“ It now but remains to tell what happened to that brilliant but misguided German, the renowned Professor Rudolf Weissmann. He lingered for another day after the terrible event which had befallen his fortune, and his friend Sir Joseph Verne, constant as ever, waited beside him and tended him amid his sufferings, for there is a wonderful spirit of brotherhood and fraternity amongst men of learning. They are the children of no particular country, for their parish is the world, and, like our own Shakespeare, the whole earth claims them for its own. ”

“ Fortune favoured them, however. The angry beast, noting the approach of some unseen enemy, by the movements of the tangled undergrowth, half frightened and half infuriated, made off in the direction of the clearing, uttering further snorts. The next moment he had touched the first of those deadly wires, and, with a wild scream which rang through the forest, he leapt into the air, then fell back quivering but dead across that fatal grill.
"Back--back for your life!" hissed Keane, as he made haste back to the spot where they had sheltered, close to the camouflaged hangar. ”

“ And as the cables are slipped from the mooring tower, the light gangway is drawn back, the crowd down below cheer, and the giant airship backs out, carried by the force of the wind alone till she is well clear of the station. Then her engines open up gradually. She turns until her nose points almost due west, then slips away on her four thousand miles' journey over many a classic land, desert, forest and sea towards the centre of the world's greatest empire. ”

“ Carl, the scout pilot, was handling the solitary gun, and, if his aim had been more steady, that would have marked the finish of the fight. On the other hand Keane's bullets pattered with unerring aim upon the armoured conning-tower, but with little effect, for so far the finely-tempered steel resisted even these armour-piercing bullets.
The watchers down below trembled with rage--all save the German--when they saw this fearful waste of markmanship, but up there, calm and collected, the British pilot clenched his teeth and muttered:--
"I must find his dead angle! I will attack him from below." ”

“ The self-styled king of the desert frowned. He knew that he was up against an English skipper, and that he must adopt other measures to gain his end. Without lifting his gaze from the commander of the air-liner, or flinching a muscle, he replied firmly, "One word from me, Captain, and your life would be forfeit. You would swing from that tree by one of your own cables."
"I know that, brigand," replied the prisoner. "Get a cable and carry out your threat; the rope that will hang you is not so very far away, either." ”

“ We are betrayed!" cried Spitzer. "The verdammt English have captured the aerodrome."
Without thought of surrender the brigands tumbled swiftly back into the armoured cell, just as a shower of bullets from both revolvers swept the upper surface of the cockpit.
"Fire!" shouted Tempest, stepping back, as the daring bandits, regardless of the danger, started the propellers once more by means of the self-starting knob, within the conning-tower. ”

“ I would give ten years of my life to fly in her," said Max, who was getting almost feverish in his anxiety to see this wonderful thing and to handle her controls; for such is the lure of the air, especially to those who have climbed into the azure and sailed amongst the clouds in the days of their youth.
"You shall fly in her," replied Spitzer.
"When?" asked the eager youth.
"When we start our great adventure," replied the chief.
"And when will that be?"
"To-morrow, if you are willing; all our plans are laid."
"Why to-morrow?" asked the others simultaneously.
"Because delay is dangerous. ”

“ A few moments later the two men were startled by the sound of a human voice, trolling out the words of some German folk-song, and approaching from the same quarter towards the clearing.
"This is our man," exclaimed Keane, as he removed the screen from the fire and stirred the dying embers into a cheerful blaze, piling on more dried twigs, so that the trees about the glade seemed to dance like fairies.
"Some woodman or peasant returning from a party," observed Sharpe. ”

“ As they neared the edge of the forest once more, a movement amongst the trees attracted their attention, and the next instant a solitary figure emerged from the shadows and greeted them. It was the keen, lynx-eyed professor, the great mathematician and engineer; a man about fifty, dressed in a loose working garb, wearing a battered felt hat above his shock of white, wavy hair.
"You are welcome, children of the Fatherland," he said, extending his hand, and fixing the two strangers with his piercing eyes, after this brief salutation. ”

