Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/114

102 by the heat developed by the impact. Sometimes the ram stuck in the middle of a ship, and the two were locked together and kept on firing at one another until one or both were completely wrecked. Sometimes a ship would dash at another, but when only a little way off, its victim poured out sheets of flame and the attacking vessel was literally beaten back by the force of the shot.

But still the battle continued for hour after hour without either party gaining any advantage. The ships often lay within a few yards of one another exchanging a continual tempest of shot and shell. Flames dashed from ship to ship and leapt back again until the intervening space was one sea of fire. The hulls were scorched and blistered by the heat, and the anti-gravitation apparatus was completely melted.

After the battle had lasted for thirty hours, the ships of friend and foe were mixed together in inextricable confusion.