A minute or so went by and the boy, no longer able to retain his assumed composure, jumped from his chair and darted across the room to where Elinor sat. “Don’t feel sorry for me,” he pleaded. “Tell me that I failed so that I can get over with it as quickly as possible.” The boy’s words completely took her off guard. Her eyes looked up into his anxious face as her mouth slowly parted. She would have loved to reach up and take this great big, clumsy boy in her arms and mother him but her better judgment prevailed. Transfixing her eyes to the health card, she said, somewhat absently, “You are to report for instruction immediately!” Lefty was so overcome with joy that he found it impossible to speak. With a great display of effort, he collected himself and managed to say: “You mean—you mean I passed? Gee, that’s great—and thanks a million, sister!” Elinor did not venture to reply but proceeded to place the official stamp on Lefty’s physical report card, going through the regular routine course of the service in a trained, mechanical fashion as the boy now centered his attention upon a large likeness of Lindbergh that hung in a gilt-edged frame over her desk. “Great fellow, isn’t he?” Lefty said, his eyes still transfixed upon the portrait of the national idol. Elinor smiled as she held out the card for Lefty, replying in an encouraging and ambiguous manner, “Yes, and he started just like this!” The boy was quick to grasp the double meaning behind her comparison, and as he proceeded to button his shirt sleeve, the thread broke and the button flipped off, rolling across the desk. “Just like a man!” she announced, taking his arm and joining the shirt cuff with a paper clip. “If I wasn’t so awfully busy, I’d sew it on for you!” Now that he had passed the examination and was on the road to begin a new and promising existence, Lefty once more found time to devote to the opposite sex. At the sign of encouragement visibly apparent, he leaned far over the desk and looked longingly at the lovely girl who sat smiling up at him. “Are you always busy?” he asked. Elinor hesitated for a brief moment and then casting her eyes down upon the pile of papers resting on her desk, replied: “Not—always!” “How about to-night?” he urged. “You’ll find the Commanding Officer’s quarters in the first building to your right,” she announced indifferently, “and please close the door as you go out!” CHAPTER IV The air was filled with planes, droves of them, flying in formation, casting their shadows over the Marine Aviation Base at Pensacola, Florida, like a great body of locusts. Suddenly, a lone pursuit plane flew over the field like a majestic eagle. The pilot pushed the stick forward and the plane slowly glided down toward earth, an almost human thing, beautiful to gaze upon, graceful as a large bird and perfectly handled at the controls by an expert airman.