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Then came Blackheath, and then under the corner of the reek the Norwood stage. On Blackheath no aeroplane had landed but an aeropile lay upon the guides. Norwood was covered by a swarm of little figures running to and fro in a passionate confusion. Why? Abruptly he understood.
The aeropile curved about, and the keen fresh wind cut across Graham's face and his garment lugged at his body as the stem pointed round to the west. The two men looked into each other's eyes. "Sire, there are rules " "Not where I am concerned," said Graham. "You seem to forget." The aeronaut scrutinised his face. "No," he said. "I do not forget, Sire.
"They are grounding!" cried the man in yellow. "They are grounding. Tell the people to fire at him. Tell them to fire at him!" Graham could not understand. He heard loud voices repeating these enigmatical orders. Suddenly over the edge of the ruins he saw the prow of the aeropile come gliding and stop with a jerk.
In another moment the aeropile came into view again, a little thing far away, coming round in a wide curve and going slower. Then suddenly the man in yellow shouted: "What are they doing? What are the people doing? Why is Ostrog left there? Why is he not captured? They will lift him the aeropile will lift him! Ah!" The exclamation was echoed by a shout from the ruins.
He heard the apprehensive vague cry of innumerable men below. Graham clutched the railing before him and gasped. The second seemed an age. The lower fan of the aeropile passed within an ace of touching the people, who yelled and screamed and trampled one another below. And then it rose.
Even were a gleam of success to come now, there would be nothing to do, there would be no time to do anything before they were upon us. The guns that might have saved us are mislaid. Mislaid! Think of the disorder of things! Think of this foolish tumult, that cannot even find its weapons! Oh, for one aeropile just one! For the want of that I am beaten. Humanity is beaten and our cause is lost!
He tried to speak calmly, but his face was white. "There is one chance. You said there was an aeropile ?" "On the Roehampton stage, Sire." "Smashed?" "No. It is lying crossways to the carrier. It might be got upon the guides easily. But there is no aeronaut ." Graham glanced at the two men and then at Helen. He spoke after a long pause. "We have no aeronauts?" "None."
The windvane people, the Labour Company and its millions, burst the bonds. We got the pull of the aeropiles." He paused. "Yes," said Graham, guessing that aeropile meant flying machine. "That was, of course, essential. Or they could have got away. All the city rose, every third man almost was in it!
"Yes," said Graham, "changed. And yet, after all, not so greatly changed." "Wait till you are in the air," said Lincoln. "The wind has fallen; even now an aeropile awaits you." The girl's attitude awaited dismissal. Graham glanced at her face, was on the verge of a question, found a warning in her expression, bowed to her and turned to accompany Lincoln.
Human aeronautics, Graham perceived, were evidently still a long way behind the instinctive gift of the albatross or the fly-catcher. One great influence that might have brought the aeropile to a more rapid perfection had been withheld; these inventions had never been used in warfare. The last great international struggle had occurred before the usurpation of the Council.
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