The Phantom Airman

"Start that port engine, please, and bring her to earth by that cluster of palm-trees over there."

"What more do you want with us?" replied the captain.

"I must see your passports, and examine your cargo for contraband."

"Eh, what's that?" exclaimed the amazed commander. "What does he want to examine our passports for?"

"We haven't any," remarked the navigating officer.

"And why the deuce is he to search for contraband, I should like to know?" groaned the skipper.

"Did you hear what I said?" called the raider, who now appeared to be getting angry at the delay.

"Yes," growled the other.

"Then bring her down at once, and let out that mooring cable!"

And as there was no apparent help for it, and not a single patrol had yet hove in sight, the captain of the liner reluctantly complied, wasting as much time as he dared in the operation.

CHAPTER XI

THE AIR-KING'S TRIBUTE

Far down below, the Arab sheik and his party, ambushed amid the waving palms of the oasis, had watched with keen and eager eyes this thrilling encounter in the heavens between the phantom-bird and the great leviathan. To them it seemed impossible that the aeroplane, sometimes diminished by distance to a tiny speck, could overcome the mighty airship.

As the fight continued, and they heard the rat-tat-tat of the machine-gun, sometimes their doubts and fears overcame them, and many were the cries that went up to Allah the Compassionate, the Faithful, etc. But when they saw that at last the great white sheik had won and the disabled liner was slowly coming lower and lower, their pent-up feelings gave place to wild excitement, and shouts of,

"Allah be praised! The bird of destiny has won! The great white chief has triumphed!" while others, more practical, and also more piratical, exclaimed: "Allah is sending down the treasures of heavens into the lap of the faithful. Praise be to Allah and to Mohammed his Prophet!"

It was with some difficulty that Max restrained these wild men from dashing out in their frenzy to capture and loot the huge, lowering mass that now loomed but a little way above them. He began to fear that they would not wait for the pre-arranged signal, and he urged the Arab sheik to restrain them, and to repeat the orders that the occupants of the airship must not be touched.

Nearer and nearer came the huge mass, steering badly and veering round in attempting to gain the lee-side of the trees, lest she should be totally wrecked in the mooring. Two hundred feet of cable suddenly dropped from her bow, and, when it touched the ground, Max gave the signal, and with a wild shout these fierce Bedouin horsemen suddenly broke from cover, and galloped into the open.

"Ye saints!" gasped the Indian judge, when he beheld this wild tournament of galloping horsemen, brandishing their rifles and long spears. "Are we to be eaten alive?" Less than an hour ago he had expressed a pious wish to visit this peaceful garden in the desert; now, it was too near to be pleasant.

"All hands to the cable!" shouted Max in Arabic, and very quickly both horses and men were struggling with the stout hawser.

"This way," shouted the Gotha pilot. "Take it round and round these three trees; they should stand the strain unless the wind gets stronger," and selecting a small group of trees on the leeward side of the grove, he very quickly had the cable made fast in such a way that the leviathan of seven hundred feet in length swung easily head to wind, like a ship riding at anchor and swinging with the tide.

Then the tribesmen, kept well in hand, surrounded the prize, keeping some thirty paces distant, for they had not yet quite overcome their fears. Never before had such a thing been seen resting on the yellow sands of the Hamadian Desert.

As the gondolas of the Empress of Indiacame to rest quietly on the ground, the Scorpion descended in a rapid spiral, touched the sands lightly and taxied up to the fringe of trees.

Then, to the utter amazement of the occupants of the dirigible, some of whom were already descending from the gondolas, a couple of men, wearing the loose flowing robe of the desert, including that distinctive mark of the Mohammedan world, the fez, leapt from the machine and approached the airship.

"Snakes alive!" ejaculated the colonel; "but what have we here?" his eyes fixed upon the two men.

"Some person of note, evidently," remarked his friend the judge, as he saw the foremost of these individuals mount a richly caparisoned horse which was held in readiness for him, and approach in a dignified and almost royal manner.

