Chapter III: Part 3

"Either kind, if it's all the same to you, Jack. If we're not so far away from where the poor chap said his last goodbye as he took off with his sack of Uncle Sam's mail, strikes me we had ought to've run across one bus anyway, of all the flock that must be on the wing lookin' for the 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 spend every single day for a whole year in winging around the neighborhood of the Colorado Canyon and never once glimpse the smashed crate, even if it was in some open stretch of ground."

"Which I take it covers the case okay," agreed Perk. "On 'count o' them big holes in the ground together with the tricky cross currents o' wind, air pockets an' all such sneaky things every airman hates with all his heart, we have to keep up some high an' even through the glass, small objects like the wings o' a smashed crate are bound to look like pin points."

"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 quickly observed and kept staring this way and that in an honest endeavor to cover the entire ground as thoroughly as possible.

From time to time he would break loose to tell of some abnormal freak of nature that he had discovered. To all these sallies Jack made no reply for he himself was thinking deeply and trying to map out a consistent method of conducting the search on which they were now fully launched.

The Government, conscious of the duty devolving on the post office department to show natural concern for the lives of its faithful employees, had seen fit to detach Jack and Perk from all other duties and order them to exert themselves to the utmost in an effort to find the missing pilot. Aside from the glory that would fall to those who won out, Jack felt very keenly for the old mother of Buddy Warner, doubtless passing sleepless nights while the mystery of her boy remained an unsolved problem.

XII

IN THE COLORADO CANYON COUNTRY

Ever since hopping off at Cheyenne their course had been more or less directly southwest, for Jack, on consulting his chart, had figured that this would take them close to their intended goal.

Only in a general way was he able to decide as to where they must be on this morning after their long flight through that enormous fog belt. Strange as it might seem, thus far they had glimpsed nothing positive that would give them their exact location, but just the same Jack was so certain about his figuring, knowing what distance they had covered since the start, that he did not concern himself greatly over this question.

In good time something would come along to clear things up nicely, and once they got their bearings if would be possible to pick up the game with heart and soul enlisted in its carrying out.

"Now would you b'lieve it partner," Perk was saying at one time much later in the morning, with the same wilderness covering the face of the earth far below as wide as eye could reach, "if there ain't one o' them pirates o' the air spreadin' himself to try an' cut across our path, like he wanted to take a close-up o' sech a queer contraption that keeps on makin' all them roarin' noises. I call him a feathered hijacker, 'cause he lies in wait tryin' to hold up industrious fish-hawks when they been an' grabbed a dinner outen the river, an' robbin' 'em o' it."

"Oh! I reckon now you're meaning an eagle, eh Perk?"

"Old Baldhead, the great American fraud that Uncle Sam keeps stampin' on his coins. A loafer an' a shark, too lazy to do his own huntin' an' stealin' his grub from the hard workin' osprey. See him cuttin' it for all he's worth, tryin' to butt in on us! Hey, mebbe the ornery fool's got a big notion we're tryin' to put the laugh on him, an' means to give us the defy--a fool notion, I'd call it. Let him try hittin' up against the side o' our fuselage an' see what happens to _him_, that's all."

Jack evinced sudden interest, as was proven by his saying sharply:

"But see here that may not be all, as you think! What if the fool bird plunges madly at our ship? Instead of butting his head against the fuselage he might strike our propeller, which would knock him galley-west, but also disable our craft. Perk, better get out that sub-machine gun of yours and be ready to settle his hash if it seems likely he can head us off."

"Hot ziggetty dog! I never though o' _that_, partner!" cried the now thoroughly alarmed Perk hastening to scramble out of his seat, dive back and drag out the firearm with which he had done such gallant service not so long ago.

"Watch the rascal," Jack was telling him in steadying tones, "and if it looks as though he'll reach us, start gunning for him, otherwise hold your fire out of respect for the motto on our gold coins. Sit pretty, partner--I'm depending on you to do a good job."

Jack changed his course a trifle, as if intending to give the charging bird a chance to live to another day. In this way the chase was made more stern and the possibility of a fatal contact between bird and the man-made king of the upper air rendered less likely.

