The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Floating Island of Madness, by Jason Kirby

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Title: The Floating Island of Madness

Author: Jason Kirby

Release Date: July 16, 2009 [EBook #29421]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Astounding Stories January 1933.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

The Floating Island of Madness

By Jason Kirby

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Far above the Arabian Desert three Secret Service men find
an aerial island whose inhabitants are--madmen.]

Above us curved the pale, hot bowl of cloudless sky; below us
stretched the rolling, tawny wastes of the great Arabian Desert; and
away to the east, close to the dipping horizon, scudded the tiny speck
we were following. We had been following it since dawn and it was now
close to sunset. Where was it leading us? Should we go on or turn
back? How much longer would our gas and oil hold out? And just where
were we? I turned and saw my questions reflected in the eyes of my
companions, Paul Foulet of the French Surete and Douglas Brice of
Scotland Yard.

"Too fast!" shouted Brice above the roar of our motors. I nodded. His
gesture explained his meaning. The plane ahead had suddenly taken on a
terrific, unbelievable speed. All day it had traveled normally,
maintaining, but not increasing, the distance between us. But in the
last fifteen minutes it had leaped into space. Fifteen minutes before
it had been two miles in the lead; now it was barely visible. A tiny,
vanishing speck. What could account for this burst of superhuman
speed? Who was in that plane? _What_ was in that plane?

I glanced at Foulet. He shrugged non-committally, waving a courteous
hand toward Brice. I understood; I agreed with him. This was Brice's
party, and the decisio