"My dear papa," she replied, smiling, and leaning her back against the old carved mantelpiece, "try, by all means. If you cannot find one, I don't think there can be much chance of its being anything but practically perfect."
"Very well," said the count, lighting a fresh cigarette. "In two or three days' time, when the regattas are over, the house-party at Orrel Court will break up, and a few days after that, say a week in all, Lord Orrel, with his son and daughter, and the American and his daughter, and Ma'm'selle la Marquise as Lady Olive's guest, are taking a trip across the Atlantic in the _Nadine_, partly in the course of business and partly on pleasure bent; Madame de Bourbon and her maids return to Paris; the _Vlodoya_ puts into Southampton the day the _Nadine_ sails, to take us on our trip to the Mediterranean. Your good friend the lieutenant has informed you that, although the _Nadine_ can make twenty knots on an emergency, she will only take a leisurely summer trip across the Atlantic to Boston, at about twelve or fifteen. He has given you a chart of the course which she will take. He has also promised you that at a certain spot in mid-Atlantic there shall be a little accident to her engines which enable the _Vlodoya_ to overtake her. The _Vlodoya_, commanded and well manned by good servants of the empire, with a couple of three-pounders and a Maxim in case of accident, will overhaul her and give her the alternative of surrender or sinking. That is where the piracy will begin, I suppose."
Sophie nodded, and, laughing, replied in English: "Yes, right there--as our American beauty, as Lord Hardress thinks her, would say. The _Nadine_ is unarmed, and, of course, resistance will be useless; in fact, it would simply be the merest folly. His lordship will accept us and a portion of the _Vlodoya's_ crew as self-invited guests; we shall then steam away together, not to Boston, but to the rendezvous with our little expedition, and once we join forces--well, the thing is practically done."
"I agree so far," said her father; "still, there are one or two accidents that we have not yet taken into account. Suppose, for instance, one of these detestable British cruisers, which seem to be everywhere, should happen to be there just then; or that even one of the big liners should come in sight at the critical moment. It seems to me that, for the present at least, secrecy is above all things essential, for if the news of--well, such an outrage, did get back to Europe, you know perfectly well that Russia would of necessity disown us, and that we and all on board the _Vlodoya_ would simply be treated as common pirates."