Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/186

174 the fragments of rock blown about by the explosions. Night after night they saw the lines of fire moving hither and thither, and sometimes melting away altogether before the storms of shot. Then, in the dark space round the moon, were the glimmering lights from the main body, that was only waiting for the third line to break down before it advanced to the earth. Agonizing messages were continually being flashed down to the Bureau of War, stating that the gallant defenders could not hold out much longer.

It was now that the earth itself, and even London, had its sanctity violated for the first time by the horrors of war. Stray shot and shells came whistling down through the atmosphere, often exploding high up, but sometimes dropping on to buildings, crowded streets, or the solitary mountains and valleys of the country. Often, too, entire wrecks and huge fragments of metal came rushing down without the least warning, destroying great buildings and killing