Part 19 (1/2)

Bill felt his nerve die within him Then a voice clear and sweet seelanced toward Ernest to see if he too heard Twice he heard his name called, then the dearest voice in the world said clearly:

”All's well, sonny We are waiting You will be in ti Where she was he did not know, but he heard her All his fear, his indecision and his nervousness faded away He glanced at the dial of the clock It was just nine The long, hard night was ahead of him, but he could make it

He set the wheel and risked a look at Ernest He had not spoken, and he had not heard With his well ar the broken one, and as Bill looked at hi up, up and still up, into silver-shod space, above ink-black masses of cloud that held the silver rays of the h they were cups

As they sped on a wind began to blow behind theht them, hurled them forith incredible speed Bill held his course steadily, reh that the earth was not even a shadow below theh a doorway, they fell into one of those strange freaks of the upper air called a ”pocket” It is a vacuuerous

The plane shook and wavered, but Bill set hilided across the perilous area As they eerously, but Bill warped the planes and set the ailerons with all the speed he could, and presently the indicator before hier past

Silently Ernest reached over and patted Bill's shoulder Bill scarcely noticed He was no longer afraid, no longer nervous He had co for him! He would not fail her She expected hi he could not guess, but he had heard her voice Bill settled back in his seat and felt that he was master of his ain would he lose control of his nerves

He wondered how he had ever done so In the darkness he s one of the peculiar things about air voyages Tihtest fatigue All the usual sensations of the human body seemed to disappear just as the earth had disappeared On and on flew the plane Once h he had slipped down in his seat Bill wondered if he was tired Darkness crept over the intense one He kept his course, however, with the aid of his indicator and the air coht coht of early dawn As yet there was no sign of the sun

Bill wondered if, in the night, he had flown past Fort Sill It was certainly tiine down as ht As day came, he saw that he was indeed over the bleak, cheerless wastes of Oklahoreat Post

At last, far, far ahead he saw it; a great city, part of it forsaken and dismantled now that the as ended and the need of trained troops not so inized his location He scanned Old Post lying on its low e over their area, New Post with its wide parade ground and its tri pris built in the old Mexican fashi+on on the other side of the parade

Donovan, with its splendid roads and nized with a quickly beating heart the squat, ugly quarters and class buildings of the School of Fire

Now on the instant there ca idea Back of the quarters where his mother and dad lived, a wide level space stretched out to a bluff under which ran a sluggish streaood-sized field, but of course not nearly the size of Aviation Field lying far the other side of the Post Nevertheless Billas he did so to a high altitude, and leaving the plain he wished to land on far behind

He knew that hewould drive the plane forward into the Students' building lying broadside

If he approached fro would send the the creek bank

But he knew that he could do it, and he did The plane cae of the bluff, hopped gayly along toward the class building, turned in response to his hand on the wheel, and stopped almost opposite his mother's back door

Bill turned and looked at Ernest He was lying low in his seat in an al condition Frank, with closed eyes, looked deathly in the early led out of his seat, and stood shakily beside the plane, undoing his helroup of orderlies and janitors ran up, and several officers in , walked over to his mother's door

She herself opened it, clasped hi, you have _grown_!” she cried, and then as an after-thought, ”How _late_ you are! I have been watching for you for an hour”

CHAPTER XV

”How did you knoas co rather crazily to her as he tried to steady himself

”I just _felt_ it,” she answered, ”and once I was so frightened about you, but that passed away”

”What time was it, do you remember?” asked Bill

”Nine o'clock,” she said ”I aiting for dad to co”

”Yes, it was just nine,” said Bill with a strange look on his face ”I heard you when you spoke to me, mother, and I think it saved my life, and the lives of the other fellows