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+                       THE AIRSHIP "GOLDEN HIND"
+
+
+
+
+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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Title: The Airship "Golden Hind"
+
+Author: Percy F. Westerman
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2012 [EBook #39488]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AIRSHIP "GOLDEN HIND" ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "’THE GOLDEN HIND’ RESCUES A SHIPWRECKED CREW."]
+
+
+
+                       THE AIRSHIP "GOLDEN HIND"
+
+
+                                   by
+
+                           Percy F. Westerman
+
+                               AUTHOR OF
+
+             "THE SECRET BATTLEPLANE," "THE MYSTERY SHIP,"
+                   "BILLY BARCROFT OF THE R.N.A.S.,"
+                               ETC., ETC.
+
+
+
+                             ILLUSTRATED BY
+                            FLEMING WILLIAMS
+
+
+
+                               Publishers
+                               PARTRIDGE
+                                 London
+                                  1920
+
+
+
+                         MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT ADVENTURE SERIES
+
+
+_PERCY F. WESTERMAN:_
+
+The Airship "Golden Hind"
+To the Fore with the Tanks
+The Secret Battleplane
+Wilmshurst of the Frontier Force
+
+
+_ROWLAND WALKER:_
+
+Deville McKeene: The Exploits of the Mystery Airman
+Blake of the Merchant Service
+Buckle of Submarine V2
+Oscar Danby, V.C.
+
+LONDON:
+S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO., LTD.
+
+
+
+                                  ――――
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER I--A STARTLING PROPOSITION
+    CHAPTER II--FOSTERDYKE EXPLAINS
+    CHAPTER III--THE "GOLDEN HIND"
+    CHAPTER IV--THE DEPARTURE
+    CHAPTER V--FIRST AWAY
+    CHAPTER VI--Z64 SCORES
+    CHAPTER VII--DELAYS
+    CHAPTER VIII--CAST ADRIFT
+    CHAPTER IX--THE ESCAPADE OF ENRICO JAURES
+    CHAPTER X--UNDER EXAMINATION
+    CHAPTER XI--"WITH INTENT"
+    CHAPTER XII--CONFIDENCES
+    CHAPTER XIII--THE TAIL OF A CYCLONE
+    CHAPTER XIV--THE BOAT’S CREW
+    CHAPTER XV--REVELATIONS
+    CHAPTER XVI--THE OBSERVATION BASKET
+    CHAPTER XVII--A SURPRISE FOR CAPTAIN PROUT
+    CHAPTER XVIII--UNDER FIRE
+    CHAPTER XIX--VICTIMS OF A REVOLUTION
+    CHAPTER XX--WIRELESS REPORTS
+    CHAPTER XXI--VON SINZIG’S BID FOR SAFETY
+    CHAPTER XXII--THE END OF Z64
+    CHAPTER XXIII--A DUMPING OPERATION
+    CHAPTER XXIV--WITHIN SIGHT OF SUCCESS
+    CHAPTER XXV--FIRE!
+    CHAPTER XXVI--"WELL PLAYED, SIR!"
+
+                                  ――――
+
+
+
+                       The Airship "Golden Hind"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--A STARTLING PROPOSITION
+
+
+"What’s the move?" enquired Kenneth Kenyon.
+
+"Ask me another, old son," replied his chum, Peter Bramsdean.
+"Fosterdyke is a cautious old stick, but he knows what’s what.  There’s
+something in the wind, you mark my words."
+
+"Then you’re going to see him?"
+
+"Rather!  And you too, old bean. Where’s a pencil?  We can’t keep the
+telegraph boy waiting."
+
+Bramsdean tore a form from a pad, scribbled on it the
+reply--"Fosterdyke, Air Grange, near Blandford.  Yes, will expect motor
+to-morrow morning," and he had taken the initial step of a journey that
+man had never before attempted.
+
+Kenyon and Bramsdean were both ex-flying officers of the Royal Air
+Force. What they did in the Great War now matters little.  Sufficient is
+it to say that had they belonged to any belligerent nation save their
+own they would have been styled "aces"; but since in the Royal Air Force
+details of personal achievements were deprecated, and the credit given
+to the Force as a whole, they merely "carried on" until ordered to "get
+out," or, in other words, be demobilised. Then, each with a
+highly-prized decoration and a gratuity of precisely the same amount as
+that given to an officer who had never served anywhere save at the Hotel
+Cecil, they found themselves literally on their feet, relegated to the
+limbo of civilian life.  It was not long before they found how quickly
+their gratuities diminished.  Like many other ex-members of His
+Majesty’s Forces, they began to realise that in smashing the German
+menace they had helped to raise a menace at home--the greed and cupidity
+of the Profiteer.
+
+They were just two of thousands of skilled airmen for whom as such there
+was now no need.  Commercial aviation had yet to be developed; trick
+flying and exhibition flights lead to nothing definite, and only a very
+small percentage of war-time airmen could be retained in the
+reconstituted Air Force.
+
+Kenyon and Bramsdean were not men to "take it lying down."  They had
+pluck and resource and a determination to "get a move on," and within a
+twelvemonth of their demobilisation they found themselves partners and
+sole proprietors of a fairly prosperous road transport concern operating
+over the greater part of the South of England.
+
+But it wasn’t the same thing as flying. Looking back over those
+strenuous years of active service, they remembered vividly the good
+times they had had, while the "sticky" times were mellowed until they
+could afford to laugh at those occasions when they "had the wind up
+badly."
+
+Then, with a suddenness akin to the arrival of a "whizz-bang," came a
+telegram from Sir Reginald Fosterdyke, asking the chums to see him on
+the morrow.
+
+Sir Reginald Fosterdyke had been Bramsdean’s and Kenyon’s O.C., or, to
+employ service phraseology, a Wing-Commander. On his demobilisation he
+went to live at Air Grange, a large old-world house standing on high
+ground, a good five miles from Blandford.  Very rarely he left his
+country-house; his visits to town were few and far between, and his
+friends wondered at the reticence of the versatile and breezy
+Fosterdyke.  He seldom wrote to anyone. When he did, his correspondence
+was brief and to the point.  More frequently he telegraphed--and then he
+meant business. In pre-war days Air Grange was famous for its week-end
+house parties.  The shooting, one of the best in the county of Dorset,
+was an additional source of attraction to Fosterdyke’s guests.  But the
+war, and afterwards, had changed all that.  Few, very few, guests were
+to be found at Air Grange; the staff of servants was greatly reduced,
+the well-kept grounds developed a state of neglect.  Sir Reginald’s
+friends came to the conclusion that the baronet had become "mouldy."
+They wondered what possessed him to live an almost hermit-like
+existence.  Fosterdyke knew their curiosity, but he merely shrugged his
+shoulders and "carried on."  His work in the world of aviation was by no
+means ended.  It might be said that it was yet a long way from attaining
+its zenith.
+
+Early on the morning following the receipt of the baronet’s telegram Sir
+Reginald’s car pulled up in front of the premises used as the
+headquarters of the Southern Roads Transport Company. Kenyon and
+Bramsdean, having given final instructions to their work’s foreman--a
+former flight-sergeant R.A.F.--jumped into the car, and were soon
+whisking northwards at a speed that was considerably in excess of that
+fixed by the regulations.
+
+Although of a retiring disposition, Sir Reginald Fosterdyke had made a
+point of keeping in touch with his former officers. He had a sort of
+personal interest in every one of them, and on their part they regarded
+him as one of the best.  Whenever, on rare occasions, Fosterdyke ran
+down to Bournemouth he invariably looked up Bramsdean and Kenyon to talk
+over old times.  But being invited to Air Grange was quite a different
+matter.  Vaguely, the chums wondered what it might mean, conjecturing
+ideas that somehow failed to be convincing. Yet they knew that there was
+"something in the wind."  They knew Sir Reginald and his methods.
+
+Through Blandford, up and past the now deserted hutments where formerly
+German prisoners led an almost idyllic existence in their enemy’s
+country, the car sped on until it gained the lofty downs in the
+direction of Shaftesbury.  Then, turning up a steep and narrow lane, the
+car drew up at the gate of Air Grange.
+
+It had to.  There was no gate-keeper to unlock and throw open the
+massive iron gates.  That task the chauffeur had to perform, stopping
+the car again in order to make secure the outer portals of Sir
+Reginald’s demesne.
+
+While the car remained stationary the two occupants looked in vain for a
+glimpse of the house.  All they could see was a winding, weed-grown
+road, with a thick belt of pine trees on either hand.  To the left of
+the road and under the lee of the trees were half a dozen wooden huts,
+unmistakably of a type known as temporary military quarters.  Smoke
+issuing from the chimneys suggested the idea that they were in
+"occupation," and a couple of dungaree-clad men carrying a length of
+copper pipe on their shoulders confirmed the fact.  Somewhere from
+behind the trees came the sharp rattle of a pneumatic drilling machine.
+
+Kenyon glanced at his companion.
+
+"What’s the Old Man up to, I wonder?" he enquired.  "Quite a labour
+colony. Look--air flasks too, by Jove!"
+
+A pile of rusty wrought-iron cylinders stacked on the grass by the side
+of the path recalled visions of by-gone days.
+
+"Something doing, that’s evident," agreed Bramsdean.  "What’s the stunt,
+and why are we hiked into it?"
+
+"Wait and see, old bird," replied Kenyon.
+
+The chauffeur regained the car and slipped in the clutch.  For full
+another quarter of a mile the car climbed steadily, negotiating awkward
+corners in the rutty, winding path, until, emerging from the wood, it
+pulled up outside the house of Fosterdyke.
+
+No powdered footman awaited them. On the steps, clad in worn but
+serviceable tweeds, stood Sir Reginald Fosterdyke himself.
+
+The baronet--generally referred to by his former officers as the Old
+Man--was of medium height, broad-shouldered, and deep-chested.  He was
+about thirty-five years of age, with well-bronzed features, clean
+shaven, and possessed a thick crop of closely-cut dark brown hair tinged
+with iron grey.
+
+He held out his left hand as Kenyon and Bramsdean ascended the stone
+steps--his right hand was enveloped in surgical bandages--and greeted
+his guests warmly.
+
+"Glad to see you, boys!" he exclaimed. "It’s good of you to come.  Have
+a glass of sherry?"
+
+He led the way to the study, rang a bell, and gave instructions to a
+man-servant whom Kenyon recognised as the O.C.’s batman somewhere in
+France.
+
+Sir Reginald sat on the edge of the table and whimsically regarded his
+former subordinates.  At that moment, rising above the staccato rattle
+of the pneumatic hammer, came the unmistakable whirr of an aerial
+propeller.  To Kenyon and Bramsdean it was much the same as a
+trumpet-call to an old war-horse.
+
+"Sounds like old times, eh?" remarked Sir Reginald.
+
+"Rather, sir," agreed Kenyon heartily, and, at a loss to express himself
+further, he relapsed into silence.
+
+"Experimental work, sir?" enquired Bramsdean.
+
+Fosterdyke nodded.
+
+"Yes," he replied in level tones.  "Experimental work, that’s it.
+That’s why I sent for you.  I’m contemplating a flight round the world.
+Keen on having a shot at it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--FOSTERDYKE EXPLAINS
+
+
+The two chums were not in the least taken aback with the announcement.
+They knew the way of their late O.C.  On active service Fosterdyke was
+in the habit of issuing orders for certain operations to be performed
+without apparently considering the magnitude or the danger of the
+undertaking.  The officer or man to whom the order was given almost
+invariably executed it promptly.  In the few cases where the individual
+instructed to carry out a "stunt" failed to rise to the occasion, that
+was an end of him as far as his service under Wing Commander Sir
+Reginald Fosterdyke went.  Fosterdyke had no use for faint-hearted
+subordinates.
+
+On the other hand, Kenyon and Bramsdean were astonished at being invited
+to take part in what promised to be the biggest aerial undertaking ever
+contemplated.  After nearly two years "on the ground" the prospect of
+"going up" seemed too good to be true.
+
+"Business difficulties, perhaps?" hazarded Fosterdyke, noting the faint
+signs of hesitation on the part of the two chums. "Think it over.  But I
+suppose you’d like to have a few particulars of the stunt before
+committing yourselves?"
+
+"I think it could be arranged, sir," replied Kenyon.  "As regards our
+little show, we could leave it to our head foreman. He’s a steady-going
+fellow and all that sort of thing.  It’s merely a question of a month, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Less than that.  Twenty days, to give a time limit," declared the
+baronet.  "Either twenty days or--_phut_!  However, I’ll outline the
+salient features of the scheme.
+
+"Like a good many others, it arose out of an almost trivial incident--a
+bet with an American Air Staff officer whom I met in London just after
+the Yankee seaplane NC4 flew across the Atlantic--or rather hopped
+across.  Without detracting from the merits of the stupendous
+undertaking, it must be remembered that the seaplane was escorted the
+whole way, and alighted several times _en route_.  The Yankee--General
+U. B. Outed is his name--offered to bet anyone $50,000 that an American
+aircraft would be the first to circumnavigate the globe.
+
+"Half a dozen of us took him on; not that we could afford to throw away
+an equivalent to ten thousand pounds, but because we had sufficient
+faith in the Old Country to feel assured that the accomplishment of a
+flight round the world would be the work of a British owned and flown
+machine.
+
+"Shortly after the wager was accepted came the news that R34 had flown
+from East Fortune to New York in 108 hours, making the return journey in
+76 hours. That rather staggered General Outed, I fancy, and he had a
+greater shock when Alcock and Brown covered nearly 2,000 miles between
+Newfoundland and Ireland without a single stop.
+
+"Things from a British aviation point of view looked particularly rosy;
+then for some obscure reason our Air Board appeared to let the whole
+matter of aerial navigation slide, or, at any rate they gave no
+encouragement. The big dirigibles were dismantled and sold; powerful
+aeroplanes were scrapped, air-stations were closed, and in a
+parsimonious wave of retrenchment even our old Royal Air Force was
+threatened with ignominious relegation to a corps under the control of
+the War Office.
+
+"About three months ago a wealthy Swiss--a M. Chauvasse--who had made a
+pile in the United States, offered a prize to the value in British money
+of £25,000 to be given to the first airman to circumnavigate the globe,
+either in a lighter or a heavier than air machine.  The prize is open to
+all comers, and already a Yankee and a German have announced their
+intention of competing."
+
+"A Hun!" exclaimed Kenyon.  "I thought that Fritz, under the terms of
+the armistice, had to surrender all his aircraft."
+
+"But he hasn’t," remarked Fosterdyke, drily.  "Nor is he likely to; and
+if the Allies haven’t the means to enforce the terms, that’s not my
+affair.  If a Hun does compete, let him.  That’s my view. Providing he
+doesn’t resort to any of his dirty tricks, there’s no valid reason why
+the door should be banged in his face.  Because he’s down and out is no
+reason why we should continue to sit on him.  Commercially, I regard
+German goods as a means to reduce the present extortionate prices of
+things in England.  I’m no believer in dumping, I never was; but if our
+manufacturers cannot compete with the products of a country beaten in
+war and torn by internal troubles, then there’s something wrong
+somewhere. But I am digressing.
+
+"Briefly, the terms of the contest are as follows: any type of machine
+or engine can be employed, and as many descents as are necessary to
+replenish fuel and stores. A start can be made from any place chosen by
+the competitor, but the machine must finish at the same spot within
+twenty days. Again, any route can be chosen, so that full advantage can
+be taken of existing air stations, but--and this is a vital point--in
+order to fairly circumnavigate the globe, competitors must pass within
+one degree of a position immediately opposite the starting-point.  Do
+you follow me?"
+
+"What is known in navigation as Great Circle Sailing," replied
+Bramsdean.  "If a start is made somewhere on the 50th parallel North,
+the halfway time will be somewhere 50 degrees South, with a difference
+of 180 degrees of longitude."
+
+"That’s it," agreed Sir Reginald.  "Now the difficulty arises where to
+find two suitable places answering to these conditions.  With the
+exception of a small part of Cornwall the whole of Great Britain lies
+north of latitude 50....  Therefore, to reach the 50th parallel in the
+Southern Hemisphere would mean making a position far south’ard of New
+Zealand--where, I take it, there are no facilities for landing and
+taking in petrol.
+
+"Nor is the vast extent of the United States any better off in that
+respect.  I think I am right in saying that there is no habitable land
+diametrically opposite to any place in Uncle Sam’s Republic."
+
+Fosterdyke produced a small globe from a corner of the room in order to
+confirm his statement.
+
+"And the old Boche is a jolly sight worse off," said Kenyon.  "I don’t
+suppose any British Dominion will tolerate him.  It’s certain he won’t
+be allowed to fly over any Allied fortress, so where is he?"
+
+"Paying the penalty for his misdeeds," replied Sir Reginald, grimly.
+"It’s not exactly a case of _vae victis_.  If he’d played his game, he
+would have taken his licking with a better grace because it wouldn’t
+have hurt him so much."
+
+"How many competitors are there for the Chauvasse Stakes, sir?" asked
+Bramsdean.
+
+"A Yank, a Hun, and myself," replied Fosterdyke.  "That is, up to the
+present. For some reason the idea hasn’t caught on with our fellows.
+Probably there’ll be a rush of entries later on--perhaps too late. I’ll
+show you my little craft; but before doing so I’ll give you a few
+details of the contest.
+
+"My idea is to start from Gibraltar--for the actual race, of course.
+I’ll have to take my airship there, but that’s a mere detail.  Why
+Gibraltar?  Here’s an encyclopædia, Kenyon.  Look up the position of
+Gib."
+
+"Lat. 36° 6’ N.; long.  5° 21’ W.," replied Kenyon, after consulting the
+work.
+
+"And the antipodes of Gib. would be lat. 36° 6’ S.; long. 174° 39’ E.,"
+continued the baronet.  "The longitude, of course, being easily
+determined by adding 180 to that of Gibraltar.  Now the next thing to be
+done (as a matter of fact I’ve determined it already) is to find a
+habitable spot approximating to the second set of figures.  Look up
+Auckland, Kenyon."
+
+"Auckland is lat. 36° 52’ S.; long. 174° 46’ E.," replied Kenneth.
+"Why, that’s less than a degree either way."
+
+"Exactly," agreed Fosterdyke.  "The next point is to determine the air
+route between the two places, so as to make the best of the prevailing
+winds.  When one has to maintain an average speed of fifty miles an hour
+for twenty days the advantage of a following wind cannot be ignored."
+
+"Your ’bus’ll do more than that, sir," remarked Peter Bramsdean.
+
+"She’ll do two hundred an hour," declared the baronet, emphatically.  "I
+haven’t had a trial spin yet, but she’ll come up to my expectations.
+It’s the stops that lower the average.  Naturally I mean to take the
+east to west course.  It means a saving of twenty-four hours.  If I took
+the reverse direction, I’d be a day to the bad on returning to the
+starting-point. The actual course I’ll have to work out later.  That’s
+where I want expert assistance.  Also I want the aid of a couple of
+experienced navigators.  And so that’s why I sent for you."
+
+"We’re on it," declared both chums.
+
+"I thought as much," rejoined Fosterdyke with a smile.  "There’s one
+thing I ought to make clear--the matter of terms."
+
+Kenyon made a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"Not so fast, Kenyon," protested his chief.  "It’s a rock-bottom
+proposition. Twenty-five per cent. of the prize if we are successful is
+your collective share.  If we fail, then I’m broke--absolutely.  I’ve
+sunk my last penny into the concern, because I’m hanged if I’m going to
+sit still and let a foreigner be the first to make an aerial
+circumnavigation of the globe.  Now let me introduce you to the airship
+’Golden Hind.’"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--THE "GOLDEN HIND"
+
+
+"Appropriate name the ’Golden Hind,’" remarked Bramsdean, as the three
+ex-R.A.F. officers made their way towards the concealed hangar.  "That’s
+what Drake’s ship was called, and he was the first Englishman to
+circumnavigate the world."
+
+"Yes," replied Fosterdyke.  "We must take it as an augury that this
+’Golden Hind’ will do in the air what her namesake did on the sea."
+
+"Not in every respect, I hope," said Kenneth Kenyon, with a laugh.
+"Drake did a considerable amount of filibustering on his voyage, I
+believe."
+
+"Ah, yes," answered Sir Reginald. "Those were good old days.  Now left,"
+he added.  "Mind yourselves, the brambles are a bit dangerous."
+
+Turning off the grass-grown road and down a side path, the two chums
+found themselves entering a dense thicket that formed an outer fringe of
+the pine wood.
+
+"Short cut," remarked Fosterdyke, laconically.  "Now, there you are."
+
+A glade in the woods revealed the end of a lofty corrugated iron shed,
+the hangar in which the "Golden Hind" was fast approaching completion.
+The baronet "knew his way about."  He knew how to deal with the
+dictatorial and often completely muddled officials who ran the Surplus
+Disposals Board, and had succeeded in obtaining, at a comparatively low
+cost, a practically new airship shed, together with an enormous quantity
+of material.
+
+"Now tell me what you think of her," he said, throwing open a small door
+in the rear end of the building.
+
+Kenyon and Bramsdean paused in astonishment at what they saw.  The
+"Golden Hind" was neither airship nor aeroplane in the strict sense of
+the word, but a hybrid embodying the salient features of both. The
+fuselage, constructed almost entirely of aluminium, was a full 120 feet
+in length, and enclosed so as to form a series of cabins or
+compartments.  Amidships these attained a beam of 15 feet, tapering fore
+and aft until the end compartments terminated in a sharp wedge.
+Wherever there were observation windows they were "glazed" with light
+but tough fire-proof celluloid, sufficiently strong to withstand
+wind-pressure.
+
+On either side of the hull, as Fosterdyke termed it, were six planes
+arranged in pairs, each being 30 feet in fore and aft direction, and
+projecting 25 feet from the side of the fuselage.  Thus the total
+breadth of the "Golden Hind" was well under 60 feet.  On angle brackets
+rising obliquely from the fuselage were six large aluminium propellers,
+chain-driven by means of six 350-h.p. motors.
+
+"Some power there," remarked Kenyon, enthusiastically.
+
+"Rather," agreed Sir Reginald.  "Sufficient to lift her independently of
+the gas-bag, while in the unlikely event of the motors giving out there
+is enough lifting power in the envelope to keep her up for an indefinite
+period.  Did you notice the small propellers in the wake of the large
+ones?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Bramsdean.  "Left-handed blades."
+
+"Precisely," agreed Fosterdyke.  "They work on the same shaft, only in a
+reverse direction.  It’s a little stunt of mine to utilise the eddies in
+the wake of the main propellers.  Yes, petrol-driven.  I tried to find
+an ideal fuel, one that is non-inflammable or practically so, except in
+compression; but that’s done me so far.  There’s a huge fortune awaiting
+the chemist who succeeds in producing a liquid capable of conforming to
+these conditions.  I even made a cordite-fired motor once--something on
+the Maxim-gun principle, fed by cordite grains from a hopper.  It did
+splendidly as far as developing power was concerned, but the difficulty
+of excessive consumption and the pitting of the walls of the cylinder
+did me.  However, my experiments haven’t all been failures. Now look at
+the gas-bag."
+
+"It’s only partly inflated," observed Peter.
+
+"No, fully," corrected Fosterdyke.  "The envelope is a rigid one of
+aluminium, subdivided into forty-nine compartments, each of which
+contains a flexible ballonet.  Each ballonet is theoretically proof
+against leakage--in practice there is an almost inappreciable porosity,
+which hardly counts for a comparatively short period, say a month. The
+gas isn’t hydrogen, nor is it the helium we used during the war.
+Helium, although practically non-inflammable, is heavier than hydrogen.
+Fortunately, I hit upon a rather smart youngster who had been in a
+Government laboratory before he joined the R.A.F. With his assistance I
+discovered a gas that is not only lighter than hydrogen, but is as
+non-inflammable as helium.  I’ve named the stuff ’Brodium,’ after the
+youngster who helped me so efficaciously.  When this stunt’s over, we’re
+going to work the gas on a commercial basis, but for the present it’s
+advisable to keep it a secret.
+
+"You observe that the section of the envelope is far from being
+circular.  The horizontal diameter is three-and-a-half times that of the
+vertical.  That gives less surface for a side wind, and consequently
+less drift, while the ’cod’s head and mackerel tail’ ought to give a
+perfect stream-line."
+
+"You carry a pretty stiff lot of fuel with those motors," remarked
+Kenyon.
+
+"Rather," was the reply.  "Enough for 5000 miles; which means, allowing
+for deviations from a straight uniform course, about six halts to
+replenish petrol tanks. We carry no water ballast of any description.
+When the fuel supply runs low, there is a tendency for the airship to
+rise, owing to the reduced weight.  To counteract this, a certain
+quantity of brodium is exhausted from the ballonets into cast-iron
+cylinders, where it is stored under pressure until required again.  The
+leakage during this operation is less than one-half per cent. Now we’ll
+get on board."
+
+Past groups of busy workmen the three ex-officers made their way.  Both
+Kenyon and Bramsdean noticed that the men worked as if they had an
+interest in what they were doing.  Several they recognised as being in
+the same "Flight" in which they had served on the other side of the
+Channel.
+
+"Like old times," said Kenyon in a low voice.
+
+"Rather, old son," agreed his chum.
+
+They boarded the "Golden Hind," where workmen were putting finishing
+touches to the interior decorations of the cabins.  The floor was
+composed of rigid aluminium plates, corrugated in order to provide a
+firm foothold, and temporarily covered with sacking to prevent undue
+wear upon the relatively soft metal.
+
+The door--one of the four--by which they entered was on the port side
+aft.  It opened into a saloon 20 feet by 7 feet, which in turn
+communicated with a fore-and-aft alley-way extending almost the extreme
+length of the fuselage.
+
+"We’ll start right aft and work for’ard," said Fosterdyke.  "If you can
+suggest any alterations in the internal fittings, let me know.  It often
+happens that a new arrival spots something that the original designer
+has overlooked."
+
+"Must have taken some thinking out, sir," remarked Bramsdean.
+
+"M’yes," agreed Sir Reginald.  "I’m afraid I spent some sleepless nights
+over the business.  This is my cabin."
+
+The chums found themselves in a compartment measuring 15 feet in a
+fore-and-aft direction and 10 feet across the for’ard bulkhead, the
+width diminishing to the rounded end of the nacelle.  It was plainly
+furnished.  A canvas cot, a folding table, and two camp chairs
+comprising the principal contents.  The large windows with celluloid
+panes afforded a wide outlook, while should the atmospheric conditions
+be favourable, the windows opened after the manner of those in a railway
+carriage.
+
+Retracing their steps, the chums inspected the motors immediately
+for’ard of the owner’s cabin.  Each was in a compartment measuring 10
+feet by 6 feet, leaving an uninterrupted alley-way nearly 3 feet in
+length between.
+
+"The fuel and oil tanks are underneath the alley-way," Fosterdyke
+pointed out. "I’m using pressure-feed in preference to gravity-feed.  It
+keeps the centre of gravity lower.  What do you think of the engines?"
+
+"Clinking little motors," replied Kenyon, enthusiastically, as he
+studied the spotlessly clean mechanism with professional interest.
+
+"There are six motor rooms, three on each side," observed the baronet.
+"I’m taking twelve motor-mechanics to be on the safe side.  When we are
+running free, one man will look after two engines, but in any case half
+the number will be off-duty at a time.  Now, this is your cabin."
+
+He opened a sliding-door on the port side, corresponding with the
+officers’ dining-room on the starboard side.  It was a compartment 20
+feet by 6 feet 6 inches, with a bunk at each end running athwartships,
+and as plainly furnished as the owner’s quarters.
+
+"Heaps of room," declared Bramsdean, "and warming apparatus, too."
+
+"Yes," replied Fosterdyke, "we had the exhausts led under the cabins.
+Nothing like keeping warm at high altitudes. Warmth and good
+food--that’s more than half the battle.  See this ladder?"
+
+He indicated a metal ladder in the alley-way, clamped vertically to the
+outer wall of the cabin.
+
+"Leads through that hatchway," he continued, "right to the upper surface
+of the envelope.  There’s an observation platform--useful to take
+stellar observations and all that sort of thing.  But you won’t find a
+machine-gun there," he added with a laugh.
+
+Passing between the ’midship pair of motor-rooms, Fosterdyke halted in a
+door-way on the port side.
+
+"Pantry and kitchen," he remarked.
+
+"I’m taking a couple of good cooks.  All the stoves are electrically
+heated.  There’s a dynamo working off the main shaft of each of the
+’midship motors.  The starboard one provides ’juice’ for the kitchen;
+that on the port generates electricity for the searchlights and internal
+lighting. Underneath are fresh water tanks and dry provision stores."
