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342 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
A BATTLE BETWEEN THE -KINGFISHER AND THE HAWK'
hover the Zeppelins. To the enemy up
there, black as the night itself, the position
and number of our ships is known
clearly.
Our wireless men intercept strange
messages in code. We do not know
from whence they are coming. Voices
somewhere in the night are whispering
unintelligible, sinister things.
In the darkest hours of the early
morning the attack comes. From the
heavens there falls upon our astounded
fleet a deluge of green and red signal
lights. The Zeppelins are dropping
rockets to tell the enemy destroyers just
where our fleet is. Taking us by surprise,
the destroyers close in, speeding
thirty miles an hour and launching their
torpedoes. Our five-inch guns whip the
water. There is the yelp of explosions.
Enemy's destroyers in twos and threes,
split open, their inwards burning, hissing
like living things in anguish, as
the ocean pours in engulfing them. But
the boom of heavy explosions rolls
through the night. Some of their torpedoes
have hit the mark. Three of our
great battleships have their insides blown
open. They glare; then scream with
escaping steam. They hunch and splash
monstrously under the closing seas.
At daybreak we find fragments' from
ten of the enemy's destroyers. But they
have done their work. The enemy
Admiral has judged it worth the price,
for three of our dreadnaughts are down.
And somewhere, high in the sky, out of
range of our strongest anti-aircraft
guns, the Zeppelins are sailing. Through
them, and them alone, was it possible to
discover the American fle'et, to find its
exact location without betraying their
own presence. Monstrous vultures,
soaring high in the heaven, they peered
down upon our ships advising their own
fleet by wireless of our every movement.
Twice during the night we have tried
to drive them off with our seaplanes but
we have not enough. What chance have
those few little planes against six battleships
in the sky, each sweeping the air
with the fire from nine machine guns;
each capable of rising quicker on
vertical than its little foe?
Out of such a situation would gn
perhaps, the greatest menace to IS