Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

, 4 " Go ahead, Gray," Roston said into the telephone. " Came out of a dive at five thousand. Pow:!' came on perfectly." "Pine." Roston looked up at the general, the colonel, and the smiling in- ventor. "Now leave the field." he in- structed, "and try her for speed and dis- tance. Open her up slowly and take a course north-west by west, altitude four thousand." The instructions were repeated and fox half an hour no word came from the machine. Roston was becoming anxious, the general nervous, when Gray's voice broke the strained silence of the control- room "Go ahead, Gray," said Roston. "Re- port your position and speed." "Position," responded the voice from the loudspeaker, "a hundred and twenty mile.^ north-west of Clayburn Field. Altitude four thousand. Ceiling and visibility unlimited. Air speed two nun dred and twenty-five with power for plenty more." The general sighed with relief. Roston said: " Put her up to top speed. Try for three hundred." "Yes, sir." This time there was only a brief silence before the pilot spoke again and his voice sounded jubilant. "Air speed two ninety-five," he reported, "still increasing. Two ninety-eight—now it's three hundred. Position a hundred and forty miles north-west of the field— just passed over Murray Lake. Every- thing under control." "Drop back to cruising speed immedi- ately," Roston instructed, " then climb to ten thousand feet." "Yes, sir." General Moody rubbed his hands and beamed. "This test far exceeds my most ex- travagant hopes," he said. "Mr. Field- ing, I'm sure the Government will take up the option when I make my report." "Thank you," murmured the inventor; and then Gray's voice was heard. "Go ahead. Gray," said the major. "Position a hundred and sixty miles north-west of the field—fivs miles east of Georgeville. Air speed two twenty-five. Climbing to an altitude of " That was all, except for a sound some- thing like a muffled explosion. The ixjwer-receiver in the plane had fused with a flash that blinded the pilot temporarily, and the machine was falling to earth. The operator in the control-room examined the set. The general diew a long breath through his teeth. The colonel grasped the back of the chair beside which he was standing. Fielding gulped. "Roston calling Gray!" said Roston frantically into the wireless telephone. "Roston calling Gray! Come in, please!" Over and over again he repeated it, but the loud speaker was silent. "Nothing wrong with the set, sir," an- nounced the operator haskily, and Roston sprang up from the table and thrust the telephone into his hand. "Here, you take over!" he rapped. "I'm going out to look for him." "Perhaps," suggested Colonel Whalen. "it's lust the radio " "We can't take that chance!" Roston rushed out from the room to an open hangar. Fielding said .shakily, after he had gone: "It can't be the motor." "Let's hope it's only his radio went out," gulped the general. Monotonously, and in vain, the operator was calling and calling to a pilot who was dead: "Clayburn Field calling Lieutenant Gray!" A lieutenant named Carson was stand- ing outside the hangar when Roston reached it. Members of the ground staff came running to see what was wrong. "Get my plane on the line, lieutenant, and warm it up!" cried Roston; and while Novcmher 4lh, 1030 BOY'S CINEMA his orders were being obeyed he raced away to the pilots'-room to fling off his jacket and cap and to put on a leather jerkin and crash-helmet. The operator in the control-room was still calling Lieutenant Gray when the major scram.bled into the cockpit of a standard bomber and took off across the field; and the operator was still calling, twenty minutes later, when a voice from the loud-speaker startled the officers and the inventor. "Roston calling Clayburn Field," it said. "Any word from Lieutenant Gray?" "No, sir," the operator repUed dismally; "but we're still trying." "Keep trying!" A hundred and sixty miles north-west of the field, and five miles east of George- ville, in Vermont, Major Roston flew low in his bombing machine, circled over Open country, and kept looking down. At last he sighted a crumpled mass of metal, half-hidden by a clump of bushes in a field, and he spoke into his own wireless telephone. "Roston calling Clayburn Field. Roston calling Clayburn Field. Come in, please!" "Clayburn Field to Major Roston," re- sponded the voice of the operator. "Go ahead, sir!" "Gray cracked up. Just sighted wreck- age five miles east of Georgeville. I'm going to land." General Moody and Colonel Whalen looked at one another in consternation. Fielding bowed his head. "I can't understand it," he muttered. "Everything was going so smoothly. I— I " "Have the ambulance ship and salvage crew take off at once," said the general. Major Roston landed skilfully on the rough gra.ssland within a hundred feet of the wrecked machine, and went over to it He pushed back the bent and broken hood, and he looked down