flights without paying admission also watched as the quintette of
strange aeroplanes dropped to earth.

One by one the graceful craft of the air settled to the ground, and the
young aviators alighted. Members of the Arrangement Committee hastened
to their sides, shaking hands warmly and thanking them for their
interest in the coming contests.

The Kelly aviators gazed curiously, some of them resentfully, at the
newcomers. They had all the professional's antipathy and jealousy of
amateur performers. As the Arrangement Committee bustled off after
telling our friends to make themselves perfectly at home, Pepita Le Roy
came up to them. She was a handsome woman, in a foreign way, with large,
dark eyes and an abundance of raven black hair. She was rather flashily
dressed and walked with a sort of swagger that in a vague way reminded
Peggy of "Carmen."

"So you are zee girl aviators," she remarked, as she came up.

"Yes; I guess that's what they call us," rejoined Peggy; "we enjoy
flying and have done a lot of it."

"So! I have read your names in zee papers."

"Oh, those awful papers!" cried Jess, who hated publicity; "they are
always printing things about us."

"What! You do not like it?"

"Oh, no! You see, we only fly for fun. Not as a business and--"

Peggy stopped short. She felt she had committed a grave breach of
tactfulness. It was not the thing, she felt, to boast to a professional
woman flyer of their standing as amateurs.

Nor was the Cuban woman slow to take umbrage at what she considered an
insult. Her eyes flashed indignantly as she regarded the fair-haired,
slender girl before her.

"So you fly only for fun," she said vehemently; "very well, you have all
zee fun you want before to-day is ovaire."

Without another word she walked off, with the swinging walk of her race.

The girls looked at each other with a sort of amused dismay.

"Goodness, Peggy; you should be more careful," cried Bess; "you've hurt
her feelings dreadfully."

"I'm sure I didn't mean to," declared Peggy remorsefully. "I--I had no
idea that she would flare up like that."

"Well, after all, it doesn't matter much," soothed Jess, pouring oil on
the troubled waters, so to speak. "I'm glad the boys didn't hear it
though."

"So am I. See, they're busy on Roy's machine," exclaimed Bess.

"Yes; the lower left wing is rather warped," explained Peggy; "they are
fixing it."

"Wonder who that man is who is monkeying with the _Red Dra