Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday Murder in the air! Somebody had put live cartridges in a machine gun instead of blanks! Who did it 7 Another thrilling Tailspin Tommy story, with John Trent as the star THE CRASH THE Three Point airfield was a scene of activity. A couple of film cameramen were setting up their apparatus, and in one corner several men were busy with an anti-aircraft Run. . ^ ,o Paul Smith, manager of the an-field. strode out of his office and looked around. He saw, standing a short distance away, a girl. She was dressed in the uniform of an air-liner hostess. He walked over to her. " Hallo. Betty Lou!" he said. " I thought vou weren't going to watch this." Bettv Lou was looking anxious. "I just couldn't stay away," she answered. Paul Smith laughed shortly. He was feeling somewhat anxious himself. " Sheenan is certainly putting on a show for them," he commented. At that moment Sheenan's voice cut through the air. Sheenan was a film director, and he was at Three Point for the purpose of making a war film. "Switch over to your six-inch lenses." he shouted at the cameramen. " Get ready for the aerobatics, and no matter what happens, keep that camera going!" " Okay!" came the reply. Sheerian turned to his assistant director. "Glenn, signal Tommy to get ready for the altitude dive. Tell him to go up good and high." He turned round. "All ready with that gun, Charlie?" "All ready, Mr. Sheenan." "Fine! Now, understand this, every- body. Tommy is going to climb to four thousand feet and stunt above the gun. The gun will fire with fuses shortened to three thousand five hundred feet." "Three thousand five hundred it is," called out one of the men on the gun. " That gives Tommy five hundred feet of safety. Glenn, what is the signal for the gun to open up?" "Tommy's going to dip his right wing when he's got his altitude," the assistant director replied. "I'll give him a wave of the flag when we're ready. He's going to circle once, then do his stuff when the first shell bursts." "Does everybody understand all that?" Sheenan shouted. There was a chorus of assent. Betty Lou clutched Paul Smith by the arm. " Paul, I'm scared," she whispered. Paul patted her shoulder. "Tommy'll be all right," he said, and hoped he spoke reassuringly. Betty Lou shook her head. She liked Tommy more than she dared admit, and hated him having to risk his life in this way. True, he was being well paid. They all were, and they needed the money desperately. But this stunting for a film seemed the wrong way of earning it. She stared upwards. Far above her a single-seater monoplane roared into a climb. She told herself that she had nothing to worry about. Tommy—^Tailspin Tommy— was one of the most famous and most skil- ful pilots living. He was perfectly all right. Then she looked across the airfield at the gun. Supposing Tommy came below four thousand feet? Supposing someone made a mistake when setting the fuses of the shells? "Stand by at the camera!" yelled Sheenan. Betty Lou looked up again. Tommy was dipping his right wing. "That's the signal," Sheenan went on. "Roll it!" The camera began to turn. A second later the gun roared, its report echoing loudly across the field, making Betty Lou BOY'S CINEMA jump. She saw the shell burst high up, and Tommy made a circle turn and then began to stunt. He dodged this way and that, as though trying to avoid the fire from the anti-air- craft gun. "Pump it into him. Charlie!" roared Sheenan. The gun thundered again and again. Tommy twisted and turned as puffs of smoke from the bursting shells dotted the sky. Betty Lou shuddered. "He's taking awful chances. Paul." she said. "He's all right," Paul said. "He's " He broke off suddenly as a gasp went up. Tommy's plane had gone into a sickening spin, and had come well within the range of the gun. "He's out of control!" somebody shouted. The plane hurtled towards the earth with startling speed, whirling round and round like a huge falling leaf. " He's going to crash!" yelled Sheenan. "Keep that camera rolling!" He spoke excitedly. His tone suggested that he did not care a hang what happened to Tommy so long as he got his pictures. " Don't miss a single detail!" An awful silence settled over the field. The man at the gun had given the order to cease firing, and nothing could be heard except the screaming of the wind through the plane's wires. At once a self-starter screeched, and an ambulance tore across the field towards where the plane would crash. Suddenly, at the last minute. Tommy managed to get the machine out of the spin. While yet only a few hundred feet above the earth, he manoeuvred on to an even keel and started to pull out of the dive. But it was too late. The plane was mov- ing at a terrific speed. The wheels touched, and Tpmmy strove desperately in that last split-second to keep his tail down. The machine bounced, rose twenty feet into the air again, then buried its nose into the soft dirt. The tail hovered for a moment, then the plane turned completely over. Men from the crash wagon leapt down and ran. They reached into the cockpit and pulled Torhmy out bodily, afraid that any second the petrol tank would explode. By a miracle it didn't, and they got Tommy clear. A few seconds later Bett\- Lou rushed up. Tommy was lying on a stretcher, his eyes closed. Betty Lou knelt down beside him. " Tommy!" she cried. " Tommy!" Tommy stirred. Sheenan rushed up and saw that he was only stunned. "Tommy, that was great—tenificl" the film director said enthusiastically. "And we got every foot of it. Why. i: was even better than I expected! ' Betty Lou tried to push Sheenan away. "Please, Mr. Sheenan, not now." she said. "Tommy is in need of rest." But Tommy had opened his eyes by then, and was trying to sit up. There was something rather grim in the way he looked at Sheenan. "Just a minute, Betty Lou." he said. '•Mr. Sheenan, were vou hoping I'd crack up?" Sheenan laughed gently. "Well, accidents will happen." he said. "And I can always use a good thrill." ■'I see." Tommy muttered, and with the help of Betty Loii got to his feet. Paul Smith also went to his aid. Paul Smith said: " Are you feeling all right now. Tommy?" "He's got to see a doctor," said Betty Lou. Tomm^- did not hear her. He v%ras stand- ing there between the two of them, still looking at Sheenan. "It seems I've been a chump," he said slowly, half to himself. "Sheenan wanted me to crack!" Sheenan heard, and tried to laugh it off. "Don't take any notice of wliat I said. Tommy," he broke in. "I suppose I got a little, too excited." Paul Smith was looking hai'd at Sheenan now. too. "What happened up there, Tommy?" he asked. Octolier 14th,. 103d.