The Dirigibles of Death (2 page)

"Hi will, will Hi!" cried the constable. "Not by the blinkin' hell Hi will. Lor' love me, Doc, hit's too awrful. An' that blond gorilla! Gord, did never a body see such a 'orrible-lookin' beast? 'E's the blinkin' murderer Hi'll s'y. An' now 'e's gone west there'll be no more bloomin’ murders. Let's clear hout o' 'ere, Doc. No use stayin’, Nobody's goin' to meddle with these corpuses."

"Very well," I assented. "But don't flatter yourself Moore, that there won't be any further murders. In my opinion that homicidal maniac—for that's what he unquestionably was—is only one of the crew that arrived on the airship. Of course he may have been the only murderer, but unless there's something most mysterious and horrible afoot, why didn't the others make themselves known? Why didn't they notify the authorities that this beastly creature was at large? No, Moore, there's something back of this—something uncanny, weird, terrible, deep; something of which we have no conception, at which I cannot even guess."

Little did I dream how far short of the reality were my fears, my suspicions, my words.

The coroner had arrived when we reached Eipley and a few moments later Inspector Maidstone arrived from London. But their arrival, the excitement over the inn murders and the mysterious airship, had been almost forgotten in view of the amazing news that had come to the village. A farmer, driving in his trap from East Clacton had come to the village wild-eyed, scared almost out of his wits. His story seemed beyond credence. Three horrible-looking beings had dashed at him as he was passing a thicket—living devils as he put it, blood-stained, slobbering, inhuman-looking things. Only the fright of his skittish mare had saved him. At sight of the three she had bolted and had left the attackers far behind. Half an hour after the farmer had arrived, a telephone call from Guildford reported that a motor car with two young chaps from Farnham had been attacked while on the Hogback by two of the most repulsive and terrible of human beings. Fortunately one of the motorists had been in possession of a gun—they had been hunting—and at close range he had blown the head of one of the attackers from its shoulders. But the other had given no heed and had thrown itself at the car with maniacal fury. A terrific struggle had ensued, the motorists had been torn, scratched, bitten, their clothes ripped from them, and only when they had beaten the inhuman creature into insensibility had he ceased his frantic efforts to destroy them.

By midday the entire country had been aroused. Somewhere at least four murderous, horrible beings were at large. No one felt safe, and the countryside was in a state of terror. Yet far worse was to come.

Major Stephen Leighton, R.A.F., Takes Up the Story

The extra editions of the press carrying the astonishing news of the appearance of a mysterious airship at Ripley, and describing the gruesome murders at the Antelope Inn and those of the Gypsies, aroused my intense interest. Although Doctor Grayson's description of the airship was most inadequate and superficial, even he had noticed that it was of a new type, and this was borne out by the little he mentioned in regard to its construction. Having specialized on dirigibles of the rigid type I was, of course, most keen on examining this strange ship and I immediately sent for my car and dashed off to Ripley.

Just beyond Cobham we passed the Gypsy caravan surrounded by quite a throng of morbidly curious persons, and we found Ripley as crowded as though a fair were being held in the village. Constable Moore, Doctor Grayson and the police sent from Guildford had the situation well in hand, however, and a cordon had been drawn about the Antelope Inn and the field where the airship rested. At my first glance at the remarkable ship I realized fully that it was of a totally new type, and I was quite naturally highly elated.

