Rocket Jumper Read online

  A male voice said, “Captain Kozack , Operations.”

  “Captain, an emergency call for Lieutenant James Taylor.He may be with his mechanic or at the parachute loft. He’s a helicopter pilot.”

  Rick silently urged speed. He was sweating profusely, and his stomach was tied in knots.

  “Hold, operator. I’ll try the intercom.” Rick heard the officer’s voice.“Repair and Maintenance. Is Page 53

  Lieutenant Taylor there? . . .Emergency.”

  In the distance, flat and distorted by the intercom loudspeaker, came the reply, “Sir, he left fifteen minutes ago.”

  The captain again spoke. “Parachute loft. Is Lieutenant Taylor there?”

  “Sir, he’s just walking out the door.”

  “Get him, quick.Emergency.”

  In a second Rick heard Jimmy’s voice over the speaker. “Lieutenant Taylor, sir.”

  “Emergency phone call,Taylor.Stand by. We’ll put it through.”

  Rick almost sobbed with relief when Jimmy came on the line.“Taylorhere.”

  “Jimmy, this is Rick. The girls are trapped by the forest fire near the lodge, and we can’t reach them by foot or jeep.”

  The pilot responded instantly. “Meet me at the first level space you come to on the way down from the lodge. I’m fueled and ready to go. Be there within fifteen minutes.”

  “Sooner,” Rick pleaded. “Minutes count. Hurry, Jimmy.”

  “Coming.”

  The phone slammed down at the other end. Rick paused long enough to say, “Thanks, operator.”

  “Good luck,” the pleasant voice said.

  “He’s coming,” Rick told Scotty, and let his breath out with a long whoosh.

  “Come on,” Scotty urged. “Let’s tell Mrs. Winston. She’s frantic.”

  Mrs. Winston wasn’t cheered by the news. She was sure it was too late, and looking at the wall of flame Rick wondered if she might not be right. But he refused to believe it. Those two aggravating, amusing, difficult, loyal, adventurous girls killed by a forest fire? It couldn’t happen.

  “They’re not thekind who come unglued in a crisis,” Scotty said as they ran to the jeep.“At least, not when they’re the ones in danger. If there’s a way to beat the fire, they’ll find it.”

  Rick nodded wordlessly. The only time Jan and Barby had lost their nerve and broken down had been when their fathers were in danger. And, Rick recalled, Barby had gone into a spin after he had crashed in the Cub, before she knew Scotty was still alive.

  Scotty drove the jeep through the aspens down to the desert, now and then pulling aside for loads of men who were arriving to battle the blaze. As they reached the treeless area, Rick had a sudden thought.

  “Did you see the Jones Boys?”

  “Their trucks are parked next to their cabin. I think I saw them going off with shovels, but I’m not sure.

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  Why?”

  “Just wondered.And I wonder what the girls were doing in the woods when they were supposed to be calling me?”

  Scotty shook his head. “They must have had something on their minds, but I can’t imagine what.”

  “We should have questioned Mrs. Winston.”

  “Time enough for that later,” Scotty said grimly.

  The road crossed a saddle between two gullies. There was room enough for Jimmy on the saddle.

  Scotty pulled over to the side of the road, leaving plenty of room for the helicopter to land. They waited, as patiently as possible, now and then casting glances back the way they had come.

  Smoke rose high above the trees between them and the lodge. Now and then sparks shot up, and once flame licked high in the air.

  Rick couldn’t sit still. He got out, and Scotty joined him. They studied the lay of the land.

  Behind the relatively flat area on which the lodge was located, the mountain began to climb, gently at first, then more steeply. The slope increased, and then rock rose to form a solid wall of varying height.

  Rick couldn’t see it from where they stood, but he remembered from flying over it that one spur of rock rose like a battlement above the others directly above the camp.

  The fire would burn out when it hit the rock, because there would be nothing left to burn. It wouldn’t take long, he thought.

  Scotty must have been reading his mind, for he asked, “How long until it burns out?”

  “I was just wondering.An hour?A little more? Maybe only half that. A lot depends on the wind.”

