 Chapter 18 of Olga Romanov by George Griffith This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Craig Franklin Olga Romanov Chapter 18 A Momentous Commission Twelve hours after they had left the sultan on the terrace of his palace, the aetherial and the vindaya dropped through the clouds onto the snow-covered surface of Kergelan Island, and within an hour the dispatch vessel Viga was speeding away northwestward to area with a full account of the results achieved by the first crews of the aetherial. The twenty-four hours which would have to elapse before the reply of the council could be received were employed in repairing the damage done to the vindaya, and in renewing the motive power and ammunition of both vessels. Sundry's small but effective improvements in the mechanism and appointments of the vindaya were also made, and last, but by no means least important, the name of the prize was changed. You are henceforth her commander, old fellow," said Ulland to Alexis when the question of the new name came up, and therefore it is for you to say what her name shall be. I knew you would say that," replied Alexis, his grave thoughtful face lighting up with a quick flush and almost a boyish smile, and of course I needn't tell you what name I should like above all things to give her. But then, you see, I see nothing but a quite unaccountable embarrassment written largely upon those ingenuous features of yours, my blushing acates," interrupted Alan, with a laugh that deepened the colour on his friend's cheeks. You see, I'm not quite sure whether she would like it under the circumstances," said Alexis hesitantly. I didn't know that airships had any choice in the question of their names any more than children have," said Alan, gravely stroking his beard and looking at his friend with a laugh in his eyes. Don't assume a density that the gods have not given you," laughed Alexis in return. You know very well who the she is to whom I refer. Now, suppose you were going to name and command Vindaya, what would you call her? I would do as you want to do, my friend," said Alan, laughing out right now, although I fear with more chance of getting snubbed for my temerity and trust to winning forgiveness from the lips of her name-mother by good service and hard-hitting. Perfectly reasoned, exclaimed Alexis, and so henth forth until I have expressed orders to call her something else. The forlorn hope, for instance, she shall be the isma, and on her decks I will win the right to ask. I mean to wear the golden wings again, or else she will never cross the confines of area. You will win more than the golden eagles I hope and believe," said Alan, now very serious again. For you evidently have a better chance of forgiveness than I have, though I don't despair, mind you, for I am determined never to go back to area, unless I feel that I can fairly ask Alma to forgive what is past, and if she refuses, I will hunt Olga Romanov to the ends of the earth till I take her alive, and then I will carry her to area, and at Alma's feet I will strike her dead. With my own hand, so that she may know the truth. Hey, men," said Alexis, striding forward and taking his hand, and if Alma says no to you, I will never see ismas face again till I have helped you to clip the silence wings, and take her to meet her just reward. It is a bargain. Between us we will bring those proud demazels to sweet reasonableness. Now let us go and get a bottle of sparkling arian and rename the Vindaya in proper form. Thus it came to pass that when the aetherial next took the air, her consort bore the name that was dearest to her commander's heart. The anxiously expected vega did not return till nearly thirty hours after her departure. The delay proved that the council had considered the tidings that she had brought of great importance, and had therefore taken some time to deliberate over them. This turned out to be the case, and the decision arrived that by the rulers of area showed that they looked upon the crisis as grave in the last degree. The return dispatch stated that within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vega at Kugellan, a fleet of fifty airships would be at the disposal of Alan and Alexis, who were ordered to place themselves at the head of it and proceed with all speed to Alexandria, taking all off Lysensky and the other Russian prisoners with them. Alan was to be the bearer of an ultimatum to the Sultan confirming in the name of the President and Council of Area the provisional declaration of war which he had threatened as the result of an alliance with Olga Romanov and stating that at sunrise on the sixteenth of May in the following year hostilities would be commenced against him and continued to the point of extermination so far as all men who bore arms were concerned. He was also called upon to order the Russian squadron to leave his capital, should it still be there, within two hours. If he refused or if Olga declined to remove her ships they were to be engaged there and then and if possible destroyed at all costs. This latter part of the message was to be conveyed to Olga in a different form by the hands of Lysensky who was then to be set at liberty with his fellow prisoners. If Olga consented to go within the given time it would be necessary to allow her to depart unmolested as the superior speed of her ships would place the bulk of the Arian fleet at a hopeless disadvantage in a pursuit and expose it to certain destruction. If she insisted on fighting then of course the hazard of battle must be taken and the Council relied upon the commanders of its fleet to do their duty as their judgment should point it out to them. No specific terms were to be made with Olga and her adherents but hostilities were if possible to be avoided until the Sultan's year of truce had expired and the new Arian fleet was ready to take the heir. If no fighting took place Alan was to proceed with his squadron to London with a third dispatch to the King of Britain as head of the Anglo-Saxon Federation advising him in the face of the threatening danger to call together the rulers of Anglo-Saxon and take immediate measures for mutual defence against the Muslims in case they should invade Europe when the year of truce was up. For this purpose arms in any quantities that might be needed would be sent out from area and the Arians would undertake the task of drilling the newly formed armies and instructing them in the use of the weapons. In addition to this the necessary works and power stations for building and equipping at least a thousand of the largest airships would be established under Arian control in England and at the same time dockyards would be set up for the construction of an equal number of submarine vessels of the Narwhal type. It was however to be made an absolute condition of this assistance and protection that the armies and aerial and sea navies would be entirely officered by Arians and were to be under the unquestioned control of the president of Aria. This condition was for obvious reasons held by the council to be absolutely essential to success. Divided commands in the face of a foe which would obey blindly the orders of a single chief who had already shown that he could create armies and fleets of high efficiency would mean inevitable failure and disaster. Therefore the absolute control of Anglo-Saxondom must once more be placed in the hands of the Supreme Council until the danger was passed and peace was restored, or Aria would fight the battle alone and leave the nations of Anglo-Saxondom to their fate. The immediate effect of the orders brought by the Viga was to throw the station of Cogellan into a state of the most intense activity. Allen at once assumed command by common consent and assisted by Alexis, Admiral Forrest and Captain Ernstein got everything in readiness for the reception of the coming squadron from Aria. All the defences of the station were also thoroughly inspected, from the airships floating above the clouds to the submarine mines which guarded the entrances to the harbours, and a general plan of the now inevitable campaign was sketched out at a council of war held on the evening of the Viga's return. It is scarcely necessary to say that the orders from headquarters put both Allen and Alexis into the highest spirits. They had already vindicated their claim to the confidence of the council and their fellow countrymen, and the claim had been allowed without stint or hesitation. Though their year of probation had only just begun, they found themselves entrusted with a mission, dangerous it is true, but also of the most supreme importance. And Allen in particular felt his pulses thrill, with justifiable pride when he found himself charged, with the glorious task of doing almost exactly what his great ancestor, Allen Tremaine, had done a hundred and thirty years before, when he marshaled the millions of Anglo-Saxondom against the leagued despotisms of Europe and overthrew them in the mighty conflict which had given peace on earth for nearly five generations. Whether he would succeed as the chief