icate's message, the commandant feared that the
enemy might throw an ordinary shell into the unfinished works, and he
sent a boat across the bay to order away any workmen or others who
might be lingering about the place.

A little after two o'clock P.M., an instantaneous motor-bomb was
discharged from Repeller No. 1 into Fort Pilcher. It was set to act
five seconds after impact with the object aimed at. It struck in a
central portion of the unfinished fort, and having described a high
curve in the air, descended not only with its own motive power, but
with the force of gravitation, and penetrated deep into the earth.

Five seconds later a vast brown cloud appeared on the Fort Pilcher
promontory. This cloud was nearly spherical in form, with an apparent
diameter of about a thousand yards. At the same instant a shock
similar to that accompanying the first motor-bomb was felt in the city
and surrounding country; but this was not so severe as the other, for
the second bomb did not exert its force upon the underlying rocks of
the region as the first one had done.

The great brown cloud quickly began to lose its spherical form, part of
it descending heavily to the earth, and part floating away in vast
dust-clouds borne inland by the breeze, settling downward as they
moved, and depositing on land, water, ships, houses, domes, and trees
an almost impalpable powder.

When the cloud had cleared away there were no fortifications, and the
bluff on which they had stood had disappeared. Part of this bluff had
floated away on the wind, and part of it lay piled in great heaps of
sand on the spot where its rocks were to have upheld a fort.

The effect of the motor-bomb was fully observed with glasses from the
various fortifications of the port, and from many points of the city
and harbour; and those familiar with the effects of explosives were not
long in making up their minds what had happened. They felt sure that a
mine had been sprung beneath Fort Pilcher; and they were now equally
confident that in the morning a torpedo of novel and terrible power had
been exploded in the harbour. They now disbelieved in the earthquake,
and treated with contempt the pretence that shots had been fired from
the Syndicate's vessel. This was merely a trick of the enemy. It was
not even likely that the mine or the torpedo had been operated from the
ship. These were, in all probability, under the control of
confederates on shore, and had be