The Zeppelin Destroyer: Being Some Chapters of Secret History

Reveals a Plot

The next that I recollect is, with my brain awhirl, I tried to open my eyes, but so painful were they, that I was compelled to close them again in fearful agony.

Somebody whispered close to me, but my mind was too muddled to understand what was said.

My eyes burned in their sockets; my brain seemed unbalanced and aflame. I tried to think, but alas! could not. When I tried to recollect, all remembrance of the past seemed as though it were wrapped up in cotton-wool.

How long I remained in that comatose state I have no idea.

Some unknown hand forced between my teeth a few drops of liquid, which with difficulty I swallowed. This revived me, I know, for slowly – very slowly – the frightful pain across my brow decreased, and my burning eyes became easier until, at last, blinking, I managed to open them just a little.

All was dead white before me – the white wall of a hospital-ward I eventually discovered it to be – and as I gazed slowly around, still dazed and wondering, I saw a man in black, a doctor, with two nurses standing anxiously beside my bed.

“Hulloa, Mr Munro,” he exclaimed softly. “You’re better now, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “But – but where am I?”

“Never mind where you are. Just go to sleep again for a bit,” the doctor urged. “You’re all right – and you’ll very soon be up again, which is the one thing that matters,” I heard him say.

“But, tell me – ” I articulated with great difficulty.

“I shan’t tell you anything, just yet,” said the man in black firmly. “Just go to sleep again, and don’t worry. Here. Take this,” and he placed a little medicine-glass to my parched lips.

The effect of the drug was sleep – a long sleep it must have been – for when I again awoke it was night, and I saw a stout, middle-aged night-nurse seated at my side, reading beneath a green-shaded lamp.

As soon as she noticed me moving she gave me another draught, and then, thoroughly revived, I inquired of her what had actually happened.

I saw her motion to some one behind her, and next moment found Roseye bending over me, pale-faced and anxious.

“Oh! I’m so glad, dear,” she whispered eagerly into my ear. “Once we thought you would never recover, and – and I’ve been watching and waiting all the time. They wouldn’t let me see you until to-night. Teddy has been here constantly, and he only left at midnight.”

“But – darling – but what has happened?” I managed to ask, looking up into those dear eyes of hers utterly amazed.

“May I tell him, nurse?” she inquired, turning to the buxom woman beside her.

The nurse nodded assent, whereupon she said:

“Well – you’ve had a nasty spill! One of your wings suddenly buckled – and you fell. It’s a perfect miracle that you were not killed. I saw the accident just as I was going up in a spiral, and came down again as fast as ever I could. When I reached you, I found you pinned beneath the engine, and everybody believed you to be stone-dead. But, happily, they got you out – and brought you here.”

“What is this place?” I asked, gazing around in wonderment. “Where am I?”

“The Hendon Cottage Hospital,” was her reply.

“How long have I been here?”

“Four days. The papers have had a lot about your accident.”

“The papers make a lot of ado about nothing,” I replied, smiling. “To them, every airman who happens to have a nose-dive is a hero. But how did it happen?”

“Nobody knows. You seemed to be ascending all right, when suddenly I saw your right-hand plane collapse, and you came down plumb,” she said. “As you may imagine, darling, I rushed back, fearing the worst, and through these four awful days I have dreaded that you might never speak to me again.”

“What does Theed say?”

“What can he say? He has declared that before you started everything was perfectly in order.”

“Has Teddy examined the bus?”

“I think so, but he’s entirely mystified – just as we all are,” said my well-beloved. “Dad and mother are dreadfully worried about you.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “I’ll be all right soon – but I’m stiff – jolly stiff, I can tell you!”

“That doesn’t matter,” said the nurse cheerily. “No bones are broken, and Doctor Walford has said that you’ll be up again very soon.”

“Well – thanks for that,” I replied with a smile. “My chief desire at the present moment is to know why my machine failed. Yet I suppose I ought to be thankful to Providence that I wasn’t killed – eh?”

“Yes, Claude, you ought. Your smash was a very bad one indeed.”

“Has the guv’nor been here?”

“Every day. But of course you’ve been under Doctor Walford, and he’s not allowed anyone to see you.”

“I suppose the guv’nor has been saying to everybody, ‘I told you so,’” I remarked. “He had always said I’d kill myself, sooner or later. My reply was that I’d either fly, or kill myself in the attempt. Have there been any more Zeppelin raids while I’ve been lying here?”

“No raids, but gossip has it that Zeppelins have been as far as the coast and were afterwards driven off by our anti-aircraft guns.”

“Good. When will Teddy be here?” I asked, raising myself with considerable difficulty.

“In the morning,” was my love’s response, as she took my hand in hers, stroking it softly, after which I raised her slim fingers to my lips.

Seeing this, the nurse discreetly left us, strolling to the other end of the ward, in which there were about twenty beds, while Roseye, bending down to me, whispered in my ear:

“You can’t tell how I feel, dear Claude, now that God, in His great goodness, has given you back to me,” and she cried quietly, while again and again I pressed her soft little hand to my hot, fevered lips.

Teddy Ashton, bright and cheery at news of my recovery, stood by my bed at about nine o’clock next morning. The doctor had seen me and cheered me by saying that I would soon be out. My first questions of Teddy were technical ones as to how the accident happened.

“I really can’t tell, old chap,” was his reply. “I’ve had the bus put into the hangar and locked up for you to see it just as it is.”

“Is it utterly wrecked?” I inquired anxiously, for I feared the guv’nor’s wrath and his future disinclination to sign any more cheques.

“No. Not so much as we expected. One plane is smashed – the one that buckled. But, somehow, you seemed to first make a nose-dive, then recover, and glide down to a bad landing.”

“But how could it possibly have happened?” I demanded. “All was right when I went up, I’m certain. Theed would never have let me go without being perfectly satisfied. That I know.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Teddy agreed. “But the affair has caused a terrible sensation at Hendon, I can tell you.”

In an instant the recollection of that podgy man, with those black eyes set askew, crossed my mind.

Yes. After all, sight of him had been an omen of evil. Hitherto I had scorned any such idea, but now I certainly had positive proof that one might have a precursor of misfortune. I deeply regretted the accident to my Breguet for, not knowing the true extent of the damage, I began to despair of bringing our secret experiments to a satisfactory issue.