Part 12 (2/2)
Perhaps it was one of those freak things of war, or perhaps the Gods were truly s upon Dave Dawson and Freddy Far Arado, and a moment later Dave hauled the shi+p out of its ian lines But before he had traveled more than a couple of un fire behind him And this time there was more to it than just the sound!
The Arado suddenly bucked and quivered as though it had been siant of the skies The vicious movement of the plane tore Dave's hands fro him over so hard he cracked his head on the cockpit rim and saw stars for a brief instant or so Then as his senses cleared again and he grabbed hold of the controls once hed and sputtered and shot out a cloud of black smokeand died cold
Realization and action were one for Dave, and so the first thing he did was to yank back the throttle and cut off the ignition When that was done he shoved the nose down and peered hopefully at the ground no roan of despair rose out of his throat to spill off his lips He couldn't see a sh for a fly to sit down on True there were lots of fields, but they were pock marked from one end to the other with shell and boht possibly land without crashi+ng too badly But crash he would That was certain There was nothing to do but try itand pray!
”A crash co, Freddy!” he yelled back over his shoulder ”Hold everything, and hang on hard!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
_Fighting Hearts_
As Dave glided the crippled Arado doard the boers of fear were curled tightly about his heart He hadcareer, but they had been like setting down a plane on a gigantic billiard table compared to the task he now faced If he under-shot the patch of ground he was aiian artillery guns hurling shells across the Albert Canal into the on-rushi+ng German hordes And if he over-shot the field or swerved toointo a maze of shell blasted tree stumps which would tear the plane to shreds and snuff out his life, and Freddy's, as easily as one snuffs out the fla the field in the center and checking the forward roll of the plane so that when it did slide over and down into one of the bomb craters the crash impact wouldn't be too violent In his heart he knew that he stood but one chance in a thousand of co out of the crash uninjured But there was no other way out, the die had been cast The engine had been hit and was dead There was only one way to go, and that was down
On impulse he jerked his head around and looked back It seeh he had not heard Freddy's voice in a year or ht? Had he been hit, and was that why he had not spoken? In the brief instant it took to jerk his head around and look back, Dave died a hundred agonizing deaths
Luck, however, was still riding the cockpits with thelish youth was still alive, and very rin even though his face hite, and there was a sort of glazed, glassy look in his eyes Being a pilot, himself, Freddy knew exactly what it was all about He had sense enough not to try any back seat driving in the e in his friend's judgment He sat perfectly still in the seat, his arms half raised and ready to throw them across his face when they hit in order to protect hi his faith in Dave by the tight grin on his lips That realization gave Dave new courage as he turned front again
The ground was just under his wheels, now He would not under-shoot the field, nor would he over-shoot it either He had proved his flying skill thus far The rest waswas in the lap of the Gods!
Ten feet off! Nine feet, eightsevensix! He was hugging the Dep wheel now all the way back against his sto the nose up just a few more inches before the shi+p stalled and dropped His whole body sensed that s was absolutely nil He sensed it now and instantly let go of the stick, buried his head in his aro li years, the Arado see motionless in the air Then suddenly it dropped belly first like a rock The wheels hit hard and the shi+p was bounced back up into the air again It hit again, and bounced again It hit onceand send the shi+p plunging crazily off to the right He jammed hard on the left rudder to counteract the e German bomb crater in the way The plane slithered over the lip of the crater and charged dizzily doard
Memory of a wild ride on a Coney Island roller coaster streaked through Dave's brain And then the plane careened up on its side, and half up on its nose It swayed there with its tail pointing up at the sky It twisted twice around and then fell over on its back with a jarring thud
An invisible giant reached out a fist and punched Dave hard on the chest The air in his lungs whistled out through his hts whirled around in his brain, and the entire universe was filled with roaring, crashi+ng thunder
The spell passed in ahead doard on his safety harness His first thought was for Freddy, and he struggled to twist around and look back, but he couldn'tvoice ”Are you all right?”
A heart chilling instant of silence greeted his question, and then came Freddy's faint reply
”Not hurt a bit, Dave! But the blasted safety harness broke, and I'ive hed hysterically, and tore at his safety belt buckles He got therabbed hold of the sides of the cockpit before he went plunging down into the muddy bottom of the bomb crater, himself He twisted over and landed feet first It was then he had his first look at Freddy The English lad was plopped down on the seat of his pants in a good eight inches of mud And there was mud from the top of his head all the way down He had obviously landed square on his head but had ed to squirm around and sit up before the sticky yellow ooze suffocated hi the stuff off his face so he could see
Dave plowed around to hiht hi up out of thea cork fro onto hi and hauled and tugged the a handkerchief fro off Freddy's face
”Boy, do you look a sight, Freddy!” he chuckled Then in a more serious tone, ”I'uess I thought I was too good I should have let you do the flying”
Freddy snorted and squinted at hirief, they can't fly any better than that in the RAF, Dave I thought sure we'd both be killed And neither of us has so much as a scratch You couldn't have done it any better, Dave Honest!”