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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40995 ***
+
+The Zeppelin Destroyer
+Being some Chapters of Secret History
+By William Le Queux
+Published by Hodder and Stoughton. London, New York, Toronto.
+This edition dated 1916.
+
+The Zeppelin Destroyer, by William Le Queux.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+THE ZEPPELIN DESTROYER, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+OVER A "GASPER."
+
+"To-morrow?  To-morrow, my dear Claude!  Why, there may not be a
+to-morrow for you--or for me, when it comes to that--eh?"
+
+"Yes.  You're quite right, old son," was my cheerful reply.  "I'm quite
+aware that these experiments are confoundedly dangerous--and, besides,
+there are nasty wind-pockets about just now.  I got into a deadly one
+yesterday afternoon, just across the line at Mill Hill."
+
+"I saw you," replied my friend Teddy Ashton, a fellow-aviator and chum
+at Hendon.  "It gave me a nasty moment.  You had engine-trouble at the
+same time."
+
+"Yes," I replied.  "I was up over eight thousand feet when, without a
+second's warning, I found myself in a pocket spinning over.  Phew!  If
+ever I nearly came to grief, it was at that moment!"
+
+"I was on the lawn, having tea with Betty, and we were watching you.  I
+quite expected to see you come plumb down," Teddy said.  "You righted
+your old bus splendidly."
+
+"She'll have to have a new dope, I think," was my reply, endeavouring to
+turn the conversation into another channel, for I did not care to
+discuss my narrow escape from death over the mishap which was certainly
+my own fault.
+
+I was standing with Teddy in one of the long work-sheds of the Barwick
+Aeroplane Factory at Hendon on that bright morning early in October,
+1915.  The wind was light, the barometer high, and both of us had been
+up, as we had been testing our monoplanes.
+
+As he stood leaning against a half-finished machine idly smoking a
+"gasper"--a cigarette in the airman jargon--he presented a fine picture
+of the clean-limbed young Englishman in his wind-proof aviation suit,
+with leather cap and ear-pieces, while his goggles had been pushed upon
+his brow.
+
+Both of us, "as quirks," had learned to fly at the same school at
+Brooklands before the outbreak of war, and both of us were enthusiastic
+airmen.
+
+In introducing myself to the reader of this chronicle of fact I suppose
+I ought--at the risk of using the first person singular a little too
+much--to explain that I, Claude Munro, aged twenty-five, am son of Sir
+Reginald Munro, a man well-known as a physician, a prominent prescriber
+of pills and powders in Wimpole Street.
+
+On coming down from Cambridge I had read for the bar a short time, but
+finding that my inclination was more in the direction of electricity and
+mechanics, my indulgent father allowed me to take a course of study at a
+Wireless School, where I was not long in learning most of the recent
+discoveries in the field of radio-telegraphy.
+
+One Saturday afternoon, about two years before, my father had taken me
+in his car to Hendon to see the passenger-flights at two guineas a head,
+and the excellent Verrier had taken me up with him.  Immediately I
+became "bitten" with aviation, and instantly decided to adopt it as a
+profession.
+
+At first the governor--as all governors do--set his face firmly against
+such a risky business, but at last I persuaded him to plank down the
+fees, and thereupon I began a course of tuition in flying, with the
+result that I now owned my own big monoplane upon which I was conducting
+certain important experiments, in association with Teddy Ashton.
+
+"See that in the paper this morning about the new German Fokker
+monoplane?"  I asked him as we both smoked and rested, our machines
+standing side by side outside.
+
+"Of course, my dear old Claude," was his reply.
+
+"It would be one of the jokes of the war if it wasn't such a grim jest.
+Remember what they said recently in Parliament--that we held the
+supremacy of the air, and that it is maintained."
+
+"All humbug," I declared bluntly.  "Sad though it is to admit it."
+
+"Of course it is!" cried Teddy very emphatically.
+
+"The fact is that the public haven't yet realised that the joke is
+against our Government `experts' who now see all their science set at
+nought by a rule-of-the-thumb Dutchman who, by the simple process of
+putting a big engine into a copy of an obsolete French monoplane, has
+given his own country's chief enemy the freedom of the air."
+
+I agreed with him; and his words, I confess, set me thinking.  The
+papers had been full of the Fokker aeroplane, of its great superiority
+over anything we possessed, and of it as a real peril to our pilots in
+Flanders.
+
+"The real fact is," declared Teddy, in the intervals of a deal of
+hammering, "that there's nothing extraordinary about the Fokker except
+that it is built sensibly for a definite job and does it, while our own
+`experts' have tangled themselves and the British aircraft industry in a
+web of pseudo-science and political scheming which has resulted in our
+lack of the proper machines and engines to fight the Zeppelins."
+
+"Yes," I answered with a sigh.  "You're quite right, Teddy.  But
+something _must_ be done.  We must find some means by which to fight the
+enemy's dirigibles.  We have a few good aeroplanes, I admit, but, as you
+say, those are not the product of the Government factories, but have
+been produced by private firms.  Why?  Because airmen have been so badly
+let down by their experts."
+
+At that moment a shadow was cast before the door of the shed, and a
+bright musical feminine voice cried:
+
+"Hulloa, Claude!  I followed you hard, right from Hertford."
+
+It was Roseye--"Rosie" of the aerodrome!  Roseye Lethmere, daughter of
+Sir Herbert Lethmere, was my own well-beloved, whom I had taught to fly,
+and who was at that moment perhaps the most notable airwoman in England.
+
+"Really," I exclaimed, as I advanced to meet her.
+
+"Why, I hadn't any idea you were here.  Nobody told me."
+
+"Miss Lethmere is always elusive," Teddy laughed, bowing to her.  "Have
+you been up on your own bus, or on Eastwell's?"
+
+"On Mr Eastwell's.  My engine did not run well, so Barnes, his
+mechanic, lent me his machine," was her reply.  Then, turning to me, she
+said: "I went up only five minutes after you.  I wonder you didn't look
+back when you banked over the railway line at Wheathampstead.  I was
+just behind you then, though I could not overtake you, as my engine
+seemed a little sluggish."
+
+"That doesn't occur very often in Eastwell's bus," remarked Teddy.  "I
+flew it last Thursday, and found the 150 Gnome ran perfectly."
+
+"Well, Claude, you outdistanced me altogether," declared my
+well-beloved.  "From Hertford, with the wind behind you, you absolutely
+shot back.  I thought that Mr Eastwell's machine would outmatch yours,
+but, though I put every ounce into the engine, I was hopelessly out of
+it.  It hadn't been tuned up well."
+
+"That's curious, Roseye," I replied.  "I had no idea that my bus was any
+match for his!  I thought that his Mertonville machine was much faster
+than mine--or than yours as a matter of fact."
+
+"To-day mine is out of the running," she laughed.  To you, my reader, I
+suppose I ought to describe my own beloved Roseye.  Well, I am not good
+at describing women.  As the only son of a blunt, white-haired physician
+who having made expert study of all the thousand-and-one ailments of the
+eternal feminine, including that affection called "nerves"--mostly the
+result of the drug habit, I had heard, from my youth upwards, many
+disparaging remarks upon the follies and the unbalance of the mind of
+the gentler sex.
+
+This, however, did not prevent me from loving Roseye Lethmere, daughter
+of Sir Herbert, who had come into my life quite unexpectedly a year ago.
+
+As she stood there chatting with us, attired in her airwoman's clothes,
+her appearance was certainly workwomanlike.  She was dressed in a
+wool-lined leather coat, and overall trousers, with a knitted Balaclava
+helmet, and over that again a leather skull-cap, the whole tied down
+tightly beneath the chin.  A huge khaki woollen muffler was around her
+throat, while a pair of unsightly goggles hanging around her neck
+completed the picture.  She had followed my advice, I noted, and tied
+her muffler very securely around her chin.
+
+How very different she looked at that moment to when I took her--as I so
+frequently did--to a play, and afterwards to supper at the Carlton, the
+Savoy, or Ciro's.  She was a girl who, on the outbreak of war, had
+decided to play her part in the national crisis, and she certainly had
+done so.
+
+Three times had she flown across the Channel with me, and three times
+had we returned in safety to Hendon.
+
+Indeed, only a week before, she had flown by herself on a British-built
+Duperdussin with 100 horse-power Anzani engines from Brooklands across
+to France, descending a mile outside Abbeville.  She had had lunch at
+the old Tete de Boeuf hotel in that town, and returned, landing safely
+at Hendon--a feat that no woman had ever before accomplished.
+
+Roseye Lethmere certainly possessed a character that was all her own.
+
+In her ordinary costume, as a London girl, she was inexpressibly dainty
+and extremely well dressed.  Her curiously soft blue eyes, almost
+child-like in their purity of expression, were admired everywhere.
+Whenever, however, her picture appeared in the papers it was always in
+her flying costume.
+
+Most women, when they take up any outdoor exercise, be it hunting,
+golfing, strenuous tennis, or sport of any kind, usually acquire a
+certain indescribable hardness of feature, a sign by which, when they
+sit in the stalls of a theatre, the mere man at once knows them.
+
+But the beauty of Miss Rosie--as she was known at Hendon--in spite of
+her many exciting and perilous exploits in the air, was still soft and
+sweet, as it should be with any fresh healthy girl of twenty-two.
+
+The workmen started hammering again, fitting a new propeller to a
+machine in course of hurried completion for the front, so we all three
+went outside, where our own machines stood close together.
+
+Theed, my mechanic--who had been the governor's chauffeur before I took
+up flying--was busily testing my engine, and I could hear it missing a
+little.
+
+"Hulloa!"  I cried, looking up at a big monoplane at that moment passing
+over us.  "Why, Eastwell's up in Thorold's new bus!"
+
+"Yes," answered Roseye.  "I passed quite close to him behind St
+Albans."
+
+The October morning was bright and sunny, with a blue, cloudless sky,
+just the morning for trial flights and stunts, and, in consequence, two
+pupils were out on the aerodrome with their instructors, preparing for
+their lesson.
+
+Roseye noticed this, and smiled across at me.  She remembered, probably,
+how carefully I used to strap her into the seat, and how, more than
+once, she had gasped when we made a nose-dive, or volplaned for an
+undesired landing.  Yet, even in those days, she had betrayed no fear in
+the air for, apparently, she reposed entire faith in my judgment and my
+capabilities at the joy-stick.
+
+We stood watching Eastwell as he banked first on one side, then on the
+other, until at last he made a graceful tour of the aerodrome and,
+swooping down suddenly, landed quite close to us.
+
+"Morning!" he cried cheerily, as he slowly unstrapped himself and
+climbed out of his seat.  "Morning, Miss Lethmere," he added, saluting.
+"Well, how does my bus go?  You had a little engine-trouble, hadn't
+you?"
+
+"Yes.  I couldn't overtake Mr Munro," she replied, laughing.  "Were you
+watching me?"
+
+"Yes.  I've just come back from Cambridge.  I left here this morning as
+soon as it was light--" Eastwell, in his aviator's leather jacket, fur
+helmet and goggles, presented a tall, gaunt, rather uncouth figure.
+Yet, in his ordinary clothes, he was something of a dandy, with light
+brown hair, a carefully-trained moustache, and a pair of shrewd grey
+eyes.
+
+Roseye had been acquainted with him for over two years, and it was she
+who had first introduced us.
+
+They had met at Wiesbaden, where her father, Sir Herbert, had been
+taking his annual "cure."  Eastwell had been at the Kaiserhof Hotel
+where they had also been staying and, being a young Englishman of means
+and leisure, an acquaintanceship had sprung up between them.
+
+Lionel Eastwell was a great lover of music, and for that reason had been
+at Wiesbaden, where, in the Kursaal, the programme in the pre-war days
+was always excellent.
+
+On their return to London Eastwell called at Cadogan Gardens, and Sir
+Herbert had then ascertained that the pleasant young man--who for two
+years had taken such a great interest in aviation--was possessed of a
+very comfortable income, was a member of the aero club, and lived in a
+very snug set of chambers half-way up Albemarle Street.
+
+At the Royal Automobile Club he was also a well-known figure in the
+select circle of rather go-ahead airmen who made that institution their
+nightly rendezvous.
+
+As a result of hearing Lionel Eastwell speak of the pleasures and
+exhilaration of the air, and after watching his flights at Hendon,
+Roseye had at last determined to seek the new sensation of aerial
+navigation, and in taking her lessons she and I had met.
+
+Airmen and airwomen form a very select coterie practically unknown to
+the world outside the aerodrome.  They fly; they risk their lives; they
+make their daily experiments with their new engines, new wings, new
+airscrews, new strainers, new magnetos, and all sorts of newly-invented
+etceteras, all the time risking their lives in a bad nose-dive, or with
+a buckled wing.
+
+Our quartette, all of us enthusiasts, and all holding our own views
+regarding the British supremacy of aerial navigation in the war, stood
+chatting for ten minutes, or more, until turning to Roseye, I said:
+
+"Well, I'm going over to see what Theed is up to."  Then, together, we
+left Eastwell to go back to his own machine.
+
+Yet, in that second, a strange thing occurred.  Perhaps I may have been
+unduly suspicious--if so, I regret it and offer apology--but I felt
+certain somehow that I saw in Roseye's face a look of displeasure that I
+should have taken her from the man whose sudden appearance had caused
+her countenance to brighten.
+
+And, at the same time, as I glanced surreptitiously at Lionel Eastwell,
+while in the act of offering him a "gasper" from my case, I most
+certainly saw a strange and distinctly sinister expression--one that
+caused me through the next hour to reflect very deeply, and ponder over
+its cause.
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE MURDER-MACHINES.
+
+An hour later I made another flight in order to try my new gyroscopic
+stabiliser, which--for the benefit of those unversed in aerial
+navigation--I may say is an invention which incorporates a horizontal
+reference plane of accuracy and integrity to which all angles can be
+referred.
+
+I flew across to the Thames, and followed the winding silvery streak
+with dotted blotches of houses up to Windsor and back, finding that the
+invention rendered my machine a platform which was not only steady, but
+was also held in constant relation to the horizontal.
+
+That morning was ideal for flying and, on my return, I was not surprised
+to find that both Teddy Ashton and Roseye were up again.  Indeed, as I
+brought my machine to earth I saw Roseye flying at a great height coming
+in from the south.
+
+Two or three of the school-buses were up, circling the aerodrome,
+including an unwieldy one that always reminded us of poor Cody's
+"cathedral."
+
+As soon as I landed, Eastwell came across again, eager to inquire how
+the new gyroscope arrangement had worked, for, like myself, he was a
+great enthusiast over all new notions, however wild they might be.
+Indeed, I believe he had tried every newfangled idea produced during the
+past couple of years.
+
+I having pronounced it good, he begged me to let him try it, and a few
+moments later he was in the pilot's seat.  Then after Theed had spun the
+propeller, our friend rose quickly, and went out to meet my well-beloved
+on her return.
+
+Roseye, seeing my bus, thought I was flying it, but as she circled
+gracefully down she realised at last that it was Eastwell, and both
+machines, after making several fine circuits of the aerodrome, came to
+earth almost at the same moment.
+
+I had been watching Roseye.  For a woman, she was certainly a most
+intrepid flyer.  Crossing to her, I glanced at her self-registering
+altimeter and saw that she had been up over eight thousand feet.
+
+"I've been across to Dorking," she laughed gaily, as she sprang out of
+her seat, raised her goggles and pulled off her heavy leather gloves.
+"I followed the railway from Dorking along to Guildford and met two men
+up from Farnborough.  At Guildford I kept over the South Western line to
+Surbiton, and then steered back by compass."
+
+She also inquired how my stabiliser had worked, and I told her that
+Lionel had been trying it.
+
+Later, Eastwell was full of most glowing praise of the new invention,
+after which I put my machine back into the hangar and, taking Roseye
+with me in my two-seater, deposited her at home in Cadogan Gardens in
+time for lunch.
+
+Then, as was my habit, I went on to the Royal Automobile Club in Pall
+Mall, and, after my meal, sat in the window of the big smoking-room
+chatting with three of the boys--airmen all of them.
+
+George Selwyn, a well-known expert on aircraft and editor of an aircraft
+journal, had been discussing an article in that morning's paper on the
+future of the airship.
+
+"I contend," he said firmly, "that big airships are quite as necessary
+to us as they are to Germany.  We should have ships of the Zeppelin and
+Schutte-Lanz class.  The value of big airships as weapons of defence
+cannot be under-estimated.  If we had big airships it is certain that
+Zeppelin raids--more of which are expected, it seems--would not be
+unopposed, and, further, we should be able to retaliate.  We've got the
+men, but we haven't got the airships--worse luck!  The Invisible Hand of
+Germany has deceived us finely!"
+
+"That's so," I chimed in.  "The Germans can always soothe their own
+people by saying that, however dear food is and all that, yet they can't
+be strafed from above--as we unfortunately are."
+
+"I quite agree," declared Charlie Digby, a well-known pilot, and holder
+of a height-record.  A tall, clean-shaven, clean-limbed fellow he was
+lying back in the deep leather armchair with his coffee at his side.
+"But is it not equally true that, if we had aeroplanes of the right
+construction and enough of them, we could give the night-raiders in
+Zeppelins a very uncomfortable time?"
+
+"Quite so.  I'm all in favour of suitable aeroplanes," Selwyn admitted.
+"We must upset this Zeppelin menace by some means or other.  Here we
+are--the greatest and most powerful nation the world has ever seen,
+worried three times a month by the threat of these German gas-bags!  It
+is quite possible to obtain such aeroplanes as would enable us to fight
+the Zepps.  As somebody wrote in the paper the other day regarding the
+future range of the naval big guns, it is useless to send up
+half-trained quirks on soggy seaplanes accompanied by still less trained
+spotting officers equipped with short-range wireless which cannot
+receive.  The gun-spotter in a Fleet action should be a fully trained
+and experienced gunnery-Jack, seated in a comfortable observation-car
+where charts and navigating instruments can be used with accuracy.
+Therefore, if we can't get the proper aeroplanes, we must have airships
+for the purpose, as they are at present the only apparent vehicle for
+scientific gunnery in a Fleet action."
+
+With this we all agreed.
+
+"Another point," I said, "was advanced by a clever writer in the
+_Aeroplane_ the other day.  It was pointed out that in the matter of
+fighting Zeppelins, however good aeroplane patrols may be, they must
+depend on their eyes to find enemy airships.  One may silence engines,
+but one cannot silence air, and, though one may shut off and glide
+slowly, yet there will always be enough whistling of wind round wires
+and struts to wash out any noise of airship engines, gears, and
+propellers, unless they are very close indeed.  An airship, on the other
+hand, can shut off and float.  There may be some creaking of the
+girders, and stays, but there will be no continuous whistling.
+Therefore an airship makes a perfect listening-post for enemy aircraft
+of all kinds."
+
+"I'm quite sure of that," declared Charlie Digby from the depths of his
+chair.  "If we are to win the war we must fight the Zeppelin.  We want a
+real good man at the head of affairs and we should allow him a free
+hand, and put a stop to the endless committees and conferences and
+confabulations which have been the curse of this country in every
+department since war began--and before.  Let that man have the advice of
+all the specialists he may require, and let him encourage people with
+ideas to offer their advice, instead of turning them down, as is the
+custom of most people in commanding positions."
+
+Those same sentiments I had read in one of the papers that very day.
+
+I said nothing more.  It was time for me to be off, so I rose and left,
+having an appointment with Teddy Ashton.
+
+As I passed through the big hall of the club I reflected how true were
+Digby's words.  If we were to win the war we must fight the Zeppelins
+effectively.
+
+_But how_?
+
+That same question had occupied the minds of both Teddy and myself for
+many months, long indeed before the first Zeppelin had crossed the North
+Sea.  Both of us had realised the deadly peril of those huge
+murder-machines against which we would be utterly powerless.
+
+During the first year of war the public had laughed at the idea of
+Zeppelins coming over to drop bombs on undefended towns, or making an
+air raid upon London.  The popular reply to anyone who ventured to
+express fear of such a thing as had been openly threatened in the German
+Press was: "Bah! they haven't come yet!"
+
+But at last they had come, and they had dropped bombs upon inoffensive
+citizens.  There were some writers already crying, "Never mind the
+Zeppelins!"  In the sluggish apathy which refused to worry as to the
+state of our air-defences they discovered a sort of heroism!  "Surely,"
+they exclaimed, "civilians, including women and children, ought to be
+really glad and proud to share the risks of their sons or brothers in
+the trenches."
+
+A poor argument surely!  The unarmed people of London and the provinces,
+when summoned to confront the hail of fire and death, had showed an
+imperturbable coolness worthy to compare with the valour of the soldiers
+in the field.  On that point, testimony was unanimous.  The people had
+been splendid.  But they expected something more than passive heroism.
+It was so very easy to shut one's eyes to the ghastly record of
+suffering a hundred miles off, easy, as somebody had said, to doze under
+the hillside with Simple, Sloth and Presumption.
+
+Long ago I had agreed with Teddy that some means must be found to fight
+effectively the German airships now that anti-aircraft guns had proved
+unreliable for inflicting much damage, except in a haphazard way.  In
+conjunction, therefore, we had been actively conducting certain secret
+experiments in order to devise some plan which might successfully combat
+the terror of the night.
+
+Zeppelins had flown over the coast towns and hurled bombs upon its
+defenceless inhabitants.  Each raid had been more and more audacious in
+its range, and in its general scheme.  London and the cities of the
+Midlands had been, more than once in sight of the enemy's airships.  Yet
+a certain section of the Press were still pooh-poohing the real
+significance of the attempt to demoralise us at home.
+
+Out in St James's Square--on the cab-rank which the Club had taken for
+its own--I jumped into my car and drove away down to Gunnersbury, beyond
+Chiswick, where, in a market-garden, I rented a long shed of corrugated
+iron, a place wherein, with Teddy, I conducted the experiments which we
+were making into the scientific and only way by which Zeppelins could be
+destroyed.
+
+While the world had been wondering, we had worked, and in our work
+Roseye constantly assisted us.  It was hard and secret work, entailing
+long and patient study, many experiments, and sometimes flights
+necessitating much personal risk.
+
+Failures?  Oh! yes, we had many!  Our failures were, indeed, of daily
+occurrence.  More than once, when we thought ourselves within an ace of
+success, we found that we were faced with the usual failure.
+
+Many, alas! were the disappointments.  Yet we all three had one goal in
+view, keeping it ever before us--the fighting of the Zeppelin.
+
+Little did we dream of the strange, dramatic events which were to result
+from our secret scientific investigations, undertaken in all our
+enthusiasm.
+
+Could we but have foreseen what the future held for us--or the power put
+forth against us by the Invisible Hand!
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE BROWN DEAL BOX.
+
+Six days had gone by.
+
+The weather having continued bright and fine, with a high and steady
+barometer, all of us at Hendon, quirks and pilots alike, had been up on
+many occasions.
+
+In secret, I had placed upon my machine--a Breguet monoplane with a 200
+horse-power Salmson--another new invention which, with Teddy's aid, I
+had devised, and was testing.  We were keeping the affair a profound
+secret.  Nobody knew of the contrivance evolved out of my knowledge of
+wireless, save we two, Roseye and my mechanic Harry Theed.
+
+Carefully concealed from the eye it was carried in a large locked box,
+while, as further precaution, after testing it each time, I put it on my
+car and took it away to my chambers with me, for we were not at all
+anxious for any of the mixed crowd at the aerodrome to pry into what we
+were doing, or to ascertain the true direction of our constant
+experiments.
+
+One afternoon down at Gunnersbury Teddy, in mechanic's brown overalls,
+was busily engaged repairing a portion of the apparatus which I had
+broken that morning owing to an unfortunately bad landing.
+
+To the uninitiated the long shed with its two lathes, its tangle of
+electric wires across the floor, the great induction coils--some of them
+capable of giving a fourteen-inch spark--the small dynamo with its
+petrol engine, and other electrical appliances, would no doubt have been
+puzzling.
+
+Upon the benches stood some strange-looking wireless condensers,
+radiometers, detectors and other objects which we had constructed.  Also
+dressed in overalls, as was my chum and fellow-experimenter, I was
+engaged in assisting him to adjust a small vacuum tube within that
+heavy, mysterious-looking wooden box which I daily carried aloft with me
+in the fuselage of my aeroplane.
+
+We smoked "gaspers" and chatted merrily, as we worked on, until at last
+we had completed the job.
+
+"Now let's put a test on it again--eh, Claude?" my friend suggested.
+
+"Right ho!"  I acquiesced.
+
+It was already dusk, for the repair had taken us nearly four hours, and
+during the past half-hour we had worked beneath the electric light.
+
+The shed was on one side of the large market-garden, at a considerable
+distance from any house.  Indeed, as one stood at the door there spread
+northward several flat market-gardens and orchards, almost as far as the
+eye could reach.
+
+Presently, when we had adjusted the many heavily-insulated wires, I
+started the dynamo, and on turning on the current a bright blue blinding
+flash shot, with a sharp fierce crackling, across the place.
+
+"Gad! that's bad!" gasped Teddy, pale in alarm.  "Something's wrong!"
+
+"Yes, and confoundedly dangerous to ourselves and to the petrol--eh?"  I
+cried, shutting off the dynamo instantly.
+
+"Phew!  It was a real narrow shave!" remarked Teddy.  "One of the
+narrowest we've ever had!"
+
+"Yes, my dear fellow, but it tells us something," I said.  "We've made
+an accidental discovery--that spark shows that we can increase our power
+a thousandfold, when we like."
+
+"It has, no doubt, given the wireless operators at the Admiralty, at
+Marconi House, and elsewhere a very nasty jar," laughed Teddy.  "They'll
+wonder what's up, won't they?"
+
+"Well, we can't help their troubles."  I laughed.
+
+"I expect we've jammed them badly," Teddy said.  "Look the aerial is
+connected up!"
+
+"By Jove! so it is?"  I said.
+
+I saw what I had not noticed before, that the network of phosphor-bronze
+aerial wires strung beneath the roof of the shed had remained connected
+up with the coils from an experiment we had conducted on the previous
+afternoon.
+
+"I'll pump Treeton about it to-morrow.  He'll be certain to have heard
+if there has been any unusual signals at Marconi House," I said.
+"They'll no doubt believe that spark to be signals from some new
+Zeppelin!"
+
+"No doubt.  But we may thank our stars that we're safe.  Both of us
+could very easily have been either struck down, or blown up by the
+petrol-tank.  We'll have to exercise far more caution in the future,"
+declared Teddy.
+
+Caution!  Why, Teddy had risked his life in the air a hundred times in
+the past four months, flying by day and also by night, and experimenting
+with that apparatus of ours by which we hoped to defy the Zeppelin.
+
+Those were no days for personal caution.  The long dark shadow of the
+Zeppelin had been over London.  Women and babes in arms had been blown
+to pieces in East Anglia, on the north-east coast, and every one knew,
+from the threats of the Huns, that worse was intended to follow.
+
+Our searchlights and aerial guns had been proved of little use.  London,
+the greatest capital of the civilised history, the hub of the whole
+world, seemed to lie at the mercy of the bespectacled night-pirate who
+came and went as he pleased.
+
+As is usual, the public were "saying things"--but were not acting.  Both
+Teddy and I had foreseen this long ago, for both of us had realised to
+the full the deadly nature of the Zeppelin menace.  It was all very well
+for a Cabinet Minister to assure us on March 17, 1915, that "Any hostile
+aircraft, airships, or aeroplanes which reached our coast during the
+coming year would be promptly attacked in superior force by a swarm of
+very formidable hornets."
+
+Events had shown that the British authorities at that time did not allow
+sufficiently for the great height at which Zeppelins could travel, or
+for the fact that, while the airship could operate successfully at
+night-time, darkness was the least suitable time for aeroplanes in the
+stage of development which they had reached, on account of the
+difficulties of starting and of landing in the dark, as well as of
+seeing or hearing the airship from a machine flying aloft.
+
+The German Government and the German people had thrown their fullest
+energies into the development of aircraft for war.  Unfortunately we had
+not, and it is not too much to say that, during the first few months of
+the war, the responsible authorities in this country did not take the
+aerial menace seriously.
+
+We, as practical airmen, had taken it up seriously--very seriously, and,
+as result, had devoted all our time and all our limited private means--
+for my governor was not too generous in the matter of an allowance--
+towards combating the rapidly increasing peril of air attack.
+
+The first German attempt had been on Christmas Day in the previous year.
+As I happened to witness it, it had fired me with determination.
+
+Shall I ever forget the excitement of that day.  I had gone down the
+Thames to spend Christmas with my old friend, Jack Watson, of the Naval
+Flying Corps, when, under cover of a light fog, a German airman suddenly
+appeared.
+
+We first saw him over the Estuary, slightly to the south of us, flying
+at a height that we estimated at about 9,000 feet.  There was great
+excitement.  Anti-aircraft guns at once opened on him, but they failed
+to hit him.  Lost to our view in a mist, he was not seen again until
+well up the river, and from the reports afterwards published it seems
+that fire was once more opened on him from our guns.  Rising higher to
+escape our shells, he made a complete half-circle.  By now, several
+British aeroplanes were in pursuit, and the German, seeing that it was
+hopeless to attempt to go farther, turned back.  Thousands of people had
+a good view of this--the first real air-battle on the British coast.
+Shells were bursting in the air apparently all round the German.  Time
+after time it seemed that he had been hit, yet time after time he
+escaped.  Men could not fail to admire the skill with which he handled
+his machine.  At one point a sudden dip of the aeroplane seemed to show
+that a shot had got home.  Still, however, according to what I heard
+afterwards, he kept on, circling, dodging, twisting, climbing and diving
+with almost incredible swiftness to escape his pursuers.  He made
+straight for the sea--and escaped.  Weeks afterwards a rumour was
+received that some fishermen had found a body away out in the sea which
+was believed to be that of the German airman, but no satisfactory
+confirmation was ever published.
+
+It was that incident which first set me thinking of how to combat
+hostile aircraft.  At once I thought of aeroplane versus aeroplane, but
+when three weeks later, two Zeppelins came over to the east coast to
+reconnoitre, and dropped nine bombs, blowing to pieces two old people,
+then my attention was turned towards the Zeppelin, and in Teddy Ashton I
+found a ready and enthusiastic assistant.
+
+This raid, and those which followed on points on the north-east coast,
+small as their immediate results were, yet demonstrated one thing.  The
+German Press proclaimed that German genius had at last ended the legend
+that England was invulnerable owing to her insularity.  An English
+writer had pointed out that it was certainly proved that the seas no
+longer protected England from attack.  She was no longer an island.
+Should she hope to keep her shores inviolate, and to allow her people to
+live in the safety that they had enjoyed for so many centuries, she must
+be prepared to meet invaders from the sky, as well as on the water.
+Both Teddy and myself saw that the coming of the German airship was the
+beginning of a new chapter in the history of this country.
+
+The real German defence was summed up in a semi-official message
+published, which read: "The German nation has been forced by England to
+fight for her existence, and cannot be forced to forego legitimate
+self-defence, and will not do so, relying upon her good right."
+
+Her good right!  Had Germany a right to drop bombs blindly on open
+villages, and kill our women and babes at night?
+
+That had fired us both, and the result had been that long shed, and the
+great mass of electrical apparatus it contained.
+
+Sometimes, when I begged more money from my father for the purposes of
+those experiments, he had grumbled, yet always when I pointed out what
+Teddy and I were actually doing, he was ready again to sign a further
+cheque.
+
+Teddy was, of course, richer than myself.  His father had been a
+cotton-weaver who had lived in Burnley, and had died leaving his whole
+fortune to his only son.  Therefore my friend was possessed of
+considerable means, and had it not been so, I fear that we should never
+have been able to establish such an extensive plant, or go to the big
+expenses which we had so often to incur.
+
+The secrets of that shed of ours had to be well guarded.  Our
+night-watchman was a retired police-sergeant, John the father of my
+faithful mechanic, Harry Theed, and in him we reposed the utmost
+confidence.
+
+"If anyone ever wants to get into this 'ere place, sir," old Theed often
+said to me, "then they'll have to put my lights out first--I can assure
+you."
+
+"Well," Teddy exclaimed presently, as he slowly lit a fresh cigarette.
+"Let's adjust things a bit better, and we'll then try how she goes--away
+out on the pole.  It's getting quite dark enough to see--especially with
+your glasses."
+
+"Right you are," I said, and then, after another ten minutes of
+manipulation with the wires, during which I "cut out" the aerial and
+several big glass-and-tin-foil condensers, all was ready for the
+experiment.
+
+Teddy had drawn a heavy wooden bench in front of the door, and upon it I
+placed the big box of brown-stained deal which contained our mysterious
+apparatus from which we both expected such great things.  Indeed, that
+curious machine, had just escaped bringing upon us instant death.
+
+Yet that mishap to which we had been accidentally so near had revealed
+several things to me, causing me to reflect upon certain crucial and
+technical points which, hitherto, I had not considered.
+
+In that square, heavy box, connected up by its high-tension wires to
+three of the big induction coils upon the table was, we believed, stored
+a power by which the Zeppelins could be successfully destroyed and
+brought to earth.
+
+It was nearly dark when I opened the door of the shed situated opposite
+to where I had placed the box, and looked out to ascertain if anyone was
+about, as we wished for no prying eyes to witness our experiment.
+
+I walked out, and around the building, but nobody was near.  Then, when
+I returned to the door, I stood for a moment gazing away across the wide
+area of market-gardens to where, perhaps half a mile distant, stood a
+high flag-pole which had been erected for me a couple of years before,
+and which had, before the war, borne my wireless aerial.
+
+The little white hut near by I had built, and until the outbreak of war,
+when Post Office engineers had come and seized my private station, I had
+spent many hours there each evening reading and transmitting messages.
+
+The pole, in three sections, which in the falling darkness could only
+just be discerned, was about eighty feet in height and stayed by eight
+steel guys, each of which was in three sections connected together by
+green-glazed porcelain insulators, so that any leakage of electrical
+current could not go to earth.  Affixed to the pole and protruding some
+two feet above it was a copper lightning-conductor with four points, an
+accessory which I had had put up recently for experimental purposes.
+
+"Nobody's about," I said to Teddy when I returned.  "Will you run the
+dynamo, if all is in order?"
+
+Then, after a final examination of the various electrical connexions, he
+started the engine and the dynamo began to hum again.
+
+I drew over a switch at the side of the box, when a loud crackling was
+heard within--a quenched-spark of enormous power.  Afterwards, I quickly
+seized my binoculars and going out through the open door, taking great
+care not to pass before the lens,--where in the place of glass was a
+disc of steel--something like that of a big camera, forming the end of
+the box, I focussed my glasses eagerly upon the flagstaff.
+
+"Hurrah!  Teddy!"  I cried in glee.  "It works--Gad! come and look!  At
+last!  _We have it at last_!"
+
+Next moment, my friend was eagerly at my side, while at the same instant
+we heard a light footstep and Roseye, in her big motor-coat, stood
+unexpectedly before us.
+
+"It works!  Roseye!  It works, darling!  Mind!  Don't pass in front of
+the box.  Do be careful!"  I cried in warning, while at the same time
+Teddy Ashton, with the binoculars at his eyes, gasped:
+
+"By Jove, Claude!  It's wonderful.  Yes!  You're right!  _We have
+success at last_!"
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+CONCERNS THE SECRET.
+
+In our eagerness, Roseye and I set out to walk towards the pole, leaving
+Teddy in charge of the apparatus.
+
+To approach the spot, we had to leave the market-garden and take a road
+lined by meagre cottages, then at last, skirting two orchards and yet
+another market-garden, we came out upon a second road, which we crossed,
+and at last found ourselves at the disused wireless-hut.
+
+There a strange spectacle greeted our eyes for, the darkness having by
+that time become complete, we saw, around the lightning-conductor on the
+pole and over the steel stays, blue electric sparks scintillating.
+
+"Look, darling!"  I cried.  "See what we have at last produced by the
+unseen directive current!"
+
+"Yes," replied my well-beloved.  "Look at the sparks!  How pretty they
+are!  Why--they seem to be jumping across the insulators from one
+stretch of wire-rope to the other!"
+
+"That effect is exactly what Teddy and I have for so long laboured to
+produce," was my answer, as I stood there fascinated by the sparks and
+the slight crackling which reached our ears where we stood.
