“No. I don’t want to hurt a hair of their heads if I can help it. I think we can manage to chase them back along the way they came, and do something to frighten them into the bargain. Do you know how to make throw-downs?” “Never heard of ’em. What are they?” “I forgot; you Eton fellows never use such things, I suppose. Well, I’ll make some, and you’ll confess they’re excellent little harmless bombs. Then we’ll be off.” Carefully opening two or three cartridge cases, he extracted the powder, and screwing it up with some tiny pebbles in tissue paper from his pocket-book, he manufactured a dozen or so of the little bombs. Then he inspected the machinery of the airship, thoroughly oiled the parts, and went aboard with Oliphant and Abdul. He allowed the machine to rise only a few feet from the top of the hill, so as to avoid if possible observation from the village; then he set off in a south-easterly direction, keeping the hill between him and the kasbah. Fetching a long circuit, he gradually bore south-west, then slightly north, until, in the course of about three-quarters of an hour, he struck the narrow winding track which would be followed by parties travelling between the village and the coast. From their elevated position they could trace the path for a considerable distance through the country, but as yet they had seen no sign of a party approaching the village. In broad daylight the airship must have been sighted by many people over whose heads it had passed; but from what Abdul had said it was unlikely that any one would have the least idea of the real nature of the apparition. They would regard it as a supernatural creature, and if within the next few hours a rumour of its appearance should be carried to the sheikh of Ain Afroo he would probably be none the wiser from any description that might be attempted. It was now little more than nine o’clock in the morning, and the Jew could scarcely have passed. Tom therefore headed the airship westward, keeping it at a low speed so that he might carefully scan the country and not let the Jew and his party escape him. He knew that, unless accident signally befriended him, the airship must be seen by them long before they came into sight. Although the country was spread out like a map, the machine in the open sky must be a much more conspicuous object to people below than they would be to observers above. Salathiel would, of course, recognize the airship; but Tom hoped that before the man could explain clearly to his escort what it was, the immediate object of the aerial flight would have been achieved.