+
+On the port side corresponding to the kitchen were the air-mechanics’
+quarters; while beyond the for’ard motor room the alley-way terminated,
+opening into a triangular space 30 feet long and 12 feet at its greatest
+breadth.
+
+"The crew’s quarters," explained Fosterdyke.  "Ample accommodation for
+eight deck-hands and the two cooks.  You’ll notice that the head-room is
+less than elsewhere.  That’s because of the navigation-room overhead."
+
+The chums looked upwards at the ceiling. There was no indication of a
+hatchway of any description.
+
+"You gain the navigation-room from the alley-way," explained Sir
+Reginald, noting their puzzled glances.  "Saves the inconvenience of
+disturbing the ’watch below’ by having to pass through their quarters.
+Up with you, Kenyon.  Thank your lucky stars you’re not a bulky fellow.
+Mind your head against that girder."
+
+Bramsdean followed his chum, the baronet bringing up the rear.
+
+The combined chart-room and navigation compartment was spacious in
+extent, but considerably congested with an intricate array of levers,
+telephones, indicators, switches, and a compact wireless cabinet. In the
+centre was a table with clamps to hold a large-size chart.  Right "in
+the eyes of the ship" was a gyroscopic compass, which, by reason of the
+needle pointing to the true, instead of the magnetic, north pole,
+greatly simplified steering a course, since those complicated factors,
+variation and deviation, were eliminated.  Altimeters, heeling
+indicators, barometer, thermometer, and chronometer, with other
+scientific instruments, completed the equipment of the room, which was
+in telephonic communication with every part of the airship.
+
+From the car the three men ascended to the interior of the envelope,
+climbing by means of aluminium rungs bolted to the flexible shaft.  Once
+inside the rigid envelope, it was possible to walk the whole five
+hundred feet length of the airship along a narrow platform.  From the
+latter crossways ran at frequent intervals so that access could be
+obtained to any of the ballonets.
+
+The interior reeked of the strong but not obnoxious fumes of the
+brodium.
+
+"Leak somewhere," remarked Kenyon, sniffing audibly.
+
+"Yes," agreed Fosterdyke, "one of the supply pipes gave out this
+morning; otherwise you wouldn’t know by the sense of smell that the
+envelope was fully charged."
+
+He struck a match and held it aloft. It burned with a pale green flame.
+
+"I wouldn’t care to do this with hydrogen," he remarked.
+"Non-inflammability of the gas practically does away with all risk.
+When you recall the numerous accidents to aircraft in the earlier stages
+of the war, you will find that in over eighty per cent. they were caused
+by combustion. Of course I’m referring to disasters other than those
+caused directly by enemy action. Now, carry on; up you go ... no, hold
+on," he added, as a bell rang shrilly just above their heads.
+
+"One of the workmen coming down," said Fosterdyke.  "Opening a flap at
+the top of this shaft automatically rings an alarm, otherwise anyone
+ascending might stand the risk of being kicked on the head by the feet
+of someone else descending."
+
+"By Jove!  I know that chap!" exclaimed Kenyon, after the mechanic had
+descended the long vertical ladder.
+
+"Yes, it’s Flight-sergeant Hayward," added Bramsdean.  "He got the
+D.C.M. for downing two Boche ’planes over Bapaume."
+
+"That’s right," agreed the baronet. "Jolly fine mechanic he is, too.  Do
+you happen to know how he came to join the Royal Flying Corps?  No; then
+I’ll let you into a secret.  It was in ’16 that he enlisted.  Previous
+to that he was a conscientious objector, and, I believe, a genuine one
+at that.  What caused him to change his opinions was rather remarkable.
+Do you remember that Zepp raid over Lancashire?  Hayward was driving a
+motor-lorry that night somewhere up in the hills north of Manchester; a
+bomb fell in the road some yards behind him and blew the back of his
+lorry to bits.  He came off with a shaking and a changed outlook on
+life.  Next morning he joined up.  Yes, Hayward’s quite a good sort;
+he’s been invaluable to me."
+
+"Had any trouble from inquisitive outsiders, sir?" asked Kenyon.
+
+"No, none whatever," replied Fosterdyke. "Touch wood.  People in the
+village hereabouts have seen enough aircraft during the war to take the
+edge off their curiosity. As for our rival competitors, well, if they
+can pick up a wrinkle or two it will make the contest even more
+exciting."
+
+"If we succeed there’ll be a stir," said Bramsdean.
+
+"Yes," agreed the baronet; "it’s the first who scores in these
+undertakings. See what a fuss was made when the Atlantic was first flown
+by aeroplanes.  If the feat were repeated, not a fraction of public
+interest would be directed to it. The novelty has gone, as it were.
+Even interest in the flight to Australia--in itself an epic of courage,
+skill, and determination--was limited.  Sensations of yesterday become
+mediocrities of to-day.  For instance Blériot’s flight from France to
+England: see what an outburst of excitement that caused.  Since then
+thousands of machines have crossed the Channel without exciting comment.
+Now I think I’ve shown you everything that is to be seen.  How about
+lunch?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE DEPARTURE
+
+
+"Will next Monday suit you fellows to take on officially?" enquired
+Fosterdyke, as the chums prepared to depart.  "I want a trial flight on
+that day, and if it proves satisfactory, I’ll make a formal entry at
+once.  M. Chauvasse stipulates that all entries must reach him in
+writing by noon on the thirtieth.  That leaves us with only eight days
+clear."
+
+"Monday it is, sir," replied Kenyon, promptly.  "We’ll have everything
+fixed up as far as our private business is concerned before then.  In
+fact, we could arrange to join earlier--couldn’t we, Peter?"
+
+Peter Bramsdean signified his agreement.
+
+"Hardly necessary," observed Fosterdyke. "But if anything unforeseen
+transpires before then I’ll wire you."
+
+During the next few days there was much to be done in "squaring up" the
+motor transport work.  Notices were issued stating that the principals,
+Messrs. Kenyon and Bramsdean, would be away for six weeks, during which
+time all orders could be safely entrusted to their works manager. Even
+that individual had no inkling of the nature of his employers’
+forthcoming absence.  The secret, jealously guarded, had not yet leaked
+out.
+
+On the other hand, the Press published a report of M. Chauvasse’s offer
+and stated that three entries other than British had been received.  The
+lack of enterprise on the part of British airmen was commented upon and
+an appeal issued to sportsmen to make an effort to prevent yet another
+record passing into the hands of foreigners.
+
+On the day following this journalistic jeremiad came the report that a
+British airship of unique design was approaching completion at a private
+aerodrome near Blandford, and that the Air Ministry had given
+instructions for all facilities to be afforded to its crew in their
+attempt to circumnavigate the globe within a space of twenty days.
+Details, both erroneous and exaggerated, were given of the mysterious
+airship, together with plans that were as unlike those of the "Golden
+Hind" as those of a modern dreadnought would be compared with those of
+Drake’s famous ship.
+
+"That will rattle the Old Man," declared Kenyon, when he read the
+announcement.
+
+It did.  Fosterdyke sent a wire asking his two assistants to join him at
+once.  That was on the Friday morning.  At 2.30 P.M.--or in Air Force
+phraseology 14.30--Kenyon and Bramsdean arrived at Air Grange, to find a
+vast concourse of would-be spectators congregated round the gates,
+backing up the efforts of a knot of persistent Pressmen who cajoled,
+bluffed, and argued--all in vain--with the imperturbable Hayward and
+four hefty satellites.
+
+The grassy slopes outside the formidable fence resembled Epsom Downs on
+Derby Day.  Momentarily motor-cars were arriving, while at frequent
+intervals heavily laden char-a-bancs rumbled up and discharged their
+human cargo.  Motor-bicycles, push-bikes, traps and carts added to the
+congestion.  Thousands of people arrived on foot--from where goodness
+only knows!  Hawkers and itinerant purveyors displayed their wares;
+photographers, both amateur and professional, elbowed their way towards
+the forbidden ground; while three brass bands and at least a dozen
+individual musicians added to the din.  On the outskirts temporary
+platforms had been erected, while hirers of telescopes, field and opera
+glasses did a roaring trade, people willingly paying to gaze at the
+impenetrable barrier of fir-trees in the vain hope of catching a glimpse
+of the mysterious airship.
+
+It took Kenyon and Bramsdean the best part of an hour to literally force
+their way through the throng.  By dint of shouting "Gangway, please,"
+they continued to make a certain amount of progress until their arrival,
+coupled with the ex-sergeant’s efforts to make the crowd stand aside,
+attracted the attention of the representatives of the Press.
+
+For five minutes the latter bombarded the chums with questions, getting
+inconsequent replies that put the reporters on their mettle.
+
+"If we aren’t allowed in, we’ll take jolly good care you won’t be,"
+shouted one of the Press representatives, evidently mistaking Peter and
+Kenneth for favoured spectators.
+
+There was a rush towards the gates.  The half a dozen policemen
+assisting Hayward and his men were almost swept off their feet.  Things
+looked serious.  If Kenyon and his companion succeeded in getting past
+the gate it would only be in the midst of an excited mob.
+
+Just then Sir Reginald Fosterdyke appeared.  Some of the local
+inhabitants recognised him, and the report of his identity quickly
+spread.  So when he raised his hand to enjoin silence the crowd surging
+around the gate ceased its clamour.
+
+"By preventing my navigating officers you only defer your own ends," he
+exclaimed in ringing tones.  "The airship is not yet ready for flight,
+nor is she open to inspection.  A trial flight has been fixed for Monday
+next.  On that day the aerodrome will be thrown open to public
+inspection.  And," he added, with a disarming smile, "there will be no
+charge for admission."
+
+Almost instantly the demeanour of the crowd changed.  There were calls
+for cheers for Sir Reginald Fosterdyke.  Someone started singing: "For
+he’s a jolly good fellow."
+
+The baronet turned and hurried away precipitately.  Publicity he hated.
+Kenneth and Peter, taking advantage of this diversion, slipped inside
+the barrier and found Fosterdyke awaiting them beyond the bend of the
+carriage drive.
+
+"Good old British public," he exclaimed. "By Jove!  They put the wind up
+me.  I thought that they would be swarming like locusts over the ’Golden
+Hind.’  We’ll have to circumvent them.  Only last night some of the crew
+found a fellow prowling round the shed.  Goodness only knows what for.
+He pitched some sort of yarn, and since we aren’t under the Defence of
+the Realm Act I couldn’t detain him.  But this crowd scares me.  We’ll
+get out to-night, even if we have to drift, and they can have the run of
+the place on Monday, as I promised.  But I said nothing about the
+airship being here or otherwise.  Where’s your kit?"
+
+"Somewhere between here and Blandford railway station," replied Peter.
+"We saw we’d have our work cut out to force our way through, so we told
+the taxi-driver to take it back to the station.  It isn’t the first time
+we’ve parted with our kit, eh, Kenneth?"
+
+"I’ll send for it when the crowd thins," decided Sir Reginald.  "Now I
+suppose you’re wondering why I telegraphed for you?"
+
+"The swarm outside offers a solution," said Kenyon.
+
+"To a certain extent, yes," agreed Fosterdyke.  "Apart from that,
+there’s a reliable report that Captain Theodore Nye, of the United
+States Army, is starting from Tampa, Florida, to-morrow in one of the
+large airships of the ’R’ type that the Air Ministry sold to America
+recently.  That forces our hand.  We’ll have to be at the
+starting-point--1100 miles away--by to-morrow mid-day, so as to
+replenish petrol and commence the competition flight before midnight."
+
+"And how about the Boche, sir?"
+
+"Count Karl von Sinzig?  Not a word. He’s apparently out of it.  Not
+even one of the ’also rans.’  Our formidable rivals are the Yankee and a
+Jap--a Count Hyashi--who will reach his Nadir somewhere in Uruguay.  Let
+’em all come--the more the merrier."
+
+All hands, including the workmen and mechanics who were not
+participating in the voyage, assembled in the large dining-hall for an
+impromptu farewell dinner, and to them the baronet broached the subject
+of the hurried departure of the "Golden Hind."
+
+The meal over, the task of getting the huge airship out of her shed
+began.  Even though the wind was light the work was by no means simple.
+Incautious handling or a sudden change in the direction of the air
+currents might easily result in disaster. The operation had to be
+carried out after sunset and with the minimum of artificial light,
+since, for the present, the "Golden Hind’s" departure was to be kept
+secret.
+
+With her ballonets charged sufficiently to give her a slight lift, the
+airship rose until the base of the fuselage was a bare three feet from
+the ground.  The crew were at their stations, Kenyon assisting
+Fosterdyke in the wheelhouse, while right aft Peter Bramsdean directed
+the movements of the "ground-men" holding the stern, securing, and
+trailing ropes.
+
+Inch by inch, foot by foot, the leviathan of the air emerged from the
+shed until her entire length, straining gently at the rope that tethered
+her to mother earth, lay exposed to the starlit sky.
+
+"All clear, sir!" reported Bramsdean through a speaking-tube.
+
+Curt but precise orders rang out from the navigation-room.  The slight
+hiss of the brodium being released from the metal cylinders was barely
+audible above the sighing of the wind in the pine-tops until the gauges
+registering the "lift" of the airship indicated thirty-eight tons.
+
+Armed with a megaphone, Fosterdyke leant out of the window of the
+navigation-room.
+
+"All ready? ... Let go!"
+
+Simultaneously the twenty men holding the airship released their hold.
+That was where training and discipline told, for terrible to contemplate
+would have been the fate of an unwary "ground-man" had he retained his
+grip on the rope.  But without an accident to mar the momentous event,
+the "Golden Hind" shot almost vertically into the air, attaining in a
+very short space of time an altitude of six thousand feet.
+
+Not a cheer rang out to speed the departing competitor for the
+stupendous contest. Unheard and unseen save by the loyal band of helpers
+at the aerodrome, Sir Reginald Fosterdyke’s airship was on her way to
+the starting-point of her voyage round the globe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--FIRST AWAY
+
+
+Hanging apparently motionless in still air, although virtually she was
+drifting in a southerly direction at a modest ten miles an hour, the
+"Golden Hind" maintained her altitude for the best part of half an hour
+before any attempt was made to start the motors.  She was now to all
+intents and purposes a non-dirigible balloon, floating aimlessly in the
+air.
+
+Peter Bramsdean, his work aft accomplished, made his way to the
+navigation-room, where he found the baronet and Kenyon watching the
+galaxy of lights far beneath them.
+
+"We’re drifting over Poole Harbour," observed Fosterdyke.  "That’s
+prohibited for private owned aircraft; but who’s to know?"
+
+"I often wonder what would happen," said Peter, "if a non-dirigible
+drifted over a prohibited area.  Hang it all!  The balloonist couldn’t
+control the wind, neither can the Air Ministry, so what’s the poor
+fellow to do?"
+
+From their lofty post of observation the officers of the "Golden Hind"
+could see the coast-line standing out distinctly in the starlight.  Away
+to the south-east the powerful St. Catherine’s Light threw its beam
+athwart the sky in a succession of flashes every five seconds.  Nearer,
+but less distinct, could be seen the distinctive lights of The Needles
+and Hurst Castle.  Then a curved line of glittering pin-points--the
+esplanade lamps of Bournemouth.  To the south-west the lesser glare of
+Swanage and beyond the glow of Anvil Point Lighthouse. Lesser lights,
+like myriads of glow-worms, denoted scattered towns, villages, and
+detached houses ashore, while right ahead and for the most part visible
+only by the aid of binoculars, could be discerned the red, green, and
+white navigation lights of shipping passing up and down the Channel.
+
+The three men watched the nocturnal panorama almost without emotion.
+The sight would have moved a novice into raptures of delight, but to the
+veteran airmen there was little new, except perhaps that in the place of
+star-shells, searchlights, "flaming-onions," and exploding shrapnel were
+the lights of a nation once more at peace with her neighbours even if
+not so with herself.
+
+Fosterdyke glanced at a clock set upon the bulkhead.
+
+"Time!" he announced laconically.
+
+Indicators clanged in various parts of the ship.  Within a few seconds
+the six motors, started by compressed air, were roaring.  Swaying
+slightly under the resistance of the gas-bag overhead, the airship
+gathered way.  In place of complete calm came the rush and whine of the
+wind as the "Golden Hind" leapt forward.
+
+"May as well be on the safe side," remarked Fosterdyke.  "Switch on the
+navigation lights, Kenyon.  I don’t fancy another ’bus barging into us."
+
+He gave an order through a voice tube. Promptly one of the crew appeared
+from below.
+
+"Take her, Taylor," said the skipper, indicating the helm.  "Following
+wind--no drift.  Course S. ¾ W."
+
+"S. ¾ W. it is, sir," repeated the man, peering into the bowl of the
+gyroscope compass.
+
+"Now, you bright beauties, take my tip and turn in," said Fosterdyke,
+addressing Peter and Kenneth.  "There won’t be much doing to-night, I
+hope, so you may as well make the best of things.  If you’ll relieve me
+at four, Kenyon? ... Good."
+
+The chums left the navigation-room and made their way to their cabin.
+Here, although adjoining one of the motor-rooms, there was comparatively
+little vibration, but the noise was considerable.
+
+"We’ll get used to it," observed Peter, as he proceeded to unpack his
+luggage, which had been brought from Blandford station and put on board
+only a few minutes before the "Golden Hind" parted company with terra
+firma.  "Seems like old times. Hanged if I thought I’d ever be up
+again."
+
+"Between ourselves I’d prefer a ’bus," confided Kenyon.  "Doesn’t seem
+quite the right thing being held up by a gas-bag."
+
+"Be thankful for small mercies, you old blighter!" exclaimed his
+companion.  "Turn in as sharp as you can, ’cause it’s your watch in four
+hours’ time."
+
+It seemed less than ten minutes before Kenyon was awakened.  His first
+impression was that he was being roused by his batman, and that illusion
+was heightened by the fact that the man held a cup of tea.
+
+"Ten to four, sir," announced the airman.  "I’ve made you something
+hot."
+
+Kenneth thanked the man, drank the tea, and slipped out of his bunk.  He
+was aware as he donned his clothes that the "Golden Hind" was pitching
+considerably.  Peter, sound asleep, was breathing deeply.  There was a
+smile on his face; evidently his dreams were pleasant ones.
+
+On his way for’ard Kenyon stopped to exchange a few words with the
+air-mechanic tending the two after motors.
+
+"Running like clocks, sir," replied the man in answer to Kenneth’s
+enquiry.  "If things go on as they are going now, I’m on a soft job."
+
+The first streaks of dawn were showing in the north-eastern sky as the
+relieving pilot clambered up the ladder and gained the navigation-room.
+Fosterdyke, busy with parallel rulers and compass was bending over a
+chart.
+
+"Mornin’," he remarked genially, when he became aware of the presence of
+his relief.  "Everything O.K.  Doing eighty, and there’s a stiff
+following wind--force five.  Altitude 5500, course S. ¾ W. That’s the
+lot, I think.  We ought to be sighting the Spanish coast in another
+twenty minutes."
+
+Fosterdyke waited until the helmsman had been relieved, then, giving
+another glance ahead, he turned to Kenyon.
+
+"We passed something going in a westerly direction at 1.15 A.M.," he
+announced. "An airship flying fairly low.  About 2000, I should think."
+
+"Not a competitor, sir?"
+
+"Hardly.  No one but a born fool would think of taking a westerly course
+round the earth if engaged in a race against time.  We were passing over
+Belle Isle, on the French coast, at the time, and it rather puzzled me
+why an airship should be proceeding west from the Biscayan coast."
+
+"French patrol, possibly," suggested Kenyon.
+
+"Or a Hun running a cargo of arms and ammunition to Ireland.  I
+signalled her, but she didn’t reply.  Right-o!  Carry on."
+
+Fosterdyke went to his cabin, to sleep like a log.  He was one of those
+fortunate individuals who can slumber almost anywhere and at any time,
+but rarely if ever did he sleep for more than five hours at a stretch.
+Even after a strenuous day’s mental and physical work he would be "as
+fresh as paint" after his customary "caulk."
+
+Left in the company of the airman at the helm, Kenyon prepared to accept
+responsibility until eight o’clock.  He took up his position at the
+triplex glass window, the navigation-room being the only compartment
+where celluloid was not employed for purposes of lighting.  It was a
+weird sight that met his gaze.  Overhead and projecting from beyond the
+point of the nacelle was the blunt nose of the gas-bag, the port side
+tinted a rosy red as the growing light glinted on it, the starboard side
+showing dark grey against the sombre sky.  A thousand feet below were
+rolling masses of clouds, their nether edges suffused by dawn.  Between
+the rifts in the bank of vapour was apparently a black, unfathomable
+void, for as yet the first signs of another day were vouchsafed only to
+the airman flying far above the surface of the sea.  Already the stars
+had paled before the growing light.  Wisps of vapour--clouds on a higher
+plane to the denser ones below--were trailing athwart the course of the
+"Golden Hind," until, overtaken by the airship’s high speed, they were
+parted asunder, to follow in the eddying wake of the powerful
+propellers.
+
+In the navigation-room, being placed right for’ard, the jerky motion of
+the fuselage that was noticeable in Kenyon’s cabin was greatly
+exaggerated.  It was a totally different sensation from being in an
+aeroplane when the ’bus entered a "pocket."  It reminded Kenyon of a
+lift being alternately started up and down with only a brief interval
+between.  Rather vaguely the pilot wondered what he would be like at the
+end of twenty-one days of this sort of thing.
+
+"Bucking a bit, isn’t she, Thompson?" he remarked to the helmsman, who,
+relieved of the responsibility of maintaining a constant altitude by the
+fact that the airship was automatically controlled in that direction,
+was merely keeping the vessel on her compass course.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man.  "She’ll be steadier when we trim the
+planes."
+
+"Might have thought of that before," soliloquised Kenyon.  He remarked
+that the six "wings" were secured in a horizontal position.  For the
+present the "Golden Hind" was kept up solely by the lift of the brodium
+in the ballonets.  Not until it was fully light would Fosterdyke reduce
+the gas in the ballonets and rely upon the planes for "lift."
+
+A quarter of an hour later, while Kenyon was engaged in making an entry
+in the log, the helmsman reported land ahead.
+
+The "Golden Hind" was approaching the Spanish coast, not in the hostile
+way in which her namesake did, but on a friendly voyage across a country
+that, if not exactly an ally, is bound by strong ties to Great Britain.
+
+The airship was soon passing over Santander.  Ahead the Cantabrian
+Mountains reared themselves so high in the air that the "Golden Hind"
+had to ascend another three thousand feet to ensure an easy crossing.
+
+At eight o’clock Fosterdyke appeared in the navigation-room.  Under his
+orders the airship’s speed had been sensibly diminished.  He intended to
+put to a practical test the lifting powers of the six planes.
+
+Close behind him came Bramsdean, on whom the duties of officer of the
+watch devolved for the next four hours.
+
+"Well, old bird," he observed, genially addressing his chum.  "How goes
+it?"
+
+"Fresh as paint," replied Kenyon, "but as hungry as a hunter."
+
+"Then hook it," continued Peter.  "The cook’s dished up a sumptuous
+breakfast."
+
+Kenyon made a hurried but ample meal. He was anxious to see how the
+"Golden Hind" manoeuvred as an aeroplane.
+
+Upon returning to the navigation-room he found that the six
+comparatively small wings were being tilted to an effective angle, while
+a large quantity of brodium was being exhausted from the alternate
+ballonets into the pressure-flasks, until there was only enough "lift"
+remaining in the envelope to prevent it dropping earthwards and thus
+disturbing the stability of the fuselage by acting as top-hamper.
+
+Simultaneously instructions were telegraphed to the air mechanics
+standing by the six motors to increase the number of revolutions.
+
+The change was instantly appreciable. No longer did the "Golden Hind"
+pitch. She settled down to a rapid, steady motion, her speed being not
+far short of 150 miles an hour.
+
+"No ailerons," explained Fosterdyke. "Horizontal and vertical rudders
+only. Saves a lot of trouble and complication of gear."
+
+"Stunts not permissible, sir?" asked Kenyon.
+
+"No," he replied.  "They are not. We’re out to do something definite,
+not to let the Spanish have an exhibition of an airship making a
+spinning nose-dive or looping the loop.  But we’ll do a volplane, just
+to test the gliding powers of the ’bus."
+
+He touched a switch by which a warning bell rang in each of the motor
+rooms.  This was to inform the mechanics that the electric current would
+be simultaneously cut off from the six motors, so that there would be no
+need on their part to endeavour to locate faults that did not exist.
+
+"Cut out!" ordered Fosterdyke.
+
+Bramsdean promptly depressed a small switch by the side of the
+indicator-board. This automatically cut off the ignition. The propellers
+made a few more "revs." and then came to a standstill.  In almost
+absolute silence, save for the whine of the wind in the struts and
+tension wires the "Golden Hind" began her long, oblique glide earthward.
+
+Suddenly Kenyon gripped the baronet’s arm.
+
+"Look!" he exclaimed.  "Airship!"
+
+Fosterdyke did as requested.  The "Golden Hind" was manoeuvring high
+above La Mancha, the undulating well-watered plain between the Montes
+del Toledo and the Sierra Morena.  Six thousand feet beneath the airship
+the town of Ciudad Real glinted in the slanting rays of the morning sun.
+
+"Our shadow--that’s all," declared Fosterdyke.
+
+"No, not that," protested Kenneth. "More to the left."
+
+He grasped a pair of binoculars and looked at the object that had
+attracted his attention.  It was a somewhat difficult matter, owing to
+the refraction of the triplex glass in front of the navigation-room,
+where, in contrast to the rest of the windows, fire-proofed celluloid
+had not been employed.
+
+Before Kenyon had got the airship in focus the baronet had also spotted
+it. Apparently it had just left its shed and was heading in a
+south-easterly direction, differing a good four points from that
+followed by the "Golden Hind."
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Kenyon.  "It’s a Fritz!  I can spot the black
+crosses on the envelope."
+
+"In that case," added Fosterdyke, calmly, "Count Karl von Sinzig has
+stolen a march on us.  He’s one up!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--Z64 SCORES
+
+
+Count Karl von Sinzig was certainly the "first away."  Typically
+Teutonic, he had succeeded in throwing dust in the eyes of his rivals.
+Acting upon the principle "Do others or they’ll do you," he was leaving
+no stone unturned to pull off the big prize; and, figuratively speaking,
+a good many of the stones were too dirty for a clean sportsman to
+handle.
+
+For one thing von Sinzig had obtained his airship by fraud, although
+none of the other competitors were aware of the fact. Formerly in the
+German Air Service, the count managed to smuggle one of the Zeppelins
+out of the shed at Tondern, taking it by night to an aerodrome in East
+Prussia.
+
+According to the terms of the Peace Treaty, Germany was to surrender all
+her airships.  How she evaded the stipulation is now well known.  The
+Zeppelins at Tondern and other air stations in Sleswig-Holstein were
+destroyed by fire deliberately, to prevent them falling into the hands
+of the Allies.  This act of bad faith was similar to the scuttling of
+the Hun fleet at Scapa; and the tardiness of the Allies to obtain
+reparation merely encouraged the Huns to other acts of passive defiance.
+But, although the destruction of the airships was taken as an accepted
+fact, it was unknown outside certain Junker circles that one of the
+Zeppelins had been removed before the conflagration.
+
+Revolutions and counter-revolutions, in which the fire-eating von Sinzig
+had several narrow escapes from death, led the count to seek pastures
+new; and about this time the publication of M. Chauvasse’s terms for the
+international contest suggested to the Junker count the possibility of
+making good his financial losses.
+
+Gathering a crew of airmen who had had experience in Zeppelins during
+the war, von Sinzig flew the airship to Spain, crossing Austria and the
+north of Italy during the night, and carefully avoiding French territory
+on his aerial voyage.
+
+In a secluded part of the mountainous Estremadura he had practically his
+own way.  The Alcaldes of the nearest surrounding villages were easily
+bribed to leave the mysterious airship and its foreign owner severely
+alone.  From stores of German war material "sold" to Spain von Sinzig
+obtained gas cylinders, petrol, spares, and even a baby "Albatross"--a
+small yet powerful monoplane.  With folding wings this machine could
+with ease be stowed away in the car of the airship. With German
+thoroughness the Count, looking well ahead, foresaw that the Albatross
+would probably serve a most useful purpose in helping him to win the
+coveted prize.
+
+The honour of being the first man to fly round the world took quite a
+subsidiary place in von Sinzig’s plans.  Since Germany did not own a
+square inch of territory outside Europe, he was compelled to make use of
+alien lands in which to alight.  That was a handicap, and the thought of
+it rankled.  There was some consolation to be derived from the prospect
+of wresting the big prize from a hated Englishman, a despised Yankee, or
+a miserable yellow Jap.  And he meant to do it--somehow.
