The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-29

noise of those Mausers against the bag
was like 20 hodcarriers falling down
ladders with their hods.
The crouched down In the
basket. hanging on to his lever. while
glass In hand, and kept on writing dis
patches. The bullets were flying like
hailstones by the basket M into the
bag and striking II In a storm.
Nobody was ratified. We kept right
on playing ball. I expected that the
big bag would be ripped In a thousand
pieces and that IL would fall like a lot
of bricks. Instead of that we began to
gradually descend. The balloon was
little gas was escaping.
The rain OF bullets never let up for
a second. Bud a just asked me IL I
wasn't getting a little nervous when he
yelled. My God. they've got met
He dropped over to the bottom Of the
basket with two wounds. one In his left
groin and the other in his left foot. !
noticed two holes in the basket as he
dropped the lever. I had just been won
dering who the first man would be. Tit
lieutenant locke around and asked how
badly the aeronaut was hurt. Then he
said:
Now. I have got to stand here and
watch out. and II Bud" gets so bad
that he can't handle the lever you do
his work and your own. too Then he
wrote on a sheet of paper from his note
book:
"'Bountifui. MNoRN.'
This message meant One man
shot
But the rain of bullets was doubled.
probably because the S~paniards saw
they were getting the best Of US. /
couldn't understand why the balloon
did not fall like a dead weight. until l
vas told later that the holes closed up
almost as fast as the bullets came
through. There was now enough gas
escaping to cause the balloon TO drop
faster.
THE basket was swaying from side to
side as the balloon shifted. The out
look was very ''leery,' for ] expected
every minut that the balloon would rip,
and there was nothing below US but
water.
Lieutenant McNorn was as cool as
ice. He had just written a dispatch
and handed IL to me when he was hit.
He was standing close 20 the edge Of
the basket. The basket had taken a
sudden turn when he fell with his head
across the edge Of the basket and a bull
let in his right side.
Then followed the hottest 10 minutes
Of my life. I caught the lieutenant
with one arm n drew him back into
the basket. which vas swinging so that
II was a guess whether we wouldn't all
be spilled out at the next turn.
with the other hand ] telegraphed
to my friend Considine at the other
end:
THE lieutenant Is hit. I am holding
him up with one hand n wiring with
| the other. i don't know how badly he
is of. but 1t looks like go with him
1T was a hard place for fair, and ]
was scared more over falling out OF
the basket than from the bullets h a
kept swarming. Considine wired back:
keep your nerve. h balloon Is
coming down easy. and we will stand
by II IL touches land
II was covered with the l~ieutenant's
blood and he was unconscious. The
was breathing, but could do
nothing. With my free han ! again
wired to Considine:
"'Get the ambulance and the doc
tors. They have missed me, but the
other men are unconscious.
II was told afterward that il was IL
minutes by the watch between the first
message from the balloon and the land
ing. II seemed like IL years. j stuck
my head over the edge of the basket to
see how the alloo was drifting and !
thought that there was a chance when
] saw 1t turning to the land. For per-
haps two minutes before the landing
the shower of bullets let up.
Finally the basket grazed the beach
and I climbed out. My feet were fairly
on the ground when a s~harpshooter's
bullet struck my face under the left
eye and covered my head with blood.
1t was a lucky shot and panied me, but
j knew that IL was not serious.
THE boys ran up and carried the
lieutenant and aeronaut from the
basket, and I turned around in time to
see the big balloon collapse slowly tc
the ground. The will pull
through, but McNorn is still in tbs
hospital and is in bad shape"