d profoundly
to the Chinese ambassador, who opened his eyes in time solemnly to
return my farewell. The chauffeur was already in his place, and I
stopped to speak to him. I saw Delora spring forward and whistle down
the speaking-tube, but my question was already asked.

"How far north are you going?" I asked.

"To Newcastle, sir," the man answered.

He turned then to answer the whistle, and I re-entered my own car. We
started first, but they passed us in a few minutes travelling at a
great rate, and with a cloud of dust behind them. Delora threw an evil
glance at me from his place. For once I had stolen a march upon him.
They had both been too ignorant of their route to keep their final
destination concealed from the chauffeur, and they certainly had not
expected to meet any one on the way with whom he would be likely to
talk! But why to Newcastle? I asked myself that question so often
during the morning that my shooting became purely a mechanical thing.
Newcastle,--the Tyne, coals, and shipbuilding! I could think of
nothing else in connection with the place.

Late that evening I sat with a whiskey and soda and final cigar in the
smoking-room. The evening papers had just arrived, brought by
motor-bicycle from Norwich. I found nothing to interest me in them,
but, glancing down the columns, my attention was attracted by some
mention of Brazil. I looked to see what the paragraph might be. It
concerned some new battleships, and was headed,--

LARGEST BATTLESHIPS IN THE WORLD!

It is not generally known, that there will be launched from the
works of Messrs. Halliday & Co. on the Tyne, within the next three
or four weeks, two of the most powerful battleships of the
"Dreadnought" type, which have yet been built.

There followed some specifications, in which I was not particularly
interested, an account of their armament, and a final remark,--

One is tempted to ask how a country, in the financial position of
Brazil, can possibly reconcile it with her ideas of national
economy, to spend something like three millions in battleships,
which there does not seem to be the slightest chance of her ever
being called upon to use!

Somehow or other this paragraph fascinated me. I read it over and over
again. I could see no connection between it and the visit of Delora to
Newcastle, especially accompanied as he was by the Chinese ambassador.
Yet the more I thought of it, the more