Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1919 — Will-’O-the-Wisp [ARTICLE]

Will-’O-the-Wisp

By FRANK COMSTOCK

(Copyright.) With a soft purring sound such M • cat would make before a warm fire, the aeroplane «Hd through the night, banked, came deftly about as It neared the poplars at the end of the enclosure and dipped. A shadow fled across the lawn beneath it. Ashcroft lowered the forward planes, the Will-o’-the-wisp settled, ran along the grass for a little way. and a moment later he Jumped off and came orerwhere I stood. “What do you think of it?" he queried exultlngly. “I think," I replied “that you have perfected one of the most devilish contrivances ever possessed by a respectable crook. When do we start? "Half an hour," he said. "Come iualde and have a drinks When we had seated ourselves on either side of a bottle of sparkling Chabtis. he raised his glass and toasted our contlng adventure. “To the safe voyage of the Will-o’-the-Wtsp and the Honorable Georgia Calendar’s diamond dog collar," said he. And we drank It off with deep feeilhg. A month before I had come across Ashcroft, or rather he had come across me, and in a manner that left no doubt as to my intentions in visiting hint. The fact of it was. that bis home' being one of the most snug-looking villas in the exclusive section of Staten Island, and I being a gentleman living mainly by my wits. 1 cast my eyes upon it and computed mentally Just liow much I should be In if fortune should favor me with a clear field. The upshot of the thing was, that Just as I was about to descend from bis third-story window, together with what more or less valuahle articles I had managed to pick up in the course of my visit the electric lights were switched on and a bullet splattered the plaster down the hack of my neck. Ashcroft changed his mind after the first shot took me in. instructed me in what he was pleased to rail "the finer points of the game,’* and from that on we were inseparable. We distrusted each other most cordially and split the profits. He looked up at me from a long and silent meditation upon the virtues of the wine. "The wind will drop In about fifteen minutes, I should say, and the Honorable Mrs. Calendar’s little private roofparty takes place at eleven. We shnll just make it. Have you a revolver?" I got out my automatic and inspected Its contents, and he nodded in approval, , v

“Let us pray we shall not have to use them. Where are the masks?" We climbed aboard. The Will-o'-the-Wisp quivered, moved forward like a living thing. Ashcroft tilted the forward planes and we lifted. An Immense shadow was flitting •long the ground below us, but presently the moon went behind a cloud and we sailed through darkness. The country below us was an inky surface, with here and there a twinkling light that spoke of a house. Ashcroft moved the lever a trifle and iny seat inclined a fraction. I knew that we were climbing. Presently we righted and slid along on a level: Ashcroft let out another notch and the purring of the motor Increased to a muffled hum. A winding white ribbon that I knew was the turnpike was discernible below us and a black spot was racing along in our wake. ft was an automobile, and a faint tooting of the horn came Up, tp us. but the men in it never lifted their faces. “Two thousand feet.” said Ashcroft. “We shall just make it" Far below us to the right one could make out the varied lights of Coney Island. A little north of them the sharp. Imife-like streak of a searchlight from the Navy Yard swept-back and forth across the sky, once heading exactly In our direction, but we were beyond Its focus. * It looked like a toy city. I could hardly believe It was New York, that vague wilderness of roofs, the long strlhgs of lights that were the streets, the faint glow of Broadly, the crawling things that I knew? were the trains of the elevated railread. It was exactly 11 ;00 o’clock. Over Madison Square we circled again and slid down in a long glide until we could have shaken hands with Diana had we been in her vicinity. Then Ashcroft shut off the motor andP'We nosed earthward in a narrowing circle. Ashcroft is nothing If not accurate. We made our way cautiously across the two roofs that Intervened between the Wlll-o’-the-Wisp and the imitation Italian garden that sent a soft glow of light Into the night. Ashcroft softly parted the leaves of the arbor wall and we peeped in. " There were long rows of Japanese lanterns and flowers, and at a table that was loaded with enough silver to make you wish to get away with that haul and then die happy, sat five people. Three of them I did not know, the faces of the two men and the woman strange to mp. but 1 recognized at a glance the portly person of Lord Coventry. I had seen his picture In the fecent aociely news and in his shirt-front I

