_Enemies_
The day of Linda Carlton's flight to Birmingham, Alabama, was warm and
spring-like. It was only a false spring, to be sure, the kind that
sometimes comes suddenly in February, making everyone long to be out of
doors. How lucky for her, she thought. If it would only last a couple
of days!
Nancy Bancroft was already at the school when Linda arrived, alert and
eager for the trip. She had just received her private pilot's license
a few days previous, but she did not expect to attempt to guide the
autogiro. Nevertheless, she would be company for the more experienced
aviatrix.
Half an hour's instruction was all that Mr. Eckers considered
necessary, and before nine o'clock the girls took off for the South.
Linda couldn't help singing for joy. The autogiro was so much fun!
"Dad's going to buy me a plane," Nancy informed her companion. "As
soon as I get home next week."
"Next week?" repeated Linda.
"Yes. I'm leaving the school as soon as we get back. I have my license,
you know--that's what I wanted."
Linda was silent, thinking of Mr. Eckers' remark about girls the day
before. Yes, he must be right, their ambition usually ended with the
government's permission to fly.
"I'll miss you dreadfully, Nance!" was all she said.
"You must fly to New York often," urged the other.
The country over which the girls were flying was beautiful and the air
delightful. As they went farther south, they recognized real evidences
of spring in the foliage. The little plane hummed gayly on, with never
a disturbance in its sturdy motor. Linda was exceedingly happy.
Noon-time came, and they ate their sandwiches and drank the coffee
which Linda's kind-hearted landlady had insisted upon providing, but
they did not stop. Everything was going so wonderfully that they hated
to break the spell. At this rate they ought to reach Birmingham long
before dark.
It was about two o'clock that they met with a strange adventure. Flying
along at an even rate, high enough to span the woods that loomed ahead
of them, there suddenly appeared, out of nowhere it seemed, what the
girls thought to be a formation of airplanes.
"Go carefully!" warned Nancy. "Don't forget that awful accident a while
ago, when several planes were flying in formation!"
Linda curved to the side, but the planes seemed to be flying straight
at her.
"They haven't any sense at all!" she cried, in exasperation, now
seriously fearing disaster.
On they rushed, till a cold fear gripped Linda's heart. Try as she
might, she couldn't get out of their way! It was all like a dreadful
dream, when something menacing rushes inevitably towards you, yet you
are powerless to stop. Then, in a flash, Linda perceived what the
formation was.
Eagles! Great, huge, ominous birds, traveling through the air with the
speed of machines. Involuntarily, she reached for her gun.
"No use!" shouted Nancy, in terror. "Too many of them!"
Realizing the truth of Nancy's words, Linda did the only thing
possible: swiftly, almost recklessly, she landed on the ground,
expecting to be dashed upward again, or the plane turned over, pinning
her and her companion beneath. But miraculously, nothing disastrous
happened; the autogiro had come down vertically and stopped. That,
then, was the wonder of this marvelous little machine! Had it been any
other kind of plane, the girls would surely have been injured--and
possibly killed!
They had landed in a small clearing between the trees. Shutting off her
engine, Linda turned, gasping, to her friend.
"Would you ever believe, a thing like that if you read it?" she
demanded.
"The landing--or the birds?" inquired Nancy, still breathless with
excitement.
"I really meant the birds, for I knew that the autogiro was wonderful.
I've seen them land and take off before, though of course I never tried
anything like this."
"Well, I did read about big birds bothering pilots one time--in a
newspaper, I guess. But I didn't think much about it."
They waited quietly for a while until they felt calm again. The birds
had flown on immediately; there was nothing to prevent their taking
up their journey again. Ordinarily Linda would have been apprehensive
of a take-off in so small a space, but after her landing, she felt
confident. The autogiro rose instantly, almost vertically, and they
were on their course again.
"I'm going to get Dad to buy me an autogiro!" Nancy announced. "This
has decided me."
"Me too!" agreed Linda.
"But you'll have a big Bellanca!" Nancy said. "Lou told me you put in
the order."