"This king of the desert is evidently some European renegade who is challenging the right of other nations to cross his domain without his permission," said the soldier.

"He is some daring pilot, at any rate," replied the justiciary.

"I wonder now what he intends to do with us," observed the other.

"Why, he intends to plunder us, of course," replied his companion. "What else could be his motive?"

The captives were not long to be left in doubt as to the proceedings of this daring freebooter. Raising the megaphone which he had used in the air so effectively, he shouted in perfectly good English:–

"Abandon airship!"

And to make this order immediately effective, the desert king ordered Max to see that every member of the great liner, passengers and crew, were immediately assembled before him. The navigating officer and the captain were the last to leave the vessel; they did so unwillingly, and not without a measure of compulsion at the point of a revolver. The skipper's looks as he fixed them upon this desert freebooter astride the fiery steed, conveyed to the brigand much more than mere words could have expressed.

Fixing him with his keen, malicious eyes, the pirate said: "Are you the captain of this vessel?"

"I am," replied the skipper in surly tones.

"Show me your bill of lading."

"Bill of lading?" echoed the captive. "You must hunt for it if you want it."

The self-styled king of the desert frowned. He knew that he was up against an English skipper, and that he must adopt other measures to gain his end. Without lifting his gaze from the commander of the air-liner, or flinching a muscle, he replied firmly, "One word from me, Captain, and your life would be forfeit. You would swing from that tree by one of your own cables."

"I know that, brigand," replied the prisoner. "Get a cable and carry out your threat; the rope that will hang you is not so very far away, either."

"Very well," exclaimed the German. "Then, I need only give the order to these, my faithful subjects, and the whole of your valuable cargo will be strewn on the sands, and your airship will be alight. I do not propose to adopt those measures unless you compel me. I will give you five minutes to decide." As the pirate uttered these words in a cool, nonchalant manner, he glanced at the European emblem on his wrist, a gold, gem-studded wristlet watch with luminous dial.

"I deny your right to interfere with a peaceful trader," blurted out the captain, when he saw the full force of the two alternatives which had been offered to him. He was wondering, moreover, how much the brigand knew about the presence of the specie on the vessel.

"You deny my right, do you?" returned the other.

"Yes. Who are you?"

"I am Sultan von Selim, Air-King of the Hamadian Desert. I told you that once before when I first challenged you in the air."

"Who made you king?" snorted the captain.

There was silence for the space of ten seconds, during which time the brigand consulted his watch again, then replied:–

"The Allies made me king, particularly you verdammt English when you drove me from my Fatherland with those impossible peace terms. King I am, and king I will remain, of all the aerial regions where I choose to abide, until there comes a better man who can beat me in the air. And you, Captain, of all men, must know from what you have already seen that my powers in that realm are considerable."

The captain, having cooled somewhat after this outburst, had to admit to this German irreconcilable that there was certainly some truth in his statement about being king of the air. Certain things were beginning to dawn upon this English captain, and he was now wondering how far it would be wise to humour the brigand. He added, however, to his admission, the following words, "You are only king by might!"

"Ha! ha!" laughed the outlaw, "but that also is some admission. My position is precisely that of the British in India or Egypt. Withdraw your soldiers from these two countries and what becomes of your government there? So am I King of the Hamadian Desert till a stronger man comes. When that time comes one of us must die. There is no room for two kings, even in the desert. Till then I am supreme. But come, captain, four minutes have passed already. Your bill of lading, quickly now, for we are but wasting time, and these my subjects"–and here the brigand waved his hand towards the restive Arabs–"or rather I should say my customs' officials, are waiting to examine your cargo, and to levy the king's tribute."

The captain looked around first upon his own followers and then upon the impatient Bedouins–the vultures around the carcase.

"I could have brought your ship down in flames, but I preferred a milder method," continued the outlaw, as he watched the seconds of the last minute being ticked away on his jewelled watch.