“You should have had me wakened the minute you heard the news. If you had done that, you might have been on your way by this time.”
“You mean—?” gasped Linda.
“In my plane, of course. Take it and welcome, my dear child!”
Linda seized his hand and tried to stammer out her thanks. But she was too much moved by his generosity to say anything.
“How will you get back to St. Louis in time for the opening of your school?” inquired Dot.
“By the commercial air-line,” replied Mr. Eckert. “Now come in and eat some dinner, and after that, you can make your plans.”
It seemed to Linda almost too good to be true. To have the privilege of flying that new, fast biplane, which she had admired so much that morning. It had a cruising speed of a hundred and fifty miles an hour! Surely, in it, she could catch her own Ladybug.
“You’ll start early tomorrow morning, I suppose?” asked Mr. Eckert, as they seated themselves in the dining-room.
“Yes,” answered Linda. “The police are already on the job, in communication with all the airports, which are to keep a watch out for all autogiros that pass overhead or land for gas. We’ll find out what reports have been turned in, before we take off in the morning.”
“And will you go along, Miss Crowley?”