twelve
torpedo-boats. The shore defences consisted of a fort on the north
bank at the mouth of the Dee, mounting ten heavy guns, and the
Girdleness fort, mounting twenty-four 9-inch twenty-five ton guns, in
connection with which was a station for working navigable torpedoes
of the Brennan type, which had been considerably improved during the
last ten years.

Shortly after two o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th the _Orion_
returned to her consorts with the news that the Russian fleet was
forty miles off the land, heading straight for Aberdeen, and that
there were no other warships in sight as far as could be seen to the
southward. From this fact it was concluded that the Russians had
escaped the notice of the North Sea Squadron, and so would only have
the force defending Aberdeen to reckon with.

Even had they not possessed the air-ship, this force was so far
inferior to their own that there would be little chance of
successfully defending the town against them. They had eleven
battleships, twenty-five cruisers, eight of which were very large and
heavily armed, and forty torpedo-boats, to pit against the little
British force and the two forts.

But given the assistance of the _Lucifer_, and the town practically
lay at their mercy. They evidently feared no serious opposition in
their raid, for, without even waiting for nightfall, they came on at
full speed, darkening the sky with their smoke, the battleships in
the centre, a dozen cruisers on either side of them, and one large
cruiser about a mile ahead of their centre.

When the captain of the _Ascalon_, who was in command of the port,
saw the overwhelming force of the hostile fleet, he at once came to
the conclusion that it would be madness for him to attempt to put to
sea with his eleven ships and six torpedo-boats. The utmost that he
could do was to remain inshore and assist the forts to keep the
Russians at bay, if possible, until the assistance, which had already
been telegraphed for to Dundee and the Firth of Forth, where the bulk
of the North Sea Squadron was then stationed, could come to his aid.

Five miles off the land the Russian fleet stopped, and the _Lucifer_
rose from the deck of the big cruiser and stationed herself about a
mile to seaward of the mouth of the river at an elevation of three
thousand feet. Then a torpedo-boat flying a flag of truce shot out
from the Russian line and ran to within a mile of the shore.

The Commodore of the port sen