Evening star., 1926-06-19
LOVE AND LONGITUDE
The Romance of Race Around the World
BY LINTON WELLS
Special Correspondent
Alliance who engaged
for circlng tn
BY LINTON WELLS

10 oHeT IdnulnS pace pTcSeHleu
itself.
"A jaybird couldn't land in this |
part OF the world without breaking
leg" he unused grimly.
But he knew that soon he must |
come down and examine his ship. |
His keen eyes, straining ahead, at
last picked out a field which seemed
10 offer a fair chance for an emer-
gency landing. Jimmy dove several
hundred feet and inspected 1t more
closely.
He shook his head. 1t was far
from inviting. But. Got to do" he
muttered, 80 here goes"'
Suiting the action to the word, he
banked. swerved sharply to the left.
losing altitude; and then, sticking the
nose of his ship into the wind. dropped
lower and lower, until he was less
than 10 feet above the ground. Ahead
was stone fence which he must
skim.
Cutting his motor. Jimmy glided
over the fence, missing it by inches,
and. in an instant, had placed the
wheels of his ship on the ground. He
bounded forward, keeping the tail of
his plane down, when, without. warn.
ing, disaster confronted him.
A low hillock-a miniature bunker.
though 1t seemed TO Jimmy to bear
the proportions of a mountain
loomed up ahead. The pilots mind
Immediately reacted TO the impending
danger.
He was confronted with the alterna-
tive of swerving to one side and thus
risking the loss of a wing, or Of at
tempting to Jump the obstruction and
trust to luck on the farther side. He
accepted the latter.
Pushing forward his throttle, he
pulled slightly on the stick, scared
easily into the air, and few seconds
later had again placed the tail and
wheels of his ship on the ground. But |
the added impetus that the jump had |
given had carried him too far. Ahead |
was another stone fence.
Jimmy realized instantly that he |
could not stop his ship before he |
reached it; so digging his tailskid |
into the ground, he sought to make a |
ground loop. But the turning radius |
was too slight. With a groan of
anguish and momentary sensation
Of sickening dread, he saw his right
wing collide with the fence and heard
in the same second the rip Of tearing
fabric ana the crash of splintering
framework
For an instant he sat still in his
cockpit. He was safe, he realized, un- !
harmed and with the realization he
gave a bitter laugh Safe-but so far
as he was concerned he had lost his
race around the world almost before
it had fairly started.
He crawled stiffly out of the cockpit
and examined the damaged wing. 1t
took only an instant for him to con
vince himself that it was wrecked be
yond hope of immediate repair. And
he was miles away from help Of any
kind; Even to tramp to the nearest
telephone and order another ship was
futile: it could not arrive in time to
enable him to make connections at
Seattle.
The bitterness of his thoughts was
too much to bear in his lonely silence.
1t was of no use, anyway. to sit there
and bemoan his fate. Might as we'll
see what was wrong with that motor"
he decided
He threw back the protective cowl-
ing over the engines and began his in
spection. In few seconds, muttering
to himself, he had exhausted the pos
sibility of the trouble having been in
either the oil line, which was perfectly
| clean, or the ignition.
| Next he was prying at the carhu
rotor, and when it's vitals were re-
vealed, he stared at it bewilderedly.
then poked a tentative finger into
| the liquid it contained. There was
| a peculiar feel to it-none of the
freshness of highgravity gas. He
withdrew his finger and poked It in
his mouth: then bent his head and
| drew a deep breath.
| Suddenly he started, his eyes wide
with anger and disbelief.
well I'm damned" he exclaimed.
! "Naphtha-moth balls,"
The thing seemed impossible: vet
| there was no real doubt of it, Some
one had dropped moth balls into his
gasoline tank. He sat down to con
| slider who 1t might have been. At last
he shook his head with a long sigh
What did 1t matter, anyway? He
had lost Rogers-or simply someone
who had bet on the race. It
couldn't have been Rogers, anyway
| 1t was done that was enough. He had
| lost.
His own thirty thousand-Billy'
twenty; how long would it take him
| to repay?
And Frances. How beautaful
she had been when he had said good
by before repairing to the club-how
beautiful and unreproachable.
Lost forever. Everything lost. And
Rogers soaring over the country west.
ward. Jimmy gritted his teeth and
found that his last realization hurt
more than all the rest He was
startled. What did 1t mean?
But he was awakened from his
reverie with a start; against the
drums of his ears there vibrated
| familiar sound-the roar of an air.
plane motor. 1t was already growing
dusk, but his eyes swept the clean
sky and he gave sharp exclamation
| Of surprise.
| A plane was bearing down from
the east-a large plane, he suspected,
though he could not see it too clearly
through the gathering twilight
Could it be Rogers? But no, Rogers
was far ahead.
His next thought was that the plane
might be that of an airmail pilot.
If 1t was, could 1t be induced to stop?
| He doubted 1t; but hope had already
lighted new fire in his breast, and
as the ship tore on toward him,
Jimmy rushed out in the field waving
his arms madly.
Copyright. 1925 North American News
paper AlianceD
Continued in Tomorrow's Starr
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