Dick was last seen spiralling towards the ground in a doomed super-plane. His death would surely put paid to any hope of stopping the Spider Ring from doing lots of evil things from now until the end of time. Dick’s demise will open the door for anarchy and chaos to reign. The world is in a volatile state and if America falls under the control of a criminal mastermind, what then the chances of them intervening in a European war? The future is bleak – the Lame One in charge of America, Hitler in charge of Europe and a sinister pact of evil brotherhood between the two which will ensure that freedom will never again be a reality for…

Scrub that – Dick’s got a parachute.

Dick and the prof are waggling their legs and giving a pretty good stab at falling to safety. But the Lame Plane opens fire on them. Dick is appalled.

But wait! Here comes Dick’s sidekick (sidedick?) who opens fire with his machine gun. Why the Lame Plane only has men with rifles firing through windows while Dick’s chum has actual built in armaments is anyone’s guess.

Dick and the prof land safely. They go their separate ways. There is no way that can’t be a good idea.

The sinister Gordon reports that the super-plane’s engines might be salvageable. This is good news for the generic European spy. He wants them to take back to his generic European homeland. I must say it’s brave for a generic European spy to go around looking like Winston Churchill.

Some men from the Lame Plane check out the wreckage, unaware that Dick is watching them from the bushes.

They recover the motor they wanted and hurry back to the Lame Plane. This one is not so lucky – Dick springs into action and a fight breaks out.

Clever Dick! He’s stolen the man’s clothes and is now no doubt on his way to infiltrate the Lame Plane.

Sidedick sees the Lame Plane taking off and resolves to shoot it down once and for all. Oh! If only he knew…

Gordon gives Dick an order. Dick is staring right at him. Surely now he’ll realise his brother has gone rogue. Unless he already knows. We’re not quite sure on that point.

The sinister Gordon orders that the Lame Plane go up to the stratosphere where sidedick’s plane won’t be able to follow them.

A zeppelin / Lame Plane rendezvous is arranged for the stratosphere. On board the zeppelin is the generic European spy and his generic European supporters.

The Lame Plane delivers the recovered plane engine to the zeppelin via the medium of rope.

Some generic European sailors are there to meet it.

Dick has gone down onto the zeppelin too – the sailors greet him warmly and he mugs to the camera so we know it’s him.

Dick blows his cover by whipping his gun out at the first opportunity.

Dick gags the crewman and looks around for something to do.

He settles on making an SOS radio broadcast. Which just involves him saying "SOS" over and over again.

By a happy coincidence, the idiot and the small boy pick up the SOS transmission.

The woman telephones headquarters and they dispatch help. Though how several hundred men on several hundred motorbikes are going to help a man trapped in an airship I can’t imagine.

Nor three men in a boat.

Dick bursts in on the cockpit. The generic European spy is appalled.

The gagged man has freed himself.

I’d forgotten that sidedick and the prof were still in hot pursuit. It sure did the baddies a lot of good going up into the stratosphere to escape their pursuers when, without being able to see them or know where they were going, the good guys were still able to follow them with laser precision.

Sidedick starts shooting.

He hits something and celebrates with some truly mental waving of hands. You’d think he’d never hit a target before. Which, to be fair, he probably hasn’t.

Dick is concerned.

That can’t be good.

A fight breaks out. Dick loses.

The baddies are abandoning ship while the unconscious Dick just lies there and dreams of dirt samples. The dirigible is plummeting to earth with fiery certainty.

Dick. Asleep.

The zeppelin crashes with a bang. Hear me now – there is no way Dick could’ve parachuted off this time. It is impossible. He was unconscious seconds before the ship crash landed. Fact. Any plot development which ignores this fact will earn a severe rebuke in seven days time.

Ship made of gold or ship carrying gold? We’re spoilt this week with two cliffhangers for the price of one.