t happen to encounter during the hours
of darkness--maintaining a tolerably uniform speed of ten knots through
the air--not counting the acceleration or retardation of speed due to
the varying direction and strength of the several winds that they met
with. Thus they had been able to sleep at night with wide open ports,
to their great comfort and enjoyment, and the manifest improvement of
their health, as was particularly exemplified in the case of little Ida,
who was by this time as well as even her parents could desire.

The hour was eleven o'clock in the forenoon--six bells, Mildmay called
it--and the ship had been running on the surface for about an hour. The
entire party were sitting out on deck under the awnings, amusing
themselves in various ways, the two ladies, each with a book on her lap,
to which it is to be feared she was giving but scant attention, and Ida,
her father, Lethbridge, and the Russian colonel playing bull. It was a
most lovely day, the sky without a cloud, the water smooth, and a soft
but refreshing breeze was breathing out from the southward. The ship
was steering herself, the self-steering apparatus having been thrown
into action, as no other craft were in sight.

The horizon was not to remain bare for very long, however; for just as
Mildmay rose to his feet with some idea of going below, the dull,
muffled boom of a distant gun was heard, and, everybody at once looking
round the horizon in search of the source of so very novel an
occurrence, the topmast-heads and smoke of a steamer were seen just
showing above the ocean's rim, about three points on the starboard bow.
She seemed to be in a hurry, too, if the dense volumes of smoke that
poured from her as yet unseen funnels were to be taken as any criterion.

"Now, what craft will that be?" exclaimed "the skipper," as he studied
the two mastheads attentively. "A liner, I should say, by the length of
her between her masts. Probably an `Orient,' `Orient-Pacific,' or `X.
and Z.' boat. But surely she did not fire that gun? And, if she did
not--oho! what is this? There is another craft astern of her! I can
just make out her mastheads rising above the horizon. Now, did number
two fire that gun; and, if so, why? I must get my glasses; this
promises to be interesting. And we shall see more of it presently; they
are crossing our hawse in a diagonal direction, and edging this way."

The game of bull was forthwith abandoned, as being of much