Page:The Zeppelin Destroyer.djvu/47

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CONCERNS THE SECRET
47

fight every inch for his liberty. Therefore the All-Highest Hun—the man who will be held up to universal damnation for all time—proceeded to adopt towards us the principle of dry-rot in wood. He started a system of sending slowly, but very surely, his insect-sycophants to burrow into the beam of good British oak which had hitherto supported our nation. That beam, to-day, is riddled by these Teutonic worms—insects which, like the book-worm, are never seen, yet, directed by the Invisible Hand, are only known by their works.'

'Then you think there really are spies at Hendon?'

'Of that I'm quite certain,' was my reply. 'We all know that there are spies at every aerodrome—while in the higher ranks those who control our air services, though patriotic enough, seem to suffer by reason of the still higher control which divides responsibility.'

'Have any spies been lurking about here to-night?' asked Roseye very anxiously.

'That is my firm conviction,' was Teddy's reply to her. 'I believe that there have been two strangers here. One was, perhaps, gazing through his glasses at the pole and, seeing in the darkness the sparking over the insulators set in the steel guys, ejaculated the natural expression of surprise that I overheard. But they got away noiselessly, and all my search failed to discover them.'

'Well—we must be very wary, my dear Teddy,' I repeated. 'They must not get at this secret of ours, otherwise from the gondola of a Zeppelin they will be able to use the invisible force against any of