Nancy Drew 53: The Sky Phantom by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Girls & Women, Thrillers & Suspense
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1975-12-01T05:07:41+00:00

CHAPTER XII

Breaking the Code

DURING the evening, Nancy speculated on the secret that Bruce declined to tell her. She tried several ways to get him to divulge it, but failed. The pilot merely grinned and refused to commit himself.

The next morning he arrived early in his car and the two drove to the Excello Flying School. Bruce’s plane was ready, so he and his pupil climbed aboard.

“Do you want me to take the controls?” Nancy asked him.

“I certainly do,” Bruce said. “Well, I’ll tell you where we’re going. That’s the secret.” He grinned. “I can have my mysteries too. We’re flying to an entirely different location this time—in fact, one that is flat and reasonably smooth. If we come down, taxiing won’t be so difficult. But before we do that, I’m going to teach you something about accidental spins.”

Nancy gasped at the thought of possibly spinning right down to the ground, but she said nothing to Bruce.

In about half an hour, they reached the practice area. “Ready?” Bruce asked.

“Quite,” Nancy replied.

Bruce rolled into a steep turn. “Do you remember how you accidentally spun over the top during a previous lesson?” he asked.

“How could I forget?” Nancy answered.

“I’m going to demonstrate a similar situation to you,” the instructor declared. “However, this time we’ll spin out of the bottom of the turn, rather than over the top.”

Nancy braced herself as Bruce tightened the turn to the left. Then suddenly he pulled the stick back with a snap and shoved the left rudder pedal forward. A split second later the plane whipped into a vicious spin.

Nancy grabbed the sides of her pilot’s seat. “Oh!” she murmured.

After several turns Bruce recovered from the maneuver.

“Whew!” Nancy sighed. “What a ride!”

“Rough, isn’t it?” Bruce said, “but I want to be certain that you fully understand these maneuvers so you won’t get into trouble in the future.”

“May I try one?” the girl flier asked nervously. Then she told herself she must be calm.

Guided by her instructor, Nancy manipulated the controls. Her first attempt merely resulted in a tight spiral, but her second and third tries yielded excellent spins.

“Very good,” Bruce commented.

Nancy, herself, was pleased. After half an hour of practice, however, the girl flier confessed that she was beginning to feel a bit dizzy. “I’ve had enough.”

Bruce grinned. “I imagine you’d like to go down to terra firma for a while.”

Nancy would not admit that her pulse was still racing even though she had done the last maneuver very well.

“Yes, let’s.”

They had no sooner touched down and Nancy cut off the engine than Bruce lay down and put his ear to the ground. Nancy watched, wondering why he was doing this.

“Someone’s riding near here,” he announced a moment later.

While the couple waited, Nancy hoped fervently that the oncoming horseman would not be Ben Rail. She mentioned this to Bruce, who frowned.

“I hope not also, because I’d sure be tempted to punch him!”

It turned out that the rider was not Ben Rall. He was a stranger to Nancy and Bruce, who introduced himself as John Wade.

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