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THE OSHAWA DAILY TIMES, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1928 PAGE NINE \ New Abs or "SEA CHAPTER ONE PEE i $s too 2. a woman. Entirely too dan- vous, It is did of you to want Ee but--Fll just have to refuse. n't you see my side? Martin A. Stanley, president of the Stanley Air Lines, Inc, shook aad With an Nr a finality, e girl opposite him of the window dejectly. From the 2 storey office she d see eveland's business district, and be- yond Lake Erie, a gray dead thing, even under the clear summer sky, few aml boats flecked its surface. Always 'the lake seemed angry and iscontented as if it were grumb- "She couldn't go , . , , Stanley had refused. A hot wind ruffled her short brown boblied hair, Her full red lips were tremulous with disappointment, "Lieut. Collins and Maj. Brooks are willing." She renewed the argument with the airplane magnate. "And I've watched the Sky Maiden from the first--I've seen every bolt LW in, 'Every bit of metal put on its body. . I've watched them test it--I've been up in the plane already, a dozen Jes, Mr, Stanley, I lowe it, truly 0 "It seems--it seems part of me, somehow: I've heen in the air a lot, too, you know that, I got my license a month ago, It isn't as if I'd be a dead loss in the plane. I could drive it if 1 had to. Art Collins says 1 have just as steady a head as he has in the air, "I want to go , , wanted anything so badly, could only see, , 've and dreamed about it." Tears glistened on the long black lashes that fringed her brown eyes, "I can't let them start without mel I'm not afrai you know that, The Stanle ir Lines will be entirely free if liability, I'll go on my own, f only I can go!" Stanley's eyes searched the attrac- tive girl's face as he drummed mner- vously on his desk. : : "You are very enthusiastic, Miss Wallace," he ad at last. "But you are a woman, and the trip is dan- gerous," He was silent again as he tapped his pencil on the desk and again regarding the girl across from him Her cheeks were pink from excite- ment and her eyes gleamed with the passionate fire of the born adven- turer, Niece eyes, he thought. But too pretty for a dangerous trip, Much too pretty ,.,. " "The danger doesn't matter to me, she begged, "I just want to go. can't explain why, unless I've got the hlood of adventure somewhere in my being. I have to go!" Joan Wal- lace's words tumbled from her lips. Her hands were clasped together so tightly that her knuckles were white. "How old are you, Miss Wallace?" "Twenty-one, sir." "You are a child yet, Do you real- ize that your life is before you? And it i 4 be a very interesting one, Now, if you SHOULD go on_ this cruise of the Sky Maiden to Tokio and something should happen--of course I don't anticipate that any- thing will happen, but 3 can tell--this life of yours wouldn't be worth Jhat I" He snapped his fin- ers lightly, i | # "I would'nt care,' Joan eried, "if only I could Eo "Your family?" : "Father says I can do as I like, And Ralph, Ralph Chalmers, the man I'm engaged to, doesn't like the idea much, but he's willing, too." "Hasn't the man you intend to marry any rights?" ! Joan's face was suffused with pink to the tips of her small ears, a soft delicate pink, : 3 "I only told him last night I'd marry him, and then on con n that he would let me go. Bes and she looke appealingly at Stan~ ley. "Besides, I'm awiyl y lucky, Ask Art Collins, says I'm' the luckiest person he knows. Ivor Brooks of that, too, I'm convinced that I go, we'll get to Tokio safely!" Stanley laughed, a ringing laugh that boomed through his mahogany furnished office, : : This girl she was intrepid! Dif- ferent from Mae and Eunice, his two daughters who couldn't be forced to do anything that even hinted of danger, Why, he had been trying to get them up in a plane for the last two years, and never . had succeeded! Eunice grew pale every time he mentioned one, Mae hastily changed the subject. Even Martin Junior was--well, a bit of a disappointment. The one and only time he had flown he had stepped out of the plane when it landed, his face a sickly green color and his hand shaking from fright. Now this _girl--she was a brave out . I've never If you dreamed we never in its flight--something that may drop you into a shark infested sea; that you may never come back here? "There will be just the three of you, you know. Brooks, Collins and you. You may die together! You may disappear into the west, and your fate will never be known! "We've tried to safeguard the Sky Maiden in every possible way, but we can't account for the