of the terror had done depended not upon himself so much as on Anglo-Saxondom itself. If the once conquering race of earth had kept intact its old martial strength, an imperial spirit through the long years of peace and prosperity, as its kindred in area had done, or would be well, and the disturbors of the welfare of humanity would pay dearly and bitterly for their tremendous crime. But if, like the Romans of old, they had allowed the tropical atmosphere of material luxury to relax the fibres of their once sturdy nature and weaken the arms which had once enclosed the world in their embrace, then his mission would fail. However eloquently he might urge it. A desolation infinitely greater than that which overwhelmed Rome or Byzantium would fall upon Anglo-Saxondom, and its name would be the only monument of its vanished glory. But the Vega brought something more to Alan and Alexis than the dispatchers and the orders of the Council. This was a letter from Isma to Alan, filled with the tenderest expressions of delight at the triumphs which he and his companion in arms had already achieved, and of brave and hopeful confidence in them, despite the terrible dangers that they were going forth to confront. The letter concluded, with the significant sentence, When you come back in triumph, as I know you will, there will not be one heart in area that will not beat more gladly for your sakes, not one hand that will not be stretched out to greet you, either in friendship or in love. Remember this against the day of battle, and in the day of peace you shall see how true my words are. Although the letter made no mention of Alma, save as one of the intimate friends who sent their loving greetings, to the two men who were going to lead the navy area to what might be the first battle of a war that would be the most colossal and unsparing struggle ever waged on earth, Alan was able to read enough between the lines to give him hope. He knew enough of Alma's proud and sensitive nature to fully understand why no word had come directly from her to him, and also to recognize that the task of winning her back from her estrangement would be no light one. Indeed, of the two tasks which lay before him, the conquest of the world and the reconquest of Alma's heart, he looked with less misgiving upon the former than he did upon the latter. Still he by no means disbared, and what he had said to Alexis was justified in his mind by the belief that in Isma he had the most eloquent of advocates, always at Alma's side, pleading his cause even better than he could do it himself, at any rate, for the present. As for Alexis, his lover's eyes and more sanguine temperament found in the letter ample justification for the renaming of the Vindaya, and if he forgot to return the precious sheet of paper to Alan after he had read its contents, it was because he honestly felt that he had the better right to it, and his companion in love and war apparently recognized this, for he carefully refrained from asking him for it. Thus well comforted with newborn hope, and impatiently longing to begin the momentous working hand, whether it was to be war or diplomacy, they awaited the arrival of the promised fleet from Aria, which was expected to alight on the surface of Cagallan about noon, on the day after the arrival of the Viga. A few minutes before 12 o'clock on the 19th of May, one of the lookout vessels floating 5,000 feet above the clouds which overhung desolation land telephoned. Fleet from Aria in sight, and half an hour after the receipt of the anxiously expected news at headquarters, the 50 airships were grouped round the power station at the head of Christmas Harbour, renewing the motive power which had been expended on the voyage from Aria. When this operation was completed the fleet was equipped for a voyage of 30,000 miles if necessary, as every vessel was completely furnished with all stores and munitions of war no further preparations had been made, and Alan was able to give the signal for the flotilla to take the air in a little more than an hour after its arrival at Cagallan. It was divided into two divisions of 25 ships each, one led by the Ethereal and the other by the Isma, and these rows into the air formed into two straight lines each about a quarter of a mile long. The two flagships flew one on either flank and slightly ahead and above the main body. This formation enabled any signals made from either of them to be instantly seen by every ship in the fleet. The distance to be traversed was 5,800 geographical miles, and the voyage was performed at a speed of 400 miles an hour without incident. At daybreak on the 20th the two divisions were floating in a wide circle 6,000 feet above Alexandria at a sufficient distance to be practically invisible from the city, which nevertheless lay completely at the mercy of the 400 guns which were trained upon it, and which, if the terms of the council's ultimatum were not accepted by the Sultan and Olga, would reduce it to a wilderness of ruins within an hour from the signal to fire being given. That the Russians were still the guests of the Sultan was made apparent as soon as the light became strong enough for their squadrons to be seen resting on the earth in the gardens of the palace, with one lookout ship stationed about 1500 feet above the roof of the palace. When all the ships were in their stations the Ethereal and the Isma ran up close to each other and Alexis boarded the flagship to receive his final instructions from Alan, who had undertaken the perilous duty of conveying the ultimatum to the Sultan and his possible ally. Oloflossensky was on board the Ethereal, and Alan requested him to be present when Alexis received his orders. As he shook hands with the Vice Admiral Alan said, I have asked Oloflossensky to hear our last arrangements made, so that he may recognise as well as we do that this is a matter of life and death for all of us. For my own part I am determined that the wishes of the council shall be obeyed, or the Ethereal and her crew shall be buried with our enemies in the ruins of Alexandria. We have not been seen yet from the Russian lookout ship, but they will of course see the Ethereal going down. I shall descend, flying a flag of truce, and I feel certain that the Sultan will recognise it himself and compel his allies to do so. But if not, if a single shot is fired or if the Russian squadron attempts to rise in the air until my return, you are to give the signal to open fire upon the city, and the fleet is not to cease firing until it is destroyed. You are to forget that you are destroying friends as well as foes, for I and all on board the Ethereal recognise that the honour of area and the safety of the world demand the sacrifice, and we are resolved to make it. I not only order this as your superior in command, I ask it as a friend and brother in arms. I know you will gladly die in the same cause if necessary, and so you must not hesitate to kill me and destroy the Ethereal if the fortune of war compels you to do so. Alan's speech, spoken with the perfect steadiness of an unalterable resolve, found a fitting response in the breast of his companion in arms, still holding his friend's hand in what might be a farewell clasp. Alexis simply replied, I see the necessity and I will obey to the letter. God grant that you may all return safe and sound, but if you don't, you shall have such a tomb as no man ever had before. Goodbye. Goodbye, said Alan, in the same steady tone, and then their hands parted, and Alexis returned to his ship. Now, all off Losensky, said Alan, turning to the Russian, you have heard my instructions, and you know that they will be obeyed. Neither you nor your mistress have any right to expect mercy at my hands, and you shall have none. Obey my orders to the letter, and see that your mistress does the same, or Alexandria will be in ruins before the sun reaches the zenith. I have heard and I will obey, for the fortune of war is viz you and I must, replied Losensky, completely overmastered by the heroic devotion displayed by Alan, in what bade fair to be a crisis in the fate of the world. A broad white flag of truce was now flown from the aftermath of the ethereal. At the fore flew, as a greeting to the sultan, the star and crescent of Islam. While above both at the main floated the sky-blue banner of Aria, emblazoned with the golden wings united by a mailed hand, armed with a dagger. With every man at his station, and every gun ready for instant use, the flagship dropped swiftly down towards the Russian vessel, floating over the palace. Within a mile of her signal, we bring dispatches to the sultan, flew from the signal staff at the stern. The captain of the Russian scout ship read the signal and at once telephoned to the palace, with which his ship was connected by an electric thread for instructions. The ethereal then flew a second signal. If you rise, we shall fire. And this he was forced to obey, as the Arian vessel was too far above him for his guns to come into play. He therefore replied with the signal, I have asked for instructions, wait