s it that she has inflicted for months on me?" he demanded
hotly. "And on her father, too, and on all her friends? We can't pick
up a newspaper any day, without going cold with fear that we will read
of her maimed or dead in some accident. After all, it's only her own
medicine."

He took off the black leather helmet, placed it on the seat, and wiped
the motor grease from his brow. When he spoke again, it was in the
even tones of a man who issues an ultimatum against an intolerable
situation.

"There has been altogether too much of this flying business. It's no
game for a girl. There is getting to be too much of this count thing.
We don't want his sort around here. I've known Ella Warren since she
was as big as a glass of milk! Do you think I am going to stand down
for the first scented dago--forgive me if I speak disrespectfully of
your countryman--whom she chooses to bring across the Atlantic at her
heels? No, sir! It has to be stopped somewhere."

He halted a moment, and regarded me carefully. I could see that he was
measuring with his eye the distance between us.

"I'm going to scare her stiff," he said, nodding. "Get down off this
plane, Monsieur Lacroix!"

"Pardon me," I replied, with a low bow. "But that is for you to do."

And before he could seize me, with one blow of the foot planted
suddenly in his chest I shot the young Monsieur Power squarely off his
biplane onto the grass. Even as he measured his long length on the
ground, I had seized the controls, and the aeroplane spurted fifty
yards ahead of him. Ever since he had removed the black casquette, a
wild idea, of a dramatic quality irresistible, had formed itself in my
brain. I now seized the helmet and thrust it down upon my own head.

"It shall be finished as you wish," I cried. "But it is I, Lacroix,
who am best qualified for the task!"

For I had seen, during that wild flight over the ground as I clung to
the frail framework of the tail, a figure that I loved--a figure in
brown, tall and graceful before the white hangars, a figure that
clasped its hands in terror. And some instinct told me that the life
of this Monsieur Power was necessary to the happiness of my beloved
mademoiselle. I knew also that I alone without undue risk might break
down the barrier of iron pride that had arisen between these two
autocratic young people.

_Qu'est-ce que tu veux que je te dise?_ I might have paid more heavily
for the mad intoxication of that last flight.