The Stolen Submarine

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue VIII, 20 August 1904, Page 6

The Stolen Submarine

By

GEORGE GRIFFITH.

Author of " The Angel of the Revolution," “ Brothers of the Chain," The White Witch of Mayfair," " The World Masters," &c,

BOOK lII.—THE EINAL EIGHT.

CHAPTER V 11. POSSIBILITIES. Behind the great armour-plate factory at .Nagasaki three long, low-roofeu, wooden sheds had been erected since the arrival of the Zamta. Day and night all approach to them had been guarded by sentries, who were relieved at unexpected intervals. Sometimes a man might i.e on duty for an hour or an hour and a-half; sometimes he would be relieved in ten minutes; and sometimes he would be marched up, exchange guard, receive the countersign, and marched away again, after which a third man would be marched up and given a different countersign. The reason for these precautions was that the double 12ft high barbed wire fence which surrounded the three sheds enclosed the most valuable property that Japan or any other military nation had ever possessed. In each shed there was lying on trestles a structure 150 ft long by 40 broad in the centre-line, tapering to a blunt curve at either end. From roof to floor the distance was 16ft, and above the roof was another domed roof, extending from stem to stern, composed of steel and glass. At the front of this rose a sort of conning-tower, on the top of which was a searchlight projector, so balanced that the rays could be thrown up or down and in any direction, to right or left, and fore or aft. On either side were three lateral rudders, each 40ft long by 20ft broad, made of aluminium sheeting in steel frames. Underneath each of these was a fourbladed fan, 15ft in the sweep, constructed to revolve horizontally, and placed low enough to work clear of the planes at any possible angle.

Astern there were three driving screws, also of aluminium, rimmed with mild steel, and ahead a drawing one. The central propellers, fore and aft. were four-bladed and 18ft in diameter. The two side-screws aft were 12ft in diameter, and of a slightly different pitch.

Underneath the body of the vessel was a light steel framework 12ft in depth, carrying six 30in pneumatic-tyred bicycle wheels. This framework was constructed on the canti-lever principle, so as to give the greatest possible resistance with the smallest possible amount of weight.

Forward and aft two tubes, almost exactly resembling the ordinary naval torpedo tube, projected through the bottom of the vessel, swung on double ball joints, which enabled them to work horizontally and downwards through an are of IGOdeg. Over the stern was a

flagstaff, and, just behind the conningtower, was a socket for a 50ft pole-mast for signalling purposes. This is a brief description of the first aerial vessel that ever took the air in warfare. For the sake of accuracy, it may be stated that although Mark Hillyer, who had evolved it from the designs of Prof. Langley and Sir Hiram Maxim, plus some original ideas of his own, had placed the squadron at the disposal of the Japanese Government for the time being, it was still under his own absolute command.

As they lay in the sheds, the airships were as useless as a body without a soul, as helpless, in fact, as the Mermaid would have been lying at the bottom of the sea with her engines deprived of their motive power.

This meant everything. The Zanita was to all outward appearances, a steamer, and smoke came from her two funnels, but it was only the smoke of little coal fires underneath them, which were lit when any other craft came in sight. As a matter of fact, she had neither furnaces nor boilers. She was driven, as the Mermaid was, and as the airships would be, by the motive power, more tightly reined and more perfectly under control, which, in another form, had produced such frightful results during the silent bombardment of the Donovoi. The materials for the construction of the aerial flotilla had been carried out in the Zanita, and after the exhibition of the Mermaid’s powers the Mikado’s Government had accepted the almost incredible proposition that Hillyer had made, but one very considerable difficulty had arisen. Hillyer had proved to the satisfaction of the best engineers in Japan that these airships would fly and would be able to make headway against even a gale blowing at 65 miles an hour, that they could maintain themselves at a height of five or six thousand feet for a week if necessary, and return to their base of operation, but yet absolutely refused to disclose the secret of the motive power. During his interview with the Mikado in Tokio he had been asked point-blank what this power was, and he had replied: “I am only mortal, and, with all respect. I do not think that such a pow er as this should be given into the hands of another mortal.” And to this the head of the Govern ment had replied: “But why not? If one mortal can wield it w-hy not two or three?” “Simply because human civilisation has not yet reached that degree of perfection which would make it possible for

