After the second time the Anson bounced back into the air, Doris swore loudly and gritted her teeth. Wishing she could wipe the sweat from her brow, she concentrated and set the taxi firmly down at the third time of asking and then focused on braking before she ran into the ditch at the end of the runway. She’d managed to avoid that ignoble honor so far and didn’t intend to spoil her record today. Applying left rudder to counteract the lack of her right engine, she brought the Anson juddering to a halt a mere ten yards from the ditch. Now she had the chance, she wiped her forearm across her forehead and began to taxi toward the flight line hut.

“Everyone all right back there?” she hollered, jerking her head around to see her five passengers give her a nervous thumbs up.

Before the plane had come to a full stop, Penny was jerking the access door open, narrowly avoiding being dragged along the ground five yards for her trouble. Coming to a final stop, she held the door open as everyone hurried past her, all except Doris, who was performing the shut-down checks, and Mary and Betty.

“You okay?” Penny asked the two, and when they both nodded, asked, “What happened?”