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diff --git a/old/780.txt b/old/780.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9b607c2..0000000 --- a/old/780.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10919 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War in the Air, by Herbert George Wells - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The War in the Air - -Author: Herbert George Wells - -Posting Date: August 10, 2008 [EBook #780] -Release Date: January, 1997 -Last Updated: June 2, 2010 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR IN THE AIR *** - - - - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer - - - - - -THE WAR IN THE AIR - -By H. G. Wells - - - - - -CONTENTS - - I. OF PROGRESS AND THE SMALLWAYS FAMILY - II. HOW BERT SMALLWAYS GOT INTO DIFFICULTIES - III. THE BALLOON - IV. THE GERMAN AIR-FLEET - V. THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC - VI. HOW WAR CAME TO NEW YORK - VII. THE "VATERLAND" IS DISABLED - VIII. A WORLD AT WAR - IX. ON GOAT ISLAND - X. THE WORLD UNDER THE WAR - XI. THE GREAT COLLAPSE - THE EPILOGUE - - - - -PREFACE TO REPRINT EDITION - -The reader should grasp clearly the date at which this book was written. -It was done in 1907: it appeared in various magazines as a serial in -1908 and it was published in the Fall of that year. At that time the -aeroplane was, for most people, merely a rumour and the "Sausage" held -the air. The contemporary reader has all the advantage of ten years' -experience since this story was imagined. He can correct his author at a -dozen points and estimate the value of these warnings by the standard -of a decade of realities. The book is weak on anti-aircraft guns, for -example, and still more negligent of submarines. Much, no doubt, will -strike the reader as quaint and limited but upon much the writer may not -unreasonably plume himself. The interpretation of the German spirit -must have read as a caricature in 1908. Was it a caricature? Prince -Karl seemed a fantasy then. Reality has since copied Prince Carl with -an astonishing faithfulness. Is it too much to hope that some democratic -"Bert" may not ultimately get even with his Highness? Our author tells -us in this book, as he has told us in others, more especially in The -World Set Free, and as he has been telling us this year in his War -and the Future, that if mankind goes on with war, the smash-up of -civilization is inevitable. It is chaos or the United States of the -World for mankind. There is no other choice. Ten years have but added an -enormous conviction to the message of this book. It remains essentially -right, a pamphlet story--in support of the League to Enforce Peace. K. - - - - - -THE WAR IN THE AIR - - - -CHAPTER I. OF PROGRESS AND THE SMALLWAYS FAMILY - - -1 - -"This here Progress," said Mr. Tom Smallways, "it keeps on." - -"You'd hardly think it could keep on," said Mr. Tom Smallways. - -It was along before the War in the Air began that Mr. Smallways made -this remark. He was sitting on the fence at the end of his garden and -surveying the great Bun Hill gas-works with an eye that neither praised -nor blamed. Above the clustering gasometers three unfamiliar shapes -appeared, thin, wallowing bladders that flapped and rolled about, and -grew bigger and bigger and rounder and rounder--balloons in course -of inflation for the South of England Aero Club's Saturday-afternoon -ascent. - -"They goes up every Saturday," said his neighbour, Mr. Stringer, the -milkman. "It's only yestiday, so to speak, when all London turned out to -see a balloon go over, and now every little place in the country has -its weekly-outings--uppings, rather. It's been the salvation of them gas -companies." - -"Larst Satiday I got three barrer-loads of gravel off my petaters," said -Mr. Tom Smallways. "Three barrer-loads! What they dropped as ballase. -Some of the plants was broke, and some was buried." - -"Ladies, they say, goes up!" - -"I suppose we got to call 'em ladies," said Mr. Tom Smallways. - -"Still, it ain't hardly my idea of a lady--flying about in the air, and -throwing gravel at people. It ain't what I been accustomed to consider -ladylike, whether or no." - -Mr. Stringer nodded his head approvingly, and for a time they continued -to regard the swelling bulks with expressions that had changed from -indifference to disapproval. - -Mr. Tom Smallways was a green-grocer by trade and a gardener by -disposition; his little wife Jessica saw to the shop, and Heaven had -planned him for a peaceful world. Unfortunately Heaven had not planned -a peaceful world for him. He lived in a world of obstinate and incessant -change, and in parts where its operations were unsparingly conspicuous. -Vicissitude was in the very soil he tilled; even his garden was upon a -yearly tenancy, and overshadowed by a huge board that proclaimed it not -so much a garden as an eligible building site. He was horticulture under -notice to quit, the last patch of country in a district flooded by new -and (other) things. He did his best to console himself, to imagine -matters near the turn of the tide. - -"You'd hardly think it could keep on," he said. - -Mr. Smallways' aged father, could remember Bun Hill as an idyllic -Kentish village. He had driven Sir Peter Bone until he was fifty and -then he took to drink a little, and driving the station bus, which -lasted him until he was seventy-eight. Then he retired. He sat by the -fireside, a shrivelled, very, very old coachman, full charged with -reminiscences, and ready for any careless stranger. He could tell you of -the vanished estate of Sir Peter Bone, long since cut up for building, -and how that magnate ruled the country-side when it was country-side, of -shooting and hunting, and of caches along the high road, of how "where -the gas-works is" was a cricket-field, and of the coming of the Crystal -Palace. The Crystal Palace was six miles away from Bun Hill, a great -facade that glittered in the morning, and was a clear blue outline -against the sky in the afternoon, and of a night, a source of gratuitous -fireworks for all the population of Bun Hill. And then had come the -railway, and then villas and villas, and then the gas-works and the -water-works, and a great, ugly sea of workmen's houses, and then -drainage, and the water vanished out of the Otterbourne and left it a -dreadful ditch, and then a second railway station, Bun Hill South, and -more houses and more, more shops, more competition, plate-glass shops, -a school-board, rates, omnibuses, tramcars--going right away into -London itself--bicycles, motor-cars and then more motor-cars, a Carnegie -library. - -"You'd hardly think it could keep on," said Mr. Tom Smallways, growing -up among these marvels. - -But it kept on. Even from the first the green-grocer's shop which he had -set up in one of the smallest of the old surviving village houses in -the tail of the High Street had a submerged air, an air of hiding from -something that was looking for it. When they had made up the pavement of -the High Street, they levelled that up so that one had to go down three -steps into the shop. Tom did his best to sell only his own excellent -but limited range of produce; but Progress came shoving things into his -window, French artichokes and aubergines, foreign apples--apples from -the State of New York, apples from California, apples from Canada, -apples from New Zealand, "pretty lookin' fruit, but not what I should -call English apples," said Tom--bananas, unfamiliar nuts, grape fruits, -mangoes. - -The motor-cars that went by northward and southward grew more and more -powerful and efficient, whizzed faster and smelt worse, there appeared -great clangorous petrol trolleys delivering coal and parcels in -the place of vanishing horse-vans, motor-omnibuses ousted the -horse-omnibuses, even the Kentish strawberries going Londonward in the -night took to machinery and clattered instead of creaking, and became -affected in flavour by progress and petrol. - -And then young Bert Smallways got a motor bicycle.... - -2 - -Bert, it is necessary to explain, was a progressive Smallways. - -Nothing speaks more eloquently of the pitiless insistence of progress -and expansion in our time than that it should get into the Smallways -blood. But there was something advanced and enterprising about young -Smallways before he was out of short frocks. He was lost for a whole -day before he was five, and nearly drowned in the reservoir of the new -water-works before he was seven. He had a real pistol taken away from -him by a real policeman when he was ten. And he learnt to smoke, not -with pipes and brown paper and cane as Tom had done, but with a penny -packet of Boys of England American cigarettes. His language shocked -his father before he was twelve, and by that age, what with touting for -parcels at the station and selling the Bun Hill Weekly Express, he was -making three shillings a week, or more, and spending it on Chips, Comic -Cuts, Ally Sloper's Half-holiday, cigarettes, and all the concomitants -of a life of pleasure and enlightenment. All of this without hindrance -to his literary studies, which carried him up to the seventh standard at -an exceptionally early age. I mention these things so that you may have -no doubt at all concerning the sort of stuff Bert had in him. - -He was six years younger than Tom, and for a time there was an attempt -to utilise him in the green-grocer's shop when Tom at twenty-one married -Jessica--who was thirty, and had saved a little money in service. But it -was not Bert's forte to be utilised. He hated digging, and when he -was given a basket of stuff to deliver, a nomadic instinct arose -irresistibly, it became his pack and he did not seem to care how heavy -it was nor where he took it, so long as he did not take it to its -destination. Glamour filled the world, and he strayed after it, basket -and all. So Tom took his goods out himself, and sought employers for -Bert who did not know of this strain of poetry in his nature. And Bert -touched the fringe of a number of trades in succession--draper's porter, -chemist's boy, doctor's page, junior assistant gas-fitter, envelope -addresser, milk-cart assistant, golf caddie, and at last helper in a -bicycle shop. Here, apparently, he found the progressive quality his -nature had craved. His employer was a pirate-souled young man named -Grubb, with a black-smeared face by day, and a music-hall side in the -evening, who dreamt of a patent lever chain; and it seemed to Bert that -he was the perfect model of a gentleman of spirit. He hired out quite -the dirtiest and unsafest bicycles in the whole south of England, and -conducted the subsequent discussions with astonishing verve. Bert and -he settled down very well together. Bert lived in, became almost a trick -rider--he could ride bicycles for miles that would have come to pieces -instantly under you or me--took to washing his face after business, and -spent his surplus money upon remarkable ties and collars, cigarettes, -and shorthand classes at the Bun Hill Institute. - -He would go round to Tom at times, and look and talk so brilliantly -that Tom and Jessie, who both had a natural tendency to be respectful to -anybody or anything, looked up to him immensely. - -"He's a go-ahead chap, is Bert," said Tom. "He knows a thing or two." - -"Let's hope he don't know too much," said Jessica, who had a fine sense -of limitations. - -"It's go-ahead Times," said Tom. "Noo petaters, and English at that; -we'll be having 'em in March if things go on as they do go. I never see -such Times. See his tie last night?" - -"It wasn't suited to him, Tom. It was a gentleman's tie. He wasn't up to -it--not the rest of him, It wasn't becoming"... - -Then presently Bert got a cyclist's suit, cap, badge, and all; and -to see him and Grubb going down to Brighton (and back)--heads -down, handle-bars down, backbones curved--was a revelation in the -possibilities of the Smallways blood. - -Go-ahead Times! - -Old Smallways would sit over the fire mumbling of the greatness of other -days, of old Sir Peter, who drove his coach to Brighton and back in -eight-and-twenty hours, of old Sir Peter's white top-hats, of Lady Bone, -who never set foot to ground except to walk in the garden, of the great, -prize-fights at Crawley. He talked of pink and pig-skin breeches, of -foxes at Ring's Bottom, where now the County Council pauper lunatics -were enclosed, of Lady Bone's chintzes and crinolines. Nobody heeded -him. The world had thrown up a new type of gentleman altogether--a -gentleman of most ungentlemanly energy, a gentleman in dusty oilskins -and motor goggles and a wonderful cap, a stink-making gentleman, a -swift, high-class badger, who fled perpetually along high roads from the -dust and stink he perpetually made. And his lady, as they were able -to see her at Bun Hill, was a weather-bitten goddess, as free from -refinement as a gipsy--not so much dressed as packed for transit at a -high velocity. - -So Bert grew up, filled with ideals of speed and enterprise, and -became, so far as he became anything, a kind of bicycle engineer of the -let's-have-a-look-at-it and enamel chipping variety. Even a road-racer, -geared to a hundred and twenty, failed to satisfy him, and for a time he -pined in vain at twenty miles an hour along roads that were continually -more dusty and more crowded with mechanical traffic. But at last his -savings accumulated, and his chance came. The hire-purchase system -bridged a financial gap, and one bright and memorable Sunday morning he -wheeled his new possession through the shop into the road, got on to it -with the advice and assistance of Grubb, and teuf-teuffed off into -the haze of the traffic-tortured high road, to add himself as one more -voluntary public danger to the amenities of the south of England. - -"Orf to Brighton!" said old Smallways, regarding his youngest son from -the sitting-room window over the green-grocer's shop with something -between pride and reprobation. "When I was 'is age, I'd never been to -London, never bin south of Crawley--never bin anywhere on my own where -I couldn't walk. And nobody didn't go. Not unless they was gentry. Now -every body's orf everywhere; the whole dratted country sims flying to -pieces. Wonder they all get back. Orf to Brighton indeed! Anybody want -to buy 'orses?" - -"You can't say _I_ bin to Brighton, father," said Tom. - -"Nor don't want to go," said Jessica sharply; "creering about and -spendin' your money." - -3 - -For a time the possibilities of the motor-bicycle so occupied Bert's -mind that he remained regardless of the new direction in which the -striving soul of man was finding exercise and refreshment. He failed -to observe that the type of motor-car, like the type of bicycle, was -settling-down and losing its adventurous quality. Indeed, it is as -true as it is remarkable that Tom was the first to observe the new -development. But his gardening made him attentive to the heavens, and -the proximity of the Bun Hill gas-works and the Crystal Palace, from -which ascents were continually being made, and presently the descent of -ballast upon his potatoes, conspired to bear in upon his unwilling mind -the fact that the Goddess of Change was turning her disturbing attention -to the sky. The first great boom in aeronautics was beginning. - -Grubb and Bert heard of it in a music-hall, then it was driven home to -their minds by the cinematograph, then Bert's imagination was stimulated -by a sixpenny edition of that aeronautic classic, Mr. George Griffith's -"Clipper of the Clouds," and so the thing really got hold of them. - -At first the most obvious aspect was the multiplication of balloons. -The sky of Bun Hill began to be infested by balloons. On Wednesday and -Saturday afternoons particularly you could scarcely look skyward for a -quarter of an hour without discovering a balloon somewhere. And then one -bright day Bert, motoring toward Croydon, was arrested by the insurgence -of a huge, bolster-shaped monster from the Crystal Palace grounds, and -obliged to dismount and watch it. It was like a bolster with a broken -nose, and below it, and comparatively small, was a stiff framework -bearing a man and an engine with a screw that whizzed round in front and -a sort of canvas rudder behind. The framework had an air of dragging the -reluctant gas-cylinder after it like a brisk little terrier towing a -shy gas-distended elephant into society. The combined monster certainly -travelled and steered. It went overhead perhaps a thousand feet up -(Bert heard the engine), sailed away southward, vanished over the hills, -reappeared a little blue outline far off in the east, going now very -fast before a gentle south-west gale, returned above the Crystal Palace -towers, circled round them, chose a position for descent, and sank down -out of sight. - -Bert sighed deeply, and turned to his motor-bicycle again. - -And that was only the beginning of a succession of strange phenomena -in the heavens--cylinders, cones, pear-shaped monsters, even at last a -thing of aluminium that glittered wonderfully, and that Grubb, through -some confusion of ideas about armour plates, was inclined to consider a -war machine. - -There followed actual flight. - -This, however, was not an affair that was visible from Bun Hill; it was -something that occurred in private grounds or other enclosed places and, -under favourable conditions, and it was brought home to Grubb and -Bert Smallways only by means of the magazine page of the half-penny -newspapers or by cinematograph records. But it was brought home very -insistently, and in those days if, ever one heard a man saying in a -public place in a loud, reassuring, confident tone, "It's bound to -come," the chances were ten to one he was talking of flying. And Bert -got a box lid and wrote out in correct window-ticket style, and Grubb -put in the window this inscription, "Aeroplanes made and repaired." It -quite upset Tom--it seemed taking one's shop so lightly; but most of the -neighbours, and all the sporting ones, approved of it as being very good -indeed. - -Everybody talked of flying, everybody repeated over and over again, -"Bound to come," and then you know it didn't come. There was a hitch. -They flew--that was all right; they flew in machines heavier than air. -But they smashed. Sometimes they smashed the engine, sometimes they -smashed the aeronaut, usually they smashed both. Machines that made -flights of three or four miles and came down safely, went up the next -time to headlong disaster. There seemed no possible trusting to them. -The breeze upset them, the eddies near the ground upset them, a passing -thought in the mind of the aeronaut upset them. Also they upset--simply. - -"It's this 'stability' does 'em," said Grubb, repeating his newspaper. -"They pitch and they pitch, till they pitch themselves to pieces." - -Experiments fell away after two expectant years of this sort of success, -the public and then the newspapers tired of the expensive photographic -reproductions, the optimistic reports, the perpetual sequence of triumph -and disaster and silence. Flying slumped, even ballooning fell away to -some extent, though it remained a fairly popular sport, and continued -to lift gravel from the wharf of the Bun Hill gas-works and drop it upon -deserving people's lawns and gardens. There were half a dozen reassuring -years for Tom--at least so far as flying was concerned. But that was the -great time of mono-rail development, and his anxiety was only diverted -from the high heavens by the most urgent threats and symptoms of change -in the lower sky. - -There had been talk of mono-rails for several years. But the real -mischief began when Brennan sprang his gyroscopic mono-rail car upon the -Royal Society. It was the leading sensation of the 1907 soirees; that -celebrated demonstration-room was all too small for its exhibition. -Brave soldiers, leading Zionists, deserving novelists, noble ladies, -congested the narrow passage and thrust distinguished elbows into ribs -the world would not willingly let break, deeming themselves fortunate -if they could see "just a little bit of the rail." Inaudible, but -convincing, the great inventor expounded his discovery, and sent his -obedient little model of the trains of the future up gradients, round -curves, and across a sagging wire. It ran along its single rail, on its -single wheels, simple and sufficient; it stopped, reversed stood still, -balancing perfectly. It maintained its astounding equilibrium amidst a -thunder of applause. The audience dispersed at last, discussing how -far they would enjoy crossing an abyss on a wire cable. "Suppose the -gyroscope stopped!" Few of them anticipated a tithe of what the Brennan -mono-rail would do for their railway securities and the face of the -world. - -In a few, years they realised better. In a little while no one -thought anything of crossing an abyss on a wire, and the mono-rail was -superseding the tram-lines, railways: and indeed every form of track -for mechanical locomotion. Where land was cheap the rail ran along -the ground, where it was dear the rail lifted up on iron standards and -passed overhead; its swift, convenient cars went everywhere and did -everything that had once been done along made tracks upon the ground. - -When old Smallways died, Tom could think of nothing more striking to say -of him than that, "When he was a boy, there wasn't nothing higher than -your chimbleys--there wasn't a wire nor a cable in the sky!" - -Old Smallways went to his grave under an intricate network of wires and -cables, for Bun Hill became not only a sort of minor centre of power -distribution--the Home Counties Power Distribution Company set -up transformers and a generating station close beside the old -gas-works--but, also a junction on the suburban mono-rail system. -Moreover, every tradesman in the place, and indeed nearly every house, -had its own telephone. - -The mono-rail cable standard became a striking fact in urban landscape, -for the most part stout iron erections rather like tapering trestles, -and painted a bright bluish green. One, it happened, bestrode Tom's -house, which looked still more retiring and apologetic beneath its -immensity; and another giant stood just inside the corner of his garden, -which was still not built upon and unchanged, except for a couple of -advertisement boards, one recommending a two-and-sixpenny watch, and one -a nerve restorer. These, by the bye, were placed almost horizontally to -catch the eye of the passing mono-rail passengers above, and so served -admirably to roof over a tool-shed and a mushroom-shed for Tom. All day -and all night the fast cars from Brighton and Hastings went murmuring by -overhead long, broad, comfortable-looking cars, that were brightly lit -after dusk. As they flew by at night, transient flares of light and a -rumbling sound of passage, they kept up a perpetual summer lightning and -thunderstorm in the street below. - -Presently the English Channel was bridged--a series of great iron Eiffel -Tower pillars carrying mono-rail cables at a height of a hundred and -fifty feet above the water, except near the middle, where they rose -higher to allow the passage of the London and Antwerp shipping and the -Hamburg-America liners. - -Then heavy motor-cars began to run about on only a couple of wheels, one -behind the other, which for some reason upset Tom dreadfully, and made -him gloomy for days after the first one passed the shop... - -All this gyroscopic and mono-rail development naturally absorbed a -vast amount of public attention, and there was also a huge excitement -consequent upon the amazing gold discoveries off the coast of Anglesea -made by a submarine prospector, Miss Patricia Giddy. She had taken her -degree in geology and mineralogy in the University of London, and while -working upon the auriferous rocks of North Wales, after a brief holiday -spent in agitating for women's suffrage, she had been struck by the -possibility of these reefs cropping up again under the water. She had -set herself to verify this supposition by the use of the submarine -crawler invented by Doctor Alberto Cassini. By a happy mingling of -reasoning and intuition peculiar to her sex she found gold at her -first descent, and emerged after three hours' submersion with about two -hundredweight of ore containing gold in the unparalleled quantity -of seventeen ounces to the ton. But the whole story of her submarine -mining, intensely interesting as it is, must be told at some other time; -suffice it now to remark simply that it was during the consequent great -rise of prices, confidence, and enterprise that the revival of interest -in flying occurred. - -It is curious how that revival began. It was like the coming of a breeze -on a quiet day; nothing started it, it came. People began to talk of -flying with an air of never having for one moment dropped the subject. -Pictures of flying and flying machines returned to the newspapers; -articles and allusions increased and multiplied in the serious -magazines. People asked in mono-rail trains, "When are we going to fly?" -A new crop of inventors sprang up in a night or so like fungi. The Aero -Club announced the project of a great Flying Exhibition in a large -area of ground that the removal of slums in Whitechapel had rendered -available. - -The advancing wave soon produced a sympathetic ripple in the Bun Hill -establishment. Grubb routed out his flying-machine model again, tried it -in the yard behind the shop, got a kind of flight out of it, and broke -seventeen panes of glass and nine flower-pots in the greenhouse that -occupied the next yard but one. - -And then, springing from nowhere, sustained one knew not how, came a -persistent, disturbing rumour that the problem had been solved, that -the secret was known. Bert met it one early-closing afternoon as he -refreshed himself in an inn near Nutfield, whither his motor-bicycle had -brought him. There smoked and meditated a person in khaki, an engineer, -who presently took an interest in Bert's machine. It was a sturdy piece -of apparatus, and it had acquired a kind of documentary value in these -quick-changing times; it was now nearly eight years old. Its points -discussed, the soldier broke into a new topic with, "My next's going -to be an aeroplane, so far as I can see. I've had enough of roads and -ways." - -"They TORK," said Bert. - -"They talk--and they do," said the soldier. - -"The thing's coming--" - -"It keeps ON coming," said Bert; "I shall believe when I see it." - -"That won't be long," said the soldier. - -The conversation seemed degenerating into an amiable wrangle of -contradiction. - -"I tell you they ARE flying," the soldier insisted. "I see it myself." - -"We've all seen it," said Bert. - -"I don't mean flap up and smash up; I mean real, safe, steady, -controlled flying, against the wind, good and right." - -"You ain't seen that!" - -"I 'AVE! Aldershot. They try to keep it a secret. They got it right -enough. You bet--our War Office isn't going to be caught napping this -time." - -Bert's incredulity was shaken. He asked questions--and the soldier -expanded. - -"I tell you they got nearly a square mile fenced in--a sort of valley. -Fences of barbed wire ten feet high, and inside that they do things. -Chaps about the camp--now and then we get a peep. It isn't only -us neither. There's the Japanese; you bet they got it too--and the -Germans!" - -The soldier stood with his legs very wide apart, and filled his pipe -thoughtfully. Bert sat on the low wall against which his motor-bicycle -was leaning. - -"Funny thing fighting'll be," he said. - -"Flying's going to break out," said the soldier. "When it DOES come, -when the curtain does go up, I tell you you'll find every one on the -stage--busy.... Such fighting, too!... I suppose you don't read the -papers about this sort of thing?" - -"I read 'em a bit," said Bert. - -"Well, have you noticed what one might call the remarkable case of -the disappearing inventor--the inventor who turns up in a blaze of -publicity, fires off a few successful experiments, and vanishes?" - -"Can't say I 'ave," said Bert. - -"Well, I 'ave, anyhow. You get anybody come along who does anything -striking in this line, and, you bet, he vanishes. Just goes off quietly -out of sight. After a bit, you don't hear anything more of 'em at all. -See? They disappear. Gone--no address. First--oh! it's an old story -now--there was those Wright Brothers out in America. They glided--they -glided miles and miles. Finally they glided off stage. Why, it must be -nineteen hundred and four, or five, THEY vanished! Then there was those -people in Ireland--no, I forget their names. Everybody said they could -fly. THEY went. They ain't dead that I've heard tell; but you can't say -they're alive. Not a feather of 'em can you see. Then that chap who flew -round Paris and upset in the Seine. De Booley, was it? I forget. That -was a grand fly, in spite of the accident; but where's he got to? The -accident didn't hurt him. Eh? _'E_'s gone to cover." - -The soldier prepared to light his pipe. - -"Looks like a secret society got hold of them," said Bert. - -"Secret society! NAW!" - -The soldier lit his match, and drew. "Secret society," he repeated, with -his pipe between his teeth and the match flaring, in response to his -words. "War Departments; that's more like it." He threw his match aside, -and walked to his machine. "I tell you, sir," he said, "there isn't a -big Power in Europe, OR Asia, OR America, OR Africa, that hasn't got -at least one or two flying machines hidden up its sleeve at the present -time. Not one. Real, workable, flying machines. And the spying! The -spying and manoeuvring to find out what the others have got. I tell you, -sir, a foreigner, or, for the matter of that, an unaccredited native, -can't get within four miles of Lydd nowadays--not to mention our little -circus at Aldershot, and the experimental camp in Galway. No!" - -"Well," said Bert, "I'd like to see one of them, anyhow. Jest to help -believing. I'll believe when I see, that I'll promise you." - -"You'll see 'em, fast enough," said the soldier, and led his machine out -into the road. - -He left Bert on his wall, grave and pensive, with his cap on the back of -his head, and a cigarette smouldering in the corner of his mouth. - -"If what he says is true," said Bert, "me and Grubb, we been wasting our -blessed old time. Besides incurring expense with that green-'ouse." - -5 - -It was while this mysterious talk with the soldier still stirred in Bert -Smallways' imagination that the most astounding incident in the whole of -that dramatic chapter of human history, the coming of flying, -occurred. People talk glibly enough of epoch-making events; this was -an epoch-making event. It was the unanticipated and entirely successful -flight of Mr. Alfred Butteridge from the Crystal Palace to Glasgow -and back in a small businesslike-looking machine heavier than air--an -entirely manageable and controllable machine that could fly as well as a -pigeon. - -It wasn't, one felt, a fresh step forward in the matter so much as a -giant stride, a leap. Mr. Butteridge remained in the air altogether -for about nine hours, and during that time he flew with the ease and -assurance of a bird. His machine was, however neither bird-like nor -butterfly-like, nor had it the wide, lateral expansion of the ordinary -aeroplane. The effect upon the observer was rather something in the -nature of a bee or wasp. Parts of the apparatus were spinning very -rapidly, and gave one a hazy effect of transparent wings; but parts, -including two peculiarly curved "wing-cases"--if one may borrow a figure -from the flying beetles--remained expanded stiffly. In the middle was -a long rounded body like the body of a moth, and on this Mr. Butteridge -could be seen sitting astride, much as a man bestrides a horse. The -wasp-like resemblance was increased by the fact that the apparatus -flew with a deep booming hum, exactly the sound made by a wasp at a -windowpane. - -Mr. Butteridge took the world by surprise. He was one of those gentlemen -from nowhere Fate still succeeds in producing for the stimulation of -mankind. He came, it was variously said, from Australia and America and -the South of France. He was also described quite incorrectly as the son -of a man who had amassed a comfortable fortune in the manufacture of -gold nibs and the Butteridge fountain pens. But this was an entirely -different strain of Butteridges. For some years, in spite of a loud -voice, a large presence, an aggressive swagger, and an implacable -manner, he had been an undistinguished member of most of the existing -aeronautical associations. Then one day he wrote to all the London -papers to announce that he had made arrangements for an ascent from the -Crystal Palace of a machine that would demonstrate satisfactorily that -the outstanding difficulties in the way of flying were finally solved. -Few of the papers printed his letter, still fewer were the people who -believed in his claim. No one was excited even when a fracas on the -steps of a leading hotel in Piccadilly, in which he tried to horse-whip -a prominent German musician upon some personal account, delayed his -promised ascent. The quarrel was inadequately reported, and his name -spelt variously Betteridge and Betridge. Until his flight indeed, he -did not and could not contrive to exist in the public mind. There were -scarcely thirty people on the look-out for him, in spite of all his -clamour, when about six o'clock one summer morning the doors of the big -shed in which he had been putting together his apparatus opened--it was -near the big model of a megatherium in the Crystal Palace grounds--and -his giant insect came droning out into a negligent and incredulous -world. - -But before he had made his second circuit of the Crystal Palace towers, -Fame was lifting her trumpet, she drew a deep breath as the startled -tramps who sleep on the seats of Trafalgar Square were roused by his -buzz and awoke to discover him circling the Nelson column, and by the -time he had got to Birmingham, which place he crossed about half-past -ten, her deafening blast was echoing throughout the country. The -despaired-of thing was done. - -A man was flying securely and well. - -Scotland was agape for his coming. Glasgow he reached by one o'clock, -and it is related that scarcely a ship-yard or factory in that busy hive -of industry resumed work before half-past two. The public mind was just -sufficiently educated in the impossibility of flying to appreciate Mr. -Butteridge at his proper value. He circled the University buildings, and -dropped to within shouting distance of the crowds in West End Park and -on the slope of Gilmorehill. The thing flew quite steadily at a pace -of about three miles an hour, in a wide circle, making a deep hum that, -would have drowned his full, rich voice completely had he not provided -himself with a megaphone. He avoided churches, buildings, and mono-rail -cables with consummate ease as he conversed. - -"Me name's Butteridge," he shouted; "B-U-T-T-E-R-I-D-G-E.--Got it? Me -mother was Scotch." - -And having assured himself that he had been understood, he rose amidst -cheers and shouting and patriotic cries, and then flew up very swiftly -and easily into the south-eastern sky, rising and falling with long, -easy undulations in an extraordinarily wasp-like manner. - -His return to London--he visited and hovered over Manchester and -Liverpool and Oxford on his way, and spelt his name out to each -place--was an occasion of unparalleled excitement. Every one was staring -heavenward. More people were run over in the streets upon that one day, -than in the previous three months, and a County Council steamboat, the -Isaac Walton, collided with a pier of Westminster Bridge, and narrowly -escaped disaster by running ashore--it was low water--on the mud on -the south side. He returned to the Crystal Palace grounds, that classic -starting-point of aeronautical adventure, about sunset, re-entered his -shed without disaster, and had the doors locked immediately upon the -photographers and journalists who been waiting his return. - -"Look here, you chaps," he said, as his assistant did so, "I'm tired to -death, and saddle sore. I can't give you a word of talk. I'm too--done. -My name's Butteridge. B-U-T-T-E-R-I-D-G-E. Get that right. I'm an -Imperial Englishman. I'll talk to you all to-morrow." - -Foggy snapshots still survive to record that incident. His assistant -struggles in a sea of aggressive young men carrying note-books or -upholding cameras and wearing bowler hats and enterprising ties. He -himself towers up in the doorway, a big figure with a mouth--an eloquent -cavity beneath a vast black moustache--distorted by his shout to these -relentless agents of publicity. He towers there, the most famous man in -the country. - -Almost symbolically he holds and gesticulates with a megaphone in his -left hand. - -6 - -Tom and Bert Smallways both saw that return. They watched from the crest -of Bun Hill, from which they had so often surveyed the pyrotechnics of -the Crystal Palace. Bert was excited, Tom kept calm and lumpish, but -neither of them realised how their own lives were to be invaded by the -fruits of that beginning. "P'raps old Grubb'll mind the shop a bit now," -he said, "and put his blessed model in the fire. Not that that can save -us, if we don't tide over with Steinhart's account." - -Bert knew enough of things and the problem of aeronautics to realise -that this gigantic imitation of a bee would, to use his own idiom, "give -the newspapers fits." The next day it was clear the fits had been given -even as he said: their magazine pages were black with hasty photographs, -their prose was convulsive, they foamed at the headline. The next day -they were worse. Before the week was out they were not so much published -as carried screaming into the street. - -The dominant fact in the uproar was the exceptional personality of Mr. -Butteridge, and the extraordinary terms he demanded for the secret of -his machine. - -For it was a secret and he kept it secret in the most elaborate fashion. -He built his apparatus himself in the safe privacy of the great Crystal -Palace sheds, with the assistance of inattentive workmen, and the day -next following his flight he took it to pieces single handed, packed -certain portions, and then secured unintelligent assistance in packing -and dispersing the rest. Sealed packing-cases went north and east and -west to various pantechnicons, and the engines were boxed with peculiar -care. It became evident these precautions were not inadvisable in view -of the violent demand for any sort of photograph or impressions of -his machine. But Mr. Butteridge, having once made his demonstration, -intended to keep his secret safe from any further risk of leakage. He -faced the British public now with the question whether they wanted his -secret or not; he was, he said perpetually, an "Imperial Englishman," -and his first wish and his last was to see his invention the privilege -and monopoly of the Empire. Only-- - -It was there the difficulty began. - -Mr. Butteridge, it became evident, was a man singularly free from any -false modesty--indeed, from any modesty of any kind--singularly willing -to see interviewers, answer questions upon any topic except aeronautics, -volunteer opinions, criticisms, and autobiography, supply portraits and -photographs of himself, and generally spread his personality across -the terrestrial sky. The published portraits insisted primarily upon an -immense black moustache, and secondarily upon a fierceness behind the -moustache. The general impression upon the public was that Butteridge, -was a small man. No one big, it was felt, could have so virulently -aggressive an expression, though, as a matter of fact, Butteridge had a -height of six feet two inches, and a weight altogether proportionate to -that. Moreover, he had a love affair of large and unusual dimensions and -irregular circumstances and the still largely decorous British public -learnt with reluctance and alarm that a sympathetic treatment of this -affair was inseparable from the exclusive acquisition of the priceless -secret of aerial stability by the British Empire. The exact particulars -of the similarity never came to light, but apparently the lady had, in -a fit of high-minded inadvertence, had gone through the ceremony -of marriage with, one quotes the unpublished discourse of Mr. -Butteridge--"a white-livered skunk," and this zoological aberration did -in some legal and vexatious manner mar her social happiness. He wanted -to talk about the business, to show the splendour of her nature in the -light of its complications. It was really most embarrassing to a press -that has always possessed a considerable turn for reticence, that wanted -things personal indeed in the modern fashion. Yet not too personal. -It was embarrassing, I say, to be inexorably confronted with -Mr. Butteridge's great heart, to see it laid open in relentlesss -self-vivisection, and its pulsating dissepiments adorned with emphatic -flag labels. - -Confronted they were, and there was no getting away from it. He -would make this appalling viscus beat and throb before the shrinking -journalists--no uncle with a big watch and a little baby ever harped -upon it so relentlessly; whatever evasion they attempted he set aside. -He "gloried in his love," he said, and compelled them to write it down. - -"That's of course a private affair, Mr. Butteridge," they would object. - -"The injustice, sorr, is public. I do not care either I am up against -institutions or individuals. I do not care if I am up against the -universal All. I am pleading the cause of a woman, a woman I lurve, -sorr--a noble woman--misunderstood. I intend to vindicate her, sorr, to -the four winds of heaven!" - -"I lurve England," he used to say--"lurve England, but Puritanism, sorr, -I abhor. It fills me with loathing. It raises my gorge. Take my own -case." - -He insisted relentlessly upon his heart, and upon seeing proofs of the -interview. If they had not done justice to his erotic bellowings and -gesticulations, he stuck in, in a large inky scrawl, all and more than -they had omitted. - -It was a strangely embarrassing thing for British journalism. Never was -there a more obvious or uninteresting affair; never had the world heard -the story of erratic affection with less appetite or sympathy. On the -other hand it was extremely curious about Mr. Butteridge's invention. -But when Mr. Butteridge could be deflected for a moment from the cause -of the lady he championed, then he talked chiefly, and usually -with tears of tenderness in his voice, about his mother and his -childhood--his mother who crowned a complete encyclopedia of maternal -virtue by being "largely Scotch." She was not quite neat, but nearly so. -"I owe everything in me to me mother," he asserted--"everything. Eh!" -and--"ask any man who's done anything. You'll hear the same story. All -we have we owe to women. They are the species, sorr. Man is but a dream. -He comes and goes. The woman's soul leadeth us upward and on!" - -He was always going on like that. - -What in particular he wanted from the Government for his secret did not -appear, nor what beyond a money payment could be expected from a modern -state in such an affair. The general effect upon judicious observers, -indeed, was not that he was treating for anything, but that he was using -an unexampled opportunity to bellow and show off to an attentive world. -Rumours of his real identity spread abroad. It was said that he had been -the landlord of an ambiguous hotel in Cape Town, and had there given -shelter to, and witnessed, the experiments and finally stolen the papers -and plans of, an extremely shy and friendless young inventor named -Palliser, who had come to South Africa from England in an advanced stage -of consumption, and died there. This, at any rate, was the allegation -of the more outspoken American press. But the proof or disproof of that -never reached the public. - -Mr. Butteridge also involved himself passionately in a tangle of -disputes for the possession of a great number of valuable money prizes. -Some of these had been offered so long ago as 1906 for successful -mechanical flight. By the time of Mr. Butteridge's success a really -very considerable number of newspapers, tempted by the impunity of the -pioneers in this direction, had pledged themselves to pay in some cases, -quite overwhelming sums to the first person to fly from Manchester to -Glasgow, from London to Manchester, one hundred miles, two hundred -miles in England, and the like. Most had hedged a little with ambiguous -conditions, and now offered resistance; one or two paid at once, and -vehemently called attention to the fact; and Mr. Butteridge plunged into -litigation with the more recalcitrant, while at the same time sustaining -a vigorous agitation and canvass to induce the Government to purchase -his invention. - -One fact, however, remained permanent throughout all the developments of -this affair behind Butteridge's preposterous love interest, his politics -and personality, and all his shouting and boasting, and that was that, -so far as the mass of people knew, he was in sole possession of the -secret of the practicable aeroplane in which, for all one could tell -to the contrary, the key of the future empire of the world resided. And -presently, to the great consternation of innumerable people, including -among others Mr. Bert Smallways, it became apparent that whatever -negotiations were in progress for the acquisition of this precious -secret by the British Government were in danger of falling through. The -London Daily Requiem first voiced the universal alarm, and published -an interview under the terrific caption of, "Mr. Butteridge Speaks his -Mind." - -Therein the inventor--if he was an inventor--poured out his heart. - -"I came from the end of the earth," he said, which rather seemed to -confirm the Cape Town story, "bringing me Motherland the secret that -would give her the empire of the world. And what do I get?" He paused. -"I am sniffed at by elderly mandarins!... And the woman I love is -treated like a leper!" - -"I am an Imperial Englishman," he went on in a splendid outburst, -subsequently written into the interview by his own hand; "but there -there are limits to the human heart! There are younger nations--living -nations! Nations that do not snore and gurgle helplessly in paroxysms -of plethora upon beds of formality and red tape! There are nations that -will not fling away the empire of earth in order to slight an unknown -man and insult a noble woman whose boots they are not fitted to unlatch. -There are nations not blinded to Science, not given over hand and foot -to effete snobocracies and Degenerate Decadents. In short, mark my -words--THERE ARE OTHER NATIONS!" - -This speech it was that particularly impressed Bert Smallways. "If them -Germans or them Americans get hold of this," he said impressively to -his brother, "the British Empire's done. It's U-P. The Union Jack, so to -speak, won't be worth the paper it's written on, Tom." - -"I suppose you couldn't lend us a hand this morning," said Jessica, -in his impressive pause. "Everybody in Bun Hill seems wanting early -potatoes at once. Tom can't carry half of them." - -"We're living on a volcano," said Bert, disregarding the suggestion. "At -any moment war may come--such a war!" - -He shook his head portentously. - -"You'd better take this lot first, Tom," said Jessica. She turned -briskly on Bert. "Can you spare us a morning?" she asked. - -"I dessay I can," said Bert. "The shop's very quiet s'morning. Though -all this danger to the Empire worries me something frightful." - -"Work'll take it off your mind," said Jessica. - -And presently he too was going out into a world of change and wonder, -bowed beneath a load of potatoes and patriotic insecurity, that merged -at last into a very definite irritation at the weight and want of style -of the potatoes and a very clear conception of the entire detestableness -of Jessica. - - - -CHAPTER II. HOW BERT SMALLWAYS GOT INTO DIFFICULTIES - -It did not occur to either Tom or Bert Smallways that this remarkable -aerial performance of Mr. Butteridge was likely to affect either of -their lives in any special manner, that it would in any way single them -out from the millions about them; and when they had witnessed it from -the crest of Bun Hill and seen the fly-like mechanism, its rotating -planes a golden haze in the sunset, sink humming to the harbour of its -shed again, they turned back towards the sunken green-grocery beneath -the great iron standard of the London to Brighton mono-rail, and their -minds reverted to the discussion that had engaged them before Mr. -Butteridge's triumph had come in sight out of the London haze. - -It was a difficult and unsuccessful discussions. They had to carry it -on in shouts because of the moaning and roaring of the gyroscopic -motor-cars that traversed the High Street, and in its nature it was -contentious and private. The Grubb business was in difficulties, and -Grubb in a moment of financial eloquence had given a half-share in it -to Bert, whose relations with his employer had been for some time -unsalaried and pallish and informal. - -Bert was trying to impress Tom with the idea that the reconstructed -Grubb & Smallways offered unprecedented and unparalleled opportunities -to the judicious small investor. It was coming home to Bert, as though -it were an entirely new fact, that Tom was singularly impervious to -ideas. In the end he put the financial issues on one side, and, making -the thing entirely a matter of fraternal affection, succeeded in -borrowing a sovereign on the security of his word of honour. - -The firm of Grubb & Smallways, formerly Grubb, had indeed been -singularly unlucky in the last year or so. For many years the business -had struggled along with a flavour of romantic insecurity in a small, -dissolute-looking shop in the High Street, adorned with brilliantly -coloured advertisements of cycles, a display of bells, trouser-clips, -oil-cans, pump-clips, frame-cases, wallets, and other accessories, and -the announcement of "Bicycles on Hire," "Repairs," "Free inflation," -"Petrol," and similar attractions. They were agents for several obscure -makes of bicycle,--two samples constituted the stock,--and occasionally -they effected a sale; they also repaired punctures and did their -best--though luck was not always on their side--with any other repairing -that was brought to them. They handled a line of cheap gramophones, and -did a little with musical boxes. - -The staple of their business was, however, the letting of bicycles on -hire. It was a singular trade, obeying no known commercial or economic -principles--indeed, no principles. There was a stock of ladies' and -gentlemen's bicycles in a state of disrepair that passes description, -and these, the hiring stock, were let to unexacting and reckless people, -inexpert in the things of this world, at a nominal rate of one shilling -for the first hour and sixpence per hour afterwards. But really there -were no fixed prices, and insistent boys could get bicycles and the -thrill of danger for an hour for so low a sum as threepence, provided -they could convince Grubb that that was all they had. The saddle and -handle-bar were then sketchily adjusted by Grubb, a deposit exacted, -except in the case of familiar boys, the machine lubricated, and the -adventurer started upon his career. Usually he or she came back, but at -times, when the accident was serious, Bert or Grubb had to go out and -fetch the machine home. Hire was always charged up to the hour of return -to the shop and deducted from the deposit. It was rare that a bicycle -started out from their hands in a state of pedantic efficiency. Romantic -possibilities of accident lurked in the worn thread of the screw that -adjusted the saddle, in the precarious pedals, in the loose-knit chain, -in the handle-bars, above all in the brakes and tyres. Tappings and -clankings and strange rhythmic creakings awoke as the intrepid hirer -pedalled out into the country. Then perhaps the bell would jam or a -brake fail to act on a hill; or the seat-pillar would get loose, and the -saddle drop three or four inches with a disconcerting bump; or the loose -and rattling chain would jump the cogs of the chain-wheel as the machine -ran downhill, and so bring the mechanism to an abrupt and disastrous -stop without at the same time arresting the forward momentum of the -rider; or a tyre would bang, or sigh quietly, and give up the struggle -for efficiency. - -When the hirer returned, a heated pedestrian, Grubb would ignore all -verbal complaints, and examine the machine gravely. - -"This ain't 'ad fair usage," he used to begin. - -He became a mild embodiment of the spirit of reason. "You can't expect a -bicycle to take you up in its arms and carry you," he used to say. "You -got to show intelligence. After all--it's machinery." - -Sometimes the process of liquidating the consequent claims bordered on -violence. It was always a very rhetorical and often a trying affair, but -in these progressive times you have to make a noise to get a living. It -was often hard work, but nevertheless this hiring was a fairly steady -source of profit, until one day all the panes in the window and door -were broken and the stock on sale in the window greatly damaged and -disordered by two over-critical hirers with no sense of rhetorical -irrelevance. They were big, coarse stokers from Gravesend. One was -annoyed because his left pedal had come off, and the other because his -tyre had become deflated, small and indeed negligible accidents by Bun -Hill standards, due entirely to the ungentle handling of the delicate -machines entrusted to them--and they failed to see clearly how they put -themselves in the wrong by this method of argument. It is a poor way of -convincing a man that he has let you a defective machine to throw his -foot-pump about his shop, and take his stock of gongs outside in order -to return them through the window-panes. It carried no real conviction -to the minds of either Grubb or Bert; it only irritated and vexed them. -One quarrel makes many, and this unpleasantness led to a violent dispute -between Grubb and the landlord upon the moral aspects of and legal -responsibility for the consequent re-glazing. In the end Grubb and -Smallways were put to the expense of a strategic nocturnal removal to -another position. - -It was a position they had long considered. It was a small, shed-like -shop with a plate-glass window and one room behind, just at the sharp -bend in the road at the bottom of Bun Hill; and here they struggled -along bravely, in spite of persistent annoyance from their former -landlord, hoping for certain eventualities the peculiar situation of the -shop seemed to promise. Here, too, they were doomed to disappointment. - -The High Road from London to Brighton that ran through Bun Hill was like -the British Empire or the British Constitution--a thing that had grown -to its present importance. Unlike any other roads in Europe the British -high roads have never been subjected to any organised attempts to -grade or straighten them out, and to that no doubt their peculiar -picturesqueness is to be ascribed. The old Bun Hill High Street drops at -its end for perhaps eighty or a hundred feet of descent at an angle -of one in five, turns at right angles to the left, runs in a curve for -about thirty yards to a brick bridge over the dry ditch that had once -been the Otterbourne, and then bends sharply to the right again round -a dense clump of trees and goes on, a simple, straightforward, peaceful -high road. There had been one or two horse-and-van and bicycle accidents -in the place before the shop Bert and Grubb took was built, and, to be -frank, it was the probability of others that attracted them to it. - -Its possibilities had come to them first with a humorous flavour. - -"Here's one of the places where a chap might get a living by keeping -hens," said Grubb. - -"You can't get a living by keeping hens," said Bert. - -"You'd keep the hen and have it spatch-cocked," said Grubb. "The motor -chaps would pay for it." - -When they really came to take the place they remembered this -conversation. Hens, however, were out of the question; there was no -place for a run unless they had it in the shop. It would have been -obviously out of place there. The shop was much more modern than their -former one, and had a plate-glass front. "Sooner or later," said Bert, -"we shall get a motor-car through this." - -"That's all right," said Grubb. "Compensation. I don't mind when that -motor-car comes along. I don't mind even if it gives me a shock to the -system." - -"And meanwhile," said Bert, with great artfulness, "I'm going to buy -myself a dog." - -He did. He bought three in succession. He surprised the people at the -Dogs' Home in Battersea by demanding a deaf retriever, and rejecting -every candidate that pricked up its ears. "I want a good, deaf, -slow-moving dog," he said. "A dog that doesn't put himself out for -things." - -They displayed inconvenient curiosity; they declared a great scarcity of -deaf dogs. - -"You see," they said, "dogs aren't deaf." - -"Mine's got to be," said Bert. "I've HAD dogs that aren't deaf. All I -want. It's like this, you see--I sell gramophones. Naturally I got to -make 'em talk and tootle a bit to show 'em orf. Well, a dog that isn't -deaf doesn't like it--gets excited, smells round, barks, growls. That -upsets the customer. See? Then a dog that has his hearing fancies -things. Makes burglars out of passing tramps. Wants to fight every motor -that makes a whizz. All very well if you want livening up, but our place -is lively enough. I don't want a dog of that sort. I want a quiet dog." - -In the end he got three in succession, but none of them turned out well. -The first strayed off into the infinite, heeding no appeals; the second -was killed in the night by a fruit motor-waggon which fled before Grubb -could get down; the third got itself entangled in the front wheel of a -passing cyclist, who came through the plate glass, and proved to be an -actor out of work and an undischarged bankrupt. He demanded compensation -for some fancied injury, would hear nothing of the valuable dog he had -killed or the window he had broken, obliged Grubb by sheer physical -obduracy to straighten his buckled front wheel, and pestered the -struggling firm with a series of inhumanly worded solicitor's letters. -Grubb answered them--stingingly, and put himself, Bert thought, in the -wrong. - -Affairs got more and more exasperating and strained under these -pressures. The window was boarded up, and an unpleasant altercation -about their delay in repairing it with the new landlord, a Bun Hill -butcher--and a loud, bellowing, unreasonable person at that--served to -remind them of their unsettled troubles with the old. Things were at -this pitch when Bert bethought himself of creating a sort of debenture -capital in the business for the benefit of Tom. But, as I have said, -Tom had no enterprise in his composition. His idea of investment was the -stocking; he bribed his brother not to keep the offer open. - -And then ill-luck made its last lunge at their crumbling business and -brought it to the ground. - -2 - -It is a poor heart that never rejoices, and Whitsuntide had an air of -coming as an agreeable break in the business complications of Grubb & -Smallways. Encouraged by the practical outcome of Bert's negotiations -with his brother, and by the fact that half the hiring-stock was -out from Saturday to Monday, they decided to ignore the residuum of -hiring-trade on Sunday and devote that day to much-needed relaxation and -refreshment--to have, in fact, an unstinted good time, a beano on Whit -Sunday and return invigorated to grapple with their difficulties and -the Bank Holiday repairs on the Monday. No good thing was ever done -by exhausted and dispirited men. It happened that they had made the -acquaintance of two young ladies in employment in Clapham, Miss Flossie -Bright and Miss Edna Bunthorne, and it was resolved therefore to make -a cheerful little cyclist party of four into the heart of Kent, and to -picnic and spend an indolent afternoon and evening among the trees and -bracken between Ashford and Maidstone. - -Miss Bright could ride a bicycle, and a machine was found for her, not -among the hiring stock, but specially, in the sample held for sale. Miss -Bunthorne, whom Bert particularly affected, could not ride, and so with -some difficulty he hired a basket-work trailer from the big business of -Wray's in the Clapham Road. - -To see our young men, brightly dressed and cigarettes alight, wheeling -off to the rendezvous, Grubb guiding the lady's machine beside him with -one skilful hand and Bert teuf-teuffing steadily, was to realise how -pluck may triumph even over insolvency. Their landlord, the butcher, -said, "Gurr," as they passed, and shouted, "Go it!" in a loud, savage -tone to their receding backs. - -Much they cared! - -The weather was fine, and though they were on their way southward before -nine o'clock, there was already a great multitude of holiday people -abroad upon the roads. There were quantities of young men and women on -bicycles and motor-bicycles, and a majority of gyroscopic motor-cars -running bicycle-fashion on two wheels, mingled with old-fashioned -four-wheeled traffic. Bank Holiday times always bring out old -stored-away vehicles and odd people; one saw tricars and electric -broughams and dilapidated old racing motors with huge pneumatic tyres. -Once our holiday-makers saw a horse and cart, and once a youth riding a -black horse amidst the badinage of the passersby. And there were several -navigable gas air-ships, not to mention balloons, in the air. It was -all immensely interesting and refreshing after the dark anxieties of -the shop. Edna wore a brown straw hat with poppies, that suited her -admirably, and sat in the trailer like a queen, and the eight-year-old -motor-bicycle ran like a thing of yesterday. - -Little it seemed to matter to Mr. Bert Smallways that a newspaper -placard proclaimed:-- --------------------------------------- GERMANY -DENOUNCES THE MONROE DOCTRINE. - - AMBIGUOUS ATTITUDE OF JAPAN. -WHAT WILL BRITAIN DO? IS IT WAR?--------------------------------------- - -This sort of thing was alvays going on, and on holidays one disregarded -it as a matter of course. Week-davs, in the slack time after the midday -meal, then perhaps one might worry about the Empire and international -politics; but not on a sunny Sunday, with a pretty girl trailing behind -one, and envious cyclists trying to race you. Nor did our young people -attach any great importance to the flitting suggestions of military -activity they glimpsed ever and again. Near Maidstone they came on -a string of eleven motor-guns of peculiar construction halted by the -roadside, with a number of businesslike engineers grouped about them -watching through field-glasses some sort of entrenchment that was going -on near the crest of the downs. It signified nothing to Bert. - -"What's up?" said Edna. - -"Oh!--manoeuvres," said Bert. - -"Oh! I thought they did them at Easter," said Edna, and troubled no -more. - -The last great British war, the Boer war, was over and forgotten, and -the public had lost the fashion of expert military criticism. - -Our four young people picnicked cheerfully, and were happy in the manner -of a happiness that was an ancient mode in Nineveh. Eyes were bright, -Grubb was funny and almost witty, and Bert achieved epigrams; the -hedges were full of honeysuckle and dog-roses; in the woods the distant -toot-toot-toot of the traffic on the dust-hazy high road might have been -no more than the horns of elf-land. They laughed and gossiped and picked -flowers and made love and talked, and the girls smoked cigarettes. Also -they scuffled playfully. Among other things they talked aeronautics, -and how thev would come for a picnic together in Bert's flying-machine -before ten years were out. The world seemed full of amusing -possibilities that afternoon. They wondered what their -great-grandparents would have thought of aeronautics. In the evening, -about seven, the party turned homeward, expecting no disaster, and it -was only on the crest of the downs between Wrotham and Kingsdown that -disaster came. - -They had come up the hill in the twilight; Bert was anxious to get as -far as possible before he lit--or attempted to light, for the issue -was a doubtful one--his lamps, and they had scorched past a number of -cyclists, and by a four-wheeled motor-car of the old style lamed by a -deflated tyre. Some dust had penetrated Bert's horn, and the result was -a curious, amusing, wheezing sound had got into his "honk, honk." For -the sake of merriment and glory he was making this sound as much as -possible, and Edna was in fits of laughter in the trailer. They made a -sort of rushing cheerfulness along the road that affected their fellow -travellers variously, according to their temperaments. She did notice a -good lot of bluish, evil-smelling smoke coming from about the -bearings between his feet, but she thought this was one of the natural -concomitants of motor-traction, and troubled no more about it, until -abruptly it burst into a little yellow-tipped flame. - -"Bert!" she screamed. - -But Bert had put on the brakes with such suddenness that she found -herself involved with his leg as he dismounted. She got to the side of -the road and hastily readjusted her hat, which had suffered. - -"Gaw!" said Bert. - -He stood for some fatal seconds watching the petrol drip and catch, and -the flame, which was now beginning to smell of enamel as well as oil, -spread and grew. His chief idea was the sorrowful one that he had not -sold the machine second-hand a year ago, and that he ought to have done -so--a good idea in its way, but not immediately helpful. He turned upon -Edna sharply. "Get a lot of wet sand," he said. Then he wheeled the -machine a little towards the side of the roadway, and laid it down and -looked about for a supply of wet sand. The flames received this as a -helpful attention, and made the most of it. They seemed to brighten and -the twilight to deepen about them. The road was a flinty road in the -chalk country, and ill-provided with sand. - -Edna accosted a short, fat cyclist. "We want wet sand," she said, and -added, "our motor's on fire." The short, fat cyclist stared blankly for -a moment, then with a helpful cry began to scrabble in the road-grit. -Whereupon Bert and Edna also scrabbled in the road-grit. Other cyclists -arrived, dismounted and stood about, and their flame-lit faces expressed -satisfaction, interest, curiosity. "Wet sand," said the short, fat man, -scrabbling terribly--"wet sand." One joined him. They threw hard-earned -handfuls of road-grit upon the flames, which accepted them with -enthusiasm. - -Grubb arrived, riding hard. He was shouting something. He sprang off -and threw his bicycle into the hedge. "Don't throw water on it!" he -said--"don't throw water on it!" He displayed commanding presence of -mind. He became captain of the occasion. Others were glad to repeat the -things he said and imitate his actions. - -"Don't throw water on it!" they cried. Also there was no water. - -"Beat it out, you fools!" he said. - -He seized a rug from the trailer (it was an Austrian blanket, and -Bert's winter coverlet) and began to beat at the burning petrol. For a -wonderful minute he seemed to succeed. But he scattered burning pools -of petrol on the road, and others, fired by his enthusiasm, imitated his -action. Bert caught up a trailer-cushion and began to beat; there was -another cushion and a table-cloth, and these also were seized. A young -hero pulled off his jacket and joined the beating. For a moment there -was less talking than hard breathing, and a tremendous flapping. -Flossie, arriving on the outskirts of the crowd, cried, "Oh, my God!" -and burst loudly into tears. "Help!" she said, and "Fire!" - -The lame motor-car arrived, and stopped in consternation. A tall, -goggled, grey-haired man who was driving inquired with an Oxford -intonation and a clear, careful enunciation, "Can WE help at all?" - -It became manifest that the rug, the table-cloth, the cushions, the -jacket, were getting smeared with petrol and burning. The soul seemed -to go out of the cushion Bert was swaying, and the air was full of -feathers, like a snowstorm in the still twilight. - -Bert had got very dusty and sweaty and strenuous. It seemed to him his -weapon had been wrested from him at the moment of victory. The fire lay -like a dying thing, close to the ground and wicked; it gave a leap of -anguish at every whack of the beaters. But now Grubb had gone off to -stamp out the burning blanket; the others were lacking just at the -moment of victory. One had dropped the cushion and was running to the -motor-car. "'ERE!" cried Bert; "keep on!" - -He flung the deflated burning rags of cushion aside, whipped off his -jacket and sprang at the flames with a shout. He stamped into the ruin -until flames ran up his boots. Edna saw him, a red-lit hero, and thought -it was good to be a man. - -A bystander was hit by a hot halfpenny flying out of the air. Then Bert -thought of the papers in his pockets, and staggered back, trying to -extinguish his burning jacket--checked, repulsed, dismayed. - -Edna was struck by the benevolent appearance of an elderly spectator in -a silk hat and Sabbatical garments. "Oh!" she cried to him. "Help this -young man! How can you stand and see it?" - -A cry of "The tarpaulin!" arose. - -An earnest-looking man in a very light grey cycling-suit had suddenly -appeared at the side of the lame motor-car and addressed the owner. -"Have you a tarpaulin?" he said. - -"Yes," said the gentlemanly man. "Yes. We've got a tarpaulin." - -"That's it," said the earnest-looking man, suddenly shouting. "Let's -have it, quick!" - -The gentlemanly man, with feeble and deprecatory gestures, and in the -manner of a hypnotised person, produced an excellent large tarpaulin. - -"Here!" cried the earnest-looking man to Grubb. "Ketch holt!" - -Then everybody realised that a new method was to be tried. A number of -willing hands seized upon the Oxford gentleman's tarpaulin. The others -stood away with approving noises. The tarpaulin was held over the -burning bicycle like a canopy, and then smothered down upon it. - -"We ought to have done this before," panted Grubb. - -There was a moment of triumph. The flames vanished. Every one who could -contrive to do so touched the edge of the tarpaulin. Bert held down -a corner with two hands and a foot. The tarpaulin, bulged up in the -centre, seemed to be suppressing triumphant exultation. Then its -self-approval became too much for it; it burst into a bright red smile -in the centre. It was exactly like the opening of a mouth. It laughed -with a gust of flames. They were reflected redly in the observant -goggles of the gentleman who owned the tarpaulin. Everybody recoiled. - -"Save the trailer!" cried some one, and that was the last round in -the battle. But the trailer could not be detached; its wicker-work had -caught, and it was the last thing to burn. A sort of hush fell upon -the gathering. The petrol burnt low, the wicker-work trailer banged -and crackled. The crowd divided itself into an outer circle of critics, -advisers, and secondary characters, who had played undistinguished parts -or no parts at all in the affair, and a central group of heated -and distressed principals. A young man with an inquiring mind and a -considerable knowledge of motor-bicycles fixed on to Grubb and wanted -to argue that the thing could not have happened. Grubb wass short and -inattentive with him, and the young man withdrew to the back of the -crowd, and there told the benevolent old gentleman in the silk hat -that people who went out with machines they didn't understand had only -themselves to blame if things went wrong. - -The old gentleman let him talk for some time, and then remarked, in a -tone of rapturous enjoyment: "Stone deaf," and added, "Nasty things." - -A rosy-faced man in a straw hat claimed attention. "I DID save the front -wheel," he said; "you'd have had that tyre catch, too, if I hadn't kept -turning it round." It became manifest that this was so. The front wheel -had retained its tyre, was intact, was still rotating slowly among the -blackened and twisted ruins of the rest of the machine. It had something -of that air of conscious virtue, of unimpeachable respectability, that -distinguishes a rent collector in a low neighbourhood. "That wheel's -worth a pound," said the rosy-faced man, making a song of it. "I kep' -turning it round." - -Newcomers kept arriving from the south with the question, "What's up?" -until it got on Grubb's nerves. Londonward the crowd was constantly -losing people; they would mount their various wheels with the satisfied -manner of spectators who have had the best. Their voices would recede -into the twilight; one would hear a laugh at the memory of this -particularly salient incident or that. - -"I'm afraid," said the gentleman of the motor-car, "my tarpaulin's a bit -done for." - -Grubb admitted that the owner was the best judge of that. - -"Nothin, else I can do for you?" said the gentleman of the motor-car, it -may be with a suspicion of irony. - -Bert was roused to action. "Look here," he said. "There's my young lady. -If she ain't 'ome by ten they lock her out. See? Well, all my money was -in my jacket pocket, and it's all mixed up with the burnt stuff, and -that's too 'ot to touch. Is Clapham out of your way?" - -"All in the day's work," said the gentleman with the motor-car, and -turned to Edna. "Very pleased indeed," he said, "if you'll come with us. -We're late for dinner as it is, so it won't make much difference for us -to go home by way of Clapham. We've got to get to Surbiton, anyhow. I'm -afraid you'll find us a little slow." - -"But what's Bert going to do?" said Edna. - -"I don't know that we can accommodate Bert," said the motor-car -gentleman, "though we're tremendously anxious to oblige." - -"You couldn't take the whole lot?" said Bert, waving his hand at the -deboshed and blackened ruins on the ground. - -"I'm awfully afraid I can't," said the Oxford man. "Awfully sorry, you -know." - -"Then I'll have to stick 'ere for a bit," said Bert. "I got to see the -thing through. You go on, Edna." - -"Don't like leavin' you, Bert." - -"You can't 'elp it, Edna."... - -The last Edna saw of Bert was his figure, in charred and blackened -shirtsleeves, standing in the dusk. He was musing deeply by the mixed -ironwork and ashes of his vanished motor-bicycle, a melancholy figure. -His retinue of spectators had shrunk now to half a dozen figures. -Flossie and Grubb were preparing to follow her desertion. - -"Cheer up, old Bert!" cried Edna, with artificial cheerfulness. "So -long." - -"So long, Edna," said Bert. - -"See you to-morrer." - -"See you to-morrer," said Bert, though he was destined, as a matter of -fact, to see much of the habitable globe before he saw her again. - -Bert began to light matches from a borrowed boxful, and search for a -half-crown that still eluded him among the charred remains. - -His face was grave and melancholy. - -"I WISH that 'adn't 'appened," said Flossie, riding on with Grubb.... - -And at last Bert was left almost alone, a sad, blackened Promethean -figure, cursed by the gift of fire. He had entertained vague ideas of -hiring a cart, of achieving miraculous repairs, of still snatching some -residual value from his one chief possession. Now, in the darkening -night, he perceived the vanity of such intentions. Truth came to him -bleakly, and laid her chill conviction upon him. He took hold of the -handle-bar, stood the thing up, tried to push it forward. The tyreless -hind-wheel was jammed hopelessly, even as he feared. For a minute or so -he stood upholding his machine, a motionless despair. Then with a great -effort he thrust the ruins from him into the ditch, kicked at it once, -regarded it for a moment, and turned his face resolutely Londonward. - -He did not once look back. - -"That's the end of THAT game!" said Bert. "No more teuf-teuf-teuf for -Bert Smallways for a year or two. Good-bye 'olidays!... Oh! I ought to -'ave sold the blasted thing when I had a chance three years ago." - -3 - -The next morning found the firm of Grubb & Smallways in a state -of profound despondency. It seemed a small matter to them that the -newspaper and cigarette shop opposite displayed such placards as this:-- - ---------------------------------------- REPORTED AMERICAN ULTIMATUM. - - BRITAIN MUST FIGHT. - - OUR INFATUATED WAR OFFICE STILL -REFUSES TO LISTEN TO MR. BUTTERIDGE. - -GREAT MONO-RAIL DISASTER AT -TIMBUCTOO.--------------------------------------- - -or this:-- --------------------------------------- WAR A QUESTION OF -HOURS. - - NEW YORK CALM. - - EXCITEMENT IN BERLIN.--------------------------------------- - -or again:-- --------------------------------------- WASHINGTON STILL -SILENT. - - WHAT WILL PARIS DO? - - THE PANIC ON THE BOURSE. - -THE KING'S GARDEN PARTY TO THE MASKED TWAREGS. - -MR. BUTTERIDGE TAKES AN OFFER. - -LATEST BETTING FROM TEHERAN.--------------------------------------- - -or this:-- --------------------------------------- WILL AMERICA FIGHT? - - ANTI-GERMAN RIOT IN BAGDAD. - - THE MUNICIPAL SCANDALS AT DAMASCUS. - -MR. BUTTERIDGE'S INVENTION FOR -AMERICA.--------------------------------------- - -Bert stared at these over the card of pump-clips in the pane in the -door with unseeing eyes. He wore a blackened flannel shirt, and the -jacketless ruins of the holiday suit of yesterday. The boarded-up shop -was dark and depressing beyond words, the few scandalous hiring machines -had never looked so hopelessly disreputable. He thought of their fellows -who were "out," and of the approaching disputations of the afternoon. He -thought of their new landlord, and of their old landlord, and of bills -and claims. Life presented itself for the first time as a hopeless fight -against fate.... - -"Grubb, o' man," he said, distilling the quintessence, "I'm fair sick of -this shop." - -"So'm I," said Grubb. - -"I'm out of conceit with it. I don't seem to care ever to speak to a -customer again." - -"There's that trailer," said Grubb, after a pause. - -"Blow the trailer!" said Bert. "Anyhow, I didn't leave a deposit on it. -I didn't do that. Still--" - -He turned round on his friend. "Look 'ere," he said, "we aren't gettin' -on here. We been losing money hand over fist. We got things tied up in -fifty knots." - -"What can we do?" said Grubb. - -"Clear out. Sell what we can for what it will fetch, and quit. See? -It's no good 'anging on to a losing concern. No sort of good. Jest -foolishness." - -"That's all right," said Grubb--"that's all right; but it ain't your -capital been sunk in it." - -"No need for us to sink after our capital," said Bert, ignoring the -point. - -"I'm not going to be held responsible for that trailer, anyhow. That -ain't my affair." - -"Nobody arst you to make it your affair. If you like to stick on here, -well and good. I'm quitting. I'll see Bank Holiday through, and then I'm -O-R-P-H. See?" - -"Leavin' me?" - -"Leavin' you. If you must be left." - -Grubb looked round the shop. It certainly had become distasteful. Once -upon a time it had been bright with hope and new beginnings and stock -and the prospect of credit. Now--now it was failure and dust. Very -likely the landlord would be round presently to go on with the row about -the window.... "Where d'you think of going, Bert?" Grubb asked. - -Bert turned round and regarded him. "I thought it out as I was walking -'ome, and in bed. I couldn't sleep a wink." - -"What did you think out?" - -"Plans." - -"What plans?" - -"Oh! You're for stickin, here." - -"Not if anything better was to offer." - -"It's only an ideer," said Bert. - -"You made the girls laugh yestiday, that song you sang." - -"Seems a long time ago now," said Grubb. - -"And old Edna nearly cried--over that bit of mine." - -"She got a fly in her eye," said Grubb; "I saw it. But what's this got -to do with your plan?" - -"No end," said Bert. - -"'Ow?" - -"Don't you see?" - -"Not singing in the streets?" - -"Streets! No fear! But 'ow about the Tour of the Waterin' Places of -England, Grubb? Singing! Young men of family doing it for a lark? You -ain't got a bad voice, you know, and mine's all right. I never see a -chap singing on the beach yet that I couldn't 'ave sung into a cocked -hat. And we both know how to put on the toff a bit. Eh? Well, that's my -ideer. Me and you, Grubb, with a refined song and a breakdown. Like we -was doing for foolery yestiday. That was what put it into my 'ead. Easy -make up a programme--easy. Six choice items, and one or two for encores -and patter. I'm all right for the patter anyhow." - -Grubb remained regarding his darkened and disheartening shop; he thought -of his former landlord and his present landlord, and of the general -disgustingness of business in an age which re-echoes to The Bitter Cry -of the Middle Class; and then it seemed to him that afar off he heard -the twankle, twankle of a banjo, and the voice of a stranded siren -singing. He had a sense of hot sunshine upon sand, of the children of at -least transiently opulent holiday makers in a circle round about him, of -the whisper, "They are really gentlemen," and then dollop, dollop came -the coppers in the hat. Sometimes even silver. It was all income; no -outgoings, no bills. "I'm on, Bert," he said. - -"Right O!" said Bert, and, "Now we shan't be long." - -"We needn't start without capital neither," said Grubb. "If we take the -best of these machines up to the Bicycle Mart in Finsbury we'd raise six -or seven pounds on 'em. We could easy do that to-morrow before anybody -much was about...." - -"Nice to think of old Suet-and-Bones coming round to make his usual row -with us, and finding a card up 'Closed for Repairs.'" - -"We'll do that," said Grubb with zest--"we'll do that. And we'll put -up another notice, and jest arst all inquirers to go round to 'im and -inquire. See? Then they'll know all about us." - -Before the day was out the whole enterprise was planned. They decided at -first that they would call themselves the Naval Mr. O's, a plagiarism, -and not perhaps a very good one, from the title of the well-known troupe -of "Scarlet Mr. E's," and Bert rather clung to the idea of a uniform of -bright blue serge, with a lot of gold lace and cord and ornamentation, -rather like a naval officer's, but more so. But that had to be abandoned -as impracticable, it would have taken too much time and money to -prepare. They perceived they must wear some cheaper and more readily -prepared costume, and Grubb fell back on white dominoes. They -entertained the notion for a time of selecting the two worst machines -from the hiring-stock, painting them over with crimson enamel paint, -replacing the bells by the loudest sort of motor-horn, and doing a ride -about to begin and end the entertainment. They doubted the advisability -of this step. - -"There's people in the world," said Bert, "who wouldn't recognise us, -who'd know them bicycles again like a shot, and we don't want to go on -with no old stories. We want a fresh start." - -"I do," said Grubb, "badly." - -"We want to forget things--and cut all these rotten old worries. They -ain't doin' us good." - -Nevertheless, they decided to take the risk of these bicycles, and they -decided their costumes should be brown stockings and sandals, and cheap -unbleached sheets with a hole cut in the middle, and wigs and beards of -tow. The rest their normal selves! "The Desert Dervishes," they would -call themselves, and their chief songs would be those popular ditties, -"In my Trailer," and "What Price Hair-pins Now?" - -They decided to begin with small seaside places, and gradually, as they -gained confidence, attack larger centres. To begin with they selected -Littlestone in Kent, chiefly because of its unassuming name. - -So they planned, and it seemed a small and unimportant thing to them -that as they clattered the governments of half the world and more were -drifting into war. About midday they became aware of the first of -the evening-paper placards shouting to them across the street:-- ------------------------------------------------ - -THE WAR-CLOUD DARKENS----------------------------------------------- - -Nothing else but that. - -"Always rottin' about war now," said Bert. - -"They'll get it in the neck in real earnest one of these days, if they -ain't precious careful." - -4 - -So you will understand the sudden apparition that surprised rather than -delighted the quiet informality of Dymchurch sands. Dymchurch was one of -the last places on the coast of England to be reached by the mono-rail, -and so its spacious sands were still, at the time of this story, the -secret and delight of quite a limited number of people. They went there -to flee vulgarity and extravagances, and to bathe and sit and talk and -play with their children in peace, and the Desert Dervishes did not -please them at all. - -The two white figures on scarlet wheels came upon them out of the -infinite along the sands from Littlestone, grew nearer and larger and -more audible, honk-honking and emitting weird cries, and generally -threatening liveliness of the most aggressive type. "Good heavens!" said -Dymchurch, "what's this?" - -Then our young men, according to a preconcerted plan, wheeled round from -file to line, dismounted and stood it attention. "Ladies and gentlemen," -they said, "we beg to present ourselves--the Desert Dervishes." They -bowed profoundly. - -The few scattered groups upon the beach regarded them with horror for -the most part, but some of the children and young people were interested -and drew nearer. "There ain't a bob on the beach," said Grubb in an -undertone, and the Desert Dervishes plied their bicycles with comic -"business," that got a laugh from one very unsophisticated little boy. -Then they took a deep breath and struck into the cheerful strain of -"What Price Hair-pins Now?" Grubb sang the song, Bert did his best to -make the chorus a rousing one, and it the end of each verse they danced -certain steps, skirts in hand, that they had carefully rehearsed. - - "Ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-tang... - What Price Hair-pins Now?" - -So they chanted and danced their steps in the sunshine on Dymchurch -beach, and the children drew near these foolish young men, marvelling -that they should behave in this way, and the older people looked cold -and unfriendly. - -All round the coasts of Europe that morning banjos were ringing, -voices were bawling and singing, children were playing in the sun, -pleasure-boats went to and fro; the common abundant life of the time, -unsuspicious of all dangers that gathered darkly against it, flowed -on its cheerful aimless way. In the cities men fussed about their -businesses and engagements. The newspaper placards that had cried -"wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain. - -5 - -Now as Bert and Grubb bawled their chorus for the third time, they -became aware of a very big, golden-brown balloon low in the sky to the -north-west, and coming rapidly towards them. "Jest as we're gettin' hold -of 'em," muttered Grubb, "up comes a counter-attraction. Go it, Bert!" - - "Ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-tang - What Price Hair-pins Now?" - -The balloon rose and fell, went out of sight--"landed, thank goodness," -said Grubb--re-appeared with a leap. "'ENG!" said Grubb. "Step it, Bert, -or they'll see it!" - -They finished their dance, and then stood frankly staring. - -"There's something wrong with that balloon," said Bert. - -Everybody now was looking at the balloon, drawing rapidly nearer before -a brisk north-westerly breeze. The song and dance were a "dead frost." -Nobody thought any more about it. Even Bert and Grubb forgot it, and -ignored the next item on the programme altogether. The balloon was -bumping as though its occupants were trying to land; it would approach, -sinking slowly, touch the ground, and instantly jump fifty feet or so in -the air and immediately begin to fall again. Its car touched a clump of -trees, and the black figure that had been struggling in the ropes fell -back, or jumped back, into the car. In another moment it was quite -close. It seemed a huge affair, as big as a house, and it floated down -swiftly towards the sands; a long rope trailed behind it, and enormous -shouts came from the man in the car. He seemed to be taking off his -clothes, then his head came over the side of the car. "Catch hold of the -rope!" they heard, quite plain. - -"Salvage, Bert!" cried Grubb, and started to head off the rope. - -Bert followed him, and collided, without upsetting, with a fisherman -bent upon a similar errand. A woman carrying a baby in her arms, two -small boys with toy spades, and a stout gentleman in flannels all got to -the trailing rope at about the same time, and began to dance over it -in their attempts to secure it. Bert came up to this wriggling, elusive -serpent and got his foot on it, went down on all fours and achieved a -grip. In half a dozen seconds the whole diffused population of the beach -had, as it were, crystallised on the rope, and was pulling against the -balloon under the vehement and stimulating directions of the man in the -car. "Pull, I tell you!" said the man in the car--"pull!" - -For a second or so the balloon obeyed its momentum and the wind and -tugged its human anchor seaward. It dropped, touched the water, and made -a flat, silvery splash, and recoiled as one's finger recoils when one -touches anything hot. "Pull her in," said the man in the car. "SHE'S -FAINTED!" - -He occupied himself with some unseen object while the people on the -rope pulled him in. Bert was nearest the balloon, and much excited and -interested. He kept stumbling over the tail of the Dervish costume in -his zeal. He had never imagined before what a big, light, wallowing -thing a balloon was. The car was of brown coarse wicker-work, -and comparatively small. The rope he tugged at was fastened to a -stout-looking ring, four or five feet above the car. At each tug he drew -in a yard or so of rope, and the waggling wicker-work was drawn so much -nearer. Out of the car came wrathful bellowings: "Fainted, she has!" and -then: "It's her heart--broken with all she's had to go through." - -The balloon ceased to struggle, and sank downward. Bert dropped the -rope, and ran forward to catch it in a new place. In another moment he -had his hand on the car. "Lay hold of it," said the man in the car, and -his face appeared close to Bert's--a strangely familiar face, fierce -eyebrows, a flattish nose, a huge black moustache. He had discarded coat -and waistcoat--perhaps with some idea of presently having to swim for -his life--and his black hair was extraordinarily disordered. "Will -all you people get hold round the car?" he said. "There's a lady here -fainted--or got failure of the heart. Heaven alone knows which! My name -is Butteridge. Butteridge, my name is--in a balloon. Now please, all -on to the edge. This is the last time I trust myself to one of these -paleolithic contrivances. The ripping-cord failed, and the valve -wouldn't act. If ever I meet the scoundrel who ought to have seen--" - -He stuck his head out between the ropes abruptly, and said, in a note -of earnest expostulation: "Get some brandy!--some neat brandy!" Some one -went up the beach for it. - -In the car, sprawling upon a sort of bed-bench, in an attitude of -elaborate self-abandonment, was a large, blond lady, wearing a fur -coat and a big floriferous hat. Her head lolled back against the padded -corner of the car, and her eyes were shut and her mouth open. "Me dear!" -said Mr. Butteridge, in a common, loud voice, "we're safe!" - -She gave no sign. - -"Me dear!" said Mr. Butteridge, in a greatly intensified loud voice, -"we're safe!" - -She was still quite impassive. - -Then Mr. Butteridge showed the fiery core of his soul. "If she is -dead," he said, slowly lifting a fist towards the balloon above him, -and speaking in an immense tremulous bellow--"if she is dead, I will -r-r-rend the heavens like a garment! I must get her out," he cried, his -nostrils dilated with emotion--"I must get her out. I cannot have her -die in a wicker-work basket nine feet square--she who was made for -kings' palaces! Keep holt of this car! Is there a strong man among ye to -take her if I hand her out?" - -He swept the lady together by a powerful movement of his arms, and -lifted her. "Keep the car from jumping," he said to those who clustered -about him. "Keep your weight on it. She is no light woman, and when she -is out of it--it will be relieved." - -Bert leapt lightly into a sitting position on the edge of the car. The -others took a firmer grip upon the ropes and ring. - -"Are you ready?" said Mr. Butteridge. - -He stood upon the bed-bench and lifted the lady carefully. Then he sat -down on the wicker edge opposite to Bert, and put one leg over to dangle -outside. A rope or so seemed to incommode him. "Will some one assist -me?" he said. "If they would take this lady?" - -It was just at this moment, with Mr. Butteridge and the lady balanced -finely on the basket brim, that she came-to. She came-to suddenly and -violently with a loud, heart-rending cry of "Alfred! Save me!" And she -waved her arms searchingly, and then clasped Mr. Butteridge about. - -It seemed to Bert that the car swayed for a moment and then buck-jumped -and kicked him. Also he saw the boots of the lady and the right leg of -the gentleman describing arcs through the air, preparatory to vanishing -over the side of the car. His impressions were complex, but they also -comprehended the fact that he had lost his balance, and was going to -stand on his head inside this creaking basket. He spread out clutching -arms. He did stand on his head, more or less, his tow-beard came off -and got in his mouth, and his cheek slid along against padding. His nose -buried itself in a bag of sand. The car gave a violent lurch, and became -still. - -"Confound it!" he said. - -He had an impression he must be stunned because of a surging in his -ears, and because all the voices of the people about him had become -small and remote. They were shouting like elves inside a hill. - -He found it a little difficult to get on his feet. His limbs were mixed -up with the garments Mr. Butteridge had discarded when that gentleman -had thought he must needs plunge into the sea. Bert bawled out half -angry, half rueful, "You might have said you were going to tip -the basket." Then he stood up and clutched the ropes of the car -convulsively. - -Below him, far below him, shining blue, were the waters of the English -Channel. Far off, a little thing in the sunshine, and rushing down as if -some one was bending it hollow, was the beach and the irregular cluster -of houses that constitutes Dymchurch. He could see the little crowd of -people he had so abruptly left. Grubb, in the white wrapper of a Desert -Dervish, was running along the edge of the sea. Mr. Butteridge was -knee-deep in the water, bawling immensely. The lady was sitting up with -her floriferous hat in her lap, shockingly neglected. The beach, east -and west, was dotted with little people--they seemed all heads and -feet--looking up. And the balloon, released from the twenty-five stone -or so of Mr. Butteridge and his lady, was rushing up into the sky at the -pace of a racing motor-car. "My crikey!" said Bert; "here's a go!" - -He looked down with a pinched face at the receding beach, and reflected -that he wasn't giddy; then he made a superficial survey of the cords and -ropes about him with a vague idea of "doing something." "I'm not going -to mess about with the thing," he said at last, and sat down upon the -mattress. "I'm not going to touch it.... I wonder what one ought to do?" - -Soon he got up again and stared for a long time it the sinking world -below, at white cliffs to the east and flattening marsh to the left, at -a minute wide prospect of weald and downland, at dim towns and harbours -and rivers and ribbon-like roads, at ships and ships, decks and -foreshortened funnels upon the ever-widening sea, and at the great -mono-rail bridge that straddled the Channel from Folkestone to Boulogne, -until at last, first little wisps and then a veil of filmy cloud hid the -prospect from his eyes. He wasn't at all giddy nor very much frightened, -only in a state of enormous consternation. - - - -CHAPTER III. THE BALLOON - -I - -Bert Smallways was a vulgar little creature, the sort of pert, limited -soul that the old civilisation of the early twentieth century produced -by the million in every country of the world. He had lived all his life -in narrow streets, and between mean houses he could not look over, and -in a narrow circle of ideas from which there was no escape. He thought -the whole duty of man was to be smarter than his fellows, get his hands, -as he put it, "on the dibs," and have a good time. He was, in fact, the -sort of man who had made England and America what they were. The luck -had been against him so far, but that was by the way. He was a mere -aggressive and acquisitive individual with no sense of the State, -no habitual loyalty, no devotion, no code of honour, no code even of -courage. Now by a curious accident he found himself lifted out of his -marvellous modern world for a time, out of all the rush and confused -appeals of it, and floating like a thing dead and disembodied between -sea and sky. It was as if Heaven was experimenting with him, had picked -him out as a sample from the English millions, to look at him more -nearly, and to see what was happening to the soul of man. But what -Heaven made of him in that case I cannot profess to imagine, for I have -long since abandoned all theories about the ideals and satisfactions of -Heaven. - -To be alone in a balloon at a height of fourteen or fifteen thousand -feet--and to that height Bert Smallways presently rose is like nothing -else in human experience. It is one of the supreme things possible to -man. No flying machine can ever better it. It is to pass extraordinarily -out of human things. It is to be still and alone to an unprecedented -degree. It is solitude without the suggestion of intervention; it is -calm without a single irrelevant murmur. It is to see the sky. No sound -reaches one of all the roar and jar of humanity, the air is clear and -sweet beyond the thought of defilement. No bird, no insect comes so -high. No wind blows ever in a balloon, no breeze rustles, for it moves -with the wind and is itself a part of the atmosphere. Once started, it -does not rock nor sway; you cannot feel whether it rises or falls. Bert -felt acutely cold, but he wasn't mountain-sick; he put on the coat and -overcoat and gloves Butteridge had discarded--put them over the "Desert -Dervish" sheet that covered his cheap best suit--and sat very still for -a long, time, overawed by the new-found quiet of the world. Above him -was the light, translucent, billowing globe of shining brown oiled silk -and the blazing sunlight and the great deep blue dome of the sky. - -Below, far below, was a torn floor of sunlit cloud slashed by enormous -rents through which he saw the sea. - -If you had been watching him from below, you would have seen his head, a -motionless little black knob, sticking out from the car first of all for -a long time on one side, and then vanishing to reappear after a time at -some other point. - -He wasn't in the least degree uncomfortable nor afraid. He did think -that as this uncontrollable thing had thus rushed up the sky with him it -might presently rush down again, but this consideration did not trouble -him very much. Essentially his state was wonder. There is no fear nor -trouble in balloons--until they descend. - -"Gollys!" he said at last, feeling a need for talking; "it's better than -a motor-bike." - -"It's all right!" - -"I suppose they're telegraphing about, about me."... - -The second hour found him examining the equipment of the car with great -particularity. Above him was the throat of the balloon bunched and tied -together, but with an open lumen through which Bert could peer up into -a vast, empty, quiet interior, and out of which descended two fine cords -of unknown import, one white, one crimson, to pockets below the ring. -The netting about the balloon-ended in cords attached to the ring, a big -steel-bound hoop to which the car was slung by ropes. From it depended -the trail rope and grapnel, and over the sides of the car were a number -of canvas bags that Bert decided must be ballast to "chuck down" if the -balloon fell. ("Not much falling just yet," said Bert.) - -There were an aneroid and another box-shaped instrument hanging from the -ring. The latter had an ivory plate bearing "statoscope" and other words -in French, and a little indicator quivered and waggled, between Montee -and Descente. "That's all right," said Bert. "That tells if you're -going up or down." On the crimson padded seat of the balloon there lay a -couple of rugs and a Kodak, and in opposite corners of the bottom of -the car were an empty champagne bottle and a glass. "Refreshments," said -Bert meditatively, tilting the empty bottle. Then he had a brilliant -idea. The two padded bed-like seats, each with blankets and mattress, he -perceived, were boxes, and within he found Mr. Butteridge's conception -of an adequate equipment for a balloon ascent: a hamper which included -a game pie, a Roman pie, a cold fowl, tomatoes, lettuce, ham sandwiches, -shrimp sandwiches, a large cake, knives and forks and paper plates, -self-heating tins of coffee and cocoa, bread, butter, and marmalade, -several carefully packed bottles of champagne, bottles of Perrier water, -and a big jar of water for washing, a portfolio, maps, and a compass, -a rucksack containing a number of conveniences, including curling-tongs -and hair-pins, a cap with ear-flaps, and so forth. - -"A 'ome from 'ome," said Bert, surveying this provision as he tied the -ear-flaps under his chin. He looked over the side of the car. Far below -were the shining clouds. They had thickened so that the whole world was -hidden. Southward they were piled in great snowy masses, so that he was -half disposed to think them mountains; northward and eastward they were -in wavelike levels, and blindingly sunlit. - -"Wonder how long a balloon keeps up?" he said. - -He imagined he was not moving, so insensibly did the monster drift with -the air about it. "No good coming down till we shift a bit," he said. - -He consulted the statoscope. - -"Still Monty," he said. - -"Wonder what would happen if you pulled a cord?" - -"No," he decided. "I ain't going to mess it about." - -Afterwards he did pull both the ripping- and the valve-cords, but, as -Mr. Butteridge had already discovered, they had fouled a fold of silk in -the throat. Nothing happened. But for that little hitch the ripping-cord -would have torn the balloon open as though it had been slashed by a -sword, and hurled Mr. Smallways to eternity at the rate of some thousand -feet a second. "No go!" he said, giving it a final tug. Then he lunched. - -He opened a bottle of champagne, which, as soon as he cut the wire, blew -its cork out with incredible violence, and for the most part followed -it into space. Bert, however, got about a tumblerful. "Atmospheric -pressure," said Bert, finding a use at last for the elementary -physiography of his seventh-standard days. "I'll have to be more careful -next time. No good wastin' drink." - -Then he routed about for matches to utilise Mr. Butteridge's cigars; but -here again luck was on his side, and he couldn't find any wherewith -to set light to the gas above him. Or else he would have dropped in a -flare, a splendid but transitory pyrotechnic display. "'Eng old Grubb!" -said Bert, slapping unproductive pockets. "'E didn't ought to 'ave kep' -my box. 'E's always sneaking matches." - -He reposed for a time. Then he got up, paddled about, rearranged the -ballast bags on the floor, watched the clouds for a time, and turned -over the maps on the locker. Bert liked maps, and he spent some time in -trying to find one of France or the Channel; but they were all British -ordnance maps of English counties. That set him thinking about languages -and trying to recall his seventh-standard French. "Je suis Anglais. -C'est une meprise. Je suis arrive par accident ici," he decided upon -as convenient phrases. Then it occurred to him that he would entertain -himself by reading Mr. Butteridge's letters and examining his -pocket-book, and in this manner he whiled away the afternoon. - -2 - -He sat upon the padded locker, wrapped about very carefully, for the -air, though calm, was exhilaratingly cold and clear. He was wearing -first a modest suit of blue serge and all the unpretending underwear -of a suburban young man of fashion, with sandal-like cycling-shoes and -brown stockings drawn over his trouser ends; then the perforated -sheet proper to a Desert Dervish; then the coat and waistcoat and big -fur-trimmed overcoat of Mr. Butteridge; then a lady's large fur cloak, -and round his knees a blanket. Over his head was a tow wig, surmounted -by a large cap of Mr. Butteridge's with the flaps down over his ears. -And some fur sleeping-boots of Mr. Butteridge's warmed his feet. The car -of the balloon was small and neat, some bags of ballast the untidiest of -its contents, and he had found a light folding-table and put it at his -elbow, and on that was a glass with champagne. And about him, above and -below, was space--such a clear emptiness and silence of space as only -the aeronaut can experience. - -He did not know where he might be drifting, or what might happen next. -He accepted this state of affairs with a serenity creditable to the -Smallways' courage, which one might reasonably have expected to be of a -more degenerate and contemptible quality altogether. His impression was -that he was bound to come down somewhere, and that then, if he wasn't -smashed, some one, some "society" perhaps, would probably pack him and -the balloon back to England. If not, he would ask very firmly for the -British Consul. - -"Le consuelo Britannique," he decided this would be. "Apportez moi a le -consuelo Britannique, s'il vous plait," he would say, for he was by -no means ignorant of French. In the meanwhile, he found the intimate -aspects of Mr. Butteridge an interesting study. - -There were letters of an entirely private character addressed to Mr. -Butteridge, and among others several love-letters of a devouring sort -in a large feminine hand. These are no business of ours, and one remarks -with regret that Bert read them. - -When he had read them he remarked, "Gollys!" in an awestricken tone, and -then, after a long interval, "I wonder if that was her? - -"Lord!" - -He mused for a time. - -He resumed his exploration of the Butteridge interior. It included -a number of press cuttings of interviews and also several letters -in German, then some in the same German handwriting, but in English. -"Hul-LO!" said Bert. - -One of the latter, the first he took, began with an apology to -Butteridge for not writing to him in English before, and for the -inconvenience and delay that had been caused him by that, and went on -to matter that Bert found exciting in, the highest degree. "We can -understand entirely the difficulties of your position, and that you -shall possibly be watched at the present juncture.--But, sir, we do not -believe that any serious obstacles will be put in your way if you wished -to endeavour to leave the country and come to us with your plans by the -customary routes--either via Dover, Ostend, Boulogne, or Dieppe. We -find it difficult to think you are right in supposing yourself to be in -danger of murder for your invaluable invention." - -"Funny!" said Bert, and meditated. - -Then he went through the other letters. - -"They seem to want him to come," said Bert, "but they don't seem hurting -themselves to get 'im. Or else they're shamming don't care to get his -prices down. - -"They don't quite seem to be the gov'ment," he reflected, after an -interval. "It's more like some firm's paper. All this printed stuff at -the top. Drachenflieger. Drachenballons. Ballonstoffe. Kugelballons. -Greek to me. - -"But he was trying to sell his blessed secret abroad. That's all right. -No Greek about that! Gollys! Here IS the secret!" - -He tumbled off the seat, opened the locker, and had the portfolio open -before him on the folding-table. It was full of drawings done in the -peculiar flat style and conventional colours engineers adopt. And, in, -addition there were some rather under-exposed photographs, obviously -done by an amateur, at close quarters, of the actual machine's -mutterings had made, in its shed near the Crystal Palace. Bert found he -was trembling. "Lord" he said, "here am I and the whole blessed secret -of flying--lost up here on the roof of everywhere. - -"Let's see!" He fell to studying the drawings and comparing them with -the photographs. They puzzled him. Half of them seemed to be missing. -He tried to imagine how they fitted together, and found the effort too -great for his mind. - -"It's tryin'," said Bert. "I wish I'd been brought up to the -engineering. If I could only make it out!" - -He went to the side of the car and remained for a time staring with -unseeing eyes at a huge cluster of great clouds--a cluster of slowly -dissolving Monte Rosas, sunlit below. His attention was arrested by a -strange black spot that moved over them. It alarmed him. It was a -black spot moving slowly with him far below, following him down there, -indefatigably, over the cloud mountains. Why should such a thing follow -him? What could it be?... - -He had an inspiration. "Uv course!" he said. It was the shadow of the -balloon. But he still watched it dubiously for a time. - -He returned to the plans on the table. - -He spent a long afternoon between his struggles to understand them and -fits of meditation. He evolved a remarkable new sentence in French. - -"Voici, Mossoo!--Je suis un inventeur Anglais. Mon nom est Butteridge. -Beh. oo. teh. teh. eh. arr. I. deh. geh. eh. J'avais ici pour vendre le -secret de le flying-machine. Comprenez? Vendre pour l'argent tout -suite, l'argent en main. Comprenez? C'est le machine a jouer dans l'air. -Comprenez? C'est le machine a faire l'oiseau. Comprenez? Balancer? Oui, -exactement! Battir l'oiseau en fait, a son propre jeu. Je desire de -vendre ceci a votre government national. Voulez vous me directer la? - -"Bit rummy, I expect, from the point of view of grammar," said Bert, -"but they ought to get the hang of it all right. - -"But then, if they arst me to explain the blessed thing?" - -He returned in a worried way to the plans. "I don't believe it's all -here!" he said.... - -He got more and more perplexed up there among the clouds as to what he -should do with this wonderful find of his. At any moment, so far as he -knew he might descend among he knew not what foreign people. - -"It's the chance of my life!" he said. - -It became more and more manifest to him that it wasn't. "Directly I come -down they'll telegraph--put it in the papers. Butteridge'll know of it -and come along--on my track." - -Butteridge would be a terrible person to be on any one's track. -Bert thought of the great black moustaches, the triangular nose, the -searching bellow and the glare. His afternoon's dream of a marvellous -seizure and sale of the great Butteridge secret crumpled up in his mind, -dissolved, and vanished. He awoke to sanity again. - -"Wouldn't do. What's the good of thinking of it?" He proceeded slowly -and reluctantly to replace the Butteridge papers in pockets and -portfolio as he had found them. He became aware of a splendid golden -light upon the balloon above him, and of a new warmth in the blue dome -of the sky. He stood up and beheld the sun, a great ball of blinding -gold, setting upon a tumbled sea of gold-edged crimson and purple -clouds, strange and wonderful beyond imagining. Eastward cloud-land -stretched for ever, darkling blue, and it seemed to Bert the whole round -hemisphere of the world was under his eyes. - -Then far, away over the blue he caught sight of three long, dark shapes -like hurrying fish that drove one after the other, as porpoises follow -one another in the water. They were very fish-like indeed--with tails. -It was an unconvincing impression in that light. He blinked his eyes, -stared again, and they had vanished. For a long time he scrutinised -those remote blue levels and saw no more.... - -"Wonder if I ever saw anything," he said, and then: "There ain't such -things...." - -Down went the sun and down, not diving steeply, but passing northward as -it sank, and then suddenly daylight and the expansive warmth of daylight -had gone altogether, and the index of the statoscope quivered over to -Descente. - -3 - -"NOW what's going to 'appen?" said Bert. - -He found the cold, grey cloud wilderness rising towards him with a wide, -slow steadiness. As he sank down among them the clouds ceased to seem -the snowclad mountain-slopes they had resembled heretofore, became -unsubstantial, confessed an immense silent drift and eddy in their -substance. For a moment, when he was nearly among their twilight masses, -his descent was checked. Then abruptly the sky was hidden, the last -vestiges of daylight gone, and he was falling rapidly in an evening -twilight through a whirl of fine snowflakes that streamed past him -towards the zenith, that drifted in upon the things about him and -melted, that touched his face with ghostly fingers. He shivered. His -breath came smoking from his lips, and everything was instantly bedewed -and wet. - -He had an impression of a snowstorm pouring with unexampled and -increasing fury UPWARD; then he realised that he was falling faster and -faster. - -Imperceptibly a sound grew upon his ears. The great silence of the world -was at an end. What was this confused sound? - -He craned his head over the side, concerned, perplexed. - -First he seemed to see, and then not to see. Then he saw clearly little -edges of foam pursuing each other, and a wide waste of weltering waters -below him. Far away was a pilot boat with a big sail bearing dim black -letters, and a little pinkish-yellow light, and it was rolling and -pitching, rolling and pitching in a gale, while he could feel no wind -at, all. Soon the sound of waters was loud and near. He was dropping, -dropping--into the sea! - -He became convulsively active. - -"Ballast!" he cried, and seized a little sack from the floor, and heaved -it overboard. He did not wait for the effect of that, but sent another -after it. He looked over in time to see a minute white splash in the dim -waters below him, and then he was back in the snow and clouds again. - -He sent out quite needlessly a third sack of ballast and a fourth, and -presently had the immense satisfaction of soaring up out of the damp and -chill into the clear, cold, upper air in which the day still lingered. -"Thang-God!" he said, with all his heart. - -A few stars now had pierced the blue, and in the east there shone -brightly a prolate moon. - -4 - -That first downward plunge filled Bert with a haunting sense of -boundless waters below. It was a summer's night, but it seemed to him, -nevertheless, extraordinarily long. He had a feeling of insecurity that -he fancied quite irrationally the sunrise would dispel. Also he was -hungry. He felt, in the dark, in the locker, put his fingers in -the Roman pie, and got some sandwiches, and he also opened rather -successfully a half-bottle of champagne. That warmed and restored him, -he grumbled at Grubb about the matches, wrapped himself up warmly on the -locker, and dozed for a time. He got up once or twice to make sure that -he was still securely high above the sea. The first time the moonlit -clouds were white and dense, and the shadow of the balloon ran athwart -them like a dog that followed; afterwards they seemed thinner. As he lay -still, staring up at the huge dark balloon above, he made a discovery. -His--or rather Mr. Butteridge's--waistcoat rustled as he breathed. It -was lined with papers. But Bert could not see to get them out or examine -them, much as he wished to do so.... - -He was awakened by the crowing of cocks, the barking of dogs, and a -clamour of birds. He was driving slowly at a low level over a broad land -lit golden by sunrise under a clear sky. He stared out upon hedgeless, -well-cultivated fields intersected by roads, each lined with -cable-bearing red poles. He had just passed over a compact, whitewashed, -village with a straight church tower and steep red-tiled roofs. A number -of peasants, men and women, in shiny blouses and lumpish footwear, stood -regarding him, arrested on their way to work. He was so low that the end -of his rope was trailing. - -He stared out at these people. "I wonder how you land," he thought. - -"S'pose I OUGHT to land?" - -He found himself drifting down towards a mono-rail line, and hastily -flung out two or three handfuls of ballast to clear it. - -"Lemme see! One might say just 'Pre'nez'! Wish I knew the French for -take hold of the rope!... I suppose they are French?" - -He surveyed the country again. "Might be Holland. Or Luxembourg. Or -Lorraine 's far as _I_ know. Wonder what those big affairs over there -are? Some sort of kiln. Prosperous-looking country..." - -The respectability of the country's appearance awakened answering chords -in his nature. - -"Make myself a bit ship-shape first," he said. - -He resolved to rise a little and get rid of his wig (which now felt -hot on his head), and so forth. He threw out a bag of ballast, and was -astonished to find himself careering up through the air very rapidly. - -"Blow!" said Mr. Smallways. "I've over-done the ballast trick.... Wonder -when I shall get down again?... brekfus' on board, anyhow." - -He removed his cap and wig, for the air was warm, and an improvident -impulse made him cast the latter object overboard. The statoscope -responded with a vigorous swing to Monte. - -"The blessed thing goes up if you only LOOK overboard," he remarked, and -assailed the locker. He found among other items several tins of liquid -cocoa containing explicit directions for opening that he followed with -minute care. He pierced the bottom with the key provided in the holes -indicated, and forthwith the can grew from cold to hotter and hotter, -until at last he could scarcely touch it, and then he opened the can at -the other end, and there was his cocoa smoking, without the use of match -or flame of any sort. It was an old invention, but new to Bert. There -was also ham and marmalade and bread, so that he had a really very -tolerable breakfast indeed. - -Then he took off his overcoat, for the sunshine was now inclined to be -hot, and that reminded him of the rustling he had heard in the night. -He took off the waistcoat and examined it. "Old Butteridge won't like -me unpicking this." He hesitated, and finally proceeded to unpick it. He -found the missing drawings of the lateral rotating planes, on which the -whole stability of the flying machine depended. - -An observant angel would have seen Bert sitting for a long time after -this discovery in a state of intense meditation. Then at last he rose -with an air of inspiration, took Mr. Butteridge's ripped, demolished, -and ransacked waistcoat, and hurled it from the balloon whence it -fluttered down slowly and eddyingly until at last it came to rest with -a contented flop upon the face of German tourist sleeping peacefully -beside the Hohenweg near Wildbad. Also this sent the balloon higher, -and so into a position still more convenient for observation by our -imaginary angel who would next have seen Mr. Smallways tear open his own -jacket and waistcoat, remove his collar, open his shirt, thrust his hand -into his bosom, and tear his heart out--or at least, if not his heart, -some large bright scarlet object. If the observer, overcoming a thrill -of celestial horror, had scrutinised this scarlet object more narrowly, -one of Bert's most cherished secrets, one of his essential weaknesses, -would have been laid bare. It was a red-flannel chest-protector, one of -those large quasi-hygienic objects that with pills and medicines take -the place of beneficial relics and images among the Protestant peoples -of Christendom. Always Bert wore this thing; it was his cherished -delusion, based on the advice of a shilling fortune-teller at Margate, -that he was weak in the lungs. - -He now proceeded to unbutton his fetish, to attack it with a penknife, -and to thrust the new-found plans between the two layers of imitation -Saxony flannel of which it was made. Then with the help of Mr. -Butteridge's small shaving mirror and his folding canvas basin he -readjusted his costume with the gravity of a man who has taken an -irrevocable step in life, buttoned up his jacket, cast the white sheet -of the Desert Dervish on one side, washed temperately, shaved, -resumed the big cap and the fur overcoat, and, much refreshed by these -exercises, surveyed the country below him. - -It was indeed a spectacle of incredible magnificence. If perhaps it was -not so strange and magnificent as the sunlit cloudland of the previous -day, it was at any rate infinitely more interesting. - -The air was at its utmost clearness and except to the south and -south-west there was not a cloud in the sky. The country was hilly, -with occasional fir plantations and bleak upland spaces, but also with -numerous farms, and the hills were deeply intersected by the gorges of -several winding rivers interrupted at intervals by the banked-up -ponds and weirs of electric generating wheels. It was dotted with -bright-looking, steep-roofed, villages, and each showed a distinctive -and interesting church beside its wireless telegraph steeple; here and -there were large chateaux and parks and white roads, and paths lined -with red and white cable posts were extremely conspicuous in the -landscape. There were walled enclosures like gardens and rickyards and -great roofs of barns and many electric dairy centres. The uplands were -mottled with cattle. At places he would see the track of one of the -old railroads (converted now to mono-rails) dodging through tunnels -and crossing embankments, and a rushing hum would mark the passing of a -train. Everything was extraordinarily clear as well as minute. Once or -twice he saw guns and soldiers, and was reminded of the stir of military -preparations he had witnessed on the Bank Holiday in England; but there -was nothing to tell him that these military preparations were abnormal -or to explain an occasional faint irregular firing Of guns that drifted -up to him.... - -"Wish I knew how to get down," said Bert, ten thousand feet or so above -it all, and gave himself to much futile tugging at the red and white -cords. Afterwards he made a sort of inventory of the provisions. Life in -the high air was giving him an appalling appetite, and it seemed to him -discreet at this stage to portion out his supply into rations. So far as -he could see he might pass a week in the air. - -At first all the vast panorama below had been as silent as a painted -picture. But as the day wore on and the gas diffused slowly from the -balloon, it sank earthward again, details increased, men became more -visible, and he began to hear the whistle and moan of trains and cars, -sounds of cattle, bugles and kettle drums, and presently even men's -voices. And at last his guide-rope was trailing again, and he found it -possible to attempt a landing. Once or twice as the rope dragged over -cables he found his hair erect with electricity, and once he had a -slight shock, and sparks snapped about the car. He took these things -among the chances of the voyage. He had one idea now very clear in his -mind, and that was to drop the iron grapnel that hung from the ring. - -From the first this attempt was unfortunate, perhaps because the place -for descent was ill-chosen. A balloon should come down in an empty open -space, and he chose a crowd. He made his decision suddenly, and without -proper reflection. As he trailed, Bert saw ahead of him one of the -most attractive little towns in the world--a cluster of steep gables -surmounted by a high church tower and diversified with trees, walled, -and with a fine, large gateway opening out upon a tree-lined high road. -All the wires and cables of the countryside converged upon it like -guests to entertainment. It had a most home-like and comfortable -quality, and it was made gayer by abundant flags. Along the road a -quantity of peasant folk, in big pair-wheeled carts and afoot, were -coming and going, besides an occasional mono-rail car; and at the -car-junction, under the trees outside the town, was a busy little -fair of booths. It seemed a warm, human, well-rooted, and altogether -delightful place to Bert. He came low over the tree-tops, with his -grapnel ready to throw and so anchor him--a curious, interested, and -interesting guest, so his imagination figured it, in the very middle of -it all. - -He thought of himself performing feats with the sign language and chance -linguistics amidst a circle of admiring rustics.... - -And then the chapter of adverse accidents began. - -The rope made itself unpopular long before the crowd had fully realised -his advent over the trees. An elderly and apparently intoxicated peasant -in a shiny black hat, and carrying a large crimson umbrella, caught -sight of it first as it trailed past him, and was seized with a -discreditable ambition to kill it. He pursued it, briskly with -unpleasant cries. It crossed the road obliquely, splashed into a pail of -milk upon a stall, and slapped its milky tail athwart a motor-car load -of factory girls halted outside the town gates. They screamed loudly. -People looked up and saw Bert making what he meant to be genial -salutations, but what they considered, in view of the feminine outcry, -to be insulting gestures. Then the car hit the roof of the gatehouse -smartly, snapped a flag staff, played a tune upon some telegraph wires, -and sent a broken wire like a whip-lash to do its share in accumulating -unpopularity. Bert, by clutching convulsively, just escaped being -pitched headlong. Two young soldiers and several peasants shouted things -up to him and shook fists at him and began to run in pursuit as he -disappeared over the wall into the town. - -Admiring rustics, indeed! - -The balloon leapt at once, in the manner of balloons when part of their -weight is released by touching down, with a sort of flippancy, and -in another moment Bert was over a street crowded with peasants -and soldiers, that opened into a busy market-square. The wave of -unfriendliness pursued him. - -"Grapnel," said Bert, and then with an afterthought shouted, "TETES -there, you! I say! I say! TETES. 'Eng it!" - -The grapnel smashed down a steeply sloping roof, followed by an -avalanche of broken tiles, jumped the street amidst shrieks and cries, -and smashed into a plate-glass window with an immense and sickening -impact. The balloon rolled nauseatingly, and the car pitched. But the -grapnel had not held. It emerged at once bearing on one fluke, with -a ridiculous air of fastidious selection, a small child's chair, and -pursued by a maddened shopman. It lifted its catch, swung about with an -appearance of painful indecision amidst a roar of wrath, and dropped -it at last neatly, and as if by inspiration, over the head of a peasant -woman in charge of an assortment of cabbages in the market-place. - -Everybody now was aware of the balloon. Everybody was either trying to -dodge the grapnel or catch the trail rope. With a pendulum-like swoop -through the crowd, that sent people flying right and left the grapnel -came to earth again, tried for and missed a stout gentleman in a blue -suit and a straw hat, smacked away a trestle from under a stall of -haberdashery, made a cyclist soldier in knickerbockers leap like -a chamois, and secured itself uncertainly among the hind-legs of a -sheep--which made convulsive, ungenerous efforts to free itself, and was -dragged into a position of rest against a stone cross in the middle of -the place. The balloon pulled up with a jerk. In another moment a score -of willing hands were tugging it earthward. At the same instant Bert -became aware for the first time of a fresh breeze blowing about him. - -For some seconds he stood staggering in the car, which now swayed -sickeningly, surveying the exasperated crowd below him and trying to -collect his mind. He was extraordinarily astonished at this run of -mishaps. Were the people really so annoyed? Everybody seemed angry -with him. No one seemed interested or amused by his arrival. -A disproportionate amount of the outcry had the flavour of -imprecation--had, indeed a strong flavour of riot. Several greatly -uniformed officials in cocked hats struggled in vain to control the -crowd. Fists and sticks were shaken. And when Bert saw a man on the -outskirts of the crowd run to a haycart and get a brightly pronged -pitch-fork, and a blue-clad soldier unbuckle his belt, his rising doubt -whether this little town was after all such a good place for a landing -became a certainty. - -He had clung to the fancy that they would make something of a hero of -him. Now he knew that he was mistaken. - -He was perhaps ten feet above the people when he made his decision. -His paralysis ceased. He leapt up on the seat, and, at imminent risk of -falling headlong, released the grapnel-rope from the toggle that held -it, sprang on to the trail rope and disengaged that also. A hoarse shout -of disgust greeted the descent of the grapnel-rope and the swift leap -of the balloon, and something--he fancied afterwards it was a -turnip--whizzed by his head. The trail-rope followed its fellow. The -crowd seemed to jump away from him. With an immense and horrifying -rustle the balloon brushed against a telephone pole, and for a tense -instant he anticipated either an electric explosion or a bursting of the -oiled silk, or both. But fortune was with him. - -In another second he was cowering in the bottom of the car, and released -from the weight of the grapnel and the two ropes, rushing up once more -through the air. For a time he remained crouching, and when at last he -looked out again the little town was very small and travelling, with the -rest of lower Germany, in a circular orbit round and round the car--or -at least it appeared to be doing that. When he got used to it, he found -this rotation of the balloon rather convenient; it saved moving about in -the car. - -5 - -Late in the afternoon of a pleasant summer day in the year 191-, if one -may borrow a mode of phrasing that once found favour with the readers of -the late G. P. R. James, a solitary balloonist--replacing the solitary -horseman of the classic romances--might have been observed wending his -way across Franconia in a north-easterly direction, and at a height of -about eleven thousand feet above the sea and still spindling slowly. His -head was craned over the side of the car, and he surveyed the country -below with an expression of profound perplexity; ever and again his lips -shaped inaudible words. "Shootin' at a chap," for example, and "I'll -come down right enough soon as I find out 'ow." Over the side of -the basket the robe of the Desert Dervish was hanging, an appeal for -consideration, an ineffectual white flag. - -He was now very distinctly aware that the world below him, so far from -being the naive countryside of his earlier imaginings that day, sleepily -unconscious of him and capable of being amazed and nearly reverential -at his descent, was acutely irritated by his career, and extremely -impatient with the course he was taking.