two men to trust each other absolutely. As civilisation stands at present absolute power is not within the region of what I may call practical politics. “Two men knowing this secret would certainly fight each other to the death, possibly they would kill each other, and so the secret of the world-power would be lost, and that is just why I do not propose to give if away. I have shown you what the Mermaid can do, and as soon as the mechanical details are completed I will show you what the cruisers of the air can do, but the motive power is mine only.

“I will use it in your service as far as necessary- to win what I believe you ought to win. I will make land warfare as impossible to the Russians as I will make the command of the sea if I can find and destroy L’Anonyme; but that must be left to me.

“I will guarantee that the airships shall be as efficient in the air as the Mermaid has been proved to be under the water, and they shall be under your command as regards all manoeuvres that you may consider necessary; but this is only on condition that no officer who may be in command of any of these vessels makes any attempt to discover what the motive power is. If he does—well, your Majesty, I may say that I have so arranged matters that if he tries he and the airship and everyone on board of her will be in Eternity before he can hear the clock of Time tick.”

And so it was arranged. The engines were put in place, all the details of machinery for driving, lifting, or diving were completed according to the plans, and the six airships remained motionless and helpless until Mark Hillyer endowed them with the life of their being. He had spent a couple of days after his return from Shanghai in a very minute inspection of the work that had been done in the sheds, and at ten o’clock on the morning of the third day he asked the admiral in command of the port to come on board the first completed cruiser of the air, which he had already named the Marian, and take a trip with him beyond the clouds, which were hanging low above the yellow waters which washed the shores of Nagasaki Bay. CHAPTER VIH. THE PRINCESS ADVISES. "To His Excellency the Viceroy commanding in Manchuria. Begins. Are you prepared to evacuate the fortresses of Port Arthur and Vladivostock, and to retire your troops from Harbin within seven days? If not the Japanese Government will be compelled to take measures to make these positions untenable. This message is sent in the hope of avoiding great loss of life and destruction of property, and it tis hoped that a favourable reply may be received

to it. Ends. —KASHAMA, Minister of War, Nagasaki.” “Well, signora, what do you think of that?” said the Viceroy as he handed the cablegram to the princess in the drawing-room of Admiralty House at Port Arthur.

She read it through and folded it up, gave it back to him, and said: “Your Excellency, it obviously means one of two things. If Japan can do that, you had better end the war at once. If not, of course, you will simpiy treat it as a mere bluff. I have shown you what I can do with my own vessel. Before the last attack Japan held command of the sea. That is more than twenty days ago. Where is the Japanese fleet now? Why have there been no bombardments of Port Arthur or Vladivostoek for the last three weeks? In short, why have hostilities come to such a sudden stop?” “Exactly, of course I see what you mean. Thanks to you, we regained the command of the sea for the time being, but if this means anything at all it means more than that. We are called upon to evacuate Port Arthur, Vladivostoek, and Harbin, an absolutely preposterous demand on the face of it. But, at the same time, Baron Kashama is not quite the sort of man to make a threat like that unless there is something behind it.” “No,” said the princess slowly, “1 don’t suppose he is. I wonder if they’ve got a submarine, too?” “Well, considering what took place at Vladivostoek,” replied the Viceroy, “I’m afraid it looks as though they had. But Harbin, about 500 miles from here and 250 from Vladivostoek! Even if they have a submarine what could that do? Submarines can’t fly, you know.”

“Ah! yes, fly, I wonder if that is what it means?”

