ere."

If you can imagine yourself fourteen thousand feet above the earth,
sitting in an aeroplane, and the pilot letting go all his controls, as
he stands on his feet shouting in your ear, you will be able to realise,
but only to a very slight extent, what my feelings were at this precise
moment.

He returned to his seat. He was smiling. I fumbled about underneath and
found the tube. Putting it to my mouth, I asked him what he meant by it.

"That's all right, my dear chap," he said, "there's no need to get
alarmed. The old bus will go along merrily on its own."

"I'll believe all you say. In fact I'll believe anything you like to
tell me, but I'd much rather you sit in your seat and control the
machine," I replied.

He chuckled, apparently enjoying the joke to the full, but during the
remainder of the journey I made sure I was not sitting on the speaking
tube.

The mist was gradually clearing now. The sun shone gloriously, the
clouds, a long way beneath us, looked more substantial; through the gaps
in their fleecy whiteness the earth appeared. It seemed a long time
since I had seen it. We were again coming to the edge of a cloud bank.
The atmosphere beyond was exceedingly clear.

"We are nearly home," said my companion. "Are you going to take any more
scenes?"

"Yes," I said, "I suppose you'll spiral down?"

"Right-ho!"

"I'll take a film showing the earth revolving. It'll look very quaint on
the screen."

"Here goes then. We are going to dive down to about six thousand feet,
so hold on tight to your strap."

The engines almost stopped. Suddenly we seemed to be falling earthwards.
Down--down--down! We were diving as nearly perpendicular as it is
possible to be. Sharp pains shot through my head. It was getting worse.
The pain was horrible. The right side of my face and head seemed as if a
hundred pin-points were being driven into it. I clutched my face in
agony; then I realised the cause. Coming down from such a height, at so
terrific a speed, the different pressure of the atmosphere affected the
blood pressure on the head.

Suddenly the downward rush was stopped. The plane was brought to an even
keel.

"I'm going to spiral now," said the pilot. "Ready?"

"Right away," I said, and knelt again in my seat. The plane suddenly
seemed to swerve. Then it slanted at a most terrifying angle, and began
to descend rapidly towards the earth in a spiral form. I filmed the
scene on the journey. To say the earth