+
+Already Germans had resumed their "peaceful penetration" of Great
+Britain and the United States.  Commercial travellers, representing
+German houses and at the same time potential spies, were able to
+ascertain with little difficulty particulars concerning the British and
+American competitors for the Round-the-World Flight. The moment von
+Sinzig learnt of the date of Sir Reginald Fosterdyke’s departure from
+England, he anticipated the time by starting the day before the British
+airship was supposed to leave Gibraltar.
+
+This was a comparatively easy matter. According to the terms of the
+contest, competitors had to obtain a clearance certificate from an
+official of the International Airways Board.  Provided the flight were
+completed within twenty days of the date of the certificate the
+principal condition was complied with, while it was furthermore
+specified that the certificate could be post-dated to the extent of
+twelve hours to allow for the time taken up in transmission from the
+Board’s representative to the actual competitor.
+
+In von Sinzig’s case he scored again. Employing a swift motor-car, he
+obtained the official _visé_ at Madrid, and was back at the rendezvous
+within two and a half hours, the atrocious roads notwithstanding.
+
+Everything was in readiness for the start, and at ten in the morning Z64
+left her shed and, flying at a comparatively low altitude, made off in a
+south-easterly direction.
+
+The German was counting on forty-eight hours’ start of his English
+rival--possibly more.  He had been informed that the "Golden Hind"
+proposed leaving England on the following Monday.  Fosterdyke really
+meant to have started on that day, and only the exuberant demonstration
+of the crowd outside Air Grange had made him alter his plans.  It was a
+lucky stroke, for Fosterdyke’s secret intelligence department was at
+fault.  According to information received from Germany, Count von Sinzig
+was a non-starter.  Incidentally it was the count who had set that
+rumour afloat. It was but one of the many petty artifices upon which he
+built his hopes of carrying off the Chauvasse Prize.
+
+Chuckling to himself, Count von Sinzig stood beside the helmsman of Z64,
+quite in ignorance of the fact that a few thousand feet above him was
+the British airship which he fondly thought was resting in her shed in
+far-off England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--DELAYS
+
+
+"Avast stunting!" declared Fosterdyke. "Let’s get on with it.  Full
+speed to Gib."
+
+Everyone on board realised that every minute was precious.  With her six
+motors running "all out" the "Golden Hind" quickly worked up to her
+maximum speed of 180 miles an hour.  At that rate the petrol consumption
+was alarming, but Fosterdyke faced the fact cheerfully.  While he was
+obtaining the necessary certificates and making an official declaration
+to the authorities at Gibraltar, the airship could replenish her
+somewhat depleted fuel tanks.
+
+But Sir Reginald had not taken into account the vagaries of red tape and
+petty officialdom.
+
+At 11 A.M. the "Golden Hind" sighted the historic Rock.  Five minutes
+later she slowed down and turned head to wind off the west side of the
+fortress.  With the assistance of a dockyard mooring-party, a stout
+galvanised steel wire was lowered from the bow compartment of the
+fuselage and secured to a large mooring buoy off the Detached Mole.
+Then with sufficient gas in her ballonets to keep her buoyant the
+"Golden Hind" floated head to wind at 50 feet above the Bay of
+Gibraltar.
+
+Almost before the mooring operations were completed the water in the
+vicinity was crowded with boats of all sorts, sizes, and descriptions,
+while the water-front was packed with a dense concourse of interested
+spectators, representatives of the umpteen nationalities to be found
+living on the few square miles of thickly-populated rock.
+
+"Nothing you want ashore, I suppose?" enquired Fosterdyke as he prepared
+to descend a wire ladder, the end of which was being steadied by a
+couple of bluejackets in a picket-boat.
+
+"Thanks, no," replied Kenyon.
+
+"That’s good," continued the baronet, fervently.  "Hate having to
+execute commissions.  Not that I don’t like obliging people, but I’m so
+deucedly forgetful. Right-o; stand by.  I’ll be back in less than a
+couple of hours, I hope.  Come along, Bramsdean."
+
+Agilely Fosterdyke swarmed down the swaying ladder, followed at a safe
+distance by Peter, who carried a parcel of documents and a Mercator’s
+chart on which the proposed route was marked for the benefit of the
+International Air Committee’s representative and also the "Competent
+Military Authorities" of the various garrisons where the "Golden Hind"
+was scheduled to land.
+
+Peter Bramsdean had plenty of experience of petty officialdom at the Air
+Ministry.  He well remembered the time--running into hours all told--of
+weary waiting in draughty corridors until it pleased certain individuals
+holding high places to signify their condescension (conveyed by a pert
+damsel in brown overall and a pigtail tied with an enormous bow) to
+receive the insignificant lieutenant.
+
+Here it was much the same.  The officials who were considered
+indispensable in the matter of signing various documents were "out to
+lunch."
+
+A look of horrified amazement overspread the features of the minion to
+whom Fosterdyke suggested that time would be saved by sending for them.
+The British Empire might totter; the chance of winning fame by being the
+first airman to fly round the globe be lost; but by no possibility must
+such trivial details prevent officialdom from having its lunch--a
+movable feast occupying normally from one o’clock till three.
+
+"Hang it all, Bramsdean!" exclaimed Fosterdyke explosively during one of
+the numerous periods of forced inaction. Clearly the usually unruffled
+baronet was showing signs of annoyance.  "Hang it all!  It was ever
+thus.  Petty hirelings whose one idea of efficiency is to raise
+obstacles and to quibble over unimportant details; those are the
+stumbling blocks. For twopence I’d cut the cackle and carry on."
+
+"And be disqualified at the winning post," reminded the cautious Peter.
+"We’re wasting precious time----"
+
+"It’ll be an unofficial competition, then," declared Fosterdyke.  "The
+honour of achieving the flight will be enough.  The money prize can go
+hang.  Come along, let’s make tracks."
+
+"I vote we look up the Commissioner at his private quarters," suggested
+Bramsdean. "After all, the ’Golden Hind’ won’t have refilled her petrol
+tanks yet."
+
+"’Spose not," growled Fosterdyke. "Someone’s illegible signature’s
+required for the indents, I presume.  Right-o, Bramsdean, let’s rout out
+this indispensable."
+
+Somewhat to Peter’s surprise the official was discovered with little
+difficulty.  He had just finished his lunch, and as the meal had been a
+satisfying one, he was in high good humour.
+
+"So Count von Sinzig has five hours’ start, eh?" remarked the worthy
+representative of the International Air Board. "That’s nothing.  You’ll
+make that up easily.  The documents?  Ah--yes--quite so.  Unfortunately,
+the seals are in my office.  I’ll be along there very shortly."
+
+"Isn’t your signature enough?" asked the baronet.
+
+The great one hesitated.  On the one hand, he wanted to impress his
+callers by admitting that his signature was "absolutely it."  On the
+other, years of punctilious devotion to the ethics of red tape urged him
+to deprecate such a cutting of the Gordian knot.
+
+"No, Sir Reginald," he replied.  "Both are necessary.  One is not
+conclusively in order without the other.  I’ll be at the office by
+three."
+
+It was now a quarter-past two.  Fosterdyke felt strongly inclined to
+enquire pointedly why three-quarters of an hour would be taken up by the
+Commissioner in getting from his quarters to his office.
+
+By ten minutes past three the various documents were sealed and signed.
+As the competitors were on the point of taking their departure the
+Commissioner spoke again.
+
+"I don’t seem to have seen Form 4456," he observed dryly.  "That had to
+be obtained before you left England."
+
+"It wasn’t," replied the baronet, bluntly. "An oversight, I admit, but
+you don’t suggest that I return to England to get it?"
+
+"It is necessary," was the rejoinder. "Without it the flight would not
+be in order. In fact, as an authorised representative of the
+International Air Board I can rule you out of the contest."
+
+"Piffle!" declared Fosterdyke hotly. He was rapidly nearing the end of
+his restraint.  "This, I may observe, is a contest of aircraft, not a
+paper competition. Form 4456 is not an absolute essential. Since you
+require it, I presume the case can be met if my representative in
+England has the form made out and sent to you by registered post.  It
+will be in your hands before the ’Golden Hind’ completes the circuit."
+
+The Commissioner consulted a ponderous tome, chock-a-block with rules
+and regulations for aerial navigation, written in official phraseology
+so confusing that it was possible to have more than one interpretation
+for at least seventy-five per cent. of the complicated paragraphs.
+
+Quoting Article 1071, sub-section 3c, the official made the discovery
+that the rendering of Form 4456 could be dispensed with in circumstances
+laid down in Article 2074, section 5c, etc., etc.  Thereupon he rang a
+bell, summoned a head clerk, who in turn deputed a junior to fetch a
+certain form.  When this was forthcoming a blob of sealing-wax, the
+impress of a seal, and the great man’s illegible signature, and the
+trick was done.  As far as the International Air Board was concerned the
+"Golden Hind" was a recognised and duly authorised competitor for the
+Chauvasse Prize.
+
+There was still the Recognised Military Authority to be dealt with.
+That official was urbanity personified.  He did everything in his power
+to expedite matters, but red tape was stronger than gold lace.
+
+The loud report of a gun warned Fosterdyke and his companion that sunset
+had descended upon the Rock.  The gates of the fortress were closed till
+sunrise.
+
+"Won’t affect you," explained the courteous official.  "You can get back
+by the boat from the Old Mole.  I won’t keep you very much longer.  It
+really isn’t my fault."
+
+"Gibraltar was a bad choice of mine for a starting-point," observed
+Fosterdyke.
+
+"’Fraid so," agreed the other.  "Ah, here we are.  Thank you, Wilson.
+Where’s my fountain pen?  Where’s----  Oh, dash it all, where’s
+everything? ... That’s settled, then.  Have a drink before you go? No?
+Well, cheerio, and the very best of luck."
+
+Armed with the necessary documents, "sealed, signed, and delivered,"
+Fosterdyke and Bramsdean found themselves in the open air.  Darkness had
+already fallen. It was a good two miles from Little Europa Point to the
+Old Mole, and not a vehicle of any sort was to be seen.
+
+Tired, hot, and hungry they reached the spot where a naval pinnace was
+supposed to be awaiting them.  It was not there.  A message erroneously
+delivered had sent the boat back to the dockyard.  Not to be done,
+Fosterdyke hired a native boat, paying without demur a
+villainous-looking Rock Scorp the excessive sum he demanded.
+
+For a quarter of an hour the boat rowed about while the baronet and his
+companion gazed aloft in the hope of spotting the "Golden Hind" against
+the dark sky.
+
+"She’s gone!" declared Bramsdean.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Fosterdyke, irritably.  "Why should she?"
+
+Nevertheless in his mind he was convinced that such was the case.
+
+Presently the boat ran close to the buoy to which the airship had been
+moored. Both men recognised the buoy by the number painted on it.  No
+wire rope ran upwards to an invisible object floating in the darkness of
+the night.
+
+Unaccountably, mysteriously the "Golden Hind" had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--CAST ADRIFT
+
+
+Enrico Jaures, Spaniard on his father’s side and German on his mother’s,
+with a dash of almost every other Continental nation’s blood in his
+veins, lived or rather existed in a mean dwelling behind the King’s
+Bastion, on the west side of Gibraltar.
+
+Indolent, thriftless, and easy-going on the one hand, crafty and
+quarrelsome on the other, he possessed all the bad points that
+characterise the criminal classes of the two countries where his parents
+first saw the light.  What he did for a living and how he earned money
+was a mystery even to his polyglot neighbours.  Yet, without being well
+off, he appeared to be always "flush" with money.
+
+Contrary to the general demeanour of the Rock Scorps, Enrico Jaures
+expressed no astonishment when the "Golden Hind" appeared over the high
+ground beyond Algeciras.  He was expecting the airship, although he had
+to confess to himself that she had certainly arrived prematurely.
+Evidently this was not according to plan.
+
+He sat, smoked innumerable cigarettes, and thought as deeply as a
+half-breed Spaniard can.  Twice he got up, yawned, stretched himself and
+ambled back to the house to partake of a meal consisting principally of
+olives, garlic, and maize. Then back he came to his post of vantage and
+sat gazing stolidly at the five hundred feet of inflated gasbag riding
+easily to her wire cable, while her crew, bringing the airship close to
+the surface, were busily engaged in pumping up petrol from a
+tank-lighter.
+
+The shadows were lengthening considerably when a white-robed Moor
+approached the reclining Jaures--a dignified, olive-featured man,
+wearing a thick black beard and moustache.
+
+"The Englishman has started," observed the new-comer, speaking in
+Spanish with a decidedly guttural accent.
+
+"That I know," rejoined Enrico.
+
+"But not so von Sinzig," continued the other in a low tone, giving a
+furtive glance over his shoulder.  "Until he arrives at Massowah it is
+doubtful whether he will know that this English airship is on his heels.
+Why is she here so soon?"
+
+"I know not," replied Jaures.  "Two men landed from her.  They went in
+the direction of Buena Vista."
+
+The pseudo Moor shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Two thousand five hundred pesetas are awaiting you in the Banqua del
+Espiritu at Algeciras, friend Enrico," he said in a low voice.  "Prevent
+that airship’s departure even for twelve hours and the money will be
+paid you."
+
+"How can I?" asked Jaures, showing more interest than he had hitherto
+displayed.  "I cannot place a bomb on board her, like I did on board the
+_Henri Artois_ at Barcelona."
+
+"S’sh!  Not so loud," exclaimed the other warningly.  "How you earn the
+money is your affair."
+
+The supposed Moor passed on, leaving Enrico Jaures gazing thoughtfully
+at the British airship.
+
+He sat and pondered until the refuelling operations were completed and
+the "Golden Hind" allowed to rise a hundred feet above the sea.  With
+the setting of the sun a gentle breeze sprang up from the nor’east,
+causing the hitherto almost motionless airship to sway as she fretted at
+her cable.
+
+He waited until darkness had settled upon the scene, then once more made
+his way into the house.  This time he did not eat, but fortified himself
+with a long drink out of an earthenware bottle.
+
+Drawing his knife, he carefully oiled the blade and replaced it in its
+sheath.  Then, having selected a marline-spike from a tool box, he slung
+the implement from his neck by means of a lanyard, hiding it under his
+coloured shirt.
+
+These preparations completed, he walked slowly and unconcernedly to the
+Old Mole.
+
+By this time the water-front was almost deserted.  A patrol marched
+stolidly down the street; Enrico stepped into the shelter of a narrow
+courtyard until the khaki-clad party had disappeared; but before he
+could resume he had to await the passing of a gaitered and belted naval
+picquet.
+
+The coast cleared, he reached the Mole. A tramp steamer and a few
+feluccas were moored alongside.  Farther out a tug was engaged in
+shepherding a couple of large lighters alongside an East-bound liner,
+while changing red, white, and green lights betokened the presence of
+swift-moving steamboats in the bay.  Standing out against the faint
+starlight he could discern the "Golden Hind."  Even as he looked a gleam
+of light shot through the windows of one of the compartments, and then
+another, both being almost instantly screened.
+
+"Two thousand five hundred pesetas," whispered Jaures to himself.  "A
+good price for a little swim."
+
+Without troubling to remove any of his clothes, although he kicked off
+his canvas shoes, Enrico cautiously descended a flight of steps until
+his feet touched the water. Listening to assure himself that no one was
+about, he glided in as noiselessly as an eel, and swam with slow, steady
+strokes under the counter of the tramp and close to her wall sides until
+he gained her bows.
+
+Taking his bearings of the airship’s mooring-buoy, he resumed his easy
+progress cautiously lest feathers of phosphorescent spray should betray
+his presence.
+
+A quarter of an hour’s swim brought him up to the mooring-buoy.  With
+considerable difficulty, for the large barrel-shaped buoy was coated
+with barnacles and slippery with seaweed, Enrico contrived to draw
+himself clear of the water.
+
+Again he waited, listening to the sounds emanating from the airship a
+hundred or a hundred and fifty feet overhead.  The wire hawser, acting
+as a conductor, enabled him to hear with great distinctness, and
+possessing a good knowledge of English he was able to pick up scraps of
+conversation between the crew.  That helped him but little, for they
+were talking of matters as remote from the topic of the great race as
+the Poles.
+
+Enrico Jaures next devoted his attention to the shackle that secured the
+thimble spliced in the end of the cable to the big ring bolt of the
+buoy.
+
+He grunted with satisfaction when he discovered that the shackle was
+threaded and not secured by a forelock, but at the same time he found by
+the sense of touch that whoever had been responsible for the job had
+done his work well by securing the pin by means of a piece of flexible
+wire.
+
+This latter Jaures managed to cast loose, then, with the aid of his
+marline-spike, he began to unfasten the shackle-pin, pausing
+occasionally as the strain on the wire rope increased.
+
+At last the deed was accomplished.  The shackle-pin clattered upon the
+rounded surface of the buoy and rebounded into the water; but almost
+simultaneously Enrico Jaures found himself being whisked aloft.  A
+snap-hook at the end of a wire had caught in his belt, and there he was,
+suspended ignominiously like a horse being slung on board a ship,
+already a hundred feet or more above the surface of the sea.
+
+His first impulse was to cut loose his belt and drop, but a downward
+glance at the dark unfathomable void made him abruptly change his mind.
+
+His sole thought was now that of self-preservation.  Fearful lest his
+leather belt should break and send him hurtling through space he clung
+desperately to the wire.
+
+Fax below him the lights of Gibraltar seemed to be gliding past as the
+freed airship drifted towards the strait separating Europe from the
+African shore.
+
+It was bitterly cold aloft.  The keenness of the rarefied air was
+intensified by the fact that his clothes were saturated with salt water.
+A numbing pain crept down both arms.  His muscles seemed to be cracking
+under the strain, while his fingers closed round the wire until the
+nails sunk deep into his palms.
+
+He shouted for help--his voice sounding more like the yelp of a jackal
+than that of a human being.  But no response came from the airship a
+hundred feet above him.
+
+"Dios!" he exclaimed in agony.  "This is indeed the end."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE ESCAPADE OF ENRICO JAURES
+
+
+"What are those blighters doing?" soliloquised Kenyon for the twentieth
+time. "Are they buying the place, or are they poodle-faking?  They ought
+to have been back hours ago."
+
+It was well after sunset.  The "Golden Hind" had taken in stores and
+provisions, and had replenished her fuel and oil tanks. An anchor watch
+had been set, and having "gone the rounds" in order to satisfy himself
+that everything was in order Kenneth Kenyon had gone to his cabin to
+write letters that would be sent ashore when the picket-boat brought off
+the skipper and Bramsdean.
+
+A shrill blast of the voice-tube whistle made Kenyon hasten across the
+long narrow cabin.  There was something insistent about the summons.  It
+was not the discreet apologetic trill that the look-out man gave when he
+wished to report some trivial incident to the officer of the watch.
+
+"Hello!" replied Kenyon.
+
+"We’re adrift, sir," announced the man, excitedly.
+
+Telling the look-out to call the duty-watch, Kenyon replaced the whistle
+in the mouth of the voice-tube, struggled into his leather, fur-lined
+coat, and hurried to the navigation-room.  As he passed the various
+motor-rooms he noticed that the air-mechanics of the duty-watch were
+already at their posts awaiting the order to get the engines running.
+
+Throwing open one of the windows, Kenyon looked out into the night.
+There was no staggering, biting wind.  Drifting with the breeze, the
+airship was apparently motionless save for a gently-undulating movement,
+but the merest glance served to corroborate the look-out man’s words.
+Already the "Golden Hind," having risen to 6000 feet and still climbing,
+was well to the south’ard of Europa Point.  He could see the lighthouse
+on the south-western point of the peninsula of Gibraltar steadily
+receding as the airship approached the African coast.
+
+Kenyon was on the point of telegraphing for half-speed ahead when he
+bethought him of the cable.  More than likely, he decided, the wire rope
+had parted half-way between the nose of the fuselage and the buoy.
+There was danger in the comparatively light, springy wire getting foul
+of the for’ard propellers.  Stranded wire is apt to play hanky-panky
+tricks.
+
+"Get the cable inboard," he ordered. "Don’t use the winch or you won’t
+get the wire to lie evenly on the reel.  Haul it in by hand."
+
+Two of the crew descended to the bow compartment, which, besides forming
+a living-room for the men, contained the cable winch.
+
+"’Get it in by ’and,’ ’e said," remarked one of the men to his
+companion.  "Blimey! There ain’t ’arf a strain on the blessed thing.
+Bear a ’and, chum."
+
+Presently one of the men returned to the navigation-room.
+
+"Pardon, sir," he said, saluting, "but we can’t haul the wire in.  It’s
+foul of something.  Shall we bring it to the winch, sir?"
+
+"Foul of something, eh?" echoed Kenyon.  "Does that mean we’ve hiked up
+the blessed mooring-buoy?  Switch on the bow searchlight, Jackson."
+
+The order was promptly obeyed, and the rays of the 10,000 candle-power
+lamp were directed vertically downwards.
+
+Leaning well out of the open window, Kenyon peered along the glistening
+length of tautened cable until parting from the converging rays of the
+searchlight it vanished into space.
+
+"Two degrees left," ordered Kenneth. "Good--at that.  By Jove!  What’s
+that?  A man!"
+
+Filled with a haunting suspicion that the suspended body might be that
+of his chum Peter, Kenyon felt his heart jump into his throat; but a
+second glance, as the motionless figure slowly revolved at the end of
+the cable, relieved Kenneth’s mind on that, score.  Still, it was a
+human being in dire peril.
+
+"Heave away handsomely," continued Kenyon.  "Stand by to avast heaving,"
+he added.
+
+The orders were communicated to the hands at the cable-winch.  Steadily
+the winch-motor clanked away until the word was passed to "’vast
+heaving."  The luckless individual at the end of the wire was now
+dangling thirty feet below the bows of the fuselage.
+
+It would have been useless to have hauled him up to the hawse-pipe,
+because there would be no means of getting him on board. The only
+practical way to reach him was by lowering a rope from a trap-door on
+the underside of the chassis midway between the two hawse-pipes in the
+bows.
+
+Meanwhile Kenyon was deftly making "bowlines on the bight" at the
+extremities of two three-inch manilla ropes.
+
+"Jackson," he said, addressing the leading hand of the duty-watch, "I’m
+going after that chap.  Tell off a couple of men to attend to each of
+the ropes.  If I make a mess of things and don’t get back, keep the ship
+head to wind till daylight, and then make for our former mooring.
+There’ll be plenty of help available."
+
+Adjusting one of the loops under his arms and another round his legs
+above his knees, Kenneth slipped through the narrow trap-hatch, taking
+the second rope with him.  It was a weird sensation dangling in space
+with about 8000 feet of empty air between him and land or sea, for by
+this time the "Golden Hind" was probably over the African coast.  But
+soon the eerie feeling passed and Kenneth, courageous, cool-headed and
+accustomed to dizzy heights, had no thought but for the work in hand.
+
+"At that!" he shouted, when he found himself on the same level with the
+man he hoped to rescue.  "Take a turn."
+
+Ten feet from him was the unconscious Enrico Jaures.  The question now
+was, how was that intervening space to be bridged?
+
+Kenyon began to sway his legs after the manner of a child on a swing.
+
+"If the rope parts, then it’s a case of ’going west’ with a vengeance,"
+he soliloquised grimly.  "Christopher!  Isn’t it beastly cold?"
+
+Momentarily the pendulum-like movement increased until Kenneth was able
+to grip the arm of the unconscious man.  As he did so Enrico’s belt,
+that had hitherto prevented him from dropping into space, parted like
+pack-thread.
+
+With a jerk that nearly wrenched the rescuer’s arms from their sockets,
+the deadweight of the Scorp almost capsized Kenyon out of the bow-line.
+As it was, he was hanging with his head lower than his feet, holding on
+with a grip of iron to Jaures’ arms.  Thus hampered, he realised that it
+was manifestly impossible to make use of the second bow-line.
+
+"Haul up!" he shouted breathlessly.
+
+"Heavens!" he added.  "Can I do it? Can I hold on long enough?"
+
+It was a question that required some answering.  The strain on his
+muscles, coupled with the effect of the unexpected jerk, the numbing
+cold, and, lastly, his own position, as he hung practically head
+downwards, all told against him.  Even in those moments of peril he
+found himself thinking he must present a ludicrous sight to the watchers
+in the airship in the dazzling glare of the searchlight.
+
+"Stick it another half a minute, sir," shouted a voice.  "I’ll be with
+you in a brace of shakes."
+
+Of what happened during the next thirty long drawn out seconds Kenyon
+had only a hazy recollection.  He was conscious of someone bawling in
+his ear, "Let go, sir; I’ve got him all right."
+
+Kenneth obeyed mechanically.  In any case he was on the point of
+relaxing his grip through sheer inability on the part of his muscles to
+respond to his will.  The sudden release of the man he had rescued
+resulted in Kenyon regaining a normal position, and dizzy and utterly
+exhausted he was hauled into safety.
+
+Someone gave him brandy.  The strong spirit revived him considerably.
+
+"Where’s the fellow?" he asked.
+
+"Safe, sir," replied Jackson.  "Shall I carry on?"
+
+"Yes, please," said Kenneth, faintly, and with the clang of the
+telegraph indicator bells and the rhythmic purr of the motors borne to
+his ears he became unconscious.
+
+Meanwhile Enrico Jaures, to all outward appearances a corpse, had been
+hauled on board.  One of the crew, observing Kenneth’s plight, had
+descended by means of another rope, and had deftly hitched the end round
+the Scorp’s body, climbing back hand over hand as unconcernedly as if he
+had been walking upstairs in his cottage in far-off Aberdeen.
+
+"Like handling frozen mutton," commented one of the crew as they
+attended to the rescued Jaures.  "Fine specimen, ain’t he?  An’ what’s
+he doing with that there marline-spike, I should like to know. ’Tain’t
+all jonnick, if you ask me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--UNDER EXAMINATION
+
+
+"I’m all right, I tell you.  Hang it all, can’t a fellow know when he’s
+all right?"
+
+Thus Kenyon rather resentfully resisted all efforts on the part of the
+men to keep him in his bunk.  He came from an indomitable stock that
+never readily admits defeat, and on this occasion he steadfastly refused
+to recognise the fact that his physical strength had been well-nigh
+sapped.
+
+Donning his leather coat, he made his way to the navigation-room,
+staggering slightly as he passed along the narrow alley-way.
+
+"Wireless message just received, sir," reported Jackson.  "’From T.B.D.
+_Zeebrugge_ to ’Golden Hind.’  Am proceeding in search of you.  Show
+position lights. Will tranship Sir Reginald Fosterdyke and Mr. Bramsdean
+as soon as possible.  Make necessary arrangements.’  We’re steering N.
+by W. ¼ W., but we haven’t sighted the destroyer yet."
+
+"Very good," concurred Kenyon.  "Carry on."
+
+He consulted the altimeter and the speed indicator.  The former showed
+that the airship had descended to two thousand feet, and the speed was
+two thousand revolutions, or approximately thirty miles an hour.  The
+"Golden Hind" had by this time retraced a good portion of her drift, and
+was now three or four miles from Ceuta.
+
+Ten minutes later a masthead flashing lamp was seen blinking at a
+distance of about six miles.  The light came from the destroyer
+_Zeebrugge_, which, pelting along at twenty-five knots, was on the
+lookout for the errant airship.
+
+Kenneth Kenyon was now on his mettle. For the first time he was in
+command of a large airship about to make a descent.  As officer of the
+watch he had already had opportunities of observing the handling of the
+huge vessel, but now he found himself confronted with the problem of
+bringing her close to the surface of the sea so as to enable the
+destroyer to manoeuvre sufficiently enough to establish direct
+communication.
+
+"Hope I don’t make a bog of it," he soliloquised.  "I must admit I feel
+a bit rotten after that little jamboree just now. Still, I’ll stick it."
+
+Although he was not aware of the fact, Leading Hand Jackson was keeping
+a sharp eye on his superior officer, ready at the first sign to "take
+on" should Kenyon’s physical strength fail him.
+
+For the next ten minutes the greatest activity prevailed.  Gongs were
+clanging, crisp orders were issued through various voice-tubes, gas was
+being withdrawn from various ballonets, the motors were constantly being
+either accelerated or retarded according to the conditions demanded. The
+white flashing lamp signals were being exchanged with the T.B.D., which
+had now circled sixteen degrees to starboard and was steaming slowly
+dead in the eye of the wind.
