Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

AIR ADVENTURER rolled off on the deck. I got him a few minutes later when I heard him move.” Bill rolled the man over. There was a small, neat hole just between his eyes. He had been killed instantly. “Any of you ever seen him before?” Bill asked. There was a slow dissenting shake of the head from each of them. Shorty studied the man from every angle. Then he walked over to his secretary and examined the papers the man had pulled out of the pigeon holes. They were just bills and a collection of private corres- pondence. Nothing that would be of any value to any one but himself. BILL was making a systematic search of the man’s pockets without disturbing the body more than necessary. An ex- clamation burst from his lips as he held two sheets of paper toward Shorty. “Here’s a letter I found in his pocket that is addressed to you,” he said. Shorty took it and stared at it stupidly for a moment. “Get Tony Lamport on the telephone and tell him to send Dr. Humphrey and a couple of men with a litter over here. And tell him to call the police,”. Bill said to Sandy. Sandy dialed a number and spoke to Tony Lamport, the chief radio man on Barnes Field. When he hung up the phone Shorty was still staring at the letter. Bill Barnes stood up and swept the room with his glance. Then, with his characteristic decisiveness, he spoke to Shorty again. “Bring that letter along and come on over to my quarters for a few minutes before the police arrive. The rest of you had better stick here and see that nothing is touched until they come.” For once in his life young Sandy was silent as Shorty passed him. reached out his hand and gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. Shorty thanked him with a grin. But he 19 When Bill and Shorty were seated in Bill’s rooms and Shorty had lighted a cigarette they both gazed at the letter Shorty still held in his hand. | ‘“What’s the tie-up between that let- ter and the man you shot?” Bill asked slowly. “You tell me,’ Shorty answered. doesn’t make sense. I can’t link them up. You didn’t find anything that would give you any idea as to the man’s identity when you went through his clothes ?” “Nothing,” Bill said. ‘Clean as a whistle. No identification on his clothes that I could find. Maybe the police’ll have better luck. Who was that letter from?” Shorty frowned and shook his head from side to side. ; “It’s from the father and mother of an old friend of mine. I meant to show it to you. It came this morning and I didn’t have a chance to talk to you be- fore J] left for New York. I was puz- zled by the letter. The son of the man who wrote it was my O. C. while I was attached to the Royal Flying Corps dur- ing the War. He was shot down dur- ing a battle behind the German lines. I was with him at the time. I had been home with him a couple of times on leave. We were great pals. But read it. That'll give you more of an idea. The ‘Dick’ mentioned in the letter was the younger brother of Virgil Wyndam, my O. C. I’ve visited them a couple of times since the War and we car- respond at intervals.” A shadow of pain flickered in Shorty’s eyes as he remembered Major Virgil Wyndam, his kid brother Dick and his father and mother. Seventeen years ago he had said good-by to the major. Bill took the letter and read it. DEAR SHORTY: . I hope we will not startle you, since. so many months have lapsed between our letters. We have read in our English oO CON) Ghook CO