the prince, as they shook hands, "this is my daughter +of whom I have spoken to you so often; and this is yours, the Lady +Olive. Mam'selle, I have the honour to salute you. Adelaide, this is +the daughter of Lord Orrel—an old friend, and one of the ancienne +noblesse." +</p> + +<p> +Olive had risen while he was speaking; the mask melted away from the +marquise's lovely face, her lips softened into a smile, and a swift +gleam of scrutiny took the place of vacancy in her eyes. Lady Olive's +met hers with a frank though involuntary look of challenge. She +certainly was what the gossip of half-a-dozen countries called +her—the most beautiful woman in Europe. She possessed an exquisite +grace of form and face and manner which made her indescribable. When +one woman honestly admires another it is always with a half-conceived +sense either of envy or hostility. Lady Olive was herself one of the +best types of an English patrician, and the blood in her veins had +flowed through ten generations of the proudest lineage in Britain; but +in Adelaide de Condé, the daughter of the most ancient aristocracies +of France and Austria, she instinctively recognised her equal, perhaps +her superior. +</p> + +<p> +She put out her hand in a frank, English way, and said, in the most +perfectly accented French: +</p> + +<p> +"My father has told me so much about yours, and they are such good +friends, that I hope it isn't possible that we can be anything else." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite impossible!" smiled the marquise, taking the hand of the +new-made friend who in days to come was to be an enemy. "Since our +fathers are such old and good friends, why should we not be new +friends and good ones too?" And then, turning round to her father, she +said: "Voila, papa, since we find ourselves in such good company, and +we have missed the dinner, and cannot eat till they get something +ready, why do you not have your vermouth and a cigarette? In fact, as +we are so entirely 'chez nous' here in this delightful retreat, you +may order one for me too, I think." +</p> + +<p> +The prince lifted his eyelids, and the lacquey approached and took his +order, and then the party proceeded to make friends. +</p> + +<p> +A little after tea the same evening, when Lady Olive and the marquise +had retired to Lady Olive's sitting-room for a chat on things feminine +and European, Lord Orrel and the prince were strolling up and down the +moonlit lawn, smoking their cigars and exchanging the experiences that +they had had since their last meeting at Homburg the year before. +</p> + +<p> +Their friendship had begun by a chance acquaintance some six years +before at Aix-les-Bains. Both of them aristocrats to their +finger-tips, it was not long before they struck a note of common +sympathy. The once splendid name which the prince bore appealed +instantly to the Englishman, who could trace his descent back to the +days of the first Plantagenet, and it was not long before they found a +closer bond than that of ancient ancestry. +</p> + +<p> +One night, when the beach at Trouville was lit up by just such a moon +as was now floating high over the pines on the hills round Elsenau, he +had told the prince the story of his life—the story of an elder scion +of an ancient line devoted rather to literature and the byways of +science than to the political and social duties of his position, and, +moreover, a man who had never found a woman whom his heart could call +to his side to share it with him. He had devoted his after-college +days to study and travel. His younger brother, a splendid specimen of +English chivalry, had found his mate in the daughter of his father's +oldest friend. He was a soldier, and when the Franco-German war broke +out, nothing, not even the longing, half-reproachful looks of his +betrothed, could keep him from volunteering in the French service. He +had fought through the war with brilliant distinction, a private at +Saarbruck and a captain during the Siege of Paris. Then, captured, +badly wounded, by the Germans after a brilliant sortie, he was cured +and released, only to be murdered by the communards on the eve of his +return to England. A year or two after, the Earl abjured his vows of +celibacy under the fascinations of a brilliant American beauty, and so +had accepted the responsibility of perpetuating his race. +</p> + +<p> +So these two men had met on common ground, and nothing was more +natural than that they should have become such friends as they were. +To a very great extent they stood apart from the traditions of their +times. They were aristocrats in an age of almost universal democracy. +Both of them firmly believed that democracy spelt degeneration, +national and individual. Both of them were, in fact, incarnations of +an age that was past, and which might or might not be renewed. +</p> + +<p> +This was, indeed, the subject of their conversation as they strolled +up and down the smoothly-shaven lawn under the sheltering pines, +chatting easily and comparing in well-selected phrases the things of +their own youth with those of the present swiftly moving and even a +trifle blatant generations of to-day. +</p> + +<p> +"I quite agree with you, my dear Lord Orrel," said the prince, as they +turned at the end of their walk. "Democracy is tending now, just as it +did in the days of Greece and Carthage and Rome, and to-day in my own +unhappy France, to degeneration, and the worst of it is that there is +no visible possibility of salvation. Our rulers have armed the mob +with a weapon more potent than the thunders of Jove. The loafer of the +café and the pot-house has a vote, and, therefore, the same voice in +choosing the rulers of nations as the student and the man of science, +or the traveller who is familiar with many lands and many races. I +often think that it is a pity that some means cannot be found for +placing—well, I will call it a despotic power—in the hands of a few +men—men, for instance, if I may say so without flattery or vanity, +like ourselves—men of wide experience and broad sympathies, and yet +possessing what you and I know to be the essentials of despotism—that +something that can only be inherited, not acquired." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear prince, I agree with you entirely," replied Lord Orrel. "Our +present civilisation is suffering from a sort of dry-rot. Sentiment +has degenerated into sentimentalism, courage into a reckless gambling +for honours, statesmanship into politics, oratory into verbosity. In +short, the nineteenth century has degenerated into the twentieth. +Everything seems going wrong. The world is ruled by the big man who +shots his quotations on the Stock Exchange and the little one who +serves behind his counter. It is all buying and selling. Honour and +faith, and the old social creed which we used to call noblesse oblige, +are getting quite out of date." +</p> + +<p> +"Not that yet, my friend, surely," the prince interrupted, quickly +gripping his companion's arm; "not that, at least, for us. I confess +that we and those like us are, as one might say, derelicts on the +ocean of society—we, who one day were stately admirals, to use the +old phrase. And yet, as you said just now, if only some power could be +placed in the hands of a few like ourselves, a power which would +over-ride the blind, irresponsible, shifting will of the mutable mob +which changes its vote and its opinions with the seasons, the world +might be brought again into order, and the proletariat might be saved +from its own suicide. +</p> + +<p> +"And," he went on, turning at the other end of their promenade, +"perhaps you will not believe me, but only a few weeks ago there was +such a power in the hands of a Frenchman—of an Alsatian, perhaps I +should say, but a man who had preserved his loyalty to France—a +scientist of European reputation—a man who had discovered that this +earth had a spirit, a living soul, and who could gain control of +it—so complete a control, that he could draw it out and leave the +earth dead—a man who—But there, I am wearying you; I am sure you +must think that I am telling you some fairy tale." +</p> + +<p> +"By no means, my dear prince," said Lord Orrel, doing his best to keep +his voice steady, and not quite succeeding. "In the first place, I am +quite sure that you would not speak so seriously on a subject that was +not serious; and, in the second place, I can assure you that I am most +deeply interested." +</p> + +<p> +"A thousand pardons, my lord," said the prince. "Of course you would +not think that of me. We have both of us lived too long to indulge in +romance, and yet, if I could tell you the whole story, you would say +that you have never heard such a romance as this." +</p> + +<p> +"And, if it is not trespassing too far upon your confidence, my dear +prince, I should be only too happy to hear you tell the whole story," +said his lordship, with an unmistakable note of curiosity in his tone. +</p> + +<p> +"I can tell you part of the story," replied the prince; "but not here. +It is so strange, and it might have meant so much, not only to France, +but to the world, that I can only tell it to you where no other ears +than ours can hear it, and even then only under your solemn pledge of +secrecy." +</p> + +<p> +"As for the first condition, my dear prince," replied Lord Orrel, "I +will ask you to take a glass of wine with me in my sitting-room. As +for the second, you have my word." +</p> + +<p> +"And, therefore, both conditions are amply satisfied. Let us go, and I +will tell you the strangest story you have ever heard." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER VIII +</p> + + +<p> +By the time the prince had ceased speaking there was not the slightest +doubt in Lord Orrel's mind that, in some most mysterious manner, he +was connected with the discovery which Hardress had made when he took +the mutilated body out of the waters of the Channel. Perhaps even the +unknown dead might have been someone near and dear to him. It seemed +to him utterly impossible either to doubt the prince's word or to +believe that two such discoveries could have been made by two men at +the same time, or even that there could exist at the same time on +earth two men whose genius, once put into practice, could make them +rival masters of the world. +</p> + +<p> +And supposing that he knew part of the story which the prince was +going to tell him—the sequel, and, from a practical point of view, +the all-important portion—ought he to tell him what he knew too? He +was under no actual pledge of secrecy to his associates in the great +Trust, but still he felt that he was under an honourable obligation to +keep the story of the discovery to himself. On the other hand, granted +that the prince knew the first half, would it be right—would it be +honourable, according to his own exact code of honour, to keep the +sequel from him? Perhaps the prince even had a definite personal +interest in the scheme; and, in that case, to keep silence would be to +rob him of his prior rights. What was he to do? +</p> + +<p> +He had been a Minister of the Crown for a short term of office, and by +the time they reached his sitting-room, and he had locked the door, +after the wine had been placed on the table, diplomacy had come to his +aid, and he had made up his mind. When he had filled the glasses he +took out his cigar-case, selected the best it contained, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Prince, I'm going to ask you to allow me to take a very great +liberty." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Lord Orrel, there is nothing that you could do that I should +consider a liberty. Thank you, I will; I know that your cigars are +always most excellent, and now we will make ourselves comfortable, and +you shall take your liberty." +</p> + +<p> +He took the proffered cigar as he spoke, snipped the end, and lit it. +Lord Orrel did the same, and when they had saluted each other over +their wine, in the old-fashioned, courtly style, he began: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear prince, the liberty that I am going to ask your permission to +take is a very great one, because it is a liberty of anticipation; and +few men, even the most chivalrous, care to be anticipated, especially +when they have an interesting story to tell. In other words, I, too, +have a very strange story to tell you. In fact, the strangest that +ever came within my experience. And there are reasons, which I will +explain to you afterwards, why I am asking the favour of your +permission to tell it before yours." +</p> + +<p> +The prince looked puzzled, and his dark brows approached each other +for just the fraction of a second. He took a sip at his wine, leant +back in his chair, and blew a long whiff of smoke up towards the +gaudily-painted ceiling. Then he said, with a barely perceptible shrug +of his shoulders: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Lord Orrel, you are not asking me any favour. On the +contrary, you are merely requesting that you shall entertain me before +I try to do the same by you. Moreover, as it is quite impossible that +there can be any connection between our stories, there can be no +question of anticipation; so, pray, proceed. I am all attention." +</p> + +<p> +"As I said," began Lord Orrel, settling himself in his chair, and +taking a long pull at his cigar, "the story is a very strange one, and +it is also one which could not well be told from the housetops, +because it involves—well, what may be something almost as wonderful +as what you hinted at in the garden just now." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," interrupted the prince, with a visible start and a sudden +lifting of the eyebrows, "then, in truth, it must be strange indeed; +and so I am more than ever anxious to hear it; and if, as I divine, +you wish me to treat it in confidence, you, of course, have my word, +as a gentleman of France, that no detail of it shall ever pass my +lips." +</p> + +<p> +His host felt not a little relieved at being released from the +necessity of binding him to secrecy, as, for the sake of his +colleagues, he would have felt obliged to do; so he said: +</p> + +<p> +"That, my dear prince, it would be quite impossible to imagine; and +now, as it is getting a little late, I will get to my story." +</p> + +<p> +He began with the finding of the mutilated body by the <i>Nadine</i>, +and the discovery of the tin box containing the momentous papers, and +had just given a sketch of their contents and the use that was about +to be made of the dead man's discovery when the prince, whose face had +been growing greyer and greyer during the recital, at length lost his +hold upon the stern control under which he had just placed himself. He +sprang to his feet, flung his arms apart, and cried, in a +high-pitched, half-choked voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Mon Dieu! mon Dieu! It is the same!—what miracle has happened? My +lord, you have been telling me the end of the story of which I was +going to tell you the beginning. And so France, poor France, through +the stupidity of the ministerial puppets that the mob has placed in +the seats of their ancient rulers, has refused the sceptre of the +world; and I—I, the heir of her ancient royal house, have lost not +only the throne of my ancestors, but the power to make her the +mistress of the nations. Truly, the mills of God grind slowly, but +they grind exceeding small. Her kings misruled her, and she took other +rulers, who have cheated and swindled her, and humbled her before +those who once did her bidding; and now, when the hand of Fate holds +out the means of regaining all that she has lost, and more, infinitely +more, she puts it aside with the sneering laugh of contemptuous +ignorance. Truly it is a judgment that judges even unto the third and +fourth generation. Ah, yes; and on me, too!—I, who am innocent! Mon +Dieu, mon Dieu, it is cruel!" +</p> + +<p> +As the last words came from his trembling lips his hands came together +on his forehead, and he dropped back into his chair. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment of speechless astonishment Lord Orrel stared across the +room at him. Then, dropping his cigar on the tray, he got up and went +and laid his hand on the prince's shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear prince, my dear friend," he said, in a voice moved by +emotion, "I am most deeply distressed that my story should have +affected you so painfully. Believe me, I had no intention, no thought +even——" +</p> + +<p> +The prince dropped his hands from his head, and stood and faced him, +his face white and set and his eyes burning; but with a perfectly +steady voice, he said: +</p> + +<p> +"My lord, I thank you. So much emotion, though perhaps it was natural, +ought not to have been shown. I should not have permitted it to +myself, save in solitude. It was impossible that I should know that +your lordship's story was the same as mine, and so, naturally, the +shock was greater. And now, may I ask your lordship one question?" +</p> + +<p> +"I will answer it, prince, before you ask it," interrupted Lord Orrel. +"But first, let me beg of you to drink your wine; really, you do not +look well." +</p> + +<p> +The prince took the glass from him and drained it in silence, his hand +shaking ever so little as he held it to his lips, and the other went +on: +</p> + +<p> +"Knowing what I did, I felt certain that two such miracles could not +have happened at the same time; moreover, some inspiration told me +that the discovery you spoke of in the garden was the same that my son +made under such terrible circumstances in the Channel. Now, sit down, +pray, do, and let us talk this matter over as men of the world." +</p> + +<p> +"Men of the world!" echoed the prince, sadly, as he sat down again; +"nay, of two worlds. I of the old, you and your son and your great +business syndicate of the new; I of the past, you of the present and +the future; I who would have revived the glories of an ancient race, +the despotism, if you will, of a bygone dynasty, you who would found a +new one—despotism a thousand times harder, a dynasty of money, not of +blood, the most soulless and brutal of all dynasties. Ah, well, it is +fate, and who shall question that? No; if you will pardon me, my dear +Orrel, we will not talk further upon this subject, to-night, at any +rate. I confess that what you have told me has affected me deeply. If +you will permit me, I will go to bed. The Russians, you know, have a +saying, 'Take thy thoughts to bed with thee, for the morning is wiser +than the evening.' To-morrow, perhaps, I shall be able to converse +with you on this momentous matter more calmly than I could do +to-night." +</p> + +<p> +"By all means, my dear prince," was the reply; "and, no doubt, such a +course would be better for me too, for I admit that this extraordinary +coincidence has upset me not a little as well. And so, good-night, and +sound sleep." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, yes," replied the prince, as they shook hands at the door; "sound +sleep. I hope so. Good-night, my lord, and pleasant dreams of the +world-empire." +</p> + +<p> +He turned away to his bedroom, which was the next but two to his +daughter's. The intervening rooms were occupied by his valet and her +maid. The valet's door was ajar, and there was a light in the room. He +stopped, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"I shall not want anything to-night, Felix, so you may go to bed. If I +require you in the night I will knock on the wall, as usual." +</p> + +<p> +"Bien, monseigneur," replied the valet, opening the door and bowing. +"J'ai l'honneur de vous sous haiter le bon soir, monseigneur." +</p> + +<p> +"Bon soir," replied the prince, as he passed on to his room. "Le +chocolat a huit heures." +</p> + +<p> +But Xavier de Condé, Prince of Bourbon, would never drink another cup +of chocolate. As soon as his door closed behind him, a +sternly-repressed flood of passion broke out, and he spent half the +remainder of the night walking, in his stockinged feet, up and down +his big bedchamber, with clenched teeth and tight-gripped hands, his +brain seething with a thousand thoughts of passion, and his white, +twitching lips shaping unspoken words of rage, bitterness, and +despair. It was a cruel irony that Fate had wrought on him and his +ancient house. The possible sceptre of the world had been offered to +his hereditary enemies, the Republicans of France, and, if Fargeau had +held to his compact, the compact for which he had given his daughter +to his son, he would have been master of France; and Fargeau would +have kept it, for he was a loyal Frenchman; and his son would have +married a future Queen of France! And now not only had France refused +the sceptre and snatched the crown from him, but the sceptre had +passed by some bitter caprice of Fate into the hands of France's +hereditary enemies. What could he say or do? Nothing. It was +maddening—worse than maddening. He had pledged his honour, and could +tell no one—but even if he could, what then? The secret was +out—worse—it was in the hands of men who could make the ideal a +reality. They could not even give him back the power if they would, +for the knowledge was theirs already, and they could act on it while +he could not. +</p> + +<p> +The more he thought the faster the fever that was burning in his blood +increased. His lips and tongue grew parched. His steps grew irregular +and faltering. The veins in his head were beating on his brain like +sledge-hammers. The lights began to waver before his eyes. He felt +instinctively that madness—that long-inherited curse of his race—was +coming. What if he should really go mad and babble not only of this +great secret, but also of all the plots and intrigues of which he had +been the centre! How many devoted friends and adherents would be +consigned to prison and exile—perhaps even to the scaffold! The very +thought chilled him back into sanity for the time being. He rapped +sharply at the wall, and presently Felix appeared, half-dressed, and +doing his best to stifle a yawn. +</p> + +<p> +"Felix," said the prince, who was now sitting in his arm-chair with +his head between his hands, "bid Marie arouse mam'selle immediately, +and request her to dress and come to me. I am unwell—another of my +attacks, I fear—and she only knows what to do for me. Quick—I need +her at once." +</p> + +<p> +Felix vanished, and within ten minutes the marquise was in her +father's room; but by this time the blood was beating on his brain +again, and the fierce light of insanity was beginning to dawn in his +eyes. +</p> + +<p> +With the valet's help she partly undressed him and got him to bed. +Then she locked the door and braced herself for what she instinctively +knew must be a terrible ordeal. +</p> + +<p> +She saw at a glance that some terrible shock had thrown his brain off +its balance. She had plotted with him and for him, and she knew why it +was her duty to lock the door. But what was this? Whence had come this +blow which had struck him down so swiftly? She soon learnt, as the +disjointed words and fragmentary sentences were shaped in the struggle +between sanity and delirium for the command of his brain. Hour after +hour it went on, a piteous jumble of the memories of a long, busy +life; but in the end, out of the mental tangle she was able to unravel +one clear thread of thought. Emil Fargeau had given his secret to the +sea, and the sea had given it into the hands of the English, the +ancient enemies of her country and her race; and it was the son of +this Lord Orrel, the brother of the haughty English beauty sleeping +here, under the same roof, who had re-discovered it, and they were +even worse than English, they were half-American; and England and +America would between them share that empire of the world, that +mastery of the human race, which should have been her father's and +hers. She had even permitted her troth to be sold to a simple officer +in the German army, a spy in the enemy's camp, in order to purchase +this new sovereignty for her house. +</p> + +<p> +The prince was rapidly sinking; she could see that, and yet she was +helpless to save him, for she had promised that no one, not even a +doctor, should be admitted into the room. She gave him a dose of an +opiate which he always carried with him, and about dawn he was +sleeping, but every now and then talking in his sleep more coherently. +At sunrise the effect of the drug wore off, and delirium resumed its +sway for a few moments. His eyes opened, and with a sudden jerk he sat +up in bed, his eyes glaring at the opposite wall, and his fingers +clutching and tearing at the bedclothes. His lips worked convulsively +for a while, then, with a hoarse, croaking scream he died. +</p> + +<p> +"France! O ma belle France, maitresse du monde—et moi ton roi, +ton—ah——!" +</p> + +<p> +His voice dropped suddenly in a low, soft sigh, his eyelids fell, and +his arms shrank to his sides, and he rolled back into his daughter's +arms. The fresh rush of blood to his head had broken a vessel on the +brain. +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide knew instinctively that the dead weight in her arms was not +that of a living man. She laid him back on the pillows, called up +Felix and sent him for the resident physician. When he had made his +examination, he said, in his guttural French: +</p> + +<p> +"Mam'selle la Marquise, there is no hope. The prince is dead. If I had +been called earlier I might have done something. I will make an +examination afterwards and certify the cause of death, according to +law. Accept my most respectful condolences." +</p> + +<p> +That evening Shafto Hardress arrived from Paris at the Hôtel +Wilhelmshof. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER IX +</p> + + +<p> +In the midst of the desolation which had so swiftly and unexpectedly +fallen upon her, the help and solace even of those whom she now knew +to be her enemies—enemies perhaps to the death—were very welcome to +Adelaide de Montpensier. Every sort of trouble that could be taken off +her hands they relieved her of. Hardress travelled to Vienna, which +the prince had made his headquarters, to interview his man of business +and to escort back the prince's sister, Madame de Condé, Princess of +Bourbon, who was now, save Adelaide, the only representative of the +older branch of the ancient line. The younger had bowed the knee to +the Republican Baal in France, and they were not even notified of the +prince's death. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Orrel undertook the arrangement of the funeral and all the legal +formalities connected with it, and Lady Olive was so sweet and tender +in her help and sympathy that, in the midst of her grief, Adelaide +began to love her in spite of herself. +</p> + +<p> +The funeral was without any display that might have signalised the +rank of the dead man, and Louis Xavier de Condé, Prince of Bourbon, +was laid to rest in an ordinary brick grave on the hillside under the +pines of Elsenau. Both Adelaide and her aunt would have applied to the +French authorities to permit his interment in the resting-place of his +ancestors, but the old prince had given special instructions that +while the Republican banner waved over France not even his dead body +should rest in her soil, and so his wishes were, perforce, respected. +</p> + +<p> +The night after the funeral the marquise was sitting at her +writing-table before the window of her private sitting-room. The +window looked put over a vast expanse of undulating forest land, +broken here and there by broad grassy valleys through which ran little +tributaries of the Weser, shining like tiny threads of silver under +the full moon riding high in the heavens. +</p> + +<p> +She had drawn the blind up, and for nearly half-an-hour she had been +gazing dreamily out over the sombre, almost ghostly landscape. The +deep gloom of the far-spreading pine forest harmonised exactly with +her own mood, and yet the twinkle of the streams amidst the glades, +and the glitter of the stars on the far-off horizon, were to her as +symbols of a light shining over and beyond the present darkness of her +soul. +</p> + +<p> +The night had fallen swiftly and darkly upon her. First the vanishing +into impenetrable mystery of the man upon whom rested her hopes and +dreams of one day queening it over France as her ancestress Marie +Antoinette had done, and not only over France as a kingdom, but as +mistress of the world. And now the veil of mystery had been rudely +torn aside, and showed her these English and Americans, the hated +hereditary enemies of her house and country, in possession of the +power which should have been hers. Then, last and worst of all, her +father and her friend, the only real friend she had ever had, the only +human being she had ever really loved—for she barely remembered the +mother who had died when she was scarcely out of her cradle—had been +stricken down by the same blow that had fallen upon her, and lay +yonder on the hillside under the pines, all his high hopes and +splendid ambitions brought to nothing by the swift agony of a single +night. +</p> + +<p> +There was an open book on the table before her—a square volume, +daintily bound in padded Russia-leather, and closed with a silver +spring lock. A gold-mounted stylographic pen lay beside it, and she +held between her fingers a little cunningly contrived silver key which +she had just detached from her watch-chain. +</p> + +<p> +"Shall I write it," she murmured, in a soft, low tone, "or shall I +keep it hidden where no human eyes can read it? But who can ever read +this?" she went on after a little pause, letting her hand fall on the +square volume. "After all, are not all my secrets here? and is not +this the only friend and confidant that I have now left to me? Yes, I +am a woman, when all is said; and I must open my heart to someone, if +only to myself." +</p> + +<p> +She turned the little shaded lamp by her side so that the light fell +on the volume, and she put the key in the lock and opened it. About +half the pages were filled with writing—not in words, but in a kind +of shorthand which could only be read by her father, herself, and +three of the most trusted adherents of their lost cause. Her eyes ran +rapidly over the last few pages. They contained the last chapters in +the book of her life which was now closed. Before she reached the end +a mist of tears was gathering in her long, dark lashes. She wiped it +away with a little lace-edged handkerchief, and took up her pen. She +scored two heavy lines across the bottom of the last written page, +turned over a fresh one, and began to write. +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "My father is dead, and with him the dreams which for years we + have dreamt together. Was there ever a more cruel irony of Fate + than this? Was Fate itself ever more unkind to man or woman? Only + a few weeks ago, and I had sold myself, with his consent, so far + did our devotion go to serve the sacred cause of our house, to + this big, handsome Alsatian—a servant of the German Emperor, the + arch-enemy of our country, the owner of the two provinces which my + ancestor Louis tore from Germany. I did it because in high + politics it is necessary sometimes to sacrifice oneself, partly + too because no other man had appealed to me as he did. I knew that + he was running tremendous risks; I believed—yes, and I still + believe, that he was risking everything—rank, honour, liberty, + even life itself, by wearing the uniform of his country's enemy so + that he might learn his enemy's secrets. +</p> + +<p> + "He loves me—yes, if ever man loved woman, he loves me—me, + Adelaide de Condé, Marquise de Montpensier; and I—ah, mon Dieu, + is it possible that the daughter of Marie Antoinette has sunk so + low?—I allowed him to believe that I loved him too. He believes + it now. I suppose he would still believe it, even if he knew what + I know now—that his father is dead, that the secret of the + world-empire which he could have given us, that power for which I + promised myself to him, so that I might share it with him, has + gone, that it is worse than lost, since the Fates have given it + into the hands of the enemies of our house. +</p> + +<p> + "And so it is gone—worse than gone—and so, my friend Victor, I + am afraid you will have to find out in the course of circumstances + that a woman's smiles do not always mean a reflection of the light + in her lover's eyes, and that her kisses do not always mean love. + It is a pity, because, after all, I believe you are a true + Frenchman, even if you wear a German uniform; and if that dream + had become a reality, and you and I had shared the throne of + France, perhaps I should have loved you as well and as truly as + most queens have loved their consorts. +</p> + +<p> + "But, alas, my poor Victor, the sceptre has passed away—for the + time being, at least—from the House of Bourbon. It is given into + the hands of our enemies, and so you, by force of fate, must stand + aside. I shall not tell you this yet, because afterwards, perhaps, + you may be useful. I wonder what you would think of me—even you, + a man who in the old days would only have been a sort of slave, + living or dying socially as the great Louis smiled or frowned upon + you—I wonder what you would think if you could look over my + shoulder and read this writing and see a woman's soul laid naked + on this page. Perhaps you might think me utterly mean and + contemptible—you would if you didn't understand; but if you did, + if you could see all and understand all—well, then, you might + hate me, but I think you would be man enough to respect me. +</p> + +<p> + "At least you are diplomatist enough to know, after all, in the + great game of politics, a game that is played for the mastery of + kingdoms and peoples, to say nothing of the empire of the world, + women have to count themselves as pawns. Even the cleverest, the + most brilliant, the most beautiful of us—that is all we are. + Sometimes our beauty or the charm of our subtle wit may win the + outer senses of the rulers of the world; they may admire us + physically or mentally, or both, but even at the best, it is only + the man that we enslave. The man goes to sleep for a night, he + dreams perhaps of our beauty and the delight of our society, but + in the morning it is the statesman that wakes, and he looks back + on the little weakness of the night before, and thinks of us as an + ordinary man might think of the one extra liqueur which he ought + not to have taken after a good dinner. +</p> + +<p> + "And now these English—these people into whose hands Fate has + given my heritage! Ah, cruel Fate; why did you not make them + hateful, vulgar, common—something that I could hate and tread + under foot—something that I could think as far beneath me as the + bourgeois canaille of Republican France? But you have made them + aristocratic! Lord Orrel's lineage goes back past the days of St + Louis. His ancestors fought side by side with mine in the first + Crusade. True, they have mixed their blood with that American + froth, the skimming of the pot-bouillé of the nations, but still, + after all, the old blood tells. +</p> + +<p> + "Lady Olive—how I wish that she were either vulgar or ugly, so + that I could hate her!—is a daughter of the Plantagenets fit to + mate with a Prince of Bourbon, if there were one worthy of her. + Lord Orrel might have been one of those who went with the Eighth + Henry to meet Francis on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, patrician + in every turn of voice and manner and movement. And Shafto + Hardress, who will be Earl of Orrel some day, and master of the + world: yes, he is a patrician too; but with him there is something + a little different—the American blood perhaps—keen, quick, + alert, one moment indolently smoking his cigar and sipping his + coffee, the next on his feet, ready to assume the destinies of + nations. A man, too, strong and kindly—a man who would risk his + life to save a drowning dog, and yet strike down an enemy in his + path, so that he might rise a foot or so on the ladder of fame or + power. But he is more than that, he wants far more than the empty + fame of applause. The fame he wants is that which comes from + acknowledged power. You can see the dreamer in his eyes and on his + forehead, and you can see the doer on that beautiful, pitiless + mouth of his and the square, strong jaw which is under it. +</p> + +<p> + "What a man to love and to be loved by! What would he think, I + wonder, if he could read what I am writing here! And yet, are not + all things possible? Is it not the unexpected that comes to pass? + Why not? Behold, I am left desolate, the garden that I called my + heart is a wilderness—a wilderness ploughed up by the ploughshare + of sorrow and bitterness, and so it lies fallow. Would it be + possible for him to sow the seed for which it is waiting?—and + then the harvest would be the empire of the world shared between + us! Well, after all, I am not only Adelaide de Condé, daughter of + a lost dynasty. I am a woman, with all the passions and ambitions + of our race burning hot within me. If I cannot sit on the throne + of the Bourbons, why should I not be empress-consort on the throne + of a world-wide empire?—why not? It would be a magnificent + destiny!" +</p> +</div> +<p> +When she had written this she laid her pen down, put her elbows on the +table, and, with her chin between her hands, looked up in silence for +some minutes at the moon sailing through rank after rank of fleecy +clouds. Then she took up her pen again, and wrote: +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "I wonder if there is another woman?" +</p> +</div> +<p> +She looked at the last words for a moment or two, then put down her +pen, closed the book and locked it, and, as she put it away into a +drawer of her writing-table, she murmured: +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well, if there is—if there is——" She caught a sight of herself +in the long glass of one of the wardrobes, and she saw a tall, +exquisitely-shaped figure of a beautiful woman clad in the plainest of +mourning. She looked at herself with eyes of unsparing criticism, and +found no fault, and she turned away from the glass, saying: +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well, if there is—we shall see—and, if there really is, I +wonder what she's like." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER X +</p> + + +<p> +Within a week after the funeral Adelaide and Madame de Condé returned +to the late prince's hotel on the Ringstrasse in Vienna. They had +taken most cordial leave of Lord Orrel and his son and daughter, and, +in spite of all their prejudices of race and nation, Adelaide de Condé +had brought something more away with her than the memory of a great +sorrow tempered by the kindness of those whom a strange freak of +fortune had made friends as well as enemies. +</p> + +<p> +Even the two or three days that she had spent in his society had +sufficed to show her that Shafto Hardress possessed in an infinitely +greater degree those qualities which go to make the rulers of humanity +than her big handsome Alsatian, whose utmost ambition was the command +of an army corps. He had the hard, keen, unemotional common-sense +which enabled him to see even the tremendous possibilities of Emil +Fargeau's discovery in a purely practical and even commercial light, +but at the same time he possessed sufficient imagination to enable him +to see how far-reaching the moral and social effects of the +working-out of the scheme would be on the peoples of the world. +</p> + +<p> +She had herself said nothing of what had passed during that terrible +night. For all they knew, the prince had taken the secret with him to +the grave. Once Lord Orrel had very delicately led the conversation up +as near to the edge of this supremely important subject as his +instincts would let him go, but he had learnt nothing, and an hour or +so later he said to his son: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Shafto, it is perfectly certain that my dear old friend the +prince died without giving her any inkling of the great secret which +he took to the grave with him." +</p> + +<p> +"Either that, dad," he replied, "or she is the most perfect +diplomatist in Europe. I think I have heard you say that the first +essential of diplomacy is the ability to assume a perfect counterfeit +of innocence and ignorance—in other words, to convey the impression +that you know nothing when you know everything." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if that is so in this case," replied his father, "the mask +which mam'selle wears is as impenetrable as it is beautiful. Really, +Shafto, I think that rumour did not exaggerate when it called her the +most beautiful woman in Europe." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Hardress, slowly; "she certainly is very lovely, and, from +the little I've seen of her, she seems as gifted as she is beautiful." +</p> + +<p> +"Then, my dear boy, if you really think that," said Lord Orrel, "how +would it be if you were to repair this involuntary injustice which the +Fates have wrought upon her? The most beautiful woman in Europe, and +perhaps the most nobly born, and you one of the masters of the world! +Why not? There is the realisation of a dream even greater than the +prince's; and if I have any skill in reading a woman's face or woman's +eyes, it is a dream not very difficult for you to realise." +</p> + +<p> +Hardress laughed, and shook his head, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"No, dad; I'm afraid that's not difficult. It's impossible." +</p> + +<p> +The earl looked up sharply, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, then, of course, there is someone else in the case; and that can +hardly be anyone but——" +</p> + +<p> +"You're quite right, dad; it's Chrysie Vandel. I meant to tell you +before, but such a lot of things have happened since I got here, and +I didn't really think it was of very much consequence for the +present—because, after all, she's only accepted me conditionally—but, +lovely and all as the marquise is, I think I would rather rule over +the Orrel estates with Chrysie than over the world with her." +</p> + +<p> +"Then that, of course, settles it," said the earl, with a certain note +of displeasure in his voice. "Miss Vandel is a most charming and +fascinating girl, but you will perhaps pardon me, Shafto, if I say +that she no more compares with the daughter of the royal line of +France than——" +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't go on, dad," said Hardress, interrupting him with a +laugh; "comparisons are always more or less unpleasant; and then, you +see, you're not in love with either of them, and I'm pretty badly in +love with one." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, well," said his father, "of course, if that's the case, there's +an end of it, and there's nothing more to be said. Still, for more +reasons than one, I must say that I wish you had met the marquise +first. The Plantagenets and the Bourbons would have made a splendid +stock." +</p> + +<p> +On the same day that this conversation took place in the gardens of +the Hôtel Wilhelmshof in Elsenau, a very different one was taking +place in the prince's hotel at Vienna between Adelaide de Condé and +Victor Fargeau, who, on receipt of the news of the prince's death, had +obtained a few days' leave, and travelled post-haste from Petersburg +to Vienna. +</p> + +<p> +It was after dinner, and Madame de Condé had retired to her own room +with a slight attack of nerves. The marquise and Victor Fargeau were +sitting on either side of the open fireplace, with a little table, +holding coffee and liqueurs, between them. Adelaide had accepted a +cigarette from his case, and he had lit one too. For several minutes +after her aunt had left the room she puffed daintily at her cigarette, +and looked across at him with intricately-mingled feelings. At length +Victor broke the silence by saying, with a note of impatience in his +tone: +</p> + +<p> +"And now, Mam'selle la Marquise, or, if you like it better, my most +beautiful Adelaide, I have possessed my soul in patience for nearly +two hours. When are you going to tell me this wonderful news of +yours?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wonderful, my dear Victor? Alas, it is not only that; it is most +sorrowful as well." Then, bracing herself with a visible effort, she +threw her half-smoked cigarette into the fireplace, and, gripping the +arms of the big chair in which she was sitting, she went on, staring +straight into his eyes: "It is nothing less than the story of how your +father met his end, and what became of his great secret." +</p> + +<p> +"Nom de Dieu!" he cried, springing to his feet; "you know that, and +from whom?" +</p> + +<p> +"From these English and Americans—or Anglo-Americans, as I suppose I +ought to call them," she replied; "the people to whom the Fates gave +the secret with your father's dead and mutilated body; the people who +buried him—the man who might have been the saviour of France—in a +nameless English grave." +</p> + +<p> +She kept her voice as steady as she could while she was saying this; +she even tried to speak coldly and pitilessly, for she had made up her +mind that the reasons of state for her betrothal to this man no longer +existed. She had an even higher stake to play for now, and, in spite +of all her pride of blood and racial prejudice, this would not be a +sacrifice; on the contrary, it would be rather a victory—and so she +hardened her voice, as she had done her heart. +</p> + +<p> +"Dead! mutilated!" he exclaimed again. "Yes; I knew he was dead, for +he told me in his letter from Paris that he would not, and could not, +survive the failure of all his hopes. There were reasons why he should +not, but they are of no consequence now. He staked everything, and +lost everything, and that is enough. It is not for me to be his judge, +now that he has gone to the presence of the highest Judge of all." +</p> + +<p> +"That was said like a good son and a true man, Victor," replied the +marquise, with a swift glance of something like admiration at his +flushed and handsome face. "But there is something more serious than +even the death of one whom you have loved and I have most deeply +respected. I heard enough from my own father, during the night he +died, to convince me that these people have not only got the secret, +but that they are already devoting millions to convert your father's +theory into a terrible reality. +</p> + +<p> +"This Viscount Branston, Lord Orrel's son, has already been across to +America, and has leased the land about the Magnetic Pole from the +Canadian Government. A syndicate has been formed, and even at this +very moment the preliminaries of the work are being pushed forward as +rapidly as possible. Within a few months they will have begun the +storage station itself, and then nothing can save the world from the +irresistible power which will be theirs." +</p> + +<p> +While she was speaking, Victor was striding up and down the +dining-room, his hands clasped behind his back, and his frowning eyes +bent on the thick carpet. Suddenly he stopped and faced her, and said, +in sharp, almost passionate accents: +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps it is not too late after all. My father left me those papers +in duplicate. I am weary—sick to death of playing this double game. +In a few months war between France and Germany will be inevitable. +Russia will side with us, and the prize of the victors will be—for +France, the restoration of the Lost Provinces, and a good fat slice of +China, and for Russia the whole of Northern China and Korea. Germany +hasn't a friend on earth. The English hate her because she is beating +them in trade rivalry; Austria has no more forgotten Sadowa than we +have forgotten Sedan. Italy is crippled for lack of money, and so is +Spain. The rest don't matter; and England and America will be only too +glad to stand aside and see Europe tear itself to pieces. So France +and Russia will win, and we shall crush our conqueror into the dust." +</p> + +<p> +"But how can that be?" she interrupted, "if your father's calculations +were correct—as these people have evidently found them to be—for if +they had not done so they would not have risked their millions on +them. From what you and he have told me of his discovery, once these +works are set in operation round the Magnetic Pole, fighting will be +impossible, save with the permission of those who own them. Metals, as +he proved in his last experiment, will become brittle as glass, +cannons and rifles will burst at the first shot, even swords and +bayonets will be no more use than icicles; steam-engines will cease to +work, and the world will go back to the age of wood and stone. +</p> + +<p> +"Picture to yourself, my dear Victor, the armed millions of Europe +facing each other, unable to fire a shot, or even to make a bayonet +charge. Fancy the fleets of Russia and France and Germany laid up like +so many worn-out hulks. No, no, my friend; there can be no talk of +serious war while these people possess the power of preventing it at +their will." +</p> + +<p> +"But war there must and shall be!" he exclaimed. "I have not been a +traitor to my country even in appearance, I have not worn this German +uniform—this livery of slavery—for nothing. I have not wormed my way +into the confidence of my superiors, I have not risked something worse +than death to discover the details of Germany's next campaign against +France, to have all my work brought to nothing at the eleventh hour by +these English-Americans. No, there may be time even yet; I have risked +much, and I will risk more; and you, Adelaide, will you help me? Will +you keep the compact which your father made with mine?" +</p> + +<p> +She had been growing paler all the time he had been speaking, knowing +instinctively what was coming. She rose slowly from her chair, and +said, almost falteringly: +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean, Victor? How can I help you, when these people +already have the secret in their hands, and have been spending their +millions for weeks? What can we do against them?" +</p> + +<p> +"We can do this," he replied, stopping again in his walk; "my father +pledged his honour as well as everything else he had in the world to +insure the success of this scheme. I, his son, can do no less; I will +pledge mine in the same cause. I am on leave, and I can wear plain +clothes. To-morrow I will start for Paris and see if I cannot bring +that pig-headed Minister of War to something like reason. I think I +have a suggestion which he will find worth working out, and certainly +he will be interested in other things that I shall put before him. +Germany I have done with. I have worn the livery of shame too long. +Henceforth I am what I was born—a Frenchman. I will resign my +commission to-morrow, even if France lets me starve for it. I can +easily do that, for the son of a disgraced man cannot remain in the +German army, and my poor father disgraced himself to make France the +mistress of the world. A miserable Jew in Strassburg holds the honour +of our family in his hand. I have no money to redeem it, and so it +must go." +</p> + +<p> +She had almost said, "Victor, I am rich; let me redeem it," when she +remembered that she was no longer more loyal to him than he was to +Germany. All the while that he had been talking she had been thinking, +almost against her will, of Shafto Hardress, and comparing him only +too favourably with this man, who, however honourable his motives +might seem to himself, was still a traitor and a spy. Instead of this, +she said, rising and holding out her hand, "Well, Victor, so far as I +can help you I will. We are going to Paris ourselves in a few days, +and, by the way, that reminds me I had a letter from Sophie Valdemar +only this morning, telling me that she and the count are going there +too." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah yes," replied Victor; "a mixture of diplomacy and pleasure, I've +no doubt. I wonder what the fair Sophie would give to know what you +and I know, Adelaide?" +</p> + +<p> +"A good deal, no doubt," smiled Adelaide, as they shook hands. "Of one +thing I'm quite certain; if Russia had the knowledge that you are +going to give to France, Russia would find some means of making those +storage works an impossibility." +</p> + +<p> +"And that is exactly what I propose to persuade France to do, if +possible; but we can talk that over better when we meet in Paris. And +now, my Adelaide, good-night." +</p> + +<p> +He clasped her hand and drew her towards him; for the fraction of a +second she drew back, and then she yielded and submitted to his kiss; +but when the door had closed behind him, she drew the palm of her hand +across her lips with a gesture almost of disgust, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"No, my Victor; that must be the last. You cannot afford a Princess of +Bourbon now. I sold myself for statecraft which is craft no longer; +and, besides, there is another now. Ah, well, I wonder what will +happen in Paris? And Sophie Valdemar, too, and the count! Altogether, +I think we shall make quite an interesting little party when we meet +in la Ville Lumière." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XI +</p> + + +<p> +Ten days had passed since Victor Fargeau's conversation with Adelaide +de Condé in Vienna. He had adhered to the decision that he had come to +so suddenly under the spell of her wonderful eyes. +</p> + +<p> +He had no family ties now. His mother had died several years before. +His two sisters had married Frenchmen, and migrated with their +husbands into Normandy. The estate in Alsace, which should have been +his own patrimony, was lost, and the German Jew, Weinthal, held not +only that but the honour of his family, the good name of his dead +father, in his hands. So he had decided to cut himself adrift from his +native land until it had become once more a part of France. +</p> + +<p> +He had written to Petersburg and resigned his position on the +Diplomatic Staff, and he had also written to headquarters resigning +his commission, and telling enough of his father's story to show that, +since it was impossible for him now, as a man with a tarnished name, +to hold his head up amongst his brother officers, there was nothing +left for him but retirement into civil life. +</p> + +<p> +A reply had come back, to the effect that the circumstances of his +very painful case were under consideration, and that he need not +report himself for duty until the general of the division to which he +was attached had given his decision. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that this was equivalent to an acceptance of his resignation. +Even though he had asked for it, his dismissal galled him. He knew +perfectly well that he had only entered the German army for the +purposes of revenge, that in honest language he could only be +described as a traitor and a spy—a man who had deliberately abused +his position and the confidence of his superiors to get possession of +plans of fortresses, details of manœuvres, lines of communication, +available rolling-stock, and points of entry which had been selected +for possible invasion. +</p> + +<p> +He had, in fact, done more than even Dreyfus was ever accused of, and +now, since everything else was lost, he was determined to take the +last step. He would throw off his enforced allegiance to Germany; he +would take the wreck of his fortunes with him to France, and he would +offer her his services and his information. He knew well enough that +they would not be rejected, as his father's priceless discovery had +been. What he possessed would be bought eagerly by any of the +chancelleries of Europe. The French Ministry of War would not refuse +his services as it had refused his father's. +</p> + +<p> +Even now some means might be found to checkmate these +English-Americans. Already a scheme, daring and yet practicable, was +shaping itself in his mind, and if that succeeded he might still +achieve the one desire of his life and call Adelaide de Condé his own. +For the present, although she had said nothing at that last interview, +he felt that a change had come into their relationship. Her words had +been more formal and more measured, and her last kiss colder than +before. He felt that he was on his trial; that if he did not achieve +something great she was lost to him. +</p> + +<p> +And then there was the other—this English-American—who had not only +got the Great Secret, but the millions to put it into practice. He +knew her high ambitions. He knew that if she had to choose between +love for a man, and the fulfilment of a great project, the man would +have but little chance. But he had loved her since he knew the meaning +of the word, and he had resolved to risk everything that was left to +him to win back what had once been within his grasp. If in the end he +failed and the other man won—well, so much the worse for the other +man. +</p> + +<p> +And then there was Sophie Valdemar. Even if this English-American did +take Adelaide from him——But that was another matter, the fragment of +a possible destiny which still lay upon the knees of the gods. If the +worst came to the worst, what would Russia not give to know all that +he knew and all that was contained in the only legacy that his father +had left him. +</p> + +<p> +So thinking, he travelled to Paris, leaving his uniform behind him, +and dressed just as an ordinary man about town, quietly, but with +exquisite care and neatness. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he had settled himself in a modest hotel in one of the +streets of the Avenue de l'Opé, he wrote a discreetly-worded note to +one of the secretaries of the Ministry of War, a former schoolfellow +of his, with whom he had had previous communications of a confidential +sort, asking him to arrange a private interview for him with the +Minister at the earliest possible date, and, if possible, to dine with +him the next evening. The next morning he called to pay his respects +to Madame de Bourbon and the marquise at the hotel they had taken in +the Avenue Neuilly. +</p> + +<p> +He met the marquise alone in the salon. She received him quietly and +almost coldly—but this he had expected. +</p> + +<p> +"So you have finally decided," she said. "I thought from your letter +that you would do so. How very different you look <i>en civile</i>! +Really, although we naturally hate the sight of them, still, it must +be admitted that those German uniforms do make a good-looking man look +his best." