[Copyright, 1907, 1908, by the Macmilian Company.]
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING
CHAPTERS.
Alfred Butteridge invents an ex
traordinary flying machine and
plans to sell it to the British gov
ernment. War is threatened. But
teridge and a lady in whom he is
Interested arrive at a seaside resort
in a runaway balloon. Bert Small
ways, a motor cycle dealer, catches
hold of the car of the balloon and
falls into it Just as Butteridge and
the lady fall out. The balloon leaps
upward, carrying Smallways.
He rises 15,000 feet, learns that
Butteridge was planning to sell his
flying machine to Germany and
finds drawings of the machine in
Butteridge's clothing. He conceals
the drawings in his chest protector
and finds himself drifting across
Germany.
CHAPTER 111.
Tho German Air Fleet.
BERT was quite involuntarily
playing that weird mysterious
part—the part of an interna
tional spy. He was seeing se
cret things. He had, in fact, crossed
the designs of no less a power than the
German empire; he had blundered into
the hot focus of Welt-Polltik; he was
drifting helplessly toward the great
Imperial secret, the immense aero
nautic park that had been established
at a headlong pace in Franconia to de
velop silently, swiftly and on an im
mense scale the great discoveries of
Hunstedt and Stossel, and so to give
Germany before all other nations a
fleet of airships, the air power and the
empire of the world.
r Later, just before they shot him
down altogether, Bert saw that great
Jirea of passionate work warm lit in
the evening light, a great area of up
land on which the airships lay like a
herd of grazing monsters at their feed.
In shape they were altogether fishlike,
for the great airships with which Ger
many attacked New York In her last
gigantic effort for world supremacy—
before humanity realized that world
supremacy was a dream—were the
lineal descendants of the Zeppelin air
ship that flew over Lake Constance in
IDOG and of the Lebaudy navigablcs
that made their memorable excursions
over Paris in 1007 and 1908.
These German airships were held
together by riblike skeletons of steel
and aluminium and a stout inelastic
canvas outer skin, within which was
an Impervious rubber gas bag, cut up
by transverse dissepiments into from
fifty to a hundred compartments. These
were all absolutely gas tight and filled
with hydrogen, and the entire aerostat
was kept at any level by means of a
long internal balloonette of oiled and
toughened silk canvas, into which air
could be forced and from which it
could be pumped. So the airship could
b«' made either heavier or lighter than
air, and losses of weight through the
consumption of fuel, the casting of
bombs, and so forth, could also be
compensated by admitting air to sec
tions of the general gas bag. Ultimate
ly that made a highly explosive mix
ture, but in all these matters risks
must be taken and guarded against.
There was a steel axis to the whole
affair, a central backbone which termi
nated in the engine and propeller, and
the men and magazines were forward
In a series of cabins under the expand
ed headlike fore part. The engine,
which was of the extraordinarily pow
erful Pforzheim type, that supreme tri
umph of German invention, was
worked by wires from this fore part,
which was indeed the only really hab
itable part of tlie ship. If anything
went wrong the engineers went aft
along a rope ladder beneath the frame.
The tendency of the whole affair to
roll was partly corrected by a horizon
tal lateral fin on either side, and steer
ing was chiefly effected by two ver
tical fins, which normally lay back like
gill flaps on either side of the head.
It was indeed ii most complete adapta
lion of the lish form to aerial condi-
Vtions, the position of swimming bind
er, eyes and brain being, however,
below instead of above. A striking
and uniishlike feature was ihe appa
ratus for wireless telegraphy that dan
gled from tlie forward cabin—that is
to say, under the chin of the fish.
These monsters were capable of
ninety miles an hour in a calm, so
that they could face and make head
way against nearly everything except
the fiercest tornado. They varied in
length from 800 to 2,000 feet, and they
had a carrying power of from 70 to
2(H) tons. How many Germany pos
sessed history dues not record, but
Bert counted nearly eighty great bulks
receding in perspective during his'brief
Inspection. Such were the instruments
on which she chiefly relied to sustain
her in her repudiation of the Monroe
doctrine and her bold bid for a share
in the empire of the new world. But
not altogether did she rely on these.
She had also a one man bomb throw
ing Drnchenflieger of unknown value
among the resources.
But the Drachenflieger were away
in the second great aeronautic park
east of Hamburg, and Bert Sinallways
saw nothing of them in the birdseye
view he took of the Frnnconian estab
lishment before they shot him down,
for they shot him down very neatly.
