Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

84 A writing club had been organized and gathered together weekly to discuss their writings and methods. New plays were being written and acted. I often printed the stories of these authors, Eugene Moore was making great progress with his Art school. He had been driven to take rooms in the city because of the growth of the school and some fine pieces of work were turned out. There were many other schools of endeavor besides those of Art—mechanics, electrical and architectural, and they were all making progress. IT now added a sporting page to my paper. It aroused as much attention as the sport’s section in a New York daily. The endurance tests for flyers continued, The record for staying aloft in one spot above the city was for fifty-two hours, forty- three minutes and ten seconds for male, and forty- nine hours, twenty-seven minutes and fifty-two seconds for female. This was apart from the long sustained flichts. Weekly contests were held for different types of flying, the winner receiving a prize as well as the high regard of his race. There were contests for children in which they were classed according to age. These races did much in teaching the most valuable lessons of endurance. We did not confine ourselves to flying contests alone. There were the ground games for the flying people as well as the Earthbound, a type of base- ball, basket ball and marbles in which the adults as well as the children took great pleasure, A New Mentorian we still kept in touch with the Outer world by radio, and I printed all the news that came over it. Several bases were being built in various localities. One was on a plateau of the Andes on the Peruvian border, another in Bolivia, a third on the Amazon River. Our scouts flying by night watched the progress that was being made. Infantry was being brought into the jungles and roads constructed, Artillery was also being brought in at the cost of tremendous labor, and the sky was becoming overrun by airplanes and Zeppelins. Some of us in Mentor wondered that the Pa- triarch did nothing; why he was content to allow the enemy to build its big army of offense. Most of the Mentorites, however, were as phlegmatic as their ruler; and to our protest that something should be done, shrugged their shoulders and averred that the matter rested in the Patriarch’s hands, I went so far as to approach him and ask what this inaction was going to mean. We were now intimate enough so that my audacity did not bring a reprimand. “Why?” asked the Patriarch, “should we show our hand before the time is ready, Jim Kennedy? You have an expression that says, ‘Give a man enough rope and he'll hang himself!” We will instead give them the rope and then do the hang- ing ... Bridges are to be crossed only when we come to them.” He smiled wryly, “I should sug- gest,” he added, “that you write an editorial on that.” The rains came again before our enemy was ready to strike, and it was during that time that Jimmy Junior, as Lois insisted on naming him, was born. The day he arrived almost became one AIR WONDER STORIES of mourning for me, for Lois, the dear little mother, almost died in giving him life, But Doctor Morris saved her as he had saved many mothers, and we were both to look with joy and pride on the most perfect specimen of alate babyhood. The nurses were profuse in their admiration of him. They were not cooing over his appearance, for he was like all babies, and eyen I, the proud father, could not say that the little red creature was different. It was his wings that held their attention, for never had there been born a babe with such wings, wings that already were longer than the fat little youngster himself, and gave proinise of a growth that had never been seen be- fore. The soft fuzz thas covered them was a downy yellow, although in the sun’s glow we could detect the faintest tint of what were later to be white and blue, On the third day of his birth the Patriarch con- descended to pay him a visit and congratulated Lois on the fine baby she had given to Mentor. A month later he was feted by all of Mentor and it was easy to see that Jimmy Jr. was going to be the pride of the nation. One might stop to question the thoughts of the father as he realizes that he had in truth fathered a monstrosity—for such the baby would be con- sidered in ‘unwinged’ circles. Yet I was so happy in the presence of my little family, in my work, in my new life that such an idea never ocurred to me. In fact, I was so wholly of Mentor that it was seldom or ever that I thought in the terms of the world. It was not until later years when I presented my son to my family in the States that I felt any discomfiture in his strange appearance. However, by that time he was a handsome child with a body that matched the splendor of his giant wings. Now to return to the Mentorian situation, The rains ceased, and airplanes and fighting men were coming into the jungle in hordes. Word came to us from our emissaries that within two weeks time. on the twelith of the month, the day had been set for the concerted attack on Mentor, it was not until on the eve of the twelfth that the Patriarch struck, and so forceful was the blow he gave the world, that they had reason to know that they were reckoning with a power that could not be crushed. At noon the order went out that the flying men were to gather above the trees immediately after the evening meal, and they were to carry six thunderbolt wands apiece, These were distributea among them before they took to the air. Mentor was on its toes. There was to be action at last. The next order came for the Earthbound. They were to be separated into companies, and by a quick march they were hurried to the boundaries of Mentor, in every direction. A small number of Earthbound were to stay within the cities, to care for the children, to guard the Captives, for no chance was to be allowed of any of them escaping. A detail of winged women were also left to guard each settlement, A Decisive Victory OIS was not called out, for mothers of babes up to six months old were not required for service. Again I was forced to stay behind, and hear the reports of what took place from other’s lips. ComniclooolkkSs.cCOln