1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:07,480 The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle. The idea that the extraordinary 2 00:00:07,559 --> 00:00:11,279 narrative, which has been called the Joyce Armstrong Fragment, is an elaborate, 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:17,079 practical joe evolved by some unknown person cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of 4 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,920 humor, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,719 most macabb and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fantasies with the 6 00:00:27,879 --> 00:00:34,039 unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce the statement. Though the assertions contained in it 7 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:39,840 are amazing and even monstrous, it is nonetheless forcing itself upon the general intelligence 8 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:43,520 that they are true, and that we must readjust our ideas to the new 9 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:49,439 situation. This world of ours appears to be separated by a slight and precarious 10 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:55,240 margin of safety from a most singular and unexpected danger. I will endeavor, 11 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,960 in this narrative, which reproduces the original document and its necessarily somewhat fragmentary form, 12 00:01:00,479 --> 00:01:03,879 to lay before the reader the whole of the facts up to date. 13 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,480 Prefacing my statement by saying that if there be any who doubt the narrative of 14 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:14,000 Joyce Armstrong. There can be no question at all as to the facts concerning 15 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:19,439 Lieutenant Myrtle r N and mister hay Connor, who undoubtedly met their end in 16 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:25,799 the manner described. The Joyce Armstrong fragment was found in the field which is 17 00:01:25,879 --> 00:01:30,799 called Lower Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village of Withium 18 00:01:30,439 --> 00:01:37,159 upon the Kent and Sussex border. It was on the fifteenth September last that 19 00:01:37,239 --> 00:01:42,480 an agricultural laborer, James Flynn, in the employment of Matthew Dodd, farmer 20 00:01:42,719 --> 00:01:48,200 of the Chauntry farm with him, perceived a brier pipe lying near the footpath 21 00:01:48,239 --> 00:01:53,159 which skirts the hedge in Lower Haycock. A few paces farther on he picked 22 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,920 up a pair of broken binocular glasses. Finally, among some nettles in the 23 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:01,200 ditch, he caught sight of a flat, an vespacked book which proved to 24 00:02:01,239 --> 00:02:06,159 be a notebook with detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and were 25 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,960 fluttering along the base of the hedge. These he collected, but some in 26 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:15,159 including the first, were never recovered and leave a deplorable hiatus. In this 27 00:02:15,319 --> 00:02:20,000 all important statement, the notebook was taken by the laborer to his master, 28 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,840 who in turn showed it to doctor J. H Atherton of Hartfield. This 29 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:30,240 gentleman at once recognized the need for an expert examination, and the manuscript is 30 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,840 forwarded to the Aero Club in London, where it now lies. The first 31 00:02:34,879 --> 00:02:38,719 two pages of the manuscript are missing. There is also one torn away at 32 00:02:38,719 --> 00:02:42,599 the end of the narrative, though none of these affect the general coherence of 33 00:02:42,599 --> 00:02:46,520 the story. It is conjectured that the missing opening is concerned with the record 34 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:52,400 of mister Joyce Armstrong's qualifications as an aeronaut, which can be gathered from other 35 00:02:52,479 --> 00:02:57,319 sources, and are admitted to be unsurpassed among the air pilots of England. 36 00:02:58,319 --> 00:03:01,280 For many years he has been looked upon as among the most daring and most 37 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:07,039 intellectual of flying men, a combination which has enabled them to both invent and 38 00:03:07,159 --> 00:03:12,400 test several new devices, including the common gyroscopic attachment, which is known by 39 00:03:12,439 --> 00:03:15,719 his name. The main body of the manuscript is written neatly in ink, 40 00:03:16,319 --> 00:03:20,680 but the last few lines are in pencil and are so ragged as to be 41 00:03:20,719 --> 00:03:25,240 hardly legible, exactly in fact as they might be expected to appear if they 42 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:30,879 will scribbled out hurriedly from the seed of a moving aeroplane. There are, 43 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,039 it may be added, several stains, both on the last page and on 44 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,240 the outside cover, which have been pronounced by the Home Office experts to be 45 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:45,560 blood, probably human and certainly mammalian. The fact that something closely resembling the 46 00:03:45,639 --> 00:03:50,039 organism of malaria was discovered in this blood, and the Joyce Armstrong is known 47 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,639 to have suffered from intermittent fever, is a remarkable example of the new weapons 48 00:03:53,680 --> 00:04:00,479 which modern science is placed in the hands of our detectives. And now a 49 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,120 word as to the personality of the author of this epoch making statement. Joyce 50 00:04:04,199 --> 00:04:08,960 Armstrong, according to the few friends who really knew something of the man, 51 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,879 was a poet and a dreamer, as well as a mechanic and an inventor. 52 00:04:13,439 --> 00:04:15,920 He was a man of considerable wealth, much of which he had spent 53 00:04:15,959 --> 00:04:20,279 in the pursuit of his aeronautical hobby. He had four private aeroplanes in his 54 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:26,000 hangars near Devizes, and is said to have made no fewer than one hundred 55 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,000 and seventy a cents in the course of last year. He was a retiring 56 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,639 man with dark moods in which he would avoid the society of his fellows. 