By throwing over all the available ballast, the airship's crew was enabled to rise rapidly. As a departing salute it attempted to drop a fourth charge of dynamite.
Just then something went wrong which threatened the airship with instant destruction. The dynamite charge got stuck in the tube.
The automatic detonator already had been set in motion. The captain seized a hatchet and climbed over the rigging. He struck a few desperate blows at the tube, at the risk of his life, and released the charge, saving the airship. The dynamite exploded with a terrific detonation long before it reached the ground, with a burst of flames.
Another tribute to the gallantry of Capt. Von Muller of the German cruiser _Emden_ is contained in a letter received by a Glasgow woman from her son, a member of the crew of the steamship _Kabinga_. The letter says:
"The _Emden_ captured the _Kabinga_ in the Bay of Bengal, but when Capt. Von Muller learned that our skipper's wife and children were aboard he presented the ship to the lady, remarking to the skipper, 'You can inform your owners that as far as they are concerned the _Kabinga_ has been seized and sunk.'"
An officer in the pay department of the French army, writing from Ypres, says:
"The town is being sprinkled with shells. In the earlier days of the attack only bombs from aeroplanes fell, but during the last forty-eight hours the town suffered from the attentions of big howitzers.
"Night before last a regular bombardment destroyed a score of houses and killed eight persons, of whom two were women. Up to now the shells have spared the wonderful city hall, but will this delightful Flemish city suffer after the manner of Arras?
"My letter has been interrupted by the bombardment, which is terrible. For two hours yesterday evening nearly all the houses in our neighborhood were struck. Many are smashed. We sought refuge in the cellars of the Hotel de Ville, the only place capable of resisting the great shells.
"Profiting by a lull we went out in search of another shelter and found a vault under the ramparts of the town. There we spent the night, huddled up with a hundred men, women and children."
A mile and a half crawl with five bullets in his body under artillery and rifle fire was the experience of Private Dan Hurst of the Coldstream Guards. Writing to his wife, Hurst says: