The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-06-13
Virginia Of the
A 7 By Herbert Quick
AH0S Author of
Il AL &&AA Nv Double Trouble"
AUIuOT OI
Double Trouble"

! vaunt their strength even as glad
iator, they speak In thunder across
the leagues, saying, Let the left
wing advance yonder, and the right
wing hold the hills, while the center
rushes in with the trampling
charge of its wind and downpour-
and We shall get these mortals,
good and plenty!' And then we
Outflank them on the east and give
them the contumelious ha-ha, and
hang on their rear threatening their
communications with Medicine Hat
and Kamloops, by James! And if
they do surround us, We'll rise into
the inane-as has frequently been
my habit anyhow-and we'll soar
over the topmost domes of their
encampment of destruction and
dampness and statical electricity,
and We'll drop down outside the
lines-dry within and without. This
is sport for a king or a hippOgriff.
On. on, say l, and yet again, ONT"
That's all right as pure fancy"
replied Carson, "but if we ever
get hemmed in among these storms,
we'll not get out by going over
them"
"Wh y not?" asked Craighead.
'I'll not hear that there are limits
to the chievements of this flying
exclamation-point. for the prospect
upon which 1 am mentally engaged
must speak of the pleasures of tor
undertaking, and the following of
the spoor of the typhoon and the
sirocco. Why not hurdle the tenn
pest, caitiff?"
"Those highest towers" replied
Carson, jointing to the thunder
heads now again snowy in the
moonlight. ARE thirty, forty, fifty
thousand feet high"
well, what do we care?" pro-
tested Craighead. ut wouldn't hurt
any more to fall that far, than from
where we are. Come, better logic,
sirrah!"
THE upper strata" said Carson.
ARE snow and ice and frost"
Better to feel FROST" said
Craighead, than to be one. Sir Dag
onet. Come, thou'rt unhorsed!"
And the atmosphere up there. ="
went on Craighead, ''is too rare for
the Virginia's foothold; or for
breath. Before we got above those
domes. the engines would be put to
it to keep here at a standstill"
Then. SIR" said Craighead, you
have enlisted the great, safe, sane
and conservative Craighead in a
wildcat promotion of a machine in
which. in surmounting an ordinary
thunder-head. we shall be success
sively stalled, frozen to death and
suffocated! Am l right, Colonel
Carson?"
Carson was questioning the alti-
meter-statoscope as to whether or
not their altitude would carry them
over the peaks which must now be
fast rising beneath them. Far to
the north glowed the lights Of some
great hotel like swarm of station
cry fireflies. Beneath was darkness
and mystery. though once he heard
dogs bark-the last sound lost in
aerial travelling. Craighead waited
as If for reply.
BY your silence" said he, "you
confess. Let me out. am hurt to
the heart. To have fooled away SO
much time on such dinky think!
Let me out! would fain walk
back to Sherry's."
The smile of an approaching
army quite obviously described the
approaching storm. Like a vast
arch the clouds marched on, cover
ing the mountains far to right and
left. the black nimbus on which
they were based sweeping the
earth with a trailing veil of rain.
BY abandoning the Catskills. the
aeronef might have evaded the
struggle, but her commander
seemed to have no notion Of retreat
Though terrified by the lights and
towers and multitudinous life of
New York. he drove his craft un-
shrinkingly into the teeth of thun-
der and lightning and wind and
rain.
Put on your oilspinks." said he
to Craighead.
ITS humiliating," said Craig
nedu, Uut IcShOHi Hiuoe.
There's an opening yonder in
the rain" said Carson. IF 1t doesn't
close up. we may slip through to
the back of the storm again."
AS II the wings of the advancing
army had extended its lines until
they pulled apart in the center. the
rain opened where Carson pointed,
At that moment the whole heaven
was black, save where the moon.
now riding high. touched the cloud
submits with silver; but in an in
slant a sudden discharged of looped
and linked lightning lit up the
whole northwest, and Craighead
saw through to the rear OF the rain
as through n window, the base OF
which was the hills, its upper limit
a straight horizontal line of black
nimbus, its sides misty and indefi
mite with encroaching downpour.
1--WE must go lower" said Car
son, "and pass under. The rain IL
closing in: but l reckon We can
slip through. pretty dry"
To be continued.
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