They nodded and entered the plane. Jane standing beside the landing stage saw something that alarmed her, as the second man passed. His coat slipped open just as he bent to go through the door and she caught a glimpse of a gun in a shoulder holster. Guns were not unfamiliar sights to the stewardesses, for each pilot went armed, but a gun on a passenger was a different thing.
“What were the names of those men?” she asked Sue.
“Anton Mellotti and Chris Bardo. Why?”
“The last man, Bardo, is carrying a gun.”
“We’d better tell Charlie Fischer. He’s flying us west tonight.”
They hurried ahead and caught Charlie just before he climbed into the cockpit.
“So we’ve got a gunman aboard,” said Charlie, when the girls informed him of what Jane had seen. “We’ll see about that.”
Charlie entered the cabin and tapped Bardo on the shoulder. Jane couldn’t hear what he said, but when Charlie returned he didn’t have the gun.
“He flashed a deputy sheriff’s badge and there wasn’t anything I could do,” explained Charlie. “You kids have let your imaginations run away with you. It’s time to go.”
Sue and Jane went aboard and Jane gave her friend a hand in strapping the passengers into their seats. Then they sped westward as though racing to overtake the sun.