The Washington times., 1911-08-07

I
| turvy. while over and above the tur-
MOL writhed and curled the morning &
mists, giving the effect of motion to
| the whole.
| Upon every side were the snow
bound giants of the Himalayas-
| mountains OF unutterable, indescriba-
BILE grandeur. Among these terrors
of the night we must tread our way.
| Above these shimmering pillows we
must sail. The mystery OF what lay
below was only equaled by the sky
above. If we had been lost before.
| what should we call it now?
Suppose the air ship failed. Sup
pose 1t came to earth and refused to
rise: How. in that vast and trackless
region, those awful solitudes, that
strange, silent enchanted land of
mystery. could we ever hope to es-
| cape? l think Gwynne must also
have been awed by this thought as
We swept-oV the seething caldron
| beneath.
! Save for the sharp cut of the wind
as 1t whist'ed by. there was not a
| sound. No creaking of parts, no whir
or hum of machinery. no suggestion
Cf mechanical effort. The vessel stood
| as steadily upon her course as the
moon above. There was no swaying
| or uncertainty. She was as solid as
! when standing upon the ground in
| the court yard of the gomba.
| OF course, 1 could only guess at
| our speed hV observing the howing
|
was greater than at any time since
| leaving the Rrnhmaputra steamboat.
| There was no sense of fear, and the
! situation was not only novel, 1t was
| eXhiIarating; enhancing, eCStatic!
| There are some things one cannot
describe-the very effort to do so is
! distaSteful and belittltng to the thing
| itself To know what 1t feels like to
| fly, one must fly. To know what II is
| to fly in GWynne ROedler's air-ship,
away from the savage horde of MUIR
derOus devils In the Gim-ra lamasery.
one must do it. The witChery of that
night can never be forgotten. unless
its memory be effaced by the greater
witchery that followed.
But the cold gray light of dawn
was striving with the moon for mas
terry in the eternal snow-fields
above and beyond us. The ghosts
Of the Himalayas loomed in
awful splendOr, guarding the secrets
they had guarded since the world be-
gan, and which they will continue TO
guard till the end of time.
But at last the struggle was over.
The mystic spell of the moon gave way
TO the sunlight. The clouds of the val
ley, the yeasty ferment of the hills, were
swallowed up and we were warm.
By 8 o'clock we stood directly over
a plain which was watered by a tiny
stream, but which gave no sign of Nfe.
Not even a goat or yak could be seen.
though the herbage appeared to be
made fast his cords and steering aPpar-
atus, and was taking off his sheepskln
coat. followed his example in re-
moving the heavy top garment, as the
hest Of the sun was mOmentar!y in
creaSing
Thoroughly thawed out and looking
over the side of the vessel, Gwynne
pointed down and said:
Il think we'd better make a halt
down there. Looks like good place"
l asked what for, to which he an
swered:
breakfast"
The place looked pleasant enough as
1t smiled up a US with its sparkling
thread of water and myriadS of wild
flowers, and l seconded the motion,
though l had not yet thought of such
a thing.
Then gradually we settled down upon
the earth.
The sense of power in the mastery of
the air-the ability to rise or fall at
will-was more deeply Impressed than
ever when we touched the ground again.
it was an ideal spot for camp and the
airship came down as lightly as d
feather.
was bursting with enthusiasm, not
only for the vessel, but for the man
who had Contrived and built 1t. l seized
Gwynne by the hand and congratulated
him. 1t was impossible to express my
you're a wonder! You've solved
the problem of the ages. 1 can hardly
believe it!''
Gwynne received my homage philo-
Seems to be all right as far as she
goes" ne answered. Lets hope she'll
keep on going"
told him l was sure that there could
be no doubt about 1t. The thing had
wen, we won't halloo too loud till
We get out of the woods. at any rate
r she carries us safely to Tad-sa-fuh,
and away again, with the Narney g1rls'
I'll throw up my hat, sureH
l was quiet
what are you thinking about?'' he
asked.
away from Gim-ra, We forgot to pay
our bill"
Gwynne laughed.
My dear fellow. we paid 1t ten times
over Didn't we leave all the yaks and
Roedler seemed Indifferent about the
property; ard. as 1t belonged to him, l
had to be satisfied.
We built a fire and made tea, which,
with some dried kid and barley cakes,
together with old butter and treac!e,
made an excellent breakfast. Then we
sat down to enjoy our pipes.
l asked Gwynne if he had any idea
how far we had travelled since leaving
the lamasery. He looked at his watch.
-Four hours and over-wen, let me
see; probably not less than forty miles
-nlaybe more
And you're quite sure about the
course?"
so far, yes-but we may have to do
some guessing when we get among
those big mountains there. We may
get tangled UP in the sky peaks"
! reminded him that he had spoken Of
going straight as a bullet. He looked
at me compassionately.
A Continuation of This Story VIII
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