s.

I heard the wireless operator cursing the way his receiver was acting.

Higher and higher Norton went in one spiral after another, those spirals
which his gyroscope had already made famous.

The man with the megaphone in front of the judge's stand announced in
hollow tones that Mr. Norton had given notice that he would try for the
Brooks Prize for stationary equilibrium.

Kennedy and I stood speechless, helpless, appalled.

Slower and slower went the aeroplane. It seemed to hover just like the
big mechanical bird that it was.

Kennedy was anxiously watching the judges with one eye and Norton with
the other. A few in the crowd could no longer restrain their applause. I
remember that the wireless back of us was spluttering and crackling like
mad.

All of a sudden a groan swept over the crowd. Something was wrong with
Norton. His aeroplane was swooping downward at a terrific rate. Would he
be able to control it? I held my breath and gripped Kennedy by the arm.
Down, down came Norton, frantically fighting by main strength, it seemed
to me, to warp the planes so that their surface might catch the air and
check his descent.

"He's trying to detach the gyroscope," whispered Craig hoarsely.

The football helmet which Norton wore blew off and fell more rapidly
than the plane. I shut my eyes. But Kennedy's next exclamation caused me
quickly to open them again.

"He'll make it, after all!"

Somehow Norton had regained partial control of his machine, but it was
still swooping down at a tremendous pace toward the level centre of the
field.

There was a crash as it struck the ground in a cloud of dust.

With a leap Kennedy had cleared the fence and was running toward Norton.
Two men from the judge's stand were ahead of us, but except for them
we were the first to reach him. The men were tearing frantically at
the tangled framework, trying to lift it off Norton, who lay pale and
motionless, pinned under it. The machine was not so badly damaged, after
all, but that together we could lift it bodily off him.

A doctor ran out from the crowd and hastily put his ear to Norton's
chest. No one spoke, but we all scanned the doctor's face anxiously.

"Just stunned--he'll be all right in a moment. Get some water," he said.

Kennedy pulled my arm. "Look at the gyroscope dynamo," he whispered.

I looked. Like the other two which we had seen, it also was a wreck. The
insulation was burned off the wires, the wires were fused