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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Peril of 1910, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World Peril of 1910
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24764]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE GRIFFITH
+
+AUTHOR OF
+"THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION," "A CONQUEST OF FORTUNE,"
+"A MAYFAIR MAGICIAN," "HIS BETTER HALF," ETC. ETC.
+
+LONDON
+
+F. V. WHITE & CO. LTD.
+
+14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+  PROLOGUE--A RACE FOR A WOMAN                          1
+
+      I. A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT                         9
+
+     II. NORAH'S GOOD-BYE                              17
+
+    III. SEEN UNDER THE MOON                           24
+
+     IV. THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR                      31
+
+      V. A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM                         37
+
+     VI. THE NOTE OF WAR                               47
+
+    VII. CAUGHT!                                       55
+
+   VIII. FIRST BLOOD                                   63
+
+     IX. THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS                     72
+
+      X. FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR                      79
+
+     XI. THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS              88
+
+    XII. HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS                      98
+
+   XIII. A CRIME AND A MISTAKE                        106
+
+    XIV. THE EVE OF BATTLE                            115
+
+     XV. THE STRIFE OF GIANTS                         123
+
+    XVI. HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH          132
+
+   XVII. AWAY FROM THE WARPATH                        143
+
+  XVIII. A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL                       151
+
+    XIX. A CHANGE OF SCENE                            160
+
+     XX. THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS--                 167
+
+    XXI. --AND ENDS                                   176
+
+   XXII. DISASTER                                     182
+
+  XXIII. THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS                    189
+
+   XXIV. TOM BOWCOCK--PITMAN                          195
+
+    XXV. PREPARING FOR ACTION                         201
+
+   XXVI. THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON              208
+
+  XXVII. LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM                          215
+
+ XXVIII. CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS             223
+
+   XXIX. THE LION WAKES                               231
+
+    XXX. MR PARMENTER SAYS                            239
+
+   XXXI. JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT                      247
+
+  XXXII. A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT                         254
+
+ XXXIII. MR PARMENTER RETURNS                         261
+
+  XXXIV. THE "AURIOLE"                                268
+
+   XXXV. THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN        273
+
+  XXXVI. A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT                        281
+
+ XXXVII. THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE                       288
+
+XXXVIII. WAITING FOR DOOM                             295
+
+  XXXIX. THE LAST FIGHT                               298
+
+  EPILOGUE--"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"                    305
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+A RACE FOR A WOMAN
+
+
+In Clifden, the chief coast town of Connemara, there is a house at the
+end of a triangle which the two streets of the town form, the front
+windows of which look straight down the beautiful harbour and bay, whose
+waters stretch out beyond the islands which are scattered along the
+coast and, with the many submerged reefs, make the entrance so
+difficult.
+
+In the first-floor double-windowed room of this house, furnished as a
+bed-sitting room, there was a man sitting at a writing-table--not an
+ordinary writing-table, but one the dimensions of which were more suited
+to the needs of an architect or an engineer than to those of a writer.
+In the middle of the table was a large drawing-desk, and on it was
+pinned a sheet of cartridge paper, which was almost covered with
+portions of designs.
+
+In one corner there was what might be the conception of an engine
+designed for a destroyer or a submarine. In another corner there was a
+sketch of something that looked like a lighthouse, and over against this
+the design of what might have been a lantern. The top left-hand corner
+of the sheet was merely a blur of curved lines and shadings and
+cross-lines, running at a hundred different angles which no one, save
+the man who had drawn them, could understand the meaning of.
+
+In the middle of the sheet there was a very carefully-outlined drawing
+in hard pencil of a craft which was different from anything that had
+ever sailed upon the waters or below them, or, for the matter of that,
+above them.
+
+To the right hand there was a rough, but absolutely accurate, copy of
+this same craft leaving the water and flying into the air, and just
+underneath this a tiny sketch of a flying fish doing the same thing.
+
+The man sitting before the drawing-board was an Irishman. He was one of
+those men with the strong, crisp hair, black brows and deep brown eyes,
+straight, strong nose almost in a line with his forehead, thin, nervous
+lips and pointed jaw, strong at the angles but weak at the point, which
+come only from one descent.
+
+Nearly four hundred years before, one of the ships of the great Armada
+had been wrecked on Achill Island, about twenty miles from where he sat.
+Half a dozen or so of the crew had been saved, and one of these was a
+Spanish gentleman, captain of Arquebusiers who, drenched and bedraggled
+as he was when the half-wild Irish fishermen got him out of the water,
+still looked what he was, a Hidalgo of Spain. He had been nursed back to
+health and strength in a miserable mud and turf-walled cottage, and,
+broken in fortune--for he was one of the many gentlemen of Spain who had
+risked their all on the fortunes of King Philip and the Great Armada,
+and lost--he refused to go back to his own country a beaten man.
+
+And meanwhile he had fallen in love with the daughter of his nurse, the
+wife of the fisherman who had taken him more than half dead out of the
+raging Atlantic surf.
+
+No man ever knew who he was, save that he was a gentleman, a Spaniard,
+and a Catholic. But when he returned to the perfection of physical and
+mental health, and had married the grey-eyed, dark-browed girl, who had
+seemed to him during his long hours of sickness the guardian angel who
+had brought him back across the line which marks the frontier between
+life and death, he developed an extraordinary talent in boat-building,
+which was the real origin of the wonderful sea-worthiness of small
+craft which to this day brave, almost with impunity, the terrible seas
+which, after an unbroken run of almost two thousand miles, burst upon
+the rock-bound, island-fenced coast of Connemara.
+
+The man at the table was the descendant in the sixth generation of the
+unknown Spanish Hidalgo, who nearly four hundred years before had said
+in reply to a question as to what his name was:
+
+"Juan de Castillano."
+
+As the generations had passed, the name, as usual, had got modified, and
+this man's name was John Castellan.
+
+"I think that will about do for the present," he said, getting up from
+the table and throwing his pencil down. "I've got it almost perfect
+now;" and then as he bent down again over the table, and looked over
+every line of his drawings, "Yes, it's about all there. I wonder what my
+Lords of the British Admiralty would give to know what that means. Well,
+God save Ireland, they shall some day!"
+
+He unpinned the paper from the board, rolled it up, and put it into the
+top drawer of an old oak cabinet, which one would hardly have expected
+to find in such a room as that, and locked the drawer with a key on his
+keychain. Then he took his cap from a peg on the door, and his gun from
+the corner beside it, and went out.
+
+There are three ways out of Clifden to the west, one to the southward
+takes you over the old bridge, which arches the narrow rock-walled
+gorge, which gathers up the waters of the river after they have had
+their frolic over the rocks above. The other is a continuation of the
+main street, and this, as it approaches the harbour, where you may now
+see boats built on the pattern which John Castellan's ancestor had
+designed, divides into two roads, one leading along the shore of the
+bay, and the other, rough, stony, and ill-kept, takes you above the
+coast-guard station, and leads to nowhere but the Atlantic Ocean.
+
+Between these two roads lies in what was once a park, but which is now a
+wilderness, Clifden Castle. Castle in Irish means country house, and
+all over the south and west of Ireland you may find such houses as this
+with doors screwed up, windows covered with planks, roofs and eaves
+stripped of the lead and slates which once protected them from the
+storms which rise up from the Atlantic, and burst in wind and rain, snow
+and sleet over Connemara, long ago taken away to sell by the bankrupt
+heirs of those who ruined themselves, mortgaged and sold every acre of
+ground and every stick and stone they owned to maintain what they called
+the dignity of their families at the Vice-Regal Court in Dublin.
+
+John Castellan took the lower road, looking for duck. The old house had
+been the home of his grandfather, but he had never lived in it. The ruin
+had come in his father's time, before he had learned to walk. He looked
+at it as he passed, and his teeth clenched and his brows came together
+in a straight line.
+
+Almost at the same moment that he left his house an Englishman came out
+of the Railway Hotel. He also had a gun over his shoulder, and he took
+the upper road. These two men, who were to meet for the first time that
+day, were destined to decide the fate of the world between them.
+
+As John Castellan walked past the ruined distillery, which overlooks the
+beach on which the fishing boats are drawn up, he saw a couple of duck
+flying seaward. He quickened his pace, and walked on until he turned the
+bend of the road, at which on the right-hand side a path leads up to a
+gate in the old wall, which still guards the ragged domains of Clifden
+Castle. A few hundred yards away there is a little peninsula, on which
+stands a house built somewhat in bungalow fashion. The curve of the
+peninsula turns to the eastward, and makes a tiny bay of almost crescent
+shape. In this the pair of duck settled.
+
+John Castellan picked up a stone from the road, and threw it into the
+water. As the birds rose his gun went up. His right barrel banged and
+the duck fell. The drake flew landward: he fired his left barrel and
+missed. Then came a bang from the upper road, and the drake dropped.
+The Englishman had killed it with a wire cartridge in his choked left
+barrel.
+
+"I wonder who the devil did that!" said Castellan, as he saw the bird
+fall. "It was eighty yards if it was an inch, and that's a good gun with
+a good man behind it."
+
+The Englishman left the road to pick up the bird and then went down the
+steep, stony hillside towards the shore of the silver-mouthed bay in the
+hope of getting another shot farther on, for the birds were now
+beginning to come over; and so it came about that he and the Irishman
+met within a few yards of each other, one on either side of a low spit
+of sand and shingle.
+
+"That was a fine shot you killed the drake with," said the Irishman,
+looking at the bird he was carrying by the legs in his left hand.
+
+"A good gun, and a wire cartridge, I fancy, were mainly responsible for
+his death," laughed the Englishman. "See you've got the other."
+
+"Yes, and missed yours," said the Irishman.
+
+The other recognised the tone as that of a man to whom failure, even in
+the most insignificant matter, was hateful, and he saw a quick gleam in
+his eyes which he remembered afterwards under very different
+circumstances.
+
+But it so happened that the rivalry between them which was hereafter to
+have such momentous consequences was to be manifested there and then in
+a fashion much more serious than the hitting or missing of a brace of
+wild fowl.
+
+Out on the smooth waters of the bay, about a quarter of a mile from the
+spit on which they stood, there were two boats. One was a light skiff,
+in which a girl, clad in white jersey and white flannel skirt, with a
+white Tam o' Shanter pinned on her head, was sculling leisurely towards
+the town. From the swing of her body, the poise of her head and
+shoulders, and the smoothness with which her sculls dropped in the water
+and left it, it was plain that she was a perfect mistress of the art;
+wherefore the two men looked at her, and admired.
+
+The other craft was an ordinary rowing boat, manned by three lads out
+for a spree. There was no one steering and the oars were going in and
+out of the water with a total disregard of time. The result was that her
+course was anything but a straight line. The girl's sculls made no
+noise, and the youths were talking and laughing loudly.
+
+Suddenly the boat veered sharply towards the skiff. The Englishman put
+his hands to his mouth, and yelled with all the strength of his lungs.
+
+"Look out, you idiots, keep off shore!"
+
+But it was too late. The long, steady strokes were sending the skiff
+pretty fast through the smooth water. The boat swerved again, hit the
+skiff about midway between the stem and the rowlocks, and the next
+moment the sculler was in the water. In the same moment two guns and two
+ducks were flung to the ground, two jackets were torn off, two pairs of
+shoes kicked away, and two men splashed into the water. Meanwhile the
+sculler had dropped quietly out of the sinking skiff, and after a glance
+at the two heads, one fair and the other dark, ploughing towards her,
+turned on her side and began to swim slowly in their direction so as to
+lessen the distance as much as possible.
+
+The boys, horrified at what they had done, made such a frantic effort to
+go to the rescue, that one of them caught a very bad crab; so bad,
+indeed that the consequent roll of the boat sent him headlong into the
+water; and so the two others, one of whom was his elder brother, perhaps
+naturally left the girl to her fate, and devoted their energies to
+saving their companion.
+
+Both John Castellan and the Englishman were good swimmers, and the race
+was a very close thing. Still, four hundred yards with most of your
+clothes on is a task calculated to try the strongest swimmer, and,
+although the student had swum almost since he could walk, his muscles
+were not quite in such good form as those of the ex-athlete of
+Cambridge who, six months before, had won the Thames Swimming Club
+Half-mile Handicap from scratch.
+
+Using side stroke and breast-stroke alternately they went at it almost
+stroke for stroke about half a dozen yards apart, and until they were
+within thirty yards or so of the third swimmer, they were practically
+neck and neck, though Castellan had the advantage of what might be
+called the inside track. In other words he was a little nearer to the
+girl than the Englishman.
+
+When circumstances permitted they looked at each other, but, of course,
+neither of them was fool enough to waste his breath in speech. Still,
+each clearly understood that the other was going to get the girl first
+if he could.
+
+So the tenth yard from the prize was reached, and then the Englishman
+shook his head up an inch, filled his lungs, rolled on to his side, and
+made a spurt with the reserve of strength which he had kept for the
+purpose. Inch by inch he drew ahead obliquely across Castellan's course
+and, less than a yard in front of him, he put his right hand under the
+girl's right side.
+
+A lovely face, beautiful even though it was splashed all over with wet
+strands of dark chestnut hair, turned towards him; a pair of big blue
+eyes which shone in spite of the salt water which made them blink,
+looked at him; and, after a cough, a very sweet voice with just a
+suspicion of Boston accent in it, said:
+
+"Thank you so much! It was real good of you! I can swim, but I don't
+think I could have got there with all these things on, and so I reckon I
+owe you two gentlemen my life."
+
+Castellan had swum round, and they took her under the arms to give her a
+rest. The two boys left in the boat had managed to get an oar out to
+their comrade just in time, and then haul him into the boat, which was
+now about fifty yards away; so as soon as the girl had got her breath
+they swam with her to the boat, and lifted her hands on to the gunwale.
+
+"If you wouldn't mind, sir, picking up those oars," said the
+Englishman, "I will get the young lady into the boat, and then we can
+row back."
+
+Castellan gave him another look which said as plainly as words: "Well, I
+suppose she's your prize for the present," and swam off for the oars.
+With the eager help of the boys, who were now very frightened and very
+penitent, the Englishman soon had the girl in the boat; and so it came
+about that an adventure which might well have deprived America of one of
+her most beautiful and brilliant heiresses, resulted in nothing more
+than a ducking for two men and one girl, a wet, but somehow not
+altogether unpleasant walk, and a slight chill from which she had quite
+recovered the next morning.
+
+The after consequences of that race for the rescue were of course, quite
+another matter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT
+
+
+On the first day of July, 1908, a scene which was destined to become
+historic took place in the great Lecture Theatre in the Imperial College
+at Potsdam. It was just a year and a few days after the swimming race
+between John Castellan and the Englishman in Clifden Bay.
+
+There were four people present. The doors were locked and guarded by two
+sentries outside. The German Emperor, Count Herold von Steinitz,
+Chancellor of the Empire, Field-Marshal Count Friedrich von Moltke,
+grandson of the great Organiser of Victory, and John Castellan, were
+standing round a great glass tank, twenty-five feet long, and fifteen
+broad, supported on a series of trestles. The tank was filled with water
+up to within about six inches of the upper edge. The depth was ten feet.
+A dozen models of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft were floating
+on the surface of the water. Five feet under the surface, a grey,
+fish-shaped craft with tail and fins, almost exactly resembling those of
+a flying fish, was darting about, now jumping forward like a cat
+pouncing on a bird, now drawing back, and then suddenly coming to a
+standstill. Another moment, it sank to the bottom, and lay there as if
+it had been a wreck. The next it darted up to the surface, cruised about
+in swift curves, turning in and out about the models, but touching none.
+
+Every now and then John Castellan went to a little table in the corner
+of the room, on which there was a machine something like a typewriter,
+and touched two or three of the keys. There was no visible connection
+between them--the machine and the tank--but the little grey shape in
+the water responded instantly to the touch of every key.
+
+"That, I hope, will be enough to prove to your Majesty that as submarine
+the _Flying Fish_ is quite under control. Of course the real _Flying
+Fish_ will be controlled inside, not from outside."
+
+"There is no doubt about the control," said the Kaiser. "It is
+marvellous, and I think the Chancellor and the Field Marshal will agree
+with me in that."
+
+"Wonderful," said the Chancellor.
+
+"A miracle," said the Field Marshal, "if it can only be realised."
+
+"There is no doubt about that, gentlemen," said Castellan, going back to
+the machine. "Which of the models would your Majesty like to see
+destroyed first?"
+
+The Kaiser pointed to the model of a battleship which was a very good
+imitation of one of the most up-to-date British battleships.
+
+"We will take that one first," he said.
+
+Castellan smiled, and began to play the keys. The grey shape of the
+_Flying Fish_ dropped to the bottom of the tank, rose, and seemed all at
+once to become endowed with human reason, or a likeness of it, which was
+so horrible that even the Kaiser and his two chiefs could hardly repress
+a shudder. It rose very slowly, circled among the floating models about
+two feet under the surface and then, like an animal smelling out its
+prey, it made a dart at the ship which the Kaiser had indicated, and
+struck it from underneath. They saw a green flash stream through the
+water, and the next moment the model had crumbled to pieces and sank.
+
+"Donner-Wetter!" exclaimed the Chancellor, forgetting in his wonder that
+he was in the presence of His Majesty, "that is wonderful, horrible!"
+
+"Can there be anything too horrible for the enemies of the Fatherland,
+Herr Kanztler," said the Kaiser, looking across the tank at him, with a
+glint in his eyes, which no man in Germany cares to see.
+
+"I must ask pardon, your Majesty," replied the Chancellor. "I was
+astonished, indeed, almost frightened--frightened, if your Majesty will
+allow me to say so, for the sake of Humanity, if such an awful invention
+as that becomes realised."
+
+"And what is your opinion, Field Marshal?" asked the Kaiser with a
+laugh.
+
+"A most excellent invention, your Majesty, provided always that it
+belongs to the Fatherland."
+
+"Exactly," said the Kaiser. "As that very intelligent American officer,
+Admiral Mahan, has told us, the sea-power is world-power, and there you
+have sea-power; but that is not the limit of the capabilities of Mr
+Castellan's invention, according to the specifications which I have
+read, and on the strength of which I have asked him to give us this
+demonstration of its powers. He calls it, as you know, the _Flying
+Fish_. So far you have seen it as a fish. Now, Mr Castellan, perhaps you
+will be kind enough to let us see it fly."
+
+"With pleasure, your Majesty," replied the Irishman, "but, in case of
+accident, I must ask you and the Chancellor and the Field Marshal to
+stand against the wall by the door there. With your Majesty's
+permission, I am now going to destroy the rest of the fleet."
+
+"The rest of the fleet!" exclaimed the Field Marshal. "It is
+impossible."
+
+"We shall see, Feldherr!" laughed the Kaiser. "Meanwhile, suppose we
+come out of the danger zone."
+
+The three greatest men in Germany, and perhaps on the Continent of
+Europe, lined up with their backs to the wall at the farther end of the
+room from the tank, and the Irishman sat down to his machine. The keys
+began to click rapidly, and they began to feel a tenseness in the air of
+the room. After a few seconds they would not have been surprised if they
+had seen a flash of lightning pass over their heads. The _Flying Fish_
+had sunk to the bottom of the tank, and backed into one of the corners.
+The keys of the machine clicked louder and faster. Her nose tilted
+upwards to an angle of about sixty degrees. The six-bladed propeller at
+her stem whirled round in the water like the flurry of a whale's fluke
+in its death agony. Her side-fins inclined upwards, and, like a flash,
+she leapt from the water, and began to circle round the room.
+
+The Kaiser shut his teeth hard and watched. The Chancellor opened his
+mouth as if he was going to say something, and shut it again. The Field
+Marshal stroked his moustache slowly, and followed the strange shape
+fluttering about the room. It circled twice round the tank, and then
+crossed it. A sharp click came from the machine, something fell from the
+body of the _Flying Fish_ into the tank. There was a dull sound of a
+smothered explosion. For a moment the very water itself seemed aflame,
+then it boiled up into a mass of seething foam. Every one of the models
+was overwhelmed and engulfed at the same moment. Castellan got up from
+the machine, caught the _Flying Fish_ in his hand, as it dropped towards
+the water, took it to the Kaiser, and said:
+
+"Is your Majesty convinced? It is quite harmless now."
+
+"God's thunder, yes!" said the War Lord of Germany, taking hold of the
+model. "It is almost superhuman."
+
+"Yes," said the Chancellor, "it is damnable!"
+
+"I," said the Field Marshal, drily, "think it's admirable, always
+supposing that Mr Castellan is prepared to place this mysterious
+invention at the disposal of his Majesty."
+
+"Yes," said the Kaiser, leaning with his back against the door, "that
+is, of course, the first proposition to be considered. What are your
+terms, Mr Castellan?"
+
+Castellan looked at the three men all armed. The Chancellor and the
+Field Marshal wore their swords, and the Kaiser had a revolver in his
+hip pocket. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal straightened up as the
+Kaiser spoke, and their hands moved instinctively towards their sword
+hilts. The Kaiser looked at the model of the _Flying Fish_ in his hand.
+His face was, as usual, like a mask. He saw nothing, thought of nothing.
+For the moment he was not a man: he was just the incarnation of an
+idea.
+
+"Field Marshal, you are a soldier," said Castellan, "and I see that your
+hand has gone to your sword-hilt. Swords, of course, are the emblems of
+military rank, but there is no use for them now."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed the Count, clapping his right hand on
+the hilt. After what he had seen he honestly believed that this Irishman
+was a wizard of science who ought not to be trusted in the same room
+with the Kaiser. Castellan went back to his machine and said:
+
+"Draw your sword, sir, and see."
+
+And then the keys began to click.
+
+The Field Marshal's sword flashed out of the sheath. A second later the
+Chancellor's did the same, and the Kaiser's right hand went back towards
+his hip pocket.
+
+Castellan got up and said:
+
+"Your Majesty has a revolver. Be good enough, as you value your own
+safety, to unload it, and throw the cartridges out of the window."
+
+"But why?" exclaimed the Kaiser, pulling a Mauser repeating pistol out
+of his hip-pocket. "Who are you, that you should give orders to me?"
+
+"Only a man, your Majesty," replied Castellan, with a bow and a smile;
+"a man who could explode every cartridge in that pistol of yours at once
+before you had time to fire a shot. You have seen what has happened
+already."
+
+William the Second had seen enough. He walked to one of the windows
+opening on the enclosed gardens, threw it open, dropped the pistol out,
+and said:
+
+"Now, let us have the proof of what you say."
+
+"In a moment, your Majesty," replied Castellan, going back to his
+machine, and beginning to work the keys rapidly. "I am here, an unarmed
+man; let their Excellencies, the Chancellor and the Field Marshal,
+attack me with their swords if they can. I am not joking. I am staking
+my life on the success or failure of this experiment."
+
+"Does your Majesty consent?" said the Field Marshal, raising his sword.
+
+"There could be no better test," replied the Kaiser. "Mr Castellan makes
+an experiment on which he stakes his life; we are making an experiment
+on which we stake the welfare of the German Empire, and, perhaps, the
+fate of the world. If he is willing, I am."
+
+"And I am ready," replied Castellan, working the keys faster and faster
+as he spoke, and looking at the two swords as carelessly as if they had
+been a couple of walking sticks.
+
+The sword points advanced towards him; the keys of the machine clicked
+faster and faster. The atmosphere of the room became tenser and tenser;
+the Kaiser leaned back against the door with his arms folded. When the
+points were within three feet of Castellan's head, the steel began to
+gleam with a bluish green light. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal
+stopped; they saw sparkles of blue flame running along the sword blades.
+Then came paralysis! the swords dropped from their hands, and they
+staggered back.
+
+"Great God, this is too much," gasped the Chancellor. "The man is
+impregnable. It is too much, your Majesty. I fought through the war of
+'70 and '71, but I surrender to this; this is not human."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Excellency," said Castellan, getting up from the
+machine, and picking the two swords from the floor, "it is quite human,
+only a little science that the majority of humanity does not happen to
+know. Your swords, gentlemen," and he presented the hilts to them.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "well done! You have beaten the two best
+soldiers in the German Empire, and you have done it like a gentleman.
+But you are not altogether an Irishman, are you, Mr Castellan?"
+
+"No, sir, I am a Spaniard as well. The earliest ancestor that I know
+commanded the _Santiago_, wrecked on Achill Island, when the Armada came
+south from the Pentland Firth. The rest of me is Irish. I need hardly
+say more. That is why I am here now."
+
+The Kaiser looked at the Chancellor and the Field Marshal, and they
+looked back at him, and in a moment the situation--the crisis upon which
+the fate of the world might depend--was decided. It was not a time when
+men who are men talk. A few moments of silence passed; the four men
+looking at each other with eyes that had the destinies of nations in the
+brains behind them. Then the Kaiser took three swift strides towards
+Castellan, held out his hand, and said in a voice which had an unwonted
+note of respect in it:
+
+"Sir, you have convinced me. Henceforth you are Director of the Naval
+and Military operations of the German Empire, subject, of course, to the
+conditions which will be arranged by myself and those who are entrusted
+with the tactical and strategical developments of such plan of campaign
+as I may decide to carry out on sea and land. And now, to put it
+rudely--brutally, if you like, your price?"
+
+Castellan took the Kaiser's hand in a strong, nervous grip, and said:
+
+"I shall not state my price in money, your Majesty. I am not working for
+money, but you will understand that I cannot convert what I have shown
+you to-day into the fighting reality. Only a nation can do that. It will
+cost ten millions of marks, at least, to--well, to so far develop this
+experiment that no fleet save your Majesty's shall sail the seas, and
+that no armies save yours shall without your consent march over the
+battlefields of the world's Armageddon."
+
+"Make it twenty millions, fifty millions," laughed the Kaiser, "and it
+will be cheap at the price. What do you think, Herr Kantzler and
+Feldherr?"
+
+"Under the present circumstances of the other monarchies of Europe, your
+Majesty," replied the Chancellor, "it would be cheap at a hundred
+millions, especially with reference to a certain fleet, which appears to
+be making the ocean its own country."
+
+"Quite so," said the Field Marshal. "If what we have seen to-day can be
+realised it would not be necessary to pump out the North Sea in order to
+invade England."
+
+"Or to get back again," laughed the Kaiser. "I think that is what your
+grandfather said, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty. He found eight ways of getting into England, but he
+hadn't thought of one of getting out again."
+
+Since the days of the Prophets no man had ever uttered more prophetic
+words than Friedrich Helmuth von Moltke spoke then, all unconsciously.
+But in the days to come they were fulfilled in such fashion that only
+one man in all the world had ever dreamed of, and that was the man who
+had beaten John Castellan by a yard in the swimming race for the rescue
+of that American girl from drowning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NORAH'S GOOD-BYE
+
+
+The scene had shifted back from the royal city of Potsdam to the little
+coast town in Connemara. John Castellan was sitting on a corner of his
+big writing-table swinging his legs to and fro, and looking a little
+uncomfortable. Leaning against the wall opposite the windows, with her
+hands folded behind her back, was a girl of about nineteen, an almost
+perfect incarnation of the Irish girl at her best. Tall, black-haired,
+black-browed, grey-eyed, perfectly-shaped, and with that indescribable
+charm of feature which neither the pen nor the camera can do justice
+to--Norah Castellan was facing him, her eyes gleaming and almost black
+with anger, and her whole body instinct with intense vitality.
+
+"And so Ireland hasn't troubles enough of her own, John, that you must
+bring new ones upon her, and what for? To realise a dream that was never
+anything else but a dream, and to satisfy a revenge that is three
+hundred years old! If that theory of yours about re-incarnation is true,
+you may have been a Spaniard once, but remember that you're an Irishman
+now; and you're no good Irishman if you sell yourself to these
+foreigners to do a thing like that, and it's your sister that's telling
+you."
+
+"And it's your brother, Norah," he replied, his black brows meeting
+almost in a straight line across his forehead, "who tells you that
+Ireland is going to have her independence; that the shackles of the
+Saxon shall be shaken off once and for ever, even if all Europe blazes
+up with war in the doing of it. I have the power and I will use it.
+Spaniard or Irishman, what does it matter? I hate England and everything
+English."
+
+"Hate England, John!" said the girl. "Are you quite sure that it isn't
+an Englishman that you hate?"
+
+"Well, and what if I do? I hate all Englishmen, and I'm the first
+Irishman who has ever had the power to put his hatred into acts instead
+of words--and you, an Irish girl, with six generations of Irish blood in
+your veins, you, to talk to me like this. What are you thinking about,
+Norah? Is that what you call patriotism?"
+
+"Patriotism!" she echoed, unclasping her hands, and holding her right
+hand out towards him. "I'm as Irish as you are, and as Spanish, too, for
+the matter of that, for the same blood is in the veins of both of us.
+You're a scholar and a genius, and all the rest of it, I grant you; but
+haven't you learned history enough to know that Ireland never was
+independent, and never could be? What brought the English here first?
+Four miserable provinces that called themselves kingdoms, and all
+fighting against each other, and the king of one of them stole the wife
+of the king of another of them, and that's how the English came.
+
+"I love Ireland as well as you do, John, but Ireland is not worth
+setting the world swimming in blood for. You're lighting a match-box to
+set the world ablaze with. It isn't Ireland only, remember. There are
+Irish all over the world, millions of them, and remember how the Irish
+fought in the African War. I don't mean Lynch and his traitors, but the
+Dublin boys. Who were the first in and the last out--Irishmen, but they
+had the sense to know that they were British first and Irish afterwards.
+I tell you, you shall be shot for what you've done, and if I wasn't the
+daughter of your father and mother, I'd inform against you now."
+
+"And if you did, Norah, you would do very little good to the Saxon
+cause," replied her brother, pointing with his thumb out of one of the
+windows. "You see that yacht in the bay there. Everything is on board of
+her. If you went out into the street now, gave me in charge of the
+constabulary, to those two men in front of the hotel there, it would
+make no difference. There's nothing to be proved, no, not even if my
+own sister tried to swear my life and liberty away. It would only be
+that the Germans and the Russians, and the Austrians, and the rest of
+them would work out my ideas instead of me working them out, and it
+might be that they would make a worse use of them. You've half an hour
+to give me up, if you like."
+
+And then he began to collect the papers that were scattered about the
+big drawing-table, sorting them out and folding them up and then taking
+other papers and plans from the drawers and packing them into a little
+black dispatch box.
+
+"But, John, John," she said, crossing the room, and putting her hand on
+his shoulder. "Don't tell me that you're going to plunge the world in
+war just for this. Think of what it means--the tens of thousands of
+lives that will be lost, the thousands of homes that will be made
+desolate, the women who will be crying for their husbands, and the
+children for their fathers, the dead men buried in graves that will
+never have a name on them, and the wounded, broken men coming back to
+their homes that they will never be able to keep up again, not only here
+and in England, but all over Europe and perhaps in America as well!
+Genius you may be; but what are you that you should bring calamity like
+this upon humanity?"
+
+"I'm an Irishman, and I hate England, and that's enough," he replied
+sullenly, as he went on packing his papers.
+
+"You hate that Englishman worse than you hate England, John."
+
+"And I wouldn't wonder if you loved that Englishman more than you loved
+Ireland, Norah," he replied, with a snarl in his voice.
+
+"And if I did," she said, with blazing eyes and flaming cheeks, "isn't
+England nearer to Ireland than America?"
+
+"Geographically, perhaps, but in sentiment--"
+
+"Sentiment! Yes, when you have finished with this bloody business of
+yours that you have begun on, go you through Ireland and England and
+Europe, and ask the widows and the fatherless, and the girls who kissed
+their lovers 'good-bye,' and never saw them again, what they think of
+that sentiment! But it's no use arguing with you now; there's your
+German yacht. You're no brother of mine. You've made me sorry that we
+had the same father and mother."
+
+As she spoke, she went to the door, opened it and, before he could
+reply, slammed it behind her, and went to her room to seek and find a
+woman's usual relief from extreme mental tension.
+
+John Castellan went on packing his papers, his face grey, and his
+features hard-set. He loved his beautiful sister, but he thought that he
+loved his country more. When he had finished he went and knocked at her
+door, and said:
+
+"Norah, I'm going. Won't you say 'good-bye?'"
+
+The door was swung open, and she faced him, her face wet with tears, her
+eyes glistening, and her lips twitching.
+
+"Yes, good-bye, John," she said. "Go to your German friends; but, when
+all the horrors that you are going to bring upon this country through
+their help come to pass, remember you have no sister left in Ireland.
+You've sold yourself, and I have no brother who is a traitor. Good-bye!"
+
+The door swung to and she locked it. John Castellan hesitated for a
+moment or two, and then with a slow shake of his head he went away down
+the stairs out into the street, and along to the little jetty where the
+German yacht's boat was waiting to take him on board.
+
+Norah had thrown herself on her bed in her locked room shedding the
+first but not the last tear that John Castellan's decision was destined
+to draw from women's eyes.
+
+About half an hour later the encircling hills of the bay echoed the
+shriek of a siren. She got up, looked out of the window, and saw the
+white shape of the German yacht moving out towards the fringe of islands
+which guard the outward bay.
+
+"And there he goes!" she said in a voice that was almost choked with
+sobs, "there he goes, my own brother, it may be taking the fate of the
+world with him--yes, and on a German ship, too. He that knows every
+island and creek and cove and harbour from Cape Wrath to Cape Clear--he
+that's got all those inventions in his head, too, and the son of my own
+father and mother, sold his country to the foreigner, thinking those
+dirty Germans will keep their word with him.
+
+"Not they, John, not they. The saints forgive me for thinking it, but
+for Ireland's sake I hope that ship will never reach Germany. If it
+does, we'll see the German Eagle floating over Dublin Castle before
+you'll be able to haul up the Green Flag. Well, well, there it is; it's
+done now, I suppose, and there's no help for it. God forgive you, John,
+I don't think man ever will!"
+
+As she said this the white yacht turned the southern point of the inner
+bay, and disappeared to the southward. Norah bathed her face, brushed
+out her hair, and coiled it up again; then she put on her hat and
+jacket, and went out to do a little shopping.
+
+It is perhaps a merciful provision of Providence that in this human life
+of ours the course of the greatest events shall be interrupted by the
+most trivial necessities of existence. Were it not for that the
+inevitable might become the unendurable.
+
+The plain fact was that Norah Castellan had some friends and
+acquaintances coming to supper that evening. Her brother had left at a
+few hours' notice from his foreign masters, as she called them, and
+there would have to be some explanation of his absence, especially as a
+friend of his, Arthur Lismore, the owner of the finest salmon streams
+for twenty miles round, and a man who was quite hopelessly in love with
+herself, was coming to brew the punch after the fashion of his
+ancestors, and so, of course, it was necessary that there should be
+nothing wanting.
+
+Moreover, she was beginning to feel the want of some hard physical
+exercise, and an hour or so in that lovely air of Connemara, which, as
+those who know, say, is as soft as silk and as bright as champagne. So
+she went out, and as she turned the corner round the head of the harbour
+to the left towards the waterfall, almost the first person she met was
+Arthur Lismore himself--a brown-faced, chestnut-haired, blue-eyed, young
+giant of twenty-eight or so; as goodly a man as God ever put His own
+seal upon.
+
+His cap came off, his head bowed with that peculiar grace of deference
+which no one has ever yet been able to copy from an Irishman, and he
+said in the strong, and yet curiously mellow tone which you only hear in
+the west of Ireland:
+
+"Good afternoon, Miss Norah. I've heard that you're to be left alone for
+a time, and that we won't see John to-night."
+
+"Yes," she said, her eyes meeting his, "that is true. He went away in
+that German yacht that left the bay less than an hour ago."
+
+"A German yacht!" he echoed. "Well now, how stupid of me, I've been
+trying to think all the afternoon what that flag was she carried when
+she came in."
+
+"The German Imperial Yacht Club," she said, "that was the ensign she was
+flying, and John has gone to Germany in her."
+
+"To Germany! John gone to Germany! But what for? Surely now--"
+
+"Yes, to Germany, to help the Emperor to set the world on fire."
+
+"You're not saying that, Miss Norah?"
+
+"I am," she said, more gravely than he had ever heard her speak. "Mr
+Lismore, it's a sick and sorry girl I am this afternoon. You were the
+first Irishman on the top of Waggon Hill, and you'll understand what I
+mean. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you'll walk down to the
+Fall with me, and I'll tell you."
+
+"I could have nothing better to do, Norah, and it's yourself that knows
+that as well as I do," he replied. "I only wish the road was longer.
+And it's yourself that's sick and sorry, is it? If it wasn't John, I'd
+like to get the reason out of any other man. That's Irish, but it's
+true."
+
+He turned, and they walked down the steeply sloping street for several
+minutes in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SEEN UNDER THE MOON
+
+
+It was a few minutes after four bells on a grey morning in November 1909
+that Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, in command of his Majesty's
+Fishery Cruiser, the _Cormorant_, got up on to the navigating bridge,
+and, as usual, took a general squint about him, and buttoned the top
+button of his oil-skin coat.
+
+The _Cormorant_ was just a few yards inside the three-mile limit on
+Flamborough Head, and, officially, she was looking for trespassers, who
+either did not fly the British flag, or flew it fraudulently. There were
+plenty of foreign poachers on the rich fishing grounds to the north and
+east away to the Dogger, and there were also plenty of floating grog
+shops from Bremen and Hamburg, and Rotterdam and Flushing, and a good
+many other places, loaded up to their decks with liquor, whose mission
+was not only to sell their poison at about four hundred per cent. profit
+to the British fishers on the Dogger, but also to persuade them, at a
+price, to smuggle more of the said poison into the British Islands to be
+made into Scotch and Irish whisky, brandy, Hollands, gin, rum, and even
+green and yellow Chartreuse, or any other alcoholic potion which simply
+wanted the help of the chemist to transform potato and beet spirit into
+anything that would taste like what it was called.
+
+"Beast of a morning, Castellan," he said to his first officer, whom he
+was relieving, "dirty sea, dirty sky, and not a thing to be seen. You
+don't have worse weather than this even off Connemara, do you?"
+
+"No," said Castellan, "and I've seen better; but look you, there's the
+sky clearing to the east; yes, and there's Venus, herald of the sun:
+and faith, she's bright, too, like a little moon, now isn't she? I
+suppose it'll be a bit too early for Norah to be looking at her, won't
+it?"
+
+"Don't talk rot, man," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. "I hope your
+sister hasn't finished her beauty sleep by this time."
+
+The clouds parted still wider, making a great gap of blue-grey sky to
+the eastward, as the westward bank drifted downward. The moon sent a
+sudden flood of white light over their heads, which silvered the edges
+of the clouds, and then turned the leaden waters into silver as it had
+done to the grey of the cloud.
+
+"She'd wake fast enough if she had a nightmare or a morning mare, or
+something of that sort, and could see a thing like that," exclaimed
+Castellan, gripping the Lieutenant-Commander by the shoulder with his
+right hand, and pointing to the east with his left. "Look, man, look! By
+all the Holy Powers, what is it? See there! Thanks for the blessed
+moonlight that has shown it to us, for I'm thinking it doesn't mean any
+good to old England or Ireland."
+
+Erskine was an Englishman, and a naval officer at that, and therefore
+his reply consisted of only a few words hardly fitted for publication.
+The last words were, "What is it?"
+
+"What is it?" said Castellan with a stamp of his feet on the bridge,
+"what is it? Now wouldn't I like to know just as well as you would, and
+don't you think the Lords of the British Admiralty would like to know a
+lot better? But there's one thing I think I can tell you, it's one of
+those new inventions that the British Admiralty never buy, and let go to
+other countries, and what's more, as you've seen with your eyes, as I
+have with mine, it came out of the water on the edge of that moon-lit
+piece, it flew across it, it sighted us, I suppose, it found it had made
+a mistake, and it went down again. Now what do you make of that?"
+
+"Combination of submarine and airship it looks like," said Erskine,
+seriously, "and if that doesn't belong to us, it's going to be fairly
+dangerous. Good Lord! a thing like that might do anything with a fleet,
+and whatever Power owns it may just as well have a hundred as one. Look
+here, Castellan, I'm going straight into Scarborough. This is a lot more
+important than the Dogger Fleet. There's the _Seagull_ at Hull. She can
+relieve us, and Franklin can take this old coffee-grinder round. You and
+I are going to London as soon as we can get there. Take the latitude,
+longitude, and exact time, and also the evidence of the watch if any one
+of them saw it."
+
+"You think it's as serious as that?"
+
+"Certainly. It's one of two things. Either that thing belongs to us or
+it belongs to a possible enemy. The Fleet, even to a humble fishery
+cruiser, means the eyes and ears of the British Empire. If that belongs
+to the Admiralty, well and good; we shall get censured for leaving the
+ship; that's the risk we take. If it doesn't, the Naval Board may
+possibly have the civility to thank us for telling them about it; but in
+either case we are going to do our duty. Send Franklin up to the bridge,
+make the course for Scarborough, get the evidence of any of the watch
+who saw what we have seen, and I'll go and make the report. Then you can
+countersign it, and the men can make theirs. I think that's the best we
+can do."
+
+"I think so, sir," said the Lieutenant, saluting.
+
+The Lieutenant-Commander walked from port to starboard and starboard to
+port thinking pretty hard until the navigating lieutenant came to take
+charge of the bridge. Of submarines he knew a good deal. He knew that
+the British navy possessed the very best type of this craft which
+navigated the under-waters. He had also, of course, read the aërial
+experiments which had been made by inventors of what the newspapers
+called airships, and which he, with his hard naval common-sense, called
+gas-bags with motor engines slung under them. He knew the deadly
+possibilities of the submarine; the flying gas-bag he looked upon as gas
+and not much more. The real flying machine he had considered up till a
+few moments ago as a dream of the future; but a combination of submarine
+and flying ship such as he and Castellan, if they had not both been
+drunk or dreaming, had seen a few moments ago, was quite another matter.
+The possibilities of a thing like that were absolutely limitless,
+limitless for good or evil, and if it did belong to a possible enemy of
+Britain, there was only one conclusion to be arrived at--The Isle
+Inviolate would be inviolate no more.
+
+Lieutenant Franklin came on to the bridge and saluted; he returned the
+salute, gave the orders for changing the course, and went down to his
+cabin, muttering:
+
+"Good Lord, if that's only so. Why, half a dozen things like that could
+fight a fleet, then go on gaily to tackle the forts. I wonder whether my
+Lords of the Naval Council will see me to-morrow, and believe me if they
+do see me."
+
+By great good luck it happened that the Commander of the North-eastern
+District had come up from Hull to Scarborough for a few days' holiday.
+When he saw the _Cormorant_ steam into the bay, he very naturally wanted
+to know what was the matter, and so he went down to the pier-head, and
+met the _Cormorant's_ cutter. As Erskine came up the steps he recognised
+him and saluted.
+
+"Good-morning, sir."
+
+"Good-morning, Erskine. What's the matter? You're a little off your
+ground, aren't you? Of course, there must be a reason for it. Anything
+serious?" replied the District Commander, as he held out his hand. "Ah,
+good morning, Castellan. So you've both come ashore. Well, now, what is
+it?"
+
+Erskine took a rapid glance round at the promenaders who were coming
+down to have a look at the cruiser, and said in a low tone:
+
+"Yes, sir. I am afraid it is rather serious; but it is hardly the sort
+of thing one could discuss here. In fact, I was taking the
+responsibility of going straight to London with Castellan, to present a
+report which we have drawn up to the Board of Admiralty."
+
+The District Commander's iron-grey eyebrows lifted for the fraction of a
+minute, and he said:
+
+"H'm. Well, Erskine, I know you're not the sort of man to do that sort
+of thing without pretty good reason. Come up to the hotel, both of you,
+and let us go into it."
+
+"Thank you, sir," replied Erskine. "It is really quite fortunate that we
+met you here, because I think when you've seen the report you will feel
+justified in giving us formal leave instead of French leave."
+
+"I hope so," he replied, somewhat grimly, for a rule of the Service had
+been broken all to pieces, and his own sense of discipline was sorely
+outraged by the knowledge that two responsible officers had left their
+ship with the intention of going to London without leave.
+
+But when he had locked the door of his sitting-room at the hotel, and
+heard the amazing story which Erskine and Castellan had to tell, and had
+read their report, and the evidence of the men who had also seen the
+strange apparition which had leapt from the sea into the air, and then
+returned to the waters, he put in a few moments of silent thinking, and
+then he looked up, and said gravely:
+
+"Well, gentlemen, I know that British naval officers and British seamen
+don't see things that are not there, as the Russians did a few years ago
+on the Dogger Bank. I am of course bound to believe you, and I think
+they will do the same in London. You have taken a very irregular course;
+but a man who is not prepared to do that at a pinch seldom does anything
+else. I have seen and heard enough to convince me for the present; and
+so I shall have great pleasure, in fact I shall only be doing my duty,
+in giving you both leave for a week.
+
+"I will order the _Seagull_ up from Hull, she's about ready, and I think
+I can put an Acting-Commander on board the _Cormorant_ for the present.
+Now, you will just have time for an early lunch with me, and catch the
+1.17, which will get you to town at 5.15, and you will probably find
+somebody at the Admiralty then, because I know they're working overtime.
+Anyhow, if you don't find Sir John Fisher there, I should go straight to
+his house, if I were you; and even if you don't see him, you'll be able
+to get an early appointment for to-morrow."
+
+"That was a pretty good slice of luck meeting the noble Crocker, wasn't
+it?" said Castellan, as the train began to move out of the station,
+about three hours later. They had reserved a compartment in the corridor
+express, and were able to talk State secrets at their ease.
+
+"We're inside the law now, at any rate."
+
+"Law or no law, it was good enough to risk a court-martial for," said
+Erskine, biting off the end of a cigar. "There's no doubt about the
+existence of the thing, and if it doesn't belong to us, which is a fact
+that only my Lords of the Naval Council can know, it simply means, as
+you must see for yourself, that the invasion of England, which has been
+a naval and military impossibility for the last seven hundred years or
+so, will not only become possible but comparatively easy. There's
+nothing upon the waters or under them that could stand against a thing
+like that."
+
+"Oh, you're right enough there," said Castellan, speaking with his soft
+West of Ireland brogue. "There's no doubt of that, and it's the very
+devil. A dozen of those things would play havoc with a whole fleet, and
+when the fleet's gone, or even badly hurt, what's to stop our good
+friends over yonder landing two or three million men just anywhere they
+choose, and doing pretty well what they like afterwards? By the Saints,
+that would be a horrible thing. We've nothing on land that could stand
+against them, though, of course, the boys would stand till they fell
+down; but fall they would."
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, seriously. "It wouldn't exactly be a walk over for
+them, but I'm afraid there couldn't be very much doubt at the end, if
+the fleet once went."
+
+"I'm afraid not," replied Castellan, "and we can only hope that our
+Lords of the Council will be of the same opinion, or, better still,
+that the infernal thing we saw belongs to us."
+
+"I hope so," said Erskine, gravely. "If it doesn't--well, I wouldn't
+give half-a-crown for the biggest battleship in the British Navy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR
+
+
+By a curious coincidence which, as events proved, was to have some
+serious consequences, almost at the same moment that Commander Erskine
+began to write his report on the strange vision which he and his
+Lieutenant had seen, Gilbert Lennard came out of the Observatory which
+Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had built on the south of the Whernside Hills in
+Yorkshire.
+
+Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had two ambitions in life, one of which he had
+fulfilled. This was to pile millions upon millions by any possible
+means. As he used to say to his associates in his poorer days, "You've
+got to get there somehow, so get there"--and he had "got there." It is
+not necessary for the purpose of the present narrative to say how he did
+it. He had done it, and that is why he bought the Hill of Whernside and
+about a thousand acres around it and built an Observatory on the top
+with which, to use his own words, he meant to lick Creation by seeing
+further into Creation than anyone else had done, and that is just what
+his great reflector had enabled his astronomer to do.
+
+When he had locked the door Lennard looked up to the eastward where the
+morning star hung flashing like a huge diamond in splendid solitude
+against the brightening background of the sky. His face was the face of
+a man who had seen something that he would not like to describe to any
+other man. His features were hard set, and there were lines in his face
+which time might have drawn twenty or thirty years later. His lips made
+a straight line, and his eyes, although he had hardly slept three hours
+a night for as many nights, had a look in them that was not to be
+accounted for by ordinary insomnia.
+
+His work was over for the night, and, if he chose, he could go down to
+the house three-quarters of a mile away and sleep for the rest of the
+day, or, at any rate, until lunch time; and yet he looked another long
+look at the morning star, thrust his hands down into his trousers
+pockets and turned up a side path that led through the heather, and
+spent the rest of the morning walking and thinking--walking slowly, and
+thinking very quickly.
+
+When he came in to breakfast at nine the next morning, after he had had
+a shave and a bath, Mr Parmenter said to him:
+
+"Look here, young man, I'm old enough to be your father, and so you'll
+excuse me putting it that way; if you're going along like this I reckon
+I'll have to shut that Observatory down for the time being and take you
+on a trip to the States to see how they're getting on with their
+telescopes in the Alleghanies and the Rockies, and maybe down South too
+in Peru, to that Harvard Observatory above Arequipa on the Misti, as a
+sort of holiday. I asked you to come here to work, not to wear yourself
+out. As I've told you before, we've got plenty of men in the States who
+can sign their cheques for millions of dollars and can't eat a dinner,
+to say nothing of a breakfast, and you're too young for that.
+
+"What's the matter? More trouble about that new comet of yours. You've
+been up all night looking at it, haven't you? Of course it's all right
+that you got hold of it before anybody else, but all the same I don't
+want you to be worrying yourself for nothing and get laid up before the
+time comes to take the glory of the discovery."
+
+While he was speaking the door of the breakfast-room opened and Auriole
+came in. She looked with a just perceptible admiration at the man who,
+as it seemed to her, was beginning to show a slight stoop in the broad
+shoulders and a little falling forward of the head which she had first
+seen driving through the water to her rescue in the Bay of Connemara.
+Her eyelids lifted a shade as she looked at him, and she said with a
+half smile:
+
+"Good morning, Mr Lennard; I am afraid you've been sacrificing yourself
+a little bit too much to science. You don't seem to have had a sleep for
+the last two or three nights. You've been blinding your eyes over those
+tangles of figures and equations, parallaxes and cube roots and that
+sort of thing. I know something about them because I had some struggles
+with them myself at Vassar."
+
+"That's about it, Auriole," said her father. "Just what I've been
+saying; and I hope our friend is not going on with this kind of business
+too long. Now, really, Mr Lennard, you know you must not, and that's all
+there is to it."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't think you need be frightened of anything of that sort,"
+said Lennard, who had considerably brightened up as Auriole entered the
+room; "perhaps I may have been going a little too long without sleep;
+but, you see, a man who has the great luck to discover a new comet is
+something like one of the old navigators who discovered new islands and
+continents. Of course you remember the story of Columbus. When he
+thought he was going to find what is now the country which has had the
+honour--"
+
+"I know you're going to say something nice, Mr Lennard," interrupted
+Auriole, "but breakfast is ready; here it comes. If you take my advice
+you will have your coffee and something to eat and tell us the rest of
+it while you're getting something that will do you good. What do you
+think, Poppa?"
+
+"Hard sense, Auriole, hard sense. Your mother used to talk just like
+that, and I reckon you've got it from her. Well now, here's the food,
+let's begin. I've got a hunger on me that I'd have wanted five dollars
+to stop at the time when I couldn't buy a breakfast."
+
+They sat down, Miss Auriole at the head of the table and her father and
+Lennard facing each other, and for the next few minutes there was a
+semi-silence which was very well employed in the commencement of one of
+the most important functions of the human day.
+
+When Mr Parmenter had got through his first cup of coffee, his two
+poached eggs on toast, and was beginning on the fish, he looked across
+the table and said:
+
+"Well now, Mr Lennard, I guess you're feeling a bit better, as I do, and
+so, maybe, you can tell us something new about comets."
+
+"I certainly am feeling better," said Lennard with a glance at Auriole,
+"but, you see, I've got into a state of mind which is not unlike the
+physical state of the Red Indian who starves for a few days and then
+takes his meals, I mean the arrears of meals, all at once. When I have
+had a good long sleep, as I am going to have until to-night, I might--in
+fact, I hope I shall be able to tell you something definite about the
+question of the comet."
+
+"What--the question?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "About the comet? I didn't
+understand that there was any question. You have discovered it, haven't
+you?"
+
+"I have made a certain discovery, Mr Parmenter," said Lennard, with a
+gravity which made Auriole raise her eyelids quickly, "but whether I
+have found a comet so far unknown to astronomy or not, is quite another
+matter. Thanks to that splendid instrument of yours, I have found a
+something in a part of the heavens where no comet, not even a star, has
+even been seen yet, and, speaking in all seriousness, I may say that
+this discovery contradicts all calculations as to the orbits and
+velocities of any known comet. That is what I have been thinking about
+all night."
+
+"What?" said Auriole, looking up again. "Really something quite
+unknown?"
+
+"Unknown except to the three people sitting at this table, unless
+another miracle has happened--I mean such a one as happened in the case
+of the discovery of Neptune which, as of course you know, Adams at
+Cambridge and Le Verrier at Paris--"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Auriole, "two men who didn't know each other; both
+looked for something that couldn't be seen, and found it. If you've done
+anything like that, Mr Lennard, I reckon Poppa will have good cause to
+be proud of his reflector--"
+
+"And of the man behind it," added her father. "A telescope's like a gun;
+no use without a good man behind it. Well, if that's so, Mr Lennard,
+this discovery of yours ought to shake the world up a bit."
+
+"From what I have seen so far," replied Lennard, "I have not the
+slightest doubt that it will."
+
+"And when may I see this wonderful discovery of yours, Mr Lennard," said
+Auriole, "this something which is going to be so important, this
+something that no one else's eyes have seen except yours. Really, you
+know, you've made me quite longing to get a sight of this stranger from
+the outer wilderness of space."
+
+"If the night is clear enough, I may hope to be able to introduce you to
+the new celestial visitor about a quarter-past eleven to-night, or to be
+quite accurate eleven hours, sixteen minutes and thirty-nine seconds
+p.m."
+
+"I think that's good enough, Auriole," said her father. "If the heavens
+are only kind enough, we'll go up to the observatory and, as Mr Lennard
+says, see something that no one else has ever seen."
+
+"And then," laughed Auriole, "I suppose you will have achieved the
+second ambition of your life. You have already piled up a bigger heap of
+dollars than anybody else in the world, and by midnight you will have
+seen farther into Creation than anybody else. But you will let me have
+the first look, won't you?"
+
+"Why, certainly," he replied. "As soon as Mr Lennard has got the
+telescope fixed, you go first, and I reckon that won't take very long."
+
+"No," replied Lennard, "I've worked out the position for to-night, and
+it's only a matter of winding up the clockwork and setting the
+telescope. And now," he continued, rising, "if you will allow me, I will
+say--well, I was going to say good-night, but of course it's
+good-morning--I'm going to bed."
+
+"Will you come down to lunch, or shall I have some sent up to you?"
+said Auriole.
+
+"No, thanks. I don't think there will be any need to trouble you about
+that. When I once get to sleep, I hope I shall forget all things
+earthly, and heavenly too for the matter of that, until about six
+o'clock, and if you will have me called then, I will be ready for
+dinner."
+
+"Certainly," replied Auriole, "and I hope you will sleep as well as you
+deserve to do, after all these nights of watching."
+
+He did sleep. He slept the sleep of a man physically and mentally tired,
+in spite of the load of unspeakable anxiety which was weighing upon his
+mind. For during his last night's work, he had learnt what no other man
+in the world knew. He had learnt that, unless a miracle happened, or
+some almost superhuman feat of ingenuity and daring was accomplished,
+that day thirteen months hence would see the annihilation of every
+living thing on earth, and the planet Terra converted into a dark and
+lifeless orb, a wilderness drifting through space, the blackened and
+desolated sepulchre of the countless millions of living beings which now
+inhabited it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM
+
+
+After dinner Lennard excused himself, saying that he wanted to make a
+few more calculations; and then he got outside and lit his pipe, and
+walked up the winding path towards the observatory.
+
+"What am I to do?" he said between his teeth. "It's a ghastly position
+for a man to be placed in. Fancy--just a poor, ordinary, human being
+like myself having the power of losing or saving the world in his hands!
+And then, of course, there's a woman in the question--the Eternal
+Feminine--even in such a colossal problem as this!
+
+"It's mean, and I know it; but, after all, I saved her life--though, if
+I hadn't reached her first, that other chap might have got her. I love
+her and he loves her; there's no doubt about that, and Papa Parmenter
+wants to marry her to a coronet. There's one thing certain, Castellan
+shall not have her, and I love her a lot too much to see her made My
+Lady This, or the Marchioness of So-and-so, just because she's beautiful
+and has millions, and the other fellow, whoever he may be, may have a
+coronet that probably wants re-gilding; and yet, after all, it's only
+the same old story in a rather more serious form--a woman against the
+world. I suppose Papa Parmenter would show me the door to-morrow morning
+if I, a poor explorer of the realm of Space, dared to tell him that I
+want to marry his daughter.
+
+"And yet how miserable and trivial all these wretched distinctions of
+wealth and position look now; or would look if the world only knew and
+believed what I could tell it--and that reminds me--shall I tell her, or
+them? Of course, I must before long; simply because in a month or so
+those American fellows will be on it, and they won't have any scruples
+when it comes to a matter of scare head-lines. Yes, I think it may as
+well be to-night as any other time. Still, it's a pretty awful thing for
+a humble individual like myself to say, especially to a girl one happens
+to be very much in love with--nothing less than the death-sentence of
+Humanity. Ah, well, she's got to hear it some time and from some one,
+and why shouldn't she hear it now and from me?"
+
+When he got back to the house, there was a carriage at the door, and Mr
+Parmenter was just coming down the avenue, followed by a man with a
+small portmanteau in his hand.
+
+"Sorry, Mr Lennard," he said, holding out his hand, "I've just had a
+wire about a company tangle in London that I've got to go and shake out
+at once, so I'll have to see what you have to show me later on. Still,
+that needn't trouble anyone. It looks as if it were going to be a
+splendid night for star-gazing, and I don't want Auriole disappointed,
+so she can go up to the observatory with you at the proper time and see
+what there is to be seen. See you later, I have only just about time to
+get the connection for London."
+
+Lennard was not altogether sorry that this accident had happened.
+Naturally, the prospect of an hour or so with Auriole alone in his
+temple of Science was very pleasant, and moreover, he felt that, as the
+momentous tidings had to be told, he would prefer to tell them to her
+first. And so it came about.
+
+A little after half-past eleven that night Miss Auriole was looking
+wonderingly into the eye-piece of the great Reflector, watching a tiny
+little patch of mist, somewhat brighter towards one end than the other;
+like a little wisp of white smoke rising from a very faint spark that
+was apparently floating across an unfathomable sea of darkness.
+
+She seemed to see this through black darkness, and behind it a swarm of
+stars of all sizes and colours. They appeared very much more wonderful
+and glorious and important than the little spray of white smoke, because
+she hadn't yet the faintest conception of its true import to her and
+every other human being on earth: but she was very soon to know now.
+
+While she was watching it in breathless silence, in which the clicking
+of the mechanism which kept the great telescope moving so as to exactly
+counteract the motion of the machinery of the Universe, sounded like the
+blows of a sledge-hammer on an anvil, Gilbert Lennard stood beside her,
+wondering if he should begin to tell her, and what he should say.
+
+At last she turned away from the eye-piece, and looked at him with
+something like a scared expression in her eyes, and said:
+
+"It's very wonderful, isn't it, that one should be able to see all that
+just by looking into a little bit of a hole in a telescope? And you tell
+me that all those great big bright stars around your comet are so far
+away that if you look at them just with your own eyes you don't even see
+them--and there they look almost as if you could put out your hand and
+touch them. It's just a little bit awful, too!" she added, with a little
+shiver.
+
+"Yes," he said, speaking slowly and even more gravely that she thought
+the subject warranted, "yes, it is both wonderful and, in a way, awful.
+Do you know that some of those stars you have seen in there are so far
+away that the light which you see them by may have left them when
+Solomon was king in Jerusalem? They may be quite dead and dark now, or
+reduced into fire-mist by collision with some other star. And then,
+perhaps, there are others behind them again so far away that their light
+has not even reached us yet, and may never do while there are human eyes
+on earth to see it."
+
+"Yes, I know," she said, smiling. "You don't forget that I have been to
+college--and light travels about a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles
+a second, doesn't it? But come, Mr Lennard, aren't you what they call
+stretching the probabilities a little when you say that the light of
+some of them will never get here, as far as we're concerned? I always
+thought we had a few million years of life to look forward to before
+this old world of ours gets worn out."
+
+"There are other ends possible for this world besides wearing out, Miss
+Parmenter," he answered, this time almost solemnly. "Other worlds have,
+as I say, been reduced to fire-mist. Some have been shattered to tiny
+fragments to make asteroids and meteorites--stars and worlds, in
+comparison with which this bit of a planet of ours is nothing more than
+a speck of sand, a mere atom of matter drifting over the wilderness of
+immensity. In fact, such a trifle is it in the organism of the Universe,
+that if some celestial body collided with it--say a comet with a
+sufficiently solid nucleus--and the heat developed by the impact turned
+it into a mass of blazing gas, an astronomer on Neptune, one of our own
+planets, wouldn't even notice the accident, unless he happened to be
+watching the earth through a powerful telescope at the time."
+
+"And is such an accident, as you call it, possible, Mr Lennard?" she
+asked, jumping womanlike, by a sort of unconscious intuition, to the
+very point to which he was so clumsily trying to lead up.
+
+"I thought you spoke rather queerly about this comet of yours at
+breakfast this morning. I hope there isn't any chance of its getting on
+to the same track as this terrestrial locomotive of ours. That would be
+just awful, wouldn't it? Why, what's the matter? You are going to be
+ill, I know. You had better get down to the house, and go to bed. It's
+want of sleep, isn't it? You'll be driving yourself mad that way."
+
+A sudden and terrible change had come over him while she was speaking.
+It was only for the moment, and yet to him it was an eternity. It might,
+as she said, have been the want of sleep, for insomnia plays strange
+tricks sometimes with the strongest of intellects.
+
+More probably, it might have been the horror of his secret working on
+the great love that he had for this girl who was sitting there alone
+with him in the silence of that dim room and in the midst of the glories
+and the mysteries of the Universe.
+
+His eyes had grown fixed and staring, and looked sightlessly at her, and
+his face shone ghastly pale in the dim light of the solitary shaded
+lamp. Certainly, one of those mysterious crises which are among the
+unsolved secrets of psychology had come upon him like some swift access
+of delirium.
+
+He no longer saw her sitting there by the telescope, calm, gracious, and
+beautiful. He saw her as, by his pitiless calculations, he must do that
+day thirteen months to come--with her soft grey eyes, starting,
+horror-driven from their orbits, staring blank and wide and hideous at
+the overwhelming hell that would be falling down from heaven upon the
+devoted earth. He saw her fresh young face withered and horror-lined and
+old, and the bright-brown hair grown grey with the years that would pass
+in those few final moments. He saw the sweet red lips which had tempted
+him so often to wild thoughts parched and black, wide open and gasping
+vainly for the breath of life in a hot, burnt-out atmosphere.
+
+Then he saw--no, it was only a glimpse; and with that the strange
+trance-vision ended. What must have come after that would in all
+certainty have driven him mad there and then, before his work had even
+begun; but at that moment, swiftly severing the darkness that was
+falling over his soul, there came to him an idea, bright, luminous, and
+lovely as an inspiration from Heaven itself, and with it came back the
+calm sanity of the sternly-disciplined intellect, prepared to
+contemplate, not only the destruction of the world he lived in, but even
+the loss of the woman he loved--the only human being who could make the
+world beautiful or even tolerable for him.
+
+The vision was blotted out from the sight of his soul; the darkness
+cleared away from his eyes, and he saw her again as she still was. It
+had all passed in a few moments and yet in them he had been down into
+hell--and he had come back to earth, and into her presence.
+
+Almost by the time she had uttered her last word, he had regained
+command of his voice, and he began clearly and quietly to answer the
+question which was still echoing through the chambers of his brain.
+
+"It was only a little passing faintness, thank you; and something else
+which you will understand when I have done, if you have patience to hear
+me to the end," he said, looking straight at her for a moment, and then
+beginning to walk slowly up and down the room past her chair.
+
+"I am going to surprise you, perhaps to frighten you, and very probably
+to offend you deeply," he began again in a quiet, dry sort of tone,
+which somehow impressed her against all her convictions that he didn't
+much care whether or not he did any or all of these things: but there
+was something else in his tone and manner which held her to her seat,
+silent and attentive, although she was conscious of a distinct desire to
+get up and run away.
+
+"Your guess about the comet, or whatever it may prove to be, is quite
+correct. I don't think it is a new one. From what I have seen of it so
+far, I have every reason to believe that it is Gambert's comet, which
+was discovered in 1826, and became visible to the naked eye in the
+autumn of 1833. It then crossed the orbit of the earth one month after
+the earth had passed the point of intersection. After that, some force
+divided it, and in '46 and '52 it reappeared as twin comets constantly
+separating. Now it would seem that the two masses have come together
+again: and as they are both larger in bulk and greater in density it
+would appear that, somewhere in the distant fields of Space, they have
+united with some other and denser body. The result is, that what is
+practically a new comet, with a much denser nucleus than any so far
+seen, is approaching our system. Unless a miracle happens, or there is a
+practically impossible error in my calculations, it will cross the orbit
+of the earth thirteen months from to-day, at the moment that the earth
+itself arrives at the point of intersection."
+
+So far Auriole had listened to the stiff scientific phraseology with
+more interest than alarm; but now she took advantage of a little pause,
+and said:
+
+"And the consequences, Mr Lennard? I mean the consequences to us as
+living beings. You may as well tell me everything now that you've gone
+so far."
+
+"I am going to," he said, stopping for a moment in his walk, "and I am
+going to tell you something more than that. Granted that what I have
+said happens, one of two things must follow. If the nucleus of the comet
+is solid enough to pass through our atmosphere without being dissipated,
+it will strike the surface with so much force that both it and the earth
+will probably be transformed into fiery vapour by the conversion of the
+motion of the two bodies into heat. If not, its contact with the oxygen
+of the earth's atmosphere will produce an aërial conflagration which, if
+it does not roast alive every living thing on earth, will convert the
+oxygen, by combustion, into an irrespirable and poisonous gas, and so
+kill us by a slower, but no less fatal, process."
+
+"Horrible!" she said, shivering this time. "You speak like a judge
+pronouncing sentence of death on the whole human race! I suppose there
+is no possibility of reprieve? Well, go on!"
+
+"Yes," he said, "there is something else. Those are the scientific
+facts, as far as they go. I am going to tell you the chances now--and
+something more. There is just one chance--one possible way of averting
+universal ruin from the earth, and substituting for it nothing more
+serious than an unparalleled display of celestial fireworks. All that
+will be necessary is perfect calculation and illimitable expenditure of
+money."
+
+"Well," she said, "can't you do the calculations, Mr Lennard, and hasn't
+dad got millions enough? How could he spend them better than in saving
+the human race from being burnt alive? There isn't anything else, is
+there?"
+
+"There was something else," he said, stopping in front of her again. She
+had risen to her feet as she said the last words, and the two stood
+facing each other in the dim light, while the mechanism of the telescope
+kept on clicking away in its heedless, mechanical fashion.
+
+"Yes, there was something else, and I may as well tell you after all;
+for, even if you never see or speak to me again, it won't stop the work
+being done now. I could have kept this discovery to myself till it would
+have been too late to do anything: for no other telescope without my
+help would even find the comet for four months to come, and even now
+there is hardly a day to be lost if the work is to be done in time. And
+then--well, I suppose I must have gone mad for the time being, for I
+thought--you will hardly believe me, I suppose--that I could make you
+the price of the world's safety.
+
+"From that, you will see how much I have loved you, however mad I may
+have been. Losing you, I would have lost the world with you. If my love
+lives, I thought, the world shall live: if not, if you die, the world
+shall die. But just now, when you thought I was taken ill, I had a sort
+of vision, and I saw you,--yes, you, Auriole as, if my one chance fails,
+you must infallibly be this night thirteen months hence. I didn't see
+any of the other millions who would be choking and gasping for breath
+and writhing in the torture of the universal fire--I only saw you and my
+own baseness in thinking, even for a moment, that such a bargain would
+be possible.
+
+"And then," he went on, more slowly, and with a different ring in his
+voice, "there are the other men."
+
+"Which other men?" she asked, looking up at him with a flush on her
+cheeks and a gleam in her eyes.
+
+"To be quite frank, and in such a situation as this, I don't see that
+anything but complete candour is of any use," he replied slowly. "I need
+hardly tell you that they are John Castellan and the Marquis of
+Westerham. Castellan, I know, has loved you just as I have done, from
+the moment we had the good luck to pick you out of the bay at Clifden.
+Lord Westerham also wants you, so do I. That, put plainly, brutally, if
+you like, is the situation. Of your own feelings, of course, I do not
+pretend to have the remotest idea; but I confess that when this
+knowledge came to me, the first thought that crossed my mind was the
+thought of you as another man's wife--and then came the vision of the
+world in flames. At first I chose the world in flames. I see that I was
+wrong. That is all."
+
+She had not interrupted even by a gesture, but as she listened, a
+thousand signs and trifles which alone had meant nothing to her, now
+seemed to come together and make one clear and definite revelation. This
+strong, reserved, silent man had all the time loved her so desperately
+that he was going mad about her--so mad that, as he had said, he had
+even dreamed of weighing the possession of her single, insignificant
+self against the safety of the whole world, with all its innumerable
+millions of people--mostly as good in their way as she was.
+
+Well--it might be that the love of such a man was a thing worth to weigh
+even against a coronet--not in her eyes, for there was no question of
+that now, but in her father's. But that was a matter for future
+consideration. She drew herself up a little stiffly, and said, in just
+such a tone as she might have used if what he had just been saying had
+had no personal interest for her--had, in fact, been about some other
+girl:
+
+"I think it's about time to be going down to the house, Mr Lennard,
+isn't it? I am quite sure a night's rest won't do you any harm. No, I'm
+not offended, and I don't think I'm even frightened yet. It somehow
+seems too big and too awful a thing to be only frightened at--too much
+like the Day of Judgment, you know. I am glad you've told me--yes,
+everything--and I'm glad that what you call your madness is over. You
+will be able to do your work in saving the world all the better. Only
+don't tell dad anything except--well--just the scientific and necessary
+part of it. You know, saving a world is a very much greater matter than
+winning a woman--at least it is in one particular woman's eyes--and
+I've learnt somewhere in mathematics something about the greater
+including the less. And now, don't you think we had better be going down
+into the house? It's getting quite late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE NOTE OF WAR
+
+
+The _Official Gazette_, published November the 25th, 1909, contained the
+following announcement:--
+
+
+     "Naval Promotions. Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, of H.M.
+     Fishery Cruiser _Cormorant_, to be Captain of H.M. Cruiser
+     _Ithuriel_. Lieutenant Denis Castellan, also of the _Cormorant_, to
+     be First Lieutenant of the _Ithuriel_."
+
+
+On the evening of the same day, Mr Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, rose
+amidst the tense silence of a crowded House to make another
+announcement, which was not altogether unconnected with the notice in
+the _Gazette_.
+
+"Sir," he said in a low, but vibrant and penetrating voice, which many
+years before had helped to make his fame as an orator, "it is my painful
+duty to inform this honourable House that a state of war exists between
+His Majesty and a Confederation of European countries, including
+Germany, Russia, France, Spain, Holland and Belgium."
+
+He paused for a moment, and looked round at the hundreds of faces, most
+of them pale and fixed, that were turned toward the front Treasury
+Bench. Since Mr Balfour, now Lord Whittinghame, and Leader of the
+Conservative Party in the House of Lords, had made his memorable speech
+on the 12th of October 1899, informing the House of Commons and the
+world that the Ultimatum of the South African Republic had been
+rejected, and that the struggle for the mastery of South Africa was
+inevitable, no such momentous announcement had been made in the House of
+Commons.
+
+Mr Chamberlain referred to that bygone crisis in the following terms:
+
+"It will be within the memory of many Members of this House that, almost
+exactly ten years ago to-day, the British Empire was challenged to fight
+for the supremacy of South Africa. That challenge was accepted not
+because there was any desire on the part of the Government or the people
+of this country to destroy the self-government of what were then the
+South African Republic and the Orange Free State, but because the
+Government of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, knew that the fate of an
+empire, however great, depends upon its supremacy throughout its
+dominions.
+
+"To lose one of these, however small and apparently insignificant, is to
+take a stone out of an arch with the result of inevitable collapse of
+the whole structure. It is not necessary for me, sir, to make any
+further allusion to that struggle, save than to say that the policy of
+Her Majesty's Ministers has been completely justified by the
+consequences which have followed from it.
+
+"The Transvaal and Orange River Colonies have taken their place among
+the other self-governing Colonies of the Empire. They are prosperous,
+contented and loyal, and they will not be the last, I think, to come to
+the help of the Mother Country in such a crisis as this. But, sir, I do
+not think that I should be fulfilling the duties of the responsible
+position which I have the honour to occupy if I did not remind this
+House, and through this House the citizens of the British Empire, that
+the present crisis is infinitely more serious than that with which we
+were faced in 1899. Then we were waging a war in another hemisphere, six
+thousand miles away. Our unconquered, and, as I hope it will prove,
+unconquerable Navy, kept the peace of the world, and policed the ocean
+highways along which it was necessary for our ships to travel. It is
+true that there were menaces and threats heard in many quarters, but
+they never passed beyond the region of insult and calumny.
+
+"Our possible enemies then, our actual enemies now, were in those days
+willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike. To-day, they have lost their
+fear in the confidence of combination. To-day the war cloud is not six
+thousand miles away in the southern hemisphere; it is here, in Europe,
+and a strip of water, twenty-one miles broad, separates us from the
+enemy, which, even as I am speaking, may already be knocking at our
+gates. Even now, the thunder of the guns may be echoing along the shores
+of the English Channel.
+
+"This, sir, is a war in which I might venture to say the most ardent
+member of the Peace Society would not hesitate to engage. For it
+involves the most sacred duty of humanity, the defence of our country,
+and our homes.
+
+"We remember, sir, the words which Francis Drake wrote, and which have
+remained true from his day until now: 'The frontiers of an island
+country are the coasts of its possible enemies.' We remember also that
+when the great Napoleon had massed nearly half a million men on the
+heights above Boulogne, and more than a thousand pontoons were waiting
+to carry that force to the Kentish shore, there was only one old English
+frigate cruising up and down the Straits of Dover.
+
+"Sir, there is on the heights of Boulogne a monument, built to
+commemorate the assembly of the Grand Army, and collectors of coins
+still cherish those productions of the Paris Mint, which bear the
+legend, 'Napoleon, Emperor, London, 1804.' But, sir, the statue of
+Napoleon which stands on the summit of that monument faces not westward
+but eastward. The Grand Army could have crossed that narrow strip of
+water. It could, no doubt, have made a landing on British soil, but
+Napoleon, possibly the greatest military genius the world has ever seen,
+anticipated Field-Marshal von Moltke, who said that he had found eight
+ways of getting into England, but he had not found one of getting out
+again, unless it were possible to pump the North Sea dry, and march the
+men over. In other words, sir, the British Navy was then, as now,
+paramount on seas; the oceans were our territories, and the coasts of
+Europe our frontiers.
+
+"Again, sir, we must not forget that those were the days of sails, and
+that these are the days of steam. What was then a matter of days is now
+only a matter of hours. It is two hundred and forty-two years since the
+sound of hostile guns was heard in the city of London. To-morrow morning
+their thunder may awaken us.
+
+"It has been said, sir, that Great Britain plays the game of Diplomacy
+with her cards face upwards on the table. That, in a sense, is true, and
+His Majesty's Government propose to play the same game now. The demands
+which have been presented by the Federation of European Powers, at the
+head of which stands the German Emperor--demands which, it is hardly
+necessary for me to say, were instantly rejected--are these: That
+Gibraltar shall be given back to Spain; that Malta shall be dismantled,
+and cease to be a British naval base; that the British occupation of
+Egypt and the Soudan shall cease, and that the Suez Canal and the
+Trans-Continental Railway from Cairo to the Cape shall be handed over to
+the control of an International Board, upon which the British Empire
+will be graciously allowed one representative.
+
+"It is further demanded that Singapore, the Gate of the East, shall be
+placed under the control of the same International Board, and that the
+fortifications of Hong Kong shall be demolished. That, sir, would amount
+to the surrender of the British Empire, an empire which can only exist
+as long as the ocean paths between its various portions are kept
+inviolate.
+
+"Those proposals, sir, in plain English are threats, and His Majesty's
+Government has returned the only possible answer to them, and that
+answer is war--war, let us remember, which may within a few weeks, or
+even days, be brought to our own doors. Whatever our enemies may have
+said of us it is still true that Britain stands for peace, security, and
+prosperity. We have used the force of arms to conquer the forces of
+barbarism and semi-civilisation, but the most hostile of our critics may
+be safely challenged to point to any country or province upon which we
+have imposed the Pax Britannica, which is not now the better for it. It
+is no idle boast, sir, to say that all the world over, the rule of His
+Majesty means the rule of peace and prosperity. There are only two
+causes in which a nation or an empire may justly go to war. One, is to
+make peace where strife was before, and the other is to defend that
+which has been won, and made secure by patient toil and endeavour, no
+less than by blood and suffering. It is that which the challenge of
+Europe calls upon us now to defend. Our answer to the leagued nations is
+this: What we have fought for and worked for and won is ours. Take it
+from us if you can.
+
+"And, sir, I believe that I can say with perfect confidence, that what
+His Majesty's Government has done His Majesty's subjects will enforce to
+a man, and, if necessary, countersign the declaration of war in their
+own blood.
+
+"Let us remember, too, those weighty words of warning which the Laureate
+of the Empire wrote nearly twenty years ago, of this Imperial
+inheritance of ours:
+
+
+     "'It is not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep,
+     Men, not gods, devised it, men, not gods, must keep.
+     Men not children, servants, or kinsfolk called from afar,
+     But each man born in the island broke to the matter of war.
+
+     'So ye shall bide, sure-guarded, when the restless lightnings wake,
+     In the boom of the blotting war-cloud, and the pallid nations quake.
+     So, at the haggard trumpets, instant your soul shall leap,
+     Forthright, accoutred, accepting--alert from the walls of sleep.
+     So at the threat ye shall summon--so at the need ye shall send,
+     Men, not children, or servants, tempered and taught to the end.'
+
+
+"Sir, it has been said that poets are prophets. The hour of the
+fulfilment of that prophecy has now come, and I shall be much mistaken
+in my estimate of the temper of my countrymen and fellow-subjects of His
+Majesty here in Britain, and in the greater Britains over sea, if,
+granted the possibility of an armed invasion of the Motherland, every
+man, soldier or civilian, who is able to use a rifle, will not, if
+necessary, use it in the defence of his country and his home."
+
+The Prime Minister sat down amid absolute silence. The tremendous
+possibilities which he had summed up in his brief speech seemed to have
+stunned his hearers for the time being. Some members said afterwards
+that they could hear their own watches ticking. Then Mr John Redmond,
+the Leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, rose and said, in a slow, and
+deliberate voice, which contrasted strikingly with his usual style of
+oratory:
+
+"Sir, this is not a time for what has been with a certain amount of
+double-meaning described as Parliamentary speeches. Still less is it a
+time for party or for racial differences. The silence in which this
+House has received the speech of the Prime Minister is the most eloquent
+tribute that could be paid to the solemnity of his utterances. But, sir,
+I have a reason for calling attention to one omission in that speech, an
+omission which may have been made purposely. The last time that a
+foeman's foot trod British soil was not eight hundred years ago. It was
+in December 1796 that French soldiers and sailors landed on the shores
+of Bantry Bay. Sir, the Ireland of those days was discontented, and, if
+you please to call it so, disloyal. There are those who say she is so
+now, but, sir, whatever our domestic difficulties and quarrels may be,
+and however much I and the party which I have the honour to lead may
+differ from the home policy of the Right Honourable gentleman who has
+made this momentous pronouncement, it shall not be said that any of
+those difficulties or differences will be taken advantage of by any man
+who is worth the name of Irishman.
+
+"As the Prime Minister has told us, the thunder of the enemy's guns may
+even now be echoing along our southern coasts. We have, I hope, learnt a
+little wisdom on both sides of the Irish Sea during the last twenty
+years, and this time, sir, I think I can promise that, while the guns
+are talking, there shall be no sound of dispute on party matters in
+this House as far as we are concerned. From this moment, the Irish
+Nationalist Party, as such, ceases to exist, at any rate until the war's
+over.
+
+"In 1796, the French fleet carrying the invading force was scattered
+over the seas by one of the worst storms that ever was known on the west
+coast of Ireland. As Queen Elizabeth's medal said of the Spanish Armada,
+'God blew, and they were scattered.' With God's help, sir, we will
+scatter these new enemies who threaten us with invasion and conquest.
+Henceforth, there must be no more Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, or
+Welshmen. We are just subjects of the King, and inhabitants of the
+British Islands; and the man who does not believe that, and act upon his
+belief, should get out of these islands as soon as he can, for he isn't
+fit to live in them.
+
+"I remember, sir, a car-driver in Galway, who was taking an English
+tourist--and he was a politician as well--around the country about that
+half-ruined city. The English tourist was inquiring into the troubles of
+Ireland, and he asked him what was the greatest affliction that Ireland
+suffered from, and when he answered him he described just the sort of
+Irishman who won't be wanted in Ireland now. He said, 'It's the absentee
+landlords, your honour. This unfortunate country is absolutely swarming
+with them.'"
+
+It was an anti-climax such as only an Irishman could have achieved. The
+tension which had held every nerve of every member on the stretch while
+the Prime Minister was speaking was broken. The Irish members, almost to
+a man, jumped to their feet, as Mr Redmond picked up his hat, waved it
+round his head, and said, in a tone which rang clear and true through
+the crowded Chamber:
+
+"God save the King!"
+
+And then for the first time in its history, the House of Commons rose
+and sang the National Anthem.
+
+There was no division that night. The Prime Minister formally put the
+motion for the voting of such credit as might be necessary to meet the
+expenses of the war, and when the Speaker put the question, Ay or Nay,
+every member stood up bareheaded, and a deep-voiced, thunderous "Ay"
+told the leagued nations of Europe that Britain had accepted their
+challenge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CAUGHT!
+
+
+The events of that memorable night formed a most emphatic contradiction
+to the prophecy in Macaulay's "Armada":
+
+
+     "Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be."
+
+
+The speeches in the House of Commons and in the House of Peers were
+being printed even as they were spoken; hundreds of printing-presses
+were grinding out millions of copies of newspapers. Thousands of
+newsboys were running along the pavements, or with great bags of new
+editions slung on their shoulders tearing through the traffic on
+bicycles; but all the speeches in the two Houses of Parliament, all the
+reports and hurriedly-written leaders in the papers just represented to
+the popular mind one word, and that word was war.
+
+It was true that for over a hundred years no year had passed in which
+the British Empire had not been engaged in a war of some kind, but they
+were wars waged somewhere in the outlands of the earth. To the
+stop-at-home man in the street they were rather more matters of latitude
+and longitude than battle, murder, and sudden death. The South African
+War, and even the terrible struggle between Russia and Japan, were
+already memories drifting out of sight in the rush of the headlong
+current of twentieth-century life.
+
+But this was quite another matter; here was war--not war that was being
+waged thousands of miles away in another hemisphere or on another side
+of the globe--but war within twenty-one miles of English land--within
+two or three hours, as it were, of every Englishman's front door.
+
+This went home to every man who had a home, or who possessed anything
+worth living for. It was not now a case of sending soldiers, militia and
+yeomanry away in transports, and cheering them as they went. Not now, as
+Kipling too truly had said of the fight for South Africa:
+
+
+     "When your strong men cheered in their millions, while your
+       striplings went to the war."
+
+
+Now it was the turn of the strong men; the turn of every man who had the
+strength and courage to fight in defence of all that was nearest and
+dearest to him.
+
+As yet there was no excitement. At every theatre and every music-hall in
+London and the great provincial cities and towns, the performances were
+stopped as soon as the news was received by telegraph. The managers read
+the news from the stage, the orchestras played the first bar of the
+National Anthem, the audiences rose to their feet, and all over the
+British Islands millions of voices sang "God save the King," and then,
+obeying some impulse, which seemed to have inspired the whole land,
+burst into the triumphant psalm of "Rule Britannia."
+
+And when the theatres and music-halls closed, men and women went on
+their way home quietly discussing the tremendous tidings which had been
+officially announced. There was no attempt at demonstration, there was
+very little cheering. It was too serious a matter for that. The men and
+women of Britain were thinking, not about what they should say, but
+about what they should do. There was no time for shouting, for
+to-morrow, perhaps even to-night, the guns would be talking--"The
+drumming guns which have no doubts."
+
+The House rose at half-past eleven, and at ten minutes to twelve
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan, came into the smoking-room of the Keppel's
+Head Hotel, Portsmouth, with a copy of the last edition of the _Southern
+Evening News_ in his hand, and said to Captain Erskine:
+
+"It's all right, my boy. It's war, and you've got the _Ithuriel_. Your
+own ship, too. Designer, creator, captain; and I'm your First Luff."
+
+"I think that's about good enough for a bottle of the best, Castellan,"
+said Erskine, in the quiet tone in which the officer of the finest
+Service in the world always speaks. "Touch the button, will you?"
+
+As Denis Castellan put his finger on the button of the electric bell, a
+man got up from an armchair on the opposite side of the room, and said,
+as he came towards the table at which Erskine was sitting:
+
+"You will pardon me, I hope, if I introduce myself without the usual
+formalities. My name is Gilbert Lennard."
+
+"Then, I take it, you're the man who swam that race with my brother
+John, in Clifden Bay, when Miss Parmenter was thrown out of her skiff.
+But he's no brother of mine now. He's sold himself to the Germans, and,"
+he continued, suddenly lowering his voice almost to a whisper, "come up
+to my room, we'll have the bottle there, and Mr Lennard will join us.
+Yes, waiter, you can take it up to No. 24, we can't talk here," he went
+on in a louder tone. "There's a German spy in the room, and by the piper
+that was supposed to play before Moses, if he's here when I come back,
+I'll throw him out."
+
+Everyone in the smoking-room looked up. Castellan walked out, looking at
+a fair-haired, clean-shaven little man, sitting at a table in the
+right-hand corner of the room from the door. He also looked up, and
+glanced vacantly about the room; then as the three went out, he took a
+sip of the whisky and soda beside him, and looked back on to the paper
+that he was reading.
+
+"Who's that chap?" asked Erskine, as they went upstairs.
+
+"I'll tell you when we're a bit more to ourselves," replied Castellan;
+and when they had got into his sitting-room, and the waiter had brought
+the wine, he locked the door, and said:
+
+"That is Staff-Captain Count Karl von Eckstein, of the German Imperial
+Navy, and also of His Majesty, the Kaiser's, Secret Service. He knows a
+little more than we do about every dockyard and fort on the South Coast,
+to say nothing of the ships. That's his district, and thanks to the most
+obliging kindness of the British authorities he has made very good use
+of it."
+
+"But, surely," exclaimed Lennard, "now that there is a state of war,
+such a man as that could be arrested."
+
+"Faith," said Denis Castellan, as he filled the glasses. "Law or no law,
+he will be arrested to-night if he stops here long enough for me to lay
+hands upon him. Now then, what's the news, Mr Lennard? I'm told that
+you've just come back from the United States, what's the opinion of
+things over there?"
+
+Such news that Lennard had was, of course, even more terrible than the
+news of war and invasion, which was now thrilling through England like
+an electric shock, and he kept it to himself, thinking quite rightly
+that the people of England had quite enough to occupy their attention
+for the immediate present, and so he replied as he raised the glass
+which Denis had filled for him:
+
+"I am afraid that I have no news except this: that from all I have heard
+in the States, if it does come to death-grips, the States will be with
+us. But you see, of course, that I have only just got back, and this
+thing has been sprung on us so suddenly. In fact, it was only this
+morning that we got an aerogram from the Lizard as we came up Channel to
+say that war was almost a certainty, and advising us to get into
+Southampton as soon as we could."
+
+"Well," said Erskine, taking up his glass, "that's all right, as far as
+it goes. I've always believed that it's all rot saying that blood isn't
+thicker than water. It is. Of course, relations quarrel more than other
+people do, but it's only over domestic matters. Let an outsider start a
+row, and he very soon sees what happens, and that's what I believe our
+friends on the other side of the Channel are going to find out if it
+comes to extremities. Well, Mr Lennard, I am very pleased that you have
+introduced yourself to us to-night. Of course, we have both known you
+publicly, and therefore we have all the more pleasure in knowing you
+privately."
+
+"Thanks," replied Lennard, putting his hand into the inside pocket of
+his coat and taking out an envelope. "But to be quite candid with you,
+although of course I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, I did
+not introduce myself to you and Mr Castellan only for personal reasons.
+I have devoted some attention to the higher chemistry as well as the
+higher mathematics and astronomy, and I have also had the pleasure of
+going through the designs of the cruiser which you have invented, and
+which you are now to command. I have been greatly interested in them,
+and for that reason I think that this may interest you. I brought it
+here in the hope of meeting you, as I knew that your ship was lying
+here."
+
+Erskine opened the envelope, and took out a sheet of notepaper, on which
+were written just a few chemical formulæ and about forty words.
+
+Castellan, who was watching him keenly, for the first time since they
+had sailed together through stress and storm under the White Ensign, saw
+him start. The pupils of his eyes suddenly dilated; his eyelids and
+eyebrows went up for an instant and came down again, and the rigid calm
+of the British Naval Officer came back. He put the letter into his hip
+pocket, buttoned it up, and said, very quietly:
+
+"Thank you, Mr Lennard. You have done me a very great personal service,
+and your country a greater one still. I shall, of course, make use of
+this. I am afraid if you had sent it to the Ordnance Department you
+wouldn't have heard anything about it for the next three months or more;
+perhaps not till the war was over."
+
+"And that is just why I brought it to you," laughed Lennard. "Well,
+here's good luck to you and the _Ithuriel_, and all honour, and God save
+the King!"
+
+"God save the King!" repeated Erskine and Castellan, with that note of
+seriousness in their tone which you can hear in the voice of no man who
+has not fought, or is not going to fight; in short, to put his words
+into action.
+
+They emptied their glasses, and as they put them down on the table
+again there came a knock at the door, sharp, almost imperative.
+
+"Come in," said Erskine.
+
+The head waiter threw the door open, and a Naval messenger walked in,
+saluted, handed Erskine an official envelope, and said:
+
+"Immediately, sir. The steam pinnace is down at the end of the Railway
+Quay."
+
+Erskine tore open the envelope and read the brief order that it
+contained, and said:
+
+"Very good. We shall be on board in ten minutes."
+
+The messenger, who was a very useful-looking specimen of the handy man,
+saluted and left the room. Castellan ran out after him, and they went
+downstairs together. At the door of the hotel the messenger put two
+fingers into his mouth, and gave three soft whistles, not unlike the
+sounds of a boatswain's pipe. In two minutes a dozen bluejackets had
+appeared from nowhere, and just as a matter of formality were asked to
+have a drink at the bar. Meanwhile Denis Castellan had gone into the
+smoking-room, where he found the sandy-haired, blue-eyed man still
+sitting at his table in the corner, smoking his cigar, and looking over
+the paper. He touched him on the shoulder and whispered, in perfectly
+idiomatic German:
+
+"I thought you were a cleverer man than that, Count. Didn't I give you a
+warning? God's thunder, man. You ought to have been miles away by this
+time; haven't you a motor that would take you to Southampton in an hour,
+and put you on the last of the German liners that's leaving? You know it
+will be a shooting or a hanging matter if you're caught here. Come on
+now. My name's Castellan, and that should be good enough for you. Come
+on, now, and I'll see you safe."
+
+The name of Castellan was already well known to every German
+confidential agent, though it was not known that John Castellan had a
+brother who was a Lieutenant in the British Navy.
+
+Captain Count Karl von Eckstein got up, and took his hat down from the
+pegs, pulled on his gloves, and said deliberately:
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, Mr Castellan, for your warning, which I
+ought to have taken at first, but I hope there is still time. I will go
+and telephone for my motor at once."
+
+"Yes, come along and do it," said Castellan, catching him by the arm.
+"You haven't much time to lose, I can tell you."
+
+They went out of the smoking-room, turned to the left, and went into the
+hall. Then Castellan snatched his hand away from Eckstein's arm, took
+him by the shoulders, and pitched him forward into the middle of the
+semicircle of bluejackets, who were waiting for him, saying:
+
+"That's your man, boys. Take him down to the pinnace, and put him on
+board. I'll take the consequences, and I think the owners will, too,
+when they know the facts."
+
+Von Eckstein tried to shout, but a hand about half the size of a
+shoulder of mutton came down hard over his mouth and nose. Other hands,
+with grips like vices, picked him off his feet, and out he went, half
+stifled, along the yard, and up to the Railway Pier.
+
+"Rather summary proceedings, weren't they, Castellan?"
+
+Denis drew himself up, formally saluted his superior officer, and said,
+with a curious mixture of fun and seriousness in his voice:
+
+"That man's the most dangerous German spy in the South of England, sir,
+and all's fair in war and the other thing. We've got him. In half an
+hour he'd have been aboard a fast yacht he's got here in the harbour,
+and across to Dieppe, with a portmanteau full of plans and photographs
+of our forts that would be worth millions in men and money to the people
+we've got to fight. I can't say it here, but you know why I know."
+
+Captain Erskine nodded, and did his best to conceal an unofficial smile.
+
+"That's right, Castellan," he said. "I'll take your word for it. Get
+that chap on board, lads, as quick as you can. We'll follow at once."
+
+Ship's Corporal Sandy M'Grath, the huge Scotsman, whose great fist had
+stifled Count von Eckstein's attempt to cry out, touched his cap and
+said: "Awa' wi' him, boys," and out they went at a run. Then Erskine
+turned to Lennard, and said:
+
+"We can do all this that you've given me on board the _Ithuriel_. It
+isn't quite regular, but in consideration of this, if you like to take a
+cruise, and see your own work done, I'll take the responsibility of
+inviting you, only mind, there will probably be some fighting."
+
+Even as he spoke two deep dull bangs shook the atmosphere and the
+windows of the hotel shivered in their frames.
+
+"I'll come," said Lennard. "They seem to have begun already."
+
+"Begorra they have," said Denis Castellan, making a dash to the door.
+"Come on. If that's so, there'll be blood for supper to-night, and the
+sooner we're aboard the better."
+
+The next moment the three were outside, and sprinting for the end of the
+Railway Pier for all they were worth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FIRST BLOOD
+
+
+When they got to the end of the Railway Pier where the pinnace was lying
+panting and puffing, a Flag-Lieutenant touched his cap to Erskine, took
+him by the arm and led him aside. He took an envelope out of his pocket
+and said, in a low tone:
+
+"Here are your instructions, Erskine. They've jumped on us a bit more
+quickly than we thought they would, but the Commander-in-Chief trusts to
+you and your ship to do the needful. The position is this: one division
+of the Russian, German and Dutch fleets is making a combined attack on
+Hull and Newcastle. Two other divisions are going for the mouth of the
+Thames, and the North Sea Squadron is going to look after them. The
+French North Sea Squadron is making a rush on Dover, and will get very
+considerably pounded in the process. Two French fleets from Cherbourg
+and Brest are coming up Channel, and each of them has a screen of
+torpedo boats and destroyers. The Southern Fleet Reserve is concentrated
+here and at Portland. The Channel Fleet is outside, and we hope to get
+it in their rear, so that we'll have them between the ships and the
+forts. If we do, they'll have just about as hot a time of it as anybody
+wants.
+
+"As far as we've been able to learn, the French are going to try Togo's
+tactics at Port Arthur, and rush Portsmouth with the small craft. You'll
+find that it's your business to look after them. Sink, smash and
+generally destroy. Go for everything you see. There isn't a craft of
+ours within twenty miles outside. Good-bye, and good luck to you!"
+
+"Good-bye!" said Erskine, as they shook hands, "and if we don't come
+back, give my love to the Lords of the Admiralty and thank them for
+giving me the chance with the _Ithuriel_. Bye-bye!"
+
+Their hands gripped again and the captain of the _Ithuriel_ ran down the
+steps like a boy going to a picnic.
+
+The pinnace gave a little squeak from its siren and sped away down the
+harbour between the two forts, in which the gunners were standing by the
+new fourteen-inch wire-wound guns, whose long chases were prevented from
+drooping after continuous discharge by an ingenious application of the
+principle of the cantilever bridge, invented by the creator of the
+_Ithuriel_. In the breech-chamber of each of them was a thousand-pound
+shell, carrying a bursting charge of five hundred pounds of an explosive
+which was an improvement on blasting gelatine, and the guns were capable
+of throwing these to a distance of twelve miles with precision. They
+were the most formidable weapons either ashore or afloat.
+
+Just outside the harbour the pinnace swung round to the westward and in
+a few minutes stopped alongside the _Ithuriel_.
+
+As far as Lennard could see she was neither cruiser nor destroyer nor
+submarine, but a sort of compound of all three. She did not appear to be
+a steamer because she had no funnels. She was not exactly a submarine
+because she had a signal-mast forward and carried five long,
+ugly-looking guns, three ahead and two astern, of a type that he had
+never seen before. Forward of the mast there was a conning-tower of oval
+shape, with the lesser curves fore and aft. The breech-ends of the guns
+were covered by a long hood of steel, apparently of great thickness, and
+that was all.
+
+As soon as they got on board Erskine said to Lennard:
+
+"Come into the conning-tower with me. I believe we can make use of this
+invention of yours at once. I've got a pretty well-fitted laboratory
+down below and we might have a try. But you must excuse me a moment, I
+will just run through this."
+
+He opened the envelope containing his instructions, put them down on
+the little desk in front of him and then read a note that was enclosed
+with them.
+
+"By Jove," he said, "they're pretty quick up at headquarters. You'll
+have to excuse me a minute or two, Mr Lennard. Just stand on that side,
+will you, please? Close up, we haven't too much room here. Good-bye for
+the present."
+
+In front of the desk and above the little steering-wheel there was a
+mahogany board studded with two sets of ivory buttons, disposed in two
+lines of six each. He touched one of these, and Lennard saw him
+disappear through the floor of the conning-tower. Within a few moments
+the portion of the floor upon which he had stood returned to its place,
+and Lennard said to himself:
+
+"If the rest of her works like that, she ought to be a lovely study in
+engineering."
+
+While Captain Erskine is communicating his instructions to his second in
+command, and arranging the details of the coming fight, there will be
+time to give a brief description of the craft on board of which Lennard
+so unexpectedly found himself, and which an invention of his own was
+destined to make even more formidable than it was.
+
+To put it as briefly as possible, the _Ithuriel_ was a combination of
+destroyer, cruiser, submarine and ram, and she had cost Erskine three
+years of hard work to think out. She was three hundred feet long, fifty
+feet broad, and thirty feet from her upper keel to her deck. This was of
+course an abnormal depth for a vessel of her length, but then the
+_Ithuriel_ was quite an abnormal warship. One-third of her depth
+consisted of a sinking-chamber, protected by twelve-inch armour, and
+this chamber could be filled in a few minutes with four thousand tons of
+water. This is of course the same thing as saying she had two
+waterlines. The normal cruising line gave her a freeboard of ten feet.
+Above the sinking-tanks her vitals were protected by ten-inch armour. In
+short, as regards armour, she was an entire reversal of the ordinary
+type of warship, and she had the advantage of being impervious to
+torpedo attack. Loaded torpedoes had been fired at her and had burst
+like eggs against a wall, with no more effect than to make her heel over
+a few degrees to the other side. Submarines had attacked her and got
+their noses badly bruised in the process. It was, indeed, admitted by
+the experts of the Admiralty that under water she was impregnable.
+
+Her propelling power consisted of four sets of engines, all well below
+the waterline. Three of these drove three propellers astern: the fourth
+drove a suction screw which revolved just underneath the ram. This was a
+mass of steel weighing fifty tons and curved upwards like the inverted
+beak of an eagle. Erskine had taken this idea from the Russian
+ice-breakers which had been designed by the Russian Admiral Makaroff and
+built at Elswick. The screw was protected by a steel grating of which
+the forward protecting girder completed the curve of the stem. Aft,
+there was a similar ram, weighing thirty tons and a like protection to
+the after-screws.
+
+The driving power was derived from a combination of petrol and
+pulverised smokeless coal, treated with liquid oxygen, which made
+combustion practically perfect. There was no boilers or furnaces, only
+combustion chambers, and this fact made the carrying of the great weight
+of armour under the waterline possible. The speed of the _Ithuriel_ was
+forty-five knots ahead when all four screws were driving and pulling,
+and thirty knots astern when they were reversed. Her total capacity was
+five thousand two hundred tons.
+
+Behind the three forward guns was a dome-shaped conning-tower of
+nine-inch steel, hardened like the rest of the armour by an improvement
+on the Harvey process. Above the conning-tower were two searchlight
+projectors, both capable of throwing a clear ray to a distance of four
+miles and controlled from within the conning-tower.
+
+"Well, I am afraid I have kept you waiting, Mr Lennard," said Erskine,
+as the platform brought him up again into the conning-tower, in much
+shorter time than was necessary to make this needful description of what
+was probably the most formidable craft in the British Navy. "We're off
+now. I've fitted up half a dozen shells with that diabolical invention
+of yours. If we run across a battleship or a cruiser, we'll try them. I
+think our friends the enemy will find them somewhat of a paralyser, and
+there's nothing like beginning pretty strong."
+
+"Nothing like hitting them hard at first, and I hope that those things
+of mine will be what I think they are, and unless all my theories are
+quite wrong, I fancy you'll find them all right."
+
+"They would be the first theories of yours that have gone wrong, Mr
+Lennard," replied Erskine, "but anyhow, we shall soon see. I have put
+three of your shells in the forward guns. We'll try them there first,
+and if they're all right we'll use the other three. I've got the after
+guns loaded with my own shell, so if we come across anything big, we
+shall be able to try them against each other. At present, my
+instructions are to deal with the lighter craft only: destroyers and
+that sort of thing, you know."
+
+"But don't you fire on them?" said Lennard. "What would happen if they
+got a torpedo under you?"
+
+"Well," said Erskine, "as a matter of fact I don't think destroyers are
+worth shooting at. Our guns are meant for bigger game. But it's no good
+trying to explain things now. You'll see, pretty soon, and you'll learn
+more in half an hour than I could tell you in four hours."
+
+They were clear of the harbour by this time and running out at about ten
+knots between the two old North and South Spithead forts on the top of
+each of which one of the new fourteen-inch thousand-pounders had been
+mounted on disappearing carriages.
+
+"Now," he continued, "if we're going to find them anywhere, we shall
+find them here, or hereabouts. My orders are to smash everything that I
+can get at."
+
+"Fairly comprehensive," said Lennard.
+
+"Yes, Lennard, and it's an order that I'm going to fill. We may as well
+quicken up a bit now. You understand, Castellan is looking after the
+guns, and his sub., Mackenzie is communicating orders to my Chief
+Engineer, who looks after the speed."
+
+"And the speed?" asked Lennard.
+
+"I'll leave you to judge that when we get to business," said Erskine,
+putting his forefinger on one of the buttons on the left-hand side of
+the board as he spoke.
+
+The next moment Lennard felt the rubber-covered floor of the
+conning-tower jump under his feet. All the coast lights were
+extinguished but there was a half-moon and he saw the outlines of the
+shore slip away faster behind them. The eastern heights of the Isle of
+Wight loomed up like a cloud and dropped away astern.
+
+"Pretty fast, that," he said.
+
+"Only twenty-five knots," replied Erskine, as he gave the steering-wheel
+a very gentle movement and swung the _Ithuriel's_ head round to the
+eastward. "If these chaps are going to make a rush in the way Togo did
+at Port Arthur, they've got to do it between Selsey Bill and Nettlestone
+Point. If they're mad enough to try the other way between Round Tower
+Point and Hurst Castle, they'll get blown out of the water in very small
+pieces, so we needn't worry about them there. Our business is to keep
+them out of this side. Ah, look now, there are two or three of them
+there. See, ahead of the port bow. We'll tackle these gentlemen first."
+
+Lennard looked out through the narrow semicircular window of six-inch
+crystal glass running across the front of the conning-tower, which was
+almost as strong as steel, and saw three little dark, moving spots on
+the half-moonlit water, about two miles ahead, stealing up in line
+abreast.
+
+"Those chaps are trying to get in between the Spithead forts," said
+Erskine. "They're slowed down to almost nothing, waiting for the clouds
+to come over the moon, and then they'll make a dash for it. At least,
+they think they will. I don't."
+
+As he spoke he gave another turn to the steering-wheel and touched
+another button. The _Ithuriel_ leapt forward again and swung about three
+points to the eastward. In three minutes she was off Black Point, and
+this movement brought her into a straight line with the three
+destroyers. He gave the steering-wheel another half turn and her head
+swung round in a short quarter circle. He put his finger on to the
+bottom button on the right-hand side of the signal board and said to
+Lennard:
+
+"Hold tight now, she's going."
+
+Lennard held tight, for he felt the floor jump harder under him this
+time.
+
+In the dim light he saw the nearest of the destroyers, as it seemed to
+him, rush towards them sideways. Erskine touched another button. A
+shudder ran through the fabric of the _Ithuriel_ and her bow rose above
+five feet from the water. A couple of minutes later it hit the destroyer
+amidships, rolled her over, broke her in two like a log of wood, amidst
+a roar of crackling guns and a scream of escaping steam, went over her
+and headed for the next one.
+
+Lennard clenched his teeth and said nothing. He was thinking too hard to
+say anything just then.
+
+The second destroyer opened fire with her twelve-and six-pounders and
+dropped a couple of torpedoes as the _Ithuriel_ rushed at her. The
+_Ithuriel_ was now travelling at forty knots an hour. The torpedoes at
+thirty. The combined speed was therefore nearly a hundred statute miles
+an hour. Erskine saw the two white shapes drop into the water, their
+courses converging towards him. A half turn of the wheel to port swung
+the _Ithuriel_ out and just cleared them. It was a fairly narrow shave,
+for one of them grated along her side, but the _Ithuriel_ had no angles.
+The actual result was that one of the torpedoes deflected from its
+course, hit the other one and both exploded. A mountain of foam-crowned
+water rose up and the commander of the French destroyer congratulated
+himself on the annihilation of at least one of the English warships, but
+the next moment the grey-blue, almost invisible shape of the _Ithuriel_
+leapt up out of the semi-darkness, and her long pointed ram struck
+amidships, cut him down to the waterline, and almost before the two
+halves of his vessel had sunk the same fate had befallen the third
+destroyer.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" said Erskine, as he touched a couple
+more buttons and the _Ithuriel_ swung round to the eastward again.
+
+"Well," said Lennard, slowly, "of course it's war, and those fellows
+were coming in to do all the damage they could. But it is just a bit
+terrible, for all that. It's just seven minutes since you rammed the
+first boat: you haven't fired a shot and there are three big destroyers
+and I suppose three hundred and fifty men at the bottom of the sea.
+Pretty awful, you know."
+
+"My dear sir," replied Erskine, without looking round, "all war is awful
+and entirely horrible, and naval war is of course the most horrible of
+all. There is no chance for the defeated: my orders do not even allow me
+to pick up a man from one of those vessels. On the other hand, one must
+remember that if one of those destroyers had got in, they could have let
+go half a dozen torpedoes apiece among the ships of the Fleet Reserve,
+and perhaps half a dozen ships and five or six thousand men might have
+been at the bottom of the Solent by this time, and those torpedoes
+wouldn't have had any sentiment in them. Hallo, there's another!"
+
+A long, black shape surmounted by a signal-mast and four funnels slid up
+and out of the darkness into a patch of moonlight lying on the water.
+Erskine gave a quarter turn to the wheel and touched the two buttons
+again. The _Ithuriel_ swung round and ran down on her prey. The two
+fifteen-and the six twelve-pounder guns ahead and astern and on the
+broadside of the destroyer crackled out and a hail of shells came
+whistling across the water. A few of them struck the _Ithuriel_, glanced
+off and exploded.
+
+"There," said Erskine, "they've knocked some of our nice new paint off.
+Now they're going to pay for it."
+
+"Couldn't you give them a shot back?" said Lennard.
+
+"Not worth it, my dear sir," said Erskine. "We keep our guns for bigger
+game. We haven't an angle that a shell would hit. You might just as well
+fire boiled peas at a hippopotamus as those little things at us. Of
+course a big shell square amidships would hurt us, but then she's so
+handy that I think I could stop it hitting her straight."
+
+While he was speaking the _Ithuriel_ got up to full speed again. Lennard
+shut his eyes. He felt a slight shock, and then a dull grinding. A crash
+of guns and a roar of escaping steam, and when he looked out again, the
+destroyer had disappeared. The next moment a blinding glare of light
+streamed across the water from the direction of Selsey.
+
+"A big cruiser, or battleship," said Erskine. "French or German. Now
+we'll see what those shells of yours are made of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS
+
+
+A huge, black shape loomed up into the moonlight. As she came nearer
+Lennard could see that the vessel carried a big mast forward with a
+fighting-top, two funnels a little aft of it, and two other funnels a
+few feet forward of the after mast.
+
+Erskine put his glasses up to his eyes and said:
+
+"That's the _Dupleix_, one of the improved _Desaix_ class. Steams
+twenty-four knots. I suppose she's been shepherding those destroyers
+that we've just finished with. I hope she hasn't seen what happened. If
+she thinks that they've got in all right, we've got her. She has a heavy
+fore and aft and broadside gunfire, two 6.4 guns ahead and astern and
+amidships, in pairs, and as I suppose they'll be using melinite shells,
+we shall get fits unless we take them unawares."
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Lennard.
+
+"Show you in a minute," answered Erskine, touching three or four of the
+buttons on the right-hand side as he spoke.
+
+Another shudder ran through the frame of the _Ithuriel_ and Lennard felt
+the deck sink under his feet. If he hadn't had as good a head on him as
+he had, he would have said something, for the _Ithuriel_ sank until her
+decks were almost awash. She jumped forward again now almost invisible,
+and circled round to the south eastward. A big cloud drifted across the
+moon and Erskine said:
+
+"Thank God for that! We shall get her now."
+
+Another quarter turn of the wheel brought the _Ithuriel's_ head at
+right angles to the French cruiser's broadside. He took the transmitter
+of the telephone down from the hooks and said:
+
+"Are you there, Castellan?"
+
+"Yes. What's that big thing ahead there?"
+
+"It's the _Dupleix_. Ready with your forward guns. I'm going to fire
+first, then ram. Stand by, centre first, then starboard and port, and
+keep your eye on them. These are Mr Lennard's shells and we want to see
+what they'll do. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes. When you like."
+
+"Half speed, then, and tell Mackenzie to stand by and order full speed
+when I give the word. We shall want it in a jump."
+
+"Very good, sir. Is that all?"
+
+"Yes, that's all."
+
+Erskine put the receiver back on the hooks.
+
+"That's it. Now we'll try your shells. If they're what I think they are,
+we'll smash that fellow's top works into scrap-iron, and then we'll go
+for him."
+
+"I think I see," said Lennard, "that's why you've half submerged her."
+
+"Yes. The _Ithuriel_ is designed to deal with both light and heavy
+craft. With the light ones, as you have seen, she just walked over them.
+Now, we've got something bigger to tackle, and if everything goes right
+that ship will be at the bottom of the sea in five minutes."
+
+"Horrible," replied Lennard, "but I suppose it's necessary."
+
+"Absolutely," said Erskine, taking the receiver down from the hooks. "If
+we didn't do it with them, they'd do it with us. That's war."
+
+Lennard made no reply. He was looking hard at the now rapidly
+approaching shape of the big French cruiser, and when men are thinking
+hard, they don't usually say much.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ completed her quarter-circle and dead head on to the
+_Dupleix_, Erskine said, "Centre gun ready, forward--fire. Port and
+starboard concentrate--fire."
+
+There was no report--only a low, hissing sound--and then Lennard saw
+three flashes of bluish-green blaze out over the French cruiser.
+
+"Hit her! I think those shells of yours got home," said Erskine between
+his clenched teeth. And then he added through the telephone, "Well
+aimed, Castellan! They all got there. Load up again--three more shots
+and I'm going to ram--quick now, and full speed ahead when you've
+fired."
+
+"All ready!" came back over the telephone, "I've told Mackenzie that
+you'll want it."
+
+"Good man," replied Erskine. "When I touch the button, you do the rest.
+Now--are you ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Let her have it--then full speed. Ah," Erskine continued, turning to
+Lennard, "he's shooting back."
+
+The cruiser burst into a thunderstorm of smoke and flame and shell, but
+there was nothing to shoot at. Only three feet of freeboard would have
+been visible even in broad daylight. The signal mast had been
+telescoped. There was nothing but the deck, the guns and the
+conning-tower to be seen. The shells screamed through the air a good ten
+feet over her and incidentally wrecked the Marine Hotel on Selsey Bill.
+
+Erskine pressed the top button on the right-hand side three times. The
+smokeless, nameless guns spoke again, and again the three flashes of
+blue-green flame broke out on the Frenchman's decks.
+
+"Good enough," said Erskine, taking the transmitter down from the hooks
+again. "Now, Mr Lennard, just come for'ard and watch."
+
+Lennard crept up beside him and took the glasses.
+
+"Down guns--full speed ahead--going to ram," said Erskine, quietly, into
+the telephone.
+
+To his utter astonishment, Lennard saw the three big guns sink down
+under the deck and the steel hoods move forward and cover the
+emplacements. The floor of the conning-tower jumped under his feet again
+and the huge shape of the French cruiser seemed to rush towards him.
+There was a roar of artillery, a thunder of 6.4 guns, a crash of
+bursting shells, a shudder and a shock, and the fifty-ton ram of the
+_Ithuriel_ hit her forward of the conning-tower and went through the
+two-inch armour belt as a knife would go through a piece of paper. The
+big cruiser stopped as an animal on land does, struck by a bullet in its
+vitals, or a whale when the lance is driven home. Half her officers and
+men were lying about the decks asphyxiated by Lennard's shells. The
+after barbette swung round, and at the same moment, or perhaps half a
+minute before, Erskine touched two other buttons in rapid succession.
+The _Dupleix_ lurched down on the starboard side, the two big guns went
+off and hit the water. Erskine touched another button, and the
+_Ithuriel_ ran back from her victim. A minute later the French cruiser
+heeled over and sank.
+
+"Good God, how did you do that?" said Lennard, looking round at him with
+eyes rather more wide open than usual.
+
+"That's the effect of the suction screw," replied Erskine. "I got the
+idea from the Russian ice-breaker, the _Yermack_. The old idea was just
+main strength and stupidity, charge the ice and break through if you
+could. The better idea was to suck the water away from under the ice and
+go over it--that's what we've done. I rammed that chap, pulled the water
+away from under him, and, of course, he's gone down."
+
+He gave the wheel a quarter-turn to starboard, took down the transmitter
+and said: "Full speed again--in two minutes, three quarters and then
+half."
+
+"But surely," exclaimed Lennard, "you can do something to help those
+poor fellows. Are you going to leave them all to drown?"
+
+"I have no orders, except to sink and destroy," replied Erskine between
+his teeth. "You must remember that this is a war of one country against
+a continent, and of one fleet against four. Ah, there's another! A
+third-class cruiser--I think I know her, she's the old _Leger_--they
+must have thought they had an easy job of it if they sent her here. Low
+free board, not worth shooting at. We'll go over her. No armour--what
+idiots they are to put a thing like that into the fighting line!"
+
+He took the transmitter down and said:
+
+"Stand by there, Castellan! Get your pumps to work, and I shall want
+full speed ahead--I'm going to run that old croak down--hurry up."
+
+He put the transmitter back on the hooks and presently Lennard saw the
+bows of the _Ithuriel_ rise quickly out of the water. The doomed vessel
+in front of them was a long, low-lying French torpedo-catcher, with one
+big funnel between two signal-masts, hopelessly out of date, and
+evidently intended only to go in and take her share of the spoils.
+Erskine switched off the searchlight, called for full speed ahead and
+then with clenched teeth and set eyes, he sent the _Ithuriel_ flying at
+her victim.
+
+Within five minutes it was all over. The fifty-ton ram rose over the
+_Leger's_ side, crushed it down into the water, ground its way through
+her, cut her in half and went on.
+
+"That ship ought to have been on the scrap-heap ten years ago," said
+Erskine as he signalled for half-speed and swung the _Ithuriel_ round to
+the westward.
+
+"She's got a scrap-heap all to herself now, I suppose," said Lennard,
+with a bit of a check in his voice. "I've no doubt, as you say, this
+sort of thing may be necessary, but my personal opinion of it is that
+it's damnable."
+
+"Exactly my opinion too," said Erskine, "but it has to be done."
+
+The next instant, Lennard heard a sound such as he had never heard
+before. It was a smothered rumble which seemed to come out of the
+depths, then there came a shock which flung him off his feet, and shot
+him against the opposite wall of the conning-tower. The _Ithuriel_
+heeled over to port, a huge volume of water rose on her starboard side
+and burst into a torrent over her decks, then she righted.
+
+Erskine, holding on hard to the iron table to which the signalling board
+was bolted, saved himself from a fall.
+
+"I hope you're not hurt, Mr Lennard," said he, looking round, "that was
+a submarine. Let a torpedo go at us, I suppose, and didn't know they
+were hitting twelve-inch armour."
+
+"It's all right," said Lennard, picking himself up. "Only a bruise or
+two; nothing broken. It seems to me that this new naval warfare of yours
+is going to get a bit exciting."
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, "I think it is. Halloa, Great Cæsar! That must be
+that infernal invention of Castellan's brother's; the thing he sold to
+the Germans--the sweep!"
+
+As he spoke a grey shape leapt up out of the water and began to circle
+over the _Ithuriel_. He snatched the transmitter from the hooks, and
+said, in quick, clear tones:
+
+"Castellan--sink--quick, quick as you can."
+
+The pumps of the _Ithuriel_ worked furiously the next moment. Lennard
+held his breath as he saw the waves rise up over the decks.
+
+"Full speed ahead again, and dive," said Erskine into the transmitter.
+"Hold tight, Lennard."
+
+The floor of the conning-tower took an angle of about sixty degrees, and
+Lennard gripped the holdfasts, of which there were two on each wall of
+the tower. He heard a rush of overwhelming waters--then came darkness.
+The _Ithuriel_ rushed forward at her highest speed. Then something hit
+the sea, and a quick succession of shocks sent a shudder through the
+vessel.
+
+"I thought so," said Erskine. "That's John Castellan's combined airship
+and submarine right enough, and that was an aërial torpedo. If it had
+hit us when we were above water, we should have been where those French
+chaps are now. You're quite right, this sort of naval warfare is getting
+rather exciting."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR
+
+
+The _Flying Fish_, the prototype of the extraordinary craft which played
+such a terrible part in the invasion of England, was a magnified
+reproduction, with improvements which suggested themselves during
+construction, of the model whose performances had so astonished the
+Kaiser at Potsdam. She was shaped exactly like her namesake of the deep,
+upon which, indeed, her inventor had modelled her. She was one hundred
+and fifty feet long and twenty feet broad by twenty-five feet deep in
+her widest part, which, as she was fish-shaped, was considerably forward
+of her centre.
+
+She was built of a newly-discovered compound, something like
+papier-maché, as hard and rigid as steel, with only about one-tenth the
+weight. Her engines were of the simplest description in spite of the
+fact that they developed enormous power. They consisted merely of
+cylinders into which, by an automatic mechanism, two drops of liquid
+were brought every second. These liquids when joined produced a gas of
+enormously expansive power, more than a hundred times that of steam,
+which actuated the pistons. There were sixteen of these cylinders, and
+the pistons all connected with a small engine invented by Castellan,
+which he called an accelerator. By means of this device he could
+regulate the speed of the propellers which drove the vessel under water
+and in the air from sixty up to two thousand revolutions a minute.
+
+The _Flying Fish_ was driven by nine propellers, three of these,
+four-bladed and six feet diameter, revolved a little forward amidships
+on either side under what might be called the fins. These fins collapsed
+close against the sides of the vessel when under water and expanded to a
+spread of twenty feet when she took the air. They worked on a pivot and
+could be inclined either way from the horizontal to an angle of thirty
+degrees. Midway between the end of these and the stern was a smaller
+pair with one driving screw. The eighth screw was an ordinary propeller
+at the stern, but the outside portion of the shaft worked on a ball and
+socket joint so that it could be used for both steering and driving
+purposes. It was in fact the tail of the _Flying Fish_. Steering in the
+air was effected by means of a vertical fin placed right aft.
+
+She was submerged as the _Ithuriel_ was, by pumping water into the lower
+part of her hull. When these chambers were empty she floated like a
+cork. The difference between swimming and flying was merely the
+difference between the revolutions of the screws and the inclination of
+the fins. A thousand raised her from the water: twelve hundred gave her
+twenty-five or thirty miles an hour through the air: fifteen hundred
+gave her fifty, and two thousand gave her eighty to a hundred, according
+to the state of the atmosphere.
+
+Her armament consisted of four torpedo tubes which swung at any angle
+from the horizontal to the vertical and so were capable of use both
+under water and in the air. They discharged a small,
+insignificant-looking torpedo containing twenty pounds of an explosive,
+discovered almost accidentally by Castellan and known only to himself,
+the German Emperor, the Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief. It was
+this which he had used in tiny quantities in the experiment at Potsdam.
+Its action was so terrific that it did not rend or crack metal or stone
+which it struck. It overcame the chemical forces by which the substance
+was held together and reduced them to gas and powder.
+
+And now, after this somewhat formal but necessary description of the
+most destructive fighting-machine ever created we can proceed with the
+story.
+
+There were twenty _Flying Fishes_ attached to the Allied Forces, all of
+them under the command of German engineers, with the exception of the
+original _Flying Fish_. Two of these were attached to the three
+squadrons which were attacking Hull, Newcastle and Dover: three had been
+detailed for the attack on Portsmouth: two more to Plymouth, two to
+Bristol and Liverpool respectively, on which combined cruiser and
+torpedo attacks were to be made, and two supported by a small swift
+cruiser and torpedo flotilla for an assault on Cardiff, in order if
+possible to terrorise that city into submission and so obtain what may
+be called the life-blood of a modern navy. The rest, in case of
+accidents to any of these, were reserved for the final attack on London.
+
+When the _Ithuriel_ disappeared and his torpedo struck a piece of
+floating wreckage and exploded with a terrific shock, John Castellan,
+standing in the conning-tower directing the movements of the _Flying
+Fish_, naturally concluded that he had destroyed a British submarine
+scout. He knew of the existence, but nothing of the real powers of the
+_Ithuriel_. The only foreigner who knew that was Captain Count Karl von
+Eckstein, and he was locked safely in a cabin on board her.
+
+He had been searching the under-waters between Nettlestone Point and
+Hayling Island for hours on the look-out for British submarines and
+torpedo scouts, and had found nothing, therefore he was ignorant of the
+destruction which the _Ithuriel_ had already wrought, and as, of course,
+he had heard no firing under the water, he believed that the three
+destroyers supported by the _Dupleix_ and _Leger_ had succeeded in
+slipping through the entrance to Spithead.
+
+He knew that a second flotilla of six destroyers with three swift
+second-class cruisers were following in to complete the work, which by
+this time should have begun, and that after them came the main French
+squadron, consisting of six first-class battleships with a screen of ten
+first and five second-class cruisers, the work of which would be to
+maintain a blockade against any relieving force, after the submarines
+and destroyers had sunk and crippled the ships of the Fleet Reserve and
+cut the connections of the contact mines.
+
+He knew also that the _See Adler_, which was _Flying Fish II._, was
+waiting about the Needles to attack Hurst Castle and the forts on the
+Isle of Wight side, preparatory to a rush of two battleships and three
+cruisers through the narrows, while another was lurking under Hayling
+Island ready to take the air and rain destruction on the forts of
+Portsmouth before the fight became general.
+
+What thoroughly surprised him, however, was the absolute silence and
+inaction of the British. True, two shots had been fired, but whether
+from fort or warship, and with what intent, he hadn't the remotest
+notion. The hour arranged upon for the general assault was fast
+approaching. The British must be aware that an attack would be made, and
+yet there was not so much as a second-class torpedo boat to be seen
+outside Spithead. This puzzled him, so he decided to go and investigate
+for himself. He took up a speaking-tube and said to his Lieutenant,
+M'Carthy--one of too many renegade Irishmen who in the terrible times
+that were to come joined their country's enemies as Lynch and his
+traitors had done in the Boer War:
+
+"I don't quite make it out, M'Carthy. We'll go down and get under--it's
+about time the fun began--and I haven't heard a shot fired or seen an
+English ship except that submarine we smashed. My orders are for twelve
+o'clock, and I'm going to obey them."
+
+There was one more device on board the _Flying Fish_ which should be
+described in order that her wonderful manoeuvering under water may be
+understood. Just in front of the steering-wheel in the conning-tower was
+a square glass box measuring a foot in the side, and in the centre of
+this, attached to top and bottom by slender films of asbestos, was a
+needle ten inches long, so hung that it could turn and dip in any
+direction. The forward half of this needle was made of highly magnetised
+steel, and the other of aluminium which exactly counter-balanced it. The
+glass case was completely insulated and therefore the extremely
+sensitive needle was unaffected by any of the steel parts used in the
+construction of the vessel. But let any other vessel, save of course a
+wooden ship, come within a thousand yards, the needle began to tremble
+and sway, and the nearer the _Flying Fish_ approached it, the steadier
+it became and the more directly it pointed towards the object. If the
+vessel was on the surface, it of course pointed upward: if it was a
+submarine, it pointed either level or downwards with unerring precision.
+This needle was, in fact, the eyes of the _Flying Fish_ when she was
+under water.
+
+Castellan swung her head round to the north-west and dropped gently on
+to the water about midway between Selsey Bill and the Isle of Wight.
+Then the _Flying Fish_ folded her wings and sank to a depth of twenty
+feet. Then, at a speed of ten knots, she worked her way in a zigzag
+course back and forth across the narrowing waters, up the channel
+towards Portsmouth.
+
+To his surprise, the needle remained steady, showing that there was
+neither submarine nor torpedo boat near. This meant, as far as he could
+see, that the main approach to the greatest naval fortress in England
+had been left unguarded, a fact so extraordinary as to be exceedingly
+suspicious. His water-ray apparatus, a recent development of the X-rays
+which enabled him to see under water for a distance of fifty yards, had
+detected no contact mines, and yet Spithead ought to be enstrewn with
+them, just as it ought to have been swarming with submarines and
+destroyers. There must be some deep meaning to such apparently
+incomprehensible neglect, but what was it?
+
+If his brother Denis had not happened to recognise Captain Count Karl
+von Eckstein and haled him so unceremoniously on board the _Ithuriel_,
+and if his portmanteau full of papers had been got on board a French
+warship, instead of being left for the inspection of the British
+Admiralty, that reason would have been made very plain to him.
+
+Completely mystified, and fearing that either he was going into some
+trap or that some unforeseen disaster had happened, he swung round, ran
+out past the forts and rose into the air again. When he had reached the
+height of about a thousand feet, three rockets rose into the air and
+burst into three showers of stars, one red, one white, and the other
+blue. It was the Tricolour in the air, and the signal from the French
+Admiral to commence the attack. Castellan's orders were to cripple or
+sink the battleships of the Reserve Fleet which was moored in two
+divisions in Spithead and the Solent.
+
+The Spithead Division lay in column of line abreast between Gilkicker
+Point and Ryde Pier. It consisted of the _Formidable_, _Irresistible_,
+_Implacable_, _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_, and the cruisers _Hogue_,
+_Sutlej_, _Ariadne_, _Argonaut_, _Diadem_ and _Hawke_. The western
+Division consisted of the battleships _Prince George_, _Victoria_,
+_Jupiter_, _Mars_ and _Hannibal_, and the cruisers _Amphitrite_,
+_Spartiate_, _Andromeda_, _Europa_, _Niobe_, _Blenheim_ and _Blake_.
+
+It had of course been perfectly easy for Castellan to mark the position
+of the two squadrons from the air, and he knew that though they were
+comparatively old vessels they were quite powerful enough, with the
+assistance of the shore batteries, to hold even Admiral Durenne's
+splendid fleet until the Channel Fleet, which for the time being seemed
+to have vanished from the face of the waters, came up and took the
+French in the rear.
+
+In such a case, the finest fleet of France would be like a nut in a
+vice, and that was the reason for the remorseless orders which had been
+given to him, orders which he was prepared to carry out to the letter,
+in spite of the appalling loss of life which they entailed; for, as the
+_Flying Fish_ sank down into the water, he thought of that swimming race
+in Clifden Bay and of the girl whose marriage with himself, willing or
+unwilling, was to be one of the terms of peace when the British Navy lay
+shattered round her shores, and the millions of the Leagued Nations had
+trampled the land forces of Britain into submission.
+
+Just as she touched the water a brilliant flash of pink flame leapt up
+from the eastern fort on the Hillsea Lines, followed by a sharp crash
+which shook the atmosphere. A thin ray of light fell from the clouds,
+then came a quick succession of flashes moving in the direction of the
+great fort on Portsdown, until two rose in quick succession from
+Portsdown itself, and almost at the same moment another from Hurst
+Castle, and yet another from the direction of Fort Victoria.
+
+"God bless my soul, what's that?" exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief,
+Admiral Sir Compton Domville, who had just completed his final
+inspection of the defences of Portsmouth Harbour, and was standing on
+the roof of Southsea Castle, taking a general look round before going
+back to headquarters. "Here, Markham," he said, turning to the Commander
+of the Fort, "just telephone up to Portsdown at once and ask them what
+they're up to."
+
+An orderly instantly dived below to the telephone room. The Fort
+Commander took Sir Compton aside and said in a low voice:
+
+"I am afraid, sir, that the forts are being attacked from the air."
+
+"What's that?" replied Sir Compton, with a start. "Do you mean that
+infernal thing that Erskine and Castellan and the watch of the
+_Cormorant_ saw in the North Sea?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply. "There is no reason why the enemy should not
+possess a whole fleet of these craft by this time, and naturally they
+would act in concert with the attack of the French Fleet. I've heard
+rumours of a terrible new explosive they've got, too, which shatters
+steel into splinters and poisons everyone within a dozen yards of it. If
+that's true and they're dropping it on the forts, they'll probably smash
+the guns as well. For heaven's sake, sir, let me beg of you to go back
+at once to headquarters! It will probably be our turn next. You will be
+safe there, for they're not likely to waste their shells on Government
+buildings."
+
+"Well, I suppose I shall be of more use there," growled Sir Compton.
+
+At this moment the orderly returned, looking rather scared. He saluted
+and said:
+
+"If you please, sir, they've tried Portsdown and all the Hillsea forts
+and can't get an answer."
+
+"Good heavens!" said the Commander-in-Chief, "that looks almost as if
+you were right, Markham. Signal to Squadron A to up-anchor at once and
+telephone to Squadron B to do the same. Telephone Gilkicker to turn all
+searchlights on. Now I must be off and have a talk with General
+Hamilton."
+
+He ran down to his pinnace and went away full speed for the harbour, but
+before he reached the pier another flash burst out from the direction of
+Fort Gilkicker, followed by a terrific roar. To those standing on the
+top of Southsea Castle the fort seemed turned into a volcano, spouting
+flame and clouds of smoke, in the midst of which they could see for an
+instant whirling shapes, most of which would probably be the remains of
+the gallant defenders, hurled into eternity before they had a chance of
+firing a shot at the invaders. The huge guns roared for the first and
+last time in the war, and the great projectiles plunged aimlessly among
+the ships of the squadron, carrying wreck and ruin along the line.
+
+"Our turn now, I suppose," said the Fort Commander, quietly, as he
+looked up and by a chance gleam of moonlight through the breaking clouds
+saw a dim grey, winged shape drift across the harbour entrance.
+
+They were the last words he ever spoke, for the next moment the roof
+crumbled under his feet, and his body was scattered in fragments through
+the air, and in that moment Portsmouth had ceased to be a fortified
+stronghold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS
+
+
+It takes a good deal to shake the nerves of British naval officer or
+seaman, but those on board the ships of the Spithead Squadron would have
+been something more than human if they could have viewed the appalling
+happenings of the last few terrible minutes with their accustomed
+coolness. They were ready to fight anything on the face of the waters or
+under them, but an enemy in the air who could rain down shells, a couple
+of which were sufficient to destroy the most powerful forts in the
+world, and who could not be hit back, was another matter. It was a
+bitter truth, but there was no denying it. The events of the last ten
+years had clearly proved that a day must come when the flying machine
+would be used as an engine of war, and now that day had come--and the
+fighting flying machine was in the hands of the enemy.
+
+The anchors were torn from the ground, signals were flashed from the
+flagship, the _Prince George_, and within four minutes the squadron was
+under way to the south-eastward. After what had happened the Admiral in
+command promptly and rightly decided that to keep his ships cramped up
+in the narrow waters was only to court further disaster. His place was
+now the open sea, and a general fleet action offered the only means of
+preventing an occupation of almost defenceless Portsmouth, and the
+landing of hostile troops in the very heart of England's southern
+defences.
+
+Fifteen first-class torpedo boats and ten destroyers ran out from the
+Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts, ran through the ships, and spread
+themselves out in a wide curve ahead, and at the same time twenty
+submarines crept out from the harbour and set to work laying contact
+mines in the appointed fields across the harbour mouth and from shore to
+shore behind the Spithead forts.
+
+But the squadron had not steamed a mile beyond the forts before a series
+of frightful disasters overtook them. First, a huge column of water rose
+under the stern of the _Jupiter_. The great ship stopped and shuddered
+like a stricken animal, and began to settle down stern first. Instantly
+the _Mars_ and _Victorious_ which were on either side of her slowed
+down, their boats splashed into the water and set to work to rescue
+those who managed to get clear of the sinking ship.
+
+But even while this was being done, the _Banshee_, the _Flying Fish_
+which had destroyed the forts, had taken up her position a thousand feet
+above the doomed squadron. A shell dropped upon the deck of the
+_Spartiate_, almost amidships. The pink flash blazed out between her two
+midship funnels. They crumpled up as if they had been made of brown
+paper. The six-inch armoured casemates on either side seemed to crumble
+away. The four-inch steel deck gaped and split as though it had been
+made of matchboard. Then the _Banshee_ dropped to within five hundred
+feet and let go another shell almost in the same place. A terrific
+explosion burst out in the very vitals of the stricken ship, and the
+great cruiser seemed to split asunder. A vast volume of mingled smoke
+and flame and steam rose up, and when it rolled away, the _Spartiate_
+had almost vanished.
+
+But that was the last act of destruction that the _Banshee_ was destined
+to accomplish. That moment the moon sailed out into a patch of clear
+sky. Every eye in the squadron was turned upward. There was the airship
+plainly visible. Her captain instantly saw his danger and quickened up
+his engines, but it was too late. He was followed by a hurricane of
+shells from the three-pound quick-firers in the upper tops of the
+battleships. Then came an explosion in mid-air which seemed to shake the
+very firmament itself. She had fifty or sixty of the terrible shells
+which had wrought so much havoc on board, and as a dozen shells pierced
+her hull and burst, they too exploded with the shock. A vast blaze of
+pink flame shone out.
+
+"Talk about going to glory in a blue flame," said Seaman Gunner
+Tompkins, who had aimed one of the guns in the fore-top of the
+_Hannibal_, and of course, like everybody else, piously believed that
+his was one of the shells that got there. "That chap's gone to t'other
+place in a red'un. War's war, but I don't hold with that sort of
+fighting; it doesn't give a man a chance. Torpedoes is bad enough, Gawd
+knows--"
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth when a shock and a shudder ran
+through the mighty fabric of the battleship. The water rose in a
+foam-clad mountain under her starboard quarter. She heeled over to port,
+and then rolled back to starboard and began to settle.
+
+"Torpedoed, by George! What did I tell you?" gasped Gunner Tompkins. The
+next moment a lurch of the ship hurled him and his mates far out into
+the water.
+
+Even as his ship went down, Captain Barclay managed to signal to the
+other ships, "Don't wait--get out." And when her shattered hull rested
+on the bottom, the gallant signal was still flying from the upper yard.
+
+It was obvious that the one chance of escaping their terrible unseen foe
+was to obey the signal. By this time crowds of small craft of every
+description had come off from both shores to the rescue of those who had
+gone down with the ships, so the Admiral did what was the most practical
+thing to do under the circumstances--he dropped his own boats, each with
+a crew, and ordered the _Victorious_ and _Mars_ to do the same, and then
+gave the signal for full speed ahead. The great engines panted and
+throbbed, and the squadron moved forward with ever-increasing speed, the
+cruisers and destroyers, according to signal, running ahead of the
+battleships; but before full speed was reached, the _Mars_ was struck
+under the stern, stopped, shuddered, and went down with a mighty lurch.
+
+This last misfortune convinced the Admiral that the destruction of his
+battleships could not be the work of any ordinary submarine, for at the
+time the _Mars_ was struck she was steaming fifteen knots and the
+underwater speed of the best submarine was only twelve, saving only the
+_Ithuriel_, and she did not use torpedoes. The two remaining battleships
+had now reached seventeen knots, which was their best speed. The
+cruisers and their consorts were already disappearing round Foreland.
+
+There was some hope that they might escape the assaults of the
+mysterious and invisible enemy now that the airship had been destroyed,
+but unless the submarine had exhausted her torpedoes, or some accident
+had happened to her, there was very little for the _Prince George_ and
+the _Victorious_, and so it turned out. Castellan's strict orders had
+been to confine his attentions to the battleships, and he obeyed his
+pitiless instructions to the letter. First the _Victorious_ and then the
+flagship, smitten by an unseen and irresistible bolt in their weakest
+parts, succumbed to the great gaping wounds torn in the thin
+under-plating, reeled once or twice to and fro like leviathans
+struggling for life, and went down. And so for the time being, at least,
+ended the awful work of the _Flying Fish_.
+
+Leaving the cruisers and smaller craft to continue their dash for the
+open Channel, we must now look westward.
+
+When Vice-Admiral Codrington, who was flying his flag on the
+_Irresistible_, saw the flashes along the Hillsea ridge and Portsdown
+height and heard the roar of the explosions, he at once up-anchor and
+got his squadron under way. Then came the appallingly swift destruction
+of Hurst Castle and Fort Victoria. Like all good sailors, he was a man
+of instant decision. His orders were to guard the entrance to the
+Solent, and the destruction of the forts made it impossible for him to
+do this inside. How that destruction had been wrought, he had of course
+no idea, beyond a guess that the destroying agent must have come from
+the air, since it could not have come from sea or land without provoking
+a very vigorous reply from the forts. Instead of that they had simply
+blown up without firing a shot.
+
+He therefore decided to steam out through the narrow channel between
+Hurst Castle and the Isle of Wight as quickly as possible.
+
+It was a risky thing to do at night and at full speed, for the Channel
+and the entrance to it was strewn with contact mines, but one of the
+principal businesses of the British Navy is to take risks where
+necessary, so he put his own ship at the head of the long line, and with
+a mine chart in front of him went ahead at eighteen knots.
+
+When Captain Adolph Frenkel, who was in command of the _See Adler_, saw
+the column of warships twining and wriggling its way out through the
+Channel, each ship handled with consummate skill and keeping its
+position exactly, he could not repress an admiring "Ach!" Still it was
+not his business to admire, but destroy.
+
+He rose to a thousand feet, swung round to the north-eastward until the
+whole line had passed beneath him, and then quickened up and dropped to
+seven hundred feet, swung round again and crept up over the _Hogue_,
+which was bringing up the rear. When he was just over her fore part, he
+let go a shell, which dropped between the conning-tower and the forward
+barbette.
+
+The navigating bridge vanished; the twelve-inch armoured conning-tower
+cracked like an eggshell; the barbette collapsed like the crust of a
+loaf, and the big 9.2 gun lurched backwards and lay with its muzzle
+staring helplessly at the clouds. The deck crumpled up as though it had
+been burnt parchment, and the ammunition for the 9.2 and the forward
+six-inch guns which had been placed ready for action exploded, blowing
+the whole of the upper forepart of the vessel into scrap-iron.
+
+But an even worse disaster than this was to befall the great
+twelve-thousand-ton cruiser. Her steering gear was, of course,
+shattered. Uncontrolled and uncontrollable, she swung swiftly round to
+starboard, struck a mine, and inside three minutes she was lying on the
+mud.
+
+Almost at the moment of the first explosion, the beams of twenty
+searchlights leapt up into the air, and in the midst of the broad white
+glare hundreds of keen angry eyes saw a winged shape darting up into the
+air, heading southward as though it would cross the Isle of Wight over
+Yarmouth. Almost simultaneously, every gun from the tops of the
+battleships spoke, and a storm of shells rent the air.
+
+But Captain Frenkel had already seen his mistake. The _See Adler's_
+wings were inclined at an angle of twenty degrees, her propellers were
+revolving at their utmost velocity, and at a speed of nearly a hundred
+miles an hour, she took the Isle of Wight in a leap. She slowed down
+rapidly over Freshwater Bay. Captain Frenkel took a careful observation
+of the position and course of the squadron, dropped into the water,
+folded his wings and crept round the Needles with his conning-tower just
+awash, and lay in wait for his prey about two miles off the Needles.
+
+The huge black hull of the _Irresistible_ was only a couple of hundred
+yards away. He instantly sank and turned on his water-ray. As the
+flagship passed within forty yards he let go his first torpedo. It hit
+her sternpost, smashed her rudder and propellers, and tore a great hole
+in her run. The steel monster stopped, shuddered, and slid sternward
+with her mighty ram high in the air into the depths of the smooth grey
+sea.
+
+There is no need to repeat the ghastly story which has already been
+told--the story of the swift and pitiless destruction of these miracles
+of human skill, huge in size and mighty in armament and manned by the
+bravest men on land or sea, by a foe puny in size but of awful
+potentiality. It was a fight, if fight it could be called, between the
+visible and the invisible, and it could only have one end. Battleship
+after battleship received her death-wound, and went down without being
+able to fire a shot in defence, until the _Magnificent_, smitten in the
+side under her boilers, blew up and sank amidst a cloud of steam and
+foam, and the Western Squadron had met the fate of the Eastern.
+
+While this tragedy was being enacted, the cruisers scattered in all
+directions and headed for the open at their highest speed. It was a
+bitter necessity, and it was bitterly felt by every man and boy on board
+them; but the captains knew that to stop and attempt the rescue of even
+some of their comrades meant losing the ships which it was their duty at
+all costs to preserve, and so they took the only possible chance to
+escape from this terrible unseen foe which struck out of the silence and
+the darkness with such awful effect.
+
+But despite the tremendous disaster which had befallen the Reserve
+Fleet, the work of death and destruction was by no means all on one
+side. When he sank the _Leger_, Erskine had done a great deal more
+damage to the enemy than he knew, for she had been sent not for fighting
+purposes, but as a dépôt ship for the _Flying Fishes_, from which they
+could renew their torpedoes and the gas cylinders which furnished their
+driving power. Being a light craft, she was to take up an agreed
+position off Bracklesham Bay three miles to the north-west of Selsey
+Bill, the loneliest and shallowest part of the coast, with all lights
+out, ready to supply all that was wanted or to make any repairs that
+might be necessary. Her sinking, therefore, deprived John Castellan's
+craft of their base.
+
+After the _Dupleix_ had gone down, the _Ithuriel_ rose again, and
+Erskine said to Lennard:
+
+"There must be more of them outside, they wouldn't be such fools as to
+rush Portsmouth with three destroyers and a couple of cruisers. We'd
+better go on and reconnoitre."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran out south-eastward at twenty knots in a series of
+broad curves, and she was just beginning to make the fourth of these
+when six black shapes crowned with wreaths of smoke loomed up out of the
+semi-darkness.
+
+"Thought so--destroyers," said Erskine. "Yes, and look there, behind
+them--cruiser supports, three of them--these are for the second rush.
+Coming up pretty fast, too; they'll be there in half an hour. We shall
+have something to say about that. Hold on, Lennard."
+
+"Same tactics, I suppose," said Lennard.
+
+"Yes," replied Erskine, taking down the receiver. "Are you there,
+Castellan? All right. We've six more destroyers to get rid of. Full
+speed ahead, as soon as you like--guns all ready, I suppose? Good--go
+ahead."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ was now about two miles to the westward and about a mile
+in front of the line of destroyers, which just gave her room to get up
+full speed. As she gathered way, Lennard saw the nose of the great ram
+rise slowly out of the water. The destroyer's guns crackled, but it is
+not easy to hit a low-lying object moving at fifty miles an hour, end
+on, when you are yourself moving nearly twenty-five. Just the same thing
+happened as before. The point of the ram passed over the destroyer's
+bows, crumpled them up and crushed them down, and the _Ithuriel_ rushed
+on over the sinking wreck, swerved a quarter turn, and bore down on her
+next victim. It was all over in ten minutes. The _Ithuriel_ rushed
+hither and thither among the destroyers like some leviathan of the deep.
+A crash, a swift grinding scrape, and a mass of crumpled steel was
+dropping to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+While the attack on the destroyers was taking place, the cruisers were
+only half a mile away. Their captains had found themselves in curiously
+difficult positions. The destroyers were so close together, and the
+movements of this strange monster which was running them down so
+rapidly, that if they opened fire they were more likely to hit their own
+vessels than it, but when the last had gone down, every available gun
+spoke, and a hurricane of shells, large and small, ploughed up the sea
+where the _Ithuriel had_ been. After the first volley, the captains
+looked at their officers and the officers looked at the captains, and
+said things which strained the capabilities of the French language to
+the utmost. The monster had vanished.
+
+The fact was that Erskine had foreseen that storm of shell, and the
+pumps had been working hard while the ramming was going on. The result
+was that the _Ithuriel_ sank almost as soon as her last victim, and in
+thirty seconds there was nothing to shoot at.
+
+"I shall ram those chaps from underneath," he said. "They've too many
+guns for a shooting match."
+
+He reduced the speed to thirty knots, rose for a moment till the
+conning-tower was just above the water, took his bearings, sank, called
+for full speed, and in four minutes the ram crashed into the _Alger's_
+stern, carried away her sternpost and rudder, and smashed her
+propellers. The _Ithuriel_ passed on as if she had hit a log of wood and
+knocked it aside. A slight turn of the steering-wheel, and within four
+minutes the ram was buried in the vitals of the _Suchet_. Then the
+_Ithuriel_ reversed engines, the fore screw sucked the water away, and
+the cruiser slid off the ram as she might have done off a rock. As she
+went down, the _Ithuriel_ rose to the surface. The third cruiser, the
+_Davout_, was half a mile away. She had changed her course and was
+evidently making frantic efforts to get back to sea.
+
+"Going to warn the fleet, are you, my friend?" said Erskine, between
+his teeth. "Not if I know it!"
+
+He asked for full speed again and the terror-stricken Frenchmen saw the
+monster, just visible on the surface of the water, flying towards them
+in the midst of a cloud of spray. A sheep might as well have tried to
+escape from a tiger. Many of the crew flung themselves overboard in the
+madness of despair. There was a shock and a grinding crash, and the ram
+bored its way twenty feet into the unarmoured quarter. Then the
+_Ithuriel's_ screws dragged her free, and the _Davout_ followed her
+sisters to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS
+
+
+The awaking of England on the morning of the twenty-sixth of November
+was like the awaking of a man from a nightmare. Everyone who slept had
+gone to sleep with one word humming in his brain--war--and war at home,
+that was the terrible thought which robbed so many millions of eyes of
+sleep. But even those who slept did not do so for long.
+
+At a quarter to one a sub-editor ran into the room of the chief News
+Editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, without even the ceremony of a knock.
+
+"What on earth's the matter, Johnson?" exclaimed the editor. "Seen a
+ghost?"
+
+"Worse than that, sir. Read this!" said the sub-editor, in a shaking
+voice, throwing the slip down on the desk.
+
+"My God, what's this?" said the editor, as he ran his eye along the
+slip. "'Portsmouth bombarded from the air. Hillsea, Portsmouth,
+Gilkicker and Southsea Castle destroyed. Practically defenceless. Fleet
+Reserve Squadrons sailing.'"
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth before another man came running
+in with a slip. "'_Jupiter_ and _Hannibal_ torpedoed by submarine.
+_Spartiate_ blown up by aërial torpedo.'" Then there came a gap, as
+though the men at the other end had heard of more news, then
+followed--"'_Mars_, _Prince George_, _Victorious_, all torpedoed.
+Cruisers escaped to sea. No news of _Ithuriel_, no torpedo attack up to
+present.'"
+
+"Oh, that's awful," gasped the editor, and then the professional
+instinct reasserted itself, for he continued, handing the slip back:
+"Rush out an edition straight away, Johnson. Anything, if it's only a
+half-sheet--get it on the streets as quick as you can--there'll be
+plenty of people about still. If anything else comes bring it up."
+
+In less than a quarter of an hour a crowd of newsboys were fighting in
+the passage for copies of the single sheet which contained the momentous
+news, just as it had come over the wire. The _Daily Telegraph_ was just
+five minutes ahead, but within half an hour every London paper, morning
+and evening, and all the great provincial journals had rushed out their
+midnight specials, and from end to end of England and Scotland, and away
+to South Wales, and over the narrow seas to Dublin and Cork, the shrill
+screams of the newsboys, and the hoarse, raucous howls of the newsmen
+were spreading the terrible tidings over the land. What the beacon fires
+were in the days of the Armada, these humble heralds of Fate were in the
+twentieth century.
+
+"War begun--Portsmouth destroyed--Fleet sunk."
+
+The six terrible words were not quite exact, of course, but they were
+near enough to the truth to sound like the voice of Fate in the ears of
+the millions whose fathers and fathers' fathers back through six
+generations had never had their midnight rest so rudely broken.
+
+Lights gleamed out of darkened windows, and front doors were flung open
+in street after street, as the war-cry echoed down it. Any coin that
+came first to hand, from a penny to a sovereign, was eagerly offered for
+the single, hurriedly-printed sheets, but the business instincts of the
+newsboys rose superior to the crisis, and nothing less than a shilling
+was accepted. Streams of men and boys on bicycles with great bags of
+specials slung on their backs went tearing away, head down and pedals
+whirling, north, south, east and west into the suburbs. Newsagents flung
+their shops open, and in a few minutes were besieged by eager, anxious
+crowds, fighting for the first copies. There was no more sleep for man
+or woman in London that night, though the children slept on in happy
+unconsciousness of what the morrow was to bring forth.
+
+What happened in London was happening almost simultaneously all over the
+kingdom. For more than a hundred years the British people had worked and
+played and slept in serene security, first behind its wooden walls, and
+then behind the mighty iron ramparts of its invincible Fleets, and now,
+like a thunderbolt from a summer sky, came the paralysing tidings that
+the first line of defence had been pierced by a single blow, and the
+greatest sea stronghold of England rendered defenceless--and all this
+between sunset and midnight of a November day.
+
+Was it any wonder that men looked blankly into each other's eyes, and
+asked themselves and each other how such an unheard-of catastrophe had
+come about, and what was going to happen next? The first and universal
+feeling was one of amazement, which amounted almost to mental paralysis,
+and then came a sickening sense of insecurity. For two generations the
+Fleet had been trusted implicitly, and invasion had been looked upon
+merely as the fad of alarmists, and the theme of sensational
+story-writers. No intelligent person really trusted the army, although
+its ranks, such as they were, were filled with as gallant soldiers as
+ever carried a rifle, but it had been afflicted ever since men could
+remember with the bane and blight of politics and social influence. It
+had never been really a serious profession, and its upper ranks had been
+little better than the playground of the sons of the wealthy and
+well-born.
+
+Politician after politician on both sides had tried his hand at scheme
+after scheme to improve the army. What one had done, the next had
+undone, and the permanent War Office Officials had given more attention
+to buttons and braids and caps than to business-like organisations of
+fighting efficiency. The administration was, as it always had been, a
+chaos of muddle. The higher ranks were rotten with inefficiency, and the
+lower, aggravated and bewildered by change after change, had come to
+look upon soldiering as a sort of game, the rules of which were being
+constantly altered.
+
+The Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers had been constantly
+snubbed and worried by the authorities of Pall Mall. Private citizens,
+willing to give time and money in order to learn the use of the rifle,
+even if they could not join the Yeomanry or Volunteers, had been just
+ignored. The War Office could see no use for a million able-bodied men
+who had learned to shoot straight, besides they were only "damned
+civilians," whose proper place was in their offices and shops. What
+right had they with rifles? If they wanted exercise, let them go and
+play golf, or cricket, or football. What had they to do with the defence
+of their country and their homes?
+
+But that million of irregular sharpshooters were badly wanted now. They
+could have turned every hedgerow into a trench and cover against the foe
+which would soon be marching over the fields and orchards and
+hop-gardens of southern England. They would have known every yard of the
+ground, and the turn of every path and road, and while the regular army
+was doing its work they could have prevented many a turning movement of
+the superior forces, shot down the horses of convoys and ammunition
+trains, and made themselves generally objectionable to the enemy.
+
+Now the men were there, full of fight and enthusiasm, but they had
+neither ammunition nor rifles, and if they had had them, ninety per
+cent. would not have known how to use them. Wherefore, those who were
+responsible for the land defences of the country found themselves with
+less than three hundred thousand trained and half-trained men, of all
+arms, to face invading forces which would certainly not number less than
+a million, every man of which had served his apprenticeship to the grim
+trade of war, commanded by officers who had taken that same trade
+seriously, studied it as a science, thinking it of considerably more
+importance than golf or cricket or football.
+
+It had been said that the British Nation would never tolerate
+conscription, which might or might not have been true; but now, when the
+next hour or so might hear the foreign drums thrumming and the foreign
+bugles blaring, conscription looked a very different thing. There wasn't
+a loyal man in the kingdom who didn't bitterly regret that he had not
+been taken in the prime of his young manhood, and taught how to defend
+the hearth and home which were his, and the wife and children which were
+so dear to him.
+
+But it was too late now. Neither soldiers nor sharpshooters are made in
+a few hours or days, and within a week the first battles that had been
+fought on English ground for nearly eight hundred years would have been
+lost and won, and nine-tenths of the male population of England would be
+looking on in helpless fury.
+
+There had been plenty of theorists, who had said that the British
+Islands needed no army of home defence, simply because if she once lost
+command of the sea it would not be necessary for an enemy to invade her,
+since a blockade of her ports would starve her into submission in a
+month--which, thanks to the decay of agriculture and the depopulation of
+the country districts, was true enough. But it was not all the truth.
+Those who preached these theories left out one very important factor,
+and that was human nature.
+
+For over a century the Continental nations had envied and hated Britain,
+the land-grabber; Britain who had founded nations while they had failed
+to make colonies; Britain, who had made the Seven Seas her territories,
+and the coasts of other lands her frontiers. Surely the leaders of the
+leagued nations would have been more or less than human had they
+resisted, even if their people had allowed them to do it, the
+temptation of trampling these proud Islanders into the mud and mire of
+their own fields and highways, and dictating terms of peace in the
+ancient halls of Windsor.
+
+These were the bitter thoughts which were rankling in the breast of
+every loyal British man during the remainder of that night of horrible
+suspense. Many still had reason to remember the ghastly blunders and the
+muddling which had cost so many gallant lives and so many millions of
+treasure during the Boer War, when it took three hundred thousand
+British troops to reduce eighty thousand undrilled farmers to
+submission. What if the same blundering and muddling happened now? And
+it was just as likely now as then.
+
+Men ground their teeth, and looked at their strong, useless hands, and
+cursed theorist and politician alike. And meanwhile the Cabinet was
+sitting, deliberating, as best it might, over the tidings of disaster.
+The House of Commons, after voting full powers to the Cabinet and the
+Council of Defence, had been united at last by the common and immediate
+danger, and members of all parties were hurrying away to their
+constituencies to do what they could to help in organising the defence
+of their homeland.
+
+There was one fact which stood out before all others, as clearly as an
+electric light among a lot of candles, and, now that it was too late, no
+one recognised it with more bitter conviction than those who had made it
+the consistent policy of both Conservative and Liberal Governments, and
+of the Executive Departments, to discourage invention outside the
+charmed circle of the Services, and to drive the civilian inventor
+abroad.
+
+Again and again, designs of practical airships--not gas-bags which could
+only be dragged slowly against a moderate wind, but flying machines
+which conquered the wind and used it as a bird does--had been submitted
+to the War Office during the last six or seven years, and had been
+pooh-poohed or pigeon-holed by some sapient permanent official--and now
+the penalty of stupidity and neglect had to be paid.
+
+The complete descriptions of the tragedy that had been and was being
+enacted at Portsmouth that were constantly arriving in Downing Street
+left no possibility of doubt that the forts had been destroyed and the
+_Spartiate_ blown up by torpedoes from the air--from which fact it was
+necessary to draw the terrible inference that the enemy had possessed
+themselves of the command of the air.
+
+What was the command of the sea worth after that? What was the fighting
+value of the mightiest battleship that floated when pitted against a
+practically unassailable enemy, which had nothing to do but drop
+torpedoes, loaded with high explosives, on her decks and down her
+funnels until her very vitals were torn to pieces, her ammunition
+exploded, and her crew stunned by concussion or suffocated by poisonous
+gas?
+
+It was horrible, but it was true. Inside an hour the strongest
+fortifications in England had been destroyed, and ten first-class
+battleships and a cruiser had been sent to the bottom of the sea, and so
+at last her ancient sceptre was falling from the hand of the Sea Queen,
+and her long inviolate domain was threatened by the armed legions of
+those whose forefathers she had vanquished on many a stricken field by
+land and sea.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the Prime Minister to the other members of the
+Cabinet Council, who were sitting round that historic oval table in the
+Council Chamber in Downing Street, "we may as well confess that this is
+a great deal more serious than we expected it to be, and that is to my
+mind all the better reason why we should strain every nerve to hold
+intact the splendid heritage which our fathers have left to us--"
+
+Boom! A shudder ran through the atmosphere as he spoke the last words,
+and the double windows in Downing Street shook with the vibration. The
+members of the Cabinet started in their seats and looked at each other.
+Was this the fulfilment of the half prophecy which the Prime Minister
+had spoken so slowly and so clearly in the silent, crowded House of
+Commons?
+
+Almost at the same moment the electric bell at the outer of the double
+doors rang. The doors were opened, and a messenger came in with a
+telegram which he handed to the Prime Minister, and then retired. He
+opened the envelope, and for nearly five minutes of intense suspense he
+mentally translated the familiar cypher, and then he said, as he handed
+the telegram to the Secretary for War:
+
+"Gentlemen, I deeply regret to say that the possible prospect which I
+outlined in the House to-night has become an accomplished fact. Two
+hundred and forty-three years ago London heard the sound of hostile
+guns. We have heard them to-night. This telegram is from Sheerness, and
+it tells, I most deeply regret to say, the same story, or something like
+it, as the messages from Portsmouth. A Russo-German-French fleet of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, assisted by four airships and an
+unknown number of submarines, has defeated the Southern portion of the
+North Sea Squadron, and is now proceeding in two divisions, one up the
+Medway towards Chatham, and the other up the Thames towards Tilbury.
+Garrison Fort is now being bombarded from the sea and the air, and will
+probably be in ruins within an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A CRIME AND A MISTAKE
+
+
+When the destruction of the forts and the sinking of the battleships at
+Portsmouth had been accomplished, John Castellan made about the greatest
+mistake in his life, a mistake which had very serious consequences for
+those to whom he had sold himself and his terrible invention.
+
+He and his brother Denis formed a very curious contrast, which is
+nevertheless not uncommon in Irish families. The British army and navy
+can boast no finer soldiers or sailors, and the Empire no more devoted
+servants than those who claim Ireland as the land of their birth, and
+Denis Castellan was one of these. As the reader may have guessed
+already, he and Erskine had only been on the _Cormorant_ because it was
+the policy of the Naval Council to keep two of the ablest men in the
+service out of sight for a while. Denis, who had a remarkable gift of
+tongues, was really one of the most skilful naval _attachés_ in service,
+and what he didn't know about the naval affairs of Europe was hardly
+worth learning. Erskine had been recognised by the Naval Council which,
+under Sir John Fisher, had raised the British Navy to a pitch of
+efficiency that was the envy of every nation in the world, except Japan,
+as an engineer and inventor of quite extraordinary ability, and while
+the _Ithuriel_ was building, they had given him the command of the
+_Cormorant_, chiefly because there was hardly anything to do, and
+therefore he had ample leisure to do his thinking.
+
+On the other hand John Castellan was an unhappily brilliant example of
+that type of Keltic intellect which is incapable of believing the
+world-wide truism that the day of small states is passed. He had two
+articles of political faith. One was an unshakable belief in the
+possibility of Irish independence, and the other, which naturally
+followed from the first, was implacable hatred of the Saxon oppressor
+whose power and wealth had saved Ireland from invasion for centuries. He
+was utterly unable to grasp the Imperial idea, while his brother was as
+enthusiastic an Imperialist as ever sailed the seas.
+
+Had it not been for this blind hatred, the disaster which had befallen
+the Reserve Fleet would have been repeated at sea on a much vaster
+scale; but he allowed his passions to overcome his judgment, and so
+saved the Channel Fleet. There lay beneath him defenceless the greatest
+naval port of England, with its docks and dockyards, its barracks and
+arsenals, its garrisons of soldiers and sailors, and its crowds of
+workmen. The temptation was too strong for him, and he yielded to it.
+
+When the _Prince George_ had gone down he rose into the air, and ran
+over the Isle of Wight, signalling to the _See Adler_. The signals were
+answered, and the two airships met about two miles south-west of the
+Needles, and Castellan informed Captain Frenkel of his intention to
+destroy Portsmouth and Gosport. The German demurred strongly. He had no
+personal hatred to satisfy, and he suggested that it would be much
+better to go out to sea and discover the whereabouts of the Channel
+Fleet; but Castellan was Commander-in-Chief of the Aërial Squadrons of
+the Allies, and so his word was law, and within the next two hours one
+of the greatest crimes in the history of civilised warfare was
+committed.
+
+The two airships circled slowly over Gosport and Portsmouth, dropping
+their torpedoes wherever a worthy mark presented itself. The first one
+discharged from the _Flying Fish_ fell on the deck of the old _Victory_.
+The deck burst up, as though all the powder she had carried at
+Trafalgar had exploded beneath it, and the next moment she broke out in
+inextinguishable flames. The old _Resolution_ met the same fate from the
+_See Adler_, and then the pitiless hail of destruction fell on the docks
+and jetties. In a few minutes the harbour was ringed with flame.
+Portsmouth Station, built almost entirely of wood, blazed up like
+matchwood; then came the turn of the dockyards at Portsea, which were
+soon ablaze from end to end.
+
+Then the two airships spread their wings like destroying angels over
+Portsmouth town. Half a dozen torpedoes wrecked the Town Hall and set
+the ruins on fire. This was the work of the _See Adler_. The _Flying
+Fish_ devoted her attention to the naval and military barracks, the
+Naval College and the Gunnery School on Whale Island. As soon as these
+were reduced to burning ruins, the two airships scattered their
+torpedoes indiscriminately over churches, shops and houses, and in the
+streets crowded by terrified mobs of soldiers, sailors and civilians.
+
+The effect of the torpedoes in the streets was too appalling for
+description. Everyone within ten or a dozen yards of the focus of the
+explosion was literally blown to atoms, and for fifty yards round every
+living creature dropped dead, killed either by the force of the
+concussion or the poisonous gases which were liberated by the explosion.
+Hundreds fell thus without the mark of a wound, and when some of their
+bodies were examined afterwards, it was found that their hearts were
+split open as cleanly as though they had been divided with a razor, just
+as are the hearts of fishes which have been killed with dynamite.
+
+John Castellan and his lieutenant, M'Carthy, for the time being gloried
+in the work of destruction. Captain Frenkel was a soldier and a
+gentleman, and he saw nothing in it save wanton killing of defenceless
+people and a wicked waste of ammunition; but the terrible War Lord of
+Germany had given Castellan supreme command, and to disobey meant
+degradation, and possibly death, and so the _See Adler_ perforce took
+her share in the tragedy.
+
+In a couple of hours Portsmouth, Gosport and Portsea had ceased to be
+towns. They were only areas of flaming ruins; but at last the ammunition
+gave out, and Castellan was compelled to signal the _See Adler_ to shape
+her course for Bracklesham Bay in order to replenish the magazines. They
+reached the bay, and descended at the spot where the _Leger_ ought to
+have been at anchor. She was not there, for the sufficient reason that
+the _Ithuriel's_ ram had sent her to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+For half an hour the _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ hunted over the
+narrow waters, but neither was the _Leger_ nor any other craft to be
+seen between the Selsey coast and the Isle of Wight. When they came
+together again in Bracklesham Bay, John Castellan's rage against the
+hated Saxon had very considerably cooled. Evidently something serious
+had happened, and something that he knew nothing about, and now that the
+excitement of destruction had died away, he remembered more than one
+thing which he ought to have thought of before.
+
+The two rushes of the torpedo boats, supported by the swift cruisers,
+had not taken place. Not a hostile vessel had entered either Spithead or
+the Solent, and the British cruisers, which he had been ordered to
+spare, had got away untouched. It was perfectly evident that some
+disaster had befallen the expedition, and that the _Leger_ had been
+involved in it. In spite of the terrible destruction that the _Flying
+Fish_, the _See Adler_ and the _Banshee_ had wrought on sea and land, it
+was plain that the first part of the invader's programme had been
+brought to nothing by some unknown agency.
+
+He was, of course, aware of the general plan of attack. He had destroyed
+the battleships of the Fleet Reserve. While he was doing that the
+destroyers should have been busy among the cruisers, and then the main
+force, under Admiral Durenne, would follow, and take possession of
+Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. A detachment of cruisers
+and destroyers was then to be despatched to Littlehampton, and land a
+sufficient force to seize and hold the railway at Ford and Arundel, so
+that the coast line of the L.B.S.C.R., as well as the main line to
+Horsham and London, should be at the command of the invaders.
+
+Littlehampton was also particularly valuable on account of its tidal
+river and harbour, which would give shelter and protection to a couple
+of hundred torpedo boats and destroyers, and its wharves from which
+transports could easily coal. It is hardly worth while to add that it
+had been left entirely undefended. It had been proposed to mount a
+couple of 9.2 guns on the old fort on the west side of the river mouth,
+with half a dozen twelve-pound quick-firers at the Coast-Guard station
+on the east side to repel torpedo attack, but the War Office had laughed
+at the idea of an enemy getting within gunshot of the inviolate English
+shore, and so one of the most vulnerable points on the south coast had
+been left undefended.
+
+What would Castellan have given now for the torpedoes which the two
+ships had wasted in the wanton destruction of Portsmouth, and the murder
+of its helpless citizens. The main French Fleet by this time could not
+be very far off. Behind it, somewhere, was the British Channel Fleet,
+the most powerful sea force that had ever ridden the subject waves, and
+here he was without a torpedo on either of his ships, and no supplies
+nearer than Kiel. The _Leger_ had carried two thousand torpedoes and
+five hundred cylinders of the gases which supplied the motive power. She
+was gone, and for all offensive purposes the _Flying Fish_ and _See
+Adler_ were as harmless as a couple of balloons.
+
+When it was too late, John Castellan remembered in the bitterness of his
+soul that the torpedoes which had destroyed Portsmouth would have been
+sufficient to have wrecked the Channel Fleet, and now there was nothing
+for it but to leave Admiral Durenne to fight his own battle against the
+most powerful fleet in the world, and to use what was left of the motive
+power to get back to Kiel, and replenish their magazines.
+
+Horrible as had been the fate which had fallen on the great arsenal of
+southern England, it had not been sacrificed in vain, and very sick at
+heart was John Castellan when he gave the order for the two vessels,
+which a few hours ago had been such terrible engines of destruction, to
+rise into the air and wing their harmless flight towards Kiel.
+
+When the _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ took the air, and shipped
+their course eastward, the position of the opposing fleets was somewhat
+as follows: The cruisers of the A Squadron, _Amphitrite_, _Andromeda_,
+_Europa_, _Niobe_, _Blenheim_ and _Blake_, with fifteen first-class
+torpedo boats and ten destroyers, had got out to sea from Spithead
+unharmed. All these cruisers were good for twenty knots, the torpedo
+boats for twenty-five, and the destroyers for thirty. The _Sutlej_,
+_Ariadne_, _Argonaut_ and _Diadem_ had got clear away from the Solent,
+with ten first-class torpedo boats and five destroyers. They met about
+four miles south-east of St Catherine's Point. Commodore Hoskins of the
+_Diadem_ was the senior officer in command, and so he signalled for
+Captain Pennell, of the _Andromeda_, to come on board, and talk matters
+over with him, but before the conversation was half-way through, a black
+shape, with four funnels crowned with smoke and flame, came tearing up
+from the westward, made the private signal, and ran alongside the
+_Diadem_.
+
+The news that her commander brought was this--Admiral Lord Beresford had
+succeeded in eluding the notice of the French Channel Fleet, and was on
+his way up the south-west with the intention of getting behind Admiral
+Durenne's fleet, and crushing it between his own force to seaward and
+the batteries and Reserve Fleet on the landward side. The Commander of
+the destroyer was, of course, quite ignorant of the disaster which had
+befallen the battleships of the Reserve Fleet and Portsmouth, and when
+the captain of the cruiser told him the tidings, though he received the
+news with the almost fatalistic _sang froid_ of the British naval
+officer, turned a shade or two paler under the bronze of his skin.
+
+"That is terrible news, sir," he said, "and it will probably alter the
+Admiral's plans considerably. I must be off as soon as possible, and let
+him know: meanwhile, of course, you will use your own judgment."
+
+"Yes," replied the Commodore, "but I think you had better take one of
+our destroyers, say the _Greyhound_, back with you. She's got her
+bunkers full, and she can manage thirty-two knots in a sea like this."
+
+At this moment the sentry knocked at the door of the Commodore's room.
+
+"Come in," said Commodore Hoskins. The door opened, a sentry came in and
+saluted, and said:
+
+"The _Ithuriel's_ alongside, sir, and Captain Erskine will be glad to
+speak to you."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the Commodore, "the very thing. I wonder what that young
+devil has been up to. Send him in at once, sentry."
+
+The sentry retired, and presently Erskine entered the room, saluted, and
+said:
+
+"I've come to report, sir, I have sunk everything that tried to get in
+through Spithead. First division of three destroyers, the old _Leger_,
+the _Dupleix_ cruiser, six destroyers of the second division, and three
+cruisers, the _Alger_, _Suchet_ and _Davout_. They're all at the
+bottom."
+
+The Commodore stared for a moment or two at the man who so quietly
+described the terrific destruction that he had wrought with a single
+ship, and then he said:
+
+"Well, Erskine, we expected a good deal from that infernal craft of
+yours, but this is rather more than we could have hoped for. You've done
+splendidly. Now, what's your best speed?"
+
+"Forty-five knots, sir."
+
+"Good Lord!" exclaimed the Commander of the _Greyhound_. "You don't say
+so."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Erskine with a smile. "You ought to have seen us walk
+over those destroyers. I hit them at full speed, and they crumpled up
+like paper boats."
+
+By this time the Commodore had sat down, and was writing his report as
+fast as he could get his pencil over the paper. It was a short, terse,
+but quite comprehensive account of the happenings of the last three
+hours, and a clear statement of the strength and position of the torpedo
+and cruiser squadron under his command. When he had finished, he put the
+paper into an envelope, and said to the Commander of the _Greyhound_:
+
+"I am afraid you are no good here, Hawkins. I shall have to give the
+message to Captain Erskine, he'll be there and back before you're there.
+Just give him the bearings of the Fleet and he'll be off at once. There
+you are, Erskine, give that to the Admiral, and bring me instructions
+back as soon as you can. You've just time for a whisky-and-soda, and
+then you must be off."
+
+Erskine took the letter, and they drank their whisky-and-soda. Then they
+went on deck. The _Ithuriel_ was lying outside the _Greyhound_, half
+submerged--that is to say, with three feet of freeboard showing.
+Commander Hawkins looked at her with envious eyes. It is an article of
+faith with all good commanders of destroyers that their own craft is the
+fastest and most efficient of her class. At a pinch he could get
+thirty-two knots out of the _Greyhound_, and here was this quiet,
+determined-looking young man, who had created a vessel of his own, and
+had reached the rank of captain by sheer genius over the heads of men
+ten years older than himself, talking calmly of forty-five knots, and of
+the sinking of destroyers and cruisers, as though it was a mere matter
+of cracking egg-shells. Wherefore there was wrath in his soul when he
+went on board and gave the order to cast loose. Erskine went with him.
+They shook hands on the deck of the _Greyhound_, and Erskine went aboard
+of the _Ithuriel_, saying:
+
+"Well, Hawkins, I expect I shall meet you coming back."
+
+"I'm damned if I believe in your forty-five knots," replied Captain
+Hawkins, shortly.
+
+"Cast off, and come with me then," laughed Erskine, "you soon will."
+
+Inside three minutes the two craft were clear of the _Diadem_. Erskine
+gave the _Greyhound_ right of way until they had cleared the squadron.
+The sea was smooth, and there was scarcely any wind, for it had been a
+wonderfully fine November. The _Greyhound_ got on her thirty-two knots
+as soon as there was no danger of hitting anything.
