The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-20
(Continued.) CHAPTER x.
IT.. Strange Aeroplane.


 cence in the new rule, and that
 was that strange survival of mediaevaIism, the Slavic fox,'' the king of the Balkans. He debated and delayed his submissions. He showed an extra raordinary combination of cum ming and tenerity in his evasion of the repeated sunmonses from Brissago. He affected i'll health and a great pre- occupation with his new official mis- tress, for his semibarbaric court was arranged on the best romantic models His tactics were ably seconded by Dr. Pestovitch, his chief minister.
 Failing to tabIish his claims to complete independence, King Fer6i- nand Charles annoyed the conference by a proposal to be treated as a pro- tected state Finally he professed an uncoyerfng submission and put a mass of obstacles in the way of the transfer of his national officials to the new government In these things he was enthusiastically supported by his subjects, still for the most part an iIIit- crate peasantry. passionateIy if con fuSedly patriotic and so far with no practical Knowledge of the effect of atomic bombs. More particularly he retained control of all the Balkan aero i lanes.
 For. once the extreme naiyefe of Ie- lane seems to have been mitigated by Implicitly. He went on with the gen. raI modification of the world as if the salkan submission was made in abso- ate good faiths and he announced the ishandment of the force of aeroplanes hat had hitherto guarded the council t Brissago upon the approaching 18th # July. But instead he. doubled theE number upon duty on that eyentful day and made various arrangements for their disposition He consulted certain experts, and when he took King Egbert into his confidence there was something in his neat and explicit foresight that brought back to that ex-I monareh's nina his half forgotten fan tasy of Leblanc as fisherman under green umbrella.
 About 5 o'clock in the morning of the tI7th of July one of the outer senHnels of the Brissago fleet, which was soar ing unobtrusively over the lower end of the lake of Garda, sighted and hail. ed strange aeroplane that was flying westward and, failing to get a satisfac- tory reply. set its wireless apparatus talking and gave chase. A swarm of consorts appeared very promptly over the westward mountains, and before the unknown aerorsane had sighted Como it had a dozen eager attendants closing in upon it. Its driver seems to have hesitated, dropped down among the mountains and then turned south ward in fight only to find an inter cepting biplane sweeping across his bows. He then went round into the eye of the rising sun and passed with in a hundred yards of his original pur= suer.
 The sharpshooter therein opened fire at once and showed an intelligent grasp of the situation by disabling the pas senger first The man at the wheel must have heard his companion cry out behind him, but he was too intent on getting away to waste even a glance behind. Twice after that he must have heard shots. He let his engine go, he crouched down, and for twenty minutes he must have steered in the continual expectation of a bullet. It never came, and when at last he glanced round three great planes were close upon him, and his companion, thrice hit, lay dead across his bombs. His followers rnanifestly did not mean either to upset CT shoot him, but inexorably they drove him down, down. At last he was curv- ing and flying a hundred yards or less over the level fields of rice and maize. Ahead of him and dark against the morning sunrise was village with a very tall and slender eampanile and 8 line of cable bearing metal standards that he could not clear. He stopped his engine abruptly and dropped fiat He may have hoped to get at the bombs l when he came down. but his pitiless pursuers drove right over him and shot l him as he fell
 Three other aeropIanes curved down | land came to rest amid the crushed l grass close by the smashed machine l Their passengers descended and ran, holding their light rifles in their hands toward the debris and the two dead 1 men, The coffin shaped box that had occupied the center of the machine l had broken, and three black objects 1 each with two handles like the ears o1 | a pitcher, lay peacefully amid the lit ter.
 i These objects were so tremendously important in the eyes of their captors that they disregarded the two dead men who lay bloody and broken amid i the wreckage as they might have dis regarded frogs by country pathway. l Look! Look!'' cried the-frst. Here l they arer'
 i s.And unbrokenr' said the second | sTve never seen the things before.' said the first
 Bigger than I thought" said th' second.
 l The third conner arrived He stared for a moment at the bombs and theI turned his eyes to the dead man witl l a crushed chest who lay in a mudd, place among the green stems under tn center of the machine.
 .sOne can take no risks he said wit a faint suggestion of apology.
 The other two now also turned to tn victims. We must signal.'' said tn