'Oh, this dreadful war!' said Celia as her deep brown eyes filled with tears. 'But never mind,' she added as she noticed the look of pain that passed over Alec's face; 'we shall beat them yet. Now I will tell you how you came here. We were voyaging about in space, when we came upon a lot of wrecks, and among them there was a great metal sphere with some pieces of wreckage still attached to it. Herbert said that it was one of the boxes where the captain goes during an engagement. Then I suggested that there might be someone still alive, shut up in it; but Herbert only laughed at me, and wanted to proceed on our way, in case we might get mixed up in a battle. At last I managed to persuade him to send a diver to attach it to the Mermaid with grappling irons and see if there was anyone inside. After a great deal of trouble the diver managed to unfasten and open the valve and get inside, and there he found you and the captain and two other officers.
