Great War Syndicate
Page 6
the submerged net, and made for theharbour. When the approach of this flag-of-truce was perceived fromthe fort nearest the mouth of the harbour, it occasioned much surmise.Had the earthquake brought these Syndicate knaves to their senses? Orwere they about to make further absurd and outrageous demands? Someirate officers were of the opinion that enemies like these should beconsidered no better than pirates, and that their flag-of-truce shouldbe fired upon. But the commandant of the fort paid no attention tosuch counsels, and sent a detachment with a white flag down to thebeach to meet the approaching boat and learn its errand.
The men in the boat had nothing to do but to deliver a letter from theDirector-in-chief to the commandant of the fort, and then row backagain. No answer was required.
When the commandant read the brief note, he made no remark. In fact,he could think of no appropriate remark to make. The missive simplyinformed him that at ten o'clock and eighteen minutes A. M., of thatday, the first bomb from the marine forces of the Syndicate had beendischarged into the waters of the harbour. At, or about, two o'clockP.M., the second bomb would be discharged at Fort Pilcher. That wasall.
What this extraordinary message meant could not be imagined by anyofficer of the garrison. If the people on board the ships were takingadvantage of the earthquake, and supposed that they could induceBritish soldiers to believe that it had been caused by one of theirbombs, then were they idiots indeed. They would fire their second shotat Fort Pilcher! This was impossible, for they had not yet fired theirfirst shot. These Syndicate people were evidently very tricky, and thedefenders of the port must therefore be very cautious.
Fort Pilcher was a very large and unfinished fortification, on a bluffon the opposite side of the harbour. Work had been discontinued on itas soon as the Syndicate's vessels had appeared off the port, for itwas not desired to expose the builders and workmen to a possiblebombardment. The place was now, therefore, almost deserted; but afterthe receipt of the Syndicate's message, the commandant feared that theenemy might throw an ordinary shell into the unfinished works, and hesent a boat across the bay to order away any workmen or others whomight be lingering about the place.
A little after two o'clock P.M., an instantaneous motor-bomb wasdischarged from Repeller No. 1 into Fort Pilcher. It was set to actfive seconds after impact with the object aimed at. It struck in acentral portion of the unfinished fort, and having described a highcurve in the air, descended not only with its own motive power, butwith the force of gravitation, and penetrated deep into the earth.
Five seconds later a vast brown cloud appeared on the Fort Pilcherpromontory. This cloud was nearly spherical in form, with an apparentdiameter of about a thousand yards. At the same instant a shocksimilar to that accompanying the first motor-bomb was felt in the cityand surrounding country; but this was not so severe as the other, forthe second bomb did not exert its force upon the underlying rocks ofthe region as the first one had done.
The great brown cloud quickly began to lose its spherical form, part ofit descending heavily to the earth, and part floating away in vastdust-clouds borne inland by the breeze, settling downward as theymoved, and depositing on land, water, ships, houses, domes, and treesan almost impalpable powder.
When the cloud had cleared away there were no fortifications, and thebluff on which they had stood had disappeared. Part of this bluff hadfloated away on the wind, and part of it lay piled in great heaps ofsand on the spot where its rocks were to have upheld a fort.
The effect of the motor-bomb was fully observed with glasses from thevarious fortifications of the port, and from many points of the cityand harbour; and those familiar with the effects of explosives were notlong in making up their minds what had happened. They felt sure that amine had been sprung beneath Fort Pilcher; and they were now equallyconfident that in the morning a torpedo of novel and terrible power hadbeen exploded in the harbour. They now disbelieved in the earthquake,and treated with contempt the pretence that shots had been fired fromthe Syndicate's vessel. This was merely a trick of the enemy. It wasnot even likely that the mine or the torpedo had been operated from theship. These were, in all probability, under the control ofconfederates on shore, and had been exploded at times agreed uponbeforehand. All this was perfectly plain to the military authorities.