“What, fly! Surely you don’t suggest that the problem of the ages has been solved —and by these islanders? That will mean the end of everything, but surely that must be quite out of the question.” “To repeat your own words, Excellency, I don’t see what other construction could be put upon a demand like this from a man who six weeks ago was one of the Mikado’s representatives in London, and who was recalled very suddenly, and certainly not because of any fau4t of his. From what I know of him I should say that he had come out East because there was some rather important work for him to do. And if the Japs really have the power of executing the threat about Harbin, it can only mean that they have not only a submarine but an airship as well, because the idea of their having troops at Harbin in any force is absolutely ridiculous.”

“Quite so; but what do you consider ought to be done under the circumstances, granted that your supposition is right?” replied the Viceroy. “You see, you have done us such very great service already that your counsel must necessarily be welcome to us.” “It is very good of your Excellency to say so,” said the princess, laughing with a lightness of manner which seemed to him somewhat strange under the circumstances. “And, if my advice is of any use, I should say that you should give me the Sokold as my seout, and let her tow the Sea-snake round the Japanese ports so that I can pay a succession of visits to their warships and sink them where they lie.

“You see, they have evidently gone back into harbour, and are waiting there until they have something which can fight my vessel; and so I should think that the best policy would be to cripple their navy as far as possible before they can strike the next blow. You can, of course, be quite certain that no harm will come to the Sokold, at least, from the sea or beneath it Of course, if Baron Kashama really means airships, I cannot guarantee to defend her against them.” “Your advice, signora, is perfectly sound,” replied the Viceroy. “Granted that this threat can be carried out. it is naturally for us to strike the first blow, and yours is the only hand that can strike it. The Sokold shall be at your service whenever you want her.” “The Sea-Snake shall be ready bynightfall, and by to-morrow morning we should be off Chemulpho, if that will fit in with your Excellency’s plans.” “Signora, all that is here is at your disposal. The Sokold shall put to sea

when you please. Come back victorious —and there is nothing that Holy Russia can give you that you may not ask for.”

“Either I shall come back victorious. Excellency, or not at all. This is not only for Holy Russia. It is for West or East. It is a question whether we shall win or these yellow barbarians, whose civilisation, after all, is only like the polish on a boot. We shall leave the harbour, if you please, at eight tonight, and if we come baek it will mean that Japan has no fleet. If we don’t then the rest must be left to yourself and his Majesty.” As she said this Mark Hillyer, 650 miles away in Nagasaki, sitting in the conning-tower of the Marian, took the receiver of the telephone down, and said to his engineer: “Are you there, Hawkins? Start the lifting fans. Rise to a hundred feet, and then half-speed ahead with the propellers.” And the reply came back: “All ready, sir, we can rise at once.” CHAPTER IX. WAR FROM THE CLOUDS. The expedition which started on that memorable day from Nagasaki was quite the strangest that ever put to sea since organised warfare began. The Marian rose to a height of a thousand feet amidst a thunder of guns and a roar of cheers. Almost immediately below her, and connected with her by a long, light telephone cable, floated the Zanita, and below her, also connected by cable, ran the Mermaid, 20 fathoms under water.

Thus Hillyer in the conning-tower of the airship was able to instantly direct the movements of the other two vessels, and it was absolutely impossible for any craft, whether on the water, below it, or above it, to eome within the radius of action without being detected. As it was not desired to give the enemy any idea of what was going to happen, he made his course to the southward of the Goto Islands, and then straight out to sea on the course to Shanghai as far as the 124th meridian of longitude, after which he steered due north to the Shanlung promontory. He then shaped the Zanita’s course for the Lao-Thie-Shan Channel to the south of Port Arthur, and then ran northwestward to New-chwang, where the railway from Harbin and Mukden touches the sea.

At the same time, the Sea-Snake in tow of the Sokold, was making her way southward at 18 knots to Chemulpho. some hundred miles to the eastward.

“I am going to leave you now. Captain Norman,” said Hillyer over the wire, just before dark on the evening of the fourth day out from Nagasaki. “Captain Merkett will sink any Russian vessels that there are in the port, and you will bombard the town during the night at five miles’ range. I’ll give you a helping hand from the air, and drop a shell or two on the railway station. Then I shall get along to Harbin and wake them up there. After that I’ll make a call at Vladivostoek, and meet you and Captain Merkett at Nagasaki in three days from now. Just see that you and Captain Merkett quite understand what’s to be done, then I’ll be off. We’re about ten miles from the town, now, and I don’t want them to see me.”

