Sparky Ames of the Ferry Command Read online

  CHAPTER VI

  MYSTERIOUS MOSLEM

  To Mary the next lap in their long journey will always remain a blank,but the oasis at which they arrived will stand out vividly in hermemory.

  The reason for the blank was quite simple, for, as soon as they weresafely in the air, Sparky said:

  “Mary, you look tired. I know you are tough as a hickory limb andyou’ve got all kinds of grit—”

  “Oh, thanks, Sparky,” she grinned. “I’m glad you’ve got my number.”

  “Got your number!” Sparky exploded. “Of course I have and just now youneed sleep. That secret cargo of ours won’t wait and so—”

  “Sparky! Tell me what our secret cargo is,” she begged.

  “Will you stop interrupting me?” he stormed. “How do I know what it is?That’s a military secret. All I know is that China needs all the helpwe can bring her, every bit! And that this cargo of ours is of thegreatest importance. I shouldn’t wonder,” his voice dropped as if hewere afraid someone were listening, “I shouldn’t wonder if the enemyknows it’s important. I got a warning to be on my guard not an hourago, and that goes for you as well. This is a dangerous land. It’s allfull of Italians, wild natives, and even a few traitorous Frenchmenthat would sell us out for a dime or kill us just for fun.

  “And so—” He paused for breath.

  “And so—” Mary prompted.

  “Let’s see, where was I?” Sparky pulled back the stick to climb a bit.“Oh, yes! And so we’ve just got to keep right on flying. Mighty littletime for sleep. I had a dandy rest before we hit Africa. Now it’s yourturn. I’ll do this lap. You just crawl back there, roll up in yourrobe, and sleep.”

  All too willingly Mary rolled up in her robe and slept. When she awokethey were circling for a landing at one of the most fascinating spotsshe had ever known.

  Looking down upon it, as they were, from ten thousand feet, it seemed agreen carpet on an endless gray floor.

  “An oasis!” Mary whispered. “How beautiful!”

  “Yes, and I shouldn’t wonder if those dark, moving spots over there onthe grasslands were giraffes or maybe elephants.”

  “Yes, and there’s a camel caravan just coming in,” Mary exclaimed. “Howlong it is. Must be fifty camels. And the shadows seem darker than thecamels. Oh! I wish we could stay a week!”

  “Well, we can’t,” Sparky warned. “Few hours at best. Our right engineisn’t acting properly. Has to be tuned up for this desert air, I guess.That’ll give you a breathing spell. Make the most of it.”

  The camel shadows on the desert were long. The sun was almost down whenat last their plane came to rest on that long, narrow runway there inthe desert.

  Here again they found good American soldiers and mechanics. And Maryonce more found herself creating a sensation!

  “Hey, fellas!” one boy with bulging eyes shouted. “It’s a lady, a ladypilot, right out here just a mile beyond nowhere!”

  “Joe! Hey, Jerry! You! Tom!” another called. “Come and see it. We gotlions an’ elephants, zebras, giraffes, and aardvarks, but this one isdifferent! Come a-running! See if you can name it.” He looked at Maryand laughed happily.

  They were grand boys, all of them, and those who were not on dutyshowed her the time of her life. They hurried her off to mess wherethey feasted her on ripe figs, bananas, strawberries, and all manner ofAfrican delicacies.

  Then one of them said, “Come on! We’ll show you something you’ll neverforget.”

  “How long will it take?” she demurred.

  “Only an hour or two.”

  “I’ll have to ask Sparky about that.”

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  _Mary Found Herself Creating a Sensation_]

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  She found Sparky perspiring and covered with grease as he worked withthe mechanics tuning up the engine.

  “Two hours,” was his short reply. “Be back in two hours if you want tofly with me.”

  “We’ll be back in an hour!” a boy from Indiana exclaimed.

  “Sure! Sure!” they all agreed. “Come on. What are we waiting for? Let’sgo.”

  And so away they all marched to the shelter where the jeeps were kept.

  It was while on this march that Mary received a sudden shock. As theyhurried along, they met a woman dressed as a Moslem woman always is.She wore a long, flowing robe and her face, save for her eyes, wascovered with a veil. Yet there seemed to be something very familiarabout the tall, erect figure and the brisk, springing walk.

  “Jeepers! I never saw her before!” a boy whispered.

  At the same time Mary was thinking. “I must have seen her somewhere.But how could I—”

  Just then the dark eyes shining out from behind the veil gave her asharp, penetrating look. In her shock Mary stumbled and nearly fell.

  “Can she be the woman who asked me questions in that eating place, wayback there in the little city by the sea?” she asked herself. And then,“How could it be?”

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, stopping short. “I can’t go with you boys. I mustnot!”

  “Aw, come on!” a boy from Texas begged. “You’ll never see a thing likeit again.”

  “We won’t be gone an hour.”

  “Sure! Sure! You must come!”

  They were such nice boys and she knew so well what it must mean to beescorting a real American girl in such a place, that she yielded andcame along.

  “And yet, I shouldn’t do it,” she told herself.

  Before they were gone she received a second shock. Just as they wereall piling into the car, a small man and a camel came shambling downthe road.

  “Can he be the little man I saw at the port?” she asked herself. Itgave her a shock to think that this little man and the woman in blackhad somehow made their way here before them. This thought, as far asthe little man was concerned, was short-lived. When he had come closershe saw that he was shorter than the other man, that his face wasrounder, and there was a scar across his left cheek. She heaved a sighon making this discovery, but her relief was not to be of long duration.

  And so they rattled away, nine boys and a lady, the first they had seenin many a day.

  “I shouldn’t have come,” Mary whispered to herself once again. Had shebut known it, she was to be thinking that very thought hours later, andwith regrets.

