Page 44 - A Hero of Liége

CHAPTER IV

--IN NEUTRAL TERRITORY

The sky was clear; there was very little wind; and Kenneth realised that the
conditions could hardly have been more propitious. For some minutes he

was too closely occupied with the mechanism to consider direction. The
monoplane was strange to him. His experience of flying had been almost

wholly gained in the machines of his friend Remi Pariset, son of the
manager of the Antwerp branch of Amory & Finkelstein. Pariset was a
lieutenant in the Belgian flying corps, and Kenneth had frequently

accompanied him in flights, at first as passenger only, afterwards being
allowed to try his hand in the pilot's seat. It had long been his aim to gain

the pilot's certificate in England, and, as he had told Frieda Finkelstein, he
hoped on the outbreak of war to get a commission in the Royal Flying
Corps.

Though he had never before managed a monoplane of the type of that

which he had appropriated, he had often watched the German airmen, and
after a little uncertainty in his manipulation of the controls, he "felt" the
machine, and recognised that it would give him no trouble. Then he had

leisure to determine his course.

His first idea had been to make all speed to the Belgian coast, and take ship
for England. But recollection of the conversation overheard between
Hellwig and his visitor suggested that he might possibly do some

preliminary service to the Belgians. A bridge was to be blown up. There
could be no doubt that this operation was part of the German plan of

campaign, and if it could be frustrated, this would represent so much gain
to the defending force. The river spanned by the bridge had not been
named, but there was a clue in the fact that the bridge was near a mill. His

intention now, therefore, was to alight somewhere in Belgium and
communicate his discovery to the military authorities.

In the hurry of departure he was quite oblivious of the direction of his
flight. Now that he had time to consider it, he saw by the compass that he