+
+The fact was that though our apparatus was half a mile away, yet upon
+those steel strands, as well as upon the copper lightning-conductor, the
+electric waves which we were discharging--a new development of the
+discovery of Heinrich Hertz--was such as to spark over all the
+intervening gaps, even though the space where the insulators were
+inserted was quite three inches.
+
+It was a phenomenon such as had never before been witnessed by any
+experimenter in electricity.  The theories I had formed and so often
+discussed with Teddy were now proved to be quite sound, for they had
+resulted in the construction of that apparatus which must, I knew, be
+most deadly to any Zeppelin.
+
+The sparks, as we watched them, suddenly ceased.
+
+For a moment I stood surprised, yet next instant realised that Teddy
+had, no doubt, some very good reason for stopping the engine.  Somebody
+might have come upon the scene, and we were always extremely cautious
+that nobody should know in what we were engaged.  The neighbours knew us
+as airmen, and believed we were engaged in making some kind of new
+propellers.
+
+What I had seen in those few minutes, the flashing crackling sparks
+running over the surface of those porcelain insulators and, indeed, over
+part of the wooden pole--for it happened to have been raining until an
+hour before, and all the surfaces were damp--was, to me, sufficient to
+cause me to hold my breath in excitement.
+
+"We have made a great and most important discovery to-day, Roseye," I
+said as calmly as I could, as together we walked back to the shed.
+"This discovery is undreamed of by Germany.  It will give us power over
+any Zeppelin which dares to come to our shores, providing that we can
+approach sufficiently near."
+
+"Ah! if you can," replied the girl at my side.  "No doubt we shall
+increase the range," I replied.  "We have, this evening, established the
+one most important fact that our apparatus is really capable of
+directing the rays, and that between metal and metal we can now, as
+Hertz endeavoured to, set up an electric spark from a distance."
+
+"You certainly have done that--but I don't yet see the trend of your
+argument, Claude.  I know I'm only a woman and unversed in
+technicalities, so please forgive me, won't you?"
+
+"Well," I said as we walked, my arm linked in hers.  "First, as you
+know, a Zeppelin is constructed mostly of aluminium, its stays and
+practically all its rigid parts are of that metal except some of light
+steel.  It consists of a number of ballonets filled with highly
+inflammable gas, and around those ballonets are ribs of aluminium and
+steel.  There must be joints in these ribs, and over those joints we
+have now proved that we can create sparks from a considerable distance.
+From the ballonets there is a constant leakage of gas, therefore if we
+charge the aluminium and steel so that they spark wherever there is the
+slightest gap we shall ignite that escaping gas and cause the whole
+airship to explode with terrific force.  Do I explain it clearly?"
+
+"Quite, Claude," was her slow, thoughtful reply.  "I see now in what
+direction all these wonderful and patient experiments have been made.
+To-night you have certainly produced sparks."
+
+"And ere long I hope we shall increase our range, and be able to do
+without half the current and all its consequent paraphernalia," was my
+confident reply.  "I'm certain," I said, "as certain as we are walking
+here together, that we have at last established a sound means of
+protecting Great Britain against Zeppelin raids."
+
+"I hope you have, dear," Roseye replied.  "Oh! what a great thing it
+will be for the country.  You and Teddy will deserve monuments--if you
+really can succeed."
+
+"We _shall_ succeed, darling--with your assistance.  I'm confident of
+that!"
+
+"I--how can I help?"
+
+"In many ways.  You've already assisted us enormously," I said.  "Teddy
+was only saying so to-day," and I gripped her arm more tightly, as we
+turned the corner and approached the shed where Ashton was, we knew,
+awaiting us.
+
+"Splendid, my dear fellow!"  I cried as we re-entered.  "Sparking
+beautifully, all over--like fireworks!"
+
+"Pretty dangerous fireworks!" my friend remarked.  "I cut off the
+current just now."
+
+"Yes," I said.  "Why?"
+
+"Well, do you know, old chap, I thought I heard somebody about!" he
+replied.  "Even with the dynamo running I fancied I overheard voices.
+Therefore I cut off at once, and went outside to see.  Strangers seemed
+to be somewhere at the back."
+
+"Did you find anyone?"  Roseye asked.
+
+"Nobody--yet I'm quite certain I heard voices," he insisted.
+
+"Some of the men from the market-garden perhaps," I remarked.
+
+"I don't think so," was Teddy's reply.
+
+"Why not?"  I demanded in surprise.
+
+"Well--because what I heard--and I tell you, Claude, I heard it quite
+distinctly--was a sudden exclamation of surprise."
+
+"Surprise!"
+
+"Yes.  As though somebody had made an unexpected discovery," Teddy said.
+"I had just been watching the effect on the pole through your glasses,
+and had returned inside when I heard an exclamation, followed by some
+quick words of surprise that I could not catch.  It was a man's voice."
+
+"Surely there could not be anybody else watching the sparking upon the
+pole!"  I exclaimed in quick apprehension.
+
+"That's just what I believe has happened," Ashton replied seriously.
+"We've been watched--as I suspected we were."
+
+"You've said so all along, I know."
+
+"And now I'm quite convinced of it.  And whoever has watched us making
+our experiments now knows that to-night our efforts have been crowned
+with success."
+
+"Well," I remarked after a pause.  "If what you say is true, Teddy, we
+shall have to be very wary in future.  I know there are a great many
+unscrupulous persons who would be ready to go to any length in order to
+learn this secret discovery of ours which, when fully developed, will, I
+feel convinced, mean the buckling-up of the Zeppelin menace."
+
+"That's quite true, Claude," Roseye declared.  "At Hendon and elsewhere
+there are, I know, a number of men intensely jealous of your success,
+and of the one or two ideas which you have patented, and which are now
+adopted in the construction of our military aeroplanes."
+
+"It's really astonishing how many enemies one makes quite
+unintentionally!" declared Teddy, leaning against the bench.  "Claude
+has more than I have, I believe--and I never disguise from myself that
+I've got a really fine crop."
+
+"Only the other day, when Lionel dined with us, he was speaking to dad
+about spies," Roseye said.  "He told us that he felt sure that we had
+men in our air-service who sent every new development and idea to
+Germany.  Do you think that's really a fact?"
+
+"A fact!"  I echoed.  "Why, dearest, of course it is!  We've seen the
+result of it many times.  As soon as we had that integral propeller the
+Germans knew, and copied us; the secret of Jack Pardon's new dope was
+known in a few days, and the enemy are using it on every one of their
+machines to-day.  Nothing is secret from those brutes."
+
+"But who does all this?" asked Roseye.
+
+"Why, what I call the Invisible Hand," was my reply.  "The Invisible
+Hand was established in our midst in about 1906, when the Kaiser sat
+down and craftily prepared for war.  He saw himself faced by the problem
+of the great British power and patriotism, and knew that the Briton
+would fight every inch for his liberty.  Therefore the All-Highest Hun--
+the man who will be held up to universal damnation for all time--
+proceeded to adopt towards us the principle of dry-rot in wood.  He
+started a system of sending slowly, but very surely, his
+insect-sycophants to burrow into the beam of good British oak which had
+hitherto supported our nation.  That beam, to-day, is riddled by these
+Teutonic worms--insects which, like the book-worm, are never seen, yet,
+directed by the Invisible Hand, are only known by their works."
+
+"Then you think there really are spies at Hendon?"
+
+"Of that I'm quite certain," was my reply.  "We all know that there are
+spies at every aerodrome--while in the higher ranks those who control
+our air-services, though patriotic enough, seem to suffer by reason of
+the still higher control which divides responsibility."
+
+"Have any spies been lurking about here to-night?" asked Roseye very
+anxiously.
+
+"That is my firm conviction," was Teddy's reply to her.  "I believe that
+there have been two strangers here.  One was, perhaps, gazing through
+his glasses at the pole and, seeing in the darkness the sparking over
+the insulators set in the steel guys, ejaculated the natural expression
+of surprise that I overheard.  But they got away noiselessly, and all my
+search failed to discover them."
+
+"Well--we must be very wary, my dear Teddy," I repeated.  "They must not
+get at this secret of ours, otherwise from the gondola of a Zeppelin
+they will be able to use the invisible force against any of our
+aeroplanes in a stronger and greater degree than we could ever hope to
+do it.  Then we ourselves would be destroyed by the secret power we have
+invented."
+
+"They shall never know the secret from me," was my friend's fierce
+reply.  "Only we three know it--while Theed has, of course, learnt
+something.  That could, not be helped."
+
+"We must not forget the words I read out to you the other day from the
+_Berliner Tageblatt_," I replied.  "That paper said: `The fires and
+devastation caused by our Zeppelin squadron in England represented a
+victory greater and more important than could be achieved in a single
+battle.'  That," I added, "is the triumphant boast of Major Moraht,
+Germany's most prominent military critic."
+
+"Yes, and it went further," exclaimed Teddy, turning to Roseye.  "The
+paper declared that if the Germans were as brutal as they were accused
+of being, their naval airship squadron could long ago, in memory of the
+Baralong, have set London afire at all four of her corners."
+
+"That's just what we intend to prevent," I declared very emphatically.
+"That is what, notwithstanding the efforts of prowling strangers who are
+seeking to know in what direction our experiments are being conducted,
+we intend to achieve.  To-night, Roseye, we have made one great and
+astounding discovery--a discovery which has placed within our hands a
+power which Germany, with all her science and investigation, little
+dreams.  We now know the true secret which will eventually prove the
+undoing of the Kaiser and his barbarous hordes."
+
+"Yes, dear," was my well-beloved's reply.  "At all hazards, no spy of
+Germany must be allowed to wrest this secret from us."
+
+"But they are clever--devilishly cunning and entirely unscrupulous.  The
+Invisible Hand, well provided with money, lurks everywhere, ready to
+grasp what it can in the interest of our octopus enemies," I declared
+warningly.  "Therefore let us be ever on the alert--ever watchful and
+mindful, in order to avert the relentless talons with which this unknown
+and Invisible Hand is furnished."
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE RAID ON LONDON.
+
+It was the night of the fourteenth of October, in the year 1915.
+
+Sir Herbert and Lady Lethmere, with Roseye--who looked charming in
+pink--were dining _en famille_ in Cadogan Gardens.  The only two guests
+were Lionel Eastwell and myself.
+
+"Terrible--is it not?"  Lady Lethmere remarked to me, as I sat on her
+right.  "We were at the Lyric Theatre when the Zeppelins came last
+night.  We heard the guns firing.  It was most alarming.  They must have
+caused damage in London somewhere.  Isn't it too awful?"
+
+"And at other places, I fear," remarked Sir Herbert, a fine outspoken,
+grey-haired, rather portly man, who had crowned his career as a
+Sheffield steel manufacturer by receiving a knighthood.  He spoke with
+the pleasant burr of the north country.
+
+"Well, the noise of the guns was terrific," his wife went on.
+"Fortunately there was no panic whatever in the theatre.  The people
+were splendid.  The manager at once came on the stage and urged us all
+to keep our seats--and most people did so.  But it was most alarming--
+wasn't it, Herbert?"
+
+"Yes, dear, it really was," replied her husband, who, turning to me,
+asked: "What were you doing at that time, Munro?"
+
+"Well, Sir Herbert, to tell the truth I happened to be out at Hendon
+with my friend Ashton, preparing for a flight this morning.  I got hold
+of a military biplane which had just been finished and had only had its
+last tests that afternoon, but as I had no bombs, and not even a rifle,
+I was unable to go up."
+
+"And if you had gone?"  Eastwell chimed in.  "I fear, Claude, that you
+would never have reached them in time.  They flew far too high, and
+were, I understand, moving off before our men could get up.  Our Flying
+Corps fellows were splendid, but the airships were at too great an
+altitude.  They rose very high as they approached London--according to
+all reports."
+
+"And the reports are pretty meagre," I remarked.  "I only know that I
+was anxious and eager to go up, but as I had not the necessary defensive
+missiles it was utterly useless to make the attempt."
+
+"Nevertheless, I believe our anti-aircraft guns drove them off very
+quickly, didn't they?"  Lionel asked.
+
+"Not before they'd done quite enough damage and killed innocent old
+persons and non-combatants.  Then they went away, and bombed other
+defenceless towns as they passed--the brutes!" said Lady Lethmere.
+
+"And writers in to-day's papers declare that all this is really of no
+military significance," remarked Sir Herbert, glancing fiercely across
+the table, a stout, red-faced man, full of fiery fight.
+
+"Military significance is an extremely wide term," I ventured to remark.
+"London heard the bombs last night.  To-day we are no longer outside
+the war-zone.  We used, in the good old Victorian days, to sing
+confidently of our `tight little island.'  But it is no longer tight.
+It seems to me that it is very leaky--and its leakage is towards those
+across the North Sea who have for so long declared themselves our
+friends.  Friends!  I remember, and not so very long ago, standing on
+the Embankment and watching the All-Highest Kaiser coming from the
+Mansion House with a huge London crowd cheering him as their friend."
+
+"Friend!" snorted Sir Herbert.  "He has been far too clever for us.  He
+has tricked us in every department of the State.  Good King Edward knew;
+and Lord Roberts knew, but alas! our people were lulled to sleep by the
+Kaiser's pretty speeches to his brave Brandenburgers and all the rest,
+and his pious protests that his only weapon was the olive branch of
+peace."
+
+"Yet Krupp's and Ehrhardt's worked on night and day," I said.  "Food,
+metals, money and war-materials were being collected each month and
+stored in order to prepare for the big blow for which the Emperor had
+been so long scheming and plotting."
+
+"Yes, truly the menace of the Zeppelin is most sinister," said Roseye
+across the table.  "How can we possibly fight it?  We seem to be
+powerless!  Our lawyers are busy making laws and fining people for not
+creeping about in the darkness at night, and asking us to save so as to
+pay ex-ministers their big pensions, but what can we do?"
+
+"Rather ask whom can we trust?"  I suggested.
+
+"But, surely, Claude, there must arise very soon some real live man who
+will show us the way to win the war?" asked Roseye.
+
+I drew a long breath.  She knew our secret--the secret of that long dark
+shed out at Gunnersbury which was watched over at night by the sturdy
+old Theed, father of my mechanic, he being armed with a short length of
+solid rubber tyre from the wheel of an old disused brougham--about the
+best weapon of personal defence that could ever be adopted.  A blow from
+that bit of flexible rubber would lay out a man senseless, far better
+than any iron bar.
+
+"Well," said Sir Herbert, re-entering our discussion.  "The Zeppelin
+peril must be grappled with--but who can enter the lists?  You airmen
+don't seem to be able to combat it at all!  Are aeroplanes too slow--or
+what?"
+
+"No, Sir Herbert," I replied.  "That's not the point.  There are many
+weaknesses in the aeroplane, which do not exist in the big airship--the
+cruiser of the air.  We are only the butterflies--or perhaps hornets, as
+the Cabinet Minister once termed us--but I fear we have not yet shown
+much sting."
+
+"We may, Claude!" interrupted Roseye with a gay laugh.
+
+"Let's hope we can," I said.  "But all these new by-laws are, surely,
+useless.  Let's hit the Hun in his home.  That's my point of view.  We
+can do it--if only we are allowed."
+
+"I'm quite sure of that, Claude," Roseye declared.  "There are lots of
+flying-men who, if given bombs to-morrow, would go up and cross to the
+enemy aircraft centres in Belgium or Schleswig and drop them--even at
+risk of being shot down."
+
+"Well, Sir Herbert," I ventured, laughing, "the situation is not without
+its humour.  I don't know whether it has ever occurred to you that, in
+order not to unduly alarm the public, we may yet have certain
+regulations posted upon our hoardings that may prohibit Zeppelin
+commanders from cruising over England without licences; that they must
+have red rear-lights; they must put silencers upon their engines, and
+must not throw orange peel, paper bags, bottle or other refuse within
+the meaning of the Act into the streets in such a manner as to cause any
+danger to foot-passengers or create litter such as would come beneath
+the powers relegated to inspectors of nuisances of Boroughs.  Such
+regulations might, perhaps, make it a penal offence if Zeppelins did not
+keep to the left in traffic; if bombs were dropped in places other than
+those properly and purposely illuminated for the purpose, or if they did
+not travel at a rate faster than the British aircraft."
+
+"Really, Claude, that's an awfully humorous idea," remarked Sir Herbert
+as all at table laughed.
+
+"In addition, it might be suggested that the heads of all dogs, ducks,
+cats, parrots, and the horns of gramophones might be encased in
+cotton-wool to conceal their whereabouts, that no smoking be permitted,
+and no artificial light between one hour before sunset and one hour
+after sunrise."
+
+"Exactly," I laughed.  "And an inter-departmental committee of the
+red-tabbed might be charged with the due execution of the regulations--
+all offenders to be shot at sunrise following the day whereon any breach
+of the Defence of the Zeppelin Act were committed."
+
+"Really you're too bad!" declared Eastwell, laughing heartily as he held
+his glass poised in his hand.
+
+"Well," I protested.  "Here we've had Zeppelins killing people.  Surely
+something must be done!  Either regulate the Zeppelin traffic, or else
+fight them."
+
+"I'm all for the latter," declared Roseye.
+
+"So am I," was my remark.
+
+"And I also," declared Eastwell.  "_But how_?--that's the question!"
+
+Roseye exchanged glances with me, and I wondered whether he noticed
+them.
+
+Somehow I had just a faint suspicion that he did, for I detected a
+curious expression upon his lips--a look such as I had never seen there
+before.
+
+He made no remark, but busied himself with the excellently-cooked snipe
+before him.
+
+Fortunately Lionel Eastwell was not aware of our secret--the secret of
+that brown deal box which we were so rapidly perfecting.
+
+Only on the previous day Roseye had been up in the air with me across
+Hampstead, Highgate, and out as far as Hatfield and home to the
+aerodrome, making a further test of the potent but unseen power which we
+had been able to create, and which must, if further developed, be our
+strong arm by which to strike a very deadly blow against enemy airships.
+
+"Personally," declared Sir Herbert, in his bluff, matter-of-fact way, "I
+think the whole idea of air-defence from below is utterly futile.  A gun
+can never hit with accuracy a moving object so high in the air and in
+the dark.  What target is there?"
+
+"Exactly," exclaimed Eastwell.  "That has always been my argument.  I've
+been interested in aviation for years, and I know the enormous
+difficulties which face the efforts of those who man our anti-aircraft
+guns.  Searchlights and guns I contend are inadequate."
+
+"They've hardly been tried, have they?" queried Lady Lethmere.  "And,
+moreover, I seem to recollect reading that both have done some excellent
+work on the French front."
+
+"But London is not the French front," Eastwell protested.  "The
+conditions are so very different."
+
+"Then what do you suggest as a really reliable air-defence?"  Sir
+Herbert inquired.
+
+"Fight them with fast aeroplanes and bombs," Eastwell said.
+
+"But you've just told Munro that had he gone up last night from Hendon
+his flight would have been quite useless, as he would never have been
+able to mount sufficiently high in the time."
+
+"Quite so.  But we ought to have efficient air-patrols at night," was
+his reply.
+
+"Combined with properly illuminated landing-places," Roseye added.
+"Otherwise more than half the airmen and observers must kill themselves
+through landing in the dark without any knowledge of the direction of
+the wind."
+
+"That could all be arranged--as it no doubt will be in due course," I
+said.  "The Government are not such fools as some people seem inclined
+to believe.  I'm not one of those who blame the whole Government for a
+few mistakes of its subordinate departments, and the incompetency of men
+pitchforked, in the hurry of an unexpected war, into places for which
+they are entirely unfitted.  We all know of glaring cases of that sort.
+No.  Let's take heart, and look on the best side of things.  Britain is
+not vanquished yet, and the heart of the true Briton beats quicker and
+is fiercer than ever in its patriotism over the base enemy outrage of
+the kind that was committed upon innocent Londoners last night."
+
+"Only yesterday I was reading a popular book called _Can Germany Win_?
+written by an anonymous American," remarked Sir Herbert.  "The writer
+gaily informs the public that even well-directed rifle-fire can bring
+the vaunted Zeppelins down, and to secure any accuracy of aim
+themselves, the airships must descend to an altitude which brings them
+well within the range of modern guns."
+
+"I know!"  I laughed.  "The rubbish written about Zeppelins is simply
+ludicrous.  I've read that book, which has no doubt been read by
+thousands of patriotic Britons.  I remember quite well that, in it, we
+are gravely informed that as far as Zeppelins were concerned the British
+public may sleep comfortably in their beds.  The great thing is, we are
+urged, to discount as far as possible, by reason supported by
+scepticism, the terrorising tales of the Zeppelin's worth and doughty
+prowess which are so brilliantly `press-agented' in Germany.  The writer
+has further told us that talk never broke any bones, and the Germans are
+doing a good deal of talk at the present moment to hide the defects in
+their monster pets which have been detected as useless by the test of
+War.  The Zeppelins, the writer told us, are comparatively negligible
+quantities.  Last night's raid is the commentary."
+
+"Yes," said Roseye, "something must really be done to prevent such
+raids."
+
+"But how?" queried Lionel Eastwell across the table in that slow refined
+voice of his.  "It's all very well to talk like that--but you must
+_act_."
+
+Roseye and I again exchanged glances.  She knew well what was passing in
+my mind.
+
+And I remained silent.
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THEED'S STRANGE STORY.
+
+The following morning while I was writing letters in my room Theed
+entered, saying that his father had called and wished to see me.
+
+A moment later the sturdy old ex-police-sergeant came in, his felt hat
+in his hand, and when I had sat him beside the fire I saw an unusual
+expression upon his grey, furrowed countenance.
+
+"I've come up, sir," he said, "because something curious 'appened at the
+shed lars' night."
+
+"Happened--what's happened?"  I asked, staring at him.
+
+"Well--something I can't quite make out, sir.  But I thought I ought to
+report at once."
+
+"Tell me, by all means, Theed," I said, instantly interested.
+
+"Well, sir.  There were strangers about lars' night."
+
+"Strangers!  Who?"  I asked, recollecting Teddy's allegations on the
+night of our successful test.
+
+"Well--it was like this, Mr Munro," the old fellow began.  "I went on
+at nine o'clock as usual, and met Harry there.  We talked together about
+half an hour, and then he left.  I 'ad a pipe in front o' the stove and
+sat readin' the war news--as I always do.  I expect I must 'ave dozed
+for a bit, but I woke up at eleven, 'ad another pipe and read a bit more
+of my paper.  I heard Chiswick church-clock strike twelve, and then,
+after makin' up the stove again, I 'ad another doze, as I generally do.
+Of a sudden I was woke up by hearin' low whisperin'.  My lamp was out--
+it 'ad gone out because I 'adn't much oil.  But I was on the alert in a
+moment, for I saw the light of an electric torch a movin' about at the
+other end of the shed, and two figures were a gropin' about and
+whisperin'.  I'll swear one was a woman!"
+
+"A woman!"  I gasped.  "What did you do?"
+
+"I took up my bit o' rubber tyre, bent down, and crept noiselessly
+along.  It seemed as if they were examining those three electric coils,
+and were perhaps a tryin' to find the box what--"
+
+"Happily, I took the precaution to bring it away yesterday afternoon,
+and have it here, in the next room," I interrupted.
+
+"Good.  Excellent, sir!  My idea is that they were after that there box.
+I'm dead certain of it," old Theed said.  "Well, I bent well below the
+benches and nearly got up to 'em in order to flash my lamp, an' so take
+'em by surprise, when, of a sudden, somebody clipped me hard over the
+'ead, and I knew nothing more till I awoke at daylight, and found this!"
+he added, pointing to a spot on the back of his head upon which was a
+big lump and a large piece of black sticking-plaster.
+
+"Then there must have been a third person present--eh?"
+
+"There must!  He'd evidently been a watchin' me, and struck me down,
+just as I was a comin' up to the pair with the torch."
+
+"You say you saw a woman.  Did you also see the man's face?"
+
+"No, I didn't.  And I only knew that there was a woman there by the
+black fur she wore around her throat.  I was right at the opposite end
+of the shed, remember, and I only saw 'er just for a second--a biggish
+woman's white face and the black fur."
+
+"You didn't see the person who knocked you down?"
+
+"No, I didn't--the cursed blackguard," was old Theed's quick reply.
+"Had I seen him, I'd 'ave given 'im a taste of my bit o' rubber--I tell
+yer.  He wouldn't 'ave been sensible yet--you bet!"
+
+"But how did they get in?"  I asked, amazed at his story.
+
+"Get in?  Why, they seem to 'ave 'ad a latch-key.  At any rate they
+opened the door with a duplicate key that they'd got from somewhere.
+There's no sign of 'em having broken in."
+
+For a few moments I stood in silence, then Theed's son having called a
+taxi, I got in and took our faithful night-watchman down to Gunnersbury.
+
+There, on the spot, he explained to me exactly what had occurred in the
+night, giving a dramatic demonstration of how he had crept up to the
+intruders, and pointing out the spot where he had fallen, and where,
+indeed, there were some palpable blood-spots from the wound in his head.
+
+"While I lay 'ere, sir," he added, "the three of 'em, of course, just
+pried into everything they wanted to see, and then went out, closin' the
+door after them.  It was just after eight this morning when I came to,
+and I tell you I felt quite dazed, and horrible bad!"
+
+"What time do you think all this happened?"  I inquired.
+
+"In the middle of the night--between two and three o'clock--I should
+say."
+
+Careful investigation which I made of the whole apparatus disclosed that
+nothing whatever had been interfered with--except one thing.  Two wires
+connecting the big induction coils had evidently been disconnected, for
+they had been wrongly connected up, thus showing that the strangers,
+whoever they had been, might have made certain experiments with our
+plant.
+
+Happily, however, that big brown deal box had not been there, and I
+smiled within myself at the bitter disappointment which must have been
+theirs.  In any case, our great secret was still safe.
+
+"Well," I said.  "You certainly had a most exciting adventure, Theed.
+We'll have to set a trap for these gentry in future.  Just think out
+something, will you, and Mr Ashton and I will help you.  If they come
+again we might put in a little electric `juice' which will effectively
+stop them from meddling with our things in future.  They might get a
+very nasty jar," I added, laughing.
+
+"But 'ow do you think they got hold of that duplicate key, sir?" asked
+the grey-haired old pensioner.
+
+I hesitated.  The whole affair was a most complete mystery, and only
+went to bear out Teddy's declaration that, on the night of our test,
+somebody must have been about and expressed sudden surprise at its
+astounding result.
+
+From the telephone call-box inside Hammersmith Broadway station I rang
+up Teddy at Hendon, and asked him to meet me there after lunch.
+
+This he did, and as together we walked away from the hangars, so as not
+to be overheard, I related to him the strange story, as told by old
+Theed.
+
+He stood astounded.
+
+"Somebody knows, my dear Claude!  Who _can_ it be?"
+
+"Who knows?  Only ourselves, Roseye and the Theeds.  Nobody else," was
+my quick reply.
+
+Then, suddenly, he said: "I suppose Roseye couldn't have dropped any
+hint to her father?  If so, the latter might have spoken to Eastwell--or
+somebody else!"
+
+"Roseye made to me a solemn promise of secrecy, and I trust her, Teddy,"
+I said very quietly.
+
+"So do I, my dear fellow.  So do I," he assured me.
+
+"Well--I can't fathom the mystery at all.  Evidently they were on some
+desperate errand--or they wouldn't have knocked poor old Theed
+senseless--eh?  And the woman!  Who could she have been?"
+
+"Who knows?"  I asked.  "Nevertheless, we must make it our business to
+find out, my dear chap," I added in earnestness.  "We've got secret
+enemies somewhere--probably around us here.  Indeed, that has been my
+firm conviction for some time."
+
+"And mine also.  So let us keep open eyes everywhere.  Where's Roseye?
+Is she coming over this afternoon?"
+
+"I expect her every minute.  She'll be astounded and excited."
+
+"You won't tell her--shall you?  It will only alarm her, Claude--and I
+never advocate alarming a woman."
+
+I paused.  Instantly I realised the weight of such an argument, for
+Roseye was, after all, a dainty and highly-strung little person, who
+might worry herself over the mystery far too much.
+
+"Yes, Teddy," I said somewhat reluctantly.  "I quite agree.  At present
+we'd best leave matters as they are, and keep our own counsel."
+
+Hardly were those words out of my mouth when we saw my well-beloved,
+with face flushed in glad welcome, coming across to us.  She had
+evidently arrived in her car, and already put on her air-kit, for, it
+being a fine afternoon, she intended to make a flight.
+
+The Zeppelin raid upon London had set the whole aircraft world agog.
+Every one at Hendon and Brooklands was full of it, most men criticising
+the air-services, of course, and declaring vaguely that "something must
+really be done."
+
+It was so very easy to make such a declaration.  Old men in their
+easy-chairs in the London club-windows were saying that very same thing,
+but nobody could, with truth, point out any real effective remedy
+against what certain Hide-the-Truth newspapers described as "the German
+gas-bags."
+
+A lot of people were about the aerodrome that afternoon, and Teddy went
+off to test his engine, while Roseye, drawing on her thick gloves,
+mounted into her machine which her mechanic had brought out for her.
+
+"I shall run over to Aylesbury and back," she told me.  "I know the
+railway line.  Shall you go up?"
+
+"Probably," I replied, as I stood beside her Duperdussin watching her
+man adjusting one of the stays which he seemed to think was not quite
+tight enough.  Then, a few moments later, she shot from me with a fierce
+blast of the exhaust, and in a few seconds had left the ground, rapidly
+rising in the air.
+
+I watched her for some minutes as she skimmed over the tree-tops and
+rose higher and higher, then satisfying myself that her engine was
+running well.  I turned and crossed to the shed wherein stood my own
+bus, with the ever-patient Theed awaiting me.
+
+The Breguet was brought out, and with a few idlers standing about me, as
+they always do at Hendon, I climbed into the pilot's seat and began to
+test my big engine.  It roared and spluttered at first, but gradually,
+with Theed's aid--and he was a splendid mechanic by the way--I got it to
+run with perfect evenness and precision.
+
+Why, I don't know, but my bus usually attracted some onlookers.  About
+the aerodrome we always have a number of idle persons with a sprinkling
+of the eternal feminine silk-stockinged hangers-on to the pilots and
+pupils who, not being able to fly, do the next best thing, become
+friends of flying-men.  In that little knot of people gathered about my
+machine--probably on account of the Zeppelin sensation--I noted, in
+particular, one podgy fat-faced little man.
+
+As I strapped myself into the pilot's seat, after examining my
+altimeter, compass, etc, and adjusting my self-registering thermometer,
+I chanced to glance at the people around, and had noticed the man in
+question.  His strange-looking bead-like eyes fascinated me.  Upon his
+round white face was a look of intense interest, yet those eyes, rather
+narrowly set, struck me as queer-looking and uncanny--eyes such as I had
+never seen before.
+
+Suddenly I wondered if their gaze upon me was some evil omen.
+
+Next second I laughed within myself at such an absurd thought.  It was
+the first time in all my life that such an idea had ever crossed my
+mind, therefore I at once dismissed it.  Such thought was most foolish
+and utterly ridiculous.
+
+Yet, again, I glanced at him, unable to withdraw my gaze entirely.
+Those dark, beady eyes of his, set slightly askew, were certainly most
+uncanny.  Their gaze seemed cold and relentless, and yet at the same
+time exulting.
+
+Sight of them sent through me a strange creepy feeling, but, with
+resolution, I turned away, busying myself in my preparations for
+starting.
+
+Perhaps it was knowledge that strangers had been prying into our
+experimental plant out at Gunnersbury that had somewhat upset me, yet,
+after all, though they had cruelly assaulted poor old Theed, no very
+great success had been theirs.
+
+Who were they?  That was the vital question.
+
+Just as I was on the point of starting I saw Lionel Eastwell coming from
+the hangar, walking behind his own machine, which was being pushed out
+by his man Barnes and two others.
+
+I waved to him from my seat, and he waved a merry greeting back to me.
+
+Then, all being ready, I motioned to Theed to let her go, and with a
+deafening rush I shot forward, leaving behind a pungent blue trail from
+the big exhaust.
+
+I rose quickly and had begun the ascent, the engine running beautifully,
+when of a sudden, before I was aware of it, something went wrong.
+
+A sharp crack, a harsh tearing sound, and one of my wings collapsed.
+Across the back I was struck a most violent blow just as she took a
+nose-dive, and then, next instant, all knowledge of what had happened
+became blotted out by a dark night of unconsciousness.
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+REVEALS A PLOT.
+
+The next that I recollect is, with my brain awhirl, I tried to open my
+eyes, but so painful were they, that I was compelled to close them again
+in fearful agony.
+
+Somebody whispered close to me, but my mind was too muddled to
+understand what was said.
+
+My eyes burned in their sockets; my brain seemed unbalanced and aflame.
+I tried to think, but alas! could not.  When I tried to recollect, all
+remembrance of the past seemed as though it were wrapped up in
+cotton-wool.
+
+How long I remained in that comatose state I have no idea.
+
+Some unknown hand forced between my teeth a few drops of liquid, which
+with difficulty I swallowed.  This revived me, I know, for slowly--very
+slowly--the frightful pain across my brow decreased, and my burning eyes
+became easier until, at last, blinking, I managed to open them just a
+little.
+
+All was dead white before me--the white wall of a hospital-ward I
+eventually discovered it to be--and as I gazed slowly around, still
+dazed and wondering, I saw a man in black, a doctor, with two nurses
+standing anxiously beside my bed.
+
+"Hulloa, Mr Munro," he exclaimed softly.  "You're better now, aren't
+you?"
+
+"Yes," I whispered.  "But--but where am I?"
+
+"Never mind where you are.  Just go to sleep again for a bit," the
+doctor urged.  "You're all right--and you'll very soon be up again,
+which is the one thing that matters," I heard him say.
+
+"But, tell me--" I articulated with great difficulty.
+
+"I shan't tell you anything, just yet," said the man in black firmly.
+"Just go to sleep again, and don't worry.  Here.  Take this," and he
+placed a little medicine-glass to my parched lips.
+
+The effect of the drug was sleep--a long sleep it must have been--for
+when I again awoke it was night, and I saw a stout, middle-aged
+night-nurse seated at my side, reading beneath a green-shaded lamp.
+
+As soon as she noticed me moving she gave me another draught, and then,
+thoroughly revived, I inquired of her what had actually happened.
+
+I saw her motion to some one behind her, and next moment found Roseye
+bending over me, pale-faced and anxious.
+
+"Oh!  I'm so glad, dear," she whispered eagerly into my ear.  "Once we
+thought you would never recover, and--and I've been watching and waiting
+all the time.  They wouldn't let me see you until to-night.  Teddy has
+been here constantly, and he only left at midnight."
+
+"But--darling--but what has happened?"  I managed to ask, looking up
+into those dear eyes of hers utterly amazed.
+
+"May I tell him, nurse?" she inquired, turning to the buxom woman beside
+her.
+
+The nurse nodded assent, whereupon she said:
+
+"Well--you've had a nasty spill!  One of your wings suddenly buckled--
+and you fell.  It's a perfect miracle that you were not killed.  I saw
+the accident just as I was going up in a spiral, and came down again as
+fast as ever I could.  When I reached you, I found you pinned beneath
+the engine, and everybody believed you to be stone-dead.  But, happily,
+they got you out--and brought you here."
+
+"What is this place?"  I asked, gazing around in wonderment.  "Where am
+I?"
+
+"The Hendon Cottage Hospital," was her reply.
+
+"How long have I been here?"
+
+"Four days.  The papers have had a lot about your accident."
+
+"The papers make a lot of ado about nothing," I replied, smiling.  "To
+them, every airman who happens to have a nose-dive is a hero.  But how
+did it happen?"
+
+"Nobody knows.  You seemed to be ascending all right, when suddenly I
+saw your right-hand plane collapse, and you came down plumb," she said.
+"As you may imagine, darling, I rushed back, fearing the worst, and
+through these four awful days I have dreaded that you might never speak
+to me again."
+
+"What does Theed say?"
+
+"What can he say?  He has declared that before you started everything
+was perfectly in order."
+
+"Has Teddy examined the bus?"
