The daily Alaskan., 1913-12-06
AN AERONAUT
By FRED L. YOUNG


 ped at Gibraltar man came aboard with a number of boxes, which were marked Machinery" He was a pleasant spoken, hail-fellow-well-met sort of person, who made acquaint- ance rapidly with the other passengers. He bet freely on the daily run of the ship and if he won opened wine to eel ebrate his good luck and if he lost opened wine to celebrate the winners luck. In either case he opened wine. Billy Middleton, the gentleman re- | ferred to- soon became known as the best fellow on the ship.
 What's in all those boxes, Mickle- ton, you brought aboard with you" asked a passenger.
 "When we approach the Atlantic coast you'll all know. I'm going to make an experiment that will attract the attention of the world"
 "Why not tell us now"
 'T'm under contract with New York newspaper to keep the secret till l the last moment. The paper is to have the exclusive rights of publication"
 Nothing so absorbs people as curiOs- ] itv. and the OrinokO had not long passed Madeira before everybody was talking about Middleton and the experi- ment he was going to make. Some be- ! lieved it to be a trial trip of new kind of boat. whose parts were packed ! in the boxes. Others guessed that he | had invented a light submarine to be managed by one person. He would put it In the water when the ship was off Sandy Hook and. moving under water. beat her to her dock. A third crowd guessed that MicbletOn intended to be shot out of a mortar from the ships deck and come down with patent parachute.
 When the ship was 800 miles from port Middleton secured the permission of the captain to remove the contents of the boxes to the upper deck. When they had been unpaCked and carried to the deck Middleton set to work and put together an aeTOplane. The pas sengers gathered about him to watch, some who knew something about ] aerODlanes curious to see the machin- cry put in. But MickletOn waited till | they all turned in for the night to do this work, and when they came on deck in the morning they found the acroplane concealed under a canvas cover
 The captain kindly ordered the ships carpenter to make a passage for the machine by taking down the stern rails and otherwise render a start possible. When all these things were done and the passengers had nothing to do but wait they crowded around the aero naut and piled him with questions. "Is l it a new power you're going to test?" Are you going in ahead of the ship or going to make a transatlantic flight? ''IS it to break a record for speed or for height or for distance?'
 Nuck!eton said that it grieved him not to be able to satisfy them, but that he was dependent on the newspaper with which he had made his contract for funds to carry out his experiment and If he let out anything he would forfeit a small fortune. When man became too persistent Billy opened bottle of wine.
 Fire island was sighted at 9 o'clock in the morning. At 10 Middleton was ready for his flight. The last article he put on his machine was a small box. He opened it and showed provisions, From the size of the box it might con- tain food and drink to last a week. It was evident from this that the flight was 10 be a long one. and it was the opinion of most of the passengers that Middleton was intending to make straight across the Atlantic back to Gibraltar. If necessary he would have stopping points at the Azores and Ma deira.
 Just before starting MickletOn went to the wireless office and sent a mes sage in cipher to g New York news paper If any one had any doubts as to the truthfulueSs of the aeronaut's excuses for Hot telling his intention this removed them. Leaving the wireless office. he returned to his aeroplane, went under the canvas, made a final Inspection of the parts, then removing the cover. got aboard, Sailors on a run pushed him along the deck; he caught the air, hardly striking the water surface, then rose gradually.
 The ship was steRming westward along the Long Island coast. The aero plane, rising. turned toward the land, passed over the eastern end of the island and gradually passed out of sight. The OrinOko reached Sandy Hook about noon, but, being delayed at quarantine, was not docked till the next morning. Every passenger was on deck and eager to read the account of the aeroplane flight, the start of which he had witnessed. Not a single newspaper mentioned it.
 Mir. Middleton passed out of the minds of the passengers of the Ori- nolio as he had passed out of their sight