elements. This trip, after all, is only an experi- ment and experiments often fail. From San Francisco to Tokio--more than fifty hours of flying, more than two days! Do vou think you under- A \ Ne ~~ rbing Love Story of the Aire INGS" BY BOB EDEN she whispered. "You're going to take me to Tokio!" Then she spied Col- lins. "Art! Stanley said I could go!" she cried excitedly. "Good!" Collins came around the side of the plane, his blue eyes twinkling merrily and the cigarette which was seldom out of his mouth tilted at a dangerous angle. He was tall and slim, over six feet, and his lanky body moved awkward- ly as he walked. His sandy hair was closely cropped, only a stubble show- ing in the front. He shook hands cordially with Chalmers then turned again to Joan. stand all this, Miss Wallace?" *I do, sir, and I still want to go," the girl answered firmly, "Very well, Miss Wallace, You havé convinced me. You shall go." "Oh! Mr. Stanley! Thanks!" Joan impulsively grasped her employer's hand. She was bubbling with excite- ment, and her eyes were suddenly bright with the tears that glossed them, "You know the first leg of the flight begins from here, the 20th-- and the last, from San Francisco the 23rd, providing of course the weather is favorable." : Stanley passed his smooth hand over his white hair, God! He hadn't meant to let her go! Why had he said yes? Too late now to do anything else. "I'll be ready!" "Going back to the field?" Yes.' "Tell Collins and Brooks to come right up, will you. I want to talk with them. And, Miss Wallace. 1 hope--I1 hope I have done the right thing. With luck you may get to Tokio!" "And I'm the luck, Mr. Stanley! jon | Goodbye, and thanks, again." The girl rushed from the office, a flying re, slim and neat in her rown linen dress with a childish collar of white and, a big loose tie of black. satin, Twenty-one, Stanley mused, as he watched her quickly open the door, Twenty-one, and she looks 16. . .. In the reception room a man hur- riedly arose as she rushed through the door, "Ralph, I'm going. He says I may! Ralph, I'm so glad!' She was in his arms regardless of the prim secre- tary who sat at a desk nearby and several other callers waiting to see Mr, Stanley, : "I was hoping 'and praying out here that he'd refuse you, you imp!" Ralph Chalmers replied. ""Fhat's a nice way to do!" Joan teased. "Driye me out to the field." In the hangar pt the edge of the field the monoplane Sky Maiden was resting, a silver 'slender thing, with the long graceful euryes of a giant bird, little thing. Too brave, for a wi He'd Tike to see her go--but it was out of the tion dn' risk a woman's life on an expedition like this, It was % . "No, Miss Wallace, t let you BO. B bad seen the ight ia hs eyes. Bhs ering walked slowly to the window, Stanley was his chair, and only She tap g his cl ss surface oy Oo "breathing of Joan were audible in the big room. Finally, the girl Shake: Mr. Sianley, fu ST go. The Sky SE Maiden can't go withoy voice was tense with emotion, bor hb high as she 5 Stanley turned Link, in WOW 'it down, Miss Wallace" She sat down. "Do you realize, tat this is to be a to Tokio? And tha 5090 miles you will cific Ocean? thing may happen to the Sky Maiden oan-touched the tip of 2 wing ten- derly, soothingly, and patted the body t|as if it were a child. "You gorgeous, beautiful thing!" "You're a game little thing to go and brave Stanley yourself. He told me only yesterday he positively would not let you go. And he told Brooks the same thing, Didn't he Ivor?" From the depths of the hig plane's cabin, Brooks replied in the affirma- tive. Soon after the Englishman ap- peared, Maj. Ivor Brooks, war time avia- tor, was older than Collins, more mature appearing, and not so tall. His brown hair was smoothly brushed back, and his upper lip was outlined with a small dark moustache. His face, browned from the wind and sun, was more scrious than that of Collins. At times deep wrinkles appeared in his forehead, wrinkles that seemed stamped there for a moment, only to disappear the next and leave his skin smooth as a boy's, Across his left cheek was the faint outline of a long scar that crept up to his hair, whitening it as it neared his temple. The scar was a mark of an accident with his plane over the German lines--when Brooks had been left for dead, his plane a tan- gled metal wreck beside him. Aside from the scar the only other vestige of the disaster was a slight limp in his right leg barely noticeable when he walked, The stiffness occasioned by a broken bone never seemed to leave him. Brooks was 35 and at times seemed much older. Collins