ther
nations."

"And yet," said Delcasse, in a low voice, "the latest and best of our
battleships blew up this morning!"

"I have brought my best men with me, as you suggested, sir," said
Lepine. "If there were any suspicious circumstances attending this
explosion, depend upon it, they will be laid before you when you awake!"

"Do not wait for me to awake!" cried the Minister. "If any such
circumstance comes to light, wake me--wake me on the instant!"

Lepine bowed.

"I will do so, sir," he promised.

* * * * *

It was some time past midnight when the train reached Toulon; but
apparently no one of her hundred thousand inhabitants had thought of
sleep. The streets before the station were crowded from house-front to
house-front. The carriage containing the President and his Ministers had
the greatest difficulty in proceeding. Everywhere there were cries for
vengeance, shouts of treason, threats, wild imprecations. Men stood with
arms extended cursing the heavens. The Place de la Liberte was massed
with people, facing the fountain in honour of the Revolution,
bareheaded, singing the Ca Ira. It seemed as though the wheels of time
had rolled back a century, and that at any moment the Sea-green
Incorruptible himself might arise to thunder denunciation. But at last
the President and his staff reached their hotel.

M. Lepine, after final instructions to Pigot, joined them there, and
listened to the reports made by the surviving officers of _La Liberte_.
They were in despair, these men, ready to kill themselves at a word;
their faces were blackened, their uniforms in tatters, their hands torn
and bleeding, for they had laboured all day at the work of rescue. They
spoke between sobs, but it was little they had to tell.

Commander Jaures, it seemed, had been absent on leave, the second in
command was ashore, so that Senior Lieutenant Garnier was in charge of
the ship. Just before dawn, the watch had discovered a small fire in one
of the store-rooms, but it was so insignificant that no one thought of
danger; the fire was not near the magazines; in any event, the magazines
were all securely closed--the officer in charge had seen to that.
Suddenly, apparently without cause, there had been three explosions,
about a minute apart, first of the forward magazine, then of the after
magazine, then of the main magazine--it seemed almost as though they had
been fired at spaced intervals, like a heavy