for reply. A few minutes later, Alan, keeping the Russian well under his guns, saw her drop down to the earth and a light on the flat roof of the palace, on which several figures could be seen moving about and scanning the skies with glasses, which were speedily centered on the ethereal. Then a white flag was run up to the top of the flagstaff on one of the minarets of the palace. A similar one was hoisted by the Russian airship and she rose towards the ethereal. Alan, feeling now sure that the flag of Trus would be respected for the Sultan's sake, allowed the ship to come stern on to the ethereal until the two were within speaking distance. As she approached, the Russian swung her stern guns out laterally and Alan did the same with his, so that for the time being neither ship could injure the other. The stern doors were then opened and the Russian captain delivered a message to the effect that the Sultan had just risen for morning prayers and would receive the captain of the ethereal in half an hour. The Aryan vessel could therefore descend without fear. There is no question of fear, replied Alan shortly. I have not come alone. Use your glasses and you will see that the city is surrounded. But we shall respect the Trus if you do. The Russian stepped back with a hurry gesture and seized his glasses. It was now quite light enough for him to see at that elevation a wide circle of points of flashing blue light reflected from the hulls of the Aryan fleet. He put down his glasses and replied, So I see you would not have got here if patrols had been sent out, as I advised. Or else your patrols would not have come back, said Alan, turning on his heel and walking forward. Half an hour later the white flag on the minaret was dipped three times as an invitation for the ethereal to descend and Alan determined to guard against any possible treachery on the part of the Russian scout ship signalled to it to precede him and so the two vessels sank down and a lighted almost together on the roof of the palace. The Sultan surrounded by his ministers was awaiting them and as soon as salutes had been exchanged Alan handed him the ultimatum of the council. As Kalid read the brief but pregnant message his brows contracted and an angry flush showed through the bronze of his skin. He read it twice over stroking his beard slowly and deliberately as he did so. Then he looked up and said to Alan in a tone from which he made no effort to banish the accents of his anger. Was not my word enough? Have I not promised that I would make no war for a year? By what right do you order me to compel my friend and ally to leave my city within two hours? At the word ally Alan's face assumed an expression of wrathful sternness and he replied by the right which has always governed the issues of war the power to compel obedience. Poor compel cried the Sultan in a still angrier tone. What with one eardship against twenty? Not even a prince of air could do that. No prince of the air would be mad enough to make the attempt, replied Alan coldly. Ask the captain of your scout ship and he will tell you that your city is surrounded and I can tell you that four hundred guns are trained upon it at this moment and that the firing of a shot or the rising of any airship but my own from the ground will be the signal for them all to be discharged. I need not tell your Majesty what the result of that would be. Kaelid recoiled with a cry that was almost one of fear. He knew instinctively that Alan was speaking the literal truth without the confirmation given by the captain of the scout ship. He saw too that Olga had deceived him or at any rate had been grievously mistaken when she had said that the Aryans would not send a fleet after her squadron. They had done so and so skillfully had its movements been ordered that the city had been taken by surprise and lay at its mercy. Brave as he was the strange terrors of the situation sent a thrill of fear through his soul. There he stood the proudest king on earth on the roof of his palace beneath the smiling sky of an Egyptian summer morning and yet that smiling sky was charged with death and destruction a hundredfold greater than if the thunderclouds were lowering on it ready to hurl their lightning upon the earth. He could see nothing but the blue heavens and the eastern sunlight shining over the roofs of his capital and yet he knew that the man standing before him could with a single signal reduce the splendid city to heaps of shattered shapeless ruins and bury its inhabitants and its guests in one common tomb. Then what seemed to be a saving thought flashed through his mind and he said almost in a tone of banter, but in that case we should not die alone unless you have taught those unsparing guns of yours to distinguish between friend and foe. The signal for our destruction would be the signal for yours as well. Even so replied Alan Gravely, that is a contingency which I have foreseen. Olaf Losensky tell his majesty what my last orders to the fleet were. The Russians stepped forward and after saluting the sultan said, I heard the orders given majesty and they were to that effect. Friends and foes are to be destroyed alike and nothing is to be left of Alexandria but it's ruins. I am also charged with a message to my mistress, the Tsarina, which tells her that if she does not leave within two hours her ships will be attacked in the city and that too would be disaster. And if my words have still any weight with her I shall advise compliance with the order of the council. Will your majesty permit me to be conducted to my mistress in order that I may deliver my message in due form. The sultan did not seem to hear the request at all. The idea that Alan and his crew should thus deliberately devote themselves and their beautiful vessels to annihilation in the event of their orders being disobeyed appalled and unnerved him. He knew nothing saved by tradition of the heights of heroism to which men can rise under the stimulus of war, and he looked upon the man who had so calmly pronounced the provisional death sentence of himself and his companions as something more than human, as beings of a higher order, to fight against whom would be in pious rashness rather than courage. It was a situation that would have shaken the nerves of the sternest and most experienced soldier of the 19th century, and so it was no wonder that his spirit, unbraced by the discipline of war, shrank from facing its terrors. He saw too that there was literally no choice, save between submission and destruction, to save not only the lives of himself and his people, but also those of his guests and allies. He and they must submit and obey this imperious mandate. It is the will of God, he said, bowing his head slightly towards Alan as he spoke. They who cannot fight must yield. Hereafter we may meet upon more equal terms, and then today's humiliation shall not be forgotten. Alan inclined his head in reply and said, So be it, as your majesty has seemingly decided to involve the world in the horrors of war, it is not for me to say any more. When the day of battle comes, let the fortune of war decide between us. Meanwhile, Olof Lesensky, it is time that you took the council's message to your mistress. Give it to me, said the sultan, stepping forward without stretched hands, and I will take it to her, if she has risen yet. There is no need for that, said a voice a few yards beyond Alan. I am here, and I will take it. As the sweet, low, even tones now so hatefully familiar reached Alan's ears, he turned sharply round, with a blaze of ungovernable anger in his eyes, and saw Olga, calm and self-possessed in all the pride of her imperial beauty, walking towards the group from an arched doorway that led up from the interior of the palace. End of Chapter 18. Chapter 19 of Olga Romanov by George Griffith. This Librivenc's recording is in the public domain. Recording by Craig Franklin. Chapter 19. Face to face, again. Smiling and self-possessed as Olga appeared when she gained the roof of the palace, she had passed through a perfect purgatory of conflicting and agonizing emotions, since the news of the arrival of the aetherial had reached her in her room. Her tremendous and, but for the fact of her strange, hopeless love, incomprehensible blunder in setting Alan and Alexis free, instead of either killing them or keeping them in lifelong captivity, had already borne terrible fruit. But this visit made at the very moment when her plans were apparently crowned with success, seemed to threaten nothing less than the complete ruin of all her schemes. She knew instinctively that the city must be surrounded by an overwhelming force of Aryan ships. For a single one to venture thus into the midst of her own squadron and, judging by her own tactics, she expected nothing less than immediate annihilation as the alternative to surrender. But even more bitter than this was the thought of meeting not only as a free man, but as the commander of the Aryan navy, the man who but a few days ago had been her docile, unresisting slave, robbed of the highest attribute