"May I come below with you, sir, and explain? It has been rather delicate work, but we've got it through all right, I think." "Then keep your sword for the present, and come and tell me what you have to say." Captain Merrill followed the Admiral to his room, and told the story of the taking of the Oscarburg--a very easy matter with a hundred bluejackets at his back--the capture of Oscarovitch, who was now in a straight waistcoat on board his own yacht, the rescue of Prince Zastrow and Nitocris, and---- "The other Nitocris is following, sir," he concluded. "I thought I had better take the yacht. She can make a good thirty-five knots, and that's useful when you're in a hurry. And now, sir, I am at your disposal." "Rubbish!" said the Admiral, holding out his hand. "Captain Merrill, I don't quite know how you've done it, but you've saved Europe, and perhaps the world, from war. If you hadn't brought those two princes of yours to-night, we should have been fighting Germany for the possession of Kronstadt before mid-day to-morrow. Those were the orders. Now, of course, they can do nothing, as you have brought Prince Zastrow back from the dead. He's their choice, and you had better get him and the other away to London as soon as I have seen them, and you can take my report with you on that thirty-five knotter after breakfast to-morrow morning. Now, it's getting late. I'll say good-night." EPILOGUE The double wedding which took place at St George's, Hanover Square, the following June was one of the most brilliant functions of the year. Their Majesties of Russia and Great Britain graced the ceremony with their presence, and, as a special act of grace to the man who, with Franklin Marmion's help, had saved the world from what might have been one of the bloodiest wars in history, H.M.S. _Nitocris_ was put into commission for a cruise, the object of which was anything rather than warlike. Two of the happiest couples on land or sea made the round of the world in her. Before they returned Princess Hermia had taken the last of Phadrig's drug and lain down to sleep never to wake again, and in the fullness of her happiness Nitocris pardoned Oscar Oscarovitch, and allowed him to die. THE END Supernatural & Occult Fiction An Arno Press Collection Ainsworth, W[illiam] Harrison. ~Auriol~: Or, The Elixir of Life. [c. 1892] Arlen, Michael. ~Ghost Stories~. [1932] Balzac, Honore de. Horace de Saint-Aubin, pseud. ~The Centenarian~; Or, The Two Beringhelds. Translated from the original 1822 French edition by George Edgar Slusser. 1976 Beck, L[ily Moresby] Adams. ~The Ninth Vibration, and Other Stories~. 1922 Benson, E[dward] F[rederick]. ~Spook Stories~. [1928] Blackwood, Algernon. ~The Centaur~. 1911 Blackwood, Algernon. ~Strange Stories~. 1929 Boothby, Guy. ~Pharos, The Egyptian~. 1899 ~The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes~; Or, The Conspirators of Old London, [c. 1876]