CIRCLING EIB'FP:L TOWER IN AIR SHIP. 579 



NeverthoK'ss, Siiiitos-Duinoiit, witli liis sleeves rolled up, fixed Iiiiii- 

 solf oiu-o more in his basket with iiuu-h the same air as a workman 

 seats himself before his lathe for the day's work. His eye took a 

 careful survey of the entire air ship lest some preliminar}' had been 

 o\-erIooked. He counted the l)allast ])ao-s under his feet in the basket, 

 he looked to the canvas po(;ket of loose sand at either hand, then saw 

 to his ^uide rope. Everythin«- appeared to be all rioht. Several 

 friends shook his hand, amonjj- them Mr. Deutsch. Count de la Vaulx, 

 with watch in hand, stood ready to begin countino- the official time. 

 The chattering stopped, and the place was very still as the man hold 

 ing the guide rope awaited the signal to let go. Then the little man 

 in the basket above them raised his hand and shouted. On the second 

 the timekeeper (Count de la Vaulx) called off 0.41, and man and balloon 

 would have to be back by eleven miiuites after 7. 



At first it did not look like a race against time. The balloon rose 

 sluggishly, and Santos-Dumont had to dump out bag after bag of 

 sand, till finally the guide rope was clear of the trees. All this gave 

 him no opportunity to thiidv of his direction, and he was drifting 

 toward Versailles; but while yet over the Seine he pulled his rudder 

 ropes taut. Then slowly, gracefully, the enormous spindle veered 

 round and pointed its nose toward the Eift'el Tower. The fans spun 

 Miergetically, and the air ship settled down to business-like traveling. 

 It marked a straight, decided line for its goal, then followed the chosen 

 route with a considerable speed. Soon the chug-chugging of the 

 motor could be heard no hunger by the spectators, and the balloon and 

 car grew smaller and smaller in its halo of light smoke. Those in the 

 park saw only the screw and the rear of the l)alloon, like the stern of a 

 steamer in dry dock. Before long onlv a dot remained against the sky, 

 but the dot was still moving. Steadi ly it neai-ed the shadowy obelisk line 

 which was P^iffel Tower, then scarcely visible in the heat mist of Paris. 

 Suddeidy the dot vanished behind the tower, thus bringing together 

 man's two ways of getting into the air, the one from a century just 

 closed, the other from a century just beginning. 



To the throng waiting in the park the dotseeuied ])lotted from sight 

 for a long while, but at last they could distinguish it emerging from 

 the foggy ladder-shape outlined against the sky. They could not tell, 

 however, whether it had really gone around the tower. If Santos- 

 Oumont had not doul)led the tower, then the greater interest in his 

 return was lost. It would be no longer a race. Still the people 

 k(>pt count of the nunutes as they w^atched the speck grow larger and 

 larger, and gradually evolve into the form of an air ship. The morn- 

 ing sun caught on the burnished copper of the petroleum reservoir, 

 and the man could be seen in his car, and then a messenger in an auto- 

 mobile raced up to the park gate. He brought the marking of the 

 official timekeeper on Eift'el Tower, and his announcement laid all 



