Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

AIR ADVENTURER and turning toward the Mediterranean below. A white streamer came out be- hind it that a moment later became a large cotton ball. Bill’s face was livid with rage as he saw one of his Snorters whirling down- ward. He shouted at Sandy. “Why don’t you knock a couple of those ships out of the air? Are you a cripple?’ Sandy looked down at him with the expression of one who has been grossly insulted. “Knock ’em down?” he shouted back. “They won’t come close enough to give me a crack at them. And now they ve all turned tail and are streaking toward land. -Ihai is, all that are leit. Shorty got two of them and Red one. ‘That’s five in two days. What more do you want?” Bill laughed. Sandy’s injured dignity was too much for him. “All right, kid,” he said. “I take it back. How’s Cy coming on?” “He’s all right unless he’s wounded,” Sandy said. “Shorty and Red are stick- ing right beside him. You couldn’t hurt that leatherneck.” IX—MADAGASCAR TWENTY MINUTES iater Red Gleason made a landing on the smooth, blue waters of the Mediterranean and picked up the struggling Cy Hawkins. “We'll make Cairo in a couple of hours, Cy,” Bill said over the radio- phone. ““Think you can stand your wet clothes until then?” ’ “First time I’ve been cool to-day,” Cy atiswered, Lin sorry they. sot the Snorter, Bill.” “It’s O. K., as long as they didn't get you,’ Bill answered. “You sure you're all right?” | “Not a scratch,’ Cy answered. Bill circled above the débris of the four shot-riddled planes for a half hour He couldn't help it.. 53 before he put the transport back on-its course for Cairo. “No sign of any life,” he said. “All their pilots must have been dead before they hit the water.” ‘The one who went over the side was badly wounded,” Shorty put in. “His face—but let’s skip that. We'd better keep our eyes peeled from now on.” “All the time,’ Bill answered. “Shorty, you stay down on the star- board side of the transport now. Red on the port side. They only have five of their ten planes left unless they have picked up some more. They must be heading for Madagascar. Anything about any of them you _ recognized, Shorty?” ‘Nothing,’ Shorty said. “Except that the tactics of their leader reminded me of the strategy of a German War ace I had a few brushes with during the War. Same maneuvers and way of ex- ecuting them. He knew his onions.” “Well, keep your eyes open,” Bill said. “We'll need a good rest to-night. Any- thing may happen to-morrow.” — But nothing out of the ordinary hap- pened on the morrow. After dinner at the famous Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo they all went to bed and slept until five the next morning. At six o’clock they were warming up their motors, ready to take the air. Suddenly, while Shorty and Red were waiting for Bill to wave them into the air, a yellow gloom descended upon the. whole world. The nonshatterable glass in their windshields and in the hatches overhead appeared to be fitted with yel- low glass. Mechanics and pilots and pas- sengers had disappeared from sight. The place was as still as a tomb except for the roar of their motors. The sky above them was filled with a golden clow, but the air was still as death. Back-in-the city of Cairo the great mosque of the citadel and the mountains of Moukatam gleamed yellow in the dim oO Corl) Ghook CO