57 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:39,360 Captain Dangerfield, who knew him better than anyone, says that there were times 58 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:44,120 when his eccentricity threatened to develop into something more serious. His habit of carrying 59 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:48,120 a shotgun with him in his aeroplane was one manifestation of it. Another was 60 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:54,319 the morbid effect which the fall of Lieutenant Myrtle had upon his mind. Myrtle, 61 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,879 who was attempting the height record, fell from an altitude of something over 62 00:04:57,959 --> 00:05:03,439 thirty thousand feet horror will to narrate his head was entirely obliterated. Those body 63 00:05:03,439 --> 00:05:09,600 and limbs preserved their configuration. At every gathering of airman Joyce Armstrong, according 64 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:15,600 to Dangerfield, would ask, with an enigmatic smile, and where pray is 65 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,480 Myrtle's head? On another occasion, after dinner at the mess of the Flying 66 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:24,839 School on Salisbury Plane, he started a debate as to what will be the 67 00:05:24,879 --> 00:05:30,319 most permanent danger which airman will have to encounter. Having listened to successive opinions 68 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:33,879 as to air pockets fall, to construction and over banking, he ended by 69 00:05:33,879 --> 00:05:39,040 shrugging his shoulders and refusing to put forward his own views, though he gave 70 00:05:39,079 --> 00:05:44,800 the impression that they differed from any advanced by his companions. It is worth 71 00:05:44,879 --> 00:05:48,480 remarking that after his own complete disappearance, it was found that his private affairs 72 00:05:48,519 --> 00:05:53,639 were arranged with a precision, which may show that he had a strong premonition 73 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:59,000 of disaster. With these essential explanations, I will now give the narrative exactly 74 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,040 as it stands, beginning at page three of the Blood Soaked note Book. 75 00:06:04,519 --> 00:06:09,800 Nevertheless, when I dined at Reems with Kasselli and Gustav Raymond, I found 76 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,600 that neither of them was aware of any particular danger in the higher layers of 77 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,480 the atmosphere. I did not actually say what was in my thoughts, but 78 00:06:16,519 --> 00:06:20,680 I got so near to it that if they had any corresponding idea, they 79 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:26,000 could not have failed to express it. But then they are two empty, 80 00:06:26,079 --> 00:06:30,560 vinglorious fellows, with no thought beyond seeing their silly names in the newspaper. 81 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:34,279 It is interesting to note that neither of them had ever been much beyond the 82 00:06:34,319 --> 00:06:39,319 twenty thousand foot level. Of course, men have been higher than this, 83 00:06:39,759 --> 00:06:44,040 both in balloons and in the ascent of mountains. It must be well above 84 00:06:44,079 --> 00:06:48,480 that point that the aeroplane enters the danger zone, always presuming that my premonitions 85 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:54,279 are correct. Aeroplaning has been with us now for more than twenty years, 86 00:06:54,319 --> 00:06:59,040 and one might well ask why should this peril be only revealing itself an our 87 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,399 day. The answer is obvious. In the old days of weak engines, 88 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:08,319 when a hundred horsepower Gnome or Green was considered ample for every need, the 89 00:07:08,439 --> 00:07:13,360 flights were very restricted. Now that three hundred horsepower is the rule rather than 90 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,399 the exception, visits to the upper layers have become easier and more common. 91 00:07:17,319 --> 00:07:23,000 Some of us can remember how in our youth garrows made a worldwide reputation by 92 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:28,279 attaining nineteen thousand feet and it was considered a remarkable achievement to fly over the 93 00:07:28,319 --> 00:07:32,160 Alps. Our standard now has been immeasurably raised, and there are twenty high 94 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:36,839 flights for one. Informer years, many of them have been undertaken with impunity. 95 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:42,560 The thirty thousand foot level has been reached time after time with no discomfort 96 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:47,519 beyond coal and asthma. What does this prove? A visitor might descend upon 97 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:53,240 this planet a thousand times and never see a tiger, Yet tigers exist, 98 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,279 and if he chanced to come down into a jungle, he might be devoured 99 00:07:58,519 --> 00:08:01,759 there are jungles of the upper and there are worse things than tigers which inhabit 100 00:08:01,839 --> 00:08:07,120 them. I believe in time they will map these jungles accurately out. Even 101 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,680 at the present moment I could name two of them. One of them lies 102 00:08:11,759 --> 00:08:16,079 over the Powell Barrett's district of France. Another is just over my head as 103 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:20,720 I write here in my house in Wiltshire. I rather think there is a 104 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:26,439 third in the Hamburg vs. Botten district. It was the disappearance of the 105 00:08:26,439 --> 00:08:30,920 airmen that first set me thinking. Of course, everyone said that they had 106 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:35,919 fallen into the sea, but that did not satisfy me at all. First 107 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,759 there was very air in France. His machine was found near by own, 108 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:43,519 but they never got his body. There was the case of Baxter, also 109 00:08:43,799 --> 00:08:48,679 who vanished, though his engine and some of the iron fixings were found in 110 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,799 a wood in Leicestershire. In that case, doctor Middleton of Amesbury, who 111 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,840 was watching the flight with a telescope, declares that just before the clouds obscured 112 00:08:56,879 --> 00:09:01,080 the view, he saw the machine, which was at an enormous height, 113 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:07,159 suddenly rised perpendicularly upwards in a succession of jerks, in a manner that he 114 00:09:07,159 --> 00:09:13,159 would have thought to be impossible. That was the last scene of Baxter. 115 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,159 There was a correspondence in the papers, but it never led to anything. 116 00:09:16,799 --> 00:09:20,799 There were several other similar cases, and then there was the death of hay 117 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:26,559 Connor. What a cackle there was about an unsolved mystery of the air and 118 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:31,159 what columns in the halfpenny papers, and yet how little was ever done to 119 00:09:31,159 --> 00:09:35,279 get to the bottom of the business. He came down on a tremendous vall 120 00:09:35,399 --> 00:09:39,120 plane from an unknown height. He never got off his machine and died in 121 00:09:39,159 --> 00:09:43,840 his pilot's seat. Died of what heart disease? Said the doctors rubbish. 