The Great Airship: A Tale of Adventure.

by F. S. Brereton

  CHAPTER XVI

  Record High Flying

  It required quite an amount of explanation and apology to mollify thehot-headed and indignant Dicky Hamshaw and his friend Alec when theylearned how all their energy, all their suspense and anxiety for thegreat airship and the safety of their friends had been unnecessary andthrown away.

  "And--and you mean to tell us that the bombs are empty?" demanded theformer, with some curtness, as soon as the fainting form of the rascal,Carl Reitberg, had been borne to his cabin. "I--this is no laughingmatter."

  "Precisely," answered the Major, with a little smile. "And, Dick, I'mnot surprised at your anger. You see, we knew that those bombs had beenrendered harmless."

  "Then, sir, why not tell Alec and myself?"

  The midshipman was almost boiling. But still, he had never been anythingelse but a good officer, and discipline was discipline. "Beg pardon,sir," he said. "But it makes a chap rather ratty. Here have I beenhanging on to this chair, trying to keep cool and look it, when everyinstant I expected to be blown to atoms. I thought you must all be madto go on so coolly with your dinners."

  "While I'm in a horrible perspiration," confessed Alec, mopping hisbrow. Then he seemed to see some fun in the matter, and grinned at hiscomrade.

  "All the same it was a good lesson for Mr. Reitberg," he cried. "Odioustoad that he is. He didn't know that the bombs were empty, now, did he?He didn't look like it. That's why he funked. That's why he went under."

  Mr. Andrew rose from his chair, and took each of the lads in turn by thehand.

  "We owe you many apologies," he said earnestly. "I can't forgive myselffor what has happened. But there are excuses. I did not know, Joe waskept in ignorance, even the Major and the Commander knew nothing of thismatter till the very beginning of dinner. Then Sergeant Evans told us.We owe our safety to him, to his watchfulness--though I know you alsohave watched--to his cleverness, and to the experience he had in SouthAfrica. There! I am sorry. But it was fine to see the manner in whichyou two behaved."

  "Magnificent!" declared the Major.

  "I shall report it," cried the Commander, gripping Dick's hand. "A fineexample of the spirit which all naval men should show. Alec, shakehands."

  "Now, tell us the whole tale, Sergeant Evans," demanded Joe, while Dickand Alec, now completely mollified, took their places at the table.Indeed, dinner proceeded much as usual, but for the fact that theSergeant, while attending upon the diners, told them his tale crisplyand shortly.

  "I knew him, this Mr. Carl Reitberg," he began in the politest tones. Infact, you would not have imagined that he had any other but the highestopinion of the individual to whom he referred. Certainly his tonesshowed no trace of satire, of disgust, or even of anger.

  "His name was different out in the Transvaal," he proceeded. "He was asuspected person, and as such came under the notice of the police, thatis, the civil police. He was supposed to be an I.D.B., otherwise anillicit diamond buyer. But he was more. We military police suspected himof dealings with the Boers. We watched him, and he escaped, and left thecountry. It was natural, then, that I should suspect him when I foundhim here under another name. I watched him, gentlemen, watched himthrough a peephole cut in the wall of his cabin, which is next thepantry. He had a box with him, a suspicious box, filled with valuablesas he said. I investigated the contents of that box."

  "But, pardon for the interruption, Sergeant. That box was sealed,"remarked Mr. Andrew, with a lift of his white eyebrows.

  "Yes, sir--sealed. Red sealing wax, impressed with a seal hanging to theman's watch chain. I borrowed that seal one day. I opened the box,investigated the contents, removed the explosives, leaving everythingelse as it was, sealed the box again and returned it to its oldposition. No one was the wiser. Even Mr. Reitberg was unsuspicious whenhe opened the box this evening. He imagined he still had dangerousbombs, whereas I knew that they had already served their purpose."

  "Served their purpose? How?" demanded Joe quickly.

  "You remember the Pathans, sir? Well, Mr. Reitberg's bombs stopped theirrush, and came in very handy."

  The tale proved, if it had proved nothing else, that in Sergeant Evansthe airship possessed a trusty and astute man. But it also proved to thehilt the rascality of Carl Reitberg.