+
+"I think so, but he's entirely mystified--just as we all are," said my
+well-beloved.  "Dad and mother are dreadfully worried about you."
+
+"Thanks," I replied.  "I'll be all right soon--but I'm stiff--jolly
+stiff, I can tell you!"
+
+"That doesn't matter," said the nurse cheerily.  "No bones are broken,
+and Doctor Walford has said that you'll be up again very soon."
+
+"Well--thanks for that," I replied with a smile.  "My chief desire at
+the present moment is to know why my machine failed.  Yet I suppose I
+ought to be thankful to Providence that I wasn't killed--eh?"
+
+"Yes, Claude, you ought.  Your smash was a very bad one indeed."
+
+"Has the guv'nor been here?"
+
+"Every day.  But of course you've been under Doctor Walford, and he's
+not allowed anyone to see you."
+
+"I suppose the guv'nor has been saying to everybody, `I told you so,'" I
+remarked.  "He had always said I'd kill myself, sooner or later.  My
+reply was that I'd either fly, or kill myself in the attempt.  Have
+there been any more Zeppelin raids while I've been lying here?"
+
+"No raids, but gossip has it that Zeppelins have been as far as the
+coast and were afterwards driven off by our anti-aircraft guns."
+
+"Good.  When will Teddy be here?"  I asked, raising myself with
+considerable difficulty.
+
+"In the morning," was my love's response, as she took my hand in hers,
+stroking it softly, after which I raised her slim fingers to my lips.
+
+Seeing this, the nurse discreetly left us, strolling to the other end of
+the ward, in which there were about twenty beds, while Roseye, bending
+down to me, whispered in my ear:
+
+"You can't tell how I feel, dear Claude, now that God, in His great
+goodness, has given you back to me," and she cried quietly, while again
+and again I pressed her soft little hand to my hot, fevered lips.
+
+Teddy Ashton, bright and cheery at news of my recovery, stood by my bed
+at about nine o'clock next morning.  The doctor had seen me and cheered
+me by saying that I would soon be out.  My first questions of Teddy were
+technical ones as to how the accident happened.
+
+"I really can't tell, old chap," was his reply.  "I've had the bus put
+into the hangar and locked up for you to see it just as it is."
+
+"Is it utterly wrecked?"  I inquired anxiously, for I feared the
+guv'nor's wrath and his future disinclination to sign any more cheques.
+
+"No.  Not so much as we expected.  One plane is smashed--the one that
+buckled.  But, somehow, you seemed to first make a nose-dive, then
+recover, and glide down to a bad landing."
+
+"But how could it possibly have happened?"  I demanded.  "All was right
+when I went up, I'm certain.  Theed would never have let me go without
+being perfectly satisfied.  That I know."
+
+"No, he wouldn't," Teddy agreed.  "But the affair has caused a terrible
+sensation at Hendon, I can tell you."
+
+In an instant the recollection of that podgy man, with those black eyes
+set askew, crossed my mind.
+
+Yes.  After all, sight of him had been an omen of evil.  Hitherto I had
+scorned any such idea, but now I certainly had positive proof that one
+might have a precursor of misfortune.  I deeply regretted the accident
+to my Breguet for, not knowing the true extent of the damage, I began to
+despair of bringing our secret experiments to a satisfactory issue.
+
+"Look here, Claude," Teddy said at last, bending over me and speaking in
+a low tone.  "Has it struck you as rather peculiar that the appearance
+of those strangers at Gunnersbury should have been followed so quickly
+by this accident of yours?"
+
+"By Jove! no!"  I gasped, as the true import of his words became
+instantly impressed upon me.
+
+"We have enemies, Teddy--you and I--without a doubt.  We've made a
+discovery which is destined to upset the enemy's plans--therefore they
+want to wipe us, and all our knowledge, out of existence.  That's what
+you mean--isn't it?"
+
+My chum nodded in the affirmative.
+
+"That's exactly what I do mean," he said in a hard, meaning tone.
+
+"Then my accident was due to treachery!"  I cried angrily.  "We must
+discover how it was all arranged."
+
+"Yes.  Somebody, no doubt, tampered with your machine," Teddy declared
+very gravely.  "Because I believe this, I've left it just as it was, and
+locked it up safely with a man to look after it.  We'll examine it
+together later on, when you're fit to run over."
+
+Well, to cut a long story short, we did examine it about a week later.
+With Harry Theed, Teddy and Roseye, we made a very complete survey of
+every strainer, wing-flap hinge, nut-bolt, taper-pin, eye-bolt, in fact
+every part of the machine, save the engine--which was quite in order and
+practically undamaged.
+
+For a whole day we worked away, failing to discover anything, but late
+in the afternoon I noticed one of the bolts missing, and called the
+attention of both my companions.
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Teddy.  "Why, that's the weak spot where the plane
+must have buckled!"  Then, bending closer to the hole in which the
+missing steel bolt should have been, he cried: "Look!  What do you make
+of this--eh, Claude?"
+
+I bent eagerly to where he indicated, and there saw something which
+caused me to hold my breath.
+
+In the hole where the steel bolt should have been was a plug of broken
+wood!
+
+Wood!  The truth became, in that instant, quite plain.  The tested steel
+bolt, which was most important to secure the rigidity of the aeroplane,
+had been withdrawn, and in its socket a plug of wood had been placed by
+some dastardly and unknown enemy!
+
+The Invisible Hand, of which I had spoken so many times, had very
+narrowly sent me to my death!
+
+Who could have tampered with my machine?
+
+All four of us stood gazing at each other, aghast at the discovery of
+that wicked plot against my life.  My escape had been miraculous.  I had
+risen easily from the ground, the wooden bolt holding the plane in
+position, but as soon as I had attempted to turn, strain had, of course,
+been placed upon the machine, and instantly the wood had snapped, so
+that I had come down to earth like a log.
+
+"If there is a desperate plot against me, Roseye," I said, looking
+straight at her, "then there is, surely, a similar one against you, and
+also against Teddy.  Our enemies are desperate, and they know a good
+deal--that's certain.  Perhaps they have somehow learnt that we four
+possess the secret of how the Zeppelin menace can be combated.  No
+secret however is safe from the owner of the Invisible Hand.  Hence, if
+an attempt is made to send me to my death--attempts will also be made
+against you both."
+
+"Well--that seems quite feasible--at any rate," remarked Teddy.  "I
+don't think Roseye should go up again--just for the present."
+
+"Certainly not," I said.  "There's some deep-laid and desperate scheme
+against us.  Of that, I'm now convinced.  Our enemies do not mean to
+allow us to conduct any further experiments--if they can help it."
+
+"But they don't know the truth, Claude," chimed in Roseye.
+
+"No.  They are working most strenuously to get at it.  That's quite
+clear."
+
+"But who can they be?" asked my well-beloved.
+
+"Ah!  That's a mystery--at least it is at the present.  It is a very
+serious problem which we must seek to solve."
+
+"But we shall do so, sooner or later, never fear," Teddy exclaimed
+confidently.  "We hold the secret, and our enemies, whoever they may be,
+shall never learn it."
+
+A silence fell between us for several moments.
+
+At last I said:
+
+"I wonder who that woman was that old Theed declares he saw on that
+night out at Gunnersbury?"
+
+"Ah! if we knew that, my dear chap, we might make some progress in our
+inquiries.  But we don't," Teddy said.  "Her identity is just as much of
+a mystery as that of the owner of the Invisible Hand--that hand that
+took out the steel bolt and replaced it with one of wood."
+
+"But I mean to discover the author of this infernal attempt upon me!"  I
+exclaimed fiercely.  "Whoever did it intended that I should be killed."
+
+"Never mind.  You've cheated them finely, Claude," Teddy laughed.  "Get
+quite well, old man, and we'll set to work to fathom this mystery, and
+give whoever is responsible his just deserts."
+
+"That we will," I said resolutely.  "It's the dirty work of somebody who
+is jealous of us."
+
+"Yes.  And I think that Miss Lethmere ought to exercise the very
+greatest care," he remarked.  "As they failed in their attempt upon you,
+they may very probably make one upon her."
+
+"By Jove!  I never thought of that!"  I gasped, staring at my friend.
+"And they might form a plot against you also--remember that, Teddy."
+
+"Quite likely," said my chum airily.  "I'll keep wide awake, never fear.
+What about getting old Theed to suggest some good private detective?"
+
+"No," was my prompt reply.  "We'll be our own detectives.  We'll watch
+and wait."
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+SOME SUSPICIONS.
+
+We waited, and we watched.  And what we were able to discover was
+certainly astounding.
+
+During my convalescence many of my flying friends called at my rooms in
+Shaftesbury Avenue to congratulate me upon my narrow escape.
+
+I had been shaken very considerably, but actually I was not much the
+worse for it.  I felt quite fit and eager, but the doctor would not hear
+of me going out, except for a run in a closed car.
+
+The real cause of my accident was kept a profound secret from every one.
+
+The governor thought it was due to clumsiness or recklessness, and I
+was, of course, compelled to allow him to think so.  Sir Herbert and
+Lady Lethmere, who called one afternoon, appeared to hold the same
+opinion, for the red-faced old steel manufacturer said:
+
+"You must really be more careful, in future, my dear boy--far more
+careful.  Accidents so quickly happen in aeroplanes."
+
+"Yes, accidents do," I admitted.  It was on the tip of my tongue to
+explain to him how some devilish plotter had attempted to take my life.
+
+I was constantly haunted by the remembrance of a face--the face of that
+man in the crowd with the eyes askew.  As I sat alone at my fireside,
+often reading the papers through, even to the advertisements, and out of
+patience with everything and everybody, those narrow beady eyes would
+rise before me.  I would recognise that face with the curious exultant
+expression anywhere.
+
+After long debate within myself I had come to the conclusion, however,
+that the man with the eyes askew was not actually the person who had
+substituted in my machine a wooden bolt for a steel one.
+
+I recollect the expression upon that hard, furrowed countenance even
+now--a wildly exultant expression as though he were gloating over the
+death-trap so cunningly prepared for me.  Yet, when I reflected during
+my convalescence, I knew that no lunatic's hand was responsible for such
+crafty contrivance, and further, the person who had withdrawn the steel
+bolt would certainly not come forth so boldly to peer into my face as
+that podgy little stranger had done.
+
+No.  The man with the eyes askew might, perhaps, have gained secret
+knowledge of the dastardly plot, and come there to watch me rise to my
+death.  But I was confident that his was not the Invisible Hand that had
+been raised against me.
+
+From everybody--even from Lionel Eastwell and the insurance people--we
+concealed the truth.  Lionel, who lived in Albemarle Street, not far
+away often came in to cheer me up, sitting with me, consuming
+cigarettes, expressing wonder at the reason of my accident, and
+gossiping technicalities, as airmen will always gossip.  Indeed, at the
+Royal Automobile Club the air "boys" are the biggest gossips in that
+institution--which, not so long ago, Prince Henry of Prussia so
+completely "nobbled."
+
+Reminiscences of the "Prince Henry Motor Tour" through England have not
+been exactly popular since August 1914--and any member mentioning His
+Imperial Highness's name had become at once taboo.  The remembrance of
+that tour through the heat and dust of the Moselle valley, and
+afterwards from south to north of England, is still with me.  My pilot
+in Germany was a certain Uhlan captain, who afterwards distinguished
+himself as responsible for the atrocities committed upon the poor
+inoffensive Belgians in Dinant, on the Meuse.  The lives of seven
+hundred of those poor victims, men, women and children butchered in cold
+blood in the Grand Place outside the church with the bulgy spire cries
+out for vengeance upon that fair-haired spick-and-span Prussian who sat
+beside me for many days chatting so amiably in English, and assuring me
+that Germany would ever be Great Britain's firmest friend and ally.
+
+Ah!  How cleverly were we all bamboozled!  Whenever I entered the
+portals of the club I remembered, as many of my fellow-members did, how
+completely we were gulled and blinded by that horde of German secret
+agents who came to us as friends and fellow-motorists, and partook of
+our hospitality while actively plotting for our undoing.
+
+Lionel Eastwell sat discussing this with me one dark rainy afternoon.
+
+"There's no doubt that the Germans held out the hand of friendship and
+laughed up their sleeves," he said, blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke
+upwards from his lips.  "Now that one remembers, one grows furious at it
+all.  I confess that I liked Germany and the Germans.  My people went to
+Germany each summer, for the mater was a bit of a musician, and we
+usually drifted to Dresden.  I suppose I inherited from her my love of
+music, and that's why I was sent to Dresden for a couple of years'
+tuition."
+
+"And did you never suspect?"  I asked.  "Remember what Lord Roberts and
+many others told us.  Recollect how we were warned by men who had
+travelled, and who knew."
+
+"Of course I read all those speeches and writings, but I confess,
+Claude, that I laughed at them.  I never dreamed that war would come--
+not for another twenty years or more.  I was lulled into a sense of
+false security, just as our Government and people were lulled."
+
+"True, Germany told us fables--pretty land, sea and air fables--and we
+were childish enough to believe them.  If peace had been the Kaiser's
+object, why did Krupp's and Ehrhardt's work night and day and Count
+Zeppelin carry on his frantic work of building giant airships?"  I
+queried.  "The greatest block head in a village school, with the true
+facts before him, could have done nothing else than suspect.  But we are
+such a smug and unsuspicious people.  We never like to hear an
+unpleasant truth."
+
+"True, we're aroused now.  This Zeppelin raid on London has inflamed the
+public mind.  The people are clamouring loudly for something to be done.
+What can be done?" he asked.  "How can we possibly fight those enemy
+airships--eh?"  And he looked me straight in the face with those calm
+blue-grey eyes of his.
+
+I paused.
+
+I would have greatly liked to tell him of our secret discovery, for,
+after all, he was our most intimate friend.  Yet I had given a promise
+to Roseye and to Teddy and, therefore, could not break it.
+
+That Lionel Eastwell was a real stolid John Bull patriot had been proved
+times without number.  We all liked him, for he was ever courteous to
+Roseye, and always wholehearted and easy-going with both Teddy and
+myself.
+
+"You ask a question which I can't answer, Lionel," I replied at last.
+
+"I thought, perhaps, you had some scheme," he laughed airily.  "You're
+always so very inventive."
+
+Those words, when I remembered them in the light of after events,
+sounded somewhat curious.
+
+"Inventive!"  I laughed.  "How can I put forward any scheme by which to
+fight an airship, except that of fast aeroplanes capable of mounting
+above the airship and dropping bombs?  And, surely, that's one which our
+Aircraft Factory have considered long ago."
+
+Lionel shook his head in reply.
+
+"No.  There must be some other mode than that--if we could only discover
+it.  That poor women and children are being blown to pieces while in
+their beds is too terrible to contemplate," he declared.  "To-day Great
+Britain seems inadequately defended.  But somebody will, of course,
+devise something.  We can't remain defenceless much longer.  Whenever an
+arm of war has been invented, ever since the dark ages, somebody has
+always invented something to combat it.  It will be so in the case of
+the Zeppelin--never fear," he added confidently.
+
+"Let's hope so," I replied, yet, truth to tell, it seemed to me very
+much as though he were trying to pump me regarding the secrets of that
+brown deal box which was reposing in a locked cupboard in the adjoining
+room.  Perhaps, of course, mine was an entirely ungrounded suspicion.
+But there it was.  I hesitated--and wondered.
+
+At that moment Theed--who acted as my mechanic, valet, and
+man-of-all-work--rapped at the door and, entering, announced:
+
+"Miss Lethmere, sir."
+
+Next instant Roseye, merry and radiant in a new fur motor-coat and
+close-fitting black hat, burst into the room.
+
+She drew back on seeing Lionel, and then, recovering herself in an
+instant, exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Claude, I--thought you were alone!  How are you to-day?  I've
+brought you some flowers."
+
+"Thanks, dear," I replied.  "I'm feeling much better to-day.  Teddy was
+in this morning, and he told me that you'd made a flight soon after
+breakfast.  How far did you go?  I thought you intended to rest for a
+bit?"
+
+"I went to Chelmsford," she replied.  "I had a little engine-trouble
+before I got back, and had to come down in somebody's park.  I think it
+was somewhere near Watford.  But I was able to put it right and get
+home, if a trifle lamely."
+
+"So Bertie Maynard told me," remarked Lionel.  "I saw him in the club
+just before lunch, and he said that you'd had engine-trouble."
+
+"Oh, it wasn't very much really.  Only, after Claude's smash, I'm rather
+careful," she said.
+
+"One should always take every precaution," declared Lionel seriously, as
+he rose and gave her his chair opposite me.  "A lot of the boys are far
+too daring nowadays.  They've followed Pegoud, and take needless risks
+long before they are qualified to do so.  It's easy enough to make the
+sensational loop if you are a practised hand.  But when half-trained
+pupils try and attempt it--well, they're bound to make a mess of it."
+
+Roseye glanced at me for a moment, and I knew that she was annoyed at
+Lionel's presence.  He was a good enough fellow in his place as a friend
+of her family, and a gossip who entertained her father so constantly,
+but she had no desire that he should be present at what she had intended
+should be a cosy _tete-a-tete_ over our tea and muffins.
+
+"Well.  Have you seen the papers to-day?"  I asked, in order to change
+the subject.  "They are still full of the want of an efficient
+air-defence."
+
+"That will come all right, my dear Claude, I'm sure," replied Lionel
+who, leaning back against the corner of my writing-table, had lit a
+fresh cigarette.
+
+"I sincerely hope so," returned Roseye.  "What we sadly need is a Man
+who will be really responsible for air-defence--and air-defence alone--
+one who can make the most of the weapons that are now in our hands, and
+who has the wit, courage and initiative to use our own splendid airmen
+as they themselves desire to be employed--namely, to fight the enemy."
+
+"Quite so," I agreed.  "We also want arrangements for warning the towns
+and cities that air-raids are probable, so that people may take cover
+against both bombs and splinters of shell from anti-aircraft guns."
+
+"All that will come in due course," Lionel assured us.
+
+"No doubt," I hastened to say.  "Please understand that I'm not
+criticising any department of our defences.  On the contrary, I only
+argue from the point of the man who may be desirous of protecting his
+home.  Perhaps, as you say, some efficient means will at last be found
+by which to deal successfully with the enemy aircraft.  If so, the whole
+country will eagerly welcome it."
+
+"What we don't like is attacks without any timely warning," said Roseye.
+
+Lionel smiled--with a touch of sarcasm I thought.
+
+"There won't be any more raids for a bit, I feel positive, Miss
+Lethmere," was his assurance.  "Our friends across the North Sea are not
+yet fully prepared with their machinery.  The raid on the thirteenth was
+but a mere rehearsal of what they hope to do.  And, as you argue, we
+should certainly be prepared."
+
+"You speak almost as though you know," I remarked, not without some
+surprise at his words.
+
+"I only speak after surveying the matter calmly and logically," was his
+slow reply.  "The German newspapers have--ever since the early days of
+the war--threatened to bombard London from the air.  This last raid has
+shown that they are capable of doing so."
+
+"They're capable of anything!"  I cried.  "Remember Scarborough!"
+
+"And Belgium," chimed in Roseye.
+
+"Well," said Lionel to me.  "You make all sorts of experiments on your
+new propellers and things down at Gunnersbury.  Why don't you try and
+devise some plan by which we can destroy Zeppelins?  You're always so
+intensely ingenious, Claude."
+
+"So you've just said.  But far better men than myself have tried--and
+failed," was my diplomatic response.
+
+"But surely some means can be devised!" he cried.  "Our flying-boys are
+splendid, as you know--and--"
+
+"Except when they come to grief, as I did the other day," I interrupted
+with a hard laugh.
+
+"Well, you surely can't complain," was his answer.
+
+"You've had the very devil's luck ever since you took your certificate."
+
+"Admitted.  But that doesn't help me to fight Zeppelins," I replied.
+
+"It only wants somebody to do something, to find out some new invention
+or other, and the boys will tumble over each other in their eagerness to
+go up after enemy airships.  Of that, I'm positive," declared Eastwell.
+"You've got a lot of plant down at Gunnersbury, haven't you?  If so, you
+ought to turn your serious attention to this matter which is at the
+present moment of the very highest importance to the country."
+
+Roseye glanced at me, and I saw that my visitor's words and bearing
+puzzled her.
+
+"What do you make of Lionel's questions?"  I asked her ten minutes
+later, when Eastwell had risen and left, having taken the gentle hint
+that I wished to be alone with Roseye over the tea and muffins.
+
+"I don't know what to make of them, dear," replied the girl, seating
+herself again in the big chair.
+
+"Well, I've been watching him for some days," I said slowly.  "And, do
+you know that, strictly between ourselves, I believe that he has some
+suspicion of the direction of our experiments, and is pumping us to see
+what he can glean!"
+
+"How can he possibly know?  He is, of course, well aware that you've
+been devising new propellers, but he can know nothing of our real work.
+Neither Teddy nor Theed would ever let drop a single word, and, as you
+know, I've never breathed a sentence at home."
+
+"He spoke as though he knew that the enemy intended more raids--but not
+just at present."
+
+Roseye suddenly stirred herself and stared at me in amazement with those
+big expressive eyes of hers.
+
+"What? do you think--do you really suspect that Lionel Eastwell is our
+enemy, Claude?" she asked, suddenly pale and breathless.
+
+"Well--perhaps not exactly that," I replied hesitatingly.  "Only his
+queer questions, naturally make one think.  We know we have enemies,
+clever, unscrupulous ones who have not hesitated to attempt to take my
+life.  Therefore we must both be wary--extremely wary--for we never know
+where the next pitfall may be concealed."
+
+"I quite agree with all that, dear," answered Roseye, looking at me
+earnestly.  "But I really can't think that Lionel is anything else than
+one of our best friends.  At least he's been a really good chum to me,
+ever since we first met.  No," she added decisively, "I'm convinced that
+no suspicion can attach to him.  Such an idea, Claude, is to me, too
+utterly absurd."
+
+"Yes.  Well, I suppose you're right, dearest," I replied with a sigh.
+"Women always see so very much farther than men in matters of this
+sort."
+
+And I rose and, crossing to her chair, kissed her fondly upon the lips.
+
+"I'm sorry--very sorry indeed, dearest, that I've cast any reflection
+upon your friend," I said in deep apology.  "Do please forgive me, and
+we'll never mention the subject again."
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+CONTAINS MORE CURIOUS FACTS.
+
+One afternoon a week later, when out at Hendon, I heard accidentally
+from a man I knew--one of the instructors at the Grahame-White Aviation
+School--that Eastwell was very queer, and in bed.
+
+The weather proved bad for flying, therefore I sent Theed off and
+returned to town.  Teddy had gone down to the naval air-station at
+Yarmouth to see the test of a new seaplane, so I went along to look up
+Lionel at his rooms in Albemarle Street.
+
+His man, a thin-faced, dark-haired fellow named Edwards, who admitted
+me, said that his master had had a bad attack of something, the true
+import of which the doctor had failed to diagnose.
+
+I found him lying in bed in his narrow but artistic bachelor bedroom,
+looking very wan and pale.
+
+"Hulloa, Claude!" he cried with sudden joy, as I entered.  "Awfully good
+of you to come in, old chap!  I've been horribly queer these last three
+days, but I'll be fit again in a day or two, the doctor says.  Well--
+what's the news?  How are the boys out at Hendon?"
+
+"All right.  I was there this morning.  Harrington had rather a bad
+smash yesterday afternoon, I hear.  Came down outside Ruislip, and made
+an unholy mess."
+
+"Not hurt, I hope?"
+
+"Tore his face and hands a bit--that's all.  But his biplane is in
+scraps, they say."
+
+He pointed to the box of cigarettes, and I took one.  Then, when I had
+seated myself at his bedside, I saw that he had newspapers scattered
+everywhere, including the Paris _Matin_, the _Journal_, and the Rome
+_Tribuna_.  That was the first time I had known that our friend was a
+linguist.
+
+"Well," he asked.  "What about the Zeppelin raids?  Any more news?"
+
+He had returned to the subject by which he seemed obsessed.  Yet, after
+all, this was not surprising, for many people talked air-raids
+incessantly.  One section of the public, as usual, blamed the
+authorities, while the other supported them.
+
+"Well," I said cheerily, "there's a new invention they are all talking
+of at Hendon to-day.  Somebody has claimed to be able to construct a
+biplane which will rise from the ground without running, and can attain
+any speed from ten to two hundred miles an hour."
+
+"Phew!  That's interesting," exclaimed Lionel, raising himself upon his
+elbow, and taking a sip of a glass of barley-water at his side.  "And
+who is this wonderful man who has such a wonderful scheme?"
+
+"Oh, I forget his name," I said.  "But the theory, as far as I can
+gather, is rather a good one.  He can rise so quickly."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Well," I replied.  "From what I can hear, there is a kind of rotary
+wing--not a propeller and not a thing which can be classed as a
+helicoptic."
+
+Lionel Eastwell grew intensely interested in the new invention which
+everybody at the aerodrome was discussing.
+
+"Yes," he said.  "I follow.  Go on, Claude.  Tell me all you've heard
+about it.  The whole thing sounds most weird and wonderful."
+
+"Well," I said, "from what I can find out, the machine is not designed
+to screw itself through the air in the direction of its axis, or, by
+pushing the air downwards, to impart upward motion to the structure, as
+a screw propeller in water imparts a forward motion to the vessel by
+pushing the water backwards.  The biplane is designed to obtain by a
+rotary motion the same upward thrust in opposition to the downward pull
+of gravity as the flapping wings, and the passive outspread wings of
+birds, and to obtain it by the blades being projected through the air in
+such a manner as to extract and utilise the practically constant energy
+of the expansive force of the air."
+
+"By Jove!" my friend exclaimed, stirring himself in his bed.  "That
+theory is very sound indeed--the soundest I've ever heard.  Who's
+invented it?"
+
+"As I've told you, I've forgotten," I replied.  "But what does it
+matter?  There are hosts of new inventions every month, and the poor
+misguided public who put their money into them generally lose it.  But I
+quite agree that the general idea of this is splendid.  The
+war-inventions authorities ought at once to take it up hot and strong.
+The inventor is, no doubt, an ingenious man of thought and knowledge--
+whoever he may be.  But alas! nobody ever meets with very much
+encouragement in aeronautics."
+
+"No," he said, pillowing his head comfortably.  "It is all so
+mysterious.  We take on a wild-cat idea one day and manufacture machines
+that are declared to work miracles.  Then, next week, we abandon the
+type altogether, and woo some other smooth-tongued inventor."
+
+"That's just it," I laughed.  "If the authorities could only adopt some
+really reliable type to fight Zeppelins.  But alas! it seems that they
+can't," I added.
+
+For a few seconds he remained silent.  I saw that he was reflecting
+deeply.
+
+"Well," he said.  "We've established listening-posts all round London
+for its protection."
+
+"A real benefit they are!"  I laughed.  "We have officers and men
+listening all night, it is true.  Of course as a picturesque fiction in
+order to allay public curiosity they publish photographs of men
+listening to things like gramophone-trumpets."
+
+"Exactly.  The theory of that new invention is extremely sound.  That's
+my opinion."
+
+"And mine also," I said.  "I hear that the inventor has told the
+authorities that if they will assist him to complete his machine--which
+I expect is a costly affair--he will be able to carry out daily raids on
+Cuxhaven, Essen, Dusseldorf, and even as far as Berlin; carrying several
+tons of explosives."
+
+"How many?" asked my friend.
+
+"Oh! four or five it is said."
+
+"Phew!" remarked Lionel, again stirring in his bed.  "That sounds really
+healthy--doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes--the realisation of the dream of every flying-man to-day," I said.
+
+Then our conversation drifted into another channel, and, half an hour
+later, I left him.
+
+During the past few days Teddy and I had been very busy with our own
+invention, and had made a number of further experiments down at
+Gunnersbury.
+
+We could easily direct the electric current upon those insulated steel
+guys around our distant wireless-pole, but our difficulty was how to
+increase our power without increasing the bulk of the apparatus which we
+should be compelled to take up in the monoplane for purposes of
+attacking a Zeppelin.
+
+There was a limit to the weight which my Breguet with its 200
+horse-power engines would carry, and though, of course, we believed it
+would be unnecessary to use bombs, yet some should be carried for
+purposes of defence, as well as a Lewis gun.
+
+Therefore we were faced by a very difficult problem, that of weight.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and Teddy having returned from Yarmouth, we
+spent the whole afternoon and evening down at the workshop, making
+further experiments.  I had not seen Roseye since Friday evening, which
+I had spent at Lady Lethmere's, Sir Herbert being absent in Liverpool.
+Therefore, as we had carried out an alteration of the apparatus and
+intended to try sparking upon the pole again after dark, I rang Roseye
+up on the telephone shortly after five o'clock.
+
+Mulliner, Lady Lethmere's maid, replied, and a few minutes later Lady
+Lethmere herself spoke to me.
+
+"Oh, I've rung you up at your rooms half a dozen times to-day, Mr
+Munro--but could get no answer!" she said.
+
+"Being Sunday, my man is out," I exclaimed.  "I'm down here at
+Gunnersbury."
+
+"Can you take a taxi at once, and come over and see me?" she urged.  "I
+want to speak to you immediately."
+
+"What about?"  I asked anxiously.
+
+"I can't say anything over the telephone," she answered in a distressed
+voice.  "Do come at once, Mr Munro.  I am in such trouble."
+
+I promised.  And after briefly relating the curious conversation to
+Teddy, I found a taxi, and at once drove to Cadogan Gardens.
+
+"Mr Munro!" exclaimed Lady Lethmere, looking at me with a pale, anxious
+expression as I entered the morning-room.  "Something has happened!"
+
+"Happened--what?"  I gasped.
+
+"Roseye!  She went out yesterday morning to go over to Hendon to meet
+you--she told me--_and she's not come back_!"
+
+"Not back!"  I cried, staring at her.  "Where can she be?"
+
+"Ah!  That's exactly what I want to know," replied the mother of my
+well-beloved.  "I thought perhaps she might have flown somewhere and had
+a breakdown, and was therefore unable to return, or to let me know last
+night.  That happened, you recollect, when she came to grief while
+flying over the Norfolk Broads."
+
+"But she never arrived at Hendon yesterday," I exclaimed.  "I was there
+all the morning."
+
+"So I understand from Mr Carrington of the Grahame-White School, to
+whom I telephoned this morning.  It was after learning this curious fact
+that I began to try and get into communication with you."
+
+"Well--where can she possibly be?"  I asked in blank dismay.
+
+"The only thing I can think of is that she altered her mind at the last
+moment, and went to see some friends.  She may have given a servant a
+telegram to send to me, and the servant forgot to dispatch it.  Such
+things have happened, you know."
+
+I shook my head dubiously.  Knowing Roseye as I did, I knew that she
+always sent important messages herself.
+
+"One thing is certain, that she has not met with an accident while
+flying, for her machine is still locked up in the hangar."
+
+"Yes.  It is a consolation to know that she has not gone up and
+disappeared."
+
+"No," I said.  "She seems to have intended to meet me.  But we had no
+appointment to meet.  My intention yesterday morning was to go over to
+Gunnersbury, and I only changed my mind five minutes before I left my
+rooms.  I spent part of the afternoon with Eastwell, who is queer in
+bed."
+
+"I heard that he was not well.  Roseye told me so yesterday morning
+before she went out."
+
+"I wonder how she knew?"  I exclaimed.
+
+"I believe he spoke to her on the telephone on Friday night."
+
+"You overheard some of their conversation, I suppose?"
+
+"None.  She was shut up in the telephone-box, and when she came out I
+asked her who had rung up.  She replied, `Oh! only Lionel!'  Next
+morning, while we were at breakfast, she remarked that Mr Eastwell was
+ill and in bed.  He must have told her so on the previous night."
+
+I remained silent.  This disappearance of Roseye, following so closely
+upon the dastardly attempt upon my life, caused me to pause.  It was
+more than curious.  It was distinctly suspicious.
+
+Was the Invisible Hand--the claw-grip of which had laid such a heavy
+grasp upon Great Britain ever since August 1914--again at work?  Was the
+clutch of that hand, which had so cunningly protected the enemy alien
+and fed the Germans, again upon myself and the woman I loved?
+
+"Lady Lethmere, this is all too amazing.  I had no idea that Roseye was
+missing," I said.  "Sir Herbert has not returned, I suppose?"
+
+"No.  I expect him to-morrow.  I have not yet sent him word.  But I must
+say I am now getting most anxious."
+
+"Of course," I said.  "We have to remember that to-day is Sunday, and
+that few telegraph offices are open."
+
+"Yet there is always the telephone," Lady Lethmere said.
+
+I argued that, in many country places, the telephone service was not
+available on Sundays and, though I felt intensely anxious, I endeavoured
+to regard the matter with cheerful optimism.  I saw, however, that Lady
+Lethmere, a good, kindly and most charming woman, who had ever been
+genuinely friendly towards me, was greatly perturbed regarding her
+daughter's whereabouts.
+
+And surely not without cause.  Roseye had left that house at eleven
+o'clock on the previous morning--dressed as usual in a navy-blue
+gaberdine coat and skirt, with her skunk boa and muff, intending to
+change later on into her Burberry flying-suit which she kept at Hendon.
+From the moment when she had closed the front door behind her, she had
+vanished into space.
+
+Such was the enigma with which I--her lover--was at that moment faced.
+
+I ask you, my reader, to place yourself for a moment in my position, and
+to put to yourself the problem.
+
+How would you have acted?
+
+Would you have suspected, as I suspected, the sinister and deadly touch
+of the Invisible Hand?
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+THE TUNNEL MYSTERY.
+
+I went back to my rooms in Shaftesbury Avenue and, in consequence of my
+telephone message, Teddy came and threw himself in the chair opposite me
+half an hour later, to discuss the curious disappearance of my
+well-beloved.
+
+Teddy suggested that we should report the occurrence to the police, and
+give them Roseye's photograph, but I was averse to this course.  I
+pointed out that, in all probability, she was with friends somewhere,
+and that Monday morning would bring me a letter from her.
+
+Well--Monday morning came.  Eagerly I went through my correspondence,
+but there was no word from her, either to her mother or to myself.  It
+was only then that I began to be really anxious, and at noon I went down
+to Scotland Yard and there, in the cold waiting-room, stated exactly
+what had occurred.
+
+The inspector, when he looked at the photograph I produced, exclaimed:
+
+"Ah, sir.  I've often seen Miss Lethmere's picture in the papers.  Why,
+she's the famous flying-lady--isn't she?"
+
+I replied in the affirmative, and explained how she had left her home in
+Cadogan Gardens to go to Hendon to meet me.
+
+"I see.  She was lost sight of between Cadogan Gardens and Hendon," he
+exclaimed, adding a memorandum to what he had already written down.
+"Well, sir," he said.  "We'll do our best, of course.  But--you don't
+think Miss Lethmere has disappeared intentionally--eh?"
+
+And he looked at me inquiringly with his dark, serious eyes.
+
+"Intentionally!  No--why?"
+
+"Well, because we get many young ladies reported missing in the course
+of a year, and many of them we find, on inquiry, have hidden themselves
+purposely, for their own private reasons, quarrels, run-away matches,
+hiding from angry parents, and such-like causes.  I tell you," he added,
+"some of the cases give us quite a lot of trouble and annoyance."
+
+"I'm quite sure that Miss Lethmere is not hiding herself purposely," I
+declared quickly.  "There can be no object in her doing so."
+
+"No.  Not as far as you are aware, sir," the inspector replied very
+politely.  "But neither you nor I can always follow the trend of the
+feminine mind," he added with a faint smile.  "You, of course, do not
+suspect the existence of any motive which would lead her to disappear
+intentionally.  Nobody in such circumstances as yours, ever does.  Do
+you happen to know whether she took any money with her when she left
+home?"
+
+"Mulliner, Lady Lethmere's maid, says that just before going out Miss
+Lethmere glanced in her purse, found that she only had a few shillings,
+and took four Treasury-notes from her jewel-box."
+
+"Was that all the money in the jewel-box?" he asked.
+
+"No.  About eighteen pounds remains there now."
+
+"H'm.  She evidently did not make any preparation for a journey--or any
+long absence."
+
+"Well," replied the inspector after a brief pause, "we will certainly
+circulate her description, and see what we can gather.  The young lady
+may have met with a street accident, and be in one of the hospitals.
