Fifty-seven minutes later, Inconstant bore away northwest, leaving her crippled adversary far behind.

The next sunrise saw the pirate zep just crossing over the Mediterranean shoreline, a hundred miles east of Tobruk. She flew low, a few hundred feet above the dazzling azure sea, taking the horizon away from any would-be pursuers. Midday brought them to the Anatolian coast, and late in the afternoon, she climbed two thousand feet and launched her undamaged Albatross.

It passed west of the city of Izmit, circled once over the rundown remains of a Crusader citadel, then set down on the road the south and taxiied up to the gate.