CHAPTER XVII

A FIGHT WELL WON

It was no longer possible for the busy pilot to keep on his course. Every minute of his time was taken up with a desperate effort to keep from being thrown into a nose dive, that, unless miraculously conquered, would be likely to send them whirling down, to crash from a five thousand foot ceiling, and thus bring about a complete writeoff.

That however was the least of Jack’s worries—all he asked was the ability and luck to be able to fend off threatening disaster; could this be done successfully in good time they could pick up all that was lost, and once more continue their westward flight.

The battering they endured was simply tremendous, and Jack marveled at the ship being able to withstand such a horrible strain. If but a single strut gave way under all that pounding it would mean starting a series of similar mishaps such as would quickly render them incapable of keeping aloft; and with this threat hanging over their heads it can readily be understood neither of the two could be in a comfortable frame of mind.

Still it is wonderful how men thus threatened will continue to carry on, although in an almost mechanical fashion, doing just the necessary thing with each change of pace on the part of the tricky storm, and meeting successfully every near tragedy as it arises to clutch them in its grip.

No longer did Jack keep on climbing—it seemed to him that the further the staggering boat lifted the more dangerous became their situation for the air was surcharged with electricity as the zigzag lightning darted from cloud to cloud, doubling the chances of their frail craft being struck.

In fact it seemed so terrible above that he lacked the nerve to persist in the upward work, and even commenced to drop down. Perk noticing this move, hardly knew what to make of it. He was, as he himself would have expressed it, “hanging on by his teeth,” in order to keep his seat in the wildly plunging airship and on finding that the bold pilot had given up hope of finding relief in the upper regions, the fact appalled him. Could it be Jack had decided to attempt a landing, with only the glare of those repeated electrical flashes to serve as airport lights? That indeed would be next to admitting their case as hopeless, and that Jack was taking such desperate chances only as a last resort.

They were zooming along all this time as if pursued by a jinx and indeed with such weird accompaniments it would not be hard to believe the spirit of the storm took on the part of such a goblin of the air, to pursue relentlessly this bold invader of the home of the aroused elements.

Perk hit the bullseye close to the center when afterwards, in describing their experience on this night of the great blow, he vowed they were “playing dice with death,” since it seemed a bare chance that they could ever pull through alive.

Such is the life of the aviator—one hour sailing smoothly along, at peace with all mankind, envying no man his following, and feeling himself to be on the top of the world—the next and he may be fighting with might and main the mad demons of the air, his life hanging in the balance, his strength ebbing fast, and unless the little cherub aloft that is said to be watching over each sailor, whether of the sea or the limitless air, comes to the rescue, his fate is sealed, and another modern Argonaut never comes back again to the home port.

It did not seem to be any the less exciting even when they had succeeded in gaining a much lower altitude; although possibly the danger from those thunderbolts might have been somewhat abated. Perk soon realized that his pilot had no intention of trying for a landing in the midst of such a turmoil and confusion, which fact relieved his harried feelings to some extent. Indeed, it would have been a mad proceeding, and almost unheard of, since hardly the slightest chance offered for the most skillful pilot to reach the earth without disaster, such as making a ground loop, and having the heavy engine bury them under its weight.

Perk endeavored to convince himself that things were a bit easier since a lower altitude had been effected but in so doing he feared he was only deceiving himself—if anything at all things were even worse,—although the drop might not be so far, which was small comfort, since it must mean their complete annihilation if it befell them.

Perk had numerous spasms when he fancied something was going amiss with their staunch craft, although unable to decide the exact nature of the imaginary trouble. Despite all these chills, which must have been the products of his excitement, they managed to hold out minute after minute, which fact gave more or less cause for renewed hope.

Jack must indeed be almost completely exhausted, and yet he refused to give up the controls, to which his hands seemed glued as though riveted there. Perk punched his side numbers of times, but could get no favorable response, proving that the other deemed it too hazardous a proceeding to change possession of the stick while in the whirl of that shrieking gale—which was indeed only another adaptation of the old proverb “it is folly to change horses when crossing a stream.”