+
+"That chap thinks he can race us," said Erskine to Lennard, as he got
+into the conning-tower, "and I'm just going to make him the maddest man
+in the British navy. He's doing thirty-two--we're doing twenty-five. Now
+that we're clear I'll wake him up." He took down the receiver and said:
+
+"Pump her out, Castellan, and give her full speed as soon as you can."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ rose in the water, and began to shudder from stem to
+stern with the vibrations of the engines, as they gradually worked up to
+their highest capacity. Commander Hawkins saw something coming up
+astern, half hidden by a cloud of spray and foam. It went past him as
+though he had been standing still instead of steaming at thirty-two
+knots. A few moments more and it was lost in the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE EVE OF BATTLE
+
+
+In twenty minutes the _Ithuriel_ ran alongside the _Britain_, which was
+one of the five most formidable battleships in existence. For five years
+past a new policy had been pursued with regard to the navy. The
+flagships, which of course contained the controlling brains of the
+fleets, were the most powerful afloat. By the time war broke out five of
+them had been launched and armed, and the _Britain_ was the newest and
+most powerful of them.
+
+Her displacement was twenty-two thousand tons, and her speed twenty-four
+knots. She was armoured from end to end with twelve-inch plates against
+which ordinary projectiles smashed as harmlessly as egg-shells. Twelve
+fourteen-inch thousand-pounder guns composed her primary battery; her
+secondary consisted of ten 9.2 guns, and her tertiary of twelve-pounder
+Maxim-Nordenfeldts in the fighting tops.
+
+It was the first time that Erskine had seen one of these giants of the
+ocean, and when they got alongside he said to Denis Castellan:
+
+"There's a fighting machine for you, Denis. Great Scott, what wouldn't I
+give to see her at work in the middle of a lot of Frenchmen and Germans,
+as the _Revenge_ was among the Spaniards in Grenville's time. Just look
+at those guns."
+
+"Yes," replied Castellan, "she's a splendid ship, and those guns look as
+though they could talk French to the Frenchies and German to the
+Dutchmen and plain English to the lot in a way that wouldn't want much
+translating. And what's more, they have the right men behind them, and
+the best gun in the world isn't much good without that."
+
+At this moment they heard a shrill voice from the forecastle of the
+nearest destroyer.
+
+"Hulloa there, what's the matter?" came from the deck of the _Britain_.
+
+"Four French destroyers coming up pretty fast from the south'ard, sir.
+Seem to be making for the flagship," was the reply.
+
+"That's a job for us," said Erskine, who was standing on the narrow deck
+of the _Ithuriel_, waiting to go on board the _Britain_. "Commander,
+will you be good enough to deliver this to the Admiral? I must be off
+and settle those fellows before they do any mischief."
+
+The commander of the destroyer took the letter, Erskine dived below, a
+steel plate slid over the opening to the companion way, and when he got
+into the conning-tower he ordered full speed.
+
+Four long black shapes were stealing slowly towards the British centre,
+and no one knew better than he did that a single torpedo well under
+waterline would send Admiral Beresford's floating fortress to the bottom
+inside ten minutes, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.
+
+A quartermaster ran down the ladder and caught the letter from the
+commander just as the _Ithuriel_ moved off.
+
+"Tell the Admiral, with Captain Erskine's compliments, that he'll be
+back in a few minutes, when he's settled those fellows."
+
+The quartermaster took the letter, and by the time he got to the top of
+the ladder, the _Ithuriel_ was flying through a cloud of foam and spray
+towards the first of the destroyers. He heard a rattle of guns, and then
+the destroyer vanished. The _Ithuriel_ swung round, hit the next one in
+the bows, ground her under the water, turned almost at right angles,
+smashed the stern of the third one into scrap iron, hit the fourth one
+abreast of the conning-tower, crushed her down and rolled her over, and
+then slowed down and ran back to the flagship at twenty knots.
+
+"Well!" said Quartermaster Maginniss, who for the last few minutes had
+been held spellbound at the top of the ladder, in spite of the claims of
+discipline, "of all the sea-devils of crafts that I've ever heard of, I
+should say that was the worst. Four destroyers gone in five minutes, and
+here he is coming back before I've delivered the letter. If we only have
+a good square fight now, I'll be sorry for the Frenchies."
+
+The next moment he stiffened up and saluted. "A letter for you, Admiral,
+left by Captain Erskine before he went away to destroy those
+destroyers."
+
+"And you've been watching the destruction instead of delivering the
+letter," laughed Lord Beresford, as he took it from him. "Well, I'll let
+you off this time. When Captain Erskine comes alongside, ask him to see
+me in my room at once."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran alongside even as he was speaking. The gangway was
+manned, and when he reached the deck, Admiral Beresford held out his
+hand, and said with a laugh:
+
+"Well, Captain Erskine, I understood that you were bringing me a message
+from Commodore Hoskins, but you seem to have had better game to fly
+for."
+
+"My fault, sir," said Erskine, "but I hope you won't court-martial me
+for it. You see, there were four French destroyers creeping round, and
+mine was the only ship that could tackle them, so I thought I'd better
+go and do it before they did any mischief. Anyhow, they're all at the
+bottom now."
+
+"I don't think I should have much case if I court-martialled you for
+that, Captain Erskine," laughed the Admiral, "especially after what
+you've done already, according to Commodore Hoskins' note. That must be
+a perfect devil of a craft of yours. Can you sink anything with her?"
+
+"Anything, sir," replied Erskine. "This is the most powerful fighting
+ship in the world, but I could put you at the bottom of the Channel in
+ten minutes."
+
+"The Lord save us! It's a good job you're on our side."
+
+"And it's a very great pity," said Erskine, "that the airships are not
+with us too. I had a very narrow squeak in Spithead about three hours
+ago from one of their aërial torpedoes. It struck part of a destroyer
+that I'd just sunk, and although it was nearly fifty yards away, it
+shook me up considerably."
+
+"Have you any idea of the whereabouts and formation of the French Fleet?
+I must confess that I haven't. These infernal airships have upset all
+the plans for catching Durenne between the Channel Fleet and the
+Reserve, backed up by the Portsmouth guns, so that we could jump out and
+catch him between the fleet and the forts. Now I suppose it will have to
+be a Fleet action at sea."
+
+"If you care to leave your ship for an hour, sir," replied Erskine, "I
+will take you round the French fleet and you shall see everything for
+yourself. We may have to knock a few holes in something, if it gets in
+our way, but I think I can guarantee that you shall be back on the
+_Britain_ by the time you want to begin the action."
+
+"Absolutely irregular," said Lord Beresford, stroking his chin, and
+trying to look serious, while his eyes were dancing with anticipation.
+"An admiral to leave his flagship on the eve of an engagement! Well,
+never mind, Courtney's a very good fellow, and knows just as much about
+the ship as I do, and he's got all sailing orders. I'll come. He's on
+the bridge now, I'll go and tell him."
+
+The Admiral ran up on to the bridge, gave Captain Courtney Commodore
+Hoskins' letter, added a few directions, one of which was to keep on a
+full head of steam on all the ships, and look out for signals, and five
+minutes later he had been introduced to Lennard, and was standing beside
+him in the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_ listening to Erskine, as he
+said into the telephone receiver:
+
+"Sink her to three feet, Castellan, and then ahead full speed."
+
+The pumps worked furiously for a few minutes, and the _Ithuriel_ sank
+until only three feet of her bulk appeared above the water. Then the
+Admiral felt the floor of the conning-tower shudder and tremble under
+his feet. He looked out of the side porthole on the starboard bow, and
+saw his own fleet dropping away into the distance and the darkness of
+the November night. The water ahead curled up into two huge swathes,
+which broke into foam and spray, which lashed hissing along the almost
+submerged decks.
+
+"You have a pretty turn of speed on her, I must say, Captain Erskine,"
+said the Admiral, after he had taken a long squint through the
+semicircular window. "I'm sorry we haven't got a score of craft like
+this."
+
+"And we should have had, your lordship," replied Erskine, "if the
+Council had only taken the opinion that you gave after you saw the
+plans."
+
+"I'd have a hundred like her," laughed the Admiral, "only you see
+there's the Treasury, and behind that the most noble House of Commons,
+elected mostly by the least educated and most short-sighted people in
+the nation, who scarcely know a torpedo from a common shell, and we
+should never have got them. We had hard enough work to get this one as
+an experiment."
+
+"I quite agree with you, sir," said Erskine, "and I think Lennard will
+too. There has never been an instance in history in which democracy did
+not spell degeneration. It's a pity, but I suppose it's inevitable. As
+far as my reading has taken me, it seems to be the dry-rot of nations.
+Halloa, what's that? Torpedo gunboat, I think! Ah, there's the moon.
+Now, sir, if you'll just come and stand to the right here, for'ard of
+the wheel, I'll put the _Ithuriel_ through her paces, and show you what
+she can do."
+
+A long grey shape, with two masts and three funnels between them, loomed
+up out of the darkness into a bright patch of moonlight. Erskine took
+the receiver from the hooks and said:
+
+"Stand by there, Castellan. Forward guns fire when I give the word--then
+I shall ram."
+
+The Admiral saw the three strangely shaped guns rise from the deck,
+their muzzles converging on the gunboat. He expected a report, but none
+came; only a gentle hiss, scarcely audible in the conning-tower. Then
+three brilliant flashes of flame burst out just under the Frenchman's
+topworks. Erskine, with one hand on the steering-wheel, and the other
+holding the receiver, said:
+
+"Well aimed--now full speed. I'm going over him."
+
+"Over him!" echoed the Admiral. "Don't you ram under the waterline?"
+
+"If it's the case of a big ship, sir," replied Erskine, "we sink and hit
+him where it hurts most, but it isn't worth while with these small
+craft. You will see what I mean in a minute."
+
+As he spoke a shudder ran through the _Ithuriel_. The deck began to
+quiver under the Admiral's feet; the ram rose six feet out of the water.
+The shape of the gunboat seemed to rush towards them; the ram hit it
+squarely amidships; then came a shock, a grinding scrape, screams of
+fear from the terrified sailors, a final crunch, and the gunboat was
+sinking fifty yards astern.
+
+"That's awful," said the Admiral, with a perceptible shake in his voice.
+"What speed did you hit her at?"
+
+"Forty-five knots," replied Erskine, giving a quarter turn to the wheel,
+and almost immediately bringing a long line of battleships, armoured
+cruisers, protected cruisers and destroyers into view.
+
+The French Channel Fleet was composed of the most powerful ships in the
+navy of the Republic. The two portions from Brest and Cherbourg had now
+united their forces. The French authorities had at last learned the
+supreme value of homogeneity. The centre was composed of six ships of
+the _Republique_ class, all identical in size, armour and armament, as
+well as speed. They were the _Republique_, _Patrie_ flagship, _Justice_,
+_Democratie_, _Liberte_ and _Verite_. They were all of fifteen thousand
+tons and eighteen knots. To these was added the _Suffren_, also of
+eighteen knots, but only twelve thousand seven hundred tons: she had
+come from Brest with a flotilla of torpedo boats.
+
+There were six armoured cruisers, _Jules Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_,
+_Victor Hugo_, _Jeanne d'Arc_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. These were all
+heavily armed and armoured vessels, all of them capable of manoeuvering
+at a speed of over twenty knots. A dozen smaller protected and
+unprotected cruisers hung on each flank, and a score of destroyers and
+torpedo boats lurked in between the big ships.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran quietly along the curving line of battleships and
+cruisers, turned and came back again without exciting the slightest
+suspicion.
+
+Erskine would have dearly loved to sink a battleship or one or two
+cruisers, just to show his lordship how it was done, but the Admiral
+forbade this, as he wanted to get the Frenchmen, who still thought they
+were going to easy victory, entangled in the shallows of the narrow
+waters, and therefore with the exception of rolling over and sinking
+three submarines which happened to get in the way, no damage was done.
+
+The British Channel Fleet, even not counting the assistance of the
+terrible _Ithuriel_, was the most powerful squadron that had ever put to
+sea under a single command. The main line of battle consisted of the
+flagship _Britain_, and seven ships of the _King Edward_ class, _King
+Edward the Seventh_, _Dominion_, _Commonwealth_, _Hindustan_, _New
+Zealand_, _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_; all over sixteen thousand tons,
+and of nineteen knots speed. With the exception of the giant flagships,
+of which there were five in existence--the _Britain_, _England_,
+_Ireland_, _Scotland_ and _Wales_--and two nineteen thousand ton
+monsters which had just been completed for Japan, these were the fastest
+and most heavily-armed battleships afloat.
+
+The second line was composed of the armoured cruisers, _Duke of
+Edinburgh_, _Black Prince_, _Henry the Fourth_, _Warwick_, _Edward the
+Third_, _Cromwell_, all of over thirteen thousand tons, and twenty-two
+knots speed; the _Drake_, _King Alfred_, _Leviathan_ and _Good Hope_, of
+over fourteen thousand tons and twenty-four knots speed; and the
+reconstructed _Powerful_, and _Terrible_, of fourteen thousand tons and
+twenty-two knots. There was, of course, the usual swarm of destroyers
+and torpedo boats; and in addition must be counted the ten cruisers, ten
+destroyers, and fifteen torpedo boats, which had escaped from Spithead
+and the Solent. These had already formed a junction with the left wing
+of the British force.
+
+For nearly two hours the two great fleets slowly approached each other
+almost at a right angle. As the grey dawn of the November morning began
+to steal over the calm blue-grey water, they came in plain sight of each
+other, and at once the signal flew from the foreyard of the _Britain_,
+"Prepare for action--battleships will cross front column of line
+ahead--cruisers will engage cruisers individually at discretion of
+Commanders--destroyers will do their worst."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE STRIFE OF GIANTS
+
+
+As it happened, it was a fine, cold wintry day that dawned as the two
+great fleets drew towards each other. As Denis Castellan said, "It was a
+perfect jewel of a day for a holy fight," and so it was. The French
+fleet was advancing at twelve knots. Admiral Beresford made his fifteen,
+and led the line in the _Britain_. Erskine had been ordered to go to the
+rear of the French line and sink any destroyer or torpedo boat that he
+could get hold of, but to let the battleships and cruisers alone, unless
+he saw a British warship hard pressed, in which case he was to ram and
+sink the enemy if he could.
+
+One division of cruisers, consisting of the fastest and most powerful
+armoured vessels, was to make a half-circle two miles in the rear of the
+French Fleet. The ships selected for this service were the _Duke of
+Edinburgh_, _Warwick_, _Edward III._, _Cromwell_ and _King Alfred_.
+Outside them, two miles again to the rear, the _Leviathan_, _Good Hope_,
+_Powerful_ and _Terrible_, the fastest ships in the Fleet, were to take
+their station to keep off stragglers.
+
+For the benefit of the non-nautical reader, it will be as well to
+explain here the two principal formations in which modern fleets go into
+action. As a matter of fact, they are identical with the tactics
+employed by the French and Spanish on the one side and Nelson on the
+other during the Napoleonic wars. Before Nelson's time, it was the
+custom for two hostile fleets to engage each other in column of line
+abreast, which means that both fleets formed a double line which
+approached each other within gunshot, and then opened fire.
+
+At Trafalgar, Nelson altered these tactics completely, with results that
+everybody knows. The allied French and Spanish fleets came up in a
+crescent, just in the same formation as Admiral Durenne was advancing on
+Portsmouth. Nelson took his ships into action in column of line ahead,
+in other words, in single file, the head of the column aiming for the
+centre of the enemy's battle line.
+
+The main advantage of this was, first, that it upset the enemy's
+combination, and, secondly, that each ship could engage two, since she
+could work both broadsides at once, whereas the enemy could only work
+one broadside against one ship. These were the tactics which, with
+certain modifications made necessary by the increased mobility on both
+sides, Lord Beresford adopted.
+
+With one exception, no foreigner had ever seen the new class of British
+flagship, and that exception, as we know, was safely locked up on board
+the _Ithuriel_, and his reports were even now being carefully considered
+by the Naval Council.
+
+There are no braver men on land and sea than the officers and crews of
+the French Navy, but when the giant bulk of the _Britain_ loomed up out
+of the westward in the growing light, gradually gathering way with her
+stately train of nineteen-knot battleships behind her, and swept down in
+front of the French line, many a heart stood still for the moment, and
+many a man asked himself what the possibilities of such a Colossus of
+the ocean might be.
+
+They had not long to wait. As the British battleships came on from the
+left with ever-increasing speed, the whole French line burst into a
+tornado of thunder and flame, but not a shot was fired from the English
+lines. Shells hurtled and screamed through the air, topworks were
+smashed into scrap-iron, funnels riddled, and military masts
+demolished; but until the _Britain_ reached the centre of the French
+line not a British gun spoke.
+
+Then the giant swung suddenly to starboard, and headed for the space
+between the _Patrie_ and the _Republique_. The _Canada_, _Newfoundland_,
+_New Zealand_ and _Hindustan_ put on speed, passed under her stern, and
+headed in between the _Suffren_, _Liberte_, _Verite_ and _Patrie_, while
+the _Edward VII._, _Dominion_ and _Commonwealth_ turned between the
+_Justice_, _Democratie_, the _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_.
+
+Within a thousand yards the British battleships opened fire. The first
+gun from the _Britain_ was a signal which turned them all into so many
+floating volcanoes. The _Britain_ herself ran between the _Patrie_ and
+the _Republique_, vomiting storms of shell, first ahead, then on the
+broadside and then astern. Her topworks were of course crumpled out of
+all shape--that was expected, for the range was now only about five
+hundred yards--but the incessant storm of thousand-pound shells from the
+fourteen-inch guns, followed by an unceasing hail of three hundred and
+fifty pound projectiles from the 9.2 quick-firers, reduced the two
+French battleships to little better than wrecks. The _Britain_ steamed
+through and turned, and again the awful hurricane burst out from her
+sides and bow and stern. She swung round again, but now only a few
+dropping shots greeted her from the crippled Frenchmen.
+
+"I don't think those chaps have much more fight left in them," said the
+Admiral to the Captain as they passed through the line for the third
+time. "We'll just give them one more dose, and then see how the other
+fellows are getting on."
+
+Once more the monster swept in between the doomed ships; once more her
+terrible artillery roared. Two torpedo boats, five hundred yards ahead,
+were rushing towards her. A grey shape rose out of the water, flinging
+up clouds of spray and foam, and in a moment they were ground down into
+the water and sunk. The hastily-fired torpedoes diverged and struck the
+two French battleships instead of the _Britain_. Two mountains of foam
+rose up under their sterns, their bows went down and rose again, and
+with a sternward lurch they slid down into the depths.
+
+The _Britain_ swung round to port, and poured a broadside into the
+_Liberte_, which had just crippled the _Hindustan_, and sunk her with a
+torpedo. The _New Zealand_ was evidently in difficulties between the
+_Liberte_ and the _Verite_. Her upper works were a mass of ruins, but
+she was still blazing away merrily with her primary battery. The Admiral
+slowed down to ten knots, and got between the two French battleships;
+then her big guns began to vomit destruction again, and in five minutes
+the two French battleships, caught in the triangular fire and terribly
+mauled, hauled their flags down, and so Lord Beresford's scheme was
+accomplished. The _Dominion_ and _Edward VII._ had got between their
+ships at the expense of a severe handling, and were giving a very good
+account of them, and the _Canada_ had sunk the _Suffren_ with a lucky
+shell which exploded in her forward torpedo room and blew her side out.
+
+It was broad daylight by this time, and it was perfectly plain, both to
+friend and foe, that the French centre could no longer be counted upon
+as a fighting force. One of the circumstances which came home hardest
+afterwards to the survivors of the French force was the fact that, as
+far as they knew, not a single British battleship or cruiser had been
+struck by a French destroyer or torpedo boat. The reason for this was
+the very simple fact that Erskine had taken these craft under his
+charge, and, while the big ships had been thundering away at each other,
+he had devoted himself to the congenial sport of smashing up the smaller
+fry. He sent the _Ithuriel_ flying hither and thither at full speed,
+tearing them into scrap-iron and sending them to the bottom, as if they
+had been so many penny steamers. He could have sent the battleships to
+the bottom with equal ease, but orders were orders, and he respected
+them until his chance came.
+
+The _Verite_ was now the least injured of the French battleships. To
+look at she was merely a floating mass of ruins, but her engines were
+intact, and her primary battery as good as ever. Her captain, like the
+hero that he was, determined to risk his ship and everything in her in
+the hope of destroying the monster which had wrought such frightful
+havoc along the line. She carried two twelve-inch guns ahead, a 6.4 on
+each side of the barbette, and four pairs of 6.4 guns behind these, and
+the fire of all of them was concentrated ahead.
+
+As the _Britain_ came round for the third time every one of the guns was
+laid upon her. He called to the engine-room for the utmost speed he
+could have, and at nineteen knots he bore down upon the leviathan. The
+huge guns on the _Britain_ swung round, and a tempest of shells swept
+the _Verite_ from end to end. Her armour was gashed and torn as though
+it had been cardboard instead of six-and eleven-inch steel; but still
+she held on her course. At five hundred yards her guns spoke, and the
+splinters began to fly on board the _Britain_. The Captain of the
+_Verite_ signalled for the last ounce of steam he could have--he was
+going to appeal to the last resort in naval warfare--the ram. If he
+could once get that steel spur of his into the _Britain's_ hull under
+her armour, she would go down as certainly as though she had been a
+first-class cruiser.
+
+When the approaching vessels were a little more than five hundred yards
+apart, the _Ithuriel_, who had settled up with all the destroyers and
+torpedo boats she could find, rose to the north of the now broken French
+line. Erskine took in the situation at a glance. He snatched the
+receiver from the hooks, shouted into it:
+
+"Sink--full speed--ram!"
+
+The _Ithuriel_ dived and sprang forward, and when the ram of the
+_Verite_ was within a hundred yards of the side of the _Britain_ his own
+ram smashed through her stern, cracked both the propeller shafts, and
+tore away her rudder as if it had been a piece of paper. She stopped
+and yawed, broadside on to the _Britain_. The chases of the great guns
+swung round in ominous threatening silence, but before they could be
+fired the Tricolor fluttered down from the flagstaff, and the _Verite_,
+helpless for all fighting purposes, had surrendered.
+
+It was now the turn of the big armoured cruisers. They were practically
+untouched, for the heaviest of the fighting had fallen on the
+battleships. A green rocket went up from the deck of the _Britain_, and
+was followed in about ten seconds by a blue one. The inner line of
+cruisers made a quarter turn to port, and began hammering into the
+crippled battleships and cruisers indiscriminately, while the
+_Leviathan_, _Good Hope_, _Powerful_ and _Terrible_ took stations
+between the Isle of Wight and the Sussex coast.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ rose to her three-foot freeboard, and put in some very
+pretty practice with her pneumatic guns on the topworks of the cruisers.
+The six-funnelled _Jeanne d'Arc_ got tired of this, and made a rush at
+her at her full speed of twenty-three knots, with the result that the
+_Ithuriel_ disappeared, and three minutes afterwards there came a shock
+under the great cruiser's stern which sent a shudder through her whole
+fabric. The engines whirled furiously until they stopped, and a couple
+of minutes later her captain recognised that she could neither steam nor
+steer. Meanwhile, the tide was setting strongly in towards Spithead, and
+the disabled ships were drifting with it, either to capture or
+destruction.
+
+The French centre had now, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
+Four out of six battleships were sunk, and one had surrendered, and the
+_Jeanne d'Arc_ had gone down.
+
+On the British side the _Hindustan_ had been sunk, and the _Dominion_,
+_Commonwealth_ and _Newfoundland_ very badly mauled, so badly indeed
+that it was a matter of dry-dock as quickly as possible for them. All
+the other battleships, including even the _Britain_ herself, were
+little better than wrecks to look at, so terrible had been the
+firestorms through which they had passed.
+
+But for the presence of the _Ithuriel_, the British loss would of course
+have been much greater. It is not too much to say that her achievements
+spread terror and panic among the French torpedo flotilla. Under
+ordinary circumstances they would have taken advantage of the confusion
+of the battleship action to attack the line of armoured cruisers behind,
+but between the two lines there was the ever-present destroying angel,
+as they came to call her, with her silent deadly guns, her unparalleled
+speed, and her terrible ram. No sooner did a destroyer or torpedo boat
+attempt to make for a cruiser, than a shell came hissing along the
+water, and blew the middle out of her, or the ram crashed through her
+sides, and sent her in two pieces to the bottom.
+
+The result was that when the last French cruiser had hauled down her
+flag, Admiral Beresford found himself in command of a fleet which was
+still in being. Of the French battleships the _Justice_ and the
+_Democratie_ were still serviceable, and of the cruisers, the _Jules
+Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_ were
+still in excellent fighting trim, although of course they were in no
+position to continue the struggle against the now overwhelming force of
+British battleships and armoured cruisers. This was what Admiral
+Beresford had fought for: to break the centre and put as many
+battleships as possible out of action. His orders had been to spare the
+cruisers as much as possible, because, he said, with a somewhat grim
+laugh, they might be useful later on.
+
+The idea of their escaping to sea through the double line of British
+cruisers, to say nothing of the _Ithuriel_, with her speed of over fifty
+miles an hour, and her ability to ram them in detail before they were
+halfway across the Channel, was entirely out of the question. To have
+attempted such a thing would have been simply a form of collective
+suicide, so the flags were hauled down, and all that was left of the
+fleet surrendered.
+
+Another circumstance which had placed the French fleet at a tremendous
+disadvantage was the absence of the three _Flying Fishes_, which were to
+have co-operated with the invading fleet, but of course neither Admiral
+Durenne, who had gone down with his ship, nor any other of his officers
+knew that the _Banshee_ had been blown up in mid-air, or that the
+_Ithuriel_ had destroyed the dépôt ship, and so forced Castellan, after
+his mad waste of ammunition in the destruction of Portsmouth, to wing
+his way to Kiel, with the _See Adler_, in order to replenish his
+magazines. Had those two amphibious craft been present at the battle,
+the issue might have been something very different.
+
+The whole fight had only taken a couple of hours from the firing of the
+first shot to the hauling down of the last flag. Admiral Beresford made
+direct for Portsmouth to get his lame ducks into dock if possible, and
+to discover the amount of damage done. As they steamed in through the
+Spithead Forts, flags went up all along the northern shore of the Isle
+of Wight, and the guns on the Spithead Forts and Fort Monckton, which
+the _Banshee_ had been commissioned to destroy, roared out a salute of
+welcome.
+
+The signal masts of the sunk battleships showed where their shattered
+hulls were lying, and as the _Britain_ led the way in between them, Lord
+Beresford rubbed his hands across his eyes, and said to his Commodore,
+who was standing on what was left of the navigating bridge:
+
+"Poor fellows, it was hardly fair fighting. We might have had something
+very like those infernal craft if we'd had men of decent brains at the
+War Office. Same old story--anything new must be wrong in Pall Mall.
+Still we've got something of our own back this morning. I hope we shall
+be able to use some of the docks; if I'm not afraid our lame ducks will
+have to crawl round to Devonport as best they can. The man in command of
+those airships must have been a perfect devil to destroy a defenceless
+town in this fashion. The worst of it is that if they can do this sort
+of thing here they can do it just as easily to London or Liverpool, or
+Manchester or any other city. I hope there won't be any more bad news
+when we get ashore."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH
+
+
+All the ships able to take their place in the fighting-line were left
+outside. The French prisoners were disembarked and their places taken by
+drafts from the British warships, who at once set about making such
+repairs as were possible at sea. Admiral Beresford boarded the
+_Ithuriel_, which, until the next fight, he proposed to use as a
+despatch-boat, and ran up the harbour.
+
+He found every jetty, including the North and South Railway piers, mere
+masses of smoking ruins: but the Ordnance Dépôt on Priddy's Hard had
+somehow escaped, probably through the ignorance of the assailants. He
+landed at Sheer Jetty opposite Coaling Point, and before he was half-way
+up the steps a short, rather stout man, in the undress uniform of a
+General of Division, ran down and caught him by the hand. After him came
+a taller, slimmer man with eyes like gimlets and a skin wrinkled and
+tanned like Russian leather.
+
+The first of the two men was General Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief
+at Aldershot, and the second was General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander of
+the Southern Military District.
+
+"Bravo, Beresford!" said General French, quietly. "Scooped the lot,
+didn't you?"
+
+"All that aren't at the bottom of the Channel. Good-morning, Hamilton.
+I've heard that you're in a pretty bad way with your forts here,"
+replied the Admiral. "By the way, how are the docks? I've got a few lame
+ducks that want looking after badly."
+
+"We've just been having a look round," replied General Hamilton. "The
+town's in an awful state, as you can see. The Naval and Military
+barracks, and the Naval School are wrecked, and we haven't been able to
+save very much from the yards, but I don't think the docks are hurt
+much. The sweeps went more for the buildings. We can find room for half
+a dozen, I think, comfortably."
+
+"That's just about what I want," said the Admiral. "We've lost the
+_Hindustan_ and _New Zealand_. The _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_ are
+pretty badly mauled, and I've got half a dozen Frenchmen that would be
+all the better for a look over. The _Britain_, _Edward VII._, _Dominion_
+and _Commonwealth_ are quite seaworthy, although, as you see, they've
+had it pretty hot in their topworks. The cruiser squadron is practically
+untouched. We've got the _Verite_, _Justice_ and _Democratie_, but the
+_Verite_ has got her propellers and rudders smashed. By the way, that
+ship of Erskine's, the _Ithuriel_, has turned out a perfect demon. She
+smashed up the first attack, sank nine destroyers and two cruisers, one
+of them was that big chap the _Dupleix_, before we came on the scene.
+During the action she wiped out I don't know how many destroyers and
+torpedo boats, sank the _Jeanne d'Arc_ and saved my ship from being
+rammed by crippling the _Verite_ just in the nick of time. If we only
+had a squadron of those boats and made Erskine Commodore, we'd wipe the
+fleets of Europe out in a month. Now that's my news. What's yours?"
+
+"Bad enough," replied General French. "A powerful combined fleet of
+Germans and French, helped by some of these infernal things that seem as
+much at home in the air as they are in the water, are making a combined
+attack on Dover, and we seem to be getting decidedly the worst of it.
+Dover Castle is in flames, and nearly all the forts are in a bad way; so
+are the harbour fortifications. The Russians and Dutch are approaching
+London with a string of transports behind them, and four airships above
+them. Their objectives are supposed to be Tilbury and Woolwich on one
+hand, and Chatham on the other. By the way, weren't there any transports
+behind this French Fleet that you've settled up with?"
+
+He had scarcely uttered the last word when a helio began to twinkle from
+the hill above Foreland.
+
+"That's bad news," said the Admiral, "but wait now, there's something
+else. It's a good job the sun's come out, though it doesn't look very
+healthy."
+
+The message that the helio twinkled out was as follows:
+
+
+     "Thirty large vessels, apparently transports, approaching from
+     direction of Cherbourg and Brest about ten miles south-east by
+     south."
+
+
+"Very good," said the Admiral, rubbing his hands. "Of course they think
+we're beaten. I've got five French cruisers that they'll recognise. I'll
+get crews aboard them at once and convoy those transports in, and the
+Commanders will be about the most disgusted men in Europe when they get
+here."
+
+Acting on the principle that all is fair in love and war, Admiral
+Beresford and the two Generals laid as pretty a trap for the French
+transports as the wit of man ever devised. Ten minutes' conversation
+among them sufficed to arrange matters. Then the Admiral, taking a list
+of the serviceable docks with him, went back on board the _Ithuriel_ and
+ran out to the Fleet. He handed over the work of taking care of the lame
+ducks to Commodore Courtney of the _Britain_; then from the damaged
+British ships he made up the crews of the French cruisers, the _Jules
+Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. He
+took command of the squadron on board the _Victor Hugo_, and to the
+amazement of officers and men alike, he ordered the Tricolor to be
+hoisted. At the same time, the White Ensign fluttered down from all the
+British ships that were not being taken into the dockyard and was
+replaced by the Tricolor. A few minutes afterward the French flag rose
+over Fort Monckton and upon a pole mast which had been put up amidst
+the ruins of Southsea Castle.
+
+The French prisoners of course saw the ruse and knew that its very
+daring and impudence would command success. Some of them wrung their
+hands and danced in fury, others wept, and others cursed to the full
+capability of the French language, but there was no help for it. What
+was left of Portsmouth was already occupied by twenty thousand men of
+all arms from the Southern Division. The prisoners were disarmed and
+their ships were in the hands of the enemy to do what they pleased with,
+and so in helpless rage they watched the squadron of cruisers steam out
+to meet the transports, flying the French flag and manned by British
+crews. It meant either the most appalling carnage, or the capture of the
+First French Expeditionary Force consisting of fifty thousand men, ten
+thousand horses, and two hundred guns.
+
+The daringly original stratagem was made all the easier of achievement
+by the fact that the Commanders of the French transports, counting upon
+the assistance of the airships and the enormous strength of the naval
+force which had been launched against Portsmouth, had taken victory for
+granted, and when the first line came in sight of land, and officers and
+men saw the smoke-cloud that was still hanging over what twenty-four
+hours before had been the greatest of British strongholds, cheer after
+cheer went up. Portsmouth was destroyed and therefore the French Fleet
+must have been victorious. All that they had to do, therefore, was to
+steam in and take possession of what was left. At last, after all these
+centuries, the invasion of England had been accomplished, and Waterloo
+and Trafalgar avenged!
+
+Happily, in the turmoil of the fight and the suddenness in which the
+remains of the French Fleet had been forced to surrender, the captain of
+the _Victor Hugo_ had forgotten to sink his Code Book. The result was
+that when the cruiser squadron steamed out in two divisions to meet the
+transports, the French private signal, "Complete victory--welcome,"
+was flying from the signalyard of the _Victor Hugo_. Again a mighty
+cheer thundered out from the deck of every transport. The cruisers
+saluted the transports with seventeen guns, and then the two divisions
+swung out to right and left, and took their stations on either flank of
+the transports.
+
+And so, all unsuspecting, they steamed into Spithead, and when they saw
+the British ships lying at anchor, flying the Tricolor and the same flag
+waving over Fort Monckton and Southsea Castle, as well as from half a
+dozen other flagstaffs about the dockyards, there could be no doubt as
+to the magnitude and completeness of the victory which the French Fleet
+had gained, and moreover, were not those masts showing above the waters
+of Spithead, the masts of sunken British battleships.
+
+Field-Marshal Purdin de Trevillion, Commander of the Expeditionary
+Force, accompanied by his staff, was on board the Messageries liner
+_Australien_, and led the column of transports. In perfect confidence he
+led the way in between the Spithead Forts, which also flew the Tricolor
+and saluted him as he went past. As the other vessels of the great
+flotilla followed in close order, Fort Monckton and the rest of the
+warships saluted; and then as the last transport entered the narrow
+waters, a very strange thing happened. The cruisers that had dropped
+behind spread themselves out in a long line behind the forts; the
+British ships slipped their moorings and steamed out from Stokes Bay and
+made a line across to Ryde. Destroyers and torpedo boats suddenly dotted
+the water with their black shapes, appearing as though from nowhere;
+then came down every Tricolor on fort and ship, and the White Ensign ran
+up in its place, and the same moment, the menacing guns swung round and
+there was the French flotilla, unarmed and crowded with men, caught like
+a flock of sheep between two packs of wolves.
+
+Every transport stopped as if by common instinct. The French Marshal
+turned white to the lips. His hands went up in a gesture of despair,
+and he gasped to his second-in-command, who was standing beside him:
+
+"Mon Dieu! Nous sommes trahis! Ces sacrés perfides Anglais! We are
+helpless, like rats in a trap. With us it is finished, we can neither
+fight nor escape."
+
+While he was speaking, the huge bulk of the _Britain_ steamed slowly
+towards the _Australien_, flying the signal "Do you surrender?" Within
+five hundred yards, the huge guns in her forward barbette swung round
+and the muzzles sank until the long chases pointed at the _Australien's_
+waterline. The Field-Marshal knew full well that it only needed the
+touch of a finger on a button to smash the _Australien_ into fragments,
+and he knew too that the first shot from the flagship would be the
+signal for the whole Fleet to open fire, and that would mean massacre
+unspeakable. He was as brave a man as ever wore a uniform, but he knew
+that on the next words he should speak the lives of fifty thousand men
+depended. He took one more look round the ring of steel which enclosed
+him on every side, and then with livid lips and grinding teeth gave the
+order for the flag to be hauled down. The next moment he unbuckled his
+sword and hurled it into the sea; then with a deep groan he dropped
+fainting to the deck.
+
+It would be useless to attempt to describe the fury and mortification
+with which the officers and men of the French Force saw the flags one by
+one flutter down from end to end of the long line of transports, but it
+was plain even to the rawest conscript that there was no choice save
+between surrender and massacre. They cursed and stamped about the decks
+or sat down and cried, according to temperament, and that, under the
+circumstances, was about all they could do.
+
+Meanwhile, a steam pinnace came puffing out from the harbour, and in a
+few minutes General French was standing on the promenade deck of the
+_Australien_. The Field Marshal had already been carried below. A
+grey-haired officer in the uniform of a general came forward with his
+sword in his hand and said in excellent English, but with a shake in his
+voice:
+
+"You are General French, I presume? Our Commander, Field-Marshal Purdin
+de Trevillion had such an access of anger when he found how we had been
+duped that he flung his sword into the sea. He then fainted, and is
+still unconscious. You will, therefore, perhaps accept my sword instead
+of his."
+
+General French touched the hilt with his hand, and said:
+
+"Keep it. General Devignes, and I hope your officers will do the same. I
+will accept your parole for all of them. You are the Field-Marshal's
+Chief-of-Staff, I believe, and therefore, of course, your word is his. I
+am very sorry to hear of his illness."
+
+"You have my word," replied General Devignes, "for myself and those of
+my officers who may be willing to give their parole, but for those who
+prefer to remain prisoners I cannot, of course, answer."
+
+"Of course not," replied General French, with a rather provoking genial
+smile. "Now I will trouble you to take your ships into the harbour. I
+will put a guard on each as she passes; meanwhile, your men will pile
+arms and get ready to disembark. We cannot offer you much of a welcome,
+I'm afraid, for those airships of yours have almost reduced Portsmouth
+to ruins, to say nothing of sending ten of our battleships and cruisers
+to the bottom. I can assure you, General, that the losses are not all on
+your side."
+
+"No, General," replied the Frenchman, "but for the present, at least,
+the victory is on yours."
+
+Then transport after transport filed into the harbour, and General
+Hamilton and his staff took charge of the disembarkation. Six of the
+British lame ducks had been got safely into dock, and every available
+man was slaving away in deadly earnest to repair the damage done in
+those terrible two hours. Repairs were also being carried out as
+rapidly as possible on the cruisers and battleships lying in Spithead,
+and as shipload after shipload of the disarmed French soldiers were
+landed, they were set to work, first at clearing up the dockyards and
+getting them into something like working order, and then clearing up the
+ruins of the three towns.
+
+The news of Admiral Beresford's magnificent coup had already reached
+London, and the reply had come back terse and to the point:
+
+
+     "Excellently well done. Congratulate Admiral Beresford and all
+     concerned. We are hard pressed at Dover, and London is threatened.
+     Send _Ithuriel_ to Dover as soon as possible, and let her come on
+     here when she has given any possible help. Land and sea defence of
+     south and south-east at discretion of yourself, Domville and
+     Beresford.                                             CONNAUGHT."
+
+
+By some miracle, the Keppel's Head, perhaps the most famous naval
+hostelry in the south of England, had escaped the shells from the
+airships, and so General French had made it his headquarters for the
+time being. Sir Compton Domville had received a rather serious injury
+from a splinter in the left arm during the destruction of the Naval
+Barracks, but he had had his wounds dressed and insisted, against the
+advice of the doctors, in driving down to the Hard and talking matters
+over with General French. They were discussing the disposition of the
+French prisoners and the huge amount of war material which had been
+captured, when the telegram was delivered. They had scarcely read it
+when there was a knock at the door and an orderly entered, and said:
+
+"Captain Erskine, of the _Ithuriel_, would be pleased to see the General
+when he's at liberty."
+
+"The very man!" said General French. "This is the young gentleman," he
+continued, turning to Admiral Domville, "who practically saved us from
+two torpedo attacks, won the Fleet action for us, and saved Beresford
+from being rammed at the moment of victory."
+
+The door opened again, and Erskine came in. He saluted and said:
+
+"General, if I may suggest it, I shall not be much more use here, and my
+lieutenant, Denis Castellan, has just had a telegram from his aunt and
+sister, who are in London, saying that things are pretty bad there. I
+fancy I might be of some use if you would let me go, sir."
+
+"Let you go!" laughed the General. "Why, my dear sir, you've got to go.
+Here's a telegram that I've just had from His Royal Highness the
+Commander-in-Chief, saying that Dover and London are in a bad way, and
+telling me to send you round at once. When can you start?"
+
+"Well, sir," replied Erskine, after a moment's thought, "we're not
+injured in any way, but it will take a couple of hours, I'm afraid, to
+replenish our motive power, and fill up with shell, and added to that, I
+should like to have a good overhaul of the machinery."
+
+"Just listen to that, now!" exclaimed Admiral Beresford, who had entered
+the room while he was speaking. "Here's a man who has done nearly as
+much single-handed as the rest of us put together and fought through as
+stiff a Fleet action as the hungriest fire-eater in the navy wants to
+see, and tells you he isn't injured, while half of us are knocked to
+scrap-iron. I wish we had fifty _Ithuriels_, there'd be very little
+landing on English shores."
+
+"I don't think you have very much to complain of in the French landing
+at Portsmouth, Beresford," laughed Sir Compton Domville. "I don't want
+to flatter you, but it was an absolute stroke of genius. We shall have
+to set those fellows to work on the forts and yards, and get some guns
+into position again. It isn't exactly what they came for but they'll
+come in very useful. But that can wait. Here's the wire from the
+Commander-in-Chief. Captain Erskine, you are to get round to Dover and
+London as soon as possible, and, I presume, do all the damage you can on
+the way. General French is going to London as soon as a special can be
+got ready for him."
+
+"May I ask a great favour, sir?" said Erskine.
+
+"Anything, after what you've done," replied Sir Compton. "What is it?"
+
+General French and Lord Beresford nodded in agreement, and Erskine
+continued, addressing Lord Beresford: "That Mr Lennard, whom your
+lordship met on board the _Ithuriel_, has given me the formula of a new
+high explosive. Absurdly simple, but simply terrific in its effect. I
+made up half a dozen shells with it and tried them. I gave the _Dupleix_
+three rounds. They seem to reduce steel to dust, and, as far as we could
+see every man on the decks dropped as if he had been struck by
+lightning. From what we have done with them I think they will be of
+enormous value. Now Mr Lennard is very anxious to get to London and the
+north of England, and if General French could find him a place in his
+special--"
+
+"My dear sir," interrupted the General, "I shall be only too delighted
+to know your maker of thunderbolts. Is he here now?"
+
+"Yes, sir, he's in the smoking-room with Lieutenant Castellan. And that
+reminds me, if I am to go to London, I hope you will allow me to hand
+over the German spy that we caught here as soon as convenient."
+
+"Bring them both in," said General French. "Sir Compton and General
+Hamilton will court-martial your spy this morning, and, I hope, shoot
+him this evening."
+
+Within an hour, Lennard, who had something more serious now to think
+about than even war, was flying away Londonwards in General French's
+special, with a letter of introduction from Denis Castellan to his aunt
+and sister, and an hour after the special had started, the _Ithuriel_
+had cleared the narrow waters and was tearing up the Channel at fifty
+miles an hour, to see what havoc she could work on the assailants of
+London and Dover.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AWAY FROM THE WARPATH
+
+
+When Lennard entered the little drawing-room in the house in Westbourne
+Terrace, where Norah Castellan and her aunt were staying, he had decided
+to do something which, without his knowing it, probably made a very
+considerable difference in his own fortunes and those of two or three
+other people.
+
+During his brief but exciting experiences on board the _Ithuriel_, he
+had formed a real friendship for both Erskine and Castellan, and he had
+come to the conclusion that Denis's sister and aunt would be very much
+safer in the remote seclusion of Whernside than in a city which might
+within the next few days share the fate of Portsmouth and Gosport. He
+was instantly confirmed in this resolution when Mrs O'Connor and her
+niece came into the room. Never had he seen a more perfect specimen of
+the Irishwoman, who is a lady by Nature's own patent of nobility, than
+Mrs O'Connor, and, with of course one exception, never had he seen such
+a beautiful girl as Norah Castellan.
+
+He was friends with them in half an hour, and inside an hour he had
+accepted their invitation to dine and sleep at the house and help them
+to get ready for their unexpected journey to the North the next morning.
+
+He went back to the Grand and got his portmanteau and Gladstone bag and
+returned to Westbourne Terrace in time for afternoon tea. Meanwhile, he
+had bought the early copies of all the evening papers and read up the
+condition of things in London, which, in the light of his experiences at
+Portsmouth, did not appear to him to be in any way promising. He gave
+Norah and her aunt a full, true and particular account of the assault on
+Portsmouth, the doings of the _Ithuriel_, the great Fleet action, and
+the brilliant _ruse de guerre_ which Admiral Beresford had used to
+capture the First French Army Corps that had landed in England--and
+landed as prisoners.
+
+The news in the afternoon papers, coupled with what he already knew of
+the tactics of the enemy, impressed Lennard so gravely that he succeeded
+in persuading Mrs O'Connor and Norah to leave London by the midnight
+sleeping-car train from St Pancras for Whernside, since no one knew at
+what time during the night John Castellan or his lieutenants might not
+order an indiscriminate bombardment of London from the air. He was also
+very anxious, for reasons of his own, to get back to his work at the
+observatory and make his preparations for the carrying out of an
+undertaking compared with which the war, terrible as it was and would
+be, could only be considered as the squabblings of children or lunatics.
+
+His task was not one of aggression or conquest, but of salvation, and
+the enemy he was going to fight was an invader not of states or
+countries, but of a whole world, and unless the assault of this invader
+from the outer wilderness of Space were repelled, the result would not
+be merely the destruction of ships and fortresses, or the killing of a
+few hundreds or thousands of men on the battlefield; it would mean
+nothing less than a holocaust which would involve the whole human race,
+and the simultaneous annihilation of all that the genius of man had so
+laboriously accumulated during the slow, uncounted ages of his progress
+from the brute to the man.
+
+They left the train at Settle at six o'clock the next morning, and were
+at once taken charge of by the station-master, who had had his
+instructions by telephone from the Parmenter mansion on the slopes of
+Great Whernside. He conducted them at once to the Midland Hotel, where
+they found a suite of apartments, luxuriously furnished, with fires
+blazing in the grates, and everything looking very cosy under the soft
+glow of the shaded electric lights. Baths were ready and breakfast would
+be on the table at seven. At eight, Mr Parmenter, who practically owned
+this suite of rooms, would drive over with Miss Parmenter in a couple of
+motor-cars and take the party to the house.
+
+"Sure, then," said Mrs O'Connor, when the arrangements had been
+explained to her, "it must be very comfortable to have all the money to
+buy just what you want, and make everything as easy as all this, and
+it's yourself, Mr Lennard, we have to thank for making us the guests of
+a millionaire, when neither Norah nor myself have so much as seen one.
+Is he a very great man, this Mr Parmenter? It seems to me to be
+something like going to dine with a duke."
+
+"My dear Mrs O'Connor," laughed Lennard, "I can assure you that you will
+find this master of millions one of Nature's own gentlemen. Although he
+can make men rich or poor by a stroke of his pen, and, with a few others
+like him, wield such power as was never in the hands of kings, you
+wouldn't know him from a plain English country gentleman if it wasn't
+for his American accent, and there's not very much of that."
+
+"And his daughter, Miss Auriole, what's she like?" said Norah. "A
+beauty, of course."
+
+Lennard flushed somewhat suspiciously, and a keen glance of Norah's
+Irish eyes read the meaning of that flush in an instant.
+
+"Miss Parmenter is considered to be very beautiful," he replied, "and I
+must confess that I share the general opinion."
+
+"I thought so," said Norah, with a little nod that had a great deal of
+meaning in it. "Now, I suppose we'd better go and change, or we'll be
+late for breakfast. I certainly don't want the beautiful Miss Parmenter
+to see me in this state for the first time."
+
+"My dear Miss Castellan, I can assure you that you have not the
+faintest reason to fear any comparison that might be made," laughed
+Lennard as he left the room and went to have his tub.
+
+Punctually at eight a double "Toot-toot" sounded from the street in
+front of the main entrance to the hotel. Norah ran to the window and saw
+two splendidly-appointed Napier cars--although, of course, she didn't
+know a Napier from a Darracq. Something in female shape with peaked cap
+and goggles, gauntleted and covered from head to foot in a heavy fur
+coat, got out of the first car, and another shape, rather shorter but
+almost similarly clad, got out of the second. Five minutes later there
+was a knock at the door of the breakfast-room. It opened, and Norah saw
+what the cap and the goggles and the great fur coat had hidden. During
+the next few seconds, two of the most beautiful girls in the two
+hemispheres looked at each other, as only girls and women can look. Then
+Auriole put out both her hands and said, quite simply:
+
+"You are Norah Castellan. I hope we shall be good friends. If we're not,
+I'm afraid it will be my fault."
+
+Norah took her hands and said:
+
+"I think it would more likely be mine, after what Mr Lennard has been
+telling us of yourself and your father."
+
+At this moment Lennard saved the situation as far as he was concerned by
+making the other introductions, and Mrs O'Connor took the hand which
+wielded the terrible power of millions and experienced a curious sort of
+surprise at finding that it was just like other hands, and that the
+owner of it was bending over hers with one of those gestures of simple
+courtesy which are the infallible mark of the American gentleman. In a
+few minutes they were all as much at home together as though they had
+known each other for weeks. Then came the preparation of Norah and her
+aunt for the motor ride, and then the ride itself.
+
+The sun had risen clearly, and there was a decided nip of frost in the
+keen Northern air. The roads were hard and clean, and the
+twenty-five-mile run over them, winding through the valleys and climbing
+the ridges with the heather-clad, rock-crowned hills on all sides, now
+sliding down a slope or shooting along a level, or taking a rise in what
+seemed a flying leap, was by far the most wonderful experience that
+Norah and her aunt had ever had.
+
+Auriole drove the first car, and had Norah sitting beside her on the
+front seat. Her aunt and the mechanician were sitting in the tonneau
+behind. Mr Parmenter drove the second car with Lennard beside him. His
+tonneau was filled with luggage.
+
+At the end of the eighteenth mile the cars, going at a quite illegal
+speed, jumped a ridge between two heather-clad moors, which in South
+Africa would have been called a nek, and dived down along a white road
+leading into a broad forest track, sunlit now, but bordered on either
+side by the twilight of towering pines and firs through which the
+sunlight filtered only in little flakes, which lay upon the last year's
+leaves and cones, somewhat as an electric light might have fallen on a
+monkish manuscript of the thirteenth century.
+
+Then came two more miles on hard, well-kept roads, so perfectly graded
+that the upward slope was hardly perceptible.
+
+"We're on our own ground now and I guess I'll let her out," said Miss
+Auriole. "Don't be frightened, Norah. These things look big and strong,
+but it's quite wonderful what they'll do when there's a bit of human
+sense running them. See that your goggles are right and twist your veil
+in a bit tighter, I'm going to give you a new sensation."
+
+She waved her hand to her father in the car behind and put on the fourth
+speed lever, and said: "Hold tight now."
+
+Norah nodded, for she could hardly breathe as it was. Then the pines and
+firs on either side of the broad drive melted into a green-grey blur.
+The road under them was like a rapidly unwinding ribbon. The hilltops
+which showed above the trees rose up now to the right hand and now to
+the left, as the car swung round the curves. Every now and then Norah
+looked at the girl beside her, controlling the distance-devouring
+monster with one hand on a little wheel, her left foot on a pedal and
+her right hand ready to work the levers if necessary.
+
+The two miles of the drive from the gates to the front door of Whernside
+House, a long, low-lying two-storeyed, granite-built house, which was
+about as good a combination of outward solidity and indoor comfort as
+you could find in the British Islands, was covered in two and a half
+minutes, and the car pulled up, as Norah thought, almost at full speed
+and stopped dead in front of the steps leading up from the broad road to
+the steps leading up to the terrace which ran along the whole southward
+front of Whernside House.
+
+"I reckon, Miss Castellan--"
+
+"If you say Miss Castellan, I shall get back to Settle by the first
+conveyance that I can hire."
+
+"Now, that's just nice of you, Norah. What I was going to say, if I
+hadn't made that mistake, was, that this would be about the first time
+that you had covered two miles along a road at fifty miles an hour, and
+that's what you've just done. Pretty quick, isn't it? Oh, there's Lord
+Westerham on the terrace! Come for lunch, I suppose. He's a very great
+man here, you know. Lord-Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire,
+fought through the Boer War, got made a Colonel by some miracle when he
+was only about twenty-eight, went to Lhassa, and now he's something like
+Commander-in-Chief of the Yeomanry and Volunteers round here--and
+without anything of that sort, he's just about the best sort of man you
+want to meet. Come along, I'll introduce you."
+
+The two cars stopped at the steps leading up to the terrace, a man in
+khaki, with a stretch of a dozen ribbons across the left side of his
+tunic, came bareheaded down the steps and opened the side door of
+Auriole's motor-car. Auriole pushed her goggles up and held out her
+gauntleted hand, and said:
+
+"What! Lord Westerham! Well now, this is nice of you. Come to lunch, of
+course. And how's the recruiting going on?"
+
+Then without waiting for a reply, she went on: "Norah, dear, this is
+Lord Westerham, Lord-Lieutenant of this part of the County of York,
+Colonel commanding the West Riding Yeomanry and lots of other things
+that I don't understand."
+
+Norah pushed her goggles up and tilted her hat back. Auriole saw a flash
+of recognition pass like lightning between their eyes. She noticed that
+Norah's cheeks were a little bit brighter than even the speed of the car
+could account for. She saw, too, that there was a flush under the tan of
+Lord Westerham's face, and to her these were signs of great comfort.
+
+"I don't know how this particular miracle has been arranged," said Lord
+Westerham, as he gave his hand to Norah and took her out of the car,
+"but a re-introduction is, if you will allow me to say so, Miss
+Parmenter, rather superfluous. I have known Miss Castellan for quite two
+years, at least, I had the pleasure of meeting her in Connemara, and we
+have fished and shot and sailed together until we became almost
+friends."
+
+Auriole's eyes, observant at all times, had been working hard during the
+last two or three minutes, and in those few minutes she had learned a
+great deal. Arthur Lennard, who also had his eyes wide open, had learnt
+in his own slow, masculine way about as much, and perhaps a little more.
+He and Lord Westerham had been school-fellows and college chums and good
+friends for years, but of late a shadow had come between them, and it's
+hardly necessary to say that it was the shadow of a woman. He knew
+perfectly well by this time that Lord Westerham was, in the opinion of
+Mr Parmenter, the husband-designate, one might say, of Auriole. Young as
+he was, he already had a distinguished record as a soldier and an
+administrator, but he was also heir to one of the oldest Marquisates in
+England with a very probable reversion to a dukedom.
+
+This was what he had been thinking of that night in the observatory when
+he told Auriole of the fate that was approaching the world. No one knew
+better than he how brilliant a figure she would make in Society as the
+Marchioness of Westerham, granted always that the Anglo-Saxon would do
+now as he had ever done, fling the invader back upon his own shores or
+into the sea which he had crossed: but that swift flash of recognition
+seen as his car came up behind Auriole's, and the slight but most
+significant change which had come over the features of both of them as
+he handed her out of the car, had instantly banished the shadow and made
+him a happier man than he had been for a good many months past.
+
+Still he was one of those hard-headed, practical men who rightly
+consider that the very worst enemy either to friendship between man and
+man, or love between man and woman, is an unexplained misunderstanding,
+and so in that moment he decided to "have it out" with his lordship on
+the first possible opportunity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL
+
+
+The morning was spent in a general overhaul of the observatory and the
+laboratory in which Lennard had discovered and perfected the explosive
+which had been used with such deadly effect in the guns of the
+_Ithuriel_. Lunch was an entirely delightful meal, and when it was over
+Auriole took Mrs O'Connor and Norah up to her own particular domain in
+the house to indulge in that choicest of feminine luxuries, a good long
+talk. Mr Parmenter excused himself and disappeared into his study to get
+ready for the evening mail, and so Lord Westerham and Lennard were left
+to their own devices for a couple of hours or so. This was just what
+Lennard wanted, and so he proposed a stroll and a smoke in the Park.
+
+They lit their cigars and walked for a few minutes along a pine-shaded
+path. His lordship had an intuitive idea that his companion had
+something to say to him--albeit he was very far from imagining what that
+something was to be--and so he thought he had better let him begin. When
+they were out of sight or hearing of anyone, Lennard slowed down his
+pace a little and said somewhat abruptly:
+
+"Westerham, I am going to ask you a question which you will probably
+think a rather impertinent one, and, moreover, whether you choose to
+answer it or not, I hope you will not for the present ask me why I ask
+it. Now there are a good many 'asks' in that, but as the matter is
+somewhat important to both of us, I wanted to put the thing plainly,
+even at the expense of a little tautology."
+
+Lord Westerham, in addition to being a gentleman and a soldier, was also
+one of the most frankly open-minded men that another honest man could
+wish to have anything to do with, and so, after a long pull at his
+cigar, he looked round and said:
+
+"My dear Lennard, we were school-fellows once, and we managed to worry
+through Cambridge together--you with a great deal more kudos than I
+did--and we have been very good friends since, so there can't be any
+question of impertinence between us, although there might be some
+unpleasantness for one or both of us. But, anyhow, whatever it is, out
+with it. Honestly, I don't think you could offend me if you tried."
+
+"That's just what I thought you would say," replied Lennard. "And I
+think you are about the only man I should like to ask such a question;
+but after what you've just said I'll put it just as shortly as it can be
+made."
+
+"And the question is?" asked Lord Westerham, blowing a long stream of
+blue smoke up through the still air towards the tops of the pine trees.
+
+There was a little pause, during which Lennard bit off about half an
+inch of the end of his cigar, spat it out, and took two or three more
+puffs from what was left. Then he said, in a dry, almost harsh tone:
+
+"The question is quite a short one, Westerham, and you can answer it by
+a simple yes or no. It's just this: Do you intend to make Miss Parmenter
+Marchioness of Westerham or not? Other things of course being equal, as
+we used to say at school."
+
+Somewhat to Lennard's astonishment, Lord Westerham's cigar shot from his
+lips like a torpedo from a tube, and after it came an explosion of
+laughter, which fully accounted for its sudden ejectment. His lordship
+leant up against a convenient pine and laughed till he was almost
+speechless.
+
+"What the devil's the matter with you, Westerham?" said Lennard, with a
+note of anger in his voice. "You'll excuse my saying so, but it seems
+hardly a question for a sort of explosion like that. I have been asking
+you a question which, as you might have seen, concerns me rather
+closely."
+
+Lord Westerham sobered down at once, although his voice was still
+somewhat tremulous with suppressed laughter when he said:
+
+"My dear chap, I'm very sorry. It was beastly rude of me to laugh, but
+I'm quite sure you'll forgive me when you know the facts or, at least,
+_the_ fact, and that is as follows, as they say in the newspapers. When
+I tell you that your sweetheart drove my sweetheart up to the house
+to-day from Settle--"
+
+"What, Norah Castellan!" exclaimed Lennard. "I didn't even know that you
+had met her before."
+
+"Haven't I!" replied Lord Westerham. "Look here, it was this way."
+
+And then he began a story of a fishing and shooting trip to Connemara,
+where he had rented certain salmon streams and shooting moors from a
+squire of the county, named Lismore, who was very much in love with
+Norah Castellan, and how he had fished and shot and yachted with her and
+the brother who had sold his diabolical inventions to the enemies of
+England, until he had come to love the sister as much as he hated the
+brother. And when he had done, Lennard told him of the swimming race in
+Clifden Bay, and many other things to which Lord Westerham listened with
+an interest which grew more and more intense as every minute passed;
+until when Lennard stopped, he crossed the road and held out his hand
+and said:
+
+"I've got the very place to suit you. A cannel-coal mine near Bolton in
+Lancashire with a perpendicular shaft, twelve hundred feet deep. The
+very place to do your work. It's yours from to-day, and if the thing
+comes off, Papa Parmenter shall give a couple of hundred thousand dowry
+instead of buying the mine. I don't think he'll kick at that. Now, let's
+go back and have a whisky-and-soda. I've got to be off recruiting
+to-morrow."
+
+"I wish I could join the Yeomanry and come with you, if you would have
+me," laughed Lennard, whose spirits had been rising rapidly during the
+last half-hour or so, "only I reckon, as Mr Parmenter would put it, that
+I shall have all my work cut out getting ready to give our celestial
+invader a warm reception. To begin with, it won't exactly be child's
+play building a cannon twelve hundred feet long."
+
+"I wonder what they'd think of a proposition like that at the War
+Office?" laughed Lord Westerham in reply. "Several permanent officials
+would certainly faint on the spot."
+
+A sharp frost set in during the night, and the sky was brilliantly
+clear. After dinner, when the ladies had left the table, Lennard said to
+Mr Parmenter:
+
+"I am going to renew my acquaintance with our celestial visitor
+to-night. I shall want a couple of hours to run over my calculations and
+verify the position of the comet up to date; and then, say at eleven
+o'clock, I should like you and Lord Westerham to come up to the
+observatory and have a somewhat serious talk."
+
+The owner of the great reflector looked up quickly over his wine-glass
+and said:
+
+"Look here, Mr Lennard, I guess this poor old country of yours has about
+enough serious matters on hand just now without worrying about comets.
+What's the trouble now?"
+
+"My dear sir," replied Lennard, gravely, "this is a matter which not
+only England, but every other country in the world, will have to trouble
+about before very long."
+
+"Say, that sounds pretty serious," said Mr Parmenter. "What's the worry
+with this old comet of yours, anyhow?"
+
+Lord Westerham smiled, and Lennard could not help smiling too as he
+replied:
+
+"It is too long a story to tell now, sir, and what is more, I cannot
+tell it until I have reverified my observations and figures, and,
+besides, the ladies will be expecting us. I shall be quite ready for you
+by eleven. By the way, I haven't told you yet that those shells were a
+perfect success, from our point of view, at least. It seems rather
+curious how that all came about, I must say. Here's Denis Castellan, the
+brother of the traitor, a British naval officer, and like his sister an
+acquaintance of Westerham's. I discover the explosive, tell you about
+it, you tell Westerham, and send me off to try it on the _Ithuriel_, and
+here I come back from London with Miss Castellan and her aunt."
+
+"Quite an excellent arrangement of things on the part of the Fates,"
+remarked Lord Westerham, with a meaning which Mr Parmenter did not
+understand.
+
+"Why, yes," said their host, "quite like a piece out of a story, isn't
+it? And so that explosive got its work in all right, Mr Lennard?"
+
+"As far as we could see," replied Lennard. "It tore steel armour into
+shreds as if it had been cardboard, and didn't leave a living thing
+anywhere within several yards of the focus of the explosion. Erskine and
+Castellan are filling up with it, and I expect we shall hear something
+about it from London before long. I am glad to say that Lord Beresford
+told me that after what he had seen of our fire, Government and private
+gun factories were going to work night and day turning out pneumatic
+guns to use it. The effect of it on land if a battery once gets within
+reach of large masses of men will be something frightful."
+
+"Sounds pretty useful," said Lord Westerham, who was one of those
+soldiers who rightly believe that the most merciless methods of waging
+war are in the end most merciful.
+
+By nine o'clock Lennard was in the equatorial chamber of the
+observatory, taking his first observations since he had left for
+Portsmouth the week before. The ghostly shape pictured on the great
+reflector was bigger and brighter now, although, to his great comfort,
+none of the scientific papers had made any mention of its discovery by
+other observers. When he had noted its exact position, he went to his
+desk and plunged into a maze of calculations.
+
+Precisely at eleven there was a tap at the door and Mr Parmenter and
+Lord Westerham came in. Lord Westerham, as the guest, had the first look
+at the approaching World Peril; then Mr Parmenter took a long squint
+into the eye-piece and then they sat down, and Lennard told Mr
+Parmenter, in the cold, precise language of science, the story which he
+had already told to Auriole and Lord Westerham.
+
+The millionaire, who had listened with an attention that even he had
+never given to any subject before, smoked in silence for a few moments
+after Lennard had finished, and then he said quietly:
+
+"Well, I reckon that's about the biggest order that two or three human
+beings have ever been called upon to fill. One thing's certain. It'd
+make these fighting fellows feel pretty foolish if they could be got to
+believe it, which they couldn't. No disrespect to you, Lord Westerham,
+because I take it you do believe it."
+
+"Certainly I do," he replied. "Lennard was never known to make a mistake
+in figures, and I am perfectly certain that he would not make any in
+working out such a terrific problem as this. I think I may also say that
+I have equal confidence in his plan for saving humanity from the
+terrible fate which threatens it."
+
+"That's good hearing," said Mr Parmenter, drily. "Personally, I don't
+quite feel that I've finished up with this old world yet, and if it's a
+question of dollars--as far as I'm concerned, as I've got a few millions
+hanging around loose, I might as well use them to help to save the human
+race from being burnt to death as to run corners and trusts, which
+won't be much use anyhow if we can't stop this comet, or whatever it is.
+Now, Mr Lennard, what's your plan for the scientific salvation of the
+world?"
+
+"There is nothing new about the idea," replied Lennard, "except its
+application to the present circumstances. Of course you have read Jules
+Verne's _Journey to the Moon_? Well, my plan is simply to do the same
+thing on a much bigger scale, only instead of firing men and dogs and
+chickens out of my cannon, I am going to fire something like a ton and a
+half of explosives.
+
+"The danger is in the contact of the nucleus of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere. If that can be prevented there is no further cause
+for alarm; so, to put the matter quite shortly, my projectile will have
+an initial velocity of ten miles a second, and therefore a range that is
+practically infinite, for that velocity will carry it beyond the sphere
+of the earth's attraction.
+
+"Hence, if the gun is properly trained and fired at precisely the right
+moment, and if the fuse does its work, the projectile will pass into the
+nucleus of the comet, and, before the heat has time to melt the shell,
+the charge will explode and the nucleus--the only dangerous part--will
+either be blown to fragments or dissipated in gas. Therefore, instead of
+what I might be allowed to call a premature Day of Judgment, we shall
+simply have a magnificent display of celestial fireworks, which will
+probably amount to nothing more than an unparalleled shower of shooting
+stars, as they are popularly called.
+
+"The details of the experiment will be practically the same as those
+Jules Verne described--I mean as regards the making and firing of the
+cannon--only, as we haven't time to get a big enough hole dug, I should
+strongly advise the acceptance of Lord Westerham's very opportune
+offer."
+
+"That's so," said Mr Parmenter, quietly, "but I've got a sort of fancy
+for running this business myself. My reflector discovered this comet,
+thanks, of course, to the good use you made of it, and it seems to me
+that I'm in a way responsible for making it harmless if that can be
+done, and so I'm not disposed to take that convenient colliery as a gift
+from anyone, no, not even you, Lord Westerham. You see, my lord, all
+that I can do here is just finding the dollars, and to a man in your
+position, doing his best to get as many men and horses and guns together
+for the defence of his country, money is money. Will you take a quarter
+of a million pounds for that colliery?"
+
+"No, I won't, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham. "In the first
+place, the colliery isn't worth a tenth of that, and this country can
+very well afford to pay for her own defence. Besides, you must remember
+that you will have to pay for the work: I mean casing the pit-shaft,
+smelting the metal and building the shell, to say nothing of the
+thousand and one other expenses of which Lennard can tell you more than
+I. For one thing, I expect you will have a hundred thousand or so to pay
+in damage to surrounding property after that cannon has gone off. In
+other words, if you do save the world you'll probably have to pay pretty
+stiffly for doing it. They're excellent business people in Lancashire,
+you know."
+
+"I don't quite see the logic of that, Lord Westerham," replied Mr
+Parmenter a little testily. "If we can put this business through, the
+dollars couldn't be much better used, and if we can't they won't be much
+use to me or anyone else. It's worth doing, anyhow, if it's only to show
+what new-world enterprise helped with old-world brains can do in
+bringing off a really big thing, and that's why I want to buy that
+colliery."
+
+"Well, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham again, "we won't quarrel
+over that. I'm not a business man, but I believe it's generally
+recognised that the essence of all business is compromise. I'll meet you
+half way. For the present you shall take the pit for nothing and pay all
+expense connected with making a cannon of it. If that cannon does its
+work you shall pay me two hundred thousand pounds for the use of it--and
+I'll take your I.O.U. for the amount now. Will that suit you?"
+
+"That's business," said Mr Parmenter, getting up and going to Lennard's
+desk. "There you are, my lord," he continued, as he came back with a
+half sheet of notepaper in his hand, "and I only hope I shall have to
+pay that money."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CHANGE OF SCENE
+
+
+The _Ithuriel_ had orders to call at Folkestone and Dover in order to
+report the actual state of affairs there to the Commander-in-Chief by
+telegraph if Erskine could get ashore or by flash-signal if he could
+not, and incidentally to do as much damage as he could without undue
+risk to his craft if he considered that circumstances demanded it.
+
+He arrived off Folkestone just before dusk, and, as he expected, found
+that there were half a dozen large transports, carrying probably eight
+thousand men and a proportionate number of horses and quick-firing guns,
+convoyed by four cruisers and ten destroyers, lying off the harbour.
+There were evidently no airships with the force, as, if there had been,
+they would certainly have been hovering over the town and shelling
+Shorncliffe Barracks and the forts from the air. A brisk artillery duel
+was proceeding between the land batteries and the squadron, and the
+handsome town was already in flames in several places.
+
+Erskine, of course, recognised at once that this attack was simultaneous
+with that on Dover; the object of the enemy being obviously the capture
+of the shore line of railway between the two great Channel ports, which
+would provide the base of a very elongated triangle, the sides of which
+would be roughly formed by the roads and railways running to the
+westward and southward through Ashford and Maidstone, and to the
+northward and eastward through Canterbury, Faversham and Sittingbourne,
+and meeting at Rochester and Chatham, where the land forces of the
+invaders would, if all went well, co-operate with the sea forces in a
+combined attack on London, which would, of course, be preceded by a
+bombardment of fortified positions from the air.
+
+Knowing what he did of the disastrous results of the battle of
+Portsmouth, he came to the conclusion that it was his duty to upset this
+plan of attack at all hazards, so he called Castellan up into the
+conning-tower and asked his advice on the situation.
+
+"I see just what you mean, Erskine," replied the Lieutenant, when he had
+taken a good look at the map of Kent, "and it's my opinion that you'll
+do more to help London from here and Dover just now than you will from
+the Thames. Those French cruisers are big ones, though I don't quite
+recognise which they are, and they carry twice or three times the metal
+that those miserable forts do--which comes of trusting everything to the
+Fleet, as though these were the days of wooden walls and sails instead
+of steam battleships, fast cruisers and destroyers, to say nothing of
+submarines and airships. These Frenchies here don't know anything about
+the hammering they've got at Portsmouth and the capture of the
+transports, so they'll be expecting that force to be moving on London by
+the Brighton and South Coast line instead of re-building our forts and
+dockyards; so you go in and sink and smash everything in sight. That's
+just my best advice to you."
+
+"It seems pretty rough on those chaps on the transports, doesn't it?"
+said Erskine, with a note of regret in his voice. "We sha'n't be able to
+pick up any of them. It will be pretty like murder."
+
+"And what's that?" exclaimed Castellan, pointing to the fires in the
+town. "Don't ye call shelling a defenceless watering-place and burning
+unarmed people to death in their own homes murder? What if ye had your
+sister, or your mother, or your sweetheart there? How would ye feel
+about murder then?"
+
+Denis Castellan spoke feelingly, for his captain possessed not only a
+mother, but also a very charming sister in connection with whom he
+cherished certain not altogether ill-founded hopes which might perchance
+be realised now that war had come and promotion was fairly sure for
+those who "got through all right."
+
+Erskine nodded and said between his teeth:
+
+"Yes, you're right, old man. Such mercy as they give--such shall they
+have. Get below and take charge. We'd better go for the cruisers first
+and sink them. That'll stop the shelling of the town anyhow. Then we'll
+tackle the destroyers, and after that, if the transports don't
+surrender--well, the Lord have mercy on them when those shells of
+Lennard's get among them, for they'll want it."
+
+"And divil a bit better do they deserve. What have we done to them that
+they should all jump on us at once like this?" growled Denis as the
+platform sank with him. "There isn't one, no, nor two of them that dare
+tackle the old sea-dog alone."
+
+Which remark was Irish but perfectly true.
+
+By this time it was dusk enough for the _Ithuriel_ to approach the
+unsuspecting cruisers unseen, as nothing but her conning-tower was soon
+visible, even at five hundred yards, and this would vanish when she sank
+to make her final rush.
+
+The cruisers were the _Charner_, _Chanzy_, _Bruix_ and
+_Latouche-Treville_, all of about five thousand tons, and carrying two
+7.6 in., six 5.5 in. and six 9 pounders in addition to their small
+quick-firers. They were steaming in an oval course of about two miles
+long in line ahead, delivering their bow, stern and broadside fire as
+they circled. The effect of the shells along the strip of coast was
+terrible, and by the time the _Ithuriel_ came on the scene of action
+Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Folkestone were ablaze. The destroyers were of
+course shepherding the transports until the cruisers had silenced the
+shore batteries and prepared the way for the landing.
+
+The _Latouche-Treville_ was leading the French line when Erskine gave
+the order to sink and ram. Her captain never so much as suspected the
+presence of a British warship until his vessel reeled under the shock of
+the ram, trembled from stem to stern, and began to settle quickly by the
+head. Before she had time to sink the _Ithuriel_ had shaken herself
+free, swung round in half a curve, and ripped the port quarter of the
+_Chanzy_ open ten feet below the water line. Then she charged the
+_Bruix_ amidships and nearly cut her in half, and as the _Charner_
+steamed up to the rescue of her stricken consorts her screws dragged her
+back from the sinking ship and her stern ram crashed into the
+Frenchman's starboard side under the foremast, and in about a quarter of
+an hour from the delivery of the mysterious attack the four French
+cruisers were either sunk or sinking.
+
+It would be almost impossible to describe the effect which was produced
+by this sudden and utterly unexpected calamity, not only upon the
+astounded invaders, but upon the defenders, who, having received the
+welcome tidings of the tremendous disaster which had befallen the French
+Expedition at Portsmouth, were expecting aid in a very different form.
+Like their assailants, they had seen nothing, heard nothing, until the
+French cruisers suddenly ceased fire, rolled over and disappeared.
+
+But a few minutes after the _Charner_ had gone down, all anxiety on the
+part of the defenders was, for the time being, removed. The _Ithuriel_
+rose to the surface; her searchlight projector turned inshore, and she
+flashed in the Private Code:
+
+
+     "Suppose you have the news from Portsmouth. I am now going to smash
+     destroyers and sink transports if they don't surrender. Don't
+     shoot: might hurt me. Get ready for prisoners.
+                                                  ERSKINE, _Ithuriel_."
+
+
+It was perhaps the most singular message that had ever been sent from a
+sea force to a land force, but it was as well understood as it was
+welcome, and soon the answering signals flashed back:
+
+
+     "Well done, _Ithuriel_. Heard news. Go ahead!"
+
+
+Then came the turn of the destroyers. The _Ithuriel_ rose out of the
+water till her forward ram showed its point six feet above the waves.
+Erskine ordered full speed, and within another twenty-five minutes the
+tragedy of Spithead had been repeated on a smaller scale. The destroying
+monster rushed round the transports, hunting the _torpilleurs de haute
+mer_ down one after the other as a greyhound might run rabbits down,
+smashed them up and sank them almost before their officers and crew had
+time to learn what had happened to them--and then with his searchlight
+Erskine signalled to the transports in the International Code, which is
+universally understood at sea:
+
+
+     "Transports steam quarter speed into harbour and surrender. If a
+     shot is fired shall sink you as others."
+
+
+Five of the six flags came down with a run and all save one of the
+transports made slowly for the harbour. Their commanders were wise
+enough to know that a demon of the deep which could sink cruisers before
+they could fire a shot and smash destroyers as if they were pleasure
+boats could make very short work of liners and cargo steamers, so they
+bowed to the inevitable and accepted with what grace they could defeat
+and capture instead of what an hour or so ago looked like certain
+victory. But the captain of the sixth, the one that was farthest out to
+sea, made a dash for liberty--or Dover.
+
+Erskine took down the receiver and said quietly:
+
+
+     "Centre forward gun. Train: fire!"
+
+
+The next moment a brilliant blaze of flame leapt up between the
+transport's funnels. They crumpled up like scorched parchment. Her
+whole super-structure seemed to take fire at once and she stopped.
+
+Again flashed the signal:
+
+
+     "Surrender or I'll ram."
+
+
+The Tricolor fluttered slowly down through the damp, still evening air
+from the transport's main truck, and almost at the same moment a fussy
+little steam pinnace--which had been keeping itself snugly out of harm's
+way since the first French cruiser had gone down--puffed busily out of
+the harbour, and the proudest midshipman in the British Navy--for the
+time being, at least--ran from transport to transport, crowded with
+furious and despairing Frenchmen, and told them, individually and
+collectively, the course to steer if they wanted to get safely into
+Folkestone harbour and be properly taken care of.
+
+Then out of the growing darkness to the westward long gleams of silver
+light flashed up from the dull grey water and wandered about the
+under-surface of the gathering clouds, coming nearer and growing
+brighter every minute, jumping about the firmament as though the men
+behind the projectors were either mad or drunk; but the signals spelt
+out to those who understood them the cheering words:
+
+
+     "All right. We'll look after these fellows. Commander-in-Chief's
+     orders: Concentrate on Chilham, Canterbury and Dover."
+
+
+"That's all right," said Erskine to himself, as he read the signals.
+"Beresford's got them comfortably settled already, and he's sending
+someone to help here. Well, I think we've done our share and we'd better
+get along to Dover and London."
+
+He flashed the signal: "Good-bye and good luck!" to the shore, and
+shaped his course for Dover.
+
+So far, in spite of the terrible losses that had been sustained by the
+Reserve Fleet and the Channel Fleet, the odds of battle were still a
+long way in favour of Britain, in spite of the enormous forces ranged
+against her. At least so thought both Erskine and Castellan until they
+got within about three miles of Dover harbour, and Castellan, looking on
+sea and land and sky, exclaimed:
+
+"Great Heaven help us! This looks like the other place let loose!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS--
+
+
+Denis Castellan had put the situation tersely, but with a considerable
+amount of accuracy. Earth and sea and sky were ablaze with swarms of
+shooting, shifting lights, which kept crossing each other and making
+ever-changing patterns of a magnificent embroidery, and amidst these,
+huge shells and star-rockets were bursting in clouds of smoke and
+many-coloured flame. The thunder of the big guns, the grinding rattle of
+the quick-firers, and the hoarse, whistling shrieks of the shells,
+completed the awful pandemonium of destruction and death that was raging
+round Dover.
+
+The truth was that the main naval attack of the Allies was being
+directed on the south-eastern stronghold. I am aware that this is not
+the usual plan followed by those who have written romantic forecasts of
+the invasion of England. It seems at first sight, provided that the
+enemy could pass the sentinels of the sea unnoticed, easy to land troops
+on unprotected portions of our shores; but, in actual warfare, this
+would be the most fatal policy that could be pursued, simply because,
+whatever the point selected, the invaders would always find themselves
+between two strong places, with one or more ahead of them. They would
+thus be outflanked on all sides, with no retreat open but the sea, which
+is the most easily closed of all retreats.
+
+From their point of view, then, the Allies were perfectly right in their
+project of reducing the great strongholds of southern and eastern
+England, before advancing with their concentrated forces upon London.
+It would, of course, be a costly operation. In fact Britain's long
+immunity from invasion went far to prove that, to enemies possessing
+only the ordinary means of warfare, it would have been impossible, but,
+ever since the success of the experiment at Potsdam, German engineering
+firms had been working hard under John Castellan's directions turning
+out improved models of the _Flying Fish_. The various parts were
+manufactured at great distances apart, and no one firm knew what the
+others were doing. It was only when the parts of the vessels and the
+engines were delivered at the closely-guarded Imperial factory at
+Potsdam, that, under Castellan's own supervision, they became the
+terrible fighting machines that they were.
+
+The Aërial Fleet numbered twenty when war broke out, and of these five
+had been detailed for the attack on Dover. They were in fact the
+elements which made that attack possible, and, as is already known, four
+were co-operating with the Northern Division of the Allied Fleets
+against the forts defending Chatham and London.
+
+Dover was at that time one of the most strongly fortified places in the
+world. Its magnificent new harbour had been completed, and its
+fortifications vastly strengthened and re-armed with the new
+fourteen-inch gun which had superseded the old sixteen-inch gun of
+position, on account of its greater handiness, combined with greater
+penetrating power.
+
+But at Dover, as at Portsmouth, the forts were powerless against the
+assaults of these winged demons of the air. They were able to use their
+terrible projectiles with reckless profusion, because only twenty-two
+miles away at Calais there were inexhaustible stores from which they
+could replenish their magazines. Moreover, the private factory at Kiel,
+where alone they were allowed to be manufactured, were turning them out
+by hundreds a day.
+
+They had, of course, formed the vanguard of the attacking force which
+had advanced in three divisions in column of line abreast from Boulogne,
+Calais and Antwerp. The Boulogne and Calais divisions were French, and
+each consisted of six battleships with the usual screens of cruisers,
+destroyers and torpedo boats: these two divisions constituted the French
+North Sea Squadron, whose place had been taken by the main German Fleet,
+assisted by the Belgian and Dutch squadron.
+
+Another German and Russian division was advancing on London. It included
+four first-class battleships, and two heavily-armed coast defence ships,
+huge floating fortresses, rather slow in speed, but tremendous in power,
+which accompanied them for the purpose of battering the fortifications,
+and doing as much damage to Woolwich and other important places on both
+sides as their big guns could achieve. Four _Flying Fishes_ accompanied
+this division.
+
+Such was the general plan of action on that fatal night. Confident in
+the terrific powers of their Aërial Squadrons, and ignorant of the
+existence of the _Ithuriel_, the Allied Powers never considered the
+possibilities of anything but rapid victory. They knew that the forts
+could no more withstand the shock of the bombardment from the air than
+battleships or cruisers could resist the equally deadly blow which these
+same diabolical contrivances could deliver under the water.
+
+They had not the slightest doubt but that forts would be silenced and
+fleets put out of action with a swiftness unknown before, and then the
+crowded transports would follow the victorious fleets, and the military
+promenade upon London would begin, headed by the winged messengers of
+destruction, from which neither flight nor protection was possible.
+
+Of course, the leaders of the Allies were in ignorance of the
+misfortunes they had suffered at Portsmouth and Folkestone. All they
+knew they learned from aerograms, one from Admiral Durenne off the Isle
+of Wight saying that the Portsmouth forts had been silenced and the
+Fleet action had begun, and another from the Commodore of the squadron
+off Folkestone saying that all was going well, and the landing would
+shortly be effected: and thus they fully expected to have the three
+towns and the entrance to the Thames at their mercy by the following
+day.
+
+Certainly, as far as Dover was concerned, things looked very much as
+though their anticipations would be realised, for when the _Ithuriel_
+arrived upon the scene, Dover Castle and its surrounding forts were
+vomiting flame and earth into the darkening sky, like so many volcanoes.
+The forts on Admiralty Pier, Shakespear Cliff, and those commanding the
+new harbour works, had been silenced and blown up, and the town and
+barracks were in flames in many places.
+
+The scene was, in short, so inhumanly appalling, and horror followed
+horror with such paralysing rapidity, that the most practised
+correspondents and the most experienced officers, both afloat and
+ashore, were totally unable to follow them and describe what was
+happening with anything like coherence. It was simply an inferno of
+death and destruction, which no human words could have properly
+described, and perhaps the most ghastly feature of it was the fact that
+there was no human agency visible in it at all. There was no Homeric
+struggle of man with man, although many a gallant deed was done that
+night which never was seen nor heard of, and many a hero went to his
+death without so much as leaving behind him the memory of how he died.
+
+It was a conflict of mechanical giants--giant ships, giant engines,
+giant guns, and explosives of something more than giant strength. These
+were the monsters which poor, deluded Humanity, like another
+Frankenstein, had thought out with infinite care and craft, and
+fashioned for its own mutual destruction. Men had made a hell out of
+their own passions and greed and jealousies, and now that hell had
+opened and mankind was about to descend into it.
+
+The sea-defence of Dover itself consisted of the Home Fleet in three
+divisions, composed respectively of the _England_, _London_, _Bulwark_
+and _Venerable_, _Queen_ and _Prince of Wales_ battleships, and ten
+first-class armoured cruisers, the _Duncan_, _Cornwallis_, _Exmouth_ and
+_Russell_ battleships, with twelve armoured cruisers, and thirdly, the
+reconstructed and re-armed _Empress of India_, _Revenge_, _Repulse_ and
+_Resolution_, with eight armoured cruisers. To the north between Dover
+and the North Foreland lay the Southern Division of the North Sea
+Squadron.
+
+When the battle had commenced these three divisions were lying in their
+respective stations, in column of line ahead about six miles from the
+English shore. Behind them lay a swarm of destroyers and torpedo boats,
+ready to dart out and do their deadly work between the ships, and ten
+submarines were attached to each division. The harbour and approaches
+were, of course, plentifully strewn with mines.
+
+"It's an awful sight," said Castellan, with a note of awe in his voice,
+when they had taken in the situation with the rapidity and precision of
+the professional eye. "And to me the worst of it is that it won't be
+safe for us to take a share in the row."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Erskine, almost angrily. "Do you mean to tell me we
+sha'n't be able to help our fellows? Then what on earth have we come
+here for?"
+
+"Just look there, now!" said Castellan, pointing ahead to where huge
+shapes, enveloped in a mist of flame and smoke, were circling round each
+other, vomiting their thunderbolts, like leviathans engaged in a
+veritable dance of death.
+
+"D'ye see that!" continued Denis. "What good would we be among that lot?
+The _Ithuriel_ hasn't eyes on her that can see through the dark water,
+and if she had, how would we tell the bottom of a French or German ship
+from a Britisher's, and a nice thing it would be for us to go about
+sinking the King's ships, and helping those foreign devils to land in
+old England! No, Erskine, this ship of yours is a holy terror, but she's
+a daylight fighter. Don't you see that we came too late, and wait till
+to-morrow we can't, and there's the Duke's orders.
+
+"I'll tell you what," he continued more cheerfully, as the _Ithuriel_
+cleared the southern part of the battle, "if we could get at the
+transports we might have some fun with them, but they'll all be safe
+enough in port, loading up, and there's not much chance that they'll
+come out till our boys have been beaten and the roads are clear for
+them. Then they'll go across thinking they'll meet their pals from
+Portsmouth and Folkestone. Now, you see that line out there to the
+north-eastward?"
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, looking towards a long row of dim shapes which
+every now and then were brought out into ominous distinctness by the
+flashes of the shells and searchlights.
+
+"Well," continued Castellan, "if I know anything of naval tactics,
+that's the Reserve lot waiting till the battle's over. They think
+they'll win, and I think so too, thanks to those devil-ships my brother
+has made for them. Even if Beresford does come up in time, he can no
+more fight against them than anybody else. Now, there's just one chance
+that we can give him, and that is sinking the Reserve; for, you see, if
+we've only half a dozen ships left that can shoot a bit in the morning,
+they won't dare to put their transports out without a convoy, and unless
+they land them, well, they're no use."
+
+"Castellan," said Erskine, putting his hand on his shoulder, "you'll be
+an admiral some day. Certainly, we'll go for the convoy, for I'll be
+kicked if I can stand here watching all that going on and not have a
+hand in it. We'd better sink, and use nothing but the ram, I suppose."
+
+"Why, of course," replied Castellan. "It would never do to shoot at
+them. There are too many, and besides, we don't want them to know that
+we're here until we've sent them to the bottom."
+
+"And a lot they'll know about it then!" laughed Erskine. "All right," he
+continued, taking down the receiver. "Courtney and Mac can see to the
+sinking, so you'd better stop here with me and see the fun."
+
+"That I will, with all the pleasure in life and death," said Castellan
+grimly, as Erskine gave his orders and the _Ithuriel_ immediately began
+to sink.
+
+Castellan was perfectly right in his conjecture as to the purpose of the
+Reserve.
+
+The French and German Squadron, which was intended for the last rush
+through the remnants of the crippled British fleet, consisted of four
+French and three German battleships, old and rather slow, but heavily
+armed, and much more than a match for the vessels which had already
+passed through the terrible ordeal of battle. In addition there were six
+fast second-class cruisers, and about a score of torpedo boats.
+
+With her decks awash and the conning-tower just on a level with the
+short, choppy waves, the _Ithuriel_ ran round to the south of the line
+at ten knots, as they were anxious not to kick up any fuss in the water,
+lest a chance searchlight from the enemy might fall upon them, and lead
+to trouble. She got within a mile of the first cruiser unobserved, and
+then Erskine gave the order to quicken up. They had noticed that the
+wind was rising, and they knew that within half an hour the tide would
+be setting southward like a mill-race through the narrow strait.
+
+Their tactics therefore were very simple. Every cruiser and battleship
+was rammed in the sternpost; not very hard, but with sufficient force to
+crumple up the sternpost, and disable the rudder and the propellers, and
+with such precision was this done, that, until the signals of distress
+began to flash, the uninjured ships and the nearest of those engaged in
+the battle were under the impression that orders had been given for the
+Reserve to move south. But this supposition very soon gave place to
+panic as ship after ship swung helplessly inshore, impelled by the
+ever-strengthening tide towards the sands of Calais and the rocks of
+Gris Nez.
+
+Searchlights flashed furiously, but Erskine and Castellan had already
+taken the bearings of the remaining ships, and the _Ithuriel_, now ten
+feet below the water, and steered solely by compass, struck ship after
+ship, till the whole of the Reserve was drifting helplessly to
+destruction.
+
+This, as they had both guessed, produced a double effect on the battle.
+In the first place it was impossible for the Allies to see their
+Reserve, upon which so much might depend, in such a helpless plight, and
+the admirals commanding were therefore obliged to detach ships to help
+them; and on the other hand, the British were by no means slow to take
+advantage of the position. A score of torpedo boats, and half as many
+destroyers, dashed out from behind the British lines, and, rushing
+through the hurricane of shell that was directed upon them, ran past the
+broken line of unmanageable cruisers and battleships, and torpedoed them
+at easy range. True, half of them were crumpled up, and sent to the
+bottom during the process, but that is a contingency which British
+torpedo officers and men never take the slightest notice of. The
+disabled ships were magnificent marks for torpedoes, and they had to go
+down, wherefore down they went.
+
+Meanwhile the _Ithuriel_ had been having a merry time among the torpedo
+flotilla of the Reserve Squadron. She rose flush with the water, put on
+full speed, and picked them up one after another on the end of her ram,
+and tossed them aside into the depths as rapidly as an enraged whale
+might have disposed of a fleet of whaleboats.
+
+The last boat had hardly gone down when signals were seen flashing up
+into the sky from over Dungeness.
+
+"That's Beresford to the rescue," said Castellan, in a not
+over-cheerful voice. "Now if it wasn't for those devil-ships of my
+brother's there'd be mighty little left of the Allied Fleet to-morrow
+morning; but I'm afraid he won't be able to do anything against those
+amphibious _Flying Fishes_, as he calls them. Now, we'd better be off to
+London."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+--AND ENDS
+
+
+The defenders of Dover, terribly as they had suffered, and hopeless as
+the defence really now seemed to be, were still not a little cheered by
+the tidings of the complete and crushing defeat which had been inflicted
+by Admiral Beresford and the _Ithuriel_ on the French at Portsmouth and
+Folkestone, and the brilliant capture of the whole of the two
+Expeditionary Forces. Now, too, the destruction of the Allied Reserve
+made it possible to hope that at least a naval victory might be
+obtained, and the transports prevented from crossing until the remains
+of the British Fleet Reserve could be brought up to the rescue.
+
+At any rate it might be possible, in spite of sunken ships and shattered
+fortifications, to prevent, at least for a while, the pollution of
+English soil by the presence of hostile forces, and to get on with the
+mobilisation of regulars, militia, yeomanry and volunteers, which, as
+might have been expected, this sudden declaration of war found in the
+usual state of hopeless muddle and chaos.
+
+But, even in the event of complete victory by sea, there would still be
+those terrible cruisers of the air to be reckoned with, and they were
+known to be as efficient as submarines as they were as airships.
+
+Still, much had been done, and it was no use going to meet trouble
+halfway. Moreover, Beresford's guns were beginning to talk down yonder
+to the southward, and it was time for what was left of the North Sea
+Squadron and the Home Fleet to reform and manoeuvre, so as to work to
+the north-eastward, and get the enemy between the two British forces.
+
+A very curious thing came to pass now. The French and German Fleets,
+though still much superior to the defenders, had during that first awful
+hour of the assault received a terrible mauling, especially from the
+large guns of the _England_ and the _Scotland_--sisters of the
+_Britain_, and the flagships respectively of the North Sea Squadron and
+the Home Fleet--and the totally unexpected and inexplicable loss of
+their reserve; but the guns booming to the south-westward could only be
+those of Admiral Durenne's victorious fleet. He would bring them
+reinforcements more than enough, and with him, too, would come the three
+_Flying Fishes_, which had been commissioned to destroy Portsmouth and
+the battleships of the British Reserve. There need be no fear of not
+getting the transports across now, and then the march of victory would
+begin.
+
+In a few minutes the fighting almost entirely ceased. The ships which
+had been battering each other so heartily separated as if by mutual
+consent, and the French and German admirals steamed to the
+south-westward to join their allies and sweep the Strait of Dover clear
+of those who had for so many hundred years considered--yes, and kept
+it--as their own sea-freehold.
+
+At the same time private signals were flashed through the air to the
+_Flying Fishes_ to retire on Calais, replenish their ammunition and
+motive power, which they had been using so lavishly, and return at
+daybreak.
+
+Thus what was left of Dover, its furiously impotent soldiery, and its
+sorely stricken inhabitants, had a respite at least until day dawned and
+showed them the extent of the ruin that had been wrought.
+
+It was nearly midnight when the three fleets joined, and just about
+eight bells the clouds parted and dissolved under the impact of a stiff
+nor'-easter, which had been gathering strength for the last two hours.
+The war smoke drifted away, and the moon shone down clearly on the now
+white-crested battlefield.
+
+By its light and their own searchlights the French and German admirals,
+steaming as they thought to join hands with their victorious friends,
+saw the strangest and most exasperating sight that their eyes had ever
+beheld. The advancing force was a curiously composed one. Trained, as
+they were, to recognise at first sight every warship of every nation,
+they could nevertheless hardly believe their eyes. There were six
+battleships in the centre of the first line. One was the _Britain_,
+three others were of the _Edward the Seventh_ class; two were French. Of
+the sixteen cruisers which formed the wings, seven were French--and
+every warship of the whole lot was flying the White Ensign!
+
+Did it mean disaster--almost impossible disaster--or was it only a _ruse
+de guerre_?
+
+They were not left very long in doubt. At three miles from a direction
+almost due south-east of Dover, the advancing battleships opened fire
+with their heavy forward guns, and the cruisers spread out in a fan on
+either side of the French and German Fleets. The _Britain_, as though
+glorying in her strength and speed, steamed ahead in solitary pride
+right into the midst of the Allies, thundering and flaming ahead and
+from each broadside. The _Braunschweig_ had the bad luck to get in her
+way. She made a desperate effort to get out of it; but eighteen knots
+was no good against twenty-five. The huge ram crashed into her vitals as
+she swerved, and reeling and pitching like some drunken leviathan, she
+went down with a mighty plunge, and the _Britain_ ploughed on over the
+eddies that marked her ocean grave.
+
+This was the beginning of the greatest and most decisive sea-fight that
+had been fought since Trafalgar. The sailors of Britain knew that they
+were fighting not only for the honour of their King and country, but, as
+British sailors had not done for a hundred and four years, for the very
+existence of England and the Empire. On the other hand, the Allies knew
+that this battle meant the loss or the keeping of the command of the
+sea, and therefore the possibility or otherwise of starving the United
+Kingdom into submission after the landing had been effected.
+
+So from midnight until dawn battleship thundered against battleship, and
+cruiser engaged cruiser, while the torpedo craft darted with flaming
+funnels in and out among the wrestling giants, and the submarines did
+their deadly work in silence. Miracles of valour and devotion were
+achieved on both sides. From admiral and commodore and captain in the
+conning-towers to officers and men in barbettes and casemates, and the
+sweating stokers and engineers in their steel prisons--which might well
+become their tombs--every man risked and gave his life as cheerfully as
+the most reckless commander or seaman on the torpedo flotillas.
+
+It was a fight to the death, and every man knew it, and accepted the
+fact with the grim joy of the true fighting man.
+
+Naturally, no detailed description of the battle of Dover would be
+possible, even if it were necessary to the narrative. Not a man who
+survived it could have written such a description. All that was known to
+the officials on shore was that every now and then an aerogram came,
+telling in broken fragments of the sinking of a battleship or cruiser on
+one side or the other, and the gradual weakening of the enemy's defence;
+but to those who were waiting and watching so anxiously along the line
+of cliffs, the only tidings that came were told by the gradual
+slackening of the battle-thunder, and the ever-diminishing frequency of
+the pale flashes of flame gleaming through the drifting gusts of smoke.
+
+Then at last morning dawned, and the pale November sun lit up as sorry a
+scene as human eyes had ever looked upon. Not a fourth of the ships
+which had gone into action on either side were still afloat, and these
+were little better than drifting wrecks.
+
+All along the shore from East Wear Bay to the South Foreland lay the
+shattered, shell-riddled hulks of what twelve hours before had been the
+finest battleships and cruisers afloat, run ashore in despair to save
+the lives of the few who had come alive through that awful battle-storm.
+Outside them showed the masts and fighting-tops of those which had sunk
+before reaching shore, and outside these again lay a score or so of
+battleships and a few armoured cruisers, some down by the head, some by
+the stern, and some listing badly to starboard or port--still afloat,
+and still with a little fight left in them, in spite of their gashed
+sides, torn decks, riddled topworks and smashed barbettes.
+
+But, ghastly as the spectacle was, it was not long before a mighty cheer
+went rolling along the cliffs and over the ruined town for, whether flew
+the French or German flag, there was not a ship that French or German
+sailor or marine had landed on English soil save as prisoners.
+
+The old Sea Lion had for the first time in three hundred and fifty years
+been attacked in his lair, and now as then he had turned and rent the
+insolent intruder limb from limb.
+
+The main German Fleet and the French Channel Fleet and North Sea
+Squadrons had ceased to exist within twenty-four hours of the
+commencement of hostilities.
+
+Once more Britain had vindicated her claim to the proud title of Queen
+of the Seas; once more the thunder of her enemies' guns had echoed back
+from her white cliffs--and the echo had been a message of defeat and
+disaster.
+
+If the grim game of war could only have been played now as it had been
+even five years before, the victory would have already been with her,
+for the cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard had that morning brought the
+news from Admiral Commerell, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean,
+that he had been attacked by, and had almost destroyed, the combined
+French Mediterranean and Russian Black Sea Fleets, and that, with the
+aid of an Italian Squadron, he was blockading Toulon, Marseilles and
+Bizerta. The captured French and Russian ships capable of repair had
+been sent to Malta and Gibraltar to refit.
+
+This, under the old conditions, would, of course, have meant checkmate
+in the game of invasion, since not a hostile ship of any sort would have
+dared to put to sea, and the crowded transports would have been as
+useless as so many excursion steamers, but--
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+DISASTER
+
+
+About eight o'clock, as the half-wrecked victors and vanquished were
+slowly struggling into the half-ruined harbour, five winged shapes
+became visible against the grey sky over Calais, rapidly growing in
+size, and a few minutes later two more appeared, approaching from the
+north-east. They, alas, were the heralds of a fate against which all the
+gallantry and skill of Britain's best sailors and soldiers would fight
+in vain.
+
+The two from the north-east were, of course, the _Flying Fish_ and the
+_See Adler_; the others were those which had been ordered to load up at
+the Calais depot, and complete that victory of the Allied Fleets which
+the science and devotion of British sailors had turned into utter
+defeat.
+
+John Castellan, standing in the conning-tower of the _Flying Fish_,
+looking down over sea and land through his prismatic binoculars,
+suddenly ground his teeth hard together, and sent a hearty Irish curse
+hissing between them. He had a complete plan of the operations in his
+possession, and knew perfectly what to expect--but what was this?
+
+Dover and its fortifications were in ruins, as they ought to have been
+by this time; but the British Flag still floated over them! The harbour
+was almost filled with mutilated warships, and others were slowly
+steaming towards the two entrances; but every one of these was flying
+the White Ensign of England! There was not a French or German flag to be
+seen--and there, all along the coast, which should have been in the
+possession of the Allies by now, lay the ragged line of helpless hulks
+which would never take the sea again.
+
+What had happened? Where were the splendid fleets which were to have
+battered the English defence into impotence? Where was the Reserve,
+which was to have convoyed the transports across the narrow waters?
+Where were the transports themselves and the half million men, horses
+and artillery which to-day they were to land upon the stricken shores of
+Kent?
+
+With that marvellous intuition which is so often allied with the Keltic
+genius, he saw in a flash all, or something like all, that had really
+happened as a consequence of the loss of the depot ship at Spithead, and
+the venting of his own mad hatred of the Saxon on the three defenceless
+towns. The Channel Fleet had come, after all, in time, and defeated
+Admiral Durenne's fleet; the Reserve cruisers had escaped, and
+Portsmouth had been re-taken!
+
+Would that have happened if he had used the scores of shells which he
+had wasted in mere murder and destruction against the ships of the
+Channel Fleet? It would not, and no one knew it better than he did.
+
+Still, even now there was time to retrieve that ghastly mistake which
+had cost the Allies a good deal more than even he had guessed at. He was
+Admiral of the Aërial Squadrons, and, save under orders from
+headquarters, free to act as he thought fit against the enemy. If his
+passion had lost victory he could do nothing less than avenge defeat.
+
+He ran up his telescopic mast and swerved to the southward to meet the
+squadron from Calais, flying his admiral's flag, and under it the
+signal:
+
+"I wish to speak to you."
+
+The _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ quickened up, and the others
+slowed down until they met about two thousand feet above the sea.
+Castellan ran the _Flying Fish_ alongside the Commodore of the other
+Squadron, and in ten minutes he had learned what the other had to tell,
+and arranged a plan of operations.
+
+Within the next five minutes three of the seven craft had dropped to
+the water and disappeared beneath it. The other four, led by the _Flying
+Fish_, winged their way towards Dover.
+
+The aërial section of the squadron made straight for the harbour. The
+submarine section made south-westward to cut off the half dozen "lame
+ducks" which were still struggling towards it. With these, unhappily,
+was the _Scotland_, the huge flagship of the North Sea Squadron, which
+still full of fight, was towing the battleship _Commonwealth_, whose
+rudder and propellers had been disabled by a torpedo from a French
+submarine.
+
+She was, of course, the first victim selected. Two _Flying Fishes_
+dived, one under her bows and one under her stern, and each discharged
+two torpedoes.
+
+No fabric made by human hands could have withstood the shock of the four
+explosions which burst out simultaneously. The sore-stricken leviathan
+stopped, shuddered and reeled, smitten to death. For a few moments she
+floundered and wallowed in the vast masses of foaming water that rose up
+round her--and when they sank she took a mighty sideward reel and
+followed them.
+
+The rest met their inevitable fate in quick succession, and went down
+with their ensigns and pennants flying--to death, but not to defeat or
+disgrace.
+
+The ten British submarines which were left from the fight had already
+put out to try conclusions with the _Flying Fishes_; but a porpoise
+might as well have tried to hunt down a northern diver. As soon as each
+_Flying Fish_ had finished its work of destruction it spread its wings
+and leapt into the air--and woe betide the submarine whose periscope
+showed for a moment above the water, for in that moment a torpedo fell
+on or close to it, and that submarine dived for the last time.
+
+Meanwhile the horrors of the past afternoon and evening were being
+repeated in the crowded harbour, and on shore, until a frightful
+catastrophe befell the remains of the British Fleet.
+
+John Castellan, with two other craft, was examining the forts from a
+height of four thousand feet, and dropping a few torpedoes into any
+which did not appear to be completely wrecked. The captain of another
+was amusing himself by dispersing, in more senses than one, the
+helpless, terror-stricken crowds on the cliffs whence they had lately
+cheered the last of Britain's naval victories, and the rest were
+circling over the harbour at a height of three thousand feet, letting go
+torpedoes whenever a fair mark presented itself.
+
+Of course the fight, if fight it could be called, was hopeless from the
+first; but your British sailor is not the man to take even a hopeless
+fight lying down, and so certain gallant but desperate spirits on board
+the _England_, which was lying under what was left of the Admiralty
+Pier, got permission to dismount six 3-pounders and remount them as a
+battery for high-angle fire. The intention, of course, was, as the
+originator of the idea put it: "To bring down a few of those flying
+devils before they could go inland and do more damage there."
+
+The intention was as good as it was unselfish, for the ingenious officer
+in charge of the battery knew as well as his admiral that the fleet was
+doomed to destruction in detail--but the first volley that battery fired
+was the last.
+
+A few of the shells must have hit a French _Flying Fish_, which was
+circling above the centre of the harbour, and disabled the wings and
+propellors on one side, for she lurched and wobbled for an instant like
+a bird with a broken wing. Then she swooped downwards in a spiral
+course, falling ever faster and faster, till she struck the deck of the
+_Britain_.
+
+What happened the next instant no one ever knew. Those who survived said
+that they heard a crashing roar like the firing of a thousand cannon
+together; a blinding sheet of flame overspread the harbour; the water
+rose into mountains of foam, ships rocked and crashed against each
+other--and then came darkness and oblivion.
+
+When human eyes next looked on Dover Harbour there was not a ship in it
+afloat.
+
+Dover, the great stronghold of the south-east, was now as defenceless as
+a fishing village, and there was nothing to prevent a constant stream of
+transports filled with men and materials of war being poured into it, or
+any other port along the eastern Kentish coast. Then would come seizure
+of railway stations and rolling stock, rapid landing of men and horses
+and guns, and the beginning of the great advance.
+
+On the whole, John Castellan was well satisfied with his work. He
+regretted the loss of his consort; but she had not been wasted. The
+remains of the British fleets had gone with her to destruction.
+
+Certainly what had been done had brought nearer the time when he, the
+real organiser of victory, the man who had made the conquest of England
+possible, would be able to claim his double reward--the independence of
+Ireland, and the girl whom he intended to make the uncrowned Queen of
+Erin.
+
+It was a splendid and, to him, a delicious dream as well; but between
+him and its fulfilment, what a chaos of bloodshed, ruin and human misery
+lay! And yet he felt not a tremor of compunction or of pity for the
+thousands of brave men who would be flung dead and mangled and tortured
+into the bloody mire of battle, for the countless homes that would be
+left desolate, or for the widows and the fatherless whose agony would
+cry to Heaven for justice on him.
+
+No; these things were of no account in his eyes. Ireland must be free,
+and the girl he had come to love so swiftly, and with such consuming
+passion, must be his. Nothing else mattered. Was he not Lord of the Air,
+and should the desire of his heart be denied him?
+
+Thus mused John Castellan in the conning-tower of the _Flying Fish_, as
+he circled slowly above the ruins of Dover, while the man who had
+beaten him in the swimming-race was sitting in the observatory on
+far-off Whernside, verifying his night's observations and calculating
+for the hundredth time the moment of the coming of an Invader, compared
+with which all the armed legions of Europe were of no more importance
+than a swarm of flies.
+
+When he had satisfied himself that Dover was quite defenceless he sent
+one of the French _Flying Fishes_ across to Calais with a letter to the
+District Commander, describing briefly what had taken place, and telling
+him that it would be now quite safe for the transports to cross the
+Straits and land the troops at Portsmouth, Newhaven, Folkestone, Dover
+and Ramsgate.
+
+He would station one of his airships over each of these places to
+prevent any resistance from land or sea, and would himself make a
+general reconnaissance of the military dispositions of the defenders. He
+advised that the three _Flying Fishes_, which had been reserved for the
+defence of the Kiel Canal, should be telegraphed for as convoys, as
+there was now no danger of attack, and that the depot of torpedoes and
+motive power for his ships should be transferred from Calais to Dover.
+
+As soon as he had despatched this letter, Castellan ordered two of his
+remaining ships to cruise northward to Ramsgate, keeping mainly along
+the track of the railway, one on each side of it, and to wreck the first
+train they saw approaching Dover, Deal, Sandwich and Ramsgate from the
+north. The other two he ordered to take the Western Coast line as far as
+Portsmouth, and do the same with trains coming east.
+
+Then he swung the _Flying Fish_ inland, and took a run over Canterbury,
+Ashford, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Guildford and Winchester, to Southampton
+and Portsmouth, returning by Chichester, Horsham and Tunbridge Wells.
+
+It was only a tour of observation for the purpose of discovering the
+main military dispositions of the defenders--who were now concentrating
+as rapidly as possible upon Folkestone and Dover--but he found time to
+stop and drop a torpedo or two into each town or fort that he passed
+over--just leaving cards, as he said to M'Carthy--as a promise of
+favours to come.
+
+He also wrecked half a dozen long trains, apparently carrying troops,
+and incidentally caused a very considerable loss of good lives and much
+confusion, to say nothing of the moral effect which this new and
+terrible form of attack produced upon the nerves of Mr Thomas Atkins.
+
+When he got back to Dover he found a letter waiting for him from the
+General informing him that the transports would sail at once, and that
+his requests would be complied with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS
+
+
+It was on the day following the destruction of Dover that the news of
+the actual landing of the French and German forces had really taken
+place at the points selected by Castellan reached Whernside. The little
+house party were at lunch, and the latest papers had just come over from
+Settle. Naturally what they contained formed the sole topic of
+conversation.
+
+"Really, Arnold, I think even you must confess that things are a great
+deal more serious than anyone could have imagined a few days ago. The
+very idea--an invasion accomplished in forty-eight hours--Portsmouth,
+Dover, Sheerness and Tilbury destroyed, and French and German and
+Russian soldiers actually in arms on English soil. The thing would be
+preposterous if it were not true!
+
+"And what are we to do now, I should like to know? The Fleet doesn't
+exist--we have no army in the Continental sense of the word, which of
+course is the real military sense, thanks to a lot of politicians
+calling themselves statesmen who have been squabbling about what an army
+ought to be for the last ten years.
+
+"You will be able to put a million trained and half-trained--mostly
+half-trained--men into the field, to face millions of highly-trained
+French, German, Russian and Austrian troops, led by officers who have
+taken their profession seriously, and not by gentlemen who have gone
+into the army because it was a nice sort of playground, where you could
+have lots of fun, and a little amateur fighting now and then. I wonder
+what they will do now against the men who have made war a science
+instead of sport!
+
+"I should like to know what the good people who have made such a fuss
+about the 'tyranny of Conscription' will say now, when they find that we
+haven't trained men enough to defend our homes. Just as if military
+service was not the first duty a man owes to his country and to his
+home. A man has no right to a country nor a home if he isn't able to
+defend them. Kipling was perfectly right when he said:
+
+
+             'What is your boasting worth
+     If you grudge a year of service to the lordliest life on earth?'"
+
+
+This little lecture was delivered with trembling lips, flushed cheeks
+and flashing eyes by Lady Margaret Holker, Lord Westerham's sister, who
+had joined the party that morning to help her brother in his recruiting.
+
+She was an almost perfect type of the modern highly-bred Englishwoman,
+who knows how to be entirely modern without being vulgarly "up-to-date."
+She was a strong contrast to her brother, in that she was a bright
+brunette--not beautiful, perhaps not even pretty, but for all that
+distinctly good-looking. Her hair and eyebrows were black, her eyes a
+deep pansy-blue. A clear complexion, usually pale but decidedly flushed
+now, and, for the rest, somewhat irregular features which might have
+been almost plain, but for that indefinable expression of combined
+gentleness and strength which only the careful selection of long descent
+can give.
+
+As for her figure, it was as perfect as absolute health and abundant
+exercise could make it. She could ride, shoot, throw a fly and steer a
+yacht better than most women and many men of her class; but for all that
+she could grill steaks and boil potatoes with as much distinction as she
+could play the piano and violin, and sing in three or four languages.
+
+She also had a grip, not on politics, for which she had a wholesome
+contempt, but on the affairs of the nations--the things which really
+mattered. And yet withal she was just an entirely healthy young
+Englishwoman, who was quite as much at home in the midst of a good
+swinging waltz as she was in an argument on high affairs of State.
+
+"My dear Madge," said her brother, who had been reading the reports in
+the second morning edition of the _Times_ aloud, "I am afraid that,
+after all, you are right. But then, you must not forget that a new enemy
+has come into the field. I hardly like to say so in Miss Castellan's
+presence, but it is perfectly clear that, considering what the Fleet
+did, there would have been no invasion if it had not been for those
+diabolical contrivances that John Castellan took over to the German
+Emperor."
+
+"You needn't have any hesitation in saying what you like about him
+before me, Lord Westerham," said Norah, flushing. "It's no brother he is
+of mine now, as I told him the day he went aboard the German yacht at
+Clifden. I'd see him shot to-morrow without a wink of my eyes. The man
+who does what he has done has no right to the respect of any man nor the
+love of any woman--no, not even if the woman is his sister. Think of all
+the good, loyal Irishmen, soldiers and sailors, that he has murdered by
+this time. No, I have no brother called John Castellan."
+
+"But you have another called Denis," said Auriole, "and I think you may
+be well content with him!"
+
+"Ah, Denis!" said Norah, flushing again, but for a different reason,
+"Denis is a good and loyal man; yes, I am proud of him--God bless him!"
+
+"And I should reckon that skipper of his, Captain Erskine, must be a
+pretty smart sort of man," said Mr Parmenter, who so far had hardly
+joined in the conversation, and who had seemed curiously indifferent to
+the terrible exploits of the _Flying Fishes_ and all that had followed
+them. "That craft of his seems to be just about as business-like as
+anything that ever got into the water or under it. I wonder what he is
+doing with the Russian and German ships in the Thames now. I guess he
+won't let many of them get back out of there. Quite a young man, too,
+according to the accounts."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lady Margaret, "he isn't twenty-nine yet. I know him
+slightly. He is a son of Admiral Erskine, who commanded the China
+Squadron about eight years ago, and died of fever after a pirate hunt,
+and he is the nephew of dear old Lady Caroline Anstey, my other mother
+as I call her. He is really a splendid fellow, and some people say as
+good-looking as he is clever; although, of course, there was a desperate
+lot of jealousy when he was promoted Captain straight away from
+Lieutenant-Commander of a Fishery cruiser, but I should like to know how
+many of the wiseacres of Whitehall could have designed that _Ithuriel_
+of his."
+
+"It's a pity she can't fly, though, like those others," said Mr
+Parmenter, with a curious note in his voice which no one at the table
+but Lennard understood. "She's a holy terror in the water, but the other
+fellow's got all the call on land. If they get a dozen or so of these
+aërial submarines as you might call them, in front of the invading
+forces, I can't see what's going to stop a march on London, and right
+round it. Your men are just as brave as any on earth, and a bit more
+than some, if their officers are a bit more gentlemen and sportsmen than
+soldiers; but no man can fight a thing he can't hit back at, and so I
+reckon the next thing we shall hear of will be the siege of London. What
+do you think, Lennard?"
+
+Lennard, who had hardly spoken a word during the meal, looked up, and
+said in a voice which Lady Madge thought curiously unsympathetic:
+
+"I shouldn't think it would take more than a fortnight at the outside,
+even leaving these airships out of the question. We haven't three
+hundred thousand men of all sorts to put into the field, who know one
+end of a gun from another, or who can sit a horse; and now that the
+sea's clear the enemy can land two or three millions in a fortnight."
+
+"All our merchant shipping will be absolutely at their mercy, and they
+will simply have to take them over to France and Germany and load them
+up with men and horses, and bring them over as if they were coming to a
+picnic. But, of course, with the airships to help them the thing's a
+foregone conclusion, and to a great extent it is our own fault. I
+thoroughly agree with what Lady Margaret says about conscription. If we
+had had it only five years ago, we should now have three million men,
+instead of three hundred thousand, trained and ready to take the field.
+Though, after all--"
+
+"After all--what?" said Lady Margaret, looking sharply round at him.
+
+"Oh, nothing of any importance," he said. "At least, not just at
+present. I daresay Lord Westerham will be able to explain what I might
+have said better than I could. There's not time for it just now, I've
+got to get a train to Bolton in an hour's time."
+
+"And I'll have to be in Glasgow to-night," said Mr Parmenter, rising. "I
+hope you won't think it very inhospitable of us, Lady Margaret: but
+business is business, you know, and more so than usual in times like
+these.
+
+"Now, I had better say good-bye. I have a few things to see to before Mr
+Lennard and I go down to Settle, but I've no doubt Auriole will find
+some way of entertaining you till you want to start for York."
+
+At half-past two the motor was at the door to take Mr Parmenter and
+Lennard to Settle. That evening, in Glasgow, Mr Parmenter bought the
+_Minnehaha_, a steel turbine yacht of two thousand tons and twenty-five
+knots speed, from Mr Hendray Chinnock, a brother millionaire, who had
+laid her up in the Clyde in consequence of the war the day before. He
+re-engaged her officers and crew at double wages to cover war risks, and
+started for New York within an hour of the completion of the purchase.
+
+Lennard took the express to Bolton, with letters and a deed of gift from
+Lord Westerham, which gave him absolute ownership of the cannel mine
+with the twelve-hundred-foot vertical shaft at Farnworth.
+
+That afternoon and evening Lady Margaret was more than entertained, for
+during the afternoon she learned the story of the approaching cataclysm,
+in comparison with which the war was of no more importance than a mere
+street riot; and that night Auriole, who had learned to work the great
+reflector almost as well as Lennard himself, showed her the
+ever-growing, ever-brightening shape of the Celestial Invader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TOM BOWCOCK--PITMAN
+
+
+Lennard found himself standing outside the Trinity Street Station at
+Bolton a few minutes after six that evening.
+
+Of course it was raining. Rain and fine-spun cotton thread are Bolton's
+specialities, the two chief pillars of her fame and prosperity, for
+without the somewhat distressing superabundance of the former she could
+not spin the latter fine enough. It would break in the process.
+Wherefore the good citizens of Bolton cheerfully put up with the dirt
+and the damp and the abnormal expenditure on umbrellas and mackintoshes
+in view of the fact that all the world must come to Bolton for its
+finest threads.
+
+He stood for a moment looking about him curiously, if with no great
+admiration in his soul, for this was his first sight of what was to be
+the scene of the greatest and most momentous undertaking that human
+skill had ever dared to accomplish.
+
+But the streets of Bolton on a wet night do not impress a stranger very
+favourably, so he had his flat steamer-trunk and hat-box put on to a cab
+and told the driver to take him to the Swan Hotel, in Deansgate, where
+he had a wash and an excellent dinner, to which he was in a condition to
+do full justice--for though nation may rage against nation, and worlds
+and systems be in peril, the healthy human digestion goes on making its
+demands all the time, and, under the circumstances, blessed is he who
+can worthily satisfy them.
+
+Then, after a cup of coffee and a meditative cigar, he put on his
+mackintosh, sent for a cab, and drove to number 134 Manchester Road,
+which is one of a long row of small, two-storeyed brick houses, as clean
+as the all-pervading smoke and damp will permit them to be, but not
+exactly imposing in the eyes of a new-comer.
+
+When the door opened in answer to his knock he saw by the light of a
+lamp hanging from the ceiling of the narrow little hall a small, slight,
+neatly-dressed figure, and a pair of dark, soft eyes looked up
+inquiringly at him as he said:
+
+"Is Mr Bowcock at home?"
+
+"Yes, he is," replied a voice softly and very pleasantly tinged with the
+Lancashire accent. Then in a rather higher key the voice said:
+
+"Tom, ye're wanted."
+
+As she turned away Lennard paid his cabman, and when he went back to the
+door he found the passage almost filled by a tall, square-shouldered
+shape of a man, and a voice to match it said:
+
+"If ye're wantin' Tom Bowcock, measter, that's me. Will ye coom in? It's
+a bit wet i' t' street."
+
+Lennard went in, and as the door closed he said:
+
+"Mr Bowcock, my name is Lennard--"
+
+"I thou't it might be," interrupted the other. "You'll be Lord
+Westerham's friend. I had a wire from his lordship's morning telling me
+t' expect you to-night or to-morrow morning. You'll excuse t' kitchen
+for a minute while t' missus makes up t' fire i' t' sittin'-room."
+
+When Lennard got into the brightly-lighted kitchen, which is really the
+living-room of small Lancashire houses, he found himself in an
+atmosphere of modest cosy comfort which is seldom to be found outside
+the North and the Midland manufacturing districts. It is the other side
+of the hard, colourless life that is lived in mill and mine and forge,
+and it has a charm that is all its own.
+
+There was the big range, filling half the space of one of the
+side-walls, its steel framings glittering like polished silver; the high
+plate-rack full of shining crockery at one end by the door, and the low,
+comfortable couch at the other; two lines of linen hung on cords
+stretched under the ceiling airing above the range, and the solid deal
+table in the middle of the room was covered with a snow-white cloth, on
+which a pretty tea-service was set out.
+
+A brightly polished copper kettle singing on the range, and a daintily
+furnished cradle containing a sleeping baby, sweetly unconscious of wars
+or world-shaking catastrophes, completed a picture which, considering
+his errand, affected Gilbert Lennard very deeply.
+
+"Lizzie" said the giant, "this is Mr Lennard as his lordship telegraphed
+about to-day. I daresay yo can give him a cup of tay and see to t' fire
+i' t' sittin'-room. I believe he's come to have a bit of talk wi' me
+about summat important from what his lordship said."
+
+"I'm pleased to see you, Mr Lennard," said the pleasant voice, and as he
+shook hands he found himself looking into the dark, soft eyes of a
+regular "Lancashire witch," for Lizzie Bowcock had left despair in the
+heart of many a Lancashire lad when she had put her little hand into big
+Tom's huge fist and told him that she'd have him for her man and no one
+else.
+
+She left the room for a few minutes to see to the sitting-room fire, and
+Lennard turned to his host and said:
+
+"Mr Bowcock, I have come to see you on a matter which will need a good
+deal of explanation. It will take quite a couple of hours to put the
+whole thing before you, so if you have any other engagements for
+to-night, no doubt you can take a day off to-morrow--in fact, as the pit
+will have to stop working--"
+
+"T' 'pit stop working, Mr Lennard!" exclaimed the manager. "Yo' dunno
+say so. Is that his lordship's orders? Why, what's up?"
+
+"I will explain everything, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard, "only, for her
+own sake, your wife must know nothing at present. The only question is,
+shall we have a talk to-night or not?"
+
+"If it's anything that's bad," replied the big miner with a deeper note
+in his voice, "I'd soonest hear it now. Mysteries don't get any t'
+better for keepin'. Besides, it'll give me time to sleep on't; and
+that's not a bad thing to do when yo've a big job to handle."
+
+Mrs Bowcock came back as he said this, and Lennard had his cup of tea,
+and they of course talked about the war. Naturally, the big miner and
+his pretty little wife were the most interested people in Lancashire
+just then, for to no one else in the County Palatine had been given the
+honour of hearing the story of the great battle off the Isle of Wight
+from the lips of one who had been through it on board the now famous
+_Ithuriel_.
+
+But when Tom Bowcock came out of the little sitting-room three hours
+later, after Lennard had told him of the approaching doom of the world
+and had explained to him how his pit-shaft was to be used as a means of
+averting it--should that, after all, prove to be possible--his interest
+in the war had diminished very considerably, for he had already come to
+see clearly that this was undeniably a case of the whole being very much
+greater than the part.
+
+Tom Bowcock was one of those men, by no means rare in the north, who
+work hard with hands and head at the same time. He was a pitman, but he
+was also a scientific miner, almost an engineer, and so Lennard had
+found very little difficulty in getting him to grasp the details of the
+tremendous problem in the working out of which he was destined to play
+no mean part.
+
+"Well, Measter Lennard," he said, slowly, as they rose from the little
+table across which a very large amount of business had been transacted.
+"It's a pretty big job this that yo've putten into our hands, and
+especially into mine; but I reckon they'll be about big enough for it;
+and yo've come to t' right place, too. I've never heard yet of a job as
+Lancashire took on to as hoo didn't get through wi'.
+
+"Now, from what yo've been telling me, yo' must be a bit of an early
+riser sometimes, so if yo'll come here at seven or so i' t' mornin',
+I'll fit yo' out wi' pit clothes and we'll go down t' shaft and yo' can
+see for yoursel' what's wantin' doin'. Maybe that'll help yo' before yo'
+go and make yo'r arrangements wi' Dobson & Barlow and t'other folk as
+yo'll want to help yo'."
+
+"Thank you very much, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard. "You will find me
+here pretty close about seven. It's a big job, as you say, and there's
+not much time to be lost. Now, if Mrs Bowcock has not gone to bed, I'll
+go and say good-night."
+
+"She's no'on to bed yet," said his host, "and yo'll take a drop o'
+summat warm before yo' start walkin' to t' hotel, for yo'll get no cab
+up this way to-neet. She'll just have been puttin' t' youngster to
+bed--"
+
+Tom Bowcock stopped suddenly in his speech as a swift vision of that
+same "youngster" and his mother choking in the flames of the Fire-Mist
+passed across his senses. Lennard had convinced his intellect of the
+necessity of the task of repelling the Celestial Invader and of the
+possibility of success; but from that moment his heart was in the work.
+
+It had stopped raining and the sky had cleared a little when they went
+to the door half an hour later. To the right, across the road, rose a
+tall gaunt shape like the skeleton of an elongated pyramid crowned with
+two big wheels. Lights were blazing round it, for the pit was working
+night and day getting the steam coal to the surface.
+
+"Yonder's t' shaft," said Tom, as they shook hands. "It doesn't look
+much of a place to save the world in, does it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+PREPARING FOR ACTION
+
+
+The next day was a busy one, not only for Lennard himself but for others
+whose help he had come to enlist in the working out of the Great
+Experiment.
+
+He turned up at Bowcock's house on the stroke of seven, got into his pit
+clothes, and was dropped down the twelve-hundred-foot shaft in the cage.
+At the bottom of the shaft he found a solid floor sloping slightly
+eastward, with three drives running in fan shape from north-east and
+south-east. There were two others running north and north-west.
+
+After ten minutes' very leisurely walk round the base of the shaft,
+during which he made one or two observations by linear and perpendicular
+compass, he said to Tom Bowcock:
+
+"I think this will do exactly. The points are absolutely correct. If we
+had dug a hole for ourselves we couldn't have got one better than this.
+Yes, I think it will just do. Now, will you be good enough to take me to
+the surface as slowly as you can?"
+
+"No, but yo're not meanin' that, Measter Lennard," laughed the manager.
+"'Cause if I slowed t' engines down as much as I could you'd be the rest
+o' t' day getting to t' top."
+
+"Yes, of course, I didn't mean that," said Lennard, "but just
+slowly--about a tenth of the speed that you dropped me into the bowels
+of the earth with. You see, I want to have a look at the sides."
+
+"Yo' needna' trouble about that, Mr Lennard, I can give yo' drawin's of
+all that in t' office, but still yo' can see for yo'rself by the
+drawin's afterwards."
+
+The cage ascended very slowly, and Lennard did see for himself. But when
+later on he studied the drawings that Tom Bowcock had made, he found
+that there wasn't as much as a stone missing. When he had got into his
+everyday clothes again, and had drunk a cup of tea brewed for him by Mrs
+Bowcock, he said as he shook hands with her husband:
+
+"Well, as far as the pit is concerned, I have seen all that I want to
+see, and Lord Westerham was just as right about the pit as he was about
+the man who runs it. Now, I take it over from to-day. You will stop all
+mining work at once, close the entrances to the galleries and put down a
+bed of concrete ten feet thick, level. Then you will go by the drawings
+that I gave you last night.
+
+"At present, the concreting of the walls in as perfect a circle as you
+can make them, not less than sixteen feet inner diameter, and building
+up the concrete core four feet thick from the floor to the top, is your
+first concern. You will tell your men that they will have double wages
+for day work and treble for night work, and whether they belong to the
+Volunteers or Yeomanry or Militia they will not be called to the Colours
+as long as they keep faith with us; if the experiment turns out all
+right, every man who sees it through shall have a bonus of a thousand
+pounds.
+
+"But, remember, that this pit will be watched, and every man who signs
+on for the job will be watched, and the Lord have mercy on the man who
+plays us false, for he'll want it. You must make them remember that, Mr
+Bowcock. This is no childish game of war among nations; this means the
+saving or the losing of a world, and the man who plays traitor here is
+not only betraying his own country, but the whole human race, friends
+and enemies alike."
+
+"I'll see to that, Mr Lennard. I know my chaps, and if there's one or
+two bad 'uns among 'em, they'll get paid and shifted in the ordinary
+way of business. But they're mostly a gradely lot of chaps. I've been
+picking 'em out for his lordship for t' last five yeers, and there isn't
+a Trade Unionist among 'em. We give good money here and we want good
+work and good faith, and if we don't get it, the man who doesn't give it
+has got to go and find another job.
+
+"For wages like that they'd go on boring t' shaft right down through t'
+earth and out at t' other side, and risk finding Owd Nick and his people
+in t' middle. A' tell yo' for sure. Well, good-mornin', yo've a lot to
+do, and so have I. A'll get those galleries blocked and bricked up at
+once, and as soon as you can send t' concrete along, we'll start at t'
+floor."
+
+Lennard's first visit after breakfast was to the Manchester and County
+Bank in Deansgate, where he startled the manager, as far as a Lancashire
+business man can be startled, by opening an account for two hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, and depositing the title-deeds of the whole of
+Lord Westerham's properties in and about Bolton.
+
+When he had finished his business at the Bank, he went to the offices of
+Dobson & Barlow, the great ironworkers, whose four-hundred-and-ten-foot
+chimney towers into the murky sky so far above all other structures in
+Bolton that if you are approaching the town by road you see it and its
+crest of smoke long before you see Bolton itself.
+
+The firm had, of course, been advised of his coming, and he had written
+a note over-night to say when he would call. The name of Ratliffe
+Parmenter was a talisman to conjure with in all the business circles of
+the world, and so Lennard found Mr Barlow himself waiting for him in his
+private office.
+
+He opened the matter in hand very quietly, so quietly indeed that the
+keen-sighted, hard-headed man who was listening to him found that for
+once in his life he was getting a little out of his depth.
+
+Never before had he heard such a tremendous scheme so quietly and
+calmly set forth. Bessemer furnaces were to be erected at once all round
+the pit mouth, meanwhile the firm was to contract with a Liverpool firm
+for an unlimited supply of concrete cement of the finest quality
+procurable. The whole staff of Dobson & Barlow's works were to be
+engaged at an advance of twenty-five per cent. on their present wages
+for three months to carry out the work of converting the shaft of the
+Great Lever pit into the gigantic cannon which was to hurl into Space
+the projectile which might or might not save the human race from
+destruction.
+
+Even granted Lennard's unimpeachable credentials, it was only natural
+that the great iron-master should exhibit a certain amount of
+incredulity, and, being one of the best types of the Lancashire business
+man, he said quite plainly:
+
+"This is a pretty large order you've brought us, Mr Lennard, and
+although, of course, we know Mr Parmenter to be good enough for any
+amount of money, still, you see, contracts are contracts, and what are
+we to do with those we've got in hand now if you propose to buy up for
+three months?"
+
+"Yes," replied Lennard, "I admit that that is an important point. The
+question is, what would it cost you to throw up or transfer to other
+firms the contracts that you now have in hand?"
+
+There was a silence of two or three minutes between them, during which
+Mr Barlow made a rapid but comprehensive calculation and Lennard took
+out his cheque-book and began to write a cheque.
+
+"Counting everything," said Mr Barlow, leaning back in his chair and
+looking up at the ceiling, "the transfer of our existing contracts to
+other firms of equal standing, so as to satisfy our customers, and the
+loss to ourselves for the time that you want--well, honestly, I don't
+think we could do it under twenty-five thousand pounds. You understand,
+I am saying nothing about the scientific aspect of the matter, because
+I don't understand it, but that's the business side of it; and that's
+what it's going to cost you before we begin."
+
+Lennard filled in the cheque and signed it. He passed it across the
+table to Mr Barlow, and said:
+
+"I think that is a very reasonable figure. This will cover it and leave
+something over to go on with."
+
+Mr Barlow took the cheque and looked at it, and then at the calm face of
+the quiet young man who was sitting opposite him.
+
+The cheque was for fifty thousand pounds. While he was looking at it,
+Lennard took the bank receipt for a quarter of a million deposit from
+his pocket and gave it to him, saying:
+
+"You will see from this that money is really no object. As you know, Mr
+Parmenter has millions, more I suppose than he could calculate himself,
+and he is ready to spend every penny of them. You will take that just as
+earnest money."
+
+"That's quite good enough for us, Mr Lennard," replied Mr Barlow,
+handing the bank receipt back. "The contracts shall be transferred as
+soon as we can make arrangements, and the work shall begin at once. You
+can leave everything else to us--brickwork, building, cement and all the
+rest of it--and we'll guarantee that your cannon shall be ready to fire
+off in three months from now."
+
+"And the projectile, Mr Barlow, are you prepared to undertake that
+also?" asked Lennard.
+
+"Yes, we will make the projectile according to your specification, but
+you will, of course, supply the bursting charge and the charge of this
+new powder of yours which is to send it into Space. You see, we can't do
+that; you'll have to get a Government permit to have such an enormous
+amount of explosives in one place, so I'll have to leave that to you."
+
+"I think I shall be able to arrange that, Mr Barlow," replied Lennard,
+as he got up from his seat and held his hand out across the table. "As
+long as you are willing to take on the engineering part of the business,
+I'll see to the rest. Now, I know that your time is quite as valuable as
+mine is, and I've got to get back to London this afternoon. To-morrow
+morning I have to go through a sort of cross-examination before the
+Cabinet--not that they matter much in the sort of crisis that we've got
+to meet.
+
+"Still, of course, we have to have the official sanction of the
+Government, even if it is a question of saving the world from
+destruction, but there won't be much difficulty about that, I think; and
+at any rate you'll be working on freehold property, and not even the
+Cabinet can stop that sort of work for the present. As far as everything
+connected with the mine is concerned, I hope you will be able to work
+with Mr Bowcock, who seems a very good sort of fellow."
+
+"If we can't work with Tom Bowcock," replied Mr Barlow, "we can't work
+with anyone on earth, and that's all there is about it. He's a big man,
+but he's good stuff all through. Lord Westerham didn't make any bad
+choice when he made him manager. And you won't dine with me to-night?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I must be back to London to-night. I have to catch the
+12-15 and have an interview in Downing Street at seven, and when I've
+got through that, I don't think there will be any difficulty about the
+explosives."
+
+"According to all accounts, you'll be lucky if you find Downing Street
+as it used to be," said Mr Barlow. "By the papers this morning it looks
+as if London was going to have a pretty bad time of it, what with these
+airships and submarines that sink and destroy everything in sight. Now
+that they've got away with the fleet, it seems to me that it's only a
+sort of walk over for them."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid it will have to be something like that for the next
+month or so," replied Lennard, thinking of a telegram which he had in
+his pocket. "But the victory is not all on one side yet. Of course, you
+will understand that I am not in a position to give secrets away, but as
+regards our own bargain, I am at liberty to tell you that while you are
+building this cannon of ours there will probably be some developments in
+the war which will be, I think, as unexpected as they will be startling.
+
+"In fact, sir," he continued, rising from his seat and holding out his
+hand across the table, "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,
+but when the time comes, I think you will find that those who believe
+that they are conquering England now will be here in Bolton faced by a
+foe against which their finest artillery will be as useless as an
+air-gun against an elephant.
+
+"All I ask you to remember now is that at eleven p.m. on the twelfth of
+May, the leaders of the nations who are fighting against England now
+will be standing around me in the quarry on the Belmont Road, waiting
+for the firing of the shot which I hope will save the world. If it does
+not save it, they will be welcome to all that is left of the world in an
+hour after that."
+
+"You are talking like a man who believes what he says, Mr Lennard,"
+replied Mr Barlow, "and, strange and all as it seems, I am beginning to
+believe with you. There never was a business like this given into human
+hands before, and, for the sake of humanity, I hope that you will be
+successful. All that we can do shall be done well and honestly. That you
+can depend on, and for the rest, we shall depend on you and your
+science. The trust that you have put in our hands to-day is a great
+honour to us, and we shall do our best to deserve it. Good-morning,
+sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON
+
+
+When Lennard got out of the train at St Pancras that evening, he found
+such a sight as until a day or so ago no Londoner had ever dreamed of.
+But terrible as the happenings were, they were not quite terrible enough
+to stop the issue of the evening newspapers.
+
+As the train slowed down along the platform, boys were running along it
+yelling:
+
+"Bombardment of London from the air--dome of St Paul's smashed by a
+shell--Guildhall, Mansion House, and Bank of England in ruins--orful
+scenes in the streets. Paper, sir?"
+
+He got out of the carriage and grabbed the first newspaper that was
+thrust into his hand, gave the boy sixpence for it, and hurried away
+towards the entrance. He found a few cabmen outside the station; he
+hailed one of the drivers, got in, and said:
+
+"Downing Street--quick. There's a sovereign; there'll be another for you
+when I get there."
+
+"It's a mighty risky job, guv'nor, these times, driving a keb through
+London streets. Still, one's got to live, I suppose. 'Old up there--my
+Gawd, that's another of those bombs! You just got out of there in time,
+sir."
+
+Even as though it had been timed, as it might well have been, a torpedo
+dropped from a ghostly shape drifting slowly across the grey November
+clouds. Then there came a terrific shock. Every pane in the vast roof
+and in the St Pancras Hotel shivered to the dust. The engine which had
+drawn Lennard's train blew up like one huge shell, and the carriages
+behind it fell into splinters.
+
+If that shell had only dropped three minutes sooner the end of the World
+war of 1910 would have been very different to what it was; for, as
+Lennard learned afterwards, of all the porters, officials and
+passengers, who had the misfortune to be in the great station at that
+moment, only half a hundred cripples, maimed for life, escaped.
+
+"I wonder whether that was meant for me," said Lennard as the frightened
+horse sprang away at a half gallop. "If that's the case, John Castellan
+knows rather more than he ought to do, and, good Lord, if he knows that,
+he must know where Auriole is, and what's to stop him taking one of
+those infernal things of his up to Whernside, wrecking the house and the
+observatory, and taking her off with him to the uttermost ends of the
+earth if he likes?
+
+"There must be something in it or that shell would not have dropped just
+after I got outside the station. They watched the train come in, and
+they knew I was in it--they must have known.
+
+"What a ghastly catastrophe it would be if they got on to that scheme of
+ours at the pit. Fancy one of those aërial torpedoes of his dropping
+down the bore of the cannon a few minutes before the right time! It
+would mean everything lost, and nothing gained, not even for him.
+
+"Ah, good man Erskine," he went on, as he opened the paper, and read
+that every cruiser, battleship and transport that had forced the
+entrance to the Thames and Medway had been sunk. "That will be a bit of
+a check for them, anyhow. Yes, yes, that's very good. Garrison Fort,
+Chatham and Tilbury, of course, destroyed from the air, but not a ship
+nor a man left to go and take possession of them."
+
+While he was reading his paper, and muttering thus to himself, the cab
+was tearing at the horse's best speed down Gray's Inn Road. It took a
+sudden swing to the right into Holborn, ran along New Oxford Street, and
+turned down Charing Cross Road, the horse going at a full gallop the
+whole time.
+
+Happily it was a good horse, or the fate of the world might have been
+different. There was no rule of the road now, and no rules against
+furious driving. London was panic-stricken, as it might well be. As far
+as Lennard could judge the aërial torpedoes were being dropped mostly in
+the neighbourhood of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and about Grosvenor
+Place and Park Lane. He half expected to find Parliament Street and
+Westminster in ruins, but for some mysterious reason they had been
+spared.
+
+The great City was blazing in twenty places, and scarcely a minute
+passed without the crash of an explosion and the roar of flame that
+followed it, but a magic circle seemed to have been drawn round
+Westminster. There nothing was touched, and yet the wharves on the other
+side of the river, and the great manufactories behind them, were blazing
+and vomiting clouds of flame and smoke towards the clouds as though the
+earth had been split open beneath them and the internal fires themselves
+let loose.
+
+When the cabman pulled up his sweating and panting horse at the door of
+Number 2 Downing Street, Lennard got out and said to the cabman:
+
+"You did that very well, considering the general state of things. I
+don't know whether you'll live to enjoy it or not, but there's a
+five-pound note for you, and if you'll take my advice you will get your
+wife and family, if you have one, into that cab, and drive right out
+into the country. It strikes me London's going to be a very good place
+to stop away from for the next two or three days."
+
+"Thank 'ee, sir," said the cabman, as he gathered up the five-pound note
+and tucked it down inside his collar. "I don't know who you are, but
+it's very kind of you; and as you seem to know something, I'll do as
+you say. What with these devil-ships a-flyin' about the skies, and
+dropping thunderbolts on us from the clouds, and furreners a-comin' up
+the Thames as I've heard, London ain't 'ealthy enough for me, nor the
+missus and the kids, and thanks for your kindness, sir, we're movin'
+to-night, keb an' all.
+
+"Oh, my Gawd, there's another! 'Otel Cecil and Savoy this time, if I've
+got my bearin's right. Well, there's one thing, t'ain't on'y the pore
+what's sufferin' this time; there'll be a lot of rich people dead afore
+mornin'. A pal of mine told me just now that Park Lane was burnin' from
+end t' end. Good-evenin', sir, and thenk you."
+
+As the cab drove away Lennard stood for a few moments on the pavement,
+watching two columns of flame soaring up from the side of the Strand.
+Perhaps the most dreadful effects produced by the aërial torpedoes were
+those which resulted from the breaking of the gas mains and the
+destruction of the electric conduits. Save for the bale-fires of ruin
+and destruction, half London was in darkness. Miles of streets under
+which the gas mains were laid blew up with almost volcanic force. The
+electric mains were severed, and all the contents dislocated, and if
+ever London deserved the name which James Thompson gave it when he
+called it "The City of Dreadful Night," it deserved it on that evening
+of the 17th of November 1909.
+
+Lennard was received in the Prime Minister's room by Mr Chamberlain,
+Lord Whittinghame, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Milner and General
+Lord Kitchener.
+
+It was perhaps the strangest meeting that had ever taken place in that
+room, not even saving the historic meeting of 1886. There was very
+little talking. Even in the House of Commons the flood of talk had ebbed
+away in such a fashion that it made it possible for the nation's
+business to be got through at a wonderful speed. The fact of the matter
+was that the guns were talking--talking within earshot of Palace Yard
+itself, and so men had come to choose their words and make them few.
+
+After the introductions had been made the man who really held the fate
+of the world in his hands took a long envelope out of the breast-pocket
+of his coat, and proceeded to explain, somewhat as a schoolmaster might
+explain to his class, the doom which would overwhelm humanity on the
+12th May 1910.
+
+He was listened to in absolute silence, because his hearers were men who
+had good reason for believing that silence is often worth a good deal
+more than speech. When he had finished the rustle of his papers as he
+handed them to the Prime Minister was distinctly audible in the solemn
+silence. The Prime Minister folded them up, and said:
+
+"There is no necessity for us to go into the figures again. I think we
+are prepared to take them on the strength of your reputation, Mr
+Lennard.
+
+"We have asked you here to-night as an adviser, as a man who in more
+ways than one sees farther than we can. Now, what is your advice? You
+are aware, I presume, that the German Emperor, the Czar of Russia and
+the French President landed at Dover this morning, and have issued an
+ultimatum from Canterbury, calling upon us to surrender London, and
+discuss terms of peace in the interests of humanity. Now, you occupy a
+unique point of view. You have told us in your letters that unless a
+miracle happens the human race will not survive midnight of the 12th of
+May next. We believe that you are right, and now, perhaps, you will be
+good enough to let us have your opinions as to what should be done in
+the immediate present."
+
+"My opinion is, sir, that for at least forty days you must fight, no
+matter how great the odds may appear to be. Every ditch and hedgerow,
+every road and lane, every hill and copse must be defended. If London
+falls, England falls, and with it the Empire."
+
+"But how are we to do it?" exclaimed Lord Kitchener. "With these
+infernal airships flying about above it, and dropping young earthquakes
+from the clouds? There are no braver men on earth than ours, but it
+isn't human nature to keep steady under that kind of punishment. Look
+what they've done already in London! What is there to prevent them, for
+instance, from dropping a shell through the roof of this house, and
+blowing the lot of us to eternity in little pieces? It's not the
+slightest use trying to shoot back at them. You remember what happened
+to poor Beresford and the rest of his fleet in Dover Harbour. If you
+can't hit back, you can't fight."
+
+"That certainly appears to be perfectly reasonable," said Sir Henry
+Campbell-Bannerman. "Personally, I must confess, although with the
+greatest reluctance, that considering the enormous advantage possessed
+by the enemy in this combination of submarine and flying machine, we
+have no other alternative but to surrender at discretion. It is a
+pitiful thing to say, I am well aware, but we are fighting forces which
+would never have been called into being in any other war. I agree with
+Lord Kitchener that you cannot fight an enemy if you cannot hit him
+back. I am afraid there is no other alternative."
+
+"No," added Lord Whittinghame, "I am afraid there is not. By to-morrow
+morning there will be three millions of men on British soil, and we
+haven't a million to put against them--to say nothing of these horrible
+airships: but, Mr Lennard, if the world is only going to live about six
+months or so, what is the use of conquering the British Empire? Surely
+there must be another alternative."
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Lennard, "there is another. I've no doubt your
+lordship has one of your motors within call. Let us go down to
+Canterbury, yourself, Lord Kitchener and myself, and I will see if I
+can't convince the German Emperor that in trying to conquer Britain he
+is only stabbing the waters. If I only had him at Whernside, I would
+convince him in five minutes."
+
+"Then we'd better get hold of him and take him there," said Lord
+Kitchener. "But I'm ready for the Canterbury journey."
+
+"And so am I," said Lord Whittinghame, "and the sooner we're off the
+better. I've got a new Napier here that's good for seventy-five miles an
+hour, so we'd better be off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM
+
+
+Within five minutes they were seated in the big Napier, with ninety
+horse-power under them, and a possibility of eighty miles an hour before
+them. A white flag was fastened to a little flagstaff on the left-hand
+side. They put on their goggles and overcoats, and took Westminster
+Bridge, as it seemed, in a leap. Rochester was reached in twenty-five
+minutes, but at the southern side of Rochester Bridge they were held up
+by German sentries.
+
+"Not a pleasant sort of thing on English soil," growled Lord Kitchener
+as Lord Whittinghame stopped the motor.
+
+"Is the German Emperor here yet?" asked Lennard in German.
+
+"No, Herr, he is at Canterbury," replied the sentry. "Would you like to
+see the officer?"
+
+"Yes," said Lennard, "as soon as possible. These gentlemen are Lord
+Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, and they wish to meet the Emperor as
+soon as possible."
+
+The sentry saluted and retired, and presently a captain of Uhlans came
+clattering across the street, clicked his heels together, touched the
+side of his helmet, and said:
+
+"At your service, gentlemen. What can I do for you?"
+
+"We wish to get into communication with the German Emperor as soon as
+possible," replied Lord Whittinghame. "Is the telegraph still working
+from here to Canterbury?"
+
+"It is," replied the German officer; "if you will come with me to the
+office you shall be put into communication with His Majesty at once; but
+it will be necessary for me to hear what you say."
+
+"We're only going to try and make peace," said Lord Kitchener, "so you
+might as well hear all we've got to say. Those infernal airships of
+yours have beaten us. Will you get in? We'll run you round to the
+office."
+
+"I thank you," replied the captain of the Uhlans, "but it will be better
+if I walk on and have the line cleared. I will meet you at the office.
+Adieu."
+
+He stiffened up, clicked his heels again, saluted, and the next moment
+he had thrown his right leg across the horse which the orderly had
+brought up for him.
+
+"Not bad men, those Uhlans," said Lord Kitchener, as the car moved
+slowly towards the telegraph station. "Take a lot of beating in the
+field, I should say, if it once came to cold steel."
+
+They halted at the post-office, and the captain of Uhlans, who was in
+charge of all the telegraph lines of the south-east, was requested to
+send the following telegram, which was signed by Lord Whittinghame and
+Lord Kitchener.
+
+
+     "Acting as deputation from British Government we desire interview
+     with your Majesty at Canterbury, with view to putting end to
+     present bloodshed, if possible, also other important news to
+     communicate."
+
+
+This telegram was despatched to the Kaiser at the County Hotel,
+Canterbury, and while they were waiting for the reply a message came in
+from Whitstable addressed to "Lennard, oyster merchant, Rochester,"
+which was in the following terms:
+
+
+     "Oyster catch promises well. Advised large purchase
+     to-morrow.--ROBINSON & SMITH."
+
+
+"That seems rather a frivolous sort of thing to send one nowadays,"
+said Lennard, dropping the paper to the floor after reading the telegram
+aloud. "I have some interest in the beds at Whitstable, and my agents,
+who don't seem to know that there's a war going on, want me to invest. I
+think it's hardly good enough, when you don't know whether you'll be in
+little pieces within the next ten minutes."
+
+"I don't see why you shouldn't take on a contract for supplying our
+friends the enemy," laughed Lord Kitchener, as the twinkle of an eye
+passed between them, while the captain of Uhlans' back was turned for an
+instant.
+
+"I'm afraid they would be confiscated before I could do that," said
+Lennard. "I shan't bother about answering it. We have rather more
+serious things than oysters to think about just now."
+
+The sounder clicked, and the German telegraphist, who had taken the
+place of the English one, tapped out a message, which he handed to the
+captain of Uhlans.
+
+"Gentlemen, His Imperial Majesty will be glad to receive you at the
+County Hotel, Canterbury. I will give you a small flag which shall
+secure you from all molestation."
+
+He handed the paper to Lord Whittinghame as he spoke. The Imperial
+message read:
+
+
+     "Happy to meet deputation. Please carry German flag, which will
+     secure you from molestation _en route_. I am wiring orders for
+     suspension of hostilities till dawn to-morrow. I hope we may make
+     satisfactory arrangements.--WILHELM."
+
+
+"That is quite satisfactory," said Lord Whittinghame to the captain of
+Uhlans. "We shall be much obliged to you for the flag, and you will
+perhaps telegraph down the road saying that we are not to be stopped. I
+can assure you that the matter is one of the utmost urgency."
+
+"Certainly, my lord," replied the captain. "His Majesty's word is given.
+That is enough for us."
+
+Ten minutes later the big Napier, flying the German flag on the
+left-hand side, was spinning away through Chatham, and down the straight
+road to Canterbury. They slowed up going through Sittingbourne and
+Faversham, which were already in the hands of the Allied forces, thanks
+to John Castellan's precautions in blocking all railroads to Dover, and
+the German flag was saluted by the garrisons, much to Lord Kitchener's
+quietly-expressed displeasure, but he knew they were playing for a big
+stake, and so he just touched his cap, as they swung through the narrow
+streets, and said what he had to say under his breath.
+
+Within forty minutes the car pulled up opposite the County Hotel,
+Canterbury. The ancient city was no longer English, save as regarded its
+architecture. Everywhere, the clatter of German hoofs sounded on the
+streets, and the clink and clank of German spurs and swords sounded on
+the pavements. The French and Austrians were taking the westward routes
+by Ashford and Tonbridge in the enveloping movement on London. The War
+Lord of Germany had selected the direct route for himself.
+
+As the motor stopped panting and throbbing in front of the hotel
+entrance, a big man in the uniform of the Imperial Guard came out,
+saluted, and said:
+
+"Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, with Mr Lennard, I presume?"
+
+"Yes, that's so," said Lord Kitchener, opening the side door and getting
+out. "Colonel von Folkerström, I believe. I think we've met before. You
+were His Majesty's _attaché_ with us during the Boer War, I think. This
+is Lord Whittinghame, and this is Mr Lennard. Is His Majesty within?"
+
+"His Majesty awaits you, gentlemen," replied the Colonel, formally. And
+then as he shook hands with Lord Kitchener he added, "I am sorry, sir,
+that we should meet as enemies on English soil."
+
+"Just the fortune of war and those damned airships of yours, Colonel,"
+laughed Lord Kitchener in reply. "If we'd had them this meeting might
+have been in Berlin or Potsdam. Can't fight against those things, you
+know. We're only human."
+
+"But you English are just a little more, I think," said the Colonel to
+himself. "Gottes willen! What would my August Master be thinking now if
+this was in Berlin instead of Canterbury, and here are these Englishmen
+taking it as quietly as though an invasion of England happened every
+day." And when he had said this to himself he continued aloud:
+
+"My lords and Mr Lennard, if you will follow me I will conduct you into
+His Majesty's presence."
+
+They followed the Colonel upstairs to the first floor. Two sentries in
+the uniform of the 1st Regiment of Cuirassiers were guarding the door:
+their bayoneted rifles came up to the present, the Colonel answered the
+salute, and they dropped to attention. The Colonel knocked at the door
+and a harsh voice replied:
+
+"Herein."
+
+The door swung open and Lennard found himself for the first but not the
+last time in the presence of the War Lord of Germany.
+
+"Good-evening, gentlemen," said the Kaiser. "You will understand me when
+I say I am both glad and sorry to see you."
+
+"Your Majesty," replied Lord Whittinghame, in a curiously serious tone,
+"the time for human joy and sorrow is so fast expiring that almost
+everything has ceased to matter, even the invasion of England."
+
+The Kaiser's brows lifted, and he stared in frank astonishment at the
+man who could say such apparently ridiculous words so seriously. If he
+had not known that he was talking to the late Prime Minister, and the
+present leader of the Unionist party in the House of Lords, he would
+have thought him mad.
+
+"Those are very strange words, my lord," he replied. "You will pardon me
+if I confess that I can hardly grasp their meaning."
+
+"If your Majesty has an hour to spare," said Lord Whittinghame, "Mr
+Lennard will make everything perfectly plain. But what he has to say,
+and what he can prove, must be for your Majesty's ears alone."
+
+"Is it so important as that?" laughed the Kaiser.
+
+"It is so important, sire," said Lord Kitchener, "that the fate of the
+whole world hangs upon what you may say or do within the next hour. So
+far, you have beaten us, because you have been able to bring into action
+engines of warfare against which we have been unable to defend
+ourselves. But now, there is another enemy in the field, against which
+we possess the only means of defence. That is what we have come to
+explain to your Majesty."
+
+"Another enemy!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "but how can that be. There are
+no earthly powers left sufficiently strong that we would be powerless
+against them."
+
+"This is not an earthly enemy, your Majesty," replied Lennard, speaking
+for the first time since he had entered the room. "It is an invader from
+Space. To put it quite plainly, the terms which we have come to offer
+your Majesty are: Cessation of hostilities for six months, withdrawal of
+all troops from British soil, universal disarmament, and a pledge to be
+entered into by all the Powers of Europe and the United States of
+America that after the 12th of May next there shall be no more war. Your
+fleets have been destroyed as well as ours, your armies are here, but
+they cannot get away, and so we are going to ask you to surrender."
+
+"Surrender!" echoed the Kaiser, "surrender, when your country lies open
+and defenceless before us? No, no. Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener
+I know, but who are you, sir--a civilian and an unknown man, that you
+should dictate peace to me and my Allies?"
+
+"Only a man, your Majesty," said Lord Whittinghame, "who has convinced
+the British Cabinet Council that he holds the fate of the world in the
+hollow of his hands. Are you prepared to be convinced?"
+
+"Of what?" replied the Kaiser, coldly.
+
+"That there will be no world left to conquer after midnight on the 12th
+of May next, or to put it otherwise, that unless our terms are accepted,
+and Mr Lennard carries out his work, there will be neither victors nor
+vanquished left on earth."
+
+"Gentlemen," replied the Kaiser, "you will pardon me when I say that I
+am surprised beyond measure that you should have come to me with a
+schoolboy's tale like that. The eternal order of things cannot be
+interrupted in such a ridiculous fashion. Again, I trust you will
+forgive me when I express my regret that you should have wasted so much
+of your own time and mine on an errand which should surely have appeared
+to you fruitless from the first.
+
+"Whoever or whatever this gentleman may be," he continued with a wave of
+his hand towards Lennard, "I neither know nor care; but that yourself
+and Lord Kitchener should have been deceived so grossly, I must confess
+passes the limits of my imagination. Frankly, I do not believe in the
+possibility of such proofs as you allude to. As regards peace, I propose
+to discuss terms with King Edward in Windsor--not before, nor with
+anyone else. Gentlemen, I have other matters to attend to, and I have
+the honour to bid you good-evening."
+
+"And that is your Majesty's last word?" said Lord Kitchener. "You mean a
+fight to the finish?"
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied the Kaiser, "whether the world finishes with the
+fight or not."
+
+"Very well then," said Lennard, taking an envelope from the
+breast-pocket of his coat, and putting it down on the table before the
+Emperor. "If your Majesty has not time to look through those papers,
+you will perhaps send them to Berlin and take your own astronomer's
+report upon them. Meanwhile, you will remember that our terms are:
+Unconditional surrender of the forces invading the British Islands or
+the destruction of the world. Good-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS
+
+
+In spite of the bold front that he had assumed during the interview, the
+strain, not exactly of superstition but rather of supernaturalism which
+runs so strongly in the Kaiser's family, made it impossible for him to
+treat such a tremendous threat as the destruction of the world as an
+alternative to universal peace by any means as lightly as he appeared to
+his visitors to do; and when the audience was over he picked up the
+envelope which Lennard had left upon the table, beckoned Count von
+Moltke into his room behind, locked the door, and said:
+
+"Now, Count, what is your opinion of this? At first sight it looks
+ridiculous; but whoever this Lennard may be, it seems hardly likely that
+two men like Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, two of the
+coolest-headed and best-balanced men on earth, should take the trouble
+to come down here as a deputation from the British Cabinet only to make
+themselves ridiculous. Suppose we have a look at these papers?
+Everything is in train for the advance. I daresay you and I understand
+enough of mathematics between us to find out if there is anything
+serious in them, and if so, they shall go to Herr Döllinger at once."
+
+"I think it would be at least worth while to look through them, your
+Majesty," replied the Count. "Like yourself, I find it rather difficult
+to believe that this mysterious Mr Lennard, whoever he is, has been able
+to impose upon the whole British Cabinet, to say nothing of Lord
+Kitchener, who is about the best engineer and mathematician in the
+British Army."
+
+So the Count and the Kaiser sat down, and went through the elaborate and
+yet beautifully clear calculations and diagrams, page by page, each
+making notes as he went on. At the end of an hour the Kaiser looked over
+his own notes, and said to von Moltke:
+
+"Well, what is your opinion, Count?"
+
+"I am not an astronomer, your Majesty, but these calculations certainly
+appear to me to be correct as far as they go--that is, granted always
+that the premisses from which Mr Lennard starts are correct. But
+certainly I think that your Majesty will be wise in sending them as soon
+as possible to Herr Döllinger."
+
+"That is exactly the conclusion that I have come to myself," replied the
+Kaiser. "I will write a note to Herr Döllinger, and one of the airships
+must take it across to Potsdam. We can't afford to run any risks of that
+infernal submarine ram or whatever she is. I would almost give an Army
+corps for that ship. There's no doubt she's lost us three fleets, a
+score of transports, and twenty thousand men in the last three days, and
+she's just as much a mystery as ever. It's the most extraordinary
+position a conquering army was ever put into before."
+
+The Kaiser was perfectly right. There could be no doubt that up to the
+present the invading forces had been victorious, thanks of course mainly
+to the irresistible advantage of the airships, but also in no small
+degree to the hopeless unpreparedness of the British home armies to meet
+an invasion, which both military and naval experts had simply refused to
+believe possible.
+
+The seizure of the line from Dover to Chatham had been accomplished in a
+single night. A dozen airships patrolled the air ahead of the advancing
+German forces, which of course far outnumbered the weak and
+hastily-collected British forces which could be brought against them,
+and which, attacked at once by land and from the air, never really had a
+chance.
+
+It was the most perfectly conducted invasion ever planned. The
+construction trains which went in advance on both lines carried sections
+of metals of English gauge, already fastened to sleepers, and ready to
+lay down. Every little bridge and culvert had been known and was
+provided for. Not a bolt nor a fishplate had been forgotten, and
+moreover John Castellan's operations from the air had reduced the
+destruction to a minimum, and the consequence was that twelve hours
+after the Kaiser had landed at Dover he found himself in his
+headquarters at Canterbury, whence the British garrison had been forced
+to retire after heavy fighting along the lines of wooded hills behind
+Maidstone.
+
+It was the old, old story, the story of every war that England had gone
+into and "muddled through" somehow; but with two differences. Her
+soldiers had never had to fight an enemy in the skies before, and--there
+was no time now to straighten out the muddle, even if every able-bodied
+man in the United Kingdom had been trained soldiers, as the invaders
+were.
+
+But there was another element in the situation. Incredible as it might
+seem to those ignorant of the tremendous forces brought into play, the
+home fleets of Europe had been destroyed, practically to a ship, within
+three days and nights. The narrow seas were deserted. On the morning of
+the seventeenth, four transports attempting to cross from Hamburg to
+Ramsgate, carrying a force of men, horses and light artillery, which was
+intended to operate as a flying column along the northern shores of
+Kent, had been rammed and sent to the bottom within fifteen minutes half
+way between land and land, and not a man nor an animal had escaped.
+
+There was no news from the expeditions which had been sent against Hull
+and Newcastle--all the cables had been cut, save the transatlantic
+lines, the cutting of which the United States had already declared they
+would consider as an unfriendly act on the part of the Allies, and the
+British cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard which connected with Palermo
+and Rome, and so formed the link of communication between Britain and
+the Mediterranean.
+
+The British Mediterranean Fleet was coming home, so were the West Indian
+and North American squadrons, while the squadron in the China seas was
+also ordered home, via the Suez Canal, to form a conjunction with our
+Italian Allies. Of course, these ships would in due time be dealt with
+by the aërial submarines, but meanwhile commerce with Europe had become
+impossible. Imports had stopped at most of the great ports through sheer
+terror of this demon of the sea, which appeared to be here, there and
+everywhere at the same time; and with all these powerful squadrons
+converging upon the shores of Britain the problem of feeding and
+generally keeping fit for war some three millions of men and over half a
+million horses would soon begin to look distinctly serious.
+
+Castellan's vessels had hunted in vain for this solitary vessel, which
+single-handed, marvellous as it seemed, kept the narrow waters clear of
+invaders. The truth of this matter, however, was very simple. The
+_Ithuriel_ was nearly twice as fast in the water as the _Flying Fishes_,
+and she carried guns with an effective range of five miles, whereas they
+only carried torpedoes.
+
+For instance, during the battle of Sheerness, in which the remaining
+units of the North Sea Squadron had, with the _Ithuriel's_ aid, attacked
+and destroyed every German and Russian battleship and transport,
+Erskine's craft had done terrible execution without so much as being
+seen until, when the last of the German Coast Defence ships had gone
+down with all hands in the Great Nore, off the Nore lighthouse, whence
+she was shelling Garrison Fort, the _Ithuriel_ had risen above the water
+for a few moments, and Denis Castellan had taken a cockshot with the
+three forward guns at a couple of _Flying Fishes_ that were circling
+over the town and fort and river mouth.
+
+The shells had time-fuses, and they were timed to the tenth of a
+second. They burst simultaneously over the airships. Then came a rending
+of the atmosphere, and descending streams of fire, which burst with a
+rapid succession of sharp reports as they touched the airships. Then
+came another blaze of light which seemed to darken the wintry sun for a
+moment, and then another quaking of the air, after which what was left
+of the two _Flying Fishes_ fell in little fragments into the water,
+splashing here and there as though they had been shingle ballast thrown
+out of a balloon.
+
+True, Garrison Fort had been blown up by the aërial torpedoes, and the
+same fate was befalling the great forts at Tilbury, but their gallant
+defenders did not die in vain, and, although the remainder of the aërial
+squadron were able to go on and do their work of destruction on London,
+whither the _Ithuriel_ could not follow them, the wrecks of six
+battleships, a dozen destroyers and ten transports strewed the
+approaches to the Thames and the Medway, while nearly thirty thousand
+soldiers and sailors would never salute the flag of Czar or Kaiser
+again.
+
+In all the history of war no such loss of men, ships and material had
+ever taken place within the short space of three days and a few hours.
+Four great fleets and nearly a hundred thousand men had been wiped out
+of existence since the assault on Southern England had begun, and even
+now, despite the airships, had the millions of Britain's able-bodied
+men, who were grinding their teeth and clenching their fists in impotent
+fury, been trained just to shoot and march, it would have been possible
+to take the invaders between overwhelming masses of men--who would hold
+their lives as nothing in comparison with their country's honour--and
+the now impassable sea, and drive them back into it. But although men
+and youths went in their tens of thousands to the recruiting stations
+and demanded to be enlisted, it was no use. Soldiers are not made in a
+day or a week, and the invaders of England had been making them for
+forty years.
+
+While the Kaiser and Count von Moltke were going through Lennard's
+papers, and coming to the decision to send them to Potsdam, Lord
+Whittinghame's motor, instead of returning to Chatham, was running up to
+Whitstable to answer the telegram which Lennard had received at
+Rochester. The German flag cleared them out of Canterbury. It was
+already known that they had been received by the Kaiser, and therefore
+their persons were sacred. In consequence of the loss of the squadron
+attacking the Thames and Medway, and the destruction of the Ramsgate
+flotilla, the country was not occupied by the enemy north of the great
+main road through Canterbury and Faversham, and that was just why the
+_Ithuriel_ was lying snugly in the mouth of the East Swale River, about
+three miles from the little town, with a shabby-looking lighter beside
+her, from which she was taking in an extra complement of her own shells
+and material for making Lennard's explosive, as well as a full load of
+fuel for her engines. They pulled up at the door of the Bear and Key
+Hotel, and as the motor came to a standstill a man dressed in the
+costume of an ordinary worker on the oyster-beds came up, touched his
+sou'wester, and said:
+
+"Mr Lennard's car, gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes, I'm here," said Lennard, shortly; "we've just left the Emperor at
+Canterbury. How about those oysters? I should think you ought to do well
+with them in Canterbury. Got plenty?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man. "If you will come down to the wharf I will
+be able to show you a shipment that I can send along to-night if the
+train comes from Canterbury."
+
+"I think we might as well have a drop of something hot first, it's
+rather cold riding."
+
+The others nodded, and they went into the hotel without removing their
+caps or goggles. They asked a waiter to show them into a private room,
+as they had some business to do, and when four glasses of hot whisky and
+water had been put on the table, Lennard locked the door and said:
+
+"My lords, allow me to have the pleasure of introducing to you
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan of His Majesty's cruiser _Ithuriel_."
+
+Lord Whittinghame's and Lord Kitchener's hands went out together, and
+the former said:
+
+"Delighted to meet you, Mr Castellan. You and Captain Erskine have done
+magnificently for us in spite of all our troubles. In fact, I don't know
+what we should have done without you and this wonderful craft of yours."
+
+"With all due deference to the Naval Council," said "K. of K," rather
+bluntly, "it's a pity they didn't put down a dozen of her. But what
+about these oysters that you telegraphed to Mr Lennard about?"
+
+"There is only one oyster in question at present, my lord," said Denis,
+with an entirely Irish smile, "but it's rather a big one. It's the
+German Emperor's yacht, the _Hohenzollern_. She managed to run across,
+and get into Ramsgate, while we were up here in the Thames--that's the
+worst of there being only one of us, as we can only attend to one piece
+of business at a time. Now, she's lying there waiting the Kaiser's
+orders, in case he wants to take a trip across, and it seems to me that
+she'd be worth the watching for a day or two--she'd be a big prize, you
+know, gentlemen, especially if we could catch her with the War Lord of
+Germany on board her. I don't think myself that His Majesty would have
+any great taste for a trip to the bottom of the North Sea, just when he
+thinks he's beginning the conquest of England so nicely, and, by the
+Powers, we'd send him there if he got into one of his awkward tempers
+with us."
+
+Lord Kitchener, who was in England acting as Chief-of-the-Staff to the
+Duke of Connaught, and general adviser to the Council of National
+Defence, took Lord Whittinghame to the other end of the room, and said
+a few words to him in a low tone, and he came back and said:
+
+"It is certainly worth trying, even if you can only catch the ship; but
+we don't think you'll catch the Kaiser. The fact is, you seem to have
+established such a holy terror in these waters that I don't think he
+would trust his Imperial person between here and Germany. If he did go
+across, he'd probably go in an airship. But if you can bring the
+_Hohenzollern_ up to Tilbury--of course, under the German flag--I think
+we shall be able to make good use of her. If she won't come, sink her."
+
+"Very good, my lords," said Denis, saluting. "If she's not coming up the
+Thames to-morrow night with the _Ithuriel_ under her stern, ye'll know
+that she's on the bottom in pieces somewhere. And now," he continued,
+taking a long envelope from an inner pocket, "here is the full report of
+our doings since the war began, with return of ships sunk, crippled and
+escaped; number of men landed, and so on, according to instructions. We
+will report again to-morrow night, I hope, with the _Hohenzollern_."
+
+They shook hands and wished him good-night and good luck, and in half an
+hour the _Ithuriel_ was running half-submerged eastward along the coast,
+and the motor was on its way to Faversham by the northern road, as there
+were certain reasons why it should not go back through Canterbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE LION WAKES
+
+
+At daybreak on the nineteenth, to the utter amazement of everyone who
+was not "in the know," the Imperial yacht, _Hohenzollern_, was found off
+Tilbury, flying the Imperial German Ensign and the Naval flag, as well
+as a long string of signals ordering the aërial bombardment of London to
+cease, and all the _Flying Fishes_ to return at once to Canterbury.
+
+The apparent miracle had been accomplished in an absurdly easy fashion.
+About nine a.m. on the eighteenth a German orderly went into the
+post-office at Dover and handed in an official telegram signed "Von
+Roon," ordering the _Hohenzollern_ to come round at once to Dover, as
+she was considered too open to attack there.
+
+There was something so beautifully natural and simple in the whole
+proceeding that, although there were about a dozen German officers and
+non-commissioned officers in the room at the time that the orderly came
+and went without suspicion, the telegram was taken by the clerk, read
+and initialled by the Censor, and passed.
+
+A few minutes later the orderly, marching in perfectly correct German
+fashion and carrying a large yellow envelope, walked out through the
+town northwards and climbed the hill to the eastward of the ruined
+castle. The envelope with its official seal took him past the sentries
+without question, but, instead of delivering it, he turned down a bypath
+to Fan Bay, under the South Foreland, gained the beach, took off his
+uniform in a secluded spot under the cliffs, and went for a swim. The
+uniform was never reclaimed, for when he reached the submerged
+_Ithuriel_ Denis Castellan had a rub down and put his own on.
+
+The captain of the _Hohenzollern_ was only too glad to obey the order,
+for he also thought that it would be better protected from the dreaded
+ocean terror in Dover, so he lost no time in obeying the order; with the
+result that, just as he was entering the deserted Downs, the said terror
+met him and ordered him to the right-about under pain of instant
+sinking.
+
+After that the rest was easy. The captain and officers raged and
+stormed, but not even German discipline would have prevented a mutiny if
+they had not surrendered. It was known that the _Ithuriel_ took no
+prisoners. In five minutes after the irresistible ram had hit them they
+would be at the bottom of the sea, and so the Hohenzollern put about and
+steamed out into the North Sea, with the three wicked forward guns
+trained upon her, and the ram swirling smoothly through the water fifty
+yards from her stern.
+
+At nightfall the course was altered for the mouth of the Thames. And so,
+with all lights out and steered by a thin shifting ray from her captor's
+conning-tower, the Kaiser's yacht made its strange way to Tilbury.
+
+The instant she dropped her anchor a couple of destroyers ran out from
+the Gravesend shore and ranged alongside her. The next minute a British
+captain and three lieutenants followed by a hundred bluejackets had
+boarded her. The German Commander and his officers gave up their swords,
+devoutly hoping that they would never meet their War Lord again, and so
+the incident ended.
+
+It will be easily understood that the Kaiser was about the most
+infuriated man in the United Kingdom when the _Flying Fishes_ arrived at
+Canterbury and the Commander of the squadron described the arrival of
+the _Hohenzollern_ in the Thames and asked for orders.
+
+In the first place no one knew better than William the Second how
+priceless was the prize won by the impudent audacity of these two young
+British sailors. In his private apartments on board there were his own
+complete plans of the campaign--not only for the conquest of Britain,
+but afterwards for the dismemberment of the British Empire, and its
+partition among the Allies--exact accounts of the resources of the chief
+European nations in men, money and ships, plans of fortifications, and
+even drafts of treaties. In fact, it was such a haul of Imperial and
+International secrets as had never been made before; and that evening
+the British Cabinet held in their possession enough diplomatic
+explosives to blow the European league of nations to pieces.
+
+Erskine and Castellan were honoured by an autograph letter from the
+King, thanking them heartily for their splendid services up to the
+present stage of the war, and wishing them all good luck for the future.
+Then the _Ithuriel_ slipped down the Thames, towing half a dozen
+shabby-looking barges behind her, and for some days she disappeared
+utterly from human ken.