+
+In the floor of the bow compartment of the "Golden Hind" the large
+trap-hatch had been opened.  Close by crouched men ready to lower away a
+wire rope, at the end of which a small electric bulb glowed to enable
+the destroyer’s crew to locate the line in the dark.  Throughout the
+manoeuvre neither the "Golden Hind" nor the _Zeebrugge_ made use of
+their searchlights, since the dazzling rays might baffle the respective
+helmsmen and result in a collision.
+
+Slowly and gracefully the airship dropped until her fuselage was thirty
+feet from the surface of the sea.  She was now dead in the wake of the
+destroyer, and the task that confronted Kenyon was to bring her ahead
+sufficiently for the bows to overlap the _Zeebrugge’s_ stern.  An error
+of judgment at that low height would result in the airship’s bows
+fouling the destroyer’s mast.
+
+Foot by foot the "Golden Hind" gained upon the destroyer until a shout
+from the latter’s deck announced that the wire rope had been made fast.
+
+Instantly the airship’s six motors were declutched.  She was now moving
+merely under the towing action of the _Zeebrugge_, which was forging
+ahead at a bare four knots.
+
+From the trap-hatch in the airship’s bows a rope-ladder was lowered, its
+end being held by a couple of bluejackets on the T.B.D.  Without loss of
+time Fosterdyke swarmed up the swaying ladder, and was followed by
+Bramsdean.
+
+"Cast off, and thank you!" shouted the baronet.
+
+"All gone," came an answering voice from the _Zeebrugge_, followed by a
+hearty "Best of luck to you!"
+
+Released, the "Golden Hind" leapt a full five hundred feet into the air
+before the propellers began to revolve.
+
+"Cheerio, Kenyon!" exclaimed Fosterdyke, as he joined Kenneth in the
+navigation-room.  "All’s well that ends well, but you gave me a pretty
+bad turn.  What happened?"
+
+"Hardly know, sir," replied Kenyon. "Our wire rope didn’t part.
+Possibly the shackle on the buoy gave.  But we found a man hanging on
+the end of the wire."
+
+"You did, eh?" exclaimed the baronet, sharply.  "What sort of man?"
+
+"You’ll see him, sir," replied Kenneth. "He’s laid out below."
+
+"H’m!" ejaculated Fosterdyke, and relapsed into silence.
+
+He was deep in thought for some moments, then turned to Kenyon again.
+
+"We’re making an official start in a few minutes’ time," he announced.
+"We have to pass over the Rock and display three red and three white
+lights to the official observer on Signal Hill.  When we see a similar
+signal made from the Rock that will be the actual starting time.  Pass
+the word for Jackson to get the lamps in position."
+
+At an altitude of three thousand feet, or fifteen hundred feet above the
+summit of the Rock of Gibraltar, the "Golden Hind" received her official
+send-off at 3.35 A.M., eighteen hours after the Hun-owned Z64.
+
+Evidently there was not a minute to be wasted.  The contest had
+developed not merely into a voyage round the world within the space of
+twenty days, but a race in which the British competitor had to make good
+her formidable handicap of eighteen hours or approximately three
+thousand five hundred miles.
+
+With the wind abeam on the port side the "Golden Hind" opened out to one
+hundred and forty miles an hour.  During the earlier stages of the race
+Fosterdyke rather wisely decided to keep below the maximum speed, rather
+than overtax the motors by running "all out."  Within a few minutes of
+receiving her official permit to depart the airship lost sight of the
+lights upon the Rock of Gibraltar. She was now steering E. by S.--a
+course that would take her over the northern part of Algeria and Tunis
+and within a few miles of Malta.
+
+At 4 A.M. Kenyon, who had modestly refrained from giving any details of
+the part he had taken in the rescue of Enrico Jaures, and had concealed
+the fact that he had been temporarily out of action, was relieved by
+Peter Bramsdean.
+
+As he turned to go to his cabin Kenneth saw that the baronet was
+standing in a corner of the navigation-room and studying a nautical
+almanac.
+
+"Sleep well, Kenyon," exclaimed Fosterdyke. "You’ve some arrears to make
+up."
+
+"Rather, sir," agreed Kenyon.  "But we’ve forgotten something."
+
+"Eh, what?"
+
+"That fellow we found hanging on to the wire rope, we didn’t put him on
+board the destroyer."
+
+"No," agreed Fosterdyke, grimly.  "We didn’t.  I saw to that.  Unless
+I’m much mistaken our unwanted supernumerary can and must give us
+certain information that will rather astonish us.  I’ll see him later
+on, by Jove!"
+
+Kenyon nodded knowingly.  Evidently Fosterdyke had learnt something.
+However, as far as he, Kenyon, was concerned, other things of a more
+pressing nature demanded his attention--food and sleep.
+
+At eight o’clock Fosterdyke ordered his involuntary guest to be brought
+before him.
+
+"There’s something fishy about the breaking adrift business," he
+observed to Bramsdean as the two sat at a table in the after-cabin
+awaiting Enrico’s appearance.
+
+"Where’s Jackson?  We’ll want him. No, don’t disturb Kenyon; he had a
+pretty sticky time."
+
+"More than you imagine, sir," added Peter, and proceeded to tell the
+baronet the part Kenneth had played in the aerial rescue of the
+imperilled Rock Scorpion.
+
+"Kenyon didn’t say a word about it," he added on the conclusion of the
+narrative. "He was as mute as an oyster over it all.  Frampton and
+Collings told me.  It was----"
+
+A knock on the cabin door interrupted Bramsdean’s explanation.
+
+"Come in!" exclaimed Fosterdyke.
+
+In answer to the invitation entered Leading Hand Jackson, followed in
+single file by one of the crew, Enrico Jaures, and two other members of
+the "Golden Hind’s" company.
+
+The Scorp was still labouring under the effects of his narrow escape.
+He looked, to quote Bramsdean’s words, "as if the stuffing had been
+knocked out of him."
+
+Fosterdyke’s handling of the situation was a bold one.  Without any
+preliminaries, without even asking the fellow’s name, he demanded
+sternly:
+
+"How much did Count Karl von Sinzig promise you for last night’s work?"
+
+Jaures gave an involuntary start, but almost immediately relapsed into
+his imperturbably passive attitude.  Then with a slight shrug of his
+shoulders he replied:
+
+"Me no spik Englis."
+
+"Try again," said Fosterdyke, contracting his bushy eyebrows and looking
+straight at the man.  "All I can say is that if you don’t speak English
+it’s a case of won’t, not can’t."
+
+"Me no spik Englis," reiterated Jaures.
+
+Without speaking, Fosterdyke looked straight at the fellow for a full
+thirty seconds.  During that period Enrico attempted three times to meet
+the searching gaze of his inquisitor.
+
+"Now!" exclaimed the baronet at length.
+
+Enrico Jaures maintained silence.
+
+Fosterdyke slowly and deliberately unstrapped his wristlet watch and
+placed it on the table.
+
+"I give you thirty seconds," he said in level tones.  "Thirty seconds in
+which to make up your mind either to answer or refuse to answer my
+question.  Might I remind you that we are now eight thousand feet above
+the sea, and it is a long drop. Jackson, will you please remove that
+hatch?"
+
+"Of course the Old Man was only kiddin’," remarked Jackson when he
+related what had transpired to his companions after the affair was over;
+"but, bless me, even I thought he meant to do the dirty sweep in. He
+looked that stern, that it put the wind up the bloke straight away."
+
+Absolutely disciplined, the Leading Hand obeyed orders promptly.
+Throwing back the aluminium cover in the centre of the cabin floor, he
+revealed to the gaze of the thoroughly terrified Jaures a rectangular
+opening six feet by four.  Far below, glittering in the sunshine, was
+the blue Mediterranean.
+
+"Five seconds more!" announced Fosterdyke, calmly.
+
+Of the occupants of the after cabin Enrico Jaures now seemed to be the
+least interested in the proceedings.  His furtive glances had given
+place to an expression of lofty detachment, as if he were utterly bored
+by the whole transaction.  Bramsdean found himself deciding that either
+the fellow was an imbecile or else he was a past master in the art of
+dissimulation.
+
+"Time!" declared Fosterdyke.
+
+Enrico Jaures positively beamed.
+
+"Me no spik Englis," he babbled.
+
+Sir Reginald eyed the accused sternly, but even his piercing glance
+seemed of no avail.  The Rock Scorp continued to smile inanely.
+
+"Take him away," ordered Fosterdyke with asperity.
+
+He waited till the door had closed upon the involuntary guest, and then
+gave a deprecatory shrug.
+
+"The fellow’s scored this time, Bramsdean," he remarked, "but I’ll get
+to windward of him yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--"WITH INTENT"
+
+
+"Where are we now?" enquired Kenyon on returning to the navigation-room
+to relieve his chum as officer of the watch.
+
+It was now twelve o’clock.  Bramsdean had just "shot the sun" and was
+reading off the degrees, minutes, and seconds from the arc of the
+sextant.
+
+"Almost over Algiers, old thing," he replied, pointing to the glaring,
+sun-baked Algerian coast.  "Hark!"
+
+He held up his hand and inclined his head sideways.  Above the bass hum
+of the aerial propellers came the distant report of a gun.
+
+"Reminds a fellow of old times when the Archies got busy," remarked
+Kenyon.
+
+"Our friends the French are evidently treating us to a salute to help us
+on our weary way," rejoined Peter.  "Goodness only knows how we are to
+return it.  We can’t give gun for gun."
+
+He focussed his glasses on the white buildings three thousand feet
+below.  The whole of the water-front of Algiers was packed with figures
+with upturned faces--Frenchmen, Algerines, Arabs, and Nubians--all
+frantically waving to the huge airship as she sped eastwards.
+
+In ten minutes the "Golden Hind" had left the capital of France’s
+African possessions far astern.  Unless anything untoward occurred,
+another four hours would bring her within sight of Malta.
+
+"You might cast your eye over the signal log-book before you take on,"
+remarked Bramsdean.
+
+Kenyon did so.  Evidently the wireless operator had been kept busily
+employed, for there were dozens of messages wishing the "Golden Hind"
+bon voyage.  But amongst them were two of a different nature.  One
+announced that an American airship "Eagle," under the command of
+Commodore Theodore Nye, had left Tampa Town bound for Colon, followed by
+a supplementary message that the "Eagle" had left the Panama Canal zone
+and was last sighted flying in a westerly direction. Making allowance
+for the difference in New York and Greenwich times, both the "Golden
+Hind" and her Yankee rival had started practically simultaneously from
+their respective points of departure for the actual race.
+
+The second wireless message, transmitted via Vancouver, Newfoundland,
+and Poldu, was to the effect that the "Banzai," the Japanese quadruplane
+piloted by Count Hyashi, had started from Nagasaki at a speed estimated
+at two hundred and twenty miles an hour.
+
+"Artful blighter, that Jap," declared Bramsdean.  "He’s kept his design
+carefully up his sleeve till the last moment. We thought he was
+attempting the flight in an airship, but he’s pinned his faith to a
+gigantic quadruplane."
+
+"Two hundred and twenty miles an hour, too," added Kenyon.  "That means
+he’ll do the whole trip in less than 120 hours of actual flying, unless
+something goes wrong with his ’bus.  My word, some speed!"
+
+"What I’d like to know is his petrol consumption, and how much juice
+does his ’bus carry," remarked Bramsdean, thoughtfully.  "By Jove!
+We’re up against something, old son."
+
+"By the by, I see there’s no news of Fritz," said Kenneth.
+
+"Not a word," replied Peter.  "Von Sinzig evidently thinks that it’s too
+early to start bragging.  We’ll hear either from or of him before night.
+Fosterdyke is trying to call him up by wireless and tell him that he has
+a friend of his on board."
+
+"Oh, that greasy merchant!" rejoined Kenneth.  "How did he get on?"
+
+"Played ’possum," answered Bramsdean. "Fosterdyke tried to put the wind
+up him, but it was a frost.  I’d like to know what he did to the shackle
+on the mooring-buoy."
+
+"You think he cast us adrift?"
+
+"Without a doubt, old bird."
+
+Kenyon shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"He might have been simply fishing when the pin drew and he got whisked
+aloft," he suggested.  "Did he give his name or any particulars?"
+
+"Not he," replied Peter.  "In fact he wasn’t asked.  Fosterdyke went for
+him bald-headed and tried to make him admit that he was in von Sinzig’s
+pay.  But nothin’ doin’, even when we made out that we were going to
+drop him overboard.  Well, cheerio, old thing."
+
+Left in charge of the airship, Kenyon pondered over the problem of
+whether the man he had rescued had really been a secret agent of von
+Sinzig or otherwise.  If he were, then it would be almost a foregone
+conclusion that he spoke German.
+
+Kenneth had plenty of time for reflection during his "trick."  The
+"Golden Hind" was making good progress.  There was little or no wind,
+and her drift was in consequence almost imperceptible; while the
+temperature was so constant that there was no necessity to alter the
+volume of brodium in the ballonets for hours at a stretch.  The motors,
+too, ran like clockwork, and beyond attending to the semi-automatic
+lubricators occasionally, the air-mechanics on duty had little to do.
+Fosterdyke, having paid a brief visit to the navigating room, retired to
+his cabin to make up arrears of sleep.
+
+"Might work," soliloquised Kenneth, reflectively.  "I’ll tackle
+Fosterdyke about it next time I come across him."
+
+At four in the afternoon Malta was passed at a distance of ten miles to
+the south’ard. The "Golden Hind" was doing well, maintaining more than
+her normal cruising speed.  If she were able to keep on at that rate she
+would accomplish the voyage of circumnavigation well under the twenty
+days; but that was now but a secondary consideration.  At all costs von
+Sinzig’s Z64 must be overhauled.
+
+The "Golden Hind’s" first stop was at Alexandria, sixteen hours after
+leaving Gibraltar.  She made a faultless landing on sandy spit that
+separates Lake Mareotis from the Mediterranean.  The time of her arrival
+had been notified by wireless, and all preparations had been made for
+her reception.  Keenly interested Tommies manned the trail ropes and
+secured her firmly to anchors buried in the sand; lorries laden with
+petrol and oil were rushed to the spot, and the work of refuelling began
+without delay.  While Fosterdyke and Kenyon were signing the "control
+certificate" and holding an informal reception of almost the whole of
+the British Colony at Alexandria, Bramsdean remained in charge of the
+airship.
+
+In order to keep back the dense crowd, composed of fellaheen, Copts,
+Arabs, Syrians, and representatives of every nation bordering on the
+Mediterranean, strong picquets of British troops were posted round the
+tethered airship, no unauthorised person being permitted to approach
+within a hundred yards of the "Golden Hind"; while to enable the work of
+refuelling to proceed as rapidly as possible, the improvised aerodrome
+was brilliantly illuminated by portable searchlights mounted on motor
+lorries.
+
+It seemed as if it would be impossible for any suspicious characters to
+approach the airship without being detected.  Having once been "bitten,"
+Fosterdyke was not taking chances in that direction.
+
+No attempt had been made to get rid of Enrico Jaures.  Closely watched
+by a couple of the crew, he was even permitted to view the proceedings
+from an open scuttle in one of the compartments on the starboard side.
+
+When everything was in readiness to resume the voyage, Fosterdyke and
+Kenyon shook hands with their entertainers and crossed the guarded
+square.  As they approached the entry port on the starboard side a dark
+figure suddenly appeared from behind an unattended lorry, and at a
+distance of ten paces fired half a dozen shots in rapid succession
+straight at the baronet.
+
+Almost at the first report Fosterdyke threw himself at full length upon
+the sand. Kenyon, without hesitation, rushed upon the would-be assassin,
+while two of the crew, leaping from the fuselage, promptly seized the
+miscreant and deprived him of his automatic pistol.
+
+"Hurt, sir?" asked Kenyon, anxiously.
+
+"Not a bit of it," replied Sir Reginald coolly.  "That fellow couldn’t
+hit a haystack at five yards.  Bring him along, men."
+
+An agitated member of the Egyptian Civil Service, accompanied by a
+couple of staff officers, hurried up, and after making inquiries and
+learning that Fosterdyke was unhurt, suggested, not without good reason,
+that the would-be assassin should be handed over to the civil powers for
+trial.
+
+The baronet airily swept aside the suggestion.
+
+"Sorry, Vansittart," he said; "but I’m not going to waste precious time
+appearing as a prosecutor in this business.  No, I’m not exactly
+professing to take the law into my own hands, but I propose taking the
+gentleman with me.  If he tried to shoot me, surely I can jolly well
+kidnap him. ’Tany rate, possession’s nine points of the law.  When I’ve
+done with him you can deal with him."
+
+"But, dash it all, man!" exclaimed one of the staff officers; "you
+aren’t going to--to----"
+
+"Hang him?  Not much," declared the baronet.  "Return good for evil sort
+of thing, you know.  Don’t get flustered, Vansittart.  He’s mine, and
+we’re just off."
+
+Happening to glance up as he entered the fuselage, Fosterdyke caught
+sight of Enrico Jaures, who had seen the whole incident through one of
+the windows.
+
+"Birds of a feather," he soliloquised. "However, I don’t suppose we’ll
+pick up pals of this sort at every place we touch. All ready, Kenyon?"
+he enquired, raising his voice.  "Right-o; let go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--CONFIDENCES
+
+
+In one of the store-rooms, the contents of which had been removed in
+order to adapt the place to present requirements, sat Enrico Jaures and
+the would-be assassin.  They were under lock and key and had been
+unceremoniously bundled into durance vile without the formality of an
+introduction.
+
+Enrico was feeling fairly content, in spite of being a prisoner.  After
+all, he reflected, nothing had been proved against him.  He had scored
+in his encounter with the captain and owner of the British airship, and,
+all things considered, he was being well treated.
+
+He made no remark when his new companion was gently but firmly propelled
+through the doorway.  The newcomer was equally reticent; so the
+ill-assorted pair--one rigged out in the nondescript garments of a
+low-class inhabitant of Gibraltar and the other in European clothes and
+a tarboosh--sat in opposite corners of the limited space.
+
+For the best part of an hour neither spoke. Occasionally they regarded
+each other furtively.  Then the gentleman who had demonstrated so
+effectively how not to shoot straight began to slumber.  Sitting on his
+haunches with his arms clasped round his bent knees, he nodded his
+crimson tarboosh until his head found a rather uncomfortable
+resting-place on his clasped hands.
+
+Then in his somnolent condition he began muttering his wandering
+sentences, punctuated with many "Achs!"
+
+Enrico listened intently.  Hitherto he had been in ignorance of the
+motive that had prompted the would-be murderer. Now he had enough
+evidence to form the conclusion that they both had a motive in
+common--to wreck the attempt of the British competitor to win the
+Chauvasse Prize.
+
+Nevertheless Jaures was of a cautious disposition, and when his
+companion awoke he still maintained his attitude of aloofness.
+
+Breakfast time came.  One of the "Golden Hind’s" crew appeared with
+quite a substantial meal, and both men were hungry.  The pure, cold air,
+a striking contrast to the hot, enervating atmosphere of Alexandria, had
+given them an enormous appetite, and the fact that they had to share
+their meals and were not provided with knives and forks did not trouble
+them.
+
+"Pass the salt," said Enrico’s companion, speaking in German.
+
+Jaures complied without hesitation.  The request was so natural that it
+took him completely off his guard.
+
+"So you do speak German," remarked the wearer of the tarboosh.
+
+Enrico shook his head.
+
+"Come, come," continued the other. "Do not say that you cannot.  I asked
+you for the salt.  I was not looking at it, so that you have no excuse."
+
+Jaures swallowed a big chunk of bread and stole cautiously to the door.
+For a few seconds he listened lest there should be anyone eavesdropping
+without.
+
+"Yes," he admitted.  "My mother was German.  But don’t speak so loudly."
+
+"From what town came she?" enquired his companion.
+
+"From Lubeck," he replied.
+
+"And I come from Immeristadt.  I am a Swabian and my name is Otto
+Freising," announced the German.  "What are you doing here?"
+
+"I am not here of my own free will," said Jaures, guardedly.  He was
+rather inclined to shut up like an oyster, but his semi-compatriot was
+persistent.
+
+"I suppose these Englishmen will hang me," remarked Otto.  "My one
+regret is that I did not succeed in my attempt."
+
+"What attempt?" asked Enrico, innocently. As a matter of fact he knew,
+having watched the shooting affray.
+
+Otto told him.
+
+"The trouble is," he added, "I’ve been paid for this business.  Ten
+thousand Egyptian piastres.  I have a banker’s order for that amount in
+my pocket.  Will they search me?"
+
+"Without a doubt," replied Enrico, whose knowledge of British criminal
+courts was of a first-hand order.  "But in a way you are lucky.  You
+were paid--I was not.  I succeeded--you failed."
+
+The German raised his eyebrows, but forbore to elicit further
+information concerning Jaures’ motives.
+
+"My difficulty," resumed Otto, "is what I am to do with this banker’s
+order.  I undertook the business because I was hard up, and should I be
+hanged or even imprisoned my family will not benefit because the money
+will be confiscated."
+
+He paused.  Enrico eyed him thoughtfully. He would willingly rob
+anybody. Now was a chance of enriching himself at the expense of his
+semi-compatriot.
+
+"These English cannot keep me in captivity much longer," he observed.
+"They can prove nothing against me. When I regain my liberty I propose
+paying a visit to my mother’s relations in Lubeck.  Perhaps I might be
+able to render you a service by handing that draft to your relatives."
+
+Otto showed no great eagerness to close with the offer.  His hesitation
+increased his companion’s cupidity.
+
+"Rest assured that the money will eventually reach a safe destination,"
+he urged enigmatically.  "Better even to run the risk of its being lost
+than to let it fall into the hands of these Englishmen."
+
+"That is so," agreed Otto.  "At any rate I can entrust it in your
+keeping for the next few days until I know what they propose doing with
+me.  You will, of course, be paid well for your trouble."
+
+Enrico waved his hands deprecatingly, swearing by his patron Saint
+Enrico of Guadalajara that it would be a pleasure and a duty to assist a
+German in distress.
+
+"Very well, then," agreed Otto, producing a paper from the double crown
+of his tarboosh.
+
+The Rock Scorp, craftily concealing his delight at the success of his
+plan, took the document and glanced at the amount written thereon.  As
+he did so he uttered an exclamation.
+
+"Dios!" he ejaculated.
+
+"What is it?" enquired Otto.
+
+"The signature--Hans von Effrich.  I know the man.  He was at Barcelona
+when the U-boats were busy.  I helped him to--"
+
+He broke off abruptly, realising, perhaps, that there were limits to an
+exchange of confidences.
+
+"Von Effrich--I have never met him," declared Otto.  "All I know is that
+he is now an agent for Count Karl von Sinzig."
+
+"Where is he now?" enquired Jaures.
+
+"Who?--von Sinzig or von Effrich?"
+
+"Von Effrich."
+
+"He is usually to be found in Corinth," replied Otto.  "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because he might also pay me what von Sinzig owes me," replied Enrico.
+"We apparently are engaged on similar tasks."
+
+"To cripple or delay this airship," added Otto.  "Up to the present we
+have not made much of a success of it.  My prospects are not at all
+bright, but my one hope is that when we arrive at Singapore von Blicker
+will be there.  A clever fellow, von Blicker.  I met him at von
+Effrich’s house just before I left Corinth for Alexandria--a month ago."
+
+"What is he going to do?" asked Enrico.
+
+"I believe he’ll----  S’sh! someone coming."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--THE TAIL OF A CYCLONE
+
+
+"Hanged if I like the look of things one little bit," declared
+Fosterdyke, frankly. "Glass dropping as quickly as if the bottom of it
+had fallen out, and on top of it all we get this."
+
+"This" was a wireless from Point de Galle announcing that a terrific
+cyclone was raging west of the Maldive Islands, its path being a
+"right-hand circle."  That meant that unless the "Golden Hind" made a
+radical alteration of course she would encounter the full force of the
+wind.
+
+It was the fourth day of the race.  The "Golden Hind" had passed over
+Socotra at daybreak and was on her way across the Arabian Sea, her next
+scheduled landing-place being Colombo.
+
+"If we carry on we’ll hit the tail of the cyclone," said Kenyon,
+consulting a chart of the Indian Ocean.
+
+"Yes, but what is worse we’d pass through the dangerous storm-centre,
+and then more than likely get a nose-ender on the other side, if we were
+lucky enough to weather the centre," replied Fosterdyke. "It’s too jolly
+risky, Kenyon.  At fifteen thousand feet it may be as bad or worse than
+at five hundred feet up.  Call up Murgatroyd, and ask what petrol there
+is in the tanks."
+
+Kenneth went to the voice tube and made the necessary enquiry of the
+engineer.
+
+"By Jove, we’ll risk it!" declared Fosterdyke, when he received the
+desired information.  "We’ll go south a bit, and then make straight for
+Fremantle."
+
+Kenyon was taken aback with the audacity of the proposal.  The distance
+between Socotra and Western Australia was a good 5000 miles, or
+thirty-six hours of uninterrupted flight.  At 140 miles an hour there
+was sufficient fuel on board for forty hours, which meant a reserve of
+four hours only in case of anything occurring to protract the run.
+
+"Oh, we’ll do it," said Fosterdyke, confidently, as he noticed his
+companion’s look of blank amazement.  "Better run the risk of cutting
+things fine than to barge into a cyclone.  Sou’-east by south is the
+course."
+
+"Remarkable thing we haven’t heard anything of friend Sinzig ’clocking
+in,’" observed Kenyon.  "Wonder where he’s making for?"
+
+"We’ll hear in due course," replied the baronet.  He crossed the cabin
+to consult a Mercator’s chart of the world, on which were pinned
+British, American, and Japanese flags recording the latest-known
+positions of the rival airmen.  There was a German flag ready to be
+stuck in, but nearly five days had elapsed since von Sinzig left Spain,
+and the crew of the "Golden Hind" were still in ignorance of his
+whereabouts.
+
+But they had the satisfaction of knowing that they more than held their
+own with the others.  The American had passed the Azores, while Count
+Hyashi’s "Banzai," which had made a stupendous non-stop flight to
+Honolulu, had developed engine defects that promised to detain him
+indefinitely.
+
+"Two thousand miles in nine hours," remarked Fosterdyke, referring to
+the Japanese airplane’s performance.  "Some shifting that, but Count
+Hyashi has evidently gone the pace a bit too thick.  He’s our most
+dangerous rival, Kenyon."
+
+"Unless von Sinzig has something up his sleeve, sir," added Kenneth.
+
+"Trust him for that," said the baronet, grimly.  "However, time will
+prove. Well, carry on, Kenyon.  Call me if there’s any great change in
+the weather."
+
+Within the next two hours there were indications that even the new
+course taken by the "Golden Hind" would not allow her to escape the
+cyclone.  Right ahead the hitherto cloudless sky was heavy with dark,
+ragged thunder-clouds that, extending north and south as far as the eye
+could see, threatened to close upon the airship like the horns of a Zulu
+impi.
+
+Roused from his sleep, Fosterdyke lost no time in making his way to the
+navigation-room.  Although he was not to be on duty for another hour and
+a half, Peter Bramsdean had also hurried to the chart-room.
+
+"We’re in for it, sir," declared Kenneth.
+
+"We are," agreed Fosterdyke, gravely. "Evidently there is a second
+disturbance, but judging from appearances it’s none the less formidable.
+No use turning tail. We’ll go up another five thousand feet and see what
+it looks like."
+
+The "Golden Hind" rose rapidly, under the joint action of her six planes
+and the addition of brodium to the ballonets; but even then it was
+touch-and-go whether the gathering storm would encircle her.  As it was
+she flew within the influence of the fringe of the cyclone.  Shrieking
+winds assailed her, seeming to come from two opposing quarters.  Her
+huge bulk lurched and staggered as she climbed.  Her fuselage see-sawed
+as the blast struck the enormous envelope above, while the jar upon the
+tension wires was plainly felt by the crew.
+
+For a full ten minutes it was as black as night, save when the dark
+masses of cloud were riven by vivid flashes of lightning. Blinded by the
+almost incessant glare, Fosterdyke and his companions could do little or
+nothing but hang on, trusting that the "Golden Hind" would steer herself
+through the opaque masses of vapour.  It was impossible to consult the
+instruments. Whether the airship was rising or falling, whether she was
+steering north, south, east, or west remained questions that were
+incapable of being solved, since the blinding flashes of lightning and
+the deafening peals of thunder literally deprived the occupants of the
+navigation-room of every sense save that of touch.  All they could do
+was to hold on tightly, clench their teeth, and wait.
+
+It required some holding on.  At one moment the longitudinal axis of the
+airship was inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees; at another she
+was heeling to almost the same angle, the while twisting and writhing
+like a trapped animal.  Now and again she seemed to be enveloped in
+electric fluid.  Dazzling flashes of blue flame played on and along the
+aluminium envelope, vicious tongues of forked lightning seemed to stab
+the gas-bag through and through; and doubtless had the ballonets
+contained hydrogen instead of non-inflammable brodium the "Golden Hind"
+would have crashed seawards in trailing masses of flame.
