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The cataract of Saint-Jean-les-Eaux plunged between pinnacles of rock at the eastern end of a spur of the Alps, and the generating station clung to the side of the ion, a bleak and battered wilderness, and no one would have built anything there at all had it not been for the proenerators with the power of the thousands of tons of water that roared through the gorge

It was the night following Mrs Coulter’s arrest, and the weather was stor station, a zeppelin slowed to a hover in the buffeting wind The searchlights below the craft ht and gradually lowering itself to lie down

But the pilot wasn’t satisfied; the ept into eddies and cross-gusts by the edges of the mountain Besides, the cables, the pylons, the transfor theas, would be instantly fatal Sleet druid envelope of the craft,a noise that alines, and obscuring the view of the ground

"Not here," the pilot shouted over the noise "We’ll go around the spur"

Father MacPhail watched fiercely as the pilot ines The zeppelin rose with a lurch and ht suddenly lengthened and seee, their lower ends lost in the whirl of sleet and rain

"You can’t get closer to the station than this?" said the President, leaning forward to let his voice carry to the pilot

"Not if you want to land," the pilot said

"Yes, ant to land Very well, put us down below the ridge"

The pilot gave orders for the crew to prepare toto unload was heavy as well as delicate, it was important tohis fingers on the ar the pilot work unflustered

Fro place in the transverse bulkheads at the rear of the cabin, Lord Roke watched Several ti behind the ht have looked, if only they had turned their heads; but in order to hear as happening, he had to come to a place where they could see hied forward, listening hard through the roar of the engines, the thunder of the hail and sleet, the high-pitched singing of the wind in the wires, and the clatter of booted feet on ures to the pilot, who confir tight to the struts and beaed and tilted

Finally, sensing from the movement that the craft was nearly anchored, he h the skin of the cabin to the seats on the starboard side

There were h in both directions: crew s, bri with curiosity On the other side of the aisle, Mrs Coulter sat awake and silent, her golden dae malice

Lord Roke waited for the chance and then darted across to Mrs Coulter’s seat, and was up in the shadow of her shoulder in a ?" shestation"

"Are you going to stay with me, or work on your own?" she whispered

"I’ll stay with you I’ll have to hide under your coat"

She earing a heavy sheepskin coat, uncomfortably hot in the heated cabin, but with her hands manacled she couldn’t take it off

"Go on, now," she said, looking around, and he darted inside the breast, finding a fur-lined pocket where he could sit securely The golden monkey tucked Mrs Coulter’s silk collar inside solicitously, for all the world like a fastidious couturier attending to his favoritesure that Lord Roke was completely hidden in the folds of the coat

He was just in time Not a minute later a soldier armed with a rifle came to order Mrs Coulter out of the airship

"Must I have these handcuffs on?" she said

"I haven’t been told to remove them," he replied "On your feet, please"

"But it’s hard to s I’ here for the best part of a day without ot any weapons, because you searched me Go and ask the President if it’s really necessary toto try and run away in this wilderness?"

Lord Roke was impervious to her charuard was a young rizzled old warrior

"Well," said the guard, "I’m sure you won’t, ma’am, but I can’t do what I en’t been ordered to do You see that, I’m sure Please stand up, ma’am, and if you stumble, I’ll catch hold of your arm"

She stood up, and Lord Roke felt her raceful huned As they reached the head of the gangway, Lord Roke felt her stuuard’s are in the sounds around the over steadily to generate power for the lights, voices fro orders

They uard She was speaking softly, and Lord Roke could just eant, ot the keys But I daren’t ask him, ma’am, I’h of regret "Thank you anyway"

Lord Roke heard booted feetaway over rock, and then she whispered: "You heard about the keys?"

"Tell eant is I need to knohere and how far"

"About ten ofman I can see the keys in a bunch at his waist"

"No good unless I knohich one Did you see them lock the manacles?"

"Yes A short, stubby key with black tape wound around it"

Lord Roke climbed down hand over hand in the thick fleece of her coat, until he reached the he and looked around

They had rigged a floodlight, which listen brilliantly But as he looked down, casting around for shadows, he saw the glare begin to swing sideways in a gust of wind He heard a shout, and the light went out abruptly

He dropped to the ground at once and sprang through the dashing sleet toward the sergeant, who had lurched forward to try and catch the falling floodlight

In the confusion Lord Roke leapt at the big e cotton of the trousers - heavy and sodden with rain already - and kicked a spur into the flesh just above the boot

The sergeant gave a grunting cry and fell clu to call out Lord Roke let go and sprang away fro body

No one had noticed: the noise of the wind and the engines and the pounding hail covered the man’s cry, and in the darkness his body couldn’t be seen But there were others close by, and Lord Roke had to work quickly He leapt to the fallen man’s side, where the bunch of keys lay in a pool of icy water, and hauled aside the great shafts of steel, as big around as his ar as he was, till he found the one with the black tape And then there was the clasp of the key ring to wrestle with, and the perpetual risk of the hail, which for a Gallivespian was deadly: blocks of ice as big as his two fists

And then a voice above hieant?"

The soldier’s daeeant’s, who had fallen into a se and a kick, and the other , heaving, Lord Roke finally snapped open the key ring, and then he had to lift six other keys out of the way before the black-taped one was free Any second now they’d get the light back on, but even in the half-dark they could hardlyunconscious -

And as he hoisted the key out, a shout went up He hauled up the , lifting, crawling, dragging, and hid beside a s feet arrived and voices called for light "Shot?"

"Didn’t hear a thing - "

"Are they breathing?"

Then the floodlight, secure again, snapped on once ht in the open, as clear as a fox in the headlights of a car He stood stock-still, his eyes ht, and once he was sure that everyone’s attention was on the two men who had fallen so mysteriously, he hauled the key to his shoulder and ran around the puddles and the boulders until he reached Mrs Coulter

A second later she had unlocked the handcuffs and lowered theround Lord Roke leapt for the hem of her coat and ran up to her shoulder

"Where’s the bomb?" he said, close to her ear

"They’ve just begun to unload it It’s the big crate on the ground over there I can’t do anything till they take it out, and even then - "