rson laughed and then they slapped each
other on the back. "Don't worry about a thing," the chief said, "those
crooks are under lock and key and there's not a thing to worry about."

"But how--I mean what...?" My voice trailed off. Nothing made sense.

"Well," the chief broke in, "Lucky here really deserves the credit for
catching them. And I'm not forgetting your good work either. Both of you
will receive more tangible evidence of my appreciation. But Lucky really
did the brainwork."

"Awww," Lucky mumbled, "it wasn't much. Just a little common sense and,
uh, a little luck."

"It was damn fast thinking," the chief cut in belligerently, "you knew
your stunting over the base would drive me crazy. You knew I'd get so
mad I'd call out the base police and have you thrown in when you moored.
And when you did moor and the crooks toppled out we were right on hand
to receive them. They were so weak from the shaking up you gave them
that they didn't have a chance."

Lucky rolled innocent eyes to the ceiling. "Sometimes," he remarked
piously, "stunting has its uses."

"Congratulations," I said weakly. "You certainly used your head. Caught
the chief's attention with your stunting and almost knocked the crooks
out with it too. That's killing two birds with one stone, all right."
Then another thought occurred to me.

"How did you know I was in trouble?" I asked curiously. "How did you
know we had those crooks on board?"

"Why--why," Lucky sputtered, "that was simple. I just happened to look
behind me and I saw those boys piling into you. So I did a little fast
thinking and then I whipped the ship into a few maneuvers and, like the
chief says, they caught his eye all right."

The chief was beaming fondly and I turned my head to hide the smile on
my lips. "So you just looked behind you," I muttered. "Well, Lucky, you
certainly are--and were."

He grinned down at me and winked. "You said it, kid."

I wanted to ask him a question then, but I decided to wait until we were
alone. I closed my eyes and smiled again, thinking of his expression
when I would ask him how he had been able to look behind him and see me
struggling with those crooks, _when the door of the pilot's chamber was
closed all the time_....

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ January 1943.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. M