“It must be that!” Babe agreed. “There’s only one thing to do—get the bird out of there double quick!”
“How’re you going to do it?”
“Climb out the front of the car through the window!” Babe said, flinging up the pane in front of them. The hot air swept them back as though they had suddenly opened the door of a blast furnace.
“I can do it easier than you can,” Jim said. “I’m lighter and slenderer.” He was also thinking of the debt he owed Babe for helping him all this time.
“Nothing doing,” Babe retorted. “I’m the responsible one on this tour.”
Jim heard a battering at the door and saw some of their passengers trying to force themselves into the cabin. Babe opened the door a crack and pleaded with them for calmness. In those few seconds, Jim acted quickly.
First he shut off the forward jet completely. Then he began scrambling through the window out onto the front of the car. The wind cut him unmercifully. Projections across the front of the cable car gave him handholds, enabling him to crawl downward.
Suddenly the driving wind ripped Jim’s nose-piece away and left it dangling from his helmet. He automatically gulped in a mouthful of searing, oxygenless air. It tore at his lungs and gagged him suffocatingly. He held his breath, grateful for the underwater swimming he had done at the Oceanside Boys’ Home.
Jim stretched downward and reached the nozzle of the jet tube. He shoved his hand into it. The heat of the tube caused him to cry out in agony. Just as he was about to give up, his burned fingers felt something soft. Feathers. His hands plunged forward still deeper into the tube and closed around the mangled fowl. He tugged with all his might and finally withdrew the broken mass. His arm was beet red and paining fiercely.
He began the tortured climb back up into the car. His lungs were bursting for air. Every touch of his seared hand caused him to groan in pain. Just as he climbed free of the tube, a burst of red flame poured from the nozzle. With a shuddering jerk the car began slackening speed. Jim knew Babe had thrown on the jet’s full power as soon as Jim had cleared the tube.