Air warfare -- Fiction; Science fiction; War stories
Then the Prince addressed the men in short, heroic sentences, steadying
himself on the hinge with one hand and waving the other in a fine
variety of gesture. What he said Bert could not tell, but he perceived
that their demeanor changed, their backs stiffened. They began to
punctuate the Prince's discourse with cries of approval. At the end
their leader burst into song and all the men with him. “Ein feste Burg
ist unser Gott,” they chanted in deep, strong tones, with an immense
moral uplifting. It was glaringly inappropriate in a damaged,
half-overturned, and sinking airship, which had been disabled and blown
out of action after inflicting the cruellest bombardment in the world's
history; but it was immensely stirring nevertheless. Bert was deeply
moved. He could not sing any of the words of Luther's great hymn, but
he opened his mouth and emitted loud, deep, and partially harmonious
notes....
Far below, this deep chanting struck on the ears of a little camp of
Christianised half-breeds who were lumbering. They were breakfasting,
but they rushed out cheerfully, quite prepared for the Second Advent.
They stared at the shattered and twisted Vaterland driving before the
gale, amazed beyond words. In so many respects it was like their idea
of the Second Advent, and then again in so many respects it wasn't. They
stared at its passage, awe-stricken and perplexed beyond their power of
words. The hymn ceased. Then after a long interval a voice came out of
heaven. “Vat id diss blace here galled itself; vat?”
They made no answer. Indeed they did not understand, though the question
repeated itself.
And at last the monster drove away northward over a crest of pine woods
and was no more seen. They fell into a hot and long disputation....
The hymn ended. The Prince's legs dangled up the passage again, and
every one was briskly prepared for heroic exertion and triumphant acts.
“Smallways!” cried Kurt, “come here!”
5
Then Bert, under Kurt's direction, had his first experience of the work
of an air-sailor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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