CHAPTER XXXI.
A RUSSIAN RAID.
Mazanoff came to himself about ten minutes later, lying on one of theseats in the after saloon, and all that he saw when he first openedhis eyes was the white anxious face of Radna bending over him.
"What is the matter? What has happened? Where am I?" he asked, assoon as his tongue obeyed his will. His voice, although broken andunsteady, was almost as strong as usual, and Radna's face immediatelybrightened as she heard it. A smile soon chased away her anxiouslook, and she said cheerily--
"Ah, come! you're not killed after all. You are still on board the_Ariel_, and what has happened is this as far as I can see. In yourhurry to return the shot from the Russian flagship you fired yourguns at too close range, and the shock of the explosion stunned you.In fact, we thought for the moment you had blown the _Ariel_ up too,for she shook so that we all fell down; then her engines stopped, andshe almost fell into the water before they could be started again."
"Is she all right now? Where's the Russian fleet, and what happenedto the flagship? I must get on deck," exclaimed Mazanoff, sitting upon the seat. As he did so he put his hand to his head and said: "Ifeel a bit shaky still. What's that--brandy you've got there? Get mesome champagne, and put the brandy into it. I shall be all right whenI've had a good drink. Now I think of it, I wonder that explosiondidn't blow us to bits. You haven't told me what became of theflagship," he continued, as Radna came back with a small bottle ofchampagne and uncorked it.
"Well, the flagship is at the bottom of the German Ocean. WhenPetroff told me that you had fallen dead, as he said, on deck, I ranup in defiance of your orders and saw the battleship just going down.The shells had blown the middle of her right out, and a cloud ofsteam and smoke and fire was rising out of a great ragged space wherethe funnels had been. Before I got you down here she broke right intwo and went down."
"That serves that blackguard Prabylov right for saying we forged theTsar's letter, and firing on a flag of truce. Poor Volnow's dead, Isuppose?"
"Oh yes," replied Radna sadly. "He was shot almost to pieces by thevolley from the machine gun. The deck saloon is riddled with bullets,and the decks badly torn up, but fortunately the hull and propellersare almost uninjured. But come, drink this, then you can go up andsee for yourself."
So saying she handed him a tumbler of champagne well dashed withbrandy. He drank it down at a gulp, like the Russian that he was, andsaid as he put the glass down--
"That's better. I feel a new man. Now give me a kiss, _batiushka_,and I'll be off."
When he reached the deck he found the _Ariel_ ascending towards the_Ithuriel_, and about a mile astern of the Russian fleet, the vesselsof which were blazing away into the air with their machine guns, inthe hope of "bringing him down on the wing," as he afterwards put it.He could hear the bullets singing along underneath him; but the_Ariel_ was rising so fast, and going at such a speed through theair, that the moment the Russians got the range they lost it again,and so merely wasted their ammunition.
Neither the _Ithuriel_ nor the _Orion_ seemed to have taken any partin the battle so far, or to have done anything to avenge the attackmade upon the _Ariel_. Mazanoff wondered not a little at this, asboth Arnold and Tremayne must have seen the fate of the Russianflagship. As soon as he got within speaking distance of the_Ithuriel_, he sang out to Arnold, who was on the deck--
"I got in rather a tight place down there. That scoundrel fired uponus with the flag of truce flying, and when I gave him a couple ofshells in return I thought the end of the world was come."
"You fired at too close range, my friend. Those shells are suddendeath to anything within a hundred yards of them. Are you all well onboard? You've been knocked about a bit, I see."
"No; poor Volnow's dead. He was killed standing close beside me, andI wasn't touched, though the explosion of the shell knocked thesenses out of me completely. However, the machinery's all right, andI don't think the hull is hurt to speak of. But what are you doing? Ishould have thought you'd have blown half the fleet out of the waterby this time."
"No. We saw that you had amply avenged yourself, and the Master'sorders were not to do anything till you returned. You'd better comeon board and consult with him."
Mazanoff did so, and when he had told his story to Natas, the lattermystified him not a little by replying--
"I am glad that none of you are injured, though, of course, I'm sorrythat I sent Volnow to his death; but that is the fortune of war. Ifone of us fell into his master's hands his fate would be worse thanthat. You avenged the outrage promptly and effectively.
"I have decided not to injure the Russian fleet more than I can help.It has work to do which must not be interfered with. My only objectis to recover the _Lucifer_, if possible, and so we shall follow thefleet for the present across the North Sea on our way to therendezvous with the other vessels from Aeria which are to meet us onRockall Island, and wait our opportunity. Should the opportunity notcome before then, we must proceed to extremities, and destroy her andthe cruiser that has her on board.
