The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-13
Over the Desert
By NJ QUAD
By NJ QUAD
Copyright. 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

the year 1862, after a year and half
in other parts of India, and very soon
thereafter it was announced in the
local papers that Professor Mazam,
the celebrated French aeronaut, would
soon make an ascension from the pub
lie gardens" Three or four days later
I ran across the professor and was sur
prised and gratified to find him to be
none other than an old friend whom l
had travelled with in China
Mazam was now going into balloon
ing Just for the fun and adventure 1t
might bring him. and when he invited
me TO accompany him on his first trip
/ was not five seconds in accepting the
invitation. We packed the car with
provisions enough to last a week, took
rifles, revolvers and ammunition along
end made all preparations for long
journey.
Without her burden Of baggage the
balloon could have carried five or six
men. As 1t was, she shot up like
bird when all was ready to let go. and
in a few seconds the city and its har-
Dor were far below us. We at once
started on our journey, making pace
of about fifteen miles an hour.
When night came we added 800 feet
to our altitude as an Offset TO the dew,
and as the weather was fine we both
lay down to sleep. | awoke twice dur
ing the night, but to find all quiet, and
when | turned out first at sunrise 1t
was to find the Arabian coast almost
under our feet, and soon we were sail
ing over land.
We had no sooner left the water than
the breeze began to subside, and our
pace was reduced to five or six miles
per hour. We knew that countercur-
rent would soon be met with, and both
of us were looking over the edge Of
the basket at the morning panorama
below when we suddenly espied a ma
tive village. 1t was, rather, the camp
of some wandering tribe, all the shell
tiers being of canvas or skin. We saw
camels, asses, goats and horses, with
many people moving about, and we
had only got sight of them when they
saw us. Some fell down and others
ran away, and we were laughing at
their fright when we heard the report
of gun and the sing of bullet.
"Over with the ballastw shouted Ma
Fam, and the next instant we were so
far above them that their horses APP
peared to be mere specks.
Along In the afternoon, while sailing
about thousand feet above the earth
at slow rate, we came to an open
country which seemed to be destitute
of human life, and the professor an.
nounced that we would descend and
replenish our stock of water and see
what was to be seen. After the anchor
had trailed along the ground for about
a hundred yards it caught in the limbs
of fallen tree, and we soon hauled
our craft down and secured her. We
were within ten rods of q small water
course, and while l was filling our wa
ter keg Mazam shot a few birds, ant
we cooked and ate them on the spo
and decided to make night of 1
where we were. judge 1t was abou
midnight when Mazam shook me ant
whispered:
Come; here is sight worth seeing
Be careful not to make any unneces
sary noise"
AS l looked over the basket l saw
two immense lions, standing abou
twenty feet apart and facing eacl
other
The animals approached each othe
slowly with growls of defiance, eacl
carefully lifting his paws, but they di,
not diminish the distance over a ROT
before both stopped and stood as
cut from stone. Suddenly one of tn
beasts made rush so swift that w
could not follow him with our eyes
and they grappled and rolled over ant
over on the ground. Just as w
thought that both would be killed Il
the fray one OF them turned tail an,
ran, being holly pursued by the victor
The remainder Of the night passed
without incident, and as daylight cam,
a breeze from the north came with II
After cold bite we lifted our ancho
and were Off, but we had scarcely be
gun to move before we found ourselves
above long, drawn out caravan, which
had just taken up its line of march
Perhaps all knew our craft to be bal
loon; perhaps they believed 1t to b,
some great bird. At any rate they be
gan firing at us, and the very first bull
let struck the basket. 1t was an opeI
country, and such men as were mount
ed on horses could keep up with us.
snow, them" said MaZam as the bul
lets continued to sing about us, "over
board with that keg of water, all extr,
clothing, everything to give US a lif
out of range"
Inside of an hour the balloon begal
to approach the earth again, and as W
were driving toward Murbat we threw
over all the rest of the ballast, even In
GLIDING the spyglass and the box O
bread. In short time we began to de
scend again, however, finally landln
in a field OF maize just outside of MuI
bat.
1t had been a most delightful and Ell
citing balloon trip, and, although l wa
anxious to go again, 1t turned out tina
was not to make another voyag
among the clouds. Shortly after GU
ascension married Bombay girl WIN
had horror of balloons.
Poor Mazaml This intrepid adver
turer had made six successful ascer
sions in India and was getting an intel
national reputation as an aeronau
when he met his fate. On his sevent
trip something went wrong with tn
balloon and he fell with 1t from a tel
rible height.
IN THE NAME OF THE STATE OF