+
+What she was really doing during these days was this. These barges and
+several others which she picked up now and then were filled with
+ammunition for her guns and fuel for her engines, and she dropped them
+here and there in obscure creeks and rock-bound bays from Newcastle to
+the Clyde, where they lay looking like abandoned derelicts, until such
+times as they might be wanted.
+
+Meanwhile, very soon after the loss of the _Hohenzollern_, the Kaiser
+received two messages which disquieted him very seriously. One of these
+came by airship from Potsdam. It was an exhaustive report upon the
+papers which Lennard had left with him on that momentous night as it
+turned out to be, on which the War Lord had rejected the ultimatum of
+the Man of Peace. It was signed by Professor Döllinger and endorsed by
+four of the greatest astronomers of Germany.
+
+Briefly put, its substance amounted to this: Mr Lennard's calculations
+were absolutely correct, as far as they went. Granted the existence of
+such a celestial body as he designated _Alpha_ in the document, and its
+position _x_ on the day of its alleged discovery; its direction and
+speed designated _y_ and _z_, then at the time of contact designated
+_n_, it would infallibly come into contact with the earth's atmosphere,
+and the consequences deduced would certainly come to pass, viz., either
+the earth would combine with it, and be transformed into a
+semi-incandescent body, or the terrestrial atmosphere would become a
+fire mist which would destroy all animal and vegetable life upon the
+planet within the space of a few minutes.
+
+The second communication was a joint-note from the Emperor of Austria,
+the President of the Hague Council, the President of the French
+Republic, and the Tsar of Russia, protesting against the bombardment of
+London or any other defenceless town by the airships. The note set forth
+that these were purely engines of war, and ought not to be used for
+purposes of mere terrorism and murder. Their war employment on land or
+water, or against fortified positions, was perfectly legitimate, but
+against unarmed people and defenceless towns it was held to be contrary
+to all principles of humanity and civilisation, and it was therefore
+requested by the signatories that, in order to prevent serious
+differences between the Allies, it should cease forthwith.
+
+The result of this communication was of course a Council of War, which
+was anything but a harmonious gathering, especially as several of the
+older officers agreed with the tone of it, and told the Kaiser plainly
+that they considered that there was quite enough in the actual business
+of war for the _Flying Fishes_ to do; and the Chancellor did not
+hesitate to express the opinion that the majority of the peoples of
+Europe, and possibly large numbers of their own soldiers, who, after
+all, were citizens first and soldiers afterwards, would strongly resent
+such operations, especially when it became known that the Emperor's own
+Allies had protested against it; the result of the Council was that
+William the Second saw that he was clearly in a minority, and had the
+good sense to issue a General Order there and then that all aërial
+bombardments, save as part of an organised attack, should cease from
+that day.
+
+The events of the next twenty days were, as may well be imagined, full
+of momentous happenings, which it would require hundreds of pages to
+describe in anything like detail, and therefore only quite a brief
+sketch of them can be given here. This will, however, be sufficient to
+throw a clear light upon the still more stupendous events which were to
+follow.
+
+In consequence of the almost incredible destruction and slaughter during
+these first four awful days and nights of the war, both sides had lost
+the command of the sea, and the capture of the _Hohenzollern_ in broad
+daylight less than a dozen miles from the English coast had produced
+such a panic among the rank and file of the invaders, and the
+reinforcements of men waiting on the other side of the Channel and the
+North Sea, that communication save by airship had practically stopped.
+
+The consequence of this was that, geographically, the Allied armies,
+after the release of the prisoners from Portsmouth and Folkestone,
+amounted to some three million men of all arms, with half a million
+horses, and two thousand guns--it will be remembered that a vast number
+of horses, guns and stores had gone to the bottom in the warships which
+the _Ithuriel_ had sunk--were confined within a district bounded by the
+coast-line from Ramsgate to the Needles, and thence by a line running
+north to Southampton; thence, across Hampshire to Petersfield, and via
+Horsham, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and over Canterbury, back to
+Ramsgate.
+
+In view of the defeat and destruction of the expedition against London,
+the troops that had been thrown forward to Chatham and Rochester to
+co-operate with it were re-called, and concentrated between Ashford and
+Canterbury. The rest of England, Scotland and Ireland was to the present
+a closed country to them. The blockade on Swansea and Liverpool had been
+raised by the _Ithuriel_, and there was nothing to prevent any amount of
+supplies from the west and south being poured in through half a hundred
+ports.
+
+Thus the dream of starving the British Islands out had been dissipated
+at a stroke. True, the dockyards of Devonport and Milford Haven had been
+destroyed by the airships, but copies of the plans of the _Ithuriel_ had
+been sent to Liverpool, Barrow, Belfast, the Clyde and the Tyne, and
+hundreds of men were working at them night and day. Scores of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, belonging both to Britain and
+other countries, which were nearing completion, were being laboured at
+with feverish intensity, so that they might be fitted for sea in
+something like fighting trim; submarines were being finished off by
+dozens, and Thorneycroft's and Yarrow's yards were, like the rest,
+working to their full capacity.
+
+The blind frenzy of rage which had swept like an epidemic over the whole
+kingdom during the first days of disaster had died away and in its place
+had come the quiet but desperate resolve that if Britain was to be
+conquered she should be depopulated as well.
+
+All male employment, save that which was necessary to produce coal and
+iron, to keep the shipyards and the gun factories going, and the
+shipping on the west coast running, was stopped. In thousands of cases,
+especially in the north, the places of the men were taken by the women;
+and, in addition to these, every woman and girl, from the match-girls of
+Whitechapel to the noblest and wealthiest in the land, found some work
+to do in the service of their country.
+
+Every day, thousands and tens of thousands of the sons of England,
+Scotland, Ireland and Wales were taken in hand by "Mr Sergeant
+What's-'is-Name," and drilled into shape with miraculous speed; and
+every day, as detachment after detachment went to the battle front,
+which now extended from North Foreland to Portland Bill, the magic of
+patriotism and the long-inherited habits of order and obedience changed
+the raw recruit into the steady-nerved, strong-hearted soldier, who
+learnt his duty in the grim school of battle, and was ready to do it to
+the end.
+
+In less than a month Britain had become a military nation. It seemed at
+the time and afterwards a miracle, but it was merely the outcome of
+perfectly natural causes.
+
+After all, every British man has a strain of fighting blood in him. Even
+leaving out his ancient ancestry, he remains the descendant of families
+who have given soldier-sons to their country during five hundred years
+of almost ceaseless war in one part of the world or the other. He is
+really born with battle-smoke in his nostrils, and the beat of the
+battle-drum in his heart--and he knows that, neither on land nor sea has
+he ever been finally beaten.
+
+Remember, too, that this was to him a holy war, the holiest in which the
+sword can be drawn. He was fighting for freedom, for the possession of
+his land, for the protection of wife and child and kindred, and the
+heritage which his fathers of old time had handed down to him. Was it
+any wonder, then, that within the space of a few weeks the peaceful
+citizens of Britain, like the fabled harvest of the dragon's teeth,
+seemed to spring as men full-armed from the very ground? Moreover, this
+was no skirmishing with sharpshooters over a vast extent of country, six
+thousand miles away from home, as it had been in South Africa. This was
+home itself. There was no right or wrong here, nothing for politicians
+to wrangle about for party purposes. Here, in a little corner of little
+England, two mighty hosts were at death-grips day and night, the one
+fighting for all that is dearest and most sacred to the heart of man;
+and the other to save itself from what could be nothing less than
+irretrievable disaster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+MR PARMENTER SAYS
+
+
+Happily for the defenders of Britain the fleet of aërial submarines,
+from which so much had been expected for offensive purposes during the
+proposed "triumphal march" on London, soon became of little or no use in
+the field.
+
+The reason was this: As, day after day and week after week, that awful
+struggle continued, it became absolutely necessary for the Allies to
+obtain men and material to make good the fearful losses which the valour
+and devotion of what was now a whole nation in arms had inflicted upon
+them, and so all but four were despatched to guard the route between
+Dover and Calais--eight under the water and eight in the air--and so
+make it possible for the transports to cross. Of course, this meant that
+thousands of fresh men and hundreds of horses and guns could be poured
+into Kent every day; but it also meant that the greater portion of the
+defenders' most terrible foes were rendered harmless--and this was not
+the least of the good work that the _Ithuriel_ had done.
+
+Of course, that famous "sea-devil," as the invaders called her, was
+mostly on the spot or thereabouts, and every now and then a crowded
+transport would lurch over and go down, or a silent, flameless shot
+would rise up out of some unknown part of the waters and a shell would
+burst with a firmament-shaking concussion close to one of the
+airships--after which the airship would burst with a still more
+frightful shock and distribute herself in very small fragments through
+the shuddering atmosphere; but this only happened every other day or so,
+for Erskine and his lieutenant knew a good deal better than to run too
+many risks, at least just now.
+
+So, for twelve weeks of bitter, bloody and unsparing strife the grim,
+unceasing struggle for the possession of the Capital of the World went
+on, and when the eighteenth of March dawned, the outposts of the Allies
+were still twelve to fourteen miles from the banks of the Thames. How
+desperate had been that greatest of all defences since man had made war
+on man may be dimly guessed from the fact that it cost the invaders two
+months of incessant fighting and more than a million men before they
+planted their guns along the ridges of the North Downs and the Surrey
+Hills.
+
+Meanwhile Gilbert Lennard passed his peaceful though anxious days
+between Bolton and Whernside, while Auriole, Margaret Holker, Norah
+Castellan and Mrs O'Connor, with hundreds of other heroines, were doing
+their work of mercy in the hospital camps at the different bases behind
+the fighting front. Lord Westerham, who had worked miracles in the way
+of recruiting, was now in his glory as one of General French's Special
+Service Officers, which, under such a Commander, is about as dangerous a
+job as a man can find in the whole bloody business of war.
+
+And still, as the pitiless human strife went on with its ceaseless
+rattle of rifle fire, and the almost continuous roar of artillery, day
+by day the Invader from Space grew bigger and brighter in the great
+reflector, and day by day the huge cannon, which, in the decisive moment
+of the world's fate, was to do battle with it, approached completion.
+
+At midnight on the twelfth of March Tom Bowcock had announced that all
+was ready for the casting. Lennard gave the order by electric signal.
+The hundred converters belched their floods of glowing steel into what
+had once been Great Lever pit; night was turned into day by a vast glow
+that shot up to the zenith, and the first part of the great work was
+accomplished.
+
+At breakfast the next morning Lennard received the following cablegram
+from Pittsburg:
+
+
+     "All ready. Crossing fourteenth. Give particulars of comet away
+     when you like. Pittsburg Baby doing well. How's yours?--PARMENTER."
+
+
+In order to understand the full meaning of Mr Parmenter's curt cablegram
+it will be necessary to go back for a little space to the day when he
+made his hurried departure from the Clyde in the _Minnehaha_. It will be
+remembered that he had that morning received a cablegram from New York.
+This message had read thus:
+
+
+     "Complete success at last. Craft built and tried. Action and speed
+     perfect. Dollars out, hurry up.
+                                                            "HINGESTON."
+
+
+Now the signer of this cablegram, Newson Hingeston, was an old college
+friend of Mr Parmenter's, and therefore a man of about his own age. He
+was a born mathematician and engineer, and, like many another before
+him, the dream of his life had been the conquest of the air by means of
+vessels which flew as a bird flew, that is to say by their own inherent
+strength, and without the aid of gas-bags or buoyancy chambers, which
+he, like all the disciples of Nadar, Jules Verne, Maxim and Langley, had
+looked upon as mere devices of quackery, or at the best, playthings of
+rich people, who usually paid for their amusement with their lives.
+
+His father died soon after he left college, and left him a comfortable
+little estate on the north-western slopes of the Alleghanies, and a
+fortune in cash and securities of a million dollars. The estate gave him
+plenty to live upon comfortably, so he devoted his million to the
+realisation of his ideal. Ratliffe Parmenter, who only had a few hundred
+thousand dollars to begin with, laughed at him, but one day, after a
+long argument, just as a sort of sporting bet, he signed a bond to pay
+two million dollars for the first airship built by his friend that
+should fly in any direction, independently of the wind, and carry a dead
+weight of a ton in addition to a crew of four men.
+
+Newson Hingeston registered the bond with all gravity, and deposited it
+at his bank, and then their life-ways parted. Parmenter plunged into the
+vortex of speculation, went under sometimes, but always came to the top
+again with a few more millions in his insatiable grasp, and these
+millions, after the manner of their kind, had made more millions, and
+these still more, until he gave up the task of measuring the gigantic
+pile and let it grow.
+
+Meanwhile, his friend had spent the best twenty-five years of his life,
+all his fortune, and every dollar he could raise on his estate, in
+pursuit of the ideal which he had reached a few minutes later than the
+eleventh hour. Then he had sent that cable. Of course, he wanted the two
+millions, but what had so suddenly happened in England had instantly
+convinced him that he was now the possessor of an invention which many
+millions would not buy, and which might decide the fate of the world.
+
+Within twelve hours of his arrival at his friend's house, Ratliffe
+Parmenter was entirely convinced that Newson Hingeston had been
+perfectly justified in calling him across the Atlantic, for the very
+good reason that he spent the greater part of the night taking flying
+leaps over the Alleghanies, nerve-shuddering dives through valleys and
+gorges, and vast, skimming flights over dim, half-visible plains and
+forests to the west, soaring and swooping, twisting and turning at
+incredible speeds, in fact, doing everything that any bird that ever
+flew could do.
+
+When they got back to the house, just as dawn was breaking, and Mr
+Parmenter had shaken hands with Hiram Roker, a long, lean, slab-sided
+Yankee, who was Hingeston's head engineer and general manager, and had
+fought the grim fight through failure to success at his side for twenty
+years, he said to his friend:
+
+"Newson, you've won, and I guess I'll take that bond up, and I'd like to
+do a bit more than that. You know what's happening over the other side.
+There's got to be an Aërial Navigation Trust formed right away,
+consisting of you, myself and Hiram there, and Max Henchell, my partner,
+and that syndicate has to have twenty of these craft of yours, bigger if
+possible, afloat inside three months. The syndicate will commence at
+once with a capital of fifty millions, and there'll be fifty more behind
+that if wanted."
+
+"It's a great scheme," Hingeston replied slowly, "but I'm afraid the
+time's too short."
+
+"Time!" exclaimed Mr Parmenter. "Who in thunder thinks about time when
+dollars begin to talk? You just let me have all your plans and sections,
+drawings and the rest of your fixings in time to catch the ten o'clock
+train to Pittsburg. I'll run up and talk the matter over with Henchell.
+We'll have fifty workshops turning out the different parts in a week,
+and you shall have a staff of trustworthy men that we own, body and
+soul, down here to assemble them, and we'll make the best of those chaps
+into the crews of the ships when we get them afloat.
+
+"Now, don't talk back, Newson, that's fixed. I'm sleepy, and that trip
+has jerked my nerves up a bit. Give me a drink, and let's go to bed for
+two or three hours. You'll have a cheque for five millions before I
+start, and we shall then consider the _Columbia_ our private yacht.
+We'll fly her around at night, and just raise Cain in the way of
+mysteries for the newspapers, but we won't give ourselves away
+altogether until the fleet's ready."
+
+As they say on the other side of the Atlantic, what Ratliffe Parmenter
+said, went. He wielded the irresistible power of almost illimitable
+wealth, and during the twenty-five years that Hingeston had been working
+at his ideal, he and Maximilian Henchell, who was a descendant of one
+of the oldest Dutch families in America, and one of its shrewdest
+business men to boot, had built up an industrial organisation that was
+perhaps the most perfect of its kind even in the United States. It was
+run on lines of absolute despotism, but the despotism was at once
+intellectual and benevolent. To be a capable and faithful servant of
+Parmenter and Henchell, even in the humblest capacity, meant, not only
+good wages and provision for life, but prospects of advancement to the
+highest posts in the firm, and means of investing money which no
+outsider would ever hear of.
+
+Wherefore those who worked for Parmenter and Henchell formed an
+industrial army, some fifty thousand strong, generalled, officered and
+disciplined to the highest point of efficiency, and faithful to the
+death. In fact, to be dismissed from any of their departments or
+workshops was financial death. It was like having a sort of commercial
+ticket-of-leave, and if such a man tried for work elsewhere, the answer
+was "If you can't work for P. and H. you must be a crook of some sort. I
+guess you're no good to us." And the end of that man was usually worse
+than his beginning.
+
+This was the vast organisation which, when the word went forth from the
+headquarters at Pittsburg, devoted the best of its brains and skill to
+the creation of the Aërial Fleet, and, as Mr Parmenter had said, that
+Fleet was ready to take the air in the time he had allowed for its
+construction.
+
+But the new ships had developed in the course of making. They were half
+as long again as the _Columbia_, and therefore nearly twice as big, with
+engines four times the power, and they carried three guns ahead and
+three astern, which were almost exact reproductions of those of the
+_Ithuriel_, the plans of which had been brought over by the _Minnehaha_
+on her second trip.
+
+The _Columbia_ had a speed of about one hundred miles an hour, but the
+new models were good for nearly a hundred and fifty. In appearance they
+were very like broad and shallow torpedo boats, with three aeroplanes on
+either side, not unlike those of the _Flying Fishes_, with three lifting
+fans under each. These could be driven vertically or horizontally, and
+so when the big twin fans at the stern had got up sufficient way to keep
+the ship afloat by the pressure under the aeroplanes the lifting fans
+could be converted into pulling fans, but this was only necessary when a
+very high speed was desired.
+
+There was a signal mast and yard forward, and a flagstaff aft. The guns
+were worked under hoods, which protected the gunners from the rush of
+the wind, and just forward of the mast was an oval conning-tower, not
+unlike that of the _Ithuriel_, only, of course, unarmoured, from which
+everything connected with the working of the ship could be controlled by
+a single man.
+
+Such is a brief description of the Aërial Fleet which rose from the
+slopes of the Alleghanies at ten o'clock on the night of the fourteenth
+of March 1910, and winged its way silently and without lights eastward
+across the invisible waters of the Atlantic.
+
+There is one other point in Mr Parmenter's cablegram to Lennard which
+may as well be explained here. He had, of course, confided everything
+that he knew, not only about the war, but also about the approaching
+World Peril and the means that were being taken to combat it, to his
+partner on his first arrival in the States, and had also given him a
+copy of Lennard's calculations.
+
+Instantly Mr Max Henchell's patriotic ambition was fired. Mr Lennard had
+mentioned that Tom Bowcock, Lennard's general manager, had proposed to
+christen the great gun the "Bolton Baby." He had spent that night in
+calculations of differences of latitude and longitude, time, angles of
+inclination of the axis of the orbit, points and times of orbital
+intersection worked out from the horizon of Pittsburg, and when he had
+finished he solemnly asked himself the momentous question: Why should
+this world-saving business be left to England alone? After all the
+"Bolton Baby" might miss fire by a second or two. If it was going to be
+a matter of comet-shooting, what had America done that she could not
+have a gun? Were there not hundreds of eligible shafts to be bought
+round Pittsburg? Yes, America should have that gun, if the last dollar
+he possessed or could raise by fair means or foul was to be thrown down
+the bore of it.
+
+And so America had the gun, and therefore in after days the rival of the
+"Bolton Baby" came to be called the "Pittsburg Prattler."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT
+
+
+Lennard's first feelings after the receipt of Mr Parmenter's cablegram,
+and the casting of the vast mass of metal which was to form the body of
+the great cannon, were those of doubt and hesitation, mingled, possibly,
+with that sense of semi-irresponsibility which will for a time overcome
+the most highly-disciplined mind when some great task has been completed
+for the time being.
+
+For a full month nothing could be done to the cannon, since it would
+take quite that time for the metal to cool. Everything else had been
+done or made ready. The huge projectile which was to wing its way into
+Space to do battle for the life of humanity was completed. The boring
+and rifling tools were finished, and all the materials for the driving
+and the bursting charges were ready at hand for putting into their final
+form when the work of loading up began. There was literally nothing more
+to be done. All that human labour, skill and foresight could achieve for
+the present had been accomplished.
+
+Dearly would he have loved to go south and join the ranks of the
+fighters; but a higher sense of duty than personal courage forbade that.
+He was the only man who could perform the task he had undertaken, and a
+chance bullet fragment of a shell to say nothing of the hundred minor
+chances of the battlefield, might make the doing of that work
+impossible.
+
+No, his time would come in the awful moment when the fate of humanity
+would hang in the balance, and his place alike of honour and of duty
+was now in the equatorial room of the observatory at Whernside, watching
+through every waking hour of his life the movements of the Invader, that
+he might note the slightest deviation from its course, or the most
+trifling change in its velocity. For on such seemingly small matters as
+these depended, not only the fate of the world, but of the only woman
+who could make the world at least worth living in for him--and so he
+went to Whernside by the morning train after a long day's talk with Tom
+Bowcock over things in general.
+
+"Yo' may be sure that everything will be all right, Mr Lennard," said
+Tom, as they shook hands on the platform. "I'll take t' temperatures,
+top, bottom and middle, every night and morning and post them to yo',
+and if there's any change that we don't expect, I'll wire yo' at once;
+and now I've a great favour to ask you, Mr Lennard. I haven't asked it
+before because there's been too much work to do--"
+
+"You needn't ask it, Tom," laughed Lennard, as he returned his grip,
+"but I'm not going to invite you to Whernside just yet, for two reasons.
+In the first place, I can't trust that metal to anyone else but you for
+at least a week; and in the second place, when I do send you an
+invitation from Mr Parmenter I shall not only be able to show you the
+comet a bit brighter than it is just now, but something else that you
+may have thought about or read about but never seen yet, and I am going
+to give you an experience that no man born in England has ever had--but
+I'm not going to spoil sport by telling you now."
+
+"Yo've thought it all out afore me, Mr Lennard, as yo' always do
+everything," replied Tom. "I'm not much given to compliments, as yo'
+know, but yo're a wonderful man, and if yo've got something to show me,
+it's bound to be wonderful too, and if it's anything as wonderful as t'
+lies I've b'n telling those newspaper chaps about t' cannon, I reckon
+it'll make me open my eyes as wide as they've ever been, for sure.
+Good-bye."
+
+During the journey to Settle, Lennard began to debate once more with
+himself a question which had troubled him considerably since he had
+received Mr Parmenter's cablegram. Should he publish his calculations to
+the world at once, give the exact position of the Invader at a given
+moment in a given part of the sky, and so turn every telescope in the
+civilised world upon it--or should he wait until some astronomer made
+the independent discovery which must come within a short time now?
+
+There were reasons both for and against. To do so might perhaps stop the
+war, and that would, at first sight, be conferring a great blessing upon
+humanity; but, on the other hand, it might have the very reverse effect
+upon the millions of men whose blood was now inflamed with the lust of
+battle. Again it was one thing to convince the rulers of the nations and
+the scientists of the world that the coming catastrophe was inevitable;
+but to convince the people who made up those nations would be a very
+different matter.
+
+The end of the world had been predicted hundreds of times already,
+mostly by charlatans, who made a good living out of it, but sometimes by
+the most august authorities. He had read his history, and he had not
+forgotten the awful conditions in which the people of Europe fell during
+the last months of the year 1000, when the Infallible Church had
+solemnly proclaimed that at twelve o'clock on the night of the 31st of
+December Satan, chained for a thousand years, would be let loose; that
+on the morning of the 1st of January 1001 the order of Nature would be
+reversed, the sun would rise in the west and the reign of Anti-Christ
+begin. Then the remnants of the European nations had gradually awakened
+to the fact that Holy Church was wrong, since nothing happened save the
+results of the madness which her prophesies had produced.
+
+But the catastrophe of which he would have to be the prophet would be
+worse even than this, and, moreover, as far as human science could tell,
+it was a mathematical certainty. There would be no miracle, nothing of
+the supernatural about it--it would happen just as certainly as the
+earth would revolve on its axis; and yet how many millions of the
+earth's inhabitants would believe it until with their own eyes they saw
+the approaching Fate?
+
+In time of peace perhaps he might have obtained a hearing, but who would
+pause amidst the rush of the armed battalions to listen to him? How
+could the calm voice of Science make itself heard among the clash and
+clangour of war? The German Emperor had already laughed in his face, and
+accepted his challenge with contemptuous incredulity. No doubt his staff
+and all his officers would do the same. What possibility then would
+there be to convince the millions who were fighting blindly under their
+orders? No; it was hopeless. The war must go on. He could only hope that
+the Aërial Fleet which Mr Parmenter was bringing across the Atlantic
+would turn the tide of battle in favour of the defenders of Britain.
+
+But there was another matter to be considered. Thanks to the control
+possessed by the Parmenter Syndicate over the Atlantic cables and the
+aerograph system of the world, he was kept daily, sometimes hourly,
+acquainted with everything that was happening. He knew that the Eastern
+forces of Russia were concentrating upon India in the hope that the
+disasters in England and the destruction of the Fleet would realise the
+old Muscovite dream of detaching the natives from their loyalty to the
+British Crown and so making the work of conquest easy. In the Far East,
+Japan was recovering from the exhaustion consequent upon her costly
+victories over Russia, and had formed an ominous alliance with China.
+
+On the other hand Italy, England's sole remaining ally in Europe, had
+blockaded the French Mediterranean ports, and while the French legions
+were being drawn northward to the conquest of Britain, the Italian
+armies had seized the Alpine passes and were preparing an invasion which
+should avenge the humiliations which Italy had suffered under the first
+Napoleon.
+
+In a word, everything pointed to universal war. Only the United States
+preserved an inscrutable silence, which had been broken only by four
+words: "Hands off our commerce." And to these the Leagued Nations had
+listened, if rather by compulsion than respect.
+
+Who was he, then, that he should, as it were, sound the trump of
+approaching doom in the ears of a world round which from east to west
+and from west again to east the battledrums might any day be sounding
+and the roar of artillery thundering its answering echo.
+
+But a somewhat different aspect was given to these reflections by a
+letter which he found waiting for him in the library at Whernside House.
+It ran thus:
+
+
+     "SIR,--You will not, I suppose, have forgotten a certain incident
+     which happened towards the end of June 1907 in the Bay of Clifden,
+     Connemara. You won that little swimming race by a yard or so, and
+     since then it appears to me that, although you may not be aware of
+     it, you and I have been running a race of a very different sort,
+     although possibly for the same prize.
+
+     "You will understand what prize I mean, and by this time you ought
+     to know that I have the power of taking it by force, if I cannot
+     win it in the ordinary way of sport or battle. I am in command of
+     the only really irresistible force in the world. I created that
+     force, and, by doing so, made the invasion of England and the
+     present war possible. I have done so because I hate England, and
+     desire to release my own country from her tyranny and oppression;
+     but I can love as well as I can hate, and whether you understood it
+     or not, I, who had never loved a woman before, loved Auriole
+     Parmenter from the moment that you and I lifted her out of the
+     water, and she smiled on us, and thanked us for saving her life.
+
+     "Before we parted that day I could see love in your eyes when you
+     looked at her, if you could not see it in mine. You are her
+     father's private astronomer, and until lately you have lived in
+     almost daily intercourse with her, in which, of course, you have
+     had a great advantage over myself, who have not from that time till
+     now been blessed by even the sight of her.
+
+     "But during that time it seems that you have discovered a comet,
+     which is to run into the earth and destroy all human life, unless
+     you prevent it. I know this because I know of the challenge you
+     gave to the German Emperor in Canterbury. I know also of what you
+     have been doing in Bolton. You are turning a coal pit into a
+     cannon, with which you believe that you can blow this comet into
+     thin air or gas before it meets the earth, and you threatened His
+     Majesty that if the war was not stopped the human race should be
+     destroyed.
+
+     "That, if you will pardon the expression, was a piece of bluff. You
+     love Miss Parmenter perhaps as much as, though not possibly more
+     than, I do, and therefore you would certainly not destroy the world
+     as long as she was alive in it. You would be more or less than man
+     if you did, and I don't believe you are either, and therefore I
+     think you will understand the proposition I am going to make to
+     you.
+
+     "Granted hypothesis that the world will come to an end by means of
+     this comet on a certain day, and granted also that you are able to
+     save it with this cannon of yours, I write now to tell you that,
+     whether the war stops or not in obedience to your threat, I will
+     not allow you to save the world unless Miss Parmenter consents to
+     marry me within two months from now. If she does, the war shall
+     stop, or at anyrate I will allow the British forces to conquer the
+     whole of Europe on the sole condition of giving independence to
+     Ireland. They cannot win without my fleet of _Flying Fishes_, and
+     if I turn that fleet against them they will not only be defeated
+     but annihilated. In other words, with the sole exception of my own
+     country, I offer England the conquest of Europe in exchange for the
+     hand of one woman.
+
+     "In the other alternative, that is to say, if Miss Parmenter, her
+     father and yourself do not consent to this proposal, I will not
+     allow you to save the world. I can destroy your cannon works at
+     Bolton as easily as I destroyed the forts at Portsmouth and Dover,
+     and as easily as I can and will kill you, and wreck your
+     observatory. When I have done this I will take possession of Miss
+     Parmenter by force, and then your comet can come along and destroy
+     the world as soon as it likes.
+
+     "I shall expect a definite answer to this letter, signed by Mr
+     Parmenter and yourself, within seven days. If you address your
+     letter to Mr James Summers, 28a Carlos Street, Sheerness, it will
+     reach me; but I must warn you that any attempt to discover why it
+     will reach me from that address will be punished by the bombardment
+     and destruction of the town.
+
+     "I hope you will see the reasonableness and moderation of my
+     conditions, and remain, yours faithfully,
+                                                       "JOHN CASTELLAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+Although Lennard had always recognised the possibility of such a
+catastrophe as that which John Castellan threatened, and had even taken
+such precautions as he could to prevent it, still this direct menace,
+coming straight from the man himself, brought the danger home to him in
+a peculiarly personal way.
+
+The look which had passed between them as they were swimming their race
+in Clifden Bay had just as much meaning for him as for the man who now
+not openly professed himself his rival, but who threatened to proceed to
+the last extremities in order to gain possession of the girl they both
+loved. It was impossible for him not to believe that the man who had
+been capable of such cold-blooded atrocities as he had perpetrated at
+Portsmouth, London and other places, would hesitate for a moment in
+carrying out such a threat, and if he did--No, the alternative was quite
+too horrible to think of yet.
+
+One thing, however, was absolutely certain. Although no word of love had
+passed between Auriole and himself since the night when he had shown her
+the comet and described the possible doom of the world to her, she had
+in a hundred ways made it plain to him that she was perfectly well aware
+that he loved her and that she did not resent it--and he knew quite
+enough of human nature to be well aware that when a woman allows herself
+to be loved by a man with whom she is in daily and hourly contact, she
+is already half won; and from this it followed, according to his exact
+mathematical reasoning, that, whatever the consequences, her reply to
+John Castellan's letter would be in the negative, and equally, of
+course, so would her father's be.
+
+"I wonder what the Kaiser's Admiral of the Air would think if he knew
+how matters really stand," he said to himself as he read the letter
+through for a second time. "Quite certain of doing what he threatens, is
+he? I'm not. Still, after all, I suppose I mustn't blame him too much,
+for wasn't I in just the same mind myself once--to save the world if she
+would make it heaven for me, to--well--turn it into the other place if
+she wouldn't. But she very soon cured me of that madness.
+
+"I wonder if she could cure this scoundrel if she condescended to try,
+which I am pretty certain she would not. I wonder what she'll look like
+when she reads this letter. I've never seen her angry yet, but I know
+she would look magnificent. Well, I shall do nothing till Mr Parmenter
+gets back. Still, it's a pity that I've got to gravitate between here
+and Bolton for the next seven weeks. If I wasn't, I'd ask him for one of
+those airships and I'd hunt John Castellan through all the oceans of air
+till I ran him down and smashed him and his ship too!"
+
+At this moment the butler came to him and informed him that his dinner
+was ready and to ask him what wine he would drink.
+
+"Thank you, Simmons," he replied. "A pint of that excellent Burgundy of
+yours, please. By the way, have the papers come yet?"
+
+"Just arrived, sir," said Mr Simmons, making the simple announcement
+with all the dignity due to the butler to a millionaire.
+
+He went at once into the dining-room and opened the second edition of
+the _Times_, which was sent every day to Settle by train and thence by
+motor-car to Whernside House.
+
+Of course he turned first to the "Latest Intelligence" column. It was
+headed, as he half expected it to be, "The Great Turning Movement: The
+Enemy in Possession of Aldershot and advancing on Reading."
+
+The account itself was one of those admirable combinations of brevity
+and impartiality for which the leading journal of the world has always
+been distinguished. What Lennard read ran as follows:
+
+"Four months have now passed since the invading forces of the Allies,
+after destroying the fortifications of Portsmouth and Dover by means
+never yet employed in warfare, set foot on English soil. There have been
+four months of almost incessant fighting, of heroic defence and
+dearly-bought victory, but, although it is not too much to say in sober
+language that the defending troops, regulars, militia, yeomanry and
+volunteers, have accomplished what have seemed to be something like
+miracles of valour and devotion, the tide of conquest has nevertheless
+flowed steadily towards London.
+
+"Considering the unanimous devotion with which the citizens of this
+country, English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh, have taken up arms for the
+defence of their Motherland, there can be no doubt but that, if the war
+had been fought under ordinary conditions, the tide of invasion would by
+this time have been rolled back to our coasts in spite of the admitted
+superiority of the invaders in the technical operations of warfare, and
+their enormous advantage in numbers to begin with. But the British
+forces have had to fight under conditions which have never before been
+known in warfare. Their enemies have not been only those of the land and
+sea: they have had to fight foes capable of raining destruction upon
+them from the air as well, and it may well be believed that the leaders
+of the invading hosts would be the first to admit that without this
+enormous advantage not even the progress that they have so far made
+would have been possible.
+
+"The glories of Albuera and Waterloo, of Inkermann and Balaklava, have
+over and over again been eclipsed by the whole-souled devotion of the
+British soldiery, fighting, as no doubt every man of them believes, with
+their backs to the wall, not for ultimate victory perhaps but for the
+preservation of those splendid traditions which have been maintained
+untarnished for over a thousand years. It is no exaggeration to say that
+of all the wars in the history of mankind this has been the deadliest
+and the bloodiest. Never, perhaps, has so tremendous an attack been
+delivered, and never has such an attack been met by so determined a
+resistance. Still, having due regard to the information at our disposal,
+it would be vain to deny that, tremendous as the cost must have been,
+the victory so far lies with the invaders.
+
+"After a battle which has lasted almost continuously for a fortnight; a
+struggle in which battalion after battalion has fought itself to a
+standstill and the last limits of human endurance have been reached, the
+fact remains that the enemy have occupied the whole line of the North
+Downs, Aldershot has ceased to be a British military camp, and is now
+occupied by the legions of Germany, France and Austria.
+
+"Russia, in spite of the disastrous defeat of the united German and
+Russian expedition against Sheerness, Tilbury and Woolwich, is now
+preparing a force for an attack on Harwich which, if it is not defeated
+by the same means as that upon the Thames was defeated by, will have
+what we may frankly call the deplorable effect of diverting a large
+proportion of the defenders of London from the south to the north, and
+this, unless some other force, at present unheard of, is brought into
+play in aid of the defenders, can only result in the closing of the
+attack round London--and after that must come the deluge.
+
+"That this is part of a general plan of operations appears to be quite
+clear from the desperate efforts which the French, German and Austrian
+troops are making to turn the position of General French at Reading, to
+outflank the British left which is resting on the hills beyond
+Faversham, and, having thus got astride the Thames, occupy the
+semicircle of the Chiltern Hills and so place the whole Thames valley
+east of Reading at their mercy.
+
+"In consequence of the ease with which the enemy's airships have
+destroyed both telegraphic and railway communication, no definite
+details are at present to hand. It is only known that since the attack
+on Aldershot the fighting has not only been on a colossal scale, but
+also of the most sanguinary description, with the advantage slowly but
+surely turning in favour of the invaders. Such news as reaches us comes
+entirely by despatch rider and aerogram. We greatly regret to learn,
+through the former source, that yesterday evening Lord Westerham, the
+last of the six special Service officers attached to General French's
+staff, was either killed or captured in a gallant attempt to carry
+despatches containing an accurate account of the situation up to date
+from Reading to Windsor, whence it was to be transmitted by the
+underground telephone cable to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace."
+
+"That reads pretty bad," said Lennard, when Mr Simmons had left the
+room, "especially Westerham being killed or taken prisoner; I don't like
+that at all. I wish we'd been able to collar His Majesty of Germany on
+that trip to Canterbury as Lord Kitchener suggested, and put him on
+board the _Ithuriel_. He'd have made a very excellent hostage in a case
+like this. I must say that, altogether, affairs do not look very
+promising, and we've still two months all but a day or two. Well, if Mr
+Parmenter doesn't get across with his aërial fleet pretty soon, I shall
+certainly take steps to convince him and his Allies, who are fighting
+for a few islands when the whole world is in peril, that my ultimatum
+was anything but the joke he seemed to take it for."
+
+He finished his wine, drank a cup of coffee and smoked a meditative
+cigar in the library, and then went up to the observatory.
+
+It was a lovely night from his point of view; clear, cool and almost
+cloudless. The young moon was just rising to the eastward, and as he
+looked up at that portion of the south-western sky from which the
+Celestial Invader was approaching he could almost persuade himself that
+he saw a dim ghostly shape of the Spectre from Space.
+
+But when he got to the telescope the Spectre was no longer there. The
+field of the great reflector was blank, save for the few far-away
+star-mists, and here and there a dimly-distant star, already familiar to
+him through many nights of watching.
+
+What had happened? Had some catastrophe occurred in the outer realms of
+Space in which some other world had been involved in fiery ruin, or had
+the comet been dragged away from its orbit by the attraction of one of
+those dead suns, those derelicts of Creation which, dark and silent,
+drift for age after age through the trackless ocean of Immensity?
+
+There was no cooler-headed man alive than Gilbert Lennard when it came
+to a matter of his own profession and yet the world did not hold a more
+frightened man than he was when he went to re-adjust the machinery which
+regulated the movement of the great telescope, and so began his search
+for the lost comet all over again. One thing only was certain--that the
+slightest swerve from its course might make the comet harmless and send
+it flying through Space millions of miles away from the earth, or bring
+the threatening catastrophe nearer by an unknown number of days and
+hours. And that was the problem, here, alone, and in the silence of the
+night, he had to solve. The great gun at Bolton and the other at
+Pittsburg might by this time be useless, or, worse still, they might not
+be ready in time.
+
+It was curious that, even face to face with such a terrific crisis, he
+had enough human vanity left to shape a half regret that his
+calculations would almost certainly be falsified.
+
+That, however, was only the sensation of a moment. He ran rapidly over
+his previous calculations, did about fifteen minutes very hard
+thinking, and in thirty more he had found the comet. There it was: a few
+degrees more to the northward, and more inclined to the plane of the
+earth's orbit; brighter, and therefore nearer; and now the question was,
+by how much?
+
+Confronted with this problem, the man and the lover disappeared, and
+only the mathematician and the calculating machine remained. He made his
+notes and went to his desk. The next three hours passed without any
+consciousness of existence save the slow ticking of the astronomical
+clock which governed the mechanism of the telescope. The rest was merely
+figures and formulæ, which might amount to the death-sentence of the
+human race or to an indefinite reprieve.
+
+When he got up from his desk he had learnt that the time in which it
+might be possible to save humanity from a still impending fate had been
+shortened by twelve days, and that the contact of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere would take place precisely at twelve o'clock,
+midnight, on the thirtieth of April.
+
+Then he went back to the telescope and picked up the comet again. Just
+as he had got its ominous shape into the centre of the field a score of
+other shapes drifted swiftly across it, infinitely vaster--huge winged
+forms, apparently heading straight for the end of the telescope, and
+only two or three yards away.
+
+His nerves were not perhaps as steady as they would have been without
+the shock which he had already received, and he shrank back from the
+eye-piece as though to avoid a coming blow. Then he got up from his
+chair and laughed.
+
+"What an ass I am! That's Mr Parmenter's fleet; but what monsters they
+do look through a telescope like this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+MR PARMENTER RETURNS
+
+
+Just at the north of the summit on the top of which the observatory was
+built there was an oval valley, or perhaps it might be better described
+as an escarpment, a digging away by the hand of Nature of a portion of
+the mountain summit by means of some vast landslide or glacier action
+thousands of years ago.
+
+As he closed the door of the main entrance to the observatory behind
+him, he saw these strange, winged shapes circling in the air some three
+miles away, just dimly visible in the moonlight and starlight. They were
+hovering about in middle air as though they were birds looking for a
+foothold. He ran back, switched the electric current off the aerograph
+machines at the base of the observatory, and turned it on to the
+searchlight which was on the top of the equatorial dome. A great fan of
+white light flashed out into the sky, he spelt out "Welcome" in the
+dot-and-dash code, and then the searchlight fell upon the valley.
+
+"Thanks," came the laconic answer from the foremost airship; and then
+Lennard saw twenty-five winged shapes circle round the observatory and
+drop to rest one by one in perfect order, just as a flock of swans might
+have done, and, as the last came to earth, he turned the switch and shut
+off the searchlight.
+
+He walked down to the hollow, and in the dim light saw something that he
+had hardly believed possible for human eyes to see. There, in a space
+of, perhaps, a thousand yards long and five hundred yards wide, lay, in
+a perfect oval, a fleet of ships. By all appearances they had no right
+to be on land. There was no visible evidence that they could rise from
+the solid earth after once touching it, any more than the albatross can
+do from a ship's deck.
+
+A light flashed out from a ship lying at the forward end of the ellipse
+for a moment into the sky and then it swung slowly round until it rested
+on the path from the observatory to the valley, and Lennard for a moment
+felt himself blinded by its rays. Then it lifted and a most welcomely
+familiar voice said:
+
+"Well, Mr Lennard, here we are, you see, just a bit ahead of time, and
+how's the comet?"
+
+A ladder, obviously of American design, shot out from the side of the
+airship as Mr Parmenter spoke, and as soon as the lower end touched the
+ground he walked down it with his hand outstretched. Lennard walked to
+the foot of the ladder and took his hand, and said in a low voice:
+
+"This is all very wonderful, Mr Parmenter, but I am glad that you are
+here ahead of time, because the comet is too; and very considerably, I
+am sorry to say."
+
+"Eh, what's that you say, Mr Lennard?" replied the millionaire in a
+hurried whisper. "Nothing serious, I hope. We haven't come too late,
+have we? I mean too late to stop the war and save the world."
+
+"I don't know about stopping the war," replied Lennard, "but, if no
+accident happens or is arranged for, we can save the world still, I
+think."
+
+"Accident arranged for?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "What do you mean by that?
+Are you talking about John Castellan and those Flying Fish things of
+his? I reckon we've got enough here to send him and his _Flying Fishes_
+into the sea and make them stop there. We've heard all about what
+they've been doing in the States, and I've got about tired of them. And
+as for this old invasion of England, it's got to stop right away, or
+we'll make more trouble for these Germans and Frenchmen and Russians
+and Austrians than they ever dreamt of.
+
+"Look at that fleet, sir. Twenty-five aërial battleships with a hundred
+and fifty miles an hour speed in them. Here to London in one hour and
+twenty-five minutes or less, and guns--you just take a look at those
+exaggerated peashooters we've got on deck, and believe me, sir, that if
+we get one of John Castellan's _Flying Fishes_ within six thousand yards
+of the end of one of those things it will do no more flying, except in
+very small pieces."
+
+"I'm delighted to hear it, Mr Parmenter," replied Lennard, in a low
+tone, "for to tell you the truth, we haven't many weeks left now.
+Something that I can so far neither calculate nor explain has changed
+the orbit of the comet and it's due here at midnight on the thirtieth of
+April."
+
+"Great Scott, and this is the nineteenth of March! Not six weeks! I
+guess we'll have to hurry up with those cannons. I'll send a cable to
+Pittsburg to-morrow. Anyhow, I reckon the comet can wait for to-night."
+
+While Mr Parmenter had been speaking two other men had come down the
+ladder from the deck of the airship and he continued:
+
+"Now, let me introduce you. This is my old friend and college chum,
+Newson Hingeston, the man who invented the model we built this fleet on.
+This is Mr Hiram Roker, chief engineer of the fleet and Lord High
+Admiral of the air, when Mr Hingeston is not running his own ships."
+
+Lennard shook hands with Mr Hingeston and Hiram, and was going to say
+very complimentary things about the fleet which had literally dropped
+from the clouds, when Mr Parmenter interrupted him again and said:
+
+"You'll excuse me, Mr Lennard, but you'll be better able to talk about
+these ships when you've had a trip in one of them. We've just crossed
+the Atlantic in thirty hours, above the clouds, and to-morrow night or
+morning, if it's cloudy when we've been through things generally, we're
+going to London in the flagship here--I've called her the _Auriole_,
+because she is the daisy of the whole fleet--biggest, fastest and
+prettiest. You just wait till you see her in daylight. Now we'll go down
+to the house and hear your news. We're thirty hours behind the times."
+
+It need hardly be said that no one went to bed for the remainder of that
+night at Whernside. In one sense it was as busy a time as had been since
+the war began. The private telephone and telegraph wires between
+Whernside House and Settle and the aerograph apparatus at the
+observatory were working almost incessantly till dawn, sending and
+receiving messages between this remote moorland district and London and
+the seat of war, as well as Bolton and Pittsburg.
+
+The minutes and the hours passed swiftly, as all Fate-laden time does
+pass, and so the grey morning of a momentous day dawned over the western
+Yorkshire moors. Just as they were beginning to think about breakfast
+one of Lennard's assistants came down from the observatory with a copy
+of an aerogram which read:
+
+
+     "Begins. PARMENTER, Whernside. Pleased to hear of your arrival.
+     Proposition laid before His Majesty in Council and accepted. Hope
+     to see you and your friends during the day.--CHAMBERLAIN. Ends."
+
+
+"Well, I guess that's all right, gentlemen," said Mr Parmenter, as he
+handed the aerogram across the big table littered with maps, plans and
+drawings of localities terrestrial and celestial.
+
+The aerogram passed round and Mr Parmenter continued: "You see,
+gentlemen, although the United States has the friendliest of feelings
+towards the British Empire, still, as the President told me the day
+before yesterday, this invasion of Britain is not our fight, and he does
+not see his way to making formal declaration of war; so he just gave me
+a permit for these ships to leave American territory on what the
+Russians and others call a scientific expedition in order to explore the
+upper regions of the air and demonstrate the possibility of navigating
+the air without using gas as lifting power--and that's just how we've
+got here with our clearance papers and so on all in order; and that
+means, gentlemen, that we are here, not as citizens of the United States
+or any other country, but just as a trading company with something to
+hire out.
+
+"John Castellan, as you will remember from what has been said, sold his
+_Flying Fishes_ to the German Emperor. Mr Lennard has proved to us by
+Castellan's own handwriting that he is prepared to sell them back to the
+British Government at a certain price--and that price is my daughter.
+Our answer to that is the hiring of our fleet to the British Government,
+and that offer has been accepted on terms which I think will show a very
+fair profit when the war is over and we've saved the world."
+
+"I don't think it will take very long to stop the war," said the creator
+of the aërial battle-fleet, in his quiet voice. "Saving the world is, of
+course, another matter which no doubt we can leave safely in the hands
+of Mr Lennard. And now," he continued more gravely, "when is the news of
+the actual coming of the comet to be made public? It seems to me that
+everything more or less hangs upon that. The German Emperor, and,
+therefore, his Allies and, no doubt, half the astronomers of Europe,
+have been informed of Mr Lennard's discovery. They may or may not
+believe it, and if they don't we can't blame them because it was only
+given to them without exact detail."
+
+"And a very good thing too," laughed Lennard, "considering the eccentric
+way in which the comet is behaving. But everything is settled now,
+unless, of course, some other mysterious influence gets to work; and,
+another thing, it's quite certain that before many days the comet must
+be discovered by other observatories."
+
+"Then, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we've been first in the field
+so far and I reckon we'd better stop there. Pike's Peak, Washington and
+Arequipa are all on to it. Europe and Australia will be getting there
+pretty soon, so I don't think there's much the matter with you sending a
+message to Greenwich this morning. The people there will find it all
+right and we can run across from London when we've had our talk with the
+Prime Minister and post them up in any other details they want. I'll
+send a wire to Henchell and tell him to hurry up with his gun at
+Pittsburg and send on news to all the American observatories. Then we'll
+have breakfast and, as it's a cloudy morning, I think we might start
+right away for London in the _Auriole_ and get this business fixed up.
+The enemy doesn't know we're here at all, and so long as we keep above
+the clouds there's no fear of anyone seeing us. The world has only
+forty-four more days to live, so we might as well save one of those days
+while we can."
+
+The result of the somewhat informal council of war, for, in sober truth,
+it was nothing else, was that the commanders of the airships were
+invited to breakfast and the whole situation was calmly and plainly
+discussed by those who from the morning would probably hold the fate of
+the world in their hands. Not the least important of the aerograms which
+had been received during the early morning had been one, of course in
+code, from Captain Erskine of the _Ithuriel_ from Harwich, welcoming the
+aërial fleet and giving details of his movements in conjunction with it
+for the next ten days. The aerogram also gave the positions of the
+lighters loaded with ammunition which he had deposited round the English
+shores in anticipation of its arrival.
+
+Soon after eight o'clock a heavy mist came down over Whernside and its
+companion heights, and Mr Parmenter went to one of the windows of the
+big dining-room and said:
+
+"I reckon this will just about fit us, Mr Lennard, so, if you've got
+your portmanteau packed, have it sent up to the _Auriole_ at once, and
+we'll make a start."
+
+Within thirty minutes the start was made, and with it began the most
+marvellous experience of Gilbert Lennard's life, not even excepting his
+battle-trip in the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+THE "AURIOLE"
+
+
+"All aboard, I think, Captain Roker," said Mr Parmenter, as he walked
+last to the top of the gangway ladder, and stood square-footed on the
+white deck of the _Auriole_.
+
+"All aboard, sir," replied Hiram Roker, "and now I reckon you'll have to
+excuse me, because I've got to go below just to see that everything's in
+working order."
+
+"That's all right, Mr Roker. I know where your affections are centred in
+this ship. You go right along to your engines, and Mr Hingeston will see
+about the rest of us. Now then, Mr Lennard, you come along into the
+conning-tower, and whatever you may have seen from the conning-tower of
+the _Ithuriel_, I reckon you'll see something more wonderful still
+before we get to London. You show the way, Newson. See, here it is, just
+about the same. We've stolen quite a lot of ideas from your friend
+Erskine; it's a way we've got on our side, you know. But this is going
+to be one of the exceptions; if we win we are going to pay."
+
+Lennard followed Mr Parmenter down the companion-way into the centre
+saloon of the _Auriole_, and through this into a narrow passage which
+led forward. At the end of this passage was a lift almost identical with
+that on the _Ithuriel_. He took his place with Mr Parmenter and Mr
+Hingeston on this and it rose with them into a little oval chamber
+almost exactly like the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_, with the
+exception that it was built entirely of hardened papier-maché and glass.
+
+"You see, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we don't want armour here.
+Anything that hits us smashes us, and that's all there is to it. Our
+idea is just to keep out of the way and do as much harm as we can from
+the other side of the clouds. And now, Newson, if you're ready, we might
+as well get to the other side and have a look at the sun. It's sort of
+misty and cheerless down here."
+
+"Just as easy as saying so, my dear Ratliffe. I reckon Hiram's got about
+ten thousand horse-power waiting to be let loose; so we may as well let
+them go. Hold on, Mr Lennard, and don't breathe any more than you can
+help for a minute or two."
+
+Lennard, remembering his cruise in the _Ithuriel_, held on, and also,
+after filling his lungs, held his breath. Mr Hingeston took hold of the
+steering-wheel, also very much like that of the _Ithuriel_, with his
+left hand, and touched in quick succession three buttons on a
+signal-board at his right hand.
+
+At the first touch nothing happened as far as Lennard could see or hear.
+At the second, a soft, whirring sound filled the air, growing swiftly in
+intensity. At the third, the mist which enveloped Whernside began, as it
+seemed to him, to flow downwards from the sky in long wreaths of
+smoke-mingled steam which in a few moments fell away into nothingness. A
+blaze of sunlight burst out from above--the earth had vanished--and
+there was nothing visible save the sun and sky overhead, and an
+apparently illimitable expanse of cloud underneath.
+
+"There's one good thing about airships," said Mr Hingeston, as he took a
+quarter turn at the wheel, "you can generally get the sort of climate
+and temperature you want in them." He put his finger on a fourth button
+and continued: "Now, Mr Lennard, we have so far just pulled her up above
+the mist. You'll have one of these ships yourself one day, so I may as
+well tell you that the first signal means 'Stand by'; the second, 'Full
+power on lifting fans'; the third, 'Stand by after screws'; and the
+fourth--just this--"
+
+He pushed the button down as he spoke, and Lennard saw the brilliantly
+white surface of the sunlit mist fall away before and behind them. A few
+moments later he heard a sort of soft, sighing sound outside the
+conning-tower. It rose quickly to a scream, and then deepened into a
+roar. Everything seemed lost save the dome of sky and the sun rising
+from the eastward. There was nothing else save the silver-grey blur
+beneath them. As far as he was concerned for the present, the earth had
+ceased to exist for him five minutes ago.
+
+He didn't say anything, because the circumstances in which he found
+himself appeared to be more suitable for thinking than talking; he just
+stood still, holding on to a hand-grip in the wall of the conning-tower,
+and looked at the man who, with a few touches of his fingers, was
+hurling this aërial monster through the air at a speed which, as he
+could see, would have left the _Ithuriel_ out of sight in a few minutes.
+
+In front of Hingeston as he sat at the steering-wheel were two dials.
+One was that of an aneroid which indicated the height. This now
+registered four thousand feet. The other was a manometer connected with
+the speed-gauge above the conning-tower, and the indicator on this was
+hovering between one hundred and fifty and a hundred and sixty.
+
+"Does that really mean we're travelling over a hundred and fifty miles
+an hour?" he said.
+
+"Getting on for a hundred and sixty," said Mr Parmenter, taking out his
+watch. "You see, according to that last wire I sent, we're due in the
+gardens of Buckingham Palace at ten-thirty sharp, and so we have to
+hustle a bit."
+
+"Well," replied Lennard, "I must confess that I thought that my little
+trip in the _Ithuriel_ took me to something like the limits of everyday
+experience; but this beats it. Whatever you do on the land or in the
+water you seem to have something under you--something you can depend on,
+as it were--but here, you don't seem to be anywhere. A friend of mine
+told me that, after he had taken a balloon trip above the clouds and
+across the Channel, but he was only travelling forty miles an hour. He
+had somewhat a trouble to describe that, but this, of course, gets
+rather beyond the capabilities of the English language."
+
+"Or even the American," added Mr Hingeston, quietly.
+
+"Why, yes," said Mr Parmenter, rolling a cigarette, "I believe we
+invented the saying about greased lightning, and here we are something
+like riding on a streak of it."
+
+"Near enough!" laughed Lennard. "We may as well leave it at that, as you
+say. Still, it is very, very wonderful."
+
+And so it was. As they sped south the mists that hung about the northern
+moors fell behind, and broken clouds took their place. Through the gaps
+between these he could see a blur of green and grey and purple. A few
+blotches of black showed that they were passing over the Lancashire and
+Midland manufacturing towns; then the clouds became scarcer and an
+enormous landscape spread out beneath them, intersected by white roads
+and black lines of railways, and dotted by big patches of woods, long
+lines of hedgerows and clumps of trees on hilltops. Here and there the
+white wall of a chalk quarry flashed into view and vanished; and on
+either side towns and villages came into sight ahead and vanished astern
+almost before he could focus his field-glasses upon them.
+
+At about twenty minutes after the hour at which they had left Whernside,
+Mr Hingeston turned to Mr Parmenter and said, pointing downward with the
+left hand:
+
+"There's London, and the clouds are going. What are we to do? We can't
+drop down there without being seen, and if we are that will give half
+the show away. You see, if Castellan once gets on to the idea that
+we've got airships and are taking them into London, he'll have a dozen
+of those _Flying Fishes_ worrying about us before we know what we're
+doing. If we only had one of those good old London fogs under us we
+could do it."
+
+"Then what's the matter with dropping under the smoke and using that for
+a fog," said Mr Parmenter, rather shortly. "The enemy is still a dozen
+miles to southward there; they won't see us, and anyhow, London's a big
+place. Why, look there now! Talking about clouds, there's the very thing
+you want. Oceans of it! Can't you run her up a bit and drop through it
+when the thing's just between us and the enemy?"
+
+As he spoke, Lennard saw what seemed to him like an illimitable sea of
+huge spumy billows and tumbling masses of foam, which seemed to roll and
+break over each other without sound. The silent cloud-ocean was flowing
+up from the sou'west. Mr Hingeston took his bearings by compass, slowed
+down to fifty miles an hour, and then Lennard saw the masses of cloud
+rise up and envelop them.
+
+For a few minutes the earth and the heavens disappeared, and he felt
+that sense of utter loneliness and isolation which is only known to
+those who travel through the air. He saw Mr Hingeston pull a lever with
+his right hand and turn the steering-wheel with his left. He felt the
+blood running up to his head, and then came a moment of giddiness. When
+he opened his eyes the _Auriole_ was dropping as gently as a bird on the
+wing towards the trees of the garden behind Buckingham Palace.
+
+"I reckon you did that quite well, Newson," said Mr Parmenter, looking
+at his watch. "One hour and twenty-five minutes as you said. And now I'm
+going to shake hands with a real king for the first time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN
+
+
+Rather to Mr Parmenter's surprise his first interview "with a real king"
+was rather like other business interviews that he had had; in fact, as
+he said afterwards, of all the business men he had ever met in his
+somewhat varied career, this quiet-spoken, grey-haired English gentleman
+was about the best and 'cutest that it had ever been his good fortune to
+strike.
+
+The negotiations in hand were, of course, the hiring of the Syndicate's
+fleet of airships to the British Empire during the course of the war.
+His Majesty had summoned a Privy Council at the Palace, and again Mr
+Parmenter was somewhat surprised at the cold grip and clear sight which
+these British aristocrats had in dealing with matters which he thought
+ought to have been quite outside their experience. Like many Americans,
+he had expected to meet a sort of glorified country squire, fox-hunter,
+grouse-killer, trout and salmon-catcher, and so on; but, as he admitted
+to Lennard later on, from His Majesty downwards they were about the
+hardest crowd to do business with that he had ever struck.
+
+The terms he offered were half a million a week for the services of
+twenty-five airships till the war was ended. Two were retained as
+guardians for Whernside House and the observatory, and three for the
+Great Lever colliery, and this left twenty, not counting the original
+_Columbia_, which Mr Parmenter had bought as his aërial yacht, available
+for warlike purposes.
+
+The figure was high, as the owners of the aërial battle-fleet admitted,
+but war was a great deal dearer. They guaranteed to bring the war to a
+stop within fourteen days, by which time Britain would have a new fleet
+in being which would be practically the only fleet capable of action in
+western waters with the exception of the Italian and the American. Given
+that the Syndicate's airships, acting in conjunction with the _Ithuriel_
+and the twelve of her sisters which were now almost ready for launching,
+could catch and wipe out the _Flying Fishes_, either above the waters or
+under them, the result would be that the Allies, cut off from their base
+of supplies, and with no retreat open to them, would be compelled to
+surrender; and Mr Parmenter did not consider that five hundred thousand
+pounds a week was too much to pay for this.
+
+At the conclusion of his speech, setting forth the position of the
+Syndicate, he said, with a curious dignity which somehow always comes
+from a sense of power:
+
+"Your Majesty, my Lords and gentlemen, I am just a plain American
+business man, and so is my friend, the inventor of these ships. We have
+told you what we believe they can do and we are prepared to show you
+that we have not exaggerated their powers. There is our ship outside in
+the gardens. If your Majesty would like to take a little trip through
+the air and see battle, murder and sudden death--"
+
+"That's very kind of you, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "but, much
+as I personally should like to come with you, I'm afraid I should play a
+certain amount of havoc with the British Constitution if I did. Kings of
+England are not permitted to go to war now, but if you would oblige me
+by taking a note to the Duke of Connaught, who has his headquarters at
+Reading, and then, if you could manage it under a flag of truce, taking
+another note to the German Emperor, who, I believe, has pitched his camp
+at Aldershot, I should be very much obliged."
+
+"Anything your Majesty wishes," replied Mr Parmenter. "Now we've fixed
+up the deal the fleet is at your disposal and we sail under the British
+flag; though, to be quite honest, sir, I don't care about flying the
+white flag first. We could put up as pretty a fight for you along the
+front of the Allies as any man could wish to see."
+
+"I am sorry, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "that the British
+Constitution compels me to disappoint you, but, as some sort of
+recompense, I am sure that my Lords in Council will grant you permission
+to fly the White Ensign on all your ships and the Admiral's flag on your
+flagship, which, I presume, is the one in which you have come this
+morning. It is unfortunate that I can only confer the honorary rank of
+admiral upon Mr Hingeston, as you are not British subjects."
+
+"Then, your Majesty," replied Mr Parmenter, "if it pleases you, I hope
+you will give that rank to my friend Newson Hingeston, who, as I have
+told you, has been more than twenty years making these ships perfect. He
+has created this navy, so I reckon he has got the best claim to be
+called admiral."
+
+"Does that meet with your approval, my lords?" said the King.
+
+And the heads of the Privy Council bowed as one in approval.
+
+"I thank your Majesty most sincerely," said Hingeston, rising. "I am an
+American citizen, but I have nothing but British blood in my veins, and
+therefore I am all the more glad that I am able to bring help to the
+Motherland when she wants it."
+
+"And I'm afraid we do want it, Mr Hingeston," said His Majesty. "Make
+the conditions of warfare equal in the air, and I think we shall be able
+to hold our own on land and sea. Your patent of appointment shall be
+made out at once, and I will have the letters ready for you in half an
+hour. And now, gentlemen, I think a glass of wine and a biscuit will not
+do any of us much harm."
+
+The invitation was, of course, in a certain sense, a command, and when
+the King rose everyone did the same. While they were taking their wine
+and biscuits in the blue drawing-room overlooking St James's Park, His
+Majesty, who never lost his grip of business for a moment, took Lennard
+aside and had a brief but pregnant conversation with him on the subject
+of the comet, and as a result of this all the Government manufactories
+of explosives were placed at his disposal, and with his own hand the
+King wrote a permit entitling him to take such amount of explosives to
+Bolton as he thought fit. Then there came the letters to the Duke of
+Connaught and the German Emperor, and one to the Astronomer Royal at
+Greenwich.
+
+Then His Majesty and the members of the Council inspected the aërial
+warship lying on the great lawn in the gardens, and with his own hands
+King Edward ran the White Ensign to the top of the flagstaff aft; at the
+same moment the Prince of Wales ran the Admiral's pennant up to the
+masthead. Everyone saluted the flag, and the King said:
+
+"There, gentlemen, the _Auriole_ is a duly commissioned warship of the
+British Navy, and you have our authority to do all lawful acts of war
+against our enemies. Good-morning! I shall hope to hear from you soon."
+
+"I'm sorry, your Majesty," said Mr Parmenter, "that we can't fire the
+usual salute. These guns of ours are made for business, and we don't
+have any blank charges."
+
+"I perfectly understand you, Mr Parmenter," replied His Majesty with a
+laugh. "We shall have to dispense with the ceremony. Still, those are
+just the sort of guns we want at present. Good-morning, again."
+
+His Majesty went down the gangway and Admiral Hingeston, with Mr
+Parmenter and Lennard, entered the conning-tower. The lifting-fans began
+to whirr, and as the _Auriole_ rose from the grass the White Ensign
+dipped three times in salute to the Royal Standard floating from the
+flagstaff on the palace roof. Then, as the driving propellers whirled
+round till they became two intersecting circles of light, the _Auriole_
+swept up over the tree-tops and vanished through the clouds. And so
+began the first voyage of the first British aërial battleship.
+
+The Duke of Connaught had his headquarters at Amersham Hall School on
+the Caversham side of the Thames, which was, of course, closed in
+consequence of the war, and half an hour after the _Auriole_ had left
+the grounds of Buckingham Palace she was settling to the ground in the
+great quadrangle of the school. The Duke, with Lord Kitchener and two or
+three other officers of the Staff, were waiting at the upper end where
+the headmaster's quarters were. As the ship grounded, the gangway ladder
+dropped and Mr Parmenter said to Lennard:
+
+"That's Lord Kitchener, I see. Now, you know him and I don't, so you'd
+better go and do the talking. We'll come after and get introduced."
+
+"Ah, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, holding out his hand. "You're
+quite a man of surprises. The last time I went with you to see the
+Kaiser in a motor-car, and now you come to visit His Royal Highness in
+an airship. Your Royal Highness," he continued, turning to the Duke,
+"this is Mr Lennard, the finder of this comet which is going to wipe us
+all out unless he wipes it out with his big gun, and these will be the
+other gentlemen, I presume, whom His Majesty has wired about."
+
+"Yes," replied Lennard, after he had shaken hands. "This is Mr Parmenter
+whose telescope enabled me to find the comet, and this is Mr--or I ought
+now to say Admiral--Hingeston, who had the honour of receiving that rank
+from His Majesty half an hour ago."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Duke. "Half an hour! Are you quite serious,
+gentlemen? The telegram's only just got here."
+
+"Well, your Royal Highness," said Mr Parmenter, "that may be because we
+didn't come full speed, but if you would get on board that flagship,
+sir, we'd take you to Buckingham Palace and back in half an hour, or, if
+you would like a trip to Aldershot to interview the German Emperor, and
+then one to Greenwich, we'll engage to have you back here safe by dinner
+time."
+
+"Nothing would delight me more," replied the Duke, smiling, "but at
+present my work is here and I cannot leave it. Lord Kitchener, how would
+you like that sort of trip?"
+
+"If you will give me leave till dinner-time, sir," laughed K. of K.,
+"there's nothing I should like better."
+
+"Oh, that goes without saying, of course," replied the Duke, "and now,
+gentlemen, I understand from the King's telegram that there are one or
+two matters you want to talk over with us. Will you come inside?"
+
+"If your Royal Highness will excuse me," said Admiral Hingeston, "I
+think I'd better remain on board. You see, we may have been sighted, and
+if there are any of those _Flying Fishes_ about you naturally wouldn't
+want this place blown to ruins; so, while you are having your talk, I
+reckon I'll get up a few hundred feet, and be back, say, in half an
+hour."
+
+"Very well," said the Duke. "That's very kind of you. Your ship
+certainly looks a fairly capable protector. By the way, what is the
+range of those guns of yours? I must say they have a very business-like
+look about them."
+
+"Six thousand yards point blank, your Royal Highness," replied the
+Admiral, "and, according to elevation, anything up to fifteen miles;
+suppose, for instance, that we were shooting at a town. In fact, if we
+were not under orders from His Majesty to fly the flag of truce I would
+guarantee to have all the Allied positions wrecked by to-morrow morning
+with this one ship. As you will see from the papers which Mr Parmenter
+and Mr Lennard have brought, nineteen other airships are coming south
+to-night and, unless the German Emperor and his Allies give in, the war
+will be over in about six days."
+
+"And when you come back to dinner to-night, Admiral Hingeston, you will
+have my orders to bring it to an end within that time."
+
+"I sincerely hope so, sir," replied Admiral Hingeston, as he raised his
+right hand to the peak of his cap. "I can assure you, that nothing would
+please me better."
+
+As the lifting-fans began to spin round and the _Auriole_ rose from the
+gravelled courtyard, Lord Kitchener looked up with a twinkle in his
+brilliant blue eyes and said:
+
+"I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will think of that thing when he
+sees it. I suppose that means the end of fighting on land and sea--at
+least, it looks like it."
+
+"I hope to be able to convince your lordship that it does before
+to-morrow morning," said Lennard, as they went towards the dining-room.
+
+Then came half an hour's hard work, which resulted in the allotment of
+the aërial fleet to positions from which the vessels could co-operate
+with the constantly increasing army of British citizen-soldiers who were
+now passing southward, eastward and westward, as fast as the crowded
+trains could carry them. Every position was worked out to half a mile.
+The details of the newly-created fleet in British waters and of those
+ships which were arriving from the West Indies and the Mediterranean
+were all settled, and, as the clock in the drawing-room chimed half-past
+eleven, the _Auriole_ swung down in a spiral curve round the
+chimney-pots and came to rest on the gravel.
+
+"There she is; time's up!" said Lord Kitchener, rising from his seat. "I
+suppose it will only take us half an hour or so to run down to
+Aldershot. I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will say to us this
+time. I suppose if he kicks seriously we have your Royal Highness's
+permission to haul down the flag of truce?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the Duke. "If he does that, of course, you will
+just use your own discretion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT
+
+
+Lord Kitchener had probably never had so bitter an experience as he had
+when the _Auriole_ began to slow down over the plain of Aldershot. Never
+could he, or any other British soldier, have dreamt six months ago that
+the German, Austrian, French and Russian flags would have been seen
+flying side by side over the headquarters of the great camp, or that the
+vast rolling plains would be covered, as they were now, by hosts of
+horse, foot and artillery belonging to hostile nations.
+
+He did not say anything, neither did the others; it was a time for
+thinking rather than talking; but he looked, and as Lennard watched his
+almost expressionless face and the angrily-glittering blue eyes, he felt
+that it would go ill with an enemy whom K. of K. should have at his
+mercy that day.
+
+But all the bitterness of feeling was by no means on one side. It so
+happened that the three Imperial leaders of the invaders and General
+Henriot, the French Commander-in-Chief, were holding a Council of War at
+the time when the _Auriole_ made her appearance. Of course, her arrival
+was instantly reported, and as a matter of fact the drilling came to a
+sudden momentary stop at the sight of this amazing apparition. The three
+monarchs and the great commander immediately went outside, and within a
+few moments they were four of the angriest men in England. A single
+glance, even at that distance, was enough to convince them that, at
+anyrate in the air, the _Flying Fishes_ would be no match for an equal
+or even an inferior number of such magnificent craft as this.
+
+"God's thunder!" exclaimed the Kaiser, using his usual expletive. "She's
+flying the White Ensign and an admiral's pennant, and, yes, a flag of
+truce."
+
+"Yes," said the Tsar, lowering his glasses, "that is so. What has
+happened? I certainly don't like the look of her; she's an altogether
+too magnificent craft from our point of view. In fact it would be
+decidedly awkward if the English happened to have a fleet of them. They
+would be terribly effective acting in co-operation with that submarine
+ram. Let us hope that she has come on a message of peace."
+
+"I understood, your Majesty," said the Kaiser, shortly, "that we had
+agreed to make peace at Windsor, and nowhere else."
+
+"Of course, I hope we shall do so," said the Tsar, "but considering our
+numbers, and the help we have had from Mr Castellan's fleet, I'm afraid
+we are rather a long time getting there, and we shall be longer still if
+the British have any considerable number of ships like this one."
+
+"Airships or no airships," replied William the Second, "whatever message
+this ship is bringing, I will listen to nothing but surrender while I
+have an Army Corps on English soil. They must be almost beaten by this
+time; they can't have any more men to put in the field, while we have
+millions. To go back now that we have got so far would be worse than
+defeat--it would be disaster. Of course, your Majesty can have no more
+delusions than I have on that subject."
+
+A conversation on almost similar terms had been taking place meanwhile
+between the Emperor of Austria and General Henriot. Then the _Auriole_,
+after describing a splendid curve round the headquarters, dropped as
+quietly as a bird on the lawn in front, the gangway ladder fell over
+along the side, and Lord Kitchener, in the parade uniform of a general,
+descended and saluted the four commanders.
+
+"Good-morning, your Majesties. Good-morning, General Henriot."
+
+"I see that your lordship has come as bearer of the flag of truce this
+time," said the Kaiser, when salutes had been exchanged, "and I trust
+that in the interests of humanity you have come also with proposals
+which may enable us to put an honourable end to this terrible conflict,
+and I am sure that my Imperial brothers and the great Republic which
+General Henriot represents will be only too happy to accede to them."
+
+The others nodded in approval, but said nothing, as it had been more or
+less reluctantly agreed by them that the War Lord of Germany was to be
+the actual head and Commander-in-Chief of the Allies. K. of K. looked at
+him straight in the eyes--not a muscle of his face moved, and from under
+his heavy moustache there came in the gentlest of voices the astounding
+words:
+
+"Yes, I have come from His Majesty King Edward with proposals of
+surrender--that is to say, for your surrender, and that of all the
+Allied Forces now on British soil."
+
+William the Second literally jumped, and his distinguished colleagues
+stared at him and each other in blank amazement. By this time Lennard
+had come down the gangway ladder, and was standing beside Lord
+Kitchener. Mr Parmenter and the latest addition to the British Naval
+List were strolling up and down the deck of the _Auriole_ smoking cigars
+and chatting as though this sort of thing happened every day.
+
+"I see that your Majesty hardly takes me seriously," said Lord
+Kitchener, still in the same quiet voice, "but if your Majesties will do
+Mr Lennard and myself the favour of an interview in one of the rooms
+here, which used to belong to me, I think we shall be able to convince
+you that we have the best of reasons for being serious."
+
+"Ah, yes, Mr Lennard," replied the Kaiser, looking at him with just a
+suspicion of anxiety in his glance. "Good-morning. Have you come to tell
+us something more about this wonderful comet of yours? It seems to me
+some time making itself visible."
+
+"It is visible every night now, your Majesty," said Lennard; "that is,
+if you know where to look for it."
+
+"Ah, that sounds interesting," said the Tsar, moving towards the door.
+"Suppose we go back into the Council Room and hear something about it."
+
+As they went in the _Auriole_ rose from the ground, and began making a
+series of slow, graceful curves over the two camps at the height of
+about a thousand feet. Neither Mr Parmenter, nor his friend the Admiral,
+knew exactly how far the flag of truce would be respected, and,
+moreover, a little display of the _Auriole's_ powers of flight might
+possibly help along negotiations, and, as a matter of fact, they did;
+for the sight of this huge fabric circling above them, with her long
+wicked-looking guns pointing in all directions, formed a spectacle which
+to the officers and men of the various regiments and battalions
+scattered about the vast plain was a good deal more interesting than it
+was pleasant. The Staff officers knew, too, that the strange craft
+possessed two very great advantages over the _Flying Fishes_; she was
+much faster, and she could rise direct from the ground--whereas the
+_Fishes_, like their namesakes, could only rise from the water. In
+short, it did not need a soldier's eye to see that all their stores and
+magazines, to say nothing of their own persons, were absolutely at the
+mercy of the British aërial flagship. The _Flying Fishes_ were down in
+the Solent refitting and filling up with motive power and ammunition
+preparatory to the general advance on London.
+
+As soon as they were seated in the Council Chamber it did not take Lord
+Kitchener and Lennard very long to convince their Majesties and General
+Henriot that they were very much in earnest about the matter of
+surrender. In fact, the only terms offered were immediate retirement
+behind the line of the North Downs, cessation of hostilities and
+surrender of the _Flying Fishes_, and all British subjects, including
+John Castellan, who might be on board them.
+
+"The reason for that condition," said Lord Kitchener, "Mr Lennard will
+be able to make plain to your Majesties."
+
+Then Lennard handed Castellan's letter to the Kaiser, and explained the
+change of calculations necessitated by the diversion of the planet from
+its orbit.
+
+"That is not the letter of an honest fighting man. I am sure that your
+Majesties will agree with me in that. I may say that I have talked the
+matter over with Mr Parmenter and our answer is in the negative. This is
+not warfare; it is only abduction, possibly seasoned with murder, and we
+call those things crimes in England, and if such a crime were permitted
+by those in whose employment John Castellan presumably is, we should
+punish them as well as him."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Kaiser, clenching his fists, "do you, a civilian,
+an ordinary citizen, dare to say such words to us? Lord Kitchener, can
+you permit such an outrage as this?"
+
+"The other outrage would be a much greater one, especially if it were
+committed with the tacit sanction of the three greatest Powers in
+Europe," replied K. of K., quietly. "That is one of our chief reasons
+for asking for the surrender of the _Flying Fishes_. There is no telling
+what harm this wild Irishman of yours might do if he got on the loose,
+not only here but perhaps in your own territories, if he were allowed to
+commit a crime like this, and then went, as he would have to do, into
+the outlaw business."
+
+"I think that there is great justice in what Lord Kitchener says,"
+remarked His Majesty of Austria. "We must not forget that if this man
+Castellan did run amok with any of those diabolical contrivances of his,
+he would be just as much above human law as he would be outside human
+reach. I must confess that that appears to me to be one of the most
+serious features in the situation. Your Majesties, as well as the
+French Government, are aware that I have been all along opposed to the
+use of these horrible engines of destruction, and now you see that their
+very existence seems to have called others into being which may be even
+more formidable."
+
+"Mr Lennard can tell your Majesties more about that than I can," said K.
+of K., with one of his grimmest smiles.
+
+"As far as the air is concerned," said Lennard, very quietly, "we can
+both out-fly and out-shoot the _Flying Fishes_; while as regards the
+water, eleven more _Ithuriels_ will be launched during the week. We have
+twenty-five airships ready for action over land or sea, and, for my own
+part, I think that if your Majesties knew all the details of the
+situation you would consider the terms which his lordship has put before
+you quite generous. But, after all," he continued, in a suddenly changed
+tone, "it seems, if you will excuse my saying so, rather childish to
+talk about terms of peace or war when the world itself has less than six
+weeks to live if John Castellan manages to carry out his threat."
+
+"And you feel absolutely certain of that, Mr Lennard?" asked the Tsar,
+in a tone of very serious interest. "It seems rather singular that none
+of the other astronomers of Europe or America have discovered this
+terrible comet of yours."
+
+"I have had the advantage of the finest telescope in the world, your
+Majesty," replied Lennard, with a smile, "and of course I have published
+no details. There was no point in creating a panic or getting laughed at
+before it was necessary. But now that the orbit has altered, and the
+catastrophe will come so much sooner, any further delay would be little
+short of criminal. In fact, we have to-day telegraphed to all the
+principal observatories in the world, giving exact positions for
+to-night, corrected to differences of time and latitude. We shall hear
+the verdict in the morning, and during to-morrow. Meanwhile we are
+going to Greenwich to get the observatory there to work on my
+calculations, and if your Majesties would care to appoint an officer of
+sufficient knowledge to come with us, and see the comet for himself, he
+will, I am sure, be quite welcome."
+
+"A very good suggestion, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, "very."
+
+"Then," replied the Tsar, quickly, "as astronomy has always been a great
+hobby with me, will you allow me to come? Of course, you have my word
+that I shall see nothing on the journey that you don't want me to see."
+
+"We shall be delighted," said the British envoy, cordially, "and as for
+seeing things, you will be at perfect liberty to use your eyes as much
+as you like."
+
+The Tsar's august colleagues entered fully into the sporting spirit in
+which he had made his proposal, and a verbal agreement to suspend all
+hostilities till his return was ratified in a glass of His Majesty of
+Austria's Imperial Tokay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE
+
+
+Although the Tsar had made trips with John Castellan in the _Flying
+Fish_, he had never had quite such an aërial experience as his trip to
+Greenwich. The _Auriole_ rose vertically in the air, soared upward in a
+splendid spiral curve, and vanished through the thin cloud layer to the
+north-eastward. Twenty minutes of wonder passed like so many seconds,
+and Admiral Hingeston, beside whom he was standing in the conning-tower,
+said quietly:
+
+"We're about there, your Majesty."
+
+"Greenwich already," exclaimed the Tsar, pulling out his watch. "It is
+forty miles, and we have not been quite twenty minutes yet."
+
+"That's about it," said the Admiral, "this craft can do her two miles a
+minute, and still have a good bit in hand if it came to chasing
+anything."
+
+He pulled back a couple of levers as he spoke and gave a quarter turn to
+the wheel. The great airship took a downward slide, swung round to the
+right, and in a few moments she had dropped quietly to the turf of
+Greenwich Park alongside the Observatory.
+
+Lennard's calculations had already reached the Astronomer Royal, and he
+and his chief assistant had had time to make a rapid run through them,
+and they had found that his figures, and especially the inexplicable
+change in the orbit, tallied almost exactly with observations of a
+possibly new comet for the last two months or so.
+
+They were not quite prepared for the coming of an Imperial--and
+hostile--visitor in an airship, accompanied by the discoverer of the
+comet, the millionaire who owned the great telescope, and an American
+gentleman in the uniform of a British admiral; but those were
+extraordinary times, and so extraordinary happenings might be expected.
+The astronomer and his staff, being sober men of science, whose business
+was with other worlds rather than this one, accepted the situation
+calmly, gave their visitors lunch, talked about everything but the war,
+and then they all spent a pleasant and instructive afternoon in a
+journey through Space in search of the still invisible Celestial
+Invader.
+
+When they had finished, the two sets of calculations balanced
+exactly--to the millionth of a degree and the thousandth of a second. At
+ten seconds to twelve, midnight, May the first, the comet, if not
+prevented by some tremendously powerful agency, would pierce the earth's
+atmosphere, as Lennard had predicted.
+
+"It is a marvellous piece of work, Mr Lennard, however good an
+instrument you had. As an astronomer I congratulate you heartily, but as
+citizens of the world I hope we shall be able to congratulate you still
+more heartily on the results which you expect that big gun of yours to
+bring about."
+
+"I'm sure I hope so," said Lennard, toying rather absently with his
+pencil.
+
+"And if the cannon is not fired, and the Pittsburg one does not happen
+to be exactly laid, for there is a very great difference in longitude,
+what will be the probable results, Mr Astronomer?" asked the Tsar, upon
+whom the lesson of the afternoon had by no means been lost.
+
+"If the comet is what Mr Lennard expects it to be, your Majesty," was
+the measured reply, "then, if this Invader is not destroyed, his
+predictions will be fulfilled to the letter. In other words, on the
+second of May there will not be a living thing left on earth."
+
+At three minutes past ten that evening the Tsar looked into the
+eye-piece of the Greenwich Equatorial, and saw a double-winged yellow
+shape floating in the centre of the field of vision. He watched it for
+long minutes, listening to the soft clicking of the clockwork, which was
+the only sound that broke the silence. During the afternoon he had seen
+photographs of the comet taken every night that the weather made a clear
+observation possible. The series tallied exactly with what he now saw.
+The gradual enlargement and brightening; the ever-increasing exactness
+of definition, and the separation of the nucleus from the two wings. All
+that he had seen was as pitilessly inexorable as the figures which
+contained the prophecy of the world's approaching doom. He rose from his
+seat and said quietly, yet with a strange impressiveness:
+
+"Gentlemen, I, for one, am satisfied and converted. What the inscrutable
+decrees of Providence may or may not be, we have no right to inquire;
+but whether this is a judgment from the Most High brought upon us by our
+sins, or whether it is merely an ordinary cataclysm of Nature against
+which we may be able to protect ourselves, does not come into the
+question which is in dispute amongst us. Humanity has an unquestioned
+right to preserve its existence as far as it is possible to do so. If it
+is possible to arrange for another conference at Aldershot to-morrow, I
+think I may say that there will be a possibility of arriving at a
+reasonable basis of negotiations. And now, if it is convenient, Lord
+Kitchener, I should like to get back to camp. Much has been given to me
+to think about to-night, and you know we Russians have a very sound
+proverb: 'Take thy thoughts to bed with thee, for the morning is wiser
+than the evening.'"
+
+"That, your Majesty, has been my favourite saying ever since I knew that
+men had to think about work before they were able to do it properly." So
+spoke the man who had worked for fourteen years to win one battle, and
+crush a whole people at a single stroke--after which he made the best
+of friends with them, and loyal subjects of his Sovereign.
+
+They took their leave of the astronomer and his staff, and a few minutes
+later the _Auriole_, still flying the flag of truce, cleared the
+tree-tops and rose into the serene starlit atmosphere above them.
+
+When the airship had gained a height of a thousand feet, and was heading
+south-west towards Aldershot at a speed of about a hundred miles an
+hour, the Admiral noticed a shape not unlike that of his own vessel, on
+his port quarter, making almost the same direction as he was. The Tsar
+and Lord Kitchener were sitting one on either side of him, as he stood
+at the steering-wheel, as the ominous shape came into view.
+
+"I'm afraid that's one of your _Flying Fishes_, your Majesty, taking
+news from the Continent to Aldershot. Yes, there goes her searchlight.
+She's found us out by now. She knows we're not one of her crowd, and so
+I suppose we shall have to fight her. Yes, I thought so, she means
+fight. She's trying to get above us, which means dropping a few of those
+torpedoes on us, and sending us across the edge of eternity before we
+know we've got there."
+
+"You will, of course, do your duty, Admiral," replied the Tsar very
+quietly, but with a quick tightening of the lips. "It is a most
+unfortunate occurrence, but we must all take the fortune of war as it
+comes. I hope you will not consider my presence here for a moment.
+Remember that I asked myself."
+
+"There won't be any danger to us, your Majesty," replied the Admiral,
+with a marked emphasis on the "us." "Still, we have too many valuable
+lives on board to let him get the drop on us."
+
+As he spoke he thrust one lever on the right hand forward, and pulled
+another back; then he took the telephone receiver down from the wall,
+and said:
+
+"See that thing? She's trying to get the drop on us. Full speed ahead:
+I'm going to rise. Hold on, gentlemen."
+
+They held on. The Tsar saw the jumping searchlights, which flashed up
+from the little grey shape to the southward, suddenly fall away and
+below them. The Admiral touched the wheel with his left hand, and the
+_Auriole_ sprang forward. The other tried to do the same, but she seemed
+to droop and fall behind. Admiral Hingeston took down the receiver again
+and said:
+
+"Ready--starboard guns--now: fire!"
+
+Of course, there was no report; only a brilliant blaze of light to the
+southward, and an atmospheric shock which made the _Auriole_ shudder as
+she passed on her way. The Tsar looked out to the spot where the blaze
+of flame had burst out. The other airship had vanished.
+
+"She has gone. That is awful," he said, with a shake in his voice.
+
+"As I said before, I'm sorry, your Majesty," replied the Admiral, "but
+it had to be done. If he'd got the top side of us we should have been in
+as little pieces as he is now. I only hope it's John Castellan's craft.
+If it is it will save a lot of trouble to both sides."
+
+The Tsar did not reply. He was too busy thinking, and so was Lord
+Kitchener.
+
+That night there were divided counsels in the headquarters of the Allies
+at Aldershot, and the Kaiser and his colleagues went to bed between two
+and three in the morning without having come to anything like a definite
+decision. As a matter of fact, within the last few hours things had
+become a little too complicated to be decided upon in anything like a
+hurry.
+
+While the potentates of the Alliance were almost quarrelling as to what
+was to be done, the _Auriole_ paid a literally flying visit to the
+British positions, and then the hospitals. At Caversham, Lennard found
+Norah Castellan taking her turn of night duty by the bedside of Lord
+Westerham, who had, after all, got through his desperate ride with a
+couple of bullets through his right ribs, and a broken left arm; but he
+had got his despatches in all the same, though nearly two hours
+late--for which he apologised before he fainted. In one of the wards at
+Windsor Camp he found Auriole, also on night duty, nursing with no less
+anxious care the handsome young Captain of Uhlans who had taken Lord
+Whittinghame's car in charge in Rochester. Mrs O'Connor had got a
+badly-wounded Russian Vice-Admiral all to herself, and, as she modestly
+put it, was doing very nicely with him.
+
+Meanwhile the news of the truce was proclaimed, and the opposing
+millions laid themselves down to rest with the thankful certainty that
+it would not be broken for at least a night and a day by the whistle of
+the life-hunting bullet or the screaming roar and heart-shaking crash of
+the big shell which came from some invisible point five or six miles
+away. In view of this a pleasant little dinner-party was arranged for at
+the Parmenter Palace at eight the next evening. There would be no
+carriages. The coming and parting guests would do their coming and going
+in airships. Mr Parmenter expressed the opinion that, under the
+circumstances, this would be at once safer and more convenient.
+
+But before that dinner-party broke up, the world had something very
+different from feasting and merrymaking, or even invasion and military
+conquest or defeat, to think of.
+
+The result of Lennard's telegrams and cables had been that every
+powerful telescope in the civilised world had been turned upon that
+distant region of the fields of Space out of which the Celestial Invader
+was rushing at a speed of thousands of miles a minute to that awful
+trysting-place, at which it and the planet Terra were to meet and
+embrace in the fiery union of death.
+
+From every observatory, from Greenwich to Arequipa, and from Pike's Peak
+to Melbourne, came practically identical messages, which, in their
+combined sense, came to this:
+
+"Lennard's figures absolutely correct. Collision with comet apparently
+inevitable. Consequences incalculable."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+WAITING FOR DOOM
+
+
+This was the all-important news which the inhabitants of every town
+which possessed a well-informed newspaper read the next morning. It was,
+in the more important of them, followed by digests of the calculations
+which had made this terrific result a practical certainty. These, again,
+were followed by speculations, some deliberately scientific, and some
+wild beyond the dreams of the most hopeless hysteria.
+
+Men and women who for a generation or so had been making large incomes
+by prophesying the end of the world as a certainty about every seven
+years--and had bought up long leaseholds meanwhile--now gambled with
+absolute certainty on the shortness of the public memory, revised their
+figures, and proved to demonstration that this was the very thing they
+had been foretelling all along.
+
+First--outside scientific circles--came blank incredulity. The ordinary
+man and woman in the street had not room in their brains for such a
+tremendous idea as this--fact or no fact. They were already filled with
+a crowd of much smaller and, to them, much more pressing concerns, than
+a collision with a comet which you couldn't even see except through a
+big telescope: and then that sort of thing had been talked and written
+about hundreds of times before and had never come to anything, so why
+should this?
+
+But when the morning papers dated--somewhat ominously--the twenty-fifth
+of March, quarter day, informed their readers that, granted fine
+weather, the comet would be visible to the naked eye from sunset to
+sunrise according to longitude that night, the views of the man and the
+woman who had taken the matter so lightly underwent a very considerable
+change.
+
+While the comet could only be seen, save by astronomers, in the
+photographs that could be bought in any form from a picture-postcard to
+a five-guinea reproduction of the actual thing, there was still an air
+of unconvincing unreality about. Of course it might be coming, but it
+was still very far away, and it might not arrive after all. Yet when
+that fateful night had passed and millions of sleepless eyes had seen
+the south-western stars shining through a pale luminous mist extended in
+the shape of two vast filmy wings with a brighter spot of yellow flame
+between them, the whole matter seemed to take on a very different and a
+much more serious aspect.
+
+The fighting had come to a sudden stop, as though by a mutually tacit
+agreement. Not even the German Emperor could now deny that Lennard had
+made no idle threat at Canterbury when he had given him the destruction
+of the world as an alternative to the conquest of Britain. Still, he did
+not quite believe in the possibility of that destruction even yet, in
+spite of what the Tsar had told him and what he had learned from other
+sources. He still wanted to fight to a finish, and, as Deputy European
+Providence, he had a very real objection to the interference of
+apparently irresponsible celestial bodies with his carefully-thought-out
+plans for the ordering of mundane civilisation on German commercial
+lines. Whether they liked it or not, it must be the best thing in the
+end for them: otherwise how could He have come to think it all out?
+
+Meanwhile, to make matters worse from his point of view, John Castellan
+had refused absolutely to accept any modification of the original terms,
+and he had replied to an order from headquarters to report himself and
+the ships still left under his control by loading the said ships with
+ammunition and motive power and then disappearing from the field of
+action without leaving a trace as to his present or future whereabouts
+behind him, and so, as far as matters went, entirely fulfilling the
+Tsar's almost prophetic fears.
+
+And then, precisely at the hour, minute and second predicted, five
+hours, thirty minutes and twenty-five seconds, a.m., on the 31st of
+March, the comet became visible in daylight about two and a half degrees
+south-westward of the Morning Star. Twenty-four hours later the two
+wings came into view, and the next evening the Invader looked like some
+gigantic bird of prey swooping down from its eyrie somewhere in the
+heights of Space upon the trembling and terrified world. The
+professional prophets said, with an excellent assumption of absolute
+conviction, that it was nothing less awful than the Destroying Angel
+himself _in propria persona_.
+
+At length, when excitement had developed into frenzy, and frenzy into an
+almost universal delirium, two cablegrams crossed each other along the
+bed of the Atlantic Ocean. One was to say that the Pittsburg gun was
+ready, and the other that the loading of the Bolton Baby--feeding, some
+callous humorist of the day called it--was to begin the next morning.
+This meant that there was just a week--an ordinary working week, between
+the human race and something very like the Day of Judgment.
+
+The next day Lennard set all the existing wires of the world thrilling
+with the news that the huge projectile, charged with its thirty
+hundredweight of explosives, was resting quietly in its place on the top
+of a potential volcano which, loosened by the touch of a woman's hand,
+was to hurl it through space and into the heart of the swiftly-advancing
+Invader from the outmost realms of Space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+THE LAST FIGHT
+
+
+It so happened that on the first night the German Emperor saw the comet
+without the aid of a telescope he was attacked by one of those fits of
+hysteria which, according to ancient legend, are the hereditary curse of
+the House of Brandenburg. He had made possible that which had been
+impossible for over a thousand years--he had invaded England in force,
+and he had established himself and his Allies in all the greatest
+fortress-camps of south-eastern England. After all, the story of the
+comet might be a freak of the scientific imagination; there might be
+some undetected error in the calculations. One great mistake had been
+made already, either by the comet or its discoverer--why not another?
+
+"No," he said to himself, as he stood in front of the headquarters at
+Aldershot looking up at the comet, "we've heard about you before, my
+friend. Astronomers and other people have prophesied a dozen times that
+you or something like you were going to bring about the end of the
+world, but somehow it never came off; whereas it is pretty certain that
+the capture of London will come off if it is only properly managed. At
+anyrate, I am inclined to back my chances of taking London against yours
+of destroying it."
+
+And so he made his decision. He sent a telegram to Dover ordering an
+aerogram to be sent to John Castellan, whose address was now, of course,
+anywhere in the air or sea; the message was to be repeated from all the
+Continental stations until he was found. It contained the first
+capitulation that the War Lord of Germany had ever made. He accepted the
+terms of his Admiral of the Air and asked him to bring his fleet the
+following day to assist in a general assault on London--London once
+taken, John Castellan could have the free hand that he had asked for.
+
+In twelve hours a reply came back from the Jotunheim in Norway.
+Meanwhile, the Kaiser, as Generalissimo of the Allied Forces,
+telegraphed orders to all the commanders of army corps in England to
+prepare for a final assault on the positions commanding London within
+twenty-four hours. At the same time he sent telegraphic orders to all
+the centres of mobilisation in Europe, ordering the advance of all
+possible reinforcements with the least delay. It was his will that four
+million men should march on London that week, and, in spite of the
+protests of the Emperor of Austria and the Tsar, his will was obeyed.
+
+So the truce was broken and the millions advanced, as it were over the
+brink of Eternity, towards London. But the reinforcements never came.
+Every transport that steamed out of Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Antwerp,
+Brest or Calais, vanished into the waters; for now the whole squadron of
+twelve _Ithuriels_ had been launched and had got to work, and the
+British fleets from the Mediterranean, the China Seas and the North
+Atlantic, had once more asserted Britain's supremacy on the seas. In
+addition to these, ten first-class battleships, twelve first and fifteen
+second-class cruisers and fifty destroyers had been turned out by the
+Home yards, and so the British Islands were once more ringed with an
+unbreakable wall of steel. One invasion had been accomplished, but now
+no other was possible. The French Government absolutely refused to send
+any more men. The Italian armies had crossed the Alps at three points,
+and every soldier left in France was wanted to defend her own fortresses
+and cities from the attack of the invader.
+
+But, despite all this, the War Lord held to his purpose; and that night
+the last battle ever fought between civilised nations began, and when
+the sun rose on the sixteenth of April, its rays lit up what was
+probably the most awful scene of carnage that human eyes had ever looked
+upon. The battle-line of the invaders had extended from Sheerness to
+Reading in a sort of irregular semicircle, and it was estimated
+afterwards that not less than a million and a half of killed and wounded
+men, fifty thousand horses and hundreds of disabled batteries of light
+and heavy artillery strewed the long line of defeat and conquest.
+
+The British aërial fleet of twenty ships had made victory for the
+defenders a practical certainty. As Admiral Hingeston had told the Tsar,
+they could both out-fly and out-shoot the _Flying Fishes_. This they did
+and more. The moment that a battery got into position half a dozen
+searchlights were concentrated on it. Then came a hail of shells, and a
+series of explosions which smashed the guns to fragments and killed
+every living thing within a radius of a hundred yards. Infantry and
+cavalry shared the same fate the moment that any formation was made for
+an attack on the British positions; the storm of fire was made ten-fold
+more terrible by the unceasing bombardment from the air; and the
+brilliant glow of the searchlights thrown down from a height of a
+thousand feet or so along the lines of the attacking forces made the
+work of the defenders comparatively easy, for the man in a fight who can
+see and is not seen is worth several who are seen and yet fight in the
+dark.
+
+But the assailants were exposed to an even more deadly danger than
+artillery or rifle fire. The catastrophe which had overwhelmed the
+British Fleet in Dover Harbour was repeated with ten-fold effect; but
+this time the tables were turned. The British aërial fleet hunted the
+_Flying Fishes_ as hawks hunt partridges, and whenever one of them was
+found over a hostile position a shell from the silent, flameless guns
+hit her, and down she went to explode like a volcano amongst masses of
+cavalry, infantry and artillery, and of this utter panic was the only
+natural result.
+
+Eleven out of the twelve _Flying Fishes_ were thus accounted for. What
+had become of the twelfth no one knew. It might have been partially
+crippled and fallen far away from the great battlefield; or it might
+have turned tail and escaped, and in this case it was a practical
+certainty, at least in Lennard's mind, that it was John Castellan's own
+vessel and that he, seeing that the battle was lost, had taken her away
+to some unknown spot in order to fulfil the threat contained in his
+letter, and for this reason five of the British airships were at once
+despatched to mount guard over the great cannon at Bolton.
+
+The defeat of the Allies both by land and sea, though accomplished at
+the eleventh hour of the world's threatened fate, had been so complete
+and crushing, and the death-total had reached such a ghastly figure,
+that Austria, Russia and France flatly refused to continue the Alliance.
+After all the tremendous sacrifice that had been made in men, money and
+material they had not even reached London. From their outposts on the
+Surrey hills they could see the vast city, silent and apparently
+sleeping under its canopy of hazy clouds, but that was all. It was still
+as distant from them as the poles; and so the Allies looked upon it and
+then upon their dead, and admitted, by their silence if not by their
+words, that Britain the Unconquered was unconquerable still.
+
+The German Emperor's fit had passed. Even he was appalled when upon that
+memorable morning he received the joint note of his three Allies and
+learnt the awful cost of that one night's fighting.
+
+Just as he was countersigning the Note of Capitulation in the
+headquarters at Aldershot, the _Auriole_ swung round from the northward
+and descended on to the turf flying the flag of truce. He saw it
+through the window, got up, put his right hand on the butt of the
+revolver in his hip-pocket, thought hard for one fateful moment, then
+took it away and went out.
+
+At the gate he met Lord Kitchener; they exchanged salutes and shook
+hands, and the Kaiser said:
+
+"Well, my lord, what are the terms?"
+
+K. of K. laughed, simply because he couldn't help it. The absolute hard
+business of the question went straight to the heart of the best business
+man in the British Army.
+
+"I am not here to make or accept terms, your Majesty," he said. "I am
+only the bearer of a message, and here it is."
+
+Then he handed the Kaiser an envelope bearing the Royal Arms.
+
+"I am instructed to take your reply back as soon as possible," he
+continued. Then he saluted again and walked away towards the _Auriole_.
+
+The Kaiser opened the envelope and read--an invitation to lunch from his
+uncle, Edward of England, and a request to bring his august colleagues
+with him to talk matters over. There was no hint of battle, victory or
+defeat. It was a quite commonplace letter, but all the same it was one
+of those triumphs of diplomacy which only the first diplomatist in
+Europe knew how to achieve. Then he too laughed as he folded up the
+letter and went to Lord Kitchener and said:
+
+"This is only an invitation to lunch, and you have told me you are not
+here to propose or take terms. That, of course, was official, but
+personally--"
+
+K. of K. stiffened up, and a harder glint came into his eyes.
+
+"I can say nothing personally, your Majesty, except to ask you to
+remember my reply to Cronje."
+
+The Kaiser remembered that reply of three words, "Surrender, or fight,"
+and he knew that he could not fight, save under a penalty of utter
+destruction. He went back into his room, brought back the joint note
+which he had just received, and gave it to Lord Kitchener, just as it
+was, without even putting it into an envelope, saying:
+
+"That is our answer. We are beaten, and those who lose must pay."
+
+Lord Kitchener looked over the note and said, in a somewhat dry tone:
+
+"This, your Majesty, I read as absolute surrender."
+
+"It is," said William the Second, his hand instinctively going to the
+hilt of his sword. Lord Kitchener shook his head, and said very quietly
+and pleasantly:
+
+"No, your Majesty, not that. But," he said, looking up at the four flags
+which were still flying above the headquarters, "I should be obliged if
+you would give orders to haul those down and hoist the Jack instead."
+
+There was no help for it, and no one knew better than the Kaiser the
+strength there was behind those quietly-spoken words. The awful lesson
+of the night before had taught him that this beautiful cruiser of the
+air which lay within a few yards of him could in a few moments rise into
+the air and scatter indiscriminate death and destruction around her, and
+so the flags came down, the old Jack once more went up, and Aldershot
+was English ground again.
+
+Wherefore, not to enter into unnecessary details, the _Auriole_, instead
+of making the place a wilderness as Lord Kitchener had quite determined
+to do, became an aërial pleasure yacht. Orderlies were sent to the
+Russian, Austrian and French headquarters, and an hour later the chiefs
+of the Allies were sitting in the deck saloon of the airship, flying at
+about sixty miles an hour towards London.
+
+The lunch at Buckingham Palace was an entirely friendly affair. King
+Edward had intended it to be a sort of international shake-hands all
+round. The King of Italy was present, as the _Columbia_ had been
+despatched early in the morning to bring him from Rome, and had picked
+up the French President on the way back at Paris. The King gave the
+first and only toast, and that was:
+
+"Your Majesties and Monsieur le President, in the name of Humanity, I
+ask you to drink to Peace."
+
+They drank, and so ended the last war that was ever fought on British
+soil.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"
+
+
+On the morning of the thirtieth of April, the interest of the whole
+world was centred generally upon Bolton, and particularly upon the
+little spot of black earth enclosed by a ring of Bessemer furnaces in
+the midst of which lay another ring, a ring of metal, the mouth of the
+great cannon, whose one and only shot was to save or lose the world. At
+a height of two thousand feet, twenty airships circled at varying
+distances round the mouth of the gun, watching for the one _Flying Fish_
+which had not been accounted for in the final fight.
+
+The good town of Bolton itself was depopulated. For days past the comet
+had been blazing brighter and brighter, even in the broad daylight, and
+the reports which came pouring in every day from the observatories of
+the world made it perfectly clear that Lennard's calculations would be
+verified at midnight.
+
+Mr Parmenter and his brother capitalists had guaranteed two millions
+sterling as compensation for such destruction of property as might be
+brought about by the discharge of the cannon, and, coupled with this
+guarantee, was a request that everyone living within five miles of what
+had been the Great Lever pit should leave, and this was authorised by a
+Royal Proclamation. There was no confusion, because, when faced with
+great issues, the Lancashire intellect does not become confused. It just
+gets down to business and does it. So it came about that the people of
+Bolton, rich and poor, millionaire and artisan, made during that
+momentous week a general flitting, taking with them just such of their
+possessions as would be most precious to them if the Fates permitted
+them to witness the dawn of the first of May.
+
+The weather, strangely enough, had been warm and sunny for the last
+fortnight, despite the fact that the ever-brightening Invader from Space
+gradually outshone the sun itself, and so on all the moors round Bolton
+there sprang up a vast town of tents and ready-made bungalows from
+Chorley round by Darwen to Bury. Thousands of people had come from all
+parts of the kingdom to see the fate of the world decided. What was left
+of the armies of the Allies were also brought up by train, and all the
+British forces were there as well. They were all friends now for there
+was no more need for fighting, since the events of the next few hours
+would decide the fate of the human race.
+
+As the sun set over the western moors a vast concourse of men and women,
+representing almost every nationality on earth, watched the coming of
+the Invader, brightening now with every second and over-arching the
+firmament with its wide-spreading wings. There were no sceptics now. No
+one could look upon that appalling Shape and not believe, and if
+absolute confirmation of Lennard's prophecy had been wanted it would
+have been found in the fact that the temperature began to rise _after_
+sunset. That had never happened before within the memory of man.
+
+The crowning height of the moors which make a semicircle to the
+north-west of Bolton is Winter Hill, which stands about half-way between
+Bolton and Chorley, and, roughly speaking, would make the centre of a
+circle including Bolton, Wigan, Chorley and Blackburn. It rises to a
+height of nearly fifteen hundred feet and dominates the surrounding
+country for fully fifteen miles, and on the summit of this rugged,
+heather-clad moor was pitched what might be called without exaggeration
+the headquarters of the forces which were to do battle for humanity. A
+huge marquee had been erected in an ancient quarry just below the
+summit; from the centre pole of this flew the Royal Standard of England,
+and from the other poles the standards of every civilised nation in the
+world.
+
+The front of the marquee opened to the south eastward, and by the
+unearthly light of the comet the mill chimneys of Bolton, dominated by
+the great stack of Dobson & Barlow's, could be seen pointing like black
+fingers up to the approaching terror. In the centre of the opening were
+two plain deal tables. There was an instrument on each of them, and from
+these separate wires ran on two series of poles and buried themselves at
+last in the heart of the charge of the great cannon. Beside the
+instruments were two chronometers synchronised from Greenwich and
+beating time together to the thousandth part of a second, counting out
+what might perhaps be the last seconds of human life on earth.
+
+Grouped about the two tables were the five sovereigns of Europe and the
+President of the French Republic, and with them stood the greatest
+soldiers, sailors and scientists, statesmen and diplomatists between
+east and west.
+
+On a long deck chair beside one of the tables lay Lord Westerham with
+his left arm bound across his breast and looking little better than the
+ghost of the man he had been a month ago. Beside him stood Lady Margaret
+and Norah Castellan, and with them were the two men who had done so much
+to change defeat into victory; the captain and lieutenant of the
+ever-famous _Ithuriel_.
+
+Never before had there been such a gathering of all sorts and conditions
+of men on one spot of earth; but as the hours went on and dwindled into
+minutes, all differences of rank and position became things of the past.
+In the presence of that awful Shape which was now flaming across the
+heavens, all men and women were equal, since by midnight all might be
+reduced at the same instant to the same dust and ashes. The ghastly
+orange-green glare shone down alike on the upturned face of monarch and
+statesman, soldier and peasant, millionaire and pauper, the good and the
+bad, the noble and the base, and tinged every face with its own ghastly
+hue.
+
+Five minutes to twelve!
+
+There was a shaking of hands, but no words were spoken. Norah Castellan
+stooped and kissed her wounded lover's brow, and then stood up and
+clasped her hands behind her. Lennard went to one of the tables and
+Auriole to the other.
+
+Lennard had honestly kept the unspoken pact that had been made between
+them in the observatory at Whernside. Neither word nor look of love had
+passed his lips or lightened his eyes; and even now, as he stood beside
+her, looking at her face, beautiful still even in that ghastly light,
+his glance was as steady as if he had been looking through the eye-piece
+of his telescope.
+
+Auriole had her right forefinger already resting on a little white
+button, ready at a touch to send the kindling spark into the mighty mass
+of explosives which lay buried at the bottom of what had been the Great
+Lever pit. Lennard also had his right forefinger on another button, but
+his left hand was in his coat pocket and the other forefinger was on the
+trigger of a loaded and cocked revolver. There were several other
+revolvers in men's pockets--men who had sworn that their nearest and
+dearest should be spared the last tortures of the death-agony of
+humanity.
+
+The chronometers began to tick off the seconds of the last minute. The
+wings of the comet spread out vaster and vaster and its now flaming
+nucleus blazed brighter and brighter. A low, vague wailing sound seemed
+to be running through the multitudes which thronged the semicircle of
+moors. It was the first and perhaps the last utterance of the agony of
+unendurable suspense.
+
+At the thirtieth second Lennard looked up and said in a quiet,
+passionless tone:
+
+"Ready!"
+
+At the same moment he saw, as millions of others thought they saw, a
+grey shape skimming through the air from the north-east towards Bolton.
+It could not be a British airship, for the fleet had already scattered,
+as the shock of the coming explosion would certainly have caused them to
+smash up like so many shells. It was John Castellan's _Flying Fish_ come
+to fulfil the letter of his threat, even at this supreme moment of the
+world's fate.
+
+Again Lennard spoke.
+
+"Twenty seconds."
+
+And then he began to count.
+"Nine--eight--seven--six--five--four--three--two--Now!"
+
+The two fingers went down at the same instant and completed the
+circuits. The next, the central fires of the earth seemed to have burst
+loose. A roar such as had never deafened human ears before thundered
+from earth to heaven, and a vast column of pale flame leapt up with a
+concussion which seemed to shake the foundations of the world. Then in
+the midst of the column of flame there came a brighter flash, a
+momentary blaze of green-blue flame flashing out for a moment and
+vanishing.
+
+"That was John's ship," said Norah. "God forgive him!"
+
+"He will," said Westerham, taking her hand. "He was wrong-headed on that
+particular subject, but he was a brave man, and a genius. I don't think
+there's any doubt about that."
+
+"It's good of you to say so," said Norah. "Poor John! With all his
+learning and genius to come to that--"
+
+"We all have to get there some time, Norah, and after all, whether he's
+right or wrong, a man can't die better than for what he believes to be
+the truth and the right. We may think him mistaken, he thought he was
+right, and he has proved it. God rest his soul!"
+
+"Amen!" said Norah, and she leant over again and kissed him on the
+brow.
+
+Then came ten seconds more of mute and agonised suspense, and men's
+fingers tightened their grip on the revolvers. Then the upturned
+straining eyes looked upon such a sight as human eyes will never see
+again save perchance those which, in the fulness of time, may look upon
+the awful pageantry of the Last Day.
+
+High up in the air there was a shrill screaming sound which seemed
+something like an echo of the roar of the great gun. Something like a
+white flash of light darted upwards straight to the heart of the
+descending Invader. Then the whole heavens were illumined by a blinding
+glare. The nucleus of the comet seemed to throw out long rays of
+many-coloured light. A moment later it had burst into myriads of faintly
+gleaming atoms.
+
+The watching millions on earth instinctively clasped their hands to
+their ears, expecting such a sound as would deafen them for ever; but
+none came, for the explosion had taken place beyond the limits of the
+earth's atmosphere. The whole sky was now filled from zenith to horizon
+with a pale, golden, luminous mist, and through this the moon and stars
+began to shine dimly.
+
+Then a blast of burning air swept shrieking and howling across the
+earth, for now the planet Terra was rushing at her headlong speed of
+nearly seventy thousand miles an hour through the ocean of fire-mist
+into which the shattered comet had been dissolved. Then this passed. The
+cool wind of night followed it, and the moon and stars shone down once
+more undimmed through the pure and cloudless ether.
+
+Until now there had been silence. Men and women looked at each other and
+clasped hands; and then Tom Bowcock, standing just outside the marquee
+with his arm round his wife's shoulders, lifted up his mighty baritone
+voice and sang the lines:
+
+
+     "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"
+
+
+Hundreds and then thousands, then millions of voices took up the
+familiar strain, and so from the tops of the Lancashire moors the chorus
+rolled on from village to village and town to town, until with one
+voice, though with many tongues, east and west were giving thanks for
+the Great Deliverance.
+
+But the man who, under Providence, had wrought it, seemed deaf and blind
+to all this. He only felt a soft trembling clasp round his right hand,
+and he only heard Auriole's voice whispering his name.
+
+The next moment a stronger grip pulled his left hand out of his coat
+pocket, bringing the revolver with it, and Mr Parmenter's voice, shaken
+by rare emotion, said, loudly enough for all in the marquee to hear:
+
+"We may thank God and you, Gilbert Lennard, that there's still a world
+with living men and women on it, and there's one woman here who's going
+to live for you only till death do you part. She told me all about it
+last night. You've won her fair and square, and you're going to have
+her. I did have other views for her, but I've changed my mind, because I
+have learnt other things since then. But anyhow, with no offence to this
+distinguished company, I reckon you're the biggest man on earth just
+now."
+
+Soon after daybreak on the first of May, one of the airships that had
+been guarding Whernside dropped on the top of Winter Hill, and the
+captain gave Lennard a cablegram which read thus:
+
+
+     "LENNARD, Bolton, England: Good shot. As you left no pieces for us
+     to shoot at we've let our shot go. No use for it here. Hope it will
+     stop next celestial stranger coming this way. America thanks you.
+     Any terms you like for lecturing tour.--HENCHELL."
+
+
+Lennard did not see his way to accept the lecturing offer because he had
+much more important business on hand: but a week later, after a
+magnificent and, if the word may be used, multiple marriage ceremony
+had been performed in Westminster Abbey, five airships, each with a
+bride and bridegroom on board, rose from the gardens of Buckingham
+Palace and, followed by the cheers of millions, winged their way
+westward. Thirty-five hours later there was such a dinner-party at the
+White House, Washington, as eclipsed all the previous glories even of
+American hospitality.
+
+Nothing was ever seen of the projectile which "The Pittsburg Prattler"
+had hurled into space. Not even the great Whernside reflector was able
+to pick it up. The probability, therefore, is that even now it is still
+speeding on its lonely way through the Ocean of Immensity, and it is
+within the bounds of possibility that at some happy moment in the future
+and somewhere far away beyond the reach of human vision, its huge charge
+of explosives may do for some other threatened world what the one which
+the Bolton Baby coughed up into Space just in the nick of time did to
+save this home of ours from the impending Peril of 1910.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+COLSTON AND COY. LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Peril of 1910, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World Peril of 1910
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24764]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+
+
+<h1>THE WORLD PERIL<br />OF 1910</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>GEORGE GRIFFITH</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF<br />"THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION," "A CONQUEST OF FORTUNE,"<br />
+"A MAYFAIR MAGICIAN," "HIS BETTER HALF," ETC. ETC.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>LONDON</h3>
+
+<h2>F. V. WHITE &amp; CO. LTD.</h2>
+
+<h3>14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br />1907</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#PROLOGUE">PROLOGUE</a></span>&mdash;A RACE FOR A WOMAN</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;NORAH'S GOOD-BYE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;SEEN UNDER THE MOON</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NOTE OF WAR</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;CAUGHT!</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;FIRST BLOOD</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A CRIME AND A MISTAKE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE EVE OF BATTLE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE STRIFE OF GIANTS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;AWAY FROM THE WARPATH</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A CHANGE OF SCENE</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS&mdash;</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;AND ENDS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;DISASTER</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;TOM BOWCOCK&mdash;PITMAN</li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;PREPARING FOR ACTION</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LION WAKES</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">XXX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;MR PARMENTER SAYS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">XXXI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">XXXII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">XXXIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;MR PARMENTER RETURNS</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">XXXIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE "AURIOLE"</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">XXXV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">XXXVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">XXXVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE</li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">XXXVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;WAITING FOR DOOM</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">XXXIX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LAST FIGHT</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a></span>&mdash;"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="PROLOGUE" id="PROLOGUE"></a>PROLOGUE</h2>
+
+<h3>A RACE FOR A WOMAN</h3>
+
+<p>In Clifden, the chief coast town of Connemara, there is a house at the
+end of a triangle which the two streets of the town form, the front
+windows of which look straight down the beautiful harbour and bay, whose
+waters stretch out beyond the islands which are scattered along the
+coast and, with the many submerged reefs, make the entrance so
+difficult.</p>
+
+<p>In the first-floor double-windowed room of this house, furnished as a
+bed-sitting room, there was a man sitting at a writing-table&mdash;not an
+ordinary writing-table, but one the dimensions of which were more suited
+to the needs of an architect or an engineer than to those of a writer.
+In the middle of the table was a large drawing-desk, and on it was
+pinned a sheet of cartridge paper, which was almost covered with
+portions of designs.</p>
+
+<p>In one corner there was what might be the conception of an engine
+designed for a destroyer or a submarine. In another corner there was a
+sketch of something that looked like a lighthouse, and over against this
+the design of what might have been a lantern. The top left-hand corner
+of the sheet was merely a blur of curved lines and shadings and
+cross-lines, running at a hundred different angles which no one, save
+the man who had drawn them, could understand the meaning of.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the sheet there was a very carefully-outlined drawing
+in hard pencil of a craft which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> different from anything that had
+ever sailed upon the waters or below them, or, for the matter of that,
+above them.</p>
+
+<p>To the right hand there was a rough, but absolutely accurate, copy of
+this same craft leaving the water and flying into the air, and just
+underneath this a tiny sketch of a flying fish doing the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>The man sitting before the drawing-board was an Irishman. He was one of
+those men with the strong, crisp hair, black brows and deep brown eyes,
+straight, strong nose almost in a line with his forehead, thin, nervous
+lips and pointed jaw, strong at the angles but weak at the point, which
+come only from one descent.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly four hundred years before, one of the ships of the great Armada
+had been wrecked on Achill Island, about twenty miles from where he sat.
+Half a dozen or so of the crew had been saved, and one of these was a
+Spanish gentleman, captain of Arquebusiers who, drenched and bedraggled
+as he was when the half-wild Irish fishermen got him out of the water,
+still looked what he was, a Hidalgo of Spain. He had been nursed back to
+health and strength in a miserable mud and turf-walled cottage, and,
+broken in fortune&mdash;for he was one of the many gentlemen of Spain who had
+risked their all on the fortunes of King Philip and the Great Armada,
+and lost&mdash;he refused to go back to his own country a beaten man.</p>
+
+<p>And meanwhile he had fallen in love with the daughter of his nurse, the
+wife of the fisherman who had taken him more than half dead out of the
+raging Atlantic surf.</p>
+
+<p>No man ever knew who he was, save that he was a gentleman, a Spaniard,
+and a Catholic. But when he returned to the perfection of physical and
+mental health, and had married the grey-eyed, dark-browed girl, who had
+seemed to him during his long hours of sickness the guardian angel who
+had brought him back across the line which marks the frontier between
+life and death, he developed an extraordinary talent in boat-building,
+which was the real origin of the wonderful sea-worthiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> of small
+craft which to this day brave, almost with impunity, the terrible seas
+which, after an unbroken run of almost two thousand miles, burst upon
+the rock-bound, island-fenced coast of Connemara.</p>
+
+<p>The man at the table was the descendant in the sixth generation of the
+unknown Spanish Hidalgo, who nearly four hundred years before had said
+in reply to a question as to what his name was:</p>
+
+<p>"Juan de Castillano."</p>
+
+<p>As the generations had passed, the name, as usual, had got modified, and
+this man's name was John Castellan.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that will about do for the present," he said, getting up from
+the table and throwing his pencil down. "I've got it almost perfect
+now;" and then as he bent down again over the table, and looked over
+every line of his drawings, "Yes, it's about all there. I wonder what my
+Lords of the British Admiralty would give to know what that means. Well,
+God save Ireland, they shall some day!"</p>
+
+<p>He unpinned the paper from the board, rolled it up, and put it into the
+top drawer of an old oak cabinet, which one would hardly have expected
+to find in such a room as that, and locked the drawer with a key on his
+keychain. Then he took his cap from a peg on the door, and his gun from
+the corner beside it, and went out.</p>
+
+<p>There are three ways out of Clifden to the west, one to the southward
+takes you over the old bridge, which arches the narrow rock-walled
+gorge, which gathers up the waters of the river after they have had
+their frolic over the rocks above. The other is a continuation of the
+main street, and this, as it approaches the harbour, where you may now
+see boats built on the pattern which John Castellan's ancestor had
+designed, divides into two roads, one leading along the shore of the
+bay, and the other, rough, stony, and ill-kept, takes you above the
+coast-guard station, and leads to nowhere but the Atlantic Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Between these two roads lies in what was once a park, but which is now a
+wilderness, Clifden Castle. Castle in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> Irish means country house, and
+all over the south and west of Ireland you may find such houses as this
+with doors screwed up, windows covered with planks, roofs and eaves
+stripped of the lead and slates which once protected them from the
+storms which rise up from the Atlantic, and burst in wind and rain, snow
+and sleet over Connemara, long ago taken away to sell by the bankrupt
+heirs of those who ruined themselves, mortgaged and sold every acre of
+ground and every stick and stone they owned to maintain what they called
+the dignity of their families at the Vice-Regal Court in Dublin.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan took the lower road, looking for duck. The old house had
+been the home of his grandfather, but he had never lived in it. The ruin
+had come in his father's time, before he had learned to walk. He looked
+at it as he passed, and his teeth clenched and his brows came together
+in a straight line.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the same moment that he left his house an Englishman came out
+of the Railway Hotel. He also had a gun over his shoulder, and he took
+the upper road. These two men, who were to meet for the first time that
+day, were destined to decide the fate of the world between them.</p>
+
+<p>As John Castellan walked past the ruined distillery, which overlooks the
+beach on which the fishing boats are drawn up, he saw a couple of duck
+flying seaward. He quickened his pace, and walked on until he turned the
+bend of the road, at which on the right-hand side a path leads up to a
+gate in the old wall, which still guards the ragged domains of Clifden
+Castle. A few hundred yards away there is a little peninsula, on which
+stands a house built somewhat in bungalow fashion. The curve of the
+peninsula turns to the eastward, and makes a tiny bay of almost crescent
+shape. In this the pair of duck settled.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan picked up a stone from the road, and threw it into the
+water. As the birds rose his gun went up. His right barrel banged and
+the duck fell. The drake flew landward: he fired his left barrel and
+missed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> Then came a bang from the upper road, and the drake dropped.
+The Englishman had killed it with a wire cartridge in his choked left
+barrel.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who the devil did that!" said Castellan, as he saw the bird
+fall. "It was eighty yards if it was an inch, and that's a good gun with
+a good man behind it."</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman left the road to pick up the bird and then went down the
+steep, stony hillside towards the shore of the silver-mouthed bay in the
+hope of getting another shot farther on, for the birds were now
+beginning to come over; and so it came about that he and the Irishman
+met within a few yards of each other, one on either side of a low spit
+of sand and shingle.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a fine shot you killed the drake with," said the Irishman,
+looking at the bird he was carrying by the legs in his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>"A good gun, and a wire cartridge, I fancy, were mainly responsible for
+his death," laughed the Englishman. "See you've got the other."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and missed yours," said the Irishman.</p>
+
+<p>The other recognised the tone as that of a man to whom failure, even in
+the most insignificant matter, was hateful, and he saw a quick gleam in
+his eyes which he remembered afterwards under very different
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>But it so happened that the rivalry between them which was hereafter to
+have such momentous consequences was to be manifested there and then in
+a fashion much more serious than the hitting or missing of a brace of
+wild fowl.</p>
+
+<p>Out on the smooth waters of the bay, about a quarter of a mile from the
+spit on which they stood, there were two boats. One was a light skiff,
+in which a girl, clad in white jersey and white flannel skirt, with a
+white Tam o' Shanter pinned on her head, was sculling leisurely towards
+the town. From the swing of her body, the poise of her head and
+shoulders, and the smoothness with which her sculls dropped in the water
+and left it, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> plain that she was a perfect mistress of the art;
+wherefore the two men looked at her, and admired.</p>
+
+<p>The other craft was an ordinary rowing boat, manned by three lads out
+for a spree. There was no one steering and the oars were going in and
+out of the water with a total disregard of time. The result was that her
+course was anything but a straight line. The girl's sculls made no
+noise, and the youths were talking and laughing loudly.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the boat veered sharply towards the skiff. The Englishman put
+his hands to his mouth, and yelled with all the strength of his lungs.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out, you idiots, keep off shore!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. The long, steady strokes were sending the skiff
+pretty fast through the smooth water. The boat swerved again, hit the
+skiff about midway between the stem and the rowlocks, and the next
+moment the sculler was in the water. In the same moment two guns and two
+ducks were flung to the ground, two jackets were torn off, two pairs of
+shoes kicked away, and two men splashed into the water. Meanwhile the
+sculler had dropped quietly out of the sinking skiff, and after a glance
+at the two heads, one fair and the other dark, ploughing towards her,
+turned on her side and began to swim slowly in their direction so as to
+lessen the distance as much as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The boys, horrified at what they had done, made such a frantic effort to
+go to the rescue, that one of them caught a very bad crab; so bad,
+indeed that the consequent roll of the boat sent him headlong into the
+water; and so the two others, one of whom was his elder brother, perhaps
+naturally left the girl to her fate, and devoted their energies to
+saving their companion.</p>
+
+<p>Both John Castellan and the Englishman were good swimmers, and the race
+was a very close thing. Still, four hundred yards with most of your
+clothes on is a task calculated to try the strongest swimmer, and,
+although the student had swum almost since he could walk, his muscles
+were not quite in such good form as those of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> ex-athlete of
+Cambridge who, six months before, had won the Thames Swimming Club
+Half-mile Handicap from scratch.</p>
+
+<p>Using side stroke and breast-stroke alternately they went at it almost
+stroke for stroke about half a dozen yards apart, and until they were
+within thirty yards or so of the third swimmer, they were practically
+neck and neck, though Castellan had the advantage of what might be
+called the inside track. In other words he was a little nearer to the
+girl than the Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>When circumstances permitted they looked at each other, but, of course,
+neither of them was fool enough to waste his breath in speech. Still,
+each clearly understood that the other was going to get the girl first
+if he could.</p>
+
+<p>So the tenth yard from the prize was reached, and then the Englishman
+shook his head up an inch, filled his lungs, rolled on to his side, and
+made a spurt with the reserve of strength which he had kept for the
+purpose. Inch by inch he drew ahead obliquely across Castellan's course
+and, less than a yard in front of him, he put his right hand under the
+girl's right side.</p>
+
+<p>A lovely face, beautiful even though it was splashed all over with wet
+strands of dark chestnut hair, turned towards him; a pair of big blue
+eyes which shone in spite of the salt water which made them blink,
+looked at him; and, after a cough, a very sweet voice with just a
+suspicion of Boston accent in it, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you so much! It was real good of you! I can swim, but I don't
+think I could have got there with all these things on, and so I reckon I
+owe you two gentlemen my life."</p>
+
+<p>Castellan had swum round, and they took her under the arms to give her a
+rest. The two boys left in the boat had managed to get an oar out to
+their comrade just in time, and then haul him into the boat, which was
+now about fifty yards away; so as soon as the girl had got her breath
+they swam with her to the boat, and lifted her hands on to the gunwale.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>"If you wouldn't mind, sir, picking up those oars," said the
+Englishman, "I will get the young lady into the boat, and then we can
+row back."</p>
+
+<p>Castellan gave him another look which said as plainly as words: "Well, I
+suppose she's your prize for the present," and swam off for the oars.
+With the eager help of the boys, who were now very frightened and very
+penitent, the Englishman soon had the girl in the boat; and so it came
+about that an adventure which might well have deprived America of one of
+her most beautiful and brilliant heiresses, resulted in nothing more
+than a ducking for two men and one girl, a wet, but somehow not
+altogether unpleasant walk, and a slight chill from which she had quite
+recovered the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>The after consequences of that race for the rescue were of course, quite
+another matter.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT</h3>
+
+<p>On the first day of July, 1908, a scene which was destined to become
+historic took place in the great Lecture Theatre in the Imperial College
+at Potsdam. It was just a year and a few days after the swimming race
+between John Castellan and the Englishman in Clifden Bay.</p>
+
+<p>There were four people present. The doors were locked and guarded by two
+sentries outside. The German Emperor, Count Herold von Steinitz,
+Chancellor of the Empire, Field-Marshal Count Friedrich von Moltke,
+grandson of the great Organiser of Victory, and John Castellan, were
+standing round a great glass tank, twenty-five feet long, and fifteen
+broad, supported on a series of trestles. The tank was filled with water
+up to within about six inches of the upper edge. The depth was ten feet.
+A dozen models of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft were floating
+on the surface of the water. Five feet under the surface, a grey,
+fish-shaped craft with tail and fins, almost exactly resembling those of
+a flying fish, was darting about, now jumping forward like a cat
+pouncing on a bird, now drawing back, and then suddenly coming to a
+standstill. Another moment, it sank to the bottom, and lay there as if
+it had been a wreck. The next it darted up to the surface, cruised about
+in swift curves, turning in and out about the models, but touching none.</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then John Castellan went to a little table in the corner
+of the room, on which there was a machine something like a typewriter,
+and touched two or three of the keys. There was no visible connection
+between them&mdash;the machine and the tank&mdash;but the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> grey shape in
+the water responded instantly to the touch of every key.</p>
+
+<p>"That, I hope, will be enough to prove to your Majesty that as submarine
+the <i>Flying Fish</i> is quite under control. Of course the real <i>Flying
+Fish</i> will be controlled inside, not from outside."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt about the control," said the Kaiser. "It is
+marvellous, and I think the Chancellor and the Field Marshal will agree
+with me in that."</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful," said the Chancellor.</p>
+
+<p>"A miracle," said the Field Marshal, "if it can only be realised."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt about that, gentlemen," said Castellan, going back to
+the machine. "Which of the models would your Majesty like to see
+destroyed first?"</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser pointed to the model of a battleship which was a very good
+imitation of one of the most up-to-date British battleships.</p>
+
+<p>"We will take that one first," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan smiled, and began to play the keys. The grey shape of the
+<i>Flying Fish</i> dropped to the bottom of the tank, rose, and seemed all at
+once to become endowed with human reason, or a likeness of it, which was
+so horrible that even the Kaiser and his two chiefs could hardly repress
+a shudder. It rose very slowly, circled among the floating models about
+two feet under the surface and then, like an animal smelling out its
+prey, it made a dart at the ship which the Kaiser had indicated, and
+struck it from underneath. They saw a green flash stream through the
+water, and the next moment the model had crumbled to pieces and sank.</p>
+
+<p>"Donner-Wetter!" exclaimed the Chancellor, forgetting in his wonder that
+he was in the presence of His Majesty, "that is wonderful, horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can there be anything too horrible for the enemies of the Fatherland,
+Herr Kanztler," said the Kaiser, looking across the tank at him, with a
+glint in his eyes, which no man in Germany cares to see.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p><p>"I must ask pardon, your Majesty," replied the Chancellor. "I was
+astonished, indeed, almost frightened&mdash;frightened, if your Majesty will
+allow me to say so, for the sake of Humanity, if such an awful invention
+as that becomes realised."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is your opinion, Field Marshal?" asked the Kaiser with a
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"A most excellent invention, your Majesty, provided always that it
+belongs to the Fatherland."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said the Kaiser. "As that very intelligent American officer,
+Admiral Mahan, has told us, the sea-power is world-power, and there you
+have sea-power; but that is not the limit of the capabilities of Mr
+Castellan's invention, according to the specifications which I have
+read, and on the strength of which I have asked him to give us this
+demonstration of its powers. He calls it, as you know, the <i>Flying
+Fish</i>. So far you have seen it as a fish. Now, Mr Castellan, perhaps you
+will be kind enough to let us see it fly."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, your Majesty," replied the Irishman, "but, in case of
+accident, I must ask you and the Chancellor and the Field Marshal to
+stand against the wall by the door there. With your Majesty's
+permission, I am now going to destroy the rest of the fleet."</p>
+
+<p>"The rest of the fleet!" exclaimed the Field Marshal. "It is
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see, Feldherr!" laughed the Kaiser. "Meanwhile, suppose we
+come out of the danger zone."</p>
+
+<p>The three greatest men in Germany, and perhaps on the Continent of
+Europe, lined up with their backs to the wall at the farther end of the
+room from the tank, and the Irishman sat down to his machine. The keys
+began to click rapidly, and they began to feel a tenseness in the air of
+the room. After a few seconds they would not have been surprised if they
+had seen a flash of lightning pass over their heads. The <i>Flying Fish</i>
+had sunk to the bottom of the tank, and backed into one of the corners.
+The keys of the machine clicked louder and faster. Her nose tilted
+upwards to an angle of about sixty degrees. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> six-bladed propeller at
+her stem whirled round in the water like the flurry of a whale's fluke
+in its death agony. Her side-fins inclined upwards, and, like a flash,
+she leapt from the water, and began to circle round the room.</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser shut his teeth hard and watched. The Chancellor opened his
+mouth as if he was going to say something, and shut it again. The Field
+Marshal stroked his moustache slowly, and followed the strange shape
+fluttering about the room. It circled twice round the tank, and then
+crossed it. A sharp click came from the machine, something fell from the
+body of the <i>Flying Fish</i> into the tank. There was a dull sound of a
+smothered explosion. For a moment the very water itself seemed aflame,
+then it boiled up into a mass of seething foam. Every one of the models
+was overwhelmed and engulfed at the same moment. Castellan got up from
+the machine, caught the <i>Flying Fish</i> in his hand, as it dropped towards
+the water, took it to the Kaiser, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Is your Majesty convinced? It is quite harmless now."</p>
+
+<p>"God's thunder, yes!" said the War Lord of Germany, taking hold of the
+model. "It is almost superhuman."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Chancellor, "it is damnable!"</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the Field Marshal, drily, "think it's admirable, always
+supposing that Mr Castellan is prepared to place this mysterious
+invention at the disposal of his Majesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Kaiser, leaning with his back against the door, "that
+is, of course, the first proposition to be considered. What are your
+terms, Mr Castellan?"</p>
+
+<p>Castellan looked at the three men all armed. The Chancellor and the
+Field Marshal wore their swords, and the Kaiser had a revolver in his
+hip pocket. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal straightened up as the
+Kaiser spoke, and their hands moved instinctively towards their sword
+hilts. The Kaiser looked at the model of the <i>Flying Fish</i> in his hand.
+His face was, as usual, like a mask. He saw nothing, thought of nothing.
+For the moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> he was not a man: he was just the incarnation of an
+idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Field Marshal, you are a soldier," said Castellan, "and I see that your
+hand has gone to your sword-hilt. Swords, of course, are the emblems of
+military rank, but there is no use for them now."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed the Count, clapping his right hand on
+the hilt. After what he had seen he honestly believed that this Irishman
+was a wizard of science who ought not to be trusted in the same room
+with the Kaiser. Castellan went back to his machine and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Draw your sword, sir, and see."</p>
+
+<p>And then the keys began to click.</p>
+
+<p>The Field Marshal's sword flashed out of the sheath. A second later the
+Chancellor's did the same, and the Kaiser's right hand went back towards
+his hip pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan got up and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Your Majesty has a revolver. Be good enough, as you value your own
+safety, to unload it, and throw the cartridges out of the window."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" exclaimed the Kaiser, pulling a Mauser repeating pistol out
+of his hip-pocket. "Who are you, that you should give orders to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a man, your Majesty," replied Castellan, with a bow and a smile;
+"a man who could explode every cartridge in that pistol of yours at once
+before you had time to fire a shot. You have seen what has happened
+already."</p>
+
+<p>William the Second had seen enough. He walked to one of the windows
+opening on the enclosed gardens, threw it open, dropped the pistol out,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let us have the proof of what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment, your Majesty," replied Castellan, going back to his
+machine, and beginning to work the keys rapidly. "I am here, an unarmed
+man; let their Excellencies, the Chancellor and the Field Marshal,
+attack me with their swords if they can. I am not joking. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> am staking
+my life on the success or failure of this experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Does your Majesty consent?" said the Field Marshal, raising his sword.</p>
+
+<p>"There could be no better test," replied the Kaiser. "Mr Castellan makes
+an experiment on which he stakes his life; we are making an experiment
+on which we stake the welfare of the German Empire, and, perhaps, the
+fate of the world. If he is willing, I am."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am ready," replied Castellan, working the keys faster and faster
+as he spoke, and looking at the two swords as carelessly as if they had
+been a couple of walking sticks.</p>
+
+<p>The sword points advanced towards him; the keys of the machine clicked
+faster and faster. The atmosphere of the room became tenser and tenser;
+the Kaiser leaned back against the door with his arms folded. When the
+points were within three feet of Castellan's head, the steel began to
+gleam with a bluish green light. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal
+stopped; they saw sparkles of blue flame running along the sword blades.
+Then came paralysis! the swords dropped from their hands, and they
+staggered back.</p>
+
+<p>"Great God, this is too much," gasped the Chancellor. "The man is
+impregnable. It is too much, your Majesty. I fought through the war of
+'70 and '71, but I surrender to this; this is not human."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Excellency," said Castellan, getting up from the
+machine, and picking the two swords from the floor, "it is quite human,
+only a little science that the majority of humanity does not happen to
+know. Your swords, gentlemen," and he presented the hilts to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "well done! You have beaten the two best
+soldiers in the German Empire, and you have done it like a gentleman.
+But you are not altogether an Irishman, are you, Mr Castellan?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I am a Spaniard as well. The earliest ancestor that I know
+commanded the <i>Santiago</i>, wrecked on Achill Island, when the Armada came
+south from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Pentland Firth. The rest of me is Irish. I need hardly
+say more. That is why I am here now."</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser looked at the Chancellor and the Field Marshal, and they
+looked back at him, and in a moment the situation&mdash;the crisis upon which
+the fate of the world might depend&mdash;was decided. It was not a time when
+men who are men talk. A few moments of silence passed; the four men
+looking at each other with eyes that had the destinies of nations in the
+brains behind them. Then the Kaiser took three swift strides towards
+Castellan, held out his hand, and said in a voice which had an unwonted
+note of respect in it:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, you have convinced me. Henceforth you are Director of the Naval
+and Military operations of the German Empire, subject, of course, to the
+conditions which will be arranged by myself and those who are entrusted
+with the tactical and strategical developments of such plan of campaign
+as I may decide to carry out on sea and land. And now, to put it
+rudely&mdash;brutally, if you like, your price?"</p>
+
+<p>Castellan took the Kaiser's hand in a strong, nervous grip, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not state my price in money, your Majesty. I am not working for
+money, but you will understand that I cannot convert what I have shown
+you to-day into the fighting reality. Only a nation can do that. It will
+cost ten millions of marks, at least, to&mdash;well, to so far develop this
+experiment that no fleet save your Majesty's shall sail the seas, and
+that no armies save yours shall without your consent march over the
+battlefields of the world's Armageddon."</p>
+
+<p>"Make it twenty millions, fifty millions," laughed the Kaiser, "and it
+will be cheap at the price. What do you think, Herr Kantzler and
+Feldherr?"</p>
+
+<p>"Under the present circumstances of the other monarchies of Europe, your
+Majesty," replied the Chancellor, "it would be cheap at a hundred
+millions, especially with reference to a certain fleet, which appears to
+be making the ocean its own country."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>"Quite so," said the Field Marshal. "If what we have seen to-day can be
+realised it would not be necessary to pump out the North Sea in order to
+invade England."</p>
+
+<p>"Or to get back again," laughed the Kaiser. "I think that is what your
+grandfather said, didn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, your Majesty. He found eight ways of getting into England, but he
+hadn't thought of one of getting out again."</p>
+
+<p>Since the days of the Prophets no man had ever uttered more prophetic
+words than Friedrich Helmuth von Moltke spoke then, all unconsciously.
+But in the days to come they were fulfilled in such fashion that only
+one man in all the world had ever dreamed of, and that was the man who
+had beaten John Castellan by a yard in the swimming race for the rescue
+of that American girl from drowning.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>NORAH'S GOOD-BYE</h3>
+
+<p>The scene had shifted back from the royal city of Potsdam to the little
+coast town in Connemara. John Castellan was sitting on a corner of his
+big writing-table swinging his legs to and fro, and looking a little
+uncomfortable. Leaning against the wall opposite the windows, with her
+hands folded behind her back, was a girl of about nineteen, an almost
+perfect incarnation of the Irish girl at her best. Tall, black-haired,
+black-browed, grey-eyed, perfectly-shaped, and with that indescribable
+charm of feature which neither the pen nor the camera can do justice
+to&mdash;Norah Castellan was facing him, her eyes gleaming and almost black
+with anger, and her whole body instinct with intense vitality.</p>
+
+<p>"And so Ireland hasn't troubles enough of her own, John, that you must
+bring new ones upon her, and what for? To realise a dream that was never
+anything else but a dream, and to satisfy a revenge that is three
+hundred years old! If that theory of yours about re-incarnation is true,
+you may have been a Spaniard once, but remember that you're an Irishman
+now; and you're no good Irishman if you sell yourself to these
+foreigners to do a thing like that, and it's your sister that's telling
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's your brother, Norah," he replied, his black brows meeting
+almost in a straight line across his forehead, "who tells you that
+Ireland is going to have her independence; that the shackles of the
+Saxon shall be shaken off once and for ever, even if all Europe blazes
+up with war in the doing of it. I have the power and I will use it.
+Spaniard or Irishman, what does it matter? I hate England and everything
+English."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p><p>"Hate England, John!" said the girl. "Are you quite sure that it isn't
+an Englishman that you hate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what if I do? I hate all Englishmen, and I'm the first
+Irishman who has ever had the power to put his hatred into acts instead
+of words&mdash;and you, an Irish girl, with six generations of Irish blood in
+your veins, you, to talk to me like this. What are you thinking about,
+Norah? Is that what you call patriotism?"</p>
+
+<p>"Patriotism!" she echoed, unclasping her hands, and holding her right
+hand out towards him. "I'm as Irish as you are, and as Spanish, too, for
+the matter of that, for the same blood is in the veins of both of us.
+You're a scholar and a genius, and all the rest of it, I grant you; but
+haven't you learned history enough to know that Ireland never was
+independent, and never could be? What brought the English here first?
+Four miserable provinces that called themselves kingdoms, and all
+fighting against each other, and the king of one of them stole the wife
+of the king of another of them, and that's how the English came.</p>
+
+<p>"I love Ireland as well as you do, John, but Ireland is not worth
+setting the world swimming in blood for. You're lighting a match-box to
+set the world ablaze with. It isn't Ireland only, remember. There are
+Irish all over the world, millions of them, and remember how the Irish
+fought in the African War. I don't mean Lynch and his traitors, but the
+Dublin boys. Who were the first in and the last out&mdash;Irishmen, but they
+had the sense to know that they were British first and Irish afterwards.
+I tell you, you shall be shot for what you've done, and if I wasn't the
+daughter of your father and mother, I'd inform against you now."</p>
+
+<p>"And if you did, Norah, you would do very little good to the Saxon
+cause," replied her brother, pointing with his thumb out of one of the
+windows. "You see that yacht in the bay there. Everything is on board of
+her. If you went out into the street now, gave me in charge of the
+constabulary, to those two men in front of the hotel there, it would
+make no difference. There's nothing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> be proved, no, not even if my
+own sister tried to swear my life and liberty away. It would only be
+that the Germans and the Russians, and the Austrians, and the rest of
+them would work out my ideas instead of me working them out, and it
+might be that they would make a worse use of them. You've half an hour
+to give me up, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>And then he began to collect the papers that were scattered about the
+big drawing-table, sorting them out and folding them up and then taking
+other papers and plans from the drawers and packing them into a little
+black dispatch box.</p>
+
+<p>"But, John, John," she said, crossing the room, and putting her hand on
+his shoulder. "Don't tell me that you're going to plunge the world in
+war just for this. Think of what it means&mdash;the tens of thousands of
+lives that will be lost, the thousands of homes that will be made
+desolate, the women who will be crying for their husbands, and the
+children for their fathers, the dead men buried in graves that will
+never have a name on them, and the wounded, broken men coming back to
+their homes that they will never be able to keep up again, not only here
+and in England, but all over Europe and perhaps in America as well!
+Genius you may be; but what are you that you should bring calamity like
+this upon humanity?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm an Irishman, and I hate England, and that's enough," he replied
+sullenly, as he went on packing his papers.</p>
+
+<p>"You hate that Englishman worse than you hate England, John."</p>
+
+<p>"And I wouldn't wonder if you loved that Englishman more than you loved
+Ireland, Norah," he replied, with a snarl in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I did," she said, with blazing eyes and flaming cheeks, "isn't
+England nearer to Ireland than America?"</p>
+
+<p>"Geographically, perhaps, but in sentiment&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sentiment! Yes, when you have finished with this bloody business of
+yours that you have begun on, go you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> through Ireland and England and
+Europe, and ask the widows and the fatherless, and the girls who kissed
+their lovers 'good-bye,' and never saw them again, what they think of
+that sentiment! But it's no use arguing with you now; there's your
+German yacht. You're no brother of mine. You've made me sorry that we
+had the same father and mother."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she went to the door, opened it and, before he could
+reply, slammed it behind her, and went to her room to seek and find a
+woman's usual relief from extreme mental tension.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan went on packing his papers, his face grey, and his
+features hard-set. He loved his beautiful sister, but he thought that he
+loved his country more. When he had finished he went and knocked at her
+door, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Norah, I'm going. Won't you say 'good-bye?'"</p>
+
+<p>The door was swung open, and she faced him, her face wet with tears, her
+eyes glistening, and her lips twitching.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, good-bye, John," she said. "Go to your German friends; but, when
+all the horrors that you are going to bring upon this country through
+their help come to pass, remember you have no sister left in Ireland.
+You've sold yourself, and I have no brother who is a traitor. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>The door swung to and she locked it. John Castellan hesitated for a
+moment or two, and then with a slow shake of his head he went away down
+the stairs out into the street, and along to the little jetty where the
+German yacht's boat was waiting to take him on board.</p>
+
+<p>Norah had thrown herself on her bed in her locked room shedding the
+first but not the last tear that John Castellan's decision was destined
+to draw from women's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>About half an hour later the encircling hills of the bay echoed the
+shriek of a siren. She got up, looked out of the window, and saw the
+white shape of the German yacht moving out towards the fringe of islands
+which guard the outward bay.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><p>"And there he goes!" she said in a voice that was almost choked with
+sobs, "there he goes, my own brother, it may be taking the fate of the
+world with him&mdash;yes, and on a German ship, too. He that knows every
+island and creek and cove and harbour from Cape Wrath to Cape Clear&mdash;he
+that's got all those inventions in his head, too, and the son of my own
+father and mother, sold his country to the foreigner, thinking those
+dirty Germans will keep their word with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Not they, John, not they. The saints forgive me for thinking it, but
+for Ireland's sake I hope that ship will never reach Germany. If it
+does, we'll see the German Eagle floating over Dublin Castle before
+you'll be able to haul up the Green Flag. Well, well, there it is; it's
+done now, I suppose, and there's no help for it. God forgive you, John,
+I don't think man ever will!"</p>
+
+<p>As she said this the white yacht turned the southern point of the inner
+bay, and disappeared to the southward. Norah bathed her face, brushed
+out her hair, and coiled it up again; then she put on her hat and
+jacket, and went out to do a little shopping.</p>
+
+<p>It is perhaps a merciful provision of Providence that in this human life
+of ours the course of the greatest events shall be interrupted by the
+most trivial necessities of existence. Were it not for that the
+inevitable might become the unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>The plain fact was that Norah Castellan had some friends and
+acquaintances coming to supper that evening. Her brother had left at a
+few hours' notice from his foreign masters, as she called them, and
+there would have to be some explanation of his absence, especially as a
+friend of his, Arthur Lismore, the owner of the finest salmon streams
+for twenty miles round, and a man who was quite hopelessly in love with
+herself, was coming to brew the punch after the fashion of his
+ancestors, and so, of course, it was necessary that there should be
+nothing wanting.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, she was beginning to feel the want of some hard physical
+exercise, and an hour or so in that lovely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> air of Connemara, which, as
+those who know, say, is as soft as silk and as bright as champagne. So
+she went out, and as she turned the corner round the head of the harbour
+to the left towards the waterfall, almost the first person she met was
+Arthur Lismore himself&mdash;a brown-faced, chestnut-haired, blue-eyed, young
+giant of twenty-eight or so; as goodly a man as God ever put His own
+seal upon.</p>
+
+<p>His cap came off, his head bowed with that peculiar grace of deference
+which no one has ever yet been able to copy from an Irishman, and he
+said in the strong, and yet curiously mellow tone which you only hear in
+the west of Ireland:</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon, Miss Norah. I've heard that you're to be left alone for
+a time, and that we won't see John to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, her eyes meeting his, "that is true. He went away in
+that German yacht that left the bay less than an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"A German yacht!" he echoed. "Well now, how stupid of me, I've been
+trying to think all the afternoon what that flag was she carried when
+she came in."</p>
+
+<p>"The German Imperial Yacht Club," she said, "that was the ensign she was
+flying, and John has gone to Germany in her."</p>
+
+<p>"To Germany! John gone to Germany! But what for? Surely now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to Germany, to help the Emperor to set the world on fire."</p>
+
+<p>"You're not saying that, Miss Norah?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," she said, more gravely than he had ever heard her speak. "Mr
+Lismore, it's a sick and sorry girl I am this afternoon. You were the
+first Irishman on the top of Waggon Hill, and you'll understand what I
+mean. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you'll walk down to the
+Fall with me, and I'll tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"I could have nothing better to do, Norah, and it's yourself that knows
+that as well as I do," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> "I only wish the road was longer.
+And it's yourself that's sick and sorry, is it? If it wasn't John, I'd
+like to get the reason out of any other man. That's Irish, but it's
+true."</p>
+
+<p>He turned, and they walked down the steeply sloping street for several
+minutes in silence.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>SEEN UNDER THE MOON</h3>
+
+<p>It was a few minutes after four bells on a grey morning in November 1909
+that Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, in command of his Majesty's
+Fishery Cruiser, the <i>Cormorant</i>, got up on to the navigating bridge,
+and, as usual, took a general squint about him, and buttoned the top
+button of his oil-skin coat.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cormorant</i> was just a few yards inside the three-mile limit on
+Flamborough Head, and, officially, she was looking for trespassers, who
+either did not fly the British flag, or flew it fraudulently. There were
+plenty of foreign poachers on the rich fishing grounds to the north and
+east away to the Dogger, and there were also plenty of floating grog
+shops from Bremen and Hamburg, and Rotterdam and Flushing, and a good
+many other places, loaded up to their decks with liquor, whose mission
+was not only to sell their poison at about four hundred per cent. profit
+to the British fishers on the Dogger, but also to persuade them, at a
+price, to smuggle more of the said poison into the British Islands to be
+made into Scotch and Irish whisky, brandy, Hollands, gin, rum, and even
+green and yellow Chartreuse, or any other alcoholic potion which simply
+wanted the help of the chemist to transform potato and beet spirit into
+anything that would taste like what it was called.</p>
+
+<p>"Beast of a morning, Castellan," he said to his first officer, whom he
+was relieving, "dirty sea, dirty sky, and not a thing to be seen. You
+don't have worse weather than this even off Connemara, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Castellan, "and I've seen better; but look you, there's the
+sky clearing to the east; yes, and there's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Venus, herald of the sun:
+and faith, she's bright, too, like a little moon, now isn't she? I
+suppose it'll be a bit too early for Norah to be looking at her, won't
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk rot, man," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. "I hope your
+sister hasn't finished her beauty sleep by this time."</p>
+
+<p>The clouds parted still wider, making a great gap of blue-grey sky to
+the eastward, as the westward bank drifted downward. The moon sent a
+sudden flood of white light over their heads, which silvered the edges
+of the clouds, and then turned the leaden waters into silver as it had
+done to the grey of the cloud.</p>
+
+<p>"She'd wake fast enough if she had a nightmare or a morning mare, or
+something of that sort, and could see a thing like that," exclaimed
+Castellan, gripping the Lieutenant-Commander by the shoulder with his
+right hand, and pointing to the east with his left. "Look, man, look! By
+all the Holy Powers, what is it? See there! Thanks for the blessed
+moonlight that has shown it to us, for I'm thinking it doesn't mean any
+good to old England or Ireland."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine was an Englishman, and a naval officer at that, and therefore
+his reply consisted of only a few words hardly fitted for publication.
+The last words were, "What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" said Castellan with a stamp of his feet on the bridge,
+"what is it? Now wouldn't I like to know just as well as you would, and
+don't you think the Lords of the British Admiralty would like to know a
+lot better? But there's one thing I think I can tell you, it's one of
+those new inventions that the British Admiralty never buy, and let go to
+other countries, and what's more, as you've seen with your eyes, as I
+have with mine, it came out of the water on the edge of that moon-lit
+piece, it flew across it, it sighted us, I suppose, it found it had made
+a mistake, and it went down again. Now what do you make of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Combination of submarine and airship it looks like," said Erskine,
+seriously, "and if that doesn't belong to us,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> it's going to be fairly
+dangerous. Good Lord! a thing like that might do anything with a fleet,
+and whatever Power owns it may just as well have a hundred as one. Look
+here, Castellan, I'm going straight into Scarborough. This is a lot more
+important than the Dogger Fleet. There's the <i>Seagull</i> at Hull. She can
+relieve us, and Franklin can take this old coffee-grinder round. You and
+I are going to London as soon as we can get there. Take the latitude,
+longitude, and exact time, and also the evidence of the watch if any one
+of them saw it."</p>
+
+<p>"You think it's as serious as that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. It's one of two things. Either that thing belongs to us or
+it belongs to a possible enemy. The Fleet, even to a humble fishery
+cruiser, means the eyes and ears of the British Empire. If that belongs
+to the Admiralty, well and good; we shall get censured for leaving the
+ship; that's the risk we take. If it doesn't, the Naval Board may
+possibly have the civility to thank us for telling them about it; but in
+either case we are going to do our duty. Send Franklin up to the bridge,
+make the course for Scarborough, get the evidence of any of the watch
+who saw what we have seen, and I'll go and make the report. Then you can
+countersign it, and the men can make theirs. I think that's the best we
+can do."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, sir," said the Lieutenant, saluting.</p>
+
+<p>The Lieutenant-Commander walked from port to starboard and starboard to
+port thinking pretty hard until the navigating lieutenant came to take
+charge of the bridge. Of submarines he knew a good deal. He knew that
+the British navy possessed the very best type of this craft which
+navigated the under-waters. He had also, of course, read the a&euml;rial
+experiments which had been made by inventors of what the newspapers
+called airships, and which he, with his hard naval common-sense, called
+gas-bags with motor engines slung under them. He knew the deadly
+possibilities of the submarine; the flying gas-bag he looked upon as gas
+and not much more. The real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> flying machine he had considered up till a
+few moments ago as a dream of the future; but a combination of submarine
+and flying ship such as he and Castellan, if they had not both been
+drunk or dreaming, had seen a few moments ago, was quite another matter.
+The possibilities of a thing like that were absolutely limitless,
+limitless for good or evil, and if it did belong to a possible enemy of
+Britain, there was only one conclusion to be arrived at&mdash;The Isle
+Inviolate would be inviolate no more.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Franklin came on to the bridge and saluted; he returned the
+salute, gave the orders for changing the course, and went down to his
+cabin, muttering:</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord, if that's only so. Why, half a dozen things like that could
+fight a fleet, then go on gaily to tackle the forts. I wonder whether my
+Lords of the Naval Council will see me to-morrow, and believe me if they
+do see me."</p>
+
+<p>By great good luck it happened that the Commander of the North-eastern
+District had come up from Hull to Scarborough for a few days' holiday.
+When he saw the <i>Cormorant</i> steam into the bay, he very naturally wanted
+to know what was the matter, and so he went down to the pier-head, and
+met the <i>Cormorant's</i> cutter. As Erskine came up the steps he recognised
+him and saluted.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Erskine. What's the matter? You're a little off your
+ground, aren't you? Of course, there must be a reason for it. Anything
+serious?" replied the District Commander, as he held out his hand. "Ah,
+good morning, Castellan. So you've both come ashore. Well, now, what is
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Erskine took a rapid glance round at the promenaders who were coming
+down to have a look at the cruiser, and said in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I am afraid it is rather serious; but it is hardly the sort
+of thing one could discuss here. In fact, I was taking the
+responsibility of going straight to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>London with Castellan, to present a
+report which we have drawn up to the Board of Admiralty."</p>
+
+<p>The District Commander's iron-grey eyebrows lifted for the fraction of a
+minute, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>"H'm. Well, Erskine, I know you're not the sort of man to do that sort
+of thing without pretty good reason. Come up to the hotel, both of you,
+and let us go into it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir," replied Erskine. "It is really quite fortunate that we
+met you here, because I think when you've seen the report you will feel
+justified in giving us formal leave instead of French leave."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," he replied, somewhat grimly, for a rule of the Service had
+been broken all to pieces, and his own sense of discipline was sorely
+outraged by the knowledge that two responsible officers had left their
+ship with the intention of going to London without leave.</p>
+
+<p>But when he had locked the door of his sitting-room at the hotel, and
+heard the amazing story which Erskine and Castellan had to tell, and had
+read their report, and the evidence of the men who had also seen the
+strange apparition which had leapt from the sea into the air, and then
+returned to the waters, he put in a few moments of silent thinking, and
+then he looked up, and said gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen, I know that British naval officers and British seamen
+don't see things that are not there, as the Russians did a few years ago
+on the Dogger Bank. I am of course bound to believe you, and I think
+they will do the same in London. You have taken a very irregular course;
+but a man who is not prepared to do that at a pinch seldom does anything
+else. I have seen and heard enough to convince me for the present; and
+so I shall have great pleasure, in fact I shall only be doing my duty,
+in giving you both leave for a week.</p>
+
+<p>"I will order the <i>Seagull</i> up from Hull, she's about ready, and I think
+I can put an Acting-Commander on board the <i>Cormorant</i> for the present.
+Now, you will just have time for an early lunch with me, and catch the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+1.17, which will get you to town at 5.15, and you will probably find
+somebody at the Admiralty then, because I know they're working overtime.
+Anyhow, if you don't find Sir John Fisher there, I should go straight to
+his house, if I were you; and even if you don't see him, you'll be able
+to get an early appointment for to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a pretty good slice of luck meeting the noble Crocker, wasn't
+it?" said Castellan, as the train began to move out of the station,
+about three hours later. They had reserved a compartment in the corridor
+express, and were able to talk State secrets at their ease.</p>
+
+<p>"We're inside the law now, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"Law or no law, it was good enough to risk a court-martial for," said
+Erskine, biting off the end of a cigar. "There's no doubt about the
+existence of the thing, and if it doesn't belong to us, which is a fact
+that only my Lords of the Naval Council can know, it simply means, as
+you must see for yourself, that the invasion of England, which has been
+a naval and military impossibility for the last seven hundred years or
+so, will not only become possible but comparatively easy. There's
+nothing upon the waters or under them that could stand against a thing
+like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're right enough there," said Castellan, speaking with his soft
+West of Ireland brogue. "There's no doubt of that, and it's the very
+devil. A dozen of those things would play havoc with a whole fleet, and
+when the fleet's gone, or even badly hurt, what's to stop our good
+friends over yonder landing two or three million men just anywhere they
+choose, and doing pretty well what they like afterwards? By the Saints,
+that would be a horrible thing. We've nothing on land that could stand
+against them, though, of course, the boys would stand till they fell
+down; but fall they would."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Erskine, seriously. "It wouldn't exactly be a walk over for
+them, but I'm afraid there couldn't be very much doubt at the end, if
+the fleet once went."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not," replied Castellan, "and we can only hope that our
+Lords of the Council will be of the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> opinion, or, better still,
+that the infernal thing we saw belongs to us."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said Erskine, gravely. "If it doesn't&mdash;well, I wouldn't
+give half-a-crown for the biggest battleship in the British Navy."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR</h3>
+
+<p>By a curious coincidence which, as events proved, was to have some
+serious consequences, almost at the same moment that Commander Erskine
+began to write his report on the strange vision which he and his
+Lieutenant had seen, Gilbert Lennard came out of the Observatory which
+Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had built on the south of the Whernside Hills in
+Yorkshire.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had two ambitions in life, one of which he had
+fulfilled. This was to pile millions upon millions by any possible
+means. As he used to say to his associates in his poorer days, "You've
+got to get there somehow, so get there"&mdash;and he had "got there." It is
+not necessary for the purpose of the present narrative to say how he did
+it. He had done it, and that is why he bought the Hill of Whernside and
+about a thousand acres around it and built an Observatory on the top
+with which, to use his own words, he meant to lick Creation by seeing
+further into Creation than anyone else had done, and that is just what
+his great reflector had enabled his astronomer to do.</p>
+
+<p>When he had locked the door Lennard looked up to the eastward where the
+morning star hung flashing like a huge diamond in splendid solitude
+against the brightening background of the sky. His face was the face of
+a man who had seen something that he would not like to describe to any
+other man. His features were hard set, and there were lines in his face
+which time might have drawn twenty or thirty years later. His lips made
+a straight line, and his eyes, although he had hardly slept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> three hours
+a night for as many nights, had a look in them that was not to be
+accounted for by ordinary insomnia.</p>
+
+<p>His work was over for the night, and, if he chose, he could go down to
+the house three-quarters of a mile away and sleep for the rest of the
+day, or, at any rate, until lunch time; and yet he looked another long
+look at the morning star, thrust his hands down into his trousers
+pockets and turned up a side path that led through the heather, and
+spent the rest of the morning walking and thinking&mdash;walking slowly, and
+thinking very quickly.</p>
+
+<p>When he came in to breakfast at nine the next morning, after he had had
+a shave and a bath, Mr Parmenter said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, young man, I'm old enough to be your father, and so you'll
+excuse me putting it that way; if you're going along like this I reckon
+I'll have to shut that Observatory down for the time being and take you
+on a trip to the States to see how they're getting on with their
+telescopes in the Alleghanies and the Rockies, and maybe down South too
+in Peru, to that Harvard Observatory above Arequipa on the Misti, as a
+sort of holiday. I asked you to come here to work, not to wear yourself
+out. As I've told you before, we've got plenty of men in the States who
+can sign their cheques for millions of dollars and can't eat a dinner,
+to say nothing of a breakfast, and you're too young for that.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter? More trouble about that new comet of yours. You've
+been up all night looking at it, haven't you? Of course it's all right
+that you got hold of it before anybody else, but all the same I don't
+want you to be worrying yourself for nothing and get laid up before the
+time comes to take the glory of the discovery."</p>
+
+<p>While he was speaking the door of the breakfast-room opened and Auriole
+came in. She looked with a just perceptible admiration at the man who,
+as it seemed to her, was beginning to show a slight stoop in the broad
+shoulders and a little falling forward of the head which she had first
+seen driving through the water to her rescue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> in the Bay of Connemara.
+Her eyelids lifted a shade as she looked at him, and she said with a
+half smile:</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Mr Lennard; I am afraid you've been sacrificing yourself
+a little bit too much to science. You don't seem to have had a sleep for
+the last two or three nights. You've been blinding your eyes over those
+tangles of figures and equations, parallaxes and cube roots and that
+sort of thing. I know something about them because I had some struggles
+with them myself at Vassar."</p>
+
+<p>"That's about it, Auriole," said her father. "Just what I've been
+saying; and I hope our friend is not going on with this kind of business
+too long. Now, really, Mr Lennard, you know you must not, and that's all
+there is to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I don't think you need be frightened of anything of that sort,"
+said Lennard, who had considerably brightened up as Auriole entered the
+room; "perhaps I may have been going a little too long without sleep;
+but, you see, a man who has the great luck to discover a new comet is
+something like one of the old navigators who discovered new islands and
+continents. Of course you remember the story of Columbus. When he
+thought he was going to find what is now the country which has had the
+honour&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're going to say something nice, Mr Lennard," interrupted
+Auriole, "but breakfast is ready; here it comes. If you take my advice
+you will have your coffee and something to eat and tell us the rest of
+it while you're getting something that will do you good. What do you
+think, Poppa?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hard sense, Auriole, hard sense. Your mother used to talk just like
+that, and I reckon you've got it from her. Well now, here's the food,
+let's begin. I've got a hunger on me that I'd have wanted five dollars
+to stop at the time when I couldn't buy a breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>They sat down, Miss Auriole at the head of the table and her father and
+Lennard facing each other, and for the next few minutes there was a
+semi-silence which was very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> well employed in the commencement of one of
+the most important functions of the human day.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr Parmenter had got through his first cup of coffee, his two
+poached eggs on toast, and was beginning on the fish, he looked across
+the table and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well now, Mr Lennard, I guess you're feeling a bit better, as I do, and
+so, maybe, you can tell us something new about comets."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly am feeling better," said Lennard with a glance at Auriole,
+"but, you see, I've got into a state of mind which is not unlike the
+physical state of the Red Indian who starves for a few days and then
+takes his meals, I mean the arrears of meals, all at once. When I have
+had a good long sleep, as I am going to have until to-night, I might&mdash;in
+fact, I hope I shall be able to tell you something definite about the
+question of the comet."</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;the question?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "About the comet? I didn't
+understand that there was any question. You have discovered it, haven't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have made a certain discovery, Mr Parmenter," said Lennard, with a
+gravity which made Auriole raise her eyelids quickly, "but whether I
+have found a comet so far unknown to astronomy or not, is quite another
+matter. Thanks to that splendid instrument of yours, I have found a
+something in a part of the heavens where no comet, not even a star, has
+even been seen yet, and, speaking in all seriousness, I may say that
+this discovery contradicts all calculations as to the orbits and
+velocities of any known comet. That is what I have been thinking about
+all night."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said Auriole, looking up again. "Really something quite
+unknown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unknown except to the three people sitting at this table, unless
+another miracle has happened&mdash;I mean such a one as happened in the case
+of the discovery of Neptune which, as of course you know, Adams at
+Cambridge and Le Verrier at Paris&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said Auriole, "two men who didn't know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> each other; both
+looked for something that couldn't be seen, and found it. If you've done
+anything like that, Mr Lennard, I reckon Poppa will have good cause to
+be proud of his reflector&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And of the man behind it," added her father. "A telescope's like a gun;
+no use without a good man behind it. Well, if that's so, Mr Lennard,
+this discovery of yours ought to shake the world up a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"From what I have seen so far," replied Lennard, "I have not the
+slightest doubt that it will."</p>
+
+<p>"And when may I see this wonderful discovery of yours, Mr Lennard," said
+Auriole, "this something which is going to be so important, this
+something that no one else's eyes have seen except yours. Really, you
+know, you've made me quite longing to get a sight of this stranger from
+the outer wilderness of space."</p>
+
+<p>"If the night is clear enough, I may hope to be able to introduce you to
+the new celestial visitor about a quarter-past eleven to-night, or to be
+quite accurate eleven hours, sixteen minutes and thirty-nine seconds
+p.m."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that's good enough, Auriole," said her father. "If the heavens
+are only kind enough, we'll go up to the observatory and, as Mr Lennard
+says, see something that no one else has ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>"And then," laughed Auriole, "I suppose you will have achieved the
+second ambition of your life. You have already piled up a bigger heap of
+dollars than anybody else in the world, and by midnight you will have
+seen farther into Creation than anybody else. But you will let me have
+the first look, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly," he replied. "As soon as Mr Lennard has got the
+telescope fixed, you go first, and I reckon that won't take very long."</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Lennard, "I've worked out the position for to-night, and
+it's only a matter of winding up the clockwork and setting the
+telescope. And now," he continued, rising, "if you will allow me, I will
+say&mdash;well, I was going to say good-night, but of course it's
+good-morning&mdash;I'm going to bed."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>"Will you come down to lunch, or shall I have some sent up to you?"
+said Auriole.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks. I don't think there will be any need to trouble you about
+that. When I once get to sleep, I hope I shall forget all things
+earthly, and heavenly too for the matter of that, until about six
+o'clock, and if you will have me called then, I will be ready for
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," replied Auriole, "and I hope you will sleep as well as you
+deserve to do, after all these nights of watching."</p>
+
+<p>He did sleep. He slept the sleep of a man physically and mentally tired,
+in spite of the load of unspeakable anxiety which was weighing upon his
+mind. For during his last night's work, he had learnt what no other man
+in the world knew. He had learnt that, unless a miracle happened, or
+some almost superhuman feat of ingenuity and daring was accomplished,
+that day thirteen months hence would see the annihilation of every
+living thing on earth, and the planet Terra converted into a dark and
+lifeless orb, a wilderness drifting through space, the blackened and
+desolated sepulchre of the countless millions of living beings which now
+inhabited it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM</h3>
+
+<p>After dinner Lennard excused himself, saying that he wanted to make a
+few more calculations; and then he got outside and lit his pipe, and
+walked up the winding path towards the observatory.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do?" he said between his teeth. "It's a ghastly position
+for a man to be placed in. Fancy&mdash;just a poor, ordinary, human being
+like myself having the power of losing or saving the world in his hands!
+And then, of course, there's a woman in the question&mdash;the Eternal
+Feminine&mdash;even in such a colossal problem as this!</p>
+
+<p>"It's mean, and I know it; but, after all, I saved her life&mdash;though, if
+I hadn't reached her first, that other chap might have got her. I love
+her and he loves her; there's no doubt about that, and Papa Parmenter
+wants to marry her to a coronet. There's one thing certain, Castellan
+shall not have her, and I love her a lot too much to see her made My
+Lady This, or the Marchioness of So-and-so, just because she's beautiful
+and has millions, and the other fellow, whoever he may be, may have a
+coronet that probably wants re-gilding; and yet, after all, it's only
+the same old story in a rather more serious form&mdash;a woman against the
+world. I suppose Papa Parmenter would show me the door to-morrow morning
+if I, a poor explorer of the realm of Space, dared to tell him that I
+want to marry his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet how miserable and trivial all these wretched distinctions of
+wealth and position look now; or would look if the world only knew and
+believed what I could tell it&mdash;and that reminds me&mdash;shall I tell her, or
+them? Of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> course, I must before long; simply because in a month or so
+those American fellows will be on it, and they won't have any scruples
+when it comes to a matter of scare head-lines. Yes, I think it may as
+well be to-night as any other time. Still, it's a pretty awful thing for
+a humble individual like myself to say, especially to a girl one happens
+to be very much in love with&mdash;nothing less than the death-sentence of
+Humanity. Ah, well, she's got to hear it some time and from some one,
+and why shouldn't she hear it now and from me?"</p>
+
+<p>When he got back to the house, there was a carriage at the door, and Mr
+Parmenter was just coming down the avenue, followed by a man with a
+small portmanteau in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, Mr Lennard," he said, holding out his hand, "I've just had a
+wire about a company tangle in London that I've got to go and shake out
+at once, so I'll have to see what you have to show me later on. Still,
+that needn't trouble anyone. It looks as if it were going to be a
+splendid night for star-gazing, and I don't want Auriole disappointed,
+so she can go up to the observatory with you at the proper time and see
+what there is to be seen. See you later, I have only just about time to
+get the connection for London."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard was not altogether sorry that this accident had happened.
+Naturally, the prospect of an hour or so with Auriole alone in his
+temple of Science was very pleasant, and moreover, he felt that, as the
+momentous tidings had to be told, he would prefer to tell them to her
+first. And so it came about.</p>
+
+<p>A little after half-past eleven that night Miss Auriole was looking
+wonderingly into the eye-piece of the great Reflector, watching a tiny
+little patch of mist, somewhat brighter towards one end than the other;
+like a little wisp of white smoke rising from a very faint spark that
+was apparently floating across an unfathomable sea of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to see this through black darkness, and behind it a swarm of
+stars of all sizes and colours. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> appeared very much more wonderful
+and glorious and important than the little spray of white smoke, because
+she hadn't yet the faintest conception of its true import to her and
+every other human being on earth: but she was very soon to know now.</p>
+
+<p>While she was watching it in breathless silence, in which the clicking
+of the mechanism which kept the great telescope moving so as to exactly
+counteract the motion of the machinery of the Universe, sounded like the
+blows of a sledge-hammer on an anvil, Gilbert Lennard stood beside her,
+wondering if he should begin to tell her, and what he should say.</p>
+
+<p>At last she turned away from the eye-piece, and looked at him with
+something like a scared expression in her eyes, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"It's very wonderful, isn't it, that one should be able to see all that
+just by looking into a little bit of a hole in a telescope? And you tell
+me that all those great big bright stars around your comet are so far
+away that if you look at them just with your own eyes you don't even see
+them&mdash;and there they look almost as if you could put out your hand and
+touch them. It's just a little bit awful, too!" she added, with a little
+shiver.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, speaking slowly and even more gravely that she thought
+the subject warranted, "yes, it is both wonderful and, in a way, awful.
+Do you know that some of those stars you have seen in there are so far
+away that the light which you see them by may have left them when
+Solomon was king in Jerusalem? They may be quite dead and dark now, or
+reduced into fire-mist by collision with some other star. And then,
+perhaps, there are others behind them again so far away that their light
+has not even reached us yet, and may never do while there are human eyes
+on earth to see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," she said, smiling. "You don't forget that I have been to
+college&mdash;and light travels about a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles
+a second, doesn't it? But come, Mr Lennard, aren't you what they call
+stretching the probabilities a little when you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> say that the light of
+some of them will never get here, as far as we're concerned? I always
+thought we had a few million years of life to look forward to before
+this old world of ours gets worn out."</p>
+
+<p>"There are other ends possible for this world besides wearing out, Miss
+Parmenter," he answered, this time almost solemnly. "Other worlds have,
+as I say, been reduced to fire-mist. Some have been shattered to tiny
+fragments to make asteroids and meteorites&mdash;stars and worlds, in
+comparison with which this bit of a planet of ours is nothing more than
+a speck of sand, a mere atom of matter drifting over the wilderness of
+immensity. In fact, such a trifle is it in the organism of the Universe,
+that if some celestial body collided with it&mdash;say a comet with a
+sufficiently solid nucleus&mdash;and the heat developed by the impact turned
+it into a mass of blazing gas, an astronomer on Neptune, one of our own
+planets, wouldn't even notice the accident, unless he happened to be
+watching the earth through a powerful telescope at the time."</p>
+
+<p>"And is such an accident, as you call it, possible, Mr Lennard?" she
+asked, jumping womanlike, by a sort of unconscious intuition, to the
+very point to which he was so clumsily trying to lead up.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you spoke rather queerly about this comet of yours at
+breakfast this morning. I hope there isn't any chance of its getting on
+to the same track as this terrestrial locomotive of ours. That would be
+just awful, wouldn't it? Why, what's the matter? You are going to be
+ill, I know. You had better get down to the house, and go to bed. It's
+want of sleep, isn't it? You'll be driving yourself mad that way."</p>
+
+<p>A sudden and terrible change had come over him while she was speaking.
