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 keepfrom being thrown into a nose dive, that, unless miraculously conquered,would be likely to send them whirling down, to crash from a fivethousand foot ceiling, and thus bring about a complete writeoff.
That however was the least of Jack's worries--all he asked was theability and luck to be able to fend off threatening disaster; could thisbe 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 atthe ship being able to withstand such a horrible strain. If but a singlestrut gave way under all that pounding it would mean starting a seriesof similar mishaps such as would quickly render them incapable ofkeeping aloft; and with this threat hanging over their heads it canreadily be understood neither of the two could be in a comfortable frameof mind.
Still it is wonderful how men thus threatened will continue to carry on,although in an almost mechanical fashion, doing just the necessary thingwith each change of pace on the part of the tricky storm, and meetingsuccessfully 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 furtherthe staggering boat lifted the more dangerous became their situation forthe air was surcharged with electricity as the zigzag lightning dartedfrom cloud to cloud, doubling the chances of their frail craft beingstruck.
In fact it seemed so terrible above that he lacked the nerve to persistin the upward work, and even commenced to drop down. Perk noticing thismove, hardly knew what to make of it. He was, as he himself would haveexpressed it, "hanging on by his teeth," in order to keep his seat inthe wildly plunging airship and on finding that the bold pilot had givenup 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 glareof those repeated electrical flashes to serve as airport lights? Thatindeed would be next to admitting their case as hopeless, and that Jackwas taking such desperate chances only as a last resort.
They were zooming along all this time as if pursued by a jinx and indeedwith such weird accompaniments it would not be hard to believe thespirit of the storm took on the part of such a goblin of the air, topursue relentlessly this bold invader of the home of the arousedelements.
Perk hit the bullseye close to the center when afterwards, in describingtheir experience on this night of the great blow, he vowed they were"playing dice with death," since it seemed a bare chance that they couldever pull through alive.
Such is the life of the aviator--one hour sailing smoothly along, atpeace with all mankind, envying no man his following, and feelinghimself to be on the top of the world--the next and he may be fightingwith might and main the mad demons of the air, his life hanging in thebalance, his strength ebbing fast, and unless the little cherub aloftthat is said to be watching over each sailor, whether of the sea or thelimitless air, comes to the rescue, his fate is sealed, and anothermodern Argonaut never comes back again to the home port.
It did not seem to be any the less exciting even when they had succeededin gaining a much lower altitude; although possibly the danger fromthose thunderbolts might have been somewhat abated. Perk soon realizedthat his pilot had no intention of trying for a landing in the midst ofsuch a turmoil and confusion, which fact relieved his harried feelingsto some extent. Indeed, it would have been a mad proceeding, and almostunheard of, since hardly the slightest chance offered for the mostskillful pilot to reach the earth without disaster, such as making aground loop, and having the heavy engine bury them under its weight.
Perk endeavored to convince himself that things were a bit easier sincea lower altitude had been effected but in so doing he feared he was onlydeceiving himself--if anything at all things were even worse,--althoughthe drop might not be so far, which was small comfort, since it mustmean their complete annihilation if it befell them.
Perk had numerous spasms when he fancied something was going amiss withtheir staunch craft, although unable to decide the exact nature of theimaginary trouble. Despite all these chills, which must have been theproducts of his excitement, they managed to hold out minute afterminute, which fact gave more or less cause for renewed hope.
Jack must indeed be almost completely exhausted, and yet he refused togive up the controls, to which his hands seemed glued as though rivetedthere. Perk punched his side numbers of times, but could get nofavorable response, proving that the other deemed it too hazardous aproceeding to change possession of the stick while in the whirl of thatshrieking gale--which was indeed only another adaptation of the oldproverb "it is folly to change horses when crossing a stream."
There was no means for communication with each other, even though theymay have wished to do so, since the ear-phones had been discarded withthe donning of their slickers, and could not be put back in position,owing to the sudden bursting of the storm, and the necessity foremploying their hands in more useful pursuits.
