the Field Marshal to
stand against the wall by the door there. With your Majesty's
permission, I am now going to destroy the rest of the fleet."

"The rest of the fleet!" exclaimed the Field Marshal. "It is
impossible."

"We shall see, Feldherr!" laughed the Kaiser. "Meanwhile, suppose we
come out of the danger zone."

The three greatest men in Germany, and perhaps on the Continent of
Europe, lined up with their backs to the wall at the farther end of the
room from the tank, and the Irishman sat down to his machine. The keys
began to click rapidly, and they began to feel a tenseness in the air of
the room. After a few seconds they would not have been surprised if they
had seen a flash of lightning pass over their heads. The _Flying Fish_
had sunk to the bottom of the tank, and backed into one of the corners.
The keys of the machine clicked louder and faster. Her nose tilted
upwards to an angle of about sixty degrees. The six-bladed propeller at
her stem whirled round in the water like the flurry of a whale's fluke
in its death agony. Her side-fins inclined upwards, and, like a flash,
she leapt from the water, and began to circle round the room.

The Kaiser shut his teeth hard and watched. The Chancellor opened his
mouth as if he was going to say something, and shut it again. The Field
Marshal stroked his moustache slowly, and followed the strange shape
fluttering about the room. It circled twice round the tank, and then
crossed it. A sharp click came from the machine, something fell from the
body of the _Flying Fish_ into the tank. There was a dull sound of a
smothered explosion. For a moment the very water itself seemed aflame,
then it boiled up into a mass of seething foam. Every one of the models
was overwhelmed and engulfed at the same moment. Castellan got up from
the machine, caught the _Flying Fish_ in his hand, as it dropped towards
the water, took it to the Kaiser, and said:

"Is your Majesty convinced? It is quite harmless now."

"God's thunder, yes!" said the War Lord of Germany, taking hold of the
model. "It is almost superhuman."

"Yes," said the Chancellor, "it is damnable!"

"I," said the Field Marshal, drily, "think it's admirable, always
supposing that Mr Castellan is prepared to place this mysterious
invention at the disposal of his Majesty."

"Yes," said the Kaiser, leaning with his back against the door, "that
is, of course, the first proposition to be considered. What are your
terms, Mr C