+Though I hope she hasn't, of course!"
+
+So with that rather poor assurance I had to be content, and took my
+leave.
+
+That afternoon I again went out to Hendon, making inquiry everywhere of
+the men who were Roseye's friends, but she certainly never went there on
+the Saturday, and I found her machine still in the hangar.  Her mechanic
+knew nothing, for he had received no orders from her since Friday.
+
+Three days--three breathless anxious days passed.  Ah! shall I ever
+forget the awful tension of those terrible hours!
+
+Sir Herbert had returned, and, with his wife, was naturally distracted.
+He was making inquiries in every quarter of friends and acquaintances,
+and of anyone who might have been likely to see his missing daughter.
+In this, both Teddy and I actively assisted him.
+
+On the third evening I returned to my rooms to wash, intending to go
+along to the Automobile Club to dine with the flying-boys who assembled
+there every night, when Theed told me that the police had, an hour
+before, rung me up from Scotland Yard, and requested me to go down there
+at once.
+
+This I did without delay and, having been shown into that big, bare
+waiting-room, the same dark-haired inspector came to see me.
+
+"Well, Mr Munro," he exclaimed, "we've met with no very great result,
+though the description of the missing young lady has been circulated
+right through the country.  But the affair is certainly a mystery."
+
+"Then you don't suspect that she has purposely disappeared--eh?"  I
+asked quickly.
+
+"Well--after all--I don't know," was his hesitating reply.  "Something
+belonging to her has been found which rather leads to that supposition."
+
+"What has been found?"  I gasped eagerly.
+
+"This," he answered, and he placed upon the table a gold chatelaine
+which I at once recognised as belonging to Roseye--for.  I had given it
+to her.  It formed a jingling bunch.  There was a chain-purse, a
+combined match-box and cigarette-case, a powder-box with its little
+mirror in the cover, and a card-case all strung upon thin gold chains
+which, in turn, were attached to a ring--so that it could be carried
+upon the finger.
+
+"Wherever was that found?"  I asked, turning pale at sight of it.
+
+"It was discovered this morning by a platelayer engaged in examining the
+rails in the long tunnel just beyond Welwyn Station on the Great
+Northern Railway."
+
+"In a tunnel!"
+
+"Yes.  The two tunnels which are quite near to each other have, at our
+request, been thoroughly searched by the local police and the
+platelayers, but nothing else has been found.  My first fear was," added
+the inspector, "that there might have been a tragedy in the tunnel.
+Happily, however, there is no ground for any such suspicion."
+
+"But there may have been a struggle in the train!"  I suggested.
+
+"Possibly," answered the inspector.  "It's fortunate that the cards were
+in the case, for when the chatelaine was handed to the sergeant of
+constabulary at Welwyn, he at once recognised Lethmere as the name of
+the lady whose description had been circulated by us.  Therefore the
+constabulary sent it up here at once."
+
+I took it and found that in the purse were the four Treasury-notes, as
+the maid Mulliner had described, together with some silver.  Three of my
+own particular brand of Russian cigarettes remained in the case, while
+among the cards which I opened upon the table was one of my own upon
+which I had, only a few days previously, written down the address of the
+makers of a new enamel which I had advised her to try upon her machine.
+
+The tiny powder-puff and the small bevelled mirror were there, though
+the latter had been cracked across in its fall in the tunnel.
+
+"Seven years bad luck!"  I remarked to the inspector, whose name I had
+learned to be Barton.
+
+I was turning over with curiosity that bunch of jingling feminine
+impedimenta which I knew so well, when the door suddenly opened, and a
+red-tabbed captain in khaki entered.
+
+"This is Captain Pollock," Barton said, introducing him.  "He wished, I
+believe, to ask you a question, Mr Munro."
+
+I looked at the new-comer with some surprise, as he bowed and, in rather
+an authoritative manner, took a chair at the big leather-covered table
+at which I was seated with the inspector.
+
+"The facts of your friend Miss Lethmere's disappearance have been
+communicated to us, Mr Munro," he commenced, "and we find that the
+lady's disappearance is much complicated by certain rather curious
+facts."
+
+"Well?"  I asked, rather resentful that another department of the State
+should enter upon what, after all, was a purely personal investigation.
+Besides, I could see no motive.  The War Office had enough to do without
+making inquiries regarding missing persons.
+
+"Well," said the captain politely, "I of course know you, Mr Munro, to
+be a well-known aviator, and have often read of the long and sensational
+flights undertaken by Miss Lethmere and yourself.  I hope you will not
+think that I am personally inquisitive regarding your lady friend.
+But," he went on apologetically, "I am only performing my duty in
+inquiring in the interests of the State.  You are, I know, an intensely
+patriotic man.  I hope that I, as a British officer, am equally
+patriotic.  Therefore we stand upon the same ground--don't we?"
+
+"Most certainly," was my reply, though, much puzzled as to the drift of
+his argument, I looked straight into his face, a round, rather florid
+countenance, with a small sandy moustache.
+
+"Good," he said.  "Now I want you to answer me, in confidence, the
+questions I will put to you.  Your replies I shall treat as absolutely
+secret."
+
+"Captain Pollock is from the Intelligence Department," remarked the
+inspector, interrupting in explanation.
+
+"I will answer, of course, to the best of my ability," I said.  "But
+with one reservation--I will say nothing that might reflect upon a
+woman's honour."
+
+He pursed his lips ever so slightly.  But that very slight movement did
+not pass me unnoticed.
+
+Was a woman's honour concerned in this?
+
+The two men exchanged glances, and in an instant a fierce resentment
+arose within me.  Between us, upon the bare table, lay the gold
+chatelaine that I had bought at Bouet's, in the Gallerie at Monte Carlo
+a year and a half ago.
+
+It had been found in that tunnel on the main line of the Great Northern.
+Something tragic had occurred.  Was there any further room for doubt?
+
+"The matter does not concern a woman's honour--er--not exactly so," the
+man in khaki said slowly.
+
+"I want to know--" And he paused, as though hesitating to explain his
+motive for coming along to see me.
+
+"What do you want to know about?"  I asked boldly.  "Come, Captain
+Pollock, let us face each other.  There is a mystery here in Miss
+Lethmere's disappearance, and in the finding of this bunch of feminine
+fripperies in the tunnel.  I intend to elucidate it."
+
+"And I will assist you, Mr Munro--if you will only be frank with me."
+
+"Frank!"  I echoed.  "Of course I'll be frank!"  Again he looked me
+straight in the face with those funny, half-closed little eyes of his.
+Then, after a few moments' pause, he asked:
+
+"Now--tell me.  Is it a fact that you, with a friend of yours named
+Ashton, have made some very remarkable electrical discovery?"
+
+I looked at him, stunned by surprise.  He noticed my abject
+astonishment.
+
+"I'll go farther," he went on.  "Does this discovery of yours concern
+aircraft; is it designed to bring disaster upon Zeppelins; and are you
+engaged in perfecting a secret invention in which you have the most
+entire confidence?  In other words, have you nearly perfected a method
+by which you will be able to successfully combat enemy airships in the
+air?  Tell me the truth, Mr Munro--in strictest secrecy, remember."
+
+His words staggered me.  How could he know the secret that we had so
+closely guarded?
+
+I did not reply for several moments.
+
+"Well?" he asked, repeating his question.
+
+"I don't see why I should reveal to anyone--even to you--what I have
+been doing in the interests of the defence of our country," I protested.
+
+"Except that by doing so we should both be able to carry our
+investigations farther--and, I hope, to a satisfactory issue."
+
+I had given my word to Teddy and to Roseye, and they had given their
+words to me, to disclose nothing.  This I recollected and, therefore, I
+hesitated.
+
+The captain, seeing my reluctance, said:
+
+"In this inquiry we ought, surely, to assist each other, Mr Munro!
+Miss Lethmere is missing, and it is for us to unite in our efforts to
+elucidate the mystery."
+
+"But how can answers to the questions you have put to me serve, in any
+way whatever, to bring us nearer to the truth of what has happened to
+Miss Lethmere?"  I queried.
+
+"They do.  I merely ask you, yes or no.  Your reply will at once place
+us in a far better position to conduct this most important inquiry," he
+said.  "I may tell you that at present the gravest suspicion rests upon
+Miss Lethmere."
+
+"Suspicion!"  I echoed angrily.  "Of what, pray?"
+
+The captain drew a long breath and, once more looking me straight in the
+face, replied:
+
+"Well, of being a secret agent of the German Government--or to put it
+very bluntly, of being a spy!"
+
+"Roseye a spy!"  I shouted, starting up from my chair.  "A most foul and
+abominable lie!  How dare you cast any such imputation upon her?"
+
+"It is, unfortunately, no imputation, Mr Munro," replied the captain.
+"You naturally doubt the truth, but we have documentary evidence that
+the missing lady is not exactly the purely patriotic young person whom
+you have so long believed her to be.  Since the war lots of men who have
+trusted pretty women have had many rude awakenings, I assure you."
+
+"I'll believe nothing against Roseye!"
+
+"Well," answered Pollock, taking from his pocket an official envelope,
+"perhaps you will look at this!" and from the envelope he took a half
+sheet of dark-blue notepaper of a type and size used by ladies, and
+handed it across to me, saying:
+
+"This was found in her card-case here.  From Scotland Yard they sent it
+over to us this afternoon, and its real import we very quickly
+discovered."
+
+My eyes fell upon the paper, and I saw that it was covered with lines of
+puzzling figures in groups of seven, all written neatly in a distinctly
+feminine hand.
+
+"Well," I asked in surprise, "what does all this mean?"
+
+"Only one thing," was the hard reply.  "This paper, folded small and
+secreted, was found in this card-case.  Those figures you see convey a
+message in the secret code of the Intelligence Department of the German
+Naval War Staff--a seven-figure code.  A couple of hours ago we
+succeeded in deciphering the message, which is to the effect that you
+and Ashton have made an astounding discovery and have succeeded in
+directing a powerful electric wave by which you can charge metals at a
+distance, and cause sparking across any intervening spaces of those
+metals.  By this means you are hoping to defeat Zeppelins by exploding
+the gas inside their ballonets, and as you are both highly dangerous to
+the success of the enemy's plans for the wholesale destruction of life
+and property by airships, it is here suggested that you should both meet
+sudden ends at the hands of certain paid hired assassins of the Berlin
+secret police."
+
+Then, after a pause, the captain again looked at me, and said very
+slowly:
+
+"Mr Munro.  This document found in Miss Lethmere's purse is nothing
+else but your own death-warrant!  Miss Lethmere is a spy and, though she
+may be your friend, she is plotting your death!"
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE SIGNALMAN'S STORY.
+
+I sat, staggered by that damning evidence placed before me!
+
+Proof indisputable lay there that Roseye--my own dear well-beloved, she
+whose ready lips met mine so often in those fierce, trustful caresses--
+the intrepid girl who had been as "a pal" to Teddy and myself in our
+secret experiments, and who knew all the innermost secrets of our
+invention and our power to fight Zeppelins--was a traitor to her
+country!
+
+It was incredible!
+
+Was it by her connivance that the steel bolt in my machine had been
+withdrawn, and one of wood substituted?
+
+In this terrible war men laughed, and women wept.  The men went out to
+the front in Flanders with all the fine patriotic sentiment of Britons,
+singing gaily the various patriotic songs of war.  But alas! how many
+went to their death, and the women wept in silence in the back streets
+of our dear old London, and of every town in the work-a-day kingdom.
+
+In official circles it was known--known indeed to the public at large--
+that the Zeppelin menace was a real and serious one.  Teddy and I had,
+in secret, striven our best to discover a means by which to combat these
+sinister attacks upon our non-combatants.
+
+Yet upon that leather-covered table before me lay that puzzling cryptic
+message found among the belongings of my missing beloved.
+
+The whole affair was, indeed, a mystery.  After a few moments of silence
+I raised my head and, looking again at Pollock, said:
+
+"All this is, of course, very interesting from the point of view of a
+police problem, but the hard, real fact remains."
+
+"What fact?" he asked.
+
+"That I, with my friend Ashton, am in possession of certain discoveries
+by which we can, under given conditions, bring Zeppelins to the ground."
+
+The red-tabbed captain curled his lip in a rather supercilious smile.
+
+He was evidently one of those persons imported into the Department after
+the outbreak of war and, in comparison with Barton as an investigator,
+was a nonentity.
+
+True, a piece of paper bearing a message in the enemy's cipher had been
+found secreted in Roseye's card-case.
+
+But I argued that before the owner of the card-case could be condemned,
+she must be found, and an explanation demanded of her.
+
+"You surely cannot condemn an accused person in her absence!"  I argued.
+
+Barton agreed with me.  It was against all principles of justice to
+condemn an accused person unheard.
+
+"Well," explained the red-tabbed captain, "upon the face of it, there
+can be no real defence.  Here we have the missing lady's belongings
+found in a tunnel, and in them--fortunately, for ourselves--we discover
+a message intended for transmission to the enemy.  That message, Mr
+Munro, is quite plain, and speaks for itself.  You have made an
+interesting scientific discovery.  Possibly they have ferreted out your
+secret.  It interests them: they fear you and, therefore, they have
+plotted your death."
+
+"I won't believe that!"  I cried in angry resentment.  "Ask yourself!
+Would you yourself believe it of the woman whom you loved?"
+
+"My dear Mr Munro," replied the captain coldly, "we are at war now.  We
+cannot gauge either our feelings, or our beliefs, by the standard of
+pre-war days."
+
+"Well," I declared bluntly, "I don't believe it.  Miss Lethmere would
+never hold any communication with the enemy.  Of that I'm quite
+positive."
+
+"But we have it written down here--in black and white!"
+
+"True.  But before we take this as authentic we must discover her, and
+question her.  To you mysterious people of the Secret Service the task
+will, surely, not be so very difficult.  You know the mystery of Miss
+Lethmere's sudden and unaccountable disappearance.  Therefore I leave
+all to you--to investigate, and to elucidate the puzzle.  I don't
+pretend to account for it.  You, both of you, of the War Intelligence
+Department and the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, have the facts
+before you--plain facts--the disappearance of Lady Lethmere's daughter.
+When her whereabouts is ascertained then the remainder of the inquiry is
+surely quite easy.  I am not an investigator," I added with biting
+sarcasm.  "I'm only an inventor, and I leave it to you both to discover
+why Miss Lethmere disappeared."
+
+"You apparently have invented something of which the enemy is
+determined, at all hazards, to learn the truth," remarked Inspector
+Barton.
+
+I laughed, and slowly took a cigarette from my case.
+
+"They will never know that," I declared with entire confidence.  "I can
+tell you both that the secret experiments of Ashton and myself have been
+crowned with success.  We have, however, been most wary and watchful.
+We are well aware that at our works out at Gunnersbury there have been
+intruders, but those who have dared to enter at night to try and
+discover our plans have been entirely misled and, up to the present, no
+single person beyond ourselves has ever seen, or has ever gained any
+knowledge whatsoever of that electrical arrangement which constitutes
+our discovery."
+
+"Then you really can fight Zeppelins?" asked Barton, much interested.
+
+I nodded in the affirmative, and smiled.
+
+"So what is written here in cipher is perfectly correct?" asked Pollock.
+
+"Perfectly.  The missing lady has actively assisted Mr Ashton and
+myself in our experiments."
+
+"And apparently the lady wrote down this message giving you away,"
+remarked Barton.
+
+"Somebody wrote it--but it certainly is not her handwriting."
+
+"Quite so.  Spies frequently get other persons to copy their messages in
+order that they can disclaim them," replied the Intelligence officer.
+"We've had several such cases before us of late."
+
+His words aroused my anger bitterly.  That Roseye had held any
+communication with the enemy I absolutely refused to believe.  Such
+suggestion was perfectly monstrous!
+
+Yet how was it possible that anyone should know of the success of our
+experiments at Gunnersbury?
+
+Recollection of that well-remembered night when Teddy had declared there
+had been strangers prowling about, flashed across my mind.
+
+I knew, too well, that the evil that had befallen me, as well as the
+disappearance of my well-beloved, had been the work of the Invisible
+Hand--that dastardly, baneful influence that had wrecked my machine and
+nearly hurled me to the grave.
+
+"Well," I said at last, "I would much like a copy of this remarkable
+document."
+
+"I fear that I cannot give it to you, Mr Munro," was the captain's slow
+reply.  "At present it is a confidential matter, concerning only the
+Department, and the person in whose possession it was."
+
+"We must find that person," I said resolutely.
+
+"What is your theory regarding Miss Lethmere?"  I asked, turning to
+Barton.
+
+"Well, Mr Munro, it would appear that either the lady herself, or some
+thief, threw the chatelaine from a train passing north through the
+tunnel."
+
+"There may have been a struggle," I remarked, "and in trying to raise
+the alarm it might have dropped from her hand."
+
+"That certainly might have been the case," the inspector admitted.
+
+An hour later, accompanied by Teddy and Barton, I set out from King's
+Cross station and, on arrival at Welwyn--a journey a little over twenty
+miles--we spent the evening in searching inquiry.
+
+The station-master knew nothing, except that both tunnels had been
+searched without result.
+
+The story told by the platelayer who found the chatelaine was to the
+effect that he noticed a paper bag lying in the centre of the up-express
+line and, on picking it up, found the jingling bunch of gold
+impedimenta.  The paper bag had probably been blown along there by a
+passing train and had somehow become entangled among the short lengths
+of chain composing the chatelaine.
+
+"Of course it might ha' been there a couple o' days," the stout,
+sooty-faced man replied to a question of Barton's.  "I work in the
+tunnels all the time, but I didn't see it before to-day.  We often finds
+things thrown out o' trains--things people want to get rid of.  They
+must 'ave quite a fine collection o' things up at King's Cross--things
+what I and my mates have found while we've been a goin' along with our
+flares."
+
+"You can form no idea when it might have been thrown out?"  I asked.
+
+"Probably late last night, or early this mornin'," was the man's reply.
+"I started to examine all the rails just after eleven o'clock last
+night, and had not quite finished when the 11:30 express out o' King's
+Cross for Edinburgh came through."
+
+"It might have been thrown from that," I remarked.  "Where was the first
+stop made by that express?"
+
+"Grantham, sir--at 1:33 in the morning--then York," he replied, in a
+hard, rough voice.  His face was deeply furrowed, and his eyes were
+screwed up, for he spent more than half his life in the darkness,
+choking smoke and wild racket of those two cavernous tunnels through
+which trains roared constantly, both night and day.  "Of course, sir,"
+he added, "there were lots o' trains a passing on the up-line during the
+night, mails, goods, and passengers.  Therefore it's quite impossible to
+say from which the gold stuff was thrown.  My idea is that a thief
+wanted to get rid of it."
+
+"No," I replied.  "If that were so he'd most certainly have taken the
+money from the purse.  The Treasury-notes and silver could not have been
+identified."
+
+"Then your theory is that it was dropped out by accident?" asked Teddy,
+who had been listening to the man's story with keenest interest.
+
+"Well--it certainly was not got rid of purposely by any thief," was my
+answer, and with this Barton agreed.
+
+Of other railwaymen we made inquiry.  To each I showed Roseye's
+photograph, but none of the porters had any recollection of seeing her.
+
+The signalman who was on night duty in the box north of the second
+tunnel was somewhat dubious.  When I showed him the photograph he said:
+
+"Well, sir, Saturday night was a bright calm night--and when the Scotch
+express was put through to me from Welwyn box I was wondering if there
+were any Zeppelins about, for it was just such another night as that on
+which they recently attacked London.  They always seem to look for the
+railway lines for guidance up to town.  After I had attended to my
+signals, and accepted the express, I went to the window of my cabin to
+look out.  As I was standing there the express came out of the tunnel
+and flew by.  The driver was a little late and was, I saw, making up
+time.  As it went past nearly all the windows had drawn blinds--all but
+about three, I think.  At one of them I caught a glimpse of two women
+who, standing up near the door, seemed to be struggling with each
+other."
+
+"You saw them distinctly?"  I asked eagerly.  "Two women?"
+
+"Yes.  I saw them quite plainly," he replied, and I realised that he was
+a man of some intelligence.  "When trains go by, especially the
+expresses, the glimpse we get is only for a fraction of a second.  But
+in that we can often see inside the carriages at night, if the
+regulations are broken and the blinds are up.  A good many people
+disregard the danger--even in these days of Zeppelins."
+
+"They do," I said.  "But please describe, as far as you are able,
+exactly what you saw."
+
+"Well, sir, the Scotch express tore past just as I was standing at the
+window star-gazing.  My mate at Stevenage had just put through an
+up-goods, and all was clear, so I stood wondering if the Zepps would
+dare to venture out.  Then I heard the low roar of the Edinburgh
+night-express approaching up the tunnel, and a moment later it ran past
+me.  As it did so I saw in one of the carriages the two women standing
+there.  Both had their hats off.  One, a fine big strong person I should
+take her to be, seized the other, whose hair had fallen about her
+shoulders, and she seemed to be helplessly in her grip."
+
+"Did you report it?"  Barton asked quickly.
+
+"I rang up Stevenage and told my mate that something was going on in the
+express.  But he replied later on to say that he had watched, and seen
+nothing.  Later on in the night he spoke to me again, and said that the
+man in the Hitchin box, who had kept a look out, had reported back that
+all blinds of the express had then been drawn."
+
+"So the assumption seems to be that Roseye was attacked by some strange
+woman," I said, turning to Teddy.  "She struggled at the door, and in
+the struggle the chatelaine which she had in her hand fell out upon the
+line."
+
+Barton drew a long breath.
+
+"It's all a profound mystery, Mr Munro," he said.
+
+"If your theory is correct, then we must go a step further and assume
+that the stout woman overpowered Miss Lethmere, and afterwards drew down
+the blinds before the express reached Hitchin, where there is a junction
+and the train would, I suppose, slow down."
+
+"Yes, sir," exclaimed the signalman.  "Drivers have orders to go slow
+through Hitchin because of the points there."
+
+"But why should Miss Lethmere be attacked by a woman?"  I queried in
+dismay.
+
+"Why should she have disappeared from home at all, Mr Munro?" asked
+Barton.  "Yes.  I quite agree with you, sir, the more we probe this
+mystery, the more and more complicated it becomes."
+
+"Well, Mr Barton?"  I exclaimed.  "Now, tell me frankly, what's your
+theory.  Why has Miss Lethmere disappeared?"
+
+The inspector, one of the best and shrewdest officials attached to the
+Criminal Investigation Department, paused for a few moments and, looking
+me full in the face, replied:
+
+"To tell you the truth, Mr Munro, I'm still absolutely puzzled.  The
+whole affair seems to grow more involved, and more astounding."
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+REVEALS AN ASTOUNDING FACT.
+
+Weeks passed, but alas! the problem remained unsolved.  I became plunged
+in the darkest depths of despair.
+
+The hue-and-cry had been raised all over the kingdom.  Sir Herbert
+Lethmere had offered a reward for any information concerning his
+daughter, but nobody came forward with any really tangible declaration.
+
+The hard indisputable fact was that she had gone down those front-door
+steps in Cadogan Gardens and disappeared as completely as though the
+earth had opened and swallowed her.
+
+For me, those weeks were weeks of keen, hourly anxiety, weeks of grief
+and breathless forebodings.
+
+The woman I loved so dearly had been snatched from me, and now I felt
+that I had no further object in life.  Indeed, I had no heart to make
+any further experiments to perfect my Zeppelin-destroyer, and though
+Teddy, in his old cheery way, tried to console me and endeavoured to get
+me down to Gunnersbury, I always firmly refused to go.  The place was
+now hateful to me.  My keenness had vanished.  Now and then I went out
+to Hendon and looked at Roseye's machine still there.  Her mechanic,
+whom Sir Herbert still kept on--he being unfit for military service--
+hung about the aerodrome and smoked "yellow perils" awaiting his
+mistress's return.
+
+Once or twice, on bright days, I made a short flight just to keep fit.
+Otherwise I generally remained at home in my rooms pondering, or else
+out trying to follow some imaginary clue to which my theory led me.
+
+Lionel Eastwell always expressed himself full of sympathy.  Many times
+we met at the club and elsewhere, and he always expressed his belief
+that Roseye was somewhere with friends.  Indeed, he seemed full of
+optimism.
+
+"My firm opinion is that Miss Lethmere has met with an accident, and is
+in some hospital or other--some cottage hospital perhaps.  Maybe she has
+lost her memory as result of her unfortunate mishap," he suggested one
+day.  "There are lots of such cases recorded in the papers."
+
+Truth to tell, my suspicion of Lionel Eastwell had daily increased.
+First, he had always appeared far too inquisitive regarding our
+experimental work.  Secondly, he had been ever polite and affable
+towards Roseye with a view, it seemed, of preserving an extremely close
+friendship.  Why, I wondered?  I knew that she had liked him for his
+courtesy and pleasant demeanour ever since they had first met.  And the
+point that they had first met in Germany I had never forgotten.  It had
+increased my suspicion--and pointedly so.
+
+The most puzzling fact concerning him, however, was that I had
+discovered during my eager and constant investigations, from one of the
+boys at Hendon--Dick Ferguson, who was flying a new REP "Parasol," that
+on the very evening of the day that I had called at Albemarle Street to
+find him ill in bed, he had met him in Hatchett's in Piccadilly, and had
+actually dined with him there in the grill-room.
+
+When I had sat at Eastwell's bedside, three hours before, he had then
+declared himself unable to move without pain, and had told me that the
+doctor had strictly forbidden him to get up.  Yet, on that very same
+night, he had dined down below in the cheerful grill-room and, according
+to Dick, was as merry as ever.
+
+These were facts which certainly required explanation.
+
+Why had he not gone along to the Piccadilly Hotel, or to the Club, as
+was his habit?  Was it because, fearing to be seen, he had chosen the
+smaller and quieter resort?
+
+Most probably he feared to meet either Teddy or myself at the
+Piccadilly, for we both frequently went there as a change from the
+Automobile Club.  We flying-men are a small circle, and we have our own
+particular haunts--just as every other profession has.
+
+Three times I had questioned Dick Ferguson regarding Lionel's presence
+at that small, but popular restaurant on that particular night.  At
+first I believed that he had probably mistaken the date--which was so
+easy.  But he had fixed it absolutely by telling me that it was the
+night when the Admiralty had admitted that Zeppelins had again been over
+Essex and Norfolk and been driven back by our anti-aircraft guns.
+
+Certainly I had no reason to doubt Dick's story.  He was a pal of
+Teddy's, and I had been up with him twice on his new "Parasol"--that
+machine which Hendon men will remember as having caused such a
+sensation.
+
+How flying has changed since the war!  In the pre-war days those Sunday
+meetings out at Hendon, with their passenger-flights, were quite smart
+frivolous gatherings.  In the enclosure stood rows of fine cars with
+many young "bloods"--who afterwards gallantly put on khaki--with many of
+their best girls, some of them of the bluest blood of the land, while
+others were revue actresses, with a few women aged, apeing and adipose,
+with of course a good sprinkling of girls on the keen look out for
+husbands.
+
+There are some men who went regularly to "exhibitions of flying" before
+the war who could tell strange tales--of pretty women held in the
+clutches of blackguards, and of good, innocent boys who fell, were
+blackmailed, and were "squeezed" to their death.
+
+But it is ever so in sport.  The racecourse and the _tapis vert_ have
+both been the cause of the downfall of a good many excellent fellows,
+therefore the organisers of the aerodromes are not to be blamed for the
+exploits of those pestilent undesirables who as at Epsom, Newmarket or
+Sandown, having paid the admission fee, passed through its gates.
+
+Ah!  I recall--and many will recall with me--those summer afternoons
+upon the lawn where the little tea-tables were set, and where some of
+the worst girls in the smartest and most daring of costumes sat with
+some of the best girls in the neatest to sip the innocuous beverage and
+to nibble cakes with the best and bravest young fellows in all England.
+
+That strange, daring little world of flying-men--knew it, but they were
+level-headed and, keeping themselves to themselves, gave the cold
+shoulder to the unknown ones who drifted in from nowhere to display
+their brilliant raiment, and to watch, in a bored way, such feats as
+looping the loop, and other exercises which have proved such splendid
+training for our flying-boys to-day.
+
+I did not trust Eastwell.  Both his actions and his attitude puzzled me.
+An intimate friend of Sir Herbert, he was often at Cadogan Gardens,
+telling his host and Lady Lethmere that he firmly believed that Roseye
+was still ill, and still unidentified.
+
+Purposely I avoided him.  Teddy and I were in full agreement over this.
+A man who had been ill in bed and in pain, with no prospect of getting
+about for some days, and yet could go and dine merrily at Hatchett's
+that same evening, was, I argued, not to be trusted further.
+
+All that Captain Pollock and Inspector Barton had told me served to
+increase the amazing puzzle.
+
+They said that Roseye was a spy of Germany, but I defied them.  I
+declared that they had lied.
+
+"My own opinion, Munro, is that my poor girl is dead," Sir Herbert
+declared one afternoon when I called.  "I know," he went on
+sympathetically.  "I know how deeply devoted you were to her.  But alas!
+we must be brave and face facts in this critical situation in which we
+all find ourselves to-day."
+
+For a moment I did not reply.  I had frankly told him of that mysterious
+message found in Roseye's card-case, and he had followed every channel
+of my inquiries with eager interest, paying most of the out-of-pocket
+expenses and having one or two confidential interviews with Inspector
+Barton.
+
+Like myself, and like Teddy also, he would not hear of any allegation
+against his daughter.  That cryptic message he regarded as the work of
+the Invisible Hand which, since August 1914, had been raised against our
+dear beloved country.
+
+Once or twice Lionel Eastwell had called upon me in Shaftesbury Avenue
+and sat beside my fire, discussing the war, the Zeppelin menace and the
+apparent apathy in certain quarters to deal firmly with it.  At that
+moment the popular Press were loud in their parrot-cries that we had no
+adequate defence.  In a sense, they voiced the public demand.  But those
+papers which were now loudest in the denunciation of the Government were
+the selfsame which, before the war, had jeered at any suggested progress
+in aviation, and had laughed to scorn any prizes offered to aviators as
+encouragement in designing machines, or in flying them.
+
+The Invisible Hand was, even in those days, laid heavily upon the Press,
+who laughed at Zeppelins, and declared that on that night long ago, when
+they had been seen hovering over Sheerness, the naval witnesses of their
+arrival were "pulling the long bow."
+
+The Invisible Hand indeed stretched far and wide in the pre-war days.
+From Wick to Walmer, from Cork to Cromer, and from Donegal to Dover, the
+British public were assured that Zeppelins could never cross the North
+Sea.  They were only very delicate gas-bags--some called them
+egg-shells--which could perhaps take up passengers in fair weather and,
+given continued fair weather, deposit them somewhere in safety.
+
+The Invisible Hand wrote screeds of deliberate lies and utterly
+bamboozled England, just as the Crowned Criminal of Germany carried on
+his secret and insidious policy of the Great Betrayal.
+
+Curiously enough the very organs of the Press which in 1913, when
+strange airships were reported over Yorkshire and the North-East coast,
+received the news with incredulity and amusement, were the very organs
+which now cried the loudest that something must be done to destroy
+Zeppelins.
+
+I was chatting with Teddy one afternoon in my room, and had pointed out
+that fact, whereupon he blew a cloud of cigarette smoke from his lips,
+and said:
+
+"You're quite right, my dear Claude.  The armchair sceptics of 1913 were
+the people who have since told us that Zeppelins could kill only an
+occasional chicken--that Zeppelins could not reach London--that
+Zeppelins, if they did get to London, would never return--that Zeppelins
+were useless in bad weather--that Zeppelins could not survive a fall of
+snow--and so on."
+
+"Do you recollect how one section of the Press violently attacked
+another because the latter had dared to warn the country against the
+danger of attacks from the air?"  I asked.  "The purblind optimists
+waxed hilarious, and called it the `Scareship Campaign.'"
+
+Teddy laughed, as he stretched himself in his chair.
+
+"Yes," he said.  "I recollect quite well, though I had not yet taken my
+`ticket,' how the `trust-our-dear-German-brother' propagandists were
+terribly angry because some newspaper or other had demanded a large
+provision for dirigibles in the coming Estimates.  They accused the
+paper of `staging the performance' for the sake of a new journalistic
+scoop.  One paper, a copy of which I still have," Teddy went on,
+"expressed greatest amusement at the statements of witnesses who had
+seen and heard Zeppelins on the North-East coast.  I was only reading it
+the other day.  One person heard `the whirr of engines'; another `a
+faint throbbing noise.'  To one, the airship appeared as `a cigar-shaped
+vessel,' to another as `a small luminous cloud.'  These variations--they
+are not contradictions--were sufficient, in the opinion of that
+particular paper, to discredit the whole business.  The writer of the
+article calmly stated that what was alleged to be a Zeppelin `turns out
+to have been merely a farmer working at night in a field on the hilltop,
+taking manure about in a creaky wheelbarrow, with a light swung on the
+top of a broomstick attached to it.'"
+
+"I know, Teddy," I exclaimed.  "Our dear old England has been sadly
+misled by those who intended to send us to our ruin and dominate the
+world.  Yet we have one consolation--you and I--namely, that we have,
+within our hands, a power of which the enemy knows nothing, and--"
+
+"But the enemy suspects, my dear old fellow," said my friend seriously.
+"That's why you had your unfortunate spill--and why Roseye is to-day
+missing.  Probably I shall be the next to fall beneath the clutch of the
+Invisible Hand."
+
+"Yes.  For heaven's sake! do be careful," I exclaimed anxiously.  "You
+can't be too wary!"
+
+"Well--we've the satisfaction of knowing that they haven't discovered
+our secret," he declared.
+
+"No--and, by Jove! they won't!"  I declared firmly.  "Yet, the way in
+which we have been misled by those infected with the Teuton taint is
+really pathetic.  I remember the wheelbarrow story quite well.  Just
+about that same time a foreign correspondent of one of our London daily
+papers wrote telling us that Zeppelins were mere toys.  They cost fifty
+thousand pounds apiece to build, and German experts had agreed that in
+fine weather they might reasonably expect to reach our coast, but that
+it was doubtful if they could get back.  The return voyage, with the
+petrol running low and the capacity of the ship and crew approaching
+exhaustion, would probably end in disaster if the wind were contrary.
+We were also told by this wonderful correspondent that the idea that
+these ships could drop from one to two tons of explosives on our heads
+at any time was absurd."
+
+"Yes, yes," Teddy sighed.  "It is all too awful!  That correspondent's
+story only serves to show how easily we were fascinated by German
+friendship, and by the Emperor himself, who raced at Cowes, and who,
+while bowing his head piously over Queen Victoria's grave, was already
+secretly plotting our downfall.  But are we not secretly plotting the
+downfall of the Zeppelins--eh?" he added, with his usual cheery good
+humour.
+
+"Yes, we are.  And, by Gad, we'll show the world what we can do, ere
+long," I said.  "But I am full of fierce anger when I recollect how our
+little aviation circle has been ridiculed by red-taped officialdom, and
+starved by the public, who thought us airy cranks just because the
+Invisible Hand was all-powerful in our midst.  The German experts
+deceived the Berlin correspondents of our newspapers; the Emperor
+uttered his blasphemous prayers for peace, the Teutonic money-bags
+jingled and their purse-strings were opened.  And so our trustful public
+were lulled to sleep, and we were told to forget all about Zeppelins for
+they were mere harmless toys, and we were urged, in leading articles of
+our daily papers, to get on with the Plural Voting Bill, and to
+investigate the cause in the fall of the output of sandstone--`including
+ganister' as officialdom describes that commodity."
+
+"True, Claude," exclaimed my friend, as we smoked together.  "The whole
+thing is a striking example of the blindness of those who would not see;
+and who, even now, when innocent women and children are being killed,
+are dismissing the raids as `of no military importance.'"
+
+"Since war broke out we've learnt one or two things--haven't we?"  I
+said.  "Though the public are still in ignorance of the actual truth, we
+flying-men who have studied aeronautics as perfected by Germany, know
+that Zeppelins can now be brought to a standstill and mark time during
+the observations of their pilots.  Aiming is still in a primitive stage,
+notwithstanding the use of `directed' aerial torpedoes such as we know,
+by the Press bureau, have been used.  Smoke-bombs are effective to cover
+the rising of the airship to safety heights.  Zeppelins can fly at a
+height of two and a half to three miles, while shots through the fabric
+can be repaired during the flight."