+It was only for the moment, and yet to him it was an eternity. It might,
+as she said, have been the want of sleep, for insomnia plays strange
+tricks sometimes with the strongest of intellects.</p>
+
+<p>More probably, it might have been the horror of his secret working on
+the great love that he had for this girl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> who was sitting there alone
+with him in the silence of that dim room and in the midst of the glories
+and the mysteries of the Universe.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes had grown fixed and staring, and looked sightlessly at her, and
+his face shone ghastly pale in the dim light of the solitary shaded
+lamp. Certainly, one of those mysterious crises which are among the
+unsolved secrets of psychology had come upon him like some swift access
+of delirium.</p>
+
+<p>He no longer saw her sitting there by the telescope, calm, gracious, and
+beautiful. He saw her as, by his pitiless calculations, he must do that
+day thirteen months to come&mdash;with her soft grey eyes, starting,
+horror-driven from their orbits, staring blank and wide and hideous at
+the overwhelming hell that would be falling down from heaven upon the
+devoted earth. He saw her fresh young face withered and horror-lined and
+old, and the bright-brown hair grown grey with the years that would pass
+in those few final moments. He saw the sweet red lips which had tempted
+him so often to wild thoughts parched and black, wide open and gasping
+vainly for the breath of life in a hot, burnt-out atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Then he saw&mdash;no, it was only a glimpse; and with that the strange
+trance-vision ended. What must have come after that would in all
+certainty have driven him mad there and then, before his work had even
+begun; but at that moment, swiftly severing the darkness that was
+falling over his soul, there came to him an idea, bright, luminous, and
+lovely as an inspiration from Heaven itself, and with it came back the
+calm sanity of the sternly-disciplined intellect, prepared to
+contemplate, not only the destruction of the world he lived in, but even
+the loss of the woman he loved&mdash;the only human being who could make the
+world beautiful or even tolerable for him.</p>
+
+<p>The vision was blotted out from the sight of his soul; the darkness
+cleared away from his eyes, and he saw her again as she still was. It
+had all passed in a few moments and yet in them he had been down into
+hell&mdash;and he had come back to earth, and into her presence.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>Almost by the time she had uttered her last word, he had regained
+command of his voice, and he began clearly and quietly to answer the
+question which was still echoing through the chambers of his brain.</p>
+
+<p>"It was only a little passing faintness, thank you; and something else
+which you will understand when I have done, if you have patience to hear
+me to the end," he said, looking straight at her for a moment, and then
+beginning to walk slowly up and down the room past her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to surprise you, perhaps to frighten you, and very probably
+to offend you deeply," he began again in a quiet, dry sort of tone,
+which somehow impressed her against all her convictions that he didn't
+much care whether or not he did any or all of these things: but there
+was something else in his tone and manner which held her to her seat,
+silent and attentive, although she was conscious of a distinct desire to
+get up and run away.</p>
+
+<p>"Your guess about the comet, or whatever it may prove to be, is quite
+correct. I don't think it is a new one. From what I have seen of it so
+far, I have every reason to believe that it is Gambert's comet, which
+was discovered in 1826, and became visible to the naked eye in the
+autumn of 1833. It then crossed the orbit of the earth one month after
+the earth had passed the point of intersection. After that, some force
+divided it, and in '46 and '52 it reappeared as twin comets constantly
+separating. Now it would seem that the two masses have come together
+again: and as they are both larger in bulk and greater in density it
+would appear that, somewhere in the distant fields of Space, they have
+united with some other and denser body. The result is, that what is
+practically a new comet, with a much denser nucleus than any so far
+seen, is approaching our system. Unless a miracle happens, or there is a
+practically impossible error in my calculations, it will cross the orbit
+of the earth thirteen months from to-day, at the moment that the earth
+itself arrives at the point of intersection."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>So far Auriole had listened to the stiff scientific phraseology with
+more interest than alarm; but now she took advantage of a little pause,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"And the consequences, Mr Lennard? I mean the consequences to us as
+living beings. You may as well tell me everything now that you've gone
+so far."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to," he said, stopping for a moment in his walk, "and I am
+going to tell you something more than that. Granted that what I have
+said happens, one of two things must follow. If the nucleus of the comet
+is solid enough to pass through our atmosphere without being dissipated,
+it will strike the surface with so much force that both it and the earth
+will probably be transformed into fiery vapour by the conversion of the
+motion of the two bodies into heat. If not, its contact with the oxygen
+of the earth's atmosphere will produce an a&euml;rial conflagration which, if
+it does not roast alive every living thing on earth, will convert the
+oxygen, by combustion, into an irrespirable and poisonous gas, and so
+kill us by a slower, but no less fatal, process."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible!" she said, shivering this time. "You speak like a judge
+pronouncing sentence of death on the whole human race! I suppose there
+is no possibility of reprieve? Well, go on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "there is something else. Those are the scientific
+facts, as far as they go. I am going to tell you the chances now&mdash;and
+something more. There is just one chance&mdash;one possible way of averting
+universal ruin from the earth, and substituting for it nothing more
+serious than an unparalleled display of celestial fireworks. All that
+will be necessary is perfect calculation and illimitable expenditure of
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "can't you do the calculations, Mr Lennard, and hasn't
+dad got millions enough? How could he spend them better than in saving
+the human race from being burnt alive? There isn't anything else, is
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was something else," he said, stopping in front of her again. She
+had risen to her feet as she said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> last words, and the two stood
+facing each other in the dim light, while the mechanism of the telescope
+kept on clicking away in its heedless, mechanical fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there was something else, and I may as well tell you after all;
+for, even if you never see or speak to me again, it won't stop the work
+being done now. I could have kept this discovery to myself till it would
+have been too late to do anything: for no other telescope without my
+help would even find the comet for four months to come, and even now
+there is hardly a day to be lost if the work is to be done in time. And
+then&mdash;well, I suppose I must have gone mad for the time being, for I
+thought&mdash;you will hardly believe me, I suppose&mdash;that I could make you
+the price of the world's safety.</p>
+
+<p>"From that, you will see how much I have loved you, however mad I may
+have been. Losing you, I would have lost the world with you. If my love
+lives, I thought, the world shall live: if not, if you die, the world
+shall die. But just now, when you thought I was taken ill, I had a sort
+of vision, and I saw you,&mdash;yes, you, Auriole as, if my one chance fails,
+you must infallibly be this night thirteen months hence. I didn't see
+any of the other millions who would be choking and gasping for breath
+and writhing in the torture of the universal fire&mdash;I only saw you and my
+own baseness in thinking, even for a moment, that such a bargain would
+be possible.</p>
+
+<p>"And then," he went on, more slowly, and with a different ring in his
+voice, "there are the other men."</p>
+
+<p>"Which other men?" she asked, looking up at him with a flush on her
+cheeks and a gleam in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"To be quite frank, and in such a situation as this, I don't see that
+anything but complete candour is of any use," he replied slowly. "I need
+hardly tell you that they are John Castellan and the Marquis of
+Westerham. Castellan, I know, has loved you just as I have done, from
+the moment we had the good luck to pick you out of the bay at Clifden.
+Lord Westerham also wants you,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> so do I. That, put plainly, brutally, if
+you like, is the situation. Of your own feelings, of course, I do not
+pretend to have the remotest idea; but I confess that when this
+knowledge came to me, the first thought that crossed my mind was the
+thought of you as another man's wife&mdash;and then came the vision of the
+world in flames. At first I chose the world in flames. I see that I was
+wrong. That is all."</p>
+
+<p>She had not interrupted even by a gesture, but as she listened, a
+thousand signs and trifles which alone had meant nothing to her, now
+seemed to come together and make one clear and definite revelation. This
+strong, reserved, silent man had all the time loved her so desperately
+that he was going mad about her&mdash;so mad that, as he had said, he had
+even dreamed of weighing the possession of her single, insignificant
+self against the safety of the whole world, with all its innumerable
+millions of people&mdash;mostly as good in their way as she was.</p>
+
+<p>Well&mdash;it might be that the love of such a man was a thing worth to weigh
+even against a coronet&mdash;not in her eyes, for there was no question of
+that now, but in her father's. But that was a matter for future
+consideration. She drew herself up a little stiffly, and said, in just
+such a tone as she might have used if what he had just been saying had
+had no personal interest for her&mdash;had, in fact, been about some other
+girl:</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's about time to be going down to the house, Mr Lennard,
+isn't it? I am quite sure a night's rest won't do you any harm. No, I'm
+not offended, and I don't think I'm even frightened yet. It somehow
+seems too big and too awful a thing to be only frightened at&mdash;too much
+like the Day of Judgment, you know. I am glad you've told me&mdash;yes,
+everything&mdash;and I'm glad that what you call your madness is over. You
+will be able to do your work in saving the world all the better. Only
+don't tell dad anything except&mdash;well&mdash;just the scientific and necessary
+part of it. You know, saving a world is a very much greater matter than
+winning a woman&mdash;at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> least it is in one particular woman's eyes&mdash;and
+I've learnt somewhere in mathematics something about the greater
+including the less. And now, don't you think we had better be going down
+into the house? It's getting quite late."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NOTE OF WAR</h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Official Gazette</i>, published November the 25th, 1909, contained the
+following announcement:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Naval Promotions. Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, of H.M.
+Fishery Cruiser <i>Cormorant</i>, to be Captain of H.M. Cruiser
+<i>Ithuriel</i>. Lieutenant Denis Castellan, also of the <i>Cormorant</i>, to
+be First Lieutenant of the <i>Ithuriel</i>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the evening of the same day, Mr Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, rose
+amidst the tense silence of a crowded House to make another
+announcement, which was not altogether unconnected with the notice in
+the <i>Gazette</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he said in a low, but vibrant and penetrating voice, which many
+years before had helped to make his fame as an orator, "it is my painful
+duty to inform this honourable House that a state of war exists between
+His Majesty and a Confederation of European countries, including
+Germany, Russia, France, Spain, Holland and Belgium."</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment, and looked round at the hundreds of faces, most
+of them pale and fixed, that were turned toward the front Treasury
+Bench. Since Mr Balfour, now Lord Whittinghame, and Leader of the
+Conservative Party in the House of Lords, had made his memorable speech
+on the 12th of October 1899, informing the House of Commons and the
+world that the Ultimatum of the South African Republic had been
+rejected, and that the struggle for the mastery of South Africa was
+inevitable, no such momentous announcement had been made in the House of
+Commons.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>Mr Chamberlain referred to that bygone crisis in the following terms:</p>
+
+<p>"It will be within the memory of many Members of this House that, almost
+exactly ten years ago to-day, the British Empire was challenged to fight
+for the supremacy of South Africa. That challenge was accepted not
+because there was any desire on the part of the Government or the people
+of this country to destroy the self-government of what were then the
+South African Republic and the Orange Free State, but because the
+Government of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, knew that the fate of an
+empire, however great, depends upon its supremacy throughout its
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>"To lose one of these, however small and apparently insignificant, is to
+take a stone out of an arch with the result of inevitable collapse of
+the whole structure. It is not necessary for me, sir, to make any
+further allusion to that struggle, save than to say that the policy of
+Her Majesty's Ministers has been completely justified by the
+consequences which have followed from it.</p>
+
+<p>"The Transvaal and Orange River Colonies have taken their place among
+the other self-governing Colonies of the Empire. They are prosperous,
+contented and loyal, and they will not be the last, I think, to come to
+the help of the Mother Country in such a crisis as this. But, sir, I do
+not think that I should be fulfilling the duties of the responsible
+position which I have the honour to occupy if I did not remind this
+House, and through this House the citizens of the British Empire, that
+the present crisis is infinitely more serious than that with which we
+were faced in 1899. Then we were waging a war in another hemisphere, six
+thousand miles away. Our unconquered, and, as I hope it will prove,
+unconquerable Navy, kept the peace of the world, and policed the ocean
+highways along which it was necessary for our ships to travel. It is
+true that there were menaces and threats heard in many quarters, but
+they never passed beyond the region of insult and calumny.</p>
+
+<p>"Our possible enemies then, our actual enemies now,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> were in those days
+willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike. To-day, they have lost their
+fear in the confidence of combination. To-day the war cloud is not six
+thousand miles away in the southern hemisphere; it is here, in Europe,
+and a strip of water, twenty-one miles broad, separates us from the
+enemy, which, even as I am speaking, may already be knocking at our
+gates. Even now, the thunder of the guns may be echoing along the shores
+of the English Channel.</p>
+
+<p>"This, sir, is a war in which I might venture to say the most ardent
+member of the Peace Society would not hesitate to engage. For it
+involves the most sacred duty of humanity, the defence of our country,
+and our homes.</p>
+
+<p>"We remember, sir, the words which Francis Drake wrote, and which have
+remained true from his day until now: 'The frontiers of an island
+country are the coasts of its possible enemies.' We remember also that
+when the great Napoleon had massed nearly half a million men on the
+heights above Boulogne, and more than a thousand pontoons were waiting
+to carry that force to the Kentish shore, there was only one old English
+frigate cruising up and down the Straits of Dover.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, there is on the heights of Boulogne a monument, built to
+commemorate the assembly of the Grand Army, and collectors of coins
+still cherish those productions of the Paris Mint, which bear the
+legend, 'Napoleon, Emperor, London, 1804.' But, sir, the statue of
+Napoleon which stands on the summit of that monument faces not westward
+but eastward. The Grand Army could have crossed that narrow strip of
+water. It could, no doubt, have made a landing on British soil, but
+Napoleon, possibly the greatest military genius the world has ever seen,
+anticipated Field-Marshal von Moltke, who said that he had found eight
+ways of getting into England, but he had not found one of getting out
+again, unless it were possible to pump the North Sea dry, and march the
+men over. In other words, sir, the British Navy was then, as now,
+paramount on seas; the oceans were our territories, and the coasts of
+Europe our frontiers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>"Again, sir, we must not forget that those were the days of sails, and
+that these are the days of steam. What was then a matter of days is now
+only a matter of hours. It is two hundred and forty-two years since the
+sound of hostile guns was heard in the city of London. To-morrow morning
+their thunder may awaken us.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been said, sir, that Great Britain plays the game of Diplomacy
+with her cards face upwards on the table. That, in a sense, is true, and
+His Majesty's Government propose to play the same game now. The demands
+which have been presented by the Federation of European Powers, at the
+head of which stands the German Emperor&mdash;demands which, it is hardly
+necessary for me to say, were instantly rejected&mdash;are these: That
+Gibraltar shall be given back to Spain; that Malta shall be dismantled,
+and cease to be a British naval base; that the British occupation of
+Egypt and the Soudan shall cease, and that the Suez Canal and the
+Trans-Continental Railway from Cairo to the Cape shall be handed over to
+the control of an International Board, upon which the British Empire
+will be graciously allowed one representative.</p>
+
+<p>"It is further demanded that Singapore, the Gate of the East, shall be
+placed under the control of the same International Board, and that the
+fortifications of Hong Kong shall be demolished. That, sir, would amount
+to the surrender of the British Empire, an empire which can only exist
+as long as the ocean paths between its various portions are kept
+inviolate.</p>
+
+<p>"Those proposals, sir, in plain English are threats, and His Majesty's
+Government has returned the only possible answer to them, and that
+answer is war&mdash;war, let us remember, which may within a few weeks, or
+even days, be brought to our own doors. Whatever our enemies may have
+said of us it is still true that Britain stands for peace, security, and
+prosperity. We have used the force of arms to conquer the forces of
+barbarism and semi-civilisation, but the most hostile of our critics may
+be safely challenged to point to any country or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> province upon which we
+have imposed the Pax Britannica, which is not now the better for it. It
+is no idle boast, sir, to say that all the world over, the rule of His
+Majesty means the rule of peace and prosperity. There are only two
+causes in which a nation or an empire may justly go to war. One, is to
+make peace where strife was before, and the other is to defend that
+which has been won, and made secure by patient toil and endeavour, no
+less than by blood and suffering. It is that which the challenge of
+Europe calls upon us now to defend. Our answer to the leagued nations is
+this: What we have fought for and worked for and won is ours. Take it
+from us if you can.</p>
+
+<p>"And, sir, I believe that I can say with perfect confidence, that what
+His Majesty's Government has done His Majesty's subjects will enforce to
+a man, and, if necessary, countersign the declaration of war in their
+own blood.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us remember, too, those weighty words of warning which the Laureate
+of the Empire wrote nearly twenty years ago, of this Imperial
+inheritance of ours:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"'It is not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep,</div>
+<div>Men, not gods, devised it, men, not gods, must keep.</div>
+<div>Men not children, servants, or kinsfolk called from afar,</div>
+<div>But each man born in the island broke to the matter of war.</div>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<div>'So ye shall bide, sure-guarded, when the restless lightnings wake,</div>
+<div>In the boom of the blotting war-cloud, and the pallid nations quake.</div>
+<div>So, at the haggard trumpets, instant your soul shall leap,</div>
+<div>Forthright, accoutred, accepting&mdash;alert from the walls of sleep.</div>
+<div>So at the threat ye shall summon&mdash;so at the need ye shall send,</div>
+<div>Men, not children, or servants, tempered and taught to the end.'</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Sir, it has been said that poets are prophets. The hour of the
+fulfilment of that prophecy has now come, and I shall be much mistaken
+in my estimate of the temper of my countrymen and fellow-subjects of His
+Majesty here in Britain, and in the greater Britains over sea, if,
+granted the possibility of an armed invasion of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> the Motherland, every
+man, soldier or civilian, who is able to use a rifle, will not, if
+necessary, use it in the defence of his country and his home."</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister sat down amid absolute silence. The tremendous
+possibilities which he had summed up in his brief speech seemed to have
+stunned his hearers for the time being. Some members said afterwards
+that they could hear their own watches ticking. Then Mr John Redmond,
+the Leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, rose and said, in a slow, and
+deliberate voice, which contrasted strikingly with his usual style of
+oratory:</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, this is not a time for what has been with a certain amount of
+double-meaning described as Parliamentary speeches. Still less is it a
+time for party or for racial differences. The silence in which this
+House has received the speech of the Prime Minister is the most eloquent
+tribute that could be paid to the solemnity of his utterances. But, sir,
+I have a reason for calling attention to one omission in that speech, an
+omission which may have been made purposely. The last time that a
+foeman's foot trod British soil was not eight hundred years ago. It was
+in December 1796 that French soldiers and sailors landed on the shores
+of Bantry Bay. Sir, the Ireland of those days was discontented, and, if
+you please to call it so, disloyal. There are those who say she is so
+now, but, sir, whatever our domestic difficulties and quarrels may be,
+and however much I and the party which I have the honour to lead may
+differ from the home policy of the Right Honourable gentleman who has
+made this momentous pronouncement, it shall not be said that any of
+those difficulties or differences will be taken advantage of by any man
+who is worth the name of Irishman.</p>
+
+<p>"As the Prime Minister has told us, the thunder of the enemy's guns may
+even now be echoing along our southern coasts. We have, I hope, learnt a
+little wisdom on both sides of the Irish Sea during the last twenty
+years, and this time, sir, I think I can promise that, while the guns
+are talking, there shall be no sound of dispute on party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> matters in
+this House as far as we are concerned. From this moment, the Irish
+Nationalist Party, as such, ceases to exist, at any rate until the war's
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"In 1796, the French fleet carrying the invading force was scattered
+over the seas by one of the worst storms that ever was known on the west
+coast of Ireland. As Queen Elizabeth's medal said of the Spanish Armada,
+'God blew, and they were scattered.' With God's help, sir, we will
+scatter these new enemies who threaten us with invasion and conquest.
+Henceforth, there must be no more Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, or
+Welshmen. We are just subjects of the King, and inhabitants of the
+British Islands; and the man who does not believe that, and act upon his
+belief, should get out of these islands as soon as he can, for he isn't
+fit to live in them.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember, sir, a car-driver in Galway, who was taking an English
+tourist&mdash;and he was a politician as well&mdash;around the country about that
+half-ruined city. The English tourist was inquiring into the troubles of
+Ireland, and he asked him what was the greatest affliction that Ireland
+suffered from, and when he answered him he described just the sort of
+Irishman who won't be wanted in Ireland now. He said, 'It's the absentee
+landlords, your honour. This unfortunate country is absolutely swarming
+with them.'"</p>
+
+<p>It was an anti-climax such as only an Irishman could have achieved. The
+tension which had held every nerve of every member on the stretch while
+the Prime Minister was speaking was broken. The Irish members, almost to
+a man, jumped to their feet, as Mr Redmond picked up his hat, waved it
+round his head, and said, in a tone which rang clear and true through
+the crowded Chamber:</p>
+
+<p>"God save the King!"</p>
+
+<p>And then for the first time in its history, the House of Commons rose
+and sang the National Anthem.</p>
+
+<p>There was no division that night. The Prime Minister formally put the
+motion for the voting of such credit as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> might be necessary to meet the
+expenses of the war, and when the Speaker put the question, Ay or Nay,
+every member stood up bareheaded, and a deep-voiced, thunderous "Ay"
+told the leagued nations of Europe that Britain had accepted their
+challenge.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>CAUGHT!</h3>
+
+<p>The events of that memorable night formed a most emphatic contradiction
+to the prophecy in Macaulay's "Armada":</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The speeches in the House of Commons and in the House of Peers were
+being printed even as they were spoken; hundreds of printing-presses
+were grinding out millions of copies of newspapers. Thousands of
+newsboys were running along the pavements, or with great bags of new
+editions slung on their shoulders tearing through the traffic on
+bicycles; but all the speeches in the two Houses of Parliament, all the
+reports and hurriedly-written leaders in the papers just represented to
+the popular mind one word, and that word was war.</p>
+
+<p>It was true that for over a hundred years no year had passed in which
+the British Empire had not been engaged in a war of some kind, but they
+were wars waged somewhere in the outlands of the earth. To the
+stop-at-home man in the street they were rather more matters of latitude
+and longitude than battle, murder, and sudden death. The South African
+War, and even the terrible struggle between Russia and Japan, were
+already memories drifting out of sight in the rush of the headlong
+current of twentieth-century life.</p>
+
+<p>But this was quite another matter; here was war&mdash;not war that was being
+waged thousands of miles away in another hemisphere or on another side
+of the globe&mdash;but war within twenty-one miles of English land&mdash;within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+two or three hours, as it were, of every Englishman's front door.</p>
+
+<p>This went home to every man who had a home, or who possessed anything
+worth living for. It was not now a case of sending soldiers, militia and
+yeomanry away in transports, and cheering them as they went. Not now, as
+Kipling too truly had said of the fight for South Africa:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"When your strong men cheered in their millions, while your striplings went to the war."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Now it was the turn of the strong men; the turn of every man who had the
+strength and courage to fight in defence of all that was nearest and
+dearest to him.</p>
+
+<p>As yet there was no excitement. At every theatre and every music-hall in
+London and the great provincial cities and towns, the performances were
+stopped as soon as the news was received by telegraph. The managers read
+the news from the stage, the orchestras played the first bar of the
+National Anthem, the audiences rose to their feet, and all over the
+British Islands millions of voices sang "God save the King," and then,
+obeying some impulse, which seemed to have inspired the whole land,
+burst into the triumphant psalm of "Rule Britannia."</p>
+
+<p>And when the theatres and music-halls closed, men and women went on
+their way home quietly discussing the tremendous tidings which had been
+officially announced. There was no attempt at demonstration, there was
+very little cheering. It was too serious a matter for that. The men and
+women of Britain were thinking, not about what they should say, but
+about what they should do. There was no time for shouting, for
+to-morrow, perhaps even to-night, the guns would be talking&mdash;"The
+drumming guns which have no doubts."</p>
+
+<p>The House rose at half-past eleven, and at ten minutes to twelve
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan, came into the smoking-room of the Keppel's
+Head Hotel, Portsmouth, with a copy of the last edition of the <i>Southern
+Evening News</i> in his hand, and said to Captain Erskine:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>"It's all right, my boy. It's war, and you've got the <i>Ithuriel</i>. Your
+own ship, too. Designer, creator, captain; and I'm your First Luff."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that's about good enough for a bottle of the best, Castellan,"
+said Erskine, in the quiet tone in which the officer of the finest
+Service in the world always speaks. "Touch the button, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>As Denis Castellan put his finger on the button of the electric bell, a
+man got up from an armchair on the opposite side of the room, and said,
+as he came towards the table at which Erskine was sitting:</p>
+
+<p>"You will pardon me, I hope, if I introduce myself without the usual
+formalities. My name is Gilbert Lennard."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, I take it, you're the man who swam that race with my brother
+John, in Clifden Bay, when Miss Parmenter was thrown out of her skiff.
+But he's no brother of mine now. He's sold himself to the Germans, and,"
+he continued, suddenly lowering his voice almost to a whisper, "come up
+to my room, we'll have the bottle there, and Mr Lennard will join us.
+Yes, waiter, you can take it up to No. 24, we can't talk here," he went
+on in a louder tone. "There's a German spy in the room, and by the piper
+that was supposed to play before Moses, if he's here when I come back,
+I'll throw him out."</p>
+
+<p>Everyone in the smoking-room looked up. Castellan walked out, looking at
+a fair-haired, clean-shaven little man, sitting at a table in the
+right-hand corner of the room from the door. He also looked up, and
+glanced vacantly about the room; then as the three went out, he took a
+sip of the whisky and soda beside him, and looked back on to the paper
+that he was reading.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's that chap?" asked Erskine, as they went upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you when we're a bit more to ourselves," replied Castellan;
+and when they had got into his sitting-room, and the waiter had brought
+the wine, he locked the door, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"That is Staff-Captain Count Karl von Eckstein, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the German Imperial
+Navy, and also of His Majesty, the Kaiser's, Secret Service. He knows a
+little more than we do about every dockyard and fort on the South Coast,
+to say nothing of the ships. That's his district, and thanks to the most
+obliging kindness of the British authorities he has made very good use
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But, surely," exclaimed Lennard, "now that there is a state of war,
+such a man as that could be arrested."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith," said Denis Castellan, as he filled the glasses. "Law or no law,
+he will be arrested to-night if he stops here long enough for me to lay
+hands upon him. Now then, what's the news, Mr Lennard? I'm told that
+you've just come back from the United States, what's the opinion of
+things over there?"</p>
+
+<p>Such news that Lennard had was, of course, even more terrible than the
+news of war and invasion, which was now thrilling through England like
+an electric shock, and he kept it to himself, thinking quite rightly
+that the people of England had quite enough to occupy their attention
+for the immediate present, and so he replied as he raised the glass
+which Denis had filled for him:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid that I have no news except this: that from all I have heard
+in the States, if it does come to death-grips, the States will be with
+us. But you see, of course, that I have only just got back, and this
+thing has been sprung on us so suddenly. In fact, it was only this
+morning that we got an aerogram from the Lizard as we came up Channel to
+say that war was almost a certainty, and advising us to get into
+Southampton as soon as we could."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Erskine, taking up his glass, "that's all right, as far as
+it goes. I've always believed that it's all rot saying that blood isn't
+thicker than water. It is. Of course, relations quarrel more than other
+people do, but it's only over domestic matters. Let an outsider start a
+row, and he very soon sees what happens, and that's what I believe our
+friends on the other side of the Channel are going to find out if it
+comes to extremities. Well, Mr Lennard, I am very pleased that you have
+introduced yourself to us to-night. Of course, we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> both known you
+publicly, and therefore we have all the more pleasure in knowing you
+privately."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," replied Lennard, putting his hand into the inside pocket of
+his coat and taking out an envelope. "But to be quite candid with you,
+although of course I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, I did
+not introduce myself to you and Mr Castellan only for personal reasons.
+I have devoted some attention to the higher chemistry as well as the
+higher mathematics and astronomy, and I have also had the pleasure of
+going through the designs of the cruiser which you have invented, and
+which you are now to command. I have been greatly interested in them,
+and for that reason I think that this may interest you. I brought it
+here in the hope of meeting you, as I knew that your ship was lying
+here."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine opened the envelope, and took out a sheet of notepaper, on which
+were written just a few chemical formul&aelig; and about forty words.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan, who was watching him keenly, for the first time since they
+had sailed together through stress and storm under the White Ensign, saw
+him start. The pupils of his eyes suddenly dilated; his eyelids and
+eyebrows went up for an instant and came down again, and the rigid calm
+of the British Naval Officer came back. He put the letter into his hip
+pocket, buttoned it up, and said, very quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr Lennard. You have done me a very great personal service,
+and your country a greater one still. I shall, of course, make use of
+this. I am afraid if you had sent it to the Ordnance Department you
+wouldn't have heard anything about it for the next three months or more;
+perhaps not till the war was over."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is just why I brought it to you," laughed Lennard. "Well,
+here's good luck to you and the <i>Ithuriel</i>, and all honour, and God save
+the King!"</p>
+
+<p>"God save the King!" repeated Erskine and Castellan, with that note of
+seriousness in their tone which you can hear in the voice of no man who
+has not fought, or is not going to fight; in short, to put his words
+into action.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>They emptied their glasses, and as they put them down on the table
+again there came a knock at the door, sharp, almost imperative.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Erskine.</p>
+
+<p>The head waiter threw the door open, and a Naval messenger walked in,
+saluted, handed Erskine an official envelope, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately, sir. The steam pinnace is down at the end of the Railway
+Quay."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine tore open the envelope and read the brief order that it
+contained, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very good. We shall be on board in ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>The messenger, who was a very useful-looking specimen of the handy man,
+saluted and left the room. Castellan ran out after him, and they went
+downstairs together. At the door of the hotel the messenger put two
+fingers into his mouth, and gave three soft whistles, not unlike the
+sounds of a boatswain's pipe. In two minutes a dozen bluejackets had
+appeared from nowhere, and just as a matter of formality were asked to
+have a drink at the bar. Meanwhile Denis Castellan had gone into the
+smoking-room, where he found the sandy-haired, blue-eyed man still
+sitting at his table in the corner, smoking his cigar, and looking over
+the paper. He touched him on the shoulder and whispered, in perfectly
+idiomatic German:</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were a cleverer man than that, Count. Didn't I give you a
+warning? God's thunder, man. You ought to have been miles away by this
+time; haven't you a motor that would take you to Southampton in an hour,
+and put you on the last of the German liners that's leaving? You know it
+will be a shooting or a hanging matter if you're caught here. Come on
+now. My name's Castellan, and that should be good enough for you. Come
+on, now, and I'll see you safe."</p>
+
+<p>The name of Castellan was already well known to every German
+confidential agent, though it was not known that John Castellan had a
+brother who was a Lieutenant in the British Navy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>Captain Count Karl von Eckstein got up, and took his hat down from the
+pegs, pulled on his gloves, and said deliberately:</p>
+
+<p>"I am very much obliged to you, Mr Castellan, for your warning, which I
+ought to have taken at first, but I hope there is still time. I will go
+and telephone for my motor at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, come along and do it," said Castellan, catching him by the arm.
+"You haven't much time to lose, I can tell you."</p>
+
+<p>They went out of the smoking-room, turned to the left, and went into the
+hall. Then Castellan snatched his hand away from Eckstein's arm, took
+him by the shoulders, and pitched him forward into the middle of the
+semicircle of bluejackets, who were waiting for him, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"That's your man, boys. Take him down to the pinnace, and put him on
+board. I'll take the consequences, and I think the owners will, too,
+when they know the facts."</p>
+
+<p>Von Eckstein tried to shout, but a hand about half the size of a
+shoulder of mutton came down hard over his mouth and nose. Other hands,
+with grips like vices, picked him off his feet, and out he went, half
+stifled, along the yard, and up to the Railway Pier.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather summary proceedings, weren't they, Castellan?"</p>
+
+<p>Denis drew himself up, formally saluted his superior officer, and said,
+with a curious mixture of fun and seriousness in his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"That man's the most dangerous German spy in the South of England, sir,
+and all's fair in war and the other thing. We've got him. In half an
+hour he'd have been aboard a fast yacht he's got here in the harbour,
+and across to Dieppe, with a portmanteau full of plans and photographs
+of our forts that would be worth millions in men and money to the people
+we've got to fight. I can't say it here, but you know why I know."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Erskine nodded, and did his best to conceal an unofficial smile.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>"That's right, Castellan," he said. "I'll take your word for it. Get
+that chap on board, lads, as quick as you can. We'll follow at once."</p>
+
+<p>Ship's Corporal Sandy M'Grath, the huge Scotsman, whose great fist had
+stifled Count von Eckstein's attempt to cry out, touched his cap and
+said: "Awa' wi' him, boys," and out they went at a run. Then Erskine
+turned to Lennard, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"We can do all this that you've given me on board the <i>Ithuriel</i>. It
+isn't quite regular, but in consideration of this, if you like to take a
+cruise, and see your own work done, I'll take the responsibility of
+inviting you, only mind, there will probably be some fighting."</p>
+
+<p>Even as he spoke two deep dull bangs shook the atmosphere and the
+windows of the hotel shivered in their frames.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll come," said Lennard. "They seem to have begun already."</p>
+
+<p>"Begorra they have," said Denis Castellan, making a dash to the door.
+"Come on. If that's so, there'll be blood for supper to-night, and the
+sooner we're aboard the better."</p>
+
+<p>The next moment the three were outside, and sprinting for the end of the
+Railway Pier for all they were worth.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST BLOOD</h3>
+
+<p>When they got to the end of the Railway Pier where the pinnace was lying
+panting and puffing, a Flag-Lieutenant touched his cap to Erskine, took
+him by the arm and led him aside. He took an envelope out of his pocket
+and said, in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Here are your instructions, Erskine. They've jumped on us a bit more
+quickly than we thought they would, but the Commander-in-Chief trusts to
+you and your ship to do the needful. The position is this: one division
+of the Russian, German and Dutch fleets is making a combined attack on
+Hull and Newcastle. Two other divisions are going for the mouth of the
+Thames, and the North Sea Squadron is going to look after them. The
+French North Sea Squadron is making a rush on Dover, and will get very
+considerably pounded in the process. Two French fleets from Cherbourg
+and Brest are coming up Channel, and each of them has a screen of
+torpedo boats and destroyers. The Southern Fleet Reserve is concentrated
+here and at Portland. The Channel Fleet is outside, and we hope to get
+it in their rear, so that we'll have them between the ships and the
+forts. If we do, they'll have just about as hot a time of it as anybody
+wants.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as we've been able to learn, the French are going to try Togo's
+tactics at Port Arthur, and rush Portsmouth with the small craft. You'll
+find that it's your business to look after them. Sink, smash and
+generally destroy. Go for everything you see. There isn't a craft of
+ours within twenty miles outside. Good-bye, and good luck to you!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>"Good-bye!" said Erskine, as they shook hands, "and if we don't come
+back, give my love to the Lords of the Admiralty and thank them for
+giving me the chance with the <i>Ithuriel</i>. Bye-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>Their hands gripped again and the captain of the <i>Ithuriel</i> ran down the
+steps like a boy going to a picnic.</p>
+
+<p>The pinnace gave a little squeak from its siren and sped away down the
+harbour between the two forts, in which the gunners were standing by the
+new fourteen-inch wire-wound guns, whose long chases were prevented from
+drooping after continuous discharge by an ingenious application of the
+principle of the cantilever bridge, invented by the creator of the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>. In the breech-chamber of each of them was a thousand-pound
+shell, carrying a bursting charge of five hundred pounds of an explosive
+which was an improvement on blasting gelatine, and the guns were capable
+of throwing these to a distance of twelve miles with precision. They
+were the most formidable weapons either ashore or afloat.</p>
+
+<p>Just outside the harbour the pinnace swung round to the westward and in
+a few minutes stopped alongside the <i>Ithuriel</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As far as Lennard could see she was neither cruiser nor destroyer nor
+submarine, but a sort of compound of all three. She did not appear to be
+a steamer because she had no funnels. She was not exactly a submarine
+because she had a signal-mast forward and carried five long,
+ugly-looking guns, three ahead and two astern, of a type that he had
+never seen before. Forward of the mast there was a conning-tower of oval
+shape, with the lesser curves fore and aft. The breech-ends of the guns
+were covered by a long hood of steel, apparently of great thickness, and
+that was all.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they got on board Erskine said to Lennard:</p>
+
+<p>"Come into the conning-tower with me. I believe we can make use of this
+invention of yours at once. I've got a pretty well-fitted laboratory
+down below and we might have a try. But you must excuse me a moment, I
+will just run through this."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>He opened the envelope containing his instructions, put them down on
+the little desk in front of him and then read a note that was enclosed
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove," he said, "they're pretty quick up at headquarters. You'll
+have to excuse me a minute or two, Mr Lennard. Just stand on that side,
+will you, please? Close up, we haven't too much room here. Good-bye for
+the present."</p>
+
+<p>In front of the desk and above the little steering-wheel there was a
+mahogany board studded with two sets of ivory buttons, disposed in two
+lines of six each. He touched one of these, and Lennard saw him
+disappear through the floor of the conning-tower. Within a few moments
+the portion of the floor upon which he had stood returned to its place,
+and Lennard said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"If the rest of her works like that, she ought to be a lovely study in
+engineering."</p>
+
+<p>While Captain Erskine is communicating his instructions to his second in
+command, and arranging the details of the coming fight, there will be
+time to give a brief description of the craft on board of which Lennard
+so unexpectedly found himself, and which an invention of his own was
+destined to make even more formidable than it was.</p>
+
+<p>To put it as briefly as possible, the <i>Ithuriel</i> was a combination of
+destroyer, cruiser, submarine and ram, and she had cost Erskine three
+years of hard work to think out. She was three hundred feet long, fifty
+feet broad, and thirty feet from her upper keel to her deck. This was of
+course an abnormal depth for a vessel of her length, but then the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> was quite an abnormal warship. One-third of her depth
+consisted of a sinking-chamber, protected by twelve-inch armour, and
+this chamber could be filled in a few minutes with four thousand tons of
+water. This is of course the same thing as saying she had two
+waterlines. The normal cruising line gave her a freeboard of ten feet.
+Above the sinking-tanks her vitals were protected by ten-inch armour. In
+short, as regards armour, she was an entire reversal of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> the ordinary
+type of warship, and she had the advantage of being impervious to
+torpedo attack. Loaded torpedoes had been fired at her and had burst
+like eggs against a wall, with no more effect than to make her heel over
+a few degrees to the other side. Submarines had attacked her and got
+their noses badly bruised in the process. It was, indeed, admitted by
+the experts of the Admiralty that under water she was impregnable.</p>
+
+<p>Her propelling power consisted of four sets of engines, all well below
+the waterline. Three of these drove three propellers astern: the fourth
+drove a suction screw which revolved just underneath the ram. This was a
+mass of steel weighing fifty tons and curved upwards like the inverted
+beak of an eagle. Erskine had taken this idea from the Russian
+ice-breakers which had been designed by the Russian Admiral Makaroff and
+built at Elswick. The screw was protected by a steel grating of which
+the forward protecting girder completed the curve of the stem. Aft,
+there was a similar ram, weighing thirty tons and a like protection to
+the after-screws.</p>
+
+<p>The driving power was derived from a combination of petrol and
+pulverised smokeless coal, treated with liquid oxygen, which made
+combustion practically perfect. There was no boilers or furnaces, only
+combustion chambers, and this fact made the carrying of the great weight
+of armour under the waterline possible. The speed of the <i>Ithuriel</i> was
+forty-five knots ahead when all four screws were driving and pulling,
+and thirty knots astern when they were reversed. Her total capacity was
+five thousand two hundred tons.</p>
+
+<p>Behind the three forward guns was a dome-shaped conning-tower of
+nine-inch steel, hardened like the rest of the armour by an improvement
+on the Harvey process. Above the conning-tower were two searchlight
+projectors, both capable of throwing a clear ray to a distance of four
+miles and controlled from within the conning-tower.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am afraid I have kept you waiting, Mr Lennard," said Erskine,
+as the platform brought him up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> again into the conning-tower, in much
+shorter time than was necessary to make this needful description of what
+was probably the most formidable craft in the British Navy. "We're off
+now. I've fitted up half a dozen shells with that diabolical invention
+of yours. If we run across a battleship or a cruiser, we'll try them. I
+think our friends the enemy will find them somewhat of a paralyser, and
+there's nothing like beginning pretty strong."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing like hitting them hard at first, and I hope that those things
+of mine will be what I think they are, and unless all my theories are
+quite wrong, I fancy you'll find them all right."</p>
+
+<p>"They would be the first theories of yours that have gone wrong, Mr
+Lennard," replied Erskine, "but anyhow, we shall soon see. I have put
+three of your shells in the forward guns. We'll try them there first,
+and if they're all right we'll use the other three. I've got the after
+guns loaded with my own shell, so if we come across anything big, we
+shall be able to try them against each other. At present, my
+instructions are to deal with the lighter craft only: destroyers and
+that sort of thing, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But don't you fire on them?" said Lennard. "What would happen if they
+got a torpedo under you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Erskine, "as a matter of fact I don't think destroyers are
+worth shooting at. Our guns are meant for bigger game. But it's no good
+trying to explain things now. You'll see, pretty soon, and you'll learn
+more in half an hour than I could tell you in four hours."</p>
+
+<p>They were clear of the harbour by this time and running out at about ten
+knots between the two old North and South Spithead forts on the top of
+each of which one of the new fourteen-inch thousand-pounders had been
+mounted on disappearing carriages.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he continued, "if we're going to find them anywhere, we shall
+find them here, or hereabouts. My orders are to smash everything that I
+can get at."</p>
+
+<p>"Fairly comprehensive," said Lennard.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, Lennard, and it's an order that I'm going to fill. We may as well
+quicken up a bit now. You understand, Castellan is looking after the
+guns, and his sub., Mackenzie is communicating orders to my Chief
+Engineer, who looks after the speed."</p>
+
+<p>"And the speed?" asked Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll leave you to judge that when we get to business," said Erskine,
+putting his forefinger on one of the buttons on the left-hand side of
+the board as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment Lennard felt the rubber-covered floor of the
+conning-tower jump under his feet. All the coast lights were
+extinguished but there was a half-moon and he saw the outlines of the
+shore slip away faster behind them. The eastern heights of the Isle of
+Wight loomed up like a cloud and dropped away astern.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty fast, that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Only twenty-five knots," replied Erskine, as he gave the steering-wheel
+a very gentle movement and swung the <i>Ithuriel's</i> head round to the
+eastward. "If these chaps are going to make a rush in the way Togo did
+at Port Arthur, they've got to do it between Selsey Bill and Nettlestone
+Point. If they're mad enough to try the other way between Round Tower
+Point and Hurst Castle, they'll get blown out of the water in very small
+pieces, so we needn't worry about them there. Our business is to keep
+them out of this side. Ah, look now, there are two or three of them
+there. See, ahead of the port bow. We'll tackle these gentlemen first."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard looked out through the narrow semicircular window of six-inch
+crystal glass running across the front of the conning-tower, which was
+almost as strong as steel, and saw three little dark, moving spots on
+the half-moonlit water, about two miles ahead, stealing up in line
+abreast.</p>
+
+<p>"Those chaps are trying to get in between the Spithead forts," said
+Erskine. "They're slowed down to almost nothing, waiting for the clouds
+to come over the moon, and then they'll make a dash for it. At least,
+they think they will. I don't."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>As he spoke he gave another turn to the steering-wheel and touched
+another button. The <i>Ithuriel</i> leapt forward again and swung about three
+points to the eastward. In three minutes she was off Black Point, and
+this movement brought her into a straight line with the three
+destroyers. He gave the steering-wheel another half turn and her head
+swung round in a short quarter circle. He put his finger on to the
+bottom button on the right-hand side of the signal board and said to
+Lennard:</p>
+
+<p>"Hold tight now, she's going."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard held tight, for he felt the floor jump harder under him this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>In the dim light he saw the nearest of the destroyers, as it seemed to
+him, rush towards them sideways. Erskine touched another button. A
+shudder ran through the fabric of the <i>Ithuriel</i> and her bow rose above
+five feet from the water. A couple of minutes later it hit the destroyer
+amidships, rolled her over, broke her in two like a log of wood, amidst
+a roar of crackling guns and a scream of escaping steam, went over her
+and headed for the next one.</p>
+
+<p>Lennard clenched his teeth and said nothing. He was thinking too hard to
+say anything just then.</p>
+
+<p>The second destroyer opened fire with her twelve-and six-pounders and
+dropped a couple of torpedoes as the <i>Ithuriel</i> rushed at her. The
+<i>Ithuriel</i> was now travelling at forty knots an hour. The torpedoes at
+thirty. The combined speed was therefore nearly a hundred statute miles
+an hour. Erskine saw the two white shapes drop into the water, their
+courses converging towards him. A half turn of the wheel to port swung
+the <i>Ithuriel</i> out and just cleared them. It was a fairly narrow shave,
+for one of them grated along her side, but the <i>Ithuriel</i> had no angles.
+The actual result was that one of the torpedoes deflected from its
+course, hit the other one and both exploded. A mountain of foam-crowned
+water rose up and the commander of the French destroyer congratulated
+himself on the annihilation of at least one of the English warships, but
+the next moment the grey-blue,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> almost invisible shape of the <i>Ithuriel</i>
+leapt up out of the semi-darkness, and her long pointed ram struck
+amidships, cut him down to the waterline, and almost before the two
+halves of his vessel had sunk the same fate had befallen the third
+destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of that?" said Erskine, as he touched a couple
+more buttons and the <i>Ithuriel</i> swung round to the eastward again.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lennard, slowly, "of course it's war, and those fellows
+were coming in to do all the damage they could. But it is just a bit
+terrible, for all that. It's just seven minutes since you rammed the
+first boat: you haven't fired a shot and there are three big destroyers
+and I suppose three hundred and fifty men at the bottom of the sea.
+Pretty awful, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," replied Erskine, without looking round, "all war is awful
+and entirely horrible, and naval war is of course the most horrible of
+all. There is no chance for the defeated: my orders do not even allow me
+to pick up a man from one of those vessels. On the other hand, one must
+remember that if one of those destroyers had got in, they could have let
+go half a dozen torpedoes apiece among the ships of the Fleet Reserve,
+and perhaps half a dozen ships and five or six thousand men might have
+been at the bottom of the Solent by this time, and those torpedoes
+wouldn't have had any sentiment in them. Hallo, there's another!"</p>
+
+<p>A long, black shape surmounted by a signal-mast and four funnels slid up
+and out of the darkness into a patch of moonlight lying on the water.
+Erskine gave a quarter turn to the wheel and touched the two buttons
+again. The <i>Ithuriel</i> swung round and ran down on her prey. The two
+fifteen-and the six twelve-pounder guns ahead and astern and on the
+broadside of the destroyer crackled out and a hail of shells came
+whistling across the water. A few of them struck the <i>Ithuriel</i>, glanced
+off and exploded.</p>
+
+<p>"There," said Erskine, "they've knocked some of our nice new paint off.
+Now they're going to pay for it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>"Couldn't you give them a shot back?" said Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"Not worth it, my dear sir," said Erskine. "We keep our guns for bigger
+game. We haven't an angle that a shell would hit. You might just as well
+fire boiled peas at a hippopotamus as those little things at us. Of
+course a big shell square amidships would hurt us, but then she's so
+handy that I think I could stop it hitting her straight."</p>
+
+<p>While he was speaking the <i>Ithuriel</i> got up to full speed again. Lennard
+shut his eyes. He felt a slight shock, and then a dull grinding. A crash
+of guns and a roar of escaping steam, and when he looked out again, the
+destroyer had disappeared. The next moment a blinding glare of light
+streamed across the water from the direction of Selsey.</p>
+
+<p>"A big cruiser, or battleship," said Erskine. "French or German. Now
+we'll see what those shells of yours are made of."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS</h3>
+
+<p>A huge, black shape loomed up into the moonlight. As she came nearer
+Lennard could see that the vessel carried a big mast forward with a
+fighting-top, two funnels a little aft of it, and two other funnels a
+few feet forward of the after mast.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine put his glasses up to his eyes and said:</p>
+
+<p>"That's the <i>Dupleix</i>, one of the improved <i>Desaix</i> class. Steams
+twenty-four knots. I suppose she's been shepherding those destroyers
+that we've just finished with. I hope she hasn't seen what happened. If
+she thinks that they've got in all right, we've got her. She has a heavy
+fore and aft and broadside gunfire, two 6.4 guns ahead and astern and
+amidships, in pairs, and as I suppose they'll be using melinite shells,
+we shall get fits unless we take them unawares."</p>
+
+<p>"And what does that mean?" asked Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"Show you in a minute," answered Erskine, touching three or four of the
+buttons on the right-hand side as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Another shudder ran through the frame of the <i>Ithuriel</i> and Lennard felt
+the deck sink under his feet. If he hadn't had as good a head on him as
+he had, he would have said something, for the <i>Ithuriel</i> sank until her
+decks were almost awash. She jumped forward again now almost invisible,
+and circled round to the south eastward. A big cloud drifted across the
+moon and Erskine said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God for that! We shall get her now."</p>
+
+<p>Another quarter turn of the wheel brought the <i>Ithuriel's</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> head at
+right angles to the French cruiser's broadside. He took the transmitter
+of the telephone down from the hooks and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you there, Castellan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. What's that big thing ahead there?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the <i>Dupleix</i>. Ready with your forward guns. I'm going to fire
+first, then ram. Stand by, centre first, then starboard and port, and
+keep your eye on them. These are Mr Lennard's shells and we want to see
+what they'll do. Are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. When you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Half speed, then, and tell Mackenzie to stand by and order full speed
+when I give the word. We shall want it in a jump."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, sir. Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine put the receiver back on the hooks.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it. Now we'll try your shells. If they're what I think they are,
+we'll smash that fellow's top works into scrap-iron, and then we'll go
+for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I see," said Lennard, "that's why you've half submerged her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The <i>Ithuriel</i> is designed to deal with both light and heavy
+craft. With the light ones, as you have seen, she just walked over them.
+Now, we've got something bigger to tackle, and if everything goes right
+that ship will be at the bottom of the sea in five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible," replied Lennard, "but I suppose it's necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely," said Erskine, taking the receiver down from the hooks. "If
+we didn't do it with them, they'd do it with us. That's war."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard made no reply. He was looking hard at the now rapidly
+approaching shape of the big French cruiser, and when men are thinking
+hard, they don't usually say much.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> completed her quarter-circle and dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> head on to the
+<i>Dupleix</i>, Erskine said, "Centre gun ready, forward&mdash;fire. Port and
+starboard concentrate&mdash;fire."</p>
+
+<p>There was no report&mdash;only a low, hissing sound&mdash;and then Lennard saw
+three flashes of bluish-green blaze out over the French cruiser.</p>
+
+<p>"Hit her! I think those shells of yours got home," said Erskine between
+his clenched teeth. And then he added through the telephone, "Well
+aimed, Castellan! They all got there. Load up again&mdash;three more shots
+and I'm going to ram&mdash;quick now, and full speed ahead when you've
+fired."</p>
+
+<p>"All ready!" came back over the telephone, "I've told Mackenzie that
+you'll want it."</p>
+
+<p>"Good man," replied Erskine. "When I touch the button, you do the rest.
+Now&mdash;are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Let her have it&mdash;then full speed. Ah," Erskine continued, turning to
+Lennard, "he's shooting back."</p>
+
+<p>The cruiser burst into a thunderstorm of smoke and flame and shell, but
+there was nothing to shoot at. Only three feet of freeboard would have
+been visible even in broad daylight. The signal mast had been
+telescoped. There was nothing but the deck, the guns and the
+conning-tower to be seen. The shells screamed through the air a good ten
+feet over her and incidentally wrecked the Marine Hotel on Selsey Bill.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine pressed the top button on the right-hand side three times. The
+smokeless, nameless guns spoke again, and again the three flashes of
+blue-green flame broke out on the Frenchman's decks.</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough," said Erskine, taking the transmitter down from the hooks
+again. "Now, Mr Lennard, just come for'ard and watch."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard crept up beside him and took the glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"Down guns&mdash;full speed ahead&mdash;going to ram," said Erskine, quietly, into
+the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>To his utter astonishment, Lennard saw the three big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> guns sink down
+under the deck and the steel hoods move forward and cover the
+emplacements. The floor of the conning-tower jumped under his feet again
+and the huge shape of the French cruiser seemed to rush towards him.
+There was a roar of artillery, a thunder of 6.4 guns, a crash of
+bursting shells, a shudder and a shock, and the fifty-ton ram of the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> hit her forward of the conning-tower and went through the
+two-inch armour belt as a knife would go through a piece of paper. The
+big cruiser stopped as an animal on land does, struck by a bullet in its
+vitals, or a whale when the lance is driven home. Half her officers and
+men were lying about the decks asphyxiated by Lennard's shells. The
+after barbette swung round, and at the same moment, or perhaps half a
+minute before, Erskine touched two other buttons in rapid succession.
+The <i>Dupleix</i> lurched down on the starboard side, the two big guns went
+off and hit the water. Erskine touched another button, and the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> ran back from her victim. A minute later the French cruiser
+heeled over and sank.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God, how did you do that?" said Lennard, looking round at him with
+eyes rather more wide open than usual.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the effect of the suction screw," replied Erskine. "I got the
+idea from the Russian ice-breaker, the <i>Yermack</i>. The old idea was just
+main strength and stupidity, charge the ice and break through if you
+could. The better idea was to suck the water away from under the ice and
+go over it&mdash;that's what we've done. I rammed that chap, pulled the water
+away from under him, and, of course, he's gone down."</p>
+
+<p>He gave the wheel a quarter-turn to starboard, took down the transmitter
+and said: "Full speed again&mdash;in two minutes, three quarters and then
+half."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely," exclaimed Lennard, "you can do something to help those
+poor fellows. Are you going to leave them all to drown?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no orders, except to sink and destroy," replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Erskine between
+his teeth. "You must remember that this is a war of one country against
+a continent, and of one fleet against four. Ah, there's another! A
+third-class cruiser&mdash;I think I know her, she's the old <i>Leger</i>&mdash;they
+must have thought they had an easy job of it if they sent her here. Low
+free board, not worth shooting at. We'll go over her. No armour&mdash;what
+idiots they are to put a thing like that into the fighting line!"</p>
+
+<p>He took the transmitter down and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by there, Castellan! Get your pumps to work, and I shall want
+full speed ahead&mdash;I'm going to run that old croak down&mdash;hurry up."</p>
+
+<p>He put the transmitter back on the hooks and presently Lennard saw the
+bows of the <i>Ithuriel</i> rise quickly out of the water. The doomed vessel
+in front of them was a long, low-lying French torpedo-catcher, with one
+big funnel between two signal-masts, hopelessly out of date, and
+evidently intended only to go in and take her share of the spoils.
+Erskine switched off the searchlight, called for full speed ahead and
+then with clenched teeth and set eyes, he sent the <i>Ithuriel</i> flying at
+her victim.</p>
+
+<p>Within five minutes it was all over. The fifty-ton ram rose over the
+<i>Leger's</i> side, crushed it down into the water, ground its way through
+her, cut her in half and went on.</p>
+
+<p>"That ship ought to have been on the scrap-heap ten years ago," said
+Erskine as he signalled for half-speed and swung the <i>Ithuriel</i> round to
+the westward.</p>
+
+<p>"She's got a scrap-heap all to herself now, I suppose," said Lennard,
+with a bit of a check in his voice. "I've no doubt, as you say, this
+sort of thing may be necessary, but my personal opinion of it is that
+it's damnable."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly my opinion too," said Erskine, "but it has to be done."</p>
+
+<p>The next instant, Lennard heard a sound such as he had never heard
+before. It was a smothered rumble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> which seemed to come out of the
+depths, then there came a shock which flung him off his feet, and shot
+him against the opposite wall of the conning-tower. The <i>Ithuriel</i>
+heeled over to port, a huge volume of water rose on her starboard side
+and burst into a torrent over her decks, then she righted.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine, holding on hard to the iron table to which the signalling board
+was bolted, saved himself from a fall.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you're not hurt, Mr Lennard," said he, looking round, "that was
+a submarine. Let a torpedo go at us, I suppose, and didn't know they
+were hitting twelve-inch armour."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right," said Lennard, picking himself up. "Only a bruise or
+two; nothing broken. It seems to me that this new naval warfare of yours
+is going to get a bit exciting."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Erskine, "I think it is. Halloa, Great C&aelig;sar! That must be
+that infernal invention of Castellan's brother's; the thing he sold to
+the Germans&mdash;the sweep!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke a grey shape leapt up out of the water and began to circle
+over the <i>Ithuriel</i>. He snatched the transmitter from the hooks, and
+said, in quick, clear tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Castellan&mdash;sink&mdash;quick, quick as you can."</p>
+
+<p>The pumps of the <i>Ithuriel</i> worked furiously the next moment. Lennard
+held his breath as he saw the waves rise up over the decks.</p>
+
+<p>"Full speed ahead again, and dive," said Erskine into the transmitter.
+"Hold tight, Lennard."</p>
+
+<p>The floor of the conning-tower took an angle of about sixty degrees, and
+Lennard gripped the holdfasts, of which there were two on each wall of
+the tower. He heard a rush of overwhelming waters&mdash;then came darkness.
+The <i>Ithuriel</i> rushed forward at her highest speed. Then something hit
+the sea, and a quick succession of shocks sent a shudder through the
+vessel.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>"I thought so," said Erskine. "That's John Castellan's combined airship
+and submarine right enough, and that was an a&euml;rial torpedo. If it had
+hit us when we were above water, we should have been where those French
+chaps are now. You're quite right, this sort of naval warfare is getting
+rather exciting."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR</h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Flying Fish</i>, the prototype of the extraordinary craft which played
+such a terrible part in the invasion of England, was a magnified
+reproduction, with improvements which suggested themselves during
+construction, of the model whose performances had so astonished the
+Kaiser at Potsdam. She was shaped exactly like her namesake of the deep,
+upon which, indeed, her inventor had modelled her. She was one hundred
+and fifty feet long and twenty feet broad by twenty-five feet deep in
+her widest part, which, as she was fish-shaped, was considerably forward
+of her centre.</p>
+
+<p>She was built of a newly-discovered compound, something like
+papier-mach&eacute;, as hard and rigid as steel, with only about one-tenth the
+weight. Her engines were of the simplest description in spite of the
+fact that they developed enormous power. They consisted merely of
+cylinders into which, by an automatic mechanism, two drops of liquid
+were brought every second. These liquids when joined produced a gas of
+enormously expansive power, more than a hundred times that of steam,
+which actuated the pistons. There were sixteen of these cylinders, and
+the pistons all connected with a small engine invented by Castellan,
+which he called an accelerator. By means of this device he could
+regulate the speed of the propellers which drove the vessel under water
+and in the air from sixty up to two thousand revolutions a minute.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Flying Fish</i> was driven by nine propellers, three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of these,
+four-bladed and six feet diameter, revolved a little forward amidships
+on either side under what might be called the fins. These fins collapsed
+close against the sides of the vessel when under water and expanded to a
+spread of twenty feet when she took the air. They worked on a pivot and
+could be inclined either way from the horizontal to an angle of thirty
+degrees. Midway between the end of these and the stern was a smaller
+pair with one driving screw. The eighth screw was an ordinary propeller
+at the stern, but the outside portion of the shaft worked on a ball and
+socket joint so that it could be used for both steering and driving
+purposes. It was in fact the tail of the <i>Flying Fish</i>. Steering in the
+air was effected by means of a vertical fin placed right aft.</p>
+
+<p>She was submerged as the <i>Ithuriel</i> was, by pumping water into the lower
+part of her hull. When these chambers were empty she floated like a
+cork. The difference between swimming and flying was merely the
+difference between the revolutions of the screws and the inclination of
+the fins. A thousand raised her from the water: twelve hundred gave her
+twenty-five or thirty miles an hour through the air: fifteen hundred
+gave her fifty, and two thousand gave her eighty to a hundred, according
+to the state of the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Her armament consisted of four torpedo tubes which swung at any angle
+from the horizontal to the vertical and so were capable of use both
+under water and in the air. They discharged a small,
+insignificant-looking torpedo containing twenty pounds of an explosive,
+discovered almost accidentally by Castellan and known only to himself,
+the German Emperor, the Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief. It was
+this which he had used in tiny quantities in the experiment at Potsdam.
+Its action was so terrific that it did not rend or crack metal or stone
+which it struck. It overcame the chemical forces by which the substance
+was held together and reduced them to gas and powder.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>And now, after this somewhat formal but necessary description of the
+most destructive fighting-machine ever created we can proceed with the
+story.</p>
+
+<p>There were twenty <i>Flying Fishes</i> attached to the Allied Forces, all of
+them under the command of German engineers, with the exception of the
+original <i>Flying Fish</i>. Two of these were attached to the three
+squadrons which were attacking Hull, Newcastle and Dover: three had been
+detailed for the attack on Portsmouth: two more to Plymouth, two to
+Bristol and Liverpool respectively, on which combined cruiser and
+torpedo attacks were to be made, and two supported by a small swift
+cruiser and torpedo flotilla for an assault on Cardiff, in order if
+possible to terrorise that city into submission and so obtain what may
+be called the life-blood of a modern navy. The rest, in case of
+accidents to any of these, were reserved for the final attack on London.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>Ithuriel</i> disappeared and his torpedo struck a piece of
+floating wreckage and exploded with a terrific shock, John Castellan,
+standing in the conning-tower directing the movements of the <i>Flying
+Fish</i>, naturally concluded that he had destroyed a British submarine
+scout. He knew of the existence, but nothing of the real powers of the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>. The only foreigner who knew that was Captain Count Karl von
+Eckstein, and he was locked safely in a cabin on board her.</p>
+
+<p>He had been searching the under-waters between Nettlestone Point and
+Hayling Island for hours on the look-out for British submarines and
+torpedo scouts, and had found nothing, therefore he was ignorant of the
+destruction which the <i>Ithuriel</i> had already wrought, and as, of course,
+he had heard no firing under the water, he believed that the three
+destroyers supported by the <i>Dupleix</i> and <i>Leger</i> had succeeded in
+slipping through the entrance to Spithead.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that a second flotilla of six destroyers with three swift
+second-class cruisers were following in to complete the work, which by
+this time should have begun,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> and that after them came the main French
+squadron, consisting of six first-class battleships with a screen of ten
+first and five second-class cruisers, the work of which would be to
+maintain a blockade against any relieving force, after the submarines
+and destroyers had sunk and crippled the ships of the Fleet Reserve and
+cut the connections of the contact mines.</p>
+
+<p>He knew also that the <i>See Adler</i>, which was <i>Flying Fish II.</i>, was
+waiting about the Needles to attack Hurst Castle and the forts on the
+Isle of Wight side, preparatory to a rush of two battleships and three
+cruisers through the narrows, while another was lurking under Hayling
+Island ready to take the air and rain destruction on the forts of
+Portsmouth before the fight became general.</p>
+
+<p>What thoroughly surprised him, however, was the absolute silence and
+inaction of the British. True, two shots had been fired, but whether
+from fort or warship, and with what intent, he hadn't the remotest
+notion. The hour arranged upon for the general assault was fast
+approaching. The British must be aware that an attack would be made, and
+yet there was not so much as a second-class torpedo boat to be seen
+outside Spithead. This puzzled him, so he decided to go and investigate
+for himself. He took up a speaking-tube and said to his Lieutenant,
+M'Carthy&mdash;one of too many renegade Irishmen who in the terrible times
+that were to come joined their country's enemies as Lynch and his
+traitors had done in the Boer War:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite make it out, M'Carthy. We'll go down and get under&mdash;it's
+about time the fun began&mdash;and I haven't heard a shot fired or seen an
+English ship except that submarine we smashed. My orders are for twelve
+o'clock, and I'm going to obey them."</p>
+
+<p>There was one more device on board the <i>Flying Fish</i> which should be
+described in order that her wonderful man&oelig;uvering under water may be
+understood. Just in front of the steering-wheel in the conning-tower was
+a square glass box measuring a foot in the side, and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> centre of
+this, attached to top and bottom by slender films of asbestos, was a
+needle ten inches long, so hung that it could turn and dip in any
+direction. The forward half of this needle was made of highly magnetised
+steel, and the other of aluminium which exactly counter-balanced it. The
+glass case was completely insulated and therefore the extremely
+sensitive needle was unaffected by any of the steel parts used in the
+construction of the vessel. But let any other vessel, save of course a
+wooden ship, come within a thousand yards, the needle began to tremble
+and sway, and the nearer the <i>Flying Fish</i> approached it, the steadier
+it became and the more directly it pointed towards the object. If the
+vessel was on the surface, it of course pointed upward: if it was a
+submarine, it pointed either level or downwards with unerring precision.
+This needle was, in fact, the eyes of the <i>Flying Fish</i> when she was
+under water.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan swung her head round to the north-west and dropped gently on
+to the water about midway between Selsey Bill and the Isle of Wight.
+Then the <i>Flying Fish</i> folded her wings and sank to a depth of twenty
+feet. Then, at a speed of ten knots, she worked her way in a zigzag
+course back and forth across the narrowing waters, up the channel
+towards Portsmouth.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise, the needle remained steady, showing that there was
+neither submarine nor torpedo boat near. This meant, as far as he could
+see, that the main approach to the greatest naval fortress in England
+had been left unguarded, a fact so extraordinary as to be exceedingly
+suspicious. His water-ray apparatus, a recent development of the X-rays
+which enabled him to see under water for a distance of fifty yards, had
+detected no contact mines, and yet Spithead ought to be enstrewn with
+them, just as it ought to have been swarming with submarines and
+destroyers. There must be some deep meaning to such apparently
+incomprehensible neglect, but what was it?</p>
+
+<p>If his brother Denis had not happened to recognise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> Captain Count Karl
+von Eckstein and haled him so unceremoniously on board the <i>Ithuriel</i>,
+and if his portmanteau full of papers had been got on board a French
+warship, instead of being left for the inspection of the British
+Admiralty, that reason would have been made very plain to him.</p>
+
+<p>Completely mystified, and fearing that either he was going into some
+trap or that some unforeseen disaster had happened, he swung round, ran
+out past the forts and rose into the air again. When he had reached the
+height of about a thousand feet, three rockets rose into the air and
+burst into three showers of stars, one red, one white, and the other
+blue. It was the Tricolour in the air, and the signal from the French
+Admiral to commence the attack. Castellan's orders were to cripple or
+sink the battleships of the Reserve Fleet which was moored in two
+divisions in Spithead and the Solent.</p>
+
+<p>The Spithead Division lay in column of line abreast between Gilkicker
+Point and Ryde Pier. It consisted of the <i>Formidable</i>, <i>Irresistible</i>,
+<i>Implacable</i>, <i>Majestic</i> and <i>Magnificent</i>, and the cruisers <i>Hogue</i>,
+<i>Sutlej</i>, <i>Ariadne</i>, <i>Argonaut</i>, <i>Diadem</i> and <i>Hawke</i>. The western
+Division consisted of the battleships <i>Prince George</i>, <i>Victoria</i>,
+<i>Jupiter</i>, <i>Mars</i> and <i>Hannibal</i>, and the cruisers <i>Amphitrite</i>,
+<i>Spartiate</i>, <i>Andromeda</i>, <i>Europa</i>, <i>Niobe</i>, <i>Blenheim</i> and <i>Blake</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It had of course been perfectly easy for Castellan to mark the position
+of the two squadrons from the air, and he knew that though they were
+comparatively old vessels they were quite powerful enough, with the
+assistance of the shore batteries, to hold even Admiral Durenne's
+splendid fleet until the Channel Fleet, which for the time being seemed
+to have vanished from the face of the waters, came up and took the
+French in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>In such a case, the finest fleet of France would be like a nut in a
+vice, and that was the reason for the remorseless orders which had been
+given to him, orders which he was prepared to carry out to the letter,
+in spite of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> appalling loss of life which they entailed; for, as the
+<i>Flying Fish</i> sank down into the water, he thought of that swimming race
+in Clifden Bay and of the girl whose marriage with himself, willing or
+unwilling, was to be one of the terms of peace when the British Navy lay
+shattered round her shores, and the millions of the Leagued Nations had
+trampled the land forces of Britain into submission.</p>
+
+<p>Just as she touched the water a brilliant flash of pink flame leapt up
+from the eastern fort on the Hillsea Lines, followed by a sharp crash
+which shook the atmosphere. A thin ray of light fell from the clouds,
+then came a quick succession of flashes moving in the direction of the
+great fort on Portsdown, until two rose in quick succession from
+Portsdown itself, and almost at the same moment another from Hurst
+Castle, and yet another from the direction of Fort Victoria.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless my soul, what's that?" exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief,
+Admiral Sir Compton Domville, who had just completed his final
+inspection of the defences of Portsmouth Harbour, and was standing on
+the roof of Southsea Castle, taking a general look round before going
+back to headquarters. "Here, Markham," he said, turning to the Commander
+of the Fort, "just telephone up to Portsdown at once and ask them what
+they're up to."</p>
+
+<p>An orderly instantly dived below to the telephone room. The Fort
+Commander took Sir Compton aside and said in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, sir, that the forts are being attacked from the air."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" replied Sir Compton, with a start. "Do you mean that
+infernal thing that Erskine and Castellan and the watch of the
+<i>Cormorant</i> saw in the North Sea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," was the reply. "There is no reason why the enemy should not
+possess a whole fleet of these craft by this time, and naturally they
+would act in concert with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the attack of the French Fleet. I've heard
+rumours of a terrible new explosive they've got, too, which shatters
+steel into splinters and poisons everyone within a dozen yards of it. If
+that's true and they're dropping it on the forts, they'll probably smash
+the guns as well. For heaven's sake, sir, let me beg of you to go back
+at once to headquarters! It will probably be our turn next. You will be
+safe there, for they're not likely to waste their shells on Government
+buildings."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose I shall be of more use there," growled Sir Compton.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the orderly returned, looking rather scared. He saluted
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sir, they've tried Portsdown and all the Hillsea forts
+and can't get an answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" said the Commander-in-Chief, "that looks almost as if
+you were right, Markham. Signal to Squadron A to up-anchor at once and
+telephone to Squadron B to do the same. Telephone Gilkicker to turn all
+searchlights on. Now I must be off and have a talk with General
+Hamilton."</p>
+
+<p>He ran down to his pinnace and went away full speed for the harbour, but
+before he reached the pier another flash burst out from the direction of
+Fort Gilkicker, followed by a terrific roar. To those standing on the
+top of Southsea Castle the fort seemed turned into a volcano, spouting
+flame and clouds of smoke, in the midst of which they could see for an
+instant whirling shapes, most of which would probably be the remains of
+the gallant defenders, hurled into eternity before they had a chance of
+firing a shot at the invaders. The huge guns roared for the first and
+last time in the war, and the great projectiles plunged aimlessly among
+the ships of the squadron, carrying wreck and ruin along the line.</p>
+
+<p>"Our turn now, I suppose," said the Fort Commander, quietly, as he
+looked up and by a chance gleam of moonlight through the breaking clouds
+saw a dim grey, winged shape drift across the harbour entrance.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>They were the last words he ever spoke, for the next moment the roof
+crumbled under his feet, and his body was scattered in fragments through
+the air, and in that moment Portsmouth had ceased to be a fortified
+stronghold.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS</h3>
+
+<p>It takes a good deal to shake the nerves of British naval officer or
+seaman, but those on board the ships of the Spithead Squadron would have
+been something more than human if they could have viewed the appalling
+happenings of the last few terrible minutes with their accustomed
+coolness. They were ready to fight anything on the face of the waters or
+under them, but an enemy in the air who could rain down shells, a couple
+of which were sufficient to destroy the most powerful forts in the
+world, and who could not be hit back, was another matter. It was a
+bitter truth, but there was no denying it. The events of the last ten
+years had clearly proved that a day must come when the flying machine
+would be used as an engine of war, and now that day had come&mdash;and the
+fighting flying machine was in the hands of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The anchors were torn from the ground, signals were flashed from the
+flagship, the <i>Prince George</i>, and within four minutes the squadron was
+under way to the south-eastward. After what had happened the Admiral in
+command promptly and rightly decided that to keep his ships cramped up
+in the narrow waters was only to court further disaster. His place was
+now the open sea, and a general fleet action offered the only means of
+preventing an occupation of almost defenceless Portsmouth, and the
+landing of hostile troops in the very heart of England's southern
+defences.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen first-class torpedo boats and ten destroyers ran out from the
+Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts, ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> through the ships, and spread
+themselves out in a wide curve ahead, and at the same time twenty
+submarines crept out from the harbour and set to work laying contact
+mines in the appointed fields across the harbour mouth and from shore to
+shore behind the Spithead forts.</p>
+
+<p>But the squadron had not steamed a mile beyond the forts before a series
+of frightful disasters overtook them. First, a huge column of water rose
+under the stern of the <i>Jupiter</i>. The great ship stopped and shuddered
+like a stricken animal, and began to settle down stern first. Instantly
+the <i>Mars</i> and <i>Victorious</i> which were on either side of her slowed
+down, their boats splashed into the water and set to work to rescue
+those who managed to get clear of the sinking ship.</p>
+
+<p>But even while this was being done, the <i>Banshee</i>, the <i>Flying Fish</i>
+which had destroyed the forts, had taken up her position a thousand feet
+above the doomed squadron. A shell dropped upon the deck of the
+<i>Spartiate</i>, almost amidships. The pink flash blazed out between her two
+midship funnels. They crumpled up as if they had been made of brown
+paper. The six-inch armoured casemates on either side seemed to crumble
+away. The four-inch steel deck gaped and split as though it had been
+made of matchboard. Then the <i>Banshee</i> dropped to within five hundred
+feet and let go another shell almost in the same place. A terrific
+explosion burst out in the very vitals of the stricken ship, and the
+great cruiser seemed to split asunder. A vast volume of mingled smoke
+and flame and steam rose up, and when it rolled away, the <i>Spartiate</i>
+had almost vanished.</p>
+
+<p>But that was the last act of destruction that the <i>Banshee</i> was destined
+to accomplish. That moment the moon sailed out into a patch of clear
+sky. Every eye in the squadron was turned upward. There was the airship
+plainly visible. Her captain instantly saw his danger and quickened up
+his engines, but it was too late. He was followed by a hurricane of
+shells from the three-pound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> quick-firers in the upper tops of the
+battleships. Then came an explosion in mid-air which seemed to shake the
+very firmament itself. She had fifty or sixty of the terrible shells
+which had wrought so much havoc on board, and as a dozen shells pierced
+her hull and burst, they too exploded with the shock. A vast blaze of
+pink flame shone out.</p>
+
+<p>"Talk about going to glory in a blue flame," said Seaman Gunner
+Tompkins, who had aimed one of the guns in the fore-top of the
+<i>Hannibal</i>, and of course, like everybody else, piously believed that
+his was one of the shells that got there. "That chap's gone to t'other
+place in a red'un. War's war, but I don't hold with that sort of
+fighting; it doesn't give a man a chance. Torpedoes is bad enough, Gawd
+knows&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The words were hardly out of his mouth when a shock and a shudder ran
+through the mighty fabric of the battleship. The water rose in a
+foam-clad mountain under her starboard quarter. She heeled over to port,
+and then rolled back to starboard and began to settle.</p>
+
+<p>"Torpedoed, by George! What did I tell you?" gasped Gunner Tompkins. The
+next moment a lurch of the ship hurled him and his mates far out into
+the water.</p>
+
+<p>Even as his ship went down, Captain Barclay managed to signal to the
+other ships, "Don't wait&mdash;get out." And when her shattered hull rested
+on the bottom, the gallant signal was still flying from the upper yard.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious that the one chance of escaping their terrible unseen foe
+was to obey the signal. By this time crowds of small craft of every
+description had come off from both shores to the rescue of those who had
+gone down with the ships, so the Admiral did what was the most practical
+thing to do under the circumstances&mdash;he dropped his own boats, each with
+a crew, and ordered the <i>Victorious</i> and <i>Mars</i> to do the same, and then
+gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> the signal for full speed ahead. The great engines panted and
+throbbed, and the squadron moved forward with ever-increasing speed, the
+cruisers and destroyers, according to signal, running ahead of the
+battleships; but before full speed was reached, the <i>Mars</i> was struck
+under the stern, stopped, shuddered, and went down with a mighty lurch.</p>
+
+<p>This last misfortune convinced the Admiral that the destruction of his
+battleships could not be the work of any ordinary submarine, for at the
+time the <i>Mars</i> was struck she was steaming fifteen knots and the
+underwater speed of the best submarine was only twelve, saving only the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>, and she did not use torpedoes. The two remaining battleships
+had now reached seventeen knots, which was their best speed. The
+cruisers and their consorts were already disappearing round Foreland.</p>
+
+<p>There was some hope that they might escape the assaults of the
+mysterious and invisible enemy now that the airship had been destroyed,
+but unless the submarine had exhausted her torpedoes, or some accident
+had happened to her, there was very little for the <i>Prince George</i> and
+the <i>Victorious</i>, and so it turned out. Castellan's strict orders had
+been to confine his attentions to the battleships, and he obeyed his
+pitiless instructions to the letter. First the <i>Victorious</i> and then the
+flagship, smitten by an unseen and irresistible bolt in their weakest
+parts, succumbed to the great gaping wounds torn in the thin
+under-plating, reeled once or twice to and fro like leviathans
+struggling for life, and went down. And so for the time being, at least,
+ended the awful work of the <i>Flying Fish</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the cruisers and smaller craft to continue their dash for the
+open Channel, we must now look westward.</p>
+
+<p>When Vice-Admiral Codrington, who was flying his flag on the
+<i>Irresistible</i>, saw the flashes along the Hillsea ridge and Portsdown
+height and heard the roar of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> explosions, he at once up-anchor and
+got his squadron under way. Then came the appallingly swift destruction
+of Hurst Castle and Fort Victoria. Like all good sailors, he was a man
+of instant decision. His orders were to guard the entrance to the
+Solent, and the destruction of the forts made it impossible for him to
+do this inside. How that destruction had been wrought, he had of course
+no idea, beyond a guess that the destroying agent must have come from
+the air, since it could not have come from sea or land without provoking
+a very vigorous reply from the forts. Instead of that they had simply
+blown up without firing a shot.</p>
+
+<p>He therefore decided to steam out through the narrow channel between
+Hurst Castle and the Isle of Wight as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>It was a risky thing to do at night and at full speed, for the Channel
+and the entrance to it was strewn with contact mines, but one of the
+principal businesses of the British Navy is to take risks where
+necessary, so he put his own ship at the head of the long line, and with
+a mine chart in front of him went ahead at eighteen knots.</p>
+
+<p>When Captain Adolph Frenkel, who was in command of the <i>See Adler</i>, saw
+the column of warships twining and wriggling its way out through the
+Channel, each ship handled with consummate skill and keeping its
+position exactly, he could not repress an admiring "Ach!" Still it was
+not his business to admire, but destroy.</p>
+
+<p>He rose to a thousand feet, swung round to the north-eastward until the
+whole line had passed beneath him, and then quickened up and dropped to
+seven hundred feet, swung round again and crept up over the <i>Hogue</i>,
+which was bringing up the rear. When he was just over her fore part, he
+let go a shell, which dropped between the conning-tower and the forward
+barbette.</p>
+
+<p>The navigating bridge vanished; the twelve-inch armoured conning-tower
+cracked like an eggshell; the barbette collapsed like the crust of a
+loaf, and the big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> 9.2 gun lurched backwards and lay with its muzzle
+staring helplessly at the clouds. The deck crumpled up as though it had
+been burnt parchment, and the ammunition for the 9.2 and the forward
+six-inch guns which had been placed ready for action exploded, blowing
+the whole of the upper forepart of the vessel into scrap-iron.</p>
+
+<p>But an even worse disaster than this was to befall the great
+twelve-thousand-ton cruiser. Her steering gear was, of course,
+shattered. Uncontrolled and uncontrollable, she swung swiftly round to
+starboard, struck a mine, and inside three minutes she was lying on the
+mud.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the moment of the first explosion, the beams of twenty
+searchlights leapt up into the air, and in the midst of the broad white
+glare hundreds of keen angry eyes saw a winged shape darting up into the
+air, heading southward as though it would cross the Isle of Wight over
+Yarmouth. Almost simultaneously, every gun from the tops of the
+battleships spoke, and a storm of shells rent the air.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Frenkel had already seen his mistake. The <i>See Adler's</i>
+wings were inclined at an angle of twenty degrees, her propellers were
+revolving at their utmost velocity, and at a speed of nearly a hundred
+miles an hour, she took the Isle of Wight in a leap. She slowed down
+rapidly over Freshwater Bay. Captain Frenkel took a careful observation
+of the position and course of the squadron, dropped into the water,
+folded his wings and crept round the Needles with his conning-tower just
+awash, and lay in wait for his prey about two miles off the Needles.</p>
+
+<p>The huge black hull of the <i>Irresistible</i> was only a couple of hundred
+yards away. He instantly sank and turned on his water-ray. As the
+flagship passed within forty yards he let go his first torpedo. It hit
+her sternpost, smashed her rudder and propellers, and tore a great hole
+in her run. The steel monster stopped, shuddered, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> slid sternward
+with her mighty ram high in the air into the depths of the smooth grey
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>There is no need to repeat the ghastly story which has already been
+told&mdash;the story of the swift and pitiless destruction of these miracles
+of human skill, huge in size and mighty in armament and manned by the
+bravest men on land or sea, by a foe puny in size but of awful
+potentiality. It was a fight, if fight it could be called, between the
+visible and the invisible, and it could only have one end. Battleship
+after battleship received her death-wound, and went down without being
+able to fire a shot in defence, until the <i>Magnificent</i>, smitten in the
+side under her boilers, blew up and sank amidst a cloud of steam and
+foam, and the Western Squadron had met the fate of the Eastern.</p>
+
+<p>While this tragedy was being enacted, the cruisers scattered in all
+directions and headed for the open at their highest speed. It was a
+bitter necessity, and it was bitterly felt by every man and boy on board
+them; but the captains knew that to stop and attempt the rescue of even
+some of their comrades meant losing the ships which it was their duty at
+all costs to preserve, and so they took the only possible chance to
+escape from this terrible unseen foe which struck out of the silence and
+the darkness with such awful effect.</p>
+
+<p>But despite the tremendous disaster which had befallen the Reserve
+Fleet, the work of death and destruction was by no means all on one
+side. When he sank the <i>Leger</i>, Erskine had done a great deal more
+damage to the enemy than he knew, for she had been sent not for fighting
+purposes, but as a d&eacute;p&ocirc;t ship for the <i>Flying Fishes</i>, from which they
+could renew their torpedoes and the gas cylinders which furnished their
+driving power. Being a light craft, she was to take up an agreed
+position off Bracklesham Bay three miles to the north-west of Selsey
+Bill, the loneliest and shallowest part of the coast, with all lights
+out, ready to supply all that was wanted or to make any repairs that
+might be necessary. Her sinking,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> therefore, deprived John Castellan's
+craft of their base.</p>
+
+<p>After the <i>Dupleix</i> had gone down, the <i>Ithuriel</i> rose again, and
+Erskine said to Lennard:</p>
+
+<p>"There must be more of them outside, they wouldn't be such fools as to
+rush Portsmouth with three destroyers and a couple of cruisers. We'd
+better go on and reconnoitre."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> ran out south-eastward at twenty knots in a series of
+broad curves, and she was just beginning to make the fourth of these
+when six black shapes crowned with wreaths of smoke loomed up out of the
+semi-darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought so&mdash;destroyers," said Erskine. "Yes, and look there, behind
+them&mdash;cruiser supports, three of them&mdash;these are for the second rush.
+Coming up pretty fast, too; they'll be there in half an hour. We shall
+have something to say about that. Hold on, Lennard."</p>
+
+<p>"Same tactics, I suppose," said Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Erskine, taking down the receiver. "Are you there,
+Castellan? All right. We've six more destroyers to get rid of. Full
+speed ahead, as soon as you like&mdash;guns all ready, I suppose? Good&mdash;go
+ahead."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> was now about two miles to the westward and about a mile
+in front of the line of destroyers, which just gave her room to get up
+full speed. As she gathered way, Lennard saw the nose of the great ram
+rise slowly out of the water. The destroyer's guns crackled, but it is
+not easy to hit a low-lying object moving at fifty miles an hour, end
+on, when you are yourself moving nearly twenty-five. Just the same thing
+happened as before. The point of the ram passed over the destroyer's
+bows, crumpled them up and crushed them down, and the <i>Ithuriel</i> rushed
+on over the sinking wreck, swerved a quarter turn, and bore down on her
+next victim. It was all over in ten minutes. The <i>Ithuriel</i> rushed
+hither and thither among the destroyers like some leviathan of the deep.
+A crash, a swift grinding scrape, and a mass of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> crumpled steel was
+dropping to the bottom of the Channel.</p>
+
+<p>While the attack on the destroyers was taking place, the cruisers were
+only half a mile away. Their captains had found themselves in curiously
+difficult positions. The destroyers were so close together, and the
+movements of this strange monster which was running them down so
+rapidly, that if they opened fire they were more likely to hit their own
+vessels than it, but when the last had gone down, every available gun
+spoke, and a hurricane of shells, large and small, ploughed up the sea
+where the <i>Ithuriel had</i> been. After the first volley, the captains
+looked at their officers and the officers looked at the captains, and
+said things which strained the capabilities of the French language to
+the utmost. The monster had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>The fact was that Erskine had foreseen that storm of shell, and the
+pumps had been working hard while the ramming was going on. The result
+was that the <i>Ithuriel</i> sank almost as soon as her last victim, and in
+thirty seconds there was nothing to shoot at.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall ram those chaps from underneath," he said. "They've too many
+guns for a shooting match."</p>
+
+<p>He reduced the speed to thirty knots, rose for a moment till the
+conning-tower was just above the water, took his bearings, sank, called
+for full speed, and in four minutes the ram crashed into the <i>Alger's</i>
+stern, carried away her sternpost and rudder, and smashed her
+propellers. The <i>Ithuriel</i> passed on as if she had hit a log of wood and
+knocked it aside. A slight turn of the steering-wheel, and within four
+minutes the ram was buried in the vitals of the <i>Suchet</i>. Then the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> reversed engines, the fore screw sucked the water away, and
+the cruiser slid off the ram as she might have done off a rock. As she
+went down, the <i>Ithuriel</i> rose to the surface. The third cruiser, the
+<i>Davout</i>, was half a mile away. She had changed her course and was
+evidently making frantic efforts to get back to sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>"Going to warn the fleet, are you, my friend?" said Erskine, between
+his teeth. "Not if I know it!"</p>
+
+<p>He asked for full speed again and the terror-stricken Frenchmen saw the
+monster, just visible on the surface of the water, flying towards them
+in the midst of a cloud of spray. A sheep might as well have tried to
+escape from a tiger. Many of the crew flung themselves overboard in the
+madness of despair. There was a shock and a grinding crash, and the ram
+bored its way twenty feet into the unarmoured quarter. Then the
+<i>Ithuriel's</i> screws dragged her free, and the <i>Davout</i> followed her
+sisters to the bottom of the Channel.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS</h3>
+
+<p>The awaking of England on the morning of the twenty-sixth of November
+was like the awaking of a man from a nightmare. Everyone who slept had
+gone to sleep with one word humming in his brain&mdash;war&mdash;and war at home,
+that was the terrible thought which robbed so many millions of eyes of
+sleep. But even those who slept did not do so for long.</p>
+
+<p>At a quarter to one a sub-editor ran into the room of the chief News
+Editor of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, without even the ceremony of a knock.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth's the matter, Johnson?" exclaimed the editor. "Seen a
+ghost?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than that, sir. Read this!" said the sub-editor, in a shaking
+voice, throwing the slip down on the desk.</p>
+
+<p>"My God, what's this?" said the editor, as he ran his eye along the
+slip. "'Portsmouth bombarded from the air. Hillsea, Portsmouth,
+Gilkicker and Southsea Castle destroyed. Practically defenceless. Fleet
+Reserve Squadrons sailing.'"</p>
+
+<p>The words were hardly out of his mouth before another man came running
+in with a slip. "'<i>Jupiter</i> and <i>Hannibal</i> torpedoed by submarine.
+<i>Spartiate</i> blown up by a&euml;rial torpedo.'" Then there came a gap, as
+though the men at the other end had heard of more news, then
+followed&mdash;"'<i>Mars</i>, <i>Prince George</i>, <i>Victorious</i>, all torpedoed.
+Cruisers escaped to sea. No news of <i>Ithuriel</i>, no torpedo attack up to
+present.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, that's awful," gasped the editor, and then the professional
+instinct reasserted itself, for he continued, handing the slip back:
+"Rush out an edition straight away, Johnson. Anything, if it's only a
+half-sheet&mdash;get it on the streets as quick as you can&mdash;there'll be
+plenty of people about still. If anything else comes bring it up."</p>
+
+<p>In less than a quarter of an hour a crowd of newsboys were fighting in
+the passage for copies of the single sheet which contained the momentous
+news, just as it had come over the wire. The <i>Daily Telegraph</i> was just
+five minutes ahead, but within half an hour every London paper, morning
+and evening, and all the great provincial journals had rushed out their
+midnight specials, and from end to end of England and Scotland, and away
+to South Wales, and over the narrow seas to Dublin and Cork, the shrill
+screams of the newsboys, and the hoarse, raucous howls of the newsmen
+were spreading the terrible tidings over the land. What the beacon fires
+were in the days of the Armada, these humble heralds of Fate were in the
+twentieth century.</p>
+
+<p>"War begun&mdash;Portsmouth destroyed&mdash;Fleet sunk."</p>
+
+<p>The six terrible words were not quite exact, of course, but they were
+near enough to the truth to sound like the voice of Fate in the ears of
+the millions whose fathers and fathers' fathers back through six
+generations had never had their midnight rest so rudely broken.</p>
+
+<p>Lights gleamed out of darkened windows, and front doors were flung open
+in street after street, as the war-cry echoed down it. Any coin that
+came first to hand, from a penny to a sovereign, was eagerly offered for
+the single, hurriedly-printed sheets, but the business instincts of the
+newsboys rose superior to the crisis, and nothing less than a shilling
+was accepted. Streams of men and boys on bicycles with great bags of
+specials slung on their backs went tearing away, head down and pedals
+whirling, north, south, east and west into the suburbs. Newsagents flung
+their shops open, and in a few minutes were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> besieged by eager, anxious
+crowds, fighting for the first copies. There was no more sleep for man
+or woman in London that night, though the children slept on in happy
+unconsciousness of what the morrow was to bring forth.</p>
+
+<p>What happened in London was happening almost simultaneously all over the
+kingdom. For more than a hundred years the British people had worked and
+played and slept in serene security, first behind its wooden walls, and
+then behind the mighty iron ramparts of its invincible Fleets, and now,
+like a thunderbolt from a summer sky, came the paralysing tidings that
+the first line of defence had been pierced by a single blow, and the
+greatest sea stronghold of England rendered defenceless&mdash;and all this
+between sunset and midnight of a November day.</p>
+
+<p>Was it any wonder that men looked blankly into each other's eyes, and
+asked themselves and each other how such an unheard-of catastrophe had
+come about, and what was going to happen next? The first and universal
+feeling was one of amazement, which amounted almost to mental paralysis,
+and then came a sickening sense of insecurity. For two generations the
+Fleet had been trusted implicitly, and invasion had been looked upon
+merely as the fad of alarmists, and the theme of sensational
+story-writers. No intelligent person really trusted the army, although
+its ranks, such as they were, were filled with as gallant soldiers as
+ever carried a rifle, but it had been afflicted ever since men could
+remember with the bane and blight of politics and social influence. It
+had never been really a serious profession, and its upper ranks had been
+little better than the playground of the sons of the wealthy and
+well-born.</p>
+
+<p>Politician after politician on both sides had tried his hand at scheme
+after scheme to improve the army. What one had done, the next had
+undone, and the permanent War Office Officials had given more attention
+to buttons and braids and caps than to business-like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> organisations of
+fighting efficiency. The administration was, as it always had been, a
+chaos of muddle. The higher ranks were rotten with inefficiency, and the
+lower, aggravated and bewildered by change after change, had come to
+look upon soldiering as a sort of game, the rules of which were being
+constantly altered.</p>
+
+<p>The Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers had been constantly
+snubbed and worried by the authorities of Pall Mall. Private citizens,
+willing to give time and money in order to learn the use of the rifle,
+even if they could not join the Yeomanry or Volunteers, had been just
+ignored. The War Office could see no use for a million able-bodied men
+who had learned to shoot straight, besides they were only "damned
+civilians," whose proper place was in their offices and shops. What
+right had they with rifles? If they wanted exercise, let them go and
+play golf, or cricket, or football. What had they to do with the defence
+of their country and their homes?</p>
+
+<p>But that million of irregular sharpshooters were badly wanted now. They
+could have turned every hedgerow into a trench and cover against the foe
+which would soon be marching over the fields and orchards and
+hop-gardens of southern England. They would have known every yard of the
+ground, and the turn of every path and road, and while the regular army
+was doing its work they could have prevented many a turning movement of
+the superior forces, shot down the horses of convoys and ammunition
+trains, and made themselves generally objectionable to the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Now the men were there, full of fight and enthusiasm, but they had
+neither ammunition nor rifles, and if they had had them, ninety per
+cent. would not have known how to use them. Wherefore, those who were
+responsible for the land defences of the country found themselves with
+less than three hundred thousand trained and half-trained men, of all
+arms, to face invading forces which would certainly not number less than
+a million, every man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> of which had served his apprenticeship to the grim
+trade of war, commanded by officers who had taken that same trade
+seriously, studied it as a science, thinking it of considerably more
+importance than golf or cricket or football.</p>
+
+<p>It had been said that the British Nation would never tolerate
+conscription, which might or might not have been true; but now, when the
+next hour or so might hear the foreign drums thrumming and the foreign
+bugles blaring, conscription looked a very different thing. There wasn't
+a loyal man in the kingdom who didn't bitterly regret that he had not
+been taken in the prime of his young manhood, and taught how to defend
+the hearth and home which were his, and the wife and children which were
+so dear to him.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late now. Neither soldiers nor sharpshooters are made in
+a few hours or days, and within a week the first battles that had been
+fought on English ground for nearly eight hundred years would have been
+lost and won, and nine-tenths of the male population of England would be
+looking on in helpless fury.</p>
+
+<p>There had been plenty of theorists, who had said that the British
+Islands needed no army of home defence, simply because if she once lost
+command of the sea it would not be necessary for an enemy to invade her,
+since a blockade of her ports would starve her into submission in a
+month&mdash;which, thanks to the decay of agriculture and the depopulation of
+the country districts, was true enough. But it was not all the truth.
+Those who preached these theories left out one very important factor,
+and that was human nature.</p>
+
+<p>For over a century the Continental nations had envied and hated Britain,
+the land-grabber; Britain who had founded nations while they had failed
+to make colonies; Britain, who had made the Seven Seas her territories,
+and the coasts of other lands her frontiers. Surely the leaders of the
+leagued nations would have been more or less than human had they
+resisted, even if their people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> had allowed them to do it, the
+temptation of trampling these proud Islanders into the mud and mire of
+their own fields and highways, and dictating terms of peace in the
+ancient halls of Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>These were the bitter thoughts which were rankling in the breast of
+every loyal British man during the remainder of that night of horrible
+suspense. Many still had reason to remember the ghastly blunders and the
+muddling which had cost so many gallant lives and so many millions of
+treasure during the Boer War, when it took three hundred thousand
+British troops to reduce eighty thousand undrilled farmers to
+submission. What if the same blundering and muddling happened now? And
+it was just as likely now as then.</p>
+
+<p>Men ground their teeth, and looked at their strong, useless hands, and
+cursed theorist and politician alike. And meanwhile the Cabinet was
+sitting, deliberating, as best it might, over the tidings of disaster.
+The House of Commons, after voting full powers to the Cabinet and the
+Council of Defence, had been united at last by the common and immediate
+danger, and members of all parties were hurrying away to their
+constituencies to do what they could to help in organising the defence
+of their homeland.</p>
+
+<p>There was one fact which stood out before all others, as clearly as an
+electric light among a lot of candles, and, now that it was too late, no
+one recognised it with more bitter conviction than those who had made it
+the consistent policy of both Conservative and Liberal Governments, and
+of the Executive Departments, to discourage invention outside the
+charmed circle of the Services, and to drive the civilian inventor
+abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again, designs of practical airships&mdash;not gas-bags which could
+only be dragged slowly against a moderate wind, but flying machines
+which conquered the wind and used it as a bird does&mdash;had been submitted
+to the War Office during the last six or seven years, and had been
+pooh-poohed or pigeon-holed by some sapient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> permanent official&mdash;and now
+the penalty of stupidity and neglect had to be paid.</p>
+
+<p>The complete descriptions of the tragedy that had been and was being
+enacted at Portsmouth that were constantly arriving in Downing Street
+left no possibility of doubt that the forts had been destroyed and the
+<i>Spartiate</i> blown up by torpedoes from the air&mdash;from which fact it was
+necessary to draw the terrible inference that the enemy had possessed
+themselves of the command of the air.</p>
+
+<p>What was the command of the sea worth after that? What was the fighting
+value of the mightiest battleship that floated when pitted against a
+practically unassailable enemy, which had nothing to do but drop
+torpedoes, loaded with high explosives, on her decks and down her
+funnels until her very vitals were torn to pieces, her ammunition
+exploded, and her crew stunned by concussion or suffocated by poisonous
+gas?</p>
+
+<p>It was horrible, but it was true. Inside an hour the strongest
+fortifications in England had been destroyed, and ten first-class
+battleships and a cruiser had been sent to the bottom of the sea, and so
+at last her ancient sceptre was falling from the hand of the Sea Queen,
+and her long inviolate domain was threatened by the armed legions of
+those whose forefathers she had vanquished on many a stricken field by
+land and sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, gentlemen," said the Prime Minister to the other members of the
+Cabinet Council, who were sitting round that historic oval table in the
+Council Chamber in Downing Street, "we may as well confess that this is
+a great deal more serious than we expected it to be, and that is to my
+mind all the better reason why we should strain every nerve to hold
+intact the splendid heritage which our fathers have left to us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Boom! A shudder ran through the atmosphere as he spoke the last words,
+and the double windows in Downing Street shook with the vibration. The
+members of the Cabinet started in their seats and looked at each other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+Was this the fulfilment of the half prophecy which the Prime Minister
+had spoken so slowly and so clearly in the silent, crowded House of
+Commons?</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the same moment the electric bell at the outer of the double
+doors rang. The doors were opened, and a messenger came in with a
+telegram which he handed to the Prime Minister, and then retired. He
+opened the envelope, and for nearly five minutes of intense suspense he
+mentally translated the familiar cypher, and then he said, as he handed
+the telegram to the Secretary for War:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, I deeply regret to say that the possible prospect which I
+outlined in the House to-night has become an accomplished fact. Two
+hundred and forty-three years ago London heard the sound of hostile
+guns. We have heard them to-night. This telegram is from Sheerness, and
+it tells, I most deeply regret to say, the same story, or something like
+it, as the messages from Portsmouth. A Russo-German-French fleet of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, assisted by four airships and an
+unknown number of submarines, has defeated the Southern portion of the
+North Sea Squadron, and is now proceeding in two divisions, one up the
+Medway towards Chatham, and the other up the Thames towards Tilbury.
+Garrison Fort is now being bombarded from the sea and the air, and will
+probably be in ruins within an hour."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A CRIME AND A MISTAKE</h3>
+
+<p>When the destruction of the forts and the sinking of the battleships at
+Portsmouth had been accomplished, John Castellan made about the greatest
+mistake in his life, a mistake which had very serious consequences for
+those to whom he had sold himself and his terrible invention.</p>
+
+<p>He and his brother Denis formed a very curious contrast, which is
+nevertheless not uncommon in Irish families. The British army and navy
+can boast no finer soldiers or sailors, and the Empire no more devoted
+servants than those who claim Ireland as the land of their birth, and
+Denis Castellan was one of these. As the reader may have guessed
+already, he and Erskine had only been on the <i>Cormorant</i> because it was
+the policy of the Naval Council to keep two of the ablest men in the
+service out of sight for a while. Denis, who had a remarkable gift of
+tongues, was really one of the most skilful naval <i>attach&eacute;s</i> in service,
+and what he didn't know about the naval affairs of Europe was hardly
+worth learning. Erskine had been recognised by the Naval Council which,
+under Sir John Fisher, had raised the British Navy to a pitch of
+efficiency that was the envy of every nation in the world, except Japan,
+as an engineer and inventor of quite extraordinary ability, and while
+the <i>Ithuriel</i> was building, they had given him the command of the
+<i>Cormorant</i>, chiefly because there was hardly anything to do, and
+therefore he had ample leisure to do his thinking.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand John Castellan was an unhappily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> brilliant example of
+that type of Keltic intellect which is incapable of believing the
+world-wide truism that the day of small states is passed. He had two
+articles of political faith. One was an unshakable belief in the
+possibility of Irish independence, and the other, which naturally
+followed from the first, was implacable hatred of the Saxon oppressor
+whose power and wealth had saved Ireland from invasion for centuries. He
+was utterly unable to grasp the Imperial idea, while his brother was as
+enthusiastic an Imperialist as ever sailed the seas.</p>
+
+<p>Had it not been for this blind hatred, the disaster which had befallen
+the Reserve Fleet would have been repeated at sea on a much vaster
+scale; but he allowed his passions to overcome his judgment, and so
+saved the Channel Fleet. There lay beneath him defenceless the greatest
+naval port of England, with its docks and dockyards, its barracks and
+arsenals, its garrisons of soldiers and sailors, and its crowds of
+workmen. The temptation was too strong for him, and he yielded to it.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>Prince George</i> had gone down he rose into the air, and ran
+over the Isle of Wight, signalling to the <i>See Adler</i>. The signals were
+answered, and the two airships met about two miles south-west of the
+Needles, and Castellan informed Captain Frenkel of his intention to
+destroy Portsmouth and Gosport. The German demurred strongly. He had no
+personal hatred to satisfy, and he suggested that it would be much
+better to go out to sea and discover the whereabouts of the Channel
+Fleet; but Castellan was Commander-in-Chief of the A&euml;rial Squadrons of
+the Allies, and so his word was law, and within the next two hours one
+of the greatest crimes in the history of civilised warfare was
+committed.</p>
+
+<p>The two airships circled slowly over Gosport and Portsmouth, dropping
+their torpedoes wherever a worthy mark presented itself. The first one
+discharged from the <i>Flying Fish</i> fell on the deck of the old <i>Victory</i>.
+The deck burst up, as though all the powder she had carried at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+Trafalgar had exploded beneath it, and the next moment she broke out in
+inextinguishable flames. The old <i>Resolution</i> met the same fate from the
+<i>See Adler</i>, and then the pitiless hail of destruction fell on the docks
+and jetties. In a few minutes the harbour was ringed with flame.
+Portsmouth Station, built almost entirely of wood, blazed up like
+matchwood; then came the turn of the dockyards at Portsea, which were
+soon ablaze from end to end.</p>
+
+<p>Then the two airships spread their wings like destroying angels over
+Portsmouth town. Half a dozen torpedoes wrecked the Town Hall and set
+the ruins on fire. This was the work of the <i>See Adler</i>. The <i>Flying
+Fish</i> devoted her attention to the naval and military barracks, the
+Naval College and the Gunnery School on Whale Island. As soon as these
+were reduced to burning ruins, the two airships scattered their
+torpedoes indiscriminately over churches, shops and houses, and in the
+streets crowded by terrified mobs of soldiers, sailors and civilians.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the torpedoes in the streets was too appalling for
+description. Everyone within ten or a dozen yards of the focus of the
+explosion was literally blown to atoms, and for fifty yards round every
+living creature dropped dead, killed either by the force of the
+concussion or the poisonous gases which were liberated by the explosion.
+Hundreds fell thus without the mark of a wound, and when some of their
+bodies were examined afterwards, it was found that their hearts were
+split open as cleanly as though they had been divided with a razor, just
+as are the hearts of fishes which have been killed with dynamite.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan and his lieutenant, M'Carthy, for the time being gloried
+in the work of destruction. Captain Frenkel was a soldier and a
+gentleman, and he saw nothing in it save wanton killing of defenceless
+people and a wicked waste of ammunition; but the terrible War Lord of
+Germany had given Castellan supreme command, and to disobey meant
+degradation, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>possibly death, and so the <i>See Adler</i> perforce took
+her share in the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>In a couple of hours Portsmouth, Gosport and Portsea had ceased to be
+towns. They were only areas of flaming ruins; but at last the ammunition
+gave out, and Castellan was compelled to signal the <i>See Adler</i> to shape
+her course for Bracklesham Bay in order to replenish the magazines. They
+reached the bay, and descended at the spot where the <i>Leger</i> ought to
+have been at anchor. She was not there, for the sufficient reason that
+the <i>Ithuriel's</i> ram had sent her to the bottom of the Channel.</p>
+
+<p>For half an hour the <i>Flying Fish</i> and the <i>See Adler</i> hunted over the
+narrow waters, but neither was the <i>Leger</i> nor any other craft to be
+seen between the Selsey coast and the Isle of Wight. When they came
+together again in Bracklesham Bay, John Castellan's rage against the
+hated Saxon had very considerably cooled. Evidently something serious
+had happened, and something that he knew nothing about, and now that the
+excitement of destruction had died away, he remembered more than one
+thing which he ought to have thought of before.</p>
+
+<p>The two rushes of the torpedo boats, supported by the swift cruisers,
+had not taken place. Not a hostile vessel had entered either Spithead or
+the Solent, and the British cruisers, which he had been ordered to
+spare, had got away untouched. It was perfectly evident that some
+disaster had befallen the expedition, and that the <i>Leger</i> had been
+involved in it. In spite of the terrible destruction that the <i>Flying
+Fish</i>, the <i>See Adler</i> and the <i>Banshee</i> had wrought on sea and land, it
+was plain that the first part of the invader's programme had been
+brought to nothing by some unknown agency.</p>
+
+<p>He was, of course, aware of the general plan of attack. He had destroyed
+the battleships of the Fleet Reserve. While he was doing that the
+destroyers should have been busy among the cruisers, and then the main
+force, under Admiral Durenne, would follow, and take possession of
+Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> detachment of cruisers
+and destroyers was then to be despatched to Littlehampton, and land a
+sufficient force to seize and hold the railway at Ford and Arundel, so
+that the coast line of the L.B.S.C.R., as well as the main line to
+Horsham and London, should be at the command of the invaders.</p>
+
+<p>Littlehampton was also particularly valuable on account of its tidal
+river and harbour, which would give shelter and protection to a couple
+of hundred torpedo boats and destroyers, and its wharves from which
+transports could easily coal. It is hardly worth while to add that it
+had been left entirely undefended. It had been proposed to mount a
+couple of 9.2 guns on the old fort on the west side of the river mouth,
+with half a dozen twelve-pound quick-firers at the Coast-Guard station
+on the east side to repel torpedo attack, but the War Office had laughed
+at the idea of an enemy getting within gunshot of the inviolate English
+shore, and so one of the most vulnerable points on the south coast had
+been left undefended.</p>
+
+<p>What would Castellan have given now for the torpedoes which the two
+ships had wasted in the wanton destruction of Portsmouth, and the murder
+of its helpless citizens. The main French Fleet by this time could not
+be very far off. Behind it, somewhere, was the British Channel Fleet,
+the most powerful sea force that had ever ridden the subject waves, and
+here he was without a torpedo on either of his ships, and no supplies
+nearer than Kiel. The <i>Leger</i> had carried two thousand torpedoes and
+five hundred cylinders of the gases which supplied the motive power. She
+was gone, and for all offensive purposes the <i>Flying Fish</i> and <i>See
+Adler</i> were as harmless as a couple of balloons.</p>
+
+<p>When it was too late, John Castellan remembered in the bitterness of his
+soul that the torpedoes which had destroyed Portsmouth would have been
+sufficient to have wrecked the Channel Fleet, and now there was nothing
+for it but to leave Admiral Durenne to fight his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> battle against the
+most powerful fleet in the world, and to use what was left of the motive
+power to get back to Kiel, and replenish their magazines.</p>
+
+<p>Horrible as had been the fate which had fallen on the great arsenal of
+southern England, it had not been sacrificed in vain, and very sick at
+heart was John Castellan when he gave the order for the two vessels,
+which a few hours ago had been such terrible engines of destruction, to
+rise into the air and wing their harmless flight towards Kiel.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>Flying Fish</i> and the <i>See Adler</i> took the air, and shipped
+their course eastward, the position of the opposing fleets was somewhat
+as follows: The cruisers of the A Squadron, <i>Amphitrite</i>, <i>Andromeda</i>,
+<i>Europa</i>, <i>Niobe</i>, <i>Blenheim</i> and <i>Blake</i>, with fifteen first-class
+torpedo boats and ten destroyers, had got out to sea from Spithead
+unharmed. All these cruisers were good for twenty knots, the torpedo
+boats for twenty-five, and the destroyers for thirty. The <i>Sutlej</i>,
+<i>Ariadne</i>, <i>Argonaut</i> and <i>Diadem</i> had got clear away from the Solent,
+with ten first-class torpedo boats and five destroyers. They met about
+four miles south-east of St Catherine's Point. Commodore Hoskins of the
+<i>Diadem</i> was the senior officer in command, and so he signalled for
+Captain Pennell, of the <i>Andromeda</i>, to come on board, and talk matters
+over with him, but before the conversation was half-way through, a black
+shape, with four funnels crowned with smoke and flame, came tearing up
+from the westward, made the private signal, and ran alongside the
+<i>Diadem</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The news that her commander brought was this&mdash;Admiral Lord Beresford had
+succeeded in eluding the notice of the French Channel Fleet, and was on
+his way up the south-west with the intention of getting behind Admiral
+Durenne's fleet, and crushing it between his own force to seaward and
+the batteries and Reserve Fleet on the landward side. The Commander of
+the destroyer was, of course, quite ignorant of the disaster which had
+befallen the battleships of the Reserve Fleet and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>Portsmouth, and when
+the captain of the cruiser told him the tidings, though he received the
+news with the almost fatalistic <i>sang froid</i> of the British naval
+officer, turned a shade or two paler under the bronze of his skin.</p>
+
+<p>"That is terrible news, sir," he said, "and it will probably alter the
+Admiral's plans considerably. I must be off as soon as possible, and let
+him know: meanwhile, of course, you will use your own judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the Commodore, "but I think you had better take one of
+our destroyers, say the <i>Greyhound</i>, back with you. She's got her
+bunkers full, and she can manage thirty-two knots in a sea like this."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the sentry knocked at the door of the Commodore's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Commodore Hoskins. The door opened, a sentry came in and
+saluted, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Ithuriel's</i> alongside, sir, and Captain Erskine will be glad to
+speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" exclaimed the Commodore, "the very thing. I wonder what that young
+devil has been up to. Send him in at once, sentry."</p>
+
+<p>The sentry retired, and presently Erskine entered the room, saluted, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to report, sir, I have sunk everything that tried to get in
+through Spithead. First division of three destroyers, the old <i>Leger</i>,
+the <i>Dupleix</i> cruiser, six destroyers of the second division, and three
+cruisers, the <i>Alger</i>, <i>Suchet</i> and <i>Davout</i>. They're all at the
+bottom."</p>
+
+<p>The Commodore stared for a moment or two at the man who so quietly
+described the terrific destruction that he had wrought with a single
+ship, and then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Erskine, we expected a good deal from that infernal craft of
+yours, but this is rather more than we could have hoped for. You've done
+splendidly. Now, what's your best speed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Forty-five knots, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!" exclaimed the Commander of the <i>Greyhound</i>. "You don't say
+so."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, yes," said Erskine with a smile. "You ought to have seen us walk
+over those destroyers. I hit them at full speed, and they crumpled up
+like paper boats."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the Commodore had sat down, and was writing his report as
+fast as he could get his pencil over the paper. It was a short, terse,
+but quite comprehensive account of the happenings of the last three
+hours, and a clear statement of the strength and position of the torpedo
+and cruiser squadron under his command. When he had finished, he put the
+paper into an envelope, and said to the Commander of the <i>Greyhound</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you are no good here, Hawkins. I shall have to give the
+message to Captain Erskine, he'll be there and back before you're there.
+Just give him the bearings of the Fleet and he'll be off at once. There
+you are, Erskine, give that to the Admiral, and bring me instructions
+back as soon as you can. You've just time for a whisky-and-soda, and
+then you must be off."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine took the letter, and they drank their whisky-and-soda. Then they
+went on deck. The <i>Ithuriel</i> was lying outside the <i>Greyhound</i>, half
+submerged&mdash;that is to say, with three feet of freeboard showing.
+Commander Hawkins looked at her with envious eyes. It is an article of
+faith with all good commanders of destroyers that their own craft is the
+fastest and most efficient of her class. At a pinch he could get
+thirty-two knots out of the <i>Greyhound</i>, and here was this quiet,
+determined-looking young man, who had created a vessel of his own, and
+had reached the rank of captain by sheer genius over the heads of men
+ten years older than himself, talking calmly of forty-five knots, and of
+the sinking of destroyers and cruisers, as though it was a mere matter
+of cracking egg-shells. Wherefore there was wrath in his soul when he
+went on board and gave the order to cast loose. Erskine went with him.
+They shook hands on the deck of the <i>Greyhound</i>, and Erskine went aboard
+of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, saying:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>"Well, Hawkins, I expect I shall meet you coming back."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm damned if I believe in your forty-five knots," replied Captain
+Hawkins, shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"Cast off, and come with me then," laughed Erskine, "you soon will."</p>
+
+<p>Inside three minutes the two craft were clear of the <i>Diadem</i>. Erskine
+gave the <i>Greyhound</i> right of way until they had cleared the squadron.
+The sea was smooth, and there was scarcely any wind, for it had been a
+wonderfully fine November. The <i>Greyhound</i> got on her thirty-two knots
+as soon as there was no danger of hitting anything.</p>
+
+<p>"That chap thinks he can race us," said Erskine to Lennard, as he got
+into the conning-tower, "and I'm just going to make him the maddest man
+in the British navy. He's doing thirty-two&mdash;we're doing twenty-five. Now
+that we're clear I'll wake him up." He took down the receiver and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Pump her out, Castellan, and give her full speed as soon as you can."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> rose in the water, and began to shudder from stem to
+stern with the vibrations of the engines, as they gradually worked up to
+their highest capacity. Commander Hawkins saw something coming up
+astern, half hidden by a cloud of spray and foam. It went past him as
+though he had been standing still instead of steaming at thirty-two
+knots. A few moments more and it was lost in the darkness.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EVE OF BATTLE</h3>
+
+<p>In twenty minutes the <i>Ithuriel</i> ran alongside the <i>Britain</i>, which was
+one of the five most formidable battleships in existence. For five years
+past a new policy had been pursued with regard to the navy. The
+flagships, which of course contained the controlling brains of the
+fleets, were the most powerful afloat. By the time war broke out five of
+them had been launched and armed, and the <i>Britain</i> was the newest and
+most powerful of them.</p>
+
+<p>Her displacement was twenty-two thousand tons, and her speed twenty-four
+knots. She was armoured from end to end with twelve-inch plates against
+which ordinary projectiles smashed as harmlessly as egg-shells. Twelve
+fourteen-inch thousand-pounder guns composed her primary battery; her
+secondary consisted of ten 9.2 guns, and her tertiary of twelve-pounder
+Maxim-Nordenfeldts in the fighting tops.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that Erskine had seen one of these giants of the
+ocean, and when they got alongside he said to Denis Castellan:</p>
+
+<p>"There's a fighting machine for you, Denis. Great Scott, what wouldn't I
+give to see her at work in the middle of a lot of Frenchmen and Germans,
+as the <i>Revenge</i> was among the Spaniards in Grenville's time. Just look
+at those guns."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Castellan, "she's a splendid ship, and those guns look as
+though they could talk French to the Frenchies and German to the
+Dutchmen and plain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> English to the lot in a way that wouldn't want much
+translating. And what's more, they have the right men behind them, and
+the best gun in the world isn't much good without that."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment they heard a shrill voice from the forecastle of the
+nearest destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Hulloa there, what's the matter?" came from the deck of the <i>Britain</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Four French destroyers coming up pretty fast from the south'ard, sir.
+Seem to be making for the flagship," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a job for us," said Erskine, who was standing on the narrow deck
+of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, waiting to go on board the <i>Britain</i>. "Commander,
+will you be good enough to deliver this to the Admiral? I must be off
+and settle those fellows before they do any mischief."</p>
+
+<p>The commander of the destroyer took the letter, Erskine dived below, a
+steel plate slid over the opening to the companion way, and when he got
+into the conning-tower he ordered full speed.</p>
+
+<p>Four long black shapes were stealing slowly towards the British centre,
+and no one knew better than he did that a single torpedo well under
+waterline would send Admiral Beresford's floating fortress to the bottom
+inside ten minutes, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.</p>
+
+<p>A quartermaster ran down the ladder and caught the letter from the
+commander just as the <i>Ithuriel</i> moved off.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the Admiral, with Captain Erskine's compliments, that he'll be
+back in a few minutes, when he's settled those fellows."</p>
+
+<p>The quartermaster took the letter, and by the time he got to the top of
+the ladder, the <i>Ithuriel</i> was flying through a cloud of foam and spray
+towards the first of the destroyers. He heard a rattle of guns, and then
+the destroyer vanished. The <i>Ithuriel</i> swung round, hit the next one in
+the bows, ground her under the water, turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> almost at right angles,
+smashed the stern of the third one into scrap iron, hit the fourth one
+abreast of the conning-tower, crushed her down and rolled her over, and
+then slowed down and ran back to the flagship at twenty knots.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Quartermaster Maginniss, who for the last few minutes had
+been held spellbound at the top of the ladder, in spite of the claims of
+discipline, "of all the sea-devils of crafts that I've ever heard of, I
+should say that was the worst. Four destroyers gone in five minutes, and
+here he is coming back before I've delivered the letter. If we only have
+a good square fight now, I'll be sorry for the Frenchies."</p>
+
+<p>The next moment he stiffened up and saluted. "A letter for you, Admiral,
+left by Captain Erskine before he went away to destroy those
+destroyers."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've been watching the destruction instead of delivering the
+letter," laughed Lord Beresford, as he took it from him. "Well, I'll let
+you off this time. When Captain Erskine comes alongside, ask him to see
+me in my room at once."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> ran alongside even as he was speaking. The gangway was
+manned, and when he reached the deck, Admiral Beresford held out his
+hand, and said with a laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Captain Erskine, I understood that you were bringing me a message
+from Commodore Hoskins, but you seem to have had better game to fly
+for."</p>
+
+<p>"My fault, sir," said Erskine, "but I hope you won't court-martial me
+for it. You see, there were four French destroyers creeping round, and
+mine was the only ship that could tackle them, so I thought I'd better
+go and do it before they did any mischief. Anyhow, they're all at the
+bottom now."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I should have much case if I court-martialled you for
+that, Captain Erskine," laughed the Admiral, "especially after what
+you've done already, according to Commodore Hoskins' note. That must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+a perfect devil of a craft of yours. Can you sink anything with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything, sir," replied Erskine. "This is the most powerful fighting
+ship in the world, but I could put you at the bottom of the Channel in
+ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord save us! It's a good job you're on our side."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's a very great pity," said Erskine, "that the airships are not
+with us too. I had a very narrow squeak in Spithead about three hours
+ago from one of their a&euml;rial torpedoes. It struck part of a destroyer
+that I'd just sunk, and although it was nearly fifty yards away, it
+shook me up considerably."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any idea of the whereabouts and formation of the French Fleet?
+I must confess that I haven't. These infernal airships have upset all
+the plans for catching Durenne between the Channel Fleet and the
+Reserve, backed up by the Portsmouth guns, so that we could jump out and
+catch him between the fleet and the forts. Now I suppose it will have to
+be a Fleet action at sea."</p>
+
+<p>"If you care to leave your ship for an hour, sir," replied Erskine, "I
+will take you round the French fleet and you shall see everything for
+yourself. We may have to knock a few holes in something, if it gets in
+our way, but I think I can guarantee that you shall be back on the
+<i>Britain</i> by the time you want to begin the action."</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely irregular," said Lord Beresford, stroking his chin, and
+trying to look serious, while his eyes were dancing with anticipation.
+"An admiral to leave his flagship on the eve of an engagement! Well,
+never mind, Courtney's a very good fellow, and knows just as much about
+the ship as I do, and he's got all sailing orders. I'll come. He's on
+the bridge now, I'll go and tell him."</p>
+
+<p>The Admiral ran up on to the bridge, gave Captain Courtney Commodore
+Hoskins' letter, added a few directions, one of which was to keep on a
+full head of steam on all the ships, and look out for signals, and five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+minutes later he had been introduced to Lennard, and was standing beside
+him in the conning-tower of the <i>Ithuriel</i> listening to Erskine, as he
+said into the telephone receiver:</p>
+
+<p>"Sink her to three feet, Castellan, and then ahead full speed."</p>
+
+<p>The pumps worked furiously for a few minutes, and the <i>Ithuriel</i> sank
+until only three feet of her bulk appeared above the water. Then the
+Admiral felt the floor of the conning-tower shudder and tremble under
+his feet. He looked out of the side porthole on the starboard bow, and
+saw his own fleet dropping away into the distance and the darkness of
+the November night. The water ahead curled up into two huge swathes,
+which broke into foam and spray, which lashed hissing along the almost
+submerged decks.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a pretty turn of speed on her, I must say, Captain Erskine,"
+said the Admiral, after he had taken a long squint through the
+semicircular window. "I'm sorry we haven't got a score of craft like
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"And we should have had, your lordship," replied Erskine, "if the
+Council had only taken the opinion that you gave after you saw the
+plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd have a hundred like her," laughed the Admiral, "only you see
+there's the Treasury, and behind that the most noble House of Commons,
+elected mostly by the least educated and most short-sighted people in
+the nation, who scarcely know a torpedo from a common shell, and we
+should never have got them. We had hard enough work to get this one as
+an experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you, sir," said Erskine, "and I think Lennard will
+too. There has never been an instance in history in which democracy did
+not spell degeneration. It's a pity, but I suppose it's inevitable. As
+far as my reading has taken me, it seems to be the dry-rot of nations.
+Halloa, what's that? Torpedo gunboat, I think! Ah, there's the moon.
+Now, sir, if you'll just come and stand to the right here, for'ard of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+the wheel, I'll put the <i>Ithuriel</i> through her paces, and show you what
+she can do."</p>
+
+<p>A long grey shape, with two masts and three funnels between them, loomed
+up out of the darkness into a bright patch of moonlight. Erskine took
+the receiver from the hooks and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by there, Castellan. Forward guns fire when I give the word&mdash;then
+I shall ram."</p>
+
+<p>The Admiral saw the three strangely shaped guns rise from the deck,
+their muzzles converging on the gunboat. He expected a report, but none
+came; only a gentle hiss, scarcely audible in the conning-tower. Then
+three brilliant flashes of flame burst out just under the Frenchman's
+topworks. Erskine, with one hand on the steering-wheel, and the other
+holding the receiver, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well aimed&mdash;now full speed. I'm going over him."</p>
+
+<p>"Over him!" echoed the Admiral. "Don't you ram under the waterline?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it's the case of a big ship, sir," replied Erskine, "we sink and hit
+him where it hurts most, but it isn't worth while with these small
+craft. You will see what I mean in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke a shudder ran through the <i>Ithuriel</i>. The deck began to
+quiver under the Admiral's feet; the ram rose six feet out of the water.
+The shape of the gunboat seemed to rush towards them; the ram hit it
+squarely amidships; then came a shock, a grinding scrape, screams of
+fear from the terrified sailors, a final crunch, and the gunboat was
+sinking fifty yards astern.</p>
+
+<p>"That's awful," said the Admiral, with a perceptible shake in his voice.
+"What speed did you hit her at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Forty-five knots," replied Erskine, giving a quarter turn to the wheel,
+and almost immediately bringing a long line of battleships, armoured
+cruisers, protected cruisers and destroyers into view.</p>
+
+<p>The French Channel Fleet was composed of the most powerful ships in the
+navy of the Republic. The two portions from Brest and Cherbourg had now
+united their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> forces. The French authorities had at last learned the
+supreme value of homogeneity. The centre was composed of six ships of
+the <i>Republique</i> class, all identical in size, armour and armament, as
+well as speed. They were the <i>Republique</i>, <i>Patrie</i> flagship, <i>Justice</i>,
+<i>Democratie</i>, <i>Liberte</i> and <i>Verite</i>. They were all of fifteen thousand
+tons and eighteen knots. To these was added the <i>Suffren</i>, also of
+eighteen knots, but only twelve thousand seven hundred tons: she had
+come from Brest with a flotilla of torpedo boats.</p>
+
+<p>There were six armoured cruisers, <i>Jules Ferry</i>, <i>Leon Gambetta</i>,
+<i>Victor Hugo</i>, <i>Jeanne d'Arc</i>, <i>Aube</i> and <i>Marseillaise</i>. These were all
+heavily armed and armoured vessels, all of them capable of
+man&oelig;uvering at a speed of over twenty knots. A dozen smaller
+protected and unprotected cruisers hung on each flank, and a score of
+destroyers and torpedo boats lurked in between the big ships.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> ran quietly along the curving line of battleships and
+cruisers, turned and came back again without exciting the slightest
+suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine would have dearly loved to sink a battleship or one or two
+cruisers, just to show his lordship how it was done, but the Admiral
+forbade this, as he wanted to get the Frenchmen, who still thought they
+were going to easy victory, entangled in the shallows of the narrow
+waters, and therefore with the exception of rolling over and sinking
+three submarines which happened to get in the way, no damage was done.</p>
+
+<p>The British Channel Fleet, even not counting the assistance of the
+terrible <i>Ithuriel</i>, was the most powerful squadron that had ever put to
+sea under a single command. The main line of battle consisted of the
+flagship <i>Britain</i>, and seven ships of the <i>King Edward</i> class, <i>King
+Edward the Seventh</i>, <i>Dominion</i>, <i>Commonwealth</i>, <i>Hindustan</i>, <i>New
+Zealand</i>, <i>Canada</i> and <i>Newfoundland</i>; all over sixteen thousand tons,
+and of nineteen knots speed. With the exception of the giant flagships,
+of which there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> were five in existence&mdash;the <i>Britain</i>, <i>England</i>,
+<i>Ireland</i>, <i>Scotland</i> and <i>Wales</i>&mdash;and two nineteen thousand ton
+monsters which had just been completed for Japan, these were the fastest
+and most heavily-armed battleships afloat.</p>
+
+<p>The second line was composed of the armoured cruisers, <i>Duke of
+Edinburgh</i>, <i>Black Prince</i>, <i>Henry the Fourth</i>, <i>Warwick</i>, <i>Edward the
+Third</i>, <i>Cromwell</i>, all of over thirteen thousand tons, and twenty-two
+knots speed; the <i>Drake</i>, <i>King Alfred</i>, <i>Leviathan</i> and <i>Good Hope</i>, of
+over fourteen thousand tons and twenty-four knots speed; and the
+reconstructed <i>Powerful</i>, and <i>Terrible</i>, of fourteen thousand tons and
+twenty-two knots. There was, of course, the usual swarm of destroyers
+and torpedo boats; and in addition must be counted the ten cruisers, ten
+destroyers, and fifteen torpedo boats, which had escaped from Spithead
+and the Solent. These had already formed a junction with the left wing
+of the British force.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly two hours the two great fleets slowly approached each other
+almost at a right angle. As the grey dawn of the November morning began
+to steal over the calm blue-grey water, they came in plain sight of each
+other, and at once the signal flew from the foreyard of the <i>Britain</i>,
+"Prepare for action&mdash;battleships will cross front column of line
+ahead&mdash;cruisers will engage cruisers individually at discretion of
+Commanders&mdash;destroyers will do their worst."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STRIFE OF GIANTS</h3>
+
+<p>As it happened, it was a fine, cold wintry day that dawned as the two
+great fleets drew towards each other. As Denis Castellan said, "It was a
+perfect jewel of a day for a holy fight," and so it was. The French
+fleet was advancing at twelve knots. Admiral Beresford made his fifteen,
+and led the line in the <i>Britain</i>. Erskine had been ordered to go to the
+rear of the French line and sink any destroyer or torpedo boat that he
+could get hold of, but to let the battleships and cruisers alone, unless
+he saw a British warship hard pressed, in which case he was to ram and
+sink the enemy if he could.</p>
+
+<p>One division of cruisers, consisting of the fastest and most powerful
+armoured vessels, was to make a half-circle two miles in the rear of the
+French Fleet. The ships selected for this service were the <i>Duke of
+Edinburgh</i>, <i>Warwick</i>, <i>Edward III.</i>, <i>Cromwell</i> and <i>King Alfred</i>.
+Outside them, two miles again to the rear, the <i>Leviathan</i>, <i>Good Hope</i>,
+<i>Powerful</i> and <i>Terrible</i>, the fastest ships in the Fleet, were to take
+their station to keep off stragglers.</p>
+
+<p>For the benefit of the non-nautical reader, it will be as well to
+explain here the two principal formations in which modern fleets go into
+action. As a matter of fact, they are identical with the tactics
+employed by the French and Spanish on the one side and Nelson on the
+other during the Napoleonic wars. Before Nelson's time, it was the
+custom for two hostile fleets to engage each other in column of line
+abreast, which means that both fleets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> formed a double line which
+approached each other within gunshot, and then opened fire.</p>
+
+<p>At Trafalgar, Nelson altered these tactics completely, with results that
+everybody knows. The allied French and Spanish fleets came up in a
+crescent, just in the same formation as Admiral Durenne was advancing on
+Portsmouth. Nelson took his ships into action in column of line ahead,
+in other words, in single file, the head of the column aiming for the
+centre of the enemy's battle line.</p>
+
+<p>The main advantage of this was, first, that it upset the enemy's
+combination, and, secondly, that each ship could engage two, since she
+could work both broadsides at once, whereas the enemy could only work
+one broadside against one ship. These were the tactics which, with
+certain modifications made necessary by the increased mobility on both
+sides, Lord Beresford adopted.</p>
+
+<p>With one exception, no foreigner had ever seen the new class of British
+flagship, and that exception, as we know, was safely locked up on board
+the <i>Ithuriel</i>, and his reports were even now being carefully considered
+by the Naval Council.</p>
+
+<p>There are no braver men on land and sea than the officers and crews of
+the French Navy, but when the giant bulk of the <i>Britain</i> loomed up out
+of the westward in the growing light, gradually gathering way with her
+stately train of nineteen-knot battleships behind her, and swept down in
+front of the French line, many a heart stood still for the moment, and
+many a man asked himself what the possibilities of such a Colossus of
+the ocean might be.</p>
+
+<p>They had not long to wait. As the British battleships came on from the
+left with ever-increasing speed, the whole French line burst into a
+tornado of thunder and flame, but not a shot was fired from the English
+lines. Shells hurtled and screamed through the air, topworks were
+smashed into scrap-iron, funnels riddled, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> military masts
+demolished; but until the <i>Britain</i> reached the centre of the French
+line not a British gun spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Then the giant swung suddenly to starboard, and headed for the space
+between the <i>Patrie</i> and the <i>Republique</i>. The <i>Canada</i>, <i>Newfoundland</i>,
+<i>New Zealand</i> and <i>Hindustan</i> put on speed, passed under her stern, and
+headed in between the <i>Suffren</i>, <i>Liberte</i>, <i>Verite</i> and <i>Patrie</i>, while
+the <i>Edward VII.</i>, <i>Dominion</i> and <i>Commonwealth</i> turned between the
+<i>Justice</i>, <i>Democratie</i>, the <i>Aube</i> and <i>Marseillaise</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Within a thousand yards the British battleships opened fire. The first
+gun from the <i>Britain</i> was a signal which turned them all into so many
+floating volcanoes. The <i>Britain</i> herself ran between the <i>Patrie</i> and
+the <i>Republique</i>, vomiting storms of shell, first ahead, then on the
+broadside and then astern. Her topworks were of course crumpled out of
+all shape&mdash;that was expected, for the range was now only about five
+hundred yards&mdash;but the incessant storm of thousand-pound shells from the
+fourteen-inch guns, followed by an unceasing hail of three hundred and
+fifty pound projectiles from the 9.2 quick-firers, reduced the two
+French battleships to little better than wrecks. The <i>Britain</i> steamed
+through and turned, and again the awful hurricane burst out from her
+sides and bow and stern. She swung round again, but now only a few
+dropping shots greeted her from the crippled Frenchmen.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think those chaps have much more fight left in them," said the
+Admiral to the Captain as they passed through the line for the third
+time. "We'll just give them one more dose, and then see how the other
+fellows are getting on."</p>
+
+<p>Once more the monster swept in between the doomed ships; once more her
+terrible artillery roared. Two torpedo boats, five hundred yards ahead,
+were rushing towards her. A grey shape rose out of the water, flinging
+up clouds of spray and foam, and in a moment they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> ground down into
+the water and sunk. The hastily-fired torpedoes diverged and struck the
+two French battleships instead of the <i>Britain</i>. Two mountains of foam
+rose up under their sterns, their bows went down and rose again, and
+with a sternward lurch they slid down into the depths.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Britain</i> swung round to port, and poured a broadside into the
+<i>Liberte</i>, which had just crippled the <i>Hindustan</i>, and sunk her with a
+torpedo. The <i>New Zealand</i> was evidently in difficulties between the
+<i>Liberte</i> and the <i>Verite</i>. Her upper works were a mass of ruins, but
+she was still blazing away merrily with her primary battery. The Admiral
+slowed down to ten knots, and got between the two French battleships;
+then her big guns began to vomit destruction again, and in five minutes
+the two French battleships, caught in the triangular fire and terribly
+mauled, hauled their flags down, and so Lord Beresford's scheme was
+accomplished. The <i>Dominion</i> and <i>Edward VII.</i> had got between their
+ships at the expense of a severe handling, and were giving a very good
+account of them, and the <i>Canada</i> had sunk the <i>Suffren</i> with a lucky
+shell which exploded in her forward torpedo room and blew her side out.</p>
+
+<p>It was broad daylight by this time, and it was perfectly plain, both to
+friend and foe, that the French centre could no longer be counted upon
+as a fighting force. One of the circumstances which came home hardest
+afterwards to the survivors of the French force was the fact that, as
+far as they knew, not a single British battleship or cruiser had been
+struck by a French destroyer or torpedo boat. The reason for this was
+the very simple fact that Erskine had taken these craft under his
+charge, and, while the big ships had been thundering away at each other,
+he had devoted himself to the congenial sport of smashing up the smaller
+fry. He sent the <i>Ithuriel</i> flying hither and thither at full speed,
+tearing them into scrap-iron and sending them to the bottom, as if they
+had been so many penny steamers. He could have sent the battleships to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+the bottom with equal ease, but orders were orders, and he respected
+them until his chance came.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Verite</i> was now the least injured of the French battleships. To
+look at she was merely a floating mass of ruins, but her engines were
+intact, and her primary battery as good as ever. Her captain, like the
+hero that he was, determined to risk his ship and everything in her in
+the hope of destroying the monster which had wrought such frightful
+havoc along the line. She carried two twelve-inch guns ahead, a 6.4 on
+each side of the barbette, and four pairs of 6.4 guns behind these, and
+the fire of all of them was concentrated ahead.</p>
+
+<p>As the <i>Britain</i> came round for the third time every one of the guns was
+laid upon her. He called to the engine-room for the utmost speed he
+could have, and at nineteen knots he bore down upon the leviathan. The
+huge guns on the <i>Britain</i> swung round, and a tempest of shells swept
+the <i>Verite</i> from end to end. Her armour was gashed and torn as though
+it had been cardboard instead of six-and eleven-inch steel; but still
+she held on her course. At five hundred yards her guns spoke, and the
+splinters began to fly on board the <i>Britain</i>. The Captain of the
+<i>Verite</i> signalled for the last ounce of steam he could have&mdash;he was
+going to appeal to the last resort in naval warfare&mdash;the ram. If he
+could once get that steel spur of his into the <i>Britain's</i> hull under
+her armour, she would go down as certainly as though she had been a
+first-class cruiser.</p>
+
+<p>When the approaching vessels were a little more than five hundred yards
+apart, the <i>Ithuriel</i>, who had settled up with all the destroyers and
+torpedo boats she could find, rose to the north of the now broken French
+line. Erskine took in the situation at a glance. He snatched the
+receiver from the hooks, shouted into it:</p>
+
+<p>"Sink&mdash;full speed&mdash;ram!"</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> dived and sprang forward, and when the ram of the
+<i>Verite</i> was within a hundred yards of the side of the <i>Britain</i> his own
+ram smashed through her stern, cracked both the propeller shafts, and
+tore away her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> rudder as if it had been a piece of paper. She stopped
+and yawed, broadside on to the <i>Britain</i>. The chases of the great guns
+swung round in ominous threatening silence, but before they could be
+fired the Tricolor fluttered down from the flagstaff, and the <i>Verite</i>,
+helpless for all fighting purposes, had surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the turn of the big armoured cruisers. They were practically
+untouched, for the heaviest of the fighting had fallen on the
+battleships. A green rocket went up from the deck of the <i>Britain</i>, and
+was followed in about ten seconds by a blue one. The inner line of
+cruisers made a quarter turn to port, and began hammering into the
+crippled battleships and cruisers indiscriminately, while the
+<i>Leviathan</i>, <i>Good Hope</i>, <i>Powerful</i> and <i>Terrible</i> took stations
+between the Isle of Wight and the Sussex coast.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> rose to her three-foot freeboard, and put in some very
+pretty practice with her pneumatic guns on the topworks of the cruisers.
+The six-funnelled <i>Jeanne d'Arc</i> got tired of this, and made a rush at
+her at her full speed of twenty-three knots, with the result that the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> disappeared, and three minutes afterwards there came a shock
+under the great cruiser's stern which sent a shudder through her whole
+fabric. The engines whirled furiously until they stopped, and a couple
+of minutes later her captain recognised that she could neither steam nor
+steer. Meanwhile, the tide was setting strongly in towards Spithead, and
+the disabled ships were drifting with it, either to capture or
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The French centre had now, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
+Four out of six battleships were sunk, and one had surrendered, and the
+<i>Jeanne d'Arc</i> had gone down.</p>
+
+<p>On the British side the <i>Hindustan</i> had been sunk, and the <i>Dominion</i>,
+<i>Commonwealth</i> and <i>Newfoundland</i> very badly mauled, so badly indeed
+that it was a matter of dry-dock as quickly as possible for them. All
+the other battleships, including even the <i>Britain</i> herself, were
+little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> better than wrecks to look at, so terrible had been the
+firestorms through which they had passed.</p>
+
+<p>But for the presence of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, the British loss would of course
+have been much greater. It is not too much to say that her achievements
+spread terror and panic among the French torpedo flotilla. Under
+ordinary circumstances they would have taken advantage of the confusion
+of the battleship action to attack the line of armoured cruisers behind,
+but between the two lines there was the ever-present destroying angel,
+as they came to call her, with her silent deadly guns, her unparalleled
+speed, and her terrible ram. No sooner did a destroyer or torpedo boat
+attempt to make for a cruiser, than a shell came hissing along the
+water, and blew the middle out of her, or the ram crashed through her
+sides, and sent her in two pieces to the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that when the last French cruiser had hauled down her
+flag, Admiral Beresford found himself in command of a fleet which was
+still in being. Of the French battleships the <i>Justice</i> and the
+<i>Democratie</i> were still serviceable, and of the cruisers, the <i>Jules
+Ferry</i>, <i>Leon Gambetta</i>, <i>Victor Hugo</i>, <i>Aube</i> and <i>Marseillaise</i> were
+still in excellent fighting trim, although of course they were in no
+position to continue the struggle against the now overwhelming force of
+British battleships and armoured cruisers. This was what Admiral
+Beresford had fought for: to break the centre and put as many
+battleships as possible out of action. His orders had been to spare the
+cruisers as much as possible, because, he said, with a somewhat grim
+laugh, they might be useful later on.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of their escaping to sea through the double line of British
+cruisers, to say nothing of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, with her speed of over fifty
+miles an hour, and her ability to ram them in detail before they were
+halfway across the Channel, was entirely out of the question. To have
+attempted such a thing would have been simply a form of collective
+suicide, so the flags were hauled down, and all that was left of the
+fleet surrendered.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><p>Another circumstance which had placed the French fleet at a tremendous
+disadvantage was the absence of the three <i>Flying Fishes</i>, which were to
+have co-operated with the invading fleet, but of course neither Admiral
+Durenne, who had gone down with his ship, nor any other of his officers
+knew that the <i>Banshee</i> had been blown up in mid-air, or that the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> had destroyed the d&eacute;p&ocirc;t ship, and so forced Castellan, after
+his mad waste of ammunition in the destruction of Portsmouth, to wing
+his way to Kiel, with the <i>See Adler</i>, in order to replenish his
+magazines. Had those two amphibious craft been present at the battle,
+the issue might have been something very different.</p>
+
+<p>The whole fight had only taken a couple of hours from the firing of the
+first shot to the hauling down of the last flag. Admiral Beresford made
+direct for Portsmouth to get his lame ducks into dock if possible, and
+to discover the amount of damage done. As they steamed in through the
+Spithead Forts, flags went up all along the northern shore of the Isle
+of Wight, and the guns on the Spithead Forts and Fort Monckton, which
+the <i>Banshee</i> had been commissioned to destroy, roared out a salute of
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>The signal masts of the sunk battleships showed where their shattered
+hulls were lying, and as the <i>Britain</i> led the way in between them, Lord
+Beresford rubbed his hands across his eyes, and said to his Commodore,
+who was standing on what was left of the navigating bridge:</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellows, it was hardly fair fighting. We might have had something
+very like those infernal craft if we'd had men of decent brains at the
+War Office. Same old story&mdash;anything new must be wrong in Pall Mall.
+Still we've got something of our own back this morning. I hope we shall
+be able to use some of the docks; if I'm not afraid our lame ducks will
+have to crawl round to Devonport as best they can. The man in command of
+those airships must have been a perfect devil to destroy a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> defenceless
+town in this fashion. The worst of it is that if they can do this sort
+of thing here they can do it just as easily to London or Liverpool, or
+Manchester or any other city. I hope there won't be any more bad news
+when we get ashore."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH</h3>
+
+<p>All the ships able to take their place in the fighting-line were left
+outside. The French prisoners were disembarked and their places taken by
+drafts from the British warships, who at once set about making such
+repairs as were possible at sea. Admiral Beresford boarded the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>, which, until the next fight, he proposed to use as a
+despatch-boat, and ran up the harbour.</p>
+
+<p>He found every jetty, including the North and South Railway piers, mere
+masses of smoking ruins: but the Ordnance D&eacute;p&ocirc;t on Priddy's Hard had
+somehow escaped, probably through the ignorance of the assailants. He
+landed at Sheer Jetty opposite Coaling Point, and before he was half-way
+up the steps a short, rather stout man, in the undress uniform of a
+General of Division, ran down and caught him by the hand. After him came
+a taller, slimmer man with eyes like gimlets and a skin wrinkled and
+tanned like Russian leather.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the two men was General Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief
+at Aldershot, and the second was General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander of
+the Southern Military District.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo, Beresford!" said General French, quietly. "Scooped the lot,
+didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"All that aren't at the bottom of the Channel. Good-morning, Hamilton.
+I've heard that you're in a pretty bad way with your forts here,"
+replied the Admiral. "By the way, how are the docks? I've got a few lame
+ducks that want looking after badly."</p>
+
+<p>"We've just been having a look round," replied General<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Hamilton. "The
+town's in an awful state, as you can see. The Naval and Military
+barracks, and the Naval School are wrecked, and we haven't been able to
+save very much from the yards, but I don't think the docks are hurt
+much. The sweeps went more for the buildings. We can find room for half
+a dozen, I think, comfortably."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just about what I want," said the Admiral. "We've lost the
+<i>Hindustan</i> and <i>New Zealand</i>. The <i>Canada</i> and <i>Newfoundland</i> are
+pretty badly mauled, and I've got half a dozen Frenchmen that would be
+all the better for a look over. The <i>Britain</i>, <i>Edward VII.</i>, <i>Dominion</i>
+and <i>Commonwealth</i> are quite seaworthy, although, as you see, they've
+had it pretty hot in their topworks. The cruiser squadron is practically
+untouched. We've got the <i>Verite</i>, <i>Justice</i> and <i>Democratie</i>, but the
+<i>Verite</i> has got her propellers and rudders smashed. By the way, that
+ship of Erskine's, the <i>Ithuriel</i>, has turned out a perfect demon. She
+smashed up the first attack, sank nine destroyers and two cruisers, one
+of them was that big chap the <i>Dupleix</i>, before we came on the scene.
+During the action she wiped out I don't know how many destroyers and
+torpedo boats, sank the <i>Jeanne d'Arc</i> and saved my ship from being
+rammed by crippling the <i>Verite</i> just in the nick of time. If we only
+had a squadron of those boats and made Erskine Commodore, we'd wipe the
+fleets of Europe out in a month. Now that's my news. What's yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bad enough," replied General French. "A powerful combined fleet of
+Germans and French, helped by some of these infernal things that seem as
+much at home in the air as they are in the water, are making a combined
+attack on Dover, and we seem to be getting decidedly the worst of it.
+Dover Castle is in flames, and nearly all the forts are in a bad way; so
+are the harbour fortifications. The Russians and Dutch are approaching
+London with a string of transports behind them, and four airships above
+them. Their objectives are supposed to be Tilbury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> and Woolwich on one
+hand, and Chatham on the other. By the way, weren't there any transports
+behind this French Fleet that you've settled up with?"</p>
+
+<p>He had scarcely uttered the last word when a helio began to twinkle from
+the hill above Foreland.</p>
+
+<p>"That's bad news," said the Admiral, "but wait now, there's something
+else. It's a good job the sun's come out, though it doesn't look very
+healthy."</p>
+
+<p>The message that the helio twinkled out was as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Thirty large vessels, apparently transports, approaching from
+direction of Cherbourg and Brest about ten miles south-east by
+south."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Very good," said the Admiral, rubbing his hands. "Of course they think
+we're beaten. I've got five French cruisers that they'll recognise. I'll
+get crews aboard them at once and convoy those transports in, and the
+Commanders will be about the most disgusted men in Europe when they get
+here."</p>
+
+<p>Acting on the principle that all is fair in love and war, Admiral
+Beresford and the two Generals laid as pretty a trap for the French
+transports as the wit of man ever devised. Ten minutes' conversation
+among them sufficed to arrange matters. Then the Admiral, taking a list
+of the serviceable docks with him, went back on board the <i>Ithuriel</i> and
+ran out to the Fleet. He handed over the work of taking care of the lame
+ducks to Commodore Courtney of the <i>Britain</i>; then from the damaged
+British ships he made up the crews of the French cruisers, the <i>Jules
+Ferry</i>, <i>Leon Gambetta</i>, <i>Victor Hugo</i>, <i>Aube</i> and <i>Marseillaise</i>. He
+took command of the squadron on board the <i>Victor Hugo</i>, and to the
+amazement of officers and men alike, he ordered the Tricolor to be
+hoisted. At the same time, the White Ensign fluttered down from all the
+British ships that were not being taken into the dockyard and was
+replaced by the Tricolor. A few minutes afterward the French flag rose
+over Fort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> Monckton and upon a pole mast which had been put up amidst
+the ruins of Southsea Castle.</p>
+
+<p>The French prisoners of course saw the ruse and knew that its very
+daring and impudence would command success. Some of them wrung their
+hands and danced in fury, others wept, and others cursed to the full
+capability of the French language, but there was no help for it. What
+was left of Portsmouth was already occupied by twenty thousand men of
+all arms from the Southern Division. The prisoners were disarmed and
+their ships were in the hands of the enemy to do what they pleased with,
+and so in helpless rage they watched the squadron of cruisers steam out
+to meet the transports, flying the French flag and manned by British
+crews. It meant either the most appalling carnage, or the capture of the
+First French Expeditionary Force consisting of fifty thousand men, ten
+thousand horses, and two hundred guns.</p>
+
+<p>The daringly original stratagem was made all the easier of achievement
+by the fact that the Commanders of the French transports, counting upon
+the assistance of the airships and the enormous strength of the naval
+force which had been launched against Portsmouth, had taken victory for
+granted, and when the first line came in sight of land, and officers and
+men saw the smoke-cloud that was still hanging over what twenty-four
+hours before had been the greatest of British strongholds, cheer after
+cheer went up. Portsmouth was destroyed and therefore the French Fleet
+must have been victorious. All that they had to do, therefore, was to
+steam in and take possession of what was left. At last, after all these
+centuries, the invasion of England had been accomplished, and Waterloo
+and Trafalgar avenged!</p>
+
+<p>Happily, in the turmoil of the fight and the suddenness in which the
+remains of the French Fleet had been forced to surrender, the captain of
+the <i>Victor Hugo</i> had forgotten to sink his Code Book. The result was
+that when the cruiser squadron steamed out in two divisions to meet the
+transports, the French private signal, "Complete victory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>&mdash;welcome,"
+was flying from the signalyard of the <i>Victor Hugo</i>. Again a mighty
+cheer thundered out from the deck of every transport. The cruisers
+saluted the transports with seventeen guns, and then the two divisions
+swung out to right and left, and took their stations on either flank of
+the transports.</p>
+
+<p>And so, all unsuspecting, they steamed into Spithead, and when they saw
+the British ships lying at anchor, flying the Tricolor and the same flag
+waving over Fort Monckton and Southsea Castle, as well as from half a
+dozen other flagstaffs about the dockyards, there could be no doubt as
+to the magnitude and completeness of the victory which the French Fleet
+had gained, and moreover, were not those masts showing above the waters
+of Spithead, the masts of sunken British battleships.</p>
+
+<p>Field-Marshal Purdin de Trevillion, Commander of the Expeditionary
+Force, accompanied by his staff, was on board the Messageries liner
+<i>Australien</i>, and led the column of transports. In perfect confidence he
+led the way in between the Spithead Forts, which also flew the Tricolor
+and saluted him as he went past. As the other vessels of the great
+flotilla followed in close order, Fort Monckton and the rest of the
+warships saluted; and then as the last transport entered the narrow
+waters, a very strange thing happened. The cruisers that had dropped
+behind spread themselves out in a long line behind the forts; the
+British ships slipped their moorings and steamed out from Stokes Bay and
+made a line across to Ryde. Destroyers and torpedo boats suddenly dotted
+the water with their black shapes, appearing as though from nowhere;
+then came down every Tricolor on fort and ship, and the White Ensign ran
+up in its place, and the same moment, the menacing guns swung round and
+there was the French flotilla, unarmed and crowded with men, caught like
+a flock of sheep between two packs of wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Every transport stopped as if by common instinct. The French Marshal
+turned white to the lips. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> hands went up in a gesture of despair,
+and he gasped to his second-in-command, who was standing beside him:</p>
+
+<p>"Mon Dieu! Nous sommes trahis! Ces sacr&eacute;s perfides Anglais! We are
+helpless, like rats in a trap. With us it is finished, we can neither
+fight nor escape."</p>
+
+<p>While he was speaking, the huge bulk of the <i>Britain</i> steamed slowly
+towards the <i>Australien</i>, flying the signal "Do you surrender?" Within
+five hundred yards, the huge guns in her forward barbette swung round
+and the muzzles sank until the long chases pointed at the <i>Australien's</i>
+waterline. The Field-Marshal knew full well that it only needed the
+touch of a finger on a button to smash the <i>Australien</i> into fragments,
+and he knew too that the first shot from the flagship would be the
+signal for the whole Fleet to open fire, and that would mean massacre
+unspeakable. He was as brave a man as ever wore a uniform, but he knew
+that on the next words he should speak the lives of fifty thousand men
+depended. He took one more look round the ring of steel which enclosed
+him on every side, and then with livid lips and grinding teeth gave the
+order for the flag to be hauled down. The next moment he unbuckled his
+sword and hurled it into the sea; then with a deep groan he dropped
+fainting to the deck.</p>
+
+<p>It would be useless to attempt to describe the fury and mortification
+with which the officers and men of the French Force saw the flags one by
+one flutter down from end to end of the long line of transports, but it
+was plain even to the rawest conscript that there was no choice save
+between surrender and massacre. They cursed and stamped about the decks
+or sat down and cried, according to temperament, and that, under the
+circumstances, was about all they could do.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, a steam pinnace came puffing out from the harbour, and in a
+few minutes General French was standing on the promenade deck of the
+<i>Australien</i>. The Field Marshal had already been carried below. A
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>grey-haired officer in the uniform of a general came forward with his
+sword in his hand and said in excellent English, but with a shake in his
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You are General French, I presume? Our Commander, Field-Marshal Purdin
+de Trevillion had such an access of anger when he found how we had been
+duped that he flung his sword into the sea. He then fainted, and is
+still unconscious. You will, therefore, perhaps accept my sword instead
+of his."</p>
+
+<p>General French touched the hilt with his hand, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep it. General Devignes, and I hope your officers will do the same. I
+will accept your parole for all of them. You are the Field-Marshal's
+Chief-of-Staff, I believe, and therefore, of course, your word is his. I
+am very sorry to hear of his illness."</p>
+
+<p>"You have my word," replied General Devignes, "for myself and those of
+my officers who may be willing to give their parole, but for those who
+prefer to remain prisoners I cannot, of course, answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," replied General French, with a rather provoking genial
+smile. "Now I will trouble you to take your ships into the harbour. I
+will put a guard on each as she passes; meanwhile, your men will pile
+arms and get ready to disembark. We cannot offer you much of a welcome,
+I'm afraid, for those airships of yours have almost reduced Portsmouth
+to ruins, to say nothing of sending ten of our battleships and cruisers
+to the bottom. I can assure you, General, that the losses are not all on
+your side."</p>
+
+<p>"No, General," replied the Frenchman, "but for the present, at least,
+the victory is on yours."</p>
+
+<p>Then transport after transport filed into the harbour, and General
+Hamilton and his staff took charge of the disembarkation. Six of the
+British lame ducks had been got safely into dock, and every available
+man was slaving away in deadly earnest to repair the damage done in
+those terrible two hours. Repairs were also being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> carried out as
+rapidly as possible on the cruisers and battleships lying in Spithead,
+and as shipload after shipload of the disarmed French soldiers were
+landed, they were set to work, first at clearing up the dockyards and
+getting them into something like working order, and then clearing up the
+ruins of the three towns.</p>
+
+<p>The news of Admiral Beresford's magnificent coup had already reached
+London, and the reply had come back terse and to the point:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Excellently well done. Congratulate Admiral Beresford and all
+concerned. We are hard pressed at Dover, and London is threatened.
+Send <i>Ithuriel</i> to Dover as soon as possible, and let her come on
+here when she has given any possible help. Land and sea defence of
+south and south-east at discretion of yourself, Domville and
+Beresford.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Connaught</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>By some miracle, the Keppel's Head, perhaps the most famous naval
+hostelry in the south of England, had escaped the shells from the
+airships, and so General French had made it his headquarters for the
+time being. Sir Compton Domville had received a rather serious injury
+from a splinter in the left arm during the destruction of the Naval
+Barracks, but he had had his wounds dressed and insisted, against the
+advice of the doctors, in driving down to the Hard and talking matters
+over with General French. They were discussing the disposition of the
+French prisoners and the huge amount of war material which had been
+captured, when the telegram was delivered. They had scarcely read it
+when there was a knock at the door and an orderly entered, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Erskine, of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, would be pleased to see the General
+when he's at liberty."</p>
+
+<p>"The very man!" said General French. "This is the young gentleman," he
+continued, turning to Admiral Domville, "who practically saved us from
+two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>torpedo attacks, won the Fleet action for us, and saved Beresford
+from being rammed at the moment of victory."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened again, and Erskine came in. He saluted and said:</p>
+
+<p>"General, if I may suggest it, I shall not be much more use here, and my
+lieutenant, Denis Castellan, has just had a telegram from his aunt and
+sister, who are in London, saying that things are pretty bad there. I
+fancy I might be of some use if you would let me go, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Let you go!" laughed the General. "Why, my dear sir, you've got to go.
+Here's a telegram that I've just had from His Royal Highness the
+Commander-in-Chief, saying that Dover and London are in a bad way, and
+telling me to send you round at once. When can you start?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," replied Erskine, after a moment's thought, "we're not
+injured in any way, but it will take a couple of hours, I'm afraid, to
+replenish our motive power, and fill up with shell, and added to that, I
+should like to have a good overhaul of the machinery."</p>
+
+<p>"Just listen to that, now!" exclaimed Admiral Beresford, who had entered
+the room while he was speaking. "Here's a man who has done nearly as
+much single-handed as the rest of us put together and fought through as
+stiff a Fleet action as the hungriest fire-eater in the navy wants to
+see, and tells you he isn't injured, while half of us are knocked to
+scrap-iron. I wish we had fifty <i>Ithuriels</i>, there'd be very little
+landing on English shores."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you have very much to complain of in the French landing
+at Portsmouth, Beresford," laughed Sir Compton Domville. "I don't want
+to flatter you, but it was an absolute stroke of genius. We shall have
+to set those fellows to work on the forts and yards, and get some guns
+into position again. It isn't exactly what they came for but they'll
+come in very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> useful. But that can wait. Here's the wire from the
+Commander-in-Chief. Captain Erskine, you are to get round to Dover and
+London as soon as possible, and, I presume, do all the damage you can on
+the way. General French is going to London as soon as a special can be
+got ready for him."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask a great favour, sir?" said Erskine.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything, after what you've done," replied Sir Compton. "What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>General French and Lord Beresford nodded in agreement, and Erskine
+continued, addressing Lord Beresford: "That Mr Lennard, whom your
+lordship met on board the <i>Ithuriel</i>, has given me the formula of a new
+high explosive. Absurdly simple, but simply terrific in its effect. I
+made up half a dozen shells with it and tried them. I gave the <i>Dupleix</i>
+three rounds. They seem to reduce steel to dust, and, as far as we could
+see every man on the decks dropped as if he had been struck by
+lightning. From what we have done with them I think they will be of
+enormous value. Now Mr Lennard is very anxious to get to London and the
+north of England, and if General French could find him a place in his
+special&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," interrupted the General, "I shall be only too delighted
+to know your maker of thunderbolts. Is he here now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, he's in the smoking-room with Lieutenant Castellan. And that
+reminds me, if I am to go to London, I hope you will allow me to hand
+over the German spy that we caught here as soon as convenient."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring them both in," said General French. "Sir Compton and General
+Hamilton will court-martial your spy this morning, and, I hope, shoot
+him this evening."</p>
+
+<p>Within an hour, Lennard, who had something more serious now to think
+about than even war, was flying away Londonwards in General French's
+special, with a letter of introduction from Denis Castellan to his aunt
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> sister, and an hour after the special had started, the <i>Ithuriel</i>
+had cleared the narrow waters and was tearing up the Channel at fifty
+miles an hour, to see what havoc she could work on the assailants of
+London and Dover.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>AWAY FROM THE WARPATH</h3>
+
+<p>When Lennard entered the little drawing-room in the house in Westbourne
+Terrace, where Norah Castellan and her aunt were staying, he had decided
+to do something which, without his knowing it, probably made a very
+considerable difference in his own fortunes and those of two or three
+other people.</p>
+
+<p>During his brief but exciting experiences on board the <i>Ithuriel</i>, he
+had formed a real friendship for both Erskine and Castellan, and he had
+come to the conclusion that Denis's sister and aunt would be very much
+safer in the remote seclusion of Whernside than in a city which might
+within the next few days share the fate of Portsmouth and Gosport. He
+was instantly confirmed in this resolution when Mrs O'Connor and her
+niece came into the room. Never had he seen a more perfect specimen of
+the Irishwoman, who is a lady by Nature's own patent of nobility, than
+Mrs O'Connor, and, with of course one exception, never had he seen such
+a beautiful girl as Norah Castellan.</p>
+
+<p>He was friends with them in half an hour, and inside an hour he had
+accepted their invitation to dine and sleep at the house and help them
+to get ready for their unexpected journey to the North the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>He went back to the Grand and got his portmanteau and Gladstone bag and
+returned to Westbourne Terrace in time for afternoon tea. Meanwhile, he
+had bought the early copies of all the evening papers and read up the
+condition of things in London, which, in the light of his experiences at
+Portsmouth, did not appear to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> to be in any way promising. He gave
+Norah and her aunt a full, true and particular account of the assault on
+Portsmouth, the doings of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, the great Fleet action, and
+the brilliant <i>ruse de guerre</i> which Admiral Beresford had used to
+capture the First French Army Corps that had landed in England&mdash;and
+landed as prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The news in the afternoon papers, coupled with what he already knew of
+the tactics of the enemy, impressed Lennard so gravely that he succeeded
+in persuading Mrs O'Connor and Norah to leave London by the midnight
+sleeping-car train from St Pancras for Whernside, since no one knew at
+what time during the night John Castellan or his lieutenants might not
+order an indiscriminate bombardment of London from the air. He was also
+very anxious, for reasons of his own, to get back to his work at the
+observatory and make his preparations for the carrying out of an
+undertaking compared with which the war, terrible as it was and would
+be, could only be considered as the squabblings of children or lunatics.</p>
+
+<p>His task was not one of aggression or conquest, but of salvation, and
+the enemy he was going to fight was an invader not of states or
+countries, but of a whole world, and unless the assault of this invader
+from the outer wilderness of Space were repelled, the result would not
+be merely the destruction of ships and fortresses, or the killing of a
+few hundreds or thousands of men on the battlefield; it would mean
+nothing less than a holocaust which would involve the whole human race,
+and the simultaneous annihilation of all that the genius of man had so
+laboriously accumulated during the slow, uncounted ages of his progress
+from the brute to the man.</p>
+
+<p>They left the train at Settle at six o'clock the next morning, and were
+at once taken charge of by the station-master, who had had his
+instructions by telephone from the Parmenter mansion on the slopes of
+Great Whernside. He conducted them at once to the Midland Hotel, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+they found a suite of apartments, luxuriously furnished, with fires
+blazing in the grates, and everything looking very cosy under the soft
+glow of the shaded electric lights. Baths were ready and breakfast would
+be on the table at seven. At eight, Mr Parmenter, who practically owned
+this suite of rooms, would drive over with Miss Parmenter in a couple of
+motor-cars and take the party to the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, then," said Mrs O'Connor, when the arrangements had been
+explained to her, "it must be very comfortable to have all the money to
+buy just what you want, and make everything as easy as all this, and
+it's yourself, Mr Lennard, we have to thank for making us the guests of
+a millionaire, when neither Norah nor myself have so much as seen one.
+Is he a very great man, this Mr Parmenter? It seems to me to be
+something like going to dine with a duke."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mrs O'Connor," laughed Lennard, "I can assure you that you will
+find this master of millions one of Nature's own gentlemen. Although he
+can make men rich or poor by a stroke of his pen, and, with a few others
+like him, wield such power as was never in the hands of kings, you
+wouldn't know him from a plain English country gentleman if it wasn't
+for his American accent, and there's not very much of that."</p>
+
+<p>"And his daughter, Miss Auriole, what's she like?" said Norah. "A
+beauty, of course."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard flushed somewhat suspiciously, and a keen glance of Norah's
+Irish eyes read the meaning of that flush in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Parmenter is considered to be very beautiful," he replied, "and I
+must confess that I share the general opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," said Norah, with a little nod that had a great deal of
+meaning in it. "Now, I suppose we'd better go and change, or we'll be
+late for breakfast. I certainly don't want the beautiful Miss Parmenter
+to see me in this state for the first time."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><p>"My dear Miss Castellan, I can assure you that you have not the
+faintest reason to fear any comparison that might be made," laughed
+Lennard as he left the room and went to have his tub.</p>
+
+<p>Punctually at eight a double "Toot-toot" sounded from the street in
+front of the main entrance to the hotel. Norah ran to the window and saw
+two splendidly-appointed Napier cars&mdash;although, of course, she didn't
+know a Napier from a Darracq. Something in female shape with peaked cap
+and goggles, gauntleted and covered from head to foot in a heavy fur
+coat, got out of the first car, and another shape, rather shorter but
+almost similarly clad, got out of the second. Five minutes later there
+was a knock at the door of the breakfast-room. It opened, and Norah saw
+what the cap and the goggles and the great fur coat had hidden. During
+the next few seconds, two of the most beautiful girls in the two
+hemispheres looked at each other, as only girls and women can look. Then
+Auriole put out both her hands and said, quite simply:</p>
+
+<p>"You are Norah Castellan. I hope we shall be good friends. If we're not,
+I'm afraid it will be my fault."</p>
+
+<p>Norah took her hands and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would more likely be mine, after what Mr Lennard has been
+telling us of yourself and your father."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Lennard saved the situation as far as he was concerned by
+making the other introductions, and Mrs O'Connor took the hand which
+wielded the terrible power of millions and experienced a curious sort of
+surprise at finding that it was just like other hands, and that the
+owner of it was bending over hers with one of those gestures of simple
+courtesy which are the infallible mark of the American gentleman. In a
+few minutes they were all as much at home together as though they had
+known each other for weeks. Then came the preparation of Norah and her
+aunt for the motor ride, and then the ride itself.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had risen clearly, and there was a decided nip<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> of frost in the
+keen Northern air. The roads were hard and clean, and the
+twenty-five-mile run over them, winding through the valleys and climbing
+the ridges with the heather-clad, rock-crowned hills on all sides, now
+sliding down a slope or shooting along a level, or taking a rise in what
+seemed a flying leap, was by far the most wonderful experience that
+Norah and her aunt had ever had.</p>
+
+<p>Auriole drove the first car, and had Norah sitting beside her on the
+front seat. Her aunt and the mechanician were sitting in the tonneau
+behind. Mr Parmenter drove the second car with Lennard beside him. His
+tonneau was filled with luggage.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the eighteenth mile the cars, going at a quite illegal
+speed, jumped a ridge between two heather-clad moors, which in South
+Africa would have been called a nek, and dived down along a white road
+leading into a broad forest track, sunlit now, but bordered on either
+side by the twilight of towering pines and firs through which the
+sunlight filtered only in little flakes, which lay upon the last year's
+leaves and cones, somewhat as an electric light might have fallen on a
+monkish manuscript of the thirteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Then came two more miles on hard, well-kept roads, so perfectly graded
+that the upward slope was hardly perceptible.</p>
+
+<p>"We're on our own ground now and I guess I'll let her out," said Miss
+Auriole. "Don't be frightened, Norah. These things look big and strong,
+but it's quite wonderful what they'll do when there's a bit of human
+sense running them. See that your goggles are right and twist your veil
+in a bit tighter, I'm going to give you a new sensation."</p>
+
+<p>She waved her hand to her father in the car behind and put on the fourth
+speed lever, and said: "Hold tight now."</p>
+
+<p>Norah nodded, for she could hardly breathe as it was. Then the pines and
+firs on either side of the broad drive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> melted into a green-grey blur.
+The road under them was like a rapidly unwinding ribbon. The hilltops
+which showed above the trees rose up now to the right hand and now to
+the left, as the car swung round the curves. Every now and then Norah
+looked at the girl beside her, controlling the distance-devouring
+monster with one hand on a little wheel, her left foot on a pedal and
+her right hand ready to work the levers if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The two miles of the drive from the gates to the front door of Whernside
+House, a long, low-lying two-storeyed, granite-built house, which was
+about as good a combination of outward solidity and indoor comfort as
+you could find in the British Islands, was covered in two and a half
+minutes, and the car pulled up, as Norah thought, almost at full speed
+and stopped dead in front of the steps leading up from the broad road to
+the steps leading up to the terrace which ran along the whole southward
+front of Whernside House.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon, Miss Castellan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If you say Miss Castellan, I shall get back to Settle by the first
+conveyance that I can hire."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's just nice of you, Norah. What I was going to say, if I
+hadn't made that mistake, was, that this would be about the first time
+that you had covered two miles along a road at fifty miles an hour, and
+that's what you've just done. Pretty quick, isn't it? Oh, there's Lord
+Westerham on the terrace! Come for lunch, I suppose. He's a very great
+man here, you know. Lord-Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire,
+fought through the Boer War, got made a Colonel by some miracle when he
+was only about twenty-eight, went to Lhassa, and now he's something like
+Commander-in-Chief of the Yeomanry and Volunteers round here&mdash;and
+without anything of that sort, he's just about the best sort of man you
+want to meet. Come along, I'll introduce you."</p>
+
+<p>The two cars stopped at the steps leading up to the terrace, a man in
+khaki, with a stretch of a dozen ribbons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> across the left side of his
+tunic, came bareheaded down the steps and opened the side door of
+Auriole's motor-car. Auriole pushed her goggles up and held out her
+gauntleted hand, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"What! Lord Westerham! Well now, this is nice of you. Come to lunch, of
+course. And how's the recruiting going on?"</p>
+
+<p>Then without waiting for a reply, she went on: "Norah, dear, this is
+Lord Westerham, Lord-Lieutenant of this part of the County of York,
+Colonel commanding the West Riding Yeomanry and lots of other things
+that I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>Norah pushed her goggles up and tilted her hat back. Auriole saw a flash
+of recognition pass like lightning between their eyes. She noticed that
+Norah's cheeks were a little bit brighter than even the speed of the car
+could account for. She saw, too, that there was a flush under the tan of
+Lord Westerham's face, and to her these were signs of great comfort.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how this particular miracle has been arranged," said Lord
+Westerham, as he gave his hand to Norah and took her out of the car,
+"but a re-introduction is, if you will allow me to say so, Miss
+Parmenter, rather superfluous. I have known Miss Castellan for quite two
+years, at least, I had the pleasure of meeting her in Connemara, and we
+have fished and shot and sailed together until we became almost
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>Auriole's eyes, observant at all times, had been working hard during the
+last two or three minutes, and in those few minutes she had learned a
+great deal. Arthur Lennard, who also had his eyes wide open, had learnt
+in his own slow, masculine way about as much, and perhaps a little more.