+
+How long this inferno lasted no one on board had the remotest idea.  The
+flight of time remained a matter of individual calculation.  To Kenyon
+it seemed hours; Bramsdean afterwards confessed that he thought the
+passage through the storm cloud lasted thirty minutes.  In reality only
+six minutes had elapsed from the time the "Golden Hind" was enveloped in
+the thunder cloud till the moment when she emerged.
+
+It was much like being in a train coming out of a long tunnel.  With
+their eyes still dazed by the vivid flashes the men in the
+navigation-room became aware that the vapour was growing lighter.  They
+could distinguish the smoke-like rolls of mist as the sunshine
+penetrated the upper edges of the clouds.  Then, no longer beaten by the
+torrential downpour of hail, the "Golden Hind" shot into a blaze of
+brilliant sunshine.
+
+It seemed too good to be true.  For some moments Fosterdyke and his
+companions simply stared blankly ahead until their eyes grew accustomed
+to the different conditions.
+
+Then Kenyon, who was still officer of the watch, glanced over the
+shoulder of the helmsman and noted the compass.  The lubber’s line was a
+point west of north. The "Golden Hind" had been practically retracing
+her course, and might be anything from fifty to a hundred miles farther
+away from her goal than she had been when the storm enveloped her.
+
+Obedient to the action of the vertical rudders the airship swung back on
+her former course.  The altimeter indicated a height of twelve thousand
+feet, and the "Golden Hind" was still rising.  Three thousand feet below
+was an expanse of wind-torn clouds, no longer showing dark, but of a
+dazzling whiteness.  The crew of the "Golden Hind" were literally
+looking on the bright side of things.
+
+"We’re well above the path of the storm," remarked Fosterdyke,
+gratefully. "We’ve a lot to be thankful for, but the fact remains we
+daren’t descend while that stuff’s knocking about.  Once in a lifetime
+is quite enough."
+
+Before any of his companions could offer any remark, Murgatroyd, the
+chief air-mechanic on duty, appeared through the hatchway.
+
+"Sorry to have to report, sir," he announced, "that the two after motors
+are both out of action.  Blade smashed on the starboard prop, sir, and
+the chain-drive on the port prop has snapped.  The broken chain is in
+your cabin, sir."
+
+"Who put it there?" asked Fosterdyke.
+
+"It put itself there, sir," was the imperturbable reply.  "Sort of flew
+off the sprocket when the link parted and went bang through the side
+plate of the fuselage, sir.  I’ll allow it’s made a wee bit of a mess
+inside, sir."
+
+"Take over, Bramsdean, please," said Fosterdyke.  "Directly you get a
+chance obtain our position.  Come on, Kenyon, let’s see the extent of
+the damage.  The cabin doesn’t matter.  It isn’t the first time I’ve
+slept in a punctured dog-box.  But the mechanical breakdown--that’s the
+thing that counts."
+
+Followed by Murgatroyd, the baronet and Kenyon went aft.  From No. 5
+motor-room they could see the motionless propeller, one of the four
+blades of which had been shattered as far as the boss, while all the
+others bore signs of more or less damage from the flying fragments.
+
+"Matter of twenty minutes, sir," replied Murgatroyd in answer to his
+chief’s enquiry as to how long the repairs would take. "We’ll have to
+stop, and I’ll bolt on the new blades.  At the same time I’ll put a
+couple of hands on to fitting a new chain to the starboard drive.  I
+don’t fancy the ’A’ bracket’s strained, but I’ll soon find out directly
+we stop."
+
+It was rough luck to have to stop all the motors and drift at the mercy
+of the air currents for twenty precious minutes; but the only option
+would be to carry on under the action of four propellers only at a
+greatly reduced speed.
+
+"Right-o, Murgatroyd," agreed the baronet.  "Slap it about."
+
+"Trust me for that, sir," replied the engineer.  "I’ve warned the
+break-down gang.  I’ll give you the all-clear signal in twenty
+minutes--less, sir, or my name isn’t Robert Murgatroyd."
+
+Three minutes later the remaining four motors were switched off, and the
+"Golden Hind," rapidly losing way, fell off broadside on to the wind at
+a height of twelve thousand five hundred feet above sea-level.
+
+Instantly the mechanics swarmed out along the slender "A" brackets,
+Murgatroyd and an assistant setting to work to unbolt the damaged
+blades, while other airmen passed a new chain round the sprocket wheels
+of the starboard motor and propeller respectively.
+
+Although there was no apparent wind, and the airship was drifting at
+practically the same rate as the air current, it was bitterly cold.  The
+brackets were slippery with ice, and the difficulty of maintaining a
+foothold was still further increased by the erratic vertical motion of
+the airship.
+
+The mechanics, wearing lifelines, went about their work fearlessly.
+They were used to clambering about on coastal airships, sometimes under
+fire; and although the present task was a simple one from a mechanical
+point, it was most difficult owing to the adverse atmospheric
+conditions.
+
+Yet in the space of seventeen and a half minutes Murgatroyd and his band
+of workers were back in the fuselage, their task accomplished, and in
+twenty minutes the six motors were running once more.
+
+Murgatroyd flushed with pleasure when his chief thanked and complimented
+him.
+
+"Maybe, sir, you’d be liking to have your cabin repaired?" he asked.
+"Just a sheet of metal strapped against the plates will hold till we
+land again.  Then I’ll see that it’s well bolted on, sir; but I’ll
+guarantee you’ll not be feeling the draught to-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--THE BOAT’S CREW
+
+
+The state of his cabin hardly troubled Fosterdyke.  He never even went
+to investigate the extent of the damage, for the moment the airship’s
+motors were re-started he hastened back to the navigation-room.
+
+"Got a fix yet, Bramsdean?" were his first words.
+
+Peter handed him a slip of paper.
+
+"Well out of our course, sir," he remarked.
+
+The position was given as lat. 3° 15’ 20" S., long. 58° 20’ 5" E.
+
+"We are," agreed Fosterdyke gravely. "Well to the west’ard.  We ought to
+be within sight of the Seychelles."
+
+"Any chance of getting petrol there, I wonder?" asked Bramsdean.
+"Judging by the name it seems a likely place to get ’Shell brand.’"
+
+"Don’t prattle, Peter," exclaimed Kenneth, facetiously.
+
+Fosterdyke laughed at the joke.
+
+"Rotten puns, both of them," he said. "All the same I wish we had
+another two hundred gallons of ’Pratt’s’ or ’Shell’ or any other old
+brand of petrol.  But it’s no use going still farther out of our course
+on the off-chance of getting juice, so we’ll just carry on."
+
+With the passing of the cyclone the wind fell light.  What little there
+was was dead aft.  The sea, viewed from an altitude of three thousand
+feet, appeared as smooth as glass, although in reality there was a long
+rolling ground swell.
+
+In order to economise the petrol consumption the speed of the "Golden
+Hind" was reduced to ninety miles an hour. Should the favouring wind
+hold, the airship stood a good chance of making the Australian coast.
+If it changed and blew from the south-east, then Fosterdyke’s chances of
+winning the race would be off.
+
+Just before eleven o’clock in the morning of the day following the
+storm, Frampton, one of the crew on duty in the navigation-room,
+reported a boat about three miles away on the port bow.
+
+By the aid of glasses it was seen that the boat was a ship’s cutter
+moving slowly under sail in an easterly direction.  Her crew were hidden
+from view by a spare sail rigged as an awning over the stern sheets.
+
+"Something wrong there," remarked Bramsdean.  "A small boat hundreds of
+miles from the nearest land requires some explanation.  Inform Sir
+Reginald, Frampton; tell him I propose coming down within hailing
+distance."
+
+Before Fosterdyke could reach the navigation-room the noise of the
+"Golden Hind’s" aerial propellers had attracted the attention of the
+occupants of the cutter, and six or seven men, whipping off the awning,
+began waving strips of canvas and various garments.
+
+Slowing down and descending to fifty feet, the airship approached the
+boat.  The latter was hardly seaworthy.  Her topstrake had been stove in
+on the starboard side, and had been roughly repaired by means of a piece
+of painted canvas.  Her sails were patched in several places, while in
+default of a rudder she was being steered by means of an oar.
+
+"Poor chaps!  Look at them!" ejaculated Kenneth.  "They’re almost done
+in."
+
+The boat’s crew were indeed in desperate straits.  They were ragged,
+gaunt, and famished.  Their faces and hands were burnt to a brick-red
+colour with exposure to the wind and tropical sun.  Three of them,
+seeing that help was at hand, had collapsed and were lying inertly on
+the bottom-boards.
+
+Viewed from a height of fifty feet the length of the ocean rollers
+became apparent. The sea was not dangerous, since there were no
+formidable crests to the long undulations, but there was considerable
+risk of the lightly built fuselage sustaining damage should the boat
+surge alongside. On the other hand, it was almost a matter of
+impossibility to get the men on board otherwise than by the airship
+descending and resting on the surface.  Obviously they were far too weak
+to attempt to climb the rope-ladder, while the use of bowlines was open
+to great objection both as regards the length of time and the risk of
+injury to the rescued men.
+
+Being a ship’s boat the cutter was provided with slinging gear.  The
+question was whether in her damaged state the boat would break her back
+in being hoisted; but Fosterdyke decided to take the risk.
+
+Accordingly wire hawsers were lowered from the two bow-hawser pipes, and
+by dint of careful manoeuvring the shackles were engaged.  Then, under
+the lifting power of additional brodium introduced into the for’ard
+ballonets, the "Golden Hind" rose vertically until the boat was clear of
+the water.  The motor winches were then started and the cutter hauled up
+until her gunwales were almost touching the underside of the airship’s
+nacelle.
+
+One by one the exhausted men were taken on board the airship by means of
+the hatchway through which Kenyon had gone to the rescue of Enrico
+Jaures.  This done, two of the "Golden Hind’s" men dropped into the boat
+and passed slings round her.  When these took the weight of the cutter
+the wire hawsers were unshackled and the two men clambered back to the
+airship, which had now risen to nearly a thousand feet.  One end of each
+sling was then slipped, and the boat, falling like a stone, splintered
+to matchwood as she struck the surface of the sea.
+
+The seven rescued men were given food and drink in strictly moderate
+quantities. Vainly they begged for more, but Fosterdyke knew the danger
+of starving men being allowed to eat and drink their fill. Nor did he
+attempt to question them at that juncture, beyond ascertaining that
+there were no more boats belonging to their ship.  They were put into
+bunks and made to sleep.
+
+It was not until ten o’clock on the following morning that four of the
+rescued men put in an appearance in Fosterdyke’s cabin.  The remaining
+three were too ill to leave their bunks.
+
+They were, they said, the sole survivors of the American barque _Hilda
+P. Murchison_, thirty days out from Albany, Western Australia, and bound
+for Karachi.  Three hundred miles east of the Chagos Archipelago an
+explosion took place, but whether external or internal the survivors did
+not know.  One of them thought it might have been a mine.  But it was
+severe enough to sink the _Hilda P. Murchison_ in less than five
+minutes, and the sole survivors were the first mate and six hands of the
+duty watch, who managed to scramble into the only boat that had not been
+shattered.
+
+Without food and with only a small barrico of water, they set off to
+make their way back to Australia, knowing that with the prevailing winds
+they stood a much better chance of making land there than if they
+attempted a three-hundred-mile beat to windward, with the risk of
+missing the Chagos Archipelago altogether.
+
+That was eight days ago.  They contrived to exist upon raw fish, tallow
+candles--which they found in a locker--and half a pint of water per man
+per diem.
+
+Once they sighted a vessel, but their signals for assistance were
+unnoticed.  Then they encountered a white squall, the tail end of a
+storm that ripped their sails before they could stow canvas, and carried
+away the rudder.
+
+The blow was succeeded by a flat calm. For hours the cutter drifted
+idly, her roughly repaired sails hanging listlessly in the sultry air.
+Almost overcome by hunger, fatigue, and the tropical heat, they were on
+the point of despair when the timely arrival of the British airship
+snatched them from a lingering death.
+
+"I hope we’ll be able to set you ashore at Fremantle within the next
+eight or ten hours," said Fosterdyke.  "Meanwhile we’ll get in touch
+with the wireless station there and report your rescue.  Oh, yes, you
+may smoke in the for’ard compartment, but you’ll find this ship as ’dry’
+as the land of the Stars and Stripes."
+
+During the rest of the day progress was well maintained.  The westerly
+breeze increased to half a gale, which meant an addition of thirty to
+forty miles an hour to the airship’s speed.  Barring accidents the
+"Golden Hind" would reach Fremantle with petrol still remaining in her
+tanks.
+
+"It’s not often one gets a westerly wind in the Twenties," observed the
+baronet. "South-east Trades are the usual order of things.  We’re lucky.
+Normally we should have to go as far south as 40° to rely upon a
+westerly wind."
+
+"It will help us from Fremantle to New Zealand," said Peter.  "I
+remember reading in the paper not so many months ago of the skipper of a
+sailing vessel who tried for days to beat up from Melbourne to
+Fremantle.  Finally he gave up beating to wind’ard as a hopeless job, so
+he turned and ran before the westerly breeze, sailed round the Horn and
+the Cape of Good Hope, and actually arrived at Fremantle several days
+before another vessel that had left Melbourne at the same time as he
+did."
+
+"Let’s hope we’ll find an equally favouring wind to help us across the
+Pacific," remarked Fosterdyke.  "We’ll want it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--REVELATIONS
+
+
+"Land ahead!"
+
+The hail brought Fosterdyke and Bramsdean from their cabins with the
+utmost alacrity.  They had not expected to sight Australia for another
+hour and a half, and now there was certainly land far away to the
+east’ard.
+
+During the last three hours the clear sky had given place to a thick
+bank of dark clouds.  Observations to determine the "Golden Hind’s"
+position were therefore out of the question.  She was steering a compass
+course with the wind almost dead aft.  It was a case of dead reckoning,
+and now no one knew exactly what part of Western Australia they were
+approaching--whether it was north or south of the Fremantle aerodrome.
+
+"We’ll do it before dark," declared Fosterdyke, confidently.
+
+He had hardly spoken when Murgatroyd’s head and shoulders appeared
+through the hatchway of the navigation-room.
+
+"We’re on the last few gallons of petrol, sir," he reported.  "I’ve me
+doubts if the engines’ll run another ten minutes.  They’re slowing down
+now," he added.
+
+"Switch off all but numbers 1 and 2 motors," ordered the baronet.  "Keep
+these running for twenty minutes if you can, and we’ll manage it."
+
+But before the chief engineer could regain the for’ard motor-room the
+six aerial propellers were motionless.  The "Golden Hind" no longer
+drove through the air, but simply drifted broadside on to the strong
+breeze.
+
+Just as the sun sank in the Indian Ocean the airship crossed the
+coastline.  Ten miles to the north could be discerned Perth and
+Fremantle--ten miles that, as far as the "Golden Hind" was concerned
+might have been a thousand.
+
+"Down with her," ordered Fosterdyke. "Stand by with both grapnels.
+We’ll have to trust to luck to find a good anchoring-ground."
+
+It was not until the airship had passed over the railway running
+southward from Perth to Busselton that Kenyon noted a hill that might
+afford shelter from the strong wind.
+
+Rapidly several thousand cubic feet of brodium were exhausted from the
+ballonets, with the result that the "Golden Hind" dropped to within a
+hundred feet of the ground.
+
+There was just sufficient twilight to make out the nature of the landing
+place.  It was a wide belt of grassland, dotted here and there with
+small trees.  Hedges there were none.
+
+"There are a couple of men on horseback, sir," reported Frampton.
+
+"Good," replied Fosterdyke.  "Let go both grapnels.  See how she takes
+that."
+
+Both of the stout barbed hooks engaged the moment they touched the
+ground. Even though the wire ropes were paid out in order to reduce the
+strain, the jerk was severe.  Round swung the giant airship head to
+wind, but still she dragged.  The grapnels had caught in a wire fence,
+and having uprooted half a dozen posts, were doing their level best to
+remove a five-mile sheep fence.
+
+Up galloped the two farmers.  The uprooting of their boundary fence
+hardly troubled them.  The arrival of the airship--the first they had
+ever seen--occupied all their attention.
+
+"Make fast for us, please," hailed Fosterdyke, having ordered another
+rope to be lowered.
+
+"Right-o," was the reply.  "We’ll fix you up."
+
+Dismounting and tethering their somewhat restive horses, the two
+Australians took the end of the third wire rope to the trunk of a large
+tree-the only one for miles, as it so happened.  Fortunately they knew
+how to make a rope fast--an accomplishment that few people other than
+seamen possess.
+
+"Where are we?" asked the baronet.
+
+"In Minto County, ten miles from Kelmscott," was the reply.
+
+"Any petrol to be had hereabouts?"
+
+"Sure," was the unexpected answer. "How much do you want?"
+
+"A hundred gallons--enough to take us to Fremantle," replied Fosterdyke
+rather dubiously.
+
+"Two hundred if you want," offered the good Samaritan.  "I’ll run it
+along in less than an hour."
+
+"Will to-morrow at daybreak do equally as well?" asked Sir Reginald,
+knowing the difficulty and possible danger of handling quantities of the
+highly volatile spirit in the dark.  "We’ll be all right here until
+morning if the wind doesn’t increase."
+
+"It won’t," declared the farmer, confidently.  "If anything it’ll fall
+light.  If you’re in a hurry, I’ll hitch you on to my motor lorry and
+tow you into Fremantle."
+
+Fosterdyke thanked him and begged to be excused on the score that he was
+obliged by the terms of the race to make a flight without outside
+assistance in the matter of propulsion.
+
+The two Australians, declining an invitation to go on board the airship,
+rode away in the darkness.
+
+As the farmer had predicted, the wind fell away to a dead calm, so the
+airship was able to rest upon the ground, but ready, should the breeze
+spring up, to ascend to a hundred feet and there ride it out until the
+promised petrol was forthcoming.
+
+"Now for our first dinner on or over Australian soil," exclaimed
+Fosterdyke. "By Jove, I’m hungry!  What’s going?"
+
+He scanned the menu card.  The cooks on the airship were good men at
+their work, and dinner, whenever circumstances permitted, was rather a
+formal affair.
+
+"Hullo!" exclaimed Peter.  "Covers laid for four, eh?"
+
+"Yes," replied the baronet.  "I’m expecting a guest.  Ah! here he is.
+Let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Trefusis."
+
+Kenyon and Bramsdean could hardly conceal their astonishment, for
+standing just inside the doorway, immaculately dressed in well-cut
+clothes, was the man they had hitherto known as Otto Freising, the
+fellow who had attempted to shoot Fosterdyke at Alexandria.
+
+"Secret Service," explained the baronet. "Had to keep the affair dark,
+even from you two fellows."
+
+"You certainly did us in the eye," said Peter.
+
+"No more than I did Señor Jaures," rejoined Trefusis.  "I had a rotten
+time cooped up with that bird, but it was worth it."
+
+"So you’ve succeeded?" asked Fosterdyke.
+
+Trefusis nodded.
+
+"Wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t," he remarked.  "It took me some time to
+get the right side of Señor Enrico, but I managed it.  He rather looked
+a bit sideways at me when I pitched a yarn about being a Hun.  However,
+I’ve got it out of him that he was employed by von Sinzig to kipper your
+part of the show, and judging by accounts he almost succeeded.  You’ll
+have enough evidence, Fosterdyke, to disqualify von Sinzig."
+
+"I’ll think about it," drawled the baronet.  "After all’s said and done
+the Hun is a sport, only his idea of sport differs radically from ours.
+It’s his nature, I suppose.  But another time you fire at me with blank
+cartridges, Trefusis, old son, please don’t aim at my head.  Grains of
+burnt powder in one’s eyes aren’t pleasant."
+
+"Nor did I feel very pleasant," rejoined the Secret Service man, "when
+that officious blighter suggested putting me under arrest and trying me
+in a Civil Court. He must have thought you pretty high-handed, rushing
+me off in your airship."
+
+"Yes, it was as well I took Colonel Holmes into my confidence," said
+Fosterdyke. "Otherwise you might at this moment be cooling your heels in
+a ’Gippy’ prison.  However, we’ve got evidence against von Sinzig, if
+needs be."
+
+"What are you going to do with Señor Jaures?" asked Trefusis.
+
+"Do with him?  Nothing much.  Fact, I’ll do it now, directly we’ve
+finished dinner."
+
+The meal over, Fosterdyke ordered Enrico Jaures to be brought in.  The
+look on the miscreant’s features was positively astounding when he found
+his former companion in captivity revealed in his true colours.
+
+"Now, Enrico Jaures," began Fosterdyke, without further preliminaries.
+"You understand English, in spite of your previous denial.  Read that.
+If you agree to it, you are a free man the moment you’ve signed the
+statement."
+
+At the promise of liberty Enrico plucked up courage.  He had a wholesome
+respect for the word of an Englishman.
+
+The document was in the form of a confession, stating that Enrico Jaures
+had agreed, for a certain sum promised by Count Karl von Sinzig, to
+hinder, either by crippling or destroying the "Golden Hind," Sir
+Reginald Fosterdyke’s attempt to fly round the world.
+
+"I’ll sign," said Enrico.
+
+He wrote his name.  Kenyon and Trefusis witnessed the signature.
+
+The baronet folded the document and placed it in his pocket.
+
+"Now you can go," he said.
+
+"But how am I to return to Gibraltar?" asked Jaures.
+
+"That’s your affair," replied Fosterdyke, sternly.  "You ought to be
+thankful you’re still alive.  Now go."
+
+At the first sign of dawn the Australian farmer, true to his word,
+arrived with a large motor-lorry piled with filled petrol cans.  He was
+not alone.  The seemingly sparsely-populated district now teemed with
+people.  Hundreds must have seen the "Golden Hind" pass overhead the
+previous evening, but how they discovered the airship’s temporary
+anchorage was a mystery.  There were townsmen in motorcars, sturdy
+farmers on motor-cycles, waggons, and carts, backwoodsmen on bicycles
+and on foot.  Even the "sun-downer" class were represented.
+
+The "Golden Hind" had just completed her preparations for flying back to
+Fremantle aerodrome when a motor-cyclist rode up and handed Fosterdyke a
+telegram.
+
+"It was fortunate we didn’t make Fremantle last night," observed the
+baronet, handing the message to Kenyon and Bramsdean.  "The aerodrome
+was destroyed by fire at one o’clock this morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--THE OBSERVATION BASKET
+
+
+While the "Golden Hind" was struggling towards the shores of Western
+Australia, Count Karl von Sinzig in Z64 was flying almost due south from
+Samarang, in the island of Java.
+
+He, too, had had a taste of the cyclone, which had extended over the
+whole of the Arabian Sea and had been severely felt as far north as the
+Persian-Turkestan frontier.
+
+Practically helpless in the grip of the furious blast, Z64 had been
+driven far off her course.  Passing high over the mountainous districts
+of Thibet, the German airship, unseen and unheard, finally encountered a
+stiff northerly wind when approaching the China Sea in the neighbourhood
+of Hanoi.  Already the start von Sinzig had obtained over his British
+rival was wiped out.  The long detour he had been obliged to take
+represented twelve hours’ flight under normal conditions, and since he
+knew of Fosterdyke’s progress by the expedient of picking up the "Golden
+Hind’s" wireless message, he realised that the latter had made good her
+belated departure.
+
+At Samarang, Z64 took in fresh hydrogen and petrol.  Von Sinzig reported
+his arrival to the representatives of the International Air Board, and
+stated his intention of proceeding via New Guinea, New Caledonia, and
+Norfolk Island to New Zealand, where he would be able to fulfil one of
+the conditions that required the competitors to touch at a spot within
+one degree of the nadir to their starting-point.
+
+But von Sinzig had no intention of carrying out his declared programme.
+Directly he was well clear of Samarang, he shaped a course due south in
+order to pick up the prevailing westerly wind south of Australia on
+which Fosterdyke counted also.  A stiff northerly wind over the Sunda
+Sea helped the German to attain his object, and on the evening that the
+"Golden Hind" drifted to south of Fremantle, Z64 was skirting the coast
+of West Australia, in the neighbourhood of Geographe Bay.
+
+Von Sinzig was in a bad state of mind. He knew by means of a code
+message from Barcelona that one of his agents had made an attempt to
+delay the "Golden Hind’s" departure.  What had actually taken place he
+knew not.  All he did know was the galling fact that the attempt had
+been unsuccessful, and that by this time his rival was practically level
+with him.
+
+"Hans," he exclaimed, calling one of his subordinates, formerly an
+Unter-Leutnant in the German Flying Service and before that a Mercantile
+Marine officer.
+
+Hans Leutter clicked his heels and stood to attention.
+
+"You know Fremantle?" enquired the count, brusquely.
+
+"Fairly well, mein Herr," was the reply. "I’ve called there perhaps a
+dozen times in cargo boats.  The last time was in January, 1914."
+
+"There was, of course, no aerodrome there then?"
+
+"Assuredly no, sir."
+
+"According to my information it is on the right bank of the Swan River
+and a couple of kilometres to the east of the town.  It ought to be
+easily found."
+
+Hans Leutter agreed that to locate it ought to be a simple matter.
+
+"Then we’ll do so, little Hans," exclaimed the count, grimly.  "We might
+even make the Englishman Fosterdyke a little present anonymously, of
+course."
+
+The ex-Unter-Leutnant grinned.
+
+"You wish me to take the Albatross for an airing then?" he said.
+
+"Ach, no," replied von Sinzig.  "If our Albatross were invisible and
+noiseless, it would be different.  We’ll use the observation basket.
+Overhaul the mechanism carefully, because you, little Hans, are going to
+use it."
+
+Hans Leutter saluted and went for’ard. He was not at all keen on being
+told off for observation work, but his innate sense of discipline made
+him accept the duty without outward signs of resentment. Somehow he
+didn’t relish the idea of being lowered from the Zeppelin and allowed to
+dangle at the end of two or three thousand feet of fine wire.
+
+Shortly before midnight the look-out on Z64 picked up the harbour and
+town lights of Fremantle.  It was now a fairly calm night.  At five
+thousand feet was a stratum of light clouds, sufficient to obscure the
+starlight.  The climatic conditions for von Sinzig’s plans were exactly
+what he wanted.
+
+When the German airship was dead to windward of the town her motors were
+switched off and she was allowed to drift in and out of the lower edge
+of the bank of clouds.
+
+From her foremost nacelle a circular basket, fitted with a vertical vane
+to prevent it from turning round and round like a gigantic meat-jack,
+was hanging.  In the basket, with a couple of small incendiary bombs for
+company, was Hans Leutter.  In order to keep in touch with the captain
+of Z64 Hans was provided with a wireless telephone.
+
+"All ready," announced the observer.  "Lower away."
+
+The well-oiled mechanism ran smoothly and noiselessly until a sudden
+check in the downward journey told Hans that the observation basket had
+reached the limit of its cable.  From where he dangled--nearly
+two-thirds of a mile below the airship--Z64 was quite invisible.  It was
+therefore safe to assume that the good people of Fremantle were likewise
+not in a position to see the huge gas-bag five thousand feet overhead,
+while the insignificant observation basket, although only a thousand
+feet or so up, was too minute to be spotted against the blurred
+starlight.
+
+On the other hand, Hans Leutter could command a fairly comprehensive
+view of the town beneath him.  The tranquil waters of the Swan River
+enabled him to fix his position, for even on the darkest night a river
+can readily be seen by an aerial observer.  The navigation lamps of the
+aerodrome almost misled him.  At first he mistook them for the railway
+station; but when he discovered his mistake he asked himself why the
+aerial signalling lamps were still being exhibited. According to the
+latest wireless messages picked up by Z64, the "Golden Hind" ought by
+this time to be berthed in the hangar.  But, perhaps, he argued, the
+officials in their demonstrations of welcome had forgotten to switch the
+lights off.
+
+"This reminds me of London in 1916," thought Hans.  "London in those
+good old days when our Zeppelins came and went almost without let or
+hindrance.  Now, my beauty, you and I must part."
+
+He raised the bomb and poised it on the edge of the basket.  In his
+excitement he had completely forgotten his fears at being suspended by a
+steel rope almost the same gauge as a piano-wire.
+
+The incendiary bomb was quite a small affair, but none the less
+efficacious.  In order to guard against identification should any of the
+metal parts be found, the vanes were stamped with the British Government
+marks, which showed that von Sinzig, with characteristic Teutonic
+thoroughness, had taken the precaution of covering his tracks. The
+British Air Ministry and the Australian Commonwealth Government could
+appraise responsibility later--by that time Z64 would be thousands of
+miles away.
