A Knight of the Air

A Knight of the Air; or, The Aerial Rivals By Henry Coxwell, author of *My Life and Balloon Experiences* This is the featured serial in this issue of Digby's Popular Novel Series. *A Knight of the Air* concerns Harry Goodall, a young aeronautical enthusiast being mysteriously followed by two men in London. At the Crystal Palace, Goodall begins aeronautical experiments using a cone-shaped thirteen-foot aerostat with a screw propeller, intended to be steerable via a novel keel-and-center-board system tested on the palace lake. Among his staff is his assistant Trigger, plus Mrs. Chain and her daughter Miss Chain—impoverished gentlewomen he employs out of charity after a fraudulent financier swindled them at Boulogne. When one of Goodall's pursuers peers through the laboratory screen, Miss Chain faints in terror, later revealing she recognizes him as the dishonest financier himself. The narrative combines aeronautical technology with mystery and melodrama.