XXAN UNSUBDUED SPIRIT
Backed by plenty of daylight there was no difficulty at all experienced in mounting. The sand was packed quite hard as sometimes happens at the seashore, particularly in highly favored localities like down at Daytona Beach on the eastern coast of Florida, where the speed races are run every season. After the wheels contained in the aluminum pontoons left the ground not a single obstacle stood in the way of their climbing steadily upward, until presently they could look out over the sweep of rough country surrounding that strangest of all Dame Nature’s trick pictures—the Colorado Canyon.
Jack had his plans all laid out, built upon his charts, and the general fund of knowledge gleaned from some of the newspaper accounts that he had kept by him; after shuffling the pack, and discarding all unsupported versions as unreliable guides for stranger air pilots to go by.
Having set the course Jack had Perk handle the stick, for it was his intention to have a good talk with Suzanne, something he had not managed to accomplish thus far.
She understood just what he had in mind when he took up one end of the earphone harness, and made motions; for the racket was too fierce to think of trying to make his ordinary speaking voice heard—indeed, she had already shown a certain amount of curiosity concerning the apparatus, possibly knowing what it was intended for, although never herself having as yet had occasion to make use of such a means of communication when in flight.
He soon had the straps adjusted to suit her small head, and then proceeded to arrange his own end. His main purpose was far from being connected with anything like curiosity, for somehow he had a faint hope something she could tell him might open up a line of reasoning, and produce a live clue, which was just what was lacking in his plans.
“I’m meaning to ask you some questions, Miss Cramer,†he went on to say; “in hopes that you may be able to give me some little valuable hint; for up to now everybody must be working more or less in the dark. You see, all that’s known to be positive is that Buddy took off from a certain station where he delivered some important mail, picked up a local sack, and then took off at a specified hour and minute. After that he was not heard from again—failed to show up at either of the succeeding stations, and was awaited in vain at the end of his run.
“For a time nothing much was thought of his delay in turning up; because of any one of several things that might have held him back—fog, head winds, or some trifling trouble compelling him to make a forced landing, which in this dreadful country of rocks and gullies among mountain peaks usually is attended by serious difficulties, especially the getting off again when the trouble has been attended to.â€
Then he went on to tell her what he had deducted, after carefully getting the gist of what all the newspaper men had discovered up to within twenty-four hours of the present time; the deeply interested girl listening eagerly, and occasionally nodding her head, as though quite agreeing with his reasoning.
“Now,†Jack went on to say—after bringing his story down to where he and Perk had received their orders from Washington, took off, butted against a most tenacious fog belt, and finally brought up at the Canyon, where they made her acquaintance—“Tell me please, when and how you first heard that Buddy was missing, if it would not be too painful a recital.â€
“Oh! that will not keep me from speaking,†she hastened to say, trying bravely to keep the tears from dimming her eyes: “nothing could be too painful for me to endure if only it works tohisgood in the end. We read the dreadful news in the daily paper that comes to Ma Warner’s home every morning, it being mailed in the big city not a hundred miles away. She always hunts up the aviation column the very first thing. Why not, when she has an only son who is known as an experienced and reliable air-mail pilot and also knows that she is going to have a second ambitious flyer in the family soon, if all goes well, and I find Buddy.
“Of course we were very apprehensive, what with the neighbors running in to sympathize, and cheer us up. Later on that same day a reporter from the very paper in which we read the first news about Buddy, turned up, having motored over across country, eager to pick up enough interesting facts at the humble home of Buddy’s anxious mother to make a thrilling story for his editor.
“They have been saying some very kind things about our Buddy since he disappeared so suddenly and mysteriously. He was one of the best liked air-pilots in the whole corps, I read again and again; and oh! what a thrill it gave us both to realize how he was even being compared to Lindbergh himself. Could anything be said to make a mother’s heart thrill more with joy—or that of Buddy’s best girl also?
“To be sure,†she went on, with a winsome little smile, “he had never done anything great, to make him famous, in the way of wonderful stunts, or long perilous flights over wide oceans, and such, but every one seemed to know how his heart has always been wrapped up in the cause of aviation, and that he would be willing to lay down his very life if by doing so he could advance the day when flying will be much safer than going by train or boat.â€
Jack soon realized that there was no hope of learning anything from this source capable of opening up a promising line of thought. Suzanne was only too eager to tell everything she knew, but after all it amounted only to an exhibition of her affection. How she conceived the madcap idea of herself starting out, “only a half-baked pilot†she called herself in humiliation, just hoping that something—she knew not what, for it would have to be in the nature of a near miracle, as Jack very well knew—would have to come along to draw her to where her Buddy must be lying, waiting and praying for needful aid.
Jack knew very well, although not for worlds would he have hinted at such a thing in her hearing, that since three full days had by this time gone by, poor Buddy must long since have passed on. Unless of course some Good Samaritan had found him where he lay injured and perhaps starving, and taken him in charge. A happy accident like this was one chance in a thousand because of the uninhabited wilderness.
She had pictured the old mother striving to believe God would surely keep her boy safe in the hollow of His omnipotent hand, so that Jack had to wink pretty fast in order not to let her see the tears in his own eyes—such confidence and assurance was really beautiful; and for one thing it caused Jack to resolve more than ever to let no ordinary obstacle daunt him—for the sake of that fond mother and this courageous if ill-advised young lady who just refused to yield to despondency even when the skies looked most gloomy, and hope hung by just a slender shred.
“Depend upon it, Miss Cramer,†he told her, gently, after he realized that nothing was to be gained by pressing her with further questioning; “both Perk and myself are booked in this game, and we mean to leave no stone unturned in trying to find Buddy. Others who are engaged in the search will make all manner of sacrifices too. So great is the warmth of feeling for that faithful mother who is forced to stay at home, and leave the sacred task to strangers. If concerted effort is able to accomplish anything we’ll succeed; if all our efforts fail us, you must try and believe it is for some wise purpose which we cannot see with the weak human eyes.â€
She looked at him with an expression that made Jack realize how much of her confident spirit was make believe—that deep down in her sensible heart she knew very well what terrific chances there were against success coming to reward their efforts—that much of this had been assumed in the hope of buoying up the falling hopes of that poor mother, left bereft of her only boy, the stay and pride of her aging years.
He saw her clamp her white teeth together as if forcing herself to brush aside that sinking feeling, and show the old dauntless spirit that had thus far carried her safely through a sea of doubts and fears.
When she spoke again it was with a ring in her voice that thrilled him to the core—he only wished he could take on a measure of that indomitable nature that would not give up.
“But we’ll find him,†she was saying, slowly but fiercely; “I just know we will, that’s all—his mother needs him, his only girl needs him, and we’vegotto bring him back to his old home—alive, or—dead!â€