+
+Allowing for the slight breeze, Hans Leutter telephoned for the Zeppelin
+to steer ten degrees to the nor’ard.  Slowly Z64 carried out the
+instructions, and seesawing gently the observation basket moved in a
+slightly different direction from its previous line of drift until the
+crucial moment arrived.
+
+Hans Leutter released the bomb.  For three seconds the observer could
+follow its downward passage; then it vanished into the darkness.  Five
+seconds later the missile hit its objective.
+
+There was no need for a second bomb. The airship shed was blazing
+fiercely.
+
+The Hun in the basket spoke into the telephone.
+
+"Direct hit," he reported.  "Haul me up."
+
+Z64 had once more stopped her motors and was rising rapidly above the
+bank of clouds.  At the same time a motor winch was winding in the
+cable, and Hans Leutter’s rate of progress as the basket whirred through
+the air brought back all his fears concerning his hazardous position.
+What if there were a flaw in the wire?  It was ex-Government stuff, he
+recalled--material that might have been left lying in a neglected
+condition for months before von Sinzig acquired it for its present
+purpose.  And supposing the wire slipped off the drum and got nipped in
+the cogs of the winch?  A score of thoughts of a similar nature flashed
+across the observer’s mind.  He broke into a gentle perspiration. He
+trembled violently as a mental vision of himself hurtling through space
+gripped him in all its hideousness.
+
+But the wire held.  Hans Leutter was assisted into the nacelle, where he
+promptly fainted.  By that time Z64 was several miles away from
+Fremantle, but a dull red glare on the horizon unmistakably indicated
+the extent of the conflagration.
+
+Throughout the night Z64 flew at an altitude of not less than fifteen
+thousand feet.  Dawn found her far to the south’ard of the Great
+Australian Bight.
+
+Von Sinzig had good cause for keeping out of the beaten steamer tracks;
+nor did he intend to pass within a hundred miles of the southern part of
+Tasmania.  He counted upon arriving at Napier, New Zealand, at daybreak
+on the day following, and until then he meant to be most careful not to
+be reported by any vessel.
+
+The commander of Z64 had just sat down to breakfast when one of the crew
+entered his cabin.
+
+"Pardon, Herr Offizier," said the man, apologetically, "but the
+observation basket is missing."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded von Sinzig.
+
+"We secured it after Herr Leutter had finished with it, Herr Kapitan,"
+explained the man.  "I myself saw that the four bottle-screws were
+turned up tightly. Kaspar Graus, who had been told to remove the
+remaining petrol bomb, came and reported that the basket was no longer
+there.  The metal clips were still attached to the bottle-screws.  It
+would appear that these were torn from the basket itself."
+
+Count Karl von Sinzig left his breakfast untasted and hurried along the
+catwalk to the gondola from which the observation basket was hung.  His
+informant’s news was only too true.  Unaccountably the basket had been
+wrenched from its securing apparatus.
+
+"It is of little consequence," he declared. "We would not have required
+it again, and, since it will not float, it is at the bottom of the sea
+by this time.  Perhaps it is as well, in case we are inspected by
+inquisitive officials at our next alighting place."
+
+It was an unlucky day for Z64.  About noon two of her motors developed
+trouble simultaneously.  Three hours elapsed before the sweating
+mechanics were able to get the recalcitrant engines in running order
+again, and during that period the Zeppelin had perforce to slow down
+considerably.  Consequently, it was half an hour after sunrise when Z64
+sighted the Three Kings Island to the north-west of Cape Maria van
+Diemen.  Here she altered course, so as ostensibly to appear as if she
+had been flying straight from New Caledonia, and, skirting the west
+coast of New Zealand, headed for Napier, where, by the consent of the
+New Zealand Government, von Sinzig was permitted to land and thus carry
+out one of the conditions of the contest.
+
+"We’ll fly inland when we sight Auckland," decided the count.  "No,
+don’t take her up any higher.  There is now no need for concealment.
+Let these New Zealanders see and comment upon the fact that their
+islands are not beyond reach of a good German airship."
+
+And so, flaunting her prowess in the rapidly-growing daylight, Z64
+approached the town of Auckland.  The Zeppelin was within ten miles of
+the place when one of the crew shouted the disconcerting information
+that there was an airship on the starboard bow, travelling east by
+north.
+
+Rapping out a furious oath, von Sinzig snatched up a pair of binoculars.
+He had never before set eyes on the "Golden Hind," although the British
+airship had passed almost immediately above him within a few minutes of
+Z64 leaving her Spanish base, but instinctively he realised that this
+was his greatest rival, Sir Reginald Fosterdyke’s creation.
+
+"Gott in Himmel!" shouted von Sinzig. "Leutter, you numbskull, you made
+a hideous mess of things last night!  Look--the ’Golden Hind’!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--A SURPRISE FOR CAPTAIN PROUT
+
+
+Captain Abraham Prout, master and part owner of the topsail schooner
+_Myrtle_, of 120 tons burthen, came on deck on hearing the mate give the
+order "All hands shorten sail!"
+
+It was six o’clock in the morning, still dark and very cold, for the
+_Myrtle_ was on the fortieth parallel of the Southern Hemisphere, and
+the month being June it was mid-winter.  There were flakes of snow
+flying about.  For the last three days and nights it had either been
+sleeting, raining, or snowing, or else all three together; but the wind
+was fair, and there was every prospect of the schooner making a quick
+passage from Albany to Hobart.
+
+"There’s something behind this muck, Abe," remarked the mate, who, on
+the strength of being the "Old Man’s" brother-in-law, was on familiar
+terms with Captain Prout.  "The old hooker won’t carry her topsails with
+the breeze a-freshenin’.  Best be on the safe side, says I."
+
+"Quite right, Tom," agreed the skipper. "New topmasts cost a mort sight
+o’ money in these hard times.  Anything to report?"
+
+"Nothin’," replied the mate, laconically.
+
+He shook the frozen sleet from the rim of his sou’wester and turned to
+inform one of the crew, in polite language of the sea, that "he’d better
+get a move on an’ not stand there a-hanging on to the slack."
+
+"There’s some tea a-goin’, Tom," announced Captain Prout.  "Nip below
+an’ get a mug to warm you up a bit."
+
+The mate fell in with the suggestion with alacrity.  The skipper, having
+seen the hands complete their task of "gettin’ the tops’ls off her,"
+went aft to where the half-frozen helmsman was almost mechanically
+toying with the wheel.
+
+Through sheer force of habit Captain Prout peered into the feebly
+illuminated compass-bowl.  Even as he did so, there was a tremendous
+crash.
+
+The _Myrtle_ trembled from truck to kelson, while from aloft a jumble of
+splintered spars, cordage, and canvas fell upon the deck like a
+miniature avalanche.
+
+Captain Prout’s first impressions were those of pained surprise.  For
+the moment he was firmly convinced that the schooner had piled herself
+upon an uncharted rock, but the absence of any signs of the vessel
+pounding against a hard bottom reassured him on that point.
+
+Although in ignorance of what had occurred, the tough old skipper rose
+to the occasion.
+
+"Steady on your helm!" he shouted to the man at the wheel.  "Don’t let
+her fall off her course."
+
+The helmsman obeyed.  It was no easy matter, since he was enveloped in a
+fold of the mainsail and the _Myrtle_ was towing the main-topmast and a
+portion of the cross-trees alongside.
+
+Alarmed by the commotion, the "watch below"--two men and a boy--rushed
+on deck, while the mate, issuing from the after-cabin with a tin
+pannikin of tea still grasped in his hand, raised his voice in a
+strongly worded enquiry to know what had happened to the old hooker.
+
+"Get a light, Tom, an’ we’ll have a squint at the damage," shouted the
+Old Man.  "One of you sound the well and see if she’s making any.  Dick,
+you just see if them sidelights are burning properly."
+
+The mate disappeared, to return with a hurricane lamp.
+
+"Jerusalem!" he exclaimed.  "Ain’t it a lash up?"
+
+The mainmast had been broken off five feet below the cross-trees, with
+the result that the main and throat halliard blocks had gone with the
+broken spars, while the mainsail, with the gaff and boom, had fallen
+across the deck.  The shroud halliards still held, and the wire shrouds
+themselves trailed athwart both bulwarks.  Apparently the foremast was
+intact, since it was the main topmast stay that had parted under the
+strain.
+
+This much Captain Prout saw, noted, and understood, but what puzzled him
+was a telescoped object, looking very much like an exaggerated top-hat,
+that lay upon the deck between the mainmast fife-rail and the coaming of
+the main hatch.
+
+"Guess it’s a meteorite," hazarded the mate.
+
+"Meteorite, my foot!" ejaculated Captain Prout, scornfully.  "If’t had
+been, ’twould ha’ gone slap bang through the old hooker, an’ we’d have
+been in the ditch."
+
+"It’s had a good try, anyway," rejoined the mate.  "Half a dozen deck
+planks stove in."
+
+He held the lantern close to the mysterious object.
+
+"Looks like a bloomin’ bath," he continued, "and I’m hanged if there
+isn’t a whopping big bird in it.  Rummiest birdcage I’ve ever set eyes
+on."
+
+The cause of the damage to the _Myrtle’s_ top-hamper and deck planks was
+Z64’s observation basket.  Instead of falling into the sea and
+decorously sinking to the bottom, as von Sinzig had hoped, the
+contrivance had struck the only vessel within a radius of a hundred
+miles. With its head and neck driven completely through the aluminium
+side of the basket was a large eagle.  The huge bird had struck the
+suspended basket such a tremendous blow that the impact had wrenched
+away the metal clips securing it to the bottle-screws.
+
+"Standin’ an’ looking at the blessed thing won’t clear away this
+raffle," said the Old Man with asperity.  "Set to, all hands.  Secure
+and belay all you can and cut the rest adrift."
+
+"Heave this lot overboard, Abe?" questioned the mate, kicking the basket
+with his sea-boot.
+
+"Best let ’un stop awhile," decided the skipper.  "Pass a lashing round
+it.  Be sharp with that topmast, or it’ll stove us in."
+
+Quickly the mate and a couple of hands cut away the rigging that held
+the topmast alongside.  The heavy spar, which had been bumping heavily
+against the side, fell clear.  The _Myrtle_, no longer impeded by the
+trailing wreckage, forged rapidly through the water, although she was
+now carrying foresail, staysail, and outer jib only.
+
+By this time day had broken.  The snow had ceased falling, and right
+ahead the pale sun shone in a grey, misty sky.
+
+The crew, having made all ship-shape as far as lay in their power, were
+curiously regarding the cause of the catastrophe. They rather looked
+upon it as a diversion to break the monotony.
+
+"There’s a log of sorts, sir," exclaimed one of the men, fumbling with
+the leather straps that secured the unused petrol bomb.  The missile had
+been badly dented, but luckily the safety cap was intact. Had it not
+been so, the bomb would have ignited on impact, and the _Myrtle_, her
+snow-swept deck notwithstanding, would soon have been enveloped in
+flames from stem to stern.
+
+"Don’t fool around with it, Ted," said another of the crew, who, an
+R.N.R. man, had seen life and death in the Great War.  "It’s a bomb."
+
+"Well," observed Captain Prout, "that’s more’n I bargained for.  I’ve
+taken my chances with floating mines, but it’s coming too much of a good
+thing when these airmen blokes start chucking bombs haphazard-like."
+
+"Best pitch the thing overboard," suggested the mate.
+
+"No," objected the Old Man.  "If we do, we’ve no evidence.  Someone’s
+got to pay for this lash up.  Government broad arrow on the thing, too.
+That fixes it.  When we make Hobart I’ll raise Cain or my name’s not
+Abraham Prout."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--UNDER FIRE
+
+
+"It’s going to be a close race, Kenyon," remarked Fosterdyke, as Z64
+crossed the "Golden Hind’s" bows at a distance of less than a mile.
+
+"Guess we’re top-dog, though," replied Kenneth.  "We’ve wiped out the
+Hun’s useful lead, and at the half-way point we’re practically level."
+
+"Yes," agreed the baronet; "but we must not ignore the element of
+chance. Let me see"--he referred to the large Mercator map--"according
+to the latest reports, Commodore Nye’s ’Eagle’ is at Khartoum.  His hop
+across the Atlantic and a non-stop run over the Sahara takes a lot of
+beating.  I’d like to meet that Yankee.  And there’s the Jap, Count
+Hyashi.  He’s at Panama, after having been hung up for three days at
+Honolulu. If he’d been able to carry on without a hitch, his quadruplane
+would have won the race.  So it appears that all the competitors have
+completed half the course at practically the same time."
+
+"Aeroplane approaching, sir," reported Collings.
+
+Right ahead a biplane was heading towards the "Golden Hind," followed at
+close intervals by three more. Seemingly ignoring the German airship,
+which was now on a diverging course, the four machines with admirable
+precision turned and accompanied the British airship.
+
+Two took up station on either side of the "Golden Hind."  Each flew the
+New Zealand ensign.  It was Fosterdyke’s preliminary welcome to the
+Antipodes.
+
+Gliding serenely earthwards in perfectly calm air, the "Golden Hind"
+entered the big shed prepared for her reception.  The civic officials of
+Auckland turned out in force, supported by crowds of "Diggers" and a
+fair sprinkling of Maoris.
+
+"We quite understand," was the mayor’s remark when Fosterdyke, thanking
+him for the warmness of his reception, firmly but courteously refused to
+attend a banquet proposed to be given in his honour. "This is a race,
+not a ceremonial tour. The prestige of the Empire is at stake, so get on
+with it."
+
+Accordingly, the "Golden Hind’s" crew did "get on with it."  Aided by
+scores of willing helpers, they replenished fuel tanks, took in fresh
+water and provisions and necessary stores.  A representative of the
+International Air Board was in attendance to sign the control sheet,
+certifying that the "Golden Hind" had completed half the circuit, and
+had touched at a spot within a degree of the opposite point of the globe
+to his starting-point. Within an hour and a quarter of her arrival at
+Auckland the British airship started on her homeward voyage.
+
+Although New Zealand had no cause to show any goodwill towards the Huns,
+von Sinzig had no reason to complain of his reception.  He was received
+coldly, it is true, but the New Zealanders, sportsmen all, were not ones
+to put obstacles in the way of an alien and former enemy.
+
+Notified by wireless of Z64’s impending arrival at Napier, the
+authorities at that town had cylinders of hydrogen and a large stock of
+petrol in readiness for the German airship’s requirements.  Within ten
+minutes of the "Golden Hind’s" departure from Auckland Z64 started from
+Napier.
+
+The contest had now entered upon a more interesting phase.  It was
+almost certain that the rivals would take a practically identical
+course, crossing the American continent in the neighbourhood of the
+Isthmus of Panama.  The lofty Andes, extending like a gigantic backbone
+from Colombia to Patagonia--an almost uninterrupted range 450 miles in
+length--presented a difficult, though not exactly insurmountable
+obstacle to the rival airships.
+
+Vainly the wireless operators of the "Golden Hind" sought to "pick up"
+the Zeppelin.  Von Sinzig had seen to that, for directly the German
+airship left New Zealand he gave orders that on no account were messages
+to be transmitted, but on the other hand, the receivers were to be
+constantly in use, in order to pick up any radiograms that might throw
+light upon the movements of the "Golden Hind."
+
+Apart from the chagrin at the knowledge that his attempt to burn the
+British airship was a failure, von Sinzig felt rather elated.  His
+deceptive report of the course he had taken from Java to New Zealand had
+been accepted by the authorities without question; hence no suspicion
+could possibly be attached to him for the burning of the Fremantle
+aerodrome.  He was also of the opinion that Z64 was a swifter craft than
+her rival, and possessed another advantage--that of greater
+fuel-carrying capacity.  Even if the "Golden Hind" did possess a higher
+speed, she would have to alight more frequently to replenish her tanks.
+
+As far as the "Golden Hind" was concerned the run across the Panama was
+almost devoid of incident.  With the exception of a distant view of
+Pitcairn Island--famous in connection with the mutiny of the
+_Bounty_--no land was sighted until Galapagos Group was seen ten miles
+on the starboard bow.
+
+The "Golden Hind" was now re-crossing the equator.  Fosterdyke, who had
+crossed the line at least a dozen times, in all sorts of vessels from
+luxuriant liners to singy tramps, and even on one occasion on board a
+wind-jammer, declared that there was nothing to beat an airship for
+travelling in the Tropics.
+
+"For one thing you can keep cool," he added; "another, that will appeal
+to a good many people, is the fact that an airship is beyond reach of
+Father Neptune and his merry myrmidons.  And the Doldrums, instead of
+being regarded as a terror, afford an easy passage to aircraft of all
+descriptions."
+
+With the setting of the sun a thick mist arose--one of those humid
+tropical mists that are responsible for malaria and other zymotic
+diseases peculiar to the Torrid Zone.
+
+At a couple or three thousand feet altitude, the "Golden Hind" was in
+pure clear air, but in the brief twilight the banks of mist as viewed
+from above were picturesque in the extreme.
+
+But to the crew of the "Golden Hind" the picturesqueness of the scene
+was in a measure unappreciated.  They were nearing land, and a fog was
+one of the most undesirable climatic conditions.  Not only was time a
+consideration, but the petrol supply was running low.  But for this,
+Fosterdyke would have slowed down and cruised around until the mists
+dispersed with daybreak.
+
+"We’ll have to risk it and make a descent," he declared.  "Anywhere
+within easy distance of Panama will do, because it is a calm night and
+there will be little or no risk of the ’Golden Hind’ being exposed to a
+high wind.  Thank goodness we’ve directional wireless."
+
+At length Fosterdyke felt convinced that the "Golden Hind" was nearing
+Panama.  He had arranged by wireless to detonate three explosive
+rockets, and the United States Air Station was to reply with a similar
+signal, while searchlights, directed vertically, would enable the
+airship to locate the landing-ground.
+
+"Hanged if I can see any searchlights," exclaimed Bramsdean.
+
+"Killed by the mist," explained the baronet.  "I fancy I see a blurr of
+light two points on our port bow.  What’s that, Truscott?"
+
+The wireless operator had left his cabin and was standing behind
+Fosterdyke as the latter was peering through the darkness.
+
+"There’s a jam for some reason," announced Truscott.  "For the last five
+minutes I’ve been calling up Panama, but there’s nothin’ doin’.  A
+high-powered installation, using the same metre-wave, is cutting in.  I
+asked them to knock off, but they haven’t done so."
+
+"Inconsiderate blighters!" exclaimed Fosterdyke.  "Never mind, Truscott,
+we can get along all right now.  I fancy I can see the aerodrome
+lights."
+
+"Yes, sir," agreed Kenyon.  "One point on our port bow now."
+
+"Then fire the rockets," ordered the baronet, at the same time
+telegraphing for the motors to be declutched.
+
+Three vivid flashes rent the darkness, their brilliance illuminating a
+wide area of the fog-bank a thousand feet below, while the report echoed
+over the level line of misty vapour like a continuous peal of thunder.
+
+Within a minute of the discharge of the third rocket two bursts of
+flame, accompanied by sharp reports, occurred at a distance of less than
+a quarter of a mile of the "Golden Hind’s" port quarter, while after an
+interval of fifteen seconds three more exploded simultaneously in the
+same direction.
+
+"Guess Uncle Sam can’t count," remarked Kenyon, imitating to perfection
+the nasal drawl of the typical New Englander.
+
+"Looks to me like shrapnel," added Bramsdean.  "Judging by the way the
+smoke mushroomed, it reminds me of Archies over the Hun lines."
+
+"Good enough, we’ll drop gently," decided Fosterdyke.  "Stand by with
+the holding-down lines and have a couple of grapnels ready."
+
+The amount of brodium necessary to more than neutralise the lifting
+power of the gas and the dead weight of the airship was exhausted from
+the requisite number of ballonets, and the "Golden Hind" began to sink
+almost vertically in the still air.
+
+Within five minutes she entered the belt of mist--a warm,
+sickly-smelling atmosphere that reminded Kenyon of a hot-house.
+
+"I hear voices," announced Peter.
+
+Not far beneath the airship men were shouting and talking excitedly, but
+the crew of the "Golden Hind" were unable to understand what the men
+were saying.
+
+"Ahoy, there!" hailed Fosterdyke. "Stand by to take our ropes."
+
+Both grapnels were carefully lowered, since there would be grave risks
+entailed by throwing them overboard.  At the same time half a dozen
+holding-down ropes were paid out from each side of the nacelle. These
+were caught by unseen hands and the airship was quickly drawn earthwards
+at far too great a speed to please Sir Reginald Fosterdyke.
+
+"Gently," he shouted.  "Avast heaving."
+
+The response was a terrible surprise. Simultaneously two searchlights
+were unmasked, their powerful beams at short range punctuating the fog
+and impinging upon the enormous envelope of the "Golden Hind," while an
+irregular fusillade of musketry assailed the airship on all sides.
+
+"Up with her!" shouted Fosterdyke. "Charge all the ballonets.  We’ve
+struck a revolution."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--VICTIMS OF A REVOLUTION
+
+
+Above the staccato of rifle-firing rose the roar of the "Golden Hind’s"
+powerful motors.  Volumes of brodium, released from the pressure-flasks,
+rushed into the ballonets.  The airship rose at an oblique angle, her
+nose almost touching the ground. Then, as the aerial propellers went
+ahead, the fore-part of the fuselage ploughed over the rough ground.
+
+With thirty or forty men hanging on like grim death to the guide-lines,
+and as many more tailing on to the grapnel ropes, the "Golden Hind,"
+with gas leaking from numerous bullet holes in her ballonets, was unable
+to seek refuge in her natural element.
+
+Fortunately for the safety of the airship’s crew, the rifle-firing
+quickly ceased as soon as the attackers realised that they had effected
+her capture.  Apparently it was their intention to prevent further
+damage being done to the huge airship.
+
+Finding that escape was impossible and unable to offer resistance,
+Fosterdyke opened out one of the doors of the nacelle and raised his
+hands above his head.  It was no disgrace in surrendering thus. Alive
+the crew of the "Golden Hind" could offer and receive explanations.
+Dead, they could not.
+
+The appearance of the captain of the "Golden Hind" was greeted by
+peremptory orders, shouted in an unintelligible language.  It certainly
+wasn’t American. It seemed to Fosterdyke that it was a kind of Spanish,
+and since he was ignorant of that tongue he failed to grasp the meaning
+of the volume of directions.
+
+Covered by scores of rifles, Fosterdyke, Kenyon, and Bramsdean headed
+the crew of the airship.  Completely bewildered by the aggressive nature
+of their reception, and not knowing what fate would befall them, the
+position of the British airmen was critical in the extreme.  Yet they
+bore themselves calmly and bravely, scorning to let their captors know
+that inwardly at least they "felt the breeze."
+
+Deftly, as if they were well used to performing the operation, two
+half-breeds searched the baronet for concealed weapons. The rest of the
+crew were subjected to the same treatment.  Finding nothing in the
+nature of arms, the searchers looked rather astonished and disappointed.
+
+A gorgeously uniformed man, evidently the commandant of the band, walked
+up to the baronet and saluted with an elaborate flourish.  There was
+little doubt about it; he had already come to the conclusion that a
+mistake had occurred, and that he rather feared the consequences.
+
+"Americano, señor?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Fosterdyke.  "English."
+
+"Madre de Dios!" ejaculated the commandant in ill-concealed
+consternation. He shouted something to his followers. After a brief
+interval, a tall, olive-featured follower, whose black oiled locks fell
+on his shoulders, slouched forward and announced--
+
+"Me speak English.  Vot you do here?"
+
+Mutual explanations took a considerable time; but eventually Fosterdyke
+and his companions gleaned the salient facts for the reason of the
+attack and capture of the "Golden Hind."
+
+In the tropical mists the airship had landed not in the Panama Zone but
+in a neighbouring republic, which, as is by no means an unusual
+occurrence, was indulging in a little political diversion in the shape
+of a revolution.  Just at present there was no means of ascertaining
+which was the predominant faction, but one side had gained possession of
+an old airship--purchased at a disposal sale of one of the _Entente_
+countries.  This airship, hastily fitted out and provided with bombs and
+machine-guns, was known to be on the point of operating against the
+Federals. The latter were therefore expecting the raiding airship when
+the "Golden Hind," miles out of her course owing to the mists and a side
+wind that, unknown to the navigating officers, had blown her well to
+leeward, fired her detonating rockets almost immediately over the
+Federal party’s main force.
+
+The Federals knew nothing of the Round the World Race; but their anxiety
+to make amends was most marked.  They offered to provide unlimited
+supplies of petrol, and to render any assistance that lay in their
+power; but the fact remained that the hasty fusillade had caused
+considerable damage to the "Golden Hind."
+
+At first Fosterdyke thought that the airship was out of the running.
+Kenyon and Bramsdean were of the same opinion, for the loss of brodium
+through the punctured ballonets seemed a fatal obstacle to the immediate
+resumption of the flight.
+
+Further examination revealed the fact that half the number of the
+ballonets were holed.  Of these almost every one could be patched and
+made gas-tight, since the rifle-bullets, being of small calibre and of
+high velocity, had bored minute holes. But what was far more serious was
+the shortage of brodium.  Even by releasing the contents of the reserve
+cylinders it was doubtful whether there was sufficient to lift the
+airship.
+
+"We’ll have a good try, anyway," declared Fosterdyke.  "Once we get her
+up we’ll rely on our planes to get us across the Atlantic.  Thank
+goodness the motors are intact!  I wonder if there’s much damage done to
+the navigation-room. Several bullets came unpleasantly close to our
+heads, I remember."
+
+Examination resulted in the knowledge that although the aluminium sides
+of the nacelle had been liberally peppered, most of the nickel bullets
+had penetrated both sides without doing vital damage.  What was the most
+serious injury was caused to the propellers of Nos. 5 and 6 motors, the
+feather-edged blades being chipped by bullets.  Since the spare blades
+had already been used earlier in the voyage replacement was out of the
+question. The ragged edges meant at least a reduction of ten miles an
+hour, even if the blades did not fly to pieces when the propellers were
+running at maximum speed.
+
+During the rest of the night the crew worked with a will--patching,
+mending, and "doping" the holed fabric and carefully testing each
+repaired ballonet with compressed air before refilling it with the
+precious brodium.
+
+Meanwhile, the Federals brought quantities of petrol, employing teams of
+mules for the purpose, their petrol dump being a good five miles from
+the scene of the "Golden Hind’s" unfortunate landing. Every drop had to
+be passed through a fine gauze strainer before being allowed to enter
+the tanks, since foreign matter in the fuel might easily result in motor
+trouble.
+
+Anxious to make amends, the commandant also presented the baronet with a
+quantity of excellent tobacco and cigars, several native cakes made of
+maize, an earthenware bowl filled with good butter, and a wicker crate
+of fresh fruit.
+
+By dawn the refitting of the "Golden Hind" was accomplished as far as
+lay in the power of the dauntless crew.  Now came the crucial test:
+would the airship rise under the lifting power of the reduced volume of
+brodium?
+
+At seven o’clock the huge fabric showed signs of buoyancy.  A quarter of
+an hour later the recording instruments showed that only another
+thousand cubic feet of gas was necessary to overcome the force of
+gravity.
+
+"We haven’t that quantity, sir," reported Chief Air Mechanic Hayward.
+"But I would suggest, sir, that we release our reserve gas into the
+for’ard ballonets. That will lift her nose clear of the ground, and the
+propellers will do the rest.  Once we’re up, sir, it will be as easy as
+shelling peas."
+
+"We can but try it," replied Fosterdyke. "At any rate, if we can make
+Panama we will manage with hydrogen for the remaining ballonets.
+Right-o! Pass the word when you’re ready."
+
+At seven-thirty the crew were at their stations.  The for’ard portion of
+the airship was straining at the guide ropes. The declutched motors,
+purring gently at a quarter throttle, were awaiting the order that would
+transform them into propulsive forces.  Until the planes could be
+brought into action the "Golden Hind" was much in the nature of a rocket
+soaring obliquely under the influence of a self-contained impulsive
+charge.
+
+Throwing open one of the windows of the riddled navigation-room,
+Fosterdyke surveyed the crowd below.  The Federal troops, in spite of
+their bizarre uniforms and varied equipment, were fairly well
+disciplined.  Those not actually engaged in holding down the airship
+were formed up at about fifty yards from the nacelle, interested
+spectators of the largest airship that had ever passed over the
+territory of the Central American Republic.
+
+"Let go!" shouted the baronet.