at the dead body of Lieutenant Gray slumped in the cockpit. THE QIRL ON THE TRAIN THE fused power-receiver of the elec- trically driven plane was lying, next morning, on General Moody's desk in his room at the War Department in Washing- ton. The general put down an expert's report and pushed back his chair. Colonel Whalen was standing at one end of the desk with folded arms, and Major Roston was standing beside him with a very grim expression on his strong and determined face. "So you see, gentlemen," Rc^ton gritted, "the failure of the flight and the death of Lieutenant Gray were not due to any flaw in Fielding's invention, but to sabotage!" "Yes, but how?" demanded the general. "And why?" "How, I don't know," returned Roston. "But why, I do. Somebody wanted that test to fail. Somebody wants us to turn down the invention." "And that's probably just what will happen," said the general. "I'd have a hard job convincing this department to buy it now." "But. general, we still have flfteen days to go before our option expires. In that time a new .power-receiver can be built and installed in another plane and another test flight made." General Moody looked dubious. "Are you sure you can make it in that timp?" he asked. "I'm quite sure," declared Roston. "I've talked with Fielding, and he's willing to work both day and night." "What's going to prevent more sabotage?" It was Colonel Whalen who answered that question. "I'll guarantee there'll be no inter- ference with Fielding, or the mechanics, this time," he stated positively. "I'll arrange to have living quarters for them at the airport, and every man wiM be closely watched. Once they're in no one Every Tuesday will be allowed to enter or leave th§ hangar." "Oh, that's fine!" approved the general. "And," added Whalen, "I'm going to put my men to work immediately running down those responsible for this." He unfolded his arms to point to the ruined power-receiver, and the colonel nodded. But Roston was not by any means satisfied. "That's all right, colonel, as far as it goes," he said, "but I've given a lot of thought to this abominable business. It will be a long process to track down those who are guilty from the evidence we have here." Whalen said he agreed it was not going to be easy, and Roston turned to the general. "Suppose you place the responsibility for the failure of the flight and the death of the pilot on my shoulders?" he sug- gested. Whalen nodded slightly, but the general looked astounded. "What are you driving at?" he ex- claimed. "If I am court-martialled, and thrown out of the service with the suspicion of treason," explained Roston quite calmly, "I'll be a natural come-on for anybody that's interested in the invention." "Fantastic, Roston!" objected the general; but on reflection he began to see possibilities in the idea. "It's very generous of you, but I'm afraid it's more than we can ask." "Nevertheless, I'm volunteering to do it, sir." "I thought you were so wrapped up in this invention?" "I am," said Roston, "and that's why I want to protect it." "It's a great idea, major," approved Whalen, "but what'll we tell Fielding?" "I'll handle that," decided the general. "I'll assign Major Evans to work with him in place of Roston. You like the idea, colonel?" "It sounds good to me," was the unhesi- tating reply. "Very ♦well." The general smiled at Roston. "I'll attend to the details of your court-martial and arrange for your dis- charge from the service. Incidentally, I'll notify the papers." "That's very important," said Roston. "And there's one thing more, major, of which I hope you're aware. Whatever difficulties you may encounter you mustn't expect this department to come openly to your assistance. And be certain that you do not involve our Government in any embarrassing international situation." "I understand that perfectly, sir" Roston averred. The general wished him luck; the colonel said warmly: "Call upon me, major, whenever you need me." "I'll do that," promised Roston, with a grin. The court-martial was held on the fol- lowing afternoon, and the fact that it was a farce was known only to those who took part in it. Major Roston was discharged from the Army, and the next day's news- papers carried front-page stories of his disgrace.' It was stated that he was leaving for New York, but had no plans for the future. Roston had communicated that last statement to the reporters who beseiged him after the result of the court martial was made known, and in accordance with it he boarded a train for New York late in the afternoon. He was dressed in a dark, double- breasted lounge suit, and he wore a snap- brimmed soft felt hat. He carried a heavy leather bag and a suitcase into the compartment he had reserved, scorning the proffered aid of a negro porter; he deposited the hat on a rack, and he settled down in a corner with a newspaper he had bought at the station. The landscape became shrouded in dark- ness after the city of Wilmington had