hin about half a mile of
the two cruisers, which were now manoeuvring round each other at a
distance of about a thousand yards, blazing away without cessation,
and waiting for some lucky shot to partially disable one or the
other, and so give an opportunity for boarding, or ramming.

In the old days, when France and Britain had last grappled in the
struggle for the mastery of the sea, the two ships would have been
laid alongside each other long before this. But that was not to be
thought of while those terrible machine guns were able to rain their
hail of death down from the tops, and the quick-firing cannon were
hurling their thirty shots a minute across the intervening space of
water.

The French cruiser had so far taken no notice of the sudden
annihilation of her second torpedo-boat by the air-ship, but as soon
as the latter made her way astern of her she seemed to scent
mischief, and turned one of her three-barrelled Nordenfeldts on to
her. The shots soon came singing about the _Ithuriel_ in somewhat
unpleasant proximity, and Arnold said--

"Monsieur seems to take us for a natural enemy, and if he wants fight
he shall have it. If I don't disable him with this shot I'll sink him
with the next."

So saying he trained one of the broadside guns on the stern of the
French cruiser, and at the right moment pressed the button. The shell
bored its way through the air and down into the water until it struck
and exploded against the submerged rudder.

A huge column of foam rose up under the cruiser's stern; half lifted
out of the water, she plunged forward with a mighty lurch, burying
her forecastle in the green water, and then she righted and lay
helpless upon the sea, deprived of the power of motion and steering,
and with the useless steam roaring in great clouds from her pipes. A
moment later she began to settle by the stern, showing that her after
plates had been badly injured, if not torn away by the explosion.

Meanwhile the _Ithuriel_ had shot away out of range until the two
cruisers looked like little toy-ships spitting fire at each other,
and Arnold said to Tremayne, who was with him in the wheel-house--

"I think that has settled her, as far as any more real fighting is
concerned. Look! She can't stand that sort of thing very long."

He handed Tremayne the glasses as he spoke. The French cruiser was
lying motionless upon the water, with her after compartments full,
and very much down by the stern. She was s