of his manhood by the surcy spell that she had cast over him, and which she now knew was broken forever. And more than this, she must now meet as an implacable enemy the man whom, in spite of herself, she still loved with all the passion of her fiery nature, and who, now that he was free again, could but look upon her not only with hatred, but with disgust. This, so far as her own feelings were concerned, was the miserable end of her scheming. But there was no help for it. She had deliberately sown the wind, and now the time was approaching for her to reap the whirlwind. She thought of her dreams in St. Petersburg, and a new and awful meaning was made apparent to her in those few minutes of mental torture before she went to meet her well-beloved enemy face to face. She saw herself, mistress of a conquered world, seated on a lonely throne, wailing over her own broken heart in the midst of a desolation that she had brought upon the earth for nothing. This, it seemed, was to be the penalty of the unspeakable crime she had committed to gain possession of the airship. A hopeless love that should turn all the fruits of conquest, if she ever won them, into the bitter ashes of the dead sea apples in her mouth, a love not only unrequited, but repaid with righteous horror, an almost divine disgust. And yet, despite all this, her marvellous fortitude and royal pride came to her aid to help her to bear herself bravely before her enemies. And so, with a smile on her lips and a hell of raging passions in her bosom, she ascended to take her part in the debate, big with the destiny of the world that was being held on the palace roof. As Alan turned and confronted her in all the strength and splendour of the manhood that not even her almost superhuman arts had been able to tarnish or weaken, and looked at her with the stern, steady gaze without one sign of recognition in the eyes that shone blue-black beneath his straight drawn brows, her heart stood still and seemed turned to ice in her breast. And for one brief moment her foot faltered and the light died out of her eyes and the colour from her cheeks. Then she caught the sultan's gaze turned inquiringly upon her. Her indomitable spirit rose to the emergency and her self-possession returned, passing Alan by with a slight inclination of her head, which did not conceal the mocking smile which curled her dainty lips. She went to Calid. And holding out her hand, said in steady, musical tones which, do what he would to resist it, sent a thrill to Alan's heart. There is the message that my faceless servant brings from the tyrants of the world. The sultan gave it to her, and as she read it, Losensky stood silent like the rest, but with head bowed down in shame and sorrow. When she reached the last word of the dispatch, the crimson deepened on her cheeks and her hands closed convulsively on the paper. Then, with a quick movement, she tore it in twain, flung the two fragments to the ground, and then, looking up with eyes blazing with passion, she cried, I should be a slave to obey, Losensky, sickened to the squadron to rise. Boys, train a gun on that ship and blow her to pieces if a man moves on board of her. Out of the vase there, Alan Arnold, if you lift a hand, I will shoot you like a dog. As she spoke, she snatched a pistol out of her belt and had almost levelled it at Alan's heart, when, like a flash of lightning, his rapier leapt from its sheath, and as the pistol came up, it was dashed from her hand. I could have killed you with less trouble, he said, in quick stern accents, raising the glittering blue blade to a level with her eyes, and keeping it outstretched towards her. Have you forgotten what I told you, or that I am no longer under your vile spell? If those orders are obeyed, I will kill you now, though you do wear a woman's shape. The city is surrounded, and if one vessel rises from the earth, Alexandria will be in ruins in an hour. Now, give the signal for its destruction if you dare, and let the earth be rid of you. And, of you, my gallant knight of the air, who draws his sword upon a woman? She almost hissed at him in fury. Yes, I dare, and I will, Lucinski. In another moment the fate of the world would have been changed, but before the order could be repeated the Sultan strode forward and placed himself between Alan and Olga with outstretched arms. No, Zarina, that order shall not be given on my palace, or in my hearing. You have forgotten our agreement and my oath. I have sworn on the Quran that they shall be no war between Islam and area for a year, and by the glory of Allah there shall be none. What have I and my people done that you should bring this destruction upon them? Your servant shall be shot if he opens his lips, and if you must fight, go into the desert and do it. But that will end our alliance, for you will have broken the peace to which I have sworn, and made me a liar. It is enough. Let us talk like reasonable beings, and not quarrel like children. Olga was conquered for the time being and she saw it. Few as had been the moments of the Sultan's speech they were enough to allow her agile intellect to get the better of her anger, and to convince her that it would have led her to suicide in another minute. Her manner changed with a swiftness that was almost miraculous. Her long thick lashes fell, hiding the still burning fires of her eyes. Her attitude changed from one of defiance to one of deference, and as she stepped back a pace or two she said in a totally altered voice, Your Majesty has justly rebuked me. My anger overcame my reason for the moment. My hatred of these tyrants of the air is not a thing of today or of yesterday, as you know, but the legacy of generations of wrong and robbery, and the arrogance of this man, who but a few days ago was my slave, and now ventures to dictate terms of war or peace to me was more than my patience or my temper could bear. I have done wrong and in atonement I will promise on the honor of Romanoff to be bound absolutely by such engagement as Your Majesty may make until the period of your truth is expired. So saying she retired to a distant part of the terrace, beckoning Lesensky to follow her, throwing herself on a seat in full view, but out of ear shot of the group she had left, she bade him to tell her the story of the loss of the Vindaya, and how he came to be the bearer of the message of the Council of Area to her. Lesensky told the story simply and truthfully, and as he finished the Grand Vizier approached and after an abasance made with oriental reverence said, Zarina, my master commands me to inform you that he has settled all matters with the Prince of the Air, save one, and to settle that he craves your assistance. Will it please you to come and speak with him? I will come, said Olga, rising and following him, with the words of Lesensky fresh in her ears. Zarina, Olga, said the Sultan, coming to meet her as she approached the group amidst which Alan was still standing. I have come to an agreement with Alan Arnold upon all points, but one, and that one only you can decide. He asserts that six years ago he took you and your brother as guests on board the airship, which you now call the revenge, that you drugged the wine drunk by him and his comrades, and, spearing only him and his friend Alexis Mazerov, you poisoned the rest of the crew, and threw them out onto the snows of Norway. After which you kept him and Alexis under your influence by means of a drug that deprived them of their willpower and forced them to reveal the secrets of the airship to you and assist you in building your fleet. And has your majesty given credence to such a monstrous story, or do you only wish to hear me give it the contradiction which its absurdity and falsity deserve? If the former, the sooner I and my ships leave your city, never to return as enemies the better. If the latter, you shall soon be satisfied. Olga spoke with an air of angered innocence, which completely deceived the Sultan, anxious as he was to find the extraordinary story false, and he hastily replied, It is the latter that I desire, of course. I was obliged to say that if you were unable to deny the accusation, it would be impossible for me to continue an alliance with one who had been guilty of a crime which my faith and the customs of my race denounce as vile beyond all human measure. But I refuse to believe it against you until your own lips had confessed it, or undeniable evidence had proved it, and therefore I have asked you to come and let us know the truth. I thank you, Sultan Khalid, for your confidence and your chivalry. She said, looking up into his eyes with a glance that rendered all denial from her once and forever unnecessary. You shall hear me deny the foul falsehood to my traducer's face. Stung to a fresh fury by the knowledge that Alan had sought to expose her in her true nature to the man whom she sought to make her slave in his place, she strode forward, to within three paces of where he was standing, and drawing herself up to the full height of her royal stature, she faced him with pale cheeks and blazing