: Pupil of a secret Indian school becomes a flying person. Using his gift, he runs away and finds his family, but is disappointed and returns to India to those who love him.
The Madras Secret School of Dandrat contained children from all over the world. Teachers — Brahmin Indians, hypnotists, and occult Europeans — trained priests and “great teachers” for Asia and mediums, diviners, clairvoyants, and hypnotists for European religious sects. Children got to school in several ways. Some were abducted or sold, others wanted to get rid of. One of the pupils was called Ariel. This was a seventeen-year-old man with a European appearance. He did not remember how he got to India, nor who his family was.
To create "miracles" children were taught using hypnosis. The training resembled seven circles of hell, only children with a very stable psyche survived, the rest went crazy. Ariel was a strong youth. He learned to pretend to be completely subordinate to the teacher, thanks to which he maintained his sanity and was included in the category of “difficult to educate”. Pupils of Dandrat lived as a family, but feelings such as love or friendship were severely eradicated. Only fear and complete submission were encouraged. In addition to hypnosis sessions, children were taught various languages, including all Indian dialects. The rest of the pupils were completely ignorant.
The first test, newcomers were accompanied by older students. That evening, Ariel accompanied the six-year-old baby Charad. As he could, he supported the boy so that he would not go crazy with horror. So the baby found a patron and friend.
The principal of the school, Bharava, who is actually an Englishman, Pierce, had the task of driving Ariel, or Aurelius Galton, crazy, but preserving his physical health. To his great regret, the psyche of the young man turned out to be too stable, and Pierce decided to give it to Charles Hight - a scientist, an unrecognized genius who could not find a place in the European learned communities.
Biophysicist Hyde and his companion engineer Oscar Fox worked on the creation of a flying man. He had already invented a drug that ordered the Brownian motion of living body molecules and tested it on animals. After receiving Ariel at his disposal, Hyde immediately introduced the drug to him. Soon the young man discovered that he could fly into the air, should he wish it.
Ariel decided to use his new gift and escape from school. Choosing a moonless and rainy night for escape, he flew away, taking Charad with him. Now the young man has the opportunity to find his family. He remembered a foggy city with huge stone houses and a large room with a fireplace, where he played cubes, and a blond girl was sitting nearby. Ariel remembered a scary man in a black suit with a fake smile. It was only these memories that he could save by going through the horrors of Dandarat.
Meanwhile, lawyers Boden and Heslong from the City of London received a secret letter from Madras. For many years they were the guardians of the children of Baron Galton - Aurelius and Jane. The baronet was fabulously rich, and the guardianship turned into a golden rain for lawyers. Galton’s fortune had to be divided when Jane reached adulthood, but Aurelius had the lion's share of the inheritance, and the lawyers did not want to lose it. They secretly sent the boy to Dandarat, hoping that there he would quickly go crazy or at least remain underdeveloped. Upon reaching Aurelie's coming of age, the lawyers expected to recognize the young man as incompetent and to manage his money for the rest of his life. Jane, having become independent, handed over her affairs to lawyer George Dotaller and set about searching for her brother. Boden and Khazlon told her that Aurelius was in the clinic for the mentally ill, but the girl did not believe them and threatened to go to court.
Following the letter in which Pierce reported that Ariel had been handed over to Professor Hyde, a telegram arrived informing him of the young man’s escape. Just at that time, Jane pulled out a promise from lawyers to take her to her brother. Now "a trip to India was becoming inevitable."
Ariel could not fly far - it turned out that flying with a load was not easy. Friends spent the rest of the night by the stream, between the roots of a sprawling ficus. In the morning, Ariel found himself in a populated area. The young man had to disguise himself - to rub his white skin with brown clay. Having had a bite of the alms collected on the way, friends got to the market. Suddenly Ariel saw several Europeans in a car with cameras in their hands. The young man decided that this was a chase, grabbed Charad and took off. So in the Indian newspapers appeared the first mention of a flying man. Now the school could not use Ariel to deceive the faithful. The young man should have been caught and destroyed, otherwise the truth about Dandarat will come up.
Ariel, who climbed over the market, caught up with the plane, and the young man sank right on the wing. He soon discovered that the plane was approaching Madras. Having sat in the dense thicket of bamboo until the evening, Ariel kept watch for a plane flying away from the city and sat on the wing again. So, with aerial hares, they flew all day, until a strong gust of thunderous wind threw friends off the wing.
