illion a week for the services of
twenty-five airships till the war was ended. Two were retained as
guardians for Whernside House and the observatory, and three for the
Great Lever colliery, and this left twenty, not counting the original
_Columbia_, which Mr Parmenter had bought as his aerial yacht, available
for warlike purposes.

The figure was high, as the owners of the aerial battle-fleet admitted,
but war was a great deal dearer. They guaranteed to bring the war to a
stop within fourteen days, by which time Britain would have a new fleet
in being which would be practically the only fleet capable of action in
western waters with the exception of the Italian and the American. Given
that the Syndicate's airships, acting in conjunction with the _Ithuriel_
and the twelve of her sisters which were now almost ready for launching,
could catch and wipe out the _Flying Fishes_, either above the waters or
under them, the result would be that the Allies, cut off from their base
of supplies, and with no retreat open to them, would be compelled to
surrender; and Mr Parmenter did not consider that five hundred thousand
pounds a week was too much to pay for this.

At the conclusion of his speech, setting forth the position of the
Syndicate, he said, with a curious dignity which somehow always comes
from a sense of power:

"Your Majesty, my Lords and gentlemen, I am just a plain American
business man, and so is my friend, the inventor of these ships. We have
told you what we believe they can do and we are prepared to show you
that we have not exaggerated their powers. There is our ship outside in
the gardens. If your Majesty would like to take a little trip through
the air and see battle, murder and sudden death--"

"That's very kind of you, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "but, much
as I personally should like to come with you, I'm afraid I should play a
certain amount of havoc with the British Constitution if I did. Kings of
England are not permitted to go to war now, but if you would oblige me
by taking a note to the Duke of Connaught, who has his headquarters at
Reading, and then, if you could manage it under a flag of truce, taking
another note to the German Emperor, who, I believe, has pitched his camp
at Aldershot, I should be very much obliged."

"Anything your Majesty wishes," replied Mr Parmenter. "Now we've fixed
up the deal the fleet is at your disposal and we sail under the British
flag; though, to be quite h