The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-02-18
VIRGINIA. $z : A!7S :: 9.
y Nor Co. ES10 PM Nll1CU Quick
Copyrighted, 1909. by Bobbs MorriiI Co..

ltle." said she. "and fly away.
feel as If l should fly!"
81 shall not let you." said he. 81
shall hold you'll
''Mr. Silberberg!"
The rebuke was evoked by his
putting his arm about her. One
white, jeweled hand was slipped
behind her, the other laid on her
arm, the oily perfumed curls
lstooping until the red lips ap-
preached hers. Perfectly aware
of what she was doing, but quite
reckless of consequences, Virginia
pushed the lever, threw in the
clutch-and the wings started.
The pull of the vivified mechan-
ism, drawing him out to death,
made Silberberg's very fingers
tingle with terror, and let go girl
and car. and leaped backward.
Under the lift of the wings, the
car dragged to the edge, slipped
off with a grating sound, and
swung there in mid air, the paint
er dangling almost within reach,
three hundred fathoms in the air,
supported only by the spinning
helices driven by an engine that
one man only knew how to man.
lage, and he as far removed from
lit, potentially, as IL he had been
in Mars!
The carmine tint that had slim
ulated the aggression of Silberberg
faded from Virginia's lips as her
mouth set in a white line; and
her face turned deathly pale. Half
rising, she stretched her hand to-
ward the aerostat, whence there
came to her ears the cries of Sill.
berberg and her uncle, and the
wild profanity of Wilmer.
Listen to me, damn you," he
yelled, ''isten!"
He was trying to tell her how
to use the levers-but she could
not understand for the wild drum
ming in her ears. She felt stifled
her hand trembled so that she
could not hold to anything, nc
matter how she tried. At last-it
was over in a monochrome by
accident than design, she moved
something. With appalling veloc
lily the thing shot upward, the
aeronat fell away toward the
Iearth, the fisherman's house fal
beneath was wbisked down to the
Ilittleness of a toy. The air struck
her face, blowing downward more
and m0e chill. Overhead the
screws hummed implacably. the
Ionly sound she heard. She was
in the midst of the illimitable ST.
licences, now for the first time
broken save for the eagles scream
or the rustic of the wide wings Of
the osprey or the man-o'-wai
hawk. Her heart felt gripped IL
an iron hand, and throbbed smoth'
Ieringly. She was climbing upward
drifting north toward the Lagoon
liz she could only descend in land
locked water, she might yet be
lsaved-and she was not the girl
ito give up.
She studied the machinery, try
ling to apply her picked-up knowl-
ledge of engines. Here was the
thing with which to stop 1t, she
felt sure of that; but to stop it
suddenly was mere suicide, swift
fall to death. Some means there
must be, she knew, to ease 1t
down; but she saw nothing she
dared touch. That was the horror
lof it,-she dared touch nothing.
She could only sit there awaiting
Whatever might betide, away up
lin the awful isolation of the sky,
with a demon-machine that buzzed
lin ferocious energy and mounted
upward.
She was growing calmer now.
1t would surely slow down OF IT.
| self, she reasoned; and If 1t did
Inot-well, she had escaped, from
lSilberberg, anyhow. 1t was a
clean, unsullied place in which tc
meet the end. She would rather
llive-but--already natures ether,
which makes death easy, was steal
ling into possession of her senses
And then the north wind struck
The puff smote her cheek, the hell
lcopter yielded to 1t and swept
southward, like a feather before 6
fan. The Lagoon moved from I'M
der her, pulling the Gulf after 1t.
She was blowing out to sea. AS
the new thought added itself to
her conception of the desperate
situation, the sinking of her heart
told her that until now she had
never given up hope. She reached
Iout to stop the engine; but as the
vision passed through her mind OF
failing, falling like the stick of a
rocket, being dashed to pieces on
the earth, and nuzzled over by
wild hogs until someone discov-
cred her, she withdrew her trem-
bling hand again, deliberately
choosing a grave, in the sea.
Then voice seemed to speak in
her ear from the chill solitude,
lsenseless words, as Of one STAN
lmering, like the phantasms of
voices heard in the delirium of
fever, finally growing distinct, and
repeating over and over a COM
lmand: "Retard the spark" 1t
Isaid; "hetard the spark"
The Roc was far below and to
the north, now, the Gulf breakers