Air pilots -- Juvenile fiction; Mystery and detective stories; Reporters and reporting -- Juvenile fiction
Assured of sufficient elevation, certain that he was on the line, Jimmy
felt sure that nothing could now prevent him from reaching his goal. He
was elated. He might have broken his landing gear at Ringtown. The plane
might have nosed over and damaged his propeller. He might even have
crashed. Any one of these things might have happened and one of them
almost certainly would have happened, had it not been for Johnnie Lee’s
beacon. Added to the light of the revolving beam from the landing field
tower and his own flare, it had enabled Jimmy to get down safely. It
wouldn’t matter if he did smash his landing gear when he came down on
Long Island. He would then be at his destination.
So Jimmy sailed ahead jubilantly. And his jubilation increased as he
flew along. He knew just where he was. He glanced at his clock, to check
the time, and ran his eye over all his other instruments. Everything
seemed to be working right.
Meantime, the forces on the ground had not been idle. The moment that
Jimmy took off from Ringtown, the man who had helped Jimmy there hurried
to the telephone and informed the Bellefonte radio man that Jimmy had
landed safely at Ringtown, had repaired a leak in his oil line, and had
taken off again. At almost the same time word came to Bellefonte to the
effect that a plane had just passed over the Park Place beacon. That was
reassuring news, for it told the watchers that Jimmy had gotten safely
aloft once more.
On he went, boring through the fog. To this he gave small heed. His
entire attention was centred on his instrument board. He watched that
like a hawk. From his turn and balance indicator, which told him when he
was on a level keel and was flying straight, his eyes jumped to his
tachometer, to his oil gauge, his oil temperature gauge, his altimeter,
and so on from instrument to instrument. But most often his eye fell
upon the oil gauge. Despite his confident remarks about the security of
the pipe-line, he was none too sure that he would not have further
trouble with it. But none developed, though Jimmy soared along, mile
after mile.
A half hour passed. Jimmy had his eye on his clock. “We ought to be
close to Easton,” he thought. He glanced out through the fog, though he
had no hope of seeing anything but mist. Nor did he see anything else.
Yet the mist had a luminous quality he had not noticed at any other
time. He sped on and presently the mist lost its luminous effect. For a
moment Jimmy was puzzled. Then a look of inquiry came to his face.
“Could that have been from the lights of Easton?” he thought. “If it
was, the fog is not so dense.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account