122 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:48,360 Hay Connor's heart was as sound as mine is. What did Venibles say? 123 00:09:48,639 --> 00:09:52,480 Venibles was the only man who was at his side when he died. He 124 00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:56,279 said that he was shivering and looked like a man who had been badly scared. 125 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,960 Died of fright said, but could not imagine what he was frightened about. 126 00:10:03,039 --> 00:10:07,879 Only said one word of Venables, which sounded like monstrous. They could 127 00:10:07,879 --> 00:10:11,440 make nothing of that at the inquest, but I could make something of it. 128 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,840 Monsters. That was the last word of poor Harry hay Connor. And 129 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:22,600 he did die of fright, just as Venables thought. And then there was 130 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:26,240 Myrtle's head. Do you really believe does anybody really believe that a man's head 131 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:31,639 could be driven clean into his body by the force of a fall. Well, 132 00:10:31,759 --> 00:10:35,519 perhaps it may be possible, but I, for one have never believed 133 00:10:35,519 --> 00:10:39,519 that it was so with myrtle, and the grease upon his clothes, all 134 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:45,039 slimy with grease, said somebody at the inquest queer that nobody got thinking after 135 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,120 that? I did, But then I had been thinking for a good long 136 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:54,360 time. I've made three a cents. How Dangerfield used to chaff me about 137 00:10:54,399 --> 00:10:58,080 my shotgun, but I've never been high enough. Now, with this new 138 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:03,360 light Paul Verona machine, and it's one hundred and seventy five rober, I 139 00:11:03,399 --> 00:11:07,759 should easily touch the thirty thousand. Tomorrow I'll have a shot at the record. 140 00:11:07,279 --> 00:11:11,559 Maybe I shall have a shot at something else as well. Of course, 141 00:11:11,759 --> 00:11:15,879 it's dangerous. If a fellow wants to avoid danger, you'd best keep 142 00:11:15,879 --> 00:11:20,519 out of flying altogether and subside finally into flannel slippers in a dressing gown. 143 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:24,120 But I'll visit the air jungle tomorrow, and if there's anything there, I 144 00:11:24,159 --> 00:11:28,720 shall know it. If I return, I'll find myself a bit of a 145 00:11:28,759 --> 00:11:33,000 celebrity. If I don't. This notebook may explain what I am trying to 146 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:37,919 do and how I lost my life in doing it, but now drivel about 147 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:43,039 accidents or mysteries. If you please, I chose my Paul Veroner monoplane for 148 00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:46,720 the job. There is nothing like a monoplane when real work is to be 149 00:11:46,759 --> 00:11:52,279 done. Beaumont found that out in very early days. For one thing, 150 00:11:52,279 --> 00:11:54,279 it doesn't mind damp, and the weather looks as if we should be in 151 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:58,240 the clouds all the time. It's a body little model and answers my hand 152 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:03,080 like a tender mouth torse. The engine is a ten cylinder rotary Robert, 153 00:12:03,159 --> 00:12:07,879 working up to one hundred and seventy five. It is all the modern improvements, 154 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:13,399 enclosed houselage, high curved landing skids, brakes, gyroscopic steadiers, and 155 00:12:13,519 --> 00:12:18,600 three speeds, worked by an alteration of the angle of the planes upon the 156 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:22,840 Venetian blind principle. I took a shotgun with me and a dozen cartridges filled 157 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:28,039 with buckshot. You should have seen the face of Perkins, my old mechanic, 158 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,440 when I directed him to put them in. I was dressed like an 159 00:12:31,519 --> 00:12:35,840 Arctic explorer with two jerseys under my overalls, thick socks inside, my padded 160 00:12:35,879 --> 00:12:41,559 boots, a storm cap with flaps, and my talc goggles. It was 161 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:45,399 stifling outside the hangars, but I was going for the summit of the Himalayas 162 00:12:45,519 --> 00:12:50,080 ned to dress for the part. Perkins knew there was something on and implored 163 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,519 me to take him with me. Perhaps I should if I were using the 164 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:56,519 biplane. But a monoplane is a one man show if you want to get 165 00:12:56,559 --> 00:13:00,440 the last foot of life out of it. Of course, so I took 166 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,200 an oxygen bag. The man who goes for the altitude record without one will 167 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:09,120 either be frozen or smothered, or both. I had a good look at 168 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,639 the planes, the rudder bar, and the elevating lever before I got in. 169 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,759 Everything was in order so far as I could see. Then I switched 170 00:13:16,799 --> 00:13:20,799 on my engine and found that she was running sweetly. When they let her 171 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,639 go, she rose almost at once upon the lowest speed. I circled my 172 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:26,960 home field once or twice just to warm her up, and then with a 173 00:13:28,039 --> 00:13:31,600 wave to Perkins in the others, I flattened out my planes and put her 174 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:35,799 on her highest She skimmed like a swallow down wind for eight or ten miles, 175 00:13:35,879 --> 00:13:37,759 until I turned her nose up a little and she began to climb in 176 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:43,559 a great spiral for the cloud bank above me. It's all important to rise 177 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:48,080 slowly and adapt yourself to the pressure as you go. It was a close, 178 00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:52,519 warm day for an English September, and there was the hush and heaviness 179 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:56,279 impending rain. Now and then there came sudden puffs of wind from the southwest, 180 00:13:56,879 --> 00:14:01,440 one of them so gusty and unexpected that it caught me napping and turned 181 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:05,080 me half round for an instant. I remember the time when gusts and whirls 182 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,480 and air pockets used to be things of danger, before we learned to put 183 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,600 an overmastering power into our engines. Just as I reached the cloud banks with 184 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:18,559 an altimeter marking three thousand down came the rain. My word, how it 185 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,480 poured. It drummed upon my wings and lashed against my face, blurring my 186 00:14:24,559 --> 00:14:26,840 glasses so that I could hardly see. I got down on to a low 187 00:14:26,919 --> 00:14:31,879 speed, for it was painful to travel against it. As I got higher, 188 00:14:31,919 --> 00:14:35,440 it became hail, and I had to turn tail to it. One 189 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,120 of my cylinders was out of action a dirty plug, I should imagine. 