+He and Lord Westerham had been school-fellows and college chums and good
+friends for years, but of late a shadow had come between them, and it's
+hardly necessary to say that it was the shadow of a woman. He knew
+perfectly well by this time that Lord Westerham was, in the opinion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> of
+Mr Parmenter, the husband-designate, one might say, of Auriole. Young as
+he was, he already had a distinguished record as a soldier and an
+administrator, but he was also heir to one of the oldest Marquisates in
+England with a very probable reversion to a dukedom.</p>
+
+<p>This was what he had been thinking of that night in the observatory when
+he told Auriole of the fate that was approaching the world. No one knew
+better than he how brilliant a figure she would make in Society as the
+Marchioness of Westerham, granted always that the Anglo-Saxon would do
+now as he had ever done, fling the invader back upon his own shores or
+into the sea which he had crossed: but that swift flash of recognition
+seen as his car came up behind Auriole's, and the slight but most
+significant change which had come over the features of both of them as
+he handed her out of the car, had instantly banished the shadow and made
+him a happier man than he had been for a good many months past.</p>
+
+<p>Still he was one of those hard-headed, practical men who rightly
+consider that the very worst enemy either to friendship between man and
+man, or love between man and woman, is an unexplained misunderstanding,
+and so in that moment he decided to "have it out" with his lordship on
+the first possible opportunity.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL</h3>
+
+<p>The morning was spent in a general overhaul of the observatory and the
+laboratory in which Lennard had discovered and perfected the explosive
+which had been used with such deadly effect in the guns of the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>. Lunch was an entirely delightful meal, and when it was over
+Auriole took Mrs O'Connor and Norah up to her own particular domain in
+the house to indulge in that choicest of feminine luxuries, a good long
+talk. Mr Parmenter excused himself and disappeared into his study to get
+ready for the evening mail, and so Lord Westerham and Lennard were left
+to their own devices for a couple of hours or so. This was just what
+Lennard wanted, and so he proposed a stroll and a smoke in the Park.</p>
+
+<p>They lit their cigars and walked for a few minutes along a pine-shaded
+path. His lordship had an intuitive idea that his companion had
+something to say to him&mdash;albeit he was very far from imagining what that
+something was to be&mdash;and so he thought he had better let him begin. When
+they were out of sight or hearing of anyone, Lennard slowed down his
+pace a little and said somewhat abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"Westerham, I am going to ask you a question which you will probably
+think a rather impertinent one, and, moreover, whether you choose to
+answer it or not, I hope you will not for the present ask me why I ask
+it. Now there are a good many 'asks' in that, but as the matter is
+somewhat important to both of us, I wanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> to put the thing plainly,
+even at the expense of a little tautology."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Westerham, in addition to being a gentleman and a soldier, was also
+one of the most frankly open-minded men that another honest man could
+wish to have anything to do with, and so, after a long pull at his
+cigar, he looked round and said:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Lennard, we were school-fellows once, and we managed to worry
+through Cambridge together&mdash;you with a great deal more kudos than I
+did&mdash;and we have been very good friends since, so there can't be any
+question of impertinence between us, although there might be some
+unpleasantness for one or both of us. But, anyhow, whatever it is, out
+with it. Honestly, I don't think you could offend me if you tried."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I thought you would say," replied Lennard. "And I
+think you are about the only man I should like to ask such a question;
+but after what you've just said I'll put it just as shortly as it can be
+made."</p>
+
+<p>"And the question is?" asked Lord Westerham, blowing a long stream of
+blue smoke up through the still air towards the tops of the pine trees.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little pause, during which Lennard bit off about half an
+inch of the end of his cigar, spat it out, and took two or three more
+puffs from what was left. Then he said, in a dry, almost harsh tone:</p>
+
+<p>"The question is quite a short one, Westerham, and you can answer it by
+a simple yes or no. It's just this: Do you intend to make Miss Parmenter
+Marchioness of Westerham or not? Other things of course being equal, as
+we used to say at school."</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat to Lennard's astonishment, Lord Westerham's cigar shot from his
+lips like a torpedo from a tube, and after it came an explosion of
+laughter, which fully accounted for its sudden ejectment. His lordship
+leant up against a convenient pine and laughed till he was almost
+speechless.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>"What the devil's the matter with you, Westerham?" said Lennard, with a
+note of anger in his voice. "You'll excuse my saying so, but it seems
+hardly a question for a sort of explosion like that. I have been asking
+you a question which, as you might have seen, concerns me rather
+closely."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Westerham sobered down at once, although his voice was still
+somewhat tremulous with suppressed laughter when he said:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear chap, I'm very sorry. It was beastly rude of me to laugh, but
+I'm quite sure you'll forgive me when you know the facts or, at least,
+<i>the</i> fact, and that is as follows, as they say in the newspapers. When
+I tell you that your sweetheart drove my sweetheart up to the house
+to-day from Settle&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What, Norah Castellan!" exclaimed Lennard. "I didn't even know that you
+had met her before."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I!" replied Lord Westerham. "Look here, it was this way."</p>
+
+<p>And then he began a story of a fishing and shooting trip to Connemara,
+where he had rented certain salmon streams and shooting moors from a
+squire of the county, named Lismore, who was very much in love with
+Norah Castellan, and how he had fished and shot and yachted with her and
+the brother who had sold his diabolical inventions to the enemies of
+England, until he had come to love the sister as much as he hated the
+brother. And when he had done, Lennard told him of the swimming race in
+Clifden Bay, and many other things to which Lord Westerham listened with
+an interest which grew more and more intense as every minute passed;
+until when Lennard stopped, he crossed the road and held out his hand
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I've got the very place to suit you. A cannel-coal mine near Bolton in
+Lancashire with a perpendicular shaft, twelve hundred feet deep. The
+very place to do your work. It's yours from to-day, and if the thing
+comes off, Papa Parmenter shall give a couple of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> hundred thousand dowry
+instead of buying the mine. I don't think he'll kick at that. Now, let's
+go back and have a whisky-and-soda. I've got to be off recruiting
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could join the Yeomanry and come with you, if you would have
+me," laughed Lennard, whose spirits had been rising rapidly during the
+last half-hour or so, "only I reckon, as Mr Parmenter would put it, that
+I shall have all my work cut out getting ready to give our celestial
+invader a warm reception. To begin with, it won't exactly be child's
+play building a cannon twelve hundred feet long."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what they'd think of a proposition like that at the War
+Office?" laughed Lord Westerham in reply. "Several permanent officials
+would certainly faint on the spot."</p>
+
+<p>A sharp frost set in during the night, and the sky was brilliantly
+clear. After dinner, when the ladies had left the table, Lennard said to
+Mr Parmenter:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to renew my acquaintance with our celestial visitor
+to-night. I shall want a couple of hours to run over my calculations and
+verify the position of the comet up to date; and then, say at eleven
+o'clock, I should like you and Lord Westerham to come up to the
+observatory and have a somewhat serious talk."</p>
+
+<p>The owner of the great reflector looked up quickly over his wine-glass
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Mr Lennard, I guess this poor old country of yours has about
+enough serious matters on hand just now without worrying about comets.
+What's the trouble now?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," replied Lennard, gravely, "this is a matter which not
+only England, but every other country in the world, will have to trouble
+about before very long."</p>
+
+<p>"Say, that sounds pretty serious," said Mr Parmenter. "What's the worry
+with this old comet of yours, anyhow?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p><p>Lord Westerham smiled, and Lennard could not help smiling too as he
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"It is too long a story to tell now, sir, and what is more, I cannot
+tell it until I have reverified my observations and figures, and,
+besides, the ladies will be expecting us. I shall be quite ready for you
+by eleven. By the way, I haven't told you yet that those shells were a
+perfect success, from our point of view, at least. It seems rather
+curious how that all came about, I must say. Here's Denis Castellan, the
+brother of the traitor, a British naval officer, and like his sister an
+acquaintance of Westerham's. I discover the explosive, tell you about
+it, you tell Westerham, and send me off to try it on the <i>Ithuriel</i>, and
+here I come back from London with Miss Castellan and her aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite an excellent arrangement of things on the part of the Fates,"
+remarked Lord Westerham, with a meaning which Mr Parmenter did not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," said their host, "quite like a piece out of a story, isn't
+it? And so that explosive got its work in all right, Mr Lennard?"</p>
+
+<p>"As far as we could see," replied Lennard. "It tore steel armour into
+shreds as if it had been cardboard, and didn't leave a living thing
+anywhere within several yards of the focus of the explosion. Erskine and
+Castellan are filling up with it, and I expect we shall hear something
+about it from London before long. I am glad to say that Lord Beresford
+told me that after what he had seen of our fire, Government and private
+gun factories were going to work night and day turning out pneumatic
+guns to use it. The effect of it on land if a battery once gets within
+reach of large masses of men will be something frightful."</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds pretty useful," said Lord Westerham, who was one of those
+soldiers who rightly believe that the most merciless methods of waging
+war are in the end most merciful.</p>
+
+<p>By nine o'clock Lennard was in the equatorial chamber<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> of the
+observatory, taking his first observations since he had left for
+Portsmouth the week before. The ghostly shape pictured on the great
+reflector was bigger and brighter now, although, to his great comfort,
+none of the scientific papers had made any mention of its discovery by
+other observers. When he had noted its exact position, he went to his
+desk and plunged into a maze of calculations.</p>
+
+<p>Precisely at eleven there was a tap at the door and Mr Parmenter and
+Lord Westerham came in. Lord Westerham, as the guest, had the first look
+at the approaching World Peril; then Mr Parmenter took a long squint
+into the eye-piece and then they sat down, and Lennard told Mr
+Parmenter, in the cold, precise language of science, the story which he
+had already told to Auriole and Lord Westerham.</p>
+
+<p>The millionaire, who had listened with an attention that even he had
+never given to any subject before, smoked in silence for a few moments
+after Lennard had finished, and then he said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I reckon that's about the biggest order that two or three human
+beings have ever been called upon to fill. One thing's certain. It'd
+make these fighting fellows feel pretty foolish if they could be got to
+believe it, which they couldn't. No disrespect to you, Lord Westerham,
+because I take it you do believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I do," he replied. "Lennard was never known to make a mistake
+in figures, and I am perfectly certain that he would not make any in
+working out such a terrific problem as this. I think I may also say that
+I have equal confidence in his plan for saving humanity from the
+terrible fate which threatens it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's good hearing," said Mr Parmenter, drily. "Personally, I don't
+quite feel that I've finished up with this old world yet, and if it's a
+question of dollars&mdash;as far as I'm concerned, as I've got a few millions
+hanging around loose, I might as well use them to help to save the human
+race from being burnt to death as to run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> corners and trusts, which
+won't be much use anyhow if we can't stop this comet, or whatever it is.
+Now, Mr Lennard, what's your plan for the scientific salvation of the
+world?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing new about the idea," replied Lennard, "except its
+application to the present circumstances. Of course you have read Jules
+Verne's <i>Journey to the Moon</i>? Well, my plan is simply to do the same
+thing on a much bigger scale, only instead of firing men and dogs and
+chickens out of my cannon, I am going to fire something like a ton and a
+half of explosives.</p>
+
+<p>"The danger is in the contact of the nucleus of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere. If that can be prevented there is no further cause
+for alarm; so, to put the matter quite shortly, my projectile will have
+an initial velocity of ten miles a second, and therefore a range that is
+practically infinite, for that velocity will carry it beyond the sphere
+of the earth's attraction.</p>
+
+<p>"Hence, if the gun is properly trained and fired at precisely the right
+moment, and if the fuse does its work, the projectile will pass into the
+nucleus of the comet, and, before the heat has time to melt the shell,
+the charge will explode and the nucleus&mdash;the only dangerous part&mdash;will
+either be blown to fragments or dissipated in gas. Therefore, instead of
+what I might be allowed to call a premature Day of Judgment, we shall
+simply have a magnificent display of celestial fireworks, which will
+probably amount to nothing more than an unparalleled shower of shooting
+stars, as they are popularly called.</p>
+
+<p>"The details of the experiment will be practically the same as those
+Jules Verne described&mdash;I mean as regards the making and firing of the
+cannon&mdash;only, as we haven't time to get a big enough hole dug, I should
+strongly advise the acceptance of Lord Westerham's very opportune
+offer."</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said Mr Parmenter, quietly, "but I've got a sort of fancy
+for running this business myself. My reflector discovered this comet,
+thanks, of course, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the good use you made of it, and it seems to me
+that I'm in a way responsible for making it harmless if that can be
+done, and so I'm not disposed to take that convenient colliery as a gift
+from anyone, no, not even you, Lord Westerham. You see, my lord, all
+that I can do here is just finding the dollars, and to a man in your
+position, doing his best to get as many men and horses and guns together
+for the defence of his country, money is money. Will you take a quarter
+of a million pounds for that colliery?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I won't, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham. "In the first
+place, the colliery isn't worth a tenth of that, and this country can
+very well afford to pay for her own defence. Besides, you must remember
+that you will have to pay for the work: I mean casing the pit-shaft,
+smelting the metal and building the shell, to say nothing of the
+thousand and one other expenses of which Lennard can tell you more than
+I. For one thing, I expect you will have a hundred thousand or so to pay
+in damage to surrounding property after that cannon has gone off. In
+other words, if you do save the world you'll probably have to pay pretty
+stiffly for doing it. They're excellent business people in Lancashire,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite see the logic of that, Lord Westerham," replied Mr
+Parmenter a little testily. "If we can put this business through, the
+dollars couldn't be much better used, and if we can't they won't be much
+use to me or anyone else. It's worth doing, anyhow, if it's only to show
+what new-world enterprise helped with old-world brains can do in
+bringing off a really big thing, and that's why I want to buy that
+colliery."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham again, "we won't quarrel
+over that. I'm not a business man, but I believe it's generally
+recognised that the essence of all business is compromise. I'll meet you
+half way. For the present you shall take the pit for nothing and pay all
+expense connected with making a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> cannon of it. If that cannon does its
+work you shall pay me two hundred thousand pounds for the use of it&mdash;and
+I'll take your I.O.U. for the amount now. Will that suit you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's business," said Mr Parmenter, getting up and going to Lennard's
+desk. "There you are, my lord," he continued, as he came back with a
+half sheet of notepaper in his hand, "and I only hope I shall have to
+pay that money."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A CHANGE OF SCENE</h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Ithuriel</i> had orders to call at Folkestone and Dover in order to
+report the actual state of affairs there to the Commander-in-Chief by
+telegraph if Erskine could get ashore or by flash-signal if he could
+not, and incidentally to do as much damage as he could without undue
+risk to his craft if he considered that circumstances demanded it.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived off Folkestone just before dusk, and, as he expected, found
+that there were half a dozen large transports, carrying probably eight
+thousand men and a proportionate number of horses and quick-firing guns,
+convoyed by four cruisers and ten destroyers, lying off the harbour.
+There were evidently no airships with the force, as, if there had been,
+they would certainly have been hovering over the town and shelling
+Shorncliffe Barracks and the forts from the air. A brisk artillery duel
+was proceeding between the land batteries and the squadron, and the
+handsome town was already in flames in several places.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine, of course, recognised at once that this attack was simultaneous
+with that on Dover; the object of the enemy being obviously the capture
+of the shore line of railway between the two great Channel ports, which
+would provide the base of a very elongated triangle, the sides of which
+would be roughly formed by the roads and railways running to the
+westward and southward through Ashford and Maidstone, and to the
+northward and eastward through Canterbury, Faversham and Sittingbourne,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+and meeting at Rochester and Chatham, where the land forces of the
+invaders would, if all went well, co-operate with the sea forces in a
+combined attack on London, which would, of course, be preceded by a
+bombardment of fortified positions from the air.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing what he did of the disastrous results of the battle of
+Portsmouth, he came to the conclusion that it was his duty to upset this
+plan of attack at all hazards, so he called Castellan up into the
+conning-tower and asked his advice on the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"I see just what you mean, Erskine," replied the Lieutenant, when he had
+taken a good look at the map of Kent, "and it's my opinion that you'll
+do more to help London from here and Dover just now than you will from
+the Thames. Those French cruisers are big ones, though I don't quite
+recognise which they are, and they carry twice or three times the metal
+that those miserable forts do&mdash;which comes of trusting everything to the
+Fleet, as though these were the days of wooden walls and sails instead
+of steam battleships, fast cruisers and destroyers, to say nothing of
+submarines and airships. These Frenchies here don't know anything about
+the hammering they've got at Portsmouth and the capture of the
+transports, so they'll be expecting that force to be moving on London by
+the Brighton and South Coast line instead of re-building our forts and
+dockyards; so you go in and sink and smash everything in sight. That's
+just my best advice to you."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems pretty rough on those chaps on the transports, doesn't it?"
+said Erskine, with a note of regret in his voice. "We sha'n't be able to
+pick up any of them. It will be pretty like murder."</p>
+
+<p>"And what's that?" exclaimed Castellan, pointing to the fires in the
+town. "Don't ye call shelling a defenceless watering-place and burning
+unarmed people to death in their own homes murder? What if ye had your
+sister, or your mother, or your sweetheart there? How would ye feel
+about murder then?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>Denis Castellan spoke feelingly, for his captain possessed not only a
+mother, but also a very charming sister in connection with whom he
+cherished certain not altogether ill-founded hopes which might perchance
+be realised now that war had come and promotion was fairly sure for
+those who "got through all right."</p>
+
+<p>Erskine nodded and said between his teeth:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you're right, old man. Such mercy as they give&mdash;such shall they
+have. Get below and take charge. We'd better go for the cruisers first
+and sink them. That'll stop the shelling of the town anyhow. Then we'll
+tackle the destroyers, and after that, if the transports don't
+surrender&mdash;well, the Lord have mercy on them when those shells of
+Lennard's get among them, for they'll want it."</p>
+
+<p>"And divil a bit better do they deserve. What have we done to them that
+they should all jump on us at once like this?" growled Denis as the
+platform sank with him. "There isn't one, no, nor two of them that dare
+tackle the old sea-dog alone."</p>
+
+<p>Which remark was Irish but perfectly true.</p>
+
+<p>By this time it was dusk enough for the <i>Ithuriel</i> to approach the
+unsuspecting cruisers unseen, as nothing but her conning-tower was soon
+visible, even at five hundred yards, and this would vanish when she sank
+to make her final rush.</p>
+
+<p>The cruisers were the <i>Charner</i>, <i>Chanzy</i>, <i>Bruix</i> and
+<i>Latouche-Treville</i>, all of about five thousand tons, and carrying two
+7.6 in., six 5.5 in. and six 9 pounders in addition to their small
+quick-firers. They were steaming in an oval course of about two miles
+long in line ahead, delivering their bow, stern and broadside fire as
+they circled. The effect of the shells along the strip of coast was
+terrible, and by the time the <i>Ithuriel</i> came on the scene of action
+Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Folkestone were ablaze. The destroyers were of
+course shepherding the transports until the cruisers had silenced the
+shore batteries and prepared the way for the landing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p><p>The <i>Latouche-Treville</i> was leading the French line when Erskine gave
+the order to sink and ram. Her captain never so much as suspected the
+presence of a British warship until his vessel reeled under the shock of
+the ram, trembled from stem to stern, and began to settle quickly by the
+head. Before she had time to sink the <i>Ithuriel</i> had shaken herself
+free, swung round in half a curve, and ripped the port quarter of the
+<i>Chanzy</i> open ten feet below the water line. Then she charged the
+<i>Bruix</i> amidships and nearly cut her in half, and as the <i>Charner</i>
+steamed up to the rescue of her stricken consorts her screws dragged her
+back from the sinking ship and her stern ram crashed into the
+Frenchman's starboard side under the foremast, and in about a quarter of
+an hour from the delivery of the mysterious attack the four French
+cruisers were either sunk or sinking.</p>
+
+<p>It would be almost impossible to describe the effect which was produced
+by this sudden and utterly unexpected calamity, not only upon the
+astounded invaders, but upon the defenders, who, having received the
+welcome tidings of the tremendous disaster which had befallen the French
+Expedition at Portsmouth, were expecting aid in a very different form.
+Like their assailants, they had seen nothing, heard nothing, until the
+French cruisers suddenly ceased fire, rolled over and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>But a few minutes after the <i>Charner</i> had gone down, all anxiety on the
+part of the defenders was, for the time being, removed. The <i>Ithuriel</i>
+rose to the surface; her searchlight projector turned inshore, and she
+flashed in the Private Code:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Suppose you have the news from Portsmouth. I am now going to smash
+destroyers and sink transports if they don't surrender. Don't
+shoot: might hurt me. Get ready for prisoners.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Erskine</span>, <i>Ithuriel</i>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was perhaps the most singular message that had ever been sent from a
+sea force to a land force, but it was as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> well understood as it was
+welcome, and soon the answering signals flashed back:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Well done, <i>Ithuriel</i>. Heard news. Go ahead!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Then came the turn of the destroyers. The <i>Ithuriel</i> rose out of the
+water till her forward ram showed its point six feet above the waves.
+Erskine ordered full speed, and within another twenty-five minutes the
+tragedy of Spithead had been repeated on a smaller scale. The destroying
+monster rushed round the transports, hunting the <i>torpilleurs de haute
+mer</i> down one after the other as a greyhound might run rabbits down,
+smashed them up and sank them almost before their officers and crew had
+time to learn what had happened to them&mdash;and then with his searchlight
+Erskine signalled to the transports in the International Code, which is
+universally understood at sea:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Transports steam quarter speed into harbour and surrender. If a
+shot is fired shall sink you as others."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Five of the six flags came down with a run and all save one of the
+transports made slowly for the harbour. Their commanders were wise
+enough to know that a demon of the deep which could sink cruisers before
+they could fire a shot and smash destroyers as if they were pleasure
+boats could make very short work of liners and cargo steamers, so they
+bowed to the inevitable and accepted with what grace they could defeat
+and capture instead of what an hour or so ago looked like certain
+victory. But the captain of the sixth, the one that was farthest out to
+sea, made a dash for liberty&mdash;or Dover.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine took down the receiver and said quietly:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Centre forward gun. Train: fire!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next moment a brilliant blaze of flame leapt up between the
+transport's funnels. They crumpled up like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> scorched parchment. Her
+whole super-structure seemed to take fire at once and she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Again flashed the signal:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Surrender or I'll ram."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Tricolor fluttered slowly down through the damp, still evening air
+from the transport's main truck, and almost at the same moment a fussy
+little steam pinnace&mdash;which had been keeping itself snugly out of harm's
+way since the first French cruiser had gone down&mdash;puffed busily out of
+the harbour, and the proudest midshipman in the British Navy&mdash;for the
+time being, at least&mdash;ran from transport to transport, crowded with
+furious and despairing Frenchmen, and told them, individually and
+collectively, the course to steer if they wanted to get safely into
+Folkestone harbour and be properly taken care of.</p>
+
+<p>Then out of the growing darkness to the westward long gleams of silver
+light flashed up from the dull grey water and wandered about the
+under-surface of the gathering clouds, coming nearer and growing
+brighter every minute, jumping about the firmament as though the men
+behind the projectors were either mad or drunk; but the signals spelt
+out to those who understood them the cheering words:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"All right. We'll look after these fellows. Commander-in-Chief's
+orders: Concentrate on Chilham, Canterbury and Dover."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Erskine to himself, as he read the signals.
+"Beresford's got them comfortably settled already, and he's sending
+someone to help here. Well, I think we've done our share and we'd better
+get along to Dover and London."</p>
+
+<p>He flashed the signal: "Good-bye and good luck!" to the shore, and
+shaped his course for Dover.</p>
+
+<p>So far, in spite of the terrible losses that had been sustained by the
+Reserve Fleet and the Channel Fleet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the odds of battle were still a
+long way in favour of Britain, in spite of the enormous forces ranged
+against her. At least so thought both Erskine and Castellan until they
+got within about three miles of Dover harbour, and Castellan, looking on
+sea and land and sky, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heaven help us! This looks like the other place let loose!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS&mdash;</h3>
+
+<p>Denis Castellan had put the situation tersely, but with a considerable
+amount of accuracy. Earth and sea and sky were ablaze with swarms of
+shooting, shifting lights, which kept crossing each other and making
+ever-changing patterns of a magnificent embroidery, and amidst these,
+huge shells and star-rockets were bursting in clouds of smoke and
+many-coloured flame. The thunder of the big guns, the grinding rattle of
+the quick-firers, and the hoarse, whistling shrieks of the shells,
+completed the awful pandemonium of destruction and death that was raging
+round Dover.</p>
+
+<p>The truth was that the main naval attack of the Allies was being
+directed on the south-eastern stronghold. I am aware that this is not
+the usual plan followed by those who have written romantic forecasts of
+the invasion of England. It seems at first sight, provided that the
+enemy could pass the sentinels of the sea unnoticed, easy to land troops
+on unprotected portions of our shores; but, in actual warfare, this
+would be the most fatal policy that could be pursued, simply because,
+whatever the point selected, the invaders would always find themselves
+between two strong places, with one or more ahead of them. They would
+thus be outflanked on all sides, with no retreat open but the sea, which
+is the most easily closed of all retreats.</p>
+
+<p>From their point of view, then, the Allies were perfectly right in their
+project of reducing the great strongholds of southern and eastern
+England, before advancing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> with their concentrated forces upon London.
+It would, of course, be a costly operation. In fact Britain's long
+immunity from invasion went far to prove that, to enemies possessing
+only the ordinary means of warfare, it would have been impossible, but,
+ever since the success of the experiment at Potsdam, German engineering
+firms had been working hard under John Castellan's directions turning
+out improved models of the <i>Flying Fish</i>. The various parts were
+manufactured at great distances apart, and no one firm knew what the
+others were doing. It was only when the parts of the vessels and the
+engines were delivered at the closely-guarded Imperial factory at
+Potsdam, that, under Castellan's own supervision, they became the
+terrible fighting machines that they were.</p>
+
+<p>The A&euml;rial Fleet numbered twenty when war broke out, and of these five
+had been detailed for the attack on Dover. They were in fact the
+elements which made that attack possible, and, as is already known, four
+were co-operating with the Northern Division of the Allied Fleets
+against the forts defending Chatham and London.</p>
+
+<p>Dover was at that time one of the most strongly fortified places in the
+world. Its magnificent new harbour had been completed, and its
+fortifications vastly strengthened and re-armed with the new
+fourteen-inch gun which had superseded the old sixteen-inch gun of
+position, on account of its greater handiness, combined with greater
+penetrating power.</p>
+
+<p>But at Dover, as at Portsmouth, the forts were powerless against the
+assaults of these winged demons of the air. They were able to use their
+terrible projectiles with reckless profusion, because only twenty-two
+miles away at Calais there were inexhaustible stores from which they
+could replenish their magazines. Moreover, the private factory at Kiel,
+where alone they were allowed to be manufactured, were turning them out
+by hundreds a day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>They had, of course, formed the vanguard of the attacking force which
+had advanced in three divisions in column of line abreast from Boulogne,
+Calais and Antwerp. The Boulogne and Calais divisions were French, and
+each consisted of six battleships with the usual screens of cruisers,
+destroyers and torpedo boats: these two divisions constituted the French
+North Sea Squadron, whose place had been taken by the main German Fleet,
+assisted by the Belgian and Dutch squadron.</p>
+
+<p>Another German and Russian division was advancing on London. It included
+four first-class battleships, and two heavily-armed coast defence ships,
+huge floating fortresses, rather slow in speed, but tremendous in power,
+which accompanied them for the purpose of battering the fortifications,
+and doing as much damage to Woolwich and other important places on both
+sides as their big guns could achieve. Four <i>Flying Fishes</i> accompanied
+this division.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the general plan of action on that fatal night. Confident in
+the terrific powers of their A&euml;rial Squadrons, and ignorant of the
+existence of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, the Allied Powers never considered the
+possibilities of anything but rapid victory. They knew that the forts
+could no more withstand the shock of the bombardment from the air than
+battleships or cruisers could resist the equally deadly blow which these
+same diabolical contrivances could deliver under the water.</p>
+
+<p>They had not the slightest doubt but that forts would be silenced and
+fleets put out of action with a swiftness unknown before, and then the
+crowded transports would follow the victorious fleets, and the military
+promenade upon London would begin, headed by the winged messengers of
+destruction, from which neither flight nor protection was possible.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the leaders of the Allies were in ignorance of the
+misfortunes they had suffered at Portsmouth and Folkestone. All they
+knew they learned from aerograms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> one from Admiral Durenne off the Isle
+of Wight saying that the Portsmouth forts had been silenced and the
+Fleet action had begun, and another from the Commodore of the squadron
+off Folkestone saying that all was going well, and the landing would
+shortly be effected: and thus they fully expected to have the three
+towns and the entrance to the Thames at their mercy by the following
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly, as far as Dover was concerned, things looked very much as
+though their anticipations would be realised, for when the <i>Ithuriel</i>
+arrived upon the scene, Dover Castle and its surrounding forts were
+vomiting flame and earth into the darkening sky, like so many volcanoes.
+The forts on Admiralty Pier, Shakespear Cliff, and those commanding the
+new harbour works, had been silenced and blown up, and the town and
+barracks were in flames in many places.</p>
+
+<p>The scene was, in short, so inhumanly appalling, and horror followed
+horror with such paralysing rapidity, that the most practised
+correspondents and the most experienced officers, both afloat and
+ashore, were totally unable to follow them and describe what was
+happening with anything like coherence. It was simply an inferno of
+death and destruction, which no human words could have properly
+described, and perhaps the most ghastly feature of it was the fact that
+there was no human agency visible in it at all. There was no Homeric
+struggle of man with man, although many a gallant deed was done that
+night which never was seen nor heard of, and many a hero went to his
+death without so much as leaving behind him the memory of how he died.</p>
+
+<p>It was a conflict of mechanical giants&mdash;giant ships, giant engines,
+giant guns, and explosives of something more than giant strength. These
+were the monsters which poor, deluded Humanity, like another
+Frankenstein, had thought out with infinite care and craft, and
+fashioned for its own mutual destruction. Men had made a hell out of
+their own passions and greed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> jealousies, and now that hell had
+opened and mankind was about to descend into it.</p>
+
+<p>The sea-defence of Dover itself consisted of the Home Fleet in three
+divisions, composed respectively of the <i>England</i>, <i>London</i>, <i>Bulwark</i>
+and <i>Venerable</i>, <i>Queen</i> and <i>Prince of Wales</i> battleships, and ten
+first-class armoured cruisers, the <i>Duncan</i>, <i>Cornwallis</i>, <i>Exmouth</i> and
+<i>Russell</i> battleships, with twelve armoured cruisers, and thirdly, the
+reconstructed and re-armed <i>Empress of India</i>, <i>Revenge</i>, <i>Repulse</i> and
+<i>Resolution</i>, with eight armoured cruisers. To the north between Dover
+and the North Foreland lay the Southern Division of the North Sea
+Squadron.</p>
+
+<p>When the battle had commenced these three divisions were lying in their
+respective stations, in column of line ahead about six miles from the
+English shore. Behind them lay a swarm of destroyers and torpedo boats,
+ready to dart out and do their deadly work between the ships, and ten
+submarines were attached to each division. The harbour and approaches
+were, of course, plentifully strewn with mines.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an awful sight," said Castellan, with a note of awe in his voice,
+when they had taken in the situation with the rapidity and precision of
+the professional eye. "And to me the worst of it is that it won't be
+safe for us to take a share in the row."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Erskine, almost angrily. "Do you mean to tell me we
+sha'n't be able to help our fellows? Then what on earth have we come
+here for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just look there, now!" said Castellan, pointing ahead to where huge
+shapes, enveloped in a mist of flame and smoke, were circling round each
+other, vomiting their thunderbolts, like leviathans engaged in a
+veritable dance of death.</p>
+
+<p>"D'ye see that!" continued Denis. "What good would we be among that lot?
+The <i>Ithuriel</i> hasn't eyes on her that can see through the dark water,
+and if she had, how would we tell the bottom of a French or German ship
+from a Britisher's, and a nice thing it would be for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> us to go about
+sinking the King's ships, and helping those foreign devils to land in
+old England! No, Erskine, this ship of yours is a holy terror, but she's
+a daylight fighter. Don't you see that we came too late, and wait till
+to-morrow we can't, and there's the Duke's orders.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what," he continued more cheerfully, as the <i>Ithuriel</i>
+cleared the southern part of the battle, "if we could get at the
+transports we might have some fun with them, but they'll all be safe
+enough in port, loading up, and there's not much chance that they'll
+come out till our boys have been beaten and the roads are clear for
+them. Then they'll go across thinking they'll meet their pals from
+Portsmouth and Folkestone. Now, you see that line out there to the
+north-eastward?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Erskine, looking towards a long row of dim shapes which
+every now and then were brought out into ominous distinctness by the
+flashes of the shells and searchlights.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued Castellan, "if I know anything of naval tactics,
+that's the Reserve lot waiting till the battle's over. They think
+they'll win, and I think so too, thanks to those devil-ships my brother
+has made for them. Even if Beresford does come up in time, he can no
+more fight against them than anybody else. Now, there's just one chance
+that we can give him, and that is sinking the Reserve; for, you see, if
+we've only half a dozen ships left that can shoot a bit in the morning,
+they won't dare to put their transports out without a convoy, and unless
+they land them, well, they're no use."</p>
+
+<p>"Castellan," said Erskine, putting his hand on his shoulder, "you'll be
+an admiral some day. Certainly, we'll go for the convoy, for I'll be
+kicked if I can stand here watching all that going on and not have a
+hand in it. We'd better sink, and use nothing but the ram, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course," replied Castellan. "It would never do to shoot at
+them. There are too many, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> besides, we don't want them to know that
+we're here until we've sent them to the bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"And a lot they'll know about it then!" laughed Erskine. "All right," he
+continued, taking down the receiver. "Courtney and Mac can see to the
+sinking, so you'd better stop here with me and see the fun."</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, with all the pleasure in life and death," said Castellan
+grimly, as Erskine gave his orders and the <i>Ithuriel</i> immediately began
+to sink.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan was perfectly right in his conjecture as to the purpose of the
+Reserve.</p>
+
+<p>The French and German Squadron, which was intended for the last rush
+through the remnants of the crippled British fleet, consisted of four
+French and three German battleships, old and rather slow, but heavily
+armed, and much more than a match for the vessels which had already
+passed through the terrible ordeal of battle. In addition there were six
+fast second-class cruisers, and about a score of torpedo boats.</p>
+
+<p>With her decks awash and the conning-tower just on a level with the
+short, choppy waves, the <i>Ithuriel</i> ran round to the south of the line
+at ten knots, as they were anxious not to kick up any fuss in the water,
+lest a chance searchlight from the enemy might fall upon them, and lead
+to trouble. She got within a mile of the first cruiser unobserved, and
+then Erskine gave the order to quicken up. They had noticed that the
+wind was rising, and they knew that within half an hour the tide would
+be setting southward like a mill-race through the narrow strait.</p>
+
+<p>Their tactics therefore were very simple. Every cruiser and battleship
+was rammed in the sternpost; not very hard, but with sufficient force to
+crumple up the sternpost, and disable the rudder and the propellers, and
+with such precision was this done, that, until the signals of distress
+began to flash, the uninjured ships and the nearest of those engaged in
+the battle were under the impression that orders had been given for the
+Reserve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> to move south. But this supposition very soon gave place to
+panic as ship after ship swung helplessly inshore, impelled by the
+ever-strengthening tide towards the sands of Calais and the rocks of
+Gris Nez.</p>
+
+<p>Searchlights flashed furiously, but Erskine and Castellan had already
+taken the bearings of the remaining ships, and the <i>Ithuriel</i>, now ten
+feet below the water, and steered solely by compass, struck ship after
+ship, till the whole of the Reserve was drifting helplessly to
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>This, as they had both guessed, produced a double effect on the battle.
+In the first place it was impossible for the Allies to see their
+Reserve, upon which so much might depend, in such a helpless plight, and
+the admirals commanding were therefore obliged to detach ships to help
+them; and on the other hand, the British were by no means slow to take
+advantage of the position. A score of torpedo boats, and half as many
+destroyers, dashed out from behind the British lines, and, rushing
+through the hurricane of shell that was directed upon them, ran past the
+broken line of unmanageable cruisers and battleships, and torpedoed them
+at easy range. True, half of them were crumpled up, and sent to the
+bottom during the process, but that is a contingency which British
+torpedo officers and men never take the slightest notice of. The
+disabled ships were magnificent marks for torpedoes, and they had to go
+down, wherefore down they went.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the <i>Ithuriel</i> had been having a merry time among the torpedo
+flotilla of the Reserve Squadron. She rose flush with the water, put on
+full speed, and picked them up one after another on the end of her ram,
+and tossed them aside into the depths as rapidly as an enraged whale
+might have disposed of a fleet of whaleboats.</p>
+
+<p>The last boat had hardly gone down when signals were seen flashing up
+into the sky from over Dungeness.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Beresford to the rescue," said Castellan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> in a not
+over-cheerful voice. "Now if it wasn't for those devil-ships of my
+brother's there'd be mighty little left of the Allied Fleet to-morrow
+morning; but I'm afraid he won't be able to do anything against those
+amphibious <i>Flying Fishes</i>, as he calls them. Now, we'd better be off to
+London."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>&mdash;AND ENDS</h3>
+
+<p>The defenders of Dover, terribly as they had suffered, and hopeless as
+the defence really now seemed to be, were still not a little cheered by
+the tidings of the complete and crushing defeat which had been inflicted
+by Admiral Beresford and the <i>Ithuriel</i> on the French at Portsmouth and
+Folkestone, and the brilliant capture of the whole of the two
+Expeditionary Forces. Now, too, the destruction of the Allied Reserve
+made it possible to hope that at least a naval victory might be
+obtained, and the transports prevented from crossing until the remains
+of the British Fleet Reserve could be brought up to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate it might be possible, in spite of sunken ships and shattered
+fortifications, to prevent, at least for a while, the pollution of
+English soil by the presence of hostile forces, and to get on with the
+mobilisation of regulars, militia, yeomanry and volunteers, which, as
+might have been expected, this sudden declaration of war found in the
+usual state of hopeless muddle and chaos.</p>
+
+<p>But, even in the event of complete victory by sea, there would still be
+those terrible cruisers of the air to be reckoned with, and they were
+known to be as efficient as submarines as they were as airships.</p>
+
+<p>Still, much had been done, and it was no use going to meet trouble
+halfway. Moreover, Beresford's guns were beginning to talk down yonder
+to the southward, and it was time for what was left of the North Sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+Squadron and the Home Fleet to reform and man&oelig;uvre, so as to work to
+the north-eastward, and get the enemy between the two British forces.</p>
+
+<p>A very curious thing came to pass now. The French and German Fleets,
+though still much superior to the defenders, had during that first awful
+hour of the assault received a terrible mauling, especially from the
+large guns of the <i>England</i> and the <i>Scotland</i>&mdash;sisters of the
+<i>Britain</i>, and the flagships respectively of the North Sea Squadron and
+the Home Fleet&mdash;and the totally unexpected and inexplicable loss of
+their reserve; but the guns booming to the south-westward could only be
+those of Admiral Durenne's victorious fleet. He would bring them
+reinforcements more than enough, and with him, too, would come the three
+<i>Flying Fishes</i>, which had been commissioned to destroy Portsmouth and
+the battleships of the British Reserve. There need be no fear of not
+getting the transports across now, and then the march of victory would
+begin.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes the fighting almost entirely ceased. The ships which
+had been battering each other so heartily separated as if by mutual
+consent, and the French and German admirals steamed to the
+south-westward to join their allies and sweep the Strait of Dover clear
+of those who had for so many hundred years considered&mdash;yes, and kept
+it&mdash;as their own sea-freehold.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time private signals were flashed through the air to the
+<i>Flying Fishes</i> to retire on Calais, replenish their ammunition and
+motive power, which they had been using so lavishly, and return at
+daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>Thus what was left of Dover, its furiously impotent soldiery, and its
+sorely stricken inhabitants, had a respite at least until day dawned and
+showed them the extent of the ruin that had been wrought.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly midnight when the three fleets joined, and just about
+eight bells the clouds parted and dissolved under the impact of a stiff
+nor'-easter, which had been gathering strength for the last two hours.
+The war<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> smoke drifted away, and the moon shone down clearly on the now
+white-crested battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>By its light and their own searchlights the French and German admirals,
+steaming as they thought to join hands with their victorious friends,
+saw the strangest and most exasperating sight that their eyes had ever
+beheld. The advancing force was a curiously composed one. Trained, as
+they were, to recognise at first sight every warship of every nation,
+they could nevertheless hardly believe their eyes. There were six
+battleships in the centre of the first line. One was the <i>Britain</i>,
+three others were of the <i>Edward the Seventh</i> class; two were French. Of
+the sixteen cruisers which formed the wings, seven were French&mdash;and
+every warship of the whole lot was flying the White Ensign!</p>
+
+<p>Did it mean disaster&mdash;almost impossible disaster&mdash;or was it only a <i>ruse
+de guerre</i>?</p>
+
+<p>They were not left very long in doubt. At three miles from a direction
+almost due south-east of Dover, the advancing battleships opened fire
+with their heavy forward guns, and the cruisers spread out in a fan on
+either side of the French and German Fleets. The <i>Britain</i>, as though
+glorying in her strength and speed, steamed ahead in solitary pride
+right into the midst of the Allies, thundering and flaming ahead and
+from each broadside. The <i>Braunschweig</i> had the bad luck to get in her
+way. She made a desperate effort to get out of it; but eighteen knots
+was no good against twenty-five. The huge ram crashed into her vitals as
+she swerved, and reeling and pitching like some drunken leviathan, she
+went down with a mighty plunge, and the <i>Britain</i> ploughed on over the
+eddies that marked her ocean grave.</p>
+
+<p>This was the beginning of the greatest and most decisive sea-fight that
+had been fought since Trafalgar. The sailors of Britain knew that they
+were fighting not only for the honour of their King and country, but, as
+British sailors had not done for a hundred and four years, for the very
+existence of England and the Empire. On<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the other hand, the Allies knew
+that this battle meant the loss or the keeping of the command of the
+sea, and therefore the possibility or otherwise of starving the United
+Kingdom into submission after the landing had been effected.</p>
+
+<p>So from midnight until dawn battleship thundered against battleship, and
+cruiser engaged cruiser, while the torpedo craft darted with flaming
+funnels in and out among the wrestling giants, and the submarines did
+their deadly work in silence. Miracles of valour and devotion were
+achieved on both sides. From admiral and commodore and captain in the
+conning-towers to officers and men in barbettes and casemates, and the
+sweating stokers and engineers in their steel prisons&mdash;which might well
+become their tombs&mdash;every man risked and gave his life as cheerfully as
+the most reckless commander or seaman on the torpedo flotillas.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fight to the death, and every man knew it, and accepted the
+fact with the grim joy of the true fighting man.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, no detailed description of the battle of Dover would be
+possible, even if it were necessary to the narrative. Not a man who
+survived it could have written such a description. All that was known to
+the officials on shore was that every now and then an aerogram came,
+telling in broken fragments of the sinking of a battleship or cruiser on
+one side or the other, and the gradual weakening of the enemy's defence;
+but to those who were waiting and watching so anxiously along the line
+of cliffs, the only tidings that came were told by the gradual
+slackening of the battle-thunder, and the ever-diminishing frequency of
+the pale flashes of flame gleaming through the drifting gusts of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Then at last morning dawned, and the pale November sun lit up as sorry a
+scene as human eyes had ever looked upon. Not a fourth of the ships
+which had gone into action on either side were still afloat, and these
+were little better than drifting wrecks.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>All along the shore from East Wear Bay to the South Foreland lay the
+shattered, shell-riddled hulks of what twelve hours before had been the
+finest battleships and cruisers afloat, run ashore in despair to save
+the lives of the few who had come alive through that awful battle-storm.
+Outside them showed the masts and fighting-tops of those which had sunk
+before reaching shore, and outside these again lay a score or so of
+battleships and a few armoured cruisers, some down by the head, some by
+the stern, and some listing badly to starboard or port&mdash;still afloat,
+and still with a little fight left in them, in spite of their gashed
+sides, torn decks, riddled topworks and smashed barbettes.</p>
+
+<p>But, ghastly as the spectacle was, it was not long before a mighty cheer
+went rolling along the cliffs and over the ruined town for, whether flew
+the French or German flag, there was not a ship that French or German
+sailor or marine had landed on English soil save as prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The old Sea Lion had for the first time in three hundred and fifty years
+been attacked in his lair, and now as then he had turned and rent the
+insolent intruder limb from limb.</p>
+
+<p>The main German Fleet and the French Channel Fleet and North Sea
+Squadrons had ceased to exist within twenty-four hours of the
+commencement of hostilities.</p>
+
+<p>Once more Britain had vindicated her claim to the proud title of Queen
+of the Seas; once more the thunder of her enemies' guns had echoed back
+from her white cliffs&mdash;and the echo had been a message of defeat and
+disaster.</p>
+
+<p>If the grim game of war could only have been played now as it had been
+even five years before, the victory would have already been with her,
+for the cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard had that morning brought the
+news from Admiral Commerell, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean,
+that he had been attacked by, and had almost destroyed, the combined
+French Mediterranean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> and Russian Black Sea Fleets, and that, with the
+aid of an Italian Squadron, he was blockading Toulon, Marseilles and
+Bizerta. The captured French and Russian ships capable of repair had
+been sent to Malta and Gibraltar to refit.</p>
+
+<p>This, under the old conditions, would, of course, have meant checkmate
+in the game of invasion, since not a hostile ship of any sort would have
+dared to put to sea, and the crowded transports would have been as
+useless as so many excursion steamers, but&mdash;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>DISASTER</h3>
+
+<p>About eight o'clock, as the half-wrecked victors and vanquished were
+slowly struggling into the half-ruined harbour, five winged shapes
+became visible against the grey sky over Calais, rapidly growing in
+size, and a few minutes later two more appeared, approaching from the
+north-east. They, alas, were the heralds of a fate against which all the
+gallantry and skill of Britain's best sailors and soldiers would fight
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>The two from the north-east were, of course, the <i>Flying Fish</i> and the
+<i>See Adler</i>; the others were those which had been ordered to load up at
+the Calais depot, and complete that victory of the Allied Fleets which
+the science and devotion of British sailors had turned into utter
+defeat.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan, standing in the conning-tower of the <i>Flying Fish</i>,
+looking down over sea and land through his prismatic binoculars,
+suddenly ground his teeth hard together, and sent a hearty Irish curse
+hissing between them. He had a complete plan of the operations in his
+possession, and knew perfectly what to expect&mdash;but what was this?</p>
+
+<p>Dover and its fortifications were in ruins, as they ought to have been
+by this time; but the British Flag still floated over them! The harbour
+was almost filled with mutilated warships, and others were slowly
+steaming towards the two entrances; but every one of these was flying
+the White Ensign of England! There was not a French or German flag to be
+seen&mdash;and there, all along the coast, which should have been in the
+possession of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> Allies by now, lay the ragged line of helpless hulks
+which would never take the sea again.</p>
+
+<p>What had happened? Where were the splendid fleets which were to have
+battered the English defence into impotence? Where was the Reserve,
+which was to have convoyed the transports across the narrow waters?
+Where were the transports themselves and the half million men, horses
+and artillery which to-day they were to land upon the stricken shores of
+Kent?</p>
+
+<p>With that marvellous intuition which is so often allied with the Keltic
+genius, he saw in a flash all, or something like all, that had really
+happened as a consequence of the loss of the depot ship at Spithead, and
+the venting of his own mad hatred of the Saxon on the three defenceless
+towns. The Channel Fleet had come, after all, in time, and defeated
+Admiral Durenne's fleet; the Reserve cruisers had escaped, and
+Portsmouth had been re-taken!</p>
+
+<p>Would that have happened if he had used the scores of shells which he
+had wasted in mere murder and destruction against the ships of the
+Channel Fleet? It would not, and no one knew it better than he did.</p>
+
+<p>Still, even now there was time to retrieve that ghastly mistake which
+had cost the Allies a good deal more than even he had guessed at. He was
+Admiral of the A&euml;rial Squadrons, and, save under orders from
+headquarters, free to act as he thought fit against the enemy. If his
+passion had lost victory he could do nothing less than avenge defeat.</p>
+
+<p>He ran up his telescopic mast and swerved to the southward to meet the
+squadron from Calais, flying his admiral's flag, and under it the
+signal:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Flying Fish</i> and the <i>See Adler</i> quickened up, and the others
+slowed down until they met about two thousand feet above the sea.
+Castellan ran the <i>Flying Fish</i> alongside the Commodore of the other
+Squadron, and in ten minutes he had learned what the other had to tell,
+and arranged a plan of operations.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>Within the next five minutes three of the seven craft had dropped to
+the water and disappeared beneath it. The other four, led by the <i>Flying
+Fish</i>, winged their way towards Dover.</p>
+
+<p>The a&euml;rial section of the squadron made straight for the harbour. The
+submarine section made south-westward to cut off the half dozen "lame
+ducks" which were still struggling towards it. With these, unhappily,
+was the <i>Scotland</i>, the huge flagship of the North Sea Squadron, which
+still full of fight, was towing the battleship <i>Commonwealth</i>, whose
+rudder and propellers had been disabled by a torpedo from a French
+submarine.</p>
+
+<p>She was, of course, the first victim selected. Two <i>Flying Fishes</i>
+dived, one under her bows and one under her stern, and each discharged
+two torpedoes.</p>
+
+<p>No fabric made by human hands could have withstood the shock of the four
+explosions which burst out simultaneously. The sore-stricken leviathan
+stopped, shuddered and reeled, smitten to death. For a few moments she
+floundered and wallowed in the vast masses of foaming water that rose up
+round her&mdash;and when they sank she took a mighty sideward reel and
+followed them.</p>
+
+<p>The rest met their inevitable fate in quick succession, and went down
+with their ensigns and pennants flying&mdash;to death, but not to defeat or
+disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>The ten British submarines which were left from the fight had already
+put out to try conclusions with the <i>Flying Fishes</i>; but a porpoise
+might as well have tried to hunt down a northern diver. As soon as each
+<i>Flying Fish</i> had finished its work of destruction it spread its wings
+and leapt into the air&mdash;and woe betide the submarine whose periscope
+showed for a moment above the water, for in that moment a torpedo fell
+on or close to it, and that submarine dived for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the horrors of the past afternoon and evening were being
+repeated in the crowded harbour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> and on shore, until a frightful
+catastrophe befell the remains of the British Fleet.</p>
+
+<p>John Castellan, with two other craft, was examining the forts from a
+height of four thousand feet, and dropping a few torpedoes into any
+which did not appear to be completely wrecked. The captain of another
+was amusing himself by dispersing, in more senses than one, the
+helpless, terror-stricken crowds on the cliffs whence they had lately
+cheered the last of Britain's naval victories, and the rest were
+circling over the harbour at a height of three thousand feet, letting go
+torpedoes whenever a fair mark presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the fight, if fight it could be called, was hopeless from the
+first; but your British sailor is not the man to take even a hopeless
+fight lying down, and so certain gallant but desperate spirits on board
+the <i>England</i>, which was lying under what was left of the Admiralty
+Pier, got permission to dismount six 3-pounders and remount them as a
+battery for high-angle fire. The intention, of course, was, as the
+originator of the idea put it: "To bring down a few of those flying
+devils before they could go inland and do more damage there."</p>
+
+<p>The intention was as good as it was unselfish, for the ingenious officer
+in charge of the battery knew as well as his admiral that the fleet was
+doomed to destruction in detail&mdash;but the first volley that battery fired
+was the last.</p>
+
+<p>A few of the shells must have hit a French <i>Flying Fish</i>, which was
+circling above the centre of the harbour, and disabled the wings and
+propellors on one side, for she lurched and wobbled for an instant like
+a bird with a broken wing. Then she swooped downwards in a spiral
+course, falling ever faster and faster, till she struck the deck of the
+<i>Britain</i>.</p>
+
+<p>What happened the next instant no one ever knew. Those who survived said
+that they heard a crashing roar like the firing of a thousand cannon
+together; a blinding sheet of flame overspread the harbour; the water
+rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> into mountains of foam, ships rocked and crashed against each
+other&mdash;and then came darkness and oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>When human eyes next looked on Dover Harbour there was not a ship in it
+afloat.</p>
+
+<p>Dover, the great stronghold of the south-east, was now as defenceless as
+a fishing village, and there was nothing to prevent a constant stream of
+transports filled with men and materials of war being poured into it, or
+any other port along the eastern Kentish coast. Then would come seizure
+of railway stations and rolling stock, rapid landing of men and horses
+and guns, and the beginning of the great advance.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, John Castellan was well satisfied with his work. He
+regretted the loss of his consort; but she had not been wasted. The
+remains of the British fleets had gone with her to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly what had been done had brought nearer the time when he, the
+real organiser of victory, the man who had made the conquest of England
+possible, would be able to claim his double reward&mdash;the independence of
+Ireland, and the girl whom he intended to make the uncrowned Queen of
+Erin.</p>
+
+<p>It was a splendid and, to him, a delicious dream as well; but between
+him and its fulfilment, what a chaos of bloodshed, ruin and human misery
+lay! And yet he felt not a tremor of compunction or of pity for the
+thousands of brave men who would be flung dead and mangled and tortured
+into the bloody mire of battle, for the countless homes that would be
+left desolate, or for the widows and the fatherless whose agony would
+cry to Heaven for justice on him.</p>
+
+<p>No; these things were of no account in his eyes. Ireland must be free,
+and the girl he had come to love so swiftly, and with such consuming
+passion, must be his. Nothing else mattered. Was he not Lord of the Air,
+and should the desire of his heart be denied him?</p>
+
+<p>Thus mused John Castellan in the conning-tower of the <i>Flying Fish</i>, as
+he circled slowly above the ruins of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> Dover, while the man who had
+beaten him in the swimming-race was sitting in the observatory on
+far-off Whernside, verifying his night's observations and calculating
+for the hundredth time the moment of the coming of an Invader, compared
+with which all the armed legions of Europe were of no more importance
+than a swarm of flies.</p>
+
+<p>When he had satisfied himself that Dover was quite defenceless he sent
+one of the French <i>Flying Fishes</i> across to Calais with a letter to the
+District Commander, describing briefly what had taken place, and telling
+him that it would be now quite safe for the transports to cross the
+Straits and land the troops at Portsmouth, Newhaven, Folkestone, Dover
+and Ramsgate.</p>
+
+<p>He would station one of his airships over each of these places to
+prevent any resistance from land or sea, and would himself make a
+general reconnaissance of the military dispositions of the defenders. He
+advised that the three <i>Flying Fishes</i>, which had been reserved for the
+defence of the Kiel Canal, should be telegraphed for as convoys, as
+there was now no danger of attack, and that the depot of torpedoes and
+motive power for his ships should be transferred from Calais to Dover.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had despatched this letter, Castellan ordered two of his
+remaining ships to cruise northward to Ramsgate, keeping mainly along
+the track of the railway, one on each side of it, and to wreck the first
+train they saw approaching Dover, Deal, Sandwich and Ramsgate from the
+north. The other two he ordered to take the Western Coast line as far as
+Portsmouth, and do the same with trains coming east.</p>
+
+<p>Then he swung the <i>Flying Fish</i> inland, and took a run over Canterbury,
+Ashford, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Guildford and Winchester, to Southampton
+and Portsmouth, returning by Chichester, Horsham and Tunbridge Wells.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a tour of observation for the purpose of discovering the
+main military dispositions of the defenders&mdash;who were now concentrating
+as rapidly as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> possible upon Folkestone and Dover&mdash;but he found time to
+stop and drop a torpedo or two into each town or fort that he passed
+over&mdash;just leaving cards, as he said to M'Carthy&mdash;as a promise of
+favours to come.</p>
+
+<p>He also wrecked half a dozen long trains, apparently carrying troops,
+and incidentally caused a very considerable loss of good lives and much
+confusion, to say nothing of the moral effect which this new and
+terrible form of attack produced upon the nerves of Mr Thomas Atkins.</p>
+
+<p>When he got back to Dover he found a letter waiting for him from the
+General informing him that the transports would sail at once, and that
+his requests would be complied with.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS</h3>
+
+<p>It was on the day following the destruction of Dover that the news of
+the actual landing of the French and German forces had really taken
+place at the points selected by Castellan reached Whernside. The little
+house party were at lunch, and the latest papers had just come over from
+Settle. Naturally what they contained formed the sole topic of
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Arnold, I think even you must confess that things are a great
+deal more serious than anyone could have imagined a few days ago. The
+very idea&mdash;an invasion accomplished in forty-eight hours&mdash;Portsmouth,
+Dover, Sheerness and Tilbury destroyed, and French and German and
+Russian soldiers actually in arms on English soil. The thing would be
+preposterous if it were not true!</p>
+
+<p>"And what are we to do now, I should like to know? The Fleet doesn't
+exist&mdash;we have no army in the Continental sense of the word, which of
+course is the real military sense, thanks to a lot of politicians
+calling themselves statesmen who have been squabbling about what an army
+ought to be for the last ten years.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be able to put a million trained and half-trained&mdash;mostly
+half-trained&mdash;men into the field, to face millions of highly-trained
+French, German, Russian and Austrian troops, led by officers who have
+taken their profession seriously, and not by gentlemen who have gone
+into the army because it was a nice sort of playground, where you could
+have lots of fun, and a little amateur fighting now and then. I wonder
+what they will do now against the men who have made war a science
+instead of sport!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>"I should like to know what the good people who have made such a fuss
+about the 'tyranny of Conscription' will say now, when they find that we
+haven't trained men enough to defend our homes. Just as if military
+service was not the first duty a man owes to his country and to his
+home. A man has no right to a country nor a home if he isn't able to
+defend them. Kipling was perfectly right when he said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div class="i4">'What is your boasting worth</div>
+<div>If you grudge a year of service to the lordliest life on earth?'"</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This little lecture was delivered with trembling lips, flushed cheeks
+and flashing eyes by Lady Margaret Holker, Lord Westerham's sister, who
+had joined the party that morning to help her brother in his recruiting.</p>
+
+<p>She was an almost perfect type of the modern highly-bred Englishwoman,
+who knows how to be entirely modern without being vulgarly "up-to-date."
+She was a strong contrast to her brother, in that she was a bright
+brunette&mdash;not beautiful, perhaps not even pretty, but for all that
+distinctly good-looking. Her hair and eyebrows were black, her eyes a
+deep pansy-blue. A clear complexion, usually pale but decidedly flushed
+now, and, for the rest, somewhat irregular features which might have
+been almost plain, but for that indefinable expression of combined
+gentleness and strength which only the careful selection of long descent
+can give.</p>
+
+<p>As for her figure, it was as perfect as absolute health and abundant
+exercise could make it. She could ride, shoot, throw a fly and steer a
+yacht better than most women and many men of her class; but for all that
+she could grill steaks and boil potatoes with as much distinction as she
+could play the piano and violin, and sing in three or four languages.</p>
+
+<p>She also had a grip, not on politics, for which she had a wholesome
+contempt, but on the affairs of the nations&mdash;the things which really
+mattered. And yet withal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> she was just an entirely healthy young
+Englishwoman, who was quite as much at home in the midst of a good
+swinging waltz as she was in an argument on high affairs of State.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Madge," said her brother, who had been reading the reports in
+the second morning edition of the <i>Times</i> aloud, "I am afraid that,
+after all, you are right. But then, you must not forget that a new enemy
+has come into the field. I hardly like to say so in Miss Castellan's
+presence, but it is perfectly clear that, considering what the Fleet
+did, there would have been no invasion if it had not been for those
+diabolical contrivances that John Castellan took over to the German
+Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't have any hesitation in saying what you like about him
+before me, Lord Westerham," said Norah, flushing. "It's no brother he is
+of mine now, as I told him the day he went aboard the German yacht at
+Clifden. I'd see him shot to-morrow without a wink of my eyes. The man
+who does what he has done has no right to the respect of any man nor the
+love of any woman&mdash;no, not even if the woman is his sister. Think of all
+the good, loyal Irishmen, soldiers and sailors, that he has murdered by
+this time. No, I have no brother called John Castellan."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have another called Denis," said Auriole, "and I think you may
+be well content with him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Denis!" said Norah, flushing again, but for a different reason,
+"Denis is a good and loyal man; yes, I am proud of him&mdash;God bless him!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I should reckon that skipper of his, Captain Erskine, must be a
+pretty smart sort of man," said Mr Parmenter, who so far had hardly
+joined in the conversation, and who had seemed curiously indifferent to
+the terrible exploits of the <i>Flying Fishes</i> and all that had followed
+them. "That craft of his seems to be just about as business-like as
+anything that ever got into the water or under it. I wonder what he is
+doing with the Russian and German ships in the Thames now. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> guess he
+won't let many of them get back out of there. Quite a young man, too,
+according to the accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Lady Margaret, "he isn't twenty-nine yet. I know him
+slightly. He is a son of Admiral Erskine, who commanded the China
+Squadron about eight years ago, and died of fever after a pirate hunt,
+and he is the nephew of dear old Lady Caroline Anstey, my other mother
+as I call her. He is really a splendid fellow, and some people say as
+good-looking as he is clever; although, of course, there was a desperate
+lot of jealousy when he was promoted Captain straight away from
+Lieutenant-Commander of a Fishery cruiser, but I should like to know how
+many of the wiseacres of Whitehall could have designed that <i>Ithuriel</i>
+of his."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity she can't fly, though, like those others," said Mr
+Parmenter, with a curious note in his voice which no one at the table
+but Lennard understood. "She's a holy terror in the water, but the other
+fellow's got all the call on land. If they get a dozen or so of these
+a&euml;rial submarines as you might call them, in front of the invading
+forces, I can't see what's going to stop a march on London, and right
+round it. Your men are just as brave as any on earth, and a bit more
+than some, if their officers are a bit more gentlemen and sportsmen than
+soldiers; but no man can fight a thing he can't hit back at, and so I
+reckon the next thing we shall hear of will be the siege of London. What
+do you think, Lennard?"</p>
+
+<p>Lennard, who had hardly spoken a word during the meal, looked up, and
+said in a voice which Lady Madge thought curiously unsympathetic:</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't think it would take more than a fortnight at the outside,
+even leaving these airships out of the question. We haven't three
+hundred thousand men of all sorts to put into the field, who know one
+end of a gun from another, or who can sit a horse; and now that the
+sea's clear the enemy can land two or three millions in a fortnight."</p>
+
+<p>"All our merchant shipping will be absolutely at their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> mercy, and they
+will simply have to take them over to France and Germany and load them
+up with men and horses, and bring them over as if they were coming to a
+picnic. But, of course, with the airships to help them the thing's a
+foregone conclusion, and to a great extent it is our own fault. I
+thoroughly agree with what Lady Margaret says about conscription. If we
+had had it only five years ago, we should now have three million men,
+instead of three hundred thousand, trained and ready to take the field.
+Though, after all&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"After all&mdash;what?" said Lady Margaret, looking sharply round at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing of any importance," he said. "At least, not just at
+present. I daresay Lord Westerham will be able to explain what I might
+have said better than I could. There's not time for it just now, I've
+got to get a train to Bolton in an hour's time."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll have to be in Glasgow to-night," said Mr Parmenter, rising. "I
+hope you won't think it very inhospitable of us, Lady Margaret: but
+business is business, you know, and more so than usual in times like
+these.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I had better say good-bye. I have a few things to see to before Mr
+Lennard and I go down to Settle, but I've no doubt Auriole will find
+some way of entertaining you till you want to start for York."</p>
+
+<p>At half-past two the motor was at the door to take Mr Parmenter and
+Lennard to Settle. That evening, in Glasgow, Mr Parmenter bought the
+<i>Minnehaha</i>, a steel turbine yacht of two thousand tons and twenty-five
+knots speed, from Mr Hendray Chinnock, a brother millionaire, who had
+laid her up in the Clyde in consequence of the war the day before. He
+re-engaged her officers and crew at double wages to cover war risks, and
+started for New York within an hour of the completion of the purchase.</p>
+
+<p>Lennard took the express to Bolton, with letters and a deed of gift from
+Lord Westerham, which gave him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> absolute ownership of the cannel mine
+with the twelve-hundred-foot vertical shaft at Farnworth.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon and evening Lady Margaret was more than entertained, for
+during the afternoon she learned the story of the approaching cataclysm,
+in comparison with which the war was of no more importance than a mere
+street riot; and that night Auriole, who had learned to work the great
+reflector almost as well as Lennard himself, showed her the
+ever-growing, ever-brightening shape of the Celestial Invader.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>TOM BOWCOCK&mdash;PITMAN</h3>
+
+<p>Lennard found himself standing outside the Trinity Street Station at
+Bolton a few minutes after six that evening.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it was raining. Rain and fine-spun cotton thread are Bolton's
+specialities, the two chief pillars of her fame and prosperity, for
+without the somewhat distressing superabundance of the former she could
+not spin the latter fine enough. It would break in the process.
+Wherefore the good citizens of Bolton cheerfully put up with the dirt
+and the damp and the abnormal expenditure on umbrellas and mackintoshes
+in view of the fact that all the world must come to Bolton for its
+finest threads.</p>
+
+<p>He stood for a moment looking about him curiously, if with no great
+admiration in his soul, for this was his first sight of what was to be
+the scene of the greatest and most momentous undertaking that human
+skill had ever dared to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>But the streets of Bolton on a wet night do not impress a stranger very
+favourably, so he had his flat steamer-trunk and hat-box put on to a cab
+and told the driver to take him to the Swan Hotel, in Deansgate, where
+he had a wash and an excellent dinner, to which he was in a condition to
+do full justice&mdash;for though nation may rage against nation, and worlds
+and systems be in peril, the healthy human digestion goes on making its
+demands all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> the time, and, under the circumstances, blessed is he who
+can worthily satisfy them.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a cup of coffee and a meditative cigar, he put on his
+mackintosh, sent for a cab, and drove to number 134 Manchester Road,
+which is one of a long row of small, two-storeyed brick houses, as clean
+as the all-pervading smoke and damp will permit them to be, but not
+exactly imposing in the eyes of a new-comer.</p>
+
+<p>When the door opened in answer to his knock he saw by the light of a
+lamp hanging from the ceiling of the narrow little hall a small, slight,
+neatly-dressed figure, and a pair of dark, soft eyes looked up
+inquiringly at him as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr Bowcock at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is," replied a voice softly and very pleasantly tinged with the
+Lancashire accent. Then in a rather higher key the voice said:</p>
+
+<p>"Tom, ye're wanted."</p>
+
+<p>As she turned away Lennard paid his cabman, and when he went back to the
+door he found the passage almost filled by a tall, square-shouldered
+shape of a man, and a voice to match it said:</p>
+
+<p>"If ye're wantin' Tom Bowcock, measter, that's me. Will ye coom in? It's
+a bit wet i' t' street."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard went in, and as the door closed he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Bowcock, my name is Lennard&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I thou't it might be," interrupted the other. "You'll be Lord
+Westerham's friend. I had a wire from his lordship's morning telling me
+t' expect you to-night or to-morrow morning. You'll excuse t' kitchen
+for a minute while t' missus makes up t' fire i' t' sittin'-room."</p>
+
+<p>When Lennard got into the brightly-lighted kitchen, which is really the
+living-room of small Lancashire houses, he found himself in an
+atmosphere of modest cosy comfort which is seldom to be found outside
+the North and the Midland manufacturing districts. It is the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> side
+of the hard, colourless life that is lived in mill and mine and forge,
+and it has a charm that is all its own.</p>
+
+<p>There was the big range, filling half the space of one of the
+side-walls, its steel framings glittering like polished silver; the high
+plate-rack full of shining crockery at one end by the door, and the low,
+comfortable couch at the other; two lines of linen hung on cords
+stretched under the ceiling airing above the range, and the solid deal
+table in the middle of the room was covered with a snow-white cloth, on
+which a pretty tea-service was set out.</p>
+
+<p>A brightly polished copper kettle singing on the range, and a daintily
+furnished cradle containing a sleeping baby, sweetly unconscious of wars
+or world-shaking catastrophes, completed a picture which, considering
+his errand, affected Gilbert Lennard very deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"Lizzie" said the giant, "this is Mr Lennard as his lordship telegraphed
+about to-day. I daresay yo can give him a cup of tay and see to t' fire
+i' t' sittin'-room. I believe he's come to have a bit of talk wi' me
+about summat important from what his lordship said."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm pleased to see you, Mr Lennard," said the pleasant voice, and as he
+shook hands he found himself looking into the dark, soft eyes of a
+regular "Lancashire witch," for Lizzie Bowcock had left despair in the
+heart of many a Lancashire lad when she had put her little hand into big
+Tom's huge fist and told him that she'd have him for her man and no one
+else.</p>
+
+<p>She left the room for a few minutes to see to the sitting-room fire, and
+Lennard turned to his host and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Bowcock, I have come to see you on a matter which will need a good
+deal of explanation. It will take quite a couple of hours to put the
+whole thing before you, so if you have any other engagements for
+to-night, no doubt you can take a day off to-morrow&mdash;in fact, as the pit
+will have to stop working&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><p>"T' 'pit stop working, Mr Lennard!" exclaimed the manager. "Yo' dunno
+say so. Is that his lordship's orders? Why, what's up?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain everything, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard, "only, for her
+own sake, your wife must know nothing at present. The only question is,
+shall we have a talk to-night or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it's anything that's bad," replied the big miner with a deeper note
+in his voice, "I'd soonest hear it now. Mysteries don't get any t'
+better for keepin'. Besides, it'll give me time to sleep on't; and
+that's not a bad thing to do when yo've a big job to handle."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Bowcock came back as he said this, and Lennard had his cup of tea,
+and they of course talked about the war. Naturally, the big miner and
+his pretty little wife were the most interested people in Lancashire
+just then, for to no one else in the County Palatine had been given the
+honour of hearing the story of the great battle off the Isle of Wight
+from the lips of one who had been through it on board the now famous
+<i>Ithuriel</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But when Tom Bowcock came out of the little sitting-room three hours
+later, after Lennard had told him of the approaching doom of the world
+and had explained to him how his pit-shaft was to be used as a means of
+averting it&mdash;should that, after all, prove to be possible&mdash;his interest
+in the war had diminished very considerably, for he had already come to
+see clearly that this was undeniably a case of the whole being very much
+greater than the part.</p>
+
+<p>Tom Bowcock was one of those men, by no means rare in the north, who
+work hard with hands and head at the same time. He was a pitman, but he
+was also a scientific miner, almost an engineer, and so Lennard had
+found very little difficulty in getting him to grasp the details of the
+tremendous problem in the working out of which he was destined to play
+no mean part.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p>"Well, Measter Lennard," he said, slowly, as they rose from the little
+table across which a very large amount of business had been transacted.
+"It's a pretty big job this that yo've putten into our hands, and
+especially into mine; but I reckon they'll be about big enough for it;
+and yo've come to t' right place, too. I've never heard yet of a job as
+Lancashire took on to as hoo didn't get through wi'.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, from what yo've been telling me, yo' must be a bit of an early
+riser sometimes, so if yo'll come here at seven or so i' t' mornin',
+I'll fit yo' out wi' pit clothes and we'll go down t' shaft and yo' can
+see for yoursel' what's wantin' doin'. Maybe that'll help yo' before yo'
+go and make yo'r arrangements wi' Dobson &amp; Barlow and t'other folk as
+yo'll want to help yo'."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard. "You will find me
+here pretty close about seven. It's a big job, as you say, and there's
+not much time to be lost. Now, if Mrs Bowcock has not gone to bed, I'll
+go and say good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"She's no'on to bed yet," said his host, "and yo'll take a drop o'
+summat warm before yo' start walkin' to t' hotel, for yo'll get no cab
+up this way to-neet. She'll just have been puttin' t' youngster to
+bed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tom Bowcock stopped suddenly in his speech as a swift vision of that
+same "youngster" and his mother choking in the flames of the Fire-Mist
+passed across his senses. Lennard had convinced his intellect of the
+necessity of the task of repelling the Celestial Invader and of the
+possibility of success; but from that moment his heart was in the work.</p>
+
+<p>It had stopped raining and the sky had cleared a little when they went
+to the door half an hour later. To the right, across the road, rose a
+tall gaunt shape like the skeleton of an elongated pyramid crowned with
+two big wheels. Lights were blazing round it, for the pit was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> working
+night and day getting the steam coal to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder's t' shaft," said Tom, as they shook hands. "It doesn't look
+much of a place to save the world in, does it?"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>PREPARING FOR ACTION</h3>
+
+<p>The next day was a busy one, not only for Lennard himself but for others
+whose help he had come to enlist in the working out of the Great
+Experiment.</p>
+
+<p>He turned up at Bowcock's house on the stroke of seven, got into his pit
+clothes, and was dropped down the twelve-hundred-foot shaft in the cage.
+At the bottom of the shaft he found a solid floor sloping slightly
+eastward, with three drives running in fan shape from north-east and
+south-east. There were two others running north and north-west.</p>
+
+<p>After ten minutes' very leisurely walk round the base of the shaft,
+during which he made one or two observations by linear and perpendicular
+compass, he said to Tom Bowcock:</p>
+
+<p>"I think this will do exactly. The points are absolutely correct. If we
+had dug a hole for ourselves we couldn't have got one better than this.
+Yes, I think it will just do. Now, will you be good enough to take me to
+the surface as slowly as you can?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but yo're not meanin' that, Measter Lennard," laughed the manager.
+"'Cause if I slowed t' engines down as much as I could you'd be the rest
+o' t' day getting to t' top."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course, I didn't mean that," said Lennard, "but just
+slowly&mdash;about a tenth of the speed that you dropped me into the bowels
+of the earth with. You see, I want to have a look at the sides."</p>
+
+<p>"Yo' needna' trouble about that, Mr Lennard, I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> give yo' drawin's of
+all that in t' office, but still yo' can see for yo'rself by the
+drawin's afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>The cage ascended very slowly, and Lennard did see for himself. But when
+later on he studied the drawings that Tom Bowcock had made, he found
+that there wasn't as much as a stone missing. When he had got into his
+everyday clothes again, and had drunk a cup of tea brewed for him by Mrs
+Bowcock, he said as he shook hands with her husband:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as far as the pit is concerned, I have seen all that I want to
+see, and Lord Westerham was just as right about the pit as he was about
+the man who runs it. Now, I take it over from to-day. You will stop all
+mining work at once, close the entrances to the galleries and put down a
+bed of concrete ten feet thick, level. Then you will go by the drawings
+that I gave you last night.</p>
+
+<p>"At present, the concreting of the walls in as perfect a circle as you
+can make them, not less than sixteen feet inner diameter, and building
+up the concrete core four feet thick from the floor to the top, is your
+first concern. You will tell your men that they will have double wages
+for day work and treble for night work, and whether they belong to the
+Volunteers or Yeomanry or Militia they will not be called to the Colours
+as long as they keep faith with us; if the experiment turns out all
+right, every man who sees it through shall have a bonus of a thousand
+pounds.</p>
+
+<p>"But, remember, that this pit will be watched, and every man who signs
+on for the job will be watched, and the Lord have mercy on the man who
+plays us false, for he'll want it. You must make them remember that, Mr
+Bowcock. This is no childish game of war among nations; this means the
+saving or the losing of a world, and the man who plays traitor here is
+not only betraying his own country, but the whole human race, friends
+and enemies alike."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see to that, Mr Lennard. I know my chaps, and if there's one or
+two bad 'uns among 'em, they'll get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> paid and shifted in the ordinary
+way of business. But they're mostly a gradely lot of chaps. I've been
+picking 'em out for his lordship for t' last five yeers, and there isn't
+a Trade Unionist among 'em. We give good money here and we want good
+work and good faith, and if we don't get it, the man who doesn't give it
+has got to go and find another job.</p>
+
+<p>"For wages like that they'd go on boring t' shaft right down through t'
+earth and out at t' other side, and risk finding Owd Nick and his people
+in t' middle. A' tell yo' for sure. Well, good-mornin', yo've a lot to
+do, and so have I. A'll get those galleries blocked and bricked up at
+once, and as soon as you can send t' concrete along, we'll start at t'
+floor."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard's first visit after breakfast was to the Manchester and County
+Bank in Deansgate, where he startled the manager, as far as a Lancashire
+business man can be startled, by opening an account for two hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, and depositing the title-deeds of the whole of
+Lord Westerham's properties in and about Bolton.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished his business at the Bank, he went to the offices of
+Dobson &amp; Barlow, the great ironworkers, whose four-hundred-and-ten-foot
+chimney towers into the murky sky so far above all other structures in
+Bolton that if you are approaching the town by road you see it and its
+crest of smoke long before you see Bolton itself.</p>
+
+<p>The firm had, of course, been advised of his coming, and he had written
+a note over-night to say when he would call. The name of Ratliffe
+Parmenter was a talisman to conjure with in all the business circles of
+the world, and so Lennard found Mr Barlow himself waiting for him in his
+private office.</p>
+
+<p>He opened the matter in hand very quietly, so quietly indeed that the
+keen-sighted, hard-headed man who was listening to him found that for
+once in his life he was getting a little out of his depth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>Never before had he heard such a tremendous scheme so quietly and
+calmly set forth. Bessemer furnaces were to be erected at once all round
+the pit mouth, meanwhile the firm was to contract with a Liverpool firm
+for an unlimited supply of concrete cement of the finest quality
+procurable. The whole staff of Dobson &amp; Barlow's works were to be
+engaged at an advance of twenty-five per cent. on their present wages
+for three months to carry out the work of converting the shaft of the
+Great Lever pit into the gigantic cannon which was to hurl into Space
+the projectile which might or might not save the human race from
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Even granted Lennard's unimpeachable credentials, it was only natural
+that the great iron-master should exhibit a certain amount of
+incredulity, and, being one of the best types of the Lancashire business
+man, he said quite plainly:</p>
+
+<p>"This is a pretty large order you've brought us, Mr Lennard, and
+although, of course, we know Mr Parmenter to be good enough for any
+amount of money, still, you see, contracts are contracts, and what are
+we to do with those we've got in hand now if you propose to buy up for
+three months?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Lennard, "I admit that that is an important point. The
+question is, what would it cost you to throw up or transfer to other
+firms the contracts that you now have in hand?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence of two or three minutes between them, during which
+Mr Barlow made a rapid but comprehensive calculation and Lennard took
+out his cheque-book and began to write a cheque.</p>
+
+<p>"Counting everything," said Mr Barlow, leaning back in his chair and
+looking up at the ceiling, "the transfer of our existing contracts to
+other firms of equal standing, so as to satisfy our customers, and the
+loss to ourselves for the time that you want&mdash;well, honestly, I don't
+think we could do it under twenty-five thousand pounds. You understand,
+I am saying nothing about the scientific<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> aspect of the matter, because
+I don't understand it, but that's the business side of it; and that's
+what it's going to cost you before we begin."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard filled in the cheque and signed it. He passed it across the
+table to Mr Barlow, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think that is a very reasonable figure. This will cover it and leave
+something over to go on with."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Barlow took the cheque and looked at it, and then at the calm face of
+the quiet young man who was sitting opposite him.</p>
+
+<p>The cheque was for fifty thousand pounds. While he was looking at it,
+Lennard took the bank receipt for a quarter of a million deposit from
+his pocket and gave it to him, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"You will see from this that money is really no object. As you know, Mr
+Parmenter has millions, more I suppose than he could calculate himself,
+and he is ready to spend every penny of them. You will take that just as
+earnest money."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite good enough for us, Mr Lennard," replied Mr Barlow,
+handing the bank receipt back. "The contracts shall be transferred as
+soon as we can make arrangements, and the work shall begin at once. You
+can leave everything else to us&mdash;brickwork, building, cement and all the
+rest of it&mdash;and we'll guarantee that your cannon shall be ready to fire
+off in three months from now."</p>
+
+<p>"And the projectile, Mr Barlow, are you prepared to undertake that
+also?" asked Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we will make the projectile according to your specification, but
+you will, of course, supply the bursting charge and the charge of this
+new powder of yours which is to send it into Space. You see, we can't do
+that; you'll have to get a Government permit to have such an enormous
+amount of explosives in one place, so I'll have to leave that to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall be able to arrange that, Mr Barlow," replied Lennard,
+as he got up from his seat and held his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> hand out across the table. "As
+long as you are willing to take on the engineering part of the business,
+I'll see to the rest. Now, I know that your time is quite as valuable as
+mine is, and I've got to get back to London this afternoon. To-morrow
+morning I have to go through a sort of cross-examination before the
+Cabinet&mdash;not that they matter much in the sort of crisis that we've got
+to meet.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, of course, we have to have the official sanction of the
+Government, even if it is a question of saving the world from
+destruction, but there won't be much difficulty about that, I think; and
+at any rate you'll be working on freehold property, and not even the
+Cabinet can stop that sort of work for the present. As far as everything
+connected with the mine is concerned, I hope you will be able to work
+with Mr Bowcock, who seems a very good sort of fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"If we can't work with Tom Bowcock," replied Mr Barlow, "we can't work
+with anyone on earth, and that's all there is about it. He's a big man,
+but he's good stuff all through. Lord Westerham didn't make any bad
+choice when he made him manager. And you won't dine with me to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, but I must be back to London to-night. I have to catch the
+12-15 and have an interview in Downing Street at seven, and when I've
+got through that, I don't think there will be any difficulty about the
+explosives."</p>
+
+<p>"According to all accounts, you'll be lucky if you find Downing Street
+as it used to be," said Mr Barlow. "By the papers this morning it looks
+as if London was going to have a pretty bad time of it, what with these
+airships and submarines that sink and destroy everything in sight. Now
+that they've got away with the fleet, it seems to me that it's only a
+sort of walk over for them."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm afraid it will have to be something like that for the next
+month or so," replied Lennard, thinking of a telegram which he had in
+his pocket. "But the victory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> is not all on one side yet. Of course, you
+will understand that I am not in a position to give secrets away, but as
+regards our own bargain, I am at liberty to tell you that while you are
+building this cannon of ours there will probably be some developments in
+the war which will be, I think, as unexpected as they will be startling.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact, sir," he continued, rising from his seat and holding out his
+hand across the table, "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,
+but when the time comes, I think you will find that those who believe
+that they are conquering England now will be here in Bolton faced by a
+foe against which their finest artillery will be as useless as an
+air-gun against an elephant.</p>
+
+<p>"All I ask you to remember now is that at eleven p.m. on the twelfth of
+May, the leaders of the nations who are fighting against England now
+will be standing around me in the quarry on the Belmont Road, waiting
+for the firing of the shot which I hope will save the world. If it does
+not save it, they will be welcome to all that is left of the world in an
+hour after that."</p>
+
+<p>"You are talking like a man who believes what he says, Mr Lennard,"
+replied Mr Barlow, "and, strange and all as it seems, I am beginning to
+believe with you. There never was a business like this given into human
+hands before, and, for the sake of humanity, I hope that you will be
+successful. All that we can do shall be done well and honestly. That you
+can depend on, and for the rest, we shall depend on you and your
+science. The trust that you have put in our hands to-day is a great
+honour to us, and we shall do our best to deserve it. Good-morning,
+sir."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON</h3>
+
+<p>When Lennard got out of the train at St Pancras that evening, he found
+such a sight as until a day or so ago no Londoner had ever dreamed of.
+But terrible as the happenings were, they were not quite terrible enough
+to stop the issue of the evening newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>As the train slowed down along the platform, boys were running along it
+yelling:</p>
+
+<p>"Bombardment of London from the air&mdash;dome of St Paul's smashed by a
+shell&mdash;Guildhall, Mansion House, and Bank of England in ruins&mdash;orful
+scenes in the streets. Paper, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>He got out of the carriage and grabbed the first newspaper that was
+thrust into his hand, gave the boy sixpence for it, and hurried away
+towards the entrance. He found a few cabmen outside the station; he
+hailed one of the drivers, got in, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Downing Street&mdash;quick. There's a sovereign; there'll be another for you
+when I get there."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a mighty risky job, guv'nor, these times, driving a keb through
+London streets. Still, one's got to live, I suppose. 'Old up there&mdash;my
+Gawd, that's another of those bombs! You just got out of there in time,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>Even as though it had been timed, as it might well have been, a torpedo
+dropped from a ghostly shape drifting slowly across the grey November
+clouds. Then there came a terrific shock. Every pane in the vast roof
+and in the St Pancras Hotel shivered to the dust. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> engine which had
+drawn Lennard's train blew up like one huge shell, and the carriages
+behind it fell into splinters.</p>
+
+<p>If that shell had only dropped three minutes sooner the end of the World
+war of 1910 would have been very different to what it was; for, as
+Lennard learned afterwards, of all the porters, officials and
+passengers, who had the misfortune to be in the great station at that
+moment, only half a hundred cripples, maimed for life, escaped.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether that was meant for me," said Lennard as the frightened
+horse sprang away at a half gallop. "If that's the case, John Castellan
+knows rather more than he ought to do, and, good Lord, if he knows that,
+he must know where Auriole is, and what's to stop him taking one of
+those infernal things of his up to Whernside, wrecking the house and the
+observatory, and taking her off with him to the uttermost ends of the
+earth if he likes?</p>
+
+<p>"There must be something in it or that shell would not have dropped just
+after I got outside the station. They watched the train come in, and
+they knew I was in it&mdash;they must have known.</p>
+
+<p>"What a ghastly catastrophe it would be if they got on to that scheme of
+ours at the pit. Fancy one of those a&euml;rial torpedoes of his dropping
+down the bore of the cannon a few minutes before the right time! It
+would mean everything lost, and nothing gained, not even for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, good man Erskine," he went on, as he opened the paper, and read
+that every cruiser, battleship and transport that had forced the
+entrance to the Thames and Medway had been sunk. "That will be a bit of
+a check for them, anyhow. Yes, yes, that's very good. Garrison Fort,
+Chatham and Tilbury, of course, destroyed from the air, but not a ship
+nor a man left to go and take possession of them."</p>
+
+<p>While he was reading his paper, and muttering thus to himself, the cab
+was tearing at the horse's best speed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> down Gray's Inn Road. It took a
+sudden swing to the right into Holborn, ran along New Oxford Street, and
+turned down Charing Cross Road, the horse going at a full gallop the
+whole time.</p>
+
+<p>Happily it was a good horse, or the fate of the world might have been
+different. There was no rule of the road now, and no rules against
+furious driving. London was panic-stricken, as it might well be. As far
+as Lennard could judge the a&euml;rial torpedoes were being dropped mostly in
+the neighbourhood of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and about Grosvenor
+Place and Park Lane. He half expected to find Parliament Street and
+Westminster in ruins, but for some mysterious reason they had been
+spared.</p>
+
+<p>The great City was blazing in twenty places, and scarcely a minute
+passed without the crash of an explosion and the roar of flame that
+followed it, but a magic circle seemed to have been drawn round
+Westminster. There nothing was touched, and yet the wharves on the other
+side of the river, and the great manufactories behind them, were blazing
+and vomiting clouds of flame and smoke towards the clouds as though the
+earth had been split open beneath them and the internal fires themselves
+let loose.</p>
+
+<p>When the cabman pulled up his sweating and panting horse at the door of
+Number 2 Downing Street, Lennard got out and said to the cabman:</p>
+
+<p>"You did that very well, considering the general state of things. I
+don't know whether you'll live to enjoy it or not, but there's a
+five-pound note for you, and if you'll take my advice you will get your
+wife and family, if you have one, into that cab, and drive right out
+into the country. It strikes me London's going to be a very good place
+to stop away from for the next two or three days."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank 'ee, sir," said the cabman, as he gathered up the five-pound note
+and tucked it down inside his collar. "I don't know who you are, but
+it's very kind of you;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> and as you seem to know something, I'll do as
+you say. What with these devil-ships a-flyin' about the skies, and
+dropping thunderbolts on us from the clouds, and furreners a-comin' up
+the Thames as I've heard, London ain't 'ealthy enough for me, nor the
+missus and the kids, and thanks for your kindness, sir, we're movin'
+to-night, keb an' all.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my Gawd, there's another! 'Otel Cecil and Savoy this time, if I've
+got my bearin's right. Well, there's one thing, t'ain't on'y the pore
+what's sufferin' this time; there'll be a lot of rich people dead afore
+mornin'. A pal of mine told me just now that Park Lane was burnin' from
+end t' end. Good-evenin', sir, and thenk you."</p>
+
+<p>As the cab drove away Lennard stood for a few moments on the pavement,
+watching two columns of flame soaring up from the side of the Strand.
+Perhaps the most dreadful effects produced by the a&euml;rial torpedoes were
+those which resulted from the breaking of the gas mains and the
+destruction of the electric conduits. Save for the bale-fires of ruin
+and destruction, half London was in darkness. Miles of streets under
+which the gas mains were laid blew up with almost volcanic force. The
+electric mains were severed, and all the contents dislocated, and if
+ever London deserved the name which James Thompson gave it when he
+called it "The City of Dreadful Night," it deserved it on that evening
+of the 17th of November 1909.</p>
+
+<p>Lennard was received in the Prime Minister's room by Mr Chamberlain,
+Lord Whittinghame, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Milner and General
+Lord Kitchener.</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps the strangest meeting that had ever taken place in that
+room, not even saving the historic meeting of 1886. There was very
+little talking. Even in the House of Commons the flood of talk had ebbed
+away in such a fashion that it made it possible for the nation's
+business to be got through at a wonderful speed. The fact of the matter
+was that the guns were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>talking&mdash;talking within earshot of Palace Yard
+itself, and so men had come to choose their words and make them few.</p>
+
+<p>After the introductions had been made the man who really held the fate
+of the world in his hands took a long envelope out of the breast-pocket
+of his coat, and proceeded to explain, somewhat as a schoolmaster might
+explain to his class, the doom which would overwhelm humanity on the
+12th May 1910.</p>
+
+<p>He was listened to in absolute silence, because his hearers were men who
+had good reason for believing that silence is often worth a good deal
+more than speech. When he had finished the rustle of his papers as he
+handed them to the Prime Minister was distinctly audible in the solemn
+silence. The Prime Minister folded them up, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"There is no necessity for us to go into the figures again. I think we
+are prepared to take them on the strength of your reputation, Mr
+Lennard.</p>
+
+<p>"We have asked you here to-night as an adviser, as a man who in more
+ways than one sees farther than we can. Now, what is your advice? You
+are aware, I presume, that the German Emperor, the Czar of Russia and
+the French President landed at Dover this morning, and have issued an
+ultimatum from Canterbury, calling upon us to surrender London, and
+discuss terms of peace in the interests of humanity. Now, you occupy a
+unique point of view. You have told us in your letters that unless a
+miracle happens the human race will not survive midnight of the 12th of
+May next. We believe that you are right, and now, perhaps, you will be
+good enough to let us have your opinions as to what should be done in
+the immediate present."</p>
+
+<p>"My opinion is, sir, that for at least forty days you must fight, no
+matter how great the odds may appear to be. Every ditch and hedgerow,
+every road and lane, every hill and copse must be defended. If London
+falls, England falls, and with it the Empire."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>"But how are we to do it?" exclaimed Lord Kitchener. "With these
+infernal airships flying about above it, and dropping young earthquakes
+from the clouds? There are no braver men on earth than ours, but it
+isn't human nature to keep steady under that kind of punishment. Look
+what they've done already in London! What is there to prevent them, for
+instance, from dropping a shell through the roof of this house, and
+blowing the lot of us to eternity in little pieces? It's not the
+slightest use trying to shoot back at them. You remember what happened
+to poor Beresford and the rest of his fleet in Dover Harbour. If you
+can't hit back, you can't fight."</p>
+
+<p>"That certainly appears to be perfectly reasonable," said Sir Henry
+Campbell-Bannerman. "Personally, I must confess, although with the
+greatest reluctance, that considering the enormous advantage possessed
+by the enemy in this combination of submarine and flying machine, we
+have no other alternative but to surrender at discretion. It is a
+pitiful thing to say, I am well aware, but we are fighting forces which
+would never have been called into being in any other war. I agree with
+Lord Kitchener that you cannot fight an enemy if you cannot hit him
+back. I am afraid there is no other alternative."</p>
+
+<p>"No," added Lord Whittinghame, "I am afraid there is not. By to-morrow
+morning there will be three millions of men on British soil, and we
+haven't a million to put against them&mdash;to say nothing of these horrible
+airships: but, Mr Lennard, if the world is only going to live about six
+months or so, what is the use of conquering the British Empire? Surely
+there must be another alternative."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord," replied Lennard, "there is another. I've no doubt your
+lordship has one of your motors within call. Let us go down to
+Canterbury, yourself, Lord Kitchener and myself, and I will see if I
+can't convince the German Emperor that in trying to conquer Britain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> he
+is only stabbing the waters. If I only had him at Whernside, I would
+convince him in five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'd better get hold of him and take him there," said Lord
+Kitchener. "But I'm ready for the Canterbury journey."</p>
+
+<p>"And so am I," said Lord Whittinghame, "and the sooner we're off the
+better. I've got a new Napier here that's good for seventy-five miles an
+hour, so we'd better be off."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM</h3>
+
+<p>Within five minutes they were seated in the big Napier, with ninety
+horse-power under them, and a possibility of eighty miles an hour before
+them. A white flag was fastened to a little flagstaff on the left-hand
+side. They put on their goggles and overcoats, and took Westminster
+Bridge, as it seemed, in a leap. Rochester was reached in twenty-five
+minutes, but at the southern side of Rochester Bridge they were held up
+by German sentries.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a pleasant sort of thing on English soil," growled Lord Kitchener
+as Lord Whittinghame stopped the motor.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the German Emperor here yet?" asked Lennard in German.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Herr, he is at Canterbury," replied the sentry. "Would you like to
+see the officer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Lennard, "as soon as possible. These gentlemen are Lord
+Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, and they wish to meet the Emperor as
+soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>The sentry saluted and retired, and presently a captain of Uhlans came
+clattering across the street, clicked his heels together, touched the
+side of his helmet, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"At your service, gentlemen. What can I do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We wish to get into communication with the German Emperor as soon as
+possible," replied Lord Whittinghame.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> "Is the telegraph still working
+from here to Canterbury?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is," replied the German officer; "if you will come with me to the
+office you shall be put into communication with His Majesty at once; but
+it will be necessary for me to hear what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"We're only going to try and make peace," said Lord Kitchener, "so you
+might as well hear all we've got to say. Those infernal airships of
+yours have beaten us. Will you get in? We'll run you round to the
+office."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," replied the captain of the Uhlans, "but it will be better
+if I walk on and have the line cleared. I will meet you at the office.
+Adieu."</p>
+
+<p>He stiffened up, clicked his heels again, saluted, and the next moment
+he had thrown his right leg across the horse which the orderly had
+brought up for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Not bad men, those Uhlans," said Lord Kitchener, as the car moved
+slowly towards the telegraph station. "Take a lot of beating in the
+field, I should say, if it once came to cold steel."</p>
+
+<p>They halted at the post-office, and the captain of Uhlans, who was in
+charge of all the telegraph lines of the south-east, was requested to
+send the following telegram, which was signed by Lord Whittinghame and
+Lord Kitchener.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Acting as deputation from British Government we desire interview
+with your Majesty at Canterbury, with view to putting end to
+present bloodshed, if possible, also other important news to
+communicate."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This telegram was despatched to the Kaiser at the County Hotel,
+Canterbury, and while they were waiting for the reply a message came in
+from Whitstable addressed to "Lennard, oyster merchant, Rochester,"
+which was in the following terms:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Oyster catch promises well. Advised large purchase
+to-morrow.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Robinson &amp; Smith</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><p>"That seems rather a frivolous sort of thing to send one nowadays,"
+said Lennard, dropping the paper to the floor after reading the telegram
+aloud. "I have some interest in the beds at Whitstable, and my agents,
+who don't seem to know that there's a war going on, want me to invest. I
+think it's hardly good enough, when you don't know whether you'll be in
+little pieces within the next ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you shouldn't take on a contract for supplying our
+friends the enemy," laughed Lord Kitchener, as the twinkle of an eye
+passed between them, while the captain of Uhlans' back was turned for an
+instant.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid they would be confiscated before I could do that," said
+Lennard. "I shan't bother about answering it. We have rather more
+serious things than oysters to think about just now."</p>
+
+<p>The sounder clicked, and the German telegraphist, who had taken the
+place of the English one, tapped out a message, which he handed to the
+captain of Uhlans.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, His Imperial Majesty will be glad to receive you at the
+County Hotel, Canterbury. I will give you a small flag which shall
+secure you from all molestation."</p>
+
+<p>He handed the paper to Lord Whittinghame as he spoke. The Imperial
+message read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Happy to meet deputation. Please carry German flag, which will
+secure you from molestation <i>en route</i>. I am wiring orders for
+suspension of hostilities till dawn to-morrow. I hope we may make
+satisfactory arrangements.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Wilhelm</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"That is quite satisfactory," said Lord Whittinghame to the captain of
+Uhlans. "We shall be much obliged to you for the flag, and you will
+perhaps telegraph down the road saying that we are not to be stopped. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+can assure you that the matter is one of the utmost urgency."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my lord," replied the captain. "His Majesty's word is given.
+That is enough for us."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later the big Napier, flying the German flag on the
+left-hand side, was spinning away through Chatham, and down the straight
+road to Canterbury. They slowed up going through Sittingbourne and
+Faversham, which were already in the hands of the Allied forces, thanks
+to John Castellan's precautions in blocking all railroads to Dover, and
+the German flag was saluted by the garrisons, much to Lord Kitchener's
+quietly-expressed displeasure, but he knew they were playing for a big
+stake, and so he just touched his cap, as they swung through the narrow
+streets, and said what he had to say under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>Within forty minutes the car pulled up opposite the County Hotel,
+Canterbury. The ancient city was no longer English, save as regarded its
+architecture. Everywhere, the clatter of German hoofs sounded on the
+streets, and the clink and clank of German spurs and swords sounded on
+the pavements. The French and Austrians were taking the westward routes
+by Ashford and Tonbridge in the enveloping movement on London. The War
+Lord of Germany had selected the direct route for himself.</p>
+
+<p>As the motor stopped panting and throbbing in front of the hotel
+entrance, a big man in the uniform of the Imperial Guard came out,
+saluted, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, with Mr Lennard, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's so," said Lord Kitchener, opening the side door and getting
+out. "Colonel von Folkerstr&ouml;m, I believe. I think we've met before. You
+were His Majesty's <i>attach&eacute;</i> with us during the Boer War, I think. This
+is Lord Whittinghame, and this is Mr Lennard. Is His Majesty within?"</p>
+
+<p>"His Majesty awaits you, gentlemen," replied the Colonel, formally. And
+then as he shook hands with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> Lord Kitchener he added, "I am sorry, sir,
+that we should meet as enemies on English soil."</p>
+
+<p>"Just the fortune of war and those damned airships of yours, Colonel,"
+laughed Lord Kitchener in reply. "If we'd had them this meeting might
+have been in Berlin or Potsdam. Can't fight against those things, you
+know. We're only human."</p>
+
+<p>"But you English are just a little more, I think," said the Colonel to
+himself. "Gottes willen! What would my August Master be thinking now if
+this was in Berlin instead of Canterbury, and here are these Englishmen
+taking it as quietly as though an invasion of England happened every
+day." And when he had said this to himself he continued aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"My lords and Mr Lennard, if you will follow me I will conduct you into
+His Majesty's presence."</p>
+
+<p>They followed the Colonel upstairs to the first floor. Two sentries in
+the uniform of the 1st Regiment of Cuirassiers were guarding the door:
+their bayoneted rifles came up to the present, the Colonel answered the
+salute, and they dropped to attention. The Colonel knocked at the door
+and a harsh voice replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Herein."</p>
+
+<p>The door swung open and Lennard found himself for the first but not the
+last time in the presence of the War Lord of Germany.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, gentlemen," said the Kaiser. "You will understand me when
+I say I am both glad and sorry to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Majesty," replied Lord Whittinghame, in a curiously serious tone,
+"the time for human joy and sorrow is so fast expiring that almost
+everything has ceased to matter, even the invasion of England."</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser's brows lifted, and he stared in frank astonishment at the
+man who could say such apparently ridiculous words so seriously. If he
+had not known that he was talking to the late Prime Minister, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+present leader of the Unionist party in the House of Lords, he would
+have thought him mad.</p>
+
+<p>"Those are very strange words, my lord," he replied. "You will pardon me
+if I confess that I can hardly grasp their meaning."</p>
+
+<p>"If your Majesty has an hour to spare," said Lord Whittinghame, "Mr
+Lennard will make everything perfectly plain. But what he has to say,
+and what he can prove, must be for your Majesty's ears alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so important as that?" laughed the Kaiser.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so important, sire," said Lord Kitchener, "that the fate of the
+whole world hangs upon what you may say or do within the next hour. So
+far, you have beaten us, because you have been able to bring into action
+engines of warfare against which we have been unable to defend
+ourselves. But now, there is another enemy in the field, against which
+we possess the only means of defence. That is what we have come to
+explain to your Majesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Another enemy!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "but how can that be. There are
+no earthly powers left sufficiently strong that we would be powerless
+against them."</p>
+
+<p>"This is not an earthly enemy, your Majesty," replied Lennard, speaking
+for the first time since he had entered the room. "It is an invader from
+Space. To put it quite plainly, the terms which we have come to offer
+your Majesty are: Cessation of hostilities for six months, withdrawal of
+all troops from British soil, universal disarmament, and a pledge to be
+entered into by all the Powers of Europe and the United States of
+America that after the 12th of May next there shall be no more war. Your
+fleets have been destroyed as well as ours, your armies are here, but
+they cannot get away, and so we are going to ask you to surrender."</p>
+
+<p>"Surrender!" echoed the Kaiser, "surrender, when your country lies open
+and defenceless before us? No, no. Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener
+I know, but who are you, sir&mdash;a civilian and an unknown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> man, that you
+should dictate peace to me and my Allies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a man, your Majesty," said Lord Whittinghame, "who has convinced
+the British Cabinet Council that he holds the fate of the world in the
+hollow of his hands. Are you prepared to be convinced?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of what?" replied the Kaiser, coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"That there will be no world left to conquer after midnight on the 12th
+of May next, or to put it otherwise, that unless our terms are accepted,
+and Mr Lennard carries out his work, there will be neither victors nor
+vanquished left on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," replied the Kaiser, "you will pardon me when I say that I
+am surprised beyond measure that you should have come to me with a
+schoolboy's tale like that. The eternal order of things cannot be
+interrupted in such a ridiculous fashion. Again, I trust you will
+forgive me when I express my regret that you should have wasted so much
+of your own time and mine on an errand which should surely have appeared
+to you fruitless from the first.</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever or whatever this gentleman may be," he continued with a wave of
+his hand towards Lennard, "I neither know nor care; but that yourself
+and Lord Kitchener should have been deceived so grossly, I must confess
+passes the limits of my imagination. Frankly, I do not believe in the
+possibility of such proofs as you allude to. As regards peace, I propose
+to discuss terms with King Edward in Windsor&mdash;not before, nor with
+anyone else. Gentlemen, I have other matters to attend to, and I have
+the honour to bid you good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is your Majesty's last word?" said Lord Kitchener. "You mean a
+fight to the finish?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lord," replied the Kaiser, "whether the world finishes with the
+fight or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then," said Lennard, taking an envelope from the
+breast-pocket of his coat, and putting it down on the table before the
+Emperor. "If your Majesty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> has not time to look through those papers,
+you will perhaps send them to Berlin and take your own astronomer's
+report upon them. Meanwhile, you will remember that our terms are:
+Unconditional surrender of the forces invading the British Islands or
+the destruction of the world. Good-night."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS</h3>
+
+<p>In spite of the bold front that he had assumed during the interview, the
+strain, not exactly of superstition but rather of supernaturalism which
+runs so strongly in the Kaiser's family, made it impossible for him to
+treat such a tremendous threat as the destruction of the world as an
+alternative to universal peace by any means as lightly as he appeared to
+his visitors to do; and when the audience was over he picked up the
+envelope which Lennard had left upon the table, beckoned Count von
+Moltke into his room behind, locked the door, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Count, what is your opinion of this? At first sight it looks
+ridiculous; but whoever this Lennard may be, it seems hardly likely that
+two men like Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, two of the
+coolest-headed and best-balanced men on earth, should take the trouble
+to come down here as a deputation from the British Cabinet only to make
+themselves ridiculous. Suppose we have a look at these papers?
+Everything is in train for the advance. I daresay you and I understand
+enough of mathematics between us to find out if there is anything
+serious in them, and if so, they shall go to Herr D&ouml;llinger at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be at least worth while to look through them, your
+Majesty," replied the Count. "Like yourself, I find it rather difficult
+to believe that this mysterious Mr Lennard, whoever he is, has been able
+to impose upon the whole British Cabinet, to say nothing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> Lord
+Kitchener, who is about the best engineer and mathematician in the
+British Army."</p>
+
+<p>So the Count and the Kaiser sat down, and went through the elaborate and
+yet beautifully clear calculations and diagrams, page by page, each
+making notes as he went on. At the end of an hour the Kaiser looked over
+his own notes, and said to von Moltke:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is your opinion, Count?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not an astronomer, your Majesty, but these calculations certainly
+appear to me to be correct as far as they go&mdash;that is, granted always
+that the premisses from which Mr Lennard starts are correct. But
+certainly I think that your Majesty will be wise in sending them as soon
+as possible to Herr D&ouml;llinger."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly the conclusion that I have come to myself," replied the
+Kaiser. "I will write a note to Herr D&ouml;llinger, and one of the airships
+must take it across to Potsdam. We can't afford to run any risks of that
+infernal submarine ram or whatever she is. I would almost give an Army
+corps for that ship. There's no doubt she's lost us three fleets, a
+score of transports, and twenty thousand men in the last three days, and
+she's just as much a mystery as ever. It's the most extraordinary
+position a conquering army was ever put into before."</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser was perfectly right. There could be no doubt that up to the
+present the invading forces had been victorious, thanks of course mainly
+to the irresistible advantage of the airships, but also in no small
+degree to the hopeless unpreparedness of the British home armies to meet
+an invasion, which both military and naval experts had simply refused to
+believe possible.</p>
+
+<p>The seizure of the line from Dover to Chatham had been accomplished in a
+single night. A dozen airships patrolled the air ahead of the advancing
+German forces, which of course far outnumbered the weak and
+hastily-collected British forces which could be brought against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> them,
+and which, attacked at once by land and from the air, never really had a
+chance.</p>
+
+<p>It was the most perfectly conducted invasion ever planned. The
+construction trains which went in advance on both lines carried sections
+of metals of English gauge, already fastened to sleepers, and ready to
+lay down. Every little bridge and culvert had been known and was
+provided for. Not a bolt nor a fishplate had been forgotten, and
+moreover John Castellan's operations from the air had reduced the
+destruction to a minimum, and the consequence was that twelve hours
+after the Kaiser had landed at Dover he found himself in his
+headquarters at Canterbury, whence the British garrison had been forced
+to retire after heavy fighting along the lines of wooded hills behind
+Maidstone.</p>
+
+<p>It was the old, old story, the story of every war that England had gone
+into and "muddled through" somehow; but with two differences. Her
+soldiers had never had to fight an enemy in the skies before, and&mdash;there
+was no time now to straighten out the muddle, even if every able-bodied
+man in the United Kingdom had been trained soldiers, as the invaders
+were.</p>
+
+<p>But there was another element in the situation. Incredible as it might
+seem to those ignorant of the tremendous forces brought into play, the
+home fleets of Europe had been destroyed, practically to a ship, within
+three days and nights. The narrow seas were deserted. On the morning of
+the seventeenth, four transports attempting to cross from Hamburg to
+Ramsgate, carrying a force of men, horses and light artillery, which was
+intended to operate as a flying column along the northern shores of
+Kent, had been rammed and sent to the bottom within fifteen minutes half
+way between land and land, and not a man nor an animal had escaped.</p>
+
+<p>There was no news from the expeditions which had been sent against Hull
+and Newcastle&mdash;all the cables had been cut, save the transatlantic
+lines, the cutting of which the United States had already declared they
+would consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> as an unfriendly act on the part of the Allies, and the
+British cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard which connected with Palermo
+and Rome, and so formed the link of communication between Britain and
+the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>The British Mediterranean Fleet was coming home, so were the West Indian
+and North American squadrons, while the squadron in the China seas was
+also ordered home, via the Suez Canal, to form a conjunction with our
+Italian Allies. Of course, these ships would in due time be dealt with
+by the a&euml;rial submarines, but meanwhile commerce with Europe had become
+impossible. Imports had stopped at most of the great ports through sheer
+terror of this demon of the sea, which appeared to be here, there and
+everywhere at the same time; and with all these powerful squadrons
+converging upon the shores of Britain the problem of feeding and
+generally keeping fit for war some three millions of men and over half a
+million horses would soon begin to look distinctly serious.</p>
+
+<p>Castellan's vessels had hunted in vain for this solitary vessel, which
+single-handed, marvellous as it seemed, kept the narrow waters clear of
+invaders. The truth of this matter, however, was very simple. The
+<i>Ithuriel</i> was nearly twice as fast in the water as the <i>Flying Fishes</i>,
+and she carried guns with an effective range of five miles, whereas they
+only carried torpedoes.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, during the battle of Sheerness, in which the remaining
+units of the North Sea Squadron had, with the <i>Ithuriel's</i> aid, attacked
+and destroyed every German and Russian battleship and transport,
+Erskine's craft had done terrible execution without so much as being
+seen until, when the last of the German Coast Defence ships had gone
+down with all hands in the Great Nore, off the Nore lighthouse, whence
+she was shelling Garrison Fort, the <i>Ithuriel</i> had risen above the water
+for a few moments, and Denis Castellan had taken a cockshot with the
+three forward guns at a couple of <i>Flying Fishes</i> that were circling
+over the town and fort and river mouth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>The shells had time-fuses, and they were timed to the tenth of a
+second. They burst simultaneously over the airships. Then came a rending
+of the atmosphere, and descending streams of fire, which burst with a
+rapid succession of sharp reports as they touched the airships. Then
+came another blaze of light which seemed to darken the wintry sun for a
+moment, and then another quaking of the air, after which what was left
+of the two <i>Flying Fishes</i> fell in little fragments into the water,
+splashing here and there as though they had been shingle ballast thrown
+out of a balloon.</p>
+
+<p>True, Garrison Fort had been blown up by the a&euml;rial torpedoes, and the
+same fate was befalling the great forts at Tilbury, but their gallant
+defenders did not die in vain, and, although the remainder of the a&euml;rial
+squadron were able to go on and do their work of destruction on London,
+whither the <i>Ithuriel</i> could not follow them, the wrecks of six
+battleships, a dozen destroyers and ten transports strewed the
+approaches to the Thames and the Medway, while nearly thirty thousand
+soldiers and sailors would never salute the flag of Czar or Kaiser
+again.</p>
+
+<p>In all the history of war no such loss of men, ships and material had
+ever taken place within the short space of three days and a few hours.
+Four great fleets and nearly a hundred thousand men had been wiped out
+of existence since the assault on Southern England had begun, and even
+now, despite the airships, had the millions of Britain's able-bodied
+men, who were grinding their teeth and clenching their fists in impotent
+fury, been trained just to shoot and march, it would have been possible
+to take the invaders between overwhelming masses of men&mdash;who would hold
+their lives as nothing in comparison with their country's honour&mdash;and
+the now impassable sea, and drive them back into it. But although men
+and youths went in their tens of thousands to the recruiting stations
+and demanded to be enlisted, it was no use. Soldiers are not made in a
+day or a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> week, and the invaders of England had been making them for
+forty years.</p>
+
+<p>While the Kaiser and Count von Moltke were going through Lennard's
+papers, and coming to the decision to send them to Potsdam, Lord
+Whittinghame's motor, instead of returning to Chatham, was running up to
+Whitstable to answer the telegram which Lennard had received at
+Rochester. The German flag cleared them out of Canterbury. It was
+already known that they had been received by the Kaiser, and therefore
+their persons were sacred. In consequence of the loss of the squadron
+attacking the Thames and Medway, and the destruction of the Ramsgate
+flotilla, the country was not occupied by the enemy north of the great
+main road through Canterbury and Faversham, and that was just why the
+<i>Ithuriel</i> was lying snugly in the mouth of the East Swale River, about
+three miles from the little town, with a shabby-looking lighter beside
+her, from which she was taking in an extra complement of her own shells
+and material for making Lennard's explosive, as well as a full load of
+fuel for her engines. They pulled up at the door of the Bear and Key
+Hotel, and as the motor came to a standstill a man dressed in the
+costume of an ordinary worker on the oyster-beds came up, touched his
+sou'wester, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Lennard's car, gentlemen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm here," said Lennard, shortly; "we've just left the Emperor at
+Canterbury. How about those oysters? I should think you ought to do well
+with them in Canterbury. Got plenty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied the man. "If you will come down to the wharf I will
+be able to show you a shipment that I can send along to-night if the
+train comes from Canterbury."</p>
+
+<p>"I think we might as well have a drop of something hot first, it's
+rather cold riding."</p>
+
+<p>The others nodded, and they went into the hotel without removing their
+caps or goggles. They asked a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> waiter to show them into a private room,
+as they had some business to do, and when four glasses of hot whisky and
+water had been put on the table, Lennard locked the door and said:</p>
+
+<p>"My lords, allow me to have the pleasure of introducing to you
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan of His Majesty's cruiser <i>Ithuriel</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Whittinghame's and Lord Kitchener's hands went out together, and
+the former said:</p>
+
+<p>"Delighted to meet you, Mr Castellan. You and Captain Erskine have done
+magnificently for us in spite of all our troubles. In fact, I don't know
+what we should have done without you and this wonderful craft of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"With all due deference to the Naval Council," said "K. of K," rather
+bluntly, "it's a pity they didn't put down a dozen of her. But what
+about these oysters that you telegraphed to Mr Lennard about?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one oyster in question at present, my lord," said Denis,
+with an entirely Irish smile, "but it's rather a big one. It's the
+German Emperor's yacht, the <i>Hohenzollern</i>. She managed to run across,
+and get into Ramsgate, while we were up here in the Thames&mdash;that's the
+worst of there being only one of us, as we can only attend to one piece
+of business at a time. Now, she's lying there waiting the Kaiser's
+orders, in case he wants to take a trip across, and it seems to me that
+she'd be worth the watching for a day or two&mdash;she'd be a big prize, you
+know, gentlemen, especially if we could catch her with the War Lord of
+Germany on board her. I don't think myself that His Majesty would have
+any great taste for a trip to the bottom of the North Sea, just when he
+thinks he's beginning the conquest of England so nicely, and, by the
+Powers, we'd send him there if he got into one of his awkward tempers
+with us."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kitchener, who was in England acting as Chief-of-the-Staff to the
+Duke of Connaught, and general adviser to the Council of National
+Defence, took Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> Whittinghame to the other end of the room, and said
+a few words to him in a low tone, and he came back and said:</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly worth trying, even if you can only catch the ship; but
+we don't think you'll catch the Kaiser. The fact is, you seem to have
+established such a holy terror in these waters that I don't think he
+would trust his Imperial person between here and Germany. If he did go
+across, he'd probably go in an airship. But if you can bring the
+<i>Hohenzollern</i> up to Tilbury&mdash;of course, under the German flag&mdash;I think
+we shall be able to make good use of her. If she won't come, sink her."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, my lords," said Denis, saluting. "If she's not coming up the
+Thames to-morrow night with the <i>Ithuriel</i> under her stern, ye'll know
+that she's on the bottom in pieces somewhere. And now," he continued,
+taking a long envelope from an inner pocket, "here is the full report of
+our doings since the war began, with return of ships sunk, crippled and
+escaped; number of men landed, and so on, according to instructions. We
+will report again to-morrow night, I hope, with the <i>Hohenzollern</i>."</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands and wished him good-night and good luck, and in half an
+hour the <i>Ithuriel</i> was running half-submerged eastward along the coast,
+and the motor was on its way to Faversham by the northern road, as there
+were certain reasons why it should not go back through Canterbury.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LION WAKES</h3>
+
+<p>At daybreak on the nineteenth, to the utter amazement of everyone who
+was not "in the know," the Imperial yacht, <i>Hohenzollern</i>, was found off
+Tilbury, flying the Imperial German Ensign and the Naval flag, as well
+as a long string of signals ordering the a&euml;rial bombardment of London to
+cease, and all the <i>Flying Fishes</i> to return at once to Canterbury.</p>
+
+<p>The apparent miracle had been accomplished in an absurdly easy fashion.
+About nine a.m. on the eighteenth a German orderly went into the
+post-office at Dover and handed in an official telegram signed "Von
+Roon," ordering the <i>Hohenzollern</i> to come round at once to Dover, as
+she was considered too open to attack there.</p>
+
+<p>There was something so beautifully natural and simple in the whole
+proceeding that, although there were about a dozen German officers and
+non-commissioned officers in the room at the time that the orderly came
+and went without suspicion, the telegram was taken by the clerk, read
+and initialled by the Censor, and passed.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later the orderly, marching in perfectly correct German
+fashion and carrying a large yellow envelope, walked out through the
+town northwards and climbed the hill to the eastward of the ruined
+castle. The envelope with its official seal took him past the sentries
+without question, but, instead of delivering it, he turned down a bypath
+to Fan Bay, under the South<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> Foreland, gained the beach, took off his
+uniform in a secluded spot under the cliffs, and went for a swim. The
+uniform was never reclaimed, for when he reached the submerged
+<i>Ithuriel</i> Denis Castellan had a rub down and put his own on.</p>
+
+<p>The captain of the <i>Hohenzollern</i> was only too glad to obey the order,
+for he also thought that it would be better protected from the dreaded
+ocean terror in Dover, so he lost no time in obeying the order; with the
+result that, just as he was entering the deserted Downs, the said terror
+met him and ordered him to the right-about under pain of instant
+sinking.</p>
+
+<p>After that the rest was easy. The captain and officers raged and
+stormed, but not even German discipline would have prevented a mutiny if
+they had not surrendered. It was known that the <i>Ithuriel</i> took no
+prisoners. In five minutes after the irresistible ram had hit them they
+would be at the bottom of the sea, and so the Hohenzollern put about and
+steamed out into the North Sea, with the three wicked forward guns
+trained upon her, and the ram swirling smoothly through the water fifty
+yards from her stern.</p>
+
+<p>At nightfall the course was altered for the mouth of the Thames. And so,
+with all lights out and steered by a thin shifting ray from her captor's
+conning-tower, the Kaiser's yacht made its strange way to Tilbury.</p>
+
+<p>The instant she dropped her anchor a couple of destroyers ran out from
+the Gravesend shore and ranged alongside her. The next minute a British
+captain and three lieutenants followed by a hundred bluejackets had
+boarded her. The German Commander and his officers gave up their swords,
+devoutly hoping that they would never meet their War Lord again, and so
+the incident ended.</p>
+
+<p>It will be easily understood that the Kaiser was about the most
+infuriated man in the United Kingdom when the <i>Flying Fishes</i> arrived at
+Canterbury and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>Commander of the squadron described the arrival of
+the <i>Hohenzollern</i> in the Thames and asked for orders.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place no one knew better than William the Second how
+priceless was the prize won by the impudent audacity of these two young
+British sailors. In his private apartments on board there were his own
+complete plans of the campaign&mdash;not only for the conquest of Britain,
+but afterwards for the dismemberment of the British Empire, and its
+partition among the Allies&mdash;exact accounts of the resources of the chief
+European nations in men, money and ships, plans of fortifications, and
+even drafts of treaties. In fact, it was such a haul of Imperial and
+International secrets as had never been made before; and that evening
+the British Cabinet held in their possession enough diplomatic
+explosives to blow the European league of nations to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Erskine and Castellan were honoured by an autograph letter from the
+King, thanking them heartily for their splendid services up to the
+present stage of the war, and wishing them all good luck for the future.
+Then the <i>Ithuriel</i> slipped down the Thames, towing half a dozen
+shabby-looking barges behind her, and for some days she disappeared
+utterly from human ken.</p>
+
+<p>What she was really doing during these days was this. These barges and
+several others which she picked up now and then were filled with
+ammunition for her guns and fuel for her engines, and she dropped them
+here and there in obscure creeks and rock-bound bays from Newcastle to
+the Clyde, where they lay looking like abandoned derelicts, until such
+times as they might be wanted.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, very soon after the loss of the <i>Hohenzollern</i>, the Kaiser
+received two messages which disquieted him very seriously. One of these
+came by airship from Potsdam. It was an exhaustive report upon the
+papers which Lennard had left with him on that momentous night as it
+turned out to be, on which the War Lord had rejected the ultimatum of
+the Man of Peace. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> signed by Professor D&ouml;llinger and endorsed by
+four of the greatest astronomers of Germany.</p>
+
+<p>Briefly put, its substance amounted to this: Mr Lennard's calculations
+were absolutely correct, as far as they went. Granted the existence of
+such a celestial body as he designated <i>Alpha</i> in the document, and its
+position <i>x</i> on the day of its alleged discovery; its direction and
+speed designated <i>y</i> and <i>z</i>, then at the time of contact designated
+<i>n</i>, it would infallibly come into contact with the earth's atmosphere,
+and the consequences deduced would certainly come to pass, viz., either
+the earth would combine with it, and be transformed into a
+semi-incandescent body, or the terrestrial atmosphere would become a
+fire mist which would destroy all animal and vegetable life upon the
+planet within the space of a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>The second communication was a joint-note from the Emperor of Austria,
+the President of the Hague Council, the President of the French
+Republic, and the Tsar of Russia, protesting against the bombardment of
+London or any other defenceless town by the airships. The note set forth
+that these were purely engines of war, and ought not to be used for
+purposes of mere terrorism and murder. Their war employment on land or
+water, or against fortified positions, was perfectly legitimate, but
+against unarmed people and defenceless towns it was held to be contrary
+to all principles of humanity and civilisation, and it was therefore
+requested by the signatories that, in order to prevent serious
+differences between the Allies, it should cease forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>The result of this communication was of course a Council of War, which
+was anything but a harmonious gathering, especially as several of the
+older officers agreed with the tone of it, and told the Kaiser plainly
+that they considered that there was quite enough in the actual business
+of war for the <i>Flying Fishes</i> to do; and the Chancellor did not
+hesitate to express the opinion that the majority of the peoples of
+Europe, and possibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> large numbers of their own soldiers, who, after
+all, were citizens first and soldiers afterwards, would strongly resent
+such operations, especially when it became known that the Emperor's own
+Allies had protested against it; the result of the Council was that
+William the Second saw that he was clearly in a minority, and had the
+good sense to issue a General Order there and then that all a&euml;rial
+bombardments, save as part of an organised attack, should cease from
+that day.</p>
+
+<p>The events of the next twenty days were, as may well be imagined, full
+of momentous happenings, which it would require hundreds of pages to
+describe in anything like detail, and therefore only quite a brief
+sketch of them can be given here. This will, however, be sufficient to
+throw a clear light upon the still more stupendous events which were to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the almost incredible destruction and slaughter during
+these first four awful days and nights of the war, both sides had lost
+the command of the sea, and the capture of the <i>Hohenzollern</i> in broad
+daylight less than a dozen miles from the English coast had produced
+such a panic among the rank and file of the invaders, and the
+reinforcements of men waiting on the other side of the Channel and the
+North Sea, that communication save by airship had practically stopped.</p>
+
+<p>The consequence of this was that, geographically, the Allied armies,
+after the release of the prisoners from Portsmouth and Folkestone,
+amounted to some three million men of all arms, with half a million
+horses, and two thousand guns&mdash;it will be remembered that a vast number
+of horses, guns and stores had gone to the bottom in the warships which
+the <i>Ithuriel</i> had sunk&mdash;were confined within a district bounded by the
+coast-line from Ramsgate to the Needles, and thence by a line running
+north to Southampton; thence, across Hampshire to Petersfield, and via
+Horsham, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and over Canterbury, back to
+Ramsgate.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the defeat and destruction of the expedition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> against London,
+the troops that had been thrown forward to Chatham and Rochester to
+co-operate with it were re-called, and concentrated between Ashford and
+Canterbury. The rest of England, Scotland and Ireland was to the present
+a closed country to them. The blockade on Swansea and Liverpool had been
+raised by the <i>Ithuriel</i>, and there was nothing to prevent any amount of
+supplies from the west and south being poured in through half a hundred
+ports.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the dream of starving the British Islands out had been dissipated
+at a stroke. True, the dockyards of Devonport and Milford Haven had been
+destroyed by the airships, but copies of the plans of the <i>Ithuriel</i> had
+been sent to Liverpool, Barrow, Belfast, the Clyde and the Tyne, and
+hundreds of men were working at them night and day. Scores of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, belonging both to Britain and
+other countries, which were nearing completion, were being laboured at
+with feverish intensity, so that they might be fitted for sea in
+something like fighting trim; submarines were being finished off by
+dozens, and Thorneycroft's and Yarrow's yards were, like the rest,
+working to their full capacity.</p>
+
+<p>The blind frenzy of rage which had swept like an epidemic over the whole
+kingdom during the first days of disaster had died away and in its place
+had come the quiet but desperate resolve that if Britain was to be
+conquered she should be depopulated as well.</p>
+
+<p>All male employment, save that which was necessary to produce coal and
+iron, to keep the shipyards and the gun factories going, and the
+shipping on the west coast running, was stopped. In thousands of cases,
+especially in the north, the places of the men were taken by the women;
+and, in addition to these, every woman and girl, from the match-girls of
+Whitechapel to the noblest and wealthiest in the land, found some work
+to do in the service of their country.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>Every day, thousands and tens of thousands of the sons of England,
+Scotland, Ireland and Wales were taken in hand by "Mr Sergeant
+What's-'is-Name," and drilled into shape with miraculous speed; and
+every day, as detachment after detachment went to the battle front,
+which now extended from North Foreland to Portland Bill, the magic of
+patriotism and the long-inherited habits of order and obedience changed
+the raw recruit into the steady-nerved, strong-hearted soldier, who
+learnt his duty in the grim school of battle, and was ready to do it to
+the end.</p>
+
+<p>In less than a month Britain had become a military nation. It seemed at
+the time and afterwards a miracle, but it was merely the outcome of
+perfectly natural causes.</p>
+
+<p>After all, every British man has a strain of fighting blood in him. Even
+leaving out his ancient ancestry, he remains the descendant of families
+who have given soldier-sons to their country during five hundred years
+of almost ceaseless war in one part of the world or the other. He is
+really born with battle-smoke in his nostrils, and the beat of the
+battle-drum in his heart&mdash;and he knows that, neither on land nor sea has
+he ever been finally beaten.</p>
+
+<p>Remember, too, that this was to him a holy war, the holiest in which the
+sword can be drawn. He was fighting for freedom, for the possession of
+his land, for the protection of wife and child and kindred, and the
+heritage which his fathers of old time had handed down to him. Was it
+any wonder, then, that within the space of a few weeks the peaceful
+citizens of Britain, like the fabled harvest of the dragon's teeth,
+seemed to spring as men full-armed from the very ground? Moreover, this
+was no skirmishing with sharpshooters over a vast extent of country, six
+thousand miles away from home, as it had been in South Africa. This was
+home itself. There was no right or wrong here, nothing for politicians
+to wrangle about for party purposes. Here, in a little corner of little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+England, two mighty hosts were at death-grips day and night, the one
+fighting for all that is dearest and most sacred to the heart of man;
+and the other to save itself from what could be nothing less than
+irretrievable disaster.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>MR PARMENTER SAYS</h3>
+
+<p>Happily for the defenders of Britain the fleet of a&euml;rial submarines,
+from which so much had been expected for offensive purposes during the
+proposed "triumphal march" on London, soon became of little or no use in
+the field.</p>
+
+<p>The reason was this: As, day after day and week after week, that awful
+struggle continued, it became absolutely necessary for the Allies to
+obtain men and material to make good the fearful losses which the valour
+and devotion of what was now a whole nation in arms had inflicted upon
+them, and so all but four were despatched to guard the route between
+Dover and Calais&mdash;eight under the water and eight in the air&mdash;and so
+make it possible for the transports to cross. Of course, this meant that
+thousands of fresh men and hundreds of horses and guns could be poured
+into Kent every day; but it also meant that the greater portion of the
+defenders' most terrible foes were rendered harmless&mdash;and this was not
+the least of the good work that the <i>Ithuriel</i> had done.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, that famous "sea-devil," as the invaders called her, was
+mostly on the spot or thereabouts, and every now and then a crowded
+transport would lurch over and go down, or a silent, flameless shot
+would rise up out of some unknown part of the waters and a shell would
+burst with a firmament-shaking concussion close to one of the
+airships&mdash;after which the airship would burst with a still more
+frightful shock and distribute herself in very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> small fragments through
+the shuddering atmosphere; but this only happened every other day or so,
+for Erskine and his lieutenant knew a good deal better than to run too
+many risks, at least just now.</p>
+
+<p>So, for twelve weeks of bitter, bloody and unsparing strife the grim,
+unceasing struggle for the possession of the Capital of the World went
+on, and when the eighteenth of March dawned, the outposts of the Allies
+were still twelve to fourteen miles from the banks of the Thames. How
+desperate had been that greatest of all defences since man had made war
+on man may be dimly guessed from the fact that it cost the invaders two
+months of incessant fighting and more than a million men before they
+planted their guns along the ridges of the North Downs and the Surrey
+Hills.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Gilbert Lennard passed his peaceful though anxious days
+between Bolton and Whernside, while Auriole, Margaret Holker, Norah
+Castellan and Mrs O'Connor, with hundreds of other heroines, were doing
+their work of mercy in the hospital camps at the different bases behind
+the fighting front. Lord Westerham, who had worked miracles in the way
+of recruiting, was now in his glory as one of General French's Special
+Service Officers, which, under such a Commander, is about as dangerous a
+job as a man can find in the whole bloody business of war.</p>
+
+<p>And still, as the pitiless human strife went on with its ceaseless
+rattle of rifle fire, and the almost continuous roar of artillery, day
+by day the Invader from Space grew bigger and brighter in the great
+reflector, and day by day the huge cannon, which, in the decisive moment
+of the world's fate, was to do battle with it, approached completion.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight on the twelfth of March Tom Bowcock had announced that all
+was ready for the casting. Lennard gave the order by electric signal.
+The hundred converters belched their floods of glowing steel into what
+had once been Great Lever pit; night was turned into day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> by a vast glow
+that shot up to the zenith, and the first part of the great work was
+accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast the next morning Lennard received the following cablegram
+from Pittsburg:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"All ready. Crossing fourteenth. Give particulars of comet away
+when you like. Pittsburg Baby doing well. How's yours?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Parmenter</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In order to understand the full meaning of Mr Parmenter's curt cablegram
+it will be necessary to go back for a little space to the day when he
+made his hurried departure from the Clyde in the <i>Minnehaha</i>. It will be
+remembered that he had that morning received a cablegram from New York.
+This message had read thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Complete success at last. Craft built and tried. Action and speed
+perfect. Dollars out, hurry up.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Hingeston</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Now the signer of this cablegram, Newson Hingeston, was an old college
+friend of Mr Parmenter's, and therefore a man of about his own age. He
+was a born mathematician and engineer, and, like many another before
+him, the dream of his life had been the conquest of the air by means of
+vessels which flew as a bird flew, that is to say by their own inherent
+strength, and without the aid of gas-bags or buoyancy chambers, which
+he, like all the disciples of Nadar, Jules Verne, Maxim and Langley, had
+looked upon as mere devices of quackery, or at the best, playthings of
+rich people, who usually paid for their amusement with their lives.</p>
+
+<p>His father died soon after he left college, and left him a comfortable
+little estate on the north-western slopes of the Alleghanies, and a
+fortune in cash and securities of a million dollars. The estate gave him
+plenty to live upon comfortably, so he devoted his million to the
+realisation of his ideal. Ratliffe Parmenter, who only had a few hundred
+thousand dollars to begin with, laughed at him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> but one day, after a
+long argument, just as a sort of sporting bet, he signed a bond to pay
+two million dollars for the first airship built by his friend that
+should fly in any direction, independently of the wind, and carry a dead
+weight of a ton in addition to a crew of four men.</p>
+
+<p>Newson Hingeston registered the bond with all gravity, and deposited it
+at his bank, and then their life-ways parted. Parmenter plunged into the
+vortex of speculation, went under sometimes, but always came to the top
+again with a few more millions in his insatiable grasp, and these
+millions, after the manner of their kind, had made more millions, and
+these still more, until he gave up the task of measuring the gigantic
+pile and let it grow.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, his friend had spent the best twenty-five years of his life,
+all his fortune, and every dollar he could raise on his estate, in
+pursuit of the ideal which he had reached a few minutes later than the
+eleventh hour. Then he had sent that cable. Of course, he wanted the two
+millions, but what had so suddenly happened in England had instantly
+convinced him that he was now the possessor of an invention which many
+millions would not buy, and which might decide the fate of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Within twelve hours of his arrival at his friend's house, Ratliffe
+Parmenter was entirely convinced that Newson Hingeston had been
+perfectly justified in calling him across the Atlantic, for the very
+good reason that he spent the greater part of the night taking flying
+leaps over the Alleghanies, nerve-shuddering dives through valleys and
+gorges, and vast, skimming flights over dim, half-visible plains and
+forests to the west, soaring and swooping, twisting and turning at
+incredible speeds, in fact, doing everything that any bird that ever
+flew could do.</p>
+
+<p>When they got back to the house, just as dawn was breaking, and Mr
+Parmenter had shaken hands with Hiram Roker, a long, lean, slab-sided
+Yankee, who was Hingeston's head engineer and general manager, and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+fought the grim fight through failure to success at his side for twenty
+years, he said to his friend:</p>
+
+<p>"Newson, you've won, and I guess I'll take that bond up, and I'd like to
+do a bit more than that. You know what's happening over the other side.
+There's got to be an A&euml;rial Navigation Trust formed right away,
+consisting of you, myself and Hiram there, and Max Henchell, my partner,
+and that syndicate has to have twenty of these craft of yours, bigger if
+possible, afloat inside three months. The syndicate will commence at
+once with a capital of fifty millions, and there'll be fifty more behind
+that if wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great scheme," Hingeston replied slowly, "but I'm afraid the
+time's too short."</p>
+
+<p>"Time!" exclaimed Mr Parmenter. "Who in thunder thinks about time when
+dollars begin to talk? You just let me have all your plans and sections,
+drawings and the rest of your fixings in time to catch the ten o'clock
+train to Pittsburg. I'll run up and talk the matter over with Henchell.
+We'll have fifty workshops turning out the different parts in a week,
+and you shall have a staff of trustworthy men that we own, body and
+soul, down here to assemble them, and we'll make the best of those chaps
+into the crews of the ships when we get them afloat.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't talk back, Newson, that's fixed. I'm sleepy, and that trip
+has jerked my nerves up a bit. Give me a drink, and let's go to bed for
+two or three hours. You'll have a cheque for five millions before I
+start, and we shall then consider the <i>Columbia</i> our private yacht.
+We'll fly her around at night, and just raise Cain in the way of
+mysteries for the newspapers, but we won't give ourselves away
+altogether until the fleet's ready."</p>
+
+<p>As they say on the other side of the Atlantic, what Ratliffe Parmenter
+said, went. He wielded the irresistible power of almost illimitable
+wealth, and during the twenty-five years that Hingeston had been working
+at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> his ideal, he and Maximilian Henchell, who was a descendant of one
+of the oldest Dutch families in America, and one of its shrewdest
+business men to boot, had built up an industrial organisation that was
+perhaps the most perfect of its kind even in the United States. It was
+run on lines of absolute despotism, but the despotism was at once
+intellectual and benevolent. To be a capable and faithful servant of
+Parmenter and Henchell, even in the humblest capacity, meant, not only
+good wages and provision for life, but prospects of advancement to the
+highest posts in the firm, and means of investing money which no
+outsider would ever hear of.</p>
+
+<p>Wherefore those who worked for Parmenter and Henchell formed an
+industrial army, some fifty thousand strong, generalled, officered and
+disciplined to the highest point of efficiency, and faithful to the
+death. In fact, to be dismissed from any of their departments or
+workshops was financial death. It was like having a sort of commercial
+ticket-of-leave, and if such a man tried for work elsewhere, the answer
+was "If you can't work for P. and H. you must be a crook of some sort. I
+guess you're no good to us." And the end of that man was usually worse
+than his beginning.</p>
+
+<p>This was the vast organisation which, when the word went forth from the
+headquarters at Pittsburg, devoted the best of its brains and skill to
+the creation of the A&euml;rial Fleet, and, as Mr Parmenter had said, that
+Fleet was ready to take the air in the time he had allowed for its
+construction.</p>
+
+<p>But the new ships had developed in the course of making. They were half
+as long again as the <i>Columbia</i>, and therefore nearly twice as big, with
+engines four times the power, and they carried three guns ahead and
+three astern, which were almost exact reproductions of those of the
+<i>Ithuriel</i>, the plans of which had been brought over by the <i>Minnehaha</i>
+on her second trip.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Columbia</i> had a speed of about one hundred miles an hour, but the
+new models were good for nearly a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> hundred and fifty. In appearance they
+were very like broad and shallow torpedo boats, with three aeroplanes on
+either side, not unlike those of the <i>Flying Fishes</i>, with three lifting
+fans under each. These could be driven vertically or horizontally, and
+so when the big twin fans at the stern had got up sufficient way to keep
+the ship afloat by the pressure under the aeroplanes the lifting fans
+could be converted into pulling fans, but this was only necessary when a
+very high speed was desired.</p>
+
+<p>There was a signal mast and yard forward, and a flagstaff aft. The guns
+were worked under hoods, which protected the gunners from the rush of
+the wind, and just forward of the mast was an oval conning-tower, not
+unlike that of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, only, of course, unarmoured, from which
+everything connected with the working of the ship could be controlled by
+a single man.</p>
+
+<p>Such is a brief description of the A&euml;rial Fleet which rose from the
+slopes of the Alleghanies at ten o'clock on the night of the fourteenth
+of March 1910, and winged its way silently and without lights eastward
+across the invisible waters of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>There is one other point in Mr Parmenter's cablegram to Lennard which
+may as well be explained here. He had, of course, confided everything
+that he knew, not only about the war, but also about the approaching
+World Peril and the means that were being taken to combat it, to his
+partner on his first arrival in the States, and had also given him a
+copy of Lennard's calculations.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Mr Max Henchell's patriotic ambition was fired. Mr Lennard had
+mentioned that Tom Bowcock, Lennard's general manager, had proposed to
+christen the great gun the "Bolton Baby." He had spent that night in
+calculations of differences of latitude and longitude, time, angles of
+inclination of the axis of the orbit, points and times of orbital
+intersection worked out from the horizon of Pittsburg, and when he had
+finished he solemnly asked himself the momentous question: Why should
+this world-saving business be left to England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> alone? After all the
+"Bolton Baby" might miss fire by a second or two. If it was going to be
+a matter of comet-shooting, what had America done that she could not
+have a gun? Were there not hundreds of eligible shafts to be bought
+round Pittsburg? Yes, America should have that gun, if the last dollar
+he possessed or could raise by fair means or foul was to be thrown down
+the bore of it.</p>
+
+<p>And so America had the gun, and therefore in after days the rival of the
+"Bolton Baby" came to be called the "Pittsburg Prattler."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT</h3>
+
+<p>Lennard's first feelings after the receipt of Mr Parmenter's cablegram,
+and the casting of the vast mass of metal which was to form the body of
+the great cannon, were those of doubt and hesitation, mingled, possibly,
+with that sense of semi-irresponsibility which will for a time overcome
+the most highly-disciplined mind when some great task has been completed
+for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>For a full month nothing could be done to the cannon, since it would
+take quite that time for the metal to cool. Everything else had been
+done or made ready. The huge projectile which was to wing its way into
+Space to do battle for the life of humanity was completed. The boring
+and rifling tools were finished, and all the materials for the driving
+and the bursting charges were ready at hand for putting into their final
+form when the work of loading up began. There was literally nothing more
+to be done. All that human labour, skill and foresight could achieve for
+the present had been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Dearly would he have loved to go south and join the ranks of the
+fighters; but a higher sense of duty than personal courage forbade that.
+He was the only man who could perform the task he had undertaken, and a
+chance bullet fragment of a shell to say nothing of the hundred minor
+chances of the battlefield, might make the doing of that work
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>No, his time would come in the awful moment when the fate of humanity
+would hang in the balance, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> place alike of honour and of duty
+was now in the equatorial room of the observatory at Whernside, watching
+through every waking hour of his life the movements of the Invader, that
+he might note the slightest deviation from its course, or the most
+trifling change in its velocity. For on such seemingly small matters as
+these depended, not only the fate of the world, but of the only woman
+who could make the world at least worth living in for him&mdash;and so he
+went to Whernside by the morning train after a long day's talk with Tom
+Bowcock over things in general.</p>
+
+<p>"Yo' may be sure that everything will be all right, Mr Lennard," said
+Tom, as they shook hands on the platform. "I'll take t' temperatures,
+top, bottom and middle, every night and morning and post them to yo',
+and if there's any change that we don't expect, I'll wire yo' at once;
+and now I've a great favour to ask you, Mr Lennard. I haven't asked it
+before because there's been too much work to do&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't ask it, Tom," laughed Lennard, as he returned his grip,
+"but I'm not going to invite you to Whernside just yet, for two reasons.
+In the first place, I can't trust that metal to anyone else but you for
+at least a week; and in the second place, when I do send you an
+invitation from Mr Parmenter I shall not only be able to show you the
+comet a bit brighter than it is just now, but something else that you
+may have thought about or read about but never seen yet, and I am going
+to give you an experience that no man born in England has ever had&mdash;but
+I'm not going to spoil sport by telling you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yo've thought it all out afore me, Mr Lennard, as yo' always do
+everything," replied Tom. "I'm not much given to compliments, as yo'
+know, but yo're a wonderful man, and if yo've got something to show me,
+it's bound to be wonderful too, and if it's anything as wonderful as t'
+lies I've b'n telling those newspaper chaps about t' cannon, I reckon
+it'll make me open my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> eyes as wide as they've ever been, for sure.
+Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>During the journey to Settle, Lennard began to debate once more with
+himself a question which had troubled him considerably since he had
+received Mr Parmenter's cablegram. Should he publish his calculations to
+the world at once, give the exact position of the Invader at a given
+moment in a given part of the sky, and so turn every telescope in the
+civilised world upon it&mdash;or should he wait until some astronomer made
+the independent discovery which must come within a short time now?</p>
+
+<p>There were reasons both for and against. To do so might perhaps stop the
+war, and that would, at first sight, be conferring a great blessing upon
+humanity; but, on the other hand, it might have the very reverse effect
+upon the millions of men whose blood was now inflamed with the lust of
+battle. Again it was one thing to convince the rulers of the nations and
+the scientists of the world that the coming catastrophe was inevitable;
+but to convince the people who made up those nations would be a very
+different matter.</p>
+
+<p>The end of the world had been predicted hundreds of times already,
+mostly by charlatans, who made a good living out of it, but sometimes by
+the most august authorities. He had read his history, and he had not
+forgotten the awful conditions in which the people of Europe fell during
+the last months of the year 1000, when the Infallible Church had
+solemnly proclaimed that at twelve o'clock on the night of the 31st of
+December Satan, chained for a thousand years, would be let loose; that
+on the morning of the 1st of January 1001 the order of Nature would be
+reversed, the sun would rise in the west and the reign of Anti-Christ
+begin. Then the remnants of the European nations had gradually awakened
+to the fact that Holy Church was wrong, since nothing happened save the
+results of the madness which her prophesies had produced.</p>
+
+<p>But the catastrophe of which he would have to be the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> prophet would be
+worse even than this, and, moreover, as far as human science could tell,
+it was a mathematical certainty. There would be no miracle, nothing of
+the supernatural about it&mdash;it would happen just as certainly as the
+earth would revolve on its axis; and yet how many millions of the
+earth's inhabitants would believe it until with their own eyes they saw
+the approaching Fate?</p>
+
+<p>In time of peace perhaps he might have obtained a hearing, but who would
+pause amidst the rush of the armed battalions to listen to him? How
+could the calm voice of Science make itself heard among the clash and
+clangour of war? The German Emperor had already laughed in his face, and
+accepted his challenge with contemptuous incredulity. No doubt his staff
+and all his officers would do the same. What possibility then would
+there be to convince the millions who were fighting blindly under their
+orders? No; it was hopeless. The war must go on. He could only hope that
+the A&euml;rial Fleet which Mr Parmenter was bringing across the Atlantic
+would turn the tide of battle in favour of the defenders of Britain.</p>
+
+<p>But there was another matter to be considered. Thanks to the control
+possessed by the Parmenter Syndicate over the Atlantic cables and the
+aerograph system of the world, he was kept daily, sometimes hourly,
+acquainted with everything that was happening. He knew that the Eastern
+forces of Russia were concentrating upon India in the hope that the
+disasters in England and the destruction of the Fleet would realise the
+old Muscovite dream of detaching the natives from their loyalty to the
+British Crown and so making the work of conquest easy. In the Far East,
+Japan was recovering from the exhaustion consequent upon her costly
+victories over Russia, and had formed an ominous alliance with China.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand Italy, England's sole remaining ally in Europe, had
+blockaded the French Mediterranean ports, and while the French legions
+were being drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> northward to the conquest of Britain, the Italian
+armies had seized the Alpine passes and were preparing an invasion which
+should avenge the humiliations which Italy had suffered under the first
+Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, everything pointed to universal war. Only the United States
+preserved an inscrutable silence, which had been broken only by four
+words: "Hands off our commerce." And to these the Leagued Nations had
+listened, if rather by compulsion than respect.</p>
+
+<p>Who was he, then, that he should, as it were, sound the trump of
+approaching doom in the ears of a world round which from east to west
+and from west again to east the battledrums might any day be sounding
+and the roar of artillery thundering its answering echo.</p>
+
+<p>But a somewhat different aspect was given to these reflections by a
+letter which he found waiting for him in the library at Whernside House.
+It ran thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;You will not, I suppose, have forgotten a certain incident
+which happened towards the end of June 1907 in the Bay of Clifden,
+Connemara. You won that little swimming race by a yard or so, and
+since then it appears to me that, although you may not be aware of
+it, you and I have been running a race of a very different sort,
+although possibly for the same prize.</p>
+
+<p>"You will understand what prize I mean, and by this time you ought
+to know that I have the power of taking it by force, if I cannot
+win it in the ordinary way of sport or battle. I am in command of
+the only really irresistible force in the world. I created that
+force, and, by doing so, made the invasion of England and the
+present war possible. I have done so because I hate England, and
+desire to release my own country from her tyranny and oppression;
+but I can love as well as I can hate, and whether you understood it
+or not, I, who had never loved a woman before, loved Auriole
+Parmenter from the moment that you and I lifted her out of the
+water, and she smiled on us, and thanked us for saving her life.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>"Before we parted that day I could see love in your eyes when you
+looked at her, if you could not see it in mine. You are her
+father's private astronomer, and until lately you have lived in
+almost daily intercourse with her, in which, of course, you have
+had a great advantage over myself, who have not from that time till
+now been blessed by even the sight of her.</p>
+
+<p>"But during that time it seems that you have discovered a comet,
+which is to run into the earth and destroy all human life, unless
+you prevent it. I know this because I know of the challenge you
+gave to the German Emperor in Canterbury. I know also of what you
+have been doing in Bolton. You are turning a coal pit into a
+cannon, with which you believe that you can blow this comet into
+thin air or gas before it meets the earth, and you threatened His
+Majesty that if the war was not stopped the human race should be
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"That, if you will pardon the expression, was a piece of bluff. You
+love Miss Parmenter perhaps as much as, though not possibly more
+than, I do, and therefore you would certainly not destroy the world
+as long as she was alive in it. You would be more or less than man
+if you did, and I don't believe you are either, and therefore I
+think you will understand the proposition I am going to make to
+you.</p>
+
+<p>"Granted hypothesis that the world will come to an end by means of
+this comet on a certain day, and granted also that you are able to
+save it with this cannon of yours, I write now to tell you that,
+whether the war stops or not in obedience to your threat, I will
+not allow you to save the world unless Miss Parmenter consents to
+marry me within two months from now. If she does, the war shall
+stop, or at anyrate I will allow the British forces to conquer the
+whole of Europe on the sole condition of giving independence to
+Ireland. They cannot win without my fleet of <i>Flying Fishes</i>, and
+if I turn that fleet against them they will not only be defeated
+but annihilated. In other words, with the sole exception of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> my own
+country, I offer England the conquest of Europe in exchange for the
+hand of one woman.</p>
+
+<p>"In the other alternative, that is to say, if Miss Parmenter, her
+father and yourself do not consent to this proposal, I will not
+allow you to save the world. I can destroy your cannon works at
+Bolton as easily as I destroyed the forts at Portsmouth and Dover,
+and as easily as I can and will kill you, and wreck your
+observatory. When I have done this I will take possession of Miss
+Parmenter by force, and then your comet can come along and destroy
+the world as soon as it likes.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall expect a definite answer to this letter, signed by Mr
+Parmenter and yourself, within seven days. If you address your
+letter to Mr James Summers, 28a Carlos Street, Sheerness, it will
+reach me; but I must warn you that any attempt to discover why it
+will reach me from that address will be punished by the bombardment
+and destruction of the town.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will see the reasonableness and moderation of my
+conditions, and remain, yours faithfully,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">John Castellan</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT</h3>
+
+<p>Although Lennard had always recognised the possibility of such a
+catastrophe as that which John Castellan threatened, and had even taken
+such precautions as he could to prevent it, still this direct menace,
+coming straight from the man himself, brought the danger home to him in
+a peculiarly personal way.</p>
+
+<p>The look which had passed between them as they were swimming their race
+in Clifden Bay had just as much meaning for him as for the man who now
+not openly professed himself his rival, but who threatened to proceed to
+the last extremities in order to gain possession of the girl they both
+loved. It was impossible for him not to believe that the man who had
+been capable of such cold-blooded atrocities as he had perpetrated at
+Portsmouth, London and other places, would hesitate for a moment in
+carrying out such a threat, and if he did&mdash;No, the alternative was quite
+too horrible to think of yet.</p>
+
+<p>One thing, however, was absolutely certain. Although no word of love had
+passed between Auriole and himself since the night when he had shown her
+the comet and described the possible doom of the world to her, she had
+in a hundred ways made it plain to him that she was perfectly well aware
+that he loved her and that she did not resent it&mdash;and he knew quite
+enough of human nature to be well aware that when a woman allows herself
+to be loved by a man with whom she is in daily and hourly contact, she
+is already half won; and from this it followed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> according to his exact
+mathematical reasoning, that, whatever the consequences, her reply to
+John Castellan's letter would be in the negative, and equally, of
+course, so would her father's be.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what the Kaiser's Admiral of the Air would think if he knew
+how matters really stand," he said to himself as he read the letter
+through for a second time. "Quite certain of doing what he threatens, is
+he? I'm not. Still, after all, I suppose I mustn't blame him too much,
+for wasn't I in just the same mind myself once&mdash;to save the world if she
+would make it heaven for me, to&mdash;well&mdash;turn it into the other place if
+she wouldn't. But she very soon cured me of that madness.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if she could cure this scoundrel if she condescended to try,
+which I am pretty certain she would not. I wonder what she'll look like
+when she reads this letter. I've never seen her angry yet, but I know
+she would look magnificent. Well, I shall do nothing till Mr Parmenter
+gets back. Still, it's a pity that I've got to gravitate between here
+and Bolton for the next seven weeks. If I wasn't, I'd ask him for one of
+those airships and I'd hunt John Castellan through all the oceans of air
+till I ran him down and smashed him and his ship too!"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the butler came to him and informed him that his dinner
+was ready and to ask him what wine he would drink.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Simmons," he replied. "A pint of that excellent Burgundy of
+yours, please. By the way, have the papers come yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just arrived, sir," said Mr Simmons, making the simple announcement
+with all the dignity due to the butler to a millionaire.</p>
+
+<p>He went at once into the dining-room and opened the second edition of
+the <i>Times</i>, which was sent every day to Settle by train and thence by
+motor-car to Whernside House.</p>
+
+<p>Of course he turned first to the "Latest Intelligence"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> column. It was
+headed, as he half expected it to be, "The Great Turning Movement: The
+Enemy in Possession of Aldershot and advancing on Reading."</p>
+
+<p>The account itself was one of those admirable combinations of brevity
+and impartiality for which the leading journal of the world has always
+been distinguished. What Lennard read ran as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Four months have now passed since the invading forces of the Allies,
+after destroying the fortifications of Portsmouth and Dover by means
+never yet employed in warfare, set foot on English soil. There have been
+four months of almost incessant fighting, of heroic defence and
+dearly-bought victory, but, although it is not too much to say in sober
+language that the defending troops, regulars, militia, yeomanry and
+volunteers, have accomplished what have seemed to be something like
+miracles of valour and devotion, the tide of conquest has nevertheless
+flowed steadily towards London.</p>
+
+<p>"Considering the unanimous devotion with which the citizens of this
+country, English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh, have taken up arms for the
+defence of their Motherland, there can be no doubt but that, if the war
+had been fought under ordinary conditions, the tide of invasion would by
+this time have been rolled back to our coasts in spite of the admitted
+superiority of the invaders in the technical operations of warfare, and
+their enormous advantage in numbers to begin with. But the British
+forces have had to fight under conditions which have never before been
+known in warfare. Their enemies have not been only those of the land and
+sea: they have had to fight foes capable of raining destruction upon
+them from the air as well, and it may well be believed that the leaders
+of the invading hosts would be the first to admit that without this
+enormous advantage not even the progress that they have so far made
+would have been possible.</p>
+
+<p>"The glories of Albuera and Waterloo, of Inkermann and Balaklava, have
+over and over again been eclipsed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> by the whole-souled devotion of the
+British soldiery, fighting, as no doubt every man of them believes, with
+their backs to the wall, not for ultimate victory perhaps but for the
+preservation of those splendid traditions which have been maintained
+untarnished for over a thousand years. It is no exaggeration to say that
+of all the wars in the history of mankind this has been the deadliest
+and the bloodiest. Never, perhaps, has so tremendous an attack been
+delivered, and never has such an attack been met by so determined a
+resistance. Still, having due regard to the information at our disposal,
+it would be vain to deny that, tremendous as the cost must have been,
+the victory so far lies with the invaders.</p>
+
+<p>"After a battle which has lasted almost continuously for a fortnight; a
+struggle in which battalion after battalion has fought itself to a
+standstill and the last limits of human endurance have been reached, the
+fact remains that the enemy have occupied the whole line of the North
+Downs, Aldershot has ceased to be a British military camp, and is now
+occupied by the legions of Germany, France and Austria.</p>
+
+<p>"Russia, in spite of the disastrous defeat of the united German and
+Russian expedition against Sheerness, Tilbury and Woolwich, is now
+preparing a force for an attack on Harwich which, if it is not defeated
+by the same means as that upon the Thames was defeated by, will have
+what we may frankly call the deplorable effect of diverting a large
+proportion of the defenders of London from the south to the north, and
+this, unless some other force, at present unheard of, is brought into
+play in aid of the defenders, can only result in the closing of the
+attack round London&mdash;and after that must come the deluge.</p>
+
+<p>"That this is part of a general plan of operations appears to be quite
+clear from the desperate efforts which the French, German and Austrian
+troops are making to turn the position of General French at Reading, to
+outflank the British left which is resting on the hills beyond
+Faversham, and, having thus got astride the Thames,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> occupy the
+semicircle of the Chiltern Hills and so place the whole Thames valley
+east of Reading at their mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"In consequence of the ease with which the enemy's airships have
+destroyed both telegraphic and railway communication, no definite
+details are at present to hand. It is only known that since the attack
+on Aldershot the fighting has not only been on a colossal scale, but
+also of the most sanguinary description, with the advantage slowly but
+surely turning in favour of the invaders. Such news as reaches us comes
+entirely by despatch rider and aerogram. We greatly regret to learn,
+through the former source, that yesterday evening Lord Westerham, the
+last of the six special Service officers attached to General French's
+staff, was either killed or captured in a gallant attempt to carry
+despatches containing an accurate account of the situation up to date
+from Reading to Windsor, whence it was to be transmitted by the
+underground telephone cable to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace."</p>
+
+<p>"That reads pretty bad," said Lennard, when Mr Simmons had left the
+room, "especially Westerham being killed or taken prisoner; I don't like
+that at all. I wish we'd been able to collar His Majesty of Germany on
+that trip to Canterbury as Lord Kitchener suggested, and put him on
+board the <i>Ithuriel</i>. He'd have made a very excellent hostage in a case
+like this. I must say that, altogether, affairs do not look very
+promising, and we've still two months all but a day or two. Well, if Mr
+Parmenter doesn't get across with his a&euml;rial fleet pretty soon, I shall
+certainly take steps to convince him and his Allies, who are fighting
+for a few islands when the whole world is in peril, that my ultimatum
+was anything but the joke he seemed to take it for."</p>
+
+<p>He finished his wine, drank a cup of coffee and smoked a meditative
+cigar in the library, and then went up to the observatory.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely night from his point of view; clear, cool<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> and almost
+cloudless. The young moon was just rising to the eastward, and as he
+looked up at that portion of the south-western sky from which the
+Celestial Invader was approaching he could almost persuade himself that
+he saw a dim ghostly shape of the Spectre from Space.</p>
+
+<p>But when he got to the telescope the Spectre was no longer there. The
+field of the great reflector was blank, save for the few far-away
+star-mists, and here and there a dimly-distant star, already familiar to
+him through many nights of watching.</p>
+
+<p>What had happened? Had some catastrophe occurred in the outer realms of
+Space in which some other world had been involved in fiery ruin, or had
+the comet been dragged away from its orbit by the attraction of one of
+those dead suns, those derelicts of Creation which, dark and silent,
+drift for age after age through the trackless ocean of Immensity?</p>
+
+<p>There was no cooler-headed man alive than Gilbert Lennard when it came
+to a matter of his own profession and yet the world did not hold a more
+frightened man than he was when he went to re-adjust the machinery which
+regulated the movement of the great telescope, and so began his search
+for the lost comet all over again. One thing only was certain&mdash;that the
+slightest swerve from its course might make the comet harmless and send
+it flying through Space millions of miles away from the earth, or bring
+the threatening catastrophe nearer by an unknown number of days and
+hours. And that was the problem, here, alone, and in the silence of the
+night, he had to solve. The great gun at Bolton and the other at
+Pittsburg might by this time be useless, or, worse still, they might not
+be ready in time.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious that, even face to face with such a terrific crisis, he
+had enough human vanity left to shape a half regret that his
+calculations would almost certainly be falsified.</p>
+
+<p>That, however, was only the sensation of a moment. He ran rapidly over
+his previous calculations, did about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> fifteen minutes very hard
+thinking, and in thirty more he had found the comet. There it was: a few
+degrees more to the northward, and more inclined to the plane of the
+earth's orbit; brighter, and therefore nearer; and now the question was,
+by how much?</p>
+
+<p>Confronted with this problem, the man and the lover disappeared, and
+only the mathematician and the calculating machine remained. He made his
+notes and went to his desk. The next three hours passed without any
+consciousness of existence save the slow ticking of the astronomical
+clock which governed the mechanism of the telescope. The rest was merely
+figures and formul&aelig;, which might amount to the death-sentence of the
+human race or to an indefinite reprieve.</p>
+
+<p>When he got up from his desk he had learnt that the time in which it
+might be possible to save humanity from a still impending fate had been
+shortened by twelve days, and that the contact of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere would take place precisely at twelve o'clock,
+midnight, on the thirtieth of April.</p>
+
+<p>Then he went back to the telescope and picked up the comet again. Just
+as he had got its ominous shape into the centre of the field a score of
+other shapes drifted swiftly across it, infinitely vaster&mdash;huge winged
+forms, apparently heading straight for the end of the telescope, and
+only two or three yards away.</p>
+
+<p>His nerves were not perhaps as steady as they would have been without
+the shock which he had already received, and he shrank back from the
+eye-piece as though to avoid a coming blow. Then he got up from his
+chair and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"What an ass I am! That's Mr Parmenter's fleet; but what monsters they
+do look through a telescope like this!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MR PARMENTER RETURNS</h3>
+
+<p>Just at the north of the summit on the top of which the observatory was
+built there was an oval valley, or perhaps it might be better described
+as an escarpment, a digging away by the hand of Nature of a portion of
+the mountain summit by means of some vast landslide or glacier action
+thousands of years ago.</p>
+
+<p>As he closed the door of the main entrance to the observatory behind
+him, he saw these strange, winged shapes circling in the air some three
+miles away, just dimly visible in the moonlight and starlight. They were
+hovering about in middle air as though they were birds looking for a
+foothold. He ran back, switched the electric current off the aerograph
+machines at the base of the observatory, and turned it on to the
+searchlight which was on the top of the equatorial dome. A great fan of
+white light flashed out into the sky, he spelt out "Welcome" in the
+dot-and-dash code, and then the searchlight fell upon the valley.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," came the laconic answer from the foremost airship; and then
+Lennard saw twenty-five winged shapes circle round the observatory and
+drop to rest one by one in perfect order, just as a flock of swans might
+have done, and, as the last came to earth, he turned the switch and shut
+off the searchlight.</p>
+
+<p>He walked down to the hollow, and in the dim light saw something that he
+had hardly believed possible for human eyes to see. There, in a space
+of, perhaps, a thousand yards long and five hundred yards wide, lay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> in
+a perfect oval, a fleet of ships. By all appearances they had no right
+to be on land. There was no visible evidence that they could rise from
+the solid earth after once touching it, any more than the albatross can
+do from a ship's deck.</p>
+
+<p>A light flashed out from a ship lying at the forward end of the ellipse
+for a moment into the sky and then it swung slowly round until it rested
+on the path from the observatory to the valley, and Lennard for a moment
+felt himself blinded by its rays. Then it lifted and a most welcomely
+familiar voice said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr Lennard, here we are, you see, just a bit ahead of time, and
+how's the comet?"</p>
+
+<p>A ladder, obviously of American design, shot out from the side of the
+airship as Mr Parmenter spoke, and as soon as the lower end touched the
+ground he walked down it with his hand outstretched. Lennard walked to
+the foot of the ladder and took his hand, and said in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"This is all very wonderful, Mr Parmenter, but I am glad that you are
+here ahead of time, because the comet is too; and very considerably, I
+am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh, what's that you say, Mr Lennard?" replied the millionaire in a
+hurried whisper. "Nothing serious, I hope. We haven't come too late,
+have we? I mean too late to stop the war and save the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about stopping the war," replied Lennard, "but, if no
+accident happens or is arranged for, we can save the world still, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"Accident arranged for?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "What do you mean by that?
+Are you talking about John Castellan and those Flying Fish things of
+his? I reckon we've got enough here to send him and his <i>Flying Fishes</i>
+into the sea and make them stop there. We've heard all about what
+they've been doing in the States, and I've got about tired of them. And
+as for this old invasion of England, it's got to stop right away, or
+we'll make more trouble for these Germans and Frenchmen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> and Russians
+and Austrians than they ever dreamt of.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that fleet, sir. Twenty-five a&euml;rial battleships with a hundred
+and fifty miles an hour speed in them. Here to London in one hour and
+twenty-five minutes or less, and guns&mdash;you just take a look at those
+exaggerated peashooters we've got on deck, and believe me, sir, that if
+we get one of John Castellan's <i>Flying Fishes</i> within six thousand yards
+of the end of one of those things it will do no more flying, except in
+very small pieces."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm delighted to hear it, Mr Parmenter," replied Lennard, in a low
+tone, "for to tell you the truth, we haven't many weeks left now.
+Something that I can so far neither calculate nor explain has changed
+the orbit of the comet and it's due here at midnight on the thirtieth of
+April."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Scott, and this is the nineteenth of March! Not six weeks! I
+guess we'll have to hurry up with those cannons. I'll send a cable to
+Pittsburg to-morrow. Anyhow, I reckon the comet can wait for to-night."</p>
+
+<p>While Mr Parmenter had been speaking two other men had come down the
+ladder from the deck of the airship and he continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let me introduce you. This is my old friend and college chum,
+Newson Hingeston, the man who invented the model we built this fleet on.
+This is Mr Hiram Roker, chief engineer of the fleet and Lord High
+Admiral of the air, when Mr Hingeston is not running his own ships."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard shook hands with Mr Hingeston and Hiram, and was going to say
+very complimentary things about the fleet which had literally dropped
+from the clouds, when Mr Parmenter interrupted him again and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You'll excuse me, Mr Lennard, but you'll be better able to talk about
+these ships when you've had a trip in one of them. We've just crossed
+the Atlantic in thirty hours, above the clouds, and to-morrow night or
+morning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> if it's cloudy when we've been through things generally, we're
+going to London in the flagship here&mdash;I've called her the <i>Auriole</i>,
+because she is the daisy of the whole fleet&mdash;biggest, fastest and
+prettiest. You just wait till you see her in daylight. Now we'll go down
+to the house and hear your news. We're thirty hours behind the times."</p>
+
+<p>It need hardly be said that no one went to bed for the remainder of that
+night at Whernside. In one sense it was as busy a time as had been since
+the war began. The private telephone and telegraph wires between
+Whernside House and Settle and the aerograph apparatus at the
+observatory were working almost incessantly till dawn, sending and
+receiving messages between this remote moorland district and London and
+the seat of war, as well as Bolton and Pittsburg.</p>
+
+<p>The minutes and the hours passed swiftly, as all Fate-laden time does
+pass, and so the grey morning of a momentous day dawned over the western
+Yorkshire moors. Just as they were beginning to think about breakfast
+one of Lennard's assistants came down from the observatory with a copy
+of an aerogram which read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Begins. <span class="smcap">Parmenter</span>, Whernside. Pleased to hear of your arrival.
+Proposition laid before His Majesty in Council and accepted. Hope
+to see you and your friends during the day.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Chamberlain</span>. Ends."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Well, I guess that's all right, gentlemen," said Mr Parmenter, as he
+handed the aerogram across the big table littered with maps, plans and
+drawings of localities terrestrial and celestial.</p>
+
+<p>The aerogram passed round and Mr Parmenter continued: "You see,
+gentlemen, although the United States has the friendliest of feelings
+towards the British Empire, still, as the President told me the day
+before yesterday, this invasion of Britain is not our fight, and he does
+not see his way to making formal declaration of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> war; so he just gave me
+a permit for these ships to leave American territory on what the
+Russians and others call a scientific expedition in order to explore the
+upper regions of the air and demonstrate the possibility of navigating
+the air without using gas as lifting power&mdash;and that's just how we've
+got here with our clearance papers and so on all in order; and that
+means, gentlemen, that we are here, not as citizens of the United States
+or any other country, but just as a trading company with something to
+hire out.</p>
+
+<p>"John Castellan, as you will remember from what has been said, sold his
+<i>Flying Fishes</i> to the German Emperor. Mr Lennard has proved to us by
+Castellan's own handwriting that he is prepared to sell them back to the
+British Government at a certain price&mdash;and that price is my daughter.
+Our answer to that is the hiring of our fleet to the British Government,
+and that offer has been accepted on terms which I think will show a very
+fair profit when the war is over and we've saved the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it will take very long to stop the war," said the creator
+of the a&euml;rial battle-fleet, in his quiet voice. "Saving the world is, of
+course, another matter which no doubt we can leave safely in the hands
+of Mr Lennard. And now," he continued more gravely, "when is the news of
+the actual coming of the comet to be made public? It seems to me that
+everything more or less hangs upon that. The German Emperor, and,
+therefore, his Allies and, no doubt, half the astronomers of Europe,
+have been informed of Mr Lennard's discovery. They may or may not
+believe it, and if they don't we can't blame them because it was only
+given to them without exact detail."</p>
+
+<p>"And a very good thing too," laughed Lennard, "considering the eccentric
+way in which the comet is behaving. But everything is settled now,
+unless, of course, some other mysterious influence gets to work; and,
+another thing, it's quite certain that before many days the comet must
+be discovered by other observatories."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p><p>"Then, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we've been first in the field
+so far and I reckon we'd better stop there. Pike's Peak, Washington and
+Arequipa are all on to it. Europe and Australia will be getting there
+pretty soon, so I don't think there's much the matter with you sending a
+message to Greenwich this morning. The people there will find it all
+right and we can run across from London when we've had our talk with the
+Prime Minister and post them up in any other details they want. I'll
+send a wire to Henchell and tell him to hurry up with his gun at
+Pittsburg and send on news to all the American observatories. Then we'll
+have breakfast and, as it's a cloudy morning, I think we might start
+right away for London in the <i>Auriole</i> and get this business fixed up.
+The enemy doesn't know we're here at all, and so long as we keep above
+the clouds there's no fear of anyone seeing us. The world has only
+forty-four more days to live, so we might as well save one of those days
+while we can."</p>
+
+<p>The result of the somewhat informal council of war, for, in sober truth,
+it was nothing else, was that the commanders of the airships were
+invited to breakfast and the whole situation was calmly and plainly
+discussed by those who from the morning would probably hold the fate of
+the world in their hands. Not the least important of the aerograms which
+had been received during the early morning had been one, of course in
+code, from Captain Erskine of the <i>Ithuriel</i> from Harwich, welcoming the
+a&euml;rial fleet and giving details of his movements in conjunction with it
+for the next ten days. The aerogram also gave the positions of the
+lighters loaded with ammunition which he had deposited round the English
+shores in anticipation of its arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after eight o'clock a heavy mist came down over Whernside and its
+companion heights, and Mr Parmenter went to one of the windows of the
+big dining-room and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon this will just about fit us, Mr Lennard, so,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> if you've got
+your portmanteau packed, have it sent up to the <i>Auriole</i> at once, and
+we'll make a start."</p>
+
+<p>Within thirty minutes the start was made, and with it began the most
+marvellous experience of Gilbert Lennard's life, not even excepting his
+battle-trip in the conning-tower of the <i>Ithuriel</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "AURIOLE"</h3>
+
+<p>"All aboard, I think, Captain Roker," said Mr Parmenter, as he walked
+last to the top of the gangway ladder, and stood square-footed on the
+white deck of the <i>Auriole</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"All aboard, sir," replied Hiram Roker, "and now I reckon you'll have to
+excuse me, because I've got to go below just to see that everything's in
+working order."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, Mr Roker. I know where your affections are centred in
+this ship. You go right along to your engines, and Mr Hingeston will see
+about the rest of us. Now then, Mr Lennard, you come along into the
+conning-tower, and whatever you may have seen from the conning-tower of
+the <i>Ithuriel</i>, I reckon you'll see something more wonderful still
+before we get to London. You show the way, Newson. See, here it is, just
+about the same. We've stolen quite a lot of ideas from your friend
+Erskine; it's a way we've got on our side, you know. But this is going
+to be one of the exceptions; if we win we are going to pay."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard followed Mr Parmenter down the companion-way into the centre
+saloon of the <i>Auriole</i>, and through this into a narrow passage which
+led forward. At the end of this passage was a lift almost identical with
+that on the <i>Ithuriel</i>. He took his place with Mr Parmenter and Mr
+Hingeston on this and it rose with them into a little oval chamber
+almost exactly like the conning-tower of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, with the
+exception that it was built entirely of hardened papier-mach&eacute; and glass.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p><p>"You see, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we don't want armour here.
+Anything that hits us smashes us, and that's all there is to it. Our
+idea is just to keep out of the way and do as much harm as we can from
+the other side of the clouds. And now, Newson, if you're ready, we might
+as well get to the other side and have a look at the sun. It's sort of
+misty and cheerless down here."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as easy as saying so, my dear Ratliffe. I reckon Hiram's got about
+ten thousand horse-power waiting to be let loose; so we may as well let
+them go. Hold on, Mr Lennard, and don't breathe any more than you can
+help for a minute or two."</p>
+
+<p>Lennard, remembering his cruise in the <i>Ithuriel</i>, held on, and also,
+after filling his lungs, held his breath. Mr Hingeston took hold of the
+steering-wheel, also very much like that of the <i>Ithuriel</i>, with his
+left hand, and touched in quick succession three buttons on a
+signal-board at his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>At the first touch nothing happened as far as Lennard could see or hear.
+At the second, a soft, whirring sound filled the air, growing swiftly in
+intensity. At the third, the mist which enveloped Whernside began, as it
+seemed to him, to flow downwards from the sky in long wreaths of
+smoke-mingled steam which in a few moments fell away into nothingness. A
+blaze of sunlight burst out from above&mdash;the earth had vanished&mdash;and
+there was nothing visible save the sun and sky overhead, and an
+apparently illimitable expanse of cloud underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one good thing about airships," said Mr Hingeston, as he took a
+quarter turn at the wheel, "you can generally get the sort of climate
+and temperature you want in them." He put his finger on a fourth button
+and continued: "Now, Mr Lennard, we have so far just pulled her up above
+the mist. You'll have one of these ships yourself one day, so I may as
+well tell you that the first signal means 'Stand by'; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> second, 'Full
+power on lifting fans'; the third, 'Stand by after screws'; and the
+fourth&mdash;just this&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He pushed the button down as he spoke, and Lennard saw the brilliantly
+white surface of the sunlit mist fall away before and behind them. A few
+moments later he heard a sort of soft, sighing sound outside the
+conning-tower. It rose quickly to a scream, and then deepened into a
+roar. Everything seemed lost save the dome of sky and the sun rising
+from the eastward. There was nothing else save the silver-grey blur
+beneath them. As far as he was concerned for the present, the earth had
+ceased to exist for him five minutes ago.</p>
+
+<p>He didn't say anything, because the circumstances in which he found
+himself appeared to be more suitable for thinking than talking; he just
+stood still, holding on to a hand-grip in the wall of the conning-tower,
+and looked at the man who, with a few touches of his fingers, was
+hurling this a&euml;rial monster through the air at a speed which, as he
+could see, would have left the <i>Ithuriel</i> out of sight in a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>In front of Hingeston as he sat at the steering-wheel were two dials.
+One was that of an aneroid which indicated the height. This now
+registered four thousand feet. The other was a manometer connected with
+the speed-gauge above the conning-tower, and the indicator on this was
+hovering between one hundred and fifty and a hundred and sixty.</p>
+
+<p>"Does that really mean we're travelling over a hundred and fifty miles
+an hour?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Getting on for a hundred and sixty," said Mr Parmenter, taking out his
+watch. "You see, according to that last wire I sent, we're due in the
+gardens of Buckingham Palace at ten-thirty sharp, and so we have to
+hustle a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied Lennard, "I must confess that I thought that my little
+trip in the <i>Ithuriel</i> took me to something like the limits of everyday
+experience; but this beats it. Whatever you do on the land or in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>
+water you seem to have something under you&mdash;something you can depend on,
+as it were&mdash;but here, you don't seem to be anywhere. A friend of mine
+told me that, after he had taken a balloon trip above the clouds and
+across the Channel, but he was only travelling forty miles an hour. He
+had somewhat a trouble to describe that, but this, of course, gets
+rather beyond the capabilities of the English language."</p>
+
+<p>"Or even the American," added Mr Hingeston, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," said Mr Parmenter, rolling a cigarette, "I believe we
+invented the saying about greased lightning, and here we are something
+like riding on a streak of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Near enough!" laughed Lennard. "We may as well leave it at that, as you
+say. Still, it is very, very wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>And so it was. As they sped south the mists that hung about the northern
+moors fell behind, and broken clouds took their place. Through the gaps
+between these he could see a blur of green and grey and purple. A few
+blotches of black showed that they were passing over the Lancashire and
+Midland manufacturing towns; then the clouds became scarcer and an
+enormous landscape spread out beneath them, intersected by white roads
+and black lines of railways, and dotted by big patches of woods, long
+lines of hedgerows and clumps of trees on hilltops. Here and there the
+white wall of a chalk quarry flashed into view and vanished; and on
+either side towns and villages came into sight ahead and vanished astern
+almost before he could focus his field-glasses upon them.</p>
+
+<p>At about twenty minutes after the hour at which they had left Whernside,
+Mr Hingeston turned to Mr Parmenter and said, pointing downward with the
+left hand:</p>
+
+<p>"There's London, and the clouds are going. What are we to do? We can't
+drop down there without being seen, and if we are that will give half
+the show away. You see, if Castellan once gets on to the idea that
+we've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> got airships and are taking them into London, he'll have a dozen
+of those <i>Flying Fishes</i> worrying about us before we know what we're
+doing. If we only had one of those good old London fogs under us we
+could do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what's the matter with dropping under the smoke and using that for
+a fog," said Mr Parmenter, rather shortly. "The enemy is still a dozen
+miles to southward there; they won't see us, and anyhow, London's a big
+place. Why, look there now! Talking about clouds, there's the very thing
+you want. Oceans of it! Can't you run her up a bit and drop through it
+when the thing's just between us and the enemy?"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, Lennard saw what seemed to him like an illimitable sea of
+huge spumy billows and tumbling masses of foam, which seemed to roll and
+break over each other without sound. The silent cloud-ocean was flowing
+up from the sou'west. Mr Hingeston took his bearings by compass, slowed
+down to fifty miles an hour, and then Lennard saw the masses of cloud
+rise up and envelop them.</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes the earth and the heavens disappeared, and he felt
+that sense of utter loneliness and isolation which is only known to
+those who travel through the air. He saw Mr Hingeston pull a lever with
+his right hand and turn the steering-wheel with his left. He felt the
+blood running up to his head, and then came a moment of giddiness. When
+he opened his eyes the <i>Auriole</i> was dropping as gently as a bird on the
+wing towards the trees of the garden behind Buckingham Palace.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you did that quite well, Newson," said Mr Parmenter, looking
+at his watch. "One hour and twenty-five minutes as you said. And now I'm
+going to shake hands with a real king for the first time."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN</h3>
+
+<p>Rather to Mr Parmenter's surprise his first interview "with a real king"
+was rather like other business interviews that he had had; in fact, as
+he said afterwards, of all the business men he had ever met in his
+somewhat varied career, this quiet-spoken, grey-haired English gentleman
+was about the best and 'cutest that it had ever been his good fortune to
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>The negotiations in hand were, of course, the hiring of the Syndicate's
+fleet of airships to the British Empire during the course of the war.