Perk, crouching there with ready gun, held himself prepared to pour out a hot fusilade if it became absolutely necessary. He had to judge the velocity of the eagle's advance and also note how Jack was so skillfully edging away to the left in order to avoid slaughtering the brave but misguided bird.

After all it was a false alarm, for the eagle shot past at least twenty feet back of their rudder, going "for all he was worth" as Perk afterwards explained it and by the time he could swerve, the plane was so far away that the baffled bird felt compelled to give up the pursuit, though doing so grudgingly, Perk decided.

He hardly knew whether to be inclined to jeer at the foolish actions of the king of the air, or give him a cheer on account of so brashly charging the great bulk that he must have considered a rival in his special field. At least there was no need of making use of the gun which he hastened to put back in its former nook where it could easily be snatched up in case of any sudden emergency.

"Mebbe it's jest as well I didn't have to riddle the old jay," Perk told himself as he resumed his seat and his glasses. "May be a buccaneer, like some folks say, but he's got good grit and won't take a dare from even a Zeppelin, should one come sailin' along in his happy huntin' grounds."

The morning was wearing away with the amphibian keeping up its merry pace and the country showing no signs of betterment. Civilization was a million miles distant, one would imagine, when looking down on those amazing masses of rocky peaks over which they were winging their way. Judging from what they saw hour after hour, Jack could well believe that changes there had been only to a small degree since Columbus first sighted these shores hundreds of years back. Indeed, for thousands upon thousands of years those giant fingers of rock had been pointing to the blue sky above, just as they saw them now.

They ate some food about noon, washing it down with a few gulps of water they carried in a jug. Strange that even Perk had not remarked upon being hungry, which was such a remarkable thing for him that Jack concluded his mind for once had been taken off the subject of eating and was fully occupied with the strange mission upon which they were engaged.

Several times Jack asked the observer whether he could make out any signs of a river bed ahead and seemed surprised and a bit disappointed when Perk replied in the negative.

"Unless I'm away off my base," Jack finally told his companion, "we ought to be somewhere in the vicinity of the Colorado and the enormous canyon through which it makes its way down to the Gulf of California."

Perk displayed a sudden fresh interest in matters.

"I swan, partner," he remarked in considerable agitation, "does that 'ere mean we might set eyes on that monster hole in the ground I've read so much about? Are we close to the Colorado River where she runs 'long through the Rainbow gorge and the towerin' cliffs rear their red, blue, green and yeller walls hundreds o' feet high on both sides?"

"You said it Perk. Chances are we'll set eyes on that big hole in the ground they call the Colorado Canyon before we strike another night."

"Je-ru-salem crickets buddy! That sounds good to me!" exulted Perk, visibly stirred by the thrilling information. "Allers did sorter hanker 'bout lampin' that pictur', an' it'll please me plenty if dreams do come true."

This kept him quiet for some time, though he worked his glasses with a fresher zeal as though bent on missing nothing that seemed worth looking at. But thus far not the slightest object had been sighted that might turn out to be of special interest to any one looking for a smashed plane.

The sun was now well down the western heavens and Perk was beginning to fear the prophecy of his companion would fail to come true, when something caught his vigilant eye far in the distance and on which he focussed his binoculars. He looked long and steadily before announcing his discovery to Jack.

"I kinder guess partner, we're there all right," he finally burst out.

"And what makes you feel that way, Perk?"

"From the signs ahead I figger we're gettin' close to a big sink and I c'n see the sun glintin' from somethin' shiny yonder--might be that hotel they got on the top o' the west wall, if I remember straight. Yes-siree, it's jest like I'm tellin' you matey, the old river must lie down in that deep canyon. Gee whiz! it makes me near goofy jest to think how I'm goin' to see the biggest canyon in the whole world, with painted walls an' all sorts o' queer relics o' ancient Injuns scattered around. Hot ziggetty dog! ain't I glad they sent us out this way though! If on'y we c'n find that boy, I'll be the happiest chap on earth, an' that's no lie either."