Friends spent the night in the ruins of a long building. In the morning, Ariel discovered nearby a poor hut where an old man and granddaughter lived. They belonged to the lowest caste of pariahs and lived very poorly. Despite this, they honored Ariel.
The peasants saw him come down from heaven, and considered the young man the embodiment of the god Vishnu. In vain Ariel convinced them that he was an ordinary person. Even Charad considered his friend and patron a god.
For some time, Ariel lived with Nismat and Lolita. The fourteen-year-old girl has been a widow for three years. According to Indian law, she could not marry again. The young man Ishar, who lived in the neighborhood, was in love with Lolita. Ariel tried to arrange their marriage as a “god,” but Ishar’s blind mother forbade him to marry a widow from the pariah caste. Meanwhile, Ariel himself fell in love with Lolita, but the girl did not dare to raise her eyes to God, although she reciprocated.
Charad lived in a pariah hut, as in his own family, while Ariel was too revered to be treated equally. This worship depressed the young man, and he often went for a walk. Ariel understood that he could not stay here forever. Sooner or later, his white skin will attract unwanted attention.
Once during a walk Ariel came out of the woods and saw a beautiful palace. It was the home of the Raja Rajkumar. The beautiful buildings so impressed the young man that he came closer and saw a little boy fall into the well. The mother of the child called for help, but did not allow pariah servants to approach. Without hesitation, Ariel flew into the well and saved the boy. As soon as he gave the child to his mother, servants piled on him, tied him up and led him to the palace.
Meanwhile, Jane arrived in India, accompanied by lawyers. Boden was so intimidated by her terrible illnesses and fevers that the girl almost never left the hotel room and did not read the newspapers, afraid to touch the paper and become infected with the plague. Boden and Dotaller remained enemies. If Aurelius Halton needed Boden alive and insane, then Dotaller would like to see the young man dead - in this case, all of Galton’s legacy would have gone to Jane, and Dotaller expected to put his hand in him. The pier, which the lawyers had time to meet, wanted to first catch Ariel, and only then decide his fate.
Jane introduced Pierce as the director of a school for the mentally ill. Dothaller interrupted their meeting, saying that Aurelius was found. He explained to the girl that her brother was called a flying man, imagining the ability to fly not by the property of the body, but by the mania that Aurelius was supposedly obsessed with. The last message about a flying man came from the Rajah Rajkumar Palace. Dotaller came up with a new plan - to recognize the young man sane and obtain from him a power of attorney to conduct business. However, coming to the Raj, Jane found out that her brother had fled again. In the courtyard of the palace, Pierce saw a tattered old man with a girl who were also asking about Ariel. The servant told them that the flying man was thrown into the well. Pierce told Boden about this, Jane accidentally heard the conversation and finally lost hope of seeing her brother. Only Dotaller was pleased with this outcome.
Most of all, Rajkumar was afraid of boredom. Entertainment he provided Mohita. Seeing how Ariel flies, he immediately brought him to the Raj, but the young man refused to fly and talk. Then Rajkumar ordered Mohit to be flogged, and Ariel took off to protect him from punishment. From that moment on, the young man who called himself Sidha became Raja's favorite toy. He voluntarily stayed in the palace, hoping that Pierce would not find him here. Rajina Shyama, an intelligent and educated woman, took care of Ariel and hated Mojita, who indulged her husband's most low-lying passions. Mohita thought that Ariel would quickly get tired of the fickle Raja, but Rajkumar became attached to the boy more and more. The faithful servant was forgotten.
Rajina often spoke privately with Ariel. She wanted to find the relatives of the young man and return him to the family. Raja gave the pet expensive gifts. Not knowing what to do with them, Ariel distributed them to the pariah servants who were ready to pray for him. Mohita took advantage of this. He informed Rajkumar that Ariel was giving away his gifts to the unworthy, too often retired from the rajine and dared to leave the palace. Seizing the moment, Mojita brought the rajah to his wife when Ariel was there. Embraced by burning jealousy, Rajkumar ordered Shyama to be thrown into the dungeon, and Ariel into the round tower. The offended rajina grabbed a dagger and put it against her chest. What happened next, Ariel did not see - he was tied up and dragged away. From the window of the round tower, the young man saw Lolita and shouted that she was waiting for him.