eyes. Her beauty so transfigured by anger that the Muslims standing about her instinctively shrank back, awe-stricken by such an incarnation of wrath and loveliness as no man of them had ever dreamt of before. Even Alan himself forgot his hate and disgust for the moment in the contemplation of her almost miraculous beauty, and the indescribable dignity with which her anger invested her, and waiting in silence that was almost respectful for the tempest of wrath and reproach which he saw was about to be let loose on him. Her lips trembled mutely for a moment or two before any sound came from them, but when she spoke her tone was low and clear, though almost hoarse with passion and shaken by the manifest effort she made to keep it under control. So this is the returns that your chivalry makes for my generosity in giving you your life and liberty, when you were lost to the world, when I might have killed you, as I see now that I should have done, without a single soul among your people knowing anything of your fate. I expected that you would take up arms against me, for your people and mine are enemies to the death, and I knew too that the love which I had spurned would not be long in turning to active hate. But you excelled, my expectations, you, one of the princes of the air, the scion of the race that holds itself above all the other races of the earth, the son of a man who but a few years ago was lord and master of the world. You come in the guise of open and honourable warfare to smirch with your foul lies the fame of a woman for whose sake you made yourself a traitor to your people and a murderer of your own comrades, a pretty story for sooth to tell in the ears of my friends and allies. Do you take them for children or fools that you expect them to believe it? Imagine such a miracle, your majesty. She continued turning with a clear ring of a mocking laugh in her voice to the sultan. Imagine this Alan Arnold son of the president of Aria, with his friend and lieutenant Alexis Matherov, and a crew of eight Aryans on board their flagship, armed with the most tremendous means of destruction ever invented by human genius, and each man of them whatever possessing in his own person the power of life and death has he himself has proved before your own eyes. These kings among men invite two casual acquaintances for a trip to the clouds, and these two guests, a youth of 20 and a girl not 17, an armed and without assistance, sees their ship, kill eight of their invincibly armed comrades, and leads the captain and his lieutenant away captive, and how? By the means of some mysterious drug, subtle and irresistible poisons of which such a boy and girl could not possibly have known either the composition or the use, and which they would have been afraid to employ if they had done. But let me come to the facts as they are. She went on, turning again to Alan, who stood literally damn founded before her, amazed beyond power of thought or speech, by the audacity of her words. It is you who are the liar, the traitor, and the murderer. It is you who killed my brother before my eyes because he sought to protect me from your violence, and it is you and your friend Alexis who, of your own free will, struck your comrades dead, and threw them out of the airship into the Norwegian snows, and then, in the hope of gaining my favour, took the ethereal to Vorobyevo near Moscow, and delivered her into the hands of my friends. I have 50 men visiting call at this moment who will swear that this is true. Ola Flossensky, you are one of them. Were you not at the villa at Vorobyevo? Then these two came with me, in the ethereal, and delivered her into your hands. And did you not find the corpse of my brother Sergei in one of the staterooms? Did his neck bruised and blackened by the grip of his murderer? Yes, Majesty, replied Lossensky, stepping forward as he was addressed. That is true, though as they told us at the time that your brother had been killed in a struggle with their comrades. And is it true, continued Olga, that they accompanied me into your villa and had supper with us as friends? And did I not forgive the deaths of my brother for the sake of the advantage which the possession of the airship which they consented to surrender to us would be to the cause of the revolution in Russia which we were pledged? That is also true, Majesty, and there are several here now with the Scotland who can also testify to the fact, and also, interrupted Olga, to the fact that these two traitors worked willingly to help us to secrete the airship, and finally to take her to Mount Terror, and there explains the working of her machinery to us, and helped us to build other airships and supponing vessels, and commanded zees in their attacks upon the commerce of our enemies. Is that true also? It is, Majesty, again replied Lossensky, shall I summon the crews of our ships that they also may testify to it, lest my word should not be enough? Is it your Majesty's wish that they be called? asked Olga, again turning to the Sultan, who all this time had been standing, shifting his gaze from her face to Alan's, and from Alan's back again to hers, horrified by the fearful accusations with which she had replied to the story, of the falsity of which she was already thoroughly convinced. If Alan Arnold desires it, he said, in grave deliberate tones, but would it not be better that she should speak first? At present we have two words against one. Has she any proof that what you say is false? he continued, looking inquiringly towards Alan. I have none but my own words and that of Alexis up yonder in the skies, and him I cannot, and if I could under the circumstances I would not call, said Alan, who by this time had recovered his self-possession. If your Majesty proposes to judge between us according to spoken testimony, I say at once that I will accept no such tests, for I well know that this woman could produce a hundred of her accomplices who would swear anything she bade them to swear. She has given me the lie with equal skill and audacity. I can only give her the lie in return, if not as skillfully, at least as boldly, and with the knowledge that I am telling the truth. Your Majesty can believe her story or mine as you choose. If you believe hers I am willing to do you the justice of confessing that you will be judging according to the weight of testimony, such as it is, for that is certainly against me. And so I must judge, replied the sultan coldly. I cannot believe your story, for it seems to be impossible, while the sireen has every appearance of truth. Into your motives I have neither the right nor the wish to inquire, and all that is left for me to say is that what I have heard has finally decided me to espouse the cause of Tsarina and her friends against those who have wronged and slandered her. Be the cause to me and my people what it may. We shall keep the truth if you do, and in a day of strife let the God of battles decide between us. My answer to your counsel's message shall be ready for you in half an hour. Farewell. So saying Kaelid the Magnificent turned his back upon Alan, and walked, followed by his vizier and his ministers, to the doorway, leading to the interior of the palace. Orga, pausing for a moment to cast one glance of triumphant hatred at her discredited foe, Bec and Lysensky, and followed the sultan without a word. Alan, amazed and enraged beyond measure by the unexpected turn that affairs had taken, and yet confident in his own knowledge of the truth turned on his heel, and went back on board the ethereal, where he went into his own cabin and sat down to write his directions for enforcing the order of the council with regard to the evacuation of the city by the Russian squadron. He bitterly regretted that the orders of the council did not permit him to destroy the Russian airships there and then, while they lay at his mercy. But the orders were explicit, and forbade him even to pursue them after they had left Alexandria, unless they committed an act of hostility against him. If he could have done so, he would have fought them at all hazards, and then, if he had conquered, he would have been able to enforce the general prohibition of the council against building airships upon the sultan. But as disobedience was not to be thought of, he could only carry out his orders, and hope that the judgment of the council might, in the end, prove superior to his own. At the end of half an hour, he was summoned to meet the Grand Vizier, who brought the reply of his master. This ran as follows. In the name of the most merciful God, Kaelinid, commander of the faithful, to Alan Arnold, president of Aria, I have received your message from the hands of your son. I shall faithfully observe the terms of the truths I promised to him, and of which he has told you. As my city lies for the time being at the mercy of your fleet, I can only save my people and my guests from destruction by agreeing to your demands. The Russian airships shall leave Alexandria within an hour of the delivery of this to your son. But this is to tell you that I have