great shot passed over the repeller, butthe other struck her armoured side fairly amidship. There was a crashand scream of creaking steel, and Repeller No. 7 rolled over towindward as if she had been struck by a heavy sea. In a moment sherighted and shot ahead, and, turning, presented her port side to theenemy. Instant examination of the armour on her other side showed thatthe two banks of springs were uninjured, and that not an air-buffer hadexploded or failed to spring back to its normal length.
Firing from the Adamant now came thick and fast, the crab, in obedienceto signals, turning her about so as to admit the firing of some heavyguns mounted amidships. Three enormous solid shot struck the repellerat different points on her starboard armour without inflicting damage,while the explosion of several shells which hit her had no more effectupon her elastic armour than the impact of the solid shot.
It was the desire of the Syndicate not only to demonstrate to its ownsatisfaction the efficiency of its spring armour, but to convince GreatBritain that her heaviest guns on her mightiest battle-ships could haveno effect upon its armoured vessels. To prove the absolute superiorityof their means of offence and defence was the supreme object of theSyndicate. For this its members studied and worked by day and bynight; for this they poured out their millions; for this they wagedwar. To prove what they claimed would be victory.
When Repeller No. 7 had sustained the heavy fire of the Adamant forabout half an hour, it was considered that the strength of her armourhad been sufficiently demonstrated; and, with a much lighter heart thanwhen he had turned her broadside to the Adamant, her director gaveorders that she should steam out of the range of the guns of theBritish ship. During the cannonade Crab J had quietly slipped awayfrom the vicinity of the Adamant, and now joined the repeller.
The great ironclad battle-ship, with her lofty sides plated with nearlytwo feet of solid steel, with her six great guns, each weighing morethan a hundred tons, with her armament of other guns, machine cannon,and almost every appliance of naval warfare, with a small army ofofficers and men on board, was left in charge of Crab K, of which onlya few square yards of armoured roof could be seen above the water.This little vessel now proceeded to tow southward her vast prize,uninjured, except that her rudder and propeller-blades were broken anduseless.
Although the engines of the crab were of enormous power, the progressmade was slow, for the Adamant was being towed stern foremost. Itwould have been easier to tow the great vessel had the crab beenattached to her bow, but a ram which extended many feet under waterrendered it dangerous for a submerged vessel to attach itself in itsvicinity.
During the night the repeller kept company, although at a considerabledistance, with the captured vessel; and early the next morning herdirector prepared to send to the Adamant a boat with a flag-of-truce,and a letter demanding the surrender and subsequent evacuation of theBritish ship. It was supposed that now, when the officers of theAdamant had had time to appreciate the fact that they had no controlover the movements of their vessel; that their armament was powerlessagainst their enemies; that the Adamant could be towed wherever theSyndicate chose to order, or left helpless in midocean,--they would beobliged to admit that there was nothing for them to do but to surrender.
But events proved that no such ideas had entered the minds of theAdamant's officers, and their action totally prevented sending aflag-of-truce boat. As soon as it was light enough to see the repellerthe Adamant began firing great guns at her. She was too far away forthe shot to strike her, but to launch and send a boat of any kind intoa storm of shot and shell was of course impossible.
The cannon suspended over the stern of the Adamant was also againbrought into play, and shot after shot was driven down upon the towingcrab. Every ball rebounded from the spring armour, but the officer incharge of the crab became convinced that after a time this constantpounding, almost in the same place, would injure his vessel, and hesignalled the repeller to that effect.
The director of Repeller No. 7 had been considering the situation.There was only one gun on the Adamant which could be brought to bearupon Crab K, and it would be the part of wisdom to interfere with thepersistent use of this gun. Accordingly the bow of the repeller wasbrought to bear upon the Adamant, and her motor gun was aimed at theboom from which the cannon was suspended.
