The morning times., 1896-12-27

with blue lights the stranger flashed the
same answer from her forward turret.
The signal party on the dismantled bat
terry at the Hook had been watching her
with their best glasses, but could not
make her out In the darkness, but when one
after another OF the waiting fleet had
trained their search lights on her they
caught the olivegray that marked the
Italian hull and the great stuInpy military
mast with it's machine gun top that charac-
terized all the others of the hostile fleet.
And as the search lights of the enemy
scanned her up and down they rested for
a moment on the Italian colors that nut
tered at her main peak.
Boldly and without hesitation the new
arrival steered her course between the
farthest outlying ironclads that lay n
mile apart to seward, and bore down
toward the flagship. She showed no light
and no signal save the ensign at her
peak, but confidently laid her course for
the great French battleship.
Stars and stripes.
Sweeping on through the darkness within
"a hundred feet of the silent Frenchman,
the stranger sheered slightly. The Italian
colors vanished in the darkness. Then the
dazzling rays of a search light Shot up
ward from her forward turret and full
upon the Stars and Stripes that were
broken out on the instant from the top
OF the military mast.
The wild cheer of the Yankee bluejackets
rang out, but was siienced in q deeper rear.
Instantly, from turret and Earbette, a
hundred tons of steel crashed into the
taIv Of ba "a Il1Zp
lit up the sea for hundred yards, and
the thunder of it deafened every ear On
board the Frenchman that was left alive
to hear,
No armor ever floated on an iron huh
could withstand those bolts of steel at
point blank range, backed by a fun fight
ing charge of powder.
A whirlw:nG of machine gun fire swept
the Frenchman'S decks and searched every
portfolio before the flash OF the broadSidc
died away, and then this ocean guerrilla.
having dealt her blow dashed onward in
the darkness, planting shot Or two from
her other bruadSide as she fled aboard the
nearest one of the hostile squadron.
SO swift was the dash, and so utterly
foOlhardy that she was well on her way
toward shore before q gun was trained to
follow her, and then half swallowed up in
darkness, without misunderstanding aboard,
she ran out Of range, unscathed, while
the Frenchmau drifted Il wreck in the midst
of its own fleet.
That night the Indiana dropped anchor
off Staten Island. and before daylight the
blue jackets were tearing down the canvas
screen that had swcllcd her OWE military
mast to three times its natural size, while
others from the swinging ladders over the
sides We're giving her a fresh coat of white
paint, to replace tire Italians Give green
that had been part of her disguise in her
midnight dash through the encmy's line.
The Day of Reckoning.
But with the lndianai m port, ,everyonefclt
that the day of reckoning with the allies
was only postponed. All the next morning
the warships lay in the offing. apparently
repairing damages and waiting for night
fall, to attempt the passage ofthe bay. All
day the four American battieships lay in
the harbor, waiting in vain for orders to
move, and the little Cushing hovered about
in the lower bay like an uneasy sea-nettle
waiting a chance to sting.
Toward evening the big tug Triton steam
ed AVA V from the BrooNynnavy yard, hav-
| that had been building at the yard On
board the tug was party of naval Officers
a part OF the fortfication board, and d
silent, black haired man, pointed out by
| Some OF the workine n at the yard as Mr.
| Tesla, who had been watching the building
| of the big armored float.
| Night close ill., ana he hostile fleet a gain
| drew together for the attack. Inadvance ol
! the line hovercd the torpedo catchers, or
| the lookout for torpedo boats ana sunken
| mines. After them the battleships in sin
! gle colun n, alert for a shot from the dyna-
mite battery that they had Silenced all toe
| effectually the day before.
That night every electric plant in New
| York was running at its fun capacity, but
the city was in darkness, save for the yell
low glare of gas and oil lamps
Tied Up on Orders.
The trolley lines were tied up, on order
from the military headquarters. From
one to another score Of gigantic electric
plants ran temporary cables, coupling the
great generators in series. and all ending
| in a great insulated cable, that disap,
| peared under the water at the Battery
The other end of this electric line emerged
from the water ten miles down the bay
and it was toward this point that the Tritor
| and her strange tow made their way.
There on shore Il lighter cable, but OF
| low resistance, was W woundon great drum.
and when the Triton arrived one end wa
| carried aboard the whaleback and made
| fast amid d maze of complicated machinery
| sunk far out Of harms way below tn,
water line, and doubly protected by the
carried no crew, no armament, no torpe-
does, only machinery and her own i'm
| mense eXpanse of steel hull
Upon the platform where the little part
landed in the darkness stood great squar
| box, big as a small cottage. 1t was
| high frequency coil, one of those by mean
of whcih the alterations of the electri
current are raised to a point where tn,
million becomes the unit of measure. II
| was coil beside which the mighties
with which even Tesla himself had expert
mented in his laboratory were but toys
Beside the coil was switchboard Within
| the forward compartment of the whale
back were condensers, thousands upon thou
sands Of feet in plate surface. That wa
all. ButthoSe condenSers were vaults where
in to store up thunder bolts
glance at the meter beside the col
showed a voltage of six and a quarter mi
lions, such a current as no othr operator
had ever had at his command before
The Great Steel Test.
"Tell them to crowd ON more if the
can," said the electrician, quietly, and tn
officer at the telephone repeated the orde
back to the city. The pointer on the da
wavered, and then slowly rose-seven
eight, ten million volts
Tell them to hold it at that was tn
order Then, one after another, the switche