Perk threw a third flare to one side, in the hope that its light would afford his pilot a chance to effect one of his really marvelous landings; which turned out to be sound reasoning on his part—the shock when their landing gear came in contact with the ground was not very severe, and Jack managed so that they did not run more than thirty feet toward the burning house.
Thus far all was well.
Perk was out of the cockpit like a flash, but managed to hold his eager spirit in check long enough to allow his comrade to join him. Then they hurried over to the building, which they could now see, thanks to both the moonlight and the brilliance of the blaze, must be some kind of a ranch house.
Several men who had the appearance of cow punchers were working for all they were worth, fetching water from a well, and hurling it where it was calculated to do the most good.
“Let’s give you a hand in that game, neighbors!” Jack burst out with, as he joined the string, backed by Perk, and commenced handling buckets full and buckets empty, with as much vim as though tested and tried members of a village fire company.
At such a time the addition of two more willing workers can do considerable toward smothering a fire, especially when there happens to be no wind moving; and from the moment of their arrival things began to take on a better look as though up to then the fight had been hovering “on the fence,” as Perk called it, and the balance being overturned, victory was in sight.
Perk was in his glory, and the brisk way in which he hurried those buckets along was worth going a long way to witness; Jack never would forget how proud he felt over the marvelous performance of his running mate, and how those encouraging cries, so constantly emitted by Perk, seemed to enthuse everybody with fresh vim and go.
Finally the last spark was extinguished, and the house saved, having suffered but scant damage. Then the men, yes, and women too, gathered around the pair of aviators who had come on the scene just in the nick of time, to first of all arouse the people of the prairie ranch to a sense of the danger that hovered over their heads, and finally take chances in effecting what might have been a rough landing, so as to lend their material aid to the fire fighters.
“Surely you will not think of starting off again till break of day,” the big man with the white head of hair, evidently the rancher himself, was saying, while engaged in pumping the hands of the two who had dropped down from the sky, as it were, to bring warning of the burning roof, and start the stiff fight against the greedy flames that had ended so successfully. “Stay and eat breakfast with us, strangers; we’d like to know you both some better, and have a chance to thank you most heartily.”
“Unfortunately we must be on our way, neighbor,” Jack told him. “It happens we are on special duty, and delay might upset certain plans we are bent on following out. It was just by sheer accident we discovered the fire, and took the customary means for attracting attention that all air pilots employ; but some other day, if we chance to be in this neighborhood, we’d be pleased to see more of you all.”