It was as if heaven and earth were split in twain. First there came a flash as of lightning out of the depths of the ocean, followed by a grinding, ripping, sucking noise, and then up went the monster Chinese cruiser, blown into millions of fragments. With the wreckage went soldiers and sailors, guns, ammunition, spars, everything, straight into the sky! It was a sight as awful as it was amusing.
"She's gone forever!" cried Captain Oscar, hoarsely. "Our work has proved a perfect success. The new Holland is the most dangerous warship ever constructed."
"You are right," answered his first lieutenant. "Those Chinese——"
He got no further, for he had glanced up in the sky, and now saw something strange and uncanny approaching. It was a gigantic dynamite shell, thrown by a French cruiser, which had crept up behind them unawares.
The shell was aimed straight for the Holland, and if it struck the submarine boat it would blow her up as effectively as she had blown up the Tien-Tsin!
CHAPTER V.
PRISONERS OF THE SEA.
"We are lost!"
"That shell will blow us to atoms!"
Such were some of the cries which arose from those on the new Holland when they saw the shell thrown by the French cruiser whirling swiftly toward them.