For a moment the engines ceased working, and Laval shouted to his companion: "We must be close to the place now. There should be a hill covered with pine trees in front of us, and the hangar lies within a league beyond it on a flat plain."
"Then yonder it is!" cried Dennis. "There is no end of a strong light showing ahead. That ragged edge that looms against it must be your tree tops."
"Good!" replied the pilot. "Get your bombs ready. When I shut off again we shall be as nearly above the spot as one can judge."
He restarted the engines. In the distance a curious yellow glow outlined the hill, and as they sailed clear of the pines the glow resolved itself into a considerable illumination, for which the pilot steered.
Rows of electric lamps formed a huge parallelogram, in the centre of which was a long black object, undoubtedly the airship hangar.
"By Jupiter!" yelled Dennis; "we're in luck to-night! The Zeppelin's coming out!"
He forgot that his words were completely drowned, and he received a sudden shock when the brilliant beam of a searchlight flashed up from the ground, and, after a circling swoop, found them and held them in its fierce eye. Every stay and rivet was as clearly visible to him as though it had been noonday, and it was a trying moment.
As another light challenged them, and asked "Who are you?" he remembered Laval's previous instructions, and showing his signal lamp, replied in the Morse code, "Blumberger, returning from reconnaissance beyond Mülhausen."
Blumberger was lying dead under the mackintosh in the cornfield near Bar-le-Duc, and Dennis was wearing his outer garments; but the message had been understood, and was followed by the command: "L30 coming out now. Be careful until all is clear; then report, Blumberger!"
"Yes, we will be very careful!" muttered Claude Laval, who had read off the message at the same time; and flying slowly at scarcely more than five hundred feet above the ground he steered towards the hangar.