towards the door of the cabin; but ere I had gone two paces, I suddenly
reeled and fell. At first I imagined that an accident had happened to
the car, but soon realised that I myself was at fault. Dizzy and faint,
with a bounding pulse, an aching head, and a panting chest, I raised
myself with great difficulty into a seat, and tried to collect my
thoughts. For the last quarter of an hour I had been aware of a growing
uneasiness, but the spectacle of sunrise had entranced me, and I forgot
it. Suspecting an attack of "mountain sickness" owing to the rarity of
the atmosphere, I attempted to rise and close the scuttles, but found
that I had lost all power in my lower limbs. The pain in my head
increased, the palpitation of my heart grew more violent, my ears rang
like a bell, and I literally gasped for breath. Moreover, I felt a
peculiar dryness in my throat, and a disagreeable taste of blood in my
mouth. What was to be done? I tried again to reach the door, but only to
find that I could not even move my arms, let alone my feet.
Nevertheless, I was singularly free from agitation or alarm, and my mind
was just as clear as it is now. I reflected that as the car was ever
rising into a rarer atmosphere, my only hope of salvation lay in calling
for help, and that as the paralysis was gaining on my whole body, not a
moment was to be lost. I shouted with all my strength; but beyond a sort
of hiss, not a sound escaped my lips. The profound silence of the car
now struck me in a new light. Had Gazen and Miss Carmichael not
committed the same blunder, and suffered a like fate? Perhaps even
Carmichael himself had been equally careless, and the flying machine,
now masterless, was carrying us Heaven knows whither. Strange to say I
entertained these sinister apprehensions without the least emotion. I
had lost all feeling of pain or anxiety, and was perfectly tranquil and
indifferent to anything that might happen. It is possible that with the
paralysis of my powers to help myself, I was also relieved by nature
from the fears of death. I began to think of the sensation which our