The gas-container was, as Doctor Grayson had surmised, of metal, although of what metal I could not imagine. But the doctor had erred considerably in his statements regarding the other features of the ship. The car or gondola, instead of being an integral portion of the whole, as he had described it, was attached to the balloon by means of short, rigid struts, and between the top of the gondola and the lower surface of the blunt-ended, almost elliptical balloon, a cylindrical tube of metal extended the entire length of the ship, bearing, at each end, a four-bladed propeller. Obviously, I thought, the motive power was contained within this tube, and I marveled that a motor of sufficient size to drive the ship could be contained within such a small space. The horizontal and vertical rudders were similar to those of conventional design, but were attached to a rigid framework on the gondola instead of on the balloon itself, and were in duplicate, one set on each end of the ship. I also noticed that a peculiar grid-like affair of wire-somewhat resembling the counterpoise of a radio receiver—was stretched between the cylinder I have mentioned and the top of the gondola, but I assumed that this, no doubt, was some form of radio antennae. The gondola, of some undetermined metal or metallic composition, contained nothing aside from the filthy straw mentioned by Doctor Grayson, several demijohnlike vessels and a number of beef bones. It looked far more like the den of wild beasts than the quarters of human beings, and as it smelled to high heaven I wasted no time in examining it in detail. Borrowing a ladder, I mounted to the top of the gondola for the purpose of examining the motive plant of the ship. But to my chagrin I discovered that the tube within which it evidently was contained, was tightly sealed, the plates of which it was constructed being bolted down, and that tools would be required to remove them. Securing my tool-kit from my car I again climbed to the roof of the gondola, accompanied by Doctor Grayson who had just emerged from the inn where he had been attending the inquest with the Guildford coroner. It was then that I learned, for the first time, the details of the mutilation of the Gypsies' bodies, and learned of the dead stranger and the reports of those other five maniacal fiends who had attacked the farmer from East Clacton and the motorists from Farnham. Doctor Grayson—whom I had already met at my club—confided his theories to me, and having already viewed the den-like interior of the gondola, I was inclined to agree with him that the six (or possibly more) repulsive and obviously savage strangers had arrived in the ship I was now studying. But I could not for the life of me understand whence they could have come, who they might be, or why they should have hurried from the ship and fallen like maniacs upon all they met.

And as I took the trouble to explain to Doctor Grayson, while I busied myself with a spanner and loosened the nuts on the tube's plates, such evidently uncouth, thug-like beings could not possibly have handled and navigated the airship. Someone, some intelligent, skilled man or men must have been aboard, and this fact added greatly to the mystery of the whole affair. Thought of this feature caused me to marvel at the fact that, as far as I had seen, there were no controls to the ship. There was no cockpit, no bridge, no instrument-board, no levers nor wheels, no dials—nothing that hinted at controlling the vessel—and I forgot everything else in my amazement at this discovery. But I had an even greater surprise awaiting me. As I at last removed the plate and peered within the cylinder, expecting to see the motors of the ship, I uttered a sharp cry of astonishment. There were no motors visible!

Instead, I saw a complex arrangement of wires, magnets, switches and other electrical apparatus. For a moment I was non-plussed, and then it dawned upon me that the ship was propelled by electric motors. Filled with curiosity I called to my chauffeur—an excellent mechanic and a really clever electrician—and together we proceeded to open up the cylindrical container throughout its entire length. While occupied with this task I was aware of some excitement in the crowd that now completely blocked all traffic in the street. Presently Doctor Grayson returned and informed me that a party of picnickers at Netley Heath had been attacked by three fiends who answered the description given by the farmer from East Clacton. One man had been killed, another badly wounded, and the two women of the party had been violated and wantonly mutilated by their attackers who had bitten off the murdered girls' ears.

The details of the affair were far too horrible and loathsome to repeat, and so terrible was their experience that both women had lost their reason and were now raving maniacs. The wounded man, however, had been able to give a very good description of the creatures. They were, he declared, almost nude, were covered with sores or ulcers, and were as horrible in appearance as fields from the pit. All were huge, powerful creatures, all had deformed, horrible features and all had the heads of idiots. Two of them, he declared, were negroes or blacks of some sort, and one, he had noticed, had a great cavity eaten into one side of the face as if by some powerful acid. He also told, shuddering and sobbing with horror at the memory, of having seen one of the creatures fall upon the body of his companion, and with its teeth tear the reeking flesh from the limbs and actually devour it.

