Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/322

 The flag was scarcely at the peak, when above the throb and rumble of the machinery, Madden's ear caught a queer droning noise, and a moment later came a deafening crash about two hundred yards to the starboard. The water beneath it was beaten to a foam, while another balloon of smoke slowly expanded and thinned in the breathless air. A long time after the bursting of the shell, Leonard heard the grumble of the cannon that had fired it.“

“Now, lads,” shouted Caradoc, “go below and bring up some rockets!”

The men set off with a will, but Madden viewed the situation without any thrill of patriotism to gild a death under the union jack. The cruisers were slowly coming into full view. Through his glasses he could now see their turrets and the black gun ports.

“What's the idea, Smith? You can't fight with rockets?”

“Some English vessel may see us,” answered Caradoc shortly.

Madden was still more astonished. “What good would that do?” he called above the wind. “She'd be captured, too.”