Chapter Seventeen

An Ultimatum to Mattie

Sue met Jane when she stepped off the _Coast to Coast Limited_ and together the girls went to the apartments which had been leased by the air line. They were in Chicago for the night. Sue booked out early the next morning and Jane later in the day.

Grace and Alice, also in Chicago, had been down town shopping that afternoon, but they all met at the apartment. There was an attractive kitchenette, but the girls were tired and they had dinner at a nearby restaurant. Later they walked to a neighborhood movie where they enjoyed the feature program.

When they returned to the apartment, Mattie Clark was there, still mad at the long delay which had kept her away from Chicago.

"Imagine having to stay out at the emergency field at Sterling almost all day," she stormed. She turned on Sue angrily.

"If you hadn't been so pig-headed back in Cheyenne, I'd have been on the first section and at least arrived during the daytime."

"You can thank me you weren't on the first section," replied Sue calmly. "We got lost and were coming down for a crash landing when the fog cleared at Joliet and we sneaked down there. I was scared to death."

Mattie looked at Sue skeptically.

"You don't seem to believe me," said Sue.

"Well, it's a good story," said Mattie.

Jane's anger had mounted steadily and it got away from her.

"That's enough, Mattie. We might as well have it out right now. I think you're mean and small. You're doing everything you can to make it unpleasant for Miss Comstock, and now you're insulting Sue, because you know Sue is too even-tempered to fight back. Now just get out of here and after this keep out of my way."

Mattie was furious and her face flamed with anger, but before she could reply, Alice stepped in.

"What Jane said goes for Grace and me," she said. "The less we see of you, the better."

"You'll all be sorry for this," flared Mattie as she slammed the door and went into the apartment across the hall.

"I'm sorry this had to happen," Jane told the others, "but Mattie is out for trouble and she's going to get it. From now on keep your eyes open, for she'll trick you if she can."

The stewardesses soon settled into the routine of the flights from Cheyenne to Chicago and return. It was interesting, pleasant work.

Jane banked the money she had received from the New York paper and from Mrs. Van Verity Vanness and when Charlie Fischer asked her if she'd like to take lessons in flying, she had the money necessary.

Charlie had a biplane at Cheyenne and between flights with the huge Federated planes, amused himself by hopping around the countryside and giving lessons to whatever pupils he could pick up. Of the stewardesses, Jane was the only girl who decided to take lessons.

Whenever she and Charlie were at Cheyenne, he took her up for flights, explaining the principles of aeronautics and letting her get the feel of the plane. One afternoon they flew to Denver and back, and on another occasion, went to Laramie.

Jane was blessed with air sense. When she had her hands on the control stick, she could almost anticipate every movement of the plane and Charlie praised her aptitude warmly.

The days rolled into mid-summer and July in Cheyenne was hot. It was refreshing to seek the coolness of the upper air in the late afternoon and Jane spent as much extra time aloft as she could afford. Then came the afternoon for her solo flight. The government inspector arrived and took his place in the rear cockpit.

Charlie Fischer looked up and grinned.

"Just forget the guy back there," he said, "and you'll get along fine."

Jane's throat tightened. Going up with a government inspector was quite different from going up with Charlie.

She opened the throttle and the biplane shot across the sun-baked field. Jane was glad the other girls were out on the line, for it would be embarrassing to come down and face them if the inspector should turn her down.

She lifted the biplane into the air and got altitude in easy circles over the airport. Then she started through the routine. As the thrill of the flight got into her blood, she forgot the inspector in the rear cockpit and gave her every energy to piloting the plane. With grace and skill, she directed the maneuvers until the inspector reached ahead, tapped her on the shoulder, and nodded toward the ground.

Jane cut the motor and they drifted down. Charlie Fischer was the first to reach the plane.

"How about it?" he asked the inspector.

"Just about perfect," smiled the government official.

"Then I'll get my license?" Jane asked breathlessly.

"There's no question about that. I'm giving you an exceptionally high rating. Your license will be through shortly."

It was another ten days, before the precious card with her license arrived from Washington and Jane showed it proudly to her roommates.

"It's nice," admitted Sue, "but what on earth will you do with it? You haven't a plane and you can't afford to rent Charlie Fischer's."

"I honestly don't know," confessed Jane, "but I wanted it. Some day I'll be glad that I have the license and the ability to fly a plane."

Mattie Clark was still causing trouble. Any other girl who so rankly showed her insubordination would have been fired within a week, but the fact that Mattie's uncle was a company official saved her time and again. She knew she was treading on thin ice, but she seemed to take whole-hearted enjoyment in making Miss Comstock and the other girls miserable. Jane was her special hate.

Jane was still on the _Coast to Coast_, the crack run of the line, and summer had slipped over into August. A burning wind swept down out of the mountains and it was hot that morning when the eastbound _Coast to Coast_ drifted in.

Mattie had been assigned to a westbound plane for the day, and was in the commissary while Jane checked over her supplies. As usual, Mattie made as many caustic remarks as possible, but Jane refused to answer.

Jane finished preparing the supplies to place aboard the plane and went out to call a field boy to help her carry the large hamper. When she returned with the boy, Mattie was still in the commissary and Jane looked at her sharply. Mattie flushed, but Jane thought nothing more of the incident.

The _Coast to Coast_ was loaded and Jane sat on the jump seat at the rear of the plane. It was the usual crowd--a second-rate movie actress, several New York traveling men with flashy clothes, an elderly lady called east by a death in the family and the rest business men and women who had taken the plane to save time on their trip east.

Jane made sure that everyone had traveling kits, answered several questions about the weather ahead, and checked over her passenger list to see that everyone was in the proper seat.

The ship rolled out of the hangar and swept away into the east. Jane picked up the magazines and went along the aisle, offering them to passengers who cared to read. Most of them preferred to gaze at the landscape below.

They were east of Grand Island when Jane prepared lunch, serving sandwiches, a cool salad and an iced drink she had brought in a large thermos jug.

It was early afternoon when they cleared Omaha, with a stop scheduled ahead at Des Moines, the last one until Chicago. Council Bluffs had barely dropped out of sight when Jane began to feel ill. Just then a woman called her. She was feeling uneasy and Jane gave her a soda tablet.

She had hardly returned to her seat when everyone appeared stricken at the same moment. Her passengers became deathly ill and Jane herself was so sick she could hardly move. She managed to stagger ahead to the pilots' cockpit and told them of what had happened. The big ship was turned about at once, roaring back for Omaha, while the co-pilot sent out a rush call for ambulances and doctors to meet it at the field.

By the time the tri-motor reached the Omaha field, Jane was too ill to move and everyone in the cabin was carried out and taken to the hospital for treatment.

Just before she left the field, Jane spoke to the chief pilot.

"Save the lunch," she whispered. "It must have been that."

He nodded and hurried away to see what he could find in the pantry.

Somehow the Omaha papers got hold of the story, and printed it on their front pages. As a result Hubert Speidel, the personnel chief, hurried out from Chicago on the first plane to make an investigation, and it was at Jane's request that he had the food analyzed. Shortly after that he ordered an investigation to be held at Cheyenne and Jane, still weak from her sudden illness, wondered what he had learned.