made alliance with Olga Romanov, rightful Serena of the Russians, and that when the year or truth has expired, I will no longer be a king merely in name, and hold my power and dignity at your pleasure. At the end of the year of truth, there shall be war between you and me, and your people and mine, unless before then you shall recognize my independence in due form, and my right to create such armaments as I think fit for the protection of my domains against your serve or any other power, and unless you consent to restore Olga Romanov to the throne and dignity which is held by right, and of which your ancestors robbed her in the days of the terror, if you do this, there shall be peace between us, but if not, there shall be war, and we will fight until the guard of battles has decided between us, and given to you or to me, the dominion of the world. Alan's brows contracted slightly as he read this defiant missive, but there was a half-pitting smile on his lips when he said to the vizier, as he handed him the instructions he had just written, I am deeply sorry, sorry for him and his people, and indeed for the whole human race, that he has been misled into writing words which in a year's time will set the world in a blaze. Our reply to this will be written in blood and fire and the smoking ruins of cities throughout the length and breadth of his dominions, but he has chosen, and he and you must abide by his choice. I cannot believe that he knows what he is doing, and if you are a faithful friend and servant, you will counsel peace and moderation. My master, said the vizier hortely, does not seek advice from his enemies more than ever. Would it be impossible for him to do so when their lips are fresh stained with lies? Alan's hand instinctively sprang to the hilt of his rapier, and in another moment the vizier's life would have paid for the insult. But when the blade was half out of its sheath, his self-control returned, and he thrusted back again, saying, You are an old man and an ambassador, so you are safe. You shall live so that you may someday find out for yourself where the truth in this matter lies. Who knows but that the siren may before long put you or your master under his spell? If she does, you will drink something from her hand, and when you have drunk it, you will have no will but hers. You will obey her blindly, and the thoughts that you speak shall be only those she suggests to you. Later on that day, when the excitement of the hour had passed, Musa Al-Ghazi remembered these words, and the strange acquiescence which he had given to Olga's plans in the saloon of the Revenge. If he had remembered it while Alan was speaking, millions of innocent lives might possibly have been saved, and the curse of war averted from the world for many generations, perhaps forever. But he did not. And so events took their logical course. As it was, he made no direct reply to Alan's words, but handed him another paper saying, I have been commissioned also to give you this. The instructions agreed upon shall be obeyed, and now I have only to remind you that you are no longer my master's guest. With that he saluted with frigid dignity, and turned away towards the palace door. Alan looked after him for a moment with a smile half of contempt and half of pity. Then he opened the paper in his hand. As he expected, it was from Olga, and beginning without any form of address, it ran thus. I shall obey your orders and leave the city, not because I will, but because I must. In order to save the Sultan and his people from destruction, I will also undertake to refrain from hostilities, until the Sultan's truth expires, provided you do not molest me. If you do, or if the Sultan is subjected to any unreasonable commands or acts of oppression, I will consider the truth at an end, and I will not only recommence my slobbering attacks upon the failed commerce, but I will send out my airships, and scatter death and destruction far and wide over the earth, without mercy, and without discrimination between enemies or neutrals. It is therefore for you to choose, this is the issue between us shall be fought out when the time comes, and in fair and honorable warfare, or vests of dogs of war, shall be let loose at once. I have still sturdy airships, and as many suppering cruises, and I can do, but I say, Olga Romanoff. No doubt, said Alan to himself, I am afraid we shall have to accept your terms. I didn't think that even you would be capable of such a colossal crime as that. But now I know something, like the full capacity of your wickedness, and if you threaten it, you will do it. With those thirty ships, if you have as many as that, and I suppose you must have twenty-four or twenty-five at least, you could wreck half the great cities of the world in six months, and we could do little or nothing to stop you. We have only eleven ships equal in speed to yours, and most of those must be kept in the core of area. I would give my life and my ship willingly for permission to fight it out here and now. And yet, after all, that would be frightful cruelty and injustice to the unoffending thousands who would lose their lives by the destruction of the city. So I suppose it must be peace for a year, and then. Ah, what then? His soliloquy began on the terrace, and ended on the deck of the aetherial. He gave the order to rise into the air, and the aerial cruiser soared slowly upwards, still flying the flag of truce as a signal to her consorts that the mission had been successfully accomplished. As he felt certain that the sultan would carry out the directions agreed upon to the letter, he left the city without any misgivings, and in a few minutes the aetherial was floating alongside her consort Isma, and Alan and Alexis had clasped hands once more. End of Chapter 19 Chapter 20 of Olga Romanov By George Griffith This liprevoque recording is in the public domain. Recording by Craig Franklin Chapter 20 The Call to Arms Within an hour the wandering inhabitants of Alexandria saw the Russian fleet rise a thousand feet into the air, and form in two columns of line ahead. Then the Arian fleet ranged itself in two long lines five hundred feet outside them, and a thousand feet above them. A time-shell from the aetherial gave the signal to start, and the two fleets leapt forward to the southeast at a speed of a hundred miles an hour, and in a few minutes had vanished over the desert. The speed was quickly increased to two hundred miles, and so they sped on all day and through the next night, the Russian ships being forced to show their lights while the Arians remained in darkness until, when morning dawned and Olga and her captains looked for Alan's fleet, they found that it had vanished, and that they were floating alone over the solitudes of the southern ocean. They had been escorted like offended schoolchildren out of harm's way, and then left to their own devices. It was a bitterly humiliating ending to an expedition which had really produced such important events, but there was no possibility of present revenge, and so Olga gave the order to proceed straight to Mount Terror, intending to begin there, and then the working out of her part of the compact that she had made with the Sultan. The arrangement was briefly to the following effect. Olga placed at Kaelid's disposal all the necessary plans for the construction of both airships and submarine vessels, and also supplied members of her own immediate retinue, well skilled in the work to supervise the building which was, of course, to be carried out with the utmost secrecy and speed, so as to guard as far as practicable against the possible destruction of the factories and dockyards by the Aryans. The Sultan had engaged to find money and material for building 8,000 airships, and the same number of submarine cruisers within the year, and these were to be supplied with motive power at conversion stations established at the dockyards under the exclusive control of certain of Olga's lieutenants. The secret of this motive power which was identical, say, for slight differences in the process of conversion with that possessed by the Aryans, that is to say, electrical energy derived directly from atomized carbon and vaporized petroleum was retained in her own keeping by Olga, who had simply promised that an unlimited supply of it should be forthcoming as it was wanted. She had insisted on a strict engagement that no one, not authorized by her, should even approach the conversion stations, and she had given the Sultan and his ministers distinctly to understand that any attempt to discover the secret of the process would terminate the alliance and expose the cities of the Muslim Empire to destruction. At the expiration of the Year of Truths, the Sultan's army and navy, supported by the immense aerial fleet that would then be in existence, was to be in complete readiness for any emergencies. Olga was to be proclaimed Tsarina in Moscow and the House of Romanov formally restored in her person. If any portion of Russia refused to receive her, they were to be terrorized into submission by the airships. The