The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-05-11

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TIE BRITISH CAPTAIN DESTROYING HIS
OWN SHIP.
When the calculations had been made
and the Indicator set, the captain was
shown the button he must press, and
stood waiting for the signal He looked
over the sea at the Craglevin, which had
settled a little at the stern, and was roll
ing heavily, but she was still a magpifi-
cent battle ship, with the red cross Of
England floating over her He could
not help the thought that if this motor
mystery should amount to nothing, there
was no reason why the Craglevm should
not be towed into port, and be made
again the grand war ship that she had
been.
Now the director gave the signal, and
the captain, with his eyes fixed upon his
ship, touched the button. A quick shock
ran through the repeller, and a black
gray cloud, half n milo high, occupied
the place of the British ship.
The cloud rapidly settled down, cover
ing the water with a glittering scum
which spread far and wide, and which
had been the Craglevin.
The British captain stood fora moment
motionless, and then he picked up
hammer and ran it into the muzzle of
the cannon which had been discharged.
The great gun was empty. The instan-
taneous motor bomb was not there.
Now he was convinced that the syndi-
cate had not mined the fortresses which
they had destroyed.
In twenty minutes the two British
officers were on board the transport,
which then steamed rapidly westward.
The crabs again took the repelIer in tow,
and the syndicate's fleet continued its
eastward course, passing through the
wide expanse of glittering scum which
had spread itself upon the sea.
They were not two-thirds of their way
across the Atlantic when the transport
reached st. Johns, and the cable told the
world that the Craglevin had been ami
hilated.
This news was received with amaze
ment, and even CONSERVATION. 1t came
from an officer in the Royal navy, and
how could it be doubted that a great
man-of-war had been destroyed in mo
ment by one shot from the syndicate's
vessel And yet, even now, there were
persons who did doubt, and who asserted
that the crabs might have placed great
torpedo under the Craglevin; that a wire
attached to this torpedo ran out from the
repeller, and that the British captain had
merely fred the torpedo. But hour by
hour, rs fuller news came across the
ocean. the number of these doubters be-
came smaller and smaller.
In the midst of the great public excite
ment which now existed on both sides of
the Atlantic-in the midst of all the con-
fiicting opinions, fears and hopes-the
dominant sentiment seemed to be, in
America as well as in Europe, one of
curiosity. We're these six crabs and one
repeller bound for the British Isles? And
if so. what did they intend to do when
they got there?
1t was now generally admitted that
one of the syndicate's crabs could disable
man-of-war; that one of the syndi-
Gates repellers could withstand the
heaviest artillery fire, and that one of the
syndicates motor bombs could destroy a
vessel or a fort. But these things had
been proved in isolated combats, where
the new methods of attack and defense
had had almost undisturbcd opportunity
for exhibiting their efficiency. But what
could repeller and half dozen crabs
do against the combined force of the
Royal navy, a navy which bad in the
last few years regained its supremacy
among the nations, and which had made
Great Britain once more the first mari
time power in the world?
The crabs might disable some men-of-
war, the repeller might mako her calcu-
lations and discharge her bomb at ship
or fort, but what would the main body
of the navy be doing meanwhile? Over
whelming, crushing and sinking TO the
bottom crabs, repeller, motor guns and
everything that belonged to them.
In England there was feeling of
strong resentment that such a little fleet
should be allowed to sail with such in
tent into British waters. This resent
ment extended itself not only to the inn
pudent syndicate, but toward the gov
eminent, and the opposition party gained
daily in strength. The opposition papers
had been loud and reckless in their de-
nunciations of the slowness and made
quacy of the naval preparations, and
loaded the government with the entire
responsibility, not only of the damage
which had already been done to the forts,
the ships, and the prestige of Great
Britain, but also for the threatened
danger of sudden descent of the syndi-