time. Now I'll have to fly the bandit plane through a
lot of maneuvers and then come down, get another ship which will be
painted like an army plane, and do some more stunts all around one of
the tri-motors."

"But that won't seem like an aerial battle."

"The director says they can cut the film in the laboratory so it will
look all right. Of course he'd like to have both the bandit and the
army ships up at the same time, but he's short a pilot and the scene
must be filmed this morning. Hiring these big tri-motors is cutting
heavily into his expense budget."

"Why not let me fly one of the ships?" suggested Jane. "If you were in
the other one, I know I'd get along all right."

Charlie looked at her sharply.

"Golly, Jane, I never thought of that. Say, my ship is the one that's
been painted up as the bandit plane. You could fly that with your eyes
shut and I could take the army plane."

"I know we could do it," said Jane.

"Then here goes. We're on our way to see the director right now."

Chapter Twenty

Down in Flames

Director James was giving orders to the camera crew which was to go
aloft in one of the tri-motors. He appeared tired and worried and his
greeting to Charlie Fischer was short.

"I'm not looking for any more extras," he growled as he saw Jane with
the flyer.

"Sure, sure," agreed Charlie, who had a soothing and persuasive way,
"but you do need an extra pilot and you need one in a hurry. This girl
can handle one of the planes. I know, I trained her to fly."

The director stared at Charlie.

"Tell me another one," he snorted.

"Listen," said Charlie, "I'm not kidding. This is straight from the
shoulder. You let this girl go up in my plane and she'll do all of the
tricks your cameras can catch and a few more thrown in. She's a natural
flyer, knows the feel of a plane, becomes a part of it from the second
she gets into the cockpit."

Director James looked thoughtful. "We do need another pilot," he
admitted, "but I hate to think of a girl trying all of those stunts."

Jane decided it was time to say a word.

"If I fly Charlie's plane, I know I can handle the assignment," she
said eagerly. "With Charlie in the other ship there'll be little chance
of anything going wrong. I'd like to have the opportunity to try it."

The director looked at his watch.

"We start shooting in half an hour," he decided. "We'll take a chance."

"Come on, Jane. We've got to work fast," said Charlie,