was 27 and appeared younger, The three men and the girl stood looking at the Sky Maiden; Brooks and Collins, lovingly; Chalmers, frankly dubious; Joan dreamily. Finally Chalmers spoke. "I can't quite reconcile myself to having Joan go. You two fellows have got to promise me you'll take good care of her and 4s her back." "Silly," Joan laughed. "Can't promise, " Collins said. "But we'll try our darndest, A long trip and a dangerous one, hut I'm posi- tive we're going to land at Tokio!" Joan returned to her desk in the factory after she had told the two aviators that Stanley wished to sce them. Chalmers followed her. "Darling, I wish you wouldn't go," he pleaded; "if anything happens-- I don't know what I'd do. And I love LJ you so much. I couldn't bear to lose you. "Don't Ralph--1 do love you, but I want to go. I must go. And the day I get back from Tokio, we'll be mar- ried. Didn't I premise if you'd let me go, we'd be married--when I got back? I'll be thinking of you all the way--remember!" Ralph Chalmers looked far from happy as he drove Joan home. He didn't like this business of a girl go- ing on an experimental ip to To- kio in an airplane. Didn't like it at all. His girl . . the girl he was to marry. But she was so confident, so Art Collins, air mail flyer, had assisted in experiment. ing with a plane for a Pa- cific flight, absolutely confident that she would come hack to him, So sure nothing could go wrong. In fact, Chalmers did not care much about airplanes anyway. To be sure Joan had inveigled him up once or twice when he had come to call for her at the office where she was W. L. Leonard's steno- grapher. Leonard was Stanley's fac- tory manager. Ralph had not been ly as thrilled ahout the rides as as. There was an unstable, ner- vous feeling when you were in a plane--as if any moment you might he dashed to the earth -- to die. Chalmers didn't want to die. He wanted to marry Joan--and live, But Joan--there was no use deny- ing her. She was a child still, and a child who always got her way, A child who didn't know there was such a thing as danger--and death. Perhaps it was best -- that she didn't know. After Ralph left her that night, Joan undressed quickly and in her sheer nightgown knelt at the win- dow ledge of her hedroom. A gorgeous night. The moon was sailing through the heavens--as she would sail--a silver stately steady moon, Full and round. She could see it move as she knelt. Out on the ocean when she and Art and Ivor were in the Sky Maid- en they would see the same silver moon, Only it would be waning then, But it would be the same. And they would watch for it to rise and see it set--and glide through its shiver- ing, sparkling, diamond path. Over the ocean, she and Art and Ivor, They wanted her! Hadn't she reluctantly, half timidly asked them if she could go, when she first heard of the flight? Had- n't they agreed and gone to ask Stanley, the big boss? And when Stanley refused them, she had gone herself--today! He had consented. She hugged her arms to her, and let the wind play on her bare rounded shoulders. There was a little purr at her feet, and in an in- stant a white shape loomed up be- for her on the window. It was Bam, her kitten. She caught the animal to her and soon it was nestled near her neck, purring. The first woman to fly across the Pacific! That wasn't the thing that mattered, though. She would have wanted to go if she had been the 50th. It was the going, the thrill of being in the air, the cool breeze rac- ing past her, the road of the Sky Maiden as it skimmed the skies. , . . The danger .... To be on and away. ; Even as a child, Joan had liked to do things--things that other girls were afraid of doing. Not for the dare of it, but because she had to! The trees she had climbed--to the very tops! The fences she had walked! When no one else would! Then, when she had finished high school, she had bravely gone to Lco- nard who was just opening the air- plane factory for the Stanley lines, and had asked him for a job as stenographer. Just because she hoped in her heart she would get to fly... And she had! She couldn't count the times she had been up. When Leonard didn't need her, at lunch hour, and after work, she went up. - Some one was always willing to take her. She kept a pair oi breeches, a leather coat, her cap and goggles in her locker at the factory. Fhe first time she sat before the wheel--her right hand on the stick. One of the flyers at her side telling her what te do. . .. mw She, Joan Wallace, guiding a plane! She was quick to learn and after some practice could take off well from the field and land