American Science Fiction #41 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER 4 | the morning when I read the newspapers on the way to Lulu Island airport, my mood darkened. While public opinion shrieked for action, successive conferences on what was to be done ended in decisions to hold. other conferences on what was to be done. Horn-rimmed intellec- tuals argued hotly whether the Chet- zisky question was not one for United Nations discussion. And we make fun of Nero who fiddled while Rome burned! | The day was clear, ideal for flying. It was the fifth day before the end of Time. I bit my lips and looked out at the earth falling away under us. Four o'clock that afternoon our pontoon-equipped plane swept low Over the spruce and jack pine and meadows of wild hay for a smooth landing on Burns Lake, our approach scattering a brood of mallard ducks. _ We refuelled and were off again. I intended to fly on, watching for the Twin peaks and, when darkness fell, to land on one of the mountain tarns and make camp. Below us the sombre stands of ever- green were being swallowed up in the vast shadow spreading out from the western ridges. Turning up a valley corridor, I saw the peaks towering above us, summits capped with white and the forested flanks gashed. with couloirs in which the snow gleamed. I blinked again. The air was rough now, tossing our cabin: plane, and the constant flickering of the view made my eyes uncertain and my head ache. Suddenly I became aware’ of the clouds, a few bedraggled tatters at first, close -to the timberline,- like wisps of angel hair on a Christmas tree. Then, as the plane swerved through a narrow pass and up an- other. valley, I saw the sky. devil. him- self—a billowing, black-bottomed cumulus rolled up on itself three miles high. | { went forward to the pilot. He was peering anxiously ahead of him. “Don’t you think we'd better - land soon?” LT asked. | ov STOPWATCH ON“ THE «WORLD ° “The sooner the better, sir. I was figuring on landing up~at Schwartz’s, a trapper who has his diggings on a | ‘lake up aways, but we won’t make it with that storm.” He paused as a sudden current sent the plane off keel and he struggled to bring it ‘level again. & “I think YIl swing west over that ridge,” he pointed to a low mountain. wall. “I remember a few lakes over there.” The plane banked obediently and — He flipped on the dialling in only ghostly swung round. radio, wheezes, “This country plays the devil with z : radio, sir. Minerals, 1 understand.” I went back to my seat. Across from me, Johnny Eagle sat motion-. less, his eyes never leaving the cabin port, on guard for the Twins. The ridge passed below us. Suddenly ‘darkness enveloped us; we had run The plane nosed up-: into a squall. wards to ride above it. I shuddered. Flying blind with mountains sheerin® up on either side is suicidal. — When the plane finally. broke through, the sun had set. Only a flash of lavender over the western rim _ remained of the day and soon that faded. The pilot now flew by a faint twilight that mountain snows re- fiected. The thunderhead cumulus we had evaded was Spreading laterally to- wards us, threatening us with pitch- black darkness. I was uneasy; so was the pilot, who sat tautly upright. Johnny Eagle remained gazing out at the pallid landscape. “We're all right now,” the pilot shouted back. I went up front. “There it is.” He pointed down to the right. For a moment I saw noth- ing; then the glimmering form of a lake appeared obscurely, - The plane dipped gently towards | it: The pilot’s eyes strained to keep the fading- glimmer of darkness that was the timber. He did a miraculous job skimming in over the treetops and: was just ‘sweep- — ing in over the water for his landing © when a sudden: gust. struck: © The plane titled its nose up abruptly, cComicbooks7com, in view, at the Same time trying to judge the mass — s