"I may not have, after we try that ocean trip," returned the other
girl. "We may be ship-wrecked and picked up by some boat----"
"So long as you are picked up, it'll be O.K.... Oh, Linda, I think you
are just marvelous!"
"Thanks, Nance. But I don't deserve the praise yet. Wait till I earn
it."
Only a short distance stretched between them and Birmingham now,
and Linda covered it in record time. Safe and sound she brought the
autogiro down on the airport before four o'clock in the afternoon.
Turning it over to the authorities, and giving her instructions about
the other plane, which was to be ready the following day, Linda
summoned a taxi and asked to be driven to the best hotel.
The rest of the day was their own, and the girls enjoyed it thoroughly,
eating a luxurious dinner, and attending a show afterward. On
their way home from the theater, Nancy asked more questions about
Linda's proposed trans-Atlantic flight, and the latter told her
everything--even to the story of the enemy whom she and Louise most
feared: Bess Hulbert.
"But I don't see why you should worry about her," said Nancy. "She
wouldn't dare come back to the United States again."
"I'm not so sure of that. Now that some time has passed, she'll think
everyone's forgotten about her crimes."
"I hope not," replied Nancy, optimistically.
Little did the girls think, as they discussed Bess Hulbert, that
evening, that they would run into her the following day, just as Linda
was fearing might happen at some time or another.
It all happened suddenly, at the field of the airplane construction
company in Nashville, Tennessee, where Linda had delivered the second
plane without any mishap.
She had just received the president's signature on the delivery card,
and was about to summon a taxi, when the man made a generous suggestion.
"If you girls can wait till tomorrow," he told them, "I can have
you taken north by plane. We are making a delivery at Springfield,
Illinois, and St. Louis isn't much out of the way."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed Linda, gratefully. "Because we both have
grown to hate trains. They crawl so."
"Worms instead of birds," remarked Nancy, thinking of the dangerous
mistake they had made the previous day.
"Besides," added Linda, "we will get there so much more quickly, even
though we had thought something of taking a sleeper."
"O.K. Then I will introduce you to your pilot, and you can make your
arrangements." He turned to a mechanic who was standing by. "Joe, get
Miss Mason to come over here." Then, to the girls he explained, "Your
pilot happens to be a young lady--one of our saleswomen."
Nancy and Linda both smiled rather proudly. It was nice to find that
women were everywhere taking their places in aviation.
The false name was misleading; Linda had not a suspicion that "Miss
Mason" was Bess Hulbert, although she remembered later that the girl
had masqueraded in Plattsburg as "Anna Smith." But the moment the girl
came toward them, Linda recognized her, and had the satisfaction at
least of seeing her turn deathly pale.
Noticing Linda's gasp of astonishment, Nancy turned to her
questioningly.
"It's Bess Hulbert!" she whispered, hoarsely.
"What's that?" demanded the president of the corporation.
"Nothing," answered Linda. "Only--Mr. Harris--we--we've changed our
minds about flying back to St. Louis. We'll go by train."
"But why?" demanded the man, as Miss Hulbert came nearer. "Pardon me,
but is it something personal? You know Miss Mason, perhaps?"
"To Miss Carlton's sorrow!" was Nancy's quick and bitter retort. "I
think you had better hear all about the kind of woman you have in your
employ!"
"No! No!" protested Bess Hulbert, who was now near enough to hear the
slur, and who appeared desperately frightened. "Give me a chance to
talk to Miss Carlton alone. I don't know this other person!"
At a loss to know what to say, the man looked helplessly at Linda.
"No. Perhaps we had better go," decided Linda.
"Please give me a chance!" begged Bess. "Ten minutes--alone." She
looked imploringly at Mr. Harris, who nodded immediately, and started
towards the building.
Bess reached for Linda's arm, and clung to it desperately, as a beggar
might appeal for alms.
"I know what you think of me," she said. "But I'm so sorry, so
frightfully sorry! Won't you have mercy on me--let bygones be bygones,
if I give you my word of honor I've reformed?"
