CHAPTER V--OFF THE BARBARY COAST

The week was filled with the bustle of preparation. The airship was divided into sections, the motors and the framework taken to pieces, and the whole packed into large light crates and conveyed to the coast on country carts, their arrival at Horleston being so timed that everything could be put on board very early in the morning. Besides the crew, the company consisted only of Mr. Greatorex, Tom Dorrell, and Timothy Ball.

Before the vessel put off, a custom house officer came aboard, and showed himself somewhat inquisitive as to the meaning of the strange platform newly rigged on the after deck, and as to the nature of the bulky packages. Mr. Greatorex explained that they contained a cooling apparatus which he was taking out to Morocco on behalf of an acquaintance, adding that by all accounts the country was pretty hot in all respects. With this explanation the officer had to be content. Clearly the parts of the airship did not come within the description of explosives, firearms or other articles on which he might exercise his powers of detention. Still, being by training suspicious, he was evidently by no means satisfied, and left the yacht somewhat unwillingly.

Steam was already up and the officer had barely left the vessel before she put to sea.

"Just as well to be clear away before he gets his second wind," said Mr. Greatorex with a chuckle. In his spotless white ducks and blue cap he was enjoying himself already. "Did that uncommonly well, didn't I, Tom?" he said. "What could be more useful than cooling apparatus when there's a chance of getting into very hot water, eh?"

He took a run over the vessel as soon as she had made an offing. His yacht was a hobby, and whenever he went for a cruise he liked to examine her in the company of his officers, with whom, as with the crew, whom he knew individually, he was very popular. In the course of his inspection he came to the engine room.

"How do, Mr. Mumford!" he said genially to the engineer. "All in good order, eh?"

"Tip-top, sir. This is the neatest bit of machinery I've ever had to do with."

"Glad to hear that. I _say_, is that a new stoker I see there? What's become of Byles?"

"His mother is very ill, sir, and he had to cry off at the last moment. I was very lucky to get a man to fill the place."

"Ha! Looks rather _young_, doesn't he? Overgrown, perhaps. Any _good_?"

"Can't tell yet, sir. I'll let you know later on. He shapes very well. He's a fine well-made young fellow; very willing, too. Byles said he'd go bail for him to any amount."

"That's all right. What's his name?"

"M'Cracken, sir; Scotch, by the name. Would you like to speak to him, sir?"

"Just a word. Like to _know_ the men, you know. Gives 'em a personal interest in their job, I always think."

The engineer called up the new stoker, a tall young fellow in the flannel shirt open at the neck, the loose reach-me-down, and the black-lead coated trousers affected by his kind. His face and arms were begrimed with black grease, and his mouth received an extra smudge as he drew the back of his hand across it, apparently in sheepish confusion.

"You're a new man, M'Cracken," said the merchant pleasantly. "Hope you'll get on well. Mr. Mumford won't _over-work_ you, I can answer for that. Have you been long at this job?"

"No that lang, sir; just a wee while," the stoker replied in a somewhat husky voice.

"Exactly. Ah! well! Good morning."

"Good mornin', sir."

And Mr. Greatorex went on deck, satisfied that he had established excellent relations with the newest hand.

The first part of the voyage was rather stormy. The yacht, by no means a large vessel, shipped one or two fairly heavy seas, to the no small alarm of Tom, who was anxious lest the crates containing his machine should be washed overboard or otherwise injured. But halfway through the Bay the weather moderated, and by the time the yacht reached the latitude of Lisbon both wind and sea were calm enough, he thought, for his first experiment. It had been decided that the dusk of the evening would be the best time for the attempt, for it was just as necessary on sea as on land to avoid observation. If the airship were descried from the deck of a homeward-bound vessel, the fact, and the name of the yacht, might be marconigraphed to England, and then, as Mr. Greatorex said, all Fleet Street would be in a buzz.

Early one morning the crates were broken open. It took the best part of the day to piece the machine together, and Tom went over it bit by bit several times to assure himself that everything was in order. The airship was so placed that it could take flight over the stern of the yacht. When dusk was falling, the vessel's engines were reversed, Tom arranging that as soon as the airship rose from the deck the yacht should be sent full speed ahead, to make sure that the apparatus cleared the vessel and ran no risk of fouling the funnel.

Mr. Greatorex had shown some nervousness as the critical moment approached. He insisted on lowering a boat in case the airship came to grief and Tom were thrown into the sea. Timothy Ball, too, looked on with a most woful countenance as the final preparations were made. He had unslung a life belt, ready to slip into it and fling himself overboard if the airship broke down.

