Part 31 (1/2)
The searchlights flashed to and fro along the line, plainly showing the great ma.s.ses of the aerostats' gas-holders, with their long slender cars beneath them. A blue light was burnt on the largest of the war-balloons, and at once the whole flotilla began to ascend towards the clouds, followed by the two air-s.h.i.+ps.
”Here they come!” said Arnold, as he saw them rising through a cloud-rift. ”Come out and watch what happens to the first one that shows herself.”
He went out on deck, followed by Natasha, and took his place by one of the broadside guns. At the same time he gave the order for the _Ithuriel's_ searchlight to be turned on, and to sweep the cloud-field below her. Presently a black rounded object appeared rising through the clouds like a whale coming to the surface of the sea.
He trained the gun on to it as it came distinctly into view, and said to Natasha--
”Come, now, and fire the first shot in the warfare of the future. Put your finger on the b.u.t.ton, and press when I tell you.”
Natasha did as he told her, and at the word ”Fire!” pressed the little ivory b.u.t.ton down. The sh.e.l.l struck the upper envelope of the balloon, pa.s.sed through, and exploded. A broad sheet of flame shot up, brilliantly illuminating the sea of cloud for an instant, and all was darkness again. A few seconds later there came another blaze, and the report of a much greater explosion from below the clouds.
”What was that?” asked Natasha.
”That was the car full of explosives striking the earth and going off promiscuously,” replied Arnold. ”There isn't as much of that aerostat left as would make a pocket-handkerchief or a walking-stick.”
”And the crew?”
”Never knew what happened to them. In the new warfare people will not be merely killed, they will be annihilated.”
”Horrible!” exclaimed Natasha, with a shudder. ”I think you may do the rest of the shooting. The effects of that shot will last me for some time. Look, there's another of them coming up!”
The words were hardly out of her mouth before Arnold had crossed to the other side of the deck and sped another missile on its errand of destruction with almost exactly the same result as before. This second shot, as it was afterwards found, threw the Russian squadron into complete panic.
The terrific suddenness with which the two aerostats had been destroyed convinced those in command of the others that there was a large force of air-s.h.i.+ps above the clouds ready to destroy them one by one as they ascended. Arnold waited for a few minutes, and then, seeing that no others cared to risk the fate that had overwhelmed the first two that had sought to cross the cloud-zone, sank rapidly through it, and then stopped again.
He found himself about six hundred feet above the rest of the squadron. The _Ithuriel_ coming thus suddenly into view, her eight guns pointing in all directions, and her searchlight flas.h.i.+ng hither and thither as though seeking new victims, completed the demoralisation of the Russians. For all they knew there were still more air-s.h.i.+ps above the clouds. Even this one could not be pa.s.sed while those mysterious guns of unknown range and infallible aim were sweeping the sky, ready to hurl their silent lightnings in every direction.
Ascend they dare not. To descend was to be destroyed in detail as they lay helpless upon the earth. There was only one chance of escape, and that was to scatter. The commander of the squadron at once signalled for this to be done, and the aerostats headed away to all points of the compa.s.s. But here they had reckoned without the incomparable speed of their a.s.sailants.
Before they had moved a hundred yards from their common centre the _Ariel_ and the _Orion_ headed away in different directions, and in an inconceivably short s.p.a.ce of time had described a complete circle round them, and then another and another, narrowing each circle that they made. One of the aerostats, watching its opportunity, put on full speed and tried to get outside the narrowing zone. She had almost succeeded, when the _Orion_ swerved outwards and dashed at her with the ram.
In ten seconds she was overtaken. The keen steel prow of the air-s.h.i.+p, driven at more than a hundred miles an hour, ripped her gas-holder from end to end as if it had been tissue paper. It collapsed like broken bubble, and the wreck, with its five occupants and its load of explosives, dropped like a stone to the earth, three thousand feet below, exploding like one huge sh.e.l.l as it struck.
This was the last blow struck in the first aerial battle in the history of warfare. The Russians had no stomach for this kind of fighting. It was all very well to sail over armies and fortresses on the earth and drop sh.e.l.ls upon them without danger of retaliation; but this was an entirely different matter.
Three of the aerostats had been destroyed in little more than as many minutes, so utterly destroyed that not a vestige of them remained, and the whole squadron had not been able to strike a blow in self-defence. They carried no guns, not even small arms, for they had no use for them in the work that they had to do. There were only two alternatives before them--surrender or piecemeal destruction.
As soon as she had destroyed the third aerostat, the _Orion_ swerved round again, and began flying round the squadron as before in an opposite direction to the _Ariel_. None of the aerostats made an attempt to break the strange blockage again. As the circles narrowed they crowded closer and closer together, like a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves.
Meanwhile the _Ithuriel_, floating above the centre of the disordered squadron, descended slowly until she hung a hundred feet above the highest of them. Then Arnold with his searchlight flashed a signal to the _Ariel_ which at once slowed down, the _Orion_ continuing on her circular course as before.
As soon as the _Ariel_ was going slowly enough for him to make himself heard, Mazanoff shouted through a speaking-trumpet--
”Will you surrender, or fight it out?”
”_Nu vot_! how can we fight with those devil-s.h.i.+ps of yours? What is your pleasure?”
The answering hail came from one of the aerostats in the centre of the squadron. Mazanoff at once replied--