later, he was joined by von Schalckenberg, who in his
turn was quickly followed by George, bearing on a tray two cups of
scalding hot coffee and a small plate of biscuits.

The light of the coming day had by this time so far increased that the
occupants of the pilot-house were enabled to see somewhat of their
surroundings. The first discovery made by them was that they had outrun
the gale of the previous night, and were now sweeping through an
atmosphere that, judging from the appearance of the few small shreds of
cloud that floated about and above them, must be nearly or quite
motionless. And the next was that, as a result of this change of
weather, the _Flying Fish_ was fully one hundred miles from the spot
where, in accordance with their calculations of the previous night, she
ought at that moment to have been. According to those calculations she
ought then to have been clear of the land and well out over the Black
Sea, whereas the land was still beneath the ship, although, so clear was
the atmosphere, the gleam of sea could just be detected on the extreme
verge of the southern horizon, some eighty-five miles ahead. But this,
after all, was a matter of very trifling import; it would defer the
capture of the _Ludwig Gadd_ to the extent of about an hour only, which
Mildmay and the professor agreed was "neither here nor there."
Meanwhile, there was just one trifling item of preparation to be
attended to, and, having leisurely imbibed their morning coffee and
munched a biscuit or two, they stopped the engines of the _Flying Fish_,
and retired from the pilot-house to attend to it. Treading noiselessly
in their india rubber-soled shoes, they descended to one of the
storerooms, throwing open the door giving access to the deck on their
way, and there loaded themselves with a number of queer-looking objects
constructed of aethereum, with which they wended their way to the deck.
Arrived here, they sought out a certain spot on the deck, about midway
between the pilot-house and the fore end of the superstructure, and
quite close to the port rail; and, having found it, they at once
proceeded to remove three small aethereum discs from the deck,
disclosing three sunk bolt-holes so arranged as to form the angles of an
equilateral triangle measuring eighteen inches along each side. The top
ends of the bolts in these holes revealed themselves about a quarter of
an inch below the level of the deck, and were easily grasped by the