the Secretary of the Navy and his entourage across the same
intervening waters. Just before they reached the pier their steps were
arrested by the boom of a cannon, followed instantly by the sudden
apparition of the "Consternation" picked out in electric light; masts,
funnel and hull all outlined by incandescent stars.

"How beautiful!" cried Sabina, whose young man stood beside her. "It
is as if a gigantic racket, all of one color, had burst, and hung
suspended there like the planets of heaven."

"It reminds me," whispered Katherine to Dorothy, "of an overgrown
pop-corn ball," at which remark the two girls were frivolous enough to
laugh.

"Crash!" sounded a cannon from an American ship, and then the white
squadron became visible in a blaze of lightning. And now all the
yachts and other craft on the waters flaunted their lines of fire, and
the whole Bay was illuminated like a lake in Fairyland.

"Now," said Captain Kempt with a chuckle, "watch the Britisher. I
think she's going to show us some color," and as he spoke there
appeared, spreading from nest to mast, a huge sheet of blue, with four
great stars which pointed the corners of a parallelogram, and between
the stars shone a huge white anchor. Cheers rang out from the crew of
the "Consternation," and the band on board played "The Star-Spangled
Banner."

"That," said Captain Kempt in explanation, "is the flag of the United
States Secretary of the Navy, who will be with us to-night. The
visitors have kept very quiet about this bit of illumination, but our