The rumble from the landing gear was frightening.
He tried the brakes again. They seemed to work for a moment, and then the Lockheed started to skid again.
He looked at the airspeed indicator. As he watched, the needle dropped abruptly to zero.
That doesn't mean we've stopped; it means we're going less than forty miles an hour.
He pushed on the brakes again, and this time they worked.
The Lockheed lurched to a stop, at the last moment turning slightly to the left.
"I'll be damned!" Captain Maxwell Ashton III said.
"Oh, ye of little faith!" Clete said, and started to shut the engines down.
"What this means, you understand, mi Mayor," Ashton said, "and I will never forgive you for this, is that I can never again make a long-shot bet. I have used up my lifetime's allocation of long-shot luck in the last two hours."
Clete felt a sudden chill.
He put his hand on his chest and found that he was sweat-soaked. And then his hands and knees began to tremble uncontrollably.
You 're a brave and intrepid Marine Aviator? Bullshit!
"What happens now?" Ashton asked.
"I'm afraid to get up," Clete said. "There is a strong possibility that I have pissed-or worse-my pants."
He be
came aware that he had not turned off either the landing lights or the main buss. As he reached for the switch he saw a dozen or more horsemen, in rain-slick ponchos, approaching the airplane from the right.
He turned off the main buss, unstrapped himself, and left his chair.
"Wait here a minute," he said. "The people who expect me here do not ex-pect you, and I'll have to come up with some sort of explanation."
When he opened the cabin door, he saw Capitan Delgano walking up to the plane. He was hatless, his hair plastered to his head by the rain, and wearing a
poncho.
"I had just told Coronel Porterman that you probably couldn't fly through this," Delgano said, gesturing toward the sky.
"Well, I made it," Clete said.
"This is not a Beechcraft C-45," Delgano said.
"This is a Lockheed C-56," Clete said. "Something got screwed up."
"I see," Delgano said, visibly displeased.
"I have passengers aboard," Clete said.
"Passengers?" Delgano parroted.
"People I am going to fly to Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo," Clete said.
"You said nothing about passengers!"
"No. I didn't."