Shyama managed to seriously injure herself. Raja was afraid that he could lose his beloved wife, and began to blame Mojita for everything. He quickly realized that Raja would soon change his anger to mercy, ordered Ariel to be put in a bag of cargo and thrown into a well. With great difficulty, the young man got out of the well, freed himself from the dilapidated bag and found a way out of the dungeon. The inhuman overwork did not allow him to get to the Nismat hut. He fell asleep in a roadside undergrowth, where Jane found him, returning from Rajkumar. Ariel started a fever. When he woke up, he saw Pierce and a man in a black suit from his childhood memories. This quickly brought the young man to his senses. Gathering his strength and choosing the moment, Ariel flew away without ever recognizing his sister.
Ariel had no place among the people. The poor were afraid of him, considering God, and the rich and educated sought to capitalize on his ability to fly. The young man left the inhabited places and for some time lived in the ruins of the temple in the middle of the jungle. He made friends with the monkeys and taught two parrots to speak. It was these birds, all the time repeating the names of Lolita, Sharad and Nismat, that did not allow Ariel to stay in the jungle forever. The young man decided to fly to people and achieve the right to live among them.
Having stained the skin with nut juice, Ariel showed up at the house of Pastor Edwin Kingsley. This missionary has long lived in India with his daughter and sister. His affairs did not go well - the natives were not eager to convert to the true faith. Such poor lists of converts did not allow Kingsley to move to their native England. Calling himself an orphan-Hindu Binoy, Ariel wished to "give himself to the service of God" and settled with the priest. The young man was immediately baptized, calling him Benjamin, or Ben. Soon, to the shepherd’s great joy, the orphan “showed a miracle” - during the service he rose above the ground. Euphoria began among the parishioners. The pastor's lists were replenished with dozens of converts, and Kingsley was already packing his bags, hoping to receive a parish in England for his labors.
The hype around the “miracle” attracted the attention of two Americans who own a circus trust. James Chathfield and Edwin Grigg traveled around India in search of talent. Seeing that Ariel really flies, they offered him a job in America. Deciding that he would be safe across the ocean, the young man agreed. He warned the pastor of his departure, and he decided to arrange a “final halo performance” during which Ariel had to beautifully “fly away to God”. The poor shepherd did not suspect that the Americans decided to use this view. Climbing fifty meters, Ariel shouted an advertisement for the Chathfield Circus and flew away. Kingsley was now threatened with exile in a remote English province.
Before leaving, Ariel met his friends and spoke with Lolita. Nizmat was seriously ill. The young man left them money and promised to take all three to America when the old man recovers. Lolita promised to wait. Having left his friends, Ariel came to Pierce to find out about his family. When Pierce refused to speak, the young man took him into the air, after which the frightened villain gave the addresses of Boden and Jane.
Ariel became a circus star under the pseudonym Bina Invincible. Chathfield and Grigg carefully concealed his ability to fly, and Ariel beat world records for jumping and running. The young man began to earn a lot of money, but was not infected with the spirit of profit. He sent most of them to friends in India and distributed them to poor circus employees. Arriving in America, Ariel telegraphed his sister, and after a while they met. Jane insisted that his brother give up a profession incompatible with their origin, leave for England with her and stop flying. She was going to take up his upbringing and turn him into an aristocrat. After asking about Ariel, Jane found out that Dr. Hyde tried to make himself a flying person and died, breaking his head on the ceiling.
Ariel agreed to leave America without warning, and set off to pack his things. In front of the door he saw a crying woman. She called herself Mrs. Warrender and began to beg Ariel to save her son, whom the New York Mafia had kidnapped for ransom. A woman from somewhere found out that Ariel could fly. He should only fly into the window of a skyscraper and pick up the child. Ariel understood: if the press finds out that he can fly, an international scandal will break out, but he could not resist his mother’s tears.
Having flown through the window of the apartment, Ariel saw not only the child, but also his parents, the real Warrenders. The woman who came to the young man was connected with the mafia. The gangsters wanted to force Ariel to commit a crime - then the flying man would be in their hands. They again wanted to use it for personal gain.
Ariel left America without regret, but in England he was even harder. Sister took up his upbringing and surrounded by many prohibitions. The young man had to attend boring social events and smile at people who he did not like at all. The young man was strictly forbidden to fly and remember Lolita. Jane also disappointed Ariel - a boring and dry lady did not find a drop of love for her brother.
On the day of his majority, the young man witnessed a stormy scene between his sister and his guardians. "Essentially, it was the most bargaining dispute." Ariel's cup of patience was filled with a gala evening, at which the important lord undertook to talk about the Indians, rude animals who worship the cow. Ariel stood up for them, and after the holiday, Jane scandalized him. The young man did not object to her. Late in the evening, he packed up his things and boarded a ship going to distant India.
