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 in a village school, with the true facts before him, could have done nothing else than suspect. But we are such a smug and unsuspicious people. We never like to hear an unpleasant truth.'

'True, we're aroused now. This Zeppelin raid on London has inflamed the public mind. The people are clamouring loudly for something to be done. What can be done?' he asked. 'How can we possibly fight those enemy airships—eh? 'And he looked me straight in the face with those calm blue-grey eyes of his.

I paused.

I would have greatly liked to tell him of our secret discovery, for, after all, he was our most intimate friend. Yet I had given a promise to Roseye and to Teddy and, therefore, could not break it.

That Lionel Eastwell was a real stolid John Bull patriot had been proved times without number. We all liked him, for he was ever courteous to Roseye, and always wholehearted and easy-going with both Teddy and myself.

'You ask a question which I can't answer, Lionel,' I replied at last.

'I thought, perhaps, you had some scheme,' he laughed airily. 'You're always so very inventive.'

Those words, when I remembered them in the light of after events, sounded somewhat curious.

'Inventive!' I laughed. 'How can I put forward any scheme by which to fight an airship, except that of fast aeroplanes capable of mounting above the airship and dropping bombs? And, surely, that's one