Page:The King in Yellow (1895).djvu/45

Rh impudent little tugs puffing and whistling officiously;—these were the crafts which churned the sunlit waters as far as the eye could reach. In calm contrast to the hurry of sailing vessel and steamer a silent fleet of white warships lay motionless in midstream.

Constance’s merry laugh aroused me from my reverie.

“What are you staring at?” she inquired.

“Nothing—the fleet,” I smiled.

Then Louis told us what the vessels were, pointing out each by its relative position to the old Red Fort on Governor’s Island.

“That little cigar-shaped thing is a torpedo boat,” he explained; “there are four more lying close together. They are the ‘Tarpon,’ the ‘Falcon,’ the ‘Sea Fox’ and the ‘Octopus.’ The gun-boats just above are the ‘Princeton,’ the ‘Champlain,’ the ‘Still Water’ and the ‘Erie.’ Next to them lie the cruisers ‘Farragut’ and ‘Los Angeles,’ and above them the battle-ships ‘California’ and ‘Dakota,’ and the ‘Washington’ which is the flag-ship. Those two squatty-looking chunks of metal which are anchored there off Castle William are the double-turreted monitors ‘Terrible’ and ‘Magnificent’; behind them lies the ram, ‘Osceola.

Constance looked at him with deep approval in her beautiful eyes. “What loads of things you know for a soldier,” she said, and we all joined in the laugh which followed.

Presently Louis rose with a nod to us and offered his arm to Constance, and they strolled away along the river wall. Hawberk watched them for a moment and then turned to me.

“Mr. Wilde was right,” he said. “I have