Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

HEART OF THE STORM | 87 rith rain. Twilight was beginning to drain all the light from the air. Just over a mile away, they saw the green threshold lights. Very slowly, bumping around in the gusty wind, Easy Zebra approached them, drifting nearly 15 degrees to starboard. *“ Seems to be a bit of cross-wind,”’ Shaughnessy said brightly. Kelston kept the power up until he was flying level with the runway. As the airspeed dropped below 100 knots, he kicked off half the drift with the*rudder. Purposely, he had kept the left wing slightly down, to prevent the gale blowing him off the runway. The port wheel crunched down followed a second later by the star- board, this time a little more heavily. ** Nice work, sir,’ Hawkins said. As they taxied over to the ramp, Kelston said, “‘ Better get on with the after-landing check, I suppose.” if Mr. Dudley, manager for British Empire Airways at Santa Anna airfield, was a very keen chess player. He wasn’t just enthusiastic; he was good. Chess was to Dudley such an obsession that it had become inevitably involved in his everyday dealings with other people. Life, he had found, was not unlike a gigantic chess game. And he played it accordingly. His job was to deal with four airline services a week, two outbound and two homebound. On all four there was a night stop in the Azores of fourteen hours, where the souls on board rested before proceeding, the crew at the Carreras Hotel and the passengers at the Castle. This night stop was not popular with Dudley. As soon as he saw an aircraft, he was anxious to get rid of it. Marlboroughs, passengers, aircrew—they frequently had him playing innumerable and completely different life-chess games at one and the same time. Dudley was perfectly well aware that the less he saw of any of them, the more chance he had of winning through. After the passengers had disembarked from Easy Zebra, he was immediately presented with an example of these hazards. A Mr. Parkinson almost literally buttonholed him. The man’s face, which a few minutes before had been pale green, was now red with rage. Dudley heard the words “. . . utter dis- comfort ... endangered .. . reckless flying.’”’ ,They were enough to give him the clue he needed. It wasn’t his game at all. Mr. Parkinson had the wrong opponent. ** [ll ask the Captain of the aircraft to have a word with you, ir,’ he said soothingly, and edged over towards Kelston. When Kelston saw him, he inquired at once, ‘‘ Have the tugs found her? ”’ 3 “We haven’t heard, Captain . . . but there’s one other matter.” Dudley indicated the passenger. ‘“‘ Mr. Parkinson. A V..I.P. He’s very upset, Captain. Very upset.” *“ Probably shock,” Kelston said. ‘‘ He’ll feel better in the morning.” “TI thought perhaps a word from you...” b i) pms ow comiclbooks.conn ©