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all gold. It was as fine as plain dirt. Most all boys enjoy playing in the dirt. Casey thought it fun as it was thrown on top of him, until he was covered completely with only his nose sticking up. Not so Lacey. She saw nothing fun about getting all dirty. She felt plain awful about being buried in the damp earth.
    After the last shovelful, Mayor Firepit leaned into the cars and said softly, "Try not to move or make a sound until you are emptied on the dirt heap outside. Fly due east until you see the fort. Good luck to you, children."
    "Our prayers go with you," murmured Mrs. Firepit.
    One of the Boss's henchmen, seeing the ore carts were full, rudely shoved a pair of young girls onto the narrow-gauge track. "Start pushing if you want to get fed," he snarled.
    The girls, not knowing Lacey and Casey were hidden under the crushed ore, leaned against the carts and began shoving them up the track. Lacey and Casey could not see because their eyes were closed under the dirt. They could hear the poor girls panting and groaning as they manhandled the heavy carts along the track. A short time later they felt the carts stop. Then came a clanking sound as the ore cart buckets were turned on their sides and the load of finely crushed ore, along with Lacey and Casey, spilled out down the dump pile.

    The girls saw the children tumble down the slope and were surprised. But they quickly realized an escape attempt was in the making, whispered "good luck" and began pushing the carts back into the mine. Lacey had been right. The henchman stood back in utter boredom and did not bother to glance down at Lacey and Casey, who were now sitting up, brushing the dirt from their eyes and mouths. Instead he simply yawned and commanded the young ladies to hurry up and haul out another load of dirt.
    As soon as they were alone, the twins scrambled up the dump pile and ran to Vin Fiz, still sitting undisturbed in the center of the cavern. "The bad men can't help but hear the engine when we start it," said Casey. "They'll come running."
    But his fear soon faded because the airplane started its engine all by itself in almost complete silence before they even reached her. Flames came from the exhaust pipes, but miraculously, there was no sound. They leaped into their seats, threw on their helmets and goggles and tightened their belts.
    "Vin Fiz truly is enchanted," cried Lacey joyously.
    Casey did not have to put his hands on the control levers or touch the throttle. Vin Fiz simply rolled forward out of the cavern, turned her wheels onto the road and raced ahead, lifting into the air as lightly as a butterfly.
    For the first time Casey discovered that he no longer had to fly the plane. She flew herself. All he had to do was give her voice commands. "Turn due east," he said, and Vin Fiz gently banked in that direction. "And go fast." She responded with a surge from her engine that turned the big propellers like whirlwinds, sending the airplane soaring through the sky at over fifty miles an hour. They flew less than a hundred feet above the sandy desert, sailing over thousands of sagebrush with silver stems and yellow flowers, yuccas with their bundles of purplish-white bell-shaped blossoms and groves of Joshua trees, some standing as tall as forty feet with spiked leaves and creamy-green flowers.
    "The desert is so beautiful," Lacey said in a normal voice because Vin Fiz was flying so quietly, the only sounds came from the wind humming past the wing struts. She had always thought of the desert as dry and barren, but now she marveled at the vast fields of wildflowers.
    "Do you see Fort Blodgett yet?" Casey asked as he kept a wary eye to their rear for any signs of pursuit from the Boss and his henchmen.
    She raised her goggles and shielded her eyes from the sun. "I see it, I see it," she cried with excitement. "I can make out the walls and guard towers on the corners."
    It wasn't long before Vin Fiz was circling the stars-and-stripes flag flying over the fort