The Florida agriculturist., 1889-04-10
SECTION ".

The officer received this message and
was disposed to look upon it as new
trick, but as no time was to be lost he
sent corporal's guard to the fort, and
there discovered an Irish sergeant by the
name of Kilsey, who had sworn an oath
that if every other man in the fort ran
away like lot of addle pated sheep he
would not run with them; he would
stand to his post to the last, and when
the couple of ships outside had got
through bombarding the stout walls of
the fort, the world would see that there
was at least one British soldier who was
not afraid of a bomb, be it little or big.
Therefore he had managed to elude OBJ
servation, and to remain behind.
The sergeant was so hot headed in his
determination to stand by the fort that
it required violence to remove him; and
it was not until twenty minutes past 4
that the syndicate observers perceived
that he had been taken to the hill behind
which the garrison was encamped.
AS it had been decided that Repeller
No. 2 should discharge the next instan-
taneous motor bomb, there was an
anxious desire on the part of the opera
tors on that vessel that in this, their first
experience, they might do their duty as
well as their comrades on board the other
repeller had done theirs. The most ac-
curate observations, the most careful cal
culations, were made and remade, the
point to be aimed at being about the
center of the fort
The motor bomb had been in the can
non for nearly an hour, and everything
had long been ready, when at precisely
thirty minutes past o'clock the signal
to discharge came from the director-in-
chief, and in four seconds afterward the
index on the scale indicated that the
gun was in the proper position, and the
button was touched.
The motor bomb was set to act the in
stant it should touch any portion Of the
fort, and the effect was different from
that of the other bombs. There was
quick, hard shock, but it was all in the
air. Thousands of panes of glass in the
city and in houses for miles around were
cracked or broken; birds fell dead or
stunned upon the ground, and people on
C4GNdLIOAS dL COI1SIOcIdOI0 OtoCd1iCG6 tC1t
as if they had received blow; but there
was no trembling of the ground.
AS to the fort. it had entirely disap-
peared. it's PARTICLES having been insran-
taneously removed to great distance in
every direction, falling over such vast
expanse Of land and water that their de-
scent was undesirable.
In the place where the fortress had
stood there was a wide tract of bare
earth. which looked as if it had been
scraped into o staring dead level of
gravel and clay. The instantaneous
motor bomb. had been arranged TO act
almost horizontally.
Few persons, except those who from a
distance had been watching the fort with
glasses, understood what had happened;
but every one in the city and surround
ing country was conscious that some
thing had happened of most startling
kind, and that it was over in the same
instant in which they had perceived it.
Everywhere there was the noise of fall
ing window glass. There were those
who asserted that for an instant they had
heard in the distance grinding crash;
and there were others who were
quite sure that they had noticed what
might be called fash Of darkness. as if