"We have had our first encounter with a Zeppelin, and unluckily had the worst of it. The Zeppelin was reconnoitring, and Boissel went in pursuit. The crew opened fire with their machine guns when he was manoeuvring for position, and a shot smashed his arm. He managed to land, and then collapsed. The machine was slightly buckled up in coming to ground, and will be useless for a day or two."
"I’m sorry for Boissel," said Pariset. "He will be cut up at being knocked out so soon. Has the Zeppelin been seen since?"
"No. The forts opened fire upon it, apparently without success, for it sailed away to the north-east."
"Shall we tackle it if it comes back?" Pariset asked eagerly.
"Hadn’t you better rest? You have done a good day’s work already, and I don’t want to lose you as well as Boissel."
"To tell the truth, our job at the bridge has whetted my appetite, and I am sure Amory is ready for another go."
"Very well," said the commandant. "But I beg that you won’t be rash. Boissel was a little too eager--a pardonable fault; but prudence is a positive merit."
"We will be discretion itself," said Pariset.
Kenneth smiled; he did not know Boissel, but he could not imagine any airman more likely to show reckless daring than his friend.
They snatched a meal, then set about their preparations. The Zeppelin being manned with a numerous crew armed with rifles and machine guns, and equipped for bomb-throwing, it was axiomatic that the aeroplane must try to accomplish by superior speed, climbing power, and manageability what it could not hope to achieve by force. If it were a mere question of manoeuvring the advantage would lie with the aeroplane. The Zeppelin would be at a disadvantage in that it presented a bulkier target.
After a hurried discussion--for the Zeppelin might return at any moment--the two airmen decided to get a number of bombs with time fuses, and to fix in front of the pilot’s seat a small petrol lamp, sheltering it from the wind by a zinc screen that would almost enclose it; the fuse could be lit from this.
"It won’t be wise to trust to bombs exploding by contact," he explained. "They might miss the mark, big as it is; and the envelope of the airship is so fragile that it is quite possible for a bomb to pass through it without exploding."