A Sock in the Jaw

This was the first time Johnny Knight had been on the carpet, and he knew it might well be the last – at least as far as Inter-Ocean Airways was concerned. Of course they kept him waiting. He sat quietly, his big hands folded in his lap, until finally the door marked Chief Pilot – Private opened and a girl came out.

"Captain Judson will see you now, Mr. Knight," she said.

Judson was a youngish bald man, big in the shoulders, and tall. His eyes had the squint of 10,000 hours in the air and he was slightly deaf in one ear. He motioned Johnny to a chair.

"You've been flying with us for six months or so, haven't you, Knight?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, that's right," Johnny answered.

"You had a good record, too – until this thing happened. You look like a sensible fellow, how could you do anything so crazy?"

"I guess I just lost my head for a minute, Captain," Johnny said. "I blew my top, that's all."

"There isn't much room in this business for people who blow their tops, Mr. Knight," Judson said. "You'd better tell me about it. How did it happen, anyway?"

Johnny Knight drew a deep breath. "Well, I've been flying with Captain Harbull for 60 days or so," he said.

"The night it all happened, there last week, he was checking me out on a new airplane, the Cavalier 109, you know, completely test flight, no passengers at all. We had a little carburetor icing on the No. 2 engine and we went into Pittsburgh to have it straightened out. Everything was socked in there. You couldn't see your hand (concluded on page 60) Sock in the Jaw (continued from page 55) in front of your face and we barely got into the field."

"Who made the landing?"

"I did."

"Did you have any discussion with Harbull about who was going to make it?"

Johnny Knight raised his eyebrows. "When you're flying with Captain Harbull," he said, "you don't have any discussions about anything. You do what you're told. He runs a taut ship."

"You always got along well with him though, didn't you?" Judson asked.

"Sure. I can take it," Johnny said. "Harbull is all right, I guess. He just wants to make sure you can take it. I remember one time he made me pump the gear up and down by hand for three landings. My arm was sore for a week. He cut the No. 1 engine on me one day taking off out of Dayville, to see if I'd blow up. Another time he underset the altimeter a couple hundred feet when I was landing blind."

Judson looked up. "What did you do about that?" he asked.

"I reached over and tapped the glass, just to be sure he saw where the needle was," Johnny said. "Then I figured he must think it was OK, since he doesn't want to get killed any more than anybody else, so I went ahead and landed the thing."

"I see. That was good clear thinking," Judson said. "To get back to Pittsburgh, what happened after you'd landed?"

"We got the carburetor trouble cleaned up and then we went in to check the weather. The dispatcher told us we were grounded. Captain Harbull laughed at him and told him to go back to his knitting. He told him there were still a few men left on the airline. The dispatcher got sore, of course, and they had a big argument. But the dispatcher wouldn't give in. He said we were grounded and that was all there was to it."

Judson interrupted. "Was that when Harbull made the phone call?" he asked.

Johnny nodded. "Yeah. First he told the dispatcher to do it. 'Call up The Man,' he said. 'Get Mac on the phone and we'll settle this in a hurry.' Of course the dispatcher wouldn't do it. I guess he didn't know that Harbull was the second or third pilot the airline ever hired and he and Mr. MacIntyre are buddies. The idea of calling the president of the line in the middle of the night was too much for him. So finally Captain Harbull grabbed the phone and made the call himself."

"And Mr. MacIntyre told him to go ahead if he thought he should, right?"

Johnny nodded. "Yes. Harbull made the dispatcher listen while Mr. MacIntyre said it again, and then we went back out to the airplane. It was so foggy we almost walked into the ship before we saw it. Nobody else was going. There were two regular TBA flights there and one Federal. That was when Harbull gave me the big speech. 'Knight,' he said, 'it's at times like this when we separate the men from the boys. Those jokers over there are going to sit around drinking coffee all night. Their passengers are getting sore. They're losing money for their companies, and making ill will. And for what? Because they're chicken, and they won't go. They're afraid of a little low-lying mist.' And so on. He gave me a real pitch."

