The Sky Pilot's Great Chase; Or, Jack Ralston's Dead Stick Landing

by Ambrose Newcomb

  XVII

  JACK'S DEAD STICK LANDING

  Perk proved game all right--not the least bit flustrated or upset butjust took it as a matter of course--an incident likely to bob up in thecheckered life of any airman and with which doubtless he had himselfbeen acquainted in days that were long since gone.

  He did, however glance swiftly ahead toward the spot where in allprobability, barring further accidents, the amphibian would be apt tomake contact.

  "Gee whiz! what born luck that guy does have!" was what flashed throughhis brain for what did he see before him but a sheet of water, one ofthose lovely little lakes over which they had passed again and again andwhich at all times had excited both his curiosity and his envy.

  "Oh! if _on'y_ he c'n make it," Perk kept saying half to himself andperhaps hardly conscious of his eagerness in the matter, for only toowell did he know how lessened their chances of avoiding a bad crashwould be if they could hit that water harbor when they struck on aslant.

  It was a critical moment for the success or failure of the entireexpedition, for even though neither of them were killed outright theymight be injured so seriously that the object of the flight must sinkinto oblivion in comparison with the task of getting the wounded one toa doctor.

  Then in addition to those chances, what if their ship became totallydisabled? At that distance from civilization it would be next toimpossible for it to be salvaged and in consequence the costly amphibianwould prove a total loss.

  No wonder then, that for the brief few seconds previous to theirpontoons striking, both of the chums found their hearts ceasing to beatin so far as their knowledge told them--at any rate, they held theirbreath in anticipation of the worst.

  To be sure there was an enormous amount of splashing as though someancient rock had chosen to alight in that little mountain lake. OncePerk was sure they must capsize and lose everything but just in the nickof time Jack cleverly shifted his position and this seemed to right theboat.

  Jack had done wonderfully, considering the handicap under which helabored. The spot where they struck was about two-thirds across the lakeso that it turned out they had plenty of room to glide ahead after thefirst rude shock was over.

  The two occupants of the cabin boat turned, as if by some instinct, togrin at each other. No one, to observe their apparent indifference,would have dreamed what a close shave they had just encountered forlanding with the stick absolutely inert is not the nicest thing in theworld and has caused more than a few bad crashes in which life wassnuffed out or at least sadly battered.

  "Huh! couldn't a done it any better myself," remarked Perk, making a wryface as though to tell his pal to interpret those words in the light ofa joke which circumstances did not bother Jack in the least. He had ahigh estimation of his comrade's abilities and pluck and rather fanciedPerk might be a bit better than himself in some things connected withflying. No ace is such a complete master of his calling that he has norival worthy of the name.

  "Well, we're down, seems like," ventured Perk after taking a survey allaround the wonderful little body of sparkling icy water where they hadso miraculously dropped from near the clouds.

  "That part is attended to, and sooner than I had figured," stated Jackwith a shrug of his shoulders that spoke volumes.

  "Say, was you meanin' to pick out one o' these lakes for a campin' placetonight, eh, ol' hoss?" demanded Perk, "'cause I had it all fixed tocoax you to do that thing. Kinder hankerin' some for a layout ashore,where we c'n have a cookin' fire, an' stretch our legs as we feel like."

  Jack nodded in the affirmative.

  "I had that all arranged in my mind, partner," he admitted, "but fromthe way things turned out, the ship didn't mean to wait on my pleasure.You'd think she had fallen in love with this special body of water, fromthe hurry she was in to make it. Just the same we got off mighty lucky,boy."

  "Sure did, Jack, and now the next question is, can we hop off from herewhen the right time comes along?"

  "No trouble about that, I reckon," replied Jack after a quick glancearound. "These steep mountains shut things in kind of tight but justremember, brother, that these are not the old days, when ships needed ahalf mile down-grade runway so's to get up enough speed to be liftedfrom the ground and the same goes for an amphibian or seaplane."

  "Hot ziggetty dog! guess you must mean the notched wings, eh, partner?"blurted out Perk.

  "Just so, and I calculate I can take her out of this hole in themountains as slick as grease,--when we're ready to get busy," was Jack'ssuperbly confident declaration, said not as a boast, but with the calmassurance of one who knew what he was talking about.

  "Wonder what did ail the boat to make that stick go dead so you couldn'tget a wiggle outen it?" Perk mused as though something brought histhoughts suddenly around to the fact that thus far neither of them hadany thorough knowledge concerning this cause of the sudden forcedlanding.

  "We'll get around to that right away," the other told him, "but even ifwe should learn what we want to know, and must find out, there'd be noreason for us to climb out of this snug nest this afternoon that I cansee."

  "Bully for you, Jack, ol' hoss, I was jest hopin' that'd be ourprogramme. Kinder took a likin' for these sweet little lakes an'wouldn't mind spendin' a night on the bank o' this one. Might somethin'turn up to give us a whirl--never c'n tell, I guess, what's goin' onaway off here in the wilds, where two-legged critters are as scarce ashens' teeth."

  That was the same old Perk showing his deep-seated love for action. Ithad grown upon him over across the big water, at the time he was withthe balloon corps in France, and became a part of his very nature eversince so that he could not keep from sighing for a change wheneverstagnation set in.

  Accordingly Jack led the way and they began a minute examination of thestalled motor. Both of them were more or less proficient in all mattersconnected with airplane engines, although it seemed as though a newspecies of trouble was springing up every little while, requiring freshstudy in order to master the problem.

  A whole hour was spent in checking things up before Jack discovered whatailed the hitherto perfect mechanism in which he had come to place themost implicit confidence. He proceeded to show Perk what he had thusfound out and to demonstrate the surest way to correct the fault.

  "After all, that's one on me," Perk soon frankly admitted, "but I kinderguess you've solved the riddle, ol' hoss. Next thing to find out iswhether we c'n fix it out here so far from everything."

  "No great trouble about that, partner," said Jack. "You play a while andlet me dig around--not any too much room for two guys to work in andfact is I won't need any help--if I do I'll call you."

  "Okay with me, Jack, since our left wing jest tips the shore I guessI'll step off an' have a look around. Everything looks quiet enough, somebbe there'll be no need o' me luggin' that heavy machine-gun along."

  "Suit yourself about that, partner," remarked Jack in an absent-mindedway, as though his thoughts were pretty much taken up with the job hehad on hand.

  So Perk went ashore and began to prowl around, that being one of hiscustomary amusements when the opportunity presented itself. He walkedhere and there so as to get various glimpses of the glorious sheet ofwater--bent down and drank his fill, remarking upon its ice-coldcharacter, coming as it did from melting snow on the caps of near-bymountains or possibly from some hidden glacier that dated back manycenturies.

  All around him was a dead silence, broken from time to time by achinking sound, made as he knew, by Jack laboring at the stubborn motor.

  "Huh! seems like this might be a dead country away up here," Perk toldhimself as he continued to climb around among the masses of huge rocksthat in the centuries past must have rolled down the abrupt slopes. "Nota hoof or a claw movin', when I kinder spected to glimpse a bear mebbeor it might be a panther, p'raps a Canada lynx."

  "Hey Perk!" he heard Jack calling and then came the loud staccato notesof the motor, sound
ing as sweet music in Perk's ears.