XVIITHE 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.
Indeed, as Jack had already sized her up, she was rather a remarkable sort of a girl—so sensible, so level-headed, and truly brave in the bargain. Under such a heavy strain he felt certain ninety-nine girls out of a hundred would have given way to their helplessness, and collapsed; but here this one had taken her courage in both hands, to set out in the expectation of accomplishing a task that thus far had baffled a score or more of the greatest aviation aces the country had ever known.
Soon the energetic Perk had landed everything in the line of eatables and such truck as Ma Warner—bless her dear old heart, Perk was saying to himself as he noted what a volume of good stuff lay in the mound he had erected—had denuded her pantry in order that her beloved boy should have enough to keep starvation at bay, when Suzanne had eventually found him.
It was almost ludicrous to Jack to learn with what abiding faith those two who loved Buddy so well had lost no time in starting the lone expedition on its way; just as though they fully expected Suzanne, now a full-fledged pilot, and feeling able to conquer the world, could be attracted to the very spot where Buddy lay helpless, by the spark of true love—to them it must be like the magnetic needle, always pointing so faithfully straight at the North Pole, and the star that hung over it.
“Bless her heart”—Jack was telling himself later on, as he listened to her talking so cheerfully, while busying herself in cooking the supper, with Perk attending to the fire, and offering to help in “any old way.” “She wouldn’t have had a tinker’s chance to do anything in this wild rocky country—only have her own crate crash, and double the tragedy. So it’s lucky for them both we made this same queer contact tonight.”
Jack was certainly vastly amused to watch how his cranky chum seemed to be acting. Usually Perk would have little or nothing to do with the other sex—Jack strongly suspected that at some time in his misty past Perk might have been “turned down” by some girl in whom he was becoming interested, and so allowed his whole life to be soured by the experience.
But then this was different, and perhaps the affection he had once felt for Buddy Warner made him feel warmly toward a girl who adored the same chubby young flyer and who had forgotten her weakness as a newly fledged pilot, and struck out so boldly in hopes of finding the one who was lost.
The supper was voted a great success, especially by Perk, who drank innumerable cups of hot coffee, which he pronounced “nectar for the gods,” growing a bit poetical in his exalted state of happiness. Suzanne, too, proved herself to be a wonderful cook, and Perk found himself quite envying Buddy—that is, if he was ever really found, and alive in the bargain—in having such a good helpmate and life partner to prepare wonderful meals for him every day in the year.
Afterwards he and Jack set about the job of dragging the single-seater Stinson-Detroiter something like forty feet back from the edge of the river, where it could stay until later on, when Suzanne might find a chance to visit the scene again, or send mechanics to dismantle her ship, and pack the parts back to the factory for reassembling.
She even wrote something on a sheet of paper, which latter was attached to the wreck, and would doubtless serve to keep any curious tourists from damaging her property. So, too, she made up a small package of certain articles which she wished particularly to save, or would be apt to need for her personal comfort which, she assumed, might be taken with them on the coming voyage.
“In the morning,” said Jack, after all these things had been attended to, “I’m meaning to ask you to let us transfer what gas you have aboard your bus to our own tank—it will be wasted here, while in our hands it may save us from spending many valuable hours running off to replenish our wasted supply. Of course I shall see that you are eventually reimbursed, Miss Cramer. Even as little as fifty gallons would mean we could stick to our job so much longer, and then too it might be the means of bringing us success.”
“And if I had a million gallons every drop would be gladly devoted to the sacred task you have so loyally undertaken,” she told him, with a suspicious glow in her eyes, which Jack imagined might be caused by bravely repressed tears. “I think it is just wonderfully fine the way you two—and all those other brave men—have been so willing to spend their time, hour after hour, scouring the whole country in hopes of finding—my Buddy.”
So Jack had to tell her how the entire world of flyers were like a company of blood brothers; an injury to one being resented by the entire calling—that their universal braving of the elements, and meeting similar perils in their daily work, made a bond like no other on earth, a kinship of like interests.
She was as yet only a novice, but already she had begun to have something of a similar exalted feeling toward other air pilots, so that it was not difficult for Suzanne to understand his meaning.
She told them not to worry about her—that she could easily make herself comfortable in the limited confine of her cockpit. True, it had no roof for shelter; but that bothered her not at all she told them, since she had camped many times in the open without even a canvas tent, or brush shanty; and besides, the stars were shining brightly overhead, showing they need fear nothing in the way of bad weather during the night.
Perk again assured himself that she was a mighty sensible and clear-headed little girl, and that if there were only more like her, perhaps—well, there couldn’t be, and besides he’d never have the chance to run across any of that class—it just wouldn’t be his good luck.
It was something to make Jack look back to that same evening for years to come. He as well as Perk had spent many a night in camp, when on fishing trips, or it might be hunting hikes up in the big woods; but no other camp could have such a royal setting as this one did.
The lofty walls running up as if to touch the star-decked sky, and as they knew full well that with those vivid colors making a nature painting beyond all imagination, that the loud song of the happy river flowing through the greatest gorge in all the wide world, that the blazing campfire, throwing up soaring sparks seemed like bright messengers of hope to Suzanne as she sat there drinking it all in. It filled to the brim the longings connected with the missing air mail pilot. Then, too, there was present that air of eternal mystery such as would be apt to brood over the spot where ages back the Zuni, and other Indian tribes, had lived in those quaint stone houses still to be found all through the hundred miles of the Colorado Canyon.
Perk knew very well that as a rule there was no danger from wild animals—that frequently parties made it a point to spend at least one night camping in the canyon, just to say they had gone through such a weird experience; and he had never heard of them being disturbed by man or beast.
Just the same, with this glorious chance opening up to him, Perk was persuaded to imagine himself constituted as the sole guardian of the fine girl aviatrix, into whose company they had so strangely fallen. Then, too he welcomed the opportunity to again handle that sub-machine-gun, which had been placed in his possession by the Government at the time he and Jack were running down the smuggling ring leaders on the Florida Coast, and a return of which had never thus far been demanded by the authorities.
Jack realized what was in the mind of his chum when he saw Perk looking over that powerful weapon with infinite joy; and while he did not imagine for a minute that there would arise any chance for requiring its services, still, since it afforded romantic Perk a good excuse for posing as a vigilant sentry, Jack held his peace, taking it out by giving his pal a few significant sly winks, to which the other deigned to take no notice whatsoever.
Neither of them knew what arrangements Suzanne had made for sleeping in the limited confines of her cockpit; but she bade them goodnight, and climbed aboard with the greatest nonchalance imaginable, as though this thing of camping out under all manner of inconveniences might be an old story with her, as indeed Jack thought was more than probable.