While Ted watched his instruments, consulted his chart, and thought of many things, her fingers had been busy. First, to be sure, she had performed quite an unfeminine duty—she had studied the swinging machine gun before her, making sure that it was properly loaded and that, if necessity demanded, she could do her full duty by it.
Then she had turned to lighter tasks. A bottle of dye-remover, which had been furnished her, came first. This made her white again. After this came face cream, a manicure set, and cosmetics.
When this was done, by worming and wriggling like a snake coming out of its skin, she succeeded in completing her transformation from a South Sea native to an Army Nurse. That the transformation was quite complete was proven by the “For Pete’s sake!” that exploded from Ted’s lips when at last, having solved all the problems of the universe, he turned to see if she were really there.
“Smile!” he commanded. She smiled.
“That’s swell. Thanks,” he exclaimed. “I just wanted to see if you were real.”
He was to know much more about that a few moments later.
“Listen! I think I hear the roar of a heavy plane!” Mary exclaimed suddenly.
Ted listened. The drone of his own motor was in his ears. He heard nothing else. “Guess you imagined that,” he said. “Strange things happen to you in the sky. There are mirages of sound as well as of sight.”
She made no reply. The steady drumming was still in her ears. She was tired. It had been a long, exciting day. She wondered vaguely what they would do with her when she got aboard the Black Bee, if she ever did. She hoped there was a tiny cabin where she could sleep forever and ever. Thinking of this, she nearly fell asleep when Ted exclaimed:
“Look at that! The light of the moon blinked out and there’s not a cloud in the sky!”