nearer to the girl
than the Englishman.
When circumstances permitted they looked at each other, but, of course,
neither of them was fool enough to waste his breath in speech. Still,
each clearly understood that the other was going to get the girl first if
he could.
So the tenth yard from the prize was reached, and then the Englishman
shook his head up an inch, filled his lungs, rolled on to his side, and
made a spurt with the reserve of strength which he had kept for the
purpose. Inch by inch he drew ahead obliquely across Castellan's
course and, less than a yard in front of him, he put his right hand under
the girl's right side.
A lovely face, beautiful even though it was splashed all over with wet
strands of dark chestnut hair, turned towards him; a pair of big blue
eyes which shone in spite of the salt water which made them blink,
looked at him; and, after a cough, a very sweet voice with just a
suspicion of Boston accent in it, said:
"Thank you so much! It was real good of you! I can swim, but I don't
think I could have got there with all these things on, and so I reckon I
owe you two gentlemen my life."
Castellan had swum round, and they took her under the arms to give
her a rest. The two boys left in the boat had managed to get an oar out
to their comrade just in time, and then haul him into the boat, which
was now about fifty yards away; so as soon as the girl had got her
breath they swam with her to the boat, and lifted her hands on to the
gunwale.
"If you wouldn't mind, sir, picking up those oars," said the Englishman,
"I will get the young lady into the boat, and then we can row back."
Castellan gave him another look which said as plainly as words: "Well,
I suppose she's your prize for the present," and swam off for the oars.
With the eager help of the boys, who were now very frightened and
very penitent, the Englishman soon had the girl in the boat; and so it
came about that an adventure which might well have deprived America
of one of her most beautiful and brilliant heiresses, resulted in nothing
more than a ducking for two men and one girl, a wet, but somehow not
altogether unpleasant walk, and a slight chill from which she had quite
recovered the next morning.
The after consequences of that race for the rescue were of course, quite
another matter.
Chapter I
A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT
ON the first day of July, 1908 a scene which was destined to become
historic took place in the great Lecture Theatre in the Imperial College
at Potsdam. It was just a year and a few days after the swimming race
between John Castellan and the Englishman in Clifden Bay.
There were four people present. The doors were locked and guarded by
two sentries outside. The German Emperor, Count Herold von Steinitz,
Chancellor of the Empire, Field-Marshal Count Freidrich von Moltke,
grandson of the great Organiser of Victory, and John Castellan, were
standing round a great glass tank, twenty-five feet long, and fifteen
broad, supported on a series of trestles. The tank was filled with water
up to within about six inches of the upper edge. The depth was ten feet.
A dozen models of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft were floating
on the surface of the water. Five feet under the surface, a grey,
fish-shaped craft with tail and fins, almost exactly resembling those of
a flying fish, was darting about, now jumping forward like a cat
pouncing on a bird, now drawing back, and then suddenly coming to a
standstill. Another moment, it sank to the bottom, and lay there as if it
had been a wreck. The next it darted up to the surface, cruised about in
swift curves, turning in and out about the models, but touching none.
Every now and then John Castellan went to a little table in the corner of
the room, on which there was a machine something like a typewriter,
and touched two or three of the keys. There was no visible connection
between them -- the machine and the tank -- but the little grey shape in
the water responded instantly to the touch of every key.
"That, I hope, will be enough to prove to your Majesty that as
submarine the Flying Fish is quite under control. Of course the real
Flying Fish will be controlled inside, not from outside."
"There is no doubt about the control," said the Kaiser. "It is marvellous,
and I think the Chancellor and the Field Marshal will agree with
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