“But,” interrupted Miss Campbell, “do you think you will be able to do this tremendous thing? Remember what you must cross? Not only the Rocky Mountains but the desert.”
“It’s just as easy to fly over a desert as over a prairie,” answered the young man. “Not long ago a man flew from Italy over the Alps. If I hadn’t sneezed this morning, I might have been sailing across the Illinois boundary this afternoon and been well on my way into Iowa.”
Miss Campbell and the girls regarded him curiously. He appeared exceedingly self-confident and very sensible, but that sneezing business seemed a little thin.
“Do you mean to say,” cried Billie incredulously, “that you expect to fly across the country without sneezing.”
“I hope so,” he replied. “It’s a dangerous thing to sneeze in any flying machine, although the one I intend to use is of much finer make than that thing which just broke down.”
Suddenly Nancy began to laugh.
“I believe you are guying us,” she said.
The young man flushed.
“It would be a nice return for your kindness.”
“Don’t be offended,” put in Elinor. “She’s only teasing, herself.”