very smoothly. To be sure some air man was al- ways with her--she was not allowed to go alone. Soon she felt more confident behind the wheel of an airplane than driving her ram- shackle little car to and from her work at the suburban factory. Perhaps Art Collins would let her take the wheel of the Sky Maiden on part of the journey to Tokio! Perhaps! Ralph, when she had met him, tried to persuade her not to go up any more. But Ralph didn't under- stand at first. Finally, he had left off trying to keep her from the air, Dear Ralph... she knew she was going to be happy with him when she came back... he was so sweet and kind. For a year he had heen pleading with her to marry him. And last night, she had said "yes" --on condition that he would let her go to Tokio if Stanley agreed, Hard for Ralph to let her go, when he, was afraid for her. She was not afraid. . . . : What was fear, anyway? "Bam, do you know what fear is?" she giggled to the kitten as it lay in her arms. Now, she was going, as she had always wanted to go--on a long air trip! For a year Stanley, who repre- sented one of the most powerful air Imes in the world, had been experi- menting with a plane. Art air mail flyer, and Ivor Brooks, ex- pert on flying machines and navi- gating, had assisted him in the scheme. Sky Maiden was the result, A swift monoplane, with a maximum speed of 180 miles an hour, power- fully, yet lightly built, driven by a whirlwind motor and made to carry besides its crew sufficient gasoline for the long trip from San Francisco to Tokio. For the wings were hollow and contained storage space for sev~ eral hundred gallons of fuel, A large tank in the fuselage made provision for the remainder, Sky Maiden was Stanley's pride, He had set his heart on perfecting a plane that could used be success- fully for ocean flying. In the Sky Maiden he sensed success he was financing the trip himself and had chosen Collins as pilot agd Brooks as navigator. "lI guess I'm just the mascot, Bam," Joan said as she cuddled her kitten. "I'd like to at least be rated as a passenger, so I think I'll take you as mascot! How would you like that, eh?" She tucked Bam' into her basket |g and went to bed. Before she fell asleep she turned the diamond ring on her Ralph's diamond--and kissed it ten- derly Her dreams that night were a strange mixture of silver hirds fly- ing over limitless oceans, and she, Joan, standing before the door of a small cottage, an apron over her flying togs, waiting for Ralph te come home to the dinner she had cooked, CHAPTER TWO Joan had been sleeping soundly when the jangle of a telephone bell close to her ear, startled her to cons- ciousness, "Yes," she answered into the phone, modestly pulling a quilt about her bare shoulders as she recognized Art Collins' voice. She glanced sleepily out the window. San Fran- cisco was still shrouded in darkness, "Honest, Art?" Now wide awake, she almost shricked into the trans- mitter, "I'l be there in an hour,® she Bam leaped stiffly erect in protest from her cosy nest at the foot of the bed as Joan flung back the cov- ers and fumbled with her feet for her slippers. "Bam, we're off today. Off for Tokio!" the girl caroled joyfully, pausing for a moment to scratch the kittens ears. It was but a matter of a few min- utes before she emerged from an invigorating shower and started leaping into her clothes. "Well, goodby dresses," the girl sang as she climbed into the heavy whipcord riding breeches, and then donned a light gray French flannel shirt and a smart black necktie. She locked the wardrobe trunk which she had shipped by rail from Cleveland to the St. Francis Hotel, and put Bam, a few small toilet articles and silk underwear into the grilled combination handbag she had made for her belongings and her beautiful Persian cat, "Don't 'meow' at me," Joan chat- tered as she tucked the cat into its compartment. "Soon we'll be in the air again, and in two days. you'll be - -------------- -- lL finger--| R YW seizing her bag heavy coat, she darted for the cle- vator, "Mr. Stanley has taken care of your account, Miss Wallace," the night clerk said as she her room key on the desk. y and best of luck." His watery blue eyes beamed at her through his thick lensed glasses. Joan was already bound for the "Goodby. "Thanks," she called back over her shoulder. A A nodding taxicab driver was rudely awakened as she shook his shoulder, and he leaped into action at her demand that she be taken to the ferry at once. A whir of gears a with the precious Bam ay thrusting a protesting paw throug the wire mesh at the end of her cramped prison held tightly