Amazing Stories, October, 1927
INE hundred miles an hour!
combustion engines; but now, with electric
A speed almost half that of a
motors energized by power-transmitting radio
Nrifle bullet, yet the torpedo-shaped stations, there seemed scarcely any limit to the plane driving along the upper air-lanes, its fin-rate at which planes could be shot through
wings out-thrust stiffly, was going that fast.
space.
As early as the first quarter of the twentieth
Up there in the thin, rarefied
century, airplanes had attained a speed of atmosphere, the cold had almost a brittle, three hundred miles an hour with the old-style
snapping quality, yet the man who sat in the
Amazing Stories
2
control-cabin of the plane knew a sense of
which, once set, held the plane automatically
comfort and well-being. Air struck the curved
to its course, he reflected that this might well nose of the machine and swept along the be the last gamble of the many he had taken narrowing body with but little resistance, yet
with death. Perhaps this was a good way to
at such tremendous speed, this slight die. He smiled grimly at the thought that if die resistance created heat which was felt within
he did, he would have at least once more
the cabin. It was a ghostly flight and a silent
outwitted old McLaughlin, head of the aerial
one, except for the nearly inaudible humming
police. There had to be an end to their feud
of the powerful motors within the plane’s some day; and this was as good a way as any.
nose. The whole of the night void, for that
Within the hour he had made a
matter, seemed faintly beaded with this same
laughing-stock of the flying police. Almost
high-pitched humming, as though the heavens
under their eyes he had cast his net for spoils, were alive with a mighty swarm of bees. Now
and the haul had astonished even him. In his
and then the twilight seemed to deepen at a
hands had been a military secret beyond
focal point ahead, and a keen eye could have
price—no less than the formula for coridium, glimpsed the shadowy outlines of another that new combination of metallic elements plane. The fact was that the atmosphere was
which had the amazing power of levitation, or
literally alive with aircraft, all darkened, and nullification of gravity. Possessed of such a
scarcely to be seen as they fled across the star-secret, one nation might easily dominate the
pricked sky.
world. Coridium would scrap every radio-The significant thing of their flight was
driven aircraft; it could he made to wreck
that they were bound in one direction—East!
cities, destroy populations. A fragment of it
It was the Hour of the Air, and America, after
placed beneath the greatest skyscraper, or
helping maintain world peace until late in the
even a mountain if that could be
twenty-first century, had sprung aloft to resist accomplished, would send the huge mass
aerial invasion from across the Atlantic, an
skyward with all the force of the revolving
attack that was being made without warning.
planet behind it. Gravity having been
And he who was called The Kingbird,
overcome, earth-dwellers next would be
erstwhile buccaneer of the air-lanes—
voyaging to other planets if the terrific power
cleverest, most daring and most resourceful of
of coridium could be controlled.
all the free-booting falcons—had cast his lot
The formula and the lone placque of
on the side of law for once, and of his country, coridium in existence—the placque a grayish that the hostile death-cloud rolling up from
substance sandwiched between two layers of
overseas might be broken. Swifter even than
insulating metal, which kept it subdued and
the police-planes, those gray arbiters of the
intact—were the cause of this present attack
air, his small, clean-lined ship was shaming
by an ambitious and warlike overseas power.
likewise the military craft, with their American chemists had compounded whizzing, bullet-like flight; and as for the coridium, and under the international pact luxurious private machines and passenger-signed in 1987, America was obliged to share
carriers, both of which classes had been her secret with the world, that the balance of commandeered, their winging progress military power might be maintained and peace seemed heavy-bodied and sluggish.
preserved.
