"Humour indeed!" rasped out the colonel, becoming ruffled. "It's confounded impudence, and worse, when you remember that, apart from the damage to the airship, which is considerable, there is a net loss of specie and other valuables--to wit, the Maharajah's jewels--which is estimated at a quarter of a million sterling. I only hope and pray that we may encounter and waylay this bandit before he does any more damage. The deuce only knows what he'll do next, or where he'll go."
"Ireland is to be the scene of his next adventure, sir," remarked Keane.
"Ireland?"
"Yes, sir."
"Are you sure?"
"I heard the professor say so. They are to work hand in hand with the revolutionists there, and stir up strife which will make that unhappy land a still greater thorn in the side of Great Britain."
"Just what I feared!" exclaimed the now irate commissioner. "That explains partly those mysterious messages and rumours floating about Dingle Bay, and unfortunately I have had to withdraw nearly all the aerial police from that quarter to send them out east."
"You might as well recall them, sir."
"Why?"
"The raider has left the Hamadian Desert by this time, and is in hiding somewhere, but will call here on his way to Ireland."