Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

ye ee THE PLANET'S AIR MASTER structed by the clouds floating in the air below, He would see only a sea of snow-white clouds, reflecting the bright rays of the sun overhead, giving them a sparkling silver finish. An occasional glance at the cluster of meters was about. all the pilot had to do during the swift, time-defying trip across the ocean. Frank glanced: over at his captor who was connecting the telepathy ray onto the vision beam. Then he tur once more to the scene before him. The pilot was looking at the meters on the board, a slight frown came over his face, and he rose from seat to study the. meters closely. He seemed to have “trouble in seeing, for he brushed his hand across his eyes and across the polished glass of the petrol supply meters. Good Lord,” he exclaimed, “the petrol tanks are empty, we'll have to drop down and wait until we get a supply sent to us.” : Reaching for the altitude meter he turned the adjust- ment key, setting the meter needle at zero or. sea level. He then switched the automatic radio control off, and the monster ship tilted slightly forward on a long, slow descent. It gradually approached the surface of the water below. There was no call to the control room from the passenger deck, and no excited rush by the crew to determine the nature of the trouble. They all believed that the fuel tanks were empty, for the tele- pathy ray had everyone on the ship under its control. Scarcely had the craft hit the water, when the little white plane dropped down beside it, and the baggage room guards, under the influence of the telepathy ray, opened the door on the south side. ay Frank was watching closely, he was positive that there was something behind the sending of the box on: that cruiser, a trap of some sort. With excitement shining in his eyes, he watched the man step from his plane into the baggage room. The four guards stood obedi- ently aside andthe visitor, quickly spying thd box, picked it up, tucked it under his arm and bowed him- self gracefully out. A moment later the plane was climbing into the air again, and was soon lost in the clouds. Frank’s hopes sank within him, for he had counted on att-attempt of some sort.to battle the raider. He feared that Riel had planned such an attempt, but did not know the full power of the ray. And now, with the plans of the Light Wave Receiver in his power, the wizard was liable to do.anything. He-had obtained from the world all that he desired, and probably would start his reign of tetror to show the. multitudes his power. He was even likely to keep his threat of plung- ing the world into a gigantic struggle of extermination. Closing In 1, esa rh Frank removed his head set, and turned around to see-old Jolsen at his test bench, working on a box of electrical equipment. He was examining the wiring in the interior of the cabinet, carefully making adjustments and repairs. “The plans will be here by three o'clock,” he an- nounced good naturedly, looking around at Frank. “I have a model of the Light Wave Receiver here. I copied it from the inventor’s first model, by the aid of my vision ray. If I had had the other ray at the time I would have stolen the chemical formula from his mind. That is all I need to complete the receiver. The formula shows how to mix the chemical solution that is used to filter the waves through.” aS “a ND to pe 179 Frank turned once more to the vision ray. He knew how to control it now, and his strange host raised no objection, except to keep the controls of the telepathy tay secret. Swinging the ray along the sky, he soon succeeded in finding-the raider plane, it was approach- ing the island. Gliding down onto the water, the plane was guided up to its place beneath the low. hanging trees and the man stepped out-and disappeared. Not being familiar -with the pressure adjustments, Frank was unable to penetrate the tree barrier, and he decided to wait until the. man came into sight again. He wondered why the plane had come down by the island instead of speeding to the scientist. with the coveted plans. He would have thought that the man was intending to wait until dark, so that there would be less danger of being detected. He-discounted that notion when he remetnbered that the scientist had said the papers would arrive during the afternoon, Further, there was no need for the plane to fear any police while the ray-was:able-to keep them off. He suddenly noticed something moving in the water, coming into view from behind the trees: on the other side of the island. It was a submarine, cruising with decks awash, the observation tower only was above the water. It was moving swiftly around the island. and was soon coming towards him, and he quickly, guessed that the submarine was a part of the old wizard’s equipment, used so that his location could be reached with little chance of detection. Wallace followed the submarine for about an hour, then swung the ray idly through the sky, looking for new scenes of interest. His attention was drawn to 2 fleet of planes approaching, there were eight of them vin the -group, flying abreast. of one another with a distance of one-half mile between them. As he swung the ray from side to side, he looked over the fleet, he could form no idea of their distance from. him, but was thrilled to see that they were coming directly towards him. If it was an attempt to locate the base, he decided that he would assist them by letting them have the ray to follow. Wondering if there were any more craft in the air approaching, he started swinging’ the ray around ina circle.“ Six more planes were approaching from the northeast. But to the north the sky showed no signs of any aircraft, although in the New York-London air Jane, an occasional. plane: could be seen making the ocean hop. Around to the west the ray swung, ‘and here he detected a group of about twenty ships spread out in the same formation as the fleet in the east. His heart began beating quickly with the excitement, for there was no doubt of it now, they were all police planes. Those from the west he recognized as the American Atlantic police. He glanced over at the scientist, fearful lest the old man would get suspicious of something and take-a look at the air. Then he shut the vision ray off, thinking there would bea better chance of the old man forgetting it. For over an hour; Frank sat and watched the master working on his Light Wave Receiving device. And as the minutes passed he pictured in his mind the semi- circle of planes that- were undoubtedly closing in on the wizard’s base. How close the planes were he had no idea, but he was determined to do his best to keep the wizard’s mind off the vision set as long as possible. A red light on one of the panels’ of the main switch- board lit up and-old Jolsen fairly leaped for the door which led to the small dining room, disappearing for a moment and quickly reappearing, carrying carefully cComicbooks:con eke eA ee