Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-18
BY NJ. P. SHIEL.
STORY OF THE WORLDS GREATEST WAR.

stripped appearance prepared, to its mast
heads, for battle
As soon Hardy reached his deck he or
dered ten knotS'to be signaled. And at once
the two masses of power began TO approa CHI
rapidly. growing up upon each other march
ing over the insubstantial deep, 10 meet
1t Is Impossible for even the coolest heart
10 be present at the impending of a contest
so august without uuickened beat a
thump of awe. Even to contemplate the
thing from afar is horror. The weak flesh
shrlnks- The forces that rush TO lorrid
combat are hardly of man--they stride out
INTO the infinite, they reach the supernat-
ural' they become ghostly. Commonplace
Jack suddenly finds himself face to face
with meffable he'll.
They are ten miles apart-they are eight -
they are six. The heart seems iammed ia
/ the dry throat. and the hands shake like
reeds. through which the huntsman's dog
mas hitted The anticipation of the thing is
| II possible. a greater horror than the reality
me hFe ships have pricked their course
Off. debouching to port, and the three ap-
pointed torpedo boats are rushing like
SWordnSh still farther to port upon the
single doomed ship designated by Hardy
/ Only the Royal Sovereign in the far star
I board limb maintains her straight course to
! eastward. Hardy Is in her coming tower
! and his eyes alight with awe and Joy, are
everywhere
signal after signal goes up from the ROYAL
Sovereign. The speeds on both sides inten-
sify. She is five miles from the two ships
| the foremost of her own fleet In two
minutes she Is four miles: in two more
three. How frightful is her silencei =
II the eartns foot should slip upon its
course and she were perceived to be sailne
slowly, yet with ever swifter and madder
joy. toward her native sun, just so the wild
| heart would beat and the blanched face he
pinched.
The ships are no longer mere toys one TO
the other. They are two miles apart Hardy
waits. grandly patient. They are 1000
yards apart. And then the Pol
Sovereign talks
Talks-and is ausweraS 7. e.,
savage bark OF Cerberus the he'll doc q ~
swered by two single savage Cerberns
DaTks-the talk of heavy guns Rut no
Tore the sounds have passed in palIid flight
over tiie sea, there breaks forth a conttnu-
ued rolling row, like that solemn roar Of
DOOM and deep-throated iabber OF bnhber-
ing and numbering Etns, the mere intoIer
able tumult of which throws the tbraa
crews into sort of crazv daze n 70 the
| lighter guns which jabber
John Hardy forgets Yen How and his
, h3iaui, ne IS youth again A wild
MARTY nights his gallant eyes.
But now he is passing midway between
| the two ships, and straight before him is
the third Not an instant of that precious
period passes unmarked by him Though
his face, like all faces there is a raca ~
| ecstasy, the back of his brain is cool an
| Ice "
Plenty. of quick thunder" he had said
nd no
, he passed by her. the great Brennus reeled
ana plunged, with sort of tragic haste,
| from sight.
But now all the battle over many a
| mile OF troubled sea, is rolled in smoke.
| aud Misunderstanding clouds pass In mys-
| FERROUS haste TO and FRO across the water.
| From fifteen miles away to northward
! there comes a great defamation, and the
| Italia is In the air" The three toruedo-
| boats detailed to attack her have been
| sunk, but the sixth steel-needle waits half
| a minute swinging between her screws.
/ and bursts, and sends her-~fying
/ Near by Lord Charles Beresford on the
| Arson has rammed the Lepanto at tri-
/ angle apex, and run on with sinking bows
/ toward the Admiral Duperre and the Oiden-
| burg; and these two he passes with such a
| rain of wrath that not single crew Is LEFT
| alive at their unprotected guns.
| Now. IL never before, is proved the truth
, of Hardy's saying. that the modern ba tile
/ ship is a destructive, rather than d self
protective. engine Even as he gasps the
4 sharp. short order Rant the two masses
| of white cloud within which are the ROYAL
| Sovereign and the Francisco Morosimi
/ coalesce; they are both tearing along at If
| teen knots in nearly opposite directions:
4 they close-they meet: and there is nothing
/ on earth to which TO liken the shocking lar
with which those armored powers crash
On both ships every living brain spins and
| faints; and before any one has recovered
| consciousness the Francisco Morosimi Is
wheeling furiously in a hollow basin OF sea
whose waters shoot and gurgle In cataracts
| above her leaning hull
All along the line of fifteen miles from
| the Italia, In the air." 10 the Francisco
Morosimi. in the deep. the tale of tragedy
mas accumulated; and in three minutes the