All Perk could do was to hang on, keeping himself ready to seize holdshould his companion be suddenly compelled to release his grip throughsheer weariness--that, and keeping tabs of the weather, so as to gleanthe first favorable sign that came along, promising a let-up, or atleast a break.
Judging from the heavy rain that had come down in such a solid stream itmust 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 nevermet up with. No doubt rivers would be out of their beds long before dawnalthough that angle of the situation did not interest them in the least,since their traveling would not be interfered with a particle, if onlythe air proved inviting.
Yes, soon Perk believed he could detect a lessening of the bafflingcrosswinds that had been so trying to the pilot, keeping him continuallyon the anxious seat--then, too, it struck him the floods were growingweaker in the bargain; which two facts gave poor Perk a feeling akin tojoy in the region of his heart, such as he may have known on previousoccasions, but that must have been far down in his adventurous past.
According to their altimeter they were something like two thousand feetfrom the ground, but of course never the faintest glimpse could theysecure of what lay beneath them, so poor was the visibility, with allthat torrent of water pouring down as might a mountain cataract.
This delightful feeling grew stronger as minutes passed--at this rate hewould soon be able to influence tired Jack to renounce his frozen holdon 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 anegative shake of the head, which meant there was "nothing doing"--inother words, since the storm still raged, even though in somewhatdiminished violence, they must not be too premature, and spoil it alljust when the victory seemed about to drop into their hands.
With what Perk hoped would prove to be a last dying spurt the rain camepelting down, after which it suddenly stopped as though an unseen handaway up among the clouds, had plugged the gap, and kept any more waterfrom running out--enough was enough, surely, Perk was telling himselfwhen he made this thrilling discovery and for one he felt he had hadsufficient rain to last him the balance of that year.
So too did the wind start to diminish its force, also coming from onedirection with more constancy--some relief to Jack, that was certain,since now he could know just how to steer his turbulent craft so as tomeet the force driving against it.
Then what did Perk do but start getting his ear-phones adjusted, beingwild to hear a human voice, after all that fiendish roaring and howlingkicked up by the raging elements.
Why, already the atmosphere had cleared enough for him to catch faintglimpses of what lay beneath them--it looked as though they had come toa stretch of country where the level prairie had changed into
rougherground, with deep swales, sometimes running into quite respectableravines and there were indications of ridges ahead, which might evenprove to be fairly high, so that it would have been tempting Providencehad Jack dropped still lower, while flying blind through all thatwelter.
"Talk to me 'bout luck," the grateful Perk was saying to himself, "Inever ran 'cross anything like _this_--they told me Jack must a beenborn under a lucky star, an' now I sure b'lieves it to be the rightstuff 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 waswilling to pass up the job; whereat Perk quickly superseded him aspilot, and saw the other sink back in his cramped quarters as thoughunable to hold up his tired arms a second longer. Apparently the reliefhad come not a minute too soon, for he must have been close to the pointof utter exhaustion after so long and violent a strain.
Battered as the crate had been while the gale lashed them so madly, ithad stood up under the buffeting most amazingly and Perk would neverhave occasion to utter anything saving words of praise for the model andits makers; it must be as near perfection as aircraft are being builtthese days of man's victory over the savage forces of the air.
Setting his course in what he believed to be the proper direction Perkwaited until Jack seemed fairly well recovered, when he was pleased tosee the other take up his head harness as though he too felt thenecessity for opening up communications with his running mate, whichoutlook gratified Perk immensely.
There were many things he wished to have made clear, and besides, hefelt more than curious to learn what Jack's next move might turn out tobe--that they had drifted far from their original course went withoutsaying but a means must be found to recover the lost ground, after whichthey could take up the game again just where the sudden storm had causedsuch a diversion.
And then the moon peeped out through a break in the clouds overhead, asthough to tell them it was all over, with decent weather once more inthe offing.