190 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:43,000 But still I was rising steadily with plenty of power. After a bit, 191 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,080 the trouble passed, whatever it was, and I heard the full, deep 192 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,399 throated purr. The ten singing is one. That's where the beauty of our 193 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:56,000 modern silencers come in. We can at last control our engines by ear how 194 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:01,519 they squeal and squeak and sob when they are in trouble. All those cries 195 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,879 for help were wasted in the old days whenever a sound was swallowed up by 196 00:15:05,919 --> 00:15:11,080 the monstrous racket of the machine. If only the early aviators could come back 197 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,759 and see the beauty and perfection of the mechanism which have been bought at the 198 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:20,639 cost of their lives. About nine thirty I was nearing the clouds down below 199 00:15:20,679 --> 00:15:24,559 me, all blurred and shadowed with rain lay the vast expanse of Salisbury Plain. 200 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:28,799 Half a dozen flying machines were doing hack work at the thousand foot level, 201 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:35,360 looking like little black swallows against the green background. I dare say they 202 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:39,360 were wondering what I was doing up in cloudland. Suddenly a gray curtain drew 203 00:15:39,399 --> 00:15:43,720 across beneath me, and what folds of vapors were swirling round my face. 204 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:48,159 It was clamily, cold and miserable, but I was above the hail storm, 205 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,360 and that was something gained. The cloud was as dark and thick as 206 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,519 a London fog, and my anxiety to get clear, I cocked her nose 207 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,919 up until the automatic alarm bell rang and I actually began to slide backwards. 208 00:16:02,519 --> 00:16:06,240 My sopped and dripping wings had made me heavier than I thought, But presently 209 00:16:06,279 --> 00:16:10,480 I was in lighter cloud, and soon had cleared the first layer. There 210 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:14,279 was a second, opal, colored and fleecy, had a great height above 211 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:18,240 my head, a white unbroken ceiling above, and a dark unbroken floor below, 212 00:16:18,679 --> 00:16:25,200 with the monoplane laboring upwards upon a vast spiral between them. It is 213 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:29,919 deadly lonely in these cloud spaces. Once a great flight of some small water 214 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,240 birds when past me, flying very fast to the westwards. The quick whirr 215 00:16:33,279 --> 00:16:37,200 of their wings and their musical cry were cheery to my ear. I fancy 216 00:16:37,279 --> 00:16:41,080 that they were teal, but I am a wretched zoologist. Now that we 217 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:45,799 humans have become birds, we must really learn to know our brethren by sight. 218 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:51,240 The wind down beneath me whirled and swayed. The broad cloud plane. 219 00:16:51,639 --> 00:16:55,360 Once a great eddy formed in it a whirlpool of vapor, and threw it 220 00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:59,440 as down a funnel. I caught sight of the distant world. A large 221 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:03,679 white by plane was passing at a vast depth beneath me. I fancy it 222 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,720 was the morning mail service betwixt Bristol and London. Then the drift swirled inwards 223 00:17:07,759 --> 00:17:14,039 again, and the great solitude was unbroken. Just after ten I touched the 224 00:17:14,079 --> 00:17:18,559 lower edge of the upper cloud stratum. It consisted of fine diaphanous vapor drifting 225 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:23,160 swiftly from the westwards. The wind had been steadily rising all this time, 226 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:27,119 and it was now blowing a sharp breeze twenty eight an hour by my gage. 227 00:17:27,799 --> 00:17:33,200 Already it was very cold, though my altimeter only marked nine thousand. 228 00:17:33,799 --> 00:17:38,519 The engines were working beautifully, and we went droning steadily upwards. The cloud 229 00:17:38,519 --> 00:17:42,039 bank was thicker than I had expected, but at last it thinned out into 230 00:17:42,039 --> 00:17:47,359 a golden mist before me, And then in an instant I had shot out 231 00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:51,359 from it, and there was an unclouded sky and a brilliant sun above my 232 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:56,440 head, all blue and gold above, all shining silver below one vast glimmering 233 00:17:56,519 --> 00:18:00,599 plain as far as my eyes could reach. It was a quarter past ten 234 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:06,319 o'clock, and the barograph needle pointed to twelve thousand, eight hundred. Up 235 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:11,920 I went and up, my ears concentrated upon the deep purring of my motor, 236 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:15,680 my eyes busy always with the watch, the revolution indicator, the petrel 237 00:18:15,759 --> 00:18:21,039 level, and the oil pump. No wonder. Aviators are said to be 238 00:18:21,079 --> 00:18:22,839 a fearless race. With so many things to think of, there is no 239 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:27,839 time to trouble about one's self. About this time I noted how unreliable is 240 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:33,119 the compass went above a certain height from Earth. At fifteen thousand feet, 241 00:18:33,559 --> 00:18:37,680 mine was pointing east, and to point south. The sun and the wind 242 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:41,359 gave me my true bearings. I had hoped to reach an eternal stillness in 243 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,359 these high altitudes, but with every thousand feet of ascent, the gale grew 244 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:51,119 stronger. My machine groaned and trembled in every joint and rivet as she faced 245 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:53,240 it, and swept away like a sheet of paper when I banked her on 246 00:18:53,319 --> 00:18:59,799 the turn, skimming down wind at a greater pace, perhaps than ever mortal 247 00:19:00,079 --> 00:19:03,440 man has moved. Yet I had always to turn again and tack up in 248 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:07,839 the wind's eye. For It was not merely a height record that I was 249 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,720 after by all my calculations. It was above little Wilchair that my air jungle 250 00:19:11,839 --> 00:19:15,640 lay, and all my labors might be lost if I struck the outer layers 251 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:22,400 at some farther point. When I reached the nineteen thousand foot level, which 252 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:26,759 was about midday, the wind was so severe that I looked with some anxiety 253 00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,279 to the stays of my wings, expecting momentarily to see them snap or slacken. 