CHAPTER XI.
FIRST BLOOD.
After supper the two friends ascended to the deck saloon for a smoke,and to continue their discussion of the tremendous events in whichthey were so soon to be taking part. They found the _Ariel_ flyingthrough a cloudless sky over the German Ocean, whose white-crestedbillows, silvered by the moonlight, were travelling towards thenorth-east under the influence of the south-west breeze from whichthe engineer had promised himself assistance when they started.
"We seem to be going at a most frightful speed," said Colston,looking down at the water. "There's a strong south-west breezeblowing, and yet those white horses seem to be travelling quite theother way."
"Yes," replied Arnold, looking down. "This wind will be travellingabout twenty miles an hour, and that means that we are making nearlya hundred and fifty. The German Ocean here is five hundred milesacross, and we shall cross it at this rate in about three hours and ahalf, and if the wind holds over the land we shall sight Petersburgsoon after sunrise.
"The sun will rise to-morrow morning a few minutes after five byGreenwich time, which is about two hours behind Petersburg time.Altogether we shall make, I expect, from two to two and a half hours'gain on time."
The two men talked until a few minutes after ten, and then went tobed. Colston, who had been travelling all the previous night, beganto feel drowsy in spite of the excitement of the novel voyage, andalmost as soon as he lay down in his berth dropped off into a sound,dreamless sleep, and knew nothing more until Arnold knocked at hisdoor and said--
"If you want to see the sun rise, you had better get up. Coffee willbe ready in a quarter of an hour."
Colston pulled back the slide which covered the large oblong pane oftoughened glass which was let into the side of his cabin and lookedout. There was just light enough in the grey dawn to enable him tosee that the _Ariel_ was passing over a sea dotted in the distancewith an immense number of islands.
"The Baltic," he said to himself as he jumped out of bed. "This istravelling with a vengeance! Why, we must have travelled a good dealover a thousand miles during the night. I suppose those islands willbe off the coast of Finland. If so, we are not far from Petersburg,as the _Ariel_ seems to count distance."
The most magnificent spectacle that Colston had ever seen in hislife, or, for the matter of that, ever dreamed of, was the one thathe saw from the conning-tower of the _Ariel_ while the sun was risingover the vast plain of mingled land and water which stretched away tothe eastward until it melted away into the haze of early morning.
The sky was perfectly clear and cloudless, save for a few lightclouds that hung about the eastern horizon, and were blazing gold andred in the light of the newly-risen sun. The air-ship was flying atan elevation of about two thousand feet, which appeared to be hernormal height for ordinary travelling. There was land upon both sidesof them, but in front opened a wide bay, the northern shores of whichwere still fringed with ice and snow.
"That is the Gulf of Finland," said Arnold. "The winter must havebeen very late this year, and that probably means that we shall findthe eastern side of the Ourals still snow-bound."
"So much the better," replied Colston. "They will have a much betterchance of escape if there is good travelling for a sleigh."
"Yes," replied Arnold, his brows contracting as he spoke. "Do youknow, if it were not for the Master's explicit orders, I should beinclined to smash up the station at Ekaterinburg a few hoursbeforehand, and then demand the release of the whole convict train,under penalty of laying the town in ruins."
Colston shook his head, saying--
"No, no, my friend, we must have a little more diplomacy than that.Your thirst for the life of the enemy will, no doubt, be fullygratified later on. Besides, you must remember that you wouldprobably blow some hundreds of perfectly innocent people to pieces,and very possibly a good many friends of the Cause among them."
"True," replied Arnold; "I didn't think of that; but I'll tell youwhat we can do, if you like, without transgressing our instructionsor hurting any one except the soldiers of the Tsar, who, of course,are paid to slaughter and be slaughtered, and so don't count."
"What is that?" asked Colston.
"We shall be passing over Kronstadt in a little over an hour, and wemight take the opportunity of showing his Majesty the Tsar what the_Ariel_ can do with the strongest fortress in Europe. How would youlike to fire the first shot in the war of the Revolution?"
