Erskine gave a quarter turn to the wheel and touched the two b.u.t.tons again. The _Ithuriel_ swung round and ran down on her prey. The two fifteen-and the six twelve-pounder guns ahead and astern and on the broadside of the destroyer crackled out and a hail of sh.e.l.ls came whistling across the water. A few of them struck the _Ithuriel_, glanced off and exploded.

"There," said Erskine, "they've knocked some of our nice new paint off.

Now they're going to pay for it."

"Couldn't you give them a shot back?" said Lennard.

"Not worth it, my dear sir," said Erskine. "We keep our guns for bigger game. We haven't an angle that a sh.e.l.l would hit. You might just as well fire boiled peas at a hippopotamus as those little things at us. Of course a big sh.e.l.l square amidships would hurt us, but then she's so handy that I think I could stop it hitting her straight."

While he was speaking the _Ithuriel_ got up to full speed again. Lennard shut his eyes. He felt a slight shock, and then a dull grinding. A crash of guns and a roar of escaping steam, and when he looked out again, the destroyer had disappeared. The next moment a blinding glare of light streamed across the water from the direction of Selsey.

"A big cruiser, or battleship," said Erskine. "French or German. Now we'll see what those sh.e.l.ls of yours are made of."

CHAPTER IX

THE "FLYING FISH" APPEARS

A huge, black shape loomed up into the moonlight. As she came nearer Lennard could see that the vessel carried a big mast forward with a fighting-top, two funnels a little aft of it, and two other funnels a few feet forward of the after mast.

Erskine put his gla.s.ses up to his eyes and said:

"That's the _Dupleix_, one of the improved _Desaix_ cla.s.s. Steams twenty-four knots. I suppose she's been shepherding those destroyers that we've just finished with. I hope she hasn't seen what happened. If she thinks that they've got in all right, we've got her. She has a heavy fore and aft and broadside gunfire, two 6.4 guns ahead and astern and amidships, in pairs, and as I suppose they'll be using melinite sh.e.l.ls, we shall get fits unless we take them unawares."

"And what does that mean?" asked Lennard.

"Show you in a minute," answered Erskine, touching three or four of the b.u.t.tons on the right-hand side as he spoke.

Another shudder ran through the frame of the _Ithuriel_ and Lennard felt the deck sink under his feet. If he hadn't had as good a head on him as he had, he would have said something, for the _Ithuriel_ sank until her decks were almost awash. She jumped forward again now almost invisible, and circled round to the south eastward. A big cloud drifted across the moon and Erskine said:

"Thank G.o.d for that! We shall get her now."

Another quarter turn of the wheel brought the _Ithuriel's_ head at right angles to the French cruiser's broadside. He took the transmitter of the telephone down from the hooks and said:

"Are you there, Castellan?"

"Yes. What's that big thing ahead there?"

"It's the _Dupleix_. Ready with your forward guns. I'm going to fire first, then ram. Stand by, centre first, then starboard and port, and keep your eye on them. These are Mr Lennard's sh.e.l.ls and we want to see what they'll do. Are you ready?"

"Yes. When you like."

"Half speed, then, and tell Mackenzie to stand by and order full speed when I give the word. We shall want it in a jump."

"Very good, sir. Is that all?"

"Yes, that's all."

Erskine put the receiver back on the hooks.

"That's it. Now we'll try your sh.e.l.ls. If they're what I think they are, we'll smash that fellow's top works into sc.r.a.p-iron, and then we'll go for him."

"I think I see," said Lennard, "that's why you've half submerged her."

"Yes. The _Ithuriel_ is designed to deal with both light and heavy craft. With the light ones, as you have seen, she just walked over them.

Now, we've got something bigger to tackle, and if everything goes right that ship will be at the bottom of the sea in five minutes."

"Horrible," replied Lennard, "but I suppose it's necessary."

"Absolutely," said Erskine, taking the receiver down from the hooks. "If we didn't do it with them, they'd do it with us. That's war."

Lennard made no reply. He was looking hard at the now rapidly approaching shape of the big French cruiser, and when men are thinking hard, they don't usually say much.

The _Ithuriel_ completed her quarter-circle and dead head on to the _Dupleix_, Erskine said, "Centre gun ready, forward--fire. Port and starboard concentrate--fire."

There was no report--only a low, hissing sound--and then Lennard saw three flashes of bluish-green blaze out over the French cruiser.

"Hit her! I think those sh.e.l.ls of yours got home," said Erskine between his clenched teeth. And then he added through the telephone, "Well aimed, Castellan! They all got there. Load up again--three more shots and I'm going to ram--quick now, and full speed ahead when you've fired."

"All ready!" came back over the telephone, "I've told Mackenzie that you'll want it."

"Good man," replied Erskine. "When I touch the b.u.t.ton, you do the rest.

Now--are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Let her have it--then full speed. Ah," Erskine continued, turning to Lennard, "he's shooting back."

The cruiser burst into a thunderstorm of smoke and flame and sh.e.l.l, but there was nothing to shoot at. Only three feet of freeboard would have been visible even in broad daylight. The signal mast had been telescoped. There was nothing but the deck, the guns and the conning-tower to be seen. The sh.e.l.ls screamed through the air a good ten feet over her and incidentally wrecked the Marine Hotel on Selsey Bill.

Erskine pressed the top b.u.t.ton on the right-hand side three times. The smokeless, nameless guns spoke again, and again the three flashes of blue-green flame broke out on the Frenchman's decks.

"Good enough," said Erskine, taking the transmitter down from the hooks again. "Now, Mr Lennard, just come for'ard and watch."

Lennard crept up beside him and took the gla.s.ses.

"Down guns--full speed ahead--going to ram," said Erskine, quietly, into the telephone.

To his utter astonishment, Lennard saw the three big guns sink down under the deck and the steel hoods move forward and cover the emplacements. The floor of the conning-tower jumped under his feet again and the huge shape of the French cruiser seemed to rush towards him.

There was a roar of artillery, a thunder of 6.4 guns, a crash of bursting sh.e.l.ls, a shudder and a shock, and the fifty-ton ram of the _Ithuriel_ hit her forward of the conning-tower and went through the two-inch armour belt as a knife would go through a piece of paper. The big cruiser stopped as an animal on land does, struck by a bullet in its vitals, or a whale when the lance is driven home. Half her officers and men were lying about the decks asphyxiated by Lennard's sh.e.l.ls. The after barbette swung round, and at the same moment, or perhaps half a minute before, Erskine touched two other b.u.t.tons in rapid succession.

The _Dupleix_ lurched down on the starboard side, the two big guns went off and hit the water. Erskine touched another b.u.t.ton, and the _Ithuriel_ ran back from her victim. A minute later the French cruiser heeled over and sank.

"Good G.o.d, how did you do that?" said Lennard, looking round at him with eyes rather more wide open than usual.

"That's the effect of the suction screw," replied Erskine. "I got the idea from the Russian ice-breaker, the _Yermack_. The old idea was just main strength and stupidity, charge the ice and break through if you could. The better idea was to suck the water away from under the ice and go over it--that's what we've done. I rammed that chap, pulled the water away from under him, and, of course, he's gone down."

He gave the wheel a quarter-turn to starboard, took down the transmitter and said: "Full speed again--in two minutes, three quarters and then half."