"Yes," he said. "I recollect quite well, though I had not yet taken my `ticket,' how the `trust-our-dear-German-brother' propagandists were terribly angry because some newspaper or other had demanded a large provision for dirigibles in the coming Estimates. They accused the paper of `staging the performance' for the sake of a new journalistic scoop. One paper, a copy of which I still have," Teddy went on, "expressed greatest amusement at the statements of witnesses who had seen and heard Zeppelins on the North-East coast. I was only reading it the other day. One person heard `the whirr of engines'; another `a faint throbbing noise.' To one, the airship appeared as `a cigar-shaped vessel,' to another as `a small luminous cloud.' These variations--they are not contradictions--were sufficient, in the opinion of that particular paper, to discredit the whole business. The writer of the article calmly stated that what was alleged to be a Zeppelin `turns out to have been merely a farmer working at night in a field on the hilltop, taking manure about in a creaky wheelbarrow, with a light swung on the top of a broomstick attached to it.'" "I know, Teddy," I exclaimed. "Our dear old England has been sadly misled by those who intended to send us to our ruin and dominate the world. Yet we have one consolation--you and I--namely, that we have, within our hands, a power of which the enemy knows nothing, and--" "But the enemy suspects, my dear old fellow," said my friend seriously. "That's why you had your unfortunate spill--and why Roseye is to-day missing. Probably I shall be the next to fall beneath the clutch of the Invisible Hand." "Yes. For heaven's sake! do be careful," I exclaimed anxiously. "You can't be too wary!" "Well--we've the satisfaction of knowing that they haven't discovered our secret," he declared. "No--and, by Jove! they won't!" I declared firmly. "Yet, the way in which we have been misled by those infected with the Teuton taint is really pathetic. I remember the wheelbarrow story quite well. Just about that same time a foreign correspondent of one of our London daily papers wrote telling us that Zeppelins were mere toys. They cost fifty thousand pounds apiece to build, and German experts had agreed that in fine weather they might reasonably expect to reach our coast, but that it was doubtful if they could get back. The return voyage, with the petrol running low and the capacity of the ship and crew approaching exhaustion, would probably end in disaster if the wind were contrary. We were also told by this wonderful correspondent that the idea that these ships could drop from one to two tons of explosives on our heads at any time was absurd."