Louis_ to fall in with a French or Russian cruiser----"
"That's all right, Captain," said Lord Redgrave, taking his hand. "I
should have warned any other British or American ship. At the same time,
I must confess that my motives in warning you were not entirely
unselfish. The fact is, there's some one on board the _St. Louis_ whom I
should decidedly object to see taken off to France as a prisoner of
war."
"And may I ask who that is?" said Captain Hawkins.
"Why not?" replied his lordship. "It's the young lady I spoke to on deck
just now, Miss Rennick. Her father was the inventor of that craft of
mine. No one would believe his theories. He was refused patents both in
England and America on the ground of lack of practical utility. I met
him about two years ago, that is to say rather more than a year before
his death, when I was stopping at Banff up in the Canadian Rockies. We
made a travellers' acquaintance, and he told me about this idea of his.
I was very much interested, but I'm afraid I must confess that I might
not have taken it up practically if the Professor hadn't happened to
possess an exceedingly beautiful daughter. However, of course I'm pretty
glad now that I did do it; though the experiments cost nearly five
thousand pounds and the craft herself close on a quarter of a million.
Still, she is worth every penny of it, and I was bringing her over to
offer to Miss Rennick as a wedding present, that is to say if she'd have
it--and me.
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