Danny Orlis Goes to School (2 page)

For a couple of minutes the two boys sat there staring at one another, their faces white and their hands trembling.

"Thank God!" Danny breathed reverently.

The pilot stirred a little and groaned softly. Danny leaned over him, feeling his pulse and wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

"We'd better get him back to the house as quickly as we can, Jim," Danny said. "He might be badly hurt."

The stranger stirred again, shaking his head and brushing feebly at his eyes. "W-w-what happened?" he stammered.

"You had one landing float loose," the young woodsman told him.

He felt the knot on his forehead tenderly. "Is that why you boys were signaling me?" he asked. "I thought you were in trouble."

Danny started the motor and headed at top speed toward his home on Pine Creek. The injured man lay quite still in the bottom of the boat, but he was conscious and able to get to his feet without help when they pulled to a stop at the dock in front of the Orlis cabin.

Laddie barked loudly as the boat edged up to the dock, and both Mr. and Mrs. Orlis came running out. They helped get the man into the cabin and had him lie down on the couch in the living room.

After Clarence Gray, for that was the pilot's name, drank the tea Danny's mother made for him and ate a little toast, he swung his feet over the side of the couch and sat up uncertainly. "I feel a little better now," he said, "but I was certainly lucky that you guys spotted that damaged landing float and signaled to me."

"I wouldn't exactly call it luck, Clarence," Danny said. "It doesn't seem like luck to me considering the large area of lake you could have flown over and yet you came over us, and low enough so we could see what was wrong and signal to you. I think God was watching over you."

There was a long silence. "What do you mean by that?"

"God does watch over us," Danny replied quickly. "He even sent His own Son into the world to die on the cross for us so that we could believe in Him and have everlasting life."

"You sound like a preacher," Clarence replied good-naturedly, "just like an old preacher we used to have back home."

"I certainly don't know anything about preaching," Danny answered, "but I do know what the Bible tells us about sin and needing a Saviour and going to Heaven."

Clarence Gray squirmed awkwardly as though he didn't know what to do or say. And when Mrs. Orlis came in moments later to call them to supper, Danny heard him sigh gratefully.

When they had finished eating and were sitting around the table, Clarence said, "I want to get back to Warroad tomorrow. I've got to notify my superior about the plane and make arrangements to get my work up here finished."

"Your work?" Danny echoed.

"I'm with the Federal Communications Commission," Clarence Gray replied. "My job is keeping illegal broadcasting stations off the air."

Danny slid to the edge of his chair and leaned forward intently.

"There are all sorts of illegal broadcasting being done on short wave," Clarence went on. "Gamblers, smugglers, and enemy agents would all like to be able to get away with using our airways to suit their purposes."

"W-what do you do with them?" Danny asked. "After you catch them, that is."

"Oh, it just depends," the agent answered. "Right now I've got a case up here that I've got to clean up so I can get out to my new post in Colorado."

"Colorado?" Danny echoed.

"That's right. About sixty or seventy miles west of Iron Mountain."

Danny's face lit up. "Do...do you suppose I could go along with you?" he asked. "I've been praying and praying that I'd get to go to school in Iron Mountain, but I haven't had anyone to go with, and the folks don't want me to travel so far alone."

"I'd certainly be glad to take you with me," the government man said, "if it's all right with your folks."

"We'll see," Mr. Orlis answered simply. And Danny, who usually could tell what his dad meant, didn't know for sure whether or not he would get to go.

"It shouldn't take me over a couple of days, after I get some more detecting equipment up here, to find the guy who's messing up the army weather station's short wave reports from the Arctic. We've determined that he's broadcasting from around here somewhere. It'll just take a little work to find him."

Danny looked over at Jimmy. "Just think! Maybe spies or gamblers or smugglers are working right here in Angle Inlet!"

"It's a funny thing, though," Clarence continued. "He's using the call letters QNVD. Those are the letters of a licensed amateur over on Oak Island."

The color drained from Danny's face, and he felt the cold sweat come out on his forehead and the palms of his hands.

"That's me," he stammered. "I borrowed Red Hanson's broadcasting stuff from his folks. I...I'm the one!"

“
Help me, Jimmy!”

FLYING BLIND

"
D
O
you mean that you've been broadcasting with Hanson's equipment?" Mr. Orlis asked.

Danny nodded. "I...I didn't think it would do any harm," he said. "I borrowed it from Red's mother after he was called into service."

The smile had gone from Clarence's face. "This could be a serious thing, Danny," he said. "Didn't you know that you are supposed to have a license before you can broadcast, and even then you have to be extra careful to stay on the wavelength the government allotted to you?"

Danny shook his head.

"Didn't you know that it's against the law for an unauthorized person or station to broadcast, even for fun?" the government agent continued.

"No," Danny answered truthfully. "And I know Red's mother wouldn't have let me use the transmitter if she had known about it."

"It's like this," Clarence said. "There isn't more than enough room for the legitimate broadcasters. That's one reason we have to keep such a close check on things like this. And, of course, illegal stations are a big help to all sorts of crooks.

The young woodsman nodded. "But, of course, we weren't doing anything wrong," he said. "We were just having a little fun."

"I know that," Clarence went on. "But you were jamming the weather reports that the army gets from the Arctic Circle. Supposing a storm was headed down toward the United States and your broadcasting messed up the signals so the report couldn't get through. There might be a lot of cattle killed by the blizzard just because there wasn't any advance warning. People might have been stranded in their cars; some of them might even have been killed—all because you were playing around with an amateur radio station."