But the people of the city derived no comfort from the announcement ofthese conclusions. For all that anybody knew the whole city might beundermined, and at any moment might ascend in a cloud of minuteparticles. They felt that they were in a region of hidden traitors andbombs, and in consequence of this belief thousands of citizens lefttheir homes.
That afternoon a truce-boat again went out from Repeller No. 1, androwed to the fort, where a letter to the commandant was delivered.This, like the other, demanded no answer, and the boat returned. Laterin the afternoon the two repellers, accompanied by the crabs, andleaving the steel net still anchored in its place, retired a few milesseaward, where they prepared to lay to for the night.
The letter brought by the truce-boat was read by the commandant,surrounded by his officers. It stated that in twenty-four hours fromtime of writing it, which would be at or about four o'clock on the nextafternoon, a bomb would be thrown into the garrisoned fort, under thecommand of the officer addressed. As this would result in the entiredestruction of the fortification, the commandant was earnestlycounselled to evacuate the fort before the hour specified.
Ordinarily the commandant of the fort was of a calm and unexcitabletemperament. During the astounding events of that day and the daybefore he had kept his head cool; his judgment, if not correct, was theresult of sober and earnest consideration. But now he lost his temper.The unparalleled effrontery and impertinence of this demand of theAmerican Syndicate was too much for his self-possession. He stormed inanger.
Here was the culmination of the knavish trickery of theseconscienceless pirates who had attacked the port. A torpedo had beenexploded in the harbour, an unfinished fort had been mined and blownup, and all this had been done to frighten him--a British soldier--incommand of a strong fort well garrisoned and fully supplied with allthe munitions of war. In the fear that his fort would be destroyed bya mystical bomb, he was expected to march to a place of safety with allhis forces. If this should be done it would not be long before thesecrafty fellows would occupy the fort, and with its great guns turnedinland, would hold the city at their mercy. There could be no greaterinsult to a soldier than to suppose that he could be gulled by a tricklike this.
No thought of actual danger entered the mind of the commandant. It hadbeen easy enough to sink a great torpedo in the harbour, and theunguarded bluffs of Fort Pilcher offered every opportunity to thescoundrels who may have worked at their mines through the nights ofseveral months. But a mine under the fort which he commanded was animpossibility; its guarded outposts prevented any such method ofattack. At a bomb, or a dozen, or a hundred of the Syndicate's bombshe snapped his fingers. He could throw bombs as well.
Nothing would please him better than that those ark-like ships in theoffing should come near enough for an artillery fight. A few tons ofsolid shot and shell dropped on top of them might be a very conclusiveanswer to their impudent demands.
The letter from the Syndicate, together with his own convictions on thesubject, were communicated by the commandant to the militaryauthorities of the port, and to the War Office of the Dominion. Thenews of what had happened that day had already been cabled across theAtlantic back to the United States, and all over the world; and theprofound impression created by it was intensified when it became knownwhat the Syndicate proposed to do the next day. Orders and advicesfrom the British Admiralty and War Office sped across the ocean, andthat night few of the leaders in government circles in England orCanada closed their eyes.
The opinions of the commandant of the fort were received with butlittle favour by the military and naval authorities. Greatpreparations were already ordered to repel and crush this mostaudacious attack upon the port, but in the
mean time it was highlydesirable that the utmost caution and prudence should be observed.Three men-of-war had already been disabled by the novel and destructivemachines of the enemy, and it had been ordered that for the present nomore vessels of the British navy be allowed to approach the crabs ofthe Syndicate.
Whether it was a mine or a bomb which had been used in the destructionof the unfinished works of Fort Pilcher, it would be impossible todetermine until an official survey had been made of the ruins; but, inany event, it would be wise and humane not to expose the garrison ofthe fort on the south side of the harbour to the danger which hadovertaken the works on the opposite shore. If, contrary to the opinionof the commandant, the garrisoned fort were really mined, the followingday would probably prove the fact. Until this point should bedetermined it would be highly judicious to temporarily evacuate thefort. This could not be followed by occupation of the works by theenemy, for all approaches, either by troops in boats or by