254 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,599 I even cast loose the parachute behind me, and fastened its hook onto 255 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,160 the ring of my leathern belt, so as to be ready for the worst. 256 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,480 Now was the time when a bit of a scamped work by the mechanic 257 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,880 is paid for by the life of the aeronaut. But she held together bravely. 258 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:52,079 Every cord and strut was humming and vibrating like so many harp strings. 259 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:56,920 But it was glorious to see how for all the beating and the buffeting, 260 00:19:56,359 --> 00:20:02,519 she was still the conqueror of nature and the mist of the sky. There 261 00:20:02,599 --> 00:20:07,240 is surely something divine in man himself that he should rise so superior to the 262 00:20:07,279 --> 00:20:12,720 limitations which creation seemed to impose. Rise too, by such unselfish, heroic 263 00:20:12,839 --> 00:20:19,079 devotion as this air conquest is shown, talk of human degeneration. When has 264 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:23,920 such a story as this been written in the annals of our race? These 265 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,839 were the thoughts in my head as I climbed that monstrous inclined plane, with 266 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:33,599 the winds sometimes beating in my face and sometimes whistling behind my ears, while 267 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,839 the cloud land beneath me fell away to such a distance that the folds and 268 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:42,079 hummocks of silver had all smoothed out into one flat, shining plane. But 269 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:48,319 suddenly I had a horrible and unprecedented experience. I have known before what it 270 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:52,359 is to be in what our neighbors have called Outurbillon, but never on such 271 00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:57,559 a scale as this. That huge sweeping river of wind which I have spoken 272 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,079 had as it appear, here's whirlpools within it, which were as monstrous as 273 00:21:03,079 --> 00:21:07,039 itself. Without a moment's warning, I was dragged suddenly into the heart of 274 00:21:07,039 --> 00:21:11,839 one. I spun round for a minute or two with such velocity that I 275 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:17,519 almost lost my senses, and then fell suddenly left wing foremost down the vacuum 276 00:21:17,519 --> 00:21:22,480 funnel in the center. I dropped like a stone and lost nearly a thousand 277 00:21:22,559 --> 00:21:26,200 feet. It was only my belt that kept me in my seat, and 278 00:21:26,319 --> 00:21:30,680 the shock and breathlessness left me hanging half insensible over the side of the fuselage. 279 00:21:32,559 --> 00:21:34,599 But I am always capable of a supreme effort. It is my one 280 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:40,079 great merit as an aviator. I was conscious that the descent was slower, 281 00:21:40,599 --> 00:21:44,960 the whirlpool was a cone rather than a funnel, and I had come to 282 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,680 the apex with a terrific wrench, throwing my weight all to one side. 283 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:53,559 I leveled my planes and brought her head away from the wind. In an 284 00:21:53,559 --> 00:21:56,640 instant I had shot out of the eddies and was skimming down the sky. 285 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:03,119 Then, shaken victory worrious, I turned her nose up and began once more 286 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:07,279 my steady grind on the upward spiral. I took a large sweep to avoid 287 00:22:07,319 --> 00:22:11,960 the dangerous spot of the whirlpool, and soon I was safely above it. 288 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:15,519 Just after one o'clock I was twenty one thousand feet above the sea level. 289 00:22:17,039 --> 00:22:19,559 To my great joy, I had topped the gale, and with every hundred 290 00:22:19,599 --> 00:22:23,119 feet of ascent the air grew stiller. On the other hand, it was 291 00:22:23,319 --> 00:22:29,799 very cold, and I was conscious of that peculiar nausea which goes with rarefication 292 00:22:29,839 --> 00:22:32,759 of the air. For the first time, I unscrewed the mouth of my 293 00:22:32,799 --> 00:22:37,640 oxygen bag and took an occasional whiff of the glorious gas. I could feel 294 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,559 it running like a cordial through my veins, and I was exhilarated, almost 295 00:22:41,559 --> 00:22:45,920 to the point of drunkenness. I shouted and sang as I soared upwards into 296 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,079 the cold, still out a world. It is very clear to me that 297 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:55,079 the insensibility which came upon Glacier, and in a lesser degree upon Cockswell, 298 00:22:55,519 --> 00:22:59,359 when in eighteen sixty two they ascended in a balloon to the height of thirty 299 00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:03,720 thousand feet, was due to the extreme speed with which a perpendicular ascent is 300 00:23:03,759 --> 00:23:08,400 made, doing it in an easy gradient, and accustoming oneself to the lessened 301 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:15,000 barametric pressure by slow degrees, there are no such dreadful symptoms at the same 302 00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:18,680 great height. I found that, even without my oxygen inhaler, I could 303 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,799 breathe without undue distress. It was bitterly cold, however, and my thermometer 304 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:27,720 was at zero fahrenheit. At one thirty I was nearly seven miles above the 305 00:23:27,759 --> 00:23:33,240 surface of the Earth and still ascending steadily. I found, however, that 306 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:37,720 the rarefied air was giving markedly less support to my planes, and that my 307 00:23:37,799 --> 00:23:41,160 angle of ascent had to be considerably lowered. In consequence, it was already 308 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,799 clear that even with my light weight and strong engine power, there was a 309 00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,759 point in front of me where I should be held. To make matters worse, 310 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,000 one of my sparking plugs was in trouble again, and there was an 311 00:23:52,039 --> 00:23:56,559 intermittent misfiring in the engine. My heart was heavy with the fear of failure. 