Crash on Delivery chapter 2

Even so, the brass hat had been somewhat careless with the truth, though it would not be polite to call him a liar. In the presence of Phineas Pinkham he had told Garrity that what he had to say was not a pilot’s business. But after he was gone, the Spad flyers of the Ninth found out that every last one of them fitted into the word picture that the Colonel had painted.
“Why the big bum!” Phineas snorted when the C. O. enlightened them as to the orders that had come from the Wing. “Bat flyin’ he wants, huh? Awright, see if it bothers me. You heard what he said—that it wasn’t none of my affair. That lets me out. I got a witness, haw! It’s you, Major! The brass hats sure are a panic. They are like the managers of the pugs who say ‘Go out an’ slug, kid. He can’t hurt us!’”
“Are you all through?” Garrity inquired with a pent-in restraint that sent his blood pressure up to the explosion point. “Well, in just twenty minutes you take the first hop over the lines, Mr. Pinkham. How do you like that for apples, you freckledfaced baboon?”
“I always do my duty,” Phineas retorted loftily. “A Pinkham never questions orders. No sir! I will find out why the Heinies are tryin’ to land a crate behind the lines near Souilly—as well as knock any of them knockkneed who try it. If a very young Jerry spy is waiting to get picked up, he will have hardenin’ of the arteries and no teeth by the time it happens. I will solve the mystery, Major. Watson, my violin! I feel like a bar or two of Choppin before I get in the mood.”
“Yes,” Garrity cracked, ignoring
Phineas, “a Hun ship was seen in the vicinity of Souilly three nights ago. It was flying low, heading for Germany, and it may have dropped a spy for some reason or another. If they did drop one, they’ll have to pick him up.
That’s logic.”
“Haw-w-w-w-w! I dropped a dame once,”
Phineas chortled. “She is still where I tossed her, for all of me. It is not sense. Well, adoo, bums. I go—but I will be back, cur-r-r-rses! The next time I will git the mortgage, haw-w-w-w!”
“I will do it yet,” the Old Man kept yelling even after Phineas had taken a Spad off the tarmac and was flying toward the muttering lines. “I will kill him! I will take the consequences with pleasure. I can stand just so much! I can—I’ll—Crr-ripes!”