the death of burnett drove the crew to frenzy, their curses were not those of men but of fiends. the shock of surprise—the fury that one blow of their despised victims should have told—goaded them into the mood of molochs. instantly the news flew to hartmann, who returned a welcome answer. the yells around me were broken by a burst of laughter.
“what is it?” i asked, fearful of some new horror, full as the measure of crime now seemed.
“wait and you will see!” was all the reply i got.
the attila began to move at a high speed, and four of the men rushed down on to the lower deck. quicker! quicker! quicker!—there was no doubt of it, we were swooping on the city like a falcon. i was at the rail in a moment, and, careless of uprushing shot and shell, bent over the side in a fever. 156though beyond the zone of flames, a simoom blast swept the vessel, and puffs of inky smoke spangled with sparks rendered breathing a torment. but the attila swerved not an iota. down we swept like a hurricane over the yelling maddened throngs massed in farringdon street. suddenly i heard a sharp cry:
“stand off!” i had hardly time to draw back when a column of flames shot up the side, reddening the very bar i had been clutching.
“let go!”—a crash, the column vanished, and a stream of fire like a comet’s tail drew out instantaneously in the wake of the attila. it was the petroleum. the first tank had been lighted, its contents shot over the shrieking wretches below! for full fifty to sixty yards the blaze filled the roadway, and the mob, lapped in flame, were writhing and wrestling within it. a fiendish revenge was glutted. suddenly i was hurled violently to the deck as the bow rose sharply. the attila, buoyed by her a?roplane, shot once more aslant to her old higher level, firing her guns continuously as she ascended. sick and surfeited with horror i remained lying some time where i was. but the end was yet to come.
157
pouring down liquid fire.
158by this time the night was pressing on rapidly, but what a night! i rose up and staggered to the stern—anything to be away from these wretches. the 159hum of the great screw-blades reached me, and i looked over and yearned that they might fail us. we were now circling over fleet street and the neighbourhood of the strand. the fires lighted at westminster in the morning were carrying all before them, and a crimson yellow rim stretched all the way from whitehall to victoria. on our flank the city was blazing, and a roaring tumult of flames was undulating in every direction from this centre. and now for the first time i saw that others than ourselves were hurrying on the incendiary work below. there were visible blazing circles in south london over the water, blazing circles far away in north london, and blazing circles scattered throughout the west end. the delegates had kept their faith. the great metropolis seemed doomed. i shuddered to think what the mob might do in their despair. the west end was even now probably being looted, and the worst passions would toll its death-knell. i thought of my telegram, and found some relief in the belief that lena at least was out of danger.
suddenly i shook with terror. i had never asked hartmann whether the letter and the telegram form had been handed to the delegate. racing back to the citadel, i appealed to one of my guards. could 160a message be sent to the captain? certainly. the reply came back in about ten minutes. it was to the effect that they had been handed to burnett for one of the french delegates. had burnett, then, given them? it was just possible that he had not. kneeling by the body i ransacked the dead man’s pockets. my worst fears were realized. in the breast-pocket of his coat lay the precious and forgotten missives! my heart seemed to stop for the moment, and then beat with hammer strokes. i made a desperate resolution. i must see hartmann at all costs, and wring from him the permit and opportunity to descend. doubtless it was entering the shambles of a desperate city, now being wrecked and pillaged by its own inhabitants; it was entering the lion’s den possibly only to find a victim before becoming one myself; but whatever risks i ran, honour scoffed at delay, and love winged me with ardour.
“tell the captain i must see him. tell him the letter was never delivered, and that i must somehow find a means of speaking to him face to face.” the answer came that he could not possibly see me, and that i must say through the telephone what i wanted, and that briefly. i shouted that i must at all costs descend. he replied that his plans were unalterable. i entreated, i clamoured, i expostulated, pleading 161the friendship i had borne to his mother, and the possibility that she, too, had not yet stirred. his words to her had necessarily been more or less enigmatical. let me, then, go and watch over the fate of her also. i had moved him, for there was a long pause. after what seemed ages of waiting came his reply. “the attila cannot descend, but it crosses hyde park shortly. if the case is urgent, take my parachute. the fall will not be of more than five or six hundred feet.”
