At length the day for leaving came; but before they could go aboard the D-17, at the Czar’s command, they needs must dine with him. This they did, and in the presence of the many notables who sat down to table, the Czar, following the feast, arose and complimented each lad separately and highly.
And he closed with this injunction:
“If, at any time, during the war or after peace has come to bless our several lands, you should chance to be in Russia, either of you, and you fail to come to me before another, I promise you that I shall seek you out and have you sent to Siberia for life—that I may see you whenever I lose my sense of what is right and wrong and need something to set me right.”
The Czar finished his remarks amid tremendous applause, much to the embarrassment of the two lads, who stood there, faces flushed and grinning foolishly. But the banquet came to an end at last and Lord Hastings, Frank and Jack took their departure, the praises of the Czar still ringing in their ears.
They went aboard the D-17 the same night and made ready for their departure in the morning.
And as the D-17 steamed slowly along on the surface the following morning, what a terrible din and roar there was, as every Russian ship of war in the harbor fired a farewell salute!
Said Lord Hastings to his two officers:
“You may live many, many years, but it will be long ere you will have the honors heaped upon you that you have earned in Russia.”
There was no reply that either lad could make, so they stood silently on the bridge, watching the city of Petrograd disappear in the distance; and presently they came once more to the broad expanse of the Baltic.
The journey back to the shores of old England was without a single incident to mar its peacefulness. They passed through the Kiel Canal without going to the surface, nor were they disturbed by a foe in the depths. The mines they steamed by safely also, and soon they once more found themselves under the protection of the great British fleet.