Before Tim’s madly racing mind could conjure up other thoughts they were over Ralph’s plane. Six feet, five feet, four feet separated the under carriage of the Lark from the upper wing of the training ship. Tim released his hold on the axle.
The next moment the air was forced from his lungs as he sprawled against the surface of the wing. His desperately reaching fingers hooked themselves over the wires along the upper edge of the wing and he was safe.
Tim was stiff from the cold and bruised by his fall but he swiftly made his way in from the tip of the wing and crawled down into the forward cockpit. His action was not a moment too soon for the supply of fuel in the reserve tank was exhausted. He grabbed the dual controls in the forward cockpit and within thirty seconds had set the plane down on the field. Hunter, who had beaten him down, ran toward him and together they clambered into the rear cockpit.
Ralph’s face was drawn with lines of pain.
“I guess I’ve made a supreme mess of things,” he gritted, before they could ask him what had happened.
A doctor who had been summoned by one of the mechanics when Tim and Hunter went aloft, shoved Hunter aside and slipped into the cockpit beside Ralph, whose legs, useless, were doubled under him.
“Here you chaps,” called the doctor, “help me lift this boy out of here.” Together they hoisted Ralph out of the cockpit and carried him into the office where they laid him on a cot in Hunter’s room.
The doctor’s examination required only a few minutes and he was smiling when he turned to the others in the room.
“Nothing serious,” he reassured them. “When he had that crackup this morning he bruised his legs pretty badly and also strained his back. The reaction took place this afternoon and resulted in a temporary paralysis of the legs. Keep him good and warm for an hour or two and he’ll be O. K. His legs may be a little sore and stiff for a day or two but that’s all.”
The doctor picked up his things and departed. When he had gone, Ralph looked up at Tim, his eyes clouded with grief.