There was no means for communication with each other, even though they may have wished to do so, since the ear-phones had been discarded with the donning of their slickers, and could not be put back in position, owing to the sudden bursting of the storm, and the necessity for employing their hands in more useful pursuits.

All Perk could do was to hang on, keeping himself ready to seize hold should his companion be suddenly compelled to release his grip through sheer weariness—that, and keeping tabs of the weather, so as to glean the first favorable sign that came along, promising a let-up, or at least a break.

Judging from the heavy rain that had come down in such a solid stream it must be reckoned one of those dreadful cloud-bursts of which he, Perk, had so often heard, but which thus far in his experience he had never met up with. No doubt rivers would be out of their beds long before dawn although that angle of the situation did not interest them in the least, since their traveling would not be interfered with a particle, if only the air proved inviting.

Yes, soon Perk believed he could detect a lessening of the baffling crosswinds that had been so trying to the pilot, keeping him continually on the anxious seat—then, too, it struck him the floods were growing weaker in the bargain; which two facts gave poor Perk a feeling akin to joy in the region of his heart, such as he may have known on previous occasions, but that must have been far down in his adventurous past.

According to their altimeter they were something like two thousand feet from the ground, but of course never the faintest glimpse could they secure of what lay beneath them, so poor was the visibility, with all that torrent of water pouring down as might a mountain cataract.

This delightful feeling grew stronger as minutes passed—at this rate he would soon be able to influence tired Jack to renounce his frozen hold on the stick, and turn the handling of the ship over to his chum.

In this frame of mind he again nudged the other, but in turn received a negative shake of the head, which meant there was “nothing doing”—in other words, since the storm still raged, even though in somewhat diminished violence, they must not be too premature, and spoil it all just when the victory seemed about to drop into their hands.

With what Perk hoped would prove to be a last dying spurt the rain came pelting down, after which it suddenly stopped as though an unseen hand away up among the clouds, had plugged the gap, and kept any more water from running out—enough was enough, surely, Perk was telling himself when he made this thrilling discovery and for one he felt he had had sufficient rain to last him the balance of that year.

So too did the wind start to diminish its force, also coming from one direction with more constancy—some relief to Jack, that was certain, since now he could know just how to steer his turbulent craft so as to meet the force driving against it.

Then what did Perk do but start getting his ear-phones adjusted, being wild to hear a human voice, after all that fiendish roaring and howling kicked up by the raging elements.

Why, already the atmosphere had cleared enough for him to catch faint glimpses of what lay beneath them—it looked as though they had come to a stretch of country where the level prairie had changed into rougher ground, with deep swales, sometimes running into quite respectable ravines and there were indications of ridges ahead, which might even prove to be fairly high, so that it would have been tempting Providence had Jack dropped still lower, while flying blind through all that welter.

“Talk to me ’bout luck,” the grateful Perk was saying to himself, “I never ran ’cross anything like _this_—they told me Jack must a been born under a lucky star, an’ now I sure b’lieves it to be the right stuff they were givin’ me, an’ no taffy either. But that was some fight, take it from me, fellers.”

Shortly afterwards Jack condescended to give him the sign that he was willing to pass up the job; whereat Perk quickly superseded him as pilot, and saw the other sink back in his cramped quarters as though unable to hold up his tired arms a second longer. Apparently the relief had come not a minute too soon, for he must have been close to the point of utter exhaustion after so long and violent a strain.

Battered as the crate had been while the gale lashed them so madly, it had stood up under the buffeting most amazingly and Perk would never have occasion to utter anything saving words of praise for the model and its makers; it must be as near perfection as aircraft are being built these days of man’s victory over the savage forces of the air.

Setting his course in what he believed to be the proper direction Perk waited until Jack seemed fairly well recovered, when he was pleased to see the other take up his head harness as though he too felt the necessity for opening up communications with his running mate, which outlook gratified Perk immensely.

There were many things he wished to have made clear, and besides, he felt more than curious to learn what Jack’s next move might turn out to be—that they had drifted far from their original course went without saying but a means must be found to recover the lost ground, after which they could take up the game again just where the sudden storm had caused such a diversion.

And then the moon peeped out through a break in the clouds overhead, as though to tell them it was all over, with decent weather once more in the offing.