Lord Hastings ordered the Sylph put about, and turned to flee.
"What on earth are we running for?" demanded Jack.
"Why," replied Lord Hastings, "if the Nurnberg will chase us, we'll run her right up to the Glasgow. And, if she puts about and makes off again, we have gained just that much time."
"I see," said Jack.
The Nurnberg refused to chase the Sylph. Instead, she put about and continued her flight. Immediately the Sylph was after her again. Once more the Nurnberg came about and made a dash at the Sylph, and again the Sylph turned and ran.
But this time the Nurnberg did not turn to run again. Lord Hastings' maneuver had succeeded so well that the Glasgow was now within striking distance, and a shell fired at long range dropped close to the Nurnberg. The Sylph came about again and dashed forward, hurling her instruments of death at her opponent as rapidly as her crippled condition would permit.
From the Glasgow came a command for the Nurnberg to surrender, but the commander of the German ship did not even take the trouble to reply to this message. The Sylph and her enemy came close together rapidly.
Shells were dropping aboard both vessels, and it seemed miraculous that both did not go to the bottom. The blood of both commanders was up and neither would give an inch. It all depended now upon which ship was struck in a vital spot first.
Fortunately for those aboard the Sylph it was the German who suffered. A shell pierced the Nurnberg's side and penetrated the engine-room, where it exploded the Nurnberg's boilers with, a thundering roar. On the instant the Nurnberg seemed to turn into a sheet of flame.
Another explosion followed, and still another, and almost quicker than it takes to tell it, the German cruiser Nurnberg, the fourth of Admiral von Spee's fleet, disappeared beneath the waves.