L.P.M. : The End of the Great WarBarney, J. Stewart (John Stewart)
Science
L.P.M. : The End of the Great War
Barney, J. Stewart (John Stewart)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
“Stand by at 50, up 10,000. After dark follow orders. If called
come quickly.’”
They then took the elevator and went together to the roof, where with
powerful glasses they searched the south-western sky. On all sides they
could see Taubes, which like great birds were circling in all
directions.
Edestone was startled by seeing something that looked like the “Little
Peace Maker,” but it turned out to be one of the largest German
Zeppelins.
“Why, my boy,” laughed Lawrence, “Captain Lee could make that fellow
look like an _ante bellum_ picnic in a thunderstorm, all hoop
skirts and bombazine, before Count Zeppelin could get it under the
shelter tent.
“It is circling now,” he exclaimed; “he must have his eye on a Belgium
baby, the old buzzard!”
After Edestone had gotten Lawrence to his wireless instrument by first
running the car down until the top was at the level of the roof, and
after Lawrence had stepped on running it up to the top of the penthouse,
he then dropped the car down and came out on the roof again.
He looked about with his glasses; and was not surprised to see soldiers
on the roofs of the other buildings where they had stationed powerful
anti-aircraft guns and searchlights.
“I am rather glad Mrs. Jones is not coming with us,” he thought. “It is
going to be pretty hot here for a little while. We shall be under fire
for about ten feet; Captain Lee will not dare come down any closer.”
When Lawrence came down, he said: “I got him and he answered me. I am
sure someone was trying to cut in. I could not tell whether he could get
us or not, but he was trying to mix us up.”
Edestone worked with his little book for a few minutes, and then read
aloud:
“Passed over Leipsic up 5000. Have been seen. Will stand by at 30,
up 10,000.”
“That means that he is about over Dessau, and could get here in fifteen
minutes easily if called. So far so good. But those machine guns are
worrying me. I did not want to make any show of force, but self
protection may drive me to it.
“Run the elevator down, Lawrence, and come back by the stairs. We can
walk down. I want to look over my ground and plan my campaign.”
“How foolish,” he thought, “not to have remembered the machine guns on
the roofs. The only protection we have on the Embassy are the chimneys
and the penthouse, and they will protect only halfway up the landing
ladder. There is always that ten feet in which we will be exposed on all
sides to a fire under which nothing could live for half a minute.”
He then examined the door to the bulkhead at the head of the stairs. It
was strong, but there was no way to fasten it on the outside. There was
another door at the bottom of the stairs that could be locked, but it
was an ordinary door and could easily be broken down. He found only one
place on the entire roof where there was what might be called a zone of
safety, and that was by no means perfectly safe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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