Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/128

 CHAPTER IX

the hundred and twentieth hour of the battle struck, the Anglo-Saxons were virtually defeated, for they were hopelessly outnumbered. All around lay fragments of mighty vessels, masses of machinery, and thousands of human bodies torn and mangled in the most horrible manner. Masses of wreckage were drifting about, sometimes collecting in vast piles that rotated slowly about the centre of gravity. Here and there lay some maimed monster, unable to move, but still firing its uninjured guns. Columns of smoke came rolling along from the regions where the battle was still raging, and then vanished again into the distance. Sometimes a stray shell or