CHAPTER XXXI
Until five o'clock there was silence both in the works and on theships in the harbour. Then, as the southern sun began to climb on itsupward curve, the eight searchlights on the towers blazed out, lookingghostly white in the twilight. They were arranged so that they formedtwo intersecting triangles on each face of the works.
From the top of the western gate flamed a huge star. It was aten-million-candle-power light, and its radiance, cast directly uponthe harbour, was so intense that while the ships were flooded withlight, the dim, watery rays of the sun made twilight in comparisonwith it.
"That is well managed," said Admiral Nazanoff to the count as theywere taking their early coffee on the bridge of the ice-breaker. "Isuppose that devil-ray, or whatever they call it, is running alongthose lights, and so making a barrier that no living thing can passwithout destruction. It is an amazing invention, whatever it is; butit is murder, not war. Still, if it comes to an assault, we must rushit. Meanwhile it is to be hoped that our guns will have destroyedtheir infernal apparatus.
"You see, we have six ships here in line abreast, and twelve guns,each throwing a melinite shell of not less than a hundred pounds, aretrained on the face of the building. When your excellency has firedthe first shot they will open, and, at the same time, fifty smallerquick-firers will sweep the walls in such a fashion that no livingthing will exist for a moment, either on top of them or in front. Infact, once let us destroy the apparatus which generates that horribledevil-ray, I can give it no other name, and the works are ours."
"But the shooting will not be all on our side, admiral, I fear," saidthe count. "That is a very terrible little gun that they have on the_Nadine_. It was only a twelve-pounder, but a couple of shots sent the_Vlodoya_ to the bottom, and this man Vandel--if the light had beenbetter he would not have been living now--told me himself that theyhad guns ten times as powerful on the works."
"Most probably a little Yankee bluff, my dear count," said theadmiral. "I dislike those searchlights much more than I fear the guns.You see, it is almost impossible to take an accurate aim against asearchlight, while it is perfectly easy to shoot from behind or belowthem. Still, all our guns are fortunately laid already. Yours, whichis the starboard one down yonder, is trained on the gate in thecentre. The shell will pierce that, and if it strikes the engine-houseor whatever it is in the middle of the square it will probably disablethe works. That, I believe, is the heart and centre of the wholesystem."
"It is very probable," said the count, who had already described whathe had seen of the works to the admiral, "and I hope my shot will findit, for then my poor Sophie will be partly, at least, avenged. It wasa terrible end for two such beautiful women, was it not, admiral?Fargeau did not matter so much; for, after all, he was only ahalf-turned traitor and spy."
"It was the most awful sight I have ever beheld," replied the admiral;"indeed I cannot think that human eyes could look upon anything morehorrible. But by mid-day I hope our guns will have avenged them ascompletely as good shot and shell can do. And now, excellency, withyour permission we must have our last council of war; I must see mycaptains and arrange the last details with Admiral Dumont, as it isgetting near six. I took the trouble of setting my watch by the clockin the reception-room."
"And mine," said the count, taking out his repeater, "has been goingwith it for days. When this chimes six we may begin."
Within a few minutes the two admirals and the captains of thedifferent vessels went, by appointment, to the cabin of the _Ivan_,and the last details were arranged. As the clock struck six everyavailable gun was to open on the western face of the works, and thefire of the heaviest guns was to be concentrated on the towers and thecentral gate until the searchlights were extinguished and the deadlyrays rendered impotent.
Meanwhile boats and steam-pinnaces were to be ready to land thesailors and marines with their machine-guns, and as soon as there wasreason to believe that the rays were no longer operative, a generaladvance in force was to be made on the western gate. No quarter was tobe given; no prisoners taken. Victor Fargeau had left his father'slegacy and all necessary directions for operating the works withAdmiral Dumont, and so there would be no necessity for any assistancefrom the prisoners, and therefore no need to take any.
At five minutes to six Count Valdemar and Admiral Nazanoff went downon to the fore-deck. At the same moment that they were making theirlast examination of the guns, a thin ray of electric light shone outfrom the top of a little rocky promontory to the north of the harbour,where there was a little white tower which the invaders had taken fora harmless and necessary lighthouse. The ray fell directly on thefore-deck of the _Ivan_.
"Ah," said the admiral, stepping back under the protection of the topworks, "take care, your excellency, that is only about a hundredmetres off, and they may have one of those infernal rays there."
