Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 107: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AIR ADVENTURER you? Come on over and say a few words to your public. | “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Harper has probably hurt his foot or pulled a ‘tendon or something and is now going into the office to look after it. Some- thing must be wrong as there is a frown on his usually smiling face. However, it can’t be very serious and, as soon as Fearless Freddie comes out of the of- fice again, we will have him come over to the microphone and say a _ few words to you. I know you will all want to hear from him when I tell you that this was Freddie’s last jump here. “Whether he intends to leave us en- tirely and go to another field or whether he intends to remain here just taking care of his parachute-service station and leaving out these exhibition jumps, I do not know. All I know is that he has been saying—uh—around here—uh—_~ that this would be his last jump here. We may get him to tell us himself just what his plans are, so don’t go away. In the meantime, we still have two seats left in the Skylark you see here in front of you on the line, waiting to take off for a sight-seeing trip over beautiful green——” But Harper was inside the operations office breathing a deep sigh as he turned away from the closed door that shut out the rest of the monologue and the sound of the applause that he once loved to hear. It also effectively halted the annoying group that had been tagging along after him. He placed both his parachutes on the floor behind one of the two wooden railings that made an aisle through the middle of the office. EGERTON, the field manager, was alone in the office except for a girl clerk typing near a window. Harper returned the girl’s smiling greeting with a curt nod. Egerton was talking into a tele- phone on his desk. “N-no-o. No-o,” he was - saying slowly. ‘‘Y-yes, perfectly safe. Wasn’t 105 hurt a bit. N-no, nothing. Ha, ha! Yes. That’s all right. Good-by.” He hung up and, having watched Harper come in, turned to the parachutist. “That’s a good one. Party called up from over Lincolnsville way and wanted to know who the poor fellow was who just got killed jumping out of an air-‘ plane. Saw you falling into the valley but couldn’t see any ‘chute opening. And that’s the second one that called about the same thing. Say, whatcha been doing out there, young feller? 1 should have been watching. I think I'll just run out and see how they’re all taking it.” He pushed his chair back from the desk and started to go out. His hand grasped the doorknob just as the tele- phone rang again. “Hah! Another one, I’ll bet. You answer it, Freddie, and tell them that it was you and you're not killed or hurt.’ He went out. The phone kept ringing. Harper no- ticed a frown of perturbation beginning to appear on the girl’s face. He walked to Egerton’s desk, picked up the re- ceiver, said “hello’’ mechanically into the mouthpiece, and waited. : He heard a-voice, a tremulous femi- nine voice, saying, ‘Hello, is this Snowden Field?” It was a voice that he recognized! His own voice was husky with a sud- den nameless emotion as he answered, ‘““Y-y-yes. Wh-what is it, please?” The voice said haltingly: “I—I want to find out—about—Freddie—Mr. Har- per—Freddie Harper. Is he—is he— all right ?” “Why-why, er—who is this calling, please?’ Harper asked. This time he intentionally kept his voice husky. The voice at the other end became frantically insistent. “O-oh, tell me— please! Why don’t you tell me? Is he —is Freddie—hurt ?” Harper perhaps could not have ex- plained his reasons—he probably did oO CON) Ghook CO