Part 30 (1/2)
The captain of the _Ariel_ bowed in reply, and stamped thrice on the deck. The fan-wheels whirled round, and the air-s.h.i.+p rapidly ascended, at the same time moving diagonally across the quadrangle of the a.r.s.enal.
Scarcely had she reached the other side when there was a tremendous explosion in the north-eastern angle of the building. A sheet of flame shot up through the roof, the walls split asunder, and ma.s.ses of stone, wood, and iron went flying in all directions, leaving only a fiercely burning ma.s.s of ruins where the gable had been.
The Professor turned ashy pale, staggered backwards with both his hands clasped to his head, and gasped out brokenly as he stared at the conflagration--
”G.o.d have mercy on me! My laboratory! My a.s.sistant--I told him”--
”What did you tell him, Professor?” said Mazanoff sternly, grasping him suddenly by the arm.
”I told him not to open the other cylinder.”
”And he has done so, and paid for his disobedience with his life,”
said Mazanoff calmly. ”Console yourself, my dear sir! He has only saved me the trouble of destroying your laboratory. I serve a sterner and more powerful master than yours. He ordered me to make your experiments impossible if it cost a thousand lives to do so, and I would have done it if necessary. Rest content with the knowledge that you have saved, not only the rest of the a.r.s.enal, but also Petersburg, by your surrender; for sooner than that secret had been revealed, we should have laid the city in ruins to slay the man who had discovered it.”
The prisoner of the Terrorists made no reply, but turned away in silence to watch the rapidly receding building, in the angle of which the flames were still raging furiously. A few minutes later the _Ariel_ had rejoined her consorts. Her captain at once went on board the flags.h.i.+p to make his report and deliver up his prisoner to Natas, who looked sharply at him and said--
”Professor, will you give me your word of honour to attempt no communication with the earth while it may be found necessary to detain you? If not, I shall be compelled to keep you in strict confinement till it is beyond your power to do so.”
”Sir, I give you my word that I will not do so,” said the Professor, who had now somewhat regained his composure.
”Very well,” replied Natas. ”Then on that condition you will be made free of the vessel, and we will make you as comfortable as we can.
Captain Arnold, full speed to the south-westward, if you please.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A SKIRMISH IN THE CLOUDS.
A few minutes after two on the following morning, that is to say on the 28th, the electric signal leading from the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_ to the wall of Arnold's cabin, just above his berth, sounded. As it was only permitted to be used on occasions of urgency, he knew that his presence was immediately required forward for some good reason, and so he turned out at once, threw a dressing-gown over his sleeping suit, and within three minutes was standing in the conning-tower beside Andrew Smith, whose watch it then happened to be.
”Well, Smith, what's the matter?”
”Fleet of war-balloons coming up from the south'ard, sir. You can just see 'em, sir, coming on in line under that long bank of cloud.”
The captain of the _Ithuriel_ took the night-gla.s.ses, and looked eagerly in the direction pointed out by his keen-eyed c.o.xswain. As soon as he picked them up he had no difficulty in making out twelve small dark spots in line at regular intervals sharply defined against a band of light that lay between the earth and a long dark bank of clouds.
It was a division of the Tsar's aerial fleet, returning from some work of death and destruction in the south to rejoin the main force before Berlin. Arnold's course was decided on in an instant. He saw a chance of turning the tables on his Majesty in a fas.h.i.+on that he would find as unpleasant as it would be unexpected. He turned to his c.o.xswain and said--
”How is the wind, Smith?”
”Nor'-nor'-west, with perhaps half a point more north in it, sir.
About a ten-knot breeze--at least that's the drift that Mr. Marston's allowing for.”
”Yes, that's near enough. Then those fellows, if they are going full speed, are coming up at about twenty miles an hour, or not quite that. They're nearly twenty miles off, as nearly as I can judge in this light. What do you make it?”
”That's about it, sir; rather less than more, if anything, to my mind.”
”Very well, then. Now signal to stop, and send up the fan-wheels; and tell the _Ariel_ and the _Orion_ to close up and speak.”
”Ay, ay, sir,” said the c.o.xswain, as he saluted and disappeared.