tribesmen of Western and Central Asia were to be armed as rapidly as possible, so as to be ready to form a reserve force for compelling the submission of the Russians if they resisted the new order of things, and to participate in the invasion of Europe, which was to take place at several points, as soon as the Holy War of Islam was proclaimed, and the Cross and Crescent once more confronted each other on the battlefield. Meanwhile, too, the resources of the dockyard at Mount Terror were to be strained to the utmost, and the conspiracy in Russia for the restoration of Olga to the throne of the Romanos was to be developed by every means that money could purchase or skill devise. The scheme of defence arranged by the Council of Area had already been completed, and it was to execute this, that the Aryan fleet had left the Russian squadron during the night. Indeed, the Russians had been travelling southward alone for more than eight hours before they had discovered the fact. As soon as it became impossible for them to see the Aryan vessels, these had stopped, in accordance with a pre-arranged plan. And had wheeled round and steered for London across the African continent at a height of about 10,000 feet. Flying at the full speed of the smaller vessels, a 20-hour flight carried the fleet over the 8,000 miles which separated its starting point from the capital of the world, and about six o'clock in the evening of the 21st of May, the 52 vessels flying the Aryan and British flags appeared in the air over the open space, which is now called Hyde Park. And, to the amazement of the astonished citizens, dropped quietly to the earth and lay open to the unrestricted inspection of the thousands who speedily gathered in the park to avail themselves of the unwanted spectacle, and to learn, if possible, the reason of the unexpected visit. No attempt was made by the crews of the ships to prevent the sightseers from seeing all they could of the exteriors of the vessels, which were arranged on the sword in two long lines, so that they could walk down between them and admire their beautiful shape and wonderful construction at their leisure. A sentry was stationed by each vessel to warn the sightseers not to approach too close to the wings and propellers, and that was the only precaution taken. Allen learned soon after landing that King Albert II, the fourth in descent from Edward VII, who was king during the War of the Terror, was at Windsor, and that the House of Commons and the Senate, which for over a hundred years had filled the place of the old House of Lords, had dissolved for the spring recess, and would not meet again until after the general election, which was held every first of June. He therefore caused a message to be sent to His Majesty at Windsor, requesting him to name a time for an interview on the following day, and then sufficient watches having been set on all the vessels he and Alexis, with the majority of the crew, took a few hours leave, not a little glad of the opportunity of stretching their legs on terra firma after their three days' confinement to the airships. The reply which he received from the King fixed eleven o'clock in the morning of the twenty-second as the time of the interview for which he had asked, and, just as the castle-clock was beginning to sound the strokes of the hour, the aetherials swept up out of the distance towards Windsor Castle, and, after hovering for a moment in mid-air, sank quietly down, until she rested on that portion of the terrace, which overlooks the home park. Her arrival had been announced to the King as soon as she hoved in sight, and he was on the terrace ready to receive his visitors when she alighted. Albert II, King of England, Emperor of Britain, and President of the Anglo-Saxon Federation, was a monarch only in name. Nothing but the trappings of sovereignty remained to himself or his station, and he would not have retained these had it not been for the fact that, during its hundred years of actual rule, the Supreme Council had insisted upon the maintenance of the monarchical principle in those countries where it had obtained at the end of the nineteenth century. The first formal greetings over, the King caused Alan to be escorted to his private apartments in the castle, and as soon as they were alone together in the room which he reserved for his own special use, he motioned Alan to seat, and, throwing himself back upon a lounge with an air of weariness which accorded but ill with the hour of the day, he said, in a somewhat quarrelous tone, We are quite alone now, and you can speak with perfect freedom. I am sure it must be important business that has brought you here with a whole fleet of your airships, and I should be glad if you can tell me at once what it is. I hope nothing has occurred to imperil our peace and safety. On the contrary, Your Majesty, replied Alan, I regret to say that my errand is to tell you that not only is that the case, but that it is a practical certainty that within twelve months from now the whole world will be plunged into war. What? What? exclaimed the King, jerking himself up to a sitting posture. Surely you don't mean that. I thought that no war would be possible without the permission of your council. Surely you would not allow the nations of the world to go to war with each other again, and repeat all the horrors that happened a hundred and thirty years ago. Your Majesty forgets that when we renounced the control of the world six years ago, we gave back to the nations the right of making war upon each other, although we hardly believed that they would be foolish enough and wicked enough to exercise it. That, however, is beside the question, because war is now inevitable and what is even more important, the Council of Aria is unhappily powerless to prevent it. Eh, what is that? exclaimed the King, this time rising to his feet and facing Alan with an air of petulant reproach. Powerless to prevent it? You, with all your fleets of airships and submarine vessels, you who have called yourself the masters of the world for nearly a century and a half, you cannot stop war? We cannot do so, Your Majesty, said Alan, also rising to his feet. Simply, because I regret to say that we no longer possess the undisputed empire of the air, and therefore, in a measure at least, we have lost the command of the world. As for the responsibility which your words impute to us, I must tell you, at once, that it does not exist. The rulers of the world and yourself among them voluntarily and with full knowledge accepted perfect freedom, and therefore the individual responsibility that is inseparable from it. You knew that from the time we resigned the world throne you were free to make war upon each other on land and by sea. It is your fault, and not ours, that you are now so defenseless, that you have caused to fear the war against which you ask us to protect you. You have known for nearly four years that the Sultan of Islam has been creating armies and fleets, and diligently training millions of his subjects in that art of war which we hoped was to be forgotten for ever among men. Did you suppose, you kings and princes of the Anglo-Saxon Federation that Caled the Magnificent, a man of boundless ambition, was creating these armies and fleets simply to play with them? Could you not see that nothing but some dream of worldwide conquest could be inspiring him to do this? And do you need to be told that the realms of Christendom offered him the only possible areas of conquest in the world? What have you done to defend yourself or to prepare against a possible day of battle? You have done nothing, saving your international police, now little more than an ornamental body of officials. The Federation does not possess a single soldier. You have seen the Sultan building battleships and arming them with the deadliest weapons that skill and science could divide and you, with all your wealth and skill and knowledge, have not built a single vessel that would be of use in time of war. I understand that the Council has warned you again and again that the Sultan's designs could not have been peaceable, and yet your parliaments have not voted a single pound for the defence of your homes and your riches. Yes, broke in the King, now in an apologetic tone, for he was completely cowed by the direct earnest force of Alan's reproving words. That is it. You must blame myself or my fellow Monarchs. You must blame the parliaments. We can do nothing without them. And have you served all the power that formerly belonged at Kings? It is this democracy that has weakened us and left us defenseless. Every man thinks himself a ruler and says there are no rulers except in name. Every man has a vote, therefore every man must be consulted about everything, and so nothing can be done, but what the multitude wishes. They want only riches, splendid buildings and cities, light work and comfortable lives. That is all they have cared about, and so this is all they have got. If we, their kings and duly appointed rulers, could have done as we wished to do, affairs would