s own purposes, but to prevent the downfall of the
present British Ministry, and a probable radical change in the
Government. That such a political revolution, as undesirable to the
Syndicate as to cool-headed and sensible Englishmen, was imminent,
there could be no doubt. The growing feeling of disaffection, almost
amounting to disloyalty, not only in the opposition party, but among
those who had hitherto been firm adherents of the Government, was
mainly based upon the idea that the present British rulers had allowed
themselves to be frightened by mines and torpedoes, artfully placed and
exploded. Therefore the Syndicate intended to set right the public
mind upon this subject. The note concluded by earnestly urging the
designation, without loss of time, of a place of operations.

This answer was received in London in the evening, and all night it was
the subject of earnest and anxious deliberation in the Government
offices. It was at last decided, amid great opposition, that the
Syndicate's alternative must be accepted, for it would be the height of
folly to allow the repeller to bombard any port she should choose.
When this conclusion had been reached, the work of selecting a place
for the proposed demonstration of the American Syndicate occupied but
little time. The task was not difficult. Nowhere in Great Britain was
there a fortified spot of so little importance as Caerdaff, on the west
coast of Wales.

Caerdaff consisted of a large fort on a promontory, and an immense
castellated structure on the other side of a small bay, with a little
fishing village at the head of said bay. The castellated structure was
rather old, the fortress somewhat less so; and both had long been
considered useless, as there was no probability that an enemy would
land at this point on the coast.

Caerdaff was therefore selected as the spot to be operated upon. No
one could for a moment imagine that the Syndicate had mined this place;
and if it should be destroyed by motor-bombs, it would prove to the
country that the Government had not been frightened by the tricks of a
crafty enemy.

An hour after the receipt of the note in which it was stated that
Caerdaff had been selected, the Syndicate's fleet started for that
place. The crabs were elevated to cruising height, the repeller taken
in tow, and by the afternoon of the next day the fleet was lying off
Caerdaff. A note was sent on shore to the officer in command, stating
tha