The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-18
CHAPTER XIV

As long as she lived Jackie would never forget that night and the following day. For during those hours the girl who had been Jac- queline Dunn died and a woman was born, woman who learned the real meaning of life, who faced not only life, but death as well, ard the dark despair of what living death could be.
 Rogers ship had been found, the beautiful silver plane, it's motor smashed against lonely mountain side, its left wing crumpled like discarded piece of paper But aside from his helmet and parachute and splash of blood here and there no single trace of Roger could be discovered.
 It was believed that the pilot. though undoubtedly seriously in- Jured, had managed to climb out and get free of the ship, fully realizing the danger of explosion and fire.
 The papers played Roger up as the hero who rode his ship down. instead of bailing out. Until the very end he had tried to save the $25,00O plane. By so doing he had, Tn fact, saved his trial flight from ending total failure, for the paragraph, containing the vital records of the speed and altitude, had remained intact. It revealed that Roger had broken all records Tor altitude and speed and had added another page to the glory and future of aviation.
 "As though that mattered." ;" Jackie said to Mac. As soon as she could get there, she had driven out to the field again. "As though anything mattered except that they must find Roger"
 At least he was alive since his body had not been found, trapped in the cockpit. So that now hope Shone linke a silver star once more.
 IL had been almost nightfall when the ship had been discovered. The seaTcherS had diligently increased tflelr forces and zeal, hoping to find Rtger before night settled down. In th7 thick underbrush of the right range It would not be easy, at any tlme, to find a man-or his body. But after darkness had descended tthe task would be doubly difficult.
 They'll find him." Mac assured Jackie. Maybe not until daylight noW'-it was midnight in the little tower and as yet no word had been received-"but they're bound to find him, Jackie. He could not have gone very far, you know. ana even after night, they'll send up flares and Roger will see them, or hear them calling"
 IT ne can answer" Jackie said. Roger had been alive when the ship had cracked up, but that did not mean he was alive now. That last message from him had come through around nine o'clock in the morning; Is hours had elapsed since then. If those blood stains meant he had been badly cut, he might have bled to death by now. Or he might have been in ternally injured. Although it was late May, the nights were damn ana cold in the densely wooded AlIeghenieS, so that the long ex- posture, without food or medicine, might prove fatal, too.
 But she would not give up hope. Not even after that long night had HnaIIy come to an end, and dawn broke that was filled with despair, the silver star of hope almost vanished.
 He can't be dead he cant be ." Jackie repeated over and over to herself all through the following day. She must hold on to that thought so grimly, so faith fully that it would be answered like prayer.
 Jackie could think of Beryl now in pity and sympathy, all her re- sentiment against this other woman, all her anger and jealousy swept aside. For Beryl had loved Roger, though Jackie alone had known that. Jackie, who knew now - too late-that she, too, had loved him.
 
 HOI tIllS was lle dWaKe0lnR, the growing into womanhood that came to Jackie during those agonized waiting hours. She knew that she loved Roger from the first She had tried to put up defense, not only against love itself, but against him. She had thought that love need not hold any place in her life. And now she saw, with this sudden, terrible clarity, that without it without Roger life could hold no meaning nothing except emptiness.
 Oh, she was glad now that Mac had managed to slip in that word or two, and that almost the last words Roger had heard had been Jackie sends luck and love. Perhaps Roger had known, with sudden clarity, too, that that had not been pretense - that he had her love with him.
 though it had not brought him much luck or the fact that she had worn his pin. Jackie knew
 MAMA A h SaRAk