last, served to send out a brief account of the disaster and a call for help. "When rescue ships arrived at early dawn, they found that the patrol ship had drifted close to the Atlantis, and that Dr. Weatherall, the surgeon of the liner, had swum aboard the No. 1 and rendered what help he could to the wounded men. [Pg 62] [Pg 62] "Press representatives are at Plymouth, but, so far, few of the passengers of the Atlantis have been able, and none have been allowed by the authorities, to make personal statements for publication. This embargo, we are assured, will be removed by this evening. "This is a precise account of what has happened. We must now turn to the consideration of the situation...." Another journal, a weekly one this time, headed its remarks with a portrait of my unhappy self. Underneath was written: "The Man the Atlantic Pirates tricked!" The rag had an immense circulation in all the tap rooms of England. Well, I would see what the blackguards of the country were reading about me. Shrewd young Bickenhall wouldn't have brought the unclean thing in if he hadn't thought it worth while. I give it for what it's worth: "Poor Johnny Custance! You're up against it good and thick to-day, and no mistake, and Paul Pry"—this was the signature of the tout who wrote the article—"can't say he's very sorry for you. For some time past a little bird has been whispering in the clubs that all is not well in the State of Denmark—to wit, the office of the Commissioner of Air Police at Whitehall. The aristocratic young gentlemen who daily [Pg 63]condescend to drop into this palatial edifice for an hour or two have long held the reputation of being the best dressed of all our minor Government officials, and, considering the salaries they draw from the public purse, this is not surprising. But I have never yet heard that they did any work worth mentioning, or, indeed, anything to justify their precious and beautiful existence. [Pg 63] "Flying Police we must have, and never has the necessity for them been greater than at this moment; but there is a vast deal of difference from the handy pilot of a patrol ship at Plymouth or Portland and the bureaucratic popinjays of Pall Mall. "Sir John Custance, Bart., is the typical Government official of
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