Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

MEN WITH WINGS 81 with printers, clerks and printer’s devils. I was training reporters and columnists, Lottie Walker, a captive woman, became my women’s correspond- ent, She had been a reporter on a Chicago paper and she became invaluable to me. Another Amer- ican pirl, Wanda Heath, became a reporter. Eugene Fargo agreed to write an article each week about art. [ found a music critic and a sports writer! T had an interview with the Patriarch and he out- lined the policy of the Aerial, the name of which he approved. And two weeks after the arrival of the presses we came out with our first edition! I laughed when I thought of what the News would have said of it. It was crude; my printers were none too efficient and my staff needed much train- ing, but at worst it was not so bad and gave promise of improvement. It had only one double sheet. all news, of course, for what had we of Mentor to advertise? The Patriarch was quite enthusiastic about it and laughed heartily over a caricature of himself that had been drawn by an art student, I realized that I must introduce one or two chaps to the art of comic-strips, But wait.... 1am not writing this narrative to tell of my own exploits and triumphs, there were other things that were taking place in Mentor. From time to time planes had been sighted hover- ing around and about Mentor. Several planes fell to Mentor’s toils and the pilots, who survived the fall to the great sheet of metal that was reared up over the jungle to receive them, were added to the swelling population. They took their places as we all had done, and none seemed irked by their enforced incarceration. As time wore on some of the bolder spirits did make attempts to escape, but they never got far away, nor were they punished for their attempts unless they proved too persistent. What happened to them, when they disappeared from our tanks, none of us knew. By means of our radio we knew that those of the Outside were anxious for revenge upon the men with wings. Several flying men had been captured when they became too daring in the matter of ab- ductions. Of course they had been given the third degree and South Americans were not adverse to torturing them in an attempt to learn from whence they had come, their number and their ultimate in- tentions. But to date not a single captured Men- torite had divulged the secret of his race. We knew, however, that the Americans were planning to descend upon the jungle in the area where it was conjectured the alated had their base, and to wipe it from the map. The tropical rains came and we had that interim in which to prepare— had their been any preparations to be made. But T learned Mentor was already prepared. CHAPTER NINE Ready For Battle Ts: six weeks of rain that followed was not as unpleasant a time to us in the underground cities as it might be expected. However, the people were rather cooped up during those long hours when the heavens poured incessantly down upon the jungles. Still the cities were dry and many happy hours were spent in the lounges. Everyone did his best to entertain his fellow so that the hours did not seem long, There were plays enacted in the big assembly rooms of the city, indoor games played. Musicians brought out their instruments to entertain the crowds and of course we had the radio, On the days when the sun shone, there was a general exodus as everyone hurried into itswarmth and wings were spread again. In the meantime I was making great progress with my paper, discovering new talent, widening my range. I now had correspondents in each of the cities, and we had our own telephone switch- board to receive the incoming news. We had three comic strips, and we ran a column of jokes as well as a weekly story written by one of our coming au- thors. Patriarch Mentor complimented me on the work we were doing, for it could be seen that the newspaper was bringing the scattered settlements closer together than ever, Wormley had since been discharged from the hospital and during those weeks while it rained he made great progress with the Mentorite women, He had gotten his wish and had been detailed to work at one of the Aero-electrovoid Bases of which there were six stationed at distant points around Mentor. These tremendous machines that brought down the planes worked on a very simple plan. By mean of great generators the dust was ionized and the air was sucked out of the locality above the cities. So powerful were they that any object in the way would immediately be swung around and around and finally sucked into the maw of the machine! What Wormley had suggested that day in the hospital, then, was astonishingly correct. Over the “machine was erected a great heavy plate of sheet metal of large proportions.. This could be raised in the time of need above the trees to catch the fall- ing plane and to protect the machine beneath. The metal sheet was then lowered and tilted so that the wrecked plane would slide off into a pit’dug below. The whole machine itself was built in a pit below the ground and when not in action was completely covered and the area over and around it made to appear as if it had never been touched by human foot. Wormley’s work was to do with the mechanics of the engine, repairing it keeping it in readiness for what was to come, [ could not understand his desire to be part of such destruction, but human nature is a funny thing after all, and perhaps he saw humour in nursing the infernal thing. I knew, too, he was studying its construction possibly with the hope that some day he might escape and give it to the world, From a word the Pattiarch dropped one day I imagined that he understood Wormley’s intention, and he himself enjoyed the joke, at the same time keeping a heavy guard on the “captive”. Wormley did attempt to make an escape one day, months later, and he paid for it with his life. That caused me a good deal of pain. At last the day did arrive when our friends on the Outside made an attempt to conquer the mar- auding winged men. That day the twenty-fifth of July will go down into history to be remembered many years hence. And it was the events of that day that forced the world to respect the power of Mentor! comnicloooks.coin