Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

52 them,-waiting for an opportunity to slip out and attack. As the Scarlet Stormer sped back toward the transport with three gray planes in pursuit, Sandy’s finger clamped down on the firing trip of the rapid-fire gun. The big transport bucked and trembled as he fired burst after burst toward the three gray planes. They were too far away for effective shooting and they followed Shorty only to a cer- tain point. They had tasted Sandy’s marksmanship the day before and evi- dently had orders to stay out of his range of fire. As Shorty swung around in a chan- delle his blue eyes were gleaming with that recklessness that always rode. with him when he rode close to death. He tore the formation of the three planes apart as they dived and zoomed. and rolled to get out of the path of the mad man that turned neither to right or left, his guns belching death. As the three planes whirled to pounce on him he flipped over like a hawk and shot across their rear. His fingers clamped down on his triggers as he caught one of them under his hair sights. The burst of fire lasted a mere second and a half, but his aim was deadly. The plane slipped off on one wing and be- gan to flutter downward, half out of control as the pilot fought desperately BILL BARNES to bring it to an even keel. Red Gleason was riding his ship with the same reckless abandon characteris- tic of Shorty. He followed a gray plane as it pulled steeply up into the sky, went over in a half loop, rolled mght side up and came tearing back at him with guns chattering. Bullets ripped through the starboard wing of his Snorter. He pushed his stick forward and went into a dive. He felt his machine shudder and tremble as the bullets from the gray plane drove through his tail surfaces. The next second he jerked his stick back into his stomach and zoomed ver- tically in the sky and over on his back. Neutralizing his controls, he opened the throttle and was on the gray plane’s tail. Hanging head downward, he lined up the enemy ship in his hair sights and tripped his guns. Fire and smoke belched from the biplane’s en- gine housing as Red went by it. He threw the stick to the left, rolled right side up and came around in a swirling, vertical bank. He held his fire as the gray plane became a whirling ball of red smoke plunging to its death. Bill saw Cy Hawkins flash over in a dazzling inverted loop to come up under the tail of one of the planes that had held him in a cross fire. As Cy’s guns poured lead and tracers at the enemy ship two more planes dove on him from above. Their tracers and lead smashed into the Snorter’s engine. A savage curse ripped from Bill’s lips as he saw clouds of black smoke and orange flame pour from Cy’s engine housing. He swung the transport around in a sweep- ing turn and switched on the radiophone. sonorty- and Red! “he. shouted. “Stick close to me. Cy’s been hit. His plane has caught fire. I think he’s go- ing to bail out. Stick beside him and protect him on his way down. There he goes |” The flaming fuselage of Cy’s Snorter was whirling earthward when something shot out of the cockpit to go tumbling oO Corl) Ghook CO