第17章 THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE(17)

The cannon suspended over the stern of the Adamant was also again brought into play, and shot after shot was driven down upon the towing crab.Every ball rebounded from the spring armour, but the officer in charge of the crab became convinced that after a time this constant pounding, almost in the same place, would injure his vessel, and he signalled the repeller to that effect.The director of Repeller No.7 had been considering the situation.There was only one gun on the Adamant which could be brought to bear upon Crab K, and it would be the part of wisdom to interfere with the persistent use of this gun.Accordingly the bow of the repeller was brought to bear upon the Adamant, and her motor gun was aimed at the boom from which the cannon was suspended.The projectile with which the cannon was loaded was not an instantaneous motor-bomb.It was simply a heavy solid shot, driven by an instantaneous motor attachment, and was thus impelled by the same power and in the same manner as the motor-bombs.The instantaneous motor-power had not yet been used at so great a distance as that between the repeller and the Adamant, and the occasion was one of intense interest to the small body of scientific men having charge of the aiming and firing.The calculations of the distance, of the necessary elevation and direction, and of the degree of motor- power required, were made with careful exactness, and when the proper instant arrived the button was touched, and the shot with which the cannon was charged was instantaneously removed to a point in the ocean about a mile beyond the Adamant, accompanied by a large portion of the heavy boom at which the gun had been aimed.The cannon which had been suspended from the end of this boom fell into the sea, and would have crashed down upon the roof of Crab K, had not that vessel, in obedience to a signal from the repeller, loosened its hold upon the Adamant and retired a short distance astern.Material injury might not have resulted from the fall of this great mass of metal upon the crab, but it was considered prudent not to take useless risks.The officers of the Adamant were greatly surprised and chagrined by the fall of their gun, with which they had expected ultimately to pound in the roof of the crab.No damage had been done to the vessel except the removal of a portion of the boom, with some of the chains and blocks attached, and no one onboard the British ship imagined for a moment that this injury had been occasioned by the distant repeller.It was supposed that the constant firing of the cannon had cracked the boom, and that it had suddenly snapped.Even if there had been on board the Adamant the means for rigging up another arrangement of the kind for perpendicular artillery practice, it would have required a long time to get it into working order, and the director of Repeller No.7 hoped that now the British captain would see the uselessness of continued resistance.But the British captain saw nothing of the kind, and shot after shot from his guns were hurled high into the air, in hopes that the great curves described would bring some of them down on the deck of the repeller.If this beastly store-ship, which could stand fire but never returned it, could be sunk, the Adamant's captain would be happy.With the exception of the loss of her motive power, his vessel was intact, and if the stupid crab would only continue to keep the Adamant's head to the sea until the noise of her cannonade should attract some other British vessel to the scene, the condition of affairs might be altered.All that day the great guns of the Adamant continued to roar.The next morning, however, the firing was not resumed, and the officers of the repeller were greatly surprised to see approaching from the British ship a boat carrying a white flag.This was a very welcome sight, and the arrival of the boat was awaited with eager interest.During the night a council had been held on board the Adamant.Her cannonading had had no effect, either in bringing assistance or in injuring the enemy; she was being towed steadily southward farther and farther from the probable neighbourhood of a British man-of-war; and it was agreed that it would be the part of wisdom to come to terms with the Syndicate's vessel.Therefore the captain of the Adamant sent a letter to the repeller, in which he stated to the persons in charge of that ship, that although his vessel had been injured in a manner totally at variance with the rules of naval warfare, he would overlook this fact and would agree to cease firing upon the Syndicate's vessels, provided that the submerged craft which was now made fast to his vessel should attach itself to the Adamant's bow, and by means of a suitable cable which she would furnish, would tow her into British waters.If this were done he would guarantee that the towing craft should have sixhours in which to get away.When this letter was read on board the repeller it created considerable merriment, and an answer was sent back that no conditions but those of absolute surrender could be received from the British ship.In three minutes after this answer had been received by the captain of the Adamant, two shells went whirring and shrieking through the air toward Repeller No.7, and after that the cannonading from the bow, the stern, the starboard, and the port guns of the great battle-ship went on whenever there was a visible object on the ocean which looked in the least like an American coasting vessel or man-of-war.For a week Crab K towed steadily to the south this blazing and thundering marine citadel; and then the crab signalled to the still accompanying repeller that it must be relieved.It had not been fitted out for so long a cruise, and supplies were getting low.The Syndicate, which had been kept informed of all the details of this affair, had already perceived the necessity of relieving Crab K, and another crab, well provisioned and fitted out, was already on the way to take its place.This was Crab C, possessing powerful engines, but in point of roof armour the weakest of its class.It could be better spared than any other crab to tow the Adamant, and as the British ship had not, and probably could not, put out another suspended cannon, it was considered quite suitable for the service required.But when Crab C came within half a mile of the Adamant it stopped.It was evident that on board the British ship a steady lookout had been maintained for the approach of fresh crabs, for several enormous shell and shot from heavy guns, which had been trained upward at a high angle, now fell into the sea a short distance from the crab.Crab C would not have feared these heavy shot had they been fired from an ordinary elevation; and although no other vessel in the Syndicate's service would have hesitated to run the terrible gauntlet, this one, by reason of errors in construction, being less able than any other crab to resist the fall from a great height of ponderous shot and shell, thought it prudent not to venture into this rain of iron; and, moving rapidly beyond the line of danger, it attempted to approach the Adamant from another quarter.If it could get within the circle of falling shot it would be safe.But this it could not do.On all sides of the Adamant guns had been trained to drop shot and shells at a distance of half a mile from the ship.