Even so, the brass hat had been somewhat careless with the truth, though it would not be polite to call him a liar. In the presence of Phineas Pinkham he had told Garrity that what he had to say was not a pilot\u2019s business. But after he was gone, the Spad flyers of the Ninth found out that every last one of them fitted into the word picture that the Colonel had painted.
\n\u201cWhy the big bum!\u201d Phineas snorted when the C. O. enlightened them as to the orders that had come from the Wing. \u201cBat flyin\u2019 he wants, huh? Awright, see if it bothers me. You heard what he said\u2014that it wasn\u2019t none of my affair. That lets me out. I got a witness, haw! It\u2019s you, Major! The brass hats sure are a panic. They are like the managers of the pugs who say \u2018Go out an\u2019 slug, kid. He can\u2019t hurt us!\u2019\u201d
\n\u201cAre you all through?\u201d Garrity inquired with a pent-in restraint that sent his blood pressure up to the explosion point. \u201cWell, in just twenty minutes you take the first hop over the lines, Mr. Pinkham. How do you like that for apples, you freckledfaced baboon?\u201d
\n\u201cI always do my duty,\u201d Phineas retorted loftily. \u201cA Pinkham never questions orders. No sir! I will find out why the Heinies are tryin\u2019 to land a crate behind the lines near Souilly\u2014as well as knock any of them knockkneed who try it. If a very young Jerry spy is waiting to get picked up, he will have hardenin\u2019 of the arteries and no teeth by the time it happens. I will solve the mystery, Major. Watson, my violin! I feel like a bar or two of Choppin before I get in the mood.\u201d
\n\u201cYes,\u201d Garrity cracked, ignoring
\nPhineas, \u201ca Hun ship was seen in the vicinity of Souilly three nights ago. It was flying low, heading for Germany, and it may have dropped a spy for some reason or another. If they did drop one, they\u2019ll have to pick him up.
\nThat\u2019s logic.\u201d
\n\u201cHaw-w-w-w-w! I dropped a dame once,\u201d
\nPhineas chortled. \u201cShe is still where I tossed her, for all of me. It is not sense. Well, adoo, bums. I go\u2014but I will be back, cur-r-r-rses! The next time I will git the mortgage, haw-w-w-w!\u201d
\n\u201cI will do it yet,\u201d the Old Man kept yelling even after Phineas had taken a Spad off the tarmac and was flying toward the muttering lines. \u201cI will kill him! I will take the consequences with pleasure. I can stand just so much! I can\u2014I\u2019ll\u2014Crr-ripes!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even so, the brass hat had been somewhat careless with the truth, though it would not be polite to call him a liar. In the presence of Phineas Pinkham he had told Garrity that what he had to say was not a pilot\u2019s business. But after he was gone, the Spad flyers of the Ninth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pulp-classics","category-uncategorized","tag-joe-archibald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}