XI
AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY
"Take over the stick again Perk," said Jack, apparently not very muchastounded by the serious information his mate had just given him, "Ithink I'd like to have a look myself; I've never had any great troublewith ice since I've not been much of a hand to soar up twenty or thirtythousand feet for an altitude record. Nothing much to worry aboutpartner. At the worst we will have to drop lower down so the warmer airwill melt the stuff. A ship like this can stand considerable in the wayof a cargo, though it isn't just the proper caper to stow the load onthe wings--far better to have it somewhere inside the fuselage. Heregoes!"
Whereupon Jack crawled out of the cabin and started to make a closeinvestigation while Perk did the honors along the steering line, more orless eager to hear his mate's report when he came back from his littletour.
"It's all right brother," he heard Jack saying, even before the otherregained his customary front seat--"nothing to bother about and we'llsoon knock spots out of what ice has already gathered. Pretty snappy outhere, I notice. We'll drop down to a more comfy level and take chanceswith being suffocated by that gruelly stuff. Go to it sonny, I'm insidethe safety line."
Down they went in long slides one after another until the thirteenthousand became ten, then seven and there Jack told his comrade to "holdeverything" and cut down the speed a bit.
"Daylight's about due I figure," he observed, "and once we cut loosefrom this blank curtain and pick up some visibility, we'll not have tofeel nervous about some of those rocky snags that lie in ambush toimpale venturesome aviators when off their course and lost in a maze."
Perk soon afterward realized that what his mate had remarked must betrue, for sure enough over in the east he could manage to detect somefaint signs of a break in the hitherto impenetrable gloom surroundingthem, positive evidence of the fact that morning was "just around thecorner."
"What's more," Perk told himself, in jubilation, "I guess now I c'n feela little waft o' a breeze startin' up. Soon as that gets goin' it'sgoodbye to Mister Fog. Whew! mebbe I won't be tickled pink when that'scome 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 couldhave understood the tenor of the other's thoughts. "Inside of anotherhalf hour we'll be free from the stuff--wow! I never want to run throughsuch a siege as this again, particularly in this wild Western countrywhere peaks are in the majority and every one looking to stab some poorwandering airship."
"I kinder guess you're itchin' to get our bearings again Jack?" askedthe walking question mark who was never really happy except when in aposition to toss queries at some one.
"Naturally so," Jack told him point blank. "We had to get twisted upmore or less during that drive through fogland, and the sooner I canpick up my bearings the better I'll be pleased. If you ask me offhandwhere we might be, I'd say within a few hundred miles of the spot whereBuddy Warner took off on his last trip."
"Good enough!" crowed Perk, "nothin' like making things fly when you'reabout it--no beatin' around the bush for us, partner. Then if we pickour course as per the information that leaked from that airport where heleft his mail sack an' took on another batch, why we might begin to keepa watchful eye on the ground in hopes o' makin' some sorterdiscovery--is that right?"
"You can begin using the glasses just as soon as we get our firstglimpse of green spots below. Later on we'll drop down until we're notmore than three hundred feet, more or less, above the treetops--if thereare any tall trees in this section of country, which might be aquestion--possibly nothing in that line but scrub oaks, mesquite and thelike, stunted stuff that grows on many western mountains and in rockycanyons."
Perk was in a little heaven of his own later on when calling out that hecould distinctly see the ground, thanks to his binoculars.
Morning had come, with the sun well above the horizon and everythingindicating they had a fair day ahead as frequently happens after a heavyfog. It was a wild stretch of country now spread beneath the skyvoyagers, with all manner of lofty peaks in every direction, mountainranges 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 wassaying as he continued to stare with great eagerness. "Jest about likehuntin' for a needle in a haystack as to 'spect to find a cracked bus inall that awful scramble."
"Oh! we haven't got to where the trail is warm yet, partner," Jackinformed him, "though of course it isn't going to do any harm for you toscour the ground as we cut along. When a thing's lost, the chances areit happens to be lying just where nobody suspects--I've found that outmyself 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 eyesto the limit. But say, things keep on pilin' up worse than I ever ranacross in all my whole life--look at what's ahead there--can you beatit, Jack?"
"Pretty tough stretch of mountain land any way you take it," said Jackas he swept his eyes around from right to left, "but fortunately we havenothing to worry about as long as we keep a fairly decent ceiling. Factis, I'd call it free-going up here, with a nice cool breeze knocking onour port quarter and not hindering us any, even if it doesn't push usalong."
"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. Mebbeyou've noticed me takin' a look all around once in a while--up in theair, I mean? Somehow I've been wonderin' why we haven't glimpsed asingle ship since sun-up."
"Do you mean air-mail crates or some of those pilots who're searchingfor 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 faraway from where the poor chap said his last goodbye as he took off withhis sack of Uncle Sam's mail, strikes me we had ought to've run acrossone bus anyway, of all the flock that must be on the wing lookin' forthe 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 spendevery single day for a whole year in winging around the neighborhood ofthe Colorado Canyon and never once glimpse the smashed crate, even if itwas in some open stretch of ground."
"Which I take it covers the case okay," agreed Perk. "On 'count o' thembig holes in the ground together with the tricky cross currents o' wind,air pockets an' all such sneaky things every airman hates with all hisheart, we have to keep up some high an' even through the glass, smallobjects like the wings o' a smashed crate are bound to look like pinpoints."
"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 hog _all_ the fun," Perk quicklyobserved and kept staring this way and that in an honest endeavor tocover the entire ground as thoroughly as possible.
From time to time he would break loose to tell of some abnormal freak ofnature that he had discovered. To all these sallies Jack made no replyfor he himself was thinking deeply and trying to map out a consistentmethod of conducting the search on which they were now fully launched.
The Government, conscious of the duty devolving on the post officedepartment to show natural concern for the lives of its faithfulemployees, had seen fit to detach Jack and Perk from all other dutiesand order them to exert themselves to the utmost in an effort to findthe missing pilot. Aside from the glory that would fall to those who wonout, Jack felt very keenly for the old mother of Buddy Warner, doubtlesspassing sleepless nights while the mystery of her boy remained anunsolved problem.