very plainly indeed that
the effect it had desired to produce had not been produced. Unless the
enemy could be made to understand that any fort or ships within ten
miles of one of the Syndicate's cannon could be instantaneously
dissipated in the shape of fine dust, this war could not be carried on
upon the principles adopted, and therefore might as well pass out of
the hands of the Syndicate.

Day by day and night by night the state of affairs was anxiously
considered at the office of the Syndicate in New York. A new and
important undertaking was determined upon, and on the success of this
the hopes of the Syndicate now depended.

During the rapid and vigorous preparations which the Syndicate were now
making for their new venture, several events of interest occurred.

Two of the largest Atlantic mail steamers, carrying infantry and
artillery troops, and conveyed by two swift and powerful men-of-war,
arrived off the coast of Canada, considerably to the north of the
blockaded city. The departure and probable time of arrival of these
vessels had been telegraphed to the Syndicate, through one of the
continental cables, and a repeller with two crabs had been for some
days waiting for them. The English vessels had taken a high northern
course, hoping they might enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence without
subjecting themselves to injury from the enemy's crabs, it not being
considered probable that there were enough of these vessels to patrol
the entire coast. But although the crabs were few in number, the
Syndicate was able to place them where they would be of most use; and
when the English vessels arrived off the northern entrance to the gulf,
they found their enemies there.

However strong might be the incredulity of the enemy regarding the
powers of a repeller to bombard a city, the Syndicate felt sure there
would be no present invasion of the United States from Canada; but it
wished to convince the British Government that troops and munitions of
war could not be safely transported across the Atlantic. On the other
hand, the Syndicate very much objected to undertaking the imprisonment
and sustenance of a large body of soldiers. Orders were therefore
given to the officer in charge of the repeller not to molest the two
transports, but to remove the rudders and extract the screws of the two
war-vessels, leaving them to be towed into port by the troop-ships.

This duty was performed by the crabs, while the British vesse