--But indeed it was not he -who took that course, but his masters, the winds of heaven. Mysterious -voices spoke to him in his ear, jerking the words up to him by means -of megaphones, in a weird and startling manner, in a great variety of -languages. Official-looking persons had signalled to him by means of -flag flapping and arm waving. On the whole a guttural variant of English -prevailed in the sentences that alighted upon the balloon; chiefly he -was told to "gome down or you will be shot." - -"All very well," said Bert, "but 'ow?" - -Then they shot a little wide of the car. Latterly he had been shot at -six or seven times, and once the bullet had gone by with a sound so -persuasively like the tearing of silk that he had resigned himself to -the prospect of a headlong fall. But either they were aiming near him or -they had missed, and as yet nothing was torn but the air about him--and -his anxious soul. - -He was now enjoying a respite from these attentions, but he felt it was -at best an interlude, and he was doing what he could to appreciate -his position. Incidentally he was having some hot coffee and pie in an -untidy inadvertent manner, with an eye fluttering nervously over the -side of the car. At first he had ascribed the growing interest in his -career to his ill-conceived attempt to land in the bright little upland -town, but now he was beginning to realise that the military rather than -the civil arm was concerned about him. - -He was quite involuntarily playing that weird mysterious part--the part -of an International Spy. He was seeing secret things. He had, in fact, -crossed the designs of no less a power than the German Empire, he had -blundered into the hot focus of Welt-Politik, he was drifting helplessly -towards the great Imperial secret, the immense aeronautic park that had -been established at a headlong pace in Franconia to develop silently, -swiftly, and on an immense scale the great discoveries of Hunstedt and -Stossel, and so to give Germany before all other nations a fleet of -airships, the air power and the Empire of the world. - -Later, just before they shot him down altogether, Bert saw that great -area of passionate work, warm lit in the evening light, a great area -of upland on which the airships lay like a herd of grazing monsters at -their feed. It was a vast busy space stretching away northward as far as -he could see, methodically cut up into numbered sheds, gasometers, squad -encampments, storage areas, interlaced with the omnipresent mono-rail -lines, and altogether free from overhead wires or cables. Everywhere was -the white, black and yellow of Imperial Germany, everywhere the black -eagles spread their wings. Even without these indications, the large -vigorous neatness of everything would have marked it German. Vast -multitudes of men went to and fro, many in white and drab fatigue -uniforms busy about the balloons, others drilling in sensible drab. Here -and there a full uniform glittered. The airships chiefly engaged his -attention, and he knew at once it was three of these he had seen on -the previous night, taking advantage of the cloud welkin to manoeuvre -unobserved. They were altogether fish-like. For the great airships with -which Germany attacked New York in her last gigantic effort for -world supremacy--before humanity realized that world supremacy was a -dream--were the lineal descendants of the Zeppelin airship that flew -over Lake Constance in 1906, and of the Lebaudy navigables that made -their memorable excursions over Paris in 1907 and 1908. - -These German airships were held together by rib-like skeletons of steel -and aluminium and a stout inelastic canvas outer-skin, within which was -an impervious rubber gas-bag, cut up by transverse dissepiments into -from fifty to a hundred compartments. These were all absolutely gas -tight and filled with hydrogen, and the entire aerostat was kept at any -level by means of a long internal balloonette of oiled and toughened -silk canvas, into which air could be forced and from which it could be -pumped. So the airship could be made either heavier or lighter than air, -and losses of weight through the consumption of fuel, the casting -of bombs and so forth, could also be compensated by admitting air to -sections of the general gas-bag. Ultimately that made a highly explosive -mixture; but in all these matters risks must be taken and guarded -against. There was a steel axis to the whole affair, a central backbone -which terminated in the engine and propeller, and the men and magazines -were forward in a series of cabins under the expanded headlike forepart. -The engine, which was of the extraordinarily powerful Pforzheim type, -that supreme triumph of German invention, was worked by wires from this -forepart, which was indeed the only really habitable part of the ship. -If anything went wrong, the engineers went aft along a rope ladder -beneath the frame. The tendency of the whole affair to roll was partly -corrected by a horizontal lateral fin on either side, and steering was -chiefly effected by two vertical fins, which normally lay back like -gill-flaps on either side of the head. It was indeed a most complete -adaptation of the fish form to aerial conditions, the position of -swimming bladder, eyes, and brain being, however, below instead of -above. A striking, and unfish-like feature was the apparatus for -wireless telegraphy that dangled from the forward cabin--that is to say, -under the chin of the fish. - -These monsters were capable of ninety miles an hour in a calm, so that -they could face and make headway against nearly everything except -the fiercest tornado. They varied in length from eight hundred to two -thousand feet, and they had a carrying power of from seventy to two -hundred tons. How many Germany possessed history does not record, but -Bert counted nearly eighty great bulks receding in perspective during -his brief inspection. Such were the instruments on which she chiefly -relied to sustain her in her repudiation of the Monroe Doctrine and her -bold bid for a share in the empire of the New World. But not -altogether did she rely on these; she had also a one-man bomb-throwing -Drachenflieger of unknown value among the resources. - -But the Drachenflieger were away in the second great aeronautic -park east of Hamburg, and Bert Smallways saw nothing of them in the -bird's-eye view he took of the Franconian establishment before they shot -him down very neatly. The bullet tore past him and made a sort of pop as -it pierced his balloon--a pop that was followed by a rustling sigh and -a steady downward movement. And when in the confusion of the moment he -dropped a bag of ballast, the Germans, very politely but firmly overcame -his scruples by shooting his balloon again twice. - - - -CHAPTER IV. THE GERMAN AIR-FLEET - -1 - -Of all the productions of the human imagination that make the world in -which Mr. Bert Smallways lived confusingly wonderful, there was none -quite so strange, so headlong and disturbing, so noisy and persuasive -and dangerous, as the modernisations of patriotism produced by imperial -and international politics. In the soul of all men is a liking for kind, -a pride in one's own atmosphere, a tenderness for one's Mother speech -and one's familiar land. Before the coming of the Scientific Age -this group of gentle and noble emotions had been a fine factor in the -equipment of every worthy human being, a fine factor that had its less -amiable aspect in a usually harmless hostility to strange people, and a -usually harmless detraction of strange lands. But with the wild rush of -change in the pace, scope, materials, scale, and possibilities of human -life that then occurred, the old boundaries, the old seclusions and -separations were violently broken down. All the old settled mental -habits and traditions of men found themselves not simply confronted by -new conditions, but by constantly renewed and changing new conditions. -They had no chance of adapting themselves. They were annihilated or -perverted or inflamed beyond recognition. - -Bert Smallways' grandfather, in the days when Bun Hill was a village -under the sway of Sir Peter Bone's parent, had "known his place" to -the uttermost farthing, touched his hat to his betters, despised and -condescended to his inferiors, and hadn't changed an idea from the -cradle to the grave. He was Kentish and English, and that meant hops, -beer, dog-rose's, and the sort of sunshine that was best in the world. -Newspapers and politics and visits to "Lunnon" weren't for the likes of -him. Then came the change. These earlier chapters have given an idea of -what happened to Bun Hill, and how the flood of novel things had poured -over its devoted rusticity. Bert Smallways was only one of countless -millions in Europe and America and Asia who, instead of being born -rooted in the soil, were born struggling in a torrent they never clearly -understood. All the faiths of their fathers had been taken by surprise, -and startled into the strangest forms and reactions. Particularly did -the fine old tradition of patriotism get perverted and distorted in the -rush of the new times. Instead of the sturdy establishment in prejudice -of Bert's grandfather, to whom the word "Frenchified" was the ultimate -term of contempt, there flowed through Bert's brain a squittering -succession of thinly violent ideas about German competition, about -the Yellow Danger, about the Black Peril, about the White Man's -Burthen--that is to say, Bert's preposterous right to muddle further the -naturally very muddled politics of the entirely similar little cads to -himself (except for a smear of brown) who smoked cigarettes and rode -bicycles in Buluwayo, Kingston (Jamaica), or Bombay. These were Bert's -"Subject Races," and he was ready to die--by proxy in the person of any -one who cared to enlist--to maintain his hold upon that right. It kept -him awake at nights to think that he might lose it. - -The essential fact of the politics of the age in which Bert Smallways -lived--the age that blundered at last into the catastrophe of the War in -the Air--was a very simple one, if only people had had the intelligence -to be simple about it. The development of Science had altered the scale -of human affairs. By means of rapid mechanical traction, it had brought -men nearer together, so much nearer socially, economically, physically, -that the old separations into nations and kingdoms were no longer -possible, a newer, wider synthesis was not only needed, but imperatively -demanded. Just as the once independent dukedoms of France had to fuse -into a nation, so now the nations had to adapt themselves to a wider -coalescence, they had to keep what was precious and possible, and -concede what was obsolete and dangerous. A saner world would have -perceived this patent need for a reasonable synthesis, would have -discussed it temperately, achieved and gone on to organise the great -civilisation that was manifestly possible to mankind. The world of -Bert Smallways did nothing of the sort. Its national governments, its -national interests, would not hear of anything so obvious; they were -too suspicious of each other, too wanting in generous imaginations. They -began to behave like ill-bred people in a crowded public car, to squeeze -against one another, elbow, thrust, dispute and quarrel. Vain to -point out to them that they had only to rearrange themselves to be -comfortable. Everywhere, all over the world, the historian of the early -twentieth century finds the same thing, the flow and rearrangement -of human affairs inextricably entangled by the old areas, the old -prejudices and a sort of heated irascible stupidity, and everywhere -congested nations in inconvenient areas, slopping population and produce -into each other, annoying each other with tariffs, and every possible -commercial vexation, and threatening each other with navies and armies -that grew every year more portentous. - -It is impossible now to estimate how much of the intellectual and -physical energy of the world was wasted in military preparation and -equipment, but it was an enormous proportion. Great Britain spent upon -army and navy money and capacity, that directed into the channels -of physical culture and education would have made the British the -aristocracy of the world. Her rulers could have kept the whole -population learning and exercising up to the age of eighteen and made -a broad-chested and intelligent man of every Bert Smallways in the -islands, had they given the resources they spent in war material to the -making of men. Instead of which they waggled flags at him until he was -fourteen, incited him to cheer, and then turned him out of school to -begin that career of private enterprise we have compactly recorded. -France achieved similar imbecilities; Germany was, if possible worse; -Russia under the waste and stresses of militarism festered towards -bankruptcy and decay. All Europe was producing big guns and countless -swarms of little Smallways. The Asiatic peoples had been forced in -self-defence into a like diversion of the new powers science had brought -them. On the eve of the outbreak of the war there were six great powers -in the world and a cluster of smaller ones, each armed to the teeth -and straining every nerve to get ahead of the others in deadliness -of equipment and military efficiency. The great powers were first the -United States, a nation addicted to commerce, but roused to military -necessities by the efforts of Germany to expand into South America, and -by the natural consequences of her own unwary annexations of land in the -very teeth of Japan. She maintained two immense fleets east and west, -and internally she was in violent conflict between Federal and State -governments upon the question of universal service in a defensive -militia. Next came the great alliance of Eastern Asia, a close-knit -coalescence of China and Japan, advancing with rapid strides year by -year to predominance in the world's affairs. Then the German alliance -still struggled to achieve its dream of imperial expansion, and its -imposition of the German language upon a forcibly united Europe. These -were the three most spirited and aggressive powers in the world. Far -more pacific was the British Empire, perilously scattered over the -globe, and distracted now by insurrectionary movements in Ireland -and among all its Subject Races. It had given these subject races -cigarettes, boots, bowler hats, cricket, race meetings, cheap revolvers, -petroleum, the factory system of industry, halfpenny newspapers in -both English and the vernacular, inexpensive university degrees, -motor-bicycles and electric trams; it had produced a considerable -literature expressing contempt for the Subject Races, and rendered -it freely accessible to them, and it had been content to believe that -nothing would result from these stimulants because somebody once wrote -"the immemorial east"; and also, in the inspired words of Kipling-- - - East is east and west is west, - And never the twain shall meet. - - -Instead of which, Egypt, India, and the subject countries generally had -produced new generations in a state of passionate indignation and the -utmost energy, activity and modernity. The governing class in Great -Britain was slowly adapting itself to a new conception, of the Subject -Races as waking peoples, and finding its efforts to keep the Empire -together under these, strains and changing ideas greatly impeded by -the entirely sporting spirit with which Bert Smallways at home (by the -million) cast his vote, and by the tendency of his more highly -coloured equivalents to be disrespectful to irascible officials. Their -impertinence was excessive; it was no mere stone-throwing and shouting. -They would quote Burns at them and Mill and Darwin and confute them in -arguments. - -Even more pacific than the British Empire were France and its allies, -the Latin powers, heavily armed states indeed, but reluctant warriors, -and in many ways socially and politically leading western civilisation. -Russia was a pacific power perforce, divided within itself, torn between -revolutionaries and reactionaries who were equally incapable of social -reconstruction, and so sinking towards a tragic disorder of chronic -political vendetta. Wedged in among these portentous larger bulks, -swayed and threatened by them, the smaller states of the world -maintained a precarious independence, each keeping itself armed as -dangerously as its utmost ability could contrive. - -So it came about that in every country a great and growing body of -energetic and inventive men was busied either for offensive or defensive -ends, in elaborating the apparatus of war, until the accumulating -tensions should reach the breaking-point. Each power sought to keep its -preparations secret, to hold new weapons in reserve, to anticipate and -learn the preparations of its rivals. The feeling of danger from fresh -discoveries affected the patriotic imagination of every people in the -world. Now it was rumoured the British had an overwhelming gun, now the -French an invincible rifle, now the Japanese a new explosive, now the -Americans a submarine that would drive every ironclad from the seas. -Each time there would be a war panic. - -The strength and heart of the nations was given to the thought of war, -and yet the mass of their citizens was a teeming democracy as heedless -of and unfitted for fighting, mentally, morally, physically, as any -population has ever been--or, one ventures to add, could ever be. That -was the paradox of the time. It was a period altogether unique in -the world's history. The apparatus of warfare, the art and method of -fighting, changed absolutely every dozen years in a stupendous progress -towards perfection, and people grew less and less warlike, and there was -no war. - -And then at last it came. It came as a surprise to all the world because -its real causes were hidden. Relations were strained between Germany -and the United States because of the intense exasperation of a tariff -conflict and the ambiguous attitude of the former power towards the -Monroe Doctrine, and they were strained between the United States and -Japan because of the perennial citizenship question. But in both cases -these were standing causes of offence. The real deciding cause, it is -now known, was the perfecting of the Pforzheim engine by Germany and the -consequent possibility of a rapid and entirely practicable airship. -At that time Germany was by far the most efficient power in the world, -better organised for swift and secret action, better equipped with the -resources of modern science, and with her official and administrative -classes at a higher level of education and training. These things she -knew, and she exaggerated that knowledge to the pitch of contempt for -the secret counsels of her neighbours. It may be that with the habit of -self-confidence her spying upon them had grown less thorough. Moreover, -she had a tradition of unsentimental and unscrupulous action that -vitiated her international outlook profoundly. With the coming of these -new weapons her collective intelligence thrilled with the sense that now -her moment had come. Once again in the history of progress it seemed she -held the decisive weapon. Now she might strike and conquer--before the -others had anything but experiments in the air. - -Particularly she must strike America, swiftly, because there, if -anywhere, lay the chance of an aerial rival. It was known that America -possessed a flying-machine of considerable practical value, developed -out of the Wright model; but it was not supposed that the Washington War -Office had made any wholesale attempts to create an aerial navy. It was -necessary to strike before they could do so. France had a fleet of -slow navigables, several dating from 1908, that could make no -possible headway against the new type. They had been built solely for -reconnoitring purposes on the eastern frontier, they were mostly -too small to carry more than a couple of dozen men without arms or -provisions, and not one could do forty miles an hour. Great Britain, -it seemed, in an access of meanness, temporised and wrangled with the -imperial spirited Butteridge and his extraordinary invention. That also -was not in play--and could not be for some months at the earliest. -From Asia there, came no sign. The Germans explained this by saying the -yellow peoples were without invention. No other competitor was worth -considering. "Now or never," said the Germans--"now or never we may -seize the air--as once the British seized the seas! While all the other -powers are still experimenting." - -Swift and systematic and secret were their preparations, and their plan -most excellent. So far as their knowledge went, America was the only -dangerous possibility; America, which was also now the leading -trade rival of Germany and one of the chief barriers to her Imperial -expansion. So at once they would strike at America. They would fling a -great force across the Atlantic heavens and bear America down unwarned -and unprepared. - -Altogether it was a well-imagined and most hopeful and spirited -enterprise, having regard to the information in the possession of the -German government. The chances of it being a successful surprise were -very great. The airship and the flying-machine were very different -things from ironclads, which take a couple of years to build. Given -hands, given plant, they could be made innumerably in a few weeks. -Once the needful parks and foundries were organised, air-ships and -Drachenflieger could be poured into the sky. Indeed, when the time -came, they did pour into the sky like, as a bitter French writer put it, -flies roused from filth. - -The attack upon America was to be the first move in this tremendous -game. But no sooner had it started than instantly the aeronautic parks -were to proceed to put together and inflate the second fleet which was -to dominate Europe and manoeuvre significantly over London, Paris, Rome, -St. Petersburg, or wherever else its moral effect was required. A World -Surprise it was to be--no less a World Conquest; and it is wonderful how -near the calmly adventurous minds that planned it came to succeeding in -their colossal design. - -Von Sternberg was the Moltke of this War in the Air, but it was the -curious hard romanticism of Prince Karl Albert that won over the -hesitating Emperor to the scheme. Prince Karl Albert was indeed the -central figure of the world drama. He was the darling of the Imperialist -spirit in German, and the ideal of the new aristocratic feeling--the -new Chivalry, as it was called--that followed the overthrow of -Socialism through its internal divisions and lack of discipline, and -the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few great families. He was -compared by obsequious flatterers to the Black Prince, to Alcibiades, to -the young Caesar. To many he seemed Nietzsche's Overman revealed. He was -big and blond and virile, and splendidly non-moral. The first great feat -that startled Europe, and almost brought about a new Trojan war, was -his abduction of the Princess Helena of Norway and his blank refusal to -marry her. Then followed his marriage with Gretchen Krass, a Swiss girl -of peerless beauty. Then came the gallant rescue, which almost cost him -his life, of three drowning sailors whose boat had upset in the sea near -Heligoland. For that and his victory over the American yacht Defender, -C.C.I., the Emperor forgave him and placed him in control of the new -aeronautic arm of the German forces. This he developed with marvellous -energy and ability, being resolved, as he said, to give to Germany land -and sea and sky. The national passion for aggression found in him its -supreme exponent, and achieved through him its realisation in this -astounding war. But his fascination was more than national; all over the -world his ruthless strength dominated minds as the Napoleonic legend had -dominated minds. Englishmen turned in disgust from the slow, complex, -civilised methods of their national politics to this uncompromising, -forceful figure. Frenchmen believed in him. Poems were written to him in -American. - -He made the war. - -Quite equally with the rest of the world, the general German population -was taken by surprise by the swift vigour of the Imperial government. -A considerable literature of military forecasts, beginning as early as -1906 with Rudolf Martin, the author not merely of a brilliant book of -anticipations, but of a proverb, "The future of Germany lies in the -air," had, however, partially prepared the German imagination for some -such enterprise. - -2 - -Of all these world-forces and gigantic designs Bert Smallways knew -nothing until he found himself in the very focus of it all and gaped -down amazed on the spectacle of that giant herd of air-ships. Each one -seemed as long as the Strand, and as big about as Trafalgar Square. Some -must have been a third of a mile in length. He had never before seen -anything so vast and disciplined as this tremendous park. For the first -time in his life he really had an intimation of the extraordinary and -quite important things of which a contemporary may go in ignorance. He -had always clung to the illusion that Germans were fat, absurd men, who -smoked china pipes, and were addicted to knowledge and horseflesh and -sauerkraut and indigestible things generally. - -His bird's-eye view was quite transitory. He ducked at the first shot; -and directly his balloon began to drop, his mind ran confusedly upon how -he might explain himself, and whether he should pretend to be Butteridge -or not. "O Lord!" he groaned, in an agony of indecision. Then his eye -caught his sandals, and he felt a spasm of self-disgust. "They'll think -I'm a bloomin' idiot," he said, and then it was he rose up desperately -and threw over the sand-bag and provoked the second and third shots. - -It flashed into his head, as he cowered in the bottom of the car, that -he might avoid all sorts of disagreeable and complicated explanations by -pretending to be mad. - -That was his last idea before the airships seemed to rush up about him -as if to look at him, and his car hit the ground and bounded and pitched -him out on his head.... - -He awoke to find himself famous, and to hear a voice crying, -"Booteraidge! Ja! Ja! Herr Booteraidge! Selbst!" - -He was lying on a little patch of grass beside one of the main avenues -of the aeronautic park. The airships receded down a great vista, an -immense perspective, and the blunt prow of each was adorned with a black -eagle of a hundred feet or so spread. Down the other side of the avenue -ran a series of gas generators, and big hose-pipes trailed everywhere -across the intervening space. Close at hand was his now nearly deflated -balloon and the car on its side looking minutely small, a mere broken -toy, a shrivelled bubble, in contrast with the gigantic bulk of the -nearer airship. This he saw almost end-on, rising like a cliff and -sloping forward towards its fellow on the other side so as to overshadow -the alley between them. There was a crowd of excited people about him, -big men mostly in tight uniforms. Everybody was talking, and several -were shouting, in German; he knew that because they splashed and -aspirated sounds like startled kittens. - -Only one phrase, repeated again and again could he recognize--the name -of "Herr Booteraidge." - -"Gollys!" said Bert. "They've spotted it." - -"Besser," said some one, and some rapid German followed. - -He perceived that close at hand was a field telephone, and that a tall -officer in blue was talking thereat about him. Another stood close -beside him with the portfolio of drawings and photographs in his hand. -They looked round at him. - -"Do you spik Cherman, Herr Booteraidge?" - -Bert decided that he had better be dazed. He did his best to seem -thoroughly dazed. "Where AM I?" he asked. - -Volubility prevailed. "Der Prinz," was mentioned. A bugle sounded far -away, and its call was taken up by one nearer, and then by one close at -hand. This seemed to increase the excitement greatly. A mono-rail car -bumbled past. The telephone bell rang passionately, and the tall officer -seemed to engage in a heated altercation. Then he approached the group -about Bert, calling out something about "mitbringen." - -An earnest-faced, emaciated man with a white moustache appealed to Bert. -"Herr Booteraidge, sir, we are chust to start!" - -"Where am I?" Bert repeated. - -Some one shook him by the other shoulder. "Are you Herr Booteraidge?" he -asked. - -"Herr Booteraidge, we are chust to start!" repeated the white moustache, -and then helplessly, "What is de goot? What can we do?" - -The officer from the telephone repeated his sentence about "Der Prinz" -and "mitbringen." The man with the moustache stared for a moment, -grasped an idea and became violently energetic, stood up and bawled -directions at unseen people. Questions were asked, and the doctor at -Bert's side answered, "Ja! Ja!" several times, also something about -"Kopf." With a certain urgency he got Bert rather unwillingly to his -feet. Two huge soldiers in grey advanced upon Bert and seized hold of -him. "'Ullo!" said Bert, startled. "What's up?" - -"It is all right," the doctor explained; "they are to carry you." - -"Where?" asked Bert, unanswered. - -"Put your arms roundt their--hals--round them!" - -"Yes! but where?" - -"Hold tight!" - -Before Bert could decide to say anything more he was whisked up by the -two soldiers. They joined hands to seat him, and his arms were put about -their necks. "Vorwarts!" Some one ran before him with the portfolio, and -he was borne rapidly along the broad avenue between the gas generators -and the airships, rapidly and on the whole smoothly except that once or -twice his bearers stumbled over hose-pipes and nearly let him down. - -He was wearing Mr. Butteridge's Alpine cap, and his little shoulders -were in Mr. Butteridge's fur-lined overcoat, and he had responded to Mr. -Butteridge's name. The sandals dangled helplessly. Gaw! Everybody seemed -in a devil of a hurry. Why? He was carried joggling and gaping through -the twilight, marvelling beyond measure. - -The systematic arrangement of wide convenient spaces, the quantities -of business-like soldiers everywhere, the occasional neat piles of -material, the ubiquitous mono-rail lines, and the towering ship-like -hulls about him, reminded him a little of impressions he had got as -a boy on a visit to Woolwich Dockyard. The whole camp reflected the -colossal power of modern science that had created it. A peculiar -strangeness was produced by the lowness of the electric light, which -lay upon the ground, casting all shadows upwards and making a grotesque -shadow figure of himself and his bearers on the airship sides, fusing -all three of them into a monstrous animal with attenuated legs and an -immense fan-like humped body. The lights were on the ground because -as far as possible all poles and standards had been dispensed with to -prevent complications when the airships rose. - -It was deep twilight now, a tranquil blue-skyed evening; everything rose -out from the splashes of light upon the ground into dim translucent -tall masses; within the cavities of the airships small inspecting -lamps glowed like cloud-veiled stars, and made them seem marvellously -unsubstantial. Each airship had its name in black letters on white on -either flank, and forward the Imperial eagle sprawled, an overwhelming -bird in the dimness. - -Bugles sounded, mono-rail cars of quiet soldiers slithered burbling -by. The cabins under the heads of the airships were being lit up; doors -opened in them, and revealed padded passages. - -Now and then a voice gave directions to workers indistinctly seen. - -There was a matter of sentinels, gangways and a long narrow passage, a -scramble over a disorder of baggage, and then Bert found himself lowered -to the ground and standing in the doorway of a spacious cabin--it was -perhaps ten feet square and eight high, furnished with crimson padding -and aluminium. A tall, bird-like young man with a small head, a -long nose, and very pale hair, with his hands full of things like -shaving-strops, boot-trees, hair-brushes, and toilet tidies, was saying -things about Gott and thunder and Dummer Booteraidge as Bert entered. He -was apparently an evicted occupant. Then he vanished, and Bert was lying -back on a couch in the corner with a pillow under his head and the door -of the cabin shut upon him. He was alone. Everybody had hurried out -again astonishingly. - -"Gollys!" said Bert. "What next?" - -He stared about him at the room. - -"Butteridge! Shall I try to keep it up, or shan't I?" - -The room he was in puzzled him. "'Tisn't a prison and 'tisn't a norfis?" -Then the old trouble came uppermost. "I wish to 'eaven I 'adn't these -silly sandals on," he cried querulously to the universe. "They give the -whole blessed show away." - -3 - -His door was flung open, and a compact young man in uniform appeared, -carrying Mr. Butteridge's portfolio, rucksac, and shaving-glass. - -"I say!" he said in faultless English as he entered. He had a beaming -face, and a sort of pinkish blond hair. "Fancy you being Butteridge." He -slapped Bert's meagre luggage down. - -"We'd have started," he said, "in another half-hour! You didn't give -yourself much time!" - -He surveyed Bert curiously. His gaze rested for a fraction of a moment -on the sandals. "You ought to have come on your flying-machine, Mr. -Butteridge." - -He didn't wait for an answer. "The Prince says I've got to look after -you. Naturally he can't see you now, but he thinks your coming's -providential. Last grace of Heaven. Like a sign. Hullo!" - -He stood still and listened. - -Outside there was a going to and fro of feet, a sound of distant bugles -suddenly taken up and echoed close at hand, men called out in loud tones -short, sharp, seemingly vital things, and were answered distantly. A -bell jangled, and feet went down the corridor. Then came a stillness -more distracting than sound, and then a great gurgling and rushing and -splashing of water. The young man's eyebrows lifted. He hesitated, and -dashed out of the room. Presently came a stupendous bang to vary the -noises without, then a distant cheering. The young man re-appeared. - -"They're running the water out of the ballonette already." - -"What water?" asked Bert. - -"The water that anchored us. Artful dodge. Eh?" - -Bert tried to take it in. - -"Of course!" said the compact young man. "You don't understand." - -A gentle quivering crept upon Bert's senses. "That's the engine," said -the compact young man approvingly. "Now we shan't be long." - -Another long listening interval. - -The cabin swayed. "By Jove! we're starting already;" he cried. "We're -starting!" - -"Starting!" cried Bert, sitting up. "Where?" - -But the young man was out of the room again. There were noises of German -in the passage, and other nerve-shaking sounds. - -The swaying increased. The young man reappeared. "We're off, right -enough!" - -"I say!" said Bert, "where are we starting? I wish you'd explain. What's -this place? I don't understand." - -"What!" cried the young man, "you don't understand?" - -"No. I'm all dazed-like from that crack on the nob I got. Where ARE we? -WHERE are we starting?" - -"Don't you know where you are--what this is?" - -"Not a bit of it! What's all the swaying and the row?" - -"What a lark!" cried the young man. "I say! What a thundering lark! -Don't you know? We're off to America, and you haven't realised. You've -just caught us by a neck. You're on the blessed old flagship with the -Prince. You won't miss anything. Whatever's on, you bet the Vaterland -will be there." - -"Us!--off to America?" - -"Ra--ther!" - -"In an airship?" - -"What do YOU think?" - -"Me! going to America on an airship! After that balloon! 'Ere! I say--I -don't want to go! I want to walk about on my legs. Let me get out! I -didn't understand." - -He made a dive for the door. - -The young man arrested Bert with a gesture, took hold of a strap, lifted -up a panel in the padded wall, and a window appeared. "Look!" he said. -Side by side they looked out. - -"Gaw!" said Bert. "We're going up!" - -"We are!" said the young man, cheerfully; "fast!" - -They were rising in the air smoothly and quietly, and moving slowly -to the throb of the engine athwart the aeronautic park. Down below it -stretched, dimly geometrical in the darkness, picked out at regular -intervals by glow-worm spangles of light. One black gap in the long -line of grey, round-backed airships marked the position from which the -Vaterland had come. Beside it a second monster now rose softly, released -from its bonds and cables into the air. Then, taking a beautifully exact -distance, a third ascended, and then a fourth. - -"Too late, Mr. Butteridge!" the young man remarked. "We're off! I -daresay it is a bit of a shock to you, but there you are! The Prince -said you'd have to come." - -"Look 'ere," said Bert. "I really am dazed. What's this thing? Where are -we going?" - -"This, Mr. Butteridge," said the young man, taking pains to be explicit, -"is an airship. It's the flagship of Prince Karl Albert. This is the -German air-fleet, and it is going over to America, to give that spirited -people 'what for.' The only thing we were at all uneasy about was your -invention. And here you are!" - -"But!--you a German?" asked Bert. - -"Lieutenant Kurt. Luft-lieutenant Kurt, at your service." - -"But you speak English!" - -"Mother was English--went to school in England. Afterwards, Rhodes -scholar. German none the less for that. Detailed for the present, Mr. -Butteridge, to look after you. You're shaken by your fall. It's all -right, really. They're going to buy your machine and everything. You -sit down, and take it quite calmly. You'll soon get the hang of the -position." - -4 - -Bert sat down on the locker, collecting his mind, and the young man -talked to him about the airship. - -He was really a very tactful young man indeed, in a natural sort of way. -"Daresay all this is new to you," he said; "not your sort of machine. -These cabins aren't half bad." - -He got up and walked round the little apartment, showing its points. - -"Here is the bed," he said, whipping down a couch from the wall and -throwing it back again with a click. "Here are toilet things," and he -opened a neatly arranged cupboard. "Not much washing. No water we've -got; no water at all except for drinking. No baths or anything until -we get to America and land. Rub over with loofah. One pint of hot for -shaving. That's all. In the locker below you are rugs and blankets; you -will need them presently. They say it gets cold. I don't know. Never -been up before. Except a little work with gliders--which is mostly -going down. Three-quarters of the chaps in the fleet haven't. Here's a -folding-chair and table behind the door. Compact, eh?" - -He took the chair and balanced it on his little finger. "Pretty light, -eh? Aluminium and magnesium alloy and a vacuum inside. All these -cushions stuffed with hydrogen. Foxy! The whole ship's like that. And -not a man in the fleet, except the Prince and one or two others, over -eleven stone. Couldn't sweat the Prince, you know. We'll go all over the -thing to-morrow. I'm frightfully keen on it." - -He beamed at Bert. "You DO look young," he remarked. "I always thought -you'd be an old man with a beard--a sort of philosopher. I don't know -why one should expect clever people always to be old. I do." - -Bert parried that compliment a little awkwardly, and then the lieutenant -was struck with the riddle why Herr Butteridge had not come in his own -flying machine. - -"It's a long story," said Bert. "Look here!" he said abruptly, "I wish -you'd lend me a pair of slippers, or something. I'm regular sick of -these sandals. They're rotten things. I've been trying them for a -friend." - -"Right O!" - -The ex-Rhodes scholar whisked out of the room and reappeared with a -considerable choice of footwear--pumps, cloth bath-slippers, and a -purple pair adorned with golden sun-flowers. - -But these he repented of at the last moment. - -"I don't even wear them myself," he said. "Only brought 'em in the zeal -of the moment." He laughed confidentially. "Had 'em worked for me--in -Oxford. By a friend. Take 'em everywhere." - -So Bert chose the pumps. - -The lieutenant broke into a cheerful snigger. "Here we are trying on -slippers," he said, "and the world going by like a panorama below. -Rather a lark, eh? Look!" - -Bert peeped with him out of the window, looking from the bright -pettiness of the red-and-silver cabin into a dark immensity. The land -below, except for a lake, was black and featureless, and the other -airships were hidden. "See more outside," said the lieutenant. "Let's -go! There's a sort of little gallery." - -He led the way into the long passage, which was lit by one small -electric light, past some notices in German, to an open balcony and a -light ladder and gallery of metal lattice overhanging, empty space. Bert -followed his leader down to the gallery slowly and cautiously. From -it he was able to watch the wonderful spectacle of the first air-fleet -flying through the night. They flew in a wedge-shaped formation, the -Vaterland highest and leading, the tail receding into the corners of -the sky. They flew in long, regular undulations, great dark fish-like -shapes, showing hardly any light at all, the engines making a -throb-throb-throbbing sound that was very audible out on the gallery. -They were going at a level of five or six thousand feet, and rising -steadily. Below, the country lay silent, a clear darkness dotted and -lined out with clusters of furnaces, and the lit streets of a group of -big towns. The world seemed to lie in a bowl; the overhanging bulk of -the airship above hid all but the lowest levels of the sky. - -They watched the landscape for a space. - -"Jolly it must be to invent things," said the lieutenant suddenly. "How -did you come to think of your machine first?" - -"Worked it out," said Bert, after a pause. "Jest ground away at it." - -"Our people are frightfully keen on you. They thought the British had -got you. Weren't the British keen?" - -"In a way," said Bert. "Still--it's a long story." - -"I think it's an immense thing--to invent. I couldn't invent a thing to -save my life." - -They both fell silent, watching the darkened world and following their -thoughts until a bugle summoned them to a belated dinner. Bert was -suddenly alarmed. "Don't you 'ave to dress and things?" he said. "I've -always been too hard at Science and things to go into Society and all -that." - -"No fear," said Kurt. "Nobody's got more than the clothes they wear. -We're travelling light. You might perhaps take your overcoat off. -They've an electric radiator each end of the room." - -And so presently Bert found himself sitting to eat in the presence of -the "German Alexander"--that great and puissant Prince, Prince Karl -Albert, the War Lord, the hero of two hemispheres. He was a handsome, -blond man, with deep-set eyes, a snub nose, upturned moustache, and long -white hands, a strange-looking man. He sat higher than the others, under -a black eagle with widespread wings and the German Imperial flags; he -was, as it were, enthroned, and it struck Bert greatly that as he ate he -did not look at people, but over their heads like one who sees visions. -Twenty officers of various ranks stood about the table--and Bert. They -all seemed extremely curious to see the famous Butteridge, and their -astonishment at his appearance was ill-controlled. The Prince gave him -a dignified salutation, to which, by an inspiration, he bowed. Standing -next the Prince was a brown-faced, wrinkled man with silver spectacles -and fluffy, dingy-grey side-whiskers, who regarded Bert with a peculiar -and disconcerting attention. The company sat after ceremonies Bert could -not understand. At the other end of the table was the bird-faced officer -Bert had dispossessed, still looking hostile and whispering about Bert -to his neighbour. Two soldiers waited. The dinner was a plain one--a -soup, some fresh mutton, and cheese--and there was very little talk. - -A curious solemnity indeed brooded over every one. Partly this was -reaction after the intense toil and restrained excitement of starting; -partly it was the overwhelming sense of strange new experiences, of -portentous adventure. The Prince was lost in thought. He roused himself -to drink to the Emperor in champagne, and the company cried "Hoch!" like -men repeating responses in church. - -No smoking was permitted, but some of the officers went down to the -little open gallery to chew tobacco. No lights whatever were safe -amidst that bundle of inflammable things. Bert suddenly fell yawning -and shivering. He was overwhelmed by a sense of his own insignificance -amidst these great rushing monsters of the air. He felt life was too big -for him--too much for him altogether. - -He said something to Kurt about his head, went up the steep ladder from -the swaying little gallery into the airship again, and so, as if it were -a refuge, to bed. - -5 - -Bert slept for a time, and then his sleep was broken by dreams. Mostly -he was fleeing from formless terrors down an interminable passage in -an airship--a passage paved at first with ravenous trap-doors, and then -with openwork canvas of the most careless description. - -"Gaw!" said Bert, turning over after his seventh fall through infinite -space that night. - -He sat up in the darkness and nursed his knees. The progress of the -airship was not nearly so smooth as a balloon; he could feel a regular -swaying up, up, up and then down, down, down, and the throbbing and -tremulous quiver of the engines. - -His mind began to teem with memories--more memories and more. - -Through them, like a struggling swimmer in broken water, came the -perplexing question, what am I to do to-morrow? To-morrow, Kurt had told -him, the Prince's secretary, the Graf Von Winterfeld, would come to him -and discuss his flying-machine, and then he would see the Prince. He -would have to stick it out now that he was Butteridge, and sell -his invention. And then, if they found him out! He had a vision of -infuriated Butteridges.... Suppose after all he owned up? Pretended it -was their misunderstanding? He began to scheme devices for selling the -secret and circumventing Butteridge. - -What should he ask for the thing? Somehow twenty thousand pounds struck -him as about the sum indicated. - -He fell into that despondency that lies in wait in the small hours. He -had got too big a job on--too big a job.... - -Memories swamped his scheming. - -"Where was I this time last night?" - -He recapitulated his evenings tediously and lengthily. Last night he -had been up above the clouds in Butteridge's balloon. He thought of the -moment when he dropped through them and saw the cold twilight sea close -below. He still remembered that disagreeable incident with a nightmare -vividness. And the night before he and Grubb had been looking for cheap -lodgings at Littlestone in Kent. How remote that seemed now. It might be -years ago. For the first time he thought of his fellow Desert Dervish, -left with the two red-painted bicycles on Dymchurch sands. "'E won't -make much of a show of it, not without me. Any'ow 'e did 'ave the -treasury--such as it was--in his pocket!"... The night before that -was Bank Holiday night and they had sat discussing their minstrel -enterprise, drawing up a programme and rehearsing steps. And the -night before was Whit Sunday. "Lord!" cried Bert, "what a doing -that motor-bicycle give me!" He recalled the empty flapping of the -eviscerated cushion, the feeling of impotence as the flames rose again. -From among the confused memories of that tragic flare one little figure -emerged very bright and poignantly sweet, Edna, crying back reluctantly -from the departing motor-car, "See you to-morrer, Bert?" - -Other memories of Edna clustered round that impression. They led Bert's -mind step by step to an agreeable state that found expression in "I'll -marry 'ER if she don't look out." And then in a flash it followed in his -mind that if he sold the Butteridge secret he could! Suppose after all -he did get twenty thousand pounds; such sums have been paid! With that -he could buy house and garden, buy new clothes beyond dreaming, buy a -motor, travel, have every delight of the civilised life as he knew it, -for himself and Edna. Of course, risks were involved. "I'll 'ave old -Butteridge on my track, I expect!" - -He meditated upon that. He declined again to despondency. As yet he -was only in the beginning of the adventure. He had still to deliver the -goods and draw the cash. And before that--Just now he was by no means -on his way home. He was flying off to America to fight there. "Not -much fighting," he considered; "all our own way." Still, if a shell did -happen to hit the Vaterland on the underside!... - -"S'pose I ought to make my will." - -He lay back for some time composing wills--chiefly in favour of Edna. He -had settled now it was to be twenty thousand pounds. He left a number -of minor legacies. The wills became more and more meandering and -extravagant.... - -He woke from the eighth repetition of his nightmare fall through space. -"This flying gets on one's nerves," he said. - -He could feel the airship diving down, down, down, then slowly swinging -to up, up, up. Throb, throb, throb, throb, quivered the engine. - -He got up presently and wrapped himself about with Mr. Butteridge's -overcoat and all the blankets, for the air was very keen. Then he peeped -out of the window to see a grey dawn breaking over clouds, then turned -up his light and bolted his door, sat down to the table, and produced -his chest-protector. - -He smoothed the crumpled plans with his hand, and contemplated them. -Then he referred to the other drawings in the portfolio. Twenty thousand -pounds. If he worked it right! It was worth trying, anyhow. - -Presently he opened the drawer in which Kurt had put paper and -writing-materials. - -Bert Smallways was by no means a stupid person, and up to a certain -limit he had not been badly educated. His board school had taught him -to draw up to certain limits, taught him to calculate and understand a -specification. If at that point his country had tired of its efforts, -and handed him over unfinished to scramble for a living in an atmosphere -of advertisments and individual enterprise, that was really not his -fault. He was as his State had made him, and the reader must not imagine -because he was a little Cockney cad, that he was absolutely incapable -of grasping the idea of the Butteridge flying-machine. But he found it -stiff and perplexing. His motor-bicycle and Grubb's experiments and the -"mechanical drawing" he had done in standard seven all helped him out; -and, moreover, the maker of these drawings, whoever he was, had been -anxious to make his intentions plain. Bert copied sketches, he made -notes, he made a quite tolerable and intelligent copy of the essential -drawings and sketches of the others. Then he fell into a meditation upon -them. - -At last he rose with a sigh, folded up the originals that had formerly -been in his chest-protector and put them into the breast-pocket of his -jacket, and then very carefully deposited the copies he had made in the -place of the originals. He had no very clear plan in his mind in doing -this, except that he hated the idea of altogether parting with the -secret. For a long time he meditated profoundly--nodding. Then he turned -out his light and went to bed again and schemed himself to sleep. - -6 - -The hochgeboren Graf von Winterfeld was also a light sleeper that night, -but then he was one of these people who sleep little and play chess -problems in their heads to while away the time--and that night he had a -particularly difficult problem to solve. - -He came in upon Bert while he was still in bed in the glow of the -sunlight reflected from the North Sea below, consuming the rolls and -coffee a soldier had brought him. He had a portfolio under his arm, -and in the clear, early morning light his dingy grey hair and heavy, -silver-rimmed spectacles made him look almost benevolent. He spoke -English fluently, but with a strong German flavour. He was particularly -bad with his "b's," and his "th's" softened towards weak "z'ds." He -called Bert explosively, "Pooterage." He began with some indistinct -civilities, bowed, took a folding-table and chair from behind the door, -put the former between himself and Bert, sat down on the latter, coughed -drily, and opened his portfolio. Then he put his elbows on the table, -pinched his lower lip with his two fore-fingers, and regarded Bert -disconcertingly with magnified eyes. "You came to us, Herr Pooterage, -against your will," he said at last. - -"'Ow d'you make that out?" asked Bert, after a pause of astonishment. - -"I chuge by ze maps in your car. They were all English. And your -provisions. They were all picnic. Also your cords were entangled. You -haf' been tugging--but no good. You could not manage ze balloon, and -anuzzer power than yours prought you to us. Is it not so?" - -Bert thought. - -"Also--where is ze laty?" - -"'Ere!--what lady?" - -"You started with a laty. That is evident. You shtarted for an afternoon -excursion--a picnic. A man of your temperament--he would take a laty. -She was not wiz you in your balloon when you came down at Dornhof. No! -Only her chacket! It is your affair. Still, I am curious." - -Bert reflected. "'Ow d'you know that?" - -"I chuge by ze nature of your farious provisions. I cannot account, Mr. -Pooterage, for ze laty, what you haf done with her. Nor can I tell why -you should wear nature-sandals, nor why you should wear such cheap plue -clothes. These are outside my instructions. Trifles, perhaps. Officially -they are to be ignored. Laties come and go--I am a man of ze worldt. I -haf known wise men wear sandals and efen practice vegetarian habits. -I haf known men--or at any rate, I haf known chemists--who did not -schmoke. You haf, no doubt, put ze laty down somewhere. Well. Let us get -to--business. A higher power"--his voice changed its emotional quality, -his magnified eyes seemed to dilate--"has prought you and your secret -straight to us. So!"--he bowed his head--"so pe it. It is ze Destiny of -Chermany and my Prince. I can undershtandt you always carry zat secret. -You are afraidt of roppers and spies. So it comes wiz you--to us. Mr. -Pooterage, Chermany will puy it." - -"Will she?" - -"She will," said the secretary, looking hard at Bert's abandoned sandals -in the corner of the locker. He roused himself, consulted a paper of -notes for a moment, and Bert eyed his brown and wrinkled face with -expectation and terror. "Chermany, I am instructed to say," said the -secretary, with his eyes on the table and his notes spread out, "has -always been willing to puy your secret. We haf indeed peen eager to -acquire it fery eager; and it was only ze fear that you might be, on -patriotic groundts, acting in collusion with your Pritish War Office zat -has made us discreet in offering for your marvellous invention through -intermediaries. We haf no hesitation whatefer now, I am instructed, in -agreeing to your proposal of a hundert tousand poundts." - -"Crikey!" said Bert, overwhelmed. - -"I peg your pardon?" - -"Jest a twinge," said Bert, raising his hand to his bandaged head. - -"Ah! Also I am instructed to say that as for that noble, unrightly -accused laty you haf championed so brafely against Pritish hypocrisy and -coldness, all ze chivalry of Chermany is on her site." - -"Lady?" said Bert faintly, and then recalled the great Butteridge love -story. Had the old chap also read the letters? He must think him a -scorcher if he had. "Oh! that's aw-right," he said, "about 'er. I 'adn't -any doubts about that. I--" - -He stopped. The secretary certainly had a most appalling stare. It -seemed ages before he looked down again. "Well, ze laty as you please. -She is your affair. I haf performt my instructions. And ze title of -Paron, zat also can pe done. It can all pe done, Herr Pooterage." - -He drummed on the table for a second or so, and resumed. "I haf to tell -you, sir, zat you come to us at a crisis in--Welt-Politik. There can be -no harm now for me to put our plans before you. Pefore you leafe this -ship again they will be manifest to all ze worldt. War is perhaps -already declared. We go--to America. Our fleet will descend out of ze -air upon ze United States--it is a country quite unprepared for war -eferywhere--eferywhere. Zey have always relied on ze Atlantic. And their -navy. We have selected a certain point--it is at present ze secret -of our commanders--which we shall seize, and zen we shall establish -a depot--a sort of inland Gibraltar. It will be--what will it be?--an -eagle's nest. Zere our airships will gazzer and repair, and thence -they will fly to and fro ofer ze United States, terrorising cities, -dominating Washington, levying what is necessary, until ze terms we -dictate are accepted. You follow me?" - -"Go on!" said Bert. - -"We could haf done all zis wiz such Luftschiffe and Drachenflieger as we -possess, but ze accession of your machine renders our project complete. -It not only gifs us a better Drachenflieger, but it remofes our last -uneasiness as to Great Pritain. Wizout you, sir, Great Pritain, ze land -you lofed so well and zat has requited you so ill, zat land of Pharisees -and reptiles, can do nozzing!--nozzing! You see, I am perfectly frank -wiz you. Well, I am instructed that Chermany recognises all this. We -want you to place yourself at our disposal. We want you to become our -Chief Head Flight Engineer. We want you to manufacture, we want to equip -a swarm of hornets under your direction. We want you to direct this -force. And it is at our depot in America we want you. So we offer you -simply, and without haggling, ze full terms you demanded weeks ago--one -hundert tousand poundts in cash, a salary of three tousand poundts a -year, a pension of one tousand poundts a year, and ze title of Paron as -you desired. These are my instructions." - -He resumed his scrutiny of Bert's face. - -"That's all right, of course," said Bert, a little short of breath, but -otherwise resolute and calm; and it seemed to him that now was the time -to bring his nocturnal scheming to the issue. - -The secretary contemplated Bert's collar with sustained attention. Only -for one moment did his gaze move to the sandals and back. - -"Jes' lemme think a bit," said Bert, finding the stare debilitating. -"Look 'ere!" he said at last, with an air of great explicitness, "I GOT -the secret." - -"Yes." - -"But I don't want the name of Butteridge to appear--see? I been thinking -that over." - -"A little delicacy?" - -"Exactly. You buy the secret--leastways, I give it you--from -Bearer--see?" - -His voice failed him a little, and the stare continued. "I want to do -the thing Enonymously. See?" - -Still staring. Bert drifted on like a swimmer caught by a current. "Fact -is, I'm going to edop' the name of Smallways. I don't want no title of -Baron; I've altered my mind. And I want the money quiet-like. I want the -hundred thousand pounds paid into benks--thirty thousand into the London -and County Benk Branch at Bun Hill in Kent directly I 'and over the -plans; twenty thousand into the Benk of England; 'arf the rest into a -good French bank, the other 'arf the German National Bank, see? I want -it put there, right away. I don't want it put in the name of Butteridge. -I want it put in the name of Albert Peter Smallways; that's the name I'm -going to edop'. That's condition one." - -"Go on!" said the secretary. - -"The nex condition," said Bert, "is that you don't make any inquiries -as to title. I mean what English gentlemen do when they sell or let you -land. You don't arst 'ow I got it. See? 'Ere I am--I deliver you the -goods--that's all right. Some people 'ave the cheek to say this isn't my -invention, see? It is, you know--THAT'S all right; but I don't want that -gone into. I want a fair and square agreement saying that's all right. -See?" - -His "See?" faded into a profound silence. - -The secretary sighed at last, leant back in his chair and produced a -tooth-pick, and used it, to assist his meditation on Bert's case. "What -was that name?" he asked at last, putting away the tooth-pick; "I must -write it down." - -"Albert Peter Smallways," said Bert, in a mild tone. - -The secretary wrote it down, after a little difficulty about the -spelling because of the different names of the letters of the alphabet -in the two languages. - -"And now, Mr. Schmallvays," he said at last, leaning back and resuming -the stare, "tell me: how did you ket hold of Mister Pooterage's -balloon?" - -7 - -When at last the Graf von Winterfold left Bert Smallways, he left him in -an extremely deflated condition, with all his little story told. - -He had, as people say, made a clean breast of it. He had been pursued -into details. He had had to explain the blue suit, the sandals, the -Desert Dervishes--everything. For a time scientific zeal consumed the -secretary, and the question of the plans remained in suspense. He even -went into speculation about the previous occupants of the balloon. "I -suppose," he said, "the laty WAS the laty. Bot that is not our affair. - -"It is fery curious and amusing, yes: but I am afraid the Prince may be -annoyt. He acted wiz his usual decision--always he acts wiz wonterful -decision. Like Napoleon. Directly he was tolt of your descent into the -camp at Dornhof, he said, 'Pring him!--pring him! It is my schtar!' His -schtar of Destiny! You see? He will be dthwarted. He directed you to -come as Herr Pooterage, and you haf not done so. You haf triet, of -course; but it has peen a poor try. His chugments of men are fery just -and right, and it is better for men to act up to them--gompletely. -Especially now. Particularly now." - -He resumed that attitude of his, with his underlip pinched between his -forefingers. He spoke almost confidentially. "It will be awkward. I -triet to suggest some doubt, but I was over-ruled. The Prince does -not listen. He is impatient in the high air. Perhaps he will think his -schtar has been making a fool of him. Perhaps he will think _I_ haf been -making a fool of him." - -He wrinkled his forehead, and drew in the corners of his mouth. - -"I got the plans," said Bert. - -"Yes. There is that! Yes. But you see the Prince was interested in -Herr Pooterage because of his romantic seit. Herr Pooterage was so much -more--ah!--in the picture. I am afraid you are not equal to controlling -the flying machine department of our aerial park as he wished you to do. -He hadt promised himself that.... - -"And der was also the prestige--the worldt prestige of Pooterage with -us.... Well, we must see what we can do." He held out his hand. "Gif me -the plans." - -A terrible chill ran through the being of Mr. Smallways. To this day he -is not clear in his mind whether he wept or no, but certainly there -was weeping in his voice. "'Ere, I say!" he protested. "Ain't I to -'ave--nothin' for 'em?" - -The secretary regarded him with benevolent eyes. "You do not deserve -anyzing!" he said. - -"I might 'ave tore 'em up." - -"Zey are not yours!" - -"They weren't Butteridge's!" - -"No need to pay anyzing." - -Bert's being seemed to tighten towards desperate deeds. "Gaw!" he said, -clutching his coat, "AIN'T there?" - -"Pe galm," said the secretary. "Listen! You shall haf five hundert -poundts. You shall haf it on my promise. I will do that for you, and -that is all I can do. Take it from me. Gif me the name of that bank. -Write it down. So! I tell you the Prince--is no choke. I do not think he -approffed of your appearance last night. No! I can't answer for him. He -wanted Pooterage, and you haf spoilt it. The Prince--I do not understand -quite, he is in a strange state. It is the excitement of the starting -and this great soaring in the air. I cannot account for what he does. -But if all goes well I will see to it--you shall haf five hundert -poundts. Will that do? Then gif me the plans." - -"Old beggar!" said Bert, as the door clicked. "Gaw!--what an ole -beggar!--SHARP!" - -He sat down in the folding-chair, and whistled noiselessly for a time. - -"Nice 'old swindle for 'im if I tore 'em up! I could 'ave." - -He rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully. "I gave the whole blessed -show away. If I'd j'es' kep quiet about being Enonymous.... Gaw!... Too -soon, Bert, my boy--too soon and too rushy. I'd like to kick my silly -self. - -"I couldn't 'ave kep' it up. - -"After all, it ain't so very bad," he said. - -"After all, five 'undred pounds.... It isn't MY secret, anyhow. It's -jes' a pickup on the road. Five 'undred. - -"Wonder what the fare is from America back home?" - -8 - -And later in the day an extremely shattered and disorganised Bert -Smallways stood in the presence of the Prince Karl Albert. - -The proceedings were in German. The Prince was in his own cabin, the end -room of the airship, a charming apartment furnished in wicker-work with -a long window across its entire breadth, looking forward. He was sitting -at a folding-table of green baize, with Von Winterfeld and two officers -sitting beside him, and littered before them was a number of American -maps and Mr. Butteridge's letters and his portfolio and a number of -loose papers. Bert was not asked to sit down, and remained standing -throughout the interview. Von Winterfeld told his story, and every -now and then the words Ballon and Pooterage struck on Bert's ears. The -Prince's face remained stern and ominous and the two officers watched it -cautiously or glanced at Bert. There was something a little strange -in their scrutiny of the Prince--a curiosity, an apprehension. Then -presently he was struck by an idea, and they fell discussing the plans. -The Prince asked Bert abruptly in English. "Did you ever see this thing -go op?" - -Bert jumped. "Saw it from Bun 'Ill, your Royal Highness." - -Von Winterfeld made some explanation. - -"How fast did it go?" - -"Couldn't say, your Royal Highness. The papers, leastways the Daily -Courier, said eighty miles an hour." - -They talked German over that for a time. - -"Couldt it standt still? Op in the air? That is what I want to know." - -"It could 'ovver, your Royal Highness, like a wasp," said Bert. - -"Viel besser, nicht wahr?" said the Prince to Von Winterfeld, and then -went on in German for a time. - -Presently they came to an end, and the two officers looked at Bert. One -rang a bell, and the portfolio was handed to an attendant, who took it -away. - -Then they reverted to the case of Bert, and it was evident the Prince -was inclined to be hard with him. Von Winterfeld protested. Apparently -theological considerations came in, for there were several mentions -of "Gott!" Some conclusions emerged, and it was apparent that Von -Winterfeld was instructed to convey them to Bert. - -"Mr. Schmallvays, you haf obtained a footing in this airship," he said, -"by disgraceful and systematic lying." - -"'Ardly systematic," said Bert. "I--" - -The Prince silenced him by a gesture. - -"And it is within the power of his Highness to dispose of you as a spy." - -"'Ere!--I came to sell--" - -"Ssh!" said one of the officers. - -"However, in consideration of the happy chance that mate you the -instrument unter Gott of this Pooterage flying-machine reaching his -Highness's hand, you haf been spared. Yes,--you were the pearer of -goot tidings. You will be allowed to remain on this ship until it is -convenient to dispose of you. Do you understandt?" - -"We will bring him," said the Prince, and added terribly with a terrible -glare, "als Ballast." - -"You are to come with us," said Winterfeld, "as pallast. Do you -understandt?" - -Bert opened his mouth to ask about the five hundred pounds, and then a -saving gleam of wisdom silenced him. He met Von Winterfeld's eye, and it -seemed to him the secretary nodded slightly. - -"Go!" said the Prince, with a sweep of the great arm and hand towards -the door. Bert went out like a leaf before a gale. - -9 - -But in between the time when the Graf von Winterfeld had talked to him -and this alarming conference with the Prince, Bert had explored the -Vaterland from end to end. He had found it interesting in spite of grave -preoccupations. Kurt, like the greater number of the men upon the -German air-fleet, had known hardly anything of aeronautics before his -appointment to the new flagship. But he was extremely keen upon this -wonderful new weapon Germany had assumed so suddenly and dramatically. -He showed things to Bert with a boyish eagerness and appreciation. It -was as if he showed them over again to himself, like a child showing a -new toy. "Let's go all over the ship," he said with zest. He pointed out -particularly the lightness of everything, the use of exhausted aluminium -tubing, of springy cushions inflated with compressed hydrogen; the -partitions were hydrogen bags covered with light imitation leather, the -very crockery was a light biscuit glazed in a vacuum, and weighed next -to nothing. Where strength was needed there was the new Charlottenburg -alloy, German steel as it was called, the toughest and most resistant -metal in the world. - -There was no lack of space. Space did not matter, so long as load did -not grow. The habitable part of the ship was two hundred and fifty -feet long, and the rooms in two tiers; above these one could go up into -remarkable little white-metal turrets with big windows and airtight -double doors that enabled one to inspect the vast cavity of the -gas-chambers. This inside view impressed Bert very much. He had never -realised before that an airship was not one simple continuous gas-bag -containing nothing but gas. Now he saw far above him the backbone of the -apparatus and its big ribs, "like the neural and haemal canals," said -Kurt, who had dabbled in biology. - -"Rather!" said Bert appreciatively, though he had not the ghost of an -idea what these phrases meant. - -Little electric lights could be switched on up there if anything went -wrong in the night. There were even ladders across the space. "But you -can't go into the gas," protested Bert. "You can't breve it." - -The lieutenant opened a cupboard door and displayed a diver's suit, only -that it was made of oiled silk, and both its compressed-air knapsack and -its helmet were of an alloy of aluminium and some light metal. "We can -go all over the inside netting and stick up bullet holes or leaks," he -explained. "There's netting inside and out. The whole outer-case is rope -ladder, so to speak." - -Aft of the habitable part of the airship was the magazine of explosives, -coming near the middle of its length. They were all bombs of various -types mostly in glass--none of the German airships carried any guns at -all except one small pom-pom (to use the old English nickname dating -from the Boer war), which was forward in the gallery upon the shield at -the heart of the eagle. - -From the magazine amidships a covered canvas gallery with aluminium -treads on its floor and a hand-rope, ran back underneath the gas-chamber -to the engine-room at the tail; but along this Bert did not go, and from -first to last he never saw the engines. But he went up a ladder against -a gale of ventilation--a ladder that was encased in a kind of gas-tight -fire escape--and ran right athwart the great forward air-chamber to the -little look-out gallery with a telephone, that gallery that bore the -light pom-pom of German steel and its locker of shells. This gallery -was all of aluminium magnesium alloy, the tight front of the air-ship -swelled cliff-like above and below, and the black eagle sprawled -overwhelmingly gigantic, its extremities all hidden by the bulge of -the gas-bag. And far down, under the soaring eagles, was England, four -thousand feet below perhaps, and looking very small and defenceless -indeed in the morning sunlight. - -The realisation that there was England gave Bert sudden and unexpected -qualms of patriotic compunction. He was struck by a quite novel idea. -After all, he might have torn up those plans and thrown them away. These -people could not have done so very much to him. And even if they did, -ought not an Englishman to die for his country? It was an idea that -had hitherto been rather smothered up by the cares of a competitive -civilisation. He became violently depressed. He ought, he perceived, to -have seen it in that light before. Why hadn't he seen it in that light -before? - -Indeed, wasn't he a sort of traitor?... He wondered how the aerial fleet -must look from down there. Tremendous, no doubt, and dwarfing all the -buildings. - -He was passing between Manchester and Liverpool, Kurt told him; a -gleaming band across the prospect was the Ship Canal, and a weltering -ditch of shipping far away ahead, the Mersey estuary. Bert was a -Southerner; he had never been north of the Midland counties, and the -multitude of factories and chimneys--the latter for the most part -obsolete and smokeless now, superseded by huge electric generating -stations that consumed their own reek--old railway viaducts, mono-rail -net-works and goods yards, and the vast areas of dingy homes and narrow -streets, spreading aimlessly, struck him as though Camberwell and -Rotherhithe had run to seed. Here and there, as if caught in a net, were -fields and agricultural fragments. It was a sprawl of undistinguished -population. There were, no doubt, museums and town halls and even -cathedrals of a sort to mark theoretical centres of municipal and -religious organisation in this confusion; but Bert could not see -them, they did not stand out at all in that wide disorderly vision -of congested workers' houses and places to work, and shops and meanly -conceived chapels and churches. And across this landscape of an -industrial civilisation swept the shadows of the German airships like a -hurrying shoal of fishes.... - -Kurt and he fell talking of aerial tactics, and presently went down to -the undergallery in order that Bert might see the Drachenflieger that -the airships of the right wing had picked up overnight and were towing -behind them; each airship towing three or four. They looked, like big -box-kites of an exaggerated form, soaring at the ends of invisible -cords. They had long, square heads and flattened tails, with lateral -propellers. - -"Much skill is required for those!