Another minute
and the _Astronef_ had dropped to within five hundred feet of the water,
and about half a mile astern of the _Deutschland_. Redgrave turned the
wheel back two or three inches and touched a second button.
The _Astronef_ stopped her descent instantly, and then she shot forward.
The new greyhound was making her twenty-two and a half knots, hurling a
broad white torrent of foam away from under her counters. But in half a
minute the _Astronef_ was alongside her.
Redgrave ran the roll of bunting up to the top of the flagstaff, pulled
one of the halliards, and the White Ensign of England floated out.
Almost at the same moment the German flag went up to the staff at the
stern of the _Deutschland_, and they heard a roar of cheers, mingled
with cries of wonder, come up from her swarming decks.
Each flag was dipped thrice in due course. Redgrave took off his cap and
bowed to the Captain on the bridge. Zaidie nodded and fluttered her
handkerchief in reply to hundreds of others that were waving on the
decks. Mrs. Van Stuyler woke up in wonder and waved hers instinctively,
half longing to change crafts. In fact, if it hadn't been for her
absolute devotion to the proprieties she would have obeyed her first
impulse and asked Lord Redgrave to put her on board the steamer.
While the officers and crew and passengers of the _Deutschland_ were
staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the graceful glittering shape of
the _Astronef_, Redgrave touched the first button in the second row
once, moved the 100-degree wheel on a few degrees, and then gave the
other a quarter turn.
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