Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-04-27
rem now he found it difficult to give

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 Parrott was capable of a speed
OF eighty miles an hour; and unques-
/ tlonably Nauquelin was wheedling
every ounce Of power out of that will
ing motor. Since drawing Lanyards
attention to the pursuer he had con-
trived an appreciate acceleration.
But would even that pace serve to
| hold the Valkyr in its place, if not to
! distance it?
His next backward look reckoned
| the monoplane no nearer.
And another thirty minutes or SC
| elapsed without the relative positions
OF the two flying machines undergoing
| any perceptible change
| In the course Of this period the Par
| rott rose to an altitude, indicated by
! the Paragraph at Lanyard's elbow, of
! over half mile. Below the channel
fog spread itself cut like a sea of
| milk, slowly churning.
Staring down in fascination, Lam
yard told himself gravely:
! Blue water below that, my friend!"
1t seemed difficult to credit the fact
that they had covered the distance
from Paris in so short a period of
time
| BY his reckoning-a very crude one
the Parrott was then somewhere off
Dieppe-it ought to pick up England,
in such case, not far from Brighton. If
one could only see!
| By bending forward a little and star
ing past the aviator Lanyard could
catch glimpse of Lucy Shannon.
Though all her beauty and grace of
person were lost i'll the clumsy swad-
dlings of her makeshift costume, she
| seemed to be resting comfortably in
her place; and the rushing air, keen
with the chill of that great altitude,
not only nodded her wind-veil precise
| ly to the exquisite contours of her face,
! but stung her firm cheeks until they
| glowed with rare fire that even that
| thick, dark mesh enshrOuding them
could not wholly quench
The sun crept above the floor of
mist, played upon it with iridescent
rays, shot it through and through with
a warm, pulsating glow like that of
| fire-Opal, and suddenly turned it to a
| sea of fairy gold that, extending to the
horizon, baffled every effort to surmise
their position, whether they were
above land or sea.
None the less, Lanyard's rough and
rapid calculations persuaded him that
they were then about mid-channel.
He had no more than arrived at this
conclusion when a sharp, startled
movement that rocked the plane drew
his attention to the man at his side
CHANGING in alarm at the aviator's
face, he saw that it was as white as
| marble-what little Of it was visible
| beyond and beneath the wind-mask
Vauquelin was holding out an arm
| and staring at it incredulously; Ian
| yards gaze focused upon the same
spot-a ragged perforation in the
sleeve of the leather surtout, just
above the elbow.
What is it?" he inquired stupidity,
forgetting again that the other could
not possibly hear him.
The eyes of the aviator, lifting from
the perforation to meet Lanyards
| stare, were clouded with consterna-
! ton.
Then Vauquelin swerved quickly in
| his seat and looked back. Involuntar-
| lily he ducked his head. Simultaneous
ly something slipped whining past
Lanyard's cheek, touching his flesh
with a touch more chill than that of
| the icy air itself.
'''Damnation!" he shrieked, almost
Historically. THAT mailman in The
Valkyr is firing at us!'