--much skill!" - -"Rather!" - -Pause. - -"Your machine is different from that, Mr. Butteridge?" - -"Quite different," said Bert. "More like an insect, and less like a -bird. And it buzzes, and don't drive about so. What can those things -do?" - -Kurt was not very clear upon that himself, and was still explaining when -Bert was called to the conference we have recorded with the Prince. - -And after that was over, the last traces of Butteridge fell from Bert -like a garment, and he became Smallways to all on board. The soldiers -ceased to salute him, and the officers ceased to seem aware of his -existence, except Lieutenant Kurt. He was turned out of his nice cabin, -and packed in with his belongings to share that of Lieutenant Kurt, -whose luck it was to be junior, and the bird-headed officer, still -swearing slightly, and carrying strops and aluminium boot-trees and -weightless hair-brushes and hand-mirrors and pomade in his hands, -resumed possession. Bert was put in with Kurt because there was nowhere -else for him to lay his bandaged head in that close-packed vessel. He -was to mess, he was told, with the men. - -Kurt came and stood with his legs wide apart and surveyed, him for a -moment as he sat despondent in his new quarters. - -"What's your real name, then?" said Kurt, who was only imperfectly -informed of the new state of affairs. - -"Smallways." - -"I thought you were a bit of a fraud--even when I thought you were -Butteridge. You're jolly lucky the Prince took it calmly. He's a pretty -tidy blazer when he's roused. He wouldn't stick a moment at pitching a -chap of your sort overboard if he thought fit. No!... They've shoved you -on to me, but it's my cabin, you know." - -"I won't forget," said Bert. - -Kurt left him, and when he came to look about him the first thing he saw -pasted on the padded wall was a reproduction, of the great picture by -Siegfried Schmalz of the War God, that terrible, trampling figure with -the viking helmet and the scarlet cloak, wading through destruction, -sword in hand, which had so strong a resemblance to Karl Albert, the -prince it was painted to please. - - - -CHAPTER V. THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC - -1 - -The Prince Karl Albert had made a profound impression upon Bert. He was -quite the most terrifying person Bert had ever encountered. He filled -the Smallways soul with passionate dread and antipathy. For a long time -Bert sat alone in Kurt's cabin, doing nothing and not venturing even -to open the door lest he should be by that much nearer that appalling -presence. - -So it came about that he was probably the last person on board to hear -the news that wireless telegraphy was bringing to the airship in throbs -and fragments of a great naval battle in progress in mid-Atlantic. - -He learnt it at last from Kurt. - -Kurt came in with a general air of ignoring Bert, but muttering to -himself in English nevertheless. "Stupendous!" Bert heard him say. -"Here!" he said, "get off this locker." And he proceeded to rout out two -books and a case of maps. He spread them on the folding-table, and stood -regarding them. For a time his Germanic discipline struggled with his -English informality and his natural kindliness and talkativeness, and at -last lost. - -"They're at it, Smallways," he said. - -"At what, sir?" said Bert, broken and respectful. - -"Fighting! The American North Atlantic squadron and pretty nearly -the whole of our fleet. Our Eiserne Kreuz has had a gruelling and is -sinking, and their Miles Standish--she's one of their biggest--has sunk -with all hands. Torpedoes, I suppose. She was a bigger ship than the -Karl der Grosse, but five or six years older. Gods! I wish we could see -it, Smallways; a square fight in blue water, guns or nothing, and all of -'em steaming ahead!" - -He spread his maps, he had to talk, and so he delivered a lecture on the -naval situation to Bert. - -"Here it is," he said, "latitude 30 degrees 50 minutes N. longitude 30 -degrees 50 minutes W. It's a good day off us, anyhow, and they're all -going south-west by south at full pelt as hard as they can go. We shan't -see a bit of it, worse luck! Not a sniff we shan't get!" - -2 - -The naval situation in the North Atlantic at that time was a peculiar -one. The United States was by far the stronger of the two powers upon -the sea, but the bulk of the American fleet was still in the Pacific. -It was in the direction of Asia that war had been most feared, for the -situation between Asiatic and white had become unusually violent -and dangerous, and the Japanese government had shown itself quite -unprecedentedly difficult. The German attack therefore found half the -American strength at Manila, and what was called the Second Fleet strung -out across the Pacific in wireless contact between the Asiatic station -and San Francisco. The North Atlantic squadron was the sole American -force on her eastern shore, it was returning from a friendly visit -to France and Spain, and was pumping oil-fuel from tenders in -mid-Atlantic--for most of its ships were steamships--when the -international situation became acute. It was made up of four battleships -and five armoured cruisers ranking almost with battleships, not one of -which was of a later date than 1913. The Americans had indeed grown so -accustomed to the idea that Great Britain could be trusted to keep the -peace of the Atlantic that a naval attack on the eastern seaboard -found them unprepared even in their imaginations. But long before the -declaration of war--indeed, on Whit Monday--the whole German fleet of -eighteen battleships, with a flotilla of fuel tenders and converted -liners containing stores to be used in support of the air-fleet, had -passed through the straits of Dover and headed boldly for New York. Not -only did these German battleships outnumber the Americans two to one, -but they were more heavily armed and more modern in construction--seven -of them having high explosive engines built of Charlottenburg steel, and -all carrying Charlottenburg steel guns. - -The fleets came into contact on Wednesday before any actual declaration -of war. The Americans had strung out in the modern fashion at distances -of thirty miles or so, and were steaming to keep themselves between the -Germans and either the eastern states or Panama; because, vital as it -was to defend the seaboard cities and particularly New York, it was -still more vital to save the canal from any attack that might prevent -the return of the main fleet from the Pacific. No doubt, said Kurt, this -was now making records across that ocean, "unless the Japanese have had -the same idea as the Germans." It was obviously beyond human possibility -that the American North Atlantic fleet could hope to meet and defeat -the German; but, on the other hand, with luck it might fight a delaying -action and inflict such damage as to greatly weaken the attack upon -the coast defences. Its duty, indeed, was not victory but devotion, -the severest task in the world. Meanwhile the submarine defences of New -York, Panama, and the other more vital points could be put in some sort -of order. - -This was the naval situation, and until Wednesday in Whit week it was -the only situation the American people had realised. It was then they -heard for the first time of the real scale of the Dornhof aeronautic -park and the possibility of an attack coming upon them not only by -sea, but by the air. But it is curious that so discredited were the -newspapers of that period that a large majority of New Yorkers, for -example, did not believe the most copious and circumstantial accounts of -the German air-fleet until it was actually in sight of New York. - -Kurt's talk was half soliloquy. He stood with a map on Mercator's -projection before him, swaying to the swinging of the ship and talking -of guns and tonnage, of ships and their build and powers and speed, of -strategic points, and bases of operation. A certain shyness that -reduced him to the status of a listener at the officers' table no longer -silenced him. - -Bert stood by, saying very little, but watching Kurt's finger on the -map. "They've been saying things like this in the papers for a long -time," he remarked. "Fancy it coming real!" - -Kurt had a detailed knowledge of the Miles Standish. "She used to be -a crack ship for gunnery--held the record. I wonder if we beat her -shooting, or how? I wish I was in it. I wonder which of our ships beat -her. Maybe she got a shell in her engines. It's a running fight! I -wonder what the Barbarossa is doing," he went on, "She's my old ship. -Not a first-rater, but good stuff. I bet she's got a shot or two home -by now if old Schneider's up to form. Just think of it! There they -are whacking away at each other, great guns going, shells exploding, -magazines bursting, ironwork flying about like straw in a gale, all -we've been dreaming of for years! I suppose we shall fly right away to -New York--just as though it wasn't anything at all. I suppose we shall -reckon we aren't wanted down there. It's no more than a covering fight -on our side. All those tenders and store-ships of ours are going on -southwest by west to New York to make a floating depot for us. See?" He -dabbed his forefinger on the map. "Here we are. Our train of stores goes -there, our battleships elbow the Americans out of our way there." - -When Bert went down to the men's mess-room to get his evening ration, -hardly any one took notice of him except just to point him out for -an instant. Every one was talking of the battle, suggesting, -contradicting--at times, until the petty officers hushed them, it rose -to a great uproar. There was a new bulletin, but what it said he did not -gather except that it concerned the Barbarossa. Some of the men stared -at him, and he heard the name of "Booteraidge" several times; but no one -molested him, and there was no difficulty about his soup and bread when -his turn at the end of the queue came. He had feared there might be no -ration for him, and if so he did not know what he would have done. - -Afterwards he ventured out upon the little hanging gallery with the -solitary sentinel. The weather was still fine, but the wind was rising -and the rolling swing of the airship increasing. He clutched the rail -tightly and felt rather giddy. They were now out of sight of land, -and over blue water rising and falling in great masses. A dingy old -brigantine under the British flag rose and plunged amid the broad blue -waves--the only ship in sight. - -3 - -In the evening it began to blow and the air-ship to roll like a porpoise -as it swung through the air. Kurt said that several of the men were -sea-sick, but the motion did not inconvenience Bert, whose luck it was -to be of that mysterious gastric disposition which constitutes a good -sailor. He slept well, but in the small hours the light awoke him, and -he found Kurt staggering about in search of something. He found it at -last in the locker, and held it in his hand unsteadily--a compass. Then -he compared his map. - -"We've changed our direction," he said, "and come into the wind. I can't -make it out. We've turned away from New York to the south. Almost as if -we were going to take a hand--" - -He continued talking to himself for some time. - -Day came, wet and windy. The window was bedewed externally, and they -could see nothing through it. It was also very cold, and Bert decided -to keep rolled up in his blankets on the locker until the bugle summoned -him to his morning ration. That consumed, he went out on the little -gallery; but he could see nothing but eddying clouds driving headlong -by, and the dim outlines of the nearer airships. Only at rare intervals -could he get a glimpse of grey sea through the pouring cloud-drift. - -Later in the morning the Vaterland changed altitude, and soared up -suddenly in a high, clear sky, going, Kurt said, to a height of nearly -thirteen thousand feet. - -Bert was in his cabin, and chanced to see the dew vanish from the window -and caught the gleam of sunlight outside. He looked out, and saw once -more that sunlit cloud floor he had seen first from the balloon, and the -ships of the German air-fleet rising one by one from the white, as fish -might rise and become visible from deep water. He stared for a moment -and then ran out to the little gallery to see this wonder better. Below -was cloudland and storm, a great drift of tumbled weather going hard -away to the north-east, and the air about him was clear and cold -and serene save for the faintest chill breeze and a rare, drifting -snow-flake. Throb, throb, throb, throb, went the engines in the -stillness. That huge herd of airships rising one after another had -an effect of strange, portentous monsters breaking into an altogether -unfamiliar world. - -Either there was no news of the naval battle that morning, or the Prince -kept to himself whatever came until past midday. Then the bulletins came -with a rush, bulletins that made the lieutenant wild with excitement. - -"Barbarossa disabled and sinking," he cried. "Gott im Himmel! Der alte -Barbarossa! Aber welch ein braver krieger!" - -He walked about the swinging cabin, and for a time he was wholly German. - -Then he became English again. "Think of it, Smallways! The old ship we -kept so clean and tidy! All smashed about, and the iron flying about -in fragments, and the chaps one knew--Gott!--flying about too! Scalding -water squirting, fire, and the smash, smash of the guns! They smash -when you're near! Like everything bursting to pieces! Wool won't stop -it--nothing! And me up here--so near and so far! Der alte Barbarossa!" - -"Any other ships?" asked Smallways, presently. - -"Gott! Yes! We've lost the Karl der Grosse, our best and biggest. Run -down in the night by a British liner that blundered into the fighting -in trying to blunder out. They're fighting in a gale. The liner's -afloat with her nose broken, sagging about! There never was such a -battle!--never before! Good ships and good men on both sides,--and a -storm and the night and the dawn and all in the open ocean full steam -ahead! No stabbing! No submarines! Guns and shooting! Half our ships we -don't hear of any more, because their masts are shot away. Latitude, -30 degrees 40 minutes N.--longitude, 40 degrees 30 minutes W.--where's -that?" - -He routed out his map again, and stared at it with eyes that did not -see. - -"Der alte Barbarossa! I can't get it out of my head--with shells in her -engine-room, and the fires flying out of her furnaces, and the stokers -and engineers scalded and dead. Men I've messed with, Smallways--men -I've talked to close! And they've had their day at last! And it wasn't -all luck for them! - -"Disabled and sinking! I suppose everybody can't have all the luck in a -battle. Poor old Schneider! I bet he gave 'em something back!" - -So it was the news of the battle came filtering through to them all that -morning. The Americans had lost a second ship, name unknown; the Hermann -had been damaged in covering the Barbarossa.... Kurt fretted like an -imprisoned animal about the airship, now going up to the forward gallery -under the eagle, now down into the swinging gallery, now poring over his -maps. He infected Smallways with a sense of the immediacy of this battle -that was going on just over the curve of the earth. But when Bert went -down to the gallery the world was empty and still, a clear inky-blue -sky above and a rippled veil of still, thin sunlit cirrus below, through -which one saw a racing drift of rain-cloud, and never a glimpse of sea. -Throb, throb, throb, throb, went the engines, and the long, undulating -wedge of airships hurried after the flagship like a flight of swans -after their leader. Save for the quiver of the engines it was as -noiseless as a dream. And down there, somewhere in the wind and rain, -guns roared, shells crashed home, and, after the old manner of warfare, -men toiled and died. - -4 - -As the afternoon wore on the lower weather abated, and the sea became -intermittently visible again. The air-fleet dropped slowly to the middle -air, and towards sunset they had a glimpse of the disabled Barbarossa -far away to the east. Smallways heard men hurrying along the passage, -and was drawn out to the gallery, where he found nearly a dozen officers -collected and scrutinising the helpless ruins of the battleship through -field-glasses. Two other vessels stood by her, one an exhausted petrol -tank, very high out of the water, and the other a converted liner. Kurt -was at the end of the gallery, a little apart from the others. - -"Gott!" he said at last, lowering his binocular, "it is like seeing -an old friend with his nose cut off--waiting to be finished. Der -Barbarossa!" - -With a sudden impulse he handed his glass to Bert, who had peered -beneath his hands, ignored by every one, seeing the three ships merely -as three brown-black lines upon the sea. - -Never had Bert seen the like of that magnified slightly hazy image -before. It was not simply a battered ironclad that wallowed helpless, -it was a mangled ironclad. It seemed wonderful she still floated. Her -powerful engines had been her ruin. In the long chase of the night -she had got out of line with her consorts, and nipped in between the -Susquehanna and the Kansas City. They discovered her proximity, dropped -back until she was nearly broadside on to the former battleship, and -signalled up the Theodore Roosevelt and the little Monitor. As dawn -broke she had found herself hostess of a circle. The fight had not -lasted five minutes before the appearance of the Hermann to the east, -and immediately after of the Furst Bismarck in the west, forced the -Americans to leave her, but in that time they had smashed her iron -to rags. They had vented the accumulated tensions of their hard day's -retreat upon her. As Bert saw her, she seemed a mere metal-worker's -fantasy of frozen metal writhings. He could not tell part from part of -her, except by its position. - -"Gott!" murmured Kurt, taking the glasses Bert restored to him--"Gott! -Da waren Albrecht--der gute Albrecht und der alte Zimmermann--und von -Rosen!" - -Long after the Barbarosa had been swallowed up in the twilight and -distance he remained on the gallery peering through his glasses, and -when he came back to his cabin he was unusually silent and thoughtful. - -"This is a rough game, Smallways," he said at last--"this war is a rough -game. Somehow one sees it different after a thing like that. Many men -there were worked to make that Barbarossa, and there were men in it--one -does not meet the like of them every day. Albrecht--there was a man -named Albrecht--played the zither and improvised; I keep on wondering -what has happened to him. He and I--we were very close friends, after -the German fashion." - -Smallways woke the next night to discover the cabin in darkness, a -draught blowing through it, and Kurt talking to himself in German. He -could see him dimly by the window, which he had unscrewed and opened, -peering down. That cold, clear, attenuated light which is not so much -light as a going of darkness, which casts inky shadows and so often -heralds the dawn in the high air, was on his face. - -"What's the row?" said Bert. - -"Shut up!" said the lieutenant. "Can't you hear?" - -Into the stillness came the repeated heavy thud of guns, one, two, a -pause, then three in quick succession. - -"Gaw!" said Bert--"guns!" and was instantly at the lieutenant's side. -The airship was still very high and the sea below was masked by a thin -veil of clouds. The wind had fallen, and Bert, following Kurt's pointing -finger, saw dimly through the colourless veil first a red glow, then -a quick red flash, and then at a little distance from it another. They -were, it seemed for a while, silent flashes, and seconds after, when -one had ceased to expect them, came the belated thuds--thud, thud. Kurt -spoke in German, very quickly. - -A bugle call rang through the airship. - -Kurt sprang to his feet, saying something in an excited tone, still -using German, and went to the door. - -"I say! What's up?" cried Bert. "What's that?" - -The lieutenant stopped for an instant in the doorway, dark against the -light passage. "You stay where you are, Smallways. You keep there and do -nothing. We're going into action," he explained, and vanished. - -Bert's heart began to beat rapidly. He felt himself poised over the -fighting vessels far below. In a moment, were they to drop like a hawk -striking a bird? "Gaw!" he whispered at last, in awestricken tones. - -Thud!... thud! He discovered far away a second ruddy flare flashing guns -back at the first. He perceived some difference on the Vaterland for -which he could not account, and then he realised that the engines -had slowed to an almost inaudible beat. He stuck his head out of the -window--it was a tight fit--and saw in the bleak air the other airships -slowed down to a scarcely perceptible motion. - -A second bugle sounded, was taken up faintly from ship to ship. Out went -the lights; the fleet became dim, dark bulks against an intense blue sky -that still retained an occasional star. For a long time they hung, for -an interminable time it seemed to him, and then began the sound of air -being pumped into the balloonette, and slowly, slowly the Vaterland sank -down towards the clouds. - -He craned his neck, but he could not see if the rest of the fleet was -following them; the overhang of the gas-chambers intervened. There -was something that stirred his imagination deeply in that stealthy, -noiseless descent. The obscurity deepened for a time, the last fading -star on the horizon vanished, and he felt the cold presence of cloud. -Then suddenly the glow beneath assumed distinct outlines, became flames, -and the Vaterland ceased to descend and hung observant, and it would -seem unobserved, just beneath a drifting stratum of cloud, a thousand -feet, perhaps, over the battle below. - -In the night the struggling naval battle and retreat had entered upon a -new phase. The Americans had drawn together the ends of the flying line -skilfully and dexterously, until at last it was a column and well to the -south of the lax sweeping pursuit of the Germans. Then in the darkness -before the dawn they had come about and steamed northward in close order -with the idea of passing through the German battle-line and falling -upon the flotilla that was making for New York in support of the German -air-fleet. Much had altered since the first contact of the fleets. By -this time the American admiral, O'Connor, was fully informed of the -existence of the airships, and he was no longer vitally concerned for -Panama, since the submarine flotilla was reported arrived there from Key -West, and the Delaware and Abraham Lincoln, two powerful and entirely -modern ships, were already at Rio Grande, on the Pacific side of the -canal. His manoeuvre was, however, delayed by a boiler explosion on -board the Susquehanna, and dawn found this ship in sight of and indeed -so close to the Bremen and Weimar that they instantly engaged. There was -no alternative to her abandonment but a fleet engagement. O'Connor chose -the latter course. It was by no means a hopeless fight. The Germans, -though much more numerous and powerful than the Americans, were in a -dispersed line measuring nearly forty-five miles from end to end, and -there were many chances that before they could gather in for the fight -the column of seven Americans would have ripped them from end to end. - -The day broke dim and overcast, and neither the Bremen nor the Weimar -realised they had to deal with more than the Susquehanna until the whole -column drew out from behind her at a distance of a mile or less and -bore down on them. This was the position of affairs when the Vaterland -appeared in the sky. The red glow Bert had seen through the column of -clouds came from the luckless Susquehanna; she lay almost immediately -below, burning fore and aft, but still fighting two of her guns and -steaming slowly southward. The Bremen and the Weimar, both hit in -several places, were going west by south and away from her. The American -fleet, headed by the Theodore Roosevelt, was crossing behind them, -pounding them in succession, steaming in between them and the big modern -Furst Bismarck, which was coming up from the west. To Bert, however, -the names of all these ships were unknown, and for a considerable time -indeed, misled by the direction in which the combatants were moving, he -imagined the Germans to be Americans and the Americans Germans. He saw -what appeared to him to be a column of six battleships pursuing three -others who were supported by a newcomer, until the fact that the Bremen -and Weimar were firing into the Susquehanna upset his calculations. -Then for a time he was hopelessly at a loss. The noise of the guns, too, -confused him, they no longer seemed to boom; they went whack, whack, -whack, whack, and each faint flash made his heart jump in anticipation -of the instant impact. He saw these ironclads, too, not in profile, -as he was accustomed to see ironclads in pictures, but in plan and -curiously foreshortened. For the most part they presented empty decks, -but here and there little knots of men sheltered behind steel bulwarks. -The long, agitated noses of their big guns, jetting thin transparent -flashes and the broadside activity of the quick-firers, were the chief -facts in this bird's-eye view. The Americans being steam-turbine ships, -had from two to four blast funnels each; the Germans lay lower in the -water, having explosive engines, which now for some reason made an -unwonted muttering roar. Because of their steam propulsion, the American -ships were larger and with a more graceful outline. He saw all these -foreshortened ships rolling considerably and fighting their guns over -a sea of huge low waves and under the cold, explicit light of dawn. The -whole spectacle waved slowly with the long rhythmic rising and beat of -the airship. - -At first only the Vaterland of all the flying fleet appeared upon the -scene below. She hovered high, over the Theodore Roosevelt, keeping -pace with the full speed of that ship. From that ship she must have -been intermittently visible through the drifting clouds. The rest of the -German fleet remained above the cloud canopy at a height of six or seven -thousand feet, communicating with the flagship by wireless telegraphy, -but risking no exposure to the artillery below. - -It is doubtful at what particular time the unlucky Americans realised -the presence of this new factor in the fight. No account now survives of -their experience. We have to imagine as well as we can what it must have -been to a battled-strained sailor suddenly glancing upward to discover -that huge long silent shape overhead, vaster than any battleship, and -trailing now from its hinder quarter a big German flag. Presently, as -the sky cleared, more of such ships appeared in the blue through the -dissolving clouds, and more, all disdainfully free of guns or armour, -all flying fast to keep pace with the running fight below. - -From first to last no gun whatever was fired at the Vaterland, and only -a few rifle shots. It was a mere adverse stroke of chance that she had -a man killed aboard her. Nor did she take any direct share in the fight -until the end. She flew above the doomed American fleet while the Prince -by wireless telegraphy directed the movements of her consorts. Meanwhile -the Vogel-stern and Preussen, each with half a dozen drachenflieger in -tow, went full speed ahead and then dropped through the clouds, perhaps -five miles ahead of the Americans. The Theodore Roosevelt let fly at -once with the big guns in her forward barbette, but the shells burst far -below the Vogel-stern, and forthwith a dozen single-man drachenflieger -were swooping down to make their attack. - -Bert, craning his neck through the cabin port-hole, saw the whole of -that incident, that first encounter of aeroplane and ironclad. He saw -the queer German drachenflieger, with their wide flat wings and square -box-shaped heads, their wheeled bodies, and their single-man riders, -soar down the air like a flight of birds. "Gaw!" he said. One to the -right pitched extravagantly, shot steeply up into the air, burst with a -loud report, and flamed down into the sea; another plunged nose forward -into the water and seemed to fly to pieces as it hit the waves. He -saw little men on the deck of the Theodore Roosevelt below, men -foreshortened in plan into mere heads and feet, running out preparing -to shoot at the others. Then the foremost flying-machine was rushing -between Bert and the American's deck, and then bang! came the thunder -of its bomb flung neatly at the forward barbette, and a thin little -crackling of rifle shots in reply. Whack, whack, whack, went the -quick-firing guns of the Americans' battery, and smash came an answering -shell from the Furst Bismarck. Then a second and third flying-machine -passed between Bert and the American ironclad, dropping bombs also, and -a fourth, its rider hit by a bullet, reeled down and dashed itself to -pieces and exploded between the shot-torn funnels, blowing them apart. -Bert had a momentary glimpse of a little black creature jumping from the -crumpling frame of the flying-machine, hitting the funnel, and falling -limply, to be instantly caught and driven to nothingness by the blaze -and rush of the explosion. - -Smash! came a vast explosion in the forward part of the flagship, and a -huge piece of metalwork seemed to lift out of her and dump itself -into the sea, dropping men and leaving a gap into which a prompt -drachenflieger planted a flaring bomb. And then for an instant Bert -perceived only too clearly in the growing, pitiless light a number of -minute, convulsively active animalcula scorched and struggling in the -Theodore Roosevelt's foaming wake. What were they? Not men--surely not -men? Those drowning, mangled little creatures tore with their clutching -fingers at Bert's soul. "Oh, Gord!" he cried, "Oh, Gord!" almost -whimpering. He looked again and they had gone, and the black stem of the -Andrew Jackson, a little disfigured by the sinking Bremen's last -shot, was parting the water that had swallowed them into two neatly -symmetrical waves. For some moments sheer blank horror blinded Bert to -the destruction below. - -Then, with an immense rushing sound, bearing as it were a straggling -volley of crashing minor explosions on its back, the Susquehanna, three -miles and more now to the east, blew up and vanished abruptly in a -boiling, steaming welter. For a moment nothing was to be seen but -tumbled water, and--then there came belching up from below, with immense -gulping noises, eructations of steam and air and petrol and fragments of -canvas and woodwork and men. - -That made a distinct pause in the fight. It seemed a long pause to Bert. -He found himself looking for the drachenflieger. The flattened ruin of -one was floating abeam of the Monitor, the rest had passed, dropping -bombs down the American column; several were in the water and apparently -uninjured, and three or four were still in the air and coming round -now in a wide circle to return to their mother airships. The American -ironclads were no longer in column formation; the Theodore Roosevelt, -badly damaged, had turned to the southeast, and the Andrew Jackson, -greatly battered but uninjured in any fighting part was passing between -her and the still fresh and vigorous Furst Bismarck to intercept and -meet the latter's fire. Away to the west the Hermann and the Germanicus -had appeared and were coming into action. - -In the pause, after the Susquehanna's disaster Bert became aware of a -trivial sound like the noise of an ill-greased, ill-hung door that falls -ajar--the sound of the men in the Furst Bismarck cheering. - -And in that pause in the uproar too, the sun rose, the dark waters -became luminously blue, and a torrent of golden light irradiated the -world. It came like a sudden smile in a scene of hate and terror. The -cloud veil had vanished as if by magic, and the whole immensity of the -German air-fleet was revealed in the sky; the air-fleet stooping now -upon its prey. - -"Whack-bang, whack-bang," the guns resumed, but ironclads were not built -to fight the zenith, and the only hits the Americans scored were a few -lucky chances in a generally ineffectual rifle fire. Their column was -now badly broken, the Susquehanna had gone, the Theodore Roosevelt had -fallen astern out of the line, with her forward guns disabled, in a heap -of wreckage, and the Monitor was in some grave trouble. These two had -ceased fire altogether, and so had the Bremen and Weimar, all four ships -lying within shot of each other in an involuntary truce and with their -respective flags still displayed. Only four American ships now, with the -Andrew Jackson leading, kept to the south-easterly course. And the Furst -Bismarck, the Hermann, and the Germanicus steamed parallel to them and -drew ahead of them, fighting heavily. The Vaterland rose slowly in the -air in preparation for the concluding act of the drama. - -Then, falling into place one behind the other, a string of a dozen -airships dropped with unhurrying swiftness down the air in pursuit of -the American fleet. They kept at a height of two thousand feet or more -until they were over and a little in advance of the rearmost ironclad, -and then stooped swiftly down into a fountain of bullets, and going just -a little faster than the ship below, pelted her thinly protected decks -with bombs until they became sheets of detonating flame. So the airships -passed one after the other along the American column as it sought -to keep up its fight with the Furst Bismarck, the Hermann, and the -Germanicus, and each airship added to the destruction and confusion -its predecessor had made. The American gunfire ceased, except for a few -heroic shots, but they still steamed on, obstinately unsubdued, bloody, -battered, and wrathfully resistant, spitting bullets at the airships -and unmercifully pounded by the German ironclads. But now Bert had but -intermittent glimpses of them between the nearer bulks of the airships -that assailed them.... - -It struck Bert suddenly that the whole battle was receding and growing -small and less thunderously noisy. The Vaterland was rising in the air, -steadily and silently, until the impact of the guns no longer smote -upon the heart but came to the ear dulled by distance, until the four -silenced ships to the eastward were little distant things: but were -there four? Bert now could see only three of those floating, blackened, -and smoking rafts of ruin against the sun. But the Bremen had two boats -out; the Theodore Roosevelt was also dropping boats to where the drift -of minute objects struggled, rising and falling on the big, broad -Atlantic waves.... The Vaterland was no longer following the fight. The -whole of that hurrying tumult drove away to the south-eastward, growing -smaller and less audible as it passed. One of the airships lay on -the water burning, a remote monstrous fount of flames, and far in the -south-west appeared first one and then three other German ironclads -hurrying in support of their consorts.... - -5 - -Steadily the Vaterland soared, and the air-fleet soared with her and -came round to head for New York, and the battle became a little thing -far away, an incident before the breakfast. It dwindled to a string of -dark shapes and one smoking yellow flare that presently became a mere -indistinct smear upon the vast horizon and the bright new day, that was -at last altogether lost to sight... - -So it was that Bert Smallways saw the first fight of the airship and the -last fight of those strangest things in the whole history of war: -the ironclad battleships, which began their career with the floating -batteries of the Emperor Napoleon III in the Crimean war and lasted, -with an enormous expenditure of human energy and resources, for seventy -years. In that space of time the world produced over twelve thousand -five hundred of these strange monsters, in schools, in types, in series, -each larger and heavier and more deadly than its predecessors. Each in -its turn was hailed as the last birth of time, most in their turn were -sold for old iron. Only about five per cent of them ever fought in a -battle. Some foundered, some went ashore, and broke up, several rammed -one another by accident and sank. The lives of countless men were spent -in their service, the splendid genius, and patience of thousands of -engineers and inventors, wealth and material beyond estimating; to their -account we must put, stunted and starved lives on land, millions of -children sent to toil unduly, innumerable opportunities of fine living -undeveloped and lost. Money had to be found for them at any cost--that -was the law of a nation's existence during that strange time. Surely -they were the weirdest, most destructive and wasteful megatheria in the -whole history of mechanical invention. - -And then cheap things of gas and basket-work made an end of them -altogether, smiting out of the sky!... - -Never before had Bert Smallways seen pure destruction, never had he -realised the mischief and waste of war. His startled mind rose to the -conception; this also is in life. Out of all this fierce torrent of -sensation one impression rose and became cardinal--the impression of the -men of the Theodore Roosevelt who had struggled in the water after the -explosion of the first bomb. "Gaw!" he said at the memory; "it might -'ave been me and Grubb!... I suppose you kick about and get the water in -your mouf. I don't suppose it lasts long." - -He became anxious to see how Kurt was affected by these things. Also he -perceived he was hungry. He hesitated towards the door of the cabin and -peeped out into the passage. Down forward, near the gangway to the men's -mess, stood a little group of air sailors looking at something that -was hidden from him in a recess. One of them was in the light diver's -costume Bert had already seen in the gas chamber turret, and he was -moved to walk along and look at this person more closely and examine the -helmet he carried under his arm. But he forgot about the helmet when he -got to the recess, because there he found lying on the floor the dead -body of the boy who had been killed by a bullet from the Theodore -Roosevelt. - -Bert had not observed that any bullets at all had reached the Vaterland -or, indeed, imagined himself under fire. He could not understand for a -time what had killed the lad, and no one explained to him. - -The boy lay just as he had fallen and died, with his jacket torn and -scorched, his shoulder-blade smashed and burst away from his body and -all the left side of his body ripped and rent. There was much blood. -The sailors stood listening to the man with the helmet, who made -explanations and pointed to the round bullet hole in the floor and the -smash in the panel of the passage upon which the still vicious missile -had spent the residue of its energy. All the faces were grave and -earnest: they were the faces of sober, blond, blue-eyed men accustomed -to obedience and an orderly life, to whom this waste, wet, painful thing -that had been a comrade came almost as strangely as it did to Bert. - -A peal of wild laughter sounded down the passage in the direction of the -little gallery and something spoke--almost shouted--in German, in tones -of exultation. - -Other voices at a lower, more respectful pitch replied. - -"Der Prinz," said a voice, and all the men became stiffer and less -natural. Down the passage appeared a group of figures, Lieutenant Kurt -walking in front carrying a packet of papers. - -He stopped point blank when he saw the thing in the recess, and his -ruddy face went white. - -"So!" said he in surprise. - -The Prince was following him, talking over his shoulder to Von -Winterfeld and the Kapitan. - -"Eh?" he said to Kurt, stopping in mid-sentence, and followed the -gesture of Kurt's hand. He glared at the crumpled object in the recess -and seemed to think for a moment. - -He made a slight, careless gesture towards the boy's body and turned to -the Kapitan. - -"Dispose of that," he said in German, and passed on, finishing his -sentence to Von Winterfeld in the same cheerful tone in which it had -begun. - -6 - -The deep impression of helplessly drowning men that Bert had brought -from the actual fight in the Atlantic mixed itself up inextricably with -that of the lordly figure of Prince Karl Albert gesturing aside the dead -body of the Vaterland sailor. Hitherto he had rather liked the idea of -war as being a jolly, smashing, exciting affair, something like a -Bank Holiday rag on a large scale, and on the whole agreeable and -exhilarating. Now he knew it a little better. - -The next day there was added to his growing disillusionment a third -ugly impression, trivial indeed to describe, a mere necessary everyday -incident of a state of war, but very distressing to his urbanised -imagination. One writes "urbanised" to express the distinctive -gentleness of the period. It was quite peculiar to the crowded townsmen -of that time, and different altogether from the normal experience of any -preceding age, that they never saw anything killed, never encountered, -save through the mitigating media of book or picture, the fact of lethal -violence that underlies all life. Three times in his existence, and -three times only, had Bert seen a dead human being, and he had never -assisted at the killing of anything bigger than a new-born kitten. - -The incident that gave him his third shock was the execution of one -of the men on the Adler for carrying a box of matches. The case was -a flagrant one. The man had forgotten he had it upon him when coming -aboard. Ample notice had been given to every one of the gravity of this -offence, and notices appeared at numerous points all over the airships. -The man's defence was that he had grown so used to the notices and -had been so preoccupied with his work that he hadn't applied them to -himself; he pleaded, in his defence, what is indeed in military affairs -another serious crime, inadvertency. He was tried by his captain, and -the sentence confirmed by wireless telegraphy by the Prince, and it was -decided to make his death an example to the whole fleet. "The Germans," -the Prince declared, "hadn't crossed the Atlantic to go wool gathering." -And in order that this lesson in discipline and obedience might be -visible to every one, it was determined not to electrocute or drown but -hang the offender. - -Accordingly the air-fleet came clustering round the flagship like carp -in a pond at feeding time. The Adler hung at the zenith immediately -alongside the flagship. The whole crew of the Vaterland assembled -upon the hanging gallery; the crews of the other airships manned the -air-chambers, that is to say, clambered up the outer netting to the -upper sides. The officers appeared upon the machine-gun platforms. Bert -thought it an altogether stupendous sight, looking down, as he was, upon -the entire fleet. Far off below two steamers on the rippled blue water, -one British and the other flying the American flag, seemed the minutest -objects, and marked the scale. They were immensely distant. Bert stood -on the gallery, curious to see the execution, but uncomfortable, because -that terrible blond Prince was within a dozen feet of him, glaring -terribly, with his arms folded, and his heels together in military -fashion. - -They hung the man from the Adler. They gave him sixty feet of rope, so, -that he should hang and dangle in the sight of all evil-doers who might -be hiding matches or contemplating any kindred disobedience. Bert -saw the man standing, a living, reluctant man, no doubt scared and -rebellious enough in his heart, but outwardly erect and obedient, on -the lower gallery of the Adler about a hundred yards away. Then they had -thrust him overboard. - -Down he fell, hands and feet extending, until with a jerk he was at the -end of the rope. Then he ought to have died and swung edifyingly, but -instead a more terrible thing happened; his head came right off, and -down the body went spinning to the sea, feeble, grotesque, fantastic, -with the head racing it in its fall. - -"Ugh!" said Bert, clutching the rail before him, and a sympathetic grunt -came from several of the men beside him. - -"So!" said the Prince, stiffer and sterner, glared for some seconds, -then turned to the gang way up into the airship. - -For a long time Bert remained clinging to the railing of the gallery. He -was almost physically sick with the horror of this trifling incident. -He found it far more dreadful than the battle. He was indeed a very -degenerate, latter-day, civilised person. - -Late that afternoon Kurt came into the cabin and found him curled up -on his locker, and looking very white and miserable. Kurt had also lost -something of his pristine freshness. - -"Sea-sick?" he asked. - -"No!" - -"We ought to reach New York this evening. There's a good breeze coming -up under our tails. Then we shall see things." - -Bert did not answer. - -Kurt opened out folding chair and table, and rustled for a time with -his maps. Then he fell thinking darkly. He roused himself presently, and -looked at his companion. "What's the matter?" he said. - -"Nothing!" - -Kurt stared threateningly. "What's the matter?" - -"I saw them kill that chap. I saw that flying-machine man hit the -funnels of the big ironclad. I saw that dead chap in the passage. I seen -too much smashing and killing lately. That's the matter. I don't like -it. I didn't know war was this sort of thing. I'm a civilian. I don't -like it." - -"_I_ don't like it," said Kurt. "By Jove, no!" - -"I've read about war, and all that, but when you see it it's different. -And I'm gettin' giddy. I'm gettin' giddy. I didn't mind a bit being up -in that balloon at first, but all this looking down and floating over -things and smashing up people, it's getting on my nerves. See?" - -"It'll have to get off again...." - -Kurt thought. "You're not the only one. The men are all getting strung -up. The flying--that's just flying. Naturally it makes one a little -swimmy in the head at first. As for the killing, we've got to be -blooded; that's all. We're tame, civilised men. And we've got to get -blooded. I suppose there's not a dozen men on the ship who've really -seen bloodshed. Nice, quiet, law-abiding Germans they've been so far.... -Here they are--in for it. They're a bit squeamy now, but you wait till -they've got their hands in." - -He reflected. "Everybody's getting a bit strung up," he said. - -He turned again to his maps. Bert sat crumpled up in the corner, -apparently heedless of him. For some time both kept silence. - -"What did the Prince want to go and 'ang that chap for?" asked Bert, -suddenly. - -"That was all right," said Kurt, "that was all right. QUITE right. Here -were the orders, plain as the nose on your face, and here was that fool -going about with matches--" - -"Gaw! I shan't forget that bit in a 'urry," said Bert irrelevantly. - -Kurt did not answer him. He was measuring their distance from New York -and speculating. "Wonder what the American aeroplanes are like?" he -said. "Something like our drachenflieger.... We shall know by this time -to-morrow.... I wonder what we shall know? I wonder. Suppose, after all, -they put up a fight.... Rum sort of fight!" - -He whistled softly and mused. Presently he fretted out of the cabin, and -later Bert found him in the twilight upon the swinging platform, staring -ahead, and speculating about the things that might happen on the morrow. -Clouds veiled the sea again, and the long straggling wedge of air-ships -rising and falling as they flew seemed like a flock of strange new -births in a Chaos that had neither earth nor water but only mist and -sky. - - - -CHAPTER VI. HOW WAR CAME TO NEW YORK - -1 - -The City of New York was in the year of the German attack the largest, -richest, in many respects the most splendid, and in some, the wickedest -city the world had ever seen. She was the supreme type of the City of -the Scientific Commercial Age; she displayed its greatness, its power, -its ruthless anarchic enterprise, and its social disorganisation most -strikingly and completely. She had long ousted London from her pride of -place as the modern Babylon, she was the centre of the world's finance, -the world's trade, and the world's pleasure; and men likened her to -the apocalyptic cities of the ancient prophets. She sat drinking up the -wealth of a continent as Rome once drank the wealth of the Mediterranean -and Babylon the wealth of the east. In her streets one found the -extremes of magnificence and misery, of civilisation and disorder. In -one quarter, palaces of marble, laced and, crowned with light and flame -and flowers, towered up into her marvellous twilights beautiful, beyond -description; in another, a black and sinister polyglot population -sweltered in indescribable congestion in warrens, and excavations beyond -the power and knowledge of government. Her vice, her crime, her law -alike were inspired by a fierce and terrible energy, and like the great -cities of mediaeval Italy, her ways were dark and adventurous with -private war. - -It was the peculiar shape of Manhattan Island, pressed in by arms of the -sea on either side, and incapable of comfortable expansion, except along -a narrow northward belt, that first gave the New York architects their -bias for extreme vertical dimensions. Every need was lavishly supplied -them--money, material, labour; only space was restricted. To begin, -therefore, they built high perforce. But to do so was to discover a -whole new world of architectural beauty, of exquisite ascendant lines, -and long after the central congestion had been relieved by tunnels -under the sea, four colossal bridges over the east river, and a dozen -mono-rail cables east and west, the upward growth went on. In many ways -New York and her gorgeous plutocracy repeated Venice in the magnificence -of her architecture, painting, metal-work and sculpture, for example, -in the grim intensity of her political method, in her maritime and -commercial ascendancy. But she repeated no previous state at all in the -lax disorder of her internal administration, a laxity that made vast -sections of her area lawless beyond precedent, so that it was possible -for whole districts to be impassable, while civil war raged between -street and street, and for Alsatias to exist in her midst in which the -official police never set foot. She was an ethnic whirlpool. The flags -of all nations flew in her harbour, and at the climax, the yearly -coming and going overseas numbered together upwards of two million human -beings. To Europe she was America, to America she was the gateway of -the world. But to tell the story of New York would be to write a social -history of the world; saints and martyrs, dreamers and scoundrels, the -traditions of a thousand races and a thousand religions, went to her -making and throbbed and jostled in her streets. And over all that -torrential confusion of men and purposes fluttered that strange flag, -the stars and stripes, that meant at once the noblest thing in life, -and the least noble, that is to say, Liberty on the one hand, and on -the other the base jealousy the individual self-seeker feels towards the -common purpose of the State. - -For many generations New York had taken no heed of war, save as a thing -that happened far away, that affected prices and supplied the newspapers -with exciting headlines and pictures. The New Yorkers felt perhaps even -more certainly than the English had done that war in their own land -was an impossible thing. In that they shared the delusion of all North -America. They felt as secure as spectators at a bullfight; they risked -their money perhaps on the result, but that was all. And such ideas of -war as the common Americans possessed were derived from the limited, -picturesque, adventurous war of the past. They saw war as they saw -history, through an iridescent mist, deodorised, scented indeed, with -all its essential cruelties tactfully hidden away. They were inclined to -regret it as something ennobling, to sigh that it could no longer come -into their own private experience. They read with interest, if not with -avidity, of their new guns, of their immense and still more immense -ironclads, of their incredible and still more incredible explosives, but -just what these tremendous engines of destruction might mean for their -personal lives never entered their heads. They did not, so far as one -can judge from their contemporary literature, think that they meant -anything to their personal lives at all. They thought America was safe -amidst all this piling up of explosives. They cheered the flag by habit -and tradition, they despised other nations, and whenever there was an -international difficulty they were intensely patriotic, that is to -say, they were ardently against any native politician who did not say, -threaten, and do harsh and uncompromising things to the antagonist -people. They were spirited to Asia, spirited to Germany, so spirited to -Great Britain that the international attitude of the mother country to -her great daughter was constantly compared in contemporary caricature to -that between a hen-pecked husband and a vicious young wife. And for the -rest, they all went about their business and pleasure as if war had died -out with the megatherium.... - -And then suddenly, into a world peacefully busied for the most part upon -armaments and the perfection of explosives, war came; came the shock of -realising that the guns were going off, that the masses of inflammable -material all over the world were at last ablaze. - -2 - -The immediate effect upon New York of the sudden onset of war was merely -to intensify her normal vehemence. - -The newspapers and magazines that fed the American mind--for books upon -this impatient continent had become simply material for the energy -of collectors--were instantly a coruscation of war pictures and of -headlines that rose like rockets and burst like shells. To the normal -high-strung energy of New York streets was added a touch of war-fever. -Great crowds assembled, more especially in the dinner hour, in Madison -Square about the Farragut monument, to listen to and cheer patriotic -speeches, and a veritable epidemic of little flags and buttons swept -through these great torrents of swiftly moving young people, who poured -into New York of a morning by car and mono-rail and subway and train, -to toil, and ebb home again between the hours of five and seven. It was -dangerous not to wear a war button. The splendid music-halls of the time -sank every topic in patriotism and evolved scenes of wild enthusiasm, -strong men wept at the sight of the national banner sustained by the -whole strength of the ballet, and special searchlights and illuminations -amazed the watching angels. The churches re-echoed the national -enthusiasm in graver key and slower measure, and the aerial and naval -preparations on the East River were greatly incommoded by the multitude -of excursion steamers which thronged, helpfully cheering, about them. -The trade in small-arms was enormously stimulated, and many overwrought -citizens found an immediate relief for their emotions in letting off -fireworks of a more or less heroic, dangerous, and national character -in the public streets. Small children's air-balloons of the latest model -attached to string became a serious check to the pedestrian in Central -Park. And amidst scenes of indescribable emotion the Albany legislature -in permanent session, and with a generous suspension of rules and -precedents, passed through both Houses the long-disputed Bill for -universal military service in New York State. - -Critics of the American character are disposed to consider--that up -to the actual impact of the German attack the people of New York dealt -altogether too much with the war as if it was a political demonstration. -Little or no damage, they urge, was done to either the German or -Japanese forces by the wearing of buttons, the waving of small flags, -the fireworks, or the songs. They forgot that, under the conditions of -warfare a century of science had brought about, the non-military section -of the population could do no serious damage in any form to their -enemies, and that there was no reason, therefore, why they should not do -as they did. The balance of military efficiency was shifting back from -the many to the few, from the common to the specialised. - -The days when the emotional infantryman decided battles had passed by -for ever. War had become a matter of apparatus of special training -and skill of the most intricate kind. It had become undemocratic. And -whatever the value of the popular excitement, there can be no denying -that the small regular establishment of the United States Government, -confronted by this totally unexpected emergency of an armed invasion -from Europe, acted with vigour, science, and imagination. They were -taken by surprise so far as the diplomatic situation was concerned, -and their equipment for building either navigables or aeroplanes was -contemptible in comparison with the huge German parks. Still they set to -work at once to prove to the world that the spirit that had created the -Monitor and the Southern submarines of 1864 was not dead. The chief of -the aeronautic establishment near West Point was Cabot Sinclair, and -he allowed himself but one single moment of the posturing that was so -universal in that democratic time. "We have chosen our epitaphs," -he said to a reporter, "and we are going to have, 'They did all they -could.' Now run away!" - -The curious thing is that they did all do all they could; there is no -exception known. Their only defect indeed was a defect of style. One of -the most striking facts historically about this war, and the one that -makes the complete separation that had arisen between the methods -of warfare and the necessity of democratic support, is the effectual -secrecy of the Washington authorities about their airships. They did -not bother to confide a single fact of their preparations to the public. -They did not even condescend to talk to Congress. They burked and -suppressed every inquiry. The war was fought by the President and the -Secretaries of State in an entirely autocratic manner. Such publicity as -they sought was merely to anticipate and prevent inconvenient agitation -to defend particular points. They realised that the chief danger in -aerial warfare from an excitable and intelligent public would be a -clamour for local airships and aeroplanes to defend local interests. -This, with such resources as they possessed, might lead to a fatal -division and distribution of the national forces. Particularly they -feared that they might be forced into a premature action to defend -New York. They realised with prophetic insight that this would be the -particular advantage the Germans would seek. So they took great pains -to direct the popular mind towards defensive artillery, and to divert it -from any thought of aerial battle. Their real preparations they masked -beneath ostensible ones. There was at Washington a large reserve of -naval guns, and these were distributed rapidly, conspicuously, and with -much press attention, among the Eastern cities. They were mounted for -the most part upon hills and prominent crests around the threatened -centres of population. They were mounted upon rough adaptations of the -Doan swivel, which at that time gave the maximum vertical range to a -heavy gun. Much of this artillery was still unmounted, and nearly all of -it was unprotected when the German air-fleet reached New York. And down -in the crowded streets, when that occurred, the readers of the New -York papers were regaling themselves with wonderful and wonderfully -illustrated accounts of such matters as:-- - -THE SECRET OF THE THUNDERBOLT - -AGED SCIENTIST PERFECTS ELECTRIC GUN - -TO ELECTROCUTE AIRSHIP CREWS BY UPWARD LIGHTNING - -WASHINGTON ORDERS FIVE HUNDRED - -WAR SECRETARY LODGE DELIGHTED - -SAYS THEY WILL SUIT THE GERMANS DOWN TO THE GROUND - -PRESIDENT PUBLICLY APPLAUDS THIS MERRY QUIP - -3 - -The German fleet reached New York in advance of the news of the American -naval disaster. It reached New York in the late afternoon and was first -seen by watchers at Ocean Grove and Long Branch coming swiftly out of -the southward sea and going away to the northwest. The flagship passed -almost vertically over the Sandy Hook observation station, rising -rapidly as it did so, and in a few minutes all New York was vibrating to -the Staten Island guns. - -Several of these guns, and especially that at Giffords and the one on -Beacon Hill above Matawan, were remarkably well handled. The former, at -a distance of five miles, and with an elevation of six thousand feet, -sent a shell to burst so close to the Vaterland that a pane of the -Prince's forward window was smashed by a fragment. This sudden explosion -made Bert tuck in his head with the celerity of a startled tortoise. The -whole air-fleet immediately went up steeply to a height of about twelve -thousand feet and at that level passed unscathed over the ineffectual -guns. The airships lined out as they moved forward into the form of a -flattened V, with its apex towards the city, and with the flagship going -highest at the apex. The two ends of the V passed over Plumfield and -Jamaica Bay, respectively, and the Prince directed his course a little -to the east of the Narrows, soared over Upper Bay, and came to rest -over Jersey City in a position that dominated lower New York. There -the monsters hung, large and wonderful in the evening light, serenely -regardless of the occasional rocket explosions and flashing shell-bursts -in the lower air. - -It was a pause of mutual inspection. For a time naive humanity swamped -the conventions of warfare altogether; the interest of the millions -below and of the thousands above alike was spectacular. The evening was -unexpectedly fine--only a few thin level bands of clouds at seven or -eight thousand feet broke its luminous clarity. The wind had dropped; it -was an evening infinitely peaceful and still. The heavy concussions of -the distant guns and those incidental harmless pyrotechnics at the level -of the clouds seemed to have as little to do with killing and force, -terror and submission, as a salute at a naval review. Below, every -point of vantage bristled with spectators, the roofs of the towering -buildings, the public squares, the active ferry boats, and every -favourable street intersection had its crowds: all the river piers -were dense with people, the Battery Park was solid black with east-side -population, and every position of advantage in Central Park and along -Riverside Drive had its peculiar and characteristic assembly from the -adjacent streets. The footways of the great bridges over the East River -were also closely packed and blocked. Everywhere shopkeepers had left -their shops, men their work, and women and children their homes, to come -out and see the marvel. - -"It beat," they declared, "the newspapers." - -And from above, many of the occupants of the airships stared with an -equal curiosity. No city in the world was ever so finely placed as New -York, so magnificently cut up by sea and bluff and river, so admirably -disposed to display the tall effects of buildings, the complex -immensities of bridges and mono-railways and feats of engineering. -London, Paris, Berlin, were shapeless, low agglomerations beside it. Its -port reached to its heart like Venice, and, like Venice, it was obvious, -dramatic, and proud. Seen from above it was alive with crawling -trains and cars, and at a thousand points it was already breaking into -quivering light. New York was altogether at its best that evening, its -splendid best. - -"Gaw! What a place!" said Bert. - -It was so great, and in its collective effect so pacifically -magnificent, that to make war upon it seemed incongruous beyond measure, -like laying siege to the National Gallery or attacking respectable -people in an hotel dining-room with battle-axe and mail. It was in its -entirety so large, so complex, so delicately immense, that to bring it -to the issue of warfare was like driving a crowbar into the mechanism -of a clock. And the fish-like shoal of great airships hovering light -and sunlit above, filling the sky, seemed equally remote from the ugly -forcefulness of war. To Kurt, to Smallways, to I know not how many more -of the people in the air-fleet came the distinctest apprehension of -these incompatibilities. But in the head of the Prince Karl Albert were -the vapours of romance: he was a conqueror, and this was the enemy's -city. The greater the city, the greater the triumph. No doubt he had a -time of tremendous exultation and sensed beyond all precedent the sense -of power that night. - -There came an end at last to that pause. Some wireless communications -had failed of a satisfactory ending, and fleet and city remembered they -were hostile powers. "Look!" cried the multitude; "look!" - -"What are they doing?" - -"What?"... Down through the twilight sank five attacking airships, one -to the Navy Yard on East River, one to City Hall, two over the great -business buildings of Wall Street and Lower Broadway, one to the -Brooklyn Bridge, dropping from among their fellows through the danger -zone from the distant guns smoothly and rapidly to a safe proximity to -the city masses. At that descent all the cars in the streets stopped -with dramatic suddenness, and all the lights that had been coming on in -the streets and houses went out again. For the City Hall had awakened -and was conferring by telephone with the Federal command and taking -measures for defence. The City Hall was asking for airships, refusing to -surrender as Washington advised, and developing into a centre of intense -emotion, of hectic activity. Everywhere and hastily the police began to -clear the assembled crowds. "Go to your homes," they said; and the word -was passed from mouth to mouth, "There's going to be trouble." A chill -of apprehension ran through the city, and men hurrying in the unwonted -darkness across City Hall Park and Union Square came upon the dim forms -of soldiers and guns, and were challenged and sent back. In half an -hour New York had passed from serene sunset and gaping admiration to a -troubled and threatening twilight. - -The first loss of life occurred in the panic rush from Brooklyn Bridge -as the airship approached it. With the cessation of the traffic an -unusual stillness came upon New York, and the disturbing concussions of -the futile defending guns on the hills about grew more and more audible. -At last these ceased also. A pause of further negotiation followed. -People sat in darkness, sought counsel from telephones that were dumb. -Then into the expectant hush came a great crash and uproar, the breaking -down of the Brooklyn Bridge, the rifle fire from the Navy Yard, and the -bursting of bombs in Wall Street and the City Hall. New York as a whole -could do nothing, could understand nothing. New York in the darkness -peered and listened to these distant sounds until presently they died -away as suddenly as they had begun. "What could be happening?" They -asked it in vain. - -A long, vague period intervened, and people looking out of the windows -of upper rooms discovered the dark hulls of German airships, gliding -slowly and noiselessly, quite close at hand. Then quietly the electric -lights came on again, and an uproar of nocturnal newsvendors began in -the streets. - -The units of that vast and varied population bought and learnt what -had happened; there had been a fight and New York had hoisted the white -flag. - -4 - -The lamentable incidents that followed the surrender of New York seem -now in the retrospect to be but the necessary and inevitable consequence -of the clash of modern appliances and social conditions produced by -the scientific century on the one hand, and the tradition of a crude, -romantic patriotism on the other. At first people received the fact -with an irresponsible detachment, much as they would have received the -slowing down of the train in which they were travelling or the erection -of a public monument by the city to which they belonged. - -"We have surrendered. Dear me! HAVE we?" was rather the manner in which -the first news was met. They took it in the same spectacular spirit they -had displayed at the first apparition of the air-fleet. Only slowly was -this realisation of a capitulation suffused with the flush of passion, -only with reflection did they make any personal application. "WE have -surrendered!" came later; "in us America is defeated." Then they began -to burn and tingle. - -The newspapers, which were issued about one in the morning contained no -particulars of the terms upon which New York had yielded--nor did -they give any intimation of the quality of the brief conflict that had -preceded the capitulation. The later issues remedied these deficiencies. -There came the explicit statement of the agreement to victual the -German airships, to supply the complement of explosives to replace -those employed in the fight and in the destruction of the North Atlantic -fleet, to pay the enormous ransom of forty million dollars, and to -surrender the flotilla in the East River. There came, too, longer and longer -descriptions of the smashing up of the City Hall and the Navy Yard, and -people began to realise faintly what those brief minutes of uproar had -meant. They read the tale of men blown to bits, of futile soldiers -in that localised battle fighting against hope amidst an indescribable -wreckage, of flags hauled down by weeping men. And these strange -nocturnal editions contained also the first brief cables from Europe -of the fleet disaster, the North Atlantic fleet for which New York had -always felt an especial pride and solicitude. Slowly, hour by hour, the -collective consciousness woke up, the tide of patriotic astonishment and -humiliation came floating in. America had come upon disaster; suddenly -New York discovered herself with amazement giving place to wrath -unspeakable, a conquered city under the hand of her conqueror. - -As that fact shaped itself in the public mind, there sprang up, as -flames spring up, an angry repudiation. "No!" cried New York, waking in -the dawn. "No! I am not defeated. This is a dream." Before day broke -the swift American anger was running through all the city, through every -soul in those contagious millions. Before it took action, before it took -shape, the men in the airships could feel the gigantic insurgence of -emotion, as cattle and natural creatures feel, it is said, the coming -of an earthquake. The newspapers of the Knype group first gave the thing -words and a formula. "We do not agree," they said simply. "We have been -betrayed!" Men took that up everywhere, it passed from mouth to mouth, -at every street corner under the paling lights of dawn orators stood -unchecked, calling upon the spirit of America to arise, making the -shame a personal reality to every one who heard. To Bert, listening five -hundred feet above, it seemed that the city, which had at first produced -only confused noises, was now humming like a hive of bees--of very angry -bees. - -After the smashing of the City Hall and Post-Office, the white flag had -been hoisted from a tower of the old Park Row building, and thither had -gone Mayor O'Hagen, urged thither indeed by the terror-stricken property -owners of lower New York, to negotiate the capitulation with Von -Winterfeld. The Vaterland, having dropped the secretary by a rope -ladder, remained hovering, circling very slowly above the great -buildings, old and new, that clustered round City Hall Park, while the -Helmholz, which had done the fighting there, rose overhead to a height -of perhaps two thousand feet. So Bert had a near view of all that -occurred in that central place. The City Hall and Court House, the -Post-Office and a mass of buildings on the west side of Broadway, had -been badly damaged, and the three former were a heap of blackened ruins. -In the case of the first two the loss of life had not been considerable, -but a great multitude of workers, including many girls and women, had -been caught in the destruction of the Post-Office, and a little army of -volunteers with white badges entered behind the firemen, bringing out -the often still living bodies, for the most part frightfully charred, -and carrying them into the big Monson building close at hand. Everywhere -the busy firemen were directing their bright streams of water upon the -smouldering masses: their hose lay about the square, and long cordons of -police held back the gathering black masses of people, chiefly from the -east side, from these central activities. - -In violent and extraordinary contrast with this scene of destruction, -close at hand were the huge newspaper establishments of Park Row. They -were all alight and working; they had not been abandoned even while -the actual bomb throwing was going on, and now staff and presses were -vehemently active, getting out the story, the immense and dreadful story -of the night, developing comment and, in most cases, spreading the idea -of resistance under the very noses of the airships. For a long time Bert -could not imagine what these callously active offices could be, then he -detected the noise of the presses and emitted his "Gaw!" - -Beyond these newspaper buildings again, and partially hidden by the -arches of the old Elevated Railway of New York (long since converted -into a mono-rail), there was another cordon of police and a sort of -encampment of ambulances and doctors, busy with the dead and wounded who -had been killed early in the night by the panic upon Brooklyn Bridge. -All this he saw in the perspectives of a bird's-eye view, as things -happening in a big, irregular-shaped pit below him, between cliffs of -high building. Northward he looked along the steep canon of Broadway, -down whose length at intervals crowds were assembling about excited -speakers; and when he lifted his eyes he saw the chimneys and -cable-stacks and roof spaces of New York, and everywhere now over these -the watching, debating people clustered, except where the fires raged -and the jets of water flew. Everywhere, too, were flagstaffs devoid of -flags; one white sheet drooped and flapped and drooped again over the -Park Row buildings. And upon the lurid lights, the festering movement -and intense shadows of this strange scene, there was breaking now the -cold, impartial dawn. - -For Bert Smallways all this was framed in the frame of the open -porthole. It was a pale, dim world outside that dark and tangible -rim. All night he had clutched at that rim, jumped and quivered at -explosions, and watched phantom events. Now he had been high and now -low; now almost beyond hearing, now flying close to crashings and shouts -and outcries. He had seen airships flying low and swift over darkened -and groaning streets; watched great buildings, suddenly red-lit amidst -the shadows, crumple at the smashing impact of bombs; witnessed for -the first time in his life the grotesque, swift onset of insatiable -conflagrations. From it all he felt detached, disembodied. The Vaterland -did not even fling a bomb; she watched and ruled. Then down they had -come at last to hover over City Hall Park, and it had crept in upon his -mind, chillingly, terrifyingly, that these illuminated black masses -were great offices afire, and that the going to and fro of minute, dim -spectres of lantern-lit grey and white was a harvesting of the wounded -and the dead. As the light grew clearer he began to understand more and -more what these crumpled black things signified.... - -He had watched hour after hour since first New York had risen out of the -blue indistinctness of the landfall. With the daylight he experienced an -intolerable fatigue. - -He lifted weary eyes to the pink flush in the sky, yawned immensely, and -crawled back whispering to himself across the cabin to the locker. He -did not so much lie down upon that as fall upon it and instantly become -asleep. - -There, hours after, sprawling undignified and sleeping profoundly, -Kurt found him, a very image of the democratic mind confronted with the -problems of a time too complex for its apprehension. His face was -pale and indifferent, his mouth wide open, and he snored. He snored -disagreeably. - -Kurt regarded him for a moment with a mild distaste. Then he kicked his -ankle. - -"Wake up," he said to Smallways' stare, "and lie down