If he wasn't the most
whole-souled Wesleyan that Yorkshire ever produced, I believe he'd
become an idolater and worship the _Astronef's_ engines."
"And who is Murgatroyd, please?"
"In the first place he is what I might call an hereditary retainer of
the House of Redgrave. His ancestors have served mine for the last seven
hundred years. When my ancestors were burglar-barons, his were
men-at-arms. When we went on the Crusades they went too; when we raised
a regiment for the King against the Parliament they were naturally the
first to enlist in it; and as we gradually settled down into peaceful
respectability they did the same. Lastly, when we went into trade as
ironmasters and engineers they went in too. This Murgatroyd, for
instance, was master-foreman of my works at Smeaton, and he was the only
man I dared trust with the secrets of the _Astronef_, and the only one I
would trust myself on board her with, and that's why we're a crew of
two. You see the command of a vessel like this is a fairly big business,
and if it got into the wrong sort of hands----"
"Yes, I see," said Zaidie with a little nod. "It would be just too awful
to think about. Why you might keep the world in terror with it; but I
know you wouldn't do that, because, for one thing, I wouldn't let you."
"Gently, gently, Ma'm'selle; permit me most humbly to remind you that
you are still my prisoner, and that I am still Commander of the
_Astronef_.
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