XX
AN UNSUBDUED SPIRIT
Backed by plenty of daylight there was no difficulty at all experiencedin mounting. The sand was packed quite hard as sometimes happens at theseashore, particularly in highly favored localities like down at DaytonaBeach on the eastern coast of Florida, where the speed races are runevery season. After the wheels contained in the aluminum pontoons leftthe ground not a single obstacle stood in the way of their climbingsteadily upward, until presently they could look out over the sweep ofrough country surrounding that strangest of all Dame Nature's trickpictures--the Colorado Canyon.
Jack had his plans all laid out, built upon his charts, and the generalfund of knowledge gleaned from some of the newspaper accounts that hehad kept by him; after shuffling the pack, and discarding allunsupported versions as unreliable guides for stranger air pilots to goby.
Having set the course Jack had Perk handle the stick, for it was hisintention to have a good talk with Suzanne, something he had not managedto accomplish thus far.
She understood just what he had in mind when he took up one end of theearphone harness, and made motions; for the racket was too fierce tothink of trying to make his ordinary speaking voice heard--indeed, shehad already shown a certain amount of curiosity concerning theapparatus, possibly knowing what it was intended for, although neverherself having as yet had occasion to make use of such a means ofcommunication when in flight.
He soon had the straps adjusted to suit her small head, and thenproceeded to arrange his own end. His main purpose was far from beingconnected with anything like curiosity, for somehow he had a faint hopesomething she could tell him might open up a line of reasoning, andproduce 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; forup 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 certainstation 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 notheard from again--failed to show up at either of the succeedingstations, and was awaited in vain at the end of his run.
"For a time nothing much was thought of his delay in turning up; becauseof any one of several things that might have held him back--fog, headwinds, or some trifling trouble compelling him to make a forced landing,which in this dreadful country of rocks and gullies among mountain peaksusually is attended by serious difficulties, especially the getting offagain when the trouble has been attended to."
Then he went on to tell her what he had deducted, after carefullygetting the gist of what all the newspaper men had discovered up towithin twenty-four hours of the present time; the deeply interested girllistening eagerly, and occasionally nodding her head, as though quiteagreeing with his reasoning.
"Now," Jack went on to say--after bringing his story down to where heand Perk had received their orders from Washington, took off, buttedagainst a most tenacious fog belt, and finally brought up at the Canyon,where they made her acquaintance--"Tell me please, when and how youfirst heard that Buddy was missing, if it would not be too painful arecital."
"Oh! that will not keep me from speaking," she hastened to say, tryingbravely to keep the tears from dimming her eyes: "nothing could be toopainful for me to endure if only it works to _his_ good in the end. Weread the dreadful news in the daily paper that comes to Ma Warner's homeevery 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 reliableair-mail pilot and also knows that she is going to have a secondambitious flyer in the family soon, if all goes well, and I find Buddy.
"Of course we were very apprehensive, what with the neighbors running into sympathize, and cheer us up. Later on that same day a reporter fromthe very paper in which we read the first news about Buddy, turned up,having motored over across country, eager to pick up enough interestingfacts at the humble home of Buddy's anxious mother to make a thrillingstory for his editor.
"They have been saying some very kind things about our Buddy since hedisappeared so suddenly and mysteriously. He was one of the best likedair-pilots in the whole corps, I read again and again; and oh! what athrill it gave us both to realize how he was even being compared toLindbergh himself. Could anything be said to make a mother's heartthrill more with joy--or that of Buddy's best girl also?
"To be sure," she went on, with a winsome little smile, "he had neverdone anything great, to make him famous, in the way of wonderful stunts,or long perilous flights over wide oceans, and such, but every oneseemed to know how his heart has always been wrapped up in the cause ofaviation, and that he would be willing to lay down his very life if bydoing so he could advance the day when flying will be much safer thangoing by train or boat."
Jack soon realized that there was no hope of learning anything from thissource capable of opening up a promising line of thought. Suzanne wasonly too eager to tell everything she knew, but after all it amountedonly to an exhibition of her affection. How she conceived the madcapidea of herself starting out, "only a half-baked pilot" she calledherself 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 verywell knew--would have to come along to draw her to where her Buddy mustbe lying, waiting and praying for needful aid.
Jack knew very well, although not for worlds would he have hinted atsuch a thing in her hearing, that since three full days had by this timegone by, poor Buddy must long since have passed on. Unless of coursesome Good Samaritan had found him where he lay injured and perhapsstarving, and taken him in charge. A happy accident like this was onechance in a thousand because of the uninhabited wilderness.
She had pictured the old mother striving to believe God would surelykeep her boy safe in the hollow of His omnipotent hand, so that Jack hadto wink pretty fast in order not to let her see the tears in his owneyes--such confidence and assurance was really beautiful; and for onething it caused Jack to resolve more than ever to let no ordinaryobstacle daunt him--for the sake of that fond mother and this courageousif ill-advised young lady who just refused to yield to despondency evenwhen the skies looked most gloomy, and hope hung by just a slendershred.
"Depend upon it, Miss Cramer," he told her, gently, after he realizedthat 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 nostone unturned in trying to find Buddy. Others who are engaged in thesearch will make all manner of sacrifices too. So great is the warmth offeeling for that faithful mother who is forced to stay at home, andleave the sacred task to strangers. If concerted effort is able toaccomplish anything we'll succeed; if all our efforts fail us, you musttry and believe it is for some wise purpose which we cannot see with theweak human eyes."
She looked at him with an expression that made Jack realize how much ofher confident spirit was make believe--that deep down in her sensibleheart she knew very well what terrific chances there were againstsuccess coming to reward their efforts--that much of this had beenassumed 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 brushaside that sinking feeling, and show the old dauntless spirit that hadthus 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 himto the core--he only wished he could take on a measure of thatindomitable nature that would not give up.
"But we'll find him," she was saying, slowly but fiercely; "I just knowwe will, that's all--his mother needs him, his only girl needs him, andwe've _got_ to bring him back to his old home--alive, or--dead!"