decent." - -Bert sat up and rubbed his eyes. - -"Any more fightin' yet?" he asked. - -"No," said Kurt, and sat down, a tired man. - -"Gott!" he cried presently, rubbing his hands over his face, "but -I'd like a cold bath! I've been looking for stray bullet holes in the -air-chambers all night until now." He yawned. "I must sleep. You'd -better clear out, Smallways. I can't stand you here this morning. You're -so infernally ugly and useless. Have you had your rations? No! Well, go -in and get 'em, and don't come back. Stick in the gallery...." - -5 - -So Bert, slightly refreshed by coffee and sleep, resumed his helpless -co-operation in the War in the Air. He went down into the little gallery -as the lieutenant had directed, and clung to the rail at the extreme end -beyond the look-out man, trying to seem as inconspicuous and harmless a -fragment of life as possible. - -A wind was rising rather strongly from the south-east. It obliged the -Vaterland to come about in that direction, and made her roll a -great deal as she went to and fro over Manhattan Island. Away in the -north-west clouds gathered. The throb-throb of her slow screw working -against the breeze was much more perceptible than when she was going -full speed ahead; and the friction of the wind against the underside of -the gas-chamber drove a series of shallow ripples along it and made -a faint flapping sound like, but fainter than, the beating of ripples -under the stem of a boat. She was stationed over the temporary City Hall -in the Park Row building, and every now and then she would descend -to resume communication with the mayor and with Washington. But the -restlessness of the Prince would not suffer him to remain for long in -any one place. Now he would circle over the Hudson and East River; now -he would go up high, as if to peer away into the blue distances; once he -ascended so swiftly and so far that mountain sickness overtook him and -the crew and forced him down again; and Bert shared the dizziness and -nausea. - -The swaying view varied with these changes of altitude. Now they would -be low and close, and he would distinguish in that steep, unusual -perspective, windows, doors, street and sky signs, people and the -minutest details, and watch the enigmatical behaviour of crowds and -clusters upon the roofs and in the streets; then as they soared the -details would shrink, the sides of streets draw together, the view -widen, the people cease to be significant. At the highest the effect -was that of a concave relief map; Bert saw the dark and crowded land -everywhere intersected by shining waters, saw the Hudson River like a -spear of silver, and Lower Island Sound like a shield. Even to Bert's -unphilosophical mind the contrast of city below and fleet above pointed -an opposition, the opposition of the adventurous American's tradition -and character with German order and discipline. Below, the immense -buildings, tremendous and fine as they were, seemed like the giant trees -of a jungle fighting for life; their picturesque magnificence was as -planless as the chances of crag and gorge, their casualty enhanced by -the smoke and confusion of still unsubdued and spreading conflagrations. -In the sky soared the German airships like beings in a different, -entirely more orderly world, all oriented to the same angle of the -horizon, uniform in build and appearance, moving accurately with one -purpose as a pack of wolves will move, distributed with the most precise -and effectual co-operation. - -It dawned upon Bert that hardly a third of the fleet was visible. The -others had gone upon errands he could not imagine, beyond the compass of -that great circle of earth and sky. He wondered, but there was no one to -ask. As the day wore on, about a dozen reappeared in the east with -their stores replenished from the flotilla and towing a number of -drachenflieger. Towards afternoon the weather thickened, driving clouds -appeared in the south-west and ran together and seemed to engender more -clouds, and the wind came round into that quarter and blew stronger. -Towards the evening the wind became a gale into which the now tossing -airships had to beat. - -All that day the Prince was negotiating with Washington, while his -detached scouts sought far and wide over the Eastern States looking for -anything resembling an aeronautic park. A squadron of twenty airships -detached overnight had dropped out of the air upon Niagara and was -holding the town and power works. - -Meanwhile the insurrectionary movement in the giant city grew -uncontrollable. In spite of five great fires already involving many -acres, and spreading steadily, New York was still not satisfied that she -was beaten. - -At first the rebellious spirit below found vent only in isolated shouts, -street-crowd speeches, and newspaper suggestions; then it found much -more definite expression in the appearance in the morning sunlight of -American flags at point after point above the architectural cliffs of -the city. It is quite possible that in many cases this spirited display -of bunting by a city already surrendered was the outcome of the innocent -informality of the American mind, but it is also undeniable that in many -it was a deliberate indication that the people "felt wicked." - -The German sense of correctitude was deeply shocked by this outbreak. -The Graf von Winterfeld immediately communicated with the mayor, and -pointed out the irregularity, and the fire look-out stations were -instructed in the matter. The New York police was speedily hard at -work, and a foolish contest in full swing between impassioned citizens -resolved to keep the flag flying, and irritated and worried officers -instructed to pull it down. - -The trouble became acute at last in the streets above Columbia -University. The captain of the airship watching this quarter seems to -have stooped to lasso and drag from its staff a flag hoisted upon Morgan -Hall. As he did so a volley of rifle and revolver shots was fired from -the upper windows of the huge apartment building that stands between the -University and Riverside Drive. - -Most of these were ineffectual, but two or three perforated -gas-chambers, and one smashed the hand and arm of a man upon the forward -platform; The sentinel on the lower gallery immediately replied, and the -machine gun on the shield of the eagle let fly and promptly stopped -any further shots. The airship rose and signalled the flagship and City -Hall, police and militiamen were directed at once to the spot, and this -particular incident closed. - -But hard upon that came the desperate attempt of a party of young -clubmen from New York, who, inspired by patriotic and adventurous -imaginations, slipped off in half a dozen motor-cars to Beacon Hill, and -set to work with remarkable vigour to improvise a fort about the Doan -swivel gun that had been placed there. They found it still in the hands -of the disgusted gunners, who had been ordered to cease fire at the -capitulation, and it was easy to infect these men with their own spirit. -They declared their gun hadn't had half a chance, and were burning to -show what it could do. Directed by the newcomers, they made a trench -and bank about the mounting of the piece, and constructed flimsy -shelter-pits of corrugated iron. - -They were actually loading the gun when they were observed by the -airship Preussen and the shell they succeeded in firing before the bombs -of the latter smashed them and their crude defences to fragments, burst -over the middle gas-chambers of the Bingen, and brought her to earth, -disabled, upon Staten Island. She was badly deflated, and dropped among -trees, over which her empty central gas-bags spread in canopies and -festoons. Nothing, however, had caught fire, and her men were speedily -at work upon her repair. They behaved with a confidence that verged upon -indiscretion. While most of them commenced patching the tears of the -membrane, half a dozen of them started off for the nearest road in -search of a gas main, and presently found themselves prisoners in -the hands of a hostile crowd. Close at hand was a number of villa -residences, whose occupants speedily developed from an unfriendly -curiosity to aggression. At that time the police control of the large -polyglot population of Staten Island had become very lax, and scarcely -a household but had its rifle or pistols and ammunition. These were -presently produced, and after two or three misses, one of the men at -work was hit in the foot. Thereupon the Germans left their sewing and -mending, took cover among the trees, and replied. - -The crackling of shots speedily brought the Preussen and Kiel on the -scene, and with a few hand grenades they made short work of every -villa within a mile. A number of non-combatant American men, women, and -children were killed and the actual assailants driven off. For a time -the repairs went on in peace under the immediate protection of these -two airships. Then when they returned to their quarters, an intermittent -sniping and fighting round the stranded Bingen was resumed, and went -on all the afternoon, and merged at last in the general combat of the -evening.... - -About eight the Bingen was rushed by an armed mob, and all its defenders -killed after a fierce, disorderly struggle. - -The difficulty of the Germans in both these cases came from the -impossibility of landing any efficient force or, indeed, any force at -all from the air-fleet. The airships were quite unequal to the transport -of any adequate landing parties; their complement of men was just -sufficient to manoeuvre and fight them in the air. From above they could -inflict immense damage; they could reduce any organised Government to a -capitulation in the briefest space, but they could not disarm, much less -could they occupy, the surrendered areas below. They had to trust to -the pressure upon the authorities below of a threat to renew the -bombardment. It was their sole resource. No doubt, with a -highly organised and undamaged Government and a homogeneous and -well-disciplined people that would have sufficed to keep the peace. But -this was not the American case. Not only was the New York Government a -weak one and insufficiently provided with police, but the destruction of -the City Hall--and Post-Offide and other central ganglia had hopelessly -disorganised the co-operation of part with part. The street cars and -railways had ceased; the telephone service was out of gear and only -worked intermittently. The Germans had struck at the head, and the head -was conquered and stunned--only to release the body from its rule. New -York had become a headless monster, no longer capable of collective -submission. Everywhere it lifted itself rebelliously; everywhere -authorities and officials left to their own imitative were joining in -the arming and flag-hoisting and excitement of that afternoon. - -6 - -The disintegrating truce gave place to a definite general breach with -the assassination of the Wetterhorn--for that is the only possible word -for the act--above Union Square, and not a mile away from the exemplary -ruins of City Hall. This occurred late in the afternoon, between five -and six. By that time the weather had changed very much for the worse, -and the operations of the airships were embarrassed by the necessity -they were under of keeping head on to the gusts. A series of squalls, -with hail and thunder, followed one another from the south by -south-east, and in order to avoid these as much as possible, the -air-fleet came low over the houses, diminishing its range of observation -and exposing itself to a rifle attack. - -Overnight there had been a gun placed in Union Square. It had never been -mounted, much less fired, and in the darkness after the surrender it was -taken with its supplies and put out of the way under the arches of the -great Dexter building. Here late in the morning it was remarked by a -number of patriotic spirits. They set to work to hoist and mount it -inside the upper floors of the place. They made, in fact, a masked -battery behind the decorous office blinds, and there lay in wait as -simply excited as children until at last the stem of the luckless -Wetterhorn appeared, beating and rolling at quarter speed over the -recently reconstructed pinnacles of Tiffany's. Promptly that one-gun -battery unmasked. The airship's look-out man must have seen the whole -of the tenth story of the Dexter building crumble out and smash in the -street below to discover the black muzzle looking out from the shadows -behind. Then perhaps the shell hit him. - -The gun fired two shells before the frame of the Dexter building -collapsed, and each shell raked the Wetterhorn from stem to stern. -They smashed her exhaustively. She crumpled up like a can that has been -kicked by a heavy boot, her forepart came down in the square, and the -rest of her length, with a great snapping and twisting of shafts and -stays, descended, collapsing athwart Tammany Hall and the streets -towards Second Avenue. Her gas escaped to mix with air, and the air of -her rent balloonette poured into her deflating gas-chambers. Then with -an immense impact she exploded.... - -The Vaterland at that time was beating up to the south of City Hall -from over the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the reports of the gun, -followed by the first crashes of the collapsing Dexter building, brought -Kurt and, Smallways to the cabin porthole. They were in time to see the -flash of the exploding gun, and then they were first flattened against -the window and then rolled head over heels across the floor of the cabin -by the air wave of the explosion. The Vaterland bounded like a football -some one has kicked and when they looked out again, Union Square was -small and remote and shattered, as though some cosmically vast giant had -rolled over it. The buildings to the east of it were ablaze at a dozen -points, under the flaming tatters and warping skeleton of the airship, -and all the roofs and walls were ridiculously askew and crumbling as one -looked. "Gaw!" said Bert. "What's happened? Look at the people!" - -But before Kurt could produce an explanation, the shrill bells of the -airship were ringing to quarters, and he had to go. Bert hesitated and -stepped thoughtfully into the passage, looking back at the window as -he did so. He was knocked off his feet at once by the Prince, who was -rushing headlong from his cabin to the central magazine. - -Bert had a momentary impression of the great figure of the Prince, white -with rage, bristling with gigantic anger, his huge fist swinging. "Blut -und Eisen!" cried the Prince, as one who swears. "Oh! Blut und Eisen!" - -Some one fell over Bert--something in the manner of falling suggested -Von Winterfeld--and some one else paused and kicked him spitefully and -hard. Then he was sitting up in the passage, rubbing a freshly bruised -cheek and readjusting the bandage he still wore on his head. "Dem that -Prince," said Bert, indignant beyond measure. "'E 'asn't the menners of -a 'og!" - -He stood up, collected his wits for a minute, and then went slowly -towards the gangway of the little gallery. As he did so he heard noises -suggestive of the return of the Prince. The lot of them were coming back -again. He shot into his cabin like a rabbit into its burrow, just in -time to escape that shouting terror. - -He shut the door, waited until the passage was still, then went across -to the window and looked out. A drift of cloud made the prospect of -the streets and squares hazy, and the rolling of the airship swung the -picture up and down. A few people were running to and fro, but for the -most part the aspect of the district was desertion. The streets seemed -to broaden out, they became clearer, and the little dots that were -people larger as the Vaterland came down again. Presently she was -swaying along above the lower end of Broadway. The dots below, Bert saw, -were not running now, but standing and looking up. Then suddenly they -were all running again. - -Something had dropped from the aeroplane, something that looked small -and flimsy. It hit the pavement near a big archway just underneath Bert. -A little man was sprinting along the sidewalk within half a dozen yards, -and two or three others and one woman were bolting across the roadway. -They were odd little figures, so very small were they about the heads, -so very active about the elbows and legs. It was really funny to see -their legs going. Foreshortened, humanity has no dignity. The little man -on the pavement jumped comically--no doubt with terror, as the bomb fell -beside him. - -Then blinding flames squirted out in all directions from the point of -impact, and the little man who had jumped became, for an instant, a -flash of fire and vanished--vanished absolutely. The people running out -into the road took preposterous clumsy leaps, then flopped down and lay -still, with their torn clothes smouldering into flame. Then pieces of -the archway began to drop, and the lower masonry of the building to fall -in with the rumbling sound of coals being shot into a cellar. A faint -screaming reached Bert, and then a crowd of people ran out into the -street, one man limping and gesticulating awkwardly. He halted, and went -back towards the building. A falling mass of brick-work hit him and sent -him sprawling to lie still and crumpled where he fell. Dust and black -smoke came pouring into the street, and were presently shot with red -flame.... - -In this manner the massacre of New York began. She was the first of the -great cities of the Scientific Age to suffer by the enormous powers -and grotesque limitations of aerial warfare. She was wrecked as in the -previous century endless barbaric cities had been bombarded, because she -was at once too strong to be occupied and too undisciplined and proud to -surrender in order to escape destruction. Given the circumstances, the -thing had to be done. It was impossible for the Prince to desist, and -own himself defeated, and it was impossible to subdue the city except -by largely destroying it. The catastrophe was the logical outcome of -the situation, created by the application of science to warfare. It -was unavoidable that great cities should be destroyed. In spite of his -intense exasperation with his dilemma, the Prince sought to be moderate -even in massacre. He tried to give a memorable lesson with the minimum -waste of life and the minimum expenditure of explosives. For that night -he proposed only the wrecking of Broadway. He directed the air-fleet to -move in column over the route of this thoroughfare, dropping bombs, the -Vaterland leading. And so our Bert Smallways became a participant in one -of the most cold-blooded slaughters in the world's history, in which -men who were neither excited nor, except for the remotest chance of -a bullet, in any danger, poured death and destruction upon homes and -crowds below. - -He clung to the frame of the porthole as the airship tossed and swayed, -and stared down through the light rain that now drove before the wind, -into the twilight streets, watching people running out of the houses, -watching buildings collapse and fires begin. As the airships sailed -along they smashed up the city as a child will shatter its cities of -brick and card. Below, they left ruins and blazing conflagrations and -heaped and scattered dead; men, women, and children mixed together as -though they had been no more than Moors, or Zulus, or Chinese. Lower -New York was soon a furnace of crimson flames, from which there was no -escape. Cars, railways, ferries, all had ceased, and never a light lit -the way of the distracted fugitives in that dusky confusion but the -light of burning. He had glimpses of what it must mean to be down -there--glimpses. And it came to him suddenly as an incredible discovery, -that such disasters were not only possible now in this strange, -gigantic, foreign New York, but also in London--in Bun Hill! that the -little island in the silver seas was at the end of its immunity, that -nowhere in the world any more was there a place left where a Smallways -might lift his head proudly and vote for war and a spirited foreign -policy, and go secure from such horrible things. - - - -CHAPTER VII. THE "VATERLAND" IS DISABLED - -1 - -And then above the flames of Manhattan Island came a battle, the first -battle in the air. The Americans had realised the price their waiting -game must cost, and struck with all the strength they had, if haply they -might still save New York from this mad Prince of Blood and Iron, and -from fire and death. - -They came down upon the Germans on the wings of a great gale in -the twilight, amidst thunder and rain. They came from the yards of -Washington and Philadelphia, full tilt in two squadrons, and but for one -sentinel airship hard by Trenton, the surprise would have been complete. - -The Germans, sick and weary with destruction, and half empty of -ammunition, were facing up into the weather when the news of this onset -reached them. New York they had left behind to the south-eastward, a -darkened city with one hideous red scar of flames. All the airships -rolled and staggered, bursts of hailstorm bore them down and forced -them to fight their way up again; the air had become bitterly cold. The -Prince was on the point of issuing orders to drop earthward and trail -copper lightning chains when the news of the aeroplane attack came to -him. He faced his fleet in line abreast south, had the drachenflieger -manned and held ready to cast loose, and ordered a general ascent into -the freezing clearness above the wet and darkness. - -The news of what was imminent came slowly to Bert's perceptions. He was -standing in the messroom at the time and the evening rations were being -served out. He had resumed Butteridge's coat and gloves, and in addition -he had wrapped his blanket about him. He was dipping his bread into his -soup and was biting off big mouthfuls. His legs were wide apart, and -he leant against the partition in order to steady himself amidst the -pitching and oscillation of the airship. The men about him looked tired -and depressed; a few talked, but most were sullen and thoughtful, -and one or two were air-sick. They all seemed to share the peculiarly -outcast feeling that had followed the murders of the evening, a sense -of a land beneath them, and an outraged humanity grown more hostile than -the Sea. - -Then the news hit them. A red-faced sturdy man, a man with light -eyelashes and a scar, appeared in the doorway and shouted something in -German that manifestly startled every one. Bert felt the shock of the -altered tone, though he could not understand a word that was said. -The announcement was followed by a pause, and then a great outcry of -questions and suggestions. Even the air-sick men flushed and spoke. -For some minutes the mess-room was Bedlam, and then, as if it were a -confirmation of the news, came the shrill ringing of the bells that -called the men to their posts. - -Bert with pantomime suddenness found himself alone. - -"What's up?" he said, though he partly guessed. - -He stayed only to gulp down the remainder of his soup, and then ran -along the swaying passage and, clutching tightly, down the ladder to -the little gallery. The weather hit him like cold water squirted from a -hose. The airship engaged in some new feat of atmospheric Jiu-Jitsu. He -drew his blanket closer about him, clutching with one straining hand. -He found himself tossing in a wet twilight, with nothing to be seen but -mist pouring past him. Above him the airship was warm with lights and -busy with the movements of men going to their quarters. Then abruptly -the lights went out, and the Vaterland with bounds and twists and -strange writhings was fighting her way up the air. - -He had a glimpse, as the Vaterland rolled over, of some large buildings -burning close below them, a quivering acanthus of flames, and then he -saw indistinctly through the driving weather another airship wallowing -along like a porpoise, and also working up. Presently the clouds -swallowed her again for a time, and then she came back to sight as a -dark and whale-like monster, amidst streaming weather. The air was full -of flappings and pipings, of void, gusty shouts and noises; it buffeted -him and confused him; ever and again his attention became rigid--a blind -and deaf balancing and clutching. - -"Wow!" - -Something fell past him out of the vast darknesses above and vanished -into the tumults below, going obliquely downward. It was a German -drachenflieger. The thing was going so fast he had but an instant -apprehension of the dark figure of the aeronaut crouched together -clutching at his wheel. It might be a manoeuvre, but it looked like a -catastrophe. - -"Gaw!" said Bert. - -"Pup-pup-pup" went a gun somewhere in the mirk ahead and suddenly and -quite horribly the Vaterland lurched, and Bert and the sentinel were -clinging to the rail for dear life. "Bang!" came a vast impact out of -the zenith, followed by another huge roll, and all about him the tumbled -clouds flashed red and lurid in response to flashes unseen, revealing -immense gulfs. The rail went right overhead, and he was hanging loose in -the air holding on to it. - -For a time Bert's whole mind and being was given to clutching. "I'm -going into the cabin," he said, as the airship righted again and brought -back the gallery floor to his feet. He began to make his way cautiously -towards the ladder. "Whee-wow!" he cried as the whole gallery reared -itself up forward, and then plunged down like a desperate horse. - -Crack! Bang! Bang! Bang! And then hard upon this little rattle of shots -and bombs came, all about him, enveloping him, engulfing him, -immense and overwhelming, a quivering white blaze of lightning and a -thunder-clap that was like the bursting of a world. - -Just for the instant before that explosion the universe seemed to be -standing still in a shadowless glare. - -It was then he saw the American aeroplane. He saw it in the light of the -flash as a thing altogether motionless. Even its screw appeared still, -and its men were rigid dolls. (For it was so near he could see the men -upon it quite distinctly.) Its stern was tilting down, and the whole -machine was heeling over. It was of the Colt-Coburn-Langley pattern, -with double up-tilted wings and the screw ahead, and the men were in -a boat-like body netted over. From this very light long body, magazine -guns projected on either side. One thing that was strikingly odd and -wonderful in that moment of revelation was that the left upper wing was -burning downward with a reddish, smoky flame. But this was not the most -wonderful thing about this apparition. The most wonderful thing was that -it and a German airship five hundred yards below were threaded as it -were on the lightning flash, which turned out of its path as if to take -them, and, that out from the corners and projecting points of its -huge wings everywhere, little branching thorn-trees of lightning were -streaming. - -Like a picture Bert saw these things, a picture a little blurred by a -thin veil of wind-torn mist. - -The crash of the thunder-clap followed the flash and seemed a part of -it, so that it is hard to say whether Bert was the rather deafened or -blinded in that instant. - -And then darkness, utter darkness, and a heavy report and a thin small -sound of voices that went wailing downward into the abyss below. - -2 - -There followed upon these things a long, deep swaying of the airship, -and then Bert began a struggle to get back to his cabin. He was drenched -and cold and terrified beyond measure, and now more than a little -air-sick. It seemed to him that the strength had gone out of his knees -and hands, and that his feet had become icily slippery over the metal -they trod upon. But that was because a thin film of ice had frozen upon -the gallery. - -He never knew how long his ascent of the ladder back into the airship -took him, but in his dreams afterwards, when he recalled it, that -experience seemed to last for hours. Below, above, around him were -gulfs, monstrous gulfs of howling wind and eddies of dark, whirling -snowflakes, and he was protected from it all by a little metal grating -and a rail, a grating and rail that seemed madly infuriated with him, -passionately eager to wrench him off and throw him into the tumult of -space. - -Once he had a fancy that a bullet tore by his ear, and that the clouds -and snowflakes were lit by a flash, but he never even turned his head to -see what new assailant whirled past them in the void. He wanted to get -into the passage! He wanted to get into the passage! He wanted to get -into the passage! Would the arm by which he was clinging hold out, or -would it give way and snap? A handful of hail smacked him in the face, -so that for a time he was breathless and nearly insensible. Hold tight, -Bert! He renewed his efforts. - -He found himself, with an enormous sense of relief and warmth, in the -passage. The passage was behaving like a dice-box, its disposition was -evidently to rattle him about and then throw him out again. He hung on -with the convulsive clutch of instinct until the passage lurched down -ahead. Then he would make a short run cabin-ward, and clutch again as -the fore-end rose. - -Behold! He was in the cabin! - -He snapped-to the door, and for a time he was not a human being, he was -a case of air-sickness. He wanted to get somewhere that would fix him, -that he needn't clutch. He opened the locker and got inside among the -loose articles, and sprawled there helplessly, with his head sometimes -bumping one side and sometimes the other. The lid shut upon him with a -click. He did not care then what was happening any more. He did not care -who fought who, or what bullets were fired or explosions occurred. He -did not care if presently he was shot or smashed to pieces. He was full -of feeble, inarticulate rage and despair. "Foolery!" he said, his one -exhaustive comment on human enterprise, adventure, war, and the chapter -of accidents that had entangled him. "Foolery! Ugh!" He included the -order of the universe in that comprehensive condemnation. He wished he -was dead. - -He saw nothing of the stars, as presently the Vaterland cleared the rush -and confusion of the lower weather, nor of the duel she fought with two -circling aeroplanes, how they shot her rear-most chambers through, and -how she fought them off with explosive bullets and turned to run as she -did so. - -The rush and swoop of these wonderful night birds was all lost upon him; -their heroic dash and self-sacrifice. The Vaterland was rammed, and for -some moments she hung on the verge of destruction, and sinking swiftly, -with the American aeroplane entangled with her smashed propeller, and -the Americans trying to scramble aboard. It signified nothing to Bert. -To him it conveyed itself simply as vehement swaying. Foolery! When -the American airship dropped off at last, with most of its crew shot or -fallen, Bert in his locker appreciated nothing but that the Vaterland -had taken a hideous upward leap. - -But then came infinite relief, incredibly blissful relief. The rolling, -the pitching, the struggle ceased, ceased instantly and absolutely. -The Vaterland was no longer fighting the gale; her smashed and exploded -engines throbbed no more; she was disabled and driving before the wind -as smoothly as a balloon, a huge, windspread, tattered cloud of aerial -wreckage. - -To Bert it was no more than the end of a series of disagreeable -sensations. He was not curious to know what had happened to the airship, -nor what had happened to the battle. For a long time he lay waiting -apprehensively for the pitching and tossing and his qualms to return, -and so, lying, boxed up in the locker, he presently fell asleep. - -3 - -He awoke tranquil but very stuffy, and at the same time very cold, and -quite unable to recollect where he could be. His head ached, and his -breath was suffocated. He had been dreaming confusedly of Edna, and -Desert Dervishes, and of riding bicycles in an extremely perilous manner -through the upper air amidst a pyrotechnic display of crackers and -Bengal lights--to the great annoyance of a sort of composite person made -up of the Prince and Mr. Butteridge. Then for some reason Edna and -he had begun to cry pitifully for each other, and he woke up with wet -eye-lashes into this ill-ventilated darkness of the locker. He would -never see Edna any more, never see Edna any more. - -He thought he must be back in the bedroom behind the cycle shop at -the bottom of Bun Hill, and he was sure the vision he had had of the -destruction of a magnificent city, a city quite incredibly great and -splendid, by means of bombs, was no more than a particularly vivid -dream. - -"Grubb!" he called, anxious to tell him. - -The answering silence, and the dull resonance of the locker to his -voice, supplementing the stifling quality of the air, set going a new -train of ideas. He lifted up his hands and feet, and met an inflexible -resistance. He was in a coffin, he thought! He had been buried alive! He -gave way at once to wild panic. "'Elp!" he screamed. "'Elp!" and drummed -with his feet, and kicked and struggled. "Let me out! Let me out!" - -For some seconds he struggled with this intolerable horror, and then -the side of his imagined coffin gave way, and he was flying out into -daylight. Then he was rolling about on what seemed to be a padded floor -with Kurt, and being punched and sworn at lustily. - -He sat up. His head bandage had become loose and got over one eye, and -he whipped the whole thing off. Kurt was also sitting up, a yard away -from him, pink as ever, wrapped in blankets, and with an aluminium -diver's helmet over his knee, staring at him with a severe expression, -and rubbing his downy unshaven chin. They were both on a slanting floor -of crimson padding, and above them was an opening like a long, low -cellar flap that Bert by an effort perceived to be the cabin door in a -half-inverted condition. The whole cabin had in fact turned on its side. - -"What the deuce do you mean by it, Smallways?" said Kurt, "jumping out -of that locker when I was certain you had gone overboard with the rest -of them? Where have you been?" - -"What's up?" asked Bert. - -"This end of the airship is up. Most other things are down." - -"Was there a battle?" - -"There was." - -"Who won?" - -"I haven't seen the papers, Smallways. We left before the finish. We got -disabled and unmanageable, and our colleagues--consorts I mean--were -too busy most of them to trouble about us, and the wind blew us--Heaven -knows where the wind IS blowing us. It blew us right out of action at -the rate of eighty miles an hour or so. Gott! what a wind that was! What -a fight! And here we are!" - -"Where?" - -"In the air, Smallways--in the air! When we get down on the earth again -we shan't know what to do with our legs." - -"But what's below us?" - -"Canada, to the best of my knowledge--and a jolly bleak, empty, -inhospitable country it looks." - -"But why ain't we right ways up?" - -Kurt made no answer for a space. - -"Last I remember was seeing a sort of flying-machine in a lightning -flash," said Bert. "Gaw! that was 'orrible. Guns going off! Things -explodin'! Clouds and 'ail. Pitching and tossing. I got so scared and -desperate--and sick. You don't know how the fight came off?" - -"Not a bit of it. I was up with my squad in those divers' dresses, -inside the gas-chambers, with sheets of silk for caulking. We couldn't -see a thing outside except the lightning flashes. I never saw one -of those American aeroplanes. Just saw the shots flicker through the -chambers and sent off men for the tears. We caught fire a bit--not much, -you know. We were too wet, so the fires spluttered out before we banged. -And then one of their infernal things dropped out of the air on us and -rammed. Didn't you feel it?" - -"I felt everything," said Bert. "I didn't notice any particular smash--" - -"They must have been pretty desperate if they meant it. They slashed -down on us like a knife; simply ripped the after gas-chambers like -gutting herrings, crumpled up the engines and screw. Most of the engines -dropped off as they fell off us--or we'd have grounded--but the rest is -sort of dangling. We just turned up our nose to the heavens and stayed -there. Eleven men rolled off us from various points, and poor old -Winterfeld fell through the door of the Prince's cabin into the -chart-room and broke his ankle. Also we got our electric gear shot or -carried away--no one knows how. That's the position, Smallways. We're -driving through the air like a common aerostat, at the mercy of the -elements, almost due north--probably to the North Pole. We don't know -what aeroplanes the Americans have, or anything at all about it. -Very likely we have finished 'em up. One fouled us, one was struck by -lightning, some of the men saw a third upset, apparently just for -fun. They were going cheap anyhow. Also we've lost most of our -drachenflieger. They just skated off into the night. No stability in -'em. That's all. We don't know if we've won or lost. We don't know if -we're at war with the British Empire yet or at peace. Consequently, we -daren't get down. We don't know what we are up to or what we are going -to do. Our Napoleon is alone, forward, and I suppose he's rearranging -his plans. Whether New York was our Moscow or not remains to be seen. -We've had a high old time and murdered no end of people! War! Noble war! -I'm sick of it this morning. I like sitting in rooms rightway up and -not on slippery partitions. I'm a civilised man. I keep thinking of old -Albrecht and the Barbarossa.... I feel I want a wash and kind words -and a quiet home. When I look at you, I KNOW I want a wash. Gott!"--he -stifled a vehement yawn--"What a Cockney tadpole of a ruffian you look!" - -"Can we get any grub?" asked Bert. - -"Heaven knows!" said Kurt. - -He meditated upon Bert for a time. "So far as I can judge, Smallways," -he said, "the Prince will probably want to throw you overboard--next -time he thinks of you. He certainly will if he sees you.... After all, -you know, you came als Ballast.... And we shall have to lighten ship -extensively pretty soon. Unless I'm mistaken, the Prince will wake up -presently and start doing things with tremendous vigour.... I've taken a -fancy to you. It's the English strain in me. You're a rum little chap. I -shan't like seeing you whizz down the air.... You'd better make yourself -useful, Smallways. I think I shall requisition you for my squad. You'll -have to work, you know, and be infernally intelligent and all that. And -you'll have to hang about upside down a bit. Still, it's the best chance -you have. We shan't carry passengers much farther this trip, I fancy. -Ballast goes over-board--if we don't want to ground precious soon and be -taken prisoners of war. The Prince won't do that anyhow. He'll be game -to the last." - -4 - -By means of a folding chair, which was still in its place behind the -door, they got to the window and looked out in turn and contemplated -a sparsely wooded country below, with no railways nor roads, and -only occasional signs of habitation. Then a bugle sounded, and Kurt -interpreted it as a summons to food. They got through the door and -clambered with some difficulty up the nearly vertical passage, -holding on desperately with toes and finger-tips, to the ventilating -perforations in its floor. The mess stewards had found their fireless -heating arrangements intact, and there was hot cocoa for the officers -and hot soup for the men. - -Bert's sense of the queerness of this experience was so keen that -it blotted out any fear he might have felt. Indeed, he was far more -interested now than afraid. He seemed to have touched down to the bottom -of fear and abandonment overnight. He was growing accustomed to the idea -that he would probably be killed presently, that this strange voyage -in the air was in all probability his death journey. No human being can -keep permanently afraid: fear goes at last to the back of one's mind, -accepted, and shelved, and done with. He squatted over his soup, sopping -it up with his bread, and contemplated his comrades. They were all -rather yellow and dirty, with four-day beards, and they grouped -themselves in the tired, unpremeditated manner of men on a wreck. They -talked little. The situation perplexed them beyond any suggestion of -ideas. Three had been hurt in the pitching up of the ship during the -fight, and one had a bandaged bullet wound. It was incredible that this -little band of men had committed murder and massacre on a scale -beyond precedent. None of them who squatted on the sloping gas-padded -partition, soup mug in hand, seemed really guilty of anything of the -sort, seemed really capable of hurting a dog wantonly. They were all -so manifestly built for homely chalets on the solid earth and carefully -tilled fields and blond wives and cheery merrymaking. The red-faced, -sturdy man with light eyelashes who had brought the first news of -the air battle to the men's mess had finished his soup, and with an -expression of maternal solicitude was readjusting the bandages of a -youngster whose arm had been sprained. - -Bert was crumbling the last of his bread into the last of his soup, -eking it out as long as possible, when suddenly he became aware that -every one was looking at a pair of feet that were dangling across the -downturned open doorway. Kurt appeared and squatted across the hinge. In -some mysterious way he had shaved his face and smoothed down his light -golden hair. He looked extraordinarily cherubic. "Der Prinz," he said. - -A second pair of boots followed, making wide and magnificent gestures in -their attempts to feel the door frame. Kurt guided them to a foothold, -and the Prince, shaved and brushed and beeswaxed and clean and big and -terrible, slid down into position astride of the door. All the men and -Bert also stood up and saluted. - -The Prince surveyed them with the gesture of a man who site a steed. The -head of the Kapitan appeared beside him. - -Then Bert had a terrible moment. The blue blaze of the Prince's eye -fell upon him, the great finger pointed, a question was asked. Kurt -intervened with explanations. - -"So," said the Prince, and Bert was disposed of. - -Then the Prince addressed the men in short, heroic sentences, steadying -himself on the hinge with one hand and waving the other in a fine -variety of gesture. What he said Bert could not tell, but he perceived -that their demeanor changed, their backs stiffened. They began to -punctuate the Prince's discourse with cries of approval. At the end -their leader burst into song and all the men with him. "Ein feste Burg -ist unser Gott," they chanted in deep, strong tones, with an immense -moral uplifting. It was glaringly inappropriate in a damaged, -half-overturned, and sinking airship, which had been disabled and blown -out of action after inflicting the cruellest bombardment in the world's -history; but it was immensely stirring nevertheless. Bert was deeply -moved. He could not sing any of the words of Luther's great hymn, but -he opened his mouth and emitted loud, deep, and partially harmonious -notes.... - -Far below, this deep chanting struck on the ears of a little camp of -Christianised half-breeds who were lumbering. They were breakfasting, -but they rushed out cheerfully, quite prepared for the Second Advent. -They stared at the shattered and twisted Vaterland driving before the -gale, amazed beyond words. In so many respects it was like their idea -of the Second Advent, and then again in so many respects it wasn't. They -stared at its passage, awe-stricken and perplexed beyond their power of -words. The hymn ceased. Then after a long interval a voice came out of -heaven. "Vat id diss blace here galled itself; vat?" - -They made no answer. Indeed they did not understand, though the question -repeated itself. - -And at last the monster drove away northward over a crest of pine woods -and was no more seen. They fell into a hot and long disputation.... - -The hymn ended. The Prince's legs dangled up the passage again, and -every one was briskly prepared for heroic exertion and triumphant acts. -"Smallways!" cried Kurt, "come here!" - -5 - -Then Bert, under Kurt's direction, had his first experience of the work -of an air-sailor. - -The immediate task before the captain of the Vaterland was a very simple -one. He had to keep afloat. The wind, though it had fallen from its -earlier violence, was still blowing strongly enough to render the -grounding of so clumsy a mass extremely dangerous, even if it had been -desirable for the Prince to land in inhabited country, and so risk -capture. It was necessary to keep the airship up until the wind fell and -then, if possible, to descend in some lonely district of the Territory -where there would be a chance of repair or rescue by some searching -consort. In order to do this weight had to be dropped, and Kurt was -detailed with a dozen men to climb down among the wreckage of the -deflated air-chambers and cut the stuff clear, portion by portion, as -the airship sank. So Bert, armed with a sharp cutlass, found himself -clambering about upon netting four thousand feet up in the air, trying -to understand Kurt when he spoke in English and to divine him when he -used German. - -It was giddy work, but not nearly so giddy as a rather overnourished -reader sitting in a warm room might imagine. Bert found it quite -possible to look down and contemplate the wild sub-arctic landscape -below, now devoid of any sign of habitation, a land of rocky cliffs and -cascades and broad swirling desolate rivers, and of trees and thickets -that grew more stunted and scrubby as the day wore on. Here and there on -the hills were patches and pockets of snow. And over all this he worked, -hacking away at the tough and slippery oiled silk and clinging stoutly -to the netting. Presently they cleared and dropped a tangle of bent -steel rods and wires from the frame, and a big chunk of silk bladder. -That was trying. The airship flew up at once as this loose hamper -parted. It seemed almost as though they were dropping all Canada. The -stuff spread out in the air and floated down and hit and twisted up in a -nasty fashion on the lip of a gorge. Bert clung like a frozen monkey to -his ropes and did not move a muscle for five minutes. - -But there was something very exhilarating, he found, in this dangerous -work, and above every thing else, there was the sense of fellowship. He -was no longer an isolated and distrustful stranger among these others, -he had now a common object with them, he worked with a friendly rivalry -to get through with his share before them. And he developed a great -respect and affection for Kurt, which had hitherto been only latent -in him. Kurt with a job to direct was altogether admirable; he was -resourceful, helpful, considerate, swift. He seemed to be everywhere. -One forgot his pinkness, his light cheerfulness of manner. Directly one -had trouble he was at hand with sound and confident advice. He was like -an elder brother to his men. - -All together they cleared three considerable chunks of wreckage, and -then Bert was glad to clamber up into the cabins again and give place to -a second squad. He and his companions were given hot coffee, and indeed, -even gloved as they were, the job had been a cold one. They sat drinking -it and regarding each other with satisfaction. One man spoke to Bert -amiably in German, and Bert nodded and smiled. Through Kurt, Bert, whose -ankles were almost frozen, succeeded in getting a pair of top-boots from -one of the disabled men. - -In the afternoon the wind abated greatly, and small, infrequent -snowflakes came drifting by. Snow also spread more abundantly below, and -the only trees were clumps of pine and spruce in the lower valleys. -Kurt went with three men into the still intact gas-chambers, let out -a certain quantity of gas from them, and prepared a series of ripping -panels for the descent. Also the residue of the bombs and explosives in -the magazine were thrown overboard and fell, detonating loudly, in the -wilderness below. And about four o'clock in the afternoon upon a wide -and rocky plain within sight of snow-crested cliffs, the Vaterland -ripped and grounded. - -It was necessarily a difficult and violent affair, for the Vaterland had -not been planned for the necessities of a balloon. The captain got -one panel ripped too soon and the others not soon enough. She dropped -heavily, bounced clumsily, and smashed the hanging gallery into the -fore-part, mortally injuring Von Winterfeld, and then came down in a -collapsing heap after dragging for some moments. The forward shield -and its machine gun tumbled in upon the things below. Two men were hurt -badly--one got a broken leg and one was internally injured--by flying -rods and wires, and Bert was pinned for a time under the side. When -at last he got clear and could take a view of the situation, the great -black eagle that had started so splendidly from Franconia six -evenings ago, sprawled deflated over the cabins of the airship and the -frost-bitten rocks of this desolate place and looked a most unfortunate -bird--as though some one had caught it and wrung its neck and cast -it aside. Several of the crew of the airship were standing about in -silence, contemplating the wreckage and the empty wilderness into which -they had fallen. Others were busy under the imromptu tent made by -the empty gas-chambers. The Prince had gone a little way off and was -scrutinising the distant heights through his field-glass. They had -the appearance of old sea cliffs; here and there were small clumps of -conifers, and in two places tall cascades. The nearer ground was strewn -with glaciated boulders and supported nothing but a stunted Alpine -vegetation of compact clustering stems and stalkless flowers. No river -was visible, but the air was full of the rush and babble of a torrent -close at hand. A bleak and biting wind was blowing. Ever and again a -snowflake drifted past. The springless frozen earth under Bert's feet -felt strangely dead and heavy after the buoyant airship. - -6 - -So it came about that that great and powerful Prince Karl Albert was -for a time thrust out of the stupendous conflict he chiefly had been -instrumental in provoking. The chances of battle and the weather -conspired to maroon him in Labrador, and there he raged for six long -days, while war and wonder swept the world. Nation rose against -nation and air-fleet grappled air-fleet, cities blazed and men died in -multitudes; but in Labrador one might have dreamt that, except for a -little noise of hammering, the world was at peace. - -There the encampment lay; from a distance the cabins, covered over with -the silk of the balloon part, looked like a gipsy's tent on a rather -exceptional scale, and all the available hands were busy in building -out of the steel of the framework a mast from which the Vaterland's -electricians might hang the long conductors of the apparatus for -wireless telegraphy that was to link the Prince to the world again. -There were times when it seemed they would never rig that mast. From -the outset the party suffered hardship. They were not too abundantly -provisioned, and they were put on short rations, and for all the thick -garments they had, they were but ill-equipped against the piercing wind -and inhospitable violence of this wilderness. The first night was spent -in darkness and without fires. The engines that had supplied power were -smashed and dropped far away to the south, and there was never a -match among the company. It had been death to carry matches. All the -explosives had been thrown out of the magazine, and it was only towards -morning that the bird-faced man whose cabin Bert had taken in the -beginning confessed to a brace of duelling pistols and cartridges, with -which a fire could be started. Afterwards the lockers of the machine gun -were found to contain a supply of unused ammunition. - -The night was a distressing one and seemed almost interminable. Hardly -any one slept. There were seven wounded men aboard, and Von Winterfeld's -head had been injured, and he was shivering and in delirium, struggling -with his attendant and shouting strange things about the burning of New -York. The men crept together in the mess-room in the darkling, wrapped -in what they could find and drank cocoa from the fireless heaters and -listened to his cries. In the morning the Prince made them a speech -about Destiny, and the God of his Fathers and the pleasure and glory -of giving one's life for his dynasty, and a number of similar -considerations that might otherwise have been neglected in that bleak -wilderness. The men cheered without enthusiasm, and far away a wolf -howled. - -Then they set to work, and for a week they toiled to put up a mast of -steel, and hang from it a gridiron of copper wires two hundred feet by -twelve. The theme of all that time was work, work continually, straining -and toilsome work, and all the rest was grim hardship and evil chances, -save for a certain wild splendour in the sunset and sunrise in the -torrents and drifting weather, in the wilderness about them. They built -and tended a ring of perpetual fires, gangs roamed for brushwood and met -with wolves, and the wounded men and their beds were brought out from -the airship cabins, and put in shelters about the fires. There old Von -Winterfeld raved and became quiet and presently died, and three of -the other wounded sickened for want of good food, while their fellows -mended. These things happened, as it were, in the wings; the central -facts before Bert's consciousness were always firstly the perpetual -toil, the holding and lifting, and lugging at heavy and clumsy masses, -the tedious filing and winding of wires, and secondly, the Prince, -urgent and threatening whenever a man relaxed. He would stand over them, -and point over their heads, southward into the empty sky. "The world -there," he said in German, "is waiting for us! Fifty Centuries come to -their Consummation." Bert did not understand the words, but he read the -gesture. Several times the Prince grew angry; once with a man who was -working slowly, once with a man who stole a comrade's ration. The first -he scolded and set to a more tedious task; the second he struck in the -face and ill-used. He did no work himself. There was a clear space near -the fires in which he would walk up and down, sometimes for two hours -together, with arms folded, muttering to himself of Patience and his -destiny. At times these mutterings broke out into rhetoric, into shouts -and gestures that would arrest the workers; they would stare at him -until they perceived that his blue eyes glared and his waving hand -addressed itself always to the southward hills. On Sunday the work -ceased for half an hour, and the Prince preached on faith and God's -friendship for David, and afterwards they all sang: "Ein feste Burg ist -unser Gott." - -In an improvised hovel lay Von Winterfeld, and all one morning he raved -of the greatness of Germany. "Blut und Eisen!" he shouted, and then, -as if in derision, "Welt-Politik--ha, ha!" Then he would explain -complicated questions of polity to imaginary hearers, in low, wily -tones. The other sick men kept still, listening to him. Bert's -distracted attention would be recalled by Kurt. "Smallways, take that -end. So!" - -Slowly, tediously, the great mast was rigged and hoisted foot by foot -into place. The electricians had contrived a catchment pool and a wheel -in the torrent close at hand--for the little Mulhausen dynamo with its -turbinal volute used by the telegraphists was quite adaptable to water -driving, and on the sixth day in the evening the apparatus was -in working order and the Prince was calling--weakly, indeed, but -calling--to his air-fleet across the empty spaces of the world. For a -time he called unheeded. - -The effect of that evening was to linger long in Bert's memory. A red -fire spluttered and blazed close by the electricians at their work, and -red gleams xan up the vertical steel mast and threads of copper wire -towards the zenith. The Prince sat on a rock close by, with his chin -on his hand, waiting. Beyond and to the northward was the cairn that -covered Von Winterfeld, surmounted by a cross of steel, and from among -the tumbled rocks in the distance the eyes of a wolf gleamed redly. -On the other hand was the wreckage of the great airship and the men -bivouacked about a second ruddy flare. They were all keeping very still, -as if waiting to hear what news might presently be given them. Far away, -across many hundreds of miles of desolation, other wireless masts would -be clicking, and snapping, and waking into responsive vibration. Perhaps -they were not. Perhaps those throbs upon the ethers wasted themselves -upon a regardless world. When the men spoke, they spoke in low tones. -Now and then a bird shrieked remotely, and once a wolf howled. All these -things were set in the immense cold spaciousness of the wild. - -7 - -Bert got the news last, and chiefly in broken English, from a linguist -among his mates. It was only far on in the night that the weary -telegraphist got an answer to his calls, but then the messages came -clear and strong. And such news it was! - -"I say," said Bert at his breakfast, amidst a great clamour, "tell us a -bit." - -"All de vorlt is at vor!" said the linguist, waving his cocoa in an -illustrative manner, "all de vorlt is at vor!" - -Bert stared southward into the dawn. It did not seem so. - -"All de vorlt is at vor! They haf burn' Berlin; they haf burn' London; -they haf burn' Hamburg and Paris. Chapan hass burn San Francisco. We haf -mate a camp at Niagara. Dat is whad they are telling us. China has cot -drachenflieger and luftschiffe beyont counting. All de vorlt is at vor!" - -"Gaw!" said Bert. - -"Yess," said the linguist, drinking his cocoa. - -"Burnt up London, 'ave they? Like we did New York?" - -"It wass a bombardment." - -"They don't say anything about a place called Clapham, or Bun Hill, do -they?" - -"I haf heard noding," said the linguist. - -That was all Bert could get for a time. But the excitement of all the -men about him was contagious, and presently he saw Kurt standing alone, -hands behind him, and looking at one of the distant waterfalls very -steadfastly. He went up and saluted, soldier-fashion. "Beg pardon, -lieutenant," he said. - -Kurt turned his face. It was unusually grave that morning. "I was -just thinking I would like to see that waterfall closer," he said. "It -reminds me--what do you want?" - -"I can't make 'ead or tail of what they're saying, sir. Would you mind -telling me the news?" - -"Damn the news," said Kurt. "You'll get news enough before the day's -out. It's the end of the world. They're sending the Graf Zeppelin for -us. She'll be here by the morning, and we ought to be at Niagara--or -eternal smash--within eight and forty hours.... I want to look at that -waterfall. You'd better come with me. Have you had your rations?" - -"Yessir." - -"Very well. Come." - -And musing profoundly, Kurt led the way across the rocks towards the -distant waterfall. - -For a time Bert walked behind him in the character of an escort; then as -they passed out of the atmosphere of the encampment, Kurt lagged for him -to come alongside. - -"We shall be back in it all in two days' time," he said. "And it's a -devil of a war to go back to. That's the news. The world's gone mad. -Our fleet beat the Americans the night we got disabled, that's clear. -We lost eleven--eleven airships certain, and all their aeroplanes got -smashed. God knows how much we smashed or how many we killed. But that -was only the beginning. Our start's been like firing a magazine. Every -country was hiding flying-machines. They're fighting in the air all over -Europe--all over the world. The Japanese and Chinese have joined in. -That's the great fact. That's the supreme fact. They've pounced into our -little quarrels.... The Yellow Peril was a peril after all! They've got -thousands of airships. They're all over the world. We bombarded London -and Paris, and now the French and English have smashed up Berlin. And -now Asia is at us all, and on the top of us all.... It's mania. China -on the top. And they don't know where to stop. It's limitless. It's the -last confusion. They're bombarding capitals, smashing up dockyards and -factories, mines and fleets." - -"Did they do much to London, sir?" asked Bert. - -"Heaven knows...." - -He said no more for a time. - -"This Labrador seems a quiet place," he resumed at last. "I'm half a -mind to stay here. Can't do that. No! I've got to see it through. I've -got to see it through. You've got to, too. Every one.... But why?... I -tell you--our world's gone to pieces. There's no way out of it, no way -back. Here we are! We're like mice caught in a house on fire, we're like -cattle overtaken by a flood. Presently we shall be picked up, and back -we shall go into the fighting. We shall kill and smash again--perhaps. -It's a Chino-Japanese air-fleet this time, and the odds are against -us. Our turns will come. What will happen to you I don't know, but for -myself, I know quite well; I shall be killed." - -"You'll be all right," said Bert, after a queer pause. - -"No!" said Kurt, "I'm going to be killed. I didn't know it before, but -this morning, at dawn, I knew it--as though I'd been told." - -"'Ow?" - -"I tell you I know." - -"But 'ow COULD you know?" - -"I know." - -"Like being told?" - -"Like being certain. - -"I know," he repeated, and for a time they walked in silence towards the -waterfall. - -Kurt, wrapped in his thoughts, walked heedlessly, and at last broke out -again. "I've always felt young before, Smallways, but this morning -I feel old--old. So old! Nearer to death than old men feel. And I've -always thought life was a lark. It isn't.... This sort of thing has -always been happening, I suppose--these things, wars and earthquakes, -that sweep across all the decency of life. It's just as though I had -woke up to it all for the first time. Every night since we were at New -York I've dreamt of it.... And it's always been so--it's the way of -life. People are torn away from the people they care for; homes are -smashed, creatures full of life, and memories, and little peculiar gifts -are scalded and smashed, and torn to pieces, and starved, and spoilt. -London! Berlin! San Francisco! Think of all the human histories we ended -in New York!... And the others go on again as though such things weren't -possible. As I went on! Like animals! Just like animals." - -He said nothing for a long time, and then he dropped out, "The Prince is -a lunatic!" - -They came to a place where they had to climb, and then to a long peat -level beside a rivulet. There a quantity of delicate little pink flowers -caught Bert's eye. "Gaw!" he said, and stooped to pick one. "In a place -like this." - -Kurt stopped and half turned. His face winced. - -"I never see such a flower," said Bert. "It's so delicate." - -"Pick some more if you want to," said Kurt. - -Bert did so, while Kurt stood and watched him. - -"Funny 'ow one always wants to pick flowers," said Bert. - -Kurt had nothing to add to that. - -They went on again, without talking, for a long time. - -At last they came to a rocky hummock, from which the view of the -waterfall opened out. There Kurt stopped and seated himself on a rock. - -"That's as much as I wanted to see," he explained. "It isn't very like, -but it's like enough." - -"Like what?" - -"Another waterfall I knew." - -He asked a question abruptly. "Got a girl, Smallways?" - -"Funny thing," said Bert, "those flowers, I suppose.