Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Dec. 30, 1938, edition 1 / Page 6
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PAGE SIX STRAIT GATE By RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL Copyright D. ApptetM—C e*t ary Co., Inc. WMU Service CHAPTER IX The Gate was richly golden, bathed and burnished in a strong metallic radiance, and the sun was sinking into the western sea in a molten blaze of unbelievable glory. Pop perched on the edge of his seat, looking off, looking down. His unpleasant pallor was enhanced and there was a pinched look about his nose and mouth. He was breathing badly, but his eyes were enrap tured. He caught her scrutiny upon him and smiled at her, drawing a long, quivering breath, tipping his head back, relaxing like a swim mer about to float on a gentle sea. The Hermod swooped and swirled like a gull, dipped and rose again. Sarah Lynn pulled herself to atten tion. This proud dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea was not a bird-like inconse quence but a business of infinite im portant detail, of levers and gears and hair-trigger precision. The sea gulls, white dots against green-blue, far below them now, flew because they couldn’t help it, but men flew because they had conquered. The taxi-driver was waiting for them. “Hi, Pop,” he said, “you bet •*lt is good! Now you remember always?” ter beat it! Lena, she’s fit to be tied!” k * Tne little man tried to thank Gun \ nar but he made only a series of embarrassed gurgles. - The flier gave him a comradely clap on the shoulder. “It is good! Now you remember always?” Sarah Lynn escorted him back to the restaurant. Driving back to Danavale she said again, "I want to come down in a parachute. Gunnar.” i “Yes. After you have soloed for a month. Then I will take you.” “Take me?” m “You shall do it from the Her- I mod. I will remove the door, for your Department of Commerce, ; Conrad Jordan has told me, makes you wear two chutes when it is the jump of intention.” £ “Oh? In case one doesn’t work? And it would be too bulky to get out through the door? But after I’m once out, it’s perfectly simple, isn’t it, Gunnar? Just to wait long enough to be clear of the ship be fore I pull the string?” “That is all,” he agreed. His mouth looked rather grim. “Gunnar, did you mind when you did jt?” “On the ground, before, 1 had fear like a great sickness. In the air it left me.” Le Roy suggested her first flight alone in secret but she decided against it. It was due Great-granny and Uncle Lynn and old Penny if they wanted to come, and at the last instant she whispered to her young brother Bill. Bill's freckles, standing out like brown polka dots on his paled face were the last things she thought about as she walked over to the plane. She slipped round to the further side, unobserved, and laid her face against the Chinese lacquer red. "Don’t be jittery, darling!” she whispered. “I won’t even nick your nail-polish. I promise! I'll take you up like a swallow and bring you down like a leaf.”’ She got into the cockpit and went through the routine she had re hearsed again and again. It had become an integral part of her men tal process. The assistant sprang aside from the propeller. “Clear!” Clear, oh, clear! Forever and for ever. life for the queer dark Dana girl, shining and clear. Sarah Lynn pushed her throttle to the stop and Ladybug went for ward with a roar, left the ground and began to climb into the wind. Sarah Lynn reached the altitude she wanted, readjusted her stabilizer to take the load off the joy stick, leveled off. banked to the left, build ing her owm road as she ew. She exulted. “No matter what comes to me, if I live to be a hundred, I can never be as happy as this in stnnt!” ' ' The little ship quivered under her hands, sprang forward at her touch, dipped, soared It was a living thing, vibrant, sensitive; delicate and dear; helpless in her care, de pending upon her courage and skill. “I’ll take care of you!” Sarah Lynn pledged her plane. Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home! Mary Dana Webster went to drink tea with Lynn Dana, an anxious pucker between her eyes. “Ardine is perfectly poisonous about Sarah Lynn.” He shrugged. “Is it important?” “Probably not, but it disturbs me. She’s such an exceptionally good hater.” “Doubtless. What’s the basis of it?” “Partly disgust at having the ugly duckling turn into a skylark, and at yielding first place as Danavale’s center of shocked interest, but chief ly on account of Jim Allison. She has worked it out in her nasty little mind that Sarah Lynn, by being the victim of her joke on Gunnar Thorwald, is responsible for his complete and final defection.” “And that goes deep?” “Apparently. In