n as you have drawn the fire
of the Russians, and have seen an English fishing-boat struck, you
can go beneath the surface again, and make the best of your way back
to Kiel."

"Your plan is perfection itself, sire!" I exclaimed with an
admiration which was not wholly pretended, since the idea really was
not lacking in cleverness.

The Kaiser nodded good-humoredly.

"The Russians will never be persuaded they were not attacked first,
and the English will never pass over such an outrage in their own
waters," his majesty remarked complacently. "Lord Charles Beresford
will do the rest."

"I am ready to carry out your orders, sire. All I require is an
authority to take the submarine from Kiel."

The Kaiser frowned.

"Have you had any authority from me for anything you have done up to
the present, sir?" he demanded harshly.

As an answer in the negative was clearly expected, I gave it.

"Understand me, M. de Petrovitch, I repose every confidence in you;
but I should not have held this conversation with any man, even my
Chancellor, if I thought it could ever be used against me. If I gave
you the authority you ask for, I should not be able to deny that I
had ever employed you, in case of trouble."

"Then you propose, sire----?"

"I intend you to take this vessel secretly, without authority from me
or from any one else."

"And if I am caught in the act of taking it? If any of the naval
authorities question my movements?"

"You will not be caught. Your movements will not be questioned. I can
assure you of so much."

"I thank you, sire. That is quite sufficient."

I retired from the imperial presence, though not, as I have had some
reason to suspect, from the imperial observation. In other words, I
felt pretty well convinced that there would be a watch on my
movements till my task was over.

The same aide-de-camp awaited me outside the Hall of the
Hohenzollerns, and carried me back to my obscure hotel with the same
speed and silence as he had brought me.

The next morning I arose to find the papers filled with the news of
the departure of the Baltic Fleet from Libau.

The Russian Admiral, as if in obedience to the secret promptings of
Berlin, was reported as having issued a preposterous and illegal
warning that he should fire on any ship of any nation that presumed
to venture within reach of his guns. I could not help wondering what
would be thought of this proclamation in the British Admiralty.

There bei