Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-04-06
CHAPTER /.
The Man With WInas.

n Man with wings.
For many hours-Cayley vas 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
fible 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, q bottle OF
milk and a revolver comprised, with
the clothes he wore, and with the
~shimmering silken wings OF his areo-
plane, his whole equipment. His near
est base of supplies, If you could call
It that, was a 20-pound tin Of pemmi-
can, hidden under a stone on the
north east extremity ofNHerald island,
BOO 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 In
broken arctic sunshine, he had fairly
lived awning. The earth had no OBJ
structions and the air no perils. To
day, with his great broad fan-tatl
drawn up arc-wise beneath him, his
planes pitched slightly forward at the
precise and p~erilous angle that only
Just did not send him plunging, head
Hrst, down upon the sullen masses Of
Toe below, he lay there, prone, upon
the sheep-skin sleeping bag which
padded the framework supporting his
two wings, as secure as the great full
mar petrol which drew curiously near,
and then, with a wheel and a plunge,
ded away, squawking.
For all practical purposes Cayley
bad learned to fly. The great fan
driven air ship, 100 feet from tip to
tip, which had long lain idle on his
ranch at Sandoval, would probably
never leave its house again. 1t had
done yeoman service. Without its
powerful propellers, for the last re-
source, Cayley would never have been
able to try the experiments and get
the practise which had given him the
air for his natural element. He had
outgrown 1t. He had no more need
of motors or whirling fans. The force
Of gravity, the force Of the breeze and
the perfectly co-ordinated muscles Of
bis own body gave him all the power
he needed now.
Perhaps the succeeding generations
Of humankind may develop an eye
which a see ahead when the body
Is lying prone, as a bird lies In Its
night. Cayley had remedied this de
dciency with a little silver mirror
slightly concave, screwed fast to the
c~rossbrace which supported his shout
ders. Instead Of bending back his
head, or trying to see out through his
eyebrows, he simply cast a backward
glance into this mirror whenever he
wanted to look on ahead. 1t had beer
a little perplexing at first, but he
pould see better In 1t now than witt
his unaided eyes.
And now, a minute or two, perhaps
after that fulmar had gone squawkins
away, he glanced down into his mir
row, and his olympian calm wai
shaken with the shock Of surprise
For what he saw, clearly reflected IL
his little reducing glass, was land
There was . mountain, and q Ions
sark line that must be q clifflikt
coast.
And 1t was land that never hat
been marked on any chart. In abso
mte degrees Of latitude he raj not
from the arctic explorers view, yer,
ar north. Over on the other side o
The world they u excursion steam
,rs every summer nearer to the poll
NA1 ha wa a& this moment Splits