ad left
Brest with the express purpose of helping to intercept the great
Cunarder, for she had crossed the Atlantic five times already without
a scratch since the war had begun, showing a very clean pair of heels
to everything that had attempted to overhaul her, and now on her
sixth passage a grand effort was to be made to capture or cripple the
famous ocean greyhound.

It was by far her most important voyage in more senses than one. In
the first place, her incomparable speed and good luck had made her
out of sight the prime favourite with those passengers who were
obliged to cross the Atlantic, war or no war, and for the same
reasons she also carried more mails and specie than any other liner,
and this voyage she had an enormously valuable consignment of both on
board. As for passengers, every available foot of space was taken for
months in advance.

Enterprising agents on both sides of the water had bought up every
berth from stem to stern, and had put them up to auction, realising
fabulous prices, which had little chance of being abated, even when
her sister ship the _Sidonia_, the construction of which was being
pushed forward on the Clyde with all possible speed, was ready to
take the water.

But the chief importance of this particular passage lay, though
barely half a dozen persons were aware of it, in the fact that among
her passengers was Michael Roburoff, chief of the American Section of
the Terrorists, who was bringing to the Council his report of the
work of the Brotherhood in the United States, together with the
information which he had collected, by means of an army of spies, as
to the true intentions of the American Government with regard to the
war.

These, so far as the rest of the world was concerned, were a profound
secret, and he was the only man outside the President's Cabinet and
the Tsar's Privy Council who had accurate information with regard to
them. The _Aurania_ was therefore not only carrying mails, treasure,
and passengers, but, in the person of Michael Roburoff, she was
carrying secrets on the revelation of which the whole issue of the
war and the destiny of the world might turn.

America was the one great Power not involved in the tremendous
struggle that was being waged. The most astute diplomatist in Europe
had no idea what her real policy was, but every one knew that the
side on which she threw the weight of her boundless wealth and vast
resources must infallibly win in the long