The Fort Peck press., 1935-10-31

. until the direction of my jump threy
me out of its path. I pulled the cor
( and the chute opened. The thing tina
made it look kind of bad was that
was only a couple of yards away from
r the wreck when I landed. I guess
looked kind of close"
Eyes" Joan agreed, kind of close
"Listen!" Pat jumped up and tool
t her firmly by the shoulders and shool
her. There's nc ifs in flying. I
7 either happens or it doesn't happen
You can't hold a post-mortem with.
out a body. Forget it,"
Cali right" Joan said, "I1l forget it
I'll forget it every time I know you're
going to test a plane. I'll just sit here
to test planes? Couldn't you get along
just a little while just flying? I know
you like to do it, but it makes me kline
of nervous"
He started to speak, thought better Of
it, and looked away. His eyes were
hard. When he locked at her again il
was as though he was staring at a
stranger.
"You don't understand" he said
coldly. PLANES have to be tested
Somebody has to test them"
Cali right" she argued, 'but why
should it be you?"
I'm a flyer" 1t was the simple
statement of an obvious fact.
"And why are you?" she asked and
started to cry. why can't you be a
bookkeeper or a street cleaner or a
mechanic. Anything else! Why do you
have to step out of the ranks of the
fifteen or twenty-five thousand, or
whatever it is, flyers in this country
every time some n wants to find out
whether a crazy fool can torture a
plane to death? Do you think"-her
voice was rising Observation-Disclosures fiji
teen hundred dollars O fifteen thous-
n dollars could pay me for waiting
for them to bring you home dead?"
"You haven't done any waiting yet"
he pointed out dryly.
Cant you at least promise me not
to test any more planes?"
mo" he said shortly. ST can't"
Of course he couldn't. She had not
realized then what she had come to
realize later that Pat was a great
natural flyer and flying was in his
blood. 1t was his life. He handled a
plane as masterfully as Rachmaninoff
handled a piano. He wanted his hand
on the stick under every condition. He
was an experimentalist in the air and
in that fact were buried the seeds that
lowered in his death.
He had not promised her that he
would test no more planes, but he had
refrained from testing them unless they
we're in dire need of money. That
was not Pats fault but that of circum-
stances. Luck, Pat called it, and it was
the only luck he believed in. Certain
" he left nothing to luck in flying.
No plane was more rigidly inspected
than the he was to fly no matter
what the conditions were under which
he was to fly it.. Luck to him was an
other name for Nemesis.
He got a job as airline pilot, which
vanished. He Was out of work for
months. Their small hoard of money
disappeared. He tested a plane. And
they were comfortable again. There
was the time he and Jim Reiss started
a factory and the factory failed with
all the money they had sunk in it. He
tested planes then to pay his debts
and to rent a roof for himself and her
and Pat junior.
Every time he tested planes after
that quarrel they really did need the
money, except the last time. That last
time they didn't need money. They
had more money than they had ever
lldQ Ill JIG UllllC IL CIlCll llFCo. dU lldO
a new lode of talent, his gift
for writing, and it promised to be rich
than a gold mine. He had sold six
one after the other, to different
magazines. They were flying stories,
tersely and graphically as only
flyer could write them. Editors were
beginning to clamor for his
stuff. And there came this opportunity
20 make a dive demonstration and Pat
could not resist it.
1t would have been the last time
would ever do it.. even if it hadn't
turned out the way it had. Only, why !
couldn't he have had one more chance? |
lust one They were really on their f
way to places when he took that plane l
Up for the last time, the last time for
hat plane, the last time for Pat Bar i
on, the last time for Pat Junior ever {
have a father alive, and the last 6
ime for her ever to be happy in this t
world
She drew herself together, launching
Ter shoulders to stop the shivering f
which was part of an approaching ny /
terra. She mustn't think of what c
made that last flight! "You can't have A
post-mortem without a body" Only C
time they had a body-Pat's body. a
She looked out the window and be- il
to count the planes. There was one L
'lane, two planes, three planes, four h
-Four planes. There was an
ther. Five planes. And the sun was C
ut and it was such a gorgeous day. She 0
cit calmness coming back to her. She a
AIRED return to thoughts of Pat. Il
She returned to thoughts of Pat s.
nd Marion Prentiss because it wa not tt
ing after this quarrel, while they were d.
ill courteously and formally cold to #
ach other, that Jimmie and Marion tx
anne to dinner at the apartment which tt
ats latest demonstration dive had
furnished. "
Pat had been glad to see them, extra w
'dinarily glad, Joan thought suspic- tc
and a little guilty. Here was a fe
lance to be with his own people af- wi
r living with a stranger. She resent al
the expression in the eyes of the in
lree of them as they looked at each w
her and talked in the technical terms sv
flying, most of which was jargon to B;
II. 1t was as if they shut her out. TT
81 heard you had no competition in We
at last diving lob of VOlrS." Jimmie n