  "Of course," said Mr. Andrew, when the warm thanks of the gathering hadbeen given to the Sergeant, "of course, we take no action. The ruffianis not worth powder and shot; his meanness will bring about its ownpunishment. When he recovers we will let him go, thankful that we arewell quit of him."

  It followed that late that night, he having then recoveredconsciousness, a gharri conveyed the disconsolate Carl to the railwaystation, where he took train for Bombay. But it must not be imaginedthat the man took with him any feelings of gratitude to those who had sohandsomely dealt with him. No. They had made a fool of him. He realizednow that the bombs before which he had been forced to sit, and which hehad expected to shatter him to fragments in a few seconds, he realizedthat they had been rendered harmless. All his fears and terrors, all hissquirming, the terrible exhibition he had made of himself were to nopurpose. He had been fooled. The very people he had imagined to be sostupidly wanting in astuteness, who had failed to suspect him, haddefeated his dastardly attempt with surprising ease. It made the magnateboil with rage and mortification. He fanned his heated brow as the trainsped onward, set his crooked teeth and swore beneath his breath.

  "Ah!" he grunted. "Made a fool of me. Know now that I am not thesportsman they imagined. Fancy themselves safe, and are sure of winningthat wager. We'll see. There is still time. There is still AdolfFruhmann."

  Yes, there was still that unmitigated rascal, ready to attempt anythingif sufficiently well paid. He was the man to come now to Carl's rescue.He was the one who must now attempt the wrecking of the airship. Buthow?

  "I'll wire to him to meet me at Suez," Carl decided before he reachedBombay. "He'll be able to propose a scheme. Yes, there's time still. IfI have failed, Adolf will manage to succeed. We'll show the folks aboardthe airship who's best man in this matter."

  Burning with anger at his defeat, and his vindictiveness increasedalmost in proportion to the distance he was steadily placing betweenhimself and the great airship, Carl Reitberg boarded the steamer atBombay in no enviable frame of mind. Indeed, what with the heat and hisown stoutness he narrowly escaped an attack of apoplexy, and lay forsome days in his cabin, his head swathed in bandages wrung out of icedwater, a huge wind shute pouring the little fresh air there was into thecompartment, while an electric fan shot eddies at his perspiring person.Indeed, to the average individual it was an uncomfortable season duringwhich to visit the neighbourhood of Bombay. To Carl Reitberg, thepompous, fat, and rascally magnate swelling with indignation, hate, andall uncharitableness, it was a positive nightmare.

  In this uncomfortable condition, then, we can leave him to his owndevices, with the knowledge that, though he had failed once in hisdastardly effort to wreck Joe Gresson's invention, he had by no meansgiven up all hope of achieving success. For Joe and his friends, we cansay that they gave scarcely another thought to their late guest, who hadabused their kindness so disgracefully.

  "It's a black page in the history of our trip," said Andrew, the morningfollowing. "We will turn it over and seal it down. Ugly things arebetter as a rule when shut out of view. And now, Mr. Skipper?"

  "Now, Joe?" cried the Commander. "We await orders. Do we remain herecooking in the neighbourhood of Delhi? Or do we seek a more balmy clime,where a man may sleep peacefully in his cabin, and must not necessarilyspend the baking night restlessly pacing the open deck above dressedonly in his pyjamas?"

  "Yes--what next?" demanded Dick, his mouth still busy with the breakfasthe was devouring. But what recked Dicky of heat? Mr. Midshipman Hamshawcarried an appetite wherever he went, and his breakfast this morningshowed that heat hardly affected him. He was not even limp, whereas theMajor, hardened soldier that he was, and accustomed to India, was asflabby as a wet
rag.

  "Which comes of modern invention," he laughed. "Send me to India in thecold weather, and leave me in the plains when the heat comes. I'll notturn a hair, for I've had time to become acclimatized. But set out fromLondon as we have done on this new-fangled machine--apologies, Joe andMr. Andrew--set out, I say, on this airship and plunge me suddenly fromthe heights, where one needs a fur coat, to the plains about Delhi inthe hot weather, and I admit I become a limp, nerveless individual."

