“What’s the matter with your rudder?” asked Captain Smith, who had come up during the conversation.
“I have no right rudder at all. I haven’t had any since just after I left the field.”
“Get out and let me see what the trouble is,” said Smith.
Bill climbed out and Smith took his place in the cockpit. The others stood silently by while Smith tried out the controls. Finally Smith tried to see into the cockpit with the instrument lights, but found they were not powerful enough.
“Here’s one,” replied Sergeant Barney, the Chief Mechanic.
“That’s the most peculiar thing that I ever saw,” said Smith after throwing the beam into the cockpit and trying the rudder. “I wonder how that come to be put there?”
Smith did not answer, but instead went head first into the cockpit. He squirmed around for a while with his feet in the air and then started working his way back again.
“Here it is,” he said when he had resumed his normal position.
“What has that to do with it?” asked Bill.
“That board evidently fell or was placed in front of the rudder bar,” said Smith. “When it dropped in place, it exactly fit the space between the right side of the bar and the front cross members of the fusilage. The result was that you could not have pushed your right foot forward without breaking the cross members of the fusilage.”
“I wonder where it came from?” asked Bill. “Breene, who was working on this plane with you?”
“Corporal Grabo and a recruit. I don’t know the recruit’s name. Who was he, Barney? You sent him over.”
“I wasn’t in the cockpit at all,” said Grabo. “Let’s get Dixon and find out what he knows.”
“I sent Dixon in to do some K. P. work,” said Barney. “He was in the way out here and balled up everything that I gave him to do. Roll the plane back to the hangar, you men.”
“One of you men go to the barracks and bring Dixon to the office,” said Smith as he walked away.
Captain Smith was in his office when Bill arrived. He sat down and waited as he was interested to learn why that piece of board was in the plane.
“Come in, Dixon,” said Captain Smith after a while, and Dixon entered.
“Dixon, did you ever see this board before?” asked Captain Smith as he handed the board across the desk.
“I can’t say that I have, Captain,” replied Dixon.