"Good enough, we’ll drop gently," decided Fosterdyke. "Stand by with the holding-down lines and have a couple of grapnels ready."
The amount of brodium necessary to more than neutralise the lifting power of the gas and the dead weight of the airship was exhausted from the requisite number of ballonets, and the "Golden Hind" began to sink almost vertically in the still air.
Within five minutes she entered the belt of mist--a warm, sickly-smelling atmosphere that reminded Kenyon of a hot-house.
Not far beneath the airship men were shouting and talking excitedly, but the crew of the "Golden Hind" were unable to understand what the men were saying.
"Ahoy, there!" hailed Fosterdyke. "Stand by to take our ropes."
Both grapnels were carefully lowered, since there would be grave risks entailed by throwing them overboard. At the same time half a dozen holding-down ropes were paid out from each side of the nacelle. These were caught by unseen hands and the airship was quickly drawn earthwards at far too great a speed to please Sir Reginald Fosterdyke.
The response was a terrible surprise. Simultaneously two searchlights were unmasked, their powerful beams at short range punctuating the fog and impinging upon the enormous envelope of the "Golden Hind," while an irregular fusillade of musketry assailed the airship on all sides.
"Up with her!" shouted Fosterdyke. "Charge all the ballonets. We’ve struck a revolution."
Above the staccato of rifle-firing rose the roar of the "Golden Hind’s" powerful motors. Volumes of brodium, released from the pressure-flasks, rushed into the ballonets. The airship rose at an oblique angle, her nose almost touching the ground. Then, as the aerial propellers went ahead, the fore-part of the fuselage ploughed over the rough ground.
With thirty or forty men hanging on like grim death to the guide-lines, and as many more tailing on to the grapnel ropes, the "Golden Hind," with gas leaking from numerous bullet holes in her ballonets, was unable to seek refuge in her natural element.
Fortunately for the safety of the airship’s crew, the rifle-firing quickly ceased as soon as the attackers realised that they had effected her capture. Apparently it was their intention to prevent further damage being done to the huge airship.