like toys.
Just under them there was a very big one with four funnels pouring out
dense volumes of black smoke. Redgrave took up a pair of glasses, looked
at her for a moment and said:

"That's the _Deutschland_, the new Hamburg-American record-breaker.
Suppose we go down and have a lark with her. I wonder if she's taking
news of the war. We're in with Germany, and they may know something
about it."

"That would be just too lovely!" said Zaidie. "Let's go and show them
how _we_ can break records. I suppose they've seen us by this time and
are just wondering with all their wits what we are. I guess they'll feel
pretty tired about poor Count Zeppelin's balloon when they see _us_."

Redgrave noted the "we" and the "us" with much secret satisfaction.

"All right," he said, "we'll go and give them a bit of a startler."

In front of the conning-tower there was a steel flagstaff about ten feet
high, with halliards rove through a sheer in the top. He took a little
roll of bunting out of a locker under the desk, opened a glass slide,
brought in the halliards and bent the flag on.

Meanwhile the long shape of the great liner was getting bigger and
bigger. Her decks were black, with people staring up at this strange
apparition which was dropping upon them from the clouds. Another minute
and the _Astronef_ had dropped to within five hundred feet of the water,
and about half a mile astern of the _Deutschland_. Redgrave turned the
wheel back two or three inches and touched a second button.

The _Astronef_ stopped her descent instantly, and then she shot forward.
The new greyhound was making her twenty-two and a half knots, hurling a
broad white torrent of foam away from under her counters. But in half a
minute the _Astronef_ was alongside her.

Redgrave ran the roll of bunting up to the top of the flagstaff, pulled
one of the halliards, and the White Ensign of England floated out.
Almost at the same moment the German flag went up to the staff at the
stern of the _Deutschland_, and they heard a roar of cheers, mingled
with cries of wonder, come up from her swarming decks.

Each flag was dipped thrice in due course. Redgrave took off his cap and
bowed to the Captain on the bridge. Zaidie nodded and fluttered her
handkerchief in reply to hundreds of others that were waving on the
decks. Mrs. Van Stuyler woke up in wonder and waved hers instinctively,
half longing to change crafts. In fact, if it hadn't been for her
absolute d