Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/125

Rh to hoist the United States ensign and the Union Jack of the Britannic Confederation on a conspicuous palm-tree. This signal produced no effect, the squadron still bearing farther away to the Southward. The groans and murmurings of the crowd grew louder, and against my better judgment I caught the infection of curiosity—the desire to know the best or the worst—and gave orders for one of the ships guns to be fired. As the echoes died away among the distant cliffs I perceived that they had not passed unheard by our visitors. The five vessels, now more distinct, checked their rapid course, wore round, and presently began to approach us in a direct line. Soon they had regained their lost ground, and ever as they approached the anxious desire of the populace to see them nearer gave place to a rising dread, lest we should have called down upon ourselves foes instead of friends, destruction in lieu of salvation.

And how they are scarcely four miles distant, well within the range of our heavy artillery; and as I watched their evolutions with my glass the dread uncertainty grew into a terrible conviction. There were no sailors on board this ghastly fleet: no kindly human