Tho bullet tore past him and made a
sort of pop as it pierced his balloon, a
pop that was followed by a rustling
sigh and a steadily downward move
ment. And when in the confusion of
the moment lie dropped a bag of bal
last the Germans very politely, but
firmly, overcame his scruples by shoot
ing ids balloon again twice.
It is impossible now to estimate how
much of the intellectual and physical
energy of the world was wasted in mil
itary preparations and equipment, but
it was an enormous proportion. All
Europe was producing big guns and
swarms of little Smallways. The
Asiatic peoples had been forced in
self defense into a like diversion of the
new powers science had brought them.
On the eve of the outbreak of the war
there were six great powers in the
world and a cluster of smaller ones,
each armed to the teeth and straining
every nerve to get ahead of the others
in deadliness of equipment and mili
tary efficiency. The great powers were
first the United States, a nation addict
ed to commerce, but roused to military
necessities by the efforts of Germany
to expand into South America and by
the natural consequences of her own
unwary annexations of laud in the
very teeth of Japan. She maintained
two immense fleets east and west, and
internally she was in violent conflict
between federal and state governments
upon the question of universal service
in a defensive militia. Next came the
great alliance of eastern Asia, a close
Unit coalescence of China and Japan,
advancing with rapid strides year by
year to predominence in the world's
affairs. Then the German alliance still
struggled to achieve its dream of im
perial expansion and its imposition of
the German language upon a forcibly
united Europe. These were the three
most spirited and aggressive powers in
the world. Far more pacific was the
Rrltlsh empire, perilously scattered
over the jrlobe anil distracted now by
insurrectionary movements in Ireland
and among all its subject races.
Even more pacific than the British
empire were France and its allies, the
Latin powers, heavily armed states in
deed, but reluctant warriors, and in
many ways socially and politically
leading western civilization. Russia
was a pacific power perforce, divided
within itself, torn between revolution
aries and reactionaries who were
equally incapable of social recon
struction and so sinking toward a
tragic disorder of chronic political
vendetta. Wedged in among these
portentous larger bulks, swayed and
threatened by them, the smaller states
of the world maintained a precarious
independence, each keeping itself arm
ed as dangerously as its utmost ability
could contrive.
So it came about that in every coun
try a great and growing body of ener
getic and inventive men was busied
either for offensive or defensive ends
in elaborating the apparatus of war
until the accumulating tensions should
reach the breaking point. Each power
sought to keep its preparations secret,
to hold new weapons in reserve, to an
ticipate and learn the preparations of
its rivals.
The strength and heart of the na
tions were given to the thought of war,
and yet the mass of their citizens was
a teeming democracy as heedless of
and unfitted for lighting, mentally,
morally, physically, as any population
has ever been—or, one ventures to add,
could ever be. That was the paradox
of the time. It was a period altogeth
er unique in the world's history. The
apparatus of warfare, the art and
method of fighting, changed absolutely
every dozen years in a stupendous
progress toward perfection, and peo
ple grew less and less warlike and
there was no war.
And then at last war came. It came
as a surprise to all the world because
its real causes were hidden. Relations
were strained between Germany and
the United States because of tlie in
tense exasperation of a tariff conflict
and the ambiguous attitude of the for
mer power toward the Monroe doc
trine, and they were strained between
the United States and Japan because,
of the peieuuiai citizenship question. i
| But in both cases these were standing
causes of offense. The real deciding
cause, it is now known, was the per
fecting of the Pforzheim engine by
Germany and the consequent possi
bility of a rapid and entirely practica
ble airship. At that time Germany
was by far the most efficient power in
the world, better organized for swift
and secret action, better equipped with
the resources of modern science and
with her official and administrative
classes at a higher level of education
and training. These things she knew,
and she exaggerated that knowledge
to tlie pitch of contempt for the secret
counsels of her neighbors. With the
coming of these new weapons her col
lective intelligence thrilled with the
sense that now her moment had come.
Particularly she must strike America
swiftly, because there, if anywhere, lay
the chance of an aerial rival. It was
known that America possessed a fly
ing machine of considerable practical
value, developed out of the Wright
model, but it was not supposed that
the Washington war office had made
any wholesale attempts to create an
aerial navy. It was necessary to
strike before they could do so. France
had a fleet of slow navigables, several
dating from 1908, that could make no
I possible headway against the new
! type. They had been built solely for
reconnoitering purposes on the eastern
I frontier, they were mostly too small to
I carry more than a couple of dozen men
[ without arms or provisions, and not
one could do forty miles an hour.
| Great Britain, It seemed, in an access
of meanness, temporized and wrangled
with the Imperial spirited Butteridge
and his extraordinary invention. That
also was not in play—and could not
be for some months at the earliest.
| From Asia there came no sign.
