Early on a misty morning, Repeller No. 11, towed by four of the
swiftest and most powerful crabs, and followed by two others, left a
Northern port of the United States, bound for the coast of Great
Britain. Her course was a very northerly one, for the reason that the
Syndicate had planned work for her to do while on her way across the
Atlantic.

The Syndicate had now determined, without unnecessarily losing an hour,
to plainly demonstrate the power of the instantaneous motor-bomb. It
had been intended to do this upon the Adamant, but as it had been found
impossible to induce the captain of that vessel to evacuate his ship,
the Syndicate had declined to exhibit the efficiency of their new agent
of destruction upon a disabled craft crowded with human beings.

This course had been highly prejudicial to the claims of the Syndicate,
for as Repeller No. 7 had made no use in the contest with the Adamant
of the motor-bombs with which she was said to be supplied, it was
generally believed on both sides of the Atlantic that she carried no
such bombs, and the conviction that the destruction at the Canadian
port had been effected by means of mines continued as strong as it had
ever been. To correct these false ideas was, now the duty of Repeller
No. 11.

For some time Great Britain had been steadily forwarding troops and
munitions of war to Canada, without interruption from her enemy. Only
once had the Syndicate's vessels appeared above the Banks of
Newfoundland, and as the number of these peculiar craft must
necessarily be small, it was not supposed that their line of operations
would be extended very far north, and no danger from them was
apprehended, provided the English vessels laid their courses well to
the north.

Shortly before the sailing of Repeller No. 11, the Syndicate had
received news that one of the largest transatlantic mail steamers,
loaded with troops and with heavy cannon for Canadian fortifications,
and accompanied by the Craglevin, one of the largest ironclads in the
Royal Navy, had started across the Atlantic. The first business of the
repeller and her attendant crabs concerned these two vessels.

Owing to the power and speed of the crabs which towed her, Repeller No.
11 made excellent time; and on the morning of the third day out the two
British vessels were sighted. Somewhat altering their course the
Syndicate's vessels were soon within a few miles of the enemy.

The Craglevin was a magnificent