Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/158

146 Meanwhile, fighting was continued with undiminished vigour in the space outside. The guns kept on belching forth flames and smoke day and night without intermission. Hundreds of ships were destroyed, but more kept on coming up from the reserves to take their places. There was much manœuvring in Neptune's shadow. Whole lines of battleships lay calmly waiting in the darkness with their lights extinguished, and then they would paralyze with their radiant forces any unwary ships that came within their reach, and tear them to pieces bit by bit. But the Anglo-Saxons were terribly outnumbered again; although fighting bravely, they were slowly but surely getting the worst of the fight.

The advance fleet of the Sirians had now proceeded as far as Jupiter. Here it was met by an Anglo-Saxon fleet, and after several desultory combats a terrible battle commenced. For days the ships chased one another round the planet and between the moons, throwing down a con-