"I feel sure in my inside it won't work," he said anxiously to Tom, as he stepped to the car. "It'll be worse than suicide, sir."

"Why worse, Tim?" asked Mr. Greatorex.

"'Cos we're lookin' on, sir," said Tim solemnly, and felt much hurt by the burst of laughter with which his explanation was received.

But his anxiety was a vain expenditure of energy. With the vertical screws at full speed, and the horizontal screws half speed, the machine rose like a huge bird from the deck, with a noise like the clattering of hundreds of bats and the humming of innumerable bees. At the height of sixty feet or so Tom stopped the vertical screws, and turned the full power of his engines on to the horizontal propellers, giving to the planes just sufficient inclination to counteract the force of gravity.

"Capital!" exclaimed Mr. Greatorex, as he watched the easy flight. "First-rate! There's a _fortune_ in that, skipper," he said to Captain Bodgers at his side.

"Maybe," said the Captain reflectively. He was a man of few words.

"Rather stay on deck, eh?"

"Well, you can swim in water, sir."

"Exactly. But how far is the fellow going? It's getting dark, and he'll be out of sight directly. By the way, Bodgers, there's no law about showing lamps on an airship. But there will be--there _will_ be. Ah! here he comes--at a spanking pace, too. He'll overtake us in no time, going dead slow as we are."

In less than a minute the airship had come within a little distance astern of the yacht.

"Hallo!" came a voice from the air.

"Are you there?" answered Mr. Greatorex, from force of habit at the telephone.

"Who are you?" came the response. "I say, Mr. Greatorex, pick up that boat and go full speed ahead. She's going beautifully; the oiling she's had has done her no end of good."

"All right. Aren't you coming _down_? It's getting _dark_; I can hardly _see_ you."

"Not just yet. She goes smoother than the yacht, and it's beautifully fresh up here. I can tell your whereabouts by your lights."

"All right. _Don't get lost!_"

Tom laughed. He laughed again when, from his elevated position, he saw that though the boat had been hoisted on board, four men had been told off to stand by the davits in order to lower it again at the first sign of mishap.

The yacht was sent full speed ahead. She could easily do her eighteen knots, but was no match in speed for the airship, which circled round and round her.

"She beats us hollow," said Mr. Mumford to M'Cracken, as they watched the flight from the foot of the companion.

"Ou ay, sir. Yon's a grand invention. It's wonderful."

After about an hour Tom called down that he was going to descend.

"He'd much better stay up now he's there," said Timothy, gloomily. "He'll smash himself or us--I know he will."

Tom knew that to descend was a delicate operation, to be performed with all caution. As his control over the airship was to a great extent proportionate to its speed, he shouted instructions to keep the yacht going under full steam. Coming up astern, he so adjusted his own speed as to overtake the yacht very slowly. When the airship was level with the stern, two men on board caught a cable hanging loose from the car. Then Tom gradually reduced the speed of the horizontal propellers, and started the vertical screws at half speed, keeping one hand all the time on the lever that adjusted the angles of the planes. He handled his appliances so dexterously that the airship, guided by the rope, sank steadily and accurately to the deck. Buffers of india rubber were slipped under her bottom to break the slight jar that must be inevitable when she touched the platform. Then Tom stepped out.

"Capital!" cried Mr. Greatorex, slapping him on the back. "This is going to turn out _all right_, my boy. What does it _feel_ like, being up there?"

"Like a fish out of water, I should think," said Tom, laughing. "But I thought what a helpless thing a man-of-war would be if she had to tackle an airship. I could choose my own altitude, and drop explosives on her deck and blow her to smithereens, and there's no gun that I know of that could make an effective reply. They'd have to invent a rocket apparatus for shying melinite shells aloft."

"Well, let's hope that it'll never come to that. Ours is a _cooling_ apparatus--don't you forget it!"

Tom was so well pleased with his first sea trial that day had scarcely dawned before he was again aloft. This time he took Timothy with him. He needed some assistance in attending to the mechanism, and now that a first ascent had been made without mishap, the man was no longer so nervous about it.

The airship had not been up more than half an hour, however, when Tom signalled to the yacht that he saw a vessel on the horizon.

"Come down _at once_!" roared Mr. Greatorex through a megaphone.

