Spring arrived in a shroud of rain and fog, but with the improvement of the radio beacons, the planes were seldom delayed. The end of their first year as stewardesses neared and it was late in May when Jane, aboard the eastbound _Coast to Coast Limited_, swooped down on the field at Omaha.

To her surprise, the first pa.s.senger to step aboard was Miss Hardy, the supervisor of nurses at Good Samaritan. Jane was genuinely glad to see her, for it had been through Miss Hardy she had received the opportunity to join the stewardess service.

The _Coast to Coast_ was five minutes ahead of schedule and Jane and the supervisor had a chance to visit. Miss Hardy explained that she was going to Chicago for a part of her vacation and had finally managed to make up her mind to fly.

"Perhaps I'd better say my brother convinced me," she smiled. "I've been in Omaha a week. He's a regular aviation fan and comes out to the field two or three times a week to watch the night planes come in.

After he dragged me along, I began to feel that I wasn't afraid to make the trip."

"You'll enjoy every minute of it," Jane a.s.sured her, "and I'm especially delighted that your first trip is with me. Slim Bollei, one of the most skilled pilots on the line, is at the controls today.

That means you'll have a smooth, comfortable trip. Once in a while a cross-wind gives the pa.s.sengers a little trouble, but travel is unusually comfortable today."

"You've certainly attracted national attention," said Miss Hardy. "I've read of your exploits on several occasions, once when the bandit plane tried to abduct that wealthy New York woman and again when you flew to some small town with a supply of much needed serum."

"It wasn't done for publicity's sake," said Jane, "but the public and the newspapers aren't used to stewardesses on planes and when they do anything out of the ordinary, that's news."

Departure time came and Jane saw that Miss Hardy was settled comfortably, in a chair next to a window, and halfway back on the right side of the plane. Miss Hardy looked older and her eyes appeared tired.

She must have had a hard year with the new cla.s.ses of girls at Good Samaritan, thought Jane.

They roared off the field, flashed over the muddy Missouri, and then struck out across the rolling farm land of western Iowa. The country was fresh, with the green of the pastures contrasting sharply against the black of the corn fields, in which the first spears of the new stalks were starting to peep through the top soil.

Several times on their swift flight over Iowa, Jane stopped to talk with Miss Hardy, who appeared to be enjoying the trip immensely. It was a non-stop hop from Omaha that afternoon and almost before they knew it, the graceful craft was settling down on the Chicago field.

"I've enjoyed the trip so much I'm going in and make my reservation for the return flight," said Miss Hardy, as Jane helped her out of the plane.

"Then I'll look forward to having you booked on my plane," said Jane.

"Thanks so much for your recommendation last year. It helped a great deal in getting jobs for Sue and me."

Sue arrived the next morning on the slower _Night Flyer_ and found that she was booked out that night for the return to Cheyenne. Business eastbound had been heavier than the westbound traffic, and as a result there were more girls at the Chicago airport than needed. Jane was a.s.signed to fly back with Sue, resuming her regular schedule from Cheyenne on the _Coast to Coast_ on the second day.

When Sue got her pa.s.senger list, there were only four, all of them going through to the coast.

"Looks like an easy trip," she told Jane.

Two traveling men were the first aboard and they were followed a few minutes later by a woman of about forty, who was accompanied by a curly-haired boy of seven or eight.

Sue nudged Jane sharply.

"Those people are down as Mrs. Henry Smith and son, but that boy looks like Jackie Condon, the famous movie star."

Jane looked again. The boy certainly resembled the lad she had seen on the screen so many times in the last two years. His salary was reported to be fabulous, his weekly pay so large the figures dazzled.

Two minutes before starting time, there was a jam at the gate and two men, well dressed, with dark, smooth faces, hurried forward, waving tickets.

"You're just in time," said Sue, taking their tickets and a.s.signing them to forward chairs.

They nodded and entered the plane. Jane standing beside the landing stage saw something that alarmed her, as the second man pa.s.sed. His coat slipped open just as he bent to go through the door and she caught a glimpse of a gun in a shoulder holster. Guns were not unfamiliar sights to the stewardesses, for each pilot went armed, but a gun on a pa.s.senger was a different thing.

"What were the names of those men?" she asked Sue.

"Anton Mellotti and Chris Bardo. Why?"

"The last man, Bardo, is carrying a gun."

"We'd better tell Charlie Fischer. He's flying us west tonight."

They hurried ahead and caught Charlie just before he climbed into the c.o.c.kpit.

"So we've got a gunman aboard," said Charlie, when the girls informed him of what Jane had seen. "We'll see about that."

Charlie entered the cabin and tapped Bardo on the shoulder. Jane couldn't hear what he said, but when Charlie returned he didn't have the gun.

"He flashed a deputy sheriff's badge and there wasn't anything I could do," explained Charlie. "You kids have let your imaginations run away with you. It's time to go."

Sue and Jane went aboard and Jane gave her friend a hand in strapping the pa.s.sengers into their seats. Then they sped westward as though racing to overtake the sun.

Jane picked up a movie magazine from the pile aboard the ship. On the fifth page was a large picture of Jackie Condon. Jane looked at it sharply and then at the boy pa.s.senger. There was no mistake. Sue was right.

She looked ahead at the pa.s.sengers who had arrived just before their departure. Mellotti was heavy set, with black hair and beetling brows.

Bardo was taller, lithe and quick of action. His eyes, so dark a brown they were almost black, shone with animation and when he looked at Jane she felt a queer chill creep along her spine. There was something sinister in his manner.

The trip westward was uneventful and they left Omaha on time. It was near Kearney when Jane, who had been reading an Omaha paper, looked up to see one of the pa.s.sengers standing in the aisle. She started ahead to tell him that it was against orders when she saw something glinting dully in his right hand. Other pa.s.sengers were raising their hands.

It was Mellotti, gun in hand. Bardo, also carrying a weapon, was hurrying toward the pilot's c.o.c.kpit and Jane knew that the suspicion which had gripped her in Chicago was a reality. They were abducting the young film star.

Chapter Twenty-five

On Desperate Wings

That night was timeless for Jane. Always she would remember the stark horror of it as the plane roared through the darkness with the gunmen in control.

Mellotti remained in the cabin, guarding the pa.s.sengers. Up ahead Bardo forced Charlie Fischer to swing the plane off the transcontinental airway. They were flying north. That was all Jane knew.

The hours slipped away with aching slowness. Jackie Condon and his mother remained calm and the traveling men started a card game. When the sky finally lightened, they were over a great, flat expanse of country with a chain of mountains barely visible in the west. Jane guessed they must be somewhere in Canada, just east of the Rockies.

Fifteen minutes later the plane landed and taxied across a weedy field to a lonely road that wound across the prairie. A truck, laden with barrels of gasoline, was waiting. Jane and the others were not permitted to leave the cabin while Bardo forced Charlie Fischer and his co-pilot to help fill the wing tanks. When that task was done, Bardo entered the cabin.

"Get out," he told the traveling men.

"Hey, you can't maroon us like this," the older one protested.

"Get out," repeated Bardo, his black eyes snapping, and they hastened to obey.

Jane and Sue started to follow the traveling men, but Bardo's soft voice stopped them.