Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-11-01
initials Only g By Anna katherine Green
A Thrilling Mystery Story Of Modern Times

, times might have greeted the sudden sight
of Nulcan's smithy blazing on Olympian
hills. But the clang of iron on iron
would have attended the fash and CLEAN
of those unexpected fires, and here all
was still save for that steady throh
| never heard in Olympus or the halls Of
Valhalla, the pant Of the motor eager for
| fight in the upper air.
As they listened in a trance of burn
ing hope which obliterated all else. this
noise and all others near and distant was
suddenly lost in loud clatter of with
ing and twisting boughs which set the
forest in roar and seemed to heave the
air about them.
wind had swooped down from the
east bending everything before it and rat
tling the huge oval on which their ewes
were fixed as though it would tear it
from its hinges.
The three caught at each others hands
! in dismay. The storm had come Just on
| the verge of the enterprise and no one
might guess the result.
/ Ill he dare? viii he dare?" whis-
pered Doris, and Oswald answered. though
1t seemed next to impossible that he could
have heard her:
He Will dare But will he survive il
| Mr.. Challorer," he suddenly shouted in
| that gentlemans ear, what time is il
now?"
| Mr.. Challoner, disengaging himself from
their mutual grasp, knelt down by the
| lantern to consult his watch.
| 'One minute to g." he shouted back.
| The forest was now a pandemonium.
Great boughs. split from their parent
trunks, fell crashing to the ground in all
! directions. The scream of the wind
! reused echoes which repeated themselves.
J here, there and everywhere. No rain had
! fallen yet, but the sight of the clouds skur
! fylng pell-mell through the glare thrown
| up from the shed created such havoc in
| the already overstrained minds of the
| thTee onlookers that they hardly Needed
| wien with a clatter and crash which at
! another time would have startled them
! into flight, the sWaying oval before them
was whirled from it's hinges and thrown
! back against the trees already bending
| under the onslaught of the tempest De-
| struction seemed the natural accompani-
ment of the moment and the only prayer
which sprang to Oswald's lips was that
! the motor whose throb vet fingered in
! their blood though no longer taken in by
Che ear, would either refuse to work or
| prove insufficient to lift the heavy car into
this seething tumult of warning forces
| His brothers life hung in the balance
against his fame. aud he could not but
choose life for him. Yet, as the multi
! tudnous sounds about him yielded for a
moment to that brothers shout and he
! knew that the moment had come which
would soon settle all. he found himself
| staring a the elliptical edge of the han
gar with an anticipation which held in
it as much terror as joy, for the end of
! a great hope or the beginning of great
triumph was compressed into this trem-
! bling instant, and if
| Great God! he sees it, They all see
it, Plainly against that portion of the
! disc which still lifted itself above the
| further wall, a curious moving mass APP
| pears, lengthens, takes on shape, then
shoots suddenly aloft clearing the en-
circlng tops of the bending, twisting and
tormented trees, straight into the heart of
the gale, where, for one GREATNESS mo-
! ment, it whirls madly about like a thing
| dlStraught then in slow but triumphant
obedience to the master hand that guides
| it, Steadies and mounts maiestically up
ward until il is lost to their view in
the depths of impenetrable darkness.
Orlando Brotherson has accomplished
| his cherished task He has invent ed
a mechanism which can send an air
car straight up from its mooring place
| As the three watchers realize this, Os-
/ wald utters cry of triumph and Doris
:.
Then they all stand transfxed again.
waiting for descent which may never
| come.
But bark, a new sound mingling its
clatter with all the others 1t is the rain
! Quick, maddening, drenching. it comes {:
enveloping them in wet in a moment.
| Can they hold their faces up against il?
/ And the wind! Surely it must toss that
aerial messenger before II and fling it
| back to earth, a broken and despised toy
"Orlando?' went up in a shrek. Or
| lando?"
Oh. for a ray of light in those far-off
| heavens! For a lull in the tremendous
| sounds shivering the heavens and shaking
! the earth! But the tempest RACES on and
they can only wait, five minutes. ten min
utes, looking, hoping, fearing, without
/ thought of self and almost without
thought of each other, till suddenly as it
/ had come, the rain ceases and the wind,
! with one final wall of rage and defeat
/ rushes away into the west, leaving behind
it sudden silence which, to their terrified
| hearts. seems almost more dreadful to
bear than the accumulated noises of the
! moment Just gone.
To Be Continued in Next Issue