As The Kingbird sat at the levers, his
And this was what America was
rather thin and colorless face more pallid than
planning to do when the placque of coridium
ever in the guarded light from the gyro-control
and the more precious formula had been stolen
The Winged Doom
3
by a secret agent of the predatory foreign
outdistanced the American flight, and was
power. To possess itself of the discovery now between the two opposing forces, before other nations could learn the secret, and virtually in No Man’s Sky. Thereupon, he
at the same time deliver a stunning blow at
stilled the whirling propellers, and reversed
America, largest and richest nation on earth—
them, braking his machine to a stop. At the
and the most powerful potential enemy, same instant, the helicopters on the wings took therefore—this was the coup decided upon by
up the task of keeping the machine aloft.
the hostile power. Upon word being received
Like the dauntless little feathered flyer
that the agent had the precious secret, and was
for which he was named, The Kingbird and
on his way home with it by airplane, the
his machine hung motionless in the air—
hostile war-birds of the overseas power had
perhaps fourteen thousand feet above the sea.
taken to the air, and headed for the American
This was his famous poise, which he used
shore.
while watching for prey passing along the air-
It was sheer chance that The Kingbird
lanes beneath him.
should hold up the agent’s plane, and seize the
Save for the quiet purr of the motors
coridium and formula. Thereupon, the operating the helicopters, the night void now buccaneer underwent a change. The secret was a place of vast silence. In the gloom agent and the latter’s plane were sent crashing
ahead nothing could be seen, nor in the rear;
to destruction. But instead of The Kingbird
the advance guard of the American flight
keeping the priceless booty, he swung low
apparently having stopped at the coast-line to
over McLaughlin’s headquarters, and dropped
await the enemy.
it, with a curt note of defiance. Thereafter, he He twisted a small brass knob on the
shaped his course to meet the enemy winging
instrument-boa
rd, and instantly, on the opaque
across the Atlantic.
glass screen of the television box before him,
Freebooter of the skies though he was,
a panorama of the heavens in a wide arc was
The Kingbird yet had a peculiar loyalty to the
revealed. The tele-vision, a device of
country which had outlawed him. His life,
harmonized radio and light-waves, had the
held cheaply enough, and the marvelously-
faculty of seeming to sift darkness from
swift machine he possessed, were in that daylight; it intensified the weak vibrations of instant dedicated to the cause of his clan.
lightwaves, making it possible to see in the
dark. And what The Kingbird did see,
YET his plane was unfitted for service as a
galvanized him into action!
war-craft; he possessed no weapon save a
Across the sky ahead, like the wide-
flash-pistol, which had the power to blind,
spread wings of some gigantic bird, were
harmlessly and but temporarily, any human
moving, nebulous shapes. The enemy! The
being at which it was aimed. The enemy, he
watchful outposts on America’s eastern shore,
surmised, was coming equipped with all the
by means of long-distance tele-vision, had
death-dealing devices which a super-
been right, then, when they suspected that the
civilization had evolved since the World War
cloud of planes, rising like the first smoke of a early in the twentieth century. The army threatened world conflagration over Europe, planes of the American flight would doubtless
had a sinister portent.
give a good account of themselves, but he and
The Kingbird’s hands moved swiftly
his tiny machine could scarcely hope to be
here and there among the controls, and he shot
more than sacrificed.
earthward, for the penalty of his peek by tele-
He realized now that he had vision was that it revealed him at the instant it
Amazing Stories
4
had revealed the enemy. As he went into a
thousands of planes, for the blended drone of
steep volplane, gliding only on the resistance
their motors came down to him like the
of air against the fin-wings, a beam of light
persistent diapason of a mighty pipe-organ. He
stabbed the spot in the heavens where he had
dared not use his television again, for it might been but a moment before.
betray him to a scout plane winging along at a
The beam swung back and forth, as
lower altitude. Yet the enemy planes were not
though searching for him; and to his ears came
traveling fast; rather they seemed to keep their a slight, hissing sound, as might be made by
formation in grenadier-fashion, until they met
the swishing of a whip. Pale blue was that
the shock-planes which the Americans had
light-beam, with a faint yellowish tinge, like
thrown out ahead of the main wall of the
harmless, diffused moonlight; yet The defense.
