The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-02-21
GODDESS
by Herberf Jensen

ID IUe ldCS. uc ADuCi iNoh otOOPCu and dragged the bandolfer of car tridge-clips from about the limp shoulder. He tossed the ammunition to Janice.
 He essayed a glance over his shoulder. He saw figures streaming down the side of the pyramid in pursuit. He and the girl had bet ter start than he had hoped for. It was evident that their margin of lead was desperately slight.
 Their footing was good. Flag stones. yards square. paved this cen tral area, and made running easy. The last few yards to the plane seemed irterminable.
 Grahame scooped up an empty wooden gasoline case, scarcely pausing in his stride. He flung it beside the fuselage.
 "Step on that! Can you make it?" he gasped. "Climb in the rear cockpit. Start shooting right away!"
 He stumbled to the starting crank and wound the starter. The guards were nearer. As he reached for a strut to haul himself upon the lower wing, he heard the whip-lash of a rife shot above him.
 Again the rife cracked. He wrig- gled to the middle of the wing and drew himself upright. clinging to the guy-wires. His flyers instinct noted that tse flying wires were ominously slack.
 The months of standing in the open, in the rain and blazing sun, had probably loosened all the rig ging. He thanked fortune that the wings were metal, there was no fabric to rot He prayed that the motor would fire after months of | inaction.
 Three more shots, evenly spaced cracked over his head. Almost he sobbed in admiration for the girl who was coolly shooting from the plane.
 As he threw a leg over the cowling of the cockpit, he flashed glance toward the pyramid. In the imme- diate foreground, scarcely two hun dred yards away, two men sprawled on the flagstones.
 Another sat, face within his spread knees. his rife on the ground almost under him. Behind several were spreading out an-wise-those in the center were kneeling in preparation for firing.
 INTO the cockpit he sprawled. He heard distant firing and the whine of bullets overhead. A vicious, me talic ripping told him that the plane was being hit.
 Then the rifle from the rear cock pit began to crash again, one-two- three in series of five, as the girl fired and reloaded. She was shoot ing like a veteran in rifle pit.
 He threw on the switch with his sound left hand and feyerishly ad- justed the throttle and tested the controls. Al though stiff, they worked. As he pulled on the starter he made an inarticulate sound-a prayer.
 The motor erupted into boom | ing roar! For an instant it held the even resonance of it's explosions, then sputtered. Frantically Ora. hame jazzed the throttle. It was now or never. He could never sur vive the salvo of bullets that would greet him if he were forced to wind | the starter again.
 The motor coughed discordantly then settled into an even drumming that reverberated above the stac. cato tattoo of rife fire. He had noticed that the wheels were unlocked. He showed the throttle forward. The motor revved up unevenly but the plane began to slide forward.
 For brief instant the ship rolled onward without interruption-there came bump that dragged one wing tip against the stone. He gunned the motor and ruddered to correct di rection.
 He saw figures scattering ahead of him. There was another, small CT thud, as a wings edge hit fleet ing native.
 Ragged holes appeared in the wings. The great pyramid loomed ahead of him. The tail skid was of the ground. He pulled the stick to ward him. She responded, and tool the air just as a crash against tho pyramid seemed inevitable.
 He banked left. The bass roar O the motor echoed against the sidt of the huge monument. So close wal he, that he saw the terror strickel eyes of the populace as they flat tened their bodies against the steel sides.
 As he leveled above the tree-topl he was conscious that the control were sluggish. His right arm wa worse than useless. He fought th' stick backward with but slight re action. The effort sent the blood t his head.
 j fCobyyight. Io54, 6y Hf,5srf Jenses,
 There is crash, tomorrow.