+
+"Exactly," replied Teddy.  "But we have also proved that warnings to
+Britons do not foster panic.  Nowadays we see quite plainly that
+Zeppelin raids have been adopted by the Germans as part of their regular
+campaign, and it is quite clear that during the coming months they may
+`increase and multiply'--whatever the civilised world may say or think.
+The enemy is out to damage our cities, and has, indeed, told the
+neutrals that he will do so, regardless of every law of civilised
+warfare."
+
+"I contend that Zeppelin raids _are_ of military importance--of very
+great importance--and I intend to devote myself to treating them as
+such, whatever officialdom may say to the contrary," I declared.
+
+"Bravo! old man!"  Teddy said.  "And I'll help you--with every ounce of
+energy I possess!"
+
+Yet scarcely had he uttered those words, when Theed opened the door and
+held it back for a visitor to enter.
+
+I started to my feet, pale and speechless!  I could not believe my eyes.
+
+There, before us, upon the threshold, dressed cheaply, plain, even
+shabbily, and utterly unlike her usual self, stood Roseye--my own
+beloved!
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+THE LEOPARD'S EYES.
+
+For a few moments I stood dumbfounded.
+
+I could scarcely believe my own eyes.
+
+The figure before me was pale-faced and wan.  She wore an old blue felt
+hat with wide brim which was most unbecoming, a faded jersey that had
+once been dark mauve, and an old black skirt, while her boots were
+cracked and bulging, and she was without gloves.
+
+She smiled at me inanely, as she came across the room and Theed closed
+the door after her.
+
+"Roseye!"  I gasped.  "Whatever does this mean?"
+
+"Is it really you!" cried Teddy, equally amazed.
+
+"It is," she replied in a low, very weary voice.
+
+I saw that she appeared exhausted, for she clutched at the edge of the
+table, so I led her gently to my chair wherein she sank inertly, with a
+deep sigh.
+
+"Roseye," I said.  "Where have you been?"
+
+She turned her gaze upon the fire.  Her face remained hard-set.  The
+expression upon her white countenance was one of tragedy.
+
+Her chest heaved and fell, and I saw that her ungloved hands, grasping
+the arms of the chair, were trembling.
+
+"You are cold!"  I cried.  And dashing to the cupboard I got out some
+brandy and a siphon.
+
+She sipped a few drops from the glass I offered her, smiling in grateful
+acknowledgment.
+
+Then, as I stood upon the hearthrug facing her, I repeated my question:
+
+"Tell us, Roseye.  Where have you been?"
+
+In her great blue eyes I noticed a strange, vacant expression; a look
+such as I had never seen there before.  She only shook her head
+mournfully.
+
+"What has happened?"  I inquired, bending and placing my hand tenderly
+upon her shoulder.
+
+But, with a sudden movement, she buried her face in her small hands and
+burst into a torrent of tears.
+
+"Don't ask me!" she sobbed.  "Don't ask me, Claude!"
+
+"Look here, old chap," exclaimed Teddy, who was quite as mystified as
+myself.  "I'll come back later on.  That Miss Lethmere is safe is, after
+all, the one great consolation."
+
+And, rising, my friend discreetly left the room.
+
+When he had gone I fell upon my knees before my rediscovered love and,
+taking her cold hands in mine, covered them with hot, fervent kisses,
+saying:
+
+"Never mind, darling.  You are safe again--and with me!"
+
+All my efforts to calm her, however, proved unavailing, for she still
+sobbed bitterly--the reaction, no doubt, of finding herself again beside
+me.  With women, in circumstances of great strain, it is the feminine
+privilege to relieve themselves by emotion.
+
+"Speak!"  I urged of her.  "Tell me where you've been, darling?"
+
+But she only shook her head and, still convulsed by sobs, sat there
+inert and heedless of all about her.
+
+As I knelt in silence, the quiet of my room remained unbroken save for
+the low ticking of the clock, and the soft sobs of the woman I so dearly
+loved.
+
+Tenderly I took my own handkerchief and wiped those tears from her
+white, hard-set face.  Then, for the first time, I saw that her left
+eyebrow showed a dark red scar.  It had not been there on the last
+occasion when we had been together.
+
+That mark upon her brow set me wondering.
+
+Across her forehead she drew her hand wearily, as at last she sat
+forward in her chair, an action as though to clear her confused and
+troubled brain.
+
+"Let me take off your hat," I said and, with a man's clumsiness, removed
+the old felt hat from her head.
+
+As I did so her wealth of soft hair, which I saw had been sadly
+neglected, fell unkempt about her shoulders.
+
+"That--_that woman_!" she suddenly ejaculated, half starting from her
+seat.  "_Ah! that woman_!" she cried.
+
+"What woman, dear?"  I asked, much mystified at her words.
+
+"That woman--that awful woman!" she shouted.
+
+"Ah! send her away--save me from her--Oh! save me.  _Look_!"
+
+And she pointed straight before her at some phantom which she had
+conjured up in her imagination.
+
+At once I realised that she was hysterical, and that some hideous ghost
+of her past adventure had arisen before her.
+
+"Calm yourself, darling," I urged softly, my arm around her waist.
+"There is no one here.  You are alone--alone with me--Claude!"
+
+"Claude!" she echoed, turning toward me and gazing blankly into my eyes
+with an expression which lacked recognition.  "Oh--yes!" she added in a
+tone of surprise.  "Why--yes--Claude!  Is it you--_really you_?"
+
+"Yes.  I am Claude--and you are alone with me," I said in great
+apprehension, for I feared lest she might be demented.  No doubt she had
+been through some terrible experiences since last I had clasped her
+hand.
+
+Again she sighed deeply.  For the next few moments she gazed into my
+eyes in silence.  Their stony stare thrilled and awed me.  At last a
+very faint smile played about her lips, and she exclaimed: "Oh, yes!
+How awfully silly of me, Claude!  How very foolish.  Forgive me, won't
+you?"
+
+"Forgive you, darling!  Why, of course," I said, pressing her closely to
+me.
+
+"But--but that terrible woman!" she cried, still terrified.  "You won't
+let her come near me again--will you?"
+
+"No.  She shan't.  I'm with you, and will protect you, darling.  Trust
+in me."
+
+"Ah!" she sighed.  "It was awful.  How--how I've lived through it I
+don't know."
+
+"Through what?"  I asked, eager to induce her to tell her story.
+
+"No," she answered.  "You--you would never believe me!--you would never
+understand!  Oh! that woman!  Look!" and in terror she raised her finger
+and pointed again straight before her.  "Look!  Don't you see her!
+She's fixed her eyes upon me--_those awful leopard's eyes_!"
+
+"There's nobody here, Roseye," I assured her.  "You're alone with me."
+
+"Alone!  Why, no.  She's there--see straight over there!" cried my love,
+her face distorted by wild terror.  "Ah! she's coming nearer!" she
+shrieked, again covering her face with her hands, as though to shut out
+the imaginary face.
+
+"Ugh!" she shuddered.  "Don't let her touch me!  Don't let her touch me!
+Don't, Claude--for Heaven's sake, I beg of you.  That woman--that awful
+woman with the leopard's eyes!"
+
+"Come, come," I said, rather severely.  "You must not give way to these
+hallucinations, Roseye.  There's nobody here, I assure you.  It's all--"
+
+"But she _is_ here!" she shrieked.  "You can't deceive _me_; she's
+here--with us.  Perhaps you can't see her--but I can.  Oh! those
+horrible eyes--the fiend!  Ah! what I have suffered!"
+
+I did not reply.  I was at a loss how to act.  Sight of my beloved
+betraying such abject terror unnerved me.
+
+Too well did I recollect the story of the railway signalman near Welwyn,
+how, when the night-express came out of the tunnel tearing north from
+London, he had distinctly seen two women struggling.  One was in the
+grasp of the other.
+
+Was this the woman whom Roseye believed was present in my room--the
+mysterious Woman with the Leopard's Eyes?
+
+I crossed to the window, and standing at the spot where at my love
+declared she could see the mysterious female by which she seemed
+haunted, said:
+
+"Now, look, dear!  There is nobody here."
+
+"There is!" she persisted.  "She's there just behind you.  Mind!  She
+intends to do you harm!  Yes," she added.  "I saw her at Hendon.  I
+remember, most distinctly!  She knows you--and she means to do you
+harm!"
+
+I returned to her side, frantic at my inability to convince her that all
+was her imagination.
+
+There was no doubt that, deeply impressed upon her memory, was some
+recollection of terrifying events in which a mysterious woman had played
+a leading part.
+
+As I looked at that blank, yet horrified expression upon her pale, sweet
+face I became more than ever convinced that she had been held beneath
+the thraldom of some woman of evil intent--that woman whom she described
+as possessing the crafty eyes of a leopard.
+
+For a full half-hour I argued with her, endeavouring to calm her but,
+unfortunately, to little avail.  Presently, however, her expression
+altered, she grew less agitated, until at last, as I sat holding her in
+my arms, I kissed her fondly upon the lips, and again begged:
+
+"Do tell me, my darling, where you have been all this long time?  I've
+searched for you everywhere."
+
+"I--I don't know," was her blank reply.  "I can't tell you."
+
+"But surely you recollect something?"  I urged eagerly.  "Those are not
+your own clothes that you are wearing.  Where did you get them from?"
+
+She looked quickly down at her jersey and at her skirt, and then raised
+her eyes to me in dismay.  Apparently, for the first time, she now
+realised that she was dressed in some one else's clothes.
+
+"That's curious!" she exclaimed, as though speaking to herself.  "That's
+very curious.  That hat is not mine, either!"
+
+"No, it isn't," I said, handing it to her to examine, which she did
+critically.
+
+Then, placing her hands idly upon her knees, she remained for a long
+time with brows knit in silence, apparently trying to recall the past.
+
+"You lost your chatelaine--the one I gave you," I said, hoping that the
+fact might, in some way, stir the chords of her blunted memory.
+
+"My chatelaine!" she repeated, looking at me vacantly.
+
+"Yes.  You lost your purse and money, and other things," I said.  "I
+think you must have lost it from a train."
+
+Suddenly she raised her face again to mine, and asked in a half-dazed
+kind of way:
+
+"Are you--_are you Claude_?"
+
+"Yes," I replied.  "Surely you remember me!"
+
+"Oh--yes!  But--oh! my head--my poor head!" and she placed her hands to
+her temples and drew a long breath.
+
+"Cannot you recollect--do try and tell me something.  Try and describe
+to me what occurred after you left home.  What happened to you?"
+
+She shook her head sadly.
+
+"I can't tell you," she said at last, speaking quite rationally.  "I
+really can't."
+
+"But you must recollect something, dear?"  I asked.  "Your chatelaine
+was found dropped from a train on the line near Welwyn station, on the
+Great Northern Railway."
+
+"On the railway?" she repeated slowly.  "Ah!"
+
+"That brings back something to your memory, dearest, does it not?"  I
+inquired anxiously, for I now felt convinced that she remembered
+something regarding her loss.
+
+"Yes--but--but--well, I can't tell you about it, Claude."
+
+"You can't, dearest--or do you mean that you decline to tell me!
+Which?"
+
+For a few moments she was again silent.  Her blank white face had become
+almost as its own self, with that sweet, calm smile I had known so well.
+
+"I must decline to tell you," she slowly answered at last.  "I'm sorry--
+but I--I only ask your forgiveness, Claude."
+
+"What is there for me to forgive?"  I cried dismayed.  "You disappeared.
+Everybody feared foul play--and--"
+
+"There was foul play!" she interrupted in a hoarse voice.
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By somebody."
+
+"You know who were your enemies?"  I asked quickly.  "You must know,
+indeed."
+
+She nodded in the affirmative, her eyes once more downcast, as though
+fearing to meet my gaze.
+
+"Cannot you name them--cannot you denounce them, darling?  It is your
+duty," I said in a low, persuasive tone.  "Reveal the truth to me,
+Claude."
+
+"No, never!" was her plain and instant reply.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"There are reasons."
+
+"What reasons?"
+
+"Reasons of my own.  Strong reasons."
+
+"And may I not know them?"  I asked with some resentment.
+
+"No, Claude--I can never reveal the truth--not even to you."  She was
+now quite her old self.
+
+"But I thought we trusted each other blindly and implicitly," I
+protested.  "You surely know how deeply and fondly I love you, my
+darling."
+
+"Exactly," she exclaimed, with one of those sweet and winning smiles of
+hers.  "That's just my point.  If you love me as you declare--and I
+believe you do--then you will trust me, and you will, when I assure you
+that I cannot tell you what has happened, refrain from further
+questioning me."
+
+Her argument was, certainly, one to which I could not very well reply.
+It was a curious argument, and aroused suspicion within me.
+
+She had now grown quite calm, and I could plainly see that she had at
+last recalled the past, yet she did not intend to make any statement
+whatever regarding it.
+
+Why?  This disinclination to reveal to me the slightest fact was, in
+itself, most extraordinary.  I then found myself reflecting upon the
+discovery of that secret memorandum in her card-case, and the allegation
+made against her by the red-tabbed Intelligence officer.
+
+I was on the point of telling her what had been discovered--the purport
+of the cipher-message and the suspicion which rested upon her.  Yet,
+would that induce her to be frank and tell me the truth?  I decided that
+it would not, therefore I said nothing.  Instead, I remarked in a low,
+sympathetic voice: "I really think, darling, that it is due to me--to
+your people also--that you should tell us the truth of what happened to
+you, and of the identity of your enemies."
+
+"I have already told you, Claude," was her quiet response.  "If you
+really love me, then you should at least trust me."
+
+"I do trust you, darling!"  I protested quickly.  "You surely know that!
+You are in possession of all the secrets of our invention, and--"
+
+"Ah! the invention--_the invention_!" she cried and, as she suddenly
+recollected it, her whole manner instantly changed.
+
+She started from her chair crying: "Yes--yes!  Now I remember!  I
+remember!  It was awful--terrible--ugh!  Ah! my poor brain!" and again
+she drew her hand across her brow.  "My poor head!"
+
+She paused but, next second, she turned to me, exclaiming in a tone
+quite unusual to her:
+
+"No!  I shall tell you nothing--I shall say nothing!  I do not want to
+remember--I pray only to forget--yes, to forget all--everything.  It is
+too horrible!  Too cruel!" and I saw that my reference to our secret
+apparatus had stirred another chord in her memory--one that caused her
+both fierce anger and bitter remorse.
+
+That fact, in itself, revealed to me quite plainly that her tragic
+experiences, whatever they might have been, had some curious connexion
+with our invention for the destruction of Zeppelins.  Thus, arguing with
+myself further, I became more than ever convinced that she, in all her
+innocence, had fallen defenceless into the unscrupulous grip of the
+terrible but relentless Invisible Hand.
+
+Why did she so persistently withhold from me the truth?  What more
+natural than, knowing the identity of her enemies, she should seek to
+denounce and justly punish them?  Now she was back at my side she surely
+could not fear them!
+
+Certainly her demeanour was most mysterious, and I stood there, facing
+her, utterly bewildered.  The expression in her dear face was quite
+uncanny.
+
+Once again I begged her to tell me something--however slight--regarding
+what had occurred to her.  I told her of our tireless search; of the
+eager hue and cry; of the publication of her portrait, and of the
+offered reward for any information.
+
+"Ah!" she replied, with a strange, faint smile, as though of triumph
+almost.  "All that was to no effect.  The precautions taken were far too
+complete.  Nobody could have found me--for I was in a living grave."
+
+"Yes," I said, hoping that she would reveal to me something more,
+however vague.  "Tell me about it, darling.  Do, Roseye."
+
+"Tell you!" she echoed with angry resentment, putting me from her firmly
+and staring at me.  "No, never!"  Then a second later she turned towards
+the curtained window and shrieked:
+
+"Ah! look!--that accursed woman again!  Why do you allow her to come
+here--if you love me, Claude!"
+
+"She is not here," I declared firmly.  "It is all your silly
+imagination!"
+
+"She is!" cried my love wildly.  "You are lying to me!  She's there!
+Over there!  Kill her--Claude--or she will kill you--ah! _that Woman
+with the Leopard's Eyes_!"
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+FALSE OR TRUE?
+
+One bright crisp afternoon in mid-December, Roseye, wrapped warmly in
+her furs, sat beside me in the car as we sped through Leatherhead on our
+way out to Burford Bridge, where we had decided to have tea.
+
+In the grey wintry light the landscape had become gloomy and depressing.
+Yet my love chatted merrily as we sped along.
+
+Since that well-remembered evening at my rooms when she had made her
+sudden reappearance on my threshold from nowhere, the days had been very
+dark and terribly anxious ones.
+
+After her refusal to tell me anything, I had taken her home, where her
+sudden arrival had been as a thunderbolt to her parents.  But alas! her
+overstrained brain had then given way, and for three weeks she had
+remained in bed under the care of Sir Charles Needham, one of the
+greatest mental specialists in Harley Street.
+
+Thanks to his skill, she had slowly recovered--very slowly it seemed to
+me.
+
+A dozen times I had chatted with Sir Charles, and he had admitted to me
+that the case was not only most unusual, but almost unique.  He could
+not obtain from her any lucid account of what had occurred after she had
+left home on that fatal morning.  She had contradicted herself so many
+times.
+
+Any reference to inventions, to electricity, to trains, to Zeppelins, or
+to women, sent her into fierce paroxysms of anger.  Her attitude was
+most mysterious.  In fact her adventures during the time she had been
+missing were enveloped in a dark cloud of mystery which, even Barton
+himself, was unable to penetrate.
+
+Captain Pollock, of course, had been informed and had repeated his
+red-taped suspicions.  But, having no reliable or actual evidence upon
+which to base his assertions, Barton seemed inclined to disregard them.
+
+I noticed this, putting it down to the usual disagreement which exists
+in officialdom the world over.  No one official has ever been known to
+be in actual accord with another in another Department.  That's why the
+clock of State creaks on so rustily in every civilised community.
+
+Arrived at that motoring rendezvous, the Burford Bridge Hotel, we took a
+stroll in its picturesque grounds on the slope of Box Hill, leafless and
+deserted on that December afternoon.
+
+Having walked some distance along the gravelled paths, we sat together
+upon a seat, when her sudden silence caused me to ponder.  Since we had
+been walking she had scarcely uttered a word, and had appeared utterly
+absorbed.
+
+At last she exclaimed:
+
+"I shall be so very glad when they let me fly again, Claude.  I feel
+ever so much better now--quite my old self again."
+
+"I'm delighted to hear that," was my reply.  "But you must wait another
+week or two before you take out your machine.  Your man is overhauling
+it thoroughly.  When I was at Hendon yesterday I saw that he had taken
+down the engine."
+
+"Yes.  I'm most anxious to help you, dear, with your great invention.
+How is it getting on?"
+
+"Famously," I replied.  "Teddy and I have been working hard for the last
+four days, and have made progress in both lightening the weight of the
+outfit, and increasing its power.  I've ordered a big new dynamo to be
+constructed on such lines that it can be placed on my machine with a
+second engine.  This engine will either run the dynamo, or the
+propeller."
+
+"Of course, I quite see," she exclaimed.  "You must have a second engine
+for night-flying.  How long will it be, do you think, before you can
+make a trial flight?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Early in January I hope, darling."
+
+"And you will let me come with you--won't you?  Now promise me.  Do,"
+she urged, placing her gloved hand upon my arm, and looking earnestly
+into my face.
+
+"Yes.  I promise," I answered laughing.  "Teddy will, no doubt, be very
+anxious to come, but you shall make the first flight, darling.  It is
+your privilege."
+
+"May I come out to Gunnersbury and help you?" she asked.  "I'm quite all
+right again, I assure you."
+
+"When Sir Charles gives his consent, then you may come," I replied.
+
+"I'll ask him to-morrow," she cried gladly.  "I'm so horribly tired of
+leading an idle life at home.  Lionel lunched with us yesterday, and
+took me out to a _matinee_.  It was quite jolly to have such a change.
+We had tea at the Piccadilly afterwards."
+
+"Lionel!"  I exclaimed in surprise.
+
+"Yes.  Why?  Are you jealous--you dear old thing?"
+
+I drew a deep breath, and she evidently noticed my displeasure.
+
+"Jealous!"  I cried with affected nonchalance.  "Why should I be?"
+
+"Well--I ought, of course, to have told you before," she answered.  "But
+he's such a good friend of ours, you know."
+
+Good friend.  All the suspicions I held regarding him flashed across my
+mind.  Why had he pretended to be an invalid on that day I had sat at
+his bedside, and yet afterwards had dined at Hatchett's?  Why was he
+ever inquisitive regarding our secret experiments, and why did he appear
+to possess such unusual knowledge of coming events?
+
+"Yes," I remarked after a pause.  "He is, no doubt, a good friend."
+
+I saw that I could learn more by disarming suspicion than by appearing
+ungenerous.
+
+"You don't mind me going to a _matinee_ with him, do you, Claude?" she
+asked frankly.  "Of course, if it has annoyed you, I won't go again.
+But mother said she thought a theatre would be a pleasant relaxation for
+me, now that we can't go out at night on account of the darkened streets
+and the bad winter weather."
+
+"The darkened streets seem to make no difference to pleasure-going," I
+said bitterly, and purposely disregarding her first question.  "Though
+we are at war--though thousands upon thousands of our poor brave fellows
+have been killed or maimed in the defence of their homes and their loved
+ones, yet the London public are still the same.  Nothing seems to
+disturb them.  Bond Street, with all its fripperies, is still in full
+swing: the drapers everywhere are paying big dividends--money is being
+squandered in luxuries by those who have never previously known such
+things; jewellers are flourishing, and extravagance runs riot through
+the land.  Men and women go nightly to revues and join in rollicking
+choruses, even while the death-rattle sounds in the throats of Britain's
+bravest sons.  Ah!  Roseye," I said.  "It is all too awful.  What I fear
+is that we are riding gaily for a fall."
+
+"No," she said.  "I agree in a sense with all you say.  But we are not
+riding for a fall, so long as we have brave men ready to sacrifice their
+lives in Britain's cause.  You, Claude, are one of those," she added,
+looking straight into my face with an open, frank expression--that
+love-look which can never be feigned, either by man or by woman.
+
+In that second I realised that at least my suspicion that she had any
+secret affection for Lionel Eastwell was groundless.
+
+Yet I was, nevertheless, annoyed that he should still mislead her
+parents by expressions of friendship.  True, when I came to examine and
+to analyse my doubts, I could discover no real and actual foundation for
+them.  Perhaps it was an intuition that possessed me--a strange
+half-formed belief that Eastwell, though such a cheerful companion, such
+a real good fellow, and so popular with all the flying-boys, was not
+exactly of the truly patriotic type which he represented himself to be.
+
+For that reason alone I inwardly objected to Roseye associating with
+him, yet as he was such a warmly welcomed friend of the family, it was
+extremely difficult for me to move in any antagonistic spirit.
+
+Within myself I had a fierce and desperate struggle, yet long ago I had
+realised that if I intended to win I must not show the slightest sign of
+anger or of suspicion.
+
+So, as we sat there together--gazing across the sloping lawn, so
+melancholy in that falling December twilight, yet so picturesque and gay
+on those summer evenings as I had often known it--I crushed down the
+apprehension that had arisen within me, and laughed gaily with my dainty
+well-beloved.
+
+Still the facts--the mysterious inexplicable facts--remained.  Was it
+possible that my love desired again to assist in the completion of our
+experiments in order to know the result of them--and perhaps to betray
+them?
+
+No.  I could not--even in my inward anger at the knowledge that she had
+spent the previous afternoon with the man I suspected--bring myself to
+believe that she was really acting in contradiction to the interests of
+the country.
+
+Somebody has truly said that love is blind.  Well, I loved Roseye.  And
+my blindness had been a very pleasant and delightful affliction up to
+that tragic day of her disappearance.
+
+Through those weeks when her mind had remained unbalanced and unhinged,
+she had never once made any statement nor had she ever inadvertently
+admitted anything which might reveal the truth as to where she had been,
+or the identity of the person whom she held in greatest terror--that
+Woman with the Leopard's Eyes.
+
+With all the cunning I possessed I had sought to glean from her some
+fact, any fact however vague, concerning those weeks when she had been
+missing, but beyond what I have written in these pages, I could gather
+no single incident.
+
+I was but an ordinary man--one whose father had risen in the medical
+profession to grasp one of its plums.  From being a ne'er-do-well and
+idler, I had taken up aviation and, after much perseverance, had learned
+to fly.  I suppose I was gifted with ordinary intelligence, and that
+intelligence had shown me that, now we were at war, the enemy had placed
+upon the whole country that secret Hand, eager and clutching, to effect
+and secure our undoing.  Its finger-prints, indelible and unmistakable,
+remained wherever one sought them.
+
+That Hand had been upon me when I had crashed to earth with a wooden
+bolt in my machine in place of one of steel.
+
+But whether the Hand had really been placed upon Roseye was a problem
+which utterly defied solution.
+
+That she had suffered had been vividly apparent, yet her absolute and
+fixed refusal to say anything, to admit anything, or to make any charge
+against anyone, was, in itself, an astounding feature of what was an
+extremely curious situation.
+
+I remained that afternoon at Burford Bridge just as dumbfounded and
+mystified as I had been at that moment when Theed had opened the door of
+my sitting-room and she had returned from what, in her own words, had
+been a living tomb.
+
+Why a living tomb?  Who had prepared the trap--if trap there had been?
+Who was the unknown woman, the very mention of whom terrified her--the
+Woman with the Leopard's Eyes?
+
+Though we sat there and laughed together--for I had affected, I hope
+successfully, an utter disregard of any suspicion or jealousy of
+Eastwell--I gazed upon her, and I saw that she had grown nervous and
+anxious.
+
+Why?
+
+It seemed to me that, with her woman's innate cleverness and cunning--
+which by the way is never outmatched by that of the mere man--she was
+reading my own innermost thoughts.  She knew my suspicions, and her
+intention, at all hazards, was to conceal from me some bitter and
+perhaps disgraceful truth.
+
+This thought aroused within me a relentless hatred of the fellow
+Eastwell.  Nevertheless, once again when I came to examine the actual
+facts, I could discover really nothing tangible--nothing which ought to
+lead me, with any degree of right or justice, to an adverse decision.
+
+I had revealed much to Inspector Barton before Roseye's disappearance.
+I had told him of my suspicions of Eastwell, but I suppose he had--as
+natural to, an investigator of crime--regarded those suspicions as the
+natural outcome of a man's jealousy.  But they were not, because I had
+never been jealous of the man--not until we sat there on the lawn before
+the hotel, and she had told me how she had spent an afternoon at the
+theatre in his company.
+
+As a matter of fact jealousy had never entered my head.  Previously I
+had always regarded Eastwell as quite a good fellow, full of the true
+stamina of a patriot.  He had been, I knew, full of schemes for the
+future of aviation in England ever since he had taken his first flap at
+the aerodrome.  Once, indeed, he had serious thoughts, in the pre-war
+days, of putting up as Parliamentary candidate for a Yorkshire borough.
+But the matter fell through because the Opposition, on their part, ran a
+man whose chances were assured--an Anglo-Indian colonel who had passed
+through every local distinction, from being a member of the local Board
+of Guardians to becoming a DL.  Against such odds Eastwell could not
+fight.  In the great game of politics it has ever been that the local
+man who spends his money with the local butcher, baker and
+candlestick-maker, is usually returned with a thumping majority.
+
+The man from afar, the man with a mission, the man who knows his job and
+will dare to raise his voice in the House to declaim his country's
+shortcomings, will usually be jeered at as a "carpetbagger" and
+hopelessly outpaced and outvoted.
+
+I knew this.  I had seen it long ago.
+
+As I sat there at Roseye's side I fell to wondering--wondering whether
+she had actually played an open, straightforward game.
+
+Or was she deceiving me!
+
+Which?
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+CONCERNS HAROLD HALE.
+
+Christmas came, but it brought no relaxation to Teddy, or to myself.
+
+We were working hard at our scheme out at Gunnersbury, making experiment
+after experiment, many being failures, with a few successes.
+
+Of Eastwell we saw nothing, for he had flown up to the north-east coast
+in order to watch some evolutions being carried out by the anti-aircraft
+corps, and had not returned.
+
+Sir Charles had now given Roseye permission to assist us in our work
+and, indeed, one morning in the first week of the New Year she made her
+first flight since that day of her disappearance.
+
+My mind, however, was by no means at rest.  After my own experiences I
+was careful to examine and to fly her machine several times around the
+aerodrome before I would allow her to go up.  If my machine had been
+tampered with in the way it had, then there was but little doubt that an
+attempt might be made against her.
+
+She had gone for about an hour when I saw her returning, a tiny speck in
+the clear sky coming from the south-west, and flying very high.  When at
+last she landed and I handed her out of the pilot's seat, she put up her
+big goggles and, flushed with satisfaction, cried:
+
+"I've had such a splendid wind behind me!  The weather is quite perfect.
+How good it feels to be out once again, Claude!"
+
+"Yes, dear," I answered, as we strolled together over towards the
+hangars, whence one of the school-buses had just begun to flap.  "I
+should like to go up but, as you know, they are busy putting in my
+second engine for night-flying, and to drive the dynamo.  I fear it
+won't be ready for quite another fortnight yet."
+
+"What speed do you really expect to develop?" she asked, much
+interested.
+
+"In order to overtake a Zeppelin I must, at least, be able to fly eighty
+miles an hour," was my reply.  "And I must also be able to fly as slowly
+as thirty-five in order to economise fuel and to render the aim accurate
+as well as to make night-landing possible."
+
+"Are you certain that you will be able to do it?" she asked, a little
+dubiously I thought.  She knew that, as far as our apparatus for the
+direction of the intense electric current was concerned, it was
+practically perfect.  Yet she had, more than once, expressed her doubt
+as to whether my monoplane, with its improvements of my own design,
+would be able to perform what I so confidently expected of it.
+
+"Of course one can be certain of nothing in this world, dear," was my
+reply.  "But by all the laws of aerodynamics it should, when complete,
+be able to do what I require.  I must be able to carry fuel for twelve
+hours cruising at low speed, so as to enable me to chase an airship to
+the coast, if necessary.  Further, I must, in order to be successful, be
+able to climb to ten thousand feet in not more than twenty minutes.  You
+see," I explained, "I am trying to have the engines silenced, and I am
+fitting up control-gear for two pilots, so as to allow one to relieve
+the other, and, further, I have designed the alterations whereby either
+Teddy or myself can have equal facilities to work the searchlight as
+well as the deadly current."
+
+"I do hope it will be a success.  You have had so many failures, dear,"
+she said, as we stood together, watching Teddy make a descent, for he
+was up testing his engine.
+
+"Yes, that first magnetic wave idea proved a failure," I said
+regretfully.  "And why, I can't yet discover.  My first idea was to
+create an intensified magnetic wave which would have the effect of
+`seizing' the working parts of the Zeppelin engines, and putting them
+out of action.  For instance, from your aeroplane you would direct this
+wave against the Zeppelin and bring its engines gradually into a state
+of immobility.  The natural act of the Zeppelin engineer, on finding
+that his engine was slowing down, would be to admit more fuel for a few
+moments.  On the sudden release of the arresting medium the engine would
+`pick-up' violently and blow the heads out of the cylinders, thereby
+causing the explosion which we desire to create."
+
+"Your experiments were all in secret," Roseye remarked.  "The theory
+seems sound enough.  Curious that it did not work!"
+
+"Yes.  Even now I can't, for the life of me, discover the reason," I
+replied.  "Yet we have, happily, tested this new apparatus of ours, and
+we know it is feasible as soon as ever we can get its weight further
+reduced, and the ray intensified."
+
+"And the sooner you can do that, the better," my well-beloved declared.
+"Before very long, at the present rate of increase, we shall, I expect,
+see Zeppelins of a much greater size."
+
+"True," I remarked, as I watched Teddy spring out of his bus, and make
+his way across the aerodrome in our direction.  "No time should be lost.
+To be effective the aeroplane will have to be able to climb to 18,000
+feet, and even remain aloft at that height for hours to lie in wait for
+the airship.  The airship of one year hence will inevitably be a much
+more formidable machine than the present Zeppelin."
+
+"But we must be most careful to keep the secret, Claude," she urged.
+"The enemy must not know it, or they may combat us!"
+
+I was silent for a few moments.  Across my mind there flashed the
+recollection of that strange enemy message in cipher that had been found
+in her card-case.
+
+What could be the explanation of that mystery?  It was plain that the
+enemy were in possession of some facts and, further, that at all
+hazards, and regardless of all risks, they intended to discover our
+secret.
+
+I disregarded her remark, merely answering:
+
+"I fear the Zeppelin menace will be serious in the North Sea before many
+months.  It is only the bad weather which protects us."
+
+The alterations to my machine were being carried on by a first-class
+firm at Willesden, therefore, at Teddy's suggestion, all three of us ran
+over in the car in order to inspect the work, which we found progressing
+most favourably.
+
+The foreman engineer, a big fat, elderly man, just as we were about to
+leave the premises, called me aside and, in a confidential tone,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Excuse me, sir.  But did you send a gentleman named Hale here?"
+
+"Hale?"  I repeated, looking at him in surprise.  "I know nobody of that
+name!"
+
+"Well--here's his card," said the engineer.  "He called yesterday
+afternoon, and told me that you'd sent him, and that he had your
+authority to look at your machine."
+
+I took the rather soiled card, and saw upon it the name: "Harold Hale--
+National Physical Laboratory."
+
+I held it in my hand in surprise.
+
+"A Government official!"  I exclaimed in wonder.  "I gave no such
+permission!"  I declared.  "As I have repeatedly said, these alterations
+you are making are strictly in secret."
+
+"That's what I told him, sir."
+
+"You didn't let him see the work, I hope?"  I asked anxiously.
+
+"Not very likely, sir," was the man's reply.  "I asked him for a written
+authorisation, but he said he'd left it in his office.  There was a good
+deal of swank about him, I thought.  He seemed to have a swelled head."
+
+"Well--what happened?"  I inquired.
+
+"Oh!  He became very officious-like--said he was a Government inspector
+of aircraft, and demanded to see what alterations you were making in
+your machine.  My reply was to tell him that when he brought a letter
+from you, I'd show him--and not before."
+
+"Excellent!"  I said.  "Then he didn't produce any credentials?"
+
+"None.  But he argued with me for a long time--told me that I had no
+right to deny him access to information required for official purposes;
+that I was liable under the Defence of the Realm Act, and all sorts of
+other bunkum.  In reply, I merely told him to go along to the office and
+see Mr Smallpiece, our manager--whom I knew to be up at the London
+office," added the foreman with a grin.
+
+"What kind of man was he?  Describe him," I urged.
+
+"Well--he was about forty I should say--round-faced, with a little
+close-cropped black moustache.  He was well dressed--a dark-blue
+overcoat with velvet collar, and a grey plush hat.  He came in a taxi."
+
+"Ah!  If we could find the driver, we might perhaps discover who he
+was," I exclaimed.
+
+"Well, sir, I suspected him, somehow.  I didn't like him.  So I took the
+number of the taxi.  You'll see it on the back of the card."
+
+I looked, and there found a number scribbled in pencil.
+
+"By Jove!"  I cried.  "Most excellent.  I'll soon find out what his
+movements were.  Thank you very much," I added.  "Remember nobody is to
+know anything whatever of the work in progress.  That man may have been
+a Spy."
+
+"That's just exactly what I put him down to be, sir!" declared the
+foreman.  "But trust me.  Nobody shall know anything."
+
+When I rejoined Roseye and Teddy they were inquisitive--and very
+naturally--as to what the foreman had been telling me.  But I kept my
+own counsel, determined to make investigations alone.
+
+We drove back to town and lunched in the restaurant at the Piccadilly
+Hotel.  Teddy had suggested the Automobile Club, but I had overruled
+him, and we went to the Piccadilly instead.  At the club there was far
+too much flying "shop"--and I wanted time to think.
+
+At three o'clock I ran Roseye home, dropping Teddy on the way, and then
+returned to Shaftesbury Avenue.
