And then he saw three little bursts of flames.
They were on the envelope about sixty feet apart, and as he watched the flames increased in size with terrible rapidity.
Satisfied, he turned back to his instruments and got the Camel, which had been panicking all over the shop, in hand.
When he looked again L 53 was slowly falling, burning furiously at the bow.
The nose bent down and broke off.
A black bundle in flames shot past him. It was one of the crew who had jumped out of a gondola. He had a parachute and was the only survivor, being picked up by a Dutch vessel.
The aluminium skeleton of the bow of the Zeppelin was now fully exposed. But the fabric of the tail was still smoking and burning. She was standing vertically upright, nose down, and was falling rapidly below him with ever-increasing momentum.
Then he could see her no more because of the smoke.
As L 53 fell she left behind her a column of light blue smoke. He noticed that it was blown into the shape of a huge question mark.