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DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 The Glenn Negley Collection 
 of Utopian Literature 
 
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THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
MORRISON ANT> GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 
 
THE ANGEL OF . 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 
 GEORGE GRIFFITH 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 " OLGA ROMANOFF," " THE OUTLAWS OF 
 
 THE AIR," " VALDAR THE OFT-BORN," 
 
 "BRITON OR BOER?" "THE ROMANCE 
 
 OF GOLDEN STAR," ETC., ETC. 
 
 " East and West, North and 
 South, wherever the English 
 tongue is spoken, men must 
 clasp hands and forget all 
 other things save that they 
 are brothers of blood and 
 speech, and that the "juorld 
 is theirs if they choose to 
 take it. This is work that 
 cannot be done by any nation, 
 but only by a whole race 
 which, with millions of hands 
 and a single heart, devotes 
 itself to achieve success or 
 perish." — p. £47. 
 
 LONDON: 
 Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. 
 
 1897. 
 
 Copyrighted Abroad.] 
 
 [All Foreign Rights Reserved. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/angelofrevolutioOOgrif 
 
TO 
 
 CYRIL ARTHUR PEARSON 
 
 TO WHOSE SUGGESTION 
 
 THE WRITING OF THIS STORY 
 
 WAS PRIMARILY DUE 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR, 
 
 II. AT WAR WITH SOCIETY, 
 
 III. A FRIENDLY CHAT, 
 
 IV. THE HOUSE ON CLAPHAM COMMON, 
 V. THE INNER CIRCLE, 
 
 VI. NEW FRIENDS, . 
 
 VII. THE DAUGHTER OF NATAS, 
 
 VIII. LEARNING THE PART, . 
 
 IX. THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS, 
 
 X. THE "ARIEL," . 
 
 XI. FIRST BLOOD, . 
 
 XII. IN THE MASTER'S NAME, 
 
 XIII. FOR LIFE OR DEATH, . 
 
 XIV. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT, 
 XV. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY, 
 
 XVI. A WOOING IN MID-AIR, 
 
 XVII. AERIA FELIX, . 
 
 XVIII. A NAVY OF THE FUTURE, 
 
 XIX. THE EVE OF BATTLE, . 
 
 XX. BETWEEN TWO LIVES, . 
 
 XXI. JUST IN TIME, . 
 
 XXII. ARMED NEUTRALITY, . 
 
 XXIII. A BATTLE IN THE NIGHT, 
 
 XXIV. THE NEW WARFARE, . 
 
 XXV. THE HERALDS OF DISASTER, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 30 
 
 37 
 
 46 
 
 54 
 
 63 
 
 70 
 
 78 
 
 85 
 
 91 
 
 9S 
 
 103 
 
 110 
 
 119 
 
 127 
 
 135 
 
 141 
 
 153 
 
 162 
 
 169 
 
 179 
 
 188 
 
\ 111 
 
 Contents. 
 
 'HAP. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 xxxr. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 xxxnr. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 xxxv. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 XL. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 XL VIII. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 AX INTERLUDE, 
 
 OX THE TRACK OF TREASON, . 
 
 A SKIRMISH IX THE CLOUDS, . 
 
 AX EMBASSY FROM THE SKY, . 
 
 AT CLOSE QUARTERS, . 
 
 A RUSSIAN RAID, 
 
 THE END OF THE CHASE, 
 
 THE BREAKING OF THE CHARM, 
 
 THE PATH OF CONQUEST, 
 
 FROM CHAOS TO ARCADIE, 
 
 LOVE AND DUTY, 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF A CONTINENT, 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END, . 
 
 THE BATTLE OF DOVER, . 
 
 BELEAGUERED LONDON, 
 
 AN ENVOY OF DELIVERANCE, . 
 
 THE EVE OF ARMAGEDDON, 
 
 THE OLD LION AT BAY, 
 
 THE TURN OF THE BATTLE-TIDE, 
 
 ARMAGEDDON, , 
 
 VICTORY, 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF NATAS, 
 
 THE ORDERING OF EUROPE, 
 
 THE STORY OF THE MASTER, . 
 
 EPILOGUE. — "AND ON EARTH PEACE I 
 
THE ANGEL OE THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR. 
 
 ICTOEY ! It flies ! I am master of the Powers 
 of the Air at last ! " 
 
 They were strange words to be uttered, as 
 
 they were, by a pale, haggard, half-starved 
 
 looking young fellow in a dingy, comfortless 
 
 room °on the top floor of a South London 
 
 tenement-house; and yet there was a triumphant ring in his 
 
 voice, and a clear, bright flush on his thin cheeks that spoke at 
 
 least for his own absolute belief in their truth. 
 
 Let us see how far he was justified in that belief. 
 
 To becrin at the beginning, Eichard Arnold was one of those 
 men whom the world is wont to call dreamers and enthusiasts 
 before they succeed, and heaven-born geniuses and benefactors 
 of humanity afterwards. . 
 
 He was twenty-six, and for nearly six years past he had 
 devoted himself, soul and body, to a single idea— to the so lar 
 unsolved problem of aerial navigation. 
 
 This idea had haunted him ever since he had been able to 
 think logically at all— first dimly at school and then more 
 clearly at college, where hejhad carried everything before him 
 in mathematics and natural science, until it had at last become 
 a ruling passion that crowded everything else out ot his lite, 
 
The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and made him, commercially speaking, that most useless of 
 social units — a one-idea'd man, whose idea could not be put 
 into working form. 
 
 He was an orphan, with hardly a blood relation in the world. 
 He had started with plenty of friends, mostly made at college, 
 who thought he had a brilliant future before him, and therefore 
 looked upon him as a man whom it might be useful to know. 
 
 But as time went on, and no results came, these dropped off, 
 and he got to be looked upon as an amiable lunatic, who was 
 wasting his great talents and what money he had on impractic- 
 able fancies, when he might have been earning a handsome 
 income if he had stuck to the beaten track, and gone in for 
 practical work. 
 
 The distinctions that he had won at college, and the 
 reputation he had gained as a wonderfully clever chemist and 
 mechanician, had led to several oilers of excellent positions 
 in great engineering firms ; but to the surprise and disgust of 
 his friends he had declined them all. No one knew why, for 
 he had kept his secret with the almost passionate jealousy of 
 the true enthusiast, and so his refusals were put down to sheer 
 foolishness, and he became numbered with the geniuses who 
 are failures because they are not practical. 
 
 When he came of age he had inherited a couple of thousand 
 pounds, which had been left in trust to him by his father. 
 Had it not been for that two thousand pounds he would have 
 been forced to employ his knowledge and his talents conven- 
 tionally, and would probably have made a fortune. But it was 
 just enough to relieve him from the necessity of earning his 
 living for the time being, and to make it possible for him to 
 devote himself entirely to the realisation of his life-dream — at 
 any rate until the money was gone. 
 
 Of course he yielded to the temptation — nay, he never gave 
 the other course a moment's thought. Two thousand pounds 
 would last him for years ; and no one could have persuaded 
 him that with complete leisure, freedom from all other con- 
 cerns, and money for the necessary experiments, he would not 
 have succeeded long before his capital was exhausted. 
 
 So he put the money into a bank whence he could draw it 
 out as he chose, and withdrew himself from the world to work 
 out the ideal of his life. 
 
At the Eleventh Hour. 
 
 Year after year passed, and still success did not come. He 
 found practice very different from theory, and in a hundred 
 details he met with difficulties he had never seen on paper. 
 Meanwhile his money melted away in costly experiments 
 which only raised hopes that ended in bitter disappointment. 
 His wonderful machine was a miracle of ingenuity, and was 
 mechanically perfect in every detail save one — it would do 
 no practical work. 
 
 Like every other inventor who had grappled with the 
 problem, he had found himself constantly faced with that fatal 
 ratio of weight to power. No engine that he could devise 
 would do more than lift itself and the machine. Again and 
 again he had made a toy that would fly, as others had done 
 before him, but a machine that would navigate the air as a 
 steamer or an electric vessel navigated the waters, carrying 
 cargo and passengers, was still an impossibility while that 
 terrible problem of weight and power remained unsolved. 
 
 In order to eke out his money to the uttermost, he had 
 clothed and lodged himself meanly, and had denied himself 
 everything but the barest necessaries of life. 
 
 Thus he had prolonged the struggle for over five years of 
 toil and privation and hope deferred, and now, when his last 
 sovereign had been changed and nearly spent, success — real, 
 tangible, practical success — had come to him, and the discovery 
 that was to be to the twentieth century what the steam-engine 
 had been to the nineteenth was accomplished. 
 
 He had discovered the true motive power at last. 
 
 Two liquefied gases — which, when united, exploded spon- 
 taneously — were admitted by a clockwork escapement in 
 minute quantities into the cylinders of his engine, and worked 
 the pistons by the expansive force of the gases generated by 
 the explosion. There was no weight but the engine itself and 
 the cylinders containing the liquefied gases. Furnaces, boilers, 
 condensers, accumulators, dynamos — all the ponderous appar- 
 atus of steam and electricity — were clone away with, and he 
 had a power at command greater than either of them. 
 
 There w r as no doubt about it. The moment that his trem- 
 bling ringers set the escapement mechanism in motion, the 
 model that embodied the thought and labour of years rose into 
 the air as gracefully as a bird on the wing, and sailed round 
 
The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and round in obedience to its rudder, straining hard at the 
 string which prevented it from striking the ceiling. It was 
 weighted in strict proportion to the load that the full-sized 
 air-ship would have to carry. To increase this was merely a 
 matter of increasing the power of the engine and the size of 
 the floats and fans. 
 
 The room was a large one, for the house had been built for a 
 better fate than letting in tenements, and it ran from back to 
 front with a window at each end. Out of doors there was a 
 strong breeze blowing, and as soon as Arnold was sure that his 
 ship was able to hold its own in still air, he threw both the 
 windows open and let the wind blow straight through the 
 room. Then he drew the air-ship down, straightened the 
 rudder, and set it against the breeze. 
 
 In almost agonised suspense he watched it rise from the 
 floor, float motionless for a moment, and then slowly forge 
 ahead in the teeth of the wind, gathering speed as it went. 
 It was then that he had uttered that triumphant cry of 
 " Victory ! " All the long years of privation and hope deferred 
 vanished in that one supreme moment of innocent and blood- 
 less conquest, and he saw himself master of a kingdom as wide 
 as the world itself. 
 
 He let the model fly the length of the room before he 
 stopped the clockwork and cut off* the motive power, allowing 
 it to sink gently to the floor. Then came the reaction. He 
 looked steadfastly at his handiwork for several moments in 
 silence, and then he turned and threw himself on to a shabby 
 little bed that stood in one corner of the room and burst into 
 a flood of tears. 
 
 Triumph had come, but had it not come too late ? He knew 
 the boundless possibilities of his invention — but they had still 
 to be realised. To do this would cost thousands of pounds, 
 and he had just one half-crown and a few coppers. Even 
 these were not really his own, for he was already a week 
 behind with his rent, and another payment fell due the next 
 day. That would be twelve shillings in all, and if it was not 
 paid he would be turned into the street. 
 
 As he raised himself from the bed he looked despairingly 
 round the bare, shabby room. No; there was nothing there 
 that he could pawn or sell. Everything saleable had gone 
 
At the Eleventh Hour. 
 
 already to keep up the struggle of hope against despair. The 
 bed and wash-stand, the plain deal table, and the one chair 
 that comprised the furniture of the room were not his. A 
 little carpenter's bench, a few worn tools and odds and ends of 
 scientific apparatus, and a dozen well-used books — these were 
 all that he possessed in the world now, save the clothes on his 
 back, and a plain painted sea-chest in which he was wont to 
 lock up his precious model when he had to go out. 
 
 His model ! No, he could not sell that. At best it would 
 fetch but the price of an ingenious toy, and without the secret 
 of the two gases it was useless. But was not that worth 
 something ? Yes, if he did not starve to death before he could 
 persuade any one that there was money in it. Besides, the 
 chest and its priceless contents would be seized for the rent 
 next day, and then — 
 
 " God help me ! What am I to do ? " 
 
 The words broke from him like a cry of physical pain, and 
 ended in a sob, and for all answer there was the silence of the 
 room and the inarticulate murmur of the streets below coming 
 up through the open windows. 
 
 He was weak with hunger and sick with excitement, 
 for he had lived for days on bread and cheese, and that 
 day he had eaten nothing since the crust that had served him 
 for breakfast. His nerves, too, were shattered by the intense 
 strain of his final trial and triumph, and his head was getting 
 light. 
 
 With a desperate effort he recovered himself, and the 
 heroic resolution that had sustained him through his long 
 struggle came to his aid again. He got up and poured 
 some water from the ewer into a cracked cup and drank it. 
 It refreshed him for the moment, and he poured the rest 
 of the water over his head. That steadied his nerves and 
 cleared his brain. He took up the model from the floor, laid 
 it tenderly and lovingly in its usual resting-place in the 
 chest. Then he locked the chest and sat down upon it to 
 think the situation over. 
 
 Ten minutes later he rose to his feet and said aloud — 
 
 " It's no use. I can't think on an empty stomach. I'll go 
 out and have one more good meal if it's the last I ever have in 
 the world, and then perhaps some ideas will come." 
 
The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 So saying, he took down his hat, buttoned his shabby 
 velveteen coat to conceal his lack of a waistcoat, and went out, 
 locking the door behind him as he went. 
 
 Five minutes' walk brought him to the Black friars Road, 
 and then he turned towards the river and crossed the bridge 
 just as the motley stream of city workers was crossing it in 
 the opposite direction on their homeward journey. 
 
 At Ludgate Circus he went into an eating-house and fared 
 sumptuously on a plate of beef, some bread and butter, and a 
 pint mug of coffee. As he was eating a paper-boy came in 
 and laid an Echo on the table at which he was sitting. He 
 took it up mechanically, and ran his eye carelessly over the 
 columns. He was in no humour to be interested by the tattle 
 of an evening paper, but in a paragraph under the heading of 
 Foreign News a once familiar name caught his eye, and he 
 read the paragraph through. It ran as follows : — 
 
 Railway Outrage in Russia. 
 
 When the Berlin-Petersburg express stopped last night at Kovno, the first 
 stop after passing the Russian frontier, a shocking discovery was made in the 
 smoking compartment of the palace car which has been on the train for the 
 last few months. Colonel Dornovitch, of the Imperial Police, who is under- 
 stood to have been on his return journey from a secret mission to Paris, was 
 found stabbed to the heart and quite dead. In the centre of the forehead were 
 two short straight cuts in the form ofaT reaching to the bone. Not long ago 
 Colonel Dornovitch was instrumental in unearthing a formidable Nihilist con- 
 spiracy, in connection with which over fifty men and women of various social 
 ranks were exiled for life to Siberia. The whole affair is wrapped in the 
 deepest mystery, the only clue in the hands of the police being the fact that 
 the cross cut on the forehead of the victim indicates that the crime is the work, 
 not of the Nihilists proper, but of that unknown and mysterious society usually 
 alluded to as the Terrorists, not one of whom has ever been seen save in his 
 crimes. How the assassin managed to enter and leave the car unperceived 
 while the train was going at full speed is an apparently insoluble riddle. 
 Saving the victim and the attendants, the only passengers in the car who had 
 not retired to rest were another officer in the Russian service and Lord Alanmere, 
 who was travelling to St. Petersburg to resume, after leave of absence, the 
 duties of the Secretaryship to the British Embassy, to which he was appointed 
 some two years ago. 
 
 " Why, that must be the Lord Alanmere who was at Trinity 
 in my time, or rather Viscount Tremayne, as he was then," 
 mused Arnold, as he laid the paper down. "We were very 
 good friends in those days. I wonder if he'd know me now, 
 and lend me a ten-pound note to get me out of the infernal fix 
 
At the Eleventh Hour. 
 
 I'm in ? I believe he would, for he was one of the few really 
 good-hearted men I have so far met with. 
 
 " If he were in London I really think I should take courage 
 from my desperation, and put my case before him and ask his 
 help. However, he's not in London, and so it's no use wishing. 
 Well, I feel more of a man for that shillingsworth of food and 
 drink, and I'll go and wind up my dissipation with a pipe and 
 a quiet think on the Embankment." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT WAR WITH SOCIETY. 
 
 HEN" Richard Arnold reached the Embankment 
 dusk had deepened into night, so far, at least, 
 as nature was concerned. But in London in 
 the beginning of the twentieth century there 
 was but little night to speak of, save in the 
 sense of a division of time. The date of the 
 paper which contained the account of the tragedy on the Russian 
 railway was September 3rd, 1903, and within the last ten years 
 enormous progress had been made in electric lighting. 
 
 The ebb and flow in the Thames had at last been turned to 
 account, and worked huge turbines which perpetually stored 
 up electric power that was used not only for lighting, but 
 for cooking in hotels and private houses, and for driving 
 machinery. At all the great centres of traffic huge electric 
 suns cast their rays far and wide along the streets, supple- 
 menting the light of the lesser lamps with which they were 
 lined on each side. 
 
 The Embankment from Westminster to Blackfriars was 
 bathed in a flood of soft white light from hundreds of great 
 lamps running along both sides, and from the centre of each 
 bridge a million candle-power sun cast rays upon the water 
 that were continued in one unbroken stream of light from 
 Chelsea to the Tower. 
 
 On the north side of the river the scene was one of brilliant 
 and splendid opulence, that contrasted strongly with the half- 
 lighted gloom of the murky wilderness of South London, dark 
 and forbidding in its irredeemable ugliness. 
 
 From Blackfriars Arnold walked briskly towards West- 
 
At War with Society. 
 
 minster, bitterly contrasting as he went the lavish display of 
 wealth around him with the sordid and seemingly hopeless 
 poverty of his own desperate condition. 
 
 He was the maker and possessor of a far greater marvel 
 than anything that helped to make up this splendid scene, and 
 yet the ragged tramps who were remorselessly moved on from 
 one seat to another by the policemen as soon as they had 
 settled themselves down for a rest and a doze, were hardly 
 poorer than he was. 
 
 For nearly four hours he paced backwards and forwards, 
 every now and then stopping to lean on the parapet, and once 
 or twice to sit down, until the chill autumn wind pierced his 
 scanty clothing, and compelled him to resume his walk in order 
 to get warm again. 
 
 All the time he turned his miserable situation over and over 
 again in his mind without avail. There seemed no way out of 
 it ; no way of obtaining the few pounds that would save him 
 from homeless beggary and his splendid invention from being lost 
 to him and the world, certainly for years, and perhaps for ever. 
 
 And then, as hour after hour went by, and still no cheering 
 thought came, the misery of the present pressed closer and 
 closer upon him. He dare not go home, for that would be to 
 bring the inevitable disaster of the morrow nearer, and, besides, 
 it was home no longer till the rent was paid. He had two 
 shillings, and he owed at least twelve. He was also the maker 
 of a machine for which the Tsar of Eussia had made a stand- 
 ing offer of a million sterling. That million might have been 
 his if he had possessed the money necessary to bring his inven- 
 tion under the notice of the great Autocrat. 
 
 That was the position he had turned over and over in his 
 mind until its horrible contradictions maddened him. With a 
 little money, riches and fame were his ; without it he was a 
 beggar in sight of starvation. 
 
 And yet he doubted whether, even in his present dire 
 extremity, he could, had he had the chance, sell what might 
 be made the most terrific engine of destruction ever thought 
 of to the head and front of a despotism that he looked upon ae 
 the worst earthly enemy of mankind. 
 
 For the twentieth time he had paused in his weary walk to 
 and fro to lean on the parapet close by Cleopatra's Needle. 
 
io The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The Embankment was almost deserted now, save by the tramps 
 and a few isolated wanderers like himself. For several minutes 
 he looked out over the brightly glittering waters below him, 
 wondering listlessly how long it would take him to drown if 
 he dropped over, and whether he would be rescued before he 
 was dead, and brought back to life, and prosecuted the next 
 day for daring to try and leave the world save in the conven- 
 tional and orthodox fashion. 
 
 Then his mind wandered back to the Tsar and his million, 
 and he pictured to himself the awful part that a fleet of air- 
 ships such as his would play in the general European war that 
 people said could not now be put off for many months longer. 
 As he thought of this the vision grew in distinctness, and he 
 saw them hovering over armies and cities and fortresses, and 
 raining irresistible death and destruction down upon them. 
 The prospect appalled him, and he shuddered as he thought 
 that it was now really within the possibility of realisation; 
 ajjid then his ideas began to translate themselves involuntarily 
 into words which he spoke aloud, completely oblivious for the 
 time being of his surroundings. 
 
 " No, I think I would rather destroy it, and then take my 
 secret with me out of the world, than put such an awful power 
 of destruction and slaughter into the hands of the Tsar, or, for 
 the matter of that, any other of the rulers of the earth. Their 
 subjects can butcher each other quite efficiently enough as it is. 
 The next war will be the most frightful carnival of destruction 
 that the world has ever seen ; but what would it be like if I 
 were to give one of the nations of Europe the power of raining 
 death and desolation on its enemies from the skies ! No, no ! 
 Such a power, if used at all, should only be used against and 
 not for the despotisms that afflict the earth with the curse of 
 war!" 
 
 * Then why not use it so, my friend, if you possess it, and 
 would see mankind freed from its tyrants ? " said a quiet voice 
 at his elbow. 
 
 The sound instantly scattered his vision to the winds, and 
 he turned round with a startled exclamation to see who had 
 spoken. As he did so, a whiff of smoke from a very good 
 cigar drifted past his nostrils, and the voice said again in the 
 same quiet, even tones — ■ 
 
At War with Society. ii 
 
 " You must forgive me for my bad manners in listening to 
 what you were saying, and also for breaking in upon your 
 reverie. My excuse must be the great interest that your 
 words had for me. Your opinions would appear to be exactly 
 my own, too, and perhaps you will accept that as another 
 excuse for my rudeness." 
 
 It was the first really kindly, friendly voice that Eichard 
 Arnold had heard for many a long day, and the words were so 
 well chosen and so politely uttered that it was impossible to 
 feel any resentment, so he simply said in answer — 
 
 "There was no rudeness, sir; and, besides, why should a 
 gentleman like you apologise for speaking to a " — 
 
 " Another gentleman," quickly interrupted his new acquaint- 
 ance. " Because I transgressed the laws of politeness in doing 
 so, and an apology was due. Your speech tells me that we are 
 socially equals. Intellectually you look my superior. The rest 
 is a difference only of money, and that any smart swindler can 
 bury himself in nowadays if he chooses. But come, if you have, 
 no objection to make my better acquaintance, I have a great 
 desire to make yours. If you will pardon my saying so, you 
 are evidently not an ordinary man, or else, something tells me, 
 you would be rich. Have a smoke and let us talk, since we 
 apparently have a subject in common. Which way are you 
 going?" 
 
 "Nowhere — and therefore anywhere," replied Arnold, with a 
 laugh that had but little merriment in it. " I have reached a 
 point from which all roads are one to me." 
 
 " That being the case I propose that you shall take the one 
 that leads to my chambers in Savoy Mansions yonder. We 
 shall find a bit of supper ready, I expect, and then I shall ask 
 you to talk. Come along ! " 
 
 There was no more mistaking the genuine kindness and sin- 
 cerity of the invitation than the delicacy with which it was 
 given. To have refused would not only have been churlish, 
 but it would have been for a drowning man to knock aside a 
 kindly hand held out to help him ; so Arnold accepted, and 
 the two new strangely met and strangely assorted friends 
 walked away together in the direction of the Savoy. 
 
 The suite of rooms occupied by Arnold's new acquaintance 
 was the beau ideal of a wealthy bachelor's abode. Small, com- 
 
i2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 pact, cosy, and richly furnished, yet in the best of taste withal, 
 the rooms looked like an indoor paradise to him after the bare 
 squalor of the one room that had been his own home for over 
 two years. 
 
 His host took him first into a dainty little bath-room to 
 wash his hands, and by the time he had performed his scanty 
 toilet supper was already on the table in the sitting-room. 
 Nothing melts reserve like a good well-cooked meal washed 
 down by appropriate liquids, and before supper was half over 
 Arnold and his host were chatting together as easily as though 
 they stood on perfectly equal terms and had known each other 
 for years. His new friend seemed purposely to keep the con- 
 versation to general subjects until the meal was over and his 
 pattern man-servant had removed the cloth and left them 
 together with the wine and cigars on the table. 
 
 As soon as he had closed the door behind him his host 
 motioned Arnold to an easy-chair on one side of jthe fireplace, 
 threw himself into another on the other side, and said — 
 
 " Now, my friend, plant yourself, as they say across the 
 water, help yourself to what there is as the spirit moves you, 
 and talk — the more about yourself the better. But stop. I 
 forgot that we do not even know each other's name yet. Let 
 me introduce myself first. 
 
 " My name is Maurice Colston ; I am a bachelor, as you see. 
 For the rest, in practice I am an idler, a dilettante, and a good 
 deal else that is pleasant and utterly useless. In theory, let 
 me tell you, I am a Socialist, or something of the sort, with 
 a lively conviction as to the injustice and absurdity of the 
 social and economic conditions which enable me to have 
 such a good time on earth without having done anything 
 to deserve it beyond having managed to be born the son of 
 my father." 
 
 He stopped and looked at his guest through the wreaths 
 of his cigar smoke as much as to say : " And now who 
 are you ? " 
 
 Arnold took the silent hint, and opened his mouth and his 
 heart at the same time. Quite apart from the good turn he 
 had done him, there was a genial frankness about his uncon- 
 ventional host that chimed in so well with his own nature that 
 he cast all reserve aside, and told plainly and simply the story 
 
At War with Society. 13 
 
 of his life and its master passion, his dreams and hopes and 
 failures, and his final triumph in the hour when triumph itself 
 was defeat. 
 
 His host heard him through without a word, but towards the 
 end of his story his face betrayed an interest, or rather an 
 expectant anxiety, to hear what was coming next that no mere 
 friendly concern of the moment for one less fortunate than 
 himself could adequately account for. At length, when Arnold 
 had completed his story with a brief but graphic description of 
 the last successful trial of his model, he leant forward in his 
 chair, and, fixing his dark, steady eyes on his guest's face, said 
 in a voice from which every trace of his former good-humoured 
 levity had vanished — 
 
 " A strange story, and truer, I think, than the one I told you. 
 Now tell me on your honour as a gentleman : Were you really 
 in earnest when I heard you say on the embankment that 
 you would rather smash up your model and take the secret 
 with you into the next world, than sell your discovery to the 
 Tsar for the million that he has offered for such an air-ship 
 as yours ? " 
 
 " Absolutely in earnest," was the reply. " I have seen 
 enough of the seamy side of this much-boasted civilisation of 
 ours to know that it is the most awful mockery that man ever 
 insulted his Maker with. It is based on fraud, and sustained 
 by force — force that ruthlessly crushes all who do not bow the 
 knee to Mammon. I am the enemy of a society that does not 
 permit a man to be honest and live, unless he has money and 
 can defy it. I have just two shillings in the world, and I 
 would rather throw them into the Thames and myself after 
 them than take that million from the Tsar in exchange for an 
 engine of destruction that would make him master of the 
 world." 
 
 " Those are brave words," said Colston, with a smile. " For- 
 give me for saying so, but I wonder whether you would repeat 
 them if I told you that I am a servant of his Majesty the 
 Tsar, and that you shall have that million for your model and 
 your secret the moment that you convince me that what you 
 have told me is true." 
 
 Before he had finished speaking Arnold had risen to his feet. 
 He heard him out, and then he said, slowly and steadily — 
 
14 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 "I should not take the trouble to repeat them; I should 
 only tell you that I am sorry that I have eaten salt with a 
 man who could take advantage of my poverty to insult me. 
 Good night." 
 
 He was moving towards the door when Colston jumped up 
 from his chair, strode round the table, and got in front of him. 
 Then he put his two hands on his shoulders, and, looking 
 straight into his eyes, said in a tone that vibrated with 
 emotion — 
 
 " Thank God, I have found an honest man at last ! Go and 
 sit down again, my friend, my comrade, as I hope you soon 
 will be. Forgive me for the foolishness that I spoke ! I am 
 no servant of the Tsar. He and all like him have no more 
 devoted enemy on earth than I am. Look ! I will soon prove 
 it to you." 
 
 As he said the last words, Colston let go Arnold's shoulders, 
 flung off his coat and waistcoat, slipped his braces off his 
 shoulders, and pulled his shirt up to his neck. Then he turned 
 his bare back to his guest, and said — 
 
 "That is the sign-manual of Kussian tyranny — the mark of 
 the knout ! " 
 
 Arnold shrank back with a cry of horror at the sight. From 
 waist to neck Colston's back was a mass of hideous scars and 
 wheals, crossing each other and rising up into purple lumps, 
 with livid blue and grey spaces between them. As he stood, 
 there was not an inch of naturally-coloured skin to be seen. It 
 was like the back of a man who had been flayed alive, and then 
 flogged with a cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 
 Before Arnold had overcome his horror his host had re- 
 adjusted his clothing. Then he turned to him and said — 
 
 " That was my reward for telling the governor of a petty 
 Eussian town that he was a brute-beast for flogging a poor 
 decrepid old Jewess to death. Do you believe me now when I 
 say that I am no servant or friend of the Tsar?" 
 
 "Yes, I do," replied Arnold, holding out his hand, "you were 
 right to try me, and I was wrong to be so hasty. It is a failing 
 of mine that has done me plenty of harm before now. I think 
 I know now what you are without your telling me. Give me a 
 piece of paper and you shall have my address, so that you can 
 come to-morrow and see the model — only I warn you that you 
 
At War with Society 15 
 
 will have to pay my rent to keep my landlord's hands off it. 
 And then I must be off, for I see it's past twelve." 
 
 "You are not going out again to-night, my friend, while I 
 have a sofa and plenty of rugs at your disposal," said his host. 
 " You will sleep here, and in the morning we will go together 
 and see this marvel of yours. Meanwhile sit down and make 
 yourself at home with another cigar. We have only just 
 begun to know each other — we two enemies of Society!" 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A FEIENDLY CHAT. 
 
 OON" after eight the next morning Colston came 
 into the sitting-room where Arnold had slept 
 on the sofa, and dreamt dreams of war and 
 world-revolts and battles fought in mid-air 
 between aerial navies built on the plan of his 
 own model. When Colston came in he was 
 just awake enough to be wondering whether the events of the 
 previous night were a reality or part of his dreams — a doubt 
 that was speedily set at rest by his host drawing back the 
 curtains and pulling up the blinds. 
 
 The moment his eyes were properly open he saw that he was 
 anywhere but in his own shabby room in Southwark, and the 
 rest was made clear by Colston saying — 
 
 "Well, comrade Arnold, Lord High Admiral of the Air, 
 how have you slept? I hope you found the sofa big and 
 soft enough, and that the last cigar has left no evil effects 
 behind it." 
 
 " Eh ? Oh, good morning ! I don't know whether it was the 
 whisky or the cigars, or what it was; but do you know 1 
 have been dreaming all sorts of absurd things about battles 
 in the air and dropping explosives on fortresses and turning 
 them into small volcanoes. When you came in just now I 
 hadn't the remotest idea where I was. It's time to get up, 
 I suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes, it's after eight a good bit. I've had my tub, so the 
 bath-room is at your service. Meanwhile, Burrows will be lay- 
 ing the table for breakfast. When you have finished your tub, 
 come into my dressing-room, and let me rig you out. We are 
 
 16 
 
A Friendly Chat. 17 
 
 about of a size, and I think I shall be able to meet your most 
 fastidious taste. In fact, I could rig you out as anything — 
 from a tramp to an officer of the Guards." 
 
 " It wouldn't take much change to accomplish the former, 
 I'm afraid. But, really, I couldn't think of trespassing so far 
 on your hospitality as to take your very clothes from you. 
 I'm deep enough in your debt already." 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense, Eichard Arnold. The tone in which 
 those last words were said shows me that you have not duly 
 laid to heart what I said last night. There is no such thing as 
 private property in the Brotherhood, of which I hope, by this 
 time to-morrow, you will be an initiate. 
 
 "What I have here is mine only for the purposes of the 
 Cause, wherefore it is as much yours as mine, for to-day we are 
 going on the Brotherhood's business. Why, then, should you 
 have any scruples about wearing the Brotherhood's clothes ? 
 Now clear out and get tubbed, and wash some of those absurd 
 ideas out of your head." 
 
 " Well, as you put it that way, I don't mind, only remember 
 that I don't necessarily put on the principles of the Brother- 
 hood with its clothes." 
 
 So saying, Arnold got up from the sofa, stretched himself, 
 and went off to make his toilet. 
 
 When he sat down to breakfast with his host half an hour 
 later, very few who had seen him on the Embankment the night 
 before would have recognised him as the same man. The tailor, 
 after all, does a good deal to make the man, externally at least, 
 and the change of clothes in Arnold's case had transformed him 
 from a superior looking tramp into an aristocratic and decidedly 
 good-looking man, in the prime of his youth, saving only for 
 the thinness and pallor of his face, and a perceptible stoop in 
 the shoulders. 
 
 During breakfast they chatted about their plans for the day, 
 and then drifted into generalities, chiefly of a political nature. 
 
 The better Arnold came to know Maurice Colston the more 
 remarkable his character appeared to him; and it was his 
 growing wonder at the contradictions that it exhibited that 
 made him say towards the end of the meal — 
 
 U I must say you're a queer sort of conspirator, Colston. 
 My idea of Nihilists and members of revolutionary societies haa 
 
The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 always taken the form of silent, stealthy, cautious beings, with 
 a lively distrust and hatred of the whole human race outside 
 their own circles. And yet here are you, an active member 
 of the most terrible secret society in existence, pledged to 
 the destruction of nearly every institution on earth, and 
 carrying your life in your hand, opening your heart like a 
 schoolboy to a man you have literally not known for twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 " Suppose you had made a mistake in me. What would 
 there be to prevent me telling the police who you are, 
 and having you locked up with a view to extradition to 
 Russia?" 
 
 " In the first place," replied Colston quietly, " you would not 
 do so, because I am not mistaken in you, and because, in your 
 heart, whether you fully know it or not, you believe as I do 
 about the destruction that is about to fall upon Society. 
 
 " In the second place," if you did betray my confidence, I 
 should be able to bring such an overwhelming array of the 
 most respectable evidence to show that I was nothing like what 
 I really am, that you would be laughed at for a madman ; and, 
 in the third place, there would be an inquest on you within 
 twenty-four hours after you had told your story. Do you 
 remember the death of Inspector Ainsworth, of the Criminal 
 Investigation Department, about six months ago ? " 
 
 "Yes, of course I do. Hermit and all as I was, I could 
 hardly help hearing about that, considering what a noise it 
 made. But I thought that was cleared up. Didn't one of that 
 gang of garotters that was broken up in South London a couple 
 of months later confess to strangling him in the statement that 
 he made before he was executed ? " 
 
 " Yes, and his widow is now getting ten shillings a week for 
 life on account of that confession. Birkett no more killed 
 Ainsworth than you did ; but he had killed two or three others, 
 and so the confession didn't do him very much harm. 
 
 " No ; Ainsworth met his death in quite another way. He 
 accepted from the Russian secret police bureau in London a 
 bribe of £250 down and the promise of another £250 if he 
 succeeded in manufacturing enough evidence against a member 
 of our Outer Circle to get him extradited to Russia on a 
 trumped-up charge of murder. 
 
A Friendly Chat. 19 
 
 "The Inner Circle learnt of tins from one of our spies in the 
 
 Eussian London police, and , well, Ainsworth was found 
 
 dead with the mark of the Terror upon his forehead before he 
 had time to put his treachery into action. He was executed 
 by two of the Brotherhood, who are members of the Metro- 
 politan police force, and who were afterwards complimented by 
 the magistrate for the intelligent efforts they had made in 
 bringing the murderers to justice." 
 
 Colston told the dark story in the most careless of tones 
 between the puffs of his after-breakfast cigarette. Arnold 
 stifled his horror as well as he was able, but he could not help 
 saying, when his host had done — 
 
 " This Brotherhood of yours is well named the Terror ; but 
 was not that rather a murder than an execution ? " 
 
 " By no means," replied Colston, a trifle coldly. " Society 
 hangs or beheads a man who kills another. Ainsworth knew 
 as well as we did that if the man he tried to betray by 
 false evidence had once set foot in Bussia, the torments of 
 a hundred deaths would have been his before he had been 
 allowed to die. 
 
 " He betrayed his office and his faith to his English masters 
 in order to commit this vile crime, and so he was killed as a 
 murderous and treacherous reptile that was not fit to live. We 
 of the Terror are not lawyers, and so we make no distinctions 
 between deliberate plotting for money to kill and the act of 
 killing itself. Our law is closer akin to justice than the hair- 
 splitting fraud that is tolerated by Society." 
 
 Either from emotional or logical reasons Arnold made no 
 reply to this reasoning, and, seeing he remained silent, Colston 
 resumed his ordinary nonchalant, good-humoured tone, and 
 went on — 
 
 "But come, that will be horrors enough for to-day. We 
 have other business in hand, and we may as well get to it 
 at once. About this wonderful invention of yours. Of course 
 I believe all you have told me about it, but you must remem- 
 ber that I am only an agent, and that I am inexorably bound 
 by certain rules, in accordance with which I must act. 
 
 " Now, to be perfectly plain with you, and in order that we 
 may thoroughly understand each other before either of us 
 commits himself to anything, I must tell you that I want to 
 
2o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 see this model flying ship of yours in order to be able to report 
 on it to-night to the Executive of the Inner Circle, to whom I 
 shall also want to introduce you. If you will not allow me to 
 do that say so at once, and, for the present at least, our negotia- 
 tions must come to a sudden stop." 
 
 " Go on," said Arnold quietly ; " so far I consent. For the 
 rest I would rather hear you to the end." 
 
 " Very well. Then if the Executive approve of the invention, 
 you will be asked to join the Inner Circle at once, and to 
 devote yourself body and soul to the Society and the accom- 
 plishment of the objects that will be explained to you. If 
 you refuse there will be an end of the matter, and you 
 will simply be asked to give your word of honour to reveal 
 nothing that you have seen or heard, and then allowed to 
 depart in peace. 
 
 " If, on the other hand, you consent, in consideration of the 
 immense importance of your secret — which there is no need to 
 disguise from you — to the Brotherhood, the usual condition of 
 passing through the Outer Circle will be dispensed with, and 
 you will be trusted as absolutely as we shall expect you to 
 trust us. 
 
 " "Whatever funds you then require to manufacture an air- 
 ship on the plan of your model will be placed at your disposal, 
 and a suitable place will be selected for the works that you 
 will have to build. When the ship is ready to take the air 
 you will, of course, be appointed to the command of her, and 
 you will pick your crew from among the workmen who will 
 act under your orders in the building of the vessel. 
 
 " They will all be members of the Outer Circle, who will 
 not understand your orders, but simply obey them blindly, 
 even to the death. One member of the Inner Circle will act 
 as your second in command, and he will be as perfectly trusted 
 as you will be, so that in unforeseen emergencies you will be 
 able to consult with him with perfect confidence. Now I think 
 I have told you all. What do you say ? " 
 
 Arnold was silent for a few minutes, too busy for speech 
 with the rush of thoughts that had crowded through his brain 
 as Colston was speaking. Then he looked up at his host and 
 said — 
 
 " May I make conditions ? " 
 
A Friendly Chat. 21 
 
 " You may state them," replied he, with a smile, " but, of 
 course, I don't undertake to accept them without consultation 
 with my — I mean with the Executive." 
 
 " Of course not," said Arnold. " Well, the conditions that I 
 should feel myself obliged to make with your Executive would 
 be, briefly speaking, these : I would not reveal to any one the 
 composition of the gases from which I derive my motive force. 
 I should manufacture them myself in given quantities, and 
 keep them always under my own charge. 
 
 " At the first attempt to break faith with me in this respect 
 I would blow the air-ship and all her crew, including myself, 
 into such fragments as it would be difficult to find one of them. 
 I have and wish for no life apart from my invention, and I 
 would not survive it." 
 
 " Good ! " interrupted Colston. " There spoke the true 
 enthusiast. Go on." 
 
 " Secondly, I would use the machine only in open warfare — 
 when the Brotherhood is fighting openly for the attainment of 
 a definite end. Once the appeal to force has been made I will 
 employ a force such as no nation on earth can use without me, 
 and I will use it as unsparingly as the armies and fleets 
 engaged will employ their own engines of destruction on one 
 another. But I will be no party to the destruction of defence- 
 less towns and people who are not in arms against us. If I am 
 ordered to do that I tell you candidly that I will not do it. I 
 will blow the air-ship itself up first." 
 
 " The conditions are somewhat stringent, although the senti- 
 ments are excellent," replied Colston ; " still, of myself I can 
 neither accept nor reject them. That will be for the Executive 
 to do. For my own part I think that you will be able to 
 arrive at a basis of agreement on them. And now I think we 
 have said all we can say for the present, and so if you are 
 ready we'll be off and satisfy my longing to see the invention 
 that is to make us the arbiters of war — when war comes, which 
 I fancy will not be long now." 
 
 Something in the tone in which these last words were 
 spoken struck Arnold with a kind of cold chill, and he shivered 
 slightly as he said in answer to Colston — 
 
 " I am ready when you are, and no less anxious than you to 
 set eyes on my model. I hope to goodness it is all safe ! Do 
 
22 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 you know, when I am away from it I feel just like a woman 
 away from her first baby." 
 
 A few minutes later two of the most dangerous enemies of 
 Society alive were walking quietly along the Embankment 
 towards Blackfriars, smoking their cigars and chatting as con- 
 ventionally as though there were no such things on earth as 
 tyranny and oppression, and their necessarily ever-present 
 enemies conspiracy and brooding revolution. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE HOUSE ON CLAPHAM COMMON. 
 
 WENTY minutes' walk took Arnold and Colston 
 to the door of the tenement-house in which the 
 former had lived since his fast-dwindling store 
 of money had convinced him of the necessity 
 of bringing his expenses down to the lowest 
 possible limit if he wished to keep up the 
 struggle with fate very much longer. 
 
 As they mounted the dirty, evil-smelling staircase, Colston 
 said — 
 
 " Phew ! Verily you are a hero of science if you have 
 brought yourself to live in a hole like this for a couple of 
 years rather than give up your dream, and grow fat on the 
 loaves and fishes of conventionality." 
 
 " This is a palace compared with some of the rookeries about 
 here," replied Arnold, with a laugh. " The march of progress 
 seems to have left this half of London behind as hopeless. 
 Ten years ago there were a good many thousands of highly 
 respectable mediocrities living on this side of the river, but 
 now I am told that the glory has departed from the very best 
 of its localities, and given them up to various degrees of squalor. 
 Vice, poverty, and misery seem to gravitate naturally south- 
 ward in London. I don't know why, but they do. Well, here 
 is the door of my humble den." 
 
 As he spoke he put the key in the lock, and opened the 
 door, bidding his companion enter as he did so. 
 
 Arnold's anxiety was soon relieved by finding the precious 
 model untouched in its resting-place, and it was at once 
 brought out. Colston was delighted beyond his powers of 
 
 23 
 
24 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 expression with the marvellous ingenuity with which the 
 miracle of mechanical skill was contrived and put together; 
 and when Arnold, after showing and explaining to him all the 
 various parts of the mechanism and the external structure, at 
 length set the engine working, and the air-ship rose gracefully 
 from the floor and began to sail round the room in the wide 
 circle to which it was confined by its mooring-line, he stared at 
 it for several minutes in wondering silence, following it round 
 and round with his eyes, and then he said in a voice from 
 which he vainly strove to banish the signs of the emotion that 
 possessed him — 
 
 " It is the last miracle of science ! With a few such ships 
 as that one could conquer the world in a month ! " 
 
 " Yes, that would not be a very difficult task, seeing that 
 neither an army nor a fleet could exist for twelve hours with 
 two or three of them hovering above it," replied Arnold. 
 
 The trial over, Arnold set to work and took the model partly 
 to pieces for packing up ; and while he was putting it away in 
 the old sea-chest, Colston counted out ten sovereigns and laid 
 them on the table. Hearing the clink of the gold, Arnold 
 looked up and said — 
 
 " What is that for ? A sovereign will be quite enough to get 
 me out of my present scrape, and then if we come to any 
 terms to-night it will be time enough to talk about payment." 
 
 " The Brotherhood does not do business in that way," was 
 the reply. "At present your only connection with it is a 
 commercial one, and ten pounds is a very moderate fee for the 
 privilege of inspecting such an invention as this. Anyhow, 
 that is what I am ordered to hand over to you in payment for 
 your trouble now and to-night, so you must accept it as it is 
 given — as a matter of business." 
 
 " Very well," said Arnold, closing and locking the chest as 
 he spoke, " if you think it worth ten pounds, the money will 
 not come amiss to me. Now, if you will remain and guard the 
 household gods for a minute, I will go and pay my rent and 
 get a cab." 
 
 Half an hour later his few but priceless possessions were 
 loaded on a four-wheeler and Arnold had bidden farewell for 
 ever to the dingy room in which he had passed so many hours 
 of toil and dreaming, suffering and disappointment. Before 
 
The House on Clapham Common. 25 
 
 lunch time they were safely bestowed in a couple of rooms 
 which Colston had engaged for him in the same building in 
 which his own rooms were. 
 
 In the afternoon, among other purchases, a more convenient 
 case was bought for the model, and in this it was packed with 
 the plans and papers which explained its construction, ready 
 for the evening journey. 
 
 The two friends dined together at six in Colston's rooms, 
 and at seven sharp his servant announced that the cab was at 
 the door. Within ten minutes they were bowling along the 
 Embankment towards Westminster Bridge in a luxuriously 
 appointed hansom of the newest type, with the precious case 
 lying across their knees. 
 
 "This is a comfortable cab," said Arnold, when they had 
 gone a hundred yards or so. " By the way, how does the man 
 know where to go ? I didn't hear you give him any directions." 
 
 " None were necessary," was the reply. " This cab, like a 
 good many others in London, belongs to the Brotherhood, and 
 the man who is driving is one of the Outer Circle. Our Jehus 
 are the most useful spies that we have. Many is the secret of 
 the enemy that we have learnt from, and many is the secret 
 police agent who has been driven to his rendezvous by a 
 Terrorist who has heard every word that has been spoken on 
 the journey." 
 
 " How on earth is that managed ? " 
 
 " Every one of the cabs is fitted with a telephonic arrange- 
 ment communicating with the roof. The driver has only to 
 button the wire of the transmitter up inside his coat so that 
 the transmitter itself lies near to his ear, and he can hear even 
 a whisper inside the cab. 
 
 "The man who is driving us, for instance, has a sort of 
 retainer from the Eussian Embassy to be on hand at certain 
 hours on certain nights in the week. Our cabs are all better 
 horsed, better appointed, and better driven than any others 
 in London, and, consequently, they are favourites, especially 
 among the young attaches, and are nearly always employed by 
 them on their secret missions or love affairs, which, by the 
 way, are very often the same thing. Our own Jehu has a job 
 on to-night, from which we expect some results that will 
 mystify the enemy not a little. We got our first suspicions of 
 
26 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Ainsworth from a few incautious words that he spoke in one of 
 our cabs." 
 
 " It's a splendid system, I should think, for discovering the 
 movements of your enemies," said Arnold, not without an 
 uncomfortable reflection on the fact that he was himself now 
 completely in the power of this terrible organisation, which had 
 keen eyes and ready hands in every capital of the civilised 
 world. " But how do you guard against treachery ? It is well 
 known that all the Governments of Europe are spending money 
 like water to unearth this mystery of the Terror. Surely all 
 your men cannot be incorruptible." 
 
 " Practically they are so. The very mystery which 
 enshrouds all our actions makes them so. We have had a 
 few traitors, of course ; but as none of them has ever survived 
 his treachery by twenty -four hours, a bribe has lost its attrac- 
 tion for the rest." 
 
 In such conversation as this the time was passed, while the 
 cab crossed the river and made its way rapidly and easily along 
 Kennington Eoad and Clapham Eoad to Clapham Common. 
 At length it turned into the drive of one of those solid abodes of 
 pretentious respectability which front the Common, and pulled 
 up before a big stucco portico. 
 
 "Here we are!" exclaimed Colston, as the doors of the cab 
 automatically opened. He got out first, and Arnold handed 
 the case to him, and then followed him. 
 
 Without a word the driver turned his horse into the road 
 again and drove off towards town, and as they ascended the 
 steps the front door opened, and they went in, Colston saying 
 as they did so — 
 
 " Is Mr. Smith at home ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; you are expected, I believe. Will you step into 
 the drawing-room?" replied the clean-shaven and immaculately 
 respectable man-servant, in evening dress, who had opened the 
 door for them. 
 
 They were shown into a handsomely furnished room lit with 
 electric light. As soon as the footman had closed the door 
 behind him, Colston said — 
 
 "Well, now, here you are in the conspirators' den, in the 
 very headquarters of those Terrorists for whom Europe is being 
 ransacked constantly without the slightest success. I have 
 
The House on Clapham Common. 27 
 
 often wondered what the rigid respectability of Clapham 
 Common would think if it knew the true character of this 
 harmless-looking house. I hardly think an earthquake in 
 Clapham Eoad would produce much more sensation that such 
 a discovery would. 
 
 " And now," he continued, his tone becoming suddenly much 
 more serious, " in a few minutes you will be in the presence of 
 the Inner Circle of the Terrorists, that is to say, of those who 
 practically hold the fate of Europe in their hands. You know 
 pretty clearly what they want with you. If you have thought 
 better of the business that we have discussed you are still at 
 perfect liberty to retire from it, on giving your word of honour 
 not to disclose anything that I have said to you." 
 
 " I have not the slightest intention of doing anything of the 
 sort," replied Arnold. " You know the conditions on which I 
 came here. I shall put them before your Council, and if they 
 are accepted your Brotherhood will, within their limits, have no 
 more faithful adherent than I. If not, the business will simply 
 come to an end as far as I am concerned, and your secret will 
 be as safe with me as though I had taken the oath of member- 
 ship." 
 
 " "Well said ! " replied Colston, " and just what I expected 
 you to say. Now listen to me for a minute. Whatever you 
 may see or hear for the next few minutes say nothing till you 
 are asked to speak. I will say all that is necessary at first. 
 Ask no questions, but trust to anything that may seem strange 
 being explained in due course — as it will be. A single indis- 
 cretion on your part might raise suspicions which would be as 
 dangerous as they would be unfounded. When you are asked 
 to speak do so without the slightest fear, and speak your mind 
 as openly as you have done to me." 
 
 " You need have no fear for me," replied Arnold. " I think 
 I am sensible enough to be prudent, and I am quite sure that 
 I am desperate enough to be fearless. Little worse can happen 
 to me than the fate that I was contemplating last night." 
 
 As he ceased speaking there was a knock at the door. It 
 opened and the footman reappeared, saying in the most 
 commonplace fashion — 
 
 ■ Mr. Smith will be happy to see you now, gentlemen. Will 
 you kindly walk this way ? " 
 
28 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 They followed him out into the hall, and then, somewhat to 
 Arnold's surprise, down the stairs at the back, which apparently 
 led to the basement of the house. 
 
 The footman preceded them to the basement floor and 
 halted before a door in a little passage that looked like the 
 entrance to a coal cellar. On this he knocked in peculiar 
 fashion with the knuckles of one hand, while with the other he 
 pressed the button of an electric bell concealed under the paper 
 on the wall. The bell sounded faintly as though some distance 
 off, and as it rang the footman said abruptly to Colston — 
 
 " Das Wort ist Freiheit." 
 
 Arnold knew German enough to know that this meant 
 " The word is ' Freedom,' " but why it should have been spoken 
 in a foreign language mystified him not a little. 
 
 While he was thinking about this the door opened, as if by a 
 released spring, and he saw before him a long, narrow passage, 
 lit by four electric arcs, and closed at the other end by a door, 
 guarded by a sentry armed with a magazine rifle. 
 
 He followed Colston down the passage, and when within a 
 dozen feet of the sentry, he brought his rifle to the " ready," 
 and the following strange dialogue ensued between him and 
 Colston — 
 
 " Quien va ? " 
 
 " Zwei Freunde der Bruderschaft." 
 
 " Por la libertad ? " 
 
 " Fur Freiheit liber alles ! " 
 
 " Pass, friends." 
 
 The rifle grounded as the words were spoken, and the sentry 
 stepped back to the wall of the passage. 
 
 At the same moment another bell rang beyond the door, and 
 then the door itself opened as the other had done. 
 
 They passed through, and it closed instantly behind them, 
 leaving them in total darkness. 
 
 Colston caught Arnold by the arm, and drew him towards 
 him, saying as he did so — 
 
 " What do you think of our system of passwords ? " 
 
 " Pretty hard to get through unless one knew them, I should 
 think. Why the different languages ? " 
 
 " To make assurance doubly sure every member of the Inner 
 Circle must be conversant with four European languages. On 
 
The House on Clapham Common. 29 
 
 these the changes are rung, and even I did not know what the 
 two languages were to be to-night before I entered the house, 
 and if I had asked for ' Mr. Brown ' instead of ' Mr. Smith,' we 
 should never have got beyond the drawing-room. 
 
 " When the footman told me in German that the word was 
 ' Freedom,' I knew that I should have to answer the challenge 
 of the sentry in German. I did not know that he would 
 challenge in Spanish, and if I had not understood him, or had 
 replied in any other language but German, he would have shot 
 us both clown without saying another word, and no one would 
 ever have known what had become of us. You will be exempt 
 from this condition, because you will always come with me. 
 I am, in fact, responsible for you." 
 
 " H'm, there doesn't seem much chance of any one getting 
 through on false pretences," replied Arnold, with an irrepres- 
 sible shudder. " Has any one ever tried ? " 
 
 " Yes, once. The two gentlemen whose disappearance made 
 the famous ' Clapham Mystery ' of about twelve months ago. 
 They were two of the smartest detectives in the French service, 
 and the only two men who ever guessed the true nature of this 
 house. They are buried under the floor on which you are 
 standing at this moment." 
 
 The words were spoken with a cruel inflexible coldness, 
 which struck Arnold like a blast of frozen air. He shivered, 
 and was about to reply when Colston caught him by the arm 
 again, and said hurriedly — 
 
 " H'st ! We are going in. Remember what I said, and don't 
 speak again till some one asks you to do so." 
 
 As he spoke a door opened in the wall of the dark chamber 
 in which they had been standing for the last few minutes, and 
 a flood of soft light flowed in upon their dazzled eyes. At the 
 same moment a man's voice said from the room beyond in 
 Eussian — 
 
 " Who stands there ? " 
 
 " Maurice Colston and the Master of the Air," replied Colston 
 in the same language. 
 
 " You are welcome," was the reply, and then Colston, taking 
 Arnold by the arm, led him into the room. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INNER CIRCLE. 
 
 S soon as Arnold's eyes got accustomed to the 
 light, he saw that he was in a large, lofty room 
 with panelled walls adorned with a number of 
 fine paintings. As he looked at these his gaze 
 was fascinated by them, even more than by the 
 strange company which was assembled round 
 the long table that occupied the middle of the room. 
 
 Though they were all manifestly the products of the highest 
 form of art, their subjects were dreary and repulsive beyond 
 description. There was a horrible realism about them 
 which reminded him irresistibly of the awful collection of 
 pictorial horrors in the Mus^e Wiertz, in Brussels — those works 
 of the brilliant but unhappy genius who was driven into in- 
 sanity by the sheer exuberance of his own morbid imagination. 
 Here was a long line of men and women in chains staggering 
 across a wilderness of snow that melted away into the horizon 
 without a break. Beside them rode Cossacks armed with long 
 whips that they used on men and women alike when their 
 fainting limbs gave way beneath them, and they were like to 
 fall by the wayside to seek the welcome rest that only death 
 could give them. 
 
 There was a picture of a woman naked to the waist, and tied 
 up to a triangle in a prison yard, being flogged by a soldier with 
 willow wands, while a group of officers stood by, apparently 
 greatly interested in the performance. Another painting showed 
 a poor wretch being knouted to death in the market-place of a 
 Russian town, and yet another showed a young and beautiful 
 woman in a prison cell with her face distorted by the horrible 
 
 so 
 
The Inner Circle. 31 
 
 leer of madness, and her little white hands clawing nervously 
 at her long dishevelled hair. 
 
 Arnold stood for several minutes fascinated by the hideous 
 realism of the pictures, and burning with rage and shame at the 
 thought that they were all too terribly true to life, when he 
 was startled out of his reverie by the same voice that had 
 called them from the dark room saying to him in English — 
 
 •'Well, Richard Arnold, what do you think of our little 
 picture gallery ? The paintings are good in themselves, but it 
 may make them more interesting to you if you know that they 
 are all faithful reproductions of scenes that have really taken 
 place within the limits of the so-called civilised and Christian 
 world. There are some here in this room now who have 
 suffered the torments depicted on those canvases, and who 
 could tell of worse horrors than even they portray. We should 
 like to know what you think of our paintings ? " 
 
 Arnold glanced towards the table in search of Colston, but 
 he had vanished. Around the long table sat fourteen masked 
 and shrouded forms that were absolutely indistinguishable 
 one from the other. He could not even tell whether they 
 were men or women, so closely were their forms and faces 
 concealed. Seeing that he was left to his own discretion, 
 he laid the case containing the model, w T hich he had so 
 far kept under his arm, down on the floor, and, facing the 
 strange assembly, said as steadily as he could — 
 
 "My own reading tells me that they are only too true to 
 the dreadful reality. I think that the civilised and Christian 
 Society which permits such crimes to be committed against 
 humanity, when it has the power to stop them by force of 
 arms, is neither truly civilised nor truly Christian." 
 
 " And would you stop them if you could ? " 
 
 "Yes, if it cost the lives of millions to do it! They would 
 be better spent than the thirty million lives that were lost last 
 century over a few bits of territory." 
 
 "That is true, and augurs well for our future agreement. 
 Be kind enough to come to the table and take a seat." 
 
 The masked man who spoke was sitting in the chair at 
 the foot of the table, and as he said this one of those sitting 
 at the side got up and motioned to Arnold to take his place. 
 As soon as he had done so the speaker continued — 
 
32 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 "We are glad to see that your sentiments are so far in 
 accord with our own, for that fact will make our negotiations 
 all the easier. 
 
 " As you are aware, you are now in the Inner Circle of the 
 Terrorists. Yonder empty chair at the head of the table is 
 that of our Chief, who, though not with us in person, is ever 
 present as a guiding influence in our councils. We act as he 
 directs, and it was from him that we received news of you 
 and your marvellous invention. It is also by his direction 
 that you have been invited here to-night with an object that 
 you are already aware of. 
 
 " I see from your face that you are about to ask how this 
 can be, seeing that you have never confided your secret to 
 any one until last night. It will be useless to ask me, for I 
 myself do not know. We who sit here simply execute the 
 Master's will. We ask no questions, and therefore we can 
 answer none concerning him." 
 
 " I have none to ask," said Arnold, seeing that the speaker 
 paused as though expecting him to say something. " I came 
 at the invitation of one of your Brotherhood to lay certain 
 terms before you, for you to accept or reject as seems good to 
 you. How you got to know of me and my invention is, after 
 all, a matter of indifference to me. With your perfect system 
 of espionage you might well find out more secret things than 
 that." 
 
 "Quite so," was the reply. "And the question that we 
 have to settle with you is how far you will consent to assist 
 the work of the Brotherhood with this invention of yours, 
 and on what conditions you will do so." 
 
 "I must first know as exactly as possible what the work 
 of the Brotherhood is." 
 
 " Under the circumstances there is no objection to your 
 knowing that. In the first place, that which is known to 
 the outside world as the Terror is an international secret 
 society underlying and directing the operations of the various 
 bodies known as Nihilists, Anarchists, Socialists — in fact, all 
 those organisations which have for their object the reform 
 or destruction, by peaceful or violent means, of Society as it 
 is at present constituted. 
 
 " Its influence reaches beyond these into the various trade 
 
The Inner Circle. 33 
 
 unions and political clubs, the moving spirits of which are all 
 members of our Outer Circle. On the other side of Society 
 we have agents and adherents in all the Courts of Europe, 
 all the diplomatic bodies, and all the parliamentary assemblies 
 throughout the world. 
 
 " We believe that Society as at present constituted is 
 hopeless for any good thing. All kinds of nameless brutalities 
 are practised without reproof in the names of law and order, 
 and commercial economics. On one side human life is a 
 splendid fabric of cloth of gold embroidered with priceless 
 gems, and on the other it is a mass of filthy, festering rags, 
 swarming with vermin. 
 
 " We think that such a Society — a Society which permits 
 considerably more than the half of humanity to be sunk in 
 poverty and misery while a very small portion of it fools 
 away its life in perfectly ridiculous luxury — does not deserve 
 to exist, and ought to be destroyed. 
 
 " We also know that sooner or later it will destroy itself, 
 as every similar Society has done before it. For nearly forty 
 years there has now been almost perfect peace in Europe. 
 At the same time, over twenty millions of men are standing 
 ready to take the field in a week. 
 
 " War — universal war that will shake the world to its 
 foundations — is only a matter of a little more delay and a 
 few diplomatic hitches. Russia and England are within 
 rifleshot of each other in Afghanistan, and France and Germany 
 are flinging defiances at each other across the Ehine. 
 
 " Some one must soon fire the shot that will set the world 
 in a blaze, and meanwhile the toilers of the earth are weary 
 of these dreadful military and naval burdens, and would care 
 very little if the iuevitable happened to-morrow. 
 
 " It is in the power of the Terrorists to delay or precipitate 
 that war to a certain extent. Hitherto all our efforts have 
 been devoted to the preservation of peace, and many of the 
 so-called outrages which have taken place in different parts 
 of Europe, and especially in Russia, during the last few years, 
 have been accomplished simply for the purpose of forcing the 
 attention of the administrations to internal affairs for the 
 time, and so putting off what would have led to a declaration 
 of war. 
 
34 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " This policy has not been dictated by any hope of avoid- 
 ing war altogether, for that would have been sheer insanity. 
 We have simply delayed war as long as possible, because we 
 have not felt that we have been strong enough to turn the tide 
 of battle at the right moment in favour of the oppressed ones 
 of the earth and against their oppressors. 
 
 "But this invention of yours puts a completely different 
 aspect on the European situation. Armed with such a 
 tremendous engine of destruction as a navigable air-ship must 
 necessarily be, when used in conjunction with the explosives 
 already at our disposal, we could make war impossible to our 
 enemies by bringing into the field a force with which no army 
 or fleet could contend without the certainty of destruction. 
 By these means we should ultimately compel peace and enforce 
 a general disarmament on land and sea. 
 
 " The vast majority of those who make the wealth of the 
 world are sick of seeing that wealth wasted in the destruction 
 of human life, and the ruin of peaceful industries. As soon, 
 therefore, as we are in a position to dictate terms under such 
 tremendous penalties, all the innumerable organisations with 
 which we are in touch all over the world will rise in arms and 
 enforce them at all costs. 
 
 " Of course, it goes without saying that the powers that are 
 now enthroned in the high places of the world will fight 
 bitterly and desperately to retain the rule that they have held 
 for so long, but in the end we shall be victorious, and then on 
 the ruins of this civilisation a new and a better shall arise. 
 
 " That is a rough, brief outline of the policy of the Brother- 
 hood, which we are going to ask you to-night to join. Of 
 course, in the eyes of the world we are only a set of fiends, 
 whose sole object is the destruction of Society, and the 
 inauguration of a state of universal anarchy. That, however, 
 has no concern for us. What is called popular opinion is 
 merely manufactured by the Press according to order, and 
 does not count in serious concerns. What I have described to 
 you are the true objects of the Brotherhood ; and now it 
 remains for you to say, yes or no, whether you will devote 
 yourself and your invention to carrying them out or not." 
 
 For two or three minutes after the masked spokesman of 
 the Inner Circle had ceased speaking, there was absolute 
 
The Inner Circle. 35 
 
 silence in the room. The calmly spoken words which deliber- 
 ately sketched out the ruin of a civilisation and the establish- 
 ment of a new order of things made a deep impression on 
 Arnold's mind. He saw clearly that he was standing at the 
 parting of the ways, and facing the most tremendous crisis 
 that could occur in the life of a human being. 
 
 It was only natural that he should look back, as he did, to 
 the life from which a single step would now part him for ever, 
 without the possibility of going back. He knew that if he 
 once put his hands to the plough, and looked back, death, 
 swift and inevitable, would be the penalty of his wavering. 
 This, however, he had already weighed and decided. 
 
 Most of what he had heard had found an echo in his own 
 convictions. Moreover, the life that he bad left had no charms 
 for him, while to be one of the chief factors in a world-revolu- 
 tion was a destiny worthy both of himself and his invention. 
 So the fatal resolution was taken, and he spoke the words that 
 bound him for ever to the Brotherhood. 
 
 " As I have already told Mr. Colston," he began by saying, 
 " I will join and faithfully serve the Brotherhood if the con- 
 ditions that I feel compelled to make are granted " — 
 
 " We know them already," interrupted the spokesman, " and 
 they are freely granted. Indeed, you can hardly fail to see 
 that we are trusting you to a far greater extent than it is 
 possible for us to make you trust us, unless you choose to do 
 so. The air-ship once built and afloat under your command, 
 the game of war would to a great extent be in your own hands. 
 True, you would not survive treachery very long ; but, on the 
 other hand, if it became necessary to kill you, the air-ship 
 would be useless, that is, if you took your secret of the motive 
 power with you into the next world." 
 
 " As I undoubtedly should," added Arnold quietly. 
 
 " We have no doubt that you would," was the equally quiet 
 rejoinder. " And now I will read to you the oath of member- 
 ship that you will be required to sign. Even when you have 
 heard it, if you feel any hesitation in subscribing to it, there 
 will still be time to withdraw, for we tolerate no unwilling or 
 half-hearted recruits." 
 
 Arnold bowed his acquiescence, and the spokesman took a 
 piece of paper from the table and read aloud — 
 
36 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " 7", Richard Arnold, sign this paper in the full knowledge that 
 in doing so I devote myself absolutely for the rest of my life to 
 the service of the Brotherhood of Freedom, known to the world as 
 the Terrorists. As long as I live its ends sliall be my ends, and 
 no human considerations shall weigh with me where those ends 
 are concerned. I will take life without mercy, and yield my own 
 without hesitation at its bidding. I will break all other laws to 
 obey those which it obeys, and if I disobey these I shall expect 
 death as the just penalty of my perjury." 
 
 As he finished reading the oath, he handed the paper to 
 Arnold, saying as he did so — 
 
 "There are no theatrical formalities to be gone through. 
 Simply sign the paper and give it back to me, or else tear it 
 up and go in peace." 
 
 Arnold read it through slowly, and then glanced round the 
 table. He saw the eyes of the silent figures sitting about him 
 shining at him through the holes in their masks. He laid the 
 paper down on the table in front of him, dipped a pen in an 
 inkstand that stood near, and signed the oath in a firm, un- 
 faltering hand. Then — committed for ever, for good or evil, 
 to the new life that he had adopted — he gave the paper back 
 again. 
 
 The President took it and read it, and then passed it to the 
 mask on his right hand. It went from one to the other round 
 the table, each one reading it before passing it on, until it got 
 back to the President. "When it reached him he rose from his 
 seat, and, going to the fireplace, dropped it into the flames, and 
 watched it until it was consumed to ashes. Then, crossing the 
 room to where Arnold was sitting, he removed his mask with 
 one hand, and held the other out to him in greeting, saying as 
 he did so — 
 
 " Welcome to the Brotherhood ! Thrice welcome ! for your 
 coming has brought the day of redemption nearer ! " 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEW FKIENDS. 
 
 S Arnold returned the greeting of the President, 
 all the other members of the Circle rose from 
 their seats and took off their masks and the 
 black shapeless cloaks which had so far com- 
 pletely covered them from head to foot. 
 
 Then, one after the other, they came forward 
 and were formally introduced to him by the President. Nine of 
 the fourteen were men, and five were women of ages varying from 
 middle age almost to girlhood. The men were apparently all 
 between twenty-five and thirty-five, and included some half- 
 dozen nationalities among them. 
 
 All, both men and women, evidently belonged to the educated, 
 or rather to the cultured class. Their speech, which seemed to 
 change with perfect ease from one language to another in the 
 course of their somewhat polyglot converse, was the easy flow- 
 ing speech of men and women accustomed to the best society, 
 not only in the social but the intellectual sense of the word. 
 
 All were keen, alert, and swift of thought, and on the face 
 of each one there was the dignifying expression of a deep and 
 settled purpose which at once differentiated them in Arnold's 
 eyes from the ordinary idle or merely money-making citizens 
 of the world. 
 
 As each one came and shook hands with the new member of 
 the Brotherhood, he or she had some pleasant word of welcome 
 and greeting for him ; and so well were the words chosen, and so 
 manifestly sincerely were they spoken, that by the time lie had 
 shaken hands all round Arnold felt as much at home among 
 them as though he were in the midst of a circle of old friends. 
 
 3? 
 
38 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Among the women there were two who had attracted his 
 attention and roused his interest far more than any of the 
 other members of the Circle. One of these was a tall and 
 beautifully-shaped woman, whose face and figure were those of 
 a woman in the early twenties, but whose long, thick hair was 
 as white as though the snows of seventy winters had drifted 
 over it. As he returned her warm, firm hand-clasp, and looked 
 upon her dark, resolute, and yet perfectly womanly features, 
 the young engineer gave a slight start of recognition. She 
 noticed this at once and said, with a smile and a quick flash 
 from her splendid grey eyes — 
 
 " Ah ! I see you recognise me. No, I am not ashamed of my 
 portrait. I am proud of the wounds that I have received in 
 the war with tyranny, so you need not fear to confess your 
 recognition." 
 
 It was true that Arnold had recognised her. She was the 
 original of the central figure of the painting which depicted 
 the woman being flogged by the Russian soldiers. 
 
 Arnold flushed hotly at the words with the sudden passionate 
 anger that they roused within him, and replied in a low, steady 
 voice — 
 
 " Those who would sanction such a crime as that are not fit 
 to live. I will not leave one stone of that prison standing upon 
 another. It is a blot on the face of the earth, and I will wipe 
 it out utterly ! " 
 
 " There are thousands of blots as black as that on earth, and 
 I think you will find nobler game than an obscure Russian 
 provincial prison. Eussia has cities and palaces and fortresses 
 that will make far grander ruins than that — ruins that will be 
 worthy monuments of fallen despotism," replied the girl, who 
 had been introduced by the President as Eadna Michaelis. 
 " But here is some one else waiting to make your acquaintance. 
 This is Natasha. She has no other name among us, but you 
 will soon learn why she needs none." 
 
 Natasha was the other woman who had so keenly roused 
 Arnold's interest. Woman, however, she hardly was, for she 
 was seemingly still in her teens, and certainly could not have 
 been more than twenty. 
 
 He had mixed but little with women, and during the past 
 few years not at all, and therefore the marvellous beauty of the 
 
New Friends. 39 
 
 girl who came forward as Eadna spoke seemed almost unearthly 
 to him, and confused his senses for the moment as some potent 
 drug might have done. He took her outstretched hand in 
 awkward silence, and for an instant so far forgot himself as to 
 gaze blankly at her in speechless admiration. 
 
 She could not help noticing it, for she was a woman, and for 
 the same reason she saw that it was so absolutely honest and 
 involuntary that it was impossible for any woman to take 
 offence at it. A quick bright flush swept up her lovely face 
 as his hand closed upon hers, her darkly-fringed lids fell for an 
 instant over the most wonderful pair of sapphire-blue eyes that 
 Arnold had ever even dreamed of, and when she raised them 
 again the flush had gone, and she said in a sweet, frank voice — 
 
 " I am the daughter of Natas, and he has desired me to bid 
 you welcome in his name, and I hope you will let me do so in 
 my own as well. We are all dying to see this wonderful 
 invention of yours. I suppose you are going to satisfy our 
 feminine curiosity, are you not ? " 
 
 The daughter of Natas ! This lovely girl, in the first sweet 
 flush of her pure and innocent womanhood, the daughter of the 
 unknown and mysterious being whose ill-omened name caused 
 a shudder if it was only whispered in the homes of the rich 
 and powerful ; the name with which the death-sentences of the 
 Terrorists were invariably signed, and which had come to be 
 an infallible guarantee that they would be carried out to the 
 letter. 
 
 No death - warrants of the most powerful sovereigns of 
 Europe were more certain harbingers of inevitable doom than 
 were those which bore this dreaded name. Whether he were 
 high or low, the man who received one of them made ready 
 for his end. He knew not where or when the fatal blow 
 would be struck. He only knew that the invisible hand of the 
 Terror would strike him as surely in the uttermost ends of the 
 earth as it would in the palace or the fortress. Never once 
 had it missed its aim, and never once had the slightest clue 
 been obtained to the identity of the hand that held the knife 
 or pistol. 
 
 Some such thoughts as these flashed one after another 
 through Arnold's brain as he stood talking with Natasha. He 
 6aw at once why she had only that one name. It was 
 
40 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 enough, and it was not long before he learnt that it was the 
 symbol of an authority in the Circle that admitted of no 
 question. 
 
 She was the envoy of him whose word was law, absolute and 
 irrevocable, to every member of the Brotherhood ; to disobey 
 whom was death ; and to obey whom had, so far at least, meant 
 swift and invariable success, even where it seemed least to be 
 hoped for. 
 
 Of course, Natasha's almost girlish question about the air- 
 ship was really a command, which would have been none the 
 less binding had she only had her own beauty to enforce it. 
 As she spoke the President and Colston — who had only lost 
 himself for the time behind a mask and cloak — came up to 
 Arnold and asked him if he was prepared to give an exhibition 
 of the powers of his model, and to explain its working and 
 construction to the Circle at once. 
 
 He replied that everything was perfectly ready for the trial, 
 and that he would set the model working for them in a few 
 minutes. The President then told him that the exhibition 
 should take place in another room, where there would be much 
 more space than where they were, and bade him bring the box 
 and follow him. 
 
 A door was now opened in the wall of the room remote from 
 that by which he and Colston had entered, and through this 
 the whole party went down a short passage, and through 
 another door at the end which opened into a very large apart- 
 ment, which, from the fact of its being windowless, Arnold 
 rightly judged to be underground, like the Council-chamber that 
 they had just left. 
 
 A single glance was enough to show him the chief purpose 
 to which the chamber was devoted. The wall at one end was 
 covered with arm-racks containing all the newest and most 
 perfect makes of rifles and pistols; while at the other end, 
 about twenty paces distant, were three electric signalling 
 targets, graded, as was afterwards explained to him, to one, 
 three, and five hundred yards range. 
 
 In a word, the chamber was an underground range for rifle 
 and pistol practice, in which a volley uould have been fired 
 without a sound being heard ten yards away. It was here 
 that the accuracy of the various weapons invented from 
 
New Friends. 41 
 
 time to time was tested; and here, too, every member of 
 the Circle, man and woman, practised with rifle and pistol 
 until an infallible aim was acquired. A register of scores 
 was kept, and at the head of it stood the name of Eadna 
 Michaelis. 
 
 A long table ran across the end at which the arm-racks 
 were, and on this Arnold laid the case containing the model, 
 he standing on one side of the table, and the members of the 
 Circle on the other, watching his movements with a curiosity 
 that they took no trouble to disguise. 
 
 He opened the case, feeling something like a scientific 
 demonstrator, with an advanced and critical class before him. 
 In a moment the man disappeared, and the mechanician and 
 the enthusiast took his place. As each part was taken out 
 and laid upon the table, he briefly explained its use ; and then, 
 last of all, came the hull of the air-ship. 
 
 This was three feet long and six inches broad in its midships 
 diameter. It was made in two longitudinal sections of polished 
 aluminium, which shone like burnished silver. It would have 
 been cigar-shaped but for the fact that the forward end was 
 drawn out into a long sharp ram, the point of which was on 
 a level with the floor of the hull amidships as it lay upon the 
 table. Two deep bilge-plates, running nearly the whole length 
 of the hull, kept it in an upright position and prevented the 
 blades of the propellors from touching the table. For about 
 half its whole length the upper part of the hull was flattened 
 and formed a deck from which rose three short strong masts, 
 each of which carried a wheel of thin metal whose spokes were 
 six inclined fans something like the blades of a screw. 
 
 A little lower than this deck there projected on each side a 
 broad, oblong, slightly curved sheet of metal, very thin, but 
 strengthened by means of wire braces, till it was as rigid as a 
 plate of solid steel, although it only weighed a few ounces. 
 These air-planes worked on an axis amidships, and could be 
 inclined either way through an angle of thirty degrees. At 
 the pointed stern there revolved a powerful four-bladed 
 propeller, and from each quarter, inclined slightly outwards 
 from the middle line of the vessel, projected a somewhat 
 smaller screw workiDg underneath the after end of the air- 
 planes. 
 
42 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The hull contained four small double-cylinder engines, one 
 of which actuated the stern-propeller, and the other three the 
 fan-wheels and side-propellers. There were, of course, no 
 furnaces, boilers, or condensers. Two slender pipes ran into 
 each cylinder from suitably placed gas reservoirs, or power- 
 cylinders, as the engineer called them, and that was all. 
 
 Arnold deftly and rapidly put the parts together, continuing 
 his running description as he did so, and in a few minutes the 
 beautiful miracle of ingenuity stood complete before the wonder- 
 ing eyes of the Circle, and a murmur of admiration ran from 
 lip to lip, bringing a flush of pleasure to the cheek of its creator. 
 
 "There," said he, as he put the finishing touches to the 
 apparatus, " you see that she is a combination of two principles 
 — those of the Aeronef and the Aeroplane. The first reached 
 its highest development in Jules Verne's imaginary " Clipper 
 of the Clouds," and the second in Hiram Maxim's Aeroplane. 
 Of course, Jules Verne's Aeronef was merely an idea, and one 
 that could never be realised while Eobur's mysterious source of 
 electrical energy remained unknown — as it still does. 
 
 " Maxim's Aeroplane is, as you all know, also an unrealised 
 ideal so far as any practical use is concerned. He has suc- 
 ceeded in making it fly, but only under the most favourable 
 conditions, and practically without cargo. Its two fatal defects 
 have been shown by experience to be the comparatively over- 
 whelming weight of the engine and the fuel that he has to 
 carry to develop sufficient power to rise from the ground and 
 progress against the wind, and the inability of the machine to 
 ascend perpendicularly to any required height. 
 
 " Without the power to do this no air-ship can be of any use 
 save under very limited conditions. You cannot carry a rail- 
 way about with you, or a station to get a start from every time 
 you want to rise, and you cannot always choose a nice level 
 plain in which to come down. Even if you could the Aeroplane 
 would not rise again without its rails and carriage. For pur- 
 poses of warfare, then, it may be dismissed as totally useless. 
 
 "In this machine, as you see, I have combined the two 
 principles. These helices on the masts will lift the dead 
 weight of the ship perpendicularly without the slightest help 
 from the side-planes, which are used to regulate the vessel's 
 flight when afloat. I will set the engines that work them in 
 
New Friends. 43 
 
 motion independently of the others which move the propellers, 
 and then you will see what I mean." 
 
 As he spoke, he set one part of the mechanism working. 
 Those watching saw the three helices begin to spin round, the 
 centre one revolving in an opposite direction to the other two, 
 with a soft whirring sound that gradually rose to a high- 
 pitched note. 
 
 When they attained their full speed they looked like solid 
 wheels, and then the air-ship rose, at first slowly, and then 
 more and more swiftly, straight up from the table, until it 
 strained hard at the piece of cord which prevented it from 
 reaching the roof. 
 
 A universal chorus of "bravas" greeted it as it rose, and 
 every eye became fixed on it as it hung motionless in the 
 air, sustained by its whirling helices. After letting it remain 
 aloft for a few minutes Arnold pulled it down again, saying as 
 he did so — 
 
 " That, I think, proves that the machine can rise from any 
 position where the upward road is open, and without the 
 slightest assistance of any apparatus. Xow it shall take a 
 voyage round the room. 
 
 " You see it is steered by this rudder- fan under the stern 
 propeller. In the real ship it will be worked by a wheel, like 
 the rudder of a sea-going vessel ; but in the model it is done 
 by this lever, so that I can control it by a couple of strings 
 from the ground." 
 
 He went round to the other side of the table while he was 
 speaking, and adjusted the steering gear, stopping the engines 
 meanwhile. Then he put the model down on the floor, set all 
 four engines to work, and stood behind with the guiding- 
 strings in his hands. The spectators heard a louder and 
 somewhat shriller whirring noise than before, and the beautiful 
 fabric, with its shining, silvery hull and side -planes, rose 
 slantingly from the ground and darted forward down the room, 
 keeping Arnold at a quick run with the rudder-strings tightly 
 strained. 
 
 Like an obedient steed, it instantly obeyed the slightest pull 
 upon either of them, and twice made the circuit of the room 
 before its creator pulled it clown and stopped the machinery. 
 
 The experiment was a perfect and undeniable success in 
 
44 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 every respect, and not one of those who saw it had the 
 slightest doubt as to Arnold's air-ship having at last solved 
 the problem of aerial navigation, and made the Brotherhood 
 lords of a realm as wide as the atmospheric ocean that 
 encircles the globe. 
 
 As soon as the model was once more resting on the table, 
 the President came forward and, grasping the engineer by 
 both hands, said in a voice from which he made but little 
 effort to banish the emotion that he felt — 
 
 "Bravo, brother! Henceforth you shall be known to the 
 Brotherhood as the Master of the Air, for truly you have been 
 the first among the sons of men to fairly conquer it. Come, 
 let us go back and talk, for there is much to be said about 
 this, and we cannot begin too soon to make arrangements for 
 building the first of our aerial fleet. You can leave your 
 model where it is in perfect safety, for no one ever enters this 
 room save ourselves." 
 
 So saying the President led the way to the Council-chamber, 
 and there, after the Ariel — as it had already been decided to 
 name the first air-ship — had been christened in anticipation in 
 twenty-year old champagne, the Circle settled down at once to 
 business, and for a good three hours discussed the engineer's esti- 
 mate and plans for building the first vessel of the aerial fleet. 
 
 At length all the practical details were settled, and the 
 President rose in token of the end of the conference. As he 
 did so he said somewhat abruptly to Arnold — 
 
 "So far so good. Now there is nothing more to be done 
 but to lay those plans before the Chief and get his authority 
 for withdrawing out of the treasury sufficient money to 
 commence operations. I presume you could reproduce them 
 from memory if necessary — at any rate, in sufficient outline to 
 make them perfectly intelligible ? " 
 
 " Certainly," was the reply. " I could reproduce them in 
 fac simile without the slightest difficulty. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " Because the Chief is in Eussia, and you must go to him 
 and place them before him from memory. They are far too 
 precious to be trusted to any keeping, however trustworthy. 
 There are such things as railway accidents, and other forms of 
 sudden death, to say nothing of the Russian customs, false 
 arrests, personal searches, and imprisonments on mere suspicion. 
 
New Friends. 45 
 
 " We can risk none of these, and so there is nothing for it 
 but your going to Petersburg and verbally explaining them 
 to the Chief. You can be ready in three days, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes, in two, if you like," replied Arnold, not a little taken 
 aback at the unexpected suddenness of what he knew at once 
 to be the first order that was to test his obedience to the 
 Brotherhood. " But as I am absolutely ignorant of Prussia and 
 the Russians, I suppose you will make such arrangements as 
 will prevent my making any innocent but possibly awkward 
 mistakes." 
 
 " Oh yes," replied the President, with a smile, " all arrange- 
 ments have been made already, and I expect you will find 
 them anything but unpleasant. Natasha goes to Petersburg 
 in company with another lady member of the Circle whom you 
 have not yet seen. 
 
 " You will go with them, and they will explain everything 
 to you en route, if they have no opportunity of doing so before 
 you start. Now let us go upstairs and have some supper. I 
 am famished, and I suppose every one else is too." 
 
 Arnold simply bowed in answer to the President ; but one 
 pair of eyes at least in the room caught the quick, faint flush 
 that rose in his cheek as he was told in whose company he was 
 to travel. As for himself, if the journey had been to Siberia 
 instead of Russia, he would have felt nothing but pleasure at 
 the prospect after that. 
 
 They left the Council - chamber by the passage and the 
 ante-room, the sentry standing to attention as they passed 
 him, each giving the word in turn, till the President came last 
 and closed the doors behind him. Then the sentry brought 
 up the rear and extinguished the lights as he left the passage. 
 
 Fifteen minutes later there sat down to supper, in the 
 solidly comfortable dining-room of the upper house, a party 
 of ladies and gentlemen who chatted through the meal as 
 merrily and innocently as though there were no such things 
 as tyranny or suffering in the world, and whom not the 
 most acute observer would have taken for the most dangerous 
 and desperately earnest body of conspirators that ever plotted 
 the destruction, not of an empire, but of a civilisation and a 
 social order that it had taken twenty centuries to build up. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE DAUGHTER OF NATAS. 
 
 UPPER was over about eleven, and then the 
 party adjourned to the drawing-room, where for 
 an hour or so Arnold sat and listened to such, 
 music and singing as he had never heard in his 
 life before. The songs seemed to be in every 
 language in Europe, and he did not understand 
 anything like half of them, so far, at least, as the words were 
 concerned. 
 
 They were, however, so far removed from the average 
 drawing-room medley of twaddle and rattle that the music 
 interpreted the words into its own universal language, and 
 made them almost superfluous. 
 
 For the most part they were sad and passionate, and once 
 or twice, especially when Radna Michaelis was singing, Arnold 
 saw tears well up into the eyes of the women, and the brows 
 of the men contract and their hands clench with sudden 
 passion at the recollection of some terrible scene or story that 
 was recalled by the song. 
 
 At last, close on midnight, the President rose from his seat 
 and asked Natasha to sing the " Hymn of Freedom." She 
 acknowledged the request with an inclination of her head, and 
 then as Radna sat down to the piano, and she took her place be- 
 side it, all the rest rose to their feet like worshippers in a chuch. 
 The prelude was rather longer than usual, and as Radna 
 played it Arnold heard running through it, as it were, echoes 
 of all the patriotic songs of Europe from " Scots Wha Hae " 
 and " The Shan van Voght " to the forbidden Polish National 
 Hymn and the Swiss Republican song, which is known in 
 
 46 
 
The Daughter of Natas. 47 
 
 England as " God Save the Queen." The prelude ended with 
 a few Lars of the " Marseillaise," and then Natasha began. 
 
 It was a marvellous performance. As the air changed from 
 nation to nation the singer changed the language, and at the 
 end of each verse the others took up the strain in perfect 
 harmony, till it sounded like a chorus of the nations in 
 miniature, each language coming in its turn until the last 
 verse was reached. 
 
 Then there was silence for a moment, and then the opening 
 chords of the " Marseillaise " rang out from the piano, slow 
 and stately at first, and then quickening like the tread of an 
 army going into battle. 
 
 Suddenly Natasha's voice soared up, as it were, out of the 
 music, and a moment later the Song of the Eevolution rolled 
 forth in a flood of triumphant melody, above which Natasha's 
 pure contralto thrilled sweet and strong, till to Arnold's 
 intoxicated senses it seemed like the voice of some angel 
 singing from the sky in the ears of men, and it was not until 
 the hymn had been ended for some moments that he was 
 recalled to earth by the President saying to him — 
 
 " Some day, perhaps, you will be floating in the clouds, and 
 you will hear that hymn rising from the throats of millions 
 gathered together from the ends of the earth, and when you 
 hear that you will know that our work is done, and that there 
 is peace on earth at last." 
 
 " I hope so," replied the engineer quietly, " and, what is 
 more, I believe that some clay I shall hear it." 
 
 "I believe so too," suddenly interrupted Badna, turning 
 round on her seat at the piano, " but there will be many a 
 battle-song sung to the accompaniment of battle-music before 
 that happens. I wish " — 
 
 " That all Eussia were a haystack, and that you were beside 
 it with a lighted torch," said Natasha, half in jest and half 
 in earnest. 
 
 "Yes, truly!" replied Eadna, turning round and dashing 
 fiercely into the " Marseillaise " again. 
 
 " I have no doubt of it. But, come, it is after midnight, 
 and we have to get back to Cheyne Walk. The princess will 
 think we have been arrested or something equally dreadful 
 Ah, Mr. Colston, we have a couple of seats to spare in the 
 
48 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 brougham. Will you and our Admiral of the Air condescend 
 to accept a lift as far as Chelsea ? " 
 
 " The condescension is in the offer, Natasha," replied Colston, 
 flushing with pleasure and glancing towards Eadna the while. 
 Kadna answered with an almost imperceptible sign of consent, 
 and Colston went on : " If it were in an utterly opposite 
 direction " — 
 
 "You would not be asked to come, sir. So don't try to 
 pay compliments at the expense of common sense," laughed 
 Natasha before he could finish. " If you do you shall sit 
 beside me instead of Kadna all the way." 
 
 There was a general smile at this retort, for Colston's 
 avowed devotion to Eadna and the terrible circumstances out 
 of which it had sprung was one of the romances of the Circle. 
 
 As for Arnold, he could scarcely believe his ears when he 
 heard that he was to ride from Clapham Common to Chelsea 
 sitting beside this radiantly beautiful girl, behind whose 
 innocence and gaiety there lay the shadow of her mysterious 
 and terrible parentage. 
 
 Lovely and gentle as she seemed, he knew even now how 
 awful a power she held in the slender little hand whose 
 nervous clasp he could still feel upon his own, and this 
 knowledge seemed to raise an invisible yet impassable barrier 
 between him and the possibility of looking upon her as under 
 other circumstances it would have been natural for a man to 
 look upon so fair a woman. 
 
 Natasha's brougham was so far an improvement on those of 
 the present day that it had two equally comfortable seats, and 
 on these the four were cosily seated a few minutes after the 
 party broke up. To Arnold, and, doubtless, to Colston also, the 
 miles flew past at an unheard-of speed ; but for all that, long 
 before the carriage stopped at the house in Cheyne Walk, he 
 had come to the conviction that, for good or evil, he was now 
 bound to the Brotherhood by far stronger ties than any social 
 or political opinions could have formed. 
 
 After they had said good-night at the door, and received an 
 invitation to lunch for the next day to talk over the journey to 
 Eussia, he and Colston decided to walk to the Savoy, for it was 
 a clear moonlit night, and each had a good deal to say to the 
 other, which could be better and more safely said in the open 
 
The Daughter of Natas. 49 
 
 air than in a cab. So they lit their cigars, buttoned up their 
 coats, and started off eastward along the Embankment to 
 Vauxhall. 
 
 " Well, my friend, tell me how you have enjoyed your 
 evening, and what you think of the company," said Colston, 
 by way of opening the conversation. 
 
 " Until supper I had a very pleasant time of it. I enjoyed 
 the business part of the proceedings intensely, as any other 
 mechanical enthusiast would have done, I suppose. But I 
 frankly confess that after that my mind is in a state of com- 
 plete chaos, in the midst of which only one figure stands out 
 at all distinctly." 
 
 " And that figure is ? " 
 
 " Natasha. Tell me — who is she ? " 
 
 " I know no more as to her true identity than you do, or else 
 I would answer you with pleasure." 
 
 " What ! Do you mean to say " — 
 
 " I mean to say just what I have said. Not only do I not 
 know who she is, but I do not believe that more than two or 
 three members of the Circle, at the outside, know any more 
 than I do. Those are, probably, Nicholas Eoburoff, the 
 President of the Executive, and his wife, and Eadna Michaelis." 
 
 " Then, if Eadna knows, how comes it that you do not know ? 
 You must forgive me if I am presuming on a too short acquaint- 
 ance ; but it certainly struck me to-night that you had very 
 few secrets from each other." 
 
 " There is no presumption about it, my dear fellow," replied 
 Colston, with a laugh. " It is no secret that Eadna and I are 
 lovers, and that she will be my wife when I have earned her." 
 
 "Now you have raised my curiosity again," interrupted 
 Arnold, in an inquiring tone. 
 
 "And will very soon satisfy it. You saw that horrible 
 picture in the Council- chamber ? Yes. Well, I will tell you 
 the whole story of that some day when we have more time ; 
 but for the present it will be enough for me to tell you that I 
 have sworn not to ask Eadna to come with me to the altar 
 while a single person who was concerned in that nameless 
 crime remains alive. 
 
