"Show no lights. Work the ship around with the gyroscopes until our rear battery of tubes will cover the right Patrol ship of the leading pair, and our bow tubes the other."
The whir of the electric motors came from below. The fliers swung about, hanging still in the path of the approaching Triton.
"All ready, sir," came a voice from the tube.
A few anxious minutes went by. Then the Red Rover, dark and silent, was hanging squarely between the two forward Patrol ships, about twenty-five miles from each of them.
"Fire constantly with all tubes, fore and aft, until the enemy appears to be disabled," Brand gave the order. The Prince spoke to him, and he added, "Inflict no unnecessary damage."
Dazzling white rays flashed from the tubes. Swiftly, they found the two forward sunships. The slender octagons of silver shone white under the rays. They reeled, whirled about, end over end, under the terrific pressure of atomic bombardment. In a moment they glowed with dull red incandescence, swiftly became white. A bluish haze spread about them—the discharge of the electric energy carried by the atoms, which would electrocute any man not insulated against it.
From the three other ships flaming white rays darted, searching for the Red Rover. But they had hardly found the mark when Brand ordered his rays snapped out. The two vessels he had struck were but whirling masses of incandescent wreckage—completely out of the battle, though most of the men aboard them still survived in their insulated cells.
The Prince himself spoke into the tube. "Maneuver number forty-one. Drive for the Triton."
Driven by alternate burst from front and rear motor tubes, the Red Rover started a curiously irregular course toward the treasure ship. Spinning end over end, describing irregular curves, she must have been an almost impossible target.
And twice during each spin, when her axis was in line with the Triton, all tubes were fired for an instant, striking the treasure ship with a force that reeled and staggered her, leaving her plates half-fused, twisted and broken.