“I stole it,” Jim answered frankly. “I stole it from the government of the United States. It’s an army airplane, designed to strafe the Huns. I just hopped in, shot the juice to her, and flew seventy miles to see you!”
“Holy Mother!” the girl exclaimed tragically. “What will they do to you for that crime?”
“I should worry—they haven’t caught me yet. Besides, I’ve got a whale of a lie fixed up to tell them.”
“Let me hear your lie, Jimmy,” the girl fluttered. “I’ll be scared to death while you are here, unless the lie is a real good one, and will save you if you get caught.”
Jim hesitated a moment while he reached for his cigarette-case. The girl took the match from his fingers, struck it into flame, and held it to his cigarette, thus lighting his face and her own in the gathering dusk.
“Whew,” he whistled, as his hungry eyes devoured the beauty of her face. “It would have been worth it if I had stolen a whole squadron of war-ships to come to see you in.”
“Tell me the beautiful alibi lie, Jimmy,” the girl insisted.
“You can’t appreciate the value of a lie until you know the truth,” Jimmy began, inhaling his cigarette smoke. “The truth is this: I have been in the aviation camp for eighteen months without a chance of getting leave of absence to come to see you. The only chance I have ever had to talk has been on your visits to your brother at the camp, and those opportunities have been too few. Now, I am an expert airplane mechanic, and in repairing machines I am permitted to try them out before brave aviators like your brother are permitted to risk their valuable lives in them. So this afternoon I repaired a machine and took a trial flight which has extended for seventy miles, and which ended just about four miles from Tickfall, and ten miles by automobile from you. I came here to see you because I love you, and before I go back I expect your promise to marry me!”
“Oh, how perfectly glorious!” the girl exclaimed. “That’s the truth! Now, tell me the beautiful lie!”
“When I go back to the camp I shall tell them that I started out on a trial flight, and had engine trouble; had to land in the heart of these great Louisiana swamps, and lost my bearings. I shall tell them I spent two days wandering in the wilderness like the children of Israel before I found a human habitation. There I got help, made my repairs, and hurried back!”