“All right, sir,” replied Captain Norman’s voice over the wire. “I’m just talking to Captain Merkett now.” “Very well; let me know when you’re going to disconnect the cable.”

With the help of his glasses Hillyer could now just see the great port and railway junction of New-chwang at the head of its flat, muddy bay. It had all along been expected that the Japanese would make a landing in force here as soon as they had assured themselves of the command of the sea. but since the fatal action off Port Arthur, in which the Sea-Snake had done such deadlv work, the flag of the Rising Sun had praetieallv disappeared from the waters of the Yellow Sea. The form of attack which was about to be used now was naturally the very last that the Russians expected, and. moreover, it was an attack, practically to which the Russians eould make no reply. A few minutes later the telephone bell rang again in the conning-tower of the Marian, and Captain Norman said: “It’s all right, Mr Hillyer, we fully understand you as far as New-chwang is concerned, but would you like us to

have a look in at Port Arthur as we go back ?” “No,” he replied, “we want Port Arthur left severely alone until the seven days are up. Of course, if Captain Merkett can come across L’Anonyme he must fight her, and either ram her or blow her up; but I hardly think you’ll hear anything about her until you get back to Nagasaki. Still, there’s no objection to his having a run into Port Arthur and looking around, but I don’t want him to let them know that he’s there, and you must be careful to keep well out of sight. If you sight any. Russian ship run away for all you’re worth.” “Very well, sir, we both quite understand that. Shall I let go?” “Yes,” replied Hillyer. “Goodbye! See you at Nagasaki.” “Good-bye, sir!” The telephone cable was cast off from the Zanita, and rolled up on the drum in the engine-room of the Marian, and as soon as this was done Hillyer took down the mouth-piece of the speaking tube, and said: “Now, Mr Hawkins, give us another 2000 feet, please, and let us have 50 miles ahead.” “Very good, sir, all ready.” The lifting fans quickened up, and Hillyer saw the icebound shores of the Gulf of Liao-tong sink away into the twilight beneath him. At the same time the land began to slip away behind him ever faster and faster. So far the trial trip of the Marian had been a perfect success. Her machinery had worked with absolute smoothness, and she had proved herself to be under such complete control that he had more than once said to himself -when he was in the conningtower, putting the wonderful fabric through her paces: “You beauty, wouldn't I give something to have your name-mother here, and give her her first lesson in aerial navigation! Well, if everything comes off all right, we shall certainly have one of the jolliest honeymoon trips that the most deserving of wedded lovers ever had. Only a good many things have got to happen before that, I’m afraid. Meanwhile. we’ll have a word or two with our friends in New-chwang. I certainly like the Russian idea of a neutral port. I suppose they would like to make the air neutral in the same sense. Really, what these Russians don’t want isn’t worth having.”

The lights of New-chwang were almost below him now, but coming rapidly towards him, for in an airship, as in a balloon, there is no sense of motion, since at any considerable speed it it necessary to have the whole of the working parts of the vessel hermetically sealed. Just now the Marian was travelling nearly 60 miles an hour through the air. which meant that half a hurricane was tearing along her decks. The wire stays of her signal mast were singing like fiddle-strings, and her whole hull was beginning to vibrate with the everquiekening speed of her engines. “I am afraid, my Marian, if you were only here now you would find a certain amount of brutality in this sort of business. Who am I. after all, that I should

wield the thunderbolts of Jove, and fling death and destruction from the skies on those helpless people down yonder? Still, I promised you —and it’s got to be done. Anyhow, this is mercy compared with what happened at Blagowestchensk, and the most merciful way of waging war is, after all, the most merteiless. Are you there, Mr Hawkins?”

“Yes, sir. Do you wish any more speed?”

