Page:The Zeppelin Destroyer.djvu/51

 But it was most alarming—wasn't it, Herbert?'

'Yes, dear, it really was,' replied her husband, who, turning to me, asked: 'What were you doing at that time, Munro?'

'Well, Sir Herbert, to tell the truth I happened to be out at Hendon with my friend Ashton, preparing for a flight this morning. I got hold of a military biplane which had just been finished and had only had its last tests that afternoon, but as I had no bombs, and not even a rifle, I was unable to go up.'

'And if you had gone?' Eastwell chimed in. 'I fear, Claude, that you would never have reached them in time. They flew far too high, and were, I understand, moving off before our men could get up. Our Flying Corps fellows were splendid, but the airships were at too great an altitude. They rose very high as they approached London—according to all reports.'

'And the reports are pretty meagre,' I remarked. 'I only know that I was anxious and eager to go up, but as I had not the necessary defensive missiles it was utterly useless to make the attempt.'

'Nevertheless, I believe our anti-aircraft guns drove them off very quickly, didn't they?' Lionel asked.

'Not before they'd done quite enough damage and killed innocent old persons and non-combatants. Then they went away, and bombed other defenceless towns as they passed—the brutes!' said Lady Lethmere.

'And writers in to-day's papers declare that all this is really of no military significance,' remarked