“It is circling now,” he exclaimed; “he must have his eye on a Belgium baby, the old buzzard!”
After Edestone had gotten Lawrence to his wireless instrument by first running the car down until the top was at the level of the roof, and after Lawrence had stepped on running it up to the top of the penthouse, he then dropped the car down and came out on the roof again.
He looked about with his glasses; and was not surprised to see soldiers on the roofs of the other buildings where they had stationed powerful anti-aircraft guns and searchlights.
“I am rather glad Mrs. Jones is not coming with us,” he thought. “It is going to be pretty hot here for a little while. We shall be under fire for about ten feet; Captain Lee will not dare come down any closer.”
When Lawrence came down, he said: “I got him and he answered me. I am sure someone was trying to cut in. I could not tell whether he could get us or not, but he was trying to mix us up.”
Edestone worked with his little book for a few minutes, and then read aloud:
“Passed over Leipsic up 5000. Have been seen. Will stand by at 30,
up 10,000.”
“That means that he is about over Dessau, and could get here in fifteen minutes easily if called. So far so good. But those machine guns are worrying me. I did not want to make any show of force, but self protection may drive me to it.
“Run the elevator down, Lawrence, and come back by the stairs. We can walk down. I want to look over my ground and plan my campaign.”
“How foolish,” he thought, “not to have remembered the machine guns on the roofs. The only protection we have on the Embassy are the chimneys and the penthouse, and they will protect only halfway up the landing ladder. There is always that ten feet in which we will be exposed on all sides to a fire under which nothing could live for half a minute.”