Fluid from the chemicals which they had
placed at his disposal.
It would, of course, have been quite possible for him and Zaidie to have
taken steamer northward to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and returned to
New York and Washington _via_ Jamaica. The British Admiral even offered
to place his fastest cruiser at their disposal for a run to San
Francisco, whence the Overland Limited would have landed them in New
York in four days and a half, but Zaidie vetoed this as quickly as she
had done the other proposition. If she had her way the _Astronef_ should
go back to Washington as she had left it, by means of her own motive
force, and so, of course, it came to pass.
Even Murgatroyd's grim and homely features seemed irradiated by a glow
of what he afterwards thought unholy pride when he once more stood by
his levers and heard the familiar signal coming from the conning-tower.
"A tenth."
And then--"Stand by steering-gear."
The next moment there was another tinkle in the engine-room.
Redgrave, standing with Zaidie in the conning-tower, moved the
power-wheel through ten degrees, and then to the amazement of tens of
thousands of spectators, the hull of the _Astronef_ rose perpendicularly
from the waters of the Bay. The British Squadron and a detachment of the
Chilian fleet thundered out a salute which was answered a few moments
later by the shore batteries, Redgrave went down into the deck-chamber
and fired twenty-one shots from one of the Maxim-Nordenfelts--the same
with which he had mown down the crowds of Martians in the square of
their great city a hundred and thirty million miles away, and while he
was doing this Zaidie in the conning-tower ran the White Ensign up to
the top of the flagstaff.
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