ettlers weeks to
traverse.

Jane looked at the air-speed indicator. They were traveling only a
little more than a hundred miles an hour and she knew that the wind
outside must be blowing a gale. Below them one of the department of
commerce emergency landing fields, outlined with red, green, and white
border lights, drifted by. She looked at the route map. The field must
have been Wood River, just west and a little south of Grand Island.
They were still another hour out of North Platte.

It was well after midnight and most of the girls were dozing. Jane
looked around and saw Miss Comstock in the last of the single seats on
the left side of the cabin. The chief stewardess was looking out the
window, staring with a sort of desperate intentness into the night, and
Jane wondered if there was anything wrong. She listened to the beat of
the motors. They were running smoothly, with whips of blue flame
streaking from the exhausts, and Jane concluded that she had been
imagining things when she decided Miss Comstock was upset.

Several minutes later the chief stewardess hastened up the aisle and
disappeared along the passage which led to the pilots' compartment. She
returned almost immediately and snapped on the top light, flooding the
cabin with a blaze of brilliance. Just then the motor on the left wing
stopped and Jane knew that something was decidedly wrong for the chief
stewardess's face was pale and drawn.

Chapter Seven

Crash Landing

Jane shook Sue into wakefulness, and, cupping her hands so that only
Sue could hear, said, "Get the sleep out of your eyes. Something's gone
wrong. One motor has stopped."

Sue, thoroughly aroused at Jane's words, rubbed the sleep from her eyes
and sat up straight. Miss Comstock hurried down the aisle, shaking the
girls into consciousness. Then she returned to the front of the cabin.
The two other motors had been throttled down and by speaking in a loud
tone, she could be heard by every girl.

"We are about to make a forced landing," she began and as she saw quick
looks of alarm flash over the faces of the girls, hastened to add,
"There is no need for undue alarm. I am sure no one will be injured for
one of the most experienced pilots on the line is at the controls.
Please see that your safety belts are fastened securely. Try to relax
your muscles if that is possible."

The plane heeled sharply as a vicious gust of wind caught it and Jane
looked out, hoping that lights of