he sea and exploding
there, throwing up mountains of water, but not doing any further
damage. At length a brilliant green flash shot up through the smoke
clouds over the river mouth.

"He's hit one of the ships at last!" exclaimed Tremayne, as he saw
the flash. "It'll soon be all up with poor old Aberdeen."

"I don't think so," exclaimed Arnold. "At any rate the _Lucifer_
won't do much more harm. There comes the storm at last! Back to the
ships all of you at once, it's time to go aloft!"

As he spoke a brilliant flash of lightning split the inky clouds
which had now risen high over the western hills, and a deep roll of
thunder came echoing up the valleys as if in answer to the roar of
the cannonade on the sea. The moment every one was on board, Arnold
gave the signal to ascend. As soon as the fan-wheels had raised them
a hundred feet from the ground he gave the signal for full speed
ahead, and the three air-ships swept upwards to the west as though to
meet the coming storm.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE END OF THE CHASE.

The flight of the _Ithuriel_ and her consorts was so graduated, that
as they rose to the level of the storm-cloud they missed it and
passed diagonally beyond it at a sufficient distance to avoid
disturbing the electrical balance between it and the earth. The
object of doing so was not so much to escape a discharge of
electricity, since all the vital parts of the machinery and the
power-cylinders were carefully insulated, but rather in order not to
provoke a lightning flash which might have revealed their rapid
passage to the occupants of the _Lucifer_.

As it was, they swept upwards and westward at such a speed that they
had gained the cover of the thunder-cloud, and placed a considerable
area of it between themselves and the town, long before the storm
broke over Aberdeen, and so they were provided with ample shelter
under, or rather over, which they were to make their attack on the
_Lucifer_.

They waited until the clouds coming up from the westward joined those
which had begun to gather thick and black and threatening over the
Russian fleet soon after the tremendous cannonade had begun. The
shock of the meeting of the two cloud-squadrons formed a fitting
counterpart to the drama of death and destruction that was being
played on land and sea.

The brilliant sunshine of the midsummer afternoon was suddenly
obscured by a darkness born of smoke and cloud like that of a
midwinter night. The