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied Victor, choking down his chagrin as best he might; "to +a certain extent it is true, after all, that the feathers make the +bird, and so, of course, the clothes make the man. Still, I'm afraid I +shall have to ask you to tolerate me for the future without my German +plumage. As you say, I have made my decision. I have broken with +Germany for ever. Henceforth, I am a son of France—and, Adelaide, I +have come to ask a daughter of France to help me to serve her." +</p> + +<p> +"Of France!" she echoed, drawing herself up, and looking at him with a +half-angry glint in her eyes, "of what France? Of this nation of snobs +and shopkeepers, ruled by a combination of stockbrokers, heavy-witted +bourgeoisie and political adventurers? or the old France—my +France—the France of my ancestors, as it was in the days when the +great Louis said: 'L'état c'est moi'? The one is not worth saving; the +other might be worth restoring." +</p> + +<p> +"But this France of the bourgeoisie must first be saved, so that we +may make out of it the foundation for the throne of the great Louis. +If we succeed, Adelaide, as it is still possible that we may do, we +shall be strong enough to abolish the salic law and to enthrone you as +Empress of the French." +</p> + +<p> +"Of France, if you please! My ancestors were Kings of France. Even the +Corsican dared only style himself Emperor of the French. You seem to +forget that I am a daughter of the Bourbons, a scion of the older +line, and that therefore France is my personal heritage. But come," +she went on, with a swift change of tone and manner, "it will be time +enough to talk about that when I am nearer to my inheritance than I am +now. You said that you wanted my help—how? What can I do now, left +alone as I am?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not quite alone, Adelaide," he said, half reproachfully. "Have I not +given up everything, even, as some would say, sacrificed honour +itself, to help you to win back that which is your own by every right? +And you can help me as no one else can. I have a friend in the +Ministry of War—Gaston Leraulx, one of the secretaries. We were +school-fellows and college friends. He is to dine with me to-night, +and he will arrange an interview with the Minister of War. I shall ask +you to come with me to that interview." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you say, Victor? You wish me, a princess of the House of +Bourbons to enter the bureau of one of these ministers—these +politicians who are ruling in the place of the old noblesse—men whom +we might perhaps have employed as lacqueys?" +</p> + +<p> +"That is true," he replied; "but remember, Adelaide, that time brings +its differences. My ancestors were nobles when yours were kings. If +the old order of things is to be restored we must use these people as +means to an end. I ask you to come with me to the Minister of War, so +that you may help me to convince him, from your own knowledge, of the +terrible mistake that he made when he refused to entertain the project +that my father placed before him. +</p> + +<p> +"You can tell him that strange story of how my father in his despair +committed his body and his secret to the sea; how the sea gave it up +into the hands of our worst enemies—the enemies of yesterday, to-day, +and to-morrow—England and America; and how, even now, they are +spending their millions upon that upon which France would not even +risk a few paltry thousands. +</p> + +<p> +"When I place my papers before him he will see that they are identical +with my father's, and I shall give him others which will make it +impossible for him to doubt my faith; and you, you will be there to +help me with your knowledge, with the prestige of your name, and with +your beauty. The General may be all that you think him, but do not +forget that he is a Frenchman, and that all Frenchmen who are not +quite mad respect and admire at least two things——" +</p> + +<p> +"And those are—what?" she said, taking a couple of steps towards him, +and speaking in a low, earnest tone. "Am I to understand you to mean +that this man—I know that he is one of the most able men that France +can boast of—might perhaps be made an instrument of?" +</p> + +<p> +"I mean," said Victor, taking her hand unresistingly, "that General +Ducros is himself an aristocrat, a man whose forefathers served yours +well; that he is a Frenchman whose spirit will recognise yours as +being of similar lineage, whose eyes will not be blind, and whose ears +will not be deaf. Surely, Adelaide, you see by this time what I mean: +you see how, with you, I may succeed in everything, and, without you, +I may fail. And, remember, if I fail there is an end of everything. +This is our last hope. If it is not realised, these accursed English +and Americans will be masters of the situation, masters of the world, +indeed. Surely, Adelaide, for the sake of all that is past and all +that may be to come you will not say no?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, Victor; I will not," she replied, still allowing her hand to rest +in his, and yet thinking the while of that other man, whose face was +ever present to her eyes, and whose voice was ever echoing in her +ears. "I will visit this Minister of yours with you. His name is good, +and perhaps he may not be unworthy of it. At any rate, he is not +disgraced by one of those new titles of the First or Second Empire. If +I can help you I will; trust me for that. When it is arranged send me +a telegram and our carriage is at your disposal. Ah, who is this?" +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the door opened, and the lacquey announced: +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur le Comte de Valdemar; Ma'm'selle la Comtesse de Valdemar." +</p> + +<p> +Victor Fargeau saw at a glance that the count and Sophie were dressed +in half-mourning, and instantly divined that their visit was one of +condolence. This, of course, gave him a most excellent excuse to make +his adieux. +</p> + +<p> +There was just a glimmer of taunting mockery in Sophie's brilliant +eyes as she recognised the dashing young cavalry officer in the sober +garb of civil life, but it passed like a flash, and as they shook +hands she said: +</p> + +<p> +"A most unexpected meeting, captain!" And then, with a look of frank +challenge, "No doubt it is most important business that has brought +you to Paris <i>en civile</i>." +</p> + +<p> +"It is not without importance, countess, at least to my own poor and +presently insignificant self. Whether," he went on, with a swift +involuntary glance at Adelaide, who was receiving the condolences of +the count, "it will ever be of importance to others is one of the +secrets of fate; and, if so, you, who are no doubt justly credited +with knowing half the secrets of Europe, will probably be one of the +first to discover the fact." +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder whether that is intended for a compliment or the reverse," +said Sophie, with a look of challenge coming back into her eyes. "You +see, captain, there are two sorts of people who are supposed to know +everything—diplomatists and spies." +</p> + +<p> +Her voice dropped almost to a whisper as she spoke the last word. +</p> + +<p> +Victor did his best to preserve his composure, but Sophie's watchful +eyes saw that the shot had gone home; still, the next moment he +replied, with the stiff wooden-doll bow of the German officer, and +without a tremor in his voice: +</p> + +<p> +"It would be quite impossible that mam'selle could be anything but one +of the two." +</p> + +<p> +As he raised his head she looked into his eyes again, and laughed +outright. +</p> + +<p> +"Well hit, captain! that was very nicely put. I think you and I would +make better friends than enemies, and in proof of my belief, let me +tell you a secret which is not of Europe. An Anglo-American syndicate +has for some reason or other leased several square miles round the +Magnetic Pole in Boothia Land, British North America." +</p> + +<p> +"Really! And might I ask why? It doesn't seem to be a very profitable +investment in landed property." +</p> + +<p> +"Who knows?" said Sophie, with a little shrug of her shapely +shoulders. "These English and Americans, you know, are always doing +the maddest things. I shouldn't wonder if they intended to turn the +<i>Aurora borealis</i> into electric light for Chicago." +</p> + +<p> +"Nor I," said Victor. "And now, if you will permit me, I must say Au +revoir." +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder how much our ex-captain really knows, and if my dear friend +Adelaide here knows anything or not," said Sophie, in her soul, when +Victor had made his adieux and the door closed behind him. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XII +</p> + + +<p> +It was not until four days later that Victor's friend in the Ministry +of War was able to procure an appointment for him with General Ducros. +Pressure of business was Captain Gaston Leraulx' explanation, and it +was an honest one. What he did not know was that on the evening of the +day when Count Valdemar and his daughter paid their visit of +condolence to Adelaide de Condé, General Ducros dined with them. +</p> + +<p> +They had no other guest, for the best of reasons. Countess Sophie, the +omniscient, by means of a happy accident, had got a fairly clear idea +of the outlines of the Great Storage Scheme. The servants of the White +Tzar are everywhere, known or unknown, generally the latter. A Russian +trapper happened to meet a French-Canadian voyageur in Montreal when +Shafto Hardress was making his negotiations with the Canadian +Government. They had a few drinks and a talk over the extraordinary +deal that he had made with the Canadian Government, a deal which had +been reported and commented on by the Canadian and American journals +with the usual luxuriance of speculative imagination. The same night +the voyageur and the trapper, both men who were living on the products +of their season's hunting and trapping, cabled practically the same +details to Paris and Petersburg. +</p> + +<p> +The voyageur's telegram had gone to General Ducros; and he, with the +instinct of a soldier and a statesman, had instantly connected it with +the greatest mistake that he had made in his life, his refusal to +entertain the proposal which Doctor Emil Fargeau had laid before him. +He saw that he had refused even to examine a scheme which this +Anglo-American syndicate had somehow got hold of and thought it worth +their while to spend thousands of pounds even in preliminary +development. As he said to himself when the unwelcome news came to +him, "I have committed a crime—for I have made a mistake, and for +statesmen mistakes are something worse than crimes." +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the Russian trapper's message had reached Count Valdemar, +he immediately discussed it with his daughter, who over and over again +had given proof of an almost clairvoyant insight into the most +difficult and intricate concerns of international diplomacy. The +moment she saw it her instinct led her back to the reception at the +German Embassy in Petersburg. +</p> + +<p> +"It was all very easy, after all, general," she said, when the dinner +was over, and the coffee and liqueurs were on the table. "If you will +pardon me saying so, it is in cases like this that the intuition of +the woman outstrips the logical faculty of the man. You have asked me +how I discovered the connection between the interview between yourself +and Doctor Fargeau, which, as you say, ended somewhat unhappily for +France, and this extraordinary purchase of a seemingly worthless +landed property by Viscount Hardress." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah yes," said the general, knocking the ash off his cigarette. +"Statesmen are not supposed to make mistakes, but to you, Ma'm'selle, +and Monsieur le Comte, I must confess, to my most intense chagrin, the +man was an Alsatian, and had accepted the new order of things in the +provinces, he was a German subject, and his son was a German officer +on the general staff. What could I think?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear general," replied Sophie, after a long whiff at her yellow +Russian cigarette, "your conclusions were perfectly just under the +circumstances. But when you have had your interview with Captain +Fargeau and my dear friend the marquise, I think you will find that, +after all, they were erroneous. Do you not think so, papa?" +</p> + +<p> +"I fancy," replied the count, slowly, "that when you have made your +explanations to the general, he will agree with you." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, then, general, I will spin my little thread before you, +and you shall see whether it holds together or not. First, there was +that snatch of a conversation that I heard at the German Embassy +reception in Petersburg. Captain Fargeau was talking with the late +Prince de Condé, and he was called away by one of the servants. From +another source I knew afterwards that he had received a telegram from +Strassburg. He came back, and made a pretence of dancing with my very +dear friend, Adelaide de Condé. They went out into the winter garden, +just in front of myself and my partner. I heard him tell her that 'he' +had succeeded, and gone to Paris. +</p> + +<p> +"You have told me of his father's visit to you. The chief part of his +scheme was the building of these works round the Magnetic Pole in +Boothia Land. The prince and Adelaide go to a little out-of-the-way +place in Germany, called Elsenau. The fashionable papers told us that. +They also told us that Lord Orrel and his daughter were there; and +almost the same day arrives this Viscount Branston, Lord Orrel's son. +The prince suddenly and mysteriously dies—as they say, from the +bursting of a blood-vessel on the brain. Of course, all the papers +tell us of that, and also that Viscount Branston goes to Vienna and +brings back Madame de Bourbon, who is here now, in Paris, with +Adelaide. +</p> + +<p> +"Before this, you and my father have the telegrams from our good +friends out yonder in Canada. Then the Canadian and American papers +confirm this, and tell us that this same Viscount Branston has leased +this very spot of seemingly worthless land, which was, as you tell us, +essential to the carrying out of Emil Fargeau's scheme, and that a +great Anglo-American syndicate has been formed to build an observatory +there, or a central station for the control of wireless telegraphy +throughout the world; and so on. No doubt the newspaper stories are as +familiar to you as they are to us. Now, general, do you see the +connection between that scrap of conversation I heard in Petersburg, +and the purchase of that patch of snow-covered rock in Boothia Land?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ma'm'selle," replied the general, "it is not a thread, but a chain, +and there is not a weak link in it. It is perfectly plain now that +there is a connection between this German officer, at present on leave +in Paris, and these English and Americans who have somehow become +possessed of the details of the scheme which I so unfortunately +rejected. Still, until we have heard what Captain Fargeau and your +friend the Marquise de Montpensier, whom I am to have the honour of +receiving to-morrow, have to say, it would not, I think, be wise to +conclude that they have entered into a conspiracy with those whom I +may describe as our common enemies." +</p> + +<p> +"That, general, I do not believe for a moment," said the count. "All +their interests lie the other way. They have as much reason to dislike +England and America as we have; and, until I know to the contrary, I +shall prefer to believe that the Marquise de Montpensier, a daughter +of the Bourbons, is a friend to France, and therefore, through France, +to Russia." +</p> + +<p> +"And I believe that too," said Sophie. "As far as England and America +are concerned, the interests of France and Russia are identical. If +these arrogant Anglo-Saxons are ever to be put into their proper +place, Russia and France must do it: and, to begin with, by some means +or other, this scheme must be frustrated. And now, general, I have +given you a little information to-night, and I am going to ask a +little favour in return." +</p> + +<p> +"It shall be granted, if possible. Ma'm'selle has only to ask it." +</p> + +<p> +"There is, I believe," said Sophie, putting her arms on the table, "a +little apartment leading out of your own bureau at the Ministry of +War?" +</p> + +<p> +General Ducros could not help raising his eyelids a little, for he +knew that neither Sophie nor her father had ever been in that room, +but he dropped them again instantly, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"That is perfectly true, ma'm'selle; it is a little apartment, devoted +to my own private use. In fact, to tell you the truth, I am sometimes +there when it is convenient for my secretary to prove by ocular +demonstration to some more or less important personage that I am not +at home, and that, in consequence of my unavoidable absence, an +undesirable interview has to be postponed." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly," laughed Sophie. "Such things are not unknown elsewhere; and +I am going to ask you, general, for the use of that room during your +interview to-morrow with the Marquise de Montpensier and Captain +Fargeau. In other words, I wish to be present at the interview without +doing anything to interrupt the smooth course of the proceedings." +</p> + +<p> +"Ma'm'selle knows so much already that there is no reason why she +should not know more," replied the general, not very cordially; "but, +of course, it is understood, as a matter of honour between ourselves, +that in this matter we are allies, as our countries are." +</p> + +<p> +"Undoubtedly," replied the count. "It would, indeed, be mutually +impossible for it to be otherwise." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said Sophie, "we will consider that a bargain. My father and I +will call shortly before the captain and Adelaide reach the Ministry, +and afterwards——" +</p> + +<p> +"And afterwards, my dear general, if you will allow me to interrupt +you," said the count, "I would suggest that we should have a little +dinner here, to which Sophie will invite Madame de Bourbon and the +marquise, as well as Captain Fargeau; a dinner which, if you will +permit me to say so, may possibly be of historic interest; an occasion +upon which, perhaps, the alliance between France and Russia will be +cemented by a mutual agreement and arrangement to outwit these +English-Americans, and secure the world-empire for France and Russia." +</p> + +<p> +General Ducros assented. He saw that, owing to the fatal mistake he +had made when he rejected Emil Fargeau's scheme, he was now, thanks to +the subtle intellect of Sophie Valdemar, forced to share the +possibility of obtaining that world-empire with Russia, the ally whose +friendship had already cost France so dearly, an ally to whom France +had paid millions for a few empty assurances and one or two brilliant +scenes in the international spectacular drama. No one knew better than +he did how worthless this alliance really was to France, and that +night he reproached himself bitterly for letting slip the chance of +making France independent of her blood-sucking ally. Still, by an +extraordinary combination of chance and skill, Sophie Valdemar had got +the necessary knowledge of the great secret, and, perforce, he had to +share it with her and Russia. +</p> + +<p> +Punctually at eleven o'clock the next morning Adelaide de Condé and +Victor Fargeau were admitted to the bureau of the Minister of War. The +interview was very different from the one that he had granted to the +man whom his scepticism had practically driven to his death, and so +placed the great secret in the hands of his country's enemies. It was +also much shorter. When, at the outset, the general had addressed +Victor as Captain Fargeau, he replied: +</p> + +<p> +"Pardon, general, I am captain no longer, nor am I any longer a +German. I have resigned. Henceforth I am a Frenchman in fact, as I +have always been in heart. You would not believe that of my father, +but I will prove it to you of myself." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear sir," replied the general, "no one could be more delighted to +hear such news as that than I; and I can promise you that, in that +case, an appointment—not, of course, an acknowledged one, since you +are not now legally a Frenchman—shall be placed at your disposal." +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide turned her head away as he spoke, and her lips curled into a +smile which made her look almost ugly. "So now he is to become a paid +spy," she thought. "And he still considers that I am pledged to him. +But what can I do till we have either succeeded or failed? Ah, if it +were only the other one! If he were a Frenchman, or if only I could +make him love me as I could—well, we shall see. After all, patriotism +has its limits. France has broken its allegiance to my house. What do +I owe it?" +</p> + +<p> +General Ducros saw at a glance that the specifications which Victor +handed to him were the duplicates of those which he had so unwisely +and so unfortunately for himself and for France refused to accept from +his father. If anything had been needed to convince him of the +terrible error that he had made, Adelaide's story of the last night of +her father's life would have done it. +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur," he said, laying his hand upon the papers, "I will confess +that I have made a great mistake, even that I have committed a crime +against France and your father. Alas, as we know now from the story +that Ma'm'selle la Marquise has told us, he is dead; and it is I who, +innocently and unknowingly, sent him to his death. I can do no more +than admit my error, and promise you that every force at my command +shall be used to repair it, if possible. These other documents, which +you have been good enough to hand to me, I take, of course, as an +earnest of your good faith and your devotion to France." +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder what they are," said Sophie Valdemar, in her soul, as the +Minister's words reached her ear through the closed door of the little +private room. "An Alsatian, a German officer, Military Attaché at +Petersburg, he resigns his commission, goes back to his French +allegiance, and gives the general something which proves his good +faith! Ah, perhaps a scheme of campaign—sketches of routes—details +of mobilisation—plans of fortresses! We must fight Germany soon. I +wonder whether I could persuade the good general to let me have a look +at them, if they are anything of that sort." +</p> + +<p> +While these thoughts were flashing through Sophie's mind, the general +was saying: +</p> + +<p> +"And now, monsieur, you mentioned a short time ago that you had a +scheme for repairing the error which I have confessed. May I ask for +an outline of it? I need hardly say that, if it is only feasible, +France will spare neither money nor men to accomplish the object, and +to regain what I have so deplorably lost." +</p> + +<p> +"My scheme, general," said Victor, "is exceedingly simple. These +English-Americans are going to erect storage works round the Magnetic +Pole, which, as of course you know, is situated in the far north, in a +sort of No-man's Land, untrodden by human feet once in half-a-century. +Let France fit out an Arctic expedition of two ships. Let them be old +warships—as the <i>Alert</i> and <i>Discovery</i> were in the English +expedition. Their mission will, of course, be a peaceful one, and +their departure will cause no comment save in the scientific papers, +but in their holds the ships will carry the most powerful guns they +can mount, ammunition, and——" +</p> + +<p> +"Excellent!" interrupted the general, rising from his seat. "My dear +monsieur, I congratulate you upon a brilliant idea. Yes, the +expedition shall be prepared with all speed; the newspapers shall +describe the ships as old ones, but the Minister of Marine and myself +will arrange that they shall carry the best guns and the most powerful +explosives that we have. They shall be manned by picked crews, +commanded by our best officers; they shall sail for the North Pole, or +thereabouts, as all these expeditions do, and they shall make a +friendly call at Boothia Land. It will not be possible now before next +summer because of the ice; but the same cause will delay our friends +in building the storage works; and when our ships call and the works +are well in progress—well, then, we will see whether or not our +friends will yield to logic; and, if not, to force majeure. Is that +your idea?" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly," replied Victor. "We will wait till the works are finished, +say this time next year, or two years or three years, it matters +nothing, and then we will take them. The expedition will carry men +trained to do the work under my orders. I have the whole working of +the apparatus in those papers. Once we possess the works we are +masters of the world, because we shall be possessors of its very life. +But before that there may be war—the nations of Europe fighting for +the limbs of the Yellow Giant in the East. Germany, as you will see +from those papers, is nearly ready. It is only a matter of a few +months, and then she will make her first rush on France. England and +America can be rendered helpless if we once seize the works, and +Russia can, I presume, be trusted?" +</p> + +<p> +"Without doubt," said the general. "Russia is our true and faithful +ally." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Sophie again, in her soul; "provided she has a share in +that Polar expedition, as she shall have." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XIII +</p> + + +<p> +Nearly a year had passed since General Ducros had dined with Count +Valdemar and Ma'm'selle Sophie in Paris. It was Cowes week, and there +was quite a cosmopolitan party at Orrel Court. Adelaide de Condé and +Madame de Bourbon were the best of friends with Count Valdemar and +Sophie. Clifford Vandel and Miss Chrysie were good friends with +everybody, the latter especially good friends with Hardress, whose +work was now rapidly approaching completion. In short, it was as +charming a cosmopolitan party as you could have found on the Hampshire +shore, or anywhere else; and none of the other guests of Lord Orrel, +and there were several of them not unskilled in diplomacy, ever dreamt +that under the surface of the smooth-flowing conversation, whether +round the dinner-table at the Court, on the <i>Nadine</i>, which ran +down the Southampton Water every day that there was a good race on, or +at Clifford Vandel's bungalow at Cowes, whose smoothly shaven lawn +sloped down almost to the water's edge, lay undercurrents of plot and +counterplot, the issue of which was the question whether the dominion +of the world was to be committed to Anglo-Saxon or Franco-Slav hands. +</p> + +<p> +One night—it was the evening after the great regatta—three +conversations took place under the roof of Orrel Court, which the +greatest newspapers of the two hemispheres would have given any amount +of money to be able to report, since each of them was possibly +pregnant with the fate of the world. +</p> + +<p> +When Clifford Vandel came up from the smoking-room a little after +eleven he found Miss Chrysie waiting for him in the sitting-room of +the suite of apartments that had been given to them in the eastern +wing of the old mansion. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you think you ought to be in bed, Chrysie, instead of sitting +there smoking a cigarette, and—Why, what's the matter with you, +girl?" +</p> + +<p> +He had begun with something like a note of reproach in his voice, but +the last words were spoken in a tone of tender concern. +</p> + +<p> +She got up from her chair, went to the door, and shut it and locked +it, and then, with her half-smoked cigarette poised between her +fingers, her face pale, and her eyes aflame, she faced him and said, +in low, quick-flowing tones: +</p> + +<p> +"Poppa, can't you see what's the matter?—you, who can see things +months before they happen, and make millions by gambling on them?—you +who did up Morgan himself over that wireless telegraphy combine—can't +you see what's going on right here just under your nose?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Chrysie, what are you talking about? I've not noticed +anything particular happening, except what's happened in the right +way. What's the trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +"The trouble's that Frenchwoman—that second edition of Marie +Antoinette. Can't you see what she's doing every hour and day of her +life? Can't you see that she's as beautiful as an angel, and—well, as +clever as the other thing, and that she's just playing her hand for +all she's worth to get the man I want—the man I half-promised myself +to a year ago!" +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps I've been too busy about other matters, and perhaps I never +expected anything of the sort," replied her father; "and anyhow, men +are fools at seeing this kind of thing; but if that's so, and you +really do want him, why not promise yourself altogether and fix things +up? There's no man I'd sooner have for a son-in-law; and if you want +him, and he wants you, why——" +</p> + +<p> +"It's just there, poppa, that I'm feeling bad about it," she said, +coming nearer to him, and speaking with a little break in her voice. +"I'm not so sure that he does want me now—at least, not quite as +badly as he did that time when he asked me first in Buffalo. Don't you +see that Frenchwoman's bewitched him? And who could blame him, after +all? What do all the society papers say about her? The most beautiful +woman in Europe—the great-great-grand-daughter of Louis the +Magnificent himself, with the noblest blood of France in her veins! +How could any man with eyes in his head and blood in his heart resist +her? Why, I could no more compare with her than——" +</p> + +<p> +"Than a wild rose in one of these beautiful English lanes could +compare with a special variety of an orchid in a hothouse; and I +guess, Chrysie, that if I haven't made a great mistake about Shafto +Hardress—if he does get a bit intoxicated with the scent of the +orchid, if it comes to winning and wearing the flower, he'll take the +wild rose. If he doesn't—well, I guess you'll do pretty well without +him." +</p> + +<p> +"But I just can't do without him, poppa. You are the only one I'd tell +it to, but that's so; and before that Frenchwoman gets him I'd have +her out and shoot her. Women in her country fight duels. And there's +more to it than that," she went on, after a little pause. +</p> + +<p> +"And what might that be, Miss Fire-eater?" said her father, +half-laughing, half-seriously. +</p> + +<p> +"I believe that she and that Russian girl, who goes languishing around +Shafto when the marquise or myself isn't around, know more than they +should do about this storage scheme. I don't say I've been +listening—I wouldn't do it—no, not even for them; but sometimes you +can't help hearing; and only the day before yesterday, out in the +grounds there, I heard both of them, not to each other, but at +different times to Count Valdemar, mention the name of Victor Fargeau; +and you know who he is—son of the man whose remains Shafto picked up +at sea—creator of this great scheme of yours—a Frenchman who was an +officer in the German army. Now listen: both these women are friends +of General Ducros, the French War Minister. France is sending out the +Polar expedition this year that she has been preparing for months—you +know that; so has Russia. Do you see what I mean now?" +</p> + +<p> +"I guess you've got me on my own ground there, Chrysie," said her +father, laying his hand across her shoulders, and drawing her towards +him. "You were dead right when you said that a woman's intuition can +sometimes see quicker and farther than a man's reason; but on that +kind of ground I guess I can see as well as anyone. I admit that I +have been wondering a bit why just this particular year France and +Russia should be sending two Polar expeditions out; but it's pretty +well sure that if you hadn't seen that this French marquise and the +Russian countess were after the man you want—and the man you're going +to get, too, if he's the man I think he is—I shouldn't have seen what +I see now." +</p> + +<p> +"And what's that, poppa?" +</p> + +<p> +"They're not Polar expeditions at all, Chrysie; those ships are no +more trying to go to the North Pole than they're trying to find the +source of the Amazon. You got the key that opens the whole show when +you heard them talking about Victor Fargeau. They're going to Boothia +Land, that's where they're going to, and they're not going on what the +Russians generally call a voyage of scientific discovery. I'd bet +every dollar we've got in the Trust that those ships have guns on +them, and there's going to be a fight for that Magnetic Pole after +all. Anyhow, there's a cable going across to Doctor Lamson the first +thing to-morrow morning. If there's anything like that going on, he +can't be on guard any too soon. And now, little girl," he went on, +raising his hand and putting it on her head, "you go to bed, and don't +you worry about Frenchwomen or Russians. Shafto Hardress comes of good +old English and American stock, and he's just as clever as he can be +without being altogether American. Don't you worry about him. There's +not going to be any trouble in his mind when he has to choose between +a clean-blooded, healthy American girl and anyone else, even if she +has got all the blood of all the Bourbons in her veins, or even if she +is the daughter of Count Valdemar of Russia, whose ancestors, I guess, +were half savages when yours were gentlemen. Don't you worry about +that, little girl; you just go to bed, and dream about the time when +you'll be sitting on a throne that Marie Antoinette's wasn't a +circumstance to. Now, I have told you, and that's so. Good-night. I'll +have a talk with Lord Orrel to-morrow morning, and see to the business +part of the affair." +</p> + +<p> +As Chrysie crossed the long corridor to her own room she caught a +glimpse of a tall, graceful figure which she had come to know only too +well, and the sweep of a long, trailing skirt, vanishing through a +door which she knew led into Count Valdemar's dressing-room. +</p> + +<p> +"That's Sophie," she said. "I wonder if she saw me. She's been with +the marquise, I suppose; and now she's going to have a talk with her +father, something like mine with poppa. It's mean to listen, and I +couldn't do it if I wanted to, but I'd like to give some of those +dollars that poppa's going to make out of this scheme to hear what +she's going to say, or what she's been saying to the marquise. I +reckon I could make some history out of it if I knew; but anyhow, +there's going to be trouble with that Frenchwoman. I don't think so +much about the Russian. I believe she wants to marry either Lord Orrel +or poppa; she's just about as mean as she is pretty and clever. I'd +just like to say that English swear-word about her." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie said that, and many other things, in her soul that night +after she had laid her head on her pillow; and, even after the demands +of physical fatigue upon a perfectly healthy physique had compelled +slumber, she dreamt of herself as a modern Juno, usurping the throne +of Jove, and wielding his lightnings, with the especial object of +destroying utterly from the face of the earth two young ladies, with +whom she was living on apparent terms of the most perfect friendship, +and who were even then resting their pretty heads on pillows just like +hers under the same roof. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XIV +</p> + + +<p> +Sophie opened the door in answer to her father's murmured "entrez," +and closed it very gently behind her. She had not noticed Chrysie as +she slipped into her own room, for her back was towards her, and, +happily, she had no suspicion whatever of the conclusions which +Chrysie's love-sharpened eyes had enabled her to reach. If she had, +some skilfully-devised accident would probably have happened. For +though but two people among the guests at Orrel Court knew it, there +were spies both inside and around the great house, unscrupulous agents +of an unscrupulous government, who would have carried out their orders +at all hazards. In fact, they had been brought there by Count +Valdemar, at his daughter's suggestion, to assist in working out the +most daring conspiracy that had ever been hatched at an English +country house. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, papa," said Sophie, in her soft Russian, as she took a +cigarette, and dropped into an easy-chair with a motion that was +almost voluptuous in its gracefulness, "now that these good people +have gone to bed, we shall be able to have a little quiet talk. Are +you still of opinion that the scheme that I sketched out is feasible?" +</p> + +<p> +"Everything is feasible, my dear Sophie," replied her father, +"provided only you have people of sufficient genius and boldness to +carry it out. No doubt it would be possible with our own people, and +those of the English sailors whom we have been able to bribe, to carry +out that brilliant plan of yours, especially as you appear to have +wrought such a magical transformation in the allegiance of this +impressionable young engineer of yours on the <i>Nadine</i>. Are you +quite sure of him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sure of him!" said Sophie, in a voice that was little above a +whisper, and leaning forward and looking at her father with a smile +which made even him think her beauty almost repulsive for the moment. +"Edward Williams is as much in love as Boris Bernovitch was, and +is—although he is where he is. I have promised, as usual. He has +believed me, as usual, just like any other fool of his sex. Day after +day I have met him and talked with him in what he calls my adorable +foreign English. I have given him rendezvous which would have startled +my Lord Orrel and all his belongings out of that abominable, habitual +calm of theirs, and perhaps procured me a request to leave the house +immediately. I have fooled him out of his seven senses, and to-night I +have performed the supreme sacrifice for Russia, and let him kiss me." +</p> + +<p> +The cruelly smiling lips changed into an expression of contemptuous +disgust as she said this, and the count replied, coldly: +</p> + +<p> +"Not a pleasant duty, Sophie; but for Holy Russia her servants must do +everything. That, as I have tried to teach you almost as soon as you +could speak, is our duty, almost our religion. Our fortune, our lives, +our everything must be devoted to the emperor and to Holy Russia—soon +now, I hope, to be mistress of the world. You as a woman, and a +beautiful woman, have your weapons; I as a man, and a diplomatist, +have mine. It is your duty to use yours with as little scruple as I +use mine. +</p> + +<p> +"And so you really think," he went on, after a little pause, "that it +will be possible to capture the <i>Nadine</i>, with all her noble and +gallant company on board, and compel her to join our Russian +expedition to Boothia Land. Certainly, it would be a brilliant triumph +if we could. We should have all the heads of the great Trust at our +mercy—Lord Orrel, his son, and this most objectionably +straightforward Clifford Vandel, who, it would appear, has so vastly +improved upon the original scheme. Then we should have the womankind +too—Lady Olive, Miss Vandel, and the beautiful marquise herself, +always dangerous power that might work against us. By the way, Sophie, +has it struck you that the young viscount is wavering in his +allegiance to the fair American under the influence of the beautiful +daughter of the Condés?" +</p> + +<p> +"As well ask me whether I am a woman, father," she replied, with a +low, wicked-sounding laugh. "Have I no eyes in my head? Did not this +fair American interfere with my plan for securing the noble Shafto to +ourselves by making him fall in love with her before I saw him, and +have I not done everything, all the thousand and one little things +that a woman can do, to help my dear friend the marquise to the +attainment of her very evident desires? In other words, have I +forgotten the lessons that you have been teaching me since you began +to train me to think myself not a girl with a heart and a soul, and +living blood in her veins, but only a human machine, fair to look +upon, animated by a brain which knows no other duty than the service +of our Holy Russia? You know that if I had loved this man myself it +would have been just the same. I should have done exactly as I have +done,—at least, I believe so." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," laughed the count, softly, "that is the problem, my dear Sophie; +and that, I tell you frankly, has always been my fear for you. You are +young, brilliant, and beautiful; and I've always been a little afraid +that out of some of all your admirers whom your smiles have brought to +your feet there might be one whom you might love; and when a woman +loves she pities, and pity and diplomacy have as much to do with each +other as charity and business. Still, I am not without hopes that some +day you will meet some worthy son of Russia; and remember, my Sophie, +that, if we succeed in this, if we place the control of the elixir +vitæ of the world in the hand of Russia, you might look even near the +throne itself." +</p> + +<p> +"And I most certainly should," said Sophie, throwing her head back. "I +tell you frankly, papa, I'm not doing all this for nothing. I am not +forgetting that I am a woman, with all a woman's natural feelings and +inspirations, all her possible loves and hopes and pities, only for +the sake of serving even Russia. If I succeed I shall have my reward, +and it shall be a splendid one." +</p> + +<p> +"And you will have well deserved it," said the count, looking with +something more than fatherly pride on the beautiful daughter who had +learnt the lessons of what he was pleased to call diplomacy so well. +"Still, I cannot disguise from myself that this last scheme of yours +is, to say the least of it, a desperate one; for it amounts to nothing +less than a kidnapping of one of the best-known noblemen and statesmen +in England, his son and daughter, one of the wealthiest and best-known +American financiers in the world and his daughter; to say nothing of +one of the Ministers of the Tsar and his daughter. I need hardly +remind you, of course, that the failure of such a venture would never +be forgiven in Petersburg. I need not tell you that the Little Father +never pardons mistakes, and, besides, my dear Sophie, have you quite +satisfied yourself that such a very extreme measure is absolutely +necessary?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear papa," said Sophie, getting up from her chair, and raising +her voice ever so little, "in the first place, there will be—there +can be no mistake about it; and, in the second place, I assure you +that it is absolutely necessary if Russia is to have undisputed +control of the Storage Works. You see, the outside world knows +absolutely nothing about these works. There have been all sorts of +stories circulated about them, but no one who has actually seen them +has said or written a word about them. In fact, as far as we know, +only two men have been there and come back—Viscount Branston and Mr +Vandel; Dr Lamson is there still. How do we know what means of defence +they've got? They might be able even now, from what Victor Fargeau and +General Ducros told us, to demagnetise our ships, stop our engines +from working and our guns from shooting; or, on the other hand, what +would be almost as bad, this Lamson might blow up the works and +shatter every plan we've got—perhaps ruin all prospects of the +invasion, too, unless we have some means of persuading him not to use +his power. What better means could we have than the possession of the +heads of the concern? +</p> + +<p> +"I have heard hints, too, that he is not without hopes of winning the +fair Lady Olive some day, when he becomes one of the masters of the +world. Granted now that it is within our power to do what we please +with all of them, or, if you like to put it diplomatically, with the +heads of this gigantic conspiracy against the peace and security of +the world, and plot to destroy the independence of the nations and the +freedom of humanity, for it is nothing else, should we not be +justified in using any and every means—yes," she went on, her voice +hardening, "even to the very last means of all, to snatch this +tremendous power out of the hands of these sordid English and +Americans and give it into those of Holy Russia. It is kidnapping, +piracy, invasion of friendly territory—everything, I grant you, that +is criminal under the law of nations; but remember it is also a +struggle for the command of the life-force of the world—which means +practically the control of the world itself and all that therein is." +</p> + +<p> +"And," said the count, smiling, "I suppose you would say that, as +these people are our natural enemies, with whom we shall very soon be +at war—'à la guerre comme à la guerre'—I suppose you mean that when +we have got the <i>Nadine</i> and her noble company we shall use them +as hostages to prevent any accidents happening to our little Polar +expedition. Really, my dear Sophie, your methods have suddenly become +almost mediæval; still, if they are only successful, they will be none +the less effective for that. Let me see now," he went on, leaning back +in his chair and putting the tips of his fingers together, "I wonder +if I can find any flaw in the arrangements. You know, it is quite +essential, my dear Sophie, that there should not be any." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear papa," she replied, smiling, and leaning her back against the +old carved mantelpiece, "try, by all means. If you cannot find one, I +don't think there can be much chance of its being anything but +practically perfect." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well," said the count, lighting a fresh cigarette. "In two or +three days' time, when the regattas are over, the house-party at Orrel +Court will break up, and a few days after that, say a week in all, +Lord Orrel, with his son and daughter, and the American and his +daughter, and Ma'm'selle la Marquise as Lady Olive's guest, are taking +a trip across the Atlantic in the <i>Nadine</i>, partly in the course +of business and partly on pleasure bent; Madame de Bourbon and her +maids return to Paris; the <i>Vlodoya</i> puts into Southampton +the day the <i>Nadine</i> sails, to take us on our trip to the +Mediterranean. Your good friend the lieutenant has informed you that, +although the <i>Nadine</i> can make twenty knots on an emergency, she +will only take a leisurely summer trip across the Atlantic to Boston, +at about twelve or fifteen. He has given you a chart of the course +which she will take. He has also promised you that at a certain spot +in mid-Atlantic there shall be a little accident to her engines which +enable the <i>Vlodoya</i> to overtake her. The <i>Vlodoya</i>, +commanded and well manned by good servants of the empire, with a +couple of three-pounders and a Maxim in case of accident, will +overhaul her and give her the alternative of surrender or sinking. +That is where the piracy will begin, I suppose." +</p> + +<p> +Sophie nodded, and, laughing, replied in English: "Yes, right +there—as our American beauty, as Lord Hardress thinks her, would say. +The <i>Nadine</i> is unarmed, and, of course, resistance will be +useless; in fact, it would simply be the merest folly. His lordship +will accept us and a portion of the <i>Vlodoya's</i> crew as +self-invited guests; we shall then steam away together, not to Boston, +but to the rendezvous with our little expedition, and once we join +forces—well, the thing is practically done." +</p> + +<p> +"I agree so far," said her father; "still, there are one or two +accidents that we have not yet taken into account. Suppose, for +instance, one of these detestable British cruisers, which seem to be +everywhere, should happen to be there just then; or that even one of +the big liners should come in sight at the critical moment. It seems +to me that, for the present at least, secrecy is above all things +essential, for if the news of—well, such an outrage, did get back to +Europe, you know perfectly well that Russia would of necessity disown +us, and that we and all on board the <i>Vlodoya</i> would simply be +treated as common pirates." +</p> + +<p> +"So I suppose," said Sophie, coolly; "but I have provided for that, +because the day and place of rendezvous have been arranged so as to +avoid the possibility of meeting any of the regular liners, and I have +been careful to ascertain that no British warship will just then be +under orders to cross the Atlantic, either from the North American +station or from England. As for the piracy, I don't think we need +trouble ourselves about that. Before many weeks France must forestall +Germany's attack; Russia will, as we say, maintain the attitude of +benevolent neutrality until she hears that we have got the works, then +she will demand the surrender of the British concessions in China +which conflict with her interests, and there will be war, and our +actions, however drastic, will become legal under the law of war. In +fact, my dear papa, as far as I can see, there is really only one +possibility that I have not reckoned with, and that, as far as I can +see, is an impossibility." +</p> + +<p> +"And what is that? It is just as well we should see them all." +</p> + +<p> +"It is the possibility that these English or Americans—you know how +quick they are at all practical methods, pig-headed and all as they +are at diplomacy—have, by some means or other, guessed that the +French and Russian Polar expeditions have started at rather a +suspicious time; I mean just when the Storage Works—these wonderful +works, which are to light the world by electricity for a few pence an +hour, and give us displays of the <i>Aurora borealis</i>, just as we +have fireworks at public fêtes, and all the rest of it—have been +completed. Now that, if you like, would be dangerous; for in such +delicate work as ours success depends on surprise. Still, as I say, it +is hardly possible." +</p> + +<p> +"Practically impossible, I should agree with you, my dear Sophie," +said the count, making the greatest mistake of his diplomatic career; +"practically impossible. What do they know? What can they suspect?" +</p> + +<p> +"Unless—unless," said Sophie, suddenly, clenching her hands, "our +good friend Adelaide de Condé, who, I tell you, papa, is in love with +Shafto Hardress, if woman ever was in love with man, unless she has +hinted at the real meaning of these expeditions. Yes; that is a danger +which, I admit, I have not counted." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, yes; I think I see what you mean," replied the count; "she is a +Frenchwoman, but her only interest in the destiny of France consists +in the restoration of the House of Bourbon to power; still, being a +Frenchwoman, and in love, as you believe, she would also do anything +for the sake of the man she loves, even to the ruin of her own hopes. +Finally, being on this supposition the rival of Miss Vandel, she would +stop at nothing to prove her devotion to him; and, if she did as you +suggest, Sophie, it would be a very formidable condition of affairs +indeed." +</p> + +<p> +"Then, papa," she replied, coming and laying her hand on his shoulder, +"do you not see that that is all the greater reason why this scheme of +ours must be carried through? You see that Adelaide de Condé may +herself become a source of the greatest danger; but when we have not +only her, but Miss Vandel and the man they are both in love with, as +well as the two papas and Lady Olive, completely in our power, when, +for example, we could land them all on one of those drifting +ice-floes, to float away to somewhere where no one but the seals and +bears would know what had become of them, the game would be in our +hands to play as we please." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Sophie," said the count, laying his hand upon hers, "I am +delighted to see that you have the courage of your convictions. And +now, it is very late, or, rather, early, and I think you may as well +go to bed and dream of success, for you have convinced me that failure +is, to all intents and purposes, impossible." +</p> + +<p> +As Sophie Valdemar stole quietly away to bed Clifford Vandel was +finishing a long cable dispatch in cipher to Doctor Lamson, giving him +a complete account, so far as he knew, of all that had been taking +place in Europe during the last few weeks, and concluding with the +words: "I have good reason to believe that the supposed French and +Russian Polar expeditions, which will be in your latitude in a few +weeks, are really intended for the capture or destruction of the +Storage Works; so take every possible precaution against attack or +surprise." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XV +</p> + + +<p> +While all this plotting and counter-plotting had been going on in +England and Europe, and France, thanks to what some might call the +patriotic treachery of Victor Fargeau, was rapidly preparing for an +invasion of Germany, which a magnificently-equipped army of nearly +four million men meant to make a very different affair to the last +one; while Russia was swiftly and secretly massing her huge military +and very formidable naval forces in the near and far east, and England +had, as usual, been muddling along, chattering over reforms on land +and sea without getting them done; and while Germany, for once about +to be taken unawares, was quietly getting ready for the inevitable +struggle, a quiet, broad-browed, deep-eyed man had been at the head of +an army of workmen, building up what was intended to be the real +capital and governing centre of the world. In the midst of a broad, +barren plain, broken by great masses of rock, many of them snow-capped +and ice-crowned even in the middle of the northern summer, there rose +the walls and chimneys of what looked like a commonplace collection of +factories, such as might be found in any of the manufacturing +districts of Europe and America. +</p> + +<p> +About four miles to the west, under a rocky promontory which the +discoverer of this desolate land had named Cape Adelaide, little +thinking what a connection it would have with another Adelaide, there +was a small natural harbour, navigable for about five months in the +year, constantly crowded with colliers. For over a year it had been +packed with them. Before the previous winter set in they had been +laden with coal and machinery and building materials, and throughout +the long winter Doctor Lamson had relentlessly pushed the work on +under rows of electric lights, which rivalled the <i>Aurora</i> +itself. +</p> + +<p> +The men were well housed and fed and lavishly paid, and so, in spite +of the cold and darkness, they had worked well and cheerfully, well +knowing that it was impossible for them to get back, save in the +steamers that brought them. By the time the ice broke and the vessels +were released another long line of them was already making its way up +through the still half-frozen waters of Davis Strait and Lancaster +Sound, laden with more coal, materials, and machinery. A telegraph +line had been taken from Port Nelson across Hudson Bay over Rae +Isthmus, and then through the Gulf of Boothia to the works, and this +put Dr Lamson in direct communication with Winnipeg and the rest of +the world. +</p> + +<p> +At intervals of two hundred miles, across the icy desert of the north, +groups of huge steel masts, three hundred feet high, had been erected, +and these had been continued singly or in pairs over all the principal +elevations of the North American Continent, and also over Greenland +and Iceland to the north of Scotland, and thence to the rest of the +British Islands. It was a miracle that could only have been wrought by +millions, but the millions were spent without stint, in the full +knowledge that they would be repaid in the days when it was possible +to tax the world for the privilege of living. +</p> + +<p> +The Storage Works were in the form of a square, measuring four hundred +feet each way. In the exact centre of an interior square measuring +fifty feet each way was that mysterious spot of earth where the needle +of the compass points neither to north nor south nor east nor west, +but straight down to the centre of the globe; and over it was built a +great circular tower, forty feet in diameter and a hundred feet in +height, which contained a gigantic reproduction of the instrument +which had stood on Doctor Emil Fargeau's table in his laboratory at +Strassburg on that memorable night when he had completed the work +which was destined to lead to his own ruin and death and to the +revolutionising of the world. +</p> + +<p> +From this tower ran underground, in all directions, thousands of +copper cables leading to the gigantic storage batteries with which the +greater part of the buildings were filled. In the middle of each side +of the great square a two thousand horse-power engine was ready to +furnish the necessary electrical force in the absorber, as the great +apparatus in the centre was called. +</p> + +<p> +Everything was in order to commence work; in fact, Doctor Lamson had +just decided that he would try his engines together for the first +time, when Clifford Vandel's telegram reached him from Southampton. +</p> + +<p> +His agent in Winnipeg had kept him well informed of the principal +events going on in the world during his long isolation, and the +sailing of the French and Russian Polar expeditions <i>via</i> Davis +Straits had not escaped him. For a few minutes after he had read the +dispatch he walked up and down the telegraph room, into which no one +but himself and Austin Vandel, Clifford's nephew and his own general +manager, could under any circumstances gain admission, since none but +they knew the combinations of the lock which opened the steel door. +</p> + +<p> +Austin was sitting at the table where he had received the message, and +he broke the silence by saying: +</p> + +<p> +"I guess, doctor, that looks a bit ugly. I suppose it's that Alsatian +Frenchman and that pretty Frenchwoman you were telling me about that's +fixed this up." +</p> + +<p> +"There's not the slightest doubt about that," said Lamson, whose +enthusiasm for the great scheme had quite overcome his earlier +scruples. "If we had only known of that other set of specifications, +and managed to get hold of them somehow—still that wouldn't have done +much good, because even then the Frenchwoman, this beautiful daughter +of the Bourbons as they call her, would have given it away as soon as +she guessed what we were doing; and if she hadn't done so—well, +Fargeau would have done so; so I suppose after all it's inevitable." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you think we'll have to fight for it?" said Austin. +</p> + +<p> +"If those expeditions are really armed forces, and their object is to +take these works by hook or by crook, of course we must," replied +Lamson. "Poor devils! I wonder what they'll feel like when we turn the +disintegrators on them?" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't talk about those," said Austin. "Time enough for that when we +have to use them to save ourselves—which the Lord forbid. I sha'n't +forget that experiment of yours on poor Hudson's body; but to see it +turned on to a living man! Great Scott!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; it won't be very pleasant," said Lamson, whose rather gentle and +retiring nature had become completely transformed under the influence +of the gigantic possibilities which were now at his disposal. "But +suppose they get their ships up to Port Adelaide?—it's rather +curious, by the way, that it should have the same name as that +Frenchwoman, who, I suppose, is by this time about our most dangerous +and determined enemy—but suppose they get them there, and begin +knocking the works about with big guns. Suppose," he went on, with +something like a shudder, "a shell bursts in the absorber, where are +we? And, mind you, if they come they'll bring Fargeau with them; and +if they took us prisoners or killed us, he would have material enough +here to make another one—and he would know how to do it. No, no, +Vandel; if I have to defend the works I'll do it. My whole life and +soul are here now, and no Frenchman or Russian sets foot inside here +while I'm alive, unless he comes as a prisoner." +</p> + +<p> +"But look here," said Austin; "couldn't you paralyse 'em? Why not set +the engines to work, and mop up this world's soul, or whatever you +call it, right away, so that their engines should break down long +before they got here, and just freeze them out." +</p> + +<p> +"That, my dear Austin," replied the doctor, "is a rather more hasty +remark than I should have expected you to make. Don't you see that if +we were to start the engines, and cut off our American communications, +as would be necessary, we should not only paralyse the expedition, we +should also paralyse the whole of Canada and the United States, cut +off our communications with England, and make it impossible for our +friends to communicate with us, or for them to come here—as they are +doing this month." +</p> + +<p> +"Guess I spoke a bit too soon," said Austin. "That's so; and, of +course, we couldn't do it." +</p> + +<p> +The doctor continued his walk up and down the room for a few moments +longer, then stopped and said suddenly, "No; but I'll tell you what we +can and will do if there's going to be any of this sort of foul play +about. The president and all our friends will be much safer here than +in any other part of the world, for if we have to starve the world out +they'll be all right here. Wire to your uncle; say that we have +received his message and are acting upon it, and tell him to bring the +whole party here with the utmost speed; call it a pleasure-trip or a +tour of inspection, or what they please, but they must come at once, +and, above all, they must get here before these so-called Polar +expeditions." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the talk, doctor," exclaimed Austin; "you've got right down on +to it this time. I'll fix that up in the code and send it right away." +</p> + +<p> +There is, of course, neither day nor night during June in Boothia +Land, only a little deepening of the twilight towards midnight, but +the message was despatched <i>via</i> Winnipeg a little after nine in +the evening, according to conventional time, and so Clifford Vandel +was able to decipher it in his sitting-room at Orrel Court before +breakfast the next morning. The carriages were already waiting to take +the party down to the <i>Nadine's</i> berth at Southampton Water as +soon as possible after an early breakfast, for there was to be a race +round the Isle of Wight for cruising yachts that day, and some of the +finest yachts in the two hemispheres were going to compete, the +<i>Nadine</i> and several other steam-yachts, including the +<i>Vlodova</i>, belonging to the Grand Duke Ruric, were to follow the +race, and the day was to wind up with supper at Clifford Vandel's +bungalow at Cowes. +</p> + +<p> +Therefore the moment he had finished translating the cipher, without +waiting even for breakfast, he sent his man to ask Lord Orrel and his +son for the favour of a few minutes' private conversation in his +lordship's library. This man was the brother of the Countess Sophie's +French maid—deaf, handy, silent, and wonderfully well up to his work. +He had engaged him on the count's recommendation, after dismissing his +English valet on the instant for, as he thought, trying to learn more +than he ought to know from his correspondence. It is scarcely +necessary to add that Ma'm'selle Sophie knew as much about the one as +she did about the other; and, as a matter of fact, she had procured +both appointments. This being so, it was only natural that within a +very few minutes Count Valdemar and his daughter should have heard of +the receipt of the telegram, and Clifford Vandel's request for an +interview with Lord Orrel and his son. The immediate result was two +interviews before breakfast instead of one. +</p> + +<p> +"What can it mean, papa?" said Sophie, when she had softly locked her +father's door. "Jules says that the dispatch was brought up from +Southampton this morning. Before he gave it to Mr Vandel he, of +course, steamed the envelope and looked at it. It was in cipher, as +one might expect; but it came from Winnipeg, and Winnipeg is the one +point of communication between Boothia and the rest of the world. Mr +Vandel translated it at once, and immediately went to talk to Lord +Orrel and the viscount about it. I wonder whether—but no, that's +impossible. We couldn't have been overheard, and no one that knows +anything of our plans could have any possible inducement to betray us. +The marquise told me that she had a letter from Fargeau yesterday: I +wonder if she has said anything." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Sophie," replied her father, "as I told you the night before +last, a woman in love is a woman lost to all purposes of diplomacy, +unless her interests and those of the man she is in love with are +identical. Here they are diametrically opposed; a word from her to the +viscount would ruin everything—at least, so far as the expeditions +are concerned." +</p> + +<p> +"All the more reason then," said Sophie, clenching her hands, "that +we—I mean that the <i>Vlodoya</i> should capture the <i>Nadine</i> +with all these people on board her. If we have them at our mercy we +have everything. I would give a good deal to know what there was in +that dispatch that Clifford Vandel had this morning." +</p> + +<p> +"And so would I," replied her father; "a great deal. Do you think that +if your maid were to promise her brother, say, £500, for the +transcription which Vandel must have made of it, there would be any +chance of getting it?" +</p> + +<p> +"We can only try," replied Sophie. "The old gentleman is very careful +about his papers, they tell me; still, we will try." +</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p> +"Well, gentlemen," said Clifford Vandel, about the same moment in Lord +Orrel's library, "I think you will agree with me that the doctor would +not have sent a dispatch like this without pretty good reason; and if +these people mean pushing matters to extremity, why, of course, it +might be necessary for him to, as he says here, freeze them out, in +which case they couldn't get there. And if they couldn't we couldn't; +wherefore it seems good reasoning to say that we ought to be there +first—if we're going to get there at all." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Vandel," replied his lordship, "it is the best of reasoning; +and I am quite sure that Doctor Lamson would not have dreamt of +sending such a dispatch without good reasons, and I think I am +justified in telling you that this morning I received a confidential +letter from an old colleague of mine in the Foreign Office, in which +he says that, according to reports of our agents, both in France and +Germany, an outbreak of hostilities may occur at any moment within the +next few weeks, without warning—just as it did in 1870." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said Hardress, sharply, "if that is so, there simply must be +some connection between that and the dispatch of these two +expeditions. I don't often jump to conclusions, Mr Vandel, but I think +now that Miss Chrysie was perfectly right. They're not going to try +and get to the Pole at all. It's the Magnetic Pole they want, and +they'll be there this summer if we don't find some way to stop them; +and I quite agree that we ought to get there first. It may be +necessary to show Europe that they can't get on without us, even in +the matter of fighting." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, then," said Lord Orrel, "we'll call that settled; we'll +make it a summer Arctic trip. How soon can you get us across the +Atlantic, Hardress?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can land you in Halifax in six days. We'll coal up there; and, if +we're not too much crowded with ice, I'll get you to Rae Isthmus in +six days more. Meanwhile I will telegraph to Lamson to have one of his +steamers waiting for us on the other side of the Isthmus, and in +another week, including the land travel, which may be difficult, we +will be at the works. Or, if we find the sea fairly clear, we'll steam +straight up to Fox Channel, Kury's Strait, and take you straight to +Boothia Land. At any rate, the expeditions are only just starting, one +from Havre and the other one from Riga, and, at that rate, we should +certainly be there a clear month before them, even if they really are +going." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said Clifford Vandel, slowly but gravely, "if that's so, I +guess the best thing we can do is to get there as quickly as possible +and start the circus as soon as we can. If Europe means +fighting—well, we can't have a better way of proving our power, and +showing France and Germany and the rest of them that it will pay them +to deal with the Great Storage Trust, than by just making their own +war impossible. When they find they can't even fight without our +permission, I guess they'll pretty soon come to terms." +</p> + +<p> +"I agree with you entirely, my dear Vandel," said Lord Orrel. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVI +</p> + + +<p> +That same morning, as it happened, Adelaide received a letter from +Victor Fargeau, dated from Paris, telling her, among other things, +that the two alleged Polar expeditions would be ready to start in a +fortnight's time, and that he had been appointed to, as he put it, the +scientific command of the French one. There had been a considerable +amount of veiled friction between the French and Russian governments +as soon as they had both been compelled to admit to each other the +true object of the expeditions, and it was even suspected that the +Russian government was secretly preparing a much more formidable +scientific expedition of four vessels—including their celebrated +ice-breaker <i>Ivan the Terrible</i>, a vessel built in an English +yard for the purpose of breaking up the Baltic ice in winter, in order +to keep the ports free and the Russian Baltic squadron always +serviceable. +</p> + +<p> +With such a vessel to lead it the Russian expedition would be quite +certain of reaching Boothia Land whatever the condition of the ice +might be, because she would be able to clear a course for her consorts +through it. All the probabilities were, therefore, in favour of the +Russian squadron getting to Boothia Land first. If they did that, and +were successful in getting possession of the works, it was not very +likely that Russia would be inclined to share the dominion of the +world with the ally she had already bled so freely, and in this case +France would be once more robbed of the fruits of his father's +discovery. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after afternoon tea on the lawn of Clifford Vandel's bungalow, +Adelaide said to Sophie, as they sat in their deck-chairs beside each +other: +</p> + +<p> +"I am given to understand that Russia is quite determined to reach the +Pole, if possible, in this next expedition." +</p> + +<p> +"The Pole?" laughed Sophie, with a swift glance under her half-lowered +eyelids. "My dear marquise, surely you are joking with me a little +unnecessarily. Which Pole?" +</p> + +<p> +"Really, my dear countess, I am speaking quite seriously," she +replied, turning her head on her cushion, and looking at her companion +with somewhat languid eyes. "I presume, of course, it must be the +North Pole—because I hear from a quite reliable source that your +government is sending out the big ice-breaker—the <i>Ivan the +Terrible</i>, you know; and that would hardly be necessary to get to +the other Pole, the one that you perhaps mean, unless, of course, they +wished to make certain of getting there as quickly as possible." +</p> + +<p> +Sophie would have given a great deal to know the source of this +information, which had only reached her father a day or so before, but +it was, of course, impossible for her to ask, so she contented herself +with saying, in slow, careless tones: +</p> + +<p> +"Really, that is quite interesting. But then, of course, you know, +when Russia takes anything like this in hand she generally does it +thoroughly, and, of course, the ice may be late this year, as they +call it, crowded up in the narrow places I suppose; and in that case, +of course, the French expedition will find it accommodating to have a +ship like that to break the way in advance—and out again if +necessary. I suppose you have quite decided to take the trip across +the Atlantic on the <i>Nadine</i>?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes; that is quite arranged. It will be my first visit to +America—that wonderful land." +</p> + +<p> +"America—wonderful? Well, I should say!" said Miss Chrysie, coming +behind them at this instant, and putting her hands on the backs of +their chairs, "It's a pity you can't come too, countess. I guess I +could promise you both a pretty interesting time from Niagara right +away to——" +</p> + +<p> +"Suppose we say the Magnetic Pole?" murmured Sophie, turning her head +back, and looking up at her with a glance that was lazy and yet full +of challenge. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, yes, that might be interesting, too," replied Miss Chrysie, +looking steadily down into her eyes. "Those works that the viscount +and poppa are getting fixed up there, whatever they mean them for, +must be something pretty wonderful, for they're spending quite a lot +of money on them. It might not be impossible that we'll be going up to +see them some day, and if you'd come across, countess, I dare say I +might be able to show you round." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, that's more than kind of you, Miss Vandel; but I'm sorry to +say that my father's official duties demand his presence at +Petersburg, and we absolutely must leave when the house-party at Orrel +Court breaks up; but excuse me, I see my father beckoning to me. I +will leave you my seat, Miss Vandel." +</p> + +<p> +She got up, and walked away forward to where her father was standing +near the verandah. Miss Chrysie took possession of her seat, clasped +her hands behind her head, stretched out her legs till a pair of +dainty pointed toes peeped from under the hem of her dress, and said, +with a sidelong glance at Adelaide, and in a slow drawl: +</p> + +<p> +"Nice girl the countess, marquise, and very good-looking—very; but, +somehow—well, perhaps you haven't noticed it, but I have—she seems +to have a sort of way of talking at you instead of to you, and always +meaning just something a bit different to what she says." +</p> + +<p> +"It is quite possible," said Adelaide, slightly coldly, for Chrysie's +words were just a little too frank to please her taste; "but, you see, +she's a Russian; and the daughter of a diplomat. All Russians of good +family are born diplomatists, and diplomacy, you know——" +</p> + +<p> +"Why yes," laughed Chrysie; "diplomacy is the whole art and science of +saying one thing and meaning another, and getting the other fellow to +believe that you're telling the ironclad truth when you are lying like +Ananias; and I guess the countess hasn't learnt her lessons very +badly." +</p> + +<p> +"In other words, Miss Vandel," said Adelaide, with a laugh that had a +note of harshness in it, "you think the Countess Valdemar is, to put +it into quite brutal English, a liar." +</p> + +<p> +"Why no," replied Chrysie, looking straight down at her shapely toes; +"just a diplomatist, or, I should say, the daughter of one. But we +don't want to pull each other to pieces like this. What's the matter +with changing the subject? What's your idea, marquise, about these two +Polar expeditions being started off this year? Doesn't it strike you +as just a bit curious that they should be going north up Davis Straits +just when our Storage Works are getting finished? Shouldn't wonder if +the countess gave herself away a bit when she spoke just now about the +Magnetic Pole." +</p> + +<p> +This was a kind of diplomacy that was entirely strange to Adelaide, +and for a moment or two she hardly knew what to say; then she replied, +rather languidly: +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Miss Vandel, it is a matter that interests me very little. I +believe this is the proper time for setting out on Polar expeditions, +and you know the Russians are very fond of making these journeys in +the interests of science and exploration." +</p> + +<p> +"Mostly exploration of what's going to be new Russian territory," +replied Miss Chrysie, with a snap of her eyes. "Ah, here's his +lordship junior. Well, viscount, I've got to thank you for yet one +more just entirely delightful day!" +</p> + +<p> +Before Hardress could reply she turned another sidelong glance on +Adelaide. In spite of all her self-control, Adelaide's cheeks flushed +ever so slightly and her eyes lighted up as Hardress pulled a chair +towards them. +</p> + +<p> +And she hated her frankly and cordially for it; for she was a girl of +absolutely honest feelings, and just as straightforward and +thorough-going in her hates as in her loves. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Miss Vandel," replied Hardress, "it is quite the other way +about; it is I who have to thank you for the pleasure of giving you +pleasure." +</p> + +<p> +"After that," laughed the marquise, turning her lovely eyes full on +his, "let it never be said that an Englishman cannot turn a +compliment." +</p> + +<p> +Chrysie noticed that Hardress flushed a little and dropped his eyes +slightly under that bewildering glance, and she hated the marquise +more intensely than ever. +</p> + +<p> +"It was no compliment, I can assure you," he said, looking up at +Chrysie, "though what the marquise just said may have been. But, by +the way, I came to tell you a rather serious piece of news, marquise; +and something that may perhaps influence your aunt's plans." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, what is that?" said Adelaide. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, from the telegram my father has just received, which will +probably be in the papers to-night, there is going to be a tremendous +military scandal in Germany, which may have very grave results indeed, +even to the extent of an European war. The detectives of the military +staff at Berlin have discovered a sort of Teutonic Dreyfus—a young +fellow holding the rank of lieutenant, and employed as a sort of +military under-secretary in the bureau of the Minister of War. To a +certain extent it's the old story. He had ruined himself with gambling +and horse-racing, and, not content with that, had got involved with a +very pretty and equally unscrupulous French variety actress, who bled +him with apparently more consistency than she loved him. The agents of +the French secret service in Germany got hold of him and he sold +himself. +</p> + +<p> +"So far the story is commonplace—that sort of thing happens every +week in all countries—but the extraordinary thing about this is that +when this young fellow was confronted with proofs, he not only made a +clean breast of what he had done, but he told his chiefs that the man +who had been mostly instrumental in getting him into trouble, and had, +in fact, introduced him to the woman who ruined him, was a brother +officer—a staff-captain and military attaché of a foreign court. This +man, he confessed, had obtained, partly through him and partly through +his own knowledge and other sources, a complete sketch of the German +plans, both for invading France and resisting a French invasion, +together with all the necessary details as to men, guns, transports, +etc. Stranger still, a German staff-officer answering exactly to the +description, resigned his commission nearly a year ago, and retired +into private life. He was not a German, but an Alsatian. The German +secret agents in Paris took up the scent, and found that this very man +had been in close communication with the Minister of War and appeared +to be holding some confidential position in the service of the +Ministry. Now Germany, it is rumoured, has demanded his extradition on +a charge of treason and desertion; for it seems that his resignation +was never officially accepted, although he was allowed to go in +consequence of some family trouble which brought disgrace upon his +name. France has refused it, and—well, the situation may be described +as distinctly strained." +</p> + +<p> +"Well," said Miss Chrysie to herself, while he was speaking, "if +that's not a pretty good sample of diplomacy, I've got a wrong idea of +the word altogether." She had turned her head lazily on the cushion +again, every now and then glancing at Adelaide's face. Hardress had, +of course, done the same repeatedly during his narrative, which he had +told just as though he were telling some absolutely fresh piece of +news to a couple of listeners who would only take an outside interest +in it. Since her father's death Adelaide had given no sign that he had +told her anything on his deathbed, or that she was aware of the true +nature of the Great Storage Scheme. Now she kept her composure +admirably under the double scrutiny. Chrysie fancied that she changed +colour ever so little at the mention of the German staff-officer who +had resigned, and of the visits to the French Minister of War, but +otherwise she gave no sign, she just sat and listened, every now and +then drawing the point of her parasol across the grass at her feet, +and occasionally looking out over the water dotted with a multitude of +crafts coming to an anchor after the day's racing. Certainly neither +of them found any reason so far to believe that the story had anything +more than a general interest for her. When she spoke her voice was +just as low and sweetly quiet as ever it was. +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly that is very serious news," she said, looking straight at +Hardress. "We know, of course, that there has been great tension +between the two countries for some time, and if France refuses to give +this man up there can hardly be anything but war; and yet if it is +true that France possesses all the German plans, Germany would be at a +terrible disadvantage, for it would be impossible to change them at +the last minute. At any rate, I am very much obliged to you for your +early information, viscount. Certainly I think it would be better for +my aunt to remain in England for the present; and in that case, I am +afraid it will be my duty to remain with her." +</p> + +<p> +"Not at all, my dear marquise," said Hardress, with an eagerness which +Chrysie did not at all appreciate. "You know your aunt was a great +yachtswoman some years ago; she's a splendid sailor, and there's lots +of room on board the <i>Nadine</i>. Let her come to Canada with us. +The voyage would do her all the good in the world. We can land you +with Miss Vandel and Olive at Halifax, and you can have a delightful +run through Canada and the States under my father's protection, while +the president and I pay our visit to the Storage Works." +</p> + +<p> +"A thousand thanks, my dear viscount," replied the marquise; "but +that, of course, will be a matter for my aunt alone to decide. For my +part, I can only say that I shall be delighted if she says yes." +</p> + +<p> +"I sha'n't," said Miss Chrysie, with great emphasis, in her soul. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile another conversation on the same subject was going on in +another part of the lawn. A messenger-boy had about half-an-hour +before brought the count an envelope containing a lengthy telegram; +and it was when he had read this that he had beckoned to Sophie, and +she had scarcely joined him when one of the servants brought her a +note which had been left by a man at the gate of the grounds. They +left the verandah where the count had been standing, and strolled down +towards the water. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, papa," said Sophie, "I saw you had a telegram just now. Any +news?" +</p> + +<p> +"News? Yes," said the count; "and very serious, too. Briefly, the +German government has discovered everything about Fargeau—that is to +say, his treason and his connection with Ducros—and has demanded his +extradition from the French government. France, having got the plans, +will, of course, refuse, and then there will be war—probably in a +week or two." +</p> + +<p> +"And Russia?" queried Sophie, looking up at him. +</p> + +<p> +"Russia, my dear, as you understand, will act as circumstances +direct." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the note was put into Sophie's hands. She opened it, +read it, dismissed the servant, and said in a low voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Papa, here is even more serious news than yours. This is from my +friend the engineer. He tells me that the viscount has suddenly +altered his plans; that the <i>Nadine</i> is to be filled with coal to +her utmost capacity, and all preparations made for crossing the +Atlantic at full speed, instead of about twelve knots." +</p> + +<p> +"And she can steam twenty knots," said the count. "I'm afraid, my dear +Sophie, that completely upsets your nicely-arranged plan for a +rendezvous in mid-ocean. The <i>Nadine</i> will be across the Atlantic +before the <i>Vlodoya</i> can get there, for her best is only about +sixteen." +</p> + +<p> +"No, papa," said Sophie, "I've not failed yet. If my engineer is only +faithful, and that accident to the machinery happens, we shall get +them all the same. I will promise him anything and everything, and he +will be faithful. And then I have another plan." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! And that?" +</p> + +<p> +"The marquise—she will be on board—she's a Frenchwoman, she loves +this Hardress, and hates this American girl. Sooner or later she knows +that it must be war to the knife between them, and better sooner than +later, for they say that he is already half-betrothed to Miss Vandel. +At the same time, Hardress is by no means indifferent to her own +fascinations. I will make her an ally—for the present, at least. She +knows well enough that were the American conveniently disposed of she +could soon console the viscount for his loss. I will show her how she +may be got rid of, and how she, Adelaide de Condé, may marry the man +who may, as she believes, soon be master of the world. A clever woman +with a great end to gain will be of infinite service to us on board +the yacht. At present she is half-hostile to us—for she has a +suspicion that our expedition is meant to forestall the French one. +Now I will make her wholly our friend by showing her how she may not +only gain the desire of her heart, but also ensure the success of the +French expedition; for, after all, you must remember that we are bound +to co-operate with them to a certain extent, for they at least have +been clever enough to keep the specification of the works to +themselves, and till we get possession of them we can do nothing +without Fargeau, even if we were masters of the works. Yes; I think, +after all, Adelaide, since she must be either friend or enemy, will be +a better friend than enemy: and friend she shall be before she sails +on the <i>Nadine</i>." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVII +</p> + + +<p> +"And so, Ma'm'selle la Comtesse, it comes to this: you would have me +reward hospitality with treachery? You would have me betray my host, +my father's friend, and his son, into the hands of Russia?—for that +is what it would come to. No; I thank you for your kindness and +condescension in taking me into your confidence, but I cannot consent +to become your accomplice." +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide de Condé had just been listening, in her own sitting-room at +Orrel Court, to Sophie's cunningly-worded suggestion that she should +go on board the <i>Nadine</i> as her friend and ally, and assist in +the capture of the vessel by certain means which she pointed out, one +of which was a liberal use of drugs on the passengers and crew when +the critical moment was drawing near. A few months before she would +have entered with repugnance, but without hesitation, into any scheme +which bade fair to recover what she considered to be an inheritance +which the fates had robbed her off; but since then she had learnt to +love Shafto Hardress as she had never believed she could love any man; +and love had wrought its usual miracle. She hated Chrysie Vandel with +the whole-hearted hatred of her impetuous and masterful Bourbon +spirit; she looked upon her as one of her ancestors would have looked +upon an usurper or an invader—something to be abolished or +suppressed, at any price and by any means. Her father, too, she +thoroughly hated—not only through personal antipathy, but as one of +those who possessed something that should have been hers. To Lord +Orrel and Lady Olive she was practically indifferent; and, so far as +they were concerned, she would have entered even willingly into any +scheme which promised to take from them what they had taken from her. +For the Franco-Russian alliance she cared little, yet she would +infinitely prefer to see France sharing the control of the world with +Russia than that it should be in the hands of an Anglo-American +business syndicate. Moreover, was there not that promise made to her +father long ago by an exalted personage, that, since Russia would +prefer a monarchy to a republic as a friend and ally, she would not +look unfavourably on the restoration of the House of Bourbon in the +person of the prince, should circumstances—such, for instance, as a +victorious war fought with Russia's aid—make such an event possible. +Many a time, indeed, she had even been ready to curse this unfortunate +love which had come into her life to shake her resolution and spoil +her purpose. But for that how easy it would all be, especially with an +ally—brilliant, daring, and unscrupulous—like Sophie Valdemar; and +yet, how could she help to betray the man she loved, even to destroy +her rival and get him for herself? So, after a long pause of thought, +she repeated again, aloud: +</p> + +<p> +"No, no; I couldn't do it. It would be too base." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Adelaide," replied Sophie, familiarly, and almost +affectionately, "I hope you will forgive me if I suggest that the +attitude you have taken up, dignified and virtuous as I admit it looks +at first sight, is really a trifle absurd." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, countess," replied Adelaide, frigidly, "if you are going to +forget your manners, I think the conversation may as well end. You +have sought to tempt me to an act of treachery, and because I refuse, +you begin to forget your manners. You seem to have forgotten, also, +that you have put it into my power to warn the viscount and his +friends of the danger you have prepared for them." +</p> + +<p> +This was, of course, a danger which Sophie had foreseen. It was a +grave one; but she was accustomed to run risks, and she was ready for +this one. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Adelaide," she replied, still with the most perfect good +humour, "please don't get angry with me. We have always been very good +friends, and I think this is the first time you have called me +countess for years. Don't take the trouble to be formal any more, but +just be sensible and listen. I am not tempting you at all. I am simply +trying to help you against our common enemy, and I am asking you to +help France and Russia in the great and good work of wresting the +command of the world from these upstart Anglo-Saxons, and reducing +them once for all to their proper place. You are not a friend to the +Republic; neither am I, nor any of us, for the matter of that. But you +are a Frenchwoman, who ought to be Queen of France, and, if all goes +well with us, may be." +</p> + +<p> +"What," exclaimed Adelaide, taken off her guard for a moment, "do you +mean that, Sophie? Do you believe that Russia——" +</p> + +<p> +"Would not rather have as an ally a monarchy—the old monarchy of +France, ruled over by your most gracious majesty, than a republic, +managed by a plebeian pack of stockjobbers and shopkeepers? Do you +know why your lamented father the prince was such a welcome guest at +the court of Petersburg?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, then you know——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied Sophie, taking the venture; "I do know, and I can +assure you that your majesty, when the day comes, will find no +stronger partisan than I shall be. My father, too, is one of your most +devoted adherents, though, of course, he can say nothing about it now, +and, as you know, there are other personages far more exalted." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, yes, I know," said Adelaide. "It was almost a promise." +</p> + +<p> +"Help us, and you shall find that it was a promise," half guessing +what the promise was. Then, pushing her advantage, she continued: +"And, after all, you know, my dear Adelaide, is it not a little +inconsistent for you to talk of treason or betrayal. Do you really +think that you would now be a guest in Lord Orrel's house any more +than I should if he knew of your connection with a certain ex-captain +of Uhlans, or of that visit you paid with him to General Ducros? +Really, you will forgive me if I say that your suggestion as to +warning the viscount about my little scheme is a trifle illogical, +even if you wished to betray us, which I don't suppose you would +seriously dream of. How could you do it without betraying yourself? +You would have to accuse me and papa, and, through us, Russia, of an +act of contemplated piracy. We should be compelled, in self-defence, +to prove that you know just as much of the true nature of the Storage +Works as we do, and that you and your ex-captain are the real authors +of the French expedition—in short, that you are every whit as bitter +an enemy of the Trust, and all concerned in it, as we are. I fully +admit that you will spoil our scheme for the time being; but, instead +of being a guest of the <i>Nadine</i>, the guest of the man you love, +with the power in your hand of abolishing the woman who will certainly +marry him, if you don't, you would suffer the indignity of being +ordered out of his house as a spy and a traitress." +</p> + +<p> +The logic was as exact as it was pitiless, and Adelaide de Condé saw +that Sophie Valdemar was, for the time being at least, mistress of the +situation. She had come to Orrel Court as a guest, with the full +intention of playing a double part. She had played it until one day +she had chanced to overhear a few half-tender, half-chaffing words +pass between Chrysie Vandel and Hardress. Then she had awakened to the +full certainty of what, in her inmost soul, she had long +suspected—that she loved this man with all the strength of a strong +and imperious nature; and since then she had been living in constant +dread that he should by some means come to know her as she was. +</p> + +<p> +Now the crisis had come. Sophie Valdemar had woven toils round her +from which there was no escape; she must play the double part she had +chosen to the end. It was the only possible chance of gratifying at +once her love and her hate, and of perhaps attaining the object of her +ambitions after all. She moved slowly once or twice across the room, +with her hands clasped behind her back. Sophie waited and watched her +with a half-smile on her lips and a gleam of triumph in her eyes. She +knew that she had won, for she could read every thought that was +passing in Adelaide de Condé's soul. Then Adelaide stopped in the +middle of the room and faced her, with her head slightly thrown back, +and said slowly: +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Sophie; I see, after all, that you are right. I should be no +more a traitor on board the yacht than I have been here, and one +should help one's friends and allies rather than one's enemies. It +will, of course, be an enormous advantage to our cause if this yacht +can be seized. No doubt, too, there will be ciphers on board, which +will enable us to communicate with the works, and if there are, that +will be an immense gain to us. It shall be part of my business to find +that out. Yes; I will go, and I will help you as far as I can; but +there is one compact, Sophie, that you must make with me." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Adelaide," replied Sophie, warmly, and coming forward with +both hands outstretched, "after what you have said I will make any +compact you please that does not injure the cause of Holy Russia. She +is the only God, and her service is the only religion I have, and if I +make the compact, I swear to you by Holy Russia that I will keep it. +What is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Then you must swear to me," said Adelaide, taking her hand, "that, +whatever happens, whether we succeed or fail, no evil shall come to +the viscount or his father and sister, either in person or property. +If we get possession of the works, and the alliance conquers England +and America after it has disposed of Germany, they shall be considered +and treated as friends, not enemies; for you must remember that until +I reign as queen in Paris I propose to reign as mistress at Orrel +Court. As for the American woman and her father, and all the rest of +them, the sooner you get them out of the way the better pleased I +shall be." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Adelaide," replied Sophie, "you looked adorable as you said +those last words. Yes; of course, it shall be so; not a hair of their +heads, not a centime of their property shall be touched. They shall be +yours, and, as yours, sacred against all ills. That I swear and +promise you in the name of Holy Russia." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," replied Adelaide, looking straight into her eyes, now +brilliant with the light of triumph, "I am with you to the end, +whether it be good or bad, success or failure, life or death." +</p> + +<p> +"And for Holy Russia and the old régime of France!" added Sophie, +almost solemnly. "And now, suppose we go and join these good people on +the lawn?" +</p> + +<p> +As they went out, arm-in-arm, laughing and chatting as though they +hadn't a care on their minds, no one would have dreamt that these two +beautiful women had been a moment before plotting the ruin, not only +of those whose hospitality they were enjoying, but of their country +and people as well; but as Miss Chrysie saw them, her pretty brows +came together for an instant, she turned aside, and said to her father +in a low tone: +</p> + +<p> +"That Frenchwoman and the Russian girl have been together ever since +breakfast—hatching some mischief, I'll bet. I don't like it, +poppa—any more than I like the Frenchwoman coming across on the +yacht. She's coming for no good, I'm sure; but the viscount's about as +blind as a wall-eyed mule where that woman's concerned. Anyhow, I'll +watch her pretty closely; she can bet all her titles and ancient +lineage on that." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right, Chrysie; and I reckon I sha'n't be sleeping much while +she's around," replied her father. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</p> + + +<p> +Cowes week was over, and the house party at Orrel Court had broken up. +Madame de Bourbon had yielded to her niece's earnest persuasions, and +consented to become a guest on the <i>Nadine</i>. Count Valdemar and +Sophie had sailed on board the <i>Vlodoya</i>, <i>en route</i> for the +Baltic and Petersburg. The news which Hardress had told to the +marquise and Chrysie on the lawn at Cowes had duly leaked out into the +channels of the Press, and had been condensed and expanded, +embroidered and commented upon with the usual luxuriant facility of +the journalistic imagination. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the <i>Times</i> had published a lengthy and weighty +communication from M. de Blowitz, which, while proving many wrong and +some right, pointed unmistakably to a very grave state of affairs in +Western and Central Europe. The communication also hinted, indirectly +but unmistakably, at other developments which might possibly produce +results as astounding as they would be unexpected. +</p> + +<p> +"De Blowitz has somehow managed to get on to the secret of those two +so-called Polar expeditions," said Hardress to his father at breakfast +on the morning before the <i>Nadine</i> was to sail. +</p> + +<p> +The marquise and Madame de Bourbon were having breakfast in their own +room that morning else he would not have said this. Only Chrysie and +her father were at the table. "He's a wonderful fellow for getting +hold of news. That allusion to events proceeding in a far-distant +portion of the globe is distinctly significant." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," said Clifford Vandel, "and I reckon that, under the +circumstances, the sooner we respond personally to Doctor Lamson's +telegram the better it will be for all immediately concerned. To tell +you the square truth, Lord Orrel," he went on, looking up from his +plate, "I don't quite like the turn things seem to be taking +generally." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, what do you mean, my dear Vandel?" asked his lordship; "you've +not heard anything unpleasant, have you?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've heard something, and I've seen a bit more," he replied. "I don't +want to speak disrespectfully of any of your guests, but I'm bound to +say I don't altogether like the cordiality that's seemed to work up +during the last few days between our Russian friends and the +distinguished lady who is going to honour us by her company across the +Atlantic." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, come now, Mr Vandel," interrupted Hardress, in a tone which Miss +Chrysie did not exactly appreciate, "surely you're not going to accuse +the marquise, the daughter of my father's old friend, of anything like +plotting and scheming with Russia." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not making any accusations, viscount; I'm just trying to put two +and two together and make four of them. We know that if Doctor +Fargeau's discovery had not fallen into our hands, or, I should say +that if it had not been thrown into our hands by the stupidity of the +French government, this young lady's father would most likely have +become king of France instead of dying, of what we will call mental +shock, down at Elsenau; and we haven't yet got on to whether she knows +anything or nothing about the scheme yet." +</p> + +<p> +"Anyhow, she was in Paris at the time when this Fargeau, the son of +the man whose remains we picked up, had his interviews with General +Ducros, and these Russians were there at the same time. I guess that +makes about two. Right after that France and Russia decide to send two +Polar expeditions, both by the same route—the only one on this side +that leads to the Storage Works—and both about timed to get there +when we are ready to spring our little scheme on the world. I reckon +that makes two more; and if you put them together you'll get about +four." +</p> + +<p> +"I should say five, poppa," exclaimed Miss Chrysie, putting her +fish-knife down somewhat sharply on her plate. "It strikes me the +whole thing's timed to fix in with this war that they're talking +about. France and Russia want to get hold of the works when the war +starts. If they do they'll just run creation and halve the world +between them; and I reckon that makes five. What do you think, +viscount?" she went on, raising her eyes and looking straight at him +across the table. +</p> + +<p> +"I agree entirely with Mr Vandel that we ought to get across the +Atlantic as quickly as we can," he replied, rather more deliberately +than she liked. "I hope, and still believe, that your suspicions are +without foundation, but, at the same time, of course, we can't afford +to take any risks in a matter like this; and as everything is ready, +and as it is always wise to do the unexpected in matters like this, +the <i>Nadine</i> shall start to-night instead of to-morrow morning. +That will give us thirteen to fifteen hours' start; and if, as you +seem to think, our friends are the enemy, it may help somewhat to +disconcert their plans. But, under any circumstances, it won't do any +harm." +</p> + +<p> +"I think, Shafto, that's a very good idea," said Lord Orrel. "In view +of what is taking place in Europe and of Doctor Lamson's telegram, I +really don't think we ought to lose an hour in getting across the +Atlantic as quickly as possible. Of course, it is impossible for me to +entertain suspicions of the character of people who have been my +guests without the most absolute proof, but at any rate it is +impossible that anything could happen between here and Halifax, where +we shall land Madame de Bourbon and the marquise. There we shall get +more definite news from Lamson, and the telegram will give us good +excuse for leaving them there; but that, of course, will depend upon +the nature of the news that we get there. If there is anything really +serious—well, we shall have to commit them to the care of the +universal Cook, who will, of course, provide a special courier for +them, and say good-bye as politely as possible." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the door opened and Adelaide came in. Lord Orrel had a +somewhat high-pitched voice, and as she was opening the door, in the +slow, silent way which society approves, she distinctly heard his last +sentence. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," he continued, "here is the marquise herself. Ma'm'selle, we find +that the yacht is ready, and that there is no objection, unless you +and Madame de Bourbon have any, to starting this afternoon instead of +to-morrow morning. Both Mr Vandel and myself have somewhat urgent +affairs on the other side of the Atlantic." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Lord Orrel," replied Adelaide, with a radiant smile, "pray +say nothing more; the arrangement will suit my aunt and myself +perfectly—and, after all, we are at your service. It is you who are +accommodating us. For my part, I think it is always pleasant the first +night at sea, especially in summer. One wakes up the next morning to +find the sun shining, and the water dancing, and the strong salt +breeze ready to give one a most glorious appetite for breakfast. What +more would you? The packing, as you call it, is done. For us it is +only a question of putting our hats on and going on board—and, voila, +c'est fait." +</p> + +<p> +She said this with such a delightful air of insouciance, and with such +a radiant smile, that Miss Chrysie felt that she could have shot her +there and then. Under the circumstances, she just finished her coffee +and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Olive, if that's so, I reckon we'd better go and get fixed up +too. I quite agree with the marquise that it's better to start out at +night on a voyage and wake up nice and fresh next morning, especially +if you don't eat too liberal a dinner before you start." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes," said Lady Olive; "I can be quite ready by this afternoon if +you can, and if it's anything like the lovely moonlight night it was +last night, we shall have a perfectly delicious run through the Solent +and past the Needles." +</p> + +<p> +"And along the coast," added Hardress; "the moonlight will last us a +bit farther than that. We shall be well away to Portland before you +want to go to bed I expect. The <i>Nadine's</i> got to do her best +this time, and we've coaled up for a run across the Atlantic at twenty +knots. That will be somewhat of an experience for you, marquise, will +it not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, viscount," she said, with one of those smiles which Miss Chrysie +hated so; "it is a very wonderful speed that, and of course it will be +an experience." +</p> + +<p> +"Then that's settled," said Lady Olive, rising, "we shall start this +evening. Now let us go and pack." +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i>, spick and span, and clean as a new pin, was lying +alongside the ocean quay at Southampton, her bunkers and half her hold +crammed with the finest steaming coal that money could buy, and the +steam whistling softly in her pipes. +</p> + +<p> +Her second engineer, an exceedingly clever young fellow of +twenty-five, whose good-looking face was marred by a pair of +too-closely-set greenish-blue eyes, was leaning on the rail a little +forward of the foremast, smoking a pipe and gazing down the water with +eyes that saw nothing material. Edward Williams was as good a marine +engineer as ever went afloat, but unfortunately he was possessed by +the idea, too common among his class, that he possessed a creative and +inventive genius as well as real cleverness in his profession. +</p> + +<p> +He had invented what he considered to be improvement after improvement +in marine machinery, and Lord Orrel had at first helped him generously +to put them into practical form; but as he did not possess the genius, +he believed he had, they had one after another failed to stand the +test of practice, and at length both Lord Orrel and his son had closed +their pockets and given him to understand that he had better devote +himself to his profession and leave inventing alone. This produced the +usual effect on such a mind as his. He forgot all that they had done +for him, and looked upon them as wealthy men whose selfishness +deliberately barred his way to the fame and fortune which ought to be +his. +</p> + +<p> +Only a month before he had gone to Hardress with the plans of a new +type of submarine boat, which he, of course, firmly believed would +revolutionise naval warfare. It would only have cost a few hundred +pounds to build a model and demonstrate the truth of his theory, but +Hardress had kindly but firmly refused to do it. This refusal had +soured him utterly, and put him in exactly the frame of mind readiest +to succumb to the temptation to commit the only crime of his life. +</p> + +<p> +Sophie had heard something of this in conversations at the Court and +on board the yacht, and she instantly divined that if she was to find +an instrument to work out her scheme she would find it in the +disappointed inventor—and she was right. +</p> + +<p> +Like every man who believes himself to be a genius, and is not, Edward +Williams was intensely vain, and when the beautiful and brilliant +countess one day asked him to show her over the engines and explain +their working he naturally felt intensely flattered. Then Sophie had +skilfully led the conversation to his own inventions, sympathised with +him very sweetly, and assured him that in Russia such genius as his +would certainly not go unrecognised. "But these English," she said, +"are always the last to accept new ideas or properly reward their +clever men." +</p> + +<p> +After that he had been as wax in her skilful hands. She had even led +him to believe she was not indifferent to him personally. After this +she had infatuated him still further by giving him appointments in +secluded parts of the Court grounds; and so she had gradually led up +to the proposal which he had now definitely accepted. +</p> + +<p> +For reasons of state, it was all-important that the <i>Nadine</i> +should never reach America. Not the slightest harm was to come to +anyone on board her: they would simply be brought back and landed in +France, free to get home as they pleased. All that was wanted was a +delay of a couple of days or so. Therefore, if the engines of the +<i>Nadine</i> broke down at a certain spot in the Atlantic, and +remained helpless until the <i>Vlodoya</i> overtook her, he was to +receive five thousand pounds in gold and a lucrative dockyard +appointment in Russia, which would give him every opportunity of +working out his inventions. +</p> + +<p> +To such a man, embittered by disappointment and soured by a sense of +imaginary wrongs, such a dazzling temptation was irresistible; and +that was why Edward Williams was leaning over the rail of the +<i>Nadine</i> a couple of hours before she was to start, dreaming +dreams of revenge on those who had wronged him, and of fortune and +fame among his country's enemies. +</p> + +<p> +The party from Orrel Court drove down to Southampton immediately after +lunch to enable the ladies to do a little final shopping before going +on board. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the afternoon Chrysie and Lady Olive went into the +telegraph office to send off a few farewell wires to friends. As they +entered, Miss Chrysie's quick eyes at once caught sight of Felice, the +marquise's maid, leaning over one of the compartments. She touched +Lady Olive's hand and nodded towards her, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"I guess I'd like to see that telegram." +</p> + +<p> +And then, in the most unprincipled fashion, she strolled along the +compartments as though she were looking for a form, stopped a moment +and looked over the maid's shoulder. Then she came back and did it +again. Meanwhile the other compartments had been occupied; so she just +stood about until Felice had finished, and then took her place. +</p> + +<p> +As it happened, Felice had been compelled to use one of those +adamantine post-office pencils which you have to almost dig through +the paper before you can get a legible impression; consequently on the +next form on the pad there was a distinct tracing of several words. +This Miss Chrysie tore off and appropriated. Then she wrote her own +message and went to the counter with it. +</p> + +<p> +When they got out into the street Lady Olive said, a trifle frigidly: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Chrysie, don't you think you did a rather improper thing in +there? I distinctly saw you look over Felice's shoulder. You know, +here, we consider a telegram as sacred as a letter." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, certainly!" replied Chrysie, flushing a little at the rebuke: +"and so we do over our side: but still, all's fair in—well—in love +and war, and I guess you won't think me quite so wicked when I tell +you who that telegram's addressed to." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Chrysie, I don't wish to know, and I don't think you ought to +know," said Lady Olive, still more stiffly. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," replied Chrysie, defiantly, "I am sorry I riled you, but I do +know it; and honestly, Olive, it's what's you and I and all of us +ought to know." +</p> + +<p> +At this Lady Olive's curiosity appealed very strongly to her sense of +the proprieties, and she said more amiably: +</p> + +<p> +"Do you really mean, Chrysie, that there's something serious in +it—that, for instance, it has anything to do with the works?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know yet," said Chrysie, "but I've got a pretty good copy of +it in my satchel, thanks to those awful pencils they give you to use +in British telegraph offices. Anyhow, it was addressed to Count +Valdemar, <i>Yacht Vlodoya</i>, Cherbourg; and Cherbourg's not on the +way to the Baltic, is it? Let's go and have an ice and some cakes +somewhere, so that I can read what is written." +</p> + +<p> +"That's very strange," said Lady Olive, "and the Count professed to be +in such a hurry to get back to Petersburg. What on earth can he be +doing at Cherbourg?" +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon poppa and the viscount would give something to know that, +too," said Chrysie, as they turned into a confectioner's. They ordered +ices, and Chrysie took the telegram form out of her satchel and +unfolded it gingerly. Her pretty brows puckered over it for a few +moments, as she slanted it this way and that to get the light on it. +Then she put her elbows on the little marble table, and said in a low +tone: +</p> + +<p> +"It's in French, and it tells the Count that the <i>Nadine</i> starts +this evening instead of to-morrow morning. The last word is +'Dépêchez,' and that's French for 'Make haste,' isn't it? Now, do you +think I was right in doing a very improper thing—which, of course, it +was?