Page 214 (1/1)

How long did the first wild drop last? Stern knew not He realized only that, after a certain ti, perceived that they were now plunging through vapors that sped upward--so it seeinous rapidity

No sensation noas there of falling Allvapors, dense and war had possessed the Pauillac As you have seen a falling leaf turn in air, so the plane circled, boring with terrific speed down, down, down through theto be seen but vapors No solid body, no land, no earth to e it Yet slowly, steadily, darkness was shrouding thereat difficulty even in the shelter of his arms, could now hardly irl beside hiing down, loo shadows Dizzy, sick with the h space, deafened by the thunderous roaring of the up-draft, Stern was still able to retain enough of his scientific curiosity to peer upward The sun! Could he still see it?

Vanished utterly was now the glorious orb! There, see to circle round and round in drunken spirals, he beheld a weird, diffused, angry-looking blotch of light, tinted a hue different froht of this, he shuddered

Already with the prescience of death full upon hi his soul, he shrank frohastly, hideous aspect of what he knew irl he drew his right arm; she felt his muscles tauten as he clasped her to hiles with the aeroplane Its speed, its plue sweep of its parachute wings, Stern kne it must fall clear to the bottom of the abyss--if bottom there were And if not--what then?

Stern dared not think All human concepts had been shattered by this stupendous catastrophe The sickly and unnatural hue of the rushing vapors that tore and slatted the planes, confused his senses; and, added to this, a stifling, nuh the inchoate void He tried to speak, but could not Against the girl's cheek he pressed his own Hers was cold!

In vain he struggled to cry out Even had his parched tongue been able to voice a sound, the howling te as they fell, would have whipped the shout away and drowned it in the gloom