Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-09
CHAPTER I.
The Man With Wings.

For many hours-Cayley was too much
Of a god today to bother with the exact
number of them-he had been flying
slowly northward down a mild southeriy
breeze. Hundreds Of feet below him was
the dazzling terrible expanse of the
polar ice pack. which shrouds the north
ern limits of the Arctic ocean in its i'm
penetrable veil of mystery.
Cayley was alone, as no man before
ever had been alone. for the planet which
spun beneath him seemed to him. aloff
there in the empyrean, as remote as
Mars or as the Pleiades. Its mountains.
its crevassed valleys and its seas. the
little huddled ciumps Of houses called
towns, the small laborious ships plow-
ing their futile furrows-all amused him
with a whimsical sense OF pity. And
most of all. those human dotlike grubs,
to whose family he had belonged until
he found his wings.
A compass a sextant. a bottle of milk
and a revolver comprised. with the
clothes he wore. and with the simmer
ing silken wings of his aeropiane ms
whole equipment. His nearest base OF
supplies IL you could call 1t that. was
twenty-pOund tin Of pemmican, hidden
under a stone on the northeast extremity
of Herald Island, three hundred miles
at Point Barrow. the extreme northerly
point of Alaska, the place which he had
called home for the past three months,
was possibly. half as far again away,
somewhere off to the southeast.
But TO Cayley, in his present mood.
these distances were matters OF small
Importance. Never again. perhaps. would
the mastery of the air bring him sense
of happiness SO godlike in its serenity. so
ecstatic In its exhilaratiOn. For the thing
was perfect, and yet 1t was new. Only
with his arrival at Point Barrow at the
beginning of this summer had his night
been free from the thrill Of momentary
peril. Some sudden buffet of wind would
tax his skill and nerve to the utmost. A
flight before the wind. even with con-
slant. steady breeze, had been precar-
ious business.
But for these past weeks OF unbroken
arctic sunshine he had fairly lived a
wing. The earth had no obstrucfions
and the air peris. Today. with his
great. broad fantail drawn up arcwise
beneath him. his planes pitched slightly
forward at the precise and perilous angle
that only just did not send him plunging.
headfrst, down upon the sullen masses
OF ice below. he lay there. prone. upon
the sheepskin sleeping bag. which padded
the framework supporting his two wings
as secure as the great fulmar petrol,
which drew curiously near, and then.
with wheel and plunge, fed away
sQuawking.
Cayley would not say that he had
learned to fly; he would still insist that
he was learning. And. in a sense, this
was true. Almost every day elder. gun.
cormorant albatross taught him some
new trick of technique in steering, soar
ing or wheeling. perhaps. in tricky
cross-current OF air. Even that 1uinar'
which had fed in such ungainly haste.
had given him q new idea In aerostaticS
to amuse himself with.
But for all practical purposes Cayley
had learned to fly. The great fan-driven
airship. 100 feet from tip to tip. which
had long lain idle on his ranch at San
doval. would probably never leave its
house again. 1t had done yeoman serv-
ice. Without its powerful propellers. Tor
last resource. Cayley would never nave
ben able to try the experiments and get
the practice which had given him the air
for his natural element. He had out
grown IL. He had no more need OF mo-
tors or whirring fans. The force OF grav-
ity. the force of the breeze and the per
fectly co-ordinated muscles of his own
body gave him all the power he needed
now.
And what marvellous power 1t was!
He had never believed before the state
ment Of men of science that the great
gray northern geese can sail the air AT
eighty miles an hour. He knew II now
He had overtaken them.
Perhaps the succeeding generations OF
can see ahead when the body Is lying
prone. az a bird lies In its flight. Cayley
had remedied this deficiency with a 1T
tie silver mirror. slightly concave.
supported his shoulders. Instead Of
bending back his head. or trying TO see
out through his eyebrows, he simply cast
a backward glance into this mirror when
ever he wanted to look on ahead. ~ had
been a little perplexing at list, but he
could see better in it. now ihan with ms
uraided eyes.
And DOW, minute Or two. perhaps.