Page:The Zeppelin Destroyer.djvu/91

 I'll be fit again in a day or two, the doctor says. Well—what's the news? How are the boys out at Hendon?'

'All right. I was there this morning. Harrington had rather a bad smash yesterday afternoon, I hear. Came down outside Ruislip, and made an unholy mess.'

'Not hurt, I hope?'

'Tore his face and hands a bit—that's all. But his biplane is in scraps, they say.'

He pointed to the box of cigarettes, and I took one. Then, when I had seated myself at his bedside, I saw that he had newspapers scattered everywhere, including the Paris Matin, the Journal, and the Rome Tribuna. That was the first time I had known that our friend was a linguist.

'Well,' he asked. 'What about the Zeppelin raids? Any more news?'

He had returned to the subject by which he seemed obsessed. Yet, after all, this was not surprising, for many people talked air-raids incessantly. One section of the public, as usual, blamed the authorities, while the other supported them.

'Well,' I said cheerily, 'there's a new invention they are all talking of at Hendon to-day. Somebody has claimed to be able to construct a biplane which will rise from the ground without running, and can attain any speed from ten to two hundred miles an hour.'

'Phew! That's interesting,' exclaimed Lionel, raising himself upon his elbow, and taking a sip of a glass of barley-water at his side. 'And who is