ty and helped guide them to the shivering group on the hilltop
north of the Platte.

The wreckage of the tri-motor had long since ceased to glow and the
wind whined dismally through a low growth of underbrush. Sue was the
first to reach the truck and Miss Comstock fairly leaped after her.

"How's the pilot and co-pilot?" she asked, anxiety making her voice
sound unnatural.

"They'll come through all right," said Sue. "I think the pilot has a
slight concussion and his right arm is broken. The co-pilot is only
suffering from shock and bruises."

"And the girls?"

"They're all right. When the fire died down a bit, several of them even
tried to get close enough to salvage some of the mail, but the flames
leaped up again and forced them back."

The flyers were carried to the waiting ambulance and that vehicle soon
lurched away over the uneven ground.

The crew from the Kearney field had brought powerful electric torches
and with these they made a thorough survey of the tri-motor. It was a
charred mass of twisted steel tubing, little resembling the proud ship
which had bucked the storm a few hours before.

"The company can write about $80,000 off the books," growled the
manager of the Kearney field. "I wonder how it happened?"

"The left wing started to flutter," said Miss Comstock. "I could tell
from the vibration of the ship something was wrong and when I went up
into the cockpit Slim Bollei told me we were in a jam. He was afraid
the wing was going to tear loose so he cut the left motor. With the
wind bad and the wing loosening up more every second we were in the air
he had to hunt a place to set down quick."

"Well, he sure put this crate down for keeps," grunted the manager.
"Guess we might as well start back to the field and I'll write up a
report of the accident."

The girls piled into the big truck, Jane and Sue sitting at the very
end with their feet hanging over.

"What a night," said Sue as the truck moved away from the scene of the
accident. "For a while I was afraid I wasn't going to live through it."

"I'm still shaky," confessed Grace Huston, who was just behind them.

"It wasn't pleasant," admitted Jane, "but we're all lucky to be out
alive and with the pilots only slightly injured. However, as Miss
Comstock says, this will probably be our first and last crash and it
might as well come early."

When they reached the Kearney field, Miss Comstock got in touch with
the operations manager at Che