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156 from the Olympia boomed threateningly, sending a shot to the starboard of the flying craft.

All expected to see her heave to, but she kept on, and now a dense mass of clouds covered the moon and all became dark once more.

The clouds were as long as they were heavy, and it took them all of twenty minutes to drift over the face of the moon and let that orb shine out again. How impatiently officers and men waited, my readers can well imagine.

"She's gone!" Such was the cry which rang from a hundred throats, and it was true. The strange vessel had disappeared from view.

In a few minutes more the moon was again hidden, and further pursuit of the flying one was out of the question.

Everybody was disappointed, and none more so than Bob Roundstock.

"I'm just achin' to get a shot at 'em," he observed. "Oh, if only that ship had turned to engage us!"

"I reckon those on board saw we were six to one and didn't dare to risk it," said Dan. "Now if we had been one to one"

"Those Dons would have run anyway!" finished Roundstock. He was a thorough Yankee tar and felt certain that nothing could stand up against our ships and guns. And he was more than half right, as later events proved.