Receiving no reply, she continued excitedly: "It's true that I tried
to snatch your father's business, but oh, I was desperate! If you
could know what it is to be poor--to have an ambition to fly, and not
be able to fulfill it! Oh, Miss Carlton, you ought to understand what
the longing is! Suppose you didn't have a father to buy you a plane!
Remember, I had to fly an old Jenny from the Army, while you piloted
an Arrow Sport!"
"But you wrecked my Arrow," Linda reminded her.
"Yes. In a fit of jealousy. I'm sorry. Oh, please believe that I am
truly sorry now! And if you let me go ahead without showing me up, and
if I can win that prize for the flight to Paris, I'll buy you a new
plane. Honest I will! I'll give you a written promise!"
"But why should I make it possible for you to win the prize, when Miss
Haydock and I want to win it ourselves?" countered Linda.
"To be sporting! Oh, won't you please! You see, I now owe Kitty
Clavering ten thousand dollars, and I can never repay her unless I win.
I've got a job here, but it would take me years to save that much....
If you throw me into prison, I'll never get out of debt. It will ruin
my life."
"Didn't you try to ruin Linda's life?" put in Nancy.
"No--only the plane. I didn't mean to kill you, Miss Carlton! I'm not
so bad as that! I'd never do anything like that again--I've learned
my lesson, living these months in a constant dread of arrest and
disgrace.... Maybe you haven't heard that my brother is engaged to
Kitty Clavering," she added, changing the subject. "But he could never
marry her if I brought a terrible disgrace on the family!"
In the face of these arguments and entreaties, Linda was silent. Never
in her life had she been confronted with such a momentous decision.
"When do you plan to fly across the ocean?" she asked, stalling for
time.
"April. Early in the month, I hope."
"With another girl?"
"No. Alone."
"No mechanic--no navigator with you?"
"No. I'm relying a lot on luck."
"That's a bad idea. You better get somebody to help you."
Bess Hulbert's eyes lighted up with joy.
"You are going to let me go?" she cried, snatching Linda's hand in
relief. "Oh, you angel!"
"I'm not sure yet," replied Linda. "I'll have to talk it over with
Lou--Miss Haydock. After all, she has a right to some say in the
matter.... But meanwhile, my friend and I do not care to go by plane
with you to St. Louis."
"You won't trust me! Even now, when you have my confession--when I tell
you I've reformed?"
"Sorry," replied Linda, coldly. "But a burnt child dreads the fire. So
I don't feel like risking it.... Now, if we decide to let you off, it
is just as you said, because of the sport of the thing--to give you a
chance to compete for the big honor. But Miss Haydock and I could never
really trust you again."
Bess Hulbert sighed; she was slowly but surely learning that dishonesty
did not pay.
"You are going to tell Mr. Harris?" she asked.
"No, I guess not," replied Linda. "That wouldn't do us any good....
We want to get to a hotel now, and look up our trains, and change our
clothing. Can you get us a taxi?"
"Certainly," replied Bess, meekly. How different she was from the
haughty girl they had met at the Flying Club in the fall! "And when
shall I hear definitely from you?"
"If we decide to take any steps against you, we'll inform the officials
this week, and you'll hear from them. But I wouldn't run away this
time--you have an even chance of getting free, if you stick to the job.
And, if you hear nothing before the tenth of March, say, you can go
ahead with your plans."
"Thank you! Thank you!" cried the older girl, rushing off to do as she
was told.
The taxi appeared in a few minutes, and when Nancy and Linda were
finally alone, the former regarded her friend with wonder and
admiration.
"You're actually going to let her go, aren't you, Linda!" she asked.
"What do you think?" asked the other.
Nancy shrugged her shoulders. "You're doing the big thing, of
course, but I don't believe in your place I could do it. I'd want my
revenge.... Anyhow, I don't really think she'll win that prize."
"What makes you say that?"
"Not enough preparation. Not a good enough plane--she's spending less
than ten thousand dollars, apparently.... And, well, it just wouldn't
be right."
Linda laughed, but she knew that Nancy was absolutely loyal to her.