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Flashes from the H I G HW AY of
Noted Explorer Pictures His Greatest Moments
"The Evil
Spirit must
leave your hands."
WHAT was my greatest thrill? You mean my greatest thrill? Let me see — um — er — the time I was nearly drowned in a coal mine? No, I think the time I was trapped in a hotel fire was a bit more of a squeak. Cracky gee, I don't know, what you would call the greatest thrill. Is it more of a thrill to look into the face of Death and get away than to have merely an exhilarating experience of discovery or witness a seeming miracle?
I have certainly had my share but I think the time I was a passenger in a plane with the fearless Nungesser, famous French ace, and the engine went dead while we were about a mile high — and we fell, and fell, and fell — Oh, man, that was a time my nerves squirmed and
twisted with suspense and racking horror.
Want to hear about that?
It happened just a month before Nungesser returned to France to make ready for that last long ride that ended in another fall of which the world will never know. A brave man was this French war bird. He had a head and a heart that never failed him while he lived. And I considered myself indeed a lucky man to be zooming skyward as his flying companion. Up and up we went. The fields spread out below in checkered squares. Long white lines stretched across the panorama showing the concrete highways. We were climbing at a very sharp angle.
The craft was small and keenly responsive to the hand of the pilot. The powerful engine radiated a quiver of life into every fiber of the structure. There was a song in the whirr of the propeller that gave me a feeling of confidence and security. Birds we were skimming through azure blue and drifting cloudlets. Suddenly the steady rhythm turned to a jerky palpitation. Instantly -the plane ceased its ascent and leveled off. I could see Nungesser trying the controls and peeking beneath the cowl. The sputtering grew worse. Then — pop-pop — and the engine was still.
I heard Nungesser mumbling something in French as he jerked away at something beyond the range of my vision.
"Trouble, we have trouble, Mr. Gable.