her predatory fashion,” his young kinswoman said, “she cares enormously. Did you know he’d been grounded? Yes. Drinking. Nice lad, to begin with, and what a mess she’s made of his life!” Lynn Dana nodded “Os every life she really touches. Poor old Keaton!” “I don’t think he’s ever come fully out from the ether,” his cousin scorned him. “But as to Sarah Lynn, I don’t see, Mary—After all, the only two things in the world which matter to her are flying and Gunnar Thor wald. Ardine could no more en snare him than she could take an ax to the plane, much as she would enjoy both activities. I really don’t see what she can do.” “Well. I don’t either. Uncle Lynn.” Her plain and pleasant face lifted a little. “But just the same, she sort of worries me.” The parachute jump now held the limelight in Sarah Lynn’s thoughts. She read and studied and asked questions and listened eagerly to Conrad Jordan and the ace, and Lynn Dana sat in his wheeled-chair and approved. “Won’t it be pretty bulky with two chutes, ,pne in front and one be hind?” she wanted to know. “I have said I will remove the door,” Gunnar reminded her. “Then you can dive out, forward, and that’s much handier than back ing out,” Conrad Jordan said, light ing a cigarette. “Then you’d have to push your way, with your back against the door, against the air pressure.” Lynn Dana’s_amused gaze, slight- THE ZEBULON RECORD ly grim, went from one calm speak er to the other. “If you don’t mind, i Sarah Lynn. I’d rather like you to take whatever precautions suggest themselves.” “Os course. Uncle Lynn! I want to be sensible.” Sensible: the small, slight thing with her clear olive-and-ivory face and its crowding eyes, her fine, thin hands relaxed in her lap, planning this dazzling danger as casually as her cousins made dates to go danc ing. “The mental reactions are very different,” her uncle’s flying friend said, “in a premeditated jump and baling out in an emergency, to save your life. All the breaks are with you now. You’re going at the thing scientifically, you have no fear and no nerves, and I prophesy it’s going to be a tremendous satisfaction to you, at the moment and in your memories. But I want to tell you frankly that you’ll have some bad minutes before you go up.” He leaned forward to knock off an ash. "Never knew it to fail. The most hardened jumpers experience it, though I dare say in most cases it’s purely physical and subcon scious. I know a young chap at an airoort who does exhibition jumps, but always before he goes up he ‘-n-ns deathly pale and his face and I ->s twitch. And the minute he / ..bs into the ship he’s fine.” “Like a soldier in the trenches waiting the command to go over the top,” Lynn Dana contributed. “Or, I remember before a big game, the agony of waiting, of wish ing you had elected to play tiddley winks instead of football, and the departure of all doldrums when the whistle blew.” "Exactly. Tremendous rebel in definite action: setting the body into directional motion toward a deter mined objective. Physical action replaces mental; fear evaporates My conviction is that with a normal mind danger brings a calm and alertness and a cleverness far be yond ordinary experience.” “That I also believe.” the Nor wegian ace said. Jordan went on. “There’s the case of an English army officer, years ago. His chute caught in the ship and tore, leaving only the harness on him. He didn’t know it, and the motion-pictures showed him calmly feeling round the har ness and rip-cord, trying to figure why his umbrella didn’t open, al most the whole way to the earth.” “Cheery anecdote.” Lynn Dana said a trifle tartly. “That was an old-fashioned affair, i Lynn. Sarah Lynn’ll have two mod ern. absolutely reliable chutes.” “Fool-proof.” she grinned at him. “Fool-proof, which is superfluous in your case.” he grinned back, ap proving her warmly. Lynn Dana's study pulsed with approval, with af fection for her. Her uncle’s life long devotion, the cordial friendship of his friend, the cool comradeship of the flying boy from Norway. What more, besides a Gipsy Moth, did a girl need for happiness? Fliers did not marry. “I have wondered if I’d really remember to pull the string,” she said, “but I was reading Lieuten ant Cramer’s account of his first experience. An old-timer told him he couldn’t keep his finger away from that ring if he tried!” Jordan nodded. “Your only diffi culty will be to wait until you are entirely clear of the ship.” He faced Lynn Dana. "She’ll have two 'chutes fastened to the webbed harness about her body. The main one has a 28-foot spread and the second a 24. That’s on her chest.” “Made of silk” “Light, but entirely substantial. Both have pull-rings and rip-cords to unlace and throw up the