The Green Forest tribune., 1915-01-08

little wistfully. "Ah, that is my birth place. I have not seen 1t these ten years."
 He sat for a while looking beyond me, his face gone again into the ob- scurity of age. Then he suddenly frightened.
 T wonder" he said in his crisp way, If they told you tho legend"
 assured him that they had not.
 "The legend is very old" he said. You must know that Mentz was for many years the chosen place for all the early experimenters in aviology to congregate and try out and compete with each othar in their crude and deadly devices which marked mans primary conceptions of heavier-than- air machines.
 "They came from all lands, and the Americans, they tell me, were the most progressive and the most daring.
 Yet the Germans and French were not far behind. The legend goes that two of the young sons of this village of Mentz, both stalwart and fearless airmen, loved one of the daughters of the village, who was herself an enthu= siastic experimenteT and had made q number of flights alone.
 The girl, liking and admiring them both, could noi hnd it in her heart to choose At length she hit upon a way of choosing which was at once unique and appropriate. She put 1t before her suitore, who agreed.
 Both were to fly into tie air upon a certain morning, and he who came first to earth should be the loser.
 "The morning came. All the village knew of the wager. The ascension of the rivals was witr essed by great crowd
 "They rose. They circled. They mounted higher, higher, until they were notes in the blue. Then th1E disappeared entirely 4
 The day passed evening ca1N night fell. Yet reither of the hcDu .hssr7sa contestant had dsz zen senSs sas 2
 Another day, another night. "A week went by. No news from the sur rounding country.
 "A month, a year, decade. The girl waited few years, then married another man, grew old and had grand children"
 He hesitated and regarded the chessboard 1ixedly.
 That is the legend" he took up the thread which I thought had run it's course. Tt is unsatisfactory. But will tell you what in reality did become of the two young voyagers in the upper reaches.
 q was flying once it Mentz when on a peculiarly attractive and auspf- cious day I was soaring high, testing the influence of the higher strata on my new double centralization. threw the elevating lever over suddenly and it damned. My craft shot swiftly up- ward. I worked frantically with the lever several moments.
 When at last it was released the earth was smear below. I was higher than I had ever been. Yet there was no neasiness.
 Suddenly e throb of my engine ceased. I inspected it. There was apparently nothing wrong. coaxed 1t, humored 1t, cursed it. Nothing availed Then 1t came to me as strange that without power the ma- chine retained it's comparative posi- ton and swept on at the same mag. nif1cent, gigantically imperious speed. The thing was awesome
 Out of the void came a strange sound, Tapping and creaking and groaning as of 1ong-tortured, long rusted. long-enduring, anticipated windmill
 "The sound grew, and indistinctly I made out before me the outlines of some object, taking the same course that I was following, but seemingly progressing at much slower speed.
 At the end of an hour the object was quite near, and had divided into two parts, flying abreast. There were two planes, or what had once been planes, stripped of all but the steel ieletons, warped, creaking, uncanny.
 And ., I came alongside, what was my horror to find sitting rigid in the drivers seats, bony fingers clasping tte wheels, two skeletons, their eye less sockets fixed sightlessly ahead, grinning ghoulishly into the void. In an hour they were lost behind ne. A horror possessed me. I was no longer obsessed with the strange urge of these high attitudes. I hated the heights. They were clammy with mems bones.'
 But you," I said, "you-are here!'
 He smiled, the youth again in his eyes. He slipped his hand quickly into his pocket.
 'I am here" he said briskly, thanks to the wonderful little instrument known as the gravitator, manufac- tured solely by Huntz & Co, Berlin. Now, you, monsieur, are practical"
 1 left him. He had almost spoileds A nraftv sfnry