ring
armour, now moved round so as to be directly astern of the Adamant.
Before she could reach the rudder, her forward part came under the
suspended cannon, and two massive steel shot were driven down upon her
with a force sufficient to send them through masses of solid rock; but
from the surface of elastic steel springs and air-buffers they bounced
upward, one of them almost falling on the deck of the Adamant.

The gunners of this piece had been well trained. In a moment the boom
was swung around, the cannon reloaded, and when Crab K fixed her
nippers on the rudder of the Adamant, two more shot came down upon her.
As in the first instance she dipped and rolled, but the ribs of her
uninjured armour had scarcely sprung back into their places, before her
nippers turned, and the rudder of the Adamant was broken in two, and
the upper portion dragged from its fastenings then a quick backward
jerk snapped its chains, and it was dropped into the sea.

A signal was now sent from Crab J to Repeller No. 7, to the effect
that the Adamant had been rendered incapable of steaming or sailing,
and that she lay subject to order.

Subject to order or not, the Adamant did not lie passive. Every gun on
board which could be sufficiently depressed, was made ready to fire
upon the crabs should they attempt to get away. Four large boats,
furnished with machine guns, grapnels, and with various appliances
which might be brought into use on a steel-plated roof, were lowered
from their davits, and immediately began firing upon the exposed
portions of the crabs. Their machine guns were loaded with small
shells, and if these penetrated under the horizontal plates of a crab,
and through the heavy glass which was supposed to be in these
interstices, the crew of the submerged craft would be soon destroyed.

The quick eye of the captain of the Adamant had observed through his
glass, while the crabs were still at a considerable distance, their
protruding air-pipes, and he had instructed the officers in charge of
the boats to make an especial attack upon these. If the air-pipes of a
crab could be rendered useless, the crew must inevitably be smothered.

But the brave captain did not know that the condensed-air chambers of
the crabs would supply their inmates for an hour or more without
recourse to the outer air, and that the air-pipes, furnished with
valves at the top, were always withdrawn under water during action with
an enemy. Nor did he