“Guess I haven’t much in the way of errands but I’ll tell them to have—”
“I have already notified them to have the plane in readiness.”
“Then I shall not need to bother. I see there is a store near the hotel; I’ll run up there and get some handkerchiefs. I came away without a good supply,” Roberta told her, then, as the woman seemed to have nothing more to say, she returned to the lobby very uneasy in mind.
For less than two pins Roberta would have told her employer that she was returning home at once, but such an act appeared more foolhardy than cautious. It took only a few minutes to get the handkerchiefs she required, then she saw attractive cards of the city, and stationery. On the impulse of the moment she bought paper and envelope and wrote a hasty note to Robert Powell, telling him that she was leaving in a couple of hours, the place where Nike had been left, and expressing a wish that if he had his own plane and could come waggling his wings to her as they had in the days when they were both learning to fly she would feel easier. She added a word of thanks to his sister, then signed her name, but after that she put in the fact that Mrs. Pollzoff had said she was in her room all night—as if she had not been to Mr. Anthony’s.
“I know I’m awfully silly, but at the next landing I am going to resign from the job.
“Sincerely yours,
Roberta Langwell.”
“Can I get a messenger to deliver this?” she asked the woman who had been serving her.
“I’ll take it, lady,” a small boy offered, so at a nod from the woman she gave him a coin and made sure that he knew where to go. “Aw, that isn’t far away,” he said scornfully, and tucking it into his pocket, he raced off with the letter. As soon as he had gone, Roberta wished she had not been so silly as to tell Robert Powell such a trivial matter. After paying for her purchases she returned to the lobby where she sat at one of the desks, wrote a note and sent cards to the family. That finished, she ate her lunch in the dining room, but felt so uncomfortable that she didn’t enjoy it at all.
Promptly at one o’clock they left the hotel in one of its own buses and drove quickly to the small flying field where they found Nike already wheeled out of the hangar. Although a mechanic was beside the plane, the girl Sky-Pilot took time to assure herself that everything was as it should be, while Mrs. Pollzoff took her place in the cock-pit.
“I went over everything, Miss,” the mechanic told her.
“Thank you, I know you did, but where I learned to fly one of the things they stressed was to be positive yourself that things were all right. You certainly did a good job and you put in a full supply of gas.”