"She was running right at them, a hundred miles an hour, I couldn't stir hand or foot, and I was being whirled helpless against an enormous cliff."
Margaret gripped his hand. "Yes! Go on!"
"Then you do love me? Only love grips like that."
"Don't I love all my brothers of the Guard? You wear the dress of my brothers. Please, go on."
"At the last instant something gave me strength—the thought that the Queen must be saved. I clutched at the levers, I got control of the ship, swung upwards grazing a hanging cornice of green ice, then turning in long circles slowly down, drove my ship into a pineclad slope, and, I think, fainted. When I came to again I was lying beside a camp fire under the shadow of the woods, and far aloft, right up in the full glory of the day, one great white mountain shone against the sky. Some dozen or so of men were sitting round the fire, and I heard them in fierce argument. Several maintained that by my dress I must be an officer of her Majesty's Bodyguard, others by portraits they had seen in the newspapers, by my ship the Experiment, and by documents found with me, swore that I was Brand. Then one—a man dressed in deerskin, who seemed to have authority—said that he knew well I was one of the Queen's Blackguards. He knew all about it—had not the last mail brought a letter from his brother newly appointed to that very regiment?
"There was something familiar in the man's face, and presently when he came over to render me some small service, I said I knew his brother, Trooper Browne."
"How strange!"
"Such small coincidences have changed the history of the world. Mr. Browne told me that I had been lying in the camp for more than a week, delirious and raving of the Queen. He and his partners were mining rubies—they shall not lack rubies while I live. They were like women in their gentleness, and in their care I gained strength day by day until at last I was able to sit with them by the camp fire, to tell them of the Queen's desperate peril. I need not tell you they were loyal men—they were Canadians and burning to serve with me. Then the day came when I had strength to climb the hill path to where I had left my ship. The miners brought up provisions from the camp, and, crowded on board the Experiment, we sailed, fourteen men—not many for the conquest of the world."
"But with your terrible etheric power!"
Brand laughed. "The Experiment was not so very terrible. For armament we had three shotguns, eight axes, a sword, and our pistols—that is until we raided a town and got some rifles. Our next necessity was a modern etheric ship able to ram, to defend herself, and to destroy explosives. We found the Revenge at Denver, in charge of state officials who had the audacity to deny my ownership. After a fight, we got possession, only to find ourselves in a steel prison with neither food nor water. The crew of the Revenge had been dispersed, her engines were disabled, we were attacked by federal troops, and on the fourth day when we were half dead with thirst and hunger, a battery of artillery opened fire. There were only eight of us left when we got the Revenge afloat. She was riddled with shell fire, her splintered sides gaping open, her cabins all in flames, and the shells were screaming past. She rolled till we thought she would turn over, the engines were rocking loose in their bed, she fluttered once as though she were foundering, and my men came about me waiting for the end. I told them of the old Revenge, and how Sir Richard Greville fought a great Spanish Fleet, his courage against their galleons—and how he died breathing the name of his Queen. Could we not fight the new Revenge for Margaret? They sang the National Anthem while I was testing for strains, and they stopped the singing to cheer when I said the Revenge would live.