Tom descended, somewhat unwillingly. Nothing would have pleased him better than to steer directly for the vessel, and see what effect was produced on board by the sight of this strange bird of passage hovering above the tops. But clearly Mr. Greatorex was right, and Tom lowered the machine deftly to the deck. As the ship was heading straight for the yacht, the aeroplane was covered with tarpaulin.

The vessel turned out to be a cruiser flying the French colours. The captain spoke the yacht, and asked whether anything had been seen from its deck of an extraordinary object that appeared to have been moving through the air.

"Answer him, Tom. I'm no good at French."

"We did see something, monsieur le capitaine," he said, "Do you know whether Monsieur Santos-Dumont is trying his thirty-third airship?"

"I am not aware, monsieur. It may be. I saw the object very indistinctly. It suddenly disappeared."

"Ah! I was always afraid that Monsieur Santos-Dumont would meet his death. You French, monsieur, are such adventurous spirits! When you reach Brest perhaps you will inquire whether he has recently made an ascent."

"I will certainly do so, monsieur."

The vessels were now out of speaking distance. Tom explained to Mr. Greatorex what he had said.

"Bravo! What with my cooling apparatus and your cool cheek I think we are keeping our secret pretty well, Tom."

In order to escape further observation from passing vessels Mr. Greatorex had the yacht's course set considerably westward of the usual track. It was consequently another couple of days before she came into the latitude of Rabat, the port for which she was making. Her head was turned eastward in the direction of the coast of Morocco, and, there being no vessels in sight, Tom again made an ascent, Timothy accompanying him.

The coastline gradually came into view. From an altitude of more than a hundred feet Tom saw, between him and the coast, a number of rocky islets. Here and there the varying tints of the water indicated shoals of sunken rocks.

"Know the coast?" he called down to Captain Bodgers.

"Ay, ay, sir," said the captain.

"There are no end of shoals."

"Know 'em all, sir; have a care you don't strike one."

Captain Bodgers laughed uproariously at his little joke, and Tom, circling round the yacht, set the aeroplane at full speed towards the coast. He was a considerable distance ahead when Timothy suddenly called his attention to an object projecting above the sea-level, close to one of the rocky islets that dotted the intervening space. It might have escaped their attention altogether but for a certain movement Tim fancied he discerned in it. As they drew nearer, they discovered that what Tim had thought to be a single object was in reality two, which appeared to be the broken-off stumps of two masts. Taking his field-glasses in one hand--the other always grasping the steering wheel--Tom lifted them to his eyes, got the focus, and made out that the objects were not stumps after all, but the tops of masts, and that two figures were clinging to them, one to each.

Tom had no doubt that the airship was approaching the scene of a wreck, and that the two men were in distress and danger. Steering immediately for the yacht, he came within hailing distance and through his megaphone announced his discovery.

"We'll go to the rescue, _of course_," shouted Mr. Greatorex in reply.

The wreck was as yet invisible from the deck, but it was arranged that the yacht should stand in as close as possible, and then send a boat to bring off the survivors. Meanwhile Tom, setting his engine at full speed, dashed on in the direction of the submerged vessel.

He noticed that even during the few seconds in which he had been in communication with the yacht the situation had changed. One of the masts was now tenantless. Presumably its occupant had been washed off or through fatigue had dropped into the sea. But as the airship drew rapidly nearer, it was noticed that the figure on the other mast was bending low as if to raise something from the water. Then a head and shoulders appeared above the surface. Clearly the man Tom had supposed to be lost was trying to make his way to the mast to which his companion clung.

The airship was now less than half a mile distant, and from the altitude to which they had risen--some three hundred feet above the surface--the occupants could see every detail in the strange drama that was being enacted beneath them. Assisted by the figure above, the swimmer was gradually making his way on to the mast, when suddenly a black fin appeared above the surface a few yards off. With a convulsive movement, the lowermost man had just succeeded in swinging himself a foot or two up the mast when the gaping jaws of a shark passed immediately beneath him. Tom shuddered involuntarily. The man had escaped by a few inches at the most.

In a second the shark turned and glided beneath the clinging figure. The terror-stricken wretch clutched wildly at the man above him, and began to haul himself up hand over hand, clinging to his companion's body. But the latter, unable to bear the double weight on the smooth mast, slipped slowly downwards. He was the slighter of the two, and no match, apparently, for the man who had usurped his place.

