around the Point with its precious burden, it met other boats
coming out to meet it, and orders were shouted back and forth, so that
when the rescuers reached the pier, there was a car ready for that which
had gone out full of life and strength and which had come back beaten
and bruised.

The girls on the porch of the big hotel cried in each other's arms,
hysterically, as the car passed, and talked of the way the young
aviator had looked in the morning.

But far up in a tall old house, crowned by a cupola, was a girl who did
not cry. She had seen the "Gray Gull" come down and had guessed at the
catastrophe. She had fainted away quietly, and lay now on the floor by
the window with all of her fair hair shaken over her still white face.

CHAPTER XXI

BROKEN WINGS

It was Sophie who found Bettina. She came in quietly, wondering at the
silence, then growing suddenly afraid she passed swiftly to the inner
room to discover Miss Matthews still asleep and Bettina in a huddled
heap on the floor.

She picked the girl up in her strong arms, and carried her back to the
big room and brought water and bathed her face, murmuring anxiously, "My
dear, what is it? What has happened?"

And, after a little while, Bettina whispered, "Justin," and then, a
little louder, "Justin," and coming to the surface through the darkness
for a third time, she clutched Sophie's arm, and cried, "Oh, is he
killed? Is Justin killed?"

Holding the shuddering little creature close, Sophie protested: "My
dear, what is it? What have you dreamed?"

"I didn't dream. Oh, Sophie, I didn't dream. I saw him up in the air,
and I saw him--fall----"

So it had come. So it came to all men who flew. Every bit of blood was
drained from Sophie's face. But, fighting for composure, she held out
such hope as she could. "My dear, are you sure? How did you know?"

"I was standing by the window when he--came down----"

"But there may have been some one to help him--and he was over the
water--and he can--swim----"

Footsteps were ascending the stairs lightly but hurriedly. The two women
turned their white faces to the door. Captain Stubbs stood on the
threshold.

"He's hurt," he said. "Justin's hurt. He's at Harbor Light--and he's
asked for Betty--and Anthony says that she must come."

In a big room that overlooked the sea lay the bird man with broken
wings. After that first murmured plea for "Betty" he had showed no sign
of returning consciousness.

O