Evening star., 1924-12-30
Continued from Yesterdays Starr

Good God" said Lord Almeric.
Yes, the ham is from the farm"
i've seldom tasted better" said
Sir Thomas calmly. Yes" he went
on. "a pretty rotten trick! The
usual boxes of radium had been left,
this time in the bank itself BY 1:3o
every available airplane was in the
air, but though they may still be
searching, up to now there has been
neither sight nor sound of the raid
ers reported That's Berlin. Now,
here's a fact that will make you
pause and consider, Mr.. Boon. With
in three hours Paris was visited"
"One moment, Sir Thomas" l inter-
rupted. Three hours actual flight,
or clock time?"
Il mean three hours actual flight"
he replied. I'm remembering the
hour difference between Berlin and
Paris clocks. Shortly after 2, Paris
time, the raiders had descended on
that city. Here some considera BILE
time passed before it was discovered
that anything uncommon was in prog
ress. The raid was concentrated on
the Banque de France, and. if you
remember your Paris, there's not
much doing there, even though the
Avenue de fOpera close by may be
swarming with night birds. AS soon
as the alarm was given-pretty much
from the same circumstances as had
become apparent in Berlin-soldiers
and gendarmsrfe were pushed along
to surround the banque, but they
could not venture closer than the
north side of the Place des victories
on the north and on a line from the
Palais Royal on the south. The po-
lice brought gas masks, with the
same result as in Berlin. They even
tubes, which they drove slowly up
Rue des Bons Enfants, releasing the
gas as they went. But the driver of
the cannon was overcome and
switched off his engines before they
were half way up the street, and the
crew was SO affected that nothing
could be seen of what was happening
around the banque. Meantime, there
had been no delay in bringing up the
air police, except for the time that
had elapsed before the alarm was
given. The airship was seen-"
"Ahr cried Lord Almeric, and 1
felt a thrill run up my spine.
1T was seen," said Sir Thomas
again. "It was snugged down on top
of Rue Bailiff. hugging close to the
buildings. The unfortunate thing is
that both the scouts who saw 1t de-
veloped engine trouble and had to
come down. One almost crashed in
the Palais Royal Gardens-he hit a
plane tree-but the other made a
good landing in the Place du Car
rousel By the time the others came
up the airship was gone, and although
| the French and we have been scour
ing the air, searchlights and every
| thing, not a trace of the airship has
been discovered
What an unlucky thing that the
engines of both machines conked,"
said.
IF both pilots hadn't been men of
! proved daring and pluck" said Sir
| Thomas, "the inclination would be
to say they funked, for when the en-
gines were examined, not thing
| wrong could be found. It's mys-
terious affair. 7 can't make it out"
Gould the airship have done any
| thing to them?' 1 asked.
81 don't see how she could" he re-
piled. They were flying high
enough to clear the buildings in land
| ing-and surely out of range of any
thing the raiders could do. What
makes me mad is the selfishness, the
pigheadedness of the German police.
My people didn't get the news from
| Berlin until after the Paris call, and
apparently the French only heard
from Berlin while the raid on Paris
| was actually happening. If the Ger
mans had been anything alive, and had
sent warning to the French in time,
the chances are that the airship
would have been intercepted on ap-
preaching Paris. There's a rotten
thing, if you like! The whole chance
of getting at the raiders gone-and
all because Gerry was too busy get
ting excited over his own affairs to
think of anybody elsei"
you realize. of course. Sir Thorn
as" l said, that if the same airship
raided both Paris and Berlin, it must
be up to doing close on three hundred
kilometers an hourT
"I hadn't lost sight cf-that. Mr.