"Wonder what's up?" said Frank.
"Airship, I guess," was the reply. "Can't see any other reason for extinguishing all lights."
Near the bridge the lads stopped and waited to see what would happen. All was quiet aboard. Not a sound came from the officers or the men on deck. Then Captain Raleigh commanded:
"Try the forward searchlight there. See if you can pick her up!"
The light flashed aloft; and there, so far above the Queen Mary as to be little more than a tiny speck, hovered a giant Zeppelin; and even as they looked, the airship came lower.
"She's sighted us," said Captain Raleigh to his first officer, who stood beside him. "Try a shot, Mr. Harrison."
The first officer passed the word and a second later there came the sound of the anti-aircraft gun. The gunner had taken his range at the moment the flashlight revealed the airship.
The shot brought no noticeable result.
"Fifteen knots ahead, Mr. Harrison!" ordered the captain.
He was afraid that the Zeppelin might drop a bomb on the ship; and from that moment until the end of the battle the Queen Mary did not pause. First she headed to port and then to starboard, manoeuvering rapidly that the German airmen might not be able to reach her with a bomb.