Swift and systematic and secret were
their preparations and their plan most
excellent. So far as their knowledge
went, America was the only dangerous
possibility—America, which was also
now the leading trade rival of Ger
many and one of the chief barriers to
her imperial expansion. So at once
they would strike at America. They
would fling a great force across the
Atlantic heavens and bear America
down unwarned and unprepared.
The attack upon America was to
lie the first move in a tremendous
game. But no sooner had it started
than instantly the aeronautic parks
were to proceed to put together and
inllate the second fleet, which was to
dominate Europe and maneuver sig
nificantly over London, Paris, Rome,
St. Petersburg or wherever else its
moral effect was required. A world
surprise it was to be—no less a world
conquest—and it is wonderful how
near t lie calmly adventurous minds
that planned it came to succeeding in
their colossal design.
Von Sternberg was the Moltke of
this war in the air, but it was the cu
rious hard romanticism of Prince Karl
Albert that won over the hesitating
emperor to the scheme. Prince Karl
Albert was indeed the central figure
of the world drama. He was the
darling of the Imperialist spirit in
Germany and the ideal of the new
aristocratic feeling—the new chivalry,
as it was called—that followed the
overthrow of socialism through its in
ternal divisions and lack of discipline
and the concentration of wealth In the
hands of a few great families. He
was compared by obsequious flatterers
to the Black Prince, to Alclbiades, to
the young Caesar. To many he seem
ed Nietzsche's Overman revealed. He
was big and blond and virile and
splendidly nonmoral.
Of all these world forces and gigan
tic designs Bert Smallways knew noth
ing until he found himself in the very
focus of it all and gaped down amazed
on the spectacle of that giant herd of
airships. Each one seemed as long as
the Strand and as big about as Tra
falgar square. Some must have been
a third of a mile in length.
His birdseye view was quite tran
sitory. He ducked at the first shot,
and directly his balloon began to drop
his mind ran confusedly upon how be
might explain himself and whether he
should pretend to be Butteridge or not.
"O Lord!" he groaned in an agony of
indecision. Then his eye caught his
sandals, and he felt a spasm of self
disgust. "They'll think I'm a bloomin'
idiot," be said, and then it was he
rose up desperately and threw over
the sand bag and provoked the second
and third shots.
If flashed into his head as he cow
ered In the bottom of the car that
he might avoid all sorts of disagree
able and complicated explanations by
pretending to be mad.
That was his last idea before the
airships seemed to rush up about him |
as If to look at him nnd his car hit
the ground and bounded and pitched
him out on his head.
He awoke to find himself famous
and to hear a voice crying: "Booter
aidge! Ja, ja, Herr Booteraidge
selbst!"
He was lying on a little patch of
grass beside one of the main avenues
of the aeronautic park. The airships
receded down a great vista, an im
mense perspective, and the blunt prow
of each was adorned with a black
eagle of a hundred feet or so spread.
Down the other side of the avenue ran
a series of gas generators, and big
hose pipes trailed everywhere across
the intervening space. Close at hand
was his now nearly deflated balloon
and the car on Its side, looking minute
ly small, a mere broken toy, a shriv
eled bubble. In contrast with the gi
gantic bulk of the nearer airship.
He perceived that close at hand was
a field telephone and that a tall officer
in blue was talking thereat about him.
Another stood close beside him with
the portfolio of drawings and photo
graphs In his hand. They looked
round at him.
"Do you spik Cherman, Herr Booter
aidge?"
Bert decided that he had better be
dazed. He did his best to seem thor
oughly dazed. "Where am I?" he
asked.
Volubility prevailed. "Der Prinz"
was mentioned. A bugle sounded far
away, and its call was taken up by
one nearer and then by one close at
hand. This seemed to increase the ex
citement greatly.
An earnest faced, emaciated man
with a white mustache appealed to
Bert. "Herr Booteraidge, sir, we are
chust to start!"
"Where am I?" Bert repeated.
Some one shook him by the other
shoulder. "Are you Herr Booteraidge?"
ho asked.
"Herr Booteraidge, we are chust to
start'" repeated the white mustache,
"Do you spik Cherman, Herr Booter
aidge?"
then helplessly: "What is de goot?