"No. Put a little more power on the lifting fans and slow down to 20 miles an hour as we go over the town. I am going up spirally. Be ready with your two after tubes. Fire shell and keep an eye on the Zanita. When her first shell bursts let go both tubes and then give me 80 miles an hour.” “Very good, sir!”

I'he Marian began circling upwards as the lights of New-chwang came underneath her. She gained a height of 5000 feet, and came to a standstill almost immediately over the railway station. Then her driving propellers stopped, and she floated invisible above the thin, drifting clouds. Hillyer watched the tow’n through his glasses as the clouds drove past underneath them. He had one hand on the steering wheel and in the other he held the speaking-tube communicating with the engine-room, and, for the first time in human history, a mere mortal waited with the chained lightnings in his hand to launch them upon those who could neither see whence they came nor reply to them. A blaze of greenish fire flashed up from the middle of the town, eclipsing the electric lights round the railway station for the moment. He put the mouthpiece of the speaking tube to his lips and said: “Ready with your port after tube, Mr Hawkins. On the station where those electric lights are. Are you ready? Yes. Let go.” A 501 b shell was let go in obedience to Hillyer’s order and struck the roof of the railway station. Another followed it almost instantaneously, and within five minutes the station of New-chwang had ceased to exist. “That’s about enough for them, Mr. Hawkins,” said Hillyer through the tube. “Eighty miles now, please.” He gripped a lever by the side of the steering-wheel, drew it slowly towards him, and the clouds sank far away below the Marian, and New-chwang disappeared. In five hours the airship was floating over Harbin at an elevation of 4000 feet. Again he released his lightnings, and the junction where the lines to Vladivostock and Port Arthur meet ceased to exist, smitten into nothingness by his irresistible explosives. Then the Marian swung round at right angles to the eastward, and in three hours he saw the lights of Vladivostoek approaching him. “Two more of those shells, Mr. Hawkins, please, and then we'll go home. As soon as the forts are under us, good. Now, let go.” One shell hit the cathedral, and reduced it to a heap of rubbish. The other fell in the harbour and smashed the cruiser Pal-

litza to scrap-iron. Then Hillyer gave a turn to the steering-wheel, and the Marian swung round to the southward and headed home to Nagasaki. CHAPTER X. “ LATEST INTELLIGENCE.” “After a long lull in the operations in the Far East, we are at length enabled to publish news which is, perhaps, the most extraordinary that has ever been published in this, or any other newspaper. So extraordinary is it that we should have hesitated to print it had it not come from a correspondent whose reputation and long connection with this journal places him beyond the suspicion of sensationalism.

“New-chwang has been bombarded from the sea and from the air, and almost

wholly destroyed. Harbin and Vladivostoek have apparently suffered the same fate, although it was, of course, impossible that Harbin, situated at a distance of 260 miles from the sea, could have been attacked by naval warships, and it is this fact which makes the news which we publish this morning so astonishing. "To begin with, the naval bombardment of New-chwang was of a sort never before known. His Majesty’s ship Espiegle had left the port a few hours before the bombardment began. She reports that, five miles outside the harbour, she passed a grey-painted vessel steaming very fast, so fast, indeed, as to be almost invisible in the twilight, and when signalled she replied by hoisting the Japan ese flag. The searchlight of the Espiegle showed that she carried guns; but when the bombardment commenced no reports

were heard. The Espiegle stopped to watch the effects. Fires of great extent appeared to burst out in all parts of the town as though they had been the work of incendiaries.. The British cruiser steamed back towards the port, and, at a distance of half a mile from the entrance, she was halted by a submarine, which rose to the surface about a hundred yards from her port bow, and warned her by flashlight signals not to go any nearer in case of accidents. The submarine then sank, and presently a series of terrific explosions took place in the harbour. “About the same time faint flashes were seen high above the clouds, which were then thin and floating about 2000 feet above the land. Two explosions followed, which were distinctly felt on board the Espiegle. The bombardment then ceased. The submarine reappeared on the

