The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-07-30

I last the sky became choked with dense
. clouds, wlicI swept down upon The
lace Of the waters. and were WLirled
INTO black tornadoes By the circllng
blasts.
Frequently the car was deluged By
UaterspOur. and al such times. when iu
. the center Of the Syratins spout Sc
would actually be lifted clear into the
air. An ordinary vessel would have
been unable 20 live five minutes III that
/ he'll Of waters and Of winds But the
car went through IT Ike q giant bub-
90 not know how long ali this last
Cd. j. ulHlr have been tcrtE-e-E-L
hours. The thing became worse and
worse Sometimes rain mingled with
Iall descended 10 vast sheets Half the
time one window OF the other was
submerged and when we were able 20
look out We could see nothing but the
avytul clouds whipping the surface %
But at length. and with amazing
gulcE1eSs; there came chance. The
clio lcs broke away brilliant sunlight
nrsL 10 one side and then 10 the other.
we caught glimpseS OF "a marvellous
dome high overhead
II was not a blue vault, such as we
see on the earth. Il was Of an indie
scribably soft grayish color. and under
i I0a-ed here and there delicate cur
taius Of cloud, like the nackereI skies
that p-eCede a storm They were tinted
though the light was bright. no sun
shine appeared
The lake had now expanded into an
apparently bOunlGSS sea. whose sur
face had uuieted down. for the winds
no longer blew with their former vIo-
leuCe- Presently Jack. who was stand
ing alone AZ one Of the windows, called
We went TO his side Of the car. and
he pointed TO something that gliIJered
nigh up in the air
What's LhaL2F he asked
What are those, rather2' demand
ed fer had caught sight Of a dozen Of
the l-litterinE objects ranged in an al
most straight row. at an elevation per-
haps Of 900 feet, and several miles
away from us
Nobody answered for a long time.
while We continued 70 gaze in astouish-
ment- Even Juba noticed the things
with his noon eyes, which did not SUI
fer here quite as much as they had done
IN the sunshine At last Edmund safd-
Those are alrshipS."
--A1rsllyJa-'
yes, nothing less. An exploring ex-
petition. I shouldn't wonder 7 anrIci-
pareG something Of that kind You
know already how dense the q atmosphere
Of Venus Is II follows that balloons
here than over the earth I was pre-
pared 20 ind the inhabitants Of Venus
skilled IN aerial navigation, and I'm not
disappointed.
Then you think that there are people
In those things up there2"
cor course. and I reckon that they've
seen u.s. and are going 10 investigate
us
It was a startling thought, and I con
Tess that had 10 screw I'D my courage
To be sure. we had come here expecting
70 IND inhabitants, but /, at least.
hadn't looked TO meet them so soon, and
certainly 1 was not expecting first 10
md them IN the sky.
felt Ike the hunter who goes after
grizzly and suddenly peTCeiveS his
enemy staring down from a rock just
Edmund was evidently correct in sur
missing that they had seen US Some
kind Of signal flashed among the air
SAlpS, and they altered their course
sun keeping in line, they began 10 aG-
vance IN our direction, at the same time
gradually descending.
As they drew nearer we could make
out some of their details
4hey were long and narrow, and bore
G -LSlQeId9le resemblance 10 aerOplaDeS
Whlcn / mad seen at home But they
we're mucn more complete. They were
eNlaenty driven by screws, and they
seemed to be steered with great ease
10 certainty Their approach was
When We first saw them they were
pIy1aolS Jnree miles away, but in the
course or ten minutes Iney had drawn
50 near that we could see their decks
crowded with what certainly looked
lief in noticing that they bore no reseu-
olallce 20 the creatures we had encOunt-
cred on the night side of the planet
But then came the disturbing thought
ona-l We De any safer because they are
more Ike men2 With increase of intel
IlEeDCe comes increase of the mower
and often Of the disposition. 10 do evil.
However, We had 10 face our fate.
whatever It might be II wasn't likely
that they would begin by making an
end or US Their curiosity would first
have TO be satisfied
They shove no apprehension. Why
should Lhey2 All that they saw as vet
was an ocd-lHOking affair floating on
the water They might take IL for some
strange marine animal. but they could
never imagine that It contained fntelii-
gent beings whose eyes were watching
them
At length they came to rest within