Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-04-27

! 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-
lions no trace OF that qu8lmish dread
/ he had always associated with high
/ piaces-the sense he now experienced
of security. of soidity. ever afterward
renamed 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 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 fat, streaming
landscape. And suddenly he recog-
nized something oddly familiar in the
bend of the Seine that was approach
ing.
'St-Germain-en-Laye!" he exclaimed
with start Of alarm.
This was the danger point.
And over there" he reminded him
self-'to the left-tiat wide field with
a queer white thing in the middle that
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? l 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 titfully, 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 a wide northerly
curve, climbing ever higher and more
high.
The earth soon lost all semblance of
| design; even the twisted silver wire Of
the Seine vanished far on the left; re-
NAMED only the effect Of firm suspen-
sion in that high, blue vault, of 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 mood of abnormal sensi-
tiveness, began to divine some little
disQuiet in the mind of the aviator,
and stared until he caught his eye.
What is it?" he screamed to the
other in futile effort to lift his voice
above the din.
But the Frenchman understood, and
responded with a sweep of his arm to-
ward the horizon ahead. And seeing
nothing but cloud in the quarter indi-
Gated, Lanyard began to grasp the ma
| ture of a phenomenon which, from the
first, had been vaguely troubling him.
The reason why he had been able to
I ysjy1 70 N
that the earth was all asteam from the
! heavy rains of the last week; all the
more remote distances were yelled
with rising vapor And now they were
| approaching the coast, to which, it
seemed, the mists chung closest; for
all the world before them slept be-
| meath a blanket of dark gray.
Nor was it difficult now to under
stand why the aviator was i'll at ease
fa cling the prospect Of navigating in a
| channel fog.
Several minutes later he startled
Lanyard with another peremptory
touch on his arm, followed by signif-
cant glance over his shoulder.
Lanyard turned hastily.
Behind them, at a distance which he
calculated roughly as two miles, the
silhouette of monoplane hung against
! the brilliant armament, resembling,
with it's single spread of wings, more
a solitary soaring gull than any man
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 perpIexity finding it i'm
| possible to guess whether the mono
plane were gaining or losing in that
long chase or who might be it's pilot.
Yet Lanyard entertained little doubt
! that the pursuing machine had risen
| from the aerodome of Count Remy de
| Morbihan at St.-Germain-en-Laye that
| it was nothing less, in fact, than De
| Morbihan's Valkyr monopIane, reputed
! the fastest in Europe and winner of
dozen international events; and that it
was guided, if nOt by De Morbihan him
! SELF by one of the creatures of the
Pack-quite possibly, even more prob
| ably, by EkstrOmi
! But-assuming all this-what evil
! could such pursuit portend? In what
! could tho foI1o-y