('The Space Coffin' (1901) by A. Rowley Hilliard)

He looked down at the Earth, where it rolled slowly. He looked up . . . The little ball was lost in the black sky. Suddenly, he felt very lonely. He had a feeling that the little bla*k ball had been a more friendly thing than the rolling Earth below. Its great, mottled sphere did not look comforting. It appeared menacing, rather...

...He felt for the cord of the parachute nervously, and had a momentary panic when he could not find it with his clumsy gauntlet. He remembered that he was a science -fiction hero, and tried to be practical. But there didn’t seem to be anything to do, after he found the cord. He fell to watching the Earth’s surface — at first idly, then anxiously. A small continent had rolled away — Australasia; and now a broad ocean lay beneath him. It made him shiver.

Things began to happen more swiftly now. Almost before he knew it, he was well into the atmosphere. The faint blue color of it extended on all sides of him. The Earth began to loom large in his sky. Would that ocean never pass? At last a faint, dark shore-line appeared, and he grinned with joy. But it seemed to come around so slowly! He reflected that the air must be pushing him around now, too; and groaned. When he opened the parachute the air would push him more. He resolved to wait until the last possible moment to do that.

Now he imagined that his glass coflin was getting warmer. He tried not to think about it. Soon, however, there could be no doubt about it. He even felt the heat beating against his skin. He closed his eyes, and waited as long as he could stand the heat, in an agony of suspense. Then he looked down.

Land was beneath him!

Now he acted as swiftly as he could. He fumbled with the rope, and tore it from his wrist. He jerked viciously at the cord attached to his helmet. With a sigh of relief, he felt a strong upward pull. The gold dropped away.

He suffered agonies of burning. Gritting his teeth, he glued his eyes on the yellow glint of the gold, now seen against the dark green of a forest.