--I was jes' -thinking of 'er." - -"So was I." - -"WHAT! Edna?" - -"No. I was thinking of MY Edna. We've all got Ednas, I suppose, for our -imaginations to play about. This was a girl. But all that's past for -ever. It's hard to think I can't see her just for a minute--just let her -know I'm thinking of her." - -"Very likely," said Bert, "you'll see 'er all right." - -"No," said Kurt with decision, "I KNOW." - -"I met her," he went on, "in a place like this--in the Alps--Engstlen -Alp. There's a waterfall rather like this one--a broad waterfall down -towards Innertkirchen. That's why I came here this morning. We slipped -away and had half a day together beside it. And we picked flowers. Just -such flowers as you picked. The same for all I know. And gentian." - -"I know" said Bert, "me and Edna--we done things like that. Flowers. And -all that. Seems years off now." - -"She was beautiful and daring and shy, Mein Gott! I can hardly hold -myself for the desire to see her and hear her voice again before I -die. Where is she?... Look here, Smallways, I shall write a sort of -letter--And there's her portrait." He touched his breast pocket. - -"You'll see 'er again all right," said Bert. - -"No! I shall never see her again.... I don't understand why people -should meet just to be torn apart. But I know she and I will never meet -again. That I know as surely as that the sun will rise, and that cascade -come shining over the rocks after I am dead and done.... Oh! It's -all foolishness and haste and violence and cruel folly, stupidity and -blundering hate and selfish ambition--all the things that men have -done--all the things they will ever do. Gott! Smallways, what a muddle -and confusion life has always been--the battles and massacres and -disasters, the hates and harsh acts, the murders and sweatings, the -lynchings and cheatings. This morning I am tired of it all, as though -I'd just found it out for the first time. I HAVE found it out. When a -man is tired of life, I suppose it is time for him to die. I've lost -heart, and death is over me. Death is close to me, and I know I have -got to end. But think of all the hopes I had only a little time ago, -the sense of fine beginnings!... It was all a sham. There were no -beginnings.... We're just ants in ant-hill cities, in a world that -doesn't matter; that goes on and rambles into nothingness. New York--New -York doesn't even strike me as horrible. New York was nothing but an -ant-hill kicked to pieces by a fool! - -"Think of it, Smallways: there's war everywhere! They're smashing up -their civilisation before they have made it. The sort of thing the -English did at Alexandria, the Japanese at Port Arthur, the French at -Casablanca, is going on everywhere. Everywhere! Down in South America -even they are fighting among themselves! No place is safe--no place is -at peace. There is no place where a woman and her daughter can hide and -be at peace. The war comes through the air, bombs drop in the night. -Quiet people go out in the morning, and see air-fleets passing -overhead--dripping death--dripping death!" - - - -CHAPTER VIII. A WORLD AT WAR - -1 - -It was only very slowly that Bert got hold of this idea that the -whole world was at war, that he formed any image at all of the crowded -countries south of these Arctic solitudes stricken with terror and -dismay as these new-born aerial navies swept across their skies. He -was not used to thinking of the world as a whole, but as a limitless -hinterland of happenings beyond the range of his immediate vision. War -in his imagination was something, a source of news and emotion, that -happened in a restricted area, called the Seat of War. But now the whole -atmosphere was the Seat of War, and every land a cockpit. So closely had -the nations raced along the path of research and invention, so secret -and yet so parallel had been their plans and acquisitions, that it was -within a few hours of the launching of the first fleet in Franconia -that an Asiatic Armada beat its west-ward way across, high above the -marvelling millions in the plain of the Ganges. But the preparations -of the Confederation of Eastern Asia had been on an altogether more -colossal scale than the German. "With this step," said Tan Ting-siang, -"we overtake and pass the West. We recover the peace of the world that -these barbarians have destroyed." - -Their secrecy and swiftness and inventions had far surpassed those of -the Germans, and where the Germans had had a hundred men at work the -Asiatics had ten thousand. There came to their great aeronautic parks -at Chinsi-fu and Tsingyen by the mono-rails that now laced the whole -surface of China a limitless supply of skilled and able workmen, workmen -far above the average European in industrial efficiency. The news of the -German World Surprise simply quickened their efforts. At the time of the -bombardment of New York it is doubtful if the Germans had three hundred -airships all together in the world; the score of Asiatic fleets flying -east and west and south must have numbered several thousand. Moreover -the Asiatics had a real fighting flying-machine, the Niais as they were -called, a light but quite efficient weapon, infinitely superior to the -German drachenflieger. Like that, it was a one-man machine, but it -was built very lightly of steel and cane and chemical silk, with a -transverse engine, and a flapping sidewing. The aeronaut carried a gun -firing explosive bullets loaded with oxygen, and in addition, and true -to the best tradition of Japan, a sword. Mostly they were Japanese, and -it is characteristic that from the first it was contemplated that the -aeronaut should be a swordsman. The wings of these flyers had bat-like -hooks forward, by which they were to cling to their antagonist's -gas-chambers while boarding him. These light flying-machines were -carried with the fleets, and also sent overland or by sea to the front -with the men. They were capable of flights of from two to five hundred -miles according to the wind. - -So, hard upon the uprush of the first German air-fleet, these Asiatic -swarms took to the atmosphere. Instantly every organised Government in -the world was frantically and vehemently building airships and whatever -approach to a flying machine its inventors' had discovered. There was no -time for diplomacy. Warnings and ultimatums were telegraphed to and fro, -and in a few hours all the panic-fierce world was openly at war, and at -war in the most complicated way. For Britain and France and Italy had -declared war upon Germany and outraged Swiss neutrality; India, at the -sight of Asiatic airships, had broken into a Hindoo insurrection -in Bengal and a Mohametan revolt hostile to this in the North-west -Provinces--the latter spreading like wildfire from Gobi to the Gold -Coast--and the Confederation of Eastern Asia had seized the oil wells of -Burmha and was impartially attacking America and Germany. In a week they -were building airships in Damascus and Cairo and Johannesburg; Australia -and New Zealand were frantically equipping themselves. One unique and -terrifying aspect of this development was the swiftness with which these -monsters could be produced. To build an ironclad took from two to four -years; an airship could be put together in as many weeks. Moreover, -compared with even a torpedo boat, the airship was remarkably simple to -construct, given the air-chamber material, the engines, the gas plant, -and the design, it was really not more complicated and far easier than -an ordinary wooden boat had been a hundred years before. And now from -Cape Horn to Nova Zembla, and from Canton round to Canton again, there -were factories and workshops and industrial resources. - -And the German airships were barely in sight of the Atlantic waters, the -first Asiatic fleet was scarcely reported from Upper Burmah, before the -fantastic fabric of credit and finance that had held the world together -economically for a hundred years strained and snapped. A tornado of -realisation swept through every stock exchange in the world; banks -stopped payment, business shrank and ceased, factories ran on for a -day or so by a sort of inertia, completing the orders of bankrupt and -extinguished customers, then stopped. The New York Bert Smallways saw, -for all its glare of light and traffic, was in the pit of an economic -and financial collapse unparalleled in history. The flow of the food -supply was already a little checked. And before the world-war had lasted -two weeks--by the time, that is, that mast was rigged in Labrador--there -was not a city or town in the world outside China, however far from -the actual centres of destruction, where police and government were not -adopting special emergency methods to deal with a want of food and a -glut of unemployed people. - -The special peculiarities of aerial warfare were of such a nature as -to trend, once it had begun, almost inevitably towards social -disorganisation. The first of these peculiarities was brought home -to the Germans in their attack upon New York; the immense power of -destruction an airship has over the thing below, and its relative -inability to occupy or police or guard or garrison a surrendered -position. Necessarily, in the face of urban populations in a state -of economic disorganisation and infuriated and starving, this led to -violent and destructive collisions, and even where the air-fleet floated -inactive above, there would be civil conflict and passionate disorder -below. Nothing comparable to this state of affairs had been known in -the previous history of warfare, unless we take such a case as that of -a nineteenth century warship attacking some large savage or barbaric -settlement, or one of those naval bombardments that disfigure the -history of Great Britain in the late eighteenth century. Then, indeed, -there had been cruelties and destruction that faintly foreshadowed the -horrors of the aerial war. Moreover, before the twentieth century the -world had had but one experience, and that a comparatively light one, -in the Communist insurrection of Paris, 1871, of the possibilities of a -modern urban population under warlike stresses. - -A second peculiarity of airship war as it first came to the world that -also made for social collapse, was the ineffectiveness of the early -air-ships against each other. Upon anything below they could rain -explosives in the most deadly fashion, forts and ships and cities lay at -their mercy, but unless they were prepared for a suicidal grapple they -could do remarkably little mischief to each other. The armament of the -huge German airships, big as the biggest mammoth liners afloat, was one -machine gun that could easily have been packed up on a couple of mules. -In addition, when it became evident that the air must be fought for, the -air-sailors were provided with rifles with explosive bullets of oxygen -or inflammable substance, but no airship at any time ever carried as -much in the way of guns and armour as the smallest gunboat on the navy -list had been accustomed to do. Consequently, when these monsters met in -battle, they manoeuvred for the upper place, or grappled and fought like -junks, throwing grenades fighting hand to hand in an entirely medieval -fashion. The risks of a collapse and fall on either side came near to -balancing in every case the chances of victory. As a consequence, and -after their first experiences of battle, one finds a growing tendency on -the part of the air-fleet admirals to evade joining battle, and to seek -rather the moral advantage of a destructive counter attack. - -And if the airships were too ineffective, the early drachenflieger were -either too unstable, like the German, or too light, like the Japanese, -to produce immediately decisive results. Later, it is true, the -Brazilians launched a flying-machine of a type and scale that was -capable of dealing with an airship, but they built only three or four, -they operated only in South America, and they vanished from history -untraceably in the time when world-bankruptcy put a stop to all further -engineering production on any considerable scale. - -The third peculiarity of aerial warfare was that it was at once -enormously destructive and entirely indecisive. It had this unique -feature, that both sides lay open to punitive attack. In all previous -forms of war, both by land and sea, the losing side was speedily unable -to raid its antagonist's territory and the communications. One fought -on a "front," and behind that front the winner's supplies and resources, -his towns and factories and capital, the peace of his country, were -secure. If the war was a naval one, you destroyed your enemy's battle -fleet and then blockaded his ports, secured his coaling stations, and -hunted down any stray cruisers that threatened your ports of commerce. -But to blockade and watch a coastline is one thing, to blockade and -watch the whole surface of a country is another, and cruisers and -privateers are things that take long to make, that cannot be packed up -and hidden and carried unostentatiously from point to point. In aerial -war the stronger side, even supposing it destroyed the main battle fleet -of the weaker, had then either to patrol and watch or destroy every -possible point at which he might produce another and perhaps a novel and -more deadly form of flyer. It meant darkening his air with airships. It -meant building them by the thousand and making aeronauts by the hundred -thousand. A small uninitated airship could be hidden in a railway -shed, in a village street, in a wood; a flying machine is even less -conspicuous. - -And in the air are no streets, no channels, no point where one can -say of an antagonist, "If he wants to reach my capital he must come by -here." In the air all directions lead everywhere. - -Consequently it was impossible to end a war by any of the established -methods. A, having outnumbered and overwhelmed B, hovers, a thousand -airships strong, over his capital, threatening to bombard it unless B -submits. B replies by wireless telegraphy that he is now in the act of -bombarding the chief manufacturing city of A by means of three raider -airships. A denounces B's raiders as pirates and so forth, bombards B's -capital, and sets off to hunt down B's airships, while B, in a state of -passionate emotion and heroic unconquerableness, sets to work amidst his -ruins, making fresh airships and explosives for the benefit of A. -The war became perforce a universal guerilla war, a war inextricably -involving civilians and homes and all the apparatus of social life. - -These aspects of aerial fighting took the world by surprise. There had -been no foresight to deduce these consequences. If there had been, the -world would have arranged for a Universal Peace Conference in 1900. -But mechanical invention had gone faster than intellectual and social -organisation, and the world, with its silly old flags, its silly -unmeaning tradition of nationality, its cheap newspapers and cheaper -passions and imperialisms, its base commercial motives and habitual -insincerities and vulgarities, its race lies and conflicts, was taken by -surprise. Once the war began there was no stopping it. The flimsy fabric -of credit that had grown with no man foreseeing, and that had held those -hundreds of millions in an economic interdependence that no man clearly -understood, dissolved in panic. Everywhere went the airships dropping -bombs, destroying any hope of a rally, and everywhere below were -economic catastrophe, starving workless people, rioting, and social -disorder. Whatever constructive guiding intelligence there had been -among the nations vanished in the passionate stresses of the time. Such -newspapers and documents and histories as survive from this period -all tell one universal story of towns and cities with the food supply -interrupted and their streets congested with starving unemployed; of -crises in administration and states of siege, of provisional Governments -and Councils of Defence, and, in the cases of India and Egypt, -insurrectionary committees taking charge of the re-arming of the -population, of the making of batteries and gun-pits, of the vehement -manufacture of airships and flying-machines. - -One sees these things in glimpses, in illuminated moments, as if through -a driving reek of clouds, going on all over the world. It was the -dissolution of an age; it was the collapse of the civilisation that -had trusted to machinery, and the instruments of its destruction were -machines. But while the collapse of the previous great civilisation, -that of Rome, had been a matter of centuries, had been a thing of phase -and phase, like the ageing and dying of a man, this, like his killing by -railway or motor car, was one swift, conclusive smashing and an end. - -2 - -The early battles of the aerial war were no doubt determined by attempts -to realise the old naval maxim, to ascertain the position of the enemy's -fleet and to destroy it. There was first the battle of the Bernese -Oberland, in which the Italian and French navigables in their flank -raid upon the Franconian Park were assailed by the Swiss experimental -squadron, supported as the day wore on by German airships, and then -the encounter of the British Winterhouse-Dunn aeroplanes with three -unfortunate Germans. - -Then came the Battle of North India, in which the entire Anglo-Indian -aeronautic settlement establishment fought for three days against -overwhelming odds, and was dispersed and destroyed in detail. - -And simultaneously with the beginning of that, commenced the momentous -struggle of the Germans and Asiatics that is usually known as the Battle -of Niagara because of the objective of the Asiatic attack. But it passed -gradually into a sporadic conflict over half a continent. Such German -airships as escaped destruction in battle descended and surrendered to -the Americans, and were re-manned, and in the end it became a series of -pitiless and heroic encounters between the Americans, savagely resolved -to exterminate their enemies, and a continually reinforced army of -invasion from Asia quartered upon the Pacific slope and supported by -an immense fleet. From the first the war in America was fought with -implacable bitterness; no quarter was asked, no prisoners were taken. -With ferocious and magnificent energy the Americans constructed and -launched ship after ship to battle and perish against the Asiatic -multitudes. All other affairs were subordinate to this war, the whole -population was presently living or dying for it. Presently, as I shall -tell, the white men found in the Butteridge machine a weapon that could -meet and fight the flying-machines of the Asiatic swordsman. - -The Asiatic invasion of America completely effaced the German-American -conflict. It vanishes from history. At first it had seemed to promise -quite sufficient tragedy in itself--beginning as it did in unforgettable -massacre. After the destruction of central New York all America had -risen like one man, resolved to die a thousand deaths rather than submit -to Germany. The Germans grimly resolved upon beating the Americans into -submission and, following out the plans developed by the Prince, had -seized Niagara--in order to avail themselves of its enormous powerworks; -expelled all its inhabitants and made a desert of its environs as far as -Buffalo. They had also, directly Great Britain and France declare war, -wrecked the country upon the Canadian side for nearly ten miles inland. -They began to bring up men and material from the fleet off the east -coast, stringing out to and fro like bees getting honey. It was then -that the Asiatic forces appeared, and it was in their attack upon this -German base at Niagara that the air-fleets of East and West first met -and the greater issue became clear. - -One conspicuous peculiarity of the early aerial fighting arose from the -profound secrecy with which the airships had been prepared. Each power -had had but the dimmest inkling of the schemes of its rivals, and even -experiments with its own devices were limited by the needs of secrecy. -None of the designers of airships and aeroplanes had known clearly what -their inventions might have to fight; many had not imagined they would -have to fight anything whatever in the air; and had planned them only -for the dropping of explosives. Such had been the German idea. The only -weapon for fighting another airship with which the Franconian fleet had -been provided was the machine gun forward. Only after the fight over -New York were the men given short rifles with detonating bullets. -Theoretically, the drachenflieger were to have been the fighting weapon. -They were declared to be aerial torpedo-boats, and the aeronaut was -supposed to swoop close to his antagonist and cast his bombs as he -whirled past. But indeed these contrivances were hopelessly unstable; -not one-third in any engagement succeeded in getting back to the mother -airship. The rest were either smashed up or grounded. - -The allied Chino-Japanese fleet made the same distinction as the Germans -between airships and fighting machines heavier than air, but the type in -both cases was entirely different from the occidental models, and--it -is eloquent of the vigour with which these great peoples took up and -bettered the European methods of scientific research in almost every -particular the invention of Asiatic engineers. Chief among these, it -is worth remarking, was Mohini K. Chatterjee, a political exile who had -formerly served in the British-Indian aeronautic park at Lahore. - -The German airship was fish-shaped, with a blunted head; the Asiatic -airship was also fish-shaped, but not so much on the lines of a cod or -goby as of a ray or sole. It had a wide, flat underside, unbroken by -windows or any opening except along the middle line. Its cabins occupied -its axis, with a sort of bridge deck above, and the gas-chambers gave -the whole affair the shape of a gipsy's hooped tent, except that it was -much flatter. The German airship was essentially a navigable balloon -very much lighter than air; the Asiatic airship was very little lighter -than air and skimmed through it with much greater velocity if with -considerably less stability. They carried fore and aft guns, the latter -much the larger, throwing inflammatory shells, and in addition they had -nests for riflemen on both the upper and the under side. Light as this -armament was in comparison with the smallest gunboat that ever sailed, -it was sufficient for them to outfight as well as outfly the German -monster airships. In action they flew to get behind or over the Germans: -they even dashed underneath, avoiding only passing immediately beneath -the magazine, and then as soon as they had crossed let fly with their -rear gun, and sent flares or oxygen shells into the antagonist's -gas-chambers. - -It was not in their airships, but, as I have said, in their -flying-machines proper, that the strength of the Asiatics lay. Next -only to the Butteridge machine, these were certainly the most efficient -heavier-than-air fliers that had ever appeared. They were the invention -of a Japanese artist, and they differed in type extremely from the -box-kite quality of the German drachenflieger. They had curiously -curved, flexible side wings, more like BENT butterfly's wings than -anything else, and made of a substance like celluloid and of brightly -painted silk, and they had a long humming-bird tail. At the forward -corner of the wings were hooks, rather like the claws of a bat, by which -the machine could catch and hang and tear at the walls of an airship's -gas-chamber. The solitary rider sat between the wings above a transverse -explosive engine, an explosive engine that differed in no essential -particular from those in use in the light motor bicycles of the period. -Below was a single large wheel. The rider sat astride of a saddle, as in -the Butteridge machine, and he carried a large double-edged two-handed -sword, in addition to his explosive-bullet firing rifle. - -3 - -One sets down these particulars and compares the points of the American -and German pattern of aeroplane and navigable, but none of these facts -were clearly known to any of those who fought in this monstrously -confused battle above the American great lakes. - -Each side went into action against it knew not what, under novel -conditions and with apparatus that even without hostile attacks was -capable of producing the most disconcerting surprises. Schemes of -action, attempts at collective manoeuvring necessarily went to pieces -directly the fight began, just as they did in almost all the early -ironclad battles of the previous century. Each captain then had to fall -back upon individual action and his own devices; one would see triumph -in what another read as a cue for flight and despair. It is as true of -the Battle of Niagara as of the Battle of Lissa that it was not a battle -but a bundle of "battlettes"! - -To such a spectator as Bert it presented itself as a series of -incidents, some immense, some trivial, but collectively incoherent. He -never had a sense of any plain issue joined, of any point struggled -for and won or lost. He saw tremendous things happen and in the end his -world darkened to disaster and ruin. - -He saw the battle from the ground, from Prospect Park and from Goat -Island, whither he fled. - -But the manner in which he came to be on the ground needs explaining. - -The Prince had resumed command of his fleet through wireless telegraphy -long before the Zeppelin had located his encampment in Labrador. By his -direction the German air-fleet, whose advance scouts had been in contact -with the Japanese over the Rocky Mountains, had concentrated upon -Niagara and awaited his arrival. He had rejoined his command early in -the morning of the twelfth, and Bert had his first prospect of the Gorge -of Niagara while he was doing net drill outside the middle gas-chamber -at sunrise. The Zeppelin was flying very high at the time, and far below -he saw the water in the gorge marbled with froth and then away to the -west the great crescent of the Canadian Fall shining, flickering and -foaming in the level sunlight and sending up a deep, incessant thudding -rumble to the sky. The air-fleet was keeping station in an enormous -crescent, with its horns pointing south-westward, a long array of -shining monsters with tails rotating slowly and German ensigns now -trailing from their bellies aft of their Marconi pendants. - -Niagara city was still largely standing then, albeit its streets were -empty of all life. Its bridges were intact; its hotels and restaurants -still flying flags and inviting sky signs; its power-stations running. -But about it the country on both sides of the gorge might have been -swept by a colossal broom. Everything that could possibly give cover -to an attack upon the German position at Niagara had been levelled as -ruthlessly as machinery and explosives could contrive; houses blown up -and burnt, woods burnt, fences and crops destroyed. The mono-rails had -been torn up, and the roads in particular cleared of all possibility of -concealment or shelter. Seen from above, the effect of this wreckage was -grotesque. Young woods had been destroyed whole-sale by dragging wires, -and the spoilt saplings, smashed or uprooted, lay in swathes like corn -after the sickle. Houses had an appearance of being flattened down by -the pressure of a gigantic finger. Much burning was still going on, and -large areas had been reduced to patches of smouldering and sometimes -still glowing blackness. - -Here and there lay the debris of belated fugitives, carts, and dead -bodies of horses and men; and where houses had had water-supplies there -were pools of water and running springs from the ruptured pipes. In -unscorched fields horses and cattle still fed peacefully. Beyond this -desolated area the countryside was still standing, but almost all the -people had fled. Buffalo was on fire to an enormous extent, and there -were no signs of any efforts to grapple with the flames. Niagara city -itself was being rapidly converted to the needs of a military depot. -A large number of skilled engineers had already been brought from the -fleet and were busily at work adapting the exterior industrial apparatus -of the place to the purposes of an aeronautic park. They had made a -gas recharging station at the corner of the American Fall above the -funicular railway, and they were, opening up a much larger area to -the south for the same purpose. Over the power-houses and hotels and -suchlike prominent or important points the German flag was flying. - -The Zeppelin circled slowly over this scene twice while the Prince -surveyed it from the swinging gallery; it then rose towards the centre -of the crescent and transferred the Prince and his suite, Kurt included, -to the Hohenzollern, which had been chosen as the flagship during the -impending battle. They were swung up on a small cable from the forward -gallery, and the men of the Zeppelin manned the outer netting as the -Prince and his staff left them. The Zeppelin then came about, circled -down and grounded in Prospect Park, in order to land the wounded and -take aboard explosives; for she had come to Labrador with her magazines -empty, it being uncertain what weight she might need to carry. She -also replenished the hydrogen in one of her forward chambers which had -leaked. - -Bert was detailed as a bearer and helped carry the wounded one by one -into the nearest of the large hotels that faced the Canadian shore. The -hotel was quite empty except that there were two trained American nurses -and a negro porter, and three or four Germans awaiting them. Bert went -with the Zeppelin's doctor into the main street of the place, and they -broke into a drug shop and obtained various things of which they stood -in need. As they returned they found an officer and two men making a -rough inventory of the available material in the various stores. Except -for them the wide, main street of the town was quite deserted, the -people had been given three hours to clear out, and everybody, -it seemed, had done so. At one corner a dead man lay against the -wall--shot. Two or three dogs were visible up the empty vista, but -towards its river end the passage of a string of mono-rail cars broke -the stillness and the silence. They were loaded with hose, and were -passing to the trainful of workers who were converting Prospect Park -into an airship dock. - -Bert pushed a case of medicine balanced on a bicycle taken from an -adjacent shop, to the hotel, and then he was sent to load bombs into the -Zeppelin magazine, a duty that called for elaborate care. From this job -he was presently called off by the captain of the Zeppelin, who sent -him with a note to the officer in charge of the Anglo-American Power -Company, for the field telephone had still to be adjusted. Bert received -his instructions in German, whose meaning he guessed, and saluted and -took the note, not caring to betray his ignorance of the language. He -started off with a bright air of knowing his way and turned a corner or -so, and was only beginning to suspect that he did not know where he was -going when his attention was recalled to the sky by the report of a gun -from the Hohenzollern and celestial cheering. - -He looked up and found the view obstructed by the houses on either side -of the street. He hesitated, and then curiosity took him back towards -the bank of the river. Here his view was inconvenienced by trees, and -it was with a start that he discovered the Zeppelin, which he knew had -still a quarter of her magazines to fill, was rising over Goat Island. -She had not waited for her complement of ammunition. It occurred to him -that he was left behind. He ducked back among the trees and bushes until -he felt secure from any after-thought on the part of the Zeppelin's -captain. Then his curiosity to see what the German air-fleet faced -overcame him, and drew him at last halfway across the bridge to Goat -Island. - -From that point he had nearly a hemisphere of sky and got his first -glimpse of the Asiatic airships low in the sky above the glittering -tumults of the Upper Rapids. - -They were far less impressive than the German ships. He could not -judge the distance, and they flew edgeways to him, so as to conceal the -broader aspect of their bulk. - -Bert stood there in the middle of the bridge, in a place that most -people who knew it remembered as a place populous with sightseers and -excursionists, and he was the only human being in sight there. Above -him, very high in the heavens, the contending air-fleets manoeuvred; -below him the river seethed like a sluice towards the American Fall. He -was curiously dressed. His cheap blue serge trousers were thrust into -German airship rubber boots, and on his head he wore an aeronaut's white -cap that was a trifle too large for him. He thrust that back to reveal -his staring little Cockney face, still scarred upon the brow. "Gaw!" he -whispered. - -He stared. He gesticulated. Once or twice he shouted and applauded. - -Then at a certain point terror seized him and he took to his heels in -the direction of Goat Island. - -4 - -For a time after they were in sight of each other, neither fleet -attempted to engage. The Germans numbered sixty-seven great airships -and they maintained the crescent formation at a height of nearly four -thousand feet. They kept a distance of about one and a half lengths, so -that the horns of the crescent were nearly thirty miles apart. Closely -in tow of the airships of the extreme squadrons on either wing were -about thirty drachenflieger ready manned, but these were too small and -distant for Bert to distinguish. - -At first, only what was called the Southern fleet of the Asiatics was -visible to him. It consisted of forty airships, carrying all together -nearly four hundred one-man flying-machines upon their flanks, and for -some time it flew slowly and at a minimum distance of perhaps a dozen -miles from the Germans, eastward across their front. At first Bert -could distinguish only the greater bulks, then he perceived the one-man -machines as a multitude of very small objects drifting like motes in the -sunshine about and beneath the larger shapes. - -Bert saw nothing then of the second fleet of the Asiatics, though -probably that was coming into sight of the Germans at the time, in the -north-west. - -The air was very still, the sky almost without a cloud, and the German -fleet had risen to an immense height, so that the airships seemed no -longer of any considerable size. Both ends of their crescent showed -plainly. As they beat southward they passed slowly between Bert and the -sunlight, and became black outlines of themselves. The drachenflieger -appeared as little flecks of black on either wing of this aerial Armada. - -The two fleets seemed in no hurry to engage. The Asiatics went far away -into the east, quickening their pace and rising as they did so, and then -tailed out into a long column and came flying back, rising towards the -German left. The squadrons of the latter came about, facing this oblique -advance, and suddenly little flickerings and a faint crepitating sound -told that they had opened fire. For a time no effect was visible to -the watcher on the bridge. Then, like a handful of snowflakes, the -drachenflieger swooped to the attack, and a multitude of red specks -whirled up to meet them. It was to Bert's sense not only enormously -remote but singularly inhuman. Not four hours since he had been on one -of those very airships, and yet they seemed to him now not gas-bags -carrying men, but strange sentient creatures that moved about and did -things with a purpose of their own. The flight of the Asiatic and German -flying-machines joined and dropped earthward, became like a handful -of white and red rose petals flung from a distant window, grew larger, -until Bert could see the overturned ones spinning through the air, -and were hidden by great volumes of dark smoke that were rising in the -direction of Buffalo. For a time they all were hidden, then two or three -white and a number of red ones rose again into the sky, like a swarm of -big butterflies, and circled fighting and drove away out of sight again -towards the east. - -A heavy report recalled Bert's eyes to the zenith, and behold, the great -crescent had lost its dressing and burst into a disorderly long cloud of -airships! One had dropped halfway down the sky. It was flaming fore and -aft, and even as Bert looked it turned over and fell, spinning over and -over itself and vanished into the smoke of Buffalo. - -Bert's mouth opened and shut, and he clutched tighter on the rail of -the bridge. For some moments--they seemed long moments--the two fleets -remained without any further change flying obliquely towards each other, -and making what came to Bert's ears as a midget uproar. Then suddenly -from either side airships began dropping out of alignment, smitten by -missiles he could neither see nor trace. The string of Asiatic ships -swung round and either charged into or over (it was difficult to say -from below) the shattered line of the Germans, who seemed to open out -to give way to them. Some sort of manoeuvring began, but Bert could -not grasp its import. The left of the battle became a confused dance -of airships. For some minutes up there the two crossing lines of ships -looked so close it seemed like a hand-to-hand scuffle in the sky. Then -they broke up into groups and duels. The descent of German air-ships -towards the lower sky increased. One of them flared down and vanished -far away in the north; two dropped with something twisted and crippled -in their movements; then a group of antagonists came down from the -zenith in an eddying conflict, two Asiatics against one German, and were -presently joined by another, and drove away eastward all together with -others dropping out of the German line to join them. - -One Asiatic either rammed or collided with a still more gigantic German, -and the two went spinning to destruction together. The northern squadron -of Asiatics came into the battle unnoted by Bert, except that the -multitude of ships above seemed presently increased. In a little while -the fight was utter confusion, drifting on the whole to the southwest -against the wind. It became more and more a series of group encounters. -Here a huge German airship flamed earthward with a dozen flat Asiatic -craft about her, crushing her every attempt to recover. Here another -hung with its screw fighting off the swordsman from a swarm of -flying-machines. Here, again, an Asiatic aflame at either end swooped -out of the battle. His attention went from incident to incident in the -vast clearness overhead; these conspicuous cases of destruction caught -and held his mind; it was only very slowly that any sort of scheme -manifested itself between those nearer, more striking episodes. - -The mass of the airships that eddied remotely above was, however, -neither destroying nor destroyed. The majority of them seemed to -be going at full speed and circling upward for position, exchanging -ineffectual shots as they did so. Very little ramming was essayed after -the first tragic downfall of rammer and rammed, and what ever attempts -at boarding were made were invisible to Bert. There seemed, however, -a steady attempt to isolate antagonists, to cut them off from their -fellows and bear them down, causing a perpetual sailing back and -interlacing of these shoaling bulks. The greater numbers of the Asiatics -and their swifter heeling movements gave them the effect of persistently -attacking the Germans. Overhead, and evidently endeavouring to keep -itself in touch with the works of Niagara, a body of German airships -drew itself together into a compact phalanx, and the Asiatics became -more and more intent upon breaking this up. He was grotesquely reminded -of fish in a fish-pond struggling for crumbs. He could see puny puffs of -smoke and the flash of bombs, but never a sound came down to him.... - -A flapping shadow passed for a moment between Bert and the sun and was -followed by another. A whirring of engines, click, clock, clitter clock, -smote upon his ears. Instantly he forgot the zenith. - -Perhaps a hundred yards above the water, out of the south, riding like -Valkyries swiftly through the air on the strange steeds the engineering -of Europe had begotten upon the artistic inspiration of Japan, came -a long string of Asiatic swordsman. The wings flapped jerkily, click, -block, clitter clock, and the machines drove up; they spread and ceased, -and the apparatus came soaring through the air. So they rose and fell -and rose again. They passed so closely overhead that Bert could hear -their voices calling to one another. They swooped towards Niagara city -and landed one after another in a long line in a clear space before -the hotel. But he did not stay to watch them land. One yellow face had -craned over and looked at him, and for one enigmatical instant met his -eyes.... - -It was then the idea came to Bert that he was altogether too conspicuous -in the middle of the bridge, and that he took to his heels towards Goat -Island. Thence, dodging about among the trees, with perhaps an excessive -self-consciousness, he watched the rest of the struggle. - -5 - -When Bert's sense of security was sufficiently restored for him to watch -the battle again, he perceived that a brisk little fight was in -progress between the Asiatic aeronauts and the German engineers for the -possession of Niagara city. It was the first time in the whole course of -the war that he had seen anything resembling fighting as he had studied -it in the illustrated papers of his youth. It seemed to him almost as -though things were coming right. He saw men carrying rifles and taking -cover and running briskly from point to point in a loose attacking -formation. The first batch of aeronauts had probably been under the -impression that the city was deserted. They had grounded in the open -near Prospect Park and approached the houses towards the power-works -before they were disillusioned by a sudden fire. They had scattered back -to the cover of a bank near the water--it was too far for them to reach -their machines again; they were lying and firing at the men in the -hotels and frame-houses about the power-works. - -Then to their support came a second string of red flying-machines -driving up from the east. They rose up out of the haze above the houses -and came round in a long curve as if surveying the position below. The -fire of the Germans rose to a roar, and one of those soaring shapes gave -an abrupt jerk backward and fell among the houses. The others swooped -down exactly like great birds upon the roof of the power-house. They -caught upon it, and from each sprang a nimble little figure and ran -towards the parapet. - -Other flapping bird-shapes came into this affair, but Bert had not seen -their coming. A staccato of shots came over to him, reminding him of -army manoeuvres, of newspaper descriptions of fights, of all that was -entirely correct in his conception of warfare. He saw quite a number of -Germans running from the outlying houses towards the power-house. Two -fell. One lay still, but the other wriggled and made efforts for a time. -The hotel that was used as a hospital, and to which he had helped carry -the wounded men from the Zeppelin earlier in the day, suddenly ran up -the Geneva flag. The town that had seemed so quiet had evidently -been concealing a considerable number of Germans, and they were -now concentrating to hold the central power-house. He wondered what -ammunition they might have. More and more of the Asiatic flying-machines -came into the conflict. They had disposed of the unfortunate German -drachenflieger and were now aiming at the incipient aeronautic -park,--the electric gas generators and repair stations which formed -the German base. Some landed, and their aeronauts took cover and became -energetic infantry soldiers. Others hovered above the fight, their men -ever and again firing shots down at some chance exposure below. The -firing came in paroxysms; now there would be a watchful lull and now a -rapid tattoo of shots, rising to a roar. Once or twice flying machines, -as they circled warily, came right overhead, and for a time Bert gave -himself body and soul to cowering. - -Ever and again a larger thunder mingled with the rattle and reminded -him of the grapple of airships far above, but the nearer fight held his -attention. - -Abruptly something dropped from the zenith; something like a barrel or a -huge football. - -CRASH! It smashed with an immense report. It had fallen among the -grounded Asiatic aeroplanes that lay among the turf and flower-beds near -the river. They flew in scraps and fragments, turf, trees, and gravel -leapt and fell; the aeronauts still lying along the canal bank were -thrown about like sacks, catspaws flew across the foaming water. All the -windows of the hotel hospital that had been shiningly reflecting blue -sky and airships the moment before became vast black stars. Bang!--a -second followed. Bert looked up and was filled with a sense of a number -of monstrous bodies swooping down, coming down on the whole affair like -a flight of bellying blankets, like a string of vast dish-covers. The -central tangle of the battle above was circling down as if to come -into touch with the power-house fight. He got a new effect of airships -altogether, as vast things coming down upon him, growing swiftly larger -and larger and more overwhelming, until the houses over the way seemed -small, the American rapids narrow, the bridge flimsy, the combatants -infinitesimal. As they came down they became audible as a complex of -shootings and vast creakings and groanings and beatings and throbbings -and shouts and shots. The fore-shortened black eagles at the fore-ends -of the Germans had an effect of actual combat of flying feathers. - -Some of these fighting airships came within five hundred feet of the -ground. Bert could see men on the lower galleries of the Germans, -firing rifles; could see Asiatics clinging to the ropes; saw one man -in aluminium diver's gear fall flashing headlong into the waters above -Goat Island. For the first time he saw the Asiatic airships closely. -From this aspect they reminded him more than anything else of colossal -snowshoes; they had a curious patterning in black and white, in forms -that reminded him of the engine-turned cover of a watch. They had no -hanging galleries, but from little openings on the middle line peeped -out men and the muzzles of guns. So, driving in long, descending and -ascending curves, these monsters wrestled and fought. It was like clouds -fighting, like puddings trying to assassinate each other. They whirled -and circled about each other, and for a time threw Goat Island and -Niagara into a smoky twilight, through which the sunlight smote in -shafts and beams. They spread and closed and spread and grappled and -drove round over the rapids, and two miles away or more into Canada, -and back over the Falls again. A German caught fire, and the whole crowd -broke away from her flare and rose about her dispersing, leaving her to -drop towards Canada and blow up as she dropped. Then with renewed uproar -the others closed again. Once from the men in Niagara city came a sound -like an ant-hill cheering. Another German burnt, and one badly deflated -by the prow of an antagonist, flopped out of action southward. - -It became more and more evident that the Germans were getting the -worst of the unequal fight. More and more obviously were they being -persecuted. Less and less did they seem to fight with any object other -than escape. The Asiatics swept by them and above them, ripped their -bladders, set them alight, picked off their dimly seen men in diving -clothes, who struggled against fire and tear with fire extinguishers and -silk ribbons in the inner netting. They answered only with ineffectual -shots. Thence the battle circled back over Niagara, and then suddenly -the Germans, as if at a preconcerted signal, broke and dispersed, going -east, west, north, and south, in open and confused flight. The Asiatics, -as they realised this, rose to fly above them and after them. Only -one little knot of four Germans and perhaps a dozen Asiatics remained -fighting about the Hohenzollern and the Prince as he circled in a last -attempt to save Niagara. - -Round they swooped once again over the Canadian Fall, over the waste of -waters eastward, until they were distant and small, and then round and -back, hurrying, bounding, swooping towards the one gaping spectator. - -The whole struggling mass approached very swiftly, growing rapidly -larger, and coming out black and featureless against the afternoon sun -and above the blinding welter of the Upper Rapids. It grew like a storm -cloud until once more it darkened the sky. The flat Asiatic airships -kept high above the Germans and behind them, and fired unanswered -bullets into their gas-chambers and upon their flanks--the one-man -flying-machines hovered and alighted like a swarm of attacking bees. -Nearer they came, and nearer, filling the lower heaven. Two of the -Germans swooped and rose again, but the Hohenzollern had suffered too -much for that. She lifted weakly, turned sharply as if to get out of -the battle, burst into flames fore and aft, swept down to the water, -splashed into it obliquely, and rolled over and over and came down -stream rolling and smashing and writhing like a thing alive, halting and -then coming on again, with her torn and bent propeller still beating the -air. The bursting flames spluttered out again in clouds of steam. It was -a disaster gigantic in its dimensions. She lay across the rapids like -an island, like tall cliffs, tall cliffs that came rolling, smoking, and -crumpling, and collapsing, advancing with a sort of fluctuating rapidity -upon Bert. One Asiatic airship--it looked to Bert from below like three -hundred yards of pavement--whirled back and circled two or three times -over that great overthrow, and half a dozen crimson flying-machines -danced for a moment like great midges in the sunlight before they swept -on after their fellows. The rest of the fight had already gone over the -island, a wild crescendo of shots and yells and smashing uproar. It was -hidden from Bert now by the trees of the island, and forgotten by him in -the nearer spectacle of the huge advance of the defeated German airship. -Something fell with a mighty smashing and splintering of boughs unheeded -behind him. - -It seemed for a time that the Hohenzollern must needs break her back -upon the Parting of the Waters, and then for a time her propeller -flopped and frothed in the river and thrust the mass of buckling, -crumpled wreckage towards the American shore. Then the sweep of the -torrent that foamed down to the American Fall caught her, and in another -minute the immense mass of deflating wreckage, with flames spurting out -in three new places, had crashed against the bridge that joined Goat -Island and Niagara city, and forced a long arm, as it were, in a heaving -tangle under the central span. Then the middle chambers blew up with a -loud report, and in another moment the bridge had given way and the main -bulk of the airship, like some grotesque cripple in rags, staggered, -flapping and waving flambeaux to the crest of the Fall and hesitated -there and vanished in a desperate suicidal leap. - -Its detached fore-end remained jammed against that little island, Green -Island it used to be called, which forms the stepping-stone between the -mainland and Goat Island's patch of trees. - -Bert followed this disaster from the Parting of the Waters to the bridge -head. Then, regardless of cover, regardless of the Asiatic airship -hovering like a huge house roof without walls above the Suspension -Bridge, he sprinted along towards the north and came out for the first -time upon that rocky point by Luna Island that looks sheer down upon -the American Fall. There he stood breathless amidst that eternal rush of -sound, breathless and staring. - -Far below, and travelling rapidly down the gorge, whirled something like -a huge empty sack. For him it meant--what did it not mean?--the German -air-fleet, Kurt, the Prince, Europe, all things stable and familiar, -the forces that had brought him, the forces that had seemed indisputably -victorious. And it went down the rapids like an empty sack and left the -visible world to Asia, to yellow people beyond Christendom, to all that -was terrible and strange! - -Remote over Canada receded the rest of that conflict and vanished beyond -the range of his vision.... - - - -CHAPTER IX. ON GOAT ISLAND - -1 - -The whack of a bullet on the rocks beside him reminded him that he was -a visible object and wearing at least portions of a German uniform. It -drove him into the trees again, and for a time he dodged and dropped and -sought cover like a chick hiding among reeds from imaginary hawks. - -"Beaten," he whispered. "Beaten and done for... Chinese! Yellow chaps -chasing 'em!" - -At last he came to rest in a clump of bushes near a locked-up and -deserted refreshment shed within view of the American side. They made -a sort of hole and harbour for him; they met completely overhead. He -looked across the rapids, but the firing had ceased now altogether and -everything seemed quiet. The Asiatic aeroplane had moved from its former -position above the Suspension Bridge, was motionless now above Niagara -city, shadowing all that district about the power-house which had been -the scene of the land fight. The monster had an air of quiet and assured -predominance, and from its stern it trailed, serene and ornamental, a -long streaming flag, the red, black, and yellow of the great alliance, -the Sunrise and the Dragon. Beyond, to the east, at a much higher level, -hung a second consort, and Bert, presently gathering courage, wriggled -out and craned his neck to find another still airship against the sunset -in the south. - -"Gaw!" he said. "Beaten and chased! My Gawd!" - -The fighting, it seemed at first, was quite over in Niagara city, though -a German flag was still flying from one shattered house. A white sheet -was hoisted above the power-house, and this remained flying all through -the events that followed. But presently came a sound of shots and then -German soldiers running. They disappeared among the houses, and then -came two engineers in blue shirts and trousers hotly pursued by three -Japanese swordsman. The foremost of the two fugitives was a shapely man, -and ran lightly and well; the second was a sturdy little man, and rather -fat. He ran comically in leaps and bounds, with his plump arms bent up -by his side and his head thrown back. The pursuers ran with uniforms and -dark thin metal and leather head-dresses. The little man stumbled, and -Bert gasped, realising a new horror in war. - -The foremost swordsman won three strides on him and was near enough to -slash at him and miss as he spurted. - -A dozen yards they ran, and then the swordsman slashed again, and Bert -could hear across the waters a little sound like the moo of an elfin cow -as the fat little man fell forward. Slash went the swordsman and slash -at something on the ground that tried to save itself with ineffectual -hands. "Oh, I carn't!" cried Bert, near blubbering, and staring with -starting eyes. - -The swordsman slashed a fourth time and went on as his fellows came up -after the better runner. The hindmost swordsman stopped and turned back. -He had perceived some movement perhaps; but at any rate he stood, and -ever and again slashed at the fallen body. - -"Oo-oo!" groaned Bert at every slash, and shrank closer into the bushes -and became very still. Presently came a sound of shots from the town, -and then everything was quiet, everything, even the hospital. - -He saw presently little figures sheathing swords come out from the -houses and walk to the debris of the flying-machines the bomb had -destroyed. Others appeared wheeling undamaged aeroplanes upon their -wheels as men might wheel bicycles, and sprang into the saddles and -flapped into the air. A string of three airships appeared far away -in the east and flew towards the zenith. The one that hung low above -Niagara city came still lower and dropped a rope ladder to pick up men -from the power-house. - -For a long time he watched the further happenings in Niagara city as a -rabbit might watch a meet. He saw men going from building to building, -to set fire to them, as he presently realised, and he heard a series -of dull detonations from the wheel pit of the power-house. Some similar -business went on among the works on the Canadian side. Meanwhile more -and more airships appeared, and many more flying-machines, until at last -it seemed to him nearly a third of the Asiatic fleet had re-assembled. -He watched them from his bush, cramped but immovable, watched them -gather and range themselves and signal and pick up men, until at last -they sailed away towards the glowing sunset, going to the great Asiatic -rendez-vous, above the oil wells of Cleveland. They dwindled and passed -away, leaving him alone, so far as he could tell, the only living man -in a world of ruin and strange loneliness almost beyond describing. He -watched them recede and vanish. He stood gaping after them. - -"Gaw!" he said at last, like one who rouses himself from a trance. - -It was far more than any personal desolation extremity that flooded his -soul. It seemed to him indeed that this must be the sunset of his race. - -2 - -He did not at first envisage his own plight in definite and -comprehensible terms. Things happened to him so much of late, his -own efforts had counted for so little, that he had become passive and -planless. His last scheme had been to go round the coast of England as -a Desert Dervish giving refined entertainment to his fellow-creatures. -Fate had quashed that. Fate had seen fit to direct him to other -destinies, had hurried him from point to point, and dropped him at -last upon this little wedge of rock between the cataracts. It did -not instantly occur to him that now it was his turn to play. He had -a singular feeling that all must end as a dream ends, that presently -surely he would be back in the world of Grubb and Edna and Bun Hill, -that this roar, this glittering presence of incessant water, would be -drawn aside as a curtain is drawn aside after a holiday lantern show, -and old familiar, customary things re-assume their sway. It would be -interesting to tell people how he had seen Niagara. And then Kurt's -words came into his head: "People torn away from the people they care -for; homes smashed, creatures full of life and memories and peculiar -little gifts--torn to pieces, starved, and spoilt."... - -He wondered, half incredulous, if that was in deed true. It was so hard -to realise it. Out beyond there was it possible that Tom and Jessica -were also in some dire extremity? that the little green-grocer's shop -was no longer standing open, with Jessica serving respectfully, warming -Tom's ear in sharp asides, or punctually sending out the goods? - -He tried to think what day of the week it was, and found he had lost his -reckoning. Perhaps it was Sunday. If so, were they going to church or, -were they hiding, perhaps in bushes? What had happened to the landlord, -the butcher, and to Butteridge and all those people on Dymchurch beach? -Something, he knew, had happened to London--a bombardment. But who had -bombarded? Were Tom and Jessica too being chased by strange brown men -with long bare swords and evil eyes? He thought of various possible -aspects of affliction, but presently one phase ousted all the others. -Were they getting much to eat? The question haunted him, obsessed him. - -If one was very hungry would one eat rats? - -It dawned upon him that a peculiar misery that oppressed him was not so -much anxiety and patriotic sorrow as hunger. Of course he was hungry! - -He reflected and turned his steps towards the little refreshment shed -that stood near the end of the ruined bridge. "Ought to be somethin'--" - -He strolled round it once or twice, and then attacked the shutters -with his pocket-knife, reinforced presently by a wooden stake he found -conveniently near. At last he got a shutter to give, and tore it back -and stuck in his head. - -"Grub," he remarked, "anyhow. Leastways--" - -He got at the inside fastening of the shutter and had presently this -establishment open for his exploration. He found several sealed bottles -of sterilized milk, much mineral water, two tins of biscuits and a crock -of very stale cakes, cigarettes in great quantity but very dry, some -rather dry oranges, nuts, some tins of canned meat and fruit, and plates -and knives and forks and glasses sufficient for several score of people. -There was also a zinc locker, but he was unable to negotiate the padlock -of this. - -"Shan't starve," said Bert, "for a bit, anyhow." He sat on the vendor's -seat and regaled himself with biscuits and milk, and felt for a moment -quite contented. - -"Quite restful," he muttered, munching and glancing about him -restlessly, "after what I been through. - -"Crikey! WOT a day! Oh! WOT a day!" - -Wonder took possession of him. "Gaw!" he cried: "Wot a fight it's been! -Smashing up the poor fellers! 'Eadlong! The airships--the fliers and -all. I wonder what happened to the Zeppelin?... And that chap Kurt--I -wonder what happened to 'im? 'E was a good sort of chap, was Kurt." - -Some phantom of imperial solicitude floated through his mind. "Injia," -he said.... - -A more practical interest arose. - -"I wonder if there's anything to open one of these tins of corned beef?" - -3 - -After he had feasted, Bert lit a cigarette and sat meditative for a -time. "Wonder where Grubb is?" he said; "I do wonder that! Wonder if any -of 'em wonder about me?" - -He reverted to his own circumstances. "Dessay I shall 'ave to stop on -this island for some time." - -He tried to feel at his ease and secure, but presently the indefinable -restlessness of the social animal in solitude distressed him. He began -to want to look over his shoulder, and, as a corrective, roused himself -to explore the rest of the island. - -It was only very slowly that he began to realise the peculiarities of -his position, to perceive that the breaking down of the arch between -Green Island and the mainland had cut him off completely from the -world. Indeed it was only when he came back to where the fore-end of -the Hohenzollern lay like a stranded ship, and was contemplating the -shattered bridge, that this dawned upon him. Even then it came with no -sort of shock to his mind, a fact among a number of other extraordinary -and unmanageable facts. He stared at the shattered cabins of the -Hohenzollern and its widow's garment of dishevelled silk for a time, -but without any idea of its containing any living thing; it was all so -twisted and smashed and entirely upside down. Then for a while he gazed -at the evening sky. A cloud haze was now appearing and not an airship -was in sight. A swallow flew by and snapped some invisible victim. "Like -a dream," he repeated. - -Then for a time the rapids held his mind. "Roaring. It keeps on roaring -and splashin' always and always. Keeps on...." - -At last his interests became personal. "Wonder what I ought to do now?" - -He reflected. "Not an idee," he said. - -He was chiefly conscious that a fortnight ago he had been in Bun Hill -with no idea of travel in his mind, and that now he was between the -Falls of Niagara amidst the devastation and ruins of the greatest air -fight in the world, and that in the interval he had been across France, -Belgium, Germany, England, Ireland, and a number of other countries. -It was an interesting thought and suitable for conversation, but of -no great practical utility. "Wonder 'ow I can get orf this?" he said. -"Wonder if there is a way out? If not... rummy!" - -Further reflection decided, "I believe I got myself in a bit of a 'ole -coming over that bridge.... - -"Any'ow--got me out of the way of them Japanesy chaps. Wouldn't 'ave -taken 'em long to cut MY froat. No. Still--" - -He resolved to return to the point of Luna Island. For a long time he -stood without stirring, scrutinising the Canadian shore and the wreckage -of hotels and houses and the fallen trees of the Victoria Park, pink now -in the light of sundown. Not a human being was perceptible in that scene -of headlong destruction. Then he came back to the American side of -the island, crossed close to the crumpled aluminium wreckage of the -Hohenzollern to Green Islet, and scrutinised the hopeless breach in the -further bridge and the water that boiled beneath it. Towards Buffalo -there was still much smoke, and near the position of the Niagara railway -station the houses were burning vigorously. Everything was deserted now, -everything was still. One little abandoned thing lay on a transverse -path between town and road, a crumpled heap of clothes with sprawling -limbs.... - -"'Ave a look round," said Bert, and taking a path that ran through the -middle of the island he presently discovered the wreckage of the two -Asiatic aeroplanes that had fallen out of the struggle that ended the -Hohenzollern. - -With the first he found the wreckage of an aeronaut too. - -The machine had evidently dropped vertically and was badly knocked -about amidst a lot of smashed branches in a clump of trees. Its bent and -broken wings and shattered stays sprawled amidst new splintered wood, -and its forepeak stuck into the ground. The aeronaut dangled weirdly -head downward among the leaves and branches some yards away, and Bert -only discovered him as he turned from the aeroplane. In the dusky -evening light and stillness--for the sun had gone now and the wind -had altogether fallen-this inverted yellow face was anything but a -tranquilising object to discover suddenly a couple of yards away. A -broken branch had run clean through the man's thorax, and he hung, so -stabbed, looking limp and absurd. In his hand he still clutched, with -the grip of death, a short light rifle. - -For some time Bert stood very still, inspecting this thing. - -Then he began to walk away from it, looking constantly back at it. - -Presently in an open glade he came to a stop. - -"Gaw!" he whispered, "I don' like dead bodies some'ow! I'd almost rather -that chap was alive." - -He would not go along the path athwart which the Chinaman hung. He felt -he would rather not have trees round him any more, and that it would be -more comfortable to be quite close to the sociable splash and uproar of -the rapids. - -He came upon the second aeroplane in a clear grassy space by the side of -the streaming water, and it seemed scarcely damaged at all. It looked as -though it had floated down into a position of rest. It lay on its side -with one wing in the air. There was no aeronaut near it, dead or alive. -There it lay abandoned, with the water lapping about its long tail. - -Bert remained a little aloof from it for a long time, looking into -the gathering shadows among the trees, in the expectation of another -Chinaman alive or dead. Then very cautiously he approached the machine -and stood regarding its widespread vans, its big steering wheel and -empty saddle. He did not venture to touch it. - -"I wish that other chap wasn't there," he said. "I do wish 'e wasn't -there!" - -He saw a few yards away, something bobbing about in an eddy that spun -within a projecting head of rock. As it went round it seemed to draw him -unwillingly towards it.... - -What could it be? - -"Blow!" said Bert. "It's another of 'em." - -It held him. He told himself that it was the other aeronaut that had -been shot in the fight and fallen out of the saddle as he strove to -land. He tried to go away, and then it occurred to him that he might get -a branch or something and push this rotating object out into the stream. -That would leave him with only one dead body to worry about. Perhaps he -might get along with one. He hesitated and then with a certain emotion -forced himself to do this. He went towards the bushes and cut himself a -wand and returned to the rocks and clambered out to a corner between the -eddy and the stream, By that time the sunset was over and the bats were -abroad--and he was wet with perspiration. - -He prodded the floating blue-clad thing with his wand, failed, tried -again successfully as it came round, and as it went out into the stream -it turned over, the light gleamed on golden hair and--it was Kurt! - -It was Kurt, white and dead and very calm. There was no mistaking him. -There was still plenty of light for that. The stream took him and he -seemed to compose himself in its swift grip as one who stretches himself -to rest. White-faced he was now, and all the colour gone out of him. - -A feeling of infinite distress swept over Bert as the body swept out of -sight towards the fall. "Kurt!" he cried, "Kurt! I didn't mean to! Kurt! -don' leave me 'ere! Don' leave me!" - -Loneliness and desolation overwhelmed him. He gave way. He stood on -the rock in the evening light, weeping and wailing passionately like a -child. It was as though some link that had held him to all these things -had broken and gone. He was afraid like a child in a lonely room, -shamelessly afraid. - -The twilight was closing about him. The trees were full now of strange -shadows. All the things about him became strange and unfamiliar with -that subtle queerness one feels oftenest in dreams. "O God! I carn' -stand this," he said, and crept back from the rocks to the grass and -crouched down, and suddenly wild sorrow for the death of Kurt, Kurt the -brave, Kurt the kindly, came to his help and he broke from whimpering to -weeping. He ceased to crouch; he sprawled upon the grass and clenched an -impotent fist. - -"This war," he cried, "this blarsted foolery of a war. - -"O Kurt! Lieutenant Kurt! - -"I done," he said, "I done. I've 'ad all I want, and more than I -want. The world's all rot, and there ain't no sense in it. The night's -coming.... If 'E comes after me--'E can't come after me--'E can't!... - -"If 'E comes after me, I'll fro' myself into the water."... - -Presently he was talking again in a low undertone. - -"There ain't nothing to be afraid of reely. It's jest imagination. Poor -old Kurt--he thought it would happen. Prevision like. 'E never gave me -that letter or tole me who the lady was. It's like what 'e said--people -tore away from everything they belonged to--everywhere. Exactly like -what 'e said.... 'Ere I am cast away--thousands of miles from Edna or -Grubb or any of my lot--like a plant tore up by the roots.... And every -war's been like this, only I 'adn't the sense to understand it. Always. -All sorts of 'oles and corners chaps 'ave died in. And people 'adn't the -sense to understand, 'adn't the sense to feel it and stop it. Thought -war was fine. My Gawd!... - -"Dear old Edna. She was a fair bit of all right--she was. That time we -'ad a boat at Kingston.... - -"I bet--I'll see 'er again yet. Won't be my fault if I don't."... - -4 - -Suddenly, on the very verge of this heroic resolution, Bert became -rigid with terror. Something was creeping towards him through the -grass. Something was creeping and halting and creeping again towards him -through the dim dark grass. The night was electrical with horror. For a -time everything was still. Bert ceased to breathe. It could not be. No, -it was too small! - -It advanced suddenly upon him with a rush, with a little meawling cry -and tail erect. It rubbed its head against him and purred. It was a -tiny, skinny little kitten. - -"Gaw, Pussy! 'ow you frightened me!" said Bert, with drops of -perspiration on his brow. - -5 - -He sat with his back to a tree stump all that night, holding the kitten -in his arms. His mind was tired, and he talked or thought coherently no -longer. Towards dawn he dozed. - -When he awoke, he was stiff but in better heart, and the kitten slept -warmly and reassuringly inside his jacket. And fear, he found, had gone -from amidst the trees. - -He stroked the kitten, and the little creature woke up to excessive -fondness and purring. "You want some milk," said Bert. "That's what you -want. And I could do with a bit of brekker too." - -He yawned and stood up, with the kitten on his shoulder, and stared -about him, recalling the circumstances of the previous day, the grey, -immense happenings. - -"Mus' do something," he said. - -He turned towards the trees, and was presently contemplating the dead -aeronaut again. The kitten he held companionably against his neck. -The body was horrible, but not nearly so horrible as it had been at -twilight, and now the limbs were limper and the gun had slipped to the -ground and lay half hidden in the grass. - -"I suppose we ought to bury 'im, Kitty," said Bert, and looked -helplessly at the rocky soil about him. "We got to stay on the island -with 'im." - -It was some time before he could turn away and go on towards that -provision shed. "Brekker first," he said, "anyhow," stroking the kitten -on his shoulder. She rubbed his cheek affectionately with her furry -little face and presently nibbled at his ear. "Wan' some milk, eh?" he -said, and turned his back on the dead man as though he mattered nothing. - -He was puzzled to find the door of the shed open, though he had closed -and latched it very carefully overnight, and he found also some dirty -plates he had not noticed before on the bench. He discovered that the -hinges of the tin locker were unscrewed and that it could be opened. He -had not observed this overnight. - -"Silly of me!" said Bert. "'Ere I was puzzlin' and whackin' away at the -padlock, never noticing." It had been used apparently as an ice-chest, -but it contained nothing now but the remains of half-dozen boiled -chickens, some ambiguous substance that might once have been butter, and -a singularly unappetising smell. He closed the lid again carefully. - -He gave the kitten some milk in a dirty plate and sat watching its busy -little tongue for a time. Then he was moved to make an inventory of -the provisions. There were six bottles of milk unopened and one opened, -sixty bottles of mineral water and a large stock of syrups, about two -thousand cigarettes and upwards of a hundred cigars, nine oranges, -two unopened tins of corned beef and one opened, and five large tins -California peaches. He jotted it down on a piece of paper. "'Ain't much -solid food," he said. "Still--A fortnight, say! - -"Anything might happen in a fortnight." - -He gave the kitten a small second helping and a scrap of beef and then -went down with the little creature running after him, tail erect and in -high spirits, to look at the remains of the Hohenzollern. - -It had shifted in the night and seemed on the whole more firmly grounded -on Green Island than before. From it his eye went to the shattered -bridge and then across to the still desolation of Niagara city. Nothing -moved over there but a number of crows. They were busy with the engineer -he had seen cut down on the previous day. He saw no dogs, but he heard -one howling. - -"We got to get out of this some'ow, Kitty," he said. "That milk won't -last forever--not at the rate you lap it." - -He regarded the sluice-like flood before him. - -"Plenty of water," he said. "Won't be drink we shall want." - -He decided to make a careful exploration of the island. Presently he -came to a locked gate labelled "Biddle Stairs," and clambered over to -discover a steep old wooden staircase leading down the face of the cliff -amidst a vast and increasing uproar of waters. He left the kitten above -and descended these, and discovered with a thrill of hope a path leading -among the rocks at the foot of the roaring downrush of the Centre Fall. -Perhaps this was a sort of way! - -It led him only to the choking and deafening experience of the Cave of -the Winds, and after he had spent a quarter of an hour in a partially -stupefied condition flattened between solid rock and nearly as solid -waterfall, he decided that this was after all no practicable route to -Canada and retraced his steps. As he reascended the Biddle Stairs, he -heard what he decided at last must be a sort of echo, a sound of some -one walking about on the gravel paths above. When he got to the top, the -place was as solitary as before. - -Thence he made his way, with the kitten skirmishing along beside him -in the grass, to a staircase that led to a lump of projecting rock that -enfiladed the huge green majesty of the Horseshoe Fall. He stood there -for some time in silence. - -"You wouldn't think," he said at last, "there was so much water.... This -roarin' and splashin', it gets on one's nerves at last.... Sounds -like people talking.... Sounds like people going about.... Sounds like -anything you fancy." - -He retired up the staircase again. "I s'pose I shall keep on goin' round -this blessed island," he said drearily. "Round and round and round." - -He found himself presently beside the less damaged Asiatic aeroplane -again. He stared at it and the kitten smelt it. "Broke!" he said. - -He looked up with a convulsive start. - -Advancing slowly towards him out from among the trees were two tall -gaunt figures. They were blackened and tattered and bandaged; the -hind-most one limped and had his head swathed in white, but the foremost -one still carried himself as a Prince should do, for all that his left -arm was in a sling and one side of his face scalded a livid crimson. He -was the Prince Karl Albert, the War Lord, the "German Alexander," and -the man behind him was the bird-faced man whose cabin had once been -taken from him and given to Bert. - -6 - -With that apparition began a new phase of Goat Island in Bert's -experience. He ceased to be a solitary representative of humanity in a -vast and violent and incomprehensible universe, and became once more a -social creature, a man in a world of other men. For an instant these two -were terrible, then they seemed sweet and desirable as brothers. They -too were in this scrape with him, marooned and puzzled. He wanted -extremely to hear exactly what had happened to them. What mattered it if -one was a Prince and both were foreign soldiers, if neither perhaps had -adequate English? His native Cockney freedom flowed too generously for -him to think of that, and surely the Asiatic fleets had purged all such -trivial differences. "Ul-LO!" he said; "'ow did you get 'ere?" - -"It is the Englishman who brought us the Butteridge machine," said the -bird-faced officer in German, and then in a tone of horror, as Bert -advanced, "Salute!" and again louder, "SALUTE!" - -"Gaw!" said Bert, and stopped with a second comment under his breath. He -stared and saluted awkwardly and became at once a masked defensive thing -with whom co-operation was impossible. - -For a time these two perfected modern aristocrats stood regarding the -difficult problem of the Anglo-Saxon citizen, that ambiguous citizen -who, obeying some mysterious law in his blood, would neither drill nor -be a democrat. Bert was by no means a beautiful object, but in some -inexplicable way he looked resistant. He wore his cheap suit of serge, -now showing many signs of wear, and its loose fit made him seem sturdier -than he was; above his disengaging face was a white German cap that was -altogether too big for him, and his trousers were crumpled up his legs -and their ends tucked into the rubber highlows of a deceased German -aeronaut. He looked an inferior, though by no means an easy inferior, -and instinctively they hated him. - -The Prince pointed to the flying-machine and said something in broken -English that Bert took for German and failed to understand. He intimated -as much. - -"Dummer Kerl!" said the bird-faced officer from among his bandages. - -The Prince pointed again with his undamaged hand. "You verstehen dis -drachenflieger?" - -Bert began to comprehend the situation. He regarded the Asiatic machine. -The habits of Bun Hill returned to him. "It's a foreign make," he said -ambiguously. - -The two Germans consulted. "You are an expert?" said the Prince. - -"We reckon to repair," said Bert, in the exact manner of Grubb. - -The Prince sought in his vocabulary. "Is dat," he said, "goot to fly?" - -Bert reflected and scratched his cheek slowly. "I got to look at it," he -replied.... "It's 'ad rough usage!" - -He made a sound with his teeth he had also acquired from Grubb, put -his hands in his trouser pockets, and strolled back to the -machine. Typically Grubb chewed something, but Bert could chew only -imaginatively. "Three days' work in this," he said, teething. For -the first time it dawned on him that there were possibilities in this -machine. It was evident that the wing that lay on the ground was badly -damaged. The three stays that held it rigid had snapped across a ridge -of rock and there was also a strong possibility of the engine being -badly damaged. The wing hook on that side was also askew, but probably -that would not affect the flight. Beyond that there probably wasn't much -the matter. Bert scratched his cheek again and contemplated the broad -sunlit waste of the Upper Rapids. "We might make a job of this.... You -leave it to me." - -He surveyed it intently again, and the Prince and his officer watched -him. In Bun Hill Bert and Grubb had developed to a very high pitch among -the hiring stock a method of repair by substituting; they substituted -bits of other machines. A machine that was too utterly and obviously -done for even to proffer for hire, had nevertheless still capital value. -It became a sort of quarry for nuts and screws and wheels, bars and -spokes, chain-links and the like; a mine of ill-fitting "parts" to -replace the defects of machines still current. And back among the trees -was a second Asiatic aeroplane.... - -The kitten caressed Bert's airship boots unheeded. - -"Mend dat drachenflieger," said the Prince. - -"If I do mend it," said Bert, struck by a new thought, "none of us ain't -to be trusted to fly it." - -"_I_ vill fly it," said the Prince. - -"Very likely break your neck," said Bert, after a pause. - -The Prince did not understand him and disregarded what he said. He -pointed his gloved finger to the machine and turned to the bird-faced -officer with some remark in German. The officer answered and the Prince -responded with a sweeping gesture towards the sky. Then he spoke--it -seemed eloquently. Bert watched him and guessed his meaning. "Much more -likely to break your neck," he said. "'Owever. 