on the rlI's lap, the car plunged forward wn Market stréet. A dollar satisfied the driver and Joan, clutching her bag in her hand, sprinted through the Ferry Build- ing, just barely making the 5 o'clock boat Yo Oakland, 4 th e impatiently paced the upper deck as the lumbering crait steamed across the bay, pausing in delighted wonder as she saw the first rays of the rising sun struggling through the early morning haze. The events of the last few days flashed in review through her mind as she stood at the railing looking out over the water to the west. Just five days ago, she had been in Cleveland. Then she and Col- lins, Brooks and Stanley had hopped off from 'the company's private field and headed. into the west on the start of their glorious adventure. Stanley insisted on flying as far as San Francisco to make final ar- rangements and check the plane a last time himself to be certain that every possible precaution was taken for the safety of the daring ocean yers, There had been a tearful goodby at the flying field between Joan and last minute ,and begged her not to risk her life and their happiness in the frail Sky Maiden. "But Ralph," she quietly, "I simply must go. I've al- ways wanted to make just such 'a trip,' and this is my chance. I'll be all right." . Ralph had exhibited a trace of jealousy, too, after she had quieted his fears, "Darn it, Joan," he protested, "I hate to see you going off on a -trip like this with two handsome airmen. There are no strings on either Col- lins or Brooks, you know. . "Don't be foolish, Ralph," she had answered. "The major is not inter- ested in women, and Art's just a good pal. Like a brother would be to me --if I had one," Her father had taken her adven- ture philosophically, "I know you'll make it, girl" Henry Wallace had said as he em- braced her. "The plane is safe and there are mo better flyers in the sountry than Brooks and Collins. Good uck, and come back to me soon. What a brick he had been, Joan thought. He always had been like that, ever since she could remember. He had been both father and mother to her after Mrs. Wallace died when the girl was a tiny baby. "You're a good girl," he had said to her once, "and I know anything you do is bound to be all right." A girl couldn't possibly do wrong, Joan had decided, with a father like hers. There had been a great crowd of newspaper men and camera men and friends, too, but Joan had dis- missed them quickly and devoted her last few minutes to her father and Ralph, Then the powerful motor of the Sky Maiden had been tuned up, and after a shout of "all clear" the crowd had scattered to a safe distance, The Sky « Maiden taxied over the level field, and in a minute had soared into the air, off on the big adventure, Soon the gray waters of Lake Erie had faded from view, and almost be- fore she realized they had actually gotten under way, Joan had discern- ed the belching smoke stacks of the great steel mills of northern Indi- ana looming in the distance. The flat plains and rolling hills of Illinois and Iowa slipped rapidly under the graceful Sky Maiden as Collins held it steadily on its course toward the Pacific ocean, Joan had found the trip rather monotonous and uninteresting until the great peaks of the Rockies were ahead and Art zoomed up to a higher altitude to clear the snow- flecked fingers of granite, reaching high into the sky. he sun, a gleaming ball of gol- den flame, was sinking out of sight into the waters of the Pacific as the Sky Maiden swooped down on the great air field at Oakland, and nestled like a feather on the hard packed field. The three men put up at a small rooming house pear the flying field. But Joan decided on the comfort of a large hotel in San Francisco for the few days they would have to wait while the Sky {Bie was receiving its final tests, and for the best pos- sible weather conditions. ; Joan had amused herself shopping for her trousseau, most of which she had shipped ahead in her trunk. For she and Ralph had decided that he would come on to San Francisco to meet her on her return from the . -- ---- " , dd Bennet, a | formerly in business at Leeds, stat- . BS [50 during vis pubis xasmbaation about $1,000,000 before "the in the wool textile he was spending rgd 0 8 year, but, having been a yorv. rich - SS - sy - > --_-- alph. He had broken down at the |}, had told him tod ert man think he was extrava ent Orient, They were to be married then. The creamy white satin dress, the filmy lace weil, yards long, and sprigged- hefe and "there wit! J waxen ofange - blossoms--the white satin pumps with their high buckles of pearl -- the gossamer hose, hike moonbeams ; the long kid gloves, th finger of which was already 1 for her wedding ring; the white leather prayer book she was to carry instead of a bouquet-- everything was ready for her when she returned. The gown was swathed in tissue paper so it would not get creased, veil was f ed in chiffon. And the white slip rs were stiff and shapely in their Eat tae ut, tn Vl lo be " Pang ta day, Ralph said the very hour she came back, they must be married. He wouldn't wait an longer . . . dear Ralph, He = n't have to! : Her father was coming out with Ralph for her wedding. Ivor and Art would be present, too. And the ring, the wedding was in her trunk, also, A eir- clet set with diamonds. Ralph had 'insisted she choose it before she left Cleveland, "so that it would be what she wanted." It was there in the little box lined .with white velvet, in the top compartment of her wardrobe trunk, Queer for a bride to keep the wed- ding ring! By rights it should with Ralph, . Mrs. Ralph Chalmers she would be in a few hours after she returned from this trip! Mrs. Ralph Chal- mers, No longer plain Joan Wallace, Joan giggled again at Ralph's hint of jealousy. As if there were any possibility of her loving either Ivog or Art! When she had Ralph! Ralph, how long had she knows him? A year? A little over a year, Ever since the night she had met him, she had liked him better than anyone she had ever known before --except her father, of course, Ralph was so stable, so serene, so depend. able. Henry Wallace liked him, too, Wouldn't be long until she was back--the Empress oy an was sail+ ing from Tokio the third of Septem- er. They could easily make that back, counting the shipping of 'the plane and everything, Only Aug, 24 3 . + « she would always re- member this day ,, , in less than a month she would be back in San Francisco, Back at the St, Francis unpacking he rtrunk, telling Ralph and her goer all 'her adventures, In less than a menth ,,.., It had only taken three days te gel the plane in shape, and another 48 was lost because of unfavorable weas ther reports from mid-Pacific, Then Collins' call had come from the air field, "Weather report is perfect" he had barked excitedly over the phone to Joan in her hotel room, "We're hopping at 6 am." Joan shivered slightly as the ferry Based into the slip on the Oakland side, "In a few minutes now," thought, "we'll be on our way. course we'll get there, We're bound to. The Sky Maiden is absolutely perfect, It can't fail." (To be continued) NORTHERN LAND BEING DRAINED TO. IMPROVE PULPWOOD s-- : Toronto, Oct, 23.--Systgmatic drainage of Northern Ontario pulpwood swamps, with a view te increasing the growth of the tim- ber, thereon, may shortly hecome a policy of the Department of Lands and Forests, One of the department's big present-day problems is how to provide for reproduction on cuts over lands and to increase as rapid. ly as possible the growth of avails able timber stands. Two Years' Research we For two years the Provincial Forestry Board, headed by Dr, ©, DD, Howe, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, have heen glivng close attention to the problem, and they have found, through experiments conducted In the Abitibi district, that black spruce lands, systematically drain- ed, have brought about growth in have been giving tlose attention to growth under old swampy condi- Hos, is nothing short of remark. able, EXPENSES AFFECT BAPTIST MISSIONS Hamilton, Oct. 23,~The sharp in- crease in travelling expenses is af fecting work in the foreign mission fields, so Rey. Dr. John MacNeill, Chairman of the Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board, told delegp- tes this afternoon to the Ontario- Quebec Baptist Convention. : Transportation to India had ins creased by 60 per cent, and to Boli- via by 100 per cent., he said, with the result that all other expenditures had to be reduced to the minimum, and even the stipends of missionaries had been reduced by 20 per cent. e latter curtailment ought not to be al- lowed to continue, Dr, MacNeill Sa and he urged that a special ihe she i be launched by the church wit view of securing 2 sum that w enable the work to be carried on without too stringent economy, Dr, H. E. Stilwell, Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, reported t receipts last year amounted to wa or 322, leaving a balance of $983, cvery dollar contributed, said, 94%; ents went directly to further the he . work of foreign missions. IS NOW BANKRUPT Bradford, Oct, 28.--Albert manufacturer's t, that he w, before the slump, he did not his time of prosperif;