Читать книгу Mark Gilmore's Lucky Landing - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 4

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During the month following, Lieutenant Hammil was confined to bed in a nearby hospital with pneumonia while Mark confined himself to the serious business of getting his government license. When he had accomplished that he set out one morning to pay a visit to his former instructor.

“Got lots to tell you, Hammil,” he said after the nurse had shown him into the sunny room.

The Kentuckian was sitting up in bed, comfortably convalescent. He smiled. “Got yer license, Brother Mark?”

“Yep,” Mark answered happily. “And more than that, I got the promise of something I never expected.”

Hammil laughed aloud. “Yer had a interview with Manager Summers, hey?”

Mark’s face lighted with understanding. “Hammil, I do believe you had something to do with Summers calling me into the office for that interview. Of course you did!” he said emphatically, noting the flood of color in his friend’s face. “You’re an old rascal, Hammil, but gee, you’re swell to speak for me like that—gosh....”

“Least I could do ter speak fer you when I knew how gosh-all bad yer wantin’ ter git down an’ try yer hand at Greeley,” Hammil said seriously. “An’ let me tell you, Brother Mark, I don’t feel as if I’m doin’ yer any favor by gittin’ yer down thar either. I don’t trust my own home folks that much to see a nice kid like you given the cold shoulder. I’m givin’ yer fair warnin’ they don’t take kindly ter flyin’ an’ I’ve had letters from my pap where he said the hill folks jest laugh at that sign Summers had put up at the Greeley field saying how the East Coast people are openin’ up a flyin’ school June fifteenth.”

Mark was not to be discouraged, however. “Only fifteen more days then,” he said as if to himself. “That’ll give me enough time to shinny up to Kent’s Falls, New York to see mother and flaunt my license before dad. Then I’ll be ready to pick you up and take you down to your native hills. Summers said the East Coast people thought you needed a rest at home. Boy, I hope I can whoop up business for them down there so that they’ll think as well of me as they do of you.”

Hammil grinned. “I whooped up business up here for ’em, Brother Mark,” he said. “I’d never git anywhere if I tried in Greeley. The Riggses don’t fergit I’m a Hammil even if I have stayed away so long and sort of cultivated furriners’ ways as they say.”

“But you haven’t completely lost your hill dialect—not by a long shot,” Mark laughed. “The mountaineer in you jumps out with every word. Well, anyway you can introduce me around to all the Hammils and from all I’ve heard you say there’s plenty, huh? Enough to give a fellow a fair chance of making some of them converts to the air, huh?”

Hammil was laughing. “Yer ought ter round up a few anyhow, Brother Mark, fer yer got enough faith in flyin’ ter make a mule want ter take ter the air.”

“Oh, it’s not going to be as difficult as that,” Mark protested. “Summers told me yesterday that he thinks it will completely revolutionize the lives of your hill people, Hammil. He says you’re biased because you’re one of them. Probably you are. Most of us are inclined to give our folks credit for a lot of faults they haven’t got, huh?”

Lieutenant Hammil smiled as if to say he didn’t know about that. He knew what he knew. “Still, I got a heap o’ respect fer Mr. Summers, Brother Mark,” he went on to say. “It takes kindness in a feller ter establish a flyin’ school like he’s doing in Greeley. It’s a one horse town—the steppin’ off place fer mountain folks. They do their marketin’ there an’ such things, and on Sat’days an’ holidays the place is crowded with folks from as far as fifty mile or more. It’s the county seat too, an’ that makes a difference. Anyway, the town was mighty glad to rent part of the fair grounds to the East Coast Airlines fer an airport.”

Mark was intensely interested. “What put it into Summers’ head to do this?” he asked.

“The East Coast people have had the idea fer a year or so,” Hammil answered. “Yer see they’ve been shippin’ freight thar an’ it’s a mighty convenient station fer hill folks. Saves them the trouble o’ goin’ ter Lexington fer their goods. But that ain’t tellin’ yer ’bout Summers decidin’ on this flyin’ school business, hey? He and I have been pretty good friends ever since I wandered into his company after the war. I natch’erly got to talkin’ lots o’ my home an’ the folks an’ he got interested. He got sentimental over their isolation an’ finally come to this idea o’ tryin’ ter get them to be interested in flyin’.”

“And I think it’s a swell idea too!” Mark said vehemently. “There’s no reason, Hammil, why they wouldn’t want to learn and get out of the rut they’ve been in for centuries. Why, gosh, they’ll be able to go places and see things that they’d never be able to do otherwise. With planes at their disposal they’ll come to learn civilization as we live it, don’t you think so?”

“Maybe they don’t want ter learn civilization,” drawled Hammil. And ambiguously he added: “You’ve got a lot to learn ’bout hill folks an’ I reckon you’ll learn it quick.”

Mark wondered just what he meant.