"Leslie F. Stone - Men With Wings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stone Leslie F)

"Miss Moray would have hung back, but her fellow passengers laughingly pushed
her forward. She came near and the two began talking together. Someone heard
her
liken him to Icarus and he laughed. It sounded to the by-standers that they
were
discussing mythology. Then the flying creature dropped his voice and spoke
too
low for any but Miss Moray to hear him.
"The voyagers commenced talking amongst themselves with their eyes lingering
on
the strange youth. They did not appear to realize the seriousness of the
situation until suddenly Captain Edwin Moorhead was seen approaching with a
revolver in his hand trained on the visitor. The crowd were awakened by the
sight of the weapon to the fact that this youth was a menace, a creature to
be
captured. They began milling about, drawing back, pushing forward. Then it
happened!
"The astonished passengers of the Quitonia saw the school-ma'am suddenly
fling
her arms around the winged man's shoulders and seemingly without effort he
lifted her and himself above the deck with a great surge. With a wave of
their
hands the two headed for South America. Captain Moorhead did not shoot. They
were at an altitude of three thousand feet. And like the other he headed
straight toward the sun. Hours of pursuit by the Quitonia ended in the
realization that the bird-man had escaped."
After the Bird Men
THE article went on to discuss the horror of such a situation when women were
kidnapped in the sight of their fellow-man, and the fact that the abductors
were
such handsome fellows, that the kidnapped did not appear to object at all.
Several other aircraft reported having sighted the twain as they passed
overhead. A small coast-wise air-freighter fired some random shots at them and
a
village on the sea-coast saw them go by. Many aircraft gave them chase, but
the
bird man always eluded them.
The news heartened our little party. We would most surely find them in Amazon
country if it were possible to find them at all. Our plane was ready for the
take off. We were to fly over the jungle lands in hope of discovering the
settlement of the flying men. Then we would land our plane in some clearing
and
proceed on foot. In the meantime we scouted in the city which was one of the
oldest in Peru and filled with Indians. Many of the Indians told tales of
flying
men they had seen from time to time. However, they were very close-mouthed
and
did not seem anxious to speak of them, possibly believing them to be some new
sort of gods. We heard a rumour that there lived an old Indian who claimed
that