Now she would twist to avoid a collision.

Now she would rise to the surface, then sink to the bottom of the lagoon.

Can any one conceive such a struggle as that in which, like two marine monsters, these machines were engaged in beneath the troubled waters of this inland lake?
A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the _Sword_ had eluded the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.
Suddenly there was a collision.

The shock was not, it seemed to me, very violent, but I could be under no illusion: the _Sword_ had been struck on her starboard quarter.

Perhaps her plates had resisted, and if not, the water would only invade one of her compartments, I thought.
Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed the _Sword_ with extreme violence.