  The wind was brisker now, coming up from the desert, sucked in by the low pressure left by the rising heat from the fire. Rick could feel it on his face, and he knew it would increase.

  Jimmy was on them before they knew it. He swept over the ridge at high speed, spotted them, hovered briefly, then landed with a bump. They were climbing aboard before the helicopter stopped bouncing.

  Rick grabbed his earphones and throat mike, pushed the intercom button, and said urgently, “They were last seen running uphill from the lodge, Jimmy.”

  “Okay. Buckle in. I’m taking off.”

  The chopper rotor speeded and the ground dropped away with breathtaking speed. Jimmy was wasting no time. He kept climbing until they were high above the tree level, then banked slightly and the fire came into view.

  Rick gasped. It looked as though the world was ablaze at first, then as the pilot banked even more, he saw the fire front. It was clearly marked, marching its inexorable way through the pine forest, up the mountainside toward where the rock wall loomed.

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  “Did you see the Jones Boys?” Rick asked Scotty

  “I’m starting from over the lodge,” Jimmy said in the earphones. “We will fly a straight line up the mountainside, reverse course, and return to the camp. We will then move over a few hundred feet and repeat the process. One of youunbuckle and climb up here with me. Get into the copilot’s seat. It will give us better coverage.”

  Rick started to move, but Scotty’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. He answered the pleading look in his pal’s eyes with a nod. Scotty unbuckled and unplugged his communications gear, then climbed through the narrow hatch to the compartment overhead, taking earphones and throat microphone with him.

  Left alone, Rick kept his eyes on the forest. It didn’t matter which of them was up front. Scotty had keen eyes, keener than his own for looking into a forest. And Rick knew his own feelings about the girls were shared by his friend.

  “Starting the run,” Jimmy said.

  Rick acknowledged.

  “Scotty, look 45 degrees down and front. Rick, look 60 degrees down and out the side. Rick, this is against regulations, but look in the zipper pocket above your head. You’ll find a safety belt. Put it on, and you can snap it into the handhold by the door. Scotty and I can see better for this first run, anyway.

  Okay?”

  “Okay.” Rick was already moving. He found the safety belt and put it on, then moved to the doorway and hooked the safety snap on the belt to a handhold. Keeping a grip on the handhold, he leaned out and looked downward into the heart of the fire. It was an inferno of blazing pine, a solid mass of flame. He could feel its heat on his face, and he felt the helicopter buck like a skittish horse in the powerful updraft.

  The chopper passed over the wall of flame to where the trees were still green, but wreathed with smoke.

  Tiny fires were starting, from sparks fanned out from the fire front. Rick studied the ground with care, hoping for a sign of the girls.

  A sudden rise was signaled by the changed pitch of the rotors as Jimmy climbed. Rick saw the top of the rocky cliff go by underneath, then the pilot banked sharply.

  Rick had kept earphones and throat mike on; the cord was long enough to reach. Now he heard Jimmy ask, “See anything, either of you?”

  “Nothing,” Scotty said.

  “No sign,” Rick added. He was feeling sicker by the minute; his stomach knotted into a tight ball of fear.

  The helicopter reversed course
and dropped lower as they passed over the cliff to the forest once more.

  Rick strained to see every inch of ground along the path 60 degrees down. He caught a glimpse of a deer fleeing from the blaze. Jimmy arrived over the camp, and Rick saw that it was crowded with cars. More men with shovels, axes, and water tanks on their backs were running toward the end where the fire could continue to spread.

  Jimmy turned, moving the helicopter to a new track. Again they flew toward the rock cliff, and Rick saw Page 56

  the tawny shape of a mountain lion climbing the rocks. But there was no sign of the girls.

  Jimmy turned once more, this time following along the cliff. “They must have reached the cliff if they’re still alive,” he said.

  Rick nodded to himself. He was so scared that he wasn’t thinking straight. The pilot was right. The girls would have run until their way was blocked. It wasn’t likely they had reached a spot that could be climbed. Even the agile mountain lion,who spent his life among the rocky slopes, had been having difficulty.