+
+The order, interpreted by the Creole who claimed to have a knowledge of
+English, was obeyed promptly.  The men seemed to have an inkling of what
+would happen if they did not, and they dropped the guide ropes as though
+they were hot irons.
+
+Simultaneously, as the bows of the "Golden Hind" lifted, Kenyon
+telegraphed for "full ahead."
+
+With four of the propellers purring in their accustomed way and the two
+after ones roaring like gigantic buzzers, as the jagged edges revolved
+rapidly in the air, the "Golden Hind" ascended obliquely, with her major
+axis inclined at an angle of forty degrees to the horizontal.
+
+The Federal troops were waving their nondescript headgear and
+brandishing their rifles in token of farewell. Doubtless they were
+cheering and shouting also, but the noise of the airship’s propellers
+out-voiced all extraneous sounds.
+
+At a height of one thousand feet the six planes were trimmed and brought
+into action, with the result that the "Golden Hind" settled down on
+almost an even keel.
+
+Four minutes later the scene of the unfortunate "regrettable incident"
+was lost to sight.
+
+"Thanks be, we’re up!" ejaculated Fosterdyke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--WIRELESS REPORTS
+
+
+"Kenyon!" exclaimed the baronet.
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"We’ll cut Panama," was Fosterdyke’s astounding decision.  "We’ll carry
+straight away on.  She’s doing splendidly, shortage of brodium
+notwithstanding.  We’ve plenty of fuel, so it’s a dash for Madeira."
+
+"How about reporting at the Panama control?" asked Kenneth.
+
+"I’ll risk omitting that," replied Sir Reginald.  "Being mixed up in a
+potty revolution is quite sufficient excuse for non-compliance with
+regulations.  It isn’t as if we were bound to report ourselves, as in
+the case of Auckland.  Bramsdean, you might ask the wireless operator to
+report us to Panama, and enquire if there’s any news of our rivals.
+Last night’s affair has given von Sinzig a very useful lead, I’m
+afraid."
+
+Peter hastened to give the necessary orders.  Presently he returned.
+
+"No news of the Hun, sir," he reported. "The Yankee airship made a bad
+landing at Port Denison, Queensland, and was totally destroyed by fire."
+
+"Hard lines," remarked Fosterdyke, feelingly.  "Commodore Nye is a good
+sport. I hope he wasn’t injured?"
+
+"Far from it," replied Bramsdean.  "In fact he’s reported to have cabled
+to Melbourne asking the Victorian Government if they can sell him a
+Vickers-Vimy, so that he can continue the contest."
+
+"Good luck to him, then!" exclaimed the baronet.  "And the Jap?"
+
+"Looks like a winner, sir," replied Peter.  "The quadruplane is reported
+passing over Calcutta."
+
+"Next to beating Fritz myself, the Jap is the fellow I hope will do it,"
+remarked Fosterdyke.  "By Jove!  I’d like to know where von Sinzig is
+and what he’s doing."
+
+The "Golden Hind," now virtually a heavier-than-air machine, was doing
+her level best to make up for the unlucky contretemps that had delayed
+her for eight precious hours.  Unaccountably the reduction of the volume
+of brodium in her ballonets, although the rigid aluminium envelope had
+not appreciably contracted, had resulted in a marked increase of speed.
+Judging by the time she took to cover the distance between Panama and
+Nevis, in the Lesser Antilles--a distance of 1250 miles--her speed over
+the water was not far short of 190 miles an hour.
+
+"If those two props had not been crippled," lamented Kenyon, "we’d be
+doing a good two hundred."
+
+"I’m content," rejoined Fosterdyke, "provided we can keep it up.  If we
+don’t lap Z64 in another twelve hours, you can jolly well boot me,
+Kenyon!"
+
+A few minutes later the wireless operator appeared and handed Fosterdyke
+a long written message.
+
+The baronet’s face was a study of varying emotions as he read the news.
+Kenyon, watching him, wondered what had happened.  Not that he was
+surprised; after the experiences of the last week or so, it would take
+something very much out of the common to take Kenneth Kenyon aback.
+
+"Evidently our friend von Sinzig has butted in where he didn’t ought,"
+remarked Fosterdyke, handing his companion the slip of paper.
+
+It was a general Marconigram communication to the Press Agency, and read
+as follows:
+
+"Hobart, Tasmania, Thursday.  The schooner _Myrtle_, Abraham Prout,
+master, arrived here this morning in a damaged condition.  Her master
+reports that in lat. 43° 15’ S., long. 141° 20’ E., the schooner was hit
+by a falling object, which Captain Prout subsequently brought into port.
+Examination showed that the object in question was an airship
+observation box or basket.  In it, fortunately intact, and with the
+safety vane locking the detonator-pin, was an incendiary bomb stamped
+with the broad arrow.  Experts here agree that the bomb is certainly not
+a British Government’s missile, and by certain markings on the
+observation basket it is safe to assume that it belonged to a German
+airship.  The basket and the bomb are being forwarded to the
+Commonwealth Air Board Headquarters at Sydney."
+
+Then came another report:
+
+"Fremantle, Western Australia, Thursday.  Investigations amongst the
+ruins of the aerodrome destroyed by fire yesterday morning have resulted
+in the finding of the remains of an aerial torpedo bearing the British
+Government mark.  This discovery completely upsets the original theory
+as to the cause of the outbreak. Various rumours are afloat, but pending
+an official declaration on the subject, the Press is requested to
+confine reports to the actual known facts.  A further communication will
+be made as soon as definite information is forthcoming."
+
+"Yes, von Sinzig is getting desperate," remarked Kenyon.  "It’s a dead
+cert that he thought we were berthed in the Fremantle aerodrome that
+night.  But how in the name of goodness did he get so far south?  It was
+reported he went direct from Java to New Zealand, passing north of
+Australia."
+
+"He reported, you mean," corrected Fosterdyke.  "Trying to throw dust in
+one’s eyes is an old trick of Fritz’s. Personally, I don’t believe he
+took the northern route, and that he picked up our wireless announcing
+our intention of making Fremantle, and then tried to do us in."
+
+"He’s done for himself, any old way," declared Kenyon.  "I wonder if a
+Hun can ever be a sportsman?"
+
+"I wonder," echoed the baronet.  "I’ve come across a good many Huns
+during the last five years, but I’m hanged if I ever met one who knew
+how to play the game."
+
+Half an hour later the "Golden Hind" intercepted a wireless message to
+the effect that the British, American, and French Governments had issued
+joint instructions for the German airship Z64 to be detained at the next
+landing-place.
+
+"That looks like business," commented Kenyon.  "Von Sinzig’s out of the
+running."
+
+"Unless he contrives to land in Spanish territory," added the baronet.
+"There are the Canary Islands, for instance.  He could, and probably
+will, claim immunity as a political offender.  I don’t think he can be
+extradited.  You see, it has to be proved to the hilt that he actually
+and by deliberate intent dropped a bomb on the aerodrome.  No, I fancy
+we haven’t lost our Hun rival yet.  He stands a chance of romping home,
+so it’s up to us to beat Z64."
+
+"I’d like to know what the blighter’s doing now," said Kenneth,
+tentatively. "Perhaps he’s within fifty miles of us."
+
+"Provided he’s fifty miles behind us, I won’t worry my head about him,"
+declared Sir Reginald.  "I’m not particularly keen on coming in touch
+with him on a dark night.  He might try his hand at another dirty
+trick."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--VON SINZIG’S BID FOR SAFETY
+
+
+Count Karl von Sinzig was in a particularly bad temper.  He had just
+learned, by picking up various wireless messages, that "the cat was out
+of the bag."  In other words, the discovery of the lost observation
+basket had landed him in a very awkward predicament.
+
+He blamed everyone and everybody save himself.  The luckless
+Unter-Leutnant, Hans Leutter, came in for a very bad time because he
+hadn’t got rid of the second bomb.  The petty officer, who had
+conscientiously seen that the bottle-screws securing the basket were
+properly made fast, was bullied and browbeaten because the basket was
+torn away.  The rest of the crew, the makers of the airship, and every
+person having anything to do with the aerial contest also came in for
+abuse.
+
+The count was also puzzled at not being able to intercept any messages
+from the "Golden Hind" after the one announcing her approach to Panama.
+Z64 had reported at Colon, when, according to the latest information,
+the British airship was hard on the heels of her German rival.
+
+And now, almost the final straw, came the general wireless message
+declaring that Z64 was proscribed and liable to be detained should she
+touch at any place belonging to either of the _entente_ nations.
+
+Fosterdyke had accurately gauged his rival’s intentions.  The knowledge
+that his guilty secret was out compelled von Sinzig to change his plans
+and make for Teneriffe, whence, having replenished fuel, he ought to be
+easily able to complete the last stage of the round the world voyage.
+
+When about 300 miles to the westward of the Canaries, but farther to the
+north than von Sinzig hoped to be, owing to a strong side-drift, Z64
+encountered a violent storm.  In order to try to avoid the worst of the
+terrific wind and rain, the airship began to ascend, hoping to find
+better conditions in the rarefied atmosphere.
+
+Z64 was ascending obliquely under the action of her huge horizontal
+rudders and was passing through a dense cloud when a vivid flash of
+lightning, followed almost immediately by a deafening crash of thunder,
+appeared to penetrate the airship through and through.
+
+Almost every man on board shouted with terror.  They were fully
+convinced that the hydrogen had ignited.  There was a frantic rush for
+the life-saving parachutes, until Unter-Leutnant Hans Leutter reassured
+the panic-stricken crew with the information that the gas-bag had not
+taken fire.
+
+Meanwhile the airship, left to its own devices, since the helmsman had
+abandoned the wheel, had turned eight degrees to port and was travelling
+at a rate of 120 miles an hour on a course N. by W.
+
+Von Sinzig, who "had the wind up" as badly as anybody, was nowhere to be
+found for some time.  Leutter even came to the conclusion that his
+superior officer had leapt overboard when the alarm of fire had been
+raised; but after a lapse of twenty-five minutes the count re-appeared,
+looking very grey and haggard.
+
+"I think I must have been stunned, Herr Leutter," he said in
+explanation.
+
+His subordinate accepted the excuse without smiling incredulously.  He
+had seen his chief bolting for his very life.  He certainly did not look
+like being stunned.
+
+"Take charge for a while," continued von Sinzig.  "I am not feeling
+well.  I must go to my cabin and lie down."
+
+He staggered aft along the narrow catwalk, while the Unter-Leutnant gave
+orders for the airship to be brought back on her original course.
+
+It was easier said than done.  The gigantic gas-bag was see-sawing
+erratically. She had difficulty in answering to her helm, and in spite
+of the fact that the horizontal rudders were trimmed for ascending, the
+airship was decreasing her altitude.
+
+Then reports began to come in from the still "jumpy" crew.  The engineer
+reported that the after propeller was damaged; another man announced
+that there was a large gash in the aluminium envelope, and that several
+of the after ballonets were leaking rapidly.
+
+Further examination revealed the grave fact that one of the propeller
+blades had fractured, and the flying piece of metal had penetrated the
+gas-bag at about eighty feet from the after-end.  So great had been the
+velocity of the broken blade that it had practically wrecked every gas
+compartment in the stern of the envelope.
+
+Unter-Leutnant Leutter sent a man to inform von Sinzig.  He had to do
+that, although he would have preferred to act upon his own initiative.
+He was decidedly "fed up" with his arrogant and craven skipper.
+
+The count arrived quickly.  He led off by abusing Leutter in front of
+several of the crew for having disturbed him; then, on being told of
+what had occurred, he changed completely round and complimented his
+subordinate on his sagacity.
+
+"Z64’s done, Herr kapitan," declared Hans Leutter.  "She’s sinking
+rapidly. Half an hour, perhaps, will find her falling into the sea.  We
+must take steps to safeguard ourselves."
+
+"Quite true," agreed the count. "Although there will be enough buoyancy
+in the envelope to keep it afloat for hours--days even.  What do you
+propose to do?"
+
+"Throw overboard everything of a weighty nature, Herr kapitan," replied
+the Unter-Leutnant.  "We can empty the petrol tanks, since we have no
+further use for the motors.  Meanwhile we must send out a general
+wireless call for assistance to all ships within a hundred or two
+hundred kilometres of us."
+
+Count Karl von Sinzig thought this quite an excellent idea.  At least,
+he said so.  At the back of his mind he had a hazy notion that even now
+there was a chance of winning the Chauvasse Prize.  There was nothing in
+the conditions forbidding a competitor----
+
+His ruminations were interrupted by the appearance of the wireless
+operator, who reported that both the transmitter and the receiver were
+out of action, and that the wireless cabin bore signs of having been
+struck by lightning.
+
+"Can’t you effect repairs?" demanded von Sinzig.
+
+"I am sorry I cannot, Herr kapitan," replied the operator.
+
+"A useful wireless man you are!" commented the count, caustically.
+
+The man saluted and backed away from his chief, congratulating himself
+that he had come off so lightly.  But von Sinzig was rather pleased than
+otherwise that the wireless was out of action.  It furnished him with a
+good excuse to put a certain little plan into execution.
+
+"Are there any vessels in sight?" he asked.
+
+A look-out man had been scanning the wide expanse of sea for the last
+ten minutes.
+
+"Nothing in sight, Herr kapitan," he announced.
+
+By this time Z64 was well beyond the storm-area.  The sea, now a bare
+3000 feet below, was no longer white with angry crested waves, but by
+the aid of binoculars it could be seen that there was a long swell
+running.
+
+"Then there’s nothing to be done unless we make use of the Albatross,"
+declared von Sinzig.  "I will go and look for a ship."
+
+Hans Leutter and those of the crew who heard the count’s resolve
+received the proposal in stony silence.  They all recognised that their
+kapitan was violating the traditions of the sea and the air by being the
+first to abandon his command. Of the crew at least four were capable of
+flying the small but powerful monoplane, so there was no excuse on that
+score of von Sinzig being the only man able to take the Albatross up.
+
+In obedience to a peremptory order the crew hurriedly prepared the
+monoplane for her flight.  The Albatross, nominally used for starting
+from and alighting on the ground, was adapted for marine work by having
+three small floats, the lower portions of which were just above the
+wheel base line, so that the monoplane could be used either as an
+ordinary machine or as a seaplane.
+
+In the present circumstances von Sinzig elected to start from the air.
+The Albatross, suspended by a quick release gear from the underside of
+the ’midship gondola, was ready before the airship had dropped to a
+thousand feet.
+
+"You will be quite safe," reiterated the count.  "I’ll send the first
+vessel I meet to your assistance.  It may be a matter of a few hours.
+All ready?  Let go."
+
+The monoplane’s motor was already running slowly.  Directly von Sinzig
+felt the Albatross had parted company with her gigantic parent he opened
+"all out."  At a hundred and thirty miles an hour he was soon lost to
+sight.
+
+"He’s going east by north, I notice," soliloquised Hans Leutter.  "I
+will be greatly surprised if he returns to Z64."
+
+And the count was of the same opinion. He hadn’t the faintest intention
+of flying back to the airship.  Nor was he particularly keen on
+reporting Z64’s predicament to any vessel he sighted.
+
+He was out to win the Chauvasse Prize. The sum went to the man who
+succeeded in flying round the world in twenty days. There was no
+stipulation to the effect that only one airship, flying-boat, aeroplane,
+or seaplane must be used throughout the flight.  Therefore, since the
+goal was within a comparatively easy distance, he hoped to complete the
+circuit in the Albatross, and thus win the coveted prize.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--THE END OF Z64
+
+
+"By Jove!  Kenyon, what’s that over on our starboard bow?" exclaimed
+Bramsdean.
+
+Kenneth raised his binoculars and focussed them on a dark object in the
+direction indicated.
+
+"That," he replied after a brief survey, "is a Zepp.  There’s not much
+mistake about that.  She is also in difficulties apparently, since Zepps
+don’t generally assume an angle of forty-five degrees. It is also
+reasonable to assume that it is Z64, since we know that von Sinzig was
+keeping a course slightly divergent to ours. The southerly wind has
+evidently driven her northward."
+
+Fosterdyke was asleep in his cabin, but upon hearing the news he hurried
+to the navigation-room.
+
+"Are we Pharisees or Good Samaritans, sir?" enquired Kenyon.  "Do we
+pass by on the other side, or do we stop to render assistance?"
+
+"It strikes me that something more than assistance is required," replied
+the baronet.  "Obviously our friend von Sinzig is out of the running.
+His airship is down and out.  If there are any of the crew on board,
+we’ll be just in time to prevent them losing the number of their mess."
+
+Z64 was in a very bad way.  The after part of the envelope was half
+submerged. The rearmost gondola was entirely so. The foremost car was
+rising and falling owing to the slight buoyancy of the for’ard
+ballonets.  At one moment it was thirty or forty feet above the water,
+at another it was smacking the surface and sending the spray far and
+wide.
+
+"Keep to windward," ordered Fosterdyke.
+
+"There are men still on board," replied Peter.  "A dozen more or less
+are hanging on to the catwalk."
+
+"It’ll be rather a proposition to get them off," said the baronet.  "We
+haven’t a boat; neither apparently have they, and I don’t like the idea
+of running alongside a half-submerged gas-bag.  With this heavy swell
+there’s no knowing what might happen."
+
+"We might run out a hawser and take her in tow," suggested Kenyon.  "I
+mean, tow her until we get the crew off by means of an endless line."
+
+"Might do," half agreed Fosterdyke. "It would be decidedly awkward if
+our head fell away and we drifted in broadside on to the wreckage.
+We’ll try it.  Tell Jackson to get a hawser ready, and see there is a
+slip fitted in case we have to cast off in a hurry."
+
+Already several of the ballonets that at first sight seemed beyond
+repair had been patched up, while the fortunate discovery of two flasks
+of compressed brodium gave the "Golden Hind" considerable buoyancy, so
+that she was no longer dependent upon the lift of her six planes.  Yet
+the prospect of having to take on board the weighty Hun crew would
+seriously threaten the buoyancy of the airship.
+
+"Luckily we are within sight of our goal," said Fosterdyke.  "We can
+sacrifice a quantity of our stores.  The reserve fresh water tank can be
+started, too. Two hundred and fifty gallons less of water ought to make
+a considerable difference."
+
+Leading Hand Jackson, with the help of four or five of the crew, soon
+made the necessary preparations.  By this time the "Golden Hind" had
+approached to within a hundred yards of the disabled Zeppelin, the crew
+of which, half in doubt as to what was going to happen, were signalling
+and shouting frantically for help.
+
+"Rescuing the crew of the _Hilda P. Murchison_ was child’s play to
+this," commented Kenyon.  "Goodness only knows how we are going to
+establish communication.  Her blessed envelope is in the way."
+
+Thrice the "Golden Hind" sailed over her crippled rival.  The trailing
+hawser glided over the rounded surface of the gasbag, but none of the
+men made any attempt to leave the gondolas and secure the rope.  It
+afterwards transpired that the aluminium envelope was sagging and
+whipping to such an extent that the vertical shaft through it by which
+access could be made to the upper surface of the gas-bag was
+impracticable.  Anyone attempting to ascend by that way would almost
+certainly be crushed to death.
+
+"Can’t the lubbers see the hawser?" asked Fosterdyke, impatiently.  "Or
+have they all got the wind up so frightfully that they can’t lift a hand
+to help themselves? Get in that hawser, Jackson.  We’ll try approaching
+to leeward this time and see if they’ve got the sense to veer a rope."
+
+The manoeuvre required very careful execution.  The "Golden Hind,"
+descending until her fuselage was but a few feet above the sea,
+approached carefully.  She had to be kept under control up to a certain
+point, when way had to be taken off her. If she stopped too soon, she
+would drift away before communication could be established; if she
+carried on even a few yards too much, there was a danger of her
+overlapping envelope colliding nose on with the wrecked Zeppelin.
+
+This time the Huns showed decided activity.  They bent a line to an
+inflated indiarubber lifebelt and threw the latter into the sea.
+Unfortunately, they did not take into account the fact that the Zeppelin
+was drifting to leeward as fast as the lifebelt.  When they realised
+what was happening one of the crew jumped overboard and towed the line a
+hundred yards or so away.
+
+"Now there’s a chance of doing something," commented Fosterdyke,
+telegraphing for a touch ahead with Nos. 1 and 2 motors.
+
+As the "Golden Hind" passed immediately over the life-buoy a grapnel,
+lowered from the after-part of the fuselage, engaged the rope, and in a
+remarkably short space of time a stout hawser connected the British
+airship with the still buoyant bows of the German.
+
+Fosterdyke waited until the "Golden Hind" had swung round and was
+pointing "down wind," then he ordered easy ahead with the two for’ard
+motors.  This gave sufficient tension to the hawser, which was now
+inclined at an angle of about thirty degrees.
+
+A "snatch-block" with an endless line was then allowed to run down to
+the hawser.
+
+"Now the rest is easy," declared Fosterdyke, but for once at least he
+was greatly mistaken.
+
+The first of the Huns arrived in a bowline on board the "Golden Hind."
+
+"How many are there?" asked Fosterdyke.
+
+"Ve vos dwanty," replied the German, holding up the fingers of both
+hands twice in order to make his meaning clearer.
+
+More Huns emerging from the for’ard gondola of Z64 confirmed the man’s
+statement.  One was evidently an officer, but his features did not in
+the least resemble those of Count von Sinzig, whose photograph had
+appeared some time back in the illustrated papers.
+
+Seventeen Huns were transhipped in about as many minutes.  The
+eighteenth was half-way along the tautened hawser when Fosterdyke
+shouted, "Let go!"
+
+Leading-Hand Jackson obeyed the order instantly.  The ring of the
+Senhouse slip was knocked clear, and the hawser fell with a splash into
+the sea.  The "Golden Hind," released from the drag of the partly
+water-logged Zeppelin, shot ahead.
+
+She was only just in time.  The baronet had noticed a tongue of flame
+issuing from the centre gondola of Z64.  How the fire was caused was a
+mystery, since had the Huns wished to destroy the wreckage they would
+have waited until the last man was clear of the Zeppelin.  Possibly the
+wiring of the electric stove had short-circuited when in contact with
+the salt water.
+
+In less than fifteen seconds from the time the hawser had been slipped
+the hydrogen escaping from the leaky ballonets was ignited.  The
+aluminium gasbag was surrounded by flames.  The heat caused the gas in
+the still intact ballonets to expand, affording sufficient lifting power
+to heave the wreckage almost clear of the water.  The remaining Huns,
+keenly alive to the terrible danger, promptly jumped into the sea.
+
+Then with a terrific glare the remaining ballonets burst, and the
+shattered wreckage, sizzling as it came into contact with the cold
+water, disappeared beneath the surface, leaving a steadily widening
+circle of oil surmounted by a dense pall of black smoke to mark the
+scene of the end of Z64.
+
+Before the evil-smelling vapour had dispersed the "Golden Hind," turning
+head to wind, was over the spot searching for possible survivors.  For
+half an hour she cruised round, but her efforts to rescue the three Huns
+were unavailing.  The men had either been stunned by the explosion or
+had been hit by falling wreckage. Amongst them was Unter-Leutnant Hans
+Leutter, who, by resolutely refusing to leave his command until the rest
+of the crew were safe, had proved that all Hun officers were not of the
+von Sinzig type.
+
+Several of the rescued Germans could speak English--but they were
+decidedly reticent.  In the back of their minds they rather feared that
+they were in for a bad time.  They knew that their late kapitan had been
+practically outlawed and that he was "wanted" by the authorities for
+having, amongst other misdemeanours, destroyed the Fremantle aerodrome
+by means of an incendiary bomb.  They rather expected that they would be
+blamed for the acts of their fugitive superior.
+
+On the other hand, they were grateful to their rescuers for having saved
+their lives, and with typical Teutonic reasoning they eventually decided
+that one way to repay the kindness and to ingratiate themselves in the
+eyes of the Englishman would be to give away their former officers.
+
+The spokesman led off by informing Sir Reginald Fosterdyke that
+Unter-Leutnant Hans Leutter was the person who dropped the incendiary
+bomb from the observation basket in the hope that it would destroy the
+"Golden Hind."
+
+"He was, of course, acting under Count von Sinzig’s orders," remarked
+Fosterdyke, drily.  "Where is Herr Leutter?"
+
+"Dead," was the reply.  "He was one of the three left on Z64."
+
+"And Count von Sinzig was one of the other two?"
+
+The German airman shrugged his shoulders and made a gesture of disgust.
+He still rankled over his kapitan’s cowardly desertion.  It was long
+obvious to all the survivors of Z64 that von Sinzig had no intention of
+summoning aid.  Eight hours had elapsed since he began his flight in the
+Albatross.  In that time he must have sighted several vessels, since the
+scene of the disaster was not many miles from one of the great Atlantic
+trade routes.
+
+"Kapitan Count von Sinzig left Z64 soon after daybreak this morning,
+mein Herr," replied the German.  "At seven o’clock, to be exact."
+
+"Left--how?" demanded Fosterdyke, sharply.
+
+"In an Albatross monoplane.  He was last seen going east-north-east."
+
+Fosterdyke dismissed his informant and turned to Kenyon and Bramsdean.
+
+"The cunning old rascal!" he exclaimed. "I see his little game now.
+He’s completing the final stage by aeroplane.  I suppose by this time
+he’s won the Chauvasse Prize; but I don’t envy him."
+
+"Will you enter a protest, sir?" asked Peter.
+
+"Protest?  Not much," replied the baronet, emphatically.  "These
+seventeen Huns can do the protesting if they want to, and I rather fancy
+they will."
+
+"There’s many a slip," quoted Kenyon. "He may not complete the course
+after all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--A DUMPING OPERATION
+
+
+The heavily-laden "Golden Hind" resumed her delayed journey.  Both
+gas-bags and planes had to do their full share of work to keep the
+airship afloat.  She was flying low, but making good progress; but so
+little was her reserve of buoyancy that had the three Huns who perished
+in the catastrophe to Z64 been saved, it was doubtful whether Fosterdyke
+could have "carried on."
+
+To make matters worse, some of the patches on the repaired ballonets
+were leaking, for owing to the heat of the rubber the solution was not
+holding well.
+
+"I wonder if Drake’s ’Golden Hind,’ when she arrived in the Thames after
+circumnavigating the globe, was patched up like we are," remarked
+Kenyon.  "It took Drake three long years to do the trick, and we look
+like completing our voyage in under seventeen days."
+
+"If the old ’bus holds out," added Bramsdean.  "’Tany rate, no one can
+say we haven’t done our bit.  The ’Golden Hind’s’ been a regular sort of
+aerial lifeboat. That is some satisfaction.  I’d rather we did that than
+win the race."
+
+"I suppose our passengers won’t get up to any of their Hunnish tricks?"
+observed Kenneth.
+
+"Trust Fosterdyke for that," replied Peter grimly.  "He’s had ’em placed
+in the dining-saloon.  (Fortunately, we won’t require many more meals.)
+They can amuse themselves there without getting into mischief.  There’s
+one of our fellows stationed outside to keep the blighters in order."
+
+Just then the baronet came upon the scene.
+
+"Von Sinzig looks like pulling it off," he observed.  "A wireless from
+the S.S. _Wontwash_ reports that a monoplane passed over the ship at 6
+P.M., flying east. According to the position given, the _Wontwash_ was
+only thirty-five miles west of Gibraltar."
+
+"Then perhaps he’s back at his hangar by this time," commented Peter.
+"Any news of the others?"
+
+"Yes; Commodore Theodore Nye has been unable to get hold of another ’bus
+yet, although two of the Australian R.A.F. pilots are bringing him a
+’Bristol’ machine from Melbourne.  He’s out of the running.  That he
+admits, but he means to complete the course, even if it takes him six
+months."
+
+"And the Jap?" asked Kenyon.
+
+"Not a word," replied the baronet. "He’s keeping quiet; but mark my
+words, that quadruplane will turn up unexpectedly. If his ’bus had had
+British motors, he would have romped home in less than a week."
+
+"What engines has he?" asked Bramsdean.
+
+"Japanese," replied Fosterdyke.  "Passable imitations of ours and good
+up to a certain point; but give me British engines all the jolly old
+time."
+
+Although the baronet made frequent enquiries of the operator, no
+wireless messages concerning von Sinzig came through.
+
+"Perhaps he’s crashed," suggested Peter.
+
+"Not he," replied Kenyon.  "That Hun’s got the luck of a cat with nine
+lives. He’s playing his own game."
+
+"It is a game," added Bramsdean. "Loading that crowd of Huns on to us is
+like a man in a mile race chucking his gear to another competitor and
+telling him to hang on.  I don’t wish the blighter any harm, but I do
+hope that if he pulls off the money prize they’ll pay him in German
+marks at the pre-war rate of exchange. That’d make him look blue!"
