He woke up in a strange new world that was utterly different from
anything he had known before. A clean, white, antiseptic world with
narrow beds and pretty girls in white uniforms. He was tucked in one of
those beds, and one of the pretty girls in a white uniform was bending
over him solicitously.

"Where am I?" he demanded.

"This is a hospital. You are very sick," the nurse said soothingly.

"Hospital!" Stan sputtered. "I'm not staying in any hospital. I was
never in a hospital in my life!" He got to his feet as orderlies and a
head nurse came running.

"Lie down or I will report you," the head nurse said severely. "You are
sick."

"How long do you think it takes me to get over a bath?" Stan shot at the
nurse.

"You'll be here two weeks," the head nurse informed him.

Stan had visions of Allison sending out for another man to fill the trio
on Red Flight. He wrapped the blanket tighter around him.

"Get my clothes," he ordered.

"Get an officer," the head nurse snapped to an orderly.

Stan knew it was time for action. He swept the blanket ends off the
floor and dived down the hall with the nurses running after him. A
doctor came out of a room, looked at Stan, then ducked back quickly.
Stan bounded down a wide stairway and out through a pair of open doors.
People stared at him as he rushed up the street in his bare feet looking
for a cab.

On a corner he bumped into two bobbies. They closed in on both sides of
him.

"Easy, my man," one of them said. "Easy, now. We'll see you safe back to
your bed."

"Fine," Stan answered. "Get me over to Merry Flying Field as quick as
you can."

The bobbies looked at Stan then exchanged glances. He looked perfectly
healthy and very powerful, though he was a bit pale and had a wild look
in his eye. They nodded their heads.

"I'm from Red Flight over at Merry Field. Get me there and the Flight
Lieutenant will vouch for me," Stan urged as he looked down the street
and saw an ambulance rocking around a corner.

The bobbies were satisfied that this young giant was crazy and they had
better humor him. They shoved him through the curious crowd that had
formed on the corner. Within a few minutes he was seated in a cab
bowling across the city.

Allison was lounging at a table drinking tea with O'Malley when two
bobbies and a disheveled man wrapped in a wool blanket marched into the
mess. They both leaped to their feet and rushed across the room.

"Stan, old chap!" Allis