n. First Baltimore, then
Philadelphia, and then New York saw the flashes in the sky. There were
illuminations, torchlight processions, and all the machinery of American
electioneering going at full blast. But when people saw, far away up in
the starlit night, those swiftly-changing beams glittering down, as it
were, out of infinite Space, and when the telegraph operators caught on
to the fact that they were signals, a sort of awe seemed to come over
both Republicans and Democrats alike. Even Tammany's thoughts began to
lift above the sordid level of boodle. It was almost like a message from
another world. There was something supernatural about it, and when it
was translated and rushed out in extra editions of the evening papers:
"Vote for sound men and sound money" became the watchword of millions.

From New York to Boston, Boston to Albany, and then across country to
Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha--then westward to St. Paul and
Minneapolis, and northward to Portland and Seattle, southward to San
Francisco and Monterey, then eastward again to Salt Lake City, and then,
after a leap across the Rockies which frightened Mrs. Van Stuyler almost
to fainting point and made Zaidie gasp for breath, away southward to
Santa Fe and New Orleans.

Then northward again up the Mississippi Valley to St. Louis, and thence
eastward across the Alleghanies back to Washington--such was the famous
night-voyage of the _Astronef_, and so by means of that long silver
tongue of light did she spread the message of common-sense and
commercial honesty throughout the length and breadth of the Great
Republic. The world knows how America received and interpreted it the
next day.

Meanwhile Mr. Russell Rennick had taken train to Washington, and the day
after the election he willingly took back all that he had intended with
regard to the Marquis of Byfleet, accepted Lord Redgrave in his stead,
and bestowed his avuncular blessing at the wedding breakfast held in the
deck-chamber of the _Astronef_ poised in mid-air, five hundred feet
above the dome of the Capitol, a week later. To this he added a cheque
for a million dollars--payable to the Countess of Redgrave on her return
from her wedding trip.

Breakfast over, the wedding party made an inspection of the wonderful
vessel under the guidance of her Commander. After this, while they were
drinking their coffee and liqueurs, and the men were smoking their
cigars in the deck-chamber, a score of the mo