The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-02-17

ton, and They're max
ing a tow of it. They're
reversing and rounding to. See
them drift off! They're excited
and all aback about something.
Heavens! See that think
shoot up! It's some sort of hell
copter, l believe-and the girls
alone in it, Captain! Alone, ]
say! Why did they She's
lost control-she's lost! It's shoot
ing over this way and coming
DOWN. 1t Wilt will
! My God! My God!"
The thing had parted from the
great aeronat, like an insect
scared from it's seat on some great
animal. 1t was little speck
topped with broader, mushroom
shaped simmer which Carson
knew for the revolving blades of a
helicopter, that insidious toy that
promised so much for the conquest
of the air and paid so little. For
moment it paused, sucked along
in the wake of the huge ship as if
in tow; then, as though released
from the pull of gravity, it shot
lskyward, leaving the silver air.
ship far below, as a fly might
speed from floating bubble. The
two spectator drew their breaths
sharply in, their hearts frozen in
Fascinated apprehension.
The air-ship floated fifteen hun
dred feet, perhaps, above the tall
pines in the slashes of the narrow
isthmus which divides the Lagoon
from the Gulf. The slow-flapping
buzzards on their way to some
reported feast over near Three
Rivers never noticed the glitter
ing bilge of the giant craft so
high she scared above them; but
the helicopter flew like a rocket,
up above the balanced ship, so
straight into the cool heights of
the inane that those remaining on
the deck it had left lost it, behind
the overhanging hull of the aero
nat.
But the men on the beach saw
it; saw it rise skyward like a
boys dart until they shuddered
at the abyss that yawned between
it and the earth; saw it struck by
the far-advanced loftier vanguard
of the north wind predicted by the
fisher-captain; saw it hurled
before the blast like a
feather; and then, as If with
slowing engine, saw it fall, with
the red hat and the white dress
glimmering appealingly from un-
der the shimmering helics, curving
obliquely toward them, like a pro-
jectile hurled outward and down.
ward from the battlements of
highest heaven. And Carson
|gripped the barnacled column
|fiercely; he thought of the girl in
the red hat and pique skirt, for
he was young and his heart was
|gripped as in a wise.
The Condor had an anne. She
was the Roc" owned by Mrs.
Finley Shayne; and her home port
was. Shayne's Hold, in the Cat
skills. Those who are familiar
with the scope, power and spec
tacular success of Mr.. Shayne's
Operations in Aerostatic Power
stocks in the latter part Of the
first quarter of the present CEN
fury, will surmise- that the Roc
was the finest product of the art
|of aviational construction up I'd
that time. Her speed. her stanch1
ness, her airworthiness, her lux
urious OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES fame OF
these had preceded her to the
Gulf resorts, where she awaited
favorable breezes to Cuba, and,
from island to island in the An
'tilles-an attractive itinerary, but
rather hazardous, the aerostat be-
ing an unsafe craft for the open
sea.
This fateful morning she had
|moored in the aerial harbor at
Mobile. in her berth hard by the
lift near the Bienville statue. Mrs.
Shayne, native Mobilian, pleaded
indisposition; but went out to
See some old houses dear to her
youth. Mr.. Shayne and their
guest. Mr.. Max silberberg, had
insisted upon the presence OF Vir-
'ginia suarez, Mrs. Shayne's niece,
on trip down the Bay in the Roc.