  "While I for another shall be glad to move on," Joe admitted. "Well,now; we take in stores here--they are coming aboard already--then,following the plan agreed upon, we sail along over the all-red route.Naturally, this trip is not a true tour of the world, for then we shouldtake a straight line, the shortest route possible. We are purposelylengthening our journey, and should we successfully complete it, weshall have flown many more miles than the twenty-five odd thousand whichcircumvent the globe. So our course lies east, parallel almost to theHimalaya mountains."

  "Ah! A test of elevation, perhaps," suggested the Commander. "You couldcross the Himalayas."

  "Why not?"

  "At their highest point?"

  "I have reason to believe so," said Joe, with the quiet assurance ofthe inventor who has the utmost faith in the powers of the machine hehas constructed. "Why not?"

  "Because--well, because Mount Everest happens to be the highest peak,"replied the Commander dryly. "Let's see; what is its exact altitude?Here, Dick, one of you youngsters, let us have the figure."

  "Sorry, sir; can't. Forgotten--so long since I left school," answeredthe imperturbable Dick. "Ask Alec, he's the latest kid to leave."

  He accompanied his remarks with a grin in his friend's direction, whichbecame the broader as Alec shook his fist at him.

  "Well, Alec? Dick's a dunce; he's like most middies," said theCommander.

  And for a wonder Alec was able to supply the information.

  "Twenty-nine thousand and two feet high, sir," he told them. "Highestmountain in the world. Cold as Christmas up at the top. Haven't beenthere myself, you know, but I'm guessing."

  "In fact, rather more uncomfortable there than down here," laughed theMajor. "Well, Joe, it's a stumper?"

  "I cannot say. To cross above the highest peak we must ascend some fivemiles. That is a tremendous height; it will need special preparation."

  But one could see that Joe was bitten with the idea of accomplishingthat which no other person or machine had ever achieved before. He wentto the engine-room forthwith, and for the next two hours closelyinspected the gasometer and carburettor which supplied his engines. Thenhe took the temperature of the crude paraffin which, unlike otherinternal-combustion motors, not only formed the explosive charge, andconveyed power through those long, sinuous, cold-drawn steel pipes tothe distant hydraulic motors, but also surrounded the cylinders, actingas an effective cooling agent. If one had watched him one would haveseen the thoughtful Joe working out some pleasant little calculations,calculations which would have given Dicky Hamshaw quite a headache. Butthe result seemed to satisfy him, for he once more inspected hisengines, made a small adjustment, and then went off to the saloon.

  "Gentlemen," he said solemnly, "we have loaded our stores. If all areready we will make for Mount Everest and there test the powers of thisvessel."

  It was one of the many advantages of being aboard an airship. There wasno packing to be done, no cabs to call, no trains to be entered. Joe hadmerely to return to the engine-room and start his motors, so that withinten minutes the ship was off, followed by the cheers and shrill nativecries of thousands. For a while she hovered over the city of Delhi,mounting and mounting steadily, till she was but a speck in the sky, aspeck almost invisible because of the material of which she wasconstructed. It was an object lesson to many thousands also. For wherein all India, in all the world, was there a gun capable of reaching her,of destroying the airship, of preventing her crew, had they so wished,from dropping bombs upon the citizens of Delhi?

  "In war, an invincible arm," declared the Major with conviction. "Aterrible arm, indeed, for here is a ship as secure, as handy, asmanageable as any steamer. Let us hope that the report we shall take toWar Office and Admiralty will not fall upon deaf ears. Or rather, let uspray that the authorities will test the truth of our statements bysending men aboard who are really qualified to form an opinion. Notamateurs, more or less filled with a sense of their own importance, andforgetful of that of others."

  To those stepping the upper deck of the airship the view beneath was oneof the greatest magnificence, for the brilliance of the sun broughtobjects beneath into unusual prominence. Then, too, owing to theelevation at which the vessel now floated, the heat of the day was nolonger felt.

  "Just like an English summer," Andrew murmured. "And the height, Joe?"

