The puncturing had been accomplished by submarine action. The Lilamo had sent through the waters their floating batteries, which by nicely adjusted weights lay beneath the surface right on the track of the fleet. The electric cables by which they were secured could shift them hither and thither; and through them immense force could be applied, sending a volley of keen darts up towards whatever iron there was above them. These darts had entered the hulls of the ships just beneath the water-line and made their way into the iron of the engines; one or other told on the boilers and disabled the ships. The electric floats were unseen by the expedition, and the wounding of the fleet was as mysterious and magical as the sleep had been on the previous attempt. Panic seized on every soldier and sailor, and they thanked their gods when the blast of the lilaran hurried them to the shelving beach of a low island and they heard the keels grate on shingle and sand. They scrambled on shore through the surf and found shelter from the wind behind the mounds that covered the former fleet or under their gaunt ribs or sides. But a new panic overcame them when they discovered that their leader was gone and could nowhere be found. Then it was remembered that in the worst of the storm which blew from Lilaroma a giant bird had swooped down towards his ship and rested for a moment on the platform, where he stood in solitary meditation, and as suddenly soared up again. It was two messengers of the Lilamo who had been sent in one of their bird-shaped airships to make an end of these warlike expeditions. They had alighted beside Choktroo, and by the powerful means they commanded had sent him into a deep sleep in spite of his drug; they tossed him into their airship and in a few moments were high in the azure rushing before the blast of the lilaran. Away they fled with him all day and all night across the belt of fog, and having reached the outer world they let him down still tranced on the shore of a lonely coral islet of the Pacific close to a group inhabited by a savage and warlike tribe. Choktroo had their instincts and ambitions; let him master the savages when he awakened. A wild beast could do no harm amongst wild beasts.