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It was the calm before the threatening storm,--a storm which in less
than an hour might break in a hail of death and destruction from the
sky, and turn the fields of earth into a volcano of shot and flame.
Certainly the fate of an empire, and perhaps of Europe, or indeed the
world, hung in the balance over that field of possible carnage.
If the Russians regained their war-balloons and were left to themselves,
nothing that the heroic Germans could do would be likely to save Berlin
from the fate that had overwhelmed Strassburg and Metz, Breslau and Thorn.
On the other hand, should the aerostat not return in time with a
satisfactory answer, the victorious career of the Tsar would be cut
short by such a bolt from the skies as had wrecked his fortress at
Kronstadt,--a blow which he could neither guard against nor return, for
it would come from an unassailable vantage point, a little vessel a
hundred feet long floating in the air six thousand feet from the earth,
and looking a mere bright speck amidst the sunlight. She formed a mark
that the most skilful rifle-shot in his army could not hit once in a
thousand shots, and against whose hull of hardened aluminium, bullets,
even if they struck, would simply splash and scatter, like raindrops on
a rock.
The remaining minutes of the last half hour were slipping away one by
one, and still no sign came from the earth. The aerostat remained moored
near the building surmounted by the Russian standard, and the white
flag, which, according to arrangement, had been hauled down to be
re-hoisted if the answer of the Tsar was favourable, was still
invisible. When only ten minutes of the allotted time were left, Arnold,
moving his glass from his eyes, and looking at his watch, said to Natas--
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