The projectile with which the cannon was loaded was not aninstantaneous motor-bomb. It was simply a heavy solid shot, driven byan instantaneous motor attachment, and was thus impelled by the samepower and in the same manner as the motor-bombs. The instantaneousmotor-power had not yet been used at so great a distance as thatbetween the repeller and the Adamant, and the occasion was one ofintense interest to the small body of scientific men having charge ofthe aiming and firing.
The calculations of the distance, of the necessary elevation anddirection, and of the degree of motor-power required, were made withcareful exactness, and when the proper instant arrived the button wastouched, and the shot with which the cannon was charged wasinstantaneously removed to a point in the ocean about a mile beyond theAdamant, accompanied by a large portion of the heavy boom at which thegun had been aimed.
The cannon which had been suspended from the end of this boom fell intothe sea, and would have crashed down upon the roof of Crab K, had notthat vessel, in obedience to a signal from the repeller, loosened itshold upon the Adamant and retired a short distance astern. Materialinjury might not have resulted from the fall of this great mass ofmetal upon the crab, but it was considered prudent not to take uselessrisks.
The officers of the Adamant were greatly surprised and chagrined by thefall of their gun, with which they had expected ultimately to pound inthe roof of the crab. No damage had been done to the vessel except theremoval of a portion of the boom, with some of the chains and blocksattached, and no one on board the British ship imagined for a momentthat this injury had been occasioned by the distant repeller. It wassupposed that the constant firing of the cannon had cracked the boom,and that it had suddenly snapped.
Even if there had been on board the Adamant the means for rigging upanother arrangement of the kind for perpendicular artillery practice,it would have required a long time to get it into working order, andthe director of Repeller No. 7 hoped that now the British captain wouldsee the uselessness of continued resistance.
But the British captain saw nothing of the kind,and shot after shot from his guns were hurled high into the air, inhopes that the great curves described would bring some of them down onthe deck of the repeller. If this beastly store-ship, which couldstand fire but never returned it, could be sunk, the Adamant's captainwould be happy. With the exception of the loss of her motive power,his vessel was intact, and if the stupid crab would only continue tokeep the Adamant's head to the sea until the noise of her cannonadeshould attract some other British vessel to the scene, the condition ofaffairs might be altered.
All that day the great guns of the Adamant continued to roar. The nextmorning, however, the firing was not resumed, and the officers of therepeller were greatly surprised to see approaching from the Britishship a boat carrying a white flag. This was a very welcome sight, andthe arrival of the boat was awaited with eager interest.
During the night a council had been held on board the Adamant. Hercannonading had had no effect, either in bringing assistance or ininjuring the enemy; she was being towed steadily southward farther andfarther from the probable neighbourhood of a British man-of-war; and itwas agreed that it would be the part of wisdom to come to terms withthe Syndicate's vessel.
Therefore the captain of the Adamant sent a letter to the repeller, inwhich he stated to the persons in charge of that ship, that althoughhis vessel had been injured in a manner totally at variance with therules of naval warfare, he would overlook this fact and would agree tocease firing upon the Syndicate's vessels, provided that the submergedcraft which was now made fast to his vessel should attach itself to theAdamant's bow, and by means of a suitable cable which she wouldfurnish, would tow her into British waters.
If this were done he wouldguarantee that the towing craft should have six hours in which to getaway.
When this letter was read on board the repeller it created considerablemerriment, and an answer was sent back that no conditions but those ofabsolute surrender could be received from the British ship.
In three minutes after this answer had been received by the captain ofthe Adamant, two shells went whirring and shrieking through the airtoward Repeller No. 7, and after that the cannonading from the bow, thestern, the starboard, and the port guns of the great battle-ship wenton whenever there was a visible object on the ocean which looked in theleast like an American coasting vessel or man-of-war.
For a week Crab K towed steadily to the south this blazing andthundering marine citadel; and then the crab signalled to the stillaccompanying repeller that it must be relieved. It had not been fittedout for so long a cruise, and supplies were getting low.
The Syndicate, which had been kept informed of all the details
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