The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1908-07-17


currents! Quick! all your power be-
fore others a train a gun on us!"
Her voice was sharp and decisive, and
her words snapped like lashes, driving
them to action. STEADY, steady!"
With almost the instantaneousness
of its stop, the radioplane shivered and
throbbed with increased energy. The
dynamos hummed and roared, the
Norma quivered like a race horse
under a cruel whip, then steadied
itself, seemed to gather it's forces to-
gether, gave one mighty lift, and be-
gan to ascend. The frightened cries
from without subsidized in stupefaction.
The fighting admiral with clenched
fists was running the length Of the
r%adioplane. staring through the lower
ton, his eyes flaming with the joy of
victory.
Out on the sluggish waves which
had now changed to a coldly cleaning
gray the other vessels of the Japanese
fleet witnessed the beginnings Of
catastrophe. They had seen this in
credibly monstrous thing drop from
ether upon their flagship, crumple its
upper works like paper, attach itself
to the turrets, and then with phenom-
email power actually lift from the
ocean 10000 tons of steel-a floating
fortress believed but an hour ago to be
invincible-and bear it away Even
as they watched they saw this strange
god which had grasped the pride Of
Japan in his clutch deliberately sha-
ping his flight higher and higher into
the great void of the heavens and
passing out of their world.
OF what use were guns against
these strange vi%sitants, whose only
human mark was the flag of the de-
spised'enemy? In hopeless screams of
terror their sirens awoke the echoes
with weird, %despairing walls, and their
engines under full speed sent the
screws flashing through the water in
a last desperate effort to escape by
flight. And while their prows tore the
waves the superstitious sailors took
their disaster as an omen of heavenly
wrath, reverted to the. religion of their
ancestors, and Frustrated themselves
in an agony of prayer; but every
chance was denied them, and even
their trust in speed to evade seizure
was Intellectual.
Even as the Ito, held fast by the
Norma, was becoming a speck against
the disk of the morning sky, another
of those strange creatures made a
scarcely less abrupt descent upon tho
Kashima. Stacks and masts went
down with a crash as had those 9TH
ers. The great wingless terror picked
her up into the air before her engines
could be stopped, and, with her screw
beating the atmosphere like the fut-
tering fins of a fish captured by a
marauding eagle, sailed off with her
into the blue above.
Once more they tried the effect of
gunnery, when the Katori was threat
their doom, they waited their turn. 1t
was not long in coming; for now by
twos and threes they were torn from
the ocean and lifted aloft. The col
Hers were the last to succumb, and
their crews, realizing that the bulls
alone would come in contact with the
implacable demons above, ran cream
ing below decks to continue their sup
plications to the deaf gods who had
deserted them.
From the thick glass of his port the
admiral looked down upon his con-
quered foemen and watched the pre-
cision with which his orders were be-
ing obeyed. Each time a victim was
seized he shouted: "Three's done her
work." or Good boy. Seven! You've
got hint" and so on enumerating each
success
Some movement on the deck of the
Ito close at hand arrested his atten.
ton. His brows came together again
in q fierce scowl. Stand by the mag.
net levers, Miss Norma" he com.