+
+Although no news came in concerning their Hun rival, the officers and
+crew of the "Golden Hind" began to be bombarded with wireless messages
+from Britons in every quarter of the globe.  All were of the most
+encouraging nature, for the story of Fosterdyke’s airship and her
+adventures and misadventures--all more or less distorted owing to the
+lack of authentic detail--had awakened world-wide interest.
+
+There were cheery messages from patriotic Britons; incentive ones from
+sportsmen, to whom the suggestion of a race appealed more than did the
+fact that the contest was one of endurance calculated to uphold the
+prestige of British flying men.  Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Norwegians,
+Americans, and Japanese all sent greetings to the intrepid British
+airmen.
+
+"Didn’t know we had so many friends," remarked Fosterdyke.
+"Sportsmanlike of those Americans and Japs, too, when they have
+representatives in the show."
+
+The "Golden Hind" was now approaching the regular mail line, where
+routes to and from the Cape and round the Horn unite in the
+neighbourhood of Las Palmas.
+
+"We’ll signal the first vessel we sight," decided Sir Reginald, "and get
+her to relieve us of our cargo of Fritzes.  The sooner the better,
+because several of the ballonets are showing distinct symptoms of
+porosity."
+
+Five minutes later the airship had slowed down and had swung round on a
+course parallel to a homeward-bound Dutchman.
+
+The skipper of the latter, when appealed to by megaphone, stoutly
+refused to receive the seventeen Germans.  He gave no reason why he
+should not do so, and without waiting for further parley rang for full
+speed ahead.
+
+A little later a French auxiliary barque was sighted, bound south.
+
+Fosterdyke made no attempt to intercept her.
+
+"There are limits," he observed. "Dumping those Huns on board an
+outward-bound Frenchman is one of them. Now for the next vessel.  Three
+for luck."
+
+The third was a British tramp, bound from Montevideo for Naples.  Her
+"Old Man," although ignorant that a Round-the-World aerial race was in
+progress or even in contemplation, readily agreed to help the "Golden
+Hind" on her way.
+
+"I’ll find use for ’em," he added with infinite relish.  "They’ll work
+their passage, never you fear.  Three times I’ve been torpedoed without
+warning, and on two occasions Fritz popped up to jeer at us struggling
+in waterlogged boats."
+
+While conversation was in progress between Fosterdyke and the master of
+the S.S. _Diaphanous_, a wire hawser had been lowered from the bows of
+the airship and made fast to the tramp’s after-winch. Since she was
+steaming dead in the eye of the wind there was no necessity for her to
+alter helm.  The "Golden Hind," pitching slightly, was towed astern of
+and thirty feet above the tramp.  As the airship’s course was almost
+identical with that of the tramp Fosterdyke conscientiously kept the
+propellers revolving, since, even in the present circumstances, he did
+not wish to give his rivals a chance of raising a protest on the score
+that the flight of the British airship had been mechanically aided.
+
+The seventeen Germans showed no great enthusiasm at being placed on
+board the tramp.  At first they imagined that the _Diaphanous_ was bound
+for the Pacific. Even the prospect of being dumped ashore at Naples was
+not at all attractive.
+
+When they did make a move they descended the rope-ladder so slowly and
+deliberately that it was obvious they meant to detain the "Golden Hind"
+as much as possible.
+
+"I see through their little game," exclaimed Fosterdyke, angrily.  "Make
+’em get a move on, Jackson."
+
+The Leading Hand wanted no further bidding.  Ably seconded by Chief Air
+Mechanic Hayward, he gave vent to such a flow of forcible language,
+accompanied by realistic dumbshow, that the Huns changed their tactics
+completely.  It was even necessary to check their impetuosity, lest the
+ladder should break under the weight of too many men descending
+simultaneously. Then, with a joyous toot on her syren as the hawser was
+cast off, and a stentorian greeting from the Mercantile Marine skipper,
+the _Diaphanous_ gathered way, while the "Golden Hind," almost as
+buoyant as of yore, rose steadily and rapidly against the gentle breeze.
+
+Two hours later land--the Moroccan coast--was sighted on the starboard
+bow. Then fifty minutes later Fosterdyke touched Kenyon on the shoulder
+and pointed dead ahead to a faint object rising above the horizon.
+
+"Guess we’ve done the trick, barring accidents," he observed.  "That’s
+Gibraltar."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--WITHIN SIGHT OF SUCCESS
+
+
+Count Karl von Sinzig had not started upon his long solo flight in the
+Albatross without studiously calculating his chances.  He knew the
+machine and its capabilities, and, given ordinary luck, he saw no reason
+why he should not make a landing on Spanish soil, replenish fuel, and
+carry on to his hangar in Estremadura before his hated rival arrived at
+Gibraltar. Even if there were delays in obtaining petrol, he still had a
+useful lead, thanks to his twelve hours’ start in advance of the "Golden
+Hind."  The two hundred extra miles he had to cover beyond Gibraltar was
+a mere bagatelle--a question of an hour and twenty minutes’ flight.
+
+He rather regretted that the accident to Z64 had not occurred nearer the
+African coast; but realising that he was lucky to be able to carry on,
+he ran the risk of a prolonged flight over the sea with comparative
+equanimity.
+
+Within an hour of leaving the wrecked Zeppelin he sighted two vessels,
+but with callous indifference to his promise to his crew he made not the
+slightest attempt to communicate with either of them.  He was "all out"
+to win the much-needed Chauvasse Prize.  Even his indictment by the
+various Allied Governments hardly worried him.  Time to consider what he
+should do in the matter when he was safe on Spanish soil, he decided.
+
+The Albatross, one of the best types of German machines, was practically
+an automatic flier.  Von Sinzig could keep her on her course by an
+occasional pressure with his feet upon the rudder-bar, thus leaving both
+hands free.  He was able to eat and drink, to study maps and make
+observations without risk of the monoplane getting out of control, while
+if needs be he could leave the pilot’s seat, knowing that the Albatross
+would hold on automatically for several minutes with only a slight
+deviation in direction and hardly any difference in altitude.
+
+Although only ten degrees north of the Tropics, it was bitterly cold at
+ten thousand feet; but the count had taken due precautions to combat the
+low temperature. He was warmly clad in orthodox flying kit, including
+sheepskin boots, fleece-lined leather jacket and trousers, all
+electrically heated.  He had four thermos flasks filled with hot coffee
+and a pocket flask of brandy.  For provisions he carried concentrated
+food, beef lozenges, and Strasburg sausages.
+
+Hour after hour passed.  The Albatross was flying magnificently, her
+pilot holding on to a compass course, after making due allowances for
+the "drift" of the air current.  He had based this allowance upon the
+direction of the wind when he left Z64; but unknown to him the light
+breeze had shifted eight points and was now blowing slightly ahead of
+his port beam.  Then, having backed, it presently veered six points and
+blew with increasing force right against the Albatross; but von Sinzig
+was for the present in ignorance of the fact.  Had he known that instead
+of a following breeze of about twenty miles an hour there was a head
+wind approaching the neighbourhood of thirty-five miles, he would not
+have been so chock-a-block with confidence.
+
+When, at the end of the time limit he had set, he was not in sight of
+land he began to feel anxious.  Half an hour later, as he was still
+without a glimpse of the coast, his misgivings increased, but ten
+minutes later he picked up land on his right. This was a puzzle.  He had
+expected to make a landfall right ahead, and its appearance in an
+unexpected quarter mystified him.  In point of fact he was in the
+neighbourhood of Cape Blanco, or nearly 250 miles south of Cape St.
+Vincent, where he hoped to pass over on his way to Estremadura.
+
+A knowledge of the Moroccan coast obtained during a cruise in a German
+gunboat at the time of the Agadir crisis stood von Sinzig in good stead.
+He was able to recognise certain landmarks in spite of viewing them from
+a different aspect, and accordingly he turned the monoplane in a
+north-easterly direction, keeping parallel to the African coast, The new
+direction would take him a little to the eastward of Cadiz; rather
+nearer that port than Gibraltar.  He had not the slightest inclination
+to fly over the latter fortress.  Rather vaguely he wondered whether he
+would sight the "Golden Hind" making thither, since, sooner or later,
+unless a mishap occurred, the rival aviators must cut each other’s
+routes.
+
+He was now painfully aware of the change of wind.  The direction of the
+smoke from several steamers, and the sight of a full-rigged ship running
+in a south-westerly direction told him that. Additionally, as he saw by
+the aid of his binoculars, that sailing ship was running under topsails
+only.  That meant something more than a stiff breeze--and against this
+he had to contend.
+
+Suddenly he detected an ominous cough of the motor.  He knew that the
+petrol supply was running low, but he had no idea that the gauge
+registered so little. The tank was practically empty.
+
+"Himmel!" gasped the dumfounded Hun.  "Will she last out?"
+
+He mentally measured the distance between him and the Spanish coast.  A
+good ten miles.  With a following wind he could glide that distance from
+that altitude, but not with this infernal head wind!
+
+The engine was running jerkily.  Clearly its spasmodic coughing
+betokened the fact that it would soon cease duty from sheer inanition.
+Its life-blood was being cut off at the heart of the machine--its petrol
+tank. That head wind.  How von Sinzig cursed it!  Had it been in his
+favour, even if he failed to volplane as far as the shore, the
+Albatross, being provided with floats, could have drifted on the
+surface.
+
+In the midst of his incoherent utterances von Sinzig realised that the
+motor had at last given out.  He trimmed the ailerons and prepared for a
+long glide, but, as he had feared, the head wind made it a matter of
+impossibility for the Albatross to cover more than two miles before she
+alighted.
+
+It did not take long to complete the volplane, although the pilot nursed
+his machine to the best of his ability in the hope of prolonging the
+oblique descent.
+
+The Albatross "landed" badly, her floats striking the water with a
+resounding smack.  The count, having done his best, could do no more.
+He sat smoking a cigarette and keeping a look out for a vessel that
+would come to his assistance. There were several away to the south’ard,
+for he had alighted well to the north’ard of the regular steamer track
+between Gibraltar and Cape St. Vincent.  They were too far off to notice
+the little Albatross.
+
+Then von Sinzig made the disconcerting discovery that the starboard
+float was leaking.  Already, owing to this cause, the monoplane was
+listing so that her starboard wing-tip was touching the water. This
+fact, combined with the knowledge that he was momentarily drifting
+farther and farther away from land, did not tend to improve the Hun’s
+peace of mind.
+
+Half an hour later, during which time the monoplane had drifted at least
+three miles, and was being considerably buffeted by the rising sea, von
+Sinzig noticed that a vessel was bearing down upon the crippled
+Albatross.
+
+As she approached, the count saw that she was a small motor-yacht of
+about forty or fifty tons, and that she was flying the burgee of the
+"Real Club Mediterraneo" and the Spanish ensign.  The sight of the
+Spanish colours gave von Sinzig renewed hope.
+
+The yacht slowed down and lost way a few yards to the wind’ard of the
+monoplane.  For so small a vessel she carried a large crew.  There were
+half a dozen men for’ard, clad in white canvas jumpers and trousers and
+wearing red woollen caps.  Aft were two gorgeously attired individuals
+in gold-laced yachting uniforms.
+
+Von Sinzig, who was a fair Spanish linguist, hailed them.  A rope thrown
+from the bows of the yacht fell across the nose of the Albatross.  This
+the count caught and secured.
+
+"Can you supply me with petrol, señor?" asked von Sinzig.  "My tank is
+empty. A hundred litres will be enough."
+
+One of the gold-laced men shook his head and extended his hands, palms
+uppermost.
+
+"I am desolated at being compelled to refuse your excellency’s modest
+request," he replied, "but we have paraffin engines and carry only a
+small quantity of petrol for starting purposes.  How far have you come?"
+
+"Nearly round the world," replied the Hun, grandiloquently.  He could
+not resist the typically Teutonic trait of self-advertisement.
+
+"Dios!" exclaimed the Spaniard, twirling his long moustachios.  "Then
+you are Count Karl von Sinzig, who left Quintanur, in the province of
+Estremadura, sixteen or seventeen days ago?"
+
+"I am," admitted von Sinzig, proudly.
+
+The Spaniard said a few words in an undertone to his companion.  The
+other’s eyes gleamed and he nodded his head vigorously.
+
+"We will take you on board and tow your machine," announced the owner of
+the yacht.
+
+"To Cadiz or Huelva?" asked the count.
+
+"Accept ten thousand regrets, count," replied the Spaniard.  "We must
+take you to Gibraltar."
+
+"But I have no wish to be taken to Gibraltar," declared von Sinzig.  "I
+will give a thousand pesetas to be landed at Cadiz."
+
+The Don again shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"No doubt my crew would be glad of your offer of a thousand pesetas,
+count," he replied, "but since they know that the English have offered a
+reward equal to five thousand pesetas----"
+
+"You would sell me?" demanded von Sinzig, furiously.
+
+"I sell you, señor?  Not I--a caballero of Spain!  You insult me by the
+suggestion. I recollect, however, that I once had a brother.  He was
+lost at sea, while travelling on an English vessel from New York to
+Cadiz.  Like you, he wanted to land at Cadiz, but he was not able to do
+so.  For why?  Because the ship was torpedoed by one of your
+ever-accursed U-boats.  Therefore I have a small measure of revenge when
+I hand you over to the English authorities at Gibraltar.  Be pleased,
+señor, to step aboard."
+
+Covered by an automatic pistol, Count Karl von Sinzig had no option but
+to obey. In the race round the world he was down and out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--FIRE!
+
+
+Sir Reginald Fosterdyke laid down his pencil and uttered an exclamation
+of intense satisfaction.  He had just "shot the sun" and had finished
+working out his position.
+
+"Another hour will see us at Gib., lads," he announced joyously.  "Then
+there’ll be some mafficking.  What’s your programme?  Going to pack your
+suit cases and back by the Madrid-Paris express?"
+
+"You are not leaving the ’Golden Hind’ at Gibraltar?" asked Kenneth.
+
+"No," replied the baronet.  "But I must certainly get some repairs
+executed before I resume my flight to England.  I thought, perhaps, you
+were in a hurry to get home."
+
+"There’s no immediate hurry, sir," declared the chums, simultaneously.
+
+"A few more days won’t matter," began Kenyon; but before he could
+proceed with his explanation the alarm bell rang violently and
+continuously.
+
+"What’s wrong now?" exclaimed Fosterdyke, snatching up the voice tube.
+
+Peter, glancing aft through the window of the navigation-room, which
+being raised gave a clear view over the roof of the rest of the nacelle,
+saw at once what was amiss.
+
+Dense volumes of smoke, tinged with dull red flames, were pouring from
+the after-end of the fuselage.  Fanned by the rush of the airship, the
+black vapour was streaming in its wake like a fox’s tail.
+
+Leaving Kenyon to take charge of the navigation-room, and cautioning him
+to keep the "Golden Hind" dead in the eye of the wind, and as fast as
+she could possibly go, Fosterdyke and Peter hastened aft.
+
+They found the alley-way thick with smoke, for on the well-known
+principle that "the wind follows the ship" the draught was carrying the
+fumes within the nacelle in a forward direction.
+
+A man wearing a smoke helmet brushed past them.  It was Hayward going to
+find some fire-extinguishers.  Others of the crew, who had hastily
+donned masks to protect themselves from the choking vapour, were busily
+engaged in hurling pyrene into the seat of the conflagration.
+
+Although the speed of the "Golden Hind" through the air fanned the
+flames, Fosterdyke had done well to order speed to be maintained.  The
+velocity had the effect of compelling the fire to trail astern instead
+of spreading upwards and thus destroying the envelope.  Even as it was
+the heat had caused the non-inflammable brodium to expand, giving the
+envelope a tendency to trim down by the head.
+
+"Petrol tank to No. 5 motor, sir," reported a grimy and perspiring
+mechanic, who through sheer exhaustion and being partly gassed by the
+noxious fumes had to withdraw from the fray.  "Went up all of a sudden,
+like.  Never saw such a flare up in all my life, sir; but we’re getting
+it under."
+
+It was indeed a stiff fight.  In a few seconds the area of the fire had
+attained such large dimensions that it was impossible to reach the
+actual source.  The fire-fighters had first to subdue the fringe of the
+conflagration, and by the time they had done this several of them were
+_hors de combat_ by reason of the suffocating gases thrown off by the
+oxygen-exterminating pyrene.  Above the crackling of the flames came the
+sharp tang of the suspension wires holding the nacelle to the aluminium
+envelope as they parted under the terrific heat.
+
+Not only were the crew faced with the danger of the fire getting the
+upper hand; the while there was the chance of a portion of the fuselage
+becoming detached from the gas-bag, and the prospect of being hurled
+through space from a height of eight or nine thousand feet above the sea
+was one that might well in cold blood put fear into the heart of the
+bravest of the brave.  But in the heat of action the crew, knowing the
+danger, faced the risk manfully.  Working in relays, they plied the
+flames with the fire-extinguishing chemicals.  As fast as one man fell
+out, temporarily overcome by the fumes and the terrific heat, another
+took his place until the fire was overcome. Even then the danger was not
+over.  There was still a possibility of the smouldering fuselage being
+fanned into a blaze.  Parts of the aluminium framework and panelling
+were warped and twisted into fantastic shapes.  Snake-like coils of wire
+indicated the fact that several of the highly important connections
+between the fuselage and the envelope had been burnt through. Whether a
+sufficient number of tension wires remained to adequately support the
+afterpart of the nacelle remained a matter of doubt.
+
+Unaccountably the petrol tank feeding No. 5 motor had taken fire.  The
+pipes and unions had been frequently examined and found to be in good
+order.  In fact, Hayward had personally inspected the fittings of that
+particular tank less than a quarter of an hour before the outbreak.
+
+The damage was serious.  Both Nos. 5 and 6 motors were out of action,
+the former showing signs of crashing through the charred framework of
+the fuselage.  The flames had spread to Fosterdyke’s cabin, completely
+gutting it.  Only a few aluminium frames were left, and these, blackened
+and bent, trailed forlornly astern like a gaunt skeleton.
+
+With the contraction of the brodium after the fire had been quelled the
+envelope, instead of tending to tilt aft, now showed a tendency to
+droop.  The heat had melted the solder of the union pipes through which
+the gas was passed either to or from the metal pressure flasks, and
+several thousand feet of brodium had escaped.
+
+Driven only by four propellers, her preciously scanty supply of brodium
+sadly depleted, and with the controls of the two after planes damaged by
+the flames, the "Golden Hind" was in a perilous state. She was just
+able, and no more, to overcome the attraction of gravity.  How long she
+would be able to maintain herself in the air was a problem of
+supposition.
+
+Had the "Golden Hind" been supported by hydrogen gas nothing could have
+saved her.  The overcoming of the flames was a triumph for the
+fire-resisting properties of brodium.  The patent gas had been put to
+one of the severest tests--an actual fire in mid-air--and had emerged
+with flying colours.
+
+From the time of the alarm being raised until the fire was subdued only
+half an hour had elapsed.  The smoke-grimed and fatigued crew were glad
+to rest, while Fosterdyke and Peter returned to the navigation-room,
+there to wash and replace their singed and reeking clothes with others
+from Kenyon’s and Bramsdean’s kit-bags. The baronet had to borrow a
+suit.  The one he was wearing was in holes, while all his others on
+board were destroyed when his cabin was burnt out.
+
+Fosterdyke was cheerful.  In fact he was jocular.  He realised that
+things might have been far worse; he was glad to find that the "Golden
+Hind" was still navigable and that none of his crew had sustained
+injury.
+
+"This comes of boasting, Kenyon," he remarked.  "I said we’d be in Gib.
+in an hour.  We stood a chance of being in ’Kingdom Come.’  What’s she
+doing now?"
+
+"Not more than eighty, sir," replied Kenneth, "and we’ve a stiffish wind
+to contend with."
+
+"Eighty, eh?  Not so dusty, considering we’re trailing the wreckage of
+my cabin astern, and there’s only four props to shove us along.  She’s
+dipping, though."
+
+"She is, sir," agreed Kenyon, gravely. "I’ve trimmed the planes to their
+maximum.  That tends to shove her nose up, but if I didn’t she’d sit on
+her tail."
+
+"We’ll finish at the tape like an aerial Cleopatra’s Needle," declared
+Fosterdyke. "Hello!  There’s Tangier.  That strip of blue you can just
+see beyond is the Straits of Gibraltar.  We’re a bit to the east’ard of
+our course."
+
+Another half an hour of strenuous battling against heavy odds brought
+the "Golden Hind" immediately to the west of Ceuta.  Ahead could be
+discerned the famous rock, although viewed from an altitude and "end on"
+its well-known appearance as a lion couchant was absent. But the "Golden
+Hind" had shot her bolt. "We’re baulked at the tape," declared
+Fosterdyke.  "This head wind’s doing us. Hard lines, but we must take
+things as we find them."
+
+Like von Sinzig he had been beaten by the head wind, but Fosterdyke,
+instead of raving and cursing like his German rival, accepted the
+situation philosophically.  It was hard lines, failing within sight of
+the goal; but the baronet kept a stiff upper lip. He had done everything
+humanly possible to achieve his aim.  He could do no more.
+
+The "Golden Hind," inclined at an angle of sixty degrees, was dropping
+slowly but surely.  With her remaining motors running all out she was
+unable to overcome the pull of gravity.  Even as she dropped, her
+progress towards her goal was maintained at a rate of a bare five miles
+an hour above and against that of the wind.
+
+Every man on board was holding on like grim death.  With the floor as
+steep as the roof of a house there was nothing to be done but hold on.
+The ballonets were practically empty save the four or five for’ard ones.
+The propellers were now virtually helices--whirling screws that strove
+valiantly but unavailingly to lift the huge bulk of the airship in an
+almost vertical direction.  Should the motors fail to function, then the
+"Golden Hind" would drop like a stone.  As it was she was falling surely
+and slowly.
+
+Already officers and men had donned their inflated indiarubber
+lifebelts.  There was not the slightest sign of panic.  The men,
+although keenly disappointed at failure within sight of success, were
+joking with each other.
+
+"Stand by to jump, all hands," shouted Fosterdyke.  "Keep clear of the
+raffle, and you’ll be as right as rain.  There are half a dozen vessels
+within a couple of miles of us."
+
+Some of the men slid along the sloping alley-way to the side doors.
+Others tore away the large celluloid windows in the cabins and
+motor-rooms, so as to be able to jump clear directly the fuselage
+touched the water.
+
+The two chums had drawn themselves through the windows of the
+navigation-room and were standing on the blunt bows and steadying
+themselves by the tension wires running from the normal top of the
+nacelle to the underside of the envelope.
+
+With the four motors running to the last the "Golden Hind" dropped into
+the sea.  Her projecting envelope was the first to come into contact
+with the water.  The ballonets, practically air-tight compartments,
+checked the downward movement, while the whole of the hitherto inclined
+bulk, pivoted as it were by the water-borne stern, dropped until it
+resumed its normal horizontal position.
+
+Fosterdyke alone had remained in the navigation-room.  Directly he saw
+that the airship was resting temporarily on the surface and was
+beginning to gather way like a gigantic hydroplane he switched off the
+remaining motors.
+
+"Every man for himself," he shouted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI--"WELL PLAYED, SIR!"
+
+
+Water poured into the open doors and windows and through the charred and
+torn stern of the nacelle.
+
+The aluminium envelope, not built to withstand abnormal stress, began
+buckling amidships.  Tension wires, no longer in tension but in
+compression, were spreading in all directions as the huge gas-bag
+settled down upon the already foundering nacelle.
+
+Every one of the crew realised the danger of being entangled in the
+wreckage.  In a trice the water was dotted with heads and shoulders of
+life-belted swimmers as the crew struck out to get clear of the sinking
+airship, and presently Fosterdyke was surrounded by a little mob of
+undaunted men.
+
+"Thank heaven!" ejaculated the baronet, after a hasty count.  "None
+missing. Keep together, lads, there’s a vessel bearing down on us."
+
+Not one but four craft were hastening to the rescue.  Amongst these was
+the T.B.D. _Zeebrugge_, which, eighteen days previously, had gone to
+search for the derelict "Golden Hind" and had placed Sir Reginald
+Fosterdyke on board.
+
+Fortunately the water was warm, and in spite of a fairly high sea
+running the late crew of the "Golden Hind" were taken aboard the
+destroyer.
+
+Fosterdyke and the others, declining to go below, stood on deck and
+watched the end of the airship that had taken them safely for nearly
+twenty-eight thousand miles, to perish within five miles of the Rock of
+Gibraltar, her official starting-point.
+
+The end was not long delayed.  The buckling of the aluminium envelope
+resulted in ballonet after ballonet collapsing under the pressure of
+water.  The fuselage had already disappeared.  Bow and stern, nearly
+four hundred feet apart, reared themselves high in the air; then, with a
+terrific rush of mingled brodium and air that caused a seething cauldron
+around each of the extremities of the envelope, the last of the "Golden
+Hind" sank beneath the waves.
+
+"Rough luck losing such a fine airship," commiserated the
+Lieut.-Commander of the destroyer.
+
+"It is," agreed Fosterdyke, feelingly. "Especially as she is my own
+design and I superintended every bit of her construction.  It was a
+pity, too, we didn’t hang on for another half an hour.  I’d have
+jockeyed her over the Rock somehow."
+
+"It was a brilliant achievement, Sir Reginald," said the naval officer.
+"Every sportsman will sympathise with you, but I’m sure they’ll shout:
+’Well played, sir!’"
+
+"Any news of the other competitors?" asked Peter.
+
+"Yes.  Commodore Nye, the Yankee, is still stranded in Australia, but I
+suppose you know that.  Count Hyashi, the Jap, crashed somewhere near
+Saigon.  He, too, was almost home."
+
+"Jolly hard lines," murmured Kenyon, sympathetically.  "Was he hurt?"
+
+"No, hardly bruised, but a bit shaken. Engine failure, they say,"
+continued the Lieut.-Commander.  "That leaves only the Hun to be
+accounted for."
+
+"And I suppose he’s completed the circuit?" remarked Fosterdyke,
+questioningly.
+
+The naval officer laughed.
+
+"Completing the circuit of a prison-yard!" he exclaimed.  "That’s about
+his mark.  A Spanish yacht brought Count von Sinzig in this morning and
+handed him over to the Port Admiral.  It’ll be a three years’ job, I
+fancy.  Huns must learn that they can’t bomb British air stations in
+peace time with impunity."
+
+The destroyer ran alongside the dockyard.  Fosterdyke and the rest of
+his crew disembarked.  On the jetty they were met by several of the
+chief Naval, Military, and Air Force officials and two representatives
+of the International Air Board.
+
+Fosterdyke looked puzzled.  He didn’t want commiseration, but
+congratulation seemed a bit out of place.
+
+"On what grounds, Admiral?" he asked.
+
+"On winning the Chauvasse Prize for completing the circumnavigation of
+the globe," replied the senior International Air Board representative,
+speaking instead of the Port Admiral.  "Fact!  You’ve won it fairly and
+squarely."
+
+"But----" began the astonished baronet.
+
+"You have," persisted the official.  "Do you recollect when the airship
+broke adrift? The destroyer went in pursuit and put you on board.  That
+was within three miles or so of Ceuta.  The same destroyer picks you up
+out of the water five miles from ’Gib.’  Consequently, you’ve more than
+completed the circuit, and although the official start was from
+Gibraltar I don’t think there will be any difficulty in obtaining the
+International Air Board’s decision to the effect that you’ve won."
+
+And that was exactly what happened. Had it not been for Count von
+Sinzig’s underhand work in employing Enrico Jaures to cast adrift the
+"Golden Hind," Fosterdyke would not have completed his aerial voyage
+round the world.  By the irony of fate the Hun had enabled his rival to
+score.
+
+Fosterdyke won the Chauvasse Prize and the honour of being the first man
+to fly round the world.  Needless to say Kenyon and Bramsdean and the
+rest of the crew were not forgotten.  Honours were heaped upon the
+intrepid airmen.  They were lionised, fêted, and praised to such an
+extent that they were in danger of developing "swelled heads."
+
+But Kenyon and Bramsdean knew that the achievement would be but a nine
+days’ wonder.  Having attempted and won, they were content to return to
+their profession, their financial standing much increased by their
+shares in the big prize.  They had enough honours and diplomas to
+satisfy them, but what they prized most was a certificate from the Royal
+Humane Society for saving the crew of the _Hilda P. Murchison_.
+
+"So, after all," declared Kenyon, "we did do something useful, old son!"
+
+
+
+                      PRINTED BY PURNELL AND SONS
+                     PAULTON (SOMERSET) AND LONDON
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+
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+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AIRSHIP "GOLDEN HIND" ***
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