Von Sinzig, who "had the wind up" as badly as anybody, was nowhere to be found for some time. Leutter even came to the conclusion that his superior officer had leapt overboard when the alarm of fire had been raised; but after a lapse of twenty-five minutes the count re-appeared, looking very grey and haggard. "I think I must have been stunned, Herr Leutter," he said in explanation. His subordinate accepted the excuse without smiling incredulously. He had seen his chief bolting for his very life. He certainly did not look like being stunned. "Take charge for a while," continued von Sinzig. "I am not feeling well. I must go to my cabin and lie down." He staggered aft along the narrow catwalk, while the Unter-Leutnant gave orders for the airship to be brought back on her original course. It was easier said than done. The gigantic gas-bag was see-sawing erratically. She had difficulty in answering to her helm, and in spite of the fact that the horizontal rudders were trimmed for ascending, the airship was decreasing her altitude. Then reports began to come in from the still "jumpy" crew. The engineer reported that the after propeller was damaged; another man announced that there was a large gash in the aluminium envelope, and that several of the after ballonets were leaking rapidly. Further examination revealed the grave fact that one of the propeller blades had fractured, and the flying piece of metal had penetrated the gas-bag at about eighty feet from the after-end. So great had been the velocity of the broken blade that it had practically wrecked every gas compartment in the stern of the envelope. Unter-Leutnant Leutter sent a man to inform von Sinzig. He had to do that, although he would have preferred to act upon his own initiative. He was decidedly "fed up" with his arrogant and craven skipper. The count arrived quickly. He led off by abusing Leutter in front of several of the crew for having disturbed him; then, on being told of what had occurred, he changed completely round and complimented his subordinate on his sagacity. "Z64’s done, Herr kapitan," declared Hans Leutter. "She’s sinking rapidly. Half an hour, perhaps, will find her falling into the sea. We must take steps to safeguard ourselves." "Quite true," agreed the count. "Although there will be enough buoyancy in the envelope to keep it afloat for hours--days even. What do you propose to do?" "Throw overboard everything of a weighty nature, Herr kapitan," replied the Unter-Leutnant. "We can empty the petrol tanks, since we have no further use for the motors. Meanwhile we must send out a general wireless call for assistance to all ships within a hundred or two hundred kilometres of us." Count Karl von Sinzig thought this quite an excellent idea. At least, he said so. At the back of his mind he had a hazy notion that even now there was a chance of winning the Chauvasse Prize. There was nothing in the conditions forbidding a competitor----