THE SKY SLAYER.
After the first greetings were over, Jack plunged into an explanation of
their presence in Belgium in such stormy times. M. La Farge looked
grave, but promised to do what he could through diplomatic and other
sources to locate Tom Jukes.
"If, as you say, he has been traveling in state in a large auto, he
ought to be easy to locate," he assured them. "I will let you know what
I have been able to discover to-morrow morning. Every auto entering the
country is registered and its occupants kept track of. Rest assured I
shall do my best for the two young friends to whom I can never be
sufficiently grateful."
Jack thanked him warmly for them both, and explained that while in
London they had communicated with the American consuls in Paris and
Berlin, but that nothing had been heard at either place of Tom Jukes
being among the refugees beseiging the American representatives.
"Possibly I shall have better success. At least, we must hope so," said
M. La Farge. "Much of the telegraph system is still intact, fortunately.
At least rest on my promise that I will do all I can."
As they had already visited the American consulate in Antwerp, where
they had obtained no news, the two boys found themselves without
anything to do but kill time as best they could till the next day. As
they had spent much of their time on the Dutch steamer in sleep, they
did not feel like turning in early and so, at Jack's suggestion, they
visited a theatre. But it was a gloomy manner of spending the evening,
as it transpired. The inhabitants of Antwerp were more interested in the
bulletin boards announcing the inroads of the German troops than in
entertainments. There was an air of anxiety and depression abroad that
could not help but be contagious, and oppressed by the general
atmosphere, the boys decided before the end of the performance to return
to their hotel.
But Jack could not sleep. He lay awake tossing and turning for an hour
or more. In the street he could hear the regular step and quick
challenge of sentries. Occasionally, far off, came the sound of bugle
calls.
All at once he became aware of another sound. It was one that was
strange to him. He could liken it to nothing but the droning buzz of a
giant bumblebee. It was at first faint; hardly audible in fact, except
to strained ears, but it rapidly grew in volume, filling the whole air
with the steady vibrating buzz.
The sound irritated Jack, sleepless as he was.
"It sounds for all the world as if there was a big buzz saw or a
threshing machine at work," he mused. "Where on earth does the racket
come from?"
He lay awake listening for a few moments longer. Then he got out of bed
and tiptoed across the room where Bill lay snoring violently.
The lad looked out of the window. The street and a public square lay far
below him. Only a few lights shone on the thoroughfare. It appeared
deserted but for the sentries marching up and down unceasingly.
"Nothing there," said the boy to himself. "I guess I'll turn in again."
The buzzing sound had grown fainter now. It was hardly audible in fact.
But for some reason it lingered in Jack's mind. It was like half a dozen
things he could think of and yet he could not recall ever having heard
that precise sound before.
At last he dozed off, and then sank into a dream in which it seemed to
him that he was somewhere far out in the country lying under a shady
tree contentedly chewing on a bit of grass and gazing up through the
leafy branches at the bright sky. But suddenly everything clouded over.
The landscape grew dark and sinister, and the leaves of the tree above
him began to toss and sway in a harsh wind.
In his dream, Jack arose and standing up looked about him. It appeared
to him as if he was gazing down from a height over an immense
battlefield. He could see the dust and smoke as cannon were wheeled into
position and then the flashes of flame and the belching of fire from the
rifle pits. Men were mowed down like ripe grain in long windrows.
It was horrible but fascinating.
Then, all at once, came again that strange buzzing sound. But now it
seemed to have in it a menacing note. It was like a terrible voice. The
boy shuddered as he heard it, harsh and inexorable, filling the air,
which seemed to vibrate to the steady humming.
It grew sharper and louder. Above all, the noise of the dream cannon and
rifles, the boy could hear it. He awakened with a start, his heart
beating rather wildly.
"That was a kind of a nightmare," he said to himself. "Glad I woke up. I
guess--what's that?"
Again that humming sound filled the air as if a pulsing chord, strung at
high tension, had been twanged.
"It's outside!" exclaimed Jack, for the second time going to the window.
"It's in the air!" he cried an instant later.
He turned his face upward. High above the city, against the stars, he
could trace the outline of a gigantic cigar-shaped body. It was moving
slowly far above him.
"An airship!" gasped the boy, and then the next instant:
"A Zeppelin!"
Something seemed to launch itself from the dark body of the immense
aircraft and streak downward like a falling star. The next moment, from
a part of the city some distance off, there was a brilliant flash of
flame, and then an appalling report that shook the earth. But Jack had
no eyes for this at the moment. His gaze was fixed on the Zeppelin.
Having dealt destruction in one part of the city it was now making
directly toward the hotel!
The boy watched it with a horrible fascination that held him speechless.
The death-dealing craft was destined to pass directly above the building
that sheltered them and how many others. Craning his neck, Jack watched
its flight above the sleeping city. Dark as death itself and, with no
indication of its presence but the drone of its engines, the sky monster
moved majestically toward him. It was then that Jack suddenly found his
tongue as the death in the air approached till it was almost above his
staring eyes.
"Bill," he yelled, "Bill, wake up!"
He shook his chum's shoulder violently.
"Whazzermarrer?" inquired Bill sleepily.
"Get up for your life. Fling on any old clothes. Let's get out of here
quick."
"What's up?" demanded Bill, wide awake now, and hastily pulling on some
clothes, for he knew Jack would not have aroused him needlessly.
"It's a Zeppelin, a giant German airship. She's blown up a piece some
blocks away and now she's headed over here."
At almost the same instant, a roar of artillery burst forth. The
defenses of Antwerp had awakened and were concentrating their fire on
the death-dealing monster of the sky. But as the first reports ripped
the silence of the night, there came another and a mightier report. The
hotel rocked to its foundations. A shower of plaster and debris crashed
into the boys' room, half burying them.
The sky slayer had struck again!