That was Perk's usual way of arriving at a decision without making certain. Jack on the other hand, was accustomed to holding himself in check until he had actually proven it a certainty and even then he rarely gave way to any outburst of joy, leaving that to his more excitable comrade.

In due time they found themselves looking down on one of the most wonderful sights that can be found anywhere in the wide world. A spectacle unmatched in any other land which people come thousands of miles to feast their enraptured eyes upon.

XIII

A STRANDED PLANE

Jack continued to stay at the controls, possibly because he wished Perk to do the observing as his keen eyesight was such a valuable asset.

It proved that the object Perk had seen, and on which the sun was shining in such a dazzling way, was the hotel that catered to the many visitors and tourists who at certain seasons of the year flocked thither, enjoying the thrill of gazing on those natural wonders so profuse in that locality.

Perk could readily make out a number of moving figures on the edge of the canyon, evidently intent on watching the coming of the airship and doubtless speculating as to its mission.

Undoubtedly other boats had been seen flying overhead, since that particular section of country was being combed by a host of swift craft gathered from various quarters, all engaged in the humane task of striving to find the missing air mail pilot.

But Jack gave no evidence of a desire to drop down in the vicinity of the great hotel with its throng of guests--they could give him no information and the time could be more profitably used in commencing a systematic search. It would be time to descend when their stock of supplies in the line of food fell short or the gas tank gave promise of becoming empty. Nothing less must distract them from the task they had been commissioned to carry out with all their ability.

"I c'n see people comin' up out o' the canyon now," Perk asserted with emphasis, "an' seems like they must be mounted on mules or donkeys, 'cause no hosses c'n climb up an' down sech steep slopes. Say, ain't that worth comin' out here to see? I'll tell the world it sure is! Mebbe, 'fore we starts back to old Cheyenne, we'll get a chance to go down into the bowels o' the earth like them folks have been doin', an' seein' the hull panorama from the bottom."

"Who knows, Perk?" quoth the unmoved Jack, "but in the meantime we've got to stick on our job and do our level best to find Buddy--because of his mourning mother if for no other reason--and that goes!"

"I like to hear you say that, partner," cried sympathetic Perk, "an' me to back it up to the limit. My eyes! what a peach o' a pictur' that sure is! Somethin' never to be rubbed out while you live. Beats anything I ever set eyes on by big odds. Niagara was fine enough, but say, it ain't in the same class as this paintin' o' Old Dame Nature's."

"I'd call it sublime, and let it go at that," Jack admitted, "for words never were coined that could do justice to such a tremendous thing in the way of natural scenery."

The hotel was now in their rear and rapidly growing fainter in the distance, while below lay the wide reaches of the enormous canyon, dug through uncounted ages by the swift current of the famous river that miles further on would disappear from sight between walls that reared their heads hundreds of feet aloft.

As if to give them both a comprehensive view of the entire opening, Jack had reduced their speed to a minimum and was following the canyon gap with Perk keeping his eyes glued to his glasses, unable to tear them away for a single second lest he lose something of absorbing interest, possibly the most entrancing object in all that long category.

So it was that Jack felt a shock when he suddenly heard Perk giving tongue as though gripped with some fresh cause for excitement.

"Hey! what's this I'm seein' partner?" he yelled.

"Whereabouts?" demanded the other in a flash, for there was something he could detect in Perk's squeal that would indicate a discovery of more than usual importance.

"Right down in the ditch--look ahead, an' you'll see it! Boy, if that ain't a airship lyin' on the sandy shore o' the river, I'll eat my hat! An' yes, by gum! there's a man standin' alongside wavin' somethin' white like a flag o' distress! Oh my stars, c'n it be possible we've run on to poor Buddy Warner so clost to help an' him stuck there like a pig in a poke all this while? Jack, whatever c'n it mean, do you reckon?"

Jack was rather startled by what his comrade was saying, but as always proved himself quick to act.

"Take over the stick Perk, and give me the glasses. I must see for myself what it means. A plane down in that big hole, close to the edge of the rushing river and only a mile or so from help--it seems incredible--why, as I understand from what I've heard and read, parties with their guides often spend a night in the canyon looking through those queer Indian stone houses and even wander along the river for some distance. Why, he never could be that close by all this time and his condition continue unknown."