+His Majesty had summoned a Privy Council at the Palace, and again Mr
+Parmenter was somewhat surprised at the cold grip and clear sight which
+these British aristocrats had in dealing with matters which he thought
+ought to have been quite outside their experience. Like many Americans,
+he had expected to meet a sort of glorified country squire, fox-hunter,
+grouse-killer, trout and salmon-catcher, and so on; but, as he admitted
+to Lennard later on, from His Majesty downwards they were about the
+hardest crowd to do business with that he had ever struck.</p>
+
+<p>The terms he offered were half a million a week for the services of
+twenty-five airships till the war was ended. Two were retained as
+guardians for Whernside House and the observatory, and three for the
+Great Lever colliery, and this left twenty, not counting the original
+<i>Columbia</i>, which Mr Parmenter had bought as his a&euml;rial yacht, available
+for warlike purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The figure was high, as the owners of the a&euml;rial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>battle-fleet admitted,
+but war was a great deal dearer. They guaranteed to bring the war to a
+stop within fourteen days, by which time Britain would have a new fleet
+in being which would be practically the only fleet capable of action in
+western waters with the exception of the Italian and the American. Given
+that the Syndicate's airships, acting in conjunction with the <i>Ithuriel</i>
+and the twelve of her sisters which were now almost ready for launching,
+could catch and wipe out the <i>Flying Fishes</i>, either above the waters or
+under them, the result would be that the Allies, cut off from their base
+of supplies, and with no retreat open to them, would be compelled to
+surrender; and Mr Parmenter did not consider that five hundred thousand
+pounds a week was too much to pay for this.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of his speech, setting forth the position of the
+Syndicate, he said, with a curious dignity which somehow always comes
+from a sense of power:</p>
+
+<p>"Your Majesty, my Lords and gentlemen, I am just a plain American
+business man, and so is my friend, the inventor of these ships. We have
+told you what we believe they can do and we are prepared to show you
+that we have not exaggerated their powers. There is our ship outside in
+the gardens. If your Majesty would like to take a little trip through
+the air and see battle, murder and sudden death&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's very kind of you, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "but, much
+as I personally should like to come with you, I'm afraid I should play a
+certain amount of havoc with the British Constitution if I did. Kings of
+England are not permitted to go to war now, but if you would oblige me
+by taking a note to the Duke of Connaught, who has his headquarters at
+Reading, and then, if you could manage it under a flag of truce, taking
+another note to the German Emperor, who, I believe, has pitched his camp
+at Aldershot, I should be very much obliged."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything your Majesty wishes," replied Mr <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>Parmenter. "Now we've fixed
+up the deal the fleet is at your disposal and we sail under the British
+flag; though, to be quite honest, sir, I don't care about flying the
+white flag first. We could put up as pretty a fight for you along the
+front of the Allies as any man could wish to see."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "that the British
+Constitution compels me to disappoint you, but, as some sort of
+recompense, I am sure that my Lords in Council will grant you permission
+to fly the White Ensign on all your ships and the Admiral's flag on your
+flagship, which, I presume, is the one in which you have come this
+morning. It is unfortunate that I can only confer the honorary rank of
+admiral upon Mr Hingeston, as you are not British subjects."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, your Majesty," replied Mr Parmenter, "if it pleases you, I hope
+you will give that rank to my friend Newson Hingeston, who, as I have
+told you, has been more than twenty years making these ships perfect. He
+has created this navy, so I reckon he has got the best claim to be
+called admiral."</p>
+
+<p>"Does that meet with your approval, my lords?" said the King.</p>
+
+<p>And the heads of the Privy Council bowed as one in approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank your Majesty most sincerely," said Hingeston, rising. "I am an
+American citizen, but I have nothing but British blood in my veins, and
+therefore I am all the more glad that I am able to bring help to the
+Motherland when she wants it."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm afraid we do want it, Mr Hingeston," said His Majesty. "Make
+the conditions of warfare equal in the air, and I think we shall be able
+to hold our own on land and sea. Your patent of appointment shall be
+made out at once, and I will have the letters ready for you in half an
+hour. And now, gentlemen, I think a glass of wine and a biscuit will not
+do any of us much harm."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>The invitation was, of course, in a certain sense, a command, and when
+the King rose everyone did the same. While they were taking their wine
+and biscuits in the blue drawing-room overlooking St James's Park, His
+Majesty, who never lost his grip of business for a moment, took Lennard
+aside and had a brief but pregnant conversation with him on the subject
+of the comet, and as a result of this all the Government manufactories
+of explosives were placed at his disposal, and with his own hand the
+King wrote a permit entitling him to take such amount of explosives to
+Bolton as he thought fit. Then there came the letters to the Duke of
+Connaught and the German Emperor, and one to the Astronomer Royal at
+Greenwich.</p>
+
+<p>Then His Majesty and the members of the Council inspected the a&euml;rial
+warship lying on the great lawn in the gardens, and with his own hands
+King Edward ran the White Ensign to the top of the flagstaff aft; at the
+same moment the Prince of Wales ran the Admiral's pennant up to the
+masthead. Everyone saluted the flag, and the King said:</p>
+
+<p>"There, gentlemen, the <i>Auriole</i> is a duly commissioned warship of the
+British Navy, and you have our authority to do all lawful acts of war
+against our enemies. Good-morning! I shall hope to hear from you soon."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, your Majesty," said Mr Parmenter, "that we can't fire the
+usual salute. These guns of ours are made for business, and we don't
+have any blank charges."</p>
+
+<p>"I perfectly understand you, Mr Parmenter," replied His Majesty with a
+laugh. "We shall have to dispense with the ceremony. Still, those are
+just the sort of guns we want at present. Good-morning, again."</p>
+
+<p>His Majesty went down the gangway and Admiral Hingeston, with Mr
+Parmenter and Lennard, entered the conning-tower. The lifting-fans began
+to whirr, and as the <i>Auriole</i> rose from the grass the White Ensign
+dipped three times in salute to the Royal Standard floating from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> the
+flagstaff on the palace roof. Then, as the driving propellers whirled
+round till they became two intersecting circles of light, the <i>Auriole</i>
+swept up over the tree-tops and vanished through the clouds. And so
+began the first voyage of the first British a&euml;rial battleship.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Connaught had his headquarters at Amersham Hall School on
+the Caversham side of the Thames, which was, of course, closed in
+consequence of the war, and half an hour after the <i>Auriole</i> had left
+the grounds of Buckingham Palace she was settling to the ground in the
+great quadrangle of the school. The Duke, with Lord Kitchener and two or
+three other officers of the Staff, were waiting at the upper end where
+the headmaster's quarters were. As the ship grounded, the gangway ladder
+dropped and Mr Parmenter said to Lennard:</p>
+
+<p>"That's Lord Kitchener, I see. Now, you know him and I don't, so you'd
+better go and do the talking. We'll come after and get introduced."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, holding out his hand. "You're
+quite a man of surprises. The last time I went with you to see the
+Kaiser in a motor-car, and now you come to visit His Royal Highness in
+an airship. Your Royal Highness," he continued, turning to the Duke,
+"this is Mr Lennard, the finder of this comet which is going to wipe us
+all out unless he wipes it out with his big gun, and these will be the
+other gentlemen, I presume, whom His Majesty has wired about."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Lennard, after he had shaken hands. "This is Mr Parmenter
+whose telescope enabled me to find the comet, and this is Mr&mdash;or I ought
+now to say Admiral&mdash;Hingeston, who had the honour of receiving that rank
+from His Majesty half an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the Duke. "Half an hour! Are you quite serious,
+gentlemen? The telegram's only just got here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your Royal Highness," said Mr Parmenter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> "that may be because we
+didn't come full speed, but if you would get on board that flagship,
+sir, we'd take you to Buckingham Palace and back in half an hour, or, if
+you would like a trip to Aldershot to interview the German Emperor, and
+then one to Greenwich, we'll engage to have you back here safe by dinner
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing would delight me more," replied the Duke, smiling, "but at
+present my work is here and I cannot leave it. Lord Kitchener, how would
+you like that sort of trip?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you will give me leave till dinner-time, sir," laughed K. of K.,
+"there's nothing I should like better."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that goes without saying, of course," replied the Duke, "and now,
+gentlemen, I understand from the King's telegram that there are one or
+two matters you want to talk over with us. Will you come inside?"</p>
+
+<p>"If your Royal Highness will excuse me," said Admiral Hingeston, "I
+think I'd better remain on board. You see, we may have been sighted, and
+if there are any of those <i>Flying Fishes</i> about you naturally wouldn't
+want this place blown to ruins; so, while you are having your talk, I
+reckon I'll get up a few hundred feet, and be back, say, in half an
+hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said the Duke. "That's very kind of you. Your ship
+certainly looks a fairly capable protector. By the way, what is the
+range of those guns of yours? I must say they have a very business-like
+look about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Six thousand yards point blank, your Royal Highness," replied the
+Admiral, "and, according to elevation, anything up to fifteen miles;
+suppose, for instance, that we were shooting at a town. In fact, if we
+were not under orders from His Majesty to fly the flag of truce I would
+guarantee to have all the Allied positions wrecked by to-morrow morning
+with this one ship. As you will see from the papers which Mr Parmenter
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> Mr Lennard have brought, nineteen other airships are coming south
+to-night and, unless the German Emperor and his Allies give in, the war
+will be over in about six days."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you come back to dinner to-night, Admiral Hingeston, you will
+have my orders to bring it to an end within that time."</p>
+
+<p>"I sincerely hope so, sir," replied Admiral Hingeston, as he raised his
+right hand to the peak of his cap. "I can assure you, that nothing would
+please me better."</p>
+
+<p>As the lifting-fans began to spin round and the <i>Auriole</i> rose from the
+gravelled courtyard, Lord Kitchener looked up with a twinkle in his
+brilliant blue eyes and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will think of that thing when he
+sees it. I suppose that means the end of fighting on land and sea&mdash;at
+least, it looks like it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope to be able to convince your lordship that it does before
+to-morrow morning," said Lennard, as they went towards the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Then came half an hour's hard work, which resulted in the allotment of
+the a&euml;rial fleet to positions from which the vessels could co-operate
+with the constantly increasing army of British citizen-soldiers who were
+now passing southward, eastward and westward, as fast as the crowded
+trains could carry them. Every position was worked out to half a mile.
+The details of the newly-created fleet in British waters and of those
+ships which were arriving from the West Indies and the Mediterranean
+were all settled, and, as the clock in the drawing-room chimed half-past
+eleven, the <i>Auriole</i> swung down in a spiral curve round the
+chimney-pots and came to rest on the gravel.</p>
+
+<p>"There she is; time's up!" said Lord Kitchener, rising from his seat. "I
+suppose it will only take us half an hour or so to run down to
+Aldershot. I wonder what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> His Majesty of Germany will say to us this
+time. I suppose if he kicks seriously we have your Royal Highness's
+permission to haul down the flag of truce?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," replied the Duke. "If he does that, of course, you will
+just use your own discretion."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT</h3>
+
+<p>Lord Kitchener had probably never had so bitter an experience as he had
+when the <i>Auriole</i> began to slow down over the plain of Aldershot. Never
+could he, or any other British soldier, have dreamt six months ago that
+the German, Austrian, French and Russian flags would have been seen
+flying side by side over the headquarters of the great camp, or that the
+vast rolling plains would be covered, as they were now, by hosts of
+horse, foot and artillery belonging to hostile nations.</p>
+
+<p>He did not say anything, neither did the others; it was a time for
+thinking rather than talking; but he looked, and as Lennard watched his
+almost expressionless face and the angrily-glittering blue eyes, he felt
+that it would go ill with an enemy whom K. of K. should have at his
+mercy that day.</p>
+
+<p>But all the bitterness of feeling was by no means on one side. It so
+happened that the three Imperial leaders of the invaders and General
+Henriot, the French Commander-in-Chief, were holding a Council of War at
+the time when the <i>Auriole</i> made her appearance. Of course, her arrival
+was instantly reported, and as a matter of fact the drilling came to a
+sudden momentary stop at the sight of this amazing apparition. The three
+monarchs and the great commander immediately went outside, and within a
+few moments they were four of the angriest men in England. A single
+glance, even at that distance, was enough to convince them that, at
+anyrate in the air, the <i>Flying Fishes</i> would be no match for an equal
+or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> even an inferior number of such magnificent craft as this.</p>
+
+<p>"God's thunder!" exclaimed the Kaiser, using his usual expletive. "She's
+flying the White Ensign and an admiral's pennant, and, yes, a flag of
+truce."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Tsar, lowering his glasses, "that is so. What has
+happened? I certainly don't like the look of her; she's an altogether
+too magnificent craft from our point of view. In fact it would be
+decidedly awkward if the English happened to have a fleet of them. They
+would be terribly effective acting in co-operation with that submarine
+ram. Let us hope that she has come on a message of peace."</p>
+
+<p>"I understood, your Majesty," said the Kaiser, shortly, "that we had
+agreed to make peace at Windsor, and nowhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I hope we shall do so," said the Tsar, "but considering our
+numbers, and the help we have had from Mr Castellan's fleet, I'm afraid
+we are rather a long time getting there, and we shall be longer still if
+the British have any considerable number of ships like this one."</p>
+
+<p>"Airships or no airships," replied William the Second, "whatever message
+this ship is bringing, I will listen to nothing but surrender while I
+have an Army Corps on English soil. They must be almost beaten by this
+time; they can't have any more men to put in the field, while we have
+millions. To go back now that we have got so far would be worse than
+defeat&mdash;it would be disaster. Of course, your Majesty can have no more
+delusions than I have on that subject."</p>
+
+<p>A conversation on almost similar terms had been taking place meanwhile
+between the Emperor of Austria and General Henriot. Then the <i>Auriole</i>,
+after describing a splendid curve round the headquarters, dropped as
+quietly as a bird on the lawn in front, the gangway ladder fell over
+along the side, and Lord Kitchener, in the parade uniform of a general,
+descended and saluted the four commanders.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><p>"Good-morning, your Majesties. Good-morning, General Henriot."</p>
+
+<p>"I see that your lordship has come as bearer of the flag of truce this
+time," said the Kaiser, when salutes had been exchanged, "and I trust
+that in the interests of humanity you have come also with proposals
+which may enable us to put an honourable end to this terrible conflict,
+and I am sure that my Imperial brothers and the great Republic which
+General Henriot represents will be only too happy to accede to them."</p>
+
+<p>The others nodded in approval, but said nothing, as it had been more or
+less reluctantly agreed by them that the War Lord of Germany was to be
+the actual head and Commander-in-Chief of the Allies. K. of K. looked at
+him straight in the eyes&mdash;not a muscle of his face moved, and from under
+his heavy moustache there came in the gentlest of voices the astounding
+words:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have come from His Majesty King Edward with proposals of
+surrender&mdash;that is to say, for your surrender, and that of all the
+Allied Forces now on British soil."</p>
+
+<p>William the Second literally jumped, and his distinguished colleagues
+stared at him and each other in blank amazement. By this time Lennard
+had come down the gangway ladder, and was standing beside Lord
+Kitchener. Mr Parmenter and the latest addition to the British Naval
+List were strolling up and down the deck of the <i>Auriole</i> smoking cigars
+and chatting as though this sort of thing happened every day.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that your Majesty hardly takes me seriously," said Lord
+Kitchener, still in the same quiet voice, "but if your Majesties will do
+Mr Lennard and myself the favour of an interview in one of the rooms
+here, which used to belong to me, I think we shall be able to convince
+you that we have the best of reasons for being serious."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, Mr Lennard," replied the Kaiser, looking at him with just a
+suspicion of anxiety in his glance. "Good-morning. Have you come to tell
+us something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> more about this wonderful comet of yours? It seems to me
+some time making itself visible."</p>
+
+<p>"It is visible every night now, your Majesty," said Lennard; "that is,
+if you know where to look for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that sounds interesting," said the Tsar, moving towards the door.
+"Suppose we go back into the Council Room and hear something about it."</p>
+
+<p>As they went in the <i>Auriole</i> rose from the ground, and began making a
+series of slow, graceful curves over the two camps at the height of
+about a thousand feet. Neither Mr Parmenter, nor his friend the Admiral,
+knew exactly how far the flag of truce would be respected, and,
+moreover, a little display of the <i>Auriole's</i> powers of flight might
+possibly help along negotiations, and, as a matter of fact, they did;
+for the sight of this huge fabric circling above them, with her long
+wicked-looking guns pointing in all directions, formed a spectacle which
+to the officers and men of the various regiments and battalions
+scattered about the vast plain was a good deal more interesting than it
+was pleasant. The Staff officers knew, too, that the strange craft
+possessed two very great advantages over the <i>Flying Fishes</i>; she was
+much faster, and she could rise direct from the ground&mdash;whereas the
+<i>Fishes</i>, like their namesakes, could only rise from the water. In
+short, it did not need a soldier's eye to see that all their stores and
+magazines, to say nothing of their own persons, were absolutely at the
+mercy of the British a&euml;rial flagship. The <i>Flying Fishes</i> were down in
+the Solent refitting and filling up with motive power and ammunition
+preparatory to the general advance on London.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they were seated in the Council Chamber it did not take Lord
+Kitchener and Lennard very long to convince their Majesties and General
+Henriot that they were very much in earnest about the matter of
+surrender. In fact, the only terms offered were immediate retirement
+behind the line of the North Downs, cessation of hostilities and
+surrender of the <i>Flying Fishes</i>, and all British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> subjects, including
+John Castellan, who might be on board them.</p>
+
+<p>"The reason for that condition," said Lord Kitchener, "Mr Lennard will
+be able to make plain to your Majesties."</p>
+
+<p>Then Lennard handed Castellan's letter to the Kaiser, and explained the
+change of calculations necessitated by the diversion of the planet from
+its orbit.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not the letter of an honest fighting man. I am sure that your
+Majesties will agree with me in that. I may say that I have talked the
+matter over with Mr Parmenter and our answer is in the negative. This is
+not warfare; it is only abduction, possibly seasoned with murder, and we
+call those things crimes in England, and if such a crime were permitted
+by those in whose employment John Castellan presumably is, we should
+punish them as well as him."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the Kaiser, clenching his fists, "do you, a civilian,
+an ordinary citizen, dare to say such words to us? Lord Kitchener, can
+you permit such an outrage as this?"</p>
+
+<p>"The other outrage would be a much greater one, especially if it were
+committed with the tacit sanction of the three greatest Powers in
+Europe," replied K. of K., quietly. "That is one of our chief reasons
+for asking for the surrender of the <i>Flying Fishes</i>. There is no telling
+what harm this wild Irishman of yours might do if he got on the loose,
+not only here but perhaps in your own territories, if he were allowed to
+commit a crime like this, and then went, as he would have to do, into
+the outlaw business."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that there is great justice in what Lord Kitchener says,"
+remarked His Majesty of Austria. "We must not forget that if this man
+Castellan did run amok with any of those diabolical contrivances of his,
+he would be just as much above human law as he would be outside human
+reach. I must confess that that appears to me to be one of the most
+serious features in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> the situation. Your Majesties, as well as the
+French Government, are aware that I have been all along opposed to the
+use of these horrible engines of destruction, and now you see that their
+very existence seems to have called others into being which may be even
+more formidable."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Lennard can tell your Majesties more about that than I can," said K.
+of K., with one of his grimmest smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as the air is concerned," said Lennard, very quietly, "we can
+both out-fly and out-shoot the <i>Flying Fishes</i>; while as regards the
+water, eleven more <i>Ithuriels</i> will be launched during the week. We have
+twenty-five airships ready for action over land or sea, and, for my own
+part, I think that if your Majesties knew all the details of the
+situation you would consider the terms which his lordship has put before
+you quite generous. But, after all," he continued, in a suddenly changed
+tone, "it seems, if you will excuse my saying so, rather childish to
+talk about terms of peace or war when the world itself has less than six
+weeks to live if John Castellan manages to carry out his threat."</p>
+
+<p>"And you feel absolutely certain of that, Mr Lennard?" asked the Tsar,
+in a tone of very serious interest. "It seems rather singular that none
+of the other astronomers of Europe or America have discovered this
+terrible comet of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had the advantage of the finest telescope in the world, your
+Majesty," replied Lennard, with a smile, "and of course I have published
+no details. There was no point in creating a panic or getting laughed at
+before it was necessary. But now that the orbit has altered, and the
+catastrophe will come so much sooner, any further delay would be little
+short of criminal. In fact, we have to-day telegraphed to all the
+principal observatories in the world, giving exact positions for
+to-night, corrected to differences of time and latitude. We shall hear
+the verdict in the morning, and during to-morrow. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>Meanwhile we are
+going to Greenwich to get the observatory there to work on my
+calculations, and if your Majesties would care to appoint an officer of
+sufficient knowledge to come with us, and see the comet for himself, he
+will, I am sure, be quite welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"A very good suggestion, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, "very."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," replied the Tsar, quickly, "as astronomy has always been a great
+hobby with me, will you allow me to come? Of course, you have my word
+that I shall see nothing on the journey that you don't want me to see."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be delighted," said the British envoy, cordially, "and as for
+seeing things, you will be at perfect liberty to use your eyes as much
+as you like."</p>
+
+<p>The Tsar's august colleagues entered fully into the sporting spirit in
+which he had made his proposal, and a verbal agreement to suspend all
+hostilities till his return was ratified in a glass of His Majesty of
+Austria's Imperial Tokay.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE</h3>
+
+<p>Although the Tsar had made trips with John Castellan in the <i>Flying
+Fish</i>, he had never had quite such an a&euml;rial experience as his trip to
+Greenwich. The <i>Auriole</i> rose vertically in the air, soared upward in a
+splendid spiral curve, and vanished through the thin cloud layer to the
+north-eastward. Twenty minutes of wonder passed like so many seconds,
+and Admiral Hingeston, beside whom he was standing in the conning-tower,
+said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"We're about there, your Majesty."</p>
+
+<p>"Greenwich already," exclaimed the Tsar, pulling out his watch. "It is
+forty miles, and we have not been quite twenty minutes yet."</p>
+
+<p>"That's about it," said the Admiral, "this craft can do her two miles a
+minute, and still have a good bit in hand if it came to chasing
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled back a couple of levers as he spoke and gave a quarter turn to
+the wheel. The great airship took a downward slide, swung round to the
+right, and in a few moments she had dropped quietly to the turf of
+Greenwich Park alongside the Observatory.</p>
+
+<p>Lennard's calculations had already reached the Astronomer Royal, and he
+and his chief assistant had had time to make a rapid run through them,
+and they had found that his figures, and especially the inexplicable
+change in the orbit, tallied almost exactly with observations of a
+possibly new comet for the last two months or so.</p>
+
+<p>They were not quite prepared for the coming of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> Imperial&mdash;and
+hostile&mdash;visitor in an airship, accompanied by the discoverer of the
+comet, the millionaire who owned the great telescope, and an American
+gentleman in the uniform of a British admiral; but those were
+extraordinary times, and so extraordinary happenings might be expected.
+The astronomer and his staff, being sober men of science, whose business
+was with other worlds rather than this one, accepted the situation
+calmly, gave their visitors lunch, talked about everything but the war,
+and then they all spent a pleasant and instructive afternoon in a
+journey through Space in search of the still invisible Celestial
+Invader.</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished, the two sets of calculations balanced
+exactly&mdash;to the millionth of a degree and the thousandth of a second. At
+ten seconds to twelve, midnight, May the first, the comet, if not
+prevented by some tremendously powerful agency, would pierce the earth's
+atmosphere, as Lennard had predicted.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a marvellous piece of work, Mr Lennard, however good an
+instrument you had. As an astronomer I congratulate you heartily, but as
+citizens of the world I hope we shall be able to congratulate you still
+more heartily on the results which you expect that big gun of yours to
+bring about."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I hope so," said Lennard, toying rather absently with his
+pencil.</p>
+
+<p>"And if the cannon is not fired, and the Pittsburg one does not happen
+to be exactly laid, for there is a very great difference in longitude,
+what will be the probable results, Mr Astronomer?" asked the Tsar, upon
+whom the lesson of the afternoon had by no means been lost.</p>
+
+<p>"If the comet is what Mr Lennard expects it to be, your Majesty," was
+the measured reply, "then, if this Invader is not destroyed, his
+predictions will be fulfilled to the letter. In other words, on the
+second of May there will not be a living thing left on earth."</p>
+
+<p>At three minutes past ten that evening the Tsar looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> into the
+eye-piece of the Greenwich Equatorial, and saw a double-winged yellow
+shape floating in the centre of the field of vision. He watched it for
+long minutes, listening to the soft clicking of the clockwork, which was
+the only sound that broke the silence. During the afternoon he had seen
+photographs of the comet taken every night that the weather made a clear
+observation possible. The series tallied exactly with what he now saw.
+The gradual enlargement and brightening; the ever-increasing exactness
+of definition, and the separation of the nucleus from the two wings. All
+that he had seen was as pitilessly inexorable as the figures which
+contained the prophecy of the world's approaching doom. He rose from his
+seat and said quietly, yet with a strange impressiveness:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, I, for one, am satisfied and converted. What the inscrutable
+decrees of Providence may or may not be, we have no right to inquire;
+but whether this is a judgment from the Most High brought upon us by our
+sins, or whether it is merely an ordinary cataclysm of Nature against
+which we may be able to protect ourselves, does not come into the
+question which is in dispute amongst us. Humanity has an unquestioned
+right to preserve its existence as far as it is possible to do so. If it
+is possible to arrange for another conference at Aldershot to-morrow, I
+think I may say that there will be a possibility of arriving at a
+reasonable basis of negotiations. And now, if it is convenient, Lord
+Kitchener, I should like to get back to camp. Much has been given to me
+to think about to-night, and you know we Russians have a very sound
+proverb: 'Take thy thoughts to bed with thee, for the morning is wiser
+than the evening.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That, your Majesty, has been my favourite saying ever since I knew that
+men had to think about work before they were able to do it properly." So
+spoke the man who had worked for fourteen years to win one battle, and
+crush a whole people at a single stroke&mdash;after which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> he made the best
+of friends with them, and loyal subjects of his Sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>They took their leave of the astronomer and his staff, and a few minutes
+later the <i>Auriole</i>, still flying the flag of truce, cleared the
+tree-tops and rose into the serene starlit atmosphere above them.</p>
+
+<p>When the airship had gained a height of a thousand feet, and was heading
+south-west towards Aldershot at a speed of about a hundred miles an
+hour, the Admiral noticed a shape not unlike that of his own vessel, on
+his port quarter, making almost the same direction as he was. The Tsar
+and Lord Kitchener were sitting one on either side of him, as he stood
+at the steering-wheel, as the ominous shape came into view.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that's one of your <i>Flying Fishes</i>, your Majesty, taking
+news from the Continent to Aldershot. Yes, there goes her searchlight.
+She's found us out by now. She knows we're not one of her crowd, and so
+I suppose we shall have to fight her. Yes, I thought so, she means
+fight. She's trying to get above us, which means dropping a few of those
+torpedoes on us, and sending us across the edge of eternity before we
+know we've got there."</p>
+
+<p>"You will, of course, do your duty, Admiral," replied the Tsar very
+quietly, but with a quick tightening of the lips. "It is a most
+unfortunate occurrence, but we must all take the fortune of war as it
+comes. I hope you will not consider my presence here for a moment.
+Remember that I asked myself."</p>
+
+<p>"There won't be any danger to us, your Majesty," replied the Admiral,
+with a marked emphasis on the "us." "Still, we have too many valuable
+lives on board to let him get the drop on us."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he thrust one lever on the right hand forward, and pulled
+another back; then he took the telephone receiver down from the wall,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"See that thing? She's trying to get the drop on us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> Full speed ahead:
+I'm going to rise. Hold on, gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>They held on. The Tsar saw the jumping searchlights, which flashed up
+from the little grey shape to the southward, suddenly fall away and
+below them. The Admiral touched the wheel with his left hand, and the
+<i>Auriole</i> sprang forward. The other tried to do the same, but she seemed
+to droop and fall behind. Admiral Hingeston took down the receiver again
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Ready&mdash;starboard guns&mdash;now: fire!"</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there was no report; only a brilliant blaze of light to the
+southward, and an atmospheric shock which made the <i>Auriole</i> shudder as
+she passed on her way. The Tsar looked out to the spot where the blaze
+of flame had burst out. The other airship had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone. That is awful," he said, with a shake in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"As I said before, I'm sorry, your Majesty," replied the Admiral, "but
+it had to be done. If he'd got the top side of us we should have been in
+as little pieces as he is now. I only hope it's John Castellan's craft.
+If it is it will save a lot of trouble to both sides."</p>
+
+<p>The Tsar did not reply. He was too busy thinking, and so was Lord
+Kitchener.</p>
+
+<p>That night there were divided counsels in the headquarters of the Allies
+at Aldershot, and the Kaiser and his colleagues went to bed between two
+and three in the morning without having come to anything like a definite
+decision. As a matter of fact, within the last few hours things had
+become a little too complicated to be decided upon in anything like a
+hurry.</p>
+
+<p>While the potentates of the Alliance were almost quarrelling as to what
+was to be done, the <i>Auriole</i> paid a literally flying visit to the
+British positions, and then the hospitals. At Caversham, Lennard found
+Norah Castellan taking her turn of night duty by the bedside of Lord
+Westerham, who had, after all, got through his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> desperate ride with a
+couple of bullets through his right ribs, and a broken left arm; but he
+had got his despatches in all the same, though nearly two hours
+late&mdash;for which he apologised before he fainted. In one of the wards at
+Windsor Camp he found Auriole, also on night duty, nursing with no less
+anxious care the handsome young Captain of Uhlans who had taken Lord
+Whittinghame's car in charge in Rochester. Mrs O'Connor had got a
+badly-wounded Russian Vice-Admiral all to herself, and, as she modestly
+put it, was doing very nicely with him.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the news of the truce was proclaimed, and the opposing
+millions laid themselves down to rest with the thankful certainty that
+it would not be broken for at least a night and a day by the whistle of
+the life-hunting bullet or the screaming roar and heart-shaking crash of
+the big shell which came from some invisible point five or six miles
+away. In view of this a pleasant little dinner-party was arranged for at
+the Parmenter Palace at eight the next evening. There would be no
+carriages. The coming and parting guests would do their coming and going
+in airships. Mr Parmenter expressed the opinion that, under the
+circumstances, this would be at once safer and more convenient.</p>
+
+<p>But before that dinner-party broke up, the world had something very
+different from feasting and merrymaking, or even invasion and military
+conquest or defeat, to think of.</p>
+
+<p>The result of Lennard's telegrams and cables had been that every
+powerful telescope in the civilised world had been turned upon that
+distant region of the fields of Space out of which the Celestial Invader
+was rushing at a speed of thousands of miles a minute to that awful
+trysting-place, at which it and the planet Terra were to meet and
+embrace in the fiery union of death.</p>
+
+<p>From every observatory, from Greenwich to Arequipa, and from Pike's Peak
+to Melbourne, came practically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> identical messages, which, in their
+combined sense, came to this:</p>
+
+<p>"Lennard's figures absolutely correct. Collision with comet apparently
+inevitable. Consequences incalculable."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WAITING FOR DOOM</h3>
+
+<p>This was the all-important news which the inhabitants of every town
+which possessed a well-informed newspaper read the next morning. It was,
+in the more important of them, followed by digests of the calculations
+which had made this terrific result a practical certainty. These, again,
+were followed by speculations, some deliberately scientific, and some
+wild beyond the dreams of the most hopeless hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>Men and women who for a generation or so had been making large incomes
+by prophesying the end of the world as a certainty about every seven
+years&mdash;and had bought up long leaseholds meanwhile&mdash;now gambled with
+absolute certainty on the shortness of the public memory, revised their
+figures, and proved to demonstration that this was the very thing they
+had been foretelling all along.</p>
+
+<p>First&mdash;outside scientific circles&mdash;came blank incredulity. The ordinary
+man and woman in the street had not room in their brains for such a
+tremendous idea as this&mdash;fact or no fact. They were already filled with
+a crowd of much smaller and, to them, much more pressing concerns, than
+a collision with a comet which you couldn't even see except through a
+big telescope: and then that sort of thing had been talked and written
+about hundreds of times before and had never come to anything, so why
+should this?</p>
+
+<p>But when the morning papers dated&mdash;somewhat ominously&mdash;the twenty-fifth
+of March, quarter day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> informed their readers that, granted fine
+weather, the comet would be visible to the naked eye from sunset to
+sunrise according to longitude that night, the views of the man and the
+woman who had taken the matter so lightly underwent a very considerable
+change.</p>
+
+<p>While the comet could only be seen, save by astronomers, in the
+photographs that could be bought in any form from a picture-postcard to
+a five-guinea reproduction of the actual thing, there was still an air
+of unconvincing unreality about. Of course it might be coming, but it
+was still very far away, and it might not arrive after all. Yet when
+that fateful night had passed and millions of sleepless eyes had seen
+the south-western stars shining through a pale luminous mist extended in
+the shape of two vast filmy wings with a brighter spot of yellow flame
+between them, the whole matter seemed to take on a very different and a
+much more serious aspect.</p>
+
+<p>The fighting had come to a sudden stop, as though by a mutually tacit
+agreement. Not even the German Emperor could now deny that Lennard had
+made no idle threat at Canterbury when he had given him the destruction
+of the world as an alternative to the conquest of Britain. Still, he did
+not quite believe in the possibility of that destruction even yet, in
+spite of what the Tsar had told him and what he had learned from other
+sources. He still wanted to fight to a finish, and, as Deputy European
+Providence, he had a very real objection to the interference of
+apparently irresponsible celestial bodies with his carefully-thought-out
+plans for the ordering of mundane civilisation on German commercial
+lines. Whether they liked it or not, it must be the best thing in the
+end for them: otherwise how could He have come to think it all out?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, to make matters worse from his point of view, John Castellan
+had refused absolutely to accept any modification of the original terms,
+and he had replied to an order from headquarters to report himself and
+the ships still left under his control by loading the said ships<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> with
+ammunition and motive power and then disappearing from the field of
+action without leaving a trace as to his present or future whereabouts
+behind him, and so, as far as matters went, entirely fulfilling the
+Tsar's almost prophetic fears.</p>
+
+<p>And then, precisely at the hour, minute and second predicted, five
+hours, thirty minutes and twenty-five seconds, a.m., on the 31st of
+March, the comet became visible in daylight about two and a half degrees
+south-westward of the Morning Star. Twenty-four hours later the two
+wings came into view, and the next evening the Invader looked like some
+gigantic bird of prey swooping down from its eyrie somewhere in the
+heights of Space upon the trembling and terrified world. The
+professional prophets said, with an excellent assumption of absolute
+conviction, that it was nothing less awful than the Destroying Angel
+himself <i>in propria persona</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At length, when excitement had developed into frenzy, and frenzy into an
+almost universal delirium, two cablegrams crossed each other along the
+bed of the Atlantic Ocean. One was to say that the Pittsburg gun was
+ready, and the other that the loading of the Bolton Baby&mdash;feeding, some
+callous humorist of the day called it&mdash;was to begin the next morning.
+This meant that there was just a week&mdash;an ordinary working week, between
+the human race and something very like the Day of Judgment.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Lennard set all the existing wires of the world thrilling
+with the news that the huge projectile, charged with its thirty
+hundredweight of explosives, was resting quietly in its place on the top
+of a potential volcano which, loosened by the touch of a woman's hand,
+was to hurl it through space and into the heart of the swiftly-advancing
+Invader from the outmost realms of Space.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAST FIGHT</h3>
+
+<p>It so happened that on the first night the German Emperor saw the comet
+without the aid of a telescope he was attacked by one of those fits of
+hysteria which, according to ancient legend, are the hereditary curse of
+the House of Brandenburg. He had made possible that which had been
+impossible for over a thousand years&mdash;he had invaded England in force,
+and he had established himself and his Allies in all the greatest
+fortress-camps of south-eastern England. After all, the story of the
+comet might be a freak of the scientific imagination; there might be
+some undetected error in the calculations. One great mistake had been
+made already, either by the comet or its discoverer&mdash;why not another?</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said to himself, as he stood in front of the headquarters at
+Aldershot looking up at the comet, "we've heard about you before, my
+friend. Astronomers and other people have prophesied a dozen times that
+you or something like you were going to bring about the end of the
+world, but somehow it never came off; whereas it is pretty certain that
+the capture of London will come off if it is only properly managed. At
+anyrate, I am inclined to back my chances of taking London against yours
+of destroying it."</p>
+
+<p>And so he made his decision. He sent a telegram to Dover ordering an
+aerogram to be sent to John Castellan, whose address was now, of course,
+anywhere in the air or sea; the message was to be repeated from all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+Continental stations until he was found. It contained the first
+capitulation that the War Lord of Germany had ever made. He accepted the
+terms of his Admiral of the Air and asked him to bring his fleet the
+following day to assist in a general assault on London&mdash;London once
+taken, John Castellan could have the free hand that he had asked for.</p>
+
+<p>In twelve hours a reply came back from the Jotunheim in Norway.
+Meanwhile, the Kaiser, as Generalissimo of the Allied Forces,
+telegraphed orders to all the commanders of army corps in England to
+prepare for a final assault on the positions commanding London within
+twenty-four hours. At the same time he sent telegraphic orders to all
+the centres of mobilisation in Europe, ordering the advance of all
+possible reinforcements with the least delay. It was his will that four
+million men should march on London that week, and, in spite of the
+protests of the Emperor of Austria and the Tsar, his will was obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>So the truce was broken and the millions advanced, as it were over the
+brink of Eternity, towards London. But the reinforcements never came.
+Every transport that steamed out of Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Antwerp,
+Brest or Calais, vanished into the waters; for now the whole squadron of
+twelve <i>Ithuriels</i> had been launched and had got to work, and the
+British fleets from the Mediterranean, the China Seas and the North
+Atlantic, had once more asserted Britain's supremacy on the seas. In
+addition to these, ten first-class battleships, twelve first and fifteen
+second-class cruisers and fifty destroyers had been turned out by the
+Home yards, and so the British Islands were once more ringed with an
+unbreakable wall of steel. One invasion had been accomplished, but now
+no other was possible. The French Government absolutely refused to send
+any more men. The Italian armies had crossed the Alps at three points,
+and every soldier left in France was wanted to defend her own fortresses
+and cities from the attack of the invader.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><p>But, despite all this, the War Lord held to his purpose; and that night
+the last battle ever fought between civilised nations began, and when
+the sun rose on the sixteenth of April, its rays lit up what was
+probably the most awful scene of carnage that human eyes had ever looked
+upon. The battle-line of the invaders had extended from Sheerness to
+Reading in a sort of irregular semicircle, and it was estimated
+afterwards that not less than a million and a half of killed and wounded
+men, fifty thousand horses and hundreds of disabled batteries of light
+and heavy artillery strewed the long line of defeat and conquest.</p>
+
+<p>The British a&euml;rial fleet of twenty ships had made victory for the
+defenders a practical certainty. As Admiral Hingeston had told the Tsar,
+they could both out-fly and out-shoot the <i>Flying Fishes</i>. This they did
+and more. The moment that a battery got into position half a dozen
+searchlights were concentrated on it. Then came a hail of shells, and a
+series of explosions which smashed the guns to fragments and killed
+every living thing within a radius of a hundred yards. Infantry and
+cavalry shared the same fate the moment that any formation was made for
+an attack on the British positions; the storm of fire was made ten-fold
+more terrible by the unceasing bombardment from the air; and the
+brilliant glow of the searchlights thrown down from a height of a
+thousand feet or so along the lines of the attacking forces made the
+work of the defenders comparatively easy, for the man in a fight who can
+see and is not seen is worth several who are seen and yet fight in the
+dark.</p>
+
+<p>But the assailants were exposed to an even more deadly danger than
+artillery or rifle fire. The catastrophe which had overwhelmed the
+British Fleet in Dover Harbour was repeated with ten-fold effect; but
+this time the tables were turned. The British a&euml;rial fleet hunted the
+<i>Flying Fishes</i> as hawks hunt partridges, and whenever one of them was
+found over a hostile position a shell from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> silent, flameless guns
+hit her, and down she went to explode like a volcano amongst masses of
+cavalry, infantry and artillery, and of this utter panic was the only
+natural result.</p>
+
+<p>Eleven out of the twelve <i>Flying Fishes</i> were thus accounted for. What
+had become of the twelfth no one knew. It might have been partially
+crippled and fallen far away from the great battlefield; or it might
+have turned tail and escaped, and in this case it was a practical
+certainty, at least in Lennard's mind, that it was John Castellan's own
+vessel and that he, seeing that the battle was lost, had taken her away
+to some unknown spot in order to fulfil the threat contained in his
+letter, and for this reason five of the British airships were at once
+despatched to mount guard over the great cannon at Bolton.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of the Allies both by land and sea, though accomplished at
+the eleventh hour of the world's threatened fate, had been so complete
+and crushing, and the death-total had reached such a ghastly figure,
+that Austria, Russia and France flatly refused to continue the Alliance.
+After all the tremendous sacrifice that had been made in men, money and
+material they had not even reached London. From their outposts on the
+Surrey hills they could see the vast city, silent and apparently
+sleeping under its canopy of hazy clouds, but that was all. It was still
+as distant from them as the poles; and so the Allies looked upon it and
+then upon their dead, and admitted, by their silence if not by their
+words, that Britain the Unconquered was unconquerable still.</p>
+
+<p>The German Emperor's fit had passed. Even he was appalled when upon that
+memorable morning he received the joint note of his three Allies and
+learnt the awful cost of that one night's fighting.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he was countersigning the Note of Capitulation in the
+headquarters at Aldershot, the <i>Auriole</i> swung round from the northward
+and descended on to the turf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> flying the flag of truce. He saw it
+through the window, got up, put his right hand on the butt of the
+revolver in his hip-pocket, thought hard for one fateful moment, then
+took it away and went out.</p>
+
+<p>At the gate he met Lord Kitchener; they exchanged salutes and shook
+hands, and the Kaiser said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my lord, what are the terms?"</p>
+
+<p>K. of K. laughed, simply because he couldn't help it. The absolute hard
+business of the question went straight to the heart of the best business
+man in the British Army.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not here to make or accept terms, your Majesty," he said. "I am
+only the bearer of a message, and here it is."</p>
+
+<p>Then he handed the Kaiser an envelope bearing the Royal Arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I am instructed to take your reply back as soon as possible," he
+continued. Then he saluted again and walked away towards the <i>Auriole</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser opened the envelope and read&mdash;an invitation to lunch from his
+uncle, Edward of England, and a request to bring his august colleagues
+with him to talk matters over. There was no hint of battle, victory or
+defeat. It was a quite commonplace letter, but all the same it was one
+of those triumphs of diplomacy which only the first diplomatist in
+Europe knew how to achieve. Then he too laughed as he folded up the
+letter and went to Lord Kitchener and said:</p>
+
+<p>"This is only an invitation to lunch, and you have told me you are not
+here to propose or take terms. That, of course, was official, but
+personally&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>K. of K. stiffened up, and a harder glint came into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I can say nothing personally, your Majesty, except to ask you to
+remember my reply to Cronje."</p>
+
+<p>The Kaiser remembered that reply of three words, "Surrender, or fight,"
+and he knew that he could not fight, save under a penalty of utter
+destruction. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> went back into his room, brought back the joint note
+which he had just received, and gave it to Lord Kitchener, just as it
+was, without even putting it into an envelope, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"That is our answer. We are beaten, and those who lose must pay."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kitchener looked over the note and said, in a somewhat dry tone:</p>
+
+<p>"This, your Majesty, I read as absolute surrender."</p>
+
+<p>"It is," said William the Second, his hand instinctively going to the
+hilt of his sword. Lord Kitchener shook his head, and said very quietly
+and pleasantly:</p>
+
+<p>"No, your Majesty, not that. But," he said, looking up at the four flags
+which were still flying above the headquarters, "I should be obliged if
+you would give orders to haul those down and hoist the Jack instead."</p>
+
+<p>There was no help for it, and no one knew better than the Kaiser the
+strength there was behind those quietly-spoken words. The awful lesson
+of the night before had taught him that this beautiful cruiser of the
+air which lay within a few yards of him could in a few moments rise into
+the air and scatter indiscriminate death and destruction around her, and
+so the flags came down, the old Jack once more went up, and Aldershot
+was English ground again.</p>
+
+<p>Wherefore, not to enter into unnecessary details, the <i>Auriole</i>, instead
+of making the place a wilderness as Lord Kitchener had quite determined
+to do, became an a&euml;rial pleasure yacht. Orderlies were sent to the
+Russian, Austrian and French headquarters, and an hour later the chiefs
+of the Allies were sitting in the deck saloon of the airship, flying at
+about sixty miles an hour towards London.</p>
+
+<p>The lunch at Buckingham Palace was an entirely friendly affair. King
+Edward had intended it to be a sort of international shake-hands all
+round. The King of Italy was present, as the <i>Columbia</i> had been
+despatched early in the morning to bring him from Rome, and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> picked
+up the French President on the way back at Paris. The King gave the
+first and only toast, and that was:</p>
+
+<p>"Your Majesties and Monsieur le President, in the name of Humanity, I
+ask you to drink to Peace."</p>
+
+<p>They drank, and so ended the last war that was ever fought on British
+soil.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2>
+
+<h3>"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"</h3>
+
+<p>On the morning of the thirtieth of April, the interest of the whole
+world was centred generally upon Bolton, and particularly upon the
+little spot of black earth enclosed by a ring of Bessemer furnaces in
+the midst of which lay another ring, a ring of metal, the mouth of the
+great cannon, whose one and only shot was to save or lose the world. At
+a height of two thousand feet, twenty airships circled at varying
+distances round the mouth of the gun, watching for the one <i>Flying Fish</i>
+which had not been accounted for in the final fight.</p>
+
+<p>The good town of Bolton itself was depopulated. For days past the comet
+had been blazing brighter and brighter, even in the broad daylight, and
+the reports which came pouring in every day from the observatories of
+the world made it perfectly clear that Lennard's calculations would be
+verified at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Parmenter and his brother capitalists had guaranteed two millions
+sterling as compensation for such destruction of property as might be
+brought about by the discharge of the cannon, and, coupled with this
+guarantee, was a request that everyone living within five miles of what
+had been the Great Lever pit should leave, and this was authorised by a
+Royal Proclamation. There was no confusion, because, when faced with
+great issues, the Lancashire intellect does not become confused. It just
+gets down to business and does it. So it came about that the people of
+Bolton, rich and poor, millionaire and artisan, made during that
+momentous week a general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> flitting, taking with them just such of their
+possessions as would be most precious to them if the Fates permitted
+them to witness the dawn of the first of May.</p>
+
+<p>The weather, strangely enough, had been warm and sunny for the last
+fortnight, despite the fact that the ever-brightening Invader from Space
+gradually outshone the sun itself, and so on all the moors round Bolton
+there sprang up a vast town of tents and ready-made bungalows from
+Chorley round by Darwen to Bury. Thousands of people had come from all
+parts of the kingdom to see the fate of the world decided. What was left
+of the armies of the Allies were also brought up by train, and all the
+British forces were there as well. They were all friends now for there
+was no more need for fighting, since the events of the next few hours
+would decide the fate of the human race.</p>
+
+<p>As the sun set over the western moors a vast concourse of men and women,
+representing almost every nationality on earth, watched the coming of
+the Invader, brightening now with every second and over-arching the
+firmament with its wide-spreading wings. There were no sceptics now. No
+one could look upon that appalling Shape and not believe, and if
+absolute confirmation of Lennard's prophecy had been wanted it would
+have been found in the fact that the temperature began to rise <i>after</i>
+sunset. That had never happened before within the memory of man.</p>
+
+<p>The crowning height of the moors which make a semicircle to the
+north-west of Bolton is Winter Hill, which stands about half-way between
+Bolton and Chorley, and, roughly speaking, would make the centre of a
+circle including Bolton, Wigan, Chorley and Blackburn. It rises to a
+height of nearly fifteen hundred feet and dominates the surrounding
+country for fully fifteen miles, and on the summit of this rugged,
+heather-clad moor was pitched what might be called without exaggeration
+the headquarters of the forces which were to do battle for humanity. A
+huge marquee had been erected in an ancient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> quarry just below the
+summit; from the centre pole of this flew the Royal Standard of England,
+and from the other poles the standards of every civilised nation in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>The front of the marquee opened to the south eastward, and by the
+unearthly light of the comet the mill chimneys of Bolton, dominated by
+the great stack of Dobson &amp; Barlow's, could be seen pointing like black
+fingers up to the approaching terror. In the centre of the opening were
+two plain deal tables. There was an instrument on each of them, and from
+these separate wires ran on two series of poles and buried themselves at
+last in the heart of the charge of the great cannon. Beside the
+instruments were two chronometers synchronised from Greenwich and
+beating time together to the thousandth part of a second, counting out
+what might perhaps be the last seconds of human life on earth.</p>
+
+<p>Grouped about the two tables were the five sovereigns of Europe and the
+President of the French Republic, and with them stood the greatest
+soldiers, sailors and scientists, statesmen and diplomatists between
+east and west.</p>
+
+<p>On a long deck chair beside one of the tables lay Lord Westerham with
+his left arm bound across his breast and looking little better than the
+ghost of the man he had been a month ago. Beside him stood Lady Margaret
+and Norah Castellan, and with them were the two men who had done so much
+to change defeat into victory; the captain and lieutenant of the
+ever-famous <i>Ithuriel</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Never before had there been such a gathering of all sorts and conditions
+of men on one spot of earth; but as the hours went on and dwindled into
+minutes, all differences of rank and position became things of the past.
+In the presence of that awful Shape which was now flaming across the
+heavens, all men and women were equal, since by midnight all might be
+reduced at the same instant to the same dust and ashes. The ghastly
+orange-green glare shone down alike on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> upturned face of monarch and
+statesman, soldier and peasant, millionaire and pauper, the good and the
+bad, the noble and the base, and tinged every face with its own ghastly
+hue.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes to twelve!</p>
+
+<p>There was a shaking of hands, but no words were spoken. Norah Castellan
+stooped and kissed her wounded lover's brow, and then stood up and
+clasped her hands behind her. Lennard went to one of the tables and
+Auriole to the other.</p>
+
+<p>Lennard had honestly kept the unspoken pact that had been made between
+them in the observatory at Whernside. Neither word nor look of love had
+passed his lips or lightened his eyes; and even now, as he stood beside
+her, looking at her face, beautiful still even in that ghastly light,
+his glance was as steady as if he had been looking through the eye-piece
+of his telescope.</p>
+
+<p>Auriole had her right forefinger already resting on a little white
+button, ready at a touch to send the kindling spark into the mighty mass
+of explosives which lay buried at the bottom of what had been the Great
+Lever pit. Lennard also had his right forefinger on another button, but
+his left hand was in his coat pocket and the other forefinger was on the
+trigger of a loaded and cocked revolver. There were several other
+revolvers in men's pockets&mdash;men who had sworn that their nearest and
+dearest should be spared the last tortures of the death-agony of
+humanity.</p>
+
+<p>The chronometers began to tick off the seconds of the last minute. The
+wings of the comet spread out vaster and vaster and its now flaming
+nucleus blazed brighter and brighter. A low, vague wailing sound seemed
+to be running through the multitudes which thronged the semicircle of
+moors. It was the first and perhaps the last utterance of the agony of
+unendurable suspense.</p>
+
+<p>At the thirtieth second Lennard looked up and said in a quiet,
+passionless tone:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p><p>"Ready!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment he saw, as millions of others thought they saw, a
+grey shape skimming through the air from the north-east towards Bolton.
+It could not be a British airship, for the fleet had already scattered,
+as the shock of the coming explosion would certainly have caused them to
+smash up like so many shells. It was John Castellan's <i>Flying Fish</i> come
+to fulfil the letter of his threat, even at this supreme moment of the
+world's fate.</p>
+
+<p>Again Lennard spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty seconds."</p>
+
+<p>And then he began to count.
+"Nine&mdash;eight&mdash;seven&mdash;six&mdash;five&mdash;four&mdash;three&mdash;two&mdash;Now!"</p>
+
+<p>The two fingers went down at the same instant and completed the
+circuits. The next, the central fires of the earth seemed to have burst
+loose. A roar such as had never deafened human ears before thundered
+from earth to heaven, and a vast column of pale flame leapt up with a
+concussion which seemed to shake the foundations of the world. Then in
+the midst of the column of flame there came a brighter flash, a
+momentary blaze of green-blue flame flashing out for a moment and
+vanishing.</p>
+
+<p>"That was John's ship," said Norah. "God forgive him!"</p>
+
+<p>"He will," said Westerham, taking her hand. "He was wrong-headed on that
+particular subject, but he was a brave man, and a genius. I don't think
+there's any doubt about that."</p>
+
+<p>"It's good of you to say so," said Norah. "Poor John! With all his
+learning and genius to come to that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We all have to get there some time, Norah, and after all, whether he's
+right or wrong, a man can't die better than for what he believes to be
+the truth and the right. We may think him mistaken, he thought he was
+right, and he has proved it. God rest his soul!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p><p>"Amen!" said Norah, and she leant over again and kissed him on the
+brow.</p>
+
+<p>Then came ten seconds more of mute and agonised suspense, and men's
+fingers tightened their grip on the revolvers. Then the upturned
+straining eyes looked upon such a sight as human eyes will never see
+again save perchance those which, in the fulness of time, may look upon
+the awful pageantry of the Last Day.</p>
+
+<p>High up in the air there was a shrill screaming sound which seemed
+something like an echo of the roar of the great gun. Something like a
+white flash of light darted upwards straight to the heart of the
+descending Invader. Then the whole heavens were illumined by a blinding
+glare. The nucleus of the comet seemed to throw out long rays of
+many-coloured light. A moment later it had burst into myriads of faintly
+gleaming atoms.</p>
+
+<p>The watching millions on earth instinctively clasped their hands to
+their ears, expecting such a sound as would deafen them for ever; but
+none came, for the explosion had taken place beyond the limits of the
+earth's atmosphere. The whole sky was now filled from zenith to horizon
+with a pale, golden, luminous mist, and through this the moon and stars
+began to shine dimly.</p>
+
+<p>Then a blast of burning air swept shrieking and howling across the
+earth, for now the planet Terra was rushing at her headlong speed of
+nearly seventy thousand miles an hour through the ocean of fire-mist
+into which the shattered comet had been dissolved. Then this passed. The
+cool wind of night followed it, and the moon and stars shone down once
+more undimmed through the pure and cloudless ether.</p>
+
+<p>Until now there had been silence. Men and women looked at each other and
+clasped hands; and then Tom Bowcock, standing just outside the marquee
+with his arm round his wife's shoulders, lifted up his mighty baritone
+voice and sang the lines:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p><p>Hundreds and then thousands, then millions of voices took up the
+familiar strain, and so from the tops of the Lancashire moors the chorus
+rolled on from village to village and town to town, until with one
+voice, though with many tongues, east and west were giving thanks for
+the Great Deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>But the man who, under Providence, had wrought it, seemed deaf and blind
+to all this. He only felt a soft trembling clasp round his right hand,
+and he only heard Auriole's voice whispering his name.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment a stronger grip pulled his left hand out of his coat
+pocket, bringing the revolver with it, and Mr Parmenter's voice, shaken
+by rare emotion, said, loudly enough for all in the marquee to hear:</p>
+
+<p>"We may thank God and you, Gilbert Lennard, that there's still a world
+with living men and women on it, and there's one woman here who's going
+to live for you only till death do you part. She told me all about it
+last night. You've won her fair and square, and you're going to have
+her. I did have other views for her, but I've changed my mind, because I
+have learnt other things since then. But anyhow, with no offence to this
+distinguished company, I reckon you're the biggest man on earth just
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Soon after daybreak on the first of May, one of the airships that had
+been guarding Whernside dropped on the top of Winter Hill, and the
+captain gave Lennard a cablegram which read thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Lennard</span>, Bolton, England: Good shot. As you left no pieces for us
+to shoot at we've let our shot go. No use for it here. Hope it will
+stop next celestial stranger coming this way. America thanks you.
+Any terms you like for lecturing tour.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henchell</span>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lennard did not see his way to accept the lecturing offer because he had
+much more important business on hand: but a week later, after a
+magnificent and, if the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> word may be used, multiple marriage ceremony
+had been performed in Westminster Abbey, five airships, each with a
+bride and bridegroom on board, rose from the gardens of Buckingham
+Palace and, followed by the cheers of millions, winged their way
+westward. Thirty-five hours later there was such a dinner-party at the
+White House, Washington, as eclipsed all the previous glories even of
+American hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing was ever seen of the projectile which "The Pittsburg Prattler"
+had hurled into space. Not even the great Whernside reflector was able
+to pick it up. The probability, therefore, is that even now it is still
+speeding on its lonely way through the Ocean of Immensity, and it is
+within the bounds of possibility that at some happy moment in the future
+and somewhere far away beyond the reach of human vision, its huge charge
+of explosives may do for some other threatened world what the one which
+the Bolton Baby coughed up into Space just in the nick of time did to
+save this home of ours from the impending Peril of 1910.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>COLSTON AND COY. LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The World Peril of 1910, by George Griffith
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@@ -0,0 +1,10708 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Peril of 1910, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World Peril of 1910
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #24764]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910
+
+BY
+
+GEORGE GRIFFITH
+
+AUTHOR OF
+"THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION," "A CONQUEST OF FORTUNE,"
+"A MAYFAIR MAGICIAN," "HIS BETTER HALF," ETC. ETC.
+
+LONDON
+
+F. V. WHITE & CO. LTD.
+
+14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+  PROLOGUE--A RACE FOR A WOMAN                          1
+
+      I. A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT                         9
+
+     II. NORAH'S GOOD-BYE                              17
+
+    III. SEEN UNDER THE MOON                           24
+
+     IV. THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR                      31
+
+      V. A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM                         37
+
+     VI. THE NOTE OF WAR                               47
+
+    VII. CAUGHT!                                       55
+
+   VIII. FIRST BLOOD                                   63
+
+     IX. THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS                     72
+
+      X. FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR                      79
+
+     XI. THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS              88
+
+    XII. HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS                      98
+
+   XIII. A CRIME AND A MISTAKE                        106
+
+    XIV. THE EVE OF BATTLE                            115
+
+     XV. THE STRIFE OF GIANTS                         123
+
+    XVI. HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH          132
+
+   XVII. AWAY FROM THE WARPATH                        143
+
+  XVIII. A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL                       151
+
+    XIX. A CHANGE OF SCENE                            160
+
+     XX. THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS--                 167
+
+    XXI. --AND ENDS                                   176
+
+   XXII. DISASTER                                     182
+
+  XXIII. THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS                    189
+
+   XXIV. TOM BOWCOCK--PITMAN                          195
+
+    XXV. PREPARING FOR ACTION                         201
+
+   XXVI. THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON              208
+
+  XXVII. LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM                          215
+
+ XXVIII. CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS             223
+
+   XXIX. THE LION WAKES                               231
+
+    XXX. MR PARMENTER SAYS                            239
+
+   XXXI. JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT                      247
+
+  XXXII. A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT                         254
+
+ XXXIII. MR PARMENTER RETURNS                         261
+
+  XXXIV. THE "AURIOLE"                                268
+
+   XXXV. THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN        273
+
+  XXXVI. A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT                        281
+
+ XXXVII. THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE                       288
+
+XXXVIII. WAITING FOR DOOM                             295
+
+  XXXIX. THE LAST FIGHT                               298
+
+  EPILOGUE--"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"                    305
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD PERIL OF 1910
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+A RACE FOR A WOMAN
+
+
+In Clifden, the chief coast town of Connemara, there is a house at the
+end of a triangle which the two streets of the town form, the front
+windows of which look straight down the beautiful harbour and bay, whose
+waters stretch out beyond the islands which are scattered along the
+coast and, with the many submerged reefs, make the entrance so
+difficult.
+
+In the first-floor double-windowed room of this house, furnished as a
+bed-sitting room, there was a man sitting at a writing-table--not an
+ordinary writing-table, but one the dimensions of which were more suited
+to the needs of an architect or an engineer than to those of a writer.
+In the middle of the table was a large drawing-desk, and on it was
+pinned a sheet of cartridge paper, which was almost covered with
+portions of designs.
+
+In one corner there was what might be the conception of an engine
+designed for a destroyer or a submarine. In another corner there was a
+sketch of something that looked like a lighthouse, and over against this
+the design of what might have been a lantern. The top left-hand corner
+of the sheet was merely a blur of curved lines and shadings and
+cross-lines, running at a hundred different angles which no one, save
+the man who had drawn them, could understand the meaning of.
+
+In the middle of the sheet there was a very carefully-outlined drawing
+in hard pencil of a craft which was different from anything that had
+ever sailed upon the waters or below them, or, for the matter of that,
+above them.
+
+To the right hand there was a rough, but absolutely accurate, copy of
+this same craft leaving the water and flying into the air, and just
+underneath this a tiny sketch of a flying fish doing the same thing.
+
+The man sitting before the drawing-board was an Irishman. He was one of
+those men with the strong, crisp hair, black brows and deep brown eyes,
+straight, strong nose almost in a line with his forehead, thin, nervous
+lips and pointed jaw, strong at the angles but weak at the point, which
+come only from one descent.
+
+Nearly four hundred years before, one of the ships of the great Armada
+had been wrecked on Achill Island, about twenty miles from where he sat.
+Half a dozen or so of the crew had been saved, and one of these was a
+Spanish gentleman, captain of Arquebusiers who, drenched and bedraggled
+as he was when the half-wild Irish fishermen got him out of the water,
+still looked what he was, a Hidalgo of Spain. He had been nursed back to
+health and strength in a miserable mud and turf-walled cottage, and,
+broken in fortune--for he was one of the many gentlemen of Spain who had
+risked their all on the fortunes of King Philip and the Great Armada,
+and lost--he refused to go back to his own country a beaten man.
+
+And meanwhile he had fallen in love with the daughter of his nurse, the
+wife of the fisherman who had taken him more than half dead out of the
+raging Atlantic surf.
+
+No man ever knew who he was, save that he was a gentleman, a Spaniard,
+and a Catholic. But when he returned to the perfection of physical and
+mental health, and had married the grey-eyed, dark-browed girl, who had
+seemed to him during his long hours of sickness the guardian angel who
+had brought him back across the line which marks the frontier between
+life and death, he developed an extraordinary talent in boat-building,
+which was the real origin of the wonderful sea-worthiness of small
+craft which to this day brave, almost with impunity, the terrible seas
+which, after an unbroken run of almost two thousand miles, burst upon
+the rock-bound, island-fenced coast of Connemara.
+
+The man at the table was the descendant in the sixth generation of the
+unknown Spanish Hidalgo, who nearly four hundred years before had said
+in reply to a question as to what his name was:
+
+"Juan de Castillano."
+
+As the generations had passed, the name, as usual, had got modified, and
+this man's name was John Castellan.
+
+"I think that will about do for the present," he said, getting up from
+the table and throwing his pencil down. "I've got it almost perfect
+now;" and then as he bent down again over the table, and looked over
+every line of his drawings, "Yes, it's about all there. I wonder what my
+Lords of the British Admiralty would give to know what that means. Well,
+God save Ireland, they shall some day!"
+
+He unpinned the paper from the board, rolled it up, and put it into the
+top drawer of an old oak cabinet, which one would hardly have expected
+to find in such a room as that, and locked the drawer with a key on his
+keychain. Then he took his cap from a peg on the door, and his gun from
+the corner beside it, and went out.
+
+There are three ways out of Clifden to the west, one to the southward
+takes you over the old bridge, which arches the narrow rock-walled
+gorge, which gathers up the waters of the river after they have had
+their frolic over the rocks above. The other is a continuation of the
+main street, and this, as it approaches the harbour, where you may now
+see boats built on the pattern which John Castellan's ancestor had
+designed, divides into two roads, one leading along the shore of the
+bay, and the other, rough, stony, and ill-kept, takes you above the
+coast-guard station, and leads to nowhere but the Atlantic Ocean.
+
+Between these two roads lies in what was once a park, but which is now a
+wilderness, Clifden Castle. Castle in Irish means country house, and
+all over the south and west of Ireland you may find such houses as this
+with doors screwed up, windows covered with planks, roofs and eaves
+stripped of the lead and slates which once protected them from the
+storms which rise up from the Atlantic, and burst in wind and rain, snow
+and sleet over Connemara, long ago taken away to sell by the bankrupt
+heirs of those who ruined themselves, mortgaged and sold every acre of
+ground and every stick and stone they owned to maintain what they called
+the dignity of their families at the Vice-Regal Court in Dublin.
+
+John Castellan took the lower road, looking for duck. The old house had
+been the home of his grandfather, but he had never lived in it. The ruin
+had come in his father's time, before he had learned to walk. He looked
+at it as he passed, and his teeth clenched and his brows came together
+in a straight line.
+
+Almost at the same moment that he left his house an Englishman came out
+of the Railway Hotel. He also had a gun over his shoulder, and he took
+the upper road. These two men, who were to meet for the first time that
+day, were destined to decide the fate of the world between them.
+
+As John Castellan walked past the ruined distillery, which overlooks the
+beach on which the fishing boats are drawn up, he saw a couple of duck
+flying seaward. He quickened his pace, and walked on until he turned the
+bend of the road, at which on the right-hand side a path leads up to a
+gate in the old wall, which still guards the ragged domains of Clifden
+Castle. A few hundred yards away there is a little peninsula, on which
+stands a house built somewhat in bungalow fashion. The curve of the
+peninsula turns to the eastward, and makes a tiny bay of almost crescent
+shape. In this the pair of duck settled.
+
+John Castellan picked up a stone from the road, and threw it into the
+water. As the birds rose his gun went up. His right barrel banged and
+the duck fell. The drake flew landward: he fired his left barrel and
+missed. Then came a bang from the upper road, and the drake dropped.
+The Englishman had killed it with a wire cartridge in his choked left
+barrel.
+
+"I wonder who the devil did that!" said Castellan, as he saw the bird
+fall. "It was eighty yards if it was an inch, and that's a good gun with
+a good man behind it."
+
+The Englishman left the road to pick up the bird and then went down the
+steep, stony hillside towards the shore of the silver-mouthed bay in the
+hope of getting another shot farther on, for the birds were now
+beginning to come over; and so it came about that he and the Irishman
+met within a few yards of each other, one on either side of a low spit
+of sand and shingle.
+
+"That was a fine shot you killed the drake with," said the Irishman,
+looking at the bird he was carrying by the legs in his left hand.
+
+"A good gun, and a wire cartridge, I fancy, were mainly responsible for
+his death," laughed the Englishman. "See you've got the other."
+
+"Yes, and missed yours," said the Irishman.
+
+The other recognised the tone as that of a man to whom failure, even in
+the most insignificant matter, was hateful, and he saw a quick gleam in
+his eyes which he remembered afterwards under very different
+circumstances.
+
+But it so happened that the rivalry between them which was hereafter to
+have such momentous consequences was to be manifested there and then in
+a fashion much more serious than the hitting or missing of a brace of
+wild fowl.
+
+Out on the smooth waters of the bay, about a quarter of a mile from the
+spit on which they stood, there were two boats. One was a light skiff,
+in which a girl, clad in white jersey and white flannel skirt, with a
+white Tam o' Shanter pinned on her head, was sculling leisurely towards
+the town. From the swing of her body, the poise of her head and
+shoulders, and the smoothness with which her sculls dropped in the water
+and left it, it was plain that she was a perfect mistress of the art;
+wherefore the two men looked at her, and admired.
+
+The other craft was an ordinary rowing boat, manned by three lads out
+for a spree. There was no one steering and the oars were going in and
+out of the water with a total disregard of time. The result was that her
+course was anything but a straight line. The girl's sculls made no
+noise, and the youths were talking and laughing loudly.
+
+Suddenly the boat veered sharply towards the skiff. The Englishman put
+his hands to his mouth, and yelled with all the strength of his lungs.
+
+"Look out, you idiots, keep off shore!"
+
+But it was too late. The long, steady strokes were sending the skiff
+pretty fast through the smooth water. The boat swerved again, hit the
+skiff about midway between the stem and the rowlocks, and the next
+moment the sculler was in the water. In the same moment two guns and two
+ducks were flung to the ground, two jackets were torn off, two pairs of
+shoes kicked away, and two men splashed into the water. Meanwhile the
+sculler had dropped quietly out of the sinking skiff, and after a glance
+at the two heads, one fair and the other dark, ploughing towards her,
+turned on her side and began to swim slowly in their direction so as to
+lessen the distance as much as possible.
+
+The boys, horrified at what they had done, made such a frantic effort to
+go to the rescue, that one of them caught a very bad crab; so bad,
+indeed that the consequent roll of the boat sent him headlong into the
+water; and so the two others, one of whom was his elder brother, perhaps
+naturally left the girl to her fate, and devoted their energies to
+saving their companion.
+
+Both John Castellan and the Englishman were good swimmers, and the race
+was a very close thing. Still, four hundred yards with most of your
+clothes on is a task calculated to try the strongest swimmer, and,
+although the student had swum almost since he could walk, his muscles
+were not quite in such good form as those of the ex-athlete of
+Cambridge who, six months before, had won the Thames Swimming Club
+Half-mile Handicap from scratch.
+
+Using side stroke and breast-stroke alternately they went at it almost
+stroke for stroke about half a dozen yards apart, and until they were
+within thirty yards or so of the third swimmer, they were practically
+neck and neck, though Castellan had the advantage of what might be
+called the inside track. In other words he was a little nearer to the
+girl than the Englishman.
+
+When circumstances permitted they looked at each other, but, of course,
+neither of them was fool enough to waste his breath in speech. Still,
+each clearly understood that the other was going to get the girl first
+if he could.
+
+So the tenth yard from the prize was reached, and then the Englishman
+shook his head up an inch, filled his lungs, rolled on to his side, and
+made a spurt with the reserve of strength which he had kept for the
+purpose. Inch by inch he drew ahead obliquely across Castellan's course
+and, less than a yard in front of him, he put his right hand under the
+girl's right side.
+
+A lovely face, beautiful even though it was splashed all over with wet
+strands of dark chestnut hair, turned towards him; a pair of big blue
+eyes which shone in spite of the salt water which made them blink,
+looked at him; and, after a cough, a very sweet voice with just a
+suspicion of Boston accent in it, said:
+
+"Thank you so much! It was real good of you! I can swim, but I don't
+think I could have got there with all these things on, and so I reckon I
+owe you two gentlemen my life."
+
+Castellan had swum round, and they took her under the arms to give her a
+rest. The two boys left in the boat had managed to get an oar out to
+their comrade just in time, and then haul him into the boat, which was
+now about fifty yards away; so as soon as the girl had got her breath
+they swam with her to the boat, and lifted her hands on to the gunwale.
+
+"If you wouldn't mind, sir, picking up those oars," said the
+Englishman, "I will get the young lady into the boat, and then we can
+row back."
+
+Castellan gave him another look which said as plainly as words: "Well, I
+suppose she's your prize for the present," and swam off for the oars.
+With the eager help of the boys, who were now very frightened and very
+penitent, the Englishman soon had the girl in the boat; and so it came
+about that an adventure which might well have deprived America of one of
+her most beautiful and brilliant heiresses, resulted in nothing more
+than a ducking for two men and one girl, a wet, but somehow not
+altogether unpleasant walk, and a slight chill from which she had quite
+recovered the next morning.
+
+The after consequences of that race for the rescue were of course, quite
+another matter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MOMENTOUS EXPERIMENT
+
+
+On the first day of July, 1908, a scene which was destined to become
+historic took place in the great Lecture Theatre in the Imperial College
+at Potsdam. It was just a year and a few days after the swimming race
+between John Castellan and the Englishman in Clifden Bay.
+
+There were four people present. The doors were locked and guarded by two
+sentries outside. The German Emperor, Count Herold von Steinitz,
+Chancellor of the Empire, Field-Marshal Count Friedrich von Moltke,
+grandson of the great Organiser of Victory, and John Castellan, were
+standing round a great glass tank, twenty-five feet long, and fifteen
+broad, supported on a series of trestles. The tank was filled with water
+up to within about six inches of the upper edge. The depth was ten feet.
+A dozen models of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft were floating
+on the surface of the water. Five feet under the surface, a grey,
+fish-shaped craft with tail and fins, almost exactly resembling those of
+a flying fish, was darting about, now jumping forward like a cat
+pouncing on a bird, now drawing back, and then suddenly coming to a
+standstill. Another moment, it sank to the bottom, and lay there as if
+it had been a wreck. The next it darted up to the surface, cruised about
+in swift curves, turning in and out about the models, but touching none.
+
+Every now and then John Castellan went to a little table in the corner
+of the room, on which there was a machine something like a typewriter,
+and touched two or three of the keys. There was no visible connection
+between them--the machine and the tank--but the little grey shape in
+the water responded instantly to the touch of every key.
+
+"That, I hope, will be enough to prove to your Majesty that as submarine
+the _Flying Fish_ is quite under control. Of course the real _Flying
+Fish_ will be controlled inside, not from outside."
+
+"There is no doubt about the control," said the Kaiser. "It is
+marvellous, and I think the Chancellor and the Field Marshal will agree
+with me in that."
+
+"Wonderful," said the Chancellor.
+
+"A miracle," said the Field Marshal, "if it can only be realised."
+
+"There is no doubt about that, gentlemen," said Castellan, going back to
+the machine. "Which of the models would your Majesty like to see
+destroyed first?"
+
+The Kaiser pointed to the model of a battleship which was a very good
+imitation of one of the most up-to-date British battleships.
+
+"We will take that one first," he said.
+
+Castellan smiled, and began to play the keys. The grey shape of the
+_Flying Fish_ dropped to the bottom of the tank, rose, and seemed all at
+once to become endowed with human reason, or a likeness of it, which was
+so horrible that even the Kaiser and his two chiefs could hardly repress
+a shudder. It rose very slowly, circled among the floating models about
+two feet under the surface and then, like an animal smelling out its
+prey, it made a dart at the ship which the Kaiser had indicated, and
+struck it from underneath. They saw a green flash stream through the
+water, and the next moment the model had crumbled to pieces and sank.
+
+"Donner-Wetter!" exclaimed the Chancellor, forgetting in his wonder that
+he was in the presence of His Majesty, "that is wonderful, horrible!"
+
+"Can there be anything too horrible for the enemies of the Fatherland,
+Herr Kanztler," said the Kaiser, looking across the tank at him, with a
+glint in his eyes, which no man in Germany cares to see.
+
+"I must ask pardon, your Majesty," replied the Chancellor. "I was
+astonished, indeed, almost frightened--frightened, if your Majesty will
+allow me to say so, for the sake of Humanity, if such an awful invention
+as that becomes realised."
+
+"And what is your opinion, Field Marshal?" asked the Kaiser with a
+laugh.
+
+"A most excellent invention, your Majesty, provided always that it
+belongs to the Fatherland."
+
+"Exactly," said the Kaiser. "As that very intelligent American officer,
+Admiral Mahan, has told us, the sea-power is world-power, and there you
+have sea-power; but that is not the limit of the capabilities of Mr
+Castellan's invention, according to the specifications which I have
+read, and on the strength of which I have asked him to give us this
+demonstration of its powers. He calls it, as you know, the _Flying
+Fish_. So far you have seen it as a fish. Now, Mr Castellan, perhaps you
+will be kind enough to let us see it fly."
+
+"With pleasure, your Majesty," replied the Irishman, "but, in case of
+accident, I must ask you and the Chancellor and the Field Marshal to
+stand against the wall by the door there. With your Majesty's
+permission, I am now going to destroy the rest of the fleet."
+
+"The rest of the fleet!" exclaimed the Field Marshal. "It is
+impossible."
+
+"We shall see, Feldherr!" laughed the Kaiser. "Meanwhile, suppose we
+come out of the danger zone."
+
+The three greatest men in Germany, and perhaps on the Continent of
+Europe, lined up with their backs to the wall at the farther end of the
+room from the tank, and the Irishman sat down to his machine. The keys
+began to click rapidly, and they began to feel a tenseness in the air of
+the room. After a few seconds they would not have been surprised if they
+had seen a flash of lightning pass over their heads. The _Flying Fish_
+had sunk to the bottom of the tank, and backed into one of the corners.
+The keys of the machine clicked louder and faster. Her nose tilted
+upwards to an angle of about sixty degrees. The six-bladed propeller at
+her stem whirled round in the water like the flurry of a whale's fluke
+in its death agony. Her side-fins inclined upwards, and, like a flash,
+she leapt from the water, and began to circle round the room.
+
+The Kaiser shut his teeth hard and watched. The Chancellor opened his
+mouth as if he was going to say something, and shut it again. The Field
+Marshal stroked his moustache slowly, and followed the strange shape
+fluttering about the room. It circled twice round the tank, and then
+crossed it. A sharp click came from the machine, something fell from the
+body of the _Flying Fish_ into the tank. There was a dull sound of a
+smothered explosion. For a moment the very water itself seemed aflame,
+then it boiled up into a mass of seething foam. Every one of the models
+was overwhelmed and engulfed at the same moment. Castellan got up from
+the machine, caught the _Flying Fish_ in his hand, as it dropped towards
+the water, took it to the Kaiser, and said:
+
+"Is your Majesty convinced? It is quite harmless now."
+
+"God's thunder, yes!" said the War Lord of Germany, taking hold of the
+model. "It is almost superhuman."
+
+"Yes," said the Chancellor, "it is damnable!"
+
+"I," said the Field Marshal, drily, "think it's admirable, always
+supposing that Mr Castellan is prepared to place this mysterious
+invention at the disposal of his Majesty."
+
+"Yes," said the Kaiser, leaning with his back against the door, "that
+is, of course, the first proposition to be considered. What are your
+terms, Mr Castellan?"
+
+Castellan looked at the three men all armed. The Chancellor and the
+Field Marshal wore their swords, and the Kaiser had a revolver in his
+hip pocket. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal straightened up as the
+Kaiser spoke, and their hands moved instinctively towards their sword
+hilts. The Kaiser looked at the model of the _Flying Fish_ in his hand.
+His face was, as usual, like a mask. He saw nothing, thought of nothing.
+For the moment he was not a man: he was just the incarnation of an
+idea.
+
+"Field Marshal, you are a soldier," said Castellan, "and I see that your
+hand has gone to your sword-hilt. Swords, of course, are the emblems of
+military rank, but there is no use for them now."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed the Count, clapping his right hand on
+the hilt. After what he had seen he honestly believed that this Irishman
+was a wizard of science who ought not to be trusted in the same room
+with the Kaiser. Castellan went back to his machine and said:
+
+"Draw your sword, sir, and see."
+
+And then the keys began to click.
+
+The Field Marshal's sword flashed out of the sheath. A second later the
+Chancellor's did the same, and the Kaiser's right hand went back towards
+his hip pocket.
+
+Castellan got up and said:
+
+"Your Majesty has a revolver. Be good enough, as you value your own
+safety, to unload it, and throw the cartridges out of the window."
+
+"But why?" exclaimed the Kaiser, pulling a Mauser repeating pistol out
+of his hip-pocket. "Who are you, that you should give orders to me?"
+
+"Only a man, your Majesty," replied Castellan, with a bow and a smile;
+"a man who could explode every cartridge in that pistol of yours at once
+before you had time to fire a shot. You have seen what has happened
+already."
+
+William the Second had seen enough. He walked to one of the windows
+opening on the enclosed gardens, threw it open, dropped the pistol out,
+and said:
+
+"Now, let us have the proof of what you say."
+
+"In a moment, your Majesty," replied Castellan, going back to his
+machine, and beginning to work the keys rapidly. "I am here, an unarmed
+man; let their Excellencies, the Chancellor and the Field Marshal,
+attack me with their swords if they can. I am not joking. I am staking
+my life on the success or failure of this experiment."
+
+"Does your Majesty consent?" said the Field Marshal, raising his sword.
+
+"There could be no better test," replied the Kaiser. "Mr Castellan makes
+an experiment on which he stakes his life; we are making an experiment
+on which we stake the welfare of the German Empire, and, perhaps, the
+fate of the world. If he is willing, I am."
+
+"And I am ready," replied Castellan, working the keys faster and faster
+as he spoke, and looking at the two swords as carelessly as if they had
+been a couple of walking sticks.
+
+The sword points advanced towards him; the keys of the machine clicked
+faster and faster. The atmosphere of the room became tenser and tenser;
+the Kaiser leaned back against the door with his arms folded. When the
+points were within three feet of Castellan's head, the steel began to
+gleam with a bluish green light. The Chancellor and the Field Marshal
+stopped; they saw sparkles of blue flame running along the sword blades.
+Then came paralysis! the swords dropped from their hands, and they
+staggered back.
+
+"Great God, this is too much," gasped the Chancellor. "The man is
+impregnable. It is too much, your Majesty. I fought through the war of
+'70 and '71, but I surrender to this; this is not human."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Excellency," said Castellan, getting up from the
+machine, and picking the two swords from the floor, "it is quite human,
+only a little science that the majority of humanity does not happen to
+know. Your swords, gentlemen," and he presented the hilts to them.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "well done! You have beaten the two best
+soldiers in the German Empire, and you have done it like a gentleman.
+But you are not altogether an Irishman, are you, Mr Castellan?"
+
+"No, sir, I am a Spaniard as well. The earliest ancestor that I know
+commanded the _Santiago_, wrecked on Achill Island, when the Armada came
+south from the Pentland Firth. The rest of me is Irish. I need hardly
+say more. That is why I am here now."
+
+The Kaiser looked at the Chancellor and the Field Marshal, and they
+looked back at him, and in a moment the situation--the crisis upon which
+the fate of the world might depend--was decided. It was not a time when
+men who are men talk. A few moments of silence passed; the four men
+looking at each other with eyes that had the destinies of nations in the
+brains behind them. Then the Kaiser took three swift strides towards
+Castellan, held out his hand, and said in a voice which had an unwonted
+note of respect in it:
+
+"Sir, you have convinced me. Henceforth you are Director of the Naval
+and Military operations of the German Empire, subject, of course, to the
+conditions which will be arranged by myself and those who are entrusted
+with the tactical and strategical developments of such plan of campaign
+as I may decide to carry out on sea and land. And now, to put it
+rudely--brutally, if you like, your price?"
+
+Castellan took the Kaiser's hand in a strong, nervous grip, and said:
+
+"I shall not state my price in money, your Majesty. I am not working for
+money, but you will understand that I cannot convert what I have shown
+you to-day into the fighting reality. Only a nation can do that. It will
+cost ten millions of marks, at least, to--well, to so far develop this
+experiment that no fleet save your Majesty's shall sail the seas, and
+that no armies save yours shall without your consent march over the
+battlefields of the world's Armageddon."
+
+"Make it twenty millions, fifty millions," laughed the Kaiser, "and it
+will be cheap at the price. What do you think, Herr Kantzler and
+Feldherr?"
+
+"Under the present circumstances of the other monarchies of Europe, your
+Majesty," replied the Chancellor, "it would be cheap at a hundred
+millions, especially with reference to a certain fleet, which appears to
+be making the ocean its own country."
+
+"Quite so," said the Field Marshal. "If what we have seen to-day can be
+realised it would not be necessary to pump out the North Sea in order to
+invade England."
+
+"Or to get back again," laughed the Kaiser. "I think that is what your
+grandfather said, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty. He found eight ways of getting into England, but he
+hadn't thought of one of getting out again."
+
+Since the days of the Prophets no man had ever uttered more prophetic
+words than Friedrich Helmuth von Moltke spoke then, all unconsciously.
+But in the days to come they were fulfilled in such fashion that only
+one man in all the world had ever dreamed of, and that was the man who
+had beaten John Castellan by a yard in the swimming race for the rescue
+of that American girl from drowning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NORAH'S GOOD-BYE
+
+
+The scene had shifted back from the royal city of Potsdam to the little
+coast town in Connemara. John Castellan was sitting on a corner of his
+big writing-table swinging his legs to and fro, and looking a little
+uncomfortable. Leaning against the wall opposite the windows, with her
+hands folded behind her back, was a girl of about nineteen, an almost
+perfect incarnation of the Irish girl at her best. Tall, black-haired,
+black-browed, grey-eyed, perfectly-shaped, and with that indescribable
+charm of feature which neither the pen nor the camera can do justice
+to--Norah Castellan was facing him, her eyes gleaming and almost black
+with anger, and her whole body instinct with intense vitality.
+
+"And so Ireland hasn't troubles enough of her own, John, that you must
+bring new ones upon her, and what for? To realise a dream that was never
+anything else but a dream, and to satisfy a revenge that is three
+hundred years old! If that theory of yours about re-incarnation is true,
+you may have been a Spaniard once, but remember that you're an Irishman
+now; and you're no good Irishman if you sell yourself to these
+foreigners to do a thing like that, and it's your sister that's telling
+you."
+
+"And it's your brother, Norah," he replied, his black brows meeting
+almost in a straight line across his forehead, "who tells you that
+Ireland is going to have her independence; that the shackles of the
+Saxon shall be shaken off once and for ever, even if all Europe blazes
+up with war in the doing of it. I have the power and I will use it.
+Spaniard or Irishman, what does it matter? I hate England and everything
+English."
+
+"Hate England, John!" said the girl. "Are you quite sure that it isn't
+an Englishman that you hate?"
+
+"Well, and what if I do? I hate all Englishmen, and I'm the first
+Irishman who has ever had the power to put his hatred into acts instead
+of words--and you, an Irish girl, with six generations of Irish blood in
+your veins, you, to talk to me like this. What are you thinking about,
+Norah? Is that what you call patriotism?"
+
+"Patriotism!" she echoed, unclasping her hands, and holding her right
+hand out towards him. "I'm as Irish as you are, and as Spanish, too, for
+the matter of that, for the same blood is in the veins of both of us.
+You're a scholar and a genius, and all the rest of it, I grant you; but
+haven't you learned history enough to know that Ireland never was
+independent, and never could be? What brought the English here first?
+Four miserable provinces that called themselves kingdoms, and all
+fighting against each other, and the king of one of them stole the wife
+of the king of another of them, and that's how the English came.
+
+"I love Ireland as well as you do, John, but Ireland is not worth
+setting the world swimming in blood for. You're lighting a match-box to
+set the world ablaze with. It isn't Ireland only, remember. There are
+Irish all over the world, millions of them, and remember how the Irish
+fought in the African War. I don't mean Lynch and his traitors, but the
+Dublin boys. Who were the first in and the last out--Irishmen, but they
+had the sense to know that they were British first and Irish afterwards.
+I tell you, you shall be shot for what you've done, and if I wasn't the
+daughter of your father and mother, I'd inform against you now."
+
+"And if you did, Norah, you would do very little good to the Saxon
+cause," replied her brother, pointing with his thumb out of one of the
+windows. "You see that yacht in the bay there. Everything is on board of
+her. If you went out into the street now, gave me in charge of the
+constabulary, to those two men in front of the hotel there, it would
+make no difference. There's nothing to be proved, no, not even if my
+own sister tried to swear my life and liberty away. It would only be
+that the Germans and the Russians, and the Austrians, and the rest of
+them would work out my ideas instead of me working them out, and it
+might be that they would make a worse use of them. You've half an hour
+to give me up, if you like."
+
+And then he began to collect the papers that were scattered about the
+big drawing-table, sorting them out and folding them up and then taking
+other papers and plans from the drawers and packing them into a little
+black dispatch box.
+
+"But, John, John," she said, crossing the room, and putting her hand on
+his shoulder. "Don't tell me that you're going to plunge the world in
+war just for this. Think of what it means--the tens of thousands of
+lives that will be lost, the thousands of homes that will be made
+desolate, the women who will be crying for their husbands, and the
+children for their fathers, the dead men buried in graves that will
+never have a name on them, and the wounded, broken men coming back to
+their homes that they will never be able to keep up again, not only here
+and in England, but all over Europe and perhaps in America as well!
+Genius you may be; but what are you that you should bring calamity like
+this upon humanity?"
+
+"I'm an Irishman, and I hate England, and that's enough," he replied
+sullenly, as he went on packing his papers.
+
+"You hate that Englishman worse than you hate England, John."
+
+"And I wouldn't wonder if you loved that Englishman more than you loved
+Ireland, Norah," he replied, with a snarl in his voice.
+
+"And if I did," she said, with blazing eyes and flaming cheeks, "isn't
+England nearer to Ireland than America?"
+
+"Geographically, perhaps, but in sentiment--"
+
+"Sentiment! Yes, when you have finished with this bloody business of
+yours that you have begun on, go you through Ireland and England and
+Europe, and ask the widows and the fatherless, and the girls who kissed
+their lovers 'good-bye,' and never saw them again, what they think of
+that sentiment! But it's no use arguing with you now; there's your
+German yacht. You're no brother of mine. You've made me sorry that we
+had the same father and mother."
+
+As she spoke, she went to the door, opened it and, before he could
+reply, slammed it behind her, and went to her room to seek and find a
+woman's usual relief from extreme mental tension.
+
+John Castellan went on packing his papers, his face grey, and his
+features hard-set. He loved his beautiful sister, but he thought that he
+loved his country more. When he had finished he went and knocked at her
+door, and said:
+
+"Norah, I'm going. Won't you say 'good-bye?'"
+
+The door was swung open, and she faced him, her face wet with tears, her
+eyes glistening, and her lips twitching.
+
+"Yes, good-bye, John," she said. "Go to your German friends; but, when
+all the horrors that you are going to bring upon this country through
+their help come to pass, remember you have no sister left in Ireland.
+You've sold yourself, and I have no brother who is a traitor. Good-bye!"
+
+The door swung to and she locked it. John Castellan hesitated for a
+moment or two, and then with a slow shake of his head he went away down
+the stairs out into the street, and along to the little jetty where the
+German yacht's boat was waiting to take him on board.
+
+Norah had thrown herself on her bed in her locked room shedding the
+first but not the last tear that John Castellan's decision was destined
+to draw from women's eyes.
+
+About half an hour later the encircling hills of the bay echoed the
+shriek of a siren. She got up, looked out of the window, and saw the
+white shape of the German yacht moving out towards the fringe of islands
+which guard the outward bay.
+
+"And there he goes!" she said in a voice that was almost choked with
+sobs, "there he goes, my own brother, it may be taking the fate of the
+world with him--yes, and on a German ship, too. He that knows every
+island and creek and cove and harbour from Cape Wrath to Cape Clear--he
+that's got all those inventions in his head, too, and the son of my own
+father and mother, sold his country to the foreigner, thinking those
+dirty Germans will keep their word with him.
+
+"Not they, John, not they. The saints forgive me for thinking it, but
+for Ireland's sake I hope that ship will never reach Germany. If it
+does, we'll see the German Eagle floating over Dublin Castle before
+you'll be able to haul up the Green Flag. Well, well, there it is; it's
+done now, I suppose, and there's no help for it. God forgive you, John,
+I don't think man ever will!"
+
+As she said this the white yacht turned the southern point of the inner
+bay, and disappeared to the southward. Norah bathed her face, brushed
+out her hair, and coiled it up again; then she put on her hat and
+jacket, and went out to do a little shopping.
+
+It is perhaps a merciful provision of Providence that in this human life
+of ours the course of the greatest events shall be interrupted by the
+most trivial necessities of existence. Were it not for that the
+inevitable might become the unendurable.
+
+The plain fact was that Norah Castellan had some friends and
+acquaintances coming to supper that evening. Her brother had left at a
+few hours' notice from his foreign masters, as she called them, and
+there would have to be some explanation of his absence, especially as a
+friend of his, Arthur Lismore, the owner of the finest salmon streams
+for twenty miles round, and a man who was quite hopelessly in love with
+herself, was coming to brew the punch after the fashion of his
+ancestors, and so, of course, it was necessary that there should be
+nothing wanting.
+
+Moreover, she was beginning to feel the want of some hard physical
+exercise, and an hour or so in that lovely air of Connemara, which, as
+those who know, say, is as soft as silk and as bright as champagne. So
+she went out, and as she turned the corner round the head of the harbour
+to the left towards the waterfall, almost the first person she met was
+Arthur Lismore himself--a brown-faced, chestnut-haired, blue-eyed, young
+giant of twenty-eight or so; as goodly a man as God ever put His own
+seal upon.
+
+His cap came off, his head bowed with that peculiar grace of deference
+which no one has ever yet been able to copy from an Irishman, and he
+said in the strong, and yet curiously mellow tone which you only hear in
+the west of Ireland:
+
+"Good afternoon, Miss Norah. I've heard that you're to be left alone for
+a time, and that we won't see John to-night."
+
+"Yes," she said, her eyes meeting his, "that is true. He went away in
+that German yacht that left the bay less than an hour ago."
+
+"A German yacht!" he echoed. "Well now, how stupid of me, I've been
+trying to think all the afternoon what that flag was she carried when
+she came in."
+
+"The German Imperial Yacht Club," she said, "that was the ensign she was
+flying, and John has gone to Germany in her."
+
+"To Germany! John gone to Germany! But what for? Surely now--"
+
+"Yes, to Germany, to help the Emperor to set the world on fire."
+
+"You're not saying that, Miss Norah?"
+
+"I am," she said, more gravely than he had ever heard her speak. "Mr
+Lismore, it's a sick and sorry girl I am this afternoon. You were the
+first Irishman on the top of Waggon Hill, and you'll understand what I
+mean. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you'll walk down to the
+Fall with me, and I'll tell you."
+
+"I could have nothing better to do, Norah, and it's yourself that knows
+that as well as I do," he replied. "I only wish the road was longer.
+And it's yourself that's sick and sorry, is it? If it wasn't John, I'd
+like to get the reason out of any other man. That's Irish, but it's
+true."
+
+He turned, and they walked down the steeply sloping street for several
+minutes in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SEEN UNDER THE MOON
+
+
+It was a few minutes after four bells on a grey morning in November 1909
+that Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, in command of his Majesty's
+Fishery Cruiser, the _Cormorant_, got up on to the navigating bridge,
+and, as usual, took a general squint about him, and buttoned the top
+button of his oil-skin coat.
+
+The _Cormorant_ was just a few yards inside the three-mile limit on
+Flamborough Head, and, officially, she was looking for trespassers, who
+either did not fly the British flag, or flew it fraudulently. There were
+plenty of foreign poachers on the rich fishing grounds to the north and
+east away to the Dogger, and there were also plenty of floating grog
+shops from Bremen and Hamburg, and Rotterdam and Flushing, and a good
+many other places, loaded up to their decks with liquor, whose mission
+was not only to sell their poison at about four hundred per cent. profit
+to the British fishers on the Dogger, but also to persuade them, at a
+price, to smuggle more of the said poison into the British Islands to be
+made into Scotch and Irish whisky, brandy, Hollands, gin, rum, and even
+green and yellow Chartreuse, or any other alcoholic potion which simply
+wanted the help of the chemist to transform potato and beet spirit into
+anything that would taste like what it was called.
+
+"Beast of a morning, Castellan," he said to his first officer, whom he
+was relieving, "dirty sea, dirty sky, and not a thing to be seen. You
+don't have worse weather than this even off Connemara, do you?"
+
+"No," said Castellan, "and I've seen better; but look you, there's the
+sky clearing to the east; yes, and there's Venus, herald of the sun:
+and faith, she's bright, too, like a little moon, now isn't she? I
+suppose it'll be a bit too early for Norah to be looking at her, won't
+it?"
+
+"Don't talk rot, man," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. "I hope your
+sister hasn't finished her beauty sleep by this time."
+
+The clouds parted still wider, making a great gap of blue-grey sky to
+the eastward, as the westward bank drifted downward. The moon sent a
+sudden flood of white light over their heads, which silvered the edges
+of the clouds, and then turned the leaden waters into silver as it had
+done to the grey of the cloud.
+
+"She'd wake fast enough if she had a nightmare or a morning mare, or
+something of that sort, and could see a thing like that," exclaimed
+Castellan, gripping the Lieutenant-Commander by the shoulder with his
+right hand, and pointing to the east with his left. "Look, man, look! By
+all the Holy Powers, what is it? See there! Thanks for the blessed
+moonlight that has shown it to us, for I'm thinking it doesn't mean any
+good to old England or Ireland."
+
+Erskine was an Englishman, and a naval officer at that, and therefore
+his reply consisted of only a few words hardly fitted for publication.
+The last words were, "What is it?"
+
+"What is it?" said Castellan with a stamp of his feet on the bridge,
+"what is it? Now wouldn't I like to know just as well as you would, and
+don't you think the Lords of the British Admiralty would like to know a
+lot better? But there's one thing I think I can tell you, it's one of
+those new inventions that the British Admiralty never buy, and let go to
+other countries, and what's more, as you've seen with your eyes, as I
+have with mine, it came out of the water on the edge of that moon-lit
+piece, it flew across it, it sighted us, I suppose, it found it had made
+a mistake, and it went down again. Now what do you make of that?"
+
+"Combination of submarine and airship it looks like," said Erskine,
+seriously, "and if that doesn't belong to us, it's going to be fairly
+dangerous. Good Lord! a thing like that might do anything with a fleet,
+and whatever Power owns it may just as well have a hundred as one. Look
+here, Castellan, I'm going straight into Scarborough. This is a lot more
+important than the Dogger Fleet. There's the _Seagull_ at Hull. She can
+relieve us, and Franklin can take this old coffee-grinder round. You and
+I are going to London as soon as we can get there. Take the latitude,
+longitude, and exact time, and also the evidence of the watch if any one
+of them saw it."
+
+"You think it's as serious as that?"
+
+"Certainly. It's one of two things. Either that thing belongs to us or
+it belongs to a possible enemy. The Fleet, even to a humble fishery
+cruiser, means the eyes and ears of the British Empire. If that belongs
+to the Admiralty, well and good; we shall get censured for leaving the
+ship; that's the risk we take. If it doesn't, the Naval Board may
+possibly have the civility to thank us for telling them about it; but in
+either case we are going to do our duty. Send Franklin up to the bridge,
+make the course for Scarborough, get the evidence of any of the watch
+who saw what we have seen, and I'll go and make the report. Then you can
+countersign it, and the men can make theirs. I think that's the best we
+can do."
+
+"I think so, sir," said the Lieutenant, saluting.
+
+The Lieutenant-Commander walked from port to starboard and starboard to
+port thinking pretty hard until the navigating lieutenant came to take
+charge of the bridge. Of submarines he knew a good deal. He knew that
+the British navy possessed the very best type of this craft which
+navigated the under-waters. He had also, of course, read the aerial
+experiments which had been made by inventors of what the newspapers
+called airships, and which he, with his hard naval common-sense, called
+gas-bags with motor engines slung under them. He knew the deadly
+possibilities of the submarine; the flying gas-bag he looked upon as gas
+and not much more. The real flying machine he had considered up till a
+few moments ago as a dream of the future; but a combination of submarine
+and flying ship such as he and Castellan, if they had not both been
+drunk or dreaming, had seen a few moments ago, was quite another matter.
+The possibilities of a thing like that were absolutely limitless,
+limitless for good or evil, and if it did belong to a possible enemy of
+Britain, there was only one conclusion to be arrived at--The Isle
+Inviolate would be inviolate no more.
+
+Lieutenant Franklin came on to the bridge and saluted; he returned the
+salute, gave the orders for changing the course, and went down to his
+cabin, muttering:
+
+"Good Lord, if that's only so. Why, half a dozen things like that could
+fight a fleet, then go on gaily to tackle the forts. I wonder whether my
+Lords of the Naval Council will see me to-morrow, and believe me if they
+do see me."
+
+By great good luck it happened that the Commander of the North-eastern
+District had come up from Hull to Scarborough for a few days' holiday.
+When he saw the _Cormorant_ steam into the bay, he very naturally wanted
+to know what was the matter, and so he went down to the pier-head, and
+met the _Cormorant's_ cutter. As Erskine came up the steps he recognised
+him and saluted.
+
+"Good-morning, sir."
+
+"Good-morning, Erskine. What's the matter? You're a little off your
+ground, aren't you? Of course, there must be a reason for it. Anything
+serious?" replied the District Commander, as he held out his hand. "Ah,
+good morning, Castellan. So you've both come ashore. Well, now, what is
+it?"
+
+Erskine took a rapid glance round at the promenaders who were coming
+down to have a look at the cruiser, and said in a low tone:
+
+"Yes, sir. I am afraid it is rather serious; but it is hardly the sort
+of thing one could discuss here. In fact, I was taking the
+responsibility of going straight to London with Castellan, to present a
+report which we have drawn up to the Board of Admiralty."
+
+The District Commander's iron-grey eyebrows lifted for the fraction of a
+minute, and he said:
+
+"H'm. Well, Erskine, I know you're not the sort of man to do that sort
+of thing without pretty good reason. Come up to the hotel, both of you,
+and let us go into it."
+
+"Thank you, sir," replied Erskine. "It is really quite fortunate that we
+met you here, because I think when you've seen the report you will feel
+justified in giving us formal leave instead of French leave."
+
+"I hope so," he replied, somewhat grimly, for a rule of the Service had
+been broken all to pieces, and his own sense of discipline was sorely
+outraged by the knowledge that two responsible officers had left their
+ship with the intention of going to London without leave.
+
+But when he had locked the door of his sitting-room at the hotel, and
+heard the amazing story which Erskine and Castellan had to tell, and had
+read their report, and the evidence of the men who had also seen the
+strange apparition which had leapt from the sea into the air, and then
+returned to the waters, he put in a few moments of silent thinking, and
+then he looked up, and said gravely:
+
+"Well, gentlemen, I know that British naval officers and British seamen
+don't see things that are not there, as the Russians did a few years ago
+on the Dogger Bank. I am of course bound to believe you, and I think
+they will do the same in London. You have taken a very irregular course;
+but a man who is not prepared to do that at a pinch seldom does anything
+else. I have seen and heard enough to convince me for the present; and
+so I shall have great pleasure, in fact I shall only be doing my duty,
+in giving you both leave for a week.
+
+"I will order the _Seagull_ up from Hull, she's about ready, and I think
+I can put an Acting-Commander on board the _Cormorant_ for the present.
+Now, you will just have time for an early lunch with me, and catch the
+1.17, which will get you to town at 5.15, and you will probably find
+somebody at the Admiralty then, because I know they're working overtime.
+Anyhow, if you don't find Sir John Fisher there, I should go straight to
+his house, if I were you; and even if you don't see him, you'll be able
+to get an early appointment for to-morrow."
+
+"That was a pretty good slice of luck meeting the noble Crocker, wasn't
+it?" said Castellan, as the train began to move out of the station,
+about three hours later. They had reserved a compartment in the corridor
+express, and were able to talk State secrets at their ease.
+
+"We're inside the law now, at any rate."
+
+"Law or no law, it was good enough to risk a court-martial for," said
+Erskine, biting off the end of a cigar. "There's no doubt about the
+existence of the thing, and if it doesn't belong to us, which is a fact
+that only my Lords of the Naval Council can know, it simply means, as
+you must see for yourself, that the invasion of England, which has been
+a naval and military impossibility for the last seven hundred years or
+so, will not only become possible but comparatively easy. There's
+nothing upon the waters or under them that could stand against a thing
+like that."
+
+"Oh, you're right enough there," said Castellan, speaking with his soft
+West of Ireland brogue. "There's no doubt of that, and it's the very
+devil. A dozen of those things would play havoc with a whole fleet, and
+when the fleet's gone, or even badly hurt, what's to stop our good
+friends over yonder landing two or three million men just anywhere they
+choose, and doing pretty well what they like afterwards? By the Saints,
+that would be a horrible thing. We've nothing on land that could stand
+against them, though, of course, the boys would stand till they fell
+down; but fall they would."
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, seriously. "It wouldn't exactly be a walk over for
+them, but I'm afraid there couldn't be very much doubt at the end, if
+the fleet once went."
+
+"I'm afraid not," replied Castellan, "and we can only hope that our
+Lords of the Council will be of the same opinion, or, better still,
+that the infernal thing we saw belongs to us."
+
+"I hope so," said Erskine, gravely. "If it doesn't--well, I wouldn't
+give half-a-crown for the biggest battleship in the British Navy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR
+
+
+By a curious coincidence which, as events proved, was to have some
+serious consequences, almost at the same moment that Commander Erskine
+began to write his report on the strange vision which he and his
+Lieutenant had seen, Gilbert Lennard came out of the Observatory which
+Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had built on the south of the Whernside Hills in
+Yorkshire.
+
+Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had two ambitions in life, one of which he had
+fulfilled. This was to pile millions upon millions by any possible
+means. As he used to say to his associates in his poorer days, "You've
+got to get there somehow, so get there"--and he had "got there." It is
+not necessary for the purpose of the present narrative to say how he did
+it. He had done it, and that is why he bought the Hill of Whernside and
+about a thousand acres around it and built an Observatory on the top
+with which, to use his own words, he meant to lick Creation by seeing
+further into Creation than anyone else had done, and that is just what
+his great reflector had enabled his astronomer to do.
+
+When he had locked the door Lennard looked up to the eastward where the
+morning star hung flashing like a huge diamond in splendid solitude
+against the brightening background of the sky. His face was the face of
+a man who had seen something that he would not like to describe to any
+other man. His features were hard set, and there were lines in his face
+which time might have drawn twenty or thirty years later. His lips made
+a straight line, and his eyes, although he had hardly slept three hours
+a night for as many nights, had a look in them that was not to be
+accounted for by ordinary insomnia.
+
+His work was over for the night, and, if he chose, he could go down to
+the house three-quarters of a mile away and sleep for the rest of the
+day, or, at any rate, until lunch time; and yet he looked another long
+look at the morning star, thrust his hands down into his trousers
+pockets and turned up a side path that led through the heather, and
+spent the rest of the morning walking and thinking--walking slowly, and
+thinking very quickly.
+
+When he came in to breakfast at nine the next morning, after he had had
+a shave and a bath, Mr Parmenter said to him:
+
+"Look here, young man, I'm old enough to be your father, and so you'll
+excuse me putting it that way; if you're going along like this I reckon
+I'll have to shut that Observatory down for the time being and take you
+on a trip to the States to see how they're getting on with their
+telescopes in the Alleghanies and the Rockies, and maybe down South too
+in Peru, to that Harvard Observatory above Arequipa on the Misti, as a
+sort of holiday. I asked you to come here to work, not to wear yourself
+out. As I've told you before, we've got plenty of men in the States who
+can sign their cheques for millions of dollars and can't eat a dinner,
+to say nothing of a breakfast, and you're too young for that.
+
+"What's the matter? More trouble about that new comet of yours. You've
+been up all night looking at it, haven't you? Of course it's all right
+that you got hold of it before anybody else, but all the same I don't
+want you to be worrying yourself for nothing and get laid up before the
+time comes to take the glory of the discovery."
+
+While he was speaking the door of the breakfast-room opened and Auriole
+came in. She looked with a just perceptible admiration at the man who,
+as it seemed to her, was beginning to show a slight stoop in the broad
+shoulders and a little falling forward of the head which she had first
+seen driving through the water to her rescue in the Bay of Connemara.
+Her eyelids lifted a shade as she looked at him, and she said with a
+half smile:
+
+"Good morning, Mr Lennard; I am afraid you've been sacrificing yourself
+a little bit too much to science. You don't seem to have had a sleep for
+the last two or three nights. You've been blinding your eyes over those
+tangles of figures and equations, parallaxes and cube roots and that
+sort of thing. I know something about them because I had some struggles
+with them myself at Vassar."
+
+"That's about it, Auriole," said her father. "Just what I've been
+saying; and I hope our friend is not going on with this kind of business
+too long. Now, really, Mr Lennard, you know you must not, and that's all
+there is to it."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't think you need be frightened of anything of that sort,"
+said Lennard, who had considerably brightened up as Auriole entered the
+room; "perhaps I may have been going a little too long without sleep;
+but, you see, a man who has the great luck to discover a new comet is
+something like one of the old navigators who discovered new islands and
+continents. Of course you remember the story of Columbus. When he
+thought he was going to find what is now the country which has had the
+honour--"
+
+"I know you're going to say something nice, Mr Lennard," interrupted
+Auriole, "but breakfast is ready; here it comes. If you take my advice
+you will have your coffee and something to eat and tell us the rest of
+it while you're getting something that will do you good. What do you
+think, Poppa?"
+
+"Hard sense, Auriole, hard sense. Your mother used to talk just like
+that, and I reckon you've got it from her. Well now, here's the food,
+let's begin. I've got a hunger on me that I'd have wanted five dollars
+to stop at the time when I couldn't buy a breakfast."
+
+They sat down, Miss Auriole at the head of the table and her father and
+Lennard facing each other, and for the next few minutes there was a
+semi-silence which was very well employed in the commencement of one of
+the most important functions of the human day.
+
+When Mr Parmenter had got through his first cup of coffee, his two
+poached eggs on toast, and was beginning on the fish, he looked across
+the table and said:
+
+"Well now, Mr Lennard, I guess you're feeling a bit better, as I do, and
+so, maybe, you can tell us something new about comets."
+
+"I certainly am feeling better," said Lennard with a glance at Auriole,
+"but, you see, I've got into a state of mind which is not unlike the
+physical state of the Red Indian who starves for a few days and then
+takes his meals, I mean the arrears of meals, all at once. When I have
+had a good long sleep, as I am going to have until to-night, I might--in
+fact, I hope I shall be able to tell you something definite about the
+question of the comet."
+
+"What--the question?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "About the comet? I didn't
+understand that there was any question. You have discovered it, haven't
+you?"
+
+"I have made a certain discovery, Mr Parmenter," said Lennard, with a
+gravity which made Auriole raise her eyelids quickly, "but whether I
+have found a comet so far unknown to astronomy or not, is quite another
+matter. Thanks to that splendid instrument of yours, I have found a
+something in a part of the heavens where no comet, not even a star, has
+even been seen yet, and, speaking in all seriousness, I may say that
+this discovery contradicts all calculations as to the orbits and
+velocities of any known comet. That is what I have been thinking about
+all night."
+
+"What?" said Auriole, looking up again. "Really something quite
+unknown?"
+
+"Unknown except to the three people sitting at this table, unless
+another miracle has happened--I mean such a one as happened in the case
+of the discovery of Neptune which, as of course you know, Adams at
+Cambridge and Le Verrier at Paris--"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Auriole, "two men who didn't know each other; both
+looked for something that couldn't be seen, and found it. If you've done
+anything like that, Mr Lennard, I reckon Poppa will have good cause to
+be proud of his reflector--"
+
+"And of the man behind it," added her father. "A telescope's like a gun;
+no use without a good man behind it. Well, if that's so, Mr Lennard,
+this discovery of yours ought to shake the world up a bit."
+
+"From what I have seen so far," replied Lennard, "I have not the
+slightest doubt that it will."
+
+"And when may I see this wonderful discovery of yours, Mr Lennard," said
+Auriole, "this something which is going to be so important, this
+something that no one else's eyes have seen except yours. Really, you
+know, you've made me quite longing to get a sight of this stranger from
+the outer wilderness of space."
+
+"If the night is clear enough, I may hope to be able to introduce you to
+the new celestial visitor about a quarter-past eleven to-night, or to be
+quite accurate eleven hours, sixteen minutes and thirty-nine seconds
+p.m."
+
+"I think that's good enough, Auriole," said her father. "If the heavens
+are only kind enough, we'll go up to the observatory and, as Mr Lennard
+says, see something that no one else has ever seen."
+
+"And then," laughed Auriole, "I suppose you will have achieved the
+second ambition of your life. You have already piled up a bigger heap of
+dollars than anybody else in the world, and by midnight you will have
+seen farther into Creation than anybody else. But you will let me have
+the first look, won't you?"
+
+"Why, certainly," he replied. "As soon as Mr Lennard has got the
+telescope fixed, you go first, and I reckon that won't take very long."
+
+"No," replied Lennard, "I've worked out the position for to-night, and
+it's only a matter of winding up the clockwork and setting the
+telescope. And now," he continued, rising, "if you will allow me, I will
+say--well, I was going to say good-night, but of course it's
+good-morning--I'm going to bed."
+
+"Will you come down to lunch, or shall I have some sent up to you?"
+said Auriole.
+
+"No, thanks. I don't think there will be any need to trouble you about
+that. When I once get to sleep, I hope I shall forget all things
+earthly, and heavenly too for the matter of that, until about six
+o'clock, and if you will have me called then, I will be ready for
+dinner."
+
+"Certainly," replied Auriole, "and I hope you will sleep as well as you
+deserve to do, after all these nights of watching."
+
+He did sleep. He slept the sleep of a man physically and mentally tired,
+in spite of the load of unspeakable anxiety which was weighing upon his
+mind. For during his last night's work, he had learnt what no other man
+in the world knew. He had learnt that, unless a miracle happened, or
+some almost superhuman feat of ingenuity and daring was accomplished,
+that day thirteen months hence would see the annihilation of every
+living thing on earth, and the planet Terra converted into a dark and
+lifeless orb, a wilderness drifting through space, the blackened and
+desolated sepulchre of the countless millions of living beings which now
+inhabited it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE DOOM
+
+
+After dinner Lennard excused himself, saying that he wanted to make a
+few more calculations; and then he got outside and lit his pipe, and
+walked up the winding path towards the observatory.
+
+"What am I to do?" he said between his teeth. "It's a ghastly position
+for a man to be placed in. Fancy--just a poor, ordinary, human being
+like myself having the power of losing or saving the world in his hands!
+And then, of course, there's a woman in the question--the Eternal
+Feminine--even in such a colossal problem as this!
+
+"It's mean, and I know it; but, after all, I saved her life--though, if
+I hadn't reached her first, that other chap might have got her. I love
+her and he loves her; there's no doubt about that, and Papa Parmenter
+wants to marry her to a coronet. There's one thing certain, Castellan
+shall not have her, and I love her a lot too much to see her made My
+Lady This, or the Marchioness of So-and-so, just because she's beautiful
+and has millions, and the other fellow, whoever he may be, may have a
+coronet that probably wants re-gilding; and yet, after all, it's only
+the same old story in a rather more serious form--a woman against the
+world. I suppose Papa Parmenter would show me the door to-morrow morning
+if I, a poor explorer of the realm of Space, dared to tell him that I
+want to marry his daughter.
+
+"And yet how miserable and trivial all these wretched distinctions of
+wealth and position look now; or would look if the world only knew and
+believed what I could tell it--and that reminds me--shall I tell her, or
+them? Of course, I must before long; simply because in a month or so
+those American fellows will be on it, and they won't have any scruples
+when it comes to a matter of scare head-lines. Yes, I think it may as
+well be to-night as any other time. Still, it's a pretty awful thing for
+a humble individual like myself to say, especially to a girl one happens
+to be very much in love with--nothing less than the death-sentence of
+Humanity. Ah, well, she's got to hear it some time and from some one,
+and why shouldn't she hear it now and from me?"
+
+When he got back to the house, there was a carriage at the door, and Mr
+Parmenter was just coming down the avenue, followed by a man with a
+small portmanteau in his hand.
+
+"Sorry, Mr Lennard," he said, holding out his hand, "I've just had a
+wire about a company tangle in London that I've got to go and shake out
+at once, so I'll have to see what you have to show me later on. Still,
+that needn't trouble anyone. It looks as if it were going to be a
+splendid night for star-gazing, and I don't want Auriole disappointed,
+so she can go up to the observatory with you at the proper time and see
+what there is to be seen. See you later, I have only just about time to
+get the connection for London."
+
+Lennard was not altogether sorry that this accident had happened.
+Naturally, the prospect of an hour or so with Auriole alone in his
+temple of Science was very pleasant, and moreover, he felt that, as the
+momentous tidings had to be told, he would prefer to tell them to her
+first. And so it came about.
+
+A little after half-past eleven that night Miss Auriole was looking
+wonderingly into the eye-piece of the great Reflector, watching a tiny
+little patch of mist, somewhat brighter towards one end than the other;
+like a little wisp of white smoke rising from a very faint spark that
+was apparently floating across an unfathomable sea of darkness.
+
+She seemed to see this through black darkness, and behind it a swarm of
+stars of all sizes and colours. They appeared very much more wonderful
+and glorious and important than the little spray of white smoke, because
+she hadn't yet the faintest conception of its true import to her and
+every other human being on earth: but she was very soon to know now.
+
+While she was watching it in breathless silence, in which the clicking
+of the mechanism which kept the great telescope moving so as to exactly
+counteract the motion of the machinery of the Universe, sounded like the
+blows of a sledge-hammer on an anvil, Gilbert Lennard stood beside her,
+wondering if he should begin to tell her, and what he should say.
+
+At last she turned away from the eye-piece, and looked at him with
+something like a scared expression in her eyes, and said:
+
+"It's very wonderful, isn't it, that one should be able to see all that
+just by looking into a little bit of a hole in a telescope? And you tell
+me that all those great big bright stars around your comet are so far
+away that if you look at them just with your own eyes you don't even see
+them--and there they look almost as if you could put out your hand and
+touch them. It's just a little bit awful, too!" she added, with a little
+shiver.
+
+"Yes," he said, speaking slowly and even more gravely that she thought
+the subject warranted, "yes, it is both wonderful and, in a way, awful.
+Do you know that some of those stars you have seen in there are so far
+away that the light which you see them by may have left them when
+Solomon was king in Jerusalem? They may be quite dead and dark now, or
+reduced into fire-mist by collision with some other star. And then,
+perhaps, there are others behind them again so far away that their light
+has not even reached us yet, and may never do while there are human eyes
+on earth to see it."
+
+"Yes, I know," she said, smiling. "You don't forget that I have been to
+college--and light travels about a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles
+a second, doesn't it? But come, Mr Lennard, aren't you what they call
+stretching the probabilities a little when you say that the light of
+some of them will never get here, as far as we're concerned? I always
+thought we had a few million years of life to look forward to before
+this old world of ours gets worn out."
+
+"There are other ends possible for this world besides wearing out, Miss
+Parmenter," he answered, this time almost solemnly. "Other worlds have,
+as I say, been reduced to fire-mist. Some have been shattered to tiny
+fragments to make asteroids and meteorites--stars and worlds, in
+comparison with which this bit of a planet of ours is nothing more than
+a speck of sand, a mere atom of matter drifting over the wilderness of
+immensity. In fact, such a trifle is it in the organism of the Universe,
+that if some celestial body collided with it--say a comet with a
+sufficiently solid nucleus--and the heat developed by the impact turned
+it into a mass of blazing gas, an astronomer on Neptune, one of our own
+planets, wouldn't even notice the accident, unless he happened to be
+watching the earth through a powerful telescope at the time."
+
+"And is such an accident, as you call it, possible, Mr Lennard?" she
+asked, jumping womanlike, by a sort of unconscious intuition, to the
+very point to which he was so clumsily trying to lead up.
+
+"I thought you spoke rather queerly about this comet of yours at
+breakfast this morning. I hope there isn't any chance of its getting on
+to the same track as this terrestrial locomotive of ours. That would be
+just awful, wouldn't it? Why, what's the matter? You are going to be
+ill, I know. You had better get down to the house, and go to bed. It's
+want of sleep, isn't it? You'll be driving yourself mad that way."
+
+A sudden and terrible change had come over him while she was speaking.
+It was only for the moment, and yet to him it was an eternity. It might,
+as she said, have been the want of sleep, for insomnia plays strange
+tricks sometimes with the strongest of intellects.
+
+More probably, it might have been the horror of his secret working on
+the great love that he had for this girl who was sitting there alone
+with him in the silence of that dim room and in the midst of the glories
+and the mysteries of the Universe.
+
+His eyes had grown fixed and staring, and looked sightlessly at her, and
+his face shone ghastly pale in the dim light of the solitary shaded
+lamp. Certainly, one of those mysterious crises which are among the
+unsolved secrets of psychology had come upon him like some swift access
+of delirium.
+
+He no longer saw her sitting there by the telescope, calm, gracious, and
+beautiful. He saw her as, by his pitiless calculations, he must do that
+day thirteen months to come--with her soft grey eyes, starting,
+horror-driven from their orbits, staring blank and wide and hideous at
+the overwhelming hell that would be falling down from heaven upon the
+devoted earth. He saw her fresh young face withered and horror-lined and
+old, and the bright-brown hair grown grey with the years that would pass
+in those few final moments. He saw the sweet red lips which had tempted
+him so often to wild thoughts parched and black, wide open and gasping
+vainly for the breath of life in a hot, burnt-out atmosphere.
+
+Then he saw--no, it was only a glimpse; and with that the strange
+trance-vision ended. What must have come after that would in all
+certainty have driven him mad there and then, before his work had even
+begun; but at that moment, swiftly severing the darkness that was
+falling over his soul, there came to him an idea, bright, luminous, and
+lovely as an inspiration from Heaven itself, and with it came back the
+calm sanity of the sternly-disciplined intellect, prepared to
+contemplate, not only the destruction of the world he lived in, but even
+the loss of the woman he loved--the only human being who could make the
+world beautiful or even tolerable for him.
+
+The vision was blotted out from the sight of his soul; the darkness
+cleared away from his eyes, and he saw her again as she still was. It
+had all passed in a few moments and yet in them he had been down into
+hell--and he had come back to earth, and into her presence.
+
+Almost by the time she had uttered her last word, he had regained
+command of his voice, and he began clearly and quietly to answer the
+question which was still echoing through the chambers of his brain.
+
+"It was only a little passing faintness, thank you; and something else
+which you will understand when I have done, if you have patience to hear
+me to the end," he said, looking straight at her for a moment, and then
+beginning to walk slowly up and down the room past her chair.
+
+"I am going to surprise you, perhaps to frighten you, and very probably
+to offend you deeply," he began again in a quiet, dry sort of tone,
+which somehow impressed her against all her convictions that he didn't
+much care whether or not he did any or all of these things: but there
+was something else in his tone and manner which held her to her seat,
+silent and attentive, although she was conscious of a distinct desire to
+get up and run away.
+
+"Your guess about the comet, or whatever it may prove to be, is quite
+correct. I don't think it is a new one. From what I have seen of it so
+far, I have every reason to believe that it is Gambert's comet, which
+was discovered in 1826, and became visible to the naked eye in the
+autumn of 1833. It then crossed the orbit of the earth one month after
+the earth had passed the point of intersection. After that, some force
+divided it, and in '46 and '52 it reappeared as twin comets constantly
+separating. Now it would seem that the two masses have come together
+again: and as they are both larger in bulk and greater in density it
+would appear that, somewhere in the distant fields of Space, they have
+united with some other and denser body. The result is, that what is
+practically a new comet, with a much denser nucleus than any so far
+seen, is approaching our system. Unless a miracle happens, or there is a
+practically impossible error in my calculations, it will cross the orbit
+of the earth thirteen months from to-day, at the moment that the earth
+itself arrives at the point of intersection."
+
+So far Auriole had listened to the stiff scientific phraseology with
+more interest than alarm; but now she took advantage of a little pause,
+and said:
+
+"And the consequences, Mr Lennard? I mean the consequences to us as
+living beings. You may as well tell me everything now that you've gone
+so far."
+
+"I am going to," he said, stopping for a moment in his walk, "and I am
+going to tell you something more than that. Granted that what I have
+said happens, one of two things must follow. If the nucleus of the comet
+is solid enough to pass through our atmosphere without being dissipated,
+it will strike the surface with so much force that both it and the earth
+will probably be transformed into fiery vapour by the conversion of the
+motion of the two bodies into heat. If not, its contact with the oxygen
+of the earth's atmosphere will produce an aerial conflagration which, if
+it does not roast alive every living thing on earth, will convert the
+oxygen, by combustion, into an irrespirable and poisonous gas, and so
+kill us by a slower, but no less fatal, process."
+
+"Horrible!" she said, shivering this time. "You speak like a judge
+pronouncing sentence of death on the whole human race! I suppose there
+is no possibility of reprieve? Well, go on!"
+
+"Yes," he said, "there is something else. Those are the scientific
+facts, as far as they go. I am going to tell you the chances now--and
+something more. There is just one chance--one possible way of averting
+universal ruin from the earth, and substituting for it nothing more
+serious than an unparalleled display of celestial fireworks. All that
+will be necessary is perfect calculation and illimitable expenditure of
+money."
+
+"Well," she said, "can't you do the calculations, Mr Lennard, and hasn't
+dad got millions enough? How could he spend them better than in saving
+the human race from being burnt alive? There isn't anything else, is
+there?"
+
+"There was something else," he said, stopping in front of her again. She
+had risen to her feet as she said the last words, and the two stood
+facing each other in the dim light, while the mechanism of the telescope
+kept on clicking away in its heedless, mechanical fashion.
+
+"Yes, there was something else, and I may as well tell you after all;
+for, even if you never see or speak to me again, it won't stop the work
+being done now. I could have kept this discovery to myself till it would
+have been too late to do anything: for no other telescope without my
+help would even find the comet for four months to come, and even now
+there is hardly a day to be lost if the work is to be done in time. And
+then--well, I suppose I must have gone mad for the time being, for I
+thought--you will hardly believe me, I suppose--that I could make you
+the price of the world's safety.
+
+"From that, you will see how much I have loved you, however mad I may
+have been. Losing you, I would have lost the world with you. If my love
+lives, I thought, the world shall live: if not, if you die, the world
+shall die. But just now, when you thought I was taken ill, I had a sort
+of vision, and I saw you,--yes, you, Auriole as, if my one chance fails,
+you must infallibly be this night thirteen months hence. I didn't see
+any of the other millions who would be choking and gasping for breath
+and writhing in the torture of the universal fire--I only saw you and my
+own baseness in thinking, even for a moment, that such a bargain would
+be possible.
+
+"And then," he went on, more slowly, and with a different ring in his
+voice, "there are the other men."
+
+"Which other men?" she asked, looking up at him with a flush on her
+cheeks and a gleam in her eyes.
+
+"To be quite frank, and in such a situation as this, I don't see that
+anything but complete candour is of any use," he replied slowly. "I need
+hardly tell you that they are John Castellan and the Marquis of
+Westerham. Castellan, I know, has loved you just as I have done, from
+the moment we had the good luck to pick you out of the bay at Clifden.
+Lord Westerham also wants you, so do I. That, put plainly, brutally, if
+you like, is the situation. Of your own feelings, of course, I do not
+pretend to have the remotest idea; but I confess that when this
+knowledge came to me, the first thought that crossed my mind was the
+thought of you as another man's wife--and then came the vision of the
+world in flames. At first I chose the world in flames. I see that I was
+wrong. That is all."
+
+She had not interrupted even by a gesture, but as she listened, a
+thousand signs and trifles which alone had meant nothing to her, now
+seemed to come together and make one clear and definite revelation. This
+strong, reserved, silent man had all the time loved her so desperately
+that he was going mad about her--so mad that, as he had said, he had
+even dreamed of weighing the possession of her single, insignificant
+self against the safety of the whole world, with all its innumerable
+millions of people--mostly as good in their way as she was.
+
+Well--it might be that the love of such a man was a thing worth to weigh
+even against a coronet--not in her eyes, for there was no question of
+that now, but in her father's. But that was a matter for future
+consideration. She drew herself up a little stiffly, and said, in just
+such a tone as she might have used if what he had just been saying had
+had no personal interest for her--had, in fact, been about some other
+girl:
+
+"I think it's about time to be going down to the house, Mr Lennard,
+isn't it? I am quite sure a night's rest won't do you any harm. No, I'm
+not offended, and I don't think I'm even frightened yet. It somehow
+seems too big and too awful a thing to be only frightened at--too much
+like the Day of Judgment, you know. I am glad you've told me--yes,
+everything--and I'm glad that what you call your madness is over. You
+will be able to do your work in saving the world all the better. Only
+don't tell dad anything except--well--just the scientific and necessary
+part of it. You know, saving a world is a very much greater matter than
+winning a woman--at least it is in one particular woman's eyes--and
+I've learnt somewhere in mathematics something about the greater
+including the less. And now, don't you think we had better be going down
+into the house? It's getting quite late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE NOTE OF WAR
+
+
+The _Official Gazette_, published November the 25th, 1909, contained the
+following announcement:--
+
+
+     "Naval Promotions. Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, of H.M.
+     Fishery Cruiser _Cormorant_, to be Captain of H.M. Cruiser
+     _Ithuriel_. Lieutenant Denis Castellan, also of the _Cormorant_, to
+     be First Lieutenant of the _Ithuriel_."
+
+
+On the evening of the same day, Mr Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, rose
+amidst the tense silence of a crowded House to make another
+announcement, which was not altogether unconnected with the notice in
+the _Gazette_.
+
+"Sir," he said in a low, but vibrant and penetrating voice, which many
+years before had helped to make his fame as an orator, "it is my painful
+duty to inform this honourable House that a state of war exists between
+His Majesty and a Confederation of European countries, including
+Germany, Russia, France, Spain, Holland and Belgium."
+
+He paused for a moment, and looked round at the hundreds of faces, most
+of them pale and fixed, that were turned toward the front Treasury
+Bench. Since Mr Balfour, now Lord Whittinghame, and Leader of the
+Conservative Party in the House of Lords, had made his memorable speech
+on the 12th of October 1899, informing the House of Commons and the
+world that the Ultimatum of the South African Republic had been
+rejected, and that the struggle for the mastery of South Africa was
+inevitable, no such momentous announcement had been made in the House of
+Commons.
+
+Mr Chamberlain referred to that bygone crisis in the following terms:
+
+"It will be within the memory of many Members of this House that, almost
+exactly ten years ago to-day, the British Empire was challenged to fight
+for the supremacy of South Africa. That challenge was accepted not
+because there was any desire on the part of the Government or the people
+of this country to destroy the self-government of what were then the
+South African Republic and the Orange Free State, but because the
+Government of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, knew that the fate of an
+empire, however great, depends upon its supremacy throughout its
+dominions.
+
+"To lose one of these, however small and apparently insignificant, is to
+take a stone out of an arch with the result of inevitable collapse of
+the whole structure. It is not necessary for me, sir, to make any
+further allusion to that struggle, save than to say that the policy of
+Her Majesty's Ministers has been completely justified by the
+consequences which have followed from it.
+
+"The Transvaal and Orange River Colonies have taken their place among
+the other self-governing Colonies of the Empire. They are prosperous,
+contented and loyal, and they will not be the last, I think, to come to
+the help of the Mother Country in such a crisis as this. But, sir, I do
+not think that I should be fulfilling the duties of the responsible
+position which I have the honour to occupy if I did not remind this
+House, and through this House the citizens of the British Empire, that
+the present crisis is infinitely more serious than that with which we
+were faced in 1899. Then we were waging a war in another hemisphere, six
+thousand miles away. Our unconquered, and, as I hope it will prove,
+unconquerable Navy, kept the peace of the world, and policed the ocean
+highways along which it was necessary for our ships to travel. It is
+true that there were menaces and threats heard in many quarters, but
+they never passed beyond the region of insult and calumny.
+
+"Our possible enemies then, our actual enemies now, were in those days
+willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike. To-day, they have lost their
+fear in the confidence of combination. To-day the war cloud is not six
+thousand miles away in the southern hemisphere; it is here, in Europe,
+and a strip of water, twenty-one miles broad, separates us from the
+enemy, which, even as I am speaking, may already be knocking at our
+gates. Even now, the thunder of the guns may be echoing along the shores
+of the English Channel.
+
+"This, sir, is a war in which I might venture to say the most ardent
+member of the Peace Society would not hesitate to engage. For it
+involves the most sacred duty of humanity, the defence of our country,
+and our homes.
+
+"We remember, sir, the words which Francis Drake wrote, and which have
+remained true from his day until now: 'The frontiers of an island
+country are the coasts of its possible enemies.' We remember also that
+when the great Napoleon had massed nearly half a million men on the
+heights above Boulogne, and more than a thousand pontoons were waiting
+to carry that force to the Kentish shore, there was only one old English
+frigate cruising up and down the Straits of Dover.
+
+"Sir, there is on the heights of Boulogne a monument, built to
+commemorate the assembly of the Grand Army, and collectors of coins
+still cherish those productions of the Paris Mint, which bear the
+legend, 'Napoleon, Emperor, London, 1804.' But, sir, the statue of
+Napoleon which stands on the summit of that monument faces not westward
+but eastward. The Grand Army could have crossed that narrow strip of
+water. It could, no doubt, have made a landing on British soil, but
+Napoleon, possibly the greatest military genius the world has ever seen,
+anticipated Field-Marshal von Moltke, who said that he had found eight
+ways of getting into England, but he had not found one of getting out
+again, unless it were possible to pump the North Sea dry, and march the
+men over. In other words, sir, the British Navy was then, as now,
+paramount on seas; the oceans were our territories, and the coasts of
+Europe our frontiers.
+
+"Again, sir, we must not forget that those were the days of sails, and
+that these are the days of steam. What was then a matter of days is now
+only a matter of hours. It is two hundred and forty-two years since the
+sound of hostile guns was heard in the city of London. To-morrow morning
+their thunder may awaken us.
+
+"It has been said, sir, that Great Britain plays the game of Diplomacy
+with her cards face upwards on the table. That, in a sense, is true, and
+His Majesty's Government propose to play the same game now. The demands
+which have been presented by the Federation of European Powers, at the
+head of which stands the German Emperor--demands which, it is hardly
+necessary for me to say, were instantly rejected--are these: That
+Gibraltar shall be given back to Spain; that Malta shall be dismantled,
+and cease to be a British naval base; that the British occupation of
+Egypt and the Soudan shall cease, and that the Suez Canal and the
+Trans-Continental Railway from Cairo to the Cape shall be handed over to
+the control of an International Board, upon which the British Empire
+will be graciously allowed one representative.
+
+"It is further demanded that Singapore, the Gate of the East, shall be
+placed under the control of the same International Board, and that the
+fortifications of Hong Kong shall be demolished. That, sir, would amount
+to the surrender of the British Empire, an empire which can only exist
+as long as the ocean paths between its various portions are kept
+inviolate.
+
+"Those proposals, sir, in plain English are threats, and His Majesty's
+Government has returned the only possible answer to them, and that
+answer is war--war, let us remember, which may within a few weeks, or
+even days, be brought to our own doors. Whatever our enemies may have
+said of us it is still true that Britain stands for peace, security, and
+prosperity. We have used the force of arms to conquer the forces of
+barbarism and semi-civilisation, but the most hostile of our critics may
+be safely challenged to point to any country or province upon which we
+have imposed the Pax Britannica, which is not now the better for it. It
+is no idle boast, sir, to say that all the world over, the rule of His
+Majesty means the rule of peace and prosperity. There are only two
+causes in which a nation or an empire may justly go to war. One, is to
+make peace where strife was before, and the other is to defend that
+which has been won, and made secure by patient toil and endeavour, no
+less than by blood and suffering. It is that which the challenge of
+Europe calls upon us now to defend. Our answer to the leagued nations is
+this: What we have fought for and worked for and won is ours. Take it
+from us if you can.
+
+"And, sir, I believe that I can say with perfect confidence, that what
+His Majesty's Government has done His Majesty's subjects will enforce to
+a man, and, if necessary, countersign the declaration of war in their
+own blood.
+
+"Let us remember, too, those weighty words of warning which the Laureate
+of the Empire wrote nearly twenty years ago, of this Imperial
+inheritance of ours:
+
+
+     "'It is not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep,
+     Men, not gods, devised it, men, not gods, must keep.
+     Men not children, servants, or kinsfolk called from afar,
+     But each man born in the island broke to the matter of war.
+
+     'So ye shall bide, sure-guarded, when the restless lightnings wake,
+     In the boom of the blotting war-cloud, and the pallid nations quake.
+     So, at the haggard trumpets, instant your soul shall leap,
+     Forthright, accoutred, accepting--alert from the walls of sleep.
+     So at the threat ye shall summon--so at the need ye shall send,
+     Men, not children, or servants, tempered and taught to the end.'
+
+
+"Sir, it has been said that poets are prophets. The hour of the
+fulfilment of that prophecy has now come, and I shall be much mistaken
+in my estimate of the temper of my countrymen and fellow-subjects of His
+Majesty here in Britain, and in the greater Britains over sea, if,
+granted the possibility of an armed invasion of the Motherland, every
+man, soldier or civilian, who is able to use a rifle, will not, if
+necessary, use it in the defence of his country and his home."
+
+The Prime Minister sat down amid absolute silence. The tremendous
+possibilities which he had summed up in his brief speech seemed to have
+stunned his hearers for the time being. Some members said afterwards
+that they could hear their own watches ticking. Then Mr John Redmond,
+the Leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, rose and said, in a slow, and
+deliberate voice, which contrasted strikingly with his usual style of
+oratory:
+
+"Sir, this is not a time for what has been with a certain amount of
+double-meaning described as Parliamentary speeches. Still less is it a
+time for party or for racial differences. The silence in which this
+House has received the speech of the Prime Minister is the most eloquent
+tribute that could be paid to the solemnity of his utterances. But, sir,
+I have a reason for calling attention to one omission in that speech, an
+omission which may have been made purposely. The last time that a
+foeman's foot trod British soil was not eight hundred years ago. It was
+in December 1796 that French soldiers and sailors landed on the shores
+of Bantry Bay. Sir, the Ireland of those days was discontented, and, if
+you please to call it so, disloyal. There are those who say she is so
+now, but, sir, whatever our domestic difficulties and quarrels may be,
+and however much I and the party which I have the honour to lead may
+differ from the home policy of the Right Honourable gentleman who has
+made this momentous pronouncement, it shall not be said that any of
+those difficulties or differences will be taken advantage of by any man
+who is worth the name of Irishman.
+
+"As the Prime Minister has told us, the thunder of the enemy's guns may
+even now be echoing along our southern coasts. We have, I hope, learnt a
+little wisdom on both sides of the Irish Sea during the last twenty
+years, and this time, sir, I think I can promise that, while the guns
+are talking, there shall be no sound of dispute on party matters in
+this House as far as we are concerned. From this moment, the Irish
+Nationalist Party, as such, ceases to exist, at any rate until the war's
+over.
+
+"In 1796, the French fleet carrying the invading force was scattered
+over the seas by one of the worst storms that ever was known on the west
+coast of Ireland. As Queen Elizabeth's medal said of the Spanish Armada,
+'God blew, and they were scattered.' With God's help, sir, we will
+scatter these new enemies who threaten us with invasion and conquest.
+Henceforth, there must be no more Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, or
+Welshmen. We are just subjects of the King, and inhabitants of the
+British Islands; and the man who does not believe that, and act upon his
+belief, should get out of these islands as soon as he can, for he isn't
+fit to live in them.
+
+"I remember, sir, a car-driver in Galway, who was taking an English
+tourist--and he was a politician as well--around the country about that
+half-ruined city. The English tourist was inquiring into the troubles of
+Ireland, and he asked him what was the greatest affliction that Ireland
+suffered from, and when he answered him he described just the sort of
+Irishman who won't be wanted in Ireland now. He said, 'It's the absentee
+landlords, your honour. This unfortunate country is absolutely swarming
+with them.'"
+
+It was an anti-climax such as only an Irishman could have achieved. The
+tension which had held every nerve of every member on the stretch while
+the Prime Minister was speaking was broken. The Irish members, almost to
+a man, jumped to their feet, as Mr Redmond picked up his hat, waved it
+round his head, and said, in a tone which rang clear and true through
+the crowded Chamber:
+
+"God save the King!"
+
+And then for the first time in its history, the House of Commons rose
+and sang the National Anthem.
+
+There was no division that night. The Prime Minister formally put the
+motion for the voting of such credit as might be necessary to meet the
+expenses of the war, and when the Speaker put the question, Ay or Nay,
+every member stood up bareheaded, and a deep-voiced, thunderous "Ay"
+told the leagued nations of Europe that Britain had accepted their
+challenge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CAUGHT!
+
+
+The events of that memorable night formed a most emphatic contradiction
+to the prophecy in Macaulay's "Armada":
+
+
+     "Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be."
+
+
+The speeches in the House of Commons and in the House of Peers were
+being printed even as they were spoken; hundreds of printing-presses
+were grinding out millions of copies of newspapers. Thousands of
+newsboys were running along the pavements, or with great bags of new
+editions slung on their shoulders tearing through the traffic on
+bicycles; but all the speeches in the two Houses of Parliament, all the
+reports and hurriedly-written leaders in the papers just represented to
+the popular mind one word, and that word was war.
+
+It was true that for over a hundred years no year had passed in which
+the British Empire had not been engaged in a war of some kind, but they
+were wars waged somewhere in the outlands of the earth. To the
+stop-at-home man in the street they were rather more matters of latitude
+and longitude than battle, murder, and sudden death. The South African
+War, and even the terrible struggle between Russia and Japan, were
+already memories drifting out of sight in the rush of the headlong
+current of twentieth-century life.
+
+But this was quite another matter; here was war--not war that was being
+waged thousands of miles away in another hemisphere or on another side
+of the globe--but war within twenty-one miles of English land--within
+two or three hours, as it were, of every Englishman's front door.
+
+This went home to every man who had a home, or who possessed anything
+worth living for. It was not now a case of sending soldiers, militia and
+yeomanry away in transports, and cheering them as they went. Not now, as
+Kipling too truly had said of the fight for South Africa:
+
+
+     "When your strong men cheered in their millions, while your
+       striplings went to the war."
+
+
+Now it was the turn of the strong men; the turn of every man who had the
+strength and courage to fight in defence of all that was nearest and
+dearest to him.
+
+As yet there was no excitement. At every theatre and every music-hall in
+London and the great provincial cities and towns, the performances were
+stopped as soon as the news was received by telegraph. The managers read
+the news from the stage, the orchestras played the first bar of the
+National Anthem, the audiences rose to their feet, and all over the
+British Islands millions of voices sang "God save the King," and then,
+obeying some impulse, which seemed to have inspired the whole land,
+burst into the triumphant psalm of "Rule Britannia."
+
+And when the theatres and music-halls closed, men and women went on
+their way home quietly discussing the tremendous tidings which had been
+officially announced. There was no attempt at demonstration, there was
+very little cheering. It was too serious a matter for that. The men and
+women of Britain were thinking, not about what they should say, but
+about what they should do. There was no time for shouting, for
+to-morrow, perhaps even to-night, the guns would be talking--"The
+drumming guns which have no doubts."
+
+The House rose at half-past eleven, and at ten minutes to twelve
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan, came into the smoking-room of the Keppel's
+Head Hotel, Portsmouth, with a copy of the last edition of the _Southern
+Evening News_ in his hand, and said to Captain Erskine:
+
+"It's all right, my boy. It's war, and you've got the _Ithuriel_. Your
+own ship, too. Designer, creator, captain; and I'm your First Luff."
+
+"I think that's about good enough for a bottle of the best, Castellan,"
+said Erskine, in the quiet tone in which the officer of the finest
+Service in the world always speaks. "Touch the button, will you?"
+
+As Denis Castellan put his finger on the button of the electric bell, a
+man got up from an armchair on the opposite side of the room, and said,
+as he came towards the table at which Erskine was sitting:
+
+"You will pardon me, I hope, if I introduce myself without the usual
+formalities. My name is Gilbert Lennard."
+
+"Then, I take it, you're the man who swam that race with my brother
+John, in Clifden Bay, when Miss Parmenter was thrown out of her skiff.
+But he's no brother of mine now. He's sold himself to the Germans, and,"
+he continued, suddenly lowering his voice almost to a whisper, "come up
+to my room, we'll have the bottle there, and Mr Lennard will join us.
+Yes, waiter, you can take it up to No. 24, we can't talk here," he went
+on in a louder tone. "There's a German spy in the room, and by the piper
+that was supposed to play before Moses, if he's here when I come back,
+I'll throw him out."
+
+Everyone in the smoking-room looked up. Castellan walked out, looking at
+a fair-haired, clean-shaven little man, sitting at a table in the
+right-hand corner of the room from the door. He also looked up, and
+glanced vacantly about the room; then as the three went out, he took a
+sip of the whisky and soda beside him, and looked back on to the paper
+that he was reading.
+
+"Who's that chap?" asked Erskine, as they went upstairs.
+
+"I'll tell you when we're a bit more to ourselves," replied Castellan;
+and when they had got into his sitting-room, and the waiter had brought
+the wine, he locked the door, and said:
+
+"That is Staff-Captain Count Karl von Eckstein, of the German Imperial
+Navy, and also of His Majesty, the Kaiser's, Secret Service. He knows a
+little more than we do about every dockyard and fort on the South Coast,
+to say nothing of the ships. That's his district, and thanks to the most
+obliging kindness of the British authorities he has made very good use
+of it."
+
+"But, surely," exclaimed Lennard, "now that there is a state of war,
+such a man as that could be arrested."
+
+"Faith," said Denis Castellan, as he filled the glasses. "Law or no law,
+he will be arrested to-night if he stops here long enough for me to lay
+hands upon him. Now then, what's the news, Mr Lennard? I'm told that
+you've just come back from the United States, what's the opinion of
+things over there?"
+
+Such news that Lennard had was, of course, even more terrible than the
+news of war and invasion, which was now thrilling through England like
+an electric shock, and he kept it to himself, thinking quite rightly
+that the people of England had quite enough to occupy their attention
+for the immediate present, and so he replied as he raised the glass
+which Denis had filled for him:
+
+"I am afraid that I have no news except this: that from all I have heard
+in the States, if it does come to death-grips, the States will be with
+us. But you see, of course, that I have only just got back, and this
+thing has been sprung on us so suddenly. In fact, it was only this
+morning that we got an aerogram from the Lizard as we came up Channel to
+say that war was almost a certainty, and advising us to get into
+Southampton as soon as we could."
+
+"Well," said Erskine, taking up his glass, "that's all right, as far as
+it goes. I've always believed that it's all rot saying that blood isn't
+thicker than water. It is. Of course, relations quarrel more than other
+people do, but it's only over domestic matters. Let an outsider start a
+row, and he very soon sees what happens, and that's what I believe our
+friends on the other side of the Channel are going to find out if it
+comes to extremities. Well, Mr Lennard, I am very pleased that you have
+introduced yourself to us to-night. Of course, we have both known you
+publicly, and therefore we have all the more pleasure in knowing you
+privately."
+
+"Thanks," replied Lennard, putting his hand into the inside pocket of
+his coat and taking out an envelope. "But to be quite candid with you,
+although of course I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, I did
+not introduce myself to you and Mr Castellan only for personal reasons.
+I have devoted some attention to the higher chemistry as well as the
+higher mathematics and astronomy, and I have also had the pleasure of
+going through the designs of the cruiser which you have invented, and
+which you are now to command. I have been greatly interested in them,
+and for that reason I think that this may interest you. I brought it
+here in the hope of meeting you, as I knew that your ship was lying
+here."
+
+Erskine opened the envelope, and took out a sheet of notepaper, on which
+were written just a few chemical formulae and about forty words.
+
+Castellan, who was watching him keenly, for the first time since they
+had sailed together through stress and storm under the White Ensign, saw
+him start. The pupils of his eyes suddenly dilated; his eyelids and
+eyebrows went up for an instant and came down again, and the rigid calm
+of the British Naval Officer came back. He put the letter into his hip
+pocket, buttoned it up, and said, very quietly:
+
+"Thank you, Mr Lennard. You have done me a very great personal service,
+and your country a greater one still. I shall, of course, make use of
+this. I am afraid if you had sent it to the Ordnance Department you
+wouldn't have heard anything about it for the next three months or more;
+perhaps not till the war was over."
+
+"And that is just why I brought it to you," laughed Lennard. "Well,
+here's good luck to you and the _Ithuriel_, and all honour, and God save
+the King!"
+
+"God save the King!" repeated Erskine and Castellan, with that note of
+seriousness in their tone which you can hear in the voice of no man who
+has not fought, or is not going to fight; in short, to put his words
+into action.
+
+They emptied their glasses, and as they put them down on the table
+again there came a knock at the door, sharp, almost imperative.
+
+"Come in," said Erskine.
+
+The head waiter threw the door open, and a Naval messenger walked in,
+saluted, handed Erskine an official envelope, and said:
+
+"Immediately, sir. The steam pinnace is down at the end of the Railway
+Quay."
+
+Erskine tore open the envelope and read the brief order that it
+contained, and said:
+
+"Very good. We shall be on board in ten minutes."
+
+The messenger, who was a very useful-looking specimen of the handy man,
+saluted and left the room. Castellan ran out after him, and they went
+downstairs together. At the door of the hotel the messenger put two
+fingers into his mouth, and gave three soft whistles, not unlike the
+sounds of a boatswain's pipe. In two minutes a dozen bluejackets had
+appeared from nowhere, and just as a matter of formality were asked to
+have a drink at the bar. Meanwhile Denis Castellan had gone into the
+smoking-room, where he found the sandy-haired, blue-eyed man still
+sitting at his table in the corner, smoking his cigar, and looking over
+the paper. He touched him on the shoulder and whispered, in perfectly
+idiomatic German:
+
+"I thought you were a cleverer man than that, Count. Didn't I give you a
+warning? God's thunder, man. You ought to have been miles away by this
+time; haven't you a motor that would take you to Southampton in an hour,
+and put you on the last of the German liners that's leaving? You know it
+will be a shooting or a hanging matter if you're caught here. Come on
+now. My name's Castellan, and that should be good enough for you. Come
+on, now, and I'll see you safe."
+
+The name of Castellan was already well known to every German
+confidential agent, though it was not known that John Castellan had a
+brother who was a Lieutenant in the British Navy.
+
+Captain Count Karl von Eckstein got up, and took his hat down from the
+pegs, pulled on his gloves, and said deliberately:
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, Mr Castellan, for your warning, which I
+ought to have taken at first, but I hope there is still time. I will go
+and telephone for my motor at once."
+
+"Yes, come along and do it," said Castellan, catching him by the arm.
+"You haven't much time to lose, I can tell you."
+
+They went out of the smoking-room, turned to the left, and went into the
+hall. Then Castellan snatched his hand away from Eckstein's arm, took
+him by the shoulders, and pitched him forward into the middle of the
+semicircle of bluejackets, who were waiting for him, saying:
+
+"That's your man, boys. Take him down to the pinnace, and put him on
+board. I'll take the consequences, and I think the owners will, too,
+when they know the facts."
+
+Von Eckstein tried to shout, but a hand about half the size of a
+shoulder of mutton came down hard over his mouth and nose. Other hands,
+with grips like vices, picked him off his feet, and out he went, half
+stifled, along the yard, and up to the Railway Pier.
+
+"Rather summary proceedings, weren't they, Castellan?"
+
+Denis drew himself up, formally saluted his superior officer, and said,
+with a curious mixture of fun and seriousness in his voice:
+
+"That man's the most dangerous German spy in the South of England, sir,
+and all's fair in war and the other thing. We've got him. In half an
+hour he'd have been aboard a fast yacht he's got here in the harbour,
+and across to Dieppe, with a portmanteau full of plans and photographs
+of our forts that would be worth millions in men and money to the people
+we've got to fight. I can't say it here, but you know why I know."
+
+Captain Erskine nodded, and did his best to conceal an unofficial smile.
+
+"That's right, Castellan," he said. "I'll take your word for it. Get
+that chap on board, lads, as quick as you can. We'll follow at once."
+
+Ship's Corporal Sandy M'Grath, the huge Scotsman, whose great fist had
+stifled Count von Eckstein's attempt to cry out, touched his cap and
+said: "Awa' wi' him, boys," and out they went at a run. Then Erskine
+turned to Lennard, and said:
+
+"We can do all this that you've given me on board the _Ithuriel_. It
+isn't quite regular, but in consideration of this, if you like to take a
+cruise, and see your own work done, I'll take the responsibility of
+inviting you, only mind, there will probably be some fighting."
+
+Even as he spoke two deep dull bangs shook the atmosphere and the
+windows of the hotel shivered in their frames.
+
+"I'll come," said Lennard. "They seem to have begun already."
+
+"Begorra they have," said Denis Castellan, making a dash to the door.
+"Come on. If that's so, there'll be blood for supper to-night, and the
+sooner we're aboard the better."
+
+The next moment the three were outside, and sprinting for the end of the
+Railway Pier for all they were worth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FIRST BLOOD
+
+
+When they got to the end of the Railway Pier where the pinnace was lying
+panting and puffing, a Flag-Lieutenant touched his cap to Erskine, took
+him by the arm and led him aside. He took an envelope out of his pocket
+and said, in a low tone:
+
+"Here are your instructions, Erskine. They've jumped on us a bit more
+quickly than we thought they would, but the Commander-in-Chief trusts to
+you and your ship to do the needful. The position is this: one division
+of the Russian, German and Dutch fleets is making a combined attack on
+Hull and Newcastle. Two other divisions are going for the mouth of the
+Thames, and the North Sea Squadron is going to look after them. The
+French North Sea Squadron is making a rush on Dover, and will get very
+considerably pounded in the process. Two French fleets from Cherbourg
+and Brest are coming up Channel, and each of them has a screen of
+torpedo boats and destroyers. The Southern Fleet Reserve is concentrated
+here and at Portland. The Channel Fleet is outside, and we hope to get
+it in their rear, so that we'll have them between the ships and the
+forts. If we do, they'll have just about as hot a time of it as anybody
+wants.
+
+"As far as we've been able to learn, the French are going to try Togo's
+tactics at Port Arthur, and rush Portsmouth with the small craft. You'll
+find that it's your business to look after them. Sink, smash and
+generally destroy. Go for everything you see. There isn't a craft of
+ours within twenty miles outside. Good-bye, and good luck to you!"
+
+"Good-bye!" said Erskine, as they shook hands, "and if we don't come
+back, give my love to the Lords of the Admiralty and thank them for
+giving me the chance with the _Ithuriel_. Bye-bye!"
+
+Their hands gripped again and the captain of the _Ithuriel_ ran down the
+steps like a boy going to a picnic.
+
+The pinnace gave a little squeak from its siren and sped away down the
+harbour between the two forts, in which the gunners were standing by the
+new fourteen-inch wire-wound guns, whose long chases were prevented from
+drooping after continuous discharge by an ingenious application of the
+principle of the cantilever bridge, invented by the creator of the
+_Ithuriel_. In the breech-chamber of each of them was a thousand-pound
+shell, carrying a bursting charge of five hundred pounds of an explosive
+which was an improvement on blasting gelatine, and the guns were capable
+of throwing these to a distance of twelve miles with precision. They
+were the most formidable weapons either ashore or afloat.
+
+Just outside the harbour the pinnace swung round to the westward and in
+a few minutes stopped alongside the _Ithuriel_.
+
+As far as Lennard could see she was neither cruiser nor destroyer nor
+submarine, but a sort of compound of all three. She did not appear to be
+a steamer because she had no funnels. She was not exactly a submarine
+because she had a signal-mast forward and carried five long,
+ugly-looking guns, three ahead and two astern, of a type that he had
+never seen before. Forward of the mast there was a conning-tower of oval
+shape, with the lesser curves fore and aft. The breech-ends of the guns
+were covered by a long hood of steel, apparently of great thickness, and
+that was all.
+
+As soon as they got on board Erskine said to Lennard:
+
+"Come into the conning-tower with me. I believe we can make use of this
+invention of yours at once. I've got a pretty well-fitted laboratory
+down below and we might have a try. But you must excuse me a moment, I
+will just run through this."
+
+He opened the envelope containing his instructions, put them down on
+the little desk in front of him and then read a note that was enclosed
+with them.
+
+"By Jove," he said, "they're pretty quick up at headquarters. You'll
+have to excuse me a minute or two, Mr Lennard. Just stand on that side,
+will you, please? Close up, we haven't too much room here. Good-bye for
+the present."
+
+In front of the desk and above the little steering-wheel there was a
+mahogany board studded with two sets of ivory buttons, disposed in two
+lines of six each. He touched one of these, and Lennard saw him
+disappear through the floor of the conning-tower. Within a few moments
+the portion of the floor upon which he had stood returned to its place,
+and Lennard said to himself:
+
+"If the rest of her works like that, she ought to be a lovely study in
+engineering."
+
+While Captain Erskine is communicating his instructions to his second in
+command, and arranging the details of the coming fight, there will be
+time to give a brief description of the craft on board of which Lennard
+so unexpectedly found himself, and which an invention of his own was
+destined to make even more formidable than it was.
+
+To put it as briefly as possible, the _Ithuriel_ was a combination of
+destroyer, cruiser, submarine and ram, and she had cost Erskine three
+years of hard work to think out. She was three hundred feet long, fifty
+feet broad, and thirty feet from her upper keel to her deck. This was of
+course an abnormal depth for a vessel of her length, but then the
+_Ithuriel_ was quite an abnormal warship. One-third of her depth
+consisted of a sinking-chamber, protected by twelve-inch armour, and
+this chamber could be filled in a few minutes with four thousand tons of
+water. This is of course the same thing as saying she had two
+waterlines. The normal cruising line gave her a freeboard of ten feet.
+Above the sinking-tanks her vitals were protected by ten-inch armour. In
+short, as regards armour, she was an entire reversal of the ordinary
+type of warship, and she had the advantage of being impervious to
+torpedo attack. Loaded torpedoes had been fired at her and had burst
+like eggs against a wall, with no more effect than to make her heel over
+a few degrees to the other side. Submarines had attacked her and got
+their noses badly bruised in the process. It was, indeed, admitted by
+the experts of the Admiralty that under water she was impregnable.
+
+Her propelling power consisted of four sets of engines, all well below
+the waterline. Three of these drove three propellers astern: the fourth
+drove a suction screw which revolved just underneath the ram. This was a
+mass of steel weighing fifty tons and curved upwards like the inverted
+beak of an eagle. Erskine had taken this idea from the Russian
+ice-breakers which had been designed by the Russian Admiral Makaroff and
+built at Elswick. The screw was protected by a steel grating of which
+the forward protecting girder completed the curve of the stem. Aft,
+there was a similar ram, weighing thirty tons and a like protection to
+the after-screws.
+
+The driving power was derived from a combination of petrol and
+pulverised smokeless coal, treated with liquid oxygen, which made
+combustion practically perfect. There was no boilers or furnaces, only
+combustion chambers, and this fact made the carrying of the great weight
+of armour under the waterline possible. The speed of the _Ithuriel_ was
+forty-five knots ahead when all four screws were driving and pulling,
+and thirty knots astern when they were reversed. Her total capacity was
+five thousand two hundred tons.
+
+Behind the three forward guns was a dome-shaped conning-tower of
+nine-inch steel, hardened like the rest of the armour by an improvement
+on the Harvey process. Above the conning-tower were two searchlight
+projectors, both capable of throwing a clear ray to a distance of four
+miles and controlled from within the conning-tower.
+
+"Well, I am afraid I have kept you waiting, Mr Lennard," said Erskine,
+as the platform brought him up again into the conning-tower, in much
+shorter time than was necessary to make this needful description of what
+was probably the most formidable craft in the British Navy. "We're off
+now. I've fitted up half a dozen shells with that diabolical invention
+of yours. If we run across a battleship or a cruiser, we'll try them. I
+think our friends the enemy will find them somewhat of a paralyser, and
+there's nothing like beginning pretty strong."
+
+"Nothing like hitting them hard at first, and I hope that those things
+of mine will be what I think they are, and unless all my theories are
+quite wrong, I fancy you'll find them all right."
+
+"They would be the first theories of yours that have gone wrong, Mr
+Lennard," replied Erskine, "but anyhow, we shall soon see. I have put
+three of your shells in the forward guns. We'll try them there first,
+and if they're all right we'll use the other three. I've got the after
+guns loaded with my own shell, so if we come across anything big, we
+shall be able to try them against each other. At present, my
+instructions are to deal with the lighter craft only: destroyers and
+that sort of thing, you know."
+
+"But don't you fire on them?" said Lennard. "What would happen if they
+got a torpedo under you?"
+
+"Well," said Erskine, "as a matter of fact I don't think destroyers are
+worth shooting at. Our guns are meant for bigger game. But it's no good
+trying to explain things now. You'll see, pretty soon, and you'll learn
+more in half an hour than I could tell you in four hours."
+
+They were clear of the harbour by this time and running out at about ten
+knots between the two old North and South Spithead forts on the top of
+each of which one of the new fourteen-inch thousand-pounders had been
+mounted on disappearing carriages.
+
+"Now," he continued, "if we're going to find them anywhere, we shall
+find them here, or hereabouts. My orders are to smash everything that I
+can get at."
+
+"Fairly comprehensive," said Lennard.
+
+"Yes, Lennard, and it's an order that I'm going to fill. We may as well
+quicken up a bit now. You understand, Castellan is looking after the
+guns, and his sub., Mackenzie is communicating orders to my Chief
+Engineer, who looks after the speed."
+
+"And the speed?" asked Lennard.
+
+"I'll leave you to judge that when we get to business," said Erskine,
+putting his forefinger on one of the buttons on the left-hand side of
+the board as he spoke.
+
+The next moment Lennard felt the rubber-covered floor of the
+conning-tower jump under his feet. All the coast lights were
+extinguished but there was a half-moon and he saw the outlines of the
+shore slip away faster behind them. The eastern heights of the Isle of
+Wight loomed up like a cloud and dropped away astern.
+
+"Pretty fast, that," he said.
+
+"Only twenty-five knots," replied Erskine, as he gave the steering-wheel
+a very gentle movement and swung the _Ithuriel's_ head round to the
+eastward. "If these chaps are going to make a rush in the way Togo did
+at Port Arthur, they've got to do it between Selsey Bill and Nettlestone
+Point. If they're mad enough to try the other way between Round Tower
+Point and Hurst Castle, they'll get blown out of the water in very small
+pieces, so we needn't worry about them there. Our business is to keep
+them out of this side. Ah, look now, there are two or three of them
+there. See, ahead of the port bow. We'll tackle these gentlemen first."
+
+Lennard looked out through the narrow semicircular window of six-inch
+crystal glass running across the front of the conning-tower, which was
+almost as strong as steel, and saw three little dark, moving spots on
+the half-moonlit water, about two miles ahead, stealing up in line
+abreast.
+
+"Those chaps are trying to get in between the Spithead forts," said
+Erskine. "They're slowed down to almost nothing, waiting for the clouds
+to come over the moon, and then they'll make a dash for it. At least,
+they think they will. I don't."
+
+As he spoke he gave another turn to the steering-wheel and touched
+another button. The _Ithuriel_ leapt forward again and swung about three
+points to the eastward. In three minutes she was off Black Point, and
+this movement brought her into a straight line with the three
+destroyers. He gave the steering-wheel another half turn and her head
+swung round in a short quarter circle. He put his finger on to the
+bottom button on the right-hand side of the signal board and said to
+Lennard:
+
+"Hold tight now, she's going."
+
+Lennard held tight, for he felt the floor jump harder under him this
+time.
+
+In the dim light he saw the nearest of the destroyers, as it seemed to
+him, rush towards them sideways. Erskine touched another button. A
+shudder ran through the fabric of the _Ithuriel_ and her bow rose above
+five feet from the water. A couple of minutes later it hit the destroyer
+amidships, rolled her over, broke her in two like a log of wood, amidst
+a roar of crackling guns and a scream of escaping steam, went over her
+and headed for the next one.
+
+Lennard clenched his teeth and said nothing. He was thinking too hard to
+say anything just then.
+
+The second destroyer opened fire with her twelve-and six-pounders and
+dropped a couple of torpedoes as the _Ithuriel_ rushed at her. The
+_Ithuriel_ was now travelling at forty knots an hour. The torpedoes at
+thirty. The combined speed was therefore nearly a hundred statute miles
+an hour. Erskine saw the two white shapes drop into the water, their
+courses converging towards him. A half turn of the wheel to port swung
+the _Ithuriel_ out and just cleared them. It was a fairly narrow shave,
+for one of them grated along her side, but the _Ithuriel_ had no angles.
+The actual result was that one of the torpedoes deflected from its
+course, hit the other one and both exploded. A mountain of foam-crowned
+water rose up and the commander of the French destroyer congratulated
+himself on the annihilation of at least one of the English warships, but
+the next moment the grey-blue, almost invisible shape of the _Ithuriel_
+leapt up out of the semi-darkness, and her long pointed ram struck
+amidships, cut him down to the waterline, and almost before the two
+halves of his vessel had sunk the same fate had befallen the third
+destroyer.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" said Erskine, as he touched a couple
+more buttons and the _Ithuriel_ swung round to the eastward again.
+
+"Well," said Lennard, slowly, "of course it's war, and those fellows
+were coming in to do all the damage they could. But it is just a bit
+terrible, for all that. It's just seven minutes since you rammed the
+first boat: you haven't fired a shot and there are three big destroyers
+and I suppose three hundred and fifty men at the bottom of the sea.
+Pretty awful, you know."
+
+"My dear sir," replied Erskine, without looking round, "all war is awful
+and entirely horrible, and naval war is of course the most horrible of
+all. There is no chance for the defeated: my orders do not even allow me
+to pick up a man from one of those vessels. On the other hand, one must
+remember that if one of those destroyers had got in, they could have let
+go half a dozen torpedoes apiece among the ships of the Fleet Reserve,
+and perhaps half a dozen ships and five or six thousand men might have
+been at the bottom of the Solent by this time, and those torpedoes
+wouldn't have had any sentiment in them. Hallo, there's another!"
+
+A long, black shape surmounted by a signal-mast and four funnels slid up
+and out of the darkness into a patch of moonlight lying on the water.
+Erskine gave a quarter turn to the wheel and touched the two buttons
+again. The _Ithuriel_ swung round and ran down on her prey. The two
+fifteen-and the six twelve-pounder guns ahead and astern and on the
+broadside of the destroyer crackled out and a hail of shells came
+whistling across the water. A few of them struck the _Ithuriel_, glanced
+off and exploded.
+
+"There," said Erskine, "they've knocked some of our nice new paint off.
+Now they're going to pay for it."
+
+"Couldn't you give them a shot back?" said Lennard.
+
+"Not worth it, my dear sir," said Erskine. "We keep our guns for bigger
+game. We haven't an angle that a shell would hit. You might just as well
+fire boiled peas at a hippopotamus as those little things at us. Of
+course a big shell square amidships would hurt us, but then she's so
+handy that I think I could stop it hitting her straight."
+
+While he was speaking the _Ithuriel_ got up to full speed again. Lennard
+shut his eyes. He felt a slight shock, and then a dull grinding. A crash
+of guns and a roar of escaping steam, and when he looked out again, the
+destroyer had disappeared. The next moment a blinding glare of light
+streamed across the water from the direction of Selsey.
+
+"A big cruiser, or battleship," said Erskine. "French or German. Now
+we'll see what those shells of yours are made of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS
+
+
+A huge, black shape loomed up into the moonlight. As she came nearer
+Lennard could see that the vessel carried a big mast forward with a
+fighting-top, two funnels a little aft of it, and two other funnels a
+few feet forward of the after mast.
+
+Erskine put his glasses up to his eyes and said:
+
+"That's the _Dupleix_, one of the improved _Desaix_ class. Steams
+twenty-four knots. I suppose she's been shepherding those destroyers
+that we've just finished with. I hope she hasn't seen what happened. If
+she thinks that they've got in all right, we've got her. She has a heavy
+fore and aft and broadside gunfire, two 6.4 guns ahead and astern and
+amidships, in pairs, and as I suppose they'll be using melinite shells,
+we shall get fits unless we take them unawares."
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Lennard.
+
+"Show you in a minute," answered Erskine, touching three or four of the
+buttons on the right-hand side as he spoke.
+
+Another shudder ran through the frame of the _Ithuriel_ and Lennard felt
+the deck sink under his feet. If he hadn't had as good a head on him as
+he had, he would have said something, for the _Ithuriel_ sank until her
+decks were almost awash. She jumped forward again now almost invisible,
+and circled round to the south eastward. A big cloud drifted across the
+moon and Erskine said:
+
+"Thank God for that! We shall get her now."
+
+Another quarter turn of the wheel brought the _Ithuriel's_ head at
+right angles to the French cruiser's broadside. He took the transmitter
+of the telephone down from the hooks and said:
+
+"Are you there, Castellan?"
+
+"Yes. What's that big thing ahead there?"
+
+"It's the _Dupleix_. Ready with your forward guns. I'm going to fire
+first, then ram. Stand by, centre first, then starboard and port, and
+keep your eye on them. These are Mr Lennard's shells and we want to see
+what they'll do. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes. When you like."
+
+"Half speed, then, and tell Mackenzie to stand by and order full speed
+when I give the word. We shall want it in a jump."
+
+"Very good, sir. Is that all?"
+
+"Yes, that's all."
+
+Erskine put the receiver back on the hooks.
+
+"That's it. Now we'll try your shells. If they're what I think they are,
+we'll smash that fellow's top works into scrap-iron, and then we'll go
+for him."
+
+"I think I see," said Lennard, "that's why you've half submerged her."
+
+"Yes. The _Ithuriel_ is designed to deal with both light and heavy
+craft. With the light ones, as you have seen, she just walked over them.
+Now, we've got something bigger to tackle, and if everything goes right
+that ship will be at the bottom of the sea in five minutes."
+
+"Horrible," replied Lennard, "but I suppose it's necessary."
+
+"Absolutely," said Erskine, taking the receiver down from the hooks. "If
+we didn't do it with them, they'd do it with us. That's war."
+
+Lennard made no reply. He was looking hard at the now rapidly
+approaching shape of the big French cruiser, and when men are thinking
+hard, they don't usually say much.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ completed her quarter-circle and dead head on to the
+_Dupleix_, Erskine said, "Centre gun ready, forward--fire. Port and
+starboard concentrate--fire."
+
+There was no report--only a low, hissing sound--and then Lennard saw
+three flashes of bluish-green blaze out over the French cruiser.
+
+"Hit her! I think those shells of yours got home," said Erskine between
+his clenched teeth. And then he added through the telephone, "Well
+aimed, Castellan! They all got there. Load up again--three more shots
+and I'm going to ram--quick now, and full speed ahead when you've
+fired."
+
+"All ready!" came back over the telephone, "I've told Mackenzie that
+you'll want it."
+
+"Good man," replied Erskine. "When I touch the button, you do the rest.
+Now--are you ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Let her have it--then full speed. Ah," Erskine continued, turning to
+Lennard, "he's shooting back."
+
+The cruiser burst into a thunderstorm of smoke and flame and shell, but
+there was nothing to shoot at. Only three feet of freeboard would have
+been visible even in broad daylight. The signal mast had been
+telescoped. There was nothing but the deck, the guns and the
+conning-tower to be seen. The shells screamed through the air a good ten
+feet over her and incidentally wrecked the Marine Hotel on Selsey Bill.
+
+Erskine pressed the top button on the right-hand side three times. The
+smokeless, nameless guns spoke again, and again the three flashes of
+blue-green flame broke out on the Frenchman's decks.
+
+"Good enough," said Erskine, taking the transmitter down from the hooks
+again. "Now, Mr Lennard, just come for'ard and watch."
+
+Lennard crept up beside him and took the glasses.
+
+"Down guns--full speed ahead--going to ram," said Erskine, quietly, into
+the telephone.
+
+To his utter astonishment, Lennard saw the three big guns sink down
+under the deck and the steel hoods move forward and cover the
+emplacements. The floor of the conning-tower jumped under his feet again
+and the huge shape of the French cruiser seemed to rush towards him.
+There was a roar of artillery, a thunder of 6.4 guns, a crash of
+bursting shells, a shudder and a shock, and the fifty-ton ram of the
+_Ithuriel_ hit her forward of the conning-tower and went through the
+two-inch armour belt as a knife would go through a piece of paper. The
+big cruiser stopped as an animal on land does, struck by a bullet in its
+vitals, or a whale when the lance is driven home. Half her officers and
+men were lying about the decks asphyxiated by Lennard's shells. The
+after barbette swung round, and at the same moment, or perhaps half a
+minute before, Erskine touched two other buttons in rapid succession.
+The _Dupleix_ lurched down on the starboard side, the two big guns went
+off and hit the water. Erskine touched another button, and the
+_Ithuriel_ ran back from her victim. A minute later the French cruiser
+heeled over and sank.
+
+"Good God, how did you do that?" said Lennard, looking round at him with
+eyes rather more wide open than usual.
+
+"That's the effect of the suction screw," replied Erskine. "I got the
+idea from the Russian ice-breaker, the _Yermack_. The old idea was just
+main strength and stupidity, charge the ice and break through if you
+could. The better idea was to suck the water away from under the ice and
+go over it--that's what we've done. I rammed that chap, pulled the water
+away from under him, and, of course, he's gone down."
