ONE AGAINST FIVE 301

Forty-five seconds pass—the time required to produce
this combination—and during those seconds it seemed
as though my heart had ceased to beat.

A terrible whistling sound rent the air. The three
shells, describing a very long curve, rose a hundred yards
in the air, and went beyond the cruiser.

Have they missed, then ? Miscarried ? No! The bombs,
came back on themselves like an Australian boomerang.

Almost instantly space was shaken, with violence com-
parable only to the explosion of a whole magazine of
dynamite or melinite.

Backcup is shaken to its base.

The cruiser has disappeared, rent to pieces, sunk to the
bottom—the Zalinski ball produces the same effect, but
the Roch Fulgurator multiplies it a hundredfold.

How the terrified pirates yell! They rush to the
extremity of the point, and Ker Karraje, Serko, and
Spade stand still, scarcely able to believe the evidence
of their senses !

As for Roch, he is there, his arms crossed, his eyes:
sparkling, his face radiant. I comprehend with horror
the inventor’s triumph in his double vengeance!

If the other vessels approach, the same fate as the
cruiser’s awaits them—inevitable destruction, under the
same circumstances, and they cannot prevent it!

Well! although my last hope must disappear with them,
let them fly, gain the ocean and abandon a useless attack !
The nations will agree upon some other means-of destroy-
ing the island.