Frank Orndorff

“ We are within a few hundred feet of the edge, the weight of the machine has sunk us until we rest in a sloping crater about fifty feet deep. The monsters are arriving and flying in circles above us. Our motor is quiet and when we raise our receivers, the screams and snapping of their giant beaks almost deafen us. Our only hope now is to reach the edge and trust ourselves to our safety parachutes. ”

“ It might be that we are flying in air hurled up in that mighty up-rushing funnel of air from below. We can not understand it. We are circling about, getting our nerve back to make a dive for the earth. ”

“ Oh, I forgot, you below—we just turned a half circle around the end of a medium sized floating island and have come upon one of the most awful battles between two of the biggest and fiercest of monsters. One is like a large flying alligator, except that it has a huge beak and large bat-like wings. ”

“ I am not scared, for I can see the edge about two miles ahead and we will reach it before the demon can overtake us. Another has dropped from above where the wounded alligator is and it, also, is now headed after us. Miles above the earth and being chased by two hideous monsters. Have you ever noticed birds flying? When they beat their wings downwards, they not only go forward, but partly upward as well, and when they raise their wings for another stroke, they sink a little instead of keeping a straight course ahead. That is the way these demons fly. Dex is giving our machine all it will take. ”

“ The flying alligator—for I don’t know what else to call it—is victor, but it will never be able to fly again. One wing is completely torn in shreds and the other is not much better. Its body is full of big wounds. ”

“ Everything up here is that sickly green, both monsters are that color and they are bleeding the green blood —if it is blood. They are now covered with gashes all over their bodies. They can’t last much longer. There goes the other balloon. It shrinks—now they are falling.
“They don’t stop fighting. We are following them down and still circling around them. The two fighting air demons have fallen on the big island below us. They are hardly able to move. The alligator devil is now on top and rending the octopus to shreds. ”

“ I believe these animals would be pressed together more if brought to the denser air of the earth’s surface. This plant up here might be made good use of below at some future time and if—of all the sights—what monsters! What fierce fighting monsters. Look at the great gashes they are tearing in each other. They can’t last. ”

“ Kidwell and Dexter—the world’s most daredevil aviators will try to beat the world’s highest altitude record for an aeroplane. They will use the latest type of aeroplane with new wing devices for climbing and flying in the rarefied air of miles above the earth. They will carry an extra supply of oxygen. ”

“ Our instrument only registers sixty thousand feet and the hand reached that mark long before we were pitched out of the whirling mass and into still air. The current seems to come up and then turn east and we were flung to the top side. We must be fifteen or twenty miles high—way above any height we dreamed a person could fly. Our motor does not run as smoothly as it did below, but it is doing fairly well. We still have to use our own supply of oxygen. The movements of the machine are rather slow and sluggish. ”

“ Pemberton here about the wireless telephone—tell him why one can hear a voice from above and yet not hear the roar of the motors.”
Billy dropped into a chair next to Pemberton and keeping one eye on the instrument, explained:
“Kidwell and Dexter are using the same kind of wireless telephone instruments that our aviators in France had begun to use when the war ended, to communicate with each other and with headquarters. You know sound is vibration of the air and travels in waves and in a straight line unless turned aside by something. ”

“ People, below—there is vegetable and animal life here. We are now flying above a floating island of vegetable substance while around us and above are hundreds of other floating islands of the same substance. ”

“ Kidwell and the aeroplane must have been torn to pieces by the demons of the far upper air, and the tank and pieces of the plane scattered over the edge of the floating vegetable island, must have fallen to earth. ”

“ The aviator’s instrument is like a helmet and covers most of his head. The receivers are flat and lie over his ears. The outside sound is deadened by the padding in the helmet and it was found that it would be necessary for the padding to cover most of the lower jaw to kill the outside sound. ”

“ I have been wondering if the change of pressure on the plant and animals—if we can catch any animals to bring down—will cause them to contract. The effect on them should be just the opposite of the effect on the fish that have been brought up from two miles or more under the sea ”

“ They are too speedy for us to run down. I was close enough to see that it was nearly the size and shape of a bat, except that it had a head like a bird with large owl-like eyes, and had a beak instead of a mouth with teeth. ”

“ It is spongy and tough, being made up of a rubber-like material full of thousands of small gas pockets. It must be this gas that keeps it afloat at this great height. It grows on long rope-like branches like sea-kelp or some kind of moss. ”

“ Pemberton asked.
“Kidwell will do all the talking because it is he who is equipped with the long distance sending and receiving apparatus. Dexter can talk with Kidwell and Kidwell can talk with Dexter by changing the plug at the side of the machine, so he is directly connected with Dexter. Dexter is the pilot in the rear seat and will drive unless something happens. If something should happen, Kidwell can drive as they have double controls.”
“Hey, below! We are having fun up here chasing toy balloons. Those that have been let loose on the Fair Grounds have reached this far up. ”