Relieved of their weight, the Zeppelin bounded upwards for a distance of about ten feet, just clearing the formidable wire entanglements. Then a downward eddy seemed to strike her, and she dropped till the fragments of her cars touched the pavement of the courtyard. The nearmost portion of her aluminium envelope was now within thirty yards of Hamerton's window. He realized that nothing short of a miracle could prevent the unmanageable craft from buckling itself against the angle of the storehouse in which his cell was situated.
With praiseworthy devotion the soldiers still hung on to the guide ropes till the foremost of them were hauled to within a few feet of the barbed-wire fence. Thrown into a blaze of silvery light by the searchlights, the entanglements became strikingly apparent to the luckless soldiers. It was more than flesh and blood could stand—being slowly dragged over an expanse of sharp iron barbs. In a moment the guide ropes from the after-end of the Zeppelin were abandoned.
The next thing Hamerton saw was a shower of tiles, bricks, laths, and plaster falling about him, to the accompaniment of a succession of most appalling crashes.
Instinctively he leapt backwards as a twisted and distorted mass of metal was forced through the aperture. Between the rents in the masonry the slanting beams of half a dozen searchlights played upon the dust-laden atmosphere. The grinding of the enormous body of the Zeppelin, added to the roar of the wind and the shouts of dismay of the baffled soldiers, formed a fitting accompaniment to the scene of desolation.
A train of thoughts flashed across the Sub's mind. He realized that he was in imminent peril of being crushed like a rat in a trap beneath the falling brickwork, for one side of the room was already showing signs of sharing the fate of the part facing the original direction of the impact. A sudden resolution seized him. Better by far to make a rush for the tangle of aluminium rods and sheeting and trust to be lifted clear of the debris than to remain in danger of the collapsing walls.
With a quick, lever-like wrench the remains of the nacelles described a complete semicircle. The Zeppelin, free for'ard, was swinging round on her heel, like a ship that has struck stern foremost upon a submerged rock. Then, with a comparatively slow yet determined movement, the wreckage began to assume an upward motion.
Hardly realizing what he was doing, Hamerton sprang over a heap of bricks and dried mortar, and grasped one of the vertical rods that still connected the damaged car with the outer envelope of the gas bag. Half-blinded with dust, his grotesque clothing rent almost from his back, he found himself being raised from the ruin of his cell. He felt the cold breeze of the open air upon his heated forehead.
Then, hardly knowing whether he was on or above the ground, he flung his legs round the twisted rod to which he had clung so desperately with his hands. Even as he did so the side wall of his cell collapsed. Another few seconds and he would have been crushed to death beneath the debris.
Released from the restraining wall, and no longer held in semi-captivity by the swarm of men, who had been compelled to relinquish their hold upon the guide ropes, the damaged Zeppelin bounded to a height of nearly a hundred feet, the while being urged onward at a tremendous pace towards the rocky cliffs of Heligoland.
The Sub was not one to lose his nerve even in a tight corner. His first step was to gain a place of greater security than that afforded by a trailing rod that ended in space less than three feet beneath him. Hand over hand he climbed, till he reached a metallic beam that at a very recent period formed one of the fore-and-aft girders of the lower gangway.