He was riveting his gaze upon the spot Perk had pointed to, and just as the other had declared, some one was making frantic gestures, waving a piece of white cloth and plainly asking them to drop down and rescue him or at least convey a knowledge of his desperate situation to those at the hotel.

The more Jack stared the greater did the mystery become in his mind. It simply could not be--there must be some other explanation to account for so unreasonable a condition. What should they do about it? The man kept waving his distress signal, and possibly was at the same time shouting something, to judge from his actions although of course his voice failed utterly to reach their ears.

"What's goin' to be done about it, eh partner?" Perk was saying as he swung in a great curve and again started to pass over the object of Jack's scrutiny and bewilderment. "Do we leave him there, after comin' so far to help the poor lad? Ain't there a way for us to slant down an' drop on that sandy shore his boat's restin' on? Bet every red cent I got it c'n be done, brother an' you're the boy to tackle the ticklish job."

"Make still another circuit, Perk," said Jack earnestly from which his companion judged he must be even then considering in his mind whether the proposed scheme were feasible or not.

"He keeps right along signalin' to us not to desert him, Jack. Mebbe now ours ain't the first ship to come sailin' along an' the others gave up any idea o' landin' in the ditch, so he's getting a bit desperate--an' hungry as all get out in the bargain. Must a'been three days since he was reported missin' you remember, partner."

Jack apparently was not wholly convinced. It might not be so difficult a task to drop down successfully, but being able to come up again would be a horse of another color, he figured. Then all at once he made his decision.

"We'll go, Perk--the stick if you please and stand by to lend a hand if it's needed when we make contact. I can see what looks like an inviting place in the water where we can use those dandy pontoons to advantage. Ready for it?"

They swung around once more and this time Jack turned the nose of his craft directly at a slant so as to head for the spot where the pilot of the wrecked ship was running up and down in great excitement, still flinging his signal of distress back and forth.

But when he saw that they were actually starting to drop below the majestic walls of the wonderful canyon as though bent on endeavoring to assist him, he stopped short and stood there wringing his hands in what to Jack was a rather peculiar way for a brave man to do. Still, if he had been through a series of hard knocks, had perhaps even been seriously wounded in the crash of his boat, he might be close to distraction. Anyway theirs must be the job of ascertaining the truth and afterwards doing all they could to afford him relief, though his plane might be beyond remedy and would have to be abandoned.

Now they were approaching the bottom of that rocky canyon--the walls towered above like grim cliffs or battlements, forged by nature to protect the stream that swept through the enormous gorge. It seemed to Perk, as he shot one thrilling look upward, as though they were a mile high and that everything around them was mightily magnified--all save the river itself, together with the stranded ship and the figure standing there watching their coming so eagerly, so filled with freshly risen hope.

Then contact was made between their wonderful pontoons and the surface of the Colorado River and there they floated on the turbulent bosom of the stream.

XIV

JACK MAKES A DISCOVERY

While thus dropping down into the great wide canyon by easy stages, Jack had taken note of several things, although not for a single second failing to keep tabs on his dials and the action of the ship when meeting certain baffling currents of air welling up from the depths and which might have played havoc with things only for this watchful, never-ceasing care on his part.

First he became aware of the fact that the abyss was no longer subject to clear visibility--in fact, it would have been next to impossible for him to have made a decent contact with the river surface only that a sudden glow had started up as if by magic.

It was a fire that helped to dissipate the gathering gloom in that particular spot and the one responsible for this welcome illumination must be the unknown aviator whose crate had been wrecked when falling into the vast sink with the gorgeously painted walls.

Evidently he must have gathered a few piles of dry driftwood so plentifully scattered along the banks of the river, and prepared a pyre to which a lighted match could be applied, a cheery blaze following. Jack sensed all this even without distracting his attention from his work.

At least this seemed to be proof that the unfortunate pilot had kept his wits about him, no matter what dire happenings might have come his way.