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid you were, Chrysie," said Lady Olive. "It's certainly very +mysterious. How is the telegram signed?" +</p> + +<p> +"There isn't any signature," replied Chrysie. "Our friend's a bit too +cute for that." +</p> + +<p> +"What on earth do you mean, Chrysie?" said Lady Olive, with a note of +alarm in her voice. "What friend?" +</p> + +<p> +Chrysie looked up and said, with a snap of her eyes: "What other +friend than M'am'selle Felice's mistress—the noble Adelaide de +Condé?" +</p> + +<p> +Lady Olive started. To her straightforward English sense of honour it +seemed impossible that a woman so gently bred as Adelaide de Condé +could accept her father's hospitality, and yet send such a message as +this to those who might before long be the enemies of his country. +</p> + +<p> +"Chrysie," she said, "I could not believe that for a moment. It is +utterly incredible that the marquise could be guilty of anything of +the sort. I admit that it is very suspicious that the <i>Vlodoya</i> +should be at Cherbourg instead of on her way to the Baltic, and that +Adelaide's maid should send such a message; but it seems to me much +more likely that Felice is in the pay of these Russians, and that her +mistress knows nothing about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Well," said Chrysie, rising, "we shall see. Now I guess we'd better +be getting down on board. I shall give this to the viscount, and he +can have a council of war on it." +</p> + +<p> +"The viscount!" smiled Lady Olive, as they went out into the street. +"How very formal we are, Chrysie. Why don't you call him Shafto?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because I won't let him call me Chrysie—yet," was the reply. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XIX +</p> + + +<p> +When the <i>Nadine</i> left her moorings, at about four o'clock on a +lovely June afternoon, she sauntered easily down to the Needles at +about twelve knots. For reasons of his own her owner had never put her +to full speed in crowded waters, or, in fact, where any other craft +was near enough to see what she could do. On deck the principal actors +in the tragedy that was to come were sitting in deck-chairs or +strolling about, chatting in the most friendly fashion possible, just +as though the graceful little vessel was not practically carrying the +fate of the world as she slipped so smoothly and swiftly through the +swirling water that ran along her white sides. +</p> + +<p> +Until nightfall she continued at the same speed; but when dinner was +over, and the lights were up, Hardress lit a cigar and went on to the +bridge, and said to the commander: +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Burgess, I think you can let her go now. Full speed ahead, +right away to Halifax. As I have told you, it is most urgent that we +should be there in between five and six days. Of course, everything +depends on the engines, and I think it would be well to work the +engine-room staff in treble shifts, just to see that nothing goes +wrong. Any accident in the engine-room would mean a good deal to me. +So you may tell the stokers and engineers that if everything goes +smoothly, and we get to Halifax by the 15th—that's giving you five +days and a bit from now—there will be a hundred pounds extra to be +divided among them when we've coaled up again at Halifax. You +understand, I want those engines looked after as though they were a +lady's watch." +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly, my lord," replied the captain. "I hope, sir, you don't +think that anything of that sort is necessary for the working of the +<i>Nadine</i>; but, of course, the engine-room staff will be very glad +to accept your lordship's generosity." +</p> + +<p> +The captain blew his whistle, and the head and shoulders of a +quartermaster appeared on the ladder, looking up to the bridge. +</p> + +<p> +"Quartermaster, who is on duty in the engine-room?" +</p> + +<p> +"Mr Williams, sir," replied the quartermaster, touching his cap. +</p> + +<p> +"Ask him to be good enough to step up here for a moment." +</p> + +<p> +"Ay, ay, sir," and the head and shoulders disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +A few moments later Edward Williams came up on to the bridge. Apart +from the work of his profession he was an intensely nervous man, and +his imagination had instantly construed the sudden and unwonted +summons into a suspicion of his contemplated guilt, and his close-set, +greenish-blue eyes shifted anxiously from the captain to Hardress in a +way that at once inspired Hardress with vague undefined suspicions, +which somehow brought him back to one or two interviews on the subject +of Williams's patents—which had ended in a way which would have +prompted a less generous man to have dismissed him on the spot. It was +only a suspicion. Still, in another sense, it was the intuition of a +keen and highly-trained intellect, and somehow, by some process which +Hardress himself could not have explained, Williams's manner as he +came on the bridge, and that sudden shifty glance, inspired him with +the thought that this was a man to be watched. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr Williams," said the captain, "his lordship has just informed me +that it is most important we should get to Halifax in the quickest +possible time; and, as you have most of the routine work to do, under +Mr M'Niven, and are, perhaps, more in touch with the men than he is, I +wish you to tell the men that from here to Halifax the engineers and +stokers will work in treble shifts. It'll be a bit harder work, but +not for long. And his lordship has kindly promised a hundred pounds to +be divided among the engineer's staff at Halifax. Now, that's not bad +extra pay for five or six days work, and I hope you'll see that it's +earned." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, sir," replied the engineer, doing his best to keep his +voice steady, and not quite succeeding. "It is, I am sure, most +generous of his lordship, and I am quite certain that the men will do +everything in their power to deserve it." +</p> + +<p> +"And," said Hardress, noting the break in his voice, "you understand, +Mr Williams, I shall expect the officers to do the same. We can take +no risks this trip, and there must be no accidents or breakdowns. Time +is too precious; you understand me, of course. I will see Mr M'Niven +later on. That will do, thank you." +</p> + +<p> +Mr Williams touched the peak of his cap, and disappeared down the +ladder, feeling, in his inmost soul as though his contemplated +treachery had already been discovered. And yet, if he had seen the +matter from another point of view, he might have known that the +precautions which Hardress had taken were, under the circumstances, +just what any man carrying such enormous responsibilities as he did +would have taken, for, as he had said, everything depended on the +<i>Nadine's</i> engines. It was, therefore, the most natural thing in +the world that everything possible should be done to ensure their +perfect working. In fact, if he had not had the burden of a +contemplated treachery on his soul, he would have considered the +orders to be not only natural, but necessary. +</p> + +<p> +As he reached the deck, it happened that the marquise was strolling +forward towards the bridge. Williams raised his cap, and by the light +of one of the electric deck-lamps, Hardress saw from the bridge that +she looked hard at him for a moment, and that he replied with an +almost imperceptible shake of the head. His brows came together for a +moment, and he shut his teeth. His keen intellect saw what his +half-intoxicated senses would not have seen. Under any normal +circumstances, it was impossible that his guest, Adelaide de Condé, +could have even the remotest relations with his second engineer, and +yet there was no mistaking what he had seen as she passed under the +electric light. +</p> + +<p> +"Captain Burgess," he said, suddenly, in a low voice, "I don't quite +like the look of Mr Williams. I have nothing against him, but I know +he has a bit of a grudge against me about those patents of his, +and——" +</p> + +<p> +"Surely you don't think, my lord, that he would do anything?" +</p> + +<p> +"No," interrupted Hardress; "I say nothing, except that we're taking +no risks this voyage; but I shall ask Mr M'Niven to have a very sharp +watch kept on the engines." +</p> + +<p> +"May I come up on to the sacred territory?" said a sweet, pleading +voice from half-way up the bridge stairs. +</p> + +<p> +"And may we too?" said the voice of Miss Chrysie just behind. +</p> + +<p> +"By all means, marquise," said Hardress; "and you too, Olive, and Miss +Chrysie, certainly; only I hope you've got your caps pinned on +securely, because we're going to quicken up." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," said Adelaide, coming up on to the bridge with her head +half-enveloped in a fleecy shawl, "quicken up. Does that mean what you +call full speed?" +</p> + +<p> +"Something like it, I reckon," said Miss Chrysie, coming up close +behind her, followed by Lady Olive, both with white yachting caps +pinned more or less securely on to their abundant tresses. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Hardress, with a note in his voice that Adelaide had not +heard before; "it is full speed. Now, hold on to your headgear and +you'll see." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke he put his hand on the handle of the engine telegraph and +pulled it over from half to full speed. They heard a tinkle in the +engine-room, and presently the bridge began to throb and thump under +their feet. The sharp prow of the <i>Nadine</i> had so far been +cleaving the water with scarcely a ripple. Now it seemed to leap +forward into it, and raised a long creased swirl to left and right. A +sudden blast of wind struck their faces, hands instinctively went up +to heads, and Lady Olive exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +"What is that, Shafto? It hasn't suddenly come on to blow, has it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh no," he laughed. "We're making it blow. That's only the difference +between about ten or eleven knots and twenty—and there's a bit of a +breeze against us, about five miles an hour—so that makes it +twenty-five miles an hour—in fact, even thirty—for knots are longer +than miles." +</p> + +<p> +"Now isn't that just gorgeous!" said Miss Chrysie, and she opened her +mouth and filled her lungs with the strong salt breath of the +sea—"and there goes my cap," she said, when she got her breath again. +</p> + +<p> +The breeze had got under the peak of her yachting cap, and sent it +flying aft. The pin dislocated the arrangement of her hair, and the +next moment she was standing with the loosened shining coils streaming +out behind her, unravelling into a shower of golden glory. Adelaide, +with the instinct of a Frenchwoman, had drawn her shawl tight round +her head. Hardress looked round at the moment, and, if his heart had +ever wavered, in that moment the old allegiance was confirmed. There +was no more comparison between the tall, deep-chested American girl, +with her cheeks glowing, her eyes shining in the sheer joy of physical +life, and her long gold-brown hair streaming away behind her, and the +slight, shrinking figure of the daughter of the Bourbons, cowering +behind the canvas of the bridge and gripping the shawl that covered +her head, than there might have been between a sea-nymph of the old +Grecian legends and a fine lady of to-day caught in an unexpected gust +of wind. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie looked natural and magnificent, breasting the gale and +breathing it in as though she loved it. Adelaide de Condé, the exotic +of the drawing-room, cowered before it, and looked pinched, and +shivered. Lady Olive, with one hand on the top of her cap and the +other holding the wrap she had thrown round her shoulders, gasped for +a moment, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Chrysie; this is glorious. Twenty knots!—that's about +twenty-four miles an hour, isn't it, a little bit faster than a +South-Eastern express train?" +</p> + +<p> +"I hope so," laughed Hardress; "if it wasn't we should be some time in +getting to Halifax. And now, I suppose, you've got some coffee ready +for us down in the saloon?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, it will be quite ready now," said Lady Olive. "Mr Vandel and +papa have started their chess already; Madame de Bourbon is still +making lace with those wonderful eyes and fingers of hers; and so, if +you want to exchange the storm for the calm, come along." +</p> + +<p> +A little after eleven that night, when the <i>Nadine</i>, thrilling in +every plate and plank, was tearing through the smooth water of the +Atlantic at nearly twenty-one knots an hour, a council of three was +being held in the smoking-room on deck. The doors and windows were +closed, and a quarter-master was patrolling the deck on each side. +Below in the saloon, Miss Chrysie, with a dainty little revolver in +the pocket of her yachting skirt, was playing poker for beans with +Madame de Bourbon, Lady Olive, and the marquise. In short, as Miss +Chrysie herself would have expressed it, things were rapidly coming to +a head on board the <i>Nadine</i>. +</p> + +<p> +"It seems to me," said the president, "that, all things +considered—thank you, viscount, I think I will take just one more +peg—we have just got to take every possible precaution. I don't say +that I am suspecting or accusing anybody; but, considering that we've +got about the biggest thing on earth right here aboard this yacht, I +don't think we should calculate on taking any risks. Take that +telegram to start with. There can't be any doubt about that; and it +doesn't matter whether the marquise or Ma'm'selle Felice sent it, +there it is. Get it down to plain figures. This boat does twenty +knots, and she started fifteen hours before her time. A telegram goes +from Southampton to Cherbourg, as Chrysie's duplicate showed, clearly +telling Count Valdemar, on the <i>Vlodoya</i> at Cherbourg, where he +had no business to be, according to his programme, that we were +sailing in the afternoon instead of the next morning, and it ended by +telling him to make haste. Now, what does haste mean? We steam twenty +knots, and the <i>Vlodoya</i>, we know, steams about sixteen. She +started from Cherbourg, and we started from Southampton. The French +and Russian Polar expeditions are perhaps under weigh now, and, from +what we know, I reckon that they have a fairly good idea of what we're +going across the Atlantic for. Now, how's a sixteen-knot boat going to +catch a twenty-knot yacht anywhere between Southampton and Halifax?" +</p> + +<p> +"And why should Count Valdemar receive that telegram at Cherbourg, as +I suppose he did," said Lord Orrel, "instead of going on to the +Baltic, when he said he was in such a hurry to get to Petersburg?" +</p> + +<p> +"That, I think," said Hardress, "is the most suspicious fact in the +whole business. Of course, I don't like to suspect our late or our +present guests, but I must confess that I feel there's something +wrong. What it is I can't exactly say; but still I do feel that +everything is not as it ought to be." +</p> + +<p> +"And that," said the president, "I think I can explain in a few +words—not my own ideas altogether, because Chrysie has given me a +good many points. You know, gentlemen, there are some things that a +woman's eyes can see through a lot farther than a man's can, and +Chrysie doesn't always keep her eyes down." +</p> + +<p> +He lit a fresh cigar, took a sip of his whisky and soda, and went on: +</p> + +<p> +"Why should a telegram be sent to the owner of a sixteen-knot boat, +informing him of a change of sailing a twenty-knot boat, when the +sixteen-knotter is supposed to be going up the Baltic, and the +twenty-knotter is going across the Atlantic? It seems ridiculous, +doesn't it? It would, even if they were both going across the +Atlantic, as they might be. Now, those are hard facts; and there's a +dead contradiction between them, just as you might say there is +between positive and negative in electricity. Now, where's the spark +that's going to connect them?" +</p> + +<p> +There was silence at the table for a few moments, while the president +blew two or three long whiffs of blue smoke from his lips; and then +Hardress, remembering his thoughts on the bridge, and what he had seen +from it, blurted out, almost involuntarily: +</p> + +<p> +"Something wrong with the engines, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"You've got it in once, viscount," said the president, flicking the +ash off his cigar. "Is there any other way that a sixteen-knotter +could overtake a twenty-knotter? I don't want to say anything against +anyone, but, you know, accidents to engines are easily managed, and we +just can't afford to have any right here." +</p> + +<p> +"I've seen to that already," said Hardress. "I don't think there's any +fear of a mishap, accidental or otherwise." +</p> + +<p> +"But," said the president, lighting another cigar, "if it should +happen that the sixteen-knotter did overhaul the twenty-knotter, +wouldn't it be just as well to get that gun mounted? They may have +guns on that Russian boat, and they probably have; but I don't think +they'll have anything that's a circumstance to our twelve-pounder +Vandelite gun." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in case of accidents," said Lord Orrel, "I think, Shafto, that +it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the gun mounted at once. If, in spite +of any precautions, there is going to be an accident in the +engine-room, it might as well be mounted as soon as possible." +</p> + +<p> +"I quite agree with you, sir," said Hardress. "We will have it out of +the hold, and mount it first thing to-morrow morning." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XX +</p> + + +<p> +On the morning of the second day out, when Adelaide came on deck, she +was astonished, and not a little disquieted, to see nearly the whole +of the yacht's crew, under the command of Mr M'Niven, the chief +engineer, engaged in mounting a long, light, slender gun, with a very +massive breech, on the flush deck just forward of the foremast. +Happening to look up at the bridge, she also saw that a light Maxim +had been mounted at either end of it. +</p> + +<p> +What did it mean? Guns were not mounted on a gentleman's private +yacht, as a rule, unless she was making some dangerous expedition in +perilous waters. As for doing such a thing on the most frequented +ocean path in the world, it was utterly ridiculous, unless there was +some very grave reason for it—and what reason could there be, save +one? Had Sophie's scheme been betrayed? Had Felice told about the +telegram, under the temptation of such a bribe as these millionaires +could offer? Had Williams wavered at the last, and confessed? She +knew, of course, that the <i>Vlodoya</i> carried guns, to compel +surrender, if necessary. Was that a reason why these guns were being +mounted?—and what would happen if the <i>Nadine</i> met force with +force, and won? Everything would come out; the whole conspiracy, and +her own share in it; and then, what would he think of her? She had +entered into the plot mainly for the purpose of getting rid of this +American rival of hers, so that she might pursue the advantage which +she believed she had already gained, without opposition. The discovery +would mean utter ruin for herself and all her hopes. +</p> + +<p> +While these sinister thoughts were passing swiftly through her brain +she heard a light step behind her, and a gay voice, saying: +</p> + +<p> +"My, that looks good, doesn't it! Seems as if the viscount thought we +were going to have a bit of a scrap before we got across. Yes, that's +poppa's own dynamite gun; the viscount calls it his pocket-pistol. Oh, +good-morning, marquise; you seem to be interested in the operations!" +</p> + +<p> +"Good-morning, Ma'm'selle Chrysie," replied the marquise, sweetly. +"How delightfully fresh you English and American girls always look +after you've tubbed. Yes; I assure you I am very interested; indeed, I +am astonished. I was not aware that it was customary to mount guns on +a nobleman's yacht in times of peace." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, no," laughed Miss Chrysie; "but then, you see, marquise, there +is peace and peace. We are at peace with all the world, nearly, but, +the fact is, this is a pretty important voyage, and, from what poppa +tells me, it hasn't got to be interrupted under any circumstances." +</p> + +<p> +"But surely there can be no fear of that," replied Adelaide, with a +laugh which seemed to Chrysie a trifle artificial and uneasy; "the +days of piracy are past." +</p> + +<p> +"That's no reason why they shouldn't be revived on occasion," said +Chrysie, turning round and looking her straight in the eyes; "in fact, +it seems to me, from one or two hints that poppa let drop, that +someone is going to try and stop us getting across this time, and +that's why these guns are here. That's a pretty-looking weapon, isn't +it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Miss Vandel," replied the marquise, rather languidly, "I can +assure you I know nothing about such things; and I take, if possible, +even less interest in them." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, marquise, I can assure you that that's a most interesting +weapon. Poppa invented it. It's loaded with liquid gas instead of +gunpowder, and a shell that holds twelve pounds of an improved sort of +dynamite—Vandelite he calls it. Now, of course, you know that when +liquid gas is allowed to become gasey gas, it makes things mighty cold +round it. Well, this freezes the Vandelite so that it shan't explode +in the gun. Then when the projectile hits anything, that develops heat +and sets it off. Simple, isn't it? And yet that's a thing that +inventors have been puzzling about for years. That gun will put twelve +pounds of concentrated earthquake into a ship four miles away, and +that would knock anything but an armour-clad into splinters. So I +guess there'll be trouble for anything that tries to stop us this +journey." +</p> + +<p> +"Still, that could hardly be in these times," said the marquise, with +excellently simulated nonchalance. "But, really, your knowledge of +gunnery appears to be wonderful, Miss Vandel. I suppose you take a +great interest in weapons of warfare?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do," said Chrysie; "you see, we make all the best of them over +our side. For instance," she went on, pulling an exquisitely-finished +little Smith & Wesson five-shooter out of her pocket, "there's a +dainty little bit of bric-a-brac. No, don't touch it, if you're not +accustomed to shooters, because it's loaded. Doesn't look very +dangerous, does it? But I can pick all the spots off a card at twenty +paces with it." +</p> + +<p> +"Dear me, how very wonderful! And how very interesting you young +ladies of the New World are. Really, the fact of your carrying a +loaded revolver in your skirt pocket seems to me quite as singular as +mounting guns on a gentleman's yacht. So entirely unnecessary, I +should have thought." +</p> + +<p> +All Adelaide's powers of self-control did not suffice to keep a note +of petulance and insincerity out of her voice. Miss Chrysie's quick +ears caught it instantly. She slipped her arm through Adelaide's, and +drew her away out of hearing of the men who were mounting the guns, +and said in a low voice, which thrilled with something very like +passion: +</p> + +<p> +"I'm carrying this shooter, marquise, for the same reason that they're +putting those guns up. I don't know what it is, but there's trouble +ahead, and we're outside the law just now, the same as others may be +soon; but the man I love is on board this ship, and if there's any +harm waiting for him, and quick and straight shooting will save him, +I'm going to do my little level best." +</p> + +<p> +It was impossible for Adelaide not to recognise the frank, direct +challenge of her words. For the moment a passing impulse impelled her +to snatch the weapon out of Chrysie's hand and shoot her; but another +moment's thought showed her that such an act would have meant worse +than ruin to all her hopes. After what Chrysie had said, she would +dearly have loved to have done it. It was the first distinct avowal of +her love for the man for whom she herself had deliberately engaged to +sacrifice the honour of her stainless name, and there was a ring of +deadly earnestness in Chrysie's tone as she handled the deadly toy, +which meant even more than her words did; and so she exclaimed, with +an innocent seeming archness which astonished Chrysie quite as much as +her own words had astonished the marquise: +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, so, Ma'm'selle, then my suspicions were correct. Well, well, +accept my best wishes for the most delightful ending possible for your +romance. Nothing could be better, or what the English call more +suitable—yes, in every way. And as for me, though I do not know what +I have done to deserve so great a confidence——" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know that I ought to let you thank me for it," said Chrysie, +flushing a little; "I guess I told you more for your good than mine, +and I thought it was only right that you should know just how matters +stood, in case any mistakes were made later on that couldn't be +rectified—and I think that's about all that need be said just here. +There is the bell: and there is Lady Olive come to tell us that tea is +ready. Suppose we go below, and change the subject." +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide followed her down the companion way, her face radiant and +smiling, and her heart hot and bitter with many thoughts which at +present she dared not translate either into words or actions. If only +the <i>Vlodoya</i> succeeded in her mission—if only the plot to which +she had lent herself succeeded—ah, then there would be a difference! +If not, well, the sea was deep and clear and cool, and life would have +nothing left in it for her. +</p> + +<p> +A little before midnight another council of war was being held in the +smoking-room, guarded as usual by a quartermaster on either side of +the deck, and Captain Burgess came out of his own cabin under the +bridge and went to the starboard door. The quartermaster stopped and +touched his cap. +</p> + +<p> +"Robertson," he said, "tell his lordship that I want to speak to him +at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Ay, ay, sir," said the man, knocking at the door. There was a "click +click" of the key turning in the lock, the door opened, and Hardress +looked out. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, captain," he said, "that you? Any—do you wish to speak to me? +Come in." +</p> + +<p> +The captain went in, and the door was at once locked behind him. +</p> + +<p> +"Sit down, captain," said Hardress, pointing to a seat. "What's the +matter? You can speak quite freely. You know that there are some +rather funny things going on; but you, of course, we trust +absolutely." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope so, my lord," said the skipper, with a touch of dignity in his +tone. "I am sorry to say that just before seven bells, when we changed +watch unexpectedly, as we are doing in the engine-room, one of the +extra men we've put on watch detected Mr Williams in the act of +sanding the driving rod of the low-pressure cylinder of the port +engine." +</p> + +<p> +"And what would have been the effect of that?" said Hardress, quite +coolly, as though he expected the news. +</p> + +<p> +The words had hardly left his lips before a slight jarring shudder ran +along the port side of the ship, and they felt a distinct swerve as +though she had swung suddenly out of her course. +</p> + +<p> +"The scoundrel, he has gritted the shaft as well!" exclaimed the +captain, jumping to his feet and running to the door. "Pardon, my +lord," he cried, as he opened it. Then he said to the quartermaster: +</p> + +<p> +"Robertson, skip up to the bridge and stop her. Mr M'Niven's there." +</p> + +<p> +Then as the quartermaster vanished in the direction of the bridge he +locked the door, and came back and said: +</p> + +<p> +"My lord, I'm afraid it's worse than I thought. You know what grit +means in the bearings of a screw shaft. It means stopping one engine +for twenty-four hours, unbolting the bearings and the thrust-blocks, +and cleaning the grit out." +</p> + +<p> +"And I guess that's just about what was calculated upon by our friends +the enemy," said President Vandel. "A delay like that would just send +us waddling across the water like a duck with a lame foot; and that's +how a sixteen-knotter's expected to overtake a twenty-knotter. What's +happening to Mr Williams just now captain?" +</p> + +<p> +"Under arrest in his room, sir," replied the captain; "he's a good +sailor and a good officer, but I'm afraid he's guilty. I never saw a +man look more miserable than he did when I sent for him to my room. I +don't know who's been working on him, or what the reason of it is at +all, but there it is. He didn't confess, but he might just as well +have done, for his face did it for him." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we are to understand, Captain Burgess," said Lord Orrel, "that, +at the best, we shall be delayed at least twenty-four hours. That will +make a serious difference to us, Shafto, under the circumstances." +</p> + +<p> +"And it may be more than that, my lord," said the captain, "because we +don't know yet how much harm's done. Mr M'Niven will, of course, +examine the cylinder and the shafting at once and report to me, and if +the worst comes to the worst, why, we may have to go to Halifax with +one engine. If we hadn't twin screws we'd be disabled altogether. Yes, +you see he's stopped the port engine, and that means we've dropped +down to about eight knots." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, of course," said Hardress, "that's about what it comes to, +father. Now, Captain Burgess, you will kindly keep Mr Williams in his +cabin. Let him have no communication with anyone. You can let +Robertson give him his food, and mount guard over him generally. We +can trust him, if we can trust anyone. I don't want to see him, or +accuse him of anything. Just keep him quiet, and isolated. Tell Mr +M'Niven we'll run along as well as we can with the starboard engine, +and put all available hands on to repairing the damage to the other. +I'll give the engine-room staff another hundred pounds among them if +they get it fixed up in twenty-four hours." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, my lord," said the captain, as he got up and went towards +the door. "We shall, of course, do everything possible; and I hope +that the damage is not so bad as it seems." +</p> + +<p> +"It appears to me," said the president, as the captain closed the door +and Hardress locked it, "that our deductions from those few facts are +coming pretty correct. This job's going to keep us back twenty-four +hours at least, if not thirty-six; and so, granted that the Russian +yacht started pretty soon after that telegram got to Cherbourg, she +won't be very far behind us to-morrow evening, and she'll probably +overhaul us about by dawn the next day. Seems to me the question is +now, what we're going to do if she does?" +</p> + +<p> +"I say fight," said Hardress, between his teeth. "We can smash her +into scrap-iron with that gun of yours before she can touch us, if she +has guns; and if they do really mean foul play, as it seems they do, I +fancy myself it would be better for all of us, women and all, to risk +going down with the <i>Nadine</i> than to fall into the hands of a +pack of Russian pirates, for that's about all they will be, if they +try anything of that sort on." +</p> + +<p> +"How would it be, Shafto," said Lord Orrel, "if, granted we could get +the engines repaired, we were to play the lame duck, and turn the +tables on them——" +</p> + +<p> +"Thunder! You've just got it, Lord Orrel!" exclaimed the president, +bringing his hand down on the table. "Whether the count and that +pretty daughter of his are on board or not, I reckon they'll be a +mightily dangerous crew to deal with, and I reckon they'll be safer as +compulsory guests on board this boat than if they were free to knock +around in their own ship. I feel pretty certain that they know a lot +more about this scheme of ours than they would like to say; and if +that's so, as I think it is, the less they run around loose about the +earth the better for us." +</p> + +<p> +"I quite agree with you, president," said Hardress. "That's the very +thing to do, if we can do it: if it really is the <i>Vlodoya</i> +that's on our track and she means taking or sinking us; well, we'll +play 'possum. We'll have to let her fire on us first, I'm afraid; but +I daresay she'll miss, for Russians are about the worst gunners in the +world. Then we'll cripple her, take her distinguished passengers out +of her, and make them our compulsory guests. After that we'll play +pirate to pirate—empty her coal bunkers into ours, strip her of +everything we want, and put the crew into the boats with plenty of +water and provisions. They'll be certain to be picked up within a +couple of days or so if they go south towards the steamer tracks. Then +we'll smash his excellency's yacht into scrap-iron, and go straight to +Boothia Land without stopping at Halifax at all." +</p> + +<p> +"But, my dear Shafto," said the earl, "that would be a most flagrant +act of piracy on the high seas, wouldn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear dad," he replied, "you must remember that once we are in +Boothia we are beyond and above the law, and if we like to indulge in +a little piracy we can do so. The point really is to catch these +people and take them there with us; so that we can be quite certain +they're not going to do any more harm." +</p> + +<p> +"That, viscount," said the president, "is right on the spot; and your +idea of taking the coal out of the <i>Vlodoya</i> isn't any too bad. I +reckon that's just what we've got to do. A little surprise party for +our Russian friends right here in mid-ocean, and then straight away to +the works. We'll show them some of the wonders from inside that they +wanted to see from outside; and I guess we shall also be able to show +them something pretty interesting if those two expeditions do happen +to discover the Magnetic Pole instead of the North Pole. I reckon +it'll be just about one of the most wonderful discoveries that +Frenchmen or Russians ever did make." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXI +</p> + + +<p> +Another two days had passed, during which the <i>Nadine</i>, instead +of swirling through the water at twenty knots, had been waddling +through it like a lame duck at eight. +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide had professed the utmost wonder and concern at the accident, +and Miss Chrysie, who now knew rather more than she did, watched her +with unwinking steadiness from the time she came on deck in the +morning till the time she retired with her aunt at night. Madame de +Bourbon herself was completely in the dark as to everything that was +taking place, and simply looked upon the breakdown of the port engine +as one of the ordinary accidents of seafaring. +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide had not slept for an hour continuously since she had seen the +guns being mounted. That had convinced her that Hardress, whose +suspicion she dreaded more than anything else, already suspected +something. Williams had kept faith, and had been detected, thanks to +the extraordinary precautions that had been taken in the engine-room, +precautions which, so her instinct told her, could not possibly have +been taken unless some design against the safety of the yacht had been +either discovered or very strongly suspected. +</p> + +<p> +Still, as she told herself when she was lying awake in her berth the +night after the breakdown, to a certain extent, the plot had +succeeded. Williams had done the work he was paid to do, and the +<i>Nadine</i> had come down from her greyhound speed to the limping +crawl of a wounded hare. The <i>Vlodoya</i> would certainly overtake +her now—but, then, those guns! +</p> + +<p> +She knew that the <i>Vlodoya</i> was prepared to fight if necessary, +and so was the <i>Nadine</i>, and, now that the question of speed had +been disposed of, it would be a question of guns. But, after all, guns +would not be of much use without men to fire them or officers to +direct the operations. Manifestly the time had come for her to play +her part in the great game whose prize was to be, for her the man she +loved, and for her allies the lordship of earth. +</p> + +<p> +The next day just before lunch she was strolling up and down the deck +with Hardress and Lady Olive, talking about all that they were going +to do when they got to Halifax, and she had turned the conversation +upon Canadian and American hotels and the difference between American +and European cooking, when she said: +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, Monsieur le Viscomte, that reminds me. Will you allow me to give +you and also your poor men who have been working so hard at the broken +engine a little treat?" +</p> + +<p> +"With the greatest of pleasure, my dear marquise," said Hardress. "And +what is it to be?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it is nothing very much," replied Adelaide, in her lightest and +gayest tone; "it is only that my aunt happened to mention last night +that she had found in her secretaire the authentic recipe of a +punch—what do you call it?—a punch of wines and liqueurs which they +used to drink at the suppers at Versailles and the Trianon in the days +of the Grand Monarque. Louis himself drank it, and so did that other +unhappy ancestor and his queen——" +</p> + +<p> +"Who," laughed Lady Olive, "is at present reincarnate on board the +<i>Nadine</i>. I suppose you mean then to make up a punch some night +after this recipe; that would be delightful, if we only have the +proper ingredients on board." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, they are very simple," replied Adelaide; "it is certain that you +will have them, indeed it seems from the recipe that the excellence of +the punch does not depend so much on the variety of the ingredients as +the proportions and the skill in making it." +</p> + +<p> +"Very well," said Hardress, "as long as we've got the things on board, +that is settled; and both ends of the ship shall drink to-night in the +punch <i>à le Grand Monarque</i>, to the health of his latest and +fairest descendant. M'Niven and his men really have been working like +so many niggers at that engine, and they've done splendidly. In fact, +Captain Burgess tells me we shall be ready for full speed ahead by +daybreak to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," said Adelaide in her soul, "then it is all the more necessary +that we should have the punch <i>à le Grand Monarque</i>," and she +went on aloud, "Well then, Monsieur le Viscomte, that is arranged. If +you will tell your steward, your maître d'hôtel, as we call him on +French ships, to provide me with the ingredients, I will make it this +afternoon, and we will take it after dinner, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Lady Olive, "and I think, Shafto, under the circumstances, +you might invite Captain Burgess and Mr M'Niven to dine with us." +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly," replied her brother, "that's a capital idea, Olive. We +will—in fact, we'll have Mr Vernon, too: he's worked just as hard as +anyone else, and it can be arranged for the second officer to take +charge of the bridge during dinner. And so, ma'm'selle," he went on, +turning to the marquise, "if you will take the trouble, you may brew +us two bowls, one for the cabin and a bigger one for the other end of +the ship, and the steward shall put the whole of the ship's liquid +stores at your disposal." +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur le Viscomte, I could desire nothing better," she replied, +with her most dazzling smile, and more meanings than one. +</p> + +<p> +The subject of the punch was mentioned during lunch, and during the +afternoon Miss Chrysie got her father up into the bows, and, after a +swift look round to see if anyone was within hearing distance, said: +</p> + +<p> +"Poppa, are you going to take any of that punch to-night?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why, certainly, Chrysie. Why not? What's the matter?" +</p> + +<p> +"It may be matter or no matter," she replied, "but I'm not, and I +guess it would be healthier for you not to. I'm more than ever certain +that that Frenchwoman is in it. Yes; it's all very well looking like +that, poppa, but—you think I hate this woman because she's in love +with the viscount. Well, I suppose I do; and there'll most likely be +trouble between us sometime soon; but I haven't quite lost all my +senses because I happen to be in love with a man that another woman +wants to get. Don't you see, we're going to have that punch just a few +hours before we get the engines right and that other boat is to catch +us?" +</p> + +<p> +"But, great sakes, Chrysie, you don't mean the marquise is going to +poison us?" +</p> + +<p> +"It won't be poison," answered Chrysie, very curtly, "because she +knows that he'll drink it. I guess some drug's a good deal more +likely—something that'll make everybody at both ends of the ship +pretty sleepy and stupid when the time for a fight comes around. You +see, that's just the natural sequence to the plot to cripple the +engine. Anyhow, that's what I think it is." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if it's as bad as that," said her father, "why not warn the +viscount?" +</p> + +<p> +"That wouldn't do much good," she replied, more curtly than before. +"You see, I'd have to make a definite accusation against her, and I've +nothing to go on except what he'd call mere suspicion and we call +logical deduction. I'd give her a tremendous handle against me, +especially with him; and if she had any suspicion that I suspected +her—why, she might call me down pretty badly by not putting anything +in the stuff at all. No, poppa, under the circumstances, we can't do +anything except not drink that punch. I'm going to have a headache +to-night and stop in my berth. You have some of your gastric trouble +and drink hot milk or something of that sort: and if you get a show I +think you might, as matters are coming to a head pretty quickly, just +give a hint to Captain Burgess and Mr M'Niven to drink as little of +that punch as they politely can." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Chrysie," replied her father, "you've been right so far, but I +do hope you're wrong this time. It's a pretty large order, you know, +drugging the whole ship's company." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; and a Frenchwoman with a lot to win is playing a game for pretty +big dollars. Of course, there may be nothing in it at all, and I may +be quite wrong, but I think this punch of hers has come along at the +wrong time, and we can't take any risks. There's one thing, she'll +have to drink some of it herself, and that old aunt of hers too. +Still, she's pretty useless, and doesn't matter; but if anything does +really happen, poppa, you'd better go straight and shake the viscount +up. I'll have the steward make some pretty strong coffee to-night for +me, and I'll keep it hot and you can give it him; and if the doctor +isn't dead, too, with the stuff, get a drop of prussic acid from him. +That'll bring him round." +</p> + +<p> +"It strikes me, Chrysie," said her father, looking down admiringly on +her flushed and animated face, "as though you're getting ready to run +this ship in case of trouble." +</p> + +<p> +"It's just that, poppa," she said, with an impatient little tap of her +foot on the deck; "that is, of course, with you. I don't say it's +altogether disinterested, because it isn't; but I'd do that and a lot +more to keep to windward of that Frenchwoman, and she knows it. You +can work your gun and I can work a Maxim, so if there's only the two +of us, we can do something with that Russian ship. And now I guess +we'd better go to the other end and show how friendly we can be with +our enemies." +</p> + +<p> +"Chrysie," said her father, with a very tender note in a voice which +could be as hard as the ring of steel, "I don't want you to be a bit +different to what you are, but if you'd been a man you'd have been a +great one." +</p> + +<p> +"I'd sooner be a good woman and get what I want than be the biggest +man on earth," laughed Chrysie. "When a woman gets all she wants she +doesn't want to envy big men anything." +</p> + +<p> +And with that they went aft and subsided into deck-chairs in a sort of +irregular circle, in which Lord Orrel was fast asleep, Madame de +Bourbon rapidly subsiding, and the marquise and Lady Olive making a +pretence of reading with drooping eyelids. +</p> + +<p> +The punch <i>á le Grand Monarque</i> was a great success that evening +after dinner. It was delicious; and every one regretted that the +president's attack of gastritis and Miss Chrysie's headache prevented +them from sharing in its delights. +</p> + +<p> +The marquise brewed a little pot of her aunt's special Russian tea for +them, which the president declined with many apologies, and which Miss +Chrysie, after accepting a cup from the hands of Felice, emptied out +of the port-hole as soon as her ladyship's lady had left the cabin. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Burgess and the chief had taken the president's hint almost as +though they expected it, and the Scotsman had said significantly: +</p> + +<p> +"I'm obliged to you, Mr Vandel, though I hope there's nothing in your +suspicions; still, this is no time for us to be drinking foreign mixed +drinks when I've got to keep my eyes open, looking, as you may say, +out of both sides of my head. A drop of good old Scotch whisky is as +good nourishment as a man can need. What I'm thinking about is the +men. We can't forbid them to take it without either insulting his +lordship or telling him all the suspicions, which, you say, can't be +told him." +</p> + +<p> +"No," added the captain; "but I'll see they have a pretty good shaking +up at four o'clock, and the cook shall have plenty of strong coffee +ready in case of accidents." +</p> + +<p> +But for all that, the accident happened, almost, if not quite as well +as the originator of it could have hoped. By eleven o'clock everyone +who had drunk even a single glass of the marquise's punch, including +herself and Madame de Bourbon, were dead asleep. Even the captain and +the chief engineer, who had taken somewhat drastic measures to +counteract the possible effects, did not wake until daybreak, and even +then, strong as they were, they were both mentally and physically +incapable for the time being of attending to the work of the ship. The +sailors and engine-room hands, who had indulged rather more freely, +were all sleeping like logs when the watch was called at four in the +morning, and nothing could wake them until Mr Vernon, the chief +officer, who never under any circumstances drank anything stronger +than coffee, and who therefore escaped the general paralysis, with the +help of the president and the two quartermasters, who had been +forbidden to touch anything in the way of liquor during the night, +brought them up on deck and turned the hose on them. This revived the +majority of them sufficiently to enable them to drink a copious +allowance of strong coffee, after which they were very ill, and then +much better. +</p> + +<p> +The captain and the chief engineer were then carried to bathrooms and +treated in somewhat the same fashion, after which they were taken back +to their rooms and given a good stiff brandy-and-soda. +</p> + +<p> +"Ay, man!" said the chief engineer, as he began to get back his grip +on things, "whatever was in that stuff it was deadly. No more of your +foreign drinks for me. After that, good Scotch whisky is going to be +good enough for me. It's a mercy she didn't poison the whole ship's +crew. Captain, if there's any of the men anything like fit for duty +you might give them a good strong tot, and let's get to work on that +shaft. There's just the bearings and the thrust-blocks to adjust and +oil, and then we'll be ready for full speed ahead in three hours." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid that would be a bit too late, sir," said Miss Chrysie, who +had been sweeping the eastern horizon with her glasses. "Look yonder," +she went on; "there's a steamer down yonder steaming for all she's +worth, and I reckon she's a lot more likely to be the <i>Vlodoya</i> +than an east-bound liner." +</p> + +<p> +The chief took the glasses she offered him, and had a long look at the +cloud of smoke that was rising from the ship. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid you're right, miss," he said, handing the glasses back. +"That's no liner; she's not half big enough; she's a yacht. Still, her +stern chase is a long one, even if we are like a seal with one +flipper, and we may be ready for her even yet." +</p> + +<p> +"I think we shall be able to dodge him, Miss Vandel," said the +captain, who had just come out of his room, still looking pale and +somewhat dazed. "Put every possible hand on to the shaft, M'Niven. +Steam's up, and we can start the moment you're ready." +</p> + +<p> +"And," added the president, "I'll see to the guns. If that's the +<i>Vlodoya</i> they're not going to overtake us before we are ready." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXII +</p> + + +<p> +While the captain and the chief engineer were mustering such men as +were in any way fit to work the ship, or to help in getting the port +engine into running order, Chrysie and her father paid a visit to the +staterooms. Hardress and Lord Orrel were both sleeping as deeply as +ever and breathing heavily. The president tried to rouse them, without +avail. Their pulses were beating regularly, and, apart from their +heavy breathing, there was nothing to show that they were not in a +healthy sleep; but they were absolutely insensible to any outside +influence; and Chrysie found Lady Olive, Adelaide, and Madame de +Bourbon in exactly the same condition. Ma'm'selle Felice was in great +distress about her two mistresses, but Chrysie cut her lamentations +very short by saying: +</p> + +<p> +"You look after your ladies, Felice, and don't worry about anything +else; your place is down here, and don't you come on deck, whatever +happens. There's a boat coming up that may be the same one you +telegraphed to at Cherbourg from Southampton. If it is, you see this?" +she went on, taking her revolver out of her pocket. "Yes, that'll do; +I don't want any theatricals, but you go to your cabin and stop there. +If you're wanted you'll be sent for." +</p> + +<p> +Ma'm'selle Felice shrank away white and trembling, and Miss Chrysie +went back on deck to get the Maxims ready for action. She met her +father under the bridge, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon, poppa, they're all pretty dead down there. We'll have to +see this thing through on our own hands." +</p> + +<p> +The chief and his men worked like heroes on the shaft, and a good head +of steam was by some means kept up, but the other yacht crept rapidly +up across the eastern horizon, and by breakfast time it was perfectly +plain that she was the <i>Vlodoya</i>. Moreover, both Miss Chrysie and +the captain from the bridge had been able to make out with their +glasses that she was carrying a Maxim-Nordenfelt gun on her +forecastle, and two others which looked like one-pound quick-firers on +either side, a little forward of the bridge. She was flying no flags, +not even the pennant of the Imperial Yacht Squadron, to which she +belonged. The <i>Nadine</i> was flying the Blue Ensign and the pennant +of the Royal Yacht Squadron. When the <i>Vlodoya</i> was within about +eight miles, heading directly for the <i>Nadine</i>, the president +sent down to ask Mr M'Niven how long it would be before the port +engine could be used, and the answer came back, "A good hour yet, but +everything is going all right." +</p> + +<p> +Just at this moment the captain was overtaken with another fit of +sickness and dizziness, and had to go down to his room; and Mr Vernon +remained in charge of the bridge with Miss Chrysie, who was walking up +and down, with a strange look of almost masculine sternness on her +pretty face, and the gleam of a distinctly wicked light in her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +For her the minutes of that hour passed with terrible slowness as she +watched the <i>Vlodoya</i> coming up mile after mile, with torrents of +smoke pouring out of her funnels. She was evidently steaming every +yard she could make. A quarter, half, and three-quarters of an hour +passed, and still she kept on, looming up larger and larger astern, +and Miss Chrysie looked more and more anxiously at the long gun on +deck and the two Maxims on the bridge. +</p> + +<p> +Again a message went down to the engine-room, and the answer came +back—"Another twenty minutes." Just then a line of signal flags ran +up to the <i>Vlodoya's</i> main truck. The chief officer's glasses +instantly went up to his eyes, but after a long look he shook his head +and said to the president: +</p> + +<p> +"That's no regular signal, Mr Vandel; it's evidently a private one, +arranged beforehand, I should say." +</p> + +<p> +"Then we won't answer it," said the president, "and we'll see what +he'll do next. I guess, if he's what we think him, he'll have to +declare himself right away." +</p> + +<p> +They hadn't very long to wait, for about five minutes afterwards a +puff of smoke rose from the <i>Vlodoya's</i> forecastle, and a +seven-pound shell came screaming and whistling across the water. It +was the first time that Miss Chrysie had ever been shot at, but she +took it without a shiver. The chief officer begged her to go below at +once. But she only shut her teeth tighter, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"No, thanks, Mr Vernon, I'm going to have a hand in this. I'm the only +one on deck just now that knows how to run a Maxim, and I can shoot as +straight with it as I can with my own little pepper-box; so if you +just let Mr Robertson come and see to the serving of the ammunition, I +think we'll be able to give our Russian friends just about as good as +we get." +</p> + +<p> +"Say, poppa," she went on, leaning over the front of the bridge, "I +reckon that shot broke the law of nations, didn't it? How would it be +if you raised his bluff? Go him a few pounds of Vandelite better?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no hurry about that, Chrysie," said the president, who had +got his gun loaded, and was squinting every now and then along the +sights. "I guess he doesn't want to hit us; we've got too much +precious cargo on board. You see, that was a seven-pound shell, and if +it got under our water-line—well, we'd just go right down. If our +friends are on board, they just want to scare us into surrender, +that's all; so I think it would be better for us to wait further +developments, and let Mr M'Niven get his work in on that shaft. I can +make scrap-iron out of the <i>Vlodoya</i> just as soon as ever we want +to do it; so don't worry about that." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment another puff of steamy smoke rose from the deck of the +Russian yacht, and this time a shell came screaming away over the +<i>Nadine's</i> masts. Miss Chrysie shut her teeth a bit harder, and +walked towards the Maxim on the port side, the one which she could at +any time have brought to bear on the <i>Vlodoya</i>. The chief officer +meanwhile stood anxiously by the engine-room telegraph. It was also +his first experience of being shot at. He was just as cool as Miss +Chrysie or her father, but he didn't like it. He had the Englishman's +natural longing to be able to shoot back, but he recognised that, +trying as it was, the president's strategy was the best. About ten +more minutes passed, during which the <i>Vlodoya</i> drew up closer +and closer, until Chrysie, after a good look through her glasses, was +able to say: +</p> + +<p> +"Why, yes; there's the count and Sophie on the bridge. Poppa, why +don't you let 'em have just one little hint that we're not quite +harmless?" +</p> + +<p> +The last word had scarcely left her lips before another puff of steamy +smoke rose from the fore-quarter of the Russian yacht, and a second or +so after, a bright flash of flame blazed out, about fifty yards on the +port side of the <i>Nadine</i>. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a time shell," said Vernon. "They evidently mean business: I +fancy they could hit us if they liked. Don't you think, Mr Vandel, +that we might slow round and give them one from that gun of yours?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir," said the president, looking up from his gun: "not till +we've the legs on her. When Mr M'Niven——" +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the chief came up on to the bridge, black and grimed +from head to foot. +</p> + +<p> +"All right, Mr Vernon, you can go full steam ahead now. We've got +every bit of grit out, and she'll work as easy as ever she did." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said the president, "I reckon that's about all that we want. +Full steam ahead, if you please, Mr Vernon; you can let her go both +engines." +</p> + +<p> +The chief officer pulled the telegraph handle over to full speed. The +next moment two columns of boiling foam leapt out from under the +<i>Nadine's</i> counters as she sprang forward from eight knots to +sixteen, and then to twenty. Almost at the same instant the +Maxim-Nordenfeldt from the <i>Vlodoya</i> forecastle spoke again, and +a seven-pound shell, aimed low this time, came hurtling across the +water, and missed the <i>Nadine's</i> stern by about ten yards. +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon that means business," said the president. "Full speed ahead, +if you please, Mr Vernon, and hard aport." +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i> made a splendid swerve through an arc of about a +hundred and eighty degrees, and then began the naval duel, on the +issue of which the future course of human history was to depend. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Vlodoya</i> fired three more shots in as many minutes, but they +went wide, for she was steaming nearly seventeen knots and the +<i>Nadine</i> twenty. Then as the <i>Nadine</i> swung round so that +her bow pointed towards the <i>Vlodoya</i>, the president signed to +the two men who were working the gun, a wheel was whirled round, and +the muzzle swung slowly until he put his hand up and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Stop her, if you please, Mr Vernon, and screw her round as hard as +you can." +</p> + +<p> +The engine telegraph rang, a sharp shudder ran through the fabric of +the <i>Nadine</i>, the water which had been swirling astern mounted up +ahead as her engines backed, and her bow came up, till the president +raised his hand again to stop her. At the same moment another shell +from the <i>Vlodoya</i> whistled over the deck at an elevation of only +a few feet. In fact, it passed so near to Miss Chrysie that she +involuntarily put her hand up to keep her hat on her head. Clifford +Vandel saw it. He didn't say anything, but he set his teeth, squinted +along the sights of his gun, and touched a button in the breech. Five +seconds later a mountain of boiling foam rose up under the stern of +the <i>Vlodoya</i>. She stopped like a stricken animal, and lay +motionless on the water, lurching slowly down by the stern. +</p> + +<p> +"Well hit, poppa!" cried Miss Chrysie, from the bridge. "I guess +that's got him on a tender spot. The count won't have much screws to +work with after that. Oh, they're going to shoot again. Suppose you +gave them one forward this time." +</p> + +<p> +While she was speaking, the quick-firer had already been reloaded, the +president moved the long barrel a couple of degrees, and touched the +button again. The sharp hiss of the released air was followed by an +intensely brilliant flash of light on the forecastle of the +<i>Vlodoya</i>, and when the smoke had cleared away the +Maxim-Nordenfeldt had vanished. +</p> + +<p> +"I guess there's not much wrong with that automatic sighting +arrangement of mine," said the president; "hits every time." +</p> + +<p> +"Couldn't be better, poppa! I reckon they're pretty tired by this. +Suppose Mr Vernon gives her full speed again, and we go along and have +a talk with Ma'm'selle Sophie and the count. Shouldn't wonder if they +knew by now that we've raised their bluff, and are ready to see them +for all they've got." +</p> + +<p> +The president re-charged his gun, and then, leaning his back up +against the bridge, said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, yes, Chrysie, I think we can see them now, if Mr Vernon will +give us full speed ahead for a few minutes." +</p> + +<p> +The chief officer nodded, and pulled the handle of the telegraph over. +The answering tinkle came back from the engine-room, in which the +chief had retired after he had given his message, and the +<i>Nadine</i> again sprang forward towards the crippled vessel that +was now her prey. She described another magnificent curve, and as she +rushed up alongside the Russian yacht at a distance of about two +hundred yards, Miss Chrysie sat herself down on a camp-stool behind +the Maxim, and sent half-a-dozen shots rattling through the rigging of +the <i>Vlodoya</i>. Then, as the <i>Nadine</i> swung in closer, she +depressed the barrel of the gun on to the bridge, on which she could +now recognise the count and his daughter, and sang out, in a clear +soprano: +</p> + +<p> +"Hands up, please, or I'll shoot. My dear Countess Sophie, I never +expected this of you." +</p> + +<p> +Countess Sophie looked at her father, and bit a Russian curse in two +between her tightly-clenched teeth, and said to her father who was +standing beside her on the bridge: +</p> + +<p> +"She has failed—she and the engineer too—and these accursed +Americans have done it, I suppose. They have broken our propellers and +disabled our gun. What are we to do? It is exasperating, just when we +thought that everything was going so well. What has happened to +Adelaide?—has she turned traitor too? Surely that would be +impossible." +</p> + +<p> +"Impossible or not, my dear Sophie," replied the count, "there is now +no choice between sinking and surrender. You see, that gun, one of +these diabolical American inventions, I have no doubt, would sink us +like a shot, and then——" +</p> + +<p> +"And then we shall have to surrender, I suppose," said Sophie. "But it +is still possible that I shall have a chance to shoot that American +girl before this little international comedy is played out, and if I +do——" +</p> + +<p> +"Hands up, please, everyone on board, or I <i>will</i> shoot this +time," came in clear tones across about fifty yards of water. Sophie +looked round and saw Miss Chrysie looking along the sights of the +Maxim, with her hand on the spring. Her face was hard set, and her +eyes were burning. There was no mistaking her intention. In another +moment a storm of bullets would be raining along the decks of the +<i>Vlodoya</i>. +</p> + +<p> +"We are beaten, papa, for the present," she said, as she got up from +her chair, and put her hands over her head. The count looked at the +grinning muzzle of the Maxim and did the same. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," he said, "we are beaten this time, and it is hardly good policy +to be sunk in the middle of the Atlantic. Later on, perhaps, we may +retrieve something; but it is strange how these Anglo-Saxons, stupid +and all as they are to begin with, always seem to get the best of us +at the end. Yes; we must surrender or sink, and, personally, I have no +taste for the bottom of the Atlantic at present. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</p> + + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i> ranged alongside, Miss Chrysie still sitting at her +Maxim, with Robertson beside her ready to see to the ammunition feed, +and the president, leaning over the forward rail, said, as laconically +as though he had been putting the most ordinary business proposition: +</p> + +<p> +"Good-morning, excellency; I guess you and the countess had better +come on board as soon as possible. If you'll lower the gangway I'll +send a boat; but if there's any more shooting I shall sink you. I +don't want to do anything unpleasant, you understand; but that +high-toned friend of yours the marquise has half-poisoned most of us, +and so the rest have to take charge. Are you badly hurt?" +</p> + +<p> +Count Valdemar held a hurried consultation with the captain of the +<i>Vlodoya</i>, and replied, as politely as he could: +</p> + +<p> +"The fortune of war is with you, Mr Vandel, and there is no need for +any further concealment. We are crippled, but the watertight +compartments have been closed and we shall float. Meanwhile, we are +helpless and entirely at your service. What do you wish us to do?" +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime the <i>Nadine's</i> boat had been lowered, and was +pulling round her stern to the gangway of the <i>Vlodoya</i>, which +had been lowered, and the president replied: +</p> + +<p> +"We'll have to ask your excellency and the countess to be our guests +for a bit; so if you'll just come right on board and tell your people +to get your baggage fixed up, we'll be able to save you a certain +amount of unpleasantness. You will be a lot more comfortable on board +here than you will there, because we're going to take what coal you've +got and then sink you." +</p> + +<p> +As the president said this the captain of the Russian yacht nodded +towards a man standing by one of the one-pounders on the fore deck. He +pulled the lanyard, there was a sharp bang, and a shell bored its way +through the plates of the <i>Nadine</i> amidships, just missing the +engines. The next moment Miss Chrysie's Maxim began to thud, spitting +flame and smoke and lead, sweeping the decks of the <i>Vlodoya</i> +from stem to stern. Only those on the bridge were spared. For a full +three minutes the deadly hail continued, and there was not a man on +deck who was not killed or maimed. The president had jumped back to +the breech of his gun, the muzzle swung round till it bore directly on +the part of the <i>Vlodoya</i> which contained her boilers. He held up +his hand and Chrysie stopped the Maxim. Then she swung it on to the +bridge, glanced along the sights and touched the spring. There was a +crack and a puff of smoke and flame, and the captain of the +<i>Vlodoya</i>, who was standing about a couple of feet away from +Count Valdemar and Sophie, reeled half round and dropped with a bullet +through his heart. +</p> + +<p> +"I guess your excellency and the countess had better come on board +right away," said the president, still looking along the sights of his +gun. "That's a pretty unhealthy place you're in, and my daughter's +only got the patience of an ordinary woman, you know." +</p> + +<p> +Sophie looked across at the <i>Nadine's</i> bridge, and saw Chrysie's +white face and burning eyes looking over the barrel of the Maxim. Her +thumb was on the spring and there was death in her eyes. She took her +father by the arm, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Come, papa, it's no use. That she-devil will shoot us like dogs if we +don't go. Come." +</p> + +<p> +And so they went down to the deck, strewn with corpses and splashed +with blood, to the gangway ladder, at the bottom of which the +<i>Nadine's</i> boat was waiting. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie at once left the gun with which she had done such +terrible execution, and went with the chief officer to receive them. +To the utter astonishment of both the count and Sophie, she held out +her hand as cordially as though the meeting had taken place on the +terrace of Orrel Court, and said with a somewhat exaggerated drawl: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, countess, and your excellency, I am real glad to see you. We +sort of thought we should meet you somewhere about here, and I am sure +his lordship and the viscount and Lady Olive, when they get better, +will do all they can to make you comfortable. Now, here's the +stewardess. As she didn't have any of the marquise's punch last night, +she's ready to show you to your room. Mr Vernon, perhaps you'll be +kind enough to attend to his excellency. Good-bye for the present: I +guess we shall meet at lunch." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, after the unpleasantness that has happened," said the count, +"your kindness, and your hospitality are quite overwhelming." +</p> + +<p> +"And," added Sophie, as the two prisoners of war passed into the +charge of their respective custodians, "I must say that to me it is as +mysterious as it is charming. If the conditions had been reversed, I +should certainly have shot you." +</p> + +<p> +"It wouldn't have been quite fair," replied Miss Chrysie, sweetly. +"You see I had a gun, and you hadn't." +</p> + +<p> +She watched them disappear down the companion way to the saloon, then +she put her hands up to her eyes, groped her way half-blindly to a +long wicker chair, dropped into it and incontinently fainted. +</p> + +<p> +Just then the chief, washed, shaved, new-clad and thoroughly contented +with the really splendid piece of work that had been done on one of +his beloved engines, came on deck, looking as though nothing very +particular had happened. He saw instantly what was the matter. +</p> + +<p> +"The lassie has a wonderful nerve," he said to himself. "Ay, what a +man she'd have made! But she's only a lassie after all, and we'd +better get her below. I'll just take her down to Mrs Evans without +troubling the president. He's got plenty to think about. Yes; Vernon's +on the bridge, and he'll see to things." +</p> + +<p> +Then he picked her up in his arms and carried her down to her own +cabin and laid her in her berth, and gave her into the charge of the +stewardess. Then he went up to the captain's room, and found him just +recovering consciousness. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter, M'Niven?" he said. "That infernal punch last night +seems to have poisoned me. I seem to have been having nightmare after +nightmare, with guns firing and——" +</p> + +<p> +"That's all right, captain," replied the Scotsman; "if you'd taken +less of that infernal punch and more honest whisky, as I did, you +wouldn't have such an awful head on you as I suppose you have. Still, +there's nothing much to trouble about. We've got the engine to rights +again; we've met the Russian yacht, and fought her, and beaten her. Mr +Vandel smashed her up with his gun, and Miss Vandel—a wonderful girl +that, sir, a wonderful girl—she sat at her Maxim as if it had been a +sewing-machine, and seemed to think no more of shots than stitches, +and then, woman-like, she fainted, and I've just taken her below and +handed her over to Mrs Evans. +</p> + +<p> +"And now, captain, don't you think that a wee peg would do you good? +Mr Vernon's on the bridge, the president's holding up the Russians +with his gun, and the engines are working all right, but half the crew +and all the company are still something like dead, with that +Frenchwoman's drugs, whatever they were." +</p> + +<p> +Captain Burgess took the chief engineer's hint, and a stiff brandy and +soda. Then he dressed and went on deck, and had a brief conversation +with the president, after which he took charge of the operations of +clearing all the coal and stores out of the <i>Vlodoya</i> before she +was sent to the bottom. +</p> + +<p> +The president and Miss Chrysie had to entertain their involuntary +guests at lunch, for although the rest of the <i>Nadine's</i> company +were recovering consciousness, they were still under the doctor's care +and unable to leave their berths; but at dinner that evening Lady +Olive, the earl, and Hardress were able to welcome them, and they did +so with a sardonic cordiality which compelled both his excellency and +Sophie to admit that these Anglo-Saxons were, after all, not such bad +diplomatists as Europeans were wont to think. Madame de Bourbon was +still prostrate, and the marquise had the best of reasons for +remaining in her own cabin. +</p> + +<p> +It was perhaps as strange a dinner party as ever sat down afloat or +ashore, and it was rendered doubly strange by the fact that the last +time they had all sat together most of them suspected, and some of +them knew, that this very conflict, which had ended in spite of all +disadvantages so completely in favour of the <i>Nadine</i> and her +company, was certain to take place, yet very few references were made +to the state of active hostilities which had now been practically +proclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Count Valdemar and Sophie were treated on board the <i>Nadine</i> +exactly as they had been at Orrel Court. Lord Orrel and Lady Olive +were just as they had been at Cowes, and in the Solent. Hardress, who +had taken a somewhat perilously large dose of the fair Adelaide's +punch, looked pale and seemed rather sleepy, until he had had two or +three glasses of champagne, and then he seemed to brighten up, and +began discussing international politics with a frankness and an +intimate knowledge which simply astounded their involuntary guests. So +far as the party was concerned, there was now no further need for +anything like concealment, and not only were the Storage Works +discussed, in their full nature and purpose, but even the advent of +the French and Russian expeditions at Boothia Land was anticipated +with what the Count afterwards described to Sophie as brutally +disgusting frankness. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie, eating her strawberries at dessert as daintily as though +her hands had never been within a mile of a Maxim gun, chatted and +chaffed just as she had been wont to do at Orrel Court, and the +president talked gunnery and machinery with the captain and Mr +M'Niven, who had been invited to join the party; and finally, when +even the marquise came into dessert on Lady Olive's pressing +invitation, all that she heard about her deliberate attempt to drug +the whole ship's company was from Lord Orrel, who rose as she entered, +and said in just such a tone as he might have used in the drawing-room +at Orrel Court: +</p> + +<p> +"My dear marquise, I am delighted to see that you have recovered from +the same mysterious indisposition that has affected all of us. I am +really afraid that there must have been something wrong with the +recipe for the punch <i>à le Grand Monarque</i>, or perhaps it was not +intended for general use. However, as we are all happily recovered, we +need not trouble ourselves any further about that." +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide entered instantly into the spirit of the comedy that was +being played, and she replied: +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, my lord, it is so kind of you not to blame me! Believe me, I am +desolated, and have been very nearly killed, and my poor aunt believes +too that she is going to die. It is my last performance at +punch-making, for I have torn the horrible recipe up and thrown it +into the sea." +</p> + +<p> +"I am rather sorry to hear that, marquise," said Hardress, looking at +her with a cold, steady stare, which at once enraged and infinitely +saddened her; for it proved that the empire, which until a few hours +ago she had hoped to gain over him, and through him the world, was now +only a dream never to be realised. Still, she kept herself under +command marvellously, and greeted the count and Sophie just as though +the <i>Nadine</i> had been lying off Cowes instead of being lashed to +the <i>Vlodoya</i> in mid-Atlantic, with the steam winches rattling +and roaring over their heads, emptying the Russian yacht's bunkers +into the <i>Nadine's</i> as fast as her own crew and what was left of +her enemy's could do it. In short, a most unexpectedly pleasant +evening was spent by everybody. +</p> + +<p> +Coffee and cigars and cigarettes were taken up into the smoking-room, +which was well to windward of the coal dust. Adelaide went to the +piano and played brilliantly. Then she accompanied Sophie in quaint +and tenderly-touching Russian folk-songs. Then Miss Chrysie sang coon +songs and accompanied herself; and Hardress, on her suggestion, made +with a wicked humour in her dancing eyes, recite Kipling's "Rhyme of +the Three Sealers" to her own piano accompaniment. They both did it +very well, and more than one person in the cosy little smoking-room +could have killed them for it. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing occurred to give the count and Sophie or Adelaide and the +innocent Madame de Bourbon any idea that they were really prisoners +until they retired for the night. Then the chief steward knocked at +the count's door and asked if he wanted anything more. Mrs Evans did +the same for Sophie and the marquise, and then the doors of the +staterooms were locked. They were unlocked again at seven the next +morning, and, after baths and early coffee, Hardress invited his +guests on to the bridge to watch the end of the <i>Vlodoya</i>. +</p> + +<p> +During the night she had been completely stripped of everything that +could be useful to her captor. Every pound of coal was taken out of +her bunkers. The two little quick-firers had been transferred with all +their ammunition to the <i>Nadine</i>. Her four boats, amply +provisioned and watered, were comfortably filled with such of her +officers and crew as Chrysie's Maxim volley had left alive. There was +a southward breeze, and in forty-eight hours at the outside they were +certain to be picked up, either by a liner or a cargo boat, and plenty +of money had been given them to pay their passages either to Europe or +America. When they had hoisted their sails and began to bear away +towards the steamer-track, the <i>Nadine</i> cast off from the +<i>Vlodoya</i>, her screws began to revolve, and the president got his +gun loaded. +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon we might have a little gun practice, and see how far this +pea-shooter really will carry," he said, looking up at the bridge, +with a smile in which neither Sophie nor her father found very much +humour. "Will you make it five miles, captain?" +</p> + +<p> +The captain rang for full speed. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i> sprang forward with a readiness which showed how +utterly futile the plot to cripple her had been, and in a few minutes +the motionless hull of the <i>Vlodoya</i> was a white speck on the +water. Then she stopped and swung round. The president adjusted his +automatic sights, waited till she rose on the swell, and let go. There +was a hiss and a whizz, and then, where the speck was a bright flash +blazed out. Two more shells followed in quick succession, and as the +last flash blazed out, Count Valdemar took his glasses down from his +eyes and looked at Hardress, and said, with a touch of bitterness in +his tone: +</p> + +<p> +"She has gone! That is a wonderful gun, viscount." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," replied Hardress, dryly. "That is a twelve-pounder. We have +some hundred-pounders at the works, as well as a new weapon which may +interest your excellency very much. It destroys without striking. If +the French and Russian North Polar Expedition should chance to pay us +a visit, you may perhaps see them both in action." +</p> + +<p> +"And now, president," he went on, "I suppose we may as well shape our +course for Boothia Land." +</p> + +<p> +"There is nothing more to wait for that I know of, viscount," he +replied. And so the <i>Nadine's</i> head was swung round to the +north-west, her engines were put to their full power, and so she began +her voyage to that desolate spot of earth which was soon to become the +seat of the world-empire. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</p> + + +<p> +Within ten days of the sinking of the <i>Vlodoya</i> Europe was +electrified by the news, published far and wide through the English +and Continental press, of what amounted to a pitched battle between +two armed private yachts in mid-Atlantic. As may well be imagined, the +strange narrative of the officers and sailors of the <i>Vlodoya</i> +lost nothing either in the telling to the interviewers or in the +reproduction in the newspapers. +</p> + +<p> +The boats' crews had been picked up, about thirty-six hours after the +sinking of the Russian yacht, by a French liner, which took them to le +Havre. The officers had taken the greatest precautions to prevent the +men from speaking too freely, but it was no use. There were two +journalists, one an Englishman and the other an American, on board the +boat, and they agreed to divide the sensation between themselves and +their two countries. Both were in the service of wealthy journals, and +they bribed as freely as they did unscrupulously, with the result +that, in addition to the general gossip of the ship, which was more or +less accurate, they each possessed a fairly comprehensive narrative of +what had happened on the high seas between the <i>Nadine</i> and the +<i>Vlodoya</i>, both of which were speeding over the wires to America +and Canada within half-an-hour of the liner's arrival at le Havre. +</p> + +<p> +But the Englishman did even better than this, for he practically +kidnapped the third engineer of the <i>Vlodoya</i>, who could speak +very good French, chartered a special steamer to Southampton, pumped +him absolutely dry on the passage, and turned up at midnight at the +office of his paper with a column and a half of vividly-written +description of the most sensational event that had taken place on the +high seas since the affair of the <i>Trent</i> during the American +war. +</p> + +<p> +The presses were stopped, the matter was set up with lightning speed, +and by the next morning that journalist had achieved the biggest scoop +of the twentieth century. The news agencies immediately wired extracts +all over the Continent, and meanwhile the news had been leaking out +through other sources in France, for passengers will talk, and the +captain was bound to make his formal report as to the picking up of +the castaways; wherefore, within twenty-four hours the whole +Continental press was teeming with interviews, more or less authentic, +leading articles, and notes on the subject of this astounding +occurrence. Two Russian newspapers published a few meagre details, and +were promptly suppressed. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Globe</i>, in a leader on what it termed the "astonishing +intelligence published by a morning contemporary," put the matter very +concisely, and with its usual clearness and insight into foreign +affairs. +</p> + +<p> +"We have here," said the writer, "not only one of the most +astonishing, but one of the most significant incidents of modern +times—an incident which, almost incredible as it is, is nevertheless +the more significant when taken in conjunction with other contemporary +events, of which our readers have been kept constantly informed. It is +not customary for either Russian or English private yachts to carry +guns, and it is somewhat unusual for a Russian yacht, owned by a +well-known Russian ex-Minister of State, to start, as we know the +<i>Vlodoya</i> did, from Southampton on a cruise to the Baltic, stop +at Cherbourg, and then turn up in the middle of the Atlantic. But what +is the world to think when this yacht, the property of a nobleman high +in favour at the Court of St Petersburg, deliberately opens fire on a +yacht owned by an English nobleman, whose guest the owner of the +<i>Vlodoya</i> had been but a few days before? Perhaps even more +amazing is the fact that the English yacht replied in kind; crippled +her opponent, took the owner and his daughter prisoners, set the crew +adrift, sank her adversary, and vanished. Viscount Branston's yacht +was, we understand, bound for Halifax, with two distinguished French +ladies on board. A cable just to hand informs us that nothing has been +heard of her, although she should have arrived there nearly a week +ago. With some reluctance we feel compelled to ask whether there is +any connection between this extraordinary occurrence and the +mysterious electrical works which, as is well known, are being +constructed, at enormous expense, by a syndicate of which both +Viscount Branston and his father, the Earl of Orrel, are prominent +members. There have been many strange and wild rumours current about +this enterprise within the last few months, and we confess that this +almost incredible incident appears to lend some countenance to them. +</p> + +<p> +"In the same connection, it is necessary to call attention to the fact +that, just as this enterprise was approaching completion, France and +Russia both equipped a so-called scientific expedition for the purpose +of once more attempting to force a passage to the North Pole. We do +not profess to have any inside knowledge as to these mysterious +proceedings, but we confess that we should not be greatly surprised if +it would not be more correct to read 'magnetic pole' for 'north pole'. +It is impossible to see anything other than an international +significance. Noblemen of different nationalities do not nowadays go +out on to the high seas to fight naval duels to arrange their private +differences; wherefore it appears that either the <i>Vlodoya</i> was a +common pirate outside the law of nations, and yet owned by a Russian +ex-Minister, who was on board when the act of piracy was committed, or +she was a privateer acting under the licence of the Russian +Government. We, in common with the whole civilised world, shall await +with the utmost anxiety the immediate development of this wholly +unparalleled state of affairs." +</p> + +<p> +The world waited for about a week, and heard nothing. The British +Foreign Office made its usual timid and tentative representation, and +received the usual snub, to the effect that the Russian Government was +investigating the matter as fully as possible, but had so far only +arrived at the fact that the English yacht fired first. +</p> + +<p> +But the plots and counterplots and the steady preparations which had +been going on for the working out or the defeating of the great scheme +were now about to bear fruit, and the world was not to be lacking in +sensations such as it had never experienced before. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner did the German Government learn the story of the duel +between the <i>Nadine</i> and the <i>Vlodoya</i> than its secret +agents began to put two and two together, and make their +representations accordingly. Ex-Captain Victor Fargeau was known to +have been an intimate friend of Adelaide de Condé, who was a guest on +board the <i>Nadine</i>, and, further, to have been in close +communication with Count Valdemar, the owner of the <i>Vlodoya</i>. He +had left his country, taken up his residence in Paris, and had been +proved to be in close touch with General Ducros. All this was +significant enough, but when the cleverest of all the German agents in +Paris found out that ex-Captain Victor Fargeau, late of the German +Army, had been appointed to the scientific command of the French Polar +Expedition, darkness became light, and a peremptory demand was sent +from Berlin to Paris for his immediate extradition on the previous +charge of high treason. +</p> + +<p> +To this Paris returned a polite but uncompromising refusal, and Berlin +promptly said that if the expedition sailed with ex-Captain Fargeau on +board, a German squadron would stop it and take him off. To this +France replied by mobilising the Northern Squadron and ordering the +Admiral in command to escort the expedition to sea and protect it +against assault at all hazards. Paris also sent Berlin a curt Note +intimating that if the threat were carried out it would be taken as a +declaration of war. +</p> + +<p> +Another Note arrived at Berlin about the same time from Petersburg, +informing the German Kaiser that these French and Russian Polar +Expeditions formed a joint enterprise on the part of the two +countries, and that any act hostile to the one would be considered +hostile to the other. The Note also plainly hinted that, considering +the tremendous nature of the issues involved by a breach of the +international peace, such a trivial matter as the extradition of a +person accused of treason could not possibly under the circumstances +afford a valid reason for what would be to all intents and purposes an +act of war. +</p> + +<p> +Within twenty-four hours a powerful French squadron was manœuvring +off the mouth of the Kiel Canal, just out of range of the forts; the +French Polar Expedition, with Victor Fargeau on board, was making its +way at full speed down the English Channel; the Russian expedition, +headed by the <i>Ivan the Terrible</i>, passed the North Cape on its +way to the coast of Greenland; and four millions of Russians and +Frenchmen of all arms were massed on the eastern and western frontier +of Germany. At the same moment Kaiser Wilhelm called upon his brother +sovereigns of Austria and Italy, and the Triple Alliance stood to arms +by land and sea. In a word, the European powder-magazine was lying +wide open, and the firing of a single shot would have turned it into a +volcano. +</p> + +<p> +Still the weeks dragged on, till the tension became almost +unendurable. According to an old North of England saying, "One was +afraid and t'other daren't start," the risks were so colossal. +</p> + +<p> +Great Britain meanwhile kept her own counsel, and went on sweeping up +the remnant of the rebel Boers in South Africa. The only precaution +she had taken was to place every effective ship in the Navy in +commission. +</p> + +<p> +It was at this juncture that Europe experienced a new sensation. In +one memorable week English, American, French, German, Austrian, and +Italian liners from American ports brought packages of the strangest +proclamation that ever was issued, and in the mail-bags of the same +boats there were similar communications addressed to all the +Chancelleries of Europe, and these were of a character to shake the +official mind to its very foundations, as in fact they ultimately did. +</p> + +<p> +The communications, both public and private, took the form of a modest +circular dated from the offices of the International Electrical Power +and Storage Trust, Buffalo, N.Y. Those which were addressed to the +crowned heads of Europe were accompanied by autograph letters +respectfully requesting the personal attention of the monarch to the +contents of the circular. The circular ran as follows:— +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p class="hang"> + The Secretary of the International Electrical Power and Storage + Trust is directed by his Board of Managers to inform the ruling + sovereigns and peoples of Europe of the following facts, and to + request their most serious attention to the same:— +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> + <i>A.</i> The Directors of the Trust view with great concern the + formidable military and naval preparations which have lately been + made by the Powers of Europe. In their opinion, these preparations + point to a near outbreak of hostilities on such an immense scale + that not only must a vast expenditure of blood and money be + inevitable, but the commerce of the world will be most injuriously + affected. +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> + <i>B.</i> This Trust is a business concern. Its Directors have no + international sympathies whatever, and they don't want war. At the + same time, if the Powers of Europe are determined to fight, the + Trust will permit them to do so on payment of a capitation fee of + the equivalent in the money of each respective country of one + dollar per head of effective fighting men in the field per + week—fees to be paid into the Bank of England within seven days + after the commencement of hostilities. A liberal allowance will be + made for killed and wounded if official returns are promptly sent + to the London office of the Trust, 56<i>b</i> Old Broad Street, + London, E.C. +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> + <i>C.</i> Prompt attention to the foregoing paragraphs is + earnestly requested for the following reasons:—(1) The Trust has + acquired control of the electrical forces of the Northern + Hemisphere, and is, therefore, in a position to make all the + operations of civilised life, including warfare, possible or + impossible, as its commercial arrangements may demand. (2) One + week from the date above will be given for the Powers of Europe to + settle their differences without fighting or to accede to the + terms offered by the Trust. Failing this, the Northern Hemisphere, + with certain exceptions, will be deprived of its electrical force. + The consequences of this will be that cables and telegraphs will + cease to work, and all machinery constructed of iron or steel will + break down if operated. Railroads will become useless, and bridges + of metallic construction will collapse as soon as any considerable + weight is placed upon them. +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> + <i>D.</i> Finally, I am directed to state that, in addition to + these results, it is unhappily probable that the withdrawal of + electrical force will very seriously affect the health of the + populations of the Northern Hemisphere. Death-rates will very + largely increase, and it is probable that a new disease unknown to + medical science will make its appearance. It is expected to be + fatal in every case, if the terms of the Trust are not complied + with, but it will first affect the young and the weakly. It is, + therefore, to be hoped that considerations of humanity, if not of + policy, will induce the peoples and the Governments of Europe to + accede without delay to the conditions which I have the honour to + submit. +</p> +</div> +<p> +As may well be imagined, this seemingly preposterous circular was +received either with derision or contemptuous silence in every capital +of Europe save Paris. There its import was only too well-known, but at +the same time it was impossible for France alone among the nations to +acknowledge herself the vassal of the Trust. In Petersburg something +of the truth was known; but the Government, confident of the success +of the two expeditions, just dropped the communication into the +official waste-paper basket and went on with its naval and military +preparations. +</p> + +<p> +Everything depended upon the six vessels which were steaming towards +Boothia Land reaching their goal and accomplishing their mission. If +they succeeded, Europe would be plunged into the bloodiest war that +had been fought since the days of Napoleon. If they failed, the war +would be stopped by an invisible, but irresistible, force, and +humanity would be astounded by the accomplishment of such a miracle of +science as it had never seen before. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXV +</p> + + +<p> +Every day after the issue of the circular the wire which connected the +Storage Works with Winnipeg was kept hot with the news of what was +going on in the far-away civilised world, but for some time all that +was heard in that land of unsetting suns only amounted to this: +Everywhere the Press of Europe had received the pronouncement of the +Trust with incredulous derision. It had, in fact, provided +professional humourists and caricaturists with quite a new field of +industry. +</p> + +<p> +The Governments, as had been expected, took not the slightest notice +of it, and General Ducros and the French President, who alone knew +what a terrible meaning lay in the plain business-like language of the +circular, awaited more and more anxiously as the days went by the +execution of the dread fiat of the World Masters. +</p> + +<p> +The sinking of the <i>Vlodoya</i> and the disappearance of the +<i>Nadine</i> had convinced the Minister for War and also the Russian +Government that the plot to capture the controllers of the Storage +Trust had failed, but they could do nothing without admitting that +they knew and believed in the power of the Trust to do as it +threatened. Moreover, they could not submit to the terms unless all +the other Powers did, and they had not even deigned to notice the +existence of the Trust. Meanwhile, the preparations for war went on, +and on the day before the expiration of the time given by the general +ultimatum to France, the French troops crossed the border at Verdun, +Nancy, and Mulhausen, and the Northern Squadron, strongly reinforced, +blockaded the mouth of the Elbe and the Kiel Canal. The Russian Baltic +Squadron, which had been going through its summer manœuvres, +blocked the exits from the inland seas and threatened the northern +coast of Germany, while the Russian army was concentrating in enormous +numbers at several points along the Polish frontier. +</p> + +<p> +When Austin Vandel took the dispatch containing this last news into +the department at the works which was commonly called the board-room, +the president passed it to Lord Orrel and Hardress, who were having a +smoke and afternoon chat with him, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I reckon the Powers mean business, and so, as they haven't had +the politeness to answer that communication of ours, I reckon it's +about time we showed them that we mean it, too. They'll be fighting by +this time." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose so," replied Lord Orrel; "and of course it's no use waiting +any longer under the circumstances." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bit," added Hardress; "in fact, as you know, my idea was to +start a fortnight ago. If we'd done that they might have found it a +bit difficult even to start." +</p> + +<p> +"But after all, Shafto," said his father, "a fortnight matters nothing +to us; and the object-lesson will be very much more striking if we +allow hostilities to get into full swing, and then bring them to a +dead stop. Still, we will begin at once, and I propose, president, +that when everything is ready your daughter shall do us the honour of +starting the engines." +</p> + +<p> +"And if that wants any seconding," added Hardress, "I'll do it." +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon that'll be about the proudest moment of Chrysie's life," +laughed the president. "And seeing that our guests have pretty good +reason to take an interest in the engines, perhaps it would only be +polite to ask them to come and assist at the ceremony." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, certainly," said Lord Orrel. "There can't be any objection to +that. Shafto, suppose you go and invite them. And it wouldn't be a bad +idea if we had a little dinner together afterwards, just to celebrate +the occasion. You might see Miss Chrysie also and request the honour +of her services." +</p> + +<p> +As Hardress left the room the president said to his nephew: "Austin, +you can go and wire to our people here and over in England that the +experiment begins to-night. Ask them to let us have all the news they +can send, and especially to let us know whether any electric +disturbances take place in our territories; and you might ask Doctor +Lamson to come over for a few minutes." +</p> + +<p> +From this conversation it will be seen that the momentous voyage of +the <i>Nadine</i> had ended without any further mishap. Davis Straits +and the Northern waters had been singularly clear of ice, and she had +been able to steer the whole way to Port Adelaide without difficulty. +Doctor Lamson had received them in the midst of his marvellous +creation as quietly as though he had been receiving them in his own +house at Hampstead. They had all admired and wondered at the sombre +magnificence of what was certainly the most extraordinary structure on +the face of the globe. But those who are permitted to see them have +marvelled still more at the huge engines and the maze of intricately +complicated apparatus which the magic of money and science had called +into being in the midst of this desolate wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +So far, the involuntary guests of the Trust had not been permitted to +see anything more than the outsides of the engine-rooms and the +apartments which they occupied. They had been politely but +unmistakably given to understand that, after what had happened, it +would be necessary to consider them as prisoners. They would be +treated with every consideration—in fact, as guests. But at the same +time, they would be closely watched, and any attempt to communicate +with any officer or workman employed on the Works would be immediately +punished by close confinement for all of them. For their part, they +had accepted the strange situation with perfect philosophy, and +awaited the coming of the expeditions with a great deal more +confidence than they would have felt had they known the terrible +nature of the defences with which Doctor Lamson had armed this +fortress in the wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Within an hour after the president had pronounced the fiat which was +to alter the history of the world, everything was in readiness for the +making of the Great Experiment, and, for the first time since their +arrival in Boothia, Count Valdemar, Sophie, and the marquise were +admitted into the great engine-rooms which stood in the middle of each +side of the quadrangle. They stared in frank astonishment at the +colossal machinery, and the count said to the president as they +entered No. 1, or the Northern engine-room: +</p> + +<p> +"Our aims may not be the same, but I am compelled to confess that you +have wrought a most astounding miracle in the midst of the ghastly +desert." +</p> + +<p> +"It's pretty good," he replied; "but, after all, it's just the sort of +miracle that dollars and brains can work all the time. This is not the +miracle, this is only what is going to work it. The real miracle will +be what our friends in Europe see and feel. Well, now, doctor, are we +ready?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite," replied Lamson. "Lady Olive, you will send the signal to the +other rooms? A man is stationed in each of them, and if you touch that +button when Miss Vandel pulls the lever you will start the other three +engines." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie, looking just a trifle pale and nervous, took hold of the +lever and stood ready to perform the most momentous act ever done by +the hand of woman. It had been decided to start the engines precisely +at six, and the minute hand of the engine-room clock was getting very +near the perpendicular. +</p> + +<p> +"It seems a pretty awful thing to do, you know, poppa," she said, +"just to pull this thing and set half the world dying." +</p> + +<p> +"No; I think you are wrong there, Chrysie," said Hardress, who was +standing beside her, and Adelaide's teeth gritted together as she +heard the name for the first time from his lips. "When you pull that +lever you will save life, not destroy it. Without us the war might go +on for months or years and cost millions of lives: but ten days after +you have pulled that lever the European war will be impossible." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said Miss Chrysie, tightening her grip on the handle, "I guess +I'll pull!" At this moment the clock struck the first note of six, and +at the third she drew the lever towards her. +</p> + +<p> +The starting-engine gave a few short puffs and pants. Lady Olive +touched the button, and the bells tinkled in the other engine-rooms. +The huge cranks of the steel giants began to revolve. The mighty +cylinders gasped and hissed, and the huge fly-wheels began to move, at +first almost imperceptibly, and then faster and faster, till each was +a whirling circle of bright steel. The hiss of the steam ceased, and +the four giants settled down to their momentous work in silence, save +for a low, purring hum, which was not to cease day or night until +armed Europe had acknowledged their all-compelling power. +</p> + +<p> +"It is very wonderful, but very weird," said Adelaide to Chrysie as +they left the room, "if only it is all true. To think that you, by +just bending your arm should set those mighty monsters to work—and +such work! to steal the soul out of the world, to paralyse armies and +fleets, perhaps to make Governments impossible—perhaps to reduce +civilisation to chaos!" +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon those engines will cause less chaos than your friends in +Europe, marquise," she replied, shortly, but not unkindly; "but, +anyhow, they should have taken poppa's terms; and if they will fight, +they must pay for the luxury. Anyhow, we'd better not talk about that; +it's no use getting unfriendly over subjects we can't agree upon. What +do you say, countess?" +</p> + +<p> +"I entirely agree with you," said Sophie, frankly. "You know, +Adelaide, that for prisoners of war we are being treated exceedingly +well. And for the present, at least, until our hosts are able to +terminate their invitation, I think we might be as nearly friends as +we can be." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," said Miss Chrysie, heartily, yet well knowing that they +were both awaiting the moment when, as they believed, the arrival of +the expeditions would make the present owners of the works prisoners +of France and Russia, and that either of them would poison her or put +a bullet through her without the slightest hesitation. "Yes; that's +so. We've got to live here together for a bit, and I reckon we may as +well do it as pleasantly as possible. And now, suppose we go to +dinner." +</p> + +<p> +All things considered, the dinner was really a most agreeable +function. The principal topic of conversation was, of course, the +effect which the starting of the works would produce on the Northern +Hemisphere in general and the fleets and armies of Europe in +particular. International politics, too, were discussed, not only with +freedom, but with a knowledge which would have astonished many a +European Minister; but one subject was tabooed by mutual consent, and +that was the French and Russian Polar Expeditions, which, if they were +really making for Boothia Land, ought to arrive in about a week's +time. +</p> + +<p> +The three involuntary guests knew perfectly well that their hosts were +expecting them. Their hosts knew that they knew this, and, therefore, +as a matter of politeness and mutual convenience, the words "Polar +Expedition" were absolutely banished from their conversation. +Meanwhile, Port Adelaide had been fast emptying for the time when the +colliers and cargo boats could get back, for the time was limited. +Only the <i>Nadine</i> and the <i>Washington</i>, a passenger boat +capable of about sixteen knots, which had brought the staff up from +Halifax, were kept, in addition to a couple of steam launches and a +powerful tug sheathed and fitted as an icebreaker. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Nadine</i> and the <i>Washington</i> constantly patrolled the +coast for twenty miles in each direction, on the lookout for the +expeditions. Around and inside the works life went on as quietly as +though nothing out of the common was happening. The unsetting sun rose +and dipped on the southern horizon, and the great engines purred +unceasingly, working out the dream of the man whose mangled body lay +in a nameless grave on an alien soil. +</p> + +<p> +They had been working for six days when Europe awoke to an uneasy +suspicion that, after all, there must have been something in that +preposterous circular which the Electrical Power and Storage Trust, of +Buffalo, N.Y., had sent out some five weeks before. +</p> + +<p> +On the evening of the fifth day after Miss Chrysie had pulled the +lever over in No. 1 engine-room a series of unaccountable accidents +happened in the engine-rooms of the French Northern Squadron, which +was blockading the mouth of the Elbe. Do what they would, the +engineers could not keep the engines working smoothly. Little +accidents kept on happening with such frequency that the efforts of +the whole staff could scarcely keep the engines in working order; and +about the same time the officers on the bridges, noticed that the +compasses were beginning to behave in a most extraordinary fashion. +Even when the ships were quite stationary, they wavered two or three +degrees on either side of north, and as the night wore on the +variation increased. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning there happened what, up to then, was the strangest +incident in warfare. The <i>Charles Martel</i>, one of the most +powerful ironclads in the French fleet, was cruising under easy steam, +just out of range of the heavy guns on the canal forts, when the +admiral commanding the squadron, who was on the bridge, heard a +muffled grinding noise, and felt a shudder run through the vast +fabric. The next moment an officer came up from the lower deck, +saluted, and gasped: +</p> + +<p> +"Admiral, the port shaft has broken, and we are only going quarter +speed!" +</p> + +<p> +He had hardly got the last words out of his mouth before there was +another grinding shock, and a dull rattle away down in the vitals of +the ship. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, there is something more!" cried the officer. "They tell me that +the engines have been mad all night." +</p> + +<p> +"Go and see what it is," said the admiral; "we must put out to sea +with one engine." At that moment the chief engineer came up, looking +white and scared, and said, in a low, shaking voice: +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur, the crank shaft of the starboard engine has splintered as +though it had been made of glass. We are disabled!" +</p> + +<p> +"Nom de Dieu!" exclaimed the admiral. "What is that you +say?—disabled? and the tide setting in. Then we are lost. A few +minutes will take us within range of the guns on the Canal and at +Cuxhaven, and in an hour we may be ashore. There is no hope of +repairs, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Impossible, Monsieur l'Amiral. It would take weeks in the best +dockyard in France to repair the damage." +</p> + +<p> +"Then," said the admiral, turning to the commander, who was standing +beside him, "we must do what we can. We will not be lost for nothing. +Let everything be ready to return the fire of the forts as soon as we +are within range." +</p> + +<p> +By this time the German officers on the forts had noted with +amazement, not unmixed with satisfaction, that some unaccountable +accident had happened to the great French battleship. She was not +under steam, she was not steering, she was simply drifting in with the +tide as helplessly as a barrel. The tide was setting dead in towards +the mouth of the Canal, and the commander of the great fort at +Brunsbüttel, making certain of her surrender or destruction, ordered +three of his heaviest guns, monsters capable of throwing a +nine-hundred-pound shell to a distance of nearly fourteen miles, to +prepare for action. They were mounted on disappearing carriages worked +by hydraulic machinery. +</p> + +<p> +The guns were already loaded, the mechanism was set in motion, and the +giants rose slowly till their muzzles grinned over the glacis of the +fort. Then, without any warning, the framework of one of the carriages +cracked and splintered in all directions, the huge gun came back with +a terrific crash on to the concrete floor of the emplacement, and, to +the amazement of officers and gunners, broke into three pieces as if +it had been made of glass instead of the finest steel that Krupp could +produce. +</p> + +<p> +Officers and men stared at each other in silent amazement. Were even +the guns and their machinery affected by this strange languor which +had been afflicting both men and animals for the last day or two? +Instinctively they drew away from the other gun; but the <i>Charles +Martel</i> was now well within range, and Colonel Von Altenau saw that +it was his duty not to allow her to come any closer. In fact, he was +almost surprised to see that she had not already opened fire upon the +fort, so he ordered the centre gun to be trained on her and fired. +</p> + +<p> +As the lanyard was pulled, those on board the battleship saw a vivid +burst of flame, and the roar of an explosion came dully across the +water, but no shell followed it. The admiral immediately came to the +conclusion that some accident had happened in the fort, and he ordered +his two forward 13-inch guns to send a couple of shells into it. He +went into the conning-tower, and as soon as he received the signal +that the guns were ready and laid, he pressed the electric button +which should have sent the sparks through the charges. Nothing +happened, and the guns remained silent. +</p> + +<p> +Then he called down the speaking-tube connecting the conning-tower +with the barbette: +</p> + +<p> +"The wire does not act. Let the guns be fired by hand." +</p> + +<p> +He was obeyed, and the next moment the blast of a frightful explosion +shook the whole fabric of the ship. Barbette and guns disappeared in a +blinding blaze of flame. The solid steel crumbled to dust, the decks +cracked like starred glass in all directions, and some forty brave +fellows were blown over the edge of eternity without even knowing what +had happened to them. Both guns had burst into thousands of fragments, +just as the great German gun in the fort had done, killing every man +within twenty yards of it. The guns had, in fact, behaved much as that +little square of steel had done when Doctor Emil Fargeau hit it with a +wooden mallet. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the first shots of the war had resulted only in the slaying of +those who had fired them. As the helpless <i>Charles Martel</i> +drifted slowly towards the other forts, they attempted to open fire on +her, but after two more big guns had blown themselves to atoms, and +killed or maimed a hundred men, she was allowed to drift on until she +found a resting-place on the Elbe mud. +</p> + +<p> +On the other ships of the French Squadron disaster after disaster had +been happening meanwhile. Engine after engine broke down, electric +signals, as well as the electrical ammunition lifts, ceased to work. +The compass cards swung about as aimlessly as though there was no such +thing as a Magnetic Pole in existence, and as ship after ship became +disabled with broken shafts, cracked cylinders, or splintered +piston-rods, a score of the finest warships that France had ever put +to sea drifted helplessly up with the tide under the eyes of an enemy +that could not fire a shot at them. +</p> + +<p> +The commander-in-chief of the Brunsbüttel station telegraphed to his +colleague at Kiel to report the unaccountable disaster, but no answer +was received. The message was repeated, and a lieutenant came in a few +minutes later, clicked his heels together, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Herr Commandant, it is impossible to communicate with Kiel, the +instruments have ceased to work. I have telephoned as well, but the +wires are dead." +</p> + +<p> +"But it is ridiculous—unaccountable!" exclaimed the commandant. "We +must communicate. Have an engine made ready at once, Lieutenant, and +go yourself. I will send a letter." +</p> + +<p> +The lieutenant found a locomotive with steam up. He took the +commandant's letter and started. Within fifty yards the engine broke +down as completely as the machinery of the <i>Charles Martel</i> had +done. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</p> + + +<p> +Eight days out of the ten calculated by the president and Doctor +Lamson for the progress of the Great Experiment had expired, and +Europe presented the extraordinary spectacle of a continent armed to +the teeth, possessing the mightiest weapons of destruction that human +science and skill could invent and construct—and divided into two +hostile camps which were practically unable to hurt each other. +</p> + +<p> +Away in the far northern wilderness the giant engines purred on +remorselessly, continually drawing away more and more of the vital +earth-spirit from Europe and Asia. In Great Britain and North America +nothing had happened, except a succession of abnormally violent +thunderstorms, and certain other minor electrical disturbances which +were only detected by instruments at the observatories; but all cables +had ceased to work, and the only sea communication possible was by +means of wooden sailing ships, for every steamer, whether warship, +liner, or tramp, broke down when she got about fifteen miles from the +English or American coasts. What was happening in the Southern +Hemisphere no one knew till long afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +Throughout Europe and Asia a most extraordinary condition of things +was coming to pass. What had happened at Kiel happened also at all the +great fortresses along the German frontier which were invested by the +French and Russians. Guns of all calibres on both sides burst, killing +those who used them, but doing no damage to the enemy. Quick-firing +guns jammed or burst and became useless. If a man tried to fire a +rifle, the breech-lock blew out and killed or maimed him, until French +and Germans, Russians, Austrians, and Italians alike refused to fire a +shot, and even on the rare occasions when bodies of men got near +enough to each other for a cavalry or bayonet charge, lance-points, +sabres, and bayonets cracked and splintered like so many icicles. +</p> + +<p> +By the tenth day every officer and man in Europe had recognised that +if the war was to go on at all it would have to be fought out with +fists and feet. All modern weapons of warfare had suddenly become +useless. Moreover, communication had become so difficult, that the +feeding of the vast armies in the field was rapidly approaching +impossibility, and the helpless, hostile battalions were beginning to +starve in sight of each other. Locomotives broke down or blew up, +bridges collapsed under the weight of the trains, and now horses and +men had become afflicted with a deadly languor which made severe +exertion an impossibility. +</p> + +<p> +From the war lords of the nations to the raw conscripts and the +camp-followers it was the same. Neither mind nor body would do its +work. The soul of the world was leaving it—drawn out by those +remorseless engines into the vast receivers of the Storage Works—and +men were beginning to find that without it they could neither think +nor work any more than they could fight. +</p> + +<p> +There was not a cable or a telegraph line in Europe or Asia that could +be operated, not a stationary or locomotive engine that would work +without breaking down or blowing up. Electric lighting and traction +had for two or three days been things of the past. Throughout two +continents industries and commerce, like war, were at a standstill; a +sort of creeping paralysis had spread from the Straits of Dover to the +Sea of Japan. +</p> + +<p> +There were no exceptions, from the rulers of the highest civilisations +down to the sampan men of Canton and the fur-clad Samoyeds of the +northern wilderness. Great fleets and squadrons were either drifting +about the ocean or lying helpless on rock or sand or mud-bank, like +the silenced forts full of guns and ammunition and yet unable to fire +a single shot either in attack or defence. +</p> + +<p> +On the morning of the eleventh day the French President, who had been +drawn along the useless railway from Paris to Calais by relays of +horses harnessed to a light truck running on wheels of papier-maché, +embarked for Dover on board a fishing-lugger. Twelve hours before the +German Emperor had sailed from Cuxhaven, which he had reached by rail +with infinite difficulty, and after a dozen breakdowns, for Harwich in +a fast wood-built schooner-yacht. +</p> + +<p> +During the last four or five days there had been very little +communication between the Continent and England. All English steamers, +including warships, had been forbidden to pass the three-mile limit. +By a happy accident the Channel Fleet and the Home Defence Squadron +had anchored in British waters after the manœuvres just before Miss +Chrysie pulled that fatal lever. The Mediterranean Fleet was at Malta, +powerless to move an engine or fire a gun. Communication across the +narrow seas was still possible by wooden sailing craft, and it was the +news which these had brought from England that had induced the Kaiser +and the President to go and see the miracle for themselves. +</p> + +<p> +The moment that they set foot on English soil, which they did almost +about the same time, the growing lassitude of the last few days +vanished. +</p> + +<p> +"These are truly the Fortunate Isles just now," exclaimed the Kaiser, +as he drew his first breath of the cool English air. "A few moments +and I am a man again. Then that circular which we all laughed at so +was true!" he went on, to himself. "Yes, everything seems going on as +usual. They seem to be caring as little about the state of Europe as +they did about the African war. Why, there's a train running as easily +as though the railways of Europe were not strewn with wrecks." +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned to the aide-de-camp who had accompanied him, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Von Kritzener, see if you can get me a special to London—but no, we +had better keep incognito. Be good enough to go and see when there is +a fast train to London, and then we will get something to eat." +</p> + +<p> +The Emperor and his aide were both in ordinary yachting costume, and +the points of the famous moustache had been drooped downwards. The +aide came back to the yacht in a few minutes, saying that there was a +fast train to London in forty minutes; so his majesty dined briefly +but well at the Great Eastern Hotel, and presently found himself +speeding swiftly and smoothly and with an unwonted sense of security +towards London. +</p> + +<p> +The French President experienced practically the same sensations when +he landed at Dover and took the train to Charing Cross. Everything was +going on just as usual. They were even doing target practice with the +big guns from Dover Castle; and as he heard the boom of the cannon, he +thought with a shudder of what had happened only a day or two before +to the great French siege-guns before Metz and Strassburg. +</p> + +<p> +All he noticed out of the common was what the Kaiser noticed +too—lines of great steel masts along the coast and clumps of them on +every elevation inland. From what he had already learnt from General +Ducros, he half-guessed that these were the means through which the +earth received the vast volumes of electricity given off from the +works in Boothia Land, and that it was thus that the magnetic +equilibrium was kept undisturbed. +</p> + +<p> +In London nothing seemed altered. Everybody was going about his daily +business as though no such continent as Europe existed; so the +President and the Kaiser, wondering greatly, both went and put up at +Claridge's, and there, to their mutual astonishment, recognised each +other. Both were strictly incognito, both recognised that the state of +affairs in Europe had reached the limits of the possible, and both +guessed that they had come practically on the same errand. Wherefore +Kaiser bowed to President and President bowed to Kaiser, after which +they shook hands, took wine together, and, like a couple of good +sportsmen, proceeded a little later on to discuss the situation in the +Kaiser's private sitting-room. +</p> + +<p> +The result of an interesting and momentous conversation was that the +Kaiser sent his aide with an autograph letter to Marlborough House +requesting the honour of an interview with King Edward for himself and +the President. +</p> + +<p> +The answer was a royal brougham and pair, and a cordial invitation to +the two potentates whom fate and the great Storage Trust had brought +so strangely together to sleep at Marlborough House. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly the whole of the next day was occupied in interviews between +the three rulers, and also with the Ministers of the great Powers who +were still in London. The American Minister and the English manager of +the Great Storage Trust were present at most of them. At the end of a +lengthy discussion on the <i>status quo</i>, the Kaiser confessed, in +his usual frank, manly fashion, that not only Germany, but Europe, was +helpless in face of the invisible but tremendous force which the Trust +had shown itself capable of exercising. +</p> + +<p> +"We are beaten," he said, "and it would be only foolishness to hide +the fact. Our ships are helpless hulks, most of them wrecks, our +trains will not run, our machinery will not work, our guns will not +shoot. Within three days we have gone back to the Middle Ages, or +beyond them, for, even if we had armour, you could break it with your +fist, and you would not even want a mailed one," he added, with a +laugh at his own expense. +</p> + +<p> +"There are over ten millions of men carrying arms they cannot use, and +hundreds of thousands of these men are starving because the railways +are useless and no food can be got to them. It would be absurd were it +not so great a tragedy; but since we cannot fight, we must arrange our +differences some other way. What do you say, Monsieur le President?" +</p> + +<p> +"I say as your Majesty does," replied Monsieur Loubet, in his blunt, +common-sense fashion; "and since these gentlemen of the Trust have +shown us how helpless fleets and armies may be rendered, perhaps +Europe may be induced to seek for some more reasonable method of +arranging disputes than by the shedding of blood." +</p> + +<p> +"I most sincerely hope so," said King Edward; "and if these gentlemen +are prepared to endorse these sentiments on behalf of their august +masters, I think there will be little difficulty in arranging matters +satisfactorily and putting an end to what may be justly described as +an intolerable and impossible condition of affairs. What do you say, +gentlemen?" he went on, turning to the Ministers. +</p> + +<p> +"I fear, your Majesty, it would be necessary for me to communicate +with my imperial master before I could pledge him to any course +resembling surrender." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear count," said the Kaiser, turning towards him with a laugh, "I +am afraid you hardly realise the position. It would take you at the +very least three weeks, possibly six, to reach Petersburg. You forget +that all the mechanical triumphs of civilisation are for the present +things of the past. There are no cables, no telegraphs, no railways. +Neither horses nor men are capable of any great exertion, and their +strength is becoming less every hour. Petersburg is farther from +London to-day than Pekin was a month ago." +</p> + +<p> +"And even from Paris," added the President when the Emperor had +finished, "I have been four days travelling. I came to Calais in a +truck drawn by horses along the railway, and from Calais in a fishing +boat. Gentlemen, if I may venture to advise, I would suggest that the +best, nay, the only thing that Europe, in your persons, can do, is to +place itself in the hands of His Majesty King Edward. We have been +enemies, but he is the friend of all of us, and if any man on earth +can and will do right it is he." +</p> + +<p> +"I entirely agree with Monsieur le President," said the Kaiser. "We +are helpless, and he can help us. For my own part, I place the +interests of Germany unreservedly in his hands." +</p> + +<p> +After this it was impossible for the Ministers of the other Powers to +hold back, and so a joint-note was drawn up there and then, praying +King Edward to accept the office of mediator between the signatory +Powers and those uncrowned monarchs who, from their citadel in the +midst of the far-off northern wilderness, had proved their title to +sovereignty by demonstrating their power to render the nation helpless +at their will. +</p> + +<p> +The only communication that was now possible with Canada, and +therefore with Boothia Land, was by means of aërographic messages +transmitted from one station to another <i>via</i> the north of +Scotland, The Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, where the +cable was working as usual. It took nearly twelve hours for the +messages to reach the works, and the president had scarcely +communicated its contents to his colleagues when the <i>Nadine</i> +came rushing full speed into Adelaide Bay with the news that the great +Russian ice-breaker, with three other vessels in her wake, was +steaming down from the northward about twenty miles away. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</p> + + +<p> +The news of the coming of the expeditions was allowed to spread +without comment through the works, and, to the intense surprise of the +three involuntary guests of the Trust, no apparent precautions were +taken to protect the works or the harbour in which the <i>Nadine</i> +and the <i>Washington</i> were now lying against the coming of what +everyone knew could be nothing but a hostile force. The two vessels +having made their report, filled their bunkers and steamed out of the +harbour again to the southward and westward. The great engines purred +on, still draining Europe and Asia of their vital essence. An +aërograph message was sent to King Edward and the President of the +United States. The one to King Edward informed his Majesty that the +president and board of trust, while insisting upon the terms of the +circular they had addressed to the Powers of Europe, and giving fair +warning of what would happen if those terms were ignored, were +perfectly content to leave everything else in His Majesty's hands. +</p> + +<p> +The message to the President gave him all the news that there was to +give, and informed him that as soon as the King's decision was +announced the engines would be stopped, the insulators removed, and +the electrical and magnetic currents allowed to flow back over their +natural courses, the result of which would be that, in from +twenty-four to thirty-six hours, normal conditions would be +re-established, and the business of the world could go on as usual. +All fighting, however, save under a war-tax of a dollar per head per +week of men engaged in armies and fleets would be prohibited. If this +condition, which the London manager of the Trust had been instructed +to lay before His Majesty and the foreign Ministers in London, were +violated, the engines would be started again, with the same results as +before. +</p> + +<p> +It was about eight o'clock in the evening of the same day, to put it +in conventional terms, for the long summer twilight of Boothia Land +knew no morning and no evening, that the huge shape of the Russian +ice-breaker, followed by her three consorts, one a genuine +wooden-built exploring ship and the others, to a nautical eye, +unmistakably steel cruisers disguised with wooden sheathings, rounded +Cape Adelaide into the bay. A couple of miles behind them came the +three ships of the French expedition, an antiquated cruiser fitted +with the best modern guns, and two obsolete coast-defence ships, slow +but strong, and also armed with formidable guns. +</p> + +<p> +"So your friends have come at last," said Miss Chrysie to Adelaide and +Sophie as they were taking their evening promenade along one of the +broad parapeted walls which formed the quadrangle of the works. +"Somehow I always thought it was this pole they were going to look +for, not the other one. I reckon they allowed there was a lot more to +be found here than up north yonder." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course they did," said Adelaide, with a low laugh that had a +wicked ring in it. "There is no need for diplomacy now. Here is the +world-throne, the seat of such power as man never wielded before. +Here, within these four great walls, are contained the destinies of +all the nations on earth. Here is everything; anywhere else nothing. +Pah! is it not worth fighting for?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear marquise," said Sophie, "do you not think that you are +letting your feelings run away with you? I grant you they are natural, +but——" +</p> + +<p> +"But I guess that's what she means all the same," said Chrysie; "and I +don't like her any the less for saying it. Those scientific +expeditions of yours have just come out here to take the works by +storm, if they can, and run the show on their own. Well, that's war, +and we're not going to grumble at it. We've made war on Europe, and +Europe's feeling pretty sick over it; but I'll tell you honestly that +the sickness of Europe just now isn't a circumstance to what those +expeditions are going to experience if they try to rush these works by +force, and they won't get them any other way. Well, now I see that +some of the people are going down to the steam launch. Shouldn't +wonder if Lord Orrel and poppa were sending your friends an invitation +to supper, or breakfast, or whatever you'd call it in this everlasting +daylight. I reckon that would be quite an interesting little +surprise-party, wouldn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Delightful!" said Sophie, her quick wits already at work on the +problem of how to turn such a surprise-party to the advantage of +Russia. After all, when the supreme moment came, it might be possible. +Victor Fargeau would be there on the French expedition, with all the +information required to keep the works in operation, or to give the +soul which they had stolen from the world back to it. Even at the last +moment it was still possible to triumph. +</p> + +<p> +Almost at the same instant similar thoughts were passing through +Adelaide's brain. Here were both expeditions. They had arrived at the +psychological moment. She knew that the ships were armed with the +finest weapons that modern science could create. There were hundreds +of trained sailors, gunners, and marines on board. The works were +within easy range of the bay, where the Russian ships were even now +coming to an anchor. Surely in the face of such a force—a force which +could wreck even these tremendous works—the Masters of the World +could do nothing but surrender. At the same time, she would have given +a good deal to have had in her pocket the dainty little revolver which +she knew Miss Chrysie had in hers. +</p> + +<p> +While they were talking, the French expedition, of which one of the +ships had broken down and been compelled to refit at Halifax, delaying +both expeditions over a week, in addition to the coaling, rounded Cape +Adelaide and proceeded to anchor. There were now six armed vessels in +the bay, at a distance of about four miles from the works. +</p> + +<p> +A glance through a pair of field-glasses from the walls made it plain +that all disguise had now been thrown aside. The joint Polar +expeditions were now frankly hostile squadrons. The great ice-breaker +mounted two six-inch guns forward, one aft, and six twelve-pound +quick-firers on each broadside. The wooden exploring ship carried no +heavy metal, but the disguised cruisers had mounted all their guns; +the French vessels, too, frankly bristled with weapons, from guns +capable of throwing a 100-lb. shell down to one-pound quick-firers and +Maxims. In short, if the works had been a hostile fortress no more +unmistakable demonstration could have been made against them by a +beleaguering squadron. +</p> + +<p> +But although there was no mistaking the errand of the ships, and +though it was plain that they had been expected, the guest-prisoners +were astounded to find that, so far as they could see, not the +slightest preparations were taken for defence. There was not a gun +visible, and everyone, chiefs and workmen, went about their business +without the slightest show of concern. The vast quadrangle stood +amidst the rocks and sand of the wilderness, dark, silent, and +inscrutable, and the huge engines purred on unceasingly, and Austin +Vandel sat at his instruments in the telegraph-room, awaiting the word +from the King of England, which alone could stop them. +</p> + +<p> +"They are inscrutable, these people," said Sophie to Adelaide when +Chrysie had left them on the wall to answer a message from her father. +"They know that the guns on those ships could level even these huge +walls with the ground in a few hours, wreck their machinery—though +our friend Victor would scarcely allow them to do that if he could +help it—and bring them to the choice between surrender and death; but +here they are, going on with their work as usual, and not even taking +any notice of the arrival of the fleet. Mr Vandel told papa that they +have 100-lb. dynamite guns, but where are they?—there's not a weapon +of any kind to be seen." +</p> + +<p> +"That doesn't say that they are not here, my dear Sophie," replied +Adelaide. "In fact, I confess that this very silence and apparent +carelessness may hide some terrible possibilities. You know what an +easy prey we thought we should find the <i>Nadine</i>, and you saw +what happened to the <i>Vlodoya</i>. Frankly, I tell you I do not +think that the success of the expeditions is at all certain. You never +know what these diabolical people with their new inventions are going +to do next. Look how that hateful American girl has outwitted us all +along; and yet she's as friendly as possible all the time." +</p> + +<p> +"Except when she was firing on the <i>Vlodoya</i> with that horrible +gun of hers," added Sophie. "Don't you wish you had that revolver of +hers?" +</p> + +<p> +"I would give my soul for it," replied Adelaide, between her clenched +teeth. +</p> + +<p> +"And if you had it, what would you do with it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Kill her first, and then him," came from between the marquise's +clenched teeth. +</p> + +<p> +"What!" said Sophie, with a vicious little laugh, "kill the man for +whose sake you were willing to betray all our plans and perhaps lose +us the control of the world? Why, your first condition was that no +harm should come to him." +</p> + +<p> +"I had hopes then, I have none now," she replied, in a tone that +sounded like a snarl. "He has found me out, and I have lost him; and +when you have lost a man, why should he go on living? I have loved +him; yes, perhaps I love him still in some strange way; but you are +woman enough and Russian enough, Sophie, to know that I would rather +be a mourner at their funeral than a bridesmaid at their wedding." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Adelaide," said Sophie, slipping her arm through hers, "that +is an excellent sentiment excellently expressed. Now I see that you +are with us entirely. We are really true allies now, and it rests with +us and papa to make the success of the expedition a certainty. Will +you promise me that if matters come to an extremity, as they certainly +will do in a few hours, you really will shoot Ma'm'selle Chrysie and +this absurd Englishman who has preferred an American hoyden to the +most beautiful woman in Europe?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; if I could, I would do it. I would swear that to you on a +crucifix," replied Adelaide de Condé, in a low tone that had a hiss +running through it. +</p> + +<p> +"Then come down to my room and I will show you something," said +Sophie. "I dare not do it here, for you never know what eyes are +watching you." +</p> + +<p> +When they reached Sophie's apartment she put her hand into the +side-pocket of a long fur-trimmed cloak that she was wearing, and took +out Miss Chrysie's revolver. +</p> + +<p> +"There it is," she said, handing it to the marquise. "You have told me +that you are a good shot, so you can use it better that I can. I hope +you will use it at the right time and won't miss." +</p> + +<p> +"But how?" exclaimed Adelaide, staring at her in amazement as she put +out her hand for the dainty little weapon. +</p> + +<p> +"How!" laughed Sophie. "My dearest Adelaide, we have to learn many +things in such a service as ours. Miss Chrysie did not know that she +was walking and talking just now with one of the most expert +pickpockets in Europe. Why, I once stole an ambassador's letter-case +while I was waltzing with him. He was terribly upset, poor man, and of +course I sympathised with him; but it was never found, and the +contents proved very useful." +</p> + +<p> +"You are wonderful, Sophie!" exclaimed Adelaide, as she put the +revolver into her pocket. "And, of course, all things are fair in +love, war, and diplomacy. Well, you have no need to fear that I shall +not use this." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment there was a knock at the door, and the count came in. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, papa," said Sophie, "have you any news? What are these people +going to do? Have you been able to persuade them to surrender to the +expedition?" +</p> + +<p> +"On the contrary, my dear Sophie," he replied, "they are more +inexplicable than ever. Would you believe it that Lord Orrel has +actually asked me to go down with him to the port and ask the French +and Russian leaders of the expedition to dinner, the invitation to +include our excellent friend Victor Fargeau?" +</p> + +<p> +"That is only a plot!" exclaimed the marquise; "a shallow plot to get +them into the works and make them prisoners. Of course they will not +be so idiotic as to come." +</p> + +<p> +"It is difficult," said the count, "to see how they could refuse such +a hospitable offer without at once declaring hostilities. We do not +know how the works are defended, or what unknown means of destruction +these people may possess, and, to be quite candid, I do not think that +our hosts would be guilty of an act of treachery. You know these +Anglo-Saxons are always chivalrous to the verge of imbecility. For +instance, if the tables had been turned, should we have treated them +as they have treated us? I think you will agree with me that we should +not. No; I have no fears whatever on that score, and I shall support +Lord Orrel's invitation with the most perfect confidence." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</p> + + +<p> +Lord Orrel and the count started from the little station just outside +the western gate of the works in the private car used by the directors +and drawn by a neat little electric engine, which was accustomed to do +the four miles in ten minutes. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, Lady Olive had what might, by a stretch of imagination, be +called afternoon tea, in that land where it was never quite afternoon +or morning, on the western wall looking down towards the harbour. When +Miss Chrysie sat down and threw back her afternoon wrap Adelaide and +Sophie were disconcerted, if not altogether surprised, to see that she +had a light, long-barrelled, wicked-looking pistol hanging by a couple +of silver chains from her waist-band. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Chrysie," said Lady Olive, "what are you carrying that +terrible-looking weapon for? You don't expect that you will have to +use it, surely," she went on, with just a touch of sarcasm in her +tone, "considering what very good friends we have all managed to keep +so far?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I hope not," said Miss Chrysie, looking round the tables with +eyes which had both a laugh and a menace in them. "Of course, it is to +be hoped that everything will go off smoothly, but poppa had a friend +in the old times who said something that means a lot. He said, 'You +don't want a gun often, but when you do want it you want it badly.' +Isn't that so, poppa?" +</p> + +<p> +"Just his words, Chrysie," said the president, "just his words; and he +knew what he was talking about when he used them. I never met a man +who could hold his temper longer or shoot quicker; and when he used a +gun someone usually wanted a funeral pretty soon." +</p> + +<p> +"But surely," said Sophie, "you don't suppose for a moment that our +expected guests from the expedition will——" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know what they'll do, although I think I know what they'll +want to do," she replied, quickly. "But somehow I managed to lose my +other little pepper-box this morning. Where it's gone to or who's got +it I don't know, so I got this instead. It's a pretty thing," she went +on, playing with it as a woman might toy with a jewel, "seven-shooter +and magazine action. If you hold the trigger back after you've fired +the first shot, it shoots the other six in about three seconds." +</p> + +<p> +"A very handy thing in a tight corner, I should say," said Hardress, +smiling at her over the top of his tea-cup, "and in such hands I +should think a very ugly thing to face." +</p> + +<p> +Adelaide's fingers were itching to take out the revolver and shoot +both of them when she saw the all-meaning glance which passed between +them while he spoke, but instead of that she raised her tea-cup and +touched it with her pretty lips, and as she put the cup down she said, +with the sweetest of smiles, to the president: +</p> + +<p> +"I think it is quite charming of you, Mr President, to ask the leaders +of the expedition to dinner in such a friendly way. Surely it is not +always usual to ask the enemy within the gates?" +</p> + +<p> +"We have no enemies, marquise," he replied, gravely, "except those who +stand in the way of our commercial undertaking, and with them, of +course, business is business, and there is no sentiment in that. Of +course we have a pretty good idea why these two expeditions have come +to the magnetic pole instead of trying to get to the North Pole, but +we've not been lying awake at nights worrying about that, and there's +no particular reason why we shouldn't ask the scientific explorers to +dinner. All the same, if they happen to have come with the idea that +they have a better right to these works than we have, and they want +any trouble—why, they can have it." +</p> + +<p> +"And," added Hardress, still looking across at Chrysie, "I think they +will find it the most extraordinary kind of trouble that mortal man +ever ran up against." +</p> + +<p> +"It's to be hoped," said Doctor Lamson, speaking for the first time +since the little tea-party had begun, for he had been thinking hard, +and every now and then raising his eyes as though to seek inspiration +from Lady Olive's calm, patrician face, as calm now, on the eve of a +struggle which could scarcely end without bloodshed, and might end in +ruin, as it would have been in a London drawing-room—"I most +sincerely hope that it will not come to actual hostilities; it would +be really too awful." +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder if it would be permissible for a prisoner of war to ask what +would be too awful, doctor," said Sophie, looking at him with a smile +which somehow made him think of a beautiful tigress he had seen in the +Thiergarten in Berlin. +</p> + +<p> +"The means that we should be compelled to employ in such a case to +reduce those two squadrons, or expeditions, or whatever they call +themselves, to something about as unsubstantial as that," replied the +doctor, blowing a puff of cigarette smoke into the air. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment Austin Vandel came up on to the wall, and handed a +piece of paper to his father. +</p> + +<p> +"Just come through, dad," he said. "I reckon we've frozen that war +clean out." +</p> + +<p> +The president opened the paper and read aloud: +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p> + "'Powers agree to stop war and settle matters of dispute by + arbitration if you will restore electric equilibrium in Europe. + Terms between you and Powers to be arranged at a council of + Sovereigns and Ministers presided over by myself. If this is + satisfactory, please reply, and stop your machinery. Conditions + becoming very serious in Europe.—<br>(Signed) Edward R.I.'" +</p> +</div> +<p> +"Well," continued the president, "that means they've climbed down. +Doctor, I reckon we can switch off the engines now, couple up the +connections, and use the power for something else if it's wanted. What +do you think, viscount?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly," replied Hardress. "If the Powers have accepted King +Edward's arbitration we can do nothing else; and, besides, if our not +entirely unexpected visitors allow themselves to be tempted to commit +any hostile act after that they will place themselves outside the law +of nations, and we shall be at liberty to deal with them as we +please." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," replied the president, looking lazily across the table at +Sophie and Adelaide. "Austin, you can go and telegraph to St John's +that we put ourselves entirely in King Edward's hands, and that the +engines have stopped. They'll have a few thunderstorms most likely, +but in twenty-four hours everything will be as it was before. You +might also mention that the French and Russian expeditions are here, +and that to-night we hope to have the leaders to dinner." +</p> + +<p> +The dinner-party in the board-room of the works to which the guests +sat down at 8 <span class="sc">p.m.</span> was quite the strangest that had ever been +given in the Northern Hemisphere. It was a dinner given by the holders +of a citadel which had been proved to be the veritable throne of the +world-empire to four men who had come to the wilderness of Boothia +Land with the now practically avowed object of taking it from them by +force of arms. +</p> + +<p> +For no other possible reason could these two peaceful expeditions have +sailed from Riga and le Havre to go to the North Pole, or as near to +it as might be, and arrive at the Magnetic Pole, bristling with +weapons, and obviously prepared to attack the works, situated as they +were on the territory of a friendly nation, as though they were a +fortress on hostile soil. Yet Vice-Admiral Alexis Nazanoff, in command +of the Russian expedition, came with Professor Josef Karnina in just +such friendly style as did Vice-Admiral Dumont and ex-Captain Victor +Fargeau, late of the German staff-corps. +</p> + +<p> +They were all far too well versed in the ways of war or diplomacy not +to be considerably surprised at the nature of their reception, even as +they were at the colossal dimensions of the buildings which at the +bidding of the magic of millions had arisen in the midst of this +inhospitable wilderness. They had expected a fleet of guardships +protecting the entrance to the harbour, and they would not have been +surprised if their passage through the narrow Lankester Sound had been +prevented by torpedos, or opposed by privateers equipped by the Trust; +and for that reason they had mounted their guns and felt their way for +days at the rate of two or three knots an hour through the narrow +passages which led southward to Port Adelaide, but all they had seen +was the fleeting shape of a white-painted yacht, the now world-famous +<i>Nadine</i>, scouting on the horizon and then vanishing into the +grey twilight of the long northern day. +</p> + +<p> +Not only had they been permitted to anchor in the natural harbour +which formed the only approach by sea to the works without the +slightest notice being taken of them, but, most wonderful of all, Lord +Orrel, the English nobleman who was one of the three directors of the +Trust, had come down with Count Valdemar, who, with his daughter, had +organised the Russian expedition, to invite them to dinner in just as +friendly a fashion as they might have done if Boothia Land had been +Paris, and the Great Storage Works the Hotel Bristol. +</p> + +<p> +The situation was distinctly mystifying, and therefore not without its +elements of uneasiness—even perhaps of something keener, and the +uneasiness and the fear were amply shared by the friends whom they met +so unexpectedly within the four walls of the great world-citadel. +</p> + +<p> +But astonishment became wonder when the two admirals, clad in their +full-dress uniforms, found themselves and their scientific colleagues +ushered into first a luxuriously-appointed reception-room lighted by +softly-shaded electric lamps, where the president of the Trust, the +multi-millionaire magnate, the king of commerce, who played with +millions as boys play with counters, dispensed cocktails from a bar +which might have been spirited away from the Waldorf-Astoria, and the +men and women, friends and enemies, received them in costumes which +might have come straight from Poole's or Worth's. +</p> + +<p> +Then, when the cocktails had been duly concocted and consumed, and +Lord Orrel's own butler announced that dinner was served, Lady Olive, +as châtelaine of the castle, took the Russian admiral's arm and led +the way through the curtained archway into the softly-lighted +dining-room, so perfectly appointed that it might well have been +spirited from London or Paris or Petersburg to the wilderness of +Boothia. +</p> + +<p> +The French admiral followed with Countess Sophie, Count Valdemar with +the marquise, and Lord Orrel with Miss Chrysie, the rest of the men +bringing up the rear. +</p> + +<p> +The dinner, as Admiral Dumont said afterwards to Admiral Nazanoff, was +a gastronomic miracle. Wines, soup, fish, and so on, were perfect; it +was a wonder in the wilderness. But even more wonderful still was the +conversation which flowed so easily around the table. No one listening +to it would have dreamt that the greatest war of modern times had been +brought to a state of utter paralysis by the quiet-spoken men who were +so lavishly entertaining enemies who had come to dispossess them of +the throne of the world, any more than they would have dreamt that the +elements of a possible revolution, greater than any that had yet +shaken the foundations of the world, were gathered round that +glittering, daintily-adorned dinner-table. +</p> + +<p> +But when Lady Olive rose and led the way back to the drawing-room Lord +Orrel began the serious business of the evening by asking Hardress and +Doctor Lamson to pass a couple of decanters of '47 port, from the +cellars of Orrel Court, to their guests. When the decanters had gone +round and the glasses were filled, Lord Orrel raised his own glass, +and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, gentlemen, the time has come for me to formally and yet not the +less cordially bid you welcome to Boothia Land. We understood before +we left England that you were bound on a voyage of discovery to the +North Pole; to that goal which so many brave men have tried to reach, +and which has so far been unattainable." +</p> + +<p> +Then his voice dropped to a sterner tone, and he went on: +</p> + +<p> +"I wish to ask you, on behalf of my colleagues and myself, those who +are working with me in the enterprise which you have to-day seen in +concrete form, whether your visit is one of peace or war. Those, I am +well aware, are grave words to use, yet, under the strange +circumstances which have brought us together, I must ask you to +believe me that it is necessary, even inevitable, that they should be +used. If you have paid a visit to Boothia Land and the Storage Works +only in the interests of science, I can assure you that we and our +staff will spare no pains to show you everything that can be seen. +</p> + +<p> +"Considering the slow rate at which you have been compelled by +circumstances to travel from Halifax, it may not be within your +knowledge that since you left Europe we have happily been able to stop +a great European war. We have paralysed the fleets and armies of a +continent, and the warships of Europe are now resting motionless in +dockyards or lying as wrecks on the sands and rocks of the coasts. The +great Powers have, in short, found it impossible to prosecute the war +without our consent—for, as a matter of fact, their armies were +starving to death in face of each other—and have consented to place +their difference in the hands of King Edward. The German Emperor, the +President of the French Republic, and the Ministers of all the Powers +engaged have assented to this. Here is a transcript of a dispatch +received from London to-day, which will, I hope, convince you that the +world is, happily, once more at peace. Therefore it is, of course, +impossible that your mission can be anything but a peaceful one." +</p> + +<p> +The two admirals and Victor Fargeau had been looking at each other +somewhat uneasily while Lord Orrel was speaking. They had no idea of +the events which had been taking place in Europe during the last +fortnight. What Lord Orrel had said might be true or simply a +deliberate attempt to frighten them out of their purpose; but whether +he was telling the truth or not, there were still the sealed orders +with which both expeditions had sailed, and obedience is the first +duty of a sailor. So when Lord Orrel continued: +</p> + +<p> +"And, that being so, gentlemen, I hope you will be able to join me in +a glass of wine and drink to continued peace to Europe, and prosperity +to the enterprise which has so far been successfully carried through +by those who have the honour to be your hosts to-night." +</p> + +<p> +"My lord," said the Russian admiral, rising to his feet, but not +taking his glass, "you have been honest with us, and we—I speak for +my colleague, Admiral Dumont, as well—cannot be less than honest with +you. It is not necessary for me to remind you that scientific Polar +expeditions do not carry such guns as we do—guns which, great and all +as these buildings are, could wreck them in a few hours. You have been +frank with us, we will be frank with you. We know nothing of this +mysterious power by which, as your lordship says, you have stopped the +war in Europe. As servants of our countries, we know only the orders +we have received, and those are either to compel the surrender of +these works into our hands, or destroy them. We accepted your +hospitality in the hope that we might be able to make terms for a +peaceable surrender." +</p> + +<p> +"And that, sir," said Hardress, starting to his feet, "I may as well +tell you at once, is impossible. You can no more take or destroy these +works than the European armies could fight each other three days ago. +You are our guests now, and therefore safe from all harm. You are at +liberty to rejoin your ships at any time you please. If you choose to +leave us in peace and take your way back you may go, and there will be +an end of the matter. But it is only my duty to tell you that if a +shot is fired with intent to injure any portion of these works, you +and your ships will not only be destroyed, you will be annihilated." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</p> + + +<p> +A dead silence of some moments' duration—during which hosts and +guests looked at each other as men might before the outburst of a +storm—then Victor Fargeau, after an exchange of glances with the +French admiral, said, in a voice which trembled with angry emotion: +</p> + +<p> +"Milords, I think I am speaking for my comrades as well as myself if I +say that we have come too far to be frightened from the accomplishment +of our purpose. For my own part, I may say that nothing, not even the +fear of that annihilation which the viscount has just threatened, +would turn me from my purpose, because I have come to take back that +which is mine and France's. These works may be your property, +gentlemen, because you have built them with your money and your +labour, but the soul which animates them, which makes them a living +organism instead of a lifeless mass of brick and stone, the power +which you say has enabled you to paralyse the fleets and armies of +Europe, that is mine: for I am the son of the man who created it. He +left it to me as his last legacy. I have returned to my allegiance to +France after doing her what service I could elsewhere. Though France +at first rejected the fruit of my father's genius she has now accepted +it, and in our persons she and her ally are here to demand restitution +of that which has been stolen from her." +</p> + +<p> +"I think you can hardly say stolen, Monsieur Fargeau," said Hardress, +without rising. "The French Ministry of War very foolishly refused to +have anything to do with your father's invention, and he may have +given you one set of specifications, but he also threw himself into +the sea with the other, and we picked him up. You can call it chance +or fate or anything you please, but it certainly wasn't theft. You +see, we got this land and built these works while the French +Government was thinking about it; and I must also remind you that they +are built on British soil, and held under lease from a British +Colonial Government. +</p> + +<p> +"Russia, France, and Great Britain are at peace. The war in Europe is +over, and therefore you will excuse me if I remind you and your +colleagues that any attempt to attain your end by force would put you +outside the pale of civilisation. In other words despite your uniforms +and your commissions, you would simply be common pirates, with no +claim to any of the rights of regular belligerents." +</p> + +<p> +"But," said Victor Fargeau, speaking with a distinct snarl in his +voice, "you forget, Monsieur le Vicomte, that we are in a position to +compel surrender, and that, once masters of the works, we shall be, as +you are, above the law. Granted all you say, it comes to this: Nothing +can justify our mission but success, and we shall succeed." +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," said the president, in his somewhat halting French, +"it doesn't seem worth while to discuss the matter any further. We +won't surrender the works, and the last man left alive in them would +fire the mines and die in their ruins. These gentlemen think they can +take them. We think they can't. It's no use talking about a +proposition like that. It's got to be argued with guns and other +things. It seems to me that the only question we've got to ask is, +whether all these gentlemen are unanimous in their determination to +take the works by force, if they can?" +</p> + +<p> +Admiral Dumont exchanged a whispered word with his Russian colleague, +and then he rose and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Milords, I regret to say our orders leave us no other alternative, +and our duty to our countries will compel us to take that action, most +reluctantly as we shall do so. As Monsieur Fargeau has said, we +believe that the vital principle of this system belongs to him and to +France. We have been sent here to regain what was lost to us through +an unfortunate mistake, and we must do so. Yet we do not wish to be +precipitate. We will ask you to take until six o'clock to-morrow +morning, that is to say, eight hours from now, to reconsider your +decision as to surrender. And there is just one more point. +</p> + +<p> +"You have certain guests, not entirely voluntary ones, in the works. +If it should, unhappily, come to a struggle between us, it would, of +course, be impossible for such chivalrous gentlemen to retain two +ladies and a Russian nobleman and ex-Minister. We request that, in the +unfortunate case of hostilities becoming inevitable, they shall be +permitted to come on board one of our ships." +</p> + +<p> +As the French admiral sat down, Lord Orrel got up and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Gentlemen, I am exceedingly sorry that matters have come to such a +pass as this. There can be no question of surrender, but our guests +will be free to join your squadrons when they please. Therefore, for +their convenience, and in order not to bring our little dinner to too +abrupt a close, we will accept the truce till six o'clock. Perhaps by +that time other and, I think, better counsels may have prevailed with +you. +</p> + +<p> +"I sincerely hope that they will; for I can assure you that my son was +not speaking idly when he said that you would not only be destroyed, +but annihilated. We have here means of destruction which have never +yet been used in war. For your sakes, and for those of the brave men +under your command, I trust that they never will be. And now, as +further discussion would seem to be unprofitable, suppose we join the +ladies. We may be friends, at anyrate, till six o'clock." +</p> + +<p> +In the reception-room the mystified guests of the Trust found coffee +and liqueurs, music and song and pleasant conversation, which touched +on every possible subject, save battle, murder, and sudden death. Then +came a stroll on the walls by the light of a brilliant <i>Aurora</i>, +which made the sun, which was just touching the southern horizon, look +like a pallid and exaggerated moon, and during this stroll Victor +Fargeau managed to pass a small Lebel revolver and some cartridges to +Sophie and the count in case of accidents. They had decided to go on +board the <i>Ivan the Terrible</i> when the guests left the works, and +Ma'm'selle Felice and the count's servant were already putting their +baggage together. The train was to wait for them at midnight. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, Doctor Lamson, who had left the party immediately after +dinner, had been getting the defences of the works in order. The huge +engines, disconnected now from the absorbers and storage batteries, +from which the captured world-soul was now being released back into +the earth, were still purring softly, and working as mightily as ever, +but now their force was being used to a different end. +</p> + +<p> +On each of the four towers at the corners of the quadrangle there had +been mounted an apparatus which looked something like a huge +searchlight, and underneath it were two real searchlights. On eight +platforms, one on each side of the towers, but hidden by a circular +wall of twelve-inch hardened steel, were mounted, on disappearing +carriages, the president's big guns, enlarged copies of the one he had +used so effectually on board the <i>Nadine</i>. Each would throw a +shell containing a hundred pounds of Vandelite to a distance of eight +miles. The great engines worked continuously, storing up liquid air in +chambers under the gun platforms, but they were also doing other and, +for the present, much more deadly work. The huge copper tubes above +the searchlights on the towers were turned above the harbour. They +made neither light nor sound, but all the while they were accumulating +destruction such as no mortal hand had yet dealt out to an enemy. +</p> + +<p> +The evening passed, apparently in the most friendly and peaceful +fashion, and no one suddenly introduced into the reception-room would +have dreamt that the members of Lord Orrel's dinner-party were not on +the very best of terms with themselves and each other. Not even +Adelaide or Sophie, sitting there with their revolvers in the pockets +of their dinner dresses, and thoughts of murder in their souls, had +the remotest idea of how terribly it was destined to end. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie had sung "The Old Folks at Home," and Adelaide one of the +old chansons which had delighted the Grand Monarque in the Trianon. +Then Sophie sat down at the piano, and the slow solemn strains of the +Russian National Hymn wailed up in majestic chords from the +instrument. There was something of defiance both in her touch and in +her voice, but international courtesies were respected, and everyone +in the room stood up. For Sophie Valdemar it was her swan-song—since +she was never to sing another—and she sang it splendidly, with her +whole soul in it. As the last line, "Give to us peace in our time, O +Lord," left her lips, Lord Orrel went to her side, and said: +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you, countess. A splendid hymn splendidly sung!" And then he +turned to the French and Russian admirals, and said: "Gentlemen, is it +not possible for you to answer, as you could answer, that prayer for +peace? I can assure you, on my word of honour as an English gentleman, +that this building in which you are now is impregnable to all forms of +attack known to modern warfare. At a distance of five thousand miles +we have paralysed the fleets and armies of Europe. Your ships are less +than five miles from our walls: you are not courting defeat, you are +courting annihilation. Can you not leave us in peace?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was under the impression, milord," said Admiral Nazanoff, "that +that subject was closed for the present. We have yet to be convinced +as to these terrible powers which you claim to possess: but our orders +are real, so too are our ships and guns; and since you have refused +the terms we have offered we have no alternative but to put these +boasted powers of yours to the test of war. I regret it most +exceedingly, as I am sure my colleague, Admiral Dumont, does also, but +that must be our last word." +</p> + +<p> +The French admiral and Victor Fargeau both bowed assent as he spoke. +And Lord Orrel answered: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, gentlemen, since you are resolved, so be it. We will not +discuss the matter further." +</p> + +<p> +While he was speaking Lady Olive had gone to the piano, and, as he +ceased, the opening chords of "Auld Lang Syne," floated through the +room, and she began to sing the old Scotch song. The words had a +strangely satirical meaning for Count Valdemar and his daughter and +Adelaide, who had heard them several times at Orrel Court, and Lady +Olive put such expression into them that both Sophie and Adelaide felt +inclined to be a little ashamed of themselves. Then in the midst of +the song the clock began to chime twelve, and Lady Olive, with a frank +look of defiance in her eyes, switched off suddenly into "God Save the +King," and began to sing the opening lines. At the end of the first +verse she stopped and rose from the piano, and said to her father, who +had been looking a little uneasy, as though he thought it was hardly +good taste: +</p> + +<p> +"I am very sorry, papa, if I have offended, but really I could not +help it; it seemed inevitable." +</p> + +<p> +"And why not?" said Adelaide. "Was not the same song sung in honour of +the Grand Monarque by the ladies of Versailles? Well, now, Lady Olive, +I suppose it is good-night and good-bye. A thousand thanks for all +your kindness and hospitality." +</p> + +<p> +"And a thousand thanks from me, too," said Sophie. +</p> + +<p> +They held out their hands, but Lady Olive put hers behind her, and +drew back. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you," she said, frigidly. "You are quite welcome to any +kindness that I have been able to show you; but, really, I must ask +you to pardon me if I decline to shake hands with you after you have +definitely joined the enemies of my family." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps you are right, Lady Olive," laughed Sophie. "Still, I hope +that, at no very distant time, we shall have an opportunity of +returning some, at least, of your kindness." +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes later hosts and guests were standing outside the western +gate, beside which the electric engine and the saloon carriage were +waiting to take them to the harbour. The departing guests' luggage had +been put on a little truck at the back. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, well, this is the end, I suppose," said Adelaide to Sophie as +they stood in the dim twilight of the Northern midnight, exchanging +their last formal salutations. "To-night peace; to-morrow war." +</p> + +<p> +"But why not war now?" whispered Sophie. "Look! what a chance! Shall +we ever have another like it? À la guerre; comme à la guerre!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," whispered Adelaide in reply. "Ah, sacré! Look there!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, Chrysie left Lady Olive's side, went to Hardress, and +slipped her arm through his, and looked up at him with an expression +that there was no mistaking. +</p> + +<p> +Then Adelaide de Condé's long pent-up passion broke loose, and the hot +blood of hate began to sing in her head and burn in her eyes. +Everything, so far, had failed. She had made herself a criminal, and +had been punished by a silent, but humiliating, pardon. She had +disgraced herself in the eyes of the man she would have sold her soul +to get, and now—well, what did it matter? To-morrow—nay, within six +hours, it would be war to the death, Why not begin now, as Sophie had +whispered? +</p> + +<p> +For the moment she was mad, or she would not have done what she did. +But she was mad—mad with failure, hopeless love, and the hatred which +only the "woman scorned" can feel. She pulled Chrysie's revolver out +of her pocket, and snarled between her teeth: +</p> + +<p> +"You have got him, but you shall not keep him!" +</p> + +<p> +The revolver went up at the same moment, and she pulled the trigger. +Three shots cracked in quick succession. Hardress went down with a +broken thigh; Chrysie, in the act of drawing her own revolver, +received a bullet in her arm, which was intended for her heart; and +the third one went through the hood of her cloak, just touching the +skin above the ear. +</p> + +<p> +She tried to get out the revolver with her left hand; but, before she +could do so, Sophie and Fargeau had opened fire, and at Sophie's first +shot, she clasped her hand to her side, and went down beside Hardress. +Lord Orrel had a bit of his left ear snipped off, and the president +got a flesh wound just below the left shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +The two admirals, who had already taken their seats in the car, with +Madame de Bourbon and the Russian professor, sprang to their feet; +but, before they could leave the car, a strange and awful thing +happened. A blinding glare of light shone out from the southern tower, +where Doctor Lamson had been watching the departure through his +night-glasses. The thin ray wavered about until it fell on Sophie +Valdemar and Adelaide de Condé, still standing close together, with +Victor Fargeau just in front of them. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment their faces showed white and ghastly in the blazing +radiance; and then, to the amazement and horror of those who saw the +strangest sight that human eye had ever gazed upon, down the ray of +light, invisible, but all-destroying, flowed the terrible energy of +the disintegrator on the top of the tower. Their hair crinkled up and +disappeared, the flesh melted from their faces and hands. For an +instant, two of the most beautiful countenances in Europe were +transformed into living skulls, which grinned out in unspeakable +hideousness. Then their clothing shrivelled up into tinder, and all +three dropped together in an indistinguishable heap of crumbling +bones. