As darkness set in the wind increased in violence. Clouds of sand and salt spray were flung against the window of the Sub's room, the furious blasts howled over the chimney pots and through the overhead telegraph wires.
Then the searchlights were switched on. The giant beams swung slowly to and fro, till at one moment the upper part of the wall opposite Hamerton's window was as brilliant as polished silver, at another as black as Erebus.
Still no rain fell. Up to the present it was a gale of wind, one that would blow itself out in a comparatively short space of time.
Hamerton had no thought of going to bed. He stuck to his post at the window, fully expecting to see the giant airship come battling with the gale in an endeavour to find shelter in the cavernous sheds on the island of Heligoland.
Suddenly, above the howling of the elements, a bugle rang out. From the barrack quarters within the battery issued scores of men dressed in brown-canvas working suits. Without waiting to form up they ran in the direction of the main gateway. Clearly something of the nature of an accident had occurred to warrant this hasty nocturnal parade.
Then Hamerton saw the reason. Picked out by several searchlights the giant Zeppelin appeared. She was battling bravely against the wind, but slowly and surely was being driven astern. She was flying low. Her commander evidently decided that it was too hazardous to attempt to return to her proper berth, and was endeavouring to descend under the lee of the East Kalbertan Battery, where a shallow depression in the wake of the low walls offered the only possible though doubtful shelter. With the thought of previous disasters fresh in their minds the Germans dreaded the possibility of being blown far out to sea. They would not even take the risk of sheltering to leeward of the lofty Heligoland; they preferred to attempt to secure the unwieldy airship on Sandinsel.
Lower and lower sank the Zeppelin, till her nacelles were hidden from Hamerton's eyes by the intervening wall. Her way seemed momentarily checked as ropes were thrown to the hundreds of waiting soldiers. As fast as they could move, two-thirds of her crew slid down to earth, only the officers and twelve men remaining until the Zeppelin should be properly secured.
"I wish the blessed thing would smash up," thought the Sub. "Not that I want any lives to be lost, but because the Germans crow over their wonderful airships and construct elaborate castles in the air for the humiliation of England."
Even as these thoughts flashed through his mind the airship swung round broadside to the wind. In an instant swarms of men were being lifted off the ground or being dragged over it like dead flies on a resinous string. Gamely they struggled to keep the errant aircraft under control, but in vain.
Rapidly the Zeppelin drifted towards the West Kalbertan Battery, till her huge envelope loomed high above the fortifications. With a dull thud the nacelles struck the earthworks. The frail aluminium gave before the shock, and the remainder of her crew, with one exception, were precipitated upon the sand.