in perfect order, the quarter-boat
was manned and lowered, and pulled clear of the ill-fated _Lurline_
just as she pitched backwards into the sea and went down with a run,
stern foremost.

The air-ship, coming up at a tremendous speed, swooped suddenly down
from a height of two thousand feet, and slowed up within a thousand
yards of the torpedo-boat. A projectile rushed through the air and
landed on the deck of the Frenchman. There was a flash of greenish
flame, a cloud of mingled smoke and steam, and when this had drifted
away there was not a vestige of the torpedo-boat to be seen. Then a
few fragments of iron splashed into the water here and there, and
that was all that betokened her fate.

CHAPTER XXII.

ARMED NEUTRALITY.

Hardly had the _Lurline_ disappeared than the air-ship was lying
alongside the boat, floating on the water as easily and lightly as a
seagull, and Natas and his two attendants, Tremayne, and the three
men who had been saved from the yacht, were at once taken on board.

It would be useless to interrupt the progress of the narrative to
describe the welcoming greetings which passed between the rescued
party and the crew of the _Ithuriel_, or the amazement of Arnold and
his companions when Natasha threw her arms round the neck of the
almost helpless cripple, who was rifted over the rail by Tremayne and
his two attendants, kissed him on the brow, and said so that all
could hear her--

"We were in time! Thank God we were in time, my father!"

Her father! This paralytic creature, who could not move a yard
without the assistance of some one else--this was Natas, the father
of Natasha, and the Master of the Terror, the man who had planned the
ruin of a civilisation, and for all they knew might aspire to the
empire of the world!

It was marvellous, inconceivable, but there was no time to think
about it now, for the two cruisers were still blazing away at each
other, and Tremayne had determined to punish the Frenchman for his
discourtesy in not answering his flag, and his inhumanity in firing
on an unarmed vessel which was well known as a private pleasure-yacht
all round the western and southern shores of Europe.

As soon as Natas had been conveyed into the saloon, Tremayne, after
returning Arnold's hearty handclasp, said to him--

"That rascally Frenchman chased and fired on us, and then sent his
torpedo-boat after us, without the slightest provocation. I purposely
hoisted the Yacht Sq