Adventure Magazine Cover — page 86: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee mitts. And, ia rer that. there was, nothing too bad to be laid at his door. His head and his morals were crimson. go as Up until the morning that Tunnard ES os ‘steamed open his letter* to Lizzie he had _ been but faintly aware that there was such _ @ person; he had always summoned him, when in need of him on the éarmac, by sim- oe shouting— = “*Kiere, youl’? 3 -__ When Tunnard came to the part where eo _Hanratty, casting loose the restricting a - bounds of truth, described himself as. being apilot, he eursed. A corporal writing home ee _ that he was a pilot! Sacrilege! He took the eo letter over to the major’s tent. This man needs a good lesson,” he _ said, throwing the offending document a down on the table. _. Now, the major had often read the let- ters of Tavish Hanratty; he had read flights, ___ fights and sights that never existed except ' __ in the head of the corporal, and he had en- 2 - joyed them. MHanratty, so the major z 3 averred, made Munchausen look like a _ piker. ‘He liked reading them, said they were better than O. Henry. ‘But some- ____ thing in Tunnard’s scowl, something in the es cbeees attitude of the pilot, prompted _ him to say— 3 “Ves, I suppose he does.” -_ He then waited for Tunnard’s reaction. “Fine!” Tunnard had a swift picture of _ himself administering the dose—in the air, Sot course. ‘Fine!’ He smiled almost jo- - vially. “DU give it to him. When I’m through with him he'll keep quiet about being a pilot.” For an instant the C. O. was prompted to relent, to tell Tunnard that it was a mat- a ter of small importance what Hanratty said as long as it didn’t concern No. X’s - movements and also to point out how dis- - honorable it was to act upon information ore. 80 meanly acquired. ___ But again he was constrained to be silent. a - + Pethaps it was that he sensed some excite- -ment in this situation he was permitting to = be made, some drama which would enliven ere 2- - *Tb was 1920 and thecckora it may seem peculiar that aa Cen —— still be ehacted. No. X, however, was on -_-_—- & secret show, running down Hussein Ali. For this reason— and others bee haar known to the Colonia] Office—the move- _ ments of No. X were not allowed to get beyond Lybia. - -—s' The mail of the enlisted men was inspected without their a = knowing it! The Dear Public must not be excited. Offi- — _cers,.of course, were sup to know enough not to talk— _ witness. = case of Col. Kelley, V..C., on the Archangel and:see what happened to one officer who did. ee = ~ =a ee * ae ~ = the monotony of life in the desert. Also, it showed an extreme confidence in Hanratty’s ability to take punishment; because when the major told the adjutant about his con- versation with Tunnard he bet him a pound that Tunnard would fail to make good. - At tea the mess was quite “het up” with the prospect. Tunnard already felt the pleasure of again being the center of attrac- tion. Some pilots were frankly skeptical over it being at all possible to frighten an Ak Emma—air mechanic—in this fashion. Jacobs said to Tunnard: 4 - “You know that-little red-headed beast doesn’t scare worth a ——. Gave him the razzle-dazzle one or two times myself.” - Tunnard smiled from his eminence in a particularly irritating way—as if to say, “You, you tried it—but then, you see, you’re not me!’—and made an instant enemy of Jacobs by saying— “Ah, yes—but wait!” Jacobs went over to the Hanratty back- _ ers, vowing, “I haven’t the slightest doubt but that Tunnard has some trick up his sleeve that will half-kill Hanratty with fright, but I’d a —— sight rather lose money on a game little runt like Hanratty than win it backing a puffed-up swine like that. I’ve got a couple of quid that_Tun- . nard doesn’t put it across.’ “Gotcha!” The Australian dug up two hundred piastres. “I’m backing a hard guy like Tunnard. You watch ’im; I tell you that boy’s a dingo!” An old dual-control- Avro was the plane selected for the performance. Tunnard swung into the front cock-pit, wiped the oil from his goggles and bellowed, “Here, you!” to corporal Tavish Hanratty. ‘The N. C. O. came over and stood by the fuselage. ce Get j in. ) “Engine-trouble, sir?” ~ “How the —— do I know? Get in!” © “But, sir——” The perplexed Hanratty searched the crowd on the tarmac for the rotary me- chanic. — “Get in! —— it all, man, I don’t want to sit here all day.” The confused corporal stuffed the socket- wrench he had in his hand into the pocket of his monkey-suit and gingerly climbed into the rear cock-pit. _ “Switch off, sir?” ———~ 53 re . ‘ e —) + ‘ ” - x - ‘Comicbooks olit