Colston was silent for a few moments, and then he looked up andsaid--
"There is not the slightest reason why we should not take a shot atKronstadt, if only to give the Russians a foretaste of favours tocome. Still, I won't fire the first shot on any account, simplybecause that honour belongs to you. I'll fire the second withpleasure."
"Very good," replied Arnold. "We'll have two shots apiece, one eachas we approach the fortress, and one each as we leave it. Now comeand take a preparatory lesson in the new gunnery."
They went down into the chief saloon, and there Arnold showed Colstona model of the new weapon with which the _Ariel_ was armed, andthoroughly explained the working of it. After this they went to thewheel-house, where Arnold inclined the planes at a sharper angle, andsent the _Ariel_ flying up into the sky, until the barometer showedan elevation of three thousand feet.
Then he signalled to the engine-room, the fan-wheels rose from thedeck, as if by their own volition, and, as soon as they reached theirplaces, began to spin round faster and faster, until Colston couldagain hear the high-pitched singing sound that he had heard as the_Ariel_ rose from Drumcraig Island.
At the same time the speed of the vessel rapidly decreased; the sidepropellers ceased working, and the stern-screw revolved more and moreslowly, until the speed came down to about thirty miles an hour.
By this time the great fortress of Kronstadt could be distinctly seenlying upon its island, like some huge watch-dog crouched at theentrance to his master's house, guarding the way to St. Petersburg.
"Now," said Arnold, "we can go outside without any fear of beingblown off into space."
They went out and walked forward to the bow. Arrived there they foundtwo of the men, each with a curious-looking shell in his arms. Theprojectiles were about two feet long and six inches in diameter, andwere, as Arnold told Colston, constructed of _papier-mache_. Therewere three blades projecting from the outside, and running spirallyfrom the point to the butt. These fitted into grooves in the insideof the cannon, which were really huge air-guns twenty feet long,including the air-chamber at the breech.
The projectiles were placed in position, the breeches of the gunsclosed, and a minute later the air-chambers were filled with air at apressure of two hundred atmospheres, pumped from the forward enginesthrough pipes leading up to the guns for the purpose.
"Now," said Arnold, "we're ready! Meanwhile you two can go and loadthe two after guns."
The men saluted and retired, and Arnold continued--
"Just take a look down with your glasses and see if they see us. Iexpect they do by this time."
Colston put his field-glass to his eyes, and looked down at thefortress, which was now only six or seven miles ahead.
"Yes," he said, "at any rate I can see a lot of little figuresrunning about on the roof of one of the ramparts, which I suppose aresoldiers. What's the range of your gun? I should say the fortress isabout six miles off now."
"We can hit it from here, if you like," replied Arnold, "and if wewere a thousand feet higher I could send a shell into Petersburg.See! there is the City of Palaces. Away yonder in the distance youcan just see the sun shining on the houses. We could see it quiteplainly if it wasn't for the haze that seems to be lying over theNeva."
While he was speaking, Arnold trained the gun according to a scale ona curved steel rod which passed through a screw socket in the breechof the piece.
"Now," he said. "Watch!"
He pressed a button on the top of the breech. There was a sharp butnot very loud sound as the compressed
air was released; somethingrushed out of the muzzle of the gun, and a few seconds later, Colstoncould see the missile boring its way through the air, and pursuing aslanting but perfectly direct path for the centre of the fortress.
A second later it struck. He could see a bright greenish flash as itsmote the steel roof of the central fort. Then the fort seemed tocrumble up and dissolve into fragments, and a few moments later adull report floated up into the sky mingled, as he thought, withscreams of human agony.
For a moment he stared in silence through the glasses, then he turnedto Arnold and said in a voice that trembled with violent emotion--
"Good God, that is awful! The whole of the centre citadel is gone asthough it had been swept off the face of the earth. I can hardly seeeven the ruins of it. Surely that's murder rather than war!"
"No more murder than the use of torpedoes in naval warfare, as far asI can see," replied Arnold coolly. "Remember, too," he continued in asterner tone, "that fortress belongs to the power that flogged Radnaand has captured Natasha. Come, let's see what execution you can do."
