ARMED NEUTRALITY.
Hardly had the _Lurline_ disappeared than the air-ship was lying
alongside the boat, floating on the water as easily and lightly as a
seagull, and Natas and his two attendants, Tremayne, and the three
men who had been saved from the yacht, were at once taken on board.
It would be useless to interrupt the progress of the narrative to
describe the welcoming greetings which passed between the rescued
party and the crew of the _Ithuriel_, or the amazement of Arnold and
his companions when Natasha threw her arms round the neck of the
almost helpless cripple, who was rifted over the rail by Tremayne and
his two attendants, kissed him on the brow, and said so that all
could hear her--
"We were in time! Thank God we were in time, my father!"
Her father! This paralytic creature, who could not move a yard
without the assistance of some one else--this was Natas, the father
of Natasha, and the Master of the Terror, the man who had planned the
ruin of a civilisation, and for all they knew might aspire to the
empire of the world!
It was marvellous, inconceivable, but there was no time to think
about it now, for the two cruisers were still blazing away at each
other, and Tremayne had determined to punish the Frenchman for his
discourtesy in not answering his flag, and his inhumanity in firing
on an unarmed vessel which was well known as a private pleasure-yacht
all round the western and southern shores of Europe.
As soon as Natas had been conveyed into the saloon, Tremayne, after
returning Arnold's hearty handclasp, said to him--
"That rascally Frenchman chased and fired on us, and then sent his
torpedo-boat after us, without the slightest provocation. I purposely
hoisted the Yacht Squadron flag to show that we were non-combatants,
and still he sank us. I suppose he took the _Lurline_ for a fast
despatch boat, but still he ought to have had the sense and the
politeness to let her alone when he saw she was a yacht, so I want
you to teach him better manners."
"Certainly," replies Arnold. "I'll sink him for you in five seconds
as soon as we get aloft again."
"I don't want you to do that if you can help it. She has five or six
hundred men on board, who are only doing as they are told, and we
have not declared war on the world yet. Can't you disable her, and
force her to surrender to the British cruiser that came to our
rescue? You know we must have been sunk or captured half an hour ago
if she had not turned up so opportunely, in spite of your so happily
coming fifty miles this side of the rendezvous. I should like to
return the compliment by delivering his enemy into his hand."
"I quite see what you mean, but I'm afraid I can't guarantee success.
You see, our artillery is intended for destruction, and not for
disablement. Still I'll have a try with pleasure. I'll see if I can't
disable his screws, only you mustn't blame me if he goes to the
bottom by accident."
"Certainly not, you most capable destroyer of life and property,"
laughed Tremayne. "Only let him off as lightly as you can. Ah,
Natasha! Good morning again! I suppose Natas has taken no harm from
the unceremonious way in which I had to almost throw him on board the
boat. Aërial voyaging seems to agree with you, you"--
"Must not talk nonsense, my Lord of Alanmere, especially when there
is sterner work in hand," interrupted Natasha, with a laugh. "What
are you going to do with those two cruisers that are battering each
other to pieces down there? Sink them both, or leave them to fight it
out?"
"Neither, with your permission, fair lady. The British cruiser saved
us by coming on the scene at the right moment, and as the Frenchman
fired upon us without due cause, I want Captain Arnold to disable her
in some way and hand her over a prisoner to our rescuer."
"Ah, that would be better, of course. One good turn deserves another.
What are you going to do, Captain Arnold?"
"Drop a small shell under his stern and disable his propellers, if I
can do so without sinking him, which I am afraid is rather doubtful,"
replied Arnold.
While they were talking, the _Ithuriel_ had risen a thousand feet or
so from the water, and had advanced to within about half a mile of
the two cruisers, which were now manoeuvring round each other at a
distance of about a thousand yards, blazing away without cessation,
and waiting for some lucky shot to partially disable one or the
other, and so give an opportunity for boarding, or ramming.
In the old days, when France and Britain had last grappled in the
struggle for the mastery of the sea, the two ships would have been
laid alongside each other long before this. But that was not to be
thought of while those terrible machine guns were able to rain their
hail of death down from the tops, and the quick-firing cannon were
hurling their thirty shots a minute across the intervening space of
water.
