Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-04-20

Ahpb - hOt JCbk
Il don't know" said Tom. "The fell
low seemed h~alf-crazed; seemed, al
most, to have lost the power Of speech
from long disuse Of it. But he meant
to take us somewhere, that was clear
enough from his gestures. II | could
only have seen you before ! began to
blurt the thing out, I'd have spared
you the suspense until there was some
thing to tell. I'm sorry, Jeanne"
Its queer" she said, at the end Of
a rather long silence. I'm sure there
was no Portuguese in fathers expedi-
ton. Except for two or three Swedes
and Norwegians, they were all Amer
leans. ! know the name Of every mar
who sailed in his ship"
HE might have taken some one on
at st. Michaels," suggested the elder
Fanshaw.
YES" she said a little obviously,
only he never thought much of south
ern Europeans as s~ea-faring men,"
There was another silence after
that. She rose presently and began
sweeping the shore line with a pris-
matte binocular which was slung
across across her shoulders. The two
men exchanged gIances behind her,
the elder, M Of inquiry, his son, a
reluctant negative. No, 1t would
clearly be insane to build any hope on
the incident.
At last she let the glass fall from
her listless hand and turned to them,
her face haggard with the torture Of
impossible hope. II wish my sky
Ulan would come"-she said forlornly,
come whirling down out Of the air,
with news of them"
Your sky-man?" said Tom Fanshaw
~questioningly.
Here was something to talk about
at last, and the old gentleman seized
the chance it afforded.
Eyes, we've another mystery" he
said. See what you can do toward
solving It," With that for an introduce
ton, he plunged into a humorous ac-
count Of Jeanne's report Of her ad-
venture of the night before, of the man
who had dropped down from the sky, in
the middle Of the night, and talked to
her awhile, and then flown away again.
"She was really out on the ice foe"
he said; 80 much l concede; but
when I assure her that she dreamed
the rest, she is skeptical about my ex.
PLANTATION"
But wen you can't explain" she
protested, chow I could dream about
an Eskimo t~hrowing-stick, n then
bring it back to the yacht with me
when l was ~wide-awake, and show 1t
to you at the breakfast table this
morning" y
I'll have to admit" said the old
gentleman, that my explanation
doesn't adequately account for that"
The expression Of the younger
mans face was perplexed rather than
i%ncredulous. T.
But, my boy" cried the elder man,
think Of it! He comes down out Of
the sky and says he just dropped in
from Point Barrow; and that's 500
miles away. That's just as impossible
as it would be to materialize an Esli.
mo throwing-stick out Of a dream,
very bit" q
mo, hardly that" said Tom judicI-
ally. What was his ~aeroplane like?
What was it made Of? Did you notice
1t particularly"
yes" she said; 81 helped him fold
it up. 1t was made of bladders and
bamboo and catgut, he said"
And his motor?" cried Tom. What
was his motor like?"
There was no motor at ALL" she
said; "just wings"
There you see, Tom" interrupted
his father, absolute moonshine."
But still the younger man shock a
doubtful head. NO" he said, "the
things not impossible-not incouceiv-
able, at least. The big birds can fly
that far, and think nothing of it."
The old man snorted: They're
built that way. Think of the immense
strength of their wing muscles"
Not so enormous" said the young
II man. Il dissected the wing Of an
albatross once to see. It's not by
main strength they keep afloat in the
air; it's by catching the trick Of It."
That's what he said" the girl cried
eagerly. "He told me he could fly
across the north pole, from Dawson
City to st. Petersburg, and when l
asked him if he could keep flying, fly
ing all the time like that, he said the
biggest birds didn't fly; they sailed,
and he said he sailed, too, and the
force Of gravity was his keel"
Her story was making its impress
sion on the younger man, at least,
even if his father was as impervious
to 1t as he still seemed.
We'll, If you dreamed that" said
Tom, 1T was a mighty intelligent
dream, I'll say that for it"
But it wasn't a dream at ALL" she
cried. Didn't l help him take the
thing apart and fold 1t up into a buns
die? And didn't he say that he was
q tax payer, and that his name waa
Philip Cayley?"
CTo BE CoNTINUED.)
BY Way Of Variety.
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