312 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:02,960 It was about that time that I had a most extraordinary experience. Something 313 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,200 was past me in a trail of smoke, and exploded with a loud, 314 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:10,559 hissing sound, sending forth a cloud of steam. For the instant I could 315 00:24:10,599 --> 00:24:14,640 not imagine what had happened. Then I remembered that the Earth is forever being 316 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,559 bombarded by meteor stones, and would be hardly inhabitable were they not. Nearly 317 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,680 every case turned a vapor in the outer layers of the atmosphere. Here is 318 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,480 a new danger for the high altitude man. For two others past me when 319 00:24:26,519 --> 00:24:30,839 I was nearing the forty thousand footmark. I cannot doubt that at the edge 320 00:24:30,839 --> 00:24:37,119 of Earth's envelope, the risk would be a very real one. My barograph 321 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:41,359 needle marked forty one thousand, three hundred when I became aware that I could 322 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,480 go no farther. Physically, the strain was not as yet greater than I 323 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,680 could bear, but my machine had reached its limit. The attenuated air gave 324 00:24:48,759 --> 00:24:53,000 no firm support to the wings, and the least tilt developed into a side 325 00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:00,200 slip, while she seemed sluggish on her controls, possibly hid the engine been 326 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,440 at its best, another thousand feet might have been within our capacity, but 327 00:25:03,519 --> 00:25:07,000 it was still misfiring, and two out of the ten cylinders appeared to be 328 00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:11,880 out of action. If I had not already reached the zone for which I 329 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,720 was searching, then I should never see it upon this journey. But was 330 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,200 it not possible that I had attained it? Soaring in circles like a monstrous 331 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:23,559 hawk. Upon the forty thousand foot level, I let the monoplane guide herself, 332 00:25:25,039 --> 00:25:29,359 and with my Mannheim glass, I made a careful observation by surroundings. 333 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,440 The heavens were perfectly clear. There was no indication of those dangers which I 334 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:38,359 had imagined. I have said that I was soaring in circles. It struck 335 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:42,000 me suddenly that I would do well to take a wider sweep and open up 336 00:25:42,039 --> 00:25:47,640 a new air tract. If the hunter entered an earth jungle, he would 337 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,720 drive through it if he wished to find his game. My reasoning had led 338 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,839 me to believe that the air jungle which I had imagined lay somewhere over Wiltcher. 339 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,160 This should be to the south and west of me. I took my 340 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,720 bearings from the sun, for the compass was hopeless, and no trace of 341 00:26:03,759 --> 00:26:07,559 Earth was to be seen, nothing but the distant silver cloud plane. However, 342 00:26:07,839 --> 00:26:11,039 I got my direction as best I might, and kept her head straight 343 00:26:11,079 --> 00:26:15,880 to the mark. I reckoned that my petrol supply would not last for more 344 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,359 than another hour or so, but I could afford to use it to the 345 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:23,039 last drop, since a single magnificent vallplank could at any time take me to 346 00:26:23,079 --> 00:26:29,920 the Earth. Suddenly I was aware of something new. The air in front 347 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,920 of me had lost its crystal clearness. It was full of long, ragged 348 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:38,400 wisps of something which I could only compare to very fine cigarette smoke. It 349 00:26:38,519 --> 00:26:42,960 hung about in wreaths and coils, turning and twisting slowly in the sunlight. 350 00:26:44,559 --> 00:26:48,000 As the monoplane shot through it. I was aware of a faint taste of 351 00:26:48,079 --> 00:26:52,319 oil upon my lips, and there was a greasy scum upon the would work 352 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:56,720 of the machine. Some infinitely fine organic matter appeared to be suspended in the 353 00:26:56,759 --> 00:27:03,079 atmosphere. There was no life there. It was in kohaitent diffuse, extending 354 00:27:03,079 --> 00:27:07,839 for many square acres and then fringing off into the void. No, it 355 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,799 was not life. But might it not be the remains of life? Above 356 00:27:11,839 --> 00:27:15,119 all, might it not be the food of life, of monstrous life, 357 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,279 even as the humble grease of the ocean is the food for the mighty whale. 358 00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,559 The thought was in my mind when my eyes looked upwards and I saw 359 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,799 the most wonderful vision that ever man has seen. Can I hope to convey 360 00:27:26,799 --> 00:27:33,839 it to you, even as I sought myself last Thursday, conceive a jellyfish 361 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,640 such as sails in our summer, seas bell shaped and of enormous size, 362 00:27:38,039 --> 00:27:44,079 far larger, I should judge than the dome was Saint Paul's. It was 363 00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:48,319 of a light pink color vein with a delicate green, but the whole huge 364 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:52,000 fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline against the dark blue sky. 365 00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:59,400 It pulsated with a delicate and regular rhythm. From it, there depended 366 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:04,559 too long own drooping green tentacles, which swayed slowly backwards and forwards. This 367 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:11,000 gorgeous vision passed gently, with noiseless dignity, over my head, as light 368 00:28:11,079 --> 00:28:17,079 and fragile as a soap bubble, and drifted upon its stately way. I'd 369 00:28:17,079 --> 00:28:21,680 have turned my monoplane that I might look after this beautiful creature, when in 370 00:28:21,759 --> 00:28:26,799 a moment