The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1889-04-05
The Great War Syndicate.
p FRANK r. STOCKTON.

Au;hor OF "nudder Grange" "Amos xii.
bright" "The Zee Ran OF Crn." ''The
Christmas Wreck" 1.-THE Lady ar the
Tiger" Tho Iato sIrs. Nar." THE
Hundredth Man." "The Casting Away
| of Mrs. Locks and sIrs. Aioshine." "rho
Dusantes." etc.
copyrighted by +. +. Collier. OF Golfers onoe
| a Week, and published by special arrangement
with him through tho American PrcoS Associa-
| ton All rights reserved.
Had the earthquake brought these syn.
| dictate knavcs to their senses? Or were
they about to make further absurd and
outrageous demands? Some irate officers
were Of the opinion that enemies like
these should be considered no better than
pirates, and that their flag of truce
F., should be fired upon. But the COM
mandant Of the fort paid no attention to
such counsels, and sent detachment
with a white flag down to the beach to
meet the approaching boat and learn it's
errand.
The men in the boat had nothing to do
but to deliver letter from tho director
in-cbief to the commandant of the fort
and then row back again. No answer
was required.
When the commandant read the brief
note he made no remark. In fact, he
could think Of no appropriate remark to
make. Tho missive simply informed
him that ut ten o'clock and eighteen
minutes a. M, of that day, the first
boom from the marine forces of the syn
dictate had been discharged into the
waters Of the harbor. AT. or about two
o'clock p. m, the second bomb would be
discharged at Fort Pitcher. That was all.
What this extraordinary message
meant could not be imagined by any
officer of the garrison. If the people on
board the ships were taking advantage
Of tho earthquake, and supposed that
they could induce British soldiers to be-
lieve that it had been caused by one OF
their oO,nbs. then were they idiots in
deed. They would fire their second shot
ut Fart Pitcher! This was impossible.
for they had not yet fired their first shot.
These syndicate people were evidently
very tricky. and the defenders of the
port must therefore be very cautious.
Fort Pitcher was n very large and I'M
finished fertilization, on bluff on the
opposite side of the harbor. Work had
been discontinued on it as soon rs the
syndicate's vessels had appeared off the
port, for it was no. desired to expose the
builders and workmen to possible
bombardment. The place was now,
therefore, almost deserted; but after the
receipt of the syndicates message. the
commandant feared that the enemy
might throw an ordinary shell into the
unfinished works, and he sent boat
across the bay to order away any work
men or others who might be lingering
about the place.
A little after 9 o'clock y. IN. an instan-
taneous motor bomb was discharged
from Repellcr No. l into Fort Pitcher.
1t was set to act five seconds after i'm
pact with the object aimed at Il struck
in central portion of tho unfinished
fort, and having described high curve
in the air, descended not only with its
own motive power. but with tho force of
gravitation. and penetrated deep into the
earth.
Five seconds later Il vast brown cloud
appeared on the Fort Pitcher promon-
tory. This cloud was nearly spherical
in form, with an apparent diameter of
about thousand yards. At the same
instant o shock similar to that accom-
panying the first motor bomb was felt in
the city and surrounding country, but
this was not so severe as the other, for
the second bomb did not exert it's force
upon the underlying rocks of tho region,
as tho first one had done.
The great brown cloud quickly began
to lose its spherical form, part of it de-
scending heavily to the earth and part
floating away in vast dust clouds borne
inland by the breeze, settling downward
as they moved, and depositing Oh land,
water, ships, houses. domes and trees an
almost impalpablc powder.
When the cloud had cleared away
there were no Notifications, and the bluff
on which they had stood had disappeared.
Part Of this bluff had foated away on
the wind and part of it lay piled in great
heaps Of sand on tho spot where its rocks
were to have upheld fort.
The effect of the motor bomb was fully
observed with glasses from the various
Notifications of tho port and from many
points of the city and harbor; and those
familiar with the effects Of explosives
were. not long in making up their minds
what had happened. They felt sure that
mine had been sprung beneath Fort
Pitcher, and they were now equally con-
fident that in the morning q torpedo of
novel and terrible power had been cx-
ploded in the harbor. They now disbe-
Ieved in the earthquake and treated
with contempt tho pretensc that shots
had been fired from the syndicatc's ves-
sci. This was merely trick Of tho
enemy. 1t was not even likely that the
miro or the torpedo had been operated
from the ship. These were in all proba-
bility under the control of confederates
ON shore, and had been exploded at
times agreed upon beforehand. All this
was perfectly plain to the military au-
thorities.
But the people of the city derived no
c0mfort from, the announcement of fheea