There was no time for further conversation, however, for the yelling Germans were now fairly on top of them. Alan’s revolvers snapped harmlessly. They were empty. Buck fired his remaining four bullets right into their faces and then struck out with his fists. It looked as if it were all up with the brave boys until suddenly Ned appeared on the airship runway overhead. In his hand he held raised a black, round, metal object about the size of a football.
“Stand back!” he shouted in a terrible tone. “Every one of you Germans stand back or I swear I will blow you all to pieces with this lyddite grenade!”
The deadly explosive hung there almost above their heads and every man of them knew what it was.
Involuntarily they fell back, and in that minute while they hesitated, Alan and Buck bounded up the companion-ladder into safety in the hold of the airship. As the metal door clanged shut and locked automatically behind them, they heard the enraged Germans hammering upon it with the butts of their muskets.
“To your engines, Buck!” shouted Ned from above. “Quick! Alan, help me in the pilot house here!”
The starting lever was jammed down into place. The hum of the great turbines became a roar. The huge propellers swished mightily round and round. The Ocean Flyer began to slip over the grass, with the frantic Germans giving ground reluctantly. Then the huge bulk gradually lifted itself from the earth and skimmed like a swallow heavenwards over the now dusky tree-tops. German bullets rattled like hail over the metal sides of the vessel.
Alan smiled grimly at Ned.
“They don’t realize that magnalium alloy is as good as armor plate,” he said. “Unless a stray bullet happens to snap some mechanical part of the tail propellers, they’re welcome to shoot as much as they want to now.”
Ned nodded as he shaped the Flyer’s course towards the north where the frontier and Muhlbruck lay.