shattered monoplane have been
picked up in the preserves of Mr. Budd-Lushington upon the borders of
Kent and Sussex, within a few miles of the spot where the note-book was
discovered. If the unfortunate aviator's theory is correct that this air-
jungle, as he called it, existed only over the south-west of England,
then it would seem that he had fled from it at the full speed of his
monoplane, but had been overtaken and devoured by these horrible
creatures at some spot in the outer atmosphere above the place where the
grim relics were found. The picture of that monoplane skimming down the
sky, with the nameless terrors flying as swiftly beneath it and cutting
it off always from the earth while they gradually closed in upon their
victim, is one upon which a man who valued his sanity would prefer not to
dwell. There are many, as I am aware, who still jeer at the facts which
I have here set down, but even they must admit that Joyce-Armstrong has
disappeared, and I would commend to them his own words: "This note-book
may explain what I am trying to do, and how I lost my life in doing it.
But no drivel about accidents or mysteries, if _you_ please."

VI. BORROWED SCENES

"It cannot be done. People really would not stand it. I know because
I have tried."--_Extract from an unpublished paper upon George Borrow
and his writings_.

Yes, I tried and my experience may interest other people. You must
imagine, then, that I am soaked in George Borrow, especially in his
_Lavengro_ and his _Romany Rye_, that I have modelled both my thoughts,
my speech and my style very carefully upon those of the master, and that
finally I set forth one summer day actually to lead the life of which I
had read. Behold me, then, upon the country road which leads from the
railway-station to the Sussex village of Swinehurst.

As I walked, I entertained myself by recollections of the founders of
Sussex, of Cerdic that mighty sea-rover, and of Ella his son, said by the
bard to be taller by the length of a spear-head than the tallest of his
fellows. I mentioned the matter twice to peasants whom I met upon the
road. One, a tallish man with a freckled face, sidled past me and ran
swiftly towards the station. The other, a smaller and older man, stood
entranced while I recited to him that passage of the Saxon Chronicle
which begins, "Then came Leija with longships forty-four, and the fyrd
went out against him." I was pointing out to