'Ere goes." - -He began to pry about the saddle and engine of the drachenflieger in -search for tools. Also he wanted some black oily stuff for his hands and -face. For the first rule in the art of repairing, as it was known to the -firm of Grubb and Smallways, was to get your hands and face thoroughly -and conclusively blackened. Also he took off his jacket and waistcoat -and put his cap carefully to the back of his head in order to facilitate -scratching. - -The Prince and the officer seemed disposed to watch him, but he -succeeded in making it clear to them that this would inconvenience him -and that he had to "puzzle out a bit" before he could get to work. They -thought him over, but his shop experience had given him something of the -authoritative way of the expert with common men. And at last they -went away. Thereupon he went straight to the second aeroplane, got the -aeronaut's gun and ammunition and hid them in a clump of nettles close -at hand. "That's all right," said Bert, and then proceeded to a careful -inspection of the debris of the wings in the trees. Then he went back -to the first aeroplane to compare the two. The Bun Hill method was quite -possibly practicable if there was nothing hopeless or incomprehensible -in the engine. - -The Germans returned presently to find him already generously smutty and -touching and testing knobs and screws and levers with an expression of -profound sagacity. When the bird-faced officer addressed a remark to -him, he waved him aside with, "Nong comprong. Shut it! It's no good." - -Then he had an idea. "Dead chap back there wants burying," he said, -jerking a thumb over his shoulder. - -7 - -With the appearance of these two men Bert's whole universe had changed -again. A curtain fell before the immense and terrible desolation that -had overwhelmed him. He was in a world of three people, a minute human -world that nevertheless filled his brain with eager speculations and -schemes and cunning ideas. What were they thinking of? What did -they think of him? What did they mean to do? A hundred busy threads -interlaced in his mind as he pottered studiously over the Asiatic -aeroplane. New ideas came up like bubbles in soda water. - -"Gaw!" he said suddenly. He had just appreciated as a special aspect of -this irrational injustice of fate that these two men were alive and that -Kurt was dead. All the crew of the Hohenzollern were shot or burnt or -smashed or drowned, and these two lurking in the padded forward cabin -had escaped. - -"I suppose 'e thinks it's 'is bloomin' Star," he muttered, and found -himself uncontrollably exasperated. - -He stood up, facing round to the two men. They were standing side by -side regarding him. - -"'It's no good," he said, "starin' at me. You only put me out." And -then seeing they did not understand, he advanced towards them, wrench in -hand. It occurred to him as he did so that the Prince was really a very -big and powerful and serene-looking person. But he said, nevertheless, -pointing through the trees, "dead man!" - -The bird-faced man intervened with a reply in German. - -"Dead man!" said Bert to him. "There." - -He had great difficulty in inducing them to inspect the dead Chinaman, -and at last led them to him. Then they made it evident that they -proposed that he, as a common person below the rank of officer should -have the sole and undivided privilege of disposing of the body by -dragging it to the water's edge. There was some heated gesticulation, -and at last the bird-faced officer abased himself to help. Together they -dragged the limp and now swollen Asiatic through the trees, and after -a rest or so--for he trailed very heavily--dumped him into the westward -rapid. Bert returned to his expert investigation of the flying-machine -at last with aching arms and in a state of gloomy rebellion. "Brasted -cheek!" he said. "One'd think I was one of 'is beastly German slaves! - -"Prancing beggar!" - -And then he fell speculating what would happen when the flying-machine, -was repaired--if it could be repaired. - -The two Germans went away again, and after some reflection Bert removed -several nuts, resumed his jacket and vest, pocketed those nuts and his -tools and hid the set of tools from the second aeroplane in the fork of -a tree. "Right O," he said, as he jumped down after the last of these -precautions. The Prince and his companion reappeared as he returned to -the machine by the water's edge. The Prince surveyed his progress for -a time, and then went towards the Parting of the Waters and stood with -folded arms gazing upstream in profound thought. The bird-faced officer -came up to Bert, heavy with a sentence in English. - -"Go," he said with a helping gesture, "und eat." - -When Bert got to the refreshment shed, he found all the food had -vanished except one measured ration of corned beef and three biscuits. - -He regarded this with open eyes and mouth. - -The kitten appeared from under the vendor's seat with an ingratiating -purr. "Of course!" said Bert. "Why! where's your milk?" - -He accumulated wrath for a moment or so, then seized the plate in one -hand, and the biscuits in another, and went in search of the Prince, -breathing vile words anent "grub" and his intimate interior. He -approached without saluting. - -"'Ere!" he said fiercely. "Whad the devil's this?" - -An entirely unsatisfactory altercation followed. Bert expounded the -Bun Hill theory of the relations of grub to efficiency in English, -the bird-faced man replied with points about nations and discipline -in German. The Prince, having made an estimate of Bert's quality and -physique, suddenly hectored. He gripped Bert by the shoulder and shook -him, making his pockets rattle, shouted something to him, and flung him -struggling back. He hit him as though he was a German private. Bert went -back, white and scared, but resolved by all his Cockney standards upon -one thing. He was bound in honour to "go for" the Prince. "Gaw!" he -gasped, buttoning his jacket. - -"Now," cried the Prince, "Vil you go?" and then catching the heroic -gleam in Bert's eye, drew his sword. - -The bird-faced officer intervened, saying something in German and -pointing skyward. - -Far away in the southwest appeared a Japanese airship coming fast toward -them. Their conflict ended at that. The Prince was first to grasp the -situation and lead the retreat. All three scuttled like rabbits for the -trees, and ran to and for cover until they found a hollow in which -the grass grew rank. There they all squatted within six yards of one -another. They sat in this place for a long time, up to their necks in -the grass and watching through the branches for the airship. Bert had -dropped some of his corned beef, but he found the biscuits in his hand -and ate them quietly. The monster came nearly overhead and then went -away to Niagara and dropped beyond the power-works. When it was near, -they all kept silence, and then presently they fell into an argument -that was robbed perhaps of immediate explosive effect only by their -failure to understand one another. - -It was Bert began the talking and he talked on regardless of what they -understood or failed to understand. But his voice must have conveyed his -cantankerous intentions. - -"You want that machine done," he said first, "you better keep your 'ands -off me!" - -They disregarded that and he repeated it. - -Then he expanded his idea and the spirit of speech took hold of him. -"You think you got 'old of a chap you can kick and 'it like you do your -private soldiers--you're jolly well mistaken. See? I've 'ad about enough -of you and your antics. I been thinking you over, you and your war and -your Empire and all the rot of it. Rot it is! It's you Germans made all -the trouble in Europe first and last. And all for nothin'. Jest silly -prancing! Jest because you've got the uniforms and flags! 'Ere I was--I -didn't want to 'ave anything to do with you. I jest didn't care a 'eng -at all about you. Then you get 'old of me--steal me practically--and -'ere I am, thousands of miles away from 'ome and everything, and all -your silly fleet smashed up to rags. And you want to go on prancin' NOW! -Not if 'I know it! - -"Look at the mischief you done! Look at the way you smashed up New -York--the people you killed, the stuff you wasted. Can't you learn?" - -"Dummer Kerl!" said the bird-faced man suddenly in a tone of -concentrated malignancy, glaring under his bandages. "Esel!" - -"That's German for silly ass!--I know. But who's the silly ass--'im -or me? When I was a kid, I used to read penny dreadfuls about 'avin -adventures and bein' a great c'mander and all that rot. I stowed it. But -what's 'e got in 'is head? Rot about Napoleon, rot about Alexander, rot -about 'is blessed family and 'im and Gord and David and all that. Any -one who wasn't a dressed-up silly fool of a Prince could 'ave told all -this was goin' to 'appen. There was us in Europe all at sixes and sevens -with our silly flags and our silly newspapers raggin' us up against each -other and keepin' us apart, and there was China, solid as a cheese, with -millions and millions of men only wantin' a bit of science and a bit of -enterprise to be as good as all of us. You thought they couldn't get at -you. And then they got flying-machines. And bif!--'ere we are. Why, when -they didn't go on making guns and armies in China, we went and poked 'em -up until they did. They 'AD to give us this lickin' they've give us. We -wouldn't be happy until they did, and as I say, 'ere we are!" - -The bird-faced officer shouted to him to be quiet, and then began a -conversation with the Prince. - -"British citizen," said Bert. "You ain't obliged to listen, but I ain't -obliged to shut up." - -And for some time he continued his dissertation upon Imperialism, -militarism, and international politics. But their talking put him -out, and for a time he was certainly merely repeating abusive terms, -"prancin' nincompoops" and the like, old terms and new. Then suddenly -he remembered his essential grievance. "'Owever, look 'ere--'ere!--the -thing I started this talk about is where's that food there was in that -shed? That's what I want to know. Where you put it?" - -He paused. They went on talking in German. He repeated his question. -They disregarded him. He asked a third time in a manner insupportably -aggressive. - -There fell a tense silence. For some seconds the three regarded one -another. The Prince eyed Bert steadfastly, and Bert quailed under his -eye. Slowly the Prince rose to his feet and the bird-faced officer -jerked up beside him. Bert remained squatting. - -"Be quaiat," said the Prince. - -Bert perceived this was no moment for eloquence. - -The two Germans regarded him as he crouched there. Death for a moment -seemed near. - -Then the Prince turned away and the two of them went towards the -flying-machine. - -"Gaw!" whispered Bert, and then uttered under his breath one single word -of abuse. He sat crouched together for perhaps three minutes, then -he sprang to his feet and went off towards the Chinese aeronaut's gun -hidden among the weeds. - -8 - -There was no pretence after that moment that Bert was under the -orders of the Prince or that he was going on with the repairing of the -flying-machine. The two Germans took possession of that and set to work -upon it. Bert, with his new weapon went off to the neighbourhood of -Terrapin Rock, and there sat down to examine it. It was a short rifle -with a big cartridge, and a nearly full magazine. He took out the -cartridges carefully and then tried the trigger and fittings until -he felt sure he had the use of it. He reloaded carefully. Then he -remembered he was hungry and went off, gun under his arm, to hunt in and -about the refreshment shed. He had the sense to perceive that he must -not show himself with the gun to the Prince and his companion. So long -as they thought him unarmed they would leave him alone, but there was -no knowing what the Napoleonic person might do if he saw Bert's weapon. -Also he did not go near them because he knew that within himself boiled -a reservoir of rage and fear that he wanted to shoot these two men. He -wanted to shoot them, and he thought that to shoot them would be a quite -horrible thing to do. The two sides of his inconsistent civilisation -warred within him. - -Near the shed the kitten turned up again, obviously keen for milk. This -greatly enhanced his own angry sense of hunger. He began to talk as he -hunted about, and presently stood still, shouting insults. He talked of -war and pride and Imperialism. "Any other Prince but you would have died -with his men and his ship!" he cried. - -The two Germans at the machine heard his voice going ever and again -amidst the clamour of the waters. Their eyes met and they smiled -slightly. - -He was disposed for a time to sit in the refreshment shed waiting for -them, but then it occurred to him that so he might get them both at -close quarters. He strolled off presently to the point of Luna Island to -think the situation out. - -It had seemed a comparatively simple one at first, but as he turned it -over in his mind its possibilities increased and multiplied. Both these -men had swords,--had either a revolver? - -Also, if he shot them both, he might never find the food! - -So far he had been going about with this gun under his arm, and a sense -of lordly security in his mind, but what if they saw the gun and decided -to ambush him? Goat Island is nearly all cover, trees, rocks, thickets, -and irregularities. - -Why not go and murder them both now? - -"I carn't," said Bert, dismissing that. "I got to be worked up." - -But it was a mistake to get right away from them. That suddenly became -clear. He ought to keep them under observation, ought to "scout" them. -Then he would be able to see what they were doing, whether either of -them had a revolver, where they had hidden the food. He would be better -able to determine what they meant to do to him. If he didn't "scout" -them, presently they would begin to "scout" him. This seemed so -eminently reasonable that he acted upon it forthwith. He thought over -his costume and threw his collar and the tell-tale aeronaut's white cap -into the water far below. He turned his coat collar up to hide any gleam -of his dirty shirt. The tools and nuts in his pockets were disposed -to clank, but he rearranged them and wrapped some letters and his -pocket-handkerchief about them. He started off circumspectly and -noiselessly, listening and peering at every step. As he drew near -his antagonists, much grunting and creaking served to locate them. He -discovered them engaged in what looked like a wrestling match with the -Asiatic flying-machine. Their coats were off, their swords laid aside, -they were working magnificently. Apparently they were turning it round -and were having a good deal of difficulty with the long tail among the -trees. He dropped flat at the sight of them and wriggled into a little -hollow, and so lay watching their exertions. Ever and again, to pass the -time, he would cover one or other of them with his gun. - -He found them quite interesting to watch, so interesting that at times -he came near shouting to advise them. He perceived that when they had -the machine turned round, they would then be in immediate want of the -nuts and tools he carried. Then they would come after him. They would -certainly conclude he had them or had hidden them. Should he hide his -gun and do a deal for food with these tools? He felt he would not be -able to part with the gun again now he had once felt its reassuring -company. The kitten turned up again and made a great fuss with him and -licked and bit his ear. - -The sun clambered to midday, and once that morning he saw, though the -Germans did not, an Asiatic airship very far to the south, going swiftly -eastward. - -At last the flying-machine was turned and stood poised on its wheel, -with its hooks pointing up the Rapids. The two officers wiped their -faces, resumed jackets and swords, spoke and bore themselves like men -who congratulated themselves on a good laborious morning. Then they -went off briskly towards the refreshment shed, the Prince leading. -Bert became active in pursuit; but he found it impossible to stalk them -quickly enough and silently enough to discover the hiding-place of the -food. He found them, when he came into sight of them again, seated with -their backs against the shed, plates on knee, and a tin of corned beef -and a plateful of biscuits between them. They seemed in fairly good -spirits, and once the Prince laughed. At this vision of eating Bert's -plans gave way. Fierce hunger carried him. He appeared before them -suddenly at a distance of perhaps twenty yards, gun in hand. - -"'Ands up!" he said in a hard, ferocious voice. - -The Prince hesitated, and then up went two pairs of hands. The gun had -surprised them both completely. - -"Stand up," said Bert.... "Drop that fork!" - -They obeyed again. - -"What nex'?" said Bert to himself. "'Orf stage, I suppose. That way," he -said. "Go!" - -The Prince obeyed with remarkable alacrity. When he reached the head of -the clearing, he said something quickly to the bird-faced man and they -both, with an entire lack of dignity, RAN! - -Bert was struck with an exasperating afterthought. - -"Gord!" he cried with infinite vexation. "Why! I ought to 'ave took -their swords! 'Ere!" - -But the Germans were already out of sight, and no doubt taking cover -among the trees. Bert fell back upon imprecations, then he went up to -the shed, cursorily examined the possibility of a flank attack, put his -gun handy, and set to work, with a convulsive listening pause before -each mouthful on the Prince's plate of corned beef. He had finished that -up and handed its gleanings to the kitten and he was falling-to on the -second plateful, when the plate broke in his hand! He stared, with the -fact slowly creeping upon him that an instant before he had heard a -crack among the thickets. Then he sprang to his feet, snatched up his -gun in one hand and the tin of corned beef in the other, and fled round -the shed to the other side of the clearing. As he did so came a second -crack from the thickets, and something went phwit! by his ear. - -He didn't stop running until he was in what seemed to him a strongly -defensible position near Luna Island. Then he took cover, panting, and -crouched expectant. - -"They got a revolver after all!" he panted.... - -"Wonder if they got two? If they 'ave--Gord! I'm done! - -"Where's the kitten? Finishin' up that corned beef, I suppose. Little -beggar!" - -9 - -So it was that war began upon Goat Island. It lasted a day and a night, -the longest day and the longest night in Bert's life. He had to lie -close and listen and watch. Also he had to scheme what he should do. It -was clear now that he had to kill these two men if he could, and that if -they could, they would kill him. The prize was first food and then the -flying-machine and the doubtful privilege of trying' to ride it. If one -failed, one would certainly be killed; if one succeeded, one would get -away somewhere over there. For a time Bert tried to imagine what it -was like over there. His mind ran over possibilities, deserts, angry -Americans, Japanese, Chinese--perhaps Red Indians! (Were there still Red -Indians?) - -"Got to take what comes," said Bert. "No way out of it that I can see!" - -Was that voices? He realised that his attention was wandering. For a -time all his senses were very alert. The uproar of the Falls was very -confusing, and it mixed in all sorts of sounds, like feet walking, like -voices talking, like shouts and cries. - -"Silly great catarac'," said Bert. "There ain't no sense in it, fallin' -and fallin'." - -Never mind that, now! What were the Germans doing? - -Would they go back to the flying-machine? They couldn't do anything with -it, because he had those nuts and screws and the wrench and other tools. -But suppose they found the second set of tools he had hidden in a tree! -He had hidden the things well, of course, but they MIGHT find them. -One wasn't sure, of course--one wasn't sure. He tried to remember just -exactly how he had hidden those tools. He tried to persuade himself they -were certainly and surely hidden, but his memory began to play antics. -Had he really left the handle of the wrench sticking out, shining out at -the fork of the branch? - -Ssh! What was that? Some one stirring in those bushes? Up went an -expectant muzzle. No! Where was the kitten? No! It was just imagination, -not even the kitten. - -The Germans would certainly miss and hunt about for the tools and nuts -and screws he carried in his pockets; that was clear. Then they would -decide he had them and come for him. He had only to remain still under -cover, therefore, and he would get them. Was there any flaw in that? -Would they take off more removable parts of the flying-machine and then -lie up for him? No, they wouldn't do that, because they were two to -one; they would have no apprehension of his getting off in the -flying-machine, and no sound reason for supposing he would approach it, -and so they would do nothing to damage or disable it. That he decided -was clear. But suppose they lay up for him by the food. Well, that they -wouldn't do, because they would know he had this corned beef; there was -enough in this can to last, with moderation, several days. Of course -they might try to tire him out instead of attacking him-- - -He roused himself with a start. He had just grasped the real weakness of -his position. He might go to sleep! - -It needed but ten minutes under the suggestion of that idea, before he -realised that he was going to sleep! - -He rubbed his eyes and handled his gun. He had never before realised the -intensely soporific effect of the American sun, of the American air, the -drowsy, sleep-compelling uproar of Niagara. Hitherto these things had on -the whole seemed stimulating.... - -If he had not eaten so much and eaten it so fast, he would not be so -heavy. Are vegetarians always bright?... - -He roused himself with a jerk again. - -If he didn't do something, he would fall asleep, and if he fell asleep, -it was ten to one they would find him snoring, and finish him forthwith. -If he sat motionless and noiseless, he would inevitably sleep. It was -better, he told himself, to take even the risks of attacking than that. -This sleep trouble, he felt, was going to beat him, must beat him in -the end. They were all right; one could sleep and the other could watch. -That, come to think of it, was what they would always do; one would do -anything they wanted done, the other would lie under cover near at hand, -ready to shoot. They might even trap him like that. One might act as a -decoy. - -That set him thinking of decoys. What a fool he had been to throw his -cap away. It would have been invaluable on a stick--especially at night. - -He found himself wishing for a drink. He settled that for a time by -putting a pebble in his mouth. And then the sleep craving returned. - -It became clear to him he must attack. Like many great generals before -him, he found his baggage, that is to say his tin of corned beef, a -serious impediment to mobility. At last he decided to put the beef -loose in his pocket and abandon the tin. It was not perhaps an ideal -arrangement, but one must make sacrifices when one is campaigning. He -crawled perhaps ten yards, and then for a time the possibilities of the -situation paralysed him. - -The afternoon was still. The roar of the cataract simply threw up that -immense stillness in relief. He was doing his best to contrive the -death of two better men than himself. Also they were doing their best to -contrive his. What, behind this silence, were they doing. - -Suppose he came upon them suddenly and fired, and missed? - -10 - -He crawled, and halted listening, and crawled again until nightfall, and -no doubt the German Alexander and his lieutenant did the same. A large -scale map of Goat Island marked with red and blue lines to show these -strategic movements would no doubt have displayed much interlacing, but -as a matter of fact neither side saw anything of the other throughout -that age-long day of tedious alertness. Bert never knew how near he got -to them nor how far he kept from them. Night found him no longer sleepy, -but athirst, and near the American Fall. He was inspired by the idea -that his antagonists might be in the wreckage of the Hohenzollern cabins -that was jammed against Green Island. He became enterprising, broke from -any attempt to conceal himself, and went across the little bridge at the -double. He found nobody. It was his first visit to these huge fragments -of airships, and for a time he explored them curiously in the dim -light. He discovered the forward cabin was nearly intact, with its door -slanting downward and a corner under water. He crept in, drank, and then -was struck by the brilliant idea of shutting the door and sleeping on -it. - -But now he could not sleep at all. - -He nodded towards morning and woke up to find it fully day. He -breakfasted on corned beef and water, and sat for a long time -appreciative of the security of his position. At last he became -enterprising and bold. He would, he decided, settle this business -forthwith, one way or the other. He was tired of all this crawling. He -set out in the morning sunshine, gun in hand, scarcely troubling to walk -softly. He went round the refreshment shed without finding any one, -and then through the trees towards the flying-machine. He came upon the -bird-faced man sitting on the ground with his back against a tree, bent -up over his folded arms, sleeping, his bandage very much over one eye. - -Bert stopped abruptly and stood perhaps fifteen yards away, gun in hand -ready. Where was the Prince? Then, sticking out at the side of the tree -beyond, he saw a shoulder. Bert took five deliberate paces to the left. -The great man became visible, leaning up against the trunk, pistol in -one hand and sword in the other, and yawning--yawning. You can't shoot -a yawning man Bert found. He advanced upon his antagonist with his -gun levelled, some foolish fancy of "hands up" in his mind. The Prince -became aware of him, the yawning mouth shut like a trap and he stood -stiffly up. Bert stopped, silent. For a moment the two regarded one -another. - -Had the Prince been a wise man he would, I suppose, have dodged behind -the tree. Instead, he gave vent to a shout, and raised pistol and sword. -At that, like an automaton, Bert pulled his trigger. - -It was his first experience of an oxygen-containing bullet. A great -flame spurted from the middle of the Prince, a blinding flare, and -there came a thud like the firing of a gun. Something hot and wet struck -Bert's face. Then through a whirl of blinding smoke and steam he saw -limbs and a collapsing, burst body fling themselves to earth. - -Bert was so astonished that he stood agape, and the bird-faced officer -might have cut him to the earth without a struggle. But instead the -bird-faced officer was running away through the undergrowth, dodging as -he went. Bert roused himself to a brief ineffectual pursuit, but he had -no stomach for further killing. He returned to the mangled, scattered -thing that had so recently been the great Prince Karl Albert. He -surveyed the scorched and splashed vegetation about it. He made some -speculative identifications. He advanced gingerly and picked up the hot -revolver, to find all its chambers strained and burst. He became aware -of a cheerful and friendly presence. He was greatly shocked that one so -young should see so frightful a scene. - -"'Ere, Kitty," he said, "this ain't no place for you." - -He made three strides across the devastated area, captured the kitten -neatly, and went his way towards the shed, with her purring loudly on -his shoulder. - -"YOU don't seem to mind," he said. - -For a time he fussed about the shed, and at last discovered the rest -of the provisions hidden in the roof. "Seems 'ard," he said, as he -administered a saucerful of milk, "when you get three men in a 'ole like -this, they can't work together. But 'im and 'is princing was jest a bit -too thick!" - -"Gaw!" he reflected, sitting on the counter and eating, "what a thing -life is! 'Ere am I; I seen 'is picture, 'eard 'is name since I was a kid -in frocks. Prince Karl Albert! And if any one 'ad tole me I was going to -blow 'im to smithereens--there! I shouldn't 'ave believed it, Kitty. - -"That chap at Margit ought to 'ave tole me about it. All 'e tole me was -that I got a weak chess. - -"That other chap, 'e ain't going to do much. Wonder what I ought to do -about 'im?" - -He surveyed the trees with a keen blue eye and fingered the gun on his -knee. "I don't like this killing, Kitty," he said. "It's like Kurt said -about being blooded. Seems to me you got to be blooded young.... If -that Prince 'ad come up to me and said, 'Shake 'ands!' I'd 'ave shook -'ands.... Now 'ere's that other chap, dodging about! 'E's got 'is 'ead -'urt already, and there's something wrong with his leg. And burns. -Golly! it isn't three weeks ago I first set eyes on 'im, and then 'e was -smart and set up--'ands full of 'air-brushes and things, and swearin' at -me. A regular gentleman! Now 'e's 'arfway to a wild man. What am I to do -with 'im? What the 'ell am I to do with 'im? I can't leave 'im 'ave that -flying-machine; that's a bit too good, and if I don't kill 'im, 'e'll -jest 'ang about this island and starve.... - -"'E's got a sword, of course".... - -He resumed his philosophising after he had lit a cigarette. - -"War's a silly gaim, Kitty. It's a silly gaim! We common people--we were -fools. We thought those big people knew what they were up to--and they -didn't. Look at that chap! 'E 'ad all Germany be'ind 'im, and what 'as -'e made of it? Smeshin' and blunderin' and destroyin', and there 'e 'is! -Jest a mess of blood and boots and things! Jest an 'orrid splash! Prince -Karl Albert! And all the men 'e led and the ships 'e 'ad, the airships, -and the dragon-fliers--all scattered like a paper-chase between this -'ole and Germany. And fightin' going on and burnin' and killin' that 'e -started, war without end all over the world! - -"I suppose I shall 'ave to kill that other chap. I suppose I must. But -it ain't at all the sort of job I fancy, Kitty!" - -For a time he hunted about the island amidst the uproar of the -waterfall, looking for the wounded officer, and at last he started him -out of some bushes near the head of Biddle Stairs. But as he saw the -bent and bandaged figure in limping flight before him, he found his -Cockney softness too much for him again; he could neither shoot nor -pursue. "I carn't," he said, "that's flat. I 'aven't the guts for it! -'E'll 'ave to go." - -He turned his steps towards the flying-machine.... - -He never saw the bird-faced officer again, nor any further evidence of -his presence. Towards evening he grew fearful of ambushes and hunted -vigorously for an hour or so, but in vain. He slept in a good defensible -position at the extremity of the rocky point that runs out to the -Canadian Fall, and in the night he woke in panic terror and fired his -gun. But it was nothing. He slept no more that night. In the morning he -became curiously concerned for the vanished man, and hunted for him as -one might for an erring brother. - -"If I knew some German," he said, "I'd 'oller. It's jest not knowing -German does it. You can't explain'" - -He discovered, later, traces of an attempt to cross the gap in the -broken bridge. A rope with a bolt attached had been flung across and had -caught in a fenestration of a projecting fragment of railing. The end of -the rope trailed in the seething water towards the fall. - -But the bird-faced officer was already rubbing shoulders with certain -inert matter that had once been Lieutenant Kurt and the Chinese aeronaut -and a dead cow, and much other uncongenial company, in the huge circle -of the Whirlpool two and a quarter miles away. Never had that great -gathering place, that incessant, aimless, unprogressive hurry of -waste and battered things, been so crowded with strange and melancholy -derelicts. Round they went and round, and every day brought its -new contributions, luckless brutes, shattered fragments of boat and -flying-machine, endless citizens from the cities upon the shores of the -great lakes above. Much came from Cleveland. It all gathered here, and -whirled about indefinitely, and over it all gathered daily a greater -abundance of birds. - - - -CHAPTER X. THE WORLD UNDER THE WAR - -1 - -Bert spent two more days upon Goat Island, and finished all his -provisions except the cigarettes and mineral water, before he brought -himself to try the Asiatic flying-machine. - -Even at last he did not so much go off upon it as get carried off. It -had taken only an hour or so to substitute wing stays from the second -flying-machine and to replace the nuts he had himself removed. The -engine was in working order, and differed only very simply and obviously -from that of a contemporary motor-bicycle. The rest of the time was -taken up by a vast musing and delaying and hesitation. Chiefly he saw -himself splashing into the rapids and whirling down them to the Fall, -clutching and drowning, but also he had a vision of being hopelessly in -the air, going fast and unable to ground. His mind was too concentrated -upon the business of flying for him to think very much of what might -happen to an indefinite-spirited Cockney without credential who arrived -on an Asiatic flying-machine amidst the war-infuriated population -beyond. - -He still had a lingering solicitude for the bird-faced officer. He had -a haunting fancy he might be lying disabled or badly smashed in some -way in some nook or cranny of the Island; and it was only after a most -exhaustive search that he abandoned that distressing idea. "If I found -'im," he reasoned the while, "what could I do wiv 'im? You can't blow -a chap's brains out when 'e's down. And I don' see 'ow else I can 'elp -'im." - -Then the kitten bothered his highly developed sense of social -responsibility. "If I leave 'er, she'll starve.... Ought to catch mice -for 'erself.... ARE there mice?... Birds?... She's too young.... She's -like me; she's a bit too civilised." - -Finally he stuck her in his side pocket and she became greatly -interested in the memories of corned beef she found there. With her in -his pocket, he seated himself in the saddle of the flying-machine. Big, -clumsy thing it was--and not a bit like a bicycle. Still the working of -it was fairly plain. You set the engine going--SO; kicked yourself -up until the wheel was vertical, SO; engaged the gyroscope, SO, and -then--then--you just pulled up this lever. - -Rather stiff it was, but suddenly it came over-- - -The big curved wings on either side flapped disconcertingly, flapped -again' click, clock, click, clock, clitter-clock! - -Stop! The thing was heading for the water; its wheel was in the water. -Bert groaned from his heart and struggled to restore the lever to its -first position. Click, clock, clitter-clock, he was rising! The machine -was lifting its dripping wheel out of the eddies, and he was going up! -There was no stopping now, no good in stopping now. In another moment -Bert, clutching and convulsive and rigid, with staring eyes and a face -pale as death, was flapping up above the Rapids, jerking to every jerk -of the wings, and rising, rising. - -There was no comparison in dignity and comfort between a flying-machine -and a balloon. Except in its moments of descent, the balloon was a -vehicle of faultless urbanity; this was a buck-jumping mule, a mule that -jumped up and never came down again. Click, clock, click, clock; with -each beat of the strangely shaped wings it jumped Bert upward and -caught him neatly again half a second later on the saddle. And while in -ballooning there is no wind, since the balloon is a part of the wind, -flying is a wild perpetual creation of and plunging into wind. It was -a wind that above all things sought to blind him, to force him to close -his eyes. It occurred to him presently to twist his knees and legs -inward and grip with them, or surely he would have been bumped into two -clumsy halves. And he was going up, a hundred yards high, two hundred, -three hundred, over the streaming, frothing wilderness of water -below--up, up, up. That was all right, but how presently would one go -horizontally? He tried to think if these things did go horizontally. No! -They flapped up and then they soared down. For a time he would keep -on flapping up. Tears streamed from his eyes. He wiped them with one -temerariously disengaged hand. - -Was it better to risk a fall over land or over water--such water? - -He was flapping up above the Upper Rapids towards Buffalo. It was at any -rate a comfort that the Falls and the wild swirl of waters below them -were behind him. He was flying up straight. That he could see. How did -one turn? - -He was presently almost cool, and his eyes got more used to the rush -of air, but he was getting very high, very high. He tilted his head -forwards and surveyed the country, blinking. He could see all over -Buffalo, a place with three great blackened scars of ruin, and hills and -stretches beyond. He wondered if he was half a mile high, or more. -There were some people among some houses near a railway station between -Niagara and Buffalo, and then more people. They went like ants busily -in and out of the houses. He saw two motor cars gliding along the road -towards Niagara city. Then far away in the south he saw a great Asiatic -airship going eastward. "Oh, Gord!" he said, and became earnest in his -ineffectual attempts to alter his direction. But that airship took no -notice of him, and he continued to ascend convulsively. The world got -more and more extensive and maplike. Click, clock, clitter-clock. Above -him and very near to him now was a hazy stratum of cloud. - -He determined to disengage the wing clutch. He did so. The lever -resisted his strength for a time, then over it came, and instantly -the tail of the machine cocked up and the wings became rigidly spread. -Instantly everything was swift and smooth and silent. He was -gliding rapidly down the air against a wild gale of wind, his eyes -three-quarters shut. - -A little lever that had hitherto been obdurate now confessed itself -mobile. He turned it over gently to the right, and whiroo!--the left -wing had in some mysterious way given at its edge and he was sweeping -round and downward in an immense right-handed spiral. For some moments -he experienced all the helpless sensations of catastrophe. He restored -the lever to its middle position with some difficulty, and the wings -were equalised again. - -He turned it to the left and had a sensation of being spun round -backwards. "Too much!" he gasped. - -He discovered that he was rushing down at a headlong pace towards a -railway line and some factory buildings. They appeared to be tearing up -to him to devour him. He must have dropped all that height. For a moment -he had the ineffectual sensations of one whose bicycle bolts downhill. -The ground had almost taken him by surprise. "'Ere!" he cried; and then -with a violent effort of all his being he got the beating engine at work -again and set the wings flapping. He swooped down and up and resumed his -quivering and pulsating ascent of the air. - -He went high again, until he had a wide view of the pleasant upland -country of western New York State, and then made a long coast down, and -so up again, and then a coast. Then as he came swooping a quarter of -a mile above a village he saw people running about, running -away--evidently in relation to his hawk-like passage. He got an idea -that he had been shot at. - -"Up!" he said, and attacked that lever again. It came over with -remarkable docility, and suddenly the wings seemed to give way in the -middle. But the engine was still! It had stopped. He flung the lever -back rather by instinct than design. What to do? - -Much happened in a few seconds, but also his mind was quick, he thought -very quickly. He couldn't get up again, he was gliding down the air; he -would have to hit something. - -He was travelling at the rate of perhaps thirty miles an hour down, -down. - -That plantation of larches looked the softest thing--mossy almost! - -Could he get it? He gave himself to the steering. Round to the -right--left! - -Swirroo! Crackle! He was gliding over the tops of the trees, ploughing -through them, tumbling into a cloud of green sharp leaves and black -twigs. There was a sudden snapping, and he fell off the saddle forward, -a thud and a crashing of branches. Some twigs hit him smartly in the -face.... - -He was between a tree-stem and the saddle, with his leg over the -steering lever and, so far as he could realise, not hurt. He tried to -alter his position and free his leg, and found himself slipping and -dropping through branches with everything giving way beneath him. He -clutched and found himself in the lower branches of a tree beneath the -flying-machine. The air was full of a pleasant resinous smell. He stared -for a moment motionless, and then very carefully clambered down branch -by branch to the soft needle-covered ground below. - -"Good business," he said, looking up at the bent and tilted kite-wings -above. - -"I dropped soft!" - -He rubbed his chin with his hand and meditated. "Blowed if I don't -think I'm a rather lucky fellow!" he said, surveying the pleasant -sun-bespattered ground under the trees. Then he became aware of -a violent tumult at his side. "Lord!" he said, "You must be 'arf -smothered," and extracted the kitten from his pocket-handkerchief and -pocket. She was twisted and crumpled and extremely glad to see the light -again. Her little tongue peeped between her teeth. He put her down, and -she ran a dozen paces and shook herself and stretched and sat up and -began to wash. - -"Nex'?" he said, looking about him, and then with a gesture of vexation, -"Desh it! I ought to 'ave brought that gun!" - -He had rested it against a tree when he had seated himself in the -flying-machine saddle. - -He was puzzled for a time by the immense peacefulness in the quality of -the world, and then he perceived that the roar of the cataract was no -longer in his ears. - -2 - -He had no very clear idea of what sort of people he might come upon -in this country. It was, he knew, America. Americans he had always -understood were the citizens of a great and powerful nation, dry and -humorous in their manner, addicted to the use of the bowie-knife -and revolver, and in the habit of talking through the nose like -Norfolkshire, and saying "allow" and "reckon" and "calculate," after the -manner of the people who live on the New Forest side of Hampshire. Also -they were very rich, had rocking-chairs, and put their feet at unusual -altitudes, and they chewed tobacco, gum, and other substances, with -untiring industry. Commingled with them were cowboys, Red Indians, and -comic, respectful niggers. This he had learnt from the fiction in -his public library. Beyond that he had learnt very little. He was not -surprised therefore when he met armed men. - -He decided to abandon the shattered flying-machine. He wandered through -the trees for some time, and then struck a road that seemed to his urban -English eyes to be remarkably wide but not properly "made." Neither -hedge nor ditch nor curbed distinctive footpath separated it from the -woods, and it went in that long easy curve which distinguishes the -tracks of an open continent. Ahead he saw a man carrying a gun under his -arm, a man in a soft black hat, a blue blouse, and black trousers, -and with a broad round-fat face quite innocent of goatee. This person -regarded him askance and heard him speak with a start. - -"Can you tell me whereabouts I am at all?" asked Bert. - -The man regarded him, and more particularly his rubber boots, with -sinister suspicion. Then he replied in a strange outlandish tongue -that was, as a matter of fact, Czech. He ended suddenly at the sight of -Bert's blank face with "Don't spik English." - -"Oh!" said Bert. He reflected gravely for a moment, and then went his -way. - -"Thenks," he, said as an afterthought. The man regarded his back for a -moment, was struck with an idea, began an abortive gesture, sighed, gave -it up, and went on also with a depressed countenance. - -Presently Bert came to a big wooden house standing casually among the -trees. It looked a bleak, bare box of a house to him, no creeper grew on -it, no hedge nor wall nor fence parted it off from the woods about it. -He stopped before the steps that led up to the door, perhaps thirty -yards away. The place seemed deserted. He would have gone up to the -door and rapped, but suddenly a big black dog appeared at the side and -regarded him. It was a huge heavy-jawed dog of some unfamiliar breed, -and it, wore a spike-studded collar. It did not bark nor approach him, -it just bristled quietly and emitted a single sound like a short, deep -cough. - -Bert hesitated and went on. - -He stopped thirty paces away and stood peering about him among the -trees. "If I 'aven't been and lef' that kitten," he said. - -Acute sorrow wrenched him for a time. The black dog came through the -trees to get a better look at him and coughed that well-bred cough -again. Bert resumed the road. - -"She'll do all right," he said.... "She'll catch things. - -"She'll do all right," he said presently, without conviction. But if it -had not been for the black dog, he would have gone back. - -When he was out of sight of the house and the black dog, he went into -the woods on the other side of the way and emerged after an interval -trimming a very tolerable cudgel with his pocket-knife. Presently he saw -an attractive-looking rock by the track and picked it up and put it in -his pocket. Then he came to three or four houses, wooden like the last, -each with an ill-painted white verandah (that was his name for it) and -all standing in the same casual way upon the ground. Behind, through -the woods, he saw pig-stys and a rooting black sow leading a brisk, -adventurous family. A wild-looking woman with sloe-black eyes and -dishevelled black hair sat upon the steps of one of the houses nursing a -baby, but at the sight of Bert she got up and went inside, and he heard -her bolting the door. Then a boy appeared among the pig-stys, but he -would not understand Bert's hail. - -"I suppose it is America!" said Bert. - -The houses became more frequent down the road, and he passed two other -extremely wild and dirty-looking men without addressing them. One -carried a gun and the other a hatchet, and they scrutinised him and his -cudgel scornfully. Then he struck a cross-road with a mono-rail at its -side, and there was a notice board at the corner with "Wait here for the -cars." "That's all right, any'ow," said Bert. "Wonder 'ow long I should -'ave to wait?" It occurred to him that in the present disturbed state of -the country the service might be interrupted, and as there seemed more -houses to the right than the left he turned to the right. He passed an -old negro. "'Ullo!" said Bert. "Goo' morning!" - -"Good day, sah!" said the old negro, in a voice of almost incredible -richness. - -"What's the name of this place?" asked Bert. - -"Tanooda, sah!" said the negro. - -"Thenks!" said Bert. - -"Thank YOU, sah!" said the negro, overwhelmingly. - -Bert came to houses of the same detached, unwalled, wooden type, but -adorned now with enamelled advertisements partly in English and partly -in Esperanto. Then he came to what he concluded was a grocer's shop. It -was the first house that professed the hospitality of an open door, and -from within came a strangely familiar sound. "Gaw!" he said searching -in his pockets. "Why! I 'aven't wanted money for free weeks! I wonder -if I--Grubb 'ad most of it. Ah!" He produced a handful of coins and -regarded it; three pennies, sixpence, and a shilling. "That's all -right," he said, forgetting a very obvious consideration. - -He approached the door, and as he did so a compactly built, grey-faced -man in shirt sleeves appeared in it and scrutinised him and his cudgel. -"Mornin'," said Bert. "Can I get anything to eat 'r drink in this shop?" - -The man in the door replied, thank Heaven, in clear, good American. -"This, sir, is not A shop, it is A store." - -"Oh!" said Bert, and then, "Well, can I get anything to eat?" - -"You can," said the American in a tone of confident encouragement, and -led the way inside. - -The shop seemed to him by his Bun Hill standards extremely roomy, well -lit, and unencumbered. There was a long counter to the left of him, -with drawers and miscellaneous commodities ranged behind it, a number of -chairs, several tables, and two spittoons to the right, various barrels, -cheeses, and bacon up the vista, and beyond, a large archway leading to -more space. A little group of men was assembled round one of the tables, -and a woman of perhaps five-and-thirty leant with her elbows on the -counter. All the men were armed with rifles, and the barrel of a gun -peeped above the counter. They were all listening idly, inattentively, -to a cheap, metallic-toned gramophone that occupied a table near at -hand. From its brazen throat came words that gave Bert a qualm of -homesickness, that brought back in his memory a sunlit beach, a group of -children, red-painted bicycles, Grubb, and an approaching balloon:-- - -"Ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-ting-a ling-a-tang... What Price Hair-pins -Now?" - -A heavy-necked man in a straw hat, who was chewing something, stopped -the machine with a touch, and they all turned their eyes on Bert. And -all their eyes were tired eyes. - -"Can we give this gentleman anything to eat, mother, or can we not?" -said the proprietor. - -"He kin have what he likes?" said the woman at the counter, without -moving, "right up from a cracker to a square meal." She struggled with a -yawn, after the manner of one who has been up all night. - -"I want a meal," said Bert, "but I 'aven't very much money. I don' want -to give mor'n a shillin'." - -"Mor'n a WHAT?" said the proprietor, sharply. - -"Mor'n a shillin'," said Bert, with a sudden disagreeable realisation -coming into his mind. - -"Yes," said the proprietor, startled for a moment from his courtly -bearing. "But what in hell is a shilling?" - -"He means a quarter," said a wise-looking, lank young man in riding -gaiters. - -Bert, trying to conceal his consternation, produced a coin. "That's a -shilling," he said. - -"He calls A store A shop," said the proprietor, "and he wants A meal for -A shilling. May I ask you, sir, what part of America you hail from?" - -Bert replaced the shilling in his pocket as he spoke, "Niagara," he -said. - -"And when did you leave Niagara?" - -"'Bout an hour ago." - -"Well," said the proprietor, and turned with a puzzled smile to the -others. "Well!" - -They asked various questions simultaneously. - -Bert selected one or two for reply. "You see," he said, "I been with -the German air-fleet. I got caught up by them, sort of by accident, and -brought over here." - -"From England?" - -"Yes--from England. Way of Germany. I was in a great battle with them -Asiatics, and I got lef' on a little island between the Falls." - -"Goat Island?" - -"I don' know what it was called. But any'ow I found a flying-machine and -made a sort of fly with it and got here." - -Two men stood up with incredulous eyes on him. "Where's the -flying-machine?" they asked; "outside?" - -"It's back in the woods here--'bout arf a mile away." - -"Is it good?" said a thick-lipped man with a scar. - -"I come down rather a smash--." - -Everybody got up and stood about him and talked confusingly. They wanted -him to take them to the flying-machine at once. - -"Look 'ere," said Bert, "I'll show you--only I 'aven't 'ad anything to -eat since yestiday--except mineral water." - -A gaunt soldierly-looking young man with long lean legs in riding -gaiters and a bandolier, who had hitherto not spoken, intervened now on -his behalf in a note of confident authority. "That's aw right," he said. -"Give him a feed, Mr. Logan--from me. I want to hear more of that story -of his. We'll see his machine afterwards. If you ask me, I should say -it's a remarkably interesting accident had dropped this gentleman here. -I guess we requisition that flying-machine--if we find it--for local -defence." - -3 - -So Bert fell on his feet again, and sat eating cold meat and good bread -and mustard and drinking very good beer, and telling in the roughest -outline and with the omissions and inaccuracies of statement natural to -his type of mind, the simple story of his adventures. He told how he and -a "gentleman friend" had been visiting the seaside for their health, how -a "chep" came along in a balloon and fell out as he fell in, how he had -drifted to Franconia, how the Germans had seemed to mistake him for some -one and had "took him prisoner" and brought him to New York, how he -had been to Labrador and back, how he had got to Goat Island and -found himself there alone. He omitted the matter of the Prince and the -Butteridge aspect of the affair, not out of any deep deceitfulness, -but because he felt the inadequacy of his narrative powers. He wanted -everything to seem easy and natural and correct, to present himself as a -trustworthy and understandable Englishman in a sound mediocre position, -to whom refreshment and accommodation might be given with freedom and -confidence. When his fragmentary story came to New York and the battle -of Niagara, they suddenly produced newspapers which had been lying about -on the table, and began to check him and question him by these vehement -accounts. It became evident to him that his descent had revived and -roused to flames again a discussion, a topic, that had been burning -continuously, that had smouldered only through sheer exhaustion of -material during the temporary diversion of the gramophone, a discussion -that had drawn these men together, rifle in hand, the one supreme topic -of the whole world, the War and the methods of the War. He found any -question of his personality and his personal adventures falling into the -background, found himself taken for granted, and no more than a source -of information. The ordinary affairs of life, the buying and selling -of everyday necessities, the cultivation of the ground, the tending -of beasts, was going on as it were by force of routine, as the common -duties of life go on in a house whose master lies under the knife of -some supreme operation. The overruling interest was furnished by those -great Asiatic airships that went upon incalculable missions across the -sky, the crimson-clad swordsmen who might come fluttering down demanding -petrol, or food, or news. These men were asking, all the continent was -asking, "What are we to do? What can we try? How can we get at them?" -Bert fell into his place as an item, ceased even in his own thoughts to -be a central and independent thing. - -After he had eaten and drunken his fill and sighed and stretched and -told them how good the food seemed to him, he lit a cigarette they gave -him and led the way, with some doubts and trouble, to the flying-machine -amidst the larches. It became manifest that the gaunt young man, whose -name, it seemed, was Laurier, was a leader both by position and natural -aptitude. He knew the names and characters and capabilities of all the -men who were with him, and he set them to work at once with vigour and -effect to secure this precious instrument of war. They got the thing -down to the ground deliberately and carefully, felling a couple of trees -in the process, and they built a wide flat roof of timbers and tree -boughs to guard their precious find against its chance discovery by any -passing Asiatics. Long before evening they had an engineer from the next -township at work upon it, and they were casting lots among the seventeen -picked men who wanted to take it for its first flight. And Bert found -his kitten and carried it back to Logan's store and handed it with -earnest admonition to Mrs. Logan. And it was reassuringly clear to him -that in Mrs. Logan both he and the kitten had found a congenial soul. - -Laurier was not only a masterful person and a wealthy property owner and -employer--he was president, Bert learnt with awe, of the Tanooda Canning -Corporation--but he was popular and skilful in the arts of popularity. -In the evening quite a crowd of men gathered in the store and talked of -the flying-machine and of the war that was tearing the world to pieces. -And presently came a man on a bicycle with an ill-printed newspaper of a -single sheet which acted like fuel in a blazing furnace of talk. It -was nearly all American news; the old-fashioned cables had fallen into -disuse for some years, and the Marconi stations across the ocean and -along the Atlantic coastline seemed to have furnished particularly -tempting points of attack. - -But such news it was. - -Bert sat in the background--for by this time they had gauged his -personal quality pretty completely--listening. Before his staggering -mind passed strange vast images as they talked, of great issues at a -crisis, of nations in tumultuous march, of continents overthrown, of -famine and destruction beyond measure. Ever and again, in spite of his -efforts to suppress them, certain personal impressions would scamper -across the weltering confusion, the horrible mess of the exploded -Prince, the Chinese aeronaut upside down, the limping and bandaged -bird-faced officer blundering along in miserable and hopeless flight.... - -They spoke of fire and massacre, of cruelties and counter cruelties, of -things that had been done to harmless Asiatics by race-mad men, of the -wholesale burning and smashing up of towns, railway junctions, bridges, -of whole populations in hiding and exodus. "Every ship they've got is in -the Pacific," he heard one man exclaim. "Since the fighting began they -can't have landed on the Pacific slope less than a million men. They've -come to stay in these States, and they will--living or dead." - -Slowly, broadly, invincibly, there grew upon Bert's mind realisation -of the immense tragedy of humanity into which his life was flowing; -the appalling and universal nature of the epoch that had arrived; the -conception of an end to security and order and habit. The whole world -was at war and it could not get back to peace, it might never recover -peace. - -He had thought the things he had seen had been exceptional, conclusive -things, that the besieging of New York and the battle of the Atlantic -were epoch-making events between long years of security. And they had -been but the first warning impacts of universal cataclysm. Each day -destruction and hate and disaster grew, the fissures widened between -man and man, new regions of the fabric of civilisation crumbled and gave -way. Below, the armies grew and the people perished; above, the airships -and aeroplanes fought and fled, raining destruction. - -It is difficult perhaps for the broad-minded and long-perspectived -reader to understand how incredible the breaking down of the scientific -civilisation seemed to those who actually lived at this time, who in -their own persons went down in that debacle. Progress had marched as it -seemed invincible about the earth, never now to rest again. For three -hundred years and more the long steadily accelerated diastole of -Europeanised civilisation had been in progress: towns had been -multiplying, populations increasing, values rising, new countries -developing; thought, literature, knowledge unfolding and spreading. It -seemed but a part of the process that every year the instruments of war -were vaster and more powerful, and that armies and explosives outgrew -all other growing things.... - -Three hundred years of diastole, and then came the swift and unexpected -systole, like the closing of a fist. They could not understand it was -systole. - -They could not think of it as anything but a jolt, a hitch, a mere -oscillatory indication of the swiftness of their progress. Collapse, -though it happened all about them, remained incredible. Presently some -falling mass smote them down, or the ground opened beneath their feet. -They died incredulous.... - -These men in the store made a minute, remote group under this immense -canopy of disaster. They turned from one little aspect to another. What -chiefly concerned them was defence against Asiatic raiders swooping for -petrol or to destroy weapons or communications. Everywhere levies were -being formed at that time to defend the plant of the railroads day and -night in the hope that communication would speedily be restored. The -land war was still far away. A man with a flat voice distinguished -himself by a display of knowledge and cunning. He told them all with -confidence just what had been wrong with the German drachenflieger -and the American aeroplanes, just what advantage the Japanese flyers -possessed. He launched out into a romantic description of the Butteridge -machine and riveted Bert's attention. "I SEE that," said Bert, and was -smitten silent by a thought. The man with the flat voice talked on, -without heeding him, of the strange irony of Butteridge's death. At -that Bert had a little twinge of relief--he would never meet Butteridge -again. It appeared Butteridge had died suddenly, very suddenly. - -"And his secret, sir, perished with him! When they came to look for the -parts--none could find them. He had hidden them all too well." - -"But couldn't he tell?" asked the man in the straw hat. "Did he die so -suddenly as that?" - -"Struck down, sir. Rage and apoplexy. At a place called Dymchurch in -England." - -"That's right," said Laurier. "I remember a page about it in the Sunday -American. At the time they said it was a German spy had stolen his -balloon." - -"Well, sir," said the flat-voiced man, "that fit of apoplexy at -Dyrnchurch was the worst thing--absolutely the worst thing that ever -happened to the world. For if it had not been for the death of Mr. -Butteridge--" - -"No one knows his secret?" - -"Not a soul. It's gone. His balloon, it appears, was lost at sea, with -all the plans. Down it went, and they went with it." - -Pause. - -"With machines such as he made we could fight these Asiatic fliers -on more than equal terms. We could outfly and beat down those scarlet -humming-birds wherever they appeared. But it's gone, it's gone, and -there's no time to reinvent it now. We got to fight with what we -got--and the odds are against us. THAT won't stop us fightin'. No! but -just think of it!" - -Bert was trembling violently. He cleared his throat hoarsely. - -"I say," he said, "look here, I--" - -Nobody regarded him. The man with the flat voice was opening a new -branch of the subject. - -"I allow--" he began. - -Bert became violently excited. He stood up. - -He made clawing motions with his hands. "I say!" he exclaimed, "Mr. -Laurier. Look 'ere--I want--about that Butteridge machine--." - -Mr. Laurier, sitting on an adjacent table, with a magnificent gesture, -arrested the discourse of the flat-voiced man. "What's HE saying?" said -he. - -Then the whole company realised that something was happening to Bert; -either he was suffocating or going mad. He was spluttering. - -"Look 'ere! I say! 