feet in the air and speeding along at 180 miles an hour, could
be a little dreary.

Jane was gay, and her good humor cheered up her passengers. One by one
she called their names and they opened their presents with evident
curiosity and enthusiasm. There was a nice handkerchief for the elderly
woman who was hurrying to Chicago, a tube of shaving-cream for the
clean-shaven New York traveling man, and a picture book for the little
girl of seven who was traveling with her mother.

Gifts for the other passengers were appropriate. Then Jane opened a
basket of popcorn balls she had made at Mrs. Murphy's and a box of
delicious home-made candy. All in all, it was as gay and pleasant as
Christmas eve could be away from home.

With the turn into the new year, winter descended on the Rockies in all
its fury. Blizzards raged for days and the passenger schedules were
practically abandoned. Whenever the storm let up, the planes, with only
the pilots and the mail aboard, dashed across the continental divide,
but for more than a week, Jane and her companions remained snowbound at
Cheyenne.

Then reports of sickness and misery in isolated mountain towns began to
creep in. Doctors were running short of supplies in villages where the
flu had appeared. Unless the blizzards abated soon, there would be
serious trouble.

Jane was scheduled to go out on the _Coast to Coast_, coming through
from the west for the first time in three days. The plane was hours
late and she reported at the field just as the early January night
closed down. Miss Comstock was in the operations room. So was Slim
Bollei, one of the veteran pilots.

"You might as well go home, Jane," said Miss Comstock. "I phoned, but
you had started for the field. It's snowing west of here and the _Coast
to Coast_ won't get out of Rock Springs before dawn."

Slim Bollei, who had been looking out the window, shrugged his
shoulders.

"You're optimistic," he grinned. "It's snowing thicker and harder than
at any time this winter."

The weather had turned bitter cold with the wind lashing around the big
hangar in a chilling overture.

When Jane started back to the city, she found that the field car which
had brought her was stalled. She telephoned for a taxi, but was
informed that no machine would be available for at least an hour, so
she made herself comfortable in the waiting room which adjoined the
office of the night operations chief.

Sue called to learn if they were goin