Evening star., 1925-01-05

a reason for going home via London,
I had heard that Lord Almeric was
intending another visit to America
and l thought if he could make his
arrangements suit it would be a good
| notion to take him over on the
Merlin.
1 radioed to Sir Thomas telling him
to expect us, and on the Thursday
evening Dan and l were closeted with
him and Lord Almeric in the room at
Scotland Yard
The chief of the British C. I. D. had
not wasted any time. we found. He
had badgered the authorities into fit
ting up his planes with airtight bodies
and supplying them with oxygen, and
he had had instrument makers set to
the task of turning out Dams pro-
tective apparatus. Our discussion
with him, and our description of the
fight, helped to clear up some points
that had been puzzling him. We came
away from Scotland Yard in the
knowledge that our visit there had
not been a waste of time.
From Lord Almeric we heard that
business in Britain was at a stand
still, and that factories and CONNER
cial houses were closing down all
over the country. Prices In the stock
markets were lower than they had
ever been, good industrial securities
gilt-edged being sold at prices that
made them look like wildcat oil
stock. The damage to the country in
lost trade represented millions, Lord
Almeric declared, and the setback
would be felt long after the raiders
We're scotched. The state of affairs
was out of all proportion to the dam
age done actually in the raids, and
could only be attributed to a kind of
panic.
AS a result of the London raid and
of the affair in the House of Com
mons, the government had fallen. 1t
had been laughed out of office, though
ostensibly its fall was due to a defeat
on some quite unimportant measure.
The press devoted columns to the
raids now, and printed the opinions
of wise men, foolish men, well known
men, obscure men, of how the out
RACES were carried out and how they
could be stopped, with fantastic theo-
ries on both sides. 1t was even sug-
gested that the raiders had come from
Mars. The change of tone from the
time of the New York raid was. to say
the least of it, remarkable.
Unobtrusively as we made our en-
try into London, neither Dan nor
nor Milliken escaped the attentions of
the newspaper men. They hung round
us like flies, infesting our vicinity at
meal times, seeing us to bed and
greeting us on our awaking. We
were glad when at last on the Saturday
morning we could get Lord Almeric
aboard and be off across the Atlantic
We made straight for Washington,
where my passenger was to meet my
father and several other bankers Our
voyage was quite uneventful and
placid, and we arrived on the Potomac
basin just before Z on the Saturday
evening, American time.
II.
It was good to get back to Wash
ington and find not only my father,
but Kirsteen Terrence waiting for US
on the landing stage. Four weeks
all but a day had elapsed since our
setting out on our venture, and, to me
at least, a shadow of failure lay on
our return. AT any rate, l was a lit
tie shy of meeting Miss Torrance's
level glance. There was that in her
welcome of us, however, after she had
greeted Lord Almeric with affection,
which quickly swept away all sense
of having failed. To Milliken, always
her favorite, she had so much to say
that he was at his blackest of coun-
tenance with embarrassed delight. 1
thought he would burst something.
The old man, too, seemed to think
we had not done badly. In the casual
heartiness of his greeting, l thought
1 could discern something of salts
faction-of pride, even-at our ex-
ploit.
Dinner that evening at the White
House was a sort of reunion. The
President, kirsteen, Lord Almeric,
my father, Danny and myself, all
somehow linked up with the task in
hand, composed the party-and one
big fellow named Seton.
Now in the four weeks that we had
been away from Washington l had
thought a good deal about kristen
Torrance, and 1 may admit here and
now that / had come back to her with
an absolute certainty that life with
out her would for me be Incomplete
When the Merlin was streaking down
on the airship that Sunday morning,
it had come to me very clearly just
what Kirsteen stood for-and that
was pretty nigh everything. 1 won't
elaborate on the theme. I'll leave it
just so.
1t was with a pang of dismay,
therefore, that 1 heard Commander
Seton introduced as an old friend of
both Kirsteen and Lord Almeric, and
saw the satisfaction the big English
man and she had in each others com
teresting, there's nothing can make
him feel so hopeless about his chances
with her as to hear her talk with an
other man, DO you remember-?'
bulkfng largely in the conversation.
Seton and Kirsteen were old enough
friends for that.
1t would have been a mean thing
to get up any dislike of Commander
Seton. AS he listened TO the story
that Dan and 1 had to tell, it became
very evident that the stranger was
no layman in the matter of aeronau-
tics. His comments were practical to
a degree, and his questions shrewdly
knowledgable. Not only that, but
under the lethargy which sometimes
is to be seen in big men of his sort,
there lay a mental alertness that
promised he could move his big frame
with lightning quickness in an emer-
Sency. He gave an impression Of
being very much a man.
The only point that Dan and I held
back from the general company was
regarding his idea for getting round
the electric ray of the raiders. 1 can't
say what 1t was that moved us to this
piece of reticence, unless it was Just
the presence of Seton. But this was
the very point that the big English
man brought up later in conversation
with me. when Kirsteen had brought
US together, saying that we should
find much in common.
That is a curious fact about all
four machines being sent down with
engine trouble, Mr.. Boon" said Seton.
1T seems, indeed, to point to some
weapon of the kind imagined by your
friend Lamont"
Yes" said J. THE raiders them
selves knew our engine would be all