led. Both she and the other stewardess,
Miss Prentiss, were ski enthusiasts. They were thinking about spending
the weekend at Stowe after they got to New York, even though they had
both broken ankles previously. Their friends in San Francisco were
joking with them about it before they left. They gave Miss Sosnak a
doll with a cast on its leg as a gag. The doll was found in the
wreckage. Apparently Miss Sosnak had given it to the little girl who
was killed on the flight, Barbara Patterson, who actually had a cast
on her leg at the time. She had fallen and hurt herself a few days
before."

* * * * *

A buzzer on Senator Brogan's desk hummed two short discreet hums.
Brogan made no attempt to answer it. He stood and came around the
desk, putting his hand on Kessler's shoulder. "Don't get up just yet,"
he said. "My secretary buzzes me every fifteen minutes in case I want
to show my constituents how busy I am. If there's anyone waiting, let
them wait. There's just a little bit more I'd like to say." He sat in
the wide embrasure of the window and leaned forward on a crossed knee.
He looked the picture of negligence but he was obviously pausing to
choose his words with care. Kessler shifted his chair to face him.

"I won't mince words," Brogan said, "because I think we understand
each other. We always have. Thanks to your splendid investigation, and
my only little efforts perhaps, we know more about the circumstances
of this crash than any other in aviation history. I had exactly your
feeling that the answer ought to be there. But I don't see it and you
don't see it. We know absolutely everything but one thing. We don't
know what caused it. And we're never going to know that. I really
think you are doing the aviation industry, yes and the country itself,
a real injury by going on. I won't say what I think you're doing to
yourself because it will sound like a sentimental appeal and you've
known me too long not to know I'm pretty hard-headed."

"The investigation is over," Kessler said sullenly.

"Yes, I know, officially, but you've just told me you're going on with
it personally."

"It's one last remote chance."

"Well, tell me this, Bob, if this last remote chance doesn't work out,
will you call it quits and not start in on another last remote chance?
Will you and Margaret get on up to that place of yours in Maine and
take a good long vacation?"

Kessler smiled wryly. "Margaret has ideas