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 strike a very deadly blow against enemy airships.

'Personally,' declared Sir Herbert, in his bluff, matter-of-fact way, 'I think the whole idea of air-defence from below is utterly futile. A gun can never hit with accuracy a moving object so high in the air and in the dark. What target is there?'

'Exactly,' exclaimed Eastwell. 'That has always been my argument. I've been interested in aviation for years, and I know the enormous difficulties which face the efforts of those who man our anti-aircraft guns. Searchlights and guns I contend are inadequate.'

'They've hardly been tried, have they?' queried Lady Lethmere. 'And, moreover, I seem to recollect reading that both have done some excellent work on the French front.'

'But London is not the French front,' Eastwell protested. 'The conditions are so very different.'

'Then what do you suggest as a really reliable air-defence?' Sir Herbert inquired.

'Fight them with fast aeroplanes and bombs,' Eastwell said.

'But you've just told Munro that had he gone up last night from Hendon his flight would have been quite useless, as he would never have been able to mount sufficiently high in the time.'

'Quite so. But we ought to have efficient air-patrols at night,' was his reply.

'Combined with properly illuminated landing-places,' Roseye added. 'Otherwise more than half the airmen and observers must kill themselves through landing in the dark without any knowledge of the direction of the wind.'