feet before the danger was left astern.

Two or more ranges of hills the pigeon crossed, and then Winn saw it
dropping down to a landing where a small cabin stood in a hillside
clearing. He blessed that clearing. Not only was it good for alighting,
but, on account of the steepness of the slope, it was just the thing for
rising again into the air.

A man, reading a newspaper, had just started up at the sight of the
returning pigeon, when he heard the burr of Winn's engine and saw the
huge monoplane, with all surfaces set, drop down upon him, stop suddenly
on an air-cushion manufactured on the spur of the moment by a shift of
the horizontal rudders, glide a few yards, strike ground, and come to
rest not a score of feet away from him. But when he saw a young man,
calmly sitting in the machine and leveling a pistol at him, the man
turned to run. Before he could make the corner of the cabin, a bullet
through the leg brought him down in a sprawling fall.

"What do you want!" he demanded sullenly, as the other stood over him.

"I want to take you for a ride in my new machine," Winn answered.
"Believe me, she is a loo-loo."

The man did not argue long, for this strange visitor had most convincing
ways. Under Winn's instructions, covered all the time by the pistol,
the man improvised a tourniquet and applied it to his wounded leg. Winn
helped him to a seat in the machine, then went to the pigeon-loft and
took possession of the bird with the ribbon still fast to its leg.

A very tractable prisoner, the man proved. Once up in the air, he sat
close, in an ecstasy of fear. An adept at winged blackmail, he had no
aptitude for wings himself, and when he gazed down at the flying land
and water far beneath him, he did not feel moved to attack his captor,
now defenseless, both hands occupied with flight.

Instead, the only way the man felt moved was to sit closer.

*****

Peter Winn, Senior, scanning the heavens with powerful glasses, saw
the monoplane leap into view and grow large over the rugged backbone
of Angel Island. Several minutes later he cried out to the waiting
detectives that the machine carried a passenger. Dropping swiftly and
piling up an abrupt air-cushion, the monoplane landed.

"That reefing device is a winner!" young Winn cried, as he climbed out.
"Did you see me at the start? I almost ran over the pigeon. Going some,
dad! Going some! What did I tell you? Going some!"

"But who is that with you?" his father