"It was fortunate we didn't make Fremantle last night," observed the baronet, handing the message to Kenyon and Bramsdean. "The aerodrome was destroyed by fire at one o'clock this morning."

CHAPTER XVI--THE OBSERVATION BASKET

While the "Golden Hind" was struggling towards the sh.o.r.es of Western Australia, Count Karl von Sinzig in Z64 was flying almost due south from Samarang, in the island of Java.

He, too, had had a taste of the cyclone, which had extended over the whole of the Arabian Sea and had been severely felt as far north as the Persian-Turkestan frontier.

Practically helpless in the grip of the furious blast, Z64 had been driven far off her course. Pa.s.sing high over the mountainous districts of Thibet, the German airship, unseen and unheard, finally encountered a stiff northerly wind when approaching the China Sea in the neighbourhood of Hanoi. Already the start von Sinzig had obtained over his British rival was wiped out. The long detour he had been obliged to take represented twelve hours' flight under normal conditions, and since he knew of Fosterd.y.k.e's progress by the expedient of picking up the "Golden Hind's" wireless message, he realised that the latter had made good her belated departure.

At Samarang, Z64 took in fresh hydrogen and petrol. Von Sinzig reported his arrival to the representatives of the International Air Board, and stated his intention of proceeding via New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Norfolk Island to New Zealand, where he would be able to fulfil one of the conditions that required the compet.i.tors to touch at a spot within one degree of the nadir to their starting-point.

But von Sinzig had no intention of carrying out his declared programme.

Directly he was well clear of Samarang, he shaped a course due south in order to pick up the prevailing westerly wind south of Australia on which Fosterd.y.k.e counted also. A stiff northerly wind over the Sunda Sea helped the German to attain his object, and on the evening that the "Golden Hind" drifted to south of Fremantle, Z64 was skirting the coast of West Australia, in the neighbourhood of Geographe Bay.

Von Sinzig was in a bad state of mind. He knew by means of a code message from Barcelona that one of his agents had made an attempt to delay the "Golden Hind's" departure. What had actually taken place he knew not. All he did know was the galling fact that the attempt had been unsuccessful, and that by this time his rival was practically level with him.

"Hans," he exclaimed, calling one of his subordinates, formerly an Unter-Leutnant in the German Flying Service and before that a Mercantile Marine officer.

Hans Leutter clicked his heels and stood to attention.

"You know Fremantle?" enquired the count, brusquely.

"Fairly well, mein Herr," was the reply. "I've called there perhaps a dozen times in cargo boats. The last time was in January, 1914."

"There was, of course, no aerodrome there then?"

"a.s.suredly no, sir."

"According to my information it is on the right bank of the Swan River and a couple of kilometres to the east of the town. It ought to be easily found."

Hans Leutter agreed that to locate it ought to be a simple matter.

"Then we'll do so, little Hans," exclaimed the count, grimly. "We might even make the Englishman Fosterd.y.k.e a little present anonymously, of course."

The ex-Unter-Leutnant grinned.

"You wish me to take the Albatross for an airing then?" he said.

"Ach, no," replied von Sinzig. "If our Albatross were invisible and noiseless, it would be different. We'll use the observation basket.

Overhaul the mechanism carefully, because you, little Hans, are going to use it."

Hans Leutter saluted and went for'ard. He was not at all keen on being told off for observation work, but his innate sense of discipline made him accept the duty without outward signs of resentment. Somehow he didn't relish the idea of being lowered from the Zeppelin and allowed to dangle at the end of two or three thousand feet of fine wire.

Shortly before midnight the look-out on Z64 picked up the harbour and town lights of Fremantle. It was now a fairly calm night. At five thousand feet was a stratum of light clouds, sufficient to obscure the starlight. The climatic conditions for von Sinzig's plans were exactly what he wanted.

When the German airship was dead to windward of the town her motors were switched off and she was allowed to drift in and out of the lower edge of the bank of clouds.

From her foremost nacelle a circular basket, fitted with a vertical vane to prevent it from turning round and round like a gigantic meat-jack, was hanging. In the basket, with a couple of small incendiary bombs for company, was Hans Leutter. In order to keep in touch with the captain of Z64 Hans was provided with a wireless telephone.

"All ready," announced the observer. "Lower away."

The well-oiled mechanism ran smoothly and noiselessly until a sudden check in the downward journey told Hans that the observation basket had reached the limit of its cable. From where he dangled--nearly two-thirds of a mile below the airship--Z64 was quite invisible. It was therefore safe to a.s.sume that the good people of Fremantle were likewise not in a position to see the huge gas-bag five thousand feet overhead, while the insignificant observation basket, although only a thousand feet or so up, was too minute to be spotted against the blurred starlight.

