that they never saw anything killed, never encountered,
save through the mitigating media of book or picture, the fact of lethal
violence that underlies all life. Three times in his existence, and
three times only, had Bert seen a dead human being, and he had never
assisted at the killing of anything bigger than a new-born kitten.

The incident that gave him his third shock was the execution of one
of the men on the Adler for carrying a box of matches. The case was
a flagrant one. The man had forgotten he had it upon him when coming
aboard. Ample notice had been given to every one of the gravity of this
offence, and notices appeared at numerous points all over the airships.
The man's defence was that he had grown so used to the notices and
had been so preoccupied with his work that he hadn't applied them to
himself; he pleaded, in his defence, what is indeed in military affairs
another serious crime, inadvertency. He was tried by his captain, and
the sentence confirmed by wireless telegraphy by the Prince, and it was
decided to make his death an example to the whole fleet. "The Germans,"
the Prince declared, "hadn't crossed the Atlantic to go wool gathering."
And in order that this lesson in discipline and obedience might be
visible to every one, it was determined not to electrocute or drown but
hang the offender.

Accordingly the air-fleet came clustering round the flagship like carp
in a pond at feeding time. The Adler hung at the zenith immediately
alongside the flagship. The whole crew of the Vaterland assembled
upon the hanging gallery; the crews of the other airships manned the
air-chambers, that is to say, clambered up the outer netting to the
upper sides. The officers appeared upon the machine-gun platforms. Bert
thought it an altogether stupendous sight, looking down, as he was, upon
the entire fleet. Far off below two steamers on the rippled blue water,
one British and the other flying the American flag, seemed the minutest
objects, and marked the scale. They were immensely distant. Bert stood
on the gallery, curious to see the execution, but uncomfortable, because
that terrible blond Prince was within a dozen feet of him, glaring
terribly, with his arms folded, and his heels together in military
fashion.

They hung the man from the Adler. They gave him sixty feet of rope, so,
that he should hang and dangle in the sight of all evil-doers who might
be hiding matches or contemplating any kindred disobedience.