Z64 had once more stopped her motors and was rising rapidly above the bank of clouds. At the same time a motor winch was winding in the cable, and Hans Leutter’s rate of progress as the basket whirred through the air brought back all his fears concerning his hazardous position. What if there were a flaw in the wire? It was ex-Government stuff, he recalled--material that might have been left lying in a neglected condition for months before von Sinzig acquired it for its present purpose. And supposing the wire slipped off the drum and got nipped in the cogs of the winch? A score of thoughts of a similar nature flashed across the observer’s mind. He broke into a gentle perspiration. He trembled violently as a mental vision of himself hurtling through space gripped him in all its hideousness. But the wire held. Hans Leutter was assisted into the nacelle, where he promptly fainted. By that time Z64 was several miles away from Fremantle, but a dull red glare on the horizon unmistakably indicated the extent of the conflagration. Throughout the night Z64 flew at an altitude of not less than fifteen thousand feet. Dawn found her far to the south’ard of the Great Australian Bight. Von Sinzig had good cause for keeping out of the beaten steamer tracks; nor did he intend to pass within a hundred miles of the southern part of Tasmania. He counted upon arriving at Napier, New Zealand, at daybreak on the day following, and until then he meant to be most careful not to be reported by any vessel. The commander of Z64 had just sat down to breakfast when one of the crew entered his cabin. "Pardon, Herr Offizier," said the man, apologetically, "but the observation basket is missing." "What do you mean?" demanded von Sinzig. "We secured it after Herr Leutter had finished with it, Herr Kapitan," explained the man. "I myself saw that the four bottle-screws were turned up tightly. Kaspar Graus, who had been told to remove the remaining petrol bomb, came and reported that the basket was no longer there. The metal clips were still attached to the bottle-screws. It would appear that these were torn from the basket itself." Count Karl von Sinzig left his breakfast untasted and hurried along the catwalk to the gondola from which the observation basket was hung. His informant’s news was only too true. Unaccountably the basket had been wrenched from its securing apparatus. "It is of little consequence," he declared. "We would not have required it again, and, since it will not float, it is at the bottom of the sea by this time. Perhaps it is as well, in case we are inspected by inquisitive officials at our next alighting place."