seventeen minutes, and had made its landing in ease and safety.
Accepted by the government "No. III." passed into military service
and Zeppelin, now the idol of the German people, began the
construction of "No. IV."

That ship was larger than her predecessors and carried a third
cabin for passengers suspended amidships. Marked increase in the
size of the steering and stabling planes characterized the
appearance of the ship when compared with earlier types. She was at
the outset a lucky ship. She cruised through Alpine passes into
Switzerland, and made a circular voyage carrying eleven passengers
and flying from Friedrichshaven to Mayence and back via Basle,
Strassburg, Mannheim, and Stuttgart. The voyage occupied twenty-one
hours--a world's record. The performance of the ship on both voyages
was perfection. Even in the tortuous Alpine passes which she was
forced to navigate on her trip to Lucerne she moved with the
steadiness and certainty of a great ship at sea. The rarification of
the air at high altitudes, the extreme and sudden variations in
temperature, the gusts of wind that poured from the ice-bound peaks
down through the narrow canyons affected her not at all. When to
this experience was added the triumphant tour of the six German
cities, Count von Zeppelin might well have thought his triumph was
complete.

But once again the cup of victory was dashed from his lips. After
his landing a violent wind beat upon the ship. An army of men strove
to hold her fast, while an effort was made to reduce her bulk by
deflation. That effort, which would have been entirely successful in
the case of a non-rigid balloon, was obviously futile in that of a
Zeppelin. Not the gas in the ballonets, but the great rigid frame
covered with water-proofed cloth constituted the huge bulk that made
her the plaything of the winds. In a trice she was snatched from the
hands of her crew and hurled against the trees in a neighbouring
grove. There was a sudden and utterly unexpected explosion and the
whole fabric was in flames. The precise cause of the explosion will
always be in doubt, but, as already pointed out, many scientists
believe that the great volume of electricity accumulated in the
metallic frame was suddenly released in a mighty spark which set
fire to the stores of gasoline on board.

With this disaster the iron nerve of the inventor was for the first
time broken. It followed so fast upon what appeared to be a complete
triumph