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this high calling of yours, but it’s getting late. I’ll surrender to Mr. Lee tonight. He seems to be set for a long evening. But would you let me come back tomorrow?”
    “That would be nice.”
    “Perhaps we should arrange a secret meeting place. If we don’t, I have a feeling that Mr. Brodie Lee will be there waiting for us.”
    Kat laughed and shook her head, her tawny hair falling free over her shoulders. “Yes, we’ll run away and hide from Brodie.”
    She tilted her chin up in contemplation. “Say,” she said, “I have an idea. Are you up for an adventure?”
    “Um, yes . . . I guess so.”
    “I’ll talk to Clint in the morning and see if he’ll join us. We’ll give you a real taste of the United States, Georgia style!”
    The two started back toward the house. They were met bySergeant, the large bluish-gray dog that sniffed them thoroughly as he investigated them. When Kat patted his head, he followed the pair back to the house.

CHAPTER THREE
    “Never Trust a Limey on a Coon Hunt!”
    Lewis leaned across the fence, Parker towering beside him, admiring the herd of black cattle grazing in the field. The sight of the sleek animals always gave Lewis a sense of great satisfaction. He had never forgiven himself for losing everything he had possessed in the stock market, but somehow with the help of Clint Longstreet, he had made this farm into a paying proposition. At times he still marveled at how it had all come about, for he had known nothing about farming when they moved to Georgia. Clint, however, had been a great help, and the family had managed to build up the herd over the past eight years.
    “They’re such beautiful animals,” Parker remarked. “You must be very proud of them.”
    “I guess I am, but it’s really Clint who deserves the credit. And Missouri Ann. She never lost hope.” Lewis turned a quizzical glance on the tall Englishman. “You ever thought about getting yourself a wife, Parker?”
    “I suppose every man thinks about that.”
    “But no prospects?”
    He laughed, but the sound was not particularly humorous. “Plenty of prospects. There is no shortage of marriageable women in England.”
    “Or here either, for that matter.”
    “I thought when I first came here that Brodie Lee had an understanding with Katherine.”
    “Brodie? Not him! He plays the field. He’s a good man, though, and a great pilot from what I hear.”
    “I saw his show at the exhibition. He could do marvelous things with that airplane of his. But there’s nothing going on between him and Katherine?”
    “Why, no. She hadn’t even seen him for years. He left right after he graduated. Always been footloose.”
    The conversation soon turned to the conflicts in Europe and the various aircraft that were now being used. “It was terrible about the Hindenburg disaster, wasn’t it?” Lewis asked. He referred to the airship that had burst into flames a month ago, killing thirty-six people. It had been coming in for a landing in New Jersey when something had ignited the hydrogen gas as it was settling down toward earth.
    “An awful tragedy.”
    “Do you think the Nazis will use dirigibles in a war?”
    “Oh no. They tried that in the Great War,” Parker said with a shrug. “They were vulnerable even then. They wouldn’t last long now. But Hitler’s got plenty up his sleeve besides that. The world seems to be coming apart, doesn’t it? There’s Stalin killing people by the hundreds, everybody who’s in his way. Russia’s like a truck that’s lost its brakes on a steep incline.”
    “Hitler’s a maniac, all right,” Lewis agreed, nodding moodily. “He has the mind of a murderer. The only difference is he has the authority to kill thousands instead of just a few. You’re worried about your home, aren’t you, Parker?”
    “Yes, I’m afraid I am. It’s only a matter of time until we’re going to look up and see German planes coming at us from France.”
    “But France wouldn’t fight