King of the Air; Or, To Morocco on an Aeroplane

by Herbert Strang

Carefully opening two or three cartridge cases, he extracted the powder, and screwing it up with some tiny pebbles in tissue paper from his pocket-book, he manufactured a dozen or so of the little bombs. Then he inspected the machinery of the airship, thoroughly oiled the parts, and went aboard with Oliphant and Abdul. He allowed the machine to rise only a few feet from the top of the hill, so as to avoid if possible observation from the village; then he set off in a south-easterly direction, keeping the hill between him and the kasbah. Fetching a long circuit, he gradually bore south-west, then slightly north, until, in the course of about three-quarters of an hour, he struck the narrow winding track which would be followed by parties travelling between the village and the coast.

From their elevated position they could trace the path for a considerable distance through the country, but as yet they had seen no sign of a party approaching the village. In broad daylight the airship must have been sighted by many people over whose heads it had passed; but from what Abdul had said it was unlikely that any one would have the least idea of the real nature of the apparition. They would regard it as a supernatural creature, and if within the next few hours a rumour of its appearance should be carried to the sheikh of Ain Afroo he would probably be none the wiser from any description that might be attempted.

It was now little more than nine o’clock in the morning, and the Jew could scarcely have passed. Tom therefore headed the airship westward, keeping it at a low speed so that he might carefully scan the country and not let the Jew and his party escape him. He knew that, unless accident signally befriended him, the airship must be seen by them long before they came into sight. Although the country was spread out like a map, the machine in the open sky must be a much more conspicuous object to people below than they would be to observers above. Salathiel would, of course, recognize the airship; but Tom hoped that before the man could explain clearly to his escort what it was, the immediate object of the aerial flight would have been achieved.

The morning wore away, and Tom began to feel anxious. To keep the airship so long in motion involved the expenditure of a large amount of his propulsive paste, and he had brought only as much of it as would last the voyage to and from the hill fortress, with a little margin for accidents. Yet he did not care to bring the machine to rest, for he might then miss the party of which he was in search. Moreover, all the provisions were gone except a few biscuits and some tea. With no food for themselves and no fuel for the machine their plight would be desperate. Tom spoke of his anxieties to Oliphant, and they were still talking somewhat disconsolately, when Abdul, who had never ceased to keep a sharp lookout, suddenly cried “Horses!” and pointed to sundry small specks ahead.

Tom instantly started up and looked through his binocular in the direction of the Moor’s forefinger.

“There are about a score, I fancy,” he said, handing the glass to Oliphant. “Can you spot the Jew?”

“No, they are too much mixed up. I shouldn’t know him again, either.”

“We shall know him very soon, though. Abdul told me that Jews in this country mostly wear blue clothes and black skullcaps. We’ll make straight for them.”

The engines had lately been reduced to something less than half speed. Realizing that every second was now of value, Tom put them at full speed, steering the vessel direct for the party of horsemen, who had just emerged from a clump of timber. At the same time Oliphant altered the inclination of the planes, so that the airship began to drop rapidly earthwards. Thus it swooped down upon the party like a huge falcon. To manipulate the engines, the steering gear, and the lever affecting the planes, kept the hands of Tom and his friend pretty fully occupied; but Abdul was to make himself useful, and Tom instructed him to take a handful of the little bombs, in readiness to use them when the moment came. Tom hoped that the mere appearance of the sky monster would startle the horses and put the cavalcade to fright. As an additional means of scaring them he relied on the throwdowns.

The airship had come within about two miles of the horsemen when it was seen that they had halted. No doubt the strange apparition had been observed, and Salathiel ben Ezra was doing his best to explain its nature. They remained stationary until the distance of the airship from them was less than a mile: then two of them wheeled suddenly in their tracks and set off in a mad gallop westward. The others, however, held their ground; either they had stronger nerves, or the Jew had managed to convince them that the strange object was not an instrument of the Evil One, but simply a new invention of the accursed people who had invented warships and alarm clocks.