Part 6

No matter--nothing counted as long as the ship rested happily on the water with Perk hastening to drop overboard a small but efficient anchor, such as would be apt to take up scant room aboard an amphibian, but prove invaluable on occasions like the present.

This was only a part of Perk's duties, however--when thus anchored the ship swung to and fro on its reliable pontoons but they were fully twenty feet distant from the sandy stretch beyond the river's edge.

The current was anything but friendly and there was a strong possibility that the depth between the beach and the anchored boat would prove to be several feet, with perhaps pockets twice that, to judge from the way the water swirled in eddies.

But all that had been considered when equipping the amphibian for service on land or water. Of what avail would it be to have the pontoons so handy if, after coming down on some body of water, they must wade or swim in order to make a landing?

Perk was engaged in taking vast breaths into his capacious lungs and then blowing into some sort of queer rubber contraption which, expanding rapidly, presently assumed the proportions of a squatty little boat--nothing to boast of so far as appearances went, but capable, when fully blown up, of ferrying himself and his companion over the few yards of open water lying between themselves and their coveted landing place.

Without just such an auxiliary, the usefulness of a land and water aircraft must be considerably cut down, as pilots have long since ascertained from actual experience. Just as had been the case of the folding anchor that, with the rubber boat took very little room until needed, it paid big dividends in comparison with the small amount of trouble it gave.

The castaway air pilot was standing near by watching everything they did with the utmost eagerness. Thus far he had not seen fit to call out, but his manner proved the intense interest he felt.

Jack waved his hand encouragingly to the other, even while Perk was launching the clumsy rubber boat which proved to be so buoyant that it kept bobbing up and down with each movement of the speeding, gurgling current.

The fire was now burning brightly so that the whole immediate vicinity seemed lighted up. Jack involuntarily cast an inquisitive eye in the direction where the stranded ship lay with one wing dipping in the river. So familiar had long acquaintance with the various models of flying boats made Jack, that as a rule it required only a single glance to tell him the make of any ship he was seeing for the first time.

"A single-seat open-cockpit Stinson-Detroiter, if I know my onions," he was telling himself, "and I'll be hanged if I ever did know of the mail being carried in these days aboard one of those older types of craft. Looks like it had been used more or less in the bargain. I understood, somehow or other, that Buddy Warner was using a cabin ship--but he might have changed over to this for some reason."

Still this fact was perhaps the entering wedge that started a dim suspicion in Jack's mind so that after entering the small boat and having Perk wield the dumpy paddle, he eyed the waiting figure of the wrecked pilot as if making some sort of decision.

Just then Perk gave one of his queer grunts and in a husky whisper that barely reached the ears of his chum went on to say:

"Jack, would you b'lieve me, that there ain't our Buddy a'tall--never did set eyes on this here youngster, for a fact. Hot ziggetty dog! now ain't that the rottenest luck ever?"

Jack made no reply, but Perk's discovery only justified the suspicion that had been forming in his own mind. Then they had had their drop into the canyon all for naught--at least so far as the discovery of the missing air-mail pilot was concerned.

True, the other was in something of a predicament, but he did not seem to be seriously injured and when another day dawned his need of assistance would surely be discovered by those connected with the big hotel, so that after all his troubles were only for a brief while.

Still, they had made the swoop and being on hand it would hardly seem decent and courteous for them to hold back, when possibly they could be of more or less help.

This being the case, Jack held his own counsel and made no answer to Perk's show of disappointment that almost bordered on resentment He stepped out of the boat on to the sand when the bobbing craft grounded and waited for Perk to toss the rope to him so their clumsy craft might not yield to the wooing of that treacherous current and pass down-stream, leaving the pair of them marooned.

Now that he found himself close to the stranger, Jack could see that he appeared to be a mere wisp of a lad. His helmet was on his head, with the goggles pushed up, he wore what seemed to be almost new dungarees for they had a fresh appearance in startling contrast with those he and Perk wore over their other clothes to take up all the grease and oil that of necessity must be met with aboard any ship that required a motor for propelling purposes.

Jack's first inclination was to decide the other must be one of those dudish young chaps who sometimes drift into the ranks of flying men. Not at all weak or yellow when occasion arose to prove their stamina, but so constituted by nature that they can "carry on" and yet show little signs of the ordinary pilot's addiction to dirt.

He stepped toward the other, leaving to Perk the job of finding some means for securing the end of the rope, possibly to a stake driven into the sand or perhaps to the nearby wreck of the Stinson-Detroiter ship.

"Seems that you've had a little mishap, stranger," Jack remarked with one of his pleasant smiles that always won him friends wherever he went. "If we can be of any assistance just call on us. It's a part of our creed, you know, for air pilots to stand by one another in difficulty. Perhaps your boat may not be so badly smashed but what we can knock it into shape and get it up out of this queer old hole."