Doctor Grayson paled and his voice shook as he told me these details. "I cannot imagine who or what these fiends incarnate are," he declared. "The body we found at the Gypsy caravan was afflicted with Yaws— a terribly virulent and contagious malady of the tropics. These three evidently were suffering from the same disease, and the fact that two were blacks would indicate they were all from some tropical country. And I am now convinced that the one we found dead was also a negro—an albino. Thank heaven, now we know where or near where they are we can soon apprehend them or destroy them. And thank God there cannot be more than four. The entire countryside is aroused, all available police, and posses of citizens are scouring the woods, the heaths and the parks, and I expect at any moment to learn of the capture of the fiends. But even so I have most dire misgivings, Major. If the creatures have not spread their loathsome disease, it will be by the merest chance they have not. Beyond any question the two women who were attacked will contract it; I have no doubt that this poor wounded chap will be afflicted with it, and I should not be at all surprised if the two boys who were held up on the Hogback had been infected when scratched by their assailants."

"Rotten," I commented. "But are you sure it's the Yaws? And is there nothing to be done to cure it—to prevent it from spreading?"

Doctor Grayson shook his head. "In my younger days," he informed me, "I was attached to the Department of Research of Tropical Diseases in the West Indies, and later in Africa. I think I know Yaws when I see the disease, and as far as I or any other medico knows, it is incurable. Of course, it might be something else—leprosy is at times indistinguishable by a superficial examination, or some one of the innumerable filarial diseases of the tropics. But whatever it is, I dread the thought of what may follow if these creatures remain longer at large."

"By Jove!" I cried. "It is a pretty how-de-do. By the way, did you learn anything from the body of the beast killed on the Hogback?"

"I haven't examined it personally," replied the doctor, "but Doctor Mell of Guildford was conversing with me a few moments ago and he tells me it was that of a mulatto or octoroon, that the cranium—or rather what was left of it after it had received both barrels of a twenty-gauge shotgun at close range—appeared to be that of a maniac, and that the creature was afflicted with some sort of ulcerated sores. Evidently all are alike in these features."

"Bally rotten, the whole business," I exclaimed. "Looks as if some insane asylum was dumping its ulcerated, homicidal maniacs on poor old England. But how did they manage to get here? That's the question that's bothering me. No doubt they arrived in this ship —the pigsty down below is just the sort of den for such brutes—but they could never have operated this ship alone. Someone of intelligence must have been with them. But where the devil has he gone?" 

Doctor Grayson shook his head. "God alone knows the answer to a lot of questions," he replied. "But—"

An exclamation from Rawlins, my mechanic, interrupted his words, and I hurried to Rawlins' side. He had removed the plates from a large section of the tube and had exposed the powerful compact motors that operated the propellers. But it was not these that had aroused his most intense interest and excitement.

"This ship was operated by radio, sir," he announced in almost awed tones. "See here, sir. Yonder's the relays; there are the selective devices."

For a moment I studied the intricate mechanism intently, filled with interest. I had, of course, witnessed demonstrations of radio-controlled and operated vessels, airships and even an airplane. But in no case had the tests been very successful, and in no case had it been possible to control a mechanism at any considerable distance from the transmitting station. Yet if Rawlins was right, and if Doctor Grayson was not mistaken, this ship had come a great distance—perhaps thousands of miles—by means of radio control from some far distant station. It seemed impossible, incredible, and the more I examined the mechanism, the more I was convinced that Rawlins was mistaken. To be sure, there was no question that the propellers were driven by motors which, superficially at least, appeared like electric motors. And at first sight the objects he had pointed outdid seem to be relays and selective devices, but I could detect none of the appliances that are typical of radio control. The thing needed real study, expert examination and a complete investigation such as could not be conducted here in the open air. So, instructing Rawlins to replace the cover plates, I climbed to the earth and telephoned to Aldershot for a couple of lorries and a detail of men to be sent at once to dismantle and remove the airship.

Almost coincident with their arrival, word was received by Inspector Maidstone, who was still in Ripley, informing him that the savage being—obviously the survivor of the pair that had attacked the motorists on the Hogback—had been surrounded in a thicket near Compton. The man had rushed like a wild beast at the police, and so maniacal was his fury, so terrible his rage, so demoniacal his strength, that the constables had been forced to shoot him in self defense. Even as it was, three of the men had been seriously wounded, and not one had escaped without lacerations from the fiendish thing's nails and teeth.