The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-04-25

Illuminated missal, or like some
strange mosaic, marvelously minute.
Lanyard could see the dial of the
compass, fixed to strut on the pilots
left. By that telltale their course lay
nearly due northeast. Already the
to the right, the EiffeI tower SOARING
from them like Il fairy pillar of fine
gold lace-work, the Seine looping the
cluttered acres like a sleek brown
snake
Versailles broke the horizon to port
and slipped astern. Paris closed up
telescoped it's panorama, became a
mere blur, a smoky smudge.
But it was long before the distance
eclipsed that admonitory finger of the
Eiffel.
Vauquelin manipulating the levers.
the plane tilted it's nose and swan
higher and yet higher. The song of
the motor dropped an octave to a rich
er tone. The speed was sensibly in
creased.
Lanyard contemplated with untem-
pered wonder the fact of his equanim-
ity-there seemed nothing at all
strange in this extraordinary expert
ence; he was by no means excited, re-
manned merely deeply interested. And
he could detect in his physical sensa-
tons no trace Of that qualmish dread
he had always associated with high
places-the sense he now experienced
of security, Of solidity, ever afterward
remained wholly unaccountabIe in his
understanding.
Of sudden, surprised by a touch on
his arm, he turned to meet through the
mica windows of the wind-mask the
eyes Of the aviator, informed with an
expression Of importunate doubt, quite
illegible Assaulted by sickening fear
lest something was going wrong with
the machine, Lanyard shook his head
to indicate want Of comprehension.
Then, with an impatient gesture, the
aviator pointed downward.
Approaching the fact that speech
was impossible, Lanyard clutched the
struts and bent forward. But the pace
was now so fast and their elevation
so great that the landscape swimming
beneath his vision was no more than a
brownish plain fugitively maculated
with blots of contrasting color
He looked up blankly, but only to
be treated to the same gesture.
Piqued, he concentrated attention
more closely upon the fiat, streaming
landscape. And suddenly he recog-
nized something oddly familiar in the
bend Of the Seine that was approach
ing
-Germain-en-Laye! he exclaimed
with start of alarm.
This was the danger point
And over there" he reminded him
self-'to the left-that wide field with
a queer white thing in the middle THAI
looks like a winged grub-that must
be De Morbihan's aerodome and his
Valkyr monoplane! Are they bringing
it out? Is that what Vauquelin means?
And if so-what of it? | don't see"
A sudden doubt and wonder chilled
the adventurer
Temporarily, Vauquelin returned en-
tire attention to the management of
the biplane. The wind was now blow
ing more ftfully, creating pockets
those holes in the air. so dreaded by
-pilots-and in quest of a more
constant resistance the aviator was
swinging his craft in wide northerly
curve, climbing ever higher and more
high.
The earth soon lost all semb1ance of
design; even the twisted silver wire of
the Seine vanished far on the left; re-
manned only the effect of firm suspen-
sion in that high, blue vault, of a con-
tinuous flow Of iced water on the face,
together with the tuneless chant Of the
motor.
After some forty minutes more of
this-it may have been an hour, for
time was then an incalculable thing
Lanyard, in a mood of abnormal sensi-
tiveness, began to divine some little
disquiet in the mind of the aviator,
and stared until he caught his eye.