"But what would Mrs. Van Verity Vanness and company officials say?"

"I'll call the Federated publicity office," said the energetic Ruthe.

Jane talked to the New York publicity head of Federated, and he approved of the story. Another call to Mrs. Van Verity Vanness brought her consent.

"Make them pay a good price," she advised Jane.

Dinner over, they hastened back to the Federated hangar where the reporter borrowed a typewriter. "Now tell me everything that happened and how you felt."

"But we haven't agreed on a price," said Jane.

"How about $50?"

"That doesn't seem enough. Won't this be front page news?"

"I should say it will. Every other New York paper will probably turn green with envy."

"Then $50 isn't enough."

"I might be able to get $100," urged the reporter.

"Don't take less than $500," advised the night dispatcher. "If the _Globe_ won't pay it, call some of the other papers. They will."

In desperation, Ruthe Harrigan called her editor and before Jane gave her a line of copy, a check for $500 was in the hands of the stewardess.

It was more money than Jane had ever had before and she fingered the check carefully. Now she could go to a hotel, have the finest room, enjoy the choicest food, and still have what to her was wealth.

For two hours Ruthe Harrigan plied her with questions while she beat a heavy tattoo on the typewriter. When she was through she had nine pages of copy to send to her office.

"It's a good story," smiled the reporter, "even if you did make us pay through the nose for it."

Jane cashed her check at the field and had it converted into travelers'

checks of small denominations. Then she took a taxi to a recommended hotel and by 11 o'clock was sound asleep, while across the river in New York the presses of the _Globe_ were rolling out her own story of the encounter with the aerial bandits.

Chapter Fifteen

"h.e.l.lo Heroine"

Jane was up at seven the next morning and a few minutes later, went down to breakfast. In the lobby she purchased copies of all of the morning papers and went into the grill for breakfast.

An excellent picture of herself stared up from the front page of the _Globe_ and underneath the picture was a two column headline informing _Globe_ readers that they were about to read Jane Cameron's own story of the battle with the bandits.

Jane flushed and looked up to make sure no one had recognized her. But there were only a few at breakfast at that hour and she read the story from opening paragraph to the final dash. Jane had to admit that Ruthe Harrigan had done an excellent job of writing. The story was thrilling, from start to finish.

After breakfast Jane bought half a dozen copies of the _Globe_, paid her hotel bill, and took a taxi to the field. A pa.s.s was ready for her and the 8:18 was on the line, warming up for the trip west.

A messenger approached Jane with a message and she signed for it.

Inside was a brief note from Mrs. Van Verity Vanness expressing her appreciation and with it a check, "a little token of my grat.i.tude,"

wrote Jane's pa.s.senger. The stewardess' eyes blinked as she looked at the check. It was for one thousand dollars!

Jane's knees felt weak and she grasped a nearby handrail for support. A thousand dollars! Why, it didn't seem possible. But it was possible, for a thousand dollars was only pin money to the millions which Mrs.

Van Verity Vanness controlled.

Jane felt almost uncomfortably rich. There had been $500 for selling the story and now the thousand dollar check. She had spent less than $10 for her room, breakfast, taxi fare and the papers. Why she would have at the very least $1,490 when she returned to Cheyenne. It seemed unbelievable but she had the checks.

The day chief of operations at Newark came up.

"There's a sound crew from a news reel outside. They want you to pose and say a few words. It's good publicity for the line."

Jane was glad that it was almost time for the plane to depart, for facing a movie camera was a real ordeal. Her mouth went dry and chills ran along her back as the sound man held the microphone close. Somehow she managed to say a few words, and then she hurried back to the 8:18.

Two minutes later the big tri-motor was roaring west, and late that night Jane would be back at Cheyenne.

There was a strong headwind and they seldom got above a hundred miles an hour, with the result that they were more than an hour late when they reached Chicago.

Jane changed planes there and had a lunch at the field. Then the tri-motor sped westward again. There was a light pa.s.senger list, only nine aboard the fourteen-pa.s.senger craft, and none of them recognized Jane, for which she was grateful.

Night came as they roared over the rich farm lands of Iowa and from Omaha west, Jane dozed, lulled by the rhythmic beating of the three great engines.

The wind increased in force as they neared the Rockies, and the speed was well under a hundred an hour. As a result, it was nearly three o'clock when the lights of Cheyenne showed far ahead, under the left wing. Jane roused herself and straightened her uniform. She wondered if the girls would be at the field.

The big plane glided noiselessly out of the night into the glare of the floodlights. When it rolled into the hangar Jane peered anxiously toward the waiting room. Sure enough, Sue, Grace and Alice were there, all of them fairly dancing in their anxiety to greet her.

The young stewardess was first out of the tri-motor, and she ran to meet her friends.

"h.e.l.lo heroine," said Sue, as she threw her arms around Jane in an affectionate embrace.

"Welcome home," added Alice, while Grace added, "let's see what the New York papers said about you."

Miss Comstock, who had been in the background, came up and greeted Jane warmly.

"You've done a wonderful piece of work for the stewardess service," she said. "Mrs. Van Verity Vanness sent the general manager a long telegram today, highly recommending the service and especially complimenting you. I'm sure that as a result of your outstanding work, we're all a.s.sured of jobs for a long time to come."

"But I didn't do anything unusual," protested Jane. "I simply did my job as I had been trained to do it, in the hospital and here at the field. It was nothing more than what will soon be routine to every one of us."

"Not every one of us will have bandits attack our plane the first time we're out, nor will we be carrying a woman who can sign her name to a check for a million dollars and know that she can cash it," put in Grace.

Jane looked at her wrist watch. It was just three o'clock.

"We'd better hurry home if we plan to get any sleep tonight," she said.

"You can go home," said Grace, "but Alice and I are ordered out on the eastbound mail. It's coming through in two sections from the coast this morning, and will be here in another fifteen minutes."

"Then I'll stay and see you off," said Jane. "Fifteen minutes, more or less, won't make much difference at this time of night."

Miss Comstock was busy in the commissary, checking supplies which were to go aboard the eastbound planes and the girls all lent her a hand.