The sun could not have set--of that Jack felt certain--so the sudden lack of daylight in the vicinity of that deeply imbedded river must have been caused by the passing of some heavy cloud over the face of the sun. Jack even remembered noticing a bank of clouds hanging close to the southwestern horizon for the last half hour and a favoring breeze coming up must have pushed them across, so as to form a lofty but effectual screen.

No matter--nothing counted as long as the ship rested happily on the water with Perk hastening to drop overboard a small but efficient anchor, such as would be apt to take up scant room aboard an amphibian, but prove invaluable on occasions like the present.

This was only a part of Perk's duties, however--when thus anchored the ship swung to and fro on its reliable pontoons but they were fully twenty feet distant from the sandy stretch beyond the river's edge.

The current was anything but friendly and there was a strong possibility that the depth between the beach and the anchored boat would prove to be several feet, with perhaps pockets twice that, to judge from the way the water swirled in eddies.

But all that had been considered when equipping the amphibian for service on land or water. Of what avail would it be to have the pontoons so handy if, after coming down on some body of water, they must wade or swim in order to make a landing?

Perk was engaged in taking vast breaths into his capacious lungs and then blowing into some sort of queer rubber contraption which, expanding rapidly, presently assumed the proportions of a squatty little boat--nothing to boast of so far as appearances went, but capable, when fully blown up, of ferrying himself and his companion over the few yards of open water lying between themselves and their coveted landing place.

Without just such an auxiliary, the usefulness of a land and water aircraft must be considerably cut down, as pilots have long since ascertained from actual experience. Just as had been the case of the folding anchor that, with the rubber boat took very little room until needed, it paid big dividends in comparison with the small amount of trouble it gave.

The castaway air pilot was standing near by watching everything they did with the utmost eagerness. Thus far he had not seen fit to call out, but his manner proved the intense interest he felt.

Jack waved his hand encouragingly to the other, even while Perk was launching the clumsy rubber boat which proved to be so buoyant that it kept bobbing up and down with each movement of the speeding, gurgling current.

The fire was now burning brightly so that the whole immediate vicinity seemed lighted up. Jack involuntarily cast an inquisitive eye in the direction where the stranded ship lay with one wing dipping in the river. So familiar had long acquaintance with the various models of flying boats made Jack, that as a rule it required only a single glance to tell him the make of any ship he was seeing for the first time.

"A single-seat open-cockpit Stinson-Detroiter, if I know my onions," he was telling himself, "and I'll be hanged if I ever did know of the mail being carried in these days aboard one of those older types of craft. Looks like it had been used more or less in the bargain. I understood, somehow or other, that Buddy Warner was using a cabin ship--but he might have changed over to this for some reason."

Still this fact was perhaps the entering wedge that started a dim suspicion in Jack's mind so that after entering the small boat and having Perk wield the dumpy paddle, he eyed the waiting figure of the wrecked pilot as if making some sort of decision.

Just then Perk gave one of his queer grunts and in a husky whisper that barely reached the ears of his chum went on to say:

"Jack, would you b'lieve me, that there ain't our Buddy a'tall--never did set eyes on this here youngster, for a fact. Hot ziggetty dog! now ain't that the rottenest luck ever?"

Jack made no reply, but Perk's discovery only justified the suspicion that had been forming in his own mind. Then they had had their drop into the canyon all for naught--at least so far as the discovery of the missing air-mail pilot was concerned.

True, the other was in something of a predicament, but he did not seem to be seriously injured and when another day dawned his need of assistance would surely be discovered by those connected with the big hotel, so that after all his troubles were only for a brief while.

Still, they had made the swoop and being on hand it would hardly seem decent and courteous for them to hold back, when possibly they could be of more or less help.

This being the case, Jack held his own counsel and made no answer to Perk's show of disappointment that almost bordered on resentment He stepped out of the boat on to the sand when the bobbing craft grounded and waited for Perk to toss the rope to him so their clumsy craft might not yield to the wooing of that treacherous current and pass down-stream, leaving the pair of them marooned.

Now that he found himself close to the stranger, Jack could see that he appeared to be a mere wisp of a lad. His helmet was on his head, with the goggles pushed up, he wore what seemed to be almost new dungarees for they had a fresh appearance in startling contrast with those he and Perk wore over their other clothes to take up all the grease and oil that of necessity must be met with aboard any ship that required a motor for propelling purposes.

