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Show 11 rj, : J-fl FICTION &2US 111 ; Comer j. - .. 1 . . . ,, Wil IP III I ' 1 I""1 I I 111 ! " ' Wj J- ' -. ' ! ; ... j I ' " ' ! ! ; ; ,c-!e!-.I the C M lv:e 8i.il to;. ; J it cui liirobati 11:2 oye:i sh'.a v. jr. .b-er. ; DALMER soared through the sky with a light heart. He was leaving leav-ing a hard life behind, years of hand-to-mouth existence, years of depending on occasional charter trips and the students able to pay the high rates on his big machine. The future opened before him: He Would get a new ship, one of those long-range, all metal jobs, go in for long-distance competitive races. And he would have a swell-looking girl with a pile of dough to pay the bills. He glanced at th Instrument board, saw that everything was oil right. The cabin ship roared steadily stead-ily over Connecticut at four thousand thou-sand feet. There were scattered clouds beneath him, but not enough to hide the ground. Ilis luck was breaking rhiht for the first time, Just right. Reaching up, he patted the mascot sviny:ng from the roof on n Ini.rth of ribbon. It was a small doll, black of face. With two ni'.'i'I b ib.ans s--t in the s.-yin l..r i-y.-s, a pi-ce of H si!U .ar:o:.s Vtn lowr half rl the f ,-.,.( .'"i- a ,.mv' It v.as gnrb-id In a 1i.d pi '.id d a-;; green and la i. V: it r '.--.'' h'lle fi on'e had I- -; n !r : :r !bb; . ' '- ! r over f.- ;.a . -' !. bai come io L II- . r' it . lia ' y. . ; :-J who b" d loaia d b; o tb r' )'.'.' :i ;:r. . -.ent o: tba r.iacba.e bad put. it there. Ib-had Ib-had na:t bor i.u: suoii.ier when he iiad luaai 1. '.'a o.en: ai'b'l witll S t:.aia!l, i id : ' by, t:-d tbey had loaiab.ed nr.'xn 1 to,;c!!ur for three mouths, b'l b e.' be.-ii pretty sure Ci' herseli", Ib.i ocr recr.lled, loaned him money, tal' erl about how "we" v.ore going to make a fortune with tlm larger ship. He recalled the night when they had won the doll at a small carnival, car-nival, In one of the ring toss games, lie hrd made up his mind already , to pull out sometime soon. And it had annoyed him somewhat to see hor having such a gay time. But he could not tell her, there was no need to say goodbye tearfully and have her bawl and carry on in front of him. On their way home she had insisted in-sisted that 'hey go to the field where his ship was staked down In the open, and sit in the cabin for a few minutes. She had been big, and light blonde and sentimental. sentimen-tal. Just before they had left the cabin, she had pinned the thing to the upholstery on the ceiling.' "That's our luck, Eric," she had said. "As long as she's there, we'll always be safe." Palmer had smiled, kissed her and taken her home. At dawn of the same morning, he had taken olT and come East. He had never returned. Once in a while, a letter from her had caught up with him, but he had not answered. What was the use? He had intended to send her back the loan when he could. He was grateful for the help, and everything. But how could he explain without hurting her, that they were Just not suited to each other? When the letters had stopped coming, he had thought that she had understood. Then some fellow, who had known them both, had handed him a clipping, without a word. She had been killed In a crossing accident. It seemed that her car had stalled on the tracks, and that she had made no effort to get out. The fellow evidently thought she had done it on purpose. pur-pose. Palmer knew better. That girl had had character, she would not have done away with herself over a few hundred bucks and a broken engagement. He had been tempted to take that doll down. Then he had reasoned rea-soned that It would be, in a way, an aa iV'eion rf remorse. And he l;a :i nr. ;,!; ? to bb:m Iiii.vsclJ for. 'fee boM leal Proa him luck at backy-veer! am! m.eiry. Furthermore, Further-more, -!lC had bird of a s..ivil he bb.el, vme'i he nec-l-d elaae to hi ivi. To her, a ship v.aai't something some-thing to work for a small hoiiie, for an ordinary living. She enjoyed what he enjoyed, faeie, her name in the papers. She loved him, all right, but she would always understand that he must take long chances. A HEAD, he saw the small field where she was waiting. They would drive to her home, be married, mar-ried, and fly away. He tipped his left wing, banked lazily over a fieid. A bright spot of color d3-tached d3-tached itself from a long, sleek, dark car.' Eleanore waving her scarf. That was service already: His girl waiting for him with a sixteen cylinder bus, complete with chauffeur. His spirits surged higher. This was a private airport, no inspector would be around, so he was safe in giving her a show. He slammed the motor full on, nosed down then hauled the ship up and over in a tight loop. He leveled off and eased her around, a few wing-overs and level flight again. Something caught his eye, the doll, swinging from the roof, grinning grin-ning redly. He smiled and slapped it like a punching-bag a few times, i elaneed at his altinieler. lie still i ao Ibieen humired feet. One la'.t ntmt end then he could land. He circled the field once more, swung atoiaal and when he was almost over ov-er the car, shoved the throttle full on and dove in a screaming fall, 'i he moving doll again attracted his glance. Eleanore had tightened her lips when he had told her it was , a souvenir from a dame, before lie got serious wilh her. It might be tactful to ditch it now scarcely the memento for a perfect honeymoon! honey-moon! A small sacrifice to .love. He reached out, jerked it loose and tossed it out through the open side window and pulled the wheel back to neutral. Eleanore was standing still by the side of the car, he noticed and he decided to level off. No need to frighten her. He hauled back further fur-ther on the wheel. It yielded an inch and stuck. He pulled again, harder, hard-er, and the wheel stuck the wheel stuck He must get her nose up, level1 off he was doing better than two1 hundred and the ground was close. Too close ... , Caught between the horizontal stabilizer and the counterweight for the elevators, the small black doll in the loud green and red plaid dress seemed to widen the grin of her scarlet satin mouth. |