Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

14 BILL BARNES cling to land beside his plane. He stuck the papers the major had given him in a pocket of his tunic and started toward his own ship. He knew he couldn’t help the major now. The major was beyond all earthly aid. And he knew that he must let all three of those planes get nearly to earth before he tried to get into the air him- self. If they were above him when he took his ship into the air they would tear him to ribbons and pulp. His motor was still ticking over slowly. He climbed into the cockpit after kicking the stone from under one of his wheels. As the first German touched his wheels to the ground and came speeding toward him he gave his engine the gun. The slow-moving pro- peller became an iridescent arc as the motor roared. He kicked his rudder and swung around into the wind. He missed the third German Albatross by a bare ten feet as he left the ground. The German pilot’s face was white, his eyes wide and frightened as Shorty zoomed upward over his head. Shorty climbed almost to his ceiling. His petrol was getting low. He might have to glide the last seven or eight miles. And he was tired and shaken. He hadn’t realized until now that he was utterly exhausted and not a little sick, both physically and mentally. He couldn't believe that the major had really “gone west.’ Life wouldn’t be the same without his cheery voice calling out his “pip-pips’’ and “what- hos.” He knew that he would never forget that smile of the major’s. Then he was suddenly aware that there were three German scouts flying above him. For mile after mile he held a position directly beneath them ex- pecting them to come tumbling on him at any minute. When khaki figures in the trenches below told him that he was over allied territory he breathed a sigh of relief. He searched the ground for a place to put his ship down if the three Germans above attacked him. It was while he was gazing over the side of his cockpit that the three German Pfalz Triplanes dove on him, their guns streaming lead. Bullets ripped through his plane like a hot knife through butter.. The stick was torn out of his hand as a bullet crashed through his shoulder. He ground his teeth together to throw off the terrible nausea that assailed him. He flopped his S. E. 5 into a trick, skidding turn and got one of the Ger- mans under his hair sights. He raked the Pfalz with one vicious burst of fire and saw the plane plunge downward out of control. The others swooped down on him with their machine guns stut- tering wickedly. Bits of his propeller flew off as they found the range. Lub- ricating oil spurted out of his engine crank case as a German bullet drove through it. a moment later. He knew they would lick back to the wings and his petrol tank before he could get back to his own field. “That,” he gritted between his teeth, “will be the end of young Mr. Hass- further !” He zoomed upward in a stall turn to escape the hail of lead drilling into the ship. For a moment he fought his con- trols. The ship leveled off. Then the nose came down. Reaching over he cut his engine and put the plane into a nose spin. As it whirled dizzily toward earth the terrific rush of air blew out the flames that were creeping back to sear his hands and face. British antiaircraft guns and machine guns from the nests in the tangled forest below him drove the two remaining Germans off his tail. At the last possible moment he straightened out and skimmed the edge of the forest. The wind screamed and whined through his struts and wires. He leveled off close to the ground and oO CON) Ghook Flames came streaming out ~ CO