CHAPTER I
Hazardous Flight
Flying a mile high above the rolling hills of the countryside, Terry Mapes suddenly put Skybird, her little blue-and-gold monoplane, into a series of loops. She was feeling good, her brown eyes were keenly alive and her slight boyish figure sat erect as she handled the controls of her plane. And being a young and lively girl, she wanted to turn somersaults in the sky to express her joy.
Her twin sister, strapped in the rear cockpit, spoke to her through the earphones, “Quit your circus stunts, Terry, and keep going! We’ve got a long trip ahead of us.”
“You guessed it, Prim. That’s why I’m feeling so full of pep!” answered Terry and her voice died away as she put Skybird into another loop among the clouds.
The next minute her plane was on an even keel and Prim repeated: “Terry, will you stop clowning? Save that pep! You’ll need it before we get to South America.”
“Don’t I know it! I’ll be good and tired before I reach Peru, but right now I feel like a million dollars. I wouldn’t change places with the President of the United States or the Prince of Wales,” said Terry with a laugh. “I’m perfectly satisfied to be Terry Mapes, airplane pilot on a secret errand to the wilds of South America.”
“And I,” interrupted Prim, settling back for a comfortable trip, “would rather be just Prim, the twin sister of the cleverest girl flyer who ever did a barrel roll.—But I wish she’d cut out the stunts for the present!”
Dick Mapes, the father of the girls was an old airmail pilot. He had taught both girls to fly. The home-loving Prim had become a good pilot but she was not as fond of the sport as her sister. Prim was a pretty blonde type, inclined to plumpness, easy-going and gay, while Terry was serious, high strung and nervous, Terry loved to fly and now that her father was crippled from an accident and still unable to leave his wheel chair, she was trusted with many important air jobs.
To Terry it was not half so venturesome to cut up antics in the air as it would have been to race in a motor boat or automobile. She always felt perfectly safe and perfectly happy when she could put a thousand feet of air between her plane and the earth.