Adventure Magazine Cover — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

AERIAL BLUE handful, and foot after foot, the parachute and Aerial were coming up. Pulling that parachute and Aerial’s wind- blown weight was more than a one-man job. It was one time where Desperation promised to accomplish the impossible. But Desperation—formerly Bugs Tedder— was, as I said before, stark mad. As Desperation worked against time, my time, too, was running out. My glide, from the time Bugs left our plane at two thou- sand, to the ground could not be stretched to exceed much more than, perhaps, three minutes. When instinct warned me to quit watching the rescue and attend to the busi- ness of my own landing, half of Bugs’ job had been done; the silk of the parachute was all in his arms and only the shroud- lines and Aerial remained to be drawn to safety. I began to feel confident that his strength and fight were going to conquer when— Well, it had to happen— Loop’s gas was out! In my last few seconds of glide, I saw his propeller quit—dead. The kid was fighting, Aerial still dangling at a short length, and Loop had peaked into his glide. Gliding slowly, but coming down and down. Juggling dynamite is a safe pastime com- pared to flying the equipment of these barn- stormers. As I got ready to make my land- ing, my mind was rehearsing the several happenings of the past hour and a half; and I had very little room for one Loop Murry and his ilk. I didn’t guess for a minute that their bag of tricks contained any more sur- prizes for that one day. But I was wrong. Their methods put more thrills in aviation py mistake than through intent. The field upon which I had chosen to land was plenty large, miles of it; also, quite rough. I had expected a bouncing, bumpy landing, but a safe one. The bouncing- bumpy part came true! I glided into that field according to the book and by the count; my part, if I do say it, was all right. But how was I to know that Loop and his grease-monkey helper had previously removed the wheels and only temporarily replaced them? From 131 the back cockpit you can’t see the wheels. So, that wheelless axle hit the ground and—strange as it may seem—didn’t do any rolling. There was a lot of crashing and spinning and I seemed to be going out, out and out—cold! When I came to again, back in the nice white sheets, the nurse and Deputy Cole were there; the sun was shining, birds sing- ing, and it seemed that we three had never been apart. That my heedless steps had never walked with bad, fast company. And that Loop Murry and his infernal machines were only weird dreams. “T’m not here officially,” Cole said. “The chief, and the rest of the world, knows what you did yesterday. There wasn’t any hooch in Bulwer’s plane; and no charge against you. “Loop made the grade O.K.; they got down whole. Bugs and the girl were still crouched on the landing gear when he made his landing.” An hour later, Loop came in. ‘Too bad about those wheels coming off,”’ he said. “I’m sure sorry. But just before I made that flight yesterday, the tires on my plane went flat—porous, you know—and I had to make a quick change. We took the wheels from Aerial’s plane and slipped my soft ones on to hers—then, in a hurry, forgot to replace the hub-collars and safety-bolts; when you got into the air, and banked left and right, the wheels dropped off—then, when you came to land, you didn’t—”’ Well, he was sorry and I had another broken arm, and, as long as I stayed in that hospital bed, they couldn’t expect me to fly any more of Loop Murry’s equipment, so everything was rosy. Loop got up to leave. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I’ll return your helmet and goggles. In the morning, we’re pulling a swell publicity stunt. There’s a congress of Easy-Way Church clergymen in town this week and I’ve got them interested in pulling an aerial wedding.” Ny, ol? eV ac * “But I thought she couldn’t see the kid.” “——. they always marry the life-saver.”’ NOOK (C@