THE END OF THE CHASE.
The flight of the _Ithuriel_ and her consorts was so graduated, that
as they rose to the level of the storm-cloud they missed it and
passed diagonally beyond it at a sufficient distance to avoid
disturbing the electrical balance between it and the earth. The
object of doing so was not so much to escape a discharge of
electricity, since all the vital parts of the machinery and the
power-cylinders were carefully insulated, but rather in order not to
provoke a lightning flash which might have revealed their rapid
passage to the occupants of the _Lucifer_.
As it was, they swept upwards and westward at such a speed that they
had gained the cover of the thunder-cloud, and placed a considerable
area of it between themselves and the town, long before the storm
broke over Aberdeen, and so they were provided with ample shelter
under, or rather over, which they were to make their attack on the
_Lucifer_.
They waited until the clouds coming up from the westward joined those
which had begun to gather thick and black and threatening over the
Russian fleet soon after the tremendous cannonade had begun. The
shock of the meeting of the two cloud-squadrons formed a fitting
counterpart to the drama of death and destruction that was being
played on land and sea.
The brilliant sunshine of the midsummer afternoon was suddenly
obscured by a darkness born of smoke and cloud like that of a
midwinter night. The smoke of the cannonade rose heavily and mingled
with the clouds, and the atmospheric concussions produced by the
discharge of hundreds of heavy guns, brought down the rain in
torrents. Almost continuous streams of lightning flashed from cloud
to cloud, and from heaven to earth, eclipsing the spouting fire of
the guns, while to the roar of the bombardment was added an almost
unbroken roll of thunder.
Above all this hideous turmoil of human and elemental strife, the
three air-ships floated for awhile in a serene and sunlit atmosphere.
But this was only for a time. Arnold had taken the position and
altitude of the _Lucifer_ very carefully by means of his sextant and
compass before he rose into the air, and as soon as his preparations
were complete he made another observation of the angle of the sun's
elevation, allowing, of course, for his own, and placed his three
ships as nearly perpendicular as he could over the _Lucifer_,
floating on the under side of the storm-cloud.
His preparations had been simple in the extreme. Four light strong
grappling-irons hung downwards from the _Ithuriel_, two at the bow
and two at the stern, by thin steel-wire rope; two similar ones hung
from the starboard side of the _Orion_, which was on his left hand,
and two from the port side of the _Ariel_, which was on his right
hand. As they gained the desired position, a man was stationed at
each of the ropes, with instructions how to act when the word was
given. Then the fan-wheels were slowed down, and the three vessels
sank swiftly through the cloud.
Through the mist and darkness underneath they saw the white shape of
the _Lucifer_ almost immediately below them, so accurately had the
position been determined. They sank a hundred feet farther, and then
Arnold shouted--
"Now is your time. Cast!"
Instantly the eight grappling-irons dropped and swung towards the
_Lucifer_, hooking themselves in the stays of her masts and the
railing that ran completely round her deck.
"Now, up again, and ahead!" shouted Arnold once more, and the
fan-wheels of the three ships revolved at their utmost speed; the
air-planes had already been inclined to the full, the nine propellers
whirled round, and the recaptured _Lucifer_ was dragged forward and
upwards through the mist and darkness of the thunder-cloud into the
bright sunshine above.
[Illustration: "Now is your time, cast!"
_See page 242._]
So suddenly had the strange manoeuvre been executed that those on
board her had not time to grasp what had really happened to them
before they found themselves captured and utterly helpless. As she
hung below her three captors it was impossible to bring one of the
_Lucifer's_ guns to bear upon them, while four guns, two from the
_Ariel_ and two from the _Orion_, grinned down upon her ready to blow
her into fragments at the least sign of resistance.
Added to this, a dozen magazine rifles covered her deck, threatening
sudden death to the six bewildered men who were still staring
helplessly about them in wonderment at the strange thing that had
happened to them.
"Who are the Russian officers in command of that air-ship?" hailed
Mazanoff from the _Ariel_.
Two men in Russian uniform raised their hands in reply, and Mazanoff
hailed again--
"Which will you have--surrender or death? If you surrender your lives
are safe, and we will put you on to the land as soon as possible; if
not you will be shot."
"We surrender!" exclaimed one of the officers, drawing his sword and
dropping it on the deck. The other followed suit, and Mazanoff
continued--
"Very good. Remain where you are. The first man that moves will be
shot down."
Almost before the last words had left his lips half a dozen men had
slid down the wire ropes and landed on the deck of the _Lucifer_. The
moment their feet had touched the deck each whipped a magazine pistol
out of his belt and covered his man.
Within a couple of minutes the captives were all disarmed; indeed,
most of them had thrown their weapons down on the first summons. The
arms were tossed overboard, and all but the two Russian officers were
rapidly bound hand and foot. Then three of the six men descended to
the engine-room, and one went to the wheel-house. In another minute
the fan-wheels of the _Lucifer_ began to spin round faster, and
quickly raised her to the level of the other three ships, and so the
recapture of the deserter was completed.