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXX +</p> + + +<p> +Almost at the moment that the man and the two women who, but a few +moments ago, had been standing in the full pride of their youth and +health and beauty, had dropped to the earth in little heaps of +crumbling bones, whistles sounded inside the works, and a number of +men came out of the western gate, some of them armed with rifles and +revolvers, and others carrying stretchers. Hardress and Chrysie were +lifted on to two of these, and Lady Olive went back into the works +with them. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Orrel and the president, after having their wounds hastily +bandaged for the time being, went to the door of the saloon carriage, +and Lord Orrel said, shortly and sternly: +</p> + +<p> +"Madame de Bourbon, as you have seen, your niece has ceased to exist. +Count Valdemar, the same is true of your daughter. And as for you, +gentlemen," he went on, turning to the two admirals, "you have seen +something of those means of defence of which I spoke to you after +dinner. +</p> + +<p> +"There," he went on, pointing to the little heap of mingled bones +lying on the sand, "is the proof of it. Every human thing that tries +to pass the limits of those rays will share the same fate. These +people were enemies, but they were worse—they were traitors; and, as +you have seen, they wished to be murderers. They have justly earned +their fate. There is no reason why you should share it. Take my +advice, I pray you, advice which I give from the bottom of my heart. +Weigh anchor to-night, go back to Europe, and you will find that +everything that we have told you is true." +</p> + +<p> +"That, my Lord Orrel, is impossible," said Admiral Nazanoff, coming to +the door of the car. "By what devilish means you have slain Captain +Fargeau and those two ladies we know not, save that it must have been +done through some material mechanism. To-morrow our guns shall try +conclusions with it, whatever it is. Yes, even though you turned that +murderous ray on us and killed us, as you did them, for our men have +their orders. And now, I suppose, we had better get out and walk. We +can hardly expect the use of your train after what has happened." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't worry about that, admiral," said the president; "we've +promised you safe conduct to your ships, and you shall have it. But +look here, count," he went on, pulling a heavy six-shooter out of his +pocket, "don't you get fingering about that pocket as if you had a gun +in it, or it'll be the last shooting-iron you ever did touch. We don't +want any more shooting than we've had till we begin business in the +morning." +</p> + +<p> +Count Valdemar saw that he was covered, and he didn't like the look of +the hard, steady, grey eyes behind the barrel of the long repeating +pistol. He took his hand empty out of his pocket, clasped it with the +left over his knees, and shrugged his shoulders. There was nothing to +be said, and so he kept something of his dignity by holding his +tongue, and the president went on: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that's better. You keep your hands where they are, and no harm +will happen to you just now. But don't you think, gentlemen, that it +would be better if Madame de Bourbon came back with us into the works, +where she will be safe, anyhow safer than she would be on one of your +ships, if you are still determined to fight it out." +</p> + +<p> +"I am much obliged to you, Monsieur le President," replied the old +lady, in her most autocratic manner; "but after what has happened, and +what I have seen, I prefer to return with my own people." +</p> + +<p> +"And," added Admiral Dumont, "you may be quite certain, monsieur, that +before this most regrettable battle begins at six o'clock, one of the +ships will have taken Madame de Bourbon beyond the reach of harm." +</p> + +<p> +"With that, of course, we must be content," said Lord Orrel, coming +back to the president's side. "And now, gentlemen, since, as you say, +it is to be war between us, I have one more favour to ask: Here is the +man," he went on, pointing to the second engineer of the +<i>Nadine</i>, who had been brought out of the gate by a couple of +stalwart quartermasters, "here is the man who allowed himself to be +bribed by the late Countess Sophie Valdemar and the Marquise de +Montpensier to wreck the engines of the <i>Nadine</i>, and so, as they +thought, turn the course of fate in their favour. We have not punished +him, but we have no further use for his services. He is a good +engineer, whatever else he may be, and so perhaps you will be able to +find him some employment on board one of your ships. Now, Robertson +and Thompson, help Mr Williams into the car, please. These gentlemen +want to get down to the harbour." +</p> + +<p> +The two quartermasters picked up the handcuffed Williams, and flung +him in through the open door of the saloon. Then the president said to +the man at the engine, "Right away, driver, and come back when these +gentlemen are safe on board. Salud, Señores," he went on to the two +admirals, raising his hat with his unwounded arm. "Take my +advice—clear out, and don't let us have any shooting in the morning. +I reckon we've had quite trouble enough already." +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the driver of the electric motor sounded his bell, the +two admirals and the count raised their hats and stared out through +the window with grim, immovable faces, and so went back to the ships, +marvelling greatly at the wonderful horror they had beheld. Madame de +Bourbon was already in hysterics, succoured by Ma'm'selle Felice. +Count Valdemar, though stricken to the heart by the frightful fate of +the only human being that he had loved since his wife had died nearly +twenty years before, was yet determined to use all his influence to +compel the admirals to take the amplest possible revenge for her +slaying. Certainly if the works were not battered into ruins within +twelve hours, it would not be his fault; and then, as the little train +drew out, he fell to wondering whether Hardress and Chrysie Vandel +were killed or not. +</p> + +<p> +"And are you still decided to fight, gentlemen?" he said to the +admirals a few moments later, when the car was rattling over the +narrow rails, "and, if so, what are you going to do with this thing?" +He touched Mr Williams's still prostrate body with his toe as he said +this. +</p> + +<p> +"I need not tell you, count," replied Admiral Nazanoff, "as a Russian +to a Russian, that orders are orders, and mine are to take those works +or destroy them. I admit that what we saw to-night was very wonderful +and very terrible, but when Holy Russia says 'Go and do,' then we must +go and do, or die. The Little Father has no forgiveness for failure. +That, in Russia, is the one unpardonable fault. Our guns will open at +six in the morning. That man will take his chance with the rest of our +men." +</p> + +<p> +"And," said Admiral Dumont, "even if we cannot take the works and use +them, we may destroy them, and so rid the world of this detestable +commercial tyranny which would make war a matter of poll-tax. We shall +open fire at six. Ah, here we are at the wharf. Now let us go and see +that everything is ready. Admiral Nazanoff, I believe you are my +senior in service; it will therefore be yours to fire the first shot. +The <i>Caiman</i> shall fire the second." +</p> + +<p> +"And I shall ask you, admiral," said the count to Nazanoff, "as a +personal favour, and also, as I will say frankly, a matter of personal +vengeance, to be allowed to fire that first gun." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear count," replied the admiral, "with the greatest pleasure. It +shall be laid by the best gunner on board the <i>Ivan</i>, and your +hand shall send the shot, I hope, into the vitals of these accursed +works. If we could only manage to drop a hundred-pound melinite shell +into the right place, it would do a great deal." +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</p> + + +<p> +Until five o'clock there was silence both in the works and on the +ships in the harbour. Then, as the southern sun began to climb on its +upward curve, the eight searchlights on the towers blazed out, looking +ghostly white in the twilight. They were arranged so that they formed +two intersecting triangles on each face of the works. +</p> + +<p> +From the top of the western gate flamed a huge star. It was a +ten-million-candle-power light, and its radiance, cast directly upon +the harbour, was so intense that while the ships were flooded with +light, the dim, watery rays of the sun made twilight in comparison +with it. +</p> + +<p> +"That is well managed," said Admiral Nazanoff to the count as they +were taking their early coffee on the bridge of the ice-breaker. "I +suppose that devil-ray, or whatever they call it, is running along +those lights, and so making a barrier that no living thing can pass +without destruction. It is an amazing invention, whatever it is; but +it is murder, not war. Still, if it comes to an assault, we must rush +it. Meanwhile it is to be hoped that our guns will have destroyed +their infernal apparatus. +</p> + +<p> +"You see, we have six ships here in line abreast, and twelve guns, +each throwing a melinite shell of not less than a hundred pounds, are +trained on the face of the building. When your excellency has fired +the first shot they will open, and, at the same time, fifty smaller +quick-firers will sweep the walls in such a fashion that no living +thing will exist for a moment, either on top of them or in front. In +fact, once let us destroy the apparatus which generates that horrible +devil-ray, I can give it no other name, and the works are ours." +</p> + +<p> +"But the shooting will not be all on our side, admiral, I fear," said +the count. "That is a very terrible little gun that they have on the +<i>Nadine</i>. It was only a twelve-pounder, but a couple of shots +sent the <i>Vlodoya</i> to the bottom, and this man Vandel—if the +light had been better he would not have been living now—told me +himself that they had guns ten times as powerful on the works." +</p> + +<p> +"Most probably a little Yankee bluff, my dear count," said the +admiral. "I dislike those searchlights much more than I fear the guns. +You see, it is almost impossible to take an accurate aim against a +searchlight, while it is perfectly easy to shoot from behind or below +them. Still, all our guns are fortunately laid already. Yours, which +is the starboard one down yonder, is trained on the gate in the +centre. The shell will pierce that, and if it strikes the engine-house +or whatever it is in the middle of the square it will probably disable +the works. That, I believe, is the heart and centre of the whole +system." +</p> + +<p> +"It is very probable," said the count, who had already described what +he had seen of the works to the admiral, "and I hope my shot will find +it, for then my poor Sophie will be partly, at least, avenged. It was +a terrible end for two such beautiful women, was it not, admiral? +Fargeau did not matter so much; for, after all, he was only a +half-turned traitor and spy." +</p> + +<p> +"It was the most awful sight I have ever beheld," replied the admiral; +"indeed I cannot think that human eyes could look upon anything more +horrible. But by mid-day I hope our guns will have avenged them as +completely as good shot and shell can do. And now, excellency, with +your permission we must have our last council of war; I must see my +captains and arrange the last details with Admiral Dumont, as it is +getting near six. I took the trouble of setting my watch by the clock +in the reception-room." +</p> + +<p> +"And mine," said the count, taking out his repeater, "has been going +with it for days. When this chimes six we may begin." +</p> + +<p> +Within a few minutes the two admirals and the captains of the +different vessels went, by appointment, to the cabin of the +<i>Ivan</i>, and the last details were arranged. As the clock struck +six every available gun was to open on the western face of the works, +and the fire of the heaviest guns was to be concentrated on the towers +and the central gate until the searchlights were extinguished and the +deadly rays rendered impotent. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile boats and steam-pinnaces were to be ready to land the +sailors and marines with their machine-guns, and as soon as there was +reason to believe that the rays were no longer operative, a general +advance in force was to be made on the western gate. No quarter was to +be given; no prisoners taken. Victor Fargeau had left his father's +legacy and all necessary directions for operating the works with +Admiral Dumont, and so there would be no necessity for any assistance +from the prisoners, and therefore no need to take any. +</p> + +<p> +At five minutes to six Count Valdemar and Admiral Nazanoff went down +on to the fore-deck. At the same moment that they were making their +last examination of the guns, a thin ray of electric light shone out +from the top of a little rocky promontory to the north of the harbour, +where there was a little white tower which the invaders had taken for +a harmless and necessary lighthouse. The ray fell directly on the +fore-deck of the <i>Ivan</i>. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah," said the admiral, stepping back under the protection of the top +works, "take care, your excellency, that is only about a hundred +metres off, and they may have one of those infernal rays there." +</p> + +<p> +"It is six o'clock," said the count, taking his watch in his left hand +and the lanyard of the gun in his right. The beam of ghostly light +wavered and fell on him as he stepped back to pull. The next instant +the flesh of his uplifted hand melted away from the bones, the lanyard +fell away. With a cry of agony he dropped his hand, and then the +terrible ray fell on his face. The horror-stricken officers and men +saw it change from a face to a skull, watched his fur cap shrivel up +and vanish, the hair and flesh on his scalp disappear. Then he +dropped, and the bare skull struck the steel deck with a queer sharp +click. +</p> + +<p> +A sudden paralysis of horror fell upon officers and men alike, until +the admiral roared out an order to turn the port gun on to the +lighthouse. He was obeyed, and the gun was fired hurriedly; the shell +struck the rock just below the lighthouse and exploded with a terrific +report, but the living rock held good, and the deadly ray shone on. +The gunner who had fired it was blasted to a skeleton in a moment, and +the rest of the officers and men ran for shelter like so many +frightened hares. They were ready to face any ordinary danger, but +this was too awful for mortal courage. +</p> + +<p> +Then the ray wandered over the fore-decks and bridges of the other +ships till it reached the <i>Caiman</i>, on the bridge of which +Admiral Dumont was standing, a horrified spectator of what had +happened on the <i>Ivan</i>. He had a pistol in his hand; a shot was +to be the signal for the French vessels to open fire. The ray fell on +his hand as he raised it to fire, the hand shrivelled to bone before +he could pull the trigger. But the gunners had seen the signal, and +the guns roared out. Over fifty guns of all calibres roared and +crackled for a minute or so, and a brief hurricane of shell swept +across the stony plain between the harbour and the works. +</p> + +<p> +Then it stopped. Every gun was silent, for not a man dared go near it. +Every officer and man who had shown himself in the open had been +reduced to a heap of bones before he could get back under shelter. +Then those who were out of reach of the terrible death-rays saw six +long guns rise from the masked batteries beside the two towers and +over the central gate. There was no flash or report, but the next +moment six hundred-pound shells, charged with Vandelite, had struck +the French and Russian vessels, and, as a fighting force, the +expeditions had practically ceased to exist. +</p> + +<p> +Every ship was hit either in her hull or her top works. The steel +structures crumpled up and collapsed under the terrible energy of the +explosion. The steel-walled casemates were cracked and ripped open as +though they had been built of common deal, and every man on deck +within twenty yards of the explosion dropped dead or insensible. Both +admirals were killed almost at the same moment. +</p> + +<p> +The guns sank back and rose again, and again the explosions crashed +out on board the doomed ships. The death-ray played continuously over +their decks and every man who showed himself fell dead with the flesh +withered from his face and skull. The terrible bombardment lasted for +about a quarter of an hour, and then when only the <i>Caiman</i> and +<i>Ivan</i> were left afloat, and the crews of the other vessels had +either gone down with them or had swum or scrambled ashore in the +boats, the guns ceased, and the rays were shut off. +</p> + +<p> +This ended the fight, if, indeed, fight it could be called. Several of +the shells had struck the walls and blown out large portions of the +facings, but no vital spot had been touched, thanks to the difficulty +of taking aim in the blinding glare of the searchlights. The little +lighthouse on the north point, which had proved such a veritable tower +of strength, was still unharmed, although the rocks about it were +splintered and pulverised by shell-fire. +</p> + +<p> +Only about a dozen petty officers and a couple of hundred sailors and +stokers escaped, and most of them were half-mad with fear. They were +ordered back on board the <i>Ivan</i>, which, thanks to her enormously +strong construction, had stood the terrible bombardment better than +the <i>Caiman</i>. Her topworks were smashed out of all shape, and her +decks were ripped and rent in all directions, but her hull was still +sound, and a few days' work at her engines would make them +serviceable. And in her the survivors of the ill-fated expedition +ultimately went back to Europe with a formal message from the +directors of the Trust to the governments of France and Russia, +expressing their regret that so much damage and loss of life had +resulted from the act of piracy committed by those who had mistaken +the Magnetic for the North Pole. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Corneille</i>, the old wooden ship which had conveyed Madame de +Bourbon out of the range of the guns and the death-ray, was brought +back the next morning by the <i>Nadine</i> and the <i>Washington</i>, +whose business it had been to stop the escape of any French or Russian +vessel from the waters of Boothia, and as she was immediately +available for the service, she carried Madame de Bourbon back to +France. With her she took a small box of oak, which contained all that +the death-ray had left of Adelaide de Condé, Marquise de Montpensier, +the last, save herself, of the daughters of the old line of the +Bourbons. +</p> + +<p> +A similar casket containing the bones of Sophie Valdemar and her +father were sent under her care to the count's brother, whose place in +Petersburg was less than a hundred yards distant from the German +Embassy, the scene of the reception where what was now but dry bones, +dust, and ashes, had been life and beauty and subtly working brains, +plotting for the possession of the world-empire, whose throne was not +now in any of the splendid capitals of Europe, or of the east, or +west, but within the four-square limits—measuring four hundred feet +each way—within which the World Masters reigned impregnable and +supreme. +</p> + + + + +<p class="chapter"> +EPILOGUE +</p> + + +<p> +The short Northern summer was drawing rapidly to its close when +Chrysie and Hardress were pronounced fit to travel. Hardress had had a +very narrow shave, for one of the count's bullets had grazed the right +lung, and the wound had brought on an acute attack of pleural +inflammation. +</p> + +<p> +Chrysie's wounds had healed within a fortnight, and as soon as she was +able to get about she did her best to supplant Lady Olive as nurse in +the sickroom. +</p> + +<p> +"You may be his sister," she said, in answer to a strong protest from +Lady Olive, "and you're just as good a sister as a man wants to have; +but I hope I'm going to be something more than a sister; and so, if +he's going to be mine and I'm going to be his, I want to do the rest. +After all, you see it's only a sort of looking after one's own +property." +</p> + +<p> +Just at this moment Hardress woke up and turned a languid head and a +pair of weary and yet eager eyes upon the two girls. +</p> + +<p> +"Chrysie," he said, in a thick, hoarse whisper, and yet through +smiling lips, "in the speech of your own country, you've got it in +once. There's just one thing I want now to make me well. You know what +it is. Come and give it me." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, you mean thing!" said Chrysie, going towards the bed, "I believe +you've heard everything we've been saying." +</p> + +<p> +"Some of it," he whispered. "What about that reserve—that territory, +you know, that I was supposed to have an option on in Buffalo?" +</p> + +<p> +"Buffalo's not Boothia, Shafto," she replied, using his Christian name +for the first time since they had known each other; "but the reserve's +all right. I guess you've only got to take up your option when you +want it." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I'll take it now," he whispered again, looking weariedly and yet +with an infinite longing into her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"And so you shall," she said, leaning down over the bed. "You have +done the work—you and Lord Orrel and poppa. You've done everything +that you said you would; you're masters of the world, and, as far as +mortals can be, controllers of human destiny—you and Doctor Lamson. +He began it, didn't he? If it hadn't been for him and his knowledge +you'd have done nothing at all. And he's got his reward too. That's +so; isn't it, Olive? Yes; you can tell the story afterwards, but you +and I are going to marry two of the world masters, and we're each of +us going to have a world master for father, and—well, I guess that's +about all there is in it. And now I'm going to seal the contract." +</p> + +<p> +She bent her head and kissed Hardress's pale but still smiling lips, +and just at that moment there was a knock at the door. Lady Olive +almost involuntarily said, "Come in," and Doctor Lamson, who had, next +to Emil Fargeau, been the working genius of the whole vast scheme +which the dead savant had worked out in his laboratory at Strassburg, +came in. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Chrysie, flushing and bright-eyed, straightened herself up, +looking most innocently guilty. Doctor Lamson looked at her for a +moment and then at Lady Olive. His own clear, deep-set grey eyes lit +up with a flash, and his clean-cut lips curved into a smile, as he +said: +</p> + +<p> +"I hope I'm not intruding, as a much more distinguished person than +myself once said; but, as Hardress is so much better, having +apparently found a most potent, though unqualified, physician, I +thought you would like to hear the latest news from Europe. The Powers +have surrendered at discretion. As they can't fight, they are willing +to make peace. They have accepted King Edward as arbitrator, and he, +like the good sportsman that he is, has decided that in future, if a +country wants to fight another, it shall submit the <i>casus belli</i> +to a committee of the Powers not concerned in the quarrel. If they are +all concerned in it, the tribunal is to consist of the Pope, the +Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archimandrite of the Greek Church. +If either of the belligerents refuse arbitration after the dispute has +been thoroughly gone through, or begins fighting before the decision +is delivered, it will have the same experiences as Europe had in the +late war—which, of course, was no war." +</p> + +<p> +"Because we stopped it," said Lady Olive, looking straight across the +room into Doctor Lamson's eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, yes, <i>we</i>," said Chrysie, standing up beside the bed. "I +reckon, all things considered, we four have had about as much to do +with stopping this war and teaching the nations to behave decently as +anybody else on earth. We are here on the throne of the world, kings +and queens from pole to pole!" +</p> + +<p> +"But, my dear Chrysie," exclaimed Lady Olive, flushing from her +shapely chin to her temples, and making a move towards the door, +"surely you don't mean——" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't mean any more than we all mean in our hearts," interrupted +Chrysie, taking Hardress's hand in hers. "What's the use of world +masters and world mistresses trying to hide things from each other? We +four people here in this room run the world. I want to run this man, +and you want to run that one; and they, of course, think they'll run +us, which they won't! Anyhow, we're all willing to try that, and I +think the best thing we can do is to sign, seal, and deliver the +contract of the offensive and defensive alliance right here and now. +You kiss, and we'll kiss, and that's all there is to it." +</p> + +<p> +And they kissed. +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctr"> + <i>The Riverside Press Limited<br> + Edinburgh</i> +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="left"> +A Catalogue<br> + +of the Books<br> + +Published by<br> + +Mr. John Long +</p> + +<p class="ctr"><img src="images/ad1.jpg" alt="Publisher's logo" +width="232" height="340"></p> + +<p class="indent"> +13 & 14 Norris Street +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<small>(Late of 6 Chandos Street, Strand)</small> +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +March, 1903 +</p> + +<p class="leftsmall"> +<small>Telegrams and Cables "Longing, London"</small> +</p> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<table summary="Heading" cellpadding="4"> +<tr> +<td class="centerbox">New and Forthcoming Books<br> + pages 2 to 8.</td> +<td width="40%"> </td> +<td><i>March, 1903</i></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="ctr"> +MR. JOHN LONG'S +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<big>NEW AND FORTHCOMING BOOKS</big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +For the SPRING and SUMMER 1903 +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<span class="sc">New Novels by the Best Authors</span> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, price <b>6s.</b> each +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +FUGITIVE ANNE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Campbell Praed</span>, Author of "Nadine," "Dwellers by the +River," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +AN OUTSIDER'S YEAR +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>, Author of "The House on the Marsh," +"Something in the City," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +CRIMSON LILIES +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">May Crommelin</span>, Author of "A Daughter of England," "A +Woman-Derelict," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE WORLD MASTERS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">George Griffith</span>, Author of the "Angel of the Revolution," +"Brothers of the Chain," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE SHUTTERS OF SILENCE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By G. B. <span class="sc">Burgin</span>, Author of "The Way Out," "A Wilful Woman," +etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +BY THAMES AND TIBER +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Avlmer Gowing</span>, Author of "As Cæsar's Wife," "A Touch +of the Sun," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE ARCADIANS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By J. S. <span class="sc">Fletcher</span>, Author of "When Charles the First was +King," "The Three Days' Terror," etc. With Eight Full Page +Illustrations on Art Paper, by G. P. <span class="sc">Rhodes</span>. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +AN UNWISE VIRGIN +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Coulson Kernahan</span>, Author of "Trewinnot of Guy's," "No +Vindication," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE PARISH DOCTOR +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Alec Cook</span>. +<br> +Vivid impressions of life in a contemporary suburban parish. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +BENEATH THE VEIL +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Adeline Sergeant</span>, Author of "The Story of a Penitent +Soul," "The Future of Phyllis," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE CAR OF PHŒBUS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Robert James Lees</span>, Author of "Through the Mists," "The +Heretic," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE LAST FORAY +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By R. H. <span class="sc">Forster</span>. (A Thrilling Tale of the Border Raiders of +the Sixteenth Century.) +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE MACHINATIONS OF JANET +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Sarah Tytler</span>, Author of "Citoyenne Jacqueline," "The +Courtship of Sarah," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THRALDOM +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Helen Prothero-Lewis</span> (Mrs. James J. G. Pugh), Author of +"Hooks of Steel," "Her Heart's Desire," "A Lady of My Own," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE JADE EYE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>, Author of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," "The +Silent House in Pimlico," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +REMEMBRANCE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Lovett Cameron</span>, Author of "Midsummer Madness," "A +Woman's 'No,'" etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +SWEET "DOLL" OF HADDON HALL +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By J. E. <span class="sc">Muddock</span>, Author of "Fair Rosalind," "A Woman's +Checkmate," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +HIS MASTER PURPOSE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Harold Bindloss</span>, Author of "Ainslie's Ju-ju," "The +Concession Hunters," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +A WOMAN IN THE CITY +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Helen Bayliss</span>. +<br> +An original novel of pathos and power by a new writer. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +IN THE DAYS OF GOLDSMITH +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By M. <span class="sc">McD. Bodkin</span>, K.C., Author of "Lord Edward Fitz-Gerald," +"White Magic," "Paul Beck," "A Stolen Life," "The Rebels," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE INDISCRETION OF GLADYS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve</span>, Author of "His Italian Wife," "Plato's +Handmaiden," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE MAGNETIC GIRL +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Richard Marsh</span>, Author of "The Beetle," "The Twickenham +Peerage," etc. +<br> +This is one long novel and the most important and amusing the author +has written since the publication of his famous book, "The Beetle." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE TRUST TRAPPERS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Hume Nisbet</span>, Author of "Bail Up," "Mistletoe Manor," etc. +With Frontispiece and Vignette Title page by the Author. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE BURDEN OF HER YOUTH +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. L. T. Meade</span>, Author of "Confessions of a Court +Milliner," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE BÂTON SINISTER +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">George Gilbert</span>, Author of "In the Shadow of the Purple." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE OTHER MRS. JACOBS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Campbell Praed</span>, Author of "Nadine," "Dwellers by the +River," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +No. 3, THE SQUARE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>, Author of "The House on the Marsh," "The +Lovely Mrs. Pemberton," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +PARTNERS THREE +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">May Crommelin</span>, Author of "A Daughter of England," "A +Woman-Derelict," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +ALL THE WINNERS +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">Nathaniel Gubbins</span>, Author of "Pick-Me-Ups," "Dead +Certainties," etc. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +UP TO-MORROW +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By W. <span class="sc">Carter Platts</span>, Author of "Papa Limited," etc. With +about 60 Illustrations by the Author. [A Book of Humour.] +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>Long's New Sixpenny Library</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +OF COPYRIGHT NOVELS +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +By the most Popular Writers of the Day +</p> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>NEW VOLUMES. 1903</i> +</p> + +<table summary="Title and author"> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">The Sin of Hagar.</td> +<td><span class="sc">Helen Mathers.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">The Lovely Mrs. Pemberton.</td> +<td><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">An Ill Wind.</td> +<td>Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">Woman—The Sphinx.</td> +<td><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">A Beautiful Rebel.</td> +<td><span class="sc">Ernest Glanville.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="wide">The Juggler and the Soul.</td> +<td><span class="sc">Helen Mathers.</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="ctr"> +FOR COMPLETE LIST OF THE SERIES, SEE PAGES 27 & 28. +</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p class="ctr"> +GENERAL LITERATURE +</p> + +<p> +SIDELIGHTS ON CONVICT LIFE. +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By <span class="sc">George Griffith</span>, Author of "In an Unknown Prison Land," +etc. With Numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, <b>6s.</b> +</p> + + +<p> +HOW TO TAKE CARE OF A CONSUMPTIVE. +</p> + +<p class="indenthang"> +By Mrs. <span class="sc">M. Forrest Williams</span>, Fcap. 8vo, paper cover, 1s. net. +</p> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<table summary="Heading"> +<tr> +<td class="center"><span class="sc">Under Official<br> +Sanction</span></td> + +<td class="center"><img src="images/ad2.jpg" alt="Image of a crown" width="87" height="150"></td> + +<td class="center">[<span class="sc">Now Ready</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="hang"> +<i>Printed on Hand-made Paper, with Twenty Plates in Photogravure, +limited to 300 Copies. Royal 4to. Price £3 3s. net.</i> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Also a Special Edition, Imperial 4to, on Japanese Vellum, limited to +50 Copies, the Plates on India Paper, one Hand-Coloured, with a +Duplicate Set of Plates in handsome Portfolio for framing. Each Copy +Numbered and signed by the Author. Price £10 10s. net. +</p> + +<p class="ctrspace"> +<big>THE KING'S RACE-HORSES</big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +A HISTORY OF THE CONNECTION OF HIS MAJESTY KING EDWARD VII. WITH THE +NATIONAL SPORT +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +By EDWARD SPENCER +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<span class="sc">With Additional Notes by Lord Marcus Beresford.</span> +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Times.</b>—"No more appropriate time could have been + selected for the publication of a book such as this, which relates + with much wealth of detail and in a very spirited style the + history of the King's connection with the Turf. Mr. Spencer is + fully justified in his claim that this volume will be 'a record + for all time of the important part which His Majesty has taken in + racing affairs'. The volume has been most sumptuously got up, + being illustrated with 20 plates in photogravure from photographs + by Mr. Clarence Hailey, of Newmarket, who has the sole right of + photographing the King's horses—these plates, with a special one + of His Majesty as a frontispiece, presenting the King's principal + racehorses, his two trainers (first John Porter and subsequently + Richard Marsh), and his jockeys. Yet all the money lavished upon + the exterior of this fine book would be thrown away were the + contents deficient in interest or lacking in accuracy; but the + text is by no means the least attractive part of the volume, while + the author appears to have thoroughly mastered his subject." +</p> + +<p class="hang"> + <b>The Morning Post.</b>—"This handsome and beautifully printed + volume not only includes a record of His Majesty's horses and + their performances, but it gathers up a considerable amount of + information concerning the connection of Royalty with the turf, + and the state of the sport of racing at different periods. The + text, which is equalled in interest by the pictures, which include + portraits of the King, Lord Marcus Beresford—to whom the proofs + of the text were submitted, and who has furnished additional + notes—John Porter, and Richard Marsh, whilst the most famous of + the horses are also represented. The work is luxuriously produced, + and will be highly welcome to a large number of those who are + devoted to 'the sport of Kings.'" JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris + Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<big>Mr. John Longs's List of Publications</big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>POPULAR SIX SHILLING NOVELS</i> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>In handsome cloth binding, crown 8vo.</small> +</p> + +<table summary="Titles and authors"> +<tr> +<td><b>REMEMBRANCE.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MIDSUMMER MADNESS.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A DIFFICULT MATTER.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A FAIR FRAUD.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CRAZE OF CHRISTINA.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A PASSING FANCY.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BITTER FRUIT.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>AN ILL WIND.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WOMAN'S NO.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PARTNERS THREE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>CRIMSON LILIES.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>KINSAH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BETTINA.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LUCK OF A LOWLAND LADDIE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WOMAN-DERELICT.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A DAUGHTER OF ENGLAND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">May Crommelin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE JADE EYE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE TURNPIKE HOUSE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A TRAITOR IN LONDON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE GOLDEN WANG-HO.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WOMAN—THE SPHINX.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>TREWINNOT OF GUY'S.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Coulson Kernahan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FRANK REDLAND, RECRUIT.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Coulson Kernahan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE AVENGING OF RUTHANNA.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">C. Kernahan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>NO VINDICATION.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Coulson Kernahan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>AN UNWISE VIRGIN.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Coulson Kernahan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PURSUED BY THE LAW.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. MacLaren Cobban.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>AN AFRICAN TREASURE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. MacLaren Cobban.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>I'D CROWNS RESIGN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. MacLaren Cobban.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE GREEN TURBANS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. MacLaren Cobban.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE MACHINATIONS OF JANET.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sarah Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>LOGAN'S LOYALTY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sarah Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>JEAN KEIR OF CRAIGNEIL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sarah Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WOMEN MUST WEEP.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sarah Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE COURTSHIP OF SARAH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sarah Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>No. 3, THE SQUARE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>AN OUTSIDER'S YEAR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ONCE TOO OFTEN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LOVELY MRS. PEMBERTON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>SOMETHING IN THE CITY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Florence Warden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PAUL LE MAISTRE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Frederic Carrel</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE PROGRESS OF PAULINE KESSLER.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fred. Carrel.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE REALIZATION OF JUSTUS MORAN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fred. Carrel.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>HOUSES OF IGNORANCE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Frederic Carrel.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>SENT TO COVENTRY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Esmè Stuart.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>IN THE DARK.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Esmè Stuart.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE STRENGTH OF STRAW.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Esmè Stuart.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>NOBLER THAN REVENGE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Esmè Stuart.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>NATIVE BORN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">William S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>VIRGIN GOLD.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">William S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Sixteen Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>IN THE BLOOD.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">William S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Sixteen Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>ZEALANDIA'S GUERDON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">William S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A CABINET SECRET (5/-).(<i>Illustrated.</i>)</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Guy Boothby.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ANNA LOMBARD.</b> (27th Edition.)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Victoria Cross.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE BREAD OF TEARS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. B. Burgin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE SHUTTERS OF SILENCE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. B. Burgin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE WAY OUT.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. B. Burgin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A SON OF MAMMON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. B. Burgin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WILFUL WOMAN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. B. Burgin.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE ARCADIANS.</b> (<i>Illustrated.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher.</span> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE HARVESTERS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE THREE DAYS' TERROR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE GOLDEN SPUR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE INVESTIGATORS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE INDISCRETION OF GLADYS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE PURPLE OF THE ORIENT.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>YOLANDE THE PARISIENNE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PLATO'S HANDMAIDEN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE REAL CHRISTIAN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>HIS ITALIAN WIFE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lucas Cleeve.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WICKED ROSAMOND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Mina Sandeman.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>CHARMING MISS KYRLE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Mina Sandeman.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>VERONICA VERDANT.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Mina Sandeman.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FUGITIVE ANNE.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Campbell Praed</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>DWELLERS BY THE RIVER.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Campbell Praed</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE OTHER MRS. JACOBS.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Campbell Praed</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>In Preparation.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE ANGEL OF CHANCE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. G. Chatterton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>STRAIGHT SHOES.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. G. Chatterton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE COURT OF DESTINY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. G. Chatterton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE ROYAL SISTERS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Frank Mathew.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>IRISH HOLIDAYS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert Thynne.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE STORY OF A CAMPAIGN ESTATE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert Thynne.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BOFFIN'S FIND.</b> (<i>Frontispiece.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert Thynne.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CURSE OF EDEN.</b></td> +<td class="right">Author of "The Master Sinner."</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BARBARA WEST.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Keighley Snowden.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE PARISH DOCTOR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Alec Cook.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE DIVA.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Annie Thomas</span> (Mrs. <span class="sc">Pender Cudlip</span>).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>IN THE SHADOW OF THE PURPLE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">George Gilbert.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE BÂTON SINISTER.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">George Gilbert.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE MILL OF SILENCE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Bernard Capes.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BY THAMES AND TIBER.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Aylmer Gowing</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>AS CÆSAR'S WIFE.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Aylmer Gowing</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A BEAUTIFUL REBEL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Ernest Glanville.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE DIAMOND OF EVIL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fred Whishaw.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE MAGNETIC GIRL.</b> (<i>A Long Novel.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Richard Marsh.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>CURIOS.</b> (<i>Eight Illustrations.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Richard Marsh.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ADA VERNHAM, ACTRESS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Richard Marsh.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Frontispiece.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>BENEATH THE VEIL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Adeline Sergeant.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE FUTURE OF PHYLLIS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Adeline Sergeant.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE MISSION OF MARGARET.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Adeline Sergeant.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>SWEET "DOLL" OF HADDON HALL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. E. Muddock.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WOMAN'S CHECKMATE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. E. Muddock.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FAIR ROSALIND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. E. Muddock.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A SOCIAL PRETENDER.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Winifred Graham.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MEN OF MARLOWE'S.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Henry Dudeney</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ALL THEY WENT THROUGH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">F. W. Robinson.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE SHADOW OF ALLAH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Morley Roberts.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LORDS OF LIFE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Bessie Dill.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MISS PAUNCEFORT'S PERIL.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Charles Martin</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MALICE OF GRACE WENTWORTH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">R. H. Heppenstall.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FRIENDSHIP AND FOLLY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Maria Louise Pool.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>GLIMPSES FROM WONDERLAND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">John Ingold.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Five Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>BLUE BONNETS UP.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Thomas Pinkerton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE IVORY BRIDE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Thomas Pinkerton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FATHER ANTHONY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert Buchanan.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE SCARLET SEAL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Dick Donovan.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE WORLD MASTERS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">George Griffith.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE STORY OF LOIS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WARD OF THE KING.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Katharine S. Macquoid.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>HIS MASTER PURPOSE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Harold Bindloss.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>A WOMAN IN THE CITY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Helen Bayliss.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CAR OF PHŒBUS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert James Lees.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE HERETIC.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert James Lees.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THROUGH THE MISTS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert James Lees.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>IN THE DAYS OF GOLDSMITH.</b></td> +<td class="right">M. <span class="sc">McD. Bodkin</span>, K.C.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>CICELY VAUGHAN.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Philip Davenant.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WISE IN HIS GENERATION.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Philip Davenant.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FOR A GOD DISHONOURED.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Anonymous.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MERCILESS LOVE.</b></td> +<td class="right">Author of "For a God Dishonoured."</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE GIRL WITH FEET OF CLAY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Edgar Turner.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Frontispiece.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>THE EXPERIMENT OF DR. NEVILL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">E. H. Beaman.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PAUL THE OPTIMIST.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. P. Dothie.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>HIS 'PRENTICE HAND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sydney Phelps.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CROWNING OF GLORIA.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Richard Reardon.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE HOUSE OF HARDALE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Rose Perkins.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE TRUST TRAPPERS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Hume Nisbet.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>MISTLETOE MANOR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Hume Nisbet.</span> (<i>Illustrated by Author.</i>)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE BURDEN OF HER YOUTH.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">L. T. Meade.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>CONFESSIONS OF A COURT MILLINER.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">L. T. Meade.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>IN SUMMER SHADE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Mary E. Mann.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LAST FORAY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">R. H. Forster.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>GEORGE AND SON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Edward H. Cooper.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE FOOLING OF DON JAIME.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. Terrell Garnett.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE SIN OF HAGAR.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Helen Mathers.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THRALDOM.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Helen Prothero-Lewis.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td><b>WHEN LOVE IS KIND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">H. A. Hinkson.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WOUNDED PRIDE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Isabel Howard.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE KINGDOM OF MAMMON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Violet Tweedale.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE HOSPITAL SECRET.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">James Compton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>CASTLE ORIOL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Charles Hannan.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A WEAVER OF RUNES.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. Dutton Burrard.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LOVE OF A FORMER LIFE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">C. J. H. Halcombe.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>OSWALD STEELE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Eibbon Berkley.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A MAN OF IRON.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">J. Morgan-de-groot.</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<p class="ctr"> +Mr. John Long's List of Publications +</p> +<hr class="tiny"> +<p class="ctr"> +<big><b>Popular Three-and-Sixpenny Novels</b></big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>In handsome cloth binding, crown 8vo.</small> +</p> + +<table summary="Titles and authors"> +<tr> +<td><b>THE SILENT HOUSE IN PIMLICO.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE BISHOP'S SECRET.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CRIMSON CRYPTOGRAM.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Fergus Hume.