“ But, when the long summer holidays arrive, you will find Gadget, dressed in a smart little uniform, with plenty of gold braid about his cap and tunic, standing beside the captain or the chief officer, in the navigating gondola of the Empress of India. All who know him speak highly of him. And there are even those who believe that this little, mischievous, up-to-date cabin boy and erstwhile stowaway will one day be one of out great air-skippers. ”

“ So am I King of the Hamadian Desert till a stronger man comes. When that time comes one of us must die. There is no room for two kings, even in the desert. Till then I am supreme. But come, captain, four minutes have passed already. Your bill of lading, quickly now, for we are but wasting time, and these my subjects"--and here the brigand waved his hand towards the restive Arabs--"or rather I should say my customs' officials, are waiting to examine your cargo, and to levy the king's tribute." ”

“ Glorious we have lived, like kings of the air; let us not inglorious die."
"I am with you, Rittmeister. I will follow you to the gulfs," exclaimed one of his companions, named Carl, who had been a famous scout pilot in the Richthofen "circus," and the lightning flashed from the young airman's eyes as he spoke.
"But what can we do against the empires of the world?" asked a Gotha pilot who had raided the English towns a score of times.
For answer the chief turned a withering look upon the last speaker and said:--
"Max, you have faced death a hundred times in the air, and over the British lines. ”

“ Then, amid the gloom of the dark aisles of the Schwarzwald, these two men swore to follow their chief on this last great adventure, as they had followed him during the darkest days of the war.
"And now I will tell you the secret which I hold, and which at present is known only to two other men," said the Rittmeister, and, sitting down about the gnarled roots of an upturned tree, the two airmen listened to the following story:
"You have heard me sometimes speak of a great mathematician and engineer, by name one Professor Weissmann," began von Spitzer. ”

“ What is that for, Rittmeister?" asked the Gotha pilot.
"For vertical climbs, Max," replied the chief, for while the professor stood by, and looked on, interested and amused at the growing enthusiasm for his idol, the Rittmeister, who had been secretly schooled in the hidden mysteries, explained them point by point, for he was a great mechanic and mathematician was this ex-flight-commander.
"Vertical climbs?" echoed the other. "I thought it was impossible."
"Impossible? Rubbish! Nothing is impossible to the man of science. Have you never heard of the Helicopter?" ”

“ This man is evidently an evil genius of very high mental calibre, and he has determined, out of personal revenge for the defeat of Germany, to thwart the Allies, and in particular Great Britain."
"He is a master-mind, and a highly dangerous personality; dangerous because he is so clever. And now that he has secured a few daring airmen for his tools, there is no end to the possibilities which his evil genius may accomplish before he and his crew are run to earth," replied Captain Keane. ”

“ When did the King of England pay tribute for his mails to be carried across the Hamadian desert?"
The air-king eyed the speaker with apparent amazement, mingled with a touch of scorn and pity, then quietly observed:--
"That is the very point, Captain. There has been far too much laxity in this respect in the past. The liberties of the small nations to make their own laws, and possess their own lands in peace, have been greatly endangered of late. It is mere brigandage for a great power to over-ride the native interests of small communities. ”

“ He had not even heard a reference to the proverbial rope's-end, a vision which he had always associated in his mind with stowaways.
"My word, he's a plucky little urchin, Crabtree!" declared the air-skipper at length, his anger settling down, and his admiration for the adventurous little gamin asserting itself as he gazed at the ragged but sharp-eyed little fellow.
"What is your name, Sonny?" he asked at length.
"Gadget, sir," whipped out the stowaway.
"Good enough!" returned the captain smiling. "We've plenty of gadgets aboard the airship, and I guess another won't make much difference. ”

“ But every weapon had been carefully removed from the air-liner and her complement; even the unmounted machine-gun and the one box of ammunition placed aboard on her first voyage, were now in possession of the bandits.
The captain in particular was furious, and he turned upon the German fiercely, shook his fist at him and cried, "One day you will pay for this, sirrah! The arm of Britain is long enough to reach you!"
A mocking laugh was the only reply which the German gave. Then, looking once more at his jewelled watch, he signified that the time for the airship's departure had almost arrived. ”