The two officers were at once summoned on board the _Ithuriel_ and
shut up under guard in separate cabins. The rest of the crew of the
_Lucifer_ was found to consist of the four traitors who had carried
her away, and two Russian engineers who had been put on board to
assist in the working of the vessel.
As soon as these had been replaced by a crew drafted from the
_Ithuriel_ and her consorts under the command of Lieutenant Marston,
Arnold gave the order to go ahead at fifty miles an hour to the
northward, and the four air-ships immediately sped away in that
direction, leaving Aberdeen to its fate, and within a little over an
hour the sounds of both storm and battle had died away in silence
behind them.
When they were fairly under way Natas ordered the four deserters to
be brought before him in the after saloon of the flagship. He sat at
one end of the table, and they were placed in a line in front of him
at the other, each with a guard behind him, and the muzzle of a
pistol at his head.
"Peter Tamboff, Amos Vornjeh, Ivan Tscheszco, and Paul Oreloff! you
have broken your oaths, betrayed your companions, deserted the Cause
to which you devoted your lives, and placed in the hands of the
Russian tyrant the means of destruction which has enabled him to
break the blockade of the Baltic, and so perhaps to change the whole
course of the war which he is now waging, as you well know, with the
object of conquering Europe and enslaving its peoples.
"Already the lives of thousands of better men than you have been lost
through this vile treason of yours, the vilest of all treason, for it
was committed for love of money. By the laws of the Brotherhood your
lives are forfeit, and if you had a hundred lives each they would be
forfeited again by the calamities that your treason has brought, and
will bring, upon the world. You will die in half an hour. If you have
any preparations to make for the next world, make them. I have done
with you. Go!"
Half an hour later the four deserters were taken up on to the deck of
the _Ithuriel_. The signal was given to stop the flotilla, which was
then flying three thousand feet above the waters of the Moray Firth.
As soon as they came to a standstill their crews were summoned on
deck. The three smaller vessels floated around the _Ithuriel_ at a
distance of about fifty yards from her. The traitors, bound hand and
foot, were stood up facing the rail of the flagship, and four of her
crew were stationed opposite to them on the other side of the deck
with loaded rifles.
They were allowed one last look upon sun and sky, and then their eyes
were bandaged. As soon as this was done Arnold raised his hand; the
four rifles came up to the ready; a stream of flame shot from the
muzzles, and the bodies of the four traitors lurched forward over the
rail and disappeared into the abyss beneath.
"Now, gentlemen," said Arnold in French, turning to the two Russian
officers who had been spectators of the scene, "that is how we punish
traitors. Your own lives are spared because we do not murder
prisoners of war. You will, I hope, in due time return to your
master, and you will tell him why we have been obliged to retake the
air-ship which he surrendered to us by force, and therefore why we
destroyed his flagship in the North Sea. If Admiral Prabylov had
obeyed his orders, the _Lucifer_ would have been surrendered to us
quietly, and there would have been for the present no further
trouble.
"Tell him also from me, as Admiral of the Terrorist fleet, that, so
far as matters have now gone, we shall take no further part in the
war; but that the moment he brings his war-balloons across the waters
which separate Britain from Europe, the last hour of his empire will
have struck.
"If he neglects this warning with which I now entrust you, I will
bring a force against him before which he shall be as helpless as the
armies of the Alliance have so far been before him and his
war-balloons; and, more than this, tell him that if I conquer I will
not spare. I will hold him and his advisers strictly to account for
all that may happen after that moment.
"There will be no treaties with conquered enemies in the hour of our
victory. We will have blood for blood, and life for life. Remember
that, and bear the message to him faithfully. For the present you
will be prisoners on parole; but I warn you that you will be watched
night and day, and at the first suspicion of treachery you will be
shot, and cast into the air as those traitors were just now.
"You will remain on board this ship. The two engineers will be placed
one on board of each of two of our consorts. In twenty-four hours or
so you will be landed on Spanish soil and left to your own devices.
Meanwhile we shall make you as comfortable as the circumstances
permit."
The two Russian officers bowed their acknowledgments, and Arnold gave
the signal for the flotilla to proceed.
It was then about seven o'clock in the evening. Flying at the rate of
a hundred miles an hour, the squadron crossed the mouth of the Moray
Firth trending to the westward until they passed over Thurso, and
then took a westerly course to Rockall Island, four hundred miles to
the west. Here they met the two other air-ships which had been
despatched from Aeria with extra power-cylinders and munitions of war
in case they had been needed for a prolonged campaign.
The cylinders, which had been exhausted on board the _Ithuriel_ and
her three consorts, were replaced, and then the whole squadron rose
into the air from one of the peaks of Rockall Island and winged its
way southward to the north-western coast of Spain. They made the
Spanish land near Corunna shortly before eight on the following
evening, and here the four Russian prisoners were released on the
sea-shore and provided with money to take them as far as Valladolid,
whence they would be able to communicate with the French military
authorities at Toulouse.
The Terrorist Squadron then rose once more into the air, ascended to
a height of two thousand feet, skirted the Portuguese coast, and then
took a south-easterly course over Morocco through one of the passes
of the Atlas Mountains, and so across the desert of Sahara and the
wilds of Central Africa to Aeria.