The French cruiser had so far taken no notice of the sudden
annihilation of her second torpedo-boat by the air-ship, but as soon
as the latter made her way astern of her she seemed to scent
mischief, and turned one of her three-barrelled Nordenfeldts on to
her. The shots soon came singing about the _Ithuriel_ in somewhat
unpleasant proximity, and Arnold said--
"Monsieur seems to take us for a natural enemy, and if he wants fight
he shall have it. If I don't disable him with this shot I'll sink him
with the next."
So saying he trained one of the broadside guns on the stern of the
French cruiser, and at the right moment pressed the button. The shell
bored its way through the air and down into the water until it struck
and exploded against the submerged rudder.
A huge column of foam rose up under the cruiser's stern; half lifted
out of the water, she plunged forward with a mighty lurch, burying
her forecastle in the green water, and then she righted and lay
helpless upon the sea, deprived of the power of motion and steering,
and with the useless steam roaring in great clouds from her pipes. A
moment later she began to settle by the stern, showing that her after
plates had been badly injured, if not torn away by the explosion.
Meanwhile the _Ithuriel_ had shot away out of range until the two
cruisers looked like little toy-ships spitting fire at each other,
and Arnold said to Tremayne, who was with him in the wheel-house--
"I think that has settled her, as far as any more real fighting is
concerned. Look! She can't stand that sort of thing very long."
He handed Tremayne the glasses as he spoke. The French cruiser was
lying motionless upon the water, with her after compartments full,
and very much down by the stern. She was still blazing away gamely
with all her available guns, but it was obvious at a glance that she
was now no match for her antagonist, who had taken full advantage of
the help rendered by her unknown ally, and was pouring a perfect hail
of shot and shell point-blank into her half-disabled adversary,
battering her deck-works into ruins, and piercing her hull again and
again.
At length, when the splendid fabric had been reduced to little better
than a floating wreck by the terrible cannonade, the fire from the
British cruiser stopped, and the signal "Will you surrender?" flew
from her masthead.
A few moments later the tricolor, for the first time in the war,
dipped to the White Ensign, and the naval duel was over.
"Now we will leave them to talk it over," said Tremayne, shutting the
glasses. "I should like to hear what they have to say about us, I
must confess, but there is something more important to be done, and
the sooner we are on the other side of the Atlantic the better. The
_Aurania_ started from New York this morning. How soon can you get
across?"
"In about sixteen hours if we had to go all the way," replied Arnold.
"It is, say, three thousand miles from here to New York, and the
_Ithuriel_ can fly two hundred miles an hour if necessary. But the
_Aurania_, if she starts in good time, will make between four and
five hundred miles during the day, and so we ought to meet her soon
after sundown this evening if we are lucky."
As Arnold ceased speaking, the report of a single gun came up from
the water, and a string of signal flags floated out from the masthead
of the British cruiser.
"Hullo!" said Tremayne, once more turning the glasses on the two
vessels, "that was a blank cartridge, and as far as I can make out
that signal reads, 'We want to speak you.' And look: there goes a
white flag to the fore. His intentions are evidently peaceful. What
do you say, shall we go down?"
"I see no objection to it. It will only make a difference of half an
hour or so, and perhaps we may learn something worth knowing from the
captain about the naval force afloat in the Atlantic. I think it
would be worth while. We have no need for concealment now; and
besides, all Europe is talking about us, so there can be no harm in
showing ourselves a bit more closely."
"Very well, then, we will go down and hear what he has to say,"
replied Tremayne. "But I don't think it would be well for me to show
myself just now, and so I will go below."
Arnold at once signalled the necessary order from the conning tower
to the engine-room. The fan-wheels revolved more slowly, and the
_Ithuriel_ sank swiftly downwards towards the two cruisers, now lying
side by side.
As soon as she came to a standstill within speaking distance of the
British man-of-war, discipline was for the moment forgotten on board
of both victor and vanquished, under the influence of the intense
excitement and curiosity aroused by seeing the mysterious and
much-talked-of air-ship at such close quarters.
