o the flag-ship,
steamed away to Portsmouth.

The situation now became one which was unparalleled in the history of
naval warfare. On the side of the British, seven war-ships were
disabled and drifting slowly to the south-east. For half an hour no
advance had been made by the British fleet, for whenever one of the
large vessels had steamed ahead, such vessel had become the victim of a
crab, and the Vice-Admiral commanding the fleet had signalled not to
advance until farther orders.

The crabs were also lying-to, each to the windward of, and not far
from, one of the British ships. They had ceased to make any attacks,
and were resting quietly under protection of the enemy. This, with the
fact that the repeller still lay four miles away, without any apparent
intention of taking part in the battle, gave the situation its peculiar
character.

The British Vice-Admiral did not intend to remain in this quiescent
condition. It was, of course, useless to order forth his ironclads,
simply to see them disabled and set adrift. There was another arm of
the service which evidently could be used with better effect upon this
peculiar foe than could the great battle-ships.

But before doing anything else, he must provide for the safety of those
of his vessels which had been rendered helpless by the crabs, and some
of which were now drifting dangerously near to each other. Despatches
had been sent to Portsmouth for tugs, but it would not do to wait until
these arrived, and a sufficient number of ironclads were detailed to
tow their injured consorts into port.

When this order had been given, the Vice-Admiral immediately prepared
to renew the fight, and this time his efforts were to be directed
entirely against the repeller. It would be useless to devote any
further attention to the crabs, especially in their present positions.
But if the chief vessel of the Syndicate's fleet, with its spring
armour and its terrible earthquake bombs, could be destroyed, it was
quite possible that those sea-parasites, the crabs, could also be
disposed of.

Every torpedo-boat was now ordered to the front, and in a long line,
almost abreast of each other, these swift vessels--the light-infantry
of the sea--advanced upon the solitary and distant foe. If one torpedo
could but reach her hull, the Vice-Admiral, in spite of seven disabled
ironclads and a captured gun-boat, might yet gaze proudly at his
floating flag, even if his own ship should be