*CHAPTER XIV*
*BETRAYED BY THE CAMERA*
The order was quickly given for the aerial police scouts to start.Within a few minutes the patrols left Cairo and the adjoiningair-stations, and, spreading out fan-wise, they crossed the Canal, theGulf of Sinai, the wild mountainous peninsula which bears the same name,and the Hedjaz coast, until they entered the desert regions beyond.Then they commenced their search by moonlight for the battered anddrifting air-liner over the trackless, desert lands which lie betweenthe 28th and the 30th parallels.
By a pre-arranged system of Very lights, the patrols kept each otherinformed of their exact positions during the night, and watched keenlythe eastern horizon for any response which might come from the belatedairship.
Meanwhile the air-liner, fighting manfully against the freshening wind,made very slow progress, and drifted still further and further away fromher course. The air was full of wireless messages both from Cairo andthe patrols, but she was as yet unable to reply and define her position.The engineer and wireless operator, however, had been able to receivesome of the messages indistinctly, and they knew at any rate that helpwas not far away.
The captain was naturally very much depressed by the turn of events.Somehow he felt that he had not acted very heroically in the matter. Hehad considered the safety of his distinguished passengers perhaps toomuch.
"If I had had no passengers to consider, I would have remained aloftuntil the whole liner had been shot to ribbons!" he declared to himself,when he at last retired for a few minutes to his private cabin. "Theyshould never have taken me alive! But there, my instructions stand--thesafety of the passengers and crew before anything else. I was a fool,though, to act as I did. I ought to have sent out the S.O.S. to Cairowithout a second's delay, instead of arguing with this brigand; butthere, whoever expected to encounter anything like this?"
Then as his thoughts turned to the wonderful machine, he endeavoured todocket all the information he could remember about the brigand'saeroplane, for he knew that he would be expected to recount every detailwhen he met the court of enquiry, "which," he murmured, "is as certainto take place as to-morrow's sunrise.
"Gee whiz! Three hundred miles an hour, and silent engines to boot!Phew! nobody will believe me, anyhow. Still, I shall have to face themusic, and also to explain why I have lost a hundred thousand pounds ofspecie," and the skipper looked down on the white sands below, and for amoment he almost contemplated suicide.
"I wouldn't mind if I could only bring sufficient information to theauthorities to lead to the speedy capture of the villain, but I can't.There wasn't time even for a photograph. The bandit was aware of allthat, and I understand that every camera was removed from the airshipbefore he let us go."
At that instant there came a slight tap at the cabin door.
"Come in!" cried the commander, expecting some further report from thesick-berth steward about the condition of the maharajah, who, half anhour ago, was said to be showing signs of recovery, owing to the bracingair at three thousand feet.
The door opened, and Gadget, the ship's mascot, appeared. Now Gadget'snewest hobby was photography, and through the kindness of thephotographic officer he had become the proud possessor of a small pocketcamera.
"I got her, sir! Thought you'd like to see her ... begging yourpardon," and Gadget, with his dirty, but sunny, smiling face stoppedshort and pulled his lock of hair by way of salute, as the captainpulled him up sharply by snapping out:--
"Got whom? Like to see whom, Gadget?"
"The 'Clutchin' Hand,' sir," explained Gadget, who now found himselffloored for once by his want of English.
"I don't understand, boy?"
"The bloke what played the dirty on us, sir," replied the boy, openingwide his bright blue eyes, and holding out three wet and recentlydeveloped pocket films.
"Him what got the swag, sir," continued the urchin, endeavouring to makehimself clear.
"Oh, you mean that you photographed the brigand!" replied the skipper ashe caught sight of the negatives, and snatched at them eagerly, a newlight coming into his eyes.
"Yessir!" exclaimed the lad. "Him what said he was a King of theDesert."
"Gadget!" exclaimed the captain, after a brief examination of the films,which were really three fine, clearly defined pictures of the_Scorpion_, showing her in mid-air, when alongside the _Empress_.
"Yessir," replied the excited youth, not yet certain whether he wasgoing to be hanged or praised for his offence.
"You have shown more wit and skill than anyone on board the airship.You shall be well rewarded for this, I promise you. How on earth youmanaged to get three good snapshots like these, all showing differentangles of the machine, and to hide them away, is beyond me!"
"Thank you, sir! Thought you'd like 'em," and the boy's eyes sparkledeven more than ever as the captain shook him by the hand, and plantedfive new, crisp Bradburys therein, then dismissed him.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed the captain, "but that little urchin's saved myreputation. These photographs may prove of more value to the authoritiesthan the lost treasure. I feel a different man. Here is extraordinaryevidence against the culprit. One photograph shows the fiend actuallyfiring a burst at the twin engines in the rear gondola, and another thefaces of the two occupants above the fuselage. They will show moreevidence still when they have been enlarged." And the captain, aftercarefully drying them, placed them in an envelope and put them into hisinner coat pocket, muttering:--
"Smart little beggar! I wish I hadn't punished him the other day forsmuggling that tobacco aboard."
The captain, who had left strict instructions that he should be calledhalf an hour before the end of the watch, in order that he might relievethe navigating officer, was just about to lie down on the couch for abrief spell, when suddenly another knock at his cabin door startled him,and immediately after his servant entered and announced: "Seven bells,sir."
"Already?" exclaimed the captain.
"Yes, sir."
"Has the moon set, yet?"
"Yes, it is quite dark now, sir."
"All right. Tell the navigating officer that I'll be down in onemoment."
At this very instant the telephone bell which connected the cabin withthe navigating gondola rang furiously. Snatching up the receiver, thecaptain asked, "What's the matter, Donaldson? Is there another raideron the starboard bow?"
"No, sir, but there's something very much like a signal flash away inthe north-west."
"Sure it wasn't a shooting star?"
"More like a Very light, sir, but very faint," replied the navigatingofficer. "Shall I reply, sir?"
"Yes, give him three red lights. I expect it's one of the patrolslooking for us. I'm coming down now," and the captain replaced thereceiver, and made haste down the corridor which led to the chart andnavigation room.
The next instant three red balls of fire fell from the airshipearthwards in rapid succession, and within a couple of minutes a faintgleam of greenish light fell like an arc in the north-western sky.
"Yes, the patrols have found us, sure enough," exclaimed the captain,who had now joined the officer.
After several further exchanges of fire-balls, repeated now from two orthree quarters, the searchers closed in upon the straggler. Then arapid dialogue took place by means of the morse lamp, and, when dawncame, shortly afterwards, no less than six fighting scouts, running atabout a quarter throttle, surrounded the wounded leviathan, and escortedher towards Cairo.
When the _Empress_ reached that town, she was already twenty-four hoursoverdue at London, so the cables and the wireless stations were busywith messages relating to the missing liner, and with more than oneinquiry as to the safety of her cargo, evidently from the consignees, ormore likely still, from the underwriters.
And when the captain told his story to the Commissioner of Aerial Policeat Cairo there was another mighty stir, and both the cables and thewireless wer
e busy again, for the whole civilized world was tinglingwith excitement to know something tangible about this man ofmystery--the phantom airman. And the story of Gadget's photographs wastold to the world.