  Darkness had come. Switching on the lights, they went bumping over thesand ridges.

  “Rides just like that big ship of yours, doesn’t it?” said the boy fromKentucky.

  “Exactly,” said Mary, giggling like a kid. She was happy but somesprite seemed to whisper, “Not for long.”

  After rattling along for a while with the lights on, they snapped thelights off, but rattled straight on.

  A dark bulk loomed up before them. Shutting off the gas, they, all butthe driver, piled out and began to push.

  “Such crazy business,” Mary whispered.

  “Wait and see,” came back to her.

  At last they came to a halt. The dark bulk was closer now. Mary madeout the forms of palm trees. One of the boys was dragging something.Strange sounds came from before them, low grunts, splashes, then a loudtrumpet-like sound that made Mary jump.

  “Say! What is this?” she whispered.

  Someone snapped on a spot light connected by a wire to the car. Thenshe knew, for there before her, like a set in a museum was a water holeand in the water, belly-deep, stood all manner of creatures, uglyrhinoceros, graceful gazelles, ungainly giraffes, huge elephants andwho could say what else.

  “Are they really alive?” she asked in an awed whisper.

  “Sure! What do you think?” The boy at her side laughed. “We got ’emtrained now. You should have seen ’em the first time!”

  “Yes, an’ heard ’em,” another laughed low. “They spilled all the watergetting out.” br />
  “It’s about all the fun we have way out here,” one boy added with atouch of sorrow. “Oh, gee! Why don’t you stay with us?”

  “I’d love to,” said Mary, “but I’ve got a job to do. There’s a war on,you know.”

  “And don’t we know it,” the boy whispered. “One night we were bombed.Two boys were killed and three went to the hospital. Gee! Just think ofdying way out here!”

  Mary was thinking.

  By and by she whispered, “We’d better go back.”

  Without a word they turned about to go shuffling back to the car.“Thanks a lot for coming with us,” one of the boys shouted when theyunloaded at the airport.

  “Sure! Sure!” they shouted. “Hope you come this way again!”

  “I’ll be seeing you,” she called. Then with a lump in her throat shewalked to the plane where the men were just replacing the motor.

  Did she see a shadow dart away from the other wing of the plane? It wastoo dark really to know. “Probably a sneaking old jackal,” she toldherself.

  “Sparky,” she said as they soared aloft some time later, “I’m going toresign from this job of mine.”

  “And then what?” Sparky asked in surprise.

  “Then I’m going from place to place in all these lonely spots cheeringup the boys.”

  “That,” said Sparky, “would be a noble purpose, but just now you’rebound to this big plane and me. And you’ll not leave us for a longtime, not till the journey’s end.”

  “Not till the journey’s end,” she repeated softly. And how soon wouldthe end come? Who could tell? Perhaps tonight. One never knew. Sheshuddered a little, then turned her attention to the work of the hour.

  That night Mary did not sleep. Sparky had first call on a time for restand he surely needed it. He told her to call him in two hours.

  “But I won’t,” she told herself. “Not if all goes well. Something tellsme I won’t sleep if I have the chance.” She found herself haunted by asense of impending doom. The tall French woman, all in black, and thestately Moslem lady were constantly being blended on the pictured wallsof her mind. And after that, with the slow sleepy tread of the desert,came the two little men and their camels. They too seemed part of thesame picture, but just how, she could not tell.

  “What foolishness!” she whispered. “Lie down, you ghosts.” But theywould not. They continued to haunt her.

  She gave herself over to glimpses of the desert and the night. Therewas a glorious moon. The desert beneath her was full of hauntingshadows. For the most part they were shadows of sandy hills, but attimes they loomed dark and large.

  “Oases,” she told herself. “Wonder if friend or foe live here—” Sparkyhad told her that this night they were to fly over dangerous country.Little pockets of enemy resistance here had not been crushed. She wasto keep a sharp lookout and if she sighted a plane, was to call him atonce.

  “We can outclimb and outfly most enemy fighters,” he had said. “But wemust not let them get the drop on us.”

  So, with eyes and ears alert, she rode on through the night.

  All went well. She called Sparky in three hours. He scolded her forwaiting so long.

  “It was the spell of the desert at night,” she told him. “Seems as if Icould fly on and on forever. And just think! We may never pass this wayagain!”

  “Life is like that, so why bother?” was the reply. She went back forher turn at resting, but did not sleep.

  Was it the spell of the desert night that kept her awake? Who can say?At least she did not sleep, just lay there, wrapped in her robe,staring into the darkness, listening to the roar of the motors andthinking, thinking.

  Her father was somewhere in Africa. She knew that and no more. It wouldseem strange to pass over him in the night and not to see him at all.Yet, that might happen. There was no time for looking around, no timefor anything. They must go on and on.

  When two hours had passed, she was back at Sparky’s side asking for thecontrols.

  “I can’t sleep,” she explained. “Flying over the desert is fascinating.You don’t care a whoop about it.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Then why not let me have a chance at it?”

  “Sure! Why not?” He yielded the controls.

  As she took over, the words of an old song were running through hermind:

  “Dance, gypsies; sing, gypsies; dance while you may.”

  It is in time of war that such simple songs as this take on a world ofmeaning.

  She had not been at the controls an hour when the first faint traces ofdawn began to appear. Then, suddenly, a signal on her board flashed agrim warning. Instantly her fingers shut off the fuel and oil fromtheir left motor. The next instant she turned the carbon-dioxide snowon that motor, as she called:

  “Sparky! Sparky! Quick! Our left motor is on fire!”

  Sparky was at her side in an instant.

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