hape swing around them, terrible in its silent
swiftness, and, like the others, he failed to realize at first the net
she was weaving. So thin was the gas and so rapid the circling of the
enemy craft, they were captured and cut off inside of the gaseous
sphere before the purpose of the maneuver was seen or understood.

He saw the first faint vapor form above him; swung over for a steep
bank that carried him around the inside of the great cage of gas and
that showed him the spiraling planes as the first wisps of vapor swept
past them.

He held that bank with his swift machine, while below him a squadron
of close-formed fighting craft dissolved before his eyes into unguided
units. The formations melted: wings touched and locked; the planes
fell dizzily or shot off in wild, ungoverned, swerving flight. The air
was misty about him; it was fragrant in his nostrils; the world was
swimming....

* * * * *

It was gas, he knew, and with the light-headedness that was upon him,
so curiously like that of excessive altitudes, he reached
unconsciously for the oxygen supply. The blast of pure gas in his face
revived him for an instant, and in that instant of clear thinking his
plan was formed. He threw his weight on stick and rudder, corrected
the skid his ship was taking, and, with one hand holding the tube of
life-giving oxygen before his face, he drove straight down in a dive
toward the earth.

There were great weights fastened to his arm, it seemed, when he tried
to bring the ship from her fearful dive. He moved only with greatest
effort, and it was force of will alone that compelled his hands to do
their work. His brain, as he saw the gleaming roundness of observatory
buildings beneath him, was as clear as ever in his life, but his
muscles, his arms and legs, refused to work: even his head; he was
slowly sinking beneath a load of utter fatigue.

The observatories were behind him; he must swing back; he could not
last long, he knew; each slightest movement was intolerable effort.

Was this death? he wondered; but his mind was so clear! There were the
buildings, the trees! How thickly they were massed beyond--

He brought every ounce of will power to bear ... the throttle!--and a
slow glide in ... he was losing speed ... the stick--must--come--back!
The crashing branches whipped about him, bending, crackling--and the
world went dark....

* * * * *

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