  "Seven thousand feet or thereabouts; not a quarter the height to whichwe shall have to climb before crossing Mount Everest. For the moment Iam satisfied. Now we will descend a little, for it will be cold when webegin to travel through the air. To-morrow, at about this hour, we shallhave failed miserably or have added another honour to those already wonby this ship. Don't think me boastful. I speak of things as they are,precisely as you have found them. I ask for nothing better than honesttests. Here is one. I shall strive to win in this encounter."

  "But one moment," said the Major. "Excuse my ignorance. Mount Everest istwenty-nine thousand and two feet in height. Let us say that we mustascend to the enormous height of thirty thousand feet. Will that, then,prove a record? Is there a person who has before this date attained tosuch an altitude?"

  "Certainly," came the prompt answer. "In the past many balloons haveclimbed to great heights, and I can instance a few such attempts.Coxwell is said to have reached the enormous altitude of seven miles inthe year 1862. He lost the use of his hands, but contrived to open thevalve with the aid of his teeth. His companion, Mr. James Glaisher, wasthen insensible. Then Dr. Berson and Dr. Suring ascended from Berlin in1901 to the height of thirty-four thousand feet, contriving to maintaintheir senses by inhaling oxygen. And lastly, there is the recordedascent of the _Albatross_, which, in 1909, set out from Turin, andreached the stupendous height of thirty-eight thousand seven hundred andfifteen feet.

  "And what is the record of dirigibles?" asked the Commander eagerly. "Wemust recollect that they are a different sort of craft, and do notascend by heaving ballast overboard--that is, as a general rule. Thisship, we know, is influenced by her vertical screws."

  "And will contrive to climb with them almost unaided," answered Joe."But it may be that we shall attempt a record, in which case there isample ballast to be thrown overboard. As to the height to whichdirigibles have climbed, of that I am uncertain. But it is said that sixthousand feet is the record for a Zeppelin, and we will allow that theZeppelin is the last word in dirigibles."

  "_Was_," Andrew corrected him quickly. "Was, Joe. The coming of thisvessel annihilates the Zeppelin."

  There was an air of suppressed excitement about the crew on thefollowing afternoon, for the news of their coming attempt had leakedout. Moreover, the airship had driven her way steadily onward during thenight, and all through the morning she had been steering a courseparallel to the gaunt Himalayas, within easy distance of the snowglistening on the numerous peaks of this giant range, and within sightalready of Mount Everest. The lofty peak raised its white head somefifty miles to their left, its snow slopes shimmering in the sun's rays.Its broad base also could be detected, merging imperceptibly with themass of the range. But the centre portion was invisible, clad in agarment of white cloud, which seemed to warn all and sundry to leavethat peak alone, and make no rash attempt upon it. But Joe Gresson wastotally unaffected. He turned the ship's head directly for the mountainand waited at the tiller till those fifty miles were accomplished, tillthe airship was within a short mile of the mountain, looking a mere dotwhen compared with the mighty mass of rock thrusting upward.

  "At this moment we begin our attempt," he told his
friends. "Kindlyobserve our height. We are resting precisely seven thousand feet abovesea-level. Now, I will start the elevating motors. When we aretwenty-nine thousand feet up we will steer for the top of the peak.After that, if all are agreeable, we will ascend once more. I have amind to accomplish a world's record. But we must take precautions. Letus don all the clothing we can find, and shut all windows and openings.Sergeant Evans has already taken out of store our cylinders of oxygen.You will find a mouthpiece attached to each one, and my advice is thatyou don them when we have reached a height of twenty thousand feet."

  For a while there were bustling feet to be heard along the galleries ofthe airship. Men hastened to and fro carrying oxygen cylinders, whileothers made a round of the vessel to close all apertures. Then Joe setthe aerial screws in motion, and, watching closely, Dick was able todetect the fact that the ship was rising swiftly. Indeed, before manyminutes had passed they had plunged into the cold, white cloudsurrounding the central part of the mountain. He strode off to theengine-room, to find Joe watching the barometer.

  "Nineteen thousand feet," he read off. "Ah, we are mounting quickly!Twenty thousand feet. Now we throw our cooling fan out of gear, and makeready to cover over a portion of our radiator. In that way we shall beable to keep up the temperature of our motor and of its fuel supply. Nowfor the oxygen."

  They were still mounting, mounting quickly too. Dick felt a queersensation overcoming him. He was gasping, endeavouring to imbibe moreair, eager for a greater supply of oxygen.

