E-text prepared by Roger Frank
BY
EDWIN GREEN
THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright 1932
The Goldsmith Publishing Company
Made in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
I. On Secret Duty
II. The Air Monster
III. Mystery Plane
IV. Danger in the Air
V. No Clues
VI. The Night Alarm
VII. Suspicions
VIII. Mysterious Moves
IX. On the East Side
X. The Neptune Sails
XI. In the Hangar
XII. Trial Flight
XIII. Wings of the Storm
XIV. Flood Relief
XV. In Northern Seas
XVI. Rescue in the Arctic
AIR MONSTER
Lights glowed brightly in the large, bare tower room which was theheadquarters of the Gerka, secret police organization of Rubania. It wasmidnight and a meeting of the supreme council of the Gerka at that hourcould mean only the most urgent business.
Residents of Kratz, the capital of Rubania, who happened to be in thestreets that night and who saw the lights in the tower of the governmentpalace shook their heads and hurried on their way with fear in theirhearts for the Gerka was the most dangerous organization in all Rubaniaand for that matter one of the most powerful groups of secret police inthe whole world.
The creation of the new Europe which had followed the World War hadresulted in the formation of Rubania, a rich, fertile land east ofPrussia. It had been made a free state but Alex Reikoff, an unscrupulousdictator with a lust for world power, had risen to supreme command ofthe government, crushing out all opposition. He had built up the armedforces of his country until Rubania was recognized as a world power,feared for the might of its armada of submarines and the power of itsfleets of airplanes, for Reikoff believed in the power of aircraft as aninstrument of war.
That the midnight meeting of the Gerka was of unusual importance wasborne out when Reikoff himself strode into the room and took his placeat the head of the table around which a half dozen men were seated. Theylooked expectantly at him. Reikoff, short and dark with closely croppedhair, stroked his bristly mustache. He looked intently at the men beforehim. One after another met his gaze until his eyes looked into those ofSerge Larko, in the uniform of a lieutenant of the air force.
“Ah, Serge,” said Reikoff, “I’m glad that you could leave your belovedflying machines long enough to answer my call.”
“Yes, Excellency,” smiled Serge. “I came at once but there is much thatremains to be done on the new XO5 before it will be ready for the longflights for which it has been designed.”
“The XO5 must be ready for a six thousand mile non-stop trip by the dayafter tomorrow,” replied Reikoff, his words short and sharp. “I shallinform the commander of your field that you are to be given everypossibl