Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT “Shucks, Danny!” said I. “Look at my own ex- perimental shops. Right on a lonely strip of beach, and two or three kilometres from the nearest village, Except for a government inspector or two once in a way, nobody ever comes near me—and half my men live on the premises.” “Yes, but your experimental shops don’t come under the factory laws. None of your men belong to a trade union, you’ve told me?” “That's right.” “Well, if any gang of crooks got up a stunt such as you imagine, it would be difficult to escape detection in the ordinary routine of factory in- spection. “But, listen, Dan! If I wanted to go in for bank- robbery, it would be easy enough—given that I had a dope——” “Great snakes, Jimmy!” Dan exclaimed. “You're on the business for sure! Could you land that new bus of yours in Broadway?” “Til bet you five thousand dollars I do—with wheels instead of floats——” “What would your new bus carry?” “In her present condition, without her fighting kit, about three thousand kilos, besides a crew of six,” “Then two buses such as the Merlin could have made that robbery in Wall Street and Broadway possible?” “Sure,” I said. “And, what’s more, could be in the Rockies by this time——” “Then we're on the trail, Jimmy. “Yes—if we wash out the question of the gasoline, Dan. There’s a difficulty there. And, besides, there’s only one Merlin—unless somebody has stolen a march on me. But say that somebody has a design as good, It’s not only a question of lift, remember, but of taking off down Broadway. But say the sup- posed machines could. Do you see them dropping into that New Jersey gasoline station and getting away with five thousand litres of oil? I don't. I don’t see even five Mervlins doing it.” “What about a helicopter.” “The helicopter is a washout as far as lateral speed is concerned. It hasn’t been applied success- fully to a plane yet.” “Airship then?” “More like it—but, phew!—you're getting up a whale of a theory, Dan!” “T know that, Jimmy,” said he, “but it’s a whale of a robbery,” By this time we were at the ferry, and our dis- cussion was shelved in the business of getting aboard the waiting ferry-boat. Once on Manhattan, we drove straight for the Metallurgical National. When Dan and I got into my father’s room, we found the old man looking a bit worn. “T won't be ready for you until seven, Jimmy,” he said at once. “And I’ve a lot to do before then. Wall Street has gone mad, and there isn’t a thing on the list that hasn’t dropped. There’s been a run on the country branches of all five banks, and some of the others as well. I have a meeting of bank presidents at six.” “Righto, dad,” I said. “We'll clear out ” “Tf Dan and you are on something new, why not bring him over to Hazeldene for the night, and let’s do our talking there?” » 23 “How about it, Dan?” “Fine,” he said. “But your analysis of the tarnishing?” “My fellows can do the tests all right. Tl take a run up and see how they’ve got on, and fetch my kit down here.” “T'll come with you, then. The landing-stage at seven, dad?” “Tl be there, son,” and with a nod to Dan and myself he became immersed in his papers again. We were just going out of the door, however, when he called us back. “Perhaps you'd better take the elevator to the top of the building and see the janitor, Klenski. He has some weird story about houses hanging from the sky, or something. He’s no temperance advocate, Klenski, but you might get something out of it.” Dan and I exchanged a look and bolted for the elevator. The Tale of the Finn U? on the roof, we found Klenski, a Finn, born in America, whose faded blue eyes, uncertain movements, and indistinct voice showed at once the soaker. The man was eaten into by alcohol, “What was it you saw last night, Klenski?’ I asked him, as soon as we'd got him out on the roof. He pulled in the corners of his mouth, in an effort to stop the twitching of the lips that always preceded his speech. “A cabin—like a rail’ay coach—smaller—ging b’ropes f’m sky ...” “Where was this? At what time?” He butted his head towards the railings on the parapet wall. “There?” He nodded jerkily. “What time was this, Klenski?”? “Las ni—'smorning—s’m’time—coonsay . .. “About three this morning, maybe?” Dan in- sinuated, Klenski turned to him gratefully, and chucked a jerky nod at him. “What were you doing about at that time?” I asked him. 5 “Gt up tgit s’m’thing—c’m’out see what s’t night ‘twas—saw cabin—like rail’ay coach c’min’ down out’n sky on ropes—’slike that...” He made a jerky downward gesture of the hand. “Did you look up to see where the ropes came from?” He shook his head and gazed at the concrete under our feet. Dan pointed up at the sky, thinking the man did not understand. But the eyes of the Finn did not follow the hand, and we realized that the man could not bear to look up at the sky. Id seen the same disability in an alcoholic before. “Well, what happened then?’ Dan asked gently. “Went over to railings ’nd looked down, ’N blue wall came over my eyes. “Sall. Went back 1’ bed. Cold.” “Blue wall?” wall?” The Finn gazed at him pathetically. “Blue wall,” he said in his gentle indistinct way. “Blue wall... other side ‘frailings. Down—down— falike: phate Again he made that downward gesture of the a3 said Dan, “What sort of blue comnlicloooks. com