The Phantom Airman
*CHAPTER IX*
*THE PHANTOM BIRD*
"Airship or aeroplane?" asked von Spitzer, a moment later, as Carlclosely watched the delicate recorder, which, as the vibration caused bythe sound waves increased, indicated not only the type of craft, but thetype of engine by which it was driven, and also whether the engine wasrunning with or without defects. So wonderful are the secrets which manhas already wrested from nature.
"Airship, decidedly!" replied Carl, after a second's pause."Full-powered too; there are four or five Sunbeam-Maori engines, and allrunning smoothly."
"Her position?" demanded the Rittmeister next.
"Forty-four miles due east," came the answer.
"Then it must be the aerial mail from India; she is just about due."
"Is she steering due west?" the chief asked.
"About two degrees south, that's all," replied Carl. "She's evidentlygetting a little drift from the upper currents."
"Good!" remarked the chief airman. "Then if she continues steeringsteady, she should pass within a couple of miles of us in another twentyor twenty-five minutes. Come along, Carl, it is time for us to getaway. You will remain on the ground, Max. You have a difficult job. Assoon as we get away, see that the tents are struck, and all men andhorses placed under cover of the trees."
"Yes, sir."
"And now sound the alarm signal, and help us to get out the _Scorpion_;it is going to bite to-day," ordered the Rittmeister as he strode away,exclaiming,
"Who wouldn't be a king of the desert? For one day at least it will be,'_Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles_!'"
The alarm being sounded, all the occupants of the little camp went toquarters, just as they had been rehearsed during the last few days. Thecamouflaged fabric was stripped from the little hangar, and the_Scorpion_ was set free to bite once more. She was released from theropes which held her down and turned head to wind. The steel foldingwings were snapped back into their sockets and made secure.
"Are you ready, Carl?" asked the chief, as he completed his rapid surveyof the machine, during which neither the propellers, planes, tail-finnor rudder escaped his scrutiny.
"Aye, ready, sir!" came the reply from the junior, who was now seated inthe armour-plated conning-tower, testing the controls and examining hismachine guns.
Without a moment's delay the chief clambered up through the littletrapdoor and joined his companion. Then he paused for a moment whilsthe swept the eastern horizon with his powerful binoculars.
"I cannot see her yet, Carl," he said. Then turning to Max, who stoodby the starboard engine, he shouted, "Just try to pick up her positionagain from the drum. She may have changed her course a trifle."
The Gotha pilot dashed off on his errand, and after carefully listeningfor a moment, he returned and said, "East-south-east, about four degreeseast."
"Good, she'll pass about five miles south of us then; but she's notvisible yet," replied Spitzer.
"She's getting a good deal of drift, I fancy," returned Max.
"Anyhow, we'll get up into the blue and wait for her," said the airman,and waving his hand for the signal to stand clear, he pressed theself-starting knob, and instantaneously both engines sprang into life,and the whirring propellers started up such a dust storm from the loosesand of the desert that the Arabs were startled, and rushed to securetheir frightened steeds.
Within ten seconds the rev.-counter indicated two thousand five hundred,and, sufficient power for flying speed being thus obtained, Max deftlyremoved the chocks from the wheels, and this new type of desert steeddashed off across the sands, and leapt into the air, amid the cheers ofthe astonished Bedouins.
"Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful!" cried the Arab chief, as heraised his hands imploringly towards heaven. "It is the bird ofdestiny, my children, the phantom of the desert!" and Max could scarcelyrestrain a smile as he beheld the momentary fear which had seized thesestrong, fierce men.
The next moment, however, they were all busy striking the tents andbringing horses, equipment, and all the camp effects under the shadow ofthe trees.
Meanwhile the _Scorpion_, appearing exactly like a huge grey phantombird, soared away in a north-westerly direction, lest it should beobserved by the occupants of the approaching liner.
