hours later the Admiral in command of the British Special
Squadron off Kronstadt saw the private signal flashed from the
north-east. He was a very angry Admiral, for he had lost a brand-new
cruiser and one of the smartest captains in the Service. But the signal
spelt "_Nitocris_. All well. Coming alongside."

"All well, and be damned to you, Captain Merrill!" muttered the Admiral
under his breath, when the signal was read to him. "This is a nice way
to begin a new command. I've half a mind to put him under arrest: but
he's a good man. I'd better hear what he has to say for himself first. I
wonder what the deuce he's been doing with that cruiser since he took
her away without leave? Well, here she is, I suppose."

But it was not H.M.S. _Nitocris_ that came out of the night glittering
with electric lights and flying through the water at a speed that the
fastest destroyer in the squadron could not have equalled. A whistle
tooted softly, a white shape swung up out of the darkness and slowed
down alongside the flagship. A boat dropped into the water, and three
minutes later Captain Mark Merrill ran up the gangway ladder, saluted
the quarter-deck, and handed his sword to the Admiral.

"I have done wrong, sir, but I hope that I have also, in another sense,
done right. I have brought both princes with me."

"Both princes--Good Lord, sir, what do you mean?"

"May I come below with you, sir, and explain? It has been rather
delicate work, but we've got it through all right, I think."

"Then keep your sword for the present, and come and tell me what you
have to say."

Captain Merrill followed the Admiral to his room, and told the story of
the taking of the Oscarburg--a very easy matter with a hundred
bluejackets at his back--the capture of Oscarovitch, who was now in a
straight waistcoat on board his own yacht, the rescue of Prince Zastrow
and Nitocris, and----

"The other Nitocris is following, sir," he concluded. "I thought I had
better take the yacht. She can make a good thirty-five knots, and that's
useful when you're in a hurry. And now, sir, I am at your disposal."

"Rubbish!" said the Admiral, holding out his hand. "Captain Merrill, I
don't quite know how you've done it, but you've saved Europe, and
perhaps the world, from war. If you hadn't brought those two princes of
yours to-night, we should have been fighting Germany for the possession
of Kronstadt before mid-day to-morrow. Those were the orders. Now, of
cours