He was the first person they saw when Linda brought the plane down. He was standing there near a hangar, his helmet off, his red hair shining in the sunlight, and grinning at them delightedly. Beside him was an older man, probably one of the instructors.
As soon as the girls got out of the cockpit, he was beside them, introducing his companion to them.
"This is Mr. Eckers," he said. "He is crazy to meet two girls who want to be mechanics. He never heard of one before."
"Yet we're quite human," laughed Louise. "Almost normal, I think."
"Well, you see," explained Eckers, "we have several young ladies here who are studying to be pilots – even commercial and transport pilots – but we never had a mechanic of your sex before. But that's no reason why you shouldn't succeed."
"I'm not so good myself," remarked Louise. "And I may not take that course after all, because I'm not even any kind of pilot yet. But I'd like to see a man who knows more about the inside of his car than Miss Carlton does. She takes it apart as easily as most girls make fudge."
"Oh, Lou – " protested Linda, blushing, but Ted changed the subject by asking them about their trip.
After a few preliminaries, such as going into the office and meeting the secretary and a couple of the other instructors, and signing up for their doctor's examination, the girls bade Ted good-by, and took a taxi for the station where they were to meet Miss Carlton.
It was amusing to find that the train was late, whereas they had bettered their own schedule in the airplane. It arrived at last, however, and Miss Carlton hurried anxiously forward, as usual expecting that something had probably happened to her niece. She was relieved to find both girls well and happy.
"We might as well all go to a hotel tonight," she suggested, "and have a good dinner, and take in a picture afterwards. There can't be any rush about your finding your boarding-house, is there?"
"Only that we begin work tomorrow," replied Linda. "We must be there at nine o'clock for our examinations."
"My, but you are in a hurry!" the older woman remarked. "When I was a girl, fun always came first."
"But it is all going to be fun, Aunt Emily!"
"Still, we might as well have the dinner, and take in an early show," put in Louise. "Miss Carlton would rather stay over night, anyway, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, of course. And suppose I look up the boarding-house tomorrow, while you're at school. You'd trust to my judgment?"
"Oh, Auntie, we'd be delighted!" cried Linda, giving her hand a squeeze. "If you don't mind, it would save us a lot of time!"
The evening, therefore, was spent just as Miss Carlton desired, dining at the best hotel in St. Louis, going afterwards to the most expensive theater in a taxi. But the girls got to bed early, and left a call for seven o'clock the following morning.
The school was so much bigger, so much more organized than the little one at Spring City that Linda felt lost at first. After their examinations they made out a roster with one of the instructors, and here they decided to part.
Louise felt that after all, she wasn't particularly fitted to become a mechanic, and she would rather spend her time actually flying, so that perhaps by the end of the term she might win a limited commercial license. Linda, who had always kept an air-log with the Pursuit – a record of her flights and the number of hours in the air – would not need much more time to complete her two hundred hours solo flying that was part of a transport pilot's requirements. And while Louise was taking only the general course about airplanes, Linda would study plane structure and rigging, control systems, motors, and everything that had to do with the repair of aircraft. It was a big program; the thought of it was breathtaking. But, as Linda's instructor informed her, she would go step by step, advancing each day a little.
After that the days flew by all too quickly. The girls liked the house where Miss Carlton had established them, a neat little cottage that was owned by a widow, who lived alone with her two children, and it was near enough to the school for them to walk to and from it each day. They would rise early, eat a hearty breakfast and take their lunch with them, remaining away all day. After supper they were usually too tired to go anywhere; they would sit around the open fireplace in the living-room with the family, Louise reading a novel, Linda continually poring over some book about aviation. Once or twice Ted Mackay flew over to see them, and took them to dinner and to a show, usually bringing one of his friends with him. But they were too much absorbed to be lonely.
Before they scarcely realized it, the Thanksgiving holiday was upon them, and, leaving their overalls and their flyers' suits at St. Louis, they took off in the Arrow for their first visit back to Spring City.
Chapter V
Thanksgiving
In the six weeks that had passed since Linda and Louise left for the ground school, a great deal had happened at Spring City. Kitty and Ralph Clavering drove over to see Linda the afternoon that she arrived – the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, to tell her all the news.
"Are you a pilot yet, Kitty?" asked Linda, as soon as she had kissed the girl and shaken hands with her brother.
"No, not yet. So far only some of the boys have passed the exam – and Dot Crowley. Dot can do anything, you know. But I'm getting along fine."
"Lou has her private pilot's license," announced Linda proudly. "But do sit down and tell me all about the club."
"There's to be a dance there tomorrow night," replied Kitty, sinking into a chair. "That's the first thing I have to tell you."
"And before the phone has a chance to ring, I want you to promise to go with me," urged Ralph.
"Why, certainly," agreed Linda. Everything was delightful – and oh, it was so good to be home! "Thanks a lot, Ralph… But tell me, Kitty, is the club-house all done?"
"Yes. We have seventy-six members, and the most adorable club-house. Oh, nothing pretentious, like the Country Club, but we like it a lot. And we have one plane – a Gypsy Moth. Lieutenant Hulbert flies over twice a week to give the lessons."
"Did seventy-six people actually buy thousand-dollar bonds?" inquired Linda, incredulously. She couldn't believe there was all that wealth in Spring City, and the surrounding country.
"No. Only about twenty. We couldn't keep to that rule. The people who bought the bonds are on the Board of Directors. We let members in for their dues – a hundred dollars a year."
"And do I have to fork out another hundred?" asked Linda, wearily. She had been spending so much money already; she couldn't begin to live on the interest from her father's gift. Of course she expected to use the principal for her course, but she didn't want it to vanish for trifles.
"I'm afraid you'll have to," said Kitty.
"Well, I'll think it over," replied Linda, slowly. It was amazing, in the few weeks that she had had charge of her own money, what a business woman she had become. "I may not join this year. My expenses are pretty heavy."
"Why, Linda!" Kitty laid her hand affectionately upon her friend's arm. "Forgive me if I seem to pry – but – but – your father isn't having money troubles, is he!"
"Oh, no. It's only that I am running my own expenses now, and I don't want to waste money on things that won't do me any good. While I'm away from home it seems sort of foolish to belong to that club, when I have my own Arrow to fly. Especially now that you have enough members, and really don't need me… I'd rather sell my bond."
"I don't know whether you could sell it now," said Kitty. "Though of course I'll ask Bess – Bess Hulbert, our treasurer, you remember – when she flies back this afternoon. She has our Moth up at Lake Michigan now."
Linda raised her eyebrows. So this was the way the club was run – for Miss Hulbert's