Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-19
BY 7. ARMSTRONG DREXEL.

appointment and tho dscoura cement Of
that moment i Was almost AL in yet
! had stood the two hardest stages of my
journey to cover-the bitter fight OF
jumping and falling. jumping and falling
during the final five hundred feet ana.
last. but most awful of all, the horrors
OF that descent where the chances were
one hundred to one against me In my
pitifully weakened condition.
There was nothing for it. however. but
TO continue the fight upward. ! set my
teeth hard and again pulled the controi
toward ME. There was a rafting SOUND
behind me and l glanced back quickly.
fearing that tho tail of the Rlertot had
come loose. But, before l had time 10
turn all the way, / mastered myself ana
forced myself to look straight ahead ana
not to think of such A POSSIBILITY as inc
tail coming off. | knew that to give way
to such fears would threaten panic with
my oVerstrung nerves. and panic Wouih
he fatal.
So I dogsedly fixed my mind upon the
magic figures 10000 and mounted
again Below me there was nothing but
space. The filmy clouds formed a haze
which completely shut the earth from my
view and L seemed like an impudent little
fly, buzzing around Importantly In Lac
vastness of infinitude Tho thought struck
me as being rather droll, and lausheo
sAoud.
Then / remembered how friend OF
mine had come to me at the hangar pe-
lore L started ana, With IL tnHI A'.d! GO
preston on his face. as though he knew
l was not serious. asked:
Are you really going for altitude to-
day."
Yes" answered.
My friends guizzical look turned. l
thought to a smile of open disbelief as
though he and | were sharing a secret
from the waiting crowd.
'no YOU think YOU have any chance
Of making it" he asked.
There's always A. chance / replied
and jumped into the machine
Since then I have thought over that
short conversation score OF times ana
/ have failed to find in it anything
in the slightest amusing. Yet away up
there In a loneliness whose yastIiess and
impreasiveness only LegagneauN and l.
OF all living men, can appreciate, with
the motor buzzing and whirllns and
humming and splitting. seemingly to &C
centuate the very vastness of the soil
tude and make it even more awe-inspir-
ing than it is to the floating balloonist-
away up there. passing close to the 9UU-
foot mara, the two questions and their
answers struck me as being the most
droll things I had ever heard and
started to laugh and guffaw, Loudly
boisterously. coarsely. like u drunken
sailor in low taproom.
thing uncanny in it and I suddenly
awoke to realization of the fact thai
/ had been laughing in this way fol
fully ten minutes and that there was
nothing to laugh at after all.
Cray" thought, and as the thought
flashed across my mind with all the hor
rible possibilities of a loss Of mentalit!
and mental balance nearly two miles
above the earth-with the slightest mis-
movement spelling awful DEATH pulle'
myself together again and made fina
desperate effort to cross the 10000 mark
1t was impossible for me to know
whether I had succeeded or not. TIL
last few feet were such a bitter strug
gle Up and down. up and down through
, the thin air. that / could not look a
the Paragraph. and indeed, could not Sc
the line the one time / did try. for m
eyes had become affected by the strat
and everything was blur to me.
Finally, utterly exhausted and numl
both in body and mind, L gave up tn