Then he closed the window slide, and the next
moment Zaidie saw the great liner sink down beneath them in a curious
twisting sort of way. She seemed to stop still and then spin round on
her centre, getting smaller and smaller every moment.
"What's the matter, Lenox?" she said, with a little gasp. "What's the
_Deutschland_ doing? She seems to be spinning round on her own axis like
a top."
"That's only the point of view, dear. She's just plugging along straight
on her way to New York, and we've been making rings round her and going
up all the time. But of course you don't notice the motion here any more
than you would if you were in a balloon."
"But I thought you were going to speak them. Surely you don't mean to
say that you intended that just as a little bit of showing off?"
"That's about what it comes to, I suppose, but you must not think it was
altogether vanity. You see the German Government has bought Count
Zeppelin's air-ship or steerable balloon, as it ought to be called,
always supposing that they can steer it in a wind, and of course their
idea is to make a fighting machine of it. Now Germany is engaged to
stand by us in this trouble that's coming, and by way of cementing the
alliance I thought it was just as well to let the wily Teuton know that
there's something flying the British flag which could make very small
mincemeat of their gas-bags.
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