Hope Takes Flight by Gilbert Morris Read Free Book Online Page B

Amos explained. “I’d like for you to meet my brother, Gavin Stuart. Gavin, this is Lincoln Beachey, the world’s greatest flyer.” He waved toward Gavin, and the two men shook hands. “Tell you what, I’d like to make a deal with you, Beachey.”
    Beachey stared carefully at Amos. “What sort of a deal you got in mind?”
    â€œYou take my brother here for a ride, and I’ll do a story on you that’ll stir up interest all over the country. I think I can even get it reprinted in most of the other big papers. What do you say?”
    Gavin’s heart seemed to stop beating, and suddenly he could not breathe. To go up, up up in the clouds! Up in that blue sky! He had spent hours watching buzzards circle, smoothly gliding over the air currents, easily, with no effort at all. He’d watched the purple martins doing their acrobatics at sundown, twisting and turning in the air. Always, ever since he could remember, he’d kept his eyes turned upward, and he had read everything that had been printed about flying. And now, he stared at Lincoln Beachey and prayed that God would give him favor.
    Beachey smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Why, sure. That’s a good deal. I got lots of offers after the last story you did. Let me do my act first, and soon as that’s over—” here he paused and eyed Gavin—“you and I’ll take a little ride. That be all right with you?”
    â€œOh, yes, Mr. Beachey!” Gavin gasped. He tried to say more, but the words wouldn’t come out.
    Beachey balled up his fist and gave him a light tap on the shoulder. “We’ll have some fun, you and me.” He took another bite of the hot dog, washed it down with the iced tea, and said, “Time to go now. Got to give the crowd their money’s worth.”
    â€œC’mon, Amos!” Gavin urged. “Let’s go get us a good seat!” He hauled Amos along, who was laughing at the boy’s enthusiasm.
    â€œSo? Is that a pretty good birthday present or not?”
    Gavin stopped and looked at his brother, his eyes warm and his whole face filled with simple gratitude. “Nothin’…I mean nothin’ could have been as good as this, Amos. I’ll never forget it, not ever!”
    And then he started tugging on Amos again, and the two made their way to the edge of the crowd at the field and watched as Lincoln Beachey got into his plane and took off.
    As the small craft was gaining altitude, Amos explained a little bit about Beachey to his brother. “There’s nobody quite like that fellow. Not for flying airplanes, anyway,” he said. “He’s the best acrobatic flyer in the country. He had a slow start though.” Remembering, Amos grinned. “Just couldn’t seem to learn how to get a plane down and wrecked two or three of them in the process of finding out. But, when he finally learned how to bring one in without smashing it up, off he went. He’s been all over the world. Everywhere he goes, people come out to see his show.”
    Gavin watched the plane, which looked almost as fragile as the kites he himself had flown in the pasture back at the farm. “Have you seen him before, Amos?”
    â€œSure. He’s done several exhibitions in New York. Of course, I saw him when I did the story on him. Look at him now.”
    At the far end of the field, Beachey had brought the plane down to an altitude of no more than a hundred feet from the ground. He gave it a turn that, one would have thought, might wrench the wings off, then turned back and roared straight along the ground. When he was even with the crowd, Gavin saw him pull back on the stick and the plane rose, making a circle until it looped-the-loop, then roared off down the field.
    A roar went up from the crowd, and applause filled the air. Gavin’s mouth dropped open. “I never thought I’d see anything like that.”
    Amos merely