proper permission for leaving the country. Everything was arranged in the course of the day, and on the following afternoon they embarked on a steamer that carried them to Constantinople.
The second morning after leaving Odessa they entered the Bosporus, the strait which separates Europe and Asia, and connects the waters of the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmora and the Mediterranean. As they looked at the beautiful panorama, which shifted its scene with every pulsation of the steamer's engine, Frank said he had had a dream during the night which was so curious that he wanted to tell it.
"What was it?" the Doctor asked.
"I dreamed," said Frank, "that England and Russia had become friends, and made up their minds to work together for the supremacy of the world. England had supplied the money for completing the railway to India; she had built a tunnel under the British Channel, and it was possible to ride from London to Calcutta or Bombay without changing cars. The Turks had been expelled from Europe; European Turkey was governed by a Russian prince married to an English princess; the principality had its capital at Constantinople, and a guarantee of neutrality like that of Belgium, to which all the great powers had assented. War and commercial ships of all nations could pass the Bosporus and Dardanelles as freely as through the Suez Canal, and the restrictions made by the treaty of Paris were entirely removed. England and Russia had formed an offensive and defensive alliance, and all the rest of the world had been ordered to keep the peace. And they were keeping it, too, as they dreaded the combined power of England's money and Russia's men."
"A very pretty fancy!" said the Doctor. "What a pity it was all a dream!"
THE END.
