e-inspiring, often showing a precipitous
face to the sea, which beat upon it with the booming of heavy breakers;
and spread surf all foaming upon its ridges and promontories. I stood
entranced with the vigour born of that life-giving breeze; and the
young doctor stood with me watching. At last he touched me upon the
shoulder, and pointed to the first cave, where the nameless ship lay
snugly moored in the creek, with many seamen at work upon her.

"Look," he said, "look there, where is the instrument of our power. Is
not she magnificent? Do you wonder at my warmth--yet why? for without
her we here are helpless children, victims of poverty, of law, of
society. With her we defy the world. In all Europe there is no like to
her; no ship which should live with her. Ask her for speed, and she
will give you thirty knots; tell her that you have no coal, and she
will carry you day after day and demand none. Aboard her, we are
superior to fleets and nations; we ravage where we will; we laugh at
the fastest cruisers and the biggest warships. Are you surprised that
we love her?"

He spoke with extraordinary enthusiasm--the enthusiasm of a fanatic or
a lover. The great ship reflected the sun's glow from her many bright
parts, and was indeed a beauteous object, yet swan-like, the guns
uncovered as the men worked at them, and a newer lustre added to her
splendour.

"She is a wonderful ship," said I, "and built of metal I never met
with."

"Her hull is constructed of phosphor-bronze," he answered, "and she is
driven by gas. The metal is the finest in the world for all
shipbuilding purposes, but its price is ruinous. None but a man worth
millions could build the like to her."

"Then Captain Black is such a man?" I said.

"Exactly, or he wouldn't be the master of her--and of Europe. Doesn't
it occur to you that you were a fool ever to set out on the enterprise
of coping with him?"

I did not answer the taunt, but looked seaward, away across the west,
where Roderick and Mary were. The boundless spread of water reminded me
how small was the hope that I should ever see them again; ever hear a
voice I had known in the old time, or clasp a hand in fellowship that
had oft been clasped. They thought me dead, no doubt; and to take the
grief from them was forbidden, then and until the end of it, I felt
sure.

But the doctor was still occupied with the great ship, looking down
upon her as she lay, and he called my attention to a fact I h