econd flash and grey shape sprang
up from the Norwood stage. And even as he stared at this came a dead
report, and the air wave of the first explosion struck him. He was flung
up and sideways.

For a moment the aeropile fell nearly edgewise with her nose down,
and seemed to hesitate whether to overset altogether. He stood on his
wind-shield wrenching the wheel that swayed up over his head. And then
the shock of the second explosion took his machine sideways.

He found himself clinging to one of the ribs of his machine, and the air
was blowing past him and upward. He seemed to be hanging quite still in
the air, with the wind blowing up past him. It occurred to him that he
was falling. Then he was sure that he was falling. He could not look
down.

He found himself recapitulating with incredible swiftness all that had
happened since his awakening, the days of doubt the days of Empire, and
at last the tumultuous discovery of Ostrog's calculated treachery, he
was beaten but London was saved. London was saved!

The thought had a quality of utter unreality. Who was he? Why was he
holding so tightly with his hands? Why could he not leave go? In such
a fall as this countless dreams have ended. But in a moment he would
wake....

His thoughts ran swifter and swifter. He wondered if he should see Helen
again. It seemed so unreasonable that he should not see her again. It
_must_ be a dream! Yet surely he would meet her. She at least was real.
She was real. He would wake and meet her.

Although he could not look at it, he was suddenly aware that the earth
was very near.

End of Project Gutenberg's When the Sleeper Wakes, by Herbert George Wells

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