XVTHE 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—justterrible, 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?”