Page:Guy Boothby - The Beautiful White Devil.djvu/198

 bells in the bowels of the ship, and before a minute could have elapsed we were under weigh once more.

And what do you think was the reason of all this commotion? Why, there, not half a mile distant from us, full steam up, and ensign streaming in the breeze, lay an enormous English man-of-war. She was evidently on our trail, and, by altering her course only half a point, might have run us down in the fog. It was very evident she had only just become aware that she was so close to her prey, or she would surely have sent a boat and attempted to take us prisoner. As it was, this sudden lifting of the fog must have caused them as much surprise as it did us, for it was a good minute before we heard the shouting of orders and blowing of bo'sun's pipes aboard her. As soon as I had recovered from my astonishment, I fetched a glass from the rack and brought it to bear on her, at the same time convincing myself that we were in for a warm quarter of an hour.

True to our expectations, before we had been steaming a couple of minutes there came a puff of smoke from her port bow, and an instant later a shot flew in front of us and dropped into the water a mile or so on our left side. It was evidently a signal to us to heave to without any nonsense or further waste of time. But as the boom of the gun died away, Alie made her appearance from the after-companion and came over to where I stood.

"Good-morning, Dr. De Normanville!" she said, as calmly as if we were greeting each other in Hyde Park. "You see how anxious your government is to have me in its keeping. Mr. Patterson, full steam ahead!"