King Horn suddenly jumped upon his seat, planted one foot on the rim of
the cockpit and scrambled up onto the thick wing of the monoplane. There
was not a single grip for hands and feet on the top of that rounded and
sloping plane, but King Horn, crouching on hands and knees, transferred
his knife to his right hand and leaned into the wind and waved Scoggins
on again.
“Come on!” he muttered. “Pass me that gas!”
The biplane dipped lower and the bulky can swung like a giant pendulum
toward King Horn. He leaped to his feet and met the sweep of the can
with his chest. His left hand whipped around it while his right slashed
savagely at the rope that bound it to the biplane. He felt his toes
lifting on the wing.
An instant later he was flat on the plane with the can clutched in his
arms. He looked up, as the biplane veered hastily away from the giant
ship down below.
Lyle Tennant was leaning far over the edge of her cockpit with her
frightened eyes upon him. He grinned up at her reassuringly. She essayed
an answering smile; then with a mighty effort lifted another can into
his view. King Horn nodded. His hands were already unscrewing the cap of
one of the wing tanks. He looked down again, into his own control
cockpit.
Franklin Cross sat there, rigid, immovable. His hands rested upon the
wheel as if they held a very fragile egg. The ship was still in the
glide. The motors still turned on the last of the gas. The water of the
bay was much closer than it had been before.
“Doing fine!” King Horn shouted at the aviation editor. “Once more and
we’re set!”
He upended the can and sent the five gallons of gasoline gushing into
the gravity tank. Five gallons--good for seven and a half minutes’ time
at cruising speed!
“Just once more, Lyle!” he muttered.
The biplane was drawing in again. King dropped the empty can. It was
whisked off the wing by the ceaseless blast of air and spun astern,
dwindling to nothingness as it fell.
King steadied himself for another effort. Again Syd Scoggins jockeyed
the biplane closer. Again King’s eyes followed unwinkingly the sway and
jerk of the suspended can. Then the vagary of the wind and a touch of
the biplane’s throttle sent it suddenly swooping toward him.
Facing backward, he met the swinging can with his chest again. But this
time it was coming like a projectile. It thudded on his ribs and he felt
the wing disappear beneath his feet. For an instant, with both desperate
hands gripping the can, he was in free air. Then, with a crash, he fell
upon something solid.
He writhed about; found that the can had knocked him off the wing into
the cockpit. He had landed half upon Cross and half on the empty seat.
The can was still there. Lyle had cut the rope at her end. If the can
had swung a bit harder or if it had not been released it would have
knocked him overboard or into the propeller of the center engine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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