'Old on a bit!" and trembling and eagerly unbuttoning -himself. - -He tore open his collar and opened vest and shirt. He plunged into his -interior and for an instant it seemed he was plucking forth his liver. -Then as he struggled with buttons on his shoulder they perceived this -flattened horror was in fact a terribly dirty flannel chest-protector. -In an other moment Bert, in a state of irregular decolletage, was -standing over the table displaying a sheaf of papers. - -"These!" he gasped. "These are the plans!... You know! Mr. -Butteridge--his machine! What died! I was the chap that went off in that -balloon!" - -For some seconds every one was silent. They stared from these papers to -Bert's white face and blazing eyes, and back to the papers on the table. -Nobody moved. Then the man with the flat voice spoke. - -"Irony!" he said, with a note of satisfaction. "Real rightdown Irony! -When it's too late to think of making 'em any more!" - -4 - -They would all no doubt have been eager to hear Bert's story over again, -but it was it this point that Laurier showed his quality. "No, SIR," he -said, and slid from off his table. - -He impounded the dispersing Butteridge plans with one comprehensive -sweep of his arm, rescuing them even from the expository finger-marks of -the man with the flat voice, and handed them to Bert. "Put those back," -he said, "where you had 'em. We have a journey before us." - -Bert took them. - -"Whar?" said the man in the straw hat. - -"Why, sir, we are going to find the President of these States and give -these plans over to him. I decline to believe, sir, we are too late." - -"Where is the President?" asked Bert weakly in that pause that followed. - -"Logan," said Laurier, disregarding that feeble inquiry, "you must help -us in this." - -It seemed only a matter of a few minutes before Bert and Laurier and the -storekeeper were examining a number of bicycles that were stowed in the -hinder room of the store. Bert didn't like any of them very much. They -had wood rims and an experience of wood rims in the English climate had -taught him to hate them. That, however, and one or two other objections -to an immediate start were overruled by Laurier. "But where IS the -President?" Bert repeated as they stood behind Logan while he pumped up -a deflated tyre. - -Laurier looked down on him. "He is reported in the neighbourhood of -Albany--out towards the Berkshire Hills. He is moving from place to -place and, as far as he can, organising the defence by telegraph and -telephones The Asiatic air-fleet is trying to locate him. When they -think they have located the seat of government, they throw bombs. This -inconveniences him, but so far they have not come within ten miles of -him. The Asiatic air-fleet is at present scattered all over the -Eastern States, seeking out and destroying gas-works and whatever seems -conducive to the building of airships or the transport of troops. -Our retaliatory measures are slight in the extreme. But with these -machines--Sir, this ride of ours will count among the historical rides -of the world!" - -He came near to striking an attitude. "We shan't get to him to-night?" -asked Bert. - -"No, sir!" said Laurier. "We shall have to ride some days, sure!" - -"And suppose we can't get a lift on a train--or anything?" - -"No, sir! There's been no transit by Tanooda for three days. It is no -good waiting. We shall have to get on as well as we can." - -"Startin' now?" - -"Starting now!" - -"But 'ow about--We shan't be able to do much to-night." - -"May as well ride till we're fagged and sleep then. So much clear gain. -Our road is eastward." - -"Of course," began Bert, with memories of the dawn upon Goat Island, and -left his sentence unfinished. - -He gave his attention to the more scientific packing of the -chest-protector, for several of the plans flapped beyond his vest. - -5 - -For a week Bert led a life of mixed sensations. Amidst these fatigue -in the legs predominated. Mostly he rode, rode with Laurier's back -inexorably ahead, through a land like a larger England, with bigger -hills and wider valleys, larger fields, wider roads, fewer hedges, and -wooden houses with commodious piazzas. He rode. Laurier made inquiries, -Laurier chose the turnings, Laurier doubted, Laurier decided. Now it -seemed they were in telephonic touch with the President; now something -had happened and he was lost again. But always they had to go on, and -always Bert rode. A tyre was deflated. Still he rode. He grew saddle -sore. Laurier declared that unimportant. Asiatic flying ships passed -overhead, the two cyclists made a dash for cover until the sky was -clear. Once a red Asiatic flying-machine came fluttering after them, so -low they could distinguish the aeronaut's head. He followed them for a -mile. Now they came to regions of panic, now to regions of destruction; -here people were fighting for food, here they seemed hardly stirred -from the countryside routine. They spent a day in a deserted and -damaged Albany. The Asiatics had descended and cut every wire and made a -cinder-heap of the Junction, and our travellers pushed on eastward. -They passed a hundred half-heeded incidents, and always Bert was toiling -after Laurier's indefatigable back.... - -Things struck upon Bert's attention and perplexed him, and then he -passed on with unanswered questionings fading from his mind. - -He saw a large house on fire on a hillside to the right, and no man -heeding it.... - -They came to a narrow railroad bridge and presently to a mono-rail train -standing in the track on its safety feet. It was a remarkably sumptuous -train, the Last Word Trans-Continental Express, and the passengers were -all playing cards or sleeping or preparing a picnic meal on a grassy -slope near at hand. They had been there six days.... - -At one point ten dark-complexioned men were hanging in a string from the -trees along the roadside. Bert wondered why.... - -At one peaceful-looking village where they stopped off to get Bert's -tyre mended and found beer and biscuits, they were approached by an -extremely dirty little boy without boots, who spoke as follows:-- - -"Deyse been hanging a Chink in dose woods!" - -"Hanging a Chinaman?" said Laurier. - -"Sure. Der sleuths got him rubberin' der rail-road sheds!" - -"Oh!" - -"Dose guys done wase cartridges. Deyse hung him and dey pulled his legs. -Deyse doin' all der Chinks dey can fine dat weh! Dey ain't takin' no -risks. All der Chinks dey can fine." - -Neither Bert nor Laurier made any reply, and presently, after a -little skilful expectoration, the young gentleman was attracted by -the appearance of two of his friends down the road and shuffled off, -whooping weirdly.... - -That afternoon they almost ran over a man shot through the body and -partly decomposed, lying near the middle of the road, just outside -Albany. He must have been lying there for some days.... - -Beyond Albany they came upon a motor car with a tyre burst and a young -woman sitting absolutely passive beside the driver's seat. An old man -was under the car trying to effect some impossible repairs. Beyond, -sitting with a rifle across his knees, with his back to the car, and -staring into the woods, was a young man. - -The old man crawled out at their approach and still on all-fours -accosted Bert and Laurier. The car had broken down overnight. The old -man, said he could not understand what was wrong, but he was trying -to puzzle it out. Neither he nor his son-in-law had any mechanical -aptitude. They had been assured this was a fool-proof car. It was -dangerous to have to stop in this place. The party had been attacked -by tramps and had had to fight. It was known they had provisions. He -mentioned a great name in the world of finance. Would Laurier and Bert -stop and help him? He proposed it first hopefully, then urgently, at -last in tears and terror. - -"No!" said Laurier inexorable. "We must go on! We have something more -than a woman to save. We have to save America!" - -The girl never stirred. - -And once they passed a madman singing. - -And at last they found the President hiding in a small saloon upon the -outskirts of a place called Pinkerville on the Hudson, and gave the -plans of the Butteridge machine into his hands. - - - -CHAPTER XI. THE GREAT COLLAPSE - -1 - -And now the whole fabric of civilisation was bending and giving, and -dropping to pieces and melting in the furnace of the war. - -The stages of the swift and universal collapse of the financial and -scientific civilisation with which the twentieth century opened followed -each other very swiftly, so swiftly that upon the foreshortened page of -history--they seem altogether to overlap. To begin with, one sees the -world nearly at a maximum wealth and prosperity. To its inhabitants -indeed it seemed also at a maximum of security. When now in retrospect -the thoughtful observer surveys the intellectual history of this time, -when one reads its surviving fragments of literature, its scraps of -political oratory, the few small voices that chance has selected out of -a thousand million utterances to speak to later days, the most striking -thing of all this web of wisdom and error is surely that hallucination -of security. To men living in our present world state, orderly, -scientific and secured, nothing seems so precarious, so giddily -dangerous, as the fabric of the social order with which the men of the -opening of the twentieth century were content. To us it seems that every -institution and relationship was the fruit of haphazard and tradition -and the manifest sport of chance, their laws each made for some separate -occasion and having no relation to any future needs, their customs -illogical, their education aimless and wasteful. Their method of -economic exploitation indeed impresses a trained and informed mind as -the most frantic and destructive scramble it is possible to conceive; -their credit and monetary system resting on an unsubstantial tradition -of the worthiness of gold, seems a thing almost fantastically unstable. -And they lived in planless cities, for the most part dangerously -congested; their rails and roads and population were distributed over -the earth in the wanton confusion ten thousand irrevelant considerations -had made. - -Yet they thought confidently that this was a secure and permanent -progressive system, and on the strength of some three hundred years -of change and irregular improvement answered the doubter with, "Things -always have gone well. We'll worry through!" - -But when we contrast the state of man in the opening of the twentieth -century with the condition of any previous period in his history, then -perhaps we may begin to understand something of that blind confidence. -It was not so much a reasoned confidence as the inevitable consequence -of sustained good fortune. By such standards as they possessed, things -HAD gone amazingly well for them. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say -that for the first time in history whole populations found themselves -regularly supplied with more than enough to eat, and the vital -statistics of the time witness to an amelioration of hygienic conditions -rapid beyond all precedent, and to a vast development of intelligence -and ability in all the arts that make life wholesome. The level and -quality of the average education had risen tremendously; and at the dawn -of the twentieth century comparatively few people in Western Europe or -America were unable to read or write. Never before had there been such -reading masses. There was wide social security. A common man might -travel safely over three-quarters of the habitable globe, could go -round the earth at a cost of less than the annual earnings of a skilled -artisan. Compared with the liberality and comfort of the ordinary life -of the time, the order of the Roman Empire under the Antonines was local -and limited. And every year, every month, came some new increment to -human achievement, a new country opened up, new mines, new scientific -discoveries, a new machine! - -For those three hundred years, indeed, the movement of the world seemed -wholly beneficial to mankind. Men said, indeed, that moral organisation -was not keeping pace with physical progress, but few attached any -meaning to these phrases, the understanding of which lies at the basis -of our present safety. Sustaining and constructive forces did indeed -for a time more than balance the malign drift of chance and the natural -ignorance, prejudice, blind passion, and wasteful self-seeking of -mankind. - -The accidental balance on the side of Progress was far slighter and -infinitely more complex and delicate in its adjustments than the people -of that time suspected; but that did not alter the fact that it was an -effective balance. They did not realise that this age of relative good -fortune was an age of immense but temporary opportunity for their kind. -They complacently assumed a necessary progress towards which they had -no moral responsibility. They did not realise that this security of -progress was a thing still to be won--or lost, and that the time to win -it was a time that passed. They went about their affairs energetically -enough and yet with a curious idleness towards those threatening things. -No one troubled over the real dangers of mankind. They, saw their armies -and navies grow larger and more portentous; some of their ironclads -at the last cost as much as the whole annual expenditure upon advanced -education; they accumulated explosives and the machinery of destruction; -they allowed their national traditions and jealousies to accumulate; -they contemplated a steady enhancement of race hostility as the races -drew closer without concern or understanding, and they permitted -the growth in their midst of an evil-spirited press, mercenary and -unscrupulous, incapable of good, and powerful for evil. The State had -practically no control over the press at all. Quite heedlessly they -allowed this torch-paper to lie at the door of their war magazine for -any spark to fire. The precedents of history were all one tale of the -collapse of civilisations, the dangers of the time were manifest. One is -incredulous now to believe they could not see. - -Could mankind have prevented this disaster of the War in the Air? - -An idle question that, as idle as to ask could mankind have prevented -the decay that turned Assyria and Babylon to empty deserts or the slow -decline and fall, the gradual social disorganisation, phase by phase, -that closed the chapter of the Empire of the West! They could not, -because they did not, they had not the will to arrest it. What mankind -could achieve with a different will is a speculation as idle as it -is magnificent. And this was no slow decadence that came to the -Europeanised world; those other civilisations rotted and crumbled down, -the Europeanised civilisation was, as it were, blown up. Within the -space of five years it was altogether disintegrated and destroyed. Up -to the very eve of the War in the Air one sees a spacious spectacle of -incessant advance, a world-wide security, enormous areas with highly -organised industry and settled populations, gigantic cities spreading -gigantically, the seas and oceans dotted with shipping, the land netted -with rails, and open ways. Then suddenly the German air-fleets sweep -across the scene, and we are in the beginning of the end. - -2 - -This story has already told of the swift rush upon New York of the -first German air-fleet and of the wild, inevitable orgy of inconclusive -destruction that ensued. Behind it a second air-fleet was already -swelling at its gasometers when England and France and Spain and Italy -showed their hands. None of these countries had prepared for aeronautic -warfare on the magnificent scale of the Germans, but each guarded -secrets, each in a measure was making ready, and a common dread of -German vigour and that aggressive spirit Prince Karl Albert embodied, -had long been drawing these powers together in secret anticipation of -some such attack. This rendered their prompt co-operation possible, and -they certainly co-operated promptly. The second aerial power in Europe -at this time was France; the British, nervous for their Asiatic -empire, and sensible of the immense moral effect of the airship upon -half-educated populations, had placed their aeronautic parks in North -India, and were able to play but a subordinate part in the European -conflict. Still, even in England they had nine or ten big navigables, -twenty or thirty smaller ones, and a variety of experimental aeroplanes. -Before the fleet of Prince Karl Albert had crossed England, while -Bert was still surveying Manchester in bird's-eye view, the diplomatic -exchanges were going on that led to an attack upon Germany. A -heterogeneous collection of navigable balloons of all sizes and types -gathered over the Bernese Oberland, crushed and burnt the twenty-five -Swiss air-ships that unexpectedly resisted this concentration in the -battle of the Alps, and then, leaving the Alpine glaciers and valleys -strewn with strange wreckage, divided into two fleets and set itself -to terrorise Berlin and destroy the Franconian Park, seeking to do this -before the second air-fleet could be inflated. - -Both over Berlin and Franconia the assailants with their modern -explosives effected great damage before they were driven off. In -Franconia twelve fully distended and five partially filled and manned -giants were able to make head against and at last, with the help of a -squadron of drachenflieger from Hamburg, defeat and pursue the attack -and to relieve Berlin, and the Germans were straining every nerve to get -an overwhelming fleet in the air, and were already raiding London and -Paris when the advance fleets from the Asiatic air-parks, the first -intimation of a new factor in the conflict, were reported from Burmah -and Armenia. - -Already the whole financial fabric of the world was staggering when -that occurred. With the destruction of the American fleet in the North -Atlantic, and the smashing conflict that ended the naval existence of -Germany in the North Sea, with the burning and wrecking of billions of -pounds' worth of property in the four cardinal cities of the world, the -fact of the hopeless costliness of war came home for the first time, -came, like a blow in the face, to the consciousness of mankind. Credit -went down in a wild whirl of selling. Everywhere appeared a phenomenon -that had already in a mild degree manifested itself in preceding periods -of panic; a desire to SECURE AND HOARD GOLD before prices reached -bottom. But now it spread like wild-fire, it became universal. Above was -visible conflict and destruction; below something was happening far more -deadly and incurable to the flimsy fabric of finance and commercialism -in which men had so blindly put their trust. As the airships fought -above, the visible gold supply of the world vanished below. An epidemic -of private cornering and universal distrust swept the world. In a few -weeks, money, except for depreciated paper, vanished into vaults, into -holes, into the walls of houses, into ten million hiding-places. Money -vanished, and at its disappearance trade and industry came to an end. -The economic world staggered and fell dead. It was like the stroke -of some disease it was like the water vanishing out of the blood of -a living creature; it was a sudden, universal coagulation of -intercourse.... - -And as the credit system, that had been the living fortress of the -scientific civilisation, reeled and fell upon the millions it had -held together in economic relationship, as these people, perplexed and -helpless, faced this marvel of credit utterly destroyed, the airships -of Asia, countless and relentless, poured across the heavens, swooped -eastward to America and westward to Europe. The page of history -becomes a long crescendo of battle. The main body of the British-Indian -air-fleet perished upon a pyre of blazing antagonists in Burmah; the -Germans were scattered in the great battle of the Carpathians; the vast -peninsula of India burst into insurrection and civil war from end to -end, and from Gobi to Morocco rose the standards of the "Jehad." -For some weeks of warfare and destruction it seemed as though the -Confederation of Eastern Asia must needs conquer the world, and then -the jerry-built "modern" civilisation of China too gave way under -the strain. The teeming and peaceful population of China had been -"westernised" during the opening years of the twentieth century with -the deepest resentment and reluctance; they had been dragooned and -disciplined under Japanese and European--influence into an acquiescence -with sanitary methods, police controls, military service, and wholesale -process of exploitation against which their whole tradition rebelled. -Under the stresses of the war their endurance reached the breaking -point, the whole of China rose in incoherent revolt, and the practical -destruction of the central government at Pekin by a handful of British -and German airships that had escaped from the main battles rendered that -revolt invincible. In Yokohama appeared barricades, the black flag and -the social revolution. With that the whole world became a welter of -conflict. - -So that a universal social collapse followed, as it were a logical -consequence, upon world-wide war. Wherever there were great populations, -great masses of people found themselves without work, without money, -and unable to get food. Famine was in every working-class quarter in -the world within three weeks of the beginning of the war. Within a -month there was not a city anywhere in which the ordinary law and social -procedure had not been replaced by some form of emergency control, in -which firearms and military executions were not being used to keep -order and prevent violence. And still in the poorer quarters, and in the -populous districts, and even here and there already among those who had -been wealthy, famine spread. - -3 - -So what historians have come to call the Phase of the Emergency -Committees sprang from the opening phase and from the phase of social -collapse. Then followed a period of vehement and passionate conflict -against disintegration; everywhere the struggle to keep order and to -keep fighting went on. And at the same time the character of the war -altered through the replacement of the huge gas-filled airships by -flying-machines as the instruments of war. So soon as the big fleet -engagements were over, the Asiatics endeavoured to establish in close -proximity to the more vulnerable points of the countries against which -they were acting, fortified centres from which flying-machine raids -could be made. For a time they had everything their own way in this, and -then, as this story has told, the lost secret of the Butteridge machine -came to light, and the conflict became equalized and less conclusive -than ever. For these small flying-machines, ineffectual for any large -expedition or conclusive attack, were horribly convenient for guerilla -warfare, rapidly and cheaply made, easily used, easily hidden. The -design of them was hastily copied and printed in Pinkerville and -scattered broadcast over the United States and copies were sent to -Europe, and there reproduced. Every man, every town, every parish that -could, was exhorted to make and use them. In a little while they were -being constructed not only by governments and local authorities, but by -robber bands, by insurgent committees, by every type of private person. -The peculiar social destructiveness of the Butteridge machine lay in -its complete simplicity. It was nearly as simple as a motor-bicycle. The -broad outlines of the earlier stages of the war disappeared under its -influence, the spacious antagonism of nations and empires and races -vanished in a seething mass of detailed conflict. The world passed at a -stride from a unity and simplicity broader than that of the Roman Empire -at its best, to as social fragmentation as complete as the robber-baron -period of the Middle Ages. But this time, for a long descent down -gradual slopes of disintegration, comes a fall like a fall over a cliff. -Everywhere were men and women perceiving this and struggling desperately -to keep as it were a hold upon the edge of the cliff. - -A fourth phase follows. Through the struggle against Chaos, in the wake -of the Famine, came now another old enemy of humanity--the Pestilence, -the Purple Death. But the war does not pause. The flags still fly. -Fresh air-fleets rise, new forms of airship, and beneath their swooping -struggles the world darkens--scarcely heeded by history. - -It is not within the design of this book to tell what further story, to -tell how the War in the Air kept on through the sheer inability of -any authorities to meet and agree and end it, until every organised -government in the world was as shattered and broken as a heap of china -beaten with a stick. With every week of those terrible years history -becomes more detailed and confused, more crowded and uncertain. Not -without great and heroic resistance was civilisation borne down. Out -of the bitter social conflict below rose patriotic associations, -brotherhoods of order, city mayors, princes, provisional committees, -trying to establish an order below and to keep the sky above. The double -effort destroyed them. And as the exhaustion of the mechanical resources -of civilisation clears the heavens of airships at last altogether, -Anarchy, Famine and Pestilence are discovered triumphant below. The -great nations and empires have become but names in the mouths of men. -Everywhere there are ruins and unburied dead, and shrunken, yellow-faced -survivors in a mortal apathy. Here there are robbers, here vigilance -committees, and here guerilla bands ruling patches of exhausted -territory, strange federations and brotherhoods form and dissolve, and -religious fanaticisms begotten of despair gleam in famine-bright eyes. -It is a universal dissolution. The fine order and welfare of the earth -have crumpled like an exploded bladder. In five short years the world -and the scope of human life have undergone a retrogressive change as -great as that between the age of the Antonines and the Europe of the -ninth century.... - -4 - -Across this sombre spectacle of disaster goes a minute and insignificant -person for whom perhaps the readers of this story have now some -slight solicitude. Of him there remains to be told just one single -and miraculous thing. Through a world darkened and lost, through a -civilisation in its death agony, our little Cockney errant went and -found his Edna! He found his Edna! - -He got back across the Atlantic partly by means of an order from the -President and partly through his own good luck. He contrived to get -himself aboard a British brig in the timber trade that put out from -Boston without cargo, chiefly, it would seem, because its captain had -a vague idea of "getting home" to South Shields. Bert was able to ship -himself upon her mainly because of the seamanlike appearance of his -rubber boots. They had a long, eventful voyage; they were chased, or -imagined themselves to be chased, for some hours by an Asiatic ironclad, -which was presently engaged by a British cruiser. The two ships fought -for three hours, circling and driving southward as they fought, until -the twilight and the cloud-drift of a rising gale swallowed them up. A -few days later Bert's ship lost her rudder and mainmast in a gale. The -crew ran out of food and subsisted on fish. They saw strange air-ships -going eastward near the Azores and landed to get provisions and repair -the rudder at Teneriffe. There they found the town destroyed and two big -liners, with dead still aboard, sunken in the harbour. From there they -got canned food and material for repairs, but their operations were -greatly impeded by the hostility of a band of men amidst the ruins of -the town, who sniped them and tried to drive them away. - -At Mogador, they stayed and sent a boat ashore for water, and were -nearly captured by an Arab ruse. Here too they got the Purple Death -aboard, and sailed with it incubating in their blood. The cook sickened -first, and then the mate, and presently every one was down and three -in the forecastle were dead. It chanced to be calm weather, and they -drifted helplessly and indeed careless of their fate backwards towards -the Equator. The captain doctored them all with rum. Nine died all -together, and of the four survivors none understood navigation; when at -last they took heart again and could handle a sail, they made a course -by the stars roughly northward and were already short of food once -more when they fell in with a petrol-driven ship from Rio to Cardiff, -shorthanded by reason of the Purple Death and glad to take them aboard. -So at last, after a year of wandering Bert reached England. He landed in -bright June weather, and found the Purple Death was there just beginning -its ravages. - -The people were in a state of panic in Cardiff and many had fled to the -hills, and directly the steamer came to the harbour she was boarded -and her residue of food impounded by some unauthenticated Provisional -Committee. Bert tramped through a country disorganised by pestilence, -foodless, and shaken to the very base of its immemorial order. He came -near death and starvation many times, and once he was drawn into scenes -of violence that might have ended his career. But the Bert Smallways -who tramped from Cardiff to London vaguely "going home," vaguely seeking -something of his own that had no tangible form but Edna, was a very -different person from the Desert Dervish who was swept out of England -in Mr. Butteridge's balloon a year before. He was brown and lean and -enduring, steady-eyed and pestilence-salted, and his mouth, which had -once hung open, shut now like a steel trap. Across his brow ran a white -scar that he had got in a fight on the brig. In Cardiff he had felt -the need of new clothes and a weapon, and had, by means that would have -shocked him a year ago, secured a flannel shirt, a corduroy suit, and -a revolver and fifty cartridges from an abandoned pawnbroker's. He -also got some soap and had his first real wash for thirteen months in -a stream outside the town. The Vigilance bands that had at first shot -plunderers very freely were now either entirely dispersed by the plague, -or busy between town and cemetery in a vain attempt to keep pace with -it. He prowled on the outskirts of the town for three or four days, -starving, and then went back to join the Hospital Corps for a week, and -so fortified himself with a few square meals before he started eastward. - -The Welsh and English countryside at that time presented the strangest -mingling of the assurance and wealth of the opening twentieth century -with a sort of Dureresque medievalism. All the gear, the houses and -mono-rails, the farm hedges and power cables, the roads and pavements, -the sign-posts and advertisements of the former order were still for the -most part intact. Bankruptcy, social collapse, famine, and pestilence -had done nothing to damage these, and it was only to the great capitals -and ganglionic centres, as it were, of this State, that positive -destruction had come. Any one dropped suddenly into the country would -have noticed very little difference. He would have remarked first, -perhaps, that all the hedges needed clipping, that the roadside grass -grew rank, that the road-tracks were unusually rainworn, and that the -cottages by the wayside seemed in many cases shut up, that a telephone -wire had dropped here, and that a cart stood abandoned by the wayside. -But he would still find his hunger whetted by the bright assurance that -Wilder's Canned Peaches were excellent, or that there was nothing so -good for the breakfast table as Gobble's Sausages. And then suddenly -would come the Dureresque element; the skeleton of a horse, or some -crumpled mass of rags in the ditch, with gaunt extended feet and a -yellow, purple-blotched skin and face, or what had been a face, gaunt -and glaring and devastated. Then here would be a field that had been -ploughed and not sown, and here a field of corn carelessly trampled by -beasts, and here a hoarding torn down across the road to make a fire. - -Then presently he would meet a man or a woman, yellow-faced and probably -negligently dressed and armed--prowling for food. These people would -have the complexions and eyes and expressions of tramps or criminals, -and often the clothing of prosperous middle-class or upper-class people. -Many of these would be eager for news, and willing to give help and even -scraps of queer meat, or crusts of grey and doughy bread, in return for -it. They would listen to Bert's story with avidity, and attempt to -keep him with them for a day or so. The virtual cessation of postal -distribution and the collapse of all newspaper enterprise had left an -immense and aching gap in the mental life of this time. Men had suddenly -lost sight of the ends of the earth and had still to recover the -rumour-spreading habits of the Middle Ages. In their eyes, in their -bearing, in their talk, was the quality of lost and deoriented souls. - -As Bert travelled from parish to parish, and from district to district, -avoiding as far as possible those festering centres of violence and -despair, the larger towns, he found the condition of affairs varying -widely. In one parish he would find the large house burnt, the vicarage -wrecked, evidently in violent conflict for some suspected and perhaps -imaginary store of food unburied dead everywhere, and the whole -mechanism of the community at a standstill. In another he would find -organising forces stoutly at work, newly-painted notice boards warning -off vagrants, the roads and still cultivated fields policed by armed -men, the pestilence under control, even nursing going on, a store of -food husbanded, the cattle and sheep well guarded, and a group of two -or three justices, the village doctor or a farmer, dominating the -whole place; a reversion, in fact, to the autonomous community of the -fifteenth century. But at any time such a village would be liable to a -raid of Asiatics or Africans or such-like air-pirates, demanding -petrol and alcohol or provisions. The price of its order was an almost -intolerable watchfulness and tension. - -Then the approach to the confused problems of some larger centre of -population and the presence of a more intricate conflict would be marked -by roughly smeared notices of "Quarantine" or "Strangers Shot," or by a -string of decaying plunderers dangling from the telephone poles at the -roadside. About Oxford big boards were put on the roofs warning all air -wanderers off with the single word, "Guns." - -Taking their risks amidst these things, cyclists still kept abroad, and -once or twice during Bert's long tramp powerful motor cars containing -masked and goggled figures went tearing past him. There were few -police in evidence, but ever and again squads of gaunt and tattered -soldier-cyclists would come drifting along, and such encounters became -more frequent as he got out of Wales into England. Amidst all this -wreckage they were still campaigning. He had had some idea of resorting -to the workhouses for the night if hunger pressed him too closely, but -some of these were closed and others converted into temporary hospitals, -and one he came up to at twilight near a village in Gloucestershire -stood with all its doors and windows open, silent as the grave, and, as -he found to his horror by stumbling along evil-smelling corridors, full -of unburied dead. - -From Gloucestershire Bert went northward to the British aeronautic park -outside Birmingham, in the hope that he might be taken on and given -food, for there the Government, or at any rate the War Office, still -existed as an energetic fact, concentrated amidst collapse and social -disaster upon the effort to keep the British flag still flying in -the air, and trying to brisk up mayor and mayor and magistrate and -magistrate in a new effort of organisation. They had brought together -all the best of the surviving artisans from that region, they had -provisioned the park for a siege, and they were urgently building a -larger type of Butteridge machine. Bert could get no footing at this -work: he was not sufficiently skilled, and he had drifted to Oxford when -the great fight occurred in which these works were finally wrecked. He -saw something, but not very much, of the battle from a place called -Boar Hill. He saw the Asiatic squadron coming up across the hills to the -south-west, and he saw one of their airships circling southward again -chased by two aeroplanes, the one that was ultimately overtaken, wrecked -and burnt at Edge Hill. But he never learnt the issue of the combat as a -whole. - -He crossed the Thames from Eton to Windsor and made his way round the -south of London to Bun Hill, and there he found his brother Tom, looking -like some dark, defensive animal in the old shop, just recovering from -the Purple Death, and Jessica upstairs delirious, and, as it seemed to -him, dying grimly. She raved of sending out orders to customers, and -scolded Tom perpetually lest he should be late with Mrs. Thompson's -potatoes and Mrs. Hopkins' cauliflower, though all business had long -since ceased and Tom had developed a quite uncanny skill in the snaring -of rats and sparrows and the concealment of certain stores of cereals -and biscuits from plundered grocers' shops. Tom received his brother -with a sort of guarded warmth. - -"Lor!" he said, "it's Bert. I thought you'd be coming back some day, and -I'm glad to see you. But I carn't arst you to eat anything, because I -'aven't got anything to eat.... Where you been, Bert, all this time?" - -Bert reassured his brother by a glimpse of a partly eaten swede, and was -still telling his story in fragments and parentheses, when he discovered -behind the counter a yellow and forgotten note addressed to himself. -"What's this?" he said, and found it was a year-old note from Edna. "She -came 'ere," said Tom, like one who recalls a trivial thing, "arstin' for -you and arstin' us to take 'er in. That was after the battle and settin' -Clapham Rise afire. I was for takin' 'er in, but Jessica wouldn't 'ave -it--and so she borrowed five shillings of me quiet like and went on. I -dessay she's tole you--" - -She had, Bert found. She had gone on, she said in her note, to an aunt -and uncle who had a brickfield near Horsham. And there at last, after -another fortnight of adventurous journeying, Bert found her. - -5 - -When Bert and Edna set eyes on one another, they stared and laughed -foolishly, so changed they were, and so ragged and surprised. And then -they both fell weeping. - -"Oh! Bertie, boy!" she cried. "You've come--you've come!" and put out -her arms and staggered. "I told 'im. He said he'd kill me if I didn't -marry him." - -But Edna was not married, and when presently Bert could get talk from -her, she explained the task before him. That little patch of lonely -agricultural country had fallen under the power of a band of bullies -led by a chief called Bill Gore who had begun life as a butcher boy and -developed into a prize-fighter and a professional sport. They had been -organised by a local nobleman of former eminence upon the turf, but -after a time he had disappeared, no one quite knew how and Bill had -succeeded to the leadership of the countryside, and had developed his -teacher's methods with considerable vigour. There had been a strain -of advanced philosophy about the local nobleman, and his mind ran to -"improving the race" and producing the Over-Man, which in practice -took the form of himself especially and his little band in moderation -marrying with some frequency. Bill followed up the idea with an -enthusiasm that even trenched upon his popularity with his followers. -One day he had happened upon Edna tending her pigs, and had at once -fallen a-wooing with great urgency among the troughs of slush. Edna -had made a gallant resistance, but he was still vigorously about and -extraordinarily impatient. He might, she said, come at any time, and she -looked Bert in the eyes. They were back already in the barbaric stage -when a man must fight for his love. - -And here one deplores the conflicts of truth with the chivalrous -tradition. One would like to tell of Bert sallying forth to challenge -his rival, of a ring formed and a spirited encounter, and Bert by some -miracle of pluck and love and good fortune winning. But indeed nothing -of the sort occurred. Instead, he reloaded his revolver very carefully, -and then sat in the best room of the cottage by the derelict brickfield, -looking anxious and perplexed, and listening to talk about Bill and his -ways, and thinking, thinking. Then suddenly Edna's aunt, with a thrill -in her voice, announced the appearance of that individual. He was coming -with two others of his gang through the garden gate. Bert got up, put -the woman aside, and looked out. They presented remarkable figures. -They wore a sort of uniform of red golfing jackets and white sweaters, -football singlet, and stockings and boots and each had let his fancy -play about his head-dress. Bill had a woman's hat full of cock's -feathers, and all had wild, slouching cowboy brims. - -Bert sighed and stood up, deeply thoughtful, and Edna watched him, -marvelling. The women stood quite still. He left the window, and went -out into the passage rather slowly, and with the careworn expression of -a man who gives his mind to a complex and uncertain business. "Edna!" he -called, and when she came he opened the front door. - -He asked very simply, and pointing to the foremost of the three, "That -'im?... Sure?"... and being told that it was, shot his rival instantly -and very accurately through the chest. He then shot Bill's best man much -less tidily in the head, and then shot at and winged the third man as he -fled. The third gentleman yelped, and continued running with a comical -end-on twist. - -Then Bert stood still meditating, with the pistol in his hand, and quite -regardless of the women behind him. - -So far things had gone well. - -It became evident to him that if he did not go into politics at once, -he would be hanged as an assassin and accordingly, and without a word -to the women, he went down to the village public-house he had passed an -hour before on his way to Edna, entered it from the rear, and confronted -the little band of ambiguous roughs, who were drinking in the tap-room -and discussing matrimony and Bill's affection in a facetious but envious -manner, with a casually held but carefully reloaded revolver, and -an invitation to join what he called, I regret to say, a "Vigilance -Committee" under his direction. "It's wanted about 'ere, and some of us -are gettin' it up." He presented himself as one having friends outside, -though indeed, he had no friends at all in the world but Edna and her -aunt and two female cousins. - -There was a quick but entirely respectful discussion of the situation. -They thought him a lunatic who had tramped into, this neighbourhood -ignorant of Bill. They desired to temporise until their leader came. -Bill would settle him. Some one spoke of Bill. - -"Bill's dead, I jest shot 'im," said Bert. "We don't need reckon with -'IM. 'E's shot, and a red-'aired chap with a squint, 'E'S shot. We've -settled up all that. There ain't going to be no more Bill, ever. 'E'd -got wrong ideas about marriage and things. It's 'is sort of chap we're -after." - -That carried the meeting. - -Bill was perfunctorily buried, and Bert's Vigilance Committee (for so it -continued to be called) reigned in his stead. - -That is the end of this story so far as Bert Smallways is concerned. -We leave him with his Edna to become squatters among the clay and oak -thickets of the Weald, far away from the stream of events. From that -time forth life became a succession of peasant encounters, an affair of -pigs and hens and small needs and little economies and children, until -Clapham and Bun Hill and all the life of the Scientific Age became to -Bert no more than the fading memory of a dream. He never knew how the -War in the Air went on, nor whether it still went on. There were rumours -of airships going and coming, and of happenings Londonward. Once or -twice their shadows fell on him as he worked, but whence they came or -whither they went he could not tell. Even his desire to tell died out -for want of food. At times came robbers and thieves, at times came -diseases among the beasts and shortness of food, once the country was -worried by a pack of boar-hounds he helped to kill; he went through many -inconsecutive, irrelevant adventures. He survived them all. - -Accident and death came near them both ever and again and passed them -by, and they loved and suffered and were happy, and she bore him many -children--eleven children--one after the other, of whom only four -succumbed to the necessary hardships of their simple life. They lived -and did well, as well was understood in those days. They went the way of -all flesh, year by year. - - - - -THE EPILOGUE - -It happened that one bright summer's morning exactly thirty years after -the launching of the first German air-fleet, an old man took a small boy -to look for a missing hen through the ruins of Bun Hill and out towards -the splintered pinnacles of the Crystal Palace. He was not a very -old man; he was, as a matter of fact, still within a few weeks of -sixty-three, but constant stooping over spades and forks and the -carrying of roots and manure, and exposure to the damps of life in the -open-air without a change of clothing, had bent him into the form of a -sickle. Moreover, he had lost most of his teeth and that had affected -his digestion and through that his skin and temper. In face and -expression he was curiously like that old Thomas Smallways who had once -been coachman to Sir Peter Bone, and this was just as it should be, -for he was Tom Smallways the son, who formerly kept the little -green-grocer's shop under the straddle of the mono-rail viaduct in the -High Street of Bun Hill. But now there were no green-grocer's shops, -and Tom was living in one of the derelict villas hard by that unoccupied -building site that had been and was still the scene of his daily -horticulture. He and his wife lived upstairs, and in the drawing and -dining rooms, which had each French windows opening on the lawn, and all -about the ground floor generally, Jessica, who was now a lean and lined -and baldish but still very efficient and energetic old woman, kept -her three cows and a multitude of gawky hens. These two were part of a -little community of stragglers and returned fugitives, perhaps a hundred -and fifty souls of them all together, that had settled down to the new -conditions of things after the Panic and Famine and Pestilence that -followed in the wake of the War. They had come back from strange refuges -and hiding-places and had squatted down among the familiar houses and -begun that hard struggle against nature for food which was now the chief -interest of their lives. They were by sheer preoccupation with that a -peaceful people, more particularly after Wilkes, the house agent, driven -by some obsolete dream of acquisition, had been drowned in the pool by -the ruined gas-works for making inquiries into title and displaying a -litigious turn of mind. (He had not been murdered, you understand, but -the people had carried an exemplary ducking ten minutes or so beyond its -healthy limits.) - -This little community had returned from its original habits of suburban -parasitism to what no doubt had been the normal life of humanity for -nearly immemorial years, a life of homely economies in the most intimate -contact with cows and hens and patches of ground, a life that breathes -and exhales the scent of cows and finds the need for stimulants -satisfied by the activity of the bacteria and vermin it engenders. Such -had been the life of the European peasant from the dawn of history to -the beginning of the Scientific Era, so it was the large majority of the -people of Asia and Africa had always been wont to live. For a time it -had seemed that, by virtue of machines, and scientific civilisation, -Europe was to be lifted out of this perpetual round of animal drudgery, -and that America was to evade it very largely from the outset. And with -the smash of the high and dangerous and splendid edifice of mechanical -civilisation that had arisen so marvellously, back to the land came the -common man, back to the manure. - -The little communities, still haunted by ten thousand memories of a -greater state, gathered and developed almost tacitly a customary law -and fell under the guidance of a medicine man or a priest. The world -rediscovered religion and the need of something to hold its communities -together. At Bun Hill this function was entrusted to an old Baptist -minister. He taught a simple but adequate faith. In his teaching a good -principle called the Word fought perpetually against a diabolical female -influence called the Scarlet Woman and an evil being called Alcohol. -This Alcohol had long since become a purely spiritualised conception -deprived of any element of material application; it had no relation to -the occasional finds of whiskey and wine in Londoners' cellars that gave -Bun Hill its only holidays. He taught this doctrine on Sundays, and -on weekdays he was an amiable and kindly old man, distinguished by his -quaint disposition to wash his hands, and if possible his face, daily, -and with a wonderful genius for cutting up pigs. He held his Sunday -services in the old church in the Beckenham Road, and then the -countryside came out in a curious reminiscence of the urban dress of -Edwardian times. All the men without exception wore frock coats, top -hats, and white shirts, though many had no boots. Tom was particularly -distinguished on these occasions because he wore a top hat with gold -lace about it and a green coat and trousers that he had found upon a -skeleton in the basement of the Urban and District Bank. The women, even -Jessica, came in jackets and immense hats extravagantly trimmed with -artificial flowers and exotic birds' feather's--of which there were -abundant supplies in the shops to the north--and the children (there -were not many children, because a large proportion of the babies born in -Bun Hill died in a few days' time of inexplicable maladies) had similar -clothes cut down to accommodate them; even Stringer's little grandson of -four wore a large top hat. - -That was the Sunday costume of the Bun Hill district, a curious and -interesting survival of the genteel traditions of the Scientific Age. On -a weekday the folk were dingily and curiously hung about with dirty rags -of housecloth and scarlet flannel, sacking, curtain serge, and patches -of old carpet, and went either bare-footed or on rude wooden sandals. -These people, the reader must understand, were an urban population -sunken back to the state of a barbaric peasantry, and so without any of -the simple arts a barbaric peasantry would possess. In many ways they -were curiously degenerate and incompetent. They had lost any idea -of making textiles, they could hardly make up clothes when they had -material, and they were forced to plunder the continually dwindling -supplies of the ruins about them for cover. - -All the simple arts they had ever known they had lost, and with the -breakdown of modern drainage, modern water supply, shopping, and the -like, their civilised methods were useless. Their cooking was worse than -primitive. It was a feeble muddling with food over wood fires in rusty -drawing-room fireplaces; for the kitcheners burnt too much. Among them -all no sense of baking or brewing or metal-working was to be found. - -Their employment of sacking and such-like coarse material for work-a-day -clothing, and their habit of tying it on with string and of thrusting -wadding and straw inside it for warmth, gave these people an odd, -"packed" appearance, and as it was a week-day when Tom took his little -nephew for the hen-seeking excursion, so it was they were attired. - -"So you've really got to Bun Hill at last, Teddy," said old Tom, -beginning to talk and slackening his pace so soon as they were out of -range of old Jessica. "You're the last of Bert's boys for me to see. -Wat I've seen, young Bert I've seen, Sissie and Matt, Tom what's called -after me, and Peter. The traveller people brought you along all right, -eh?" - -"I managed," said Teddy, who was a dry little boy. - -"Didn't want to eat you on the way?" - -"They was all right," said Teddy, "and on the way near Leatherhead we -saw a man riding on a bicycle." - -"My word!" said Tom, "there ain't many of those about nowadays. Where -was he going?" - -"Said 'e was going to Dorking if the High Road was good enough. But I -doubt if he got there. All about Burford it was flooded. We came over -the hill, uncle--what they call the Roman Road. That's high and safe." - -"Don't know it," said old Tom. "But a bicycle! You're sure it was a -bicycle? Had two wheels?" - -"It was a bicycle right enough." - -"Why! I remember a time, Teddy, where there was bicycles no end, when -you could stand just here--the road was as smooth as a board then--and -see twenty or thirty coming and going at the same time, bicycles and -moty-bicycles; moty cars, all sorts of whirly things." - -"No!" said Teddy. - -"I do. They'd keep on going by all day,--'undreds and 'undreds." - -"But where was they all going?" asked Teddy. - -"Tearin' off to Brighton--you never seen Brighton, I expect--it's down -by the sea, used to be a moce 'mazing place--and coming and going from -London." - -"Why?" - -"They did." - -"But why?" - -"Lord knows why, Teddy. They did. Then you see that great thing there -like a great big rusty nail sticking up higher than all the houses, and -that one yonder, and that, and how something's fell in between 'em among -the houses. They was parts of the mono-rail. They went down to Brighton -too and all day and night there was people going, great cars as big as -'ouses full of people." - -The little boy regarded the rusty evidences acrosss the narrow muddy -ditch of cow-droppings that had once been a High Street. He was clearly -disposed to be sceptical, and yet there the ruins were! He grappled with -ideas beyond the strength of his imagination. - -"What did they go for?" he asked, "all of 'em?" - -"They 'AD to. Everything was on the go those days--everything." - -"Yes, but where did they come from?" - -"All round 'ere, Teddy, there was people living in those 'ouses, and up -the road more 'ouses and more people. You'd 'ardly believe me, Teddy, -but it's Bible truth. You can go on that way for ever and ever, and keep -on coming on 'ouses, more 'ouses, and more. There's no end to 'em. No -end. They get bigger and bigger." His voice dropped as though he named -strange names. - -"It's LONDON," he said. - -"And it's all empty now and left alone. All day it's left alone. You -don't find 'ardly a man, you won't find nothing but dogs and cats after -the rats until you get round by Bromley and Beckenham, and there you -find the Kentish men herding swine. (Nice rough lot they are too!) I -tell you that so long as the sun is up it's as still as the grave. I -been about by day--orfen and orfen." He paused. - -"And all those 'ouses and streets and ways used to be full of people -before the War in the Air and the Famine and the Purple Death. They used -to be full of people, Teddy, and then came a time when they was full of -corpses, when you couldn't go a mile that way before the stink of 'em -drove you back. It was the Purple Death 'ad killed 'em every one. The -cats and dogs and 'ens and vermin caught it. Everything and every one -'ad it. Jest a few of us 'appened to live. I pulled through, and your -aunt, though it made 'er lose 'er 'air. Why, you find the skeletons in -the 'ouses now. This way we been into all the 'ouses and took what we -wanted and buried moce of the people, but up that way, Norwood way, -there's 'ouses with the glass in the windows still, and the furniture -not touched--all dusty and falling to pieces--and the bones of the -people lying, some in bed, some about the 'ouse, jest as the Purple -Death left 'em five-and-twenty years ago. I went into one--me and old -Higgins las' year--and there was a room with books, Teddy--you know what -I mean by books, Teddy?" - -"I seen 'em. I seen 'em with pictures." - -"Well, books all round, Teddy, 'undreds of books, beyond-rhyme or -reason, as the saying goes, green-mouldy and dry. I was for leaven' 'em -alone--I was never much for reading--but ole Higgins he must touch em. -'I believe I could read one of 'em NOW,' 'e says. - -"'Not it,' I says. - -"'I could,' 'e says, laughing and takes one out and opens it. - -"I looked, and there, Teddy, was a cullud picture, oh, so lovely! It was -a picture of women and serpents in a garden. I never see anything like -it. - -"'This suits me,' said old Higgins, 'to rights.' - -"And then kind of friendly he gave the book a pat-- - -Old Tom Smallways paused impressively. - -"And then?" said Teddy. - -"It all fell to dus'. White dus'!" He became still more impressive. "We -didn't touch no more of them books that day. Not after that." - -For a long time both were silent. Then Tom, playing with a subject that -attracted him with a fatal fascination, repeated, "All day long they -lie--still as the grave." - -Teddy took the point at last. "Don't they lie o' nights?" he asked. - -Old Tom shook his head. "Nobody knows, boy, nobody knows." - -"But what could they do?" - -"Nobody knows. Nobody ain't seen to tell not nobody." - -"Nobody?" - -"They tell tales," said old Tom. "They tell tales, but there ain't no -believing 'em. I gets 'ome about sundown, and keeps indoors, so I can't -say nothing, can I? But there's them that thinks some things and them as -thinks others. I've 'eard it's unlucky to take clo'es off of 'em unless -they got white bones. There's stories--" - -The boy watched his uncle sharply. "WOT stories?" he said. - -"Stories of moonlight nights and things walking about. But I take no -stock in 'em. I keeps in bed. If you listen to stories--Lord! You'll get -afraid of yourself in a field at midday." - -The little boy looked round and ceased his questions for a space. - -"They say there's a 'og man in Beck'n'am what was lost in London three -days and three nights. 'E went up after whiskey to Cheapside, and lorst -'is way among the ruins and wandered. Three days and three nights 'e -wandered about and the streets kep' changing so's he couldn't get 'ome. -If 'e 'adn't remembered some words out of the Bible 'e might 'ave been -there now. All day 'e went and all night--and all day long it was still. -It was as still as death all day long, until the sunset came and the -twilight thickened, and then it began to rustle and whisper and go -pit-a-pat with a sound like 'urrying feet." - -He paused. - -"Yes," said the little boy breathlessly. "Go on. What then?" - -"A sound of carts and 'orses there was, and a sound of cabs and -omnibuses, and then a lot of whistling, shrill whistles, whistles that -froze 'is marrer. And directly the whistles began things begun to show, -people in the streets 'urrying, people in the 'ouses and shops busying -themselves, moty cars in the streets, a sort of moonlight in all the -lamps and winders. People, I say, Teddy, but they wasn't people. They -was the ghosts of them that was overtook, the ghosts of them that used -to crowd those streets. And they went past 'im and through 'im and never -'eeded 'im, went by like fogs and vapours, Teddy. And sometimes they -was cheerful and sometimes they was 'orrible, 'orrible beyond words. And -once 'e come to a place called Piccadilly, Teddy, and there was lights -blazing like daylight and ladies and gentlemen in splendid clo'es -crowding the pavement, and taxicabs follering along the road. And as 'e -looked, they all went evil--evil in the face, Teddy. And it seemed to -'im SUDDENLY THEY SAW 'IM, and the women began to look at 'im and say -things to 'im--'orrible--wicked things. One come very near 'im, Teddy, -right up to 'im, and looked into 'is face--close. And she 'adn't got a -face to look with, only a painted skull, and then 'e see; they was -all painted skulls. And one after another they crowded on 'im saying -'orrible things, and catchin' at 'im and threatenin' and coaxing 'im, so -that 'is 'eart near left 'is body for fear." - -"Yes," gasped Teddy in an unendurable pause. - -"Then it was he remembered the words of Scripture and saved himself -alive. 'The Lord is my 'Elper, 'e says, 'therefore I will fear nothing,' -and straightaway there came a cock-crowing and the street was empty -from end to end. And after that the Lord was good to 'im and guided 'im -'ome." - -Teddy stared and caught at another question. "But who was the people," -he asked, "who lived in all these 'ouses? What was they?" - -"Gent'men in business, people with money--leastways we thought it -was money till everything smashed up, and then seemingly it was jes' -paper--all sorts. Why, there was 'undreds of thousands of them. There -was millions. I've seen that 'I Street there regular so's you couldn't -walk along the pavements, shoppin' time, with women and people -shoppin'." - -"But where'd they get their food and things?" - -"Bort 'em in shops like I used to 'ave. I'll show you the place, Teddy, -if we go back. People nowadays 'aven't no idee of a shop--no idee. -Plate-glass winders--it's all Greek to them. Why, I've 'ad as much as -a ton and a 'arf of petaties to 'andle all at one time. You'd open your -eyes till they dropped out to see jes' what I used to 'ave in my shop. -Baskets of pears 'eaped up, marrers, apples and pears, d'licious great -nuts." His voice became luscious--"Benanas, oranges." - -"What's benanas?" asked the boy, "and oranges?" - -"Fruits they was. Sweet, juicy, d'licious fruits. Foreign fruits. They -brought 'em from Spain and N' York and places. In ships and things. They -brought 'em to me from all over the world, and I sold 'em in my shop. -_I_ sold 'em, Teddy! me what goes about now with you, dressed up in old -sacks and looking for lost 'ens. People used to come into my shop, -great beautiful ladies like you'd 'ardly dream of now, dressed up to the -nines, and say, 'Well, Mr. Smallways, what you got 'smorning?' and -I'd say, 'Well, I got some very nice C'nadian apples, 'or p'raps I got -custed marrers. See? And they'd buy 'em. Right off they'd say, 'Send me -some up.' Lord! what a life that was. The business of it, the bussel, -the smart things you saw, moty cars going by, kerridges, people, -organ-grinders, German bands. Always something going past--always. If it -wasn't for those empty 'ouses, I'd think it all a dream." - -"But what killed all the people, uncle?" asked Teddy. - -"It was a smash-up," said old Tom. "Everything was going right until -they started that War. Everything was going like clock-work. Everybody -was busy and everybody was 'appy and everybody got a good square meal -every day." - -He met incredulous eyes. "Everybody," he said firmly. "If you couldn't -get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice 'ot bowl -of soup called skilly, and bread better'n any one knows 'ow to make now, -reg'lar WHITE bread, gov'ment bread." - -Teddy marvelled, but said nothing. It made him feel deep longings that -he found it wisest to fight down. - -For a time the old man resigned himself to the pleasures of gustatory -reminiscence. His lips moved. "Pickled Sammin!" he whispered, "an' -vinegar.... Dutch cheese, BEER! A pipe of terbakker." - -"But 'OW did the people get killed?" asked Teddy presently. - -"There was the War. The War was the beginning of it. The War banged and -flummocked about, but it didn't really KILL many people. But it upset -things. They came and set fire to London and burnt and sank all the -ships there used to be in the Thames--we could see the smoke and steam -for weeks--and they threw a bomb into the Crystal Palace and made a -bust-up, and broke down the rail lines and things like that. But as for -killin' people, it was just accidental if they did. They killed each -other more. There was a great fight all hereabout one day, Teddy--up in -the air. Great things bigger than fifty 'ouses, bigger than the Crystal -Palace--bigger, bigger than anything, flying about up in the air and -whacking at each other and dead men fallin' off 'em. T'riffic! But, -it wasn't so much the people they killed as the business they stopped. -There wasn't any business doin', Teddy, there wasn't any money about, -and nothin' to buy if you 'ad it." - -"But 'ow did the people get KILLED?" said the little boy in the pause. - -"I'm tellin' you, Teddy," said the old man. "It was the stoppin' of -business come next. Suddenly there didn't seem to be any money. There -was cheques--they was a bit of paper written on, and they was jes' as -good as money--jes' as good if they come from customers you knew. Then -all of a sudden they wasn't. I was left with three of 'em and two I'd -given' change. Then it got about that five-pun' notes were no good, -and then the silver sort of went off. Gold you 'couldn't get for love -or--anything. The banks in London 'ad got it, and the banks was all -smashed up. Everybody went bankrup'. Everybody was thrown out of work. -Everybody!" - -He paused, and scrutinised his hearer. The small boy's intelligent face -expressed hopeless perplexity. - -"That's 'ow it 'appened," said old Tom. He sought for some means of -expression. "It was like stoppin' a clock," he said. "Things were quiet -for a bit, deadly quiet, except for the air-ships fighting about in the -sky, and then people begun to get excited. I remember my lars' customer, -the very lars' customer that ever I 'ad. He was a Mr. Moses Gluckstein, -a city gent and very pleasant and fond of sparrowgrass and chokes, and -'e cut in--there 'adn't been no customers for days--and began to -talk very fast, offerin' me for anything I 'ad, anything, petaties or -anything, its weight in gold. 'E said it was a little speculation 'e -wanted to try. 'E said it was a sort of bet reely, and very likely -'e'd lose; but never mind that, 'e wanted to try. 'E always 'ad been a -gambler, 'e said. 'E said I'd only got to weigh it out and 'e'd give me -'is cheque right away. Well, that led to a bit of a argument, perfect -respectful it was, but a argument about whether a cheque was still good, -and while 'e was explaining there come by a lot of these here unemployed -with a great banner they 'ad for every one to read--every one could -read those days--'We want Food.' Three or four of 'em suddenly turns and -comes into my shop. - -"'Got any food?' says one. - -"'No,' I says, 'not to sell. I wish I 'ad. But if I 'ad, I'm afraid I -couldn't let you have it. This gent, 'e's been offerin' me--' - -"Mr. Gluckstein 'e tried to stop me, but it was too late. - -"'What's 'e been offerin' you?' says a great big chap with a 'atchet; -'what's 'e been offerin you?' I 'ad to tell. - -"'Boys,' 'e said, ''ere's another feenancier!' and they took 'im out -there and then, and 'ung 'im on a lam'pose down the street. 'E never -lifted a finger to resist. After I tole on 'im 'e never said a word...." - -Tom meditated for a space. "First chap I ever sin 'ung!" he said. - -"Ow old was you?" asked Teddy. - -"'Bout thirty," said old Tom. - -"Why! I saw free pig-stealers 'ung before I was six," said Teddy. -"Father took me because of my birfday being near. Said I ought to be -blooded...." - -"Well, you never saw no-one killed by a moty car, any'ow," said old Tom -after a moment of chagrin. "And you never saw no dead men carried into a -chemis' shop." - -Teddy's momentary triumph faded. "No," he said, "I 'aven't." - -"Nor won't. Nor won't. You'll never see the things I've seen, never. -Not if you live to be a 'undred... Well, as I was saying, that's how the -Famine and Riotin' began. Then there was strikes and Socialism, things -I never did 'old with, worse and worse. There was fightin' and shootin' -down, and burnin' and plundering. They broke up the banks up in London -and got the gold, but they couldn't make food out of gold. 'Ow did WE -get on? Well, we kep' quiet. We didn't interfere with no-one and no-one -didn't interfere with us. We 'ad some old 'tatoes about, but mocely we -lived on rats. Ours was a old 'ouse, full of rats, and the famine never -seemed to bother 'em. Orfen we got a rat. Orfen. But moce of the people -who lived hereabouts was too tender stummicked for rats. Didn't seem -to fancy 'em. They'd been used to all sorts of fallals, and they didn't -take to 'onest feeding, not till it was too late. Died rather. - -"It was the famine began to kill people. Even before the Purple Death -came along they was dying like flies at the end of the summer. 'Ow I -remember it all! I was one of the first to 'ave it. I was out, seein' if -I mightn't get 'old of a cat or somethin', and then I went round to my -bit of ground to see whether I couldn't get up some young turnips -I'd forgot, and I was took something awful. You've no idee the pain, -Teddy--it doubled me up pretty near. I jes' lay down by 'at there -corner, and your aunt come along to look for me and dragged me 'ome like -a sack. - -"I'd never 'ave got better if it 'adn't been for your aunt. 'Tom,' she -says to me, 'you got to get well,' and I 'AD to. Then SHE sickened. She -sickened but there ain't much dyin' about your aunt. 'Lor!' she says, -'as if I'd leave you to go muddlin' along alone!' That's what she says. -She's got a tongue, 'as your aunt. But it took 'er 'air off--and arst -though I might, she's never cared for the wig I got 'er--orf the old -lady what was in the vicarage garden. - -"Well, this 'ere Purple Death,--it jes' wiped people out, Teddy. You -couldn't bury 'em. And it took the dogs and the cats too, and the rats -and 'orses. At last every house and garden was full of dead bodies. -London way, you couldn't go for the smell of there, and we 'ad to move -out of the 'I street into that villa we got. And all the water run short -that way. The drains and underground tunnels took it. Gor' knows where -the Purple Death come from; some say one thing and some another. Some -said it come from eatin' rats and some from eatin' nothin'. Some say the -Asiatics brought it from some 'I place, Thibet, I think, where it never -did nobody much 'arm. All I know is it come after the Famine. And the -Famine come after the Penic and the Penic come after the War." - -Teddy thought. "What made the Purple Death?" he asked. - -"'Aven't I tole you!" - -"But why did they 'ave a Penic?" - -"They 'ad it." - -"But why did they start the War?" - -"They couldn't stop theirselves. 'Aving them airships made 'em." - -"And 'ow did the War end?" - -"Lord knows if it's ended, boy," said old Tom. "Lord knows if it's -ended. There's been travellers through 'ere--there was a chap only two -summers ago--say it's goin' on still. They say there's bands of people -up north who keep on with it and people in Germany and China and 'Merica -and places. 'E said they still got flying-machines and gas and things. -But we 'aven't seen nothin' in the air now for seven years, and nobody -'asn't come nigh of us. Last we saw was a crumpled sort of airship going -away--over there. It was a littleish-sized thing and lopsided, as though -it 'ad something the matter with it." - -He pointed, and came to a stop at a gap in the fence, the vestiges of -the old fence from which, in the company of his neighbour Mr. Stringer -the milkman, he had once watched the South of England Aero Club's -Saturday afternoon ascents. Dim memories, it may be, of that particular -afternoon returned to him. - -"There, down there, where all that rus' looks so red and bright, that's -the gas-works." - -"What's gas?" asked the little boy. - -"Oh, a hairy sort of nothin' what you put in balloons to make 'em go up. -And you used to burn it till the 'lectricity come." - -The little boy tried vainly to imagine gas on the basis of these -particulars. Then his thoughts reverted to a previous topic. - -"But why didn't they end the War?" - -"Obstinacy. Everybody was getting 'urt, but everybody was 'urtin' and -everybody was 'igh-spirited and patriotic, and so they smeshed up -things instead. They jes' went on smeshin'. And afterwards they jes' got -desp'rite and savige." - -"It ought to 'ave ended," said the little boy. - -"It didn't ought to 'ave begun," said old Tom, "But people was proud. -People was la-dy-da-ish and uppish and proud. Too much meat and drink -they 'ad. Give in--not them! And after a bit nobody arst 'em to give in. -Nobody arst 'em...." - -He sucked his old gums thoughtfully, and his gaze strayed away across -the valley to where the shattered glass of the Crystal Palace -glittered in the sun. A dim large sense of waste and irrevocable lost -opportunities pervaded his mind. He repeated his ultimate judgment -upon all these things, obstinately, slowly, and conclusively, his final -saying upon the matter. - -"You can say what you like," he said. "It didn't ought ever to 'ave -begun." - -He said it simply--somebody somewhere ought to have stopped something, -but who or how or why were all beyond his ken. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The War in the Air, by Herbert George Wells - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR IN THE AIR *** - -***** This file should be named 780.txt or 780.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/7/8/780/ - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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