“I’m going over to see the other plane Stubby is going to fly,” Phyllis said after a while and departed.
A few minutes later Janet slipped away from Carol, Madge and Valerie. The three girls were at first unaware of her absence but even when they discovered it they thought nothing of it. Janet often wandered away by herself—in search of something else to hold her interest. They supposed she had gone after Phyllis.
Over in the central hangar a huge passenger plane was slowly being wheeled out into the open. It was the plane that was to take the women parachute jumpers up the required number of feet. From there they would jump out and the first one on the ground receive a cash prize. The entrants were slipping into the white, jumper-like suits and parachutes provided by the airport.
Janet, her parachute bumping her legs as she walked from the hangar into the sunlight, bumped ignominiously into another girl similarly struggling with her equipment.
“Having——” Janet began and stopped to emit a shout of surprise. “Phyllis! What are you doing in that parachute?”
“I might ask the same thing of you,” Phyllis laughed. “How come?”
“Well, I’ll tell you,” Janet said, slipping her arm within her friend’s as they walked to the waiting plane. “It has always been a suppressed desire of mine to jump out of an airplane.” She grinned engagingly at Phyllis. Secretly she was glad of her friend’s presence. It lent her support in the last minutes when she felt her courage weakening. “Do you suppose they will give us a new parachute if this one doesn’t work?”
Phyllis laughed. “If this one doesn’t work you won’t need another one! Come along, we have to get in.”
They let most of the other jumpers precede them, getting into the plane. Just before Janet disappeared within she looked out over the crowd. Squarely she caught Valerie’s eye and waved to the girls. She could see the amazement plainly written on their features.
“Are they surprised,” she laughed nervously to Phyllis. “I’ll bet they never suspected us of doing this!”