The Milwaukee Leader

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The BOYS and GIRLS PAGE

Out of the Fog
A Story of Adventure in the Air
By W. BOYCE MORGAN

JOHNNY DECKER was undoubtedly the most envied boy in Halesburg when he had his first ride in Stan Mullen's airplane.

Other fellows from the high school tilted their heads back and watched the black speck against the gray of the clouds, and said to each other, "He certainly has all the luck."

But it wasn't entirely luck that took Johnny into the sky while his friends stayed on the earth. Part of it was luck, to be sure, such as the chance that made a portion of the Decker farm the only suitable landing field for a plane in all the hilly country wherein Halesburg lay.

But Johnny had put many hours of toil into smoothing off a portion of the pasture, and much ingenuity and trouble into the plans for a hangar before Stan Mullen approved them, so he deserved his ride, after all.

Stan Mullen was the son of E. C. Mullen, the president of the Security Savings Bank, and the wealthiest man in Halesburg. Stan had received his training as a flyer in 1917 and 1918, and while he had not got overseas until a few weeks before the armistice, he had learned to handle a plane well. Stan now worked as assistant cashier in his father's bank, but he still had the flying bug, and the whole town gasped when he went away for a week during the summer and returned to announce that he had bought a monoplane.

Johnny had almost bubbled over with excitement when, a few days later, Stan approached Mr. Decker and proposed the matter of using his pasture as a flying field. Mr. Decker might not have consented had not Johnny added his voice to Stan's. That started the friendship between the assistant cashier and Johnny, and the latter had soon proved his value to the flyer.

Johnny had been "air-minded" ever since he had built and flown his first model airplane three years before. He had read everything about aviation that he could set his eyes on, and already knew much of the theory of aeronautics. Therefore he was an ideal assistant for Stan, and his willingness to work was an added quality.

Before the summer had ended, Johnny had smoothed off the pasture during his spare time until there was a narrow strip that was ideal for a takeoff or a landing. Then he had drawn up plans for a hangar for the plane, and after Stan approved them and bought the lumber, Johnny began to build the structure, aided by his father and the flyer when they had time. He had always been handy with tools.

and by the middle of the autumn the construction was well on the way to completion.

But long before that, Stan had taken Johnny up for his first taste of flying. Belted in the rear pit of the light two-seater, Johnny first felt the joy of speeding high above the earth. From that moment on he was Stan's slave. He appointed himself official "grease monkey," and kept the little blue monoplane as clean as a pin from propeller to tailskid. And at every opportunity, Stan taught him more and more about the plane, until he needed nothing but actual flying experience to make him a pilot.

One day in early November, when Johnny was spending all of his spare time on the hangar, he stopped in the bank after school to consult Stan on a point in its construction. As it was after banking hours, he was admitted by a friendly teller at a rear door, and made his way to Mr. Mullen's office. But he could not see him at once, for several of the officers of the bank were in conference.

Johnny sat down to wait. Finally Stan appeared, wearing a worried look on his face. Johnny asked him about the hangar.

"I guess I'll run out and have a look at it," said Stan. "I'm through work for today. Just a minute and we'll run out in my car."

A few minutes later they were driving toward the Decker farm, located on the edge of Halesburg. Stan still seemed worried and preoccupied. Finally he turned to Johnny.

"Looks like trouble down at the bank," he said, scowling.

"What's the matter?" said Johnny. He was used to being taken into the confidence of his older friend, who knew this boy could be relied upon absolutely.

"Well, there's really nothing wrong in our bank, but the Farmers Trust is in bad shape. And the worst of it is, their depositors know of it, and there will probably be a run on them tomorrow. You know what a run is, don't you?"

"I know that it means everybody tries to get money from the bank, but I don't quite get what it's all about," admitted Johnny.

"Neither do the persons who want their money," commented Stan, with a wry smile.

"You see, banks never keep more than a small fraction of their depositors' funds right in the vaults in cash. That would be foolish and unnecessary. Instead, they invest it in loans to customers, and in bonds and other securities which pay them interest. In fact, that's how they make their profit and keep operating.

"Now, these investments of the banks may be perfectly safe, yet if a bank wanted to get all its money out of them in cash without much warning, it would have trouble doing it. In other words, although the bank's assets are perfectly good some of them may be what is called 'frozen,' or unavailable. And if all the depositors get an idea that the bank is unsafe, and demand all their money at once, even a sound bank may be embarrassed by not having enough cash on hand."

"Pretty deep," said Johnny, "but I think I understand it."

"Well," went on Stan, "I guess the depositors have some cause for worry about their money in the Farmers' Trust, and probably tomorrow there will be a mob of them down there, trying to draw out their deposits. That's what a run is. And if the Farmers' Trust is in the shape I think it is, they'll have to close their doors and suspend payment pretty quickly. If they do that, a lot of our depositors will get panicky, too, and we'll probably have a run on our hands. We're in good shape, but you can never tell where those things will stop when they once start."

They reached the Decker farm then, and nothing more was said about banking for the time being. Stan and Johnny went back to the pasture, and spent many minutes looking over and discussing the half-built hangar.

"You're doing a mighty fine job on that, Johnny," complimented Stan. "It's going to make a real home for my 'crate.' Well, let's go over and have a look at her. I'm not going up today, but I always like to feast my eyes on her."

The plane was being kept under a large shed while the hangar was under construction. Stan went over, lifted up the canvas that covered the ship, and gazed at it fondly.

"You're a pretty expensive toy, old girl," he said with a grin, "but some day you may prove worth the money I put into you."

Stan left a few moments later, and Johnny spent the few hours remaining until dusk busily working on the hangar.

On the following morning he was on his way to school when he saw a huge crowd gathered on one of the main corners of the town. He began to hurry, wondering what the excitement might be, and then he noticed that the crowd was around the entrance to the Farmers' Trust company. At once Stan's words of the preceding day came to him.

"Whew!" he gasped. "Stan was right. They certainly are going after the Farmers' Trust, hot and heavy."

Although the bank would not open for almost an hour, Johnny saw that fully a hundred people were lined up at the closed doors, and he noticed that their faces were grim, or worried, or angry-looking.

(To Be Continued Next Week)

Some day you may prove worth the money I put into you.