The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-04-10

resignation. There were never many
travellers upon 1t, and that afternoon
but a single vehicle was to be seen,
bright blue fish-cart bound for che
Moorland market Somehow It's 6riv-
er happened to see the Comet, and
with jerk he pulled the horse to a
standstill and stood up, presenting the
white disk of hts face to the sky.
Noah laughed and waved his hand,
and as the Comet shot by, the fisher
man snatched up his horn and blew
broken below, expressive OF his
excitement.
This was the only man whom Noah
saw that day, although it turned out
that nearly every farmer of the coun-
tryside had seen him.
The fish-cart had hardly dwindled
away when note SO thin that it
would have been undetected by the
inexperienced ear threaded the
rhythm of the motor. Noah lis
tened with a. frown. With deli
cate fingers he overran this
and that part, but the small foreign
voice sang with mischievous obstin-
acy, and swelled in volume until it
led, aus it we're, the refrain OF the en-
CINE. Then with series of hoarse
chucks it ceased abruptly, and the
shaft lay dead in it's bearings.
On the ground it would have been
comparatively easy to overhaul the
motor; but Noah was averse to alight-
ing in this waste between Duntown
and Moorland, where 1t would be inn
possible to secure the aid he might
he could, sometimes rewarded by a
brief spinning of the propeller that
reused his hopes in vain.
With her engine dead, the Comet
was at the mercy of the wind. At
first this drove her on toward Moor
land, in the course previously select
ed; but presently, due either to a
change in the wind or a crossacurrent,
she began to drift north. The long
shuttle-shaped bag had not the steadi.
ness'of the ordinary spherical balloon,
and its quick rolling and unexpected
plunges tried Noah's nerves and in
creased the difficulty of his work.
Hoping to reach a calmer stratum
of air, Noah upended two of his bal
last bags, and as the sand fell, the
Comet pierced the low-hanging clouds
like a cannon-ball. For a moment
Noah was frightened; but the rise
of the ship ceased almost as abruptly
as 1t had begun, and she hung some
eighty feet above the white mass of
cumuli, casting distorted and gigan-
tic shadow upon it.
The earth had vanished. 1t seemed
that If he fell, the cloud must catch
him as in blanket, and the absence
OF wind had also it's steadying ef-
feet upon Noah. He went at the en-
CINE with determination, tested the
sparkling plug and the flow of gaso-
line, put oil wherever there was fric-
ton, and at last had it chattering
cheerily at its highest speed.
Now that the Comet was under con-
troll again, he hitched forward, and
the air-ship dived down on a gentle
slant, piercing the fluff Of vapor until
the dunes spread their diminished map
below her. 1t was appalling to see
how diminished they were, and Noah
swung himself quickly backward to
arrest the dive.
Probably he did so too quickly. The
great bag Of the Comet, halted sud-
denly in it's course, oscillated violent
ly and buckled so sharply that one OF
the thin wire guys leading from the
forward collar to the framework snap
ped with twang. The end flew out
writhing into the blur of the pro.
peller, which received it with horrid
crunching
Before Noah could stop the engine
it came to a EARRING stand, and one
of the light propeller-blades snapped
short OF and few upward against
the blunt snout of the Comet. The
distended silk, almost as brittle as
glass from the tremendous interior
pressure, cracked open in wide-lip-
ped slit, through which the ship be-
gan instantly to belch her hydrogen.
Rigid with horror, Noah saw the
slit widen, until the whole snout, torn
away by the rush Of the imprisoned
hydrogen, hung downward like a huge
clowns hat The long belly Of the
bag began to work as If 1t were
breathing, and at the rupture the silk
fiuttered loosely.
The Comet was spilling her gas fast
Gently har tail aank and hor x,o,,o5
ed nose pointed Up and up. until she
stood nearly on end, still Sinking.
With arms and legs wrapped con-
vulsively about the framework, Noah
had bitter moment OF terror. The
Comet was more than half a mile
above the dunes. In few minutes
she would begin to fall in earnest,
and as the gas rushed from her, her
speed would increase, until long be-
s.. II.