surface of the water close to the British cruiser, and her captain was hailed, in English from her deck and told that he could now go into the port, as there would be no further attacks that night, either from the air or above or under sea. “The Espiegle’s searchlight had been turned on the submarine, and this made it evident that the unknown craft was of very large size, nearly 300 feet in length, as far as the captain of the cruiser could judge, and evidently much more formidable than any vessel of her kind so far known to exist. “It will be noticed that our correspondent’s report is substantiated by a telegram from the captain of the cruiser to the Admiralty, which we publish in another column. Other telegrams via Cheefoo, Hong-kong and St. Petersburg admit that Harbin and Vladivostock have

practically shared the same fate as Newchwang, or, at the least, have been most seriously threatened with similar destruction.

“From these astonishing facts theiT IS ♦nly one inference to be drawn. Warfare has entered upon a new stage. Battleships and cruisers have become useless, and forts merely represent a vain expenditure of money. Land operations cannot be conducted under the new conditions, simply because the bravest of men cannot keep their nerve when death and de» struction is being rained upon them from the skies, as most certainly happened at New-chwang, Harbin and Vladivostock.As regards sea warfare, the captain of the Espiegle states with ominous terseness that the submarine which interviewed him could have sunk his ship without giving any warning of her presence. She was not fitted with a perioseope, and yet she conducted the undersea bombardment, And was apparently in perfect control—which means that those in charge of her must be able to see under water. If that is the case it follows that the problem of submarine navigation has been solved, because a submarine whose commander ean see through water as we can see through air has the navies of the world at his mercy. “On the other hand, the facts which wo publish undoubtedly go to show that, not only do the Japanese possess a perfectly effective submarine, but that they have got command of the air as well. It is hardly necessary to add that the very gravest possibilities may be anticipated from such a Combination of circumstances as this. Again and again it has been predicted that those who gained command of the air and the sea would be able to dictate terms to the whole human race, and if the genius of the Island Empire has accomplished this tremendous feat we can only hope that the Mikado’s Government will use its practically unlimited powers in the cause of peace and civilisation. Judging by the conduct of the war up to the present, we have no doubt whatever that Japan will be as merciful as she is now, within the human sense of the word, omnipotent.’’ The above paragraphs are extracts from the leading article which appeared in the “Times” two days after the Marian had paid her visit to Vladivostock and headed southward to Nagasaki. The evening papers of the same day contained the equally astonishing news that three Japanese cruisers and five destroyers had been sunk in the harbour of Chemulpho. They had been blown up as they lay at anchor, and so terribly, Were they damaged that not a soul on board escaped. Eye-witnesses described them as heaving up out of the water and then settling down into the depths. It could not have been the work of destroyers or torpedo boats, because none of these eraft had been seen off the port for several days. The only inference was that the destruction had been effected by a vessel similar to that which had wrought such havoc in the harbour of Niu-chwang, and so all the world was Set wondering whether this terror of the underseas was one or two. If both Russia and Japan possessed one, find if Japan also possessed a fleet of airships, or even one, it was only a question now of days or even hours when the newspapers would publish accounts of horrors happening on land and sea and under the sea at which humanity Would stand aghast, It is hardly necessary If) say that this

news had been read with intense interest literally from one end of the civilised world to the other. But there were five people Who read it with greater interest than any other of the fifteen hundred millions of human beings on the face of the earth could have done.

