t its command, and so thorough and complete
its methods, that ten or a dozen ship-yards and foundries were set to
work simultaneously to build one of these ships. In a marvellously
short time the Syndicate possessed several of them ready for action.

These vessels became technically known as "crabs." They were not large,
and the only part of them which projected above the water was the
middle of an elliptical deck, slightly convex, and heavily mailed with
ribs of steel. These vessels were fitted with electric engines of
extraordinary power, and were capable of great speed. At their bows,
fully protected by the overhanging deck, was the machinery by which
their peculiar work was to be accomplished. The Syndicate intended to
confine itself to marine operations, and for the present it was
contented with these two classes of vessels.

The armament for each of the large vessels, as has been said before,
consisted of a single gun of long range, and the ammunition was
confined entirely to a new style of projectile, which had never yet
been used in warfare. The material and construction of this projectile
were known only to three members of the Syndicate, who had invented and
perfected it, and it was on account of their possession of this secret
that they had been invited to join that body.

This projectile was not, in the ordinary sense of the word, an
explosive, and was named by its inventors, "The Instantaneous Motor."
It was discharged from an ordinary cannon, but no gunpowder or other
explosive compound was used to propel it. The bomb possessed, in
itself the necessary power of propulsion, and the gun was used merely
to give it the proper direction.

These bombs were cylindrical in form, and pointed at the outer end.
They were filled with hundreds of small tubes, each radiating outward
from a central line. Those in the middle third of the bomb pointed
directly outward, while those in its front portion were inclined
forward at a slight angle, and those in the rear portion backward at
the same angle. One tube at the end of the bomb, and pointing directly
backward, furnished the motive power.

Each of these tubes could exert a force sufficient to move an ordinary
train of passenger cars one mile, and this power could be exerted
instantaneously, so that the difference in time in the starting of a
train at one end of the mile and its arrival at the other would not be
appreciable. The difference in concussionary fo