Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-10-02

into a steep climb to the height indi-
Gated. There Is a sense of hopeless
ness which every night fighter pilot
is conscious of, which is likely to be
felt after few moments Of deSultory
flying through the pitch darkness
one has the feeling that there is not
the remoteSt chance of encountering
anything in those conditions, and
sometimes the feeling is justified
Frank keyed his hearing desperately
to the drone of the locator He stared
out from the cockpit into the black
night, and he saw nothing.
A Economically minded person might
have thought about the Importance
of his mission, of the hundreds of
lives, the thousands of pounds worth
of property which depended on his
interception Of the raiders-for that
matter, the very course of history for
the next 200 years might depend on
it. But Frank was more sober-minded
and merely allowed himself to yearn
for the encounter as he had yearned
when boy TO make century for
the school.
Twice in the far distance the depths
below him had been suddenly il
lumined- Mechanically as the anti
aircraft opened up, and twice they
had plunged themselves into black
ness again. The orders over the radio
telephone became more urgent and
explicit Frank adjusted the dial of
the locator trifle this way, and then
trifle that way. He had in the end,
to control himself and not make
panicky adjustments in too much
haste. He knew that only the shortest
distance away, probably only just out
side the tiny ring of his radius of
vision, the bombers were rumbling by
on their deadly errand. Ten yards
distance, maybe; a difference of a
hundredth of a degree in the setting
of his course, and he would see the
black shapes swooping by. And yet he
could not find them.
Frank says that at this moment
something outside himself took charge
of the controls. He says he is quite
sure that something altered the course
by the necessary hairs breadth, and
put the planes nose down so that
he lost 200 feet of altitude. He swears
he did not do it himself, that none
of the indications of his instruments
nor the information supplied from the
ground justified the change.
But then, flying men, like gamblers,
are VIGOROUSLY superstitious, and per-
hapS Franks modeSty must also be
allowed for he would not like to take
credit for his flair and inspiration.
But five seconds after his change of
course and altitude-at the speed at
which he was flying that would place
him about 600 yards from where he
would have been if this unknown in
fluence (aS Frank calls it, had not
intervened-he caught glimpse of a
tiny glow Streaking across the sky
from port to Starboard, the almost
perfectly concealed exhaust of a Ger
man bomber He swung his around in
pursuit, and the indications of the To-
Gator rang out clearly.
1t was only a matter of seconds
more before the swift pursuit plane
had closed upon the numbering bomb
err To Franks trained eyes the vague
nucleus of intenSer darkness, which
was all he could see at first, rapidly
took form and shape, and as the range
shortened the perfect silhouette of the
still unsuspecting bomber appeared in
his gunsightS. That was the moment
when he pressed the trigger and re-
leased a sextuple torrent of lead and
tracers into the doomed ship. The first
burst was sufficient and the thing fell
in whirl of flames, lighting up the
sky and momentarily binding his
dark-accustomed eyes.
Frank wheeled away. He says, right
ly, that it was matter of pure chance,
or should have been, which way he
wheeled. But from that statement he
goes on to say that as it was not he
who directed the course for the next
few seconds, it was someone or some
thing else. He kept his gaze rigidly
from the dwindling blaze beneath him,
and directed it into the blacknesS be-
fore him.
The indications of the locator told
him at that moment that there was
something else in the sky near him.
His plane was travelling at the rate
of a mile in IA seconds. and he says
that no sooner had his mind regis
tered that fact than he felt the con-
trols move under his hands. Perhaps
they did. It seems more reasonable
to suppose that he was himself sub
consciously making the same allow