"
Drummond had captured a camp-stool somewhere, and this he placed at
right angles to the settee, so that he might face the two girls, and
yet not interrupt their view. The sailor on guard once more faded
away, and the band now struck up the music of the dance.
"Well," cried Drummond cheerfully, "I've got everything settled. I've
received the Secretary of the Navy: our captain is to dance with his
wife, and the Secretary is Lady Angela's partner. There they go!"
For a few minutes the young people watched the dance, then the
Lieutenant said:
"Ladies, I am disappointed that you have not complimented our
electrical display."
"I am sure it's very nice, indeed, and most ingenious," declared
Dorothy, speaking for the first time that evening to the officer, but
Katherine, whose little foot was tapping the deck to the dance music,
tossed her head, and declared nonchalantly that it was all very well
as a British effort at illumination, but she begged the young man to
remember that America was the home of electricity.
"Where would you have been if it were not for Edison?"
"I suppose," said the Lieutenant cheerfully, "that we should have been
where Moses was when the candle went out-- in the dark."
"You might have had torches," said Dorothy. "My friend forgets she was
wishing the sailors held torches on that suspended stairway up the
ship's side."
"I meant electric torches-- Edison torches, of course.
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