+
+As I entered, Theed told me that his father had been up to say that on
+the previous night there had been some strangers about the shed at
+Gunnersbury.  He had heard footsteps around the place at about three
+o'clock in the morning, but on going out he could discover nobody.  He
+had taken out his big heavy Browning pistol which I had bought for him,
+and he had told his own son that he regretted that he had not caught the
+intruders.
+
+Here was another source of suspicion!  It confirmed my belief that the
+Invisible Hand had been laid once more upon us, and, further, that
+whoever directed it was alike most daring and unscrupulous.
+
+"That's most curious!"  I said, in reply to Theed.  "Your father seems
+to be having quite a lively time at night out there!"
+
+"Yes.  He does, sir.  He's convinced that somebody is watching to find
+out what's going on--spies, he declares."
+
+"No, no, Theed," I laughed, in order to hearten him.  "There's far too
+much bunkum talked about spies, and far too many sensational rumours on
+every hand.  Tell your father that he's becoming nervous.  Surely he
+ought not to be after all his long police service!"
+
+I only uttered those words for effect.  I knew that Theed would bully
+the old man, and tell him that he was suffering from nerves.  Every son
+loves to jeer at his father, be he peer or peasant.
+
+I passed into my room and took up the telephone.
+
+In a few moments I was on to my friend Professor Appleton, the Director
+of the National Physical Laboratory, that department which, for years,
+had studied aeronautics.
+
+"I don't follow you, Mr Munro," he said, when I told him the facts.
+"What name do you say?"
+
+"Hale," was my reply.  "H-a-l-e," and I spelt it.
+
+"We've nobody of that name.  There must surely be some mistake!"
+
+"But he came with a visiting-card," I said.  "He went to the firm of
+engineers who are making certain alterations in my monoplane, and
+demanded of the foreman the right to examine what was in progress.  He
+told them at Willesden that he was an official of your Department, sent
+by you, with authority from myself."
+
+"Well, Mr Munro," replied the professor, in that quiet, matter-of-fact
+way of his, "this is the first I've ever heard of any Mr Hale.  He
+certainly has never been sent by us.  In fact I was entirely unaware,
+until this moment, that you had any experiments in progress."
+
+"Really, professor, I'm awfully sorry to trouble you," I said.  "But I'm
+only trying to do my little bit--my very small bit--in the war.  Thank
+you for telling me this.  One never knows when one meets enemies.  The
+Germans are so clever, so practical, and so subtle."
+
+"They are," he answered.  "Be wary, my dear Munro.  If you are carrying
+out experiments upon any extensive scale you may be quite certain that
+somebody in enemy pay is watching.  I have long seen it--long before the
+outbreak of war."
+
+Here again we had come up against the dead wall of fact.
+
+"Then you think that the stranger was an enemy spy?"  I asked.
+
+"Well, in face of the facts, and of what I myself know, I'm perfectly
+certain of it," the professor said.  "I have no knowledge whatever of
+any person called Harold Hale.  He evidently went out to Willesden to
+try and obtain certain knowledge, yet, by the sturdy attitude of the
+foreman whom you mention, he was defeated.  Truly the wily and dastardly
+plots of our dear-brother-Germans--as they were called by some
+irresponsible Englishmen those hot August days of the declaration of
+war--have been amazing.  It seems to me, Munro," added the voice over
+the wire, "that if you are wary and watchful you may discover something
+that may be of unusual interest to the Intelligence Department."
+
+Then in my ear there was a loud buzz, followed by a sharp click, and all
+became silent.
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+AT HOLLY FARM.
+
+Those constant proofs of the enemy's eager inquisitiveness were, I here
+freely admit, very disconcerting.
+
+We seemed surrounded by spies.
+
+A dastardly attempt had been made to kill me, while some evil--what, I
+knew not--had happened to my well-beloved.  It often struck me as most
+peculiar why she should preserve that strict secrecy regarding her
+whereabouts through those weeks when she had been missing.
+
+Her terror of the mysterious woman whom she so constantly described as
+possessing the eyes of a leopard, together with the unbalanced condition
+of her brain, were, in themselves, solid proof that she had passed
+through some horrifying and terrible experience.  Besides, had she not
+admitted that she had existed in what she herself had termed "a living
+tomb?"
+
+So evident was it that we were being watched by some persons who
+intended, at all hazards, to discover the secret of our directive
+electrical apparatus that Teddy and I now adopted a new scheme.  Each
+evening, after concluding our experiments, instead of taking the brown
+deal box back to my rooms, both my friend and myself disconnected the
+essential parts of the apparatus, each taking part of it home for safe
+keeping, thus leaving only the shell to be inspected by any intruder who
+might make a further visit to the shed.
+
+Old Theed, however, kept a good look out and, as twice he had reported
+suspicious persons in the vicinity at night, he always carried his
+Browning pistol.
+
+A fortnight had passed and my newly-arranged monoplane was nearing
+completion.  Daily I went out to Willesden to superintend, and make
+certain alterations which had occurred to me since I had adopted my new
+design.
+
+That more Zeppelin raids were expected everybody knew, and none better
+than myself.
+
+The weather in the last fortnight of January 1916 was bad, and many
+people were declaring that the German airships would not dare to venture
+out except in calm conditions.
+
+Some of the boys were discussing that point at Hendon one afternoon.
+
+Teddy was inclined to argue as the public argued, that Zeppelins were
+affected by weather conditions, and advanced many theories of fogs,
+clouds, rain, snow, and the barometer.
+
+"Then you don't think inclement weather any protection, Claude?" asked
+my friend, while the others all listened in silence.
+
+"No," I said.  "I quite agree with the arguments put forward on a basis
+of fact by many writers in the press.  Of course Zeppelins, like every
+other craft not independent of the weather, prefer to sally forth in
+calms or light winds.  But the utmost one can say is, first, that the
+calmer the weather the likelier a raid is to occur; and, secondly, that
+raids are less likely to occur in broad moonlight than on dark nights."
+
+"Then, my dear fellow," whispered Teddy into my ear, in a tone so low
+that the others could not hear, "it is on one of the dark nights that we
+must make our trial flight--eh?"
+
+"Well, according to the latest yarns," remarked a fellow named Ainley,
+"the newest Zeppelins are armoured, and these very large craft have a
+gross lift of over thirty tons."
+
+"That is not much larger than the Zeppelins existing when war broke
+out," I said, "but, of course, it must be admitted that even a small
+increase of size enlarges an airship's capabilities and range.  The top
+speed of the new thousand horse-power type is said to be about sixty-two
+miles an hour, but driving at such high speed must involve a heavy
+consumption of petrol."
+
+"What about climbing?" asked Ainley.  "You've made Zeppelins a study,
+Munro.  Tell us your opinion?"
+
+"Well, in order to escape, more than one German airship has risen, we
+know, to 10,000 feet, but that was only in case of great emergency, and
+meant sacrifice of load and great waste of gas.  You see, if a Zeppelin
+is over a town and is discharging her bombs and consuming her petrol,
+her natural tendency would be to rise.  Probably the new type of
+super-Zeppelin could, I should say, rise 4,000 to 5,000 feet, but it
+must be remembered that it cannot, with impunity, go to 12,000 or 15,000
+feet because of the density of the atmosphere."
+
+"Cover Great Britain with up-to-date `Archies.'  That's my opinion--and
+one shared by many competent writers on the subject," Ainley remarked,
+whereupon Teddy and I exchanged glances.
+
+Little did that small group of pilots dream of the great surprise which
+we had "up our sleeve."
+
+A few days later--the First of February to be exact--the country was
+startled by the news published in the morning papers that on the
+previous night no fewer than six Zeppelins had flown over some Midland
+counties, dropping a large number of bombs, and killing and injuring
+many innocent women and children.
+
+People who read the accounts stood aghast.  Then, once again, came the
+cry from the big populous centres in the Midlands that warning of the
+approach of enemy aircraft should be given, and once again the papers
+were flooded with letters from indignant readers making all sorts of
+wild suggestions how to combat the Zeppelin peril.  On top of this,
+however, came the welcome news that the L19, one of the raiders, had
+been found by a trawler in a sinking condition in the North Sea.
+
+At least one of the barbaric baby-killers had got its just deserts.
+
+Personally, I felt deeply moved by this latest dastardly invasion.  That
+there must be an end to "traditions," to political speech-making, to
+conferences and to promises of imaginary "nests of hornets," was now
+clear.  The homes of Englishmen were threatened with destruction.
+Germany had adopted a new mode of warfare that must change everything.
+Therefore, happily, unfettered by red tape, and unattached to any naval
+or military branch of the Service, but merely an experimenter, I
+intended, at the earliest moment, to put my directive wave to the
+crucial test.
+
+During the past week we had not been idle a moment, and Teddy and I,
+after more failures, had at last been able to reduce the weight of our
+apparatus by nearly one-half, while we had been able to more than double
+the intensity of the current since that well-remembered night when we
+had tested it upon our wireless-pole while strangers had lurked unseen
+in the vicinity.
+
+My monoplane was at last completed, and ready for delivery.  All three
+of us became greatly excited, for after so many months of patient
+experimenting and designing, all was now ready for a practical trial in
+the air.
+
+Lionel had returned from the North, but was gone to France in connexion
+with some trials of a new French monoplane at the aerodrome at St
+Valery-en-Caux.  Therefore he was in ignorance of our pending
+experiments.
+
+That we were being closely watched by spies, and that our every movement
+was being noted, we knew quite well.  Indeed, Roseye seemed, curiously
+enough, to be filled with serious apprehensions.
+
+Because of this, I decided not to fly from Hendon, but to experiment out
+in the country.  Therefore on Thursday, the Tenth of February, in
+greatest secrecy, I removed my machine in two motor-lorries down to a
+little place called Nutley, on the borders of those high lands of
+Ashdown Forest, about eleven miles north of Lewes.
+
+There, after some search, we found a convenient barn at a lonely,
+out-of-the-world place called Holly Farm, and this we soon converted
+into a suitable hangar.
+
+The farmer and his wife were quite ready to rent us the house furnished
+as it stood, so next day we found ourselves in full possession.
+
+Our party consisted of Teddy Ashton, the Theeds (father and son),
+Roseye, the maid Mulliner, and myself.  Roseye and I made another
+journey by car up to Gunnersbury, and also to my rooms, in order to
+fetch down the remainder of the apparatus, and on the third day of our
+arrival all the parts were ready for assembling.
+
+Holly Farm was a small but comfortable old house, with an ancient
+whitewashed kitchen which had black oak beams across its ceiling.  The
+living-room was typical of the "best room" of the old-fashioned British
+farmer.  In the deep-seated window stood a case of wool-flowers beneath
+a glass dome, while upon the horsehair-covered furniture were many
+crocheted antimacassars, and upon the wide, open hearth the farm-hand,
+an old fellow of nearly eighty, made huge log fires which were truly
+welcome in that wintry chill.
+
+We had brought with us an ample stock of provisions, for the place we
+had chosen stood upon one of the highest points, not far from Chelwood
+Beacon, and miles from any town or village of any size.
+
+From the attic windows which peeped forth from the thatch, we commanded
+a magnificent view both away north over Surrey, and south across the
+Downs to the Channel.  We were up upon what the Bathy-orographical map
+of England terms "The Forest Ridge," which lies between the North Downs
+and the sea.
+
+With old Theed as sentry, we worked away in the farmyard, the doors of
+which were carefully closed, assembling the machine.  That work took
+three days, though we all strove with a will, leaving Mulliner to act as
+housekeeper and prepare our meals.
+
+Every day Theed's son took the farmer's cycle and went to get us a paper
+at Forest Row Station on the line between Tunbridge Wells and Horsham,
+that being the only connexion we held with the world outside.  The good
+farmer I had paid handsomely, and had frankly told him that we were
+making some secret experiments with a new aeroplane against the Germans,
+whereupon he, as a good Englishman, had promised to hold his tongue.
+
+That week passed rapidly--a week of arduous work, of intense anxiety and
+excitement.  Sometimes a part would not fit, or was missing, and then
+our spirits would instantly flag.  Still, after much eagerness--and
+sometimes a few bad words, _sotto voce_, of course--we gradually got the
+machine into readiness, and began the engine-test.
+
+So powerful were those twin engines, with their wide throttle range,
+that their roar could be heard miles away, for I had not been able to
+silence them.  Nevertheless, nowadays, country people are happily so
+used to hearing the rhythmic throb of aeroplane engines, that they
+scarcely take notice of it.  Mine, however, were unusually fierce,
+especially when both were working, one for the propeller, and the other
+either for the searchlight or the directive sparking apparatus.
+
+They had both been run "upon the bench" for many hours, of course, and
+passed as perfect by the makers.  Yet a pilot never likes to trust
+himself upon something he has not tested with his own hands.
+
+Each one of us had his or her own work, and each one of us worked with a
+true spirit of patriotism.  I had argued that if the Anti-Aircraft
+Service were unable to bring down Zeppelins, then I, as a private
+individual and a pilot who had had some experience in the air, was ready
+to risk my own life in the attempt.  And in this Teddy was
+whole-heartedly with me.
+
+Naturally, Roseye often grew apprehensive.  It was because of that she
+made me repeat many times the promise I had given her--that she should
+make the first flight with me in the newly-constructed machine.
+
+Each day Teddy and I, aided by young Theed, worked testing, tightening
+strainers, seeing to pins and washers, adjusting bolts and other things.
+And at evening, while the Theeds and Mulliner gossiped in the kitchen,
+we three made ourselves comfortable before the great log fire in the
+farmer's best room, and sometimes passed the time with cards, a
+well-thumbed pack of which Roseye had discovered in a drawer.
+
+One evening we had played cards and Teddy had wished us good night,
+taken his candle and ascended the narrow creaky stairs, worn hollow by
+the tread of generations of farmers.
+
+"Claude," exclaimed my love, when we were alone, "I feel so very worried
+over you!  I know how keen you are to act your part in this war, and to
+put your theory to the test.  But is it really wise?  Remember that you
+are going to risk your life.  The creation of that electric wave, when
+in the air, may re-act upon your own engines and seize them--or it may
+create a spark across your own petrol-tank.  In that case you would be
+blown up in mid-air!"
+
+"Ah!  That contingency I've already provided for, darling," I assured
+her.  "Have you not seen that my new petrol-tank is a wooden barrel held
+by wooden bands, so that there is no metal over which to spark?"
+
+"I know.  But electricity is such a mysterious force, one never knows
+what it will do, or how it will take effect."
+
+"You are going a little wide of the mark, Roseye," I laughed.  "We know
+pretty well the limitations of electricity--or rather we three know as
+much--and perhaps a little more, than the enemy does.  My discovery is
+quite simple, after all.  I have found out the means by which to create
+and to direct a flash of intense electrical current, a kind of false
+lightning.  And that current, sparking over the interstices between the
+aluminium lattice-work and envelope of a Zeppelin, must certainly ignite
+the inflammable gas with which the ballonets are filled and which is so
+constantly escaping."
+
+"Yes, I know," was her answer, as she allowed me to place my arm
+tenderly about her slim waist.
+
+Then she seemed unduly thoughtful and apprehensive.
+
+"Well?"  I asked.  "Why are you worrying, darling?  I am striving to do
+my very best for my country.  I am going to fight--or attempt to fight--
+just as valiantly as though I were dressed in khaki, and wore the winged
+badge of the pilot of the Royal Flying Corps.  Indeed, my chance is
+better.  I have no Flight-Commander to look to for orders.  I am simply
+a handy man of the air who has, I trust, thought out a feasible plan."
+
+"Your plan is most excellent, Claude," she admitted.  "But what I fear
+is the great personal risk and peril to yourself."
+
+"There's none," I laughed.  "You, my dear, have no fear when you are
+flying--even at high altitudes.  Neither have I.  Both of us are used to
+being up, and our machines are part of ourselves.  I never think of
+danger; neither do you, Roseye.  So don't let us discuss it further," I
+urged.
+
+Then, in order to turn our conversation into a different channel, while
+I still held her hand as she sat upon that old black horsehair couch
+with me at her side, I said:
+
+"I've just been reading what is termed a hot-aircraft poem in the
+_Aeroplane_.  I wonder if I recollect the concluding lines.  They run
+something like this:--"
+
+  The Scout makes no question of Ays or Noes,
+  But right or left, as banks the Pilot, goes
+  And he who dropped One down into the Field--
+  He knows about it all--he knows, he knows!
+
+  Here with a Dud Machine, if Winds allow,
+  A Flask of Wine, a Load of Bombs--and Thou
+  Before me sitting in the Second Seat--
+  A Midnight Raid is Paradise enow.
+
+  And when I turn upon the Homeward Trail,
+  Dreaming of Decorations, Cakes and Ale,
+  How bitter on the First Day's Leave to find
+  My Name spelt wrongly in the "Daily Mail!"
+
+"Ah!" protested my love.  "You really don't take it with sufficient
+seriousness, Claude!"
+
+"I do," was my quick protest.  "I am not worrying about failure: I am
+only anticipating success."
+
+"Do not be over sanguine, dear, I beg of you."
+
+"I never have been," was my reply.  "To-morrow I shall make the first
+test in the air--and you shall come with me, as I have for so long
+promised."
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+NOT COUNTING THE COST.
+
+From our aviation map--a plan of the country unfamiliar to most people--
+we had ascertained that about fourteen miles away, in a direct line due
+east from Holly Farm, and about three miles beyond the little town of
+Mayfield, lay a small village called Stockhurst.
+
+The reasons why it attracted us were twofold.  First the church was
+situated alone at some little distance from the village, and, secondly,
+it possessed an unusually high, pointed spire.
+
+Therefore on the following morning Teddy and I took the car, and after
+going round by the high road which took us eighteen miles, through
+Maresfield, Buxted, and across Hadlow Down, we at last, after going
+along a picturesque lane, then brown and leafless, arrived at the long,
+straggling village street of Mayfield, a quiet old-world place, far
+removed from the noise and bustle of the world at war.  Most of the
+homely cottages were thatched, and the whole place was typical of the
+charm of rural Sussex.  As we passed slowly along we saw upon our right
+an ancient comfortable-looking inn with its big stable-yard at the side,
+the "AA" badge and a sign which told us that it was "The George."  Yet,
+farther on, an incongruous note was struck by a glaring red-brick shop
+called "The Stockhurst Stores."
+
+That morning was bright and crisp, with a clear blue sky.  Indeed,
+before we had left we noted that the barometer was rising, and that the
+flight conditions were hourly improving.
+
+A little way out of the village we came upon the fine old ivy-covered
+church, with a tall spire of a type similar to that of St Martin's in
+Trafalgar Square, while the dimensions of the aisle showed that it had
+been built in the long ago medieval days when Stockhurst had been one of
+the important market-towns of that district, until other and more
+convenient markets had sapped its trade, and it had slowly dwindled down
+to an obscure little place known only by reason of the monumental
+brasses and beautiful stained glass of its church, which Thomas Cromwell
+had happily spared.
+
+Pulling up the car, I placed a file, a pair of heavy cutting-pliers, a
+piece of asbestos cloth and a short length of copper-wire cable in my
+pockets and, with Teddy, wandered through the graveyard in pretence of
+inspecting the exterior of the beautiful castellated fabric.  By some
+arched windows we saw that its earlier portions were undoubtedly Norman,
+while others were of the Perpendicular Period.  These we examined, and
+discussed, in order not to attract the undue attention of anybody in the
+vicinity.
+
+We tried all the doors, much gratified, in secret, to find them locked.
+It proved the absence of any sexton or cleaner.
+
+During our inspection of the church tower we had noticed the exact spot
+where descending from the spire ran the narrow flat strip of copper
+connecting the lightning-conductor with its earth-plate.  We sauntered
+back to that place, where in the angle of the ancient flint wall, beside
+one of the heavy buttresses the metal strip went straight down into the
+turf.  The copper was much oxidised, for it had been placed there many
+years ago for the protection of the steeple during thunderstorms.
+
+"We mustn't lose time," I muttered to Teddy.
+
+"Can you see anybody about?"
+
+"No.  All's clear," he declared.  "I'll watch, while you do it!"
+
+I went quickly across to the wall and at a spot about five feet from the
+ground behind a big laurel bush I pulled the strip away from the wall
+with my fingers and worked at it with file and pliers, until I had
+severed it.
+
+Then, at about a foot nearer the ground, I made a nick in the copper
+with my file and bent it until it broke, leaving a portion of the
+conductor about a foot long in my hand.  This I at once concealed
+beneath the bush, while I placed a strip of asbestos cloth against the
+wall beneath each of the loose ends of the copper conductor, the latter
+holding the protective cloth in position upon the wall.  Then, when I
+had concluded the work to my satisfaction, I pushed back the shrub so as
+to conceal as far as possible the damage to the lightning-conductor, and
+rejoined my friend.
+
+"I'm afraid the rector wouldn't much approve of our work--if he knew,"
+laughed Teddy, as we returned to the car.
+
+"No," I said, adding, "I suppose you'll spend a pretty quiet day in this
+place, won't you?"
+
+"Yes.  The George looks comfortable, but not too cheerful," was Teddy's
+reply.  "What time shall you fly over?"
+
+"Just after ten.  The whole village should be in bed by then.  You go
+out of the hotel just before the place shuts, and wander up here and
+watch.  Theed, after seeing us off, will jump into the car and come over
+for you at once.  Meanwhile, after the experiment, you can employ your
+time in connecting up the broken conductor with the bit of wire cable.
+I've left it all ready under the bush."
+
+"By Jove, Claude!" he said enthusiastically.  "I shall be standing there
+eager to see whether it sparks across when you turn on the current."
+
+"I shall do so four times--judging the distance at five hundred, one
+thousand, two thousand, and three thousand yards," I said.  "Then I
+shall flash you two shorts from the searchlight to show you that I've
+finished.  Understand?"
+
+"Quite.  Afterwards I shall wait about for Theed to pick me up," Teddy
+replied.  "I do hope we shall meet with success."
+
+"We ought.  The points of the lightning-conductor should pick up the
+intense current.  We've proved the theory on our insulated guys upon the
+wireless-pole," I said in confidence.  "But, of course, we don't want to
+attract too much attention here.  So make up some feasible story at the
+hotel after I've left you there."
+
+Ten minutes later we were in the old-fashioned bar-parlour of the
+George, where the tables were highly polished by the spilt ale of
+generations, and where the landlady, a buxom widow in a cap, greeted us
+courteously.
+
+I stayed for a quarter of an hour, and smoked a cigarette.  Then,
+rising, I said loudly:
+
+"Well--you go over and see about it.  Make the best bargain you can.
+But don't pay more than ninety to ninety-five.  Jack will run over in
+the car for you sometime this evening."
+
+And so giving the landlady the idea that my friend was about to go out
+and do business with some neighbouring farmer, I went out and drove as
+rapidly as I could back to Holly Farm.
+
+That afternoon I spent with Theed tuning up in the yard, running the
+dynamo, making tests of the searchlight, manipulating the dual controls,
+and seeing to my altimeter and other instruments.  I intended that, as
+far as was humanly possible, there should be no hitch of any kind.
+
+Roseye, in her mechanic's overalls, helped me eagerly.  Her small hands,
+so white and delicate at the Savoy or the Carlton, were now oily and
+grimy, and across her chin was a smudge of oil, giving her an almost
+weird and comical appearance.
+
+"Well?" she asked.  "And what does it matter, pray?  I haven't my best
+frock on, nor my newest _crepe-de-chine_ blouse."
+
+Yes.  She was a real "sport."  She knew as much of aircraft as most
+pilots in the services, and could effect a repair as well as most of the
+cigarette-smoking mechanics of the Royal Flying Corps.  Women, when they
+take to flying aeroplanes, are often too daring, and take risks at which
+men would hesitate.  Roseye was an illustration.  I had often stood in
+breathless fear watching her bank in a manner that I should never have
+dared to, yet she had come to ground lightly as a bird, and hopped out
+of her seat laughing with the pure joy of living the exhilarating life
+in the air.
+
+Truly the cobwebs are blown away from the brains and lungs of those who
+fly.  Indeed, it is a chilly proceeding, even when indulged in during
+the dog days.  Motoring without a wind-screen is considered rough by
+many people, but let them fly an aeroplane at forty miles an hour at
+8,000 or 10,000 feet on any day.  It is always chilly in the air, and by
+our thermometer that afternoon we both knew that we should have a cold
+night-flight.
+
+Beyond the little front garden of the farm, a square ill-kept grass
+patch, bordered by neglected standard roses, was a big grass-field,
+while beyond lay the open down sloping away to the valley.  At each
+corner of the field we had already placed big acetylene lights, ready
+charged, so that after we left, old Theed could light them to show us
+our landing-place, for a descent at night is always dangerous,
+especially if there is no landmark and the night be dark.
+
+Through those exciting days of our sojourn at Holly Farm, I, assisted by
+Teddy and Roseye, had worked night and day attending to every detail.
+Indeed, at six o'clock that very morning--almost before the grey dawn--I
+had gone round to these four lamps, the intense white light of which
+would be visible for many miles, and lit and tested them in order to
+assure myself that all was in working order.
+
+The afternoon wore on.  Mulliner brought us out cups of tea into the
+yard, for we were far too anxious and busy to think of the afternoon
+gossip.  The days were lengthening, of course, but we found them all too
+short.  This final experiment that we were undertaking would prove
+whether, after all, we had any effective defence against the terror of
+the night--or not.
+
+Try how I would, I could not put entirely away from myself the growing
+suspicion that, if spies had been so watchful, they would now be
+increasingly eager and ingenious in their endeavour to combat us.  Once
+I laughed at those who told us there were German spies about us--I
+denounced them as scaremongers.  But hard facts, shown to us in black
+and white, shown to us in prosecutions and actual executions of spies,
+had convinced me--as they must have convinced every Briton unless he
+were a pro-German or a lunatic--that dastardly secret agents existed
+even in the most unsuspected quarters, and that the Invisible Hand had
+been responsible for many a disaster to the British arms on land and at
+sea.
+
+Would that Hand still bring disaster upon myself?
+
+Daylight faded--and quickly.  The evening was calm and clear, with an
+orange glow of sunset in the west.
+
+All was in readiness.  My machine, with its big dual engines, its
+searchlight, its dynamo, and that most deadly apparatus contained in the
+brown deal box, stood in the yard running like clockwork, all its
+controls in order, every strainer taut, every nut locked, and the wooden
+petrol-container filled.
+
+All that was required was to wheel it out into the big grass-field and
+give the propeller a start.
+
+Roseye and I ate a frugal meal alone.  Mulliner, who served it, must
+have commented inwardly upon our unusual silence.  We generally
+chattered merrily.  Truth to tell, my mind was just then too full for
+words.  If the test succeeded, then all would be well, and Great Britain
+could defy the enemy's Zeppelins.  If it failed, I would not only be
+ruined--for I had borrowed money to reconstruct my machine--but I should
+know that all my theories had been blown to the winds, and that the
+enemy's bombastic threats to set London in flames were no idle ones.
+
+Roseye, reading my thoughts, became also pensive.  The hour of our great
+trial was now at hand.
+
+Even as we sat at table we could hear the quick throb of the engines for
+a few moments, and then they were cut off.  Theed was busy getting
+everything in order.
+
+Darkness had fallen.
+
+There was scarcely a breath of wind; the stars shone brightly in the
+steely-blue heavens, and the barometer was steadily rising.
+
+"A splendid night for flying!"  I declared, and as Roseye stood with me
+upon the threshold my arm stole lightly around her waist.
+
+"Yes, dear," was her reply, as she stood gazing away at the surrounding
+hills silhouetted against the night sky.
+
+The silence was intense.  From the distance, far away from the depth of
+the opposite valley, came the noise of a train on the main line which
+ran between London and the sea.
+
+We both looked across the starlight scene, and wondered.
+
+It was only half-past eight, so we went back into the farmer's best
+room, and sat before the logs chatting.
+
+In those strenuous days we were seldom alone together.  Yet, full well,
+I knew how she reciprocated my affection, and how her every thought was
+for my welfare.
+
+Yes.  We loved each other truly, and my life would have been one of the
+most perfect bliss were it not for that gulf of suspicion that had been
+opened by her inexplicable disappearance.  That hour, however, was not
+the one in which to recall it, so I crushed down its bitter memory.
+Roseye was mine--and mine alone.
+
+"You really want to go up with me to-night, darling?"  I asked, as I
+again sat beside her upon the frayed old couch before the big blazing
+fire.  "You are not afraid?"
+
+"I fear nothing, Claude, when I am with you," she replied, raising her
+big blue eyes to mine.  And then my lips met hers in a long, rapturous
+caress.
+
+In the dim light of the cheap paraffin lamp upon the table I saw that
+her expression was one of complete trust and devoted affection.  How
+could I doubt her further?
+
+And yet the motive of her absolute refusal to tell me the truth
+concerning where she had been was veiled in mystery.  It was an enigma
+that had puzzled me to distraction.
+
+"Remember, darling," I said, "you have never before flown at night.  We
+have no landmarks, and can only guide by the compass.  Towns and
+villages which, in normal times, can be easily identified, are now
+blotted out by the lighting regulations, and even when we find our
+church spire, our landing-place here may be difficult to discover."
+
+"But it will be lighted, and we shall see it," she said.  "If we steer
+by the compass for Stockhurst, Teddy--hearing our approach--will show us
+flashes from his lamp."
+
+"I hope so.  He's had a weary job I expect in that dead-alive place all
+day," I laughed.
+
+"No doubt.  But by this time he's active enough," she replied.
+
+And then we both lit cigarettes, for she was very fond of my own
+particular brand--one that I had found in the ward-room of one of our
+battle-cruisers before the war, and had always smoked since.
+
+The cheap American clock upon a side table crept slowly on.  Both of us
+were impatient.  We waited still half-past nine, when Theed came in to
+report that all was in readiness.  Would I help to wheel out the machine
+into the grass-field, he asked.
+
+This I did.  The three of us, including Roseye, put out the monoplane
+into position, pointing eastwards away from the trees, and facing the
+valley where, in the bright starlight, we saw that a faint grey mist was
+now rising.
+
+Afterwards we returned into the farm-house and I helped Roseye into her
+flying-suit, with its strapped wind-cuffs and wide belt.  She loosened
+her wealth of hair and, twisting it up deftly, without pins, placed it
+beneath her leather helmet, after which she stuffed her padded gloves
+into her pocket.
+
+"It's going to be cold," I said.  "I hope you're warm enough, darling?"
+I asked anxiously.
+
+"Quite," she assured me.  "My suit is wind-proof."
+
+Very quickly I also got into my kit--a kit I had used for months,
+because in an experiment of that sort one wants to be hampered with
+nothing new.  Then, when we were both ready for the flight, we went into
+the field and, climbing into our seats, buckled the straps across us.
+
+Theed junior and his father were attending to us, the former being at
+the propeller and in readiness.
+
+"As soon as we've gone, jump into the car and go out for Mr Ashton," I
+said to the younger man.  "You'll find him somewhere near Stockhurst
+church."  He knew the road, for he had gone over it on the previous day
+in order to explore.
+
+"Right, sir!  I'll get away at once and leave father to light the flares
+for landing," was his reply.
+
+Then, one after the other, I made tests.  First, I ran the engine, then
+I switched on the small light which showed our compass, the map in its
+celluloid cover, the altimeter, and the other instruments ranged before
+me.  Afterwards I switched on the searchlight which for a few seconds
+shot a white beam of intense brilliancy towards the sky.
+
+Having proved to my satisfaction that both engines the and dynamo were
+working well, I shouted the word to Theed.
+
+In a few seconds there was a sudden throb of the engine which instantly
+developed into such a roar that to speak to Roseye at my side became
+quite impossible.
+
+We shot forward into the darkness, a sharp gust of wind struck our
+faces, we bumped for a few seconds along the ground, and then left the
+earth, the noise of the powerful engines almost splitting the drums of
+our ears.
+
+I saw before me a belt of trees and, pulling over the lever, rose above
+them, described a semicircle, and then, watching my compass, rose at
+once and headed for Stockhurst church, where I knew Teddy was anxiously
+awaiting our arrival.
+
+I know that Roseye, with the icy wind cutting her eyes, lowered her
+goggles, but after that I fear I became too occupied to notice anything
+further.
+
+It was a wild night-flight, and I knew that both our lives were now in
+jeopardy.
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+THE TRI-COLOURED RINGS.
+
+Almost as soon as we rose we saw straight before us a beam of reddish
+light moving swiftly northward in the direction of London.
+
+For a few seconds it was shut off, shone out again, and then went out.
+I knew it to be from a railway engine, the stoker of which had been
+firing up.  Moving trains, notwithstanding the pulling down of
+carriage-blinds, and the darkening of railway platforms so that persons
+break their legs in descending, or getting out at a supposed platform
+and falling upon the line, form the best guides for aircraft at night.
+By following an express locomotive, which must be stoked at frequent
+intervals, and looking out for the coloured signal-lights along the
+line, an airman can always reach the London area.  I had, when
+night-flying at Hendon before the war, often guided myself home by
+following an up-express.
+
+So terrific was the roar of my new engine that I could only communicate
+with Roseye by signs.
+
+I pointed at the moving train and, understanding my gesture, she nodded.
+
+As we rose higher and yet higher into the calm starlit sky, the earth
+beneath us became increasingly mysterious and misty.  Here and there dim
+lights showed, single lights of scattered cottages unseen by rural
+constables, or improperly obscured lights from the larger houses.
+
+Soon some red and green lights showed away on our left, and I knew that
+in the valley there ran the main railway line to London.
+
+By day, at an altitude of 2,500 feet, the whole surface of the earth
+appears perfectly flat, hills and valleys seeming to be on the same
+level.  Therein lies one of the dangers of aerial navigation.  The
+contour of the earth is quite indistinguishable when one is half a mile
+high, therefore the altimeter is not of very great use--and more
+especially so at night.  The instrument only records the number of feet
+above sea-level, and not above the earth.  Thus, a pilot flying by night
+can very easily pass over a valley and suddenly find himself
+encountering a range of high hills with a fatal belt of trees or row of
+houses.
+
+Such is exactly what happened to us on that memorable night.  We crossed
+the valley, and as I steered straight by compass in the direction of
+Stockhurst at about thirty miles an hour, I had dipped and of a sudden I
+found myself nearing a dark, high hill.  Just in time I shot up and
+cleared, I believe only by inches, the roof of a house.
+
+Roseye was quick to notice our sudden ascent and how we skimmed over the
+house and the trees of somebody's park as we kept our rather zigzag
+course.
+
+A clever writer upon aeroplanes has, with much truth, pointed out that
+the natural course of a machine is never a direct one, and if a line
+could be drawn between two given points it would be found that first it
+veered slightly to the left of this line, then gradually worked back to
+the true direction, afterwards heading off to the right and again
+returning.  Thus the true course is in the form of a continuous series
+of left and right-hand semicircles.
+
+These eccentric semicircles we were making with the engine running like
+clockwork.  There were few clouds and, therefore, the chance of a nasty
+"nose-dive" was not to be apprehended.  Once a machine gets into clouds
+it behaves like a ship in a stormy sea, and clouds can easily be met
+with after height of three thousand feet.
+
+After passing over the hill I dropped again to 2,000 feet, that being
+the best height to fly on a crosscountry journey.  There now opened out
+to our view a quantity of lights, among which were the red glare of a
+furnace, and a long row of small lights which evidently marked the main
+street of some little town in defiance of the "order."
+
+I planed down till I could clearly see the obscured lights of a railway
+station, and by my map, over which my little four-volt lamp was shining,
+I decided it to be Uckfield.  I therefore realised that I was bearing
+too far south and, further, just at that moment I had a "bump"--as we
+call it--or rather I ran into a patch of rarefied air which caused the
+machine to plunge heavily and tilt.
+
+Righting her, I rose again rapidly to 3,000 feet to get out of the
+danger-zone and, turning east, discerned in the darkness below me yet
+another cluster of lights which I approached rapidly, having decided
+that it must be Buxted.
+
+Still steering south-east I could see, away on my left in the far
+distance, a number of scattered lights in a long line, denoting where
+Hastings and St Leonards lay.  Beyond those lights, away upon the dark
+sea, showed the long beam of a ship's searchlight moving slowly in an
+are in the Channel.
