Evening star., 1937-02-14
by HOFFMAN BIRNEY

IF that's all, MIR. Chief Pilot Coane listen
to me for a minute. trained under superin-
tendent that ate nurse for breakfast every
morning. She could reduce girl to tears in
thirty seconds and to hysteria in three minutes
Don't try any ten-mnute-egg stuff on me, I've
been bawled out by experts!
She pointed so suddenly that Pete ducked
''See that bulkhead? That's whe. . you be-
long, up at the controls. Stay on your side of
the fence and out of the cabin. And - and
before you tell me how to dress just be sure
your own pockets are buttoned!'
Coane glanced at the breast of his tunic,
flushed guiltily, and retreated.
MY first fight" said Kay Mahan grimly,
"and I'll bet one of mothers fruitcakes against
a soda-cracker that it's my last!"
She was wrong. She flew with Pete Coane -
north from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City on
the day run in the Jefferson Hunt. south through
the night with the Jedediah Smith - for more
than year, in which time neither referred to
the circumstances of their first meeting nor ex-
changed words beyond the barest professional
necessities. Each month the chief pilot wrote
the single word Satisfactory on his steward
ess' rating card Kay could award no ratings
but she said little when the other C-BAT girls
commented on her cord-breaking length of
service.
"Oh, we're both Irish - Coane and Mahan,"
she said once 'Micks are either necking like
love birds, or else. With Pete and me it's else
He does the flying and l run the cabin so we get
along hne."
There matters stood when fierce storm
swept the West. The weather maps for that
day are framed in the G-BAT meteorological
office as the weirdest tangle of isObars that ever
laid network of unequalled barometric gradi-
ents over half the continent. Long before mid
night all ships in the air between Cheyenne and
San Francisco were ordered grounded at the
nearest available port, but not until one o'clock
did Pete Coane sprawled over the weather map
at Salt Lake City, reluctantly cancel the two
am. flight of the yJedediah Smith to Los sAngeles
Ten,minutes later an automobile skidded to a
halt before the administration building Two
men entered the Office and demanded immedi-
ate transportation for four to the coast An
emergency
I'm DR.. Gillen, from Ocher," one explained,
ana tHlS is MI. r dISOn general superintendent
of the mines there. Mrs. Farson accidentally
swallowed thimble which passed through her
windpipe and lodged here -" he tapped his
chest - land it's matter of life and death to
get her to Los Angeles"
There are good hospitals here in Salt Lake."
Woodruff, the agent, interrupted.
but no bronchoscopes." The physician
finished the sentence. THE nearest broncho-
scopic clinic is in L. A."
Name your own price" interjected Farson
IN buy the plane if necessary"
Price doesn't enter into it. Woodruff shook
his head This is a blizzard and all flights have
been cancelled. If authorized one no
matter what the emergency it might cost
the line its license"
The miner smashed his fist on the counter.
Bring her in, Doc, " he ordered, 'and let this
yellow belly watch woman die!" He turned
savagely on Woodruff. "All your talk about
service There's kids out in Ocher watch your
ships and run home to tell how they're going to
be flyers. They think your pilots are brave
when any mucker in the mine has more CUTS
than the whole lot of 'em. They know her -"
a backward toss of his head - land there's not
one that wouldn't dive into a converter if it