of imperial interest.' which telegram passed out, and the acknowledgment of its receipt in India was returned to London, all within eleven minutes, but, as in the former case, the Viceroy was in bed, so that his reply was not received till forty-five minutes had elapsed. Had the Viceroy been at the Indian end of the wire, he and the Prince could have conversed at an average rate of five minutes a sentence.
"Many other messages were sent to and fro," continued Sam, turning over the leaves of his notebook, "not only from London to India, but to each of the intermediate stations on the cable line, so that we had direct intercourse that night with the King of Portugal, the Governors of Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden, and the Khedive of Egypt. But that was not all. We put the old and the new world into communication, so that the 'press of India sent salam to the press of America.' Sir James Anderson also telegraphed to Cyrus W. Field, Esq., the father of submarine telegraphy in my estimation (Hear, hear, from Robin), and he sent a reply, which began, 'Your message of this evening received by me before five o'clock this afternoon.' Mark that, Captain Rik, the message received before it was sent, so to speak!"
"Ay, ay, lad—I know—difference of longitude,—fire away."
"Well, I have fired away most of my ammunition
