The Ghost of Mystery Airport

ick clung to Garry's stea

rom the others by a phosphorescent glow: it was lumin

lent, gliding, dark

as very much like the mental pictures he had visualized after he had listened

planation flashe

a reliev

l, dark cockpit seat, "the gho

agreed Scott

rds died as he saw that they were no

lane, a lightly-built and fast-moving craft

said Garry,

right," agreed Chic

its approach, silent but genuine a

you can see for yourself that every scare that seems to be

y. "The darkness, and the swamp, and all the talk made m

ow the ghost appeared. But it turns out to be Don in the Dart, coming down out of the sky just w

ms, "I don't think the first crack-up hap

argued

wn, across the marsh, dropping lower, leveling of

to break himself of his timidity before it interfered with his rapid progress. Alone in his uncle's Dart, he had made practice take-offs and landings in every sort of weather and under all imaginable conditions, until he was so sure of his ship that he had no uneasiness about setting down. He realized that the modern air

st speed and Don maneuvered it to a point close alongside the larger craft and with his own wings just a littl

hers. "Did I give you a solution

admitted. "Chick thought yo

ome chance ship, lighted up by a flash of s

a statement he had been about to make before the Dart came down.

e in Chick, gloomily.

n reading up on ghosts, and talking to some of the 'old i

," he stated, "a flyer was over this swamp, on just about this sort of night," he indicated the clustered, slow-moving, fleecy groups of clouds, some assuming t

his uneasiness and the gloomy, s

e told him by an old man who earned his meagre living with a clam-hoe and bucket; at the s

As old Ike tells it, he heard the engines, looked up, saw one ship

completed his story quickly, after admitting that

Devil's Sink." He referred to a portion of the marsh either of the quicksan

eton, there!" Chick shivered

ay

ears ago and the excitement that has gotten into some of the newspap

er books of the Society for Psychica

oo dull and prosy for me. Just old stories collected by scientifi

decide?" Chic

ot of the dry 'case-histories' and I firmly believe that if somebody

Scott. I believe, in every case, if you could get to the bottom of it you'd find that th

were the sky spoo

ong through the clouds where he couldn't see ahead far enough to be able to avoid other ships-and he may have caused the other ship to go do

t proved-"

serious. "You didn't prove that any ship was near at the

k-up, by saying a spook put him out of control. The rest were all superstitious and the story got headway. The next pilot to see a flicker of Summer ligh

on find out," Sco

others clamored

they claimed to see the ghost of an airplane coming out of luminous

ll find that the spook has appeared every seven days

red Chick, across the narrow

m of light from the control room search-lamp would strike a cloud every seventh night and four successive weeks. Besides, it isn'

coming. Then he goes up into another cloud and is lost, and because of the first fib the pilot told to protect

om Uncle," Don asserted. "Uncle has several people he can name who are

if we go up, scouting, that person wil

airline to contract for space for its ships, servicing and all that, take-off and landing, and fuel and oil. It will mean a lot to him not to lose th

urged Chick, fired by the realistic explanation

Guard!" sugg

'plane-it's due soon-let Garry send over a green flare if it's in the air, or have Chick fire a red Verey if it goes up off the earth or water-and you go around o

gonfly, and let Don fly the

ting system-and he might try to scare up a little excitement for us, as he'd suppose. Then, if Don flew the Dart, taking off first, to surprise him, the 'spook' might do stunts and I'd rather be the one to handle the Dart in the night time if

easoning and agreed to abid

nfly was

e carefully to avoid unnecessary air disturbance as he drove away from the Dart, and then got his pont

e had no belief in supernatural things. This would be a chase against a human enemy of Bruce McLeo

y belt with a little tremble of his fi

ition was