Air Wonder Stories, December 1929 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

A eed Fo | 1 PRN ar % ‘he bad Ras: oe es tw Y hl ie Be A) Te WET ae selected crew to man the craft. Just by chance, he succeeded. in procuring, as his chief officer, the former captain of the Ambassador, who had recently resigned from the service of the lines, With such a man in charge, he believed the chances of success in the hunt were greatly increased. The other ten of the crew were clean-limbed, brave young fellows—each of whom was an expert pilot, and each of whom held a commission in the Air Reserves. : The day for testing the new ship arrived. It was tolled from its cradle-in the hangar and the motors tuned up. Once again, as the marvelous structure lay there glistening in the morning sunlight, each vital part was gone over, the static supercharger was tested, the motors were-adjusted, and the other mechanical. parts were checked. At last Manning gave the word to he-off. ‘The motors hummed and, like a feather wafted aloft in a breeze, the Skyrocket sailed into the sky. “Forward!” ordered Richard, when an altitude of two thousand feet had been reached, and the ship, with a hiss, leaped forward like the-device for which it was named. Almost like one gone stark mad, Manning put the Skyrocket through a more grueling set of paces-than had ever before been employed in testing a flier of that size. Quick turns, vertical climbs, nose-dives, side-slips, all of which would have snapped. an ordinary plane. in two, had little or no effect upon the stardy Skyrocket. At last, Manning ordered full: speed_ahead, -and: the plane shot forward on a straight course, Slowly, as the craft gained velocity, the speedometer crept up; three hundred miles per hour, four hundred, five hun- dred, six huridred, and so on- until it stood. almost at six hundred and fifty! Manning was extremely pleased with the perform- ance of the Skyrocket, and. began immediately to: lay his plans for catching the Phantom. As a result, three days Jater the Skyrocket again left its hangar; the hunt was on, CHAPTER V The Hunt OR fully a week the Skyrocket combed the wildest portions of the globe in search of the- Phantom; but no signs of the strange craft were to be seen. Back and forth, over the western deserts, swept- the gtaceful Skyrocket, while sharp eyes scanned the blis- téring sands below, searching—ever searching—for the smnallest clue that might give.an inkling as to the where- abouts of the Phantom. From Alaska to:the South Sea Islands, the hunters scrutinized sea and land; but with- out sticcess, All this time life aboard the ship was very: pleasant. The huge eléctrostatic: motors worked better than Manning had even hoped; day after-day they drove the graceful flier forward without once faltering. After the motors had been sufficiently broken in, Manning decided to ascertain the maximum speed of his new craft. When: the rate of 1,000: miles per hour. was reached, the throttle still lacked a few notches of being wide open. One day, as. they were rotinding the side of a moun- tain, on the eastern slope of the Andes, they came face to face with the Phantom! Although only once before had that craft-been seen in daylight by those who lived to-tell the tale, not a single man on hoard doubted that ‘the sharp pointed: torpedo-shaped flier was the one they. 516 AIR WONDER STORIES had been seeking, On the appearance of the Skyrocket, _ the. Phantom, instead of attacking, veered round and raced away to the south; the Skyrocket was instantly in: hot pursuit. Half-way round the world the chase lasted. Time after time the Skyrocket crept up almost within gun- shot.of the black quarry; and then the Phastom would put ona burst of speed and draw away. For days the most-terrific race in history went on. The Phantom was desperate, fleeing for its life; the Skyrocket-was fighting to make the world safe, Time after time, the men aboard the pursuer felt’peculiar electric thrills pass through their bodies. - The Phantom was using its long- Tange. weapon, the engine-paralyzing ray; but it had no effect upon the electric-motors.of Manning’s ship, The meron board the Skyrocket were beginning to tire of the chase when-fate, in a playful mood, stepped in and allowed the Phantom.to escape. In other words, while the chase was in progress, atmong the East Indies, a terrific tropical thunder storm blew up: The super- charger on the Skyrocket became highly overloaded and,-although nothing of a serious nature developed, the hunters-were forced to abandon the chase for the time. The Phantom had apparently dissolved into thin air. To. say that Manning was disappointed is to put it mildly; but with the never-say-die spirit that he pos- sessed, he proceeded to cruise back and forth over the thousands of islands that dot:that portion of the sea. ~ Two days after the escape of the Phantom, they were drifting over an isolated-island of considerable ‘size, about :two-hundred miles south of Java, when the cap- tain shouted,-“Look!<and pointed earthward. There, in a clearing, lay the Phantom; the chase was over! Manning -was for dropping down and attacking the quarry on-the spot; but the captain, who was still sus- ai picious, convinced him that it might be a trap and that, possibly, the“best thing to do was-to act as though the Phantom had not been observed, land at some con- venient place, and: scout back on foot to determine the lay of the land. So they landed and Richard, much against the will of the captain, went scouting alone. “PI be back in half an: hour, :probably,” he said, “but if I am not back in-an hour come after me,” Away he went into the jungle and, after five minutes of fighting his way through the underbrush, arrived atthe edge of the clearing. He lay on his stomach be- ii hind-a bush: and sized up the black ship+ it lay: sil- 4 houetted against a red sandstone cliff that rose perpen- | dicular, directly: behind. it, His observations were suddenly cut short by: some- ‘ thing landing on his. back. Nearly all the wind was : knocked from him-and, before he could so much as raise a finger, he found his hands-securely tied. with a : piece of tough vine, and his arm being held in a grip ra like a vise. His captor proved to be a gigantic Malay, ; the largest man- that he “had ever laid eyes upon, who stood at least seven feet in height and must have weighed fully three hundred: pounds. The giant was naked to the waist; but a pair of_dirty duck trousers 9 covered the lower portion of his_body. -A greasy red- and-white turban wound round his head completed his scanty-attire. “Upgal” he grunted, pointing toward: the Phantom; and, to make his meaning more clear, he gave Manning a shove forward which nearly-sent the latter sprawling, Half-dragged, -half-carried, Manning was taken aboard the ship of mystery which he had so long pursued.. Down a dimly-lighted and heavily-carpeted ‘comicbooks.com