With the ease of a cat settling down to take her nap, the Ladybug, Linda’s famous autogiro, descended to the earth, and the slender, pretty girl in a flier’s suit and helmet, climbed out of the cockpit.
“Darling!” cried Dot, dashing forward for the first embrace.
Linda tried to hug everybody at once, with an especially tender caress for her Aunt Emily, who had mothered her ever since she was a baby.
“Were you kidnapped?” inquired Ralph Clavering, the tall, good-looking young man who considered Linda his special property.
“Or in a burning house?” suggested Kit Hulbert, Ralph’s married sister.
Linda shook her head laughingly.
“Just taking a good week’s rest, I’ll bet!” surmised long-legged Jim Valier, whose idea of bliss was to sleep. “Don’t blame you a bit, Linda. A fellow can’t get a decent nap with this snappy bunch around, let alone a full night’s rest!”
“You’re surely all right, dear?” inquired Miss Emily Carlton, anxiously. “No bones broken?”
Again Linda smiled.
“I’m fine, and I had a most successful trip. I’ll tell you all about it later—if anything materializes,” she added, mysteriously.