+
+Roseye, seated beside me, touched my arm and pointed to it.  Again I
+nodded in response.
+
+By the map I saw we were now approaching that high ridge which stretches
+from Heathfield across to Burwash, the ridge which overlooks Hailsham
+and the Pevensey Levels.  My altimeter then showed 2,800 feet and all
+went well for ten minutes, or so, until just as I approached the railway
+line near Heathfield, we became suddenly blinded by the white beam of a
+searchlight from below.
+
+Roseye put up both hands to her eyes, but I bent my head and kept on my
+course.
+
+I saw her put out her hand as though to turn our own searchlight
+downwards and gripped her wrist, preventing her.
+
+I knew that our approach had been heard by the anti-aircraft
+listening-post on Brightling Beacon, and that, having picked us up, they
+would see the tri-coloured rings beneath my planes.  Truly it was
+fortunate that I had had them painted there, for I knew that upon the
+Beacon they had a very useful anti-aircraft gun.
+
+Beneath my breath, however, I cursed the men with that searchlight for,
+following us, it blinded us.  My first impulse was to turn away from it
+but, next instant, I realised that to do so might arouse suspicion below
+and they might open fire.  Therefore I kept on though, so intense was
+the glare, that I could see nothing of my instruments before me, and
+Roseye sat with her gloved hands covering her face.
+
+As suddenly as it had opened upon us, the light was shut off.  The naval
+gunners on duty below had evidently satisfied themselves that we were
+not enemies, and therefore, finding myself too far south for Mayfield, I
+made a semicircle until I again came across a railway line going north.
+I decided that if I followed it I must find Mayfield station.
+
+It struck me that already Teddy must be hearing my approach.  My
+luminous wrist-watch showed it to be now past ten.  Curious how very
+quickly time passes in the air if there is but little wind, and one's
+engine is running well.  It only seemed as though we had left Holly Farm
+a few minutes before.  Since we had left I had spoken no word with my
+well-beloved, the roar of the exhaust and the shrill whistling of the
+icy wind preventing conversation.  Yet I could see her well-wrapped-up
+figure silhouetted against the sky as, seated alert and watchful, she
+was now on the look out for Teddy's signal.
+
+That we were flying far too high I suddenly realised, therefore I planed
+down to about 900 feet, and at that altitude we sailed over Mayfield
+which was, however, in complete darkness, save for a cycle travelling
+along its main street, and a couple of lights at the station whither the
+green and red signals had guided us.  Passing Mayfield I still descended
+to 600 feet, and then again circled round, but neither of us could
+discern any flashing signal.
+
+Teddy had with him a strong electric torch, and we had arranged that he
+should give me a number of "shorts" followed by a number of "longs" in
+order to tell me that all was clear.
+
+But we could discern no signal!
+
+Still lower I descended and circled about until I had actually picked
+out the pointed spire of Stockhurst church.
+
+Yet there was still no sign.
+
+Roseye saw how puzzled I had become, and extended her palms to denote
+dismay.  What could have gone wrong?  Where was the hitch?
+
+Back I turned over Mayfield again, and once more took certain bearings,
+for night-flying is always fraught with many difficulties, and one can
+so very easily get lost.  I consulted both map and compass very
+carefully, satisfying myself at last that I had made no mistake.
+
+I had certainly picked up Stockhurst.  But where was the agreed sign?
+
+Something surely must have happened!  Why did not Teddy show us his
+light?
+
+The time was quite correct.  We were only ten minutes late.  I knew my
+friend too well to put his silence down to mere forgetfulness.
+
+No.  Something had happened!
+
+Both of us strained our eyes into that black, cavernous space below, as
+we hovered in mid-air full of hesitation and perplexity.
+
+There was but one thing to do, namely, to make our way back, for a
+landing there was quite impossible, scarcely anything being
+distinguishable save a small winding stream.  Besides, I was without
+knowledge as to whether the wind had changed since I had left the farm.
+It probably had.
+
+Suddenly, flying as low as I really dared, I struck out a little to the
+south making a complete circle of Stockhurst, but avoiding Mayfield.  I
+had no desire to rouse the town again by the noise of my exhaust, for in
+those days of Zeppelin peril the throb of aircraft engines was always
+alarming, and more especially at night.
+
+Three times did I circle round, but failed to attract Teddy's attention.
+
+Suddenly Roseye nudged me and pointed eagerly down to the left.  Her
+quick eyes had detected a tiny white light showing, which looked like
+short and long sparks.
+
+My heart gave a bound.  Yes, it was Teddy!
+
+Yet we were now so high again, to avoid the surrounding hills, that his
+flash-lamp only looked a tiny point of light.
+
+He flashed some message in Morse, but I only got a few letters.
+
+Would he repeat it?  We both watched breathlessly, as I headed the
+machine in his direction.
+
+Yes!
+
+Again the light spoke in the "longs" and "shorts" of the Morse code,
+which both Roseye and I could understand.
+
+Together we read it.
+
+"_Return in an hour_," he signalled.
+
+Why?  I wondered.  What could have occurred?
+
+Somehow, by the appearance of his light, I thought he must be signalling
+in secret, and not in the open.
+
+He would expect some acknowledgment from me, telling him that I
+understood.
+
+Therefore I elevated our searchlight so as to shine upward, instead of
+below.  Then, touching the lever, a long beam of white light shot
+skyward for a second.
+
+Afterwards I shut it off, and made straight away due southward by the
+compass, greatly puzzled.
+
+What could possibly have happened?
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+FLASHES IN THE NIGHT.
+
+It was most fortunate that I had taken in plenty of petrol.
+
+Picking up the railway line close to Mayfield, I followed it due south
+towards Heathfield.  For half the distance I could see that it ran
+through woods, for the moon was rising, and gave us a slightly better
+view of what lay below us.
+
+When just over Heathfield Station the searchlight from the anti-aircraft
+post on Brightling Beacon again shot up suddenly, and in a few moments
+was upon us.  I was flying quite leisurely, and banked so that they
+might get another good view of the rings on my planes.
+
+They evidently recognised me through their glasses, for very quickly
+they shut off their light and I continued, finding my way by the
+coloured signal-lights of the line from London to Eastbourne.
+
+The land beneath us was low-lying and pretty level.  There, before me, I
+saw a few half-obscured lights denoting Hailsham town, then the railway
+lights of Polegate junction came into view, and still farther in the
+distance the row of scattered lights, some of which were moving, denoted
+the position of Eastbourne.
+
+The authorities may make all sorts of complicated "lighting orders" with
+power to the police to enforce them, but it is next to impossible to
+black out any even moderately populous area.
+
+While a hundred residents will effectually darken their windows, there
+are the few thoughtless ones who burn gas beneath their skylights, or
+who do not sufficiently cover one window--often a staircase-window--or
+servants who go to bed neglectful to draw their curtains across the
+blinds.
+
+Then there are shaded street lamps burning at dangerous corners, or at
+cross-roads, and these, provided the ground is wet after rain, reflect a
+zone of bright light which acts as an excellent guide to aviators aloft.
+
+In the increasing light of the moon I made out the big gasometers of
+Eastbourne which stood out as a landmark in the direction of Langney,
+but, leaving them on my left, I steered a course for the coast over
+Willingdon Hill, my altimeter again showing 2,800 feet.
+
+I flew slowly and leisurely for fear of our anti-aircraft guns.
+
+As I expected, a few moments later the listening-post on Beachy Head,
+having heard my approach, was instantly on the alert, and the beam from
+their searchlight shot up, searching slowly about for me, because at
+that moment I had run into a bank of cloud and became obscured.
+
+We were suddenly both enveloped in darkness, our only light being that
+little bulb set over the map.  Still I kept blindly on, hoping to get
+out of it quickly.  Yet the moments seemed hours as we went along.  I
+increased the speed, but so long were we in that damp obscurity, that I
+knew that we had entered the cloud at its greatest length.
+
+At last we emerged once more into the cold bright night.  The atmosphere
+of the cloud had chilled us both to the bone, but as we emerged the long
+white ray fell quickly upon us.  Then I swerved, so as to exhibit to the
+naval watchers the rings upon my planes and decreased my speed to show
+that I had neither desire nor intention to escape.  Indeed, I hovered
+there for a few moments in order to let them have good sight of me.
+This satisfied them, and once again the long white ray was shut off.
+
+In the increased light I found that road which most motorists know so
+well, the steep and often winding way which runs near Beachy Head down
+to Friston and on to Seaford.  Then, flying over Newhaven, I kept on to
+Rottingdean and headed for the scattered and ill-obscured lights of
+Brighton.
+
+Flying at 3,000 feet I passed over the central station at Brighton,
+striking north to Lewes, with my eyes constantly upon my watch.  From
+Lewes I followed the right-hand line of railway which I saw, by the map,
+would lead me past Barcombe to Uckfield.  And with my engine running
+well I again, on gaining Buxted, struck due east in search of another
+line of railway which would lead me to Mayfield.
+
+Here, I had some difficulty.  I found a winding river, and believing it
+to be the Rother, took my bearings by it.  Ten minutes later I found I
+had made an error, and had to return to Buxted and take fresh bearings,
+which eventually led me once again back over Mayfield.
+
+An hour had passed, and I now again began to search for Teddy.
+
+By the bearings I had taken before, I soon picked up the spire of
+Stockhurst and, descending to about 500 feet, again circled around it.
+
+I had only made one circuit when we both saw Teddy's flashes, and then
+we knew that all was in readiness.  _The moment of our great experiment
+had come_!
+
+Roseye, who had taken careful instructions beforehand, prepared to
+manipulate the levers, while I flew the machine.
+
+To judge distance in the darkness is always extremely difficult,
+especially when one is flying an aeroplane.  Nevertheless, I had already
+made calculations and, assisted by my previous experiences of
+night-flying, began the trial.
+
+I had been travelling at sixty miles an hour for the past few minutes,
+but I now slowed up and, dropping still another hundred feet or so,
+circled out until I gauged that I was about five hundred yards distant
+from the tall, thin steeple.
+
+While I pointed the nose of the machine in the direction of the church,
+Roseye set the secondary engine and dynamo at work.  Then I drew over
+the little red-painted switch on the box close at my hand ere Roseye was
+aware of my intention.  I left it there for a full minute, directing the
+invisible wave of electricity upon the lightning-conductor of the
+church.  Then I released it, and wondered what result the watchful Teddy
+had observed.
+
+Circling the steeple again still higher, and going out farther, to what
+I judged to be a thousand yards distant, I repeated the experiment three
+times, in order that Teddy could make accurate observation.  Roseye
+pulled over the lever the last time, for at that moment we had a "bump."
+
+I wondered if he was witnessing sparks flying across that intervening
+space of the severed lightning-conductor--sparks of twelve inches, or
+so.
+
+Or was he watching and seeing nothing--in which case it would be proved
+that the invention, when put to practical test in the air, was a
+failure.
+
+A further thousand yards away I proceeded, and thrice again Roseye
+pulled over the switch, peering down below, as though in order to try
+and get sight of the flashes of electricity behind that convenient
+laurel bush.
+
+For a few moments I made a rapid spiral ascent until I judged that I was
+a full three thousand yards in a westerly direction from the church
+steeple.
+
+Then I myself made the contact with our apparatus, directing the
+intensely powerful current towards the church.
+
+Thrice I repeated it.  Then, once more I went back to a thousand yards,
+and again switched on the current.  Afterwards I made two rapid "shorts"
+with the searchlight, to indicate to my friend that I had finished and,
+turning tail, set forth straight back to try and find the spot where old
+Theed had lit the acetylene lamps to mark the field wherein we could
+land.
+
+Being so late, all lights of the villages were now practically
+extinguished except railway signal-lights.
+
+In consequence, a great difficulty confronted me.
+
+With Roseye seated at my side, motionless and wondering whether our
+experiments had proved successful, I flew on until, of a sudden, we
+entered a second bank of cloud, all the vista before and below us
+becoming obscured.  Since we had started some drifting clouds had blown
+across, and in one of these we now found ourselves.  To rise higher
+would mean that I could not pick up any landmarks, or perhaps not see
+the flares awaiting us.
+
+We knew that young Theed had found Teddy with the car, for he had
+flashed on his electric headlights three times to us as signal.
+
+I confess that, at the moment, I became greatly puzzled for, on emerging
+from the cloud, I found myself over a big patch of forest, with rising
+ground behind it.  My altimeter showed three thousand three hundred
+feet, and before me were other clouds drifting rapidly in my direction.
+
+A biting wind having sprung up I, for a full half-hour, lost my bearing
+altogether.  Roseye, practised airwoman that she was, had quickly
+discerned my perplexity and danger.  Yet she showed no fear--trusting in
+me implicitly.
+
+There seemed to be a quantity of rising ground about me, therefore I
+decided to ascend farther, first to avoid the oncoming clouds that were
+drifting low, precursory of rain or snow, and secondly, from a higher
+altitude to be able to pick up hoping, Theed's flares guiding us home.
+
+I rose to five thousand eight hundred feet when, on my left, I saw in
+the far distance a red stream of light from the furnace of a locomotive,
+but on what line of rail it was I could not decide.  Lost I was in that
+unbounded space of darkness--lost until I saw half a dozen scattered
+street lamps darkened on top and shedding slight patches of light upon
+the pavement, when I suddenly realised that below me lay a small town.
+I recognised station lights!  I had seen those once before that evening.
+It was Uckfield!
+
+While lost I had flown in a complete circle quite unconsciously, as
+every airman flies.  But now, steering again by compass, it was not long
+before I at last saw those four tiny points of white light below--the
+acetylene lamps over which old Theed was keeping guard.
+
+At such a height were we that the flashes looked mere specks.
+
+Roseye nudged me, and pointed down at them, while I nodded a response.
+
+Just at that moment we saw, a tiny pin-point of light flashing near the
+lamps, and knew it to be old Theed signalling to us, fearing lest at
+that height we might miss our landmark and go forward.
+
+He could not see us, but of course he must have been hearing our
+powerful engine for some time.
+
+In response, I gave one short flash with the searchlight, and then
+commenced to plane rapidly down, circling above the field marked for our
+landing.
+
+A belt of firs stood on the west side I knew, and these I was compelled
+to avoid.  My additional difficulty was one that always confronts a
+pilot when landing at night, namely, an ignorance of the direction of
+the wind.  By day the pilot can tell this from the way in which smoke
+blows, the currents of air waving across growing crops, and by other
+signs which in the darkness are not available.  A good landing should be
+against the wind, so as to break the impact of coming to earth.  Yet by
+night, if there be no mark in the aerodrome telling the pilot the
+direction of the wind, he has to take chances and risk it.
+
+This I did.  I came down in a rapid spiral over Holly Farm and, circling
+the field twice, alighted carefully, facing the front of the house.
+Unable to judge the distance exactly we, of course, bumped along a
+little, but I succeeded in steadying her, and a moment later we were
+stationary on terra-firma after nearly two hours and a quarter in the
+air.
+
+Instantly I shut off the engine and then, turning to Roseye, uttered the
+first word.
+
+"Well?"  I asked, taking her gloved hand in mine.
+
+"Splendid, Claude!" she cried enthusiastically.
+
+"Splendid!  Absolutely splendid!"
+
+I saw that she was pinched with cold, half-frozen indeed, and very
+cramped, therefore I unstrapped her, and lifted her out into the arms of
+old Theed, who came running up to us.
+
+Then I hopped out myself and, taking my love's arm, we walked up to the
+farm where we were soon before the huge log fire in the farmer's best
+room, while Theed went round to extinguish the lamps.
+
+Then, as we stood before the fire to thaw, still in our flying clothes,
+I drew her dear face towards mine and kissed her fondly upon the lips.
+
+"I wonder why Teddy sent us away for an hour, as he did?" she queried.
+
+"Don't know, dearest," was my reply.  "He'll be back very shortly, and
+will tell us what happened."
+
+At that moment Mulliner entered with two cups of hot cocoa, a beverage
+at that hour and in those circumstances very welcome.
+
+"You managed splendidly!"  Roseye declared.  "Isn't it awfully exciting
+to be up in the dark!  Nobody who hasn't been up at night would ever
+dream how weird and yet how lovely is the feeling--would they?"
+
+"It's far worse with these new lighting orders," I remarked.  "One gets
+so few landmarks.  That's why I lost my way more than once."
+
+Scarcely had I uttered those words when Teddy, in his big brown
+motor-coat and muffler, burst into the room.
+
+Dashing across to me he wrung my hands with wild enthusiasm.
+
+"It works, Claude!" he cried.  "The conductor sparked across at every
+test.  Even the last, at three thousand yards, the spark was quite an
+intense one!"
+
+"Then we haven't failed!"  I cried breathlessly.
+
+"No.  I should rather think not!" was my friend's eager reply.  "Why, at
+five hundred yards the laurel bush got badly burnt, and at a thousand it
+made a fearful crackle and was alight."
+
+"But it really acted at three thousand--you say?"
+
+"It acted perfectly--and over a twelve-inch spark, too!"
+
+"Then it shows that, after all, we can direct the electric current and
+thus create sparks across from metal to metal!"  I remarked.
+
+"Yes.  We've succeeded," he said.  "To-night I've witnessed something
+that no man has hitherto seen.  Our minor experiments were interesting
+enough, but this is proof positive that an invincible power to
+successfully destroy Zeppelins has at last been put into our hands."
+
+"I hope so," declared Roseye.  "Mr Munro and I have had a most exciting
+flight.  But why," she asked, "why did you send us away on our arrival?"
+
+"Because the terrible roar made by your engine alarmed the whole
+neighbourhood, and some people ran out in their night-clothes towards
+the church, believing you to be an enemy machine.  Therefore I climbed a
+wall and signalled to you to return in an hour, when all would, I hope,
+be quiet again."
+
+"Was all quiet when we returned?"
+
+"Yes, they had all gone back to their beds.  Theed had arrived for me by
+that time, so after your second visit he assisted me to take out the
+asbestos sheet and rejoin the conductor with the copper cable.  We made
+a good joint; so that there'll be no danger to the church in case of a
+thunderstorm."
+
+"Then the importance of the invention is proved?" asked Roseye.
+
+"Proved?" he echoed.  "Proved without a shadow of doubt."
+
+And he unwound his muffler, cast off his heavy frieze coat, and we both
+went out to assist in wheeling the machine back into the barn.
+
+That night we had proved to our satisfaction that our long and patient
+labours had certainly not been in vain.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+THOSE "EYES!"
+
+Next day dawned wild and wet, with a sixty-mile-an-hour wind.
+
+During the morning Teddy and I, assisted by Theed, made some little
+adjustments to the machine which, though reposing in the barn, was ready
+at any instant for another flight.
+
+All three of us were, naturally, full of glee that our invention was a
+proved success.  It only remained for us to rise and attack the next
+Zeppelin that came over.
+
+This idea, however, was all very well, of course, but enemy airships had
+a sly knack of coming over the sea at unexpected moments, dropping
+bombs, and returning before our aeroplanes could rise sufficiently high
+to drop incendiary bombs upon them.  The exploits of poor young
+Warneford, and of the French gunners behind the lines at Brabant-le-Roi,
+had been hailed with delight by the Allies, and naturally so, yet no
+enemy aircraft had been brought down on British soil.  That was a feat
+which I intended, even at the risk of my own life, to achieve.
+
+The power to destroy a Zeppelin had been placed within my hand, and I
+intended to use it, though at present I had not matured any actual plan.
+
+After our frugal luncheon that day, a meal of boiled bacon and beans,
+the weather cleared up, so Roseye expressed a wish to go down to
+Eastbourne to buy something she required.  So I took her in the ear.  A
+nip was in the air, so she wore a veil, and on starting away I told
+Teddy that, in all probability, we should have dinner in Eastbourne
+before returning.
+
+"Right ho! old man," he replied.  "Perhaps I shall run up to town.  We
+want those two new nuts and the sparking-plugs you know, so I can get
+them.  If I go, I shan't be down till the last train, so send Theed over
+to Nutley to meet me, won't you?"
+
+"Right," I said, and a moment later, with Roseye beside me, I started
+off down the long narrow wooded lane which led round by a place called
+Oldlands, and down into Maresfield.
+
+The winter landscape was dull and dispiriting.
+
+We had passed through the little town, and out again upon the Lewes road
+when, having gone about four miles, we suddenly saw a big dark green
+limousine standing at the roadside.  The chauffeur, whose coat was off,
+had evidently got tyre-trouble, and, the road at that bend being very
+narrow, I was compelled to slow down in order to pass.
+
+Beside the car, watching the chauffeur as he worked, was a middle-aged
+man in a thick drab motor-coat and cap of shepherd's plaid, while beside
+him stood a tall, erect woman in furs.  The man was idly smoking a cigar
+end and laughing with the woman, and as we passed the latter turned to
+gaze at us.  In the passing glance I obtained of her I saw that hers was
+a hard, thin face, with high cheek-bones, an unusually pointed chin, and
+a curious expression in her eyes.
+
+Somehow--why I cannot tell--I thought she regarded us a little
+inquisitively.
+
+Next instant Roseye, in breathless fear, clutched at my arm, gasping:
+
+"Quick, Claude!  For Heaven's sake let's get away!"
+
+"Why?"  I asked, much surprised at the sudden terror she had evinced.
+
+"That woman!" cried my love, in a voice of alarm.  "Did she see me--do
+you think she saw me?" she asked, her trembling hand still upon my arm.
+
+"How could she, through that veil?"  I asked.  "It was impossible."
+
+"Is my veil really thick enough to conceal my face entirely?" she asked
+eagerly.
+
+"Not absolutely to conceal it, but to render identification extremely
+difficult at such a distance," I replied.  "But--tell me, why are you
+trembling like this, Roseye?"
+
+"Oh, drive on," she cried.  "Drive quickly.  Do!  She saw you--she will
+know you from those photographs in the newspapers.  I saw by her look
+that she recognised you.  Don't glance round.  Keep on, keep on!  Go as
+fast as ever you can.  Save me from her--oh! do save me, Claude!" she
+implored.
+
+I saw, with much apprehension, that her unaccountable mental agitation
+was returning.
+
+"But who is the woman?"  I demanded eagerly.  "She's a perfect stranger
+to me."
+
+"Ah! but not to me, Claude!  That woman!" she gasped, as her gloved
+hands lying upon her knees clutched convulsively.  "That woman is--she's
+the Woman with the Leopard's Eyes!"
+
+"That woman!"  I ejaculated, amazed.  "Was that really the woman?"
+
+"Yes.  But--why is she about here?  She means mischief, Claude.  She
+means to do us both harm!"
+
+"And the man?"  I asked, bending to her without glancing into her face,
+for I was driving at increased pace in obedience to her command.  "Who
+is he?"
+
+"I couldn't see his face--only hers--the fiend!"
+
+"Shall we turn back and watch their movements?"  I suggested.
+
+"No, no!  A thousand times no!" she shrieked, apparently terrified at
+such a suggestion.  "Don't go near her.  Save me from her--won't you,
+Claude?  If you love me, don't let her approach me.  Will you?"
+
+"Trust in me, darling," I said reassuringly, yet greatly puzzled at the
+unexpected encounter, and in fear also that sudden sight of the hated
+woman might bring on another nerve attack.
+
+She drew aside her veil and lifted her close-fitting little motor-hat
+from her brow, as though its weight oppressed her.  Then I noticed how
+pale and terrified was her face.  She had blanched to the very lips.
+
+"Don't trouble about the matter any more," I urged, yet I knew well that
+sight of the mysterious woman had recalled to her memory some evil and
+terrible recollection that she had been striving to put from her for
+ever.
+
+"But I do trouble about it, Claude," she said in a harsh, apprehensive
+voice.  "I fear for you more than I fear for myself.  She is your enemy,
+as well as mine.  Against her we are, both of us, powerless."
+
+I pricked up my ears at her words.
+
+"What do you mean, Roseye?"  I asked.  "How can she be my enemy?  I've
+never before set eyes upon the woman!"
+
+"Ah! you don't know, dear--so you can't understand," was my love's
+impatient reply.
+
+"No.  I want you to tell me," I said.  "If danger really besets both of
+us, is it not your duty to explain the facts to me, and leave me to take
+steps to protect ourselves?"
+
+"Yes.  I would tell you, dear--only--only--"
+
+"Only what?"
+
+"Only--well--only I can't!" she answered evasively.  Then, a second
+later, she added: "I told you, Claude, long ago that I couldn't tell you
+anything."
+
+"You hold some secret; and yet you conceal it from me!"  I remarked in a
+tone of reproach.
+
+"Because--because I am compelled.  I--I am in fear--in deadly fear,
+Claude!"
+
+"In fear of what?"  I asked, for I saw by her demeanour that such was
+the nerve-strain that she was on the point of tears.
+
+For a second she hesitated.  Then she said:
+
+"In fear of that woman--the one with the Leopard's Eyes."
+
+I saw it was quite useless to argue further with her while driving, for
+we were then travelling at a great pace, and had already passed the
+four-ways at the Cross-in-Hand.
+
+She lapsed into a long silence, seated immovably at my side, her gaze
+was fixed blankly upon the muddy road that constantly opened out before
+us.
+
+On the previous night we had been flying over that very road.
+
+I remarked upon it, in order to change the conversation, but she only
+nodded.  Truly her figure was a pathetic one, for she had turned back
+her veil, so that the air might cool her troubled brain.
+
+As a result that passing glimpse of the mysterious woman whom she held
+in such fearsome terror, her whole attitude had again in become changed.
+She looked wild and haggard, and in her great blue eyes, so clear and
+trustful, there was a queer, uncanny look that caused me both wonderment
+and apprehension.
+
+On we went, through Hailsham and Polegate, until we ran over the steep
+hill at Willingdon, and at last descended through Eastbourne Old Town,
+until we reached the busy Terminus Road of the fashionable go-ahead
+watering-place, the road which led to the fine sea-front so beloved by
+the summer visitor.
+
+Roseye having done her shopping in the Terminus Road, we ran along past
+the Wish Tower to the Grand Hotel, where we took tea at one of the
+little wicker tables in the glass-fronted lounge, and afterwards smoked
+cigarettes.
+
+Though it was winter, the hotel was filled by a smart crowd.
+
+I met Tringham, who had learnt flying with me and who was now a naval
+Flight-Commander.  He was with his young wife and we four had a long
+gossip, but of course I said nothing of our secret flight on the
+previous night.
+
+Naturally, our talk was of Zeppelins, and in the course of our chat
+Tringham, who was in naval uniform, discussed with me what was necessary
+to damage a Zeppelin sufficiently to bring her down.
+
+"The question," he declared emphatically, "has several answers.  If the
+machine is hit fair and square by an explosive-incendiary projectile,
+which ignites the gas as it escapes from the damaged gas-bags after
+mixing with the air, it is certain it will crash to earth a blazing
+wreck, as the one did behind the French lines the other day.  But rifle
+bullets will do little harm, as they only make small holes, which often
+can be repaired by the crew whilst aloft."
+
+"I quite agree that rifles against a Zeppelin are just about as
+efficacious as firing with pea-shooters," I remarked.
+
+"The public have not yet realised that a Zeppelin is a very difficult
+thing to attack successfully," declared the Flight-Commander, who as one
+of the best-known of our naval pilots, had done much heroic work, and
+was now stationed somewhere on the East Coast.  "Shells which don't hit
+fair to the mark may badly damage one of the eighteen ballonets, but
+this is not sufficient to bring her down.  However, it may partially
+cripple the machine by upsetting its stability, and it is then highly
+dangerous to run the powerful engines at speed.  To hit either of the
+gondolas would, of course, do serious harm, but at six thousand feet
+they are at night an almost invisible mark, and it is only by a lucky
+chance they would be damaged."
+
+"And what, in your opinion, is the best means of destroying Zeppelins?"
+Roseye asked, with a sly glance at me.
+
+"My dear Miss Lethmere," he replied, "guns and guns alone are at present
+of any use against these air monsters.  We must see to it that the
+weapons we use are sighted to carry to 12,000 feet, and fire a shell
+that will not only rip up casing and ballonet, but will at the same time
+ignite the escaping gas."
+
+"The newest super-Zeppelins have a sentry posted on top," remarked Mrs
+Tringham, a smart little lady, well-known to Roseye, for she had often
+flown with her husband.  "He is separated from the crew far below, but
+he is in telephonic communication with the commander, so that he can
+warn him of any aeroplane ascending above for bomb-dropping.  I quite
+agree with Alfred," she went on, "well-equipped guns and good naval
+gunners are the best defences against this new peril of the night."
+
+"Moreover," Tringham remarked, "I give no credence whatever to the
+reports that the Germans are circulating, namely, that they are
+completing two new Zeppelins a week."
+
+"I agree," I said.  "That story has gone the round of the Press, but is
+only a piece of clever propaganda sent out to neutral countries with the
+object of being seized upon by their sensational newspapers.  No!
+Airships are big, unwieldy, as well as very vulnerable things.  That the
+enemy has a number of them is quite certain, but the policy of
+frightfulness on paper is part of the Teuton plan.  I admit that we are
+behindhand with our air-defences; but I do not support the Press in its
+shrieking clamours.  We shall defeat the Huns one day--never fear.
+England has never yet been beaten."
+
+And again I glanced at my well-beloved, whom I saw had already read what
+was passing in my mind.  Our secret was our own.
+
+But I was glad to have the views of such an air expert as my friend
+Tringham, because he reflected what was just then uppermost in the
+official mind.
+
+Evidently the "nest of hornets" fallacy had been dismissed.
+
+When the Flight-Commander and his wife left us--for he was on
+forty-eight hours leave, and they were motoring back to town--Roseye and
+I went for a stroll back into the town.  There was nothing to do before
+dinner, so we went into a cinema and sat watching the latest
+picture-drama--a certain photo-play that was highly popular at that
+moment and which, with transpontine vividness, showed a fuzzy-haired
+heroine, bound and gagged by the cigarette-smoking villain, flung down
+into a slimy sewer, and afterwards rescued by the muscular and, of
+course, clean-shaven hero.  I wonder why, to-day, no hero ever wears a
+beard?  Twenty years ago they were all blonde-bearded.  But Mr Frank
+Richardson having declared that whiskers and love are as oil and water,
+the public have adopted that view.
+
+After the "pictures" we returned to the hotel, where we dined and,
+shortly after nine, left in the car for Holly Farm.
+
+The night was again bright, clear and starlit, and the run home was very
+pleasant, even though the prohibition of headlights necessitated the
+greatest caution and a reduction of speed.
+
+Roseye said little during the journey back.  I saw she was unduly
+thoughtful.  No doubt she was reflecting upon that incident on the road.
+While Tringham and his wife had sat with us and we were gossiping, she
+had been quite her old self again, but I had noticed that as soon as
+they had left she had lapsed into that strange attitude of nervous, even
+terrified apprehension.
+
+She seemed to be possessed of some presage of coming evil.  And yet she
+refused--blankly refused--to tell me the truth, and so place me upon my
+guard against any plot or pitfall which the enemy might prepare for us.
+
+We ran on.  Noting her silence, I pushed forward with all haste until at
+length we swung round from the lane into the farmyard, the gates of
+which old Theed had left open for us.
+
+The old fellow ran up to us from out of one of the sheds wherein he had
+been seated awaiting us.
+
+"Mr Munro!" he cried eagerly.  "May I see you at once, sir.  I want to
+tell you something.  There's some mystery here, sir."
+
+"Mystery?"  I echoed together with Roseye.
+
+Then, noting his scared face beneath the light of my side-lamps, I
+asked:
+
+"Mystery?  What mystery?  Tell me."
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+ROSEYE'S SECRET.
+
+Old Theed, the stalwart ex-police officer, was greatly excited.
+
+"Just before half-past eight, my son having gone in the car over to
+Horsham to see his young lady, and afterwards to pick up Mr Ashton, I
+was sitting in the kitchen with Mulliner," he said.  "Suddenly I thought
+I heard footsteps out in the yard.  I listened for a few moments and
+then I heard, quite distinctly, a curious sawing noise.  I went silently
+out by the front door and was just creeping round the corner of the
+house, when the figure of a man--who was evidently on the watch--
+suddenly sprang from the shadow.  I was seized by the collar, and the
+next I knew was that a handkerchief was stuffed into my mouth and a rope
+tied round my arms and legs.  I tried to cry out, but I could not.  I
+was trussed like a fowl.  My assailants were two men, and pretty tough
+ones they were, too!"
+
+"Mulliner was in the house--eh?" asked Roseye.
+
+"Yes, miss.  They flung me down into the garden yonder, up against those
+rose-bushes, and then went into the house after her," Theed went on.  "I
+heard her scream, but could not move to assist her.  She shouted for
+help, but I couldn't answer.  But she was plucky and she saved the
+situation."
+
+"How?"  I asked, amazed.
+
+"Why, she shouted out to me: `It's all right, Theed!  I've telephoned
+down to Nutley.  The police will soon be here!'"
+
+"That was certainly a master-stroke, considering that we have no
+telephone here," I exclaimed.
+
+"No.  But it scared the thieves--or whoever they were--for they didn't
+wait, but made off in a car which they had waiting down the lane.  I
+heard them hurry away down to the lane, and soon afterwards the car
+started."
+
+"Who released you?"  I asked.
+
+"They had tied Mulliner to a chair in the kitchen but, after half an
+hour, she managed to get free, and came out to find and release me.
+Then, on going into the yard with a lamp, we found a curious thing.
+They had evidently been examining your aeroplane, sir."
+
+"They've been in there!"  I gasped.  "Strangers!"
+
+"Yes, sir.  But, as far as I can see, they've done nothing."
+
+I at once took one of the side-lamps from the car and, with Roseye, went
+into the barn.  Mulliner, who had now recovered from her fright,
+followed us.
+
+As far as I could discern by a cursory glance, nothing had been tampered
+with.  It was fortunate, however, that we had removed the box containing
+the secret electrical apparatus, and that it was concealed in the house,
+as was our constant habit.
+
+The story told by the pair was certainly alarming.
+
+Once again I recognised here the evil finger-prints of the Invisible
+Hand.
+
+"You saw the men who attacked you?"  Roseye said to Mulliner when we
+were again in the house.  "Describe them to us."
+
+"Well, miss.  There's the difficulty.  There were two men, I know, as
+well as a woman--a tallish woman, dressed in a fur-coat and a small
+motor-hat.  She had a thin, dark-looking face and funny eyes, and she
+spoke to the men in some foreign language--Italian, I think."
+
+"Ah!" gasped Roseye, turning to me terrified.  "The woman!  I feared
+it--I knew it!  The woman with the Leopard's Eyes!"
+
+"And the men?"  I asked.  "Did you not see them?"
+
+"I only caught a glimpse of one of them," and the description she gave
+of him almost tallied with that of the man whom we had seen in the
+woman's company at the roadside.  The pair had evidently been on the
+watch ever since afternoon.  They no doubt had seen us leave, and also
+watched Teddy and Theed's son go away.
+
+"But the second man?"  I demanded eagerly.  "Can't you give us any
+description of him?"
+
+The maid hesitated, and fidgeted slightly.  I saw that she was undecided
+and a little unwilling.  Her hair was still awry from her attack, and
+she had forgotten, in her excitement, to replace her well-starched
+Dutch-cap.
+
+"Well, sir," she answered at last, "I have a suspicion--but only a very
+faint one--remember I couldn't really see his face, for he sprang upon
+me from behind.  But he spoke to his companion, and I thought I
+recognised his voice--only a faint suspicion," the woman added.
+"Indeed, I don't really like mentioning it, because I'm sure you'll
+laugh at me.  You'll think it too absurd."
+
+"No.  This is no laughing matter, Mulliner," I said.  "We are in deadly
+earnest.  It is only right of you to tell us any suspicion that you
+entertain."
+
+"Well--to tell you the truth, sir, I thought I recognised the voice of a
+gentleman who often visits Cadogan Gardens--Mr Eastwell."
+
+"Eastwell!"  I echoed.  "Do you really think it was actually Mr
+Eastwell?"
+
+I glanced at Roseye and saw that, at mention of the man's name, her face
+had instantly gone pale as death, and her hands were trembling.
