The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-04-03
CHAPTER Nv
THE FALL THAT FOLLOWED
PRIDE

Theodore fell like a stone, so
swiftly that the aeronat seemed to
dart incontinently toward heaven.
All about him were the tossing
folds of the cloud, streaming horse
tails of fog, fleeces of aerial wool,
invisible, save for the lights of the
Roc, which intermittently revealed
! the vaporous details and partly dis
PEELED the illusion that he was fall
ing eternally, like soul hurled
forth into purgatory of limitless
descent. Like the retinal image of
a Quenched flame, he saw In the
murk the eyes of Shayne's niece,
and her white face under the quaint
pointed hat, blankly amazed at his
desperate leap from the air ship.
Suddenly the pull of the parachute
admonished him that at last it was
doing its work, and restored to him
an acute perception of his situa-
ton.
He felt none the effects of the
gale; but the wind of his fall burst
upwards as from the mouth of
some huge blower, fighting his de-
scent, stripping off his hat, and
swapping his hair like whip laShes.
Black as the heavens was all be-
low until directly beneath him there
suddenly burst forth a great red
light that kindled the cloud to Grim
son, turning the heavens to a sky
Of sanguinary vapor spanning a sea
of flame. The mysterious light
swelled like an outbursting con-
flagration; filled the falling boy
with terror; and then, as swiftly
as it had grown, it waned, faded,
and the sky was dark again. The
fear of the eery and inexplicable
chilled him more than did the fierce
March blast. The expanded para
chute suspended him over fiery
mystery and an unknown land,
wondering. wishing for day, or for
clear darkness even, that he might
see on what or into what he was
falling.
If he but knew the land, he might
set the deflectors and work his
fall over into safety-if safety the
neighborhood afforded. How the
winds voice grew! Whether on
church spire or chimney or tower,
into garden or wood or graveyard
or into open grave, it was wild
dangerous night in which to land.
Suddenly he burst from the floor
of the cloud like a meteorite. and
saw a long procession of white and
violet lights speeding past him and
n thn iSta hn t.rh 70,
of town set into apparent flight
by the speed of his headlong ca
reer before the wind. Far off in
the glare of a locomotive fire box
he could see a devilish fireman,
weirdly stocking. Had there been
light for 1t Carson had scant time to
survey his land fall; but he judged
instantaneously that on either side
would lie the open fields; and to
avoid the roofs and chimneys, he
set the deflectors to nurse off his
descent toward farms and soft
earth.
The town fled away; the roar of
the wind rose about him; he was
whipped stingingly by the
branches of tall tree: then
a lower one bowed him
through its dense top; he laid
hold OF a slim birch, and as 1t bent
like a fishing rod under his weight,
he let go the sheets of his para
chute, the wind spilled from the
slken leach, and he tumbled heavily
into mattress like bridal wreath
bush. over an asphalted walk. and,
eased down by the shrubbery. he
rose unhurt. so far as he could
feel, to find himself by rustic
seat near dry fountain. On his
left he could make out long build
ing three or four stories high, the