The Zeppelins Passenger | Page 4

E. Phillips Oppenheim
confessed.

"You would have been disappointed," her informant assured her.
"By-the-by," he added, a little awkwardly, "are you not expecting Lady
Cranston back this evening?"
"I am expecting her every moment. The car has gone down to the
station to meet her."
Captain Griffiths appeared to receive the news with a certain
undemonstrative satisfaction. He leaned back in his chair with the air of
one who is content to wait.
"Have you heard, Miss Fairclough," his younger companion enquired, a
little diffidently, "whether Lady Cranston had any luck in town?"
Helen Fairclough looked away. There was a slight mist before her eyes.
"I had a letter this morning," she replied. "She seems to have heard
nothing at all encouraging so far."
"And you haven't heard from Major Felstead himself, I suppose?"
The girl shook her head.
"Not a line," she sighed. "It's two months now since we last had a
letter."
"Jolly bad luck to get nipped just as he was doing so well," the young
man observed sympathetically.
"It all seems very cruel," Helen agreed. "He wasn't really fit to go back,
but the Board passed him because they were so short of officers and he
kept worrying them. He was so afraid he'd get moved to another
battalion. Then he was taken prisoner in that horrible Pervais affair, and
sent to the worst camp in Germany. Since then, of course, Philippa and
I have had a wretched time, worrying."
"Major Felstead is Lady Cranston's only brother, is he not?" Griffiths
enquired.

"And my only fianc=82," she replied, with a little grimace. "However,
don't let us talk about our troubles any more," she continued, with an
effort at a lighter tone. "You'll find some cigarettes on that table, Mr.
Harrison. I can't think where Nora is. I expect she has persuaded some
one to take her out trophy-hunting to Dutchrnan's Common."
"The road all the way is like a circus," the young soldier observed, "and
there isn't a thing to be seen when you get there. The naval airmen were
all over the place at daybreak, and Captain Griffiths wasn't far behind
them. You didn't leave much for the sightseers, sir," he concluded,
turning to his neighbour.
"As Commandant of the place," Captain Griffiths replied, "I naturally
had to have the Common searched. With the exception of the
observation car, however, I think that I am betraying no confidences in
telling you that we discovered nothing of interest."
"Do you suppose that the Zeppelin was in difficulties, as she was flying
so low?" Helen enquired.
"It is a perfectly reasonable hypothesis," the Commandant assented.
"Two patrol boats were sent out early this morning, in search of her. An
old man whom I saw at Waburne declares that she passed like a long,
black cloud, just over his head, and that he was almost deafened by the
noise of the engines. Personally, I cannot believe that they would come
down so low unless she was in some trouble."
The door of the comfortable library in which they were seated was
suddenly thrown open. An exceedingly alert-looking young lady, very
much befreckled, and as yet unemancipated from the long plaits of the
schoolroom, came in like a whirlwind. In her hand she carried a man's
Homburg hat, which she waved aloft in triumph.
"Come in, Arthur," she shouted to a young subaltern who was hovering
in the background. "Look what I've got, Helen! A trophy! Just look, Mr.
Harrison and Captain Griffiths! I found it in a bush, not twenty yards
from where the observation car came down."

Helen turned the hat around in amused bewilderment.
"But, my dear child," she exclaimed, "this is nothing but an ordinary
hat! People who travel in Zeppelins don't wear things like that. How do
you do, Mr. Somerfield?" she added, smiling at the young man who
had followed Nora into the room.
"Don't they!" the latter retorted, with an air of superior knowledge.
"Just look here!"
She turned down the lining and showed it to them. "What do you make
of that?" she asked triumphantly.
Helen gazed at the gold-printed letters a little incredulously.
"Read it out," Nora insisted.
Helen obeyed:
"Schmidt, Berlin, Unter den Linden, 127."
"That sounds German," she admitted.
"It's a trophy, all right," Nora declared. "One of the crew -=20 probably
the Commander - must have come on board in a hurry and changed into
uniform after they had started."
"It is my painful duty, Miss Nora, "Harrison announced solemnly, "to
inform you, on behalf of Captain Griffiths, that all articles of
whatsoever description, found in the vicinity of Dutchman's Common,
which might possibly have belonged to any one in the Zeppelin, must
be sent at once to the War Office."
"Rubbish!" Nora scoffed. "The War Office aren't going to have my
hat."
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