A Honeymoon in Space | Page 3

here."
The Captain of the St. Louis, in common with every one else on board,
had already had his credulity stretched about as far as it would go, and
he was beginning to wonder whether he was really awake; but when he
heard the hail and recognised the speaker he stared at him in blank and,
for the moment, speechless bewilderment. Then he got hold of his
voice again and said, keeping as steady as he could:
"Good morning, my Lord! Guess I never expected to meet even you
like this in the middle of the Atlantic! So the newspaper men were right
for once in a way, and you have got an air-ship that will fly?"
"And a good deal more than that, Captain, if she wants to. I am just
taking a trial trip across the Atlantic before I start on a run round the
Solar System. Sounds like a lie, doesn't it? But it's coming off. Oh,
good morning, Miss Rennick! Captain, may I come on board?"
"By all means, my Lord, only I'm afraid I daren't stop Uncle Sam's
mails, even for you."
"There's no need for that, Captain, on a smooth sea like this," was the
reply. "Just keep on as you are going and I'll come alongside."
He put his head inside the door and called something up a
speaking-tube which led to a glass-walled chamber in the forward part
of the roof, where a motionless figure stood before a little steering
wheel.
The craft immediately began to edge nearer and nearer to the liner's rail,
keeping speed so exactly with her that the threshold of the door touched
the end of the bridge without a perceptible jar. Then the flannel-clad
figure jumped on to the bridge and held out his hand to the Captain.

As they shook hands he said in a low tone, "I want a word or two in
private with you, as soon as possible."
The commander saw a very serious meaning in his eyes. Besides, even
if he had not made his appearance under such extraordinary
circumstances, it was quite impossible that one of his social position
and his wealth and influence could have made such a request without
good reason for it, so he replied:
"Certainly, my Lord. Will you come down to my room?"
Hundreds of anxious, curious eyes looked upon the tall athletic figure
and the regular-featured, bronzed, honest English face as Rollo Lenox
Smeaton Aubrey, Earl of Redgrave, Baron Smeaton in the Peerage of
England, and Viscount Aubrey in the Peerage of Ireland, followed the
Captain to his room through the parting crowd of passengers. He
nodded to one or two familiar faces in the crowd, for he was an old
Atlantic ferryman, and had crossed five times with Captain Hawkins in
the St. Louis.
Then he caught sight of a well and fondly remembered face which he
had not seen for over two years. It was a face which possessed at once
the fair Anglo-Saxon skin, the firm and yet delicate Anglo-Saxon
features, and the wavy wealth of the old Saxon gold-brown hair; but a
pair of big, soft, pansy eyes, fringed with long, curling, black lashes,
looked out from under dark and perhaps just a trifle heavy eyebrows.
Moreover, there was that indescribable expression in the curve of her
lips and the pose of her head; to say nothing of a lissome, vivacious
grace in her whole carriage which proclaimed her a daughter of the
younger branch of the Race that Rules.
Their eyes met for an instant, and Lord Redgrave was startled and even
a trifle angered to see that she flushed up quickly, and that the
momentary smile with which she greeted him died away as she turned
her head aside. Still, he was a man accustomed to do what he wanted:
and what he wanted to do just then was to shake hands with Lilla
Zaidie Rennick, and so he went straight towards her, raised his cap, and
held out his hand saying, first with a glance into her eyes, and then with

one upward at the Astronef:
"Good morning again, Miss Rennick! You see it is done."
"Good morning, Lord Redgrave!" she replied, he thought, a little
awkwardly. "Yes, I see you have kept your promise. What a pity it is
too late! But I hope you will be able to stop long enough to tell us all
about it. This is Mrs. Van Stuyler, who has taken me under her
protection on my journey to Europe."
His lordship returned the bow of a tall, somewhat hard-featured matron
who looked dignified even in the somewhat nondescript costume which
most of the ladies were wearing. But her eyes were kindly, and he said:
"Very pleased to meet, Mrs. Van Stuyler. I heard