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The ceremony was scheduled to start exactly at eleven Captain Falconer had warned Bell that they would launch on tiht would either slide uneventfully down the ways or the Ger a terrible toll on the innocent
A Marine brass band started playing a Sousa ot croith hundreds of special guests invited to stand close enough to actually see the chane bottle crack on
the bow Bell spotted the Secretary of the Interior, three senators, the governor of Michigan, and several orous “Tennis Cabinet”
The top bosses of New York Ship trooped up the steps in close company with Admiral Capps, the chief naval constructor Capps see to shipbuilders than to Lady Fiona Abbington-Westlake, the wife of the British Naval Attaché, a beautiful woman with a shiny mane of chestnut hair Isaac Bell observed her discreetly The Van Dorn researchers assigned to the Hull 44 spy case had reported that Lady Fiona spent beyond her husband’sblackmail to a Frenchman named Raymond Colbert No one knehat Colbert had on her, or whether it involved her husband’s purloining of French naval secrets
The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was represented by a saber-scarred military attaché, Lieutenant Julian Von Stroem, recently returned from German East Africa, as ner Suddenly Dorothy herself parted the crowd in her dark irl he had noticed at the Willard Hotel was at her elbow Katherine Dee, Research had reported, was the daughter of an Irish i his fortune building Catholic schools in Baltimore Orphaned soon after, Katherine had been convent-educated in Switzerland
The handso hands and slapping backs and declaring in a voice that carried to the glass roof, “Michigan is going to be one of Uncle Sa units” While Whita, at least before he met Dorothy, Research had made it clear that he was extreovernment contracts
Typical of the incestuous relationships in the crowd of industrialists, politicians, and diploner had met at a clambake hosted by Captain Falconer As Grady Forrer of Van Dorn Research had re who’s in bed ho as hohy’ can run the gae to just plain raising hell”
Bell saw a slanced in the direction she was looking and saw the naval architect Farley Kent nod back Then Kent threw an aruest-Lieutenant Yourkevitch, the Czar’s dreadnought architect-and plunged into the crowd as if to get out of the path of Ted and Dorothy Oblivious, Ted seized an elderly admiral’s hand and bellowed, “Great day for the Navy, sir Great day for the Navy”
Dorothy’s eyes wheeled Bell’s way and locked with his Bell returned her gaze appraisingly He had not seen her since the day he had called on her in Washington, though he had, at Van Dorn’s urging, reported to her by long-distance telephone that there was strong reason to hope that her father’s name would soon be cleared She had thanked him warmly and said that she hoped she would see hi It occurred to Bell that neither Ted Whitiving him now
A warm breath whispered in his ear “That’s quite a s black”
Marion Morgan glided behind him and made a beeline for Captain Falconer He looked heroically splendid in his full-dress white uniforht, or splendidly heroic, his handso collar, medals arrayed across his broad chest, sword at his trim waist
“GOOD MORNING, MISS MORGAN,” Lowell Falconer greeted Marion Morgan heartily “Are you enjoying yourself?”
She and Isaac had dined aboard Falconer’s yacht the night before When Bell proner would be co bribes, her pride in her fiancé had spoken legions for her love Still, Falconer admitted ruefully, he had not been disappointed when Bell had to excuse himself early to oversee another inspection of the ways beneath the ship After the detective left, their conversation had flowed sea pictures to naval warfare to the paintings of Henry Reutendahl to Washington politics and Falconer’s career He realized in retrospect that he had told her more about himself than he had intended to
The Hero of Santiago knew hie that he had fallen half in love with her But he was co hie through the crowd of an elegantly dressed Japanese
“Why,” she asked Falconer, filling time, “is the shipbuilder called New York Ship when it’s in Camden, New Jersey?”