Jack's first inclination was to decide the other must be one of those dudish young chaps who sometimes drift into the ranks of flying men. Not at all weak or yellow when occasion arose to prove their stamina, but so constituted by nature that they can "carry on" and yet show little signs of the ordinary pilot's addiction to dirt.

He stepped toward the other, leaving to Perk the job of finding some means for securing the end of the rope, possibly to a stake driven into the sand or perhaps to the nearby wreck of the Stinson-Detroiter ship.

"Seems that you've had a little mishap, stranger," Jack remarked with one of his pleasant smiles that always won him friends wherever he went. "If we can be of any assistance just call on us. It's a part of our creed, you know, for air pilots to stand by one another in difficulty. Perhaps your boat may not be so badly smashed but what we can knock it into shape and get it up out of this queer old hole."

He saw the boy drop the look of anxiety that had marked his face and even allow his features to relax in a smile.

"I don't know how I can thank you for saying that--I am so eager to get out of this scrape, the worst that ever happened to me, but then I am something of a greenhorn pilot as yet, though even that fact couldn't keep me from trying my wings. I _must_ get out of this and be on my way again."

And even as he listened to those pleading words, Jack realized that the pilot of the crashed Stinson-Detroiter plane was a girl!

XV

THE 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--just _terrible_, 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?"

XVI

SUZANNE INSISTS

What seemed to be the whole truth flashed into Jack's mind when he heard the grieving girl pilot express the sentiments that influenced her into making this far-flung flight so soon after winning her new pilot's license.

It staggered him, too--not so much that Suzanne should thus turn out to be Buddy Warner's sweetheart, though in itself that was decidedly interesting; but to think how a strange and perverse Fate had so decreed that she should meet up with the pair who had been deputized by the Department at Washington to start forth, and do everything in their power to solve the mystery of Buddy's strange disappearance, also, _if possible_, accomplish his finding.

As for Perk, who apparently had seen a great light all of a sudden, just as Jack had done, almost "threw a fit." He declared later on, when he could ponder, how many thousand chances there were against anything like this lucky meeting coming to pass.

Jack, chancing to let his gaze wander that way, could see Perk staring with round eyes at the inspired face of the brave girl. He also feebly scratched his head with slow movements, just as if his wits had gone astray under the shock.

"Can it be possible, Suzanne," stammered Jack, grinning amiably the while, "that you happen to be----er, Buddy's _sweetheart_--what you might call his 'best girl'?"

She regarded him with an encouraging smile, and nodded her head, forgetting to cry, as though something in his way of saying this bade her hug fresh hope to her heart.

"Why, yes, most certainly I am--we expected to be married in another three months--Buddy's got the dear little cottage on the way, and everything was planned--and then came that dreadful news telling how he was lost somewhere among these awful mountains. My ship was being repaired, for I had had a slight accident in making too fast a landing on rough ground, and it took nearly two days for those slow poke mechanics to get it checked up again--two frightful days that I never want to live again. Then I hopped off, and came here, for the boys at the flying field told me just where he must have gone down, you know. Perhaps it was a crazy thing to do--they tried to persuade me to give it up, but I had promised Mother Warner to find him--and what was the use of my being a full-fledged air pilot if I had to stay a _kiwi_--stick to the ground, when my Buddy needed me so?"

"Still, it was an unwise thing for you to have done, though nobody could blame you, because Buddy was well worth taking chances for. But, you must have realized there would be scores of skillful pilots on the job, every one bent on finding your boy, if it lay in human power. My pal and I are in the employ of Uncle Sam--taken off all other business, and set to making a wide search--we have come all the way from Cheyenne, through the worst fog bank that ever was known, just for that purpose, which makes it seem doubly strange how we should have been brought in contact with you, Miss Cramer."

She smiled through her tears, and then went on hastily to say:

"I can only think it was Providence answering the prayers I have been sending up ever since the dreadful word came to us there in our little town, that Buddy has put on the map. Oh! I am sure the way was opened up to me--that now you know who and what I am, you could not have the heart to leave me here while you took up the search I had dedicated myself to carry out!"

