egram was delivered. They had scarcely read it
when there was a knock at the door and an orderly entered, and said:

"Captain Erskine, of the _Ithuriel_, would be pleased to see the General
when he's at liberty."

"The very man!" said General French. "This is the young gentleman," he
continued, turning to Admiral Domville, "who practically saved us from
two torpedo attacks, won the Fleet action for us, and saved Beresford
from being rammed at the moment of victory."

The door opened again, and Erskine came in. He saluted and said:

"General, if I may suggest it, I shall not be much more use here, and my
lieutenant, Denis Castellan, has just had a telegram from his aunt and
sister, who are in London, saying that things are pretty bad there. I
fancy I might be of some use if you would let me go, sir."

"Let you go!" laughed the General. "Why, my dear sir, you've got to go.
Here's a telegram that I've just had from His Royal Highness the
Commander-in-Chief, saying that Dover and London are in a bad way, and
telling me to send you round at once. When can you start?"

"Well, sir," replied Erskine, after a moment's thought, "we're not
injured in any way, but it will take a couple of hours, I'm afraid, to
replenish our motive power, and fill up with shell, and added to that, I
should like to have a good overhaul of the machinery."

"Just listen to that, now!" exclaimed Admiral Beresford, who had entered
the room while he was speaking. "Here's a man who has done nearly as
much single-handed as the rest of us put together and fought through as
stiff a Fleet action as the hungriest fire-eater in the navy wants to
see, and tells you he isn't injured, while half of us are knocked to
scrap-iron. I wish we had fifty _Ithuriels_, there'd be very little
landing on English shores."

"I don't think you have very much to complain of in the French landing
at Portsmouth, Beresford," laughed Sir Compton Domville. "I don't want
to flatter you, but it was an absolute stroke of genius. We shall have
to set those fellows to work on the forts and yards, and get some guns
into position again. It isn't exactly what they came for but they'll
come in very useful. But that can wait. Here's the wire from the
Commander-in-Chief. Captain Erskine, you are to get round to Dover and
London as soon as possible, and, I presume, do all the damage you can on
the way. General French is going to London as soon as a special can be
got ready for him."

"M