Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/169

Rh to the other planets, but no one was aware of the fate of the two contending fleets. In fact, no one ever knew what had happened to them; it was nothing in those days for whole fleets to vanish in a single battle without leaving a vessel to tell the tale.

Fighting still went on in the regions between Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars; but the Anglo-Saxons nearly always got the worst of it, they were so heavily outnumbered. The admirals often gazed with despair upon the distant earth shining like a great star, as they recognised their inability to maintain the second line of defence much longer. Many a brave commander standing in his ship riddled by shot sighed for some means to destroy the daring ships that were collecting nearer and nearer about the earth, which he was bound to defend. They ought to have been at Kairet by this time had there been enough ships, and here they were being daily driven back nearer to London. But