Linda Carlton, Air Pilot

He coughed slightly, and Linda looked up, ashamed of herself for breaking down.

"Is there anything at all, Linda, that I can do for you?" he asked. "Or for you, Mrs. Cates?"

"I'm afraid not, thank you, Roger," replied the girl. "But don't you want something to eat before you start back?"

"No, thanks. I ought to be home early this evening, and I'll get supper then. I'm not a bit hungry now." And with a sympathetic handshake, he left her.

"Would you like to go to your room, my dear – or do you want to see your father first?" asked the housekeeper. "I have him here on the ground floor."

"I want to see Daddy!" replied Linda, wiping the tears from her eyes.

The older woman led her across the hall to a room where the door was open, and she caught sight of her father, lying almost lifeless upon the bed. Impulsively Linda rushed in to him. It just didn't seem possible that he wouldn't recognize her, and hold out his arms to receive her!

But he continued to lie death-like upon the bed, his head motionless upon the pillow. His eyes were closed.

"Daddy! Daddy darling!" she cried, in a voice that shook with pain. Dropping to her knees, she knelt beside his bed, and covered his limp hand with kisses.

But there was no response whatever to her greeting!

For some time she stayed there, praying that he would get better. Mrs. Cates had left them alone, but in half an hour she came back.

"Come, my dear, you must get some rest. Take off your clothing, and wash your face and hands and lie down for a while. Then perhaps you will be able to eat some supper."

Obediently Linda did as she was told, for she realized that the housekeeper was only trying to be kind. And, after a short nap, she had to admit that she felt better.

"Any change, Mrs. Cates?" was her first question, when she sat down to supper with the woman and her husband. The rest of the help ate in the kitchen, but Mrs. Cates realized that this was no time for the girl to be alone.

"No. Not a bit."

"Oughtn't there to be a trained nurse?"

"Dr. Winston didn't think so. I'm doing what needs to be done."

"When will the doctor be back?"

"Tonight, after supper."

Somehow Linda felt dissatisfied, as if enough were not being done. Another doctor should have been called in – a surgeon, perhaps. And surely a trained nurse.

She spoke of these things to Dr. Winston when he came over about eight o'clock that evening. But he shook his head.

"I'm afraid nothing can save your father, my child," he said. "There's only one chance in a thousand he might get well, if we operated. And there's only one surgeon in the United States who ever had any success with that sort of operation."

"But if there is one!" cried Linda, eagerly jumping to the tiny hope his words suggested. "We must get that surgeon! Who is he? Where is he?" She was talking rapidly, excitedly, almost incoherently.

"He is a Dr. Lineaweaver. A marvelous man. But I happen to know he is away on his vacation now."

"Where does he go?"

"That I don't know."

"But you know where he lives?"

"Yes. St. Louis."

"Then won't you please call his home and find out where he is, and I'll go for him as soon as I get my plane back."

The doctor shook his head sorrowfully.

"I'm afraid it's too late, my child. I – I – doubt if your father will live through the night. And you couldn't fly at night – even if your plane were here."

"I can – and will! And I think I hear my plane now – yes, I'm sure that's it. Get me the address – quick – and you put in the call while I run out and see my plane! And try to get a trained nurse immediately. I'll be back before dawn – unless the surgeon's in Europe or Canada!"

And, dashing in to give her father one kiss, she hurried out to find faithful Ted Mackay, alighting from her beloved Arrow.

Chapter XX

The Race against Death

"Ted!"

"Linda!"

"You can't know how thankful I am to see you!" cried the girl. "It – it – may mean that I can save my father's life!" And she told him of her plans.

"If I could only go with you!" sighed the young man. "I hate to think of you flying alone at night!"

"But you do believe I'm capable, don't you, Ted?" Linda's eyes searched his for the truth; she was not asking for flattery, she really wanted his opinion.

"Yes indeed I do!" Ted answered, with assurance. "But it's always safer for two pilots to go together. However, the Pursuit is in fine shape now – and filled up with gas… Linda, I have something to tell you."

"Yes?"

"About the wreck – and – those thieves… The other dead man was my father."

"Your father! Ted!" Every bit of color left the girl's face. What a dreadful, ghastly thing to happen to anybody, and especially to a fine boy like Ted! To come upon his father, dead, in that abrupt fashion, and to know, worst of all, that he had died in disgrace!

Finding no words to express her sympathy, she pressed his hand tightly in silence.

"So you see how much I have to do – why I can't go with you," he continued. "I have reported the wreck to my company, and made arrangements about my father's body. But I must go right home to my mother."

"But how do you explain it all, Ted?" Linda asked.

"I think my father was paying one of his regular visits to the Spring City Flying School – he came there once in so often to get money from me – and he was disappointed to find I had gone. Whether he knew that other man before, I don't know, but it would seem probable that he did. Together they must have cooked up the scheme to follow your plane and get the necklace… That is why it is really fortunate the man got the necklace by a ruse. You see he was armed with a gun – as I later found out, and if he had had to fight for the jewels, I'm sure he wouldn't have hesitated to fire on you!"

"And I suppose your father's being involved would explain why you were suspected," added Linda. "You look like him, I believe."

"Yes. To my regret."