rition which had leapt from the sea into the air, and then
returned to the waters, he put in a few moments of silent thinking, and
then he looked up, and said gravely:

"Well, gentlemen, I know that British naval officers and British seamen
don't see things that are not there, as the Russians did a few years ago
on the Dogger Bank. I am of course bound to believe you, and I think
they will do the same in London. You have taken a very irregular course;
but a man who is not prepared to do that at a pinch seldom does anything
else. I have seen and heard enough to convince me for the present; and
so I shall have great pleasure, in fact I shall only be doing my duty,
in giving you both leave for a week.

"I will order the _Seagull_ up from Hull, she's about ready, and I think
I can put an Acting-Commander on board the _Cormorant_ for the present.
Now, you will just have time for an early lunch with me, and catch the
1.17, which will get you to town at 5.15, and you will probably find
somebody at the Admiralty then, because I know they're working overtime.
Anyhow, if you don't find Sir John Fisher there, I should go straight to
his house, if I were you; and even if you don't see him, you'll be able
to get an early appointment for to-morrow."

"That was a pretty good slice of luck meeting the noble Crocker, wasn't
it?" said Castellan, as the train began to move out of the station,
about three hours later. They had reserved a compartment in the corridor
express, and were able to talk State secrets at their ease.

"We're inside the law now, at any rate."

"Law or no law, it was good enough to risk a court-martial for," said
Erskine, biting off the end of a cigar. "There's no doubt about the
existence of the thing, and if it doesn't belong to us, which is a fact
that only my Lords of the Naval Council can know, it simply means, as
you must see for yourself, that the invasion of England, which has been
a naval and military impossibility for the last seven hundred years or
so, will not only become possible but comparatively easy. There's
nothing upon the waters or under them that could stand against a thing
like that."

"Oh, you're right enough there," said Castellan, speaking with his soft
West of Ireland brogue. "There's no doubt of that, and it's the very
devil. A dozen of those things would play havoc with a whole fleet, and
when the fleet's gone, or even badly hurt, what's to stop our good
friends over yonder landing two