+
+He gave the wheel a quarter-turn to starboard, took down the transmitter
+and said: "Full speed again--in two minutes, three quarters and then
+half."
+
+"But surely," exclaimed Lennard, "you can do something to help those
+poor fellows. Are you going to leave them all to drown?"
+
+"I have no orders, except to sink and destroy," replied Erskine between
+his teeth. "You must remember that this is a war of one country against
+a continent, and of one fleet against four. Ah, there's another! A
+third-class cruiser--I think I know her, she's the old _Leger_--they
+must have thought they had an easy job of it if they sent her here. Low
+free board, not worth shooting at. We'll go over her. No armour--what
+idiots they are to put a thing like that into the fighting line!"
+
+He took the transmitter down and said:
+
+"Stand by there, Castellan! Get your pumps to work, and I shall want
+full speed ahead--I'm going to run that old croak down--hurry up."
+
+He put the transmitter back on the hooks and presently Lennard saw the
+bows of the _Ithuriel_ rise quickly out of the water. The doomed vessel
+in front of them was a long, low-lying French torpedo-catcher, with one
+big funnel between two signal-masts, hopelessly out of date, and
+evidently intended only to go in and take her share of the spoils.
+Erskine switched off the searchlight, called for full speed ahead and
+then with clenched teeth and set eyes, he sent the _Ithuriel_ flying at
+her victim.
+
+Within five minutes it was all over. The fifty-ton ram rose over the
+_Leger's_ side, crushed it down into the water, ground its way through
+her, cut her in half and went on.
+
+"That ship ought to have been on the scrap-heap ten years ago," said
+Erskine as he signalled for half-speed and swung the _Ithuriel_ round to
+the westward.
+
+"She's got a scrap-heap all to herself now, I suppose," said Lennard,
+with a bit of a check in his voice. "I've no doubt, as you say, this
+sort of thing may be necessary, but my personal opinion of it is that
+it's damnable."
+
+"Exactly my opinion too," said Erskine, "but it has to be done."
+
+The next instant, Lennard heard a sound such as he had never heard
+before. It was a smothered rumble which seemed to come out of the
+depths, then there came a shock which flung him off his feet, and shot
+him against the opposite wall of the conning-tower. The _Ithuriel_
+heeled over to port, a huge volume of water rose on her starboard side
+and burst into a torrent over her decks, then she righted.
+
+Erskine, holding on hard to the iron table to which the signalling board
+was bolted, saved himself from a fall.
+
+"I hope you're not hurt, Mr Lennard," said he, looking round, "that was
+a submarine. Let a torpedo go at us, I suppose, and didn't know they
+were hitting twelve-inch armour."
+
+"It's all right," said Lennard, picking himself up. "Only a bruise or
+two; nothing broken. It seems to me that this new naval warfare of yours
+is going to get a bit exciting."
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, "I think it is. Halloa, Great Caesar! That must be
+that infernal invention of Castellan's brother's; the thing he sold to
+the Germans--the sweep!"
+
+As he spoke a grey shape leapt up out of the water and began to circle
+over the _Ithuriel_. He snatched the transmitter from the hooks, and
+said, in quick, clear tones:
+
+"Castellan--sink--quick, quick as you can."
+
+The pumps of the _Ithuriel_ worked furiously the next moment. Lennard
+held his breath as he saw the waves rise up over the decks.
+
+"Full speed ahead again, and dive," said Erskine into the transmitter.
+"Hold tight, Lennard."
+
+The floor of the conning-tower took an angle of about sixty degrees, and
+Lennard gripped the holdfasts, of which there were two on each wall of
+the tower. He heard a rush of overwhelming waters--then came darkness.
+The _Ithuriel_ rushed forward at her highest speed. Then something hit
+the sea, and a quick succession of shocks sent a shudder through the
+vessel.
+
+"I thought so," said Erskine. "That's John Castellan's combined airship
+and submarine right enough, and that was an aerial torpedo. If it had
+hit us when we were above water, we should have been where those French
+chaps are now. You're quite right, this sort of naval warfare is getting
+rather exciting."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FIRST BLOWS FROM THE AIR
+
+
+The _Flying Fish_, the prototype of the extraordinary craft which played
+such a terrible part in the invasion of England, was a magnified
+reproduction, with improvements which suggested themselves during
+construction, of the model whose performances had so astonished the
+Kaiser at Potsdam. She was shaped exactly like her namesake of the deep,
+upon which, indeed, her inventor had modelled her. She was one hundred
+and fifty feet long and twenty feet broad by twenty-five feet deep in
+her widest part, which, as she was fish-shaped, was considerably forward
+of her centre.
+
+She was built of a newly-discovered compound, something like
+papier-mache, as hard and rigid as steel, with only about one-tenth the
+weight. Her engines were of the simplest description in spite of the
+fact that they developed enormous power. They consisted merely of
+cylinders into which, by an automatic mechanism, two drops of liquid
+were brought every second. These liquids when joined produced a gas of
+enormously expansive power, more than a hundred times that of steam,
+which actuated the pistons. There were sixteen of these cylinders, and
+the pistons all connected with a small engine invented by Castellan,
+which he called an accelerator. By means of this device he could
+regulate the speed of the propellers which drove the vessel under water
+and in the air from sixty up to two thousand revolutions a minute.
+
+The _Flying Fish_ was driven by nine propellers, three of these,
+four-bladed and six feet diameter, revolved a little forward amidships
+on either side under what might be called the fins. These fins collapsed
+close against the sides of the vessel when under water and expanded to a
+spread of twenty feet when she took the air. They worked on a pivot and
+could be inclined either way from the horizontal to an angle of thirty
+degrees. Midway between the end of these and the stern was a smaller
+pair with one driving screw. The eighth screw was an ordinary propeller
+at the stern, but the outside portion of the shaft worked on a ball and
+socket joint so that it could be used for both steering and driving
+purposes. It was in fact the tail of the _Flying Fish_. Steering in the
+air was effected by means of a vertical fin placed right aft.
+
+She was submerged as the _Ithuriel_ was, by pumping water into the lower
+part of her hull. When these chambers were empty she floated like a
+cork. The difference between swimming and flying was merely the
+difference between the revolutions of the screws and the inclination of
+the fins. A thousand raised her from the water: twelve hundred gave her
+twenty-five or thirty miles an hour through the air: fifteen hundred
+gave her fifty, and two thousand gave her eighty to a hundred, according
+to the state of the atmosphere.
+
+Her armament consisted of four torpedo tubes which swung at any angle
+from the horizontal to the vertical and so were capable of use both
+under water and in the air. They discharged a small,
+insignificant-looking torpedo containing twenty pounds of an explosive,
+discovered almost accidentally by Castellan and known only to himself,
+the German Emperor, the Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief. It was
+this which he had used in tiny quantities in the experiment at Potsdam.
+Its action was so terrific that it did not rend or crack metal or stone
+which it struck. It overcame the chemical forces by which the substance
+was held together and reduced them to gas and powder.
+
+And now, after this somewhat formal but necessary description of the
+most destructive fighting-machine ever created we can proceed with the
+story.
+
+There were twenty _Flying Fishes_ attached to the Allied Forces, all of
+them under the command of German engineers, with the exception of the
+original _Flying Fish_. Two of these were attached to the three
+squadrons which were attacking Hull, Newcastle and Dover: three had been
+detailed for the attack on Portsmouth: two more to Plymouth, two to
+Bristol and Liverpool respectively, on which combined cruiser and
+torpedo attacks were to be made, and two supported by a small swift
+cruiser and torpedo flotilla for an assault on Cardiff, in order if
+possible to terrorise that city into submission and so obtain what may
+be called the life-blood of a modern navy. The rest, in case of
+accidents to any of these, were reserved for the final attack on London.
+
+When the _Ithuriel_ disappeared and his torpedo struck a piece of
+floating wreckage and exploded with a terrific shock, John Castellan,
+standing in the conning-tower directing the movements of the _Flying
+Fish_, naturally concluded that he had destroyed a British submarine
+scout. He knew of the existence, but nothing of the real powers of the
+_Ithuriel_. The only foreigner who knew that was Captain Count Karl von
+Eckstein, and he was locked safely in a cabin on board her.
+
+He had been searching the under-waters between Nettlestone Point and
+Hayling Island for hours on the look-out for British submarines and
+torpedo scouts, and had found nothing, therefore he was ignorant of the
+destruction which the _Ithuriel_ had already wrought, and as, of course,
+he had heard no firing under the water, he believed that the three
+destroyers supported by the _Dupleix_ and _Leger_ had succeeded in
+slipping through the entrance to Spithead.
+
+He knew that a second flotilla of six destroyers with three swift
+second-class cruisers were following in to complete the work, which by
+this time should have begun, and that after them came the main French
+squadron, consisting of six first-class battleships with a screen of ten
+first and five second-class cruisers, the work of which would be to
+maintain a blockade against any relieving force, after the submarines
+and destroyers had sunk and crippled the ships of the Fleet Reserve and
+cut the connections of the contact mines.
+
+He knew also that the _See Adler_, which was _Flying Fish II._, was
+waiting about the Needles to attack Hurst Castle and the forts on the
+Isle of Wight side, preparatory to a rush of two battleships and three
+cruisers through the narrows, while another was lurking under Hayling
+Island ready to take the air and rain destruction on the forts of
+Portsmouth before the fight became general.
+
+What thoroughly surprised him, however, was the absolute silence and
+inaction of the British. True, two shots had been fired, but whether
+from fort or warship, and with what intent, he hadn't the remotest
+notion. The hour arranged upon for the general assault was fast
+approaching. The British must be aware that an attack would be made, and
+yet there was not so much as a second-class torpedo boat to be seen
+outside Spithead. This puzzled him, so he decided to go and investigate
+for himself. He took up a speaking-tube and said to his Lieutenant,
+M'Carthy--one of too many renegade Irishmen who in the terrible times
+that were to come joined their country's enemies as Lynch and his
+traitors had done in the Boer War:
+
+"I don't quite make it out, M'Carthy. We'll go down and get under--it's
+about time the fun began--and I haven't heard a shot fired or seen an
+English ship except that submarine we smashed. My orders are for twelve
+o'clock, and I'm going to obey them."
+
+There was one more device on board the _Flying Fish_ which should be
+described in order that her wonderful manoeuvering under water may be
+understood. Just in front of the steering-wheel in the conning-tower was
+a square glass box measuring a foot in the side, and in the centre of
+this, attached to top and bottom by slender films of asbestos, was a
+needle ten inches long, so hung that it could turn and dip in any
+direction. The forward half of this needle was made of highly magnetised
+steel, and the other of aluminium which exactly counter-balanced it. The
+glass case was completely insulated and therefore the extremely
+sensitive needle was unaffected by any of the steel parts used in the
+construction of the vessel. But let any other vessel, save of course a
+wooden ship, come within a thousand yards, the needle began to tremble
+and sway, and the nearer the _Flying Fish_ approached it, the steadier
+it became and the more directly it pointed towards the object. If the
+vessel was on the surface, it of course pointed upward: if it was a
+submarine, it pointed either level or downwards with unerring precision.
+This needle was, in fact, the eyes of the _Flying Fish_ when she was
+under water.
+
+Castellan swung her head round to the north-west and dropped gently on
+to the water about midway between Selsey Bill and the Isle of Wight.
+Then the _Flying Fish_ folded her wings and sank to a depth of twenty
+feet. Then, at a speed of ten knots, she worked her way in a zigzag
+course back and forth across the narrowing waters, up the channel
+towards Portsmouth.
+
+To his surprise, the needle remained steady, showing that there was
+neither submarine nor torpedo boat near. This meant, as far as he could
+see, that the main approach to the greatest naval fortress in England
+had been left unguarded, a fact so extraordinary as to be exceedingly
+suspicious. His water-ray apparatus, a recent development of the X-rays
+which enabled him to see under water for a distance of fifty yards, had
+detected no contact mines, and yet Spithead ought to be enstrewn with
+them, just as it ought to have been swarming with submarines and
+destroyers. There must be some deep meaning to such apparently
+incomprehensible neglect, but what was it?
+
+If his brother Denis had not happened to recognise Captain Count Karl
+von Eckstein and haled him so unceremoniously on board the _Ithuriel_,
+and if his portmanteau full of papers had been got on board a French
+warship, instead of being left for the inspection of the British
+Admiralty, that reason would have been made very plain to him.
+
+Completely mystified, and fearing that either he was going into some
+trap or that some unforeseen disaster had happened, he swung round, ran
+out past the forts and rose into the air again. When he had reached the
+height of about a thousand feet, three rockets rose into the air and
+burst into three showers of stars, one red, one white, and the other
+blue. It was the Tricolour in the air, and the signal from the French
+Admiral to commence the attack. Castellan's orders were to cripple or
+sink the battleships of the Reserve Fleet which was moored in two
+divisions in Spithead and the Solent.
+
+The Spithead Division lay in column of line abreast between Gilkicker
+Point and Ryde Pier. It consisted of the _Formidable_, _Irresistible_,
+_Implacable_, _Majestic_ and _Magnificent_, and the cruisers _Hogue_,
+_Sutlej_, _Ariadne_, _Argonaut_, _Diadem_ and _Hawke_. The western
+Division consisted of the battleships _Prince George_, _Victoria_,
+_Jupiter_, _Mars_ and _Hannibal_, and the cruisers _Amphitrite_,
+_Spartiate_, _Andromeda_, _Europa_, _Niobe_, _Blenheim_ and _Blake_.
+
+It had of course been perfectly easy for Castellan to mark the position
+of the two squadrons from the air, and he knew that though they were
+comparatively old vessels they were quite powerful enough, with the
+assistance of the shore batteries, to hold even Admiral Durenne's
+splendid fleet until the Channel Fleet, which for the time being seemed
+to have vanished from the face of the waters, came up and took the
+French in the rear.
+
+In such a case, the finest fleet of France would be like a nut in a
+vice, and that was the reason for the remorseless orders which had been
+given to him, orders which he was prepared to carry out to the letter,
+in spite of the appalling loss of life which they entailed; for, as the
+_Flying Fish_ sank down into the water, he thought of that swimming race
+in Clifden Bay and of the girl whose marriage with himself, willing or
+unwilling, was to be one of the terms of peace when the British Navy lay
+shattered round her shores, and the millions of the Leagued Nations had
+trampled the land forces of Britain into submission.
+
+Just as she touched the water a brilliant flash of pink flame leapt up
+from the eastern fort on the Hillsea Lines, followed by a sharp crash
+which shook the atmosphere. A thin ray of light fell from the clouds,
+then came a quick succession of flashes moving in the direction of the
+great fort on Portsdown, until two rose in quick succession from
+Portsdown itself, and almost at the same moment another from Hurst
+Castle, and yet another from the direction of Fort Victoria.
+
+"God bless my soul, what's that?" exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief,
+Admiral Sir Compton Domville, who had just completed his final
+inspection of the defences of Portsmouth Harbour, and was standing on
+the roof of Southsea Castle, taking a general look round before going
+back to headquarters. "Here, Markham," he said, turning to the Commander
+of the Fort, "just telephone up to Portsdown at once and ask them what
+they're up to."
+
+An orderly instantly dived below to the telephone room. The Fort
+Commander took Sir Compton aside and said in a low voice:
+
+"I am afraid, sir, that the forts are being attacked from the air."
+
+"What's that?" replied Sir Compton, with a start. "Do you mean that
+infernal thing that Erskine and Castellan and the watch of the
+_Cormorant_ saw in the North Sea?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply. "There is no reason why the enemy should not
+possess a whole fleet of these craft by this time, and naturally they
+would act in concert with the attack of the French Fleet. I've heard
+rumours of a terrible new explosive they've got, too, which shatters
+steel into splinters and poisons everyone within a dozen yards of it. If
+that's true and they're dropping it on the forts, they'll probably smash
+the guns as well. For heaven's sake, sir, let me beg of you to go back
+at once to headquarters! It will probably be our turn next. You will be
+safe there, for they're not likely to waste their shells on Government
+buildings."
+
+"Well, I suppose I shall be of more use there," growled Sir Compton.
+
+At this moment the orderly returned, looking rather scared. He saluted
+and said:
+
+"If you please, sir, they've tried Portsdown and all the Hillsea forts
+and can't get an answer."
+
+"Good heavens!" said the Commander-in-Chief, "that looks almost as if
+you were right, Markham. Signal to Squadron A to up-anchor at once and
+telephone to Squadron B to do the same. Telephone Gilkicker to turn all
+searchlights on. Now I must be off and have a talk with General
+Hamilton."
+
+He ran down to his pinnace and went away full speed for the harbour, but
+before he reached the pier another flash burst out from the direction of
+Fort Gilkicker, followed by a terrific roar. To those standing on the
+top of Southsea Castle the fort seemed turned into a volcano, spouting
+flame and clouds of smoke, in the midst of which they could see for an
+instant whirling shapes, most of which would probably be the remains of
+the gallant defenders, hurled into eternity before they had a chance of
+firing a shot at the invaders. The huge guns roared for the first and
+last time in the war, and the great projectiles plunged aimlessly among
+the ships of the squadron, carrying wreck and ruin along the line.
+
+"Our turn now, I suppose," said the Fort Commander, quietly, as he
+looked up and by a chance gleam of moonlight through the breaking clouds
+saw a dim grey, winged shape drift across the harbour entrance.
+
+They were the last words he ever spoke, for the next moment the roof
+crumbled under his feet, and his body was scattered in fragments through
+the air, and in that moment Portsmouth had ceased to be a fortified
+stronghold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE TWO SQUADRONS
+
+
+It takes a good deal to shake the nerves of British naval officer or
+seaman, but those on board the ships of the Spithead Squadron would have
+been something more than human if they could have viewed the appalling
+happenings of the last few terrible minutes with their accustomed
+coolness. They were ready to fight anything on the face of the waters or
+under them, but an enemy in the air who could rain down shells, a couple
+of which were sufficient to destroy the most powerful forts in the
+world, and who could not be hit back, was another matter. It was a
+bitter truth, but there was no denying it. The events of the last ten
+years had clearly proved that a day must come when the flying machine
+would be used as an engine of war, and now that day had come--and the
+fighting flying machine was in the hands of the enemy.
+
+The anchors were torn from the ground, signals were flashed from the
+flagship, the _Prince George_, and within four minutes the squadron was
+under way to the south-eastward. After what had happened the Admiral in
+command promptly and rightly decided that to keep his ships cramped up
+in the narrow waters was only to court further disaster. His place was
+now the open sea, and a general fleet action offered the only means of
+preventing an occupation of almost defenceless Portsmouth, and the
+landing of hostile troops in the very heart of England's southern
+defences.
+
+Fifteen first-class torpedo boats and ten destroyers ran out from the
+Hampshire and Isle of Wight coasts, ran through the ships, and spread
+themselves out in a wide curve ahead, and at the same time twenty
+submarines crept out from the harbour and set to work laying contact
+mines in the appointed fields across the harbour mouth and from shore to
+shore behind the Spithead forts.
+
+But the squadron had not steamed a mile beyond the forts before a series
+of frightful disasters overtook them. First, a huge column of water rose
+under the stern of the _Jupiter_. The great ship stopped and shuddered
+like a stricken animal, and began to settle down stern first. Instantly
+the _Mars_ and _Victorious_ which were on either side of her slowed
+down, their boats splashed into the water and set to work to rescue
+those who managed to get clear of the sinking ship.
+
+But even while this was being done, the _Banshee_, the _Flying Fish_
+which had destroyed the forts, had taken up her position a thousand feet
+above the doomed squadron. A shell dropped upon the deck of the
+_Spartiate_, almost amidships. The pink flash blazed out between her two
+midship funnels. They crumpled up as if they had been made of brown
+paper. The six-inch armoured casemates on either side seemed to crumble
+away. The four-inch steel deck gaped and split as though it had been
+made of matchboard. Then the _Banshee_ dropped to within five hundred
+feet and let go another shell almost in the same place. A terrific
+explosion burst out in the very vitals of the stricken ship, and the
+great cruiser seemed to split asunder. A vast volume of mingled smoke
+and flame and steam rose up, and when it rolled away, the _Spartiate_
+had almost vanished.
+
+But that was the last act of destruction that the _Banshee_ was destined
+to accomplish. That moment the moon sailed out into a patch of clear
+sky. Every eye in the squadron was turned upward. There was the airship
+plainly visible. Her captain instantly saw his danger and quickened up
+his engines, but it was too late. He was followed by a hurricane of
+shells from the three-pound quick-firers in the upper tops of the
+battleships. Then came an explosion in mid-air which seemed to shake the
+very firmament itself. She had fifty or sixty of the terrible shells
+which had wrought so much havoc on board, and as a dozen shells pierced
+her hull and burst, they too exploded with the shock. A vast blaze of
+pink flame shone out.
+
+"Talk about going to glory in a blue flame," said Seaman Gunner
+Tompkins, who had aimed one of the guns in the fore-top of the
+_Hannibal_, and of course, like everybody else, piously believed that
+his was one of the shells that got there. "That chap's gone to t'other
+place in a red'un. War's war, but I don't hold with that sort of
+fighting; it doesn't give a man a chance. Torpedoes is bad enough, Gawd
+knows--"
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth when a shock and a shudder ran
+through the mighty fabric of the battleship. The water rose in a
+foam-clad mountain under her starboard quarter. She heeled over to port,
+and then rolled back to starboard and began to settle.
+
+"Torpedoed, by George! What did I tell you?" gasped Gunner Tompkins. The
+next moment a lurch of the ship hurled him and his mates far out into
+the water.
+
+Even as his ship went down, Captain Barclay managed to signal to the
+other ships, "Don't wait--get out." And when her shattered hull rested
+on the bottom, the gallant signal was still flying from the upper yard.
+
+It was obvious that the one chance of escaping their terrible unseen foe
+was to obey the signal. By this time crowds of small craft of every
+description had come off from both shores to the rescue of those who had
+gone down with the ships, so the Admiral did what was the most practical
+thing to do under the circumstances--he dropped his own boats, each with
+a crew, and ordered the _Victorious_ and _Mars_ to do the same, and then
+gave the signal for full speed ahead. The great engines panted and
+throbbed, and the squadron moved forward with ever-increasing speed, the
+cruisers and destroyers, according to signal, running ahead of the
+battleships; but before full speed was reached, the _Mars_ was struck
+under the stern, stopped, shuddered, and went down with a mighty lurch.
+
+This last misfortune convinced the Admiral that the destruction of his
+battleships could not be the work of any ordinary submarine, for at the
+time the _Mars_ was struck she was steaming fifteen knots and the
+underwater speed of the best submarine was only twelve, saving only the
+_Ithuriel_, and she did not use torpedoes. The two remaining battleships
+had now reached seventeen knots, which was their best speed. The
+cruisers and their consorts were already disappearing round Foreland.
+
+There was some hope that they might escape the assaults of the
+mysterious and invisible enemy now that the airship had been destroyed,
+but unless the submarine had exhausted her torpedoes, or some accident
+had happened to her, there was very little for the _Prince George_ and
+the _Victorious_, and so it turned out. Castellan's strict orders had
+been to confine his attentions to the battleships, and he obeyed his
+pitiless instructions to the letter. First the _Victorious_ and then the
+flagship, smitten by an unseen and irresistible bolt in their weakest
+parts, succumbed to the great gaping wounds torn in the thin
+under-plating, reeled once or twice to and fro like leviathans
+struggling for life, and went down. And so for the time being, at least,
+ended the awful work of the _Flying Fish_.
+
+Leaving the cruisers and smaller craft to continue their dash for the
+open Channel, we must now look westward.
+
+When Vice-Admiral Codrington, who was flying his flag on the
+_Irresistible_, saw the flashes along the Hillsea ridge and Portsdown
+height and heard the roar of the explosions, he at once up-anchor and
+got his squadron under way. Then came the appallingly swift destruction
+of Hurst Castle and Fort Victoria. Like all good sailors, he was a man
+of instant decision. His orders were to guard the entrance to the
+Solent, and the destruction of the forts made it impossible for him to
+do this inside. How that destruction had been wrought, he had of course
+no idea, beyond a guess that the destroying agent must have come from
+the air, since it could not have come from sea or land without provoking
+a very vigorous reply from the forts. Instead of that they had simply
+blown up without firing a shot.
+
+He therefore decided to steam out through the narrow channel between
+Hurst Castle and the Isle of Wight as quickly as possible.
+
+It was a risky thing to do at night and at full speed, for the Channel
+and the entrance to it was strewn with contact mines, but one of the
+principal businesses of the British Navy is to take risks where
+necessary, so he put his own ship at the head of the long line, and with
+a mine chart in front of him went ahead at eighteen knots.
+
+When Captain Adolph Frenkel, who was in command of the _See Adler_, saw
+the column of warships twining and wriggling its way out through the
+Channel, each ship handled with consummate skill and keeping its
+position exactly, he could not repress an admiring "Ach!" Still it was
+not his business to admire, but destroy.
+
+He rose to a thousand feet, swung round to the north-eastward until the
+whole line had passed beneath him, and then quickened up and dropped to
+seven hundred feet, swung round again and crept up over the _Hogue_,
+which was bringing up the rear. When he was just over her fore part, he
+let go a shell, which dropped between the conning-tower and the forward
+barbette.
+
+The navigating bridge vanished; the twelve-inch armoured conning-tower
+cracked like an eggshell; the barbette collapsed like the crust of a
+loaf, and the big 9.2 gun lurched backwards and lay with its muzzle
+staring helplessly at the clouds. The deck crumpled up as though it had
+been burnt parchment, and the ammunition for the 9.2 and the forward
+six-inch guns which had been placed ready for action exploded, blowing
+the whole of the upper forepart of the vessel into scrap-iron.
+
+But an even worse disaster than this was to befall the great
+twelve-thousand-ton cruiser. Her steering gear was, of course,
+shattered. Uncontrolled and uncontrollable, she swung swiftly round to
+starboard, struck a mine, and inside three minutes she was lying on the
+mud.
+
+Almost at the moment of the first explosion, the beams of twenty
+searchlights leapt up into the air, and in the midst of the broad white
+glare hundreds of keen angry eyes saw a winged shape darting up into the
+air, heading southward as though it would cross the Isle of Wight over
+Yarmouth. Almost simultaneously, every gun from the tops of the
+battleships spoke, and a storm of shells rent the air.
+
+But Captain Frenkel had already seen his mistake. The _See Adler's_
+wings were inclined at an angle of twenty degrees, her propellers were
+revolving at their utmost velocity, and at a speed of nearly a hundred
+miles an hour, she took the Isle of Wight in a leap. She slowed down
+rapidly over Freshwater Bay. Captain Frenkel took a careful observation
+of the position and course of the squadron, dropped into the water,
+folded his wings and crept round the Needles with his conning-tower just
+awash, and lay in wait for his prey about two miles off the Needles.
+
+The huge black hull of the _Irresistible_ was only a couple of hundred
+yards away. He instantly sank and turned on his water-ray. As the
+flagship passed within forty yards he let go his first torpedo. It hit
+her sternpost, smashed her rudder and propellers, and tore a great hole
+in her run. The steel monster stopped, shuddered, and slid sternward
+with her mighty ram high in the air into the depths of the smooth grey
+sea.
+
+There is no need to repeat the ghastly story which has already been
+told--the story of the swift and pitiless destruction of these miracles
+of human skill, huge in size and mighty in armament and manned by the
+bravest men on land or sea, by a foe puny in size but of awful
+potentiality. It was a fight, if fight it could be called, between the
+visible and the invisible, and it could only have one end. Battleship
+after battleship received her death-wound, and went down without being
+able to fire a shot in defence, until the _Magnificent_, smitten in the
+side under her boilers, blew up and sank amidst a cloud of steam and
+foam, and the Western Squadron had met the fate of the Eastern.
+
+While this tragedy was being enacted, the cruisers scattered in all
+directions and headed for the open at their highest speed. It was a
+bitter necessity, and it was bitterly felt by every man and boy on board
+them; but the captains knew that to stop and attempt the rescue of even
+some of their comrades meant losing the ships which it was their duty at
+all costs to preserve, and so they took the only possible chance to
+escape from this terrible unseen foe which struck out of the silence and
+the darkness with such awful effect.
+
+But despite the tremendous disaster which had befallen the Reserve
+Fleet, the work of death and destruction was by no means all on one
+side. When he sank the _Leger_, Erskine had done a great deal more
+damage to the enemy than he knew, for she had been sent not for fighting
+purposes, but as a depot ship for the _Flying Fishes_, from which they
+could renew their torpedoes and the gas cylinders which furnished their
+driving power. Being a light craft, she was to take up an agreed
+position off Bracklesham Bay three miles to the north-west of Selsey
+Bill, the loneliest and shallowest part of the coast, with all lights
+out, ready to supply all that was wanted or to make any repairs that
+might be necessary. Her sinking, therefore, deprived John Castellan's
+craft of their base.
+
+After the _Dupleix_ had gone down, the _Ithuriel_ rose again, and
+Erskine said to Lennard:
+
+"There must be more of them outside, they wouldn't be such fools as to
+rush Portsmouth with three destroyers and a couple of cruisers. We'd
+better go on and reconnoitre."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran out south-eastward at twenty knots in a series of
+broad curves, and she was just beginning to make the fourth of these
+when six black shapes crowned with wreaths of smoke loomed up out of the
+semi-darkness.
+
+"Thought so--destroyers," said Erskine. "Yes, and look there, behind
+them--cruiser supports, three of them--these are for the second rush.
+Coming up pretty fast, too; they'll be there in half an hour. We shall
+have something to say about that. Hold on, Lennard."
+
+"Same tactics, I suppose," said Lennard.
+
+"Yes," replied Erskine, taking down the receiver. "Are you there,
+Castellan? All right. We've six more destroyers to get rid of. Full
+speed ahead, as soon as you like--guns all ready, I suppose? Good--go
+ahead."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ was now about two miles to the westward and about a mile
+in front of the line of destroyers, which just gave her room to get up
+full speed. As she gathered way, Lennard saw the nose of the great ram
+rise slowly out of the water. The destroyer's guns crackled, but it is
+not easy to hit a low-lying object moving at fifty miles an hour, end
+on, when you are yourself moving nearly twenty-five. Just the same thing
+happened as before. The point of the ram passed over the destroyer's
+bows, crumpled them up and crushed them down, and the _Ithuriel_ rushed
+on over the sinking wreck, swerved a quarter turn, and bore down on her
+next victim. It was all over in ten minutes. The _Ithuriel_ rushed
+hither and thither among the destroyers like some leviathan of the deep.
+A crash, a swift grinding scrape, and a mass of crumpled steel was
+dropping to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+While the attack on the destroyers was taking place, the cruisers were
+only half a mile away. Their captains had found themselves in curiously
+difficult positions. The destroyers were so close together, and the
+movements of this strange monster which was running them down so
+rapidly, that if they opened fire they were more likely to hit their own
+vessels than it, but when the last had gone down, every available gun
+spoke, and a hurricane of shells, large and small, ploughed up the sea
+where the _Ithuriel had_ been. After the first volley, the captains
+looked at their officers and the officers looked at the captains, and
+said things which strained the capabilities of the French language to
+the utmost. The monster had vanished.
+
+The fact was that Erskine had foreseen that storm of shell, and the
+pumps had been working hard while the ramming was going on. The result
+was that the _Ithuriel_ sank almost as soon as her last victim, and in
+thirty seconds there was nothing to shoot at.
+
+"I shall ram those chaps from underneath," he said. "They've too many
+guns for a shooting match."
+
+He reduced the speed to thirty knots, rose for a moment till the
+conning-tower was just above the water, took his bearings, sank, called
+for full speed, and in four minutes the ram crashed into the _Alger's_
+stern, carried away her sternpost and rudder, and smashed her
+propellers. The _Ithuriel_ passed on as if she had hit a log of wood and
+knocked it aside. A slight turn of the steering-wheel, and within four
+minutes the ram was buried in the vitals of the _Suchet_. Then the
+_Ithuriel_ reversed engines, the fore screw sucked the water away, and
+the cruiser slid off the ram as she might have done off a rock. As she
+went down, the _Ithuriel_ rose to the surface. The third cruiser, the
+_Davout_, was half a mile away. She had changed her course and was
+evidently making frantic efforts to get back to sea.
+
+"Going to warn the fleet, are you, my friend?" said Erskine, between
+his teeth. "Not if I know it!"
+
+He asked for full speed again and the terror-stricken Frenchmen saw the
+monster, just visible on the surface of the water, flying towards them
+in the midst of a cloud of spray. A sheep might as well have tried to
+escape from a tiger. Many of the crew flung themselves overboard in the
+madness of despair. There was a shock and a grinding crash, and the ram
+bored its way twenty feet into the unarmoured quarter. Then the
+_Ithuriel's_ screws dragged her free, and the _Davout_ followed her
+sisters to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOW LONDON TOOK THE NEWS
+
+
+The awaking of England on the morning of the twenty-sixth of November
+was like the awaking of a man from a nightmare. Everyone who slept had
+gone to sleep with one word humming in his brain--war--and war at home,
+that was the terrible thought which robbed so many millions of eyes of
+sleep. But even those who slept did not do so for long.
+
+At a quarter to one a sub-editor ran into the room of the chief News
+Editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, without even the ceremony of a knock.
+
+"What on earth's the matter, Johnson?" exclaimed the editor. "Seen a
+ghost?"
+
+"Worse than that, sir. Read this!" said the sub-editor, in a shaking
+voice, throwing the slip down on the desk.
+
+"My God, what's this?" said the editor, as he ran his eye along the
+slip. "'Portsmouth bombarded from the air. Hillsea, Portsmouth,
+Gilkicker and Southsea Castle destroyed. Practically defenceless. Fleet
+Reserve Squadrons sailing.'"
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth before another man came running
+in with a slip. "'_Jupiter_ and _Hannibal_ torpedoed by submarine.
+_Spartiate_ blown up by aerial torpedo.'" Then there came a gap, as
+though the men at the other end had heard of more news, then
+followed--"'_Mars_, _Prince George_, _Victorious_, all torpedoed.
+Cruisers escaped to sea. No news of _Ithuriel_, no torpedo attack up to
+present.'"
+
+"Oh, that's awful," gasped the editor, and then the professional
+instinct reasserted itself, for he continued, handing the slip back:
+"Rush out an edition straight away, Johnson. Anything, if it's only a
+half-sheet--get it on the streets as quick as you can--there'll be
+plenty of people about still. If anything else comes bring it up."
+
+In less than a quarter of an hour a crowd of newsboys were fighting in
+the passage for copies of the single sheet which contained the momentous
+news, just as it had come over the wire. The _Daily Telegraph_ was just
+five minutes ahead, but within half an hour every London paper, morning
+and evening, and all the great provincial journals had rushed out their
+midnight specials, and from end to end of England and Scotland, and away
+to South Wales, and over the narrow seas to Dublin and Cork, the shrill
+screams of the newsboys, and the hoarse, raucous howls of the newsmen
+were spreading the terrible tidings over the land. What the beacon fires
+were in the days of the Armada, these humble heralds of Fate were in the
+twentieth century.
+
+"War begun--Portsmouth destroyed--Fleet sunk."
+
+The six terrible words were not quite exact, of course, but they were
+near enough to the truth to sound like the voice of Fate in the ears of
+the millions whose fathers and fathers' fathers back through six
+generations had never had their midnight rest so rudely broken.
+
+Lights gleamed out of darkened windows, and front doors were flung open
+in street after street, as the war-cry echoed down it. Any coin that
+came first to hand, from a penny to a sovereign, was eagerly offered for
+the single, hurriedly-printed sheets, but the business instincts of the
+newsboys rose superior to the crisis, and nothing less than a shilling
+was accepted. Streams of men and boys on bicycles with great bags of
+specials slung on their backs went tearing away, head down and pedals
+whirling, north, south, east and west into the suburbs. Newsagents flung
+their shops open, and in a few minutes were besieged by eager, anxious
+crowds, fighting for the first copies. There was no more sleep for man
+or woman in London that night, though the children slept on in happy
+unconsciousness of what the morrow was to bring forth.
+
+What happened in London was happening almost simultaneously all over the
+kingdom. For more than a hundred years the British people had worked and
+played and slept in serene security, first behind its wooden walls, and
+then behind the mighty iron ramparts of its invincible Fleets, and now,
+like a thunderbolt from a summer sky, came the paralysing tidings that
+the first line of defence had been pierced by a single blow, and the
+greatest sea stronghold of England rendered defenceless--and all this
+between sunset and midnight of a November day.
+
+Was it any wonder that men looked blankly into each other's eyes, and
+asked themselves and each other how such an unheard-of catastrophe had
+come about, and what was going to happen next? The first and universal
+feeling was one of amazement, which amounted almost to mental paralysis,
+and then came a sickening sense of insecurity. For two generations the
+Fleet had been trusted implicitly, and invasion had been looked upon
+merely as the fad of alarmists, and the theme of sensational
+story-writers. No intelligent person really trusted the army, although
+its ranks, such as they were, were filled with as gallant soldiers as
+ever carried a rifle, but it had been afflicted ever since men could
+remember with the bane and blight of politics and social influence. It
+had never been really a serious profession, and its upper ranks had been
+little better than the playground of the sons of the wealthy and
+well-born.
+
+Politician after politician on both sides had tried his hand at scheme
+after scheme to improve the army. What one had done, the next had
+undone, and the permanent War Office Officials had given more attention
+to buttons and braids and caps than to business-like organisations of
+fighting efficiency. The administration was, as it always had been, a
+chaos of muddle. The higher ranks were rotten with inefficiency, and the
+lower, aggravated and bewildered by change after change, had come to
+look upon soldiering as a sort of game, the rules of which were being
+constantly altered.
+
+The Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers had been constantly
+snubbed and worried by the authorities of Pall Mall. Private citizens,
+willing to give time and money in order to learn the use of the rifle,
+even if they could not join the Yeomanry or Volunteers, had been just
+ignored. The War Office could see no use for a million able-bodied men
+who had learned to shoot straight, besides they were only "damned
+civilians," whose proper place was in their offices and shops. What
+right had they with rifles? If they wanted exercise, let them go and
+play golf, or cricket, or football. What had they to do with the defence
+of their country and their homes?
+
+But that million of irregular sharpshooters were badly wanted now. They
+could have turned every hedgerow into a trench and cover against the foe
+which would soon be marching over the fields and orchards and
+hop-gardens of southern England. They would have known every yard of the
+ground, and the turn of every path and road, and while the regular army
+was doing its work they could have prevented many a turning movement of
+the superior forces, shot down the horses of convoys and ammunition
+trains, and made themselves generally objectionable to the enemy.
+
+Now the men were there, full of fight and enthusiasm, but they had
+neither ammunition nor rifles, and if they had had them, ninety per
+cent. would not have known how to use them. Wherefore, those who were
+responsible for the land defences of the country found themselves with
+less than three hundred thousand trained and half-trained men, of all
+arms, to face invading forces which would certainly not number less than
+a million, every man of which had served his apprenticeship to the grim
+trade of war, commanded by officers who had taken that same trade
+seriously, studied it as a science, thinking it of considerably more
+importance than golf or cricket or football.
+
+It had been said that the British Nation would never tolerate
+conscription, which might or might not have been true; but now, when the
+next hour or so might hear the foreign drums thrumming and the foreign
+bugles blaring, conscription looked a very different thing. There wasn't
+a loyal man in the kingdom who didn't bitterly regret that he had not
+been taken in the prime of his young manhood, and taught how to defend
+the hearth and home which were his, and the wife and children which were
+so dear to him.
+
+But it was too late now. Neither soldiers nor sharpshooters are made in
+a few hours or days, and within a week the first battles that had been
+fought on English ground for nearly eight hundred years would have been
+lost and won, and nine-tenths of the male population of England would be
+looking on in helpless fury.
+
+There had been plenty of theorists, who had said that the British
+Islands needed no army of home defence, simply because if she once lost
+command of the sea it would not be necessary for an enemy to invade her,
+since a blockade of her ports would starve her into submission in a
+month--which, thanks to the decay of agriculture and the depopulation of
+the country districts, was true enough. But it was not all the truth.
+Those who preached these theories left out one very important factor,
+and that was human nature.
+
+For over a century the Continental nations had envied and hated Britain,
+the land-grabber; Britain who had founded nations while they had failed
+to make colonies; Britain, who had made the Seven Seas her territories,
+and the coasts of other lands her frontiers. Surely the leaders of the
+leagued nations would have been more or less than human had they
+resisted, even if their people had allowed them to do it, the
+temptation of trampling these proud Islanders into the mud and mire of
+their own fields and highways, and dictating terms of peace in the
+ancient halls of Windsor.
+
+These were the bitter thoughts which were rankling in the breast of
+every loyal British man during the remainder of that night of horrible
+suspense. Many still had reason to remember the ghastly blunders and the
+muddling which had cost so many gallant lives and so many millions of
+treasure during the Boer War, when it took three hundred thousand
+British troops to reduce eighty thousand undrilled farmers to
+submission. What if the same blundering and muddling happened now? And
+it was just as likely now as then.
+
+Men ground their teeth, and looked at their strong, useless hands, and
+cursed theorist and politician alike. And meanwhile the Cabinet was
+sitting, deliberating, as best it might, over the tidings of disaster.
+The House of Commons, after voting full powers to the Cabinet and the
+Council of Defence, had been united at last by the common and immediate
+danger, and members of all parties were hurrying away to their
+constituencies to do what they could to help in organising the defence
+of their homeland.
+
+There was one fact which stood out before all others, as clearly as an
+electric light among a lot of candles, and, now that it was too late, no
+one recognised it with more bitter conviction than those who had made it
+the consistent policy of both Conservative and Liberal Governments, and
+of the Executive Departments, to discourage invention outside the
+charmed circle of the Services, and to drive the civilian inventor
+abroad.
+
+Again and again, designs of practical airships--not gas-bags which could
+only be dragged slowly against a moderate wind, but flying machines
+which conquered the wind and used it as a bird does--had been submitted
+to the War Office during the last six or seven years, and had been
+pooh-poohed or pigeon-holed by some sapient permanent official--and now
+the penalty of stupidity and neglect had to be paid.
+
+The complete descriptions of the tragedy that had been and was being
+enacted at Portsmouth that were constantly arriving in Downing Street
+left no possibility of doubt that the forts had been destroyed and the
+_Spartiate_ blown up by torpedoes from the air--from which fact it was
+necessary to draw the terrible inference that the enemy had possessed
+themselves of the command of the air.
+
+What was the command of the sea worth after that? What was the fighting
+value of the mightiest battleship that floated when pitted against a
+practically unassailable enemy, which had nothing to do but drop
+torpedoes, loaded with high explosives, on her decks and down her
+funnels until her very vitals were torn to pieces, her ammunition
+exploded, and her crew stunned by concussion or suffocated by poisonous
+gas?
+
+It was horrible, but it was true. Inside an hour the strongest
+fortifications in England had been destroyed, and ten first-class
+battleships and a cruiser had been sent to the bottom of the sea, and so
+at last her ancient sceptre was falling from the hand of the Sea Queen,
+and her long inviolate domain was threatened by the armed legions of
+those whose forefathers she had vanquished on many a stricken field by
+land and sea.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the Prime Minister to the other members of the
+Cabinet Council, who were sitting round that historic oval table in the
+Council Chamber in Downing Street, "we may as well confess that this is
+a great deal more serious than we expected it to be, and that is to my
+mind all the better reason why we should strain every nerve to hold
+intact the splendid heritage which our fathers have left to us--"
+
+Boom! A shudder ran through the atmosphere as he spoke the last words,
+and the double windows in Downing Street shook with the vibration. The
+members of the Cabinet started in their seats and looked at each other.
+Was this the fulfilment of the half prophecy which the Prime Minister
+had spoken so slowly and so clearly in the silent, crowded House of
+Commons?
+
+Almost at the same moment the electric bell at the outer of the double
+doors rang. The doors were opened, and a messenger came in with a
+telegram which he handed to the Prime Minister, and then retired. He
+opened the envelope, and for nearly five minutes of intense suspense he
+mentally translated the familiar cypher, and then he said, as he handed
+the telegram to the Secretary for War:
+
+"Gentlemen, I deeply regret to say that the possible prospect which I
+outlined in the House to-night has become an accomplished fact. Two
+hundred and forty-three years ago London heard the sound of hostile
+guns. We have heard them to-night. This telegram is from Sheerness, and
+it tells, I most deeply regret to say, the same story, or something like
+it, as the messages from Portsmouth. A Russo-German-French fleet of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, assisted by four airships and an
+unknown number of submarines, has defeated the Southern portion of the
+North Sea Squadron, and is now proceeding in two divisions, one up the
+Medway towards Chatham, and the other up the Thames towards Tilbury.
+Garrison Fort is now being bombarded from the sea and the air, and will
+probably be in ruins within an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A CRIME AND A MISTAKE
+
+
+When the destruction of the forts and the sinking of the battleships at
+Portsmouth had been accomplished, John Castellan made about the greatest
+mistake in his life, a mistake which had very serious consequences for
+those to whom he had sold himself and his terrible invention.
+
+He and his brother Denis formed a very curious contrast, which is
+nevertheless not uncommon in Irish families. The British army and navy
+can boast no finer soldiers or sailors, and the Empire no more devoted
+servants than those who claim Ireland as the land of their birth, and
+Denis Castellan was one of these. As the reader may have guessed
+already, he and Erskine had only been on the _Cormorant_ because it was
+the policy of the Naval Council to keep two of the ablest men in the
+service out of sight for a while. Denis, who had a remarkable gift of
+tongues, was really one of the most skilful naval _attaches_ in service,
+and what he didn't know about the naval affairs of Europe was hardly
+worth learning. Erskine had been recognised by the Naval Council which,
+under Sir John Fisher, had raised the British Navy to a pitch of
+efficiency that was the envy of every nation in the world, except Japan,
+as an engineer and inventor of quite extraordinary ability, and while
+the _Ithuriel_ was building, they had given him the command of the
+_Cormorant_, chiefly because there was hardly anything to do, and
+therefore he had ample leisure to do his thinking.
+
+On the other hand John Castellan was an unhappily brilliant example of
+that type of Keltic intellect which is incapable of believing the
+world-wide truism that the day of small states is passed. He had two
+articles of political faith. One was an unshakable belief in the
+possibility of Irish independence, and the other, which naturally
+followed from the first, was implacable hatred of the Saxon oppressor
+whose power and wealth had saved Ireland from invasion for centuries. He
+was utterly unable to grasp the Imperial idea, while his brother was as
+enthusiastic an Imperialist as ever sailed the seas.
+
+Had it not been for this blind hatred, the disaster which had befallen
+the Reserve Fleet would have been repeated at sea on a much vaster
+scale; but he allowed his passions to overcome his judgment, and so
+saved the Channel Fleet. There lay beneath him defenceless the greatest
+naval port of England, with its docks and dockyards, its barracks and
+arsenals, its garrisons of soldiers and sailors, and its crowds of
+workmen. The temptation was too strong for him, and he yielded to it.
+
+When the _Prince George_ had gone down he rose into the air, and ran
+over the Isle of Wight, signalling to the _See Adler_. The signals were
+answered, and the two airships met about two miles south-west of the
+Needles, and Castellan informed Captain Frenkel of his intention to
+destroy Portsmouth and Gosport. The German demurred strongly. He had no
+personal hatred to satisfy, and he suggested that it would be much
+better to go out to sea and discover the whereabouts of the Channel
+Fleet; but Castellan was Commander-in-Chief of the Aerial Squadrons of
+the Allies, and so his word was law, and within the next two hours one
+of the greatest crimes in the history of civilised warfare was
+committed.
+
+The two airships circled slowly over Gosport and Portsmouth, dropping
+their torpedoes wherever a worthy mark presented itself. The first one
+discharged from the _Flying Fish_ fell on the deck of the old _Victory_.
+The deck burst up, as though all the powder she had carried at
+Trafalgar had exploded beneath it, and the next moment she broke out in
+inextinguishable flames. The old _Resolution_ met the same fate from the
+_See Adler_, and then the pitiless hail of destruction fell on the docks
+and jetties. In a few minutes the harbour was ringed with flame.
+Portsmouth Station, built almost entirely of wood, blazed up like
+matchwood; then came the turn of the dockyards at Portsea, which were
+soon ablaze from end to end.
+
+Then the two airships spread their wings like destroying angels over
+Portsmouth town. Half a dozen torpedoes wrecked the Town Hall and set
+the ruins on fire. This was the work of the _See Adler_. The _Flying
+Fish_ devoted her attention to the naval and military barracks, the
+Naval College and the Gunnery School on Whale Island. As soon as these
+were reduced to burning ruins, the two airships scattered their
+torpedoes indiscriminately over churches, shops and houses, and in the
+streets crowded by terrified mobs of soldiers, sailors and civilians.
+
+The effect of the torpedoes in the streets was too appalling for
+description. Everyone within ten or a dozen yards of the focus of the
+explosion was literally blown to atoms, and for fifty yards round every
+living creature dropped dead, killed either by the force of the
+concussion or the poisonous gases which were liberated by the explosion.
+Hundreds fell thus without the mark of a wound, and when some of their
+bodies were examined afterwards, it was found that their hearts were
+split open as cleanly as though they had been divided with a razor, just
+as are the hearts of fishes which have been killed with dynamite.
+
+John Castellan and his lieutenant, M'Carthy, for the time being gloried
+in the work of destruction. Captain Frenkel was a soldier and a
+gentleman, and he saw nothing in it save wanton killing of defenceless
+people and a wicked waste of ammunition; but the terrible War Lord of
+Germany had given Castellan supreme command, and to disobey meant
+degradation, and possibly death, and so the _See Adler_ perforce took
+her share in the tragedy.
+
+In a couple of hours Portsmouth, Gosport and Portsea had ceased to be
+towns. They were only areas of flaming ruins; but at last the ammunition
+gave out, and Castellan was compelled to signal the _See Adler_ to shape
+her course for Bracklesham Bay in order to replenish the magazines. They
+reached the bay, and descended at the spot where the _Leger_ ought to
+have been at anchor. She was not there, for the sufficient reason that
+the _Ithuriel's_ ram had sent her to the bottom of the Channel.
+
+For half an hour the _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ hunted over the
+narrow waters, but neither was the _Leger_ nor any other craft to be
+seen between the Selsey coast and the Isle of Wight. When they came
+together again in Bracklesham Bay, John Castellan's rage against the
+hated Saxon had very considerably cooled. Evidently something serious
+had happened, and something that he knew nothing about, and now that the
+excitement of destruction had died away, he remembered more than one
+thing which he ought to have thought of before.
+
+The two rushes of the torpedo boats, supported by the swift cruisers,
+had not taken place. Not a hostile vessel had entered either Spithead or
+the Solent, and the British cruisers, which he had been ordered to
+spare, had got away untouched. It was perfectly evident that some
+disaster had befallen the expedition, and that the _Leger_ had been
+involved in it. In spite of the terrible destruction that the _Flying
+Fish_, the _See Adler_ and the _Banshee_ had wrought on sea and land, it
+was plain that the first part of the invader's programme had been
+brought to nothing by some unknown agency.
+
+He was, of course, aware of the general plan of attack. He had destroyed
+the battleships of the Fleet Reserve. While he was doing that the
+destroyers should have been busy among the cruisers, and then the main
+force, under Admiral Durenne, would follow, and take possession of
+Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. A detachment of cruisers
+and destroyers was then to be despatched to Littlehampton, and land a
+sufficient force to seize and hold the railway at Ford and Arundel, so
+that the coast line of the L.B.S.C.R., as well as the main line to
+Horsham and London, should be at the command of the invaders.
+
+Littlehampton was also particularly valuable on account of its tidal
+river and harbour, which would give shelter and protection to a couple
+of hundred torpedo boats and destroyers, and its wharves from which
+transports could easily coal. It is hardly worth while to add that it
+had been left entirely undefended. It had been proposed to mount a
+couple of 9.2 guns on the old fort on the west side of the river mouth,
+with half a dozen twelve-pound quick-firers at the Coast-Guard station
+on the east side to repel torpedo attack, but the War Office had laughed
+at the idea of an enemy getting within gunshot of the inviolate English
+shore, and so one of the most vulnerable points on the south coast had
+been left undefended.
+
+What would Castellan have given now for the torpedoes which the two
+ships had wasted in the wanton destruction of Portsmouth, and the murder
+of its helpless citizens. The main French Fleet by this time could not
+be very far off. Behind it, somewhere, was the British Channel Fleet,
+the most powerful sea force that had ever ridden the subject waves, and
+here he was without a torpedo on either of his ships, and no supplies
+nearer than Kiel. The _Leger_ had carried two thousand torpedoes and
+five hundred cylinders of the gases which supplied the motive power. She
+was gone, and for all offensive purposes the _Flying Fish_ and _See
+Adler_ were as harmless as a couple of balloons.
+
+When it was too late, John Castellan remembered in the bitterness of his
+soul that the torpedoes which had destroyed Portsmouth would have been
+sufficient to have wrecked the Channel Fleet, and now there was nothing
+for it but to leave Admiral Durenne to fight his own battle against the
+most powerful fleet in the world, and to use what was left of the motive
+power to get back to Kiel, and replenish their magazines.
+
+Horrible as had been the fate which had fallen on the great arsenal of
+southern England, it had not been sacrificed in vain, and very sick at
+heart was John Castellan when he gave the order for the two vessels,
+which a few hours ago had been such terrible engines of destruction, to
+rise into the air and wing their harmless flight towards Kiel.
+
+When the _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ took the air, and shipped
+their course eastward, the position of the opposing fleets was somewhat
+as follows: The cruisers of the A Squadron, _Amphitrite_, _Andromeda_,
+_Europa_, _Niobe_, _Blenheim_ and _Blake_, with fifteen first-class
+torpedo boats and ten destroyers, had got out to sea from Spithead
+unharmed. All these cruisers were good for twenty knots, the torpedo
+boats for twenty-five, and the destroyers for thirty. The _Sutlej_,
+_Ariadne_, _Argonaut_ and _Diadem_ had got clear away from the Solent,
+with ten first-class torpedo boats and five destroyers. They met about
+four miles south-east of St Catherine's Point. Commodore Hoskins of the
+_Diadem_ was the senior officer in command, and so he signalled for
+Captain Pennell, of the _Andromeda_, to come on board, and talk matters
+over with him, but before the conversation was half-way through, a black
+shape, with four funnels crowned with smoke and flame, came tearing up
+from the westward, made the private signal, and ran alongside the
+_Diadem_.
+
+The news that her commander brought was this--Admiral Lord Beresford had
+succeeded in eluding the notice of the French Channel Fleet, and was on
+his way up the south-west with the intention of getting behind Admiral
+Durenne's fleet, and crushing it between his own force to seaward and
+the batteries and Reserve Fleet on the landward side. The Commander of
+the destroyer was, of course, quite ignorant of the disaster which had
+befallen the battleships of the Reserve Fleet and Portsmouth, and when
+the captain of the cruiser told him the tidings, though he received the
+news with the almost fatalistic _sang froid_ of the British naval
+officer, turned a shade or two paler under the bronze of his skin.
+
+"That is terrible news, sir," he said, "and it will probably alter the
+Admiral's plans considerably. I must be off as soon as possible, and let
+him know: meanwhile, of course, you will use your own judgment."
+
+"Yes," replied the Commodore, "but I think you had better take one of
+our destroyers, say the _Greyhound_, back with you. She's got her
+bunkers full, and she can manage thirty-two knots in a sea like this."
+
+At this moment the sentry knocked at the door of the Commodore's room.
+
+"Come in," said Commodore Hoskins. The door opened, a sentry came in and
+saluted, and said:
+
+"The _Ithuriel's_ alongside, sir, and Captain Erskine will be glad to
+speak to you."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the Commodore, "the very thing. I wonder what that young
+devil has been up to. Send him in at once, sentry."
+
+The sentry retired, and presently Erskine entered the room, saluted, and
+said:
+
+"I've come to report, sir, I have sunk everything that tried to get in
+through Spithead. First division of three destroyers, the old _Leger_,
+the _Dupleix_ cruiser, six destroyers of the second division, and three
+cruisers, the _Alger_, _Suchet_ and _Davout_. They're all at the
+bottom."
+
+The Commodore stared for a moment or two at the man who so quietly
+described the terrific destruction that he had wrought with a single
+ship, and then he said:
+
+"Well, Erskine, we expected a good deal from that infernal craft of
+yours, but this is rather more than we could have hoped for. You've done
+splendidly. Now, what's your best speed?"
+
+"Forty-five knots, sir."
+
+"Good Lord!" exclaimed the Commander of the _Greyhound_. "You don't say
+so."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Erskine with a smile. "You ought to have seen us walk
+over those destroyers. I hit them at full speed, and they crumpled up
+like paper boats."
+
+By this time the Commodore had sat down, and was writing his report as
+fast as he could get his pencil over the paper. It was a short, terse,
+but quite comprehensive account of the happenings of the last three
+hours, and a clear statement of the strength and position of the torpedo
+and cruiser squadron under his command. When he had finished, he put the
+paper into an envelope, and said to the Commander of the _Greyhound_:
+
+"I am afraid you are no good here, Hawkins. I shall have to give the
+message to Captain Erskine, he'll be there and back before you're there.
+Just give him the bearings of the Fleet and he'll be off at once. There
+you are, Erskine, give that to the Admiral, and bring me instructions
+back as soon as you can. You've just time for a whisky-and-soda, and
+then you must be off."
+
+Erskine took the letter, and they drank their whisky-and-soda. Then they
+went on deck. The _Ithuriel_ was lying outside the _Greyhound_, half
+submerged--that is to say, with three feet of freeboard showing.
+Commander Hawkins looked at her with envious eyes. It is an article of
+faith with all good commanders of destroyers that their own craft is the
+fastest and most efficient of her class. At a pinch he could get
+thirty-two knots out of the _Greyhound_, and here was this quiet,
+determined-looking young man, who had created a vessel of his own, and
+had reached the rank of captain by sheer genius over the heads of men
+ten years older than himself, talking calmly of forty-five knots, and of
+the sinking of destroyers and cruisers, as though it was a mere matter
+of cracking egg-shells. Wherefore there was wrath in his soul when he
+went on board and gave the order to cast loose. Erskine went with him.
+They shook hands on the deck of the _Greyhound_, and Erskine went aboard
+of the _Ithuriel_, saying:
+
+"Well, Hawkins, I expect I shall meet you coming back."
+
+"I'm damned if I believe in your forty-five knots," replied Captain
+Hawkins, shortly.
+
+"Cast off, and come with me then," laughed Erskine, "you soon will."
+
+Inside three minutes the two craft were clear of the _Diadem_. Erskine
+gave the _Greyhound_ right of way until they had cleared the squadron.
+The sea was smooth, and there was scarcely any wind, for it had been a
+wonderfully fine November. The _Greyhound_ got on her thirty-two knots
+as soon as there was no danger of hitting anything.
+
+"That chap thinks he can race us," said Erskine to Lennard, as he got
+into the conning-tower, "and I'm just going to make him the maddest man
+in the British navy. He's doing thirty-two--we're doing twenty-five. Now
+that we're clear I'll wake him up." He took down the receiver and said:
+
+"Pump her out, Castellan, and give her full speed as soon as you can."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ rose in the water, and began to shudder from stem to
+stern with the vibrations of the engines, as they gradually worked up to
+their highest capacity. Commander Hawkins saw something coming up
+astern, half hidden by a cloud of spray and foam. It went past him as
+though he had been standing still instead of steaming at thirty-two
+knots. A few moments more and it was lost in the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE EVE OF BATTLE
+
+
+In twenty minutes the _Ithuriel_ ran alongside the _Britain_, which was
+one of the five most formidable battleships in existence. For five years
+past a new policy had been pursued with regard to the navy. The
+flagships, which of course contained the controlling brains of the
+fleets, were the most powerful afloat. By the time war broke out five of
+them had been launched and armed, and the _Britain_ was the newest and
+most powerful of them.
+
+Her displacement was twenty-two thousand tons, and her speed twenty-four
+knots. She was armoured from end to end with twelve-inch plates against
+which ordinary projectiles smashed as harmlessly as egg-shells. Twelve
+fourteen-inch thousand-pounder guns composed her primary battery; her
+secondary consisted of ten 9.2 guns, and her tertiary of twelve-pounder
+Maxim-Nordenfeldts in the fighting tops.
+
+It was the first time that Erskine had seen one of these giants of the
+ocean, and when they got alongside he said to Denis Castellan:
+
+"There's a fighting machine for you, Denis. Great Scott, what wouldn't I
+give to see her at work in the middle of a lot of Frenchmen and Germans,
+as the _Revenge_ was among the Spaniards in Grenville's time. Just look
+at those guns."
+
+"Yes," replied Castellan, "she's a splendid ship, and those guns look as
+though they could talk French to the Frenchies and German to the
+Dutchmen and plain English to the lot in a way that wouldn't want much
+translating. And what's more, they have the right men behind them, and
+the best gun in the world isn't much good without that."
+
+At this moment they heard a shrill voice from the forecastle of the
+nearest destroyer.
+
+"Hulloa there, what's the matter?" came from the deck of the _Britain_.
+
+"Four French destroyers coming up pretty fast from the south'ard, sir.
+Seem to be making for the flagship," was the reply.
+
+"That's a job for us," said Erskine, who was standing on the narrow deck
+of the _Ithuriel_, waiting to go on board the _Britain_. "Commander,
+will you be good enough to deliver this to the Admiral? I must be off
+and settle those fellows before they do any mischief."
+
+The commander of the destroyer took the letter, Erskine dived below, a
+steel plate slid over the opening to the companion way, and when he got
+into the conning-tower he ordered full speed.
+
+Four long black shapes were stealing slowly towards the British centre,
+and no one knew better than he did that a single torpedo well under
+waterline would send Admiral Beresford's floating fortress to the bottom
+inside ten minutes, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.
+
+A quartermaster ran down the ladder and caught the letter from the
+commander just as the _Ithuriel_ moved off.
+
+"Tell the Admiral, with Captain Erskine's compliments, that he'll be
+back in a few minutes, when he's settled those fellows."
+
+The quartermaster took the letter, and by the time he got to the top of
+the ladder, the _Ithuriel_ was flying through a cloud of foam and spray
+towards the first of the destroyers. He heard a rattle of guns, and then
+the destroyer vanished. The _Ithuriel_ swung round, hit the next one in
+the bows, ground her under the water, turned almost at right angles,
+smashed the stern of the third one into scrap iron, hit the fourth one
+abreast of the conning-tower, crushed her down and rolled her over, and
+then slowed down and ran back to the flagship at twenty knots.
+
+"Well!" said Quartermaster Maginniss, who for the last few minutes had
+been held spellbound at the top of the ladder, in spite of the claims of
+discipline, "of all the sea-devils of crafts that I've ever heard of, I
+should say that was the worst. Four destroyers gone in five minutes, and
+here he is coming back before I've delivered the letter. If we only have
+a good square fight now, I'll be sorry for the Frenchies."
+
+The next moment he stiffened up and saluted. "A letter for you, Admiral,
+left by Captain Erskine before he went away to destroy those
+destroyers."
+
+"And you've been watching the destruction instead of delivering the
+letter," laughed Lord Beresford, as he took it from him. "Well, I'll let
+you off this time. When Captain Erskine comes alongside, ask him to see
+me in my room at once."
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran alongside even as he was speaking. The gangway was
+manned, and when he reached the deck, Admiral Beresford held out his
+hand, and said with a laugh:
+
+"Well, Captain Erskine, I understood that you were bringing me a message
+from Commodore Hoskins, but you seem to have had better game to fly
+for."
+
+"My fault, sir," said Erskine, "but I hope you won't court-martial me
+for it. You see, there were four French destroyers creeping round, and
+mine was the only ship that could tackle them, so I thought I'd better
+go and do it before they did any mischief. Anyhow, they're all at the
+bottom now."
+
+"I don't think I should have much case if I court-martialled you for
+that, Captain Erskine," laughed the Admiral, "especially after what
+you've done already, according to Commodore Hoskins' note. That must be
+a perfect devil of a craft of yours. Can you sink anything with her?"
+
+"Anything, sir," replied Erskine. "This is the most powerful fighting
+ship in the world, but I could put you at the bottom of the Channel in
+ten minutes."
+
+"The Lord save us! It's a good job you're on our side."
+
+"And it's a very great pity," said Erskine, "that the airships are not
+with us too. I had a very narrow squeak in Spithead about three hours
+ago from one of their aerial torpedoes. It struck part of a destroyer
+that I'd just sunk, and although it was nearly fifty yards away, it
+shook me up considerably."
+
+"Have you any idea of the whereabouts and formation of the French Fleet?
+I must confess that I haven't. These infernal airships have upset all
+the plans for catching Durenne between the Channel Fleet and the
+Reserve, backed up by the Portsmouth guns, so that we could jump out and
+catch him between the fleet and the forts. Now I suppose it will have to
+be a Fleet action at sea."
+
+"If you care to leave your ship for an hour, sir," replied Erskine, "I
+will take you round the French fleet and you shall see everything for
+yourself. We may have to knock a few holes in something, if it gets in
+our way, but I think I can guarantee that you shall be back on the
+_Britain_ by the time you want to begin the action."
+
+"Absolutely irregular," said Lord Beresford, stroking his chin, and
+trying to look serious, while his eyes were dancing with anticipation.
+"An admiral to leave his flagship on the eve of an engagement! Well,
+never mind, Courtney's a very good fellow, and knows just as much about
+the ship as I do, and he's got all sailing orders. I'll come. He's on
+the bridge now, I'll go and tell him."
+
+The Admiral ran up on to the bridge, gave Captain Courtney Commodore
+Hoskins' letter, added a few directions, one of which was to keep on a
+full head of steam on all the ships, and look out for signals, and five
+minutes later he had been introduced to Lennard, and was standing beside
+him in the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_ listening to Erskine, as he
+said into the telephone receiver:
+
+"Sink her to three feet, Castellan, and then ahead full speed."
+
+The pumps worked furiously for a few minutes, and the _Ithuriel_ sank
+until only three feet of her bulk appeared above the water. Then the
+Admiral felt the floor of the conning-tower shudder and tremble under
+his feet. He looked out of the side porthole on the starboard bow, and
+saw his own fleet dropping away into the distance and the darkness of
+the November night. The water ahead curled up into two huge swathes,
+which broke into foam and spray, which lashed hissing along the almost
+submerged decks.
+
+"You have a pretty turn of speed on her, I must say, Captain Erskine,"
+said the Admiral, after he had taken a long squint through the
+semicircular window. "I'm sorry we haven't got a score of craft like
+this."
+
+"And we should have had, your lordship," replied Erskine, "if the
+Council had only taken the opinion that you gave after you saw the
+plans."
+
+"I'd have a hundred like her," laughed the Admiral, "only you see
+there's the Treasury, and behind that the most noble House of Commons,
+elected mostly by the least educated and most short-sighted people in
+the nation, who scarcely know a torpedo from a common shell, and we
+should never have got them. We had hard enough work to get this one as
+an experiment."
+
+"I quite agree with you, sir," said Erskine, "and I think Lennard will
+too. There has never been an instance in history in which democracy did
+not spell degeneration. It's a pity, but I suppose it's inevitable. As
+far as my reading has taken me, it seems to be the dry-rot of nations.
+Halloa, what's that? Torpedo gunboat, I think! Ah, there's the moon.
+Now, sir, if you'll just come and stand to the right here, for'ard of
+the wheel, I'll put the _Ithuriel_ through her paces, and show you what
+she can do."
+
+A long grey shape, with two masts and three funnels between them, loomed
+up out of the darkness into a bright patch of moonlight. Erskine took
+the receiver from the hooks and said:
+
+"Stand by there, Castellan. Forward guns fire when I give the word--then
+I shall ram."
+
+The Admiral saw the three strangely shaped guns rise from the deck,
+their muzzles converging on the gunboat. He expected a report, but none
+came; only a gentle hiss, scarcely audible in the conning-tower. Then
+three brilliant flashes of flame burst out just under the Frenchman's
+topworks. Erskine, with one hand on the steering-wheel, and the other
+holding the receiver, said:
+
+"Well aimed--now full speed. I'm going over him."
+
+"Over him!" echoed the Admiral. "Don't you ram under the waterline?"
+
+"If it's the case of a big ship, sir," replied Erskine, "we sink and hit
+him where it hurts most, but it isn't worth while with these small
+craft. You will see what I mean in a minute."
+
+As he spoke a shudder ran through the _Ithuriel_. The deck began to
+quiver under the Admiral's feet; the ram rose six feet out of the water.
+The shape of the gunboat seemed to rush towards them; the ram hit it
+squarely amidships; then came a shock, a grinding scrape, screams of
+fear from the terrified sailors, a final crunch, and the gunboat was
+sinking fifty yards astern.
+
+"That's awful," said the Admiral, with a perceptible shake in his voice.
+"What speed did you hit her at?"
+
+"Forty-five knots," replied Erskine, giving a quarter turn to the wheel,
+and almost immediately bringing a long line of battleships, armoured
+cruisers, protected cruisers and destroyers into view.
+
+The French Channel Fleet was composed of the most powerful ships in the
+navy of the Republic. The two portions from Brest and Cherbourg had now
+united their forces. The French authorities had at last learned the
+supreme value of homogeneity. The centre was composed of six ships of
+the _Republique_ class, all identical in size, armour and armament, as
+well as speed. They were the _Republique_, _Patrie_ flagship, _Justice_,
+_Democratie_, _Liberte_ and _Verite_. They were all of fifteen thousand
+tons and eighteen knots. To these was added the _Suffren_, also of
+eighteen knots, but only twelve thousand seven hundred tons: she had
+come from Brest with a flotilla of torpedo boats.
+
+There were six armoured cruisers, _Jules Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_,
+_Victor Hugo_, _Jeanne d'Arc_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. These were all
+heavily armed and armoured vessels, all of them capable of manoeuvering
+at a speed of over twenty knots. A dozen smaller protected and
+unprotected cruisers hung on each flank, and a score of destroyers and
+torpedo boats lurked in between the big ships.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ ran quietly along the curving line of battleships and
+cruisers, turned and came back again without exciting the slightest
+suspicion.
+
+Erskine would have dearly loved to sink a battleship or one or two
+cruisers, just to show his lordship how it was done, but the Admiral
+forbade this, as he wanted to get the Frenchmen, who still thought they
+were going to easy victory, entangled in the shallows of the narrow
+waters, and therefore with the exception of rolling over and sinking
+three submarines which happened to get in the way, no damage was done.
+
+The British Channel Fleet, even not counting the assistance of the
+terrible _Ithuriel_, was the most powerful squadron that had ever put to
+sea under a single command. The main line of battle consisted of the
+flagship _Britain_, and seven ships of the _King Edward_ class, _King
+Edward the Seventh_, _Dominion_, _Commonwealth_, _Hindustan_, _New
+Zealand_, _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_; all over sixteen thousand tons,
+and of nineteen knots speed. With the exception of the giant flagships,
+of which there were five in existence--the _Britain_, _England_,
+_Ireland_, _Scotland_ and _Wales_--and two nineteen thousand ton
+monsters which had just been completed for Japan, these were the fastest
+and most heavily-armed battleships afloat.
+
+The second line was composed of the armoured cruisers, _Duke of
+Edinburgh_, _Black Prince_, _Henry the Fourth_, _Warwick_, _Edward the
+Third_, _Cromwell_, all of over thirteen thousand tons, and twenty-two
+knots speed; the _Drake_, _King Alfred_, _Leviathan_ and _Good Hope_, of
+over fourteen thousand tons and twenty-four knots speed; and the
+reconstructed _Powerful_, and _Terrible_, of fourteen thousand tons and
+twenty-two knots. There was, of course, the usual swarm of destroyers
+and torpedo boats; and in addition must be counted the ten cruisers, ten
+destroyers, and fifteen torpedo boats, which had escaped from Spithead
+and the Solent. These had already formed a junction with the left wing
+of the British force.
+
+For nearly two hours the two great fleets slowly approached each other
+almost at a right angle. As the grey dawn of the November morning began
+to steal over the calm blue-grey water, they came in plain sight of each
+other, and at once the signal flew from the foreyard of the _Britain_,
+"Prepare for action--battleships will cross front column of line
+ahead--cruisers will engage cruisers individually at discretion of
+Commanders--destroyers will do their worst."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE STRIFE OF GIANTS
+
+
+As it happened, it was a fine, cold wintry day that dawned as the two
+great fleets drew towards each other. As Denis Castellan said, "It was a
+perfect jewel of a day for a holy fight," and so it was. The French
+fleet was advancing at twelve knots. Admiral Beresford made his fifteen,
+and led the line in the _Britain_. Erskine had been ordered to go to the
+rear of the French line and sink any destroyer or torpedo boat that he
+could get hold of, but to let the battleships and cruisers alone, unless
+he saw a British warship hard pressed, in which case he was to ram and
+sink the enemy if he could.
+
+One division of cruisers, consisting of the fastest and most powerful
+armoured vessels, was to make a half-circle two miles in the rear of the
+French Fleet. The ships selected for this service were the _Duke of
+Edinburgh_, _Warwick_, _Edward III._, _Cromwell_ and _King Alfred_.
+Outside them, two miles again to the rear, the _Leviathan_, _Good Hope_,
+_Powerful_ and _Terrible_, the fastest ships in the Fleet, were to take
+their station to keep off stragglers.
+
+For the benefit of the non-nautical reader, it will be as well to
+explain here the two principal formations in which modern fleets go into
+action. As a matter of fact, they are identical with the tactics
+employed by the French and Spanish on the one side and Nelson on the
+other during the Napoleonic wars. Before Nelson's time, it was the
+custom for two hostile fleets to engage each other in column of line
+abreast, which means that both fleets formed a double line which
+approached each other within gunshot, and then opened fire.
+
+At Trafalgar, Nelson altered these tactics completely, with results that
+everybody knows. The allied French and Spanish fleets came up in a
+crescent, just in the same formation as Admiral Durenne was advancing on
+Portsmouth. Nelson took his ships into action in column of line ahead,
+in other words, in single file, the head of the column aiming for the
+centre of the enemy's battle line.
+
+The main advantage of this was, first, that it upset the enemy's
+combination, and, secondly, that each ship could engage two, since she
+could work both broadsides at once, whereas the enemy could only work
+one broadside against one ship. These were the tactics which, with
+certain modifications made necessary by the increased mobility on both
+sides, Lord Beresford adopted.
+
+With one exception, no foreigner had ever seen the new class of British
+flagship, and that exception, as we know, was safely locked up on board
+the _Ithuriel_, and his reports were even now being carefully considered
+by the Naval Council.
+
+There are no braver men on land and sea than the officers and crews of
+the French Navy, but when the giant bulk of the _Britain_ loomed up out
+of the westward in the growing light, gradually gathering way with her
+stately train of nineteen-knot battleships behind her, and swept down in
+front of the French line, many a heart stood still for the moment, and
+many a man asked himself what the possibilities of such a Colossus of
+the ocean might be.
+
+They had not long to wait. As the British battleships came on from the
+left with ever-increasing speed, the whole French line burst into a
+tornado of thunder and flame, but not a shot was fired from the English
+lines. Shells hurtled and screamed through the air, topworks were
+smashed into scrap-iron, funnels riddled, and military masts
+demolished; but until the _Britain_ reached the centre of the French
+line not a British gun spoke.
+
+Then the giant swung suddenly to starboard, and headed for the space
+between the _Patrie_ and the _Republique_. The _Canada_, _Newfoundland_,
+_New Zealand_ and _Hindustan_ put on speed, passed under her stern, and
+headed in between the _Suffren_, _Liberte_, _Verite_ and _Patrie_, while
+the _Edward VII._, _Dominion_ and _Commonwealth_ turned between the
+_Justice_, _Democratie_, the _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_.
+
+Within a thousand yards the British battleships opened fire. The first
+gun from the _Britain_ was a signal which turned them all into so many
+floating volcanoes. The _Britain_ herself ran between the _Patrie_ and
+the _Republique_, vomiting storms of shell, first ahead, then on the
+broadside and then astern. Her topworks were of course crumpled out of
+all shape--that was expected, for the range was now only about five
+hundred yards--but the incessant storm of thousand-pound shells from the
+fourteen-inch guns, followed by an unceasing hail of three hundred and
+fifty pound projectiles from the 9.2 quick-firers, reduced the two
+French battleships to little better than wrecks. The _Britain_ steamed
+through and turned, and again the awful hurricane burst out from her
+sides and bow and stern. She swung round again, but now only a few
+dropping shots greeted her from the crippled Frenchmen.
+
+"I don't think those chaps have much more fight left in them," said the
+Admiral to the Captain as they passed through the line for the third
+time. "We'll just give them one more dose, and then see how the other
+fellows are getting on."
+
+Once more the monster swept in between the doomed ships; once more her
+terrible artillery roared. Two torpedo boats, five hundred yards ahead,
+were rushing towards her. A grey shape rose out of the water, flinging
+up clouds of spray and foam, and in a moment they were ground down into
+the water and sunk. The hastily-fired torpedoes diverged and struck the
+two French battleships instead of the _Britain_. Two mountains of foam
+rose up under their sterns, their bows went down and rose again, and
+with a sternward lurch they slid down into the depths.
+
+The _Britain_ swung round to port, and poured a broadside into the
+_Liberte_, which had just crippled the _Hindustan_, and sunk her with a
+torpedo. The _New Zealand_ was evidently in difficulties between the
+_Liberte_ and the _Verite_. Her upper works were a mass of ruins, but
+she was still blazing away merrily with her primary battery. The Admiral
+slowed down to ten knots, and got between the two French battleships;
+then her big guns began to vomit destruction again, and in five minutes
+the two French battleships, caught in the triangular fire and terribly
+mauled, hauled their flags down, and so Lord Beresford's scheme was
+accomplished. The _Dominion_ and _Edward VII._ had got between their
+ships at the expense of a severe handling, and were giving a very good
+account of them, and the _Canada_ had sunk the _Suffren_ with a lucky
+shell which exploded in her forward torpedo room and blew her side out.
+
+It was broad daylight by this time, and it was perfectly plain, both to
+friend and foe, that the French centre could no longer be counted upon
+as a fighting force. One of the circumstances which came home hardest
+afterwards to the survivors of the French force was the fact that, as
+far as they knew, not a single British battleship or cruiser had been
+struck by a French destroyer or torpedo boat. The reason for this was
+the very simple fact that Erskine had taken these craft under his
+charge, and, while the big ships had been thundering away at each other,
+he had devoted himself to the congenial sport of smashing up the smaller
+fry. He sent the _Ithuriel_ flying hither and thither at full speed,
+tearing them into scrap-iron and sending them to the bottom, as if they
+had been so many penny steamers. He could have sent the battleships to
+the bottom with equal ease, but orders were orders, and he respected
+them until his chance came.
+
+The _Verite_ was now the least injured of the French battleships. To
+look at she was merely a floating mass of ruins, but her engines were
+intact, and her primary battery as good as ever. Her captain, like the
+hero that he was, determined to risk his ship and everything in her in
+the hope of destroying the monster which had wrought such frightful
+havoc along the line. She carried two twelve-inch guns ahead, a 6.4 on
+each side of the barbette, and four pairs of 6.4 guns behind these, and
+the fire of all of them was concentrated ahead.
+
+As the _Britain_ came round for the third time every one of the guns was
+laid upon her. He called to the engine-room for the utmost speed he
+could have, and at nineteen knots he bore down upon the leviathan. The
+huge guns on the _Britain_ swung round, and a tempest of shells swept
+the _Verite_ from end to end. Her armour was gashed and torn as though
+it had been cardboard instead of six-and eleven-inch steel; but still
+she held on her course. At five hundred yards her guns spoke, and the
+splinters began to fly on board the _Britain_. The Captain of the
+_Verite_ signalled for the last ounce of steam he could have--he was
+going to appeal to the last resort in naval warfare--the ram. If he
+could once get that steel spur of his into the _Britain's_ hull under
+her armour, she would go down as certainly as though she had been a
+first-class cruiser.
+
+When the approaching vessels were a little more than five hundred yards
+apart, the _Ithuriel_, who had settled up with all the destroyers and
+torpedo boats she could find, rose to the north of the now broken French
+line. Erskine took in the situation at a glance. He snatched the
+receiver from the hooks, shouted into it:
+
+"Sink--full speed--ram!"
+
+The _Ithuriel_ dived and sprang forward, and when the ram of the
+_Verite_ was within a hundred yards of the side of the _Britain_ his own
+ram smashed through her stern, cracked both the propeller shafts, and
+tore away her rudder as if it had been a piece of paper. She stopped
+and yawed, broadside on to the _Britain_. The chases of the great guns
+swung round in ominous threatening silence, but before they could be
+fired the Tricolor fluttered down from the flagstaff, and the _Verite_,
+helpless for all fighting purposes, had surrendered.
+
+It was now the turn of the big armoured cruisers. They were practically
+untouched, for the heaviest of the fighting had fallen on the
+battleships. A green rocket went up from the deck of the _Britain_, and
+was followed in about ten seconds by a blue one. The inner line of
+cruisers made a quarter turn to port, and began hammering into the
+crippled battleships and cruisers indiscriminately, while the
+_Leviathan_, _Good Hope_, _Powerful_ and _Terrible_ took stations
+between the Isle of Wight and the Sussex coast.
+
+The _Ithuriel_ rose to her three-foot freeboard, and put in some very
+pretty practice with her pneumatic guns on the topworks of the cruisers.
+The six-funnelled _Jeanne d'Arc_ got tired of this, and made a rush at
+her at her full speed of twenty-three knots, with the result that the
+_Ithuriel_ disappeared, and three minutes afterwards there came a shock
+under the great cruiser's stern which sent a shudder through her whole
+fabric. The engines whirled furiously until they stopped, and a couple
+of minutes later her captain recognised that she could neither steam nor
+steer. Meanwhile, the tide was setting strongly in towards Spithead, and
+the disabled ships were drifting with it, either to capture or
+destruction.
+
+The French centre had now, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
+Four out of six battleships were sunk, and one had surrendered, and the
+_Jeanne d'Arc_ had gone down.
+
+On the British side the _Hindustan_ had been sunk, and the _Dominion_,
+_Commonwealth_ and _Newfoundland_ very badly mauled, so badly indeed
+that it was a matter of dry-dock as quickly as possible for them. All
+the other battleships, including even the _Britain_ herself, were
+little better than wrecks to look at, so terrible had been the
+firestorms through which they had passed.
+
+But for the presence of the _Ithuriel_, the British loss would of course
+have been much greater. It is not too much to say that her achievements
+spread terror and panic among the French torpedo flotilla. Under
+ordinary circumstances they would have taken advantage of the confusion
+of the battleship action to attack the line of armoured cruisers behind,
+but between the two lines there was the ever-present destroying angel,
+as they came to call her, with her silent deadly guns, her unparalleled
+speed, and her terrible ram. No sooner did a destroyer or torpedo boat
+attempt to make for a cruiser, than a shell came hissing along the
+water, and blew the middle out of her, or the ram crashed through her
+sides, and sent her in two pieces to the bottom.
+
+The result was that when the last French cruiser had hauled down her
+flag, Admiral Beresford found himself in command of a fleet which was
+still in being. Of the French battleships the _Justice_ and the
+_Democratie_ were still serviceable, and of the cruisers, the _Jules
+Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_ were
+still in excellent fighting trim, although of course they were in no
+position to continue the struggle against the now overwhelming force of
+British battleships and armoured cruisers. This was what Admiral
+Beresford had fought for: to break the centre and put as many
+battleships as possible out of action. His orders had been to spare the
+cruisers as much as possible, because, he said, with a somewhat grim
+laugh, they might be useful later on.
+
+The idea of their escaping to sea through the double line of British
+cruisers, to say nothing of the _Ithuriel_, with her speed of over fifty
+miles an hour, and her ability to ram them in detail before they were
+halfway across the Channel, was entirely out of the question. To have
+attempted such a thing would have been simply a form of collective
+suicide, so the flags were hauled down, and all that was left of the
+fleet surrendered.
+
+Another circumstance which had placed the French fleet at a tremendous
+disadvantage was the absence of the three _Flying Fishes_, which were to
+have co-operated with the invading fleet, but of course neither Admiral
+Durenne, who had gone down with his ship, nor any other of his officers
+knew that the _Banshee_ had been blown up in mid-air, or that the
+_Ithuriel_ had destroyed the depot ship, and so forced Castellan, after
+his mad waste of ammunition in the destruction of Portsmouth, to wing
+his way to Kiel, with the _See Adler_, in order to replenish his
+magazines. Had those two amphibious craft been present at the battle,
+the issue might have been something very different.
+
+The whole fight had only taken a couple of hours from the firing of the
+first shot to the hauling down of the last flag. Admiral Beresford made
+direct for Portsmouth to get his lame ducks into dock if possible, and
+to discover the amount of damage done. As they steamed in through the
+Spithead Forts, flags went up all along the northern shore of the Isle
+of Wight, and the guns on the Spithead Forts and Fort Monckton, which
+the _Banshee_ had been commissioned to destroy, roared out a salute of
+welcome.
+
+The signal masts of the sunk battleships showed where their shattered
+hulls were lying, and as the _Britain_ led the way in between them, Lord
+Beresford rubbed his hands across his eyes, and said to his Commodore,
+who was standing on what was left of the navigating bridge:
+
+"Poor fellows, it was hardly fair fighting. We might have had something
+very like those infernal craft if we'd had men of decent brains at the
+War Office. Same old story--anything new must be wrong in Pall Mall.
+Still we've got something of our own back this morning. I hope we shall
+be able to use some of the docks; if I'm not afraid our lame ducks will
+have to crawl round to Devonport as best they can. The man in command of
+those airships must have been a perfect devil to destroy a defenceless
+town in this fashion. The worst of it is that if they can do this sort
+of thing here they can do it just as easily to London or Liverpool, or
+Manchester or any other city. I hope there won't be any more bad news
+when we get ashore."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+HOW THE FRENCH LANDED AT PORTSMOUTH
+
+
+All the ships able to take their place in the fighting-line were left
+outside. The French prisoners were disembarked and their places taken by
+drafts from the British warships, who at once set about making such
+repairs as were possible at sea. Admiral Beresford boarded the
+_Ithuriel_, which, until the next fight, he proposed to use as a
+despatch-boat, and ran up the harbour.
+
+He found every jetty, including the North and South Railway piers, mere
+masses of smoking ruins: but the Ordnance Depot on Priddy's Hard had
+somehow escaped, probably through the ignorance of the assailants. He
+landed at Sheer Jetty opposite Coaling Point, and before he was half-way
+up the steps a short, rather stout man, in the undress uniform of a
+General of Division, ran down and caught him by the hand. After him came
+a taller, slimmer man with eyes like gimlets and a skin wrinkled and
+tanned like Russian leather.
+
+The first of the two men was General Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief
+at Aldershot, and the second was General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander of
+the Southern Military District.
+
+"Bravo, Beresford!" said General French, quietly. "Scooped the lot,
+didn't you?"
+
+"All that aren't at the bottom of the Channel. Good-morning, Hamilton.
+I've heard that you're in a pretty bad way with your forts here,"
+replied the Admiral. "By the way, how are the docks? I've got a few lame
+ducks that want looking after badly."
+
+"We've just been having a look round," replied General Hamilton. "The
+town's in an awful state, as you can see. The Naval and Military
+barracks, and the Naval School are wrecked, and we haven't been able to
+save very much from the yards, but I don't think the docks are hurt
+much. The sweeps went more for the buildings. We can find room for half
+a dozen, I think, comfortably."
+
+"That's just about what I want," said the Admiral. "We've lost the
+_Hindustan_ and _New Zealand_. The _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_ are
+pretty badly mauled, and I've got half a dozen Frenchmen that would be
+all the better for a look over. The _Britain_, _Edward VII._, _Dominion_
+and _Commonwealth_ are quite seaworthy, although, as you see, they've
+had it pretty hot in their topworks. The cruiser squadron is practically
+untouched. We've got the _Verite_, _Justice_ and _Democratie_, but the
+_Verite_ has got her propellers and rudders smashed. By the way, that
+ship of Erskine's, the _Ithuriel_, has turned out a perfect demon. She
+smashed up the first attack, sank nine destroyers and two cruisers, one
+of them was that big chap the _Dupleix_, before we came on the scene.
+During the action she wiped out I don't know how many destroyers and
+torpedo boats, sank the _Jeanne d'Arc_ and saved my ship from being
+rammed by crippling the _Verite_ just in the nick of time. If we only
+had a squadron of those boats and made Erskine Commodore, we'd wipe the
+fleets of Europe out in a month. Now that's my news. What's yours?"
+
+"Bad enough," replied General French. "A powerful combined fleet of
+Germans and French, helped by some of these infernal things that seem as
+much at home in the air as they are in the water, are making a combined
+attack on Dover, and we seem to be getting decidedly the worst of it.
+Dover Castle is in flames, and nearly all the forts are in a bad way; so
+are the harbour fortifications. The Russians and Dutch are approaching
+London with a string of transports behind them, and four airships above
+them. Their objectives are supposed to be Tilbury and Woolwich on one
+hand, and Chatham on the other. By the way, weren't there any transports
+behind this French Fleet that you've settled up with?"
+
+He had scarcely uttered the last word when a helio began to twinkle from
+the hill above Foreland.
+
+"That's bad news," said the Admiral, "but wait now, there's something
+else. It's a good job the sun's come out, though it doesn't look very
+healthy."
+
+The message that the helio twinkled out was as follows:
+
+
+     "Thirty large vessels, apparently transports, approaching from
+     direction of Cherbourg and Brest about ten miles south-east by
+     south."
+
+
+"Very good," said the Admiral, rubbing his hands. "Of course they think
+we're beaten. I've got five French cruisers that they'll recognise. I'll
+get crews aboard them at once and convoy those transports in, and the
+Commanders will be about the most disgusted men in Europe when they get
+here."
+
+Acting on the principle that all is fair in love and war, Admiral
+Beresford and the two Generals laid as pretty a trap for the French
+transports as the wit of man ever devised. Ten minutes' conversation
+among them sufficed to arrange matters. Then the Admiral, taking a list
+of the serviceable docks with him, went back on board the _Ithuriel_ and
+ran out to the Fleet. He handed over the work of taking care of the lame
+ducks to Commodore Courtney of the _Britain_; then from the damaged
+British ships he made up the crews of the French cruisers, the _Jules
+Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_, _Victor Hugo_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. He
+took command of the squadron on board the _Victor Hugo_, and to the
+amazement of officers and men alike, he ordered the Tricolor to be
+hoisted. At the same time, the White Ensign fluttered down from all the
+British ships that were not being taken into the dockyard and was
+replaced by the Tricolor. A few minutes afterward the French flag rose
+over Fort Monckton and upon a pole mast which had been put up amidst
+the ruins of Southsea Castle.
+
+The French prisoners of course saw the ruse and knew that its very
+daring and impudence would command success. Some of them wrung their
+hands and danced in fury, others wept, and others cursed to the full
+capability of the French language, but there was no help for it. What
+was left of Portsmouth was already occupied by twenty thousand men of
+all arms from the Southern Division. The prisoners were disarmed and
+their ships were in the hands of the enemy to do what they pleased with,
+and so in helpless rage they watched the squadron of cruisers steam out
+to meet the transports, flying the French flag and manned by British
+crews. It meant either the most appalling carnage, or the capture of the
+First French Expeditionary Force consisting of fifty thousand men, ten
+thousand horses, and two hundred guns.
+
+The daringly original stratagem was made all the easier of achievement
+by the fact that the Commanders of the French transports, counting upon
+the assistance of the airships and the enormous strength of the naval
+force which had been launched against Portsmouth, had taken victory for
+granted, and when the first line came in sight of land, and officers and
+men saw the smoke-cloud that was still hanging over what twenty-four
+hours before had been the greatest of British strongholds, cheer after
+cheer went up. Portsmouth was destroyed and therefore the French Fleet
+must have been victorious. All that they had to do, therefore, was to
+steam in and take possession of what was left. At last, after all these
+centuries, the invasion of England had been accomplished, and Waterloo
+and Trafalgar avenged!
+
+Happily, in the turmoil of the fight and the suddenness in which the
+remains of the French Fleet had been forced to surrender, the captain of
+the _Victor Hugo_ had forgotten to sink his Code Book. The result was
+that when the cruiser squadron steamed out in two divisions to meet the
+transports, the French private signal, "Complete victory--welcome,"
+was flying from the signalyard of the _Victor Hugo_. Again a mighty
+cheer thundered out from the deck of every transport. The cruisers
+saluted the transports with seventeen guns, and then the two divisions
+swung out to right and left, and took their stations on either flank of
+the transports.
+
+And so, all unsuspecting, they steamed into Spithead, and when they saw
+the British ships lying at anchor, flying the Tricolor and the same flag
+waving over Fort Monckton and Southsea Castle, as well as from half a
+dozen other flagstaffs about the dockyards, there could be no doubt as
+to the magnitude and completeness of the victory which the French Fleet
+had gained, and moreover, were not those masts showing above the waters
+of Spithead, the masts of sunken British battleships.
+
+Field-Marshal Purdin de Trevillion, Commander of the Expeditionary
+Force, accompanied by his staff, was on board the Messageries liner
+_Australien_, and led the column of transports. In perfect confidence he
+led the way in between the Spithead Forts, which also flew the Tricolor
+and saluted him as he went past. As the other vessels of the great
+flotilla followed in close order, Fort Monckton and the rest of the
+warships saluted; and then as the last transport entered the narrow
+waters, a very strange thing happened. The cruisers that had dropped
+behind spread themselves out in a long line behind the forts; the
+British ships slipped their moorings and steamed out from Stokes Bay and
+made a line across to Ryde. Destroyers and torpedo boats suddenly dotted
+the water with their black shapes, appearing as though from nowhere;
+then came down every Tricolor on fort and ship, and the White Ensign ran
+up in its place, and the same moment, the menacing guns swung round and
+there was the French flotilla, unarmed and crowded with men, caught like
+a flock of sheep between two packs of wolves.
+
+Every transport stopped as if by common instinct. The French Marshal
+turned white to the lips. His hands went up in a gesture of despair,
+and he gasped to his second-in-command, who was standing beside him:
+
+"Mon Dieu! Nous sommes trahis! Ces sacres perfides Anglais! We are
+helpless, like rats in a trap. With us it is finished, we can neither
+fight nor escape."
+
+While he was speaking, the huge bulk of the _Britain_ steamed slowly
+towards the _Australien_, flying the signal "Do you surrender?" Within
+five hundred yards, the huge guns in her forward barbette swung round
+and the muzzles sank until the long chases pointed at the _Australien's_
+waterline. The Field-Marshal knew full well that it only needed the
+touch of a finger on a button to smash the _Australien_ into fragments,
+and he knew too that the first shot from the flagship would be the
+signal for the whole Fleet to open fire, and that would mean massacre
+unspeakable. He was as brave a man as ever wore a uniform, but he knew
+that on the next words he should speak the lives of fifty thousand men
+depended. He took one more look round the ring of steel which enclosed
+him on every side, and then with livid lips and grinding teeth gave the
+order for the flag to be hauled down. The next moment he unbuckled his
+sword and hurled it into the sea; then with a deep groan he dropped
+fainting to the deck.
+
+It would be useless to attempt to describe the fury and mortification
+with which the officers and men of the French Force saw the flags one by
+one flutter down from end to end of the long line of transports, but it
+was plain even to the rawest conscript that there was no choice save
+between surrender and massacre. They cursed and stamped about the decks
+or sat down and cried, according to temperament, and that, under the
+circumstances, was about all they could do.
+
+Meanwhile, a steam pinnace came puffing out from the harbour, and in a
+few minutes General French was standing on the promenade deck of the
+_Australien_. The Field Marshal had already been carried below. A
+grey-haired officer in the uniform of a general came forward with his
+sword in his hand and said in excellent English, but with a shake in his
+voice:
+
+"You are General French, I presume? Our Commander, Field-Marshal Purdin
+de Trevillion had such an access of anger when he found how we had been
+duped that he flung his sword into the sea. He then fainted, and is
+still unconscious. You will, therefore, perhaps accept my sword instead
+of his."
+
+General French touched the hilt with his hand, and said:
+
+"Keep it. General Devignes, and I hope your officers will do the same. I
+will accept your parole for all of them. You are the Field-Marshal's
+Chief-of-Staff, I believe, and therefore, of course, your word is his. I
+am very sorry to hear of his illness."
+
+"You have my word," replied General Devignes, "for myself and those of
+my officers who may be willing to give their parole, but for those who
+prefer to remain prisoners I cannot, of course, answer."
+
+"Of course not," replied General French, with a rather provoking genial
+smile. "Now I will trouble you to take your ships into the harbour. I
+will put a guard on each as she passes; meanwhile, your men will pile
+arms and get ready to disembark. We cannot offer you much of a welcome,
+I'm afraid, for those airships of yours have almost reduced Portsmouth
+to ruins, to say nothing of sending ten of our battleships and cruisers
+to the bottom. I can assure you, General, that the losses are not all on
+your side."
+
+"No, General," replied the Frenchman, "but for the present, at least,
+the victory is on yours."
+
+Then transport after transport filed into the harbour, and General
+Hamilton and his staff took charge of the disembarkation. Six of the
+British lame ducks had been got safely into dock, and every available
+man was slaving away in deadly earnest to repair the damage done in
+those terrible two hours. Repairs were also being carried out as
+rapidly as possible on the cruisers and battleships lying in Spithead,
+and as shipload after shipload of the disarmed French soldiers were
+landed, they were set to work, first at clearing up the dockyards and
+getting them into something like working order, and then clearing up the
+ruins of the three towns.
+
+The news of Admiral Beresford's magnificent coup had already reached
+London, and the reply had come back terse and to the point:
+
+
+     "Excellently well done. Congratulate Admiral Beresford and all
+     concerned. We are hard pressed at Dover, and London is threatened.
+     Send _Ithuriel_ to Dover as soon as possible, and let her come on
+     here when she has given any possible help. Land and sea defence of
+     south and south-east at discretion of yourself, Domville and
+     Beresford.                                             CONNAUGHT."
+
+
+By some miracle, the Keppel's Head, perhaps the most famous naval
+hostelry in the south of England, had escaped the shells from the
+airships, and so General French had made it his headquarters for the
+time being. Sir Compton Domville had received a rather serious injury
+from a splinter in the left arm during the destruction of the Naval
+Barracks, but he had had his wounds dressed and insisted, against the
+advice of the doctors, in driving down to the Hard and talking matters
+over with General French. They were discussing the disposition of the
+French prisoners and the huge amount of war material which had been
+captured, when the telegram was delivered. They had scarcely read it
+when there was a knock at the door and an orderly entered, and said:
+
+"Captain Erskine, of the _Ithuriel_, would be pleased to see the General
+when he's at liberty."
+
+"The very man!" said General French. "This is the young gentleman," he
+continued, turning to Admiral Domville, "who practically saved us from
+two torpedo attacks, won the Fleet action for us, and saved Beresford
+from being rammed at the moment of victory."
+
+The door opened again, and Erskine came in. He saluted and said:
+
+"General, if I may suggest it, I shall not be much more use here, and my
+lieutenant, Denis Castellan, has just had a telegram from his aunt and
+sister, who are in London, saying that things are pretty bad there. I
+fancy I might be of some use if you would let me go, sir."
+
+"Let you go!" laughed the General. "Why, my dear sir, you've got to go.
+Here's a telegram that I've just had from His Royal Highness the
+Commander-in-Chief, saying that Dover and London are in a bad way, and
+telling me to send you round at once. When can you start?"
+
+"Well, sir," replied Erskine, after a moment's thought, "we're not
+injured in any way, but it will take a couple of hours, I'm afraid, to
+replenish our motive power, and fill up with shell, and added to that, I
+should like to have a good overhaul of the machinery."
+
+"Just listen to that, now!" exclaimed Admiral Beresford, who had entered
+the room while he was speaking. "Here's a man who has done nearly as
+much single-handed as the rest of us put together and fought through as
+stiff a Fleet action as the hungriest fire-eater in the navy wants to
+see, and tells you he isn't injured, while half of us are knocked to
+scrap-iron. I wish we had fifty _Ithuriels_, there'd be very little
+landing on English shores."
+
+"I don't think you have very much to complain of in the French landing
+at Portsmouth, Beresford," laughed Sir Compton Domville. "I don't want
+to flatter you, but it was an absolute stroke of genius. We shall have
+to set those fellows to work on the forts and yards, and get some guns
+into position again. It isn't exactly what they came for but they'll
+come in very useful. But that can wait. Here's the wire from the
+Commander-in-Chief. Captain Erskine, you are to get round to Dover and
+London as soon as possible, and, I presume, do all the damage you can on
+the way. General French is going to London as soon as a special can be
+got ready for him."
+
+"May I ask a great favour, sir?" said Erskine.
+
+"Anything, after what you've done," replied Sir Compton. "What is it?"
+
+General French and Lord Beresford nodded in agreement, and Erskine
+continued, addressing Lord Beresford: "That Mr Lennard, whom your
+lordship met on board the _Ithuriel_, has given me the formula of a new
+high explosive. Absurdly simple, but simply terrific in its effect. I
+made up half a dozen shells with it and tried them. I gave the _Dupleix_
+three rounds. They seem to reduce steel to dust, and, as far as we could
+see every man on the decks dropped as if he had been struck by
+lightning. From what we have done with them I think they will be of
+enormous value. Now Mr Lennard is very anxious to get to London and the
+north of England, and if General French could find him a place in his
+special--"
+
+"My dear sir," interrupted the General, "I shall be only too delighted
+to know your maker of thunderbolts. Is he here now?"
+
+"Yes, sir, he's in the smoking-room with Lieutenant Castellan. And that
+reminds me, if I am to go to London, I hope you will allow me to hand
+over the German spy that we caught here as soon as convenient."
+
+"Bring them both in," said General French. "Sir Compton and General
+Hamilton will court-martial your spy this morning, and, I hope, shoot
+him this evening."
+
+Within an hour, Lennard, who had something more serious now to think
+about than even war, was flying away Londonwards in General French's
+special, with a letter of introduction from Denis Castellan to his aunt
+and sister, and an hour after the special had started, the _Ithuriel_
+had cleared the narrow waters and was tearing up the Channel at fifty
+miles an hour, to see what havoc she could work on the assailants of
+London and Dover.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AWAY FROM THE WARPATH
+
+
+When Lennard entered the little drawing-room in the house in Westbourne
+Terrace, where Norah Castellan and her aunt were staying, he had decided
+to do something which, without his knowing it, probably made a very
+considerable difference in his own fortunes and those of two or three
+other people.
+
+During his brief but exciting experiences on board the _Ithuriel_, he
+had formed a real friendship for both Erskine and Castellan, and he had
+come to the conclusion that Denis's sister and aunt would be very much
+safer in the remote seclusion of Whernside than in a city which might
+within the next few days share the fate of Portsmouth and Gosport. He
+was instantly confirmed in this resolution when Mrs O'Connor and her
+niece came into the room. Never had he seen a more perfect specimen of
+the Irishwoman, who is a lady by Nature's own patent of nobility, than
+Mrs O'Connor, and, with of course one exception, never had he seen such
+a beautiful girl as Norah Castellan.
+
+He was friends with them in half an hour, and inside an hour he had
+accepted their invitation to dine and sleep at the house and help them
+to get ready for their unexpected journey to the North the next morning.
+
+He went back to the Grand and got his portmanteau and Gladstone bag and
+returned to Westbourne Terrace in time for afternoon tea. Meanwhile, he
+had bought the early copies of all the evening papers and read up the
+condition of things in London, which, in the light of his experiences at
+Portsmouth, did not appear to him to be in any way promising. He gave
+Norah and her aunt a full, true and particular account of the assault on
+Portsmouth, the doings of the _Ithuriel_, the great Fleet action, and
+the brilliant _ruse de guerre_ which Admiral Beresford had used to
+capture the First French Army Corps that had landed in England--and
+landed as prisoners.
+
+The news in the afternoon papers, coupled with what he already knew of
+the tactics of the enemy, impressed Lennard so gravely that he succeeded
+in persuading Mrs O'Connor and Norah to leave London by the midnight
+sleeping-car train from St Pancras for Whernside, since no one knew at
+what time during the night John Castellan or his lieutenants might not
+order an indiscriminate bombardment of London from the air. He was also
+very anxious, for reasons of his own, to get back to his work at the
+observatory and make his preparations for the carrying out of an
+undertaking compared with which the war, terrible as it was and would
+be, could only be considered as the squabblings of children or lunatics.
+
+His task was not one of aggression or conquest, but of salvation, and
+the enemy he was going to fight was an invader not of states or
+countries, but of a whole world, and unless the assault of this invader
+from the outer wilderness of Space were repelled, the result would not
+be merely the destruction of ships and fortresses, or the killing of a
+few hundreds or thousands of men on the battlefield; it would mean
+nothing less than a holocaust which would involve the whole human race,
+and the simultaneous annihilation of all that the genius of man had so
+laboriously accumulated during the slow, uncounted ages of his progress
+from the brute to the man.
+
+They left the train at Settle at six o'clock the next morning, and were
+at once taken charge of by the station-master, who had had his
+instructions by telephone from the Parmenter mansion on the slopes of
+Great Whernside. He conducted them at once to the Midland Hotel, where
+they found a suite of apartments, luxuriously furnished, with fires
+blazing in the grates, and everything looking very cosy under the soft
+glow of the shaded electric lights. Baths were ready and breakfast would
+be on the table at seven. At eight, Mr Parmenter, who practically owned
+this suite of rooms, would drive over with Miss Parmenter in a couple of
+motor-cars and take the party to the house.
+
+"Sure, then," said Mrs O'Connor, when the arrangements had been
+explained to her, "it must be very comfortable to have all the money to
+buy just what you want, and make everything as easy as all this, and
+it's yourself, Mr Lennard, we have to thank for making us the guests of
+a millionaire, when neither Norah nor myself have so much as seen one.
+Is he a very great man, this Mr Parmenter? It seems to me to be
+something like going to dine with a duke."
+
+"My dear Mrs O'Connor," laughed Lennard, "I can assure you that you will
+find this master of millions one of Nature's own gentlemen. Although he
+can make men rich or poor by a stroke of his pen, and, with a few others
+like him, wield such power as was never in the hands of kings, you
+wouldn't know him from a plain English country gentleman if it wasn't
+for his American accent, and there's not very much of that."
+
+"And his daughter, Miss Auriole, what's she like?" said Norah. "A
+beauty, of course."
+
+Lennard flushed somewhat suspiciously, and a keen glance of Norah's
+Irish eyes read the meaning of that flush in an instant.
+
+"Miss Parmenter is considered to be very beautiful," he replied, "and I
+must confess that I share the general opinion."
+
+"I thought so," said Norah, with a little nod that had a great deal of
+meaning in it. "Now, I suppose we'd better go and change, or we'll be
+late for breakfast. I certainly don't want the beautiful Miss Parmenter
+to see me in this state for the first time."
+
+"My dear Miss Castellan, I can assure you that you have not the
+faintest reason to fear any comparison that might be made," laughed
+Lennard as he left the room and went to have his tub.
+
+Punctually at eight a double "Toot-toot" sounded from the street in
+front of the main entrance to the hotel. Norah ran to the window and saw
+two splendidly-appointed Napier cars--although, of course, she didn't
+know a Napier from a Darracq. Something in female shape with peaked cap
+and goggles, gauntleted and covered from head to foot in a heavy fur
+coat, got out of the first car, and another shape, rather shorter but
+almost similarly clad, got out of the second. Five minutes later there
+was a knock at the door of the breakfast-room. It opened, and Norah saw
+what the cap and the goggles and the great fur coat had hidden. During
+the next few seconds, two of the most beautiful girls in the two
+hemispheres looked at each other, as only girls and women can look. Then
+Auriole put out both her hands and said, quite simply:
+
+"You are Norah Castellan. I hope we shall be good friends. If we're not,
+I'm afraid it will be my fault."
+
+Norah took her hands and said:
+
+"I think it would more likely be mine, after what Mr Lennard has been
+telling us of yourself and your father."
+
+At this moment Lennard saved the situation as far as he was concerned by
+making the other introductions, and Mrs O'Connor took the hand which
+wielded the terrible power of millions and experienced a curious sort of
+surprise at finding that it was just like other hands, and that the
+owner of it was bending over hers with one of those gestures of simple
+courtesy which are the infallible mark of the American gentleman. In a
+few minutes they were all as much at home together as though they had
+known each other for weeks. Then came the preparation of Norah and her
+aunt for the motor ride, and then the ride itself.
+
+The sun had risen clearly, and there was a decided nip of frost in the
+keen Northern air. The roads were hard and clean, and the
+twenty-five-mile run over them, winding through the valleys and climbing
+the ridges with the heather-clad, rock-crowned hills on all sides, now
+sliding down a slope or shooting along a level, or taking a rise in what
+seemed a flying leap, was by far the most wonderful experience that
+Norah and her aunt had ever had.
+
+Auriole drove the first car, and had Norah sitting beside her on the
+front seat. Her aunt and the mechanician were sitting in the tonneau
+behind. Mr Parmenter drove the second car with Lennard beside him. His
+tonneau was filled with luggage.
+
+At the end of the eighteenth mile the cars, going at a quite illegal
+speed, jumped a ridge between two heather-clad moors, which in South
+Africa would have been called a nek, and dived down along a white road
+leading into a broad forest track, sunlit now, but bordered on either
+side by the twilight of towering pines and firs through which the
+sunlight filtered only in little flakes, which lay upon the last year's
+leaves and cones, somewhat as an electric light might have fallen on a
+monkish manuscript of the thirteenth century.
+
+Then came two more miles on hard, well-kept roads, so perfectly graded
+that the upward slope was hardly perceptible.
+
+"We're on our own ground now and I guess I'll let her out," said Miss
+Auriole. "Don't be frightened, Norah. These things look big and strong,
+but it's quite wonderful what they'll do when there's a bit of human
+sense running them. See that your goggles are right and twist your veil
+in a bit tighter, I'm going to give you a new sensation."
+
+She waved her hand to her father in the car behind and put on the fourth
+speed lever, and said: "Hold tight now."
+
+Norah nodded, for she could hardly breathe as it was. Then the pines and
+firs on either side of the broad drive melted into a green-grey blur.
+The road under them was like a rapidly unwinding ribbon. The hilltops
+which showed above the trees rose up now to the right hand and now to
+the left, as the car swung round the curves. Every now and then Norah
+looked at the girl beside her, controlling the distance-devouring
+monster with one hand on a little wheel, her left foot on a pedal and
+her right hand ready to work the levers if necessary.
+
+The two miles of the drive from the gates to the front door of Whernside
+House, a long, low-lying two-storeyed, granite-built house, which was
+about as good a combination of outward solidity and indoor comfort as
+you could find in the British Islands, was covered in two and a half
+minutes, and the car pulled up, as Norah thought, almost at full speed
+and stopped dead in front of the steps leading up from the broad road to
+the steps leading up to the terrace which ran along the whole southward
+front of Whernside House.
+
+"I reckon, Miss Castellan--"
+
+"If you say Miss Castellan, I shall get back to Settle by the first
+conveyance that I can hire."
+
+"Now, that's just nice of you, Norah. What I was going to say, if I
+hadn't made that mistake, was, that this would be about the first time
+that you had covered two miles along a road at fifty miles an hour, and
+that's what you've just done. Pretty quick, isn't it? Oh, there's Lord
+Westerham on the terrace! Come for lunch, I suppose. He's a very great
+man here, you know. Lord-Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire,
+fought through the Boer War, got made a Colonel by some miracle when he
+was only about twenty-eight, went to Lhassa, and now he's something like
+Commander-in-Chief of the Yeomanry and Volunteers round here--and
+without anything of that sort, he's just about the best sort of man you
+want to meet. Come along, I'll introduce you."
+
+The two cars stopped at the steps leading up to the terrace, a man in
+khaki, with a stretch of a dozen ribbons across the left side of his
+tunic, came bareheaded down the steps and opened the side door of
+Auriole's motor-car. Auriole pushed her goggles up and held out her
+gauntleted hand, and said:
+
+"What! Lord Westerham! Well now, this is nice of you. Come to lunch, of
+course. And how's the recruiting going on?"
+
+Then without waiting for a reply, she went on: "Norah, dear, this is
+Lord Westerham, Lord-Lieutenant of this part of the County of York,
+Colonel commanding the West Riding Yeomanry and lots of other things
+that I don't understand."
+
+Norah pushed her goggles up and tilted her hat back. Auriole saw a flash
+of recognition pass like lightning between their eyes. She noticed that
+Norah's cheeks were a little bit brighter than even the speed of the car
+could account for. She saw, too, that there was a flush under the tan of
+Lord Westerham's face, and to her these were signs of great comfort.
+
+"I don't know how this particular miracle has been arranged," said Lord
+Westerham, as he gave his hand to Norah and took her out of the car,
+"but a re-introduction is, if you will allow me to say so, Miss
+Parmenter, rather superfluous. I have known Miss Castellan for quite two
+years, at least, I had the pleasure of meeting her in Connemara, and we
+have fished and shot and sailed together until we became almost
+friends."
+
+Auriole's eyes, observant at all times, had been working hard during the
+last two or three minutes, and in those few minutes she had learned a
+great deal. Arthur Lennard, who also had his eyes wide open, had learnt
+in his own slow, masculine way about as much, and perhaps a little more.
+He and Lord Westerham had been school-fellows and college chums and good
+friends for years, but of late a shadow had come between them, and it's
+hardly necessary to say that it was the shadow of a woman. He knew
+perfectly well by this time that Lord Westerham was, in the opinion of
+Mr Parmenter, the husband-designate, one might say, of Auriole. Young as
+he was, he already had a distinguished record as a soldier and an
+administrator, but he was also heir to one of the oldest Marquisates in
+England with a very probable reversion to a dukedom.
+
+This was what he had been thinking of that night in the observatory when
+he told Auriole of the fate that was approaching the world. No one knew
+better than he how brilliant a figure she would make in Society as the
+Marchioness of Westerham, granted always that the Anglo-Saxon would do
+now as he had ever done, fling the invader back upon his own shores or
+into the sea which he had crossed: but that swift flash of recognition
+seen as his car came up behind Auriole's, and the slight but most
+significant change which had come over the features of both of them as
+he handed her out of the car, had instantly banished the shadow and made
+him a happier man than he had been for a good many months past.
+
+Still he was one of those hard-headed, practical men who rightly
+consider that the very worst enemy either to friendship between man and
+man, or love between man and woman, is an unexplained misunderstanding,
+and so in that moment he decided to "have it out" with his lordship on
+the first possible opportunity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE PERIL
+
+
+The morning was spent in a general overhaul of the observatory and the
+laboratory in which Lennard had discovered and perfected the explosive
+which had been used with such deadly effect in the guns of the
+_Ithuriel_. Lunch was an entirely delightful meal, and when it was over
+Auriole took Mrs O'Connor and Norah up to her own particular domain in
+the house to indulge in that choicest of feminine luxuries, a good long
+talk. Mr Parmenter excused himself and disappeared into his study to get
+ready for the evening mail, and so Lord Westerham and Lennard were left
+to their own devices for a couple of hours or so. This was just what
+Lennard wanted, and so he proposed a stroll and a smoke in the Park.
+
+They lit their cigars and walked for a few minutes along a pine-shaded
+path. His lordship had an intuitive idea that his companion had
+something to say to him--albeit he was very far from imagining what that
+something was to be--and so he thought he had better let him begin. When
+they were out of sight or hearing of anyone, Lennard slowed down his
+pace a little and said somewhat abruptly:
+
+"Westerham, I am going to ask you a question which you will probably
+think a rather impertinent one, and, moreover, whether you choose to
+answer it or not, I hope you will not for the present ask me why I ask
+it. Now there are a good many 'asks' in that, but as the matter is
+somewhat important to both of us, I wanted to put the thing plainly,
+even at the expense of a little tautology."
+
+Lord Westerham, in addition to being a gentleman and a soldier, was also
+one of the most frankly open-minded men that another honest man could
+wish to have anything to do with, and so, after a long pull at his
+cigar, he looked round and said:
+
+"My dear Lennard, we were school-fellows once, and we managed to worry
+through Cambridge together--you with a great deal more kudos than I
+did--and we have been very good friends since, so there can't be any
+question of impertinence between us, although there might be some
+unpleasantness for one or both of us. But, anyhow, whatever it is, out
+with it. Honestly, I don't think you could offend me if you tried."
+
+"That's just what I thought you would say," replied Lennard. "And I
+think you are about the only man I should like to ask such a question;
+but after what you've just said I'll put it just as shortly as it can be
+made."
+
+"And the question is?" asked Lord Westerham, blowing a long stream of
+blue smoke up through the still air towards the tops of the pine trees.
+
+There was a little pause, during which Lennard bit off about half an
+inch of the end of his cigar, spat it out, and took two or three more
+puffs from what was left. Then he said, in a dry, almost harsh tone:
+
+"The question is quite a short one, Westerham, and you can answer it by
+a simple yes or no. It's just this: Do you intend to make Miss Parmenter
+Marchioness of Westerham or not? Other things of course being equal, as
+we used to say at school."
+
+Somewhat to Lennard's astonishment, Lord Westerham's cigar shot from his
+lips like a torpedo from a tube, and after it came an explosion of
+laughter, which fully accounted for its sudden ejectment. His lordship
+leant up against a convenient pine and laughed till he was almost
+speechless.
+
+"What the devil's the matter with you, Westerham?" said Lennard, with a
+note of anger in his voice. "You'll excuse my saying so, but it seems
+hardly a question for a sort of explosion like that. I have been asking
+you a question which, as you might have seen, concerns me rather
+closely."
+
+Lord Westerham sobered down at once, although his voice was still
+somewhat tremulous with suppressed laughter when he said:
+
+"My dear chap, I'm very sorry. It was beastly rude of me to laugh, but
+I'm quite sure you'll forgive me when you know the facts or, at least,
+_the_ fact, and that is as follows, as they say in the newspapers. When
+I tell you that your sweetheart drove my sweetheart up to the house
+to-day from Settle--"
+
+"What, Norah Castellan!" exclaimed Lennard. "I didn't even know that you
+had met her before."
+
+"Haven't I!" replied Lord Westerham. "Look here, it was this way."
+
+And then he began a story of a fishing and shooting trip to Connemara,
+where he had rented certain salmon streams and shooting moors from a
+squire of the county, named Lismore, who was very much in love with
+Norah Castellan, and how he had fished and shot and yachted with her and
+the brother who had sold his diabolical inventions to the enemies of
+England, until he had come to love the sister as much as he hated the
+brother. And when he had done, Lennard told him of the swimming race in
+Clifden Bay, and many other things to which Lord Westerham listened with
+an interest which grew more and more intense as every minute passed;
+until when Lennard stopped, he crossed the road and held out his hand
+and said:
+
+"I've got the very place to suit you. A cannel-coal mine near Bolton in
+Lancashire with a perpendicular shaft, twelve hundred feet deep. The
+very place to do your work. It's yours from to-day, and if the thing
+comes off, Papa Parmenter shall give a couple of hundred thousand dowry
+instead of buying the mine. I don't think he'll kick at that. Now, let's
+go back and have a whisky-and-soda. I've got to be off recruiting
+to-morrow."
+
+"I wish I could join the Yeomanry and come with you, if you would have
+me," laughed Lennard, whose spirits had been rising rapidly during the
+last half-hour or so, "only I reckon, as Mr Parmenter would put it, that
+I shall have all my work cut out getting ready to give our celestial
+invader a warm reception. To begin with, it won't exactly be child's
+play building a cannon twelve hundred feet long."
+
+"I wonder what they'd think of a proposition like that at the War
+Office?" laughed Lord Westerham in reply. "Several permanent officials
+would certainly faint on the spot."
+
+A sharp frost set in during the night, and the sky was brilliantly
+clear. After dinner, when the ladies had left the table, Lennard said to
+Mr Parmenter:
+
+"I am going to renew my acquaintance with our celestial visitor
+to-night. I shall want a couple of hours to run over my calculations and
+verify the position of the comet up to date; and then, say at eleven
+o'clock, I should like you and Lord Westerham to come up to the
+observatory and have a somewhat serious talk."
+
+The owner of the great reflector looked up quickly over his wine-glass
+and said:
+
+"Look here, Mr Lennard, I guess this poor old country of yours has about
+enough serious matters on hand just now without worrying about comets.
+What's the trouble now?"
+
+"My dear sir," replied Lennard, gravely, "this is a matter which not
+only England, but every other country in the world, will have to trouble
+about before very long."
+
+"Say, that sounds pretty serious," said Mr Parmenter. "What's the worry
+with this old comet of yours, anyhow?"
+
+Lord Westerham smiled, and Lennard could not help smiling too as he
+replied:
+
+"It is too long a story to tell now, sir, and what is more, I cannot
+tell it until I have reverified my observations and figures, and,
+besides, the ladies will be expecting us. I shall be quite ready for you
+by eleven. By the way, I haven't told you yet that those shells were a
+perfect success, from our point of view, at least. It seems rather
+curious how that all came about, I must say. Here's Denis Castellan, the
+brother of the traitor, a British naval officer, and like his sister an
+acquaintance of Westerham's. I discover the explosive, tell you about
+it, you tell Westerham, and send me off to try it on the _Ithuriel_, and
+here I come back from London with Miss Castellan and her aunt."
+
+"Quite an excellent arrangement of things on the part of the Fates,"
+remarked Lord Westerham, with a meaning which Mr Parmenter did not
+understand.
+
+"Why, yes," said their host, "quite like a piece out of a story, isn't
+it? And so that explosive got its work in all right, Mr Lennard?"
+
+"As far as we could see," replied Lennard. "It tore steel armour into
+shreds as if it had been cardboard, and didn't leave a living thing
+anywhere within several yards of the focus of the explosion. Erskine and
+Castellan are filling up with it, and I expect we shall hear something
+about it from London before long. I am glad to say that Lord Beresford
+told me that after what he had seen of our fire, Government and private
+gun factories were going to work night and day turning out pneumatic
+guns to use it. The effect of it on land if a battery once gets within
+reach of large masses of men will be something frightful."
+
+"Sounds pretty useful," said Lord Westerham, who was one of those
+soldiers who rightly believe that the most merciless methods of waging
+war are in the end most merciful.
+
+By nine o'clock Lennard was in the equatorial chamber of the
+observatory, taking his first observations since he had left for
+Portsmouth the week before. The ghostly shape pictured on the great
+reflector was bigger and brighter now, although, to his great comfort,
+none of the scientific papers had made any mention of its discovery by
+other observers. When he had noted its exact position, he went to his
+desk and plunged into a maze of calculations.
+
+Precisely at eleven there was a tap at the door and Mr Parmenter and
+Lord Westerham came in. Lord Westerham, as the guest, had the first look
+at the approaching World Peril; then Mr Parmenter took a long squint
+into the eye-piece and then they sat down, and Lennard told Mr
+Parmenter, in the cold, precise language of science, the story which he
+had already told to Auriole and Lord Westerham.
+
+The millionaire, who had listened with an attention that even he had
+never given to any subject before, smoked in silence for a few moments
+after Lennard had finished, and then he said quietly:
+
+"Well, I reckon that's about the biggest order that two or three human
+beings have ever been called upon to fill. One thing's certain. It'd
+make these fighting fellows feel pretty foolish if they could be got to
+believe it, which they couldn't. No disrespect to you, Lord Westerham,
+because I take it you do believe it."
+
+"Certainly I do," he replied. "Lennard was never known to make a mistake
+in figures, and I am perfectly certain that he would not make any in
+working out such a terrific problem as this. I think I may also say that
+I have equal confidence in his plan for saving humanity from the
+terrible fate which threatens it."
+
+"That's good hearing," said Mr Parmenter, drily. "Personally, I don't
+quite feel that I've finished up with this old world yet, and if it's a
+question of dollars--as far as I'm concerned, as I've got a few millions
+hanging around loose, I might as well use them to help to save the human
+race from being burnt to death as to run corners and trusts, which
+won't be much use anyhow if we can't stop this comet, or whatever it is.
+Now, Mr Lennard, what's your plan for the scientific salvation of the
+world?"
+
+"There is nothing new about the idea," replied Lennard, "except its
+application to the present circumstances. Of course you have read Jules
+Verne's _Journey to the Moon_? Well, my plan is simply to do the same
+thing on a much bigger scale, only instead of firing men and dogs and
+chickens out of my cannon, I am going to fire something like a ton and a
+half of explosives.
+
+"The danger is in the contact of the nucleus of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere. If that can be prevented there is no further cause
+for alarm; so, to put the matter quite shortly, my projectile will have
+an initial velocity of ten miles a second, and therefore a range that is
+practically infinite, for that velocity will carry it beyond the sphere
+of the earth's attraction.
+
+"Hence, if the gun is properly trained and fired at precisely the right
+moment, and if the fuse does its work, the projectile will pass into the
+nucleus of the comet, and, before the heat has time to melt the shell,
+the charge will explode and the nucleus--the only dangerous part--will
+either be blown to fragments or dissipated in gas. Therefore, instead of
+what I might be allowed to call a premature Day of Judgment, we shall
+simply have a magnificent display of celestial fireworks, which will
+probably amount to nothing more than an unparalleled shower of shooting
+stars, as they are popularly called.
+
+"The details of the experiment will be practically the same as those
+Jules Verne described--I mean as regards the making and firing of the
+cannon--only, as we haven't time to get a big enough hole dug, I should
+strongly advise the acceptance of Lord Westerham's very opportune
+offer."
+
+"That's so," said Mr Parmenter, quietly, "but I've got a sort of fancy
+for running this business myself. My reflector discovered this comet,
+thanks, of course, to the good use you made of it, and it seems to me
+that I'm in a way responsible for making it harmless if that can be
+done, and so I'm not disposed to take that convenient colliery as a gift
+from anyone, no, not even you, Lord Westerham. You see, my lord, all
+that I can do here is just finding the dollars, and to a man in your
+position, doing his best to get as many men and horses and guns together
+for the defence of his country, money is money. Will you take a quarter
+of a million pounds for that colliery?"
+
+"No, I won't, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham. "In the first
+place, the colliery isn't worth a tenth of that, and this country can
+very well afford to pay for her own defence. Besides, you must remember
+that you will have to pay for the work: I mean casing the pit-shaft,
+smelting the metal and building the shell, to say nothing of the
+thousand and one other expenses of which Lennard can tell you more than
+I. For one thing, I expect you will have a hundred thousand or so to pay
+in damage to surrounding property after that cannon has gone off. In
+other words, if you do save the world you'll probably have to pay pretty
+stiffly for doing it. They're excellent business people in Lancashire,
+you know."
+
+"I don't quite see the logic of that, Lord Westerham," replied Mr
+Parmenter a little testily. "If we can put this business through, the
+dollars couldn't be much better used, and if we can't they won't be much
+use to me or anyone else. It's worth doing, anyhow, if it's only to show
+what new-world enterprise helped with old-world brains can do in
+bringing off a really big thing, and that's why I want to buy that
+colliery."
+
+"Well, Mr Parmenter," laughed Lord Westerham again, "we won't quarrel
+over that. I'm not a business man, but I believe it's generally
+recognised that the essence of all business is compromise. I'll meet you
+half way. For the present you shall take the pit for nothing and pay all
+expense connected with making a cannon of it. If that cannon does its
+work you shall pay me two hundred thousand pounds for the use of it--and
+I'll take your I.O.U. for the amount now. Will that suit you?"
+
+"That's business," said Mr Parmenter, getting up and going to Lennard's
+desk. "There you are, my lord," he continued, as he came back with a
+half sheet of notepaper in his hand, "and I only hope I shall have to
+pay that money."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CHANGE OF SCENE
+
+
+The _Ithuriel_ had orders to call at Folkestone and Dover in order to
+report the actual state of affairs there to the Commander-in-Chief by
+telegraph if Erskine could get ashore or by flash-signal if he could
+not, and incidentally to do as much damage as he could without undue
+risk to his craft if he considered that circumstances demanded it.
+
+He arrived off Folkestone just before dusk, and, as he expected, found
+that there were half a dozen large transports, carrying probably eight
+thousand men and a proportionate number of horses and quick-firing guns,
+convoyed by four cruisers and ten destroyers, lying off the harbour.
+There were evidently no airships with the force, as, if there had been,
+they would certainly have been hovering over the town and shelling
+Shorncliffe Barracks and the forts from the air. A brisk artillery duel
+was proceeding between the land batteries and the squadron, and the
+handsome town was already in flames in several places.
+
+Erskine, of course, recognised at once that this attack was simultaneous
+with that on Dover; the object of the enemy being obviously the capture
+of the shore line of railway between the two great Channel ports, which
+would provide the base of a very elongated triangle, the sides of which
+would be roughly formed by the roads and railways running to the
+westward and southward through Ashford and Maidstone, and to the
+northward and eastward through Canterbury, Faversham and Sittingbourne,
+and meeting at Rochester and Chatham, where the land forces of the
+invaders would, if all went well, co-operate with the sea forces in a
+combined attack on London, which would, of course, be preceded by a
+bombardment of fortified positions from the air.
+
+Knowing what he did of the disastrous results of the battle of
+Portsmouth, he came to the conclusion that it was his duty to upset this
+plan of attack at all hazards, so he called Castellan up into the
+conning-tower and asked his advice on the situation.
+
+"I see just what you mean, Erskine," replied the Lieutenant, when he had
+taken a good look at the map of Kent, "and it's my opinion that you'll
+do more to help London from here and Dover just now than you will from
+the Thames. Those French cruisers are big ones, though I don't quite
+recognise which they are, and they carry twice or three times the metal
+that those miserable forts do--which comes of trusting everything to the
+Fleet, as though these were the days of wooden walls and sails instead
+of steam battleships, fast cruisers and destroyers, to say nothing of
+submarines and airships. These Frenchies here don't know anything about
+the hammering they've got at Portsmouth and the capture of the
+transports, so they'll be expecting that force to be moving on London by
+the Brighton and South Coast line instead of re-building our forts and
+dockyards; so you go in and sink and smash everything in sight. That's
+just my best advice to you."
+
+"It seems pretty rough on those chaps on the transports, doesn't it?"
+said Erskine, with a note of regret in his voice. "We sha'n't be able to
+pick up any of them. It will be pretty like murder."
+
+"And what's that?" exclaimed Castellan, pointing to the fires in the
+town. "Don't ye call shelling a defenceless watering-place and burning
+unarmed people to death in their own homes murder? What if ye had your
+sister, or your mother, or your sweetheart there? How would ye feel
+about murder then?"
+
+Denis Castellan spoke feelingly, for his captain possessed not only a
+mother, but also a very charming sister in connection with whom he
+cherished certain not altogether ill-founded hopes which might perchance
+be realised now that war had come and promotion was fairly sure for
+those who "got through all right."
+
+Erskine nodded and said between his teeth:
+
+"Yes, you're right, old man. Such mercy as they give--such shall they
+have. Get below and take charge. We'd better go for the cruisers first
+and sink them. That'll stop the shelling of the town anyhow. Then we'll
+tackle the destroyers, and after that, if the transports don't
+surrender--well, the Lord have mercy on them when those shells of
+Lennard's get among them, for they'll want it."
+
+"And divil a bit better do they deserve. What have we done to them that
+they should all jump on us at once like this?" growled Denis as the
+platform sank with him. "There isn't one, no, nor two of them that dare
+tackle the old sea-dog alone."
+
+Which remark was Irish but perfectly true.
+
+By this time it was dusk enough for the _Ithuriel_ to approach the
+unsuspecting cruisers unseen, as nothing but her conning-tower was soon
+visible, even at five hundred yards, and this would vanish when she sank
+to make her final rush.
+
+The cruisers were the _Charner_, _Chanzy_, _Bruix_ and
+_Latouche-Treville_, all of about five thousand tons, and carrying two
+7.6 in., six 5.5 in. and six 9 pounders in addition to their small
+quick-firers. They were steaming in an oval course of about two miles
+long in line ahead, delivering their bow, stern and broadside fire as
+they circled. The effect of the shells along the strip of coast was
+terrible, and by the time the _Ithuriel_ came on the scene of action
+Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Folkestone were ablaze. The destroyers were of
+course shepherding the transports until the cruisers had silenced the
+shore batteries and prepared the way for the landing.
+
+The _Latouche-Treville_ was leading the French line when Erskine gave
+the order to sink and ram. Her captain never so much as suspected the
+presence of a British warship until his vessel reeled under the shock of
+the ram, trembled from stem to stern, and began to settle quickly by the
+head. Before she had time to sink the _Ithuriel_ had shaken herself
+free, swung round in half a curve, and ripped the port quarter of the
+_Chanzy_ open ten feet below the water line. Then she charged the
+_Bruix_ amidships and nearly cut her in half, and as the _Charner_
+steamed up to the rescue of her stricken consorts her screws dragged her
+back from the sinking ship and her stern ram crashed into the
+Frenchman's starboard side under the foremast, and in about a quarter of
+an hour from the delivery of the mysterious attack the four French
+cruisers were either sunk or sinking.
+
+It would be almost impossible to describe the effect which was produced
+by this sudden and utterly unexpected calamity, not only upon the
+astounded invaders, but upon the defenders, who, having received the
+welcome tidings of the tremendous disaster which had befallen the French
+Expedition at Portsmouth, were expecting aid in a very different form.
+Like their assailants, they had seen nothing, heard nothing, until the
+French cruisers suddenly ceased fire, rolled over and disappeared.
+
+But a few minutes after the _Charner_ had gone down, all anxiety on the
+part of the defenders was, for the time being, removed. The _Ithuriel_
+rose to the surface; her searchlight projector turned inshore, and she
+flashed in the Private Code:
+
+
+     "Suppose you have the news from Portsmouth. I am now going to smash
+     destroyers and sink transports if they don't surrender. Don't
+     shoot: might hurt me. Get ready for prisoners.
+                                                  ERSKINE, _Ithuriel_."
+
+
+It was perhaps the most singular message that had ever been sent from a
+sea force to a land force, but it was as well understood as it was
+welcome, and soon the answering signals flashed back:
+
+
+     "Well done, _Ithuriel_. Heard news. Go ahead!"
+
+
+Then came the turn of the destroyers. The _Ithuriel_ rose out of the
+water till her forward ram showed its point six feet above the waves.
+Erskine ordered full speed, and within another twenty-five minutes the
+tragedy of Spithead had been repeated on a smaller scale. The destroying
+monster rushed round the transports, hunting the _torpilleurs de haute
+mer_ down one after the other as a greyhound might run rabbits down,
+smashed them up and sank them almost before their officers and crew had
+time to learn what had happened to them--and then with his searchlight
+Erskine signalled to the transports in the International Code, which is
+universally understood at sea:
+
+
+     "Transports steam quarter speed into harbour and surrender. If a
+     shot is fired shall sink you as others."
+
+
+Five of the six flags came down with a run and all save one of the
+transports made slowly for the harbour. Their commanders were wise
+enough to know that a demon of the deep which could sink cruisers before
+they could fire a shot and smash destroyers as if they were pleasure
+boats could make very short work of liners and cargo steamers, so they
+bowed to the inevitable and accepted with what grace they could defeat
+and capture instead of what an hour or so ago looked like certain
+victory. But the captain of the sixth, the one that was farthest out to
+sea, made a dash for liberty--or Dover.
+
+Erskine took down the receiver and said quietly:
+
+
+     "Centre forward gun. Train: fire!"
+
+
+The next moment a brilliant blaze of flame leapt up between the
+transport's funnels. They crumpled up like scorched parchment. Her
+whole super-structure seemed to take fire at once and she stopped.
+
+Again flashed the signal:
+
+
+     "Surrender or I'll ram."
+
+
+The Tricolor fluttered slowly down through the damp, still evening air
+from the transport's main truck, and almost at the same moment a fussy
+little steam pinnace--which had been keeping itself snugly out of harm's
+way since the first French cruiser had gone down--puffed busily out of
+the harbour, and the proudest midshipman in the British Navy--for the
+time being, at least--ran from transport to transport, crowded with
+furious and despairing Frenchmen, and told them, individually and
+collectively, the course to steer if they wanted to get safely into
+Folkestone harbour and be properly taken care of.
+
+Then out of the growing darkness to the westward long gleams of silver
+light flashed up from the dull grey water and wandered about the
+under-surface of the gathering clouds, coming nearer and growing
+brighter every minute, jumping about the firmament as though the men
+behind the projectors were either mad or drunk; but the signals spelt
+out to those who understood them the cheering words:
+
+
+     "All right. We'll look after these fellows. Commander-in-Chief's
+     orders: Concentrate on Chilham, Canterbury and Dover."
+
+
+"That's all right," said Erskine to himself, as he read the signals.
+"Beresford's got them comfortably settled already, and he's sending
+someone to help here. Well, I think we've done our share and we'd better
+get along to Dover and London."
+
+He flashed the signal: "Good-bye and good luck!" to the shore, and
+shaped his course for Dover.
+
+So far, in spite of the terrible losses that had been sustained by the
+Reserve Fleet and the Channel Fleet, the odds of battle were still a
+long way in favour of Britain, in spite of the enormous forces ranged
+against her. At least so thought both Erskine and Castellan until they
+got within about three miles of Dover harbour, and Castellan, looking on
+sea and land and sky, exclaimed:
+
+"Great Heaven help us! This looks like the other place let loose!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE NIGHT OF TERROR BEGINS--
+
+
+Denis Castellan had put the situation tersely, but with a considerable
+amount of accuracy. Earth and sea and sky were ablaze with swarms of
+shooting, shifting lights, which kept crossing each other and making
+ever-changing patterns of a magnificent embroidery, and amidst these,
+huge shells and star-rockets were bursting in clouds of smoke and
+many-coloured flame. The thunder of the big guns, the grinding rattle of
+the quick-firers, and the hoarse, whistling shrieks of the shells,
+completed the awful pandemonium of destruction and death that was raging
+round Dover.
+
+The truth was that the main naval attack of the Allies was being
+directed on the south-eastern stronghold. I am aware that this is not
+the usual plan followed by those who have written romantic forecasts of
+the invasion of England. It seems at first sight, provided that the
+enemy could pass the sentinels of the sea unnoticed, easy to land troops
+on unprotected portions of our shores; but, in actual warfare, this
+would be the most fatal policy that could be pursued, simply because,
+whatever the point selected, the invaders would always find themselves
+between two strong places, with one or more ahead of them. They would
+thus be outflanked on all sides, with no retreat open but the sea, which
+is the most easily closed of all retreats.
+
+From their point of view, then, the Allies were perfectly right in their
+project of reducing the great strongholds of southern and eastern
+England, before advancing with their concentrated forces upon London.
+It would, of course, be a costly operation. In fact Britain's long
+immunity from invasion went far to prove that, to enemies possessing
+only the ordinary means of warfare, it would have been impossible, but,
+ever since the success of the experiment at Potsdam, German engineering
+firms had been working hard under John Castellan's directions turning
+out improved models of the _Flying Fish_. The various parts were
+manufactured at great distances apart, and no one firm knew what the
+others were doing. It was only when the parts of the vessels and the
+engines were delivered at the closely-guarded Imperial factory at
+Potsdam, that, under Castellan's own supervision, they became the
+terrible fighting machines that they were.
+
+The Aerial Fleet numbered twenty when war broke out, and of these five
+had been detailed for the attack on Dover. They were in fact the
+elements which made that attack possible, and, as is already known, four
+were co-operating with the Northern Division of the Allied Fleets
+against the forts defending Chatham and London.
+
+Dover was at that time one of the most strongly fortified places in the
+world. Its magnificent new harbour had been completed, and its
+fortifications vastly strengthened and re-armed with the new
+fourteen-inch gun which had superseded the old sixteen-inch gun of
+position, on account of its greater handiness, combined with greater
+penetrating power.
+
+But at Dover, as at Portsmouth, the forts were powerless against the
+assaults of these winged demons of the air. They were able to use their
+terrible projectiles with reckless profusion, because only twenty-two
+miles away at Calais there were inexhaustible stores from which they
+could replenish their magazines. Moreover, the private factory at Kiel,
+where alone they were allowed to be manufactured, were turning them out
+by hundreds a day.
+
+They had, of course, formed the vanguard of the attacking force which
+had advanced in three divisions in column of line abreast from Boulogne,
+Calais and Antwerp. The Boulogne and Calais divisions were French, and
+each consisted of six battleships with the usual screens of cruisers,
+destroyers and torpedo boats: these two divisions constituted the French
+North Sea Squadron, whose place had been taken by the main German Fleet,
+assisted by the Belgian and Dutch squadron.
+
+Another German and Russian division was advancing on London. It included
+four first-class battleships, and two heavily-armed coast defence ships,
+huge floating fortresses, rather slow in speed, but tremendous in power,
+which accompanied them for the purpose of battering the fortifications,
+and doing as much damage to Woolwich and other important places on both
+sides as their big guns could achieve. Four _Flying Fishes_ accompanied
+this division.
+
+Such was the general plan of action on that fatal night. Confident in
+the terrific powers of their Aerial Squadrons, and ignorant of the
+existence of the _Ithuriel_, the Allied Powers never considered the
+possibilities of anything but rapid victory. They knew that the forts
+could no more withstand the shock of the bombardment from the air than
+battleships or cruisers could resist the equally deadly blow which these
+same diabolical contrivances could deliver under the water.
+
+They had not the slightest doubt but that forts would be silenced and
+fleets put out of action with a swiftness unknown before, and then the
+crowded transports would follow the victorious fleets, and the military
+promenade upon London would begin, headed by the winged messengers of
+destruction, from which neither flight nor protection was possible.
+
+Of course, the leaders of the Allies were in ignorance of the
+misfortunes they had suffered at Portsmouth and Folkestone. All they
+knew they learned from aerograms, one from Admiral Durenne off the Isle
+of Wight saying that the Portsmouth forts had been silenced and the
+Fleet action had begun, and another from the Commodore of the squadron
+off Folkestone saying that all was going well, and the landing would
+shortly be effected: and thus they fully expected to have the three
+towns and the entrance to the Thames at their mercy by the following
+day.
+
+Certainly, as far as Dover was concerned, things looked very much as
+though their anticipations would be realised, for when the _Ithuriel_
+arrived upon the scene, Dover Castle and its surrounding forts were
+vomiting flame and earth into the darkening sky, like so many volcanoes.
+The forts on Admiralty Pier, Shakespear Cliff, and those commanding the
+new harbour works, had been silenced and blown up, and the town and
+barracks were in flames in many places.
+
+The scene was, in short, so inhumanly appalling, and horror followed
+horror with such paralysing rapidity, that the most practised
+correspondents and the most experienced officers, both afloat and
+ashore, were totally unable to follow them and describe what was
+happening with anything like coherence. It was simply an inferno of
+death and destruction, which no human words could have properly
+described, and perhaps the most ghastly feature of it was the fact that
+there was no human agency visible in it at all. There was no Homeric
+struggle of man with man, although many a gallant deed was done that
+night which never was seen nor heard of, and many a hero went to his
+death without so much as leaving behind him the memory of how he died.
+
+It was a conflict of mechanical giants--giant ships, giant engines,
+giant guns, and explosives of something more than giant strength. These
+were the monsters which poor, deluded Humanity, like another
+Frankenstein, had thought out with infinite care and craft, and
+fashioned for its own mutual destruction. Men had made a hell out of
+their own passions and greed and jealousies, and now that hell had
+opened and mankind was about to descend into it.
+
+The sea-defence of Dover itself consisted of the Home Fleet in three
+divisions, composed respectively of the _England_, _London_, _Bulwark_
+and _Venerable_, _Queen_ and _Prince of Wales_ battleships, and ten
+first-class armoured cruisers, the _Duncan_, _Cornwallis_, _Exmouth_ and
+_Russell_ battleships, with twelve armoured cruisers, and thirdly, the
+reconstructed and re-armed _Empress of India_, _Revenge_, _Repulse_ and
+_Resolution_, with eight armoured cruisers. To the north between Dover
+and the North Foreland lay the Southern Division of the North Sea
+Squadron.
+
+When the battle had commenced these three divisions were lying in their
+respective stations, in column of line ahead about six miles from the
+English shore. Behind them lay a swarm of destroyers and torpedo boats,
+ready to dart out and do their deadly work between the ships, and ten
+submarines were attached to each division. The harbour and approaches
+were, of course, plentifully strewn with mines.
+
+"It's an awful sight," said Castellan, with a note of awe in his voice,
+when they had taken in the situation with the rapidity and precision of
+the professional eye. "And to me the worst of it is that it won't be
+safe for us to take a share in the row."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Erskine, almost angrily. "Do you mean to tell me we
+sha'n't be able to help our fellows? Then what on earth have we come
+here for?"
+
+"Just look there, now!" said Castellan, pointing ahead to where huge
+shapes, enveloped in a mist of flame and smoke, were circling round each
+other, vomiting their thunderbolts, like leviathans engaged in a
+veritable dance of death.
+
+"D'ye see that!" continued Denis. "What good would we be among that lot?
+The _Ithuriel_ hasn't eyes on her that can see through the dark water,
+and if she had, how would we tell the bottom of a French or German ship
+from a Britisher's, and a nice thing it would be for us to go about
+sinking the King's ships, and helping those foreign devils to land in
+old England! No, Erskine, this ship of yours is a holy terror, but she's
+a daylight fighter. Don't you see that we came too late, and wait till
+to-morrow we can't, and there's the Duke's orders.
+
+"I'll tell you what," he continued more cheerfully, as the _Ithuriel_
+cleared the southern part of the battle, "if we could get at the
+transports we might have some fun with them, but they'll all be safe
+enough in port, loading up, and there's not much chance that they'll
+come out till our boys have been beaten and the roads are clear for
+them. Then they'll go across thinking they'll meet their pals from
+Portsmouth and Folkestone. Now, you see that line out there to the
+north-eastward?"
+
+"Yes," said Erskine, looking towards a long row of dim shapes which
+every now and then were brought out into ominous distinctness by the
+flashes of the shells and searchlights.
+
+"Well," continued Castellan, "if I know anything of naval tactics,
+that's the Reserve lot waiting till the battle's over. They think
+they'll win, and I think so too, thanks to those devil-ships my brother
+has made for them. Even if Beresford does come up in time, he can no
+more fight against them than anybody else. Now, there's just one chance
+that we can give him, and that is sinking the Reserve; for, you see, if
+we've only half a dozen ships left that can shoot a bit in the morning,
+they won't dare to put their transports out without a convoy, and unless
+they land them, well, they're no use."
+
+"Castellan," said Erskine, putting his hand on his shoulder, "you'll be
+an admiral some day. Certainly, we'll go for the convoy, for I'll be
+kicked if I can stand here watching all that going on and not have a
+hand in it. We'd better sink, and use nothing but the ram, I suppose."
+
+"Why, of course," replied Castellan. "It would never do to shoot at
+them. There are too many, and besides, we don't want them to know that
+we're here until we've sent them to the bottom."
+
+"And a lot they'll know about it then!" laughed Erskine. "All right," he
+continued, taking down the receiver. "Courtney and Mac can see to the
+sinking, so you'd better stop here with me and see the fun."
+
+"That I will, with all the pleasure in life and death," said Castellan
+grimly, as Erskine gave his orders and the _Ithuriel_ immediately began
+to sink.
+
+Castellan was perfectly right in his conjecture as to the purpose of the
+Reserve.
+
+The French and German Squadron, which was intended for the last rush
+through the remnants of the crippled British fleet, consisted of four
+French and three German battleships, old and rather slow, but heavily
+armed, and much more than a match for the vessels which had already
+passed through the terrible ordeal of battle. In addition there were six
+fast second-class cruisers, and about a score of torpedo boats.
+
+With her decks awash and the conning-tower just on a level with the
+short, choppy waves, the _Ithuriel_ ran round to the south of the line
+at ten knots, as they were anxious not to kick up any fuss in the water,
+lest a chance searchlight from the enemy might fall upon them, and lead
+to trouble. She got within a mile of the first cruiser unobserved, and
+then Erskine gave the order to quicken up. They had noticed that the
+wind was rising, and they knew that within half an hour the tide would
+be setting southward like a mill-race through the narrow strait.
+
+Their tactics therefore were very simple. Every cruiser and battleship
+was rammed in the sternpost; not very hard, but with sufficient force to
+crumple up the sternpost, and disable the rudder and the propellers, and
+with such precision was this done, that, until the signals of distress
+began to flash, the uninjured ships and the nearest of those engaged in
+the battle were under the impression that orders had been given for the
+Reserve to move south. But this supposition very soon gave place to
+panic as ship after ship swung helplessly inshore, impelled by the
+ever-strengthening tide towards the sands of Calais and the rocks of
+Gris Nez.
+
+Searchlights flashed furiously, but Erskine and Castellan had already
+taken the bearings of the remaining ships, and the _Ithuriel_, now ten
+feet below the water, and steered solely by compass, struck ship after
+ship, till the whole of the Reserve was drifting helplessly to
+destruction.
+
+This, as they had both guessed, produced a double effect on the battle.
+In the first place it was impossible for the Allies to see their
+Reserve, upon which so much might depend, in such a helpless plight, and
+the admirals commanding were therefore obliged to detach ships to help
+them; and on the other hand, the British were by no means slow to take
+advantage of the position. A score of torpedo boats, and half as many
+destroyers, dashed out from behind the British lines, and, rushing
+through the hurricane of shell that was directed upon them, ran past the
+broken line of unmanageable cruisers and battleships, and torpedoed them
+at easy range. True, half of them were crumpled up, and sent to the
+bottom during the process, but that is a contingency which British
+torpedo officers and men never take the slightest notice of. The
+disabled ships were magnificent marks for torpedoes, and they had to go
+down, wherefore down they went.
+
+Meanwhile the _Ithuriel_ had been having a merry time among the torpedo
+flotilla of the Reserve Squadron. She rose flush with the water, put on
+full speed, and picked them up one after another on the end of her ram,
+and tossed them aside into the depths as rapidly as an enraged whale
+might have disposed of a fleet of whaleboats.
+
+The last boat had hardly gone down when signals were seen flashing up
+into the sky from over Dungeness.
+
+"That's Beresford to the rescue," said Castellan, in a not
+over-cheerful voice. "Now if it wasn't for those devil-ships of my
+brother's there'd be mighty little left of the Allied Fleet to-morrow
+morning; but I'm afraid he won't be able to do anything against those
+amphibious _Flying Fishes_, as he calls them. Now, we'd better be off to
+London."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+--AND ENDS
+
+
+The defenders of Dover, terribly as they had suffered, and hopeless as
+the defence really now seemed to be, were still not a little cheered by
+the tidings of the complete and crushing defeat which had been inflicted
+by Admiral Beresford and the _Ithuriel_ on the French at Portsmouth and
+Folkestone, and the brilliant capture of the whole of the two
+Expeditionary Forces. Now, too, the destruction of the Allied Reserve
+made it possible to hope that at least a naval victory might be
+obtained, and the transports prevented from crossing until the remains
+of the British Fleet Reserve could be brought up to the rescue.
+
+At any rate it might be possible, in spite of sunken ships and shattered
+fortifications, to prevent, at least for a while, the pollution of
+English soil by the presence of hostile forces, and to get on with the
+mobilisation of regulars, militia, yeomanry and volunteers, which, as
+might have been expected, this sudden declaration of war found in the
+usual state of hopeless muddle and chaos.
+
+But, even in the event of complete victory by sea, there would still be
+those terrible cruisers of the air to be reckoned with, and they were
+known to be as efficient as submarines as they were as airships.
+
+Still, much had been done, and it was no use going to meet trouble
+halfway. Moreover, Beresford's guns were beginning to talk down yonder
+to the southward, and it was time for what was left of the North Sea
+Squadron and the Home Fleet to reform and manoeuvre, so as to work to
+the north-eastward, and get the enemy between the two British forces.
+
+A very curious thing came to pass now. The French and German Fleets,
+though still much superior to the defenders, had during that first awful
+hour of the assault received a terrible mauling, especially from the
+large guns of the _England_ and the _Scotland_--sisters of the
+_Britain_, and the flagships respectively of the North Sea Squadron and
+the Home Fleet--and the totally unexpected and inexplicable loss of
+their reserve; but the guns booming to the south-westward could only be
+those of Admiral Durenne's victorious fleet. He would bring them
+reinforcements more than enough, and with him, too, would come the three
+_Flying Fishes_, which had been commissioned to destroy Portsmouth and
+the battleships of the British Reserve. There need be no fear of not
+getting the transports across now, and then the march of victory would
+begin.
+
+In a few minutes the fighting almost entirely ceased. The ships which
+had been battering each other so heartily separated as if by mutual
+consent, and the French and German admirals steamed to the
+south-westward to join their allies and sweep the Strait of Dover clear
+of those who had for so many hundred years considered--yes, and kept
+it--as their own sea-freehold.
+
+At the same time private signals were flashed through the air to the
+_Flying Fishes_ to retire on Calais, replenish their ammunition and
+motive power, which they had been using so lavishly, and return at
+daybreak.
+
+Thus what was left of Dover, its furiously impotent soldiery, and its
+sorely stricken inhabitants, had a respite at least until day dawned and
+showed them the extent of the ruin that had been wrought.
+
+It was nearly midnight when the three fleets joined, and just about
+eight bells the clouds parted and dissolved under the impact of a stiff
+nor'-easter, which had been gathering strength for the last two hours.
+The war smoke drifted away, and the moon shone down clearly on the now
+white-crested battlefield.
+
+By its light and their own searchlights the French and German admirals,
+steaming as they thought to join hands with their victorious friends,
+saw the strangest and most exasperating sight that their eyes had ever
+beheld. The advancing force was a curiously composed one. Trained, as
+they were, to recognise at first sight every warship of every nation,
+they could nevertheless hardly believe their eyes. There were six
+battleships in the centre of the first line. One was the _Britain_,
+three others were of the _Edward the Seventh_ class; two were French. Of
+the sixteen cruisers which formed the wings, seven were French--and
+every warship of the whole lot was flying the White Ensign!
+
+Did it mean disaster--almost impossible disaster--or was it only a _ruse
+de guerre_?
+
+They were not left very long in doubt. At three miles from a direction
+almost due south-east of Dover, the advancing battleships opened fire
+with their heavy forward guns, and the cruisers spread out in a fan on
+either side of the French and German Fleets. The _Britain_, as though
+glorying in her strength and speed, steamed ahead in solitary pride
+right into the midst of the Allies, thundering and flaming ahead and
+from each broadside. The _Braunschweig_ had the bad luck to get in her
+way. She made a desperate effort to get out of it; but eighteen knots
+was no good against twenty-five. The huge ram crashed into her vitals as
+she swerved, and reeling and pitching like some drunken leviathan, she
+went down with a mighty plunge, and the _Britain_ ploughed on over the
+eddies that marked her ocean grave.
+
+This was the beginning of the greatest and most decisive sea-fight that
+had been fought since Trafalgar. The sailors of Britain knew that they
+were fighting not only for the honour of their King and country, but, as
+British sailors had not done for a hundred and four years, for the very
+existence of England and the Empire. On the other hand, the Allies knew
+that this battle meant the loss or the keeping of the command of the
+sea, and therefore the possibility or otherwise of starving the United
+Kingdom into submission after the landing had been effected.
+
+So from midnight until dawn battleship thundered against battleship, and
+cruiser engaged cruiser, while the torpedo craft darted with flaming
+funnels in and out among the wrestling giants, and the submarines did
+their deadly work in silence. Miracles of valour and devotion were
+achieved on both sides. From admiral and commodore and captain in the
+conning-towers to officers and men in barbettes and casemates, and the
+sweating stokers and engineers in their steel prisons--which might well
+become their tombs--every man risked and gave his life as cheerfully as
+the most reckless commander or seaman on the torpedo flotillas.
+
+It was a fight to the death, and every man knew it, and accepted the
+fact with the grim joy of the true fighting man.
+
+Naturally, no detailed description of the battle of Dover would be
+possible, even if it were necessary to the narrative. Not a man who
+survived it could have written such a description. All that was known to
+the officials on shore was that every now and then an aerogram came,
+telling in broken fragments of the sinking of a battleship or cruiser on
+one side or the other, and the gradual weakening of the enemy's defence;
+but to those who were waiting and watching so anxiously along the line
+of cliffs, the only tidings that came were told by the gradual
+slackening of the battle-thunder, and the ever-diminishing frequency of
+the pale flashes of flame gleaming through the drifting gusts of smoke.
+
+Then at last morning dawned, and the pale November sun lit up as sorry a
+scene as human eyes had ever looked upon. Not a fourth of the ships
+which had gone into action on either side were still afloat, and these
+were little better than drifting wrecks.
+
+All along the shore from East Wear Bay to the South Foreland lay the
+shattered, shell-riddled hulks of what twelve hours before had been the
+finest battleships and cruisers afloat, run ashore in despair to save
+the lives of the few who had come alive through that awful battle-storm.
+Outside them showed the masts and fighting-tops of those which had sunk
+before reaching shore, and outside these again lay a score or so of
+battleships and a few armoured cruisers, some down by the head, some by
+the stern, and some listing badly to starboard or port--still afloat,
+and still with a little fight left in them, in spite of their gashed
+sides, torn decks, riddled topworks and smashed barbettes.
+
+But, ghastly as the spectacle was, it was not long before a mighty cheer
+went rolling along the cliffs and over the ruined town for, whether flew
+the French or German flag, there was not a ship that French or German
+sailor or marine had landed on English soil save as prisoners.
+
+The old Sea Lion had for the first time in three hundred and fifty years
+been attacked in his lair, and now as then he had turned and rent the
+insolent intruder limb from limb.
+
+The main German Fleet and the French Channel Fleet and North Sea
+Squadrons had ceased to exist within twenty-four hours of the
+commencement of hostilities.
+
+Once more Britain had vindicated her claim to the proud title of Queen
+of the Seas; once more the thunder of her enemies' guns had echoed back
+from her white cliffs--and the echo had been a message of defeat and
+disaster.
+
+If the grim game of war could only have been played now as it had been
+even five years before, the victory would have already been with her,
+for the cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard had that morning brought the
+news from Admiral Commerell, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean,
+that he had been attacked by, and had almost destroyed, the combined
+French Mediterranean and Russian Black Sea Fleets, and that, with the
+aid of an Italian Squadron, he was blockading Toulon, Marseilles and
+Bizerta. The captured French and Russian ships capable of repair had
+been sent to Malta and Gibraltar to refit.
+
+This, under the old conditions, would, of course, have meant checkmate
+in the game of invasion, since not a hostile ship of any sort would have
+dared to put to sea, and the crowded transports would have been as
+useless as so many excursion steamers, but--
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+DISASTER
+
+
+About eight o'clock, as the half-wrecked victors and vanquished were
+slowly struggling into the half-ruined harbour, five winged shapes
+became visible against the grey sky over Calais, rapidly growing in
+size, and a few minutes later two more appeared, approaching from the
+north-east. They, alas, were the heralds of a fate against which all the
+gallantry and skill of Britain's best sailors and soldiers would fight
+in vain.
+
+The two from the north-east were, of course, the _Flying Fish_ and the
+_See Adler_; the others were those which had been ordered to load up at
+the Calais depot, and complete that victory of the Allied Fleets which
+the science and devotion of British sailors had turned into utter
+defeat.
+
+John Castellan, standing in the conning-tower of the _Flying Fish_,
+looking down over sea and land through his prismatic binoculars,
+suddenly ground his teeth hard together, and sent a hearty Irish curse
+hissing between them. He had a complete plan of the operations in his
+possession, and knew perfectly what to expect--but what was this?
+
+Dover and its fortifications were in ruins, as they ought to have been
+by this time; but the British Flag still floated over them! The harbour
+was almost filled with mutilated warships, and others were slowly
+steaming towards the two entrances; but every one of these was flying
+the White Ensign of England! There was not a French or German flag to be
+seen--and there, all along the coast, which should have been in the
+possession of the Allies by now, lay the ragged line of helpless hulks
+which would never take the sea again.
+
+What had happened? Where were the splendid fleets which were to have
+battered the English defence into impotence? Where was the Reserve,
+which was to have convoyed the transports across the narrow waters?
+Where were the transports themselves and the half million men, horses
+and artillery which to-day they were to land upon the stricken shores of
+Kent?
+
+With that marvellous intuition which is so often allied with the Keltic
+genius, he saw in a flash all, or something like all, that had really
+happened as a consequence of the loss of the depot ship at Spithead, and
+the venting of his own mad hatred of the Saxon on the three defenceless
+towns. The Channel Fleet had come, after all, in time, and defeated
+Admiral Durenne's fleet; the Reserve cruisers had escaped, and
+Portsmouth had been re-taken!
+
+Would that have happened if he had used the scores of shells which he
+had wasted in mere murder and destruction against the ships of the
+Channel Fleet? It would not, and no one knew it better than he did.
+
+Still, even now there was time to retrieve that ghastly mistake which
+had cost the Allies a good deal more than even he had guessed at. He was
+Admiral of the Aerial Squadrons, and, save under orders from
+headquarters, free to act as he thought fit against the enemy. If his
+passion had lost victory he could do nothing less than avenge defeat.
+
+He ran up his telescopic mast and swerved to the southward to meet the
+squadron from Calais, flying his admiral's flag, and under it the
+signal:
+
+"I wish to speak to you."
+
+The _Flying Fish_ and the _See Adler_ quickened up, and the others
+slowed down until they met about two thousand feet above the sea.
+Castellan ran the _Flying Fish_ alongside the Commodore of the other
+Squadron, and in ten minutes he had learned what the other had to tell,
+and arranged a plan of operations.
+
+Within the next five minutes three of the seven craft had dropped to
+the water and disappeared beneath it. The other four, led by the _Flying
+Fish_, winged their way towards Dover.
+
+The aerial section of the squadron made straight for the harbour. The
+submarine section made south-westward to cut off the half dozen "lame
+ducks" which were still struggling towards it. With these, unhappily,
+was the _Scotland_, the huge flagship of the North Sea Squadron, which
+still full of fight, was towing the battleship _Commonwealth_, whose
+rudder and propellers had been disabled by a torpedo from a French
+submarine.
+
+She was, of course, the first victim selected. Two _Flying Fishes_
+dived, one under her bows and one under her stern, and each discharged
+two torpedoes.
+
+No fabric made by human hands could have withstood the shock of the four
+explosions which burst out simultaneously. The sore-stricken leviathan
+stopped, shuddered and reeled, smitten to death. For a few moments she
+floundered and wallowed in the vast masses of foaming water that rose up
+round her--and when they sank she took a mighty sideward reel and
+followed them.
+
+The rest met their inevitable fate in quick succession, and went down
+with their ensigns and pennants flying--to death, but not to defeat or
+disgrace.
+
+The ten British submarines which were left from the fight had already
+put out to try conclusions with the _Flying Fishes_; but a porpoise
+might as well have tried to hunt down a northern diver. As soon as each
+_Flying Fish_ had finished its work of destruction it spread its wings
+and leapt into the air--and woe betide the submarine whose periscope
+showed for a moment above the water, for in that moment a torpedo fell
+on or close to it, and that submarine dived for the last time.
+
+Meanwhile the horrors of the past afternoon and evening were being
+repeated in the crowded harbour, and on shore, until a frightful
+catastrophe befell the remains of the British Fleet.
+
+John Castellan, with two other craft, was examining the forts from a
+height of four thousand feet, and dropping a few torpedoes into any
+which did not appear to be completely wrecked. The captain of another
+was amusing himself by dispersing, in more senses than one, the
+helpless, terror-stricken crowds on the cliffs whence they had lately
+cheered the last of Britain's naval victories, and the rest were
+circling over the harbour at a height of three thousand feet, letting go
+torpedoes whenever a fair mark presented itself.
+
+Of course the fight, if fight it could be called, was hopeless from the
+first; but your British sailor is not the man to take even a hopeless
+fight lying down, and so certain gallant but desperate spirits on board
+the _England_, which was lying under what was left of the Admiralty
+Pier, got permission to dismount six 3-pounders and remount them as a
+battery for high-angle fire. The intention, of course, was, as the
+originator of the idea put it: "To bring down a few of those flying
+devils before they could go inland and do more damage there."
+
+The intention was as good as it was unselfish, for the ingenious officer
+in charge of the battery knew as well as his admiral that the fleet was
+doomed to destruction in detail--but the first volley that battery fired
+was the last.
+
+A few of the shells must have hit a French _Flying Fish_, which was
+circling above the centre of the harbour, and disabled the wings and
+propellors on one side, for she lurched and wobbled for an instant like
+a bird with a broken wing. Then she swooped downwards in a spiral
+course, falling ever faster and faster, till she struck the deck of the
+_Britain_.
+
+What happened the next instant no one ever knew. Those who survived said
+that they heard a crashing roar like the firing of a thousand cannon
+together; a blinding sheet of flame overspread the harbour; the water
+rose into mountains of foam, ships rocked and crashed against each
+other--and then came darkness and oblivion.
+
+When human eyes next looked on Dover Harbour there was not a ship in it
+afloat.
+
+Dover, the great stronghold of the south-east, was now as defenceless as
+a fishing village, and there was nothing to prevent a constant stream of
+transports filled with men and materials of war being poured into it, or
+any other port along the eastern Kentish coast. Then would come seizure
+of railway stations and rolling stock, rapid landing of men and horses
+and guns, and the beginning of the great advance.
+
+On the whole, John Castellan was well satisfied with his work. He
+regretted the loss of his consort; but she had not been wasted. The
+remains of the British fleets had gone with her to destruction.
+
+Certainly what had been done had brought nearer the time when he, the
+real organiser of victory, the man who had made the conquest of England
+possible, would be able to claim his double reward--the independence of
+Ireland, and the girl whom he intended to make the uncrowned Queen of
+Erin.
+
+It was a splendid and, to him, a delicious dream as well; but between
+him and its fulfilment, what a chaos of bloodshed, ruin and human misery
+lay! And yet he felt not a tremor of compunction or of pity for the
+thousands of brave men who would be flung dead and mangled and tortured
+into the bloody mire of battle, for the countless homes that would be
+left desolate, or for the widows and the fatherless whose agony would
+cry to Heaven for justice on him.
+
+No; these things were of no account in his eyes. Ireland must be free,
+and the girl he had come to love so swiftly, and with such consuming
+passion, must be his. Nothing else mattered. Was he not Lord of the Air,
+and should the desire of his heart be denied him?
+
+Thus mused John Castellan in the conning-tower of the _Flying Fish_, as
+he circled slowly above the ruins of Dover, while the man who had
+beaten him in the swimming-race was sitting in the observatory on
+far-off Whernside, verifying his night's observations and calculating
+for the hundredth time the moment of the coming of an Invader, compared
+with which all the armed legions of Europe were of no more importance
+than a swarm of flies.
+
+When he had satisfied himself that Dover was quite defenceless he sent
+one of the French _Flying Fishes_ across to Calais with a letter to the
+District Commander, describing briefly what had taken place, and telling
+him that it would be now quite safe for the transports to cross the
+Straits and land the troops at Portsmouth, Newhaven, Folkestone, Dover
+and Ramsgate.
+
+He would station one of his airships over each of these places to
+prevent any resistance from land or sea, and would himself make a
+general reconnaissance of the military dispositions of the defenders. He
+advised that the three _Flying Fishes_, which had been reserved for the
+defence of the Kiel Canal, should be telegraphed for as convoys, as
+there was now no danger of attack, and that the depot of torpedoes and
+motive power for his ships should be transferred from Calais to Dover.
+
+As soon as he had despatched this letter, Castellan ordered two of his
+remaining ships to cruise northward to Ramsgate, keeping mainly along
+the track of the railway, one on each side of it, and to wreck the first
+train they saw approaching Dover, Deal, Sandwich and Ramsgate from the
+north. The other two he ordered to take the Western Coast line as far as
+Portsmouth, and do the same with trains coming east.
+
+Then he swung the _Flying Fish_ inland, and took a run over Canterbury,
+Ashford, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Guildford and Winchester, to Southampton
+and Portsmouth, returning by Chichester, Horsham and Tunbridge Wells.
+
+It was only a tour of observation for the purpose of discovering the
+main military dispositions of the defenders--who were now concentrating
+as rapidly as possible upon Folkestone and Dover--but he found time to
+stop and drop a torpedo or two into each town or fort that he passed
+over--just leaving cards, as he said to M'Carthy--as a promise of
+favours to come.
+
+He also wrecked half a dozen long trains, apparently carrying troops,
+and incidentally caused a very considerable loss of good lives and much
+confusion, to say nothing of the moral effect which this new and
+terrible form of attack produced upon the nerves of Mr Thomas Atkins.
+
+When he got back to Dover he found a letter waiting for him from the
+General informing him that the transports would sail at once, and that
+his requests would be complied with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE OTHER CAMPAIGN BEGINS
+
+
+It was on the day following the destruction of Dover that the news of
+the actual landing of the French and German forces had really taken
+place at the points selected by Castellan reached Whernside. The little
+house party were at lunch, and the latest papers had just come over from
+Settle. Naturally what they contained formed the sole topic of
+conversation.
+
+"Really, Arnold, I think even you must confess that things are a great
+deal more serious than anyone could have imagined a few days ago. The
+very idea--an invasion accomplished in forty-eight hours--Portsmouth,
+Dover, Sheerness and Tilbury destroyed, and French and German and
+Russian soldiers actually in arms on English soil. The thing would be
+preposterous if it were not true!
+
+"And what are we to do now, I should like to know? The Fleet doesn't
+exist--we have no army in the Continental sense of the word, which of
+course is the real military sense, thanks to a lot of politicians
+calling themselves statesmen who have been squabbling about what an army
+ought to be for the last ten years.
+
+"You will be able to put a million trained and half-trained--mostly
+half-trained--men into the field, to face millions of highly-trained
+French, German, Russian and Austrian troops, led by officers who have
+taken their profession seriously, and not by gentlemen who have gone
+into the army because it was a nice sort of playground, where you could
+have lots of fun, and a little amateur fighting now and then. I wonder
+what they will do now against the men who have made war a science
+instead of sport!
+
+"I should like to know what the good people who have made such a fuss
+about the 'tyranny of Conscription' will say now, when they find that we
+haven't trained men enough to defend our homes. Just as if military
+service was not the first duty a man owes to his country and to his
+home. A man has no right to a country nor a home if he isn't able to
+defend them. Kipling was perfectly right when he said:
+
+
+             'What is your boasting worth
+     If you grudge a year of service to the lordliest life on earth?'"
+
+
+This little lecture was delivered with trembling lips, flushed cheeks
+and flashing eyes by Lady Margaret Holker, Lord Westerham's sister, who
+had joined the party that morning to help her brother in his recruiting.
+
+She was an almost perfect type of the modern highly-bred Englishwoman,
+who knows how to be entirely modern without being vulgarly "up-to-date."
+She was a strong contrast to her brother, in that she was a bright
+brunette--not beautiful, perhaps not even pretty, but for all that
+distinctly good-looking. Her hair and eyebrows were black, her eyes a
+deep pansy-blue. A clear complexion, usually pale but decidedly flushed
+now, and, for the rest, somewhat irregular features which might have
+been almost plain, but for that indefinable expression of combined
+gentleness and strength which only the careful selection of long descent
+can give.
+
+As for her figure, it was as perfect as absolute health and abundant
+exercise could make it. She could ride, shoot, throw a fly and steer a
+yacht better than most women and many men of her class; but for all that
+she could grill steaks and boil potatoes with as much distinction as she
+could play the piano and violin, and sing in three or four languages.
+
+She also had a grip, not on politics, for which she had a wholesome
+contempt, but on the affairs of the nations--the things which really
+mattered. And yet withal she was just an entirely healthy young
+Englishwoman, who was quite as much at home in the midst of a good
+swinging waltz as she was in an argument on high affairs of State.
+
+"My dear Madge," said her brother, who had been reading the reports in
+the second morning edition of the _Times_ aloud, "I am afraid that,
+after all, you are right. But then, you must not forget that a new enemy
+has come into the field. I hardly like to say so in Miss Castellan's
+presence, but it is perfectly clear that, considering what the Fleet
+did, there would have been no invasion if it had not been for those
+diabolical contrivances that John Castellan took over to the German
+Emperor."
+
+"You needn't have any hesitation in saying what you like about him
+before me, Lord Westerham," said Norah, flushing. "It's no brother he is
+of mine now, as I told him the day he went aboard the German yacht at
+Clifden. I'd see him shot to-morrow without a wink of my eyes. The man
+who does what he has done has no right to the respect of any man nor the
+love of any woman--no, not even if the woman is his sister. Think of all
+the good, loyal Irishmen, soldiers and sailors, that he has murdered by
+this time. No, I have no brother called John Castellan."
+
+"But you have another called Denis," said Auriole, "and I think you may
+be well content with him!"
+
+"Ah, Denis!" said Norah, flushing again, but for a different reason,
+"Denis is a good and loyal man; yes, I am proud of him--God bless him!"
+
+"And I should reckon that skipper of his, Captain Erskine, must be a
+pretty smart sort of man," said Mr Parmenter, who so far had hardly
+joined in the conversation, and who had seemed curiously indifferent to
+the terrible exploits of the _Flying Fishes_ and all that had followed
+them. "That craft of his seems to be just about as business-like as
+anything that ever got into the water or under it. I wonder what he is
+doing with the Russian and German ships in the Thames now. I guess he
+won't let many of them get back out of there. Quite a young man, too,
+according to the accounts."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Lady Margaret, "he isn't twenty-nine yet. I know him
+slightly. He is a son of Admiral Erskine, who commanded the China
+Squadron about eight years ago, and died of fever after a pirate hunt,
+and he is the nephew of dear old Lady Caroline Anstey, my other mother
+as I call her. He is really a splendid fellow, and some people say as
+good-looking as he is clever; although, of course, there was a desperate
+lot of jealousy when he was promoted Captain straight away from
+Lieutenant-Commander of a Fishery cruiser, but I should like to know how
+many of the wiseacres of Whitehall could have designed that _Ithuriel_
+of his."
