Chapter XIV
ANOTHER ATTEMPT
All the way back to Quebec Brent thought of Gale, trying to devise someway to bring back her memory. He thought of her parents and wondered howhe would ever break the news to them. How, too, he would tell the otherAdventure Girls.
That night he and his pilot flew back to Marchton. Early the nextmorning he went to Gale's parents and told them. The decision made wasthat they should fly back to Canada with him the same night.
When school was out and the Adventure Girls and three boys wended theirway to the Kopper Kettle they found Brent already there awaiting them.Eagerly they crowded round him, welcoming him back and asking the nowalmost hopeless questions about Gale.
He was silent, answering not one question until they were all seatedabout a table in the corner. Then he began slowly:
"Yes, I was successful. I've found Gale."
"She isn't----" Valerie began fearfully.
"She is perfectly happy," he said.
"Thank goodness!" Carol sighed, inadequately expressing the feelings ofthem all.
"But you don't look very happy about it," Janet put in. "Did you bringher home with you?"
"No, I couldn't bring her home with me," Brent said, carefully tearing astraw into minute bits with his finger, "you see, she didn't know me."
The others waited, instinctively guessing there was more important newsto come.
"Why not?" Madge finally ventured.
"In the crash of the plane she--lost her memory. She has been living allthis time with a Canadian man and his sister in their cottage. She isperfectly well except for the fact that she doesn't remember a thingabout who or what she is."
"Poor Gale!" Carol murmured.
"Can't anything be done?" Bruce asked.
"I am flying her parents and a doctor back with me tonight," Brentanswered. "Her memory may come back to her all in a flash, a suddenshock might do it, or it might take time. I don't know."
"Can't we do something?" Janet wanted to know anxiously. "I mean, do youthink she might remember if she saw one of us?"
"Show her Janet, that would be a shock!" Carol suggested, daringlyimpudent.
Brent laughed with the rest but then he shook his head. "When she seesher parents she should remember--if anything familiar can restore hermemory."
"If she didn't know you----" Phyllis began.
"What was it, Brent?" Bruce asked. "The shock of the crash? The limb ofthe tree that fell upon the plane or what?"
"I suppose we will never know," Brent said. "It must have been one ofthose."
"Isn't it terrible?" Valerie murmured with a little shiver. "Think ofGale, not knowing who she is, where she came from. I wish I could go toher."
The others were silent until Brent rose saying he must get back to theHoward home for dinner. Phyllis went out with him. He left her at thecorner and entered the yard of Gale's home. Strange she could remembernone of this, he thought. The flowers which in summer ran as a border tothe walk, the old tree by the fence, her home, the place where she hadlived all her life.
Dinner was a hurried, hap-hazard affair. Gale's parents and Brent wereeager to be off to the airport. He told them again of his finding and bythat time they were ready to leave.
Upon coming out to the porch they discovered Phyllis in woolly coat andberet with a small bag at her side sitting on the top step.
"Where do you think you are going?" Brent demanded.
"With you, please, mayn't I?" Phyllis begged. "I've told my Aunt I'mgoing and she didn't stop me. Please take me, I want to see Gale."
Brent looked at the Howards and back to Phyllis.
"Oh, well, come along," he said gruffly.
They climbed into the Howards' automobile and five minutes later pickedup the grey-haired family doctor who had known Gale since she was three.He had helped her through every sickness but nothing as serious as this.It did not take long after that to reach the airport.
The cabin plane they were to use was standing on the field, the motorturning over rhythmically, the propeller whirring. Stubby helped theminto the plane and when Brent had taken his seat up in the nose of theship beside the pilot they were off.
In Canada they landed and went immediately to a hotel where they were tospend the night. Brent had thought it best to wait until the followingmorning before driving to the little village from where they would go toBouchard's cottage. He was a little dubious as to the outcome of theirtrip. He hoped fervently, as did the others, that Gale would recognizethem but he had his doubts.
The next morning they breakfasted early and entered the car in whichthey were to drive to the little French-Canadian village. The driver ofthe car was the same one who had driven Brent on his previous trip.Though he was not fond of the man or his companionship Brent had hiredhim because he already knew the way.
It was nearly lunch time when they entered the little village. Without astop they came upon the road that led away to the north and followed itto its end. Then, leaving the driver with the car, they set out on foot.
The Howards were silent, thoughtful, and Phyllis, walking beside Brent,felt her heart begin to beat with excitement. They had come so manymiles, suppose now they discovered that Brent had been mistaken in hisidentity? She rebuked herself sharply. How could he have been mistaken?He had heard the Frenchman's story. But if only Gale would recognize oneof them! Phyllis thought she must. She looked up at Brent. He waslooking away, ahead of them, his eyes fastened on the little crest ofground beyond which lay the Bouchard cottage. Phyllis thought he lookedolder, worried. She knew he had suffered even more than she and Gale'sother friends had because, in a way, he blamed himself for the crash andGale's disappearance.
Brent held up his hand and they halted for a brief rest.
"You can see the smoke from the cottage," he said, motioning ahead withhis hand to where a thin stream rose into the sky.
The others did not reply, merely glanced at one another and movedforward again.