lf that His Majesty would have
any great taste for a trip to the bottom of the North Sea, just when he
thinks he's beginning the conquest of England so nicely, and, by the
Powers, we'd send him there if he got into one of his awkward tempers
with us."

Lord Kitchener, who was in England acting as Chief-of-the-Staff to the
Duke of Connaught, and general adviser to the Council of National
Defence, took Lord Whittinghame to the other end of the room, and said
a few words to him in a low tone, and he came back and said:

"It is certainly worth trying, even if you can only catch the ship; but
we don't think you'll catch the Kaiser. The fact is, you seem to have
established such a holy terror in these waters that I don't think he
would trust his Imperial person between here and Germany. If he did go
across, he'd probably go in an airship. But if you can bring the
_Hohenzollern_ up to Tilbury--of course, under the German flag--I think
we shall be able to make good use of her. If she won't come, sink her."

"Very good, my lords," said Denis, saluting. "If she's not coming up the
Thames to-morrow night with the _Ithuriel_ under her stern, ye'll know
that she's on the bottom in pieces somewhere. And now," he continued,
taking a long envelope from an inner pocket, "here is the full report of
our doings since the war began, with return of ships sunk, crippled and
escaped; number of men landed, and so on, according to instructions. We
will report again to-morrow night, I hope, with the _Hohenzollern_."

They shook hands and wished him good-night and good luck, and in half an
hour the _Ithuriel_ was running half-submerged eastward along the coast,
and the motor was on its way to Faversham by the northern road, as there
were certain reasons why it should not go back through Canterbury.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE LION WAKES

At daybreak on the nineteenth, to the utter amazement of everyone who
was not "in the know," the Imperial yacht, _Hohenzollern_, was found off
Tilbury, flying the Imperial German Ensign and the Naval flag, as well
as a long string of signals ordering the aerial bombardment of London to
cease, and all the _Flying Fishes_ to return at once to Canterbury.

The apparent miracle had been accomplished in an absurdly easy fashion.
About nine a.m. on the eighteenth a German orderly went into the
post-office at Dover and handed in an official telegram signed "Von
Roon," ordering the _Hohenzollern_ to come round at o