+
+"It's a pity she can't fly, though, like those others," said Mr
+Parmenter, with a curious note in his voice which no one at the table
+but Lennard understood. "She's a holy terror in the water, but the other
+fellow's got all the call on land. If they get a dozen or so of these
+aerial submarines as you might call them, in front of the invading
+forces, I can't see what's going to stop a march on London, and right
+round it. Your men are just as brave as any on earth, and a bit more
+than some, if their officers are a bit more gentlemen and sportsmen than
+soldiers; but no man can fight a thing he can't hit back at, and so I
+reckon the next thing we shall hear of will be the siege of London. What
+do you think, Lennard?"
+
+Lennard, who had hardly spoken a word during the meal, looked up, and
+said in a voice which Lady Madge thought curiously unsympathetic:
+
+"I shouldn't think it would take more than a fortnight at the outside,
+even leaving these airships out of the question. We haven't three
+hundred thousand men of all sorts to put into the field, who know one
+end of a gun from another, or who can sit a horse; and now that the
+sea's clear the enemy can land two or three millions in a fortnight."
+
+"All our merchant shipping will be absolutely at their mercy, and they
+will simply have to take them over to France and Germany and load them
+up with men and horses, and bring them over as if they were coming to a
+picnic. But, of course, with the airships to help them the thing's a
+foregone conclusion, and to a great extent it is our own fault. I
+thoroughly agree with what Lady Margaret says about conscription. If we
+had had it only five years ago, we should now have three million men,
+instead of three hundred thousand, trained and ready to take the field.
+Though, after all--"
+
+"After all--what?" said Lady Margaret, looking sharply round at him.
+
+"Oh, nothing of any importance," he said. "At least, not just at
+present. I daresay Lord Westerham will be able to explain what I might
+have said better than I could. There's not time for it just now, I've
+got to get a train to Bolton in an hour's time."
+
+"And I'll have to be in Glasgow to-night," said Mr Parmenter, rising. "I
+hope you won't think it very inhospitable of us, Lady Margaret: but
+business is business, you know, and more so than usual in times like
+these.
+
+"Now, I had better say good-bye. I have a few things to see to before Mr
+Lennard and I go down to Settle, but I've no doubt Auriole will find
+some way of entertaining you till you want to start for York."
+
+At half-past two the motor was at the door to take Mr Parmenter and
+Lennard to Settle. That evening, in Glasgow, Mr Parmenter bought the
+_Minnehaha_, a steel turbine yacht of two thousand tons and twenty-five
+knots speed, from Mr Hendray Chinnock, a brother millionaire, who had
+laid her up in the Clyde in consequence of the war the day before. He
+re-engaged her officers and crew at double wages to cover war risks, and
+started for New York within an hour of the completion of the purchase.
+
+Lennard took the express to Bolton, with letters and a deed of gift from
+Lord Westerham, which gave him absolute ownership of the cannel mine
+with the twelve-hundred-foot vertical shaft at Farnworth.
+
+That afternoon and evening Lady Margaret was more than entertained, for
+during the afternoon she learned the story of the approaching cataclysm,
+in comparison with which the war was of no more importance than a mere
+street riot; and that night Auriole, who had learned to work the great
+reflector almost as well as Lennard himself, showed her the
+ever-growing, ever-brightening shape of the Celestial Invader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TOM BOWCOCK--PITMAN
+
+
+Lennard found himself standing outside the Trinity Street Station at
+Bolton a few minutes after six that evening.
+
+Of course it was raining. Rain and fine-spun cotton thread are Bolton's
+specialities, the two chief pillars of her fame and prosperity, for
+without the somewhat distressing superabundance of the former she could
+not spin the latter fine enough. It would break in the process.
+Wherefore the good citizens of Bolton cheerfully put up with the dirt
+and the damp and the abnormal expenditure on umbrellas and mackintoshes
+in view of the fact that all the world must come to Bolton for its
+finest threads.
+
+He stood for a moment looking about him curiously, if with no great
+admiration in his soul, for this was his first sight of what was to be
+the scene of the greatest and most momentous undertaking that human
+skill had ever dared to accomplish.
+
+But the streets of Bolton on a wet night do not impress a stranger very
+favourably, so he had his flat steamer-trunk and hat-box put on to a cab
+and told the driver to take him to the Swan Hotel, in Deansgate, where
+he had a wash and an excellent dinner, to which he was in a condition to
+do full justice--for though nation may rage against nation, and worlds
+and systems be in peril, the healthy human digestion goes on making its
+demands all the time, and, under the circumstances, blessed is he who
+can worthily satisfy them.
+
+Then, after a cup of coffee and a meditative cigar, he put on his
+mackintosh, sent for a cab, and drove to number 134 Manchester Road,
+which is one of a long row of small, two-storeyed brick houses, as clean
+as the all-pervading smoke and damp will permit them to be, but not
+exactly imposing in the eyes of a new-comer.
+
+When the door opened in answer to his knock he saw by the light of a
+lamp hanging from the ceiling of the narrow little hall a small, slight,
+neatly-dressed figure, and a pair of dark, soft eyes looked up
+inquiringly at him as he said:
+
+"Is Mr Bowcock at home?"
+
+"Yes, he is," replied a voice softly and very pleasantly tinged with the
+Lancashire accent. Then in a rather higher key the voice said:
+
+"Tom, ye're wanted."
+
+As she turned away Lennard paid his cabman, and when he went back to the
+door he found the passage almost filled by a tall, square-shouldered
+shape of a man, and a voice to match it said:
+
+"If ye're wantin' Tom Bowcock, measter, that's me. Will ye coom in? It's
+a bit wet i' t' street."
+
+Lennard went in, and as the door closed he said:
+
+"Mr Bowcock, my name is Lennard--"
+
+"I thou't it might be," interrupted the other. "You'll be Lord
+Westerham's friend. I had a wire from his lordship's morning telling me
+t' expect you to-night or to-morrow morning. You'll excuse t' kitchen
+for a minute while t' missus makes up t' fire i' t' sittin'-room."
+
+When Lennard got into the brightly-lighted kitchen, which is really the
+living-room of small Lancashire houses, he found himself in an
+atmosphere of modest cosy comfort which is seldom to be found outside
+the North and the Midland manufacturing districts. It is the other side
+of the hard, colourless life that is lived in mill and mine and forge,
+and it has a charm that is all its own.
+
+There was the big range, filling half the space of one of the
+side-walls, its steel framings glittering like polished silver; the high
+plate-rack full of shining crockery at one end by the door, and the low,
+comfortable couch at the other; two lines of linen hung on cords
+stretched under the ceiling airing above the range, and the solid deal
+table in the middle of the room was covered with a snow-white cloth, on
+which a pretty tea-service was set out.
+
+A brightly polished copper kettle singing on the range, and a daintily
+furnished cradle containing a sleeping baby, sweetly unconscious of wars
+or world-shaking catastrophes, completed a picture which, considering
+his errand, affected Gilbert Lennard very deeply.
+
+"Lizzie" said the giant, "this is Mr Lennard as his lordship telegraphed
+about to-day. I daresay yo can give him a cup of tay and see to t' fire
+i' t' sittin'-room. I believe he's come to have a bit of talk wi' me
+about summat important from what his lordship said."
+
+"I'm pleased to see you, Mr Lennard," said the pleasant voice, and as he
+shook hands he found himself looking into the dark, soft eyes of a
+regular "Lancashire witch," for Lizzie Bowcock had left despair in the
+heart of many a Lancashire lad when she had put her little hand into big
+Tom's huge fist and told him that she'd have him for her man and no one
+else.
+
+She left the room for a few minutes to see to the sitting-room fire, and
+Lennard turned to his host and said:
+
+"Mr Bowcock, I have come to see you on a matter which will need a good
+deal of explanation. It will take quite a couple of hours to put the
+whole thing before you, so if you have any other engagements for
+to-night, no doubt you can take a day off to-morrow--in fact, as the pit
+will have to stop working--"
+
+"T' 'pit stop working, Mr Lennard!" exclaimed the manager. "Yo' dunno
+say so. Is that his lordship's orders? Why, what's up?"
+
+"I will explain everything, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard, "only, for her
+own sake, your wife must know nothing at present. The only question is,
+shall we have a talk to-night or not?"
+
+"If it's anything that's bad," replied the big miner with a deeper note
+in his voice, "I'd soonest hear it now. Mysteries don't get any t'
+better for keepin'. Besides, it'll give me time to sleep on't; and
+that's not a bad thing to do when yo've a big job to handle."
+
+Mrs Bowcock came back as he said this, and Lennard had his cup of tea,
+and they of course talked about the war. Naturally, the big miner and
+his pretty little wife were the most interested people in Lancashire
+just then, for to no one else in the County Palatine had been given the
+honour of hearing the story of the great battle off the Isle of Wight
+from the lips of one who had been through it on board the now famous
+_Ithuriel_.
+
+But when Tom Bowcock came out of the little sitting-room three hours
+later, after Lennard had told him of the approaching doom of the world
+and had explained to him how his pit-shaft was to be used as a means of
+averting it--should that, after all, prove to be possible--his interest
+in the war had diminished very considerably, for he had already come to
+see clearly that this was undeniably a case of the whole being very much
+greater than the part.
+
+Tom Bowcock was one of those men, by no means rare in the north, who
+work hard with hands and head at the same time. He was a pitman, but he
+was also a scientific miner, almost an engineer, and so Lennard had
+found very little difficulty in getting him to grasp the details of the
+tremendous problem in the working out of which he was destined to play
+no mean part.
+
+"Well, Measter Lennard," he said, slowly, as they rose from the little
+table across which a very large amount of business had been transacted.
+"It's a pretty big job this that yo've putten into our hands, and
+especially into mine; but I reckon they'll be about big enough for it;
+and yo've come to t' right place, too. I've never heard yet of a job as
+Lancashire took on to as hoo didn't get through wi'.
+
+"Now, from what yo've been telling me, yo' must be a bit of an early
+riser sometimes, so if yo'll come here at seven or so i' t' mornin',
+I'll fit yo' out wi' pit clothes and we'll go down t' shaft and yo' can
+see for yoursel' what's wantin' doin'. Maybe that'll help yo' before yo'
+go and make yo'r arrangements wi' Dobson & Barlow and t'other folk as
+yo'll want to help yo'."
+
+"Thank you very much, Mr Bowcock," replied Lennard. "You will find me
+here pretty close about seven. It's a big job, as you say, and there's
+not much time to be lost. Now, if Mrs Bowcock has not gone to bed, I'll
+go and say good-night."
+
+"She's no'on to bed yet," said his host, "and yo'll take a drop o'
+summat warm before yo' start walkin' to t' hotel, for yo'll get no cab
+up this way to-neet. She'll just have been puttin' t' youngster to
+bed--"
+
+Tom Bowcock stopped suddenly in his speech as a swift vision of that
+same "youngster" and his mother choking in the flames of the Fire-Mist
+passed across his senses. Lennard had convinced his intellect of the
+necessity of the task of repelling the Celestial Invader and of the
+possibility of success; but from that moment his heart was in the work.
+
+It had stopped raining and the sky had cleared a little when they went
+to the door half an hour later. To the right, across the road, rose a
+tall gaunt shape like the skeleton of an elongated pyramid crowned with
+two big wheels. Lights were blazing round it, for the pit was working
+night and day getting the steam coal to the surface.
+
+"Yonder's t' shaft," said Tom, as they shook hands. "It doesn't look
+much of a place to save the world in, does it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+PREPARING FOR ACTION
+
+
+The next day was a busy one, not only for Lennard himself but for others
+whose help he had come to enlist in the working out of the Great
+Experiment.
+
+He turned up at Bowcock's house on the stroke of seven, got into his pit
+clothes, and was dropped down the twelve-hundred-foot shaft in the cage.
+At the bottom of the shaft he found a solid floor sloping slightly
+eastward, with three drives running in fan shape from north-east and
+south-east. There were two others running north and north-west.
+
+After ten minutes' very leisurely walk round the base of the shaft,
+during which he made one or two observations by linear and perpendicular
+compass, he said to Tom Bowcock:
+
+"I think this will do exactly. The points are absolutely correct. If we
+had dug a hole for ourselves we couldn't have got one better than this.
+Yes, I think it will just do. Now, will you be good enough to take me to
+the surface as slowly as you can?"
+
+"No, but yo're not meanin' that, Measter Lennard," laughed the manager.
+"'Cause if I slowed t' engines down as much as I could you'd be the rest
+o' t' day getting to t' top."
+
+"Yes, of course, I didn't mean that," said Lennard, "but just
+slowly--about a tenth of the speed that you dropped me into the bowels
+of the earth with. You see, I want to have a look at the sides."
+
+"Yo' needna' trouble about that, Mr Lennard, I can give yo' drawin's of
+all that in t' office, but still yo' can see for yo'rself by the
+drawin's afterwards."
+
+The cage ascended very slowly, and Lennard did see for himself. But when
+later on he studied the drawings that Tom Bowcock had made, he found
+that there wasn't as much as a stone missing. When he had got into his
+everyday clothes again, and had drunk a cup of tea brewed for him by Mrs
+Bowcock, he said as he shook hands with her husband:
+
+"Well, as far as the pit is concerned, I have seen all that I want to
+see, and Lord Westerham was just as right about the pit as he was about
+the man who runs it. Now, I take it over from to-day. You will stop all
+mining work at once, close the entrances to the galleries and put down a
+bed of concrete ten feet thick, level. Then you will go by the drawings
+that I gave you last night.
+
+"At present, the concreting of the walls in as perfect a circle as you
+can make them, not less than sixteen feet inner diameter, and building
+up the concrete core four feet thick from the floor to the top, is your
+first concern. You will tell your men that they will have double wages
+for day work and treble for night work, and whether they belong to the
+Volunteers or Yeomanry or Militia they will not be called to the Colours
+as long as they keep faith with us; if the experiment turns out all
+right, every man who sees it through shall have a bonus of a thousand
+pounds.
+
+"But, remember, that this pit will be watched, and every man who signs
+on for the job will be watched, and the Lord have mercy on the man who
+plays us false, for he'll want it. You must make them remember that, Mr
+Bowcock. This is no childish game of war among nations; this means the
+saving or the losing of a world, and the man who plays traitor here is
+not only betraying his own country, but the whole human race, friends
+and enemies alike."
+
+"I'll see to that, Mr Lennard. I know my chaps, and if there's one or
+two bad 'uns among 'em, they'll get paid and shifted in the ordinary
+way of business. But they're mostly a gradely lot of chaps. I've been
+picking 'em out for his lordship for t' last five yeers, and there isn't
+a Trade Unionist among 'em. We give good money here and we want good
+work and good faith, and if we don't get it, the man who doesn't give it
+has got to go and find another job.
+
+"For wages like that they'd go on boring t' shaft right down through t'
+earth and out at t' other side, and risk finding Owd Nick and his people
+in t' middle. A' tell yo' for sure. Well, good-mornin', yo've a lot to
+do, and so have I. A'll get those galleries blocked and bricked up at
+once, and as soon as you can send t' concrete along, we'll start at t'
+floor."
+
+Lennard's first visit after breakfast was to the Manchester and County
+Bank in Deansgate, where he startled the manager, as far as a Lancashire
+business man can be startled, by opening an account for two hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, and depositing the title-deeds of the whole of
+Lord Westerham's properties in and about Bolton.
+
+When he had finished his business at the Bank, he went to the offices of
+Dobson & Barlow, the great ironworkers, whose four-hundred-and-ten-foot
+chimney towers into the murky sky so far above all other structures in
+Bolton that if you are approaching the town by road you see it and its
+crest of smoke long before you see Bolton itself.
+
+The firm had, of course, been advised of his coming, and he had written
+a note over-night to say when he would call. The name of Ratliffe
+Parmenter was a talisman to conjure with in all the business circles of
+the world, and so Lennard found Mr Barlow himself waiting for him in his
+private office.
+
+He opened the matter in hand very quietly, so quietly indeed that the
+keen-sighted, hard-headed man who was listening to him found that for
+once in his life he was getting a little out of his depth.
+
+Never before had he heard such a tremendous scheme so quietly and
+calmly set forth. Bessemer furnaces were to be erected at once all round
+the pit mouth, meanwhile the firm was to contract with a Liverpool firm
+for an unlimited supply of concrete cement of the finest quality
+procurable. The whole staff of Dobson & Barlow's works were to be
+engaged at an advance of twenty-five per cent. on their present wages
+for three months to carry out the work of converting the shaft of the
+Great Lever pit into the gigantic cannon which was to hurl into Space
+the projectile which might or might not save the human race from
+destruction.
+
+Even granted Lennard's unimpeachable credentials, it was only natural
+that the great iron-master should exhibit a certain amount of
+incredulity, and, being one of the best types of the Lancashire business
+man, he said quite plainly:
+
+"This is a pretty large order you've brought us, Mr Lennard, and
+although, of course, we know Mr Parmenter to be good enough for any
+amount of money, still, you see, contracts are contracts, and what are
+we to do with those we've got in hand now if you propose to buy up for
+three months?"
+
+"Yes," replied Lennard, "I admit that that is an important point. The
+question is, what would it cost you to throw up or transfer to other
+firms the contracts that you now have in hand?"
+
+There was a silence of two or three minutes between them, during which
+Mr Barlow made a rapid but comprehensive calculation and Lennard took
+out his cheque-book and began to write a cheque.
+
+"Counting everything," said Mr Barlow, leaning back in his chair and
+looking up at the ceiling, "the transfer of our existing contracts to
+other firms of equal standing, so as to satisfy our customers, and the
+loss to ourselves for the time that you want--well, honestly, I don't
+think we could do it under twenty-five thousand pounds. You understand,
+I am saying nothing about the scientific aspect of the matter, because
+I don't understand it, but that's the business side of it; and that's
+what it's going to cost you before we begin."
+
+Lennard filled in the cheque and signed it. He passed it across the
+table to Mr Barlow, and said:
+
+"I think that is a very reasonable figure. This will cover it and leave
+something over to go on with."
+
+Mr Barlow took the cheque and looked at it, and then at the calm face of
+the quiet young man who was sitting opposite him.
+
+The cheque was for fifty thousand pounds. While he was looking at it,
+Lennard took the bank receipt for a quarter of a million deposit from
+his pocket and gave it to him, saying:
+
+"You will see from this that money is really no object. As you know, Mr
+Parmenter has millions, more I suppose than he could calculate himself,
+and he is ready to spend every penny of them. You will take that just as
+earnest money."
+
+"That's quite good enough for us, Mr Lennard," replied Mr Barlow,
+handing the bank receipt back. "The contracts shall be transferred as
+soon as we can make arrangements, and the work shall begin at once. You
+can leave everything else to us--brickwork, building, cement and all the
+rest of it--and we'll guarantee that your cannon shall be ready to fire
+off in three months from now."
+
+"And the projectile, Mr Barlow, are you prepared to undertake that
+also?" asked Lennard.
+
+"Yes, we will make the projectile according to your specification, but
+you will, of course, supply the bursting charge and the charge of this
+new powder of yours which is to send it into Space. You see, we can't do
+that; you'll have to get a Government permit to have such an enormous
+amount of explosives in one place, so I'll have to leave that to you."
+
+"I think I shall be able to arrange that, Mr Barlow," replied Lennard,
+as he got up from his seat and held his hand out across the table. "As
+long as you are willing to take on the engineering part of the business,
+I'll see to the rest. Now, I know that your time is quite as valuable as
+mine is, and I've got to get back to London this afternoon. To-morrow
+morning I have to go through a sort of cross-examination before the
+Cabinet--not that they matter much in the sort of crisis that we've got
+to meet.
+
+"Still, of course, we have to have the official sanction of the
+Government, even if it is a question of saving the world from
+destruction, but there won't be much difficulty about that, I think; and
+at any rate you'll be working on freehold property, and not even the
+Cabinet can stop that sort of work for the present. As far as everything
+connected with the mine is concerned, I hope you will be able to work
+with Mr Bowcock, who seems a very good sort of fellow."
+
+"If we can't work with Tom Bowcock," replied Mr Barlow, "we can't work
+with anyone on earth, and that's all there is about it. He's a big man,
+but he's good stuff all through. Lord Westerham didn't make any bad
+choice when he made him manager. And you won't dine with me to-night?"
+
+"I am sorry, but I must be back to London to-night. I have to catch the
+12-15 and have an interview in Downing Street at seven, and when I've
+got through that, I don't think there will be any difficulty about the
+explosives."
+
+"According to all accounts, you'll be lucky if you find Downing Street
+as it used to be," said Mr Barlow. "By the papers this morning it looks
+as if London was going to have a pretty bad time of it, what with these
+airships and submarines that sink and destroy everything in sight. Now
+that they've got away with the fleet, it seems to me that it's only a
+sort of walk over for them."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid it will have to be something like that for the next
+month or so," replied Lennard, thinking of a telegram which he had in
+his pocket. "But the victory is not all on one side yet. Of course, you
+will understand that I am not in a position to give secrets away, but as
+regards our own bargain, I am at liberty to tell you that while you are
+building this cannon of ours there will probably be some developments in
+the war which will be, I think, as unexpected as they will be startling.
+
+"In fact, sir," he continued, rising from his seat and holding out his
+hand across the table, "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,
+but when the time comes, I think you will find that those who believe
+that they are conquering England now will be here in Bolton faced by a
+foe against which their finest artillery will be as useless as an
+air-gun against an elephant.
+
+"All I ask you to remember now is that at eleven p.m. on the twelfth of
+May, the leaders of the nations who are fighting against England now
+will be standing around me in the quarry on the Belmont Road, waiting
+for the firing of the shot which I hope will save the world. If it does
+not save it, they will be welcome to all that is left of the world in an
+hour after that."
+
+"You are talking like a man who believes what he says, Mr Lennard,"
+replied Mr Barlow, "and, strange and all as it seems, I am beginning to
+believe with you. There never was a business like this given into human
+hands before, and, for the sake of humanity, I hope that you will be
+successful. All that we can do shall be done well and honestly. That you
+can depend on, and for the rest, we shall depend on you and your
+science. The trust that you have put in our hands to-day is a great
+honour to us, and we shall do our best to deserve it. Good-morning,
+sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON
+
+
+When Lennard got out of the train at St Pancras that evening, he found
+such a sight as until a day or so ago no Londoner had ever dreamed of.
+But terrible as the happenings were, they were not quite terrible enough
+to stop the issue of the evening newspapers.
+
+As the train slowed down along the platform, boys were running along it
+yelling:
+
+"Bombardment of London from the air--dome of St Paul's smashed by a
+shell--Guildhall, Mansion House, and Bank of England in ruins--orful
+scenes in the streets. Paper, sir?"
+
+He got out of the carriage and grabbed the first newspaper that was
+thrust into his hand, gave the boy sixpence for it, and hurried away
+towards the entrance. He found a few cabmen outside the station; he
+hailed one of the drivers, got in, and said:
+
+"Downing Street--quick. There's a sovereign; there'll be another for you
+when I get there."
+
+"It's a mighty risky job, guv'nor, these times, driving a keb through
+London streets. Still, one's got to live, I suppose. 'Old up there--my
+Gawd, that's another of those bombs! You just got out of there in time,
+sir."
+
+Even as though it had been timed, as it might well have been, a torpedo
+dropped from a ghostly shape drifting slowly across the grey November
+clouds. Then there came a terrific shock. Every pane in the vast roof
+and in the St Pancras Hotel shivered to the dust. The engine which had
+drawn Lennard's train blew up like one huge shell, and the carriages
+behind it fell into splinters.
+
+If that shell had only dropped three minutes sooner the end of the World
+war of 1910 would have been very different to what it was; for, as
+Lennard learned afterwards, of all the porters, officials and
+passengers, who had the misfortune to be in the great station at that
+moment, only half a hundred cripples, maimed for life, escaped.
+
+"I wonder whether that was meant for me," said Lennard as the frightened
+horse sprang away at a half gallop. "If that's the case, John Castellan
+knows rather more than he ought to do, and, good Lord, if he knows that,
+he must know where Auriole is, and what's to stop him taking one of
+those infernal things of his up to Whernside, wrecking the house and the
+observatory, and taking her off with him to the uttermost ends of the
+earth if he likes?
+
+"There must be something in it or that shell would not have dropped just
+after I got outside the station. They watched the train come in, and
+they knew I was in it--they must have known.
+
+"What a ghastly catastrophe it would be if they got on to that scheme of
+ours at the pit. Fancy one of those aerial torpedoes of his dropping
+down the bore of the cannon a few minutes before the right time! It
+would mean everything lost, and nothing gained, not even for him.
+
+"Ah, good man Erskine," he went on, as he opened the paper, and read
+that every cruiser, battleship and transport that had forced the
+entrance to the Thames and Medway had been sunk. "That will be a bit of
+a check for them, anyhow. Yes, yes, that's very good. Garrison Fort,
+Chatham and Tilbury, of course, destroyed from the air, but not a ship
+nor a man left to go and take possession of them."
+
+While he was reading his paper, and muttering thus to himself, the cab
+was tearing at the horse's best speed down Gray's Inn Road. It took a
+sudden swing to the right into Holborn, ran along New Oxford Street, and
+turned down Charing Cross Road, the horse going at a full gallop the
+whole time.
+
+Happily it was a good horse, or the fate of the world might have been
+different. There was no rule of the road now, and no rules against
+furious driving. London was panic-stricken, as it might well be. As far
+as Lennard could judge the aerial torpedoes were being dropped mostly in
+the neighbourhood of Regent Street and Piccadilly, and about Grosvenor
+Place and Park Lane. He half expected to find Parliament Street and
+Westminster in ruins, but for some mysterious reason they had been
+spared.
+
+The great City was blazing in twenty places, and scarcely a minute
+passed without the crash of an explosion and the roar of flame that
+followed it, but a magic circle seemed to have been drawn round
+Westminster. There nothing was touched, and yet the wharves on the other
+side of the river, and the great manufactories behind them, were blazing
+and vomiting clouds of flame and smoke towards the clouds as though the
+earth had been split open beneath them and the internal fires themselves
+let loose.
+
+When the cabman pulled up his sweating and panting horse at the door of
+Number 2 Downing Street, Lennard got out and said to the cabman:
+
+"You did that very well, considering the general state of things. I
+don't know whether you'll live to enjoy it or not, but there's a
+five-pound note for you, and if you'll take my advice you will get your
+wife and family, if you have one, into that cab, and drive right out
+into the country. It strikes me London's going to be a very good place
+to stop away from for the next two or three days."
+
+"Thank 'ee, sir," said the cabman, as he gathered up the five-pound note
+and tucked it down inside his collar. "I don't know who you are, but
+it's very kind of you; and as you seem to know something, I'll do as
+you say. What with these devil-ships a-flyin' about the skies, and
+dropping thunderbolts on us from the clouds, and furreners a-comin' up
+the Thames as I've heard, London ain't 'ealthy enough for me, nor the
+missus and the kids, and thanks for your kindness, sir, we're movin'
+to-night, keb an' all.
+
+"Oh, my Gawd, there's another! 'Otel Cecil and Savoy this time, if I've
+got my bearin's right. Well, there's one thing, t'ain't on'y the pore
+what's sufferin' this time; there'll be a lot of rich people dead afore
+mornin'. A pal of mine told me just now that Park Lane was burnin' from
+end t' end. Good-evenin', sir, and thenk you."
+
+As the cab drove away Lennard stood for a few moments on the pavement,
+watching two columns of flame soaring up from the side of the Strand.
+Perhaps the most dreadful effects produced by the aerial torpedoes were
+those which resulted from the breaking of the gas mains and the
+destruction of the electric conduits. Save for the bale-fires of ruin
+and destruction, half London was in darkness. Miles of streets under
+which the gas mains were laid blew up with almost volcanic force. The
+electric mains were severed, and all the contents dislocated, and if
+ever London deserved the name which James Thompson gave it when he
+called it "The City of Dreadful Night," it deserved it on that evening
+of the 17th of November 1909.
+
+Lennard was received in the Prime Minister's room by Mr Chamberlain,
+Lord Whittinghame, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Milner and General
+Lord Kitchener.
+
+It was perhaps the strangest meeting that had ever taken place in that
+room, not even saving the historic meeting of 1886. There was very
+little talking. Even in the House of Commons the flood of talk had ebbed
+away in such a fashion that it made it possible for the nation's
+business to be got through at a wonderful speed. The fact of the matter
+was that the guns were talking--talking within earshot of Palace Yard
+itself, and so men had come to choose their words and make them few.
+
+After the introductions had been made the man who really held the fate
+of the world in his hands took a long envelope out of the breast-pocket
+of his coat, and proceeded to explain, somewhat as a schoolmaster might
+explain to his class, the doom which would overwhelm humanity on the
+12th May 1910.
+
+He was listened to in absolute silence, because his hearers were men who
+had good reason for believing that silence is often worth a good deal
+more than speech. When he had finished the rustle of his papers as he
+handed them to the Prime Minister was distinctly audible in the solemn
+silence. The Prime Minister folded them up, and said:
+
+"There is no necessity for us to go into the figures again. I think we
+are prepared to take them on the strength of your reputation, Mr
+Lennard.
+
+"We have asked you here to-night as an adviser, as a man who in more
+ways than one sees farther than we can. Now, what is your advice? You
+are aware, I presume, that the German Emperor, the Czar of Russia and
+the French President landed at Dover this morning, and have issued an
+ultimatum from Canterbury, calling upon us to surrender London, and
+discuss terms of peace in the interests of humanity. Now, you occupy a
+unique point of view. You have told us in your letters that unless a
+miracle happens the human race will not survive midnight of the 12th of
+May next. We believe that you are right, and now, perhaps, you will be
+good enough to let us have your opinions as to what should be done in
+the immediate present."
+
+"My opinion is, sir, that for at least forty days you must fight, no
+matter how great the odds may appear to be. Every ditch and hedgerow,
+every road and lane, every hill and copse must be defended. If London
+falls, England falls, and with it the Empire."
+
+"But how are we to do it?" exclaimed Lord Kitchener. "With these
+infernal airships flying about above it, and dropping young earthquakes
+from the clouds? There are no braver men on earth than ours, but it
+isn't human nature to keep steady under that kind of punishment. Look
+what they've done already in London! What is there to prevent them, for
+instance, from dropping a shell through the roof of this house, and
+blowing the lot of us to eternity in little pieces? It's not the
+slightest use trying to shoot back at them. You remember what happened
+to poor Beresford and the rest of his fleet in Dover Harbour. If you
+can't hit back, you can't fight."
+
+"That certainly appears to be perfectly reasonable," said Sir Henry
+Campbell-Bannerman. "Personally, I must confess, although with the
+greatest reluctance, that considering the enormous advantage possessed
+by the enemy in this combination of submarine and flying machine, we
+have no other alternative but to surrender at discretion. It is a
+pitiful thing to say, I am well aware, but we are fighting forces which
+would never have been called into being in any other war. I agree with
+Lord Kitchener that you cannot fight an enemy if you cannot hit him
+back. I am afraid there is no other alternative."
+
+"No," added Lord Whittinghame, "I am afraid there is not. By to-morrow
+morning there will be three millions of men on British soil, and we
+haven't a million to put against them--to say nothing of these horrible
+airships: but, Mr Lennard, if the world is only going to live about six
+months or so, what is the use of conquering the British Empire? Surely
+there must be another alternative."
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied Lennard, "there is another. I've no doubt your
+lordship has one of your motors within call. Let us go down to
+Canterbury, yourself, Lord Kitchener and myself, and I will see if I
+can't convince the German Emperor that in trying to conquer Britain he
+is only stabbing the waters. If I only had him at Whernside, I would
+convince him in five minutes."
+
+"Then we'd better get hold of him and take him there," said Lord
+Kitchener. "But I'm ready for the Canterbury journey."
+
+"And so am I," said Lord Whittinghame, "and the sooner we're off the
+better. I've got a new Napier here that's good for seventy-five miles an
+hour, so we'd better be off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+LENNARD'S ULTIMATUM
+
+
+Within five minutes they were seated in the big Napier, with ninety
+horse-power under them, and a possibility of eighty miles an hour before
+them. A white flag was fastened to a little flagstaff on the left-hand
+side. They put on their goggles and overcoats, and took Westminster
+Bridge, as it seemed, in a leap. Rochester was reached in twenty-five
+minutes, but at the southern side of Rochester Bridge they were held up
+by German sentries.
+
+"Not a pleasant sort of thing on English soil," growled Lord Kitchener
+as Lord Whittinghame stopped the motor.
+
+"Is the German Emperor here yet?" asked Lennard in German.
+
+"No, Herr, he is at Canterbury," replied the sentry. "Would you like to
+see the officer?"
+
+"Yes," said Lennard, "as soon as possible. These gentlemen are Lord
+Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, and they wish to meet the Emperor as
+soon as possible."
+
+The sentry saluted and retired, and presently a captain of Uhlans came
+clattering across the street, clicked his heels together, touched the
+side of his helmet, and said:
+
+"At your service, gentlemen. What can I do for you?"
+
+"We wish to get into communication with the German Emperor as soon as
+possible," replied Lord Whittinghame. "Is the telegraph still working
+from here to Canterbury?"
+
+"It is," replied the German officer; "if you will come with me to the
+office you shall be put into communication with His Majesty at once; but
+it will be necessary for me to hear what you say."
+
+"We're only going to try and make peace," said Lord Kitchener, "so you
+might as well hear all we've got to say. Those infernal airships of
+yours have beaten us. Will you get in? We'll run you round to the
+office."
+
+"I thank you," replied the captain of the Uhlans, "but it will be better
+if I walk on and have the line cleared. I will meet you at the office.
+Adieu."
+
+He stiffened up, clicked his heels again, saluted, and the next moment
+he had thrown his right leg across the horse which the orderly had
+brought up for him.
+
+"Not bad men, those Uhlans," said Lord Kitchener, as the car moved
+slowly towards the telegraph station. "Take a lot of beating in the
+field, I should say, if it once came to cold steel."
+
+They halted at the post-office, and the captain of Uhlans, who was in
+charge of all the telegraph lines of the south-east, was requested to
+send the following telegram, which was signed by Lord Whittinghame and
+Lord Kitchener.
+
+
+     "Acting as deputation from British Government we desire interview
+     with your Majesty at Canterbury, with view to putting end to
+     present bloodshed, if possible, also other important news to
+     communicate."
+
+
+This telegram was despatched to the Kaiser at the County Hotel,
+Canterbury, and while they were waiting for the reply a message came in
+from Whitstable addressed to "Lennard, oyster merchant, Rochester,"
+which was in the following terms:
+
+
+     "Oyster catch promises well. Advised large purchase
+     to-morrow.--ROBINSON & SMITH."
+
+
+"That seems rather a frivolous sort of thing to send one nowadays,"
+said Lennard, dropping the paper to the floor after reading the telegram
+aloud. "I have some interest in the beds at Whitstable, and my agents,
+who don't seem to know that there's a war going on, want me to invest. I
+think it's hardly good enough, when you don't know whether you'll be in
+little pieces within the next ten minutes."
+
+"I don't see why you shouldn't take on a contract for supplying our
+friends the enemy," laughed Lord Kitchener, as the twinkle of an eye
+passed between them, while the captain of Uhlans' back was turned for an
+instant.
+
+"I'm afraid they would be confiscated before I could do that," said
+Lennard. "I shan't bother about answering it. We have rather more
+serious things than oysters to think about just now."
+
+The sounder clicked, and the German telegraphist, who had taken the
+place of the English one, tapped out a message, which he handed to the
+captain of Uhlans.
+
+"Gentlemen, His Imperial Majesty will be glad to receive you at the
+County Hotel, Canterbury. I will give you a small flag which shall
+secure you from all molestation."
+
+He handed the paper to Lord Whittinghame as he spoke. The Imperial
+message read:
+
+
+     "Happy to meet deputation. Please carry German flag, which will
+     secure you from molestation _en route_. I am wiring orders for
+     suspension of hostilities till dawn to-morrow. I hope we may make
+     satisfactory arrangements.--WILHELM."
+
+
+"That is quite satisfactory," said Lord Whittinghame to the captain of
+Uhlans. "We shall be much obliged to you for the flag, and you will
+perhaps telegraph down the road saying that we are not to be stopped. I
+can assure you that the matter is one of the utmost urgency."
+
+"Certainly, my lord," replied the captain. "His Majesty's word is given.
+That is enough for us."
+
+Ten minutes later the big Napier, flying the German flag on the
+left-hand side, was spinning away through Chatham, and down the straight
+road to Canterbury. They slowed up going through Sittingbourne and
+Faversham, which were already in the hands of the Allied forces, thanks
+to John Castellan's precautions in blocking all railroads to Dover, and
+the German flag was saluted by the garrisons, much to Lord Kitchener's
+quietly-expressed displeasure, but he knew they were playing for a big
+stake, and so he just touched his cap, as they swung through the narrow
+streets, and said what he had to say under his breath.
+
+Within forty minutes the car pulled up opposite the County Hotel,
+Canterbury. The ancient city was no longer English, save as regarded its
+architecture. Everywhere, the clatter of German hoofs sounded on the
+streets, and the clink and clank of German spurs and swords sounded on
+the pavements. The French and Austrians were taking the westward routes
+by Ashford and Tonbridge in the enveloping movement on London. The War
+Lord of Germany had selected the direct route for himself.
+
+As the motor stopped panting and throbbing in front of the hotel
+entrance, a big man in the uniform of the Imperial Guard came out,
+saluted, and said:
+
+"Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, with Mr Lennard, I presume?"
+
+"Yes, that's so," said Lord Kitchener, opening the side door and getting
+out. "Colonel von Folkerstroem, I believe. I think we've met before. You
+were His Majesty's _attache_ with us during the Boer War, I think. This
+is Lord Whittinghame, and this is Mr Lennard. Is His Majesty within?"
+
+"His Majesty awaits you, gentlemen," replied the Colonel, formally. And
+then as he shook hands with Lord Kitchener he added, "I am sorry, sir,
+that we should meet as enemies on English soil."
+
+"Just the fortune of war and those damned airships of yours, Colonel,"
+laughed Lord Kitchener in reply. "If we'd had them this meeting might
+have been in Berlin or Potsdam. Can't fight against those things, you
+know. We're only human."
+
+"But you English are just a little more, I think," said the Colonel to
+himself. "Gottes willen! What would my August Master be thinking now if
+this was in Berlin instead of Canterbury, and here are these Englishmen
+taking it as quietly as though an invasion of England happened every
+day." And when he had said this to himself he continued aloud:
+
+"My lords and Mr Lennard, if you will follow me I will conduct you into
+His Majesty's presence."
+
+They followed the Colonel upstairs to the first floor. Two sentries in
+the uniform of the 1st Regiment of Cuirassiers were guarding the door:
+their bayoneted rifles came up to the present, the Colonel answered the
+salute, and they dropped to attention. The Colonel knocked at the door
+and a harsh voice replied:
+
+"Herein."
+
+The door swung open and Lennard found himself for the first but not the
+last time in the presence of the War Lord of Germany.
+
+"Good-evening, gentlemen," said the Kaiser. "You will understand me when
+I say I am both glad and sorry to see you."
+
+"Your Majesty," replied Lord Whittinghame, in a curiously serious tone,
+"the time for human joy and sorrow is so fast expiring that almost
+everything has ceased to matter, even the invasion of England."
+
+The Kaiser's brows lifted, and he stared in frank astonishment at the
+man who could say such apparently ridiculous words so seriously. If he
+had not known that he was talking to the late Prime Minister, and the
+present leader of the Unionist party in the House of Lords, he would
+have thought him mad.
+
+"Those are very strange words, my lord," he replied. "You will pardon me
+if I confess that I can hardly grasp their meaning."
+
+"If your Majesty has an hour to spare," said Lord Whittinghame, "Mr
+Lennard will make everything perfectly plain. But what he has to say,
+and what he can prove, must be for your Majesty's ears alone."
+
+"Is it so important as that?" laughed the Kaiser.
+
+"It is so important, sire," said Lord Kitchener, "that the fate of the
+whole world hangs upon what you may say or do within the next hour. So
+far, you have beaten us, because you have been able to bring into action
+engines of warfare against which we have been unable to defend
+ourselves. But now, there is another enemy in the field, against which
+we possess the only means of defence. That is what we have come to
+explain to your Majesty."
+
+"Another enemy!" exclaimed the Kaiser, "but how can that be. There are
+no earthly powers left sufficiently strong that we would be powerless
+against them."
+
+"This is not an earthly enemy, your Majesty," replied Lennard, speaking
+for the first time since he had entered the room. "It is an invader from
+Space. To put it quite plainly, the terms which we have come to offer
+your Majesty are: Cessation of hostilities for six months, withdrawal of
+all troops from British soil, universal disarmament, and a pledge to be
+entered into by all the Powers of Europe and the United States of
+America that after the 12th of May next there shall be no more war. Your
+fleets have been destroyed as well as ours, your armies are here, but
+they cannot get away, and so we are going to ask you to surrender."
+
+"Surrender!" echoed the Kaiser, "surrender, when your country lies open
+and defenceless before us? No, no. Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener
+I know, but who are you, sir--a civilian and an unknown man, that you
+should dictate peace to me and my Allies?"
+
+"Only a man, your Majesty," said Lord Whittinghame, "who has convinced
+the British Cabinet Council that he holds the fate of the world in the
+hollow of his hands. Are you prepared to be convinced?"
+
+"Of what?" replied the Kaiser, coldly.
+
+"That there will be no world left to conquer after midnight on the 12th
+of May next, or to put it otherwise, that unless our terms are accepted,
+and Mr Lennard carries out his work, there will be neither victors nor
+vanquished left on earth."
+
+"Gentlemen," replied the Kaiser, "you will pardon me when I say that I
+am surprised beyond measure that you should have come to me with a
+schoolboy's tale like that. The eternal order of things cannot be
+interrupted in such a ridiculous fashion. Again, I trust you will
+forgive me when I express my regret that you should have wasted so much
+of your own time and mine on an errand which should surely have appeared
+to you fruitless from the first.
+
+"Whoever or whatever this gentleman may be," he continued with a wave of
+his hand towards Lennard, "I neither know nor care; but that yourself
+and Lord Kitchener should have been deceived so grossly, I must confess
+passes the limits of my imagination. Frankly, I do not believe in the
+possibility of such proofs as you allude to. As regards peace, I propose
+to discuss terms with King Edward in Windsor--not before, nor with
+anyone else. Gentlemen, I have other matters to attend to, and I have
+the honour to bid you good-evening."
+
+"And that is your Majesty's last word?" said Lord Kitchener. "You mean a
+fight to the finish?"
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied the Kaiser, "whether the world finishes with the
+fight or not."
+
+"Very well then," said Lennard, taking an envelope from the
+breast-pocket of his coat, and putting it down on the table before the
+Emperor. "If your Majesty has not time to look through those papers,
+you will perhaps send them to Berlin and take your own astronomer's
+report upon them. Meanwhile, you will remember that our terms are:
+Unconditional surrender of the forces invading the British Islands or
+the destruction of the world. Good-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CONCERNING ASTRONOMY AND OYSTERS
+
+
+In spite of the bold front that he had assumed during the interview, the
+strain, not exactly of superstition but rather of supernaturalism which
+runs so strongly in the Kaiser's family, made it impossible for him to
+treat such a tremendous threat as the destruction of the world as an
+alternative to universal peace by any means as lightly as he appeared to
+his visitors to do; and when the audience was over he picked up the
+envelope which Lennard had left upon the table, beckoned Count von
+Moltke into his room behind, locked the door, and said:
+
+"Now, Count, what is your opinion of this? At first sight it looks
+ridiculous; but whoever this Lennard may be, it seems hardly likely that
+two men like Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, two of the
+coolest-headed and best-balanced men on earth, should take the trouble
+to come down here as a deputation from the British Cabinet only to make
+themselves ridiculous. Suppose we have a look at these papers?
+Everything is in train for the advance. I daresay you and I understand
+enough of mathematics between us to find out if there is anything
+serious in them, and if so, they shall go to Herr Doellinger at once."
+
+"I think it would be at least worth while to look through them, your
+Majesty," replied the Count. "Like yourself, I find it rather difficult
+to believe that this mysterious Mr Lennard, whoever he is, has been able
+to impose upon the whole British Cabinet, to say nothing of Lord
+Kitchener, who is about the best engineer and mathematician in the
+British Army."
+
+So the Count and the Kaiser sat down, and went through the elaborate and
+yet beautifully clear calculations and diagrams, page by page, each
+making notes as he went on. At the end of an hour the Kaiser looked over
+his own notes, and said to von Moltke:
+
+"Well, what is your opinion, Count?"
+
+"I am not an astronomer, your Majesty, but these calculations certainly
+appear to me to be correct as far as they go--that is, granted always
+that the premisses from which Mr Lennard starts are correct. But
+certainly I think that your Majesty will be wise in sending them as soon
+as possible to Herr Doellinger."
+
+"That is exactly the conclusion that I have come to myself," replied the
+Kaiser. "I will write a note to Herr Doellinger, and one of the airships
+must take it across to Potsdam. We can't afford to run any risks of that
+infernal submarine ram or whatever she is. I would almost give an Army
+corps for that ship. There's no doubt she's lost us three fleets, a
+score of transports, and twenty thousand men in the last three days, and
+she's just as much a mystery as ever. It's the most extraordinary
+position a conquering army was ever put into before."
+
+The Kaiser was perfectly right. There could be no doubt that up to the
+present the invading forces had been victorious, thanks of course mainly
+to the irresistible advantage of the airships, but also in no small
+degree to the hopeless unpreparedness of the British home armies to meet
+an invasion, which both military and naval experts had simply refused to
+believe possible.
+
+The seizure of the line from Dover to Chatham had been accomplished in a
+single night. A dozen airships patrolled the air ahead of the advancing
+German forces, which of course far outnumbered the weak and
+hastily-collected British forces which could be brought against them,
+and which, attacked at once by land and from the air, never really had a
+chance.
+
+It was the most perfectly conducted invasion ever planned. The
+construction trains which went in advance on both lines carried sections
+of metals of English gauge, already fastened to sleepers, and ready to
+lay down. Every little bridge and culvert had been known and was
+provided for. Not a bolt nor a fishplate had been forgotten, and
+moreover John Castellan's operations from the air had reduced the
+destruction to a minimum, and the consequence was that twelve hours
+after the Kaiser had landed at Dover he found himself in his
+headquarters at Canterbury, whence the British garrison had been forced
+to retire after heavy fighting along the lines of wooded hills behind
+Maidstone.
+
+It was the old, old story, the story of every war that England had gone
+into and "muddled through" somehow; but with two differences. Her
+soldiers had never had to fight an enemy in the skies before, and--there
+was no time now to straighten out the muddle, even if every able-bodied
+man in the United Kingdom had been trained soldiers, as the invaders
+were.
+
+But there was another element in the situation. Incredible as it might
+seem to those ignorant of the tremendous forces brought into play, the
+home fleets of Europe had been destroyed, practically to a ship, within
+three days and nights. The narrow seas were deserted. On the morning of
+the seventeenth, four transports attempting to cross from Hamburg to
+Ramsgate, carrying a force of men, horses and light artillery, which was
+intended to operate as a flying column along the northern shores of
+Kent, had been rammed and sent to the bottom within fifteen minutes half
+way between land and land, and not a man nor an animal had escaped.
+
+There was no news from the expeditions which had been sent against Hull
+and Newcastle--all the cables had been cut, save the transatlantic
+lines, the cutting of which the United States had already declared they
+would consider as an unfriendly act on the part of the Allies, and the
+British cable from Gibraltar to the Lizard which connected with Palermo
+and Rome, and so formed the link of communication between Britain and
+the Mediterranean.
+
+The British Mediterranean Fleet was coming home, so were the West Indian
+and North American squadrons, while the squadron in the China seas was
+also ordered home, via the Suez Canal, to form a conjunction with our
+Italian Allies. Of course, these ships would in due time be dealt with
+by the aerial submarines, but meanwhile commerce with Europe had become
+impossible. Imports had stopped at most of the great ports through sheer
+terror of this demon of the sea, which appeared to be here, there and
+everywhere at the same time; and with all these powerful squadrons
+converging upon the shores of Britain the problem of feeding and
+generally keeping fit for war some three millions of men and over half a
+million horses would soon begin to look distinctly serious.
+
+Castellan's vessels had hunted in vain for this solitary vessel, which
+single-handed, marvellous as it seemed, kept the narrow waters clear of
+invaders. The truth of this matter, however, was very simple. The
+_Ithuriel_ was nearly twice as fast in the water as the _Flying Fishes_,
+and she carried guns with an effective range of five miles, whereas they
+only carried torpedoes.
+
+For instance, during the battle of Sheerness, in which the remaining
+units of the North Sea Squadron had, with the _Ithuriel's_ aid, attacked
+and destroyed every German and Russian battleship and transport,
+Erskine's craft had done terrible execution without so much as being
+seen until, when the last of the German Coast Defence ships had gone
+down with all hands in the Great Nore, off the Nore lighthouse, whence
+she was shelling Garrison Fort, the _Ithuriel_ had risen above the water
+for a few moments, and Denis Castellan had taken a cockshot with the
+three forward guns at a couple of _Flying Fishes_ that were circling
+over the town and fort and river mouth.
+
+The shells had time-fuses, and they were timed to the tenth of a
+second. They burst simultaneously over the airships. Then came a rending
+of the atmosphere, and descending streams of fire, which burst with a
+rapid succession of sharp reports as they touched the airships. Then
+came another blaze of light which seemed to darken the wintry sun for a
+moment, and then another quaking of the air, after which what was left
+of the two _Flying Fishes_ fell in little fragments into the water,
+splashing here and there as though they had been shingle ballast thrown
+out of a balloon.
+
+True, Garrison Fort had been blown up by the aerial torpedoes, and the
+same fate was befalling the great forts at Tilbury, but their gallant
+defenders did not die in vain, and, although the remainder of the aerial
+squadron were able to go on and do their work of destruction on London,
+whither the _Ithuriel_ could not follow them, the wrecks of six
+battleships, a dozen destroyers and ten transports strewed the
+approaches to the Thames and the Medway, while nearly thirty thousand
+soldiers and sailors would never salute the flag of Czar or Kaiser
+again.
+
+In all the history of war no such loss of men, ships and material had
+ever taken place within the short space of three days and a few hours.
+Four great fleets and nearly a hundred thousand men had been wiped out
+of existence since the assault on Southern England had begun, and even
+now, despite the airships, had the millions of Britain's able-bodied
+men, who were grinding their teeth and clenching their fists in impotent
+fury, been trained just to shoot and march, it would have been possible
+to take the invaders between overwhelming masses of men--who would hold
+their lives as nothing in comparison with their country's honour--and
+the now impassable sea, and drive them back into it. But although men
+and youths went in their tens of thousands to the recruiting stations
+and demanded to be enlisted, it was no use. Soldiers are not made in a
+day or a week, and the invaders of England had been making them for
+forty years.
+
+While the Kaiser and Count von Moltke were going through Lennard's
+papers, and coming to the decision to send them to Potsdam, Lord
+Whittinghame's motor, instead of returning to Chatham, was running up to
+Whitstable to answer the telegram which Lennard had received at
+Rochester. The German flag cleared them out of Canterbury. It was
+already known that they had been received by the Kaiser, and therefore
+their persons were sacred. In consequence of the loss of the squadron
+attacking the Thames and Medway, and the destruction of the Ramsgate
+flotilla, the country was not occupied by the enemy north of the great
+main road through Canterbury and Faversham, and that was just why the
+_Ithuriel_ was lying snugly in the mouth of the East Swale River, about
+three miles from the little town, with a shabby-looking lighter beside
+her, from which she was taking in an extra complement of her own shells
+and material for making Lennard's explosive, as well as a full load of
+fuel for her engines. They pulled up at the door of the Bear and Key
+Hotel, and as the motor came to a standstill a man dressed in the
+costume of an ordinary worker on the oyster-beds came up, touched his
+sou'wester, and said:
+
+"Mr Lennard's car, gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes, I'm here," said Lennard, shortly; "we've just left the Emperor at
+Canterbury. How about those oysters? I should think you ought to do well
+with them in Canterbury. Got plenty?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man. "If you will come down to the wharf I will
+be able to show you a shipment that I can send along to-night if the
+train comes from Canterbury."
+
+"I think we might as well have a drop of something hot first, it's
+rather cold riding."
+
+The others nodded, and they went into the hotel without removing their
+caps or goggles. They asked a waiter to show them into a private room,
+as they had some business to do, and when four glasses of hot whisky and
+water had been put on the table, Lennard locked the door and said:
+
+"My lords, allow me to have the pleasure of introducing to you
+Lieutenant Denis Castellan of His Majesty's cruiser _Ithuriel_."
+
+Lord Whittinghame's and Lord Kitchener's hands went out together, and
+the former said:
+
+"Delighted to meet you, Mr Castellan. You and Captain Erskine have done
+magnificently for us in spite of all our troubles. In fact, I don't know
+what we should have done without you and this wonderful craft of yours."
+
+"With all due deference to the Naval Council," said "K. of K," rather
+bluntly, "it's a pity they didn't put down a dozen of her. But what
+about these oysters that you telegraphed to Mr Lennard about?"
+
+"There is only one oyster in question at present, my lord," said Denis,
+with an entirely Irish smile, "but it's rather a big one. It's the
+German Emperor's yacht, the _Hohenzollern_. She managed to run across,
+and get into Ramsgate, while we were up here in the Thames--that's the
+worst of there being only one of us, as we can only attend to one piece
+of business at a time. Now, she's lying there waiting the Kaiser's
+orders, in case he wants to take a trip across, and it seems to me that
+she'd be worth the watching for a day or two--she'd be a big prize, you
+know, gentlemen, especially if we could catch her with the War Lord of
+Germany on board her. I don't think myself that His Majesty would have
+any great taste for a trip to the bottom of the North Sea, just when he
+thinks he's beginning the conquest of England so nicely, and, by the
+Powers, we'd send him there if he got into one of his awkward tempers
+with us."
+
+Lord Kitchener, who was in England acting as Chief-of-the-Staff to the
+Duke of Connaught, and general adviser to the Council of National
+Defence, took Lord Whittinghame to the other end of the room, and said
+a few words to him in a low tone, and he came back and said:
+
+"It is certainly worth trying, even if you can only catch the ship; but
+we don't think you'll catch the Kaiser. The fact is, you seem to have
+established such a holy terror in these waters that I don't think he
+would trust his Imperial person between here and Germany. If he did go
+across, he'd probably go in an airship. But if you can bring the
+_Hohenzollern_ up to Tilbury--of course, under the German flag--I think
+we shall be able to make good use of her. If she won't come, sink her."
+
+"Very good, my lords," said Denis, saluting. "If she's not coming up the
+Thames to-morrow night with the _Ithuriel_ under her stern, ye'll know
+that she's on the bottom in pieces somewhere. And now," he continued,
+taking a long envelope from an inner pocket, "here is the full report of
+our doings since the war began, with return of ships sunk, crippled and
+escaped; number of men landed, and so on, according to instructions. We
+will report again to-morrow night, I hope, with the _Hohenzollern_."
+
+They shook hands and wished him good-night and good luck, and in half an
+hour the _Ithuriel_ was running half-submerged eastward along the coast,
+and the motor was on its way to Faversham by the northern road, as there
+were certain reasons why it should not go back through Canterbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE LION WAKES
+
+
+At daybreak on the nineteenth, to the utter amazement of everyone who
+was not "in the know," the Imperial yacht, _Hohenzollern_, was found off
+Tilbury, flying the Imperial German Ensign and the Naval flag, as well
+as a long string of signals ordering the aerial bombardment of London to
+cease, and all the _Flying Fishes_ to return at once to Canterbury.
+
+The apparent miracle had been accomplished in an absurdly easy fashion.
+About nine a.m. on the eighteenth a German orderly went into the
+post-office at Dover and handed in an official telegram signed "Von
+Roon," ordering the _Hohenzollern_ to come round at once to Dover, as
+she was considered too open to attack there.
+
+There was something so beautifully natural and simple in the whole
+proceeding that, although there were about a dozen German officers and
+non-commissioned officers in the room at the time that the orderly came
+and went without suspicion, the telegram was taken by the clerk, read
+and initialled by the Censor, and passed.
+
+A few minutes later the orderly, marching in perfectly correct German
+fashion and carrying a large yellow envelope, walked out through the
+town northwards and climbed the hill to the eastward of the ruined
+castle. The envelope with its official seal took him past the sentries
+without question, but, instead of delivering it, he turned down a bypath
+to Fan Bay, under the South Foreland, gained the beach, took off his
+uniform in a secluded spot under the cliffs, and went for a swim. The
+uniform was never reclaimed, for when he reached the submerged
+_Ithuriel_ Denis Castellan had a rub down and put his own on.
+
+The captain of the _Hohenzollern_ was only too glad to obey the order,
+for he also thought that it would be better protected from the dreaded
+ocean terror in Dover, so he lost no time in obeying the order; with the
+result that, just as he was entering the deserted Downs, the said terror
+met him and ordered him to the right-about under pain of instant
+sinking.
+
+After that the rest was easy. The captain and officers raged and
+stormed, but not even German discipline would have prevented a mutiny if
+they had not surrendered. It was known that the _Ithuriel_ took no
+prisoners. In five minutes after the irresistible ram had hit them they
+would be at the bottom of the sea, and so the Hohenzollern put about and
+steamed out into the North Sea, with the three wicked forward guns
+trained upon her, and the ram swirling smoothly through the water fifty
+yards from her stern.
+
+At nightfall the course was altered for the mouth of the Thames. And so,
+with all lights out and steered by a thin shifting ray from her captor's
+conning-tower, the Kaiser's yacht made its strange way to Tilbury.
+
+The instant she dropped her anchor a couple of destroyers ran out from
+the Gravesend shore and ranged alongside her. The next minute a British
+captain and three lieutenants followed by a hundred bluejackets had
+boarded her. The German Commander and his officers gave up their swords,
+devoutly hoping that they would never meet their War Lord again, and so
+the incident ended.
+
+It will be easily understood that the Kaiser was about the most
+infuriated man in the United Kingdom when the _Flying Fishes_ arrived at
+Canterbury and the Commander of the squadron described the arrival of
+the _Hohenzollern_ in the Thames and asked for orders.
+
+In the first place no one knew better than William the Second how
+priceless was the prize won by the impudent audacity of these two young
+British sailors. In his private apartments on board there were his own
+complete plans of the campaign--not only for the conquest of Britain,
+but afterwards for the dismemberment of the British Empire, and its
+partition among the Allies--exact accounts of the resources of the chief
+European nations in men, money and ships, plans of fortifications, and
+even drafts of treaties. In fact, it was such a haul of Imperial and
+International secrets as had never been made before; and that evening
+the British Cabinet held in their possession enough diplomatic
+explosives to blow the European league of nations to pieces.
+
+Erskine and Castellan were honoured by an autograph letter from the
+King, thanking them heartily for their splendid services up to the
+present stage of the war, and wishing them all good luck for the future.
+Then the _Ithuriel_ slipped down the Thames, towing half a dozen
+shabby-looking barges behind her, and for some days she disappeared
+utterly from human ken.
+
+What she was really doing during these days was this. These barges and
+several others which she picked up now and then were filled with
+ammunition for her guns and fuel for her engines, and she dropped them
+here and there in obscure creeks and rock-bound bays from Newcastle to
+the Clyde, where they lay looking like abandoned derelicts, until such
+times as they might be wanted.
+
+Meanwhile, very soon after the loss of the _Hohenzollern_, the Kaiser
+received two messages which disquieted him very seriously. One of these
+came by airship from Potsdam. It was an exhaustive report upon the
+papers which Lennard had left with him on that momentous night as it
+turned out to be, on which the War Lord had rejected the ultimatum of
+the Man of Peace. It was signed by Professor Doellinger and endorsed by
+four of the greatest astronomers of Germany.
+
+Briefly put, its substance amounted to this: Mr Lennard's calculations
+were absolutely correct, as far as they went. Granted the existence of
+such a celestial body as he designated _Alpha_ in the document, and its
+position _x_ on the day of its alleged discovery; its direction and
+speed designated _y_ and _z_, then at the time of contact designated
+_n_, it would infallibly come into contact with the earth's atmosphere,
+and the consequences deduced would certainly come to pass, viz., either
+the earth would combine with it, and be transformed into a
+semi-incandescent body, or the terrestrial atmosphere would become a
+fire mist which would destroy all animal and vegetable life upon the
+planet within the space of a few minutes.
+
+The second communication was a joint-note from the Emperor of Austria,
+the President of the Hague Council, the President of the French
+Republic, and the Tsar of Russia, protesting against the bombardment of
+London or any other defenceless town by the airships. The note set forth
+that these were purely engines of war, and ought not to be used for
+purposes of mere terrorism and murder. Their war employment on land or
+water, or against fortified positions, was perfectly legitimate, but
+against unarmed people and defenceless towns it was held to be contrary
+to all principles of humanity and civilisation, and it was therefore
+requested by the signatories that, in order to prevent serious
+differences between the Allies, it should cease forthwith.
+
+The result of this communication was of course a Council of War, which
+was anything but a harmonious gathering, especially as several of the
+older officers agreed with the tone of it, and told the Kaiser plainly
+that they considered that there was quite enough in the actual business
+of war for the _Flying Fishes_ to do; and the Chancellor did not
+hesitate to express the opinion that the majority of the peoples of
+Europe, and possibly large numbers of their own soldiers, who, after
+all, were citizens first and soldiers afterwards, would strongly resent
+such operations, especially when it became known that the Emperor's own
+Allies had protested against it; the result of the Council was that
+William the Second saw that he was clearly in a minority, and had the
+good sense to issue a General Order there and then that all aerial
+bombardments, save as part of an organised attack, should cease from
+that day.
+
+The events of the next twenty days were, as may well be imagined, full
+of momentous happenings, which it would require hundreds of pages to
+describe in anything like detail, and therefore only quite a brief
+sketch of them can be given here. This will, however, be sufficient to
+throw a clear light upon the still more stupendous events which were to
+follow.
+
+In consequence of the almost incredible destruction and slaughter during
+these first four awful days and nights of the war, both sides had lost
+the command of the sea, and the capture of the _Hohenzollern_ in broad
+daylight less than a dozen miles from the English coast had produced
+such a panic among the rank and file of the invaders, and the
+reinforcements of men waiting on the other side of the Channel and the
+North Sea, that communication save by airship had practically stopped.
+
+The consequence of this was that, geographically, the Allied armies,
+after the release of the prisoners from Portsmouth and Folkestone,
+amounted to some three million men of all arms, with half a million
+horses, and two thousand guns--it will be remembered that a vast number
+of horses, guns and stores had gone to the bottom in the warships which
+the _Ithuriel_ had sunk--were confined within a district bounded by the
+coast-line from Ramsgate to the Needles, and thence by a line running
+north to Southampton; thence, across Hampshire to Petersfield, and via
+Horsham, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and over Canterbury, back to
+Ramsgate.
+
+In view of the defeat and destruction of the expedition against London,
+the troops that had been thrown forward to Chatham and Rochester to
+co-operate with it were re-called, and concentrated between Ashford and
+Canterbury. The rest of England, Scotland and Ireland was to the present
+a closed country to them. The blockade on Swansea and Liverpool had been
+raised by the _Ithuriel_, and there was nothing to prevent any amount of
+supplies from the west and south being poured in through half a hundred
+ports.
+
+Thus the dream of starving the British Islands out had been dissipated
+at a stroke. True, the dockyards of Devonport and Milford Haven had been
+destroyed by the airships, but copies of the plans of the _Ithuriel_ had
+been sent to Liverpool, Barrow, Belfast, the Clyde and the Tyne, and
+hundreds of men were working at them night and day. Scores of
+battleships, cruisers and destroyers, belonging both to Britain and
+other countries, which were nearing completion, were being laboured at
+with feverish intensity, so that they might be fitted for sea in
+something like fighting trim; submarines were being finished off by
+dozens, and Thorneycroft's and Yarrow's yards were, like the rest,
+working to their full capacity.
+
+The blind frenzy of rage which had swept like an epidemic over the whole
+kingdom during the first days of disaster had died away and in its place
+had come the quiet but desperate resolve that if Britain was to be
+conquered she should be depopulated as well.
+
+All male employment, save that which was necessary to produce coal and
+iron, to keep the shipyards and the gun factories going, and the
+shipping on the west coast running, was stopped. In thousands of cases,
+especially in the north, the places of the men were taken by the women;
+and, in addition to these, every woman and girl, from the match-girls of
+Whitechapel to the noblest and wealthiest in the land, found some work
+to do in the service of their country.
+
+Every day, thousands and tens of thousands of the sons of England,
+Scotland, Ireland and Wales were taken in hand by "Mr Sergeant
+What's-'is-Name," and drilled into shape with miraculous speed; and
+every day, as detachment after detachment went to the battle front,
+which now extended from North Foreland to Portland Bill, the magic of
+patriotism and the long-inherited habits of order and obedience changed
+the raw recruit into the steady-nerved, strong-hearted soldier, who
+learnt his duty in the grim school of battle, and was ready to do it to
+the end.
+
+In less than a month Britain had become a military nation. It seemed at
+the time and afterwards a miracle, but it was merely the outcome of
+perfectly natural causes.
+
+After all, every British man has a strain of fighting blood in him. Even
+leaving out his ancient ancestry, he remains the descendant of families
+who have given soldier-sons to their country during five hundred years
+of almost ceaseless war in one part of the world or the other. He is
+really born with battle-smoke in his nostrils, and the beat of the
+battle-drum in his heart--and he knows that, neither on land nor sea has
+he ever been finally beaten.
+
+Remember, too, that this was to him a holy war, the holiest in which the
+sword can be drawn. He was fighting for freedom, for the possession of
+his land, for the protection of wife and child and kindred, and the
+heritage which his fathers of old time had handed down to him. Was it
+any wonder, then, that within the space of a few weeks the peaceful
+citizens of Britain, like the fabled harvest of the dragon's teeth,
+seemed to spring as men full-armed from the very ground? Moreover, this
+was no skirmishing with sharpshooters over a vast extent of country, six
+thousand miles away from home, as it had been in South Africa. This was
+home itself. There was no right or wrong here, nothing for politicians
+to wrangle about for party purposes. Here, in a little corner of little
+England, two mighty hosts were at death-grips day and night, the one
+fighting for all that is dearest and most sacred to the heart of man;
+and the other to save itself from what could be nothing less than
+irretrievable disaster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+MR PARMENTER SAYS
+
+
+Happily for the defenders of Britain the fleet of aerial submarines,
+from which so much had been expected for offensive purposes during the
+proposed "triumphal march" on London, soon became of little or no use in
+the field.
+
+The reason was this: As, day after day and week after week, that awful
+struggle continued, it became absolutely necessary for the Allies to
+obtain men and material to make good the fearful losses which the valour
+and devotion of what was now a whole nation in arms had inflicted upon
+them, and so all but four were despatched to guard the route between
+Dover and Calais--eight under the water and eight in the air--and so
+make it possible for the transports to cross. Of course, this meant that
+thousands of fresh men and hundreds of horses and guns could be poured
+into Kent every day; but it also meant that the greater portion of the
+defenders' most terrible foes were rendered harmless--and this was not
+the least of the good work that the _Ithuriel_ had done.
+
+Of course, that famous "sea-devil," as the invaders called her, was
+mostly on the spot or thereabouts, and every now and then a crowded
+transport would lurch over and go down, or a silent, flameless shot
+would rise up out of some unknown part of the waters and a shell would
+burst with a firmament-shaking concussion close to one of the
+airships--after which the airship would burst with a still more
+frightful shock and distribute herself in very small fragments through
+the shuddering atmosphere; but this only happened every other day or so,
+for Erskine and his lieutenant knew a good deal better than to run too
+many risks, at least just now.
+
+So, for twelve weeks of bitter, bloody and unsparing strife the grim,
+unceasing struggle for the possession of the Capital of the World went
+on, and when the eighteenth of March dawned, the outposts of the Allies
+were still twelve to fourteen miles from the banks of the Thames. How
+desperate had been that greatest of all defences since man had made war
+on man may be dimly guessed from the fact that it cost the invaders two
+months of incessant fighting and more than a million men before they
+planted their guns along the ridges of the North Downs and the Surrey
+Hills.
+
+Meanwhile Gilbert Lennard passed his peaceful though anxious days
+between Bolton and Whernside, while Auriole, Margaret Holker, Norah
+Castellan and Mrs O'Connor, with hundreds of other heroines, were doing
+their work of mercy in the hospital camps at the different bases behind
+the fighting front. Lord Westerham, who had worked miracles in the way
+of recruiting, was now in his glory as one of General French's Special
+Service Officers, which, under such a Commander, is about as dangerous a
+job as a man can find in the whole bloody business of war.
+
+And still, as the pitiless human strife went on with its ceaseless
+rattle of rifle fire, and the almost continuous roar of artillery, day
+by day the Invader from Space grew bigger and brighter in the great
+reflector, and day by day the huge cannon, which, in the decisive moment
+of the world's fate, was to do battle with it, approached completion.
+
+At midnight on the twelfth of March Tom Bowcock had announced that all
+was ready for the casting. Lennard gave the order by electric signal.
+The hundred converters belched their floods of glowing steel into what
+had once been Great Lever pit; night was turned into day by a vast glow
+that shot up to the zenith, and the first part of the great work was
+accomplished.
+
+At breakfast the next morning Lennard received the following cablegram
+from Pittsburg:
+
+
+     "All ready. Crossing fourteenth. Give particulars of comet away
+     when you like. Pittsburg Baby doing well. How's yours?--PARMENTER."
+
+
+In order to understand the full meaning of Mr Parmenter's curt cablegram
+it will be necessary to go back for a little space to the day when he
+made his hurried departure from the Clyde in the _Minnehaha_. It will be
+remembered that he had that morning received a cablegram from New York.
+This message had read thus:
+
+
+     "Complete success at last. Craft built and tried. Action and speed
+     perfect. Dollars out, hurry up.
+                                                            "HINGESTON."
+
+
+Now the signer of this cablegram, Newson Hingeston, was an old college
+friend of Mr Parmenter's, and therefore a man of about his own age. He
+was a born mathematician and engineer, and, like many another before
+him, the dream of his life had been the conquest of the air by means of
+vessels which flew as a bird flew, that is to say by their own inherent
+strength, and without the aid of gas-bags or buoyancy chambers, which
+he, like all the disciples of Nadar, Jules Verne, Maxim and Langley, had
+looked upon as mere devices of quackery, or at the best, playthings of
+rich people, who usually paid for their amusement with their lives.
+
+His father died soon after he left college, and left him a comfortable
+little estate on the north-western slopes of the Alleghanies, and a
+fortune in cash and securities of a million dollars. The estate gave him
+plenty to live upon comfortably, so he devoted his million to the
+realisation of his ideal. Ratliffe Parmenter, who only had a few hundred
+thousand dollars to begin with, laughed at him, but one day, after a
+long argument, just as a sort of sporting bet, he signed a bond to pay
+two million dollars for the first airship built by his friend that
+should fly in any direction, independently of the wind, and carry a dead
+weight of a ton in addition to a crew of four men.
+
+Newson Hingeston registered the bond with all gravity, and deposited it
+at his bank, and then their life-ways parted. Parmenter plunged into the
+vortex of speculation, went under sometimes, but always came to the top
+again with a few more millions in his insatiable grasp, and these
+millions, after the manner of their kind, had made more millions, and
+these still more, until he gave up the task of measuring the gigantic
+pile and let it grow.
+
+Meanwhile, his friend had spent the best twenty-five years of his life,
+all his fortune, and every dollar he could raise on his estate, in
+pursuit of the ideal which he had reached a few minutes later than the
+eleventh hour. Then he had sent that cable. Of course, he wanted the two
+millions, but what had so suddenly happened in England had instantly
+convinced him that he was now the possessor of an invention which many
+millions would not buy, and which might decide the fate of the world.
+
+Within twelve hours of his arrival at his friend's house, Ratliffe
+Parmenter was entirely convinced that Newson Hingeston had been
+perfectly justified in calling him across the Atlantic, for the very
+good reason that he spent the greater part of the night taking flying
+leaps over the Alleghanies, nerve-shuddering dives through valleys and
+gorges, and vast, skimming flights over dim, half-visible plains and
+forests to the west, soaring and swooping, twisting and turning at
+incredible speeds, in fact, doing everything that any bird that ever
+flew could do.
+
+When they got back to the house, just as dawn was breaking, and Mr
+Parmenter had shaken hands with Hiram Roker, a long, lean, slab-sided
+Yankee, who was Hingeston's head engineer and general manager, and had
+fought the grim fight through failure to success at his side for twenty
+years, he said to his friend:
+
+"Newson, you've won, and I guess I'll take that bond up, and I'd like to
+do a bit more than that. You know what's happening over the other side.
+There's got to be an Aerial Navigation Trust formed right away,
+consisting of you, myself and Hiram there, and Max Henchell, my partner,
+and that syndicate has to have twenty of these craft of yours, bigger if
+possible, afloat inside three months. The syndicate will commence at
+once with a capital of fifty millions, and there'll be fifty more behind
+that if wanted."
+
+"It's a great scheme," Hingeston replied slowly, "but I'm afraid the
+time's too short."
+
+"Time!" exclaimed Mr Parmenter. "Who in thunder thinks about time when
+dollars begin to talk? You just let me have all your plans and sections,
+drawings and the rest of your fixings in time to catch the ten o'clock
+train to Pittsburg. I'll run up and talk the matter over with Henchell.
+We'll have fifty workshops turning out the different parts in a week,
+and you shall have a staff of trustworthy men that we own, body and
+soul, down here to assemble them, and we'll make the best of those chaps
+into the crews of the ships when we get them afloat.
+
+"Now, don't talk back, Newson, that's fixed. I'm sleepy, and that trip
+has jerked my nerves up a bit. Give me a drink, and let's go to bed for
+two or three hours. You'll have a cheque for five millions before I
+start, and we shall then consider the _Columbia_ our private yacht.
+We'll fly her around at night, and just raise Cain in the way of
+mysteries for the newspapers, but we won't give ourselves away
+altogether until the fleet's ready."
+
+As they say on the other side of the Atlantic, what Ratliffe Parmenter
+said, went. He wielded the irresistible power of almost illimitable
+wealth, and during the twenty-five years that Hingeston had been working
+at his ideal, he and Maximilian Henchell, who was a descendant of one
+of the oldest Dutch families in America, and one of its shrewdest
+business men to boot, had built up an industrial organisation that was
+perhaps the most perfect of its kind even in the United States. It was
+run on lines of absolute despotism, but the despotism was at once
+intellectual and benevolent. To be a capable and faithful servant of
+Parmenter and Henchell, even in the humblest capacity, meant, not only
+good wages and provision for life, but prospects of advancement to the
+highest posts in the firm, and means of investing money which no
+outsider would ever hear of.
+
+Wherefore those who worked for Parmenter and Henchell formed an
+industrial army, some fifty thousand strong, generalled, officered and
+disciplined to the highest point of efficiency, and faithful to the
+death. In fact, to be dismissed from any of their departments or
+workshops was financial death. It was like having a sort of commercial
+ticket-of-leave, and if such a man tried for work elsewhere, the answer
+was "If you can't work for P. and H. you must be a crook of some sort. I
+guess you're no good to us." And the end of that man was usually worse
+than his beginning.
+
+This was the vast organisation which, when the word went forth from the
+headquarters at Pittsburg, devoted the best of its brains and skill to
+the creation of the Aerial Fleet, and, as Mr Parmenter had said, that
+Fleet was ready to take the air in the time he had allowed for its
+construction.
+
+But the new ships had developed in the course of making. They were half
+as long again as the _Columbia_, and therefore nearly twice as big, with
+engines four times the power, and they carried three guns ahead and
+three astern, which were almost exact reproductions of those of the
+_Ithuriel_, the plans of which had been brought over by the _Minnehaha_
+on her second trip.
+
+The _Columbia_ had a speed of about one hundred miles an hour, but the
+new models were good for nearly a hundred and fifty. In appearance they
+were very like broad and shallow torpedo boats, with three aeroplanes on
+either side, not unlike those of the _Flying Fishes_, with three lifting
+fans under each. These could be driven vertically or horizontally, and
+so when the big twin fans at the stern had got up sufficient way to keep
+the ship afloat by the pressure under the aeroplanes the lifting fans
+could be converted into pulling fans, but this was only necessary when a
+very high speed was desired.
+
+There was a signal mast and yard forward, and a flagstaff aft. The guns
+were worked under hoods, which protected the gunners from the rush of
+the wind, and just forward of the mast was an oval conning-tower, not
+unlike that of the _Ithuriel_, only, of course, unarmoured, from which
+everything connected with the working of the ship could be controlled by
+a single man.
+
+Such is a brief description of the Aerial Fleet which rose from the
+slopes of the Alleghanies at ten o'clock on the night of the fourteenth
+of March 1910, and winged its way silently and without lights eastward
+across the invisible waters of the Atlantic.
+
+There is one other point in Mr Parmenter's cablegram to Lennard which
+may as well be explained here. He had, of course, confided everything
+that he knew, not only about the war, but also about the approaching
+World Peril and the means that were being taken to combat it, to his
+partner on his first arrival in the States, and had also given him a
+copy of Lennard's calculations.
+
+Instantly Mr Max Henchell's patriotic ambition was fired. Mr Lennard had
+mentioned that Tom Bowcock, Lennard's general manager, had proposed to
+christen the great gun the "Bolton Baby." He had spent that night in
+calculations of differences of latitude and longitude, time, angles of
+inclination of the axis of the orbit, points and times of orbital
+intersection worked out from the horizon of Pittsburg, and when he had
+finished he solemnly asked himself the momentous question: Why should
+this world-saving business be left to England alone? After all the
+"Bolton Baby" might miss fire by a second or two. If it was going to be
+a matter of comet-shooting, what had America done that she could not
+have a gun? Were there not hundreds of eligible shafts to be bought
+round Pittsburg? Yes, America should have that gun, if the last dollar
+he possessed or could raise by fair means or foul was to be thrown down
+the bore of it.
+
+And so America had the gun, and therefore in after days the rival of the
+"Bolton Baby" came to be called the "Pittsburg Prattler."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT
+
+
+Lennard's first feelings after the receipt of Mr Parmenter's cablegram,
+and the casting of the vast mass of metal which was to form the body of
+the great cannon, were those of doubt and hesitation, mingled, possibly,
+with that sense of semi-irresponsibility which will for a time overcome
+the most highly-disciplined mind when some great task has been completed
+for the time being.
+
+For a full month nothing could be done to the cannon, since it would
+take quite that time for the metal to cool. Everything else had been
+done or made ready. The huge projectile which was to wing its way into
+Space to do battle for the life of humanity was completed. The boring
+and rifling tools were finished, and all the materials for the driving
+and the bursting charges were ready at hand for putting into their final
+form when the work of loading up began. There was literally nothing more
+to be done. All that human labour, skill and foresight could achieve for
+the present had been accomplished.
+
+Dearly would he have loved to go south and join the ranks of the
+fighters; but a higher sense of duty than personal courage forbade that.
+He was the only man who could perform the task he had undertaken, and a
+chance bullet fragment of a shell to say nothing of the hundred minor
+chances of the battlefield, might make the doing of that work
+impossible.
+
+No, his time would come in the awful moment when the fate of humanity
+would hang in the balance, and his place alike of honour and of duty
+was now in the equatorial room of the observatory at Whernside, watching
+through every waking hour of his life the movements of the Invader, that
+he might note the slightest deviation from its course, or the most
+trifling change in its velocity. For on such seemingly small matters as
+these depended, not only the fate of the world, but of the only woman
+who could make the world at least worth living in for him--and so he
+went to Whernside by the morning train after a long day's talk with Tom
+Bowcock over things in general.
+
+"Yo' may be sure that everything will be all right, Mr Lennard," said
+Tom, as they shook hands on the platform. "I'll take t' temperatures,
+top, bottom and middle, every night and morning and post them to yo',
+and if there's any change that we don't expect, I'll wire yo' at once;
+and now I've a great favour to ask you, Mr Lennard. I haven't asked it
+before because there's been too much work to do--"
+
+"You needn't ask it, Tom," laughed Lennard, as he returned his grip,
+"but I'm not going to invite you to Whernside just yet, for two reasons.
+In the first place, I can't trust that metal to anyone else but you for
+at least a week; and in the second place, when I do send you an
+invitation from Mr Parmenter I shall not only be able to show you the
+comet a bit brighter than it is just now, but something else that you
+may have thought about or read about but never seen yet, and I am going
+to give you an experience that no man born in England has ever had--but
+I'm not going to spoil sport by telling you now."
+
+"Yo've thought it all out afore me, Mr Lennard, as yo' always do
+everything," replied Tom. "I'm not much given to compliments, as yo'
+know, but yo're a wonderful man, and if yo've got something to show me,
+it's bound to be wonderful too, and if it's anything as wonderful as t'
+lies I've b'n telling those newspaper chaps about t' cannon, I reckon
+it'll make me open my eyes as wide as they've ever been, for sure.
+Good-bye."
+
+During the journey to Settle, Lennard began to debate once more with
+himself a question which had troubled him considerably since he had
+received Mr Parmenter's cablegram. Should he publish his calculations to
+the world at once, give the exact position of the Invader at a given
+moment in a given part of the sky, and so turn every telescope in the
+civilised world upon it--or should he wait until some astronomer made
+the independent discovery which must come within a short time now?
+
+There were reasons both for and against. To do so might perhaps stop the
+war, and that would, at first sight, be conferring a great blessing upon
+humanity; but, on the other hand, it might have the very reverse effect
+upon the millions of men whose blood was now inflamed with the lust of
+battle. Again it was one thing to convince the rulers of the nations and
+the scientists of the world that the coming catastrophe was inevitable;
+but to convince the people who made up those nations would be a very
+different matter.
+
+The end of the world had been predicted hundreds of times already,
+mostly by charlatans, who made a good living out of it, but sometimes by
+the most august authorities. He had read his history, and he had not
+forgotten the awful conditions in which the people of Europe fell during
+the last months of the year 1000, when the Infallible Church had
+solemnly proclaimed that at twelve o'clock on the night of the 31st of
+December Satan, chained for a thousand years, would be let loose; that
+on the morning of the 1st of January 1001 the order of Nature would be
+reversed, the sun would rise in the west and the reign of Anti-Christ
+begin. Then the remnants of the European nations had gradually awakened
+to the fact that Holy Church was wrong, since nothing happened save the
+results of the madness which her prophesies had produced.
+
+But the catastrophe of which he would have to be the prophet would be
+worse even than this, and, moreover, as far as human science could tell,
+it was a mathematical certainty. There would be no miracle, nothing of
+the supernatural about it--it would happen just as certainly as the
+earth would revolve on its axis; and yet how many millions of the
+earth's inhabitants would believe it until with their own eyes they saw
+the approaching Fate?
+
+In time of peace perhaps he might have obtained a hearing, but who would
+pause amidst the rush of the armed battalions to listen to him? How
+could the calm voice of Science make itself heard among the clash and
+clangour of war? The German Emperor had already laughed in his face, and
+accepted his challenge with contemptuous incredulity. No doubt his staff
+and all his officers would do the same. What possibility then would
+there be to convince the millions who were fighting blindly under their
+orders? No; it was hopeless. The war must go on. He could only hope that
+the Aerial Fleet which Mr Parmenter was bringing across the Atlantic
+would turn the tide of battle in favour of the defenders of Britain.
+
+But there was another matter to be considered. Thanks to the control
+possessed by the Parmenter Syndicate over the Atlantic cables and the
+aerograph system of the world, he was kept daily, sometimes hourly,
+acquainted with everything that was happening. He knew that the Eastern
+forces of Russia were concentrating upon India in the hope that the
+disasters in England and the destruction of the Fleet would realise the
+old Muscovite dream of detaching the natives from their loyalty to the
+British Crown and so making the work of conquest easy. In the Far East,
+Japan was recovering from the exhaustion consequent upon her costly
+victories over Russia, and had formed an ominous alliance with China.
+
+On the other hand Italy, England's sole remaining ally in Europe, had
+blockaded the French Mediterranean ports, and while the French legions
+were being drawn northward to the conquest of Britain, the Italian
+armies had seized the Alpine passes and were preparing an invasion which
+should avenge the humiliations which Italy had suffered under the first
+Napoleon.
+
+In a word, everything pointed to universal war. Only the United States
+preserved an inscrutable silence, which had been broken only by four
+words: "Hands off our commerce." And to these the Leagued Nations had
+listened, if rather by compulsion than respect.
+
+Who was he, then, that he should, as it were, sound the trump of
+approaching doom in the ears of a world round which from east to west
+and from west again to east the battledrums might any day be sounding
+and the roar of artillery thundering its answering echo.
+
+But a somewhat different aspect was given to these reflections by a
+letter which he found waiting for him in the library at Whernside House.
+It ran thus:
+
+
+     "SIR,--You will not, I suppose, have forgotten a certain incident
+     which happened towards the end of June 1907 in the Bay of Clifden,
+     Connemara. You won that little swimming race by a yard or so, and
+     since then it appears to me that, although you may not be aware of
+     it, you and I have been running a race of a very different sort,
+     although possibly for the same prize.
+
+     "You will understand what prize I mean, and by this time you ought
+     to know that I have the power of taking it by force, if I cannot
+     win it in the ordinary way of sport or battle. I am in command of
+     the only really irresistible force in the world. I created that
+     force, and, by doing so, made the invasion of England and the
+     present war possible. I have done so because I hate England, and
+     desire to release my own country from her tyranny and oppression;
+     but I can love as well as I can hate, and whether you understood it
+     or not, I, who had never loved a woman before, loved Auriole
+     Parmenter from the moment that you and I lifted her out of the
+     water, and she smiled on us, and thanked us for saving her life.
+
+     "Before we parted that day I could see love in your eyes when you
+     looked at her, if you could not see it in mine. You are her
+     father's private astronomer, and until lately you have lived in
+     almost daily intercourse with her, in which, of course, you have
+     had a great advantage over myself, who have not from that time till
+     now been blessed by even the sight of her.
+
+     "But during that time it seems that you have discovered a comet,
+     which is to run into the earth and destroy all human life, unless
+     you prevent it. I know this because I know of the challenge you
+     gave to the German Emperor in Canterbury. I know also of what you
+     have been doing in Bolton. You are turning a coal pit into a
+     cannon, with which you believe that you can blow this comet into
+     thin air or gas before it meets the earth, and you threatened His
+     Majesty that if the war was not stopped the human race should be
+     destroyed.
+
+     "That, if you will pardon the expression, was a piece of bluff. You
+     love Miss Parmenter perhaps as much as, though not possibly more
+     than, I do, and therefore you would certainly not destroy the world
+     as long as she was alive in it. You would be more or less than man
+     if you did, and I don't believe you are either, and therefore I
+     think you will understand the proposition I am going to make to
+     you.
+
+     "Granted hypothesis that the world will come to an end by means of
+     this comet on a certain day, and granted also that you are able to
+     save it with this cannon of yours, I write now to tell you that,
+     whether the war stops or not in obedience to your threat, I will
+     not allow you to save the world unless Miss Parmenter consents to
+     marry me within two months from now. If she does, the war shall
+     stop, or at anyrate I will allow the British forces to conquer the
+     whole of Europe on the sole condition of giving independence to
+     Ireland. They cannot win without my fleet of _Flying Fishes_, and
+     if I turn that fleet against them they will not only be defeated
+     but annihilated. In other words, with the sole exception of my own
+     country, I offer England the conquest of Europe in exchange for the
+     hand of one woman.
+
+     "In the other alternative, that is to say, if Miss Parmenter, her
+     father and yourself do not consent to this proposal, I will not
+     allow you to save the world. I can destroy your cannon works at
+     Bolton as easily as I destroyed the forts at Portsmouth and Dover,
+     and as easily as I can and will kill you, and wreck your
+     observatory. When I have done this I will take possession of Miss
+     Parmenter by force, and then your comet can come along and destroy
+     the world as soon as it likes.
+
+     "I shall expect a definite answer to this letter, signed by Mr
+     Parmenter and yourself, within seven days. If you address your
+     letter to Mr James Summers, 28a Carlos Street, Sheerness, it will
+     reach me; but I must warn you that any attempt to discover why it
+     will reach me from that address will be punished by the bombardment
+     and destruction of the town.
+
+     "I hope you will see the reasonableness and moderation of my
+     conditions, and remain, yours faithfully,
+                                                       "JOHN CASTELLAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+A VIGIL IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+Although Lennard had always recognised the possibility of such a
+catastrophe as that which John Castellan threatened, and had even taken
+such precautions as he could to prevent it, still this direct menace,
+coming straight from the man himself, brought the danger home to him in
+a peculiarly personal way.
+
+The look which had passed between them as they were swimming their race
+in Clifden Bay had just as much meaning for him as for the man who now
+not openly professed himself his rival, but who threatened to proceed to
+the last extremities in order to gain possession of the girl they both
+loved. It was impossible for him not to believe that the man who had
+been capable of such cold-blooded atrocities as he had perpetrated at
+Portsmouth, London and other places, would hesitate for a moment in
+carrying out such a threat, and if he did--No, the alternative was quite
+too horrible to think of yet.
+
+One thing, however, was absolutely certain. Although no word of love had
+passed between Auriole and himself since the night when he had shown her
+the comet and described the possible doom of the world to her, she had
+in a hundred ways made it plain to him that she was perfectly well aware
+that he loved her and that she did not resent it--and he knew quite
+enough of human nature to be well aware that when a woman allows herself
+to be loved by a man with whom she is in daily and hourly contact, she
+is already half won; and from this it followed, according to his exact
+mathematical reasoning, that, whatever the consequences, her reply to
+John Castellan's letter would be in the negative, and equally, of
+course, so would her father's be.
+
+"I wonder what the Kaiser's Admiral of the Air would think if he knew
+how matters really stand," he said to himself as he read the letter
+through for a second time. "Quite certain of doing what he threatens, is
+he? I'm not. Still, after all, I suppose I mustn't blame him too much,
+for wasn't I in just the same mind myself once--to save the world if she
+would make it heaven for me, to--well--turn it into the other place if
+she wouldn't. But she very soon cured me of that madness.
+
+"I wonder if she could cure this scoundrel if she condescended to try,
+which I am pretty certain she would not. I wonder what she'll look like
+when she reads this letter. I've never seen her angry yet, but I know
+she would look magnificent. Well, I shall do nothing till Mr Parmenter
+gets back. Still, it's a pity that I've got to gravitate between here
+and Bolton for the next seven weeks. If I wasn't, I'd ask him for one of
+those airships and I'd hunt John Castellan through all the oceans of air
+till I ran him down and smashed him and his ship too!"
+
+At this moment the butler came to him and informed him that his dinner
+was ready and to ask him what wine he would drink.
+
+"Thank you, Simmons," he replied. "A pint of that excellent Burgundy of
+yours, please. By the way, have the papers come yet?"
+
+"Just arrived, sir," said Mr Simmons, making the simple announcement
+with all the dignity due to the butler to a millionaire.
+
+He went at once into the dining-room and opened the second edition of
+the _Times_, which was sent every day to Settle by train and thence by
+motor-car to Whernside House.
+
+Of course he turned first to the "Latest Intelligence" column. It was
+headed, as he half expected it to be, "The Great Turning Movement: The
+Enemy in Possession of Aldershot and advancing on Reading."
+
+The account itself was one of those admirable combinations of brevity
+and impartiality for which the leading journal of the world has always
+been distinguished. What Lennard read ran as follows:
+
+"Four months have now passed since the invading forces of the Allies,
+after destroying the fortifications of Portsmouth and Dover by means
+never yet employed in warfare, set foot on English soil. There have been
+four months of almost incessant fighting, of heroic defence and
+dearly-bought victory, but, although it is not too much to say in sober
+language that the defending troops, regulars, militia, yeomanry and
+volunteers, have accomplished what have seemed to be something like
+miracles of valour and devotion, the tide of conquest has nevertheless
+flowed steadily towards London.
+
+"Considering the unanimous devotion with which the citizens of this
+country, English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh, have taken up arms for the
+defence of their Motherland, there can be no doubt but that, if the war
+had been fought under ordinary conditions, the tide of invasion would by
+this time have been rolled back to our coasts in spite of the admitted
+superiority of the invaders in the technical operations of warfare, and
+their enormous advantage in numbers to begin with. But the British
+forces have had to fight under conditions which have never before been
+known in warfare. Their enemies have not been only those of the land and
+sea: they have had to fight foes capable of raining destruction upon
+them from the air as well, and it may well be believed that the leaders
+of the invading hosts would be the first to admit that without this
+enormous advantage not even the progress that they have so far made
+would have been possible.
+
+"The glories of Albuera and Waterloo, of Inkermann and Balaklava, have
+over and over again been eclipsed by the whole-souled devotion of the
+British soldiery, fighting, as no doubt every man of them believes, with
+their backs to the wall, not for ultimate victory perhaps but for the
+preservation of those splendid traditions which have been maintained
+untarnished for over a thousand years. It is no exaggeration to say that
+of all the wars in the history of mankind this has been the deadliest
+and the bloodiest. Never, perhaps, has so tremendous an attack been
+delivered, and never has such an attack been met by so determined a
+resistance. Still, having due regard to the information at our disposal,
+it would be vain to deny that, tremendous as the cost must have been,
+the victory so far lies with the invaders.
+
+"After a battle which has lasted almost continuously for a fortnight; a
+struggle in which battalion after battalion has fought itself to a
+standstill and the last limits of human endurance have been reached, the
+fact remains that the enemy have occupied the whole line of the North
+Downs, Aldershot has ceased to be a British military camp, and is now
+occupied by the legions of Germany, France and Austria.
+
+"Russia, in spite of the disastrous defeat of the united German and
+Russian expedition against Sheerness, Tilbury and Woolwich, is now
+preparing a force for an attack on Harwich which, if it is not defeated
+by the same means as that upon the Thames was defeated by, will have
+what we may frankly call the deplorable effect of diverting a large
+proportion of the defenders of London from the south to the north, and
+this, unless some other force, at present unheard of, is brought into
+play in aid of the defenders, can only result in the closing of the
+attack round London--and after that must come the deluge.
+
+"That this is part of a general plan of operations appears to be quite
+clear from the desperate efforts which the French, German and Austrian
+troops are making to turn the position of General French at Reading, to
+outflank the British left which is resting on the hills beyond
+Faversham, and, having thus got astride the Thames, occupy the
+semicircle of the Chiltern Hills and so place the whole Thames valley
+east of Reading at their mercy.
+
+"In consequence of the ease with which the enemy's airships have
+destroyed both telegraphic and railway communication, no definite
+details are at present to hand. It is only known that since the attack
+on Aldershot the fighting has not only been on a colossal scale, but
+also of the most sanguinary description, with the advantage slowly but
+surely turning in favour of the invaders. Such news as reaches us comes
+entirely by despatch rider and aerogram. We greatly regret to learn,
+through the former source, that yesterday evening Lord Westerham, the
+last of the six special Service officers attached to General French's
+staff, was either killed or captured in a gallant attempt to carry
+despatches containing an accurate account of the situation up to date
+from Reading to Windsor, whence it was to be transmitted by the
+underground telephone cable to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace."
+
+"That reads pretty bad," said Lennard, when Mr Simmons had left the
+room, "especially Westerham being killed or taken prisoner; I don't like
+that at all. I wish we'd been able to collar His Majesty of Germany on
+that trip to Canterbury as Lord Kitchener suggested, and put him on
+board the _Ithuriel_. He'd have made a very excellent hostage in a case
+like this. I must say that, altogether, affairs do not look very
+promising, and we've still two months all but a day or two. Well, if Mr
+Parmenter doesn't get across with his aerial fleet pretty soon, I shall
+certainly take steps to convince him and his Allies, who are fighting
+for a few islands when the whole world is in peril, that my ultimatum
+was anything but the joke he seemed to take it for."
+
+He finished his wine, drank a cup of coffee and smoked a meditative
+cigar in the library, and then went up to the observatory.
+
+It was a lovely night from his point of view; clear, cool and almost
+cloudless. The young moon was just rising to the eastward, and as he
+looked up at that portion of the south-western sky from which the
+Celestial Invader was approaching he could almost persuade himself that
+he saw a dim ghostly shape of the Spectre from Space.
+
+But when he got to the telescope the Spectre was no longer there. The
+field of the great reflector was blank, save for the few far-away
+star-mists, and here and there a dimly-distant star, already familiar to
+him through many nights of watching.
+
+What had happened? Had some catastrophe occurred in the outer realms of
+Space in which some other world had been involved in fiery ruin, or had
+the comet been dragged away from its orbit by the attraction of one of
+those dead suns, those derelicts of Creation which, dark and silent,
+drift for age after age through the trackless ocean of Immensity?
+
+There was no cooler-headed man alive than Gilbert Lennard when it came
+to a matter of his own profession and yet the world did not hold a more
+frightened man than he was when he went to re-adjust the machinery which
+regulated the movement of the great telescope, and so began his search
+for the lost comet all over again. One thing only was certain--that the
+slightest swerve from its course might make the comet harmless and send
+it flying through Space millions of miles away from the earth, or bring
+the threatening catastrophe nearer by an unknown number of days and
+hours. And that was the problem, here, alone, and in the silence of the
+night, he had to solve. The great gun at Bolton and the other at
+Pittsburg might by this time be useless, or, worse still, they might not
+be ready in time.
+
+It was curious that, even face to face with such a terrific crisis, he
+had enough human vanity left to shape a half regret that his
+calculations would almost certainly be falsified.
+
+That, however, was only the sensation of a moment. He ran rapidly over
+his previous calculations, did about fifteen minutes very hard
+thinking, and in thirty more he had found the comet. There it was: a few
+degrees more to the northward, and more inclined to the plane of the
+earth's orbit; brighter, and therefore nearer; and now the question was,
+by how much?
+
+Confronted with this problem, the man and the lover disappeared, and
+only the mathematician and the calculating machine remained. He made his
+notes and went to his desk. The next three hours passed without any
+consciousness of existence save the slow ticking of the astronomical
+clock which governed the mechanism of the telescope. The rest was merely
+figures and formulae, which might amount to the death-sentence of the
+human race or to an indefinite reprieve.
+
+When he got up from his desk he had learnt that the time in which it
+might be possible to save humanity from a still impending fate had been
+shortened by twelve days, and that the contact of the comet with the
+earth's atmosphere would take place precisely at twelve o'clock,
+midnight, on the thirtieth of April.
+
+Then he went back to the telescope and picked up the comet again. Just
+as he had got its ominous shape into the centre of the field a score of
+other shapes drifted swiftly across it, infinitely vaster--huge winged
+forms, apparently heading straight for the end of the telescope, and
+only two or three yards away.
+
+His nerves were not perhaps as steady as they would have been without
+the shock which he had already received, and he shrank back from the
+eye-piece as though to avoid a coming blow. Then he got up from his
+chair and laughed.
+
+"What an ass I am! That's Mr Parmenter's fleet; but what monsters they
+do look through a telescope like this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+MR PARMENTER RETURNS
+
+
+Just at the north of the summit on the top of which the observatory was
+built there was an oval valley, or perhaps it might be better described
+as an escarpment, a digging away by the hand of Nature of a portion of
+the mountain summit by means of some vast landslide or glacier action
+thousands of years ago.
+
+As he closed the door of the main entrance to the observatory behind
+him, he saw these strange, winged shapes circling in the air some three
+miles away, just dimly visible in the moonlight and starlight. They were
+hovering about in middle air as though they were birds looking for a
+foothold. He ran back, switched the electric current off the aerograph
+machines at the base of the observatory, and turned it on to the
+searchlight which was on the top of the equatorial dome. A great fan of
+white light flashed out into the sky, he spelt out "Welcome" in the
+dot-and-dash code, and then the searchlight fell upon the valley.
+
+"Thanks," came the laconic answer from the foremost airship; and then
+Lennard saw twenty-five winged shapes circle round the observatory and
+drop to rest one by one in perfect order, just as a flock of swans might
+have done, and, as the last came to earth, he turned the switch and shut
+off the searchlight.
+
+He walked down to the hollow, and in the dim light saw something that he
+had hardly believed possible for human eyes to see. There, in a space
+of, perhaps, a thousand yards long and five hundred yards wide, lay, in
+a perfect oval, a fleet of ships. By all appearances they had no right
+to be on land. There was no visible evidence that they could rise from
+the solid earth after once touching it, any more than the albatross can
+do from a ship's deck.
+
+A light flashed out from a ship lying at the forward end of the ellipse
+for a moment into the sky and then it swung slowly round until it rested
+on the path from the observatory to the valley, and Lennard for a moment
+felt himself blinded by its rays. Then it lifted and a most welcomely
+familiar voice said:
+
+"Well, Mr Lennard, here we are, you see, just a bit ahead of time, and
+how's the comet?"
+
+A ladder, obviously of American design, shot out from the side of the
+airship as Mr Parmenter spoke, and as soon as the lower end touched the
+ground he walked down it with his hand outstretched. Lennard walked to
+the foot of the ladder and took his hand, and said in a low voice:
+
+"This is all very wonderful, Mr Parmenter, but I am glad that you are
+here ahead of time, because the comet is too; and very considerably, I
+am sorry to say."
+
+"Eh, what's that you say, Mr Lennard?" replied the millionaire in a
+hurried whisper. "Nothing serious, I hope. We haven't come too late,
+have we? I mean too late to stop the war and save the world."
+
+"I don't know about stopping the war," replied Lennard, "but, if no
+accident happens or is arranged for, we can save the world still, I
+think."
+
+"Accident arranged for?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "What do you mean by that?
+Are you talking about John Castellan and those Flying Fish things of
+his? I reckon we've got enough here to send him and his _Flying Fishes_
+into the sea and make them stop there. We've heard all about what
+they've been doing in the States, and I've got about tired of them. And
+as for this old invasion of England, it's got to stop right away, or
+we'll make more trouble for these Germans and Frenchmen and Russians
+and Austrians than they ever dreamt of.
+
+"Look at that fleet, sir. Twenty-five aerial battleships with a hundred
+and fifty miles an hour speed in them. Here to London in one hour and
+twenty-five minutes or less, and guns--you just take a look at those
+exaggerated peashooters we've got on deck, and believe me, sir, that if
+we get one of John Castellan's _Flying Fishes_ within six thousand yards
+of the end of one of those things it will do no more flying, except in
+very small pieces."
+
+"I'm delighted to hear it, Mr Parmenter," replied Lennard, in a low
+tone, "for to tell you the truth, we haven't many weeks left now.
+Something that I can so far neither calculate nor explain has changed
+the orbit of the comet and it's due here at midnight on the thirtieth of
+April."
+
+"Great Scott, and this is the nineteenth of March! Not six weeks! I
+guess we'll have to hurry up with those cannons. I'll send a cable to
+Pittsburg to-morrow. Anyhow, I reckon the comet can wait for to-night."
+
+While Mr Parmenter had been speaking two other men had come down the
+ladder from the deck of the airship and he continued:
+
+"Now, let me introduce you. This is my old friend and college chum,
+Newson Hingeston, the man who invented the model we built this fleet on.
+This is Mr Hiram Roker, chief engineer of the fleet and Lord High
+Admiral of the air, when Mr Hingeston is not running his own ships."
+
+Lennard shook hands with Mr Hingeston and Hiram, and was going to say
+very complimentary things about the fleet which had literally dropped
+from the clouds, when Mr Parmenter interrupted him again and said:
+
+"You'll excuse me, Mr Lennard, but you'll be better able to talk about
+these ships when you've had a trip in one of them. We've just crossed
+the Atlantic in thirty hours, above the clouds, and to-morrow night or
+morning, if it's cloudy when we've been through things generally, we're
+going to London in the flagship here--I've called her the _Auriole_,
+because she is the daisy of the whole fleet--biggest, fastest and
+prettiest. You just wait till you see her in daylight. Now we'll go down
+to the house and hear your news. We're thirty hours behind the times."
+
+It need hardly be said that no one went to bed for the remainder of that
+night at Whernside. In one sense it was as busy a time as had been since
+the war began. The private telephone and telegraph wires between
+Whernside House and Settle and the aerograph apparatus at the
+observatory were working almost incessantly till dawn, sending and
+receiving messages between this remote moorland district and London and
+the seat of war, as well as Bolton and Pittsburg.
+
+The minutes and the hours passed swiftly, as all Fate-laden time does
+pass, and so the grey morning of a momentous day dawned over the western
+Yorkshire moors. Just as they were beginning to think about breakfast
+one of Lennard's assistants came down from the observatory with a copy
+of an aerogram which read:
+
+
+     "Begins. PARMENTER, Whernside. Pleased to hear of your arrival.
+     Proposition laid before His Majesty in Council and accepted. Hope
+     to see you and your friends during the day.--CHAMBERLAIN. Ends."
+
+
+"Well, I guess that's all right, gentlemen," said Mr Parmenter, as he
+handed the aerogram across the big table littered with maps, plans and
+drawings of localities terrestrial and celestial.
+
+The aerogram passed round and Mr Parmenter continued: "You see,
+gentlemen, although the United States has the friendliest of feelings
+towards the British Empire, still, as the President told me the day
+before yesterday, this invasion of Britain is not our fight, and he does
+not see his way to making formal declaration of war; so he just gave me
+a permit for these ships to leave American territory on what the
+Russians and others call a scientific expedition in order to explore the
+upper regions of the air and demonstrate the possibility of navigating
+the air without using gas as lifting power--and that's just how we've
+got here with our clearance papers and so on all in order; and that
+means, gentlemen, that we are here, not as citizens of the United States
+or any other country, but just as a trading company with something to
+hire out.
+
+"John Castellan, as you will remember from what has been said, sold his
+_Flying Fishes_ to the German Emperor. Mr Lennard has proved to us by
+Castellan's own handwriting that he is prepared to sell them back to the
+British Government at a certain price--and that price is my daughter.
+Our answer to that is the hiring of our fleet to the British Government,
+and that offer has been accepted on terms which I think will show a very
+fair profit when the war is over and we've saved the world."
+
+"I don't think it will take very long to stop the war," said the creator
+of the aerial battle-fleet, in his quiet voice. "Saving the world is, of
+course, another matter which no doubt we can leave safely in the hands
+of Mr Lennard. And now," he continued more gravely, "when is the news of
+the actual coming of the comet to be made public? It seems to me that
+everything more or less hangs upon that. The German Emperor, and,
+therefore, his Allies and, no doubt, half the astronomers of Europe,
+have been informed of Mr Lennard's discovery. They may or may not
+believe it, and if they don't we can't blame them because it was only
+given to them without exact detail."
+
+"And a very good thing too," laughed Lennard, "considering the eccentric
+way in which the comet is behaving. But everything is settled now,
+unless, of course, some other mysterious influence gets to work; and,
+another thing, it's quite certain that before many days the comet must
+be discovered by other observatories."
+
+"Then, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we've been first in the field
+so far and I reckon we'd better stop there. Pike's Peak, Washington and
+Arequipa are all on to it. Europe and Australia will be getting there
+pretty soon, so I don't think there's much the matter with you sending a
+message to Greenwich this morning. The people there will find it all
+right and we can run across from London when we've had our talk with the
+Prime Minister and post them up in any other details they want. I'll
+send a wire to Henchell and tell him to hurry up with his gun at
+Pittsburg and send on news to all the American observatories. Then we'll
+have breakfast and, as it's a cloudy morning, I think we might start
+right away for London in the _Auriole_ and get this business fixed up.
+The enemy doesn't know we're here at all, and so long as we keep above
+the clouds there's no fear of anyone seeing us. The world has only
+forty-four more days to live, so we might as well save one of those days
+while we can."
+
+The result of the somewhat informal council of war, for, in sober truth,
+it was nothing else, was that the commanders of the airships were
+invited to breakfast and the whole situation was calmly and plainly
+discussed by those who from the morning would probably hold the fate of
+the world in their hands. Not the least important of the aerograms which
+had been received during the early morning had been one, of course in
+code, from Captain Erskine of the _Ithuriel_ from Harwich, welcoming the
+aerial fleet and giving details of his movements in conjunction with it
+for the next ten days. The aerogram also gave the positions of the
+lighters loaded with ammunition which he had deposited round the English
+shores in anticipation of its arrival.
+
+Soon after eight o'clock a heavy mist came down over Whernside and its
+companion heights, and Mr Parmenter went to one of the windows of the
+big dining-room and said:
+
+"I reckon this will just about fit us, Mr Lennard, so, if you've got
+your portmanteau packed, have it sent up to the _Auriole_ at once, and
+we'll make a start."
+
+Within thirty minutes the start was made, and with it began the most
+marvellous experience of Gilbert Lennard's life, not even excepting his
+battle-trip in the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+THE "AURIOLE"
+
+
+"All aboard, I think, Captain Roker," said Mr Parmenter, as he walked
+last to the top of the gangway ladder, and stood square-footed on the
+white deck of the _Auriole_.
+
+"All aboard, sir," replied Hiram Roker, "and now I reckon you'll have to
+excuse me, because I've got to go below just to see that everything's in
+working order."
+
+"That's all right, Mr Roker. I know where your affections are centred in
+this ship. You go right along to your engines, and Mr Hingeston will see
+about the rest of us. Now then, Mr Lennard, you come along into the
+conning-tower, and whatever you may have seen from the conning-tower of
+the _Ithuriel_, I reckon you'll see something more wonderful still
+before we get to London. You show the way, Newson. See, here it is, just
+about the same. We've stolen quite a lot of ideas from your friend
+Erskine; it's a way we've got on our side, you know. But this is going
+to be one of the exceptions; if we win we are going to pay."
+
+Lennard followed Mr Parmenter down the companion-way into the centre
+saloon of the _Auriole_, and through this into a narrow passage which
+led forward. At the end of this passage was a lift almost identical with
+that on the _Ithuriel_. He took his place with Mr Parmenter and Mr
+Hingeston on this and it rose with them into a little oval chamber
+almost exactly like the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_, with the
+exception that it was built entirely of hardened papier-mache and glass.
+
+"You see, Mr Lennard," said Mr Parmenter, "we don't want armour here.
+Anything that hits us smashes us, and that's all there is to it. Our
+idea is just to keep out of the way and do as much harm as we can from
+the other side of the clouds. And now, Newson, if you're ready, we might
+as well get to the other side and have a look at the sun. It's sort of
+misty and cheerless down here."
+
+"Just as easy as saying so, my dear Ratliffe. I reckon Hiram's got about
+ten thousand horse-power waiting to be let loose; so we may as well let
+them go. Hold on, Mr Lennard, and don't breathe any more than you can
+help for a minute or two."
+
+Lennard, remembering his cruise in the _Ithuriel_, held on, and also,
+after filling his lungs, held his breath. Mr Hingeston took hold of the
+steering-wheel, also very much like that of the _Ithuriel_, with his
+left hand, and touched in quick succession three buttons on a
+signal-board at his right hand.
+
+At the first touch nothing happened as far as Lennard could see or hear.
+At the second, a soft, whirring sound filled the air, growing swiftly in
+intensity. At the third, the mist which enveloped Whernside began, as it
+seemed to him, to flow downwards from the sky in long wreaths of
+smoke-mingled steam which in a few moments fell away into nothingness. A
+blaze of sunlight burst out from above--the earth had vanished--and
+there was nothing visible save the sun and sky overhead, and an
+apparently illimitable expanse of cloud underneath.
+
+"There's one good thing about airships," said Mr Hingeston, as he took a
+quarter turn at the wheel, "you can generally get the sort of climate
+and temperature you want in them." He put his finger on a fourth button
+and continued: "Now, Mr Lennard, we have so far just pulled her up above
+the mist. You'll have one of these ships yourself one day, so I may as
+well tell you that the first signal means 'Stand by'; the second, 'Full
+power on lifting fans'; the third, 'Stand by after screws'; and the
+fourth--just this--"
+
+He pushed the button down as he spoke, and Lennard saw the brilliantly
+white surface of the sunlit mist fall away before and behind them. A few
+moments later he heard a sort of soft, sighing sound outside the
+conning-tower. It rose quickly to a scream, and then deepened into a
+roar. Everything seemed lost save the dome of sky and the sun rising
+from the eastward. There was nothing else save the silver-grey blur
+beneath them. As far as he was concerned for the present, the earth had
+ceased to exist for him five minutes ago.
+
+He didn't say anything, because the circumstances in which he found
+himself appeared to be more suitable for thinking than talking; he just
+stood still, holding on to a hand-grip in the wall of the conning-tower,
+and looked at the man who, with a few touches of his fingers, was
+hurling this aerial monster through the air at a speed which, as he
+could see, would have left the _Ithuriel_ out of sight in a few minutes.
+
+In front of Hingeston as he sat at the steering-wheel were two dials.
+One was that of an aneroid which indicated the height. This now
+registered four thousand feet. The other was a manometer connected with
+the speed-gauge above the conning-tower, and the indicator on this was
+hovering between one hundred and fifty and a hundred and sixty.
+
+"Does that really mean we're travelling over a hundred and fifty miles
+an hour?" he said.
+
+"Getting on for a hundred and sixty," said Mr Parmenter, taking out his
+watch. "You see, according to that last wire I sent, we're due in the
+gardens of Buckingham Palace at ten-thirty sharp, and so we have to
+hustle a bit."
+
+"Well," replied Lennard, "I must confess that I thought that my little
+trip in the _Ithuriel_ took me to something like the limits of everyday
+experience; but this beats it. Whatever you do on the land or in the
+water you seem to have something under you--something you can depend on,
+as it were--but here, you don't seem to be anywhere. A friend of mine
+told me that, after he had taken a balloon trip above the clouds and
+across the Channel, but he was only travelling forty miles an hour. He
+had somewhat a trouble to describe that, but this, of course, gets
+rather beyond the capabilities of the English language."
+
+"Or even the American," added Mr Hingeston, quietly.
+
+"Why, yes," said Mr Parmenter, rolling a cigarette, "I believe we
+invented the saying about greased lightning, and here we are something
+like riding on a streak of it."
+
+"Near enough!" laughed Lennard. "We may as well leave it at that, as you
+say. Still, it is very, very wonderful."
+
+And so it was. As they sped south the mists that hung about the northern
+moors fell behind, and broken clouds took their place. Through the gaps
+between these he could see a blur of green and grey and purple. A few
+blotches of black showed that they were passing over the Lancashire and
+Midland manufacturing towns; then the clouds became scarcer and an
+enormous landscape spread out beneath them, intersected by white roads
+and black lines of railways, and dotted by big patches of woods, long
+lines of hedgerows and clumps of trees on hilltops. Here and there the
+white wall of a chalk quarry flashed into view and vanished; and on
+either side towns and villages came into sight ahead and vanished astern
+almost before he could focus his field-glasses upon them.
+
+At about twenty minutes after the hour at which they had left Whernside,
+Mr Hingeston turned to Mr Parmenter and said, pointing downward with the
+left hand:
+
+"There's London, and the clouds are going. What are we to do? We can't
+drop down there without being seen, and if we are that will give half
+the show away. You see, if Castellan once gets on to the idea that
+we've got airships and are taking them into London, he'll have a dozen
+of those _Flying Fishes_ worrying about us before we know what we're
+doing. If we only had one of those good old London fogs under us we
+could do it."
+
+"Then what's the matter with dropping under the smoke and using that for
+a fog," said Mr Parmenter, rather shortly. "The enemy is still a dozen
+miles to southward there; they won't see us, and anyhow, London's a big
+place. Why, look there now! Talking about clouds, there's the very thing
+you want. Oceans of it! Can't you run her up a bit and drop through it
+when the thing's just between us and the enemy?"
+
+As he spoke, Lennard saw what seemed to him like an illimitable sea of
+huge spumy billows and tumbling masses of foam, which seemed to roll and
+break over each other without sound. The silent cloud-ocean was flowing
+up from the sou'west. Mr Hingeston took his bearings by compass, slowed
+down to fifty miles an hour, and then Lennard saw the masses of cloud
+rise up and envelop them.
+
+For a few minutes the earth and the heavens disappeared, and he felt
+that sense of utter loneliness and isolation which is only known to
+those who travel through the air. He saw Mr Hingeston pull a lever with
+his right hand and turn the steering-wheel with his left. He felt the
+blood running up to his head, and then came a moment of giddiness. When
+he opened his eyes the _Auriole_ was dropping as gently as a bird on the
+wing towards the trees of the garden behind Buckingham Palace.
+
+"I reckon you did that quite well, Newson," said Mr Parmenter, looking
+at his watch. "One hour and twenty-five minutes as you said. And now I'm
+going to shake hands with a real king for the first time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+THE "AURIOLE" HOISTS THE WHITE ENSIGN
+
+
+Rather to Mr Parmenter's surprise his first interview "with a real king"
+was rather like other business interviews that he had had; in fact, as
+he said afterwards, of all the business men he had ever met in his
+somewhat varied career, this quiet-spoken, grey-haired English gentleman
+was about the best and 'cutest that it had ever been his good fortune to
+strike.
+
+The negotiations in hand were, of course, the hiring of the Syndicate's
+fleet of airships to the British Empire during the course of the war.
+His Majesty had summoned a Privy Council at the Palace, and again Mr
+Parmenter was somewhat surprised at the cold grip and clear sight which
+these British aristocrats had in dealing with matters which he thought
+ought to have been quite outside their experience. Like many Americans,
+he had expected to meet a sort of glorified country squire, fox-hunter,
+grouse-killer, trout and salmon-catcher, and so on; but, as he admitted
+to Lennard later on, from His Majesty downwards they were about the
+hardest crowd to do business with that he had ever struck.
+
+The terms he offered were half a million a week for the services of
+twenty-five airships till the war was ended. Two were retained as
+guardians for Whernside House and the observatory, and three for the
+Great Lever colliery, and this left twenty, not counting the original
+_Columbia_, which Mr Parmenter had bought as his aerial yacht, available
+for warlike purposes.
+
+The figure was high, as the owners of the aerial battle-fleet admitted,
+but war was a great deal dearer. They guaranteed to bring the war to a
+stop within fourteen days, by which time Britain would have a new fleet
+in being which would be practically the only fleet capable of action in
+western waters with the exception of the Italian and the American. Given
+that the Syndicate's airships, acting in conjunction with the _Ithuriel_
+and the twelve of her sisters which were now almost ready for launching,
+could catch and wipe out the _Flying Fishes_, either above the waters or
+under them, the result would be that the Allies, cut off from their base
+of supplies, and with no retreat open to them, would be compelled to
+surrender; and Mr Parmenter did not consider that five hundred thousand
+pounds a week was too much to pay for this.
+
+At the conclusion of his speech, setting forth the position of the
+Syndicate, he said, with a curious dignity which somehow always comes
+from a sense of power:
+
+"Your Majesty, my Lords and gentlemen, I am just a plain American
+business man, and so is my friend, the inventor of these ships. We have
+told you what we believe they can do and we are prepared to show you
+that we have not exaggerated their powers. There is our ship outside in
+the gardens. If your Majesty would like to take a little trip through
+the air and see battle, murder and sudden death--"
+
+"That's very kind of you, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "but, much
+as I personally should like to come with you, I'm afraid I should play a
+certain amount of havoc with the British Constitution if I did. Kings of
+England are not permitted to go to war now, but if you would oblige me
+by taking a note to the Duke of Connaught, who has his headquarters at
+Reading, and then, if you could manage it under a flag of truce, taking
+another note to the German Emperor, who, I believe, has pitched his camp
+at Aldershot, I should be very much obliged."
+
+"Anything your Majesty wishes," replied Mr Parmenter. "Now we've fixed
+up the deal the fleet is at your disposal and we sail under the British
+flag; though, to be quite honest, sir, I don't care about flying the
+white flag first. We could put up as pretty a fight for you along the
+front of the Allies as any man could wish to see."
+
+"I am sorry, Mr Parmenter," laughed His Majesty, "that the British
+Constitution compels me to disappoint you, but, as some sort of
+recompense, I am sure that my Lords in Council will grant you permission
+to fly the White Ensign on all your ships and the Admiral's flag on your
+flagship, which, I presume, is the one in which you have come this
+morning. It is unfortunate that I can only confer the honorary rank of
+admiral upon Mr Hingeston, as you are not British subjects."
+
+"Then, your Majesty," replied Mr Parmenter, "if it pleases you, I hope
+you will give that rank to my friend Newson Hingeston, who, as I have
+told you, has been more than twenty years making these ships perfect. He
+has created this navy, so I reckon he has got the best claim to be
+called admiral."
+
+"Does that meet with your approval, my lords?" said the King.
+
+And the heads of the Privy Council bowed as one in approval.
+
+"I thank your Majesty most sincerely," said Hingeston, rising. "I am an
+American citizen, but I have nothing but British blood in my veins, and
+therefore I am all the more glad that I am able to bring help to the
+Motherland when she wants it."
+
+"And I'm afraid we do want it, Mr Hingeston," said His Majesty. "Make
+the conditions of warfare equal in the air, and I think we shall be able
+to hold our own on land and sea. Your patent of appointment shall be
+made out at once, and I will have the letters ready for you in half an
+hour. And now, gentlemen, I think a glass of wine and a biscuit will not
+do any of us much harm."
+
+The invitation was, of course, in a certain sense, a command, and when
+the King rose everyone did the same. While they were taking their wine
+and biscuits in the blue drawing-room overlooking St James's Park, His
+Majesty, who never lost his grip of business for a moment, took Lennard
+aside and had a brief but pregnant conversation with him on the subject
+of the comet, and as a result of this all the Government manufactories
+of explosives were placed at his disposal, and with his own hand the
+King wrote a permit entitling him to take such amount of explosives to
+Bolton as he thought fit. Then there came the letters to the Duke of
+Connaught and the German Emperor, and one to the Astronomer Royal at
+Greenwich.
+
+Then His Majesty and the members of the Council inspected the aerial
+warship lying on the great lawn in the gardens, and with his own hands
+King Edward ran the White Ensign to the top of the flagstaff aft; at the
+same moment the Prince of Wales ran the Admiral's pennant up to the
+masthead. Everyone saluted the flag, and the King said:
+
+"There, gentlemen, the _Auriole_ is a duly commissioned warship of the
+British Navy, and you have our authority to do all lawful acts of war
+against our enemies. Good-morning! I shall hope to hear from you soon."
+
+"I'm sorry, your Majesty," said Mr Parmenter, "that we can't fire the
+usual salute. These guns of ours are made for business, and we don't
+have any blank charges."
+
+"I perfectly understand you, Mr Parmenter," replied His Majesty with a
+laugh. "We shall have to dispense with the ceremony. Still, those are
+just the sort of guns we want at present. Good-morning, again."
+
+His Majesty went down the gangway and Admiral Hingeston, with Mr
+Parmenter and Lennard, entered the conning-tower. The lifting-fans began
+to whirr, and as the _Auriole_ rose from the grass the White Ensign
+dipped three times in salute to the Royal Standard floating from the
+flagstaff on the palace roof. Then, as the driving propellers whirled
+round till they became two intersecting circles of light, the _Auriole_
+swept up over the tree-tops and vanished through the clouds. And so
+began the first voyage of the first British aerial battleship.
+
+The Duke of Connaught had his headquarters at Amersham Hall School on
+the Caversham side of the Thames, which was, of course, closed in
+consequence of the war, and half an hour after the _Auriole_ had left
+the grounds of Buckingham Palace she was settling to the ground in the
+great quadrangle of the school. The Duke, with Lord Kitchener and two or
+three other officers of the Staff, were waiting at the upper end where
+the headmaster's quarters were. As the ship grounded, the gangway ladder
+dropped and Mr Parmenter said to Lennard:
+
+"That's Lord Kitchener, I see. Now, you know him and I don't, so you'd
+better go and do the talking. We'll come after and get introduced."
+
+"Ah, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, holding out his hand. "You're
+quite a man of surprises. The last time I went with you to see the
+Kaiser in a motor-car, and now you come to visit His Royal Highness in
+an airship. Your Royal Highness," he continued, turning to the Duke,
+"this is Mr Lennard, the finder of this comet which is going to wipe us
+all out unless he wipes it out with his big gun, and these will be the
+other gentlemen, I presume, whom His Majesty has wired about."
+
+"Yes," replied Lennard, after he had shaken hands. "This is Mr Parmenter
+whose telescope enabled me to find the comet, and this is Mr--or I ought
+now to say Admiral--Hingeston, who had the honour of receiving that rank
+from His Majesty half an hour ago."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Duke. "Half an hour! Are you quite serious,
+gentlemen? The telegram's only just got here."
+
+"Well, your Royal Highness," said Mr Parmenter, "that may be because we
+didn't come full speed, but if you would get on board that flagship,
+sir, we'd take you to Buckingham Palace and back in half an hour, or, if
+you would like a trip to Aldershot to interview the German Emperor, and
+then one to Greenwich, we'll engage to have you back here safe by dinner
+time."
+
+"Nothing would delight me more," replied the Duke, smiling, "but at
+present my work is here and I cannot leave it. Lord Kitchener, how would
+you like that sort of trip?"
+
+"If you will give me leave till dinner-time, sir," laughed K. of K.,
+"there's nothing I should like better."
+
+"Oh, that goes without saying, of course," replied the Duke, "and now,
+gentlemen, I understand from the King's telegram that there are one or
+two matters you want to talk over with us. Will you come inside?"
+
+"If your Royal Highness will excuse me," said Admiral Hingeston, "I
+think I'd better remain on board. You see, we may have been sighted, and
+if there are any of those _Flying Fishes_ about you naturally wouldn't
+want this place blown to ruins; so, while you are having your talk, I
+reckon I'll get up a few hundred feet, and be back, say, in half an
+hour."
+
+"Very well," said the Duke. "That's very kind of you. Your ship
+certainly looks a fairly capable protector. By the way, what is the
+range of those guns of yours? I must say they have a very business-like
+look about them."
+
+"Six thousand yards point blank, your Royal Highness," replied the
+Admiral, "and, according to elevation, anything up to fifteen miles;
+suppose, for instance, that we were shooting at a town. In fact, if we
+were not under orders from His Majesty to fly the flag of truce I would
+guarantee to have all the Allied positions wrecked by to-morrow morning
+with this one ship. As you will see from the papers which Mr Parmenter
+and Mr Lennard have brought, nineteen other airships are coming south
+to-night and, unless the German Emperor and his Allies give in, the war
+will be over in about six days."
+
+"And when you come back to dinner to-night, Admiral Hingeston, you will
+have my orders to bring it to an end within that time."
+
+"I sincerely hope so, sir," replied Admiral Hingeston, as he raised his
+right hand to the peak of his cap. "I can assure you, that nothing would
+please me better."
+
+As the lifting-fans began to spin round and the _Auriole_ rose from the
+gravelled courtyard, Lord Kitchener looked up with a twinkle in his
+brilliant blue eyes and said:
+
+"I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will think of that thing when he
+sees it. I suppose that means the end of fighting on land and sea--at
+least, it looks like it."
+
+"I hope to be able to convince your lordship that it does before
+to-morrow morning," said Lennard, as they went towards the dining-room.
+
+Then came half an hour's hard work, which resulted in the allotment of
+the aerial fleet to positions from which the vessels could co-operate
+with the constantly increasing army of British citizen-soldiers who were
+now passing southward, eastward and westward, as fast as the crowded
+trains could carry them. Every position was worked out to half a mile.
+The details of the newly-created fleet in British waters and of those
+ships which were arriving from the West Indies and the Mediterranean
+were all settled, and, as the clock in the drawing-room chimed half-past
+eleven, the _Auriole_ swung down in a spiral curve round the
+chimney-pots and came to rest on the gravel.
+
+"There she is; time's up!" said Lord Kitchener, rising from his seat. "I
+suppose it will only take us half an hour or so to run down to
+Aldershot. I wonder what His Majesty of Germany will say to us this
+time. I suppose if he kicks seriously we have your Royal Highness's
+permission to haul down the flag of truce?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the Duke. "If he does that, of course, you will
+just use your own discretion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+A PARLEY AT ALDERSHOT
+
+
+Lord Kitchener had probably never had so bitter an experience as he had
+when the _Auriole_ began to slow down over the plain of Aldershot. Never
+could he, or any other British soldier, have dreamt six months ago that
+the German, Austrian, French and Russian flags would have been seen
+flying side by side over the headquarters of the great camp, or that the
+vast rolling plains would be covered, as they were now, by hosts of
+horse, foot and artillery belonging to hostile nations.
+
+He did not say anything, neither did the others; it was a time for
+thinking rather than talking; but he looked, and as Lennard watched his
+almost expressionless face and the angrily-glittering blue eyes, he felt
+that it would go ill with an enemy whom K. of K. should have at his
+mercy that day.
+
+But all the bitterness of feeling was by no means on one side. It so
+happened that the three Imperial leaders of the invaders and General
+Henriot, the French Commander-in-Chief, were holding a Council of War at
+the time when the _Auriole_ made her appearance. Of course, her arrival
+was instantly reported, and as a matter of fact the drilling came to a
+sudden momentary stop at the sight of this amazing apparition. The three
+monarchs and the great commander immediately went outside, and within a
+few moments they were four of the angriest men in England. A single
+glance, even at that distance, was enough to convince them that, at
+anyrate in the air, the _Flying Fishes_ would be no match for an equal
+or even an inferior number of such magnificent craft as this.
+
+"God's thunder!" exclaimed the Kaiser, using his usual expletive. "She's
+flying the White Ensign and an admiral's pennant, and, yes, a flag of
+truce."
+
+"Yes," said the Tsar, lowering his glasses, "that is so. What has
+happened? I certainly don't like the look of her; she's an altogether
+too magnificent craft from our point of view. In fact it would be
+decidedly awkward if the English happened to have a fleet of them. They
+would be terribly effective acting in co-operation with that submarine
+ram. Let us hope that she has come on a message of peace."
+
+"I understood, your Majesty," said the Kaiser, shortly, "that we had
+agreed to make peace at Windsor, and nowhere else."
+
+"Of course, I hope we shall do so," said the Tsar, "but considering our
+numbers, and the help we have had from Mr Castellan's fleet, I'm afraid
+we are rather a long time getting there, and we shall be longer still if
+the British have any considerable number of ships like this one."
+
+"Airships or no airships," replied William the Second, "whatever message
+this ship is bringing, I will listen to nothing but surrender while I
+have an Army Corps on English soil. They must be almost beaten by this
+time; they can't have any more men to put in the field, while we have
+millions. To go back now that we have got so far would be worse than
+defeat--it would be disaster. Of course, your Majesty can have no more
+delusions than I have on that subject."
+
+A conversation on almost similar terms had been taking place meanwhile
+between the Emperor of Austria and General Henriot. Then the _Auriole_,
+after describing a splendid curve round the headquarters, dropped as
+quietly as a bird on the lawn in front, the gangway ladder fell over
+along the side, and Lord Kitchener, in the parade uniform of a general,
+descended and saluted the four commanders.
+
+"Good-morning, your Majesties. Good-morning, General Henriot."
+
+"I see that your lordship has come as bearer of the flag of truce this
+time," said the Kaiser, when salutes had been exchanged, "and I trust
+that in the interests of humanity you have come also with proposals
+which may enable us to put an honourable end to this terrible conflict,
+and I am sure that my Imperial brothers and the great Republic which
+General Henriot represents will be only too happy to accede to them."
+
+The others nodded in approval, but said nothing, as it had been more or
+less reluctantly agreed by them that the War Lord of Germany was to be
+the actual head and Commander-in-Chief of the Allies. K. of K. looked at
+him straight in the eyes--not a muscle of his face moved, and from under
+his heavy moustache there came in the gentlest of voices the astounding
+words:
+
+"Yes, I have come from His Majesty King Edward with proposals of
+surrender--that is to say, for your surrender, and that of all the
+Allied Forces now on British soil."
+
+William the Second literally jumped, and his distinguished colleagues
+stared at him and each other in blank amazement. By this time Lennard
+had come down the gangway ladder, and was standing beside Lord
+Kitchener. Mr Parmenter and the latest addition to the British Naval
+List were strolling up and down the deck of the _Auriole_ smoking cigars
+and chatting as though this sort of thing happened every day.
+
+"I see that your Majesty hardly takes me seriously," said Lord
+Kitchener, still in the same quiet voice, "but if your Majesties will do
+Mr Lennard and myself the favour of an interview in one of the rooms
+here, which used to belong to me, I think we shall be able to convince
+you that we have the best of reasons for being serious."
+
+"Ah, yes, Mr Lennard," replied the Kaiser, looking at him with just a
+suspicion of anxiety in his glance. "Good-morning. Have you come to tell
+us something more about this wonderful comet of yours? It seems to me
+some time making itself visible."
+
+"It is visible every night now, your Majesty," said Lennard; "that is,
+if you know where to look for it."
+
+"Ah, that sounds interesting," said the Tsar, moving towards the door.
+"Suppose we go back into the Council Room and hear something about it."
+
+As they went in the _Auriole_ rose from the ground, and began making a
+series of slow, graceful curves over the two camps at the height of
+about a thousand feet. Neither Mr Parmenter, nor his friend the Admiral,
+knew exactly how far the flag of truce would be respected, and,
+moreover, a little display of the _Auriole's_ powers of flight might
+possibly help along negotiations, and, as a matter of fact, they did;
+for the sight of this huge fabric circling above them, with her long
+wicked-looking guns pointing in all directions, formed a spectacle which
+to the officers and men of the various regiments and battalions
+scattered about the vast plain was a good deal more interesting than it
+was pleasant. The Staff officers knew, too, that the strange craft
+possessed two very great advantages over the _Flying Fishes_; she was
+much faster, and she could rise direct from the ground--whereas the
+_Fishes_, like their namesakes, could only rise from the water. In
+short, it did not need a soldier's eye to see that all their stores and
+magazines, to say nothing of their own persons, were absolutely at the
+mercy of the British aerial flagship. The _Flying Fishes_ were down in
+the Solent refitting and filling up with motive power and ammunition
+preparatory to the general advance on London.
+
+As soon as they were seated in the Council Chamber it did not take Lord
+Kitchener and Lennard very long to convince their Majesties and General
+Henriot that they were very much in earnest about the matter of
+surrender. In fact, the only terms offered were immediate retirement
+behind the line of the North Downs, cessation of hostilities and
+surrender of the _Flying Fishes_, and all British subjects, including
+John Castellan, who might be on board them.
+
+"The reason for that condition," said Lord Kitchener, "Mr Lennard will
+be able to make plain to your Majesties."
+
+Then Lennard handed Castellan's letter to the Kaiser, and explained the
+change of calculations necessitated by the diversion of the planet from
+its orbit.
+
+"That is not the letter of an honest fighting man. I am sure that your
+Majesties will agree with me in that. I may say that I have talked the
+matter over with Mr Parmenter and our answer is in the negative. This is
+not warfare; it is only abduction, possibly seasoned with murder, and we
+call those things crimes in England, and if such a crime were permitted
+by those in whose employment John Castellan presumably is, we should
+punish them as well as him."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Kaiser, clenching his fists, "do you, a civilian,
+an ordinary citizen, dare to say such words to us? Lord Kitchener, can
+you permit such an outrage as this?"
+
+"The other outrage would be a much greater one, especially if it were
+committed with the tacit sanction of the three greatest Powers in
+Europe," replied K. of K., quietly. "That is one of our chief reasons
+for asking for the surrender of the _Flying Fishes_. There is no telling
+what harm this wild Irishman of yours might do if he got on the loose,
+not only here but perhaps in your own territories, if he were allowed to
+commit a crime like this, and then went, as he would have to do, into
+the outlaw business."
+
+"I think that there is great justice in what Lord Kitchener says,"
+remarked His Majesty of Austria. "We must not forget that if this man
+Castellan did run amok with any of those diabolical contrivances of his,
+he would be just as much above human law as he would be outside human
+reach. I must confess that that appears to me to be one of the most
+serious features in the situation. Your Majesties, as well as the
+French Government, are aware that I have been all along opposed to the
+use of these horrible engines of destruction, and now you see that their
+very existence seems to have called others into being which may be even
+more formidable."
+
+"Mr Lennard can tell your Majesties more about that than I can," said K.
+of K., with one of his grimmest smiles.
+
+"As far as the air is concerned," said Lennard, very quietly, "we can
+both out-fly and out-shoot the _Flying Fishes_; while as regards the
+water, eleven more _Ithuriels_ will be launched during the week. We have
+twenty-five airships ready for action over land or sea, and, for my own
+part, I think that if your Majesties knew all the details of the
+situation you would consider the terms which his lordship has put before
+you quite generous. But, after all," he continued, in a suddenly changed
+tone, "it seems, if you will excuse my saying so, rather childish to
+talk about terms of peace or war when the world itself has less than six
+weeks to live if John Castellan manages to carry out his threat."
+
+"And you feel absolutely certain of that, Mr Lennard?" asked the Tsar,
+in a tone of very serious interest. "It seems rather singular that none
+of the other astronomers of Europe or America have discovered this
+terrible comet of yours."
+
+"I have had the advantage of the finest telescope in the world, your
+Majesty," replied Lennard, with a smile, "and of course I have published
+no details. There was no point in creating a panic or getting laughed at
+before it was necessary. But now that the orbit has altered, and the
+catastrophe will come so much sooner, any further delay would be little
+short of criminal. In fact, we have to-day telegraphed to all the
+principal observatories in the world, giving exact positions for
+to-night, corrected to differences of time and latitude. We shall hear
+the verdict in the morning, and during to-morrow. Meanwhile we are
+going to Greenwich to get the observatory there to work on my
+calculations, and if your Majesties would care to appoint an officer of
+sufficient knowledge to come with us, and see the comet for himself, he
+will, I am sure, be quite welcome."
+
+"A very good suggestion, Mr Lennard," said Lord Kitchener, "very."
+
+"Then," replied the Tsar, quickly, "as astronomy has always been a great
+hobby with me, will you allow me to come? Of course, you have my word
+that I shall see nothing on the journey that you don't want me to see."
+
+"We shall be delighted," said the British envoy, cordially, "and as for
+seeing things, you will be at perfect liberty to use your eyes as much
+as you like."
+
+The Tsar's august colleagues entered fully into the sporting spirit in
+which he had made his proposal, and a verbal agreement to suspend all
+hostilities till his return was ratified in a glass of His Majesty of
+Austria's Imperial Tokay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+THE VERDICT OF SCIENCE
+
+
+Although the Tsar had made trips with John Castellan in the _Flying
+Fish_, he had never had quite such an aerial experience as his trip to
+Greenwich. The _Auriole_ rose vertically in the air, soared upward in a
+splendid spiral curve, and vanished through the thin cloud layer to the
+north-eastward. Twenty minutes of wonder passed like so many seconds,
+and Admiral Hingeston, beside whom he was standing in the conning-tower,
+said quietly:
+
+"We're about there, your Majesty."
+
+"Greenwich already," exclaimed the Tsar, pulling out his watch. "It is
+forty miles, and we have not been quite twenty minutes yet."
+
+"That's about it," said the Admiral, "this craft can do her two miles a
+minute, and still have a good bit in hand if it came to chasing
+anything."
+
+He pulled back a couple of levers as he spoke and gave a quarter turn to
+the wheel. The great airship took a downward slide, swung round to the
+right, and in a few moments she had dropped quietly to the turf of
+Greenwich Park alongside the Observatory.
+
+Lennard's calculations had already reached the Astronomer Royal, and he
+and his chief assistant had had time to make a rapid run through them,
+and they had found that his figures, and especially the inexplicable
+change in the orbit, tallied almost exactly with observations of a
+possibly new comet for the last two months or so.
+
+They were not quite prepared for the coming of an Imperial--and
+hostile--visitor in an airship, accompanied by the discoverer of the
+comet, the millionaire who owned the great telescope, and an American
+gentleman in the uniform of a British admiral; but those were
+extraordinary times, and so extraordinary happenings might be expected.
+The astronomer and his staff, being sober men of science, whose business
+was with other worlds rather than this one, accepted the situation
+calmly, gave their visitors lunch, talked about everything but the war,
+and then they all spent a pleasant and instructive afternoon in a
+journey through Space in search of the still invisible Celestial
+Invader.
+
+When they had finished, the two sets of calculations balanced
+exactly--to the millionth of a degree and the thousandth of a second. At
+ten seconds to twelve, midnight, May the first, the comet, if not
+prevented by some tremendously powerful agency, would pierce the earth's
+atmosphere, as Lennard had predicted.
+
+"It is a marvellous piece of work, Mr Lennard, however good an
+instrument you had. As an astronomer I congratulate you heartily, but as
+citizens of the world I hope we shall be able to congratulate you still
+more heartily on the results which you expect that big gun of yours to
+bring about."
+
+"I'm sure I hope so," said Lennard, toying rather absently with his
+pencil.
+
+"And if the cannon is not fired, and the Pittsburg one does not happen
+to be exactly laid, for there is a very great difference in longitude,
+what will be the probable results, Mr Astronomer?" asked the Tsar, upon
+whom the lesson of the afternoon had by no means been lost.
+
+"If the comet is what Mr Lennard expects it to be, your Majesty," was
+the measured reply, "then, if this Invader is not destroyed, his
+predictions will be fulfilled to the letter. In other words, on the
+second of May there will not be a living thing left on earth."
+
+At three minutes past ten that evening the Tsar looked into the
+eye-piece of the Greenwich Equatorial, and saw a double-winged yellow
+shape floating in the centre of the field of vision. He watched it for
+long minutes, listening to the soft clicking of the clockwork, which was
+the only sound that broke the silence. During the afternoon he had seen
+photographs of the comet taken every night that the weather made a clear
+observation possible. The series tallied exactly with what he now saw.
+The gradual enlargement and brightening; the ever-increasing exactness
+of definition, and the separation of the nucleus from the two wings. All
+that he had seen was as pitilessly inexorable as the figures which
+contained the prophecy of the world's approaching doom. He rose from his
+seat and said quietly, yet with a strange impressiveness:
+
+"Gentlemen, I, for one, am satisfied and converted. What the inscrutable
+decrees of Providence may or may not be, we have no right to inquire;
+but whether this is a judgment from the Most High brought upon us by our
+sins, or whether it is merely an ordinary cataclysm of Nature against
+which we may be able to protect ourselves, does not come into the
+question which is in dispute amongst us. Humanity has an unquestioned
+right to preserve its existence as far as it is possible to do so. If it
+is possible to arrange for another conference at Aldershot to-morrow, I
+think I may say that there will be a possibility of arriving at a
+reasonable basis of negotiations. And now, if it is convenient, Lord
+Kitchener, I should like to get back to camp. Much has been given to me
+to think about to-night, and you know we Russians have a very sound
+proverb: 'Take thy thoughts to bed with thee, for the morning is wiser
+than the evening.'"
+
+"That, your Majesty, has been my favourite saying ever since I knew that
+men had to think about work before they were able to do it properly." So
+spoke the man who had worked for fourteen years to win one battle, and
+crush a whole people at a single stroke--after which he made the best
+of friends with them, and loyal subjects of his Sovereign.
+
+They took their leave of the astronomer and his staff, and a few minutes
+later the _Auriole_, still flying the flag of truce, cleared the
+tree-tops and rose into the serene starlit atmosphere above them.
+
+When the airship had gained a height of a thousand feet, and was heading
+south-west towards Aldershot at a speed of about a hundred miles an
+hour, the Admiral noticed a shape not unlike that of his own vessel, on
+his port quarter, making almost the same direction as he was. The Tsar
+and Lord Kitchener were sitting one on either side of him, as he stood
+at the steering-wheel, as the ominous shape came into view.
+
+"I'm afraid that's one of your _Flying Fishes_, your Majesty, taking
+news from the Continent to Aldershot. Yes, there goes her searchlight.
+She's found us out by now. She knows we're not one of her crowd, and so
+I suppose we shall have to fight her. Yes, I thought so, she means
+fight. She's trying to get above us, which means dropping a few of those
+torpedoes on us, and sending us across the edge of eternity before we
+know we've got there."
+
+"You will, of course, do your duty, Admiral," replied the Tsar very
+quietly, but with a quick tightening of the lips. "It is a most
+unfortunate occurrence, but we must all take the fortune of war as it
+comes. I hope you will not consider my presence here for a moment.
+Remember that I asked myself."
+
+"There won't be any danger to us, your Majesty," replied the Admiral,
+with a marked emphasis on the "us." "Still, we have too many valuable
+lives on board to let him get the drop on us."
+
+As he spoke he thrust one lever on the right hand forward, and pulled
+another back; then he took the telephone receiver down from the wall,
+and said:
+
+"See that thing? She's trying to get the drop on us. Full speed ahead:
+I'm going to rise. Hold on, gentlemen."
+
+They held on. The Tsar saw the jumping searchlights, which flashed up
+from the little grey shape to the southward, suddenly fall away and
+below them. The Admiral touched the wheel with his left hand, and the
+_Auriole_ sprang forward. The other tried to do the same, but she seemed
+to droop and fall behind. Admiral Hingeston took down the receiver again
+and said:
+
+"Ready--starboard guns--now: fire!"
+
+Of course, there was no report; only a brilliant blaze of light to the
+southward, and an atmospheric shock which made the _Auriole_ shudder as
+she passed on her way. The Tsar looked out to the spot where the blaze
+of flame had burst out. The other airship had vanished.
+
+"She has gone. That is awful," he said, with a shake in his voice.
+
+"As I said before, I'm sorry, your Majesty," replied the Admiral, "but
+it had to be done. If he'd got the top side of us we should have been in
+as little pieces as he is now. I only hope it's John Castellan's craft.
+If it is it will save a lot of trouble to both sides."
+
+The Tsar did not reply. He was too busy thinking, and so was Lord
+Kitchener.
+
+That night there were divided counsels in the headquarters of the Allies
+at Aldershot, and the Kaiser and his colleagues went to bed between two
+and three in the morning without having come to anything like a definite
+decision. As a matter of fact, within the last few hours things had
+become a little too complicated to be decided upon in anything like a
+hurry.
+
+While the potentates of the Alliance were almost quarrelling as to what
+was to be done, the _Auriole_ paid a literally flying visit to the
+British positions, and then the hospitals. At Caversham, Lennard found
+Norah Castellan taking her turn of night duty by the bedside of Lord
+Westerham, who had, after all, got through his desperate ride with a
+couple of bullets through his right ribs, and a broken left arm; but he
+had got his despatches in all the same, though nearly two hours
+late--for which he apologised before he fainted. In one of the wards at
+Windsor Camp he found Auriole, also on night duty, nursing with no less
+anxious care the handsome young Captain of Uhlans who had taken Lord
+Whittinghame's car in charge in Rochester. Mrs O'Connor had got a
+badly-wounded Russian Vice-Admiral all to herself, and, as she modestly
+put it, was doing very nicely with him.
+
+Meanwhile the news of the truce was proclaimed, and the opposing
+millions laid themselves down to rest with the thankful certainty that
+it would not be broken for at least a night and a day by the whistle of
+the life-hunting bullet or the screaming roar and heart-shaking crash of
+the big shell which came from some invisible point five or six miles
+away. In view of this a pleasant little dinner-party was arranged for at
+the Parmenter Palace at eight the next evening. There would be no
+carriages. The coming and parting guests would do their coming and going
+in airships. Mr Parmenter expressed the opinion that, under the
+circumstances, this would be at once safer and more convenient.
+
+But before that dinner-party broke up, the world had something very
+different from feasting and merrymaking, or even invasion and military
+conquest or defeat, to think of.
+
+The result of Lennard's telegrams and cables had been that every
+powerful telescope in the civilised world had been turned upon that
+distant region of the fields of Space out of which the Celestial Invader
+was rushing at a speed of thousands of miles a minute to that awful
+trysting-place, at which it and the planet Terra were to meet and
+embrace in the fiery union of death.
+
+From every observatory, from Greenwich to Arequipa, and from Pike's Peak
+to Melbourne, came practically identical messages, which, in their
+combined sense, came to this:
+
+"Lennard's figures absolutely correct. Collision with comet apparently
+inevitable. Consequences incalculable."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+WAITING FOR DOOM
+
+
+This was the all-important news which the inhabitants of every town
+which possessed a well-informed newspaper read the next morning. It was,
+in the more important of them, followed by digests of the calculations
+which had made this terrific result a practical certainty. These, again,
+were followed by speculations, some deliberately scientific, and some
+wild beyond the dreams of the most hopeless hysteria.
+
+Men and women who for a generation or so had been making large incomes
+by prophesying the end of the world as a certainty about every seven
+years--and had bought up long leaseholds meanwhile--now gambled with
+absolute certainty on the shortness of the public memory, revised their
+figures, and proved to demonstration that this was the very thing they
+had been foretelling all along.
+
+First--outside scientific circles--came blank incredulity. The ordinary
+man and woman in the street had not room in their brains for such a
+tremendous idea as this--fact or no fact. They were already filled with
+a crowd of much smaller and, to them, much more pressing concerns, than
+a collision with a comet which you couldn't even see except through a
+big telescope: and then that sort of thing had been talked and written
+about hundreds of times before and had never come to anything, so why
+should this?
+
+But when the morning papers dated--somewhat ominously--the twenty-fifth
+of March, quarter day, informed their readers that, granted fine
+weather, the comet would be visible to the naked eye from sunset to
+sunrise according to longitude that night, the views of the man and the
+woman who had taken the matter so lightly underwent a very considerable
+change.
+
+While the comet could only be seen, save by astronomers, in the
+photographs that could be bought in any form from a picture-postcard to
+a five-guinea reproduction of the actual thing, there was still an air
+of unconvincing unreality about. Of course it might be coming, but it
+was still very far away, and it might not arrive after all. Yet when
+that fateful night had passed and millions of sleepless eyes had seen
+the south-western stars shining through a pale luminous mist extended in
+the shape of two vast filmy wings with a brighter spot of yellow flame
+between them, the whole matter seemed to take on a very different and a
+much more serious aspect.
+
+The fighting had come to a sudden stop, as though by a mutually tacit
+agreement. Not even the German Emperor could now deny that Lennard had
+made no idle threat at Canterbury when he had given him the destruction
+of the world as an alternative to the conquest of Britain. Still, he did
+not quite believe in the possibility of that destruction even yet, in
+spite of what the Tsar had told him and what he had learned from other
+sources. He still wanted to fight to a finish, and, as Deputy European
+Providence, he had a very real objection to the interference of
+apparently irresponsible celestial bodies with his carefully-thought-out
+plans for the ordering of mundane civilisation on German commercial
+lines. Whether they liked it or not, it must be the best thing in the
+end for them: otherwise how could He have come to think it all out?
+
+Meanwhile, to make matters worse from his point of view, John Castellan
+had refused absolutely to accept any modification of the original terms,
+and he had replied to an order from headquarters to report himself and
+the ships still left under his control by loading the said ships with
+ammunition and motive power and then disappearing from the field of
+action without leaving a trace as to his present or future whereabouts
+behind him, and so, as far as matters went, entirely fulfilling the
+Tsar's almost prophetic fears.
+
+And then, precisely at the hour, minute and second predicted, five
+hours, thirty minutes and twenty-five seconds, a.m., on the 31st of
+March, the comet became visible in daylight about two and a half degrees
+south-westward of the Morning Star. Twenty-four hours later the two
+wings came into view, and the next evening the Invader looked like some
+gigantic bird of prey swooping down from its eyrie somewhere in the
+heights of Space upon the trembling and terrified world. The
+professional prophets said, with an excellent assumption of absolute
+conviction, that it was nothing less awful than the Destroying Angel
+himself _in propria persona_.
+
+At length, when excitement had developed into frenzy, and frenzy into an
+almost universal delirium, two cablegrams crossed each other along the
+bed of the Atlantic Ocean. One was to say that the Pittsburg gun was
+ready, and the other that the loading of the Bolton Baby--feeding, some
+callous humorist of the day called it--was to begin the next morning.
+This meant that there was just a week--an ordinary working week, between
+the human race and something very like the Day of Judgment.
+
+The next day Lennard set all the existing wires of the world thrilling
+with the news that the huge projectile, charged with its thirty
+hundredweight of explosives, was resting quietly in its place on the top
+of a potential volcano which, loosened by the touch of a woman's hand,
+was to hurl it through space and into the heart of the swiftly-advancing
+Invader from the outmost realms of Space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+THE LAST FIGHT
+
+
+It so happened that on the first night the German Emperor saw the comet
+without the aid of a telescope he was attacked by one of those fits of
+hysteria which, according to ancient legend, are the hereditary curse of
+the House of Brandenburg. He had made possible that which had been
+impossible for over a thousand years--he had invaded England in force,
+and he had established himself and his Allies in all the greatest
+fortress-camps of south-eastern England. After all, the story of the
+comet might be a freak of the scientific imagination; there might be
+some undetected error in the calculations. One great mistake had been
+made already, either by the comet or its discoverer--why not another?
+
+"No," he said to himself, as he stood in front of the headquarters at
+Aldershot looking up at the comet, "we've heard about you before, my
+friend. Astronomers and other people have prophesied a dozen times that
+you or something like you were going to bring about the end of the
+world, but somehow it never came off; whereas it is pretty certain that
+the capture of London will come off if it is only properly managed. At
+anyrate, I am inclined to back my chances of taking London against yours
+of destroying it."
+
+And so he made his decision. He sent a telegram to Dover ordering an
+aerogram to be sent to John Castellan, whose address was now, of course,
+anywhere in the air or sea; the message was to be repeated from all the
+Continental stations until he was found. It contained the first
+capitulation that the War Lord of Germany had ever made. He accepted the
+terms of his Admiral of the Air and asked him to bring his fleet the
+following day to assist in a general assault on London--London once
+taken, John Castellan could have the free hand that he had asked for.
+
+In twelve hours a reply came back from the Jotunheim in Norway.
+Meanwhile, the Kaiser, as Generalissimo of the Allied Forces,
+telegraphed orders to all the commanders of army corps in England to
+prepare for a final assault on the positions commanding London within
+twenty-four hours. At the same time he sent telegraphic orders to all
+the centres of mobilisation in Europe, ordering the advance of all
+possible reinforcements with the least delay. It was his will that four
+million men should march on London that week, and, in spite of the
+protests of the Emperor of Austria and the Tsar, his will was obeyed.
+
+So the truce was broken and the millions advanced, as it were over the
+brink of Eternity, towards London. But the reinforcements never came.
+Every transport that steamed out of Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, Antwerp,
+Brest or Calais, vanished into the waters; for now the whole squadron of
+twelve _Ithuriels_ had been launched and had got to work, and the
+British fleets from the Mediterranean, the China Seas and the North
+Atlantic, had once more asserted Britain's supremacy on the seas. In
+addition to these, ten first-class battleships, twelve first and fifteen
+second-class cruisers and fifty destroyers had been turned out by the
+Home yards, and so the British Islands were once more ringed with an
+unbreakable wall of steel. One invasion had been accomplished, but now
+no other was possible. The French Government absolutely refused to send
+any more men. The Italian armies had crossed the Alps at three points,
+and every soldier left in France was wanted to defend her own fortresses
+and cities from the attack of the invader.
+
+But, despite all this, the War Lord held to his purpose; and that night
+the last battle ever fought between civilised nations began, and when
+the sun rose on the sixteenth of April, its rays lit up what was
+probably the most awful scene of carnage that human eyes had ever looked
+upon. The battle-line of the invaders had extended from Sheerness to
+Reading in a sort of irregular semicircle, and it was estimated
+afterwards that not less than a million and a half of killed and wounded
+men, fifty thousand horses and hundreds of disabled batteries of light
+and heavy artillery strewed the long line of defeat and conquest.
+
+The British aerial fleet of twenty ships had made victory for the
+defenders a practical certainty. As Admiral Hingeston had told the Tsar,
+they could both out-fly and out-shoot the _Flying Fishes_. This they did
+and more. The moment that a battery got into position half a dozen
+searchlights were concentrated on it. Then came a hail of shells, and a
+series of explosions which smashed the guns to fragments and killed
+every living thing within a radius of a hundred yards. Infantry and
+cavalry shared the same fate the moment that any formation was made for
+an attack on the British positions; the storm of fire was made ten-fold
+more terrible by the unceasing bombardment from the air; and the
+brilliant glow of the searchlights thrown down from a height of a
+thousand feet or so along the lines of the attacking forces made the
+work of the defenders comparatively easy, for the man in a fight who can
+see and is not seen is worth several who are seen and yet fight in the
+dark.
+
+But the assailants were exposed to an even more deadly danger than
+artillery or rifle fire. The catastrophe which had overwhelmed the
+British Fleet in Dover Harbour was repeated with ten-fold effect; but
+this time the tables were turned. The British aerial fleet hunted the
+_Flying Fishes_ as hawks hunt partridges, and whenever one of them was
+found over a hostile position a shell from the silent, flameless guns
+hit her, and down she went to explode like a volcano amongst masses of
+cavalry, infantry and artillery, and of this utter panic was the only
+natural result.
+
+Eleven out of the twelve _Flying Fishes_ were thus accounted for. What
+had become of the twelfth no one knew. It might have been partially
+crippled and fallen far away from the great battlefield; or it might
+have turned tail and escaped, and in this case it was a practical
+certainty, at least in Lennard's mind, that it was John Castellan's own
+vessel and that he, seeing that the battle was lost, had taken her away
+to some unknown spot in order to fulfil the threat contained in his
+letter, and for this reason five of the British airships were at once
+despatched to mount guard over the great cannon at Bolton.
+
+The defeat of the Allies both by land and sea, though accomplished at
+the eleventh hour of the world's threatened fate, had been so complete
+and crushing, and the death-total had reached such a ghastly figure,
+that Austria, Russia and France flatly refused to continue the Alliance.
+After all the tremendous sacrifice that had been made in men, money and
+material they had not even reached London. From their outposts on the
+Surrey hills they could see the vast city, silent and apparently
+sleeping under its canopy of hazy clouds, but that was all. It was still
+as distant from them as the poles; and so the Allies looked upon it and
+then upon their dead, and admitted, by their silence if not by their
+words, that Britain the Unconquered was unconquerable still.
+
+The German Emperor's fit had passed. Even he was appalled when upon that
+memorable morning he received the joint note of his three Allies and
+learnt the awful cost of that one night's fighting.
+
+Just as he was countersigning the Note of Capitulation in the
+headquarters at Aldershot, the _Auriole_ swung round from the northward
+and descended on to the turf flying the flag of truce. He saw it
+through the window, got up, put his right hand on the butt of the
+revolver in his hip-pocket, thought hard for one fateful moment, then
+took it away and went out.
+
+At the gate he met Lord Kitchener; they exchanged salutes and shook
+hands, and the Kaiser said:
+
+"Well, my lord, what are the terms?"
+
+K. of K. laughed, simply because he couldn't help it. The absolute hard
+business of the question went straight to the heart of the best business
+man in the British Army.
+
+"I am not here to make or accept terms, your Majesty," he said. "I am
+only the bearer of a message, and here it is."
+
+Then he handed the Kaiser an envelope bearing the Royal Arms.
+
+"I am instructed to take your reply back as soon as possible," he
+continued. Then he saluted again and walked away towards the _Auriole_.
+
+The Kaiser opened the envelope and read--an invitation to lunch from his
+uncle, Edward of England, and a request to bring his august colleagues
+with him to talk matters over. There was no hint of battle, victory or
+defeat. It was a quite commonplace letter, but all the same it was one
+of those triumphs of diplomacy which only the first diplomatist in
+Europe knew how to achieve. Then he too laughed as he folded up the
+letter and went to Lord Kitchener and said:
+
+"This is only an invitation to lunch, and you have told me you are not
+here to propose or take terms. That, of course, was official, but
+personally--"
+
+K. of K. stiffened up, and a harder glint came into his eyes.
+
+"I can say nothing personally, your Majesty, except to ask you to
+remember my reply to Cronje."
+
+The Kaiser remembered that reply of three words, "Surrender, or fight,"
+and he knew that he could not fight, save under a penalty of utter
+destruction. He went back into his room, brought back the joint note
+which he had just received, and gave it to Lord Kitchener, just as it
+was, without even putting it into an envelope, saying:
+
+"That is our answer. We are beaten, and those who lose must pay."
+
+Lord Kitchener looked over the note and said, in a somewhat dry tone:
+
+"This, your Majesty, I read as absolute surrender."
+
+"It is," said William the Second, his hand instinctively going to the
+hilt of his sword. Lord Kitchener shook his head, and said very quietly
+and pleasantly:
+
+"No, your Majesty, not that. But," he said, looking up at the four flags
+which were still flying above the headquarters, "I should be obliged if
+you would give orders to haul those down and hoist the Jack instead."
+
+There was no help for it, and no one knew better than the Kaiser the
+strength there was behind those quietly-spoken words. The awful lesson
+of the night before had taught him that this beautiful cruiser of the
+air which lay within a few yards of him could in a few moments rise into
+the air and scatter indiscriminate death and destruction around her, and
+so the flags came down, the old Jack once more went up, and Aldershot
+was English ground again.
+
+Wherefore, not to enter into unnecessary details, the _Auriole_, instead
+of making the place a wilderness as Lord Kitchener had quite determined
+to do, became an aerial pleasure yacht. Orderlies were sent to the
+Russian, Austrian and French headquarters, and an hour later the chiefs
+of the Allies were sitting in the deck saloon of the airship, flying at
+about sixty miles an hour towards London.
+
+The lunch at Buckingham Palace was an entirely friendly affair. King
+Edward had intended it to be a sort of international shake-hands all
+round. The King of Italy was present, as the _Columbia_ had been
+despatched early in the morning to bring him from Rome, and had picked
+up the French President on the way back at Paris. The King gave the
+first and only toast, and that was:
+
+"Your Majesties and Monsieur le President, in the name of Humanity, I
+ask you to drink to Peace."
+
+They drank, and so ended the last war that was ever fought on British
+soil.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+"AND ON EARTH, PEACE!"
+
+
+On the morning of the thirtieth of April, the interest of the whole
+world was centred generally upon Bolton, and particularly upon the
+little spot of black earth enclosed by a ring of Bessemer furnaces in
+the midst of which lay another ring, a ring of metal, the mouth of the
+great cannon, whose one and only shot was to save or lose the world. At
+a height of two thousand feet, twenty airships circled at varying
+distances round the mouth of the gun, watching for the one _Flying Fish_
+which had not been accounted for in the final fight.
+
+The good town of Bolton itself was depopulated. For days past the comet
+had been blazing brighter and brighter, even in the broad daylight, and
+the reports which came pouring in every day from the observatories of
+the world made it perfectly clear that Lennard's calculations would be
+verified at midnight.
+
+Mr Parmenter and his brother capitalists had guaranteed two millions
+sterling as compensation for such destruction of property as might be
+brought about by the discharge of the cannon, and, coupled with this
+guarantee, was a request that everyone living within five miles of what
+had been the Great Lever pit should leave, and this was authorised by a
+Royal Proclamation. There was no confusion, because, when faced with
+great issues, the Lancashire intellect does not become confused. It just
+gets down to business and does it. So it came about that the people of
+Bolton, rich and poor, millionaire and artisan, made during that
+momentous week a general flitting, taking with them just such of their
+possessions as would be most precious to them if the Fates permitted
+them to witness the dawn of the first of May.
+
+The weather, strangely enough, had been warm and sunny for the last
+fortnight, despite the fact that the ever-brightening Invader from Space
+gradually outshone the sun itself, and so on all the moors round Bolton
+there sprang up a vast town of tents and ready-made bungalows from
+Chorley round by Darwen to Bury. Thousands of people had come from all
+parts of the kingdom to see the fate of the world decided. What was left
+of the armies of the Allies were also brought up by train, and all the
+British forces were there as well. They were all friends now for there
+was no more need for fighting, since the events of the next few hours
+would decide the fate of the human race.
+
+As the sun set over the western moors a vast concourse of men and women,
+representing almost every nationality on earth, watched the coming of
+the Invader, brightening now with every second and over-arching the
+firmament with its wide-spreading wings. There were no sceptics now. No
+one could look upon that appalling Shape and not believe, and if
+absolute confirmation of Lennard's prophecy had been wanted it would
+have been found in the fact that the temperature began to rise _after_
+sunset. That had never happened before within the memory of man.
+
+The crowning height of the moors which make a semicircle to the
+north-west of Bolton is Winter Hill, which stands about half-way between
+Bolton and Chorley, and, roughly speaking, would make the centre of a
+circle including Bolton, Wigan, Chorley and Blackburn. It rises to a
+height of nearly fifteen hundred feet and dominates the surrounding
+country for fully fifteen miles, and on the summit of this rugged,
+heather-clad moor was pitched what might be called without exaggeration
+the headquarters of the forces which were to do battle for humanity. A
+huge marquee had been erected in an ancient quarry just below the
+summit; from the centre pole of this flew the Royal Standard of England,
+and from the other poles the standards of every civilised nation in the
+world.
+
+The front of the marquee opened to the south eastward, and by the
+unearthly light of the comet the mill chimneys of Bolton, dominated by
+the great stack of Dobson & Barlow's, could be seen pointing like black
+fingers up to the approaching terror. In the centre of the opening were
+two plain deal tables. There was an instrument on each of them, and from
+these separate wires ran on two series of poles and buried themselves at
+last in the heart of the charge of the great cannon. Beside the
+instruments were two chronometers synchronised from Greenwich and
+beating time together to the thousandth part of a second, counting out
+what might perhaps be the last seconds of human life on earth.
+
+Grouped about the two tables were the five sovereigns of Europe and the
+President of the French Republic, and with them stood the greatest
+soldiers, sailors and scientists, statesmen and diplomatists between
+east and west.
+
+On a long deck chair beside one of the tables lay Lord Westerham with
+his left arm bound across his breast and looking little better than the
+ghost of the man he had been a month ago. Beside him stood Lady Margaret
+and Norah Castellan, and with them were the two men who had done so much
+to change defeat into victory; the captain and lieutenant of the
+ever-famous _Ithuriel_.
+
+Never before had there been such a gathering of all sorts and conditions
+of men on one spot of earth; but as the hours went on and dwindled into
+minutes, all differences of rank and position became things of the past.
+In the presence of that awful Shape which was now flaming across the
+heavens, all men and women were equal, since by midnight all might be
+reduced at the same instant to the same dust and ashes. The ghastly
+orange-green glare shone down alike on the upturned face of monarch and
+statesman, soldier and peasant, millionaire and pauper, the good and the
+bad, the noble and the base, and tinged every face with its own ghastly
+hue.
+
+Five minutes to twelve!
+
+There was a shaking of hands, but no words were spoken. Norah Castellan
+stooped and kissed her wounded lover's brow, and then stood up and
+clasped her hands behind her. Lennard went to one of the tables and
+Auriole to the other.
+
+Lennard had honestly kept the unspoken pact that had been made between
+them in the observatory at Whernside. Neither word nor look of love had
+passed his lips or lightened his eyes; and even now, as he stood beside
+her, looking at her face, beautiful still even in that ghastly light,
+his glance was as steady as if he had been looking through the eye-piece
+of his telescope.
+
+Auriole had her right forefinger already resting on a little white
+button, ready at a touch to send the kindling spark into the mighty mass
+of explosives which lay buried at the bottom of what had been the Great
+Lever pit. Lennard also had his right forefinger on another button, but
+his left hand was in his coat pocket and the other forefinger was on the
+trigger of a loaded and cocked revolver. There were several other
+revolvers in men's pockets--men who had sworn that their nearest and
+dearest should be spared the last tortures of the death-agony of
+humanity.
+
+The chronometers began to tick off the seconds of the last minute. The
+wings of the comet spread out vaster and vaster and its now flaming
+nucleus blazed brighter and brighter. A low, vague wailing sound seemed
+to be running through the multitudes which thronged the semicircle of
+moors. It was the first and perhaps the last utterance of the agony of
+unendurable suspense.
+
+At the thirtieth second Lennard looked up and said in a quiet,
+passionless tone:
+
+"Ready!"
+
+At the same moment he saw, as millions of others thought they saw, a
+grey shape skimming through the air from the north-east towards Bolton.
+It could not be a British airship, for the fleet had already scattered,
+as the shock of the coming explosion would certainly have caused them to
+smash up like so many shells. It was John Castellan's _Flying Fish_ come
+to fulfil the letter of his threat, even at this supreme moment of the
+world's fate.
+
+Again Lennard spoke.
+
+"Twenty seconds."
+
+And then he began to count.
+"Nine--eight--seven--six--five--four--three--two--Now!"
+
+The two fingers went down at the same instant and completed the
+circuits. The next, the central fires of the earth seemed to have burst
+loose. A roar such as had never deafened human ears before thundered
+from earth to heaven, and a vast column of pale flame leapt up with a
+concussion which seemed to shake the foundations of the world. Then in
+the midst of the column of flame there came a brighter flash, a
+momentary blaze of green-blue flame flashing out for a moment and
+vanishing.
+
+"That was John's ship," said Norah. "God forgive him!"
+
+"He will," said Westerham, taking her hand. "He was wrong-headed on that
+particular subject, but he was a brave man, and a genius. I don't think
+there's any doubt about that."
+
+"It's good of you to say so," said Norah. "Poor John! With all his
+learning and genius to come to that--"
+
+"We all have to get there some time, Norah, and after all, whether he's
+right or wrong, a man can't die better than for what he believes to be
+the truth and the right. We may think him mistaken, he thought he was
+right, and he has proved it. God rest his soul!"
+
+"Amen!" said Norah, and she leant over again and kissed him on the
+brow.
+
+Then came ten seconds more of mute and agonised suspense, and men's
+fingers tightened their grip on the revolvers. Then the upturned
+straining eyes looked upon such a sight as human eyes will never see
+again save perchance those which, in the fulness of time, may look upon
+the awful pageantry of the Last Day.
+
+High up in the air there was a shrill screaming sound which seemed
+something like an echo of the roar of the great gun. Something like a
+white flash of light darted upwards straight to the heart of the
+descending Invader. Then the whole heavens were illumined by a blinding
+glare. The nucleus of the comet seemed to throw out long rays of
+many-coloured light. A moment later it had burst into myriads of faintly
+gleaming atoms.
+
+The watching millions on earth instinctively clasped their hands to
+their ears, expecting such a sound as would deafen them for ever; but
+none came, for the explosion had taken place beyond the limits of the
+earth's atmosphere. The whole sky was now filled from zenith to horizon
+with a pale, golden, luminous mist, and through this the moon and stars
+began to shine dimly.
+
+Then a blast of burning air swept shrieking and howling across the
+earth, for now the planet Terra was rushing at her headlong speed of
+nearly seventy thousand miles an hour through the ocean of fire-mist
+into which the shattered comet had been dissolved. Then this passed. The
+cool wind of night followed it, and the moon and stars shone down once
+more undimmed through the pure and cloudless ether.
+
+Until now there had been silence. Men and women looked at each other and
+clasped hands; and then Tom Bowcock, standing just outside the marquee
+with his arm round his wife's shoulders, lifted up his mighty baritone
+voice and sang the lines:
+
+
+     "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"
+
+
+Hundreds and then thousands, then millions of voices took up the
+familiar strain, and so from the tops of the Lancashire moors the chorus
+rolled on from village to village and town to town, until with one
+voice, though with many tongues, east and west were giving thanks for
+the Great Deliverance.
+
+But the man who, under Providence, had wrought it, seemed deaf and blind
+to all this. He only felt a soft trembling clasp round his right hand,
+and he only heard Auriole's voice whispering his name.
+
+The next moment a stronger grip pulled his left hand out of his coat
+pocket, bringing the revolver with it, and Mr Parmenter's voice, shaken
+by rare emotion, said, loudly enough for all in the marquee to hear:
+
+"We may thank God and you, Gilbert Lennard, that there's still a world
+with living men and women on it, and there's one woman here who's going
+to live for you only till death do you part. She told me all about it
+last night. You've won her fair and square, and you're going to have
+her. I did have other views for her, but I've changed my mind, because I
+have learnt other things since then. But anyhow, with no offence to this
+distinguished company, I reckon you're the biggest man on earth just
+now."
+
+Soon after daybreak on the first of May, one of the airships that had
+been guarding Whernside dropped on the top of Winter Hill, and the
+captain gave Lennard a cablegram which read thus:
+
+
+     "LENNARD, Bolton, England: Good shot. As you left no pieces for us
+     to shoot at we've let our shot go. No use for it here. Hope it will
+     stop next celestial stranger coming this way. America thanks you.
+     Any terms you like for lecturing tour.--HENCHELL."
+
+
+Lennard did not see his way to accept the lecturing offer because he had
+much more important business on hand: but a week later, after a
+magnificent and, if the word may be used, multiple marriage ceremony
+had been performed in Westminster Abbey, five airships, each with a
+bride and bridegroom on board, rose from the gardens of Buckingham
+Palace and, followed by the cheers of millions, winged their way
+westward. Thirty-five hours later there was such a dinner-party at the
+White House, Washington, as eclipsed all the previous glories even of
+American hospitality.
+
+Nothing was ever seen of the projectile which "The Pittsburg Prattler"
+had hurled into space. Not even the great Whernside reflector was able
+to pick it up. The probability, therefore, is that even now it is still
+speeding on its lonely way through the Ocean of Immensity, and it is
+within the bounds of possibility that at some happy moment in the future
+and somewhere far away beyond the reach of human vision, its huge charge
+of explosives may do for some other threatened world what the one which
+the Bolton Baby coughed up into Space just in the nick of time did to
+save this home of ours from the impending Peril of 1910.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+COLSTON AND COY. LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The World Peril of 1910, by George Griffith
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