He took a little roll of bunting out of a locker under the desk, opened a glass slide, brought in the halliards and bent the flag on.
Meanwhile the long shape of the great liner was getting bigger and bigger.

Her decks were black, with people staring up at this strange apparition which was dropping upon them from the clouds.

Another minute and the _Astronef_ had dropped to within five hundred feet of the water, and about half a mile astern of the _Deutschland_.

Redgrave turned the wheel back two or three inches and touched a second button.
The _Astronef_ stopped her descent instantly, and then she shot forward.
The new greyhound was making her twenty-two and a half knots, hurling a broad white torrent of foam away from under her counters.

But in half a minute the _Astronef_ was alongside her.
Redgrave ran the roll of bunting up to the top of the flagstaff, pulled one of the halliards, and the White Ensign of England floated out.
Almost at the same moment the German flag went up to the staff at the stern of the _Deutschland_, and they heard a roar of cheers, mingled with cries of wonder, come up from her swarming decks.
Each flag was dipped thrice in due course.