Bert
saw the man standing, a living, reluctant man, no doubt scared and
rebellious enough in his heart, but outwardly erect and obedient, on
the lower gallery of the Adler about a hundred yards away. Then they had
thrust him overboard.

Down he fell, hands and feet extending, until with a jerk he was at the
end of the rope. Then he ought to have died and swung edifyingly, but
instead a more terrible thing happened; his head came right off, and
down the body went spinning to the sea, feeble, grotesque, fantastic,
with the head racing it in its fall.

"Ugh!" said Bert, clutching the rail before him, and a sympathetic grunt
came from several of the men beside him.

"So!" said the Prince, stiffer and sterner, glared for some seconds,
then turned to the gang way up into the airship.

For a long time Bert remained clinging to the railing of the gallery. He
was almost physically sick with the horror of this trifling incident.
He found it far more dreadful than the battle. He was indeed a very
degenerate, latter-day, civilised person.

Late that afternoon Kurt came into the cabin and found him curled up
on his locker, and looking very white and miserable. Kurt had also lost
something of his pristine freshness.

"Sea-sick?" he asked.

"No!"

"We ought to reach New York this evening. There's a good breeze coming
up under our tails. Then we shall see things."

Bert did not answer.

Kurt opened out folding chair and table, and rustled for a time with
his maps. Then he fell thinking darkly. He roused himself presently, and
looked at his companion. "What's the matter?" he said.

"Nothing!"

Kurt stared threateningly. "What's the matter?"

"I saw them kill that chap. I saw that flying-machine man hit the
funnels of the big ironclad. I saw that dead chap in the passage. I seen
too much smashing and killing lately. That's the matter. I don't like
it. I didn't know war was this sort of thing. I'm a civilian. I don't
like it."

"_I_ don't like it," said Kurt. "By Jove, no!"

"I've read about war, and all that, but when you see it it's different.
And I'm gettin' giddy. I'm gettin' giddy. I didn't mind a bit being up
in that balloon at first, but all this looking down and floating over
things and smashing up people, it's getting on my nerves. See?"

"It'll have to get off again...."

Kurt thought. "You're not the only one. The men are all getting strung
up. The flying--that's just flying. Naturally it makes one a litt