 " There were five persons responsible for it to begin with — the 
 governor of the prison, the prefect of police for the district, a 
 
50 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 spy, who informed against her, and the two soldiers who 
 executed the infernal sentence. It happened nearly three 
 years ago, and there are two of them alive still — the governor 
 and the prefect of police. 
 
 " Of course the Brotherhood would have removed them long 
 ago had it decided to do so ; but I got the circumstances laid 
 before Natas, by the help of Natasha, and received permission 
 to execute the sentences myself. So far I have killed three 
 with my own hand, and the other two have not much longer 
 to live. 
 
 "The governor has been transferred to Siberia, and will 
 probably be the last that I shall reach. The prefect is now in 
 command of the Eussian secret police in London, and unless 
 an accident happens he will never leave England." 
 
 Colston spoke in a cold, passionless, merciless tone, just as 
 a lawyer might speak of a criminal condemned to die by the 
 ordinary process of the law, and as Arnold heard him he 
 shuddered. But at the same time the picture in the Council- 
 chamber came up before his mental vision, and he was forced 
 to confess that men who could so far forget their manhood as 
 to lash a helpless woman up to a triangle and flog her till her 
 flesh was cut to ribbons, were no longer men but wild beasts, 
 whose very existence was a crime. So he merely said — 
 
 " They were justly slain. Now tell me more about Natasha." 
 
 " There is very little more that I can tell you, I'm afraid. 
 All I know is that the Brotherhood of the Terror is the con- 
 ception and creation of a single man, and that that man is Natas, 
 the father of Natasha, as she is known to us. His orders come 
 to us either directly in writing through Natasha, or indirectly 
 through him you have heard spoken of as the Chief." 
 
 " Oh, then the Chief is not Natas ? " 
 
 " No, we have all of us seen him. In fact, when he is in 
 London he always presides at the Circle meetings. You would 
 hardly believe it, but he is an English nobleman, and Secretary 
 to the English Embassy at Petersburg." 
 
 "Then "he is Lord Alanmere, and an old college friend of 
 mine!" exclaimed Arnold. "I sawhis name in the paper the night 
 before last. It was mentioned in the account of the murder " — 
 
 " We don't call those murders, my friend," drily interrupted 
 Colston ; " we call them what they really arc — executions," 
 
The Daughter of Natas. 51 
 
 " I beg your pardon ; I was using the phraseology of the 
 newspaper. What was his crime ? " 
 
 " I don't know. But the fact that the Chief was there when 
 he died is quite enough for rne. Well, as I was saying, the 
 Chief, as we call him, is the visible and supreme head of the 
 Brotherhood so far as we are concerned. We know that ISTatas 
 exists, and that he and the Chief admit no one save Natasha to 
 their councils. 
 
 "They control the treasury absolutely, and apart from the 
 contributions of those of the members who can afford to make 
 them, they appear to provide ' the whole of the funds. Of 
 course, Lord Alanmere, as you know, is enormously wealthy, 
 and probably Natas is also rich. At any rate, there is never 
 any want of money where the work of the Brotherhood is 
 concerned. 
 
 " The estimates are given to Natasha when the Chief is not 
 present, and at the next meeting she brings the money in 
 English gold and notes, or in foreign currency as may be 
 required, and that is all we know about the finances. 
 
 " Perhaps I ought to tell you that there is also a very con- 
 siderable mystery about the Chief himself. When he presides 
 at the Council meetings he displays a perfectly marvellous 
 knowledge of both the members and the working of the 
 Brotherhood. 
 
 " It would seem that nothing, however trifling, is hidden from 
 him ; and yet when any of us happen to meet him, as we often 
 do, in Society, he treats us all as the most perfect strangers, 
 unless we have been regularly introduced to him as ordinary 
 acquaintances. Even then he seems utterly ignorant of his 
 connection with the Brotherhood. 
 
 " The first time I met him outside the Circle was at a ball at 
 the Russian Embassy. I went and spoke to him, giving the 
 sign of the Inner Circle as I did so. To my utter amazement, 
 he stared at me without a sign of recognition, and calmly 
 informed me, in the usual way, that I had the advantage of 
 him. 
 
 " Of course I apologised, and he accepted the apology with 
 perfect good humour, but as an utter stranger would have clone. 
 A little later Natasha came in with the Princess Ornovski, 
 whom you are going to Russia with, and who is there one of 
 
52 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the most trusted agents of the Petersburg police. I told 
 her what had happened. 
 
 " She looked at me for a moment rather curiously with those 
 wonderful eyes of hers ; then she laughed softly, and said, 
 ' Come, I will set that at rest by introducing you ; but mind, 
 not a word about politics or those horrible secret societies, as 
 you value my good opinion.' 
 
 "I understood from this that there was something behind 
 which could not be explained there, where every other one you 
 danced with might be a spy, and I was introduced to his Lord- 
 ship, and we became very good friends in the ordinary social 
 way; but I failed to gather the slightest hint from his con- 
 versation that he even knew of the existence of the Brother- 
 hood. 
 
 " When we left I drove home with Natasha and the Princess 
 to supper, and on the way Natasha told me that his Lordship 
 found it necessary to lead two entirely distinct lives, and that 
 he adhered so rigidly to this rule that he never broke it even 
 with her. Since then I have been most careful to respect what, 
 after all, is a very wise, if not an absolutely necessary, pre- 
 caution on his part." 
 
 " And, now," said Arnold, speaking in a tone that betrayed 
 not a little hesitation and embarrassment, "if you can do 
 so, answer me one more question, and do so as shortly and 
 directly as you can. Is Natasha in love with, or betrothed to, 
 any member of the Brotherhood as far as you know ? " 
 
 Colston stopped and looked at him with a laugh in his eyes. 
 Then he put his hand on his shoulder and said — 
 
 "As I thought, and feared! You have not escaped the 
 common lot of all heart-whole men upon whom those terrible 
 eyes of hers have looked. The Angel of the Eevolution, as we 
 call her among ourselves, is peerless among the daughters of 
 men. What more natural, then, that all the sons of men 
 should fall speedy victims to her fatal charms ? So far as I 
 know, every man who has ever seen her is more or less in 
 love with her — and mostly more ! 
 
 " As for the rest, I am as much in the dark as you are, save 
 for the fact that I know, on the authority of Radna, that she 
 is not betrothed to any one, and, so far as she knows, still in the 
 blissful state of maiden fancy-freedom." 
 
The Daughter of Natas. 53 
 
 " Thank God for that ! " said Arnold, with an audible sigh of 
 relief. Then he went on in somewhat hurried confusion, " But 
 there, of course, you think me a presumptuous ass, and so I 
 am; wherefore" — 
 
 " There is no need for you to talk nonsense, my dear fellow. 
 There never can be presumption in an honest man's love, no 
 matter how exalted the object of it may be. Besides, are you 
 not now the central hope of the Eevolution, and is not yours 
 the hand that shall hurl destruction on its enemies ? 
 
 " As for Natasha, peerless and all as she is, has not the poet 
 of the ages said of just such as her — 
 
 She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd ; 
 She is a woman : therefore to be won ? 
 
 " And who, too, has a better chance of winning her than you 
 will have when you are commanding the aerial fleet of the 
 Brotherhood, and, like a very Jove, hurling your destroying 
 bolts from the clouds, and deciding the hazard of war when the 
 nations of Europe are locked in the death-struggle? Why, 
 you see such a prospect makes even me poetical. 
 
 "Seriously, though, you must not consider the distance 
 between you too great. Eemember that you are a very different 
 person now to what you were a couple of days ago. Without 
 any offence, I may say that you were then nameless, while now 
 you have the chance of making a name that will go down to 
 all time as that of the solver of the greatest problem of this or 
 any other age. 
 
 "Added to this, remember that Natasha, after all, is a 
 woman, and, more than that, a woman devoted heart and soul 
 to a great cause, in which great deeds are soon to be done. 
 Great deeds are still the shortest way to a woman's heart, and 
 that is the way you must take if you are to hope for success." 
 
 " I will ! " simply replied Arnold, and the tone in which the 
 two words were said convinced Colston that he meant all that 
 they implied to its fullest extent 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LEARNING THE PART. 
 
 T was nearly eleven the next morning by the time 
 Arnold and Colston had finished breakfast. 
 This was mostly due to the fact that Arnold 
 had passed an almost entirely sleepless night, 
 and had only begun to doze off towards morn- 
 ing. The events of the previous evening kept on 
 repeating themselves in various sequences time after time, until 
 his brain reeled in the whirl of emotions that they gave rise to. 
 Although of a strongly mathematical and even mechanical 
 turn of mind, the young engineer was also an enthusiast, and 
 therefore there was a strong colouring of romance in his nature 
 which lifted him far above the level upon which his mere 
 intellect was accustomed to work 
 
 Where intellect alone was concerned — as, for instance, in 
 the working out of a problem in engineering or mechanics — 
 he was cool, calculating, and absolutely unemotional. His 
 highly-disciplined mind was capable of banishing every other 
 subject from consideration save the one which claimed the 
 attention of the hour, and of incorporating itself wholly with 
 the work in hand until it was finished. 
 
 These qualities would have been quite sufficient to assure 
 his success in life on conventional lines. They would have 
 made him rich, and perhaps famous, but they would never 
 have made him a great inventor; for no one can do anything 
 really great who is not a dreamer as well as a worker. 
 
 It was because he was a dreamer that he had sacrificed 
 everything to the working out of his ideal, and risked his life 
 on the chance of success, and it was for just the same reason 
 
 S4 
 
Learning the Part. 55 
 
 that the tremendous purposes of the Brotherhood had heen 
 able to fire his imagination with luridly brilliant dreams of a 
 gigantic world-tragedy in which he, armed with almost super- 
 natural powers, should play the central part. 
 
 This of itself would have been enough to make all other 
 considerations of trivial moment in his eyes, and to bind him 
 irrevocably to the Brotherhood. He saw, it is true, that a 
 frightful amount of slaughter and suffering would be the price 
 either of success or failure in so terrific a struggle ; but he also 
 knew that that struggle was inevitable in some form or other, 
 and whether he took a part in it or not. 
 
 But since the last sun had set a new element had come into 
 his life, and was working in line with both his imagination 
 and his ambition. So far he had lived his life without any 
 other human love than what was bound up with his re- 
 collections of his home and his boyhood. As a man he had 
 never loved any human being. Science had been his only 
 mistress, and had claimed his undivided devotion, engrossing 
 his mind and intellect completely, but leaving his heart free. 
 
 And now, as it were in an instant, a new mistress had come 
 forward out of the unknown. She had put her hand upon 
 his heart, and, though no words of human speech had passed 
 between them, save the merest commonplaces, her soul had 
 said to his, "This is mine. I have called it into life, and for 
 me it shall live until the end." 
 
 He had heard this as plainly as though it had been said to 
 him with the lips of flesh, and he had acquiesced in the 
 imperious claim with a glad submission which had yet to be 
 tinged with the hope that it might some day become a mastery. 
 
 Thus, as the silent, sleepless hours went by, did he review 
 over and over again the position in which he found himself 
 on the threshold of his strange new life, until at last physical 
 exhaustion brought sleep to his eyes if not to his brain, and 
 he found himself flying over the hills and vales of dreamland 
 in his air-ship, with the roar of battle and the smoke of ruined 
 towns far beneath him, and Natasha at his side, sharing with 
 him the dominion of the air that his genius had won. 
 
 At length Colston came in to tell him that the breakfast 
 was spoiling, and that it was high time to get up if they 
 intended to be in time for their appointment at Chelsea. This 
 
56 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 brought hj.m out of bed with effective suddeness, and he made 
 a hasty toilet for breakfast, leaving more important prepara- 
 tions until afterwards. 
 
 During the meal their conversation naturally turned chiefly 
 on the visit that they were to pay, and Colston took the 
 opportunity of explaining one or two things that it was 
 necessary for him to know with regard to the new acquaint- 
 ance that he was about to make at Chelsea. 
 
 " So far as the outside world is concerned," said he, " Natasha 
 is the niece of the Princess Ornovski. She is the daughter 
 of a sister of hers, who married an English gentleman, named 
 Darrel, who was drowned with his wife about twelve years 
 ago, when the Albania was wrecked off the coast of Portugal. 
 The Princess had a sister, who was drowned with her husband 
 in the Albania, and she left a daughter about Natasha's then 
 age, but who died of consumption shortly after in Nice. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, it was, of course, perfectly 
 easy for the Princess to adopt Natasha, and introduce her 
 into Society as her niece as soon as she reached the age of 
 coming out. 
 
 " This has been of immense service to the Brotherhood, as 
 the Princess is, as I told you, one of the most implicitly 
 trusted allies of the Petersburg police. She is received 
 at the Russian Court, and is therefore able to take Natasha 
 into the best Russian Society, where her extraordinary beauty 
 naturally enables her to break as many hearts as she likes, 
 and to learn secrets which are of the greatest importance to 
 the Brotherhood. 
 
 " Her Society name is Fedora Darrel, and it will scarcely be 
 necessary to tell you that outside our own Circle no such 
 being as Natasha has any existence." 
 
 "I perfectly understand," replied Arnold. "The name 
 shall never pass my lips save in privacy, and indeed it is 
 hardly likely that it will ever do so even then, for your 
 habit of calling each other by your Christian names is too 
 foreign to my British insularity." 
 
 " It is a Russian habit, as you, of course, know, and added 
 to that, we are, so far as the Cause is concerned, all brothers 
 and sisters together, and so it comes natural to us. Anyhow, 
 you will have to use it with Natasha, for in the Circle she has 
 
Learning the Part. 57 
 
 no other name, and to call her Miss Darrel there would be to 
 produce something like an earthquake." 
 
 " Oh, in that case, I daresay I shall be able to avoid the 
 calamity, though there will seem to be a presumption about it 
 that will not make me very comfortable at first." 
 
 " Too much like addressing one's sweetheart, eh ? " 
 
 This brought the conversation to a sudden stop, for Arnold's 
 only reply to it was a quick flush, and a lapse into silence that 
 was a good deal more eloquent than any verbal reply could 
 have been. Colston noticed it with a smile, and got up and 
 lit a pipe. 
 
 For the first time for a good few years Arnold took consider- 
 able pains with his toilet that morning. A new fit-out had 
 just been delivered by a tailor who had promised the things 
 within twenty-four hours, and had kept his word. The conse- 
 quences were that he was able to array himself in perfect 
 morning costume, from his hat to his boots, and that was what 
 it had not been his to do since he left college. 
 
 Colston had recommended him in his easy friendly way to 
 pay scrupulous attention to externals in the part that he would 
 henceforth have to play before the world. He fully saw the 
 wisdom of this advice, for he knew that, however well a part 
 may be played, if it is not dressed to perfection, some sharp 
 eyes will see that it is a part and not a reality. 
 
 The playing of his part was to begin that day, and he 
 recognised that at least one of the purposes of his visit to 
 Natasha was the determining of what that part was to be. 
 He thus looked forward with no little curiosity to the events 
 of the afternoon, quite apart from the supreme interest that 
 centred in his hostess. 
 
 They started out nearly a couple of hours before they were 
 due at Cheyne Walk, as they had several orders to give with 
 regard to Arnold's outfit for the journey that was before him ; 
 and this done, they reached the house about a quarter of an 
 hour before lunch time. 
 
 They were received in the most delightful of sitting-rooms 
 
 by a very handsome, aristocratic-looking woman, who might 
 
 have been anywhere between forty and fifty. She shook 
 
 hands very cordially with Arnold, saying as she did so — 
 
 " Welcome, Richard Arnold ! The friends of the Cause are 
 
58 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 mine, and I have heard much about you already from Natasha, 
 so that I already seem to know you. I am very sorry that I 
 was not able to be at the Circle last night to see what you had 
 to show. Natasha tells me that it is quite a miracle of genius." 
 
 " She is too generous in her praise," replied Arnold, speaking 
 as quietly as he could in spite of the delight that the words 
 gave him. " It is no miracle, but only the logical result of 
 thought and work. Still, I hope that it will be found to 
 realise its promise when the time of trial comes." 
 
 " Of that I have no doubt, from all that I hear," said the 
 Princess. " Before long I shall hope to see it for myself. Ah, 
 here is Natasha. Come, I must introduce you afresh, for you 
 do not know her yet as the world knows her." 
 
 Arnold heard the door open behind him as the Princess 
 spoke, and, turning round, saw Natasha coining towards him 
 with her hand outstretched and a smile of welcome on her 
 beautiful face. Before their hands met the Princess moved 
 quietly between them and said, half in jest and half in 
 earnest — 
 
 " Fedora, permit me to present to you Mr. Richard Arnold, 
 who is to accompany us to Russia to inspect the war-balloon 
 offered to our Little Father the Tsar. Mr. Arnold, my niece, 
 Fedora Darrel. There, now you know each other." 
 
 " I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Mr. Arnold," 
 said Natasha, with mock gravity as they shook hands. " I 
 have heard much already of your skill in connection with aerial 
 navigation, and I have no doubt but that your advice will be 
 of the greatest service to his Majesty." 
 
 " That is as it may be," answered Arnold, at once entering 
 into the somewhat grim humour of the situation. " But if it 
 is possible I should like to hear something a little definite as 
 to this mission with which I have been, I fear, undeservingly 
 honoured. I have been very greatly interested in the problem 
 of aerial navigation for some years past, but I must confess 
 that this is the first I have heard of these particular war- 
 balloons." 
 
 " It is for the purpose of enlightening you on that subject 
 that this little party has been arranged," said the Princess, 
 turning for the moment away from Colston, with whom she 
 was talking earnestly in a low tone. " Ha ! There goes the 
 
Learning the Part. 59 
 
 lunch-bell. Mr. Colston, your arm. Fedora, will you show 
 Mr. Arnold the way ? " 
 
 Arnold opened the door for the Princess to go out, and then 
 followed with Natasha on his arm. As they went out, she 
 said in a low tone to him — 
 
 " I think, if you don't mind, you had better begin at once to 
 call me Miss Darrel, so as to get into the way of it. A slip 
 might be serious, you know." 
 
 "Your wishes are my laws, Miss Darrel," replied he, the 
 name slipping as easily off his tongue as if he had known 
 her by it for months. It may have been only fancy on 
 his part, he thought he felt just the lightest imaginable 
 pressure on his arm as he spoke. At any rate, he was 
 vain enough or audacious enough to take the impression for 
 a reality, and walked the rest of the way to the dining-room 
 on air. 
 
 The meal was dainty and perfectly served, but there were no 
 servants present, for obvious reasons, and so they waited on 
 themselves. Colston sat opposite the Princess and carved the 
 partridges, while Arnold was vis-h-vis to Natasha, a fact which 
 had a perceptible effect upon his appetite. 
 
 " Now," said the Princess, as soon as every one was helped, 
 "I will enlighten you, Mr. Arnold, as to your mission to 
 Eussia. One part of the business, I presume, you are already 
 familiar with ? " 
 
 Arnold bowed his assent, and she went on — 
 
 " Then the other is easily explained. Interested as you are 
 in the question, I suppose there is no need to tell you that 
 for several years past the Tsar has had an offer open to all the 
 world of a million sterling for a vessel that will float in the 
 air, and be capable of being directed in its course as a ship at 
 sea can be directed." 
 
 " Yes, I am well aware of the fact. Pray proceed." As he 
 said this Arnold glanced across the table at Natasha, and 
 a swift smile and a flash from her suddenly unveiled eyes 
 told him that she, too, was thinking of how the world's history 
 might have been altered had the Tsar's million been paid for 
 his invention. Then the Princess went on — 
 
 "Well, through a friend at the Kussian Embassy, I have 
 learnt that a French engineer has. a* he says, perfected a 
 
6o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 balloon constructed on a new principle, which he claims will 
 meet the conditions of the Tsar's offer. 
 
 " My friend also told me that his Majesty had decided to 
 take an entirely disinterested opinion with regard to this 
 invention, and asked me if I could recommend any English 
 engineer who had made a study of aerial navigation, and who 
 would be willing to go to Eussia, superintend the trials of the 
 war-balloon, and report as to their success or otherwise. 
 
 " This happened a few days ago only, and as I had happened 
 to read an article that you will remember you wrote about 
 six months ago in the Nineteenth, or, as it is now called, the 
 Tiuentieth Century, I thought of your name, and said I would 
 try to find some one. Two days later I got news from the 
 Circle of your invention — never mind how; you will learn 
 that later on — and called at the Embassy to say I had found 
 some one whose judgment could be absolutely relied upon. 
 Now, wasn't that kind of me, to give you such a testimonial 
 as that to his Omnipotence the Tsar of All the Eussias ? " 
 
 Once more Arnold bowed his acknowledgments — this time 
 somewhat ironically, and Natasha interrupted the narrative by 
 saying with a spice of malice in her voice — 
 
 "No doubt the Little Father will duly recognise your 
 kindness, Princess, when he gets quite to the bottom of the 
 matter." 
 
 " I hope he will," replied the Princess, " but that is a matter 
 of the future — and of considerable doubt as well." Then, 
 turning to Arnold again, she continued — 
 
 ' You will now, of course, see the immense advantage there 
 appeared to be in getting you to examine these war-balloons. 
 They are evidently the only possible rivals to your own inven- 
 tion in the field, and therefore it is of the utmost importance 
 that you should know their strength or their weakness, as the 
 case may be. 
 
 " Well, that is all I have to say, so far. It has been decided 
 that you shall go, if you are willing, with us to Petersburg 
 the day after to-morrow to see the balloon, and make your 
 report. All your expenses will be paid on the most liberal 
 scale, for the Tsar is no niggard in spending either his own or 
 other people's money, and you will have a handsome fee into 
 the bargain for your trouble." 
 
Learning the Part. 6i 
 
 " So far as the work is concerned, of course, I undertake it 
 willingly," said Arnold, as the Princess stopped speaking. 
 " But it hardly seems to me to be right that I should take 
 even the Tsar's money under such circumstances. To tell 
 you the truth, it looks to me rather uncomfortably like false 
 pretences." 
 
 Again Natasha's eyes flashed approval across the table, but 
 nevertheless she said — 
 
 " You seem to forget, my friend, that we are at war with 
 the Tsar, and all's fair in — in love and war. Besides, if you 
 have any scruples about keeping the fee for your professional 
 services — which, after all, you will render as honestly as though 
 it were the merest matter of business — you can put it into 
 the treasury, and so ease your conscience. Eemember, too," she 
 went on more seriously, "how the enormous wealth of this 
 same Tsar has swollen by the confiscation of fortunes whose 
 possessors had committed no other crime than becoming 
 obnoxious to the corrupt bureaucracy." 
 
 " I will take the fee if I fairly earn it, Miss Darrel," replied 
 Arnold, returning the glance as he spoke, " and it shall be my 
 first contribution to the treasury of the Brotherhood." 
 
 "Spoken like a sensible man," chimed in the Princess. 
 " After all, it is no worse than spoiling the Egyptians, and you 
 have scriptural authority for that. However, you can do as 
 you like with his Majesty's money when you get it. The 
 main fact is that you have the opportunity of going to earn 
 it, and that Colonel Martinov is coming here to tea this after- 
 noon to bring our passports, specially authorising us to travel 
 without customs examination or any kind of questioning to 
 any part of the Tsar's dominions, and that, I can assure you, 
 is a very exceptional honour indeed." 
 
 "Who did you say? Martinov? Is that the Colonel 
 Martinov who is the director of the secret police here ? " asked 
 Colston hurriedly. 
 
 " Yes," replied the Princess, " the same. Why do you 
 ask ? " 
 
 " Because," said Colston cpuietly, " he received the sentence 
 of death nearly a month ago, and to-morrow night he will be 
 executed, unless there is some accident. It was he who stood 
 with the governor of Brovno in the prison-yard and watched 
 
62 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Eadna Micliaelis flogged by the soldiers. I received news 
 this morning that the arrangements are complete, and that the 
 sentence will be carried out to-morrow night." 
 
 " Yes, that is so," added Natasha, as Colston ceased speaking. 
 "Everything is settled. It is therefore well that he should 
 do something useful before he meets his fate." 
 
 "How curious that it should just happen so!" said the 
 Princess calmly, as she rose from the table and moved towards 
 the door followed by Natasha. 
 
 As soon as the ladies had left the room, Colston and Arnold 
 lit their cigarettes and chatted while they smoked over their 
 last glass of claret. Arnold would have liked to have asked 
 more about the coming tragedy, but something in Colston's 
 manner restrained him ; and so the conversation remained on 
 the subject of the Russian journey until they returned to the 
 sitting-room. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS. 
 
 — 
 
 N the 6th of March 1904, just six months after 
 Arnold's journey to Russia, a special meeting of 
 the Inner Circle of the Terrorists took place in 
 the Council-chamber, at the house on Clapham 
 Common. 
 Although it was only attended by twelve 
 persons all told, and those men and women whose names were 
 unknown outside the circle of their own Society and the records 
 of the Russian police, it was the most momentous conference 
 that had taken place in the history of the world since the 
 council of war that Abdurrhaman the Moslem had held with 
 his chieftains eleven hundred and seventy-two years before, 
 and, by taking their advice, spared the remnants of Christendom 
 from the sword of Islam. 
 
 Then the fate of the world hung in the balance of a council 
 of war, and the supremacy of the Cross or the Crescent de- 
 pended, humanly speaking, upon the decision of a dozen 
 warriors. Now the fate of the civilisation that was made 
 possible by that decision, lay at the mercy of a handful of 
 outlaws and exiles who had laboriously brought to perfection 
 the secret schemes of a single man. 
 
 The work of the Terrorists was finally complete. Under the 
 whole fabric of Society lay the mines which a single spark 
 would now explode, and above this slumbering volcano the 
 earth was trembling with the tread of millions of armed men, 
 divided into huge hostile camps, and only waiting until 
 Diplomacy had finished its work in the dark, and gave the 
 long-awaited signal of inevitable and universal war. 
 
 88 
 
64 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 To-night that spark was to be shaken from the torch of 
 Revolution, and to-morrow the first of the mines would 
 explode. After that, if the course to be determined on by 
 the Terrorist Council failed to arrive at the results which it 
 was designed to reach, the armies of Europe would fight their 
 way through the greatest war that the world had ever seen, 
 the Fates would once more decide in favour of the strongest 
 battalions, the fittest would triumph, and a new era of military 
 despotism would begin — perhaps neither much better nor much 
 worse than the one it would succeed. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the plans of the Terrorists were 
 successfully worked out to their logical conclusion, it would 
 not be war only, but utter destruction that Society would have 
 to face. And then with dissolution would come anarchy. 
 The thrones of the world would be overthrown, the fabric of 
 Society would be dissolved, commerce would come to an end, 
 the structure that it had taken twenty centuries of the dis- 
 cipline of war and the patient toil of peace to build up, would 
 crumble into ruins in a few short months, and then — well, after 
 that no man could tell what would befall the remains of the 
 human race that had survived the deluge. The means of 
 destruction were at hand, and they would be used without 
 mercy, but for the rest no man could speak. 
 
 When Nicholas Eoburoff, the President of the Executive, 
 rose in his place at eight o'clock to explain the business in 
 hand, every member present saw at a glance, by the gravity of 
 his demeanour, that the communication that he had to make 
 was of no ordinary nature, but even they were not prepared 
 for the catastrophe that he announced in the first sentence 
 that he uttered. 
 
 "Friends," he said, in a voice that was rendered deeply 
 impressive by the emotion that he vainly tried to conceal, " it 
 is my mournful duty to tell you that she whom any one of us 
 would willingly shed our blood to serve or save from the 
 slightest evil, our beautiful and beloved Angel of the Revolu- 
 tion, as we so fondly call her, Natasha, the daughter of the 
 Master, has, in the performance of her duty to the Cause, fallen 
 into the hands of Russia." 
 
 Save for a low, murmuring groan that ran round the table, 
 the news was received in silence. It was too terrible, too 
 
The Beginning of Sorrows. 65 
 
 hideous in the awful meaning that its few words conveyed, for 
 any exclamations of grief, or any outburst of anger, to express 
 the emotions that it raised. 
 
 Not one of those who heard it but had good reason to know 
 what it meant for a revolutionist to fall into the hands of 
 Eussia. For a man it meant the last extremity of human 
 misery that flesh and blood could bear, but for a young and 
 beautiful woman it was a fate that no words could describe — 
 a doom that could only be thought of in silence and despair ; 
 and so the friends of Natasha were silent, though they did not 
 yet despair. Eoburoff bowed his head in acknowledgment of 
 the inarticulate but eloquent endorsement of his words, and 
 went on — 
 
 " You already know the outcome of Bichard Arnold's visit to 
 Eussia ; how he was present at the trial of the Tsar's war-balloon, 
 and was compelled to pronounce it such a complete success, that 
 the Autocrat at once gave orders for the construction of a fleet 
 of fifty aerostats of the same pattern ; and how, thanks to the 
 warning conveyed by Anna Ornovski, he was able to prevent 
 his special passport being stolen by a police agent, and so 
 to foil the designs of the chief of the Third Section to stop 
 him taking the secret of the construction of the war-balloon 
 out of Eussia. You also know that he brought back the 
 Chief's authority to build an air-ship after the model which 
 was exhibited to us here, and that since his return he has been 
 prosecuting that work on Drumcraig Island, one of the posses- 
 sions of the Chief in the Outer Hebrides, which he placed at 
 his disposal for the purpose. 
 
 " You know, also, that Natasha and Anna Ornovski went to 
 Eussia partly to discover the terms of the secret treaty that 
 we believed to exist between France and Eussia, and partly to 
 warn, and, if possible, remove from Eussian soil a large number 
 of our most valuable allies, whose names had been revealed to 
 the Minister of the Interior, chiefly through the agency of the 
 spy Martinov, who was executed in this room six months ago. 
 
 "The first part of the task was achieved, not without 
 difficulty, but with complete success, and of that more anon. 
 The second part was almost finished when Natasha and Anna 
 Ornovski were surprised in the house of Alexei Kassatkin, a 
 member of the Moscow Nihilist Circle, in the Bolshoi 
 
66 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Dmitrietka. He had been betrayed by one of his own 
 servants, and a police visit was the result. 
 
 " Added to this there is reason to believe that she had, quite 
 apart from this, become acquainted with enough oflicial secrets 
 to make her removal desirable in high quarters. I need not 
 tell you that that is the usual way in which the Tsar rewards 
 those of his secret servants who get to know too much. 
 
 "The fact of her being found in the house of a betrayed 
 Nihilist was taken as sufficient proof of sympathy or com- 
 plicity, and she was arrested. Natasha, as Fedora Darrel, 
 claimed to be a British subject, and, as such, to be allowed 
 to go free in virtue of the Tsar's safe conduct, which she 
 exhibited. Instead of that she was taken before the chief 
 of the Moscow police, rudely interrogated, and then brutally 
 searched. Unhappily, in the bosom of her dress was found 
 a piece of paper bearing some of the new police cypher. That 
 was enough. That night they were thrown into prison, and 
 three days later taken to the convict depot under sentence of 
 exile by administrative process to Sakhalin for life. 
 
 "You know what that means for a beautiful woman like 
 Natasha. She will not go to Sakhalin. They do not bury beauty 
 like hers in such an abode of desolation as that. If she cannot 
 be rescued, she will only have two alternatives before her. She 
 will become the slave and plaything of some brutal governor or 
 commandant at one of the stations, or else she will kill herself. 
 Of course, of these two she would choose the latter — if she 
 could and when she could. Should she be driven to that last 
 resort of despair, she shall be avenged as woman never yet was 
 avenged ; but rescue must, if possible, come before revenge. 
 
 " The information that we have received from the Moscow 
 agent tells us that the convict train to which Natasha and 
 Anna Omovski are attached left the depot nearly a fortnight 
 ago ; they were to be taken by train in the usual way to 
 Nizhni Novgorod, thence by barge on the Volga and Kama to 
 Perm, and on by rail to Tinmen, the forwarding station for the 
 east. Until they reach Tiumen they will be safe from any- 
 thing worse than what the Eussians are pleased to call 
 'discipline,' but once they disappear into the wilderness of 
 Siberia they will be lost to the world, and far from all law but 
 the will of their official slave-drivers. 
 
The Beginning of Sorrows. 6j 
 
 "It has, therefore, been decided that the rescue shall be 
 attempted before the chain-gang leaves Tiumen, if it can be 
 reached in time. As nearly as we can calculate, the march 
 will begin on the morning of Friday the 9th, that is to say, in 
 three nights and one day from now. Happily we possess the 
 means of making the rescue, if it can be accomplished by 
 human means. I have received a report from Richard Arnold 
 saying that the Ariel is complete, and that she has made a 
 perfectly satisfactory trial trip to the clouds. The Ariel is the 
 only vehicle in existence that could possibly reach the frontier 
 of Siberia in the given time, and it is fitting that her first duty 
 should be the rescue of the Angel of the Revolution from the 
 clutches of the Tyrant of the North. 
 
 " Alexis Mazanoff, it is the will of the Master that you shall 
 take these instructions to Richard Arnold and accompany him 
 on the voyage in order to show him what course to steer, and 
 assist him in every way possible. You will find the Chief's 
 yacht at Port Patrick ready to convey you to Drumcraig 
 Island. When you have heard what is further necessary for 
 you to hear, you will take the midnight express from Euston. 
 Have you any preparations to make ? " 
 
 " No," replied Mazanoff, or Colston, to call him by a name 
 more familiar to the reader. " I can start in half an hour if 
 necessary, and on such an errand you may, of course, depend 
 on me not to lose much time. I presume there are full 
 instructions here ? " 
 
 "Yes, both for the rescue and for your conduct afterwards, 
 whether you are successful or unsuccessful," said the President. 
 Then turning to the others he continued — 
 
 " You may now rest assured that all that can be done to 
 rescue Natasha will be done, and we must therefore turn to 
 other matters. I said a short time ago that the conditions 
 of the secret treaty between France and Russia had been 
 discovered by the two brave women who are now suffering 
 for their devotion to the cause of the Revolution. A full copy 
 of them is in the hands of the Chief, who arrives in London 
 to-day, and will at once lay the documents before Mr. Balfour, 
 the Premier. 
 
 " It is extremely hostile to England, and amounts, in fact, to 
 a .compact on the part of France to declare war and seize the 
 
68 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Suez Canal, as soon as the first shot is fired between Great 
 Britain and Russia. In return for this, Eussia is to invade 
 Germany and Austria, destroy the eastern frontier fortresses 
 with her fleet of war-balloons, and then cross over and do the 
 same on the Rhine, while France at last throws herself upon 
 her ancient foe. 
 
 "Meanwhile, the French fleet is to concentrate in the 
 Mediterranean as quietly and rapidly as possible, before war 
 actually breaks out, so as to be able to hold the British and 
 Italians in check, and shut the Suez Canal, while Russia, who 
 is pushing her troops forward to the Hindu Kush, gets ready 
 for a dash at the passes, and a rush upon Cashmere, before 
 Britain can get sufficient men out to India by the Cape to give 
 her very much trouble. 
 
 " As there also exists a secret compact between Britain and 
 the Triple Alliance, binding all four powers to declare war the 
 moment one is threatened, the disclosure of this treaty must 
 infallibly lead to war in a few weeks. In addition to this, 
 measures have been taken to detach Italy from the Triple 
 Alliance at the last moment, if possible. Success in this 
 respect is, however, somewhat uncertain. 
 
 " To make assurance doubly sure, the Chief informs me that 
 he has ordered Ivan Brassoff, who is in command of a large 
 reconnoitring party on the Afghan side of the Hindu Kush, 
 to provoke reprisals from a similar party of Indian troops who 
 have been told off to watch their movements. Captain Brassoff 
 is one of us, and can be depended upon to obey at all costs. 
 He will do this in a fortnight from now, and therefore we may 
 feel confident that Great Britain and Russia will be at war 
 within a month. 
 
 "With the first outbreak of war our work for the present 
 ceases, so far as active interference goes. "We shall therefore 
 withdraw from the scene of action until the arrival of the 
 supreme moment when the nations of Europe shall be locked 
 in the death-struggle, and the fate of the world will rest in our 
 hands. The will of the Master now is that all the members of 
 the Brotherhood shall at once wind up their businesses, and 
 turn all of their possessions that are not portable and useful 
 into money. 
 
 " A large steamer has been purchased and manned with 
 
The Beginning of Sorrows. 69 
 
 members of the Outer Circle who are sailors by profession. 
 She is now being loaded at Liverpool with all the machinery 
 and materials necessary for the construction of twelve air-ships 
 like the Ariel. " This steamer, when ready for sea, will sail, 
 ostensibly, for Eio de Janeiro with a cargo of machinery, but 
 in reality for Drumcraig, where she will embark the workmen 
 who will be left there by the Ariel with all the working plant 
 on the island, and from there she will proceed to a lonely 
 island off the West Coast of Africa, between Cape Blanco and 
 Cape Verde, where new works will be set up and the fleet of 
 air-ships put together as rapidly as possible. 
 
 "The position of this island is in the instructions which 
 Alexis Mazanoff takes to Drumcraig to-night, and the Ariel 
 will rendezvous there when the work that is in hand for her is 
 done. The members of the Brotherhood will, of course, go in 
 the steamer as passengers for Eio, so that no suspicions may 
 be aroused, and every one must be ready to embark in ten days 
 from now. 
 
 " That is all I have to say at present in the name of the 
 Master. And now, Alexis Mazanoff, it is time you set out. 
 We shall remain here and discuss every detail fully so that 
 nothing may be overlooked. You will find that everything 
 has been provided for in the instructions you have, so go, and 
 may the Master of Destiny be with you ! " 
 
 As he spoke he held out his hand, which the young man 
 grasped heartily, saying — 
 
 "Farewell! I will obey to the death, and if success can be 
 earned we will earn it. If not, you shall hear of the Ariel's 
 work in Eussia before the week is out." 
 
 He then took leave of the other members of the Council, 
 coming last to Eadna. As their hands clasped she said — 
 
 " I wish I could come with you, but that is impossible. But 
 bring Natasha back to us safe and sound, and there is nothing 
 that you can ask of me that I will not say ' yes ' to. Go, and 
 God speed your good work. Farewell ! " 
 
 For all answer he took her in his arms before them all. 
 Their lips met in one long silent kiss, and a moment later he 
 had gone to strike the first blow in the coining world- war, and 
 to bring the beginning of sorrows on the Tyrant of the North. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TTIE " ARIEL." 
 
 N" the sixth stroke of twelve that night the Scotch 
 express drew out of Euston Station. At half- 
 past nine the next morning, the Lurline, Lord 
 Alanmere's yacht, steamed out of Port Patrick 
 Harbour, and at one o'clock precisely she dropped 
 her anchor in the little inlet that served for 
 a harbour at Drumcraig. 
 
 Colston had the quarter-boat lowered and pulled ashore 
 without a moment's delay, and as his foot touched the shore 
 Arnold grasped his hand, and, after the first words of welcome, 
 asked for the latest news of Natasha. 
 
 Without immediately answering, Colston put his arm through 
 his, drew him away from the men who were standing about, 
 and told him as briefly and gently as he could the terrible news 
 of the calamity that had befallen the Brotherhood, and the 
 errand upon which he had come. 
 
 Arnold received the blow as a brave man should — in silence. 
 His now bronzed face turned pale, his brows contracted, and 
 his teeth clenched till Colston could hear them gritting upon 
 each other. Then a great wave of agony swept over his soul 
 as a picture too horrible for contemplation rose before his eyes, 
 and after that came calm, the calm of rapid thought and 
 desperate resolve. 
 
 He remembered the words that Natasha had used in a letter 
 that she had given him when she took leave of him in Russia. 
 * We shall trust to you to rescue us, and, if that is no longer 
 possible, to avenge us." 
 
 Yes, and now the time had come to justify that trust and 
 
 70 
 
The "Ariel." 71 
 
 prove his own devotion. It should be proved to the letter, and 
 if there was cause for vengeance, the proof should be written 
 in blood and flame over all the wide dominions of the Tsar. 
 Grief might come after, when there was time for it ; but this 
 was the hour of action, and a strange savage joy seemed to 
 come with the knowledge that the safety of the woman he 
 loved now depended mainly upon his own skill and daring. 
 
 Colston respected his silence, and waited until he spoke. 
 When he did he was astonished at the difference that those 
 few minutes had made in the young engineer. The dreamer 
 and the enthusiast had become the man of action, prompt, 
 stern, and decided. Colston had never before heard from his 
 lips the voice in which he at length said to him — 
 
 " Where is this place ? How far is it as the crow flies from 
 here ? " 
 
 "At a rough guess I should say about two thousand two 
 hundred miles, almost due east, and rather less than two 
 hundred miles on the other side of the Ourals." 
 
 " Good! That will be twenty hours' flight for us, or less if 
 this south-west wind holds good." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Colston. " Twenty hours, did you say ? 
 You must surely be making some mistake. Don't you mean forty 
 hours ? Think of the enormous distance. Why, even then we 
 should have to travel over sixty miles an hour through the air." 
 
 "My dear fellow, I don't make mistakes where figures are 
 concerned. The paradox of aerial navigation is 'the greater 
 the speed the less the resistance.' 
 
 " In virtue of that paradox I am able to tell you that the 
 speed of the Ariel in moderate weather is a hundred and 
 twenty miles an hour, and a hundred and twenty into two 
 thousand two hundred goes eighteen times and one-third. This 
 is Wednesday, and we have to be on the Asiatic frontier at 
 daybreak on Friday. We shall start at dusk to-night, and you 
 shall see to-morrow's sun set over the Ourals." 
 
 " That means from the eastern side of the range ! " 
 
 "Of course. There will be no harm in being a few hours 
 too soon. In case we may have a long cruise, I must have 
 additional stores, and power- cylinders put on board. Come, 
 you have not seen the Ariel yet. 
 
 " I have made several improvements on the model, as I 
 
J2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 expected to do when I came to the actual building of the ship, 
 and, what is more important than that, I have immensely 
 increased the motive power and economised space and weight 
 at the same time. In fact, I don't despair now of two hundred 
 miles an hour before very long. Come ! " 
 
 The engineer and the enthusiast had now come to the fore 
 again, and the man and the lover had receded, put back, 
 as it were, until the time for love, or perchance for sorrow, 
 had come. 
 
 He put his arm through Colston's, and led him up a hill- 
 path and through a little gorge which opened into a deep 
 valley, completely screened on all sides by heather-clad hills. 
 Sprinkled about the bottom of this valley were a few wooden 
 dwelling-houses and workshops, and in the centre was a 
 huge shed, or rather an enclosure now, for its roof had been 
 taken off. 
 
 In this lay, like a ship in a graving-dock, a long, narrow, 
 grey-painted vessel almost exactly like a sea-going ship, save 
 for the fact that she had no funnel, and that her three masts, 
 instead of yards, each carried a horizontal fan-wheel, while 
 from each of her sides projected, level with the deck, a plane 
 twice the width of the deck and nearly as long as the vessel 
 herself. 
 
 They entered the enclosure and walked round the hull. 
 This was seventy feet long and twelve wide amidships, and 
 save for size it was the exact counterpart of the model already 
 described. 
 
 As soon as he had taken Colston round the hull, and roughly 
 explained its principal features, reserving more detailed 
 description and the inspection of the interior for the voyage, 
 he gave the necessary orders for preparing for a lengthy journey, 
 and the two went on board the Lurline to dinner, which Colston 
 had deferred in order to eat it in Arnold's company. 
 
 After dinner they carefully discussed the situation in order 
 that every possible accident might be foreseen, argued the pros 
 and cons of the venture in all their bearings, and even went so 
 far as to plan the vengeance they would take should, by any 
 chance, the rescue fail or come too late. 
 
 The instructions, signed by Natas himself, were very precise 
 on certain essential points, and in their broad outlines, but, 
 
The "Ariel." 73 
 
 like all wisely planned instructions to such men as these, 
 they left ample margin for individual initiative in case of 
 emergency. 
 
 Some of the stores of the Lurline had to be transferred to 
 the Ariel, and these were taken ashore 1 after dinner, and at the 
 same time Colston made his first inspection of the interior of 
 the air-ship, under the guidance of her creator. What struck 
 him most at first sight was the apparent inadequacy of the 
 machinery to the attainment of the tremendous speed at which 
 Arnold had promised they should travel. 
 
 There were four somewhat insignificant-looking engines in all. 
 Of these, one drove the stern propeller, one the side propellers, 
 and two the fan-wheels on the masts. He learnt as soon as 
 the voyage began, that, by a very simple switch arrangement, 
 the power of the whole four engines could be concentrated on 
 the propellers ; for, once in the air, the lifting wheels were 
 dispensed with and lowered on deck, and the ship was entirely 
 sustained by the pressure of the air under her planes. 
 
 There was not an ounce of superfluous wood or metal about 
 the beautifully constructed craft, but for all that she was 
 complete in every detail, and the accommodation she had for 
 crew and passengers was perfectly comfortable, and in some 
 respects cosy in the extreme. Forward there was a spacious 
 cabin with berths for six men, and aft there were separate 
 cabins for six people, and a central saloon for common use. 
 
 On deck there were three structures, a sort of little conning 
 tower forward, a wheel-house aft, and a deck saloon amidships. 
 All these were, of course, so constructed as to offer the least 
 possible resistance to the wind, or rather the current created 
 by the vessel herself when flying through the air at a speed 
 greater than that of the hurricane itself. 
 
 All were closely windowed with toughened glass, for it is 
 hardly necessary to say that, but for such a protection, every one 
 who appeared above the level of the deck would be almost 
 instantly suffocated, if not whirled overboard, by the rush of 
 air when the ship was going at full speed. Her armament 
 consisted of four long, slender cannon, two pointing over the 
 bows, and two over the stem. 
 
 The crew that Arnold had chosen for the voyage consisted, 
 curiously enough, of men belonging to the four nationalities 
 
74 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 which would be principally concerned in the Titanic struggle 
 which a few weeks would now see raging over Europe. Their 
 names were Andrew Smith, Englishman, and coxswain ; Ivan 
 Petrovitch, Russian ; Franz Meyer, German ; and Jean Gui- 
 chard, Frenchman. Diverse as they were, there never were 
 four better workers, or four better friends. 
 
 They had no country but the world, and no law save those 
 which governed their Brotherhood. They conversed in assorted 
 but perfectly intelligible English, for the very simple reason 
 that Mr. Andrew Smith consistently refused to attempt even 
 the rudiments of any other tongue. 
 
 While the stores were being put on board, Arnold made a 
 careful examination of every part of the machinery, and then 
 of the whole vessel, in order to assure himself that everything 
 was in perfect order. This done, he gave his final instructions 
 to those, of the little community who were left behind to await 
 the arrival of the steamer, and as the sun sank behind the 
 western ridges of the island, he went on board the Ariel with 
 Colston, took his place at the wheel, and ordered the fan- wheels 
 to be set in motion. 
 
 Colston was standing by the open door of the wheel-house 
 as Arnold communicated his order to the engine-room by 
 pressing an electric button, one of four in a little square of 
 mahogany in front of the wheel. 
 
 There was no vibration or grinding, as would have been the 
 case in starting a steamer, but only a soft whirring, humming 
 sound, that rose several degrees in pitch as the engines gained 
 speed, and the fan-wheels revolved faster and faster until they 
 sang in the air, and the Ariel rose without ajar or a tremor from 
 the ground, slowly at first, and then more and more swiftly, 
 until Colston saw the ground sinking rapidly beneath him, and 
 the island growing smaller and smaller, until it looked like a 
 little patch on the dark grey water of the sea. 
 
 Away to the north and west he could see the innumerable 
 islands of the Hebrides, while to the east the huge mountainous 
 mass of the mainland of Scotland loomed dark upon the 
 horizon. 
 
 When the barometer marked eight hundred feet above the 
 sea-level, the Ariel passed through a stratum of light clouds, 
 and on the upper side of this the sun was still shining, shooting 
 
The "Ariel. 75 
 
 his almost level rays across it as though over some illimitable 
 sea of white fleecy billows, whose crests were tipped with rosy, 
 golden light. 
 
 Above the surface of this fairy sea rose north-eastward the 
 black mass of Ben More on the Island of Mull, and to the 
 southward, the lesser peaks of Jura and Islay. 
 
 While he was still wrapped in admiration of the strange 
 beauty of this, to him, marvellous scene, the Ariel had risen to 
 a thousand feet, still almost in a vertical line from the island. 
 Arnold now pressed another button, and the stern propeller 
 began to revolve swiftly and noiselessly, and Colston saw the 
 waves of the cloud-sea begin to slip behind, although so smooth 
 was the working of the machinery, and the motion of the air- 
 ship, that, but for this, he could hardly have guessed that he 
 was in motion. 
 
 Arnold now turned a few spokes of the wheel, and headed 
 the Ariel due east by the compass. Then he touched a third 
 button. The side propellers began to turn swiftly on their 
 axes, and, at the same time the speed of the fan- wheels slackened, 
 and gradually stopped. 
 
 Colston now began to feel the air rushing by him in a stream 
 so rapid and strong, that he had to take hold of the side of the 
 wheel-house doorway to steady himself. 
 
 " I think you had better come inside and shut the door," said 
 Arnold. " We are getting up speed now, and in a few minutes 
 you won't be able to hold yourself there. You'll be able to see 
 just as well inside." 
 
 Colston did as he was bidden, and as soon as he was safely 
 inside Arnold pulled a lever beside the wheel, and slightly 
 inclined the planes from forward aft. At the same time the 
 fan-wheels began to slide down the masts until they rested 
 upon the deck. 
 
 " Now, you shall see her fly," said Arnold, taking a speaking- 
 tube from the wall and whistling thrice into it. 
 
 Colston felt a slight tremor in the deck beneath his feet, 
 and then a lifting movement. He staggered a little, and said 
 to Arnold — 
 
 " What's that ? Are we going higher still ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied the engineer. " She is feeling the air-planes 
 now under the increased speed. I am going up to fifteen 
 
j6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 hundred feet, so that we shall only have the highest peaks to 
 steer clear of in crossing Scotland. Now, use your eyes, and 
 you will see something worth looking at." 
 
 The upper part of the wheel-house was constructed almost 
 entirely of glass, and so Colston could see just as well as if he 
 had been on deck outside. He did use his eyes. In fact, for 
 some time to come, all his other senses seemed to be merged 
 in that of sight, for the scene was one of such rare and 
 marvellous beauty, and the sensations that it called up were of 
 so completely novel a nature, that, for the time being, he felt 
 as though he had been suddenly transported into fairyland. 
 
 The cloud-sea now lay about seven hun Ired feet beneath 
 them. The sun had sunk quite below the horizon, even at 
 that elevation ; but his absence was more than made up for by 
 the nearly full moon, which had risen to the southward, as 
 though to greet the conqueror of the air, and was spreading a 
 flood of silvery radiance over the snowy plain beneath, through 
 the great gaps in which they could see the darker sheen of the 
 moving sea-waves. 
 
 Their course lay almost exactly along the fifty-sixth 
 parallel of latitude, and took them across Argyle, Dumbarton, 
 and Stirlingshire to the head of the Firth of Forth. As they 
 approached the mainland, Colston saw one or two peaks rise 
 up out of the clouds, and soon they were sweeping along in 
 the midst of a score or so of these. To the left Ben Lomond 
 towered into the clear sky above his attendant peaks, and to 
 the right the lower summits of the Campsie Fells soon rose a 
 few miles ahead. 
 
 The rapidity with which these mountain-tops rose up on 
 either side, and were left behind, proved to Colston that the 
 Ariel must be travelling at a tremendous speed, and yet, but 
 for a very slight quivering of the deck, there was no motion 
 perceptible, so smoothly did the air-ship glide through the 
 elastic medium in w 7 hich she floated. 
 
 So engrossed was he with the unearthly beauty of the new 
 world into which he had risen, that for nearly two hours he 
 stood without speaking a word. Arnold, wrapped in his own 
 thoughts, maintained a like silence, and so they sped on amidst 
 a stillness that was only broken by the soft whirring of the 
 propellers, and the singing of the wind past the masts and stays. 
 
The "Ariel." 77 
 
 At length a faint sound like the dashing of breakers on a 
 rocky coast roused Colston from his reverie, and he turned to 
 Arnold and said — 
 
 " What is that ? Not the sea, surely ! " 
 
 " Yes, those are the waves of the Firth of Forth breaking on 
 the shores of Fife." 
 
 "What! Do you mean to tell me that we have crossed 
 Scotland already ? Why, we have not been an hour on the 
 way yet ! " 
 
 " Oh yes, we have," replied the engineer. " We have been 
 nearly two. You have been so busy looking about you that 
 you have not noticed how the time has passed. We have 
 travelled a little over two hundred and forty miles. We are 
 over the German Ocean now, and as there will be no more hills 
 until we reach the Ourals we can go down a little." 
 
 As he spoke he moved the lever beside him about an inch, 
 aud instantly the clouds seemed to rise up toward them as the 
 Ariel swept downwards in her flight. A hundred feet above 
 them Arnold touched the lever again, and the air-ship at once 
 resumed her horizontal course. 
 
 Then he put her head a little more to the northward, and 
 called down the speaking tube for Andrew Smith to come and 
 relieve him. A minute later Smith's head appeared at the top 
 of the companion-ladder which led from the saloon to the 
 wheel-house, and Arnold gave him the wheel and the course, 
 saying at the same time to Colston — 
 
 " Now, come down and have something to eat, and then we 
 will have a smoke and a chat and go to bed. There is nothing 
 more to be seen until the morning, and then I will show you 
 Petersburg as it looks from the clouds." 
 
 " If you told me you would show me the Ourals themselves, 
 I should believe you after what I have seen," replied Colston, 
 as together they descended the companion-way from the wheel- 
 house to the saloon. 
 
 " Ah, I'm afraid that would be too much even for the Ariel 
 to accomplish in the time," said Arnold. " Still, I think I can 
 guarantee that you shall cross Europe in such time as no man 
 ever crossed it before." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 FIRST BLOOD. 
 
 FTER supper the two friends ascended to the deck 
 saloon for a smoke, and to continue their dis- 
 cussion of the tremendous events in which they 
 were so soon to be taking part. They found 
 the Ariel flying through a cloudless sky over the 
 German Ocean, whose white-crested billows, 
 silvered by the moonlight, were travelling towards the north- 
 east under the influence of the south-west breeze from which 
 the engineer had promised himself assistance when they started. 
 " We seem to be going at a most frightful speed," said 
 Colston, looking down at the water. " There's a strong south- 
 west breeze blowing, and yet those white horses seem to be 
 travelling quite the other way." 
 
 " Yes," replied Arnold, looking down. " This wind will be 
 travelling about twenty miles an hour, and that means that we 
 are making nearly a hundred and fifty. The German Ocean 
 here is five hundred miles across, and we shall cross it at 
 this rate in about three hours and a half, and if the wind 
 holds over the land we shall sight Petersburg soon after sun- 
 rise. 
 
 " The sun will rise to-morrow morning a few minutes after 
 five by Greenwich time, which is about two hours behind 
 Petersburg time. Altogether we shall make, I expect, from two 
 to two and a half hours' gain on time." 
 
 The two men talked until a few minutes after ten, and then 
 went to bed. Colston, who had been travelling all the previous 
 night, began to feel drowsy in spite of the excitement of the 
 novel voyage, and almost as soon as he lay down in his berth 
 
 78 
 
First Blood. 79 
 
 dropped off into a sound, dreamless sleep, and knew nothing 
 more until Arnold knocked at his door and said — 
 
 " If you want to see the sun rise, you had better get up. 
 Coffee will be ready in a quarter of an hour." 
 
 Colston pulled back the slide which covered the large oblong 
 pane " of toughened glass which was let into the side of his 
 cabin and looked out. There was just light enough in the 
 grey dawn to enable him to see that the Ariel was passing over a 
 sea dotted in the distance with an immense number of islands. 
 
 " The Baltic," he said to himself as he jumped out of bed. 
 " This is travelling with a vengeance ! Why, we must have 
 travelled a good deal over a thousand miles during the night. 
 I suppose those islands will be off the coast of Finland. If so, 
 we are not far from Petersburg, as the Ariel seems to count 
 distance." 
 
 The most magnificent spectacle that Colston had ever seen in 
 his life, or, for the matter of that, ever dreamed of, was the one 
 that he saw from the conning-tower of the Ariel while the sun 
 was rising over the vast plain of mingled land and water which 
 stretched away to the eastward until it melted away into the 
 haze of early morning. 
 
 The sky was perfectly clear and cloudless, save for a few 
 light clouds that hung about the eastern horizon, and were 
 blazing gold and red in the light of the newly-risen sun. The 
 air-ship was flying at an elevation of about two thousand 
 feet, which appeared to be her normal height for ordinary 
 travelling. There was land upon both sides of them, but in 
 front opened a wide bay, the northern shores of which were 
 still fringed with ice and snow. 
 
 "That is the Gulf of Finland," said Arnold. "The winter 
 must have been very late this year, and that probably means that 
 we shall find the eastern side of the Ourals still snow-bouud." 
 
 "So. much the better," replied Colston. "They will have a 
 much better chance of escape if there is good travelling for a 
 sleigh." 
 
 " Yes," replied Arnold, his brows contracting as he spoke. 
 " Do you know, if it were not for the Master's explicit orders, 
 I should be inclined to smash up the station at Ekaterinburg 
 a few hours beforehand, and then demand the release of the 
 whole convict train, under penalty of laying the town in ruins," 
 
So The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Colston shook his head, saying — 
 
 " No, no, my friend, we must have a little more diplomacy 
 than that. Your thirst for the life of the enemy will, no 
 doubt, be fully gratified later on. Besides, you must remember 
 that you would probably blow some hundreds of perfectly 
 innocent people to pieces, and very possibly a good many 
 friends of the Cause among them." 
 
 " True," replied Arnold ; " I didn't think of that ; but I'll 
 tell you what we can do, if you like, without transgressing our 
 instructions or hurting any one except the soldiers of the Tsar, 
 who, of course, are paid to slaughter and be slaughtered, and so 
 don't count." 
 
 " What is that ? " asked Colston. 
 
 "We shall be passing over Kronstadt in a little over an 
 hour, and we might take the opportunity of showing his 
 Majesty the Tsar what the Ariel can do with the strongest 
 fortress in Europe. How would you like to fire the first shot 
 in the war of the Ee volution ? " 
 
 Colston was silent for a few moments, and then he looked 
 up and said — 
 
 " There is not the slightest reason why we should not take a 
 shot at Kronstadt, if only to give the Eussians a foretaste of 
 favour. to come. Still, I won't fire the first shot on any 
 account, simply because that honour belongs to you. I'll fire 
 the second with pleasure." 
 
 " Very good," replied Arnold. " We'll have two shots apiece, 
 one each as we approach the fortress, and one each as we leave 
 it. Now come and take a preparatory lesson in the new 
 gunnery." 
 
 They went down into the chief saloon, and there Arnold 
 showed Colston a model of the new weapon with which the 
 Ariel was armed, and thoroughly explained the working of it. 
 After this they went to the wheel-house, where Arnold inclined 
 the planes at a sharper angle, and sent the Ariel flying up into 
 the sky, until the barometer showed an elevation of three 
 thousand feet. 
 
 Then he signalled to the engine-room, the fan-wheels rose 
 from the deck, as if by their own volition, and, as soon as they 
 reached their places, began to spin round faster and faster, 
 until Colston could again hear the high -pitched singing 
 
First Blood. 8i 
 
 sound that he had heard as the Ariel rose from Drumcraig 
 Island. 
 
 At the same time the speed of the vessel rapidly decreased ; 
 the side propellers ceased working, and the stern-screw 
 revolved more and more slowly, until the speed came down to 
 about thirty miles an hour. 
 
 By this time the great fortress of Kronstadt could be dis- 
 tinctly seen lying upon its island, like some huge watch-dog 
 crouched at the entrance to his master's house, guarding the 
 way to St. Petersburg. 
 
 " Now," said Arnold, " we can go outside without any fear of 
 being blown off into space." 
 
 They went out and walked forward to the bow. Arrived 
 there they found two of the men, each with a curious-looking 
 shell in his arms. The projectiles were about two feet long 
 and six inches in diameter, and were, as Arnold told Colston, 
 constructed of papier-mache". There were three blades project- 
 ing from the outside, and running spirally from the point to 
 the butt. These fitted into grooves in the inside of the cannon, 
 which weie really huge air-guns twenty feet long, including 
 the air-chamber at the breech. 
 
 The projectiles were placed in position, the breeches of the 
 guns closed, and a minute later the air-chambers were filled 
 with air at a pressure of two hundred atmospheres, pumped 
 from the forward engines through pipes leading up to the guns 
 for the purpose. 
 
 " Now," said Arnold, " we're ready ! Meanwhile you two 
 can go and load the two after guns." 
 
 The men saluted and retired, and Arnold continued — 
 
 " Just take a look down with your glasses and see if they 
 see us. I expect they do by this time." 
 
 Colston put his field-glass to his eyes, and looked down at 
 the fortress, which was now only six or seven miles ahead. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " at any rate I can see a lot of" little figures 
 running about on the roof of one of the ramparts, which I 
 suppose are soldiers. What's the range of your gun ? I should 
 say the fortress is about six miles off now." 
 
 " We can hit it from here, if you like," replied Arnold, " and 
 if we were a thousand feet higher I could send a shell into 
 Petersburg. See ! there is the City of Palaces. Away yonder 
 6 
 
82 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 in the distance you can just see the sun shining on the houses. 
 We could see it quite plainly if it wasn't for the haze that 
 seems to be lying over the Neva." 
 
 While he was speaking, Arnold trained the gun according to 
 a scale on a curved steel rod which passed through a screw 
 socket in the breech of the piece. 
 
 " Now," he said. " Watch ! " 
 
 He pressed a button on the top of the breech. There was a 
 sharp but not very loud sound as the compressed air was 
 released ; something rushed out of the muzzle of the gun, and 
 a few seconds later, Colston could see the missile boring its 
 way through the air, and pursuing a slanting but perfectly 
 direct path for the centre of the fortress. 
 
 A second later it struck. He could see a bright greenish 
 flash as it smote the steel roof of the central fort. Then the 
 fort seemed to crumble up and dissolve into fragments, and a 
 few moments later a dull report floated up into the sky 
 mingled, as he thought, with screams of human agony. 
 
 For a moment he stared in silence through the glasses, then 
 he turned to Arnold and said in a voice that trembled with 
 violent emotion — 
 
 " Good God, that is awful ! The whole of the centre citadel 
 is gone as though it had been swept off the face of the earth. 
 I can hardly see even the ruins of it. Surely that's murder 
 rather than war ! " 
 
 " No more murder than the use of torpedoes in naval war- 
 fare, as far as I can see," replied Arnold coolly. " Eemember, 
 too," he continued in a sterner tone, " that fortress belongs to 
 the power that flogged Kadna and has captured Natasha. 
 Come, let's see what execution you can do." 
 
 He crossed the deck and set the other gun by its scale, 
 saying as he did so — 
 
 " Put your linger on the button and press when I tell you." 
 
 Colston did as he was bid, and as his finger touched the 
 little knob his hand was as firm as though he had been making 
 a shot at billiards. 
 
 "Now!" 
 
 He pressed the button down hard. There was the same 
 sharp sound, and a second messenger of destruction sped on its 
 way towards the doomed fortress. 
 
First Blood. 83 
 
 They saw it strike, and then came the flash, and after that 
 a huge cloud of dust mingled with flying objects that might 
 have been blocks of masonry, guns, or human bodies, rose into 
 the air, and then fell back again to the earth. 
 
 " There goes one of the angles of the fortification into the 
 sea," said Arnold, as he saw the effects of the shot. " Kron- 
 stadt won't be much good when the war breaks out, it strikes 
 me. I suppose they'll be replying soon with a few rifle shots. 
 We'd better quicken up a bit." 
 
 He went aft to the wheel-house, followed by Colston, and 
 signalled for the three propellers to work at their utmost 
 speed. The order was instantly obeyed ; the fan-wheels ceased 
 revolving, and under the impetus of her propellers the Ariel 
 leapt forwards and upwards like an eagle on its upward swoop, 
 rose five hundred feet in the air, and then swept over Kronstadt 
 at a speed of more than a hundred miles an hour. 
 
 As they passed over they saw a series of flashes rise from 
 one of the untouched portions of the fortress, but no bullets 
 came anywhere near them. In fact, they must have passed 
 through the air two or three miles astern of the flying Ariel. 
 No soldier who ever carried a rifle could have sent a bullet 
 within a thousand yards of an object seventy feet long 
 travelling over a hundred miles an hour at a height of nearly 
 four thousand feet, and so the Eussians wasted their 
 ammunition. 
 
 As soon as they had passed over the fortress, Arnold 
 signalled for the propellers to stop, and the fan-wheels to 
 revolve again at half speed. The air-ship stopped within three 
 miles, and remained suspended in air over the opening mouth 
 of the Neva. Then the two after guns were trained upon the 
 fortress, and Colston and Arnold fired them together. 
 
 The two shells struck at the same moment, one in each of 
 two angles of the ramparts. Their impact was followed by a 
 tremendous explosion, far greater than could be accounted for 
 by the shells themselves. 
 
 " There goes one, if not tw r o, of his powder magazines. 
 Look ! half the fortress is a wreck. I wonder which fired the 
 lucky shot." 
 
 The man who a year before had been an inoffensive student 
 of mechanics and an enthusiast dreaming of an unsolved 
 
84 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 problem, spoke of the frightful destruction of life and the 
 havoc that he had caused by just pressing a button with his 
 finger, as coolly and quietly as a veteran officer of artillery 
 might have spoken of shelling a fort. 
 
 There were two reasons for this almost miraculous change. 
 One was to be found in the bitter hatred of Eussian tyranny 
 which he had imbibed during the last six months, and the 
 other was the fact that the woman for whom he would have 
 himself died a thousand deaths if necessary, was a captive in 
 Eussian chains, being led at that moment to slavery and 
 degradation. 
 
 As soon as they had seen the effects of the last two shots, 
 Arnold said with a grim, half-smile on his lips — 
 
 " I think it will be better if we don't show ourselves too 
 plainly to Petersburg. It will take some time for the news of 
 the destruction of Kronstadt to reach the city, and, of course, 
 there will be the wildest rumours as to the agency by which it 
 was done, so we may as well leave them to argue the matter 
 out among themselves." 
 
 He signalled again to the engine-room, and with the united 
 aid of her planes and fan- wheels the Ariel mounted up and up 
 into the sky, driven only by the stern-propeller and with the 
 force of the other engines concentrated on the lifting wheels, 
 until a height of five thousand feet was reached. 
 
 At that height she would have looked, if she could have 
 been seen at all, nothing more than a little grey spot against 
 the blue of the sky, and as they heard afterwards she passed 
 over St. Petersburg without being noticed. 
 
 From St. Petersburg to Tiumen, as the crow flies, the distance 
 is 1150 English miles, and nine hours after she had passed 
 over the Capital of the North, the Ariel had winged her way 
 over the Ourals and the still snow-clad forests of the eastern 
 slopes, past the tear-washed Pillar of Farewells, and had come 
 to a rest after her voyage of two thousand two hundred miles, 
 including the delay at Kronstadt, in twenty hours almost to 
 the minute, as her captain had predicted. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 IN THE MASTER'S NAME. 
 
 HE Ariel, in order to avoid being seen from the 
 town, had made a wide circuit to the northward 
 at a considerable elevation, and as soon as a 
 suitable spot had been sought out by means of 
 the field-glasses, she dropped suddenly and 
 swiftly from the clouds into the depths of the 
 dense forest through which the Tobolsk road runs from Tinmen 
 to the banks of the Tobol. 
 
 From Tiumen to the Tobol is about twenty-five miles by 
 road. The railway, which was then finished as far as Tomsk, 
 ran to Tobolsk by a more northerly and direct route than the 
 road, but convicts were still marched on foot along the great 
 post road after the gangs had been divided at Tiumen accord- 
 ing to their destinations. 
 
 The spot which had been selected for the resting-place of the 
 Ariel was a little glade formed by the bend of a frozen stream 
 about five miles east of the town, and at a safe distance from 
 the road. 
 
 Painted a light whitish-grey all over, she would have been 
 invisible even from a short distance as she lay amid the snow- 
 laden trees, and Arnold gave strict orders that all the window- 
 slides were to be kept closed, and no light shown on any 
 account. 
 
 Every precaution possible was taken to obviate a discovery 
 which should seriously endanger the success of the rescue, but, 
 nevertheless, the fan-wheels were kept aloft, and everything 
 was in readiness to rise into the air at a moment's notice 
 should any emergency require them to do so. 
 
 H 
 
86 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 It was a little after three o'clock on the Thursday afternoon 
 when the Ariel settled down in her resting-place, and half an 
 hour later Colston and Ivan Petrovitch appeared on deck 
 completely disguised, the former as a Kussian fur trader, and 
 the 1 fitter as his servant. 
 
 All the arrangements for the rescue had been once more 
 gone over in every detail, and just before he swung himself 
 over the side Colston shook hands for the last time with 
 Arnold, saying as he did so — 
 
 " Well, good-bye again, old fellow ! Ivan shall come back 
 and bring you the news, if necessary ; but if he doesn't come, 
 don't be uneasy, but possess your soul in patience till you hear 
 the whistle from the road in the morning. I expect the train 
 will get in sometime during the night, and in that case we 
 shall have everything ready to make the attempt soon after 
 daj^break, if not before. 
 
 " If we can get as far as this without being pursued we shall 
 come right on board. If not we must trust to our horses and 
 our pistols to keep the Cossacks at a distance till you can 
 help us. In any case, rest assured that once clear of Tiumen, we 
 shall never be taken alive. Those are the Master's orders, and 
 I will shoot Natasha myself before she goes back to captivity." 
 
 "Yes, do so," replied Arnold. His lips quivered as he 
 spoke, but there was no tremor in the hand with which he 
 gripped Colston's in farewell. "She will prefer death to 
 slavery, and I shall prefer it for her. But if you have to do it 
 you will at least have the consolation of knowing that within 
 twelve hours of your death the Tsar shall be lying buried 
 beneath the ruins of the Peterhof Palace. I will have his life 
 for hers if only I live to take it." 
 
 "I will tell her," said Colston simply, "and if die she must, 
 she will die content." 
 
 So saying, he descended the little rope-ladder, followed by 
 Ivan, and in a few moments the two were lost in the deep 
 shadow of the trees, while Arnold went down into the saloon 
 to await with what patience he might the moment that would 
 decide the fate of the daughter of Natas and the man who had 
 gone, as he would so gladly have done, to risk his life to restore 
 her to liberty. 
 
 Rather more than half an hour's tramp through the forest 
 
In the Master's Name. 87 
 
 brought Colston and Ivan out on the road at a point a little 
 less than five miles from Tinmen. 
 
 Colston was provided with passports and permits to travel 
 for himself and Ivan. These, of course, were forged on genuine 
 forms which the Terrorists had no difficulty in obtaining 
 through their agents in high places, who were as implicitly 
 trusted as the Princess Ornovski had been but a few months 
 before. 
 
 So skilfully were they executed, however, that it would have 
 been a very keen official eye that had discovered anything 
 wrong with them. They described him as " Stepan Bakuinin, 
 fur merchant of Nizhni Novgorod, travelling in pursuit of his 
 business, with his servant, Peter Petrovitch, also of Nizhni 
 Novgorod." 
 
 Instead of going straight into the town by the main road 
 •:hey made a considerable detour and entered it by a lane that 
 led them through a collection of miserable huts occupied by 
 the poorest class of Siberian mujiks, half peasants, half towns- 
 folk, who cultivate their patches of ground during the brief 
 soring and summer, and struggle through the long dreary 
 winter as best they can on their scanty savings and what work 
 they can get to do from the Government or their richer 
 neighbours. 
 
 Colston had never been in Tiumen before, but Ivan had, 
 for ten years before he had voluntarily accompanied his 
 father, who had been condemned to five years' forced labour 
 on the new railway works from Tiumen to Tobolsk, for 
 giving a political fugitive shelter in his house. He had 
 died of hard labour and hard usage, and that was one reason 
 why Ivan was a member of the Outer Circle of the Terrorists. 
 
 He led his master through the squalid suburb to the 
 business part of the town, which had considerably developed 
 since the through line to Tobolsk and Tomsk had been 
 constructed, and at length they stopped before a comfortable- 
 looking house in the street that ends at the railway station. 
 
 They knocked, gave their names, and were at once admitted. 
 The servant who opened the door to them led them to a room 
 in which they found a man of about fifty in the uniform of a 
 sub-commissioner of police. As Colston held out his hand to 
 him he said — 
 
88 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " In the Master's name ! " 
 
 The official took his hand, and, bending over it, replied in a 
 low tone — 
 
 " I am his servant. What is his will ? " 
 
 " That Anna Ornovski and Fedora Darrel, the English girl 
 who was taken with her, be released as soon as may be," replied 
 Colston. " Is the train from Ekaterinburg in yet ? " 
 
 "Not yet. The snow is still deep between here and the 
 mountains. The winter has been very severe and long. We 
 have almost starved in Tiumen in spite of the railway. There 
 has been a telegram from Ekaterinburg to say that the train 
 descended the mountain safely, and one from Kannishlov to 
 say that we expect it soon after ten to-night." 
 
 " Good ! That is sooner than we expected in London. We 
 thought it would not reach here till to-morrow morning." 
 
 " In London ! What do you mean ? You cannot have come 
 from London, for there has been no train for two days." 
 
 "Nevertheless I have come from London. I left England 
 yesterday evening." 
 
 " Yesterday evening ! But, with all submission, that is im- 
 possible. If there were a railway the whole distance it could 
 not be done." 
 
 " To the Master there is nothing impossible. Look ! I 
 received that the evening I left London." 
 
 As he spoke, Colston held out an envelope. The Russian 
 examined it closely. It bore the Ludgate Hill post-mark, 
 which was dated " March 7." 
 
 Colston's host bent over it with almost superstitious 
 reverence, and handed it back, saying humbly — 
 
 " Forgive my doubts, Nobleness ! It is a miracle ! I ask no 
 more. The Tsar himself could not have done it. The Master 
 is all powerful, and I am proud to be his servant, even to the 
 death." 
 
 Although the twentieth century had dawned, the Siberian 
 Eussians were still inclined to look even upon the railway as a 
 miracle. This man, although he occupied a post of very con- 
 siderable responsibility and authority under the Russian 
 Government, was only a member of the Outer Circle of the 
 Terrorists, as most of the officials were, and therefore he knew 
 nothing of the existence of the Ariel, and Colston purposely 
 
In the Master's Name. 89 
 
 mystified him with the apparent miracle of his presence in 
 Tiumen after so short an absence from London, in order to 
 command his more complete obedience in the momentous work 
 that was on hand. 
 
 He allowed the official a few. moments to absorb the full 
 wonder of the seeming marvel, and then he replied — 
 
 " Yes, we are all his servants to the death. At least I know 
 of none who have even thought of treason to him and lived to 
 put their thoughts into action. But tell me, are all the arrange- 
 ments complete as far as you can make them ? Much depends 
 upon how you carry them out, you know, to say nothing of 
 the two thousand roubles that I shall hand to you as soon as 
 the two ladies are delivered into my charge." 
 
 "All is arranged, Nobleness," replied the official, bowing 
 involuntarily at the mention of the money. " Such of the 
 prisoners, that is to say the politicals, who can afford to pay 
 for the privilege, may, by the new regulations, be lodged in 
 the houses of approved persons during their sojourn in Tiumen, 
 if it be only for a night, and so escape the common prison. 
 
 " We knew at the police bureau of the arrest of the Princess 
 Ornovski some days ago, and I have obtained permission from 
 the chief of police to lodge her Highness and her companion 
 in misfortune — if they are prepared to pay what I shall ask. 
 It has come to be looked upon as a sort of perquisite of diligent 
 officials, and as I have been very diligent here I had no 
 difficulty in getting the permission — which I shall have to pay 
 for in due course." 
 
 "Just so! Nothing for nothing in Russian official circles. 
 Very good. Now listen. If this escape is successfully ac- 
 complished you will be degraded and probably punished into 
 the bargain for letting the prisoners slip through your fingers. 
 But that must not happen if it can be prevented. 
 
 "Now this has been foreseen, as everything is w r ith the 
 Master ; and his orders are that you shall take this passport 
 — which you will find in perfect order, save for the fact 
 that the date has been slightly altered — from me as soon as 
 I have got the ladies safely in the troika out on the Tobolsk 
 road, put off the livery of the Tsar, disguise yourself as effectu- 
 ally as may be, and take the first train back to Perm and 
 Nizhni Novgorod as Stepan Bakuinin, fur merchant. 
 
90 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 "The servant you can leave behind on any excuse. From 
 Novgorod you can travel vid Moscow to Konigsberg, and, if 
 you will take my advice, you will get out of Kussia as soon as 
 the Fates will let you." 
 
 " It shall be done, Nobleness. But how will the disappear- 
 ance of Dmitri Soudeikin, sub-commissioner of police, be 
 accounted for ? " 
 
 " That also has been provided for. Before you go you will 
 pin this with a dagger to your sitting-room table." 
 
 The official took the little piece of paper which Colston held 
 out to him as he spoke. It read thus — 
 
 Dmitri Soudeikin, sub-commissioner of police at Tiumen, has been removed 
 for over-zeal in the service of the Tsar. Natas. 
 
 Soudeikin bowed almost to the ground as the dreaded name 
 of the Master of the Terror met his eyes, and then he said, as 
 he handed the paper back — 
 
 " It is so ! The Master sees all, and cares for the least of 
 his servants. My life shall be forfeited if the ladies are not 
 released as I have said." 
 
 " It probably will be," returned Colston drily. " None of us 
 expect to get out of this business alive if it does not succeed. 
 Now that is all I have to say for the present. It is for you to 
 bring the ladies here as your prisoners, to see us out of the 
 town before daybreak, and to have the troika in readiness for 
 us on the Tobolsk road. Then see to yourself and I will be 
 responsible for the rest." 
 
 As it still wanted more than two hours to the expected 
 arrival of the train, Soudeikin had the samovar, or tea-urn, 
 brought in, and Colston and Ivan made a hearty meal after 
 their five-mile walk through the snow. Then they and their 
 host lit their pipes, and smoked aud chatted until a distant 
 whistle warned Soudeikin that the train was at last approach- 
 ing the station, and that it was time for him to be on duty to 
 receive his convict-lodgers. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 FOR LIFE OR DF.ATH. 
 
 U time had ever seemed so long to Colston as did 
 the hour and a half which passed after the 
 departure of Soudeikin until his return. He 
 would have given anything to have accom- 
 panied him to the station, but it would have 
 been so very unwise to have incurred the risk 
 of being questioned, and perhaps obliged to show the passport 
 that Soudeikin was to use, that he controlled his impatience 
 as best he could, and let events take their course. 
 
 At length, when he had looked at his watch for the fiftieth 
 time, and found that it indicated nearly half-past eleven, there 
 was a heavy knock at the door. As it opened, Colston heard 
 a rattle of arms and a clinking of chains. Then there was a 
 sound of gruff guttural voices in the entrance-hall, and the 
 next moment the door of the room was thrown open, and 
 Soudeikin walked in, followed by a young man in the uniform 
 of a lieutenant of the line, and after them came two soldiers, 
 to one of whom was handcuffed the Princess Ornovski, and to 
 the other Natasha. 
 
 Shocked as he was at the pitiable change that had taken 
 place in the appearance of the two prisoners since he had last 
 seen them in freedom, Colston was far too well trained in the 
 school of conspiracy to let the slightest sign of surprise or 
 recognition escape him. 
 
 He and Ivan rose as the party entered, greeted Soudeikin 
 and saluted the officer, hardly glancing at the two pale, 
 haggard women in their rough grey shapeless gowns and 
 hoods as they stood beside the men to whom they were chained. 
 
 91 
 
92 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 As the officer returned Colston's salute he turned to 
 Soudeikin and said civilly enough — 
 
 " I did not know you had another guest. I hope we shall 
 not overcrowd you." 
 
 " By no means," replied the commissioner, waving his hand 
 toward Colston as he spoke. " This is only my nephew, Ernst 
 Vronski, who is staying with me for a day or two on his way 
 through to Nizhni Novgorod with his furs, and that is his 
 servant, Ivan Arkavitch. You need not be uneasy. I have 
 plenty of rooms, as I live almost alone, and I have set apart 
 one for the prisoners which I think will satisfy you in every 
 way. Would it please you to come and see it ? " 
 
 " Yes, we will go now and get them put in safety for the 
 night, if you will lead the way." 
 
 As the party left the room Colston caught one swift glance 
 from Natasha which told him that she understood his presence 
 in the house fully, and he felt that, despite her miserable 
 position, he had an ally in her who could be depended upon. 
 
 The officer carefully examined the room which had been 
 provided for the two prisoners, tried the heavy shutters with 
 which the windows were closed, and took from Soudeikin the 
 keys of the padlocks to the bars which ran across them. He 
 then directed the prisoners to be released from their handcuffs 
 and locked them in the room, stationing one of the soldiers at 
 the door and sending the other to patrol the back of the house 
 from which the two windows of the room looked out. 
 
 At the end of two hours the sentries were to change places, 
 and in two hours more they were to be relieved by a detach- 
 ment from the night patrol. This arrangement had been 
 foreseen by Soudeikin, and it had been settled that the 
 rescue was to be attempted as soon as the guard had been 
 changed. 
 
 This would give the prisoners time to get a brief but much 
 needed rest after their long and miserable journey from Perm, 
 penned up like sheep in iron-barred cattle trucks, and it would 
 leave the drowsiest part of the night, from four o'clock to 
 sunrise, for the hazardous work in hand. 
 
 " That is a pretty girl you have there, captain," said Colston, 
 as the officer returned to the sitting-room. "Is she for the 
 mines or Sakhalin ? " 
 
For Life or Death. 93 
 
 "For Sakhalin by sentence, but as a matter of fact for 
 neither, as far as I can see." 
 
 " You mean that the Little Father will pardon her or give 
 her a lighter sentence, I suppose." 
 
 The officer grinned meaningly as he replied — 
 
 " Nu vot! That is hardly likely. What I mean is that 
 Captain Kharkov, who is in command of the convict train from 
 here, has had instructions to convey her as comfortably as 
 possible, and with no more fatigue than is necessary, to Tchit, 
 in the Trans-Baikal, and that he is also charged with a letter 
 from the Governor of Perm to the Governor of Tchit. 
 
 "You know these gentlemen like to do each other a good 
 turn when they can, and so, putting two and two together, I 
 should say that his Excellency of Perm has concluded that our 
 pretty prisoner will serve to beguile the dulness of that God- 
 forsaken hole in which his Excellency of Tchit is probably dying 
 of ennui. She will be more comfortable there than at Sakhalin, 
 and it is a lucky thing for her that she has found favour in his 
 Excellency's eyes." 
 
 Colston could have shot the fellow where he sat leering 
 across the table ; but though his blood was at boiling point, he 
 controlled himself sufficiently to make a reply after the same 
 fashion, and soon after took his leave and retired for the night. 
 
 At four o'clock the guard was changed. The new officer, 
 after taking the keys, unlocked the door of the room in which 
 Natasha and the Princess were confined, and roused them up 
 to satisfy himself that they were still in safe keeping. It was 
 a brutal formality, but perfectly characteristic of Siberian 
 officialism. 
 
 The man who had been on guard so far joined the patrol 
 and returned to the barracks, while the new officer made him- 
 self comfortable with a bottle of brandy, with which Soudeikin 
 had obligingly provided him, in the sitting-room. It was a 
 bitterly cold night, and he drank a couple of glasses of it in 
 quick succession. Ten minutes after he had swallowed the 
 second he rolled backwards on the couch on which he was 
 sitting and went fast asleep. A few moments later he had 
 ceased to breathe. 
 
 Then the door opened softly and Soudeikin and Colston 
 slipped into the room. The former shook him by the shoulder. 
 
94 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 His eyes remained half closed, his head lolled loosely from 
 side to side, and his arms hung heavily downwards. 
 
 "He's gone," whispered Soudeikin ; and, without another 
 word, they set to work to strip the uniform off the lifeless 
 body. Then Colston dressed himself in it and gave his own 
 clothes to Soudeikin. 
 
 As soon as the change was effected, Colston took the keys 
 and went to the door at which the sentry was keeping guard. 
 The man was already half asleep, and blinked at him with 
 drowsy eyes as he challenged him. For all answer the 
 Terrorist levelled his pistol at his head and fired. There was 
 a sharp crack that could hardly have been heard on the other 
 side of the wall, and the man tumbled down with a bullet 
 through his brain. 
 
 Colston stepped over the corpse, unlocked the door, and 
 found Natasha and the Princess already dressed in male attire 
 as two peasant boys, with sheepskin coats and shapkas, and 
 wide trousers tucked into their half boots. These disguises 
 had been provided beforehand by Soudeikin, and hidden in 
 the bed in which they were to sleep. 
 
 Colston grasped their hands in silence, and the three left 
 the room. In the passage they found Ivan and Soudeikin, 
 the former dressed in the uniform of the soldier who had been 
 on guard outside the house, and whose half-stripped corpse 
 was now lying buried in the snow. 
 
 "Ready ?" whispered Soudeikin. 
 
 " Have you finished in there ? " asked Colston, jerking his 
 thumb towards the sitting-room. 
 
 Soudeikin nodded in reply, and the five left the house by the 
 back door. 
 
 It was then after half-past four. Fortunately it was a 
 dark cloudy morning, and the streets of the town were utterly 
 deserted. By ones and twos they stole through the by-streets 
 and lanes without meeting a soul, until Soudeikin at length 
 stopped at a house on the eastern edge of the town about a 
 mile from the Tobolsk road. 
 
 He tapped at one of the windows. The door was softly 
 opened by an invisible hand, and they entered and passed 
 through a dark passage and out into a stable-yard behind the 
 house. Under a shed they found a troika, or three-horse 
 
For Life or Death. 95 
 
 sleigh, with the horses ready harnessed, in charge of a man 
 dressed as a mujik. 
 
 They got in without a word, all but Soudeikin, who went 
 to the horses' heads, while the other man went and opened 
 the gates of the yard. The bells had been removed from the 
 harness, and the horses' feet made no sound as Soudeikin led 
 them out through the gate. Ivan took the reins, and Colston 
 held out his hand from the sleigh. There was a roll of notes 
 in it, and as he gave it to Soudeikin he whispered — 
 
 "Farewell! If we succeed, the Master shall know how 
 well you have done your part." 
 
 Soudeikin took the money with a salute and a whispered 
 farewell, and Ivan trotted his horses quietly down the lane 
 and swung round into the road at the end of it. 
 
 So far all had gone well, but the supreme moment of peril 
 had yet to come. A mile away down the road was the guard- 
 house on the Tobolsk road leading out of the town, and this 
 had to be passed before there was even a chance of safety. 
 
 As there was no hope of getting the sleigh past unobserved, 
 Colston had determined to trust to a rush when the moment 
 came. He had given Natasha and the Princess a magazine 
 pistol apiece, and held a brace in his own hands ; so among 
 them they had a hundred shots. 
 
 Ivan kept his horses at an easy trot till they were within 
 a hundred yards of the guard-house. Then, at a sign from 
 Colston, he suddenly lashed them into a gallop, and the sleigh 
 dashed forward at a headlong speed, swept round the curve 
 past the guard-house, hurling one of the sentries on guard to 
 the earth, and away out on to the Tobolsk road. 
 
 The next instant the notes of a bugle rang out clear and 
 shrill just as another sounded from the other end of the 
 town. Colston at once guessed what had happened. The 
 inspector of the patrols, in going his rounds, had called at 
 Soudeikin's house to see if all was right, and had discovered 
 the tragedy that had taken place. He looked back and saw 
 a body of Cossacks galloping down the main street towards 
 the guard-house, waving their lanterns and brandishing their 
 spears above their heads. 
 
 " Whip up, Ivan, they will be on us in a couple of minutes ! " 
 he cried and Ivan swung his long whip out over his horses' 
 
96 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 ears, and shouted at them till they put their heads down and 
 tore over the smooth snow in gallant style. 
 
 By the time the race for life or death really began they had 
 a good mile start, and as they had only four more to go Ivan 
 did not spare his cattle, but plied whip and voice with a will 
 till the trees whirled past in a continuous dark line, and the 
 sleigh seemed to fly over the snow almost without touching it. 
 
 Still the Cossacks gained on them yard by yard, till at the 
 end of the fourth mile they were less than three hundred 
 yards behind. Then Colston leant over the back of the sleigh, 
 and taking the best aim he could, sent half a dozen shots 
 among them. He saw a couple of the flying figures reel and 
 fall, but their comrades galloped heedlessly over them, yelling 
 wildly at the tops of their voices, and every moment lessening 
 the distance between themselves and the sleigh. 
 
 Colston fired a dozen more shots into them, and had the 
 satisfaction of seeing three or four of them roll into the snow. 
 At the same time he put a whistle to his lips, and blew a long 
 shrill call that _sounded high and clear above the hoarse yells 
 of the Cossacks. 
 
 Their pursuers were now within a hundred yards of them, 
 and Natasha, speaking for the first time since the race had 
 begun, said — 
 
 " I think I can do something now." 
 
 As she spoke she leaned out of the sleigh sideways, and 
 began firing rapidly at the Cossacks. Shot after shot told 
 either upon man or beast, for the daughter of Natas was one 
 of the best shots in the Brotherhood ; but before she had fired a 
 dozen times a bright gleam of white light shot downwards over 
 the trees, apparently from the clouds, full in the faces of their 
 pursuers. 
 
 Involuntarily they reined up like one man, and their yells 
 of fury changed in an instant into a general cry of terror. The 
 Cossacks are as brave as any soldiers on earth, and they can 
 fight any mortal foe like the fiends that they are, but here was 
 an enemy they had never seen before, a strange, white, ghostly- 
 looking thing that floated in the clouds and glared at them 
 with a great blazing, blinding eye, dazzling them and making 
 their horses plunge and rear like things possessed. 
 
 They were not long left in doubt as to the intentions of their 
 
For Life or Death. 97 
 
 new eneiny. Something came rushing through, the air and 
 struck the ground almost at the feet of their first rank. Then 
 there Mas a flash of green light, a stunning report, and men and 
 horses were rent into fragments and hurled into the air like 
 dead leaves before a hurricane. 
 
 Only three or four who had turned tail at once were left 
 alive ; and these, without daring to look behind them, drove 
 their spurs into their horses' flanks and galloped back to 
 Tiumen, half mad with terror, to tell how a demon had come 
 down from the skies, annihilated their comrades, and carried 
 the fugitives away into the clouds upon its back. 
 
 When they reached the town it was a scene of the utmost 
 panic. Soldiers were galloping and running hither and thither, 
 bugles were sounding, and the whole population were turning 
 out into the snow-covered streets. On every lip there were 
 only two words—" Natas ! " " The Terrorists ! " 
 
 The death sentence on Soudeikin, the sub-commissioner of 
 police, had been found pinned with a dagger to the table in the 
 room in which lay the body of the lieutenant, with the bloody 
 T ° n his forehead. Soudeikin had vanished utterly, leaving 
 only his uniform behind him; so had the two prisoners for 
 whom he had made himself responsible, and at the door of their 
 room lay the corpse of the sentry with a bullet-hole clean 
 through his head from front to back, while in the snow under 
 one of the windows of the room lay the body of the other 
 sentry, stabbed through the heart. 
 
 From the very midst of one of the strongholds of Eussian 
 tyranny in Siberia, two important prisoners and a police official 
 had been spirited away as though by magic, and now upon the 
 top of all the wonder and dismay came the fugitive Cossacks 
 with their wild tale about the air-demon that had swooped 
 down and destroyed their troop at a single blow. To crown 
 all, half an hour later three horses, mad with fear, came 
 galloping up the Tobolsk road, dragging behind them an empty 
 sleigh, to one of the seats of which was pinned a scrap of paper 
 on which was written — 
 
 " The daughter of Natas sends greeting to the Governor of 
 Tiumen, and thanks him for his hospitality." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT. 
 
 N the morning of Tuesday, the 9th of March 
 1904, the Times published the following tele- 
 gram at the head of its Foreign Intelligence : — 
 
 Astounding Occurrence in Russia. 
 
 Destruction of Kronstadt by an unknown Air -Ship. 
 
 (From our own Correspondent.) 
 
 St. Petersburg, March 8th, 4 r. M. 
 
