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-glasses, and looked
eagerly in the direction pointed out by his keen-eyed coxswain. 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 aërial 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 fashion that he
would find as unpleasant as it would be unexpected. He turned to his
coxswain 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 coxswain, as he saluted and disappeared.
Arnold at once went back to his cabin and dressed, telling his second
officer, Frank Marston, a young Englishman, whom he had chosen to
take Mazanoff's place, to do the same as quietly as possible, as he
did not wish to awaken any of his three passengers just at present.
By the time he got on deck the three air-ships had slowed down
considerably, and the two consorts of the _Ithuriel_ were within easy
speaking distance. Mazanoff and Tremayne were both on deck, and to
them he explained his plans as follows--
"There are a dozen of the Tsar's war-balloons coming up yonder to the
southward, and I am going to head them off and capture the lot if I
can. If we can do that, we can make what terms we like for the
surrender of the _Lucifer_.
"You two take your ships and get to windward of them as fast as you
can. Keep a little higher than they are, but not much. On no account
let one of them get above you. If they try to descend, give each one
that does so a No. 1 shell, and blow her up. If one tries to pass
you, ram her in the upper part of the gas-holder, and let her down
with a smash.
"I am going up above them to prevent any of them from rising too far.
They can outfly us in that one direction, so I shall blow any that
attempt it into little pieces. If you have to fire on any of them,
don't use more than No. 1; you'll find that more than enough.
"Keep an eye on me for signals, and remember that the whole fleet
must be destroyed rather than one allowed to escape. I want to give
the Tsar a nice little surprise. He seems to be getting a good deal
too cock-sure about these old gas-bags of his, and it's time to give
him a lesson in real aërial warfare."
There was not a great newspaper in the world that would not have
given a very long price to have had the privilege of putting a
special correspondent on the deck of the _Ithuriel_ for the two hours
which followed the giving of Arnold's directions to his brother
commanders of the little squadron. The journal which could have
published an exclusive account of the first aërial skirmish in the
history of the world would have scored a triumph which would have
left its competitors a long way behind in the struggle to be "up to
date."
As soon as Arnold had given his orders, the three air-ships at once
separated. The _Ariel_ and the _Orion_ shot away to the southward on
only a slightly upward course, while the _Ithuriel_ soared up beyond
the stratum of clouds which lay in thin broken masses rather more
than four thousand feet above the earth.
It was still rather more than an hour before sunrise, and, as the
moon had gone down, and the clouds intercepted most of the starlight,
it was just "the darkest hour before the dawn," and therefore the
most favourable for the carrying out of the plan that Arnold had in
view.
Shortly after half-past two he knocked at Natasha's cabin-door, and
said--
"If you would like to see an aërial battle, get up and come into the
conning-tower at once. We have overtaken a squadron of Russian
war-balloons, and we are going either to capture or destroy them."
"Glorious!" exclaimed Natasha, wide awake in an instant at such
startling news. "I'll be with you in five minutes. Tell my father,
and please don't begin till I come."
"I shouldn't think of opening the ball without your ladyship's
presence," laughed Arnold in reply, and then he went and called Natas
and his attendant and the Professor before going to the
conning-tower, where in a very few minutes he was joined by Natasha.
The first words she said were--
"I have told Ivan to send us some coffee as soon as he has attended
to my father. You see how thoughtful I am for your creature comforts.
Now, where are the war-balloons?"
[Illustration: "Come now, and fire the first shot in the warfare of
the future."
_See page 211._]
"On the other side of those clouds. There, look down through that big
rift, and you will see one of them."
"Why, what a height we must be from the earth! The balloon looks like
a little toy thing, but it must be a great clumsy contrivance for all
that."
"The barometer gives five thousand three hundred feet. You will soon
see why I have come up so high. The balloons can rise to fifteen or
twenty thousand feet, if they wish to, and in that way they could
easily escape us; therefore, if one of them attempts to rise through
those clouds, I shall send him back to earth in little bits."
"And what are the other two air-ships doing?"
"They are below the clouds, heading the balloons off from the Russian
camp, which is about fifty miles to the north-westward. Ha! look,
there go the searchlights!"
As he spoke, two long converging beams of light darted across a broad
space of sky that was free from cloud. They came from the _Ariel_ and
the _Orion_, which thus suddenly revealed themselves to the
astonished and disgusted Russians, one at each end of their long
line, and only a little more than half a mile ahead of it.
The searchlights flashed to and fro along the line, plainly showing
the great masses 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-ships.
"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 button, and press when I tell you."
Natasha did as he told her, and at the word "Fire!" pressed the
little ivory button down. The shell struck the upper envelope of the
balloon, passed 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-ships 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 flashing hither
and thither as though seeking new victims, completed the
demoralisation of the Russians. For all they knew there were still
more air-ships above the clouds. Even this one could not be passed
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 compass. But here they had reckoned without the
incomparable speed of their assailants.
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 space 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-ship, 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 shell as it struck.
This was the last blow struck in the first aërial 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 shells 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-ships 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--
"Unconditional surrender for the present, under guarantee of safety
to every one who surrenders. Who are you?"
"Colonel Alexei Alexandrovitch, in command of the squadron. I
surrender on those terms. Who are you?"
"The captain of the Terrorist air-ship _Ariel_. Be good enough to
come out here, Colonel Alexei Alexandrovitch."
One of the aerostats moved out of the midst of the Russian squadron
and made its way towards the _Ariel_. As she approached Mazanoff
swung his bow round and brought it level with the car of the
aerostat, at the same time training one of his guns full on it. Then,
with his arm resting on the breach of the gun, he said,--
"Come on board, Colonel, and bid your balloon follow me. No nonsense,
mind, or I'll blow you into eternity and all your squadron after
you."
The Russian did as he was bidden, and the _Ariel_, followed by the
aerostat, ascended to the _Ithuriel_, while the _Orion_ kept up her
patrol round the captive war-balloons.
"Colonel Alexandrovitch, in command of the Tsar's aërial squadron,
surrenders unconditionally, save for guarantee of personal safety to
himself and his men," reported Mazanoff, as he came within earshot of
the flagship.
"Very good," replied Arnold from the deck of the _Ithuriel_. "You will
keep Colonel Alexandrovitch as hostage for the good behaviour of the
rest, and shoot him the moment one of the balloons attempts to
escape. After that destroy the rest without mercy. They will form in
line close together. The _Ariel_ and the _Orion_ will convoy them on
either flank, and you will follow me until you have the signal to
stop. On the first suspicion of any attempt to escape you will know
what to do. You have both handled your ships splendidly."
Mazanoff saluted formally, more for the sake of effect than anything
else, and descended again to carry out his orders. The captured
flotilla was formed in line, the balloons being closed up until there
was only a couple of yards or so between any of them and her next
neighbour, with the _Orion_ and the _Ariel_ to right and left, each
with two guns trained on them, and the _Ithuriel_ flying a couple of
hundred feet above them. In this order captors and captured made
their way at twenty miles an hour to the north-west towards the
headquarters of the Tsar.