Part 26 (1/2)
CHAPTER x.x.xI
Until five o'clock there was silence both in the works and on the s.h.i.+ps in the harbour. Then, as the southern sun began to climb on its upward curve, the eight searchlights on the towers blazed out, looking ghostly white in the twilight. They were arranged so that they formed two intersecting triangles on each face of the works.
From the top of the western gate flamed a huge star. It was a ten-million-candle-power light, and its radiance, cast directly upon the harbour, was so intense that while the s.h.i.+ps were flooded with light, the dim, watery rays of the sun made twilight in comparison with it.
”That is well managed,” said Admiral Nazanoff to the count as they were taking their early coffee on the bridge of the ice-breaker. ”I suppose that devil-ray, or whatever they call it, is running along those lights, and so making a barrier that no living thing can pa.s.s without destruction. It is an amazing invention, whatever it is; but it is murder, not war. Still, if it comes to an a.s.sault, we must rush it. Meanwhile it is to be hoped that our guns will have destroyed their infernal apparatus.
”You see, we have six s.h.i.+ps here in line abreast, and twelve guns, each throwing a melinite sh.e.l.l of not less than a hundred pounds, are trained on the face of the building. When your excellency has fired the first shot they will open, and, at the same time, fifty smaller quick-firers will sweep the walls in such a fas.h.i.+on that no living thing will exist for a moment, either on top of them or in front. In fact, once let us destroy the apparatus which generates that horrible devil-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,” said the 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 been better he would not have been living now--told me himself that they had guns ten times as powerful on the works.”
”Most probably a little Yankee bluff, my dear count,” said the admiral. ”I dislike those searchlights much more than I fear the guns.
You see, it is almost impossible to take an accurate aim against a searchlight, while it is perfectly easy to shoot from behind or below them. Still, all our guns are fortunately laid already. Yours, which is the starboard one down yonder, is trained on the gate in the centre. The sh.e.l.l will pierce that, and if it strikes the engine-house or whatever it is in the middle of the square it will probably disable the works. That, I believe, is the heart and centre of the whole system.”
”It is very probable,” said the count, who had already described what he had seen of the works to the admiral, ”and I hope my shot will find it, for then my poor Sophie will be partly, at least, avenged. It was a terrible end for two such beautiful women, was it not, admiral?
Fargeau did not matter so much; for, after all, he was only a half-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 more horrible. But by mid-day I hope our guns will have avenged them as completely as good shot and sh.e.l.l can do. And now, excellency, with your permission we must have our last council of war; I must see my captains and arrange the last details with Admiral Dumont, as it is getting near six. I took the trouble of setting my watch by the clock in the reception-room.”
”And mine,” said the count, taking out his repeater, ”has been going with it for days. When this chimes six we may begin.”
Within a few minutes the two admirals and the captains of the different vessels went, by appointment, to the cabin of the _Ivan_, and the last details were arranged. As the clock struck six every available gun was to open on the western face of the works, and the fire of the heaviest guns was to be concentrated on the towers and the central gate until the searchlights were extinguished and the deadly rays rendered impotent.
Meanwhile boats and steam-pinnaces were to be ready to land the sailors and marines with their machine-guns, and as soon as there was reason to believe that the rays were no longer operative, a general advance in force was to be made on the western gate. No quarter was to be given; no prisoners taken. Victor Fargeau had left his father's legacy and all necessary directions for operating the works with Admiral Dumont, and so there would be no necessity for any a.s.sistance from the prisoners, and therefore no need to take any.
At five minutes to six Count Valdemar and Admiral Nazanoff went down on to the fore-deck. At the same moment that they were making their last examination of the guns, a thin ray of electric light shone out from 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 for a harmless and necessary lighthouse. The ray fell directly on the fore-deck of the _Ivan_.
”Ah,” said the admiral, stepping back under the protection of the top works, ”take care, your excellency, that is only about a hundred metres 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 hand and the lanyard of the gun in his right. The beam of ghostly light wavered and fell on him as he stepped back to pull. The next instant the flesh of his uplifted hand melted away from the bones, the lanyard fell away. With a cry of agony he dropped his hand, and then the terrible ray fell on his face. The horror-stricken officers and men saw it change from a face to a skull, watched his fur cap shrivel up and vanish, the hair and flesh on his scalp disappear. Then he dropped, and the bare skull struck the steel deck with a queer sharp click.
A sudden paralysis of horror fell upon officers and men alike, until the admiral roared out an order to turn the port gun on to the lighthouse. He was obeyed, and the gun was fired hurriedly; the sh.e.l.l struck the rock just below the lighthouse and exploded with a terrific report, 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, and the rest of the officers and men ran for shelter like so many frightened hares. They were ready to face any ordinary danger, but this was too awful for mortal courage.
Then the ray wandered over the fore-decks and bridges of the other s.h.i.+ps till it reached the _Caiman_, on the bridge of which Admiral Dumont 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 signal for the French vessels to open fire. The ray fell on his hand as he raised it to fire, the hand shrivelled to bone before he could pull the trigger. But the gunners had seen the signal, and the guns roared out. Over fifty guns of all calibres roared and crackled for a minute or so, and a brief hurricane of sh.e.l.l swept across the stony plain between 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 been reduced 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 six long guns rise from the masked batteries beside the two towers and over the central gate. There was no flash or report, but the next moment six hundred-pound sh.e.l.ls, charged with Vandelite, had struck the French and Russian vessels, and, as a fighting force, the expeditions had practically ceased to exist.
Every s.h.i.+p was. .h.i.t either in her hull or her top works. The steel structures crumpled up and collapsed under the terrible energy of the explosion. The steel-walled casemates were cracked and ripped open as though they had been built of common deal, and every man on deck within twenty yards of the explosion dropped dead or insensible. Both admirals were killed almost at the same moment.
The guns sank back and rose again, and again the explosions crashed out on board the doomed s.h.i.+ps. The death-ray played continuously over their decks and every man who showed himself fell dead with the flesh withered from his face and skull. The terrible bombardment lasted for about 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 gone down with them or had swum or scrambled ash.o.r.e in the boats, the guns ceased, and the rays were shut off.
This ended the fight, if, indeed, fight it could be called. Several of the sh.e.l.ls had struck the walls and blown out large portions of the facings, but no vital spot had been touched, thanks to the difficulty of taking aim in the blinding glare of the searchlights. The little lighthouse on the north point, which had proved such a veritable tower of strength, was still unharmed, although the rocks about it were splintered and pulverised by sh.e.l.l-fire.
Only about a dozen petty officers and a couple of hundred sailors and stokers escaped, and most of them were half-mad with fear. They were ordered back on board the _Ivan_, which, thanks to her enormously strong construction, had stood the terrible bombardment better than the _Caiman_. Her topworks were smashed out of all shape, and her decks were ripped and rent in all directions, but her hull was still sound, and a few days' work at her engines would make them serviceable. And in her the survivors of the ill-fated expedition ultimately went back to Europe with a formal message from the directors of the Trust to the governments of France and Russia, expressing their regret that so much damage and loss of life had resulted from the act of piracy committed by those who had mistaken the Magnetic for the North Pole.