________________________________________________
_ When the commandant read the brief note, he made no
remark. In fact, he could think of no appropriate
remark to make. The missive simply informed him that
at ten o'clock and eighteen minutes A. M., of that day,
the first bomb from the marine forces of the Syndicate
had been discharged into the waters of the harbour.
At, or about, two o'clock P.M., the second bomb would
be discharged at Fort Pilcher. That was all.
What this extraordinary message meant could not be
imagined by any officer of the garrison. If the people
on board the ships were taking advantage of the
earthquake, and supposed that they could induce British
soldiers to believe that it had been caused by one of
their bombs, then were they idiots indeed. They would
fire their second shot at Fort Pilcher! This was
impossible, for they had not yet fired their first
shot. These Syndicate people were evidently very
tricky, and the defenders of the port must therefore be
very cautious.
Fort Pilcher was a very large and unfinished
fortification, on a bluff on the opposite side of the
harbour. Work had been discontinued on it as soon as
the Syndicate's vessels had appeared off the port, for
it was not desired to expose the builders and workmen
to a possible bombardment. The place was now,
therefore, almost deserted; but after the receipt of
the Syndicate's message, the commandant feared that the
enemy might throw an ordinary shell into the
unfinished works, and he sent a boat across the bay to
order away any workmen or others who might be lingering
about the place.
A little after two o'clock P.M., an instantaneous
motor-bomb was discharged from Repeller No. 1 into Fort
Pilcher. It was set to act five seconds after impact
with the object aimed at. It struck in a central
portion of the unfinished fort, and having described a
high curve in the air, descended not only with its own
motive power, but with the force of gravitation, and
penetrated deep into the earth.
Five seconds later a vast brown cloud appeared on
the Fort Pilcher promontory. This cloud was nearly
spherical in form, with an apparent diameter of about a
thousand yards. At the same instant a shock similar to
that accompanying the first motor-bomb was felt in the
city and surrounding country; but this was not so
severe as the other, for the second bomb did not exert
its force upon the underlying rocks of the region as
the first one had done.
The great brown cloud quickly began to lose its
spherical form, part of it descending heavily to the
earth, and part floating away in vast dust-clouds borne
inland by the breeze, settling downward as they moved, and
depositing on land, water, ships, houses, domes, and
trees an almost impalpable powder.
When the cloud had cleared away there were no
fortifications, and the bluff on which they had stood
had disappeared. Part of this bluff had floated away
on the wind, and part of it lay piled in great heaps of
sand on the spot where its rocks were to have upheld a
fort.
The effect of the motor-bomb was fully observed
with glasses from the various fortifications of the
port, and from many points of the city and harbour; and
those familiar with the effects of explosives were not
long in making up their minds what had happened. They
felt sure that a mine had been sprung beneath Fort
Pilcher; and they were now equally confident that in
the morning a torpedo of novel and terrible power had
been exploded in the harbour. They now disbelieved in
the earthquake, and treated with contempt the pretence
that shots had been fired from the Syndicate's vessel.
This was merely a trick of the enemy. It was not even
likely that the mine or the torpedo had been
operated from the ship. These were, in all
probability, under the control of confederates on
shore, and had been exploded at times agreed upon
beforehand. All this was perfectly plain to the
military authorities.
But the people of the city derived no comfort from
the announcement of these conclusions. For all that
anybody knew the whole city might be undermined, and at
any moment might ascend in a cloud of minute particles.
They felt that they were in a region of hidden traitors
and bombs, and in consequence of this belief thousands
of citizens left their homes.
That afternoon a truce-boat again went out from
Repeller No. 1, and rowed to the fort, where a letter
to the commandant was delivered. This, like the other,
demanded no answer, and the boat returned. Later in
the afternoon the two repellers, accompanied by the
crabs, and leaving the steel net still anchored in its
place, retired a few miles seaward, where they prepared
to lay to for the night.
The letter brought by the truce-boat was read by
the commandant, surrounded by his officers. It stated
that in twenty-four hours from time of writing it,
which would be at or about four o'clock on the next
afternoon, a bomb would be thrown into the garrisoned
fort, under the command of the officer addressed. As
this would result in the entire destruction of the
fortification, the commandant was earnestly counselled
to evacuate the fort before the hour specified.
Ordinarily the commandant of the fort was of a calm
and unexcitable temperament. During the astounding
events of that day and the day before he had kept his
head cool; his judgment, if not correct, was the result
of sober and earnest consideration. But now he lost
his temper. The unparalleled effrontery and impertinence
of this demand of the American Syndicate was too much for
his self-possession. He stormed in anger.
Here was the culmination of the knavish trickery of
these conscienceless pirates who had attacked the port.
A torpedo had been exploded in the harbour, an
unfinished fort had been mined and blown up, and all
this had been done to frighten him--a British soldier--
in command of a strong fort well garrisoned and fully
supplied with all the munitions of war. In the fear
that his fort would be destroyed by a mystical
bomb, he was expected to march to a place of safety
with all his forces. If this should be done it would
not be long before these crafty fellows would occupy
the fort, and with its great guns turned inland, would
hold the city at their mercy. There could be no
greater insult to a soldier than to suppose that he
could be gulled by a trick like this.
No thought of actual danger entered the mind of the
commandant. It had been easy enough to sink a great
torpedo in the harbour, and the unguarded bluffs of
Fort Pilcher offered every opportunity to the
scoundrels who may have worked at their mines through
the nights of several months. But a mine under the
fort which he commanded was an impossibility; its
guarded outposts prevented any such method of attack.
At a bomb, or a dozen, or a hundred of the Syndicate's
bombs he snapped his fingers. He could throw bombs as
well.
Nothing would please him better than that those
ark-like ships in the offing should come near enough
for an artillery fight. A few tons of solid shot and
shell dropped on top of them might be a very
conclusive answer to their impudent demands.
The letter from the Syndicate, together with his
own convictions on the subject, were communicated by
the commandant to the military authorities of the port,
and to the War Office of the Dominion. The news of
what had happened that day had already been cabled
across the Atlantic back to the United States, and all
over the world; and the profound impression created by
it was intensified when it became known what the
Syndicate proposed to do the next day. Orders and
advices from the British Admiralty and War Office sped
across the ocean, and that night few of the leaders in
government circles in England or Canada closed their
eyes. _
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