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214 motor while I found a friendly bed and restful nap. In ample time I was awakened. The later tele­grams confirmed our decision. At the field, the engine was warmed up. A final message from my husband was handed to me. I shook hands with Bernt and Eddie, and climbed into the cockpit. The southwest wind was nearly right for the run­way. At twelve minutes after seven, I gave her the gun. The plane gathered speed, and despite the heavy load rose easily.

A minute later I was headed out to sea.

For several hours there was fair weather with a lingering sunset. And then the moon came up over a low bank of clouds. For those first hours I was flying about 12,000 feet. And then something happened that has never occurred in my twelve years of flying. The altimeter, the instrument which records height above ground, failed. Sud­denly the hands swung around the dial uselessly and I knew the instrument was out of commission for the rest of the flight.

About 11:30, the moon disappeared behind some clouds, and I ran into rather a severe storm with lightning, and I was considerably buffeted about, and with difficulty held my course. In fact, I prob­ably got off my course at this point to some extent because it was very rough. This lasted for at least an hour. Then I flew on in calmer weather though in the midst of clouds. Once I saw the moon for a fleeting instant and thought I could pull out on top of the clouds, so I climbed for half an hour