of the scene, "that is how we punish
traitors. Your own lives are spared because we do not murder
prisoners of war. You will, I hope, in due time return to your
master, and you will tell him why we have been obliged to retake the
air-ship which he surrendered to us by force, and therefore why we
destroyed his flagship in the North Sea. If Admiral Prabylov had
obeyed his orders, the _Lucifer_ would have been surrendered to us
quietly, and there would have been for the present no further
trouble.

"Tell him also from me, as Admiral of the Terrorist fleet, that, so
far as matters have now gone, we shall take no further part in the
war; but that the moment he brings his war-balloons across the waters
which separate Britain from Europe, the last hour of his empire will
have struck.

"If he neglects this warning with which I now entrust you, I will
bring a force against him before which he shall be as helpless as the
armies of the Alliance have so far been before him and his
war-balloons; and, more than this, tell him that if I conquer I will
not spare. I will hold him and his advisers strictly to account for
all that may happen after that moment.

"There will be no treaties with conquered enemies in the hour of our
victory. We will have blood for blood, and life for life. Remember
that, and bear the message to him faithfully. For the present you
will be prisoners on parole; but I warn you that you will be watched
night and day, and at the first suspicion of treachery you will be
shot, and cast into the air as those traitors were just now.

"You will remain on board this ship. The two engineers will be placed
one on board of each of two of our consorts. In twenty-four hours or
so you will be landed on Spanish soil and left to your own devices.
Meanwhile we shall make you as comfortable as the circumstances
permit."

The two Russian officers bowed their acknowledgments, and Arnold gave
the signal for the flotilla to proceed.

It was then about seven o'clock in the evening. Plying at the rate of
a hundred miles an hour, the squadron crossed the mouth of the Moray
Firth trending to the westward until they passed over Thurso, and
then took a westerly course to Rockall Island, four hundred miles to
the west. Here they met the two other air-ships which had been
despatched from Aeria with extra power-cylinders and munitions of war
in case they had been needed for a prolonged campaign.

The cylinders, which had been exhaus