Death of an Airman Read Free Page A

fears,” remarked the Bishop diffidently. “I know in advance I shall be a bad pupil.”
    The malicious grin widened. The Bishop gathered that this time Furnace was really smiling. “Oh, don’t be frightened by my remark,” the pilot said more graciously. “Some of my best pupils are your age. You won’t learn quite so quickly as a youngster, but you’ll be all the sounder as a pilot. I don’t mind slowness in learning; but I’ve come to the conclusion, Sally, that Tommy knows what he ought to do and is just too lazy to do it.”
    The Bishop supposed that the muffled figure was Tommy.
    Furnace bent the headpiece of his ear-phones backwards and forwards with a nervous gesture.
    â€œI put him into a spin suddenly, and he got the machine out of it, and competently too. I’ll swear he knows more than he pretends.”
    â€œHow odd,” remarked the Bishop politely.
    Furnace stared at him gloomily. “Pupils are odd. I taught a certain transatlantic flyer to fly. I was amazed at her aptitude. Honestly, I thought she was a miracle. I used to go everywhere boasting about it. Then Tarry Bones, of Aberdeen, came down here one day, and it all came out that she had already learned to fly up there with him under an alias.”
    The Bishop was baffled by this elaborate mystification, and Furnace saw it.
    â€œDon’t you see the idea? It would have appeared in all the papers: ‘Woman learns to fly in two hours.’ Good publicity! She’s never forgiven me for spoiling it.”
    The Bishop had seen Furnace’s eyes rest malevolently on Mrs. Angevin while he said this, and guessed she was the woman referred to. He began to feel sympathetic towards her.
    Furnace pulled off his ear-phones. He seemed exasperated. The Bishop might have taken it for a normal mood of the man, but he saw that Miss Sackbut was looking at him a little anxiously.
    Tommy Vane now joined the group, having got rid of his outer garments after a prolonged struggle.
    The young man smiled oddly at Furnace. “I say, Major, I don’t like this flying business at all! What was that quick one you pulled on me just now? I didn’t know whether it was me or the earth?”
    â€œIs that the first time you’ve been spun?” asked Furnace suspiciously.
    â€œYou ought to know,” answered the youth. “All the flying I’ve ever done has been with you. And just now I thought we should die together. ‘They looped together and they span together and in death they were not divided.’ ” The youth chuckled happily to himself.
    Furnace’s expression was hard to fathom.
    â€œYou put on opposite rudder quick enough when you saw you had to get her out yourself.”
    â€œI saw that in an article,” announced Tommy cheerfully. “‘How and Why in a Spin.’” He prodded Furnace in the stomach. “Anyway, you old devil, if you wanted to scare me you did all right. My tummy heaved about like an oyster. A large brandy is what I need—quickly. I think you ought to speak to him about it, Sally.”
    Throwing one end of his gaudy muffler over his shoulder, he started to walk off, a queer little figure with rounded shoulders and trailing trouser-legs.
    â€œThe bar’s closed,” shouted Miss Sackbut after him.
    Tommy turned and placed one rather dirty finger beside his nose with a wink. “This is illness. What’s wrong with the first-aid chest? I know where it is.”
    â€œIf he does pinch the brandy out of my office again, I’ll wring his dirty neck,” muttered Miss Sackbut fiercely.
    â€œWhat does Dolly want?” she exclaimed a moment later.
    It appeared that Mrs. Angevin had had enough of splendid isolation. She now walked over to the party, a welcoming smile on her face.
    She looked appealingly up at her former instructor and slapped Furnace gently on the arm with her gauntleted gloves. “Well, Instructor