shock, and heard amomentary and horrible crash and hiss which seemed to fill all the air.The instantaneous motor-bombs were tearing up the sea-board, andgrinding it to atoms.
It was not yet noon when the bombardment ceased. No more puffs ofblack smoke came up from the distant repeller, and the vast spreadingmass of clouds moved seaward, dropping down upon St. George's Channelin a rain of stone dust. Then the repeller steamed shoreward, and whenshe was within three or four miles of the coast she ran up a largewhite flag in token that her task was ended.
This sign that the bombardment had ceased was accepted in good faith;and as some of the military and naval men had carefully noted that eachpuff from the repeller was accompanied by a shock, it was consideredcertain that all the bombs which had been discharged had acted, andthat, consequently, no further danger was to be apprehended from them.In spite of this announcement many of the spectators would not leavetheir position on the hills, but a hundred or more of curious andcourageous men ventured down into the plain.
That part of the sea-coast where Caerdaff had been was a new country,about which men wandered slowly and cautiously with suddenexclamations, of amazement and awe. There were no longer promontoriesjutting out into the sea; there were no hillocks and rocky terracesrising inland. In a vast plain, shaven and shorn down to a commonlevel of scarred and pallid rock, there lay an immense chasm two milesand a half long, half a mile wide, and so deep that shuddering mencould stand and look down upon the rent and riven rocks upon which hadrested that portion of the Welsh coast which had now blown out to sea.
An officer of the Royal Engineers stood on the seaward edge of thisyawning abyss; then he walked over to the almost circular body of waterwhich occupied the place where the fishing village had been, and intowhich the waters of the bay had flowed. When this officer returned toLondon he wrote a report to the effect that a ship canal, less than aneighth of a mile long, leading from the newly formed lake at the headof the bay, would make of this chasm, when filled by the sea, thefinest and most thoroughly protected inland basin for ships of allsizes on the British coast. But before this report received dueofficial consideration the idea had been suggested and elaborated in adozen newspapers.
Accounts and reports of all kinds describing the destruction ofCaerdaff, and of the place in which it had stood, filled the newspapersof the world. Photographs and pictures of Caerdaff as it had been andas it then was were produced with marvellous rapidity, and theearthquake bomb of the American War Syndicate was the subject ofexcited conversation in every civilized country.
The British Ministry was now the calmest body of men in Europe. Thegreat opposition storm had died away, the great war storm had ceased,and the wisest British statesmen saw the unmistakable path of nationalpolicy lying plain and open before them. There was no longer time forarguments and struggles with opponents or enemies, internal orexternal. There was even no longer time for the discussion ofmeasures. It was the time for the adoption of a measure whichindicated itself, and which did not need discussion.
On the afternoon of the day of the bombardment of Caerdaff, RepellerNo. 11, accompanied by her crabs, steamed for the English Channel. Twodays afterward there lay off the coast at Brighton, with a white flagfloating high above her, the old Tallapoosa, now naval mistress of theworld.
Near by lay a cable boat, and constant communication by way of Francewas kept up between the officers of the American Syndicate and therepeller. In a very short time communications were opened between therepeller and London.
When this last step became known to the public of America, almost asmuch excited by the recent events as the public of England, a greatdisturbance arose in certain political circles. It was argued that theSyndicate had no right to negotiate in any way with the Government ofEngland; that it had been empowered to carry on a war; and that, if itsduties in this regard had been satisfactorily executed, it must nowretire, and allow the United States Government to attend to its foreignrelations.
But the Syndicate was firm. It had contracted to bring the war to asatisfactory conclusion. When it considered that this had been done,it would retire and allow the American Government, with whom thecontract had been made, to decide whether or not it had been properlyperformed.
The unmistakable path of national policy which had shown itself to thewisest British statesmen appeared broader and plainer when theovertures of the American War Syndicate had been received by theBritish Government. The Ministry now perceived that the Syndicate hadnot waged war; it had been simply exhibiting the uselessness of war asat present waged. Who now could deny that it would be folly to opposethe resources of ordinary warfare to those of what might be calledprohibitive warfare.
