"Down with her," ordered Fosterdyke. "Stand by with both grapnels. We'll have to trust to luck to find a good anchoring-ground."
It was not until the airship had passed over the railway running southward from Perth to Busselton that Kenyon noted a hill that might afford shelter from the strong wind.
Rapidly several thousand cubic feet of brodium were exhausted from the ballonets, with the result that the "Golden Hind" dropped to within a hundred feet of the ground.
There was just sufficient twilight to make out the nature of the landing place. It was a wide belt of grassland, dotted here and there with small trees. Hedges there were none.
"There are a couple of men on horseback, sir," reported Frampton.
"Good," replied Fosterdyke. "Let go both grapnels. See how she takes that."
Both of the stout barbed hooks engaged the moment they touched the ground. Even though the wire ropes were paid out in order to reduce the strain, the jerk was severe. Round swung the giant airship head to wind, but still she dragged. The grapnels had caught in a wire fence, and having uprooted half a dozen posts, were doing their level best to remove a five-mile sheep fence.
Up galloped the two farmers. The uprooting of their boundary fence hardly troubled them. The arrival of the airship--the first they had ever seen--occupied all their attention.
"Make fast for us, please," hailed Fosterdyke, having ordered another rope to be lowered.
"Right-o," was the reply. "We'll fix you up."