Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT where the thieves might be concealed, and all known criminals in New York of the safe-breaking persuasion had been rounded up and their haunts thoroughly examined. . But no clue to the. where- abouts of the stolen gold was discovered. “The chances are that it isin the air at the present moment, dad,” I said to him. “We must haye passed somewhere near the airship—if airship it was—on' the way out. We must have sighted the Westbury less than half an hour after the pirates left her. If the airship is making for the American continent at all, it-can hardly escape being seen, at least, with all those police machines out.” “To you think they'll be able to send her down?” “Tt depends greatly in what circumstances they come on her. She may be too high to be got at in an open plane, and the police machines are no- toriously unsuited for high altitudes. But the fellow that sees-her may be able to. broadcast her position to all aerodromes, and so get properly equipped planes to help. I won't consider she’s escaped until dark has come-on,” “Let’s hope you prove right,” said the old man. “Things are too uneasy to be comfortable, and a solution of the mystery would stave off a lot of trouble for the business world.” Miss Torrance and Lord Almeric joined us then, and we went in to breakfast. The talk, perhaps naturally, was still of the robberies, until the two bankers fell to discussing some obscure financial situation. Lord Almeric, asking his niece for con- firmation of some figures, effectually isolated Dan and myself, and it was with something of awe that we heard Miss Torrance talk familiarly of millions, using such phrases as “ranking pari passu,” “funded loan,” “par of exchange,” In spite of her obvious efficiency, the talk fell strangely from the lips of such a pretty girl, I think even my father was surprised. “You have a wonderful grasp of figures, Miss Torrance,” he smiled. “Wonderful because of my: sex, Mr. Boon?” “Not at all,” said my father; “wonderful. in any case.” “My niece,” Lord Almeric explained, “comes of a stock famous in mathematics. Robert Torrance, the mathematician, was her uncle.” “Then, Miss Torrance,” Dan Lamont butted in, “you must be related to—I beg your pardon!” He broke off in confusion and flushed red. Miss Torrance regarded him with kindness. “If you intended saying that I must be related to David Torrance, the physicist, who disappeared just over twenty-two years ago,’ she. said, “I am proud to say that he was my. father, Mr. Lamont.” “Tm sorry,” Dan stammered. “I did not mean to cause you pain.” “You do not hurt me by recalling the fact of my father’s disappearance. I never saw him—and he never saw. me. I was born after he was lost.. Uncle Almeric is the only father I have known—indeed the only parent—and his kindness has softened any regrets I may have for my real father. He was a great physicist, I believe, and I treasure any in- formation about him, any praise that is given to his work.” “David Torrance was a great man,” Dan said quietly, with recovered equanimity. “Every scientist owes him a debt of gratitude, and must regret that he was not permitted to work longer. The best men of our time,” he finished warmly, “are:plodders and half-blind crawlers compared with David Torrance!” “Thank you, Mr. Lamont,” the girl murmured. and her eyes were misty. “Well spoken, Dan!” said my father, and turned to Lord Almeric and his niece. “Dan Lamont,” he explained, “has one of the greatest reputations among physicists in this country—so his opinion on such a subject is of some value.” Red-faced as usual at any reference to his eminence, Dan rose in some confusion. “If you'll excuse _me, Miss. Torrance—Lord Al- meric,” he said hurriedly, “I—I must be going. Some important work—I—good-bye, Miss Torrance —sorry-I was clumsy. Good-bye, Lord Almeric——” “Wait a moment, Dan,” said I. “I'll come with you,” I, too, made my adieus, and we both went off. There was nothing new to hear in Dan’s labor- atory except a lot that. was speculation and’ clean over my head.at that, so I left my friend to take off his jacket and plunge into: work. I could see no useful purpose to be served by stopping in New York, and I went down to the Battery where Didcot was still standing by with the Seven, ° We moored at the workshop jetty within half an our. Vanished | Gee began a fortnight of close application to work, The flights we. had made on the Merlin had given me ideas for slight variations in the de- sign, and I wanted my shops to be set as soon as possible on the task of making a Merlin II,. which would incorporate those ideas. My hurry was actuated by the certainty that I had of the raids being carried out with a new type of dirigible. I had that inexplicable feeling, general- ly termed a hunch, that we had-not seen the last of the raiders, and that before we were done with them there would-be a few Merlins in the air. I was puzzled by the radium, which the back of my mind refused to let me dissociate from the pirates. If, indeed, those priceless boxes had come from the mysterious: organization that had carried out the amazing series of raid in two days, they were no ordinary crooks that we were opposing, The sale-of the radium, Dan assured me, would have brought in nearly as much money as the robbers had stolen. There was something underlying the raids that the mind could not fathom, an idea too big to be merely criminal, too vast in conception to find its limit in the affairs of the past two days. To me, my side ot the job was now plain. The menace was from the air, and the air was my ele- ment. I had, I could tell myself without immodesty, the finest weapon for air fighting that was known to exist, and my business was to perfect that weapon to the best of my ability. To bring the position to its lowest estimate: lf the gifts of radium to the institutions were not the work of the raiders, it was. extremely unlikely that a criminal gang, possessed of such powerful and effectively proved aids to plundering, would be content with their present gains. It would be humanly impossible to resist the temptation to work