Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-10
CHAPTER |.

when Maldens Fell from the Sky.
-oR twenty shimmering miles the
Gulf beach lay in the sun, a
white straight-edge against blue
Mistily through the surf haze gl1m-
mered the tower of Sand Island light
save when obscured by the smoke
plume of a fruiter standing in past
Fort Morgan for Mobile. 1t was early
forenoon. The yellow globe OF the
mooring balloon at the fort shone In
the sun like a dome of some audacious
new architecture flung high into the
p~ulsating air. Two men, far down the
coast toward Pensacola, caught the far
off splendor and noted, in the very
act of casting off from 1t, a n cigar
shaped aeronat-an immense elongated
bubble OF quicksilver. 1t f1oated sea
ward, rounded to, stood a moment n
on, librating like a balancing top.
shes boun' fo' N1awlins, An
reckon, suh."
The speaker was a typical Gulf
fisherman, long-bearded, soft of speech,
courteous as a diplomat, barefooted,
weathered in garments and skin. over
his cheeks and nose were scattered
broad brown blotches which, had 1t not
been for their size, might have been
called freckles. He rolled a cigarette,
lighted it, turned his almost colorless
eyes on his companion, repeating,
shes sho' boun' TO N'Yawlins.'
In the mien of the young man there
was something of kinship to the elder,
as there might be in a New England
chemist or engineer something that is
like his forty-second cousin fishing on
the Newfoundland banks. The soft
ness of speech was modified to a subtle
firmnes and a subdued decision. The
slight, tall frame was arrowy and erect;
as If the youth had imbibed from some
winier air a latent self-esteem ex-
pressed in the hin of incisiveness in
speech. il one may call that incisive
which was still soft and almost caress-
ing. The boy also had the areas of
notified freckling. OVERLAPPING a pink
glow. He wore a blue flannel shirt
with a bright silk cravat; his shoes
were secured gray by the beach sand,
and his well-shaped hat was powdered
with IT.; his trousers were of cadet
gray and were striped down the
side; seemingly they were a part Of
some obsolete uniform. He sat on
a great square timber half-buried in
the sand, and had been studying
a blue-green Portuguese man-of-war
cast ashore and rolled up before
the breeze, dragging its yard-long
On the beam lay a steel
square. a brace and bit, a roll of blue
prints. some steel drills and a book OF
logarithms. He had returned to the
sea bladder, Investigating it with the
tin of a slim ~oil-can, and had mentally
formulated a parallel between this help
less thing, beaten about by every
breeze, and the dirigible balloon up the
coast. when the speech of the old fish
erman made him look up.
His face was small for a mans, his
ewes dark. his lip blackened by a tiny
mustache Of jet. In the manner of n
who does not feel obliged to reply to
the speech OF a constant companion, he
picked up a pair of binoculars from a
cast-up crate and studied the distant
air-ship.
mo likely bound for Pensacola, Cap
tain" he said. shes coming this way
"a Condor with bow rudder. Winter
resorters, ] reckon"
Then she don't keer whar she goes
replied the fisherman. TITS thisaway
o. thataway, list as some lady says"
At don't know that 1t matters" said
the younger man, whether they see US
or not; but i reckon wen go under the
she'd"
IAN raght, Miste' Theodo'.' answered
the captain. "Hyah's dom the gophah
act as'tn."