"I...I never dreamed it was as serious as…" his voice trailed off miserably.

There was a long, breathless silence.

Finally the government man said, "I know you didn't mean to do it, Danny. And, while I've got to report it, I'm sure there won't be any prosecution."

Danny sighed with relief. "I'll never do a thing like that again," he said fervently.

"I know that, Danny," Clarence Gray replied. "You see, I had already stopped at Oak Island. You used Red's call letters, so I flew out there to check with him and his folks first. The things you told me were exactly the same as what I got over there."

Smiling, he reached out and rumpled Danny's hair. "I've never done much about being a Christian myself, but I know this much: when a guy finds a boy who is a Christian and tells the truth, it isn't hard to figure out that you can trust him."

That night when Danny and Jimmy, who was spending the night with him, finally went to bed, the younger boy said, "Man, but you were in a jam for a little while! It certainly does pay to be a Christian, doesn't it?"

Before going to sleep, Danny prayed about going to school at Iron Mountain, and so did his friend. The next morning he learned the answer to his prayers.

"Your mother and I have been talking it over," his dad began, his eyes twinkling and a smile flickering at the corners of his mouth, "and we've decided that it would be best for you to go to school out at Iron Mountain and stay with Uncle Claude and Aunt Lydia since Mr. Gray has kindly considered to take you with him to Colorado."

"That is if you still want to go there to school," his mother put in quickly.

"Boy, do I!" he cried, a broad smile breaking across his face.

The lake was still and clear that morning, and in a little more than an hour Danny and Jimmy had taken Clarence past Magnuson's Island where old Fort Charles used to stand, past the little store and post office at Penasse, and among the islands to Oak. There they helped him find Don Wilmer, who owned the
Sea Bee
that was kept there.

"I'll meet you down at Warroad a week from today, Danny," Clarence Gray said as he swung into the little plane.

Danny had never thought there was so much to do getting ready to go away to school. There were clothes to clean, suitcases to pack, and all of his friends to see for one last time. A week had seemed like an awfully long time; but before he knew it, it was over; and he and his folks were sitting at the supper table that last night he was going to be home.

"Danny," his dad said softly when they had all finished eating, "one of the big reasons Mother and I decided to let you go to school way out at Iron Mountain was the way you stuck by the truth and testified to Clarence Gray. That convinced us that we could safely let you go that far from home to attend school."

His mother nodded.

"I...I'm sure glad it's that way," he said slowly. "But I'll be staying at Uncle Claude's. They'll be looking after me."

"That's just the point, Danny," Mr. Orlis went on. "Your Uncle Claude and Aunt Lydia aren't Christians."

"They're not?" he echoed in surprise.

"No," said Mr. Orlis. "They're good, moral people and have good reputations as far as the world goes, but they don't know Jesus as their personal Saviour."

"We weren't telling you something that wasn't true when we said that we didn't want you to travel so far away from home," his mother put in quickly. "But we were worried about this other thing too."

"It won't make any difference as far as I'm concerned," Danny assured them.

"It's going to be hard for you, son," his dad told him. "Unless your Uncle Claude has changed, he's bitter about Christian things, and I imagine Larry and Robert are too."

Danny was quiet for a long while. "Maybe," he said at last, "maybe I'll be able to do something to help them."

"That's what I wanted to hear you say, Danny," his dad smiled. "Mother and I will be praying for you."

Danny went out with Cap on the
Island Queen
at half-past six the next morning. When they pulled in to Warroad, Clarence and his young wife, Esther, were standing at the dock waiting for him.

Clarence had rented a private plane to take them down to Bemidji where they caught the regular flight to Minneapolis.

It was cloudy as they took off from Wold-Chamberlain, but the weather forecast was good, and the DC6 rose quickly through the overcast into the starlit sky above.

"I like to fly at night," Esther said dreamily.

That was the last Danny heard. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. In another breath he was fast asleep. How long he had been sleeping he did not know, but when he awoke he heard Esther whisper to her husband who was standing in the aisle.

"Did you get to talk to the crew?" she asked.

"Yes," he said shortly.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"S-s-sh," he cautioned. "They don't want to get the passengers excited."

"But what's the matter?"

"It's the radio," he whispered softly. "Something's jamming it so they can't get their bearings."

"And we're in the mountains!"

"That's right," he said shortly. "And some guy with an illegal radio station is ruining our signal!"

Danny caught his breath. In the mountains like that, and without the radio to guide them, they could crash into a peak before they even knew it was there!

AN ASSIGNMENT FOR THE YOUNG WOODSMAN

D
ANNY
Orlis shivered and sat up straight, peering into the inky blackness outside. He could feel the sweat standing out on his forehead, and the palms of his hands were moist and cold.

He had never seen the mountains, but he knew what they were like from pictures—rugged, forbidding peaks that thrust dangerously into the thin, cold air. The plane had started to climb again, struggling to reach a safer altitude, but even that might not be enough. He had read of planes that had gotten off course and had crashed into one of those peaks before their pilots even realized what was happening. He leaned forward and stared out the window once more, swallowing hard to down the lump that had risen in his throat.

"We'll try to get up to a safe altitude and look for a hole in the clouds to let us down," Clarence said awkwardly a moment or two later. "We've got a couple of great pilots up front."

"But without the radio beam," Esther countered, "what can they do?"