 Between six and seven this morning, the fortress of Kronstadt was partially 
 destroyed by an unknown air-ship, which was first sighted approaching from the 
 westward at a tremendous speed. 
 
 Four shots in all were fired upon the fortress, and produced the most appalling 
 destruction. There was no smoke or flame visible from the guns of the air-ship, 
 and the explosives with which the missiles were charged must have been far 
 more powerful than anything hitherto used in warfare, as in the focus of the 
 explosion masses of iron and steel and solid masonry were instantly reduced to 
 powder. 
 
 Two shots were fired as the strange vessel approached, and two as she left the 
 fortress. The two latter exploded over one of the powder magazines, dissolved 
 the steel roof to dust, and ignited the whole contents of the magazine, blowing 
 that portion of the fortification bodily into the sea. At least half the garrison 
 has disappeared, most of the unfortunate men having been practically annihilated 
 by the terrific force of the explosions. 
 
 The air-ship was not of the navigable balloon type, and is described by the 
 survivors as looking more like a flying torpedo-boat than anything else. She 
 flew no flag, and there is no clue to her origin. 
 
 After destroying the fortress, she ascended several thousand feet, and continued 
 her eastward course at such a prodigious speed, that in less than five minutes 
 she was lost to sight. 
 
 The excitement in St. Petersburg almost reaches the point of panic. All 
 efforts to keep the news of the disaster secret have completely failed, and I have 
 therefore received permission to send this telegram, which has been revised by 
 the Censorship, and may therefore be accepted as authentic. 
 
The Psychological Moment. 99 
 
 Within an hour of the appearance of this telegram, which 
 appeared only in the Times, the Bussian Censorship having 
 refused to allow any more to be despatched, the astounding 
 news was flying over the wires to every corner of the world. 
 
 The Times had a lengthy and very able article on the subject, 
 which, although by no means alarmist in tone, told the world, 
 in grave and weighty sentences, that there could now be no 
 doubt but that the problem of aerial navigation had been 
 completely solved, and that therefore mankind stood confronted 
 by a power that was practically irresistible, and which changed 
 the whole aspect of warfare by land and sea. 
 
 In the face of this power, the fortresses, armies, and fleets of 
 the world were useless and helpless. The destruction of 
 Kronstadt had proved that to demonstration. From a height 
 of several thousand feet, and a distance of nearly seven miles, 
 the unknown air-vessel had practically destroyed, with four 
 shots from her mysterious, smokeless, and nameless guns, the 
 strongest fortress in Europe. If it could do that, and there 
 was not the slightest doubt but that it had done so, it could 
 destroy armies wholesale without a chance of reprisals, sink 
 fleets, and lay cities in ruins, at the leisure of those who 
 commanded it. 
 
 And here arose the supreme question of the hour — a question 
 beside which all other questions of national or international 
 policy sank instantly into insignificance — Who were those who 
 held this new and appalling power in their hands ? It was 
 hardly to be believed that they were representatives of any 
 regularly-constituted national Power, for, although the air was 
 full of rumours of war, there was at present unbroken peace all 
 over the world. 
 
 Even in the hands of a recognised Power, the possession of 
 such a frightful engine of destruction could not be viewed by 
 the rest of the world with anything but the gravest apprehen- 
 sion, for that Power, however insignificant otherwise, would 
 now be in a position to terrorise any other nation, or league of 
 nations, however great. Manifestly those who had built the 
 one air-vessel that had been seen, and had given such con- 
 clusive proof of her terrible powers, could construct a fleet if 
 they chose to do so, and then the world would be at their 
 mercy. 
 
ioo The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 If, however, as seemed only too probable, the machine was 
 in the hands of a few irresponsible individuals, or, still worse, 
 in those of such enemies of humanity as the Nihilists, or that 
 yet more mysterious and terrible society who were popularly 
 known as the Terrorists, then indeed the outlook was serious 
 beyond forecast or description. At any moment the forces of 
 destruction and anarchy might be let loose upon the world, in 
 such fashion that little less than the collapse of the whole 
 fabric of Society might be expected as the result. 
 
 The above necessarily brief and imperfect digest gives only 
 the headings of an article which filled nearly two columns of 
 the Times, and it is needless to say that such an article in the 
 leading columns of the most serious and respectable newspaper 
 in the world produced an intense impression wherever it 
 was read. 
 
 Of course the telegram was instantly copied by the evening 
 papers, which ran out special editions for the sole purpose of 
 reproducing it, with their own comments upon it, which, after 
 all, were not much more original than the telegram. Mean- 
 while the Berliner Tageolatt, the Newe Freie Presse, the 
 Kblnische Zeitung, and the Journal des Ddbats had received 
 later and somewhat similar telegrams, and had given their 
 respective views of the catastrophe to the world. 
 
 By noon all the capitals of Europe were in a fever of 
 expectation and apprehension. The cables had carried the 
 news to America and India; and when the evening of the 
 same day brought the telegraphic account of the extraordinary 
 occurrence at Tinmen in the grey dusk of the early morning, 
 proving almost conclusively that the rescue had been effected 
 by the same agency that had destroyed Kronstadt, and that, 
 worse than all, the air-vessel was at the command of Natas, 
 the unknown Chief of the mysterious Terrorists, excitement 
 rose almost to frenzy, and everywhere the wildest rumours 
 were accepted as truth. 
 
 In a word, the " psychological moment " had come all over 
 Europe, the moment in which all men were thinking of the 
 same thing, discussing the same event, and dreading the same 
 results. To have found a parallel state of affairs, it would have 
 been necessary to go back more than a hundred years, to the 
 
The Psychological Moment. ioi 
 
 hour when the head of Louis XVI. fell into the basket of the 
 guillotine, and the monarchies of Europe sprang to arms to 
 avenge his death. 
 
 Meanwhile other and not less momentous events had, 
 unknown to the newspapers or the public, been taking place 
 in three very different parts of the world. 
 
 On the evening of Saturday, the 6th, Lord Alanmere had 
 called upon Mr. Balfour in Downing Street, and laid the 
 duplicates of the secret treaty between France and Russia, and 
 copies of all the memoranda appertaining to it, before him, 
 and had convinced him of their authenticity. At the same 
 time he showed him plans of the w T ar-balloons, of which a 
 fleet of fifty would within a few days be at the command of 
 the Tsar. 
 
 The result of this interview was a meeting of a Cabinet 
 Council, and the immediate despatch of secret orders to 
 mobilise the fleet and the army, to put every available ship 
 into commission, and to double the strength of the Medi- 
 terranean Squadron at once. That evening three Queen's 
 messengers left Charing Cross by the night mail, one for 
 Berlin, one for Vienna, and one for Eome, each of them 
 bearing a copy of the secret treaty. 
 
 On Monday morning a Council of Ministers was held at 
 the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, presided over by the 
 Tsar, and convened to discuss the destruction of Kronstadt. 
 
 At this Council it was announced that the fleet of war- 
 balloons would be ready to take the air in a week's time from 
 then, and that the concentration of troops on the Afghan 
 frontier was as complete as it could be without provoking 
 immediate hostilities with Britain. In fact, so close were the 
 Cossacks and the Indian troops to each other, both on the 
 Pamirs and on the western slopes of the Hindu Kush, that a 
 collision might be expected at any moment. 
 
 The Council of the Tsar decided to let matters take their 
 course in the East, and to make ill arrangements with France 
 to simultaneously attack the Triple Alliance as soon as the 
 war-balloons had been satisfactorily tested. 
 
 Soon after daybreak on Wednesday, the 10th, an affair of 
 outposts took place near the northern end of the Sir Ulang 
 Pass of the Hindu Kush, between two considerable bodies of 
 
io2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Cossacks and Ghoorkhas, in which, after a stubborn fight, the 
 Etissians gave way before the magazine fire of the Indian 
 troops, and fled, leaving nearly a fourth of their number on 
 the field. 
 
 The news of this encounter reached London on Wednesday 
 night, and was published in the papers on Thursday morning, 
 together with the intelligence that the fight had been watched 
 from a height of nearly three thousand feet by a small party of 
 men and women in an air-ship, evidently a vessel of war, from 
 the fact that she carried four long guns. She took no part in 
 the fight, and as soon as it was over went off to the south-west 
 at a speed which carried her out of sight in a few minutes. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVEKY. 
 
 HILE all Europe was thrilling with the appre- 
 hension of approaching war, and the excitement 
 caused by the appearance of the strange air-ship 
 and the news of its terrible exploits at Kron- 
 stadt and Tiumen, the Ariel herself was quietly 
 pursuing her way in mid-air south-westerly 
 from the scene of the skirmish outside the Sir Ulang Pass. 
 
 She was bound for a region in the midst of Africa, which, 
 even in the first decade of the twentieth century, was still 
 unknown to the geographer and untrodden by the explorer. 
 
 Fenced in by huge and precipitous mountains, round whose 
 bases lay vast forests and impenetrable swamps and jungles, 
 from whose deadly areas the boldest pioneers had turned 
 aside as being too hopelessly inhospitable to repay the cost and 
 toil of exploration, it had remained undiscovered and unknown 
 save by two men, who had reached it by the only path by 
 which it was accessible — through the air and over the mountains 
 which shut it in on every side from the external world. 
 
 These two adventurous travellers were a wealthy and 
 eccentric Englishman, named Louis Holt, and Thomas Jackson, 
 his devoted retainer, and these two had taken it into their 
 heads — or rather Louis Holt had taken it into his head — to 
 achieve in fact the feat which Jules Verne had so graphically 
 described in fiction, and to cross Africa in a balloon. 
 
 They had set out from Zanzibar towards the end of the 
 last year of the nineteenth century, and, with the exception 
 of one or two vague reports from the interior, nothing more 
 had been heard of them until, nearly a year later, a collapsed 
 
 103 
 
io4 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 miniature balloon had been picked up in the Gulf of Guinea 
 by the captain of a trading steamer, who had found in the 
 little car attached to it a hermetically scaled meat-tin, which 
 contained a manuscript, the contents of which will become 
 apparent in due course. 
 
 The captain of the steamer was a practical and somewhat 
 stupid man, who read the manuscript with considerable 
 scepticism, and then put it away, having come to the con- 
 clusion that it was no business of his, and that there was no 
 money in it anyhow. He thought nothing more of it until 
 he got back to Liverpool, and then he gave it to a friend of 
 his, who was a Fellow of the Eoyal Geographical Society, and 
 who duly laid it before that body. 
 
 It was published in the Transactions, and there was some 
 talk of sending out an expedition under the command of an 
 eminent explorer to rescue Louis Holt and his servant; but 
 when that personage was approached on the subject, it was 
 found that the glory would not be at all commensurate with 
 the expense and risk, and so, after being the usual nine days' 
 wonder, and being duly elaborated by several able editors in 
 the daily and weekly press, the strange adventures of Louis 
 Holt had been dismissed, as of doubtful authenticity, into 
 the limbo of exhausted sensations. 
 
 One man, however, had laid the story to heart somewhat 
 more seriously, and that was Eichard Arnold, who, on reading 
 it, had formed the resolve that, if ever his dream of aerial 
 navigation were realised, the first use he would make of his 
 air-ship would be to discover and rescue the lonely travellers 
 who were isolated from the rest of the world in the strange, 
 inaccessible region of which the manuscript had given a brief 
 but graphic and fascinating account. He was now carrying 
 out that resolve, and at the same time working out a portion 
 of a plan that was not his own, and which he had been very 
 far from foreseeing when he made the resolution. 
 
 Louis Holt's original MS. had been purchased by the 
 President of the Inner Circle, and the Ariel was now, in fact, 
 on a voyage of exploration, the object of which was the 
 discovery of this unknown region, with a view to making it 
 the seat of a settlement from which the members of the 
 Executive could watch in security and peace the course of 
 
A Voyage of Discovery. 105 
 
 the tremendous struggle which would, ere long, be shaking 
 the world to its foundations. 
 
 In such a citadel as this, fenced in by a series of vast 
 natural obstacles, impassable to all who did not possess the 
 means of aerial locomotion, they would be secure from molesta- 
 tion, though all the armies of Europe sought to attack them ; 
 and the Ariel could, if necessary, traverse in twenty-five hours 
 the three thousand odd miles which separated it from the 
 centre of Europe. 
 
 After the rescue of Natasha and the Princess on the 
 Tobolsk road, the Ariel, in obedience to the orders of the 
 Council, had shaped her course southward to the western 
 slopes of the Hindu Kush, in order to be present at the 
 prearranged attack of the Cossacks on the British recon- 
 noitring force. 
 
 Arnold's orders were simply to wait for the engagement, 
 and only to watch it, unless the British were attacked in 
 overwhelming numbers. In that case he was to have dis- 
 persed the Russian force, as the plan of the Terrorists did 
 not allow of any advantage being gained by the soldiers of 
 the Tsar in that part of the world just then. 
 
 As the British had defeated them unaided, the Ariel had 
 taken no part in the affair, and, after vanishing from the 
 sight of the astonished combatants, had proceeded upon her 
 voyage of discovery. 
 
 As a good month would have to elapse before she could 
 keep her rendezvous with the steamer that was to bring 
 out the materials for the construction of the new air-ships 
 from England, there was plenty of time to make the voyage 
 in a leisurely and comfortable fashion. As soon, therefore, 
 as he was out of sight of the skirmishers, he had reduced the 
 speed of the Ariel to about forty miles an hour, using only 
 the stern-propeller driven by one engine, and supporting the 
 ship on the air-planes and two fan-wheels. 
 
 At this speed he would traverse the three thousand odd 
 miles which lay between the Hindu Kush and "Aeria" — as 
 Louis Holt had somewhat fancifully named the region that 
 could be reached only through the air — in a little over seventy- 
 five hours, or rather more than three days 
 
 Those three days were the happiest that his life had so far 
 
io6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 contained. The complete success of his invention, and the 
 absolute fulfilment of his promises to the Brotherhood, had 
 made him a power in the world, and a power which, as he 
 honestly believed, would be used for the highest good of man- 
 kind when the time came to finally confront and confound the 
 warring forces of rival despotisms. 
 
 But far more than this in his eyes was the fact that he had 
 been able to use the unique power which his invention had 
 placed in his hands, to rescue the woman that he loved so 
 dearly from a fate which, even now that if was past, he could 
 not bring himself to contemplate. 
 
 When she had first greeted him in the Council-chamber of 
 the Inner Circle, the distance that had separated her from him 
 had seemed immeasurable, and she — the daughter of Natas 
 and the idol of the most powerful society in the world — might 
 well have looked down upon him — the nameless dreamer of 
 an unrealised dream, and a pauper, who would not have known 
 where to have looked for his next meal, had the Brotherhood 
 not had faith in him and his invention. 
 
 But now all that was changed. The dream had become the 
 reality, and the creation of his genius was bearing her with 
 him swiftly and smoothly through a calm atmosphere, and 
 under a cloudless sky, over sea and land, with more ease than 
 a bird wings its flight through space. He had accomplished 
 the greatest triumph in the history of human discovery. He 
 had revolutionised the world, and ere long he would make war 
 impossible. Surely this entitled him to approach even her on 
 terms of equality, and to win her for his own if he could. 
 
 Natasha saw this too as clearly as he did — more clearly, 
 perhaps; for, while he only arrived at the conclusion by a 
 process of reasoning, she reached it intuitively at a single step. 
 She knew that he loved her, that he had loved her from the 
 moment that their hands had first met in greeting, and, peerless 
 as she was among women, she was still a woman, and the 
 homage of such a man as this was sweet to her, albeit it was 
 still unspoken. 
 
 She knew, too, that the hopes of the Eevolution, which, before 
 all things human, claimed her whole-souled devotion, now 
 depended mainly upon him, and the use that he might make of 
 the power that lay in his hands, and this of itself was no light 
 
A Voyage of Discovery. 107 
 
 bond between them, though not necessarily having anything 
 to do with affection. 
 
 So far she was heart-whole, and though many had attempted 
 the task, no man had yet made her pulses beat a stroke faster for 
 his sake. Ever since she had been old enough to know what 
 tyranny meant, she had been trained to hate it, and prepared 
 to work against it, and, if necessary, to sacrifice herself body 
 and soul to destroy it. 
 
 Thus hatred rather than love had been the creed of her life 
 and the mainspring of her actions, and, save her father and 
 her one friend Eadna, she stood aloof from mankind and its 
 loves and friendships, rather the beautiful incarnation of an 
 abstract principle than a woman, to whom love and mother- 
 hood were the highest aims of existence. 
 
 More than this, she was the daughter of a Jew, and therefore 
 held herself absolutely at her father's disposal as far as marriage 
 was concerned, and if he had given her in wedlock even to a 
 Eussian official, telling her that the Cause demanded the sacrifice, 
 she would have obeyed, though her heart had broken in the 
 same hour. 
 
 Although he had never hinted directly at such a thing, the 
 conviction had been growing upon her for the last two or three 
 years that Natas really intended her to marry Tremayne, and 
 so, in the case of his own death, form a bond that should hold 
 him to the Brotherhood when the chain of his own control was 
 snapped. Though she instinctively shrank from such a union 
 of mere policy, she would enter it without hesitation at her 
 father's bidding, and for the sake of the Cause to which her life 
 was devoted. 
 
 How great such a sacrifice would be, should it ever be asked 
 of her,%o one but herself could ever know, for she was per- 
 fectly well aware that in Tremayne's strange double life there 
 were two loves, one of which, and that not the real and natural 
 one, was hers. 
 
 Had she felt that she had the disposal of herself in her own 
 hands, she would not, perhaps, have waited with such painful 
 apprehension the avowal which hour after hour, now that they 
 were brought into such close and constant relationships on board 
 this little vessel high in mid-air, she saw trembling on the lips 
 of her rescuer. 
 
10S The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Arnold's life of hard, honest work, and his constant habit of 
 facing truth in its most uncompromising forms, had made 
 dissimulation almost impossible to him; and added to that, 
 situated as he was, there was no necessity for it. Colston 
 knew of his love, and the Princess had guessed it long ago. 
 Did Natasha know his open secret ? Of that he hardly dared 
 to he sure, though something told him that the inevitable 
 moment of knowledge was near at hand. 
 
 For the first twenty-four hours of the voyage he had seen 
 very little of either her or the Princess, as they had mostly 
 remained in their cabins, enjoying a complete rest after the 
 terrible fatigue and suffering they had gone through since 
 their capture in Moscow, but on the Thurdsay morning they 
 had had breakfast in the saloon with him and Colston, and had 
 afterwards spent a portion of the morning on deck, deeply 
 interested in watching the fight between the British and 
 Kussians. Thanks to Badna's foresight, they had each found 
 a trunk full of suitable clothing on board the Ariel. These . 
 had been taken to Drumcraig by Colston, and placed in the 
 cabins intended for their use, and so they were able to discard 
 the uncouth but useful costumes in which they had made 
 their escape. 
 
 In the afternoon Arnold had had to perform the pleasant 
 task of showing them over the Ariel, explaining the working 
 of the machinery, and putting the wonderful vessel through 
 various evolutions to show what she was capable of doing. 
 
 He rushed her at full speed through the air, took flying leaps 
 over outlying spurs of mountain ranges that lay in their path, 
 swooped down into valleys, and flew over level plains fifty 
 yards from the ground, like an albatross over the surface of a 
 smooth tropic sea. Then he soared up from the earth again, 
 until the horizon widened out to vast extent, and they could 
 see the mighty buttresses of " the Pioof of the World " stretching 
 out below them in an endless succession of ranges as far as the 
 eye could reach. 
 
 Neither Natasha nor the Princess could find words to at all 
 adequately express all that they saw and learnt during that 
 day of wonders, and all night Natasha could hardly sleep for 
 waking dreams of universal empire, and a world at peace 
 equitably ruled by a power that had no need of aggression, 
 
A Voyage of Discovery. 109 
 
 because all the realms of earth and air belonged to those who 
 wielded it. 
 
 When at last she did go to sleep, it was to dream again, 
 and this time of herself, the Angel of the lie volution, sharing 
 the aerial throne of the world-empire with the man who had 
 made revolutions impossible by striking the sword from the 
 hand of the tyrants of earth for ever. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A WOOING IN MID AIR. 
 
 FTER breakfast on the Friday morning, 
 Natasha and Arnold were standing in the 
 bows of the Ariel, admiring the magnificent 
 panorama that lay stretched out five thousand 
 feet below them. 
 
 The air-ship had by this time covered a little 
 over 2000 miles of her voyage, and was now speeding smoothly 
 and swiftly along over the south-western shore of the Red Sea, 
 a few miles southward of the sixteenth parallel of latitude. 
 Eastward the bright blue waves of the sea were flashing behind 
 them in the cloudless morning sun ; the high mountains of the 
 African coast rose to right and left and in front of them ; and 
 through the breaks in the chain they could see the huge masses 
 of Abyssinia to the southward, and the vast plains that stretched 
 away westward across the Blue and White Niles, away to the 
 confines of the Libyan Desert. 
 
 " What a glorious world ! " exclaimed Natasha, after gazing 
 for many silent minutes with entranced eyes over the limitless 
 landscape. " And to think that, after all, all this is but a little 
 corner of it ! " 
 
 " It is yours, Natasha, if you will have it," replied Arnold 
 quietly, yet with a note in his voice that warned her that the 
 moment which she had expected and yet dreaded, had already 
 come. There was no use in avoiding the inevitable for a time. 
 It would be better if they understood each other at once ; and 
 so she looked round at liiin with eyebrows elevated in well- 
 simulated surprise, and said — 
 
 " Mine ! What do you mean, my friend ? " 
 
 no 
 
A Wooing in Mid Air. hi 
 
 There was an almost imperceptible emphasis on the last 
 word that brought the blood to Arnold's cheek, and he answered, 
 with a ring in his voice that gave unmistakable evidence of the 
 effort that he was making to restrain the passion that inspired 
 his words — 
 
 " I mean just what I say. All the kingdoms of the world, 
 and the glory of them, from pole to pole, and from east to west, 
 shall be yours, and shall obey your lightest wish. I have 
 conquered the air, and therefore the earth and sea. In two 
 months from now I shall have an aerial navy afloat that will 
 command the world, and I — is it not needless to tell you, 
 Natasha, why I glory in the possession of that power ? Surely 
 you must know that it is because I love you more than all that 
 a subject world can give me, and because it makes it possible 
 for me, if not to win you, at least not to be unworthy to attempt 
 the task ? " 
 
 It was a distinctly unconventional declaration — such a one, 
 indeed, as no woman had ever heard since Alexander the 
 Great had whispered in the ears of Lais his dreams of universal 
 empire, but there was a straightforward earnestness about it 
 which convinced her beyond question that it came from no 
 ordinary man, but from one who saw the task before him clearly, 
 and had made up his mind to achieve it. 
 
 For a moment her heart beat faster than it had ever yet 
 done at the bidding of a man's voice, and there was a bright 
 flush on her cheeks, and a softer light in her eyes, as she replied 
 in a more serious tone than Arnold had ever heard her use — 
 
 " My friend, you have forgotten something. You and I are 
 not a man and a woman in the relationship that exists between 
 us. We are two factors in a work such as has never been 
 undertaken since the world began; two units in a mighty 
 problem whose solution is the happiness or the ruin of the 
 whole human race. It is not for us to speak of individual love 
 while these tremendous issues hang undecided in the balance. 
 
 " One does not speak of love in the heat of war, and you 
 and I and those who are with us are at war with the powers 
 of the earth, and higher things than the happiness of indi- 
 viduals are at stake. You know my training has been one of 
 hate and not of love, and till the hate is quenched I must not 
 know what love is. 
 
ii2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " Remember your oath — the oath which I have taken as 
 well as you — ' As luivj as I live those ends shall be my ends, and 
 no human considerations shall iveir/h with me where those end* 
 are concerned.' Is not this love of which you speak a human 
 consideration that might clash with the purposes of the 
 Brotherhood whose ends you and I have solemnly sworn to 
 hold supreme above all earthly things ? 
 
 " My father has told me that when love takes possession 
 of a human soul, reason abdicates her throne, and great aims 
 become impossible. No, no ; that great power which you 
 hold in your hands was not given you just to win the love of 
 a woman, and T tell you frankly that you will never win mine 
 with it. 
 
 " More than this, if I saw you using it for such an end, I 
 would take care that you did not use it for long. No man ever 
 had such an awful responsibility laid upon him as the posses- 
 sion of this power lays upon you. It is yours to make or mar 
 the future of the human race, of which I am but a unit. It is 
 not the power that will ever win either my respect or my love, 
 but the wisdom and the justice with which it may be used." 
 
 " Ah ! I see you distrust me. You think that because I 
 have the power to be a despot, that therefore I may forget 
 my oath and become one. I forgive you for the thought, 
 unworthy of you as it is, and also, I hope, of me. No, 
 Natasha; I am no skilled hand at love-making, for I have 
 never wooed any mistress but one before to-day, and she is 
 won only by plain honesty and hard service; just what I 
 will devote to the winning of you, whether you are to be won 
 or not — but I must have expressed myself clumsily indeed 
 for you to have even thought of treason to the Cause. 
 
 " You are no more devoted adherent of it than I am. You 
 have suffered in one way and I in another from the falsehood 
 and rottenness of present-day Society, but you do not hate it 
 more utterly than I do, and you would not go to greater 
 lengths than I would to destroy it. Yours is a hatred of 
 emotion, and mine is a hatred of reason. I have proved that, 
 as Society is constituted, it is the worst and not the best 
 qualities of humanity that win wealth and power, and such 
 respect as the vulgar of all classes can give. But it is not such 
 power as this that I would lay at your feet, when I ask you to 
 
A Wooing in Mid Air. 113 
 
 share the world-empire with me. It is an empire of peace and 
 not of war that I shall offer to you." 
 
 " Then," said Natasha, taking a step towards him, and laying 
 her hand on his arm as she spoke, " when you have made war 
 impossible to the rivalry of nations and races, and have pro- 
 claimed peace on earth, then I will give myself to you, body 
 and soul, to do with as you please, to kill or to keep alive, for 
 then truly you will have done that which all the generations 
 of men before you have failed to do, and it will be yours to ask 
 and to have." 
 
 As she spoke these last words Natasha bowed her proudly- 
 carried head as though in submission to the dictum that her 
 own lips had pronounced ; and Arnold, laying his hand on hers 
 and holding it for a moment unresisting in his own, said — 
 
 " I accept the condition, and as you have said so shall it be. 
 You shall hear no more words of love from my lips until the 
 day that peace shall be proclaimed on earth and war shall be 
 no more ; and when that day comes, as it shall do, I will hold 
 you to your words, and I will claim you and take you, body 
 and soul, as you have said, though I break every other human 
 tie save man's love for woman to possess you." 
 
 Natasha looked him full in the eyes as he spoke these last 
 words. She had never heard such words before, and by their 
 very strength and audacity they compelled her respect and 
 even her submission. Her heart was still untamed and 
 unconquered, and no man was its lord, yet her eyes sank 
 before the steady gaze of his, and in a low sweet voice she 
 answered — 
 
 "So be it! There never was a true woman yet who did 
 not love to meet her master. When that day comes I shall 
 have met my master, and I will do his bidding. Till then 
 we are friends and comrades in a common Cause to which 
 both our lives are devoted. Is it not better that it should 
 be so ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am content. I would not take the prize before I 
 have won it. Only answer me one question frankly, and then 
 I have done till I may speak again." 
 
 " What is that." 
 
 " Have I a rival — not among men, for of that I am careless 
 — but in your own heart ? " 
 8 
 
1 14 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " No, none. 1 am heart-whole and heart-free. Win me if 
 you can. It is a fair challenge, and I will abide by the result, 
 be it what it may." 
 
 " That is all I ask for. If I do not win you, may Heaven 
 do so to me that I shall have no want of the love of woman 
 for ever ! " 
 
 So saying, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, in 
 token of the compact that was made between them. Then, 
 intuitively divining that she wished to be alone, he turned 
 away without another word, and walked to the after end of 
 the vessel. 
 
 Natasha remained where she was for a good half-hour, 
 leaning on the rail that surrounded the deck, and gazing out 
 dreamily over the splendid and ever-changing scene that lay 
 spread out beneath her. Truly it was a glorious world, as 
 she had said, even now, cursed as it was with war and the 
 hateful atrocities of human selfishness, and the sordid ambition 
 of its despots. 
 
 What would it be like in the day when the sword should 
 lie rusting on the forgotten battle-field, and the cannon's 
 mouth be choked with the desert dust for ever ? What was 
 now a hell of warring passions would then be a paradise of 
 peaceful industry, and he who had the power, if any man 
 had, to turn that hell into the paradise that it might be, had 
 just told her that he loved her, and would create that paradise 
 for her sake. 
 
 Could he do it ? Was not this marvellous creation of his 
 genius, that was bearing her in mid-air over land and sea, as 
 woman had never travelled before, a suilicient earnest of his 
 power ? Truly it was. And to be won by such a man was 
 no mean destiny, even for her, the daughter of Natas, and 
 the peerless Angel of the Eevolution. 
 
 Situated as they were, it would of course have been im- 
 possible, even if it had been in any way desirable, for Arnold 
 and Natasha to have kept their compact secret from their 
 fellow-travellers, who were at the same time their most 
 intimate friends. 
 
 There was not, however, the remotest reason for attempting 
 to do so. Although with regard to the rest of the world the 
 members of the Brotherhood were necessarily obliged to live 
 
A Wooing in Mid Air. 115 
 
 lives of constant dissimulation, among themselves they had 
 no secrets from each other. 
 
 Thus, for instance, it was perfectly well known that 
 Tremayne, during those periods of his double life in which 
 he acted as Chief of the Inner Circle, regarded the daughter 
 of Natas with feelings much warmer than those of friendship 
 or brotherhood in a common cause, and until Arnold and his 
 wonderful creation appeared on the scene, he was looked upon 
 as the man who, if any man could, would some day win the 
 heart of their idolised Angel. 
 
 Of the other love that was the passion of his other life, no 
 one save Natasha, and perhaps Natas himself, knew anything ; 
 and even if they had known, they would not have considered 
 it possible for any other woman to have held a man's heart 
 against the peerless charms of Natasha. In fact they would 
 have looked upon such rivalry as mere presumption that it 
 was not at all necessary for their incomparable young Queen 
 of the Terror to take into serious account. 
 
 In Arnold, however, they saw a worthy rival even to the 
 Chief himself, for there was a sort of halo of romance, even in 
 their eyes, about this serious, quiet-spoken young genius, who 
 had come suddenly forth from the unknown obscurity of his 
 past life to arm the Brotherhood with a power which revolu- 
 tionised their tactics and virtually placed the world at their 
 mercy. In a few months he had become alike their hero and 
 their supreme hope, so far as all active operations went; and now 
 that with his own hand he had snatched Natasha from a fate 
 of unutterable misery, and so signally punished her persecutors, 
 it seemed to be only in the fitness of things that he should 
 love her, win her for his own, if won she was to be by any man. 
 
 This, at any rate, was the line of thought which led the 
 Princess and Colston each to express their unqualified satisfac- 
 tion with the state of affairs arrived at in the compact that had 
 been made between Natasha and Arnold — " armed neutrality," 
 as the former smilingly described to the Princess while she 
 was telling her of the strange wooing of her now avowed lover. 
 Natasha was no woman to be wooed and won in the ordinary 
 way, and it was fitting that she should be the guerdon of such 
 an achievement as no man had ever undertaken before, since 
 the world began. 
 
n6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The voyage across Africa progressed pleasantly and almost 
 uneventfully for the thirty-six hours after the crossing of the 
 Red Sea. After passing over the mountains of the coast, the 
 Ariel had travelled at a uniform height of about 3000 feet over 
 a magnificent country of hill and valley, forest and prairie, 
 occasionally being obliged to rise another thousand feet or so 
 to cross some of the ridges of mountain chains which rose into 
 peaks and mountain knots, some of which touched the snow- 
 line. 
 
 Several times the air-ship was sighted by the people of the 
 various countries over which she passed, and crowds swarmed 
 out of the villages and towns, gesticulating wildly, and firing 
 guns and beating drums to scare the flying demon away. 
 
 Once or twice they heard bullets singing through the air, 
 but of these they took little heed, beyond quickening the speed 
 of the air-ship for the time, knowing that there was not a 
 chance in a hundred thousand of the Ariel being hit, and that 
 even if she were the bullet would glance harmlessly off her 
 smooth hull of hardened aluminium. 
 
 Once only they descended in a delightful little valley among 
 the mountains, which appeared to be totally uninhabited, and 
 here they renewed their store of fresh water, and laid in one 
 of fruit, as well as taking advantage of the opportunity to 
 stretch their legs on terra jlrma. 
 
 This was on the Saturday morning; and when they again 
 rose into the air to continue their voyage, they saw that they 
 had crossed the great mountain mass that divides the Sahara 
 from the little-known regions of Equatorial Africa, and that 
 in front of them to the south-west lay, as far as the eye could 
 reach, a boundless expanse of dense forest and jungle and 
 swamp, a gloomy and forbidding-looking region which it would 
 be well-nigh impossible to traverse on foot. 
 
 Early in the afternoon the four voyagers were gathered in 
 the deck-saloon, closely examining a somewhat rudely-drawn 
 chart that was spread out on the table. It was the map that 
 formed part of the manuscript which had been found in the car 
 of Louis Holt's miniature balloon, and sketched out his route 
 from Zanzibar to Aeria, and the country lying round so far as 
 he had been able to observe it. 
 
 " This gives us, after all, very little idea of the distance we 
 
A Wooing in Mid Air. 117 
 
 have yet to go," said Arnold ; " for though Holt has got his 
 latitude presumably right, we have very little clue to his 
 longitude, for he says himself that his watch was stopped in 
 a thunder-storm, and that in the same storm he lost all count 
 of the distance he had travelled. Added to that, he admits 
 that he was blown about for twelve days in one direction and 
 another, so that all we really know is that somewhere across 
 this fearful wilderness beneath us we shall find Aeria, but 
 where is still a problem." 
 
 " What is your own idea ? " asked Colston. 
 
 " Not a very clear one, I must confess. At this elevation 
 we can see about sixty miles as the atmosphere is now, and 
 as far as we can see to the south-west there is nothing but the 
 same kind of country that we have under us. We have 
 travelled rather more than 2700 miles since we left the Hindu 
 Kush, and according to my reckoning Aeria lies somewhere 
 between 3000 and 3200 miles south-west of where we started 
 from on Thursday morning. That means that we are within 
 between three and five hundred miles of Aeria, unless, indeed, 
 our calculations are wholly at fault, and at that rate, as we 
 only have about four and a half hours' daylight left, we shall 
 not get there to-day at our present speed." 
 
 " Couldn't we go a bit faster ? " put in Natasha. " You 
 know I and the Princess are dying to see this mysterious 
 unknown country that only two other people have ever seen." 
 
 " You have but to say so, Natasha, and it is already done," 
 replied Arnold, signalling at the same moment to the engine- 
 room by means of a similar arrangement of electric buttons 
 to that which was in the wheel-house. " Only you must re- 
 member that you must not go out on deck now, or you will 
 be blown away like a feather iuto space." 
 
 While he was speaking the three propellers had begun to 
 revolve at full speed, and the Ariel darted forward with a 
 velocity that caused the mountains she had just crossed to 
 sink rapidly on the horizon. 
 
 All the afternoon the Ariel flew at full speed over the seem- 
 ingly interminable wilderness of swamp and jungle, until, when 
 the equatorial sun was within a few degrees of the horizon, one 
 of the crew, who had been stationed in the conning tower at 
 the bows, signalled to call the attention of the man in the 
 
1 1 8 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 wheel-house. Arnold, who was in the after-saloon at the time, 
 heard the signal, and hurried forward to the look-out. He 
 gave one quick glance ahead, signalled " half-speed " to the 
 engiue-room, and then went aft again to the saloon, and said — 
 
 " Aeria is in sight ! " 
 
 Immediately everyone hastened to the deck saloon, from the 
 windows of which could be seen a huge mass of mountains 
 looming dark and distinct against the crimsoning western sky. 
 
 It rose like some vast precipitous island out of the sea of 
 forest that lay about its base ; and above the mighty rock-walls 
 that seemed to rise sheer from the surrounding plain at least 
 a dozen peaks towered into the sky, two of their summits 
 covered with eternal snow, and shining like points of rosy fire 
 in the almost level rays of the sun. 
 
 As nearly as Arnold could judge in the deceptive state of 
 the atmosphere, they were still between thirty and forty miles 
 from it, and as it would not be safe to approach its lofty cliffs 
 at a high rate of speed in the half light that would so soon 
 merge into darkness, he said to his companions — 
 
 "We shall have to find a resting-place up among the cliffs 
 on this side to-night, for we have lost the moon, and unless it 
 were absolutely necessary to cross the mountains in the dark, 
 I should not care to do so with the ladies on board. Besides, 
 there is no hurry now that we are here, and we shall get a 
 much finer first impression of our new kingdom if we cross at 
 sunrise. What do you think ? " 
 
 All agreed that this would be the best plan, and so the Ariel 
 ran up to within a mile of the rocks, and then the forward 
 engine was connected with the dynamo, and the searchlight, 
 which had so disconcerted the Cossacks on the Tobolsk road, 
 was turned on to the cliffs, which they carefully explored, until 
 they found a little plateau covered with luxuriant vegetation 
 and well watered, about two thousand feet above the plain 
 below 
 
 Here it was decided to come to a halt for the night, and 
 to reserve the exploration of Aeria for the morning, and so the 
 fan-wheels were sent aloft, and the Arid, after hovering for a 
 few minutes over the verdant little plain seeking for a suitable 
 spot to alight in, sank gently to the earth after her flight of 
 more than three thousand miles. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AERIA FELIX. 
 
 VERY one on board the Ariel was astir the 
 next morning as soon as the first rays of dawn 
 were shooting across the vast plain that 
 stretched away to the eastward, and by the 
 time it was fairly daylight breakfast was over 
 and all were anxiously speculating as to what 
 they would find on the other side of the tremendous cliffs, on 
 an eyrie in which they had found a resting-place for the night. 
 As soon as all was ready for a start, Arnold said to Natasha, 
 who was standing alone with him on the after part of the deck — 
 " If you would like to steer the Ariel into your new kingdom, 
 I shall be delighted to give you the lesson in steering that I 
 promised you yesterday." 
 
 Natasha saw the inner meaning of the offer at a glance, and 
 replied with a smile that made his blood tingle — 
 
 " That would be altogether too great a responsibility for a 
 beginner. I might run on to some of these fearful rocks. But 
 if you will take the helm when the dangerous part comes, I 
 will learn all I can by watching you." 
 
 " As long as you are with me in the wheel-house for the 
 next hour or so," said Arnold, with almost boyish frankness, 
 " I shall be content. I need scarcely tell you why I want to 
 be alone with you when we first sight this new home of our 
 future empire." 
 
 "I have half a mind not to come after that very injudicious 
 speech. Still, if only for the sake of its delightful innocence, 
 I will forgive you this time. You really must practise the 
 worldly art of dissimulation a little, or I shall have to get the 
 Princess to play chaperon." 
 
 119 
 
1 20 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Natasha spoke these words in a bantering tone, and with a 
 flush on her lovely cheeks, that forced Arnold to cut short the 
 conversation for the moment, by giving an order to Andrew 
 Smith, who at that instant put his head out of the wheel-house 
 door to say — 
 
 " All ready, sir ! " 
 
 " Very well," replied Arnold. " I will take the wheel, and 
 do you tell every one to keep under cover." 
 
 Smith saluted, and disappeared, and then Natasha and 
 Arnold went into the wheel-house, while Colston and the 
 Princess took their places in the deck-saloon, the two men off 
 duty going into the conning tower forward. 
 
 " Why every one under cover, Captain Arnold ? " asked 
 Natasha, as soon as the two were ensconced in the wheel-house 
 and the door shut. 
 
 " Because I am going to put the Ariel through her paces, 
 and enter Aeria in style," replied he, signalling for the fan- 
 wheels to revolve. " The fact is that, so far as I can see, these 
 mountains are too high for us to rise over them by means of 
 the lifting-wheels, which are only calculated to carry the ship 
 to a height of about five thousand feet. After that the air gets 
 too rarefied for them to get a solid grip. Now, these mountains 
 look to me more like seven thousand feet high." 
 
 " Then how will you get over them ? " 
 
 " I shall first take a cruise and see if I can find a negotiable 
 gap, and then leap it." 
 
 " What ! Leap seven thousand feet ? " 
 
 " No ; you forget that we shall be over five thousand up when 
 we take the jump, and I have no doubt that we shall find a 
 place where a thousand feet or so more will take us over. That 
 we shall rise easily with the planes and propellers, and you 
 will see such a leap as man never made in the world before." 
 
 While he was speaking the Ariel had risen from the ground, 
 and was hanging a few hundred feet above the little plateau. 
 He gave the signal for the wheels to be lowered, and the 
 propellers to set to work at half-speed. Then he pulled the 
 lever which moved the air-planes, and the vessel sped away 
 forwards and upwards at about sixty miles an hour. 
 
 Arnold headed her away from the mountains until he had 
 got an offing of a couple of miles, and then he swung her round 
 
Aeria Felix. 121 
 
 and skirted the cliffs, rising ever higher and higher, and keeping 
 a sharp look-out for a depression among the ridges that still 
 towered nearly three thousand feet above them. 
 
 When he had explored some twenty miles of the mountain 
 wall, Arnold suddenly pointed towards it, and said — 
 
 " There is a place that I think will do. Look yonder, between 
 those two high peaks away to the southward. That ridge is 
 not more than six thousand feet from the earth, and the Ariel 
 can leap that as easily as an Irish hunter would take a five- 
 barred gate." 
 
 " It looks dreadfully high from here," said Natasha, in spite 
 of herself turning a shade paler at the idea of taking a six 
 thousand foot ridge at a flying leap. She had splendid nerves, 
 but this was her first aerial voyage, and it was also the first 
 time that she had ever been brought so closely face to face with 
 the awful grandeur of Nature in her own secret and solitary 
 places. 
 
 She would have faced a levelled rifle without flinching, but 
 as she looked at that frowning mass of rocks towering up into 
 the sky, and then down into the fearful depths below, where 
 huge trees looked like tiny shrubs, and vast forests like black 
 patches of heather on the earth, her heart stood still in her 
 breast when she thought of the frightful fate that would over- 
 whelm the Ariel and her crew should she fail to rise high 
 enough to clear the ridge, or if anything went wrong with her 
 machinery at the critical moment. 
 
 " Are you sure you can do it ? " she asked almost involun- 
 tarily. 
 
 " Perfectly sure," replied Arnold quietly, " otherwise I should 
 not attempt it with you on board. The Ariel contains enough 
 explosives to reduce her and us to dust and ashes, and if we hit 
 that ridge going over, she would go off like a dynamite shell. 
 No, I know what she can do, and you need not have the 
 slightest fear ! " 
 
 " I am not exactly afraid, but it holes a fearful thing to 
 attempt." 
 
 " If there were any danger I should tell you — with my usual 
 lack of dissimulation. But really there is none, and all you 
 have to do is to hold tight when I tell you, and keep your eyes 
 open for the first glimpse of Aeria." 
 
122 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 By this time the Ariel was more than ten miles away from 
 the mountains. Arnold, having now got offing enough, swung 
 her round again, headed her straight for the ridge between the 
 two peaks, and signalled " full speed " to the engine-room. 
 
 In an instant the propellers redoubled their revolutions, and 
 the And gathered way until the wind sang and screamed past 
 her masts and stays. She covered eight miles in less than four 
 minutes, and it seemed to Natasha as though the rock-wall 
 were rushing towards them at an appalling speed, still frowning 
 down a thousand feet above them. For the instant she was all 
 eyes. She could neither open her lips nor move a limb for 
 sheer, irresistible, physical terror. Then she heard Arnold say 
 sharply — 
 
 " Now, hold on tight ! " 
 
 The nearest thing to her was his own arm, the hand of which 
 grasped one of the spokes of the steering wheel. Instinctively 
 she passed her own arm under it, and then clasped it with both 
 her hands. As she did so she felt the muscles tighten and 
 harden. Then with his other hand he pulled the lever back to 
 the full, and inclined the planes to their utmost. 
 
 Suddenly, as though some Titan had overthrown it, the huge 
 black wall of rock in front seemed to sink down into the earth, 
 the horizon widened out beyond it, and the Ariel soared upwards 
 and swept over it nearly a thousand feet to the good. 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 The exclamation was forced from her white lips by an 
 impulse that Natasha had no power to resist. All the pride of 
 her nature was conquered and humbled for the moment by the 
 marvel that she had seen, and by the something, greater and 
 stranger than all, that she saw in the man beside her who had 
 worked this miracle with a single touch of his hand. A moment 
 later she had recovered her self-possession. She unclasped her 
 hands from his arm, and as the colour came back to her cheeks 
 she said, as he thought, more sweetly than she had ever spoken 
 to him before — 
 
 " My friend, you have glorious nerves where physical danger 
 is concerned, and now I freely forgive you for fainting in the 
 Council-chamber when Martinov was executed. But don't try 
 mine again like that if you can help it. For the moment I 
 thought that the end of all things had come. Oh, look ! What 
 
Aeria Felix. 123 
 
 a paradise ! Truly this is a lovely kingdom that you have 
 brought me to ! " 
 
 "And one that you and I will yet reign over together," 
 replied Arnold quietly, as he moved the lever again and allowed 
 the Ariel to sink smoothly down the other side of the ridge 
 over which she had taken her tremendous leap. 
 
 When she had called it a paradise, Natasha had used almost 
 the only word that would fitly describe the scene that opened 
 out before them as the Ariel sank down after her leap across 
 the ridge. The interior of the mountain mass took the form of 
 an oval valley, as nearly as they could guess about fifty miles 
 long by perhaps thirty wide. All round it the mountains seemed 
 to rise unbroken by a single gap or chasm to between three and 
 four thousand feet above the lowest part of the valley, and 
 above this again the peaks rose high into the sky, two of them 
 to the snow-line, which in this latitude was over 15,000 feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 Of the two peaks which reached to this altitude, one was 
 at either end of a line drawn through the greater length of 
 the valley, that is to say, from north to south. At least ten 
 other peaks all round the walls of the valley rose to heights 
 varying from eight to twelve thousand feet. 
 
 The centre of the valley was occupied by an irregularly 
 shaped lake, plentifully dotted with islands about its shores, 
 but quite clear of them in the middle. In its greatest length 
 it would be about twelve miles long, while its breadth varied 
 from five miles to a few hundred yards. Its sloping shores 
 were covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, which 
 reached upwards almost unbroken, but changing in character 
 with the altitude, until there was a regular series of transitions, 
 from the palms and bananas on the shores of the lake, to the 
 sparse and scanty pines and firs that clung to the upper slopes 
 of the mountains. 
 
 The lake received about a score of streams, many of which 
 began as waterfalls far up the mountains, while two of them 
 at least had their origin in the eternal snows of the northern 
 and southern peaks. So far as they could see from the 
 air-ship, the lake had no outlet, and they were therefore 
 obliged to conclude that its surplus waters escaped by some 
 subterranean channel, probably to reappear again as a river 
 
124 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 welling from the earth, it might be, hundreds of miles 
 away. 
 
 Of inhabitants there were absolutely no traces to be seen, 
 from the direction in which the Ariel was approaching. 
 Animals and birds there seemed to be in plenty, but of man 
 no trace was visible, until in her flight along the valley the 
 Ariel opened up one of the many smaller valleys formed by 
 the ribs of the encircling mountains. 
 
 There, close by a clump of magnificent tree-ferns, and 
 nestling under a precipitous ridge, covered from base to 
 summit with dark - green foliage and brilliantly - coloured 
 flowers, was a well-built log-hut surrounded by an ample 
 verandah, also almost smothered in flowers, and surmounted 
 by a flagstaff from which fluttered the tattered remains of a 
 Union-Jack. 
 
 In a little clearing to one side of the hut, a man, who might 
 very well have passed for a modern edition of Eobinson 
 Crusoe, so far as his attire was concerned, was busily skinning 
 an antelope which hung from a pole suspended from two 
 trees. His back was turned towards them, and so swift and 
 silent had been their approach that he did not hear the soft 
 whirring of the propellers until they were within some three 
 hundred yards of him. 
 
 Then, just as he looked round to see whence the sound 
 came, Andrew Smith, who was standing in the bows near 
 the conning tower, put bis hands to his mouth and roared 
 out a regular sailor's hail — 
 
 " Thomas Jackson, ahoy ! " 
 
 The man straightened himself up, stared open-mouthed for 
 a moment at the strange apparition, and then, with a yell 
 either of terror or astonishment, bolted into the house as hard 
 as he could run. 
 
 As soon as he was able to speak for laughing at the quCer 
 incident, Arnold sent the fan-wheels aloft and lowered the 
 Ariel to within about twenty feet of the ground over a leyel 
 patch of sward, across which meandered a little stream on its 
 way to the lake. While she was hanging motionless over 
 this, the man who had fled into the house reappeared, almost 
 dragging another man, somewhat similarly attired, after him, 
 and pointing excitedly towards the Ariel. 
 
Aeria Felix. 125 
 
 The second comer, if he felt any astonishment at the 
 apparition that had invaded his solitude, certainly betrayed 
 none. On the contrary, he walked deliberately from the hut 
 to the bit of sward over which the Ariel hung motionless, and, 
 seeing two ladies leaning on the rail that ran round the deck, 
 he doffed his goatskin cap with a well-bred gesture, and said, 
 in a voice that betrayed not the slightest symptom of surprise — 
 
 " Good morning, ladies and gentlemen ! Good morning, 
 and welcome to Aeria ! I see that the problem of aerial 
 navigation has been solved ; I always said it would be in the 
 first ten years of the twentieth century, though I often got 
 laughed at by the wiseacres who know nothing until they see 
 a thing before their noses. May I ask whether that little 
 message that I sent to the outside world some years ago has 
 procured me the pleasure of this visit ? " 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Holt. Your little balloon was picked up about 
 three years ago in the Gulf of Guinea, and, after various 
 adventures and much discussion, has led to our present 
 voyage." 
 
 "I am delighted to hear it. I suppose there were plenty 
 of noodles who put it down to a practical joke or something 
 of that sort ? What's become of Stanley ? Why didn't he 
 come out and rescue me, as he did Emin ? Not glory enough, 
 I suppose ? It would bother him, too, to get over these 
 mountains, unless he flew over. By the way, has he got an 
 air-ship ? " 
 
 " No," replied Arnold, with a laugh. " This is the only one 
 in existence, and she has not been a week afloat. But if you'll 
 allow us, we'll come down and get generally acquainted, and 
 after that we can explain things at our leisure." 
 
 " Quite so, quite so ; do so by all means. Most happy, I'm 
 sure. Ah ! beautiful model. Comes down as easily as a 
 bird. Capital mechanism. What's your motive-power ? Gas, 
 electricity — no, not steam, no funnels ! Humph ! Very 
 ingenious. Always said it would be done some day. Build 
 flying navies next, and be fighting in the clouds. Then there'll 
 be general smash. Serve 'em right Fools to fight. Why 
 can't they live in peace .? " 
 
 While Louis Holt was running along in this style, jerking 
 his words out in little short snappy sentences, and fussing 
 
126 The Angel of the Revolution, 
 
 about round the air-ship, she had sunk geutly to the earth, 
 and her passengers had disembarked. 
 
 Arnold for the time being took no notice of the questions 
 with regard to the motive-power, but introduced first himself, 
 then the ladies, and then Colston, to Louis Holt, who may be 
 described here, as elsewhere, as a little, bronzed, grizzled man, 
 anywhere between fifty-five and seventy, with a lean, wiry, 
 active body, a good square head, an ugly but kindly face, and 
 keen, twinkling little grey eyes, that looked straight into those 
 of any one he might be addressing. 
 
 The introductions over, he was invited on board the Arid, 
 and a few minutes later, in the deck-saloon, he was chattering 
 away thirteen to the dozen, and drinking with unspeakable 
 gusto the first glass of champagne he had tasted for nearly 
 five years. 
 
CHAPTER XVJIT. 
 
 A NAVY OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 RNOLD'S instructions from the Council had been 
 to remain in Aeria, and make a thorough ex- 
 ploration of the wonderful region described in 
 Louis Holt's manuscript, until the time came 
 for him to meet the Avondalc, the steamer 
 which was to bring out the materials for con- 
 structing the Terrorists' aerial navy. 
 
 Louis Holt and his faithful retainer, during the three years 
 and a half that they had been shut up in it from the rest of 
 the world, had made themselves so fully acquainted with its 
 geography that very little of its surface was represented by 
 blanks on the map which the former had spent several months 
 in constructing, and so no better or more willing guides could 
 have been placed at their service than they were. 
 
 Holt was an enthusiastic naturalist, and he descanted at great 
 length on the strangeness of the llora and fauna that it had 
 been his privilege to discover and classify in this isolated and 
 hitherto unvisited region. It appeared that neither its animals 
 nor its plants were quite like those of the rest of the continent, 
 but seemed rather to belong to an anterior geological age. 
 
 From this fact he had come to the conclusion that at some 
 very remote period, while the greater portion of Northern Africa 
 was yet submerged by the waters of that ocean of which what 
 is now the Sahara was probably the deepest part, Aeria was 
 one of the many islands that had risen above its surface ; and 
 that, as the land rose and the waters subsided, its peculiar 
 shape hod prevented the forms of life which it contained from 
 migrating or becoming modified in the struggle for existence 
 
128 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 with other forms, just as the flora and fauna of Australia have 
 been shut off' from those of the rest of the world. 
 
 There were no traces of human inhabitants to be found ; but 
 there were apparently two or three families of anthropoid apes, 
 that seemed, so far as Holt had been able to judge — for they 
 were extremely shy and cunning, and therefore difficult of 
 approach — to be several degrees nearer to man, both in structure 
 and intelligence, than any other members of the Simian family 
 that had been discovered in other parts of the world. 
 
 As may well be imagined, a month passed rapidly and 
 pleasantly away, what with exploring excursions by land and 
 air, in the latter of which by no means the least diverting 
 element was the keen and quaintly -expressed delight of Louis 
 Holt at the new method of travel. Two or three times Arnold 
 had, for his satisfaction, sent the Ariel flying over the ridge 
 across which she had entered Aeria, but he had always been 
 content with a glimpse of the outside world, and was always 
 glad to get back again to the " happy valley," as he invariably 
 called his isolated paradise. 
 
 The brief sojourn in this delightful land had brought back 
 all the roses to Natasha's lovely cheeks, and had completely 
 restored both her and the Princess to the perfect health that 
 they had lost during their short but terrible experience of 
 Russian convict life ; but towards the end of the month they 
 both began to get restless and anxious to get away to the 
 rendezvous with the steamer that was bringing their friends 
 and comrades out from England. 
 
 So it came about that an hour or so after sunrise on Friday, 
 the 20th of May, the company of the Ariel bade farewell for a 
 time to Louis Holt and his companion, leaving with them a 
 good supply of the creature comforts of civilisation which alone 
 were lacking in Aeria, rose into the air, and disappeared over 
 the ridge to the north-west. 
 
 They had rather more than 2500 miles of plain and mountain 
 and desert to cross, before they reached the sea-coast on which 
 they expected to meet the steamer, and Arnold regulated the 
 speed of the Ariel so that they would reach it about daybreak 
 on the following morning. 
 
 The voyage was quite uneventful, and the course that they 
 pursued led them westward through the Zegzeb and Nyfi 
 
A Navy of the Future. 129 
 
 countries, then north-westward along the valley of the Niger, 
 and then westward across the desert to the desolate sandy- 
 shores of the Western Sahara, which they crossed at sunrise on 
 the Sunday morning, in the latitude of the island which was to 
 form their rendezvous with the steamer. 
 
 They sighted the island about an hour later, but there was 
 no sign of any vessel for fifty miles round it. The ocean 
 appeared totally deserted, as, indeed, it usually is, for there is 
 no trade with this barren and savage coast, and ships going 
 to and from the southward portions of the continent give its 
 treacherous sandbanks as wide a berth as possible. This, in 
 fact, was the principal reason why this rocky islet, some sixty 
 miles from the coast, had been chosen by the Terrorists for 
 their temporary dockyard. 
 
 According to their calculations, the steamer would not be due 
 for another twenty-four hours at the least, and at that moment 
 would be about three hundred miles to the northward. The 
 Ariel was therefore headed in that direction, at a hundred 
 miles an hour, with a view to meeting her and convoying her 
 for the rest of her voyage, and obviating such a disaster as 
 Natasha's apprehensions pointed to. 
 
 The air-ship was kept at a height of two thousand feet above 
 the water, and a man was stationed in the forward conning 
 tower to keep a bright look-out ahead. For more than three 
 hours she sped on her way without interruption, and then, a 
 few minutes before twelve, the man in the conning tower 
 signalled to the wheel-house — " Steamer in sight." 
 
 The signal was at once transmitted to the saloon, where 
 Arnold was sitting with the rest of the party ; he immediately 
 signalled " half-speed " in reply to it, and went to the conning 
 tower to see the steamer for himself. 
 
 She was then about twelve miles to the northward. At the 
 speed at which the Ariel was travelling a very few minutes 
 sufficed to bring her within view of the ocean voyagers. A 
 red flag flying from the stern of the air-ship was answered by 
 a similar one from the mainmast of the steamer. The Ariel's 
 engines were at once slowed down, the fan-wheels went aloft, 
 and she sank gently down to within twenty feet of the water, 
 and swung round the steamer's stern. 
 
 As soon as they were within hailing distance, those on board 
 9 
 
i^o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the air-ship recognised Nicholas Boburoff and his wife, Eadna 
 Michaclis, and several other members of the Inner Circle, 
 standing on the bridge of the steamer. Handkerchiefs were 
 waved, and cries of welcome and greeting passed and re-passed 
 from the air to the sea, until Arnold raised his hand for silence, 
 and, hailing Boburoff, said — 
 
 " Are you all well on board ? " 
 
 " Yes, all well," was the reply, " though we have had rather 
 a risky time of it, for war was generally declared a fortnight 
 ago, and we have had to run the blockade for a good part of 
 the way. That is why we are a little before our time. Can 
 you come nearer ? We have some letters for you." 
 
 " Yes," replied Arnold. " I'll come alongside. You go 
 ahead, I'll do the rest." 
 
 So saying, he ran the Ariel up close to the quarter of the 
 Avondale as easily as though she had been lying at anchor 
 instead of going twenty miles an hour through the water, and 
 went forward and shook hands with Boburoff over the rail, 
 taking a packet of letters from him at the same time. Mean- 
 while Colston, who had grasped the situation at a glance, had 
 swung himself on to the steamer's deck, and was already 
 engaged in an animated conversation with Badna, 
 
 The first advantage that Arnold took of the leisure that was 
 now at his disposal, was to read the letter directed to himself 
 that was among those for Natasha, the Princess, and Colston, 
 which had been brought out by the Avondale. He recognised 
 the writing as Tremayne's, and when he opened the envelope 
 he found that it contained a somewhat lengthy letter from 
 him, and an enclosure in an unfamiliar hand, which consisted 
 of only a few lines, and was signed " Natas." 
 
 He started as his eye fell on the terrible name, which now 
 meant so much to him, and he naturally read the note to 
 which it was appended first. There was neither date nor 
 formal address, and it ran as follows : — 
 
 You have done well, and fulfilled your promises as a true man should. For 
 the personal service that you have rendered to me I will not thank you in 
 words, for the time may come when I shall he able to do so in deeds. What 
 you have done for the Cause was your duty, and for that I know that you 
 desire no thanks. You have proved that you hold in your hands such power 
 as no single man ever wielded before. Use it well, and in the ages to come men 
 shall remember your name with blessings, and you, if the Master of Destiny 
 permits, shall attain to your heart's desire. Natas, 
 
A Navy of the Future. isi 
 
 Arnold laid the little slip of paper down almost reverently, 
 for, few as the words were, they were those of a man who was 
 not only Natas, the Master of the Terror, but also the father of 
 the woman whose love, in spite of his oath, was the object to 
 the attainment of which he held all things else as secondary, 
 and who therefore had the power to crown his life-work with 
 the supreme blessing without which it would be worthless, 
 however glorious, for he knew full well that, though he might 
 win Natasha's heart, she herself could never be his unless 
 Natns gave her to him. 
 
 The other letter was from Tremayne, dated more than a 
 fortnight previously, and gave him a brief r6sum6 of the course 
 of events in Europe since his voyage of exploration had begun. 
 It also urged him to push on the construction of the aerial 
 navy as fast as possible, as there was now no telling where or 
 how soon its presence might be required to determine the issue 
 of the world-war, the first skirmishes of which had already 
 taken place in Eastern Europe. Natas and the Chief were 
 both in London, making the final arrangements for the direction 
 of the various diplomatic and military agents of the Brother- 
 hood throughout Europe. From London they were to go to 
 Alanmere, where they would remain until all arrangements 
 were completed. As soon as the fleet was built and the crews 
 and commanders of the air-ships had thoroughly learned their 
 duties, the flagship was to go to Plymouth, where the Lurline 
 would be lying. The news of her arrival would be telegraphed to 
 Alanmere, and Katas and Tremayne would at once come south 
 and put to sea in her. The air-ship was to wait for them at a 
 point two hundred miles due south-west of the Land's End, 
 and pick them up. The yacht was then to be sunk, and the 
 Executive of the Terrorists would for the time being vanish 
 from the sight of men. 
 
 It is unnecessary to say that Arnold carried out the plans 
 laid down in this letter in every detail, and with the utmost 
 possible expedition. The Avondale arrived the next day at the 
 island which had been chosen as a dockyard, and the ship- 
 building was at once commenced. 
 
 All the material for constructing the air-ships had been 
 brought out completely finished as far as each individual part 
 was concerned, and so there was nothing to do but to put them 
 
132 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 together. The crew and passengers of the steamer included 
 the members of the Executive of the Inner Circle, and sixty 
 picked members of the Outer Circle, chiefly mechanics and 
 sailors, destined to be first the builders and then the crews of 
 the new vessels. 
 
 These, under Arnold's direction, worked almost day and 
 night at the task before them. Three of the air-ships were 
 put together at a time, twenty men working at each, and 
 within a month from the time that the Avondale discharged 
 her cargo, the twelve new vessels were ready to take the air. 
 
 They were all built on the same plan as the Ariel, and 
 eleven of them were practically identical with her as regards 
 size and speed; but the twelfth, the flagship of the aerial fleet, 
 had been designed by Arnold on a more ambitious scale. 
 
 This vessel was larger and much more powerful than any of 
 the others. She was a hundred feet long, with a beam of fifteen 
 feet amidships. On her five masts she carried five fan-wheels, 
 capable of raising her vertically to a height of ten thousand 
 feet without the assistance of her air-planes, and her three 
 propellers, each worked by duplex engines, were able to drive 
 her through the air at a speed of two hundred miles an hour 
 in a calm atmosphere. 
 
 She was armed with two pneumatic guns forward and two 
 aft, each twenty-five feet long and with a range of twelve miles 
 at an altitude of four thousand feet ; and in addition to these 
 she carried two shorter ones on each broadside, with a range of 
 six miles at the same elevation. She also carried a sufficient 
 supply of power-cylinders to give her an effective range of 
 operations of twenty thousand miles without replenishing them. 
 
 In addition to the building materials and the necessar}' tools 
 and appliances for putting them together, the cargo of the Avon- 
 dale had included an ample supply of stores of all kinds, not the 
 least important part of which consisted of a quantity of power- 
 cylinders sufficient to provide the whole fleet three times over. 
 
 The necessary chemicals and apparatus for charging them 
 were also on board, and the last use that Arnold made of the 
 engines of the steamer, which he had disconnected from the 
 propeller and turned to all kinds of uses during the building 
 operations, was to connect them with his storage pumps and 
 charge every available cylinder to its utmost capacity. 
 
A Navy of the Future. 133 
 
 At length, when everything that could be carried in the air- 
 ships had been taken out of the steamer, she was towed out 
 into deep water, and then a shot from one of the flagship's 
 broadside guns sent her to the bottom of the sea, so severing 
 the last link which had connected the now isolated band of 
 revolutionists with the world on which they were ere long to 
 declare war. 
 
 The naming of the fleet was by common consent left to 
 Natasha, and her half-oriental genius naturally led her to 
 appropriately name the air-ships after the winged angels and 
 air-spirits of Moslem and other Eastern mythologies. The flag- 
 ship she named the Ithuriel, after the angel who was sent to 
 seek out and confound the Powers of Darkness in that terrific 
 conflict between the upper and nether worlds, which was a 
 fitting antetype to the colossal struggle which was now to be 
 waged for the empire of the earth. 
 
 Arnold's first task, as soon as the fleet finally took the air, 
 was to put the captains and crews of the vessels through a 
 thorough drilling in management and evolution. A regular 
 code of signals had been arranged, by means of which orders 
 as to formation, speed, altitude, and direction could be at once 
 transmitted from the flagship. During the day flags were 
 used, and at night flashes from electric reflectors. 
 
 The scene of these evolutions was practically the course 
 taken by the Ariel from Aeria to the island ; and as the 
 captains and lieutenants of the different vessels were all men 
 of high intelligence, and carefully selected for the work, and as 
 the mechanism of the air-ships was extremely simple, the 
 whole fleet was well in hand by the time the mountain mass 
 of Aeria was sighted a week after leaving the island. 
 
 Arnold in the Ithuriel led the way to a narrow defile on the 
 south-western side, which had been discovered during his first 
 visit, and which admitted of entrance to the valley at an 
 elevation of about 3000 feet. Through this the fleet passed 
 in single file soon after sunrise one lovely morning in the 
 middle of June, and within an hour the thirteen vessels had 
 come to rest on the shores of the lake. 
 
 Then for the first time, probably, since the beginning of the 
 world, the beautiful valley became the scene of a busy activity, 
 in the midst of which the lean wiry figure of Louis Holt seemed 
 
134 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 to be here, there, and everywhere at once, doing the honours of 
 Aeria as though it were a private estate to which the Terrorists 
 had come by his special invitation. 
 
 He was more than ever delighted with the air-ships, and 
 especially with the splendid proportions of the Ithuriel, and 
 the brilliant lustre of her polished hull, which had been left 
 unpainted, and shone as though her plates had been of 
 burnished silver. Altogether he was well pleased with this 
 invasion of a solitude which, in spite of its great beauty and 
 his professed contempt for the world in general, had for the 
 last few months been getting a good deal more tedious than he 
 would have cared to admit. 
 
 In the absence of Natas and the Chief, the command of the 
 new colony devolved, in accordance with the latter's directions, 
 upon Nicholas Iioburoff, who was a man of great administrative 
 powers, and who set to work without an hour's delay to set his 
 new kingdom in order, marking out sites for houses and gardens, 
 and preparing materials for building them and the factories for 
 which the water-power of the valley was to be utilised. 
 
 Arnold, as admiral of the fleet, had transferred the com- 
 mand of the Ariel to Colston, but he retained him as his 
 lieutenant in the Ithuriel for the next voyage, partly because 
 he wanted to have him with him on what might prove to be a 
 momentous expedition, and partly because Natasha, who was 
 naturally anxious to rejoin her father as soon as possible, 
 wished to have Radna for a companion in place of the Princess, 
 who had elected to remain in the valley. As another separa- 
 tion of the lovers, who, according to the laws of the Brother- 
 hood, now only waited for the formal consent of Natas to their 
 marriage, was not to be thought of, this arrangement gave 
 everybody the most perfect satisfaction. 
 
 Three days sufficed to get everything into working order in 
 the new colony, and on the morning of the fourth the Ithuriel, 
 having on board the original crew of the Ariel, reinforced by 
 two engineers and a couple of sailors, rose into the air amidst 
 the cheers of the assembled colonists, crossed the northern 
 ridge, and vanished like a silver arrow into space. 
 
WSSM 
 
 , 
 
 
 111H 
 
 a-SifrgBSgJGaSaSa 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE EVE OF BATTLE. 
 
 will now be necessary to go back about six 
 weeks from the day that the Ithuriel started 
 on her northward voyage, and to lay before the 
 reader a brief outline of the events which had 
 transpired in Europe subsequently to the date 
 of Tremayne's letter to Arnold. 
 On the evening of that day he went down to the House of 
 Lords, to make his speech in favour of the Italian Loan. He 
 had previously spoken some half dozen times since he had 
 taken his seat, and, young as he was, had always commanded 
 a respectful hearing by his sound common sense and his 
 intimate knowledge of foreign policy, but none of his brother 
 peers had been prepared for the magnificent speech that he 
 had made on this momentous night. 
 
 He had never given his allegiance to any of the political 
 parties of the day, but he was one of the foremost advocates 
 of what was then known as the Imperial policy, and which 
 had grown up out of what is known in the present day as 
 Imperial Federation. To this he subordinated everything else, 
 and held as his highest, and indeed almost his only political 
 ideal, the consolidation of Britain and her colonies into an 
 empire commercially and politically intact and apart from the 
 rest of the world, self-governing in all its parts as regards 
 local affairs, but governed as a whole by a representative 
 Imperial Parliament, sitting in London, and composed of 
 delegates from all portions of the empire. 
 
 This ideal — which, it is scarcely necessary to say, was still 
 considered as " beyond the range of practical politics " — formed 
 
1 16 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the keynote of such a speech as had never before been heard 
 in the British House of Lords. He commenced by giving a 
 rapid but minute survey of foreign policy, which astounded the 
 most experienced of his hearers. Not only was it absolutely 
 accurate as far as they could follow it, but it displayed an 
 intimate knowledge of involutions of policy at which British 
 diplomacy had only guessed. 
 
 More than this, members of the Government and the Privy 
 Council saw, to their amazement, that the speaker knew the 
 inmost secrets of their own policy even better than they did 
 themselves. How -he had become possessed of them was a 
 mystery, and all that they could do was to sit and listen in 
 silent wonder. 
 
 He drew a graphic word-picture of the nations of the earth 
 standing full-armed on the threshold of such a war as the 
 world had never seen before, — a veritable Armageddon, which 
 would shake the fabric of society to its foundations, even 
 if it did not dissolve it finally in the blood of countless 
 battlefields. 
 
 He estimated with marvellous accuracy the exact amount of 
 force which each combatant would be able to put on to the 
 field, and summed up the appalling mass of potential destruction 
 that was ready to burst upon the world at a moment's notice. 
 He showed the position of Italy, and proved to demonstration 
 that if the loan were not immediately granted, it would be 
 necessary either for Britain to seize her Beet, as she did that 
 of Denmark a century before — an act which the Italians would 
 themselves resist at all hazards — or else to finance her through 
 the war, as she had finauced Germany during the Napoleonic 
 struggle. 
 
 To grant the loan would be to save the Italian fleet and 
 army for the Triple Alliance ; to refuse it would be to detach 
 Italy from the Alliance, and to drive her into the arms of their 
 foes, for not only could she not stand alone amidst the shock 
 of the contending Powers, but without an immediate supply of 
 ready money she would not be able to keep the sea for a month. 
 
 Thus, he said in conclusion, the fate of Europe, and perhaps 
 of the world, lay for the time being in their Lordships' hands. 
 The Double Alliance was already numerically stronger than 
 the Triple, and, moreover, they had at their command a new 
 
The Eve of Battle. 137 
 
 means of destruction, for the dreadful effectiveness of which he 
 could vouch from personal experience. 
 
 The trials of the Eussian war-balloons had been secret, it 
 was true, but he had nevertheless witnessed them, no matter 
 how, and he knew what they could accomplish. It was true 
 that there were in existence even more formidable engines 
 than these, but they belonged to no nation, and were in the 
 hands of those whose hands were against every man's, and 
 whose designs were still wrapped in the deepest mystery. 
 
 He therefore besought his hearers not to trust too implicitly 
 to that hitherto unconquerable valour and resource which had 
 so far rendered Britain impregnable to her enemies. These 
 were not the days of personal valour. They were the days of 
 warfare by machinery, of wholesale destruction by means 
 which men had never before been called upon to face, and 
 which annihilated from a distance before mere valour had time 
 to strike its blow. 
 
 If ever the Fates were on the side of the biggest battalions, 
 they were now, and, so far as human foresight could predict the 
 issue of the colossal struggle, the greatest and the most perfectly 
 equipped armaments would infallibly in sure the ultimate victory, 
 quite apart from considerations of personal heroism and devotion. 
 
 No such speech had been heard in either House since 
 Edmund Burke had fulminated against the miserable policy 
 which severed America from Britain, and split the Anglo- 
 Saxon race in two ; but now, as then, personal feeling and class 
 prejudice proved too strong for eloquence and logic. 
 
 Italy was the most intensely Eadical State in Europe, and 
 she was bankrupt to boot ; and, added to this, there was a very 
 strong party in the Upper House which believed that Britain 
 needed no such ally, that with Germany and Austria at her 
 side she could fight the world, in spite of the Tsar's new-fangled 
 balloons, which would probably prove failures in actual war 
 as similar inventions had done before, and even if her allies 
 succumbed, had she not stood alone before, and could she not 
 do it again if necessary ? 
 
 She would fulfil her engagement with the Triple Alliance, 
 and declare war the moment that one of the Powers was 
 attacked, but she would not pour British gold in millions into 
 the bottomless gulf of Italian bankruptcy. 
 
138 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Such were the main points in the speech of the Duke of 
 Argyle, who followed Lord Alanmere, and spoke just before 
 the division. When the figures were announced, it was found 
 that the Loan Guarantee Bill had been negatived by a majority 
 of seven votes. 
 
 The excitement in London that night was tremendous. The 
 two Houses of Parliament had come into direct collision on a 
 question which the Premier had plainly stated to be of vital 
 importance, and a deadlock seemed inevitable. The evening 
 papers brought out special editions giving Tremayne's speech 
 verbatim, and the next morning the whole press of the country 
 was talking of nothing else. 
 
 The "leading journals," according to their party bias, dis- 
 cussed it pro and con, and rent each other in a furious war of 
 words, the prelude to the sterner struggle that was to come. 
 
 Unhappily the parties in Parliament were very evenly 
 balanced, and a very strong section of the Eadical Opposition 
 was, as it always had been, bitterly opposed to the arrange- 
 ment with the Triple Alliance, which every one suspected and 
 no one admitted until Tremayne astounded the Lords by 
 reciting its conditions in the course of his speech. 
 
 It was the avowed object of this section of the Opposition to 
 stand out of the war at any price till the last minute, and not 
 to fight at all if it could possibly be avoided. The immediate 
 consequence was that, when the Government on the following 
 day asked for an urgency vote of ten millions for the mobilisa- 
 tion of the Volunteers and the Naval Pieserve, the Opposition, 
 led by Mr. John Morley, mustered to its last man, and defeated 
 the motion by a majority of eleven. 
 
 The next clay a Cabinet Council was held, and in the after- 
 noon Mr. Balfour rose in a densely- crowded House, and, after 
 a dignified allusion to the adverse vote of the previous day, 
 told the House that in view of the grave crisis which was now 
 inevitable in European affairs, a crisis in which the fate, not 
 only of Britain, but of the whole Western world, would probably 
 be involved, the Ministry felt it impossible to remain in office 
 without the hearty and unequivocal support of both Houses — 
 a support which the two adverse votes in Lords and Commons 
 had made it hopeless to look for as those Houses were at 
 present constituted. 
 
The Eve of Battle. 139 
 
 He had therefore to inform the House that, after consulta- 
 tion with his colleagues, he had decided to place the resigna- 
 tions of the Ministry in the hands of his Majesty, 1 and appeal 
 to the country on the plain issue of Intervention or Non-inter- 
 vention. Under the circumstances, there was nothing else to 
 be done. The deplorable crisis which immediately followed 
 was the logical consequence of the inherently vicious system 
 of party government. 
 
 While the fate of the world was practically trembling in the 
 balance, Europe, armed to the teeth in readiness for the Titanic 
 struggle that a few weeks would now see shaking the world, 
 was amused by the spectacle of what was really the most 
 powerful nation on earth losing its head amidst the excitement 
 of a general election, and frittering away on the petty issues 
 of party strife the energies that should have been devoted with 
 single-hearted unanimity to preparation for the conflict whose 
 issue would involve its very existence. 
 
 For a month the nations held their hand, why, no one 
 exactly knew, except, perhaps, two men who were now in 
 daily consultation in a country house in Yorkshire. It may 
 have been that the final preparations were not yet complete, 
 or that the combatants were taking a brief breathing-space 
 before entering the arena, or that Europe was waiting to see 
 the decision of Britain at the ballot-boxes, or possibly the 
 French fleet of war-balloons was not quite ready to take the 
 air, — any of these reasons might have been sufficient to explain 
 the strange calm before the storm ; but meanwhile the British 
 nation was busy listening to the conflicting eloquence of 
 partisan orators from a thousand platforms throughout the 
 land, and trying to make up its mind whether it should return 
 a Conservative or a Badical Ministry to power. 
 
 In the end, Mr. Balfour came back with a solid hundred 
 majority behind him, and at once set to work to, if possible, 
 make up for lost time. The moment of Fate had, however, 
 gone by for ever. During the precious days that had been 
 
 1 At the period in which the action of the narrative takes place, her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria had abdicated in favour of the present Prince of Wales, and was 
 living in comparative retirement at Balmoral, retaining Osborne as an alter- 
 native residence. 
 
140 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 fooled away in party strife, French gold and Russian diplomacy 
 had done their work. 
 
 The day after the Conservative Ministry returned to power, 
 France declared war, and Russia, who had been nominally at 
 war with Britain for over a month, suddenly took the offensive, 
 and poured her Asiatic troops into the passes of the Hindu 
 Kush. Two days later, the defection of Italy from the Triple 
 Alliance told Europe how accurately Tremayne had gauged the 
 situation in his now historic speech, and how the month of 
 strange quietude had been spent by the controllers of the 
 Double Alliance. 
 
 The spell was broken at last. After forty years of peace, 
 Europe plunged into the abyss of war ; and from one end of 
 the Continent to the other nothing was heard but the tramp of 
 vast armies as they marshalled themselves along the threatened 
 frontiers, and concentrated at the points of attack and defence. 
 
 On all the lines of ocean traffic, steamers were hurrying 
 homeward or to neutral ports, in the hope of reaching a place 
 of safety before hostilities actually broke out. Great liners 
 were racing across the Atlantic either to Britain or America 
 with their precious freights, while those flying the French flag 
 on the westward voyage prepared to run the gauntlet of the 
 British cruisers as best they might. 
 
 All along the routes to India and the East the same thing 
 was happening, and not a day passed but saw desperate races 
 between fleet ocean greyhounds and hostile cruisers, which, as 
 a rule, terminated in favour of the former, thanks to the 
 superiority of private enterprise over Government contract- work 
 in turning out ships and engines. 
 
 In Britain the excitement was indescribable. The result of 
 the general election had cast the final die in favour of 
 immediate war in concert with the Triple Alliance. The 
 defection of Italy had thoroughly awakened the popular mind 
 to the extreme gravity of the situation, and the declaration of 
 war by France had raised the blood of the nation to fever heat. 
 The magic of battle had instantly quelled all party differences 
 so far as the bulk of the people was concerned, and no one 
 talked of anything but the war and its immediate issues. Men 
 forgot that they belonged to parties, and only remembered that 
 they were citizens of the same nation. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 BETWEEN TWO LIVES. 
 
 IX weeks after he had made his speech in the 
 House of Lords, Tremayne was sitting in his 
 oak-panelled library at Alanmere, in deep and 
 earnest converse with a man who was sitting in 
 an invalid chair by a window looking out upon 
 the lawn. The face of this man exhibited a 
 contrast so striking and at the same time terrible, that the most 
 careless glance cast upon it would have revealed the fact that 
 it was the face of a man of extraordinary character, and that 
 the story of some strange fate was indelibly stamped upon it. 
 
 The upper part of it, as far down as the mouth, was cast in a 
 mould of the highest and most intellectual manly beauty. The 
 forehead was high and broad and smooth, the eyebrows dark and 
 firm but finely arched, the nose somewhat prominently aquiline, 
 but well shaped, and with delicate, sensitive nostrils. The 
 eyes were deep-set, large and soft, and dark as the sky of a moon- 
 less night, yet shining in the firelight with a strange magnetic 
 glint that seemed to fasten Tremayne's gaze and hold it at will. 
 But the lower portion of the face was as repulsive as the 
 upper part was attractive. The mouth was the mouth of a 
 wild beast, and the lips and cheeks and chin were seared and 
 seamed as though with fire, and what looked like the remains 
 of a moustache and beard stood in black ragged patches about 
 the heavy unsightly jaws. 
 
 When the thick, shapeless lips parted, they did so in a 
 hideous grin, which made visible long, sharp white teeth, more 
 like those of a wolf than those of a human being. 
 
 His body, too, exhibited no less strange a contrast than his 
 
142 The Ancel of the Revolution. 
 
 face did. To the hips it was that of a man of well-knit, 
 muscular frame, not massive, hut strong and well-proportioned. 
 The arms were long and muscular, and the hands white and 
 small, but firm, well-shaped, and nervous. 
 
 But from his hips downwards, this strange being was a dwarf 
 and a cripple. His hips were narrow and shrunken, one of his 
 legs was some inches shorter than the other, and both were 
 twisted and distorted, and hung helplessly down from the chair 
 as he sat. 
 
 Such was Natas, the Master of the Terror, and the man 
 whose wrongs, whatever they might have been, had caused him 
 to devote his life to a work of colossal vengeance, and his 
 incomparable powers to the overthrow of a whole civilisation. 
 
 The tremendous task to which he had addressed himself with 
 all the force of his mighty nature for twenty years, was now 
 at length approaching completion. The mine that he had so 
 patiently laid, year after year, beneath the foundations of Society, 
 was complete in every detail, the first spark had been applied, 
 and the first rumbling of the explosion was already sounding 
 in the ears of men, though they little knew how much it 
 imported. The work of the master-intellect was almost done. 
 The long days and nights of plotting and planning were over, 
 and the hour for action had arrived at last. 
 
 For him there was little more to do, and the time was very 
 near when he could retire from the strife, and watch in peace 
 and confidence the reaping of the harvest of ruin and desolation 
 that his hands had sown. Henceforth, the central figure in the 
 world-revolution must be the young English engineer, whose 
 genius had brought him forth out of his obscurity to take 
 command of the subjugated powers of the air, and to arbitrate 
 the destinies of the world. 
 
 This was why he was sitting here, in the long twilight of the 
 June evening, talking so earnestly with the man who, under 
 the spell of his mysterious power and master-will, had been his 
 second self in completing the work that he had designed, and 
 had thought and spoken and acted as he had inspired him against 
 all the traditions of his race and station, in that strange double 
 life that he had lived, in each portion of which he had been 
 unconscious of all that he had been and had done in the other. 
 The time had now come to draw aside the veil which had so 
 
 ♦ 
 
Between two Lives. 143 
 
 far divided these two lives from each other, to show him each 
 as it was in very truth, and to leave him free to deliberately 
 choose between them. 
 
 Natas had been speaking without any interruption from 
 Tremayne for nearly an hour, drawing the parallel of the two 
 lives before him with absolute fidelity, neither omitting nor 
 justifying anything, and his wondering hearer had listened to 
 him in silence, unable to speak for the crowding emotions 
 which were swarming through his brain. At length Natas 
 concluded by saying — 
 
 "And now, Alan Tremayne, I have shown you faithfully 
 the two paths which you have trodden since first I had need 
 of you. So far you have been as clay in the hands of the 
 potter. Now the spell is removed, and you are free to choose 
 which of them you will follow to the end, — that of the English 
 gentleman of fortune and high position, whose country is on 
 the brink of a war that will tax her vast resources to the 
 utmost, and may end in her ruin ; or that of the visible and 
 controlling head of the only organisation which can at the 
 supreme moment be the arbiter of peace or war, order or 
 anarchy, and which alone, if any earthly power can, will evolve 
 order out of chaos, and bring peace on earth at last." 
 
 As Natas ceased, Tremayne passed his hand slowly over his 
 eyes and brows, as though to clear away the mists which 
 obscured his mental vision. Then he rose from his chair, and 
 paced the floor with quick, uneven strides for several minutes. 
 At length he replied, speaking as one might who was just 
 waking from some evil dream — 
 
 "You have made a conspirator and a murderer of me. How 
 is it possible that, knowing this, I can again become what I 
 was before your infernal influence was cast about me ? " 
 
 " What you have done at my command is nothing to you, 
 and leaves no stain upon your honour, if you choose to put it 
 so, for it was not your will that was working within you, but 
 mine. As for the killing of Dornovitch, it was necessary, and 
 you were the only instrument by which it could have been 
 accomplished before irretrievable harm had been done. 
 
 " He alone of the outside world possessed the secret of the 
 Terror. A woman of the Outer Circle in Paris had allowed 
 her love for him to overcome her duty to the Brotherhood, 
 
144 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and had betrayed what she could, in order, as she vainly 
 thought, to shield him from its vengence for the executive 
 murders of the year before. He too had on him the draft of 
 the secret treaty, the possession of which has enabled us to 
 control the drift of European politics at the most crucial 
 time. 
 
 "Had he escaped, not only would hundreds of lives have 
 been sacrificed on suspicion to Eussian official vengeance, but 
 Russia and France would now be masters of the British line 
 of communication to the East, for it would not have been 
 possible for Mr. Balfour to have been forewarned, and therefore 
 forearmed, in time to double the Mediterranean Squadron as he 
 has done. Surely one Russian's life is not too great a price to 
 pay for all that." 
 
 " I do not care for the man's life, for he was an enemy, and 
 even then plotting the ruin of my own country in the dark. 
 It is not the killing, but the manner of it. England does not 
 fight her battles with the assassin's knife, and his blood is on 
 my hands" — 
 
 " On your hands, perhaps, but not on your soul. It is on 
 mine, and I will answer for it when we stand face to face at 
 the Bar where all secrets are laid bare. The man deserved 
 death, for he was plotting the death of thousands. What 
 matter then how or by whose hands he died ? 
 
 "It is time the world had done with these miserable 
 sophistries, and these spurious distinctions between murder 
 by wholesale and by retail, and it soon will have done with 
 them. I, by your hand, killed Dornovitch in his sleep. That 
 was murder, says the legal casuist. You read this morning in 
 the Times how one of the Russian war -balloons went the night 
 before last and hung in the darkness over a sleeping town on 
 the Austrian frontier, and dropped dynamite shells upon it, 
 killing and maiming hundreds who had no personal quarrel 
 with Russia. That is war, and therefore lawful ! 
 
 " Nonsense, my friend, nonsense ! There is no difference. 
 All violence is crime, if you will, but it is a question of degree 
 only. The world is mad on this subject of war. It considers 
 the horrible thing honourable, and gives its highest distinctions 
 to those who shed blood most skilfully on the battlefield, and 
 the triumphs that are won by superior force or cunning are 
 
Between two Lives. 145 
 
 called glorious, and those who achieve them the nations fall 
 down and worship. 
 
 "The nations must be taught wisdom, for war has had 
 victims enough. But men are still foolish, and to cure them 
 a terrible lesson will be necessary. But that lesson shall be 
 taught, even though the whole earth be turned into a battle- 
 field, and all the dwellings of men into charnel-houses, in order 
 to teach it to them." 
 
 "In other words, Society is to be dissolved in order that 
 anarchy and lawlessness may take its place. Society may not 
 be perfect, — nay, I will grant that its sins are many and grievous, 
 that it has forgotten its duty both to God and man in its 
 worship of Mammon and its slavery to externals, — but you who 
 have plotted its destruction, have you anything better to put 
 in its place? You can destroy, perhaps, but can you build 
 up?" 
 
 " The jungle must be cleared and the swamp drained before 
 the habitations of men can be built in their place. It has 
 been mine to destroy, and I will pursue the work of destruction 
 to the end, as I have sworn to do by that Name which a Jew 
 holds too sacred for speech. I believe myself to be the 
 instrument of vengeance upon this generation, even as Joshua 
 was upon Canaan, and as Khalid the Sword of God was upon 
 Byzantium in the days of her corruption. You may hold this 
 for an old man's fancy if you will, but it shall surely come to 
 pass in the fulness of time, which is now at hand ; and then, 
 where I have destroyed, may you, if you will, build up again ! " 
 
 " What do you mean ? You are speaking in parables." 
 
 " Which shall soon be made plain. You read in your 
 newspaper this morning of a mysterious movement that is 
 taking place throughout the Buddhist peoples of the East. 
 They believe that Buddha has returned to earth, reincarnated, 
 to lead them to the conquest of the world. Now, as you 
 know, every fourth man, woman, and child in the whole 
 human race is a Buddhist, and the meaning of this movement 
 is that that mighty mass of humanity, pent up and stagnant 
 for centuries, is about to burst its bounds and overflow the 
 earth in a flood of desolation and destruction. 
 
 " The nations of the West know nothing of this, and are 
 unsheathing the sword to destroy each other. Like a house 
 10 
 
146 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 divided against itself, their power shall be brought to confusion, 
 and their empire be made as a wilderness. And over the 
 starving and war-smitten lands of Europe these Eastern 
 swarms shall sweep, innumerable as the locusts, resistless as 
 the pestilence, and what fire and sword have spared they 
 shall devour, and nothing shall be left of all the glory of 
 Christendom but its name and the memory of its fall ! " 
 
 Natas spoke his frightful prophecy like one entranced, and 
 when he had finished he let his head fall forward for a 
 moment on his breast, as though he were exhausted. Then 
 he raised it again, and went on in a calmer voice — 
 
 "There is but one power under heaven that can stand 
 between the Western world and this destruction, and that 
 is the race to which you belong. It is the conquering race 
 of earth, and the choicest fruit of all the ages until now. It 
 is nearly two hundred million strong, and it is united by the 
 ties of kindred blood and speech the wide world over. 
 
 "But it is also divided by petty jealousies, and mean 
 commercial interests. But for these the world might be an 
 Anglo-Saxon planet. Would it not be a glorious task for 
 you, who are the flower of this splendid race, so to unite it 
 that it should stand as a solid barrier of invincible manhood 
 before which this impending flood of yellow barbarism should 
 dash itself to pieces like the cloud-waves against the granite 
 summits of the eternal hills ? " 
 
 " A glorious task, truly ! " exclaimed Tremayne, once more 
 springing from his chair and beginning to pace the room again ; 
 " but the man is not yet born who could accomplish it." 
 
 "There are fifty men on earth at this moment who can 
 accomplish it, and of them the two chief are Englishmen, — 
 yourself and this Eichard Arnold, whose genius has given the 
 Terrorists the command of the air. 
 
 " Come, Alan Tremayne ! here is a destiny such as no 
 man ever had before revealed to him. It is not for a man 
 of your nation and lineage to shrink from it. You have 
 reproached me for using you to unworthy ends, as you thought 
 them, and with pulling down where I am not able to build 
 up again. Obey me still, this time of your own free will and 
 with your eyes open, and, as I have pulled down by your hand, 
 so by it will I build up again, if the Master of Destiny shall 
 
Between two Lives. 147 
 
 permit me ; and if not, then shall you achieve the task without 
 me. Now give me your ears, for the words that I have to 
 say are weighty ones. 
 
 " No human power can stop the war that has now begun, 
 nor can any curtail it until it has run its appointed course. 
 But we have at our command & jkower which, if skilfully 
 applied at the right moment, will turn the tide of conflict in 
 favour of Britain, and if at that moment the Mother of 
 Nations can gather her children about her in obedience to 
 the call of common kindred, all shall be well, and the world 
 shall be hers. 
 
 "But before that is made possible she must pass through 
 the fire, and be purged of that corruption which is even now 
 poisoning her blood and clouding her eyes in the presence of 
 her enemies. The overweening lust of gold must be burnt 
 out of her soul in the fiery crucible of war, and she must 
 learn to hold honour once more higher than wealth, and rich 
 and poor and gentle and simple must be as one family, and 
 not as master and servant. 
 
 "East and west, north and south, wherever the English 
 tongue is spoken, men must clasp hands and forget all other 
 things save that they are brothers of blood and speech, and 
 that the world is theirs if they choose to take it. This is a 
 work that cannot be done by any nation, but only by a whole 
 race, which with millions of hands and a single heart devotes 
 itself to achieve success or perish." 
 