He saw the boy drop the look of anxiety that had marked his face and even allow his features to relax in a smile.

"I don't know how I can thank you for saying that--I am so eager to get out of this scrape, the worst that ever happened to me, but then I am something of a greenhorn pilot as yet, though even that fact couldn't keep me from trying my wings. I _must_ get out of this and be on my way again."

And even as he listened to those pleading words, Jack realized that the pilot of the crashed Stinson-Detroiter plane was a girl!

XV

THE HAND OF FATE

It was a surprising discovery that Jack had just made, but after all not so very wonderful. In these modern days a multitude of daring girls and young women were becoming air minded and filled with the ambition to become pilots. The fascination of such a life appealed to them with irresistible force so that already some of them had made a most creditable showing in the annals of aviation.

For one thing the fact that the one he had offered to help had turned out to be a girl gave Jack a twinge--he realized that more than ever he and Perk would be obliged to "stick around," and endeavor to overcome her difficulties, if the disabilities of the wrecked plane could in any way be remedied.

That was apt to mean a further delay in their work, a serious handicap, since already too much time had passed if there remained any further hope of finding poor Buddy Warner.

"Tell me, did you come through this crash without being seriously hurt yourself?" he asked her.

Perk must have made the same sudden discovery as Jack for he was standing near by, staring hard at the novice pilot and with his mouth open. Possibly Perk also deplored the fact that their meeting with a woman flyer was bound to interfere more or less with those plans of his pal's which above all things concerned the need of speedy action, unhampered liberty of going where they willed and staying on the job steadily, come storm, fog, riotous wind or fair weather.

"A few little bruises seems to be the extent of my injuries--next to nothing, I assure you, but if they were ten times as serious it would not keep me from going up again, if my ship were workable--indeed, it is absolutely necessary for me to do so!"

Jack looked at her again. Most assuredly she did have the necessary stamina required of a successful air pilot. He did not believe any ordinary peril could deter such a girl from attempting what she had planned.

"I am glad to know that you were not badly hurt, he told her, but it's plain to be seen you must have handled your stick cleverly or your ship would have crashed ten times as hard as it did. The first thing to be done is for us to check the craft over and learn the extent of the damage. If, luckily, it happens to be but a broken wing, possibly we can fix it up well enough to get the boat out of this fearful hole. However did it happen you picked out this place to come down in, or was it just by a rare chance? You could not have found as good a landing-field inside of a hundred miles I reckon, miss."

She smiled at hearing him address her by that title, since it was the first real evidence that he understood the situation.

"I suppose it was partly luck," she told him simply, "although I did have an idea it would be a hundred per cent better to fall on what looked like a sandy shore down here, than take chances with those terrible rocks up above. Just what I did and how I landed so easily, I'm not at all certain about, but Heaven was kind and yet I hope never to find myself in the same bad fix again. Did you say you would take a look at my ship and find out what's wrong? It's kind of you to go to all that trouble, but I must get out of this as soon as possible--oh! I surely must!"

Jack could not help being struck with the way she said this, with her pretty sun and wind-tanned face taking on a determined, resolute expression. He would not have been human to thus hear and see without beginning to wonder what is could be that influenced her to speak so. Why should she show such a yearning for a chance to continue her flight? What genuine reason could a girl have for such an overwhelming desire for action? Was there any sort of endurance race on the books for women pilots who had recently obtained their necessary flying licenses--or was it some sort of a private wager that caused her to betray so much solicitude?

Would he and Perk be justified in holding over so as to get her started, granting that her ship could be put in condition again by means of their combined knowledge and ability along those lines?

Somehow, when he looked keenly into her face, he failed to discover the faintest trace of guile thereon. Once convinced of this fact, Jack threw every suspicion to the four winds and came to the conclusion that both duty and the natural chivalry in his nature compelled him to do all that was possible to aid a fellow pilot in distress.

"Perk, suppose you tote that painter up to the ship here and fasten it. We've got a little job on our hands for I've promised this young lady to check up and learn how badly her boat has been wrecked. By the way miss, you haven't so far told us your name--mine happens to be Jack Ralston and this is my partner, Perk--Gabe Perkiser in full."

"And mine is Suzanne Cramer--one of the newcomers in the ranks of women air pilots. It hasn't been so long since they gave me my license, after I'd done my full allowance of solo flying. This is my own ship--I bought it secondhand, but in perfect condition. Until today I have never had any trouble but the engine started to miss and I knew I must land or crash dreadfully. Please see if there's any hope for my getting out of this place soon, for it means everything in the world to me."

Jack saw that suspicious old bachelor, Perk give him a solemn look and wink his left eye, just as though he distrusted the wisdom of their wasting precious minutes trying to help a flighty little girl pilot, evidently on some sort of a silly lark and making out that it was a most important matter indeed--as most girls always do, according to his limited knowledge.

