Evening star., 1925-01-05
tcontinued from Yesterdays Starr
BY VICTOR MacCLi
Copyright, 1924. by Harper & Brothers.

At breakfast we had long discus
eton with the sailing and flying Off
GERS, and we were brought to the
conclusion that the raiders had, in
addition to the gas, some secret
means of disturbing the engines of
planes. There was the evidence of
the two machines forced to come
down i'll the raid on Paris, these, it
will be remembered. like the Merlin
and the big De Hamiville showing no
lasting engine trouble. Dams theory
was that the raiders had a ray
which affe cted the electrical circuits
of the engines.
lie also had an idea that the raid
ers had some way of controlling
their cloud of anesthetlzing gas, a
notion that was supported by the
officers who had been watching the
show from the cruisers fire-control
top. The pink haze had moved about
from position to position in too def
mite a manner to be haphazard, and
Dan and the officers were Of the
opinion that the gas had been pur-
posAly swept from the vicinity of the
Merlin.
Dan, while the discussion was for
ward, was back at his old trick of
shaking loose change in his cupped
hands, but from this demonstration
of his interest and excitement he
drifted into Il mood of silent cogita-
tion. which deepened the wrinkles
above his snub nose and gave him the
air of a thoughtful child.
After breakfast Milliken and l
went over the Merlin on a general
overhaul and found her none the
worse for her straining. We took off
from the deck of the cruiser just be
fore O'clock.
where now?" asked Danny.
'Mogador," said 1. We owed the
raiders a start for their humanity.
They certainly play Il clean game.
1t would have been easy for them to
have left the Merlin in irons with
their gas. But we're going to have
another cut at them. First we must
refill our tanks at Mogador and get
Il message radioed from the station
there to the President and to Sir
Thomas Basildon."
But, Jimmy" Dan objected, "if
they can stop your engines once
they can do it again. How are you
going to get over that?'
I'm not quite sure" said I. Il
think the notion is to get well above
them, then it doesn't matter whether
the engine is stopped or not-a glide
viii do all that's required. Next time
I'm not going to waste ammunition
on the envelope. They're using some
going straight for the stern engines.
Did you notice that the airshius
steering was done by them?"
NO"
Fact. all the same" Milliken put
In. The whole of the stern cabin
works on a swivel"
It's so, DAM L said And that's
where I'll bust them or bust our
selves in the attempt. We might
have the luck, too, to take them sit
ting"
How do you get there?'' Dan de-
manded.
It's my notion that the airship we
attacked works from a base at the
back of Morocco. I'm banking enough
on the idea, anyhow, to advise Sir
Thomas Basildon to get as many
scouts Conce ntrated around the coast
as he can. If the airShip comes out
again we may be able to crowd so
many planes around her that the ray
you imagine will have more to handle
than it is able. In any case the place
wants going over thoroughly"
In answer to the radios we sent
from Mogador the international
scouts came focking to the African
coast. Indeed, we were no sooner at
the place than the forerunners of
the crowd came after us, brought
along by the news of our fight. They
came in a big, fan-shape move that
in my opinion must inevitably have
caught the airship had she doubled
back across the Atlantic
There was little doubt in my mind
after sizing the thing up with Milli-
ken that he and 1 had done some
damage to the airship with our she'll
fire. We had put in enough stuff to
have fired her if hydrogen had been
used in her ballonets, so it was pretty
clear that her lift was got from he
lium. In the face of the amazingly
quick getaway the raiders had made
after the engagement this was puz-
zling.
From her length, which Milliken and
I had agreed was about 200 meters,
and from her other measurements,
the total fixed weight of the ship was
somewhere around $4,000 kiloS. Using
helium, she could not have a dis
possible lift of much more than per-
haps Is, 1000. When the weight of her
crew, fuel and armament was taken
into account, not much margin was
left for carrying extra gas in liquid
form. So we reckoned that our pune
turing of her must have caused a lot
of leakage, and that her spectacular
ascent must have exhausted a good
portion Of her reserve gas. We con-
cluded from this that she could not
that she would have to travel ulti-
mately at a low altitude, which made it
unlikely that the patrols making for
the African coast would have missed
sight of her had she been making
across the Atlantic. Altogether, the
three of us worked it out that we
were justified in believing the air
ship to be concealed somewhere in
the hinterland of the Barbary Coast,
an dthat she would venture out again
when the damage we had done to her
was made good.
We in the Merlin, with numbers of
the international scouts worked on
this notion and ventured far into the
desert, but without finding any re-
ward for our searching. 4 Gordon of
scouts was flung around the coast
from the Canaries right into the
Mediterranean.
On the Wednesday following our
fight with the airShip radio messages
were picked up that told Of raids on
shipping to the north of the Ba-
hamas. The tempetation then was to
40 chasing off in that dire ction, but
we held back, pinning our belief to
the idea that our particular airship
was berthed somewhere in Northwest
Africa, and that it was only a matter
of patience before one or other of
the planes around the coast came
upon her Personally, the news of
the raids in the western Atlantic
only confirmed my belief that the or
ganization was big enough to have
bases on both sides OF the hemisphere.
We lay on and off the coast of
Africa for 10 days without any luck
and for several reasons ] made up
my mind to make for home, via Lon
don. First, I wanted to see Sir
Thomams Basildon. with whom we
in Tslr1 mi, ttf,,,