"I see," Judson said. "Harbull is quite an articulate fellow, I know that."

"He sure is," Johnny said. "Of course, it occurred to me to remind him that after all those other flights had full passenger loads, and we were empty, just the two of us, but I decided against it. Anyway, we got into the airplane and Harbull took a 10-cell flashlight out of his bag and gave it to me. 'Now I'll tell you what we're going to do, Knight, my boy,' he said. 'You take the flashlight and stick it out the window on your side. We'll put the ship about 10 feet from the edge of the runway, and you shine the light on the markers. And you steer, understand? You steer, watching the runway, and I'll take it off blind. Got it?'

"I said I guessed so, and that's how we took it off, so help me."

"Then you came up to New York without any further incidenti'

"That's right," Johnny said. "Nothing more happened, and I don't mind telling you that was OK with me. It will also be OK with me if I never have to make another one of those piano-duet take-offs."

"I can understand that," Judson said. "But when did your trouble with Harbull start?"

"When we checked in. We sent in to dump our gear. Harbull slung his stuff down and lit a cigarette. 'Well, I hope I never have to do that again,' he said. 'That take-off gave me the jumps.'

"I was really jolted when he said that. 'I thought you wanted to make it,' I said. 'What about all the stuff about loyalty to the airline, and the mail must go through, and all that?'

"Harbull laughed. 'Oh, that!' he said. 'That was just to be sure you kept your nerve up, sonny. I didn't think I'd better tell you the real reason I wanted to get home.'

"'And what was the real reason?' I said.

"'A dame, of course,' Harbull told me. 'What else? I've got a late date tonight, and I stood her up last time. If I did it again, she'd break my arm.'"

Judson laid down his pencil. "Was that when you slugged him?" he asked.

Johnny Knight shook his head. "No, a couple of minutes later Harbull said he suddenly remembered something. He said his date wasn't for that night at all, it was for the next night, Wednesday night."

"Oh," Judson said. "Then you hit him?"

"No, I didn't," Johnny said. "I had the temptation, but I controlled it. I got a grip on myself. I counted to 10. I lit a cigarette."

"Very commendable," Judson said. "What happened next?"

"Well, sir, we just sat there, Captain Harbull and me," Johnny said, "and he kept looking at me, and he began to grin and suddenly it dawned on me. Captain Harbull has been flying since the pilots rode outdoors. He wouldn't risk a passenger or an airplane for a date with Sophia Loren. Second, he can remember what the dewpoint was on Thanksgiving Day of 1928, he never forgot anything in his life, and he sure wouldn't forget what night he was meeting a girl. The whole thing had been a gag. He was just seeing how much I could take. He was just giving me a real Harbull stretch-out."

"That was when you lost your head?" Judson asked.

"Yes, sir. I blew my top. I hit him and I dumped him right on the deck."

"What happened after that?" Judson asked.

"Captain Harbull looked at me and said, 'Help me up.' So I did, and as soon as he was on his feet he slugged me. He was holding me with one hand and he hit me with the other."

"I didn't know about that," Judson said.

"He hit me a pretty good lick," Knight said. "When I came to, he showed me something: a roll of dimes he'd had in his hand when he hit me. 'Knight, my boy,' he said. 'The reason seniority counts for so much on the airlines is that seniority means brains. I'm senior to you, and you have a lot of muscle, and I'm not going to belabor the point, but I strongly advise you never even to entertain the idea of hitting a captain again.'"

"You parted friends?" Judson asked.

"Oh, sure," Knight said.

That was about all there was to it. Harbull had made no formal complaint, and Knight left the office with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist. He thanked Judson and hustled to the branch bank in the air terminal building.

"Tell me," he said to the clerk, "about how many quarters does it take to make a roll four inches long?"