The "Libertad" was turning turtle.
Slowly, but with increasing speed she rolled over to port, till the whole extent of her upper deck sloped at an angle of sixty degrees. Her guns broke from their mountings and went crashing through the light metal stanchions into the depths. Men, frantically struggling to keep a foothold or clinging to the railings, slipped off her aluminium deck to a swift yet awful death in the vast abyss below.
Still falling she turned on her longitudinal axis till she described a complete semi-circle. All the while her propellers were driving her ahead. The horizontal planes, that in her normal position would tend to make her ascend, now acted in a totally opposite direction. She was descending rapidly under her own power rather than the force of gravity towards the earth.
Spellbound and too enthralled to notice the injuries to their own craft the crew of the "Meteor" watched the scene of disaster, till, with a crash, accompanied by the hiss of the escaping ultra-hydrogen, the bows of the "Libertad" plunged into a thick clump of mountain pine-trees. For a few seconds the wreckage hung in an oblique position, then, the framework slowly collapsing, the Valderian airship finished her brief career upon the unsympathetic soil of her native land.
"Good heavens!" ejaculated the doctor, breaking the tense silence. Strong nerved though he was and used to the scientific horrors of the operating room, the appalling tragedy made him feel giddy and sick.
Whittinghame moved to the telephone.
"Stand by to anchor," he ordered coolly. Then turning to his companions: "There is no time to be lost; we must repair damages and investigate the wreck. Since there is no sign of fire, we may be able to recover the plans intact."
CHAPTER XIX.
INVESTIGATING THE WRECK.
ALREADY, owing to the introduction of additional ultra-hydrogen, the earthward descent of the "Meteor" had been arrested. The damage done by the broadside from the ill-fated "Libertad" was serious enough. A large quantity of gas which could be ill spared had been lost, nine ballonettes having been pierced. Most damage had been done to No. 4 section, the officers' cabins being reduced to a state of chaos. Fortunately there were only four of the crew stationed in that part of the ship, and with one exception they had come off unscathed. The exception was Williamson, the quartermaster of Dacres' watch, who had received a deep flesh wound in the left shoulder.