"And do you think we shall get such an opportunity?"
"I don't know," replied Natas. "But it is possible. I don't think itlikely that the fleet will have coal enough for a long cruise in theAtlantic, and therefore it is possible that they will make a descenton Aberdeen, which they are quite strong enough to capture if theylike, and coal up there. In that case it is extremely probable thatthey will make use of the air-ship to terrorise the town intosurrender, and as soon as she takes the air we must make a dash forher, and either take her or blow her to pieces."
Arnold expressed his entire agreement with this idea, and, as theevent proved, it was entirely correct. Instead of steeringnor'-nor'-west, as they would have done had they intended to go roundthe Shetland Islands, or north-west, had they chosen the coursebetween the Orkneys and the Shetlands, the Russian vessels kept a duewesterly course during the rest of the day, and this course couldonly take them to the Scotch coast near Aberdeen.
The distance from where they were was a little under five hundredmiles, and at their present rate of steaming they would reachAberdeen about four o'clock on the following afternoon. The air-shipsfollowed them at a height of four thousand feet during the rest ofthe day and until shortly before dawn on the following morning.
They then put on speed, took a wide sweep to the northward, andreturned southward over Banffshire, and passing Aberdeen to the west,found a secluded resting-place on the northern spur of theKincardineshire Hills, about five miles to the southward of theGranite City.
Here the repairs which were needed by the _Ariel_ were at once takenin hand by her own crew and that of the _Ithuriel_, while the _Orion_was sent out to sea again to keep a sharp look-out for the Russianfleet, which she would sight long before she herself became visible,and then to watch the movements of the Russians from as great adistance as possible until it was time to make the counter-attack.
As Aberdeen was then one of the coaling depots for the North SeaSquadron, it was defended by two battleships, the _Ascalon_ and the_Menelaus_, three powerful coast-defence vessels, the _Thunderer_,the _Cyclops_, and the _Pluto_, six cruisers, and twelvetorpedo-boats. The shore defences consisted of a fort on the northbank at the mouth of the Dee, mounting ten heavy guns, and theGirdleness fort, mounting twenty-four 9-inch twenty-five ton guns, inconnection with which was a station for working navigable torpedoesof the Brennan type, which had been considerably improved during thelast ten years.
Shortly after two o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th the _Orion_returned to her consorts with the news that the Russian fleet wasforty miles off the land, heading straight for Aberdeen, and thatthere were no other warships in sight as far as could be seen to thesouthward. From this fact it was concluded that the Russians hadescaped the notice of the North Sea Squadron, and so would only havethe force defending Aberdeen to reckon with.
Even had they not possessed the air-ship, this force was so farinferior to their own that there would be li
ttle chance ofsuccessfully defending the town against them. They had elevenbattleships, twenty-five cruisers, eight of which were very large andheavily armed, and forty torpedo-boats, to pit against the littleBritish force and the two forts.
But given the assistance of the _Lucifer_, and the town practicallylay at their mercy. They evidently feared no serious opposition intheir raid, for, without even waiting for nightfall, they came on atfull speed, darkening the sky with their smoke, the battleships inthe centre, a dozen cruisers on either side of them, and one largecruiser about a mile ahead of their centre.
When the captain of the _Ascalon_, who was in command of the port,saw the overwhelming force of the hostile fleet, he at once came tothe conclusion that it would be madness for him to attempt to put tosea with his eleven ships and six torpedo-boats. The utmost that hecould do was to remain inshore and assist the forts to keep theRussians at bay, if possible, until the assistance, which had alreadybeen telegraphed for to Dundee and the Firth of Forth, where the bulkof the North Sea Squadron was then stationed, could come to his aid.
Five miles off the land the Russian fleet stopped, and the _Lucifer_rose from the deck of the big cruiser and stationed herself about amile to seaward of the mouth of the river at an elevation of threethousand feet. Then a torpedo-boat flying a flag of truce shot outfrom the Russian line and ran to within a mile of the shore.
The Commodore of the port sent out one of his torpedo-boats to meether, and this craft brought back a summons to surrender the port fortwelve hours, and permit six of the Russian cruisers to fill up withcoal. The alternative would be bombardment of the town by the fleetand the air-ship, which alone, as the Russians said, held the fortand the ships at its mercy.
To this demand the British Commodore sent back a flat refusal, anddefiance to the Russian Commander to do his worst.
