Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/178

166 thousands of tons of rock that were piled up on them, and so they met their death when the turmoil of battle had ceased, friend and foe lying side by side in their useless vessels.

Numbers of ships belonging to both sides were kept constantly employed in exploring the dark side of the moon to see what ambushes there might be lurking there. These wandered slowly through the darkness, cautiously flashing their searchlights hither and thither. But their endeavours led to nothing, for both nations equally disliked operating in those dark rocky regions, where, in searching for enemies, every ship was obliged to reveal its own presence.

And so the fighting went on; but even in the twenty-third century there were limits to human endurance. The gunners were utterly exhausted by hard work, the incessant detonations of the guns, and the fearful heat. Numbers fell down at their posts, and there was no one to replace