"It is six o'clock," said the count, taking his watch in his left handand the lanyard of the gun in his right. The beam of ghostly lightwavered and fell on him as he stepped back to pull. The next instantthe flesh of his uplifted hand melted away from the bones, the lanyardfell away. With a cry of agony he dropped his hand, and then theterrible ray fell on his face. The horror-stricken officers and mensaw it change from a face to a skull, watched his fur cap shrivel upand vanish, the hair and flesh on his scalp disappear. Then hedropped, and the bare skull struck the steel deck with a queer sharpclick.
A sudden paralysis of horror fell upon officers and men alike, untilthe admiral roared out an order to turn the port gun on to thelighthouse. He was obeyed, and the gun was fired hurriedly; the shellstruck the rock just below the lighthouse and exploded with a terrificreport, but the living rock held good, and the deadly ray shone on.The gunner who had fired it was blasted to a skeleton in a moment, andthe rest of the officers and men ran for shelter like so manyfrightened hares. They were ready to face any ordinary danger, butthis was too awful for mortal courage.
Then the ray wandered over the fore-decks and bridges of the otherships till it reached the _Caiman_, on the bridge of which AdmiralDumont was standing, a horrified spectator of what had happened on the_Ivan_. He had a pistol in his hand; a shot was to be the signalfor the French vessels to open fire. The ray fell on his hand as heraised it to fire, the hand shrivelled to bone before he could pullthe trigger. But the gunners had seen the signal, and the guns roaredout. Over fifty guns of all calibres roared and crackled for a minuteor so, and a brief hurricane of shell swept across the stony plainbetween the harbour and the works.
Then it stopped. Every gun was silent, for not a man dared go near it.Every officer and man who had shown himself in the open had beenreduced to a heap of bones before he could get back under shelter.Then those who were out of reach of the terrible death-rays saw sixlong guns rise from the masked batteries beside the two towers andover the central gate. There was no flash or report, but the nextmoment six hundred-pound shells, charged with Vandelite, had struckthe French and Russian vessels, and, as a fighting force, theexpeditions had practically ceased to exist.
Every ship was hit either in her hull or her top works. The steelstructures crumpled up and collapsed under the terrible energy of theexplosion. The steel-walled casemates were cracked and ripped open asthough they had been built of common deal, and every man on deckwithin twenty yards of the explosion dropped dead or insensible. Bothadmirals were killed almost at the same moment.
The guns sank back and rose again, and again the explosions crashedout on board the doomed ships. The death-ray played continuously overtheir decks and every man who showed himself fell dead with the fleshwithered from his face and skull. The terrible bombardment lasted forabout a quarter of an hour, and then when only the _Caiman_ and _Ivan_were left afloat, and the crews of the other vessels had either gonedown with them or had swum or scrambled ashore in the boats, the gunsceased, and the rays were shut off.
This ended the fight, if, indeed, fight it could be called. Several ofthe shells had struck the walls and blo
wn out large portions of thefacings, but no vital spot had been touched, thanks to the difficultyof taking aim in the blinding glare of the searchlights. The littlelighthouse on the north point, which had proved such a veritable towerof strength, was still unharmed, although the rocks about it weresplintered and pulverised by shell-fire.
Only about a dozen petty officers and a couple of hundred sailors andstokers escaped, and most of them were half-mad with fear. They wereordered back on board the _Ivan_, which, thanks to her enormouslystrong construction, had stood the terrible bombardment better thanthe _Caiman_. Her topworks were smashed out of all shape, and herdecks were ripped and rent in all directions, but her hull was stillsound, and a few days' work at her engines would make themserviceable. And in her the survivors of the ill-fated expeditionultimately went back to Europe with a formal message from thedirectors of the Trust to the governments of France and Russia,expressing their regret that so much damage and loss of life hadresulted from the act of piracy committed by those who had mistakenthe Magnetic for the North Pole.
The _Corneille_, the old wooden ship which had conveyed Madame deBourbon out of the range of the guns and the death-ray, was broughtback the next morning by the _Nadine_ and the _Washington_, whosebusiness it had been to stop the escape of any French or Russianvessel from the waters of Boothia, and as she was immediatelyavailable for the service, she carried Madame de Bourbon back toFrance. With her she took a small box of oak, which contained all thatthe death-ray had left of Adelaide de Conde, Marquise de Montpensier,the last, save herself, of the daughters of the old line of theBourbons.
A similar casket containing the bones of Sophie Valdemar and herfather were sent under her care to the count's brother, whose place inPetersburg was less than a hundred yards distant from the GermanEmbassy, the scene of the reception where what was now but dry bones,dust, and ashes, had been life and beauty and subtly working brains,plotting for the possession of the world-empire, whose throne was notnow in any of the splendid capitals of Europe, or of the east, orwest, but within the four-square limits--measuring four hundred feeteach way--within which the World Masters reigned impregnable andsupreme.
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