“Baron Von Eulaw and wife came on board as we were starting. He has delirium tremens, and is locked in cabin with her. Refuses to board launch, and threatens to shoot her if we break down door. We can kill him with a rifle through the skylight. We wait orders.” The face of David Morning was white with the whiteness of death, but, with a voice in which there was scarcely a tremor, he addressed himself to the commander of the _Siva_. “Captain, how far are we from the _Esmeralda_?” “About a mile, sir.” “How long will it be before the explosion?” “Twenty-two minutes, sir.” “Is there any way by which the torpedoes now fastened to her can be removed, or their explosion prevented, captain?” “None whatever, sir.” “Captain, signal the _Esmeralda_ to have riflemen in place, but not to shoot the baron unless he offers violence to his wife. Signal her also to slacken speed while we run down to her. Signal the fleet to slacken speed, and fall behind. Get out a boat with crew to put me on board the _Esmeralda_.” There was a rapid fluttering of scarlet flags from main and foretops, and the orders were obeyed. “I will go with you, Mr. Morning,” said the captain of the _Siva_. “And so will I, and I, and I,” came in chorus from a dozen officers and guests who had remained breathless auditors of the conversation. “No,” said Morning quietly, “I will go alone. I do not propose to risk a single one of these valuable lives, or this ship.” Morning picked up a coil of light rope from where it hung on a belaying pin, and descended into the boat, which, with crew in place, was now suspended a few feet from the water. “Captain,” said he, “as soon as we are launched you will steam away with the _Siva_, and rejoin the fleet: The steam launch towed by the _Esmeralda_ will be sufficient to provide for the safety of all. Run us as close to the _Esmeralda_ as you can, captain, before you drop us,” and Morning rapidly knotted a slip noose in the rope. Clang! clang! clang! sounded the signal to reverse the engines; the _Siva_ glided alongside and within three hundred feet of the _Esmeralda_, and the boat containing David Morning dropped gently into the foaming water. Clang! again went the gong, and by the time David Morning sprang up the ladder at the companion-way of the _Esmeralda_, the _Siva_ was half a mile away. As the foot of Morning touched the deck of the doomed vessel, it lacked thirteen minutes of the time set for the explosion. “What is the situation?” said Morning to the captain of the _Esmeralda_.