"The A. & P. liner _Centaur_ has gone down in the North Channel," he announced calmly.
Whitney started, Dick abruptly put down his cue, and Andrew's face grew hard.
"Do you mean that she was blown up?" Elsie asked with a note of horror in her voice.
"It looks so; but there's not much news yet."
"The captain of the Clyde coaster _Gannet_ reports that when he was off the Skerries near dark one of the big A. & P. liners passed him at some distance to the north. It was blowing fresh, and hazy, but when the vessel was almost out of sight he noticed a dense cloud of smoke. He ran to the box on the bridge-rail, where he kept his glasses, but when he got them out the liner had disappeared. He steered for the spot where he had last seen her, but it was dark when he reached it, and after steaming about for some time, and seeing nothing but a quantity of wreckage, he made for Rathlin and megaphoned the lighthouse-keepers before proceeding. An unconfirmed report from Larne states that a fishing craft passed a steamer's lifeboat, but lost her in the dark. The _Centaur_, a large and nearly new steamer, left Montreal with wheat and a number of passengers eight days ago."
Nobody spoke for a minute after he put down the newspaper, and Whitney lighted a cigarette to cover his excitement. The news was startling, but he thought it did not take Staffer or Williamson by surprise. There was something curious in their expression. Andrew's face, however, had grown very stern; and Elsie's was angrily flushed.
"This is not war, but murder!" she exclaimed. "The men who blow up unarmed vessels ought to be severely punished."
"When you catch them," Staffer answered. "I expect that it will prove difficult; and I'm afraid we must be prepared for some nasty knocks."
"It's rather exasperating to be hit hard where you flatter yourself you're secure against attack," Williamson remarked. "The Admiralty must have thought the North Channel safe."
"It _is_ except against treachery," Elsie declared. "Don't you think so, Andrew?"
"I do," said Andrew quietly. "It's narrow and commanded by lighthouses and coastguard stations; though perhaps, in a way, its narrowness is a danger. But we must see that this kind of thing doesn't happen again."