"Dropping, you say? I understand that you cannot do otherwise than allow the bombs to fall simply by the action of gravity?"
"That is so," assented the owner of the airship. "But I think there is little possibility of their missing the mark. We took first prize at the Johannesburg Aero-Exhibition last year, placing six dummy bombs within a space eighty feet by twenty, and that from an altitude of five hundred feet."
"And your quick-firers?"
"Three-pounders."
"Not heavy enough to penetrate the plating of the 'Vorwartz,' I can assure you. Now, what do you think Karl von Harburg will be doing while you are manoeuvring to be in a position to drop one of your bombs immediately overhead?"
"I don't know," replied Captain Jones. "Why--do you?"
"Step below and I will show you a weapon that is almost identical with one carried by my rival. As you are probably aware, Karl von Harburg applied several of my inventions to his own use."
Captain Restronguet led the way below to where the aerial torpedo gun was housed.
"Here is a weapon capable of being trained fifteen degrees in any direction from a vertical," he explained. "Even when submerged to a depth of fifty feet I can discharge a projectile and hit an object a thousand feet in the air. The bursting charge throws out a shower of shrapnel with such force that no air-craft, within a radius of two hundred yards from the point of explosion, could possibly survive."
"By Jove!" ejaculated Captain Jones, his bronzed skin turning a lighter shade. "I didn't know the 'Vorwartz' carried anything like that. But no matter," he added cheerfully. "It is the fortune of war either way. I mean to do my duty in ridding the world of a pest, and if I fail it won't be for want of trying."