he _Flying Fish_, her name temporarily masked by tarpaulins
carelessly dropped over it, ranged up on the other craft's starboard
quarter, close enough to heave a biscuit aboard her, this man paused in
his strutting march, and, standing at the extreme end of the bridge,
gazed with quite visible perturbation at the strange apparition that
seemed to have sprung from nowhere in particular within a very few
minutes; and presently, having meanwhile seemingly made up his mind that
what he beheld was really a ship, hailed in Russian--

"Ho, the ship ahoy! Port your helm, and sheer off a bit; you'll be
aboard me if you are not careful!" At the same time he waved his hand
to his own helmsman to starboard his helm.

But Mildmay was a British naval officer--a man who, by training and the
tradition of the Service, had acquired the habit of prompt resolution,
and an equal promptitude of action in the conversion of such resolution
into an accomplished fact. The helmsman of the _Ludwig Gadd_,
therefore, had scarcely begun to revolve his steering-wheel ere the
_Flying Fish_, with her speed accurately reduced to that of the other
vessel, had sheered still closer, while von Schalckenberg, prompted by
his companion, hailed in Russian, through one of the pilot-house ports--

"_Ludwig Gadd_, ahoy! Is your captain on deck?"

"No, he is not," bawled back the Russian officer. "Why should he be on
deck at this unearthly hour of the morning? And if you do not instantly
sheer off, I will give orders to my men to open fire upon you! What do
you want? and what do you mean by sheering up alongside me in this
manner?"

The professor rapidly translated this communication to Mildmay, and at
once, again prompted by the latter, replied--

"Be good enough to stop your engines at once, sir, and send a message to
your captain that his presence is required on the bridge. I have an
important communication to make to him. And, for your own sake, you
will do well to say nothing about opening fire upon us; for, as you may
see for yourself, our machine-gun is already trained to sweep your
decks, while a single torpedo would suffice to blow you out of the
water. I beg to assure you that resistance is quite useless; you are
absolutely at our mercy, and you will therefore be well advised to yield
prompt obedience to our request!"

The Russian stood staring with mingled fury and bewilderment for a few
seconds; and then, having apparently arrived at th