Every moment they grew
bigger. Then the white-crested waves began to move, and the big ocean
steamers and full-rigged sailing ships looked less and less like toys.
Just under them there was a very big one with four funnels pouring out
dense volumes of black smoke. Redgrave took up a pair of glasses, looked
at her for a moment and said:
"That's the _Deutschland_, the new Hamburg-American record-breaker.
Suppose we go down and have a lark with her. I wonder if she's taking
news of the war. We're in with Germany, and they may know something
about it."
"That would be just too lovely!" said Zaidie. "Let's go and show them
how _we_ can break records. I suppose they've seen us by this time and
are just wondering with all their wits what we are. I guess they'll feel
pretty tired about poor Count Zeppelin's balloon when they see _us_."
Redgrave noted the "we" and the "us" with much secret satisfaction.
"All right," he said, "we'll go and give them a bit of a startler."
In front of the conning-tower there was a steel flagstaff about ten feet
high, with halliards rove through a sheer in the top. He took a little
roll of bunting out of a locker under the desk, opened a glass slide,
brought in the halliards and bent the flag on.
Meanwhile the long shape of the great liner was getting bigger and
bigger. Her decks were black, with people staring up at this strange
apparition which was dropping upon them from the clouds.
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