Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-01-19

membered as he snatched out his |
watch, could get him to the Central |
Tower building in time.
His next thought, however, took him |
tearing down the village street like a |
mailman. For the name of "Cedarton"
had brought into his mind yet another |
name, the name of Bobby Evart." And !
Bobby Evart, who had his workshop |
and hangar on the southerly outskirts
of that village. had been the first of
the Racquet club members to forsake
automobiles for aviation, and startle
Long Island by his early morning
hydroplane maneuvers over suburban
golf courses and country homes. He
had been the first civilian volunteer
for the federal air scouts and at San
Diego had twice broken his own alti-
| tude record established at Pensacola,
and was now immured in the mysteri-
GUS task of fashioning a stabilizer for
monoplanes, a stabilizer, Manley re-
membered, which was receiving SYM
pathetic attention from certain navy
officials in Washington.
| Instead of finding this same in
trepid Bobby porting over blue prints
of stabilizer parts, however, the breath
less Manley found his old-time friend
in a rattan club chair TRANQUILITY play
ing chess with his maiden aunt. In
two minutes the breathless newcomer
had explained to the somewhat as
ed young chess player a situation
which brought a brighter light into
the latter's boyish eyes.
THE point IT," cried Manley, could
you get me there. Could you make
landing at night?"
They were already on their feet
again, running for the hangar.
Eyes, l can get you there! But what
have we got to make landing on?"
THE main building of he Central
tower stops at the eighteenth story.
That gives us a fat roof of several
hundred yards. Could you make it on
that?"
Not unless 1t was lighted" ex-
planned Evart, shouting for his
mechanician as he rounded the gloomy
corner Oh Tue
But it is lighted" Manley told him.
ct gets the light from the tower itself,
and the whole cornice line is strung
with electrics, the same as the Singer
building!"
Evart's finger, touching a button,
threw a white flood across the vaulted
roof Of the building. A touch on an
other button sent the great doors
swinging open. Manley looked at his
watch. Then he shook his head.
"Tt's too late" he proclaimed. But
Evart and his mechanician were al
ready at work on the wide-winged
monstrosity nestled under its metal
roof like pterodactyl in cave.
Get aboard commanded Evart.
Were going to try for it anyway"
He turned to his helper. Hey, Brown,
throw my friend up that fur coat of
yours!"
But what speed can you get out of
this machine?" asked Manley as he
clambered aboard the chassis and
struggled with his seat-straps.
Evart, who had been STOPPING over
his engines, looked up.
81 got one hundred and four an hour
out of her this morning" he off-hand-
edly announced. But i think l can
push her up to one hundred and ten.
Manley's heart beat faster.
I Then there's chance!" he cried.
"a fighting chance"
| It'll Man.
ley to clutch for the fur coat thrown
in at his feet, and struggle into 1t.
As he did so the earth seemed sud-
denly to fall away from him. Villages
became spangled checker-boards of
lights. Highways became winding
strings of pearls.
Marley forgot the chilliness striking
into his bones. He forgot Margery
Golden and Legar. He forgot the ORR
gin Of his mission that brought him
, winging through the midnight heav.
, ems. He forgot the fact Of his own
. puny existence and the trivial ends to
which it had been given over. AL
these he forgot, completely and utter
!, ", until Evart, sweeping out along
, the twinkling shore lights Of South
Brooklyn, circled north again where
the brazen figure of Liberty guarded
.. the upper bay, and dropped lower
along that tapering point of gloom
where Battery park nosed like ships
PROV into the tides of the Atlantic
? They were still planning down, gently
!. like settling sea bird, with the tilted
: planes veering little westward to es
: cape the beetling skyscrapers along
the canyon Of lower Broadway.
Manley thought, for moment, that
Evart had misjudged his position
Then he felt sure that Evart had also
misjudged his height, that his stabil
izing fin was already too low to cleal
, the fiat roof that abutted the light
y strewn tower itself.
But Evart, obviously, knew what
! he was about. For he took that OBJ
O long of fiat gloom outlined in electrics
r with a gentle upward undulation like
: the upward swoop of bluebird alight
!. ing on a maple tree. Into that artfu
v upward swoop was absorbed much o.