attacking the Germans. Overhead, and evidently endeavouring to keep
itself in touch with the works of Niagara, a body of German airships
drew itself together into a compact phalanx, and the Asiatics became
more and more intent upon breaking this up. He was grotesquely reminded
of fish in a fish-pond struggling for crumbs. He could see puny puffs of
smoke and the flash of bombs, but never a sound came down to him....

A flapping shadow passed for a moment between Bert and the sun and was
followed by another. A whirring of engines, click, clock, clitter clock,
smote upon his ears. Instantly he forgot the zenith.

Perhaps a hundred yards above the water, out of the south, riding like
Valkyries swiftly through the air on the strange steeds the engineering
of Europe had begotten upon the artistic inspiration of Japan, came
a long string of Asiatic swordsman. The wings flapped jerkily, click,
block, clitter clock, and the machines drove up; they spread and ceased,
and the apparatus came soaring through the air. So they rose and fell
and rose again. They passed so closely overhead that Bert could hear
their voices calling to one another. They swooped towards Niagara city
and landed one after another in a long line in a clear space before
the hotel. But he did not stay to watch them land. One yellow face had
craned over and looked at him, and for one enigmatical instant met his
eyes....

It was then the idea came to Bert that he was altogether too conspicuous
in the middle of the bridge, and that he took to his heels towards Goat
Island. Thence, dodging about among the trees, with perhaps an excessive
self-consciousness, he watched the rest of the struggle.

5

When Bert's sense of security was sufficiently restored for him to watch
the battle again, he perceived that a brisk little fight was in
progress between the Asiatic aeronauts and the German engineers for the
possession of Niagara city. It was the first time in the whole course of
the war that he had seen anything resembling fighting as he had studied
it in the illustrated papers of his youth. It seemed to him almost as
though things were coming right. He saw men carrying rifles and taking
cover and running briskly from point to point in a loose attacking
formation. The first batch of aeronauts had probably been under the
impression that the city was deserted. They had grounded in the open
near Prospect Park and approached the houses towards the power-works
before