", except perhaps the
predominance of khaki-clad officers.

A string band was discoursing the latest operatic music, the diners
were laughing and chattering. Within, the gaiety and light-heartedness
contrasted violently with the dismal gloom inflicted upon the
metropolis as a result of precautions adopted by the triple authorities
responsible for its defence against air-craft.

Presently the band finished one item on the programme. The comparative
silence that followed was almost immediately interrupted by a series of
sharp reports, punctuated by a deeper crash.

"Zepps!" exclaimed a dozen voices.

Instantly there was a rush--not for the deep cellars underneath the
building, but for the open street. The white faces of a few of the
guests showed that they had, perhaps, a little anxiety, but for the
most part an excitable curiosity took possession of the crowd.

"Come on!" exclaimed Ross to his chum. "Let's see the fun. We haven't
had a chance of seeing a real Zepp before."

The lad's words voiced the thoughts of nine-tenths of the dwellers of
the metropolis who were within sight of the would-be Terror of the Air.
Useless, indeed, were the official warnings as to the right thing to be
done when the Zeppelins came. One man, however, drew a respirator from
a hand-bag and proceeded to don it, until a roar of laughter from the
stream of people issuing from the hotel caused him somewhat
shamefacedly to replace the useless article.

Into the street the lads elbowed their way. The progress through the
long corridor of the hotel reminded them of a football scrum. It was
not the blind rush of panic; merely a desire to lose nothing of the
"fun".

A couple of thousand feet overhead, a silvery-grey, bluff-pointed
cylinder was moving with apparent slowness. Half a dozen search-lights
concentrated their beams upon it. All around were rings of smoke,
marking the bursting shells from the anti-aircraft guns; yet,
apparently untouched by the hail of bullets, the giant gas-bag passed
on, hurling out death and destruction upon the greatest city on
earth--a city that, until the present war, had only once heard the
thunder of hostile guns.

Breathlessly the lads watched the progress of the huge Zeppelin,
momentarily expecting it to collapse and come tumbling, a tangled mass
of flaming wreckage, to the ground. Viewed from below, it seemed
impossible for the airship to escape the bursting shells. The air was
rent by the c