He crossed the deck and set the other gun by its scale, saying as hedid so--
"Put your finger on the button and press when I tell you."
Colston did as he was bid, and as his finger touched the little knobhis hand was as firm as though he had been making a shot atbilliards.
"Now!"
He pressed the button down hard. There was the same sharp sound, anda second messenger of destruction sped on its way towards the doomedfortress.
"Good God, that is awful."
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They saw it strike, and then came the flash, and after that a hugecloud of dust mingled with flying objects that might have been blocksof masonry, guns, or human bodies, rose into the air, and then fellback again to the earth.
"There goes one of the angles of the fortification into the sea,"said Arnold, as he saw the effects of the shot. "Kronstadt won't bemuch good when the war breaks out, it strikes me. I suppose they'llbe replying soon with a few rifle shots. We'd better quicken up abit."
He went aft to the wheel-house, followed by Colston, and signalledfor the three propellers to work at their utmost speed. The order wasinstantly obeyed; the fan-wheels ceased revolving, and under theimpetus of her propellers the _Ariel_ leapt forwards and upwards likean eagle on its upward swoop, rose five hundred feet in the air, andthen swept over Kronstadt at a speed of more than a hundred miles anhour.
As they passed over they saw a series of flashes rise from one of theuntouched portions of the fortress, but no bullets came anywhere nearthem. In fact, they must have passed through the air two or threemiles astern of the flying _Ariel_. No soldier who ever carried arifle could have sent a bullet within a thousand yards of an objectseventy feet long travelling over a hundred miles an hour at a heightof nearly four thousand feet, and so the Russians wasted theirammunition.
As soon as they had passed over the fortress, Arnold signalled forthe propellers to stop, and the fan-wheels to revolve again at halfspeed. The air-ship stopped within three miles, and remainedsuspended in air over the opening mouth of the Neva. Then the twoafter guns were trained upon the fortress, and Colston and Arnoldfired them together.
The two shells struck at the same moment, one in each of two anglesof the ramparts. Their impact was followed by a tremendous explosion,far greater than could be accounted for by the shells themselves.
"There goes one, if not two, of his powder magazines. Look! half thefortress is a wreck. I wonder which fired the lucky shot."
The man who a year before had been an inoffensive student ofmechanics and an enthusiast dreaming of an unsolved problem, spoke ofthe frightful destruction of life and the havoc that he had caused byjust pressing a button with his finger, as coolly and quietly as aveteran officer of artillery might have spoken of shelling a fort.
There were two reasons for this almost miraculous change. One was tobe found in the bitter hatred of Russian tyranny which he had imbibedduring the last six months, and the other was the fact that the womanfor whom he would have himself died a thousand deaths if necessary,was a captive in Russian chains, being led at that moment to slaveryand degradation.
As soon as they had seen the effects of the last two shots, Arnoldsaid with a grim, half-smile on his lips--
"I think it will be better if we don't show ourselves too plainly toPetersburg. It will take some time for the news of the destruction ofKronstadt to reach the city, and, of course, there will be thewildest rumours as to the agency by which it was done, so we may aswell leave them to argue the matter out among themselves."
He signalled again to the engine-room, and with the united aid of herplanes and fan-wheels the _Ariel_ mounted up and up into the sky,driven only by the stern-propeller and with the force of the otherengines concentrated on the lifting wheels, until a height of fivethousand feet was reached.
At that height she would have looked, if she could have been seen atall, nothing more than a little grey spot against the blue of thesky, and as they heard afterwards she passed over St. Petersburgwithout being noticed.
From St. Petersburg to Tiumen, as the crow flies, the distance is1150 English miles, and nine hours after she had passed over theCapital of the North, the _Ariel_ had winged her way over the Ouralsand the still snow-clad forests of the eastern slopes, past thetear-washed Pillar of Farewells, and had come to a rest after hervoyage of two thousand two hundred miles, including the delay atKronstadt, in twenty hours almost to the minute, as her captain hadpredicted.
The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror Page 12