One of these was the Emperor of All the Russian, who received the first news overland in the room in the Winter Palace at Petersburg, which he had converted into a telegraph office, and which was in direct communication by overland wire with Port Arthur, Harbin, .Vladivostock, and all the stations westward of Harbin along the Siberian railway. There was no doubt in His Majesty’s mind that the news was correct. It had come to him through his most trusted advisers in the Far East, and at a time when the greatest military genius of Russia, the Skobeleff of the twentieth century, had almost reached the military junction at Harbin two hours too late for the destruction which must have befallen his armoured train had it run into the station at the moment when the shells from the Marian fell upoh the depot. As soon as telegraphic communication with Moscow and Petersburg was restored his telegram had followed the one from Niu-chwang, and, four hours after this, had come another from the admiral in command at Vladivostock, saying that a shell had fallen from the air into the centre of the town and set several buildings on fire, and that another had dropped on the dockyard on the northern shore of Zolostoi Harbour which had produced most disastrous results. This is the only dock in Vladivostock ■which is capable of taking a battleship or large cruiser. The first-class cruiser Moscawya was in the dock at the time. The shell struck her stern and blew her afterpart to fragments, setting her on fire at the same moment. The concussion was so tremendous that it also smashed the dock gates, and therefore, the water from the outer harbour rushed in and flooded the dock. Half her crew and all the workmen who were employed in cleaning the underbody of the cruiser were drowned. “This is a nice sort of thing, isn’t it?” said Sir Julius Ackerman to his brother across the breakfast table. “Just look at that. If that’s true we’re just about as deep in the soup as Erskine himself is.” He tossed the middle page of the “Times” over to Randal, and there was n silence of about four minutes. Then Randal said, putting the sheet down beside his coffee-cup: “I think that’s quite good enough, Julius. Ws’re beaten, and so is Erskine. My advice is—call those loans down at once. We stand to lose a million over them if you don’t. Hillyer has got us. That submarine and those airships can’t belong to anyone but him, and the sooner we get otlt the better. Wo can’t gamble like that.” “I think you’re about right, Randal,” replied his brother, taking a sip of his coffee. “That Russian loan will not come off, and I'm getting a little bit anxious about that message from Mrs Erskine. ‘Personally responsible’ means ———” “Well, something with boiling oil in

it, I suppose, as Gilbert said, I certainly do not like the prospect.” “Neither do I,” replied Julius, “but, under the circumstances, I suppose, having done what we have done so far; we*** got to stand the racket.” “I suppose so,” said Randal, taking out a cigarette and lighting it, “and there*® just this consolation left to us, that Erskine has got to do the same.” Sir Victor Erskine had also read his “Times” during breakfast, and he read it alone, and when he had finished the leading article and the cables upon which it was based, he flung the paper away and said: “Well, that looks like the end of it. I wonder what the brothers Ackerman will have to say about this? It must be true, I suppose, and if it is I win and they lose. I think I may as well ask them round to my place this morning. Yes, come in.” “Telegram, sir. Boy’s waiting to know if there’s any rtply.” The envelope was marked Eastern Telegraph Company, and he tore it open with a certain amount of apprehension as well as haste. Again the grip of the Japanese censorship had been loosened, and what he read this time was in plain English, to the following effect: “Be good enough to see Sir Julius and Mr Randal Ackerman as soon as possible after receipt of this, and inform them that all news as to doings of airship and submarine may be taken as correct. Your brother is here with me now, and both he and Mr Hillyer ask me to tell you that any further hostile action on your part will mean a visit of one of the aerial cruisers to England and summary justice done upon all three of you. One word spoken or written with reference to cheque transactions will mean sentence of death. —Leone.” Sir Victor got up and went into the library, saying to his mam “Tell that boy to wait and get him tC cab.” Then he wrote the follqjving note to Sir Julius: “I have just received the enclosed from Nagasaki. I presume it will ba about as interesting to you and your brother as it is to me. Personally, I propose to climb down. You can do as you please. The money that I have

gambled on peace remains where it is. —Yours faithfully, Victor Erskine." About ten minutes before this MaiUn Ttnnsdale, Bitting in a hammock chair on the upper verandah of Sbepheard's Hotel in Cairo, was reading with great satisfaction another cablegram from Nagasaki: “We have raised the fur of the Bear very considerably. As far as we know now, he ean neither swim nor walk. You may take it from me that reports published in responsible papers describing actions under-sea, on surface, and iti air are substantially correct. I have taken the liberty of calling the first airship used in warfare Marian. When the trouble is over I shall bring her to England and take you for a trip in her. —MARK HILLYER.” (To be continued.)