"Me too!" agreed Linda.
"But you'll have a big Bellanca!" Nancy said. "Lou told me you put in the order."
"I may not have, after we try that ocean trip," returned the other girl. "We may be ship-wrecked and picked up by some boat——"
"So long as you are picked up, it'll be O.K.... Oh, Linda, I think you are just marvelous!"
"Thanks, Nance. But I don't deserve the praise yet. Wait till I earn it."
Only a short distance stretched between them and Birmingham now, and Linda covered it in record time. Safe and sound she brought the autogiro down on the airport before four o'clock in the afternoon. Turning it over to the authorities, and giving her instructions about the other plane, which was to be ready the following day, Linda summoned a taxi and asked to be driven to the best hotel.
The rest of the day was their own, and the girls enjoyed it thoroughly, eating a luxurious dinner, and attending a show afterward. On their way home from the theater, Nancy asked more questions about Linda's proposed trans-Atlantic flight, and the latter told her everything—even to the story of the enemy whom she and Louise most feared: Bess Hulbert.
"But I don't see why you should worry about her," said Nancy. "She wouldn't dare come back to the United States again."
"I'm not so sure of that. Now that some time has passed, she'll think everyone's forgotten about her crimes."
"I hope not," replied Nancy, optimistically.