.
"Of course, if it were anything she saw, it was a real man.... And, airmen
dress that way.... I wondered----"

He stood looking at her absently, worrying his short mustache.

"One of the rumours we have heard," he began, "concerns a supposed
invasion by a huge fleet of German battle-planes of enormous dimensions--a
new biplane type which is steered from the bridge like an ocean steamer.

"It is supposed to be three or four times as large as their usual
_Albatross_ type, with a vast cruising radius, immense capacity for
lifting, and powerful enough to carry a great weight of armour, equipment,
munitions, and a very large crew.

"And the most disturbing thing about it is that it is said to be as
noiseless as a high-class automobile."

"Has such an one been seen in Brittany?"

"Such a machine has been reported--many, many times--as though not one but
hundreds were in Finistere. And, what is very disquieting to us--a report
has arrived from a distant and totally independent source--from
Sweden--that air-crafts of this general type have been secretly built in
Germany by the hundreds."

After a moment's silence she stepped into the house; he followed.

The great, bare, grey rooms were in keeping with the grey exterior; age
had more than softened and cooerdinated the ancient furnishings, it had
rendered them colourless, without accent, making the place empty and
monotonous.

Her chair and workbasket stood by a latticed window; she seated herself
and took up her sewing, watching him where he stood before the fireplace
fussing over a little mantel clock--a gilt and ebony affair of the
consulate, shaped like a lyre, the pendulum being also the clock itself
and containing the works, bell and dial.

When he had adjusted it to his satisfaction he tested it. It still struck
five. He continued to fuss over it for half an hour, testing it at
intervals, but it always struck five times, and finally he gave up his
attempts with a shrug of annoyance.

"_I_ can't do anything with it," he admitted, smiling cheerfully across
the room at her; "is there another clock on this floor?"

She directed him; he went into an adjoining room where, on the mantel, a
modern enamelled clock was ticking busily. But after a little while he
gave up his tinkering; he could do nothing with it; the bell persistently
struck five. He returned to where she sat sewing, admitting failure with a
perplexed and uneasy smile; and she rose and accompanied h