The Challenging Heights by Max Hennessy Read Free Book Online Page B

sure he would enjoy wearing a uniform in peacetime.
    Life was uninspiring and his thoughts were unconstructive. The idea of settling down to an earthbound life seemed impossible, yet as he tried to make up his mind what to do, he realised his only qualifications were that he could fly and was still keen to do so. Since service life in peacetime had ceased to appeal, why not become a civil pilot? Merely flying from one place to another also seemed dull, however, and he wondered instead if he might become a test pilot and wrote to several firms with that end in view. But there were thousands of unsettled young men like himself who felt they had a future in aviation, and the ones who had not been involved in the war against the Bolsheviks had got in first.
    The unrest he felt was an uneasiness of spirit that many men were feeling. It defied analysis and he even felt he was run down to a state where he was approaching a standstill. Like many others, he was unnerved and humiliated by his lack of success and for a time even thought of emigrating to the United States. Foote, who had flown with him in Italy, had offered him a job until he could fix himself up with what he really wanted to do, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to emigrate and Foote’s letter contained a warning that even in the United States the economic world was unstable and could collapse at any time.
    ‘Things’ll change,’ Hatto advised. ‘And you’re far too good to disappear from the RAF.’
    ‘It’s different for you, Willie,’ Dicken protested. ‘You’re a regular officer. You can wait with patience for confirmation of your appointment.’
    Hatto let his monocle fall from his eye. ‘Let it be recorded,’ he said slowly, ‘that, even so, that patience is wearing very thin. All the same, I’ve heard that Trenchard’s to be appointed Chief of Air Staff and he’s got Churchill behind him. They really are going to organise a permanent Royal Air Force.’
    Dicken shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I can wait. I read the report of the House of Commons. It’s enough to make you go out and cut your throat. They’ve savaged us from 30,000 officers and 300,000 other ranks to 5,300 officers and 54,000 men. Surgery like that makes a man prefer to take a chance in Civvy Street. I’m getting out, Willie. I can’t afford not to.’
    ‘In that case,’ Hatto said, ‘perhaps I can help. Ever heard of Lord Ruffsedge?’
    ‘The newspaper proprietor?’
    ‘The very same. A friend of my Old Man’s. Hamer Quinton before he got his title. His son did a bit of flying during the war and since then the whole family’s become dedicated birdmen. He travels a lot about Europe and he wants a pilot to run his plane.’
     
    And that was how Dicken came to be in Berlin in October, 1920, contemplating the wickedness of the German capital but not entirely without a degree of pleasure.
    Despite the excellent pay, the job had turned out to be far more dull than he had anticipated. Ruffsedge wasn’t a difficult man to work for, but he was pompous and it involved a great deal of listening to his outpourings on his finances, his politics and himself.
    Within a fortnight of the offer, Dicken had obtained his licence as a commercial pilot and two days later was flying Ruffsedge and a friend to Manchester in a converted DH9a on to which had been built a tiny cabin. But then Ruffsedge had a new idea of flying copies of his newspapers to European capitals for British readers there and within four months, instead of passengers, Dicken was flying London-printed Daily Globe sto Paris where he refuelled before continuing, with another refuelling stop near the border, to Berlin. Lord Ruffsedge seemed to have come to the conclusion that air travel was not as comfortable as train travel and Dicken found he had become nothing more than an aerial transport driver.
    There was still a certain lack of respectability about private flying, however, because of the dozens of restless young men who