302 FOR THE FLAG

They may surround Backcup with a girdle of ships
which the pirates cannot break through, and they will die
of hunger in their cavern like wild beasts in their lair!

But, do I not know it well? ships of war will never re-
treat although they are going to certain destruction.
These ships of war will advance, one after the other,
even though it be only to be swallowed up in the depths
of the ocean.

Now several signals are being exchanged between them.
Almost immediately the horizon is darkened by thick
smoke which is carried by the wind from the north-west,
and the four vessels advance.

One is leaving the others behind, being in haste to get
within range so as to bring her big guns into action.
At all risks I come out of my hole, to await a second
catastrophe, without hope of preventing it.

This ship which grows on my vision is a cruiser of about
the same tonnage as the preceding vessel. It displays
no flag, and I cannot tell to what nation it belongs. It
is increasing its speed in order to invade the danger zone
before the new shells are discharged. But how is the ship
to escape their destructive power, since they can strike her
by a reverse movement?

Serk6 has drawn near Roch, he is in front of the second
apparatus at the moment when the ship passes over the
spot where the first cruiser lies engulfed, where it is
about to be swallowed up in its turn.

Nothing troubled the profound silence of space, though
some puffs of wind were coming from the sea.