The Dreadnought of the Air

IT was Thursday afternoon--Make and Mend Clothes Day as it is known in the Royal Navy. H.M.S. "Royal Oak," a Super-Dreadnought now relegated to the second class, lay at moorings...

SINGAPORE in the year 1919 was a very important naval station. During the last six or seven years it had undergone great changes. The practical abandonment of a powerful war-squ...

"Rather! I snubbed Garboard, twitted Oxley and played the very dickens with the flagship's midshipmen. It was hot work, though. Fancy spending a couple of hours on a day like th...

ON his homeward voyage Basil Dacres had plenty of opportunities for pondering over his future plans. Having once taken the plunge he was not a fellow to repine. His thoughts wer...

Although outwardly calm his heart was thumping violently as he knocked at the door of Colonel Dacres' house. A strange footman answered him, and in reply to an inquiry said that...

REFERRING to the back of an envelope on which he had jotted down the times of the trains, Dacres found upon alighting at Brockenhurst junction that he had three-quarters of an h...

IT was no time for explanation. Dacres could just discern the outlines of two men in the act of springing upon him. At this uncalled-for outrage is blood was up. He would resist...

VAUGHAN WHITTINGHAME had not made the proposal on the spur of the moment. He already knew the circumstances under which Dacres had left the Service; he was aware that the young...

"That's serious--decidedly serious," he exclaimed. "We can't afford to underrate that fellow. Look here, Dacres, there's a job for you the first thing to-morrow. Your formal int...

To these he related the circumstances under which he had met the Mexican in the train, and that he had come purposely to warn his friend, Commander Hythe, that the plans of the...

WHITTINGHAME conducted his companion to the open air by a different route from that by which they had gained the subterranean workshops. It was a fairly broad way, of quite rece...

SETCHELL and Dr. Hambrough arrived before Whittinghame and his companion had completed their preparations for dinner, and as soon as the formal introductions were gone through,...

PROMPTLY the naval picket-boats had taken the bow-hawsers of the airship and had passed them to two mooring buoys. Other wire ropes were run out astern, till like a fettered Cyc...

VAUGHAN WHITTINGHAME was one of those men who make up their minds almost on the spur of the moment, yet possessing the rare capability of weighing the pros and cons of the issue...

AT the twenty-third hour after leaving Portsmouth the "Meteor" came to rest on the ice under the lee of Cape Columbia and within three hundred yards of the "New Resolute," the s...

Grasping the nearmost man he turned him over on his back. His face was as black as that of a seaman engaged in a coaling ship; but to Dacres' great relief he opened his eyes and...

MEANWHILE, events were moving quickly in the Republic of Valderia. The demands of the British Government for satisfaction had been rigorously pushed forward, but the prisoners h...

"HERE'S a pretty how d'ye do!" remarked Whittinghame when the news of Zaypuru's daring stroke was received by the "Meteor." "That alters the state of affairs, I'm thinking. What...

ALREADY, owing to the introduction of additional ultra-hydrogen, the earthward descent of the "Meteor" had been arrested. The damage done by the broadside from the ill-fated "Li...

"YES, we've had a narrow squeak," continued the Captain. "It's easy to reconstruct the case. Durango was either concealed in the woods or else hiding on board. More than likely...

"LOOK here, Dacres, I won't have you running this risk," said Whittinghame when his subordinate unfolded his plan for investigating the place of captivity of Admiral Maynebrace...

"STEADY, sir," remonstrated Dacres, addressing the Admiral and at the same time turning his head away as if consulting with his colleague. "This won't do; you'll spoil the whole...

DACRES had overestimated the advantage caused by the escort being barefooted. The men, unslinging their rifles, scaled the sun-dried bank with considerable agility and prepared...

The fellow moved not a muscle. Thinking he had fainted through sheer fright, the Englishman grasped him under the arms and dropped him out on the ground. As he fell the Valderia...

"It's not dangerous," answered Dacres. Neither was it. Nevertheless, should complications ensue owing to the lack of proper medical attention the result might easily prove to be...

"Suppose those chaps at Naocuanha telephone to the prison and get no reply, they'll find out that there's something up. I think, sir, it would be best to let the wire alone, and...

"NOT all of you," remonstrated Dacres, although well pleased at the devotion of the men under his immediate orders. "Seven will be sufficient. That will lighten No. 5 section en...

THE noise of the explosion and the clang of the gate caused Zaypuru to rein in his horse and give a hasty glance over his shoulder. Then, still unsuspicious, he advanced towards...

"SEND him on board, by all means," said the Captain of the "Meteor," after the rousing cheer from her crew that greeted the announcement had died away. "We'll lower a rope and w...

Surrounded by a group of officers Captain Staggers stood upon the battlements of Fort Belgrano, on the landward side of the town of Zandovar. Away to the eastward, and only just...

"SAY, Dacres, old man, here's something that will interest you," remarked Vaughan Whittinghame, handing his comrade and able assistant a letter that had just been delivered by a...

"THERE is one thing I didn't mention to the Admiral," remarked Whittinghame on his way back to the airship. "It has been worrying me somewhat. The 'Meteor's' supply of ultra-hyd...

FOR nearly two hundred feet the two divers trudged over the sandy bed, till the airtube rising obliquely towards the surface told them that they were near the end of their quest.

"Quite so," assented the captain. "Fortunately they are all in the lowermost tier. We can make use of the emergency compartments. Now, Dacres, will you see about making ready to...

"If the fellow had any sense he would keep on doubling," said Gerald. "Quick as we are that craft can turn like a top. It would be like a hare dodging a hound."

WHITTINGHAME could now see the reason for the manoeuvre. One of the derricks of the stumpy foremast was swung outboard. Her donkey-engine began to work, and from the sea, with t...

IN spite of the drastic reduction in length, and the fact that the motors in the bow section were still disabled, the "Meteor" was able to maintain a respectable speed of ninety...

BEFORE the "Meteor" could alight and throw out her huge sea-anchor the "Quickstep" had hove-to and was lowering a boat. Into the latter tumbled four lean-jawed men and a hatchet...

WHEN Reno Durango recovered from the stupifying effects of the sulphur he found himself in a cabin destitute of furniture and securely locked and barred. He knew by the peculiar...