this alternative was gruesome, but there was no help for it. i wavered an instant and accepted. shortly afterwards norris appeared on deck, and bade me follow him into the citadel. i entered it, crouching low down to the deck with the fire of the guns darting forth above me, and down the steep stair we went till we reached the door of the dynamite room. my guide pushed the door open and we entered.
a solitary electric lamp dispelled the gloom of the chamber and revealed the figures of schwartz and two other men standing by the trap-hole, now for the moment closed. i was struck with the caution with which their work, judging from appearances, was done. from a cabinet in the right-hand corner sloped a stoutly-made tube of network, well stayed 162by bands and roping to the ceiling. it was evidently along this that the dangerous bombs were guided, rolling into a bag-like compartment immediately over the trap. i had scarcely entered when the trap was lifted, the compartment lowered, its terrible passenger released, and the bag sharply pulled in. to forego a glance was impossible. i leant over the aperture and listened for the voice of the fatal messenger. it exploded near oxford street below us, apparently in a house, for the secondary rattle was tremendous, suggesting the crash of ruined walls on the roadway. schwartz was about to launch another when a ting of the call-bell arrested him. he telephoned to hartmann, and received the order to cease dropping bombs for the present. the reason was simple enough, they were about to utilize a new weapon, the petroleum, which up to this time had done duty only on the hideous occasion already mentioned.
norris now stepped up to schwartz and told him of my determination. the german’s wicked eyes twinkled.
“good. i, too, descend to-morrow, and we may meet.”
“better luck,” i said bitterly; “i have done with the attila for ever.”
163“so, ah! you socialists have much to learn. well, we are teaching you something in london.”
i managed to keep my temper, for these were not men to be played with. but how i would have liked to have hurled the miscreant down that trap-hole.
norris muttered that the mob might teach me something too, and i realized, then, that the descent was not my greatest danger.
what if the parachute were to be seen by any one? i should be torn to pieces or worse. the possibility was an appalling one. still the darkness would prove a very serviceable shield. once clear of the park, i could pilot myself through the streets without trouble.
“here, the captain sent you this revolver. you may need it to defend yourself, not that i care a cent. and now look sharp, we are coming over park lane in a minute.” norris pointed to the trap-hole, and i saw swinging at the side a long rope-ladder.
“what, climb down that?”
“yes, if you want to go. there’s no other take-off good enough. come, yes or no, we shall be spinning across the park before you’ve done thinking.”
“but the parachute?”
“there it is in the corner. it is a case of clinging 164on with your hands. we will lower it to you, and at the word ‘go,’ drop it. the only risk is trees and the cursed vermin underneath. will you go?”
there was no help for it. i clenched my teeth savagely, and backed kneeling on to the edge of the trap-hole, grasping the bomb-tube with my left hand to steady myself. schwartz and another man got ready the parachute and thrust its stem down the opening. it was lucky the attila did not pitch, for these tactics might have proved my death-warrant. as it was, i succeeded in working my toes into the top, and thence into the lower rungs of the ladder. having thus worked my way down i looked for the parachute, and transferred my left hand from the tube to the trap-edge. slowly i climbed down; the oscillations of the ladder were startling, and feeling for the rungs was a purgatory. at last i was clear of the well, and under the bottom of the a?ronef hanging in a clear space between the huge wheels which studded it. “now’s your time!” yelled norris, and i grabbed the rope-handles of the parachute fiercely—now with my right hand, then, as the ladder threatened to run away from under me, with my left. one look below—we were full over the park, five hundred feet or so from the turf.
165
how i left the attila.
166“let go!” i shouted, and flung my legs from the 167ladder on which they were resting obliquely. for a second and a half my heart seemed to leap into my mouth, for i fell as falls a spent rocket. then with a welcome tug on me, the parachute bellied out, and fear gave place to confidence, nay, to exhilaration.
what a spectacle! above me fled the attila like some evil bird of night; north, west, south, east rose the crimson hues of the smoke-wreaths; below i heard the clamours of the populace, and saw the darker tree-tops stand out against the dark face of the park. the wind blowing strongly i was borne south near a patch of trees, and had reason to fear for the moment that a nasty mishap was imminent. happily fortune favoured me, and gliding oilily and without shock to the ground, i made off rapidly in the direction of bayswater.
