In his mild panic in noting the direction of the Zeppelin's bows he had forgotten that, drifting at the mercy of the winds, she was liable to swing horizontally in any direction. By observing the direction of the path of the shadow his mind was set at rest. The airship was drifting nearly sou'-sou'-west.
"That's much better, thanks be!" he ejaculated fervently. "If this continues I shall land, not in the north, but somewhere in Norfolk or Suffolk. Perhaps within sight of Lowestoft. But I'll swear the blessed ship is lower than she was. I wonder where I can find the altitude gauge? And the wind is falling too. That shadow shows we are travelling at a bare twenty knots."
Just then the Sub gave a hasty look round over the vast circle of sea. Something caught his eye. He looked steadily for a few seconds to make sure there was no mistake.
Less than five miles off was a large torpedo-boat destroyer, pelting along at top speed. Her commander had spotted the Zeppelin, of that there could be no doubt. Was the oncoming craft one of the German destroyers, dispatched to recapture or destroy the errant airship?
CHAPTER XX
Homeward Bound
"It's a pure piece of bluff—that's my opinion," declared Thompson. "The most remarkable thing about the whole business is the quiet way in which the British and United States Governments have accepted the German authorities' explanation."
Thompson, Bennett, and young Stirling were seated in the former's sanctum at The Westminster Daily Record's offices, just off Whitehall.
"Well, what else could they do under the circumstances?" asked Bennett. "They couldn't very well tell His Imperial Majesty that he was telling a deliberate untruth; now, could they?"
"Hardly. No, it's the old story—international diplomacy, which, reduced to its simplest form, means which party can tell the biggest lie without being found out."