eparted from the Coldwater in one of the boats on such an
excursion. A gentle west wind was blowing. The sea shimmered in the
sunlight. A cloudless sky canopied the west for our sport, as I had
made it a point never voluntarily to make an inch toward the east that
I could avoid. At least, they should not be able to charge me with a
willful violation of the dead lines regulation.

I had with me only the boat's ordinary complement of men--three in all,
and more than enough to handle any small power boat. I had not asked
any of my officers to accompany me, as I wished to be alone, and very
glad am I now that I had not. My only regret is that, in view of what
befell us, it had been necessary to bring the three brave fellows who
manned the boat.

Our fishing, which proved excellent, carried us so far to the west that
we no longer could see the Coldwater. The day wore on, until at last,
about mid-afternoon, I gave the order to return to the ship.

We had proceeded but a short distance toward the east when one of the
men gave an exclamation of excitement, at the same time pointing
eastward. We all looked on in the direction he had indicated, and
there, a short distance above the horizon, we saw the outlines of the
Coldwater silhouetted against the sky.

"They've repaired the engines and the generators both," exclaimed one
of the men.

It seemed impossible, but yet it had evidently been done. Only that
morning, Lieutenant Johnson had told me that he feared that it would be
impossible to repair the generators. I had put him in charge of this
work, since he always had been accounted one of the best
gravitation-screen men in the navy. He had invented several of the
improvements that are incorporated in the later models of these
generators, and I am convinced that he knows more concerning both the
theory and the practice of screening gravitation than any living
Pan-American.

At the sight of the Coldwater once more under control, the three men
burst into a glad cheer. But, for some reason which I could not then
account, I was strangely overcome by a premonition of personal
misfortune. It was not that I now anticipated an early return to
Pan-America and a board of inquiry, for I had rather looked forward to
the fight that must follow my return. No, there was something else,
something indefinable and vague that cast a strange gloom upon me as I
saw my ship rising farther above the water and making straight in our