g me the news?"

"Damn the news," said Kurt. "You'll get news enough before the day's
out. It's the end of the world. They're sending the Graf Zeppelin for
us. She'll be here by the morning, and we ought to be at Niagara--or
eternal smash--within eight and forty hours.... I want to look at that
waterfall. You'd better come with me. Have you had your rations?"

"Yessir."

"Very well. Come."

And musing profoundly, Kurt led the way across the rocks towards the
distant waterfall.

For a time Bert walked behind him in the character of an escort; then as
they passed out of the atmosphere of the encampment, Kurt lagged for him
to come alongside.

"We shall be back in it all in two days' time," he said. "And it's a
devil of a war to go back to. That's the news. The world's gone mad.
Our fleet beat the Americans the night we got disabled, that's clear.
We lost eleven--eleven airships certain, and all their aeroplanes got
smashed. God knows how much we smashed or how many we killed. But that
was only the beginning. Our start's been like firing a magazine. Every
country was hiding flying-machines. They're fighting in the air all over
Europe--all over the world. The Japanese and Chinese have joined in.
That's the great fact. That's the supreme fact. They've pounced into our
little quarrels.... The Yellow Peril was a peril after all! They've got
thousands of airships. They're all over the world. We bombarded London
and Paris, and now the French and English have smashed up Berlin. And
now Asia is at us all, and on the top of us all.... It's mania. China
on the top. And they don't know where to stop. It's limitless. It's the
last confusion. They're bombarding capitals, smashing up dockyards and
factories, mines and fleets."

"Did they do much to London, sir?" asked Bert.

"Heaven knows...."

He said no more for a time.

"This Labrador seems a quiet place," he resumed at last. "I'm half a
mind to stay here. Can't do that. No! I've got to see it through. I've
got to see it through. You've got to, too. Every one.... But why?... I
tell you--our world's gone to pieces. There's no way out of it, no way
back. Here we are! We're like mice caught in a house on fire, we're like
cattle overtaken by a flood. Presently we shall be picked up, and back
we shall go into the fighting. We shall kill and smash again--perhaps.
It's a Chino-Japanese air-fleet this time, and the odds are against
us. Our turns will come. What will happen to yo