Air Stories, April 1936 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

“BEN pee pho SS ry 2g MO oe yagi Ei oe a EE, il p98? ey oS Y ‘ A gat ee aes Jackson’s *plane had exploded—his own would go up at any second ! = One Minute To Live A Thyrillmg Short Story of a Man Who Planned a Murder in Mid-Air By SIDNEY BOWEN HE idea of murder came into Corbin’s mind shortly after he had kicked Prop- Wash in the ribs. Prop-Wash was a playful hound belonging to Jackson, Number Two stunt man of the Ajax Film Company. Corbin was Number One stunt man; but he was fast losing his rating, if he hadn’t already lost it. For two weeks now, Corbin and Jackson had been doing the stunt flying in Ajax’s air extravaganza, ‘‘ Golden Eagles.’’ The cool daring of Jackson had won the frank admiration of everyone. Corbin hated him more and more each day; he couldn’t stand being shoved out of the spotlight by a better man. And then kicking Prop-Wash climaxed everything. It happened this way. Seething under the caustic remarks of the director, Prouty, for a poor showing during a pre- liminary take, Corbin slammed in through the door of the dressing-room, slammed his parachute pack on to its hook and sank down on the bench. In one corner of the room, Prop-Wash was contentedly chewing at the sleeve of an old flying-coat that belonged to him. And Prop-Wash belonged to Jackson ! Corbin charged towards the dog. ‘‘ Drop that, you damn dog ! ”’ Prop-Wash pricked up his ears, wagged his stubby tail. This was a game he’d often played with his master. Usually, though, it was a shoe, or something not so bulky as a flying-coat. However He waited until the outstretched hands were almost on him, then he jumped nimbly to one side and scampered across the room, sharp teeth still crunching the sleeve of the old flying-coat. Hands grabbed the trailing coat, and jerked so hard that he was spun around on allfours. Very well, then, a tug-of-war it 363 cComiclooolxs (eI QO)