hroat tightened. Going up with a government inspector was quite
different from going up with Charlie.

She opened the throttle and the biplane shot across the sun-baked
field. Jane was glad the other girls were out on the line, for it would
be embarrassing to come down and face them if the inspector should turn
her down.

She lifted the biplane into the air and got altitude in easy circles
over the airport. Then she started through the routine. As the thrill
of the flight got into her blood, she forgot the inspector in the rear
cockpit and gave her every energy to piloting the plane. With grace and
skill, she directed the maneuvers until the inspector reached ahead,
tapped her on the shoulder, and nodded toward the ground.

Jane cut the motor and they drifted down. Charlie Fischer was the first
to reach the plane.

"How about it?" he asked the inspector.

"Just about perfect," smiled the government official.

"Then I'll get my license?" Jane asked breathlessly.

"There's no question about that. I'm giving you an exceptionally high
rating. Your license will be through shortly."

It was another ten days, before the precious card with her license
arrived from Washington and Jane showed it proudly to her roommates.

"It's nice," admitted Sue, "but what on earth will you do with it? You
haven't a plane and you can't afford to rent Charlie Fischer's."

"I honestly don't know," confessed Jane, "but I wanted it. Some day
I'll be glad that I have the license and the ability to fly a plane."

Mattie Clark was still causing trouble. Any other girl who so rankly
showed her insubordination would have been fired within a week, but the
fact that Mattie's uncle was a company official saved her time and
again. She knew she was treading on thin ice, but she seemed to take
whole-hearted enjoyment in making Miss Comstock and the other girls
miserable. Jane was her special hate.

Jane was still on the _Coast to Coast_, the crack run of the line, and
summer had slipped over into August. A burning wind swept down out of
the mountains and it was hot that morning when the eastbound _Coast to
Coast_ drifted in.

Mattie had been assigned to a westbound plane for the day, and was in
the commissary while Jane checked over her supplies. As usual, Mattie
made as many caustic remarks as possible, but Jane refused to answer.

Jane finished preparing the supplies to place aboard the plane and went
out to call a field boy to help her carr