Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

a) ee ;o ; § Me ~ = 158 AIR WONDER STORIES aeroplane was climbing steadily and cleverly after the dirigible, which was making no attempt to get: away, but-as the: pink haze still lay about the enemy, I saw that the men in the.open machine would be doped before they could attack. I sprang to the radio to warn them if I-could—for the aerial was a bit short for sending, since we wete afloat—but just then a message came belting-across the phone: “His Britannic Majesty’s ship Brilliant to the damned pitate: Surrender!” came:the voice, “The game’s up!” Immediately came the calm reply. “Airship Ark of the Covenant to H. M. S. Brilliant: On the contrary, the game has not yet begun. Don’t be absurd, Brilliant!” « A second machine flashed off the cruiser’s stage, and began to soar after the other. I switched into trans- mission. “U.S, seaplane Merlin to H. M, S. Brilliant,” I shouted. “Keep your pilots out of the pink haze round the airship. It is the sleep-producing gas!” “Thanks, Merlin,” came an English voice. “That wae a Es good try of yours. Hope you aren't “Don’t know yet,” I said, Up above us the first plane opened fire with a ma- chine gun. We could hear the “rat-tat-tat!” of it. But as the'sound came, and we heard the warning go out from the cruiser, we saw the plane enter the fringe of the haze. Only for a second after that was it under control, It stalled, then got into a spinning nosedive, righting just before it crashed flat into the sea. As it crashed, its companion also went out of control on a sudden, though it had not reached the haze. Then it Tighted, to go gliding down after its fellow. “That wasn’t the gas,” said a voice behind us, startling us. “It was some other piece of devilment,” It was Danny, who stood behind us, fully-recovered. Milliken: and I each grasped a hand of his, silently. Thud-thud! The anti-aircraft guns of the cruiser were speaking, Thud-thud! “Cease fire, you idiots!” same the voice from the air- ship. “Stand by to pick up your airmen, unless you want them to drown. We don’t want to sink you just et.” “Sink and be damned to you!” spluttered a British voice. “Tut-tut!” the calm rejoinder came from the air- ship. “Don’t be so melodramatic. You sound like a penny novelette. Stand by and pick up your men. The first lot are unconscious. Or you, Merlin—you do it. Hurry! Your engine is all right and you'll find your area free-of the gas.” Certainly the pink haze had gone from our vicinity. “How about it; Danny?” I asked, “Take their_word for it,” Milliken had the-hatch open on the instant, and was down on: the floats without harm. I gave him contact, and he swung-the propeller. The engine picked up as if theré had never been anything wrong: with it. As the mechanic climbed in through the hatch and we were taxiing along to the rescue of the drowned airmen, we saw the airship-assume an angle of forty- five degrees and mount at incredible ‘speed far out of Tange of the now silent guns of the cruiser. Presently she was lost in the upper air, apparently heading: for the African coast. We found the pilot and observer in the first machine inert and unconscious, stretched out in their cockpit, which was filling fast. The crash had sprung all their win timbers, and we were just in time to drag them out on our floats before. the water-logged plane turned her nose down, to sink with the weight of its engine. We hoisted both-men into the cabin of the Merlin, and put their heads against the nozzle of the oxygen. cylinder. Then we went on-the second machine, a big, amphibious, two-engined de Hamiville fighter. Here the crew were in better case. They had made a good landing in the sea, They were afloat and curs- ing their engines, over which they, were clambering in an endeavor to locate the trouble that had brought them down. We persuaded them to reconnect their leads and flip over their propellers. To their intense sur- prise, the engines acted at once. CHAPTER XI Fastening the Net Na little the cruiser came smashing through the seas to us, and a casual hail invited us to breakfast. With the big fighter, the Merlin was hoisted up to the landing-platform and snugged down. -The air me- chanics of the ship took charge of Milliken, and Danny and I were besieged: by the commissioned officers. The doped airmen were still unconscious when they were taken from our cabin, and, on Danny’s advice, the surgeon ordered the sick-bay stewards to put the two to bed‘ to sleep off the effects of the gas, The cruiser, meantime, had come alongside the liner, and in an excellent display of seamanship had grappled her. It was the Parnassic all over again. Sleeping people were huddled about her decks, nor could any efforts of the boarding-party bring them to conscious- ness. It was decided to take the liner in tow to Madeira, and the bluejackets quickly bent a cable from ship to-ship. By the time Dan and I had stepped down to the wardroom for breakfast, the liner was being dragged astern. At breakfast we had.a long discussion with the sail- ing‘and flying officers, and we were brought to the con- clusion that the raiders had, in addition to the gas, some secret means of disturbing the engines of planes. There was the evidence of the two machines forced to come down in the raid_on Paris, these, it will be remembered, like the Merlin and the big de Hamiville, showing no lasting engine trouble. Dan’s theory was that the raiders had a ray which affected the electrical circuits of the engines. He also had an idea that the raiders had some way of controlling their cloud of anesthetizing gas, a notion that was supported by the officers who had been watch- ing the show from the cruiset’s: fire-control top. The pink haze had moved about from position to position in too definite-a manner to be haphazard, and Dan and the officers were of the opinion that the gas had been purposely swept from the vicinity of the Merlin. Dan, while the discussion was forward, was back at his old trick of shaking loose change in his cupped hands, but from this demonstration of his interest and excitement he drifted into a mood of silent cogitation, which deepened the wrinkles above his snub nose and gave him the air of a thoughtful child. ‘After breakfast, Milliken and I went over the Merlin ona general overhaul, and found her none the worse for her straining. We took off from the deck of the cruiser just before nine o'clock. “Where now?” asked Danny. “Mogador,” said I. “We owed the raiders a start for their humanity. They certainly play a clean game, Tcomicbooks paces pe) ed