to a possible bombardment. The place was now,
therefore, almost deserted; but after the receipt of
the Syndicate's message, the commandant feared that the
enemy might throw an ordinary shell into the
unfinished works, and he sent a boat across the bay to
order away any workmen or others who might be lingering
about the place.

A little after two o'clock P.M., an instantaneous
motor-bomb was discharged from Repeller No. 1 into Fort
Pilcher. It was set to act five seconds after impact
with the object aimed at. It struck in a central
portion of the unfinished fort, and having described a
high curve in the air, descended not only with its own
motive power, but with the force of gravitation, and
penetrated deep into the earth.

Five seconds later a vast brown cloud appeared on
the Fort Pilcher promontory. This cloud was nearly
spherical in form, with an apparent diameter of about a
thousand yards. At the same instant a shock similar to
that accompanying the first motor-bomb was felt in the
city and surrounding country; but this was not so
severe as the other, for the second bomb did not exert
its force upon the underlying rocks of the region as
the first one had done.

The great brown cloud quickly began to lose its
spherical form, part of it descending heavily to the
earth, and part floating away in vast dust-clouds borne