“I can’t!”
For somereason he was wriggling about and I felt my suddenly sweaty handsbegin to slide down the umbrella.
“Stop doing that!” I yelled in fright.
“I’m trying to save our lives!”
“We’ll fall to our deaths!”
“We need to get away from the window!”
Justthen I felt the guttering seem to give way and screamed in fright.I closed my eyes not wanting to see the ground quickly come uptowards me, but I still felt Sir Percival’s body press my bodyagainst the side of the airship. What had just happened?
Isquinted through my eyes. The guttering was still above us but,turning my head slightly, I saw we weren’t right next to thewindow. We’d slid slightly more around the curve of the airship.That’s what he was doing – getting us away from the window! Butwhat were we going to do now?
Thestrain in my arms told me how close we were to falling to ourdeaths. Even if the crew couldn’t get to us there was no way I’d beable to hold on until we got closer to Buckingham Palace andhopefully decreased in height enough to jump off.
I lookedup again praying my umbrella would hold, and saw that the slope ofthe airship lessened above the guttering. Up was the only way togo. “Climb up me, Sir Percival!” I cried down to the man squeezingmy waist.
Heneeded no further urging as one hand reached up to grip my rightshoulder. I fought the urge to cry out as his full weight hung frommy shoulder when he released his left arm from my waist. I imaginedthe umbrella being squeezed to the diameter of a shoelace by mybloodless grip upon it.
One handreleased my right shoulder and I felt the umbrella being moved ashe grasped it. Then the blessed relief as his weight was no longeron me, but his body still pushed me against the side of the airshipas he climbed higher. Looking up I followed his progress hopinghe’d remember to help me up as well.
I sawmovement from out of the corner of my eye and turned to see acrewman leaning out and looking down at the ground. With but aslight turn of his head he’d see me. I held my breath as much as Icould but it must have been my blue dress being blown about by thecold wind that made him look my way and cry out insurprise.
Hequickly disappeared back round the side of the airship into thewindow. Before I knew it he was back out again and trying to aim agun at my swinging body. I screamed in fright and suddenly felt ahand grip my left forearm lifting me upwards. Quickly, releasing myright hand from the umbrella, I reached upwards and grasped thefirst thing it came into contact with which, in this case, was SirPercival. Never has one person so quickly climbed upanother.
The gunfired and I felt the bullet narrowly miss my scandalously uncoveredankles.
Stillmanaging to keep hold of my umbrella I climbed over Sir Percivaland spied some metal rails further over, luckily the slope towardsthem was less severe. I swung my umbrella out and snagged the railclosest to me with the handle, then scrambled over to it as fast aspossible.
While Iheld onto the rail for dear life Sir Percival again used me as anad hoc climbing aid. When he was able to firmly grip the rail withhis right hand I climbed over the railing and into safety, with SirPercival joining me momentarily later.
We werebetween the balloons and the gondola sections of the airship. Therails surrounded a recessed rectangular area, in the middle ofwhich was a round metal hatch flat against the floor with a wheelin the middle. The four corners contained winches with rope woundaround them, which were the ones the crewmen used to rappel down.That felt like a lifetime ago but was probably less than an hour orso. Metal ladders with safety cages around them led up to theballoons from the front and rear of the area. Thick metal cableshelped attach the gondola to the balloons.
Above usthe airship was kept afloat by three huge, grey canvas-coveredsausage-shaped balloons with, between them, two large metal-walledcontainers. A metal framework held everything together. From theplumes of smoke streaming behind us I guessed the containers housedthe steam engines. In contrast to other airships I’d seen the CzarNicholas didn’t have its engines attached to the gondola sectionhanging below the balloons, instead they were in among the balloonsproviding power for the several large propellers.
One ofthe ladders had a thick metal tube running alongside it. I assumedthis housed the control system from the bridge to the engines ashigher up it split in two with each part entering a metalcontainer.
Initially the design seemed flawed – wouldn’t it make moresense for the engines and propellers to be attached to the gondolasection? But then you had to bear in mind the idea of luxury -there would be less annoying vibration from the engines; no dirty,dusty coal would need to be stored on the gondola; and the smokefrom the engines would be further away and likely not trouble theroyal family. And, of course, they had more than enough money tobuild it, install an electric lighting system, and decorate it withgold and precious gems. The Czar Nicholas was a blatant show ofpower.
We satin the recessed area looking at each other breathing heavily, quiteastonished we were still alive.
Thecentral metal hatch before us was the only way I was contemplatinggoing back down, but it also meant capture, which was not anoption. We also had to prevent anyone coming up after us. At thismoment in time the Liaison was on his own.
I sawthe hatch’s central wheel start to turn and desperately lookedaround for something to prevent it from opening. My umbrella,although doing sterling service so far, wouldn’t do the job, and Icouldn’t see Sir Percival holding it shut for any length of time.Length? That was it! I got up and rushed to the winch closest to meand pulled the free end of the rope. Hurrying back to the hatch Itied it around the spokes of the wheel and then went back to thewinch. Quickly