Thereupon Jack shook his head at scoffing Perk, knowing as he did how the other was inclined to be a woman-hater.

"Come on Perk, now that you've made our ferry secure let's get busy and see what's what here. You take the off wing and I'll look over the near one, then we can double-up on the engine and reach a conclusion. It won't take us long, Perk and it's a duty every decent pilot owes to his class, remember."

"Okay Boss, jest as you say, I'm willin'; but all the same it looks to me like it'd turn out to be a bum job. That old bus has been given some hard knocks an' won't tune up worth a red cent."

The girl thereupon uttered a little pitiable moan that influenced Jack to turn a bit sternly upon his pal and say quickly:

"No snap judgment Perk! You never can tell how badly things are until you give them the first over. Come on now, partner I know you well enough to be sure you'll give an honest verdict, no matter what comes."

"Sure thing, Jack--my dad taught me to 'hew straight to the line, let the chips fall where they will'--that's been the Perkiser motto right along, an' see where it carried us as a family. Got one uncle sheriff o' a county in Kansas an' another at the head o' a hot dog emporium, which is goin' some, I want you to know."

The girl looked as though amused at Perk's quaint way of saying things but that anxious, eager expression quickly came upon her face again.

For some little time the pair rummaged around and seemed to act as though they both knew their business, as well as the makeup of any plane ever conceived by the human mind. Perk knocked on this and that, made all manner of little tests where he believed were necessary, and in other ways carried himself as befitted by education and calling to be a judge of an airship's anatomy.

She followed them about, always intently watching and squeezing her hands in a way to show how wrought up she must be with the suspense. Then, when they were through with the inspection and checking up, Jack and Perk "went into a huddle," as the latter would have termed it, nodding their heads and talking in low tones. Finally Jack was shoved forward by the other as the one who ought to bring the sad tidings to the distressed girl pilot.

"Oh! you have something dreadful to tell me," she cried out, wringing her hands. "Is it too badly wrecked for you to fix up so I can pull out of this awful hole and take off again?"

"I'm sorry to say, Miss Cramer," Jack told her, "your boat is so badly knocked out that it can never be taken out of this place by its own power. It will, I fear, have to be dismantled and carried up piece-meal, to be shipped to the company's works for rebuilding."

She put up her quivering hands to her face and started crying.

"Oh! it is terrible--just _terrible_, when he needs me so! Three days have passed already, and I felt that if any one could find him surely love would show me the way. What will poor Mother Warner say when she fails to hear from me as I promised? Poor Mother, and poor Buddy. What will happen to us all?"

XVI

SUZANNE INSISTS

What seemed to be the whole truth flashed into Jack's mind when he heard the grieving girl pilot express the sentiments that influenced her into making this far-flung flight so soon after winning her new pilot's license.

It staggered him, too--not so much that Suzanne should thus turn out to be Buddy Warner's sweetheart, though in itself that was decidedly interesting; but to think how a strange and perverse Fate had so decreed that she should meet up with the pair who had been deputized by the Department at Washington to start forth, and do everything in their power to solve the mystery of Buddy's strange disappearance, also, _if possible_, accomplish his finding.

As for Perk, who apparently had seen a great light all of a sudden, just as Jack had done, almost "threw a fit." He declared later on, when he could ponder, how many thousand chances there were against anything like this lucky meeting coming to pass.

Jack, chancing to let his gaze wander that way, could see Perk staring with round eyes at the inspired face of the brave girl. He also feebly scratched his head with slow movements, just as if his wits had gone astray under the shock.

"Can it be possible, Suzanne," stammered Jack, grinning amiably the while, "that you happen to be----er, Buddy's _sweetheart_--what you might call his 'best girl'?"

She regarded him with an encouraging smile, and nodded her head, forgetting to cry, as though something in his way of saying this bade her hug fresh hope to her heart.

"Why, yes, most certainly I am--we expected to be married in another three months--Buddy's got the dear little cottage on the way, and everything was planned--and then came that dreadful news telling how he was lost somewhere among these awful mountains. My ship was being repaired, for I had had a slight accident in making too fast a landing on rough ground, and it took nearly two days for those slow poke mechanics to get it checked up again--two frightful days that I never want to live again. Then I hopped off, and came here, for the boys at the flying field told me just where he must have gone down, you know. Perhaps it was a crazy thing to do--they tried to persuade me to give it up, but I had promised Mother Warner to find him--and what was the use of my being a full-fledged air pilot if I had to stay a _kiwi_--stick to the ground, when my Buddy needed me so?"

"Still, it was an unwise thing for you to have done, though nobody could blame you, because Buddy was well worth taking chances for. But, you must have realized there would be scores of skillful pilots on the job, every one bent on finding your boy, if it lay in human power. My pal and I are in the employ of Uncle Sam--taken off all other business, and set to making a wide search--we have come all the way from Cheyenne, through the worst fog bank that ever was known, just for that purpose, which makes it seem doubly strange how we should have been brought in contact with you, Miss Cramer."