Where the _Ithuriel_ and her consorts were lying the hills betweenthem and the sea completely screened them from the observation ofthose on board the _Lucifer_. Arnold and Tremayne had climbed to thetop of a hill above their ships, and watched the movements of theRussians through their glasses. As soon as they saw the _Lucifer_rise into the air they returned to the _Ithuriel_ to form their plansfor their share in the conflict that they saw impending.
"I'm afraid we can't do much until it gets a good deal darker than itis now," said Arnold, in reply to a question from Natas as to hisview of the situation. "If we take the air now the _Lucifer_ will seeus; and we must remember that she is armed with the same weapons aswe have, and a shot from one of her guns would settle any of us thatit struck. Even if we hit her first we should destroy her, and wecould have done that easily yesterday.
"It has felt very like thunder all day, and I see there are some veryblack-looking clouds rolling up there over the hills to thesouth-west. My advice is to wait for those. I'm afraid we can't doanything to save the town under the circumstances, but in this stateof the atmosphere a heavy bombardment is practically certain to bringon a severe thunderstorm, and to fetch those clouds up at the doublequick.
"I don't for a moment think that the British will surrender, big andall as the Russian force is, and as they have never seen the effectsof our shells they won't fear the _Lucifer_ much until she commencesoperations, and then it will be too late. Listen! They've begun.There goes the first gun!"
A deep, dull boom came rolling up the hills from the sea as he spoke,and was almost immediately followed by a rapid series of similarreports, which quickly deepened into a continuous roar. Every one whocould be spared from the air-ship at once ran up to the top of thehill to watch the progress of the fight. The Russian fleet hadadvanced to within three miles of the land, and had opened a furiouscannonade on the British ships and the forts, which were manfullyreplying to it with every available gun.
By the time the watchers on the hill had focussed their glasses onthe scene, the _Lucifer_ discharged her first shell on the fort onGirdleness. They saw the blaze of the explosion gleam through thesmoke that already hung thick over the low building. Another andanother followed in quick succession, and the firing from the fortceased. The smoke drifted slowly away, and disclosed a heap ofshapeless ruins.
"That is horrible work, isn't it?" said Arnold to Tremayne throughhis clenched teeth. "Anywhere but on British ground would not be sobad, but the sight of that makes my blood boil. I would give my earsto take our ships into the air, and smash up that Russian fleet as wedid the French Squadron in the Atlantic."
"There spoke the true Briton, Captain Arnold," said Natasha, who wasstanding beside him under a clump of trees. "Yes, I can quiteunderstand how you feel watching a scene like that, for country iscountry after all. Even my half-English blood is pretty near boilingpoint; and though I wouldn't give my ears, I would give a good dealto go with you and do as you say.
"But you may rest assured that the Master's way is the best, and willprove the shortest road to the universal peace which can only comethrough universal war. Courage, my friend, and patience! There willbe a heavy reckoning to pay for this sort of thing one day, and thatbefore very long."
"Ha!" exclaimed Tremayne. "There goes the other fort. I suppose itwill be the turn of the ships next. What a frightful scene! Twentyminutes ago it was as peaceful as these hills, and look at it now."
The second fort had been destroyed as rapidly as the first, and thecessation of the fire of both had made a very perceptible differencein the cannonade, though the great guns of the Russian fleet stillroared continuously and poured a hurricane of shot and shell into themouth of the river across which the British ships were drawn, keepingup the unequal conflict like so many bull-dogs at bay.
Over them and the river hung a dense pall of bluish-white smoke,through which the _Lucifer_ sent projectile after projectile in theattempt to sink the British ironclads. As those on board her couldonly judge by the flash of the guns, the aim was very imperfect, andseveral projectiles were wasted, falling into the sea and explodingthere, throwing up mountains of water, but not doing any furtherdamage. At length a brilliant green flash shot up through the smokeclouds over the river mouth.
"He's hit one of the ships at last!" exclaimed Tremayne, as he sawthe flash. "It'll soon be all up with poor old Aberdeen."
"I don't think so," exclaimed Arnold. "At any rate the _Lucifer_won't do much more harm. There comes the storm at last! Back to theships all of you at once, it's time to go aloft!"
As he spoke a brilliant flash of lightning split the inky cloudswhich had now risen high over the western hills, and a deep roll ofthunder came echoing up the valleys as if in answer to the roar ofthe cannonade on the sea. The moment every one was on board, Arnoldgave the signal to ascend. As soon as the fan-wheels had raised thema hundred feet from the ground he gave the signal for full speedahead, and the three air-ships swept upwards to the west as though tomeet the coming storm.