And in a few minutes, rising rapidly by steep spirals, and an almostvertical climb, it had disappeared from sight. Soon it soared over thecamp again at ten thousand feet, and appeared but a speck in thecloudless blue, like the faintest suspicion of a tiny cirrus cloud.
Shortly afterwards a cry from one of the natives directed the attentionof all present towards another tiny streak in the opposite direction.His sharp, piercing eyes had been the first to discern the approachingairship.
"Allah, the Compassionate!" again began the sheik, and Max, fearing thatthis strange visitant might affect their nerves, called out aloud in thebest Arabic he could muster:--
"Allah be praised! This stranger carries gold and rare jewels acrossthe desert. He must pay tribute to the sons of Jebel and Shomer!"
This appeal to their cupidity instantly changed the demeanour of thesefanatics. Their fear departed. Even when, later, they heard the roar ofthe powerful engines which propelled the airship, their one thought wasof plunder.
"The treasures of twenty Damascus' caravans are in that great airship,"cried Max, fulfilling with considerable skill the part which Spitzer hadallotted to him.
The Bedouins, whose feelings were now raised to the highest pitch ofexcitement, began to fear lest, after all, so rich a prize might belost, and they eagerly searched the skies for the phantom airman, asthey called the Rittmeister, and shouted:--
"Where is the phantom bird? Where is the great white sheik?" and theywould have dashed out into the desert on their fiery steeds, for theywere already mounted, but the German restrained them, saying:--
"There is no need to hunt the quarry. The great white sheik will bringdown the airship on this very spot. Be ready, when I give the signal,to surround it."
Another anxious moment passed, and the airship, travelling rapidly atsome three thousand feet above the ground, would have passed them bysome few miles to the south, but at that instant, the Indian judgecaught sight of the picturesque oasis with its cluster of palms far downbelow, and said to his soldier companion:--
"Look, Colonel Wilson! Just look at that beauty spot after two hundredmiles of yellow desert."
"Ah, wonderful!" exclaimed the delighted soldier. "It is a littlegarden planted by Nature in the solitary wastes."
"How picturesque! I should like to land there," returned the other.
"Let us ask the captain at least to change his course slightly, so thatwe may pass over it and photograph it as a souvenir of our pleasantjourney," said the officer.
At that moment the captain, passing down the gangway, overheard theremark, and being eager to oblige his distinguished passengers, hetelephoned his orders to the navigating officer, who slightly alteredthe ship's course, so as to pass almost directly over the oasis.
It was while they were engaged in delightful contemplation of thisemerald isle embedded in the gold of the desert, that another objectattracted the attention of the judge. Chancing to glance upwards, hecaught sight of a silvery speck six thousand feet above them, and alittle way on their beam.
"See, a tiny cloudlet in the sky; the first I have ever seen in crossingthese deserts."
"A cloud, where?" asked his companion.
"There, right up in the blue vault of heaven," said the judge, pointingout the speck which now seemed to have grown larger.
"Why, it is a bird; some great vulture of the desert. It seems to bediving right down upon us! These vultures, I hear, have often attackedthe airships in the desert. It evidently takes us for some new kind ofprey."
"A bird!" cried the captain, who had now joined the speakers. "Let mesee it?"
"There it is!" cried the two men simultaneously,
pointing out the grey,swift phantom.
The captain saw the bird-like object, and one glance sufficed.
"It is an aeroplane," he said, and there was just a touch of uneasinessin his voice.
"An aeroplane?" echoed the others, and an instant later, viewing itthrough his glasses, the colonel added:--
"Why, so it is; but I say, Captain, what a peculiar type of aeroplane!It is one of the patrols, I expect, come to meet us."
"Your glasses, if you please, for one moment," asked the captain, and healmost snatched them from the hands of the officer.
The next instant a violent expletive burst from the captain's lips.
Leaving his companions, he dashed down the corridor to the wirelessoperator's room. The operator was already engaged in conversation withthe aerial visitor by means of the wireless telephone, and the captaintook in the situation at a glance.
"What does he want? Who is he?" blurted out the skipper.