y saw, a
grey shape skimming through the air from the north-east towards Bolton.
It could not be a British airship, for the fleet had already scattered,
as the shock of the coming explosion would certainly have caused them to
smash up like so many shells. It was John Castellan's _Flying Fish_ come
to fulfil the letter of his threat, even at this supreme moment of the
world's fate.

Again Lennard spoke.

"Twenty seconds."

And then he began to count.
"Nine--eight--seven--six--five--four--three--two--Now!"

The two fingers went down at the same instant and completed the
circuits. The next, the central fires of the earth seemed to have burst
loose. A roar such as had never deafened human ears before thundered
from earth to heaven, and a vast column of pale flame leapt up with a
concussion which seemed to shake the foundations of the world. Then in
the midst of the column of flame there came a brighter flash, a
momentary blaze of green-blue flame flashing out for a moment and
vanishing.

"That was John's ship," said Norah. "God forgive him!"

"He will," said Westerham, taking her hand. "He was wrong-headed on that
particular subject, but he was a brave man, and a genius. I don't think
there's any doubt about that."

"It's good of you to say so," said Norah. "Poor John! With all his
learning and genius to come to that--"

"We all have to get there some time, Norah, and after all, whether he's
right or wrong, a man can't die better than for what he believes to be
the truth and the right. We may think him mistaken, he thought he was
right, and he has proved it. God rest his soul!"

"Amen!" said Norah, and she leant over again and kissed him on the
brow.

Then came ten seconds more of mute and agonised suspense, and men's
fingers tightened their grip on the revolvers. Then the upturned
straining eyes looked upon such a sight as human eyes will never see
again save perchance those which, in the fulness of time, may look upon
the awful pageantry of the Last Day.

High up in the air there was a shrill screaming sound which seemed
something like an echo of the roar of the great gun. Something like a
white flash of light darted upwards straight to the heart of the
descending Invader. Then the whole heavens were illumined by a blinding
glare. The nucleus of the comet seemed to throw out long rays of
many-coloured light. A moment later it had burst into myriads of faintly
gleaming atoms.

The watching millions on ear