 " Brave words, brave words ! " cried Tremayne, pausing in 
 his walk in front of the chair in which Natas sat; "and if 
 you could make me believe them true, I would follow you 
 blindly to the end, no matter what the path might be. But 
 I cannot believe them. I cannot think that you or I and a 
 few followers, even aided by Arnold and his aerial fleet, could 
 accomplish such a stupendous task as that. It is too great. 
 It is superhuman ! And yet it would be glorious even to fail 
 worthily in such a task, even to fall fighting in such a 
 Titanic conflict ! " 
 
 He paused, and stood silent and irresolute, as though 
 appalled by the prospect with which he was confronted here 
 at the parting of the ways. He glanced at the extraordinary 
 being sitting near him, and saw his deep, dark eyes fixed upon 
 
148 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 him, as though they were reading his very soul within him. 
 Then he took a step towards the cripple's chair, took his right 
 hand in his, and said slowly and steadily and solemnly — 
 
 " It is a worthy destiny ! I will essay it for good or evil, for 
 life or death. I am with you to the end ! " 
 
 As Tremayne spoke the fatal words which once more hound 
 him, and this time for life and of his own free will, to Natas 
 the Jew, this cripple who, chained to his chair, yet aspired to 
 the throne of a world, he fancied he saw his shapeless lips move 
 in a smile, and into his eyes there came a proud look of mingled 
 joy and triumph as he returned the handclasp, and said in a 
 softer, kinder voice than Tremayne had ever heard him use 
 before — 
 
 " Well spoken ! Those words were worthy of you and of your 
 race ! As your faith is, so shall your reward be. Now wheel 
 my chair to yonder window that looks out towards the east, and 
 you shall look past the shadows into the day which is beyond. 
 So ! that will do. Now get another chair and sit beside me. 
 Fix your eyes on that bright star that shows above the trees, and 
 do not speak, but think only of that star and its brightness." 
 
 Tremayne did as he was bidden in silence, and when he was 
 seated Natas swept his hands gently downwards over his open 
 eyes again and again, till the lids grew heavy and fell, shutting 
 out the brightness of the star, and the dim beauty of the land- 
 scape which lay sleeping in the twilight and the June night. 
 
 Then suddenly it seemed as though they opened again of 
 their own accord, and were endowed with an infinite power of 
 vision. The trees and lawns of the home park of Aknmere 
 and the dark rolling hills of heather beyond were gone, and in 
 their place lay stretched out a continent which he saw as 
 though from some enormous height, with its plains and lowlands 
 and rivers, vast steppes and snowclad hills, forests and table- 
 lands, huge mountain masses rearing lonely peaks of everlasting 
 ice to a sunlight that had no heat ; and then beyond these again 
 more plains and forests, that stretched away southward until 
 they merged in the all-surrounding sea. 
 
 Then he seemed to be carried forward towards the scene 
 until he could distinguish the smallest objects upon the earth, 
 and he saw, swarming southward and westward, vast hordes of 
 men, that divided into long streams, and poured through 
 
Between two Lives. 149 
 
 mountain passes and defiles, and spread themselves again over 
 fertile lands, like locusts over green fields of young corn. And 
 wherever those hordes swept forward, a long line of fire and 
 smoke went in front of them, and where they had passed the 
 earth was a blackened wilderness. 
 
 Then, too, from the coasts and islands vast fleets of war-ships 
 put out, pouring their clouds of smoke to the sky, and making 
 swiftly for the southward and westward, where from other 
 coasts and islands other vessels put out to meet them, and, 
 meeting them, were lost with them under great clouds of grey 
 smoke, through which flashed incessantly long livid tongues of 
 flame. 
 
 Then, like a panorama rolled away from him, the mighty 
 picture receded and new lands came into view, familiar lands 
 which he had traversed often. They too were black and 
 wasted with the tempest of war from east to west, but never- 
 theless those swarming streams came on, countless and un- 
 diminished, up out of the south and east, while on the western 
 verge vast armies and fleets battled desperately with each other 
 on sea and land, as though they heeded not those locust swarms 
 of dusky millions coming ever nearer and nearer. 
 
 Once more the scene rolled backwards, and he saw a mighty 
 city closely beleaguered by two vast hosts of men, who slowly 
 pushed their batteries forward until they planted them on all 
 the surrounding heights, and poured a hail of shot and shell 
 upon the swarming, helpless millions that were crowded within 
 the impassable ring of fire and smoke. Above the devoted 
 city swam in mid-air strange shapes like monstrous birds of 
 prey, and beneath where they floated the earth seemed ever 
 and anon to open and belch forth smoke and flame into which 
 the crumbling houses fell and burnt in heaps of shapeless ruins. 
 Then 
 
 He felt a cool hand laid almost caressingly on his brow, and 
 the voice of Natas said beside him — 
 
 "That is enough. You have seen the Field of Armageddon, 
 and when the day of battle comes you shall be there and play 
 the part allotted to you from the beginning. Do you believe ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Tremayne, rising wearily from his chair, " I 
 believe ; and as the task is, so may Heaven make my strength 
 in the stress of battle ' " 
 
150 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " Amen ! " said Natas very solemnly. 
 
 That night the young Lord of Alanmere went sleepless to 
 bed, and lay awake till dawn, revolving over and over again in 
 his mind the marvellous things that he had seen and heard, 
 and the tremendous task to which he had now irrevocably 
 committed himself for good or evil. In all these waking dreams 
 there was ever present before his mental vision the face qf a 
 woman whose beauty was like and yet unlike that of tH^ 
 daughter of Natas. It lacked the brilliance and subtle charm 
 which in Natasha so wondrously blended the dusky beauty of 
 the daughters of the South with the fairer loveliness of the 
 daughters of the North ; but it atoned for this by that softer 
 grace and sweetness which is the highest charm of purely 
 English beauty. 
 
 It was the face of the woman whom, in that portion of his 
 strange double life which had been free from the mysterious 
 influence of Natas, he had loved with well-assured hope that 
 she would one day rule his house and broad domains with him. 
 She was now Lady Muriel Penarth, the daughter of Lord 
 Marazion, a Cornish nobleman, whose estates abutted on those 
 which belonged to Lord Alanmere as Baron Tremayne, of 
 Tremayne, in the county of Cornwall, as the Peerage had it. 
 Noble alike by lineage and nature, no fairer mistress could 
 have been found for the lands of Tremayne and Alanmere, but 
 — what seas of blood and flame now lay between him and the 
 realisation of his love-ideal ! 
 
 He must forsake his own, and become a revolutionary and 
 an outcast from Society. He must draw the sword upon the 
 world and his own race, and, armed with the most awful means 
 of destruction that the wit of man had ever devised, he must 
 fight his way through universal war to that peace which alone 
 he could ask her to share with him. Still much could be done 
 before he took the final step of severance which might be 
 perpetual, and he would lose no time in doing it. 
 
 As soon as it was fairly light, he rose and took a long, rapid 
 walk over the home park, and when he returned to breakfast 
 at nine he had resolved to execute forthwith a deed of gift, 
 transferring the whole of his vast property, which was un- 
 entailed and therefore entirely at his own disposal, to the 
 woman who was to have shared it with htm in a few months 
 
Between two Lives. 151 
 
 as his wife. If the Fates were kind, he would come back from 
 the world-war and reclaim both the lands and their mistress, 
 and if not he would have the satisfaction of knowing that his 
 broad acres at least had a worthy mistress. 
 
 At breakfast he met Natas again, and during the meal one 
 of his footmen entered, bringing the letters that had come by 
 the morning post. 
 
 /There were several letters for each of them, those for Natas 
 being addressed to " Herr P. Niemand," and for some time they 
 were both employed in looking through their correspondence. 
 Suddenly Natas looked up, and said — 
 
 " When do you expect to hear that Arnold is off the south 
 coast ? " 
 
 " Almost any day now ; in fact, within the week, if every- 
 thing has gone right. Here is a letter from Johnston to say 
 that the Lurline has arrived at Plymouth, and that a bright 
 look-out is being kept for him. He will telegraph here and 
 to the club in London as soon as the air-ship is sighted. 
 Twenty-four hours will then see us on board the Ariel, or 
 whichever of the ships he comes in." 
 
 " I hope the news will come soon, for Michael Eoburoff, the 
 President's brother, who has been in command of the American 
 Section, cables to say that he sails from New York the day 
 after to-morrow with detailed accounts. That means that he 
 will come with full reports of what the Section has done and 
 will be ready to do when the time comes, and also what the 
 enemy are doing. 
 
 " He sails in the Aurania, and as the Atlantic routes are 
 swarming with war-ships and torpedo-boats, she will probably 
 have to run the gauntlet, and it is of the last importance that 
 Michael and his reports reach us safely. It will therefore 
 be necessary for the air-ship to meet the Aurania as soon as 
 possible on her passage, and take him off her before any harm 
 happens to him. If he and his reports fell into the hands of 
 the enemy, there is no telling what might happen." 
 
 "As nearly as I can calculate," said Tremayne, the air-ship 
 should be sighted in three days from now, perhaps in two. It 
 will take the Aurania over four days to cross the Atlantic, 
 and so we ought to be able to meet her somewhere in mid- 
 ocean if she is able to get so far without being overhauled, 
 
152 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Unfortunately she is known to be a British ship and subsidised 
 by the British Government, so there will be very little chance 
 of her getting through under the American flag. Still she's 
 about the fastest steamer afloat, and will take a lot of catching." 
 
 "And if the worst comes and she falls into the hands of 
 the enemy, we must fight our first naval battle and retake her, 
 even if we have to sink a few cruisers to do so," added Natas ; 
 " for, come what may, Michael must not be captured." 
 
 " Arnold will almost certainly come in his flagship, and if 
 she is what he promised, she should be more than a match for 
 a whole fleet, so I don't think there is much to fear unless the 
 Aurania gets sunk before we reach her," said Tremayne. 
 
 Natas and his host devoted the rest of the forenoon to their 
 correspondence, and to making the final arrangements for 
 leaving Alanmere. Tremayne wrote full instructions to his 
 lawyers for the drawing up of the deed, and directed them to 
 have it ready for his signature by two o'clock on the following 
 day. After lunch he rode over to Knaresborough himself with 
 the post-bag, telegraphed an abstract of his instructions in 
 advance, and ordered his private saloon carriage to be attached 
 to the up express which passed through at eight the next 
 morning. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 JUST IN TIME. 
 
 S the train drew up in King's Cross station at 
 twelve the next day, almost the first words 
 that Tremayne heard were — 
 
 " Special Poll Mall, sir ! Appearance of the 
 mysterious air-ship over Plymouth this morn- 
 ing! Great battle in Austria yesterday, defeat of 
 the Austrians — awful slaughter with war-balloons ! Special ! " 
 The boy was selling the papers as fast as he could hand 
 them out to the eager passengers. Tremayne secured one, 
 shut the door of the saloon again, and, turning to the middle 
 page, read aloud to Natas — 
 
 "We have just received a telegram from our Plymouth 
 correspondent, to say that soon after daybreak this morning 
 torpedo-boat No. 157 steamed into the Sound, bringing the 
 news that she had sighted a large five-masted air-ship about 
 ten miles from the coast, when in company with the cruiser 
 Ariadne, whose commander had despatched her with the news. 
 Hardly had the report been received when the air-ship herself 
 passed over Mount Edgcumbe and came towards the town. 
 
 " The news spread like wildfire, and in a few minutes the 
 streets were filled with crowds of people, who had thrown on 
 a few clothes and rushed out to get a look at the strange 
 visitant. At first it was thought that an attack on the 
 arsenal was intended by the mysterious vessel, and the 
 excitement had risen almost to the pitch of panic, when it 
 was observed that she was flying a plain white flag, and that 
 her intentions were apparently peaceful. 
 
 " Panic then gave place to curiosity. The air-ship crossed 
 the town at an elevation of about 3000 feet, described a 
 
154 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 complete circle round it in the space of a few minutes, and 
 then suddenly shot up into the air and vanished to the south- 
 westward at an inconceivable speed. The vessel is described 
 as being about a hundred feet long, and was apparently armed 
 with eight guns. Her hull was of white polished metal, 
 probably aluminium, and shone like silver in the sunlight. 
 
 "The wildest rumours are current as to the object of her 
 visit, but of course no credence can be attached to any of 
 them. The vessel is plainly of the same type as that which 
 destroyed Kronstadt two months ago, but larger and more 
 powerful. The inference is that she is one of a fleet in the 
 hands of the Terrorists, and the profound est uncertainty and 
 anxiety prevail throughout naval and military circles every- 
 where as to the use that they may make of these appalling 
 means of destruction should they take any share in the war." 
 
 " Humph ! " said Tremayne, as he finished reading. " John- 
 ston's telegram must have crossed us on the way, but I shall 
 find one at the club. Well, we have no time to lose, for we 
 ought to start for Plymouth this evening. Your men will take 
 you straight to the Great Western Hotel, and I will hurry my 
 business through as fast as possible, and meet you there in 
 time to catch the 6.30. At this rate we shall meet the 
 Aurania soon after she leaves New York." 
 
 Within the next six hours Tremayne transferred the whole 
 of his vast property in a single instrument to his promised 
 wife, thus making her the richest woman in England ; handed 
 the precious deeds to her astonished father ; obtained his 
 promise to take his wife and daughter to Alanmere at the end 
 of the London season, and to remain there with her until he 
 returned to reclaim her and his estates together ; and said 
 good-bye to Lady Muriel herself in an interview which was a 
 good deal longer than that which he had with his bewildered 
 and somewhat scandalised lawyers, who had never before been 
 forced to rush any transaction through at such an indecent 
 speed. Had Lord Alanmere not been the best client in the 
 kingdom, they might have rebelled against such an outrage on 
 the law's time-honoured delays ; but he was not a man to be 
 trifled with, and so the work was done and an unbeatable 
 record in legal despatch accomplished, albeit very unwillingly 
 by the men of law, 
 
Just in Time. 155 
 
 By midnight the Zurline, 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 ISTatas 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 Zurline, the Earl of Alanmere's yacht, from 
 Plymouth to Queenstown. We're only going at our usual 
 speed." 
 
 ' Oh, if it's the Zurline, 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 
 
156 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 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 wonder what the deuce it really is, and what it's 
 up to ? " 
 
 "I've heard of it ; it was in the London papers this morning. 
 Have you seen any more of it ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ; the thing was cruising about in mid-air all this 
 morning, taking stock of us and the Frenchmen too, I suppose. 
 She vanished during the afternoon. Where to, I don't know. 
 It's awfully humiliating, you know, to be obliged to crawl 
 about here on the water, at twenty-five knots at the utmost, 
 while that fellow is flying a hundred miles an hour or so 
 through the clouds without turning a hair, or I ought to say 
 without as much as a puff of smoke. He seems to move of his 
 own mere volition. I wonder what on earth he is." 
 
 " Not much on earth apparently, but something very con- 
 siderable in the air, where I hope he'll stop out of sight until 
 I get to Queenstown ; and as I want to get there pretty early 
 in the morning, perhaps you'll excuse me saying good-night 
 and getting along, if you won't come on board." 
 
 " No, very sorry I can't. Good-night, and keep well in to the 
 coast till you have to cross to Ireland. Good-bye ? " 
 
 "Good-bye ! " shouted Tremayne in reply, as the torpedo- 
 boat swung round and headed back to the battleship, and he 
 gave the order to go ahead again at full-speed. 
 
 In another hour they were off the Land's End, and from 
 there they headed out due south-west into the Atlantic. They 
 had hardly made another hundred miles before it began to grow 
 light, and then it became necessary to keep a bright look-out 
 for the air-ship, for according to what they had heard from the 
 commander of the torpedo-boat she might be sighted at any 
 moment as soon as it was light enough to see her. 
 
 Another hour passed, but there was still no sign of the air- 
 ship. This of course was to be expected, for they had still 
 another seventy-five miles or so to go before the rendezvous 
 was reached. 
 
 " Steamer to the south'ard ! " sang out the man on the fore- 
 castle, just as Tremayne came on deck after an attempt at a 
 
Just in Time. 157 
 
 brief nap. He picked up his glass, and took a good look at 
 the thin cloud of smoke away on the southern horizon. 
 
 From what he could see it was a large steamer, and was 
 coming up very fast, almost at right angles to the course of the 
 Lurline. Fifteen minutes later he was able to see that the 
 stranger was a warship, and that she was heading for Queens- 
 town. She was therefore either a British ship attached to 
 the Irish Squadron, or else she was an enemy with designs on 
 the liners bound for Liverpool. 
 
 In either case it was most undesirable that the yacht should 
 be overhauled again. Any mishap to her, even a lengthy 
 delay, might have the most serious consequences. A single 
 unlucky shell exploding in her engine-room would disable her, 
 and perhaps change the future history of the world. 
 
 Tremayne therefore altered her course a little more to the 
 northward, thus increasing the distance between her and the 
 stranger, and at the same time ordered the engineer to keep up 
 the utmost head of steam, and get the last possible yard out of 
 her. 
 
 The alteration in her course appeared to be instantly 
 detected by the warship, for she at once swerved off more to 
 the westward, and brought herself dead astern of the Lurline. 
 She was now near enough for Tremayne to see that she was a 
 large cruiser, and attended by a brace of torpedo-boats, which 
 were running along one under each of her quarters, like a 
 couple of dogs following a hunter. 
 
 There was now no doubt but that, whatever her nationality, 
 she was bent on overhauling the yacht, if possible, and the 
 dense volumes of smoke that were pouring out of her funnels 
 told Tremayne that she was stoking up vigorously for the 
 chase. 
 
 By this time she was about seven miles away, and the 
 Lurline, her twin screws beating the water at their utmost 
 speed, and every plate in her trembling under the vibration of 
 her engines, rushed through the water faster than she had ever 
 done since the day she was launched. As far as could be seen, 
 she was holding her own well in what had now become a dead- 
 on stern chase. 
 
 Still the stranger showed no flag, and though Tremayne 
 could hardly believe that a hostile cruiser and a couple of 
 
158 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 torpedo-boats would venture so near to the ground occupied 
 by the British battle-ships, the fact that she showed no colours 
 looked at the best suspicions. Determined to settle the 
 question, if possible, one way or the other, he ran up the ensign 
 of the Eoyal Yacht Squadron. 
 
 This brought no reply. from the cruiser, but a column of 
 bluish-white smoke shot up a moment later from the funnels 
 of one of the torpedo-boats, telling that she had put on the 
 forced draught, and, like a greyhound slipped from the leash, 
 she began to draw away from the big ship, plunging through 
 the long rollers, and half-burying herself in the foam that she 
 threw up from her bows. 
 
 Tremayne knew that there were some of these viperish little 
 craft in the French navy that could be driven thirty miles an 
 hour through the water, and if this was one of them, capture 
 was only a matter of time, unless the air-ship sighted them 
 and came to the rescue. 
 
 Happily, although there was a considerable swell on, the 
 water was smooth and free from short waves, and this was to 
 the advantage of the Zurlinc ; for she went along " as dry as a 
 bone," while the torpedo-boat, lying much lower in the water, 
 rammed her nose into every roller, and so lost a certain amount 
 of way. The yacht was making a good twenty-eight miles an 
 hour under the heroic efforts of the engineers ; and at this rate 
 it would be nearly two hours before she was overhauled, pro- 
 vided that the torpedo-boat was not able to use the gun that she 
 carried forward of her funnels with any dangerous effect. 
 
 There could now be no doubt as to the hostility of the 
 pursuers. Had they been British, they would have answered 
 the flag flying at the peak of the yacht. 
 
 "Steamer coming down from the nor'ard, sir!" suddenly 
 sang out a man whom Tremayne had just stationed in the fore 
 cross-trees to look out for the air-ship that was now so 
 anxiously expected. 
 
 A dense volume of smoke was seen rising in the direction 
 indicated, and a few minutes later a second big steamer came 
 into view, bearing down directly on the yacht, and so approach- 
 ing the torpedo-boat almost stem on. There was no doubt 
 about her nationality. A glance through the glass showed 
 Tremayne the white ensign floating above the horizontal 
 
Just in Time. 159 
 
 stream of smoke that stretched behind her. She was a British 
 cruiser, no doubt a scout of the Irish Squadron, and had sighted 
 the smoke of the yacht and her pursuers, and had come to 
 investigate. 
 
 Tremayne breathed more freely now, for he knew that his 
 flag would procure the assistance of the new-comer in case it 
 was wanted, as indeed it very soon was. 
 
 Hardly had the British cruiser come well in sight than a 
 puff of smoke rose from the deck of the other warship, and 
 a shell came whistling through the air, and burst within a 
 hundred yards of the Lurlinc. Twenty-four hours ago 
 Tremayne had been one of the richest men in England, and 
 just now he would have willingly given all that he had 
 possessed to be twenty-five miles further to the south-west- 
 ward than he was. 
 
 Another shell from the Frenchman passed clear over the 
 Lurline, and plunged into the water and burst, throwing a 
 cloud of spray high into the air. Then came one from the 
 torpedo-boat, but she was still too far off for her light gun to 
 do any damage, and the projectile fell spent into the sea nearly 
 five hundred yards short. 
 
 Immediately after this came a third shell from the French 
 cruiser, and this, by an unlucky chance, struck the forecastle 
 of the yacht, burst, and tore away several feet of the bulwarks, 
 and, worse than all, killed four of her crew instantly. 
 
 " First blood ! " said Tremayne to himself through his 
 clenched teeth. " That shall be an unlucky shot for you, my 
 friend, if we reach the air-ship before you sink us." 
 
 Meanwhile the two cruisers, each approaching the other at 
 a speed of more than twenty miles an hour, had got within 
 shot. A puff of smoke spurted out from the side of the latest 
 comer. The well-aimed projectile passed fifty yards astern of 
 the Lurline, and struck the advancing torpedo-boat square on 
 the bow. 
 
 The next instant it was plainly apparent that there was 
 nothing more to be feared from her. The solid shot had 
 passed clean through her two sides. Her nose went down 
 and her stern came up. Then bang went another gun from 
 the British cruiser. This time the messenger of death was a 
 shell. It struck the inclined deck amidships, there was a flash 
 
160 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 of flame, a cloud of steam rose up from her bursting boilers, 
 and then she broke in two and vanished beneath the smooth- 
 rolling waves. 
 
 Two minutes later the duel began in deadly earnest. The 
 tricolor ran up to the masthead of the French cruiser, and 
 jets of mingled smoke and flame spurted one after the other 
 from her sides, and shells began bursting in quick succession 
 round the rapidly - advancing Englishman. Evidently the 
 Frenchman, with his remaining torpedo-boat, thought himself 
 a good match for the British cruiser, for he showed no disposi- 
 tion to shirk the combat, despite the fact that he was so near 
 to the cruising ground of a powerful squadron. 
 
 As the two cruisers approached each other, the fire from 
 their heavy guns was supplemented by that of their light 
 quick-firing armament, until each of them became a floating 
 volcano, vomiting continuous jets of smoke and flame, and 
 hurling showers of shot and shell across the rapidly-lessening 
 space between them. 
 
 The din of the hideous concert became little short of 
 appalling, even to the most hardened nerves. The continuous 
 deep booming of the heavy guns, as they belched forth their 
 three-hundred-pound projectiles, mingled with the sharp ring- 
 ing reports of the thirty and forty pound quick-firers, and the 
 horrible grinding rattle of the machine guns in the tops that 
 sounded clearly above all, and every few seconds came the 
 scream and the bang of bursting shells, and the dull, crashing 
 sound of rending and breaking steel, as the terrible missiles of 
 death and destruction found their destined mark. 
 
 Happily the Lurline was out of the line of fire, or she would 
 have been torn to fragments and sent to the bottom in a few 
 seconds. She continued on her course at her utmost speed, 
 and the French cruiser was, of course, too busy to pay any 
 further attention to her. Not so the remaining torpedo-boat, 
 however, which, leaving the two big ships to fight out their 
 duel for the present, was pursuing the yacht at the utmost 
 speed of her forced draught. 
 
 Capture or destruction soon only became a matter of a few 
 minutes. Tremayne, determined to hold on till he was sunk 
 or sighted the air-ship, kept his flag flying and his engines 
 working to the last ounce that the quivering boilers would 
 
Just in Time. 161 
 
 stand, and the Frenchman, seeing that he was determined to 
 escape if he could, opened fire on him with his twenty-pounder. 
 
 Owing to the high speed of the two vessels, and the rolling 
 of the torpedo-boat, not much execution was done at first ; but, 
 as the distance diminished, shell after shell crashed through 
 the bulwarks of the Zurline, ripping them longitudinally, 
 and tearing up the deck-planks with their jagged fragments. 
 The wheel-house and the funnel escaped by a miracle, and the 
 yacht being end on to her pursuer, the engines and boilers 
 were comparatively safe. 
 
 One boat had also escaped, and that was hanging ready to 
 be lowered at a moment's notice. 
 
 At last a shell struck the funnel, burst, and shattered it to 
 fragments. Almost at the same moment the man in the fore- 
 cross-trees, who had stuck to his post in defiance of the 
 cannonade, sang out with a triumphant shout — 
 
 " The air-ship ! The air-ship ! " 
 
 Hardly had the words left his lips when a shell from the 
 torpedo-boat struck the Zurline under the quarter, and ripped 
 one of her plates out like a sheet of paper. The next instant 
 the engineer rushed up on deck, crying — 
 
 " The bottom's out of her ! She'll go down in five minutes ! " 
 
 Tremayne, who was the only man on deck save the look- 
 out, ran out of the wheel-house, dived into the cabin, and a 
 moment later reappeared with Natas in his arms, and followed 
 by his two attendants. Then, without the loss of a second, 
 but in perfect order, the quarter-boat was manned and lowered, 
 and pulled clear of the ill-fated Zurline just as she pitched 
 backwards into the sea and went down with a run, stern fore- 
 most. 
 
 The air-ship, coming up at a tremendous speed, swooped 
 suddenly down from a height of two thousand feet, and 
 slowed up within a thousand yards of the torpedo-boat. A 
 projectile rushed through the air and landed on the deck of 
 the Frenchman. There was a flash of greenish flame, a cloud 
 of mingled smoke and steam, and when this had drifted away 
 there was not a vestige of the torpedo-boat to be seen. Then 
 a few fragments of iron splashed into the water here and 
 there, and that was all that betokened her fate. 
 
 ii 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ARMED NEUTRALITY. 
 
 ARDLY had the Lurline disappeared than the 
 air-ship was lying alongside the boat, floating 
 on the water as easily and lightly as a seagull, 
 and Natas and his two attendants, Treinayne, 
 and the three men who had been saved from 
 the yacht, were at once taken on board. 
 It would be useless to interrupt the progress of the nar- 
 rative to describe the welcoming greetings which passed 
 between the rescued party and the crew of the Ithuriel, 
 or the amazement of Arnold and his companions when 
 Natasha threw her arms round the neck of the almost helpless 
 cripple, who was lifted over the rail by Tremayne and his 
 two attendants, kissed him on the brow, and said so that 
 all could hear her — 
 
 " We were in time ! Thank God we were in time, my 
 father ! " 
 
 Her father! This paralytic creature, who could not move 
 a yard without the assistance of some one else — this was 
 Natas, the father of Natasha, and the Master of the Terror, 
 the man who had planned the ruin of a civilisation, and for 
 all they knew might aspire to the empire of the world ! 
 
 It w r as marvellous, inconceivable, but there was no time 
 to think about it now, for the two cruisers were still blazing 
 away at each other, and Tremayne had determined to punish 
 the Frenchman for his discourtesy in not answering his flag, 
 and his inhumanity in firing on an unarmed vessel which 
 was well known as a private pleasure-yacht all round the 
 western and southern shores of Europe. 
 
 162 
 
Armed Neutrality. 163 
 
 As soon as Natas had been conveyed into the saloon, 
 Tremayne, after returning Arnold's hearty handclasp, said 
 to him — 
 
 " That rascally Frenchman chased and fired on us, and then 
 sent his torpedo-boat after us, without the slightest provocation. 
 I purposely hoisted the Yacht Squadron flag to show that 
 we were non-combatants, and still he sank us. I suppose 
 he took the Zurline for a fast despatch boat, but still he 
 ought to have had the sense and the politeness to let her 
 alone when he saw she was a yacht, so I want you to teach 
 him better manners." 
 
 " Certainly," replies Arnold. " I'll sink him for you in five 
 seconds as soon as we get aloft again." 
 
 " I don't want you to do that if you can help it. She has 
 five or six hundred men on board, who are only doing as they 
 are told, and we have not declared war on the world yet. 
 Can't you disable her, and force her to surrender to the British 
 cruiser that came to our rescue ? You know we must have 
 been sunk or captured half an hour ago if she had not turned 
 up so opportunely, in spite of your so happily coming fifty 
 miles this side of the rendezvous. I should like to return 
 the compliment by delivering his enemy into his hand." 
 
 "I quite see what you mean, but I'm afraid I can't 
 guarantee success. You see, our artillery is intended for 
 destruction, and not for disablement. Still I'll have a try 
 with pleasure. I'll see if I can't disable his screws, only you 
 mustn't blame me if he goes to the bottom by accident." 
 
 "Certainly not, you most capable destroyer of life and 
 property," laughed Tremayne. " Only let him off as lightly 
 as you can. Ah, Natasha ! Good morning again ! I suppose 
 Natas has taken no harm from the unceremonious way in 
 which I had to almost throw him on board the boat. Aerial 
 voyaging seems to agree with you, you" — 
 
 " Must not talk nonsense, my Lord of Alanmere, especially 
 when there is sterner work in hand," interrupted Natasha, 
 with a laugh. "What are you going to do with those two 
 cruisers that are battering each other to pieces down there? 
 Sink them both, or leave them to fight it out ? " 
 
 "Neither, with your permission, fair lady. The British 
 cruiser saved us by coming on the scene at the right moment, 
 
164 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and as the Frenchman fired upon us without due cause, I 
 want Captain Arnold to disable her in some way and hand 
 her over a prisoner to our rescuer." 
 
 " Ah, that would be better, of course. One good turn 
 deserves another. What are you going to do, Captain 
 Arnold?" 
 
 " Drop a small shell under his stern and disable his pro- 
 pellers, if I can do so without sinking him, which I am afraid 
 is rather doubtful," replied Arnold. 
 
 .While they were talking, the Ithuriel had risen a thousand 
 feet or so from the water, and had advanced to within about 
 half a mile of the two cruisers, which were now manoeuvring 
 round each other at a distance of about a thousand yards, 
 blazing away without cessation, and waiting for some lucky 
 shot to partially disable one or the other, and so give an 
 opportunity for boarding, or ramming. 
 
 In the old days, when France and Britain had last grappled 
 in the struggle for the mastery of the sea, the two ships 
 would have been laid alongside each other long before this. 
 But that was not to be thought of while those terrible 
 machine guns were able to rain their hail of death down 
 from the tops, and the quick-firing cannon were hurling 
 their thirty shots a minute across the intervening space of 
 water. 
 
 The French cruiser had so far taken no notice of the sudden 
 annihilation of her second torpedo-boat by the air-ship, but 
 as soon as the latter made her way astern of her she seemed 
 to scent mischief, and turned one of her three - barrelled 
 Nordenfeldts on to her. The shots soon came singing about 
 the Ithuriel in somewhat unpleasant proximity, and Arnold 
 said — 
 
 " Monsieur seems to take us for a natural enemy, and if he 
 wants fight he shall have it. If I don't disable him with this 
 shot I'll sink him with the next." 
 
 So saying he trained one of the broadside guns on the stern 
 of the French cruiser, and at the right moment pressed the 
 button. The shell bored its way through the air and down 
 into the water until it struck and exploded against the sub- 
 merged rudder. 
 
 A huge column of foam rose up under the cruiser's stern ; 
 
Armed Neutrality. 165 
 
 half lifted out of the water, she plunged forward with a mighty 
 lurch, burying her forecastle in the green water, and then she 
 righted and lay helpless upon the sea, deprived of the power 
 of motion and steering, and with the useless steam roaring in 
 great clouds from her pipes. A moment later she began to 
 settle by the stern, showing that her after plates had been 
 badly injured, if not torn away by the explosion. 
 
 Meanwhile the Ithuriel had shot away out of range until 
 the two cruisers looked like little toy -ships spitting fire at 
 each other, and Arnold said to Tremayne, who was with him 
 in the wheel-house — 
 
 "I think that has settled her, as far as any more real 
 fighting is concerned. Look! She can't stand that sort of 
 thing very long." 
 
 He handed Tremayne the glasses as he spoke. The French 
 cruiser was lying motionless upon the water, with her after 
 compartments full, and very much down by the stern- She 
 was still blazing away gamely with all her available guns, but 
 it was obvious at a glance that she was now no match for her 
 antagonist, who had taken full advantage of the help rendered 
 by her unknown ally, and was pouring a perfect hail of shot 
 and shell point-blank into her half-disabled adversary, batter- 
 ing her deck-works into ruins, and piercing her hull again and 
 again. 
 
 At length, when the splendid fabric had been reduced to 
 little better than a floating wreck by the terrible cannonade, 
 the fire from the British cruiser stopped, and the signal " Will 
 you surrender ? " flew from her masthead. 
 
 A few moments later the tricolor, for the first time in the 
 war, dipped to the White Ensign, and the naval duel was over. 
 
 " Now we will leave them to talk it over," said Tremayne, 
 shutting the glasses. " I should like to hear what they have 
 to say about us, I must confess, but there is something more 
 important to be done, and the sooner we are on the other side 
 of the Atlantic the better. The Aurania started from New 
 York this morning. How soon can you get across ?" 
 
 " In about sixteen hours if wa had to go all the way," replied 
 Arnold. " It is, say, three thousand miles from here to New 
 York, and the Ithuriel can fly two hundred miles an hour if 
 necessary. But the Aurania, if she starts in good time, will 
 
1 66 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 make between four and five hundred miles during the day, and 
 so we ought to meet her soon after sundown this evening if 
 we are lucky." 
 
 As Arnold ceased speaking, the report of a single gun came 
 up from the water, and a string of signal flags floated out from 
 the masthead of the British cruiser. 
 
 " Hullo ! " said Tremayne, once more turning the glasses on 
 the two vessels, " that was a blank cartridge, and as far as I 
 can make out that signal reads, ' We want to speak you.' And 
 look : there goes a white flag to the fore. His intentions are 
 evidently peaceful. What do you say, shall we go down ? " 
 
 " I see no objection to it. It will only make a difference of 
 half an hour or so, and perhaps we may learn something worth 
 knowing from the captain about the naval force afloat in the 
 Atlantic. I think it would be worth while. We have no need 
 for concealment now ; and besides, all Europe is talking about 
 us, so there can be no harm in showing ourselves a bit more 
 closely." 
 
 " Very well, then, we will go down and hear what he has to 
 say," replied Tremayne. " But I don't think it would be well 
 for me to show myself just now, and so I will go below." 
 
 Arnold at once signalled the necessary order from the 
 conning tower to the engine-room. The fan-wheels revolved 
 more slowly, and the Ithurid sank swiftly downwards towards 
 the two cruisers, now lying side by side. 
 
 As soon as she came to a standstill within speaking distance 
 of the British man-of-war, discipline was for the moment for- 
 gotten on board of both victor and vanquished, under the 
 influence of the intense excitement and curiosity aroused by 
 seeing the mysterious and much-talked-of air-ship at such 
 close quarters. 
 
 The French and British captains were both standing on 
 the quarter-deck eagerly scanning the strange craft through 
 their glasses till she came near enough to dispense with them, 
 and every man and officer on board the two cruisers who was 
 able to be on deck, crowded to points of 'vantage, and stared at 
 her with all their eyes. The whole company of the Ithurid, 
 with the exception of Natas, Tremayne, and those whose duties 
 kept them in the engine-room, were also on deck, and Arnold 
 stood close by the wheel-house and the after gun, ready to 
 
Armed Neutrality. 167 
 
 give any orders that might be necessary in case the conversa- 
 tion took an unfriendly turn. 
 
 " May I ask the name of that wonderful craft, and to what 
 I am indebted for the assistance you have given me ? " hailed 
 the British captain. 
 
 " Certainly. This is the Terrorist air-ship Ithuriel, and we 
 disabled the French cruiser because her captain had the bad 
 manners to fire upon and sink an unarmed yacht that had no 
 quarrel with him. But for that we should have left you to 
 fight it out." 
 
 " The Terrorists, are you ? If I had known that, I confess I 
 should not have asked to speak you, and I tell you candidly 
 that I am sorry you did not leave us to fight it out, as you say. 
 As I cannot look upon you as an ally or a friend, I can only 
 regret the advantage you have given me over an honourable 
 foe." 
 
 " There was an emphasis on the word " honourable " which 
 brought a flush to Arnold's cheek, as he replied — 
 
 "What I did to the French cruiser I should have done 
 whether you had been on the scene or not. We are as much 
 your foes as we are those of France, that is to say, we are totally 
 indifferent to both of you. As for honourable foes, I may say 
 that I only disabled the French cruiser because I thought she 
 had acted both unfairly and dishonourably. But we are wast- 
 ing time. Did you merely wish to speak us in order to find 
 out who we were ? " 
 
 " Yes, that was my first object, I confess. I also wished to 
 know whether this is the same air-ship which crossed the 
 Mediterranean yesterday, and if not, how many of these 
 vessels there are in existence, and what you mean to do with 
 them?" 
 
 "Before I answer, may I ask how you know that an air- 
 ship crossed the Mediterranean yesterday?" asked Arnold, 
 thoroughly mystified by this astounding piece of news. 
 
 " We had it by telegraph at Queenstown during the night. 
 She was going northward, when observed, by Larnaka " — 
 
 " Oh yes, that was one of our despatch boats, replied Arnold, 
 forcing himself to speak with a calmness that he by no means 
 felt. " I'm afraid my orders will hardly allow me to answer 
 your other questions very fully, but I may tell you that we 
 
1 68 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 have a fleet of air-ships at our command, all constructed in 
 England under the noses of your intelligent authorities, and 
 that we mean to use them as it seems best to us, should we at 
 any time consider it worth our while to interfere in the game 
 that the European Powers are playing with each other. Mean- 
 while we keep a position of armed neutrality. When we think 
 the war has gone far enough we shall probably stop it when a 
 good opportunity offers." 
 
 This was too much for a British sailor to listen to quietly 
 on his own quarter-deck, whoever said it, and so the captain 
 of the Andromeda forgot his prudence for the moment, and 
 said somewhat hotly — 
 
 " Confound it, sir ! you talk as if you were omnipotent and 
 arbiters of peace and war. Don't go too far with your insolence, 
 or I shall haul that flag of truce down and give you five 
 minutes to get out of range of my guns or take your chance " — 
 
 For all answer there came a contemptuous laugh from the 
 deck of the Ithuriel, the rapid ringing of an electric bell, and 
 the disappearance of her company under cover. Then with one 
 mighty leap she rose two thousand feet into the air, and before 
 the astounded and disgusted captain of H.M. cruiser Andromeda 
 very well knew what had become of her, she was a mere speck 
 of light in the sky, speeding away at two hundred miles an 
 hour to the westward. 
 
 As soon as she was fairly on her course, Arnold gave up the 
 wheel to one of the crew, and went into the saloon to disscuss 
 with Tremayne and Natas the all-important scrap of news that 
 had fallen from the lips of the captain of the British cruiser. 
 What was the other air-ship that had been seen crossing the 
 Mediterranean ? 
 
 Surely it must be one of the Terrorist fleet, for there were 
 no others in existence. And yet strict orders had been given 
 that none of the fleet were to take the air until the Ithuriel 
 returned. Was it possible that there were traitors, even in 
 Aeria, and that the air-ship seen from Larnaka was a deserter 
 going northward to the enemy, the worst enemy of all, the 
 Russians ? 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A BATTLE IN THE NIGHT. 
 
 T half-past five on the morning of the 23rd of 
 June, the Cunard liner Aurania left New York 
 for Queen stown and Liverpool. She was the 
 largest and swiftest passenger steamer afloat, 
 and on her maiden voyage she had lowered the 
 Atlantic record by no less than twelve hours ; 
 that is to say, she had performed the journey from Sandy Hook 
 to Queenstown in four days and a half exactly. Her measure- 
 ment was forty-five thousand tons, and her twin screws, driven 
 by quadruple engines, developing sixty thousand horse-power, 
 forced her through the water at the unparalleled speed of 
 thirty knots, or thirty-four and a half statute miles an hour. 
 
 Since the outbreak of the war it had been found necessary 
 to take all but the most powerful vessels off the Atlantic route, 
 for, as had long been foreseen, the enemies of the Anglo- 
 German Alliance were making the most determined efforts to 
 cripple the Transatlantic trade of Britain and Germany, and 
 swift, heavily-armed French and Italian cruisers, attended by 
 torpedo-boats and gun-boats, and supported by battle-ships and 
 depot vessels for coaling purposes, were swarming along the 
 great ocean highway. 
 
 These, of course, had to be opposed by an equal or greater 
 force of British warships. In fact, the burden of keeping the 
 Atlantic route open fell entirely on Britain, for the German 
 and Austrian fleets had all the work they were capable of 
 doing nearer home in the Baltic and Mediterranean. 
 
 The terrible mistake that had been made by the House of 
 Lords in negativing the Italian Loan had already become 
 
170 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 disastrously apparent, for though the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance 
 was putting forth every effort, its available ships were only just 
 sufficient to keep the home waters clear and the ocean routes 
 practically open, even for the fastest steamers. 
 
 The task, therefore, which lay before the Aurania when she 
 cleared American waters was little less than running the 
 gauntlet for nearly three thousand miles. The French cruiser 
 which had been captured by the Andromeda, thanks to the 
 assistance of the Ithuriel, had left Brest with the express 
 purpose of helping to intercept the great Cunarder, for she had 
 crossed the Atlantic five times already without a scratch since 
 the war had begun, showing a very clean pair of heels to every- 
 thing that had attempted to overhaul her, and now on her sixth 
 passage a grand effort was to be made to capture or cripple the 
 famous ocean greyhound. 
 
 It was by far her most important voyage in more senses 
 than one. In the first place, her incomparable speed and good 
 luck had made her out of sight the prime favourite with those 
 passengers who were obliged to cross the Atlantic, war or no 
 war, and for the same reasons she also carried more mails and 
 specie than any other liner, and this voyage she had an 
 enormously valuable consignment of both on board. As for 
 passengers, every available foot of space was taken for months 
 in advance. 
 
 Enterprising agents on both sides of the water had bought 
 up every berth from stem to stern, and had put them up to 
 auction, realising fabulous prices, which had little chance of 
 being abated, even when her sister ship the Sidonia, the con- 
 struction of which was being pushed forward on the Clyde with 
 all possible speed, was ready to take the water. 
 
 But the chief importance of this particular passage lay, 
 though barely half a dozen persons were aware of it, in the 
 fact that among her passengers was Michael Eoburoff, chief of 
 the American Section of the Terrorists, who was bringing to 
 the Council his report of the work of the Brotherhood in the 
 United States, together with the information which he had 
 collected, by means of an army of spies, as to the true intentions 
 of the American Government with regard to the war. 
 
 These, so far as the rest of the world was concerned, were 
 a profound secret, and he was the only man outside the 
 
A Battle in the Night. 171 
 
 President's Cabinet and the Tsar's Privy Council who had 
 accurate information with regard to them. The Aurania was 
 therefore not only carrying mails, treasure, and passengers, 
 but, in the person of Michael Boburoff, she was carrying 
 secrets on the revelation of which the whole issue of the war 
 and the destiny of the world might turn. 
 
 America was the one great Power not involved in the tre- 
 mendous struggle that was being waged. The most astute 
 diplomatist in Europe had no idea what her real policy was, 
 but every one knew that the side on which she threw the 
 weight of her boundless wealth and vast resources must 
 infallibly win in the long run. 
 
 The plan that had been adopted by Britain for keeping the 
 Atlantic route open was briefly as follows: — All along the 
 3000 miles of the steamer track a battleship was stationed at 
 the end of every day's run, that is to say, at intervals of about 
 500 miles, and patrolled within a radius of 100 miles. Each 
 of these was attended by two heavily-armed cruisers and four 
 torpedo-boats, while between these points swifter cruisers were 
 constantly running to and fro convoying the liners. 
 
 Thus, when the Aurania left New York, she was picked up 
 on the limit of the American water by two cruisers, which 
 would keep pace with her as well as they could until she 
 reached the first battleship. As she passed the ironclad these 
 two would leave her, and the next two would take up the 
 running, and so on until she reached the range of operations of 
 the Irish Squadron. 
 
 No other Power in the world could have maintained such a 
 system of ocean police, but Britain was putting forth the whole 
 of her mighty naval strength, and so she spared neither ships 
 nor money to keep open the American and Canadian routes, 
 for on them nearly half her food-supply depended, as well as 
 her chief line of communication with the far East. 
 
 On the other hand, her enemies were making desperate 
 efforts to break the chain of steel that was thus stretched 
 across the hemisphere, for they well knew that, this once 
 broken, 'the first real triumph of the war would have been 
 won. 
 
 Five hundred miles out from New York the Aurania was 
 joined by the Oceana, the largest vessel on the Canadian Pacific 
 
172 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 line from Halifax to Liverpool. So far no enemy had been 
 seen. The two great liners reached the first battleship 
 together, and were joined by the second pair of cruisers. Before 
 sunset the Cunarder had drawn ahead of her companions, and 
 by nightfall was racing away alone over the water with every 
 light carefully concealed, and keeping an eager look-out for 
 friend or foe. 
 
 There was no moon, and the sky was so heavily overcast 
 with clouds, that, under any other circumstances, it would 
 have been the height of rashness to go rushing through the 
 darkness at such a headlong speed. But the captain of the 
 Aurania was aware of the state of the road, and he knew that 
 in speed and secrecy lay his only chances of getting his magni- 
 ficent vessel through in safety. 
 
 Soon after ten o'clock lights were sighted dead ahead. The 
 course was slightly altered, and the great liner swept past one 
 of the North German Lloyd boats in company with a cruiser. 
 The private signal was made and answered, and in half an hour 
 she was again alone amidst the darkness. 
 
 It was nearly eleven o'clock, when Michael Eoburoff, who 
 was standing under the lee of one of the ventilators amidships, 
 smoking a last pipe before turning in, saw a figure muffled in a 
 huge grey ulster creeping into the deeper shadows under the 
 bridge. It was so dark that he could only just make out the 
 outline of the figure, but he could see enough to rouse his ever 
 ready suspicions In the furtive movements that the man was 
 making. 
 
 He stole out on the starboard, that is the southward, rail of 
 the spar-deck, and Michael, straining his eyes to the utmost, 
 saw him take a round flat object from under Ids coat, and then 
 look round stealthily to see if he was observed. As he did so 
 Michael whipped a pistol out of his pocket, levelled it at the 
 man, and said in a low, distinct tone — 
 
 " Put that back, or I'll shoot ! " 
 
 For all answer the man raised his arm to throw the object 
 overboard. Michael, taking the best aim he could in the dark- 
 ness, fired. The bullet struck the elbow of the raised arm, the 
 man lurched forward with a low cry of rage and pain, grasped 
 the object with his otlier hand, and, as he fell to the deck, flung 
 it into the sea. 
 
A Battle in the Night. 173 
 
 Scarcely had it touched the water when it burst into flame, 
 and an intensely bright blaze of bluish-white light shot up, 
 shattering the darkness, and illuminating the great ship from 
 the waterline to the trucks of her masts. Instantly the deck 
 of the liner was a scene of wild excitement. In a moment the 
 man whom Eoburoff had wounded was secured in the act 
 of trying to throw himself overboard. Michael himself was 
 rapidly questioned by the captain, who was immediately on 
 the spot. 
 
 He told his story in a dozen words, and explained that he 
 had fired to disable the man and prevent the fire-signal falling 
 into the sea. There was no doubt about the guilt of the traitor, 
 for he himself cut the captain's interrogation short by saying 
 defiantly, in broken English that at once betrayed him as a 
 Frenchman — 
 
 " Yees, I do it ! I give signal to ze fleet down there. If I 
 succeeded, I got half million francs. I fail, so shoot ! C'est la 
 fortune de la guerre ! Voila, look ! They come ! ' 
 
 As the spy said this he pointed to the south-eastern horizon. 
 A brief bright flash of white light went up through the night 
 and vanished. It was the answering signal from the French 
 or Italian cruisers, which were making all speed up from the 
 south-east to head off the Aurania before she reached the next 
 station and gained the protection of the British battleship. 
 
 The spy's words were only too true. He had gone to 
 America for the sole purpose of returning in the Aurania 
 and giving the signal at this particular point on the passage. 
 Within ten miles were four of the fleetest French and Italian 
 cruisers, six torpedo-boats, and two battleships, which, by 
 keeping well to the southward during the day, and then 
 putting on all steam as soon as night fell, had managed to head 
 off the ocean greyhound at last. 
 
 Two cruisers and a battleship with two torpedo-boats were 
 coming up from the south-east ; one cruiser, the other battle- 
 ship, and two torpedo-boats were bearing down from the south- 
 west, and the remaining cruiser and brace of torpedo-boats bad 
 managed to slip through the British line and gain a position to 
 the northward. 
 
 This large force had not been brought up without good 
 reason. The Aurania was the biggest prize afloat, and well 
 
174 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 worth fighting for, if it came to blows, as it very probably 
 would do ; added to which there was a very good chance of 
 one or two other liners falling victims to a well-planned and 
 successful raid. 
 
 The French spy was at once sent below and put into safe 
 keeping, and the signal to " stoke up " was sent to the engine- 
 rooms. The firemen responded with a will, extra hands were 
 put on in the stokeholes, and the furnaces taxed to their utmost 
 capacity. The boilers palpitated under the tremendous head 
 of steam, the engines throbbed and groaned like labouring 
 giants, and the great ship, trembling like some live animal 
 under the lash, rushed faster and faster over the long dark 
 rollers under the impulse of her whirling screws. 
 
 There was no longer any need for concealment even if it 
 had been possible. Speed and speed only afforded the sole 
 chance of escape. Of course the captain of the Aurania had 
 no idea of the strength or disposition of the force that had 
 undertaken his capture. Had he known the true state of the 
 case, his anxiety would have been a good deal greater than it 
 was. He fully believed that he could outsteam the vessels to 
 the south-east, and, once past these, he knew that he would be 
 in touch with the British ships at the next station before any 
 harm could come to him. He therefore headed a little more to 
 the northward, and trusted with perfect confidence to his heels. 
 
 Michael Eoburoff was the hero of the moment, and the captain 
 cordially thanked him for his prompt attempt to frustrate the 
 atrocious act of the spy which deliberately endangered the 
 liberty and perhaps the lives of more than a thousand non- 
 combatants. Michael, however, cut his thanks short by taking 
 him aside and asking him what he thought of the position of 
 affairs. He spoke so seriously that the captain thought 
 he was frightened, and by way of reassuring him replied 
 cheerily — 
 
 " Don't have any fear for the Aurania, Mr. Eoburoff. That's 
 only a cruiser, or perhaps a couple, down there, and the enemy 
 haven't a ship that I can't give a good five knots and a beating 
 to. We shall sight the British ships soon after daybreak, and 
 by that time those fellows will be fifty miles behind us. 
 
 " I have as much confidence in the Aurania' s speed as you 
 have, Captain Frazer," replied Michael. " but I'm afraid you 
 
A Battle in the Night. 175 
 
 are underrating the enemy's strength. Do you know that 
 within the last few days it has been almost doubled, and that 
 a determined effort is to be made, not only to catch or sink the 
 Aurania, but also to break the British line of posts, and cut 
 the line of American and Canadian communication altogether ? " 
 
 " No, sir," replied the captain, looking sharply at Michael. 
 " I don't know anything of the sort, neither do the commanders 
 of the British warships on this side. If your information is 
 correct, I should like to know how you came by it. You are a 
 Eussian by name " — 
 
 " But not a subject of the Tsar," quickly interrupted Michael. 
 " I am an American citizen, and I have come by this informa- 
 tion not as the friend of Kussia, as you seem to suspect, but as 
 her enemy, or rather as the enemy of her ruler. How I got it 
 is my business. It is enough for you to know that it is correct, 
 and that you are in far greater danger than you think you are. 
 The signal given by that French spy was evidently part of 
 a prearranged plan, and for all you know you may even now 
 be surrounded, or steaming straight into a trap that has been 
 laid for you. If I may advise, I would earnestly counsel you 
 to double on your course and make every effort to rejoin the 
 other liner and the cruisers we have passed." 
 
 " Nonsense, sir, nonsense ! " answered the captain testily. 
 " Our watch-dogs are far too wide awake to be caught napping 
 like that. You have been deceived by one of the rumours that 
 are filling the air just now. You can go to your berth and 
 sleep in peace, and to-morrow you shall be half-way across 
 the Atlantic without an enemy's ship in sight." 
 
 " Captain Frazer," said Michael very seriously, " with your 
 leave I shall not go to my berth ; and what is more, I can tell 
 you that very few of us will get much sleep to-night, and that 
 if you do not back I hardly think you will be flying the British 
 liag to-morrow. Ha ! look there — and there ! " 
 
 Michael seized the captain's arm suddenly, and pointed 
 rapidly to the south-east and north-east. Two thin rays of 
 light flashed up into the sky one after the other. Then came 
 a third from the south-west, and then darkness again. At the 
 same instant came the hails from the look-outs announcing 
 the lights. 
 
 Captain Frazer was wrong, and he saw that he was at a 
 
176 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 glance. The flash in the north-east could not be from a friend, 
 for it was a plain answer to the known enemy in the south- 
 east, and so too in all probability was the third. If so, the 
 Aurania was almost surrounded. 
 
 The captain wasted no words in confessing his error, but ran 
 up on to the bridge to rectify it as far as he could at once. 
 The helm was put hard over, the port screw was reversed, and 
 the steamer swung round in a wide sweep, and was soon 
 speeding back westward over her own tracks. An hour's 
 run brought her in sight of the lights of the North German 
 and her escort. She slowed as she passed them, and told the 
 news. Then she sped on again at full-speed to meet the 
 Oceana and the two cruisers, which were about fifty miles 
 behind. 
 
 By one a.m. the three cruisers and the three liners had joined 
 forces, and were steaming westward at twenty knots an hour, 
 the liners in single file led by a cruiser, and having one on each 
 beam. Soon the flashes on the horizon grew more frequent, 
 always drawing closer together. 
 
 Then those in the westward dropped from the perpendicular 
 to the horizontal, and swept the water as though seeking some- 
 thing. It was not long before the darting rays of one of the 
 searchlights fell across the track of the British flotilla. 
 Instantly from all three points converging flashes were concen- 
 trated upon it, revealing the outline of every ship with the 
 most perfect distinctness. 
 
 The last hope of running through the hostile fleet unper- 
 ceived had now vanished. There was nothing for it but to go 
 ahead full-speed, and trust to the chances of a running fight to 
 get clear. With a view of finding out the strength of the 
 enemy, the British cruisers now turned their searchlights on 
 and swept the horizon. 
 
 A very few moments sufficed to show that an overwhelming 
 force was closing in on them from three sides. They were 
 completely caught in a trap, from which there was no escape 
 save by running the gauntlet. Whichever way they headed 
 thoy would have to pass through the converging fire of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The weakest point, so far as they could see, was the one 
 cruiser and two torpedo-boats to the northward, and so towards 
 
A Battle in the Night. 177 
 
 them they headed. At the speed at which they were travel- 
 ling it needed but a few minutes to bring them within range, 
 and the British commanders rightly decided to concentrate 
 their fire for the present on the single cruiser and her two 
 attendants, in the hope of sinking them before the others 
 could get into action. 
 
 At three thousand yards the heavy guns came into play, and a 
 storm of shell was hurled upon the advancing foe, who lost no 
 time in replying in the same terms. As the vessels approached 
 each other the shooting became closer and terribly effective. 
 
 The searchlights of the British cruisers were kept full 
 ahead, and every attempt of the torpedo-boats to get round on 
 the flank was foiled by a hail of shot from the quick-firing 
 guns. Within fifteen minutes of opening fire one of these was 
 sunk and the other disabled. The French cruiser, too, suffered 
 fearfully from the tempest of shot and shell that was rained 
 upon her. 
 
 Had the British got within range of her half an hour sooner 
 the plan would have been completely foiled. As it was, her 
 fate was sealed, but it was too late. The three British warships 
 rushed at her together, vomiting flame and smoke and iron 
 across the rapidly-decreasing distance, until within five hundred 
 yards of her. Then the fire from the two on either flank 
 suddenly stopped. 
 
 The centre one, still blazing away, put on her forced draught, 
 swerved sharply round, and then darted in on her with the 
 ram. There was a terrific shock, a heavy, grinding crunch, 
 and then the mighty mass of the charging vessel, hurled at 
 nearly thirty miles an hour upon her victim, bored and ground 
 her resistless way into her side. 
 
 Then she suddenly reversed her engines and backed out. 
 In less than thirty seconds it was all over. The Frenchman, 
 almost cut in half by the frightful blow, reeled once, and once 
 only, and then went down like a stone. 
 
 But by this time the other two divisions of the enemy were 
 within range, and through the roar of the lighter artillery now 
 came the deep, sullen boom of the big guns on the battleships, 
 and the great thousand -pound projectiles began to scream 
 through the air and fling the water up into mountains of foam 
 where they pitched. 
 12 
 
178 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Where one of them struck, death and destruction would 
 follow as surely as though it were a thunderbolt from Heaven. 
 The three liners scattered and steamed away to the northward 
 as fast as their propellers would drive them. But what was 
 their utmost speed to that of the projectiles cleaving through 
 the air at more than two thousand feet a second ? 
 
 See ! one at length strikes the German liner square amid- 
 ships, and bursts. There is a horrible explosion. The search- 
 light thrown on her shows a cloud of steam and smoke and 
 flame rising up from her riven decks. Where her funnels 
 were is a huge ragged black hole. This is visible for an 
 instant, then her back breaks, and in two halves she follows 
 the French cruiser to the bottom of the Atlantic. 
 
 The sinking of the German liner was the signal for the 
 appearance of a new actor on the scene, and the commence- 
 ment of a work of destruction more appalling than anything 
 that human warfare had so far known. 
 
 Michael Eoburoff, standing on the spar-deck of the flying 
 Aurania, suddenly saw a bright stream of light shoot down 
 from the clouds, and flash hither and thither, till it hovered 
 over the advancing French and Italian squadron. For the 
 moment the combat ceased, so astounded were the combatants 
 on both sides at this mysterious apparition. 
 
 Then, without the slightest warning, with no flash or roar 
 of guns, there came a series of frightful explosions among the 
 ships of the pursuers. They followed each other so quickly 
 that the darkness behind the electric lights seemed lit with a 
 continuous blaze of livid green flame for three or four minutes. 
 
 Then there was darkness and silence. Black darkness and 
 absolute silence. The searchlights were extinguished, and 
 the roar of the artillery was still. The British waited in dazed 
 silence for it to begin again, but it never did. The whole of 
 the pursuing squadron had been annihilated. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE NEW WAKFARE. 
 
 [ T will now be necessary, in order to insure the 
 continuity of the narrative, to lay before the 
 reader a brief sketch of the course of events 
 in Europe from the actual commencement of 
 hostilities on a general scale between the two 
 immense forces which may be most conveni- 
 ently designated as the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance and the 
 Franco-Slavonian League. 
 
 In order that these two terms may be fully understood, it 
 will be well to explain their general constitution. When the 
 two forces, into which the declaration of war ultimately 
 divided the nations of Europe, faced each other for the 
 struggle which was to decide the mastery of the Western 
 world, the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance consisted primarily of 
 Britain, Germany, and Austria, and, ranged under its banner, 
 whether from choice or necessity, stood Holland, Belgium, and 
 Denmark in the north-west, with Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey 
 in the south-west. 
 
 Egypt was strongly garrisoned for the land defence of the 
 Suez Canal and the high road to the East by British, Indian, 
 and Turkish troops. British and Belgian troops held Antwerp 
 and the fortresses of the Belgian Quadrilateral in force. 
 
 A powerful combined fleet of British, Danish, and Dutch 
 war vessels of all classes held the approaches by the Sound 
 and Kattegat to the Baltic Sea, and co-operated in touch with 
 the German fleet ; the Dutch and the German having, at any 
 rate for the time being, and under the pressure of irresistible 
 circumstances, laid aside their hereditary national hatred, 
 
 179 
 
180 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and consented to act as allies under suitable guarantees to 
 Holland. 
 
 The co-operation of Denmark had been secured, in spite of 
 the family connections existing between the Danish and the 
 Russian Courts, and the rancour still remaining from the old 
 Schleswig-Holstein quarrel, by very much the same means 
 that had been taken in the historic days of the Battle of the 
 Baltic. It is true that matters had not gone so far as they 
 went when Nelson disobeyed orders by putting his telescope 
 to his blind eye, and engaged the Danish fleet in spite of the 
 signals; but a demonstration of such overwhelming force 
 had been made by sea and land on the part of Britain and 
 Germany, that the House of Dagmar had bowed to the in- 
 evitable, and ranged itself on the side of the Anglo-Teutonic 
 Alliance. 
 
 Marshalled against this imposing array of naval and military 
 force stood the Franco-Slavonian League, consisting primarily 
 of France, Russia, and Italy, supported — whether by consent 
 or necessity — by Spain, Portugal, and Servia. The co-operation 
 of Spain had been purchased by the promise of Gibraltar at 
 the conclusion of the war, and that of Portugal by the guarantee 
 of a largely increased sphere of influence on the West Coast of 
 Africa, plus the Belgian States of the Congo. 
 
 Eoumania and Switzerland remained neutral, the former to 
 be a battlefield for the neighbouring Powers, and the latter 
 for the present safe behind her ramparts of everlasting snow 
 and ice. Scandinavia also remained neutral, the sport of the 
 rival diplomacies of East and West, but not counted of sufficient 
 importance to materially influence the colossal struggle one 
 way or the other. 
 
 In round numbers the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance had seven 
 millions of men on the war footing, including, of course, the 
 Indian and Colonial forces of the British Empire, while in 
 case of necessity urgent levies were expected to produce 
 between two and three millions more. Opposed to these, the 
 Franco-Slavonian League had about ten millions under arms, 
 with nearly three millions in reserve. 
 
 As regards naval strength, the Alliance was able to pit 
 rather more than a thousand warships of all classes, and about 
 the same number of torpedo-boats, against nearly nine hundred 
 
The New Warfare. 181 
 
 warships and about seven hundred torpedo-boats at the disposal 
 of the League. 
 
 In addition to this latter armament, it is very necessary to 
 name a fleet of a hundred war-balloons of the type mentioned 
 in an earlier chapter, fifty of which belonged to Eussia and 
 fifty to France. No other European Power possessed any 
 engine of destruction that was capable of being efficiently 
 matched against the invention of M. Eiboult, who was now 
 occupying the position of Director of the aerial fleet in the 
 service of the League. 
 
 It would be both a tedious repetition of sickening descrip- 
 tions of scenes of bloodshed and a useless waste of space, to 
 enumerate in detail all the series of conflicts by sea and land 
 which resulted from the collision of the tremendous forces 
 which were thus arrayed against each other in a conflict that 
 was destined to be unparalleled in the history of the human 
 race. 
 
 To do so would be to occupy pages filled with more or less 
 technical descriptions of strategic movements, marches, and 
 countermarches, skirmishes, reconnaissances, and battles, which 
 followed each other with such unparalleled rapidity that the 
 combined efforts of the war correspondents of the European 
 press proved entirely inadequate to keep pace with them in 
 the form of anything like a continuous narrative. 
 
 It will therefore be necessary to ask the reader to remain 
 content with such brief summary as has been given, supple- 
 mented with the following extracts from a very lengthy re'sume' 
 of the leading events of the war up to date, which were 
 published in a special War Supplement issued by the Daily 
 Telegraph on the morning of Tuesday the 28th of June 1904 : — 
 
 " Although little more than a period of six weeks has elapsed 
 since the actual outbreak of hostilities which marked the 
 commencement of "what, be its issue what it may, must 
 indubitably prove the most colossal struggle in the history of 
 human warfare, changes have already occurred which must 
 infallibly mark their effect upon the future destiny of the 
 world. Almost as soon as the first shot was fired the nations 
 of Europe, as if by instinct or under the influence of some 
 power higher than that of international diplomacy, auto- 
 matically marshalled themselves into the two most mighty 
 
1 82 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 hosts that have ever trod the field of battle since man first 
 fought with man. 
 
 " Not less than twenty millions of men are at this moment 
 facing each other under arms throughout the area of the war. 
 These are almost equally divided ; for, although what is now 
 known as the Franco-Slavonian League has some three 
 millions of men more on land, it may be safely stated that 
 the preponderance of naval strength possessed by the Anglo- 
 Teutonic Alliance fully counterbalances this advantage. 
 
 " There is, however, another most important element which 
 has now for the first time been introduced into warfare, and 
 which, although it is most unhappily arrayed amongst the 
 forces opposed to our own country and her gallant allies, it 
 would be both idle and most imprudent to ignore. We refer, 
 of course, to the two fleets of war-balloons, or, as it would be 
 more correct to call them, navigable aerostats, possessed by 
 France and Eussia. 
 
 " So tremendous has been the influence which these terrible 
 inventions have exercised upon the course of the war, that we 
 are not transgressing the bounds of sober truth when we say 
 that they have utterly disconcerted and brought to nought the 
 highest strategy and the most skilfully devised plans of the 
 brilliant array of masters of the military art whose presence 
 adorns the ranks and enlightens the councils of the Alliance. 
 
 "Since the day when the Eussians crossed the German 
 and Austrian frontiers, and the troops of France and Italy 
 simultaneously flung themselves across the western frontiers 
 of Germany and through the passes of the Tyrol, their pro- 
 gress, unparalleled in rapidity even by the marvellous marches 
 of Napoleon, has been marked, not by what we have hitherto 
 been accustomed to call battles, but rather by a series of 
 colossal butcheries. 
 
 " In every case of any moment the method of procedure on 
 the part of the attacking forces has been the same, and, with 
 the deepest regret we confess it, it has been marked with the 
 same unvarying success. Whenever a large army has been 
 set in motion upon a predetermined point of attack, whether 
 a fortress, an entrenched camp, or a strongly occupied position 
 in the field, a squadron of aerostats has winged its way through 
 the air \mder cover of the darkness of night, and silently and 
 
The New Warfare. 183 
 
 unperceived has marked the disposition of forces, the approxi- 
 mate strength of the army or the position to be attacked, and, 
 as far as they were observable, the points upon which the 
 attack could be most favourably delivered. Then they have 
 returned with their priceless information, and, according to it, 
 the assailants have been able, in every case so far, to make 
 their assault where least expected, and to make it, moreover, 
 upon an already partially demoralised force. 
 
 "From the detailed descriptions which we have already 
 published of battles and sieges, or rather of the storming of 
 great fortresses, it will be remembered that every assault on 
 the part of the troops of the League has been preceded by a 
 preliminary and irresistible attack from the clouds. 
 
 "The aerostats have stationed themselves at great eleva- 
 tions over the ramparts of fortresses and the bivouacs of 
 armies, and have rained down a hail of dynamite, melinite, 
 fire-shells and cyanogen poison-grenades, which have at once 
 put guns out of action, blown up magazines, rendered 
 fortifications untenable, and rent masses of infantry and 
 squadrons of cavalry into demoralised fragments, before they 
 had the time or the opportunity to strike a blow in reply. 
 Then upon these silenced batteries, these wrecked forti- 
 fications, and these demoralised brigades, there has been 
 poured a storm of artillery fire from the untouched enemy, 
 advancing in perfect order, and inspired with high-spirited 
 confidence, which has been irresistibly opposed to the de- 
 moralisation of their enemies. 
 
 " Is it any wonder, or any disgrace, to the defeated, that 
 under such novel and appalling conditions the orderly and 
 disciplined onslaughts of the legions of the League have in 
 almost every case been completely successful ? The sober 
 truth is that the invention and employment of these devastat- 
 ing appliances have completely altered the face of the field of 
 battle and the conditions of modern warfare. It is not in human 
 valour, no matter how heroic or self-devoted it may be, to 
 oppose itself with anything like confidence to an enemy which 
 strikes from the skies, and cannot be struck in return. 
 
 " It was thus that the battles of Alexandrovo, Kalisz, and 
 Czernowicz were won in the early stages of the war upon the 
 Austro-German frontier. So, too, in the Rhine Provinces, were 
 
184 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the battles of Treves, Mulhausen, and Freiburg turned by the 
 aid of the French aerostats from battles into butcheries. It 
 was under the assault of these irresistible engines that the 
 great fortresses of Konigsberg, Thorn, Breslau, Strasburg, and 
 Metz, to say nothing of many minor, but strongly fortified, 
 places, were first reduced to a state of impotence for defence, 
 and then battered into ruins by the siege-guns of the assailants. 
 
 " All these terrible events, forming a series of catastrophes 
 unparalleled in the annals of war, are still fresh in the minds 
 of our readers, for they have followed one upon the other with 
 almost stupefying rapidity, and it is yet hardly six weeks since 
 the Cossacks and Uhlans were engaged in their first skirmish 
 near Gnesen. 
 
 "This is an amazingly brief space of time for the fate of 
 empires to be decided, and yet we are forced, with the utmost 
 sorrow and reluctance, to admit that what were two months 
 ago the magnificently disciplined and equipped armies of 
 Germany and Austria, are now completely shattered and broken 
 up into fragmentary and isolated army corps, decimated as to 
 numbers and demoralised as to discipline, gathered in and 
 about such strong places as are left to them, and awaiting 
 only with the courage of desperation the moment, we fear the 
 inevitable moment, when they shall be finally crushed between 
 the rapidly converging hosts of the victorious League. 
 
 "Within the next few days, Berlin, Hanover, Prague, 
 M unich, and Vienna must be invested, and may possibly be 
 destroyed or compelled to ignominious and unconditional 
 surrender by the irresistible forces that will be arrayed against 
 them. 
 
 " Meanwhile, with still deeper regret, we are forced to con- 
 fess that those operations in the Low Countries and the east 
 of Europe and Asia Minor in which our own gallant troops 
 have been engaged in conjunction with their several allies, 
 have been, if not equally disastrous, at least void of any 
 tangible success. 
 
 " Erzeroum, Trebizond, and Scutari have fallen ; the passes of 
 the Balkans have been forced, although at immense cost to the 
 enemy; Belgrade has been stormed; Adrianople is invested, 
 and Constantinople is therefore most seriously threatened. 
 
 "By heroic efforts the French attack upon the Quadri- 
 
The New Warfare. 185 
 
 lateral has been rolled back at a fearful expense of human life. 
 Antwerp is still untouched, and the command of the Baltic is 
 still ours. In our own waters, as well as in the Atlantic and 
 the Mediterranean, we have won victories which prove that 
 Great Britain is still the unconquered, and we trust uncon- 
 querable, mistress of the seas. We have kept the Dardanelles 
 open, and the Suez Canal is still inviolate. 
 
 " Two combined attacks, delivered by the allied French and 
 Italian squadrons on Malta and Gibraltar, have been repulsed 
 by Admiral Beresford with heavy loss to the enemy, thanks 
 to the timely warning delivered to Mr. Balfour by the Earl of 
 Alanmere — upon whose mysterious disappearance we comment 
 in another column — and the Prime Minister's prompt and 
 statesmanlike action in doubling the strength of the Mediter- 
 ranean fleet before the outbreak of hostilities. 
 
 " Thanks to the tireless activity and splendid handling of 
 the Channel fleet, the North Sea Division, and the Irish 
 Squadron, the enemy's flag has been practically swept from 
 the home waters, and the shores of our beloved country are as 
 inviolate as they have been for more than seven centuries. 
 These brilliant achievements go far to compensate us as an 
 individual nation for the disasters which have befallen our 
 allies on the Continent, and, in addition, we have the satisfac- 
 tion of knowing that, so far, the most complete success has 
 attended our arms in the East, and that the repeated and 
 determined assaults of our Russian foes have been trium- 
 phantly hurled back from the impregnable bulwarks of our 
 Indian Empire. 
 
 " It has been pointed out, and it would be vain to ignore 
 the fact, that not only have all our victories been won in the 
 absence of the aerial fleets of the League ; but that we, in 
 common with our allies, have been worsted in each of the 
 happily few cases in which even one of these terrible aerostats 
 has delivered its assaults upon us. Against this, however, we 
 take leave to set our belief that these machines do not yet 
 inspire sufficient confidence in their possessors to warrant 
 them in undertaking operations above the sea, or at any con- 
 siderable distance from their bases of manoeuvring. It is true 
 that we are entirely ignorant of the essentials of their con- 
 struction j but the fact that no attempt has yet been made to 
 
1 86 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 send them into action over blue water inspires us with the 
 hope and belief that their effective range of operations is 
 confined to the land. . . . 
 
 " It would be superfluous to say that the British Empire is 
 now involved in a struggle in comparison with which all our 
 former wars sink into absolute insignificance, a struggle which 
 will tax its immense resources to the very utmost. Nothing, 
 however, has yet occurred to warrant the belief that those 
 resources will not prove equal to the strain, or that the greatest 
 empire on earth will not emerge from this combat of the 
 giants with her ancient glory enhanced by new and hitherto 
 unequalled triumphs. 
 
 " Certainly at no period in our history have we been so 
 splendidly prepared to face our enemies both at home and 
 abroad. All arms of the Services are in the highest state of 
 efficiency, and the Government dockyards and arsenals, as 
 well as private firms, are working day and night to still further 
 strengthen them, and provide ample supplies of munitions of 
 war. The hearts of all the nations united under our flag are 
 beating as that of one man, and from the highest to the lowest 
 ranks of Society all are inspired by a spirit of whole-souled 
 patriotism which, if necessary, will make any sacrifice to pre- 
 serve the flag untarnished, and the honour of Britain without 
 a spot. 
 
 "At the head of affairs stands the man who of all others 
 has proved himself to be the most fitted to direct the destinies 
 of the empire in this tremendous crisis of her history. Party 
 feeling for the time being has almost entirely disappeared, 
 save amongst the few scattered bands of isolated Eevolu- 
 tionaries and malcontents, and Mr. Balfour possesses the 
 absolute confidence of his Majesty on the one hand, and the 
 undivided support of an impregnable majority in both Houses 
 of Parliament on the other. He is admirably seconded by 
 such lieutenants as Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Joseph 
 Chamberlain, and Sir George J. Goschen on his own side of 
 the House, and by the Earls of Eosebery and Morley, Lord 
 Brassey, and Sir Charles Dilke in what, previous to the out- 
 break of the war, was the opposing political camp, but which 
 is now a party as loyal as that of the Government to the best 
 interests of the Empire, and fully determined to give the 
 
The New Warfare. 187 
 
 utmost possible moral support consistent with fair and 
 impartial criticism. 
 
 " The disastrous mistake which was made by a very small 
 majority of the Upper House in rejecting the Government 
 guarantee for the ill-fated Italian loan is now, of course, past 
 repair ; for Italy, as events have proved, exasperated by what 
 her spokesmen termed her selfish betrayal by Britain, has 
 passionately thrown herself into the arms of the League, and 
 the Alliance has now no more bitter enemy than she is. It 
 is, however, only justice to those who defeated the loan to 
 add that they have now clearly seen and frankly owned their 
 grievous mistake, and rallied as one man to the support of the 
 Government" 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE HERALDS OF DISASTER. 
 
 NOTHEIt column in the same issue contained 
 an account of the " Mysterious Disappearance 
 of Lord Alanmere" and the doings of the 
 Ithuriel in the Atlantic. The account con- 
 cluded as follows : — 
 
 " As the enemy's squadron came up in chase 
 it was annihilated without warning and with appalling sudden- 
 ness by the air-ship, which must have crossed the Atlantic in 
 something like sixteen hours. After this fearful achievement 
 it descended to the Aurania, took off a saloon passenger named 
 Michael Eoburoff, evidently, from his reception, a Terrorist 
 himself, and then vanished through the clouds. For the 
 present, and until we have fuller information, we attempt no 
 detailed analysis of these astounding events. We merely 
 content ourselves with saying in the most solemn words that 
 we can use, that, awful and disastrous as is the war that is 
 now raging throughout the greatest part of the old world, 
 it is our firm belief that, behind the smoke-clouds of battle, 
 and beneath the surface of visible events, there is working a 
 secret power, possibly greater than any which has yet been 
 called into action, and which at an unexpected moment may 
 suddenly put forth its strength, upheave the foundations of 
 Society, and bury existing institutions in the ruins of 
 Civilisation. 
 
 " One fact is quite manifest, and that is, that although the 
 League possesses a weapon of fearful efficiency for destruction 
 in their fleet of aerostats, the Terrorists, controlled by no law 
 
 188 
 
The Heralds of Disaster. 189 
 
 save their own, and hampered by no traditions or limitations 
 of civilised warfare, are in command of another fleet of unknown 
 strength, the air-ships of which are apparently as superior to 
 the aerostats of the League as a modern battleship would be 
 to a three-decker of the time of Nelson. 
 
 " The power represented by such a fleet as this is absolutely 
 inconceivable. The aerostats are large, clumsy, and com- 
 paratively slow. They do not carry guns, and can only 
 drop their projectiles vertically downwards. Moreover, their 
 sphere of operations has so far been entirely confined to the 
 land. 
 
 " Very different, however, would seem to be the powers of 
 the Terrorist air-ships. They have proved conclusively that 
 they are swift almost beyond imagination. They have crossed 
 oceans and continents in a few hours ; they can ascend to 
 enormous heights, and they carry artillery of unknown design 
 and tremendous range, whose projectiles excel in destructive- 
 ness the very lightnings of heaven itself. 
 
 " In the presence of such an awful and mysterious power as 
 this even the quarrels of nations seem to shrink into un- 
 importance, and almost to pettiness. Where and when it may 
 strike, no man knows save those who wield it, and therefore 
 there is nothing for the peoples of the earth, however mighty 
 they may be, to do but to await the blow in humiliating 
 impotence, but still with a humble trust in that Higher Power 
 which alone can save it from accomplishing the destruction of 
 Society and the enslavement of the human race." 
 
 It may well be imagined with what interest, and it may 
 fairly be added with what intense anxiety, these words were 
 read by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the 
 British Islands. Even the news from the Seat of War began 
 to pall in interest before such tidings as these, invested as they 
 were with the irresistible if terrible charm of the unknown 
 and the mysterious. 
 
 By noon it w;is almost impossible to get any one in London 
 or any of the large towns to talk of anything but the disap- 
 pearance of Lord Alanmere, the Terrorists, and their marvellous 
 aerial fleet. But it goes without saying that nowhere did the 
 news produce greater distress or more utter bewilderment than 
 it did among the occupants of Alanmere Castle, and especially 
 
190 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 in the breast of her who had been so quickly and so strangely 
 installed as its new owner and mistress. 
 
 Everywhere the wildest rumours passed from lip to lip, 
 growing in sensation and absurdity as they went. A report, 
 telegraphed by an anonymous idiot from Liverpool, to the 
 effect that six air-ships had appeared over the Mersey, and 
 demanded a ransom of £10,000,000 from the town, was eagerly 
 seized on by the cheaper evening papers, which rushed out 
 edition after edition on the strength of it, until the St. James's 
 Gazette put an end to the excitement by publishing a telegram 
 from the Mayor of Liverpool denouncing the report as an 
 insane and criminal hoax. 
 
 The next edition of the St. James's, however, contained a 
 telegram from Hiorring, in Denmark, vid Newcastle, which 
 was of almost, if not quite, as startling and disquieting a 
 nature, and which, moreover, contained a very considerable 
 measure of truth. The telegram ran as follows : — 
 
 Naval Disaster in the Baltic. 
 
 The Sound forced by a Russian Squadron, assisted by a Terrorist Air-Ship. 
 
 (From our own Correspondent.) 
 
 Hiorring, June 2Sth, 8 a.m. 
 
 With the deepest regret I have to record the first naval disaster to the 
 British arms during the present war. As soon as it became dark last night 
 heavy firing was heard from Copenhagen to the southward, and before long the 
 sound deepened into an almost continuous roar of light and heavy guns. 
 
 Our naval force in the Baltic was so strong that it was deemed incredible 
 that the Russian fleet, which we have held imprisoned here since the commence- 
 ment of hostilities, should dream even of making an attempt to escape. The 
 cannonade, however, was the beginning of such an attempt, and it is useless 
 disguising the fact that it has been completely successful. That this would 
 have been the case, or, indeed, that the attempt would ever have been made 
 by the Russian fleet alone, cannot be for a moment credited. But, incredible 
 as it seems, it is nevertheless true that it was assisted, and that in a practically 
 irresistible fashion, by one of those air-ships which have hitherto been believed 
 to belong exclusively to the Terrorists, that is to say, to the deadliest enemies 
 that Russia possesses. 
 
 As nearly as is known the Russian fleet consisted of twelve battleships, 
 twenty-five armoured and unarmoured cruisers, and about forty torpedo-boats. 
 These came charging ahead at full speed into the entrance to the Sound in spite 
 of the overwhelming force of the Allied fleets, supported by the fortresses of 
 Copenhagen and Elsinore. The attack was so sudden and so completely un- 
 expected, that it must be confessed the defenders were to a certain extent taken 
 
The Heralds of Disaster. 191 
 
 unawares. The Russians came on in the form of an elongated wedge, their 
 most powerful vessels being at the apex and external sides. 
 
 The firing was furious and sustained from beginning to end of the rush, but 
 the damage inflicted by the cannonade of the Russian fleet and the torpedo- 
 boats, which every now and then darted out from between the warships as 
 opportunity offered to employ their silent and deadly weapons, was as nothing 
 in comparison with the frightful havoc achieved by the air-ship. 
 
 This extraordinary craft hovered over the attacking force, darting hither 
 and thither with bewildering rapidity, and raining down shells charged with an 
 unknown explosive of fearful power among the crowded ships of the great force 
 which was blocking the Sound. Half a dozen of these shells were fired upon 
 the seaward fortifications of Copenhagen in passing, and produced a perfectly 
 paralysing effect. 
 
 On the water the results of the air-ship's attack were destructive almost 
 beyond description, particularly when she stationed herself over the Allied fleet 
 and began firing her four guns right and left, ahead and astern. Every time a 
 shell struck either a battleship or a cruiser, the terrific explosion which resulted 
 either sank the ship in a few minutes, or so far disabled it that it fell an easy 
 prey to the guns and rams of the Russians. As for the torpedo-boats which 
 were struck, they were simply scattered over the water in indistinguishable 
 fragments. 
 
 Under these conditions maintenance of formation and effective fighting were 
 practically impossible, and the huge iron wedge of the Russian squadron was 
 driven almost without a check through the demoralised ranks of the Allied 
 fleet. The Gut of Elsinore was reached in a little more than three hours after 
 the first sounds of the cannonade were heard. Shortly before this the air-ship 
 had stationed itself about a thousand feet above the water, and a mile from the 
 fortifications. 
 
 From this position it commenced a brief, rapid cannonade from its smokeless 
 and flameless guns, the effects of which on the fortress are said to have been 
 indescribably awful. Great blocks of steel-sheathed masonry were dislodged 
 from the ramparts and hurled bodily into the sea, carrying with them guns 
 and men to irretrievable destruction. In less than half an hour the once 
 impregnable fortress of Elsinore was little better than a heap of ruins. The last 
 shell blew up the central magazine ; the tremendous explosion was heard for 
 miles along the coast, and proved to be the closing act of the briefest but most 
 deadly great naval action in the history of war. 
 
 The Russian fleet steamed triumphantly past the silenced Cerberus of the 
 Sound with flashing searchlights, blazing rockets, and jubilant salvos of blank 
 cartridge in honour of their really brilliant victory. 
 
 The losses of the Allied fleet, so far as they are at present known, are dis- 
 tressingly heavy. We have lost the battleships Neptune, Hotspur, Anson, 
 Superb, Black Prince, and Bodney, the armoured cruisers Narcissus, Beatrice, 
 and Mersey, the unarmoured cruisers Arethusa, Barossa, Clyde, Lais, Seagull, 
 Grasshopper, and Nautilus, and not less than nineteen torpedo-boats of the first 
 and second classes. 
 
 The Germans and Danes have lost the battleships Kaiser Wilhelm, 
 Fricdrich der Grosse, Dantzig, Viborg, and Funen, five German and three 
 Danish cruisers, and about a dozen torpedo-boats. 
 
 Under whatever circumstances the Russians have obtained the assistance of 
 the air-ship, which rendered them services that have proved so disastrous to the 
 Allies, there can be no doubt but that her arrival on the scene puts a com- 
 pletely different aspect on the face of affairs at sea. 
 
192 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 I have written this telegram on board first-class torpedo-boat, No. 87, which 
 followed the Russian fleet from the Sound round the Skawe. They passed 
 through the Kattegat in two columns of line ahead, with the air-ship apparently 
 resting after her flight on board one of the largest steamers. We could see her 
 quite distinctly by the glare of the rockets and the electric light. She is a 
 small three-masted vessel almost exactly resembling the one which partially 
 destroyed Kronstadt in the middle of March. 
 
 After rounding the Skawe, the Russian fleet steamed away westward into 
 the German Ocean, and we put in here to send off our despatches. This 
 telegram has, of course, been officially revised, and my information, as far as it 
 goes, can therefore be relied upon. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 AN INTERLUDE. 
 
 }T noon on the 26th, as the tropical sun was pour- 
 ing down its vertical rays upon the lovely valley 
 of Aeria, the Ithuriel crossed the Eidge which 
 divided it from the outer world, and came to 
 rest on the level stretch of sward on the northern 
 shore of the lake. 
 Before she touched the earth Arnold glanced rapidly round 
 and discovered his aerial fleet resting under a series of large 
 palm-thatched sheds which had already been erected to protect 
 them from the burning sun, and the rare but violent tropical 
 rain-storms. He counted them. There were only eleven, and 
 therefore the evil tidings that they had heard from the captain 
 of the Andromeda was true. 
 
 Even before greetings were exchanged with the colonists 
 Natas ordered Nicholas Eoburoff to be summoned on board 
 alone. He received him in the lower saloon, on either side of 
 which, as he went in, he found a member of the crew armed 
 with a magazine rifle and fixed bayonet. 
 
 Seated at the cabin table were Natas, Tremayne, and Arnold. 
 The President was received in cold and ominous silence, not 
 even a glance of recognition was vouchsafed to him. He stood 
 at the other end of the table with bowed head, a prisoner before 
 his judges. Natas looked at him for some moments in dead 
 silence, and there was a dark gleam of anger in his eyes which 
 made Arnold tremble for the man whose life hung upon a word 
 of a judge from whose sentence there could be no appeal. 
 
 At length Natas spoke ; his voice was hard and even ; there 
 were no modulations in it that displayed the slightest feeling, 
 13 
 
194 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 whether of anger or any other emotion. It was like the voice 
 of an impassive machine speaking the very words of Fate 
 itself. 
 
 " You know why we have returned, and why you have been 
 sent for ? " 
 
 " Yes, Master." 
 
 BoburofFs voice was low and respectful, but there was no 
 quaver of fear in it. 
 
 " You were left here in command of the settlement and in 
 charge of the fleet. You were ordered to permit no vessel 
 to leave the valley till the flagship returned. One of them 
 was seen crossing the Mediterranean in a northerly direction 
 three days ago. Either you are a traitor, or that vessel is in 
 the hands of traitors. Explain." 
 
 Nicholas Koburoff remained silent for a few moments. His 
 breast heaved once or twice convulsively, as though he were 
 striving hard to repress some violent emotion. Then he drew 
 himself up like a soldier coming to attention, and, looking 
 straight in front of him, told his story briefly and calmly, 
 though he knew that, according to the laws of the Order, its 
 sequel might, and probably would, be his own death. 
 
 " The night of the day on which the flagship left the valley 
 was visited by a violent storm, which raged for about four 
 hours without cessation. We had no proper shelter but the 
 air-ships, and so I distributed the company among them. 
 
 "When nearly all had been provided for, there was one 
 vessel left unoccupied, and four of the unmarried men had not 
 been accommodated. They therefore took their places in the 
 spare vessel. They were Peter Tamboff, Amos Vornjeh, Ivan 
 Tscheszco, and Paul Oreloff, all Eussians. 
 
 " We closed the hatches of the vessels, and remained inside 
 till the storm ceased. When we were able to open the hatches 
 again, it was pitch dark — so dark that it was impossible to see 
 even a yard from one's face. Suspecting no evil, we retired to 
 rest again till sunrise. When day dawned it was found that 
 the vessel in which the four men I have named had taken 
 shelter had disappeared. 
 
 " I at once ordered three vessels to rise and pass through 
 the defile. On the outside we separated and made the entire 
 circuit of Aeiia, rising as high as the fan-wheels would take 
 
An Interlude. 195 
 
 us, and examining the horizon in all directions for the missing 
 vessel. 
 
 " We failed to discover her, and were forced to the conclusion 
 that the deserters had taken her away early in the night at 
 full speed, and would, therefore, be far beyond the possibility 
 of capture, as we possessed no faster vessel than the missing 
 one. So we returned. That is all." 
 
 " Go to the forward cabin and remain there till you're sent 
 for," said Natas. 
 
 The President instantly turned and walked mechanically 
 through the door that was opened for him by one of the 
 sentinels. The other went in front of him, the second behind, 
 closing the door as he left the saloon. 
 
 A brief discussion took place between Natas and his two 
 lieutenants, and within a quarter of an hour Nicholas Eoburoff 
 was again standing at the end of the table to hear the decision 
 of his judges. Without any preamble it was delivered by 
 Natas in these words — 
 
 " We have heard your story, and believe it. You have been 
 guilty of a serious mistake, for these four men were all ordinary 
 members of the Outer Circle, who had only been brought here 
 on account of their mechanical skill to occupy subordinate 
 positions. You therefore committed a grave error, amounting 
 almost to a breach of the rule which states that no members of 
 the Outer Circle shall be entrusted with any charge, or work, 
 save under the supervision of a member of the Inner Circle 
 responsible for them. 
 
 " Had such a breach been even technically committed your 
 life would have been forfeited, and you would have been 
 executed for breach of trust. We have considered the circum- 
 stances, and find you guilty of indiscretion and want of 
 forethought. 
 
 " You will cease from now to be President of the Inner 
 Circle. Your place will be taken for the time by Alan 
 Tremayne as Chief of the Executive. You will cease also to 
 share the Councils of the Order for a space of twelve months, 
 during which time you will be incapable of any responsible 
 charge or authority. Your restoration will, of course, depend 
 upon your behaviour. I have said." 
 
 As he finished speaking Natas waved his hand towards the 
 
196 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 door. It was opened, the sentries stepped aside, and Nicholas 
 Koburoff walked out in silence, with bowed head and a heart 
 heavy with shame. The penalty was really the most severe 
 that could be inflicted on him, for he found himself suddenly 
 deprived both of authority and the confidence of his chiefs at 
 the very hour when the work of the Brotherhood was cul- 
 minating to its fruition. 
 
 Yet, heavy as the punishment seemed in comparison with 
 the fault, it was justified by the necessities of the case. 
 Without the strictest safeguards, not only against treachery or 
 disobedience, but even mere carelessness, it would have been 
 impossible to have carried on the tremendous work which the 
 Brotherhood had silently and secretly accomplished, and which 
 was soon to produce results as momentous as they would be 
 unexpected. No one knew this better than the late President 
 himself, who frankly acknowledged the justice and the 
 necessity of his punishment, and prepared to devote himself 
 heart and soul to regaining his lost credit in the eyes of the 
 Master. 
 
 No sooner was the sentence pronounced than the matter 
 was instantly dismissed and never alluded to again, so far as 
 Itoburoff was concerned, by any one. No one presumed even to 
 comment upon a word or deed of the Master. The disgraced 
 President fell naturally, and apparently without observation, 
 into his humbler sphere of duties, and the members of the 
 colony treated him with exactly the same friendliness and 
 fraternity as they had done before. Natas had decided, and 
 there was nothing more for any one to say or do in the matter. 
 
 Arnold, as soon as he had exchanged greetings with the 
 Princess, now known simply as Anna Ornovski, and his other 
 friends and acquaintances in the colony, not, of course, forget- 
 ting Louis Holt, at once shut himself up in his laboratory by 
 the turbine, and for the next four hours remained invisible, 
 preparing a large supply of his motor gases, and pumping them 
 into the exhausted cylinders of the Ithuriel, and all the others 
 that were available, by means of his hydraulic machinery. 
 