What can we do?"
The officer from the telephone re
peated his sentence about "Der Prinz''
and "uiitbringen." The man with the
mustache stared for a moment, grasp
ed an idea and became violently ener
getic, stood up and bawled directions
at unseen people. Questions were ask
ed, and the doctor at Bert's side an
swered "Ja! Ja!" several times, also
something about "Ivopf." With a cer
tain urgency he got Bert rather un
willingly to his feet. Two huge sol
diers in gray advanced upon Bert and
seized hold of him. " 'Ullo!" said Bert,
startled. "What's up?"
"It is all right," the doctor explain
ed; are to carry you."
"Where?" asked Bert, unanswered.
"Put your arms roundt their—hals
round them!"
Before Bert could decide to say any
thing more he was whisked up by the
two soldiers. They joined hands to
seat him, and his arms were put about
their necks. "Vorwarts!" Some one
ran before him with the portfolio, and
lie was borne rapidly along the broad
avenue between the gas generators
and the airships rapidly and on the
whole smoothly, except that once or
twice his bearers stumbled over hose
pipes and nearly let him down.
He was wearing Mr. Butturidge's
Alpine cap. and his little shoulders
were in Mr. Butteridge's fur lined
overcoat, and he had responded to
Mr. Butteridge's name. The sandals
dangled helplessly. Gaw! Everybody
seemed in a devil of a hurry. Why?
He was carried joggling and gaping
through the twilight, marveling be
yond measure.
There was a matter of sentinels,
gangways and a long, narrow passage,
a scramble over a disorder of baggage,
and then Bert found himself lowered
to the ground and standing in the door
way of a spacious cabin. It was per
haps ten feet square and eight high,
furnished with crimson padding and
aluminium. A tall, birdlike young man
with a small head, a long nose and
very pale hair, with his hands full of
things like shaving strops, boot trees,
hairbrushes and toilet tidies, was say
ing things about Gott and thunder
and Duminer Booteraidge as Bert en
tered. He ..as apparently an evicted
occupant. Then he vanished, and Bert
was lying back on a couch in t lie cor
ner with a pillow under Ills head and
the door of the cabin shut upon him.
He was alone. Everybody had hur- j
ried out again astonishingly.
"Gollys!" said Bert. "What next?" 1
[To be continued.] I
A GLANCE AT WORLD AFFAIRS
went the bombs dropped
from the Italian aeroplanes
into tile Turkish camp near
Tripoli, and a new era in
warfare was inaugurated. It was the
first successful use of the aeroplane
in warfare, although experiments in
the employment of the flying ma
chines for scouting have been carried
on for some time. Moralists have
found texts for mournful commentary
in the fact that the new invention, es
sentially peaceful in its nature, has
been diverted by men to the purpose
of slaughtering one another.
Military and naval experts had doubt
ed that aeroplanes could be put to prac
tical use in war, but their employment
in Tripoli as carriers of deadly explo
sives which they could drop with ac
curate aim lias disproved many of
their ermtentions. It is reported that
the sight of the machines flying over
tile Turks and Arabs has had a tre
mendous effect on the untutored minds
of those who had never before seen
this modern marvel.
Linking City and Country.
A closer relation between the city of
Baltimore and the counties of Mary
land is the object of "Maryland week,"
Dec. 4 to 9. An exhibit by the State
Horticultural society is a feature of
the celebration.
It would seem as if Maryland has
hit upon a first rate idea. The "big
brother" of a state's smaller and less
important communities can be a very
useful factor in furthering the inter
ests and development of the latter,
and the country towns can do tilings,
too, for the "big brother" if they like
him well enough.
Perils of Flying.
The roll of deaths in flying lengthens
steadily and probably at an increasing
ratio, but does not apparently diminish
the zeal and the temerity of new
aspirants. More than 100 names are
now in the death list, and these include
those of some of the most careful
and expert scientific experimenters.
When we take into account the com
paratively short time in which at
tempts at aviation have been prac
ticed and in which, therefore, the list
has been growing and the small num
ber of persons who have engaged in
it, the total is appalling. It must far
exceed proportionately that of deaths
j in motor racing or any other compara-
I ble occupation. The new art, thus far
at least, is exceptionally dangerous,
so dangerous that only the most gen
uine advantage to mankind can justi
fy the practice of it, and therefore it
should be confined to prudently regu
lated experiments.
The Irrigation Congress.
Representatives from many countries
are in Chicago for the nineteenth an
nual national irrigation congress, Dec.
