"I want to try a couple of stunts before we eat," Linda told Ralph. "You're game, aren't you?"
"Surest thing!" replied the boy, with delight. "We've got plenty of height—and a spectator too, for that matter." The other plane had just come back into sight.
Linda's eyes were shining with excitement, yet inside she was perfectly cool. Hadn't she made inside loops and Immelman turns often at school, and didn't she know exactly what to do? With perfect poise, she swung the plane into a loop, and completed it without any difficulty. Pleased with her success, she tried it again and again.
"You must think you're Laura Ingalls!" shouted Ralph, catching his breath. "Trying to beat her record?"
"Hardly," smiled Linda, for the famous aviatrix he mentioned held the record at that time with nine hundred and eighty consecutive inside loops, at a speed of four and a half loops a minute.
The plane was righted now, but Linda suddenly noticed that Ralph was acting awfully queer, hanging over the side, and hunting frantically in the pockets of the sweater which he had put over the seat. She believed he must be ill; certainly his face was ghastly white.
"Ralph!" she cried, fearfully. "What's the matter?"
"I've lost the necklace!" he screamed in terror. "Must have fallen out of my pocket!"
"Oh!" wailed Linda, aghast at the meaning of his words. "Are you sure?"
"Positive!"