A Spy and a Zeppelin!

Discovering the true identity of Aunt Harriet's Lodger

'Everything was extremely neat- the bed made, the towels folded, the papers on a little table stacked in neat piles. There wasn't a single flower or grass, or insect or beetle to be seen; but the walls, as Tod had glimpsed, were covered with white paper.

'Maps!' said Dad. Just as I expected. He took his time, and examined each one with care. 'The railway line, of course, he said 'And the Aerodrome. Then Ramsey, and all the whole district laid out as clear as if you were a bird looking down at it from the sky.' A strange look came over his face, and he swore, the first and last and only time I ever heard him do so. 'Struth!' he said, which for him was swearing, because he'd often told us it mean 'God's truth' and was breaking the third commandment. He kept on saying 'Struth!' and looking up into the sky as if he were seeing things up there over our heads. Then he stood up, put as all out, and locked the door again.

Read more on Page 81 in The Silver New Nothing

'It's a BOMB!' dad said, and clawing out of his chair, he rushed outside. Tod appeared from nowhere and we all followed Dad on to the doorway, and from there down the path to the gate that led to the fields. The bomb was still burning, throwing it’s awful, flaring glare for miles, it seemed, over the flat land, and up into the sky- and there, moving slowly and sedately across the deep, moonlit blue was the long, dark shape of a Zeppelin. It was so low you felt you could have hit it with a stone. We could see it as plain as if it had been broad daylight.

When the postman came walking up the road from Ramsey, he brought more news with him (as he usually did). The Zepp had dropped its load of 'hexplosives' about five miles away, as the crow flies. A train had been travelling down the main line towards London, and the fireman had opened his firebox, ( so 'they' said- although how they found out is is still a mystery) to coal up. The Zepp's crew had seen it, and tried to bomb the line, as they had missed the aerodrome that was their real target. They hadn't hit the line either, their bombs landed in a farmyard and killed five pigs.

Read more on Pages 195 and 198 in

A Silver New Nothing