Evening star., 1938-11-27

Nle11y! Nnat tne lQea. tOld you not
to show up before eight o'clock" He but
toned his coat quickly over a revolver butt
II woke up. said the girl Then why the
artillery. Mike"
Last minute nerves There's been too
much wise money betting on todays race.
and the talk is that the reason Dot Sanford
burned out all the bearings on the Comet was
that somebody dosed the oil with emery"
They entered the hangar, where electric
bulbs fought losing battle with the gray
dawn. Jim Ryan, master mechanic of Great
Basin Air Transport. slept soundly and
nosily on cot set up beside the fuselage of
the Mystery Maid G-BAT's entry in the
Engelhart Trophy Race, the unrestricted
speed test for women pilots from San Leandro
to Santa Fe and return.
The Comet crews been working all night
installing a new motor, Lyford continued.
Lord only knows if they'll start, though
jim Ryan turned over, grunted. then sat
up and grinned recognition.
60 stick your head under the pump Jim
Polly advised. The restaurant S open - big
day today - and I'm going to order breakfast
sent down here for the three of us.
- The mechanic yawned. pulled on his shoes.
and walked around the racer
She's right Polly" he said. his hand on
the cleaning propeller. You do your part
and she II sure do hers. He vanished into the
hangar office Polly swallowed the lump which
rose suddenly in her throat.
It's not fair she exclaimed. IF win III
get all the credit and it ought to go to fellows
like jim and YOU Mike. and to old kaln in
the research division.
You win, that S all we ask. the operations
chief replied wen take our credit when we
release the story of the Emkav Carburetor
and the record of its performance on its first
real test I'm telling you. Merry you're
carrying more than gasoline and map this
trip - you've got all of Great Basin Air
Transport aboard
II know, Mike"
II wonder? kalns banking his engineering
reputation on that carburetor. Sos your
father for that matter, since it was his original
design and model that kaln took over and
refined. Clyde Barron is gambling the future
of his air freight line to the Orient on YOU
II you win. and thereby advertise to the world
that We can cut fuel consumption by two
thirds on the new ships, the fnancers will be
coming to Barron and asking to be let in on
the deal And besides all that. there's at least
-one girl in this race that doesn't care where
she finishes so long as it S ahead of you
You mean Marcia Talent
Nobody else You made her look cheap
once and she's never forgiven or forgotten
She's worth millions and she'd give half of
them for chance to cut your throat. hgura-
lively speaking. in this race. She's got Terry
Monette as her manager and if there's any
tricks he doesn't know they're not in the
book What's more. she's got plenty fast
ship in that Kestral Special and she can fly it,
Il know all that. " She turned quickly away.
Order laundering big breakfast, will you.
Mike and tell them to send quart of orange
juice for me to take along"
Mike hesitated, then walked obediently
toward the telephone. He had known Polly
Ann Meredith since she had first worn the
G-BAT Great Basin Air Transport -
uniform as stewardess on the Ell Paso fight
He had watched her through flying training,
when she had decided to earn her wings and
had enrolled as the first woman student at
the Barron School, named for the G-BAT
president and the only major school of aero
nautiCs that was co-eduCational in all its
departments.