record in legal despatch accomplished, albeit very unwillingly, by
the men of law.

By midnight the _Lurline_, ostensibly bound for Queenstown, had
cleared the Sound, and, with the Eddystone Light on her port bow,
headed away at full-speed to the westward. She was about the fastest
yacht afloat, and at a pinch could be driven a good twenty-seven
miles an hour through the water. As both Natas and Tremayne were
anxious to join the air-ship as soon as possible, every ounce of
steam that her boilers would stand was put on, and she slipped along
in splendid style through the long, dark seas that came rolling
smoothly up Channel from the westward.

In an hour and a half after passing the Eddystone she sighted the
Lizard Light, and by the time she had brought it well abeam the first
interruption of her voyage occurred. A huge, dark mass loomed
suddenly up out of the darkness of the moonless night, then a
blinding, dazzling ray of light shot across the water from the
searchlight of a battleship that was patrolling the coast, attended
by a couple of cruisers and four torpedo-boats. One of these last
came flying towards the yacht down the white path of the beam of
light, and Tremayne, seeing that he would have to give an account of
himself, stopped his engines and waited for the torpedo-boat to come
within hail.

"Steamer ahoy! Who are you? and where are you going to at that
speed?"

"This is the _Lurline_, the Earl of Alanmere's yacht, from Plymouth
to Queenstown. We're only going at our usual speed."

"Oh, if it's the _Lurline_, you needn't say that," answered the
officer who had hailed from the torpedo-boat, with a laugh. "Is Lord
Alanmere on board?"

"Yes, here I am," said Tremayne, replying instead of his
sailing-master. "Is that you, Selwyn? I thought I recognised your
voice."

"Yes, it's I, or rather all that's left of me after two months in
this buck-jumping little brute of a craft. She bobs twice in the same
hole every time, and if it's a fairly deep hole she just dives right
through and out on the other side; and there are such a lot of
Frenchmen about that we get no rest day or night on this patrolling
business."

"Very sorry for you, old man; but if you will seek glory in a
torpedo-boat, I don't see that you can expect anything else. Will you
come on board and have a drink?"

"No, thanks. Very sorry, but I can't stop. By the way, have you heard
of that air-ship that was over this way this morning? I wond