 Soon after four he had finished his task, and come out to 
 take his part in a ceremony of a very different character to 
 that at which he had been obliged to assist earlier in the day. 
 This was the fulfilment of the promise which Radna Michaelis 
 
An Interlude. 197 
 
 had made to Colston in the Council -chamber of the house 
 on Clapham Common on the evening of his departure on 
 the expedition which had so brilliantly proved the powers of 
 the Ariel, and brought such confusion on the enemies of the 
 Brotherhood. 
 
 Almost the first words that Colston had said to Eadna 
 when he boarded the Avondale were — 
 
 "Natasha is yonder, safe and sound, and you are mine at 
 last!" 
 
 And she had replied very quietly, yet with a thrill in her 
 voice that told her lover how gladly she accepted her own 
 condition — 
 
 " What you have fairly won is yours to take when you will 
 have it. Besides, you cannot do justice on Kastovitch now, 
 for it has already been done. We had news before we left 
 England that he had been shot through the heart by the 
 brother of a girl whom he treated worse than he treated 
 me." 
 
 But, as has been stated before, the laws of the Brotherhood 
 did not permit of the marriage of any of its members without 
 the direct sanction of Natas, and therefore it had been 
 necessary to wait until now. 
 
 As Eadna and Colston were two of the most trusted and 
 prominent members of the Inner Circle, it was fitting that 
 their wedding should be honoured by the presence of the 
 Master in person. An added solemnity was also given to it 
 by the fact that, in all human probability, it was the first 
 time since the world began that the mighty hills which looked 
 down upon Aeria had witnessed the plighting of the troth of 
 a man and a woman. 
 
 Like all other formal acts of the Brotherhood, the ceremony 
 was simple in the extreme ; but, in this case at least, it was 
 none the less impressive on that account. In a lovely glade, 
 through which a crystal stream ran laughing on its way to 
 the lake, Natas sat under the shade of a spreading tree-fern. 
 In front of him was a small table covered with a white cloth, 
 on which lay a roll of parchment and a copy of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. 
 
 At this table, facing Natas, stood the betrothed pair with 
 their witnesses, Natasha for Eadna, and Arnold for Colston, 
 
198 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 or Alexis Mazanoff, to give him his true name, which must, 
 of course, be used on such an occasion. In a wide semi- 
 circle some four yards off stood all the members of the little 
 community, Louis Holt and his faithful servitor not excepted. 
 
 In the midst of a silence broken only by the whispering of 
 the warm, scented wind in the tree-tops, the Master of the 
 Terror spoke in a kindly yet solemn tone — 
 
 "Alexis Mazanoff and Eadna Michaelis, you stand here 
 before Heaven, and in the presence of your comrades, to take 
 each other for wedded wife and husband, till death shall part 
 the hands that now are joined ! 
 
 " Your mutual vows have long ago been pledged, and what 
 you are about to do is good earnest of their fultilment. But 
 above the duty that you owe to each other stands your duty 
 to that great Cause to which you have already irrevocably 
 devoted your lives. You have already sworn that as long as 
 you shall live its ends shall be your ends, and that no human 
 considerations shall weigh with you where those ends are 
 concerned. Do you take each other for husband and wife 
 subject to that condition and all that it implies ? " 
 
 " We do ! " replied the lovers with one voice, and then 
 Natas went on — 
 
 "Then by the laws of our Order, the only laws that we 
 are permitted to obey, I pronounce you man and wife before 
 Heaven and this company. Be faithful to each other and the 
 Cause in the days to come as you have been in the days that 
 are past, and if it shall please the Master of Destiny that you 
 shall be blessed with children, see to it that you train them 
 up in the love of truth, freedom, and justice, and in the hatred 
 of tyranny and wrong. 
 
 " May the blessings of life be yours as you shall deserve 
 them, and when the appointed hour shall come, may you be 
 found ready to pass from the mystery of the things that are 
 into the deeper mystery of the things that are to be ! " 
 
 So saying, the Master raised his hands as though in 
 blessing, and as Alexis and Eadna bent their heads the slant- 
 ing sunrays fell upon the thickly coiled white hair of the 
 new-made wife, crowning her shapely head like a diadem 
 of silver. 
 
 All that remained to do now was to sign the Marriage Boll 
 
An Interlude. 199 
 
 of the Brotherhood, and when they had done this the entry 
 stood as follows : — 
 
 "Married on the tenth day of the Month Tamuz, in the 
 Year of the World five thousand six hundred and sixty-four, 
 in the presence of me, Natas, and those of the Brotherhood 
 now resident in the Colony of Aeria : — 
 
 (Alexis Mazanoff, 
 
 JKadna Miciiaelis Mazanoff. 
 
 w ., (Eichard Arnold, 
 
 Witnesses | Natasha< 
 
 As Natasha laid down the pen after signing she looked up 
 quickly, as though moved by some sudden impulse, her eyes 
 met Arnold's, and an instant later the happy flush on Kadna's 
 cheek was rivalled by that which rose to her own. Her lips 
 half parted in a smile, and then she turned suddenly away to 
 be the first to offer her congratulations to the newly-wedded 
 wife, while Arnold, his heart beating as it had never done 
 since the model of the Ariel first rose from the floor of his 
 room in the Southwark tenement-house, grasped Mazanoff 
 by the hand and said simply — 
 
 " God bless you both, old man ! " 
 
 The whole ceremony had not taken more than fifteen 
 minutes from beginning to end. After Arnold came Tremayne 
 with his good wishes, and then Anna Ornovski and the rest 
 of the friends and comrades of the newly-wedded lovers. 
 
 One usually conspicuous feature in similar ceremonies was 
 entirely wanting. There were no wedding presents. For 
 this there was a very sufficient reason. All the property of 
 the members of the Inner Circle, saving only articles of 
 personal necessity, were held in common. Articles of mere 
 convenience or luxury were looked upon with indifference, if 
 not with absolute contempt, and so no one had anything to 
 give. 
 
 After all, this was not a very serious matter for a company 
 of men and women who held in their hands the power of 
 levying indemnities to any amount upon the wealth-centres 
 of the world under pain of immediate destruction. 
 
 That evening the supper of the colonists took the shape of 
 
200 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 a sylvan marriage feast, eaten in the open air under the palms 
 and tree ferns, as the sun was sinking down behind the western 
 peaks of Aeria, and the full moon was rising over those to the 
 eastward. 
 
 The whole earth might have been searched in vain for a 
 happier company of men and women than that which sat down 
 to the marriage feast of Eadna Michaelis and Alexis Mazanoff 
 in the virgin groves of Aeria. For the time being the world- 
 war and all its horrors were forgotten, and they allowed their 
 thoughts to turn without restraint to the promise of the days 
 when the work of the Brotherhood should be accomplished, 
 and there should be peace on earth at last. 
 
 It had been decided that three of the air-ships would be 
 sufficient for the chase and capture or destruction, as the case 
 might be, of the deserters. These were the Ithuriel, under the 
 command of Arnold ; the Ariel, commanded by Mazanoff, who, 
 of course, did not sail alone; and the Orion, in charge of 
 Tremayne, who had already mastered the details of aerial 
 navigation under Arnold's tuition. 
 
 To the unspeakable satisfaction of the latter, Natas had 
 signified his intention of accompanying him in the Ithuriel. 
 As Natasha utterly refused to be parted so soon from her 
 father again, one of his attendants was dispensed with and she 
 took his place. This fact had, of course, something to do with 
 the Admiral's satisfaction with the arrangement. 
 
 By nine o'clock the moon was high in the heavens. At that 
 hour the fan-wheels of the little squadron rose from the decks, 
 and at a signal from Arnold began to revolve. The three 
 vessels ascended quietly into the air amidst the cheers and 
 farewells of the colonists, and in single file passed slowly down 
 the beautiful valley bathed in the brilliant moonlight. One 
 by one they disappeared through the defile that led to the outer 
 world, and, once clear of the mountains, the Ithuriel, with one 
 of her consorts on either side, headed away due north at the 
 speed of a hundred miles an hour. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ON THE TRACK OF TREASON. 
 
 HE Ithuriel and her consorts crossed the northern 
 coast of Africa soon after daybreak on the 27th, 
 in the longitude of Alexandria, at an elevation 
 of nearly 4000 feet. Erom thence they pursued 
 almost the same course as that steered by the 
 deserters, as JSTatas had rightly judged that 
 they would first make for Eussia, probably St. Petersburg, and 
 there hand the air-ship over to the representatives of the Tsar. 
 There was, of course, another alternative, and that was the 
 supposition that they had stolen the Lucifer — the " fallen 
 Angel," as Natasha had now re-named her — for purposes of 
 piracy and private revenge ; but that was negatived by the fact 
 that Tamboff knew that he only had a certain supply of motive 
 power which he could not renew, and which, once exhausted, 
 left his air-ship as useless as a steamer without coal. His only 
 reasonable course, therefore, would be to sell the vessel to the 
 Tsar, and leave his Majesty's chemists to discover and renew 
 the motive power if they could. 
 
 These conclusions once arrived at, it was an easy matter for 
 the keen and subtle intellect of Natas to deduce from them 
 almost the exact sequence of events that had actually taken 
 place. The Lucifer had a sufficient supply of power-cylinders 
 and shells for present use, and these would doubtless be 
 employed at once by the Tsar, who would trust to his chemists 
 and engineers to discover the nature of the agents employed. 
 
 For this purpose it would be absolutely necessary for him to 
 give them one or two of the shells, and at least two of the 
 spare power-cylinders as subjects for their experiments. 
 
 201 
 
202 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Now Natas knew that if there was one man in Eussia who 
 could discover the composition of the explosives, that man was 
 Professor Volnow of the Imperial Arsenal Laboratory, and 
 therefore the shells and cylinders would be sent to him at the 
 Arsenal for examination. The whereabouts of the deserters 
 for the present mattered nothing in comparison with the 
 possible discovery of the secret on which the whole power of 
 the Terrorists depended. 
 
 That once revealed, the sole empire of the air was theirs no 
 longer. The Tsar, with millions of money at his command, 
 could very soon build an aerial fleet, not only equal, but, 
 numerically at least, vastly superior to their own, and this 
 would practically give him the command of the world. 
 
 Natas therefore came to the conclusion that no measures 
 could be too extreme to be justified by such a danger as this, 
 and so, after a consultation with the commanders of the three 
 vessels, it was decided to, if necessary, destroy the Arsenal at 
 St. Petersburg, on the strength of the reasoning that had led 
 to the logical conclusion that within its precincts the priceless 
 secret either might be or had already been discovered. 
 
 As the crow flies, St. Petersburg is thirty degrees of latitude, 
 or eighteen hundred geographical miles, north of Alexandria, 
 and this distance the Ithuriel and her consorts, flying at a 
 speed of a hundred and twenty miles an hour, traversed in 
 fifteen hours, reaching the Eussian capital a few minutes after 
 seven on the evening of the 27th. 
 
 The Eome of the North, basking in the soft evening sunlight 
 of the incomparable Eussian summer, lay vast and white and 
 beautiful on the islands formed by the Neva and its ten tribu- 
 taries; its innumerable palaces, churches, and theatres, and 
 long straight streets of stately houses, its parks and gardens, 
 and its green shady suburbs, making up a picture which forced 
 an exclamation of wonder from Arnold's lips as the air-ships 
 slowed down and he left the conning-tower of the Ithuriel to 
 admire the magnificent view from the bows. They passed 
 over the city at a height of four thousand feet, and so were 
 quite near enough to see and enjoy the excitement and con- 
 sternation which their sudden appearance instantly caused 
 among the inhabitants. The streets and squares filled in an 
 inconceivably short space of time with crowds of people, who 
 
On the Track of Treason. 203 
 
 ran about like tiny ants upon the ground, gesticulating and 
 pointing upwards, evidently in terror lest the fate of Kronstadt 
 was about to fall upon St. Petersburg. 
 
 The experimental department of the Arsenal had within the 
 last two or three years been rebuilt on a large space of waste 
 ground outside the northern suburbs, and to this the three air- 
 ships directed their course after passing over the city. It was a 
 massive three-storey building, built in the form of a quadrangle. 
 The three air-ships stopped within a mile of it at an elevation 
 of two thousand feet. It had been decided that, before pro- 
 ceeding to extremities, which, after all, might still leave them 
 in doubt as to whether or not they had really destroyed all 
 means of analysing the explosives, they should make an effort 
 to discover whether Professor Volnow had received them for 
 experiment, and, if so, what success he had had. 
 
 Mazanoff had undertaken this delicate and dangerous task, 
 and so, as soon as the Ithuriel and the Orion came to a stand- 
 still, and hung motionless in the air, with all their guns ready 
 trained on different parts of the building, the Ariel sank 
 suddenly and swiftly down, and stopped within forty feet of 
 the heads of a crowd of soldiers and mechanics, who had rushed 
 pell-mell out of the building, under the impression that it was 
 about to be destroyed. 
 
 The bold manoeuvre of the Ariel took officers and men com- 
 pletely by surprise. So intense was the terror in which these 
 mysterious air-ships were held, and so absolute was the belief 
 that they were armed with perfectly irresistible means of 
 destruction, that the sight of one of them at such close quarters 
 paralysed all thought and action for the time being. The first 
 shock over, the majority of the crowd took to their heels and 
 fled incontinently. Of the remainder a few of the bolder 
 spirits handled their rifles and looked inquiringly at their 
 officers. Mazanoff saw this, and at once raised his hand 
 towards the sky and shouted — 
 
 " Ground arms ! If a shot is fired the Arsenal will be 
 destroyed as Kronstadt was, and then we shall attack Peters- 
 burg.''' 
 
 The threat was sufficient. A grey-haired officer in undress 
 uniform glanced up at the Ithuriel and her consort, and then 
 at the guns of the Ariel, all four of which had been swung 
 
204 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 round and brought to bear on the side of the building near 
 which she had descended. He was no coward, but he saw that 
 Mazanoff had the power to do what he said, and that even if 
 this one air-ship were captured or destroyed, the other two 
 would take a frightful vengeance. He thought of Kronstadt, 
 and decided to parley. The rifle butts had come to the ground 
 before Mazanoff had done speaking. 
 
 " Order arms, and keep silence ! " said the officer, and then 
 he advanced alone from the crowd and said — 
 
 " Who are you, and what is your errand ? " 
 
 " Alexis Mazanoff, late prisoner of the Tsar, and now com- 
 mander of the Terrorist air-ship Ariel. I have not come to 
 destroy you unless you force me to do so, but to ask certain 
 questions, and demand the giving up of certain property 
 delivered into your hands by deserters and traitors." 
 
 " What are your questions ? " 
 
 " First, is Professor Volnow in the building ? " 
 
 " He is." 
 
 " Then I must ask you to send for him at once." 
 
 It went sorely against the grain of the servant of the Tsar 
 to acquiesce in the demand of an outlaw, but there was nothing 
 else for it. The outlaw could blow him and all his subordinates 
 into space with a pressure of his finger; and so he sent an 
 orderly with a request for the presence of the professor. Mean- 
 while Mazanoff continued — 
 
 " An air-ship similar to this arrived here three days ago, I 
 believe ? " 
 
 The officer bit his lips with rage at his helpless position, 
 and bowed affirmatively. 
 
 "And certain articles were taken out of her for examination 
 here — two gas cylinders and a projectile, I believe ? " 
 
 Again the officer bowed, wondering how on earth the 
 Terrorist could have come by such accurate information. 
 
 " And the air-ship has been sent on to the seat of war, while 
 the Professor is trying to discover the composition of the gases 
 and the explosive used in the shell ? " went on Mazanoff, risking 
 a last shot at the truth. 
 
 The officer did not bow this time. Giving way at last to 
 his rising fury, he stamped on the ground and almost 
 screamed — 
 
On the Track of Treason. 205 
 
 " Great God ! you insolent scoundrel ! Why do you ask me 
 questions when you know the answers as well as I do, and 
 better ? Yes, we have got one of your diabolical ships of the 
 air, and we will build a fleet like it and hunt you from the 
 world ! " 
 
 " All in good time, my dear sir," replied Mazanoff ironically. 
 " When you have found a place in which to build them that 
 we cannot blow off the face of the earth before you get one 
 finished. Meanwhile, let me beg of you to keep your temper, 
 and to remember that there is a lady present. That girl 
 standing yonder by the gun was once stripped and flogged by 
 Eussians calling themselves men and soldiers. Her fingers are 
 itching to make the movement that would annihilate you and 
 every one standing near you, so pray try keep your temper ; for 
 if we fire a shot the air-ships up yonder will at once open fire, 
 and not stop while there is a stone of that building left upon 
 another. Ah ! here comes the Professor." 
 
 As he spoke the man of science advanced, looking wonder- 
 ingly at the air-ship. Mazanoff made a sign to the old officer 
 to keep silence, and continued in the same polite tone that he 
 had used all along — 
 
 " Good evening, Professor ! I have come to ask you whether 
 you have yet made any experiments on the contents of the 
 shell and the two cylinders that were given to you for 
 examination ? " 
 
 " I must first ask for your authority to put such an inquiry 
 to me on a confidential subject," replied the Professor stiffly. 
 
 "On the authority given me by the power to enforce an 
 answer, sir," returned the Terrorist quietly. "I know that 
 Professor Volnow will not lie to me, even at the order of the 
 Tsar, and when I tell you that your refusal to reply will cost 
 the lives of every one here, and possibly involve the destruc- 
 tion of Petersburg itself, I feel sure that, as a mere matter of 
 humanity, you will comply with my request." 
 
 " Sir, the orders of my master are absolute secrecy on this 
 subject, and I will obey them to the death. I have analysed 
 the contents of one of the cylinders, but what they are I will 
 tell to no one save by the direct command of his Majesty. 
 That is all I have done." 
 
 " Then in that case, Professor, I must ask you to surrender 
 
2o6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 yourself prisoner of war, and to come on board this vessel at 
 once." 
 
 As Mazanoff said this the Ariel dropped to within ten feet 
 of the ground, and a rope-ladder fell over the side. 
 
 " Come, Professor, there is no time to be lost. I shall give 
 the order to fire in one minute from now." 
 
 He took out his watch, and began to count the seconds. 
 Ten, twenty, thirty passed and the Professor stood irresolute. 
 Two of the Ariel's guns pointed at the gables of the Arsenal, 
 and two swept the crowded space in front. 
 
 Konstantin Volnow knew enough to see clearly the frightful 
 slaughter and destruction that twenty seconds more would 
 bring if he refused to give himself up. As Mazanoff counted 
 " forty " he threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and 
 cried — 
 
 " Stop ! I will come. The Tsar has as good servants as I 
 am ! Colonel, tell his Majesty that I gave myself up to save 
 the lives of better men." 
 
 Then the Professor mounted the ladder amidst a murmur of 
 relief and applause from the crowd, and, gaining the deck of 
 the Ariel, bowed coldly to Mazanoff and said — 
 
 " I am your prisoner, sir ! " 
 
 The captain of the Ariel bowed in reply, and stamped thrice 
 on the deck. The fan-wheels whirled round, and the air-ship 
 rapidly ascended, at the same time moving diagonally across 
 the quadrangle of the Arsenal. 
 
 Scarcely had she reached the other side when there was a 
 tremendous explosion in the north-eastern angle of the build- 
 ing. A sheet of flame shot up through the roof, the walls split 
 asunder, and masses of stone, wood, and iron went flying in all 
 directions, leaving only a fiercely burning mass of ruins where 
 the gable had been. 
 
 The Professor turned ashy pale, staggered backwards with 
 both his hands clasped to his head, and gasped out brokenly as 
 he stared at the conflagration — 
 
 " God have mercy on me ! My laboratory ! My assistant — 
 I told him "— 
 
 " What did you tell him, Professor ? " said Mazanoff sternly, 
 grasping him suddenly by the arm. 
 
 " I told him not to open the other cylinder." 
 
On the Track of Treason. 207 
 
 " And he has done so, and paid for his disobedience with his 
 life," said Mazanoff calmly. " Console yourself, my dear sir ! 
 He has only saved me the trouble of destroying your labora- 
 tory. I serve a sterner and more powerful master than yours. 
 He ordered me to make your experiments impossible if it cost 
 a thousand lives to do so, and I would have done it if necessary. 
 Eest content with the knowledge that you have saved, not only 
 the rest of the Arsenal, but also Petersburg, by your sur- 
 render ; for sooner than that secret had been revealed, we 
 should have laid the city in ruins to slay the man who had 
 discovered it." 
 
 The prisoner of the Terrorists made no reply, but turned 
 away in silence to watch the rapidly receding building, in the 
 angle of which the flames were still raging furiously. A few 
 minutes later the Ariel had rejoined her consorts. Her captain 
 at once went on board the flagship to make his report and 
 deliver up his prisoner to Natas, who looked sharply at him 
 and said — 
 
 " Professor, will you give me your word of honour to attempt 
 no communication with the earth while it may be found neces- 
 sary to detain you ? If not, I shall be compelled to keep you 
 in strict confinement till it is beyond your power to do so." 
 
 " Sir, I give you my word that I will not do so," said the 
 Professor, who had now somewhat regained his composure. 
 
 " Very well," replied Natas. " Then on that condition you 
 will be made free of the vessel, and we will make you as 
 comfortable as we can. Captain Arnold, full speed to the 
 south-westward, if you please." 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A SKIRMISH IN THE CLOUDS. 
 
 FEW minutes after two on the following morn- 
 ing, that is to say on the 28th, the electric 
 signal leading from the conning-tower of the 
 Ithuriel to the wall of Arnold's cabin, just above 
 his berth, sounded. As it was only permitted 
 to be used on occasions of urgency, he knew 
 that his presence was immediately required forward for some 
 good reason, and so he turned out at once, threw a dressing- 
 gown over his sleeping suit, and within three minutes was 
 standing in the conning-tower beside Andrew Smith, whose 
 watch it then happened to be. 
 
 " Well, Smith, what's the matter ? " 
 
 "Fleet of war-balloons coming up from the south'ard, sir. 
 You can just see 'em, sir, coming on in line under that long 
 bank of cloud." 
 
 The captain of the Ithuriel took the night-glasses, and looked 
 eagerly in the direction pointed out by his keen-eyed coxswain. 
 As soon as he picked them up he had no difficulty in making 
 out twelve small dark spots in line at regular intervals sharply 
 defined against a band of light that lay between the earth and 
 a long dark bank of clouds. 
 
 It was a division of the Tsar's aerial fleet, returning from 
 some work of death and destruction in the south to rejoin the 
 main force before Berlin. Arnold's course was decided on in 
 an instant. He saw a chance of turning the tables on his 
 Majesty in a fashion that he would find as unpleasant as it 
 would be unexpected. He turned to his coxswain and said — 
 " How is the wind, Smith ? " 
 
 208 
 
A Skirmish in the Clouds. 209 
 
 "Nor'-nor'-west, with perhaps half a point more north in 
 it, sir. About a ten-knot breeze — at least that's the drift that 
 Mr. Marston's allowing for." 
 
 " Yes, that's near enough. Then those fellows, if they are 
 going full speed, are coming up at about twenty miles an hour, 
 or not quite that. They're nearly twenty miles off, as nearly 
 as I can judge in this light. What do you make it ? " 
 
 " That's about it, sir ; rather less than more, if anything, to 
 my mind." 
 
 "Very well, then. Now signal to stop, and send up the 
 fan-wheels ; and tell the Ariel and the Orion to close up and 
 speak." 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir," said the coxswain, as he saluted and disappeared. 
 Arnold at once went back to his cabin and dressed, telling his 
 second officer, Frank Marston, a young Englishman, whom he 
 had chosen to take Mazanoffs place, to do the same as quietly 
 as possible, as he did not wish to awaken any of his three 
 passengers just at present. 
 
 By the time he got on deck the three air-ships had slowed 
 down considerably, and the two consorts of the Ithuriel were 
 within easy speaking distance. Mazanoff and Tremayne were 
 both on deck, and to them he explained his plans as follows — 
 
 "There are a dozen of the Tsar's war-balloons coming up 
 yonder to the southward, and I am going to head them off and 
 capture the lot if I can. If we can do that, we can make what 
 terms we like for the surrender of the Lucifer. 
 
 " You two take your ships and get to windward of them as 
 fast as you can. Keep a little higher than they are, but not 
 much. On no account let one of them get above you. If they 
 try to descend, give each one that does so a No. 1 shell, and 
 blow her up. If one tries to pass you, ram her in the upper 
 part of the gas-holder, and let her down with a smash. 
 
 " I am going up above them to prevent any of them from 
 rising too far. They can outfly us in that one direction, so I 
 shall blow any that attempt it into little pieces. If you have 
 to fire on any of them, don't use more than No. 1 ; you'll find 
 that more than enough. 
 
 "Keep an eye on me for signals, and remember that the 
 whole fleet must be destroyed rather than one allowed to 
 escape. I want to give the Tsar a nice little surprise. He 
 
 14 
 
2io The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 seems to be getting a good deal too cock-sure about these old 
 gas-bags of his, and it's time to give him a lesson in real aerial 
 warfare." 
 
 There was not a great newspaper in the world that would 
 not have given a very long price to have had the privilege of 
 putting a special correspondent on the deck of the Ithuriel 
 for the two hours which followed the giving of Arnold's 
 directions to his brother commanders of the little squadron. 
 The journal which could have published an exclusive account 
 of the first aerial skirmish in the history of the world would 
 have scored a triumph which would have left its competitors 
 a long way behind in the struggle to be " up to date." 
 
 As soon as Arnold had given his orders, the three air-ships 
 at once separated. The Ariel and the Orion shot away to the 
 southward on only a slightly upward course, while the Ithuriel 
 soared up beyond the stratum of clouds which lay in thin 
 broken masses rather more than four thousand feet above the 
 earth. 
 
 It was still rather more than an hour before sunrise, and, as 
 the moon had gone down, and the clouds intercepted most of 
 the starlight, it was just " the darkest hour before the dawn," 
 and therefore the most favourable for the carrying out of the 
 plan that Arnold had in view. 
 
 Shortly after half-past two he knocked at Natasha's cabin - 
 door, and said — 
 
 " If you would like to see an aerial battle, get up and come 
 into the conning-tower at once. We have overtaken a squadron 
 of Eussian war-balloons, and we are going either to capture or 
 destroy them." 
 
 " Glorious ! " exclaimed Natasha, wide awake in an instant 
 at such startling news. " I'll be with you in five minutes. 
 Tell my father, and please don't begin till I come." 
 
 " I shouldn't think of opening the ball without your lady- 
 ship's presence," laughed Arnold in reply, and then he went 
 and called Natas and his attendant and the Professor before 
 going to the conning-tower, where in a very few minutes he 
 was joined by Natasha. The first words she said were — 
 
 " I have told Ivan to send us some coffee as soon as he has 
 attended to my father. You see how thoughtful I am for your 
 creature comforts. Now, where are the war-balloons ? " 
 
A Skirmish in the Clouds. 211 
 
 "On the other side of those clouds. There, look down 
 through that big rift, and you will see one of them." 
 
 "Why, what a height we must be from the earth! The 
 balloon looks like a little toy thing, but it must be a great 
 clumsy contrivance for all that." 
 
 " The barometer gives five thousand three hundred feet. 
 You will soon see why I have come up so high. The balloons 
 can rise to fifteen or twenty thousand feet, if they wish to, 
 and in that way they could easily escape us ; therefore, if one 
 of them attempts to rise through those clouds, I shall send him 
 back to earth in little bits." 
 
 " And what are the other two air-ships doing ? " 
 
 " They are below the clouds, heading the balloons off from 
 the Eussian camp, which is about fifty miles to the north- 
 westward. Ha ! look, there go the searchlights ! " 
 
 As he spoke, two long converging beams of light darted 
 across a broad space of sky that was free from cloud. They 
 came from the Ariel and the Orion, which thus suddenly 
 revealed themselves to the astonished and disgusted Eussians, 
 one at each end of their long line, and only a little more than 
 half a mile ahead of it. 
 
 The searchlights flashed to and fro along the line, plainly 
 showing the great masses of the aerostats' gas-holders, with 
 their long slender cars beneath them. A blue light was burnt 
 on the largest of the war- balloons, and at once the whole 
 flotilla began to ascend towards the clouds, followed by the 
 two air-ships. 
 
 "Here they come!" said Arnold, as he saw them rising 
 through a cloud -rift. "Come out and watch what happens 
 to the first one that shows herself." 
 
 He went out on deck, followed by Natasha, and took his 
 place by one of the broadside guns. At the same time he 
 gave the order for the IthurieVs searchlight to be turned on, 
 and to sweep the cloud -field below her. Presently a black 
 rounded object appeared rising through the clouds like a whale 
 coming to the surface of the sea. 
 
 He trained the gun on to it as it came distinctly into view, 
 and said to Natasha — 
 
 " Come, now, and fire the first shot in the warfare of the future. 
 Put your finger on the button, and press when I tell you." 
 
2i2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Natasha did as he told her, and at the word " Fire ! " pressed 
 the little ivory button down. The shell struck the upper 
 envelope of the balloon, passed through, and exploded. A 
 broad sheet of flame shot up, brilliantly illuminating the sea 
 of cloud for an instant, and all was darkness again. A few 
 seconds later there came another blaze, and the report of a 
 much greater explosion from below the clouds. 
 
 " What was that ? " asked Natasha. 
 
 " That was the car full of explosives striking the earth and 
 going off promiscuously," replied Arnold. " There isn't as much 
 of that aerostat left as would make a pocket-handkerchief or a 
 walking-stick." 
 
 "And the crew?" 
 
 " Never knew what happened to them. In the new warfare 
 people will not be merely killed, they will be annihilated." 
 
 " Horrible ! " exclaimed Natasha, with a shudder. " I think 
 you may do the rest of the shooting. The effects of that shot 
 will last me for some time. Look, there's another of them 
 coming up ! " 
 
 The words were hardly out of her mouth before Arnold 
 had crossed to the other side of the deck and sped another 
 missile on its errand of destruction with almost exactly 
 the same result as before. This second shot, as it was after- 
 wards found, threw the Russian squadron into complete 
 panic. 
 
 The terrific suddenness with which the two aerostats had 
 been destroyed convinced those in command of the others that 
 there was a large force of air-ships above the clouds ready to 
 destroy them one by one as they ascended. Arnold waited 
 for a few minutes, and then, seeing that no others cared to 
 risk the fate that had overwhelmed the first two that had 
 sought to cross the cloud-zone, sank rapidly through it, and 
 then stopped again. 
 
 He found himself about six hundred feet above the rest of 
 the squadron. The Ithuriel coming thus suddenly into view, 
 her eight guns pointing in all directions, and her searchlight 
 flashing hither and thither as though seeking new victims, 
 completed the demoralisation of the Russians. For all they 
 knew there were still more air-ships above the clouds. Even 
 this one could not be passed while those mysterious guns of 
 
A Skirmish in the Clouds. 213 
 
 unknown range and infallible aim were sweeping the sky, ready 
 to hurl their silent lightnings in every direction. 
 
 Ascend they dare not. To descend was to be destroyed in 
 detail as they lay helpless upon the earth. There was only 
 one chance of escape, and that was to scatter. The commander 
 of the squadron at once signalled for this to be done, and the 
 aerostats headed away to all points of the compass. But here 
 they had reckoned without the incomparable speed of their 
 assailants. 
 
 Before they had moved a hundred yards from their common 
 centre the Ariel and the Orion headed away in different 
 directions, and in an inconceivably short space of time had 
 described a complete circle round them, and then another and 
 another, narrowing each circle that they made. One of the 
 aerostats, watching its opportunity, put on full speed and tried 
 to get outside the narrowing zone. She had almost succeeded, 
 when the Orion swerved outwards and dashed at her with 
 the ram. 
 
 In ten seconds she was overtaken. The keen steel prow of 
 the air-ship, driven at more than a hundred miles an hour, 
 ripped her gas-holder from end to end as if it had been tissue 
 paper. It collapsed like broken bubble, and the wreck, with 
 its five occupants and its load of explosives, dropped like a stone 
 to the earth, three thousand feet below, exploding like one 
 huge shell as it struck. 
 
 This was the last blow struck in the first aerial battle in the 
 history of warfare. The Eussians had no stomach for this 
 kind of fighting. It was all very well to sail over armies and 
 fortresses on the earth and drop shells upon them without 
 danger of retaliation ; but this was an entirely different matter. 
 
 Three of the aerostats had been destroyed in little more 
 than as many minutes, so utterly destroyed that not a vestige 
 of them remained, and the whole squadron had not been able 
 to strike a blow in self-defence. They carried no guns, not 
 even small arms, for they had no use for them in the work 
 that they had to do. There were only two alternatives before 
 them — surrender or piecemeal destruction. 
 
 As soon as she had destroyed the third aerostat, the Orion 
 swerved round again, and began flying round the squadron as 
 before in an opposite direction to the Ariel. None of the 
 
214 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 aerostats made an attempt to break the strange blockage again. 
 As the circles narrowed they crowded closer and closer 
 together, like a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves. 
 
 Meanwhile the Ithuriel, floating above the centre of the 
 disordered squadron, descended slowly until she hung a 
 hundred feet above the highest of them. Then Arnold with 
 his searchlight flashed a signal to the Ariel which at once 
 slowed down, the Orion continuing on her circular course as 
 before. 
 
 As soon as the Ariel was going slowly enough for him to 
 make himself heard, Mazanoff shouted through a speaking- 
 trumpet — 
 
 " Will you surrender, or fight it out ? " 
 
 " Nu vot ! how can we fight with those devil-ships of yours ? 
 What is your pleasure ? " 
 
 The answering hail came from one of the aerostats in the 
 centre of the squadron. Mazanoff at once replied — 
 
 " Unconditional surrender for the present, under guarantee 
 of safety to every one who surrenders. Who are you ? " 
 
 " Colonel Alexei Alexandrovitch, in command of the 
 squadron. I surrender on those terms. Who are you ? " 
 
 " The captain of the Terrorist air- ship Ariel. Be good 
 enough to come out here, Colonel Alexei Alexandrovitch." 
 
 One of the aerostats moved out of the midst of the Eussian 
 squadron and made its way towards the Ariel. As she 
 approached Mazanoff swung his bow round and brought it 
 level with the car of the aerostat, at the same time training 
 one of his guns full on it. Then, with his arm resting on the 
 breach of the gun, he said, — 
 
 " Come on board, Colonel, and bid your balloon follow me. 
 No nonsense, mind, or I'll blow you into eternity and all your 
 squadron after you." 
 
 The Eussian did as he was bidden, and the Ariel, followed 
 by the aerostat, ascended to the Ithuriel, while the Orion kept 
 up her patrol round the captive war-balloons. 
 
 " Colonel Alexandrovitch, in command of the Tsar's aerial 
 squadron, surrenders unconditionally, save for guarantee of 
 personal safety to himself and his men," reported Mazanoff, as 
 he came within earshot of the flagship. 
 
 " Very good," replied Arnold from the deck of the Ithuriel 
 
A Skirmish in the Clouds. 215 
 
 You will keep Colonel Alexandrovitch as hostage for the good 
 behaviour of the rest, and shoot him the moment one of the 
 balloons attempts to escape. After that destroy the rest 
 without mercy. They will form in line close together. The 
 Ariel and the Orion will convoy them on either flank, and you 
 will follow me until you have the signal to stop. On the first 
 suspicion of any attempt to escape you will know what to do. 
 You have both handled your ships splendidly." 
 
 Mazanoff saluted formally, more for the sake of effect than 
 anything else, and descended again to carry out his orders. 
 The captured flotilla was formed in line, the balloons being 
 closed up until there was only a couple of yards or so between 
 any of them and her next neighbour, with the Orion and the 
 Ariel to right and left, each with two guns trained on them, 
 and the Ithuriel flying a couple of hundred feet above them. 
 In this order captors and captured made their way at twenty 
 miles an hour to the north-west towards the headquarters 
 of the Tsar. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 AN EMBASSY FROM THE SKY. 
 
 j 
 
 T^fci.jY the time the captured war-balloons had been 
 I 1 1 ^ ^ formed in order, and the voyage fairly com- 
 |Xj 8§H3 menced, the eastern sky was bright with the 
 i|(SJm ^g M| foreglow of the coming dawn, and, as the 
 flotilla was only floating between eight and 
 BWffiJM^^ ^W n j ne hundred feet above the earth, it was not 
 long before the light was sufficiently strong to render the 
 landscape completely visible. 
 
 Far and wide it was a scene of desolation and destruction, 
 of wasted, blackened fields trampled into wildernesses by the 
 tread of countless feet, of forests of trees broken, scorched, 
 and splintered by the iron hail of artillery, and of towns and 
 villages, reduced to heaps of ruins, still smouldering with the 
 fires that had destroyed them. 
 
 No more eloquent object-lesson in the horrors of what is 
 called civilised warfare could well have been found than the 
 scene which was visible from the decks of the air-ships. The 
 promised fruits of a whole year of patient industry had been 
 withered in a few hours under the storm-blast of war; homes 
 which but a few days before had sheltered stalwart, well-fed 
 peasants and citizens, were now mere heaps of blackened brick 
 and stone and smoking thatches. 
 
 Streets which had been the thoroughfares of peaceful 
 industrious folk, who had no quarrel with the Powers of the 
 earth, or with any of their kind, were now strewn with corpses 
 and encumbered with ruins, and the few survivors, more 
 miserable than those who had died, were crawling, haggard 
 and starving, amidst the wrecks of their vanished prosperity, 
 
An Embassy from the Sky. 217 
 
 seeking for some scanty morsels of food to prolong life if only 
 for a few more days of misery and nights of sleepless anxiety. 
 
 As the sun rose and shed its midsummer splendour, as if 
 in sublime mockery, over the scene of suffering and desolation, 
 hideous features of the landscape were brought into stronger . 
 and more horrifying relief; the scorched and trampled fields 
 were seen to be strewn with unburied corpses of men and 
 horses, and ploughed up with cannon shot and torn into great 
 irregular gashes by shells that had buried themselves in the 
 earth and then exploded. 
 
 It was evident that some frightful tragedy must have taken 
 place in this region not many hours before the air-ships had 
 arrived upon the scene. And this, in fact, had been the case. 
 Barely three days previously the advance guard of the Eussian 
 army of the North had been met and stubbornly but 
 unsuccessfully opposed by the remnants of the German army 
 of the East, which, driven back from the frontier, was retreat- 
 ing in good order to join the main force which had concentrated 
 about Berlin, under the command of the Emperor, there to 
 fight out the supreme struggle, on the issue of which depended 
 the existence of that German Empire which fifty years before 
 had been so triumphantly built up by the master-geniuses of 
 the last generation. 
 
 After a flight of a little over two hours the flotilla came in 
 sight of the Eussian army lying between Ciistrin on the right 
 and Frankfort-on-Spree on the left. The distance between 
 these two towns is nearly twelve English miles, and yet the 
 wings of the vast host under the command of the Tsar spread 
 for a couple of miles on either side to north and south of each 
 of them. 
 
 In spite of the colossal iniquity which it concealed, the 
 spectacle was one of indescribable grandeur. Almost as far 
 as the eye could reach the beams of the early morning sun 
 were gleaming upon innumerable white tents, and flashing 
 over a sea of glittering metal, of bare bayonets and sword 
 scabbards, of spear points and helmets, of gold-laced uniforms 
 and the polished accoutrements of countless batteries of field 
 artillery. 
 
 Far away to the westward the stately city of Berlin could 
 be seen lying upon its intersecting waters, and encircled by ita 
 
2i8 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 fortifications bristling with guns, and in advance of it were 
 the long serried lines of its defenders gathered to do desperate 
 battle for home and fatherland. 
 
 As soon as the Kussian army was fairly in sight the Ithuriel 
 shot ahead, sank to the level of the flotilla, and then stopped 
 until she was overtaken by the Orion. Tremayne was on 
 deck, and Arnold as soon as he came alongside said — 
 
 " You must stop here for the present. I want the aerostat 
 commanded by Colonel Alexandrovitch to come with me ; 
 meanwhile you and the Ariel will rise with the rest of the 
 balloons to a height of four thousand feet ; you will keep strict 
 guard over the balloons, and permit no movement to be made 
 until my return. We are going to bring his Majesty the Tsar 
 to book, or else make things pretty lively for him if he won't 
 listen to reason." 
 
 " Very well," replied Tremayne. " I will do as you say, and 
 await developments with considerable interest. If there is 
 going to be a fight, I hope you're not going to leave us out in 
 the cold." 
 
 " Oh no," replied Arnold. " You needn't be afraid of that. 
 If his Majesty won't come to terms, you will smash up the war- 
 balloons and then come and join us in the general bombard- 
 ment. I see, by the way, that there are ten or a dozen more 
 of these unwieldy monsters with the Kussian force moored 
 to the ground yonder on the outskirts of Custrin. It will 
 be a little amusement for us if we have to come to blows 
 to knock them to pieces before we smash up the Tsar's head- 
 quarters. 
 
 So saying, Arnold increased the speed of the Ithuriel, swept 
 round in front of the line, and communicated the same instruc- 
 tions to the captain of the Ariel. 
 
 A few minutes later the Ariel and the Orion began to 
 rise with their charges to the higher regions of the air, 
 leaving the Ithuriel and the one aerostat to carry out the 
 plan which had been arranged by Natas and Arnold an hour 
 previously. 
 
 As the speed of the aerostat was only about twenty miles an 
 hour against the wind, a rope was passed from the stern of the 
 Ithuriel to the cordage connecting the car with the gas-holder, 
 and so the aerostat was taken in tow by the air-ship, and 
 
An Embassy from the Sky. 219 
 
 dragged through the air at a speed of about forty miles an 
 hour, as a wind-bound sailing vessel might have been towed by 
 a steamer. 
 
 On the journey the elevation was increased to more than 
 four thousand feet, — an elevation at which both the Ithuriel 
 and her captive, and especially the former, presented practically 
 impossible marks for the Eussian riflemen. Almost immediately 
 over Custrin they came to a standstill, and then Colonel 
 Alexandrovitch and Professor Volnow were summoned by 
 Natas into the deck saloon. 
 
 He explained to them the mission which he desired them to 
 undertake, that is to say, the conveyance of a letter from him- 
 self to the Tzar offering terms for the surrender of the Lucifer. 
 They accepted the mission ; and in order that they might fully 
 understand the gravity of it, Natas read them the letter, which 
 ran as follows : — 
 
 Nicholas Romanoff, — 
 
 Three days ago one of my fleet of air-ships, named the Lucifer, was 
 delivered irjto your hands by traitors and deserters, whose lives are forfeit in 
 virtue of the oaths which they took of their own free will. I have already 
 taken measures to render abortive the analysis which you ordered to be per- 
 formed in the chemical department of your Arsenal at St. Petersburg, and I have 
 now come to make terms, if possible, for the restoration of the air-ship. Those 
 terms are as follows — 
 
 An hour before daybreak this morning I captured nine of your war-balloons, after 
 destroying three others which attempted to escape. I have no desire to take any 
 present part in the war which you are now carrying on with the Anglo-Teutonic 
 Alliance, and if you will tell me where the Lucifer is now to be found, and will 
 despatch orders both by land and through Professor Volnow, who brings this 
 letter to you, and will return with your answer, for her to be given up to me 
 forthwith with everything she has on board, and will surrender with her the 
 four traitors who delivered her into your hands, I will restore the nine war- 
 balloons to you intact, and when I have recovered the Lucifer I will take no 
 further part in the war unless either you or your opponents proceed to unjustifi- 
 able extremities. 
 
 If you reject these terms, or if I do not receive an answer to this letter 
 within two hours of the time that the bearer of it descends in the aerostat, I 
 shall give orders for the immediate destruction of the war-balloons now in my 
 hands, and I shall then proceed to destroy Ciistrin and the other aerostats 
 which are moored near the town. That done I shall, for the time being, devote 
 the force at my disposal to the defence of Berlin, and do my utmost to bring 
 about the defeat and dispersal of the army which will then no longer be com- 
 manded by yourself. 
 
 In case you may doubt what I say as to the capture of the fleet of war- 
 balloons, Professor Volnow will be accompanied by Colonel Alexei Alexandro- 
 vitch, late in command of the squadron, and now my prisoner of war. 
 
 Natas. 
 
22o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The ambassadors were at once transferred to the aerostat, 
 and with a white flag hoisted on the after stays of the balloon she 
 began to sink rapidly towards the earth, and at the same time 
 Natas gave orders for the Ithuriel to ascend to a height of eight 
 thousand feet in order to frustrate any attempts that might be 
 made, whether with or without the orders of the Tzar, to injure 
 her by means of a volley from the earth. 
 
 Even from that elevation, those on board the Ithuriel were 
 able with the aid of their field-glasses to see with perfect ease 
 the commotion which the appearance of the air-ship with the 
 captured aerostat had produced in the Eussian camp. The 
 whole of the vast host, numbering more than four millions 
 of men, turned out into the open to watch their aerial 
 visitors, and everywhere throughout the whole extent of the 
 huge camp the plainest signs of the utmost excitement were 
 visible. 
 
 In less than half an hour they saw the aerostat touch the 
 earth near to a large building, above which floated the imperial 
 standard of Eussia. An hour had been allowed for the inter- 
 view and for the Tzar to give his decision, and half an hour for 
 the aerostat to return and meet the air-ship. 
 
 In all the history of the world there had probably never 
 been an hour so pregnant with tremendous consequences, not 
 only to Europe, but to the whole civilised world, as that was ; 
 and though apparently a perfect calm reigned throughout the 
 air-ship, the issue of the embassy was awaited with the most 
 intense anxiety. 
 
 Another half hour passed, and hardly a word was spoken on 
 the deck of the Ithuriel, hanging there in mid-air over the 
 mighty Eussian host, and in range of the field-glasses of the 
 outposts of the German army of Berlin lying some ten or twelve 
 miles away to the westward. 
 
 It was the calm before the threatening storm, — a storm which 
 in less than an hour might break in a hail of death and 
 destruction from the sky, and turn the fields of earth into a 
 volcano of shot and flame. Certainly the fate of an empire, 
 and perhaps of Europe, or indeed the world, hung in the 
 balance over that field of possible carnage. 
 
 If the Eussians regained their war-balloons and were left to 
 themselves, nothing that the heroic Germans could do would 
 
An Embassy from the Sky. 221 
 
 be likely to save Berlin from the fate that had overwhelmed 
 Strassburg and Metz, Breslau and Thorn. 
 
 On the other hand, should the aerostat not return in time 
 with a satisfactory answer, the victorious career of the Tsar 
 would be cut short by such a bolt from the skies as had wrecked 
 his fortress at Kronstadt, — a blow which he could neither guard 
 against nor return, for it would come from an unassailable 
 vantage point, a little vessel a hundred feet long floating in the 
 air six thousand feet from the earth, and looking a mere bright 
 speck amidst the sunlight. She formed a mark that the most 
 skilful rifle-shot in his army could not hit once in a thousand 
 shots, and against whose hull of hardened aluminium, bullets, 
 even if they struck, would simply splash and scatter, like 
 raindrops on a rock. 
 
 The remaining minutes of the last half hour were slipping 
 away one by one, and still no sign came from the earth. The 
 aerostat remained moored near the building surmounted by 
 the Eussian standard, and the white flag, which, according to 
 arrangement, had been hauled down to be re-hoisted if the 
 answer of the Tsar was favourable, was still invisible. When 
 only ten minutes of the allotted time were left, Arnold, moving 
 his glass from his eyes, and looking at his watch, said to Natas — 
 
 " Ten minutes more ; shall I prepare ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Natas. "And let the first gun be fired with 
 the first second of the eleventh minute. Destroy the aerostats 
 first and then the batteries of artillery. After that send a 
 shell into Frankfort, if you have a gun that will carry the 
 distance, so that they may see our range of operations ; but 
 spare the Tsar's headquarters for the present." 
 
 "Very good," replied Arnold. Then, turning to his lieu- 
 tenant, he said — 
 
 "You have the guns loaded with No. 3, I presume, Mr. 
 Marston, and the projectile stands are filled, I see. Very 
 good. Now descend to six thousand feet and go a mile to the 
 westward. Train one broadside gun on that patch of ground 
 where you see those balloons, another to strike in the midst 
 of those field-guns yonder by the ammunition -waggons, and 
 train the starboard after-gun to throw a shell into Frankfort. 
 The distance is a little over twelve miles, so give sufficient 
 elevation." 
 
222 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 By the time these orders had been executed, swiftly as the 
 necessary evolution had been performed, only four minutes of 
 the allotted time were left. Arnold took his stand by the 
 broadside gun trained on the aerostats, and, with one hand on 
 the breech of the gun and the other holding his watch, he 
 waited for the appointed moment. Natasha stood by him with 
 her eyes fastened to the eye-pieces of the glasses watching for 
 the white flag in breathless suspense. 
 
 " One minute more ! " said Arnold. 
 
 " Stop, there it goes ! " cried Natasha as the words left his 
 lips. " His Majesty has yielded to circumstances ! " 
 
 Arnold took the glasses from her, and through them saw a tiny 
 white speck shining against the black surface of the gas-holder 
 of the balloon. He handed the glasses back to her, saying — 
 
 " We must not be too sure of that. His message may be 
 one of defiance." 
 
 " True," said Natasha. " We shall see." 
 
 Ten minutes later the aerostat was released from her moor- 
 ings and rose swiftly and vertically into the air. As soon as 
 it reached her own altitude the Ithuriel shot forward to meet 
 it, and stopped within a couple of hundred yards, a gun ready 
 trained upon the car in case of treachery. In the car stood 
 Professor Volnow and Colonel Alexandrovitch. The former 
 held something white in his hand, and across the intervening 
 space came the reassuring hail : " All well ! " 
 
 In five minutes he was standing on the deck of the Ithuriel 
 presenting a folded paper to Natas. He was pale to the lips, 
 and his whole body trembled with violent emotion. As he 
 handed him the paper, he said to Natas in a low, husky voice 
 that was barely recognisable as his — 
 
 " Here is the answer of the Tsar. Whether you are man or 
 fiend, I know not, but his Majesty has yielded and accepted 
 your terms. May I never again witness such anger as was his 
 when I presented your letter. It was not till the last moment 
 that he yielded to my entreaties and those of his staff, and 
 ordered the white flag to be hoisted." 
 
 "Yes," replied Natas. "He tempted his fate to the last 
 moment. The guns were already trained upon Ciistrin, and 
 thirty seconds more would have seen his headquarters in 
 ruins. He did wisely, if he acted tardily." 
 
An Embassy from the Sky. 223 
 
 So saying, Natas broke the imperial seal. On a sheet of 
 paper bearing the imperial arms were scrawled three or four 
 lines in the Autocrat's own handwriting — 
 
 I accept your main terms. The air-ship has joined the Baltic fleet. She 
 will be delivered to you with all on board. The four men are my subjects, and 
 I feel bound to protect them ; they will therefore not be delivered up. Do as 
 you like. Nicholas. 
 
 "A Koyal answer, though it comes from a despot," said 
 Natas as he refolded the paper. "I will waive that point, 
 and let him protect the traitors, if he can. Colonel 
 Alexandrovitch," he continued, turning to the Prussian, who 
 had also boarded the air-ship, " you are free. You may return 
 to your war-balloon, and accompany us to give the order for 
 the release of your squadron." 
 
 " Free ! " suddenly screamed the Eussian, his face livid and 
 distorted with passion. " Free, yes, but disgraced ! Euined 
 for life, and degraded to the ranks ! I want no freedom from 
 you. I will not even have my life at your hands, but I will 
 have yours, and rid the earth of you if I die a thousand 
 deaths!" 
 
 As he spoke he wrenched his sword from its scabbard, 
 thrust the Professor aside, and rushed at Natas with the 
 uplifted blade. Before it had time to descend a stream of 
 pale flame flashed over the back of the Master's chair, 
 accompanied by a long, sharp rattle, and the Russian's body 
 dropped instantly to the deck riddled by a hail of bullets. 
 
 " I saw murder in that man's eyes when he began to speak," 
 said Natasha, putting back into her pocket the magazine pistol 
 that she had used with such terrible effect. 
 
 " I saw it too, daughter," quietly replied Natas. " But you 
 need not have been afraid ; the blow would never have 
 reached me, for I would have paralysed him before he could 
 have made the stroke." 
 
 " Impossible ! No man could have done it ! " 
 
 The exclamation burst involuntarily from the lips of 
 Professor Volnow, who had stood by, an amazed and horrified 
 spectator of the rapidly enacted tragedy. 
 
 " Professor," said Natas, in quick, stern tones, " I am not 
 accustomed to say what is not true, nor yet to be contradicted 
 
224 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 by any one in human shape. Stand there till I tell you to 
 move." 
 
 As he spoke these last words Natas made a swift, sweeping 
 downward movement with one of his hands, and fixed his 
 eyes upon those of the Professor. In an instant Volnow's 
 muscles stiffened into immovable rigidity, and he stood rooted 
 to the deck powerless to move so much as a finger. 
 
 " Captain Arnold," continued Natas, as though nothing had 
 happened. " We will rejoin our consorts, please, and release 
 the aerostats in accordance with the terms. This man's body 
 will be returned in one of them to his master, and the 
 Professor here will write an account of his death in order that 
 it may not be believed that we have murdered him. Konstantin 
 Volnow, go into the saloon and write that letter, and bring it 
 to me when it is done." 
 
 Like an automaton the Professor turned and walked 
 mechanically into the deck-saloon. Meanwhile the Ithuriel 
 started on her way towards the captive squadron. Before she 
 reached it Volnow returned with a sheet of paper in his hand 
 filled with fresh writing, and signed with his name. 
 
 Natas took it from him, read it, and then fixing his eyes on 
 his again, said — 
 
 " That will do. I give you back your will. Now, do you 
 believe ? " 
 
 The Professor's body was suddenly shaken with such a 
 violent trembling that he almost fell to the deck. Then he 
 recovered himself with a violent effort, and cried through his 
 chattering teeth — 
 
 " Believe ! How can I help it ? Whoever and whatever 
 you are, you are well named the Master of the Terror." 
 
CHAPTEE XXX 
 
 AT CLOSE QUARTERS. 
 
 5 soon as the captive war-balloons had been 
 released, the Ithuriel and her consorts, without 
 any further delay or concern for the issue of 
 the decisive battle which would probably prove 
 to be the death-struggle of the German Empire, 
 headed away to the northward at the utmost 
 speed of the two smaller vessels. Their objective point was 
 Copenhagen, and the distance rather more than two hundred 
 and sixty miles in a straight line. 
 
 This was covered in under two hours and a half, and by 
 noon they had reached the Danish capital. In crossing the 
 water from Stralsund they had sighted several war-vessels, all 
 flying British, German* or Danish colours, and all making a 
 northerly course like themselves. They had not attempted to 
 speak to any of these, because, as they were all apparently 
 bound for the same point, and, as the speed of the air-ships 
 was more than five times as great as that of the swiftest 
 cruiser, to do so would have been a waste of time, when every 
 moment might be of the utmost consequence. 
 
 Off Copenhagen the aerial travellers saw the first signs of 
 the terrible night's work, with the details of which the 
 reader has already been made acquainted. "Wrecked fortifica- 
 tions, cruisers and battleships bearing every mark of a heavy 
 engagement, some with their top-works battered into ruins, 
 their military masts gone, and their guns dismounted; some 
 down by the head, and some by the stern, and others evidently 
 run ashore to save them from sinking; and the harbour 
 crowded with others in little better condition — everywhere 
 
 15 
 
226 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 there were eloquent proofs of the disaster which had over- 
 taken the Allied fleets on the previous night. 
 
 " There seems to have been some rough work going on down 
 there within the last few hours," said Arnold to Natas as they 
 came in sight of this scene of destruction. "The Russians 
 could not have done this alone, for when the war began they 
 were shut up in the Baltic by an overwhelming force, of which 
 these seem to be the remains. And those forts yonder were 
 never destroyed by anything but our shells." 
 
 "Yes," replied JSTatas. " It is easy to see what has happened. 
 The Lucifer was sent here to help the Russian fleet to break 
 the blockade, and it looks as though it had been done very 
 effectually. We are just a few hours too late, I fear. 
 
 " That one victory will have an immense effect on the course 
 of the war, for it is almost certain that the Russians will make 
 for the Atlantic round the north of the Shetland Islands, and 
 co-operate with the French and Italian squadrons along the 
 British line of communication with the West. That once cut, 
 food will go up to famine prices in Britain, and the end will 
 not be far off." 
 
 Natas spoke without the slightest apparent personal interest 
 in the subject; but his words brought a flush to Arnold's 
 cheeks, and make him suddenly clench his hands and knit his 
 brows. After all he was an Englishman, and though he owed 
 England nothing but the accident of lTis birth, the knowledge 
 that one of his own ships should be the means of bringing this 
 disaster upon her made him forget for the moment the gulf 
 that he had placed between himself and his native land, and 
 long to go to her rescue. But it was only a passing emotion. 
 He remembered that his country was now elsewhere, and that 
 all his hopes were now alien to Britain and her fortunes. 
 
 If Natas noticed the effect of his words he made no sign 
 that he did, and he went on in the same even tone as before — 
 
 "We must overtake the fleet, and either recapture the 
 Lucifer or destroy her before she does any more mischief in 
 Russian hands. The first thing to do is to find out what has 
 happened, and what course they have taken. Hoist the Union 
 Jack over a flag of truce on all three ships, and signal to 
 Mazanoff to come alongside. We had better stop here till we 
 get the news." 
 
At Close Quarters. 227 
 
 The Master's orders were at once executed, and as soon as the 
 Ariel was floating beside the flagship he said to her captain — 
 
 " Go down and speak that cruiser lying at anchor off the 
 harbour, and learn all you can of what has happened. Tell 
 them freely how it happened that the Lucifer assisted the 
 Russian, if it turns out that she did so. Say that we have no 
 hostility to Britain at present, but rather the reverse, and that 
 our only purpose just now is to retake the air-ship and prevent 
 her doing any more damage. If you can get any newspapers, 
 do so." 
 
 " I understand fully," replied Mazanoff, and a minute later 
 his vessel was sinking rapidly down towards the cruiser. 
 
 His reception was evidently friendly, for those on board the 
 Ithuriel saw that he ran the Ariel close alongside the man-of- 
 war, after the first hails had been exchanged, and conversed 
 for some time with a group of officers across the rails of the 
 two vessels. Then a large roll of newspapers was passed from 
 the cruiser to the air-ship, salutes were exchanged, and the 
 Ariel rose gracefully into the air to rejoin her consorts, followed 
 by the envious glances of the crews of the battered warships. 
 
 Mazanoff presented his report, the facts of which were 
 substantially those given in the St. James's Gazette telegram, 
 and added that the British officers had confessed to him that 
 the damage done was so great, both to the fleet and the shore 
 fortifications, that the Sound was now practically as open as 
 the Atlantic, and that it would be two or three weeks before 
 even half the Allied force would be able to take the sea in 
 fighting trim. 
 
 They added that there was not the slightest need to conceal 
 their condition, as the Russians, who had steamed in triumph 
 past their shattered ships and silenced forts, knew it just as 
 well as they did. As regards the Russian fleet, it had been 
 followed past the Skawe, and had headed out westward. 
 
 In their opinion it would consider itself strong enough, with 
 the aid of the air-ship, to sweep the North Sea, and would 
 probably attempt to force the Straits of Dover, as it has done 
 the Sound, and effect a junction with the French squadrons at 
 Brest and Cherbourg. This done, a combined attack might 
 possibly be made upon Portsmouth, or the destruction of the 
 Channel fleet attempted. The effects of the air-ship's shells 
 
228 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 upon both forts and ships had been so appalling that the 
 Eussians would no doubt think themselves strong enough for 
 anything as long as they had possession of her. 
 
 " They were extremely polite," said Mazanoff, as he concluded 
 his story. "They asked me to go ashore and interview the 
 Admiral, who, they told me, would guarantee any amount of 
 money on behalf of the British Government if we would only 
 co-operate with their fleets for even a month. They said 
 Britain would gladly pay a hundred thousand a month for the 
 hire of each ship and her crew ; and they looked quite puzzled 
 when I refused point-blank, and said that a million a month 
 would not do it. 
 
 " They evidently take us for a new sort of pirates, corsairs 
 of the air, or something of that kind ; for when I said that a 
 few odd millions were no good to people who could levy black- 
 mail on the whole earth if they chose, they stared at me and 
 asked me what we did want if we didn't want money. The 
 idea that we could have any higher aims never seemed to have 
 entered their heads, and, of course, I didn't enlighten them." 
 
 " Quite right," said Natas, with a quiet laugh. " They will 
 learn our aims quite soon enough. And now we must overtake 
 the Eussian fleet as soon as possible. You say they passed the 
 Skawe soon after five this morning. That gives them nearly 
 six hours' start, and if they are steaming twenty miles an hour, 
 as I daresay they are, they will now be some hundred and 
 twenty miles west of the Skawe. Captain Arnold, if we cut 
 straight across Zceland and Jutland, about what distance ought 
 we to travel before we meet them ? " 
 
 Arnold glanced at the chart which lay spread out on the 
 table of the saloon in which they were sitting, and said — 
 
 "I should say a course of about two hundred miles due 
 north-west from here ought to take us within sight of them, 
 unless they are making for the Atlantic, and keep very close to 
 the Swedish coast. In that case I should say two hundred and 
 fifty in the same direction." 
 
 " Very well, then, let us take that course and make all the 
 speed we can," said Natas ; and within ten minutes the three 
 vessels were speeding away to the north-westward at a hundred 
 and twenty miles an hour over the verdant lowlands of the 
 Danish peninsula 
 
At Close Quarters. 229 
 
 The Ithuriel kept above five miles ahead of the others, and 
 when the journey had lasted about an hour and three-quarters, 
 the man who had been stationed in the conning-tower signalled, 
 " Fleet in sight " to the saloon. The air-ships were then 
 travelling at an elevation of 3000 feet. A good ten miles to 
 the northward could be seen the Eussian fleet steering to the 
 westward, and, judging by the dense clouds of smoke that were 
 pouring out of the funnels of the vessels, making all the speed 
 they could. 
 
 Arnold, who had gone forward to the conning-tower as soon 
 as the signal sounded, at once returned to the saloon and made 
 his formal report to Natas. 
 
 " The Russian fleet is in sight, heading to the westward, 
 and therefore evidently meaning to reach the Atlantic by the 
 north of the Shetlands. There are twelve large battleships, 
 about twenty-five cruisers of different sizes, eight of them very 
 large, and a small swarm of torpedo-boats being towed by the 
 larger vessels, I suppose to save their coal. I see no signs of the 
 Lucifer at present, but from what we have learnt she will be on 
 the deck of one of the large cruisers. What are your orders ? " 
 
 "Recover the air-ship if you can," replied Natas. "Send 
 Mazanoff with Professor Volnow to convey the Tsar's letter to 
 the Admiral, and demand the surrender of the Lucifer. If he 
 refuses, let the Ariel return at once, and we will decide what to 
 do. I leave the details with you with the most perfect 
 confidence." 
 
 Arnold bowed in silence and retired, catching, as he turned 
 to leave the saloon, a glance from Natasha which, it must be 
 confessed, meant more to him than even the command of the 
 Master. From the expression of his face as he went to the 
 wheel-house to take charge of the ship, it was evident that it 
 would go hard with the Russian fleet if the Admiral refused 
 to recognise the order of the Tsar. 
 
 When he got to the wheel-house the Lthuriel was almost 
 over the fleet. He signalled "stop" to the engine-room. 
 Immediately the propellers slowed and then ceased their rapid 
 revolutions, and at the same time the fan-wheels went aloft 
 and began to revolve. This was a prearranged signal to the 
 others to do the same, and by the time they had overtaken the 
 flagship they also came to a standstill. As soon as they were 
 
2^o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 within speaking distance Arnold hailed the Orion and the 
 Ariel to come alongside. 
 
 After communicating to Tremayne and Mazanoff the orders 
 of Natas, he said to the latter — 
 
 "You will take Professor Volnow to present the Tsar's 
 letter to the Admiral in command of the fleet. Fly the 
 Eussian flag over a flag of truce, and if he acknowledges it say 
 that if the Lucifer is given up we shall allow the fleet to go on 
 its way unmolested and without asking any question. 
 
 " The cruiser that has her on board must separate from the 
 rest of the fleet and allow two of your men to take possession 
 of her and bring her up here. The lives of the four traitors 
 arc safe for the present if the air-ship is given up quietly." 
 
 " And if they will not recognise the authority of the Tsar's 
 letter, and refuse to give the air-ship up, what then ? " asked 
 Mazanoff. 
 
 " In that case haul down the Eussian flag, and get aloft as 
 quickly as you can. You can leave the rest to us," said 
 Arnold. " Meanwhile, Tremayne, will you go down to two 
 thousand feet or so, and keep your eye on that big cruiser a 
 bit ahead of the rest of the fleet. I fancy I can make out the 
 Lucifer on her deck. Train a couple of guns on her, and don't 
 let the air-ship rise without orders. I shall stop up here for 
 the present, and be* ready to make things lively for the 
 Admiral if he refuses to obey his master's orders." 
 
 The Ariel took the Professor on board, and hoisted the 
 Eussian colours ever the flag of truce, and began to sink down 
 towards the fleet. As she descended, the Admiral in command 
 of the squadron, already not a little puzzled by the appearance 
 of the three air-ships, was still more mystified by seeing the 
 Eussian ensign flying from her flagstaff. 
 
 Was this only a ruse of the Terrorists, or were they flying 
 the Eussian flag for a legitimate reason ? As he knew from 
 the experience of the previous night that the air-ships, if their 
 intentions were hostile, could destroy his fleet in detail without 
 troubling to parley with him, he concluded that there was a 
 good reason for the flag of truce, and so he ordered one to be 
 flown from his own masthead in answer to it. 
 
 The white flag at once enabled Mazanoff to single out the 
 huge battleship on which it was flying as the Admiral's flag- 
 
At Close Quarters. 231 
 
 ship. The fleet was proceeding in four columns of line abreast. 
 First two long lines of cruisers, each with one or two torpedo 
 boats in tow, and with scouts thrown out on each wing, and 
 then two lines of battleships, in the centre of the first of 
 which was the flagship. 
 
 It was a somewhat risky matter for the Ariel to descend thus 
 right in the middle of the whole fleet, but Mazanoff had his 
 orders, and they had to be obeyed, and so down he went, running 
 his bow up to within a hundred feet of the hurricane deck, on 
 which stood the Admiral surrounded by several of his officers. 
 
 " I have a message for the Admiral of the fleet," he shouted, 
 as soon as he came within hail. 
 
 " Who are you, and from whom is your message ? " came the 
 reply. 
 
 "Konstantin Volnow, of the Imperial Arsenal at Petersburg, 
 brings the message from the Tsar in writing.' 
 
 " His Majesty's messenger is welcome. Come alongside." 
 
 The Ariel ran ahead until her prow touched the rail of the 
 hurricane deck, and the Professor advanced with the Tsar's 
 letter in his hand, and gave it to the Admiral, saying — 
 
 "You are acquainted with me, Admiral Prabylov. Though 
 I bear it unwillingly, I can vouch for the letter being authentic. 
 I saw his Majesty write it, and he gave it into my hands." 
 
 "Then how do you come to be an unwilling bearer of it ? " 
 asked the Admiral, scowling and gnawing his moustache as he 
 read the unwelcome letter. " What are these terms, and with 
 whom were they made ?" 
 
 " Pardon me, Admiral," interrupted Mazanoff, " that is not 
 the question. I presume you recognise his Majesty's signature, 
 and see that he desires the air-ship to be given up." 
 
 "His Majesty's signature can be forged, just as Nihilists' 
 passports can be, Mr. Terrorist, for that's what I presume you 
 are, and " — 
 
 "Admiral, I solemnly assure you that that letter is genuine, 
 and that it is really his Majesty's wish that the air-ship should 
 be given up," the Professor broke in before Mazanoff had time 
 to reply. " It is to be given in exchange for nine war-balloons 
 which these air-ships captured before daybreak this morning." 
 
 " How do you come to be the bearer of it, sir ? Please 
 answer me that first." 
 
232 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " I am a prisoner of war. I surrendered to save the Arsenal 
 and perhaps Petersburg from destruction under circumstances 
 which I cannot now explain " — 
 
 " Thank ) r ou, sir, that is quite enough ! A pretty story, 
 truly ! And you ask me to believe this, and to give up that 
 priceless air-ship on such grounds as these — a story that would 
 hardly deceive a child ? You captured nine of the Tsar's war- 
 balloons this morning, had an interview with his Majesty, got 
 this letter from him at Ciistrin — more than five hundred miles 
 away, and bring it here, and it is barely two in the afternoon ! 
 
 " No, gentlemen, I am too old a sailor to be taken in by a 
 yarn like that. I believe this letter to be a forgery, and I 
 will not give the air-ship up on its authority." 
 
 " That is your last word, is it ? " asked Mazanoff, white with 
 passion, but still forcing himself to speak coolly. 
 
 " That is my last word, sir, save to tell you that if you do 
 not haul that flag you are masquerading under down at once 
 I will fire upon you," shouted the Admiral, tearing the Tsar's 
 letter into fragments as he spoke. 
 
 " If I haul that flag down it will be the signal for the air- 
 ships up yonder to open fire upon you, so your blood be on 
 your own heads ! " said Mazanoff, stamping thrice on the deck 
 as he spoke. The propellers of" the Ariel whirled round in a 
 reverse direction, and she sprang swiftly back from the battle- 
 ship, at the same time rising rapidly in the air. 
 
 Before she had cleared a hundred yards, and before the flag 
 of truce was hauled down, there was a sharp, grinding report 
 from one of the tops of the man-of-war, and a hail of bullets 
 from a machine gun swept across the deck. Mazanoff heard a 
 splintering of wood and glass, and a deep groan beside him. He 
 looked round and saw the Professor clasp his hand to a great 
 red wound in his breast, and fall in a heap on the deck. 
 
 This was the event of an instant. The next he had trained 
 one of the bow-guns downwards on the centre of the deck of the 
 Russian flagship and sent the projectile to its mark. Then 
 quick as thought he sprang over and discharged the other gun 
 almost at random. He saw the dazzling green flash of the 
 explosions, then came a shaking of the atmosphere, and a 
 roar as of a hundred thunder-claps in his ears, and he dropped 
 senseless to the deck beside the corpse of the Professor. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A RUSSIAN RAID. 
 
 AZANOFF came to himself about ten minutes 
 later, lying on one of the seats in the after 
 saloon, and all that he saw when he first 
 opened his eyes was the white anxious face 
 of Eadna bending over him. 
 
 "What is the matter? What has happened? 
 Where am I ? " he asked, as soon as his tongue obeyed his 
 will. His voice, although broken and unsteady, was almost 
 as strong as usual, and Eadna's face immediately brightened 
 as she heard it. A smile soon chased away her anxious look, 
 and she said cheerily — 
 
 " Ah, come ! you're not killed after all. You are still on 
 board the Ariel, and what has happened is this as far as I can 
 see. In your hurry to return the shot from the Russian 
 flagship you fired your guns at too close range, and the shock 
 of the explosion stunned you. In fact, we thought for the 
 moment you had blown the Ariel up too, for she shook so 
 that we all fell down; then her engines stopped, and she 
 almost fell into the water before they could be started 
 again." 
 
 " Is she all right now ? Where's the Russian fleet, and 
 what happened to the flagship ? I must get on deck," 
 exclaimed Mazanoff, sitting up on the seat. As he did so he 
 put his hand to his head and said : " I feel a bit shaky still. 
 ^Vhat's that — brandy you've got there ? Get me some cham- 
 pagne, and put the brandy into it. I shall be all right when 
 I've had a good drink. Now I think of it, I wonder that 
 explosion didn't blow us to bits. You haven't told me what 
 
 233 
 
234 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 became of the flagship," he continued, as Kadna came back 
 with a small bottle of champagne and uncorked it. 
 
 " Well, the flagship is at the bottom of the German Ocean. 
 When Petroff told me that you had fallen dead, as he said, 
 on deck, I ran up in defiance of your orders and saw the 
 battleship just going down. The shells had blown the middle 
 of her right out, and a cloud of steam and smoke and fire was 
 rising out of a great ragged space where the funnels had been. 
 Before I got you down here she broke right in two and went 
 down." 
 
 " That serves that blackguard Prabylov right for saying we 
 forged the Tsar's letter, and firing on a flag of truce. Poor 
 Volnow's dead, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Oh yes," replied Eadna sadly. " He was shot almost to 
 pieces by the volley from the machine gun. The deck saloon 
 is riddled with bullets, and the decks badly torn up, but 
 fortunately the hull and propellers are almost uninjured. 
 But come, drink this, then you can go up and see for yourself." 
 
 So saying she handed him a tumbler of champagne well 
 dashed with brandy. He drank it down at a gulp, like the 
 Russian that he was, and said as he put the glass down — 
 
 "That's better. I feel a new man. Now give me a kiss, 
 hatiushka, and I'll be off." 
 
 When he reached the deck he found the Ariel ascending 
 towards the Ithuriel, and about a mile astern of the Russian 
 fleet, the vessels of which were blazing away into the air with 
 their machine guns, in the hope of " bringing him clown on 
 the wing," as he afterwards put it. He could hear the 
 bullets singing along underneath him; but the Ariel was rising 
 so fast, and going at such a speed through the air, that the 
 moment the Russians got the range they lost it again, and so 
 merely wasted their ammunition. 
 
 Neither the Ithuriel nor the Orion seemed to have taken 
 any part in the battle so far, or to have done anything to 
 avenge the attack made upon the Ariel. Mazanoff wondered 
 not a little at this, as both Arnold and Tremayne must have 
 seen the fate of the Russian flagship. As soon as he got 
 within speaking distance of the Ithuriel, he sang out to Arnold, 
 who was on the deck — 
 
 " I got in 'rather a tight place down there. That scoundrel 
 
A Russian Raid. 235 
 
 fired upon us with the flag of truce flying, and when I gave 
 him a couple of shells in return I thought the end of the 
 world was come." 
 
 " You fired at too close range, my friend. Those shells are 
 sudden death to anything within a hundred yards of them. 
 Are you all well on board ? You've been knocked about a 
 bit, I see." 
 
 "No; poor Volnow's dead. He was killed standing close 
 beside me, and I wasn't touched, though the explosion of the 
 shell knocked the senses out of me completely. However, the 
 machinery's all right, and I don't think the hull is hurt to 
 speak of. But what are you doing ? I should have thought 
 you'd have blown half the fleet out of the water by this 
 time." 
 
 " No. We saw that you had amply avenged yourself, and 
 the Master's orders were not to do anything till you returned. 
 You'd better come on board and consult with him." 
 
 Mazanoff did so, and when he had told his story to Natas, 
 the latter mystified him not a little by replying — 
 
 " I am glad that none of you are injured, though, of course, 
 I'm sorry that I sent Volnow to his death ; but that is the 
 fortune of war. If one of us fell into his master's hands his 
 fate would be worse than that. You avenged the outrage 
 promptly and effectively. 
 
 " I have decided not to injure the Russian fleet more than I 
 can help. It has work to do which must not be interfered 
 with. My only object is to recover the Lucifer, if possible, and 
 so we shall follow the fleet for the present across the North Sea 
 on our way to the rendezvous with the other vessels from Aeria 
 which are to meet us on Rockall Island, and wait our opportunity. 
 Should the opportunity not come before then, we must proceed 
 to extremities, and destroy her and the cruiser that has her 
 on board. 
 
 " And do you think we shall get such an opportunity ? " 
 
 " I don't know," replied Natas. " But it is possible. I don't 
 think it likely that the fleet will have coal enough for a long 
 cruise in the Atlantic, and therefore it is possible that they 
 will make a descent on Aberdeen, which they are quite strong 
 enough to capture if they like, and coal up there. In that 
 case it is extremely probable that they will make use of the 
 
236 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 air-ship to terrorise the town into surrender, and as soon as 
 she takes the air we must make a dash for her, and either take 
 her or blow her to pieces." 
 
 Arnold expressed his entire agreement with this idea, and, 
 as the event proved, it was entirely correct. Instead of steer- 
 ing nor'-nor'-west, as they would have done had they intended 
 to go round the Shetland Islands, or north-west, had they 
 chosen the course between the Orkneys and the Shetlands, 
 the Eussian vessels kept a due westerly course during the rest 
 of the day, and this course could only take them to the Scotch 
 coast near Aberdeen. 
 
 The distance from where they were was a little under five 
 hundred miles, and at their present rate of steaming they 
 would reach Aberdeen about four o'clock on the following 
 afternoon. The air-ships followed them at a height of four 
 thousand feet during the rest of the day and until shortly 
 before dawn on the following morning. 
 
 They then put on speed, took a wide sweep to the north- 
 ward, and returned southward over Banffshire, and passing 
 Aberdeen to the west, found a secluded resting-place on the 
 northern spur of the Kincardineshire Hills, about five miles to 
 the southward of the Granite City. 
 
 Here the repairs which were needed by the Ariel were at 
 once taken in hand by her own crew and that of the Itliuriel, 
 while the Orion was sent out to sea again to keep a sharp look- 
 out for the Eussian fleet, which she would sight long before she 
 herself became visible, and then to watch the movements of 
 the Eussians from as great a distance as possible until it was 
 time to make the counter-attack. 
 
 As Aberdeen was then one of the coaling depots for the 
 North Sea Squadron, it was defended by two battleships, the 
 Ascalon and the Menelaus, three powerful coast-defence vessels, 
 the Thunderer, the Cyclops, and the Pluto, six cruisers, and 
 twelve torpedo-boats. The shore defences consisted of a fort 
 on the north bank at the mouth of the Dee, mounting ten 
 heavy guns, and the Girdleness fort, mounting twenty-four 
 9-inch twenty-five ton guns, in connection with which was a 
 station for working navigable torpedoes of the Brennan type, 
 which had been considerably improved during the last ten 
 years. 
 
A Russian Raid. 237 
 
 Shortly after two o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th the 
 Orion returned to her consorts with the news that the Russian 
 fleet was forty miles off the land, heading straight for Aber- 
 deen, and that there were no other warships in sight as far as 
 could be seen to the southward. From this fact it was con- 
 cluded that the Russians had escaped the notice of the North 
 Sea Squadron, and so would only have the force defending 
 Aberdeen to reckon with. 
 
 Even had they not possessed the air-ship, this force was so 
 far inferior to their own that there would be little chance of 
 successfully defending the town against them. They had 
 eleven battleships, twenty-five cruisers, eight of which were 
 very large and heavily armed, and forty torpedo-boats, to pit 
 against the little British force and the two forts. 
 
 But given the assistance of the Lucifer, and the town practi- 
 cally lay at their mercy. They evidently feared no serious 
 opposition in their raid, for, without even waiting for nightfall, 
 they came on at full speed, darkening the sky with their 
 smoke, the battleships in the centre, a dozen cruisers on either 
 side of them, and one large cruiser about a mile ahead of their 
 centre. 
 
 When the captain of the Ascalon, who was in command of 
 the port, saw the overwhelming force of the hostile fleet, he at 
 once came to the conclusion that it would be madness for him 
 to attempt to put to sea with his eleven ships and six torpedo- 
 boats. The utmost that he could do was to remain inshore 
 and assist the forts to keep the Russians at bay, if possible, 
 until the assistance, which had already been telegraphed for to 
 Dundee and the Firth of Forth, where the bulk of the North 
 Sea Squadron was then stationed, could come to his aid. 
 
 Five miles off the land the Russian fleet stopped, and the 
 Lucifer rose from the deck of the big cruiser and stationed 
 herself about a mile to seaward of the mouth of the river at an 
 elevation of three thousand feet. Then a torpedo-boat flying a 
 flag of truce shot out from the Russian line and ran to within 
 a mile of the shore. 
 
 The Commodore of the port sent out one of his torpedo- 
 boats to meet her, and this craft brought back a summons to 
 surrender the port for twelve hours, and permit six of the 
 Russian cruisers to fill up with coal. The alternative would 
 

 
 8 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 be bombardment of the town by the fleet and the air-ship, 
 which alone, as the Eussians said, held the fort and the ships 
 at its mercy. 
 
 To this demand the British Commodore sent back a flat 
 refusal, and defiance to the Eussian Commander to do his 
 worst. 
 
 Where the ItJiuriel and her consorts were lying the hills 
 between them and the sea completely screened them from the 
 observation of those on board the Lucifer. Arnold and Tre- 
 mayne had climbed to the top of a hill above their ships, and 
 watched the movements of the Eussians through their glasses. 
 As soon as they saw the Lucifer rise into the air they returned 
 to the Lthuricl to form their plans for their share in the 
 conflict that they saw impending. 
 
 " I'm afraid we can't do much until it gets a good deal 
 darker than it is now," said Arnold, in reply to a question 
 from JSTatas as to his view of the situation. " If we take the 
 air now the Lucifer will see us ; and we must remember that 
 she is armed with the same weapons as we have, and a shot 
 from one of her guns would settle any of us that it struck. 
 Even if we hit her first we should destroy her, and we could 
 have done that easily yesterday. 
 
 " It has felt very like thunder all day, and I see there are 
 some very black-looking clouds rolling up there over the hills 
 to the south-west. My advice is to wait for those. I'm afraid 
 we can't do anything to save the town under the circumstances, 
 but in this state of the atmosphere a heavy bombardment is 
 practically certain to bring on a severe thunderstorm, and to 
 fetch those clouds up at the double quick. 
 
 " I don't for a moment think that the British will surrender, 
 big and all as the Eussian force is, and as they have never 
 seen the effects of our shells they won't fear the Lucifer much 
 until she commences operations, and then it will be too late. 
 Listen ! They've begun. There goes the first gun ! " 
 
 A deep, dull boom came rolling up the hills from the sea 
 as he spoke, and was almost immediately followed by a rapid 
 series of similar reports, which quickly deepened into a con- 
 tinuous roar. Every one who could be spared from the air-ship 
 at once ran up to the top of the hill to watch the progress of 
 the fight. The Eussian fleet had advanced to within three 
 
A Russian Raid. 239 
 
 miles of the land, and had opened a furious cannonade on the 
 British ships and the forts, which were manfully replying to 
 it with every available gun. 
 
 By the time the watchers on the hill had focussed their 
 glasses on the scene, the Lucifer discharged her first shell on 
 the fort on Girdleness. They saw the blaze of the explosion 
 gleam through the smoke that already hung thick over the 
 low building. Another and another followed in quick succes- 
 sion, and the firing from the fort ceased. The smoke drifted 
 slowly away, and disclosed a heap of shapeless ruins. 
 
 " That is horrible work, isn't it ? " said Arnold to Tremayne 
 through his clenched teeth. "Anywhere but on British 
 ground would not be so bad, but the sight of that makes my 
 blood boil. I would give my ears to take our ships into the 
 air, and smash up that Kussian fleet as we did the French 
 Squadron in the Atlantic." 
 
 "There spoke the true Briton, Captain Arnold," said 
 Natasha, who was standing beside him under a clump of 
 trees. " Yes, I can quite understand how you feel watching 
 a scene like that, for country is country after all. Even my 
 half-English blood is pretty near boiling point ; and though I 
 wouldn't give my ears, I would give a good deal to go with you 
 and do as you say. 
 
 " But you may rest assured that the Master's way is the 
 best, and will prove the shortest road to the universal peace 
 which can only come through universal war. Courage, my 
 friend, and patience ! There will be a heavy reckoning to 
 pay for this sort of thing one day, and that before very long." 
 
 " Ha ! " exclaimed Tremayne. " There goes the other fort. 
 I suppose it will be the turn of the ships next. What a 
 frightful scene ! Twenty minutes ago it was as peaceful as 
 these hills, and look at it now." 
 
 The second fort had been destroyed as rapidly as the first, 
 and the cessation of the fire of both had made a very per- 
 ceptible difference in the cannonade, though the great guns 
 of the Kussian fleet still roared continuously and poured a 
 hurricane of shot and shell into the mouth of the river across 
 which the British ships were drawn, keeping up the unequal 
 conflict like so many bull-dogs at bay. 
 
 Over them and the river hung a dense pall of bluish-white 
 
►40 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 smoke, through which the Lucifer sent projectile after projectile 
 in the attempt to sink the British ironclads. As those on 
 board her could only judge by the flash of the guns, the aim 
 was very imperfect, and several projectiles were wasted, falling 
 into the sea and exploding there, throwing up mountains of 
 water, but not doing any further damage. At length a 
 brilliant green flash shot up through the smoke clouds over 
 the river mouth. 
 
 " He's hit one of the ships at last ! " exclaimed Tremayne, 
 as he saw the flash. " It'll soon be all up with poor old 
 Aberdeen." 
 
 "I don't think so," exclaimed Arnold. "At any rate the 
 Lucifer won't do much more harm. There comes the storm 
 at last ! Back to the ships all of you at once, it's time to go 
 aloft!" 
 
 As he spoke a brilliant flash of lightning split the inky 
 clouds which had now risen high over the western hills, and 
 a deep roll of thunder came echoing up the valleys as if in 
 answer to the roar of the cannonade on the sea. The moment 
 every one was on board, Arnold gave the signal to ascend. As 
 soon as the fan-wheels had raised them a hundred feet from 
 the ground he gave the signal for full speed ahead, and the 
 three air-ships swept upwards to the west as though to meet 
 the coming storm. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE END OF THE CHASE. 
 
 HE flight of the Ithuriel and her consorts was so 
 graduated, that as they rose to the level of the 
 storm-cloud they missed it and passed diagon- 
 ally beyond it at a sufficient distance to avoid 
 disturbing the electrical balance between it 
 and the earth. The object of doing so was not 
 so much to escape a discharge of electricity, since all the vital 
 parts of the machinery and the power-cylinders were carefully 
 insulated, but rather in order not to provoke a lightning flash 
 which might have revealed their rapid passage to the occupants 
 of the Lucifer. 
 
 As it was, they swept upwards and westward at such a 
 speed that they had gained the cover of the thunder-cloud, 
 and placed a considerable area of it between themselves and 
 the town, long before the storm broke over Aberdeen, and so 
 they were provided with ample shelter under, or rather over, 
 which they were to make their attack on the Lucifer. 
 
 They waited until the clouds coming up from the westward 
 joined those which had begun to gather thick and black and 
 threatening over the Parssian fleet soon after the tremendous 
 cannonade had begun. The shock of the meeting of the two 
 cloud-squadrons formed a fitting counterpart to the drama of 
 death and destruction that was being played on land and sea. 
 
 The brilliant sunshine of the midsummer afternoon was 
 suddenly obscured by a darkness born of smoke and cluud 
 like that of a midwinter night. The smoke of the cannonade 
 rose heavily and mingled with the clouds, and the atmospheric 
 concussions produced by the discharge of hundreds of heavy 
 16 
 
242 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 guns, brought down the rain in torrents. Almost continuous 
 streams of lightning Hashed from cloud to cloud, and from 
 heaven to earth, eclipsing the spouting fire of the guns, while 
 to the roar of the bombardment was added an almost unbroken 
 roll of thunder. 
 
 Above all this hideous turmoil of human and elemental 
 strife, the three air-ships floated for awhile in a serene and 
 sunlit atmosphere. But this was only for a time. Arnold had 
 taken the position and altitude of the Lucifer very carefully 
 by means of his sextant and compass before he rose into the 
 air, and as soon as his preparations were complete he made 
 another observation of the angle of the sun's elevation, allowing, 
 of course, for his own, and placed his three ships as nearly 
 perpendicular as he could over the Lucifer, floating on the 
 under side of the storm-cloud. 
 
 His preparations had been simple in the extreme. Four 
 light strong grappling-irons hung downwards from the Ithuriel, 
 two at the bow and two at the stern, by thin steel- wire rope ; 
 two similar ones hung from the starboard side of the Orion, 
 which was on his left hand, and two from the port side of 
 the Ariel, which was on his right hand. As they gained the 
 desired position, a man was stationed at each of the ropes, with 
 instructions how to act when the word was given. Then the 
 fan-wheels were slowed down, and the three vessels sank 
 swiftly through the cloud. 
 
 Through the mist and darkness underneath they saw the 
 white shape of the Lucifer almost immediately below them, so 
 accurately had the position been determined. They sank a 
 hundred feet farther, and then Arnold shouted — 
 
 " Now is your time. Cast ! " 
 
 Instantly the eight grappling-irons dropped and swung 
 towards the Lucifer, hooking themselves in the stays of her 
 masts and the railing that ran completely round her deck. 
 
 "Now, up again, and ahead!" shouted Arnold once more, 
 and the fan-wheels of the three ships revolved at their utmost 
 speed ; the air-planes had already been inclined to the full, the 
 nine propellers whirled round, and the recaptured Lucifer was 
 dragged forward and upwards through the mist and darkness 
 of the thunder-cloud into the bright sunshine above. 
 
 So suddenly had the strange manoeuvre been executed that 
 
The End of the Chase. 243 
 
 those on board her had not time to grasp what had really- 
 happened to them before they found themselves captured and 
 utterly helpless. As she hung below her three captors it was 
 impossible to bring one of the Lucifer's guns to bear upon 
 them, while four guns, two from the Ariel and two from the 
 Orion, grinned down upon her ready to blow her into fragments 
 at the least sign of resistance. 
 
 Added to this, a dozen magazine rifles covered her deck, 
 threatening sudden death to the six bewildered men who were 
 still staring helplessly about them in wonderment at the strange 
 thing that had happened to them. 
 
 "Who are the Eussian officers in command of that air- 
 ship ? " hailed Mazanoff from the Ariel. 
 
 Two men in Eussian uniform raised their hands in reply, 
 and Mazanoff hailed again — 
 
 "Which will you have — surrender or death? If you 
 surrender your lives are safe, and we will put you on to the 
 land as soon as possible ; if not you will be shot." 
 
 " We surrender ! " exclaimed one of the officers, drawing his 
 sword and dropping it on the deck. The other followed suit, 
 and Mazanoff continued — 
 
 " Very good. Eemain where you are. The first man that 
 moves will be shot down." 
 
 Almost before the last words had left his lips half a dozen 
 men had slid down the wire ropes and landed on the deck of 
 the Lucifer. The moment their feet had touched the deck each 
 whipped a magazine pistol out of his belt and covered his 
 man. 
 
 Within a couple of mjuutes the captives were all disarmed ; 
 indeed, most of them had thrown their weapons down on the 
 first summons. The arms were tossed overboard, and all but 
 the two Eussian officers wers rapidly bound hand and foot. 
 Then three of the six men descended to the engine-room, and 
 one went to the wheel-house. In another minute the fan- 
 wheels of the Lucifer began to spin round faster, and quickly 
 raised her to the level of the other three ships, and so the 
 recapture of the deserter was completed. 
 
 The two officers were at once summoned on board the 
 Ithuriel and shut up under guard in separate cabins. The 
 rest of the crew of the Lucifer was found to consist of the 
 
244 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 four traitors who had carried her away, and two Russian 
 engineers who had been put on board to assist in the working 
 of the vessel. 
 
 As soon as these had been replaced by a crew drafted from 
 the Ithuriel and her consorts under the command of Lieutenant 
 Marston, Arnold gave the order to go ahead at fifty miles an 
 hour to the northward, and the four air-ships immediately sped 
 away in that direction, leaving Aberdeen to its fate, and 
 within a little over an hour the sounds of both storm and 
 battle had died away in silence behind them. 
 
 When they were fairly under way Natas ordered the four 
 deserters to be brought before him in the after saloon of the 
 flagship. He sat at one end of the table, and they were placed 
 in a line in front of him at the other, each with a guard 
 behind him, and the muzzle of a pistol at his head. 
 
 "Peter Tamboff, Amos Vornjeh, Ivan Tscheszco, and Paul 
 Oreloffl you have broken your oaths, betrayed your com- 
 panions, deserted the Cause to which you devoted your lives, 
 and placed in the hands of the Piussian tyrant the means of 
 destruction which has enabled him to break the blockade of 
 the Baltic, and so perhaps to change the whole course of the 
 war which he is now waging, as you well know, with the 
 object of conquering Europe and enslaving its peoples. 
 
 "Already the lives of thousands of better men than you 
 have been lost through this vile treason of yours, the vilest of 
 all treason, for it was committed for love of money. By the 
 laws of the Brotherhood your lives are forfeit, and if you had 
 a hundred lives each they would be forfeited again by the 
 calamities that your treason has brought, and will bring, upon 
 the world. You will die in half an hour. If you have any 
 preparations to make for the next world, make them. I have 
 done with you. Go ! " 
 
 Half an hour later the four deserters were taken up on to 
 the deck of the Ithuriel. The signal was given to stop the 
 flotilla, which was then flying three thousand feet above the 
 waters of the Moray Firth. As soon as they came to a stand- 
 still their crews were summoned on deck. The three smaller 
 vessels floated around the Ithuriel at a distance of about fifty 
 yards from her. The traitors, bound hand and foot, were 
 stood up facing the rail of the flagship, and four of her crew 
 
The End of the Chase. 245 
 
 were stationed opposite to them on the other side of the deck 
 with loaded rifles. 
 
