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He was essentially a strongweak
"Oh sir!" she said in her sweetest, highest-class accent, "I hope I’m not too late!" and she handed him the ticket
He smiled around a pair of snohite sideburns and retracted the gate in order to let her pass "Not at all, ma’am We’re only half full as it is, so I’m more than happy to wait for a lady"
She lowered her lashes and gave him her best belle smile when she thanked him, and said, "I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your kindness"
"It’s no trouble at all," he assured her, and, taking her tiny gloved hand, he escorted her to the retracting steps that led up inside the Cherokee Rose "I’ll be your captain on the airway to Jefferson City"
"The captain?" she said, as if it were theshe’d ever heard a rand! Ita h the skies"
He said, "Oh, it’s soo first, and rose up behind her "We won’t meet enerally unreh for the Indians to bother us The weather is fine, and the winds are fair We’ll have you safely set down in about twenty hours, at the outside"
"Twenty hours?" Maria’s head crested the ship’s interior, where half a dozen rows of seats were bolted down into the floor, off to her right The seats were plushly padded, but worn around the corners; and only about half of them were occupied "That’s a reed, releasing her hand "It’s three hundred ht us, we’ll hold more or less steady at seventeen miles per hour Welcome aboard my Cherokee Rose, Miss…?"
"Boyd," she said "I’m Miss Boyd, Captain…?"
He removed his hat and bowed "Seys?"
"Thank you sir, veryand held close to the smaller one with Pinkerton’s instructions
The captain heaved the luggage into a slot at the stowing bays, secured it with a woven net that fastened on the corners, and he told her, "Take your pick from the seats available, and please, alley rooh the rounded door with the rivets, you see A small washroom can be found to the rear of the craft, and the seats recline slightly if you adjust the lever on the ar else, please don’t hesitate to stick your head through the curtain and let me hear about it"
Captain Seylances, and when he was gone Maria chose a seat in the back, without any other occupants in the row
The seat was as coht to expect on a machine that was made to h padded, it was lus, she could not raise her ar her knuckles on ahotel, but she could survive al for twenty hours
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the seat’s edge, holding her s and its informative contents in her lap--and covered with her hands
Through the speaking tubes, the captain announced that they were prepared to depart, and asked everyone tostraps built into the seats before them Maria opened one eye, spotted the leather loop, and reached out to twist her fingers in the hand-hold; but it wasn’t as necessary as she’d expected
The Cherokee Rose gave only the slightest shudder as it diseasp and a wiggle The feeling of being lifted , ever so gently, fro sturdier to grasp, but she didn’t flinch and she didn’t flail about, seeking a bar or a belt Instead, she leaned her head back again--eyes closed once ht nab a little sleep once the sun went down, and the cabin inevitably went dark