The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-05-13

What is it2" he screamed 20 the
other in futile effort to lift HIS voice
above the din
But the Frenchman understood. and /
responded with sweep of his arm to
ward the horizon ahead. And seeing |
nothing but cloud in the quarter indi-
Gated, Lanyard began to grasp the IA
ture of a phenomenon which, from the
first, had been vaguely troubling him
The reason why he had been able to
perceive no real rim to the world was
that the earth was all asteam from the
heavy rains Of the last week; all the
more remote distances were sveiled
with rising vapor. And now they were
approaching the coast, TO which, it
seemed. the mists clung closest; for
all the world before them slept be-
meath blanket of dark gray.
Nor was it difficult now to under
stand why the aviator was i'll at ease
facing the prospect OF navigating in q
channel fog
Several minutes later he startled
Lanyard with another peremptory
touch on his arm. followed by a signih-
cant glance over his shoulder.
Lanyard turned hastily.
Behind them, at a distance which he
calculated roughly as two miles. the
silhouette OF a monoplane hung against
the brilliant armament, resembling,
a solitary, soaring gull than any man
with its single spread of wings, more
directed mechanism
Only an infrequent and almost i'm
perceptible shifting OF the wings
proved that it was moving.
He watched it for several seconds.
in deepening perplexity finding it i'm
possible to guess whether the mono
plane were gaining or losing in that
long chase or who might be its pilot
Yet Lanyard entertained little doubt
that the pursuing machine had risen
from the aerodome of Count Remy de
Morbihan at St.-Germain-eR-Laye; that
it was nothing less, in fact, than De
Morbihan's Valkyr monoplane, reputed
/ the fastest in Europe and winner Of
dozen international events; and that 1t
was guided, if not by De Morbihan him.
self, by one of the creatures of the
Pack-quite possibly, even more prob
ably, by Ekstrom!
But-assuming all this-what evil
could such pursuit portend7 In what
| conceivable manner could the follow
| ing pilot reckon to profit himself by
/ overtaking or distancing the PARROT?
He couldn't hinder the escape Of Ian
yard and Lucy Shannon TO England in
any way, by any means reasonably to
| be imagined
Was this simply one more move to
keep Lanyard under espionage? But
that might more readily have been &C
complished by telegraphing or tele-
phoning the Packs confreres, Vert
heimer's associates in the English CAPT
tall
What else could the Pack have in
mind?
| Lanyard gave it up. admitting his
inability to trump up any sane excuse
for such conduct; but the riddle con-
tinued to fret his mind
From the first. from that moment
| when Lucy's disappearance had re-
| uuired postponement of this fight, he
had apprehended trouble; it hadn't
seemed reasonable to hope that the
PARROT could be held In waiting on his
orders for many days without the Sc
| cret leaking out; but it was trouble to
Aviation that he had anticipated The
possibility that the Pack would be able
to work any mischief TO him after that
had never entered his calculations.
Even now he found it difficult to give
it serious consideration
Again he glanced back Now, In
his judgment, the monoplane doomed
larger than before against the glow
ing sky, indicating that it was over
taking them
Beneath his breath Lanyard swore
from heart trimming with disquiet-
The Parrot was capable Of speed
Of eighty miles an hour; and unques
tionabIy Vauquelin was wheedling
every ounce of power out of that will
ing motor. Since drawing Lanyard's
attention to the pursuer he had con
trived an appreciable acceleratiOn-
But would even that pace serve tc
hold the Valkyr in its place, if not to
distance it?
His next backward look reckoned
the monopIane no nearer
And another thirty minutes or 50
elapsed without the relative positions
of the two flying machines undergoing
any perceptible change
In the course Of this period the Par
rott rose 10 an altitude, indicated by
the paragraph at Lanyard's elbow, OF
over half a mile Below the channel
fog spread itself out like a sea OF
milk. slowly churning-
Staring down in fascination, Ian
yard told himself gravely:
Blue water below that, my friend!'
II seemed difficult to credit the fact
that they had covered the distance
from Paris in so short a period OF
time
By his Feckoning-a very crude one
the PARROT was then somewhere on
Dieppe-it ought to pick up England
in such case, not far from Brighton
one could only see!
By bending forward little and star
ing past the aviator Lanyard could
catchsa glimpse of Lucy Shannon