Long rents were now visible in the glistening sides of the envelope, as the shower of bullets completely penetrated the frail covering to the numerous gas-filled sub-divisions of the air-ship. Yet she showed no tendency to drop. Her upward motion seemed uninfluenced by the loss of hydrogen; but whether this was owing to the great reserve of buoyancy or to the immense quantities of ballast thrown overboard, none of the battleplane's crew could decide.
While the British automatic guns were making hit upon hit the German fire was becoming more and more erratic. The first few shells hurtled perilously close to the battleplane; fortunately the time fuses had been badly adjusted, for the missiles burst harmlessly a couple of hundred yards beyond their objective. But after a few rounds a kind of panic must have seized the Hun air-pirates. Perhaps they realised that they were "up against" something that was their superior in manoeuvring and offensive powers, for they blazed away recklessly without scoring a single hit.
Throughout the race skywards the battleplane easily held the ascendancy, and as the Zeppelin reached a great altitude the increasing rarefaction of the air, in addition to the loss of hydrogen through the perforation of the ballonets, began to tell.
"She's dropping," exclaimed Dick, enthusiastically, as the huge fabric began to drop stern foremost.
Right above the now doomed Zeppelin flew the battleplane. In this position she could no longer give or receive blows, for the Zepp mounted no guns on the upper side of the envelope while the battleplane's automatic weapons could not be sufficiently depressed to bear upon her antagonist. Had Blake any bombs in reserve he could have easily destroyed the airship with one properly-placed missile, but his last had already been used to good purpose in the raid upon the German capital.
In almost absolute silence the battleplane dropped in short spirals, following the downward plunge of her defeated foe.
Suddenly the British machine gave a terrific lurch. To the lads it seemed as if the whole bulk of the mechanical bird was being hurled sideways. They were dimly conscious of the fuselage turning rapidly and erratically around the gimballed seats, while the air was rent with vivid flames and pungent volumes of black smoke.
In vain Blake attempted to lock the wings, The controls, fixed to a dashboard on the coaming in front of his seat, were moving too rapidly past his outstretched hand as the body of the machine rolled over and over.
The horrible thought that the battleplane was rushing headlong to destruction gripped the minds of all on board, yet not a cry burst from their tightly set lips.
With a rending crash something penetrated the floor of the fuselage, and, missing Athol's feet by bare inches, vanished outwards through the deck, tearing a jagged gash through which the lurid smoke-laden clouds could be plainly discerned. Fragments of metal, none of them of any size, began to patter upon the aluminium framing.