“ Fixing him with his keen, malicious eyes, the pirate said: "Are you the captain of this vessel?"
"I am," replied the skipper in surly tones.
"Show me your bill of lading."
"Bill of lading?" echoed the captive. "You must hunt for it if you want it." ”

“ I am sure that I shall have cold feet for the rest of my life."
"After this, Hermes and Geber will be dull reading," continued the enthusiast. "Give me the Schwarzwald every time for the real thrill of the alchemist."
"Their time might have been more profitably employed, at any rate," remarked Sharpe.
"Yes, it is a thousand pities that the wonderful brain which designed and organised all this should have had nothing better in view than brigandage and world revolution."
"More misdirected energy," moaned Sharpe; "the greatest brains often make the greatest criminals." ”

“ You know the rascals; they were secret service pilots and spies during the war, and now they are scout pilots in the British aerial police. They're the left-hand and the right hand of that confounded Tempest, the little tin god at Scotland Yard, and the brains of the aerial police."
"Himmel! I hope he can outwit them," exclaimed Carl. "They're keen birds, both of them, and they have some exploits to their credit."
"If he can't, then the length of our existence is the capacity of those remaining eight cylinders of uranis," ventured Max. ”

“ Let us continue our journey until we have completed the circuit. We may make another discovery yet. Come along; fortune favours the brave."
They had scarcely crept another hundred yards, however, when a rustling in the leaves, accompanied by a snort, revealed the presence of another wild boar, which had evidently scented their presence.
"Confound the pig!" muttered Sharpe, who was afraid the sounds might lead to their premature discovery. But Keane thought otherwise, for, to his quick mind and instructive genius, this trifling event seemed providential. ”

“ However much we achieve--and we shall accomplish not a little--there can be no other ending."
"Bah! we have looked too often into the face of that monster to be afraid," returned the scout.
"You speak truly, Carl," replied the chief. "When your machine went down in flames near Cambrai, you passed so close to me that I stalled my Fokker to let you pass, and I saw the smile upon your lips that day as you looked into the face of death. I never expected to see you alive again, but you were saved for this." ”

“ We must prepare for Colonel Tempest, and also for this raider," urged Keane.
"But they will not come to-day, Captain."
"Scarcely, but we must be prepared for anything. There are only a couple of us."
"Shall we secure these men, in case they awake earlier than the stipulated time?"
"No, let us remove their slumbering forms behind the curtain there; we will attend to them before they awake. I do not like the idea of strapping down unconscious men, even though they are criminals. We will watch them from time to time." ”

“ Have you come to hunt for the wild boar, or to fish the mountain streams?" he asked, "for I can show you where the biggest fish are to be found, and where the wild pig rears her litters."
"Butterflies and birds, especially birds," replied Keane, pointing to his nets, and his neat little boxes for packing specimens.
"Birds? Ach, there is one bird which sometimes flies in these parts which you will never catch," said the peasant, speaking in lowered tones, as though half-frightened by his own words. ”

“ One glance about the well-fitted workshop sufficed. There were no further occupants, and they lowered their pistols. Sharpe at once sprang to the lever which regulated the powerful electrical current and clutched it. In another instant the two men without would have paid the extreme penalty, for they would have been instantly killed by their own evil device, but Keane stopped him:--
"Don't!" he said. "We have much to learn. The professor at least must be taken alive, if possible. The secret he holds is too precious to be lost. ”

“ The Bedouins, whose feelings were now raised to the highest pitch of excitement, began to fear lest, after all, so rich a prize might be lost, and they eagerly searched the skies for the phantom airman, as they called the Rittmeister, and shouted:--
"Where is the phantom bird? Where is the great white sheik?" and they would have dashed out into the desert on their fiery steeds, for they were already mounted, but the German restrained them, saying:--
"There is no need to hunt the quarry. The great white sheik will bring down the airship on this very spot. ”