again, and again the three flashes of
blue-green flame broke out on the Frenchman's decks.

"Good enough," said Erskine, taking the transmitter down from the hooks
again. "Now, Mr Lennard, just come for'ard and watch."

Lennard crept up beside him and took the glasses.

"Down guns--full speed ahead--going to ram," said Erskine, quietly, into
the telephone.

To his utter astonishment, Lennard saw the three big guns sink down
under the deck and the steel hoods move forward and cover the
emplacements. The floor of the conning-tower jumped under his feet again
and the huge shape of the French cruiser seemed to rush towards him.
There was a roar of artillery, a thunder of 6.4 guns, a crash of
bursting shells, a shudder and a shock, and the fifty-ton ram of the
_Ithuriel_ hit her forward of the conning-tower and went through the
two-inch armour belt as a knife would go through a piece of paper. The
big cruiser stopped as an animal on land does, struck by a bullet in its
vitals, or a whale when the lance is driven home. Half her officers and
men were lying about the decks asphyxiated by Lennard's shells. The
after barbette swung round, and at the same moment, or perhaps half a
minute before, Erskine touched two other buttons in rapid succession.
The _Dupleix_ lurched down on the starboard side, the two big guns went
off and hit the water. Erskine touched another button, and the
_Ithuriel_ ran back from her victim. A minute later the French cruiser
heeled over and sank.

"Good God, how did you do that?" said Lennard, looking round at him with
eyes rather more wide open than usual.

"That's the effect of the suction screw," replied Erskine. "I got the
idea from the Russian ice-breaker, the _Yermack_. The old idea was just
main strength and stupidity, charge the ice and break through if you
could. The better idea was to suck the water away from under the ice and
go over it--that's what we've done. I rammed that chap, pulled the water
away from under him, and, of course, he's gone down."

He gave the wheel a quarter-turn to starboard, took down the transmitter
and said: "Full speed again--in two minutes, three quarters and then
half."

"But surely," exclaimed Lennard, "you can do something to help those
poor fellows. Are you going to leave them all to drown?"

"I have no orders, except to sink and destroy," replied Erskine between
his teeth. "You must remember that this is a war of one country against
a continent, and