Shot and shell told heavily along the water front, but not one of either struck into the heart of the cities, for the foreign guns could not carry so far. The guns of the forts in the harbor responded nobly and a well-directed fire soon put one of the Chinese cruisers, the Pekin, out of the race forever. The Pekin was a sister ship to the Tien-Tsin, which the Holland had annihilated on her maiden trip at the opening of the great war. She carried many guns and over eight hundred sailors and officers, and was certainly a formidable fighting machine. This was Hang Chang's vessel, but Oscar did not let his prisoner know of this. "No use to make him feel worse than he does," said the young captain to his lieutenant. "He may go and do something desperate. You know some Chinese commit suicide after defeat." "But not Hang Chang," answered Andy. "He's too much of a coward." Boom! crash! came a rumble and a roar, and the Pekin was seen to be enveloped in a sheet of flame from end to end. She did not sink, and soon her magazines caught fire, and then it was the old story over again of a cruiser blown into atoms. The annihilation of the Pekin was speedily followed by the wrecking of the first of the Japanese warships, which had the keel split into three parts. The Japanese could not understand what struck them and scores of them leaped overboard, to be speedily pulled under by the vast suction when the ship suddenly settled with a plunge, and went from sight forever. The alarm was now great on board of the second Japanese warship, the Tokio, for those on her had seen that something was around in the water--a deadly enemy. The commander at once issued orders that the vessel withdraw from the fight and run from the vicinity. This sudden withdrawal proved almost fatal for the Holland XI. without the Japanese being aware of what they were doing. As the great warship made a turn, one of her anchors slipped overboard, and the anchor chain became entangled in the screw of the submarine craft, hauling her around like a flash. "Something is wrong with the screw!" announced George Dross to Oscar through the speaking tube. "Turn off the power." "I have already done so." "We are being dragged backward!" put in Andy, as he looked out of one of the glass windows. The young captain ran to the rear lookout and made an examination. He saw the anchor chain and saw how the new Holland was being towed backward by the cruiser overhead. Then the chain became tighter, as those on board of the Tokio tried to recover the anchor which had dropped overboard. But the power overhead was not equal to the task of bringing in the anchor with such a weight attached, and presently the task was abandoned for the time being. "I reckon they are thinking only of escaping from the hidden monster that blew up the other warships," said Captain Oscar, and in this surmise he was correct.