“Say, are you crazy?”

“No, Sparky, I’m not.” She laughed again. “We were having an oxygen drunk. It might have been dangerous. I realized the danger just in time. Too much oxygen, too long, that’s all.”

“Too much oxygen, too long,” he repeated after her. “I’ve heard of that happening but just think of an oldtimer like me getting caught with it!”

“The bigger they are the harder they fall.” She favored him with a good laugh. “But it’s not really strange,” she added soberly. “Our trip, this far, has been a hard one. You’ve worked long hours. You were too tired to think. I was fresh. That made all the difference. And just for that, how would you like to crawl back for a few winks?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” He offered her the controls. “But promise me that if anything unusual occurs, seaplanes show up, or anything like that, you’ll call me.”

“I’ll call you,” she agreed.

Sparky’s sleep was long and peaceful. Never had Mary enjoyed herself half so much as on that morning guiding the big ship through the blue sky over a sea as dark and mysterious as death.

An hour passed, two, three hours. Sometimes she wondered in a vague sort of way about their secret cargo. Would it go through safely and would she be with the ship to its journey’s end? Just then none of these things appeared to matter much. It was good to live. That, for the moment, was enough.

There was a spring-like warmth in the air, and a faint fragrance as of flowers. They were going against a mild off-shore breeze.

Once she spotted dark dots on the ocean far below. There were twenty-four, a convoy. It must, she told herself, be an American convoy. She wanted terribly to drop down low and dip a wing in salute but, this, she knew, would never do. Some enemy sub might see that dip and know that the convoy lay beneath her. They would close in and then—

No—it would never do, so she drove straight on toward the rising sun.

At last a long, low, gray-green cloud appeared on the horizon before her. Or was it a cloud? Breathing softly she waited and watched. The long, narrow line widened. It seemed to take form. Some spots were higher, some strips greener than others. At last she whispered excitedly:

“It’s land! Land! Africa! I’ll soon be abroad. 

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