Linda replaced the telephone receiver and sat motionless, staring at the wall of the hotel bedroom. The worst had happened. The autogiro was stolen. The Ladybug! Her dearest possession.

“What’s the matter?” asked Dot, realizing that her chum must have heard bad news.

In a few words Linda explained the situation.

“And the worst of it is, that girl evidently didn’t have any difficulty at all about doing it. Just walked into the airport at night and demanded the plane. They handed it over to her without so much as a question.”

For once in her life, Dot remained speechless. There was not a single word of comfort she could think of to offer to her companion.
103

“She’s had almost a whole day’s start,” Linda added dismally. “Here it is three o’clock, and she must have pulled out at dark last night. She’s probably out of the United States by this time. And nobody even on her trail yet!”

“Our police always catch the wrong person, anyway,” remarked Dot, grimly.

“Don’t be too hard on them, Dot. They’re not all like that dreadful specimen that came for me this morning. And in a case like this, they would probably put the air-force on duty. Men of a much higher type.”

“Like Mr. Chase, for instance.”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do, Linda?”

“Call the police headquarters first. Tell them to get in touch with all the airports possible, so that any autogiros can be reported. But I’d like to go after that girl myself, too!”

“In what?”

“‘In what?’ is right! Oh, if I only had a plane! If Ted Mackay were only here—or even Ralph, with his autogiro! But do you realize, Dot, that I’m bankrupt? I can’t buy a plane, or even hire one, now that that girl took everything I had in the bank.”

Her companion nodded. “If somebody would only lend you one,” she said. “Maybe Mr. Eckert—”
104

“I’ve thought of him. But he has to get back to the school immediately. Why, Dot, this is the twenty-ninth of September! We’ve wasted a whole week, just to establish the fact that I am Linda Carlton! Isn’t it just too absurd!”

“It’s the craziest thing I ever heard of. And now you’ll lose your chance at that teaching position, unless you give up trying to get your Ladybug back.”

“I can’t do that. I couldn’t give up now. No, I’ll call the police headquarters, and then I’ll wait around until Mr. Eckert wakes up from his nap. We’ll surprise the men by having dinner with them.”

It was indeed a surprise, as Linda expected, when she and Dot met Mr. Eckert and Chief Brenan in the lobby of the hotel that evening at seven o’clock. Naturally, both men thought that the girls had flown away early in the afternoon.

“I’m tied to the earth again,” Linda announced immediately. “But not by the law this time.... That girl flew off in my autogiro!”
105

“No!” cried Mr. Eckert, incredulously. “Why, there isn’t anything she won’t steal!” He smiled grimly. “Did she leave you your own clothing, Linda?”

“Yes,” replied the girl. “But that’s about all.”

“You should have had me wakened the minute you heard the news. If you had done that, you might have been on your way by this time.”

“You mean—?” gasped Linda.

“In my plane, of course. Take it and welcome, my dear child!”

Linda seized his hand and tried to stammer out her thanks. But she was too much moved by his generosity to say anything.

“How will you get back to St. Louis in time for the opening of your school?” inquired Dot.

“By the commercial air-line,” replied Mr. Eckert. “Now come in and eat some dinner, and after that, you can make your plans.”

It seemed to Linda almost too good to be true. To have the privilege of flying that new, fast biplane, which she had admired so much that morning. It had a cruising speed of a hundred and fifty miles an hour! Surely, in it, she could catch her own Ladybug.
106

“You’ll start early tomorrow morning, I suppose?” asked Mr. Eckert, as they seated themselves in the dining-room.

“Yes,” answered Linda. “The police are already on the job, in communication with all the airports, which are to keep a watch out for all autogiros that pass overhead or land for gas. We’ll find out what reports have been turned in, before we take off in the morning.”

“And will you go along, Miss Crowley?”

“Certainly,” replied Dot. “I’m just as anxious to recover the Ladybug as Linda is.”

“It may mean dangerous business.”

“It’s bound to be exciting!”

After dinner Chief Brenan telephoned to the police headquarters to find out what information had been gained. Three autogiros, he learned, had been spotted, but only two of them had been stopped. Neither of these was the Ladybug. The third, it seemed, had been seen early in the day, flying southeast across California toward Arizona. Two secret-service planes had already been sent out in that direction.
107

With Mr. Eckert’s help, Linda sketched out a course to follow. She would head straight for the city of Yuma, in the extreme southwest of Arizona, stopping there for the first night. Then she would go over the border into Mexico.

Dot, in the meanwhile, took charge of the practical preparations for the trip. She arranged to leave their box of clothing at the hotel, and packed all the supplies for the trip. Water in gallon jugs and thermos bottles, canned food, blankets in case they were forced to camp out at night, field glasses and first-aid kit—and finally, upon Mr. Eckert’s suggestion—a revolver.

The whole party breakfasted at dawn the following morning, and Mr. Eckert accompanied the girls to the airport, to sign the necessary papers for the release of his plane, the Sky Rocket. It was a beautiful new biplane, of the latest model. Painted yellow, with a companion cockpit, it stood in readiness on the runway, as if inviting Linda to climb in and fly.

Her eyes were shining in happy anticipation as she skipped forward and climbed into the cockpit to peer at the instruments. Everything for convenience and comfort seemed to be provided. Altimeter, clocks, compass, parachutes—even a wireless, with transmitting radio wires placed inside the wings, so that messages could be sent and received.
108

“It’s marvellous, Mr. Eckert!” she exclaimed, as she seated herself at the controls, her hand fingering the joy-stick.

“Aren’t you even going to give her a trial flight, Miss Carlton?” inquired the mechanic, skeptically.

“Miss Carlton can pilot any plane that’s made!” replied Mr. Eckert, proudly. “She never needs any instruction. But,” he added, coming closer to Linda, “don’t forget that this isn’t an autogiro. Don’t try to land her on top of a building!”

Linda smiled.

“I only wish I had my own license,” she said.

“I shouldn’t worry about that,” returned Mr. Eckert. “The police aren’t going to make any more mistakes about arresting you.”

“I should hope not!” exclaimed Dot.
109

A minute later the mechanic started the motor, and Linda taxied along the runway, waving good-bye to Mr. Eckert. A few hundred feet further, and the Sky Rocket rose into the air like a bird, soaring up to the skies. The usual fog common to the early morning climate of California had lifted, and the sun shone brightly as Linda directed her course towards the mountains. She let out the throttle to its maximum as soon as she reached a good safe height; a hundred and fifty miles an hour did not seem an abnormal speed, but it was a thrilling experience. Linda loved her own Ladybug, but after all, this was an exciting change.

Over the orange groves of southern California they passed again, then, even higher up i............