XIAN UNSOLVED MYSTERY
“Take over the stick again Perk,” said Jack, apparently not very much astounded by the serious information his mate had just given him, “I think I’d like to have a look myself; I’ve never had any great trouble with ice since I’ve not been much of a hand to soar up twenty or thirty thousand feet for an altitude record. Nothing much to worry about partner. At the worst we will have to drop lower down so the warmer air will melt the stuff. A ship like this can stand considerable in the way of a cargo, though it isn’t just the proper caper to stow the load on the wings—far better to have it somewhere inside the fuselage. Here goes!”
Whereupon Jack crawled out of the cabin and started to make a close investigation while Perk did the honors along the steering line, more or less eager to hear his mate’s report when he came back from his little tour.
“It’s all right brother,” he heard Jack saying, even before the other regained his customary front seat—“nothing to bother about and we’ll soon knock spots out of what ice has already gathered. Pretty snappy out here, I notice. We’ll drop down to a more comfy level and take chances with being suffocated by that gruelly stuff. Go to it sonny, I’m inside the safety line.”
Down they went in long slides one after another until the thirteen thousand became ten, then seven and there Jack told his comrade to “hold everything” and cut down the speed a bit.
“Daylight’s about due I figure,” he observed, “and once we cut loose from this blank curtain and pick up some visibility, we’ll not have to feel nervous about some of those rocky snags that lie in ambush to impale venturesome aviators when off their course and lost in a maze.”
Perk soon afterward realized that what his mate had remarked must be true, for sure enough over in the east he could manage to detect some faint signs of a break in the hitherto impenetrable gloom surrounding them, positive evidence of the fact that morning was “just around the corner.”
“What’s more,” Perk told himself, in jubilation, “I guess now I c’n feel a little waft o’ a breeze startin’ up. Soon as that gets goin’ it’s goodbye to Mister Fog. Whew! mebbe I won’t be tickled pink when that’s come to pass cause I’m crazy to set eyes on dear old Mother Earth again. Yes sir, the pesky old fog is commencin’ to move out—jest keep it up, for you never will be missed.”
“All over but the shouting Perk,” remarked Jack just then as if he could have understood the tenor of the other’s thoughts. “Inside of another half hour we’ll be free from the stuff—wow! I never want to run through such a siege as this again, particularly in this wild Western country where peaks are in the majority and every one looking to stab some poor wandering airship.”
“I kinder guess you’re itchin’ to get our bearings again Jack?” asked the walking question mark who was never really happy except when in a position to toss queries at some one.
“Naturally so,” Jack told him point blank. “We had to get twisted up more or less during that drive through fogland, and the sooner I can pick up my bearings the better I’ll be pleased. If you ask me offhand where we might be, I’d say within a few hundred miles of the spot where Buddy Warner took off on his last trip.”
“Good enough!” crowed Perk, “nothin’ like making things fly when you’re about it—no beatin’ around the bush for us, partner. Then if we pick our course as per the information that leaked from that airport where he left his mail sack an’ took on another batch, why we might begin to keep a watchful eye on the ground in hopes o’ makin’ some sorter discovery—is that right?”
“You can begin using the glasses just as soon as we get our first glimpse of green spots below. Later on we’ll drop down until we’re not more than three hundred feet, more or less, above the treetops—if there are any tall trees in this section of country, which might be a question—possibly nothing in that line but scrub oaks, mesquite and the like, stunted stuff that grows on many western mountains and in rocky canyons.”
Perk was in a little heaven of his own later on when calling out that he could distinctly see the ground, thanks to his binoculars.
Morning had come, with the sun well above the horizon and everything indicating they had a fair day ahead as frequently happens after a heavy fog. It was a wild stretch of country now spread beneath the sky voyagers, with all manner of lofty peaks in every direction, mountain ranges running criss-cross without the faintest sign of regularity.
“I swan if I’d care to be lost down in that sort o’ country,” Perk was saying as he continued to stare with great eagerness. “Jest about like huntin’ for a needle in a haystack as to ’spect to find a cracked bus in all that awful scramble.”
“Oh! we haven’t got to where the trail is warm yet, partner,” Jack informed him, “though of course it isn’t going to do any harm for you to scour the ground as we cut along. When a thing’s lost, the chances are it happens to be lying just where nobody suspects—I’ve found that out myself more than a few times.”
“Yeah! jest so Boss,” grunted the one who handled the binoculars, “an’ if we fall down on the job it ain’t goin’ to be from not usin’ our eyes to the limit. But say, things keep on pilin’ up worse than I ever ran across in all my whole life—look at what’s ahead there—can you beat it, Jack?”
“Pretty tough stretch of mountain land any way you take it,” said Jack as he swept his eyes around from right to left, “but fortunately we have nothing to worry about as long as we keep a fairly decent ceiling. Fact is, I’d call it free-going up here, with a nice cool breeze knocking on our port quarter and not hindering us any, even if it doesn’t push us along.”
“That’s right, Jack—after that boring through a fog belt hundreds o’ miles wide, this does seem like a little bit o’ Heaven on earth. Mebbe you’ve noticed me takin’ a look all around once in a while—up in the air, I mean? Somehow I’ve been wonderin’ why we haven’t glimpsed a single ship since sun-up.”
“Do you mean air-mail crates or some of those pilots who’re searching for signs of Buddy Warner?” the other demanded of Perk.
“Either kind, if it’s all the same to you, Jack. If we’re not so far away from where the poor chap said his last goodbye as he took off with his sack of Uncle Sam’s mail, strikes me we had ought to’ve run across one bus anyway, of all the flock that must be on the wing lookin’ for the boy.”
“Just so Perk, but consider the immensity of space out in these regions, with all these mountains to get lost in. A score of pilots might spend every single day for a whole year in winging around the neighborhood of the Colorado Canyon and never once glimpse the smashed crate, even if it was in some open stretch of ground.”
“Which I take it covers the case okay,” agreed Perk. “On ’count o’ them big holes in the ground together with the tricky cross currents o’ wind, air pockets an’ all such sneaky things every airman hates with all his heart, we have to keep up some high an’ even through the glass, small objects like the wings o’ a smashed crate are bound to look like pin points.”
“When your eyes tire of searching,” remarked the considerate pilot, “give me the word and I’ll change places with you, partner.”
“Sure thing old hoss—I don’t aim to hogallthe fun,” Perk quickly observed and kept staring this way and that in an honest endeavor to cover the entire ground as thoroughly as possible.
From time to time he would break loose to tell of some abnormal freak of nature that he had discovered. To all these sallies Jack made no reply for he himself was thinking deeply and trying to map out a consistent method of conducting the search on which they were now fully launched.
The Government, conscious of the duty devolving on the post office department to show natural concern for the lives of its faithful employees, had seen fit to detach Jack and Perk from all other duties and order them to exert themselves to the utmost in an effort to find the missing pilot. Aside from the glory that would fall to those who won out, Jack felt very keenly for the old mother of Buddy Warner, doubtless passing sleepless nights while the mystery of her boy remained an unsolved problem.