The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-04-29

: , The |
! Z FLYING
=~>>>> Man ~p<.>:3
: BY
! Harry Irving Greene d:
\ AuE6or of I
''The Lash of circumstance"
. Barbara of the Suo~s'

Three days~ater a wild-eyed farmer
galloping into the city on a foaming
horse threw himself from the saddle,
stumbled across the threshold of the
central police station and lay there
frothing at the mouth until they
picked him up and revived him with
brandy and ammonia. Eventually they
managed to extract his story, which
was told amidst frequent sobbing
breakdowns, wild fights of incoher-
ency and pitiful groyelings when he
plead abjectly for help both Divine
and human. IN substance he said:
My name is Jones-Simon K. Jones,
and I have a small place about five
miles out in the country on the old
Greek road. l live there with my wife
and little girl eight years old-Oh, in
the name of God, men, help me-help
me save henry daughter-my dar-
ling-all right, I'll try and be calm,
boys, for / know you will all do what
you can for me.
ct happened an hour ago-just about
but it seems a year already. I was
coming across a field and happened to
glance up at the sun to see what time
it was and I saw him-yes, / saw him
the Flying Man, for of course had
heard of himT guess everybody in
the world has. He was up, way up,
mebby a thousand feet, and didn't
look very big and at first / thought
he was some funny kind of a hawk,
was a man. There was no chance Of
its being a flying machine, for I've
seen them and they don't flop their
wings. / ran then-ran as fast as
could, looking up at him over my
shoulder. He saw me too, for he COM
menced to come down in great circles
like an eagle does when he is soaring
off a cliff into a canyon, and he was
getting in on me closer at every
swoop. But / had a good start and
beat him to the house by quite a bit
and rushed in and locked the doors
and showed my wife in a closet and
then took down the guam old mus
ket that 1 always keep loaded with
birdshot. This was just about noon
half mile away. Well, everything
was still for a while, a kind of a
creepy still with nothing but a few To-
Gusts singing, still, still-still as a
graveyard at high noon in midsummer
seemed as if I had never known it
to be SO still, then l heard something
light on the roof and go pat, pat, soft
like, as if somebody was trotting
around on it barefoot, and then !
knew he was up there and looking
around. Then that sound stopped and
for a while everything was quiet as
death again outside and l was stand
ing against the wall where I could see
both windows in front Of me and with
my ears-Well guess never listened
SO hard before. I could even hear the
flies buzzing on the pane clear across
the room and hear my wife breathing
behind the closet door Pretty soon
l heard him try the kitchen door very
soft, but l had locked it and the next
heard of him he was fooltng around
out in the Eoodshed. That made me
get cold, for / thought he was after
the ak to smash in the door, but
after a while he seemed TO go out of
there and for long time there wasn't
q sound don't know how long, it
seemed like an hour, but I guess it
was mebby five minutes. Anyway I
got SO nervous that / couldn't stand
still any longer, so I pulled off my
boots and tiptoed out into the kitchen.
| peeked out of the windows, but
couldn't see anything, and after look
Ing and listening for while l crept
back soft as a cat into the parlor,
and my God, men! There he was
with that awful face pushed tight
against the window pane and those
great June bug eyes of his looking
straight IL at me. l don't reckon /
was ever so scarf before in my life
know I wasn't. I just lost control of
myself, let out yell and blazed away
at him. He ducked like a flash and I
don't reckon l hit him, for l was too
scarf to take aim. Next thing I re-
member I was cooking my gun and
couldn't remember whether l had
loaded it or not, so I tried it with the
ramrod-it is an old-fashioned muzzle
loader, you know-and found that l
had. Must have put in the shot first,
though, for when I tried to shoot it
later only the cap snapped.
Well, l kind of pulled Myself to-
gether and went sneaking around
again sweating and trying to keep up
my spunk by telling myself if l ever
got another shot at him he'd never go
around bOthering people again in this
world. Next l saw of him he was
about hundred yards away over by
the stone pile and was lifting up a
rock that must have weighed seventy
FIVE pounds. While l was wondering
what he was up TO he got it in his
arms and made a hop or two and them
great black wings shot out, and I'D
he went flap, flap, circlin' around and
getting straighter overhead every min
ute till he was so straight up l
couldn't see him any more from the
window. Must have been a couple of
hundred feet up when | lost sight Of
him. Then of a sudden | got cold
was I'D to now-knew il as well as if
he had told me. And l wasn't mis-
taken neither, for about a minute
.ater came a smash-bang and that
rock come through the kitchen roof
like a thousand of brick and knocked
the stove all to smithereens. At that
l yelled for my wife to get down in
the cellar and she went down there
quicker'n a rat and closed the trap
L