Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

KERRY OF THE AIR MAIL. : 505 chievous, boy, but beneath his tunic was the heart of a man, and Glenn Kerry had not excited the jealousy among his asso- ciates that many an equally good looking man might have done. He was popular in the air mail service. It had been that way, also, in the war, where he had made an enviable record that had heaped a few medals on his chest and numerous German planes on the ground. The war had offered him a happy relief from his engineering course. It also came at a most opportune period, removing as it did the necessity of concentrating on the thought of what he would do when he got out into the world. Kerry stopped thinking about that ques- tion for three years, and then, when he found himself removing his uniform for the last time, he suddenly had the dismal real- ization that he faced rather a tame future. Blue prints are not dazzling sights for the average man, and surely they present no greater glitter for an ex-ace. The lure of the air could not be denied. The pounding of the explosions of twelve cylinders in his ears was music that lulled Glenn. Kerry to happiness. He never real-e ized how much flying had seeped into his blood until he found himself out of the army with no ship to fly. He managed to live through six full weeks of renewed acquaintances and hum- drum civil life. Then came the air mail suggestion. It took him two more dreary months before he made the proper connec- tions, but finally, like the ambitious young man in the correspondence school advertise- ment, he “ got the job!” The uniform was different, but the ships were the same, and what mattered the mail in the front cockpit so long as it got to its destination’on time? A ship is a ship, and the air is the air, and a ship in the air— the sweep of the wind—the. clouds—the earth spinning by below! Many men would define contentment in many ways. But this was contentment for Glenn Kerry. Here were thrills paired with the obvi- ous necessity of making a living. The work had not palled for a moment during his months of service. The war hawk had become a carrier pigeons There was no black-crossed prey to swoop down upon and send his pulses rac- ing; but many a night had given him a wel- come zest of battle with the elements. to GEomicboo <S) (E@)