Another idea arose in the minds of the wisest British statesmen. Ifprohibitive warfare were a good thing for America, it would be anequally good thing for England. More than that, it would be a betterthing if only these two countries possessed the power of wagingprohibitive warfare.
In three days a convention of peace was concluded between Great Britainand the American Syndicate acting for the United States, its provisionsbeing made subject to such future treaties and alliances as thegovernments of the two nations might make with each other. In six daysafter the affair at Caerdaff, a committee of the American War Syndicatewas in London, making arrangements, under the favourable auspices ofthe British Government, for the formation of an Anglo-AmericanSyndicate of War.
The Atlantic Ocean now sprang into new life. It seemed impossible toimagine whence had come the multitude of vessels which now steamed andsailed upon its surface. Among these, going westward, were six crabs,and the spring-armoured vessel, once the Tallapoosa, going home to atriumphant reception, such as had never before been accorded to anyvessel, whether of war or peace.
The blockade of the Canadian port, which had been effectivelymaintained without incident, was now raised, and the Syndicate'svessels proceeded to an American port.
The British ironclad, Adamant, at the conclusion of peace was still intow of Crab C, and off the coast of Florida. A vessel was sent downthe coast by the Syndicate to notify Crab C of what had occurred, andto order it to tow the Adamant to the Bermudas, and there deliver herto the British authorities. The vessel sent by the Syndicate, whichwas a fast coast-steamer, had scarcely hove in sight of the objects ofher search when she was saluted by a ten-inch shell from the Adamant,followed almost immediately by two others. The commander of theAdamant had no idea that the war was at an end, and had never failed,during his involuntary cruise, to fire at anything which bore theAmerican flag, or looked like an American craft.
Fortunately the coast steamer was not struck, and at the top of herspeed retired to a greater distance, whence the Syndicate officer onboard communicated with the crab by smoke signals.
During the time in which Crab C had had charge of the Adamant nocommunication had taken place between the two vessels. Whenever anair-pipe had been elevated for the purpose of using therein aspeaking-tube, a volley from a machine-gun on the Adamant was pouredupon it, and after several pipes had been shot away the director of thecrab ceased his efforts to confer with those on the ironclad. It hadbeen necessary to place the outlets of the ventilating apparatus of thecrab under the forward ends of some of the upper roof-plates.
When Crab C had received her orders, she put about the prow of thegreat warship, and proceeded to tow her north-eastward, the commanderof the Adamant taking a parting crack with his heaviest stern-gun atthe vessel which had brought the order for his release.
All the way from the American coast to the Bermuda Islands, the greatAdamant blazed, thundered, and roared, not only because her commandersaw, or fancied he saw, an American vessel, but to notify all crabs,repellers, and any other vile invention of the enemy that may have beenrecently put forth to blemish the sacred surface of the sea, that theAdamant still floated, with the heaviest coat of mail and the finestand most complete armament in the world, ready to sink anything hostilewhich came near enough--but not too near
.
When the commander found that he was bound for the Bermudas, he did notunderstand it, unless, indeed, those islands had been captured by theenemy. But he did not stop firing. Indeed, should he find theBermudas under the American flag, he would fire at that flag andwhatever carried it, as long as a shot or a shell or a charge of powderremained to him.
But when he reached British waters, and slowly entering St. George'sharbour, saw around him the British flag floating as proudly as itfloated above his own great ship, he confessed himself utterlybewildered; but he ordered the men at every gun to stand by their pieceuntil he was boarded by a boat from the fort, and informed of the truestate of affairs.
But even then, when weary Crab C raised herself from her fightingdepth, and steamed to a dock, the commander of the Adamant couldscarcely refrain from sending a couple of tons of iron into the beastlysea-devil which had had the impertinence to tow him about against hiswill.
No time was lost by the respective Governments of Great Britain