bine yacht of two thousand tons and twenty-five
knots speed, from Mr Hendray Chinnock, a brother millionaire, who had
laid her up in the Clyde in consequence of the war the day before. He
re-engaged her officers and crew at double wages to cover war risks, and
started for New York within an hour of the completion of the purchase.

Lennard took the express to Bolton, with letters and a deed of gift from
Lord Westerham, which gave him absolute ownership of the cannel mine
with the twelve-hundred-foot vertical shaft at Farnworth.

That afternoon and evening Lady Margaret was more than entertained, for
during the afternoon she learned the story of the approaching cataclysm,
in comparison with which the war was of no more importance than a mere
street riot; and that night Auriole, who had learned to work the great
reflector almost as well as Lennard himself, showed her the
ever-growing, ever-brightening shape of the Celestial Invader.

CHAPTER XXIV

TOM BOWCOCK--PITMAN

Lennard found himself standing outside the Trinity Street Station at
Bolton a few minutes after six that evening.

Of course it was raining. Rain and fine-spun cotton thread are Bolton's
specialities, the two chief pillars of her fame and prosperity, for
without the somewhat distressing superabundance of the former she could
not spin the latter fine enough. It would break in the process.
Wherefore the good citizens of Bolton cheerfully put up with the dirt
and the damp and the abnormal expenditure on umbrellas and mackintoshes
in view of the fact that all the world must come to Bolton for its
finest threads.

He stood for a moment looking about him curiously, if with no great
admiration in his soul, for this was his first sight of what was to be
the scene of the greatest and most momentous undertaking that human
skill had ever dared to accomplish.

But the streets of Bolton on a wet night do not impress a stranger very
favourably, so he had his flat steamer-trunk and hat-box put on to a cab
and told the driver to take him to the Swan Hotel, in Deansgate, where
he had a wash and an excellent dinner, to which he was in a condition to
do full justice--for though nation may rage against nation, and worlds
and systems be in peril, the healthy human digestion goes on making its
demands all the time, and, under the circumstances, blessed is he who
can worthily satisfy them.

Then, after a cup of coffee and a meditative cigar, he put on his
mackint