He wanted to tilt her nose and aim at the stars, to try out the plane in the stratosphere, but he could not be sure of the oxygen, and besides, he did not wish to lose contact with Ted. Ted had the chart showing the course the task force was taking. It would be easy to become lost on the vast Pacific, to run out of gas and fall into the sea. What a climax to an exciting adventure that would be!
The sky had cleared. The moon shone in all its glory. “No trouble finding the task force on such a night,” he said to Stew.
They zoomed along until Jack’s dial indicated that they had passed the halfway mark in their journey. Should overtake the _Black Bee_ in another hour at the most, he thought.
Meanwhile in the plane ahead a transformation was taking place. The battered overnight bag that Mary had taken aboard contained all the small civilian articles she had possessed before leaving Corregidor—also her nurse’s uniform.
While Ted watched his instruments, consulted his chart, and thought of many things, her fingers had been busy. First, to be sure, she had performed quite an unfeminine duty—she had studied the swinging machine gun before her, making sure that it was properly loaded and that, if necessity demanded, she could do her full duty by it.
Then she had turned to lighter tasks. A bottle of dye-remover, which had been furnished her, came first. This made her white again. After this came face cream, a manicure set, and cosmetics.
When this was done, by worming and wriggling like a snake coming out of its skin, she succeeded in completing her transformation from a South Sea native to an Army Nurse. That the transformation was quite complete was proven by the “For Pete’s sake!” that exploded from Ted’s lips when at last, having solved all the problems of the universe, he turned to see if she were really there.
“That’s swell. Thanks,” he exclaimed. “I just wanted to see if you were real.”
He was to know much more about that a few moments later.
“Listen! I think I hear the roar of a heavy plane!” Mary exclaimed suddenly.
Ted listened. The drone of his own motor was in his ears. He heard nothing else. “Guess you imagined that,” he said. “Strange things happen to you in the sky. There are mirages of sound as well as of sight.”