  "Put on your mouthpiece and turn on the tap of the cylinder," Joeordered. "You're grunting, positively grunting. And look at yourself inthat mirror."

  There was a tiny square which the engineer had secured to the side ofthe engine-room, and looking in it, Dick was positively startled todiscover that his usually vivid and fresh complexion had gone. He was apale, dirty-blue colour.

  "Ugh! Hideous!" he grinned. "Now, let's try oxygen."

  It had an almost immediate effect, as was to be expected, for within tenminutes he had regained his normal colour. Meanwhile, the cold hadbecome extreme. Even there, in the heated engine-room, one felt it,while Joe anxiously placed his hand on the cylinder tops.

  "Throwing the cooling fan out of gear will do it," he said, in tones ofsatisfaction. "I've still something in hand. Covering the radiator andso protecting it from cold will do the trick nicely."

  "Twenty-seven thousand feet. Twenty-eight," he read out. "Are allfeeling strong and well?"

  They were gathered about the engine-room, some crowding in that chamberitself, some at the top of the ladder leading from it, grouped in thegallery of the airship. And a queer collection they were, muffled to theeyes, more than one already shivering with cold, for it must berecollected that this feat of clambering upward demanded no personalefforts from crew or passengers. Had they been on the snow-clad slopesof Mount Everest, amidst its glaciers and its crevasses, the path upwardwould have been one continual struggle, a struggle made all the moredifficult by the increasing thinness of the air. Indeed this thinness ofthe air is one of the chief difficulties to be encountered by those whowould ascend to huge heights above sea-level. Mountain sickness, thegiddiness and nausea which attack people at great elevations, must alsobe overcome, though here, aboard the giant airship, not one of themembers aboard felt so much as lightness of the head. It was the coldwhich troubled them. Why, Private Larkin's nose was positively blue! Itpeeped out from above a huge muffler which he had wound round his neck.

  "I never!" Hurst remarked, grinning at him, and then taking anotherbreath of oxygen. "You ain't handsome, not 'arf."

  "'Ere," grunted Larkin, "none of yer lip! I'm 'avin'----"

  But at that moment the need for more oxygen assailed him, and he buriedhis mouth in the apparatus affixed to each cylinder. Indeed, but forthose cylinders this ascent would have been practically impossible. Asit was, the ship climbed steadily, remorselessly upward. They were abovethe thick bank of wet cloud now. Of a sudden the cold became intense,while Dick found himself shielding his eyes from the glare. For thesun's rays were reflected from the virgin snow slopes with a brilliancehe had never before experienced.

  "Twenty-nine thousand feet. The summit of Mount Everest," called Joe,fingering the tops of his cylinders and the cooling surface of hisradiator somewhat anxiously. "We will attempt a landing, and then wewill ascend once more."

  The big engine purred a little louder. Had an expert been there he wouldnot have been able to detect a single alarming sound from the mechanismof the airship. For there was, in fact, little to go wrong.

  "Freezing up does not trouble me," Joe had explained as they wereascending, "for my radiator is cooled by paraffin, and you may exposethat liquid to extremes of cold with little effect. Even if there weredanger of its freezing, the explosions of the engine cause heat, whichis absorbed by the paraffin, and I have taken steps, by throwing out ofgear the cooling fan, to retain that heat. As for the rest, the samefluid passing through those lines of steel tubes to the motors overheadis constantly in action. The pressure applied to it tends to add to itstemperature, so that there again we can defy the cold."

  The hum of the propeller told that the ship was in motion, for hithertoshe had merely been ascending. Now the elevator screws were hardlyrotating, while Dick and his friends could tell that they were advancingby the fact that the slopes of the mountain grew steadily nearer andnearer. The ship circled about the highest peak. She seemed to belooking for a landing-place. She even rested for a moment directly abovethe topmost pinnacle. And then Joe dropped her gently upon a smooth,level slope just beneath the summit.

  "All explorers plant flags to show what they have done," he cried,laughing at those gathered about him. "We will do the same. Come, half adozen of us will be sufficient."

