The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-04-24

denly everything spun black before thei1
eyes. Their throats became parched; theil
heads swan; their hands and feet became
nerveless; their hearts palpitated fercely.
sank into heaps and aroaned.
# Prof. Wildcr alone, sustained hitherto
not only by the conversation. but also by
the excitement of guiding his monstroua
neriel creation, withstood the indisposi-
ton. He concentrated his attention upon
the intricate machinery ahead as he pi-
loted his mercurial ship. Once, only. he
looked at his companions, then no turned
away for he felt dizziness, like a serpent,
creeping upon him.
Here were two rudders which he had to
control, whatever happened. The one de-
ternined the direction of his ship: the
other, its altitude. Tho slightest deviation
of the latter might send the vessel eallop-
ing to the moon. or crashing to the earth.
just like the rudder Of a yacht. it needed
the constant pressure of the hand.
Here was a condition unforeseen. Here
was an uncalculated calamity. Shall air
sickness disable the crew and wreck the e1-
esdition? When all difficulties have boen
conquered, when all things have been ac-
complishsd-what an irony is this! Surely,
there is some power more intelligent than
cold and ice that protects the inaccessible
baleful influence even unto the invaders of
the air.
Prof. Wilder, "a nervous little man, with
fine eyes, and intelligent. sandy face and
sander %whiskers). looked out of the win
low. He did not know what to do. Far
below, the restless water of the lake re-
Heoted the sun. There was evidently nc
timo for him to pilot the airship to the
land, before helplesaress would overtake
him toe. He ground his teeth in the agony
of the prospect. His companions, even the
unconquerabls sergeant, were PROSTATE,
ho1rIoru roph0pc ircouaih1m fNhnv lid MT
care whether they lived or died.
But the Aeropole could not travel un-
guided. To keep up at all it had to &c
ahead. There was no time for considers
tion, for choice. A fearful spasn of the
heart and convulsion of the head warned
lie reached out his head to retard the yes
sells motion. He grasped the lever that
controlled the power. Ha pulled it. His
other hand was upon the wheel that guided
the horizontal rudder.
He did not know that his nerve centres
refused to send the correct messages to his
hands.
He pulled the lever the wrong way.
The machinery, adjusted with the utmost
nicely and perfection, responded to the in
creased power. Evan'at her terrible speed,
the airship bounded faster ahead, az she
had struck a down grade.
Fortunately, even as the professor fell
from his chair insensiblc, his other hand
dropped from the rudder, and as it did so,
it gave it a slight inclination. At that
speed, a deviation of an inch in the verti-
cal rudder would cause the airship to de-
scribe q circle almost Immediately. The
movement of a hairs breath upon the
horizontal rudder would make nm imme-
dinte deviation in tho airship's altitude.
Luckily, the great fanlike rudder dropped
the sixteenth of n second, and the airship,
manned by useless inmates, ross steadily,
md kept to her course.
How long the mon lay there, no one
knows; it might not have been over n half
an hour. They had passed from over the
bosom of the great lake IA were now
speeding over the Canadian Dominion.
Many miles before them arose the blue
outlines of unexpiored mountains. Though
n hundred miles or more away, the airship
could pass them in loss than half an hour.
Such speed seems phenomenal, but it is
by no means impossible of imagination,
even IL one has no faith in the invented air.
ship. There must be a frat to all things.
That the airship in the far future will sur
] pass In compass and velocity the aohievs-
ment OF Prof. Wilder, just as the expresa
train of to-day BurpasseH the inventions of
4 Stephenson, no man in this age can REASON
ably doubt. A hundred milea an hour OH
steel rails ia a'grcnter marvel thnn twice
that speed where there 10 neither road nor
resistance. 10 20 from Liverpool to Now