  Jimmy flew until he reached the end of the blaze, and Rick saw some of the fire fighters below working to outflank the fire. Most of the men, though, were at the other end. If left to itself, the fire would simply burn out at this end. The men were doing their best to save some of the forest, but it was plain from on high that their efforts would be useless.

  The chopper flew back along the cliff, and Rick watched carefully, noting that the forest came right to the cliff bottom, except in a very few places. The fire front was advancing rapidly, and the wind was pushing it with increasing force. Rick saw the camp through the flame and smoke. The helicopter came even with the lodge and continued on along the ridge.

  Scotty let out a yell. “I see them! There, below that spur!”

  Rick almost lost his footing as he leaned out to look ahead, but he couldn’t see anyway, because of the surge of emotion that blurred his eyes. He shook his head and wiped his free hand across his eyes, then focused on the spot ahead and below. Jimmy climbed to get more altitude, then brought the chopper to a hover.

  Rick looked down, and his heart sank again. The girls were waving from far below, and he waved back.

  But their troubles were far from over.

  Under the helicopter was a high spot in the cliffs, a spur of rock about fifty feet higher than the rest, and nearly a hundred feet long. Below the table-rock spur, the cliff dropped almost sheer about two hundred feet to where the girls stood in a clearing at the base of the wall. The clearing was not more than thirty feet long, and about twenty feet at the widest point.

  Rick pushed his intercom button. “Jimmy, can you get down there?”

  The pilot was slow in answering, and his voice shook. “Not a chance, Rick.”

  CHAPTER XIV

  The Fire Crowns

  The helicopter bucked like a wild horse in the updraft from the cliffs, but Jimmy held it steady while the three surveyed the situation below.

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  “Ropes from the top,” Scotty said urgently.“How about that?”

  For answer, Jimmy swung the helicopter toward the mountain peak, hunting a level spot. “Let’s see where I could land.”

  Rick studied the terrain below. From the cliff top the slope climbed steeply,bare of trees, with only an occasional shrub breaking the expanse of jagged rock.

  “Ahead,” Scotty said. “How about there, Jimmy?”

  “It’s about a half mile from the cliff top,” the pilot answered. “If men landed there, they’d have a tough time climbing down to the spot above the girls. I’d guess it would take nearly an hour.Maybe more.”

  “Can’t you land on that table rock above the girls?” Rick asked desperately.

  “Above the girls?That was my first thought, but there’s not enough room with that thermal column climbing the cliff face. It would bounce us like a rubber ball. I couldn’t even be sure of crash landing in the right spot, and killing everybody wouldn’t help the girls.”

  The helicopter turned back and came to hovering position high above the spot where the girls waited. It rocked and swayed even at that height. Rick tried to gauge the speed of the fire. They had about thirty minutes, he guessed. Not much more.

  “Could you hover while we climbed down a rope?” he asked.

  “Let’s see,” Jimmy answered. He slowed the rotors and the helicopter drifted lower, bouncing fiercely in the updraft. About fifty feet above the cliff, a rush of air caught them and almost flipped the big machine over. Jimmy fought it upright again.

  “There’s your answer,” Jimmy said. “If I had a winch aboard with a hundred feet of cable, it might be worth a try a little distance from the cliff, but even that would be chancy until things cool a little.”

  A flash of fire caught Rick’s eye and he looked outward in time to see the top of a huge pine explode into flame. The rushing wind threw fire at the next top, and it caught.

  “The fire’s crowning!” Jimmy yelled.

  Rick had never seen it, but he knew what the pilot meant. Once a forest fire crowned, it raced with deadly speed through the treetops, while the forest burned behind and below the crowning blaze.

  Rick watched with horror. Their time was cut to less than a half hour now. He had to get down there, He had to rescue the girls!

  “Head forScarletLake !” he yelled.“Top speed, Jimmy! I have to get a parachute!”

  “That heat would blow you all over the sky,” Jimmy objected as he swung the chopper around and poured on throttle. “You couldn’t be sure of landing anywhere near them!”

  “The belt,” Rick said. “Illgetthe belt. If the wind catches me, I can use it to steer.”