 They were allowed one last look upon sun and sky, and 
 then their eyes were bandaged. As soon as this was done 
 Arnold raised his hand ; the four rifles came up to the ready ; 
 a stream of flame shot from the muzzles, and the bodies of the 
 four traitors lurched forward over the rail and disappeared 
 into the abyss beneath. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," said Arnold in French, turning to the 
 two Bussian officers who had been spectators of the scene, 
 " that is how we punish traitors. Your own lives are spared 
 because we do not murder prisoners of war. You will, I hope, 
 in due time return to your master, and you will tell him why 
 we have been obliged to retake the air-ship which he sur- 
 rendered to us by force, and therefore why we destroyed his 
 flagship in the North Sea. If Admiral Prabylov had obeyed 
 his orders, the Lucifer would have been surrendered to us 
 quietly, and there would have been for the present no further 
 trouble. 
 
 " Tell him also from me, as Admiral of the Terrorist fleet, 
 that, so far as matters have now gone, we shall take no further 
 part in the war ; but that the moment he brings his war- 
 balloons across the waters which separate Britain from Europe, 
 the last hour of his empire will have struck. 
 
 " If he neglects this warning with which I now intrust you, 
 I will bring a force against him before which he shall be as 
 helpless as the armies of the Alliance have so far been before 
 him and his war-balloons ; and, more than this, tell him that 
 if I conquer I will not spare. I will hold him and his advisers 
 strictly to account for all that may happen after that moment. 
 
 "There will be no treaties with conquered enemies in the 
 hour of our victory. We will have blood for blood, and life 
 for life. Eemember that, and bear the message to him faith- 
 fully. For the present you will be prisoners on parole ; but I 
 warn you that you will be watched night and day, and at the 
 first suspicion of treachery you will be shot, and cast into the 
 air as those traitors were just now. 
 
 " You will remain on board this ship. The two engineers 
 will be placed one on board of each of two of our consorts. 
 In twenty-four hours or so you will be landed on Spanish soil 
 
246 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 and left to your own devices. Meanwhile we shall make you 
 as comfortable as the circumstances permit," 
 
 The two Eussian officers bowed their acknowledgments, and 
 Arnold gave the signal for the flotilla to proceed. 
 
 It was then about seven o'clock in the evening. Flying at 
 the rate of a hundred miles an hour, the squadron crossed the 
 mouth of the Moray Firth trending to the westward until 
 they passed over Thurso, and then took a westerly course to 
 Rockall Island, four hundred miles to the west. Here they 
 met the two other air-ships which had been despatched from 
 Aeria with extra power-cylinders and munitions of war in case 
 they had been needed for a prolonged campaign. 
 
 The cylinders, which had been exhausted on board the 
 Ithuriel and her three consorts, were replaced, and then the 
 whole squadron rose into the air from one of the peaks of 
 liockall Island and winged its way southward to the north- 
 western coast of Spain. They made the Spanish land near 
 Corunna shortly before eight on the following evening, and 
 here the four Eussian prisoners were released on the sea-shore 
 and provided with money to take them as far as Valladolid, 
 whence they would be able to communicate with the French 
 military authorities at Toulouse. 
 
 The Terrorist Squadron then rose once more into the air, 
 ascended to a height of two thousand feet, skirted the Portu- 
 guese coast, and then took a south-easterly course over 
 Morocco through one of the passes of the Atlas Mountains, 
 and so across the desert of Sahara and the wilds of Central 
 Africa to Aeria, 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 THE BREAKING OF THE CIIAEM. 
 
 HE first news of the Russian attack on Aberdeen 
 was received in London soon after five o'clock 
 on the afternoon of the 30th, and produced an 
 effect which it is quite beyond the power of 
 language to describe. The first telegram con- 
 taining the bare announcement of the fact fell 
 
 like a bolt from the blue on the great Metropolis. It ran as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 Aberdeen, 4.30 p.m. 
 A large fleet, supposed to be the Russian fleet which broke the blockade of 
 the Baltic on the morning of the 28th, has appeared off the town. About forty 
 large vessels can be made out. Our defences are quite inadequate to cope with 
 such an immense force, but we shall do our best till help comes. 
 
 After that the wires were kept hot with messages until well 
 into the night. The newspapers rushed out edition after 
 edition to keep pace with them, and in all the office windows 
 of the various journals copies of the telegrams were posted up 
 as soon as they arrived. 
 
 As the messages multiplied in number they brought worse 
 and worse tidings, until excitement grew to frenzy and frenzy 
 degenerated into panic. The thousand tongues of rumour 
 wagged faster and faster as each hour went by. The raid upon 
 a single town was magnified into a general invasion of the 
 whole country. 
 
 Very few people slept in London that night, and the streets 
 were alive with anxious crowds till daybreak, waiting for the 
 confidently-expected news of the landing of the Russian troops, 
 in spite of the fact that the avowed and real object of the raid 
 
 247 
 
248 
 
 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 had been made public early in the evening. The following are 
 the most important of the telegrams which were received, and 
 will suffice to inform the reader of the course of events after 
 the departure of the four air-ships from the scene of action — 
 
 5 P.M. 
 
 A message has been received from the Commander of the Russian fleet 
 demanding the surrender of the town for twelve hours to allow six of his ships 
 to fill up with coal. The captain of the Ascalon, in command of the port, has 
 refused this demand, and declares that he will fight while he has a ship that 
 will float or a gun that can be fired. The Russians are accompanied by the 
 ait-ship which assisted them to break the blockade of the Sound. She is now 
 floating over the town. The utmost terror prevails among the inhabitants, 
 and crowds are flying into the country to escape the bombardment. Aid has 
 been telegraphed for to Edinburgh and Dundee ; but if the North Sea Squadron 
 is still in the Firth of Forth, it cannot get here under nearly twelve hours' 
 steaming. 
 
 5.30 p.m. 
 
 The bombardment has commenced, and fearful damage has been done 
 already. With three or four shells the air-ship has blown up and utterly 
 destroyed the fort on Girdleness, which mounted twenty-four heavy guns. But 
 for the ships, this leaves the town almost unprotected. News has just come 
 from the North Shore that the batteries there have met with the same fate. 
 The Russians are pouring a perfect storm of shot and shell iuto the mouth of 
 the river where our ships are lying, but the town has so far been spared. 
 
 5.45 P.M. 
 We have just received news from Edinburgh that the North Sea Squadron 
 left at daybreak this morning under orders to proceed to the mouth of the Elbe 
 to assist in protecting Hamburg from an anticipated attack by the same fleet 
 which has attacked us. There is now no hope that the town can be successfully 
 defended, and the Provost has called a towns-meeting to consider the advisability 
 of surrender, though it is feared that the Russians may now make larger 
 demands. The whole country side is in a state of the utmost panic. 
 
 7 P.M. 
 
 The towns-meeting empowered the Provost to call upon Captain Marchmont, 
 of the Ascalon, to make terms with the Russians in order to save the town 
 from destruction. He refused point blank, although one of the coast-defence 
 ships, the Thunderer, has been disabled by shells from the air-ship, and all his 
 other vessels have been terribly knocked about by the incessant cannonade from 
 the fleet, which has now advanced to within two miles of the shore, having 
 nothing more to fear from the land batteries. A terrific thunderstorm is raging, 
 and no words can describe the horror of the scene. The air-ship ceased firing 
 nearly an hour ago. 
 
 10 P.M. 
 
 Five of our eleven ships — two battleships and three cruisers — have been 
 sunk ; the rest are little better than mere wrecks, and seven torpedo-boats have 
 been destroyed in attempting to torpedo some of the enemy's ships. Heavy 
 firing has been heard to the southward, and we have learnt from Dundee that 
 four battleships and six cruisers have been sent to our relief. A portion of 
 
The Breaking of the Charm. 249 
 
 the Russian fleet has been detached to meet them. We cannot hope anything 
 from them. Captain Marchmont has now only four ships capable of fighting, 
 but refuses to strike his flag. The storm has ceased, and a strong land breeze 
 has blown the clouds and smoke to seaward. The air-ship has disappeared. 
 Six large Russian ironclads are heading at full speed towards the mouth of the 
 river — 
 
 The telegram broke off short here, and no more news was 
 received from Aberdeen for several hours. Of this there was 
 only one possible explanation. The town was in the hands of 
 the Kussians, and they had cut the wires. The long charm 
 was broken, and the Isle Inviolate was inviolate no more. The 
 next telegram from the North came from Findon, and was 
 published in London just before ten o'clock on the following 
 morning. It ran thus — 
 
 Findon, N.B., 9.15. 
 
 About ten o'clock last night the attack on Aberdeen ended in a rush of six 
 ironclads into the river mouth. They charged down upon the four half- 
 crippled British ships that were left, and in less than five minutes rammed and 
 sank them. The Russians then demanded the unconditional surrender of the 
 town, under pain of bombardment and destruction. There was no other course 
 but to yield, and until eight o'clock this morning the town has been in the 
 hands of the enemy. 
 
 The Russians at once landed a large force of sailors and marines, cut the 
 telegraph wires and the railway lines, and fired without warning upon every 
 one who attempted to leave the town. The stores of coal and ammunition were 
 seized, and six large cruisers were taking in coal all night. The banks were 
 also entered, and the specie taken possession of, as indemnity for the town. At 
 eight o'clock the cruisers and battleships steamed out of the river without 
 doing further damage. The squadron from the Tay was compelled to retire 
 by the overwhelming force that the Russians brought to bear upon it after 
 Abex4£en surrendered. 
 
 Half an hour ago the Russian fleet was lost sight of proceeding at full speed 
 to the north-eastward. Our loss has been terribly heavy. The fort and 
 batteries have been destroyed, all the ships have been sunk or disabled, and 
 of the whole defending force scarcely three hundred men remain. Captain 
 Marchmont went down on the Ascalon with his flag flying, and fighting to 
 the last moment. 
 
 While the excitement caused by the news of the raid upon 
 Aberdeen was at its height, that is to say, on the morning of 
 the 2nd of July, intelligence was received in London of a 
 tremendous disaster to the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance. It was 
 nothing less, in short, than the fall of Berlin, the collapse of 
 the German Empire, and the surrender of the Kaiser and 
 the Crown Prince to the Tsar. After nearly sixty hours of 
 almost continuous fighting, during which the fortifications had 
 been wrecked by the war-balloons, the German ammunition- 
 
250 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 trains burnt and blown up by the fire-shells rained from the 
 air, and the heroic defenders of the city disorganised by the 
 aerial bombardment of melinite shells and cyanogen poison- 
 bombs, and crushed by an overwhelming force of not less than 
 four million assailants. So fell like a house of cards the stately 
 fabric built up by the genius of Bismarck and Moltke ; and so, 
 after bearing his part gallantly in the death-struggle of his 
 empire, had the grandson of the conqueror of Sedan yielded up 
 his sword to the victorious Autocrat of the Russias. 
 
 The terrible news fell upon London like the premonitory 
 echo of an approaching storm. The path of the triumphant 
 Muscovites was now completely open to the forts of the 
 Belgian Quadrilateral, under the walls of which they would 
 form a junction, which nothing could now prevent, with the 
 beleaguering forces of France. Would the Belgian strongholds 
 be able to resist any more effectually than the fortifications of 
 Berlin had done the assaults of the terrible war-bnlloons of 
 the Tsar ? 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE PATH OF CONQUEST. 
 
 ^Jfc ";>c HIS narrative does not in any sense pretend to 
 $ir!tl§||2| De a detailed history of the war, but only of such 
 ||||ligggj phases of it as more immediately concern the 
 fe|j|| piijrifeffi working out of those deep-laid and marvel- 
 j#§mji §1 lously-contrived plans designed by their author 
 wfm^f^vm t culminate in nothing less than the collapse 
 of the existing fabric of Society, and the upheaval of the whole 
 basis of civilisation. 
 
 It will therefore be impossible to follow the troops of the 
 Alliance and the League through the different compaigns 
 which were being simultaneously carried out in different parts 
 of Europe. The most that can be done will be to present an 
 outline of the leading events which, operating throughout a 
 period of nearly three months, prepared the way for the final 
 catastrophe in which the tremendous issues of the world-war 
 were summed up. 
 
 The fall of Berlin was the first decisive blow that had been 
 struck during the war. Under it the federation of kingdoms 
 and states which had formed the German Empire fell asunder 
 almost instantly, and the whole fabric collapsed like a broken 
 bubble. The shock was felt throughout the length and breadth 
 of Europe, and it was immediately seen that nothing but a 
 miracle could save the whole of Central Europe from falling 
 into the hands of the League. 
 
 Its immediate results were the surrender of Magdeburg, 
 Brunswick, Hanover, and Bremen. Hamburg, strongly garri- 
 soned by British and German troops, supported by a powerful 
 squadron in the Elbe, and defended by immense fortifications 
 
 251 
 
252 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 on the landward side, alone returned a flat defiance to the 
 summons of the Tsar. The road to the westward, therefore, 
 lay entirely open to his victorious troops. As for Hamburg, it 
 was left for the present under the observation of a corps of 
 reconnaissance to be dealt with when its time came. 
 
 When Berlin fell the position of affairs in Europe may be 
 briefly described as follows : — The French army bad taken the 
 field nearly five millions strong, and this immense force had 
 been divided into an Army of the North and an Army of the 
 East. The former, consisting of about two millions of men, 
 had been devoted to the attack on the British and German 
 forces holding an almost impregnable position behind the 
 chain of huge fortresses known at present as the Belgian 
 Quadrilateral. 
 
 This Army of the North, doubtless acting in accordance 
 with the preconceived schemes of operations arranged by the 
 leaders of the League, had so far contented itself with a series 
 of harassing attacks upon different points of the Allied position, 
 and had made no forward movement in force. The Army of 
 the East, numbering nearly three million men, and divided 
 into fifteen army corps, had crossed the German frontier 
 immediately on the outbreak of the war, and at the same 
 moment that the Russian Armies of the North and South had 
 crossed the eastern Austro- German frontier, and the Italian 
 army had forced the passes of the Tyrol. 
 
 The whole of the French fleet of war-balloons had been 
 attached to the Army of the East with the intention, which 
 had been realised beyond the most sanguine expectations, of 
 overrunning and subjugating Central Europe in the shortest 
 possible space of time. It had swept like a destroying tempest 
 through the Rhine Provinces, leaving nothing in its track 
 but the ruins of towns and fortresses, and wide wastes of 
 devastated fields and vineyards. 
 
 Before the walls of Munich it had effected a junction with 
 the Italian army, consisting of ten army corps, numbering 
 two million men. The ancient capital of Bavaria fell in three 
 days under the assault of the aerial fleet and the overwhelming 
 numbers of the attacking force. Then the Franco-Italian 
 armies advanced down the valley of the Danube and invested 
 Vienna, which, in spite of the heroic efforts of what had been 
 
The Path of Conquest. 253 
 
 left of the Austrian army after the disastrous conflicts on the 
 Eastern frontier, was stormed and sacked after three days and 
 nights of almost continuous fighting, and the most appalling 
 scenes of bloodshed and destruction, four days after the 
 surrender of the German Emperor to the Tsar had announced 
 the collapse of what had once been the Triple Alliance. 
 
 From Vienna the Eranco-Italian armies continued their 
 way down the valley of the Danube, and at Budapest was 
 joined by the northern division of the Russian Army of the 
 South, and from there the mighty flood of destruction rolled 
 south-eastward until it overflowed the Balkan peninsula, 
 sweeping everything before it as it went, until it joined the 
 force investing Constantinople. 
 
 The Turkish army, which had retreated before it, had concen- 
 trated upon Gallipoli, where, in conjunction with the allied 
 British and Turkish Squadrons holding the Dardanelles, it pre 
 pared to advance to the relief of Constantinople. 
 
 The final attack upon the Turkish capital had been purposely 
 delayed until the arrival of the French war-balloons, and as 
 soon as these appeared upon the scene the work of destruction 
 instantly recommenced. After four days of bombardment by 
 sea and land, and from the air, and a rapid series of what can 
 only be described as wholesale butcheries, the ancient capital 
 of the Sultan shared the fate of Berlin and Vienna, and after 
 four centuries and a half the Turkish dominion in Europe died 
 in its first stronghold. 
 
 Meanwhile one of the wings of the Franco-Italian army had 
 made a descent upon Gallipoli, and after forty-eight hours' 
 incessant fighting had compelled the remnant of the Turkish 
 army, which it thus cut off from Constantinople, to take 
 refuge on the Turkish and British men-of-war under the 
 protection of the guns of the fleet. In view of the overwhelm- 
 ing numbers of the enemy, and the terrible effectiveness of 
 the war-balloons, it was decided that any attempt to retake 
 Constantinople, or even to continue to hold the Dardanelles, 
 could only result in further disaster. 
 
 The forts of the Dardanelles were therefore evacuated 
 and blown up, and the British and Turkish fleet, with the 
 remains of the Turkish army on board, steamed southward to 
 Alexandria to join forces with the British Squadron that was 
 
254 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 holding the northern approaches to the Suez Canal. There 
 the Turkish troops were landed, and the Allied fleets prepared 
 for the naval battle which the release of the Eussian Black 
 Sea Squadron, through the opening of the Dardanelles, was 
 considered to have rendered inevitable. 
 
 Five days later was fought a second battle of the Nile, a 
 battle compared with which the former conflict, momentous as 
 it had been, would have seemed but child's play. On the 
 one side Admiral Beresford, in command of the Mediterranean 
 Squadron, had collected every available ship and torpedo-boat 
 to do battle for the defence of the all-important Suez Canal, 
 and opposed to him was an immense armament formed by the 
 junction of the Eussian Black Sea Squadron with the Franco- 
 Italian fleet, or rather those portions of it which had survived 
 the attacks, or eluded the vigilance of the British Admiral. 
 
 The battle, fought almost on the ancient battle-ground of 
 Nelson and Collingwood, was incomparably the greatest sea- 
 fight in the history of war. 
 
 The fleet under Admiral Beresford's command consisted of 
 fifty-five battleships of the first and second class, forty-six 
 armoured and seventy-two unarmoured cruisers, fifty-four 
 gunboats, and two hundred and seventy torpedo-boats ; while 
 the Franco - Italian Allied fleets mustered between them 
 forty- six battleships, seventy-five armoured and sixty- three 
 unarmoured cruisers, forty gunboats, and two hundred and 
 fifty torpedo-boats. 
 
 The battle began soon after sundown on the 24th of August, 
 and raged continuously for over sixty hours. The whole issue 
 of the fight was the question al the command of the Mediter- 
 ranean, and the British line of communication with India and 
 the East vid the Suez Canal. 
 
 The prize was well worthy of the tremendous struggle that 
 the two contending forces waged for it; and from the two 
 Admirals in command to the boys employed on the most 
 insignificant duties about the ships, every one of the combatants 
 seemed equally impressed with the magnitude of the momentous 
 issues at stake. 
 
 To the League, victory meant a deadly blow inflicted upon 
 the only enemy now seriously to be reckoned with. It meant 
 the severing of the British Empire into two portions, and the 
 
The Path of Conquest. 255 
 
 cutting of the one remaining channel of supply upon which 
 the heart of the Empire now depended for its nutrition. To 
 destroy Admiral Beresford's fleet would be to achieve as great 
 a triumph on the sea as the armies of the League had achieved 
 on land by the taking of Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople. 
 On the other hand, the defeat of the Franco-Italian fleets meant 
 complete command of the Mediterranean, and the ability to 
 destroy in detail all the important sea-board fortresses and 
 arsenals of the League that were situated on its shores. 
 
 It meant the keeping open of the Suez Canal, the mainten- 
 ance of communication with India and Australia by the 
 shortest route, and, what was by no means the least important 
 consideration, the vindication of British prestige in Egypt, the 
 Soudan, and India. It was with these enormous gains and 
 losses before their eyes that the two forces engaged and fought 
 as perhaps men had never fought with each other in the world 
 before. Everything that science and experience could suggest 
 was done by the leaders of both sides. Human life was counted 
 as nothing in the balance, and deeds of the most reckless 
 heroism were performed in countless instances as the mighty 
 struggle progressed. 
 
 With such inflexible determination was the battle waged- 
 on either side, and so appalling was the destruction accom- 
 plished by the weapons brought into play, that by sunrise 
 on the morning of the 27th, more than half the opposing 
 fleets had been destroyed, and of the remainder the majority 
 were so crippled that a continuance of the fight had become a 
 matter of physical impossibility. 
 
 What advantage remained appeared to be on the side of the 
 remains of the Franco-Italian fleet; but this was speedily 
 negatived an hour after sunrise by the appearance of a fresh 
 British Squadron, consisting of the five battleships, fifteen 
 cruisers, and a large flotilla of gunboats and torpedo-boats 
 which had passed through the Canal during the night from 
 Aden and Suakim, and appeared on the scene just in time to 
 turn the tide of battle decisively in favour of the British 
 Admiral. 
 
 As soon as this new force got into action it went to work 
 with terrible effectiveness, and in three hours there was not 
 a single vessel that was still flying the French or Italian flag. 
 
2=^6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The victory had, it is true, been bought at a tremendous price, 
 but it was complete and decisive, and at the moment that 
 the last of the ships of the League, struck her flag, Admiral 
 Beresford stood in the same glorious position as Sir George 
 Itodney had done a hundred and twenty-two years before, 
 when he saved the British Empire in the ever-memorable 
 victory of the 12th of April 1782. 
 
 The triumph in the Mediterranean was, however, only a 
 set-off to a disaster which had occurred more than five weeks 
 previously in the Atlantic. The Prussian fleet, which had 
 broken the blockade of the Sound, with the assistance of the 
 Lucifer, had, after coaling at Aberdeen, made its way into the 
 Atlantic, and there, in conjunction with the Franco-Italian 
 fleets operating along the Atlantic steamer route, had, after a 
 series of desperate engagements, succeeded in breaking up the 
 line of British communication with America and Canada. 
 
 This result had been achieved mainly in consequence of 
 the contrast between the necessary methods of attack and 
 defence. On the one hand, Britain had been compelled to 
 maintain an extended line of ocean defence more than three 
 thousand miles in length, and her ships had further been 
 hampered by the absolute necessity of attending, first, to the 
 protection of the Atlantic liners, and, secondly, to warding off 
 isolated attacks which were directed upon different parts of 
 the line by squadrons which could not be attacked in turn 
 without breaking the line of convoy which it was all-essential 
 to preserve intact. 
 
 For two or three weeks there had been a series of running 
 fights ; but at length the ocean chain had broken under the 
 perpetual strain, and a repulse inflicted on the Irish Squadron 
 by a superior force of French, Italian, and Spanish warships 
 had settled the question of the command of the Atlantic in 
 favour of the League. The immediate result of this was that 
 food supplies from the West practically stopped. 
 
 Now and then a fleet Atlantic greyhound ran the blockade 
 and brought her priceless cargo into a British port ; but as the 
 weeks went by these occurrences became fewer and further 
 between, till the time news was received in London of the 
 investment of the fortresses of the Quadrilateral by the 
 innumerable hosts of the League, brought together by the 
 
The Path of Conquest. 257 
 
 junction of the French and Russian Armies of the North and 
 the conquerors of Vienna and Constantinople, who had returned 
 on their tracks after garrisoning their conquests in the East. 
 
 Food in Britain, already at war prices, now began to rise 
 still further, and soon touched famine prices. Wheat, which 
 in the last decade of the nineteenth century had averaged 
 about £9 a ton, rose to over £31 a ton, its price two years 
 before the Battle of Waterloo. Other imported food-stuffs, of 
 course, rose in proportion with the staple commodity, and the 
 people of Britain saw, at first dimly, then more and more 
 clearly, the real issue that had been involved in the depopu- 
 lation of the rural districts to swell the populations of the 
 towns, and the consequent lapse of enormous areas of land 
 either into pasturage or unused wilderness. 
 
 In other words, Britain began to see approaching her doors 
 an enemy before whose assault all human strength is impotent 
 and all valour unavailing. Like Imperial Eome, she had 
 depended for her food supply upon external sources, and 
 now these sources were one by one being cut off. 
 
 The loss of the command of the Atlantic, the breaking of 
 the Baltic blockade, and the consequent closing of all the 
 continental ports save Hamburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and 
 Antwerp, had left her entirely dependent upon her own 
 miserably insufficient internal resources and the Mediterranean 
 route to India and the East. 
 
 More than this, too, only Hamburg, Antwerp, and the 
 fortresses of the Quadrilateral now stood between her and actual 
 invasion, — that supreme calamity which, until the raid upon 
 Aberdeen, had been for centuries believed to be impossible. 
 
 Once let the League triumph in the Netherlands, as it had 
 done in Central and South-Eastern Europe, and its legions 
 would descend like an avalanche upon the shores of England, 
 and the Lion of the Seas would find himself driven to bay in 
 the stronghold which he had held inviolate for nearly a 
 thousand years. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 FROM CHAOS TO AECADIE. 
 
 UPJXGi- the three months of incessant strife and 
 carnage which deluged the plains and valleys 
 of Europe with blood after the fall of Berlin, 
 the Terrorists took no part whatever in the 
 war. At long intervals an air-ship was seen 
 from the earth flying at full speed through the 
 upper regions of the atmosphere, now over Europe, now over 
 America, and now over Australia or the Cape of Good Hope ; 
 but if they held any communication with the earth they did 
 so secretly, and only paid the briefest of visits, the objects of 
 which could only be guessed at. 
 
 When one was sighted the fact was mentioned in the news- 
 papers, and vague speculations were indulged in ; but there was 
 soon little room left for these in the public attention, especially 
 in Britain, for as the news of disaster after disaster came 
 pouring in, and the hosts of the League drew nearer and nearer 
 to the western shores of Europe, all eyes were turned more and 
 more anxiously across "the silver streak" which now alone 
 separated the peaceful hills and valleys of England and Scot- 
 land from the destroying war-storm which had so swiftly 
 desolated the fields of Europe, and all hearts were heavy with 
 apprehension of coming sorrows. 
 
 The rapidity of their movements had naturally led to the 
 supposition that several of the air-ships had taken the air for 
 some unknown purpose, but in reality there were only two of 
 them afloat during nearly the whole of the three months. 
 
 Of these, one was the Orion, on board of which Tremayne 
 was visiting the various centres of the Brotherhood throughout 
 
 258 
 
From Chaos to Arcadie. 259 
 
 the English-speaking world, making everything ready for the 
 carrying out at the proper time of the great project to which 
 he had devoted himself since the memorable night at Alanmere, 
 when he had seen the vision of the world's Armageddon. The 
 other was under the command of Michael Eoburoff, who was 
 busy in America and Canada perfecting the preparations for 
 checkmating the designs of the American Eing, which were 
 described in a former chapter. 
 
 The remainder of the members of the Inner Circle and those 
 of the Outer Circle, living in Aeria, were quietly pursuing the 
 most peaceful avocations, building houses and water-mills, 
 clearing fields and laying out gardens, fishing in the lake and 
 streams, and hunting in the forests as though they had never 
 heard of the horrors of war, and had no part or share in the 
 Titanic strife whose final issue they would soon have to go 
 forth and decide. 
 
 One of the hardest workers in the colony was the Admiral 
 of the aerial fleet. Morning after morning he shut himself up 
 in his laboratory for three or four hours experimenting with 
 explosives of various kinds, and especially on a new form of 
 fire-shell which he had invented, and which he was now busy 
 perfecting in preparation for the next, and, as he hoped, final 
 conflict that he would have to wage with the forces of despotism 
 and barbarism. 
 
 The afternoons he spent supervising the erection of the mills, 
 and the construction of new machinery, and in exploring the 
 mountain sides in search of mineral wealth, of which he was 
 delighted to find abundant promise that was afterwards realised 
 beyond his expectations. 
 
 On these exploring expeditions he was frequently accom- 
 panied by Natasha and Eadna and her husband. Sometimes 
 Arnold would be enticed away from his chemicals, and his 
 designs on the lives of his enemies, and after breakfasting soon 
 after sunrise would go off for a long day's ramble to some 
 unknown part of their wonderful domain, in which, like chil- 
 dren in a fairyland, they were always discovering some new 
 wonders and beauties And, indeed, no children could have 
 been happier or freer from care than they were during this 
 delightful interval in the tragedy in which they were so soon 
 to play such conspicuous parts. 
 
260 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The two wedded lovers, with the dark past put far behind 
 them for ever, found perfect happiness in each other's society, 
 and so left, it is almost needless to add, Arnold and Natasha 
 pretty much to their own devices. Indeed, Natasha had more 
 than once declared that she would have to get the Princess to 
 join the party, as Radna had proved herself a hopeless failure 
 as a chaperone. 
 
 Every one in the valley by this time looked upon Arnold and 
 Natasha as lovers, though their rank in the Brotherhood was 
 so high that no one ventured to speak of them as betrothed 
 save by implication. How Natas regarded them was known 
 only to himself. He, of course, saw their intimacy, and since 
 he said nothing he doubtless looked upon it with approval ; but 
 whether he regarded it as an intimacy of friends or of lovers, 
 remained a mystery even to Natasha herself, for he never by 
 any chance made an allusion to it. 
 
 As for Arnold, he had scrupulously observed the compact 
 tacitly made between them on the first and only occasion that 
 he had ever spoken words of love to her. They were the best 
 of friends, the closest companions, and their intercourse with 
 each other was absolutely frank and unrestrained, just as it 
 would have been between two close friends of the same sex ; 
 but they understood each other perfectly, and by no word or 
 deed did either cross the line that divides friendship from 
 love. 
 
 She trusted him absolutely in all things, and he took this 
 trust as a sacred pledge between them that until his part of 
 their compact had been performed, love was a forbidden subject, 
 not even to be approached. 
 
 So perfectly did Natasha play her part that though he spent 
 hours and hours alone with her on their exploring expeditions, 
 and in rowing and sailing on the lake, and though he spent 
 many another hour in solitude, weighing her every word and 
 action, he was utterly unable to truthfully congratulate himself 
 on having made the slightest progress towards gaining that love 
 without which, even if he held her to the compact in the day 
 of victory, victory itself would be robbed of its crowning glory 
 and dearest prize. 
 
 To a weaker man it would have been an impossible situation, 
 this constant and familiar companionship with a girl whose 
 
From Chaos to Arcadie. 261 
 
 wonderful beauty dazzled his eyes and fired his blood as he 
 looked upon it, and whose winning charm of manner and grace 
 of speech and action seemed to glorify her beauty until she 
 seemed a being almost beyond the reach of merely human love 
 — rather one of those daughters of men whom the sons of God 
 looked upon in the early days of the world, and found so fair 
 that they forsook heaven itself to woo them. 
 
 Trained and disciplined as he had been in the sternest of all 
 schools, and strengthened as he was by the knowledge of the 
 compact that existed between them, there were moments when 
 his self-control was very sorely tried, moments when her hand 
 would be clasped in his, or rested on his shoulder as he helped 
 her across a stream or down some steep hillside, or when in 
 the midst of some animated discussion she would stop short 
 aud face him, and suddenly confound his logic with a flash 
 from her eyes and a smile on her lips that literally forced him 
 to put forth a muscular effort to prevent himself from catching 
 her in his arms and risking everything for just one kiss, one 
 taste of the forbidden fruit within his reach, and yet parted 
 from him by a sea of blood and flame that still lay between 
 the world and that empire of peace which he had promised to 
 win for her sweet sake. 
 
 Once, and once only, she had tried him almost too far. 
 They had been discussing the possibility of ruling the world 
 without the ultimate appeal to force, when the nations, weary 
 at length of war, should have consented to disarm, and she, 
 carried away by her own eloquent pleading for the ultimate 
 triumph of peace and goodwill on earth, had laid her hand 
 upon his arm, and was looking up at him with her lovely face 
 aglow with the sweetest expression even he had ever seen 
 upon it. 
 
 Their eyes met, and there was a sudden silence between 
 them. The eloquent words died upon her lips, and a deep 
 flush rose to her cheeks and then faded instantly away, 
 leaving her pale and with a look almost of terror in her eyes. 
 He took a quick step backwards, and, turning away as though 
 he feared to look any longer upon her beauty, said in a low 
 tone that trembled with the strength of his repressed passion — 
 
 " Natasha, for God's sake remember that I am only made of 
 flesh and blood ! " 
 
262 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 In a moment she was by his side again, this time with her 
 eyes downcast and her proud little head bent as though in 
 acknowledgment of his reproof. Then she looked up again, 
 and held out her hand and said — 
 
 " Forgive me ; I have done wrong ! Let us be friends 
 again ! " 
 
 There was a gentle emphasis on the word "friends" that 
 was irresistible. He took her hand in silence, and after a 
 pressure that was almost imperceptibly returned, let it go 
 again, and they walked on together ; but there was very little 
 more said between them that evening. 
 
 This had happened one afternoon towards the middle of 
 September, and two days later their delightful companionship 
 came suddenly to an end, and the bond that existed between 
 them was severed in a moment without warning, as a nerve 
 thrilling with pleasure might be cut by an unexpected blow 
 with a knife. 
 
 On the 16th of September the Orion returned from Australia. 
 She touched the earth shortly after mid-day, and before sunset 
 the Azrael, the vessel in which Michael Roburoff had gone to 
 America, also returned, but without her commander. Her 
 lieutenant, however, brought a despatch from him, which he 
 delivered at once to Natas, who, immediately on reading it, 
 sent for Tremayne. 
 
 It evidently contained matters of great importance, for 
 they remained alone together discussing it for over an hour. 
 At the end of that time Tremayne left the Master's house 
 and went to look for Arnold. He found him just helping 
 Natasha out of a skiff at a little landing-stage that had been 
 built out into the lake for boating purposes. As soon as 
 greetings had been exchanged, he said — 
 
 " Natasha, I have just left your father. He asked me, if I 
 saw you, to tell you that he wishes to speak to you at once." 
 
 " Certainly," said Natasha. " I hope you have not brought 
 bad news home from your travels. You are looking very 
 serious about something," and without waiting for an answer, 
 she was gone to obey her father's summons. As soon as she 
 was out of earshot Tremayne put his arm through Arnold's, 
 and, drawing him away towards a secluded portion of the shore 
 of the lake, said — 
 
From Chaos to Arcadie. 263 
 
 " Arnold, old man, I have some very serious news for you. 
 You must prepare yourself for the severest strain that, I 
 believe, could be put on your loyalty and your honour." 
 
 " What is it ? For Heaven's sake don't tell me that it has 
 to do with Natasha ! " exclaimed Arnold, stopping short and 
 facing round, white to the lips with the sudden fear that 
 possessed him. " You know " — 
 
 " Yes, I know everything," replied Tremayne, speaking 
 almost as gently as a woman would have done, " and I am 
 sorry to say that it has to do with her. I know what your 
 hopes have been with regard to her, and no man on earth 
 could have wished to see those hopes fulfilled more earnestly 
 than I have done, but" — 
 
 " What do you mean, Tremayne ? Speak out, and let me 
 know the worst. If you tell me that I am to give her up, I 
 tell you that I am " — 
 
 " ' That I am an English gentleman, and that I will break 
 my heart rather than my oath' — that is what you will tell 
 me when I tell you that you must not only give up your hopes 
 of winning Natasha, but that it is the Master's orders that you 
 shall have the Ithuriel ready to sail at midnight to take her to 
 America to Michael Eoburoff, who has written to Natas to ask 
 her for his wife." 
 
 Arnold heard him out in dazed, stupefied silence. It 
 seemed too monstrous, too horrible, to be true. The sudden 
 blow had stunned him. He tried to speak, but the words 
 would not come. Tremayne, still standing with his arm 
 through his, felt his whole body trembling, as though stricken 
 with some sudden palsy. He led him on again, saying in a 
 sterner tone than before — 
 
 " Come, come ! Play the man, and remember that the 
 work nearest to your hand is war, and not love. Eemember 
 the tremendous issues that are gathering to their fulfilment, 
 and the part that you have to play in working them out. 
 This is not a question of the happiness or the hopes of one 
 man or woman, but of millions, of the whole human race. 
 You, and you alone, hold in your hands the power to make 
 the defeat of the League certain." 
 
 " And I will use it, have no fear of that ! " replied Arnold, 
 stopping again and passing his hand over his eyes like a man 
 
264 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 waking from an evil dream. "What I have sworn to do 
 I will do ; I am not going back from my oath. I will obey 
 to the end, for she will do the same, and what would she 
 think of me if I failed ! Leave me alone for a bit now, old 
 man. I must fight this thing out with myself, but the 
 Ithuriel shall be ready to start at twelve." 
 
 Tremayne saw that he was himself again, and that it was 
 better that he should do as he said ; so with a word of farewell 
 he turned away and left him alone with his thoughts. Half- 
 way back to the settlement he met Natasha coming down 
 towards the lake. She was deadly pale, but she walked with 
 a firm step, and carried her head as proudly erect as ever. As 
 they met she stopped him and said — 
 
 " Where is he ? ' 
 
 Tremayne's first thought was to try and persuade her to 
 go back and leave Arnold to himself, but a look at Natasha's 
 white set face and burning eyes warned him that she was not 
 in a mood to take advice, and so he told her, and without 
 another word she went on swiftly down the path that led to 
 the lake. 
 
 The brief twilight of the tropics had passed before he 
 reached a grove of palms on the western shore of the lake, 
 towards which he had bent his steps when he left Tremayne. 
 He walked with loose, aimless strides, now quickly and now 
 slowly, and now stopping to watch the brightening moon 
 shining upon the water. 
 
 He caught himself thinking what a lovely night it would 
 be to take Natasha for a row, and then his mind sprang back 
 with a jerk to the remembrance of the horrible journey that 
 he was to begin at midnight — to take Natasha to another 
 man, and leave her with him as his wife. 
 
 No, it could not be true. It was impossible that he should 
 have fought and triumphed as he had done, and all for this. 
 To give up the one woman he had ever loved in all his life, 
 the woman he had snatched from slavery and degradation 
 when not another man on earth could have done it. 
 
 What had this Eoburoff done that she should be given to 
 him for the mere asking ? Why had he not come in person 
 like a man to woo and win her if he could, and then he would 
 have stood aside and bowed to her choice. But this curt 
 
From Chaos to Arcadie. 265 
 
 order to take her away to him as though she were some piece 
 of merchandise — no, if such things were possible, better that 
 he had never — 
 
 "Richard!" 
 
 He felt a light touch on his arm, and turned round sharply. 
 Natasha was standing beside him. He had been so engrossed 
 by his dark thoughts that he had not heard her light step on 
 the soft sward, and now he seemed to see her white face and 
 great shining eyes looking up at him in the moonlight as 
 though there was some mist floating between him and her. 
 Suddenly the mist seemed to vanish. He saw tears under 
 the long dark lashes, and the sweet red lips parted in a faint 
 smile. 
 
 Lose her he might to-morrow, but for this one moment she 
 was his and no other man's, let those who would say nay. 
 That instant she was clasped helpless and unresisting in his 
 arms, and her lips were giving his back kiss for kiss. Wreck 
 and chaos might come now for all he cared. She loved him, 
 and had given herself to him, if only for that one moonlit 
 hour. 
 
 After that he could plunge into the battle again, and slay 
 and spare not — yes, and he would slay without mercy. He 
 would hurl his lightnings from the skies, and where they 
 struck there should be death. If not love and life, then hate 
 and death — it was not his choice. Let those who had chosen 
 see to that ; but for the present love and life were his, why 
 should he not live? Then the mad, sweet delirium passed, 
 and saner thoughts came. He released her suddenly, almost 
 brusquely, and said with a harsh ring in his voice — 
 
 " Why did you come ? Have you forgotten what so nearly 
 happened the day before yesterday ? " 
 
 "No, I have not forgotten it. I have remembered it, and 
 that is why I came to tell you — what you know now." 
 
 Her face was rosy enough now, and she looked him straight 
 in the eyes as she spoke, proud to confess the mastery that he 
 had won. 
 
 " Now listen," she went on, speaking in a low, quick, passion- 
 ate tone. " The will of the Master must be done. There is 
 no appeal from that, either for you or me. He can dispose 
 of me as he chooses, and I shall obey, as I warned you I 
 
266 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 should when you first told me that you would win me if 
 you could. 
 
 " Well, you have won me, so far as I can be won. I love 
 you, and I have come to tell you so before the shadow falls 
 between us. And I have come to tell you that what you have 
 won shall belong to no one else. I will obey my father to 
 the letter, but the spirit is my affair. Now kiss me again, 
 dear, and say good-bye. We have had our glimpse of heaven, 
 and this is not the only life." 
 
 For one more brief moment she surrendered herself to him 
 again. Their lips met and parted, and in an instant she had 
 slipped out of his arms and was gone, leaving him dazed with 
 her beauty and her winsome nesa. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 LOVE AND DUTY. 
 
 N hour later he walked back to the settlement, 
 looking five years older than he had done a 
 couple of hours before, but with his nerves 
 steady and with the light of a solemn resolve 
 burning in his eyes. He went straight to the 
 Ithuriel, and made a minute personal inspec- 
 tion of the whole vessel, inside and out. He saw that every 
 cylinder was charged, and that there was an ample supply of 
 spare ones and ammunition on board, including a number of 
 his new fire-shells. Then he went to Lieutenant Marston's 
 quarters, and told him to have the crew in their places by 
 half-past eleven ; and this done, he paid a formal visit to the 
 Master to report all ready. 
 
 Natas received him as usual, just as though nothing out 
 of the common had happened ; and if he noticed the change 
 that had come over him, he made no sign that he did so. 
 When Arnold had made his report, he merely said — 
 
 " Very good. You will start at twelve. The Chief has told 
 you the nature and purpose of the voyage you are about to 
 make, I presume ? " 
 
 He bowed a silent affirmative, and Natas went on — 
 " The Chief and Anna Ornovski will go with you as witnesses 
 for Michael Eoburoff and Natasha, and the Chief will be pro- 
 vided with my sealed orders for your guidance in the immediate 
 future. The rendezvous is a house on one of the spurs of 
 the Alleghany Mountains. What time will it take to reach 
 there?" 
 
 " The distance is about seven thousand miles. That will be 
 
 267 
 
268 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 from thirty to thirty-five hours' flight according to the wind. 
 With a fair wind we shall reach the Alleghanies a little before 
 sunrise on the 18th." 
 
 " Then to make sure of that, if possible, you had better start 
 an hour earlier. Natasha is making her preparations, and will 
 be on board at eleven." 
 
 " Very well ; I will be ready to start then," replied Arnold, 
 speaking as calmly and formally as Natas had done. Then he 
 saluted and walked out. 
 
 When he got into the open air he drew a deep breath. His 
 teeth came together with a sharp snap, and his hands clenched. 
 So it was true, then, this horrible thing, this sacrilege, this 
 ruin, that had fallen upon his life and hers. Natas had spoken 
 of giving her to this man as quietly as though it had been the 
 most natural proceeding possible, an understood arrangement 
 about which there could be no question. Well, he had sworn, 
 and he would obey, but there would be a heavy price to pay for 
 his obedience. 
 
 He did not see Natasha again that night. When the 
 Ithuriel rose into the air she was in her cabin with the 
 Princess, and did not appear during the voyage save at 
 meals, when all the others were present, and then she joined 
 in the conversation with a composure which showed that, 
 externally at least, she had quite regained her habitual self- 
 controL 
 
 Arnold spent the greater part of the voyage in the deck- 
 saloon with Tremayne, talking over the events of the war, and 
 arranging plans of future action. By mutual consent the object 
 of their present voyage was not mentioned. As Arnold was 
 more than two months and a half behind the news, he found 
 not a little relief in hearing from Tremayne of all that had 
 taken place since the recapture of the Lucifer. 
 
 The two men, who were now to be the active leaders of the 
 Eevolution which, as they hoped, was soon to overturn the 
 whole fabric of Society, and introduce a new social order of 
 things, conversed in this fashion, quietly discussing the terrific 
 tragedy in which they were to play the leading parts, and 
 arranging all the details of their joint action, until well into 
 the night of the 17th. 
 
 About eleven Tremayne went to his cabin, and Arnold, going 
 
Love and Duty. 269 
 
 to the comiing-tower, told the man on the look-out to go below 
 until he was called. Then he took his place, and remained 
 alone with his thoughts as the Ithuriel sped on her way a 
 thousand feet above the deserted waters of the Atlantic, until 
 the dark mass of the American Continent loomed up in front 
 of him to the westward. 
 
 As soon as he sighted land he went aft to the wheel-house, 
 and slightly inclined the air-planes, causing the Ithuriel to soar 
 upwards until the barometer marked a height of 6000 feet. 
 At this elevation he passed over the mouth of the Chesapeake, 
 and across Virginia ; and a little more than an hour before sun- 
 rise the Ithuriel sank to the earth on one of the spurs of the 
 Alleghanies, in sight of a lonely weather-board house, in one of 
 the windows of which three lights were burning in the form of 
 a triangle. 
 
 This building was used ostensibly as a shooting and hunting- 
 box by Michael Koburoff and a couple of his friends, and in 
 reality as a meeting-place for the Inner Circle or Executive 
 Council of the American Section of the Brotherhood. This 
 Section was, numerically speaking, the most important of the 
 four branches into which the Outer Circle of the Brotherhood 
 was divided — that is to say, the British, Continental, American, 
 and Colonial Sections. 
 
 All told, the Terrorists had rather more than five million 
 adherents in America and Canada, of whom more than four 
 millions were men in the prime of life, and nearly all of Anglo- 
 Saxon blood and English speech. All these men were not only 
 armed, but trained in the use of firearms to a high degree of 
 skill ; their organisation, which had gradually grown up with 
 the Brotherhood for twenty years, was known to the world 
 only under the guise of the different forms of industrial 
 unionism, but behind these there was a perfect system of 
 discipline and command which the outer world had never 
 even suspected. 
 
 The Section was divided first into squads of ten under the 
 command of an eleventh, who alone knew the leaders of the 
 other squads in his neighbourhood. Ten of these squads made 
 a company, commanded by one man, who was only known to 
 the squad-captains, and who alone knew the captain of the 
 regiment, which was composed of ten companies. 
 
270 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 The next step in the organisation was the brigade, consisting 
 of ten regiments, the captains of which alone knew the com- 
 mander of the brigade, while the commanders of the brigades 
 were alone acquainted with the members of the Inner Circle 
 or Executive Council which managed the affairs of the whole 
 Section, and whose Chief was the only man in the Section who 
 could hold any communication with the Inner Circle of the 
 Brotherhood itself, which, under the immediate command of 
 Natas, governed the whole organisation throughout the world. 
 
 This description will serve for all the Sections, as all were 
 modelled upon exactly the same plan. The advantages of such 
 an organisation will at once be obvious. In the first place, no 
 member of the rank and file could possibly betray more than 
 ten of his fellows, including his captain ; while his treachery 
 could, if necessary, be made known in a few hours to ten 
 thousand others, not one of whom he knew, and thus it would 
 be impossible for him to escape the invariable death penalty. 
 The same is, of course, equally true of the captains and the 
 commanders. 
 
 On the other hand, the system was equally convenient for 
 the transmission of orders from headquarters. An order given 
 to ten commanders of brigades could, in a single night, be 
 transmitted individually to the whole of the Section, and yet 
 those in command of the various divisions would not know 
 whence the orders came, save as regards their immediate 
 superiors. 
 
 It will be necessary for the reader to bear these few par- 
 ticulars in mind in order to understand future developments, 
 which, without them, might seem to border on the impossible. 
 It is only necessary to add that the full fighting strength of 
 the four Sections of the Brotherhood amounted to about twelve 
 millions of men, a considerable proportion of whom were serv- 
 ing as soldiers in the armies of the League and the Alliance, 
 and that in its cosmopolitan aspect it was known to the rank 
 and file as the Red International, whose members knew each 
 other only by the possession of a little knot of red ribbon tied 
 into the button -hole in a peculiar fashion on occasions of 
 meetings for instruction or drill. 
 
 The three lights burning in the form of a triangle in the 
 window of the house were a prearranged signal to avoid 
 
Love and Duty. 271 
 
 mistake on the part of those on board the air-ship. When 
 they reached the earth, Arnold, acting under the instructions 
 of Tremayne, who was his superior on land though his 
 voluntary subordinate when afloat, left the Ithuriel and her 
 crew in charge of Lieutenant Marston and Andrew Smith, 
 the coxswain. 
 
 The remainder disembarked, and then the air-ship rose from 
 the ground and ascended out of sight through a layer of clouds 
 that hung some eight hundred feet above the high ground of 
 the hills. Lieutenant Marston's orders were to remain out of 
 sight for an hour and then return. 
 
 Arnold had not seen Natasha for several hours previous to 
 the landing, and he noticed with wonder, by no means unmixed 
 with something very like anger, that she looked a great deal 
 more cheerful than she had done during the voyage. She had 
 preserved her composure all through, but the effort of restraint 
 had been visible. Now this had vanished, although the 
 supreme hour of the sacrifice that her father had commanded 
 her to make was actually at hand. When her feet touched 
 the earth she looked round with a smile on her lips and a 
 flush on her cheeks, and said, in a voice in which there was 
 no perceptible trace of anxiety or suffering — 
 
 " So this is the place of my bridal, is it ? Well, I must say 
 that a more cheerful one might have been selected ; yet perhaps, 
 after all, such a gloomy spot is more suitable to the ceremony. 
 Come along ; I suppose the bridegroom will be anxiously waiting 
 the coining of the bride. I wonder what sort of a reception I 
 shall have. Come, my Lord of Alanmere, your arm ; and you, 
 Captain Arnold, bring the Princess. We have a good deal to 
 do before it gets light." 
 
 These were strange words to be uttered by a girl who but a 
 few hours before had voluntarily confessed her love for one 
 man, and was on the eve of compulsorily giving herself up to 
 another one. Had it been any one else but Natasha, Arnold 
 could have felt only disgust ; but his love made it impossible 
 for him to believe her guilty of such unworthy lightness as her 
 words bespoke, even on the plain evidence before him, so he 
 simply choked back his anger as best he might, and followed 
 towards the house, speechless with astonishment at the marvel- 
 lous change that had come over the daughter of Natas. 
 
272 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Tremayne knocked in a peculiar fashion on the window, and 
 then repeated the knock on the door, which was opened almost 
 immediately. 
 
 " Who stands there ? " asked a voice in French. 
 
 "Those who bring the expected bride," replied Tremayne 
 in German. 
 
 "And by whose authority?" This time the question was 
 in Spanish. 
 
 " In the Master's name," said Tremayne in English. 
 
 " Enter ! you are welcome." 
 
 A second door was now opened inside the house, and through 
 it a light shone into the passage. The four visitors entered, 
 and, passing through the second door, found themselves in a 
 plainly-furnished room, down the centre of which ran a long 
 table, flanked by five chairs on each side, in each of which, 
 save one, sat a masked and shrouded figure exactly similar to 
 those which Arnold had seen when he was first introduced to 
 the Council-chamber in the house on Clapham Common. In 
 a chair at one end of the table sat another figure similarly 
 draped. 
 
 The door was closed as they entered, and the member of 
 the Circle who had let them in returned to his seat. No word 
 was spoken until this was done. Then Natasha, leaving her 
 three companions by the door, advanced alone to the lower 
 end of the table. 
 
 As she did so, Arnold for the first time noticed that she 
 carried her magazine pistol in a sheath at her belt. He and 
 Tremayne were, as a matter of course, armed with a brace of 
 these weapons, but this was the first time that he had ever 
 seen Natasha carry her pistol openly. Wondering greatly what 
 this strange sight might mean, he waited with breathless 
 anxiety for the drama to begin. 
 
 As Natasha took her stand at the opposite end of the table, 
 the figure in the chair at the top rose and unmasked, display- 
 ing the pallid countenance of the Chief of the American Section. 
 He looked to Arnold anything but a bridegroom awaiting his 
 bride, and the ceremony which was to unite him to her for ever. 
 His cheeks and lips were bloodless, and his eyes wandered 
 restlessly from Natasha to Tremayne and back again. He 
 glanced to and fro in silence for several moments, and when 
 
Love and Duty. 273 
 
 he at last found his voice he said, in half- choked, broken 
 accents — 
 
 " What is this ? Why am I honoured by the presence of 
 the Chief and the Admiral of the Air ? I asked only that if 
 the Master consented to grant my humble petition in reward 
 for my services, the daughter of Natas should come attended 
 simply by a sister of the Brotherhood and the messenger that 
 I sent." 
 
 They let him finish, although it was with manifest difficulty 
 that he stammered to the end of his speech. Arnold, still 
 wondering at the strange turn events had taken, saw Tremayne's 
 lips tighten and his brows contract in the effort to repress a 
 smile. The other masked figures at the table moved restlessly 
 in their seats, and glanced from one to another. Seeing this, 
 Tremayne stepped quickly forward to Natasha's side, and 
 said in a stern, commanding tone — 
 
 " I am the Chief of the Central Council, and I order every 
 one here to keep his seat and remain silent until the daughter 
 of Natas has spoken." 
 
 The ten masked and hooded heads instantly bowed consent. 
 Then Tremayne stepped back again, and Natasha spoke. 
 There was a keen, angry light in her eyes, and a bright flush 
 upon her cheek, but her voice was smooth and silvery, and in 
 strange contrast to the words that she used, almost to the 
 end. 
 
 " Did you think, Michael Eoburoff, that the Master of the 
 Terror would send his daughter to her bridal so poorly escorted 
 as you say ? Surely that would have been almost as much 
 of a slight as you put upon me when, instead of coming to woo 
 me as a true lover should have done, you contented yourself 
 with sending a messenger as though you were some Eastern 
 potentate despatching an envoy to demand the hand of the 
 daughter of a vassal. 
 
 " It would seem that this sudden love which you do me 
 the honour to profess for me has destroyed your manners as 
 well as your reason. But since you have assumed so high a 
 dignity, it is not seemly that you should stand to hear what I 
 have to say ; sit down, for it looks as though standing were a 
 trouble to you." 
 
 Michael Eoburoff, who by this time could scarcely support 
 18 
 
274 The Angel of the 'Revolution. 
 
 himself on his trembling limbs, sank suddenly back into his 
 chair and covered his face with his hands. 
 
 "That is not very lover-like to cover your eyes when the 
 bride that you have asked for is standing in front of you ; but 
 as long as you don't cover your ears as well, I will forgive you 
 the slight. Now, listen. 
 
 " I have come, as you see, and I have brought with me the 
 answer of the Master to your request. Until an hour ago I 
 did not know what it was myself, for, like the rest of the 
 faithful members of the Brotherhood, I obey the word of the 
 Master blindly. 
 
 "You, as it would appear, maddened by what you are 
 pleased to call your love for me, have dared to attempt to 
 make terms where you swore to obey blindly to the death. 
 You have dared to place me, the daughter of Natas, in the 
 balance against the allegiance of the American Section on 
 the eve of the supreme crisis of its work, thus imperilling the 
 results of twenty years of labour. 
 
 "If you had not been mad you would have foreseen the 
 results of such treachery. As it is you must learn them now. 
 What I have said has been proved by your own hand, and 
 the proof is here in the hand of the Chief. This is the answer 
 of Natas to the servant who would have betrayed him in the 
 hour of trial." 
 
 She took a folded paper from her belt as she spoke, and, 
 unfolding it, read in clear, deliberate tones — 
 
 Michael Eoburoff, late chief of the American Section of the Brotherhood. 
 When you joined the Order, you took an oath to obey the directions of its chiefs 
 to the death, and you acknowledged that death would be the just penalty of 
 perjury. My orders to you were to complete the arrangements for bringing the 
 American Section into action when you received the signal to do so. Instead 
 of doing that, you have sought to bargain with me for the price of its allegiance. 
 That is treachery, and the penalty of treachery is death. 
 
 Natas. 
 
 " Those are the words of the Master," continued Natasha, 
 throwing the paper down upon the table with one hand, and 
 drawing her pistol with the other. " It rests with the Chief 
 to say when and where the sentence of the Master shall be 
 carried out." 
 
 " Let it be carried out here, and now," said Tremayne, " and 
 
Love and Duty. 275 
 
 let him who has anything to say against it speak now, or for 
 ever hold his peace." 
 
 The ten heads bowed once more in silence, and Natasha 
 went on still addressing the trembling wretch who sat huddled 
 in the chair in front of her. 
 
 "You have asked for a bride, Michael Eoburoff, and she 
 has come to you, and I can promise you that you shall sleep 
 soundly in her embrace. Your bride is Death, and I have 
 chosen to bring her to you with my own hand, that all here 
 may see how the daughter of Natas can avenge an insult to 
 her womanhood. 
 
 " You have been guilty of treachery to the Brotherhood, and 
 for that you might have been punished by any hand ; but you 
 would also have condemned me to the infamy of a loveless 
 marriage, and that is an insult that no one shall punish but 
 myself. Look up, and, if you can, die like a man." 
 
 Eoburoff took his hands from his face, and with an inarti- 
 culate cry started to his feet. The same instant Natasha's 
 hand went up, her pistol flashed, and he dropped back again 
 into his chair with a bullet in his brain. Then she replaced 
 the pistol in her belt, and going up to Arnold held out both 
 her hands and said, as he clasped them in his own — 
 
 *' If the Master's reply had been different, that bullet would 
 by this time have been in niy own heart." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE CAPTUKE OF A CONTINENT. 
 
 1THIN an hour after the execution of Michael 
 Koburoff the Ithurid was winging her way 
 hack to Aeria, and at least two of her company 
 were anticipating their return to the valley 
 with feelings very different to those with which 
 they had contemplated their departure. 
 When the last farewells and congratulations had been 
 spoken, and the air-ship rose from the earth, Tremayne 
 returned to the house to commence forthwith the great task 
 which now developed upon him ; for in addition to being Chief 
 of the Central Executive, he now assumed the direct command 
 of the American Section, which, after long consideration, had 
 been selected as the nucleus of the Federation of the English- 
 speaking peoples of the world. 
 
 For a fortnight he worked almost night and day, attending 
 to every detail with the utmost care, and bringing into play 
 all those rare powers of mind which in the first instance had 
 led Natas to select him as the visible head of the Executive. 
 In this way the chief consequence of the love-madness of 
 Ptoburoff had been to place at the head of affairs in America 
 the one man of all others most fitted by descent and ability to 
 carry out such a work, and to this fact its complete success- 
 must in a great measure be attributed. 
 
 So perfectly were his plans laid and executed, that right up 
 to the moment when the signal was given and the plans- 
 became actions, American society went about its daily business 
 without the remotest suspicion that it was living on the slope 
 of a slumbering volcano whose fires were so soon to burst forth 
 
 276 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 277 
 
 and finally consume the social fabric which, despite its splendid 
 exterior, was inwardly as rotten as were the social fabrics of 
 Rome and Byzantium on the eve of their fall. 
 
 On the 1st of October the cables brought the news of the 
 fall of the Quadrilateral, the storming of Hamburg, and the 
 retreat of the British forces on Antwerp. Four days later 
 came the tidings of a great battle under the walls of Antwerp, 
 in which the British and German forces, outnumbered ten to 
 one by the innumerable hosts of the League, had suffered a 
 decisive defeat, which rendered it imperative for them to fall 
 back upon the Allied fleets in the Scheldt, and to leave the 
 Netherlands to the mercy of the Tsar and his allies, who were 
 thus left undisputed masters of the continent of Europe. 
 
 This last and crowning victory had been achieved by exactly 
 the same means which had accomplished all the other triumphs 
 of the campaign, and therefore there will be no need to enter 
 into any detailed description of it. Indeed, the fall of the 
 Quadrilateral and the defeat of the last army of the Alliance 
 round Antwerp would have been accomplished much more 
 easily and speedily than it had been but for the fact that the 
 weather, which had been fine up to the end of July, had 
 suddenly broken, and a succession of violent storms and gales 
 from the north and north-west had made it impossible for the 
 war-balloons to be brought into action with any degree of 
 effectiveness. 
 
 During the last week of September the storms had ceased, 
 and then the work of destruction began. Not even the 
 hitherto impregnable fortresses of Tournay, Mons, Namur, and 
 Liege had been able to withstand the assault from the air any 
 better than the forts of Berlin or the walls of Constantinople. 
 A day's bombardment had sufficed to reduce them to ruins, 
 and, the chain once broken, the armies of the League swept in 
 wave after wave across the plains which they had guarded. 
 
 The loss of life had been unparalleled even in this the 
 greatest of all wars, for the British and Germans had fought 
 with a dogged resolution which, but for the vastly superior 
 numbers and the irresistible means of destruction employed 
 against them, must infallibly have triumphed. As it was, 
 it was only when valour had achieved its last sacrifice, and 
 further resistance became rather madness than devotion, that 
 
278 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the retreat was finally sounded in time to embark the remnants 
 of the armies of the Alliance on board the warships. Happily 
 at the very hour when this was being done the weather broke 
 again, and the ships of the Allied fleets were therefore able to 
 make their way to sea through storm and darkness, unmolested 
 by the war-balloons. 
 
 While the American press was teeming with columns of 
 description telegraphed at enormous cost from the seat of war, 
 and with absolutely misleading articles as to the policy of the 
 League and the attitude of studious neutrality that was to be 
 observed by the United States Government, the dockyards, 
 controlled directly and indirectly by the American Ring, were 
 working night and day putting the finishing touches to the 
 flotilla of dynamite cruisers and other war-vessels intended to 
 carry out the plan revealed by Michael Roburoff on board the 
 Ithuriel, after he had been taken off the Aurania in the 
 Mid-Atlantic. 
 
 Briefly described, this was as follows: — Representative govern- 
 ment in America had by this time become a complete sham. 
 The whole political machinery and internal resources of the 
 United States were now virtually at the command of a great 
 Ring of capitalists who, through the medium of the huge 
 monopolies which they controlled, and the enormous sums of 
 money at their command, held the country in the hollow of 
 their hand. These men were as totally devoid of all human 
 feeling or public sentiment as it was possible for human beings 
 to be. They had grown rich in virtue of their contempt of 
 every principle of justice and mercy, and they had no other 
 object in life than to still further increase their gigantic hoards 
 of wealth, and to multiply the enormous powers which they 
 already wielded. The then condition of affairs in Europe had 
 presented them with such an opportunity as no other com- 
 bination of circumstances could have given them, and ignoring, 
 as such wretches would naturally do, all ties of blood and 
 kindred speech, they had determined to take advantage of the 
 situation to the utmost. 
 
 In the guise of the United States Government the Ring had 
 concluded a secret treaty with the commanders of the League, 
 in virtue of which, at a stipulated point in the struggle, America 
 was to declare war on Britain, invade Canada by land, and 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 279 
 
 send to sea an immense flotilla of swift dynamite cruisers of 
 tremendously destructive power, which had been constructed 
 openly in the Government dockyards, ostensibly for coast 
 defence, and secretly in private yards belonging to the various 
 Corporations composing the Eing. 
 
 This flotilla was to co-operate with the fleet of the League 
 as soon as England had been invaded, and complete • the 
 blockade of the British ports. Were this once accomplished 
 nothing could save Britian from starvation into surrender, and 
 the British Empire from disintegration and partition between 
 the King and the Commanders of the League, who would then 
 practically divide the mastery of the world among them. 
 
 On the night of the 4th of October the five words : " The 
 hour and the man," went flying over the wires from Washington 
 throughout the length and breadth of the North American 
 Continent. The next morning half the industries of the 
 United States were paralysed ; all the lines of communication 
 by telegraph and rail between the east and west were severed, 
 the shore ends of the Atlantic cables were cut, no newspapers 
 appeared, and every dockyard on the eastern coast was in the 
 hands of the Terrorists. 
 
 To complete the stupor produced by this swift succession of 
 astounding events, when the sun rose an air-ship was seen 
 floating high in the air over the ten arsenals of the United 
 States — that is to say, over Portsmouth, Charlestown, Brooklyn, 
 League Island, New London, Washington, Norfolk, Pensacola, 
 Mare Island, and Port Eoyal, while two others held Chicago 
 and St. Louis, the great railway centres for the west and south, 
 at their mercy, and the Ithuriel, with a broad red flag flying 
 from her stern, swept like a meteor along the eastern coast 
 from Maine to Florida. 
 
 To attempt to describe the condition of frenzied panic into 
 which the inhabitants of the threatened cities, and even the 
 whole of the Eastern States were thrown by the events of that 
 ever-memorable morning, would be to essay an utterly hope- 
 less task. From the millionaire in his palace to the outcasts 
 who swarmed in the slums, not a man or a woman kept a cool 
 head save those who were in the councils of the Terrorists. 
 The blow had fallen with such stupefying suddenness that 
 as far as America was concerned the Pievolution was practi- 
 
:So The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 cally accomplished before any one very well knew what had 
 happened. 
 
 Out of the midst of an apparently peaceful and industrious 
 population five millions of armed men had sprung in a single 
 night. Factories and workshops had opened their doors, but 
 none entered them ; ships lay idle by the wharves, offices 
 were deserted, and the great reels of paper hung motionless 
 beside the paralysed machines which should have converted 
 them into newspapers. 
 
 It was not a strike, for no mere trade organisation could 
 have accomplished such a miracle. It was the force born of 
 the accumulation of twenty years of untiring labour striking 
 one mighty blow which shattered the commercial fabric of a 
 continent in a single instant. Those who had been clerks or 
 labourers yesterday, patient, peaceful, and law-abiding, were 
 to-day soldiers, armed and disciplined, and obeying with 
 automatic regularity the unheard command of some unknown 
 chief. 
 
 This of itself would have been enough to throw the United 
 States into a panic ; but, worse than all, the presence of the 
 air-ships, holding at their mercy the arsenals and the richest 
 cities in the Eastern States, proved that tremendous and all as 
 it was, this was only a phase of some vast and mysterious 
 cataclysm which might as easily involve the whole civilised 
 world as it could overwhelm the United States of America. 
 
 By noon, almost without striking a blow, every dynamite 
 cruiser and warship on the eastern coast had been seized and 
 manned by the Terrorists. To the dismay of the authorities, 
 it was found that more than half the army and navy, officers 
 and men alike, had obeyed the mysterious summons that had 
 gone throughout the land the night before ; and matters 
 reached a climax when, as the clocks of Washington were 
 striking twelve, the President himself was arrested in the 
 White House. 
 
 All the streets of Washington were in the hands of the 
 Terrorists, and at one o'clock Tremayne, after posting guards 
 at all the approaches, entered the Senate, and in the name of 
 Natas proclaimed the Constitution of the United States null 
 and void, and the Government dissolved. 
 
 Then with a copy of the Constitution in his hand he prQr 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 281 
 
 ceeded to the steps of the Capitol, and, in the presence of a 
 vast throng of the armed members of the American Section, 
 he proclaimed the Federation of the English-speaking races of 
 the world, in virtue of their bonds of kindred blood and speech 
 and common interests; and amidst a scene of the wildest 
 enthusiasm called upon all who owned those bonds to forget 
 the artificial divisions that had separated them into hostile 
 nations and communities, and to follow the leadership of the 
 Brotherhood to the conquest of the earth. 
 
 Then in a few strong and simple phrases he exposed the 
 subservience of the Government to the capitalist Ring, and 
 described the inhuman compact that it had entered into with 
 the arch-enemies of national freedom and personal liberty to 
 crush the motherland of the Anglo-Saxon nations, and for the 
 sake of sordid gain to rivet the fetters of oppression upon the 
 limbs of the race which for a thousand years had stood in the 
 forefront of the battle for freedom. 
 
 As he concluded his appeal, one mighty shout of wrath and 
 execration rose up to heaven from a million throats. He 
 waited until this died away into silence, then, raising the 
 copy of the Constitution above his head, he cried in clear 
 ringing tones — 
 
 " For a hundred and fifty years this has been boasted as the 
 bulwark of liberty, and used as the instrument of social and 
 commercial oppression. The Republic of America has been 
 governed, not by patriots and statesmen, but by millionaires 
 and their hired political puppets. It is therefore a fraud and 
 a sham, and deserves no longer to exist ! " 
 
 So saying, he tore the paper into fragments and cast them 
 into the air amidst a storm of cheers and volley after volley of 
 musketry. While the enthusiasm was at its height the Ithuriel 
 suddenly swept downwards from the sky in full view of the 
 mighty assemblage that swarmed round the Capitol. She was 
 greeted with a roar of wondering welcome, for her appearance 
 was the fulfilment of a promise upon which the success of the 
 Revolution in America had largely depended. 
 
 This was the promise, issued by Tremayne several days 
 previously through the commanders of the various divisions 
 of the Section, that as soon as the Anglo-Saxon Federation 
 was proclaimed and accepted in America, the whole Brother- 
 
282 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 hood throughout the world would fall into line with it, and 
 place its aerial navy at the disposal of its leaders. Practically 
 this was giving the empire of the world in exchange for a 
 money-despotism, of which every one save the millionaires and 
 their servants had become heartily sick. 
 
 There were few who in their hearts did not believe the 
 Eepublic to be a colossal fraud, and therefore there were few 
 who regretted it. 
 
 The Ithuriel passed slowly over the heads of the wondering 
 crowd, and came to a standstill alongside the steps on which 
 Tremayne was standing. The crowd saw a man on her deck 
 shake hands with Tremayne and give him a folded paper. 
 Then the air-ship swept gracefully upward again in a spiral 
 curve until she hung motionless over the dome of the Capitol. 
 
 Amidst a silence born of breathless interest to know the 
 import of this message from the sky, Tremayne opened the 
 paper, glanced at its contents, and handed it to the senior officer 
 in command of the brigades, who stood beside him. This man, 
 a veteran who had grown grey in the service of the Brother- 
 hood, advanced with the open paper in his hand, and read out 
 in a loud voice — 
 
 Natas sends greeting to the Brotherhood in America. The work has heen 
 well done, and the reward of patient labour is at hand. This is to name Alan 
 Tremayne, Chief of the Central Executive, first President of the Anglo-Saxon 
 Federation throughout the world, and to invest him with the supreme authority 
 for the ordering of its affairs. The aerial navy of the Brotherhood is placed at 
 his disposal to co-operate with the armies and fleets of the Federation. 
 
 Natas. 
 
 When the mighty shout of acclamation which greeted the 
 reading of this commission had died away, Tremayne stepped 
 forward again and spoke the few words that now remained to 
 be said — 
 
 " I accept the office and all that it implies. The fate of 
 the world lies in our hands, and as we decide it so will the 
 future lot of humanity be good or evil. The armies of the 
 Franco-Slavonian League are now masters of the continent 
 of Europe, and are preparing for the invasion of Britain. 
 The first use that I shall make of the authority now vested 
 in me will be to summon the Tsar in the name of the Federa- 
 tion to sheathe the sword at once, and relinquish his designs 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 283 
 
 on Britain. The moment that one of his soldiers sets foot on 
 the sacred soil of our motherland I shall declare war upon 
 him, and it shall be a war, not of conquest, but of extermina- 
 tion, and we will make an end of tyranny on earth for ever. 
 
 "Now let those who are not on guard-duty go to their 
 homes, and remember that they are now citizens of a greater 
 realm than the United States, and endowed with more than 
 national duties and responsibilities. Let every man's person 
 and property be respected, and let the penalty of all violence 
 be death. Those who have plotted against the public welfare 
 will be dealt with in due course, and yonder air-ship will be 
 despatched with our message to the Tsar at sundown. Long 
 live the Federation ! " 
 
 Millions of throats took up the cry as the last words left 
 his lips until it rolled away from the Capitol in mighty waves 
 of sound, flowing along the crowded streets and overrunning 
 the utmost confines of the capital. 
 
 Thus, without the loss of a hundred lives, and in a space of 
 less than twelve hours, was the Revolution in America accom- 
 plished. The triumph of the Terrorists was as complete as 
 it had been unexpected. Menaced by air and sea and land, 
 the great centres of population made no resistance, and, when 
 they learnt the true object of the Revolution, wanted to make 
 none. No one really believed in the late Government, and 
 every one in his soul hated and despised the millionaires. 
 
 There was no bond between them and their fellow-men but 
 money, and the moment that was snapped they were looked 
 upon in their true nature as criminals and outcasts from the 
 pale of humanity. By sundown, when the Ithuriel left for the 
 seat of war, the members of the Ring and those of the late 
 Government who refused to acknowledge the Federation were 
 lodged in prison, and news had been received from Montreal 
 that the simultaneous rising of the Canadian Section had been 
 completely successful, and that all the railways and arsenals 
 and ships of war were in the hands of the Terrorists, so com- 
 pleting the capture of the North American continent. 
 
 The President of the Federation and his faithful sub- 
 ordinates went to work, without losing an hour, to reorganise 
 as far as was necessary the internal affairs of the continent 
 of which they had so suddenly become the undisputed masters. 
 
284 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 There was some trouble with the British authorities in Canada, 
 who, from mistaken motives of duty to the mother country, at 
 first refused to recognise the Federation. 
 
 The consequence of this was that Tremayne went north the 
 next day and had an interview with the Governor-General at 
 Montreal. At the same time he ordered six air-ships and 
 twenty-five dynamite cruisers to blockade the St. Lawrence 
 and the eastern ports. The Canadian Pacific Railway and the 
 telegraph lines to the west were already in the hands of the 
 Terrorists, and a million men were under arms waiting his 
 commands. 
 
 A very brief explanation, therefore, sufficed to show the 
 Governor that forcible resistance would not only be the purest 
 madness, but that it would also seriously interfere with the 
 working of the great scheme of Federation, the object of which 
 was, not merely to place Britain in the first place among the 
 nations, but to make the Anglo-Saxon race the one dominant 
 power in the whole world. 
 
 To all the Governor's objections on the score of loyalty to 
 the British Crown, Tremayne, who heard him to the end with- 
 out interruption, simply replied in a tone that precluded all 
 further argument — 
 
 " The day of states and empires, and therefore of loyalty to 
 sovereigns, has gone by. The history of nations is the history 
 of intrigue, quarrelling, and bloodshed, and we are determined 
 to put a stop to warfare for good and all. We hold in our 
 hands the only power that can thwart the designs of the 
 League and avert an era of tyranny and retrogression. That 
 power we intend to use whether the British Government likes 
 it or not. 
 
 " We shall save Britain, if necessary, in spite of her rulers. 
 If they stand in the way, so much the worse for them. They 
 will be called upon to resign in favour of the Federation and 
 its Executive within the next seven days. If they consent, 
 the forces of the League will never cross the Straits of Dover. 
 If they refuse we shall allow Britain to taste the results of 
 their choice, and then settle the matter in our own way." 
 
 The next day the Governor dissolved the Canadian Legisla- 
 tures "under protest," and retired into private life for the 
 present. He felt that it was no, time, to argue with a man 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 285 
 
 who had millions of men behind him, to say nothing of an 
 aerial fleet which alone could reduce Montreal to ruins in 
 twelve hours. 
 
 After arranging matters in Canada the President returned 
 to Washington in the Ariel, which he had taken into his 
 personal service for the present, and set about disposing of 
 the Eing and those members of the late Government who were 
 most deeply implicated in the secret alliance with the leaders 
 of the League. When the facts of this scheme were made 
 public they raised such a storm of popular indignation, that if 
 those responsible for it had been turned loose in the streets of 
 Washington they would have been torn to pieces like vermin. 
 
 As it was, however, they were placed upon their trial before 
 a, Commission of seven members of the Inner Circle of the 
 American Section, presided over by the President. Their 
 •guilt was speedily proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 Documents, memoranda, and telegrams were produced by men 
 who had seemed their most trusted servants, but had been in 
 reality members of the Brotherhood told off to unearth their 
 schemes. 
 
 Cyphers were translated which showed that they had 
 practically sold the resources of the country in advance to 
 the Tsar and his allies, and that they were only waiting the 
 signal to declare war without warning and without cause upon 
 Britain, blockade her ports, and starve her into surrender and 
 acceptance of any terms that the victors might choose to 
 impose. Last of all, the terms of the bargain between the 
 League and the Pang were produced, signed by the late 
 President and the Secretary of State, and countersigned by the 
 Ptussian Minister at Washington. 
 
 The Court sat for three days, and reassembled on the fourth 
 to deliver its verdict and sentence. Fifteen members of the 
 late Government, including the President, the Vice-President, 
 and the Secretary of State, and twenty-four great capitalists 
 composing the Pang, were found guilty of giving and receiving 
 bribes, directly and indirectly, and of betraying and conspiring 
 to betray the confidence of the American people in its elected 
 representatives, and also of conspiring to make war without 
 due cause on a friendly Power for purely commercial reasons. 
 
 At eleven o'clock on the morning of the 9th of October the 
 
286 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 President of the Federation rose in the Senate House, amidst 
 breathless silence, to pronounce the sentence of the Court. 
 
 "All the accused," he said, speaking in slow, deliberate 
 tones, " have been proved guilty of such treason against their 
 own race and the welfare of humanity as no men ever were 
 guilty of before in all the disreputable history of state-craft. 
 In view of the suffering and misery to millions of individuals, 
 and the irreparable injury to the cause of civilisation that 
 would have resulted from the success of their schemes, it 
 would be impossible for human wit to devise any punishment 
 which in itself would be adequate. The sentence of the Court 
 is the extreme penalty known to human justice — Death ! " 
 
 A shudder passed through the vast assembly as he pro- 
 nounced the ominous word, and the accused, who but a few 
 days before had looked upon the world as their footstool, 
 gazed with blanched faces and terror-stricken eyes upon each 
 other. He paused for a moment, and looked sternly upon 
 them. Then he went on — 
 
 " But the Federation does not seek a punishment of revenge, 
 but of justice ; nor shall its first act of government be the 
 shedding of blood, however guilty. Therefore, as President I 
 override the sentence of death, and instead condemn you, who 
 have been proved guilty of this unspeakable crime, to confisca- 
 tion of the wealth that you have acquired so unscrupulously 
 and used so mercilessly, and to perpetual banishment with 
 your wives and families, who have shared the profits of your 
 infamous traffic. 
 
 "You will be at once conveyed to Kodiak Island, off the 
 south coast of Alaska, and landed there. Once every six 
 months you will be visited by a steamer, which will supply 
 you with the necessaries of life, and the original penalty of 
 death will be the immediate punishment of any one of you 
 who attempts to return to a world of which you from this 
 moment cease to be citizens." 
 
 The sentence was carried out without an hour's delay. The 
 exiles, with their wives and families, were placed under a strong 
 guard in a special train, which conveyed them from Washing- 
 ton vid St. Louis to San Francisco, where they were transferred 
 to a steamer which took them to the lonely and desolate island 
 in the frozen North which was to be their home for the rest 
 
The Capture of a Continent. 287 
 
 of their lives. They were followed by the execrations of 
 a whole people and the regrets of none save the money- 
 worshippers who had respected them, not as men, but as 
 incarnations of the purchasing power of wealth. 
 
 The huge fortunes which they had amassed, amounting in 
 the aggregate to more than three hundred millions in English 
 money, were placed in the public treasury for the immediate 
 purposes of the war which the Federation was about to wage 
 for the empire of the world. All their real estate property 
 was transferred to the various municipalities in which it was 
 situated, and their rents devoted to the relief of taxation, while 
 the railways and other enterprises which they had controlled 
 were declared public property, and placed in the hands of 
 boards of management composed of their own officials. 
 
 Within a week everything was working as smoothly as 
 though no Eevolution had ever taken place. All officials 
 whose honesty there was no reason to suspect were retained in 
 their offices, while those who were dismissed were replaced 
 without any friction. All the affairs of government were 
 conducted upon purely business principles, just as though the 
 country had been a huge commercial concern, save for the fact 
 that the chief object was efficiency and not profit-making. 
 
 Money was abundantly plentiful, and the necessaries of life 
 were cheaper than they had ever been before. Perhaps the 
 principal reason for this happy state of affairs was the fact 
 that law and politics had suddenly ceased to be trades at which 
 money could be made. People were amazed at the rapidity 
 with which public business was transacted. 
 
 The President and his Council had at one stroke abrogated 
 every civil and criminal law known to the old Constitution, and 
 proclaimed in their place a simple, comprehensive code whicli 
 was practically identical with the Decalogue. To this a final 
 clause was added, stating that those who could not live without 
 breaking any of these laws would not be considered as fit to 
 live in civilised society, and would therefore be effectively 
 removed from the companionship of their fellows. 
 
 While the internal affairs of the Federation in America were 
 being thus set in order, events had been moving rapidly in 
 other parts of the world. The Tsar, the King of Italy, and 
 General le Gallifet, who was now Dictator of France in all but 
 
288 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 name, were masters of the continent of Europe. The Anglo- 
 Teutonic Alliance was a thing of the past. Germany, Austria, 
 and Turkey were completely crushed, and the minor Powers . 
 had succumbed. 
 
 Britain, crippled by the terrible cost in ships and men of 
 the victory of the Nile, had evacuated the Mediterranean after 
 dismantling the fortifications of Gibraltar and Malta, and had 
 concentrated the remains of her fleets in the home waters, to 
 prepare for the invasion which was now inevitable as soon as 
 fair winds and fine weather made it possible for the war- 
 balloons of the League to cross the water and co-operate with 
 the invading forces. 
 
 The Tsar, as had been expected, had not even deigned to 
 reply to Tremayne's summons to disarm, and so the last 
 arrangements for bringing the forces of the Federation into 
 action at the proper time were pushed on with the utmost 
 speed. The blockade of the American and Canadian coasts 
 was rigidly maintained, and no vessels allowed to enter or 
 leave any of the ports. All the warships of the League had 
 been withdrawn from the Atlantic, and the great ocean high- 
 way remained unploughed by a single keel. 
 
 On the 10th of October the Ithuricl had returned from her 
 second trip to the West, with the refusal of the British 
 Government to recognise the Federation as a duly constituted 
 Power, or to have any dealings with its leaders. "Great 
 Britain," the reply concluded, " will stand or fall alone; and 
 even in the event of ultimate defeat, the King of England will 
 prefer to make terms with the sovereigns opposed to him 
 rather than with those whose acts have proved them to be 
 beyond the pale of the law of nations." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Tremayne to Arnold, as he read the royal words, 
 " the policy which lost the American Colonies for the sake of 
 an idea still rules at Westminster, it seems. But I'm not going 
 to let the old Lion be strangled in his den for all that. 
 
 " Natas was right when he said that Britain would have to 
 pass through the fire before she would accept the Federation, 
 and so I suppose she must, more's the pity. Still, perhaps it 
 will be all for the best in the long run. You can't expect to 
 root up a thousand-year-old oak as easily as a mushroom that 
 only came up the day before yesterday." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 
 
 T is now time to return to Britain, to the land 
 which the course of events had so far appeared 
 to single out as the battle-ground upon which 
 was to be fought the Armageddon of the 
 Western World — that conflict of the giants, 
 the issue of which was to decide whether the 
 Auglo-Saxon race was still to remain in the forefront of 
 civilisation and progress, or whether it was to fall, crushed 
 and broken, beneath the assaults of enemies descending upon 
 the motherland of the Anglo-Saxon nations; whether the 
 valour and personal devotion, which for a thousand years had 
 scarcely known a defeat by flood or field, was still to pursue 
 its course of victory, or whether it was to succumb to weight 
 of numbers and mechanical discipline, reinforced by means of 
 assault and destruction which so far had turned the world- war 
 of 1904 into a succession of colossal and unparalleled 
 butcheries, such as had never been known before in the 
 history of human strife. 
 
 When the Allied fleets, bearing the remains of the British 
 and German armies which had been driven out of the Nether- 
 lands, reached England, and the news of the crowning disaster 
 of the war in Europe was published in detail in the newspapers, 
 the popular mind seemed suddenly afflicted with a paralysis of 
 stupefaction. 
 
 Men looked back over the long series of triumphs in which 
 British valour and British resolution had again and again 
 proved themselves invulnerable to the assaults of overwhelm- 
 ing numbers. They thought of the glories of the Peninsula, of 
 T 9 
 
290 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the unbreakable strength of the thin red line at Waterloo, of 
 the magnificent madness of Balaclava, and the invincible 
 steadiness and discipline that had made Inkermann a word to be 
 remembered with pride as long as the English name endured. 
 
 Then their thoughts reverted to the immediate past, and 
 they heard the shock of colossal armaments, compared with 
 which the armies of the past appeared but pigmies in strength. 
 They saw empires defended by millions of soldiers crushed in 
 a few weeks, and a wave of conquest sweep in one unbroken 
 roll from end to end of a continent in less time than it would 
 have taken Napoleon or Wellington to have fought a single 
 campaign. Huge fortresses, rendered, as men had believed, 
 impregnable by the employment of every resource known to 
 the most advanced military science, had been reduced to heaps 
 of defenceless ruins in a few hours by a bombardment, under 
 which their magnificent guns had lain as impotent as though 
 they had been the culverins of three hundred years ago. 
 
 It seemed like some hideous nightmare of the nations, 
 in which Europe had gone mad, revelling in superhuman 
 bloodshed and destruction, — a conflict in which more than 
 earthly forces had been let loose, accomplishing a carnage so 
 immense that the mind could only form a dim and imperfect 
 conception of it. And now this red tide of desolation had 
 swept up to the western verge of the Continent, and was there 
 gathering strength and volume day by day against the hour 
 when it should burst and oversweep the narrow strip of water 
 which separated the inviolate fields of England from the 
 blackened and blood-stained waste that it had left behind it 
 from the Eussian frontier to the German Ocean. 
 
 It seemed impossible, and yet it was true. The first line 
 of defence, the hitherto invincible fleet, magnificently as it 
 had been managed, and heroically as it had been fought, had 
 failed in the supreme hour of trial. It had failed, not because 
 the sailors of Britain had done their duty less valiantly than 
 they had clone in the days of Eodney and Nelson, but simply 
 because the conditions of naval warfare had been entirely 
 changed, because the personal equation had been almost 
 eliminated from the problem of battle, and because the new 
 warfare of the seas had been waged rather with machinery 
 than with men. 
 
The Beginning of the End. 291 
 
 In all the war not a single battle had been fought at close 
 quarters ; there had been plenty of instances of brilliant 
 manoeuvring, of torpedo-boats running the gauntlet and 
 hurling their deadly missiles against the sides of battleships 
 and cruisers, and of ships rammed and sunk in a few instants 
 by consummately-handled opponents ; but the days of boarding 
 and cutting out, of night surprises and fire-ships, had gone by 
 for ever. 
 
 The irresistible artillery with which modern science had 
 armed the warships of all nations had made these feats 
 impossible, and so had placed the valour which achieved them 
 out of court. Within the last few weeks scarcely a day had 
 passed but had witnessed the return of some mighty ironclad 
 or splendid cruiser, which had set out a miracle of offensive 
 and defensive strength, little better than a floating ruin, 
 wrecked and shattered almost beyond recognition by the awful 
 battle-storm through which she had passed. 
 
 The magnificent armament which had held the Atlantic 
 route had come back represented only by a few crippled 
 ships almost unfit for any further service. True, they and 
 those which never returned had rendered a splendid account 
 of themselves before the enemy, but the fact remained — they 
 were not defeated, but they were no longer able to perform the 
 Titanic task which had been allotted to them. 
 
 So, too, with the Mediterranean fleet, which, so far as sea- 
 fighting was concerned, had achieved the most splendid 
 triumph of the war. It had completely destroyed the enemy 
 opposed to it, but the victory had been purchased at such a 
 terrible price that, but for the squadron which had come to its 
 aid, it would hardly have been able to reach home in safety. 
 
 In a word, the lesson of the struggle on the sea had been, 
 that modern artillery was just as effective whether fired by 
 Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Russians; that where a torpedo 
 struck a warship was crippled, no matter what the nationality 
 or the relative valour of her crew ; and that where once the 
 ram found its mark the ship that it struck went down, no 
 matter what flag she was flying. 
 
 And then, behind and beyond all that was definitely known 
 in England of the results of the war, there were vague rumours 
 of calamities and catastrophes in more distant parts of the 
 
292 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 world, which seemed to promise nothing less than universal 
 anarchy, and the submergence of civilisation under some all- 
 devouring wave of barbarism. 
 
 All regular communications with the East had been stopped 
 for several weeks ; that India was lost, was guessed by intuition 
 rather than known as a certainty. Australia was as isolated 
 from Britain as though it had been on another planet, and 
 now every one of the Atlantic cables had suddenly ceased to 
 respond to the stimulus of the electric current. No ships 
 came from the East, or West, or South. The British ports 
 were choked with fleets of useless merchantmen, to which the 
 markets of the world were no longer open. 
 
 Some few venturesome craft that had set out to explore 
 the now silent ocean had never returned, and every warship 
 that could be made fit for service was imperatively needed to 
 meet the now inevitable attack on the shores of the English 
 Channel and the southern portions of the North Sea. Only 
 one messenger had arrived from the outside world since the 
 remains of Admiral Beresford's fleet had returned from the 
 Mediterranean, and she had come, not by land or sea, but 
 through the air. 
 
 On the 6th of October an air-ship had been seen flying at an 
 incredible speed across the south of England. She had reached 
 London, and touched the ground during the night on Hampstead 
 Heath ; the next day she had descended again in the same 
 place, taken a single man on board, and then vanished into 
 space again. What her errand had been is well known to the 
 reader ; but outside the members of the Cabinet Council no one 
 in England, save the King and his Ministers, knew the object of 
 her mission. 
 
 For fifteen days after that event the enemy across the water 
 made no sign, although from the coast of Kent round about 
 Deal and Dover could be seen fleets of transports and war- 
 vessels hurrying along the French coast, and on clear days a 
 thousand telescopes turned towards the French shore made 
 visible the ominous clusters of moving black spots above the 
 land, which betokened the presence of the terrible machines which 
 had wrought such havoc on the towns and fortresses of Europe. 
 
 It was only the calm before the final outburst of the storm. 
 The Tsar and his allies were marshalling their hosts for the 
 
The Beginning of the End. 293 
 
 invasion, and collecting transports and fleets of war- vessels to 
 convoy them. For several clays strong north-westerly gales 
 had made the sea impassable for the war-balloons, as though to 
 the very last the winds and waves were conspiring to defend 
 their ancient mistress. But this could not last for ever. 
 
 Sooner or later the winds must sink or change, and then 
 these war-hawks of the air would wing their flight across the 
 silver streak, and Portsmouth, and Dover, and London would 
 be as defenceless beneath their attack as Berlin, Vienna, and 
 Hamburg had been. And after them would come the millions 
 of the League, descending like a locust swarm upon the fields 
 of eastern England ; and after that would come the deluge. 
 
 But the old Lion of the Seas was not skulking in his lair, or 
 trembling at the advent of his enemies, however numerous and 
 mighty they might be. On sea not a day passed but some daring 
 raid was made on the transports passing to and fro in the 
 narrow seas, and all the while a running fight was kept up 
 with cruisers and battleships that approached too near to the 
 still inviolate shore. So surely as they did so the signals 
 flashed along the coast; and if they escaped at all from the 
 fierce sortie that they provoked, it was with shot-riddled sides 
 and battered top-works, sure signs that the Lion still had 
 claws, and could strike home with them. 
 
 On shore, from Land's End to John o' Groats, and from 
 Holyhead to the Forelands, everything that could be done was 
 being done to prepare for the struggle with the invader. It 
 must, however, be confessed that, in comparison with the 
 enormous forces of the League, the ranks of the defenders 
 were miserably scanty. Forty years of universal military 
 service on the Continent had borne their fruits. 
 
 Soldiers are not made in a few weeks or months ; and where 
 the League had millions in the field, Britain, even counting the 
 remnant of her German allies, that had been brought over 
 from Antwerp, could hardly muster hundreds of thousands. 
 All told, there were little more than a million men available 
 for the defence of the country ; and should the landing of the 
 invaders be successfully effected, not less than six millions of 
 men, trained to the highest efficiency, and flushed with a 
 rapid succession of unparalleled victories, would be hurled 
 against them. 
 
294 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 This was the legitimate outcome of the policy to which 
 Britain had adhered since first she had maintained a standing 
 army, instead of pursuing the ancient policy of making every 
 man a soldier, which had won the triumphs of Crecy and 
 Agincourt. She had trusted everything to her sea-line of 
 defence. Now that was practically broken, and it seemed 
 inevitable that her second line, by reason of its miserable 
 inadequacy, should fail her in a trial which no one had ever 
 dreamt it would have to endure. 
 
