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

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 telItale their course lay
nearly due northeast Already the
weltering roofs of Paris were in sight
to the right, the Eiffel tower soaring
from them like a 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 its panorama, became a
mere blur, a smoky smudge.
But it was long before the distance
ecIipsed that admonitory finger of the
EifeI.
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 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-
NAMED merely deeply interested. And
he could detect in his physical sensa-
lions no trace of that qualmish dread
he had always associated with high
pIaces-the sense he now experienced
of security, Of solidity, ever afterward
remained wholly unaccountable in his
understanding.
OF a sudden, surprised by 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. Assailed 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 q
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 fat, streaming
landscape And suddenly he recog
nized something oddly familiar in the
bend of the Seine that was approach
ing.
st Germain-en-Layei he exclaimed
| with a 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 mus
be De Morbihan's aerodome and his
VaIkyr monoplane! Are they bringing
It out? Is that what Vauquelin means,
And If so-what Of it? 1 don't see"
A sudden doubt and wonder chilled
the adventurer.
Temporarily, Vauquelin returned en-
tire attention to the management o
the biplane. The wind was now blow
ing more itfuIIy, creating pockets
those holes in the air. so dreaded b.
cloud-pilots-and In quest of a nor,
| SOuSIdnI ASSASI0ASO inc ofAdpOE wal
swinging his craft in a wide northerl,
curve, climbing ever higher and NOR,
high
The earth soon lost all semblance o
design; even the twisted silver wire o
the Seine vanished far on the left; re
NAMED only the effect OF firm suspeu
sion in that high, blue vault, OF 8 con
tinuous flow Of iced water on the face
together with the tuneless chant Of thu
motor.
After some forty minutes more o
this-ft may have been an hour, To-
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 aEis1or
and stared untu he caught his eTa