"Poor Bess!" she muttered. "All alone, too! Where can she be now?"
The thought came to her that perhaps she was mistaken, and her rival was already safely beyond the storm area, at this moment pressing on towards Paris. She smiled grimly; how foolish Louise would think her to waste sympathy on a girl who was really a criminal!
With this thought she returned to bed, and fell asleep again, to dream herself in an airplane, dashed into icy waters at the hand of the storm. She awakened immediately; it was dawn and she decided to get up, in order to hear the news of Bess Hulbert.
The moment the newspaper arrived, she opened it eagerly. "No trace of lone girl flyer!" were the flaming headlines that met her eyes. The paper went on to state that Bess Hulbert—a young girl of twenty-two (she can still lie, thought Linda, knowing that Bess was at least twenty-five) had not been sighted since ten o'clock the preceding evening, when the storm broke.
Linda shook her head wearily, and looked out of the window. It was still raining, with a steadiness that gave no promise of clearing in the near future. How dismal and disheartening everything was, though Louise would have reminded her that she had only cause for rejoicing.
As soon as she reached the ground school, she went straight to Mr. Eckers' office. The latter had known all along that Bess Hulbert was a competitor for the prize, but he had no idea that she had been an enemy of Linda and Louise.
"Looks like two down, Miss Carlton," he remarked lightly, as she entered.
"Two down?" repeated Linda. "Miss Hulbert went alone."
"I meant two defeats. The Lightcaps first, and then Miss Hulbert."
"Oh, I see. But she may get there yet. There wasn't any time limit, Mr. Eckers, you know."