The Ghost of Mystery Airport

e it

or an instant, almost let the glide become a dive; but he caught

til the youthful pilot, climbing, had gained a good thousand feet more of altitude. Then he

alf-cock that way,

insist on yelling 'wolf!' every time the sheet lightning flickers on the

ightning?" Chic

e's a stor

d better

e mail 'plane comes in. They 're inaugurating the new ship-to-shore service and you wouldn't want to be making a pass at the field jus

N

imbed

had been for a good half hour aloft, cruising to and fro

ea which had been the scene of one real mish

always appeare

! If they'd get their men out there, and start work, there'd soon be no dark place close to the airport, and the ghost would go away. Or-i

uent glide, the youth, depending on Garry and Chick for their first inkling of anything unusual, reviewed the strange mysteries which ha

d up in the swamp. It had approached, down wind, over the morass that lay where the draining project would later bring airport expansion and a cottage community. Since the full night-landing light eq

hurt and had managed to attra

rsisted in at the Inquiry Board investig

his approach to try out the new field, quietly, when a sudden glow of light in a c

in his assertion, from within the glowing clo

blurred, its outlines ghostly, its position seemingly also to shake up and down, as though either

d. "I got just the glimpse-then I dived, and of course my engine was fu

d the finishing,

come of that other 'bus, and-the

t had set down, shaken and horrified, to report seeing a simila

rmured, reflectively. "One cau

on

side-sli

rprise of Garry's order, kicked rudder to give the banked Dart, making

levated, causing the slip to the right, and Garry's consequent order meant that what

ummer lightning blotted out the specta

cloud with its own spectral glow, some phantom ship

mist he supposed, that mystical, phantasmic craft grew large-an

e instant, the strange and ghostly mirage had d

parachute-flare, self-igniting with the jerk as the 'chute opened

ct, calm, poised, staring swiftly

d still being a little dazzled by the green of the flare that had ignited almo

his bank as he glided, just when the cries first came, was n

flare of the dying electrical discharge

hat I just saw?" he muttered, inquiring of his strain

!" he shouted back

chless, sho

ly, as he reasoned it, the watching pilot had seen the light in the clouds before the green flare had

g the mail from a vessel still a hundred miles from land, the swift 'plane was seeking to prove t

the small ship that had been catapu

ck's voice

tedly, like the vision of a fantastic

ir own course, the mail 'p

oud seemed to glow with

l craft-into dark

he banked around, straightened, gave his engine full gun, elevating

Don made his ship

w disap

the cloud he dr

been devoid of any tangible object. No other ship, hiding by some miracle of skilful

e cloud t

cept for a swirl of fleecy smoke where their propeller had

almost inarticula

iv

y realized that his c

horrible, mistily glowing banks of Summer moisture, lit as if with a phantom's

silhouetted in shuddering brown against the glea

not avoid adding its own cras

not time

r was within a hundr

d his eye

ressed the nose by thro

ngs stripped off as they went under

ther impact nor blow,

ed swift

nd them-dim-silent

fallen? Or, were they but the phan

-but Don realized that

turned the nose toward Mystery Airport-baffl