Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

26 motor-ship has swum over. The little lugger is loaded with the booty, and drops down either side of Richmond—and there you are!” “Now, do you know,” said Dan Lamont, “that’s a very pretty story, Dickie—and very well told, too! But how do you get over the fact that all the automobile engines stopped in the doped district?” “Ours is a special automobile otirs is! Maybe it’s an electrically-driven truck——” “Tt now appears,” my father interposed, “that the street cars down Broadway were stopped below Post Office Square, nobody knows how.” We all turned to stare at him, for we had almost forgotten his presence, he was so silent. Dan was the first to recover. “That washes out your electric truck, Dickie,” he said, “You can have your airship,’ Dick said. “When you get crooks that can dope a whole district, stop automobiles and electric cars, spread stickfast, so to speak, on all movement for two hours over an area of a square kilometre—what’s to prevent them having an airship that can nestle down on Broad- way? Have your airship—but do think tenderly of my little motor-lugger. I was so fond of it.” “What do you think of it, Mr. Boon?” Dan asked my father. _ “I think the difficulty of concentrating, and of getting away undetected, points to an approach from an unexpected quarter—so I say the air. The Finn’s dream is too exact to be alcohol. It’s simple. Just a cabin coming down from the air—then a blue wall—and some noises that to my layman ear sound uncommonly like machinery. No alcohol dream that, So I say the air, Seems to me that whatever theory you try to develop, you always get about half-way with it. But I have a hunch that the solution will be found in the air. Dick showed more surprise ever Jimmy’s new seaplane than over the whole tobbery. Why?” “Because Jimmy has evolyed a new principle, sir,” said Dick. “Well, Jimmy hasn’t got the monopoly of brains in the world. Maybe somebody’s evolved a new principle for dirigibles,’ said the old man. “I’m going to have one more drink. Then I’m going to bed. And if for-once I may play the heavy father, I'll advise you all to do the same. Seven hours from now, Jimmy has got to be six hundred miles out at sea.” “So have I,” said Dan Lamont proudly, We all had another drink, and the old man told us exactly how he got on the long green in four and holed out with a handsome putt for a five, CHAPTER FIVE A Ghostly Ocean T WAS three o'clock on the Tuesday morning, [= Dan Lamont and myself were standing in the porch of Hazeldene with my father. The roadster was purring out on the avenue. The old man had the flimsy of a radio message in his hand “Lord Almeric will be ready for you, and asks that you will pick wp an extra passenger if pos- sible,” he said, “most likely his secretary. Can you do it?” Did “Sure,” I replied. “That will be all right, AIR WONDER STORIES he say anything about the ship’s probable position at six o'clock?” “No. Here’s his message—you’d better have it. And here’s a note I have written to Lord Almeric.” “You'd better have an automobile waiting for him and his secretary at the Battery from nine o’clock. We tnay make good timne—it is fine flying weather. You'll be all right with Didcot on the Seven going across, dad. Well, so long!” “So long, son! "Morning, Dan!” my father said, “Look after yourselves. You're fixed all right for food?” “Milliken is sure to have everything fixed,” I told him, Just then Dick Schuyler, in a dressing-gown, came out of the house. “Pve just been through to headquarters,” he said. “There isn’t much ice about, and flying conditions are good, Jimmy. You should pick the Parnassic up in no time.” “Thanks, old man. Well, so long!” We roared down to the sheds in quick time, and found the Merlin afloat and ready, shining like silver under the arcs. Milliken had everything prepared, from extra wraps and food for the passengers, down to easy chairs in the cabm, and the fixing of the tank had been done in very workmanlike fashion. We were good for three thousand kilometres. We took off at three-fifteen, and I laid the course on a point or two north of east, quickly bringing the Merlin up to a steady four hundred kitometres the hour. It was reckoned that we should sight the Parnassic at a point six hundred and fifty kilo- metres east of Cape Cod, and two hundred and fifty south of Halifax, which gave us a thousand-odd kilometres of an outward voyage. It would have been easy that morning to fly by the stars, they were so clean and bright. Their light was reflected in a dusky sheen off the sea below. To the north, the Great Dipper was poised on the end of his handle. What clouds there were about were the merest wisps, and there wasn’t a trace of fog. Danny, wrapped as if for a journey to the North Pole, sat at my side, a little behind where I was in the pilot’s seat, and he leaned forward in interested silence to watch every move of my hands, but his eyes were shining with delight at his adventure, The murmur of the silenced engine came to us on a beautiful liquid note which showed clearly how thoroughly Milliken and his men had done their work. That excellent artificer sat on the floor at Danny’s feet and leaned against the side of the cabin, his head cocked sideways to listen intently to the voice of the engine, There was nothing to do, for the Merlin was flying like an angel. The lights of steamer after steamer appeared faintly on the skyline, neared, and passed under us out of sight. On our port bow the coastwise lights winked and glowed, until at last Nantucket fell far astern, and in less than an hour’s flying we had passed to the south of Cape Cod. When the clock on the control-board showed four-fifteen, I turned to Milliken, “Let down the aerial,” I said, “and ‘see if we can pick up the Parnassic.” It was characteristic of the man that he knew the call and the wave length without having to ask, and it was without any comment but a quick nod comnliclooolks.com