The French and British captains were both standing on the
quarter-deck eagerly scanning the strange craft through their glasses
till she came near enough to dispense with them, and every man and
officer on board the two cruisers who was able to be on deck, crowded
to points of 'vantage, and stared at her with all their eyes. The
whole company of the _Ithuriel_, with the exception of Natas,
Tremayne, and those whose duties kept them in the engine-room, were
also on deck, and Arnold stood close by the wheel-house and the after
gun, ready to give any orders that might be necessary in case the
conversation took an unfriendly turn.
"May I ask the name of that wonderful craft, and to what I am
indebted for the assistance you have given me?" hailed the British
captain.
"Certainly. This is the Terrorist air-ship _Ithuriel_, and we
disabled the French cruiser because her captain had the bad manners
to fire upon and sink an unarmed yacht that had no quarrel with him.
But for that we should have left you to fight it out."
"The Terrorists, are you? If I had known that, I confess I should not
have asked to speak you, and I tell you candidly that I am sorry you
did not leave us to fight it out, as you say. As I cannot look upon
you as an ally or a friend, I can only regret the advantage you have
given me over an honourable foe."
There was an emphasis on the word "honourable" which brought a flush
to Arnold's cheek, as he replied--
"What I did to the French cruiser I should have done whether you had
been on the scene or not. We are as much your foes as we are those of
France, that is to say, we are totally indifferent to both of you. As
for _honourable_ foes, I may say that I only disabled the French
cruiser because I thought she had acted both unfairly and
dishonourably. But we are wasting time. Did you merely wish to speak
to us in order to find out who we were?"
"Yes, that was my first object, I confess. I also wished to know
whether this is the same air-ship which crossed the Mediterranean
yesterday, and if not, how many of these vessels there are in
existence, and what you mean to do with them?"
"Before I answer, may I ask how you know that an air-ship crossed the
Mediterranean yesterday?" asked Arnold, thoroughly mystified by this
astounding piece of news.
"We had it by telegraph at Queenstown during the night. She was going
northward, when observed, by Larnaka"--
"Oh yes, that was one of our despatch boats," replied Arnold, forcing
himself to speak with a calmness that he by no means felt. "I'm
afraid my orders will hardly allow me to answer your other questions
very fully, but I may tell you that we have a fleet of air-ships at
our command, all constructed in England under the noses of your
intelligent authorities, and that we mean to use them as it seems
best to us, should we at any time consider it worth our while to
interfere in the game that the European Powers are playing with each
other. Meanwhile we keep a position of armed neutrality. When we
think the war has gone far enough we shall probably stop it when a
good opportunity offers."
This was too much for a British sailor to listen to quietly on his
own quarter-deck, whoever said it, and so the captain of the
_Andromeda_ forgot his prudence for the moment, and said somewhat
hotly--
"Confound it, sir! you talk as if you were omnipotent and arbiters of
peace and war. Don't go too far with your insolence, or I shall haul
that flag of truce down and give you five minutes to get out of range
of my guns or take your chance"--
For all answer there came a contemptuous laugh from the deck of the
_Ithuriel_, the rapid ringing of an electric bell, and the
disappearance of her company under cover. Then with one mighty leap
she rose two thousand feet into the air, and before the astounded and
disgusted captain of H.M. cruiser _Andromeda_ very well knew what had
become of her, she was a mere speck of light in the sky, speeding
away at two hundred miles an hour to the westward.
As soon as she was fairly on her course, Arnold gave up the wheel to
one of the crew, and went into the saloon to discuss with Tremayne
and Natas the all-important scrap of news that had fallen from the
lips of the captain of the British cruiser. What was the other
air-ship that had been seen crossing the Mediterranean?
Surely it must be one of the Terrorist fleet, for there were no
others in existence. And yet strict orders had been given that none
of the fleet were to take the air until the _Ithuriel_ returned. Was
it possible that there were traitors, even in Aeria, and that the
air-ship seen from Larnaka was a deserter going northward to the
enemy, the worst enemy of all, the Russians?