" he said. "Take your glasses. There--due north--can you see a
steeple?"

The men turned their field glasses in the direction toward which the
other pointed. "Yes!" they answered. "It is sixteen miles, as the crow
flies, to Barnham Church--thirty-two miles there and back. Wait!"

He swung round, dived till he seemed about to touch the hillside, then
soared upwards and straight away. Peter Ruff took out his watch. The
other two men gazed with fascinated eyes after the disappearing speck.

"If he does it--" the shorter one muttered.

"He will do it!" the other answered.

He was back again before their eyes were weary of watching. Peter Ruff,
from behind the boulder, closed his watch. Thirty-two miles in less than
half an hour! The youth leaned from his seat.

"Is it enough?" he asked, hoarsely.

"It is enough!" the two men answered together. "We will come down."

The youth touched a lever and the machine glided down towards the
valley, falling all the while with the effortless grace a parachute. The
shed from which his machine had issued was midway down a slope, with
a short length of rails which ran, apparently, through it. The machine
seemed to hover for several moments above the building, then descended
slowly on to the rails and disappeared in the shed. The two men were
already half-way down the hill. Peter Ruff rose from behind the boulder,
stretched himself with a sense of immense relief, and lit a pipe. As
yet he dared not descend. He simply changed his hiding place for a spot
which enabled him to command a view of the handful of cottages at the
back of the hill. He had plenty to think about. It was a wonderful
thing--this--which he had seen!

The youth, meanwhile, was drinking deep of the poisonous cup. He walked
between the two men--his cheeks were flushed, his eyes on fire.

"If all the world to-day had seen what we have seen," the older man was
saying, "there would be no more talk of Wilbur Wrights or Farmans. Those
men are babies, playing with their toys."

"Mine is the ideal principle," the youth declared. "No one else has
thought of it, no one else has made use of it. Yet all the time I am
afraid--it is so simple."

"Sell quick, then," the fair-headed man advised. "By to-morrow night I
can promise you fifty thousand pounds."

The youth stopped. He drew a deep breath.

"I shall sell," he declared. "I need money. I want to live. Fifty
thousand pounds is enough. Eleven weary months I have slept