Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-09-02
HIDDEN METALS
Ry CHARLEs J. MeGUTRK

BILE QUALITIES OF HUMAN
BEINGS.
When the great plane took off
at Albuquerque and headed west
! at 3:15 that afternoon, Father
Willard and the other passengers
knew that they were already near
ly an hour late and might not
arrive in Los Angeles till way aft
er & o'clock, instead CT A:.a6, their
scheduled time. The fact did not
bother the 66-year-old priest. Years
before he had conquered the dis
turbing habit of impotence. An
hour or a day early or late made
little difference to him His long ap-
premiership to medicine and other
sciences had enabled him to see the
truth of the scriptural observation
that, "a thousand years is but an in
slant in His sight"
He, himself, was on a vacation which
had been tactfully disguised as an err
rand by his rector. He was to make
a survey of the early Spanish missions
in California and he was to look in
upon a few hospitals for any Of the
!
| ing used there.
He was in no such hurry to arrive
at his destination as his presence in
a fast, powerful plane might portend.
| He was there because he had once
/ expressed a casual desire to travel in
one so it had been made a part of
his 'errand." But he liked the SEN
sation.
And the reasons for the delay in
/ leaving Albuquerque did not bother
| him, either, though he was the only
| passenger who knew them. 1t was
February and they were headed into
the terrain bounded roughly by Al
Lake City, which is known among
| flyers as ''the graveyard of passenger
! planes" because so many have per-
iShed there. Flying conditions were not
as ideal as they might be at that
moment. There was snow and sleet in
the north and a low ceiling.
Perhaps, Father Willard thought, If
/ the others knew this, they would not
/ be so much annoyed as they we're by
the delay. People avoided danger. And
they feared death-unduly, he who
was merely physical change, possibly
a release into a better world, to re-
ward Both his faith and his expert
ence had taught him that
They were, however, annoyed and
they showed it in their various ways.
Father Willard, sitting in the rear
and on the right side Of the plane
vision. watched them, amused.
The planes crew, Lee Wilson, the
lean, tanned and slightly grizzled pilot,
Ed Driscoll, his young co-pilot, who
might have been cut from the same
bolt of cloth, and Miss Graves-Mar-
| tina, he believed her name waS-the
! fair, laughing-ey stewardess with the
/ full lips and the strong jaw, knew OF
the danger. But he was the only one
of the 10 passengers who did. He won
1 dered If the other nine would mind
1 the delay so much, If they realized 1t.
He wondered how they would face 1t
or If they would face 1t at all.
The conceit flashed suddenly across
/ his mind that the huge powerful plane
was not plane at all but great
chunk of ore flying through space.
This chunk contained Is bits of hid
den metal, unidentified, unassayed and
unproven Their quality could be
/ learned only by exposing them to the
! White-hot blast Of deadly peril Their
reaction to a crisis would determine it
/ to themselves and to the world. How
Would they prove coins Of copper,
silver, gold or platinum? Or would
! they be found spurious, as coins made
| up largely Of base metals?
! The conceit was so ridiculous that
he smiled at it and chided himself
/ for possessing it. Nevertheless, he fol-
/ lowed it up by studying each paSsen-
/ ger and trying to discover, or at least
to guess, what quality, what metal they
contained.
/ He found that he would have COM
mitted himself without reserve on only
4 two of the 10. They were Wilson, the
pilot, and Driscon, the co-ptlot. 1t
would be safe to say that both con-
tanned plenty Of iron
The young stewardess, looking very
! efficient and pretty in her trim uni
! form as she moved among the dis
| gruntled passengers, smoothing them
/ down, might assay plenty of good
metal. She was obviously IN her very
early twenties yet she had submitted
successfully to rigid discipline to be-
come registered nurse.
What about the othersP
His eyes turned from the pretty
stewardess to the front seat to rest
upon tall, blonde, long-eyed, insolent
girl a year or so older than Miss
Graves. She was, he knew, Barbara
Leach, heireSs to the fabulous Leach
fortune and one Of the richest women
in the world. Immediately he weighed
her and found her wanting One
thought her beautiful, but it was a
beauty which had been enhanced to
its utmost by StudiouS care so that
it seemed greater than 1t really was.
And she had arrogance. But no
strength. Her best metal, he decided, |
was the money she possessed.
Beside her, carrying on an amused
and slightly superior conversation, was
Mace Wallace, a reporter who was on
his way to California to cover the re-
cent floods for a wire service. He was
of middle-height and heavily built,
dark and -mouthed. Not much old |
er than one Of Father Millard's own
seniors, he possessed cynicism too
old for his years. BE might reach for
a coin and find little metal.
Behind these two sat Paul Stoddard, !
a famous industrialist, and George FL
wood, his pale, rabbity secretary who
weakly waved a toothbrush mustache