On the other hand, Hans Leutter could command a fairly comprehensive view of the town beneath him. The tranquil waters of the Swan River enabled him to fix his position, for even on the darkest night a river can readily be seen by an aerial observer. The navigation lamps of the aerodrome almost misled him. At first he mistook them for the railway station; but when he discovered his mistake he asked himself why the aerial signalling lamps were still being exhibited. According to the latest wireless messages picked up by Z64, the "Golden Hind" ought by this time to be berthed in the hangar. But, perhaps, he argued, the officials in their demonstrations of welcome had forgotten to switch the lights off.

"This reminds me of London in 1916," thought Hans. "London in those good old days when our Zeppelins came and went almost without let or hindrance. Now, my beauty, you and I must part."

He raised the bomb and poised it on the edge of the basket. In his excitement he had completely forgotten his fears at being suspended by a steel rope almost the same gauge as a piano-wire.

The incendiary bomb was quite a small affair, but none the less efficacious. In order to guard against identification should any of the metal parts be found, the vanes were stamped with the British Government marks, which showed that von Sinzig, with characteristic Teutonic thoroughness, had taken the precaution of covering his tracks. The British Air Ministry and the Australian Commonwealth Government could appraise responsibility later--by that time Z64 would be thousands of miles away.

Allowing for the slight breeze, Hans Leutter telephoned for the Zeppelin to steer ten degrees to the nor'ard. Slowly Z64 carried out the instructions, and seesawing gently the observation basket moved in a slightly different direction from its previous line of drift until the crucial moment arrived.

Hans Leutter released the bomb. For three seconds the observer could follow its downward pa.s.sage; then it vanished into the darkness. Five seconds later the missile hit its objective.

There was no need for a second bomb. The airship shed was blazing fiercely.

The Hun in the basket spoke into the telephone.

"Direct hit," he reported. "Haul me up."

Z64 had once more stopped her motors and was rising rapidly above the bank of clouds. At the same time a motor winch was winding in the cable, and Hans Leutter's rate of progress as the basket whirred through the air brought back all his fears concerning his hazardous position.

What if there were a flaw in the wire? It was ex-Government stuff, he recalled--material that might have been left lying in a neglected condition for months before von Sinzig acquired it for its present purpose. And supposing the wire slipped off the drum and got nipped in the cogs of the winch? A score of thoughts of a similar nature flashed across the observer's mind. He broke into a gentle perspiration. He trembled violently as a mental vision of himself hurtling through s.p.a.ce gripped him in all its hideousness.

But the wire held. Hans Leutter was a.s.sisted into the nacelle, where he promptly fainted. By that time Z64 was several miles away from Fremantle, but a dull red glare on the horizon unmistakably indicated the extent of the conflagration.

Throughout the night Z64 flew at an alt.i.tude of not less than fifteen thousand feet. Dawn found her far to the south'ard of the Great Australian Bight.

Von Sinzig had good cause for keeping out of the beaten steamer tracks; nor did he intend to pa.s.s within a hundred miles of the southern part of Tasmania. He counted upon arriving at Napier, New Zealand, at daybreak on the day following, and until then he meant to be most careful not to be reported by any vessel.

The commander of Z64 had just sat down to breakfast when one of the crew entered his cabin.

"Pardon, Herr Offizier," said the man, apologetically, "but the observation basket is missing."

"What do you mean?" demanded von Sinzig.

"We secured it after Herr Leutter had finished with it, Herr Kapitan,"

explained the man. "I myself saw that the four bottle-screws were turned up tightly. Kaspar Graus, who had been told to remove the remaining petrol bomb, came and reported that the basket was no longer there. The metal clips were still attached to the bottle-screws. It would appear that these were torn from the basket itself."

Count Karl von Sinzig left his breakfast untasted and hurried along the catwalk to the gondola from which the observation basket was hung. His informant's news was only too true. Unaccountably the basket had been wrenched from its securing apparatus.

"It is of little consequence," he declared. "We would not have required it again, and, since it will not float, it is at the bottom of the sea by this time. Perhaps it is as well, in case we are inspected by inquisitive officials at our next alighting place."

It was an unlucky day for Z64. About noon two of her motors developed trouble simultaneously. Three hours elapsed before the sweating mechanics were able to get the recalcitrant engines in running order again, and during that period the Zeppelin had perforce to slow down considerably. Consequently, it was half an hour after sunrise when Z64 sighted the Three Kings Island to the north-west of Cape Maria van Diemen. Here she altered course, so as ostensibly to appear as if she had been flying straight from New Caledonia, and, skirting the west coast of New Zealand, headed for Napier, where, by the consent of the New Zealand Government, von Sinzig was permitted to land and thus carry out one of the conditions of the contest.