 A very grave aspect was given to the situation by the fact 
 that the great mass of the industrial population seemed strangely 
 indifferent to the impending catastrophe which was hanging 
 over the land. It appeared to be impossible to make them 
 believe that an invasion of Britain was really at hand, and 
 that the hour had come when every man would be called upon 
 to fight for the preservation of his own hearth and home. 
 
 Vague threats of " eating the Eussians alive " if they ever 
 did dare to come, were heard on every hand ; but beyond this, 
 and apart from the regular army and the volunteers, men went 
 about their daily avocations very much as usual, grumbling at 
 the ever-increasing price of food, and here and there breaking 
 out into bread riots wherever it was suspected that some wealthy 
 man was trying to corner food for his own commercial benefit, 
 but making no serious or combined efforts to prepare for a 
 general rising in case the threatened invasion became a fact. 
 
 Such was the general state of affairs in Britain when, on the 
 night of the 27th of October, the north-west gales sank suddenly 
 to a calm, and the dawn of the 28th brought the news from 
 Dover to London that the war-balloons of the League had 
 taken the air, and were crossing the Straits. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF LOVEE. 
 
 NTIL the war of 1904, it had been an undisputed 
 axioni in naval warfare that a territorial attack 
 up6n an enemy's coast by a fleet was foredoomed 
 to failure unless that enemy's fleet had been 
 either crippled beyond effective action, or 
 securely blockaded in distant ports. As an 
 axiom secondary to this, it was also held that it would be 
 impossible for an invading force, although convoyed by a 
 powerful fleet, to make good its footing upon any portion of a 
 hostile coast defended by forts mounting heavy long-range guns. 
 These principles have held good throughout the history of 
 naval warfare from the time when Sir Walter Ealeigh first laid 
 them down in the early portion of his History of the World, 
 written after the destruction of the Spanish Armada. 
 
 But now two elements had been introduced which altered 
 the conditions of naval warfare even more radically than one 
 of them had changed those of military warfare. Had it not 
 been for this the attack upon the shores of England made by 
 the commanders of the League would probably either have 
 been a failure, or it would have stopped at a demonstration of 
 force, as did that of the great ISTapoleon in 1803. 
 
 The portion of the Kentish coast selected for the attack was 
 that stretching from Folkestone to Deal, and it would perhaps 
 have been difficult to find in the whole world any portion of 
 sea-coast more strongly defended than this was on the morning 
 of October 28, 1904 ; and yet, as the event proved, the fortresses 
 which lined it were as useless and impotent for defence as the 
 old Martello towers of a hundred and fifty years before would 
 have been. 
 
 As the war-balloons rose into the air from the heights above 
 
 295 
 
:g6 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Boulogne, good telescopes at Dover enabled their possessors to 
 count no less than seventy-five of them. Fifty of these were 
 quite newly constructed, and were of a much improved type, 
 as they had been built in view of the practical experience 
 gained by the first fleet. 
 
 This aerial fleet divided into three squadrons ; one, numbering 
 twenty-five, steered south-westward in the direction of Folke- 
 stone, twelve shaped their course towards Deal, and the remain- 
 ing thirty-eight steered directly across the Sraits to Dover. 
 As they approached the English coast they continually rose, 
 until by the time they had reached the land, aided by the 
 light south-easterly breeze which was then blowing, they floated 
 at a height of more than five thousand feet. 
 
 All this while not a warship or a transport had put to sea. 
 The whole fleet of the League lay along the coast of France 
 between Calais and Dieppe, under the protection of shore 
 batteries so powerful that it would have been madness for 
 the British fleet to have assumed the offensive with regard 
 to them. With the exception of two squadrons reserved for 
 a possible attack upon Portsmouth and Harwich, all that 
 remained from the disasters and costly victories of the war of 
 the once mighty British naval armament was massed together 
 for the defence of that portion of the coast which would evi- 
 dently have to bear the brunt of the attack of the League. 
 
 Eanged along the coast from Folkestone to Deal was an 
 armament consisting of forty-five battleships of the first, 
 second, and third classes, supported by fifteen coast- defence 
 ironclads, seventy armoured and thirty-two unarmoured cruisers, 
 forty gunboats, and a hundred and fifty torpedo-boats. 
 
 Such was the still magnificent fleet that patrolled the waters 
 of the narrow sea, — a fleet as impotent for the time being as a 
 flotilla of Thames steamboats would have been in face of the 
 tactics employed against it by the League. Had the enemy's 
 fleet but come out into the open, as it would have been com- 
 pelled to do under the old conditions of warfare, to fight its 
 way across the narrow strip of water, there is little doubt but 
 that the issue of the day would have been very different, and that 
 what had been left of it would have been driven back, shattered 
 and defeated, to the shelter of the French shore batteries. 
 
 But, in accordance with the invariable tactics of the League, 
 
The Battle of Dover. 297 
 
 the first and most deadly assault was delivered from the air. 
 The war-balloons stationed themselves above the fortifications 
 on land, totally ignoring the presence of the fleet, and a few 
 minutes after ten o'clock began to rain their deadly hail of 
 explosives down upon them. Fifteen were placed over Dover 
 Castle, and five over the fort on the Admiralty Pier, while the 
 rest were distributed over the town and the forts on the hills 
 above it. In an hour everything was in a state of the most 
 horrible confusion. The town was on fire in a hundred places 
 from the effects of the fire-shells. The Castle hill seemed as 
 if it had been suddenly turned into a volcano ; jets of bright 
 flame kept leaping up from its summit and sides, followed by 
 thunderous explosions and masses of earth and masonry hurled 
 into the air, mingled with guns and fragments of human bodies. 
 
 The end of the Admiralty Pier, with its huge blocks of stone 
 wrenched asunder and pulverised by incessant explosions of 
 dynamite and emmensite, collapsed and subsided into the sea, 
 carrying fort, guns, and magazine with it ; and all along the 
 height of the Shakespeare cliff the earthworks had been blown 
 up and scattered into dust, and a huge portion of the cliff itself 
 had been blasted out and hurled down on to the beach. 
 
 Meanwhile the victims of this terrible assault had, in the 
 nature of the case, been able to do nothing but keep up a 
 vertical fire, in the hope of piercing the gas envelopes of the 
 balloons, and so bringing them to the earth. For more than 
 an hour this fusilade produced no effect ; but at length the con- 
 centrated fire of several Maxim and Nordenfelt guns, projecting 
 a hail of missiles into the sky, brought about a result which was 
 even more disastrous to the town than it was to its* assailants. 
 
 Four of the aerostats came within the zone swept by the 
 bullets. Ptiddled through and through, their gas-holders 
 collapsed, and their cars plunged downwards from a height 
 of more than 5000 feet. A few seconds later four frightful 
 explosions burst forth in different parts of the town, for the 
 four cargoes exploded simultaneously as they struck the earth. 
 
 The emmensite and dynamite tore whole streets of houses 
 to fragments, and hurled them far and wide into the air, to fall 
 back again on other parts of the town, and at the same time 
 the fire-shells ignited, and set the ruins blazing like so many 
 furnaces. No more shots were fired into the air after that. 
 
». 
 
 298 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 There was nothing foi lc but for British valour to bow to 
 the inevitable, and evacuate the town and what remained of its 
 fortifications ; and so with sad and heavy hearts the remnant 
 of the brave defenders turned their faces inland, leaving Dover 
 to its fate. Meanwhile exactly the same havoc had been 
 wrought upon Folkestone and Deal. Hour after hour the 
 merciless work continued, until by three o'clock in the after- 
 noon there was not a gun left upon the whole range of coast 
 that was capable of firing a shot. 
 
 All this time the ammunition tenders of the aerial fleet 
 had been winging their way to and fro across the Strait 
 constantly renewing the shells of the war-balloons. 
 
 As soon as it began to grow dusk the naval battle commenced. 
 Numerically speaking the attacking force was somewhat 
 inferior to that of the defenders, but now the second element, 
 which so completely altered the tactics of sea fighting, was 
 for the first time in the war brought into play. 
 
 As the battleships of the League steamed out to engage 
 the opponents, who were thirsting to avenge the destruction 
 that had been wrought upon the land, a small flotilla of twenty- 
 five insignificant-looking little craft, with neither masts nor 
 funnels, and looking more like half-submerged elongated turtles 
 than anything else, followed in tow close under their quarters. 
 Hardly had the furious cannonade broken out into thunder and 
 flame along the two opposing lines, than these strange craft 
 sank gently and silently beneath the waves. They were 
 submarine vessels belonging to the French navy, an improved 
 type of the Zede class, which had been in existence for more 
 than ten years. 1 
 
 These vessels were capable of sinking to a depth of twenty 
 feet, and remaining for four hours without returning to the 
 surface. They were propelled by twin screws worked by 
 electricity at a speed of twenty knots, and were provided with 
 an electric searchlight, which enabled them to find the hulls 
 of hostile ships in the dark. 
 
 1 The Naval Annual for 1S93 mentions two types of submarine boats, the 
 Ztdi and the Goubet, both belonging to the French navy, which had then been 
 tried with success. The same work mentions no such vessels belonging to 
 Britain, nor yet any prospect of her possessing one. The effects described here 
 as produced by these terrible machines are little, if at all, exaggerated. Granted 
 ten years of progress, and they will be reproduced to a certainty. — Author. 
 
The Battle of Dover. 299 
 
 Each carried three torpedoes, which could be launched from 
 a tube forward so as to strike the hull of the doomed ship from 
 beneath. As soon as the torpedo was discharged the submarine 
 boat spun round on her heel and headed away at full speed in 
 an opposite direction out of the area of the explosion. 
 
 The effects of such terrible and, indeed, irresistible engines 
 of naval warfare were soon made manifest upon the ships of 
 the British fleet. In the heat of the battle, with every gun in 
 action, and raining a hail of shot and shell upon her adversary, 
 a great battleship would receive an unseen blow, struck in the 
 dark upon her most vulnerable part, a huge column of water 
 would rise up from under her side, and a few minutes later the 
 splendid fabric would heel over and go down like a floating 
 volcano, to be quenched by the waves that closed over her. 
 
 But as if it were not enough that the defending fleet should 
 be attacked from the surface of the water and the depths of 
 the sea, the war-balloons, winging their way out from the scene 
 of ruin that they had wrought on shore, soon began to take 
 their part in the work of death and destruction. 
 
 Each of them was provided with a mirror set a little in front 
 of the bow of the car, at an angle which could be varied accord- 
 ing to the elevation. A little forward of the centre of the car 
 was a tube fixed on a level with the centre of the mirror. 
 The ship selected for destruction was brought under the car, 
 and the speed of the balloon was regulated so that the ship 
 was relatively stationary to it. 
 
 As soon as the glare from one of the funnels could be seen 
 through the tube reflected in the centre of the mirror, a trap 
 was sprung in the floor of the car, and a shell charged with 
 dynamite, which, it will be remembered, explodes vertically 
 downwards, was released, and, where the calculations were 
 accurately made, passed down the funnel and exploded in the 
 interior of the vessel, bursting her boilers and reducing her to 
 a helpless wreck at a single stroke. 
 
 Every time this horribly ingenious contrivance was success- 
 fully brought into play a battleship or a cruiser was either 
 sunk or reduced to impotence. In order to make their aim 
 the surer, the aerostats descended to within three hundred yards 
 of their prey, and where the missile failed to pass through the 
 funnel it invariably struck the deck close to it, tearing up the 
 
300 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 armour sheathing, and wrecking the funnel itself so completely 
 that the steaming- power of the vessel was very seriously reduced. 
 
 All night long the battle raged incessantly along a semi- 
 circle some twelve miles long, the centre of which was Dover. 
 Crowds of anxious watchers on the shore watched the continu- 
 ous flashes of the guns through the darkness, varied ever and 
 anon by some tremendous explosion which told the fate of a 
 warship that had fired her last shot. 
 
 All night long the incessant thunder of the battle rolled to 
 and fro along the echoing coast, and when morning broke the 
 light dawned upon a scene of desolation and destruction on sea 
 and shore such as had never been witnessed before in the 
 history of warfare. On land were the smoking ruins of houses, 
 still smouldering in the remains of the fires which had consumed 
 them ; forts which twenty-four hours before had grinned 
 defiance at the enemy were shapeless heaps of earth and stone, 
 and armour-plating torn into great jagged fragments ; and on 
 sea were a few half-crippled wrecks, the remains of the British 
 fleet, with their flags still flying, and such guns as were not 
 disabled firing their last rounds at the victorious foe. 
 
 To the eastward of these about half the fleet of the League, 
 in but little better condition, was advancing in now over- 
 whelming force upon them, and behind these again a swarm of 
 troopships and transports were heading out from the French 
 shore. About an hour after dawn the Centurion, the last of 
 the British battleships, was struck by one of the submarine 
 torpedoes, broke in two, and went down with her flag flying 
 and her guns blazing away to the last moment. So ended the 
 battle of Dover, the most disastrous sea-fight in the history of 
 the world, and the death-struggle of the Mistress of the Seas. 
 
 The last news of the tremendous tragedy reached the now 
 panic-stricken capital half an hour before the receipt of similar 
 tidings from Harwich, announcing the destruction of the 
 defending fleet and forts, and the capture of the town by 
 exactly the same means as those employed against Dover. 
 Nothing now lay between London and the invading forces 
 but the utterly inadequate army and the lines of fortifications, 
 which could not be expected to offer any more effective 
 resistance to the assault of the war-balloons than had those 
 of the three towns on the Kentish coast. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 BELEAGUERED LONDON. 
 
 MONTH had passed since the battle of Dover. 
 It had been a month of incessant fighting, of 
 battles by day and night, of heroic defences 
 and dearly-bought victories, but still of con- 
 stant triumphs and irresistible progress for 
 the ever-increasing legions of the League. 
 From sunrise to sunrise the roar of artillery, the rattle of 
 musketry, and the clash of steel had never ceased to sound 
 to the north and south of London as, over battlefield after 
 battlefield, the two hosts which had poured in constant 
 streams through Harwich and Dover had fought their way, 
 literally mile by mile, towards the capital of the modern 
 world. 
 
 Day and night the fighting never stopped. As soon as 
 two hostile divisions had fought each other to a standstill, 
 and from sheer weariness of the flesh the battle died down 
 in one part of the huge arena, the flame sprang up in another, 
 and raged on with ever renewed fury. Outnumbered four 
 and five to one in every engagement, and with the terrible 
 war-balloons raining death on them from the clouds, the 
 British armies had eclipsed all the triumphs of the long array 
 of their former victories by the magnificent devotion that 
 they showed in the hour of what seemed to be the death- 
 struggle of the Empire. 
 
 The glories of Inkermann and Balaclava, of Albuera and 
 Waterloo, paled before the achievements of the whole-souled 
 heroism displayed by the British soldiery standing, as it 
 were, with its back to the wall, and fighting, not so much 
 
 301 
 
302 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 with any hope of victory, for that was soon seen to be a 
 physical impossibility, but with the invincible determination 
 not to permit the invader to advance on London save over 
 the dead bodies of its defenders. 
 
 Such a gallant defence had never been made before in the 
 face of such irresistible odds. When the soldiers of the 
 League first set foot on British soil the defending armies of 
 the North and South had, with the greatest exertions, been 
 brought up to a fighting strength of about twelve hundred 
 thousand men. So stubborn had been the heroism with 
 which they had disputed the progress of their enemies that 
 by the time that the guns of the League were planted on the 
 heights that commanded the Metropolis, more than a million 
 and a half of men had gone down under the hail of British 
 bullets and the rush of British bayonets. 
 
 Of all the battlefields of this the bloodiest war in the 
 history of human strife, none had been so deeply dyed with 
 blood as had been the fair and fertile English gardens and 
 meadows over which the hosts of the League had fought 
 their way to the confines of London. Only the weight of 
 overwhelming numbers, reinforced by engines of destruction 
 which could strike without the possibility of effective retalia- 
 tion, had made their progress possible. 
 
 Had they met their heroic foes as they had met them in 
 the days of the old warfare, their superiority of numbers 
 would have availed them but little. They would have been 
 hurled back and driven into the sea, and not a man of them 
 all would have left British soil alive had it been but a ques- 
 tion of military attack and defence. 
 
 But this was not a war of men. It was a war of machines, 
 and those who wielded the most effective machinery for the 
 destruction of life won battle after battle as a matter of course, 
 just as a man armed with a repeating rifle would overcome 
 a better man armed with a bow and arrow. 
 
 Natas had formed an entirely accurate estimate of the 
 policy of the leaders of the League when he told Tremayne, 
 in the library at Alanmere, that they would concentrate all 
 their efforts on the reduction of London. The rest of the 
 kingdom had been for the present entirely ignored. 
 
 London was the heart of the British Empire and of the 
 
Beleaguered London. 303 
 
 English-speaking world, for the matter of that, and therefore 
 it had been determined to strike one deadly blow at the 
 vital centre of the whole huge organism. That paralysed, 
 the rest must fall to pieces of necessity. The fleet was 
 destroyed, and every soldier that Britain could put into the 
 field had been mustered for the defence of London. There- 
 fore the fall of London meant the conquest of Britain. 
 
 After the battles of Dover and Harwich the invading forces 
 advanced upon London in the following order: The Army 
 of the South had landed at Deal, Dover, and Folkestone in 
 three divisions, and after a series of terrific conflicts had 
 fought its way vid Chatham, Maidstone, and Tunbridge to 
 the banks of the Thames, and occupied all the comman diner 
 positions from Shooter's Hill to Kichmond. These three 
 forces were composed entirely of French and Italian army 
 corps, and numbered from first to last nearly four million 
 men. 
 
 On the north the invading force was almost wholly Russian, 
 and was under the command of the Tzar in person, in whom 
 the supreme command of the armies of the League had by 
 common consent been now vested. A constant service of 
 transports, plying day and night between Antwerp and 
 Harwich, had placed at his disposal a force about equal to 
 that of the Army of the South, although he had lost over 
 seven hundred thousand men before he was able to occupy 
 the line of heights from Hornsey to Hampstead, with flanking 
 positions at Brondesbury and Harlesden to the west, and at 
 Tottenham, Stratford, and Barking to the east. 
 
 By the 29th of November all the railways were in the 
 hands of the invaders. A chain of war-balloons between 
 Barking and Shooter's Hill closed the Thames. The forts at 
 Tilbury had been destroyed by an aerial bombardment. A 
 flotilla of submarine torpedo-vessels had blown up the defences 
 of the estuary of the Thames and Medway, and led to the fall 
 of Sheerness and Chatham, and had then been docked at 
 Sheerness, there being no further present use for them. 
 
 The other half of the squadron, supported by a few battle- 
 ships and cruisers which had survived the battle of Dover, 
 had proceeded to Portsmouth, destroyed the booms and sub- 
 marine defences, while a detachment of aerostats shelled the 
 
304 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 land defences, and then in a moment of wanton revenge had 
 blown up the venerable hulk of the Victory, which had gone 
 down at her moorings with her flag still flying as it had done 
 a hundred years before at the fight of Trafalgar. After this 
 inglorious achievement they had been laid up in dock to wait 
 for their next opportunity of destruction, should it ever occur. 
 
 London was thus cut off from all communication, not only 
 with the outside world, but even from the rest of England. 
 The remnants of the armies of defence had been gradually 
 driven in upon the vast wilderness of bricks and mortar which 
 now held more than eight millions of men, women, and 
 children, hemmed in by long lines of batteries and entrenched 
 camps, from which thousands of guns hurled their projectiles 
 far and wide into the crowded masses of the houses, shattering 
 them with bursting shells, and laying the whole streets in 
 ruins, while overhead the war-balloons slowly circled hither 
 and thither, dropping their fire-shells and completing the ruin 
 and havoc wrought by the artillery of the siege-trains. 
 
 Under such circumstances surrender was really only a 
 matter of time, and that time had very nearly come. The 
 London and North- Western Eailway, which had been the last 
 to fall into the hands of the invaders, had been closed for over 
 a week, and food was running very short. Eight millions of 
 people massed together in a space of thirty or forty square 
 miles' area can only be fed and kept healthy under the most 
 favourable conditions. Hemmed in as London now was, from 
 being the best ordered great city in the world, it had degener- 
 ated with frightful rapidity into a vast abode of plague and 
 famine, a mass of human suffering and misery beyond all 
 conception or possibility of description. 
 
 Defence there was now practically none; but still the 
 invaders did not leave their vantage ground on the hills, and 
 not a soldier of the League had so far set foot in London 
 proper. Either the besiegers preferred to starve the great 
 city into surrender at discretion, and then extort ruinous terms, 
 or else they hesitated to plunge into that tremendous gulf of 
 human misery, maddened by hunger and made desperate by 
 despair. If they did so hesitate they were wise, for London 
 was too vast to be carried by assault or by any series of 
 assaults. 
 
Beleaguered London. 305 
 
 No army could have lived in its wilderness of streets 
 swarming with enemies, who would have fought them from 
 house to house and street to street. Once they had entered 
 that mighty maze of streets and squares both their artillery 
 and their war-balloons would have been useless, for they 
 would only have buried friend and foe in common destruction. 
 There were plenty of ways into London, but the way out was 
 a very different matter. 
 
 Had a general assault been attempted, not a man would ever 
 have got out of London alive. The commanders of the League 
 saw this clearly, and so they kept their position on the heights, 
 wasted the city with an almost constant bombardment, and, 
 while they drew their supplies from the fertile lands in their 
 rear, lay on their arms and waited for the inevitable. 
 
 Within the besieged area martial law prevailed universally. 
 Eiots were of daily, almost hourly, occurrence, but they were 
 repressed with an iron hand, and the rioters were shot down 
 in the streets without mercy; for, though siege and famine 
 were bad enough, anarchy breaking out amidst that vast 
 sweltering mass of human beings would have been a thousand 
 times worse, and so the King, who, assisted by the P^ime 
 Minister and the Cabinet Council, had assumed the control of 
 the whole city, had directed that order was to be maintained 
 at any price. 
 
 The remains of the army were quartered in the parks under 
 canvas, and billeted in houses throughout the various districts, 
 in order to support the police in repressing disorder and 
 protecting property. Still, in spite of all that could be done, 
 matters were rapidly coming to a terrible pass. In a week, at 
 the latest, the horses of the cavalry would be eaten. For a 
 fortnight London had almost lived upon horse-flesh. In the 
 poorer quarters there was not a dog to be seen, and a sewer rat 
 was considered a delicacy. 
 
 Eight million mouths had made short work of even the 
 vast supplies that had been hurriedly poured into the city as 
 soon as the invasion had become a certainty, and absolute 
 starvation was now a matter of a few days at the outside. 
 There were millions of money lying idle, but very soon a 
 five-pound note would not buy even a little loaf of bread. 
 
 But famine was by no means the only horror that afflicted 
 20 
 
306 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 London during those awful days and nights. All round the 
 heights the booming of cannon sounded incessantly. Huge 
 shells went screaming through the air overhead to fall and 
 burst amidst some swarming hive of humanity, scattering 
 death and mutilation where they fell ; and high up in the air 
 the fleet of aerostats perpetually circled, dropping their fire- 
 shells and blasting cartridges on the dense masses of houses, 
 until a hundred conflagrations were raging at once in different 
 parts of the city. 
 
 No help had come from outside. Indeed none was to be 
 expected. There was only one Power in the world that was 
 now capable of coping with the forces of the victorious League, 
 but its overtures had been rejected, and neither the King nor 
 any of his advisers had now the slightest idea as to how those 
 who controlled it would now use it. No one knew the real 
 strength of the Terrorists, or the Federation which they pro- 
 fessed to control. 
 
 All that was known was that, if they choose, they could with 
 their aerial fleet sweep the war-balloons from the air in a few 
 moments and destroy the batteries of the besiegers ; but they 
 had made no sign after the rejection of their President's offer 
 to prevent the landing of the forces of the League on condition 
 that the British Government accepted the Federation, and 
 resigned its powers in favour of its Executive. 
 
 The refusal of those terms had now cost more than a million 
 British lives, and an incalculable amount of human suffering 
 and destruction of property. Until the news of the disaster 
 of Dover had actually reached London, no one had really 
 believed that it was possible for an invading force to land on 
 British soil and exist for twenty-four hours. Now the impos- 
 sible had been made possible, and the last crushing blow must 
 fall within the next few days. After that who knew what 
 might befall ? 
 
 So far as could be seen, Britain lay helpless at the mercy 
 of her foes. Her allies had ceased to exist as independent 
 Powers, and the Russian and the Gaul were thundering at her 
 gates as, fifteen hundred years before, the Goth had thundered 
 at the gates of the Eternal City in the last days of the Roman 
 Empire. 
 
 If the terms of the Federation could have been offered again, 
 
Beleaguered London. 307 
 
 it is probable that the King of England would have been the 
 first man to own his mistake and that of his advisers and 
 accept them, for now the choice lay between utter and 
 humiliating defeat and the breaking up of the Empire, and the 
 recognition of the Federation. After all, the kinship of a race 
 was a greater fact in the supreme hour of national disaster 
 than the maintenance of a dynasty or the perpetuation of a 
 particular form of government. 
 
 It was not now a question of nation against nation, but of 
 race against race. The fierce flood of war had swept away all 
 smaller distinctions. It was necessary to rise to the altitude 
 of the problem of the Government, not of nations, but of the 
 world. Was the genius of the East or of the West to shape 
 the future destinies of the human race ? That was the mighty 
 problem of which the events of the next few weeks were to 
 work out the solution, for when the sun set on the Field of 
 Armageddon the fate of Humanity would be fixed for centuries 
 to come. 
 
CHAPTEE XLL 
 
 AN ENVOY OF DELIVERANCE. 
 
 ROM the time that the Tsar had received the 
 conditional declaration of war from the 
 President of the Anglo-Saxon Federation in 
 America to nightfall on the 29th of November, 
 when the surrender of the capital of the British 
 Empire was considered to be a matter of a few 
 days only, the Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the League 
 was absolutely in the dark, not only as to the actual intentions 
 of the Terrorists, if they had any, but also as to the doings of 
 his allies in America. 
 
 According to the stipulations arranged between himself and 
 the confidential agent of the American Government, the block- 
 ading flotilla of dynamite cruisers ought to have sailed from 
 America as soon as the cypher message containing the news 
 of the battle of Dover reached New York. The message had 
 been duly sent vid Queenstown and New York, and had been 
 acknowledged in the usual way, but no definite reply had 
 come to it, and a month had elapsed without the appearance 
 of the promised squadron. The explanation of this will be 
 readily guessed. The American end of the Queenstown cable 
 had been reconnected with Washington, but it was under the 
 absolute control of Tremayne, who permitted no one to use it 
 save himself. 
 
 Other messages had been sent to which no reply had been 
 received, and a swift French cruiser, which had been launched 
 at Brest since the battle of Dover, had been despatched across 
 the Atlantic to discover the reason of this strange silence. 
 She had gone, but she had never returned. The Atlantic 
 
 803 
 
An Envoy of Deliverance. 309 
 
 highway appeared to be barred by some invisible force. No 
 vessels came from the westward, and those which started from 
 the east were never heard of again. 
 
 His Majesty had treated the summons of the President of 
 the Federation with silent contempt, just as such a victorious 
 autocrat might have been expected to do. True, he knew the 
 terrific power wielded by the Terrorists through their aerial 
 fleet, and he had an uncomfortable conviction, which refused 
 to be entirely stifled, that in the days to come he would have 
 to reckon with them and it. 
 
 But that a member of the Terrorist Brotherhood could by 
 any possible means have placed himself at the head of any 
 body of men sufficiently numerous or well-disciplined to make 
 them a force to be seriously reckoned with in military warfare, 
 his Majesty had never for a moment believed. 
 
 And, more than this, however disquieting might be the 
 uncertainty due to the ominous silence on the other side of 
 the Atlantic, and the non-arrival of the expected fleet, there 
 stood the great and significant fact that the army of the League 
 had been permitted, without molestation either from the 
 Terrorists or the Federation in whose name they had presumed 
 to declare war upon him, not only to destroy what remained 
 of the British fleet, but to completely invest the very capital 
 of Anglo-Saxondom itself. 
 
 All this had been done ; the sacred soil of Britain itself had 
 been violated by the invading hosts ; the army of defence had 
 been slowly, and at a tremendous sacrifice of life on both sides, 
 forced back from line after line, and position after position, 
 into the city itself; his batteries were raining their hail of 
 shot and shell from the heights round London, and his 
 aerostats were hurling ruin from the sky upon the crowded 
 millions locked up in the beleaguered space ; and yet the man 
 who had presumed to tell him that the hour in which he set 
 foot on British soil would be the last of his Empire, had done 
 absolutely nothing to interrupt the march of conquest. 
 
 From this it will be seen that Nicholas Eomanoff was at 
 least as completely in the dark as to the possible course of the 
 events of the near future as was the King of England himself, 
 shut up in his capital, and cut off from all communication from 
 the rest of the world. 
 
3io The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 On the morning of the 29th of November there was held 
 at the Prime Minister's rooms in Downing Street a Cabinet 
 Council, presided over by the King in person. After the 
 Council had remained for about an hour in earnest consulta- 
 tion, a stranger was admitted to the room in which they were 
 sitting. 
 
 The reader would have recognised him in a moment as 
 Maurice Colston, otherwise Alexis Mazanoff, for he was dressed 
 almost exactly as he had been on that memorable night, just 
 thirteen months before, when he made the acquaintance of 
 Pdchard Arnold on the Thames Embankment. 
 
 Well-dressed, well-fed, and perfectly at ease, he entered the 
 Council Chamber without any aggressive assumption, but still 
 with the quiet confidence of a man who knows that he is 
 practically master of the situation. How he had even got into 
 London, beleaguered as it was on every side in such fashion 
 that no one could get out of it without being seen and shot 
 by the besiegers, was a mystery ; but how he could have in his 
 possession, as he had, a despatch dated thirty-six hours pre- 
 viously in New York was a still deeper mystery; and upon 
 neither of these points did he make the slightest attempt to 
 enlighten the members of the British Cabinet. 
 
 All that he said was that he was the bearer of a message 
 from the President of the Anglo-Saxon Federation in America, 
 and that he was instructed to return that night to New York 
 with such answer as the British Government might think fit 
 to make to it. It was this message that had been the subject 
 of the deliberations of the Council before his admission, and its 
 net effect was as follows. 
 
 It was now practically certain, indeed proved to demonstra- 
 tion, that the forces at the command of the British Govern- 
 ment were not capable of coping with those brought against 
 them by the commanders of the League, and that therefore 
 Britain, if left to her own resources, must inevitably succumb, 
 and submit to such terms as her conquerors might think fit to 
 impose upon her. The choice before the British Government 
 thus lay between surrender to her foreign enemies, whose 
 objects were well known to be dismemberment of the Empire 
 and the reduction of Great Britain to the rank of a third-class 
 Power, — to say nothing of the payment of a war indemnity 
 
An Envoy of Deliverance. 311 
 
 which could not fail to be paralysing, — and the consent of 
 those who controlled the destinies of the mother country to 
 accept a Federation of the whole Anglo-Saxon race, to waive 
 the merely national idea in favour of the racial one, and to 
 permit the Executive Council of the Federation to assume 
 those governmental functions which were exercised at present 
 by the King and the British Houses of Parliament. 
 
 In a word, the choice lay between conquest by a league of 
 foreign powers and the merging of Britain into the Federation 
 of the English-speaking peoples of the world. 
 
 If the former choice were taken, the only prospect possible 
 under the condition of things was a possibly enormous sacrifice 
 of human life on the side of both Britain and its enemies, a 
 gigantic loss in money, the crippling of British trade and 
 commerce, and then a possible, nay probable, social revolution 
 to which the message distinctly pointed. 
 
 If the latter choice were taken, the forces of the Federation 
 would be at once brought into the field against those of the 
 League, the siege of London would be raised, the power of the 
 invaders would be effectually broken for ever, and the stigma 
 of conquest finally wiped away. 
 
 It is only just to record the fact that in this supreme crisis 
 of British history the man who most strongly insisted upon 
 the acceptance of the terms which he had previously, as he 
 now confessed in the most manly and outspoken fashion, 
 rejected in ignorance of the true situation of affairs, was the 
 man who believed that he would lose a crown by accepting 
 them. 
 
 When the Ambassador of the Federation had been presented 
 to the Council, the King rose in his place and handed to him 
 with his own hands a sealed letter, saying as he did so — 
 
 " Mr. Mazanoff, I am still to a great extent in ignorance as 
 to the inexplicable combination of events which has made it 
 necessary for me to return this affirmative answer to the 
 message of which you are the bearer. I am, however, fully 
 aware that the Earl of Alanmere, whose name I have seen at 
 the foot of this document with the most profound astonish- 
 ment, is in a position to do what he says. 
 
 " The course of events has been exactly that which he pre- 
 dicted. I know, too, that whatever causes may have led him 
 
312 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 to unite himself to those known as the Terrorists, he is an 
 English nobleman, and a man to whom falsehood or bad faith 
 is absolutely impossible. In your marvellous aerial fleet I 
 know also that he wields the only power capable of being 
 successfully opposed to those terrible machines which had 
 wrought such havoc upon the fleets and armies, not only of 
 Britain, but of Europe. 
 
 " To a certain extent this is a surrender, but I feel that it 
 will be better to surrender the destinies of Britain into the 
 hands of her own blood and kindred than to the tender mercies 
 of her alien enemies. My own personal feelings must weigh 
 as nothing in the balance where the fate, not only of this 
 country, but perhaps of the whole world, is now poised. 
 
 " After all, the first duty of a Constitutional King is not to 
 himself and his dynasty, but to his country and his people, 
 and therefore I feel that it will be better for me and mine to 
 be citizens of a free Federation of the English-speaking peoples, 
 and of the nations to which Britain has given birth, than the 
 titular sovereign and Eoyal family of a conquered country, 
 holding the mockery of royalty on the sufferance of their 
 conquerors. 
 
 " Tell Lord Alanmere from me that I now accept the terms 
 he has offered as President of the Anglo-Saxon Federation, 
 first, because at all hazards I would see Britain delivered from 
 her enemies ; and, secondly, because I have chosen rather to be 
 an English gentleman without a crown, than to wear a crown 
 which after all would only be gift from my conquerors." 
 
 Edward VII. spoke with visible emotion, but with a dignity 
 which even Mazanoff, little and all as he respected the name of 
 king, felt himself compelled to recognise and respect. He took 
 the letter with a bow that was more one of reverence than of 
 courtesy, and as he put it into his breast-pocket of his coat he 
 said — 
 
 "The President will receive your Majesty's reply with as 
 genuine pleasure and satisfaction as I shall give it to him. 
 Though I am a Russian without a drop of English blood in my 
 veins, I have always looked upon the British race as the real 
 bulwark of freedom, and I rejoice that the King of England 
 has not permitted either tradition or personal feeling to stand 
 in the way of the last triumph of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
An Envoy of Deliverance. 313 
 
 " As long as the English language is spoken your Majesty's 
 name will be held in greater honour for this sacrifice which 
 you make to-day, than will that of any other English king for 
 the greatest triumph of arms ever achieved in the history of 
 your country. 
 
 " I must now take my leave, for I must be in New York 
 to-morrow night. I have your word that I shall not be 
 watched or followed after I leave here. Hold the city for six 
 days more at all costs, and on the seventh at the latest the 
 siege shall be raised and the enemies of Britain destroyed in 
 their own entrenchments." 
 
 So saying, the envoy of the Federation bowed once more 
 to the King and the astonished members of his Council, and 
 was escorted to the door. 
 
 Once in the street he strode away rapidly through Parlia- 
 ment Street and the Strand, then up Drury Lane, until he 
 reached the door of a mean-looking house in a squalid court, 
 and entering this with a latch-key, disappeared. 
 
 Three hours later a Eussian soldier of the line, wearing an 
 almost imperceptible knot of red ribbon in one of the button- 
 holes of his tunic, passed through the Eussian lines on 
 Hampstead Heath unchallenged by the sentries, and made his 
 way northward to Northaw Wood, which he reached soon 
 after nightfall. 
 
 Within half an hour the Ithuriel rose from the midst of a 
 thick clump of trees like a grey shadow rising into the night, 
 and darted southward and upward at such a speed that the 
 keenest eyes must soon have lost sight of her from the earth. 
 
 She passed over the beleaguered city at a height of nearly 
 ten thousand feet, and then swept sharply round to the 
 eastward. She stopped immediately over the lights of Sheer- 
 ness, and descended to within a thousand feet of the dock, in 
 which could be seen the detachment of the French submarine 
 vessels lying waiting to be sent on their next errand of 
 destruction. 
 
 As soon as those on board her had made out the dock 
 clearly she ascended a thousand feet and went about half 
 a mile to the southward. From that position she poured a 
 rapid hail of shells into the dock, which was instantly 
 transformed into a cavity vomiting green flame and fragments 
 
314 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 of iron and human bodies. In five minutes nothing was left 
 of the dock or its contents but a churned-up swamp of muddy 
 water and shattered stonework. 
 
 Then, her errand so far accomplished, the air-ship sped 
 away to the south-westward, and within an hour she had 
 destroyed in like fashion the submarine squadron in the 
 Government dock at Portsmouth, and was winging her way 
 westward to New York with the reply of the King of England 
 to the President of the Federation. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 THE EVE OF ARMAGEDDON. 
 
 HEN the news of the destruction of the two 
 divisions of the submarine squadron reached 
 the headquarters of the League on the night of 
 the 29th, it would have been difficult to say 
 whether anger or consternation most prevailed 
 among the leaders. A council of war was 
 hurriedly summoned to discuss an event which it was im- 
 possible to look upon as anything less than a calamity. 
 
 The destruction which had been wrought was of itself 
 disastrous enough, for it deprived the League of the chief 
 means by which it had destroyed the British fleet and kept 
 command of the sea. But even more terrible than the actual 
 destruction was the unexpected suddenness with which the 
 blow had been delivered. 
 
 For five months, that is to say, from the recapture of the 
 Lucifer at Aberdeen, the Tsar and his coadjutors had seen 
 nothing of the operations of the Terrorists ; and now, without 
 a moment's warning, this apparently omnipresent and yet 
 almost invisible force had struck once more with irresistible 
 effect, and instantly vanished back into the mystery out of 
 which it had come. 
 
 Who could tell when the next blow would fall, or in what 
 shape the next assault would be delivered ? In the presence 
 of such enemies, invisible and unreachable, the commanders 
 of the League, to their rage and disgust, felt themselves, on the 
 eve of their supreme victory, as impotent as a man armed with 
 a sword would have felt in front of a Gatling gun. 
 
 Consternation naturally led to divided councils. The 
 
 315 
 
3 16 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 French and Italian commanders were for an immediate general 
 assault on London at all hazards, and the enforcement of 
 terms of surrender at the point of the sword. The Tsar, on 
 the other hand, insisted on the pursuance of the original policy 
 of reduction by starvation, as he rightly considered that, great 
 as the attacking force was, it would be practically swamped 
 amidst the infuriated millions of the besieged, and that, even 
 if the assault were successful, the loss of life would be so 
 enormous that the conquest of the rest of Britain — which in 
 such a case would almost certainly rise to a man — would be 
 next door to impossible. 
 
 He, however, so far yielded as to agree to send a message 
 to the King of England to arrange terms of surrender, if 
 possible at once, in order to save further bloodshed, and then, 
 if these terms were rejected, to prepare for a general assault 
 on the seventh day from then. 
 
 These terms were accepted as a compromise, and the next 
 morning the bombardment ceased both from the land batteries 
 and the air. At daybreak on the 30th an envoy left the Tsar's 
 headquarters in one of the war-balloons, flying a flag of truce, 
 and descended in Hyde Park. He was received by the King 
 in Council at Buckingham Palace, and, after a lengthy delibera- 
 tion, an answer was returned to the effect that on condition 
 the bombardment ceased for the time being, London would be 
 surrendered at noon on the 6th of December if no help had by 
 that time arrived from the other cities of Britain. These 
 terms, after considerable opposition from General le_ Gallifet 
 and General Cosensz, the Italian Commander-in-Chief, were 
 adopted and ratified at noon that day, almost at the very 
 moment that Alexis Mazanoff was presenting the reply of the 
 King of England to the President of the Federation in 
 New York. 
 
 As the relief expedition had been fully decided upon, 
 whether the British Government recognised the Federation 
 or not, everything was in readiness for an immediate start as 
 soon as the Ithuriel brought definite news as to the acceptation 
 or rejection of the President's second offer. For the last seven 
 weeks the ten dockyards of the east coast of America, and at 
 Halifax in Nova Scotia, had been thronged with shipping, and 
 8 warming with workmen and sailors. 
 
The Eve of Armageddon. 317 
 
 All the vessels which had been swept off the Atlantic by the 
 war-storm, and which were of sufficient size and speed to take 
 part in the expedition, had been collected at these eleven ports. 
 Whole fleets of liners of half a dozen different nationalities, 
 which had been laid up since the establishment of the blockade, 
 were now lying alongside the quays, taking in vast quantities 
 of wheat and miscellaneous food-stuffs, which were being poured 
 into their holds from the glutted markets of America and 
 Canada. Every one of these vessels was fitted up as a troop- 
 ship, and by the time all arrangements were complete, more 
 than a thousand vessels, carrying on an average twelve hundred 
 men each, were ready to take the sea. 
 
 In addition to these there was a fleet of warships as yet 
 unscathed by shot or shell, consisting of thirty battleships, 
 a hundred and ten cruisers, and the flotilla of dynamite cruisers 
 which had been constructed by the late Government at the 
 expense of the capitalist Eing. There were no less than two 
 hundred of these strange but terribly destructive craft, the 
 lineal descendants of the Vesuvius, which, as the naval reader 
 will remember, was commissioned in 1890. 
 
 They were double -hulled vessels built on the whale -back 
 plan, and the compartments between the inner and outer hull 
 could be wholly or partially filled with water. When they 
 were entirely filled the hull sank below the surface, leaving 
 nothing as a mark to an enemy save a platform standing ten 
 feet above the water. This platform, constructed throughout 
 of 6-inch nickel-steel, was of oval shape, a hundred feet long 
 and thirty broad in its greatest diameter, and carried the heavily 
 armoured wheel-house and conning -tower, two funnels, six 
 ventilators, and two huge pneumatic guns, each seventy -five 
 feet long, working on pivots nearly amidships. 
 
 These weapons, with an air-charge of three hundred atmo- 
 spheres, would throw four hundred pounds of dynamite to a 
 distance of three miles with such accuracy that the projectile 
 would invariably fall within a space of twenty feet square. 
 The guns could be discharged once a minute, and could thus 
 hurl 48,000 lbs. of dynamite an hour upon a hostile fleet or 
 fortifications. 
 
 Each cruiser also carried two under -water torpedo tubes 
 ahead and two astern. The funnels emitted no smoke, but 
 
318 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 merely supplied draught to the petroleum furnaces, which 
 burned with practically no waste, and developed a head of 
 steam which drove the long submerged hulls through the 
 water at a rate of thirty-two knots, or more than thirty- six 
 miles an hour. 
 
 Such was the enormous naval armament, manned by nearly 
 a hundred thousand men, which hoisted the Federation flag 
 at one o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th of November, when 
 orders were telegraphed north and south from Washington to 
 get ready for. sea. Two hours later the vast flotilla of war- 
 ships and transports had cleared American waters, and was 
 converging towards a point indicated by the intersection of the 
 4lst parallel of latitude with the 40th meridian of longitude. 
 
 At this ocean rendezvous the divisions of the fleet and its 
 convoys met and shaped their course for the mouth of the 
 English Channel. They proceeded in column of line abreast 
 three deep, headed by the dynamite cruisers, after which came 
 the other warships which had formed the American Navy, 
 and after these again came the troopships and transports 
 properly protected by cruisers on their flanks and in their 
 rear. 
 
 The commander of every warship and transport had the 
 most minute instructions as to how he was to act on reaching 
 British waters, and what these were will become apparent in 
 due course. The weather was fairly good for the time of year, 
 and, as there was but little danger of collision on the now 
 deserted waters of the Atlantic, the whole flotilla kept at full 
 speed all the way. As, however, its speed was necessarily 
 limited by that of its slowest steamer until the scene of 
 action was reached, it was after midnight on the 5th of 
 December when its various detachments had reached their 
 appointed stations on the English coast. 
 
 At the entrance of the English Channel and St. George's 
 Channel a few scouting cruisers, flying French, Eussian, and 
 Italian colours, had been run down and sunk by the dynamite 
 cruisers. Strict orders had been given by Tremayne to destroy 
 everything flying a hostile flag, and not to permit any news 
 to be taken to England of the approach of the flotilla. The 
 Federation was waging a war, not merely of conquest and 
 revenge, but of extermination, and no more mercy was to be 
 
The Eve of Armageddon. 319 
 
 shown to its enemies than they had shown in their march of 
 victory from one end of Europe to the other. 
 
 While the Federation fleet had been crossing the Atlantic, 
 other events no less important had been taking place in England 
 and Scotland. The hitherto apparently inert mass of the popu- 
 lation had suddenly awakened out of its lethargy. In town 
 and country alike men forsook their daily avocations as if by 
 one consent. As in America, artisans, pitmen, clerks, and 
 tradesmen were suddenly transformed into soldiers, who drilled, 
 first in squads of ten, and then in hundreds and thousands, and 
 finally in tens of thousands, all uniformed alike in rough grey 
 breeches and tunics, with a knot of red ribbon in the button- 
 hole, and all armed with rifle, bayonet, and revolver, which 
 they seemed to handle with a strange and ominous familiarity. 
 
 All the railway traffic over the island was stopped, and the 
 rolling-stock collected at the great stations along the lines to 
 London, and at the same time all the telegraph wires com- 
 municating with the south and east were cut. As day after 
 day passed, signs of an intense but strongly suppressed excite- 
 ment became more and more visible all over the provinces, and 
 especially in the great towns and cities. 
 
 In London very much the same thing had happened. 
 Hundreds of thousands of civilians vanished during that 
 seven days of anxious waiting for the hour of deliverance, 
 and in their place sprang up orderly regiments of grey-clad 
 soldiers, who saw the red knot in each other's button-holes, 
 and welcomed each other as comrades unknown before. 
 
 To the surprise of the commanders of the regular army, 
 orders had been issued by the King that all possible assist- 
 ance was to be rendered to these strange legions, which had 
 thus so suddenly sprang into existence ; and the result was 
 that when the sun set on the 5th of December, the twenty-first 
 day of the total blockade of London, the beleaguered space 
 contained over two millions of armed men, hungering both for 
 food and vengeance, who, like the five millions of their fellow- 
 countrymen outside London, were waiting for a sign from the 
 sky to fling themselves upon the entrapped and unsuspecting 
 invader. 
 
 That night countless eyes were upturned throughout the 
 length and breadth of Britain to the dun pall of wintry cloud 
 
320 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 that overspread the land. Yet so far, so perfect was the dis- 
 cipline of this gigantic host, not a sign of overt hostile move- 
 ment had been made, and the commanders of the armies of 
 the League looked forward with exulting confidence to the 
 moment, now only a few hours distant, when the capital of 
 the British Empire, cut off' from all help, should be surrendered 
 into their hands in accordance with the terms agreed upon. 
 
 When night fell the Ithuriel was floating four thousand feet 
 above Aberdeen. Arnold and Natasha, wrapped in warm furs, 
 were standing on deck impatiently watching the sun sinking 
 down over the sea of clouds which lay between them and the 
 earth. 
 
 " There it goes at last ! " exclaimed Natasha, as the last of 
 the level beams shot across the cloud-sea and the rim of the 
 pale disc sank below the surface of the vapoury ocean. " The 
 time that we have waited and worked for so long has come at 
 last. This is the eve of Armageddon ! Who would think it, 
 floating up here above the clouds and beneath those cold, 
 calmly shining stars ! And yet the fate of the whole world is 
 trembling in the balance, and the doings of the next twenty- 
 four hours will settle the destiny of mankind for generations 
 to come. The hour of the Eevolution has struck at last " — 
 
 " And therefore it is time that the Angel of the Eevolution 
 should give the last signal with her own hand ! " said Arnold, 
 seized with a sudden fancy, "Come, you shall start the 
 dynamo yourself." 
 
 "Yes I will, and, I hope, kindle a flame that shall purge 
 the earth of tyranny and oppression for ever. Richard, what 
 must my father be thinking of just now down yonder in the 
 cabin ? " 
 
 " I dare not even guess. To-morrow or the next day will be 
 the day of reckoning, and then God help those of whom he 
 demands payment, for they will need it. The vials of wrath 
 are full, and before long the oppressors of the earth will 
 have drained them to the dregs. Come, it is time we went 
 down." 
 
 They descended together to the engine-room, and meanwhile 
 the air-ship sank through the clouds until the lights of 
 Aberdeen lay about a thousand feet below. A lens of red glass 
 had been fitted to the searchlight of the Ithuriel, and all that 
 
The Eve of Armageddon. 321 
 
 was necessary was to connect the forward engine with the 
 dynamo. 
 
 Arnold put Natasha's hand on a little lever. As she took 
 hold of it she thought with a shudder of the mighty forces of 
 destruction which her next movement would let loose. Then 
 she thought of all that those nearest and dearest to her had 
 suffered at the hands of Eussian despotism, and of all the 
 nameless horrors of the rule whose death-signal she was about 
 to give. 
 
 As she did so her grip tightened on the lever, and when 
 Arnold, having given his orders to the head engineer as to 
 speed and course, put his hand on her shoulder and said, 
 " Now ! " she pulled it back with a sharp, determined motion, 
 and the next instant a broad fan of blood-red light shot over 
 the Ithuriel's bows. 
 
 At the same moment the air-ship's propellers began to spin 
 round, and then with the flood of red light streaming in front 
 of her, she headed southward at full speed towards Edinburgh. 
 The signal flashed over the Scottish capital, and then the 
 Ithuriel swerved round to the westward. 
 
 Half an hour later Glasgow saw it, and then away she sped 
 southward across the Border to Carlisle ; and so through the 
 long December night she flew hither and thither, eastward and 
 westward, flashing the red battle-signal over field and village 
 and town ; and wherever it shone armed men sprang up like 
 the fruit of the fabled dragon's teeth, companies were mustered 
 in streets and squares and fields and marched to railway 
 stations; and soon long trains, one after another in endless 
 succession, got into motion, all moving towards the south and 
 east, all converging upon London. 
 
 Last of all, after it had made a swift circuit of northern and 
 central and western England, the red light swept along the 
 south coast, and then swerved northward again till it flashed 
 thrice over London, and then it vanished into the darkness of 
 the hour before the dawn of Armageddon. 
 
 Since the ever-memorable night of Thursday the 29th of 
 July 1588, three hundred and sixteen years before, when "The 
 beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgcumbe's lofty Hall," and 
 the answering fires sprang up "From Eddystone to Berwick 
 bounds, from Lynn to Mil lord Bay," to tell that the Spanish 
 
322 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Armada was in sight, there had been no such night in England, 
 nor had men ever dreamed that there should be. 
 
 But great as had been the deeds done by the heroes of the 
 sixteenth century with the pigmy means at their command, 
 they were but the merest child's play to the awful storm of 
 devastation which, in a few hours, was to burst over southern 
 England. Then it was England against Spain ; now it was 
 Anglo-Saxondom against the world ; and the conquering race 
 of earth, armed with the most terrific powers of destruction 
 that human wit had ever devised, was rising in its wrath, 
 millions strong, to wipe out the stain of invasion from the 
 sacred soil of the motherland of the Anglo-Saxon nations. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 THE OLD LION AT BAY. 
 
 |HE morning of the 6th of December dawned grey 
 and cold over London and the hosts that were 
 waiting for its surrender. Scarcely any smoke 
 rose from the myriad chimneys of the vast city, 
 for the coal was almost all burnC, and what 
 was left was selling at £12 a ton. Wood was 
 so scarce that people were tearing up the woodwork of their 
 houses to keep a little fire going. 
 
 So the steel-grey sky remained clear, for towards daybreak 
 the clouds had been condensed by a cold north-easter into a 
 sharp fall of fine, icy snow, and as the sun gained power it 
 shone chilly over the whitened landscape, the innumerable 
 roofs of London, and the miles of tents lining the hills to the 
 north and south of the Thames valley. 
 
 The havoc wrought by the bombardment on the public 
 buildings of the great city had been terrible. Of the Houses 
 of Parliament only a shapeless heap of broken stones remained, 
 the Law Courts were in ruins, what had been the Albert Hall 
 was now a roofless ring of blackened walls, Nelson's Column 
 lay shattered across Trafalgar Square, and the Royal Exchange, 
 the Bank of England, and the Mansion House mingled their 
 fragments in the heart of the almost deserted city. 
 
 Only three of the great buildings of London had suffered no 
 damage. These were the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, 
 and St Paul's, which had been spared in accordance with special 
 orders issued by the commanders of the League. The two 
 former were spared for the same reason that the Germans 
 had spared Strasburg Cathedral in 1870 — because their 
 
324 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 destruction would have been a loss, not to Britain alone, but 
 to the world. 
 
 The great church of the metropolis had been left untouched 
 chiefly because it had been arranged that, on the fall of London, 
 the Tsar was to be proclaimed Emperor of Asia under its dome, 
 and at the same time General le Gallifet was to assume the 
 Dictatorship of France and abolish the Eepublic, which for 
 more than ten years had been the plaything of unprincipled 
 financiers, and the laughing-stock of Europe. As the sun rose 
 the great golden cross, rising high out of the wilderness of 
 houses, shone more and more brightly under the brightening 
 sky, and millions of eyes looked upon it from within the city 
 and from without with feelings far asunder as triumph and 
 defeat. 
 
 At daybreak the last meal had been eaten by the defenders 
 of the city. To supply it almost every animal left in London 
 had been sacrificed, and the last drop of liquor was drunk, 
 even to the last bottle of wine in the Eoyal cellars, which the 
 King shared with his two commanders-in-chief, Lord Eoberts 
 and Lord Wolseley, in the presence of the troops on the balcony 
 of Buckingham Palace. At nine o'clock the King and Queen 
 attended service in St. Paul's, and when they left the Cathedral 
 half an hour later the besiegers on the heights were astounded 
 to hear the bells of all the steeples left standing in London ring 
 out in a triumphant series of peals which rippled away eastward 
 and westward from St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, caught 
 up and carried on by steeple after steeple, until from Highgate 
 to Dulwich, and from Hammersmith to Canning Town, the 
 beleaguered and starving city might have been celebrating some 
 great triumph or deliverance. 
 
 The astonished besiegers could only put the extraordinary 
 manifestation down to joy on the part of the citizens at the 
 near approaching end of the siege ; but before the bells of 
 London had been ringing for half an hour this fallacious idea 
 was dispelled from their minds in a very stern and summary 
 fashion. 
 
 Since nightfall there had been no communication with the 
 secret agents of the League in the various towns of England 
 and Scotland. At ten o'clock a small company of Cossacks 
 spurred and flogged their jaded horses up the northern slope 
 
The Old Lion at Bay. 
 
 3-D 
 
 of Muswell Hill, on which the Tsar had fixed his headquarters. 
 Nearly every man was wounded, and the horses were in the 
 last stages of exhaustion. Their captain was at once admitted 
 to the presence of the Tsar, and, flinging himself on the ground 
 before the enraged Autocrat, gasped out the dreadful tidings 
 that his little company were the sole survivors of the army of 
 occupation that had been left at Harwich, and which, twelve 
 hours before, had been thirty thousand strong. 
 
 A huge fleet of strange-looking vessels, flying a plain blood- 
 red flag, had just before four a.m. forced the approaches to the 
 harbour, sunk every transport and warship with guns that were 
 fired without flame, or smoke, or report, and whose projectiles 
 shattered everything that they struck. Immediately afterwards 
 an immense flotilla of transports had steamed in, and, under 
 the protection of those terrible guns, had landed a hundred 
 thousand men, all dressed in the same plain grey uniform, 
 with no facings or ornaments save a knot of red ribbon at the 
 button-hole, and armed with magazine rifle and a bayonet and 
 a brace of revolvers. All were English by their speech, and 
 every man appeared to know exactly what to do with very 
 few orders from his officers. 
 
 This invading force had hunted the Eussian3 out of Harwich 
 like rabbits out of a warren, while the ships in the harbour 
 had hurled their shells up into the air so that they fell back to 
 earth on the retreating army and exploded with frightful effect. 
 The general in command had at once telegraphed to London 
 for a detachment of war-balloons and reinforcements, but no 
 response had been received. 
 
 After four hours' fighting the Eussian army was in full 
 retreat, while the attacking force was constantly increasing as 
 transport after transport steamed into the harbour and landed 
 her men. At Colchester the Eussians had been met by another 
 vast army which had apparently sprung from the earth, dressed 
 and armed exactly as the invading force was. What its 
 numbers were there was no possibility of telling. 
 
 By this time, too, treachery began to show itself in the 
 Eussian ranks, and whole companies suddenly appeared with 
 the red knot of ribbon in their tunics, and instantly turned 
 their weapons against their comrades, shooting them down 
 without warning or mercy. No quarter had been given to 
 
326 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 those who did not show the ribbon. Most of them died fight- 
 ing, but those who had thrown away their arms were shot 
 down all the same. 
 
 Whoever commanded this strange army had manifestly 
 given orders to take no prisoners, and it was equally certain 
 that its movements were directed by the Terrorists, for every- 
 where the battle-cries had been, " In the Master's name ! " and 
 " Slay, and spare not ! " 
 
 The whole of the army, save the deserters, had been 
 destroyed, and the deserters had immediately assumed the 
 grey uniforms of those of the Terrorist army who had fallen. 
 The Cossack captain and his forty or fifty followers were the 
 sole remains of a body of three thousand men who had fought 
 their way through the second army. The whole country to 
 the north and east seemed alive with the grey soldiery, and 
 it was only after a hundred hair-breadth escapes that they had 
 managed to reach the protection of the lines round London. 
 
 Such was the tale of the bringer of bad tidings to the Tsar 
 at the moment when he was looking forward to the crowning 
 triumph of his reign. Like the good soldier that he was, he 
 wasted no time in thinking at a moment when everything 
 depended on instant action. 
 
 He at once despatched a war-balloon to the French and 
 Italian headquarters with a note containing the terrible news 
 from Harwich, and requesting Generals le Gallifet and Cosensz 
 to lose no time in communicating with the eastern and southern 
 ports, and in throwing out corps of observation supported by 
 war-balloons. Evidently the American Government had played 
 the League false at the last moment, and had allied herself 
 with Britain. 
 
 As soon as he had sent off this message, the Tsar ordered a 
 fleet of forty aerostats to proceed to the north-eastward, in 
 advance of a force of infantry and cavalry numbering three 
 hundred thousand men, and supported by fifty batteries of 
 field and machine guns, which he detached to stop the progress 
 of the Federation army towards London. Before this force 
 was in motion a reply came back from General le Gallifet to 
 the effect that all communication with the south and east was 
 stopped, and that an aerostat, which had been on scout duty 
 during the night, had returned with the news that the whole 
 
The Old Lion at Bay. 327 
 
 country appeared to be up in arms from Portsmouth to Dover. 
 Corps of observation and a fleet of thirty aerostats had been 
 sent out, and three army corps were already on the march to 
 the south and east. 
 
 Meanwhile, the hour for the surrender of London was 
 drawing very near, and all the while the bells were sending 
 their mingled melody of peals and carillons up into the clear 
 frosty air with a defiant joyousness that seemed to speak of 
 anything but surrender. As twelve o'clock approached the 
 guns of all the batteries on the heights were loaded and trained 
 on different parts of the city, and the whole of the forces left 
 after the detachment of the armies that had been sent to 
 engage the battalions of the Federation prepared to descend 
 upon the devoted city from all sides after the two hours' 
 incessant bombardment that had been ordered to precede the 
 general attack. 
 
 It had been arranged that if the city surrendered a white 
 flag was to be hoisted on the cross of St. Paul's. 
 
 Within a few minutes of twelve the Tsar ascended to the 
 roof of the Alexandra Palace on Musvvell Hill, and turned his 
 field-glasses on the towering dome. His face and lips were 
 bloodless with repressed but intense anxiety, but the hands 
 that held his glasses to his eyes were as steady as though he 
 had been watching a review of his own troops. It was the 
 supreme moment of his victorious career. He was practically 
 master of Europe. Only Britain held out. The relieving 
 forces would be rent to fragments by his war-balloons, and 
 then decimated by his troops as the legions of Germany and 
 Austria had been. The capital of the English-speaking world 
 lay starving at his feet, and a few minutes would see — 
 
 Ha ! there goes the flag at last. A little ball of white 
 bunting creeps up from the gallery above the dark dome. It 
 clears the railing under the pedestal, and climbs to the apex 
 of the shining cross. As it does so the wild chorus of the 
 bells suddenly ceases, and out of the silence that follows come 
 the deep booming strokes of the great bell of St. Paul's sounding 
 the hour of twelve. 
 
 As the last stroke dies away the ball bursts, and the White 
 Ensign of Britain crossed by the Pied Cross of St. George, and 
 with the Jack in the corner, floats out defiantly on the breeze. 
 
J 
 
 28 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 greeted by the reawakening clamour of the bells, and a deep 
 hoarse cry from millions of throats, that rolls like a vast sea of 
 sound up the slopes to the encampments of the League. 
 
 With an irrepressible cry of rage, Nicholas dashed his 
 field-glass to the ground, and shouted, in a voice broken with 
 passion — 
 
 " So ! They have tricked us. Let the bombardment begin 
 at once, and bring that flag down with the first shots ! " 
 
 But before the words were out of his mouth, the bombard- 
 ment had already commenced in a very different fashion to 
 that in which he had intended that it should begin. So 
 intense had been the interest with which all eyes had been 
 turned on the Cross of St. Paul's that no one had noticed 
 twelve little points of shining light hanging high in air over 
 the batteries of the besiegers, six to the north and six to the 
 south. 
 
 But the moment that the Ensign of St. George floated from 
 the summit of St. Paul's a rapid series of explosions roared 
 out like a succession of thunder-claps along the lines of the 
 batteries. The hills of Surrey, and Kent, and Middlesex were 
 suddenly transformed into volcanoes spouting flame and thick 
 black smoke, and flinging clouds of dust and fragments of 
 darker objects high into the air. 
 
 The order of the Tsar was obeyed in part only, for by the 
 time that the word to recommence the bombardment had been 
 flashed round the circuit of the entrenchments, more than half 
 the batteries had been put out of action. The twelve air-ships 
 stationed at equal intervals round the vast ellipse, and dis- 
 charging their No. 3 shell from their four guns ahead and 
 astern, from an elevation of four thousand feet, had simultane- 
 ously wrecked half the batteries of the besiegers before their 
 occupants had any clear idea of what was really happening. 
 
 Wherever one of those shells fell and exploded, earth and 
 stone and iron melted into dust under the terrific force of 
 the exploding gases, and the air-ships, moving with a velocity 
 compared with which the utmost speed of the aerostats was as 
 a snail's pace, flitted hither and thither wherever a battery got 
 into action, and destroyed it before the second round had been 
 fired. 
 
 There were still twenty-five aerostats at the command of the 
 
The Old Lion at Bay. 329 
 
 Tsar which had not been sent against the relieving forces, and 
 as soon as it was realised that the aerial bombardment of the 
 batteries came from the air-ships of the Terrorist fleet, they 
 were sent into the air to engage them at all hazards. They 
 outnumbered them two to one, but there was no comparison 
 between the manoeuvring powers of the two aerial squadrons. 
 
 As soon as the aerostats rose into the air, the Terrorist fleet 
 receded northward and southward from the batteries. Their 
 guns had a six -mile range, and it did not matter to them which 
 side of the assailed area they lay. They could still hurl their 
 explosives with the same deadly precision on the appointed 
 mark. But with the aerostats it was a very different matter. 
 They could only drop their shells vertically, and where they 
 were not exactly above the object of attack their shells exploded 
 with comparative harmlessness. 
 
 As a natural consequence they had to follow the air-ships, 
 not only away from London, but over their own encampments, 
 in order to bring them to anything like close quarters. The 
 aerostats possessed one advantage, and one only, over the air- 
 ships. They were able to rise to a much greater height. But 
 this advantage the air-ships very soon turned into a dis- 
 advantage by reason of their immensely superior speed and 
 ease of handling. They darted about at such a speed over the 
 heads of the massed forces of the League on either side of 
 London, that it was impossible to drop shells upon them 
 without running the inevitable risk of missing the small and 
 swiftly-moving air-ship, and so fausing the shell to burst 
 amidst friends instead of foes. 
 
 Thus the Terrorist fleet, sweeping hither and thither, in wide 
 and ever changing curves, lured the most dangerous assailants 
 of the beleaguered city farther and farther away from the real 
 scene of action, at the very time when they were most urgently 
 needed to support the attacking forces which at that moment 
 were being poured into London. 
 
 To destroy the air-ships seemed an impossibility, since they 
 could move at five times the speed of the swiftest aerostat, and 
 yet to return to the bombardment of the city was to leave them 
 free to commit what havoc they pleased upon the encampments 
 of the armies of the League. So they were drawn farther and 
 farther away from the beleaguered city, while their agile enemies, 
 
330 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 still keeping within their six-mile range, evaded their shells, 
 and yet kept up a constant discharge of their own projectiles 
 upon the salient points of the attack on London. 
 
 By four o'clock in the afternoon all the batteries of the 
 besiegers had been put out of action by the aerial bombardment. 
 It was now a matter of man to man and steel to steel, and so 
 the gage of final battle was accepted, and as dusk began to 
 fall over the beleaguered city, the Russian, French and Italian 
 hosts left their lines, and descended from their vantage ground 
 to the assault on London, where the old Lion at bay was waiting 
 for them with claws bared and teeth grinning defiance. 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE TURN OF THE BATTLE-TIDE. 
 
 [HE force which the Tsar had detached to operate 
 against the Federation Army of the North left 
 the headquarters at eleven o'clock, and pro- 
 ceeded in four main divisions by Edmonton, 
 Chingford, Chigwell, and Eomford. The aeros- 
 tats, regulating their speed so as to keep touch 
 with the land force, maintained a position two miles ahead of 
 it at three thousand feet elevation. 
 
 Strict orders had been given to press on at the utmost 
 speed, and to use every means to discover the Federationists, 
 and bring them to an engagement with as little delay as 
 possible ; but they marched on hour after hour into the dusk 
 of the early winter evening, with the sounds of battle growing 
 fainter in their rear, without meeting with a sign of the 
 enemy. 
 
 As it would have been the height of imprudence to have 
 advanced in the dark into a hostile country occupied by an 
 enemy of great but unknown strength, General Pralitzin, the 
 Commander of the Russian force, decided to bring his men to 
 a halt at nightfall, and therefore took up a series of positions 
 between Cheshunt, Epping, Chipping Ongar, and Ingatestone. 
 From these points squadrons of Cossacks scoured the country 
 hi all directions, north, east, and west, in search of the so far 
 invisible army ; and at the same time he sent mounted mes- 
 sengers back to headquarters to report that no enemy had 
 been found, and to ask for further orders. 
 
 The aerostats slowed down their engines until their pro- 
 pellers just counteracted the force of the wind and they hung 
 
 331 
 
332 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 motionless at a height of a thousand feet, ranged in a semicircle 
 about fifteen miles long over the heads of the columns. 
 
 All this time the motions of the Eussian army had been 
 watched by the captain of the Ithuriel from an elevation of 
 eight thousand feet, five miles to the rear. As soon as he 
 saw them making preparations for a halt, and had noticed 
 the disposition of the aerostats, he left the conning-tower 
 which he had occupied nearly all day, and went into the 
 after saloon, where he found Natas and Natasha examining 
 a large plan of London and its environs. 
 
 " They have come to a halt at last," he said. " And if they 
 only remain where they are for three hours longer, we have 
 the whole army like rats in a trap, war-balloons and all. They 
 have not seen us so far, for if they had they would certainly 
 have sent an aerostat aloft to reconnoitre, and, of course, I 
 must have destroyed it. The whole forty are arranged in a 
 semicircle over the heads of the four main columns in divisions 
 of ten." 
 
 " And what do you propose to do with them now you have 
 got them ? " said Natasha, looking up with a welcoming smile. 
 
 " Give me a cup of coffee first, for I am cold to the marrow, 
 and then I'll tell you," replied Arnold, seating himself at the 
 table, on which stood a coffee-urn with a spirit lamp beneath 
 it, something after the style of a Eussian samovar. 
 
 Natasha filled a cup and passed it to him, and he went on — 
 
 " You remember what I said to Tremayne in the Princess's 
 sitting-room at Petersburg about the eagle and the crows 
 just before the trial of the Tsar's first war-balloon. Well, if 
 you like to spend a couple of hours with me in the conning- 
 tower as soon as it is dark enough for us to descend, I will 
 show you what I meant then. I suppose the original general 
 orders stand good ? " he said, turning to Natas. 
 
 "Yes," replied the Master gravely. "They must all be 
 destroyed. This is the day of vengeance and not of mercy. 
 If my orders have been obeyed, all the men belonging to the 
 International in this force will have managed to get to the 
 rear by nightfall. They can be left to take care of themselves. 
 Mazanoff assured me that all the members in the armies of the 
 League fully understood what they are to do. Some of the 
 war-balloons have been taken possession of by our men, but 
 
The Turn of the Battle-Tide. 333 
 
 we don't know how many. As soon as you destroy the first 
 of the fleet, these will rise and commence operations on the 
 army, and they will also fly the red flag, so there will be no 
 fear of your mistaking them." 
 
 " Very well," said Arnold, who had been quietly sipping his 
 coffee while he listened to the utterance of this death sentence 
 on more than a quarter of a million of men. " If our fellows 
 to the northward only obey orders promptly, there will not 
 be many of the Russians left by sunrise. Now, Natasha, you 
 had better put on your furs and come to the conning-tower ; 
 it's about time to begin." 
 
 It did not take her many moments to wrap up, and within 
 five minutes she and Arnold were standing in the conning- 
 tower watching the camp fires of the Russian host coming 
 nearer and nearer as the Ithuriel sank down through the 
 rapidly increasing darkness towards the long dotted line which 
 marked the position of the aerostats, whose great gas-holders 
 stood out black and distinct against the whitened earth 
 beneath them. 
 
 By means of electric signals to the engineers the captain 
 of the Ithuriel was able to regulate both the speed and the 
 elevation of the air-ship as readily as though he had himself 
 been in charge of the engine-room. Giving Natasha a pair 
 of night-glasses, and telling her to keep a bright look-out 
 ahead, he brought the Ithuriel round by the westward to a 
 position about five miles west of the extremity of the line of 
 war-balloons, and as soon as he got on a level with it he 
 advanced comparatively slowly, until Natasha was able to 
 make it out distinctly with the night-glass. 
 
 Then he signalled to the wheel-house aft to disconnect the 
 after-wheel, and at the same moment he took hold of the 
 spokes of the forward-wheel in the conning-tower. The next 
 signal was " Full speed ahead," and as the Ithuriel gathered 
 way and rushed forward on her errand of destruction he said 
 hurriedly to Natasha — 
 
 " Now, don't speak till it's over. I want all my wits for this 
 work, and you'll want all your eyes." 
 
 Without speaking, Natasha glanced up at his face, and 
 saw on it somewhat of the same expression that she had 
 seen at the moment when he put the Ariel at the rock-wall 
 
334 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 which barred the entrance to Aeria. His face was pale, and 
 his lips were set, and his eyes looked straight out from under 
 his frowning brows with an angry gleam in them that boded 
 ill for the fate of those against whom he was about to use the 
 irresistible engine of destruction under his command. 
 
 Twenty feet in front of them stretched out the long keen 
 ram of the air-ship, edged and pointed like a knife. This was 
 the sole weapon that he intended to use. It was impossible to 
 train the guns at the tremendous speed at which the Ithuriel 
 was travelling, but under the circumstance the ram was the 
 deadliest weapon that could have been employed. 
 
 In four minutes from the time the Ithuriel started on her 
 eastward course the nearest war-balloon was only fifty yards 
 away. The air-ship, travelling at a speed of nearly two 
 hundred miles an hour, leapt out of the dusk like a flash of 
 white light. In ten seconds more her ram had passed 
 completely through the gas-holder without so much as a shock 
 being felt. The next one was only five hundred yards away. 
 Obedient to her rudder the Ithuriel swerved, ripped her gas- 
 holder from end to end, and then darted upon the next one 
 even before a terrific explosion in their rear told that the car 
 of the first one had struck the earth. 
 
 So she sped along the whole line, darting hither and thither 
 in obedience to the guiding hand that controlled her, with 
 such inconceivable rapidity that before any of the unwieldy 
 machines, saving only those whose occupants had been 
 prepared for the assault, had time to get out of the way of the 
 destroying ram, she had rent her way through the gas-holders 
 of twenty-eight out of the forty balloons, and flung them to 
 the earth to explode and spread consternation and destruction 
 all along the van of the army encamped below. 
 
 From beginning to end the attack had not lasted ten 
 minutes. When the last of the aerostats had gone down 
 under his terrible ram, Arnold signalled " Stop, and ascend," 
 to the engine-room. A second signal turned on the search- 
 light in the bow, and from this a rapid series of flashes were 
 sent up to the sky to the northward and eastward. 
 
 The effect was as fearful as it was instantaneous. The 
 twelve war-balloons which had escaped by flying the red flag 
 took up their positions above the Russian lines, and began to 
 
The Turn of the Battle-Tide. 335 
 
 drop their fire-shell and cyanogen bombs upon the masses of 
 men below. The air-ship, swerving round again to the west- 
 ward, with her fan-wheels aloft, moved slowly across the wide 
 area over which men and horses were wildly rushing hither 
 and thither in vain attempts to escape the rain of death that 
 was falling upon them from the sky. 
 
 Her searchlight, turned downwards to the earth, sought out 
 the spots where they were crowded most thickly together, and 
 then the air-ship's guns came into play also. Arnold had 
 given orders to use the new fire-shell exclusively, and its effects 
 proved to be frightful beyond description. Wherever one fell 
 a blaze of intense light shone for an instant upon the earth. 
 Then this burst into a thousand fragments, which leapt into 
 the air and spread themselves far and wide in all directions, 
 burning with inextinguishable fury for several minutes, and 
 driving men and horses mad with agony and terror. 
 
 No human fortitude or discipline could withstand the fearful 
 rain of fire, in comparison with which even the deadly hail 
 from the aerostats seemed insignificant. For half an hour the 
 eight guns of the Ithuriel hurled these awful projectiles in all 
 directions, scattering death and hopeless confusion wherever 
 they alighted, until the whole field of carnage seemed ablaze 
 with them. 
 
 At the end of this time three rockets soared up from her 
 deck into the dark sky, and burst into myriads of brilliant 
 white stars, which for a few moments shed an unearthly light 
 upon the scene of indescribable confusion and destruction 
 below. But they made more than this visible, for by their 
 momentary light could be seen seemingly interminable lines 
 of grey-clad figures swiftly closing in from all sides, chasing 
 the Cossack scouts before them in upon the completely dis- 
 organised Eussian host. 
 
 A few minutes later a continuous roll of musketry burst out 
 on front, and flank, and rear, and a ceaseless hail of rifle bullets 
 began to plough its way through the helpless masses of the 
 soldiers of the Tsar. They formed as well as they could to 
 confront these new enemies, but the moment that the search- 
 light of the air-ship, constantly sweeping the field, fell upon a 
 company in anything like order, a shell descended in the midst 
 of it and broke it up again. 
 
336 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 All night long the work of death and vengeance went on ; 
 the grey lines ever closing in nearer and nearer upon the 
 dwindling remnants of the Eussian army. Hour after hour 
 the hail of hullets never slackened. There was no random 
 firing on the part of the Federation soldiers. Every man had 
 been trained to use his rifle rapidly but deliberately, and never 
 to fire until he had found his mark ; and the consequence was 
 that the long nickel-tipped bullets, fired point-blank into the 
 dense masses of men, rent their way through half a dozen 
 bodies before they were spent. 
 
 At last the grey light began to break over an indescribably 
 hideous scene of slaughter. Scarcely ten thousand men re- 
 mained of the three hundred thousand who had started the 
 day before in obedience to the order of the Tsar ; and these 
 were split up into formless squads and ragged companies 
 fighting desperately amidst heaps of corpses for dear life, 
 without any pretence at order or formation. 
 
 The cannonade from the air had ceased, and the last scene 
 in the drama of death had come. With bayonets fixed and 
 rifles lowered to the charge, the long grey lines closed up, 
 and, as the bugles rang out the long-awaited order, they swept 
 forward at the double, horses and men went down like a field 
 of standing corn under the irresistible rush of a million 
 bayonets, and in twenty minutes all w 7 as over. Not a man 
 of the whole Eussian army was left alive, save those whose 
 knot of red ribbon at the button-hole proclaimed them members 
 of the International. 
 
 As soon as it was light enough for Arnold to see clearly that 
 the fate of the Eussians was finally decided, he descended to 
 the earth, and, after complimenting the commander and officers 
 of the Federation troops on the splendid effectiveness of their 
 force, and their admirable discipline and coolness, he gave 
 orders for a two hours' rest and then a march on the Eussian 
 headquarters at Muswell Hill with every available man. The 
 Tsar and his Staff were to be taken alive at all hazards ; every 
 other Eussian who did not wear the International ribbon was 
 to be shot down without mercy. 
 
 These orders given, the Ithuricl mounted into the air again, 
 and disappeared in the direction of London. She passed over 
 the now shattered and silent entrenchments of the Eussians at 
 
The Turn of the Battle-Tide. 337 
 
 a speed which made it possible to remain on deck without 
 discomfort or danger, and at an elevation of two thousand feet. 
 Natas was below in the saloon, alone with his own thoughts, 
 the thoughts of twenty years of waiting and working and 
 gradual approach to the hour of vengeance which was now so 
 near. Andrew Smith was steering in the wheel-house, Lieu- 
 tenant Marston was taking his watch below, after being on 
 deck nearly the whole of the previous night, and Arnold and 
 Natasha, wrapped in their warm furs, were pacing up and down 
 the deck engaged in conversation which had not altogether to 
 do with war. 
 
 The sun had risen before the Ithuriel passed over London, 
 and through the clear, cold air they could see with their field- 
 glasses signs of carnage and destruction which made Natasha's 
 soul sicken within her to gaze upon them, and even shook 
 Arnold's now hardened nerves. All the main thoroughfares 
 leading into London from the north and south were choked 
 with heaps of dead bodies in Eussian, French, and Italian 
 uniforms, in the midst of which those who still survived were 
 being forced forward by the pressure of those behind. Every 
 house that remained standing was spouting flames upon them 
 from its windows ; and where the streets opened into squares 
 and wider streets there were barricades manned with British 
 and Federation troops, and from their summits and loopholes 
 the quick-firing guns were raining an incessant hail of shot 
 and shell upon the struggling masses pent up in the streets. 
 
 A horrible chorus of the rattle of small arms, the harsh, 
 grinding roar of the machine guns, the hurrahs of the defenders, 
 and the cries of rage and agony from the baffled and decimated 
 assailants, rose unceasingly to their ears as they passed over 
 the last battlefield of the Western nations, where the Anglo- 
 Saxon, the Russ, and the Gaul were locked in the death 
 struggle. 
 
 "There is some awful work going on down there," said 
 Arnold, as they headed away towards the south, where, fiom 
 behind the Surrey hills, soon came the sound of some 
 tremendous conflict. "For the present we must leave them 
 to fight it out. They don't seem to have had such easy 
 work of it to the south as we have had to the north ; but I 
 didn't expect they would, for they have probably detached 
 
338 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 a very much larger force of French and Italians to attack 
 the Army of the South than the Russian lot we had to deal 
 with." 
 
 "Is all this frightful slaughter really necessary?" asked 
 Natasha, slipping her arm through his, and looking up at 
 him with eyes which for the first time were moistened by the 
 tears of pity for her enemies. 
 
 " Necessary or not," replied Arnold, "it is the Master's 
 orders, and I have only to obey them. This is the day of 
 vengeance for which he has waited so long, and you can 
 hardly expect him to show much mercy. It lies between 
 him and Tremayne. For my part I will stay my hand only 
 when I am ordered to do so. 
 
 "Still, if any one can influence Natas to mercy, you can. 
 Nothing can now stop the slaughter on the north, I'm afraid, 
 for the Russians are caught in a hopeless trap. The Lon- 
 doners are enraged beyond control, and if the men spared 
 them I believe the women would tear them to pieces. But 
 there are two or three millions of lives or so to be saved at 
 the south, and perhaps there is still time to do it. It would 
 be a task worthy of the Angel of the Revolution ; why should 
 you not try it ? " 
 
 " I will do so," said Natasha, and without another word 
 she turned away and walked quickly towards the entrance to 
 'he saloon. 
 
CHAPTEK XLV. 
 
 ALMAGEDDOX. 
 
 N the southern side of Loudon the struggle 
 between the Franco-Italian armies and the 
 troops of the Federation had been raging all 
 night with unabated fury aloDg a curved line 
 extending from Bexley to Richmond. 
 
 The railways communicating with the ports 
 of the south and east had, for their own purposes, been left 
 intact by the commanders of the League; and so sudden 
 and utterly unexpected had been the invasion of the force 
 from America, and the simultaneous uprising of the British 
 Section of the Brotherhood, that they had fallen into the 
 hands of the Federationists almost without a struggle. This 
 had enabled the invaders and their allies to concentrate them- 
 selves rapidly along the line of action which had been carefully 
 predetermined upon. 
 
 Landing almost simultaneously at Southampton, Portsmouth, 
 Shoreham, Newhaven, Hastings, Folkestone, Dover, Deal, 
 Ramsgate, and Margate, they had been joined everywhere 
 by their comrades of the British Section, whose first action, 
 on receiving the signal from the sky, had been to seize the 
 railways and shoot down, without warning or mercy, every 
 soldier of the League who opposed them. 
 
 What had happened at Harwich had at the same time and 
 in the same fashion happened at Dover and Chatham. The 
 troops in occupation had been caught and crushed at a blow 
 between overwhelming forces in front and rear. Added to 
 this, the International was immensely stronger in France and 
 Italy than in Russia, and therefore the defections from the 
 
 538 
 
34Q The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 ranks of the League had been far greater than they had been 
 in the north. 
 
 Tens of thousands had donned the red ribbon as the Signal 
 Hashed over their encampments, and when the moment came 
 to repel the assault of the mysterious grey legions that had 
 sprung from no one knew where, the bewildered French and 
 Italian officers found their regiments automatically splitting 
 up into squads of tens and companies of himdreds, obeying 
 other orders, and joining in the slaughter of their former 
 comrades with the most perfect sang froid. By daybreak 
 on the 6th the various divisions of the Federationists were 
 well on their way to the French and Italian positions to the 
 south of London. The utmost precautions had been taken 
 to prevent any news reaching headquarters, and these, as 
 has been seen, were almost entirely successful 
 
 The three army corps sent southward by General le Gallifet 
 met with a ruinous disaster long before they came face to 
 face with the enemy. Ten of the fleet of thirty war-balloons 
 which had been sent to co-operate with them, had been 
 manned and commanded by men of the International. They 
 were of the newest type and the swiftest in the fleet, and 
 their crews were armed with the strangest weapons that had 
 yet been used in the war. These were bows and arrows, a 
 curious anachronism amidst the elaborate machinery of 
 destruction evolved by the science of the twentieth century, 
 but none the less effective on that account. The arrows, 
 instead of being headed in the usual way, carried on the 
 end of the shaft two little glass tubes full of liquid, bound 
 together, and tipped with fulminate. 
 
 When the fleet had been in the air about an hour these ten 
 aerostats had so distributed themselves that each of them, 
 with a little manoeuvring, could get within bowshot of two 
 others. They also rose a little higher than the rest. The 
 flutter of a white handkerchief was the signal agreed upon, 
 and when this was given by the man in command of the ten, 
 each of them suddenly put on speed, and ran up close to her 
 nearest neighbour. A flight of arrows was discharged at the 
 gas-holder, and then she headed away for the next nearest, 
 and discharged a flight at her. 
 
 Considering the apparent insignificance of the means 
 
Armageddon. 341 
 
 employed, the effects were absolutely miraculous. The 
 explosion of the fulminate on striking either the hard cordage 
 of the net or one of the steel ribs used to give the gas-holder 
 rigidity, broke the two tubes full of liquid. Then came 
 another far more violent explosion, which tore great rents in 
 the envelope. The imprisoned gas rushed out in torrents, 
 and the crippled balloons began to sink, at first slowly, and 
 then more and more rapidly, till the cars, weighted with 
 crews, machinery, and explosives, struck the earth with a 
 crash, and exploded, like so many huge shells, amidst the dense 
 columns of the advancing army corps. In fifteen minutes 
 each of the ten captured aerostats had sent two others to 
 the earth, and then, completely masters of the position, those 
 in charge of them began their assault on the helpless masses 
 below them. This was kept up until the Federation troops 
 appeared. Then they retired to the rear of the French and 
 Italian columns, and devoted themselves to burning their 
 stores and blowing up their ammunition trains with fire-shell. 
 
 Assailed thus in front and rear, and demoralised by the 
 defection of the thousands who, as soon as the battle 
 became general, showed the red ribbon and echoed the fierce 
 battle-cry of the Federation, the splendid force sent out by 
 General le Gallifet was practically annihilated by midnight, 
 and by daybreak the Federationists, after fifteen hours of 
 almost continuous fighting, had stormed all the outer positions 
 held by the French and Italians to the south of London, the 
 batteries of which had already been destroyed by the air-ships. 
 
 Thus, when the Ithuriel passed over London on the morning 
 of the 7th the position of affairs was as follows: The two 
 armies which had been detached by the Tsar and General le 
 Gallifet to stop the advance of the Federationists had been 
 destroyed almost to a man. Of the two fleets of war-balloons 
 there remained twenty-two aerostats in the hands of the 
 Terrorists, while the twenty -five sent by the Tsar against the 
 air-ships had retired at nightfall to the depot at Muswell 
 Hill to replenish their stock of fuel and explosives. Their 
 ammunition - tenders, slow and unwieldy machines, adapted 
 only for carrying large cargoes of shells, had been rammed and 
 destroyed with ease by the air-ships during the running, or 
 rather flying, fight of the previous afternoon. 
 
342 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 At sunset on the 6th the whole available forces of the 
 League which could be spared from the defence of the posi- 
 tions, numbering more than three million men, had descended 
 to the assault on London at nearly fifty different points. 
 
 No human words could convey any adequate conception 
 of that night of carnage and terror. The assailants were 
 allowed to advance far into the mighty maze of streets and by- 
 ways with so little resistance, that they began to think that 
 the great city would fall an easy prey to them after alL But 
 as they approached the main arteries of central London they 
 came suddenly upon barricades so skilfully disposed that it 
 was impossible to advance without storming them, and from 
 which, as they approached them, burst out tempests of rifle 
 and machine gunfire, under which the heads of their columns 
 melted away faster than they advanced. 
 
 Light, quick-firing guns, posted on the roofs of lofty build- 
 ings, rained death and mutilation upon them. The air-ships, 
 flying hither and thither a few hundred feet above the house- 
 tops, like spirits of destruction, sent their shells into their 
 crowded masses and wrought the most awful havoc of all with 
 their frightful explosives, blowing hundreds of men to indis- 
 tinguishable fragments at every shot, while from the windows 
 of every house that was not in ruins came a ceaseless hail of 
 missiles from every kind of firearm, from a magazine rifle to 
 a shot-gun. 
 
 When morning came the Great Eastern Eailway and the 
 Thames had been cleared and opened, and the hearts of the 
 starving citizens were gladdened by the welcome spectacle 
 of train after train pouring in laden with provisions from 
 Harwich, and of a fleet of steamers, flying the Federation flag, 
 which filled the Thames below London Bridge, and was 
 rapidly discharging its cargoes of food at the wharves and into 
 lighters. 
 
 As fast as the food could be unloaded it was distributed 
 first to the troops manning the barricades, and then to the 
 markets and shops, whence it was supplied free in the poorer 
 districts, and at the usual prices in the richer ones. All that 
 day London feasted and made merry, for now the Thames was 
 open there seemed to be no end to the food that was being 
 poured into the city which twelve hours before had eaten its 
 
Armageddon. 343 
 
 last scanty provisions. As soon as one vessel was discharged 
 another took its place, and opened its hold filled with the 
 necessaries and some of the luxuries of life. 
 
 The frightful butcheries at the barricades had stopped for 
 the time being from sheer exhaustion on both sides. One 
 cannot light without food, and the defenders were half-starved 
 when they began. Eage and the longing for revenge had lent 
 them strength for the moment, but twelve hours of incessant 
 street fighting, the most wearing of all forms of battle, had 
 exhausted them, and they were heartily glad of the tacit truce 
 which gave them time to eat and drink. 
 
 As for the assailants, as soon as they saw conclusive proof 
 that the blockade had been broken and the city victualled, 
 they found themselves deserted by the ally on whose aid they 
 had most counted. While the grip of famine remained on 
 London they knew that its fall was only a matter of time ; but 
 now — if food could get in so could reinforcements, and they 
 had not the remotest idea as to the number of the mysterious 
 forces which had so suddenly sprung into existence outside 
 their own lines. 
 
 Added to this their losses during the night had been some- 
 thing appalling. The streets were choked with their dead, and 
 the houses into which they had retired were filled with their 
 wounded. So they, too, were glad of a rest, and many spoke 
 openly of returning to their lines and abandoning the assault. 
 If they did so it might be possible to fight their way to the 
 coast, and escape out of this huge death-trap into which they 
 had fallen on the very eve of their confidently- anticipated 
 victory. 
 
 So, during the whole of the 7th there was little or no hard 
 fighting in London, but to the north and south the grey legions 
 of the Federation fought their way mile by mile over the field 
 of Armageddon, gradually driving in the two halves of the 
 Eussian and the Franco-Italian armies which had been faced 
 about to oppose their progress while the other halves were 
 making their assault on London. 
 
 As soon as news reached the Tsar that the blockade of the 
 river had been broken, he had ordered twelve of his remaining 
 war-balloons to destroy the ships that were swarming below 
 London Bridge. Their fuel and cargoes of explosives had 
 
344 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 been renewed, and they rose into the air to execute the 
 Autocrat's command just as Natasha had taken leave of 
 Arnold on her errand of mercy. He fathomed their design 
 at once, swung the Ithuriel rapidly round to the northward, 
 and said to his lieutenant, who had just come on deck — 
 
 " Mr. Marston, those fellows mean mischief. Put a three- 
 minute time fuze on a couple of No. 3 fire-shell, and load the 
 bow guns." 
 
 The order was at once executed. He trained one of the 
 guns himself, giving it an elevation sufficient to throw the 
 shell over the rising balloons. As the sixtieth second of the 
 first minute passed, he released the projectile. It soared away 
 through the air, and burst with a terrific explosion about fifty 
 feet over the ascending aerostats. 
 
 The rain of fire spread out far and wide, and showered down 
 upon the gas-holders. Then came a concussion that shook the 
 air like a thunder-clap as the escaping 'gas mixed with the air, 
 took fire, and exploded. Seven of the twelve aerostats instantly 
 collapsed and plunged back again to the earth, spending the 
 collective force of their explosives on the slopes of Muswell 
 Hill. Meanwhile the second gun had been loaded and fired 
 with the same effect on the remaining five. 
 
 Arnold then ran the Ithuriel up to within a mile of Muswell 
 Hill, and found the remaining thirteen war-balloons in the act 
 of making off to the northward. 
 
 " Two more time-shells, quick ! " he cried. " They are off to 
 take part in the battle to the north, and must be stopped at 
 once. Look lively, or they'll see us and rise out of range ! " 
 
 Almost before the words were out of his mouth one of the 
 guns was ready. A moment later the messenger of destruction 
 was speeding on its way, and they saw it explode fairly in the 
 midst of the squadron. The second followed before the glare 
 of the first explosion had passed, and this was the last shot 
 fired in the aerial warfare between the air-ships and the war- 
 balloons. 
 
