ace. Now he would circle over the Hudson and East River; now
he would go up high, as if to peer away into the blue distances; once he
ascended so swiftly and so far that mountain sickness overtook him and
the crew and forced him down again; and Bert shared the dizziness and
nausea.

The swaying view varied with these changes of altitude. Now they would
be low and close, and he would distinguish in that steep, unusual
perspective, windows, doors, street and sky signs, people and the
minutest details, and watch the enigmatical behaviour of crowds and
clusters upon the roofs and in the streets; then as they soared the
details would shrink, the sides of streets draw together, the view
widen, the people cease to be significant. At the highest the effect
was that of a concave relief map; Bert saw the dark and crowded land
everywhere intersected by shining waters, saw the Hudson River like a
spear of silver, and Lower Island Sound like a shield. Even to Bert's
unphilosophical mind the contrast of city below and fleet above pointed
an opposition, the opposition of the adventurous American's tradition
and character with German order and discipline. Below, the immense
buildings, tremendous and fine as they were, seemed like the giant trees
of a jungle fighting for life; their picturesque magnificence was as
planless as the chances of crag and gorge, their casualty enhanced by
the smoke and confusion of still unsubdued and spreading conflagrations.
In the sky soared the German airships like beings in a different,
entirely more orderly world, all oriented to the same angle of the
horizon, uniform in build and appearance, moving accurately with one
purpose as a pack of wolves will move, distributed with the most precise
and effectual co-operation.

It dawned upon Bert that hardly a third of the fleet was visible. The
others had gone upon errands he could not imagine, beyond the compass of
that great circle of earth and sky. He wondered, but there was no one to
ask. As the day wore on, about a dozen reappeared in the east with
their stores replenished from the flotilla and towing a number of
drachenflieger. Towards afternoon the weather thickened, driving clouds
appeared in the south-west and ran together and seemed to engender more
clouds, and the wind came round into that quarter and blew stronger.
Towards the evening the wind became a gale into which the now tossing
airships had to beat.

All that day the Prince was negotiating