Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1900-10-19

"Joslluu," suit Hr. MagliI wing not'
stop U.'
dressed himself to the habitable GLOBE
with as good an assumption of conf |
dcnce as lay in his power. Just stop
rotating, will YOU" said Mr.. Fotherin-
gay.
lncontincntly he was flying head
over heels through the air at the rate
of dozens of miles minute. In spite
of the innumcrable circles he was de-
scribing per second he thought, for
thought is wonderful. sometimes as
sluggish as flowing pitch, sometimes
as instantaneous as light. He thought
in n second and willcd; Let me come
down safe and sound. Whatever else
happens, let me down safe and sound
He willed it only just in time, for
his clothes, heated by his rapid flight
through the air were already begin
ming to SINCE. He came down with
forcible but by no means injurious
bump in what appeared to be a mound
of fresh turned earth. \ large mass of
metal and masonry, extraordinarily
like the clock tower in the middle of
the market square. hit the earth near
him, ricochetted over him and flew
into stomcWork, bricks and masonry,
like bursting bomb. \ hurting COW
hit one of the larger blocks and'smaSh-
ed like an egg. There was Il crash
that made all the most violent crashes
of his past life seem like the sound
of falling dust and this was followed
by descending series of lesser
crashes. \ vast wind roared through
out earth and heaven. so that he could
scarcely lift his head to look. For
awhile he was too breathless and as
tOnished even to see where he was or
what had happened, and his first
movement was to feel his head and
rcassure himself that his streaming
hair was still his own.
Lord gasped Mr.. Fotheringay,
scarce able to speak for the gale. i've
had squeak. What's gone wrong?
Storms and thunder, and only minute
ago fine night. It's Maydig set me
on to this sort of thing. What a wind!
II | go on fooling in this way, I'm
bound to have laundering accident.
"Where's Maydig?
What a COMPOUNDED mess every
things inn'
He looked about him so far as his
tapping jacket would permit The
appearance of things was really eX-
tremcly strange. THE sky's all right
anyhow" said Mr.. Fotherngay. land
that's about all that is all right. And
even there it looks like a terrific gale
coming up. But there's the moon over
head, Just as it was just now, bright
as midday. But as for the rest
Where's the village? where's
everything? And what on earth set
this wind ALLOWING? l didn't order
no wind"
Mr. Fotheringay struggled to get tC
his feet in vain and after one failure
remained on all tours, holding on. He
surveyed the moonlt world to leeward
with the tails of his jacket streaming
over his head. "rhere's something Sc
riously wrong" said Mr.. Fother!ngay
land what it is goodness knows"
Far and wide nothing was visible il
the white glare through the haze OF
dust that drove before a screamn.
gale but tumbled masses of earth ant
heaps of inchoate ruins. no trees NJ
houses. no familiar shapes, only will
derness of disorder. vanishing at las
into the darkness beneath the whrlin.
columns and streamers, the lightning
and thunderings Of a swiftly riSin,
Storm Near him in the livid glar
was something that once might hav
been an elm tree, a smashed mass o
splinters, shivered from boughs t
base, and further a twisted mass o
iron Orders, only too evidently tn
viaduct, rose out of the piled confu
sion.
You see when Mr.. Fotherngay ha
arrested the rotation of the solid glob
he had made no stipulation concernin
the triGiiug movables upon its surface
and the earth spins so fast that til
surface at its equator is travelling q
rather more than 1000 miles an hou
and in these ATTITUDES at more tina
half that pace. so that the village an
Mr.. Maydig and Mr.. Fotheringay an
everybody and everything had bee
jerked violently forward at about mir
miles per sec0nd-that is to say, muC
more violently than If they had bee
fired out Of a cannon. and every HI
man being, every living creature, ever
house and every tree, all the world {
we know It. b9d been so ierked an
smashed and utterly destroyed. Tha
was all.
These things Mr. Fotheringay di
not, of course, fully appreciate. BIZ
he perceived that his miracle had mil
carried, and with that a great DISCUS
Of miracles came upon him. lie wa
in darkness now, for the clouds ha
swept together and blotted out h
momcntary glimpse of the moon, an
the air was full of fitful. strugglin
tortured wraiths of hail. A great roa
ing of wind and waters filed cart
and sky, and peering under his han
through the dust and sleet to win