Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

80 DAVID BEATY Kelston watched him. He was not very expert. Easy Zebra was now rolling as much from his movements on the control column as from the air currents of the storm. But even though he was heavily overcorrecting, Kelston saw that he was coping. Shaughnessy doing the flying would allow him a little more time to think. Ice was still forming, rather quicker now the temperature was approaching zero degrees centigrade. But that didn’t worry Kelston particularly. The freezing-level should be around 5,000 feet. Below that height, they’d be able to burn the stuff off pretty fast. 3 He was also certain that the weather over Santa Anna would be poor, but there would not be fog. The high winds would see to that, blowing a gap between the earth and the cloud which would provide reasonable visibility for landing. He glanced at the altimeter. The needles were nearing 10,000 feet. He told Shaughnessy, “‘ Keep her at this height,’’ ‘Then he noticed that the First Officer was getting more used to the sudden movements of the aircraft in the uneven air. ‘‘ You’re doing all right.” Shaughnessy flushed with pleasure. ‘““’Think you can manage on your own for a while? ”’ “IT think so, sir.” “I want a word with Bates. And I suppose the passengers had better be told what we’re doing.” ** Seems a little smoother now, sir.” “Yes ... but for how long? ”’ Kelston put his seat back, and hunching himself up to avoid the ignition switches on the roof, clambered out of the front position. "There was enough room for his tall, rather lanky body to stretch full length, just behind the engineer. He felt suddenly stiff and cramped after so much heavy flying. ‘Engines seem O.K.,” he said to Hawkins, looking at the instruments on the panel. “No worry there, sir.” He walked on to the navigation compartment. Bates was sitting with his arms folded. The only thing he could do now was to keep his eye on the airspeed, and occasionally plot their dead- reckoning position. : “Tl tell you what I think we can do,” Kelston said to him. ‘*‘Even with strong easterlies, we estimate Santa Anna in about 95 minutes. Right? ” ** Right, sir.” “Winds down here should be less. Even so... gives us just over an hour to search, with the fuel we’ve got available.” ** Cutting it a bit fine, isn’t it, sir? ” “We've got to cut it fine. Some men are down there in that sea.’ Bates said nothing. ‘‘ Now the ship’s only 20 miles or so off Ponta Delgada. We've got to avoid the mountains. With this static, the Horta Beacon will be bad. So I plan to go over it commiclooks.comn