I found myself amidst a perfect fleet of them, of all sizes, 371 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,640 but none so large as the first. Some were quite small, but 372 00:28:30,759 --> 00:28:34,839 the majority about as big as an average balloon, and with much the same 373 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:40,839 curvature at the top. There was in them a delicacy of texture and coloring 374 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:45,839 which reminded me of the finest Venetian glass. Pale shades of pink and green 375 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:51,240 were the prevailing tints, but all had a lovely iridescence where the sun shimmered 376 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:56,319 through their dainty forms. Some hundreds of them drifted past me, a wonderful 377 00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:02,359 fairy squadron of strange, unknown argosies of the sky, creatures whose forms and 378 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:07,640 substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not conceive anything so 379 00:29:07,759 --> 00:29:12,279 delicate within actual sight or sound of Earth. But soon my attention was drawn 380 00:29:12,319 --> 00:29:18,000 to a new phenomenon, the serpents of the outer air. These were long, 381 00:29:18,119 --> 00:29:22,039 thin, fantastic coils of vapor like material which turned and twisted with great 382 00:29:22,079 --> 00:29:26,400 speed, flying round and round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly 383 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,960 follow them. Some of these ghost like creatures were twenty or thirty feet long, 384 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,039 but it was difficult to tell their girth, for their outline was so 385 00:29:36,079 --> 00:29:41,400 hazy that it seemed to fade away into the air around them. These air 386 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,240 snakes were a very light, grayer smoke color, with some darker lines within, 387 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:49,279 which gave the impression of a definite organism. One of them was past 388 00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:53,640 my very face, and I was conscious of a cold clammy contact, But 389 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:59,200 the composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with any thought of 390 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,160 physical danger any more than the beautiful bell like creatures which had preceded them. 391 00:30:04,319 --> 00:30:08,359 There was no more solidity in their frames than in the floating spume from a 392 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:14,640 broken wave. But a more terrible experience was in store for me. Floating 393 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:18,480 downwards from a great height. There came a purplish patch of vapor, small 394 00:30:18,519 --> 00:30:23,599 as I saw at first, but rapidly enlarging as it approached me, until 395 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:29,839 it appeared to be hundreds of square feet in size. Though fashioned in some 396 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:34,839 transparent jelly like substance, it was nonetheless of much more definite outline and solid 397 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:40,359 consistence than anything which I had seen before. There were more traces, too, 398 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:45,000 of a physical organization, especially two vast, shadowy circular plates upon either 399 00:30:45,119 --> 00:30:51,680 side which may have been eyes, and a perfectly solid white projection between them, 400 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,880 which was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture. The 401 00:30:55,960 --> 00:31:00,960 whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening, and it kept changing its 402 00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,400 color from a very light mauve to a dark, angry purple, so thick 403 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,480 that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my monoplane and the sun. 404 00:31:11,039 --> 00:31:15,200 On the upper curve of its huge body, there were three great projections which 405 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,920 I can only describe as enormous bubbles, and I was convinced as I looked 406 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,680 at them, that they were charged with some extremely light gas which served to 407 00:31:23,799 --> 00:31:29,160 buoy up them, mis shaping and semi solid mass in the rarefied air, 408 00:31:30,839 --> 00:31:34,480 the creature moved swiftly along, keeping pace easily with the monoplane, and for 409 00:31:34,559 --> 00:31:40,319 twenty miles or more it formed my horrible escort, hovering over me like a 410 00:31:40,359 --> 00:31:45,240 bird of prey which is waiting to pounce. Its method of progression, done 411 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,599 so swiftly that it was not easy to follow, was to throw out a 412 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,559 long, glutinous streamer in front of it, which in turn seemed to draw 413 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:57,160 forward the rest of the writhing body. So alastica gelatinous was it that never, 414 00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:01,799 for two successive minutes the same shape, and yet each change made it 415 00:32:01,839 --> 00:32:07,480 more threatening and loathsome than the last. I knew that it meant mischief. 416 00:32:07,799 --> 00:32:13,519 Every purple flush of its hideous body told me so. The vague, goggling 417 00:32:13,559 --> 00:32:17,240 eyes which were turned always upon me, were cold and merciless in their viscid 418 00:32:17,279 --> 00:32:22,720 hatred. I dipped the nose of my monoplane downwards to escape it. As 419 00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:25,599 I did so, as quick as a flash, there was shot out a 420 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,640 long tentacle from this mass of floating blubber, and it felt as light and 421 00:32:30,839 --> 00:32:35,839 sinuous as a whiplash across the front of my machine. There was a loud 422 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,440 hiss as it lay for a moment across the hot engine, and it whisked 423 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:44,119 itself into the air again, while the huge flat body drew itself together as 424 00:32:44,119 --> 00:32:49,319 if in sudden pain. I dipped to a vall peak, but again a 425 00:32:49,359 --> 00:32:52,240 tentacle fell over the monoplane, and it was shorn off by the propeller as 426 00:32:52,279 --> 00:32:57,839 easily as it might have cut through a smoke wreath. A long, gliding, 427 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,880 sticky, serpent like coil came from behind and caught me round the waist, 428 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:06,519 dragging me out of the fuselage. I tore at it, my fingers 429 00:33:06,559 --> 00:33:10,119 sinking into the smooth, glue like surface. For an instant. I disengaged 430 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:15,319 myself, but only to be caught round the boot by another coil, which 431 00:33:15,359 --> 00:33:19,559 gave me a jerk