Evening star., 1940-08-11
Il Short Story Complete in This Issue


the port of Callao, and was climbing toward
the Andes The landing wheels were folded
| into the wings, from which they would not
drop until the big cruiser reached Trinidad in
the British West Indies, two thousand miles
away over the least known area of the South
American continent. Riker and Tacks Malone
were in the pilots cabin beyond earshot of
Arturo Martinez, their one passenger, who
was now busy with the camera equipment
which would map every mile of the long hop.
Lance waited until Tacks cut in the gyrO-pilot
which relieved him of all the physical strain of
handling the big ship.
How come,' he demanded, you tried to
kick hunk out of my shin when that news
paper guy asked if we were going to look for
Dick Vernon?"
so you wouldn't open your mouth and :
maybe say something. We are gonna look for
him."
"Huh?" Mr. Riker gazed at his friend and
co-worker. Say, guy, for the next ten hours
there'll be no time to look for fellow who
cracked up in the jungle three years ago.
What's the idea, Tacks?"
IOlO MS WlIe -
OH - the word held volumes - Just
when i won't ask you where, but when -
did you learn enough Spanish to talk to Dick ,
Vernon's wife? Or should say widow"
She could talk English. Accent, of course,
and lots of funny pronunciations, but didn't
have trouble understanding her. She's
Chilean - her name was Senorita Josefna
Maria Gonzales - and she's as pretty as an
army with banners What's more just so
you won't make any wisecracks - her father
was with her and her mother and that Chilean
Air Corps captain we met in Santiago, Ybarra
was his name They came all the way to Lima
so she could talk to me and ask me to do what
could to locate Dick Vernon's ship. l told
her we would - so what?'
so - the challenge was promptly &C
cepted - being a sucker for heart punch,
you sent her away believing there's some truth
in all that s been printed about Vernon still
being alive. Sent her away hoping he'd come
riding back with us! Kee-riminy, Tacks!'
You didn't know him, did you?" Riker
shook his head and Malone continued: He
was lucky stiff If anybody could --"
Save it, I've got to call Lima and tell em
we're still up in spite OF having Lochinvar or
some other screwball at the controls"
liz TURNED to his instruments, leaving Tacks
to recall Dick Vernon who once had worn
the black k-enameled wings of Great Basin Air
Transport. He had had fair independent
income, too much to induce him to remain
long in the obscure position of co-pilot, and
had resigned to take testers job with Barr
wing He'd enjoyed brief fame when headlines
from coast to coast had told of his bailing
out of fighter which had shed its wings in a
power dive. Once he'd led the Bendix racers
to within hundred miles of Cleveland, when
a clogged oil line had set him down, raging,
in COW pasture. There'd been plans for
nonstop refueled, flight around the world,
too, but every airplane manufacturer and
major oil producer had rejected the idea.
There'd been laughter - and Dick Vernon
had gone to South America and within year
achieved indirectly the fame he had sought
ever since his graduation from Randolph Field.
There would have been no thunderous press
acclaim if Vernon had succeeded in flying non
stop from Lima to Trinidad, but there was
fame in failure His swift Gyrfaloon, flying
high, fast, and on course, had been sighted
over Huanucani, where the land drops almost
vertically from the peaks of the Cordillera to
the limitless forests of western Amazonas