para chutes, and the rings are handily placed. You’ll have everything clear in your mind a hundred times over, Sarah Lynn. The thing you must be prepared for is the scream and the flapping of the silk and the report, like a gun, and the violent jerk when your parasol opens. After that”—he ground out his cigarette— “it’s really delightful.” “But —I was reading yesterday— when I’m almost down, within • hundred feet of the ground—” “Then you must reach up and hang onto the big rings above the sling in which you’re sitting, and lift yourself, and take some of the bump out of your earth contact.” Sarah Lynn nodded gravely. “Un cle Lynn, what about Great-granny? Shall we tell her, and let her come out to the meadow and_watch?” (Continued Next Week) WAKELON NEWS NEIL HARTLEY, Faculty Advisor New Year’s Resolutions New Year’s Day is almost here. We should begi i thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions. We say w’e are going to be smart and name a long list of resolutions and abide by them. For example, we say we are going to spend more time on our E’iology lesson or we are going to stop talking on study hall. We list these things and abide by them for a 'week or two. By that time we are deep into the study of different groups of the plant kingdom or Johnny had something to tell me and I had to listen to him. We have also gotten deep into the study of Cae sar’s Gallic Wars or we are deep into the study of Enoch Arden. We get tired of studying so hard and the list we were so proud of on New Year’s Day is just another scrap of paper. We begin to talk on study hall and stop studying our Biology, English, and Latin. We also begin giving our teachers excuses that they have heard so much. We think we are pulling the wool over their eyes but real ly they have learned our secret and immediately put a zero beside our names for that day’s assign ment. —Jean Flowers Wakelon Graduates In College The 1938 graduates in college this year are doing good work. Cornelia Herring is at Meredith in Raleigh. She was a character in the play “Doll’s House” by Ibsen, Business Cards ——■«—i« ——■—■«—•• —"—•*-r Brantley Motor Co. ZEBULON, N. C. Phone 3381 Wrecker Service j 3 J. M. Chevrolet Co. ' Chevrolets Oldsmobiles New and Used Cars Factory Trained Mechanics J. A. KEMP & SON ! Groceries Dry Goods j FUNERAL DIRECTORS Phone 2171 j Little River Ice Co. Quality and Service Phone 2871 ee m »n m ~~ - ■ » Carolina Power and Light Company NOW—Electricity is Cheap Phone 2511 JOHNSON BROS. JEWELERS Watch Makers Jewelry Zebulon, N. C. Everything To Build Anything Massey Lumber Co. Zebulon, N. C. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1938 presented by the Little Theater on Tuesday, December 13. The cast was chosen by tryouts open to the whole student body. Corneli a’s role was that of the villain. She is also in the Public Speaking Club. Ruby Bridgers is at Cullowhee, a college in the heart of the Smok ies. Ruby is singing in the college choir, which is a high honor. She takes part n all sports, but is es pecially interested in golf. Charles Hinton and Eugene Finch are going to State College. They are taking a great interest in their work and expect to make a good record. Louise Baker is doing good work at Campbell Col lege at Buie’s Creek. QUICK RELIEF. FROM STOMACH ULCERS due to EXCESS ACID Free Book Telit of Marveloau Home Treatment that Muet IWj or It Will Cost You Nothlni Ovr-r on* million bottle* of the WILLABE THBATMKNT have been sold for relief a Stomach and DnodaneltAeereduetqHJwe* Acid —Poor DljMtloa, Saar or UpieUtom. •ch, CaMIiMM, Hoarttmre, Sleopl***ne** etc., due to Ewseee AcM. Sold on 15 dap trial I A«k for ~WiUW* Massage 1 ’ whld fully explains ttOs uiMMlsne treatment fn» —at ZEBULON DRUG COMPANY __ __ relieves fipfi C £. L J?. S ”” ” HEADACHES Liquid, Tablets AND FEVER Solve, Nose dne te Colds. Drops In 30 minutes Try “Rsb-My-TJsin”—a Wonderful Linaraent Professional Cards APEX, N. C. Office days every Saturday and Monday Hours for eye examination: Saturday—9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday—9 a.m. to Noon. Other days by appointment only Write or phone No. 10 1 IRBY D. GILL I ! Attorney & Counselor at Law! I I Phone 2281 | Zebulon, North Carolina j r- —— : Dr. J. F. Coltrane Dentist Office Hrs. 9-12:30—1 :30-5 j- - - Dr. L. M. Massey Dentist Phone 2921 Hours 9a.m.tos p. m. Office in Zebulon Drug Bldg. i For Insurance of All Kinds and FARM LOANS see [_D. D. CHAMBLEE r ■■ •————i PLUMBING AND ELECTRICAL SERVICE BILL STRICKLAND Anywhere Any Time A
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
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Dec. 30, 1938, edition 1
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