Dr. Duerkes regarded pilots as being mentally under-aged people who did their best to retard aviation by regarding all new inventions and refinements as crackpot ideas.
With this gulf of disrespect lurking between them it was strange that these two men should have become companions. However, they did have a few things in common. Although Dr. Duerkes called Captain Hawes a boy, there was scarcely any difference in actual ages—with exception noted for Dr. Duerkes' idea of the captain's mental age. Besides, both men had a high regard for the stratosphere and the stratosphere scout formed a bond between them. It was a strange companionship, but stranger things were about to happen.
"If I tried to imitate the logic of the universe," the captain retorted, "I'd never be able to do a thing. The only real logic in the universe is man's. He invented the sport of making one and one equal two."
"Nonsense!" Dr. Duerkes replied stiffly. "The universe is an orderly thing. It obeys fixed laws. It never varies in its course. The universe is one thing we can depend upon."
"If you ask me," Captain Hawes said, sending the plane up another thousand feet, "anything can happen."
The heating equipment and the artificially sustained atmosphere of the plane's cabin made the men quite comfortable as the craft skimmed along at close to 45,000 feet.
Dr. Duerkes clasped his hands over his knees and beamed. He was about to say something, but he never got the words out of his mouth. For at that moment the plane lurched.
"Ump!" grunted Dr. Duerkes.
"Air pocket," Captain Hawes explained.
"There are no air pockets here," the doctor retorted. "We're in the stratosphere—the region of weatherless atmosphere. There might be winds, but no air pockets."