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WHEN THE MOPOKE CALLS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Twenty-two Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FROM THE LAND OF THE WOMBAT.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">William S. Walker</span> ("Coo-ee").</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Thirteen Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MRS. MUSGRAVE AND HER HUSBAND.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Richd. Marsh.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF A CURATE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Marcus Reay.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FORBIDDEN PATHS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Marcus Reay.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE CRIME IN THE WOOD.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">T. W. Speight.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>JUGGLING FORTUNE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">T. W. Speight.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>LETTERS TO DOLLY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Keble Howard.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Eighty-two Illustrations by</i> <span class="sc">Tom Browne, R.I.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE MASTER SINNER.</b></td> +<td class="right">By a well-known Author.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE SPORT OF CIRCUMSTANCE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">G. G. Chatterton.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>FATHER ANTHONY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Robert Buchanan.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Sixteen Illustrations.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PAPA, LIMITED.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. Carter Platts.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Forty Illustrations by the Author.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>UP TO-MORROW.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">W. Carter Platts.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Seventy Illustrations by the Author.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A DIFFICULT MATTER.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>TREWINNOT OF GUY'S.</b></td> +<td class="right">Mrs. <span class="sc">Coulson Kernahan.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>TRANSPLANTED.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Nicholas P. Murphy.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Profusely Illustrated.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A CORNER IN BALLYBEG.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Nicholas P. Murphy.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>AN ISLAND INTERLUDE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">John Amity.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE DESIRED HAVEN.</b> (<i>Frontispiece.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Anonymous.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MARY BRAY, X HER MARK.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Jenner Tayler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ON PAROLE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Mina Doyle.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PATHS OF THE DEAD.</b> (<i>Frontispiece.</i>)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Hume Nisbet.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A FIGHTER IN KHAKI.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Ralph Rodd.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>INFELIX.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Lady Duntze.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>DIDUMS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Jean Macpherson.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A DREAM OF FAME.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Jean Delaire.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>BY JUMNA'S BANKS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Paul Markham.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>ALL THE WINNERS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Nathaniel Gubbins.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">[<i>Shortly.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>PICK-ME-UPS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Nathaniel Gubbins.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>DEAD CERTAINTIES.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Nathaniel Gubbins.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A MAN OF TO-DAY.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Helen Mathers.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE JUGGLER AND THE SOUL.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Helen Mathers.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>WITH BOUGHT SWORDS.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Harry Fowler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>HIS LITTLE BILL OF SALE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Ellis J. Davis.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>YOUTH AT THE PROW.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">E. Rentoul Esler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>MISS NANSE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Sara Tytler.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>SECOND LIEUTENANT CELIA.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">L. Campbell Davidson.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>THE DAME OF THE FINE GREEN KIRTLE.</b></td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Torquil MacLeod.</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<br> + +<table summary="Title and author"> +<tr> +<td><b>THE SEA OF LOVE.</b> (1/6.)</td> +<td class="right"><span class="sc">Walter Phelps Dodge.</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="ctr"> +Mr. John Long's List of Publications +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<big>GENERAL LITERATURE</big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>Dedicated by Special Permission to</small> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Field-Marshal LORD WOLSELEY, K.P., &c. +</p> + +<p class="ctrspace"> +SOCIAL LIFE IN THE BRITISH ARMY +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By Capt. <span class="sc">W. E. Cairnes</span>. Author of "An Absent-Minded War." +Crown 8vo, special cover design, 6s. With 16 full-page Illustrations +on art paper by <span class="sc">R. Caton Woodville</span>. [<i>Third Edition.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>Pall Mall Gazette.</b>—"Brightly written by the Military expert of +the <i>Westminster Gazette</i>, and neatly illustrated by Mr. Caton +Woodville; this is a most interesting and instructive volume. It is +just what was wanted now that the question of the cost of life in the +Army and the impossibility for an officer of living upon his pay has +been brought into such prominence. The question is emphatically one of +those which must not be allowed to slip away again should a long peace +follow on the present war, as questions have a way of doing. "A +British Officer" makes some very shrewd points in the matter. He +performs a useful service in clearing the ground of vulgar +exaggerations, the French and Russian myths of the British Officer's +wild luxuriousness, the agitator's "gilded popinjay" superficialities, +the duties and recreations of the officer, sketches life at Sandhurst +and the Staff College, and devotes a chapter to Tommy and to Mrs. +Tommy in the married quarters." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Army and Navy Gazette.</b>—"No volume has appeared dealing so +thoroughly and so competently with the inner life of the Army. It is +not merely descriptive, but will be welcomed by all those who +contemplate putting their sons in the Service, for they will realise +better than otherwise they might do what the conditions of military +life are." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +AUSTRALIA AT THE FRONT +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +A COLONIAL VIEW OF THE GREAT BOER WAR +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Frank Wilkinson</span> (Special Correspondent of the <i>Sydney +Daily Telegraph</i>). With Portrait, Map, and 20 Illustrations on art +paper by <span class="sc">Norman H. Hardy</span> from Sketches on the spot, and +Photos by the Author. Crown 8vo, special cover design, 6s. + [<i>Second Edition.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Times.</b>—"Mr. Wilkinson's book is uniformly interesting, and +has a direct bearing upon one of the great lessons of the war." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily Mail.</b>—"It may safely be said that no war +correspondent's work is more deserving of attention than Mr. Frank +Wilkinson's. He gives facts in a bright, humorous, unaffected way, and +some of these facts require careful study by the nation. This is +certainly a book to be read and studied. It is convincing in its +moderation and truthfulness, excellently illustrated, and furnished +with a good map." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily News.</b>—"We think we have never read a war +correspondent's story on which scrupulous honesty was more clearly +written. It is a book which deserves to be read by any student of the +war, and will certainly be welcomed by all Australians who shared in +the campaign." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Athenæum.</b>—"The book should be studied by all those who +have the condition of our Army at heart." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +ON THE WAR PATH +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +A LADY'S LETTERS FROM THE FRONT +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. J. D. Leather-Culley</span>. With 16 full-page Illustrations +on art paper from Photographs taken by the Author. Crown 8vo, special +cover design, 3s. 6d. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Globe.</b>—"We can recommend it heartily for perusal, for it +is so obviously frank, fresh, and free in its general atmosphere and +tone. It is quite delightful to read passages so full of vivacity, so +devoid of affectation, so thoroughly to the point. It is in such +informal narratives as these that we get at the 'true inwardness' of +the war and its surroundings. We could quote many an instructive and +suggestive passage. This is undoubtedly a book to be read." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Spectator.</b>—"The book generally is full of interest. It +should be read and judged as a whole. We might make a very startling +column by choosing extracts." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily Mail.</b>—"Mrs. Culley witnessed Major White's superb +defence of Ladybrand, of which feat she gives a very interesting +account. Altogether a bright little book, illustrated with some good +photographs." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Outlook.</b>—"As far as it goes the book is one of the best we +have seen." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE KING'S RACE-HORSES +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +A HISTORY OF THE CONNECTION OF HIS MAJESTY KING EDWARD VII. WITH THE +NATIONAL SPORT +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Edward Spencer</span>, Author of "The Great Game," &c. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +Printed on Hand-made Paper, with Twenty Plates in Photogravure, +limited to 300 Copies. Royal 4to. Price £3 3s. net. +</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/stars.jpg" alt="Asterism" +width="36" height="36"></div> +<p> +<i>Also a Special Edition, Imperial 4to, on Japanese Vellum, limited to +50 Copies, the Plates on India Paper, one hand Coloured, with a +Duplicate Set of Plates in handsome Portfolio for Framing. Each Copy +Numbered and signed by the Author. Price £10 10s. net.</i> +</p> + +<p> +A four-page 4to Prospectus, giving a full description of the work, +post free from the leading Booksellers and Libraries, or from the +Publisher. +</p> + +<p> +<i>See</i> page 8 of this Catalogue. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +RURAL LIFE: Its Humour and Pathos +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Caroline Gearey</span>. Crown 8vo, special cover design, 6s. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Academy.</b>—"A pleasant 'pot-pourri' of observations and +anecdotes relating to village life. Well chosen and pleasantly knit +together." <b>The Daily News.</b>—"The book is amusing." <b>The +Spectator.</b>—"A sufficiently readable book." <b>To-day.</b>—"A +pleasantly written book." <b>The Leeds Mercury.</b>—"In her very +entertaining book Miss Gearey is happy in her illustrations of village +courtship." <b>The Glasgow Herald.</b>—"The sketches are as +good-natured as they are entertaining." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE HOUSE OF COMMONS +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By the Right Hon. <span class="sc">Sir Richard Temple</span>, Bart., G.C.S.I., &c. +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. [<i>Second Edition.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily News.</b>—"We heartily congratulate Sir Richard Temple +on producing a particularly pleasing book about Parliament." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Pall Mall Gazette.</b>—"Every Parliamentarian and every +Politician will find this book of deep interest." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Athenæum.</b>—"We can strongly recommend Sir Richard Temple's +book." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Globe.</b>—"A manual whose utility is equalled only by its +brightness and general readability." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE LAST OF THE CLIMBING BOYS +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">George Elson</span>. With a Preface by the <span class="sc">Dean of +Hereford</span>. Crown 8vo, cover design, 6s. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Standard.</b>—"A singularly interesting book … the narrative +becomes remarkably interesting—the life of a sweep, such as it was in +those days, being told with a freshness and reality on a par with the +novelty and originality of the events recorded." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Guardian.</b>—"A remarkable life-sketch, which is as +interesting as it is curious. The book is very readable and amusing as +well as interesting. It is impossible to close it without a feeling of +thankfulness that one deep blot that rests upon the past has been +thoroughly wiped away." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Pall Mall Gazette.</b>—"The book, which is enormously +interesting, whether viewed as a human document or as a romance, is +the autobiography of Mr. George Elson, who began his career in the +first year of Queen Victoria's reign as a 'climbing boy.'" +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +HAPPINESS: Its Pursuit and Attainment +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Rev. W. J. Kelly</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. +[<i>Second Edition.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Tablet.</b>—"The author has combined a systematic treatment +which reflects the training of the schools with a freshness and +originality of exposition which is all his own, while the whole work +has a literary flavour which bespeaks the scholar and—in the best +sense of the term—the man of letters…. With much fervour and force +of language the author shows how in the beatific vision the desires of +those whose natural inclinations lead them to seek for riches, +honours, power, beauty of form or harmony of sound, wisdom, peace, +love, joy, will severally and collectively be satisfied. We most +cordially recommend this excellent work to the notice and the use of +clergy and laity alike." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily Express.</b>—"The work of a ripe scholar and thinker. +Dignity and restraint are marked features of a book that is eloquent +and lofty and full of freshness, suggestion and truth." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +APPEARANCES +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +HOW TO KEEP THEM UP ON A LIMITED INCOME +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Mrs. Alfred Praga</span>, Author of "Dinners of the Day," +"Starting Housekeeping," &c. Crown 8vo, cloth, 1s. + [<i>New Edition.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Queen.</b>—"Her teaching possesses a distinct value; her +counsels are distinctly counsels of perfection. 'Appearances' is both +suggestive and valuable; one welcomes the book as an attempt to prove +that a limited income does not necessarily entail slipshod +housekeeping or coarse cookery." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +DRAMATIC CRITICISM (1899) +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">J. T. Grein</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. net. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Dally Telegraph.</b>—"A series of careful, intelligent +articles, distinguished by the soundness of their criticism and the +determined but broad-minded views of the author. This volume may be +read with profit by the playwright, the critic, and the playgoer +alike." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE HISTORY OF "THE TEMPLE" +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +With Special Reference to that of the Middle Temple; also facsimiles +of the Ancient Seals. By <span class="sc">G. Pitt-Lewis, K.C.</span>, a Master of the +Bench of the Middle Temple. Crown 8vo, paper cover, 1s. 6d. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Daily Telegraph.</b>—"The subject, always an attractive one, +is handled in a fashion which is as skilful as it is interesting." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Literature.</b>—"An excellent account of one of the most +illustrious of our Inns of Court." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE BOER IN PEACE AND WAR +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +With 16 full-page Copyright Photographic Illustrations on art paper. +Crown 8vo, picture paper cover, price 1s. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Westminster Gazette.</b>—"An interesting description of the +characteristics of the Boer." +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE OPERATIC PROBLEM +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">William Johnson Galloway, M.P.</span> Fcap. 4to. 1s. net. +</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/stars.jpg" alt="Asterism" +width="36" height="36"></div> + +<p> +A short account of the systems under which Opera is +conducted on the Continent, with a scheme for the establishment of a +system of National Opera in this country. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +IN HEAVEN'S PORCH +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">Hugh Clement</span>. Long 12mo, artistic paper cover, 6d. <i>New +Edition, Revised.</i> +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Notts Guardian.</b>—"Is a visit which the writer pays in +imagination to the threshold of Paradise, and granted his theological +postulates, it is very admirably and beautifully written." +</p> + + +<p class="ctr">DELIGHTS ON CONVICT LIFE +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">George Griffith</span>, Author of "In an Unknown Prison Land," +etc. With Numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, <b>6s.</b> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +THE UNCONQUERABLE COLONY +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +SOME EPISODES OF ULSTER IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By <span class="sc">James Henry Cochrane, M.A.</span>, late Vicar of Liscard, +Liverpool, formerly Scholar Trinity College, Dublin, and Chancellor's +Prizeman in Poetry. Author of "Episodes in the War," etc. Crown 8vo, +cloth gilt, <b>3s. 6d.</b> net. +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +ETIQUETTE AND ENTERTAINING +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By Mrs. <span class="sc">L. Heaton Armstrong</span>, Author of "Etiquette for Girls," +"Good Form," "Letters to a Bride," etc. Long 12mo, rounded edges, +cloth, <b>1s.</b> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +HOW TO TAKE CARE OF A CONSUMPTIVE +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +By Mrs. <span class="sc">M. Forrest Williams</span>. Fcap. 8vo, paper cover, +<b>1s.</b> net. +</p> + +<br> +<p class="ctr"> +<big>POETRY</big> +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>THE DEMON OF THE WIND, and Other Poems.</b> By <span class="sc">G. Hunt +Jackson</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt top, <b>3s. 6d.</b> net. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Scotsman.</b>—"The book has no lack of pleasant reading. All +are picturesque, fluent and gracefully turned: and the volume ought +not to lack readers." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Manchester Guardian.</b>—"Mr. Jackson's muse is pleasant +company enough, and in her lighter vein touches a genuine chord." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Manchester Courier.</b>—"This collection of poems contains +many of unusual merit, while all are well above the average." +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +<b>NIGHTSHADE AND POPPIES: Verses of a Country Doctor.</b> By +<span class="sc">Dugald Moore</span>, M.B. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, <b>3s. 6d.</b> net. +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Newcastle Daily Chronicle.</b>—"He can swing a stirring +rhythm, and can handle even a professional subject in verse of vivid +and vigorous idea and genuinely fine feeling. Genuine powers and +remarkable range. Dr. Dugald Moore's verses have all a human pulse, +and a picturesque energy." +</p> + +<p> +<b>The Bookman.</b>—"Decidedly above the average." +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +<b>THE MESSAGE OF THE MASTERS.</b> By <span class="sc">F. Hugh O'Donnell</span>. +Crown 8vo, cloth gilt and gilt top, <b>2s. 6d.</b> net. +</p> + +<p> +"Very near to genius."—<b>Newcastle Chronicle.</b> "A striking and +melodious poem."—<b>Bookman.</b> "Poetry of a high order and a +powerful philippic in verse."—<b>New Ireland Review.</b> "We can +recommend this poem to patriots who have cut their +teeth."—<b>Outlook.</b> "Strong and musical verse. This is a book to +make one think."—<b>Leeds Mercury.</b> "Verses which Macaulay might +have been proud to have penned."—<b>Punch.</b> +</p> + + +<p class="hang"> +<b>LIFE'S LITTLE COMEDIES.</b> By <span class="sc">Hugh Bedwell</span>. Crown 8vo, +cloth gilt and gilt top, <b>3s. 6d.</b> net. +</p> + +<p class="hang"> +<b>THE BOER RIDE.</b> By <span class="sc">Frank Short</span>. Crown 8vo, paper cover, +<b>6d.</b> net. +</p> + +<p> +<b>St. Paul's.</b>—"A story of considerable and human interest." +</p> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + + +<hr class="med"> + + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG'S +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +New Sixpenny Library of Copyright Novels +</p> + + +<p> +The size of these Volumes is medium 8vo, 8¾ in. by 5¾ in. They +are set in a new clear type, double columns, and are printed on good +English-made paper. Each Volume is attractively bound in a striking +picture cover. +</p> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<i>The following are now ready</i>— +</p> + +<table summary="Titles and authors"> + +<tr> +<td><b>Father Anthony.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Robert Buchanan</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Silent House in Pimlico.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Bishop's Secret.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Crimson Cryptogram.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Traitor in London.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Difficult Matter.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Craze of Christina.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Passing Fancy.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Mystery of Dudley Horne.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Bohemian Girls.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Kitty's Engagement.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Our Widow.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Curios: Some Strange Adventures of Two Bachelors.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Richard Marsh</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Mrs. Musgrave and Her Husband.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Richard Marsh</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Eye of Istar.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">William Le Queux</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Veiled Man.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">William Le Queux</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Wooing of Monica.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">L. T. Meade</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Sin of Jasper Standish.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Rita</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Cabinet Secret.</b></td> +<td>BY <span class="sc">Guy Boothby</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Man of To-Day.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Helen Mathers</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Robert Orange.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">John Oliver Hobbes</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Progress of Pauline Kessler.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Frederic Carrel</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Bitter Fruit.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Three Days' Terror.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">J. S. Fletcher</span>.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="short"> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/hand.jpg" alt="Pointing finger" +width="55" height="30" align="middle"></div> +<p> +<i>Other Novels by the most popular Authors of the day will be added to +the Series in due course.</i> +</p> + + +<p class="ctrspace"> +<i>The following are in preparation</i>— +</p> + +<table summary="Titles and authors"> +<tr> +<td><b>The Sin of Hagar.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Helen Mathers</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Lovely Mrs. Pemberton.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Florence Warden</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>An Ill Wind.</b></td> +<td>By Mrs. <span class="sc">Lovett Cameron</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>Woman—The Sphinx.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Fergus Hume</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>A Beautiful Rebel.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Ernest Glanville</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><b>The Juggler and the Soul.</b></td> +<td>By <span class="sc">Helen Mathers</span>.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<p class="ctr"> +<b>Index to Titles of Books</b> +</p> + +<table summary="Index to titles"> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Ada Vernham,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>African Treasure, An,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>All the Winners,</td> +<td class="right">6, 19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>All They Went Through,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Angel of Chance, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Anna Lombard,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Appearances, How to Keep Them Up,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Arcadians, The,</td> +<td class="right">3, 12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>As Cæsar's Wife,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Australia at the Front,</td> +<td class="right">21</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Avenging of Ruthanna, The,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Barbara West,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bâton Sinister, The,</td> +<td class="right">6, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Beautiful Rebel, A,</td> +<td class="right">13, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Beneath the Veil,</td> +<td class="right">4, 14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bettina,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bishop's Secret, The,</td> +<td class="right">17, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bitter Fruit,</td> +<td class="right">9, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Blue Bonnets Up,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Boer in Peace and War,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Boer Ride, The,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Boffin's Find,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bohemian Girls, The,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bread of Tears, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Burden of Her Youth, The,</td> +<td class="right">6, 16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>By Jumna's Banks,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>By Thames and Tiber,</td> +<td class="right">3, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Cabinet Secret, A,</td> +<td class="right">11, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Car of Phœbus, The,</td> +<td class="right">4, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Castle Oriol,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Charming Miss Kyrle, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cicely Vaughan,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Confessions of a Court Milliner,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Consumptive, Care of a,</td> +<td class="right">7, 25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Corner in Ballybeg, A,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Court of Destiny, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Courtship of Sarah, The,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Craze of Christina, The,</td> +<td class="right">9, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Crime in the Wood, The,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Crimson Cryptogram, The,</td> +<td class="right">17, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Crimson Lilies,</td> +<td class="right">2, 9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Crowning of Gloria, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Curios,</td> +<td class="right">14, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Curse of Eden, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Dame of the Fine Green Kirtle, The,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Daughter of England, A,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dead Certainties,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Demon of the Wind, The,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Desired Haven, The,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Diamond of Evil, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Didums,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Difficult Matter, A,</td> +<td class="right">9, 18, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Diva, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dramatic Criticism,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dream of Fame, A,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dwellers by the River,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Etiquette and Entertaining,</td> +<td class="right">25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Experiment of Dr. Nevill, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Eye of Istar, The,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Father Anthony,</td> +<td class="right">15, 18, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fair Fraud, A,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fair Rosalind,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fighter in Khaki, A,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fooling of Don Jaime, The,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>For a God Dishonoured,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Forbidden Paths,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Frank Redland, Recruit,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Friendship and Folly,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>From the Land of the Wombat,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fugitive Anne,</td> +<td class="right">2, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Future of Phyllis, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>George and Son,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Girl with Feet of Clay, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Glimpses from Wonderland,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Golden Spur, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Golden Wang-Ho, The,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Green Turbans, The,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Happiness: Its Pursuit and Attainment,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Harvesters, The,</td> +<td class="right">2</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Heretic, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>His Little Bill of Sale,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>His Master Purpose,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>His 'Prentice Hand,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>History of the Temple,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hospital Secret, The,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>House of Commons, The,</td> +<td class="right">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>House of Hardale, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Houses of Ignorance,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>I'd Crowns Resign,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Ill Wind, An,</td> +<td class="right">9, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Indiscretion of Gladys, The,</td> +<td class="right">5, 12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Infelix,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In Heaven's Porch,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In Summer Shade,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In the Blood,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In the Dark,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In the Days of Goldsmith,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In the Shadow of the Purple,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Investigators, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Irish Holidays,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Island Interlude, An,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Italian Wife, His,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Ivory Bride, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Jade Eye, The,</td> +<td class="right">4, 10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Jean Keir of Craigneil,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Juggler and the Soul, The,</td> +<td class="right">19, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Juggling Fortune,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Kingdom of Mammon, The,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>King's Race-Horses, The,</td> +<td class="right">8, 22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Kinsah,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Kitty's Engagement,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Last Foray, The,</td> +<td class="right">4, 16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Last of the Climbing Boys,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Letters to Dolly,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Life's Little Comedies,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Logan's Loyalty,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Lords of Life, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Love Affairs of a Curate, The,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Lovely Mrs. Pemberton, The,</td> +<td class="right">11, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Love of a Former Life, The,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Luck of a Lowland Laddie, The,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Machinations of Janet, The,</td> +<td class="right">4, 10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Magnetic Girl, The,</td> +<td class="right">5, 14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Malice of Grace Wentworth, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Man of Iron, A,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Man of To-Day, A,</td> +<td class="right">19, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mary Bray, X Her Mark,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Master Sinner, The,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Men of Marlowe's,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Merciless Love,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Message of the Masters, The,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Midsummer Madness,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mill of Silence, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mission of Margaret, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Miss Nanse,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Miss Pauncefort's Peril,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mistletoe Manor,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mrs. Musgrave and Her Husband,</td> +<td class="right">17, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mystery of Dudley Horne, The,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Native Born,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nightshade and Poppies,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nobler than Revenge,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>No. 3, The Square,</td> +<td class="right">6, 11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>No Vindication,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Once Too Often,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>On Parole,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>On the War Path,</td> +<td class="right">21</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Operatic Problem, The,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Oswald Steele,</td> +<td class="right">6</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Other Mrs. Jacobs, The,</td> +<td class="right">6, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Our Widow,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Outsider's Year, An,</td> +<td class="right">2, 11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Papa Limited,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Parish Doctor, The,</td> +<td class="right">3, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Partners Three,</td> +<td class="right">6, 9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Passing Fancy, A,</td> +<td class="right">9, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Paths of the Dead,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Paul Le Maistre,</td> +<td class="right">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Paul the Optimist,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Pick-Me-Ups,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Plato's Hand-Maiden,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Progress of Pauline Kessler, The,</td> +<td class="right">11, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Purple of the Orient, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Pursued by the Law,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Real Christian, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Realization of Justus Moran,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Remembrance,</td> +<td class="right">5, 9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Robert Orange,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Royal Sisters, The,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Rural Life,</td> +<td class="right">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Scarlet Seal, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sea of Love, The,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Second Lieutenant Celia,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sent to Coventry,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Shadow of Allah, The,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Shutters of Silence, The,</td> +<td class="right">3, 12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Side Lights on Convict Life,</td> +<td class="right">7, 25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Silent House of Pimlico, The,</td> +<td class="right">17, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sin of Hagar, The,</td> +<td class="right">16, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sin of Jasper Standish, The,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Social Life in the British Army,</td> +<td class="right">20</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Social Pretender, A,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Something in the City,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Son of Mammon, A,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sport of Circumstance, The,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Story of a Campaign Estate,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Story of Lois, The,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Straight Shoes,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Strength of Straw, The,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sweet "Doll" of Haddon Hall,</td> +<td class="right">5, 14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Thraldom,</td> +<td class="right">4, 16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Three Days' Terror, The,</td> +<td class="right">12, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Through the Mists,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Traitor in London, A,</td> +<td class="right">10, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Transplanted,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Trewinnot of Guy's,</td> +<td class="right">10, 18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Trust Trappers, The,</td> +<td class="right">6, 16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Turnpike House, The,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Unconquerable Colony, The,</td> +<td class="right">25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Unwise Virgin, An,</td> +<td class="right">3, 10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Up To-morrow,</td> +<td class="right">6, 18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Veiled Man, The,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Veronica Verdant,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Virgin Gold,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Ward of the King, A,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Way Out, The,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Weaver of Runes, A,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>When Love is Kind,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>When the Mopoke Calls,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wicked Rosamond,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wilful Woman, A,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wise in His Generation,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>With Bought Swords,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Woman-Derelict, A,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Woman in the City, A,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Woman's Checkmate, A,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Woman's No, A,</td> +<td class="right">9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Woman—the Sphinx,</td> +<td class="right">10, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Women Must Weep,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wooing of Monica, The,</td> +<td class="right">7</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>World Masters, The,</td> +<td class="right">3, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wounded Pride,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Yolande the Parisienne,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Youth at the Prow,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Zealandia's Guerdon,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<br><br> + +<p class="ctr"> +<b>Index of Names of Authors</b> +</p> + +<table summary="Index to authors"> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Amity, John,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Armstrong, Mrs. L. Heaton,</td> +<td class="right">25</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bayliss, Helen,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Beaman, Emeric Hulme,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bedwell, Hugh,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Berkley, Eibbon,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bindloss, Harold,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Bodkin, M. McD., K.C.,</td> +<td class="right">5, 15</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Boothby, Guy,</td> +<td class="right">11, 27</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Buchanan, Robert,</td> +<td class="right">15, 18, 27</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Burgin, G. B.,</td> +<td class="right">3, 12</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Burrard, W. Dutton,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cairnes, Capt. W. E.,</td> +<td class="right">20</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cameron, Mrs. Lovett,</td> +<td class="right">5, 7, 9, 18, 27, 28</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Capes, Bernard,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Carrel, Frederic,</td> +<td class="right">11, 27</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Chatterton, G. G.,</td> +<td class="right">13, 17</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Cleeve, Lucas,</td> +<td class="right">5, 12</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Clement, Hugh,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cobban, J. MacLaren,</td> +<td class="right">10</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cocbrane, James Henry,</td> +<td class="right">25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Compton, James,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cook, Alec,</td> +<td class="right">3, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cooper, Edward H.,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Crommelin, May,</td> +<td class="right">2, 9</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cross, Victoria,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Culley, J. D. Leather-, Mrs.,</td> +<td class="right">21</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Davenant, Philip,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Davidson, Campbell L.,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Delaire, Jean,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dill, Bessie,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dodge, Walter Phelps,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Donovan, Dick,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dothie, W. P.,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Doyle, Mina,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dudeney, Mrs. Henry,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Duntze, Lady,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Elson, George,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Esler, E. Rentoul,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Fletcher, J. S.,</td> +<td class="right">3, 12, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Forster, R. H.,</td> +<td class="right">4, 16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fowler, Harry,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Galloway, William Johnson,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Garnett, William Terrel</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Gearey, Caroline,</td> +<td class="right">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Gilbert, George,</td> +<td class="right">6, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Gowing, Mrs. Aylmer,</td> +<td class="right">3, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Glanville, Ernest,</td> +<td class="right">13, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Graham, Winifred,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Grein, J. T.,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Griffith, George,</td> +<td class="right">3, 7, 15, 25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Groot, J. Morgan de,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Gubbins, Nathaniel,</td> +<td class="right">6, 19</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Halcombe, C. J. H.,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hannan, Charles,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Heppenstall, R. H.,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hinkson, H. A.,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hobbes, John Oliver,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Howard, Isabel,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Howard, Keble,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hume, Fergus,</td> +<td class="right">4, 7, 10, 17, 27, 28</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Ingold, John,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Jackson, G. Hunt,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>Kelly, W. J., The Revd.,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Kernahan, Mrs. Coulson,</td> +<td class="right">3, 10</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Lees, Robert James,</td> +<td class="right">4, 15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Lewis, G. Pitt, K.C.,</td> +<td class="right">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Lewis, Helen Prothero,</td> +<td class="right">4, 16</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>MacLeod, Torquil,</td> +<td class="right">19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Macpherson, Jean,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>MacQuoid, Katherine S.,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mann, Mary E.,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Markham, Paul,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Marsh, Richard,</td> +<td class="right">5, 14, 17, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Martin, Mrs. Charles,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mathers, Helen,</td> +<td class="right">7, 16, 19, 27, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mathew, Frank,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Meade, L. T.,</td> +<td class="right">6, 16, 27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Moore, Dugald,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Muddock, J. E.,</td> +<td class="right">5, 14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Murphy, Nicholas P.,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Nisbet, Hume,</td> +<td class="right">6, 16, 18</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>O'Donnell, F. Hugh,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Perkins, Rose,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Phelps, Sydney,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Pinkerton, Thomas,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Platts, W. Carter,</td> +<td class="right">6, 18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Pool, Maria Louise,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Praed, Mrs. Campbell,</td> +<td class="right">2, 6, 13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Praga, Mrs. Alfred,</td> +<td class="right">23</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Queux, William Le,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Reardon, Richard,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Reay, Marcus,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Rita,</td> +<td class="right">27</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Roberts, Morley,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Robinson, F. W.,</td> +<td class="right">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Rodd, Ralph,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Sandeman, Mina,</td> +<td class="right">12</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sergeant, Adeline,</td> +<td class="right">4, 14</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Short, Frank,</td> +<td class="right">26</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Snowden, Keighley,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Speight, T. W.,</td> +<td class="right">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Spencer, Edward,</td> +<td class="right">8, 22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Stuart, Esmè,</td> +<td class="right">11</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Tayler, Jenner,</td> +<td class="right">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Temple, Sir Richard, Bart.,</td> +<td class="right">22</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Thomas, Annie (Mrs. Pender Cudlip),</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Thynne, Robert,</td> +<td class="right">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Turner, Edgar,</td> +<td class="right">15</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Tweedale, Violet,</td> +<td class="right">16</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Tytler, Sarah,</td> +<td class="right">4, 10, 19</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Walker, William S. ("Coo-ee"),</td> +<td class="right">11, 17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Warden, Florence,</td> +<td class="right">2, 6, 7, 11, 27, 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Whishaw, Fred,</td> +<td class="right">6, 11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wilkinson, Frank,</td> +<td class="right">21</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Williams, Mrs. M. Forrest,</td> +<td class="right">7, 25</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<p class="ctr"> +<big>Mrs. LOVETT CAMERON'S</big> +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +POPULAR NOVELS +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 6s. each. +</p> + + +<ul> +<li>REMEMBRANCE [<i>Spring, 1903</i></li> +<li>MIDSUMMER MADNESS</li> +<li>AN ILL WIND BITTER FRUIT</li> +<li>A WOMAN'S "NO." A FAIR FRAUD</li> +<li>A PASSING FANCY</li> +<li>A DIFFICULT MATTER</li> +<li>THE CRAZE OF CHRISTINA</li> +</ul> + + +<p> +<b>Morning Post.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron is one of the best +story-tellers of the day, and her pages are so full of life and +movement that not one of them is willingly skipped." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Daily News.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron's stories are always bright, +vivacious, and entertaining. They are very pleasantly human, and have, +withal, a charming freshness and vigour." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Daily Telegraph.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron is a fertile and fluent +story-teller, and an uncommonly clever woman." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Guardian.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron's novels are among the most +readable of the day. She has a wonderful eye for a situation, so her +stories move with a swing that is all their own." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Pall Mall Gazette.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron, in her novels, is +always readable and always fresh." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Speaker.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron possesses the invaluable gift of +never allowing her readers to become bored." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Black and White.</b>—"We have a few writers whose books arouse in +us certain expectations which are always fulfilled. Such a writer is +Mrs. Lovett Cameron." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Academy.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron exhibits power, writes with +vivacity, and elaborates her plots skilfully." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Bookman.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron has gained for herself a circle +of admirers, who take up any new book of hers with a certain eagerness +and confidence." +</p> + +<p> +<b>Vanity Fair.</b>—"Mrs. Lovett Cameron needs no introduction to the +novel reader, and, indeed, has her public ready to her hand as soon as +her books come out." +</p> + +<hr class="tiny"> + +<p class="ctr"> +JOHN LONG, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London +</p> + +<p class="ctr"> +<small>And at all the Libraries and Booksellers</small> +</p> + + +<hr class="med"> + +<p class="ctr"> +WOODFALL AND KINDER, PRINTERS, LONG ACRE, LONDON. +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Masters, by George Griffith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD MASTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 38028-h.htm or 38028-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/2/38028/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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