ter had
asked him as a personal favour to do so.

They ran back quietly to Copenhagen at twenty knots, and Oscarovitch and
the Professor went ashore to send off a few telegrams, leaving Nitocris,
for her own reasons, to make herself at home on the yacht. They returned
in time to dress for dinner and enjoy a stroll on the broad upper deck,
and watch the sunset over the town and the quickly-increasing sparkle of
the myriad lights on shore and sea. When they came up after dinner,
these lights were only represented by a luminous haze glimmering under
the stars to the northward. The _Grashna_ was heading nearly due south
at an easy speed towards the Baltic Islands.

Something told both Nitocris and her father that the decisive hour would
come soon, and they were both prepared for its advent.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PROFESSOR

The Prince and the Professor sat up in the smoking-room for a
considerable time after Nitocris had retired. Oscarovitch was doing his
utmost to persuade his guest to revoke his decision as to the creation
of the aerial warships. Franklin Marmion's simple announcement, which he
never thought for a moment of disbelieving, had filled his mind with new
ideas, which were rapidly taking the shape of gorgeous dreams of an
empire such as mortal man had never ruled over before. All his present
designs faded away into mere trivialities in comparison with this
splendid conception. He pictured Nitocris, as his consort, Empress of
the air, and himself Lord of earth and sea and sky. But all his subtle
arguments, all his delicately-put suggestions, and his skilfully framed
promises failed to produce the slightest effect upon the genially
inflexible man, who quietly turned them all aside, as a grown man might
deal with the arguments of a boy.

The thought that this man who was lying back in his deep-seated
armchair, holding a cigar in a white, delicately-shaped hand which was
strong enough to shake the world to its foundations, should possess
such a tremendous power and yet refuse to use it, as quietly as he might
have declined an invitation to dinner, exasperated him almost beyond the
bounds of patience. If he would only join forces with him what glories
might they not achieve, what splendours of power and possession might
not be theirs! Here was universal empire, in one sense, only a couple of
yards away from him! In another it was more distant than the suns which
flame in Space beyond