Jack evidently could give a pretty shrewd guess as to what lay back of her words--she undoubtedly meant to implore them to let her accompany them in their hunt.

So he scratched his chin in a way he had when placed in a dilemma--Perk, saw him do that and understood how matters stood; for he grinned shamelessly, as though it actually tickled him to see his best pal placed in such a hole, with no way out save in yielding.

"Er--much as I--we, that is--would like to oblige you, Miss Cramer--I'm afraid it would be impossible. We belong to a Department of the Government that frowns on our mixing up what they call business with pleasure. They set us on this job, and that means we've got to take off without any more delay than we can possibly help--I'm sure you'll understand what I mean."

Perk grinned some more, just as if he had an idea his usually dependable pal hardly knew himself what he was aiming at. The girl novice pilot looked grieved, and then brightened up.

"But--what's to become of _me_ then--you surely wouldn't be so mean as to leave me here in this dreadful hole all night--I'd go out of my mind with thinking every little sound meant that some ferocious wild beast was creeping up on my fire, ready to make a meal of me; which of course would be rough, after all those fierce lessons in the air, and actually getting my pilot's license after all. And besides, I did really and truly promise Ma Warner I'd find Buddy, and fetch him back home with me."

Jack looked at her entreating face, gave a glance at the grinning Perk, drew a long breath, shrugged his shoulders with the air of saying in desperation: "That's that then; and what are you going to do about it, when a young woman sets you on a red-hot gridiron like that."

There seemed nothing to do but capitulate, and make the best of a bad bargain. After all it was not as if they could find no room for Suzanne--she was such a little thing, and besides their new cloud-chaser was capable of carrying a weight almost twice the amount of the present cargo, gas and all.

"All right, then, Miss Cramer, we'll take you with us when we start out of here," he told her, allowing himself to shut off his feeling of near dismay, and actually smiled again in his accustomed way.

"Oh! thank you so much--Jack," she told him, with sincerity in both voice and manner. "I promise not to give you the least trouble, and perhaps I could make myself useful sooner or later, especially if we _do_ find my Buddy, and he--should be badly injured, so as to need a nurse's care--for you see I was on my way to be a trained nurse when I got air-minded, and set out to be a flyer, so sometimes I might go with Buddy."

"But this will mean we must all of us remain here in the great canyon for the night," he reminded her.

"But that would be wasting many hours, and he needing me so much," she complained, with a pitiful look that made Jack regret his inability to start right off and be doing.

"Listen, please," he said, gently but firmly, "you can see by looking up that the sun has set, and night is creeping out--already down in this deep hole it's next to impossible for any one to see what might lie in the way; so that makes it too risky to try and pull out. I'd like as not wreck my ship by running up against a snag in the water, or a stray boulder on the shore. Whether we took you with us or not I'd made up my mind to stick it out here for the night."

"Yes," here broke in Perk, who evidently thought he was due to "butt in" and have his little say, "and besides, even if we did manage to make the riffle without bustin', what could we do knockin' around in the dark--just a sheer waste o' good gas, an' gettin' nowhere a'tall."

Since it was now two against one, and they both seemed so kind, Suzanne wisely gave in.

"You've convinced me, Jack, and I'll say no more," she told him sweetly; "but do you know I haven't had a bite to eat for ever so long; though Ma did make me take aboard enough rations to feed a regiment, including tea and coffee, as well as an assortment of pots and pans."

Perk immediately betrayed fresh interest in life, for it was wonderful how the fellow brightened up, as though just then realizing that he himself must be perilously close to starvation.

"We'll help you get them out o' the bus, lady," he hastened to say; "if so be you'll kindly show us where they be--ain't that so, partner?"

Jack did not seem at all averse to such a proceeding--why not make things as pleasant as possible since a capricious Fate had thrown their fortunes together in this mad way?

"Suppose you attend to all that, Perk," he told the other, knowing how efficient his partner was along such lines; "while you're doing it under Miss Cramer's directions I'll take another look at her crate, and see just how we can drag it further back from the river, so it will be safe when we're gone."

