Air Wonder Stories, December 1929 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

a 4 Ss feet, The space below us seethed and writhed like a monstrous beast in agony. Captain Markson’s voice brought my eyes to him; his face was stern and set. “Wilson!” he shot abruptly: “Lift her another five thousand, and we'll be out of it!” Already the frost began to creep away from its closing circle; the cabin was getting warm and stuffy. I breathed deeply and stared ahead; I was~forced to shield my eyes, however, from the terrible glare of the sun which broke through upon us; its rays burned even through the protecting shield of thick glass. Cap- tain. Markson pulled his visor down over his eyes and touched the pedal again. I felt the ship leap forward like an arrow shot from a bow, The wind, even in this rarefied atmosphere, shrieked a high-toned, singing note in friction against the ship’s snout. The world seemed enveloped in a swirling mass, ever writhing and twisting. Far ahead I could see below a greater upheaval, that seemed like a great, cone-like spinning top! It seemed to race straight toward us and Captain Markson stubbornly nosed the Eastern Star down into it. The ship bounced and rolled under the force of the atmospheric disturbance from the spout, while it was still miles away. Suddenly Captain Markson swung away from the controls and walked swiftly to the ship’s television instruments. “Hold her coutse, men!” he growled: ‘Head her Hight into the storm. We'll find.the tramp somewhere in it? \ He pressed a series of buttons on a panel near the instruments and bellowed into.a mouthpiece. No an- swer came. He swung the dials around and presently the shadows on the screen took shape. The haggard face of a man appeared in it, and I heard his nervous, tense voice coming through the. speaker. “For God’s sake, can’t I get some assistance?” he cried, eyes gleaming wide, nostrils dilated with emo- tion: “We can't last another fifteen minutes! Save us! Our position is Latitude 40-6 North, Longitude 132-12 West. Our ship is No..12 of the Iverson Freight Line. We can’t hold together much longer. in this weather. Our laterals and ailerons are ripping !” Captain Markson waited long enough to get the name of the ship, then yelled loudly into his instru- ments. “Ahoy, No. 12!” he shouted: “Do you get me?” The man’s features appeared on the screen again. “I hear you!” he wheezed, Then his voice was broken with a fit of coughing: ‘Where are you? Hurry! The‘spout is lifting us beyond our capacity!” “Til be right under you in exactly four minutes, No. 72!” Captain Markson roared: “Get your engines run- ning full speed ahead with the wind! I'll dive into the spout and break it! You'll be able to slide out of it! phen stand by to the windward, and we'll look you over!” : “Thank God!” the man groaned as his features sput- tered out of the screen. “Give her the gun, Walton!” the captain hissed be- tween his teeth. “Cut the spout in two!” CHAPTER IV Into the Spout! NSTANTLY the Eastern Star shot ahead at a - downward angle and buried her nose in the up- heaval! The storm outside roared ominously and then, as though the ship had dived-into the ocean, the observation exposures-were drenched with the deluge! AIR WONDER STORIES Tons of water stnashed against her nose with such force that the huge air leviathan groaned and shuddered, but she went on nevertheless. For several long, torturous seconds the deluge continued. The Eastern Star seemed, as it were, to be driving ahead in the depths of the ocean; then suddenly her nose swung out of the spout. A slightly westering sun, gorgeous in a radiant sky, appeared ahead, and the ship was. free! There were a series of resounding ,clashes like the rumble of water on a rocky beach. I looked at the spout again, as the Eastern Star nosed into the sun- light; it seemed to have been cut in twain, and was falling rapidly.in tremendous sheets of broken, tumbling water and mist. High above, where the spout had raged unchecked, floated No. 12 like a huge sausage. ’ She appeared to buckle-in her center portions. Her stabilizing laterals had been torn away, and she pitched and rolled from side to side, drunkenly, Almost immediately the Eastern Star. swung around and headed for the helpless freighter. That No. 12 was beginning to settle slowly into a gradual plunge, was easy to see. Despite the fact that her motors still roared in perfect rhythm, she made no headway. The screws appeared to have lost their power to pull, but they managed still to keep her aloft and from rolling over entirely and plunging plummet-like to the depths below! As she neared the wreck, the Eastern Star slowed perceptibly. Captain Markson raced toward the ex- posures and regarded her with disgust. “Tt’s a damn shame that men have to navigate junk- heaps like that!” he said, clicking his teeth: “There ought to be a law to prevent such obsolete craft from taking the air. They are a menace!” Mindful of the danger of No. 12’s possible plunge, Captain Markson refused to permit his command to get too close to her. I began to wonder how he was going to rescue the wrecked ship’s crew. But I was soon to learn, for Captain Markson returned to his television instruments and turned on the power, The dials were already adjusted to the broadcasting wave- length of No; 12, and the screen glowed at once with the haggard features of her skipper. Captain Markson regarded him for an instant and then spoke roughly. “Can you manage to get into port, No. 12?” he asked. “T doubt it, sir!’ the man wheezed, still coughing: “She’s settling forward now, and she’s likely. to plunge at any moment! Can you take on my crew?” “All right!’ Captain Markson returned, scowling: “T'll do it! We'll spread nets on our hull top, and lay-to tight under you in one minute! I'll take the chance with my own passengers for humanity’s sake! *Chute your men through the safety tube and T’ll cateh ‘em in the-nets. Hurry!” The skipped yelled an unintelligible something, as the screen died. Captain Markson grabbed a telephone and yelled: into it. “Raise the rescue nets!” he bellowed: “And stand by for further orders!’ He hissed an order to the pilots; the Eastern Star edged into position under the rolling freighter and halted presently, laid-to. I glanced upward. Almost at once I saw a long string of rapidly falling dots, Then the nearest had his plunge checked, as a gos- Y samer-white balloon of silk opened; then another bulged, and another. The crew was on its way down- ward. I wondered if they would land safely on the broad hull of the Eastern Star, There appeared to be no wind now, and they floated lightly straight down. I glanced: warmly at Captain Markson. His face was