Tales of Terror Mystery | Page 9

which I can only compare to very fine cigarette smoke. It hung about in
wreaths and coils, turning and twisting slowly in the sunlight. As the
monoplane shot through it, I was aware of a faint taste of oil upon my
lips, and there was a greasy scum upon the woodwork of the machine.
Some infinitely fine organic matter appeared to be suspended in the
atmosphere. There was no life there. It was inchoate and diffuse,
extending for many square acres and then fringing off into the void. No,
it was not life. But might it not be the remains of life? Above all, might
it not be the food of life, of monstrous life, even as the humble grease
of the ocean is the food for the mighty whale? The thought was in my
mind when my eyes looked upwards and I saw the most wonderful
vision that ever man has seen. Can I hope to convey it to you even as I
saw it myself last Thursday?
"Conceive a jelly-fish such as sails in our summer seas, bell- shaped
and of enormous size--far larger, I should judge, than the dome of St.
Paul's. It was of a light pink colour veined with a delicate green, but the
whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline against the
dark blue sky. It pulsated with a delicate and regular rhythm. From it
there depended two long, drooping, green tentacles, which swayed
slowly backwards and forwards. This gorgeous vision passed gently
with noiseless dignity over my head, as light and fragile as a
soap-bubble, and drifted upon its stately way.
"I had half-turned my monoplane, that I might look after this beautiful
creature, when, in a moment, I found myself amidst a perfect fleet of
them, of all sizes, but none so large as the first. Some were quite small,
but the majority about as big as an average balloon, and with much the
same curvature at the top. There was in them a delicacy of texture and
colouring which reminded me of the finest Venetian glass. Pale shades
of pink and green were the prevailing tints, but all had a lovely
iridescence where the sun shimmered through their dainty forms. Some
hundreds of them drifted past me, a wonderful fairy squadron of
strange unknown argosies of the sky--creatures whose forms and
substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not

conceive anything so delicate within actual sight or sound of earth.
"But soon my attention was drawn to a new phenomenon--the serpents
of the outer air. These were long, thin, fantastic coils of vapour-like
material, which turned and twisted with great speed, flying round and
round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly follow them. Some of
these ghost-like creatures were twenty or thirty feet long, but it was
difficult to tell their girth, for their outline was so hazy that it seemed to
fade away into the air around them. These air-snakes were of a very
light grey or smoke colour, with some darker lines within, which gave
the impression of a definite organism. One of them whisked past my
very face, and I was conscious of a cold, clammy contact, but their
composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with
any thought of physical danger, any more than the beautiful bell-like
creatures which had preceded them. There was no more solidity in their
frames than in the floating spume from a broken wave.
"But a more terrible experience was in store for me. Floating
downwards from a great height there came a purplish patch of vapour,
small as I saw it first, but rapidly enlarging as it approached me, until it
appeared to be hundreds of square feet in size. Though fashioned of
some transparent, jelly-like substance, it was none the less of much
more definite outline and solid consistence than anything which I had
seen before. There were more traces, too, of a physical organization,
especially two vast, shadowy, circular plates upon either side, which
may have been eyes, and a perfectly solid white projection between
them which was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture.
"The whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening, and
it kept changing its colour from a very light mauve to a dark, angry
purple so thick that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my
monoplane and the sun. On the upper curve of its huge body there were
three great projections which I can only describe as enormous bubbles,
and I was convinced as I looked at them that they were charged with
some extremely light gas which served to buoy up the misshapen and
semi-solid mass in the rarefied air. The creature