"See that thing? She's trying to get the drop on us. Full speed ahead: I'm going to rise. Hold on, gentlemen." They held on. The Tsar saw the jumping searchlights, which flashed up from the little grey shape to the southward, suddenly fall away and below them. The Admiral touched the wheel with his left hand, and the _Auriole_ sprang forward. The other tried to do the same, but she seemed to droop and fall behind. Admiral Hingeston took down the receiver again and said: "Ready--starboard guns--now: fire!" Of course, there was no report; only a brilliant blaze of light to the southward, and an atmospheric shock which made the _Auriole_ shudder as she passed on her way. The Tsar looked out to the spot where the blaze of flame had burst out. The other airship had vanished. "She has gone. That is awful," he said, with a shake in his voice. "As I said before, I'm sorry, your Majesty," replied the Admiral, "but it had to be done. If he'd got the top side of us we should have been in as little pieces as he is now. I only hope it's John Castellan's craft. If it is it will save a lot of trouble to both sides." The Tsar did not reply. He was too busy thinking, and so was Lord Kitchener. That night there were divided counsels in the headquarters of the Allies at Aldershot, and the Kaiser and his colleagues went to bed between two and three in the morning without having come to anything like a definite decision. As a matter of fact, within the last few hours things had become a little too complicated to be decided upon in anything like a hurry. While the potentates of the Alliance were almost quarrelling as to what was to be done, the _Auriole_ paid a literally flying visit to the British positions, and then the hospitals. At Caversham, Lennard found Norah Castellan taking her turn of night duty by the bedside of Lord Westerham, who had, after all, got through his desperate ride with a couple of bullets through his right ribs, and a broken left arm; but he had got his despatches in all the same, though nearly two hours late--for which he apologised before he fainted. In one of the wards at Windsor Camp he found Auriole, also on night duty, nursing with no less anxious care the handsome young Captain of Uhlans who had taken Lord Whittinghame's car in charge in Rochester. Mrs O'Connor had got a badly-wounded Russian Vice-Admiral all to herself, and, as she modestly put it, was doing very nicely with him.