Evening star., 1938-05-15

thousand. She would have to be dismantled.
They chewed it over for some time, Malone
pointing out that the ship would be total
loss before a crew could get into that pocket
and dismantle her. but Farnham stood pat.
He wasn't regular on the line and he wasn't
assuming such responsibility. Finally Malone
asked him if he'd take the Kestrel off, with
Schwartz and Eileen Darrow.
"Sne," said Farnham. "Its not the sweetest
takeoff I've ever seen but I'll make it all right.
There's some difference between light cabin
job like that and a transport"
"Okey." Malone told him. "I1l sneak the
Bridger through the hole"
Schwartz had both motors running by then.
All the pay load was out of the transport and
Arch drained every drop of gasoline except
what was in the reserve tank. That would
take him to Salt Lake and with both wing
tanks bone dry the ship was that much lighter.
Schwartz went with Malone when he TAXED
the Bridger to the furthest corner he could
find of that mighty small field.
Farnham had gone down the canyon. If
Malone was going to crash it would be at the
first sharp bend of the dogleg turn where he'd
have to cock the big ship up between cliffs
that didn't look to be much further apart than
his wing tips. If he didn't have speed enough
to hold him in the air through that tight bank
well, Farnham was there to pull him out of
what was sure to happen.
Malone could see neither Farnham nor
Eileen Darrow He figured that she was with
the co-pilot and for a good reason. All G-BAT
stewardesses are graduate nurses and able to
give first aid in an emergency. He locked his
brakes and revved his motors up and while
he was listening to their song of power it came
to him that he hadn't spoken word to the
girl since he'd recognized her. He closed the
throttles and yelled through the window to
Schwartz.
when you see Miss Darrow, Sig" he
you, and that I'm not holding any grudges.
She'll understand"
"Rght!" Schwartz yelled back. "See you
in Salt Lake!'- and he said afterwards that
it was more of prayer than promise.
Malone nodded and gave the Bridger the
gun The wind had picked up and was blowing
blue blazes, with an updraft sucking through
uldl CdIlyOIl dlIO SllO voAOy DO IAOu6i
He'll Gate had been Jared off its hinges. The
snow was frozen Just as solid as concrete, too
- and all of those things helped plenty. Malone
had to have speed and he had to have altitude
not much altitude but enough so that he
could pull into a bank without having his
wing-tip plow up part of the state of Utah.
The Bridger, dead light, had her wheels off the
snow in about nothing fiat and when Malone
poked her into the black mouth of the gorge
he was nearly hundred feet off the ground
and going like bat out of hell.
There weren't half dozen pilots in the
country who could have made that dogleg
turn without cracking up and Arch Malone
was three of them He cooked the Brideer into
a sixty degree bank and whipped her around
the first sharp bend with the cliff 50 close that
it was like cutting the pylons of closed course.
Had there been any load in the cruiser she'd
have mushed through the air while making the
turn and piled into the rock wall
on the further side, but the two
motors were giving the empty
ship every ounce of their power
and what mushing she did was
just enough to give Malone room
to straighten out momentarily,
bank once more and horse her
round the second turn of the