Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

24 BILL BARNES It came to him that he must find out about those things. Was Virgil Wyn- dam still alive? No. That couldn’t be true because the Germans had dropped notice of his death. It was something else. He got up and began to pace back and forth across his room. He stopped when Bill came into the room. But he had made his decision. “Sandy said "DILL -StOppea as Shorty pointed at the papers on his desk. They both bent over them. There was a crudely drawn map of Madagascar with markings that showed where Virgil Wyndam’s property was located. There was a deed to several thousand hectares of land in Virgil Wyndam’s name and a half dozen other papers showing the location of the min- erals on the land. “It looks,” Bull said, ‘as though he had everything from gold to potash on the property. Does this stuff bring any- thing to mind you couldn’t remember before?” “Everything,” Shorty said quietly. “They bring back a lot of things I didn’t want to remember. Everything he told me about the place is written in his notes.” “Anything that makes a link between the man who tried to kifl you last night and the Wyndams?”’ =O, ~ onorty. said. Phats still a mystery to me. But I’ve got to solve it, Bill.’ He stopped talking and walked to a window and gazed out on Barnes Field for a couple of minutes. When he turned back to look at Bull his face was hard and set. “T’ve got to leave you, Bill,” he said. “There’s no other way. I’ve got to know what this is all about.” “eave ime! Bill-said:- “You- mean leave the organization?” “That's what ] mean; Bilk’ Shorty said, evenly. “I’ve got to know. Those papers bring back memories that have haunted me ever since the War. I’ve got to know.” Bill gazed at Shorty with an expres- sion beyond description. “You can’t do that, Shorty,’’ Bill said. “Why, I wouldn’t know how to get along without you. Why, I-—I re No words came to him that would adequately describe his consternation. He made funny grasping motions with his fingers. Shorty’s face was lined and haggard now. He shook his head. “T’ve got to go, Bill,” he said. “You see, Wyndam saved my life that morn- ing. I’d never have got home alive either if it hadn’t been for him. And I’ve always had the idea that perhaps I killed him.. I had a couple of Huns on my tail and he drove ’em off. When I got one under my sights I started to let him have it just as the major came across my guns. He had to land a few minutes later, and he died before I found out whether my bullets had got him. “He gave me these papers that morn- ing, before he died. If I hadn’t for- gotten them perhaps young Dick wouldn’t have disappeared. I don't know why he disappeared or how but I’ve got to find out. I feel responsible in a way. I’ve got to square my own conscience. [ don’t know what I'll find but I’m going to Madagascar. The ma- jor’s father and mother were almost like my own father and mother. They’re both dying with broken hearts. It’s up to me to do what I can.” Bill Barnes didn’t say anything for a moment. He turned the things Shorty had said over and over in his mind. He understood the way Shorty felt about the thing. Yet, he didn’t see what Shorty could do. But this isn’t the kind of thing you stop to reason out, he thought. It’s one of those things where you do what you think you ought to do. Suddenly, he stuck his hand out. And he was smiling in a way that Shorty understood. “All right, fella,” he said. ‘You're going. But so am I! We'll go over oO COMIC OO S CO