The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-04-10
THE TRIAL
TRIP.
BY FISHER AMEs, JR.


"O4d" Silas Cotton, the FIRST Cot
ton, had launched a seR-feeding mang-
er upon, an appreciatfve rural mark
ct, and unlike most of his kind, he
had profited by his patent. Silas II,
the present owner of the farm, had
shown the same inventive faculties.
He had added ITO the income left him
by his father by means of a sue
cessful vegetable crater and a re-
markable churn. But he lived in too
stirring an age to confine his ener-
gies to such homely products Elec-
tricity and gasoline were bound to
fascinate a mind like Cotton's, and
after the churn his experiments kept
pace with the times, until his latest
toy, an air4ship. occupied his un-
divided attention.
1t would be unfair, however, to class
1t as toy Within limits it was a
practical machine. but it's fight so far
had been short 1t remained to put
1T to the test at an altitude where it
would meet with varying atmospheric
conditions.
The morning for the trial came, but
at the last moment one of the metal
edged blades of the propeller was
found to be loose in the collar. 1t
was repaired, but Mr. Cotton was not
satisfied with the job. He believed
longer and Thicker bolt necessary;
but his sen, young Noah, was anxious
TO make the trial trip, and as he was
TO conduct it, Silas finally gave in.
The Comet, as they had christened
the airship, sat in a wheeled cradle
which could be shifted about the long,
narrow work-pen to suit the convent
ence of the experimenters. That day
fresh searbreeze was blowing, and
when every detail had been carefully
inspected, the Cottons trundled the
cradle to the eastern end of the yard,
pointing the ship" down wind.
Noah, thin and wiry, with his ia
theirs aggressive nose in miniature,
mounted the little steps and bestrode
the marrow framework that hung hori-
zontally below the delicately floating
bag. There was no saddle or Gear"
proper He sat on the jointure of the
long, ladder-like frame, which spread
between hds legs like an inverted ".
Before him on a platform was the
little engine. from which the light
shaft ran on, its bearings to the pro-
peller at the bow.
Noah swung the small crank and
the engine began to sputter-phit!
phit! phut! phurr-rr! AS the explos-
Ions grew more regular and rapid,
the vicious chatter smoothed to mel
auw drone, and the propeller4blades
whirled in an unbroken smoke-color-
ed disk. Noah worked himself back.
ward along the framework, that his
weight might tilt the nose of the ship
upward when she started.
Let her gol" he said.
Not more than an hour out!" said
hds father. Remember! I shall ex
poet you back in about couple OF
hours"
All right-M the motor behaves. !"
replied Noah, LET her go now. She's
running we'll"
SiIas drew down the lever controll-
ing the various clutches that held the
Comet in her cradle. Immediately she
rose like duck from water, on a long
ascending line that barely cleared the
fence and the NAPLES beyond. But
as Noah upset one of the swinging
ballast bags of sand. SO, delicately had
her ltfting power been calculated that
she responded instantly in a curyette
that put her out of the reach of OBJ
structions. Up she went perilously on
end; but Noah, crawling inch by inch
up the frame. gradually depressed her
DOW until, two hundred and fifty feet
above the racing fields, she pierced
the air on an even keel.
The cold white spire round which
the loose farms of Duntown lay swan
by ON the north. Noah pulled at the
ttller-ropes, and the huge rudder-
Two intersecting planes of canvas
stiffened with bamIboo-swung the
obedient ship parallel with the state
road. He was now riding directly
with the wind, and like a running
vessel the Comet alternately dipped
and rose, but in much longer and
smoother swoops.
Between Duntown and Moorland on
the west stretched ten miles of bar
rem httle hills. breaking at their crests
into naked sand, the intervening wales
studded with thick-limbed. dwarf
trees. The state road seemed to run
through this country with an air Of