Once again the Stormbird began to slip back; and Jane—yes!—tossed Mr. Stud Walker an ironic kiss!
Jane kept that ship howlin’. On she went. On. The skies began to darken. The air got a little bumpy. The visibility dropped. The exhaust tubes of the planes, white-hot, spouted orange fire. And Jane drove on. Little by little, again, the Alton took its margin of lead.
What was that? Water! Long Island Sound! Only a few miles away was the finish field!
Jane kept the plane drivin’. The Stormbird howled on the Alton’s tail. Both planes were crazy flyin’ things—crazy.
Then the field, the big square! Closer and closer! Jane stepped down to it, slowin’ as little as possible. Down she swooped, and the ground swung up at her. She felt the trucks touch. She zipped across the sand; she ground looped; she trundled back. And as she came to a stop, and the crowd started for her, the Stormbird dropped out of the sky.
Jane jumped out of her plane. She knew Ned wasn’t seriously hurt, but he needed help, and to the first man she saw she shouted: “Get a doctor!” Then, with reporters mobbin’ her, she just smiled, gave her name and that of the plane, and waited until a fat man with an official badge, head of the Committee, came up to her. Then she said pertly:
“Well, I guess I won, didn’t I?”
The Committeeman was flabbergasted. He hadn’t expected to see a girl. Reporters were yowlin’ for Jane’s name, and facts about her, knowin’ that a girl hadn’t been scheduled to pilot the Alton, and sensin’ a big story. The Committeeman muffed a few words, not knowin’ what to do or say, but seein’ plain enough that she had got to the field first.
Then a man in leather tunic and with goggle-prints around his eyes came pushin’ through the crowd, with four other Committeemen, all lookin’ indignant and outraged. That guy was Walker—Walker was howlin’.
“There she is!” he yelped. “This race is bein’ run on the square, ain’t it? Well, you can’t rate her winner. She isn’t the pilot that belongs to that ship. Her name is Alton—the pilot registered for this plane is named Knight!”