nt ended.

It will be easily understood that the Kaiser was about the most
infuriated man in the United Kingdom when the _Flying Fishes_ arrived at
Canterbury and the Commander of the squadron described the arrival of
the _Hohenzollern_ in the Thames and asked for orders.

In the first place no one knew better than William the Second how
priceless was the prize won by the impudent audacity of these two young
British sailors. In his private apartments on board there were his own
complete plans of the campaign--not only for the conquest of Britain,
but afterwards for the dismemberment of the British Empire, and its
partition among the Allies--exact accounts of the resources of the chief
European nations in men, money and ships, plans of fortifications, and
even drafts of treaties. In fact, it was such a haul of Imperial and
International secrets as had never been made before; and that evening
the British Cabinet held in their possession enough diplomatic
explosives to blow the European league of nations to pieces.

Erskine and Castellan were honoured by an autograph letter from the
King, thanking them heartily for their splendid services up to the
present stage of the war, and wishing them all good luck for the future.
Then the _Ithuriel_ slipped down the Thames, towing half a dozen
shabby-looking barges behind her, and for some days she disappeared
utterly from human ken.

What she was really doing during these days was this. These barges and
several others which she picked up now and then were filled with
ammunition for her guns and fuel for her engines, and she dropped them
here and there in obscure creeks and rock-bound bays from Newcastle to
the Clyde, where they lay looking like abandoned derelicts, until such
times as they might be wanted.

Meanwhile, very soon after the loss of the _Hohenzollern_, the Kaiser
received two messages which disquieted him very seriously. One of these
came by airship from Potsdam. It was an exhaustive report upon the
papers which Lennard had left with him on that momentous night as it
turned out to be, on which the War Lord had rejected the ultimatum of
the Man of Peace. It was signed by Professor Doellinger and endorsed by
four of the greatest astronomers of Germany.

Briefly put, its substance amounted to this: Mr Lennard's calculations
were absolutely correct, as far as they went. Granted the existence of
such a celestial body as he designated _Alpha_ in the document, and its