Kingbird knew it for the terrible death-ray,
The Kingbird was going to the rear of
which withered life and substance as though at
the enemy, yet now he went into a breath-
the touch of a white-hot flame.
taking turn, doubling back in a magnificent
Though his eyes widened a little at
loop that left him flying upside down, until he
thought of what would have happened to him
righted again, and began to climb. Unknown
if he had remained poised up there a few
to the foe which was now ahead, he had
seconds longer, nevertheless rage burned in
become a pursuer; a swallow chasing a vast
him at this exhibition of ruthlessness by the
flock of eagles. Up and still up he went, until
enemy. The death-ray had long been banned
he reached the chill level along which the
by international agreement as being too enemy moved.
barbarous; yet the enemy was using it. No
Then he straightened again, and shot
doubt the hostile planes were equipped with
ahead. Gradually, the swelling volume of
other deadly devices more horrible than this.
sound from the enemy motors began to din
His plane dropped more swiftly.
painfully upon his ear-drums, and he knew
Yet in that rapid descent there came to
that he was overhauling the grim flight. Far
him the glimmering of a plan. The foe had
below him, the Atlantic tossed uneasily; but
seen him, yet it was doubtful if they would
he had no thought of it. At last, on the chance
pause to destroy him; they were passing on to
that the enemy would be looking ahead and
engage the American planes waiting above the
not behind, he flashed on his television for a
sea-coast. He would strike first; one glorious
brief glimpse. What he saw, before he allowed
blow, and then he would have joined the list
darkness to envelop him protectingly once
of historic martyrs, which have marked each
more, was what seemed to be the beaded
successive generation since the dawn of girdle of a giant—a shape which appeared to mankind.
stretch from horizon to horizon—being flung
Therefore he checked abruptly his shoreward upon a well-massed but earthward drop, and planed ahead on an even
comparatively small phalanx of American
keel, the flight-motors whining in a high, machines. He readjusted his controls, and his unaccustomed key. If luck was with him, he
motors whined with a new note, while the
had already passed out of the arc of television
shell-like body of his machine became
by the enemy. A half-minute later he knew
astonishingly hot under the increased pressure
that his guess was correct.
of the air through which it cleaved.
High over him in the heavens,
Seconds clicked by, with The Kingbird
somberly driving toward the American shore,
praying that the foe would not look back and
passed the dark fleet. There were many observe him. Closer and closer he came,
The Winged Doom
5
without slackening speed. Then he saw in the lee of a cabin on the enemy machine, something which crystallized decision.
and his fingers groped for the knob of a door
It was an unusually large and broad-
just before him.
winged plane well to the rear of the flight. If
size counted for anything, surely this was an
WHAT lay on the other side of the door
important machine, kept well back of the line
permitted the wildest guess he could make.
to avoid that first shock of onslaught. For
Men were there, ready to slay him the instant
another instant he dared snap on his television, he showed himself, perhaps; yet he dared not
and he observed that the great machine ahead
falter.
rolled slightly as it struck an air-bump too
As he turned the knob gently and felt
pronounced for its gyroscopic compensators.
the lock disengage, he
drew from beneath his
Likewise the television revealed in that coat the flash-pistol, with its long, oversized momentary roll, that the enemy monster was
barrel. This was the relatively harmless
painted a grayish blue on its belly, as a weapon he always carried on his aerial forays.
camouflage color to blend with the neutral hue
The Kingbird was no killer; all he desired was
of the heavens, while its upper side was to insure his own safety through intimidation mottled with vivid designs which would make
of his victim. Slowly he opened the door an
it practically invisible to any machine flying
inch; then suddenly threw back the panel. And
above it.
had he conjured himself out of thin air in the
Darkness came as he snapped off the
center of the cabin, his appearance could have
television, but now the swiftly-moving bulk
been no more startling.
ahead was visible to the unaided eye. Closer
There were a dozen men in the
and closer his little machine swept. Now he
compartment; officers in all the gorgeousness
was directly above the foe, and he slowed his
of gold-braid and showy epaulets, and they
speed to correspond with that of the other.
were seated about a carved table secured to
Then, gently, his lighter craft began
the deck. Or rather, they had been, for now
settling. Without shock or jar it touched the
they were on their feet, staring at him in open-
sheathed upper-deck of the big plane. A faint
mouthed amazement. Elderly men for the
sigh of escaping air as rubber vacuum-cups
most part, yet with here and there an evident
fitted to the under side of The Kingbird’s
young fop. The cabin was perhaps thirty feet
plane, took hold of the bigger machine, which
long and twenty feet wide, and at the far end
continued to drive on through space, all of it a pilot sat at the controls, a watch-officer unconscious of the fact that the small beside him. Ranged along its walls were adversary, like some parasitical insect, was