"What a beast!" ejaculated Tom, wondering at this strange want of fellow-feeling in a man who was evidently older and stronger than his companion in distress. Slowing down, he fixed his eyes on the extraordinary spectacle. The position was now reversed. The younger and slighter man was very manifestly the under dog. With every attempt on his part to swarm up the mast the man above him kicked savagely, while the shark circled below. The fact that the second mast had become untenable seemed to indicate that the tide was rising. Neither of the men, their whole attention fixed on the sea beneath, had noticed the airship that was now hovering just above their heads.

When, however, Tom gradually allowed the airship to sink towards the sea, the shark seemed to take fright, just as smaller fish are scared by signs of movement in the air above. It left the immediate neighbourhood of the mast, and its black fin could be seen describing a much larger circle some two or three hundred yards away. Clearly it had not given up hope. When the shark moved away and the strain of terror was relaxed, the two men became suddenly aware of the presence of the airship. The topmost man was almost as much scared by the sight of the airship as he had been by the presence of the shark. Tom had already noticed that both of the men were dark skinned. The larger and stronger--the brute, as Tom mentally called him--appeared to be middle-aged; the other was a stripling.

Tom was struck by the difference in their demeanour when they caught sight of the airship; neither he nor Timothy was at present visible to them. The elder man was aghast with fright, his eyes dilated, his mouth gaped between black moustache and beard. The younger, however, seemed to pull himself together as with renewed hope. Tom fancied that he heard a cry from his lips.

Looking round, Tom saw that the yacht had now hove to, and the boat was leaving her side. But his attention was again called to the wreck by a piercing shriek. The shark, regaining confidence, had made another dash at the mast. This time it seemed to come within an inch of the terrified youth; indeed, from the cry that had reached his ears, Tom thought that the poor wretch had actually been seized. But next moment he saw that the shark had again drawn off, scared, possibly, by the cry.

There was now less of the masts above the surface. The tide was evidently rising, and with its rise the shark would have another opportunity of coming within snapping distance. Tom felt that it would not again fail. It would be at least ten minutes before the boat reached the spot; by that time the hapless lad would probably have fallen a victim. Tom had noticed that when the shark was all but upon him, and he made a convulsive movement upwards, he was met by a storm of kicks from the man above, threatening to dislodge him completely from the mast and hurl him into the very jaws of the monster.

In a moment Tom made up his mind. He ordered Timothy to let down from the car a light grapnel carried for use in emergencies, and also for raising anything that might be needed, without having to bring the airship to rest on the ground. Then he allowed the machine to sink gently until the grapnel dangled within reach of the man at the top. Tom had no intention of helping him first; by his conduct he deserved to be left to drown or to make a meal for the shark. But the man seemed indeed quite incapable of movement, except when scared to frenzy by the efforts of the youth below to regain the position from which he had been forced. He made no attempt to clutch the grapnel dangling at his very hand. Tom let the machine fall lower, until the grapnel came within reach of the younger man. He showed no such hesitation. Looking along the cable, he saw Timothy gazing down at him from the car. The sight of a human face gave him confidence. He clutched at the grapnel, let go his hold of the mast, and swung clear, Timothy attempting to steady the rope.

His sudden movement threatened a catastrophe. The airship was now only about sixty feet above the sea, and before Tom, his attention partly engaged by the efforts of the boy, could increase the speed of the ascensional screw, the light vessel was pulled swiftly downwards. For a moment he felt that it must inevitably be dragged into the water. The young fellow below, still clutching desperately at the grapnel, had actually begun to sink beneath the surface. But as soon as his weight was supported by the water, the ascensional screw, now set by Tom whirling at full speed, checked the downward movement, and in another couple of seconds the airship began to rise, dragging the youth upwards.

In his excitement Tom had momentarily forgotten the shark. That persistent creature, however, having overcome its fear of the monster of the air, made a dash for the youth as he entered the sea. The poor wretch had the narrowest escape of all when the shark passed just beneath him, as, whirling round on the grapnel, he was swung clear of the water.

Now that he was safe from the cruel jaws, the lad showed himself to be possessed of no little agility. Hand over hand he swarmed up the cable until he reached the lower rail of the car, which he clutched, and by Timothy's aid he clambered over. Meanwhile Tom had steered the airship towards the approaching boat.

"Give way with a will, men!" he shouted. "There's no time to be lost. We've got one; the other man will be nabbed by a shark if you aren't there pretty soon. I can see the brute's fin above the water just by the mast."

The men spurted. As the boat approached the submerged vessel, the shark took fright and glided swiftly away. In another half-minute the man was taken from his precarious perch, and lifted, in a state of complete collapse, into the boat.