that the shock was peculiarly hard to bear. It is said that
he broke down and wept, and that but for the loving courage and
earnest entreaties of his wife and daughter he would then have
abandoned the hope and ambition of his life. But after all it was
but that darkest hour which comes just before the dawn. The
demolition of "No. IV." had been no accident which reflected at all
upon the plan or construction of the craft--unless the great bulk of
the ship be considered a fundamental defect. What it did demonstrate
was that the Zeppelin, like the one-thousand-foot ocean liner, must
have adequate harbour and docking facilities wherever it is to land.
The one cannot safely drop down in any convenient meadow, any more
than the other can put into any little fishing port. Germany has
learned this lesson well enough and since the opening of the Great
War her territory is plentifully provided with Zeppelin shelters at
all strategic points.

[Illustration: _The Death of a Zeppelin._

Photo by Paul Thompson.]

Fortunately for the Count the German people judged his latest
reverse more justly than he did. They saw the completeness of the
triumph which had preceded the disaster and recognized that the
latter was one easily guarded against in future. Enthusiasm ran high
all over the land. Begging was no longer necessary. The Emperor,
who had heretofore expressed rather guarded approval of the
enterprise, now flung himself into it with that enthusiasm for which
he is notable. He bestowed upon the Count the Order of the Black
Eagle, embraced him in public three times, and called aloud that all
might hear, "Long life to his Excellency, Count Zeppelin, the
Conqueror of the Air." He never wearied of assuring his hearers that
the Count was the "greatest German of the century." With such august
patronage the Count became the rage. Next to the Kaiser's the face
best known to the people of Germany, through pictures and statues,
was that of the inventor of the Zeppelin. The pleasing practice of
showing affection for a public man by driving nails into his wooden
effigy had not then been invented by the poetic Teutons, else von
Zeppelin would have outdone von Hindenburg in weight of metal.

The story that Zeppelin had refused repeated offers from other
governments was widely published and evoked patriotic enthusiasm.
With it went shrewd hints that in these powerful aircraft lay the
way to overcome the hated English navy, and even to carry w