onest, sir, I don't care about flying the
white flag first. We could put up as pretty a fight for you along the
front of the Allies as any man could wish to see."

"I am sorry, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "that the British
Constitution compels me to disappoint you, but, as some sort of
recompense, I am sure that my Lords in Council will grant you permission
to fly the White Ensign on all your ships and the Admiral's flag on your
flagship, which, I presume, is the one in which you have come this
morning. It is unfortunate that I can only confer the honorary rank of
admiral upon Mr Hingeston, as you are not British subjects."

"Then, your Majesty," replied Mr Parmenter, "if it pleases you, I hope
you will give that rank to my friend Newson Hingeston, who, as I have
told you, has been more than twenty years making these ships perfect. He
has created this navy, so I reckon he has got the best claim to be
called admiral."

"Does that meet with your approval, my lords?" said the King.

And the heads of the Privy Council bowed as one in approval.

"I thank your Majesty most sincerely," said Hingeston, rising. "I am an
American citizen, but I have nothing but British blood in my veins, and
therefore I am all the more glad that I am able to bring help to the
Motherland when she wants it."

"And I'm afraid we do want it, Mr Hingeston," said His Majesty. "Make
the conditions of warfare equal in the air, and I think we shall be able
to hold our own on land and sea. Your patent of appointment shall be
made out at once, and I will have the letters ready for you in half an
hour. And now, gentlemen, I think a glass of wine and a biscuit will not
do any of us much harm."

The invitation was, of course, in a certain sense, a command, and when
the King rose everyone did the same. While they were taking their wine
and biscuits in the blue drawing-room overlooking St James's Park, His
Majesty, who never lost his grip of business for a moment, took Lennard
aside and had a brief but pregnant conversation with him on the subject
of the comet, and as a result of this all the Government manufactories
of explosives were placed at his disposal, and with his own hand the
King wrote a permit entitling him to take such amount of explosives to
Bolton as he thought fit. Then there came the letters to the Duke of
Connaught and the German Emperor, and one to the Astronomer Royal at
Greenwich.

Then His Majesty and the members of the Coun