The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-03-12
A Y FINDS A SAFE
MATRIMO NIAL NAVI-
GATOR.

4 WISP of gray vapor sped past
~ the window on her side of the
~ cabin and aunt Kay checked
4 Atheir position for the humid
redth time.
Better go down to a thousand feet.
Pat" she said to the girl at the con-
trolls, straining her. voice a little to
She felt their quickening pace as the
ships nose dipped a little below the
horizontal; saw the air speed creep
up to a hundred and twenty-five;
watched the altimeter drop slowly
from half way between n and two
till it touched 1 and was steady there.
The air speed came down to a hun
dred and ten again.
And change your course two de-
grees west, Pat" she directed. There's
less wind down here"
The girl laughed at aunt KS tone.
Poor old darling" she said. Dis
tracted as a hen, aren't your"
Old? Aunt K was only thirty-two,
but sometimes the vivid reckless youth
of the lovely girl beside her did make
her feel old. She did not resent the
word. I'm worried, yes" she agreed.
$50 would you be, if you had sense
enough to be scared. I told you this
was idiotic when we started. And It's
shutting down ahead"
II love it, Pat insisted. Il love being
in the clouds!"
I'm the clouds with a three hundred
foot ceiling and a half mile Visibility,
is no place for two lone women" Aunt
K retorted. "And that was the report
from Newark ten minutes ago."
Pat, n carelessly steady hand on
the wheel, powdered her nos with the
other. The clouds were lower ahead;
skeins of mist seemed to hang notion
less in the steel gray air. Aunt K
had always a shrinking dread OF an
actual collision when the plane drove
them. Her glance touched the lnstru-
ments. Temperature normal. RPM
normal. Air speed 10. Altitude 1000
|. She slipped the radio over her
| ears, heard the reassuring buzz of the
directional signal.
"At least we're in the BEAM" she
said. The sleet gray earth below them
disappeared, and she directed: CO
lower, Pat. It's safe enough down to
1--WE always been safe anywhere
with you darling" Pat reminded her,
and dipped the planes nose till pres
emily earth lay nee more revealed
below them. Seven hundred feet
Safe anywhere Aunt K
while her eyes moved vigilantly across
the instrument panel, repeated the
words in her thoughts. What Pat said
was quite true. Katherine Denning had
made it her business, ever since the
girls mother died ten years ago, to
see to it that Patricia should be safe
anywhere, secure wherever she wished
! to go. There were, she sometimes sus-
pected, a good many spinsters like
herself whose lives were thus wholly
s~elfless, devoted to the task Of seeing
that some widowed brother had a com.
Portable home, or that some lonely old
woman was not too lonely, or that
some youngster or some charming girl
was-safe anywhere. Her own terrors,
she had long ago recognized, must be
ignored-just as whatever other emo
lions she might experience must be
stifled, or disciplined, or denied. Safe
anywhere safe in the most con-
sentative school that could be found.
Safe in Hollywood during that six
months adventure in the studios, when
Pats name won-for the sake of the
publicity-parts she could not play,
Jobs she could not hold. Safe in Paris
where she went to study art in the
light-hearted fashion which holds an
attractive studio and a pleasantly, gay
group of friends more important than
q fine canvas. Safe during that hor-
rible summer in the Alps men Fat