  “It’s the only chance,” Scotty agreed, desperation in his voice. “If one of us can get down to the girls Page 58

  with shovels, maybe we can dig in until the fire burnsitself out.”

  “Okay,” Jimmy said. “It’s not much of a chance, but we have to try. Now quiet, while I get things set up.” He switched to the command channels and called, “Mayday, Mayday, Emergency! Clear the channel. This ishelicopter Red Three calling Nellis.”

  “Nellis to Red Three.What is your Mayday?”

  Mayday was the verbal SOS, Rick knew, and it caused instant silence on the radio channel, with everyone straining to hear and to help.

  “Two girls in a forest fire.We have to drop a jumper and we need a chest pack. Repeat.A chest pack.

  Can you load one in a jet and get it toScarletLake ? Minutes count.”

  “Nellis to Red Three.Wilco.”

  Jimmy called once more.“Red Three toScarletLake.”

  “ScarletLake, here.We heard your request to Nellis. What can we do?”

  “Rick Brant’s rocket belt is in Shed Two, in the locker next to the front door. Get Burns and Willis to refuel immediately. Also get and have ready a three-hundred-foot coil of quarter-inch nylon line or equivalent, a shovel, a jerry can of water, and a crash helmet. Have them where the jet from Nellis will land. We have only minutes. Can do?”

  “We’re on it.”

  “Okay. Captain Aster is around there. He knows about the belt. Have him supervise if available. And have some short pieces of line to lash the stuff to the jumper. We’re heading your way at top speed.

  Hurry!”

  “Wilco, Red Three.I plugged your call into the general intercom circuit, so all hands are working already.

  Will you need fuel?”

  “Negative,ScarletLake.My reserve is ample. But if you have a chopper pilot there, have him stand by. I may need a copilot to help me hold this beast over the thermal updraft.”

  “Roger, Red Three. Call if you need anything else.”

  “Thanks,ScarletLake . Be there in five minutes.”

  Rick moved to his regular seat and sat down. From his pocket Rick pulled out the scout knife he always carried, and started slicing his handkerchief into strips. There would be no time to change clothes. He would have to go as he was. He used the strips of cloth to bind
his pants legs into place so they wouldn’t flap and be a hazard. It was all he could do until they arrived.

  Scotty spoke on the intercom. “I’d better make the jump, Rick.”

  “Sony, Scotty. I’ve had more experience with the belt, and even I haven’t had enough for this. I’ll make the jump.”

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  Rick knew Scotty could see the sense of it, but the dark-haired boy tried again, anyway. “I wish you’d let me go, Rick.”

  “I wish we could both go,” Rick said as calmly as he could. “But we have only one rocket belt.”

  “I could take another chute and jump higher up on the mountain where the updraft isn’t so bad,” Scotty said eagerly.

  Jimmy scotched that idea. “And by the time you worked your way down to the cliff top it would be all over, one way or another. Plus the very good chance that you might kill or hurt yourself. A parachute landing isn’t very gentle. I know. I had to bail out once, and broke a leg on level ground.”

  ScarletLakewas in sight. Rick could see the long runway, the many buildings of the big rocket base. Far down from the main buildings, on Pad Number Eight, a rocket was being assembled in its service tower.

  As they came closer, Rick saw the vehicles and men waiting at the end of the runway. A truck was tearing down the hill toward the men, throwing a plume of dust as it traveled.

  Jimmy landed just as the truck arrived. Captain Aster jumped out, and the two men from the refueling crew got down from the back, carrying the rocket belt.

  Rick leaped to the ground before the dust settled and ran to meet them. The men held the belt while he slipped into the corset and buckled the straps into place. By that time, Scotty was beside him.

  “Check it out,” Scotty cautioned.

  “Okay.Vector control.” Rick turned the handle while Scotty watched.

  “Vector control okay.Now thrust control.”

  Rick turned the thrust handle and heard the fuel start its hiss. “Both nozzles clear,” Scotty reported.

  Captain Aster handed Rick his crash helmet. “Harmon called. I was about to leave for the lodge to see the Jones Boys when you called Mayday. How did the girls get trapped?”

  “We don’t know,” Scotty answered.