  They tore the door of the gallery open, for it was frozen fast, andstruggled into the open, Joe and the Commander, with the Major, andDick, and Alec, in close attendance. Bearing their oxygen cylindersstrapped to their shoulders they trudged across the hard frozen snow,and within a few minutes had gained the summit. There they secured thestaff of their Union Jack, pegged and roped it down, and promptlyretraced their steps.

  "And now for a record," cried Joe. "I advise all of you to don gloves ifyou have them and to keep moving about. I mean to rush the rest of thedistance."

  He covered more than half of his radiator, set the elevating motorsbuzzing, and then glanced anxiously at his barometer. They were rising,but very slowly. It seemed to take an endless age to get away from thepeak they had just visited. The tiny Union Jack, looking forlorn amidthe snow slopes, appeared as if it would keep them company for ever.

  "Turn that lever there," Joe commanded, pointing to one close to Dick'shand, for the midshipman was again in the engine-room. "If the outlet ofmy tank is frozen we shall have to halt for a while and apply heat. Ah,that's fortunate! Listen."

  Above the gentle hum of the engine Dick could hear a gurgling, splashingsound, and looking downward discovered that a spray of water was fallingfrom the airship, a spray which was caught by the breeze, whirled to oneside, and transformed instantly into thin flakes of ice which wentswimming through space to find a resting-place on the slopes of themountain.

  "Throwing out ballast," Joe explained. "Now we're moving."

  The ship was clambering upward at a rapid pace, thanks to the weightrapidly streaming from her tanks. Joe watched his barometer now withsmiling eyes.

  "Thirty thousand feet," he stated solemnly. "Thirty-five thousand feet,gentlemen. Almost a world's record. But five more feet and I shall besatisfied."

  Had it not been for the mouthpieces which all were now compelled to keepconstantly in use the crew would have cheered him. As it was theytramped the gallery, swinging their arms, beating their fingers, andmuffling their faces in the first article of clothing upon which theycould come. The cold was too intense for words, in spite of the heatingarrangements aboard the ship. Indeed, but for active movement many ofthe crew would not have been
able to bear it. And steadily,relentlessly, the ship ascended, while Dick, at Joe's bidding, emptiedfirst one and then the remaining tanks aboard the vessel. It was with ashout of triumph that Joe announced that they had ascended to fortythousand feet.

  "Kindly observe the barometer," he called. "Kindly bear evidence to thefact that we have gained this record."

  Then began the descent. Joe arrested the elevating motors, and at oncethe ship began to fall. Not rapidly, as one might have expected, butslowly, imperceptibly, so smoothly that but for the barometer none wouldhave known that she was moving. And now, as they reached the level ofthirty thousand feet, and that tiny Union Jack came into view once more,but a stone's throw to their right, the mercury ceased to move. In spiteof accelerating his motors Joe could no longer force the ship todescend.

  "Dropped all the weight out of her," he said cheerfully. "Must now letgas escape. That's merely a question of operating the escape valves.See, they're all linked up to this lever."

  He leaned over the engine, gripped a long handle and pulled upon it. Itrefused to move. It was firmly jammed, or rather, the linked mechanismbeyond it was firmly frozen.

  "Annoying," he exclaimed, though Dick could have sworn that an anxiousexpression crossed his face. "Try again."

  He made several more attempts, but without success. Dick helped himwithout avail. Even the lusty Hawkins and Hurst together could produceno effect, while the screws now thrashing the thin air in an endeavourto force the ship downward made not the smallest difference to theheight of the mercury. And meanwhile the cold was even more intense. Inspite of the oxygen cylinders men were gasping. Indeed, all of a sudden,when at the summit of their success the crew of the airship foundthemselves face to face with disaster. They had climbed to this greatheight. They could not descend. Death from cold and exhaustionthreatened them. Yes, death. For already Larkin lay inert in thegallery, blue from intense cold, his mouthpiece strapped to his face.Mr. Andrew clutched at the doorpost, looking as if on the verge ofunconsciousness, while both the Major and the Commander had theappearance of men more than half frozen. It looked indeed as if here, atthis enormous altitude, within stone's throw of the summit of MountEverest, the voyage of the huge airship would be ended, and with it thelives of all aboard.