"But wouldn’t the gas escape through the rent, and the thing collapse?" Kenneth asked.
"The envelope consists of several compartments, and one might be injured without affecting the others."
"Very little use, my son. We should only bore a few holes in it. Their Mausers would be much more dangerous to us. We shouldn’t have the slightest chance against them, any more than a torpedo boat would have against a Dreadnought, so far as armament is concerned. But I am simply panting for the chance to match the aeroplane against the airship. I hope they’ll come back."
"I dare say they will, having got off scot free before. We must be ready to fly off at a moment’s notice. The Zeppelin is very fast, I’ve heard."
"But no match for my machine. We’ll use that instead of the Taube. I’m more used to it; it is faster and better for bomb-dropping."
"Indeed I shall! My arm doesn’t bother me much, and you know I have had much more experience than you."
"I’ve had absolutely no experience of bomb-throwing," Kenneth protested.
"Well, you play golf, don’t you? Do you remember the first time you went round?"
"Simply that, like everybody else, you probably got round in fewer strokes than you did for months afterwards."
"That’s true; and very sickening it is. I’ll do my best, then."
When everything was ready, they sat on the grass beside the aeroplane, scanning the sky for the Zeppelin. Kenneth, it must be confessed, was less impatient than Pariset, whose mercurial temperament ill-brooked a waiting game. He was constantly up and down, snatching up his field-glasses every few seconds, "fidgeting about," as Kenneth said to himself.
It was drawing towards evening when, just as Pariset had dropped his field-glasses with a gesture of annoyance, a messenger came running from the commandant to say that the Zeppelin had been sighted.
"How does he know?" asked Pariset, incredulously.
"He had word by field telephone," was the answer. "The airship is coming from the north-east."
Pariset instantly started his engine. But before the aeroplane was aloft, the airship appeared in the distant sky, like a torpedo of the air. There was a certain fascination in its swift and steady approach, growing bigger and bigger to the sight. Its course would bring it within half a mile of the portable sheds; perhaps its object was to destroy the Belgian aeroplanes.