have been very different. But it is impossible to rule where every man fancies himself a king. That is but a poor excuse, King Albert, replied Alan sternly, and yet somewhat sadly. It is the old story of Greece and Rome and Byzantium over again. The weakness of the rulers has been the strength of the demagogues, and that has always spelled national decay from the days of Cleon until now. I might ask you how it comes that Sultan Calid has been able to keep his millions of subjects in hand, and to be today the sole actual ruler of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. But neither you nor I have any more time to waste, either in reproaching each other or regretting what cannot now be held. No, said the king, almost appealingly. It is quite right, quite right. Tell me, if you please, what has really happened to bring about this terrible danger which threatens us, and let us see if we cannot yet protect ourselves. You can make such preparations as will at least enable you to meet your enemies on equal terms, replied Alan, following the king's example and seating himself again. And it is to put before you a necessary scheme of defence that I have come here, and when I have described it you will see that we Aryans have not forgotten that our ancestors once led Anglo-Saxandum to the conquest of the world. Pray proceed, said the king, sitting on his lounge again. I can assure you that I am all attention. Alan then began and told in detail all that was necessary for the king to know of what had happened during the last six years, concluding with a graphic narrative of startling vividness, of the marvellous and momentous events that had been crowded so thickly into the last twenty-one days. It would not be saying too much to state that the close of the recycle which he had listened to with the most anxious attention left King Albert in a state of nervous excitement that bordered closely upon absolute panic. He had heard enough to show him that the splendid fabric of Anglo-Saxand civilization would, if left in its present defenceless state, totter and fall, like a house of cards at the first onslaught of its powerful and disciplined enemies. He saw that its wealth and splendour, like those of the effete empires of old, were a source of weakness and not of strength, a temptation to its foes and an encumbrance to itself. Then as Alan went on to describe the scheme of defence proposed by the council of Aria, he seemed to find support and consolation in the quiet, masterful tones of the man who, without a tremor in his voice, could calmly discuss the prospect of war which would involve the whole of humanity in one colossal struggle, which could have no other result than an indescribably appalling loss of human life and the complete subjection, if not destruction, of those who were vanquished in it. Yet, when he had finished, King Albert shook his head sadly and doubtfully and said, Yes, yes, it is a splendid scheme, a scheme worthy of you and your wonderful race, but it can only be accomplished if our parliaments agree together to sanction it and support it. I hope with all my heart that they will do so, but I sadly fear that not even your influence and the fearful danger which threatens them will make them agree one with another. Over late years, since the power of the democracy has increased so enormously, they wrangle for weeks over the smallest matters of municipal government. As for national policy, they seem to have forgotten what it means. I may be wrong, and with all my soul I hope I am. But I sadly fear they will never consent to what they will call a military despotism, even to save themselves. The elections take place during the last four days of this month, and by that time the news that you have brought me shall be published everywhere, so that the people may know what is before them, but everything will depend upon the men and women whom they return to parliament. Ah, interrupted Alan, stroking his beard to conceal a smile. I had forgotten of the moment you have lady legislators now as well as male ones. We were un-gallant enough to refuse them admittance to the parliament during our period of control. Yes, said the king, with a smile that had but little mirth in it. But we have progressed fast since then, in our parliament men and women were almost equally balanced in both chambers, and scarcely any business was done during the year. Which proves, said Alan, that what was called our discontency and unfairness was not so very unwise after all. The interview ended shortly after this remark, for the time for action had already arrived. Alan had learnt enough from the king's own lips to see that he was merely a crowned puppet in the hands of the rival parties, which contended in both chambers for the favour of the democracy and the continuance of office. He therefore saw further that, if anything was to be done in working out the scheme of international defence, he would have to take the initiative. As full discretion had been given to him in his commission from the council of area, he did not scruple, to half persuade and half frighten the king into investing him with such authority as he could give, and armed with this. He went to work that very day with a vigor and promptness, which amazed the feeble monarch and raised a storm of indignation among the members of the two chambers who were seeking re-election. A very short experience of these people proved to him that nothing must be hoped from them. Day after day he met committees and deputations of them who argued with him, and wrangled among themselves until he was utterly disgusted and out of patience with them. At last, on the evening of the twenty-seventh, after he had spent the whole day in striving to convince a joint committee consisting of twenty members of each chamber of the tremendous danger which threatened the federation and the immediate and urgent necessity of united action in preparing to meet it, he lost the last remnants of his temper, and springing to his feet he faced them, with anger in his eyes and scorn on his lips, and said, We have talked enough, ladies and gentlemen. I came here, expecting to find the old spirit of Anglo-Saxondom still alive, and as far as you are concerned I find it dead. You are not patriots or competent rulers. You are simply members of a noisy and verbose debating society. When absolute destruction at the hands of a well-armed and implacable foe is threatening your country and your allies, you talk of averting the calamity by discussion and arbitration, instead of armed resistance, by all means discuss and arbitrate if you can, but also prepare for battle in case it proves, as I am certain it will prove, to be inevitable. Do you suppose that the lamb can argue with the wolf, or that the rich and defenceless man can save his wealth from the armed plunderers, by mere force of argument, or an appeal to his moral sense? If you do, you are something worse than simple. You are guilty of folly which is a crime against those who have committed their affairs to your keeping. But I, like most of my people, have Anglo-Saxon blood in my veins, and I will not leave my kindred defenceless. I bear an English name, and that name and my descent shall be my title, to do what I now tell you I am going to do. In my own person, and with the full authority in sanction of the Council of Area and your own lawful monarch, I here and now reassert the supremacy over the realms of Anglo-Saxon them, which my father resigned in St Paul's Cathedral six years and a half ago. Hold your elections if you choose, and conduct your noisy pretence at government according to your own tastes, but do not expect me to be guided or bound by any enactments that you may choose to make. You may call this a revolution, if you will, so it is, but remember that your foolishness has made it necessary. I can make Anglo-Saxon them ready to meet its enemies on equal terms when the day of battle comes, as come it surely will in less than twelve months from now, and, God helping me, I will do it. You either cannot or will not do this, but I will take good care that you do not prevent it being done. I believe that the old spirit which won the Armageddon of 1904 still survives in Anglo-Saxon breasts, and I believe that it will respond to the call to arms which shall be heard throughout the length and breadth of the federation before another son has set. Tomorrow I shall take possession of the means of intercommunication, and I warn you that you will oppose me at your peril. You know that I have a force at command before which you are as helpless as the worms that crawl in the earth, and as there is a heaven above me I will use it without roof or scruple if I see that the interests of Anglo-Saxon them require me to do so. You have your choice to act with me or to remain neutral, oppose me and I will destroy you as traitors and enemies to your country and your race. So saying, Alan turned his back upon the committees, and strode out of the room in which he had met them, leaving them speechless with anger and dismay. End of chapter 20