She didn't need to know what Jackie had said.
"It's okay," Leila told Barbara as her friend tried to explain. "I got the gist of it. It's not your fault, and it isn't Miss Cochran's. I never expected to be able to join up with you in any military service. It's just how things are. George and I don't like it much, but we're used to it. We just hope Arial and Downwind don't have to get used to it, too."
Barbara had a new idea, and hoped Leila would go for it.
"I'll be joining the WAFS soon. Maybe help Jackie train women ferrying pilots. How about you and George becoming partners with Red and me in the airport? I won't be here to run it, and he has terrible management sense. You could take my place without anyone missing me. George could take charge of the mechanical side of running things. I'm sure Red will agree... The four of us become equal partners in the airport. What do you say?"
"Let me talk to George about it," Leila said, looking like she went for the idea. "But as far as I'm concerned, I'm for it on one condition."
"Just name it."
"Last night I saw that No Face man, lurking around one of the hangars. He scares me, and if my kids see him, they'd have nightmares. If George and I stay here and we become your partners, can we hire some guard or someone to keep that scary-looking man away from here?"
Barbara agreed. Leila asked her husband about the partner-ship offer, and the next day papers were drawn up and signed.
That evening, a private security agency began stationing a man at the airport.
Toward midnight, a man in a worn black suit stopped at the sight of a guard at the gate to the airport that he had formerly entered without interruption under cover of dark. He turned and, his shoulders hunched against a raw autumn wind that began blowing, walked away into the dark night.
Jackie Cochran had a big order to fill. The Army Air Force ferrying division had to handle the staggering task of seeing that 3,000 airplanes a month got from factory to airfields across the United States. Cochran's job was to train women to ferry the planes.
Barbara signed on, but it meant she had to go back to school. Flying in private aviation or even for the British was one thing; flying for the Air Force and in wartime, was another. But before she could go to Wilmington, Delaware for indoctrination into the WAFS and then begin training at New Castle Army Air Base, Barbara wanted to say good-bye to her godson.