ty thousand to-morrow.
I'll have a shot at the record. Maybe I shall have a shot at something
else as well. Of course, it's dangerous. If a fellow wants to avoid
danger he had best keep out of flying altogether and subside finally into
flannel slippers and a dressing-gown. But I'll visit the air-jungle to-
morrow--and if there's anything there I shall know it. If I return, I'll
find myself a bit of a celebrity. If I don't, this note-book may explain
what I am trying to do, and how I lost my life in doing it. But no
drivel about accidents or mysteries, if _you_ please.

"I chose my Paul Veroner monoplane for the job. There's nothing like a
monoplane when real work is to be done. Beaumont found that out in very
early days. For one thing, it doesn't mind damp, and the weather looks
as if we should be in the clouds all the time. It's a bonny little model
and answers my hand like a tender-mouthed horse. The engine is a ten-
cylinder rotary Robur working up to one hundred and seventy-five. It has
all the modern improvements--enclosed fuselage, high-curved landing
skids, brakes, gyroscopic steadiers, and three speeds, worked by an
alteration of the angle of the planes upon the Venetian-blind principle.
I took a shot-gun with me and a dozen cartridges filled with buck-shot.
You should have seen the face of Perkins, my old mechanic, when I
directed him to put them in. I was dressed like an Arctic explorer, with
two jerseys under my overalls, thick socks inside my padded boots, a
storm-cap with flaps, and my talc goggles. It was stifling outside the
hangars, but I was going for the summit of the Himalayas, and had to
dress for the part. Perkins knew there was something on and implored me
to take him with me. Perhaps I should if I were using the biplane, but a
monoplane is a one-man show--if you want to get the last foot of lift out
of it. Of course, I took an oxygen bag; the man who goes for the
altitude record without one will either be frozen or smothered--or both.

"I had a good look at the planes, the rudder-bar, and the elevating lever
before I got in. Everything was in order so far as I could see. Then I
switched on my engine and found that she was running sweetly. When they
let her go she rose almost at once upon the lowest speed. I circled my
home field once or twice just to warm her up, and then, with a wave to
Perkins and the others, I flattened out my planes and put her on her
highest. She skimme