that tilted me almost down to my back. As I 432 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,279 fell over, I blazed off both barrels of my gun, though indeed it 433 00:33:23,319 --> 00:33:28,400 was like attacking an elephant with a pea shooter to imagine that any human weapon 434 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,920 could cripple that mighty bulk. And yet I aimed better than I knew, 435 00:33:32,079 --> 00:33:37,160 for with a loud report, one of the great blisters upon the creature's back 436 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:43,160 exploded with the puncture of the buckshot. It was very clear that my conjecture 437 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:47,079 was right, that these vast clear bladders were distended with some lifting gas. 438 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:53,480 For in an instant the huge cloudlike body turned sideways, writhing desperately to find 439 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:59,640 its balance, while the white beak snapped and gaped in horrible fury. But 440 00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:02,599 ready I had shot away on the steepest glide that I dared to attempt, 441 00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:07,440 my engine still full on the flying propeller, and the force of gravity shooting 442 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:12,719 me downwards like an arrow light. Bright behind me, I saw a dull, 443 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,599 purplish smudge growing swiftly smaller and merging into the blue sky behind it. 444 00:34:17,119 --> 00:34:22,079 I was safe out of the deadly jungle of the outer air. Once out 445 00:34:22,079 --> 00:34:27,039 of danger, I throttled my engine. For nothing tears a machine to pieces 446 00:34:27,079 --> 00:34:30,039 quicker than running on a full power from a height. It was a glorious 447 00:34:30,079 --> 00:34:35,719 spiral vall plane from nearly eight miles of altitude, first to the level of 448 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,599 the silver cloud bank, then to that of the storm cloud beneath it, 449 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,599 and finally, in beating rain, to the surface of the Earth. I 450 00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,880 saw the Bristol channel beneath me. As I broke from the clouds, but 451 00:34:46,119 --> 00:34:51,280 having still some petrol in my tank. I got twenty miles in one before 452 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,639 I found myself stranded in a field half a mile from the village of Ashcombe. 453 00:34:55,480 --> 00:35:00,239 There I got three tins of petrol from a passing motor car. At 454 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,440 ten minutes past six that evening, I alighted gently in my own home meadow 455 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,840 at Divisas, after such a journey as no mortal upon Earth has ever yet 456 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:13,679 taken, and live to tell the tale. I have seen the beauty, 457 00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:16,239 and I have seen the horror of the heights, and greater beauty, or 458 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:22,000 greater horror than that is not within the kin of man. And now it 459 00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:24,480 is my plan to go once again before I give my results to the world. 460 00:35:25,079 --> 00:35:29,599 My reason for this is that I must surely have something to show by 461 00:35:29,679 --> 00:35:32,119 way of proof, before I lay such a tale before my fellow men. 462 00:35:34,119 --> 00:35:37,880 It is true that others will soon follow and will confirm what I have said, 463 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:43,480 And yet I should wish to carry conviction from the first. Those lovelierritescent 464 00:35:43,519 --> 00:35:47,480 bubbles of the air should not be hard to capture. They drift slowly upon 465 00:35:47,559 --> 00:35:52,599 their way, and the swift monoplane could intercept their leisurely course. It is 466 00:35:52,679 --> 00:35:57,679 likely enough that they would dissolve in the heavier layers of the atmosphere, and 467 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,559 that some small heap of amorphous jelly might be all that I should bring to 468 00:36:00,599 --> 00:36:06,360 Earth with me. And yet something there would surely be by which I could 469 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:09,920 substantiate my story. Yes, I will go, even if I run a 470 00:36:10,039 --> 00:36:15,519 risk by doing so. These purple horrors would not seem to be numerous. 471 00:36:15,039 --> 00:36:20,320 It is probable that I shall not see one. If I do, I 472 00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,079 shall dive at once. At the worst, there was always the shotgun, 473 00:36:23,079 --> 00:36:28,880 and my knowledge of here. A page of the manuscript is unfortunately missing. 474 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:34,840 On the next page is written in large, straggling writing, forty three thousand 475 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,079 feet I shall never see Earth again. They are beneath me, three of 476 00:36:38,119 --> 00:36:45,320 them. God help me. It is a dreadful death to die. Such 477 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:51,199 in its entirety is the joyous, armstrong statement of the man Nothing has since 478 00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:55,159 been seen. Pieces of a shattered monoplane have been picked up in the preserves 479 00:36:55,159 --> 00:37:00,159 of mister bud Lushington, upon the borders of Kent and Sussex, within a 480 00:37:00,199 --> 00:37:06,440 few miles of the spot where the notebook was discovered. If the unfortunate aviator's 481 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,119 theory is correct, that this air jungle, as he called it, existed 482 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:14,320 only over the southwest of England. Then it would seem that he had fled 483 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,960 from it at the full speed of his monoplane, but had been overtaken and 484 00:37:17,079 --> 00:37:22,559 devoured by these horrible creatures at some spot in the outer atmosphere above the place 485 00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:30,079 where the groom relics were found. The picture of that monoplane skimming down the 486 00:37:30,159 --> 00:37:35,079 sky, with the nameless terrors flying as swiftly beneath it, and cutting it 487 00:37:35,159 --> 00:37:38,480 off always from the earth, while they gradually closed in upon their victim, 488 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:44,599 is one upon which a man who valued his sanity would prefer not to dwell. 489 00:37:45,639 --> 00:37:47,079 There are many, as I am aware, who still jeer at the 490 00:37:47,159 --> 00:37:51,960 facts which I have here set down. But even they must admit that Joyce 491 00:37:52,079 --> 00:37:57,079 Armstrong has disappeared, and I would commend to them his own words. This 492 00:37:57,159 --> 00:38:00,840 notebook may explain what I am trying to do, and how I lost my 493 00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:05,000 life in doing it. But no drivel about accidents or mysteries, if you 494 00:38:05,119 --> 00:38:09,559 please, And of the horror of the heights