e merely killed, they will be annihilated."

"Horrible!" exclaimed Natasha, with a shudder. "I think you may do
the rest of the shooting. The effects of that shot will last me for
some time. Look, there's another of them coming up!"

The words were hardly out of her mouth before Arnold had crossed to
the other side of the deck and sped another missile on its errand of
destruction with almost exactly the same result as before. This
second shot, as it was afterwards found, threw the Russian squadron
into complete panic.

The terrific suddenness with which the two aerostats had been
destroyed convinced those in command of the others that there was a
large force of air-ships above the clouds ready to destroy them one
by one as they ascended. Arnold waited for a few minutes, and then,
seeing that no others cared to risk the fate that had overwhelmed the
first two that had sought to cross the cloud-zone, sank rapidly
through it, and then stopped again.

He found himself about six hundred feet above the rest of the
squadron. The _Ithuriel_ coming thus suddenly into view, her eight
guns pointing in all directions, and her searchlight flashing hither
and thither as though seeking new victims, completed the
demoralisation of the Russians. For all they knew there were still
more air-ships above the clouds. Even this one could not be passed
while those mysterious guns of unknown range and infallible aim were
sweeping the sky, ready to hurl their silent lightnings in every
direction.

Ascend they dare not. To descend was to be destroyed in detail as
they lay helpless upon the earth. There was only one chance of
escape, and that was to scatter. The commander of the squadron at
once signalled for this to be done, and the aerostats headed away to
all points of the compass. But here they had reckoned without the
incomparable speed of their assailants.

Before they had moved a hundred yards from their common centre the
_Ariel_ and the _Orion_ headed away in different directions, and in
an inconceivably short space of time had described a complete circle
round them, and then another and another, narrowing each circle that
they made. One of the aerostats, watching its opportunity, put on
full speed and tried to get outside the narrowing zone. She had
almost succeeded, when the _Orion_ swerved outwards and dashed at her
with the ram.

In ten seconds she was overtaken. The keen steel prow of the
air-ship, driven at more than a hund