*CHAPTER V*
*THE AERIAL LINER*
The airship liner, _Empress of India_, was preparing to leave hermoorings, just outside the ancient city of Delhi, for Cairo and London.This mammoth airship was one of the finest vessels which sailedregularly from London, east and west, girdling the world, and linking upthe British Empire along the All-Red Route. She had few passengers, asshe carried an unusually heavy cargo of mails for Egypt and England, anda considerable amount of specie for the Bank of England. Several personsof note, however, figured amongst her saloon passengers, including theMaharajah of Bangapore, an Anglo-Indian judge, and a retired colonel ofthe Indian army.
She was timed to depart at mid-day, and during the morning mailplaneshad been arriving from every part of India with their cargoes ofmail-bags, already sorted for the western trip.
The great mammoth now rode easily with the wind, moored by three stoutcables to the great tower which rose above the roof gardens of theair-station. An electric lift conveyed the passengers and mails to thesummit of this lofty tower, from whence a covered-in gangway led to thelong corridors which lined the interior of the rigid airship.
"Have all the engines been tested?" the captain asks of the chiefengineer, as he comes aboard with his navigating officer.
"Yes, sir."
"All the passengers aboard?" he asks next of the ground officer.
"All except the maharajah, Captain, and I expect him any moment."
"Excellent," replied the skipper. "There's a good deal of bullionaboard from the Indian banks, I hear, and the rajah himself is likelytouring a lot of valuables with him, I understand, as he is to attendseveral court functions at St. James's Palace."
"Yes, sir. I hope you won't meet that aerial raider," replied theground officer.
"Poof! What can he do? He can't board us in mid-air! Besides, I hearthat the aerial police are on his track, and that all their fast scoutsare patrolling the mail routes."
"Yes, you'll have an aerial escort with you for the first two hundredmiles, Captain. They'll pick you up shortly after you leave here."
"Absolutely a waste of time. The police could be much better employedin searching for these rascals."
"Well, perhaps you're right," replied the ground official. "Theycertainly cannot board you in mid-air, as you observe, and they cannotset you on fire as they did the early Zeppelins, for helium won't burn."
This conversation was interrupted by shouts and cheers which reached thespeakers from down below.
"Hullo! here comes the rajah. I must go down and welcome him," said thecaptain, as a fanfare of trumpets announced the arrival of the greatIndian chief.
Then, with all the ceremonial and pomp of the East, the Maharajah ofBangapore was welcomed aboard the luxurious air-liner, and, accompaniedby his personal attendants, he was shown with much obsequiousness to hisprivate saloon. His baggage, containing treasures worth a king'sransom, was likewise transferred, under the supervision of hischamberlain, from the ground to his suite of apartments.
The clock in the palace of the Great Mogul in the old city of Delhistrikes twelve, and the captain's voice is heard once more, as he speaksfrom the rear gondola:--
"All ready?"
"Yes, sir, all clear!"
A button is pressed and the water ballast tanks discharge their cargo tolighten the ship, and then swiftly comes the final order:--
"Let go!"
And as the cables are slipped from the mooring tower, the light gangwayis drawn back, the crowd down below cheer, and the giant airship backsout, carried by the force of the wind alone till she is well clear ofthe station. Then her engines open up gradually. She turns until hernose points almost due west, then slips away on her four thousand miles'journey over many a classic land, desert, forest and sea towards thecentre of the world's greatest empire.
About four o'clock that afternoon, as Judge Jefferson sat and talkedwith his friend Colonel Wilson in one of the rear gondolas where smokingwas permitted, he remarked that this was his seventh trip home toEngland by the aerial route, and declared that he could well spend therest of his lifetime in such a pleasant mode of travel.
"There's no fatigue whatever," he added; "nothing of the jolt and jarwhich you get in the railway carriage. As for the journey by sea, I wasso ill during my last voyage that I simply couldn't face the sea again.A storm at sea is of all things the most uncomfortable. If we meet witha storm on the air-route we can either go above it or pass on one side,as most storms are only local affairs."
"Not to speak of the time that is wasted by land or sea-travel," addedthe colonel.
"Exactly," replied the judge.
"Only to think that in forty-eight hours we shall be in London, evenallowing for a two hours' stay in Cairo to pick up further mails andpassengers."
"Wonderful! Wonderful!" agreed his companion.
"And the absence of heat is some consideration, when travelling in aland like India," continued the colonel as he flicked off the end of hiscigar.
"Yes. The stifling heat, particularly in May, June and July, when youget the hot dry winds, is altogether insufferable in those stuffyrailway carriages, while up here it is delightfully cool and bracing,and the view is magnificent."
"Hullo! what is that fine river down there?" asked the judge, as helooked down through the clear, tropical atmosphere on to the delightfullandscape of river, plain and forest three thousand feet below.
"Oh, that must be the Indus, the King River of Vedic poetry, a wonderfulstream, two thousand miles in length," said the colonel, consulting hispocket map.
"Can it really be the Indus?"
"It is indeed."
"Then we have already travelled four hundred miles since noon across theburning plains of India, and we have reached the confines of thiswonderful land," replied Jefferson.
"Yes, we have indeed. We shall soon enter the native state ofBaluchistan. See yonder, right ahead of us, I can already make out thehighest peaks of the Sulaiman Mountains. We are already rising to crossthem."
"And this evening we shall cross the troubled territory of Afghanistan."
"Yes," replied the colonel, "and by midnight, if all goes well, we shallbe sailing over Persia."
"Persia, the land of enchantment," mused the judge.
"And of the _Arabian Nights_, those wonderful tales which charmed ourboyhood--the land of Aladdin, of the wonderful lamp, and the magiccarpet."
"The magic carpet," laughed the judge. "This is the real magic carpet.The author of that wonderful story never dreamt that the day wouldreally come when the traveller from other lands, reclining in luxury,would be carried through the air across his native land, by day or bynight, at twice the flight of a bird."
And so these two men talked about these wonderful classic lands overwhich they were sailing so serenely, of Zoroaster, the great Persianteacher of other days, of Ahura Mazda, the All-Wise, and the Cobbler ofBaghdad, until the tea-bell startled them.
Then, finding they were hungry because the bracing air had made them so,they passed on to the snug little tea-room, where, amid the palm-treesand the orchids, they listened to soft dulcet notes from a small Indianorchestra which accompanied the maharajah. Here, they sipped deliciouschina tea from dainty Persian cups, and appeased their hunger, as bestthey could, from the tiny portions of alluring _patisserie_ whichusually accompany afternoon tea.
But, later that evening, they did ample justice to a fuller and noblerbanquet, which had been prepared for them in the gilded and lofty diningsaloon; for they were the honoured guests of the Maharajah of Bangapore.And he entertained them right royally as befitted one of his princelyrank.
And in all the wondrous folk-lore and tradition of the ancient Persiankings, was there ever a more regal banquet, or one more conspicuous bythe splendour of its oriental wealth than this long-protracted feast?Rich emblazoned goblets of gold, bejewelled with rare and precious gems,adorned the table, for the pr
ince had brought his household treasures;they were to him his household gods, and heirlooms of priceless worth.
Never the Lydian flute played sweeter music than these soft native airswhich wandered amid the eastern skies, as, under the silver moon, thelong, glistening, pearl-like airship sailed on beneath the stars, whiledown, far down below, lay the ruins of Persepolis, where the ancientkings of Persia slept their last long sleep.