"Yes, Cardyke, it's folly to go on deck with a terrified mob like that," agreed the sub. "The five of us couldn't do much. I'll tell you what I will do." And levelling his revolver, Fielding sent a shot through the stout partition separating the cabin from the one in which the hostages of L'Égalité were kept, taking good care to fire high enough not to harm the inmates. Amidst the deafening roar and confusion without, the sharp crack of the pistol passed unnoticed.
"Ahoy!" shouted Fielding through the hole. "We're prisoners on board this vessel like yourselves. We're English. I believe there is a citizen of the United States here?"
"Three, sonny," replied a man, with a typical Yankee twang. "I was lashed up beside you, I guess, when the skipper of this hooker threw dust into the eyes of the Yew Hess Hess Denver."
"Not alongside of me," replied the sub. "You were next to my brother officer, Mr. Cardyke. But that's neither here nor there. We're going to burst open the doors of the cabins. We've half-a-dozen firearms. How many men are there with you?"
"Nine," replied the American. "And a durned sight more in the next one."
"We ought to be able to make a show on deck. Those fellows are off their heads already. It won't take much to get the upper hand of them."
"Bully for you," replied the other. "Guess we'll do our whack."
"Stand by, then," said Fielding, warningly.
Before he could cross the limited space of the cabin there was a deafening crash, like the simultaneous discharge of a battleship's 14 in. guns. The Independencia rolled till Fielding and his companions found themselves lying wedged in between the angle formed by the sloping floor and the longitudinal bulkhead. There they lay, pinned down by the scanty furniture that had been thrown bodily across the room. Cardyke's fingers closed involuntarily upon the revolver he was holding, and the heavy weapon went off, sending a bullet against the steel deck beam, while the blast singed Hokosuka's hair. All the while the vessel remained in this position there was a sickening grinding noise, caused by the huge fabric sliding over the ice. Then came another tremendous crash. The cruiser, hurled thirty feet above the water by the capsizing berg, had toppled over the ledge. Down she plunged, like a toy boat dropped from a height into a pool of water. Then, dipping obliquely, she plunged beneath the agitated sea till the waves reached the base of her after-funnel.
"Great heavens—she's going!" gasped Cardyke.