Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-04-06
CHAPTER l..
Tha Man With WINGS.


For many hours-Cayley was too
much Of a god today to bother with
the exact number Of them--he had
been flying slowly northward down a
mild southerly breeze. Hundreds OF
feet below him was the dazzling, ter
r1ble expanse Of the polar ice pack
which shrouds the northern limits OF
the Arctic ocean in its impenetrable
veil of mystery.
A compass, a sextant, a bottle OF
milk and a revolver comprised, with
the clothes he wore, and with h
shimmering silken wings Of his areo-
plane, his whole equipment. His near
est base of supplies, If you could call
1t that, was a 20-pound tin of pemmi-
can. hidden under a stone on the
north east extremity of Herald island,
300 miles away. The United States
rescue station at Point Barrow, the
extreme northerly point Of Alaska,
the place which he had called home
for the past three months, was pos
sibly, half as far again away, some
where off to the southeast.
But for these past weeks Of I'M
broken arctic sunshine, he had fairly
lived awning. The earth had no OBJ
structions and the air nc perils. To
day, with his great broad tan-ta1l
drawn up arc-wise beneath him, his
planes pitched slightly forward at the
precise and perilous angle that only
1ust did not send him ~plunging, head
first, down upon the sullen masses OF
ice below, he lay there, prone, upon
the sheep-skin sleeping bag which
padded the framework supporting his
two wings, as secure as the great rul
mar petrol which drew curiously near
and then, with a wheel and a plunge
fed away, squawking.
For all practical purposes Cayley
had learned to fly. The great ian
driven air ship, 100 feet from tip tc
tip, which had long lain idle on hit
ranch at Sandoval, would probably
never leave its house again. 1t hat
done yeoman service. Without 1T
powerful propellers, for the last re
source, Cayley would never have beer
able to try the experiments and ge
the practise which had given him thu
air for his natural element. He haC
outgrown 1t. He had no more neet
of motors or whirling fans. The fore
of gravity, the force Of the breeze ant
the perfectly co-ordinated muscles o
his W body gave him all the powe
he needed nov
Perhaps the succeeding generation
of humankind may develop an ey
which can see ahead when the bod,
is lying prone, as a bird lies in 1t
flight. Cayley had remedied this dc
ticjency with a little silver mirror
slightly concave, screwed fast to tn
~crossbrace which supported his shou
ders. Instead Of bending back hi
head, or trying to see out through hi
eyebrows, he simply cast a backWar
glance into this mirror whenever h
wanted to look on ahead. 1t had bee
q little perplexing at first, but d
could zee better in 1t now than wit
his unaided eyes.
And low, a minute or two, perhap
after that fulmar had gone squawkin
away, he glanced down into his mi
row. and his olympian calm wa
shaken with the shock Of surpris
For what ne Jaw, clearly reflected
his little reducing glass, was ian
There was a mountain, and a lor
dark line that must be a clifflil
coast.
And it was land that never he
been marked. on any chart. In abs
lutte degrees of latitude he was nc
from the arctic explorers view, vel
far north. Over On the other side
the world they run excursion steal
ers every summer nearer to the pc
thar be was at this moment. Spit