XVII

THE CAMP IN THE CANYON

Things immediately began to happen, and for the time being amidst the excitement of showing Perk just where the stores and things were located aboard the stranded Stinson-Detroiter, Miss Cramer seemed to temporarily forget the load of trouble she was carrying on her little shoulders.

Indeed, as Jack had already sized her up, she was rather a remarkable sort of a girl--so sensible, so level-headed, and truly brave in the bargain. Under such a heavy strain he felt certain ninety-nine girls out of a hundred would have given way to their helplessness, and collapsed; but here this one had taken her courage in both hands, to set out in the expectation of accomplishing a task that thus far had baffled a score or more of the greatest aviation aces the country had ever known.

Soon the energetic Perk had landed everything in the line of eatables and such truck as Ma Warner--bless her dear old heart, Perk was saying to himself as he noted what a volume of good stuff lay in the mound he had erected--had denuded her pantry in order that her beloved boy should have enough to keep starvation at bay, when Suzanne had eventually found him.

It was almost ludicrous to Jack to learn with what abiding faith those two who loved Buddy so well had lost no time in starting the lone expedition on its way; just as though they fully expected Suzanne, now a full-fledged pilot, and feeling able to conquer the world, could be attracted to the very spot where Buddy lay helpless, by the spark of true love--to them it must be like the magnetic needle, always pointing so faithfully straight at the North Pole, and the star that hung over it.

"Bless her heart"--Jack was telling himself later on, as he listened to her talking so cheerfully, while busying herself in cooking the supper, with Perk attending to the fire, and offering to help in "any old way." "She wouldn't have had a tinker's chance to do anything in this wild rocky country--only have her own crate crash, and double the tragedy. So it's lucky for them both we made this same queer contact tonight."

Jack was certainly vastly amused to watch how his cranky chum seemed to be acting. Usually Perk would have little or nothing to do with the other sex--Jack strongly suspected that at some time in his misty past Perk might have been "turned down" by some girl in whom he was becoming interested, and so allowed his whole life to be soured by the experience.

But then this was different, and perhaps the affection he had once felt for Buddy Warner made him feel warmly toward a girl who adored the same chubby young flyer and who had forgotten her weakness as a newly fledged pilot, and struck out so boldly in hopes of finding the one who was lost.

The supper was voted a great success, especially by Perk, who drank innumerable cups of hot coffee, which he pronounced "nectar for the gods," growing a bit poetical in his exalted state of happiness. Suzanne, too, proved herself to be a wonderful cook, and Perk found himself quite envying Buddy--that is, if he was ever really found, and alive in the bargain--in having such a good helpmate and life partner to prepare wonderful meals for him every day in the year.

Afterwards he and Jack set about the job of dragging the single-seater Stinson-Detroiter something like forty feet back from the edge of the river, where it could stay until later on, when Suzanne might find a chance to visit the scene again, or send mechanics to dismantle her ship, and pack the parts back to the factory for reassembling.

She even wrote something on a sheet of paper, which latter was attached to the wreck, and would doubtless serve to keep any curious tourists from damaging her property. So, too, she made up a small package of certain articles which she wished particularly to save, or would be apt to need for her personal comfort which, she assumed, might be taken with them on the coming voyage.

"In the morning," said Jack, after all these things had been attended to, "I'm meaning to ask you to let us transfer what gas you have aboard your bus to our own tank--it will be wasted here, while in our hands it may save us from spending many valuable hours running off to replenish our wasted supply. Of course I shall see that you are eventually reimbursed, Miss Cramer. Even as little as fifty gallons would mean we could stick to our job so much longer, and then too it might be the means of bringing us success."

"And if I had a million gallons every drop would be gladly devoted to the sacred task you have so loyally undertaken," she told him, with a suspicious glow in her eyes, which Jack imagined might be caused by bravely repressed tears. "I think it is just wonderfully fine the way you two--and all those other brave men--have been so willing to spend their time, hour after hour, scouring the whole country in hopes of finding--my Buddy."