Prologue—the Two Empresses“Look!”
A fair, delicately-molded hand, on which glittered gems worth a
raja’s loyalty, was extended in the direction of the sea.
Half a mile out, where the light ripples melted away into a blue
and white haze upon the water, a small black smudge, like the back
of a porpoise, seemed to be sliding along the surface.
But it was not a porpoise, for out of it there rose a thin,
black shaft, scarcely higher than a flag-staff, and from the top of
this thin shaft there trickled a faint wreathing line of smoke,
just visible against the background of sky and sea.
“It is a submarine! What is it doing there?”
The exclamation, followed by the question, came from the second,
perhaps the fairer, of two women of gracious and beautiful
presence, who were pacing, arm
