Still, as she told herself when she was lying awake in her berth the night after the breakdown, to a certain extent, the plot had succeeded. Williams had done the work he was paid to do, and the Nadine had come down from her greyhound speed to the limping crawl of a wounded hare. The Vlodoya would certainly overtake her now—but, then, those guns!
She knew that the Vlodoya was prepared to fight if necessary, and so was the Nadine, and, now that the question of speed had been disposed of, it would be a question of guns. But, after all, guns would not be of much use without men to fire them or officers to direct the operations. Manifestly the time had come for her to play her part in the great game whose prize was to be, for her the man she loved, and for her allies the lordship of earth.
The next day just before lunch she was strolling up and down the deck with Hardress and Lady Olive, talking about all that they were going to do when they got to Halifax, and she had turned the conversation upon Canadian and American hotels and the difference between American and European cooking, when she said:
"Ah, Monsieur le Viscomte, that reminds me. Will you allow me to give you and also your poor men who have been working so hard at the broken engine a little treat?"
"With the greatest of pleasure, my dear marquise," said Hardress. "And what is it to be?"
"Oh, it is nothing very much," replied Adelaide, in her lightest and gayest tone; "it is only that my aunt happened to mention last night that she had found in her secretaire the authentic recipe of a punch—what do you call it?—a punch of wines and liqueurs which they used to drink at the suppers at Versailles and the Trianon in the days of the Grand Monarque. Louis himself drank it, and so did that other unhappy ancestor and his queen——"
"Who," laughed Lady Olive, "is at present reincarnate on board the Nadine. I suppose you mean then to make up a punch some night after this recipe; that would be delightful, if we only have the proper ingredients on board."
"Oh, they are very simple," replied Adelaide; "it is certain that you will have them, indeed it seems from the recipe that the excellence of the punch does not depend so much on the variety of the ingredients as the proportions and the skill in making it."
"Very well," said Hardress, "as long as we've got the things on board, that is settled; and both ends of the ship shall drink to-night in the punch à le Grand Monarque, to the health of his latest and fairest descendant. M'Niven and his men really have been working like so many niggers at that engine, and they've done splendidly. In fact, Captain Burgess tells me we shall be ready for full speed ahead by daybreak to-morrow."
"Ah," said Adelaide in her soul, "then it is all the more necessary that we should have the punch à le Grand Monarque," and she went on aloud, "Well then, Monsieur le Viscomte, that is arranged. If you will tell your steward, your maître d'hôtel, as we call him on French ships, to provide me with the ingredients, I will make it this afternoon, and we will take it after dinner, eh?"