The Yale expositor., 1913-11-13


statement that 1T certainly begins to
look as though there was a vein of
truth after all in the wild west story |
OF the American Flying Man. one
French paper remarked in parenthesis |
that Should America announce a ny
ing submarine. France should not be /
surprised to see the announcement |
fulfilled as one must be prepared 10 |
expect anything from America from
Latin Europe came the hope that |
their FIRST comment was correct, while |
the stole German said I'VE are stun
unconvinced. The whole thing is
absolutely unscientihc." But mean
while throughout the civilized world |
there ran an undercurrent of horror
and sympathy resulting from the trag
eGy which was alleged to have taken
place upon the great western plateau.
AS for the father of the missing child,
he raved night and day in the obses-
sion that she would be dropped
through the roof as the stone had
been. while the bereft mother wan
dered about speechless and dumb and
to all intents practically thoughtless.
But that an uncanny menace hung
! heavily over their heads those-at
| least those who abode near the scene
Of the tragedy no longer doubted
| Their normal reasoning faculties once
more controlled them and man TO-,
man, family to family and concourse
to concourse they talked the matter
over gravely. The probity of the eye
! witnesses of the first appearance OF
! the apparition was not to be ques-
| toned nor their saneness disputed
Also, Farmer Jones was an intelligent,
] truthful man, his wife a Christian
woman and the disappearance Of their
daughter ineXplicable except one be-
lieved the story of the now practically
insane father. The mayor and city
council deemed il a matter of sufi1-
cient Importance to summon all wit
nesses into their chamber, and before
them there appeared in answer to the
summons the persons who had seen
him with their own eyes. One by one
they corroborated each other with an
earnestness and fidelity of detail that
convinced all hearers that no halluci
nation-the only possible explanation
Of their story heretofore II one did not
believe it-lay behind their steady
eyes and voices. Cross-questioned by
skilled lawyers both separately and in
each others presence, their answers
were invariably the same. The Fly
ing Mans wings had spread OF from
twenty-fi to thirty-five feet, the best
hn ufft.
nesses agreeing on about thirty feet.
They were dark colored, filmy, bat
, like and folded up somewhat similar
to a fan. The man himself was slen'
der of body and sinewy of limbs rath
!, er than muscular. He was from SIX
. to eight feet tall-probably about
. seven-at any rate much taller than
any of those who had fought him or
, the lawn. His eyes were twice the
size of a humans and protruding
sometimes glowing like dim carriage
lights in a mist and more or less
changeful in hue. He was OF brown
or reddish color, his features hal
T manlike, but his lips and canine teeth
were more those Of a gorilla. AnC
then when they were through will
their questions, on top OF all this
mass OF corroborative evidence Des
mond quietly laid the blood analysis
Of the two experts who had made /
before others OF their profession. The!
remained mistaken liz their conviction
of its accuracy.
Beyond all question, not only wa
Z the particular community over which
the Flying Man now lowered menacet
as no city ever had been before, bu
the state itself, In fact the whole ma
ton was threatened, since he coult
extend his operations as far as h
chose in any direction. Nor could tn
. extent of his capabilities to inflic
: damage be easily calculated, inasmucl
q as they did not know the power of hi
= mentality beyond the fact that ne Gel
tainly possessed an intelligence equa
at least to the lower order of huma
beings-his dropping the stone prove
= that. Not only could he steal children
murder men and women and destro
property and life by bombardmen
from above, but far greater possibil
ties for destruction were within hi
power should he avail himself c
them Scattered all over the land /
mining camps, upon railroad constru,
ton, upon canal work, upon sewe
work-in fact, In a thousand place
throughout the country where exc
IN. waiting and blasting were going OF
were great quantities of dynamite an
other high xplosives-enough
sll blow cities from the face of the cart
to and warships to the bottom OF II
m sea. All he had to do was to SOL
er about until he came upon such a seer
nd of operations, watch his chance
De- pounce down upon a quantity OF son
nd explosive and then from on high b
gin his work of death and destructio
he Warships would be futile against hiI
Its since he could either keep away fro
es them or attack them In the darkne
he of midnight Armies would be of /
nd avail, for he could be here today al
lin hundreds of miles away tomorro
ne and inasmuch an he had the who