She smiled through her tears, and then went on hastily to say:

"I can only think it was Providence answering the prayers I have been sending up ever since the dreadful word came to us there in our little town, that Buddy has put on the map. Oh! I am sure the way was opened up to me--that now you know who and what I am, you could not have the heart to leave me here while you took up the search I had dedicated myself to carry out!"

Jack evidently could give a pretty shrewd guess as to what lay back of her words--she undoubtedly meant to implore them to let her accompany them in their hunt.

So he scratched his chin in a way he had when placed in a dilemma--Perk, saw him do that and understood how matters stood; for he grinned shamelessly, as though it actually tickled him to see his best pal placed in such a hole, with no way out save in yielding.

"Er--much as I--we, that is--would like to oblige you, Miss Cramer--I'm afraid it would be impossible. We belong to a Department of the Government that frowns on our mixing up what they call business with pleasure. They set us on this job, and that means we've got to take off without any more delay than we can possibly help--I'm sure you'll understand what I mean."

Perk grinned some more, just as if he had an idea his usually dependable pal hardly knew himself what he was aiming at. The girl novice pilot looked grieved, and then brightened up.

"But--what's to become of _me_ then--you surely wouldn't be so mean as to leave me here in this dreadful hole all night--I'd go out of my mind with thinking every little sound meant that some ferocious wild beast was creeping up on my fire, ready to make a meal of me; which of course would be rough, after all those fierce lessons in the air, and actually getting my pilot's license after all. And besides, I did really and truly promise Ma Warner I'd find Buddy, and fetch him back home with me."

Jack looked at her entreating face, gave a glance at the grinning Perk, drew a long breath, shrugged his shoulders with the air of saying in desperation: "That's that then; and what are you going to do about it, when a young woman sets you on a red-hot gridiron like that."

There seemed nothing to do but capitulate, and make the best of a bad bargain. After all it was not as if they could find no room for Suzanne--she was such a little thing, and besides their new cloud-chaser was capable of carrying a weight almost twice the amount of the present cargo, gas and all.

"All right, then, Miss Cramer, we'll take you with us when we start out of here," he told her, allowing himself to shut off his feeling of near dismay, and actually smiled again in his accustomed way.

"Oh! thank you so much--Jack," she told him, with sincerity in both voice and manner. "I promise not to give you the least trouble, and perhaps I could make myself useful sooner or later, especially if we _do_ find my Buddy, and he--should be badly injured, so as to need a nurse's care--for you see I was on my way to be a trained nurse when I got air-minded, and set out to be a flyer, so sometimes I might go with Buddy."

"But this will mean we must all of us remain here in the great canyon for the night," he reminded her.

"But that would be wasting many hours, and he needing me so much," she complained, with a pitiful look that made Jack regret his inability to start right off and be doing.

"Listen, please," he said, gently but firmly, "you can see by looking up that the sun has set, and night is creeping out--already down in this deep hole it's next to impossible for any one to see what might lie in the way; so that makes it too risky to try and pull out. I'd like as not wreck my ship by running up against a snag in the water, or a stray boulder on the shore. Whether we took you with us or not I'd made up my mind to stick it out here for the night."

"Yes," here broke in Perk, who evidently thought he was due to "butt in" and have his little say, "and besides, even if we did manage to make the riffle without bustin', what could we do knockin' around in the dark--just a sheer waste o' good gas, an' gettin' nowhere a'tall."

Since it was now two against one, and they both seemed so kind, Suzanne wisely gave in.

"You've convinced me, Jack, and I'll say no more," she told him sweetly; "but do you know I haven't had a bite to eat for ever so long; though Ma did make me take aboard enough rations to feed a regiment, including tea and coffee, as well as an assortment of pots and pans."

Perk immediately betrayed fresh interest in life, for it was wonderful how the fellow brightened up, as though just then realizing that he himself must be perilously close to starvation.

"We'll help you get them out o' the bus, lady," he hastened to say; "if so be you'll kindly show us where they be--ain't that so, partner?"

Jack did not seem at all averse to such a proceeding--why not make things as pleasant as possible since a capricious Fate had thrown their fortunes together in this mad way?

"Suppose you attend to all that, Perk," he told the other, knowing how efficient his partner was along such lines; "while you're doing it under Miss Cramer's directions I'll take another look at her crate, and see just how we can drag it further back from the river, so it will be safe when we're gone."

XVII

THE CAMP IN THE CANYON

Things immediately began to happen, and for the time being amidst the excitement of showing Perk just where the stores and things were located aboard the stranded Stinson-Detroiter, Miss Cramer seemed to temporarily forget the load of trouble she was carrying on her little shoulders.