caught the glimmer of the famous Coventry studs. Then Ashcroft pushed swiftly by me and I followed him Into the light. We terrorised them for m moment—to tell the truth, we were a strange sight, in our long rubber cloaks, and vizor caps and the masks across our faces. * The butler near the door must have made some movement, tor Ashcroft’s revolver barked sharply and the fellow coughed and clawed aud crumpled across a little table full of empty dishes. My lord rose slowly to his feet and his florid face worked in fury. He was no coward. If he did have other defects. “What do you want?" he said. Ashcroft waited until the Tittle wreath of acrid smoke had lifted and then stepped forward. We had no time to lose now. It wasgunfortunate that we had to kill the butler. No doubt the sharp report had roused the curiosity of some Inquisitive citizens, and it was only a matter of time w hen help might appear on the roof. “You wjll unfasten your shirt-studs and drop them on the table in front of you,” he said curtly. : lie waved ills pistol and the rest slunk back. And then while I covered them, he went swiftly to Mrs. Calendar and undid the necklace, holding it up for a moment in the light in a sort of gloating satisfaction, and then slipped It intoehis pocket. I swept the studs Into the palm of my hand. There were six of them, large and blue-white, and they clinked together musically as I took them. I could see the. lord of Coventry quivering in impotent rage with his hands above his head; then Ashcroft whistled and we hacked through the shrubbery. How we haif-ran. across the black darkness of the Toofs I do not remember. I recollect Ashcroft working with sobbing curses at the propellers, the sudden roar of the Gnome as she spun in a shrieking circle, we rolled forward. shot over the edge, dipped with a sickening sensation to what seemed certain destruotlon--eaught the wind on our forward planes and mounted steadily. For a moment there was a splendid sensation in it all, a sertse of power and disdain for the Impotent little things that ran and shouted in the streets a thousand feet below us and turned up white faces in the yellow lights, gesticulating comically. I think they shot at us. When we had got up 2,000 feet we turned a little, and I could Just make out the dark outline of Staten Island in the bay below, —— -- - , , Then the Will-o'-the-wisp quivered and plunged aud righted again and swerved ami shot upward in air odd manner. I turned to Ashcroft.

He had slumped in a grotesque manned to the back of the seat, and there was a trickle of blood running down the shoulder of his coat. A sudden gust of wind rocked the aeroplane to one side and we dropped and shot forward with frightful speed down an invisible toboggan. With a desperate effort I righted the planes, and for an instant we sang along steadily. Then I lost control. Two thousand feet in the air I lost control of the aeroplane. Another descent and another upward lurch as I recovered. We were rocking furiously now. I dared to glance down. What I saw was that Ashcroft had fallen so that the engine connection was beyond my reach. I could not stop It. A sudden glare blinded my eyes. The Will-o’-the-Wisp had dropped into the path of the searchlight, and for an instant I looked down Into the heart of the dazzling radiance. I must have raised the planes again, for we shot upward, the searchlight swept by, and I fled Into the darkness, helpless on the back of the throbbing monster with a dead man for a passenger. Then there came a crack from somewhere in the maze of wires that netted and crossed behind me. Tn the white glare as the searchlight caught us again, Ashcroft’s eyes looked up at me in an unseeing manner. I think it was the left wing that gave waythe Will-o'-the-Wisp rlcochetted from side to side in a drunken fashion —collapsed in mid-atr. and then turned over aud over, and hurtled downward. ~ I don't know how I mauaged It. The shock of the water revived me a bit —I was more dazed than hurt —and there were one or two bltst>f wreckage floating about after I managed to dive and shed my heavy coat and get out from under all that; was left of the Will-o’-the-Wisp. I could see the searchlight playing about on the water in search of us, and it finally got the machine, but I kept out of its reach and paddled away. A tug was going by rather slowly and she almost ran me down in the darkness, but I managed to get hold of one of the trailing logs she bad fit her side, and when we reached wharf I dropped behind and scrambled ashore. i I skulked about the streets until my clothes were presentable and then made my way to a "'pawnshop whose owner knew me of old. and disposed of one of the Coventry studs. I don’t know what became of Ashcroft. - The® thing made a big sensation in the papers the next day. There were stories columns long about it. but this Is about the mosjt veracious account yoiu will ever get of the matter, that is, unless Ashcroft ever happens to crop op figfiia 1 77 -