+
+"Are you quite sure of that, Mulliner?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"No.  Not quite.  I only know that he wore a big pair of motor-goggles
+with flaps on the cheeks, and those effectively altered his appearance,
+but as he assisted in tying me up in the chair, my eyes caught sight of
+his watch-chain.  It was familiar to me--one of alternate twisted links
+of gold and platinum of quite uncommon pattern.  This I recognised as
+Mr Eastwell's, for I had seen it many times before, and it went far to
+confirm my suspicion that the voice was undoubtedly his.  I admit, miss,
+that I was staggered at the discovery."
+
+I led Roseye into the best room and, having closed the door, stood
+before her in front of the log fire and asked:
+
+"Now what is your opinion, dear?  Has Lionel Eastwell been here
+to-night, do you really think?"  Her pale lips compressed, and her eyes
+narrowed at my words.  I saw that she was unnerved and trembling.
+
+"Yes," she whispered at last.  "Yes--Claude--I believe he has been
+here!"
+
+"Then he's not our friend, as we have so foolishly believed--eh?"
+
+She drew a long breath, and gazed about the room as though utterly
+mystified.
+
+"I--I never suspected this!" was her low reply.  "But--"
+
+"But what?  Tell me, darling.  Do tell me," I begged.
+
+"But he may be acting in conjunction with that woman in some desperate
+plot against us!"
+
+"I believe he is," I declared.  "I believe that whatever has happened to
+you, and my accident also, are both the result of cunning and dastardly
+plots directed by this man who has so long posed as our friend.  Have
+you never suspected it?"  I asked of her.
+
+"Never--until to-night," was her reply.  "But if he has dared to come
+here in order to assist that woman, then his action places an entirely
+fresh complexion upon the whole affair."
+
+"My opinion is that Lionel Eastwell has, all along, suspected that we
+have perfected our invention, and has formed a most clever and desperate
+plot to possess himself of our secret, in order to transmit it to
+Germany," I declared, as I held her hand tenderly in mine.
+
+"Yes," she replied, sighing after a pause.  "Your surmise may be
+correct, Claude."
+
+"But do you share my views?"
+
+"Well--" she responded at last, "yes, Claude--I do!  But," she added,
+"the whole affair is too mystifying--too utterly amazing.  When, one
+day, I can tell you what happened to me you will, I know, stand aghast.
+Ah! when I think of it all," she cried hoarsely, "I often regard it as a
+miracle that I am alive and at your side again--at the side of the man I
+love!"
+
+More than this she refused to tell me.
+
+I had, at last, established that the hand of Lionel Eastwell, the
+popular pilot at Hendon, was the hand of the enemy.  I had suspected it,
+but here was proof!
+
+His association with the mysterious woman was, of course, still an
+enigma, but I saw that Roseye herself held the key to it, and now that
+we had agreed that Eastwell was playing us both false, I hoped that
+this, in itself, would induce her to tell me the frank and open truth.
+
+When Teddy returned he heard from my lips what had happened during our
+absence, and he stood speechless.
+
+"Let's run the dynamo, light up, and examine the machine," he suggested,
+and though it was already midnight we readily adopted his suggestion.
+
+That it had again been tampered with I felt no doubt.
+
+That statement of old Theed's that he had heard "sawing" made it plain
+that some devil's work had been done--and by Eastwell no doubt, because
+he was an expert in aviation.  The expert knows exactly the point at
+which he can weaken the strongest aeroplane.
+
+Well, we soon ran the dynamo, and had a good light going, one that was
+almost too glaring in that confined space.  All of us were present,
+including the maid Mulliner, as slowly we examined and tested, piece by
+piece, every bolt, nut, strainer, and indeed every part of the machine.
+
+It was past three o'clock in the morning ere we finished, yet we could
+find absolutely nothing wrong.  The engines worked well: the dynamo was
+in order, the intensified current for the working of the invisible wave
+was up to the high voltage as before, and as far as we could discover
+the machine had not been tampered with in any way.
+
+"They intended to investigate the secrets of the box," Teddy remarked.
+"No doubt that's what they were after."
+
+"Well--they didn't see very much!"  I laughed, for already I had been up
+to the locked attic to which we had carried it on the previous night,
+and found it there with the door still secure.
+
+Then, having satisfied ourselves that no damage had been done, we all
+retired to rest.
+
+But sleep did not come to my eyes.
+
+Hour after hour I lay awake until the grey dawn, pondering over the
+events of that night.  That a desperate plot of the enemy was afoot
+against us could not be doubted, and I realised that it would take all
+our ingenuity and foresight to combat the plans of an unscrupulous enemy
+well provided with money, and desperate upon a resolve.
+
+To go boldly to the authorities and denounce Lionel Eastwell as a spy
+would avail me nothing.  Indeed, there was no actual evidence of it.  No
+more popular man at Hendon, at Brooklands, or at the Royal Automobile
+Club was there than Eastwell.  Yet, was not that popularity, purchased
+by the ample means at his disposal, and the constant dinners and
+luncheons which he gave regardless of their cost, proof in itself that
+he was acting secretly against the interests of Great Britain?  Long ago
+I had suspected that his was the Invisible Hand that sent every secret
+of our progress in aviation to Germany by way of the United States.  He
+had several American friends to whom I had been introduced, apparently
+business men who had come over for various reasons, and it was, no
+doubt, those men who conveyed back to New York secret information which,
+later on, returned across the Atlantic and was duly docketed in the
+Intelligence Bureau of the German General Staff at Berlin.  Truly the
+wily Teuton leaves nothing to chance, and has his secret agents in the
+most unsuspected places.
+
+Yet, reflecting as I did in those long wakeful hours, I saw that it was
+not surprising, and that the enemy would, naturally, have kept a very
+watchful eye upon anyone who had devised a means of fighting Zeppelins,
+and, if possible, defeat him in his attempt.
+
+This thought decided me.  I meant, at all hazards, to try my device
+against an enemy airship, even though I might fail.  I had foreseen all
+the risks of machine-guns mounted upon the top of the latest airship, of
+the dangers of night-flying, of landing difficulties even if successful,
+and the hundred and one mishaps which might occur in the excitement and
+darkness.
+
+Indeed, in following a Zeppelin at a high altitude and in clouds, I
+might very easily be mistaken for an enemy attendant aeroplane, and thus
+draw the fire of our own anti-aircraft guns.  In addition, I held no
+official position in the anti-aircraft service.  As far as the
+newly-formed Joint Naval and Military Air Committee were concerned, I
+might be a mere man-in-the-street.  Therefore I should be compelled to
+act upon my own initiative.  Indeed, I had already offered my invention
+to the proper official quarter, but had only received a type-written
+acknowledgment.  I, however, was not surprised, because that Department
+had, I knew, been flooded by the devices of hot-air cranks.
+
+Still, as I lay reflecting, I remembered that we could build 1,700
+aeroplanes for the cost of one Dreadnought, and a Zeppelin would cost a
+good deal less than a destroyer.  I did not approve of that shrieking
+section of the Press which was loudly declaring that we had lost the
+supremacy in aeroplanes which we possessed at the beginning of the war.
+That was not a fact.  We, of course, had no dirigibles worth the name
+and, perhaps, we were asking pilots to fly machines inferior to the
+Fokker.  Yet we had brought Fokkers down at the front, and with good
+experimental work and a speedy policy of construction we should, I
+believed, soon be far ahead of the Central Powers as far as aircraft was
+concerned.
+
+Those days were dark and perilous days for Britain.
+
+That something must be done, every one was agreed.  Yet, as I tossed
+upon my bed in that narrow little room in the obscure farm-house, I knew
+that within my hand I possessed a great, and yet mysterious power--and
+that power I intended to use and prove at the earliest opportunity.
+
+Still I had to reckon with enemies; cool, clever, cunning persons who
+would hesitate at nothing in order to nullify my efforts, and wreck my
+machine and all my hopes.
+
+Ah!  If only Roseye, my well-beloved, would reveal to me the truth.
+
+Why did she so persistently refuse?
+
+Why?  I wondered why?
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+MORE DEVIL'S WORK.
+
+Next day I decided that, in view of the fact that our enemies had traced
+us, it would be best to at once remove our headquarters.  Further, in
+order to attack a Zeppelin, as I intended, we ought to station ourselves
+upon the line of their advance from the East Coast towards London, and
+somewhere in proximity to an anti-aircraft listening-post.
+
+All three of us held council and decided that, as I knew of a
+listening-post in East Anglia, I should fly the machine to that
+neighbourhood, rather than dismantle it and take it by road.  It was
+arranged that Teddy should accompany me, and that Theed should drive
+Roseye, Mulliner and his father in the car.  By this rapid and
+unexpected flight we hoped to at least evade the unwelcome attentions of
+that mysterious woman whom Roseye described as having leopard's eyes.
+
+Experience had taught us that in the Zeppelin raids upon England the
+airships generally approached by crossing the coast-line between
+Lowestoft and Margate, therefore I decided upon a district that would be
+the centre of a danger-zone.
+
+Having studied my map I saw that my most direct route would be over
+Tonbridge, thence by the railway line to Sevenoaks, and then north-east
+till I could pick up Gravesend--which would be easy on account of the
+river Thames--and afterwards due north would bring me to G--, which
+would be easily distinguishable by certain landmarks.
+
+We had wheeled out the machine, and I was tuning her up before starting,
+both Teddy and I ready in our air-clothes, when Theed, who was giving
+the machine a final look round, suddenly gave vent to an ejaculation of
+dismay.
+
+"Why look, sir!" he cried.  "What's this?"
+
+I hopped quickly out of the pilot's seat and, joining him, saw to my
+surprise that, beneath the wooden petrol-tank a fine insulated twin-wire
+had been, placed, and upon it, tacked lightly to the wood, was a small
+disc of some black-looking material through which the fine wire ran.
+
+In breathless eagerness I traced the wire and, to my horror, saw what a
+devilish contrivance it was.  The twin-wire had been connected up to the
+battery that ran the lamp over my map and instruments, therefore had I
+switched on the light at night, it would have failed, for it was
+intended that the current should ignite that little disc of inflammable
+material and explode my petrol-tank behind me!
+
+Truly, the device of those crafty and subtle enemies was a devilish one.
+That wire had been connected up by an Invisible Hand--by the hand of
+one who certainly knew the most vulnerable point of the machine.
+
+Teddy and Roseye both stood aghast at this latest revelation.
+
+Then, when I had disconnected the wire, I placed it with the little
+black incendiary disc upon the ground and connected up the wires to an
+accumulator from the car.
+
+In a moment the black substance shot into a fierce red flame which
+burned and spluttered with intense heat for fully five minutes.
+
+From the barn, a few minutes later, Theed emerged carrying a piece of
+the wire, evidently discarded by the intruder who had so swiftly and so
+cunningly prepared another death-trap for me.
+
+A further hour we spent in making a second examination of the machine,
+and then having appointed to meet that evening at the old King's Head,
+in G--, at seven o'clock, I climbed into the pilot's seat and, with
+Teddy at my side, we shot forward and soon left the ground heading for
+the railway line which I knew would run from right to left across our
+track at Tonbridge.
+
+I was really glad to place Holly Farm behind me.  It certainly was not a
+"healthy" spot, as far as we were concerned.  The low-down cunning of
+our enemies had once more been revealed.  Yet how I longed for Roseye to
+tell me the actual truth!  Why did she so persistently refuse?  What
+could she have to hide from me--the man who loved her so very dearly.
+
+We trusted each other.  She had trusted her life to me in the air on
+many occasions--even on the previous night.  Yet she remained silent.
+
+The day was bright and crisp, with a slight north-westerly wind and a
+few scudding clouds.  Very soon, when we had risen to about four
+thousand feet--for I had determined to fly high again--I saw a big
+seaplane coming up from the coast.  It passed us about four miles
+distant and then I gave over the dual controls to Teddy, so that he
+might get used to them ready for the crucial test when it must mean
+either destruction to a Zeppelin, or to ourselves.
+
+Teddy was a first-rate patriot.  There was nothing of the milk-and-water
+type about him, and yet, at the same time, he was nothing of a lady's
+man.  He was always courteous, humorous, and charming with the fair sex,
+but he preferred to read and smoke his rather foul briar pipe, than to
+go out of an evening into the glitter and clatter of London life.  But
+we were friends--firm friends, and he was just as prepared and keen to
+take the risk as I was.
+
+We found Tonbridge quite easily.  Below us what looked like a toy-train
+was puffing along towards Dover, leaving a white streak of steam behind.
+For a few minutes I made a short circuit over the town in order to find
+the line that ran across to Sevenoaks, and at last, distinguishing it, I
+made my way over that rather scattered place and then struck another
+railway line at a place marked upon the map as Fawkham, after which I
+soon picked out the shining river with Gravesend on one bank and Tilbury
+on the other.  I glanced at the altimeter.  We were 10,500 feet up.
+Below us all was misty in the valley of the river.  Then over the brown
+land of Essex I sped forward until I again found another railway line at
+Brentwood and, following it, soon saw my landmark--one which I need not
+refer to here, for I have no desire to instruct enemy airmen.
+
+Nothing extraordinary had met my eye.  I was used to the patchwork
+landscape.
+
+Then began a search for a convenient field in which to land.
+
+I came down from ten thousand to a thousand feet in long sweeping
+circles, examining each grass meadow as I went.
+
+The lower I came, the more easily could I distinguish the pastures and
+ploughed land and woods.
+
+A train was passing and I noted the direction of the smoke--most
+important in making a landing.  Teddy at my side, as practised as I was
+myself in flying, had never moved.  Through his big goggles he was
+gazing down, trying to decide upon a landing-place, just as I was.
+
+I banked for a moment.  Then put her nose down and then, finding no spot
+attractive, climbed again.
+
+I did not want to land too near the town, for I had no desire to attract
+undue attention.
+
+I was trying to find a certain main road, for, truth to tell, I had been
+up very early that morning consulting my maps.
+
+On that main road were two or three farms in which I hoped I could
+shelter my machine, just as I had done at Holly Farm.
+
+I suppose we spent perhaps nearly half an hour in the air before, after
+critical examination, I decided to descend into a large park before a
+good-sized old Georgian house belonging, no doubt, to some county
+family.
+
+Parks, provided they have few trees, are always desired by the aviator
+as landing-places.
+
+Indeed, as I circled round I could plainly see that several figures,
+attracted by the heavy, roar of my engine, were standing outside
+watching us.
+
+Two minutes later I brought the machine round to the wind.
+
+Down went her nose--down, down.  The air screamed about our ears.  The
+earth rushed up to meet us, as it always seems to do.  Truth to tell, by
+my own fault, I had had a nasty nose-dive, but I righted her and,
+touching the grass, managed to pull up dead.
+
+Teddy, who had been watching it all, never turned a hair.
+
+Only when I shut off the roar of the engine, he remarked:
+
+"By Jove!  Devilish good landing!  That nose-dive was rather a nasty
+one, Claude--wasn't it?"
+
+And, unstrapping himself, he hopped out and sought his cigarette-case
+from his hip-pocket, as was his habit.
+
+We were close against the big, rather ugly country house, therefore,
+leaving the machine, we went up and soon found its owner--a retired
+colonel of the usual JP type--hard on poachers when on the County Bench,
+I expect.
+
+Still, he welcomed us warmly and was, we found, quite a good sort.
+
+I asked him to take us aside, and he conducted us to the library, a fine
+old-fashioned room lined with brown-backed books.
+
+There I told him the truth--of what we were after.
+
+"Well," said the white-haired old man, looking me up and down, "you seem
+a pretty keen young fellow, and your friend also.  If you are over here
+on such a mission then I hope you will, both of you, consider yourselves
+my guests.  I've a big barn beyond the stables where I can garage your
+machine quite well."
+
+Then I told him of the trio who were on their way to the King's Head, in
+G--.
+
+"I shall only be too delighted to be their host," he replied at once.
+"I know Sir Herbert and Lady Lethmere well, but I don't believe I've
+ever met their daughter."
+
+Then he introduced his wife, a rather youngly-dressed woman, whose eyes
+were "made-up" and the artificiality of whose cheeks were just a trifle
+too transparent.  But artificiality seems fashionable to-day.
+
+We duly put the machine away into the barn and later, when we sat at tea
+in the drawing-room, the conversation naturally turned upon Zeppelins.
+
+Colonel Cator, for such we had found our host's name to be, held rather
+sceptical views regarding the power of aeroplanes to combat airships,
+and he waxed distinctly humorous as we sat together.
+
+"There have been so many fables told us about aircraft," declared the
+erect old man, "that one does not really know what to believe."
+
+"There have been a good many improvements recently in aircraft of all
+sorts, so that most of the pre-war types have been already scrapped," I
+said.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," exclaimed our host.  "But what I object is to the
+fairy-tales that we've been told in the past--how we've been reassured."
+
+"But does the past really affect the present very much?"  I queried.
+
+"I contend that it does.  We should have been told the truth," he
+declared emphatically and, rising, he took from beneath a table a large
+scrap-book.
+
+Then, returning to his chair, he said: "I have here a cutting from _The
+Times_ of March 20, 1913.  I came across it only the other day.
+Listen--and I'll read it to you, because it is most illuminating to you
+airmen."
+
+And then he read to us as follows:--
+
+  "Colonel Seeley, Secretary of State for War, said yesterday: We have
+  decided that the Army should have small _dirigibles_ which could be
+  packed up in _boxes_, put in motor-lorries or in ships, and sent
+  wherever they are required.  These we have got.  These dirigibles, I
+  say without hesitation--and all who understand the matter will agree--
+  are superior to any other kind of portable airship.  They have various
+  mechanical advantages, which I do not wish to dwell upon, because
+  those concerned believe the secret is our own, enabling them to rise
+  more rapidly in the air, and enabling them, above all, to avoid having
+  to part with hydrogen when they rise, and therefore there is no need
+  for reinforcing the hydrogen when they fall.  They have these
+  advantages, which we believe are _superior to those of any other
+  nation_."
+
+Then, pausing, the colonel raised his eyes to mine, and, with a merry
+laugh, asked:
+
+"Now.  What do you think of that for a Ministerial statement eh?"
+
+"Perhaps, instead of putting them in boxes, we might have had them put
+into paper bags, and distributed with pounds of tea?" suggested Teddy.
+"Why not?"
+
+"But I don't see how it affects the present situation at all," I argued.
+"We are surely much wiser now than we were three years ago."
+
+"Well--let's hope so," laughed the colonel.  "But that speech is full of
+grim humour--is it not?"
+
+And with that we were compelled to agree.
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+THE "L39."
+
+Having taken Colonel and Mrs Cator into our confidence, and they having
+invited Roseye to stay with them, we were all, on the following day,
+duly installed at Swalecliffe Park.
+
+Without delay I called upon the officer in charge of the
+listening-post--the whereabouts of which I do not intend to disclose--
+and, to my joy, found that he was a man named Moncrieff whom I had met
+many times at Hendon, and also at the club.
+
+Having told him of my intention to have a "go" at the next enemy airship
+that might come over, he readily promised that upon receiving the next
+alarm, he would make a point of ringing me up at Swalecliffe.
+
+Then, with the machine in readiness and already tested and re-tested,
+and also with a full petrol-tank, there was nothing further to do but to
+draw it out into the park each night, and await the alarm.
+
+It was on the first day of March when we had come down in Swalecliffe
+Park as strangers--on a Wednesday I remember--and the following days had
+been fully occupied with our preparations, while throughout each night
+Teddy and I, ready dressed for flight, sat in the colonel's study
+wherein the telephone was installed.
+
+Thursday night passed quite uneventfully.  During the earlier hours the
+colonel and Roseye sat with us, but the barometer being low, and the
+weather gusty, we had, even at ten o'clock, decided that no Zeppelin
+would risk crossing the North Sea.
+
+On Friday night the four of us played bridge till half-past four, the
+Theeds being, of course, on duty outside.  We had the consolation of
+knowing that, though the Invisible Hand might be searching for us, it
+had not yet discovered our place of concealment.  Each evening we tested
+the telephone--through the local exchange--out to the listening-post,
+and each evening Moncrieff, who was in charge, answered cheerily:
+
+"Don't fear, old chap, I'll give you a ring as soon as anything is going
+on."
+
+Saturday, the fourth of March, was bright and warm, but just before
+sunset a sharp easterly breeze sprang up and, with a falling barometer,
+we knew that our vigilance would remain unrewarded.  So again we played
+bridge until Roseye grew sleepy and then retired.  Certainly we did not
+appear to meet with any luck.
+
+On Sunday morning we all went to the pretty little church of
+Swalecliffe, and in the afternoon I went out for a pleasant stroll with
+Roseye through the park and leafless woods.
+
+Again I pressed her to reveal to me what she knew regarding that
+mysterious woman who was in association with the fellow Eastwell.
+
+But once again she steadfastly declined to reveal anything.
+
+"No, no!" she protested.  "Please don't ask me, Claude."
+
+"But surely I have a right to know!"  I declared.  "Your enemies are
+mine; and we are fighting them together.  We have agreed to marry,
+Roseye, therefore you may surely trust me with your secret!"
+
+I had halted at a stile before crossing our path leading into the wood,
+and, as I held her hand in mine, I looked straight into her big blue
+eyes.
+
+She drew a long breath, and her gaze wavered.  I saw that she now
+relented, and that she was unable to refute my argument.
+
+I pressed her hand and, in a deep, earnest voice, urged:
+
+"Tell me darling.  _Do tell me_?"
+
+Again her chest heaved and fell beneath her furs.
+
+"Well, Claude.  It's--it's a strange story--as strange as any woman has
+ever lived to tell," she said at last, with great hesitation and
+speaking very slowly.  "On that morning when I left I received a letter
+purporting to come from you, and urging me to meet you in secret on the
+departure platform of the Great Northern station at King's Cross.
+Naturally, much puzzled, I went there, wondering what had happened.
+While waiting, a woman--the woman you have seen--came up to me and told
+me that you had sent her--that you wished to see me in secret in
+connexion with your invention, but that you were in hiding because you
+feared that some spies intended to obtain knowledge of the truth.  She
+said that there were enemy spies on every hand, and that it would be
+best to go over to the hotel, and there wait till night before we went
+North to Grantham, whither you had gone."
+
+"Grantham!"  I echoed.  "I've not been in Grantham for years."
+
+"But I believed that you were there, so plausible was the woman's
+story," she replied.  "We left at night, travelling in a first-class
+compartment together.  On the way, I suddenly suspected her.  Somehow I
+did not like the look in those strange eyes of hers, and I accused her
+of deceiving me.  Indeed, while dozing, I had seen her carefully take my
+chatelaine, put something into it, and drop it out of the window.  We
+were in a tunnel, I believe."
+
+"Then it was that woman who put the cipher-message into your card-case!"
+I exclaimed.  "Yes, go on."
+
+"Yes," she replied.  "I sprang up, and tried to pull the
+communication-cord as we came out of the tunnel, but she prevented me.
+She pushed a sponge saturated with some pungent-smelling liquid into my
+face, and then I knew nothing more until I found myself in a small room
+in a cottage somewhere remote in the country."
+
+"Then you were detained there--eh?"
+
+"Yes.  Forcibly.  That awful woman tried, by every means in her power,
+to force or induce me to reveal the details of the experiments which you
+and Teddy were making at Gunnersbury.  But I refused.  Ah! how that
+hell-fiend tortured me day after day!
+
+"She nearly drove me mad by those fearful ordeals which, in a hundred
+ways, she put upon me--always promising to release me if I would but
+reveal details of what we had discovered.  But I refused--refused
+always, Claude--because I knew that she was an enemy, and victory must
+be ours if I remained silent.  Days--those terrible days--passed--so
+many that I lost count of them--yet I knew that the woman with the cruel
+eyes of a leopard had dosed me with some drug that sapped my senses, and
+she held me irrevocably in her power, prompted no doubt by somebody who
+meant to work evil also upon you.  In the end I must have lost my
+reason.  I think she must have given me certain drugs in order to
+confuse me as to the past.  Then, one day, I found myself in the town of
+Grantham, inquiring for the station.  I was in a maid's clothes, and in
+them I eventually returned to you.  And you--Claude--you know all the
+rest."  And she burst into a torrent of tears.
+
+"Yes," I said slowly.  "And that blackguard Lionel Eastwell is the man
+who has directed all this intricate and dastardly intrigue against us."
+
+Then I took my love into my arms, and pressing her to me, soothed her
+tears with my passionate kisses.
+
+What she had revealed to me amazed me.
+
+In the evening, just after the Sunday-night supper, Benton, the fat old
+butler, entered the drawing-room and, approaching me, said:
+
+"Mr Moncrieff is on the telephone, sir."
+
+I sprang up with alacrity and, a few seconds later, spoke to my friend
+at the listening-post.
+
+"You there, Munro?" he asked.  "We've just had a message to say that
+three Zeppelins are crossing the North Sea in the direction of the
+Norfolk coast."
+
+"Right!"  I said, and shut off at once.  There was no time to lose.
+
+In a moment I told them of the alarm.  Without much delay Teddy and I
+slipped into our air-kit, while Theed, with the machine wheeled out into
+the park, reported that all was in readiness.
+
+I met Roseye in the corridor above the central staircase of the great
+old-world house, and there kissed her fondly.
+
+"For your dear sake I go, and for the sake of my King and country!"  I
+whispered.  "Good-bye, my darling.  Keep a stout heart until you hear of
+me again!"
+
+"But--oh!--oh!--I fear, Claude!" she cried anxiously, clinging to me.
+
+"No, my darling.  We must, to-day, all make sacrifices.  There must be
+no fear.  I shall be back with you to-morrow."
+
+And then again I kissed her and disengaged those loving, clinging arms
+about me.
+
+Five minutes later Teddy and I were away in the air.
+
+The night was dull and overcast with a promise of clearing--yet bitterly
+cold.
+
+Of course with our big engine roaring we could hear nothing of the
+enemy's approach, but I deemed it wise to rise high and, at the same
+time, to follow the railway line from Colchester towards London, because
+that, no doubt, was the route which the airships would follow.
+
+The alarm had been given, trains being darkened and brought to a
+standstill, station and signal-lights extinguished and towns blotted
+out, I quickly lost sight of the railway track and could only go very
+slowly to save petrol in case of a chase, and guide myself by my
+compass.
+
+From a town somewhere on the coast I could see the long scintillating
+beams of a searchlight striking across the dark night sky, first
+directed in one quarter and then in another.  I think it must have been
+the searchlight on the coast at T--.
+
+I saw Teddy was busy adjusting the Lewis machine-gun at his side as we
+climbed rapidly in the pitch darkness.  The engine raced and hummed and
+the wind shrieked weirdly around us.
+
+I switched on the bulb over the instruments, in order to look at my
+altimeter, but so dark was it that the light got into my eyes and I was
+compelled to shut it off again.
+
+I flew in a wide circle at first, steadily climbing until the few faint
+twinkling lights below had disappeared entirely.  We were getting nearer
+and nearer the Zeppelin altitude.
+
+Ah! how the engine throbbed and roared.
+
+Suddenly something black shot up close to me, rushing on as quickly as
+an express train.  So suddenly did it rise up against me, that it gave
+me quite a start.  It seemed a great, unholy thing, and quite shapeless.
+
+It was another aeroplane, like ourselves, out to destroy the enemy
+airship with bombs.  And by Jove! we narrowly avoided a nasty collision.
+
+A second later we heard the loud report of a gun.  Our anti-aircraft
+gunners had spotted their quarry somewhere in the vicinity.  A moment
+afterwards upon our left, straight before us, two long beams of
+searchlight shot out, and then a sharp volley from the guns.
+
+They were possibly five miles distant, and in the direction of London--
+somewhere near Brentwood I thought.
+
+Bang! bang!--bang! we could hear, even above the throb of our powerful
+engine.  Teddy turned on the second engine, and then opened up the
+searchlight, sweeping it around before us.  But we could see nothing
+save some thin filmy clouds.
+
+Suddenly the searchlights from below went out, and the guns ceased.
+With one eye upon the altimeter I peered over, hoping to pick up some
+landmark, but I could find absolutely none.
+
+That a Zeppelin was in the vicinity was certain.  I tried to keep as
+cool as I possibly could, but I confess that at that moment it was
+difficult.
+
+I cruised about, knowing that I was now nearing the London area.
+
+Suddenly, deep below, yet some miles ahead, I saw a blood-red flash.
+The Zeppelin had dropped a bomb!
+
+Again I switched on the little light, and a glance at my altimeter
+showed that I was up eleven thousand feet, therefore I pushed straight
+along in the direction of that red glare.
+
+That it was an incendiary one I saw, because the flare continued far
+down in the misty workaday world below.
+
+The Zeppelin was executing its evil work upon the harmless civilian
+inhabitants.
+
+I craned and peered around on all sides, but could see nothing else--
+only the glare from the incendiary fire.
+
+The night was rapidly growing brighter, and we could see the stars.
+Again we heard a violent cannonade, and once more half a dozen beams of
+searchlights swept the sky from several points evidently much nearer to
+London.  More than once the searchlights picked us up and examined us
+with suspicion, blinding us with their glare the while.
+
+Once more from below there came up two loud detonations--high explosive
+bombs--yet we could see no Zeppelin, though we peered into the darkness
+again as soon as the searchlight left us.
+
+Blinded by the glare, I had banked a little too steeply, and nearly had
+another bad nose-dive.  Teddy noticed it, and said something, but what
+it was I could not hear for the roar.  That an enemy airship was about,
+and that it had dropped incendiary bombs was proved by the three or four
+red glares we could distinctly see beneath us.
+
+No doubt the Zeppelin was moving fast, dropping her bombs preparatory to
+rising and escaping beyond the zone of our anti-aircraft guns.  I rose
+higher, but still no sign of it.  Apparently the searchlights, having
+once located it, had again lost it, for once more all the guns were
+silent.
+
+I began to lose heart.  How horribly cold it was!
+
+I was now over London, unless I was much mistaken.  Several other of our
+bomb-dropping aeroplanes were circling below me, also unable to find the
+Zeppelin.
+
+Suddenly Teddy gave me a sharp nudge and pointed upward.
+
+I glanced in the direction he indicated, and there saw the great long
+dark hull of the airship hovering quite near us.
+
+We were then over eight thousand feet up, and the airship was perhaps
+another thousand feet higher.  I could distinguish its two gondolas, and
+as we passed near its stern its fins and planes were now plainly
+silhouetted against the bright, steely sky.
+
+With all speed possible I shot upward, but apparently the commander of
+the Zeppelin had discovered us, while at that very same moment a
+searchlight from somewhere below picked him up and revealed him, a huge
+silvery object, upon the side of which was painted in black a large
+iron-cross, the Hun badge of frightfulness, together with initial and
+number "L39."
+
+Scarcely had I become aware of the close proximity of the enemy when I
+saw a little spurt of red flare from the forward gondola.  It continued
+for several moments, and I knew that it was a machine-gun spitting forth
+its leaden hail upon us.
+
+Therefore I drew away and rose still higher, while, next second, the
+propellers of the monster airship began to whirr and it started away,
+nose upward and due east, evidently upon its homeward journey.
+
+Unfortunately the men manning our searchlights below kept one of their
+beams upon us as well as another upon the Zeppelin, and I must confess
+that both Teddy and I, in our excitement, consigned them to a place with
+an atmosphere slightly warmer than the one we were at that moment
+experiencing.  It seemed as though the anti-aircraft gunners, knowing
+the airship to be now out of range, were seized by a sudden curiosity to
+see what we were doing chasing the Zeppelin away as we gradually rose
+above it.
+
+Ah!  Shall I ever forget those exciting moments!  Time after time the
+machine-gun on the monster airship fired upon us, but I was flying in
+such a manner that to hit us would, I knew, be difficult.  Yet just then
+a stray bullet struck one of my planes and went through it, while a
+second later another tore through the casing of the fuselage.
+
+The commander of the Zeppelin thought, no doubt, that our intention was
+to rise and drop a bomb upon him, and he was now travelling very quickly
+in order to try and outpace us.  In this, however, he did not succeed.
+
+How far we travelled I have no idea.  In those moments I lost all sense
+of time and of distance.  I only know that, though so high, I could
+distinguish the Thames with its few dotted lights about, though we were
+rapidly leaving London behind.
+
+We were passing over Essex, for I could plainly see the Thames widening
+upon my right, and I was gradually overhauling the enemy.
+
+At that moment I steadied myself, for I knew that the smallest slip
+would mean death to us both.  At signal from me Teddy--who had already
+had the dynamo running for some time--placed his hand upon the switch
+which controlled the unseen, but deadly current.
+
+Slowly I crept nearer and nearer.  Four thousand yards off--three
+thousand--another spurt--then I judged I was only two thousand yards
+away.  Yet try how I would, I could get no nearer.
+
+Again I set to work and, letting out my roaring engines to their full
+power, I slowly decreased the space between the fleeing monster and
+myself, Teddy still awaiting my signal.
+
+Next instant I saw yet another spurt of fire from the rear gondola of
+the Zeppelin, and felt a hot, burning sensation in my forearm.
+
+Then I knew that I had been hit!
+
+I nudged Teddy, and he nodded.  He understood and with the end of the
+box in which was the large, lens something like a camera, directed full
+upon the enemy, he pulled over the switch.
+
+The result was appalling.
+
+Next instant there was a blinding flash as the electric sparks flying
+from point to point all over the metal framework of the Zeppelin ignited
+the hydrogen; a huge red burst of flame came from the centre of the
+great airship, and following it was a terrific explosion, the frightful
+force of which would have turned us completely over had I not been
+prepared.
+
+I swerved quickly, in order to get out of the vicinity, for the danger
+at that instant was very great.
+
+Then, as I glanced aside, I saw the huge monster plunge down to earth,
+ablaze and flaring like a huge torch.
+
+A second terrific explosion of bombs occurred when it reached the
+ground, and the whole country-side, shaken as though by an earthquake,
+became instantly illuminated for miles around.
+
+Appalled at the sight, and yet relieved of the terrible tension, we both
+looked down and found that the enemy airship had, fortunately, fallen
+upon some flat land without houses--a wide, lonely marsh it appeared to
+be.
+
+I at once dropped to a thousand feet and then, with a final glance at
+our work of destruction, turned tail and set about finding a landmark.
+
+It was difficult, but I discovered one at last and, half an hour later,
+finding old Theed's flares in Swalecliffe Park, gently planed again to
+earth.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Need I detail the congratulations showered upon Teddy and myself; of
+Roseye's delight, or of her parent's enthusiasm next day?  Indeed, it
+seemed as though the world about us--our little world who knew the truth
+of our night-exploit--had gone mad with joy.
+
+On the following day I reported personally to the authorities, and
+afterwards had a long conference with certain high officials, who
+listened most intently to the description of my apparatus, and who
+heartily congratulated both Teddy and myself.
+
+That same night, indeed, my description being but superficial, experts
+came down with me to Swalecliffe, where the apparatus was thoroughly and
+satisfactorily tested, and declared to be an air-defence of the highest
+importance, and one which must soon prove our superiority against the
+Zeppelin menace.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It was, I felt, my duty to reveal in the proper quarter the dastardly
+attempts made upon all three of us by our enemies, directed by the man
+Eastwell, who I feared knew something of our secret, whereupon orders
+were at once given to the Special Branch of Scotland Yard for his arrest
+under the Defence of the Realm Act.
+
+Two officers ascended to his rooms in Albemarle Street an hour later,
+but when he learnt they were detectives he dashed into his bedroom and,
+without hesitation and before they could prevent him, shot himself.
+
+Sir Herbert has now given his consent to Roseye's marriage "directly
+after the war," and as for myself--well, I have been given an important
+post--with Teddy, of course, as my co-worker.  We are working hard day
+and night in construction of certain heavy brown deal boxes, the secret
+of which the enemy in our midst is straining every nerve to discover.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The only mention of the missing airship was a telegram published in the
+London newspapers on March 12, 1916, and which can be turned up in the
+files by any curious reader.  I here give it in facsimile:--
+
+SEQUEL TO AIR RAID.
+
+ONE OF THE ZEPPELINS REPORTED DESTROYED.
+
+The Hague, March 11.--Private information received from Cologne says
+that one of the Zeppelins which dropped bombs recently in England has
+not yet returned.  It is believed that the airship was wrecked.--Central
+News.
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Zeppelin Destroyer, by William Le Queux
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40995 ***