“Oh, yes, Madam.”

“If twenty or thirty determined men were landed on the stairway, do you think they could capture the garrison?”

“Yes, if they were landed secretly, but one or two soldiers at the top with repeating rifles might hold the stairway against an army, while their ammunition lasted.”

“But if a shell were fired from the steamer, might not the attacking company get inside during the confusion among the defenders?”

“That is possible, Madam, but a private steamer firing shells, or, indeed, landing a hostile company, runs danger of meeting the fate of a pirate.”

“You would not care to try it, then?”

“I?  Oh, I should be delighted to try it, if you allow me to select the crew.  I can easily get aboard the small arms and ammunition necessary, but I am not so sure about the cannon.”

“Very good.  I need not warn you to be extremely cautious regarding those you take into your confidence.  Meanwhile, I wish you to communicate with the official who is authorized to sell the yacht.  I am expecting a gentleman to-morrow in whose name the vessel will probably be bought, and I am hoping he will accept the captaincy of it.”

“Is he capable of filling that position, Madam?  Is he a sailor?”

“He was for many years captain in the United States Navy.  I offer you the position of mate, but I will give you captain’s pay, and a large bonus in addition if you faithfully carry out my plans, whether they prove successful or not.  I wish you to come here at this hour to-morrow, with whoever is authorized to sell or charter the steamer.  You may say I am undecided whether to buy or charter.  I must consult Captain Kempt on that point.”

“Thank you, Madam, I shall be here this time to-morrow.”

CHAPTER XIII

 Entrapped

Prince Ivan Lermontoff came to consider the explosion one of the luckiest things that had ever occurred in his workshop.  Its happening so soon after he reached St. Petersburg he looked upon as particularly fortunate, because this gave him time to follow the new trend of thought along which his mind had been deflected by such knowledge as the unexpected outcome of his experiment had disclosed to him.  The material he had used as a catalytic agent was a new substance which he had read of in a scientific review, and he had purchased a small quantity of it in London.  If such a minute portion produced results so tremendous, he began to see that a man with an apparently innocent material in his waistcoat pocket might probably be able to destroy a naval harbor, so long as water and stone were in conjunction.  There was also a possibility that a small quantity of ozak, as the stuff was called, mixed with pure water, would form a reducing agent for limestone, and perhaps for other minerals, which would work much quicker than if the liquid was merely impregnated with carbonic acid gas.  He endeavored