r to the great engine-room. Here truly was a wondrous sight; the
sight of three sets of the most powerful engines that have yet been
placed in a battle-ship. Each of them had four cylinders, eighty inches
in diameter; and all were driven by the hydrogen from the huge
gasometers which our holds formed. The gas itself was made by passing
the steam from a comparatively small boiler through a coke and
anthracite furnace, the coke combining with the oxygen and leaving pure
hydrogen. The huge cylinders drove upwards with a double crank to carry
their motion to the screw; and I found that the difficulty of starting
and reversing was overcome by an intermediate bevel-wheel gearing and
friction clutch, which could throw the motion off the shaft, and allow
that instantaneous going astern otherwise impossible in a gas-engine.
That day there was a huge fire in the furnace, emitting terrific heat
and crackling sparks, for the men were making gas, in view of a run or
two off the coast of Ireland. It was more pleasant than I can tell you
to watch the entire absorption of the gifted engineer, in the maze of
machinery which surrounded him, to paint the paternal pathos of his
look as he watched every motion and eyed every bearing. The maker of an
empire certainly he was; the man of mind who, for the time, had given
these ruffians the kingship of the sea; had made mockery of the
opposition of the nations; and, I could not help but reflect as I
turned away sick at heart at the sight of so much power, had caused me
to be a prisoner, perhaps for life, in that citadel of metal. Yet, he
was a genius; and to the end of my days I shall think, as I thought
then, of the superb gifts so wasted in their channel, of the masterful
intellect devoted only to pillage and plunder.

In such a frame of mind I left the engine-room and mounted to the upper
deck, to hear the cry, "Land on the port-bow."

It was the coast of Ireland, they told me; and I know not if I have
ever had a greater pleasure than that distant view of my own country
gave to me. For it was as though I had passed from a dead land to the
land of man, from the silent ways of night to the first breaking of the
God-sent day.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ROBBERY OF THE "BELLONIC."

Our view of the distant shore of Ireland was a fleeting one; and we
passed thence almost immediately to the open sea, steaming due S.W. for
some hours, but at no great pace. It was not until daybreak on the
foll