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Show FICTION "SHJEPLiS" PA Cot nee IL . ILLai-M k -.,..,... ,...i A., .... - - -J., y - i-f, -infrJ f . -- I. - He jerked the doll loose and tossed It out through the open side window. PALMER soared through the sky with a light heart. He was leaving leav-ing a hard life behind, years of hand-to-mouth existence, years oi 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 the Instrument board, saw that everything was all right. Tha 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. His luck was breaking right for the first time, just right. Reaching up, he patted the mascot swinging from the roof on a length of ribbon. It was a small doll, black of face, with two pearl buttons set In the satin for eyes, a piece of red silk stitched across the lower half of the face for a mouth. It was garbed In a loud plaid dress green and red. That rag-stuffed little figure had been hanging In this ship for over two years. Palmer had come to believe be-lieve it was lucky. The girl who had loaned him the down payment on the machine had put it there. He had met her one summer when he had been barnstorming with a small, old ship, and they had knocked around together for three months. She had been pretty sure of herself. Palmer recalled, loaned him money, talked about how "we" were going to make a fortune with the larger ship. . He recalled the night when they bad won the doll at a small carnival, car-nival, in one of the ring-toss games. He had made up his mind already to pull out sometime soon. And it had annoyed him somewhat to see her 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 they go to tha field where his ship was staked down in the open, and sit in the cabin far a few minutes. She bad 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 heme. At dawn of the same morning, he bad taken off and come East. He bad never an admission of remorse. And he had nothing to blame himself for. The doll had brought him luck at last: Eleanore. She had looks and background and money. Furthermore, Further-more, she had the kind of a spirit he liked, which he needed close to him. To her, a ship wasn't something some-thing to work for a small house, for an ordinary living. She enjoyed what he enjoyed, fame, 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 field. A bright spot of color detached de-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. glanced at his altimeter. He still had fifteen hundred feet. One last stunt and then he could land. He circled the field once more, swung around and when he was almost over ov-er the car, shoved the throttle full on and dove in a screaming fall. The moving doll again attracted his glance. Eleanore had tightened her lips when he had told her it was a souvenir from a dame, before he got serious with 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 b) the side of the car, he noticed and he decided to level off. No need ia 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, level off he was doing better than two 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 laud green and red plaid dress seemed to widen the grin ol her scarlet satin mouth. 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 cdfciing, 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 eut. 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, |