“Don't you know where you are—what this is?”
“Not a bit of it! What's all the swaying and the row?”
“What a lark!” cried the young man. “I say! What a thundering lark! Don't you know? We're off to America, and you haven't realised. You've just caught us by a neck. You're on the blessed old flagship with the Prince. You won't miss anything. Whatever's on, you bet the Vaterland will be there.”
“Us!—off to America?”
“Ra—ther!”
“In an airship?”
“What do YOU think?”
“Me! going to America on an airship! After that balloon! 'Ere! I say—I don't want to go! I want to walk about on my legs. Let me get out! I didn't understand.”
He made a dive for the door.
The young man arrested Bert with a gesture, took hold of a strap, lifted up a panel in the padded wall, and a window appeared. “Look!” he said. Side by side they looked out.