Adventure Magazine Cover — page 168: what you’re looking at

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

162 instant, and unprotected eyes could not stand the beating of the rain. He throttled part way, and shot for the field. He made sure that his dive would carry him past the derrick and not intoit. There was a line of trees between the oil-well and the field, but almost directly behind the derrick there was a wide opening which he could get through. The ship seemed to be barely moving, so strong was the wind. With bent head he glanced sideward and saw the big derrick drop behind. He was fully fifty feet lower than the crown-block. He bent over the side for a quick look ahead. He was going directly for the opening, all right, twenty feet high. Then his hand found the throttle and he threw it wide open. The boiler of the oil-rig was set in that opening, and he was headed right for it. Instead of bursting promptly into the rhythmic roar of a wide-open motor the Mercedes backfired and missed. Because of the water possibly, or perhaps simply be- cause the spark-plugs were fouled with oil, it was slow in answering. There came a shock which shook the little ship from nose to tailskid. Just the undercarriage had hit the big circular boiler, but it threw the little ship high in the air, where it hovered for a moment in a stall. In that second the motor caught. Just as the nose had started to snap downward the Mercedes went into full action. Even then the ship just swooped out of the stall inches above the water-soaked ground. Like a flash Brannon cut throttle and switches and with full rudder threw the tiny ship into a sweeping skid that sent it sideward across the ground. The skid, plus the terrific wind, seemed to stop it as a brake does an automobile. Brannon won- dered briefly, as he straightened for the landing, whether he had any landing-gear left. He had hit that boiler with a soulful smack, no question about that. The ship hovered, a foot above the ground. Brannon, arm shielding his face and every muscle relaxed, waited. The ship dropped into the mud. It slithered sideward, nose swinging to the right. He could hear a tire burst with a report loud enough to be heard above the whistle of the wind and rain, and then the tail flipped upward. The ship did not turn over completely but the fact that he had cut the switches Adventure saved a broken propeller. Suddenly every thing seemed quiet and peaceful, even though the storm was still raging furiously. Brannon raised his head, and one corner of his mouth twitched. “Still all in one piece,’”’ he observed to himself. “That boiler sure gave me a kick—not to mention the ship.”’ He turned to look at it. Through the driving rain a great cloud of steam was billowing upward. “Oh, ho. I’m going to be an expense to the Government right to the finish,’ he reflected. Everything was dim through the slanting rain, which seemed to be diminishing in force. For the first time he noticed that his ship was slanted to one side. He climbed out carefully, and took a look. The right wheel was crumpled—the collision had done that. ‘That accounted for the skid, and the blowout on the good wheel. Nothing else seemed damaged, except the tailskid, which had been splintered in the skid. He unwired his suitcase and thrust it under a wing. Everything in it was soaked, undoubtedly, but if there was anything dry it would be welcome, later. This done, he perched himself on the good wheel, stooping to get under the shelter of the wing. After great effort he succeeded in lighting his pipe, no mean feat under the circumstances. He saw two men in oilskins emerge from a shack he had not noticed heretofore, and run to the boiler. No more steam came from it. They inspected it briefly, and then returned to the shack, which evidently housed the roughnecks. The rain, while diminishing slightly, was still coming down in sheets, and the wind blew in gusts which decreased in fury as time went on. When the storm had died away to a drizzling rain seven or eight men drifted - over toward the derrick and the boiler. Evidently they had laid off work during the height of the cloudburst. “Have to lay off a while longer, I pre- sume,” reflected Brannon. “I wonder how much this is going to cost my dear Uncle Samuel?” The sun burst forth and turned the rain into a sun-shower. “Might as well prepare to make ready to begin to start,” the pilot remarked to him- self. ‘‘Wonder how I’m going to get to town. Yonder roughnecks may not be oO COMIGHOO S CO