Up he drove and up, to that pulsating rhythm, until the country beneath was blue and indistinct, and London spread like a little map traced in light, like the mere model of a city near the brim of the horizon.  The southwest was a sky of sapphire over the shadowy rim of the world, and ever as he drove upward the multitude of stars increased.

And behold!  In the southward, low down and glittering swiftly nearer, were two little patches of nebulous light.  And then two more, and then a glow of swiftly driving shapes.  Presently he could count them.  There were four and twenty.  The first fleet of aeroplanes had come!  Beyond appeared a yet greater glow.

He swept round in a half circle, staring at this advancing fleet.  It flew in a wedge-like shape, a triangular flight of gigantic phosphorescent shapes sweeping nearer through the lower air.  He made a swift calculation of their pace, and spun the little wheel that brought the engine forward.  He touched a lever and the throbbing effort of the engine ceased.  He began to fall, fell swifter and swifter.  He aimed at the apex of the wedge.  He dropped like a stone through the whistling air.  It seemed scarce a second from that soaring moment before he struck the foremost aeroplane.

No man of all that black multitude saw the coming of his fate, no man among them dreamt of the hawk that struck downward upon him out of the sky.  Those who were not limp in the agonies of air-sickness, were craning their black necks and staring to see the filmy city that was rising out of the haze, the rich and splendid city to which “Massa Boss” had brought their obedient muscles.  Bright teeth gleamed and the glossy faces shone.  They had heard of Paris.  They knew they were to have lordly times among the poor white trash.

Suddenly Graham hit them.

He had aimed at the body of the aeroplane, but at the very last instant a better idea had flashed into his mind.  He twisted about and struck near the edge of the starboard wing with all his accumulated weight.  He was jerked back as he struck.  His prow went gliding across its smooth expanse towards the rim.  He felt the forward rush of the huge fabric sweeping him and his monoplane along with it, and for a moment that seemed an age he could not tell what was happening.  He heard a thousand throats yelling, and perceived that his machine was balanced on the edge of the gigantic float, and driving down, down; glanced over his shoulder and saw the backbone of the aeroplane and the opposite float swaying up.  He had a vision through the ribs of sliding chairs, staring faces, and hands clutching at the tilting guide bars.  The fenestrations in the further float flashed open as the aeronaut tried to right her.  Beyond, he saw a second aeroplane leaping steeply to escape the whirl of its heeling fellow.  The broad area of swaying wings seemed to jerk upward.  He felt he had dropped clear, that the monstrous fabric, clean overturned, hung like a sloping wall above him.