Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

74 BILL BARNES armed with a modern automatic rifle. As they fell into a long line of fours and started at double time toward their barracks Bill suddenly realized what he was up against. His breath hissed through his nostrils as he drew it in quickly. It didn’t seem possible that he could have found such an organiza- tion in the heart of what was supposed to be a civilized protectorate. Within its very bosom France was harboring a secret force of greater strength than its own. A force that was slowly prepar- ing to destroy it. It came to him with a certainty that was not pleasant that Sturgis Benton, the American consul, had been right. The thing was bigger than any individ- ual. What chance had he to rescue Shorty—if he were there—from such a place? The men crowded around the anti-aircraft guns in the fort answered his question. They answered it with a decisiveness that was unmistakable. A puff of blue-and-white smoke appeared close to him as a gun roared below. The shell burst close to him. Too close. Pieces of screaming shrapnel drummed through his wings and tail. The Scarlet Stormer was buffeted like a leaf in a high gale. The whole battery of anti- aircraft guns suddenly exploded. He fought his controls and roared into the microphone as he saw Sandy’s Eaglet stagger like a thing mortally wounded. “Swing clear aad get your ceiling,” he roared. “Stick together. I'll lead the way.” The rataplan of the five gray fighters on the field below joined the roar of their engines as they took their ships upward im tight sprrals. Red Gleason cursed angrily as his Snorter was thrown about like a cork in an angry sea. “Those babies may be black but they can shoot,” he told him- self. At ten thousand feet Bill leveled off and waited for the other planes. Sandy was riding the Eaglet in a way that brought a gleam of pride to Bill’s eyes. Sandy and the little fighter were as one. He came spiraling upward as though the devil was on his tail. The enemy gunners below were blaz- ing away with shell after shell. But they had lost the range now. Bill threw over the switch on the radiophone and spoke again. His voice was excited. His eyes sparkled as he gazed down on the scene below him. “Listen, Cy,’ he said. ‘Do you see the large brick building that looks as though half of it was buried in the ground—the round one near the center of the fort?” Cy answered in a moment that he had located it. “That, I think, is their magazine,” Bill said, excitedly. “Ask Bailey if he thinks he could hit it at five thou- sand feet going two hundred miles an hour.” The radtophone was silent for a mo- ment. Then Cy’s voice sounded again. “He says he can try,’ Cy reported, calmly. “All right,” Bill said. “Get down there and let them have it.” SANDY hadn’t been listening to the first part of that conversation between Bill and Cy. He had slipped his helmet back off his head for a moment and con- sequently missed it. But he heard the last part. He heard Bill say, “Get down there and let them have it.” That was enough for him. As Cy circled downward, varying his speed and direction slightly to throw off the aim of the gunners on the ground Sandy jammed the control stick of the Eaglet forward. Sunlight flashed on the metal surface of the wings as Sandy pointed the nose of the Eaglet earthward in a vertical power dive. Bill’s fist clamped around the control oO CON) Ghook CO