William Le Queux

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At once I realized 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 East well 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”