marked the position of Coney Island.

Godfrey joined me presently, and we stood for some time looking at
this scene in silence.

"It's a great sight, isn't it?" he said, at last. "Hello! look at
that boat!" he added, as a yacht, coming down the bay, drew abreast
of us and then slowly forged ahead. "She can go some, can't she? This
boat of ours is no slouch, you know; but just look how that one walks
away from us. I wonder who she is? What boat is that, captain?" he
called to the man on the bridge.

"Don't know, sir," answered the captain, after a look through his
glasses. "Private yacht--can't make out her name--there's a flag or
something hanging over the stern. She's flying the French flag. There
come the other press boats behind us, sir," he added. "And there's
the _Savoie_ just slowing down at quarantine."

Far ahead we could see the great hull of the liner, dark against the
horizon, and crowned with row upon row of glowing lights.

"One doesn't appreciate how big those boats are until one sees them
from the water," I remarked. "Isn't she immense?"

"And yet she's not an especially big boat, either," said Godfrey. "To
swing in under the really big ones--like the _Olympic_--is an
experience to remember."

The _Savoie_ had by this time slowed down until she was just holding
her own against the tide, and one of her lower ports swung open. A
moment later, a boat puffed up beside her, made fast, and three or
four men clambered aboard and disappeared through the port.

"There go the doctors," said Godfrey. "And there is that French boat
going alongside."

The tug from quarantine dropped astern and the French yacht took her
place. After a short colloquy, one man from her was helped aboard the
_Savoie_. Then it was our turn, and after what seemed to me a
tremendous swishing and swirling at imminent risk of collision, we
swung up to the open port, a line was flung out and made fast, and a
moment later Godfrey and I and the other two men were aboard the
liner.

My companions exchanged greetings with the officer in charge of the
open port, and then we hurried forward along a narrow corridor,
smelling of rubber and heated metal, then up stair after stair, until
at last we came to the main companionway. Here the two men left us,
to seek certain distinguished passengers, I suppose, whose views upon
the questions of the day were (presumably) anxiously awaited by an
expectant public. Godfrey stopped in front of the pur