Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/164

 boiler-rooms the half-naked stokers ceaselessly feed the greedy fires.

The cruiser has reached the limit of her speed.

How is it with the Semiramis?

For a time the America seems to hold her own and even to gain slightly. But the advantage is transitory. The yacht still apparently has speed in reserve. Once more she leaps forward and not again is opportunity afforded the America's people to view her gleaming sides.

For another hour both vessels are driven at their highest speed. The Semiramis continues to gain upon the America, and is now nearly a quarter of a mile ahead.

Half an hour later Capt. Meade sees a flag run up to the masthead of the vanishing yacht. He gives an order and the cruiser's forward gun booms a salute.

"What do you make of that ensign, Mr. Smith?" inquires the commander, turning to the second officer.

"A strange flag, sir, not the flag of any nation that I recall," is the reply.

"Ah, I have it," suddenly exclaims the captain. "Well, she is a great craft and magnificently handled. The America made a gallant fight against odds and lost; but you can say, Mr. Ashley," as that individual ascends the steps to the bridge, "that the America has broken all records in the navies of the world, and for two consecutive hours has exceeded twenty-seven knots an hour. Yonder craft has beaten that time, but she has not the heavy armament of the America."

"What was the ensign she ran up a moment ago, captain?" Ashley asks.

"That, sir," replies Capt. Meade, "was the flag of Cuba Libre, the emblem of the sometime republic of the Antilles!"