Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/98

86 in London with one fell swoop? These and innumerable other surmises of the same kind tormented the minds of the commanders until they were worn with anxiety.

But on the eighty-fifth day after the departure from Neptune, the waves that are set up in the ether by solid matter came rolling through space and passed through the fleet. The needles vibrated backwards and forwards for some time and then began to rotate with great velocity. A cheer went through every ship when the news was announced. The engines were immediately reversed, and orders given to make everything ready for an engagement. The decks of every vessel soon became a scene of bustle and activity. Men were hurrying hither and thither to their posts, and the air was filled with the clanging of bells and the rumbling of machinery. The guns were pushed out and loaded, and the torpedo-tubes were filled with their deadly pro-