The Airship Golden Hind""

en miles an hour, the "Golden Hind" maintained her altitude for the best part of half an hour before any attempt was m

y to the navigation-room, where he found the baronet an

rved Fosterdyke. "That's prohibited for p

ted over a prohibited area. Hang it all! The balloonist couldn't control

r, but less distinct, could be seen the distinctive lights of The Needles and Hurst Castle. Then a curved line of glittering pin-points--the esplanade lamps of Bournemouth. To the south-west the lesser glare of Swanage and beyond the glow of Anvil Point Lighthouse. Lesser lights

ght, but to the veteran airmen there was little new, except perhaps that in the place of star-shells, searchlights, "flaming-o

d at a clock set

announced l

sed air, were roaring. Swaying slightly under the resistance of the gas-bag overhead, the airship gather

terdyke. "Switch on the navigation lights, Keny

oice tube. Promptly one of t

per, indicating the helm. "Follow

d the man, peering into the b

g Peter and Kenneth. "There won't be much doing to-night, I hope, so you may as

abin. Here, although adjoining one of the motor-rooms, there was

brought from Blandford station and put on board only a few minutes before the "Golden Hind" pa

onfided Kenyon. "Doesn't seem quite the

exclaimed his companion. "Turn in as sharp as you

st impression was that he was being roused by his batman, and that

unced the airman. "I've

nned his clothes that the "Golden Hind" was pitching considerably. Peter, sound asleep, wa

exchange a few words with the air-m

n answer to Kenneth's enquiry. "If things go

elieving pilot clambered up the ladder and gained the navigation-room. F

O.K. Doing eighty, and there's a stiff following wind--force five. Altitude 5500, course S. ? W

had been relieved, then, giving anoth

tion at 1.15 A.M.," he announced. "An airship

ompetito

gaged in a race against time. We were passing over Belle Isle, on the French coast, at the ti

, possibly," s

mmunition to Ireland. I signalled her,

almost anywhere and at any time, but rarely if ever did he sleep for more than five hours at a stretch. Even

blunt nose of the gas-bag, the port side tinted a rosy red as the growing light glinted on it, the starboard side showing dark grey against the sombre sky. A thousand feet below were rolling masses of clouds, their nether edges suffused by dawn. Between the rifts in the bank of vapour was apparently a black, unfathomable void, for as yet the first signs of another day were

as a totally different sensation from being in an aeroplane when the 'bus entered a "pocket." It reminded Kenyon of a lift being alternately started up

esponsibility of maintaining a constant altitude by the fact that the airship was automat

man. "She'll be steadier

ontal position. For the present the "Golden Hind" was kept up solely by the lift of the brodium in the ballonets.

n was engaged in making an entry in the

way in which her namesake did, but on a friendly voyage across a country

untains reared themselves so high in the air that the "Golden Hind"

is orders the airship's speed had been sensibly diminished. He inten

whom the duties of officer of the wa

rved, genially addressing

plied Kenyon, "but a

Peter. "The cook's dished

. He was anxious to see how the "Gol

large quantity of brodium was being exhausted from the alternate ballonets into the pressure-flasks, until there was only enough "lift"

d to the air mechanics standing by the six

Golden Hind" pitch. She settled down to a rapid, steady m

izontal and vertical rudders only. Saves

rmissible, sir

he Spanish have an exhibition of an airship making a spinning nose-dive or loopin

m the mechanics that the electric current would be simultaneously cut off from the six motors,

ordered F

nition. The propellers made a few more "revs." and then came to a standstill. In almost absolute silence, save fo

n gripped the

exclaimed

ating well-watered plain between the Montes del Toledo and the Sierra Morena. Six thousand fee

at's all," decl

otested Kenneth. "

somewhat difficult matter, owing to the refraction of the triplex glass in front of the navigation

Apparently it had just left its shed and was heading in a south-easterly dir

It's a Fritz! I can spot the b

calmly, "Count Karl von Sinzig has