5 to 9. The last convention, which
met in Pueblo, Colo., adopted resolu
tions declaring federal control essen
; tial to equitable distribution and utili
zation of the water of Interstate
1 j streams.
I
A Queen's Gift.
' j During the coronation the king and
• queen of England were showered
with testimonials of all kinds, coming
alike from rich and poor subjects.
One of the nio3t noteworthy presents
i received by the queen was £05,000 con
» W
S>w- ■ ■
WOKB .w
SE -•** 1
Queen Mary of Great Britain, Who Be
friends Toilers.
j tributed by girls of the British em
| pire who could lay claim to the name
; Mary. With this money, it is an
' nouneed, the queen v ill establish a
seaside home for working girls.
Personnel of the Tariff Board.
; The fact that the board's reports
1 will be made the basis for tariff leg
' isiation on the wool, cotton, steel,
chemical and other schedules makes
I this one of the most notable conimis-j
| sions in tlie government. The person
nel is as follows: Professor H. C. Era
! cry. chairman; James Burton Itey
| nolds, Alvin H. Sanders, William M.
Howard and Professor Thomas Wal
ker Page. Professor Emery holds the
chair of economics in Yale. Mr. Rey
nolds formerly was assistant secretary
|of the treasury, in which capacity lie
had charge of the customs. Mr. San
ders at one time was president of the
International Live Stock Exposition
association. Mr. Howard formerly
was a member of congress from Geor
gia. Professor Page occupies the chair
of history and economics in the Uni
versity of California.
For an Asset Currency.
The report of the monetary commis
sion, which is in readiness for the
opening of congress, recommends a na
tional reserve association and a cur
rency based on assets. Thus it avoids
.J**; » Jmtf
V",< /y.£- -
ask
- ;
Secretary of the Treasury MaeVeagh,
Who Approves Currency Plan.
in name at least the central bank plan,
which the public understood would be
the chief feature recommended. Since
the abolition of the United States bank
in Jackson's time there has been con
siderable sentiment against a central
bank, and the comment on the com
mission's plan, so long as it was be
lieved that this feature would be in
cluded, was not entirely friendly.
While the national reserve association
covers some of the same ground as a
| central bank, the name does not arouse
the same hostility. There is also oppo
sition to an asset currency, and the
fight on this point is likely to be one
of the most vigorous of the session.
The president and secretary of the
treasury, Franklin MaeVeagh, have in
dorsed the commission's report, rank
ing it practically an administration
measure.
Central American Unity.
In the western hemisphere the elec
tion of Madero to the presidency of
Mexico has had a happy effect in set
tling disturbances in that country, al
though there are still occasional out*
" breaks. The leading editors of the
five Central American states have been
getting together, and there is renewed
talk of a confederation of these na
tions.
A Problem of Russia.
! The meeting in the interest of the
harassed religionists in Russia and of
a broader tolerance which was held
1 this fall under the auspices of the New
York Federation of Churches and was
attended by rabbis, Roman Catholic
priests and clergymen of all the Prot
j estant denominations in the five bor
! oughs of New York city was said to
have been the first instance in the his
j tory of New York of such a gathering
1 for a particular purpose. In this case
interest is more marked because the
work embraces an effort, to help re
ligionists of whatever name to secure
their just rights.
The Wool Report.
After several months of exhaustive
inquiry carried on by experts in all
lauds where wool in large quantities
is grown or woven into cloth the tar
iff board has reported on the wool
schedule. This report is of historic
importance for the reason that it inau
gurates a new method of tariff revi
sion. It also is of interest because the
president when he vetoed the three
tariff bills during the extra session
virtually promised that when the tar
iff board had time to report he would
join congress in bringing about a re
vision basted on its findings. While
the board's figures do not show to a
mathematical certainty the difference
In cost of production at home and
abroad, they probably approximate it
as closely as the fluctuations in such
cost from time to time and the vari
ations in different countries permit.
The Arbitration Treaties.
The first big light in point of tiino
in the congress just opening will be
that over the arbitration treaties with
Great Britain and France. This strug
gle will occur in the senate. During
the special session the foreign rei:t
tions committee of the seuate reported
these treates out wth amendments
that were distasteful to the president,
lie thereupon began a campaign '.o
arouse public opinion in favor of the
treaties in their original form. The
indications are that some senators
have been won over to the president's
position, but whether there are enough
to ratify the instruments by a two
thirds vote yet remains to be seen.