Air pilots -- Juvenile fiction; Mystery and detective stories; Reporters and reporting -- Juvenile fiction
Jimmy circled the town and flew back over the _News_ building. Now he
saw white marks on the roof. Some one had been making great letters with
a piece of chalk. They were a message for him. This is what they said.
“Have entire story. Press room flooded. Have made mats. Can you take to
Berlin and arrange to have edition printed and sent here? A truck can
reach west side of town by the hill road.”
When Jimmy read that he couldn’t suppress a whoop. “Carl,” he cried.
“Just think! He’s got the story set up and the mats made for casting the
stereotype plates. If we can get those mats, we can get proofs of the
whole story. It’ll be the beat of the year.”
He scribbled another note. “Will land and try to reach you. Have
everything ready. Will fly to Berlin with the mats and make arrangements
for edition for you.” The next time he flew over the _News_ building,
this message was skilfully dropped by Carl and caught by the group on
the roof.
“They got it,” shouted Carl.
Jimmy smiled and nodded. Then he pulled back on his stick, lifted his
plane to a higher elevation, and went soaring straight toward the
nearest hillside, looking for a possible landing-place.
On a hillside farm he found a place that looked favorable. Twice he flew
over the place studying it. The ground seemed rough. He was fearful of
it. But he saw no better place and decided to chance it. He came down in
a long glide, barely missing some trees. Then he straightened out for a
landing. His plane was just skimming the ground, and Jimmy was waiting
for it to lose flying speed when he noticed a low stone wall at the
other end of the field. Jimmy knew he was overshooting too much to dare
attempt to kill his surplus speed by fish-tailing. He burst the gun wide
open and eased back on the stick. In a second the ship was once more
over the tree tops, and Jimmy circled back again into the wind for
another try at the field. He did a nose high slip and then proceeded in
disgust to pancake her in. It was a dangerous move, even for the most
skilled pilot, for always there is danger of falling off on one wing,
due to a lack of flying speed. The ship was settling vertically. Just
before she hit, Jimmy burst the gun half open to give her a little more
forward speed, so she would not settle so hard on her undercarriage.
Then she struck, but not hard enough to break anything. Rapidly she came
to rest. With a sigh of relief he throttled down his engine and climbed
from the plane. He let his motor idle for a few minutes, then cut the
switch.
“We’ll go over to those folks yonder and talk to them,” he said,
starting toward a group of people who were doing something at a
distance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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