 The effects of these two shots were most extraordinary. The 
 accurately-timed shells burst, not over, but amidst the aerostats, 
 enveloping their cars in a momentary mist of fire. The intense 
 heat evolved must have suffocated their crews instantaneously. 
 Even if it had not done so their fate would have been scarcely 
 
Armageddon. 345 
 
 less sudden or terrible, for the fire falling in the cars exploded 
 their own shells even before it burst their gas-envelopes. With 
 a roar and a shock as though heaven and earth were coming 
 together, a vast dazzling mass of flame blazed out, darkening 
 the daylight by contrast, and when it vanished again there was 
 not a fragment of the thirteen aerostats to be seen. 
 
 " So ends the Tsar's brief empire of the air ! " said Arnold, 
 as the smoke of the explosion drifted away. "And twenty- 
 four hours more should see the end of his earthly Empire as 
 well." 
 
 " I hope so," said Natasha's voice at his elbow. " This awful 
 destruction is sickening me. I knew war was horrible, but 
 this is more like the work of fiends than of men. There is 
 something monstrous, something superhumanly impious, in 
 blasting your fellow-creatures with irresistible lightnings like 
 this, as though you were a god instead of a man. Will you 
 not be glad when it is over, Eichard ? " 
 
 " Glad beyond all expression," replied her lover, the angry 
 light of battle instantly dying out of his eyes as he looked 
 upon her sweetly pitiful face. "But tell me, what success 
 has my angel of mercy had in pleading for the lives of her 
 enemies ? " he continued, slipping his arm through hers, and 
 leading her aft. 
 
 " I don't know yet, but my father told me to ask you to go 
 to him as soon as you could leave the deck. Go now, and, 
 Eichard, remember what I said to you when you offered me 
 the empire of the world as we were going to Aeria. No one 
 has such influence with the Master as you have, for you have 
 given him the victory and delivered his enemies into his hands. 
 For my sake, and for Humanity's, let your voice be for mercy 
 and peace — surely we have shed blood enough now ! " 
 
 " It shall, angel mine ! For your sweet sake I would spare 
 even Nicholas Eomanoff himself and all his staff." 
 
 " You will never be asked to do that," said Natasha quietly, 
 as Arnold disappeared down the companion-way. 
 
 It was nearly an hour before he came on deck again, and 
 by this time the Ithuriel, constantly moving to and fro over 
 London, so that any change in the course of events could be 
 at once reported to Natas, had shifted her position to the 
 southward, and was hanging in the air over Sydenham Hill, 
 
346 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the headquarters of General le Gallifet, whence could be plainly 
 heard the roar of the tide of battle as it rolled ever northward 
 over the hills of Surrey. 
 
 An air-ship came speeding up from the southward as he 
 reached the deck. He signalled to it to come alongside. It 
 proved to be the Mercury taking a message from Tremayne, 
 who was personally commanding the Army of the South in 
 the Ariel, to the air-ships operating with the Army of the 
 North. 
 
 " What is the message ? " asked Arnold. 
 
 " To engage and destroy the remaining Eussian war-balloons, 
 and then come south at once," replied the captain of the 
 Mercury. " I am sorry to say both the Lucifer and the Azrael 
 have been disabled by chance shots striking their propellers. 
 The Lucifer was so badly injured that she fell to the earth, and 
 blew up with a perfectly awful explosion ; but the Azrael can 
 still use her fan-wheels and stern propeller, though her air- 
 planes are badly broken and twisted." 
 
 Arnold frowned at the bad news, but took no further notice 
 of it beyond saying — 
 
 " That is unfortunate ; but, I suppose, some casualties were 
 inevitable under the circumstances." Then he added : " I have 
 already destroyed all that were left of the Tsar's war-balloons, 
 but you can take the other part of the message. Where is the 
 Ariel to be found ? " 
 
 The captain of the Mercury gave him the necessary directions, 
 and the two air-ships parted. Within an hour a council of 
 war, consisting of Natas, Arnold, and Tremayne, was being 
 held in the saloon of the Lthuriel, on the issue of which the 
 lives of more than two millions of men depended. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 VICTORY. 
 
 was a little after three o'clock in the afternoon 
 when Natas, Tremayne, and Arnold ended their 
 deliberations in the saloon of the Ithuriel. At 
 the same hour a council of war was being held 
 by Generals le Gallifet and Cosensz at the 
 Crystal Palace Hotel, Sydenham, where the 
 two commanders had taken up their quarters. 
 
 Since daybreak matters had assumed a very serious, if not 
 desperate aspect for the troops of the League to the south of 
 London. Communication had entirely ceased with the Tsar 
 since the night before, and this could only mean that his 
 Majesty had lost the command of the air, through the destruc- 
 tion or disablement of his fleet of aerostats. News from the 
 force which had descended upon London told only of a fearful 
 expenditure of life that had not purchased the slightest 
 advantage. 
 
 The blockade had been broken on the east, and, therefore, 
 all hope of reducing the city by famine was at an end. Their 
 own war-balloons had been either captured or destroyed, 
 thousands of their men had deserted to the enemy, and multi- 
 tudes more had been slain. Every position was dominated by 
 the captured aerostats and the air-ships of the Terrorists. 
 Even the building in which the council was being held might 
 be shattered to fragments at any moment by a discharge of 
 their irresistible artillery. 
 
 Finally, it was practically certain that within the next few 
 hours their headquarters must be surrounded, and then their 
 only choice would lie between unconditional surrender and 
 
 847 
 
348 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 swift and inevitable destruction by an aerial bombardment. 
 Manifestly the time had come to make terms if possible, and 
 purchase their own safety and that of their remaining troops. 
 Both the generals and every member of their respective staffs 
 saw clearly that victory was now a physical impossibility, and 
 so the immediate issue of the council was that orders were 
 given to hoist the white flag over the tricolour and the Italian 
 standard on the summits of the two towers of the Crystal 
 Palace, and on the flagstaff's over the headquarters. 
 
 These were at once seen by a squadron of air-ships coming 
 from the north in obedience to Tremayne's summons, and within 
 half an hour the same squadron was seen returning from the 
 south headed by the flagship, also flying, to the satisfaction of 
 the two generals, the signal of truce. The air-ships stopped 
 over Sydenham and ranged themselves in a circle with their 
 guns pointing down upon the headquarters, and the Ariel, with 
 Tremayne on board, descended to within twenty feet of the 
 ground in front of the hotel. 
 
 As she did so an officer wearing the uniform of a French 
 General of Division came forward, saluted, and said that he 
 had a message for the Commander-in-Chief of the Federa- 
 tion forces. Tremayne returned the salute, and said briefly — 
 
 " I am here. What is the message ? " 
 
 "I am commissioned by General Gallifet, Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Southern Division, to request on his behalf the 
 honour of an audience. He awaits you with General Cosensz 
 in the hotel," replied the Frenchman, gazing in undisguised 
 admiration at the wonderful craft which he now for the first 
 time saw at close quarters. 
 
 "With pleasure. I will be with you in a moment," said 
 Tremayne, and as he spoke the Ariel settled gently down to 
 the earth, and the gangway steps dropped from her bow. 
 
 As he entered the room in which the two generals were 
 awaiting him, surrounded by their brilliantly - uniformed 
 staffs, he presented a strange contrast to the men whose lives 
 he held in the hollow of his hand. He was dressed in a dark 
 tweed suit, with Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, met by 
 long shooting boots, just as though he was fresh from the 
 moors, instead of from the battlefield on which the fate of the 
 world was being decided. General le Gallifet advanced to 
 
Victory. 349 
 
 meet him with a puzzled look of half-recognition on his face, 
 which was at once banished by Tremayne holding out his hand 
 without the slightest ceremony, and saying — 
 
 " Ah, I see you recognise me, General !" 
 
 " I do, my Lord Alanmere, and, you will permit me to add, 
 with the most profound astonishment," replied the General, 
 taking the proffered hand with a hearty grasp. "May I 
 venture to hope that with an old acquaintance our negotiations 
 may prove all the easier ? " 
 
 Tremayne bowed and said — 
 
 "Best assured, General, that they shall be as easy as my 
 instructions will permit me to make them." 
 
 " Your instructions ! But I thought " — 
 
 " That I was in supreme command. So I am in a sense, 
 but I am the lieutenant of Natas for all that, and in a case 
 like this his word is law. But come, what terms do you 
 propose ? " 
 
 "That truce shall be proclaimed for twenty-four hours; 
 that the commanders of the forces of the League shall meet 
 this mysterious ISTatas, yourself, and the King of England, and 
 arrange terms by which the armies of France, Eussia, and Italy 
 shall be permitted to evacute the country with the honours of 
 war." 
 
 "Then, General, I may as well tell you at once that those 
 terms are impossible," replied the Chief of the Federation 
 quietly, but with a note of inflexible determination in his voice. 
 "In the first place, 'the honours of war' is a phrase which 
 already belongs to the past. We see no honour in war, and if 
 we can have our way this shall be the last war that shall ever 
 be waged on earth. 
 
 " Indeed, I may tell you that we began this war as one of 
 absolute extermination. Had it not been for the intercession 
 of Natasha, the daughter of Natas, you would not even have 
 been given the opportunity of making terms of peace, or even 
 of unconditional surrender. Our orders were simply to slay, 
 and spare not, as long as a man remained in arms on British 
 soil. You are, of course, aware that we have taken no 
 prisoners " — 
 
 " But, my lord, this is not war, it is murder on the most 
 colossal scale!" exclaimed the General, utterly unable to 
 
150 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 control the agitation that these terrible words evoked, not only 
 in his own breast, but in that of every man who heard them. 
 
 " To us war and murder are synonymous terms, differing 
 only as wholesale and retail," replied Tremayne drily ; " for the 
 mere names we care nothing. This world-war is none of our 
 seeking ; but if war can be cured by nothing but war, then we 
 will wage it to the point of extermination. Now here are my 
 terms. All the troops of the League on this side of the river 
 Thames, on laying down their arms, shall be permitted to 
 return to their homes, not as soldiers, but as peaceful citizens 
 of the world, to go about their natural business as men who 
 have sworn never to draw the sword again save in defence of 
 their own homes." 
 
 " And his Majesty the Tsar ? " 
 
 " You cannot make terms for the Tsar, General, and let me 
 beg of you not to attempt to do so. No power under heaven 
 can save him and his advisers from the fate that awaits them." 
 
 " And if we refuse your terms, the alternative is what ? " 
 
 " Annihilation to the last man ! " 
 
 A dead silence followed these fearful words so calmly and 
 yet so inflexibly spoken. General le Gallifet and the Italian 
 Commander-in-Chief looked at one another and at the officers 
 standing about them. A murmur of horror and indignation 
 passed from lip to lip. Then Tremayne spoke again quickly 
 but impressively — 
 
 " Gentlemen, don't think that I am saying what I cannot 
 do. We are inflexibly determined to stamp the curse of war 
 out here and now, if it cost millions of lives to do so. Your 
 forces are surrounded, your aerostats are captured or destroyed. 
 It is no use mincing matters at a moment like this. It is life 
 or death with you. If you do not believe me, General le 
 Gallifet, come with me and take a flight round London in my 
 air-ship yonder, and your own eyes shall see how hopeless all 
 further struggle is. I pledge my word of honour as an English 
 gentlemau that you shall return in safety. Will you come ? " 
 
 " I will," said the French commander. " Gentlemen, you 
 will await my return " ; and with a bow to his companions, he 
 followed the Chief out of the room, and embarked on the air- 
 ship without further ado. 
 
 The Ariel at once rose into the air. Tremayne reported to 
 
Victory. 351 
 
 Natas what had been done, and then took the General into 
 the deck saloon, and gave orders to proceed at full speed to 
 Eichniond, which was reached in what seemed to the French- 
 man an inconceivably short space of time. Then the Ariel 
 swung round to the eastward, and at half speed traversed the 
 whole line of battle over hill and vale, at an elevation of eight 
 hundred feet, from Eichmond to Shooter's Hill. 
 
 What General le Gallifet saw more than convinced him that 
 Tremayne had spoken without exaggeration when he said that 
 annihilation was the only alternative to evacuation on his 
 terms. The grey legions of the League seemed innumerable. 
 Their long lines lapped round the broken squadrons of the 
 League, mowing them down with incessant hailstorms of 
 magazine fire, and overhead the air-ships and aerostats were 
 hurling shells on them which made great dark gaps in their 
 formations wherever they attempted anything like order. 
 Every position of importance was either occupied or sur- 
 rounded by the Federationists. There was no way open save 
 towards London, and that way, as the General knew only too 
 well, lay destruction. 
 
 To the east of Shooter's Hill the air-ship swerved round to 
 the northward. The Thames was alive with steamers Hying 
 the red flag, and carrying food and men into London. To the 
 north of the river the battle had completely ceased as far as 
 Muswell Hill. 
 
 There the Black Eagle of Eussia still floated from the roof 
 of the Palace, and a furious battle was raging round the slopes 
 of the hill But the Eussians were already surrounded, and 
 manifestly outnumbered five to one, while six aerostats were 
 circling to and fro, doing their work of death upon them with 
 fearful effectiveness. 
 
 "You see, General, that the aerostats do not destroy the 
 Palace and bury the Tsar in its ruins, nor do I stop and do 
 the same, as I could do in a few minutes. Do you understand 
 now why you could not make terms for Eussia ? " 
 
 " What your designs are Heaven and yourselves only know," 
 replied the General, with quivering lips. " But I see that all 
 is hopelessly lost. For God's sake let this carnage stop ! It 
 is not war, it is butchery, and we have deserved this retribution 
 for employing those infernal contrivances in the first place. 
 
352 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 I always said it was not fair fighting. It is murder to drop 
 death on defenceless men from the clouds. We will accept 
 your terms. Let us get back to the south and save the lives 
 of what remain of our brave fellows. If this is scientific 
 warfare, I, for one, will fight no more ! " 
 
 " Well spoken, General ! " said Tremayne, laying his hand 
 upon his shoulder. "Those words of yours have saved two 
 millions of human lives, and by this time to-morrow war will 
 have ceased, I hope for ever, among the nations of the West." 
 
 The Ariel now swerved southward again, crossed London at 
 full speed, and within half an hour General le Gallifet was 
 once more standing in front of the Crystal Palace Hotel. As 
 it was now getting dusk the searchlights of the air-ships were 
 turned on, and they swept along the southern line of battle 
 Hashing the signal, "Victory ! Cease firing ! " to the triumphant 
 hosts of the Federation, while at the same time the French 
 and Italian commanders set the field telegraph to work and 
 despatched messengers into London with the news of the terms 
 of peace. By nightfall all fighting south of the Thames had 
 ceased, and victors and vanquished were fraternising as though 
 they had never struck a blow at each other, for war is a matter 
 of diplomacy and Court intrigue, and not of personal animosity. 
 The peoples of the world would be good enough friends if their 
 rulers and politicians would let them. 
 
 Meanwhile the battle raged with unabated fury round the 
 headquarters of the Tsar. Here despotism was making its 
 last stand, and making it bravely, in spite of the tremendous 
 odds against it. But as twilight deepened into night the 
 numbers of the assailants of the last of the Eussian positions 
 seemed to multiply miraculously. 
 
 A never-ceasing flood of grey-clad soldiery surged up from 
 the south, overflowed the barricades to the north, and swept 
 the last of the Eussians out of the streets like so much chaff. 
 All the hundred streams converged upon Muswell Hill, and 
 joined the ranks of the attacking force, and so the night fell 
 upon the last struggle of the world-war. Even the Tsar him- 
 self now saw that the gigantic game was virtually over, and 
 that the stake of world-empire had been played for — and 
 lost. 
 
 A powerful field searchlight had been fixed on the roof of 
 
Victory. 353 
 
 the Palace, and, as it flashed hither and thither round the area 
 of the battle, he saw fresh hosts of the British and Federation 
 soldiers pouring in upon the scene of action, while his own men 
 were being mown down by thousands under the concentrated 
 fire of millions of rifles, and his regiments torn to fragments by 
 the incessant storm of explosives from the sky. 
 
 Hour after hour the savage fight went on, and the grey and 
 red lines fought their way up and up the slopes, drawing the 
 ring of flame and steel closer and closer round the summit of 
 the hill on which the Autocrat of the North stood waiting for 
 the hour of his fate to strike. 
 
 The last line of the defenders of the position was reached at 
 length. For an hour it held firm in spite of the fearful odds. 
 Then it wavered and bent, and swayed to and fro in a last 
 agony of desperation. The encircling lines seemed to surge 
 backwards for a space. Then came a wild chorus of hurrahs, 
 a swift forward rush of levelled bayonets, the clash of steel 
 upon steel — and then butchery, vengeful and pitiless. 
 
 The red tide of slaughter surged up to the very walls of the 
 Palace. Only a few yards separated the foremost ranks of the 
 victorious assailants from the little group of officers, in the 
 midst of which towered the majestic figure of the White Tsar — 
 an emperor without an empire, a leader without an army. He 
 strode forward towards the line of bayonets fringing the crest 
 of the hill, drew his sword, snapped the blade as a man would 
 break a dry stick, and threw the two pieces to the ground, 
 saying in English as he did so — 
 
 " It is enough, I surrender ! " 
 
 Then he turned on his heel, and with bowed head walked 
 back again to his Staff. 
 
 Almost at the same moment a blaze of white light appeared 
 in the sky, a hundred feet above the heads of the vast throng 
 that encircled the Palace. Millions of eyes were turned up at 
 once, and beheld a vision which no one who saw it forgot to 
 the day of his death. 
 
 The ten air-ships of the Terrorist fleet were ranged in two 
 curves on either side of the Ithuriel, which floated about 
 twenty feet below them, her silvery hull bathed in a flood 
 of light from their electric lamps. In her bow, robed in 
 glistening white fur, stood Natasha, transfigured in the full 
 23 
 
154 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 blaze of the conceutrcated searchlights. A silence of wonder 
 and expectation fell upon the millions at her feet, and in the 
 midst of it she began to sing the Hymn of Freedom. It was 
 like the voice of an angel singing in the night of peace after 
 strife. 
 
 Men of every nation in Europe listened to her entranced, as 
 she changed from language to language ; and when at last the 
 triumphant strains of the Song of the Eevolution came floating 
 down from her lips through the still night air, an irresistible 
 impulse ran through the listening millions, and with one 
 accord they took up the refrain in all the languages of Europe, 
 and a mighty flood of exultant song rolled up in wave after 
 wave from earth to heaven, — a song at once of victory and 
 thanksgiving, for the last battle of the world-war had been 
 lost and won, and the valour and genius of Anglo-Saxondom 
 had triumphed over the last of the despotisms of Europe. 
 
CHAPTEE XLVIL 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF NATAS. 
 
 1 HE myriad-voiced chorus of the Song of the 
 Eevolution ended in a mighty shout of jubilant 
 hurrahs, in the midst of which the Ariel 
 dropped lightly to the earth, and Tremayne, 
 dressed now in the grey uniform of the 
 Federation, with a small red rosette on the 
 left breast of his tunic, descended from her deck to the 
 ground with a drawn sword in his hand. 
 
 He was at once recognised by several of the leaders, and 
 as the words, " The Chief, the Chief," ran from lip to lip, those 
 in the front ranks brought their rifles to the present, while the 
 captains saluted with their swords. The British regulars and 
 volunteers followed suit as if by instinct, and the chorus of 
 cheers broke out again. Tremayne acknowledged the salute, 
 and raised his hand to command silence. A hush at once fell 
 upon the assembled multitude, and in the deep silauce of 
 anticipation which followed, he said in clear, ringing tones — 
 
 " Soldiers of the Federation and the Empire ! that which I 
 hope will be the last battle of the Western nations has been 
 fought and won. The Anglo-Saxon race has rallied to the 
 defence of its motherland, and in the blood of its invaders 
 has wiped out the stain of conquest. It has met the con- 
 querors of Europe in arms, and on the field of battle it has 
 vindicated its right to the empire of the world. 
 
 "Henceforth the destinies of the human race are in its 
 keeping, and it will worthily discharge the responsibility. It 
 may yet be necessary for you to fight other battles with other 
 races ; but the victory that has attended you here will wait 
 
356 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 upon your arms elsewhere, and then the curse and the shame 
 of war will be removed from the earth, let us hope for ever. 
 European despotism has fought its last battle and lost, and 
 those who have appealed to the sword shall be judged by the 
 sword." 
 
 As he said this, he pointed with his weapon towards the 
 Tsar and his Staff, and continued, with an added sternness in 
 his voice — 
 
 " In the Master's name, take those men prisoners ! Their fate 
 will be decided to-morrow. Forward a company of the First 
 Division ; your lives will answer for theirs ! " 
 
 As the Chief ended his brief address to the victorious troops 
 ten men, armed with revolver and sword, stepped forward, each 
 followed by ten others armed with rifle and fixed bayonet, and 
 immediately formed in a hollow square round the Tsar and his 
 Staff. This summary proceeding proved too much for the out- 
 raged dignity of the fallen Autocrat, and he stepped forward 
 and cried out passionately — 
 
 " What is this ? Is not my surrender enough ? Have we 
 not fought with civilised enemies, that we are to be treated like 
 felons in the hour of defeat ? " 
 
 Tremayne raised his sword and cried sharply, "To the 
 ready ! " and instantly the prisoners were encircled by a hedge 
 of levelled bayonets and rifle-barrels charged with death. Then 
 he went on, in stern commanding tones — 
 
 " Silence there ! We do not recognise what you call the 
 usages of civilised warfare. You are criminals against 
 humanity, assassins by wholesale, and as such you shall be 
 treated." 
 
 There was nothing for it but to submit to the indignity, 
 and within a few minutes the Tsar and those who with him 
 had essayed the enslavement of the world were lodged in 
 separate rooms in the building under a strong guard to await 
 the fateful issue of the morrow. 
 
 The rest of the night was occupied in digging huge trenches 
 for the burial of the almost innumerable dead, a task which, 
 gigantic as it was, was made light by the work of hundreds of 
 thousands of willing hands. Those of the invaders who had 
 fallen in London itself were taken down the Thames on the 
 ebb tide in fleets of lighters, towed by steamers, and were 
 
 f 
 
The Judgment of Natas. 357 
 
 buried at sea. Happily it was midwinter, and the temperature 
 remained some degrees below freezing point, and so the great 
 city was saved from what in summer would infallibly have 
 brought pestilence in the track of war. 
 
 At twelve o'clock on the following day the vast interior of 
 St. Paul's Cathedral was thronged with the anxious spectators 
 of the last scene in the tremendous tragedy which had com- 
 menced with the destruction of Kronstadt by the Ariel, and 
 which had culminated in the triumph of Anglo-Saxondom over 
 the leagued despotism and militarism of Europe. 
 
 At a long table draped with red cloth, and placed under the 
 dome in front of the chancel steps, sat Natas, with Tremayne 
 and Natasha on his right hand, and Arnold and Alexis 
 Mazanoff on his left. Eadna, Anna Ornovski, and the other 
 members of the Inner Circle of the Terrorists, including the 
 President, Nicholas Eoburoff, who had been pardoned and 
 restored to his office at the intercession of Natasha, occupied 
 the other seats, and behind them stood a throng of the leaders 
 of the Federation forces. 
 
 Neither the King of England nor any of his Ministers or 
 military officers were present, as they had no voice in the 
 proceedings which were about to take place. It had been 
 decided, at a consultation with them earlier in the day, that it 
 would be better that they should be absent. 
 
 That which was to be done was unparalleled in the history 
 of the world, and outside the recognised laws of nations ; and 
 so their prejudices were respected, and they were spared what 
 they might have looked upon as an outrage on international 
 policy, and the ancient but mistaken traditions of so-called 
 civilised warfare. 
 
 In front of the table two double lines of Federation soldiers, 
 with rifles and fixed bayonets, kept a broad clear passage down 
 to the western doors of the Cathedral. The murmur of 
 thousands of voices suddenly hushed as the Cathedral clock 
 struck the first stroke of twelve. It was the knell of an 
 empire and a despotism. At the last stroke Natas raised his 
 hand and said — 
 
 " Bring up the prisoners ! " 
 
 There was a quick rustling sound, mingled with the clink of 
 steel, as the two grey lines stiffened up to attention. Twelve 
 
158 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 commanders of divisions marched with drawn swords down to 
 the end of the nave, a few rapid orders were given, and then 
 they returned heading two double files of Federation guards, 
 between which, handcuffed like common felons, walked the once 
 mighty Tsar and the ministers of his now departed tyranny. 
 
 The footsteps of the soldiers and their captives rang clearly 
 upon the stones in the ominous breathless silence which greeted 
 their appearance. The fallen Autocrat and his servants walked 
 with downcast heads, like men in a dream, for to them it was a 
 dream, this sudden and incomprehensible catastrophe which 
 had overwhelmed them in the very hour of victory and on the 
 threshold of the conquest of the world. Three days ago they 
 had believed themselves conquerors, with the world at their 
 feet ; now they were being marched, guarded and in shackles, 
 to a tribunal which acknowledged no law but its own, and 
 from whose decision there was no appeal. Truly it was a 
 dream, such a dream of disaster and calamity as no earthly 
 despot had ever dreamt before. 
 
 Four paces from the table they were halted, the Tsar in the 
 centre, facing his unknown judge, and his servants on either 
 side of him. He recognised Natasha, Anna Ornovski, Arnold, 
 and Tremayne, but the recognition only added to his bewil- 
 derment. 
 
 There was a slight flush on the face of Natas, and an angry 
 gleam in his dark magnetic eyes, as he watched his captives 
 approach ; but when he spoke his tones were calm and passion- 
 less, the tones of the conqueror and the judge, rather than of 
 the deeply injured man and a personal enemy. As the 
 prisoners were halted in front of the table, and the rifle-butts 
 of the guards rang sharply on the stone pavement, so deep a 
 hush fell upon the vast throng in the Cathedral, that men 
 seemed to hold their breath rather than break it until the 
 Master of the Terror began to speak. 
 
 " Nicholas Eomanoff, late Tsar of the Eussias, and now 
 prisoner of the Executive of the Brotherhood of Freedom, 
 otherwise known to you as the Terrorists — you have been 
 brought here with your advisers and the ministers of youi 
 tyranny that your crimes may be recounted in the presence 
 of this congregation, and to receive sentence of such punish- 
 ment as it is possible for human justice to mete out to you " — 
 
The Judgment of Natas. 359 
 
 " I deny both your justice and your right to judge. It is 
 you who are the criminals, conspirators, and enemies of Society. 
 I am a crowned King, and above all earthly laws " — 
 
 Before he could say any more two bayonets crossed in front 
 of him with a sharp clash, and he was instantly thrust back 
 into his place. 
 
 " Silence ! " said Natas, in a tone of such stern command 
 that even he instinctively obeyed. "As for our justice, let 
 that be decided between you and me when we stand before a 
 more awful tribunal than this. My right to judge even a 
 crowned king who has no longer a crown, rests, as your own 
 authority and that of all earthly rulers has ever done, upon 
 the power to enforce my sentence, and I can and will enforce 
 it upon you, you heir of a usurping murderess, whose throne 
 was founded in blood and supported by the bayonets of her 
 hired assassins. You have appealed to the arbitration of 
 battle, and it has decided against you; you must therefore 
 abide by its decision. 
 
 " You have waged a war of merciless conquest at the bidding 
 of insatiable ambition. Yon have posed as the peace-keeper 
 of Europe until the train of war was laid, as you and your 
 allies thought, in secret, and then you let loose the forces of 
 havoc upon your fellow-men without ruth or scruple. Your 
 path of victory has been traced in blood and flames from one 
 end of Europe to the other ; you have sacrificed the lives of 
 millions, and the happiness of millions more, to a dream of 
 world-wide empire, which, if realised, would have been a 
 universal despotism. 
 
 " The blood of the uncounted slain cries out from earth to 
 heaven against you for vengeance. The days are past when 
 those who made war upon their kind could claim the in- 
 dulgence of their conquerors. You have been conquered by 
 those who hold that the crime of aggressive war cannot be 
 atoned for by the transfer of territory or the payment of 
 money. 
 
 " If this were your only crime we would have blood for 
 blood, and life for life, as far as yours could pay the penalty. 
 But there is more than this to be laid to our charge, and the 
 swift and easy punishment of death would be too light an 
 atonement for Justice to accept. 
 
(6o The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " Since you ascended your throne you have been as the 
 visible shape of God in the eyes of a hundred million subjects. 
 Your hands have held the power of life and death, of freedom 
 and slavery, of happiness and misery. How have you used 
 it, you who have arrogated to yourself the attributes of a vice- 
 gerent of God on earth ? As the power is, so too is the re- 
 sponsibility, and it will not avail you now to shelter yourself 
 from it behind the false traditions of diplomacy and statecraft. 
 
 "Your subjects have starved, while you and yours have 
 feasted. You have lavished millions in vain display upon 
 your palaces, while they have died in their hovels for lack of 
 bread ; and when men have asked you for freedom and justice, 
 you have given them the knout, the chain, and the prison. 
 
 " You have parted the wife from her husband " — 
 
 Here for the moment the voice of Natas trembled with 
 irrepressible passion, which, before he could proceed, broke 
 from his heaving breast in a deep sob that thrilled the vast 
 assembly like an electric shock, and made men clench their 
 hands and grit their teeth, and wrung an answering sob from 
 the breast of many a woman who knew but too well the 
 meaning of those simple yet terrible words. Then Natas 
 recovered his outward composure and went on ; but now there 
 was an angrier gleam in his eyes, and a fiercer ring in his 
 voice. 
 
 "You have parted the wife from her husband, the maid 
 from her lover, the child from its parents. You have made 
 desolate countless homes that once were happy, and broken 
 hearts that had no thought of evil towards you — and you have 
 done all this, and more, to maintain as vile a despotism as 
 ever insulted the justice of man, or mocked at the mercy of 
 God. 
 
 " In the inscrutable workings of Eternal Justice it has come 
 to pass that your sentence shall be uttered by the lips of one 
 of your victims. For no offence known to the laws of earth 
 or Heaven my flesh has been galled by your chains and torn 
 by your whips. I have toiled to win your ill-gotten wealth 
 in your mines, and by the hands of your brutal servants the 
 iron has entered into my soul. Yet I am but one of thousands 
 whose undeserved agony cries out against you in this hour of 
 judgment. 
 
The Judgment of Natas. 361 
 
 " Can you give us back what you have taken from us — the 
 years of life and health and happiness, our wives and our 
 children, our lovers and our kindred ? You have ravished, 
 but you cannot restore. You have smitten, but you cannot 
 heal. You have killed, but you cannot make alive again. If 
 you had ten thousand lives they could not atone, though each 
 were dragged out to the bitter end in the misery that you 
 have meted out to others. 
 
 " But so far as you and yours can pay the debt it shall be 
 paid to the uttermost farthing. Every pang that you have 
 inflicted you shall endure. You shall drag your chains over 
 Siberian snows, and when you faint by the wayside the lash 
 shall revive you, as in the hands of your brutal Cossacks it has 
 goaded on your fainting victims. You shall sweat in the mine 
 and shiver in the cell, and your wives and your children shall 
 look upon your misery and be helpless to help you, even as 
 have been the fond ones who have followed your victims to 
 exile aud death. 
 
 " They have seen your crimes without protest, and shared in 
 your wantonness. They have toyed with the gold and jewels 
 which they knew were bought with the price of misery and 
 death, and so it is just that they should see your sufferings 
 and share in your doom. 
 
 " To the mines for life ! And when the last summons comes 
 to you and me, may Eternal Justice judge between us, and 
 in its equal scales weigh your crimes against your punishment ! 
 Begone ! for you have looked your last on freedom. You are 
 no longer men ; you are outcasts from the pale of the brother- 
 hood of the humanity you have outraged ! 
 
 " Alexis Mazanoff, you will hold yourself responsible for the 
 lives of the prisoners, and the execution of their sentence. 
 You will see them in safe keeping for the present, and on the 
 thirtieth day from now you will set out for Siberia." 
 
 The sentence of Natas, the most terrible one which human 
 lips could have uttered under the circumstances, was received 
 with a breathless silence of awe and horror. Then Mazanoff 
 rose from his seat, drew his sword, and saluted. As he passed 
 round the end of the table the guards closed up round the 
 prisoners, who were staring about them in stupefied bewilder- 
 ment at the incredible horror of the fate which in a moment 
 
362 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 had hurled them from the highest pinnacle of earthly power 
 and splendour down to the degradation and misery of the 
 most wretched of their own Siberian convicts. No time was 
 given for protest or appeal, for Mazanoff instantly gave the 
 word " Forward ! " and, surrounded by a hedge of bayonets, 
 the doomed men were marched rapidly down between the two 
 grey lines. 
 
 As they reached the bottom of the nave the great central 
 doors swung op3n, and through them came a mighty roar of 
 execration from the multitude outside as they appeared on the 
 top of the Cathedral steps. 
 
 From St. Paul's Churchyard, down through Ludgate Hill 
 and up the Old Bailey to the black frowning walls of New- 
 gate, they were led through triple lines of Federation soldiers 
 amidst a storm of angry cries from the crowd on either 
 side, — cries which changed to a wild outburst of savage, pitiless 
 exultation as the news of their dreadful sentence spread 
 rapidly from lip to lip. They had shed blood like water, 
 and had known no pity in the hour of their brief triumph, 
 and so none was shown for them in the hour of their fall and 
 retribution. 
 
 The hour following their disappearance from the Cathedral 
 was spent in a brief and simple service of thanksgiving for the 
 victory which had wiped the stain of foreign invasion from the 
 soil of Britain in the blood of the invader, and given the 
 control of the destinies of the Western world finally into the 
 hands of the dominant race of earth. 
 
 The service began with a short but eloquent address from 
 Natas, in which he pointed out the consequences of the victory 
 and the tremendous responsibilities to the generations of men 
 in the present and the future which it entailed upon the 
 victors. He concluded with the following words — 
 
 " My own part in this world-revolution is played out. For 
 more than twenty years I have lived solely for the attainment 
 of one object, the removal of the blot of Prussian tyranny upon 
 European civilisation, and the necessary punishment of those 
 who were guilty of the unspeakable crime of maintaining it at 
 such a fearful expense of human life and suffering. ' 
 
 " That object has now been accomplished ; the soldiers of 
 freedom have met the hirelings of despotism on the field of 
 
The Judgment of Natas. 363 
 
 the world's Armageddon, and the God of Battles has decided 
 between them. Our motives may have been mistaken by 
 those who only saw the bare outward appearance without 
 knowing their inward intention, and our ends have naturally 
 been misjudged by those who fancied that their accomplish- 
 ment meant their own ruin. 
 
 "Yet, as the events have proved, and will prove in the 
 ages to come, we have been but as intelligent instruments in 
 the hands of that eternal wisdom and justice which, though it 
 may seem to sleep for a season, and permit the evildoer to 
 pursue his wickedness for a space, never closes the eye of 
 watchfulness or sheathes the sword of judgment. The empire 
 of the earth has been given into the hands of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, and therefore it is fitting that the supreme control of 
 affairs should rest in the hands of one of Anglo-Saxon blood 
 and lineage. 
 
 " For that reason I now surrender the power which I have 
 so far exercised as the Master of the Brotherhood of Freedom 
 into the hands of Alan Tremayne, known in Britain as Earl of 
 Alanmere and Baron Tremayne, and from this moment the 
 Brotherhood of Freedom ceases to exist as such, for its ends 
 are attained, and the objects for which it was founded have 
 been accomplished. 
 
 " With the confidence born of intimate knowledge, I give 
 this power into his keeping, and those who have shared his 
 counsels and executed his commands in the past will in the 
 future assist him as the Supreme Council, which will form the 
 ultimate tribunal to which the disputes of nations will hence- 
 forth be submitted, instead of to the barbarous and bloody 
 arbitration of battle. 
 
 " No such power has ever been delivered into the hands of 
 a single body of men before ; but those who will hold it have 
 been well tried, and they may be trusted to wield it without 
 pride and without selfishness, the twin curses that have 
 hitherto afflicted the divided nations of the earth, because, 
 with the fate of humanity in their hands and the wealth of 
 earth at their disposal, it will be impossible to tempt them 
 with bribes, either of riches or of power, from the plain course 
 of duty which will lie before them." 
 
 As Natas finished speaking, he signed with his hand to 
 
364 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Tremayne, who rose in his place and briefly addressed the 
 assembly — 
 
 " I and those who will share it with me accept alike the 
 power and the responsibility — not of choice, but rather because 
 we are convinced that the interests of humanity demand that 
 we should do so. Those interests have too long been the sport 
 of kings and their courtiers, and of those who have seen in 
 selfish profit and aggrandisement the only ends of life worth 
 living for. 
 
 " Under the pretences of furthering civilisation and progress, 
 and maintaining what they have been pleased to call law and 
 order, they have perpetrated countless crimes of oppression, 
 cruelty, and extortion, and we are determined that this shall 
 have an end. 
 
 " Henceforth, so far as we can insure it, the world shall be 
 ruled, not by the selfishness of individuals, or the ambi- 
 tions of nations, but in accordance with the everlasting and 
 immutable principles of truth and justice, which have hitherto 
 been burlesqued alike by despots on their thrones and by 
 political partisans in the senates of so-called democratic 
 countries. 
 
 "To-morrow, at mid-day in this place, the chief rulers of 
 Europe will meet us, and our intentions will be further 
 explained. And now before we separate to go about the rest 
 of the business of the day let us, as is fitting, give due thanks 
 to Him who has given us the victory." 
 
 He ceased speaking, but remained standing; the same 
 instant the organ of the Cathedral pealed out the opening notes 
 of the familiar Normanton Chant, and all those at the table, 
 saving Natas, rose to their feet. Then Natasha's voice soared up 
 clear and strong above the organ notes, singing the first line 
 of the old well-known chant — 
 
 The strain upraise of joy and praise. 
 
 And as she ceased the swell of the organ rolled out, and a 
 mighty chorus of hallelujahs burst by one consent from the 
 lips of the vast congregation, filling the huge Cathedral, and 
 flowing out from its now wide-open doors until it was caught 
 up and echoed by the thousands who thronged the churchyard 
 and the streets leading into it. 
 
The Judgment of Natas. 365 
 
 As this died away Eadna sang the second line, and so the 
 Psalm of Praise was sung through, as it were in strophe and 
 anti-strophe, interspersed with the jubilant hallelujahs of the 
 multitude who were celebrating the greatest victory that had 
 ever been won on earth. 
 
 That night the inhabitants of the delivered city gave them- 
 selves up to such revelry and rejoicing as had never been seen 
 or heard in London since its foundation. The streets and 
 squares blazed with lights and resounded with the songs and 
 cheerings of a people delivered from an impending catastrophe 
 which had bidden fair to overwhelm it in ruin, and bring upon 
 it calamities which would have been felt for generations. 
 
CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 THE ORDERING OF EUROPE. 
 
 HILE these events had been in progress three 
 squadrons of air-ships had been speeding to St. 
 Petersburg, Vienna, and Eome. Three vessels 
 had been despatched to each city, and the 
 instructions of those in command of the 
 *" squadrons were to bring the German Emperor, 
 the Emperor of Austria, and the King of Italy to London. 
 
 The news of the defeat of the League had preceded them 
 by telegraph, and all three monarchs willingly obeyed the 
 summons which they carried to attend a Conference for the 
 ordering of affairs of Europe. 
 
 The German Emperor was at once released from his 
 captivity, although only under a threat of the destruction of 
 the city by the air- ships, for the Grand Duke Vladimir, who 
 ruled at St. Petersburg as deputy of the Tsar, had first refused 
 to believe the astounding story of the defeat of his brother 
 and the destruction of his army. The terrible achievements 
 of the air-ships were, however, too well and too certainly 
 known to permit of resistance by force, and so the Kaiser was 
 released, and made his first aerial voyage from St. Petersburg 
 to London, arriving there at ten o'clock on the evening of the 
 8th, in the midst of the jubilations of the rejoicing city. 
 
 The King of England had sent a despatch to the Emperor of 
 Austria inviting him to the Conference, and General Cosensz 
 had sent a similar one to the King of Italy, and so there had 
 been no difficulty about their coming. At mid-day on the 
 9th the Conference was opened in St. Paul's, which was the 
 only public building left intact in London capable of containing 
 
The Ordering of Europe. 367 
 
 the vast audience that was present, an audience composed of 
 men of every race and language in Europe. 
 
 JSTatas was absent, and Tremayne occupied his seat in the 
 centre of the table; the other members of the Inner Circle, 
 now composing the Supreme Council of the Federation, were 
 present, with the exception of Natasha, Eadna, and Anna 
 Ornovski, and the other seats at the table were occupied by 
 the monarchs to whom the purposes of the Conference had been 
 explained earlier in the day. France was represented in the 
 person of General le Gallifet. 
 
 The body of the Cathedral was filled to overflowing, with 
 the exception of an open space kept round the table by the 
 Federation guards. 
 
 The proceedings commenced with a brief but impressive 
 religious service conducted by the Primate of England, who 
 ended it with a short but earnest appeal, delivered from the 
 altar steps, to those composing the Conference, calling upon 
 them to conduct their deliberations with justice and modera- 
 tion, and reminding them of the millions who were waiting 
 in other parts of Europe for the blessings of peace and pro- 
 sperity which it was now in their power to confer upon them. 
 As the Archbishop concluded the prayer for the blessing of 
 Heaven upon their deliberation, with which he ended his address, 
 Tremayne, after a few moments of silence, rose in his place 
 and, speaking in clear deliberate tones, began as follows : — 
 
 "Your Majesties have been called together to hear the 
 statement of the practical issues of the conflict which has 
 been decided between the armies of the Federation of the 
 Anglo-Saxon peoples and those of the late Franco-Slavonian 
 League. 
 
 "Into the motives which led myself and those who have 
 acted with me to take the part which we have done in this 
 tremendous struggle, there is now no need for me to enter. It 
 is rather with results than with motives that we have to deal, 
 and those results may be very briefly stated. 
 
 " We have demonstrated on the field of battle that we hold 
 in our hands means of destruction against which it is abso- 
 lutely impossible for any army fortress or fleet to compete 
 with the slightest hope of victory; and more than this, we 
 are in command of the only organised army and fleet now 
 
368 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 on land or sea. We have been compelled by the necessities 
 of the case to use our powers unsparingly up to a certain 
 point. That we have not used them beyond that point, as 
 we might have done, to enslave the world, is the best proof 
 that I can give of the honesty of our purposes with regard to 
 the future. 
 
 " But it must never be forgotten that these powers remain 
 with us, and can be evoked afresh should necessity ever arise. 
 
 " It is not our purpose to enter upon a war of conquest, or 
 upon a series of internal revolutions in the different countries 
 of Europe, the issue of which might be the subversion of all 
 order, and the necessity for universal conquest on our part in 
 order to restore it. 
 
 " With two exceptions the internal affairs of all the nations 
 of Europe, saving only Kussia, which for the present we shall 
 govern directly, will be left undisturbed. The present tenure 
 of land will be abolished, and the only rights to the possession 
 of it that will be recognised will be occupation and cultiva- 
 tion. Experience has shown that the holding of land for 
 mere purposes of luxury or speculative profit leads to untold 
 injustices to the general population of a country. The land 
 on which cities and towns are built will henceforth belong to 
 the municipalities, and the rents of the buildings will be paid 
 in lieu of taxation. 
 
 "The other exception is even more important than this. 
 We have waged war in order that it may be waged no more, 
 and we are determined that it shall now cease for ever. The 
 peoples of the various nations have no interest in warfare. 
 It has been nothing but an affliction and a curse to them, and 
 we are convinced that if one generation grows up without 
 drawing the sword, it will never be drawn again as long as 
 men remain upon the earth. All existing fortifications will 
 therefore be at once destroyed, standing armies will be dis- 
 banded, and all the warships in the world, which cannot be 
 used for peaceful purposes, will be sent to the bottom of the 
 deepest part of the ocean. 
 
 " For the maintenance of peace and order each nation will 
 maintain a body of police, in which all citizens between the 
 ages of twenty and forty will serve in rotation, and this police 
 will be under the control, first of the Sovereign and Parliament 
 
The Ordering of Europe. 369 
 
 of the country, and ultimately of an International Board, 
 which will sit once a year in each of the capitals of Europe in 
 turn, and from whose decision there will be no appeal. 
 
 " The possession of weapons of warfare, save by the members 
 of this force, will be forbidden under penalty of death, as we 
 shall presuppose that no man can possess such weapons save 
 with intent to kill, and all killing, save execution for murder, 
 will henceforth be treated as murder. Declaration of war by 
 one country upon another will be held to be a national crime, 
 and, should such an event ever occur, the forces of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Federation will be at once armed by authority of the 
 Supreme Council, and the guilty nation will be crushed and 
 its territories will be divided among its neighbours. 
 
 " Such are the broad outlines of the course which we intend 
 to pursue, and all I have now to do is to commend them to 
 your earnest consideration in the name of those over whom 
 you are the constituted rulers." 
 
 As the President of the Federation sat down the German 
 Emperor rose and said in a tone which showed that he had 
 heard the speech with but little satisfaction — 
 
 " From what we have heard it would seem that the Federa- 
 tion of the Anglo-Saxon peoples considers itself as having 
 conquered the world, and as being, therefore, in a position to 
 dictate terms to all the peoples of the earth. Am I correct in 
 this supposition ? " 
 
 Tremayne bowed in silence, and he continued — 
 
 "But this amounts to the destruction of the liberties of 
 all peoples who are not of the Anglo-Saxon race. It seems 
 impossible to me to believe that free-born men who have 
 won their liberty upon the battlefield will ever consent to 
 submit to a despotism such as this. What if they refuse to 
 do so ? " 
 
 Tremayne w T as on his feet in an instant. He turned half 
 round and faced the Kaiser, with a frown on his brow and an 
 ominous gleam in his eyes — 
 
 " Your Majesty of Germany may call it a despotism if you 
 choose, but remember that it is a despotism of peace and not 
 of war, and that it affects only those who would be peace- 
 breakers and drawers of the sword upon their fellow-creatures. 
 I regret that you have made it necessary for me to remind 
 24 
 
3J0 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 you that we have conquered your conquerors, and that the 
 despotism from which we have delivered the nations of Europe 
 would infallibly have been ten thousand times worse than 
 that which you are pleased to miscall by the name. 
 
 " You deplore the loss of the right and the power to draw 
 the sword one upon another. Well, now, take that right back 
 again for the last time ! Say here, and now, that you will not 
 acknowledge the supremacy of the Council of the Federation, 
 and take the consequences ! 
 
 " Our soldiers are still in the field, our aerial fleet is still in 
 the air, and our sea-navy is under steam. But, remember, if 
 you appeal to the sword it shall be with you as it was with 
 Nicholas Bomanoff and the Eussian force which invaded 
 England. We have annihilated the army to a man, and exiled 
 the Autocrat for life. Choose now, peace or war, and let those 
 who would choose war with you take their stand beside you, 
 and we will fight another Armageddon ! " 
 
 The pregnant and pitiless words brought the Kaiser to his 
 senses in an instant. He remembered that his army was 
 destroyed, his strongest fortresses dismantled, his treasury 
 empty, and the manhood of his country decimated. He 
 turned white to the lips and sank back into his chair, covered 
 his face with his hands, and sobbed aloud. And so ended the 
 last and only protest made by the spirit of militarism against 
 the new despotism of peace. 
 
 One by one the monarchs now rose in their places, bowed 
 to the inevitable, and gave their formal adherence to the new 
 order of things. General le Gallifet came last. When he had 
 affixed his signature to the written undertaking of allegiance 
 which they had all signed, he said, speaking in French — 
 
 " I was born and bred a soldier, and my life has been passed 
 either in warfare or the study of it. I have now drawn the 
 sword for the last time, save to defend France from invasion. 
 I have seen enough of modern war, or, as I should rather call 
 it, murder by machinery, for such it only is now. They spoke 
 truly who prophesied that the solution of the problem of 
 aerial navigation would make war impossible. It has made it 
 impossible, because it has made it too unspeakably horrible for 
 humanity to tolerate it. 
 
 "In token of the honesty of my belief I ask now that 
 
The Ordering of Europe. 371 
 
 France and Germany shall bury their long blood-feud on their 
 last battlefield, and in the persons of his German Majesty and 
 myself shake hands in the presence of this company as a pledge 
 of national forgiveness and perpetual peace." 
 
 As he ceased speaking, he turned and held out his hand to 
 the Kaiser. All eyes were turned on William II., to see how 
 he would receive this appeal. For a moment he hesitated, 
 then his manhood and chivalry conquered his pride and 
 national prejudice, and amidst the cheers of the great assembly, 
 he grasped the outstretched hand of his hereditary enemy, 
 saying in a voice broken by emotion — 
 
 " So be it. Since the sword is broken for ever, let us forget 
 that we have been enemies, and remember only that we are 
 neighbours." 
 
 This ended the public portion of the Conference. From 
 St. Paul's those who had composed it went to Buckingham 
 Palace, in the grounds of which the aerial fleet was reposing 
 on the lawns under a strong guard of Federation soldiers. 
 Here they embarked, and were borne swiftly through the air 
 to Windsor Castle, where they dined together as friends and 
 guests of the King of England, and after dinner discussed far 
 on into the night the details of the new European Constitution 
 which was to be drawn up and formally ratified within the 
 next few days. 
 
 Shortly after noon on the following day the Ithuriel, with 
 Natas, Natasha, Arnold, and Tremayne on board, rose into the 
 air from the grounds of Buckingham Palace and headed away 
 to the northward. The control of affairs was left for the time 
 being to a committee of the members of what had once been 
 the Inner Circle of the Terrorists, and which was now the 
 Supreme Council of the Federation. 
 
 This was under the joint presidency of Alexis Mazanoff and 
 Nicholas Eoburoff, who was exerting his great and well-proved 
 administrative abilities to the utmost in order to atone for the 
 fault which had led to the desertion of the Lucifer, and to 
 amply justify the intercession of Natasha which had made it 
 possible for him to be present at the last triumph of the 
 Federation and the accomplishment of the long and patient 
 work of the Brotherhood. There was an immense amount of 
 work to be got through in the interval between the pronounce- 
 
372 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 raent of the judgment of Natas on the Tsar and his Ministers 
 and the execution of the sentence. After twenty-four hours 
 in Newgate they were transferred to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, 
 and there, under a guard of Federation soldiers, who never left 
 them for a moment day or night, they awaited the hour of 
 their departure to Siberia. 
 
 Communication with all parts of the Continent and America 
 was rapidly restored. The garrisons of the League were 
 withdrawn from the conquered cities, gave up their arms at 
 the depots of their respective regiments, and returned to their 
 homes. The French and Italian troops round London were 
 disarmed and taken to France in the Federation fleet of trans- 
 ports. Meanwhile three air-ships were placed temporarily at 
 the disposal of the Emperor of Austria, the Kaiser, and the 
 King of Italy, to convey them to their capitals, and furnish 
 them with the means of speedy transit about their dominions, 
 and to and from London during the drawing up of the new 
 European Constitution. 
 
 A fleet of four air-ships and fifteen aerostats was also 
 despatched to the Eussian capital, and compelled the immediate 
 surrender of the members of the Imperial family and the 
 Ministers of the Government, and the instant disarmament of 
 all troops on Eussian soil, under pain of immediate destruction 
 of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and invasion and conquest of 
 the country by the Federation armies. The Council of State 
 and the Euling Senate were then dissolved, and the Executive 
 passed automatically into the hands of the controllers of the 
 Federation. Eesistance was, of course, out of the question, 
 and as soon as it was once known for certain that the Tsar 
 had been taken prisoner and his army annihilated, no one 
 thought seriously of it, as it would have been utterly impos- 
 sible to have defended even Eussia against the overwhelming 
 forces of the Federation and the British Empire, assisted by 
 the two aerial fleets. 
 
 The Ithuricl, after a flight of a little more than an hour, 
 stopped and descended to the earth on the broad, sloping, and 
 now snow-covered lawn in front of Alanmere Castle. Lord 
 Marazion and his daughter, who, as it is almost needless to 
 say, had been kept well informed of the course of events since 
 the Federation forces landed in England, had also been warned 
 
The Ordering of Europe. 373 
 
 by telegraph of the coining of their aerial visitors, and before 
 the Ithuriel had touched the earth, the new mistress of Alan- 
 mere had descended the steps of the terrace that ran the 
 whole length of the Castle front to welcome its lord and hers 
 back to his own again. 
 
 Then there were greetings of lovers and friends, well known 
 to each other by public report and familiar description, yet 
 never seen in the flesh till now, and of others long parted by 
 distance and by misconception of aims and motives. But how- 
 ever pleasing it might be to dwell at length upon the details 
 of such a meeting, and its delightful contrast to the horrors of 
 unsparing war and merciless destruction, there is now no space 
 to do so, for the original limits of this history of the near future 
 have already been reached and overpassed, and it is time to 
 make ready for the curtain to descend upon the last scenes of 
 the world-drama of the Year of Wonders — 1904. 
 
 Tremayne was the first to alight, and he was followed by 
 Natasha and Arnold at a respectful distance, which they kept 
 until the first greeting between the two long and strangely- 
 parted lovers was over. When at length Lady Muriel got out 
 of the arms of her future lord, she at once ran to Natasha with 
 both her hands outstretched, a very picture of grace and health 
 and blushing loveliness. 
 
 She was Natasha's other self, saving only for the incomparable 
 brilliance of colouring and contrast which the daughter of Natas 
 derived from her union of Eastern and Western blood. Yet no 
 fairer type of purely English beauty than Muriel Penarth could 
 have been found between the Border and the Land's End, and 
 what she lacked of Natasha's half Oriental brilliance and fire 
 she atoned for by an added measure of that indescribable blend 
 of dignity and gentleness which makes the English gentlewoman 
 perhaps the most truly lovable of all women on earth. 
 
 "I could not have believed that the world held two such 
 lovely women," said Arnold to Tremayne, as the two girls 
 met and embraced. " How marvellously alike they are, too ! 
 They might be sisters. Surely they must be some relation." 
 
 "Yes, I am sure they are," replied Tremayne; "such a 
 resemblance cannot be accidental. I remember in that queer 
 double life of mine, when I was your unconscious rival, I 
 used to interchange them until they almost seemed to be the 
 
174 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 same identity to me. There is some little mystery behind the 
 likeness which we shall have cleared up before very long now. 
 Natas told me to take Lord Marazion to him in the saloon, 
 and said he would not enter the Castle till he had spoken with 
 him alone. There he is at the door! You go and make 
 Muriel's acquaintance, and I will take him on board at once." 
 
 So raying, Tremayne ran up the terrace steps, shook hands 
 heartily with the old nobleman, and then came clown with him 
 towaiis the air-ship. As they met Lady Muriel coming up 
 with Arnold on one side of her and Natasha on the other, 
 Lord Marazion stopped suddenly with an exclamation of 
 wonder. He took his arm out of Tremayne's, strode rapidly 
 to Natasha, and, before his daughter could say a word of 
 introduction, put his hands on her shoulders, and looked into 
 her lovely upturned face through a sudden mist of tears that 
 rose unbidden to his eyes. 
 
 " It is a miracle ! " he said, in a low voice that trembled with 
 emotion. " If you are the daughter of Natas, there is no need 
 to tell me who he is, for you are Sylvia Penarth's daughter too. 
 Is not that so, Sylvia di Murska — for I know you bear your 
 mother's name ? " 
 
 "Yes, I bear her name — and my father's. He is waiting 
 for you in the air-ship, and he has much to say to you. You 
 will bring him back to the Castle with you, will you not ? " 
 
 Natasha spoke with a seriousness that had more weight than 
 her words, but Lord Marazion understood her meaning. He 
 stooped down and kissed her on the brow, saying — 
 
 " Yes, yes ; the past is the past. I will go to him, and you 
 shall see us come back together." 
 
 " And so we are cousins!" exclaimed Lady Muriel, slipping her 
 arm round Natasha's waist as she spoke. " I was sure we must 
 be some relation to each other; for, though lam not so beautiful" — 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense, or I shall call you ' Your Ladyship ' 
 for the rest of the day. Yes, of course we are alike, since our 
 mothers were twin-sisters, and the very image of each other, 
 according to their portraits." 
 
 While the girls were talking of their new-found relationship, 
 Arnold had dropped behind to wait for Tremayne, who, after 
 he had taken Lord Marazion into the saloon of the Ithuriel, 
 had left him with Natas. and returned to the Castle alone. 
 
CHAPTEE XLIX. 
 
 THE STOKY OF THE MASTER. 
 
 I HAT evening, when the lamps were lit and the 
 curtains drawn in the library at Alaumere, in 
 the same room in which Tremayne had seen 
 the Vision of Armageddon, Natas told the story 
 of Israel di Murska, the Jewish Hungarian 
 merchant, and of Sylvia Penarth, the beautiful 
 English wife whom he had loved better than his own faith and 
 people, and how she had been taken from him to suffer a fate 
 which had now been avenged as no human wrongs had ever 
 been before. 
 
 " Twenty-five years ago," he began, gazing dreamily into the 
 great fire of pine-logs, round the hearth of which he and his 
 listeners were sitting, " I, who am now an almost helpless, half- 
 mutilated cripple, was a strong, active man, in the early vigour 
 of manhood, rich, respected, happy, and prosperous even beyond 
 the average of earthly good fortune. 
 
 " I was a merchant in London, and I had inherited a large 
 fortune from my father, which I had more than doubled by- 
 successful trading. I was married to an English wife, a 
 woman whose grace and beauty are faithfully reflected in her 
 daughter " — 
 
 As ISTatas said this, the fierce light that had begun to shine 
 in his eyes softened, and the hard ring left his voice, and for 
 a little space he spoke in gentler tones, until sterner memories 
 came and hardened them again. 
 
 " I will not deny that I bought her with my gold and fair 
 promises of a life of ease and luxury. But that is done every 
 day in the world in which I then lived, and I only did as my 
 Christian neighbours about me did. Yet I loved my beautiful 
 
 375 
 
376 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 Christian wife very dearly, — more dearly even than my people 
 and my ancient faith, — or I should not have married her. 
 
 " When Natasha was two years old the black pall of desola- 
 tion fell suddenly on our lives, and blasted our great happiness 
 with a misery so utter and complete that we, who were wont to 
 count ourselves among the fortunate ones of the earth, were 
 cast down so low that the beggar at our doors might have 
 looked down upon us. 
 
 " It was through no fault of mine or hers, nor through any 
 circumstance over which either of us had any control, that we 
 fell from our serene estate. On the contrary, it was through a 
 work of pure mercy, intended for the relief of those of our 
 people who were groaning under the pitiless despotism of 
 Russian officialism and superstition, that I fell, as so many 
 thousands of my race have fallen, into that abyss of nameless 
 misery and degradation that Russian hands have dug for the 
 innocent in the ghastly solitudes of Siberia, and, without know- 
 ing it, dragged my sweet and loving wife into it after me. 
 
 " It came about in this wise. 
 
 " I had a large business connection in Russia, and at a time 
 when all Europe was ringing with the story of the persecution 
 of the Russian Jews, I, at the earnest request of a committee of 
 the leading Jews in London, undertook a mission to St. Peters- 
 burg, to bring their sufferings, if possible, under the direct 
 notice of the Tsar, and to obtain his consent to a scheme for 
 the payment of a general indemnity, subscribed to by all the 
 wealthy Jews of the world, which should secure them against 
 persecution and official tyranny until they could be gradually 
 and completely removed from Russia. 
 
 " I, of course, found myself thwarted at every turn by the 
 heartless and corrupt officialism that stands between the 
 Russian people and the man whom they still regard as the 
 vicegerent of God upon earth. 
 
 " Upon one pretext and another I was kept from the presence 
 of the Tsar for weeks, until he left his dominions on a visit to 
 Denmark. 
 
 " Meanwhile I travelled about, and used my eyes as well as 
 the officials would permit me, to see whether the state of things 
 was really as bad as the accounts that had reached England 
 had made it out to be. 
 
The Ordering of Europe. 377 
 
 " I saw enough to convince me that no human words could 
 describe the awful sufferings of the sons and daughters of 
 Israel in that hateful land of bondage. 
 
 " Neither their lives nor their honour, their homes nor their 
 property, were safe from the malice and the lust and the 
 rapacity of the brutal ministers of Eussian officialdom. 
 
 " I conversed with families from which fathers and mothers, 
 sons and daughters had been spirited away, either never to 
 return, or to come back years afterwards broken in health, 
 ruined and dishonoured, to the poor wrecks of the homes that 
 had once been peaceful, pure, and happy. 
 
 " I saw every injury, insult, and degradation heaped upon 
 them that patient and long-suffering humanity could bear, 
 until my soul sickened within me, and my spirit rose in revolt 
 against the hateful and inhuman tyranny that treated my 
 people like vermin and wild beasts, for no offence save a 
 difference in race and creed. 
 
 " At last the shame and horror of it all got the better of my 
 prudence, and the righteous rage that burned within me spoke 
 out through my pen and my lips. 
 
 " I wrote faithful accounts of all I had seen to the committee 
 in England. They never reached their destination, for I was 
 already a marked man, and my letters were stopped and opened 
 by the police. 
 
 " At last I one day attended a court of law, and heard one 
 of those travesties of justice which the Eussian officials call a 
 trial for conspiracy. 
 
 " There was not one tittle of anything that would have been 
 called evidence, or that would not have been discredited and 
 laughed out of court in any other country in Europe ; yet two 
 of the five prisoners, a man and a woman, were sentenced to 
 death, and the other three, two young students and a girl who 
 was to have been the bride of one of them in a few weeks' 
 time, were doomed to five years in the mines of Kara, and after 
 that, if they survived it, to ten years' exile in Sakhalin. 
 
 " So awful and so hideous did the appalling injustice seem 
 to me, accustomed as I was to the open fairness of the English 
 criminal courts, that, overcome with rage and horror, I rose to 
 my feet as the judge pronounced the frightful sentence, and 
 poured forth a flood of passionate denunciations and wild 
 
378 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 appeals to the justice of humanity to revoke the doom of the 
 innocent. 
 
 " Of course I was hustled out of the court and flung into the 
 street by the police attendants, and I groped my way back to 
 my hotel with eyes blinded with tears of rage and sorrow. 
 
 " That afternoon I was requested by the proprietor of the 
 hotel to leave before nightfall. I expostulated in vain. He 
 simply told me that he dared not have in his house a man who 
 had brought himself into collision with the police, and that I 
 must find other lodgings at once. This, however, I found to be 
 no easy matter. Wherever I went I was met with cold looks, 
 and was refused admittance. 
 
 " Lower and lower sank my heart within me at each refusal, 
 and the terrible conviction forced itself upon me that I was a 
 marked man amidst all-powerful and unscrupulous enemies 
 whom no Eussian dare offend. I was a Jew and an outcast, 
 and there was nothing left for me but to seek for refuge such 
 as I could get among my own persecuted people. 
 
 " Far on into the night I found one, a modest lodging, in 
 which I hoped I could remain for a day or two while waiting 
 for my passport, and making the necessary preparations to 
 return to England and shake the mire of Eussia off my feet for 
 ever. It would have been a thousand times better for me and 
 my dear ones, and for those whose sympathy and kindness 
 involved them in my ruin, if, instead of going to that ill-fated 
 house, I had flung myself into the dark waters of the Neva, 
 and so ended my sorrows ere they had well begun. 
 
 " I applied for my passport the next day, and was informed 
 that it would hot be ready for at least three days. The delay 
 was, of course, purposely created, and before the time had 
 expired a police visit was paid to the house in which I was 
 lodging, and papers written in cypher were found within the 
 lining of one of my hats. 
 
 " I was arrested, and a guard was placed over the house. 
 Without any further ceremony I was thrown into a cell in the 
 fortress of Peter and Paul to await the translation of the 
 cypher. Three days later I was taken before the chief of 
 police, and accused of having in my possession papers proving 
 that I was an emissary from the Nihilist headquarters in 
 London. 
 
The Story of the Master. 379 
 
 " I was told that my conduct had been so suspicious and of 
 late so disorderly, that I had been closely watched during my 
 stay in St. Petersburg, with the result that conclusive evidence 
 of treason had been found against me. 
 
 " As I was known to be wealthy, and to have powerful friends 
 in England, the formality of a trial was dispensed with, and 
 after eating my heart out for a month in my cell in the fortress, 
 I was transferred to Moscow to join the next convict train for 
 Siberia. Arrived there, I for the first time learned my sentence 
 — ten years in the mines, and then ten in Sakhalin. 
 
 " Thus was I doomed by the trick of some police spy to pass 
 what bade fair to be the remainder of a life that had been so 
 bright and full of fair promise in hopeless exile, torment, and 
 degradation — and all because I protested against injustice and 
 made myself obnoxious to the Russian police. 
 
 " As the chain-gang that I was attached to left Moscow, I 
 found to my intense grief that the good Jew and his wife who 
 had given me shelter were also members of it. They had been 
 convicted of ' harbouring a political conspirator,' and sentenced 
 to five years' hard labour, and then exile for life, as ' politicals,' 
 which, as you no doubt know, meant that, if they survived the 
 first part of their sentence, they would be allowed to settle in 
 an allotted part of Southern Siberia, free in everything but 
 permission to leave the country. 
 
 " Were I to talk till this time to-morrow I could not properly 
 describe to you all the horrors of that awful journey along the 
 Great Siberian road, from the Pillar of Farewells that marks 
 the boundary between Europe and Asia across the frightful 
 snowy wastes to Kara. 
 
 " The hideous story has been told again and again without 
 avail to the Christian nations of Europe, and they have per- 
 mitted that awful crime against humanity to be committed 
 year after year without even a protest, in obedience to the 
 miserable principles that bade them to place policy before 
 religion and the etiquette of nations before the everlasting 
 laws of God. 
 
 "After two years of heartbreaking toil at the mines my 
 health utterly broke down. One day I fell fainting under the 
 lash of the brutal overseer, and as I lay on the ground he ran 
 at me and kicked me twice with his heavy iron-shod boots, 
 
380 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 once on the hip, breaking the bone, and once on the lower part 
 of the spine, crushing the spinal cord, and paralysing my lower 
 limbs for ever. 
 
 " As this did not rouse me from my fainting-fit, the heartless 
 fiend snatched a torch from the wall of the mine-gallery and 
 thrust the burning end in my long thick beard, setting it on 
 fire and scorching my flesh horribly, as you can see. I was 
 carried out of the mine and taken to the convict hospital, 
 where I lay for weeks between life and death, and only lived 
 instead of died because of the quenchless spirit that was 
 within me crying out for vengeance on my tormentors. 
 
 " When I came back to consciousness, the first thing I learnt 
 was that I was free to return to England on condition that I 
 did not stop on my way through Eussia. 
 
 " My friends, urged on by the tireless energy of my wife's 
 anxious love, had at last found out what had befallen me, and 
 proceedings had been instituted to establish the innocence that 
 had been betrayed by a common and too well-known device 
 used by the Eussian police to secure the conviction and re- 
 moval of those who have become obnoxious to the bureau- 
 cracy. 
 
 " Whether my friends would ever have accomplished this of 
 themselves is doubtful, but suddenly the evidence of a pope of 
 the Orthodox Church, to whom the spy who had put the forged 
 letters in my hat had confessed the crime on his deathbed, placed 
 the matter in such a strong clear light that not even the 
 officialism of Eussia could cloud it over. The case got to the 
 ears of the Tsar, and an order was telegraphed to the Governor 
 of Kara to release me and send me back to St. Petersburg on 
 the conditions I have named. 
 
 " Think of the mockery of such a pardon as that ! By the 
 unlawful brutality of an official, who was not even reprimanded 
 for what he had done, I was maimed, crippled, and disfigured 
 for life, and now I was free to return to the land I had left on 
 an errand of mercy, which tyranny and corruption had wilfully 
 misconstrued into a mission of crime, and punished with the 
 ruin of a once happy and useful life. That was bad enough, 
 but worse was to come before the cup of my miseries should 
 be full." 
 
 Natas was silent for a moment, and as he gazed into the fire 
 
The Story of the Master. 381 
 
 the spasm of a great agony passed over his face, and two great 
 tears welled up in his eyes and overflowed and ran down his 
 cheeks on to his breast. 
 
 " On receiving the order the governor telegraphed back that 
 I was sick almost to death, and not able to bear the fatigue of 
 the long, toilsome journey, and asked for further orders. As 
 soon as this news reached my devoted wife she at once set out, 
 in spite of all the entreaties of her friends and advisers, to 
 cross the wastes of Siberia, and take her place at my bedside. 
 
 " It was winter time, and from Ekaterinenburg, where the 
 rail ended in those days, the journey would have to be per- 
 formed by sledge. She, therefore, took with her only one 
 servant and a courier, that she might travel as rapidly as 
 possible. 
 
 " She reached Tiumen, and there all trace was lost of her and 
 her attendants. She vanished into that great white wilderness 
 of ice and snow as utterly as though the grave had closed upon 
 her. I knew nothing of her journey until I reached St. Peters- 
 burg many months afterwards. 
 
 " All that money could do was done to trace her, but all to 
 no avail. The only official news that ever came back out of 
 that dark world of death and misery was that she had started 
 from one of the post-stations a few hours before a great snow- 
 storm had come on, that she had never reached the next 
 station — and after that all was mystery. 
 
 "Five years passed. I had returned to find my little 
 daughter well and blooming into youthful beauty, and my 
 affairs prospering in skilful and honest hands. I was richer 
 in wealth than I had ever been, and in happiness poorer than 
 a beggar, while the shadow of that awful uncertainty hung 
 over me. 
 
 " I could not believe the official story, for the search along 
 the Siberian road had been too complete not to have revealed 
 evidences of the catastrophe of which it told when the snows 
 melted, and none such were ever found. 
 
 "At length one night, just as I was going to bed, I was told 
 that a man who would not give his name insisted on seeing me 
 on business that he would tell no one but myself. All that he 
 would say was that he came from Eussia. That was enough. 
 I ordered him to be admitted. 
 
382 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 " He was a stranger, ragged and careworn, and his face was 
 stamped with the look of sullen, unspeakable misery that men's 
 faces only wear in one part of the world. 
 
 " ' You are from Siberia,' I said, stretching out my hand to 
 him. ' Welcome, fellow-sufferer ! Have you news for me ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, I am from Siberia,' he replied, taking my hand ; ' an 
 escaped Nihilist convict from the mines. I have been four years 
 getting from Kara to London, else you should have had my 
 news sooner. I fear it is sad enough, but what else could you 
 expect from the Eussian prison-land ? Here it is.' 
 
 " As he spoke, he gave me an envelope, soiled and stained 
 with long travel, and my heart stood still as I recognised in the 
 blurred address the handwriting of my long-lost wife. 
 
 " With trembling fingers I opened it, and through my tears 
 I read a letter that my dear one had written to me on her 
 deathbed four years before. 
 
 "It has lain next my heart ever since, and every word is 
 burnt into my brain, to stand there against the day of vengeance. 
 But I have never told their full tale of shame and woe to 
 mortal ears, nor ever can. 
 
 "Let it suffice to say that my wife was beautiful with a 
 beauty that is rare among the daughters of men ; that a 
 woman's honour is held as cheaply in the wildernesses of Siberia 
 as is the life of a man who is a convict. 
 
 " The official story of her death was false — false as are all 
 the ten thousand other lies that have come out of that abode ol 
 oppression and misery, and she whom I mourned w 7 ould have 
 been well-favoured of heaven if she had died in the snowdrifts, 
 as they said she did, rather than in the shame and misery to 
 which her brutal destroyer brought her. 
 
 " He was an official of high rank, and he had had the power 
 to cover his crime from the knowledge of his superiors in 
 St. Petersburg. 
 
 "If it was ever known, it was hushed up for fear of the 
 trouble that it would have brought to his masters; but two 
 years later he visited Paris, and was found one morning in bed 
 with a dagger in his black heart, and across his face the mark 
 that told that he had died by order of the Nihilist Executive. 
 
 "When I read those awful tidings from the grave, sorrow 
 became quenchless rage, and despair was swallowed up in 
 
The Story of the Master. 383 
 
 revenge. I joined the Brotherhood, and thenceforth placed 
 a great portion of my wealth at their disposal. I rose in their 
 councils till I commanded their whole organisation. IsTo brain 
 was so subtle as mine in planning schemes of revenge upon the 
 oppressor, or of relief for the victims of his tyranny. 
 
 " In a word, I became the brain of the Brotherhood which 
 men used to call Nihilists, and then I organised another Society 
 behind and above this which the world has known as the 
 Terror, and which the great ones of the earth have for years 
 dreaded as the most potent force that ever was arrayed against 
 the enemies of humanity. Of this force I have been the 
 controlling brain and the directing will. It was my creature, 
 and it has obeyed me blindly ; but ever since that fatal day in 
 the mine at Kara I have been physically helpless, and there- 
 fore obliged to trust to others the execution of the plans that I 
 conceived. 
 
 "It was for this reason that I had need of you, Alan 
 Tremayne, and this is why I chose you after I had watched 
 you for years unseen as you grew from youth to manhood, the 
 embodiment of all that has made the Anglo-Saxon the dominant 
 factor in the development of present-day humanity. 
 
 " I have employed a power which, as I firmly believe, was 
 given to me when eternal justice made me the instrument of 
 its vengeance upon a generation that had forgotten alike its 
 God and its brother, to bend your will unconsciously to mine, 
 and to compel you to do my bidding. How far I was justified 
 in that let the result show. 
 
 " It was once my intention to have bound you still closer to 
 the Brotherhood by giving Natasha to you in marriage while 
 you were yet under the spell of my will ; but the Master of 
 Destiny willed it otherwise, and I was saved from doing 
 a great wrong, for the intention to do which I have done my 
 best to atone." 
 
 He paused for a moment and looked across the fireplace at 
 Arnold and Natasha, who were sitting together on a big, low 
 lounge that had been drawn up to the fire. Natasha raised 
 her eyes for a moment and then dropped them. She knew 
 what was coming, and a bright red flush rose up from her 
 white throat to the roots of her dusky, lustrous hair. 
 
 " Eichard Arnold, in the first communication I ever had 
 
184 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 with you, I told you that if you used the powers you held in 
 your hand well and wisely, you should, in the fulness of time, 
 attain to your heart's desire. You have proved your faith and 
 obedience in the hour of trial, and your strength and discretion 
 in the day of battle. Now it is yours to ask and to have." 
 
 For all answer Arnold put out his hand and took hold of 
 Natasha's, and said quietly but clearly — 
 
 " Give me this ! " 
 
 " So be it ! " said Natas. " What you have worthily won you 
 will worthily wear. May your days be long and peaceful in 
 the world to which you have given peace ! " 
 
 And so it came to pass that three days later, in the little 
 private chapel of Alanmere Castle, the two men who held 
 the destinies of the world in their hands, took to wife the two 
 fairest women who ever gave their loveliness to be the crown 
 of strength and the reward of loyal love. 
 
 For a week the Lord of Alanmere kept open house and royal 
 state, as his ancestors had done five hundred years before him. 
 The conventional absurdity of the honeymoon was ignored, as 
 such brides and bridegrooms might have been expected to 
 ignore it. Arnold and Natasha took possession of a splendid 
 suite of rooms in the eastern wing of the Castle, and the two 
 new-wedded couples passed the first days of their new happi- 
 ness under one roof without the slightest constraint ; for the 
 Castle was vast enough for solitude when they desired it, and 
 yet the solitude was not isolation or self-centred seclusion. 
 
 Tremayne's private wire kept them hourly informed of what 
 was going on in London, and when necessary the Ithuriel was 
 ready to traverse the space between Alanmere and the capital 
 in an hour, as it did more than once to the great delight and 
 wonderment of Tremayne's bride, to whom the marvellous 
 vessel seemed a miracle of something more than merely human 
 skill and genius. 
 
 So the days passed swiftly and happily until the Christmas 
 bells of 1904 rang out over the length and breadth of Christen- 
 dom, for the first time proclaiming in very truth and fact, so 
 far as the Western world was concerned, "Peace on earth, 
 Goodwill to Man." 
 
 • ••<•••• 
 
 On the 8th of January a swift warship, attended by two 
 
The Story of the Master. 385 
 
 dynamite cruisers, left Portsmouth, bound for Odessa. She 
 had on board the last of the Tsars of Russia, and those of his 
 generals and Ministers who had been taken prisoners with him 
 on Muswell Hill. A thousand feet overhead floated the Ariel, 
 under the command of Alexis Mazanoff. 
 
 From Odessa the prisoners were taken by train to Moscow. 
 There, in the Central Convict Depot, they met their families 
 and the officials whose share in their crimes made it necessary 
 to bring them under the sentence pronounced by JSTatas. They 
 were chained together in squads, Tsar and prince, noble and 
 official, exactly as their own countless victims had been in the 
 past, and so they were taken with their wives and children by 
 train to Ekaterinenburg. 
 
 Although the railway extended as far as Tomsk, Mazanoff 
 made them disembark here, and marched them by the Great 
 Siberian road to the Pillar of Farewells on the Asiatic frontier. 
 There, as so many thousands of heart-broken, despairing men 
 and women had done before them, they looked their last on 
 Paissian soil. 
 
 From here they were marched on to the first Siberian etapS, 
 one of a long series of foul and pestilential prisons which were 
 to be the only halting-places on their long and awful journey. 
 The next morning, as soon as the chill grey light of the winter's 
 dawn broke over the snow-covered plains, the men were formed 
 up in line, with the sleighs carrying the women and children in 
 the rear. When all was ready Mazanoff gave the word: 
 "Forward!" the whips of the Cossacks cracked, and the 
 mournful procession moved slowly onward into the vast, 
 white, silent wilderness, out of which none save the guards 
 were destined ever to emerge again. 
 
 25 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 "AND ON EARTH PEACE!" 
 
 [HE winter and summer of 1905 passed in 
 unbroken tranquillity all over Europe and the 
 English-speaking world. The nations, at last 
 utterly sickened of bloodshed by the brief but 
 awful experience of the last six months of 
 1904, earnestly and gladly accepted the new 
 order of things. From first to last of the war the slaughter 
 had averaged more than a million of fighting men a month, 
 and fully five millions of non-combatants, men, women, and 
 children, had fallen victims to famine and disease, or had been 
 killed during the wholesale destruction of fortified towns by 
 the war-balloons of the League. At the lowest calculation the 
 invasion of England had cost four million lives. 
 
 It was an awful butcher's bill, and when the peoples of 
 Europe awoke from the delirium of war to look back upon the 
 frightful carnival of death and destruction, and realise that 
 all this desolation and ruin had come to pass in little more 
 than seven months, so deep a horror of war and all its 
 abominations possessed them that they hailed with delight 
 the safeguards provided against it by the new European 
 Constitution which was made public at the end of March. 
 
 It was a singularly short and simple document considering 
 the immense changes which it introduced. It contained only 
 five clauses. Of these the first proclaimed the supremacy of 
 the Anglo-Saxon Federation in all matters of international 
 policy, and set forth the penalties to be incurred by any State 
 that made war upon another. 
 
 The second constituted an International Board of Arbitra- 
 
 SS3 
 
And on Earth Peace!" 387 
 
 tion and Control, composed of all the Sovereigns of Europe 
 and their Prime Ministers for the time being, with the new 
 President of the United States, the Governor-General of 
 Canada, and the President of the now federated Australasian 
 Colonies. This Board was to meet in sections every year in 
 the various capitals of Europe, and collectively every five 
 years in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Ptome, and New 
 York in rotation. There was no appeal from its decision 
 save to the Supreme Council of the Federation, and this 
 appeal could only be made with the consent of the President 
 of that Council, given after the facts of the matter in dispute 
 had been laid before him in writing. 
 
 The third clause dealt with the rearrangement of the 
 European frontiers. The Pihine from Karlsruhe to Basle 
 was made the political as well as the natural boundary 
 between France and Germany. The ancient kingdom of 
 Poland was restored, with the frontiers it had possessed 
 before the First Partition in 1773, and a descendant of 
 Kosciusko, elected by the votes of the adult citizens of the 
 reconstituted kingdom, was placed upon the throne. Turkey 
 in Europe ceased to exist as a political power. Constantinople 
 was garrisoned by British and Federation troops, and the 
 country was administered for the time being by a Provisional 
 Government under the presidency of Lord Cromer, who was 
 responsible only to the Supreme Council. The other States 
 were left undisturbed. 
 
 The fourth and fifth clauses dealt with land, property, and 
 law. All tenures of land existing before the war were can- 
 celled at a stroke, and the soil of each country was declared to 
 be the sole and inalienable property of the State. No occupiers 
 were disturbed who were turning the land to profitable 
 account, or who were making use of a reasonable area as a 
 residential estate; but the great landowners in the country 
 and the ground landlords in the towns ceased to exist as such, 
 and all private incomes derived from the rent of land were 
 declared illegal and so forfeited. 
 
 All incomes unearned by productive work of hand or brain 
 were subjected to a progressive tax, which reached fifty per 
 cent, when the income amounted to £10,000 a year. It is 
 almost needless to sav that these clauses raised a tremendous 
 
388 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 outcry among the limited classes they affected; but the 
 only reply made to it by the President of the Supreme 
 Council was " that honestly earned incomes paid no tax, and 
 that the idle and useless classes ought to be thankful to be 
 permitted to exist at any price. The alternative of the tax 
 would be compulsory labour paid for at its actual value by 
 the State." Without one exception the grumblers preferred 
 to pay the tax. 
 
 All rents, revised according to the actual value of the 
 produce or property, were to be paid direct to the State. As 
 long as he paid this rent-tax no man could be disturbed in the 
 possession of his holding. If he did not pay it the non-pay- 
 ment was to be held as presumptive evidence that he was not 
 making a proper use of it, and he was to receive a year's notice 
 to quit ; but if at the end of that time he had amended his 
 ways the notice was to be revoked. 
 
 In all countries the Civil and Criminal Codes of Law were 
 to be amalgamated and simplified by a committee of judges 
 appointed directly by the Parliament with the assent of the 
 Sovereign. The fifth clause of the Constitution plainly 
 stated that no man was to be expected to obey a law that he 
 could not understand, and that the Supreme Council would 
 uphold no law which was so complicated that it needed a 
 legal expert to explain it. 
 
 It is almost needless to say that this clause swept away at 
 a blow that pernicious class of hired advocates who had for 
 ages grown rich on the weakness and the dishonesty of their 
 fellow-men. In after years it was found that the abolition of 
 the professional lawyer had furthered the cause of peace and 
 progress quite as efficiently as the prohibition of standing 
 armies had done. 
 
 On the conclusion of the war the aerial fleet was increased 
 to twenty-five vessels exclusive of the flagship. The number 
 of war-balloons was raised to fifty, and three millions of 
 Federation soldiers were held ready for active service until 
 the conclusion of the war in the East between the Moslems 
 and Buddhists. By November the Moslems were victors all 
 along the line, and during the last week of that month the 
 last battle between Christian and Moslem was fought on the 
 Southern shore of the Bosphorus. 
 
And on Earth Peace ! " 389 
 
 All communications with the Asiatic and African shores of 
 the Mediterranean were cut as soon as it became certain that 
 Sultan Mohammed Eeshad, at the head of a million and a half 
 of victorious Moslems, and supported by Prince Abbas of 
 Egypt at the head of seven hundred thousand more, was 
 marching to the reconquest of Turkey. The most elaborate 
 precautions were taken to prevent any detailed information as 
 to the true state of things in Europe reaching the Sultan, as 
 Tremayne and Arnold had come to the conclusion that it 
 would be better, if he persisted in courting inevitable defeat, 
 that it should fall upon him with crushing force and stupefying 
 suddenness, so that he might be the more inclined to listen to 
 reason afterwards. 
 
 The Mediterranean was patrolled from end to end by air- 
 ships and dynamite cruisers, and aerial scouts marked every 
 movement of the victorious Sultan until it became absolutely 
 certain that his objective point was Scutari. Meanwhile, two 
 millions of men had been concentrated between Galata and 
 Constantinople, while another million occupied the northern 
 shore of the Dardanelles. An immense force of warships and 
 dynamite cruisers swarmed between Gallipoli and the Golden 
 Horn. Twenty air -ships and forty -five war -balloons lay 
 outside Constantinople, ready to take the air at a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 The conqueror of Northern Africa and Southern Asia had 
 only a very general idea as to what had really happened in 
 Europe. His march of conquest had not been interrupted by 
 any European expedition. The Moslems of India had exter- 
 minated the British garrisons, and there had been no attempt 
 at retaliation or vengeance, as there had been in the days of 
 the Mutiny. England, he knew, had been invaded, but 
 according to the reports which had reached him, none of the 
 invaders had ever got out of the island alive, and then the 
 English had come out and conquered Europe. Of the 
 wonderful doings of the aerial fleets only the vaguest rumours 
 had come to his ears, and these had been so exaggerated and 
 distorted, that he had but a very confused idea of the real state 
 of affairs. 
 
 The Moslem forces were permitted to advance without the 
 slightest molestation to Scutari and Lamsaki, and on the 
 
;90 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 evening of the 28th of November the Sultan took up his. 
 quarters in Scutari. That night he received a letter from the 
 President of the Federation, setting forth succinctly, and yet 
 very clearly, what had actually taken place in Europe, and 
 calling upon him to give his allegiance to the Supreme Council, 
 as the other sovereigns had done, and to accept the overlordship 
 of Northern Africa and Southern Asia in exchange for Turkey 
 in Europe. The letter concluded by saying that the immediate 
 result of refusal to accept these terms would be the destruction 
 of the Moslem armies on the following day. Before midnight, 
 Tremayne received the Sultan's reply. It ran thus — 
 
 In the name of the Most Merciful God. 
 
 From Mohammed Reshad, Commander of the Faithful, to Alan 
 Teemayne, Leader of the English. 
 
 I have come to retake the throne of my fathers, and I am not to be turned 
 back by vain and boastful threats. What I have won with the sword I will 
 keep with the sword, and I will own allegiance to none save God and His holy 
 Prophet who have given me the victory. Give me back Stamboul and my 
 ancient dominions, and we will divide the world between us.' If not we must 
 fight. Let the reply to this come before daybreak. 
 
 Mohammed. 
 
 No reply came back; but during the night the dynamite 
 cruisers were drawn up within half a mile of the Asiatic shore 
 with their guns pointing southward over Scutari, while other 
 warships patrolled the coast to detect and frustrate any 
 attempt to transport guns or troops across the narrow strip of 
 water. With the first glimmer of light, the two aerial fleets 
 took the air, the war-balloons in a long line over the van of 
 the Moslem army, and the air-ships spread out in a semicircle 
 to the southward. The hour of prayer was allowed to pass in 
 peace, and then the work of death began. The war-balloons 
 moved slowly forward in a straight line at an elevation of four 
 thousand feet, sweeping the Moslem host from van to rear 
 with a ceaseless hail of melinite and cyanogen bombs. Great 
 projectiles soared silently up from the water to the north, and 
 where they fell buildings were torn to fragments, great holes 
 were blasted into the earth, and every human being within the 
 radius of the explosion was blown to pieces, or hurled stunned 
 to the ground. But more mysterious and terrible than all 
 were the effects of the assault delivered by the air-ships, which 
 
And on Earth Peace!" 391 
 
 divided into squadrons and swept hither and thither in wide 
 curves, with the sunlight shining on their silvery hulls and 
 their long slender guns, smokeless and nameless, hurling the 
 most awful missiles of all far and wide, over a scene of 
 butchery and horror that beggared all description. 
 
 In vain the gallant Moslems looked for enemies in the flesh 
 to confront them. None appeared save a few sentinels across 
 the Bosphorus. And still the work of slaughter went on, 
 pitiless and passionless as the earthquake or the thunderstorm. 
 Millions of shots were fired into the air without result, and by 
 the time the rain of death had been falling without intermis- 
 sion for two hours, an irresistible panic fell upon the Moslem 
 soldiery. They had never met enemies like these before, and, 
 brave as lions and yet simple as children, they looked upon 
 them as something more than human, and with one accord 
 they flung away their weapons and raised their hands in 
 supplication to the sky. Instantly the aerial bombardment 
 ceased, and within an hour East and West had shaken hands, 
 Sultan Mohammed had accepted the terms of the Federation, 
 and the long warfare of Cross and Crescent had ceased, as men 
 hoped, for ever. 
 
 Then the proclamation was issued disbanding the armies of 
 Britain and the Federation and the forces of the Sultan. 
 The warships steamed away westward on their last voyage 
 to the South Atlantic, beneath whose waves they were soon 
 to sink with all their guns and armaments for ever. The 
 war-balloons were to be kept for purposes of transportation 
 of heavy articles to Aeria, while the fleet of air-ships was to 
 remain the sole effective fighting force in the world. 
 
 "While these events were taking place in Europe, those who 
 had been banished as outcasts from the society of civilised 
 men by the terrible justice of Natas had been plodding their 
 weary way, in the tracks of the thousands they had them- 
 selves sent to a living grave, along the Great Siberian Eoad 
 to the hideous wilderness, in the midst of which lie the 
 mines of Kara. From the Pillar of Farewells to Tiumen, 
 from thence to Tomsk, — where they met the first of the 
 released political exiles returning in a joyous band to their 
 beloved Puissia, — and thence to Irkutsk, and then over the 
 ice of Lake Baikal, and through the awful frozen desert of 
 
39 2 The Angel of the Revolution. 
 
 the Trans-Baikal Provinces, they had been driven like cattle 
 until the remnant that had survived the horrors of the awful 
 journey reached the desolate valley of the Kara and were 
 finally halted at the Lower Diggings. 
 
 Of nearly three hundred strong and well-fed men who had 
 said good-bye to liberty at the Pillar of Farewells, only a 
 hundred and twenty pallid and emaciated wretches stood 
 shivering in their rags and chains when the muster was 
 called on the morning after their arrival at Kara. Mazanoff 
 and his escort had carried out their part of the sentence of 
 Natas to the letter. The arctic blasts from the Tundras, the 
 forced march, the chain and the scourge had done their 
 work, and more than half the exile-convicts had found in 
 nameless graves along the road respite from the long horrors 
 of the fate which awaited the survivors. 
 
 The first name called in the last muster was Nicholas 
 Komanoff. "Here," came in a deep hollow tone from the 
 gaunt and ragged wreck of the giant who twelve months before 
 had been the stateliest figure in the brilliant galaxy of 
 European Eoyalty. 
 
 "Your sentence is hard labour in the mines for" — The 
 last word was never spoken, for ere it was uttered the tall 
 and still erect form of the dethroned Autocrat suddenly 
 shrank together, lurched forward, and fell with a choking 
 gasp and a clash of chains upon the hard-trampled snow. 
 A stream of blood rushed from his white, half-open lips, 
 and when they went to raise him he was dead. 
 
 If ever son of woman died of a broken heart it was 
 Nicholas Piornanoff, last of the tyrants of Kussia. Never- 
 had the avenging hand of Nemesis, though long-delayed, 
 fallen with more precise and terrible justice. On the very 
 spot on which thousands of his subjects and fellow-creatures, 
 innocent of all crime save a desire for progress, had worn 
 out their lives in torturing toil to provide the gold that had 
 gilded his luxury, he fell as the Idol fell of old in the temple 
 of Dagon. 
 
 He'had seen the blasting of his highest hopes in the hour 
 of their apparent fruition. He had beheld the destruction 
 of his army and the ruin of his dynasty. He had seen 
 kindred and friends and faithful servants sink under the 
 
And on Earth Peace!" 
 
 j^j 
 
 nameless horrors of a fate lie could do nothing to alleviate, 
 and with the knowledge that nothing but death could release 
 them from it, and now at the last moment death had snatched 
 from him even the poor consolation of sharing the sufferings 
 of those nearest and dearest to him on earth. 
 
 This happened on the 1st of December 1905, at nine 
 o'clock in the morning. At the same hour Arnold leapt the 
 Jthiirid over the Ridge, passed down the valley of Aeria like 
 a flash of silver light, and dropped to earth on the shores of 
 the lake. In the same grove of palms which had witnessed 
 their despairing betrothal he found Natasha swinging in a 
 hammock, with a black-eyed six- weeks'- old baby nestling in 
 her bosom, and her own loveliness softened and etherealised 
 by the sacred grace of motherhood. 
 
 "Welcome, my lord!" she said, with a bright flush of 
 pleasure and the sweetest smile even he had ever seen 
 transfiguring her beauty, as she stretched out her hand in 
 welcome at his approach. " Does the King come in peace ? " 
 
 " Yes, Angel mine ! the empire that you asked for is yours. 
 There is not a regiment of men under arms in all the civilised 
 world. The last battle has been fought and won, and so there 
 is peace on earth at last ! " 
 
 TiJE END 
 
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